From The Shadows

IN CANTERLOT (revised)

From The Shadows

by DeepThought

The last - and first - time Fire has seen Canterlot, was from a flying chariot, before held in the castle walls by the royal guards. Now, in the middle of the city's busy life, he's surprised by the great variety of both the buildings and it's inhabitants. While Ponyville seemed rather rural to the black alicorn stallion, but not less welcoming and open-minded, Canterlot is more the typical metropolis.

Astounished by the height of its buildings, remembering the fact that the ponies didn't posses any advanced machinery, he looks around and notices that, unlike the ponyvillians, some of the citizens of Canterlot actually wear clothes, emanating a snobbish scent of nobility.

Twilight trots beside him. They're heading towards a great building, ornamented with several symbols of the kingdom, at the borders of the city, the Royal Academy of Magic. From time to time they have to stop, addressed by some important-looking mares and stallions, who obviously know  Twilight and are interested in her companion.

But since both alicorns are quite withdrawn introverts, sometimes socially awkward, even if Twilight's position involves being active in the public, the talks don't last long.

"So you want a tour through the city, when we're done visiting the facility?" Twilight asks, "I've grown up here."

"Seems interesting, a place full of culture and new things to explore. Maybe we can go to the castle, too. I could talk to the Princesses privately, from face to face."

"I'm not sure about the talking to the princess part, because they tend to be quite occupied with the daily business,  but if you're interested in culture, I'll take you to the Royal Museum."

"Thank you, Twi."

In the distance, hardly to identify, moves a long, rectangular structure with a decent speed. If Fire didn't know better, he'd assume that it was a train, but he knows that the steam engine wasn't yet developed in Equestria.

So he asked Twilight, "What was that thing?"

"You mean the train? You told me you had those back at your home, didn't you?"

"So you DO have means of mass transportation?"

"Well, not exactly. These trains use vast amounts of magic to move, stored in some sort of crystal battery. But the amount of load such a vehicle can transport is very limited, and it takes ten experienced mages a whole day to charge these crystals. That's not the only disadvantage, though. The crystals are very rare and expensive, and since after decharging them a few times they tend to get useless, their price even rose over the past few years. So nowadays trains are just operated to travel to remote places, like Appleloosa, or to honor foreign guests, important citizens and participants of sport events. But there's still an intact railroad network connecting every major city in Equestria."

After a moment of thoughtful silence he replies, "That will proof itself very useful when we start the production at the facility's. After all we won't have to build infrastructure, which already is here."

The Royal Academy of Magic is now just a short hop from the position both of them are standing, admiring the huge building. An atmosphere of secrecy surrounds it, it seems to be a high-security area telling by the high concentration of security guards, eyeing everyone passing the street from the walls, and the vast amount of fortifications.

'Ponified version of Area 51, isn't it?'

As they close the gap to the iron security lock, a guard looks into their directon. He doesn't wear the typical Royal Guard uniform. Instead a more heavy-looking dark set of armor covers his body. His eyes light up, when he obviously recognizes Twilight.

"We've awaited your arrival, your Highness," he bows slightly and turns his attention to Fire, "And you are the special guest, Celestia mentioned in her letter?

"I guess," he says, giving the guard a small smile.

The gates open and reveal a long hallway. As they slowly walk past several security barriers, Twilight stops, "The last times I visited the level of security hasn't been this high. What happened?"

"After the changeling incident we had to raise the standards. If you two weren't such important guests, we'd have to probe your mind with a spell to make sure you don't have bad intentions. It's an unpleasant procedure, but it's the only way we can make sure the secrets..." he searches for the right words, a moment later he procedures emphasizing every word, "Well, stay secrets."

'The Big Brother would be proud of you,' thinks a lightly chuckling Fire.

They meet a grey unicorn mare called Theory Point, deep down in the building. The laboratory, the three of them – the guard left them at the entrance – enter now is full of strange-looking instruments, which emit unnatural noises, somehow annoying to Fire. The only source of light are torches at the walls, unsteady illuminating the room. In a corner stands a huge cage, inhabiting the creature all this fuss is about.

"We have to compare the magical signatures of you and the sunflowering to reassure this really was your work. Because if this proofs your claims true, we have to question everything we know about magic. We will try to reproduce the results in the lab then," says Theory calmly.

"Ok, I'm fine with that, but I'm unsure if I will be able to do this again. It was kind of an accident, though."

