From The Shadows

DEVELOPMENT

From The Shadows

by DeepThought

Twilight, trying to calm herself down, quickly casts a spell on the monster.

But when her magic fails to effect the invader, only resulting in a small lavender-colored puff, she starts to panic. Hyperventilating she stares into red orbs, the beast's eyes.

"Help!"

She looks upstairs, and hears to pairs of feet running down quickly. Fire darts in her line of sight, obviously surprised by the

sudden interruption of his sleep.

"What's wrong, Twilight?"

"Are you kidding me?" she shouts, pointing in the direction of the monster.

"Yeah, what's wrong with the front door?"

She turns her head, slightly confused, as she realizes that there isn't anything but the normal interior of her library in the soft shimmer of the moonlight. No dangerous, shadow-like being anywhere.

"But..."

The following days were relative eventless, Twilight, still confused by the night's happenings, searched for the species of the strange creature in all of her books, even the mythological ones. She couldn't find anything.

But she also couldn't shut the voice in her mind, which told her Fire knew something about this incident - alienated by the stiff response the black alicorn gave her when she asked him about this on the following day.

Fire met the mane six in those happy days several times, and warmed up with them. Even Rainbow Dash slowly stopped to behave hostile towards him. The only thing bothering him was that the feeling of being watched didn't vanish.

It's late in the afternoon, the sun friendly shines on Fire's coat.

After enjoying Pinkie Pie's surprise welcome party – well, after Twilight warned him about it a few days ago, it wasn't a 'real' surprise anymore, but he didn't show that – socializing with the other ponies, eating cake and playing party games, both of the alicorns trot home. A stream of thoughts crosses Fire's mind.

'This place is an utopia. Everyone, or better everypony, trusts each other, even me, an evil-looking outsider. The food is great, so is the climate. This world seems to be created to give the most possible joy to its inhabitants. Although everyone is different on the outside, they don't discriminate anyone. They love and tolerate. All the technical developments humankind made... their ultimate goal was happiness. They already had that for thousands of years. Well, at least they claim it.'

"Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"I really like living at your house and you're a great host, I like both of you, you and Spike, and I consider you my only friends here..."

'Here comes the but part,' thinks Twilight ironically.

"But I don't know, if I can ever go back to my world..."

'And even if I could I wouldn't know if I want to...' adds the black stallion quietly in his thoughts, since he remembered more and more from his former life as a human over the past few days.

"...and Celestia's last report on the work about uncovering the circumstances that brought me here didn't look promising, not a bit," she nods emphatically, "So I wanted to ask if I can move to an own place..."

"Of course, if there wouldn't be this tiny problem. There are actual no free flats our houses in Ponyville. And building a new would take us many months, maybe years."

"What?!"

'Oh yeah, this medieval world thing. It's not the first time the limitations of this world were this obvious, though.'

"In my world it took like a few days to build a basic house, much more durable than all I've seen here. Maybe it's time to introduce you to the scientific developments of mankind."

"Uhh," says an both curious and confused Twilight.

"Can I write a letter to Princess Celestia?"

Dear Princess Celestia,

the world I come from has made some unbelievable technological developments, technologies that could improve the common pony's life essentially. Not only that there were new products in Equestria, which would fill the hearts of your subjects with joy, but this would also give us the possibility to improve the quality and quantity of the already existing goods and services.

To accomplish this goal I need a credit, at least a few thousand bits, and your permission to build a first factory near Ponyville. Additional help through adjusting the Equestrian economic laws to this new means of production would be very welcomed.

I know you probably distrust me, and fear my alien knowledge, but see this as a test of my loyalty and good will to serve this country in any way possible.

Fire Void

'I hope this whole fill your subjects heart with joy stuff is enough for her to give me a chance.'

Dear Fire Void,

I've decided to give you the chance you asked me for. You'll get a credit of 10 Million bits and my permission to set up any producing facility you want, with this money.

To increase the chances of success, I will establish the 'Special Economic Zone of Equestria', which will be administrated by you (The map will tell you about about the hows, wheres and whens).

I asked Twilight to help you with the preparations, since she has a lucky hoof for organisation.

Don't disappoint me,

Princess Celestia.

'We really need this technology and his trust. Otherwise Equestria's future is everything but bright,' thinks a concerned alicorn princess, 'We need his help and he needs us, we can count on that. Under other conditions I definitely wouldn't say yes.'

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

my most faithful student, I suggest you to read this in private.

I'm sure you know about our guest's request.

After some time reconsidering the facts, I came to the conclusion to grant Fire's request under the condition that you watch his attempts to bring the technological advances of his world to us, closely, and report to me about every detail. Also some help on this project would be very appreciated.

I also invite you and Fire to visit the Royal Academy of Magic. The incident with the sunflower requires further investigation.

Princess Celestia

'I didn't expected it to work out that well, suspicious well. Is this a sign of trust? Does she have hidden intentions? Reading between the lines won't help a bit. Telling by the observations of our first meeting, she's good at concealing her own emotions and plans. This stoic expression... She's a few-thousand-years-old alicorn princess, after all. She should have some experience with handling things diplomatically.'

The letter told him that he would receive the money in two weeks, but the days passed by quickly.

Long, interesting talks with Twilight and great food, a world full of unknown art and knowledge, the daily magical training sessions and his own experiments with his casting skills - millions of new things to understand and observe... and enjoy. Yes, he really enjoyed his life, since all of his dark thoughts seemed to be replaced by the heart-warming spirit of this world.

The black stallion made some new friends, also an already mentioned light blue stallion...