"How does immortality even work? Like... what does that involve?" Austin asked me as he idly swayed back and forth in my desk chair. I flipped to the next page in my book before looking to him.

"When's the last time either of us were immortal?" I asked him.

"Before all of this?" he asked. I nodded in response.

"Never,"

"Well then how am I supposed to know how it works?"

"But... what if there's nothing to be worried about?"

"Do I look worried?"

"You look like you're panicking, yes,"

"Well I'm not. I'm trying to find out about what happened this morning," I told Austin, dismissing the conversation, returning to my book. Austin and I had come back to my room. Well, it was more like I had come back to my room and Austin had followed me here, and then invited himself in. Really, I didn't mind the company, as I had nothing better to do today. We had the window propped open and the door was left agape for anyone to come by.

Austin stood up and walked over to the bathroom door. He opened it and stuck his head inside.

"Man, you really smacked this thing, huh?" he called out. I looked back to him, only to see him disappear completely into the bathroom.

"Be careful in there! There's still glass on the floor in there," I warned him.

"Why didn't you clean it up, or at least sweep it aside?" he asked me.

I didn't have a broom, I would never be able to get all of the little pieces off the floor," I called back as he stepped out and closed the door. I flipped to chapter four, "Spontaneous Magic," in my book on spell based magic.

In rare cases, one who possesses a large quantity of reserve magiplasm can be found releasing pent up magiplasm in forms of spells and castings before they even realize it. Most magiplasm is harmonious in nature, and is therefore non-volatile, but in extreme cases, outbursts of magic can cause significant damage to surroundings and even people, as it is not uncommon to cast an accidental 'target based' spell, as these are usually a very demanding spell and will use a large amount of magiplasm very quickly. See Chapter 5 for more detail.

I flipped to the glossary to see if I could find anything else about the term "spontaneous," but the word only appeared in the chapter I was just on. I went back to see if I could find anymore useful information.

"Hey, are we allowed to leave the castle by ourselves, or do we still need an accompanying guard with us?" Austin asked me.

"Why would they..." I trailed off.

"What? What is it?" Austin asked in a hurried tone.

"Actually... I don't know. Why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my friend.

"I mean... we could go and see. Not go see anyone, but go and see if we need a handler," he responded in a sly tone. I tilted my head slightly. He walked to the door and turned back to me.

"Well? Come on, let's go!" he told me. I looked back to my book for a few moments.

"I... ok," I said back. I set my book down on my bed with it open so I would know where I was later, and got up. I followed Austin, and we made our way to the main hallway of the castle. We approached the large, open doors, and saw that the drawbridge was down. I looked to Austin as we approached the gates.

"What's the plan here? Are we just going to walk through?" I asked him.

"I mean, what else are we going to do?"

"No, this is a stupid idea. Why did you have this stupid idea?"

"Why did you agree to it if it was so stupid? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," he told me with a large smirk on his face.

"I... you got me there,"

We continued at our rather quick pace towards the bridge, and when we got there, we saw a few guards standing at their posts, and a few were just coming back in from exercises. We got over so they could pass, and we walked right past them. As we walked past the guards on post, we caught a few glances our way, but other than that, no one made an effort to stop us. We walked right through the checkpoint, and no one batted an eye. I quickly looked back at the guards we had just passed.

"Hah! I told you!" Austin practically yelled to me.

"I guess you were right... huh," I thought aloud.

"Was there ever a doubt?"

"Yes, many doubts. Also, why are we going to Canterlot? Why are we doing this," I asked him. He reached to his belt, and pulled out his bag of bits.

"This is why. I still have a lot of bits, and nothing to spend them on. Why not go see what we can find?" he told me.

"Again? What do you need this time? And what happens if we come back and get in trouble?" I asked cautiously.

"Oh come on, what's gonna happen for us leaving to spend a little time by ourselves? I mean, really. A slap on the wrist? Come on, live a little!" he told me. All I could do in response was shake my head as we walked past the houses that were directly outside of the castle. The castle was surrounded by a residential area on most of its sides, and all of the houses that were there were quite high end, at least from the looks of things. All of the houses in this part of the city looked extremely high end, and I could not even begin to imagine how much one of them would cost, even on the lower end.

We eventually got out of the residential area, and soon found ourselves on the main street with all the main shops. Once again, we browsed the windows for a few minutes each, not finding anything of real use at the moment. As we approached the end of the shop area, we found a few restaurants and coffee shops that were next to each other.

"Have you eaten yet?" I asked Austin.

"No, what about you?"

"Nope, but that place looks nice. Your treat? Great, let's go!" I said as I took off towards a restaurant that in reality I knew nothing about. Austin ran to catch up to me.

"Wait, that's not how conversation works! You have to wait for me to respond to what you-"

Austin was cut off as he caught up to me by a man running in between us, knocking us both aside as he did. Austin lost his balance and fell to the ground while I caught myself and regained my balance.

"Hey! Some one stop him! That guy's a thief!" I heard a voice call out. I quickly glance at the mare who cried out, then back to the man who was running. People were looking, but no one was making an effort to try and intervene with the crook. I glanced to Austin who was looking at me with a confused look on my face.

"Ah... FUCK!" I yelled as I pushed off of my foot, taking chase after the man. There were more than a few people out today and I had to weave through and dodge people to make any progress towards the man. Fortunately, so did he. Because of my height, I could practically see about most of the ponies in the street, and I saw the man glace back at me as I ran through the crowd.

