"Blindingly beautiful." Two simple words, that have brought an ageless solar princess to a deep crimson blush. Celestia is quite thankful that all the other ponies left with Twilight.

That is until an "Oh! My!" is heard from the corner of the room. Rarity is fanning herself with a silk fan and blushing heavily as well. "What a stallion!"

"Rarity, I thought you left with Twilight!" Celestia says, looking a little bewildered.

"I was about to, but then I had a sudden inspiration and had to put it to paper." she shows a drawing of a fashionable suit for stallions based off of Aidan's long coat and given it a new moon motif. "Now I'm also glad I did. For I have a new dress to design, I shall call it 'Blushing Sunrise!'" She begins to draw frantically.

"I'm glad that you have such creative insight, but if you could keep the source of the inspiration a secret." Celestia looks into the direction of Aidan before continuing. "It would be appreciated."

"You have my word princess Celestia." Rarity states in between strokes of her pencil on paper.

"I take it the princess doesn't get complimented often. If what I gather from the clues in Rarity's words are true." Aidan says with a smile. "We'll have to change that." He slowly makes his way towards the door, feeling ahead with his feet. Before the others can ask what he's doing. "As for today, seeing as I'm no longer needed here, I'm going sight seeing. For you never get a more honest look at the citizen of a city then from a wandering blind man."

"We shall accompany you." he hears Celestia say, and can almost hear Rarity nodding in agreement. The second part would likely be more hearing her pencil stop writing.

"I would prefer not. Ever since I have arrived, I seemed to have lucked into company of important peop.... ponies. I would rather see how the average pony would treat me on my own."

Before Celestia can respond, Aidan has already drawn a sigil in the air and vanishes with a slight popping noise. She quickly tries to trace his teleportation, and comes up with nothing. His magic works differently then theirs, and the trail can not be found.

--Canterlot: ???--

Aidan performs a series of rapid teleportations, not taking the chance of being found early on. He aims for areas that seem to have less magical auras that would indicate ponies nearby. A couple of teleportations did involve him appearing inside of buildings, where he did not linger long. At his current stop he believes himself to be outside, if the wind is any indication.

--Canterlot Hospital: Research wing--
-Point of focus: Cale-

Cale watches as the ponies go about their work. The ones he doesn't know, with the white unarmored long coats of white, move about various machines with the samples taken from Aidan. Twilight is busy monitoring all the activity and taking notes on everything.

"Run everything three times if you have to. We need to make sure these results are right." the unicorn doctor that is in charge barks to the others. "I really hope we're wrong," she says with a hint of fear in her voice. "Cause if not, we have a doorway to the lands of death above our head, with some unknown being as the key."

'Well, this is getting interesting' Cale thinks to himself. 'We'll see how all these peaceful ponies act to this news. It may make my bodyguard job interesting again. I was getting so bored in Gaia.'

--Canterlot: ???--
-Point of focus: Fleur De Lis-

Fleur runs along various back alleys and side paths. She is panting and exhausted, completely lost. Her bodyguards seem to have betrayed her, sold her out to some Saddle Arabian diplomat. She barely escaped from the room they kept her in. Her pursuers are starting to gain on her, so she takes another turn, hoping to find someone that can help her.

"Come, my little flower. We both know that you will not be getting far. Even the royal guards search for you on my behalf."

She can hear that horrible voice from somewhere nearby. The diplomat was close, and if he was telling the truth, she would rather die than go back. She falls to the cold stone pathway or the alley, breaking down into tears. She finds some discarded bottle of cider and takes it in hand. Fleur steels her resolve and breaks it on the stone pavers. Bringing it slowly to her neck.

"It's not my place to say, but are you sure that's what you want to do?" a strange voice asks Fleur. She looks up to see a strange stallion, who is clearly not a pony. He is lacking a tail and the ears are more like those of a monkey than that of a pony.

"You need to get away from here," she says, worried that the diplomat and his men would remove any witness.

"Oh it is far too late for that my little flower." The Saddle Arabian diplomat says as he rounds the corner. Two of his guards standing next to him. The diplomat's face covered in various jewelry ornamentation, glinting in the light of the afternoon sun. "Now, if you come quietly my little flower. We can make sure your accommodations are more comfortable this time."

The guards begin to move closer towards the stranger. "Stop!" Fleur yells. "If you leave him be, I will go with you."

"But my little flower, it would not do to have someone associated with us to put diplomatic relations between our countries at risk." the diplomat says, waving his guards forward.

"Well, it seems I have found myself in the underbelly of equestrian society." the stranger says, taking a slow step forward. His foot feeling the ground in front of him before stepping forward. "No matter where you go, there will always be those who see life as something to own."

"Ah, good. The royal guards are here." The diplomat waves at a group of royal unicorn guards that have come from the other end of the alleyway. Both paths now blocked. "Now please fetch my property and remove this riff-raft, and you shall be richly rewarded."

The royal guards hesitate. "Is that the creature from the training ground?" one says to the others.

"I think it is, but his bird is not here. Now we can get some payback, and get payed." another speaks up. "We can just say that those shadow things got him, or changelings."

'The royal guards know this strange stallion!?' Fleur thinks to herself. 'It's not like it matters, for he is outnumbered'

The stranger does not change posture as the royal guards approach him, in fact he looks quite relaxed. "It seems I am still under estimated." He says as a guard brings a sword down on him. There is a slight flash of light as it hits a small energy barrier. Where a unicorn's shield protects evenly everywhere, this is a precision application of magical energy. Shielding only where it is needed.

The diplomat's eyes widen. "Well, it seems that the riff-raft is a hidden little treasure. Take him alive, he shall fight for me in the arenas." His two guards join the royal guards in attacking the stranger.

Each swing of blade is met by the energy barrier, and does not seem to weaken in the slightest. Royal guards begin launching spells, only to have similar effect on the field.

Fleur watches as the strange stallion begins to draw sigils of light in the air. "My turn" he says, launching two magical blasts. While they do not seem to have the same power as the blasts from the royal guards, it is extremely precise. The blast hits two royal guards in the horns before they can even put up a shield.

"I thought he was blind without his bird. I didn't sign up for this, it's not worth the money" a royal guard says, turning tail and running away. He does not get very far, as a contingent of other royal guards arrive. That which really ends the fight, is the fact that they are escorting princess Celestia.

Author's Note

And a slight cliffhanger.