The procedure of taking Fire's magical fingerprint wasn't as complicated, as he imagined. He had to cast a steady flow of his red-black-glowing power on a device, which reminded him of a tesla coil. She hesitated for a second, asking if his magic always had been two-colored, which the stallion confirmed with a nod.  Then the lab mare extracted a piece of one of the creature's withered leaves, obviously not taken violently. She put the leaf in an acid-like fluid and a wire of strange material leads a glow of magic to another coil.

"If the signatures are the same the magic should now be able to pass the comparator and reach the final crystal storage attached to it," she points her hoof at a device connected to both coils. A look of suprise forms in her face as she notices that only part of the magic, the black-colored, moves through the wires, while the red glow in the first coil remains.

"Uh, uh... Well... That's..." she stutters.

"So you tell me he possesses two forms of magic?!" says a disbelieving Twilight

"That's what it looks like. It'd be very helpful to direct the stored magic at one of this test targets," replies Theory Point calmly.

She pulls the storage from the device and connects it to some sort of antenna, which she puts on a stand pointed at a light-green surface. With her own blue magic she toggles a lever attached to the magic storage.

Directly a dark beam of magic is released at the target, instantly transforming to the same tone of black, the same light-absorbing color as Fire's coat. The target's texture changes. The before homogeneous surface starts to move like boiling water, still sticking to the wall, not yet effected by gravity. Then bits of the dark substance fall down, hardening in a nearly perfect round shape.

Both Twilight and Theory Point jaws drop open, curiously eyed by  the black stallion.

'Are they still wondering? It's not like it was the first time something unexpected happened,' thinks Fire phlegmatically, 'We are dealing with **~*MAGIC*~*** after all.'*

After a few moments of silence Theory exclaims, "Heureka! It's a huge breakthrough! You were right with your assumptions, Princess Sparkle. This kind of magic hasn't been known to ponykind before. Magic that actually can create matter and manipulate it on the most essential way possible. Unbelievable..."

After adding further magical charge to the coils - Theory told them she would need to study it more deeply to come to a final conclusion – they were shown around by the guard, who had led them to the first lab.

The place was impressive at least. Uncountable amounts of of complex devices were stored in hundreds of labs, filled with mages working busy on projects Fire couldn't even imagine. But getting explained what for example a rainbow condenser, cloud boots and a water color changer were, he started to wonder about the actual practical application of this devices. It seemed to him like the brightest of all minds in Equestria were wasted on total nonsense.

As they left the facility the guard waved them goodbye and they entered the city again.

For a few minutes they wander around aimlessly, until Twilight speaks up.

"I guess you liked it?"

"Yes, it was fascinating," says Fire absentmindedly, "I thought about setting up an own research facility, funded by the profits of my enterprise. We really need some bright minds... Do you think, if I payed enough that some of the Academy's employees would work for me?"

"You really think about headhunting the royal mages?!" replies an unbelieving Twilight.

"That's how capitalism works," says Fire coolly.

Twilight snorts in disgust; "THAT'S LOW! You want to pay Royal employees with money given by Royalty to quit working for Royalty. You're the embodiment of ungratefulness.."

"Ok, this discussion doesn't get us anywhere," disrupts the black stallion her abruptly, trying to calm Twilight down, "If it's their free will to leave, it's ok. They're not their slaves. If they don't want to, I can't force them. It would be their own choice."

Realizing that Fire is right, she nods slightly and responds, "But I still don't like the idea. It seems immoral to me."

"Let's agree to disagree."

"Ok."

After a short moment of silence both alicorns smile.

Twilight led him to the Gallery of Canterlot, another monumental building, situated in the city's heart.

'Do this ponies have to compensate something? Is it their size? A Napoleon complex? I'm much taller than them, the same size as Celestia. If I was as small as them, would I feel the same?' thinks Fire smirking looking at the ridiculous amount of ornaments at the gallery's walls.

Twilight, used to the sudden, random changes in Fire's behavior, ignores it and trots into the direction of the building's entrance. After a another moment zoned out, Fire follows the lavender mare into the building. The ceilings in the building are high, the walls are painted in a perfect white.

They enter a small lobby illuminated by the midday sun shining through a large number of windows at the entrance's side of the room. Visiting the gallery is obviously free, realizes Fire, as they pass the doors to the main hall without any interruption.

Enjoying art by an artist called Ponycasso, both of them have a great time, until they reach a smaller room in the back of the building.Twilight enters first.

"It's a pleasure to meet to meet you, Princess... Being surrounded the whole day by dirty commoners is totally terrible," says a white-coated, blond-maned unicorn stallion, wearing one of these ridiculous pony tuxedos.

After entering the room the arrogant pony eyes Fire,"And who's this blank flank?"

