The next morning, we all woke up bright and early.
Well, by dragon standards, anyway.
After a quickie and a shower, we met up with Smolder and our escort for the day; a guard pony named Kite Shield, and an ambassadorial assistant named Sunflower.
The guard looked like every other pegasus guard. It had to be magic.
Sunflower, though, was a bright, cheerful earth pony mare with a sunny yellow coat, a bright blue mane and green eyes with a daisy growing in front of a rising sun for a cutie mark.
"Good morning, Miss Ember, Mister Luke," she greeted. "How was your sleep?"
"Pretty good," Ember said. "The pillows are a little soft for me, but I just used Luke, instead."
Sunflower chuckled. "I'll make a note to have a few firmer pillows sent up. In the meantime, we have a couple hours before your meeting at the University. If you'd like, we can get breakfast here or we can go out into the city."
"Spike told us about a place called 'Pony Joe's'," I said.
Sunflower smiled. "I was actually hoping for that. Some of our visitors have 'refined palates', but for normal folks..."
"Nothing beats doughnuts and coffee," I finished.
Sunflower grinned, "I think we're going to get along fantastically."
She wasn't lying.
She told us how she was usually the one that was called in to deal with the more roudy races, like griffins and yaks; the races that sometimes required a heavy hand- er hoof.
At first, we thought that she was assigned to us because the ponies expected us to be difficult, but after getting to know her a bit, we could see the real reason.
"I swear, you're a dragon in a pony body," Ember laughed, drawing a couple stares from some of the passing ponies.
After getting a couple doughnuts and some coffee, we started meandering toward the university.
"I have to admit, I didn't think ponies could even be aggressive, much less to that degree," I said, wincing even as I laughed.
"Oh, you might be surprised what a pony can do when pushed," Sunflower said. "Still, after that, I was declared an honorary yak."
"Wait, so, you threw the prince's bodyguard through a wall, and they made you one of them?" Smolder asked.
"Yeah, yaks are weird, and standoffish, but if you can get through their thick hide, they're pretty cool," Sunflower finished.
Eventually, we made it to Canterlot University. It reminded me of some Earth's ivy league schools, with several buildings spread out across beautiful, well tended grounds.
We were heading to the thaumic research department to meet up with an expert in magic, as well as one of the ponies that was helping Twilight study the others.
The mare that met us was... well, if I was honest, she could have passed for Twilight's twin.
It was like someone cloned her, died her mane and coat, put her mane up in a messy bun, gave her a very unflattering turtleneck, and date-repellant glasses.
"Hello, you must be Ember, Luke, and Smolder," she said, examining us as if we were specimens is a jar. "My name's Moondancer. I'll be leading the research today."
We gave our hellos in return.
The mare then turned to another pony behind her, an older mare with a light pink coat and graying yellow mane. "This is Doctor Rose, xenobiology. She specializes in unknown species."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all, especially you, Mister Luke," she said, offering a hoof.
I accepted it as I replied, "Please, just call me Luke."
"Oh my, that really isn't telepathy," she noted, though how she knew, I had no idea. "I can't wait to learn more about you."
"I think we'll both be learning something new," I said. "Your people have machines and tools that simply don't exist in my birth land."
Moondancer said, "Mister Luke, if you could follow Doctor Rose, you'll be heading to the biology department. Miss Ember, Miss Smolder, if you'll follow me."
I waved as I said, "I'll see you girls in a few hours, I guess. Don't break anything unless they ask you too."
"You, too," Ember returned as they were inside.
As we walked away from the building, the mare said, "Such a lovely pair, those two. Are they both your females, or only Miss Ember?"
"Only Ember. Dragons are monogamous. Smolder's a really good friend, though," I answered.
"Ha! I knew it! Doctor Scale owes me ten bits," she cheered. "He insisted dragons would hoard mates the same as gems, but I just knew they didn't.
"So, am I also right that the dragon migration has something to do with finding a mate?"
