The Phantom of Canterlot

by Azure Drache

Curiosity, the incentive for everything

“Extra edition! Extra edition, read everything about the brick factory incident!” The colt held up a ‘New Canterlot Post’ for the crowd to see. “Griffons accused for blowing up a building in Canterlot! One mare survived the explosion. Firefighter officer still missing!” He turned to the other side of the street. “Extra edition… !”

“Could you please close the window?” Snowy asked the seashell white unicorn nurse.

“Seems like you are already the talk of the town,” Nurse Sugarcube said while she trotted over and glanced down on the street, past the lattice, which hold off too curious pegasi. “That was quick.” She placed her hooves on the frame and took a deep breath of the fresh and warm afternoon air. “Hmmm… wonderful,” she said before she closed the window.

Sugarcube trotted back to her trolley. “Though, I guess that was to be expected.” She lifted one of the thermometers with her magic. “You know, with the story you told the reporters and the fact,” she levitated the thermometer over to Snowy, “that you… woooh, watch out!”

Sugarcube saw the thermometer fell down after it had touched the orange mare’s lips and quickly tried to grab it again with her magic. The sound of breaking glass proved that she failed.

The nurse sighed. “I am sorry, Miss Ice, looks like I am a bit clumsy today.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Snowy said. She would have waved it off with her hoof, but the many bandages all over her body prevented her from doing so.

With a routine, the result of many, many days of working as a nurse, Sugarcube grabbed the brush and sweeper and cleaned the mess. “Good we have more than one of them.” She forced a little smile to her lips and levitated the next thermometer up.

“Could you just give it over to me by hoof?” Snowy asked nicely.

“I am not that clumsy,” Sugarcube narrowed her eyes.

“Please?” Snowy insisted.

“Hmpf,” Sugarcube made and let the thermometer fall in her own hoof. “If you wish.” Still careful, she inserted it into Snowy’s mouth.

“Thunk yuu,” Snowy mumbled.

While they waited for the thermometer to do its job, Sugarcube checked her patient’s bandages and plasters, also tried her best to fluff up her pillow and bring her in a little bit more upright position.

When she finally pulled out the thermometer, she raised an eyebrow. “Oh dear, somepony has a fever and not a small one.” Sugarcube placed a hoof on Snowy’s forehead. “You glow, miss, that’s not good.” She let go of the tool and when her magic failed to grab it, another unpleasant noise of breaking glass followed.

“Seriously?” Sugarcube facehoofed. She stepped back slowly, avoiding the fragments. “You should drink more and take your medicine,” she said to Snowy while she cleaned up the mess again. This time she used her hooves in the first place when she grabbed the cup with the medicine, placing the pills in Snowy’s mouth one by one. The cup of water received the same treatment.

When her patient had taken all of her medicine, Sugarcube nodded contently. “Alright.” She placed everything back on the trolley. Then she pulled over a chair and grabbed a plate from her trolley. “I hope you are hungry, today there are peas with chopped carrots.”

“Why the hay did it have to be carrots? I hate them!” Snowy thought. She sighed. “Is there a chance to get something else?” She threw a begging look over to Sugarcube.

The nurse was holding the plate in one hoof and the spoon already in the other. “Candied almonds, maybe? Or better an extra large sandwich with extra onions?” A raised eyebrow underlined her sarcasm. “Eat peas and carrots or nothing, what do you think this is, a hotel?”

“No, I… I just hate carrots, you know?” Snowy said with an apologetic smile.

“Nonsense,” Sugarcube replied, “if you are hungry enough, everything tastes good.” She put some peas and carrot pieces on the spoon and lifted it to Snowy’s mouth. “Now be a good pony and say ‘ahhh’.”

With her free ear flinched tightly against her head, Snowy reluctantly opened her mouth a bit. She was indeed very hungry, but carrots… she shivered by only thinking about it. “Here goes nothing,” she thought and after Sugarcube had placed the spoon in her mouth she took a bite. “Awful!”

“You see, they are not as bad as you thought, right?” Sugarcube gave her a smile.

“Twice as awful as I thought indeed.” Snowy forced herself to smile back. “You are right.”

Now Sugarcube smiled brighter. “See, I told you so.” She gathered a bit more of the vegetables on the spoon. “If you eat up everything, you get some dessert as well, vanilla pudding with cinnamon.”

