//------------------------------//
// Shadows 
// Story: Banished 
// by phillipphoenix 
//------------------------------//

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.