It was later afternoon in Canterlot the sun has reached its peak and shines down on Canterlot most of the citizens are going about their daily lives going to parties, getting lunch, or enjoying a relaxing time with themselves. In the far off distance of Canterlot around the edge of the capital city in the back side of the castle many old and tattered building lie there. Many citizens in this part of the city are out of these buildings, most are earth and Pegasus ponies, few unicorns came out as well but all of them are wearing rags and tattered clothing’s, some ponies are more thinner than others while some looked more sick than others but despite that they all looked content. Many are walking about some fetching water, some trying to do their best to look presentable to try to at least find a job in the center of the city, some were chatting with others, and some fillies were playing with others trying to have some fun while the day lasted. On top of a building further in the outskirts of the back of the city is the abandoned building. Laying in a tarp hammock is Phantom who is still sleeping but starting to arouse from his slumber as the sun is shining through the hole in his tarp roof.
*groans* “I got to find something to patch that hole.” Phantom starts to get up but his eyes remained closed as he gets out of bed he starts to stretch. Popping some bones here and there he starts to come alive and his body is starting to wake up. Phantom starts to open his eyes and he opens them slowly for them to adjust to the bright sunlight that shines down on him, he starts to walk towards the edge of the roof and his eyes are fully opened and he sees the view of the ruined back city. Despite it being poor and desolate with hardly any luxury or anything worth looking at, it was full of life and ponies coming about having the time to chat with others and enjoy talking with one another.
Phantom enjoyed this scenery when he wakes up knowing that despite the tough situation they are all in they have a connection with one another, unlike the snooty tooty ponies in Canterlot who only look after themselves and prefer to be with ponies in higher elite classes to have a piece of that glory to themselves. In this place it's poor, desolate, no noble pony would even smell the air because they claim it reeks of poverty and bad luck and would never go near even a mile near this place. Despite that it's a place full of life and friendship among it's inhabitants something that the noble ponies never seem to have in themselves despite Princess Celestia's fondness of friendship.
The princess were kind rulers towards it's citizens even to this back water part of the city but even they couldn't do much in a growing city full of noble ponies who are out for themselves, they procured food and water for the poor city but even they have limits to how much they can buy and give to the needy citizens. They didn't need to do it, they could have just left this part of the city to fend for themselves yet they help the citizens. That's something everypony loves about Celestia a fair ruler and kind to all her subjects. Phantom however didn't feel that same love, despite the citizens being happy he never felt the same towards Celestia. Yes she is fair and kind and a wise ruler but he himself doesn't feel like he could honestly 'reveal' himself to her, it's as if something about her is just preventing him from trusting her, he believes her but not to the extent of complete trust like all her subjects.
Phantom clasps his hands together as he throws them over his shoulder to stretch his back, he notices his hands felt odd and he saw he was wearing his gloves still but not only that there were large burn marks on the palms of both of them. “Thank goodness Luna shot that lightning at me when we first met, I probably wouldn't have gotten away if she hadn't.” Phantom says to himself as he observes his hands “I better get some more of those flash crystals, now that I have the attention of the royal family on me I better have them in reserves.”
Phantom starts to walk back towards his bed and he notices something amiss “Hm? Where is my …. Oh that’s right I gave it to that family last night.” Phantom realized his cape was not with him anymore and he gave it to a needing family last night. “eh they need it more than I do. Guess I’ll use this tarp for my cover today.” Phantom goes and removes the tarp from the stringing and he uses the hole in it for his face. “Huh, guess it has a use after all.” He then walks back towards the edge of the roof and starts to trace his eyes of the area. “Today’s food day guess I better get before it’s too late.”
Phantom steps back a couple steps and then runs and jumps off the roof and grabs a pole sticking out from the side of a building and swings it to another roof while performing a back flip before landing on another roof and doing a front roll. He starts to run faster and jumps across gaps of roof tops, he needed to go left and on the way he saw a hanging lamp on a rope around the corner. He jumps off and grabs it and swings to the other side and let’s go grabbing onto the roof ledge. He brings himself up and continues his run he runs through poles and obstacles, he jumps over gaps on the roof and he jumps pipes, hurdles, and some plant pots on the roof tops. Landing on a roof top with a flight of stairs spiraling downwards Phantom jumped and slid on the railing and sliding down the stairs. Reaching the ground floor he jumps off and continues to run through the streets. The ponies were watching him all being fascinated by what he's doing but also knowing who it is, as he is known through the back city for being a big helper to ponies and caring for the more needy, he is also the only one who can run on two legs. Phantom continues running dodging through the crowds of ponies and sees crates that are stacking up against the side of a building and he runs and jumps on them running towards the top and jumps and grabs a window ledge and he climbs his way to the roof top and continues his run to the center of the back city.
He soon arrives near the center of the city but he sees a line of ponies there already and near a large black cauldron filled with a tasty smell coming out of it and drafting through the air and beside it was a large tray of small bread. Phantom smells it and it smells like tomato soup his favorite “Guess I got to pick up the pace."
Phantom smiles as he starts to drool slightly and he runs even faster and tries to rush there. His smile soon fades away as he stops on the roof top near the place where the catering chefs usually are to serve the citizens here food. At the sight of the royal guards who were clad in gold armor Phantom was curious as to why there were royal guards instead of the usual catering chefs as he see's none of them anywhere. Phantom stood jumped down from the building by landing on the side of a building and sliding down and jumps from that one to the wall of the previous building to prevent going down to fast. He then peeks out of the corner and sees the guards apparently scanning the area while the other guards are serving the food which made the citizens who were lining up uncomfortable at their hard stare and non expressing faces.
Phantom sees his predicament as an unfavorable one in his mind “Damn guess my stunt last night must have really pissed off the royal family either that or the royal guards are trying to find me to redeem themselves.” Phantom looks at the guards serving the food and the pile of bread beside it, judging from the pile size he guesses that it’s still half full but he knows he can’t expose himself and wearing a tarp will definitely rouse suspicion especially to him as he doesn't walk on four like ponies and griffons, he’s too tall to pass as a normal pony and he’s not tall enough and too thin to pass as a Minotaur figure.
Phantom sighs “Guess I’m going hungry today.” He then slumps against the wall he smells the tomato soup just taunting his appetite and his stomach is starting to give in to wanting that soup. His stomach rumbles loud letting Phantom know how hungry he is. “Uggh, I swear this starvation is going to kill me before the princesses could.” Phantom slumps against the wall trying to conserve his energy as he is running on empty. He looks towards the sky upward to take his mind off of his appetite but his stomach is starting to control his mind and is making the clouds in the sky look like food. Phantom’s mouth is watering just looking at them and is caught in a trance looking at them. He snaps out of it and cover’s himself in his tarp to get his mind off of the food.
A light brown pony who was passing by the ally who was walking towards the food line she saw somepony covered in a tarp in the ally way. She smiled as she walked towards it feeling a sense of knowing as she already knew who it was, once she reached there she peered inside she saw a face she recognized all too well.
“Why if it isn't little Spirit? Where have you been all this time?” Phantom eyes widened at the sound of his old name and knew few ponies who he told it to and only one comes to mind from where he was. He looked up and saw what he expected, a light brown earth pony with a red mane with golden eyes enters his view the female earth pony was wrapped in a slightly tattered scarf around her neck and wearing a small winter hat to cover her ears.
“Olivia is that you?” Phantom was surprised as he hadn't seen his friend Olivia for a while now and thought she moved to a village with her family by now. Last time Phantom saw Olivia and her family was months ago, and she and her family had enough money to travel towards a small town called Ponyville.
Phantom was curious as to why she was here and just asked "What are you doing here?"