“I doubt it is worth it… “

“Really, you should be more thankful for what you get, Miss Ice,” Sugarcube said when her ungrateful opposite again made a face like she was forced to eat the broken thermometers. “Not everypony survives an explosion like you did and gets away without any burn marks.” She let her left ear hang and tilted her head. “You know? You had the doctors wonder about that a lot.” She pulled back the unwelcomed spoon and focused on her thoughts. “You had broken a lot of your bones and got cuts all over your body, but not a single hair burnt in the slightest.”

“I guess I had a lot of luck with that.” Snowy avoided eye contact. “The rubble must have protected me.”

“If there wasn’t a whole team of respectable firefighters, who said they found you in the ruin, I wouldn’t believe it. Still, you must be right, a lucky mare you are.” Sugarcube set her head straight again and also remembered the spoon in her hoof. “Oh, I am sorry.” While she resumed to feed her patient, she continued to babble about her thoughts.

Snowy couldn’t decide if she was happy about the other mare’s presence or not. Sure, she was hungry and also was not displeased by some company in general, but that Sugarcube had to speak about the events in the factory and also feed her carrots… she really wasn’t sure.

When she had lain there, buried under the ruin, she really had begged for a pony to talk to. Just anypony, more than two days of isolation had taken their toll, but then she woke up after the doctors had patched her up. First all the questions about her state and how she feels, and then the royal guard showed up and with them a lot more questions. Every point of her story had been questioned, it felt like the guard was assuming she burnt down the building, not the explosion or the griffons, but she alone. Luckily one of the doctors had finally decided that she needed rest and had thrown the guard out. They had hesitated to leave at first, but the authority of the doctor in the hospital had convinced them.

A few hours of sleep and rest had indeed followed, till the newsponies had shown up. They tried everything to get an interview with her, it went so far that one even disguised herself as a nurse and sneaked into Snowy’s room. When the real nurse had shown up, she was discovered and one wouldn’t believe how mad a nurse can get when her patients are disturbed. There was not much missing and the newspapermare had needed a bed for herself afterwards.

In the end they had moved their most popular patient to the more secured area she was in at the moment, with lattice in front of the windows and also two security stallions at her door. They were not only there because of the reporters though, with her as the only witness of the possible crime of the griffons, they were there also to protect her from ‘suddenly disappearing’.

When Snowy’s thoughts hung on the guards finally, she noticed some commotion in front of her room’s door. Somepony was arguing with the guards.

“I hope that is not another one from the newspapers,” Sugarcube said. “Really, these ponies are a pest.”

Sugarcube straightened her ears and listened. Snowy did the same, at least with the ear that wasn’t covered in bandages. With a little effort, she was able to differ three different voices, two belonged to the guards while the third was a stallion that sounded somewhat familiar.

“Could that…”

“I am just a normal visitor!” the third stallion explained. “I am not a threat!”

“Yes, it is. What is he doing here?”

“Sorry, sir, but without permission of the chief physician, we are not allowed to let you enter.”

“I am sure you two can make an exception,” Pear Thrower said in a comradely tone. “I am a firefighter, and we city employees have to stick together, or?”

A moment of silence followed, probably while the guards thought about this.

“I fear we can’t help you,” the guard answered, “if you want to visit her, you still need the permission of the chief physician.”

“Or must be a relative or close friend of her,” the other guard added.

“Gentlestallions,” Pear pulled out his best manners, “see, I am friend of hers, so let me in.”

“Everypony can say that,” the first guard took over again, “do you have any proof?”

Sugarcube shook her head. “He really should have thought about a good story before he tried to get in here.” She lowered her ears and prepared the spoon for another bite from Snowy. “You don’t know him, right? It is just another pony who wants to get a good story, isn’t it?”

“I… “ Snowy started but stopped when she heard Pear come up with a very unsuitable proof that of course didn’t work on the guards.

“I brought flowers for her,” he said.

“Flowers? Tasty flowers!”

“Pear!” Snowy half yelled, half said. “Pear, my good friend! How nice of you to visit me!”

With some hesitation, one of the guards opened the door and peaked in. “You know this stallion, ma'am?” He opened the door a bit further and allowed her to throw a look at Pear and the medium bunch of flowers he was holding.

Snowy nodded slightly, but with enthusiasm, something she regretted instantly. “Ouch!” she made. “Yes, I know him.”

The guard opened the door completely and let Pear pass. “One hour, sir, till the visit time is over.”

“Understood,” Pear replied and trotted in. “I will keep that in mind.

The guard nodded and closed the door behind him.

“Hello, Melted Ice,” Pear said and also nodded to Sugarcube. “Nurse.”