I chuckled. We talked about dragon culture and society. Mostly it was her asking questions or making guesses, and me answering. Of course, more often than not that answer was, 'you'd have to ask Ember, but I answered what I could.
Eventually we arrived at another building.
"So, I'm guessing this is the biology department?" I asked. I figured the scrawling text above the door would have told me, but...
"You can't read Equish," Doctor Rose deduced. "We'll have to fix that. Anyway, you're right. This is the biology department. We'll be using xenobiology lab one."
She opened the door and led me through the halls. Surprisingly, we went down stairs.
"The xenobiology lab sometimes houses potentially dangerous lifeforms, so we're down here in case a lockdown needs to be initiated," she explained, as if she read my mind. "The first level is usually pretty tame stuff, though."
We went into a room where the doc floated a folder to her, opened it, and started reading.
"The preliminary tests Miss Sparkle ran have been a real help." She motioned for me to follow. "It allowed us to get some data and formulate a plan for how best to tackle the tests.
"Before anything, we need to identify these," she pointed at the spike on my chest. "You told Twilight these are not a form of body modification. Does that mean they're naturally occurring?"
"That's correct," I replied.
"Then I'd like to run some scans on them, if you don't mind," she requested.
"That's why we're here," I said.
"Alright, first, I'd like to take an xray..."
I have metal bones.
Yeah. I had wondered why lucario was steel type. I mean, a couple little spikes couldn't have been enough.
Of course, calling them 'metal' was a bit misleading. They weren't really metal, but an organic structure that uses iron in place of calcium.
Yeah, the doctor was baffled by that, too.
At least it explained why everyone said I was heavier than I looked.
After she took something to quell the headache, we moved on to testing my physical capabilities. Thus, we moved outside to one of the courtyards.
"Alright, without using aura, jump as high as you can," she asked, typing away at some monitor.
I was so used to using aura, I actually had to concentrate on not using it. Still, even without aura, I jumped a good fifty feet in the air.
"I said 'without aura', Mister Luke," she scolded, anyway.
"That was without aura," I said.
We were already drawing a crowd. The unusual, unknown creature having tests done out in the open with nothing to keep it from running amok was new to most of them.
"Hey, professor, what is that?" one student asked.
"Is it safe?" asked another.
I answered, in her place, "My name is Luke. I'm a lucario in service to the representative of the dragon lands. And no, I'm not dangerous unless someone tries to harm me or my loved ones."
Needless to say, that got the murmuring revved up.
Rose didn't seem to care, though, and continued on. "Now, using aura, jump as high as you can."
I grinned. It had been a while since I did that.
I focused my aura into my legs, already feeling how much sharper it was. Then, releasing it all at once, I sprang up.
I felt the earth give way slightly just before rocketing through the air. I didn't need any equipment to tell me I blasted past my old record. It wasn't until I busted a hole in a cloud, startling a pegasus mare having her lunch that I finally stopped my ascent.
"Lovely day, isn't it, ma'am?" I greeted with a wave before gravity took hold again.
I fell back through the cloud. I held myself spread-eagle, as if skydiving.
Looking down, I noticed a problem. I had no clear landing area.
I really hoped this worked.
"If you can hear me, I suggest moving to the side of the courtyard with the statue," I broadcast, hoping it could travel that far. "I'm coming in at terminal velocity and would rather not find out what would happen if I hit someone."
I wasn't sure if it was because they heard me or because they realized where I was heading, but they started moving away from my landing area.
The ground was coming up fast, and I could already feel the worry and panic from the crowd.
A hundred feet up, I aimed my ha- paws at the ground and formed a small aura ball. However, instead of firing it, I burst it, focusing the blast outward in a cone of concussive force.
It was small, but enough to bleed off some of my speed. I didn't want to stop suddenly, after all. I did it again and again in rapid succession until I was falling at a manageable speed. I hit the ground feet first before tucking and rolling to prevent a jarring stop.
