Flippy Element woke at hearing the noise of his alarm. He quickly put it on snooze, so he could sleep just a little longer. He had woken up from a bad dream. In the dream, he had been banished to the most remote part of the Everfree Forest and had to survive there all by himself. He quickly dismissed the thought. “Why would something like that ever happen to me?” he thought, allowing himself to crank up a smile.
Flippy lived in Ponyville with his father, Cloud Feather, but he was out of town and wouldn’t be back in a few days.
The next time the alarm sounded, Flippy jumped out of bed immediately. The day had begun and he had lots to do. He had his plans for the day: first he was going to read up on some earth magic. He had found a book on the subject at the Ponyville library. Next up he was going to help out in the parc, repairing the gazebo there and to finish his tasks of the day, he was going to Twilight’s, since she had asked him, if he would want some kind of research job, which he would gladly accept since he was out of a job at the moment.
Flippy quickly brushed his mane with one of his hoofs, to make sure it was just remotely acceptable, and went to the stairs. He entered the kitchen and dished up a quick breakfast, so he could start on the interesting studies on earth magic.
Flippy had gotten his cutie mark not long ago, finding that his special talent was the magic of the elements: earth, wind, fire and water. After the discovery of this talent, he had started reading up on the subjects concerning the elements. He had been greatly improving, but element magic seemed harder than the usual magic.
After his breakfast, Flippy quickly packed his book on earth magic into his saddlebag and went along. He was going to a secluded place outside Ponyville to study, because he often practised some of the magic he read about. And since he didn’t want to disturb anypony, he usually did it our here.
It was a quick walk from his home, only a few minutes. It was a nice little spot Flippy had found himself, but it wasn’t hard to see that a lot of magic had altered the scenery. Although Flippy was good with magic, he still had a lot to learn and he sometimes made quite a mess. Also one of the reasons not to practice inside Ponyville.
Flippy had been really excited about a particular spell he came across some days earlier. It was a spell, which could make plants grow out of the earth very quickly. This spell would do really well in almost any garden. He put down his saddlebags, took out the book and sat down and started to read. When done reading about the spell he stood up again.
A quiet breeze gently played with Flippy’s mane and he closed his eyes, relaxing for a moment. When he opened them again, he was focused on the task at hand. He looked out over the landscape and then closed his eyes, lowering his head. His horn started to glow.
For this spell to work, Flippy needed to find seeds, plant them and make them grow, watering them and give them sunlight. All this would happen indirectly, him feeding it directly to the earth. This was a very hard spell and he needed to use all his power to make it work.
Element spells worked much like puzzles. You had to figure out everything about the thing you wanted to do. With this spell, Flippy had to figure out, how magic works on plants on different stages and how to use magic to change properties of the earth the plant grows in and all the systems around a plant to make it grow. It was just a series of puzzles, he had to complete in order to make it work.
Flippy concentrated all he could. He used all his magical abilities to get this done. He also had to use magic from more than the earth element, since he needed water for watering and fire to keep the temperature right.
After a few minutes the ground before Flippy started moving and a little plant showed itself. It grew steadily and was at full size after a minute or two.
Flippy fell to the ground all exhausted. This was more magic that he could take for the next few hours. He lay there panting, trying to catch his breath. Then something crossed his mind and he smiled. An image of a mare presented itself to him. Flippy had a little crush and his mind sometimes slipped from his grasp and teased him with pictures.
After a brief moment of virtually embracing his crush, he stood up, checking if anypony had seen him, packed his stuff and went towards Ponyville. It was lunchtime and his stomach rumbled.
At entering Ponyville Flippy’s stomach grumbled heavily. “Oh my. I am really hungry!” he thought to himself. He wanted to treat himself something nice, since he had such a great progress with his magic. “Why not order a nice sandwich at Sugar Cube Corner?” So he went to the shop and entered it, ordering a nice salad sandwich.
At exiting the shop, Flippy had eaten a big sandwich and he was on his way home to get some tools before going to the park to fix the gazebo. He would be needing a hammer and probably also a saw. The resources needed would be waiting for him by the gazebo.
Flippy trotted along the Ponyville roads towards the park. The sky was blue and a few white clouds were scattered across the blues sea to break the uniform look. It was a nice day to be outside. Flippy greeted some of his friends that he hadn’t seen in a while on his way to the park. They planned to meet up soon to get back on track about each other again.
At the gazebo was eight pieces of wood and some planks. The problem with the gazebo was that the floor was unstable and a pony had already fallen through. Flippy needed to make a stable base upon which he could put the planks, so that nopony would fall through.
After giving the problem some thought, Flippy decided to form three triangles upon which he could put the planks. That would be a stable enough structure to hold at least five ponies and there was not really space for more, so that would be a fine solution.