Sugarcube gave him a suspicious gaze. “You two know each other?” She gave first Pear, then Snowy another look, before she rubbed her chin. “You didn’t mention you have a friend here in Canterlot, Miss Ice,” she threw a second look at Pear, “and more so that your friend is a firefighter.”

Shock ran down Snowy’s spine when she realised her mistake too late. She played Melted Ice at the moment! Waterdrop knew Pear, but Melted Ice did not! How could she forget which shape she was in! And another shock got her when she noticed that she called him by name, something Melted Ice also couldn’t know!

“Actually,” Pear explained, “I was part of the rescue team which searched the brick-factory for her. We didn’t know each other for long, but I guess that counts as permission to visit her.”

“Oh,” Sugarcube made, “well in that case, I would say yes.” She glanced over to Snowy. “Alright,” she placed the spoon on the plate and returned both to the trolley, “I’m going to let you and your lifesaver have a moment of privacy.” She rose from her place and went to leave. “But when I am back, you eat up your carrots!”

Under normal circumstances, Snowy would have shivered by the thought, but at the very moment, her gaze and attention hung on Pear Thrower completely. He didn’t show any reaction to her mistake, maybe he hadn’t noticed or had found an explanation for himself why she knew his name?

He lowered his head in respect when Sugarcube passed by and then he trotted over to Snowy’s bed.

“Normally I would wonder a bit why you know my name, Miss Ice.” Pear gave her a smile and took the now free chair. “The logic however says, that we met somewhere already and I just don’t remember or noticed.” He played with the bunch of flowers in his hoof.

With effort, Snowy was able to reciprocate his smile, just hers looked way more forced and unfitting. “Yes,” she intensified her false smile, “we ran into each other back in the day, I thought that was the reason you came to visit me now, but with you not remembering, I have to say I am surprised you did so.”

Pear nodded slightly. “Mhh,” he made approvingly, “that is a really good question.” He shot a look at the door, which closed a few seconds later, leaving them two alone in the room. “Well, there are many good explanations.” He leaned back on the chair and spun his free hoof around through the air. “One as false as the other. I could pretend I talked with Cool and his team about the mare they found in the building and got curious, or that I had to visit somepony else here and thought it would be a good idea to visit the only survivor of the collapsed factory.” He leaned forward, his face becoming more serious. “Nothing even close to the truth.”

Snowy had trouble keeping up her false smile. “So, the real reason you visited me then is…?”

“I don’t know, maybe,” he now leaned back forward and gave her snout a closer look, “I just want to see a firespitting pony?”

Her smile froze on her lips when he said that. “I have no clue what you are talking about.” She squeed innocently.

Pear moved right in front of her mouth and even dared to put a hoof on her upper lip, trying to push it back a bit.

“Hey!” Snowy complained and shifted her head to the side. “What do you think you are doing?”

Pear lowered his hoof. “I just wanted to see how you do it…Waterdrop, or Burning Snowflake, if you prefer that.”

“How did you know!” she yelled, worried, before she realised that she may alert the guards at the door with it. “How did you know?” she repeated quieter again, a hint of upcoming panic in her voice. She wasn’t in the condition to make an escape now.

Following her gaze with his eyes, Pear smirked. “Don’t worry, I am not here to blow your cover. If I wanted that, I would have showed up with the guards in the first place.”

“Then what do you want? And how do you know? Did the others tell you about me?” The questions raced in her head, forcing her to babble them out real quick.

“To answer your first question, mhh,” he tipped on his chin, “I guess you can call it curiosity.” He nodded to himself. “Yeah, that would fit mostly. And duty of course. When I heard what you said in the ruin, I…”

“You were there?” Snowy interrupted. “How? When?”

“When you told your team about your confrontation with the griffons. I entered the collapsed building to see how they were doing. You must know, Cool and I are friends, when I was sure you were part of his team and that the chance was high it was you who was missing,” he shrugged, “I felt forced to lend a hoof if I could. I mean, if it had been one of my mares who was missing, I wouldn’t close one eye till I found her either.”

“But the captain ordered you all to sleep,” Snowy half-said, half-asked. “And one must have seen or heard you on your way to… to…”

“The place where you lay?” Pear helped out.

Snowy gulped, then just nodded slightly.

