From The Shadows

FOUNDATION OF LIBERTY

From The Shadows

by DeepThought

Over the past few months the plant grew rapidly. It attracted the most ambitious, bravest and most skilled ponies from all of Equestria - businessponies and engineers, mathematicians and scientists. Starting with the production of steel and simple steam engines, they began to make nitrogen fertilizer, concrete and complex machinery, as the success with their first products became obvious. Just a few weeks after the start of the production Fire was in the position to pay back Celestia, freeing himself from her influence. They exported to the whole kingdom of Equestria, resulting in a huge price drop for the most essential goods. Searching for prosperity, the special economic Zone before just a mass of a vast number of production facilities attracted a huge number of ponies, settling down and founding a city. Although it had been tradition in Equestria for hundreds of years that the princesses appointed the mayors, Fire decided - with Celestia's approval - to let the citizens vote. Not much to Fire's surprise the ponies elected him, giving him the power to pass some laws, as for example declaring civil rights and establishing an independent court. And he named the city Liberty.

Polls in the Equestrian Daily, the first independent news paper in the kingdom, written and published in Liberty, showed that he was the most popular politician in the city's current government by far. His style of administration was described as "liberal", "future-oriented" and "very charitable".

According to the Economic ministry of Equestria the industrial output of the city accounts for nearly a half of Equestria's GDP now, with only around 50.000 inhabitants, just 4% percent of the country's total population. Work efficiency rose significantly. Also Fire's plan to make some former members of the the Royal Academy of Magic work for him and his company succeeded, since the gigantic amount of bits in the city's treasuries were a very efficient way of conviction.

A network of elementary schools, high schools, vocational school and the newly founded University of Liberty provide universal education to the work force in the spirit of enlightenment and renaissance. Newly discovered medical treatments improve their life's quality. Typical human sports as football, tennis or basketball were introduced to ponykind, along with the philosophy of Kant, Voltaire and Hume, Descartes, Popper, Adam Smith and many others, higher mathematics and the basics of chemistry – the fact that Fire as a human had been very interested in philosophy, art and science helped much with the development of the city's own cultural identity; his memory gap slowly vanished, leaving him wondering if all he experienced was some sort of coma-induced dream, a result of his heavy injury. It was all too good to be true.

The status of the city in the kingdom is comparable to the situation of Hong Kong in Communist China. Semi-independently the most decisions were left to their own democratic government, but they have to pay taxes to the central administration and obey if the princesses want to interfere. They were even allowed to establish own embassies in Zebraca, the Gryphon Kingdom and the Crystal Empire, starting to export their products to these civilizations, enhancing profitability.

Fire was unsure why Celestia granted him so much freedom, but he didn't complain. He assumed the improvement in her subject's daily life was the reason of her tolerance for their way of ruling the city. But the most surprising thing to him was that Celestia obviously planned to make him part of royalty in the near future, telling by Twilight's constant hints regarding such an event. She is her personal adviser after all. The whole situation remembered him of the story of Shining Armor, Cadence and how the Crystal Empire was given to them.

Sole, the colt he became friends with in his first days in Ponyville, got his first assistant, although he discovered the shocking truth about his true nature just a few days after his first visit to Canterlot:

After spending a night at a bar, called the 'Shacking Hoof', the black stallion decided to return to the library, his temporary home. But on the way he noticed his best friend, the light-blue stallion Sole, moving through the streets suspiciously – he obviously avoided any contact with other ponies. Fire followed him, muting his steps with his magic, to a small house at the city's borders. He didn't know exactly why he acted like a spy on one of his best friends, but a nagging voice in his head told him, that something about Sole was terrible off. Not only the fact that he carefully locked away all personal information, it seemed he even didn't exist before he came to Ponyville, no family, no friends, no background story, but also that he somehow didn't seem to fit in the pony society - his movements, his gestures, the sarcastic kind of witty humor, the sometimes cold, emotionless stare, all was so unpony.

Hiding, the surprised Fire watches his friend getting consumed by green flames and replaced by a bug-like creature.

'A changeling...' he realized.

Then the creature took off.

Unsure what to do, he spent the night thinking about the possible implications of this revelation. He recollected all knowledge he had about the changelings, which was a decent bit, since he tried  to learn as much as possible about his new home. Normally changelings weren't seen outside their settlings alone and didn't have any consciousness, just like ants or bees stuck to their hive sharing some sort of collective intelligence, which was obviously not true for the stallion called 'Sole'.

He didn't mean any harm to him at all, he was a true and loyal friend. Yes, he could become a threat, but Fire was immortal. The worst thing possible to happen, was getting captured, maybe tortured, but that seemed unlikely. Many situations came to his mind he has been quite vulnerable in, and Sole never took any advantage of that, not capturing him and bringing him to their Queen.

He fell asleep. His slumber was relaxed and dreamless.

The next day he got up early, making sure not to wake up Twilight and/or Spike and went back to the home of his friend. A second he considered leaving a letter, explaining where he was and why. But this could get Sole in serious trouble, so he abandoned the thought quickly. He would be able to deal with him alone, if necessary.

He knocked at the door, preparing for the coming conversation.

Sole opens, surprise painted all over his face, as he sees Fire.

"You're obviously not Derpy bringing me the mail," he says chuckling.

"We have to talk, Sole. In private."

Sole raised his eyebrow, but didn't hesitate to invite him in, pointing at the inside of his house with his hoof. When they sat down at the small kitchen table, Fire cleared his throat, considering every word.

"I've seen you sneaking around Ponyville yesterday. I've seen what you really are," he states calmly.

The friendly smile on Sole's face vanishes, "Ok. Yes, you're right..." desperation is in his voice, "Are the guards already on the way to come for me? You have to believe me... I didn't want to lie to you, but I had no choice. You know about the Canterlot Incident... Since this day everypony hates us."

After a short period of silence he begins to sob quietly, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Fire puts a hoof on his shoulder, totally shocked by the emotional response of his normally stoic friend, "It's ok, really. I didn't suspect you to have any bad intentions... I judge people on who they are, not what they are," he stutters, "I really enjoy being your friend."

'And the benefits of keeping a friend, who could pretend to be me in critical situations, are quite high,' thinks Fire calculating.

"I really enjoy being your friend, too," he replied.

"I will do everything in my power to prevent you from getting spotted," a small smile covered the black stallion's face.

'That was easier than I believed it would be. Now he will help me to stay undercover,' and Sole smiled, too.

And they kept his true nature a secret and - even if both of them didn't notice it first – they started to develop a real and deep friendship, feeling bad for betraying each other's trust, not revealing their true motives.

In the new city Sole now lives in the house next to Fire's mansion, an opulent building situated in the settling's heart near the congress hall, acting as his closest adviser and personal guard.