I popped to my feet to be greeted with cheers and whistles, as well as calls for an encore. I just took a bow and gave my thanks.
"Well, that was certainly quite the performance," Doctor Rose said. "Not to mention we got some great data.
"For the next part, I'd like to test the capabilities of your aura," she continued. "For that, we have permission to use the military academy's battle mage training facilities."
"Is it far?" I asked.
Rose shook her head. "No. It's actually a part of CU. Did you see a part of the campus that looked very different from the rest while you were up there?"
I thought for a moment. "I think so."
"Alright then, let's go," Doctor Rose said, her excitement building.
Half an hour later, we were at what I could only describe as the love child of a rifle range and Final Fantasy.
Each shooting post was surrounded by a ring of silvery metal with crystals lining them. About twenty feet away was a translucent plain of what I guessed was magic, and another fourty feet from that were crystal obelisks.
"So, before we begin, we need to deduce what exactly 'aura' is," Rose said as she finished setting up the last of more than two dozen sensors. "I have a couple theories, but just to cover my bases, I have one of every kind of sensor CU has, even the hokey ones."
"Hokey ones?" I inquired.
Rose snickered, "Yeah. Like this one," she pointed to a dusty looking camera with a green crystal on top, "is supposed to be able to photograph aliens through their stealth technology," next she pointed to one with two antennas waving on top, "this one ghosts," she pointed to another that looked like a TV, "and this one, the invisible creatures that watch our daily lives for entertainment on a magic box."
That one... yeah... I was going to have to borrow that one when I go back to Ponyville.
Rose just laughed, "I know, they're ridiculous, but they've all captured some kind of unidentified reading or image, so who knows."
She moved to a cluster of devices that were set aside. "These are the ones most likely to find what we're looking for, and thaumic resonator, a psychic field recorder, and a lunameter. I know you probably don't know what these are, but explaining will take hours, so if it's okay with you, I'd like to get on with it."
At my nod, she turned to the table and flipped a master switch, turning them all on.
"Okay, now, I want you to form a ball of aura," she requested.
I did as she asked, forming an aura sphere. I held it for several seconds before she told me to fire it at one of the targets downrange. It slammed into the target, cracking the crystal.
Rose flinched. "Oh, wow, yeah. It's definitely not made of thaumic energy. I did tell them that might happen, so... let's just move on. I'm told you can form a solid shaft of aura, like a pole."
"That's right," I confirmed.
"Great, show me your shaft," she said.
I just gave her a grin. "You can at least take me to dinner first."
She let out a loud guffaw, "You're a little young for me, plus, I'm married. I mean your other shaft."
I chuckled as I formed my aura staff and held it in a ready position.
"Good... now, swing your shaft around a little," she said with a hint of a smile.
I snorted in amusement and swung the staff around in some simple movements. I started slow, and swung faster and faster until she told me to stop.
"Good idea with the various speeds. We could get some good data with that," she said as she went to a monitor and started examining the results. "Nothing on the thaumic resonator. That's surprising. The PFR looks like it picked something up, but it looks like it's just cross field echoes. The lunameter actually detected the most, but not very much. Strange."
She flicked through the other devices, laughing when she saw one in particular. "Hey, the ghost camera actually caught a little something." She continued on until she stopped, her smile replaced by a look of pure disbelief. "No way..."
"What is it?" I asked, moving around to see.
It was a picture of me, but overlaid over me was what looked like a blue-silver fire-like substance moving in swirls, concentrating into the aura sphere.
"Which sensor is this one?" I asked.
"The one just beneath the one to the right of the alien one," she said. "It's taken images before, it's only ever been a faint glow from living things. It's always been believed it photographed a pony's mana, but this... this is something completely different."
"What is it supposed to photograph?" I asked.
"The soul." She studied the image a little more before she said, "I think we'll have to to call it here for today. I'm going to have to track down Doctor Glow, the pony that made this."
Rose turned back to me and said, "For now, why don't I take you back to Miss Ember. They're probably done, or close to it, by now."