“I had taken a short nap,” Pear said, “just not as long as I was told. I really needed some rest in that moment, but even still a little bit exhausted, I didn’t want to let Cool down. So, I dressed up again and moved over to the collapsed factory. It was just a coincidence that I trotted in when you focused all the attention on your story, otherwise you and the others would have heard me, no doubt. I wasn’t sneaking, though I hadn’t turned my helmet lamp on, you guys had lit up the area like a Hearth's Warming Eve tree.”

Snowy had some trouble calming down her emotions while he spoke, not only was she nervous about his knowledge of her secret, he also pulled back the pictures of the ruin into her mind, the fight, the explosion, the isolation, the… She tried to hold it back, turning her head away and closing her eyes, but still tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

Generously, Pear said nothing to it, he just placed the flowers on the bottom of her bed and picked up a hankie from the nightstand, softly dabing her tears away with it. After all, with her hooves in bandages, she wasn’t able to do it herself.

His calmness allowed Snowy to gather up herself. “Thank you,” she just said and sniffled.

He gave her a few more seconds. “Better?”

“Mh-mh,” she affirmed and sniffled again. “Bad memories.”

“I understand.” He scratched his head. “Uhm, well, to shorten it, you all didn’t notice me and when I heard you set one of the gr… what you did, I wasn’t sure what to do. To me, it seemed the best to let this be settled between you and your team, they know you far better than I do.”

“You weren’t afraid of what could happen if they helped me?” Snowy asked and avoided his gaze. “Someponies really get afraid if they hear about my abilities.”

“You mean that they think you could be a Discord spawn or an evil enchantress?” He shook his head. “Not me, I was on guard, but not really worried.”

Slowly, the orange mare’s gaze wandered up to his eyes, “How so? I doubt you meet creatures like that on a regular basis, shouldn't they still scare you?.”

An amused sound escaped his throat. “No, I can’t assert that. Still, there was half a dozen firefighter ponies around you and you didn't seem to be in the state to attack them. And, even if you were, I am capable of throwing a very good hoof axe.”

Snowy’s eyes widened. “You mean, that you would...”
He gave her a serious nod. “If necessary, a firefighter knows how to defend himself.”
She looked down again. “Well, seems good for me that I wasn't such a threat.”

“Yes, indeed,” Pear agreed and shrugged. “Anyway, with your team taking care of you and you not spitting fire at them or turning into some kind of monster... there wasn’t a point in interfering anymore.”

“So you simply let it be and trotted out?” Suspicion crawled into Snowy’s voice, replacing the heavy emotions and she focused on his facial expression when he replied.

“It seemed to me like a good idea.” He kept a straight face, only his tail flickered a bit. “What would I win if I confronted Cool and the others at once?”

“What do you win by confronting me, here, now?”

“I don’t know,” Snowy confessed. “It just seemed to be normal behaviour in such a situation.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he raised his hooves unsure, “for me, it seemed the best not to.”

“And what… what… achoo!”

“Gesundheit.” Pear took another hankie and helped her clean her nose. “What were you going to say?”

“Thank you,” she lowered her free ear, “I was trying to ask, what has changed your mind to come here in the end.” Now her ear moved forward, more or less pointing at him. “If you didn’t want to interfere then, why today?”

Pear flicked his tail again and licked his lips, obviously not sure how to approach this. “I, uhm, my duty as an officer of Canterlot told me to investigate further.” Now he avoided her gaze. “With somepony like you around, it is my job to know a bit more on the subject. You know, to protect the city and its inhabitants.”

Snowy’s look went flat. “You remember I am a firefighter too? Engaging possible dangerous subjects is not our duty, neither mine nor yours. What are you really here for?”

“Uhm,” now sweat formed on his forehead, “I am just doing my duty,” he smiled, “nothing wrong with that, or? I can have a different opinion about my job than you have.”

Her piercing gaze screwed up his lie and left him without escape.

“Fine,” Pear rolled his eyes, “you got me.” Unhappy, he whipped the chair with his tail. “I am just curious, okay?” He stood up and moved around a bit. “You see, when they pulled you out of the ruin, I was sure everything would be alright and it felt more like a moment between you and your team then…” he trailed off when he failed to find the right words and just shrugged. “I don’t know, well, I thought about it like a private moment, you know?”

He looked over to her, trying to read her thoughts, but she just kept a straight face. Moving on, he turned around again.

“Anyway, with every passing hour, I questioned my decision more and more. I mean, how often does one get the chance to meet a firespitting pony?” He returned closer to her bed and placed his hooves on its side. “A shapeshifter too,” his voice caught excitement, “I just couldn’t let the chance to know you better elapse, maybe I could even become friends with you!”