Flippy started working and soon the gazebo was done and ready for use again. He removed the “Danger”-signs and packed up his tools and went on his way home. All he could think of was a nice hot bath, just lying in the bathtub relaxing. He could already feel the hot water.
Flippy sighed happily, when he was finally able to slip into the hot water in his tub after a day of intensive studying and hard work. The warmth of the water smoothed out the tension in his muscles and he started to relax. His eyes closed and he slowly drifted off into sleep.
The water was cold, when Flippy woke up again. He was freezing like hell and he didn’t know, how long he had slept. His eyes widened. He still had an appointment with Twilight at the library. He jumped out of the tub and splashed water all over the bathroom in the process.
Flippy looked around to find a towel only to discover that it also became wet, when he jumped out of the tub. He thought a little and got an idea: “How about I try out one of the fire spells I read about yesterday. I could evaporate all water on my coat in no time... But it is hard and I haven’t tried it before... Okay let’s do it!”
Flippy placed himself in the middle of the bathroom and concentrated. Sparks emanated from his horn and the temperature of the room suddenly rose a lot. The room became really damp in seconds and Flippy ran out of the room almost dry. He had accidentally burned himself a little on his right flank, but he couldn’t attend to it, since he had to hurry to the library.
To hide his burn mark, Flippy took on a jacket on his way out. Normally he wouldn’t wear anything, but he wouldn’t show Twilight that he had done harm to himself with magic. That wouldn’t sound great during a job interview. Also he had kind of a fancy in Twilight.
Flippy hurried out into the cold night towards the library. The stars were out and the moon shone bright and lit up the way. He walked close to the buildings, because Twilight had advised him to be discreet about this meeting. She would rather have as less ponies to know about it as possible.
Twilight had taken Flippy aside some days ago, telling him about this job she needed somepony to fill. And she had been looking for someone with the right skill set and Flippy was just the perfect choice. He had all the traits she was looking for, and he also could keep a secret if needed to. He would even go as far as to pinkie promise, if it was important enough.
All these thoughts ran through Flippy’s head, as he slowly made his way to the library. Because of his mind being occupied, he didn’t notice a moving shadow, following him. Perhaps it was just something else and Flippy didn’t notice anyhow.
Turning around the last corner Flippy finally stopped his trail of thought. He noticed that all lights were out in the library. He went to the door, knocking three times. Nothing happened. He knocked three times more and the door swung open and he was pulled inside falling to the floor in the hallway. He blushed lightly by Twilight’s touch, but she didn’t notice.
“What is this all ab..” Flippy tried to say, before he was silenced by Twilight’s hoof sticking into his mouth.
“Shhh... downstairs...” she whispered and pointed towards the cellar door with her free hoof.
Flippy stood up and followed Twilight to the cellar door and down the stairs. The cellar was lit up by candlelight, making their shadows dance on the wall. Twilight used her magic to slowly close the cellar door, so she and Flippy were locked in the cellar.
“You can speak now,” Twilight announced, still carrying a low voice.
“What is this all about?” Flippy asked, “and why all this secrecy?”
“This job isn’t a normal research job,” she said, “it is a secret research project, created by princess Luna. At this moment only three ponies know about it and you will be the fourth.”
Twilight started her long tale about the project. Luna had created this project, which would ensure that every pony in Equestria would be safe against large scale attacks like the most recent changeling attack on Canterlot. But before such a defense mechanism could be put to work, a lot of research had to be done.
“... and this is where you come in” Twilight finished. Flippy noticed that she blushed a little. “We need you, Flippy, and you will be working alone at first doing more research on the magic of the elements, but when ready, you will be working close together with the projects main scientist: Doctor Sparks. At the moment he is working on another big project for Celestia, which is also a secret, so I can’t tell you anything about it.”
Twilight’s eyes looked deep into Flippy’s while talking, as if she tried to convince him through sight. He blushed slightly, but he listened closely and his excitement rose the more he heard about the project. It was a great goal to help make Equestria safe and he would work hard.
Twilight and Flippy talked some more about the job and what he should be studying. He made sure with Twilight that he still needed time to practice for himself and she obliged.
“This is still like a normal job in working hours. You just can’t tell anypony about what you do” she said.
“What am I going to tell my dad and my friends?” Flippy asked.
“Just tell that you are helping me out with research and if they want details, tell them that it is a secret research project overseen by the princess.”
After an hour or two of... more talking the conversation was slowly ending. Flippy said that he was sleepy and he should be going home soon. Twilight also looked tired. They had been sitting there discussing the job for some hours now so it was more than natural.
Twilight had slowly moved closer to Flippy during the last half hour. Flippy noticed that she leaned against him and he put a hoof around her shoulders and sighed. Twilight responded by closing her eyes and sighing herself cuddling up against Flippy.
Flippy was happy. He was nearing so many of his goals at this moment. His crush, Twilight, seemed to like him too, he got himself a job and he also became a defender of Equestria. And all in one night too. He closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep together with Twilight.