'There we have Mr. Dumbass... I guess not everypony can be nice and kind,' Fire thinks snorting amused. Usually he is someone/somepony, who can keep his stoic composure under the uttermost circumstances, not affected by verbal attacks, as long as they don't violate one of his core believes.

"My name is Fire Void, Your Greatness," answers the black stallion ironically.

"You allow this peasant to speak to me like this..." accuses the unicorn Twilight, who rolls her eyes in response.

"This is Prince Blueblood, Fire," Twilight points her hoof at the said stallion.

Then realization strikes the white-furred unicorn, "He is the alien moster my auntie told me about." Looking in disgust at the said 'alien monster' he yells, "You don't belong here. YOU ARE WRONG!"

"A pleasure to meet you," jokes Fire – Blueblood is not amused, raising a 'fist'.

"Ok, everypony be nice and civil," warns Twilight, but telling from Blueblood's angry stare he ignores her.

'Getting in a fight with this 'Prince'  wouldn't be exactly beneficial for my attempts to get along with Royalty, I guess.'

Fire replies, gesturing pacifying,"Maybe we started this on the wrong ho-......."

That's when he gets a hoof slammed into his face.

It didn't hurt as much as he'd have expected.

Fire grins lifting his hooves protectively, 'Well, that escalated quickly.'

"You hit me like a little foal..." his grin widens, while the angry look on Blueblood's face suggests, that his blood started boiling. An unbelieving Twilight watches the scene.

Blueblood tries to smack him again, but his hoof gets deflected by an red-glowing barrier around Fire. Then he releases an own stream of magic, bringing the shield down with a loud bang.

"Ok, you want to play seriously," the grin on Fire's face vanishes abruptly, his horn glows in a deadly twist of black and red, "You don't know who you're messing with, do you?"

But he obviously overestimated his own intimidating act; another orb of magic hits him, this time straight into his chest. Coughing Fire stumbles back.

'Wasn't I supposed to be an immortal alicorn creature?'

A third flash of Blueblood's strikes him and since he isn't prepared he falls down. He sees the horror in Twilight's face. She's still paralyzed.

A small scream of both anger and concern escapes her throat. Fire tries to stand up, but as he 'looks' down, he realizes there is no body anymore, just a black cloud.

"You killed him?!?" she yells.

"This worthless creature got what it deserved."

Channeling all his magic, now in real fury, Fire managed to form the cloud into something solid. It is the bipedal 'monster' Twilight has seen at night, but instead of the dark black color it now was a mix of fire-red and a nightmare-black, emitting noises like a thunderstorm.

Blueblood tries to run, shaking in fear, but the huge claw of the bipedal grabs him, shocking him with the electricity-like power of his magic. Blueblood instantly faints, twisting his eyes unnaturally.

"This explains much..." says Twilight absentmindedly, staring at the intimidating beast.

'This shape drains too much magic... Maybe that's why I have unconsciously chosen the alicorn form as I arrived...  Like a soap bubble forms a sphere, because it is more 'durable' and long-living this way... The perfect adaption to the environment.. Probably it is my natural form in this world.'

He willingly transforms back, the first time.

"Fire, are you alright?" asks a worried Twilight.

"A bit exhausted, but surprisingly ok. What do you want to do with our 'friend'?" the black stallion points at Blueblood

"Maybe you'll get your talk with Celestia today..."

"I'm terrible sorry for the behavior of my nephew. Please forgive us. He wasn't authorized to act hostile towards you and he will be punished. You're a citizen of Equestria and therefore such an act of violence won't be tolerated," says a disapointed sun goddess.

"Thank you for taking this seriously, Your Highnesses," replies Fire, "You're not responsible for the misbehavior of Prince Blueblood, so you don't have to ask for forgiveness," his lips form a little smile, exchanging a look with Twilight.

"You'll spend the night at the dungeon, Blueblood. You went too far!" spits Luna

But being the arrogant brat he is, Blueblood doesn't even flinch, "I won't apologize to this alien beast... Look! He burnt my tail with his magic. He deserves punishment, not ME!!!"

General facehoofing.

'I guess I made another enemy today.'

'So I finally got an audience with Celestia.'

"You wanted to speak with me in private, Fire. What's bothering you?" she says with one of her trademark motherly smiles.

"I wanted to thank you.You've done much for me and my well-being."

Celestia wants to believe him, but she isn't sure if he is true to her. He is one of the few beings in Equestria, including Chrysalis, Luna and Discord, who's mind she couldn't read, without setting up any anti-spell.

"I'm interested in the good of your people. It was the right decision to trust me and I won't disappoint you."

'Enough flank kissing for today.'