With a hopeful smile, he grabbed the flowers and placed them nearer to her head. “And I thought bringing you something more tasty than the hospital food would be a good first step.” Now his tail swung back and forth in anticipation.

Slowly, very slowly, Snowy’s ear moved backward till it looked like an angry cat’s and a growl formed in her throat. Pear got caught by surprise and swiftly moved a few steps back and ducked. Before she could suppress it, a loud ‘hish’ escaped her mouth. If she wasn’t tied to the bed by her bandages, she would have risen and bit him. Pear, who had no clue what had angered her so much, tried to calm the situation by saying placatory things.

She cut him off with an angry whip of her tail against the bed.

“Do you have any clue how much you scared me!” she bellowed at him, but not loud enough to be heard outside. “You nearly give me a heart-attack and brought back all that bad memories to satisfy your curiosity!”

“I didn’t wa…” he started, but couldn’t finish his sentence.

“What do you think I am? An animal in the zoo that you can befriend by feeding it?”

“Of course not, I just…”

“I am a person, by Hurricane’s rusty spear! I nearly got killed two days ago and I have to deal with ponies who found out what I am and what I can do, all my life is screwed up at the moment and it is totally up in the air what will become of me,” now tears filled her eyes, “and you just come here saying you want to be friends, but all you want is… is…” She broke into sobbing, overwhelmed.

Ashamed, Pear watched her crying. It was true that ponies made new friends very easily and his intention was well-minded, still, the circumstances had requested a bit more sensible approach. With hanging ears, he admitted, “I am sorry, Waterdrop, I didn’t think this all through it seems. It was not my intention to make you sad.” Unfortunately, his apology didn’t help much, if she had listened, which he wasn’t sure of, she either ignored it or didn’t care.

The thought to quickly retreat and leave the room to not make things worse crossed his mind, but there was one little detail he couldn’t ignore, she was unable to move her hooves and therefore couldn’t clean herself up. Letting all her tears run down her face onto her chest fluff, plain for the nurse to see when she finally came back to clean it up afterwards… he had enough good manners to not let that happen.

He put on an apologetic smile and took out a towel from the closet. “Really, I am sorry for being so thoughtless,” he said and stopped in front of her, holding up the white towel. “May I…”

When she showed no attempt to resist, Pear did his best to dry her face and chest, taking care of all the small drops that had become entangled in her fur. When he had completed this task, the mare in the bed was well cleaned as well as gathered up again a bit. Still, she avoided his gaze.

Pear sighed, this all had not gone as well as he had hoped, instead of making a new, interesting friend, he had messed up, badly. It would be for the best if he took his leave before it could get any worse. He dropped the towel in the laundry-box and headed for the door. “Goodbye, Waterdrop,” he said, “I will keep your secret, don’t worry about it.”

Snowy watched his retreat. Pear’s shoulders hung down and also his normally happy flickering tail was dangling unmotivated behind him. With his ears lowered too, he simply looked terribly sad. How could he be so rude and ignorant, while on the other hoof, so gentle and thoughtful to help her when she couldn’t help herself? She didn’t get it, what was wrong with him? She didn’t know him so well privately, but from what she could recall from work, he was good in his job, painstakingly conscientious and always respectful to his colleagues. And now… but was what he did really so bad? She thought about it again, this time trying to ignore her anger and sorrows. Sure, he had scared her, forced up bad memories, still without bad intention, he just got ahead of himself and besides all that, he did not only kept her secret, he also didn’t point at her, screaming ‘Discord spawn’ or ‘monster’. Actually, he wanted to be friends instead, even if it was for some silly selfish reason. That was something Snowy had not encountered till now, a pony who did know about her secrets and still actively tried to befriend her.

When Pear’s hoof was just before the handle of the door, Snowy made a decision and called to him. “Pear,” she said and when he turned his head to her, she continued, “how am I supposed to eat them, if you don’t help me?” Snowy pointed at the flowers with her nose. “If you don’t help me with them, Sugarcube will surely throw them away because they are not healthy, or worse, will put them in a vase out of my reach so they torture me with their promising taste while I have to eat these terrible carrots. You don’t want to be such a ruffian to let that happen, do you?”

When she had said that, his ears peaked up again and a quick flick of his tail followed. “You mean, I can stay?” He looked at the door. “I mean, at least a little bit longer?”

“That depends.”

He took an suppressed happy step in her direction, “Depends on what?”

“How tasty the flowers you brought me are.”