The candlelight slowly died and the dancing shadows went to sleep too. The stars outside still shone bright together with the moon. Everything was perfect.
One thing still seemed odd though. A shadow seemed to move, just like the one following Flippy earlier. It hastily moved away from the library and disappeared in the night.
A few weeks after his employment, Flippy finds himself a happier pony than ever. His studies on element magic has developed at great pace and he has been going out with Twilight on a few dates. His life couldn’t be better. He enjoyed every moment of it, from morning till night, and sometimes also all night long too, staring at the beautiful stars. And perhaps also thinking about Twilight a little.
Flippy’s research on the particular field of element magic needed for the princess’ secret defence project had also seen great progress, so he was almost ready to make his acquaintance with Sparks, the main scientist on the project. Twilight had told Flippy a lot about Sparks and from what he’d heard Sparks seemed like a nice pony... with some side effects. Twilight just mentioned that you should first really get to know him before he was nice to be with, and that he was quite eccentric when it came to scientific experiments. Sparks could also be a little sceptical at times, but that was because of an accident some time ago.
Flippy was excited about meeting a scientist of that caliber. Ponyville hadn’t much to offer in that manner. Most ponies in Ponyville were either into farming or economics, which wasn’t really of any interest for magic users like Flippy. The only pony Flippy could really go to in Ponyville about magic and such was Twilight, but that’s just one pony out of many.
The last thing he needed to practice, before going to Sparks, was an assembly of both water and fire element magic. He was to conjure a wall of ice. Most ponies would probably frown at mentioning ice and fire in the same sentence, but in fact the element of fire was also used to control heat and cold by either extracting or apply heat. Flippy had practiced this spell several times now, but he wanted to be able to get positive results every time he tried.
Flippy wasn’t practicing and researching on his usual spot just outside Ponyville anymore. Since he became a researcher, a small research facility had been built on the edge of the Everfree Forest. It was fitted to be perfect for magic practice with apparatus for monitoring temperatures, changes in the earth surface, wind velocity meters and the likes. It didn’t look at all like a normal laboratory, since magic could do massive destruction. The test room had no floor, making the earth visible directly, and it had metal plated walls and ceiling so that possible damage would be contained inside the room. The monitors was in a side room, from where supervision was possible.
Flippy stood on the ground in the test room concentrating. He lowered his head and his horn started to glow, emanating sparks. Small water droplets were drained from the earth, flying towards the middle of the room, where they formed a small wall of water. A big spark sprung from Flippy’s horn as the room heated up. All warmth slowly drained from the water, making it slowly freeze.
As the warmth escaped the water it filled the test room and it began to get unbearable. Flippy used what little free magic capacity he had left to open the vents. The heat quickly escaped and Flippy let go of his magic and opened his eyes panting, sweat dropping from his body. Before him stood a little ice wall.
Clap, clap, clap! Flippy turned around to see Twilight stand next to the side room door.
“Looks like somepony has been working hard.” Twilight looked at Flippy’s sweaty body. She grinned, while walking around him to get a better look.
The only thing Flippy could do was to blush heavily, while following the mare with his sight. “Erhm... ya... yeah I guess so” he returned, “it is quite a hard spell. Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see how things went with research and I can see that things are going well” Twilight said with a cheesy voice.
“I guess so” Flippy said with a low voice.
“I think we are more than ready to take this to the next step, Flippy” Twilight said.
Flippy’s cheeks now burned bright red. “What? So fast? We haven’t even dated for more than a few weeks!”
Twilight’s face turned red when she noticed what she had just said, but shortly after she burst out in laughter. “No no no silly! I meant the defence project. We are ready to send you to report to Sparks about your findings. No silly, you’ll have to wait a little longer for the other thing.”
Twilight giggled as she and Flippy went into the side room to start closing down the research facility.
During closing down the facility Twilight and Flippy were chatting loudly. Flippy was getting all excited about finally being ready for the real deal and Twilight eagerly listened. She then returned by telling that she had planned a nice little farewell dinner for Flippy and her as he would be gone for some days already from the next day. They would be all alone, since Spike was in Canterlot doing some business.
All the chatter made both unicorns less aware of what they were actually doing. At leaving the facility, neither Twilight nor Flippy remembered to lock the outer door. They both walked away along the path to Ponyville, Twilight leaning in against Flippy. None of them noticed the shadow slipping inside the facility. They were both occupied with each other and the small stars that started to show themselves on the ever darker sky.
The shadow quietly sniffed around inside the facility. It swept the floors, the desks and the bins. It went from the hallway into the two small office rooms and into the kitchen, the side room and finally into the test room. It searched all over, until it found what it was looking for. It searched for something to use against Flippy, something to blame him for something. Some evidence to use to frame Flippy.