"HEY! STOP HIM!" I yelled to the people on the street. A few people looked my way, a few looked to the man I was chasing, and a few even made an effort to stop him, but his running head start made it difficult to get in his way in time. I remembered what Celestia had shown me about my body, and I realized that if I had to, I could just outrun the man. He would get tired eventually, and this would be all over.

I must have been making progress towards catching up, because the man was definitely closer than he was before.

The man suddenly took a hard right down a smaller street, and I quickly followed him down it. This street was much more tight quarters, and had small stalls set up on the left side of it. It seemed to be a place for non-noble people, as all of the people who were here either weren't wearing fancy clothes, or weren't walking in a pompous manner.

"STOP HIM OR GET OUT OF MY WAY!" I yelled to the people on the street. It was quite noisy with the sheer number of people who were in the street, and once again, those who were close enough to hear me did not have enough time to trip the fleeing man. Those who were were out of earshot, and had no way of knowing what was happening. We were nearing the end of the shop area, and I knew that I had to stop him now. If he escaped into another part of town, I would have no idea where to start looking. The man likely knew the place around here a lot better than I did, and if I didn't catch him here, he would likely have an unending number of placed to hide or run. That was my thought process, at least.

As the end of the street came into view, and the masses of people and ponies started to thin, I saw a small stand at the end of the street, with practically no one next to it. On the ground were a few small wooden crates, which looked empty from my angle. An idea popped into my head, and I threw my hand out, searching for a lock with my levitation spell.

"Come on... come on!" I seethed through my teeth. The man was getting dangerously close to the end of the street, and he knew it. He quickened his pace, likely only having around fifty meters of street left. I concentrated everything I had onto the box, and just when I thought it was over.

"...YES!"

I cast the spell on the box, and threw my arm out to my right. The box mirrored my movements, and slid out of its spot and into the street.

Right into the path of the man.

He was only around a meter or so from the box when it moved in this way, and he didn't have enough time to react to it. His feet slammed into the box, and he lost his balance. He came crashing down on top of the box, rolling a few feet because of his momentum. Before he had a chance to get back up, I was on top of him. I jumped on top of him, placing my knee on his chest, using my body weight to keep him from moving.

"Stop! Just stop! It's over!" I yelled to the man who refused to stop squirming and trying to escape. I glanced to my left, seeing a few royal guards running down the street. Austin was right behind him.

Nice job kid...

"Get off of him!" one of the guards called out as they approached the scene. I did as I was told, and stood up, turning the man over to the guards. One of them picked him up, and the other one started frisking him for safety. I glanced over to Austin, only to see the mare who ran out of the shop calling for help. I smiled and walked over to my friend.

"Oh my god, thank you do much for stopping him! He was eating at my restaurant, and when he came to pay, before I could do anything, he grabbed some of the money from my desk safe and took off out of the door!" the mare told me.

"Is there someone watching the shop right now?" I asked the mare.

"Oh, of course. My husband was hell bent on protecting the safe. He told me to follow the guards, once you took after him," she told me. I nodded, looking back to the man. One of the guards walked over to us.

"Are you the owner of the shop that was robbed?" he asked us. I glanced to the mare.

"Oh, yes! That's me!" she told the guard.

"Ma'am, we're just going to go back to the store for now, my partner here is going to take this man to the station. Please follow me. You two. Come with me too. I'll have come questions for you after," he told us in a stern voice. I looked to the other guard, only to see that the man had a binding spell put on his legs. He would be able to walk, but certainly not run.

I turned and followed the guard back to the store. The mare was confirmed as the owner, or co-owner, of the shop, and the money that was stolen was returned to her. Apparently in his mad dash, the man had managed to grab a bag of about six hundred bits. A large amount for a desk safe.

Before the guard questioned us, the mare wanted to speak to me. Her husband stood next to her with a large, warm smile on his face,

"Thanks to you, our business has been saved from a robbery. If you hadn't have been coming by when you were, the man might have just gotten away. My husband and I cannot thank you enough today!" she said to me. I nodded my response.

"We would like to give you a reward, as our way of saying thanks," the stallion told me in a low, gruff voice.

"I appreciate it, really, but it was just what I thought was right. There's no need to rewar-"

"Bah! Nonsense! Were you, by any chance, coming into the restaurant before this happened?" the mare asked me.

"Well, yeah. My friend and I were coming in to have some lunch," I told her.

"Excellent! How does free meals for the next three months sound to you?" she asked me.

"Well, that sounds great!" I said.

"Perfect. I'll just get your name, and you'll be good to go!" she told me. The stallion whispered something into her ear, kissed her in the cheek, then disappeared into the back of the restaurant. I looked back to the mare.

"My name is Daniel. Dee, a, en, i, e, ell. Daniel," I told her.

"Perfect. If you're ever hungry, don't hesitate to stop by. We'd be more than happy to serve you," she told me with a warm smile.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. Um, I think this guard wants me for now, so I'll have to make that visit some other time. Bye for now!" I said as I turned to walk out to the restaurant. The guard seemed to be talking to Austin at the moment, and as I walked up to them his attention switched to me.

"Ah, Daniel right? Can you answer a few short questions for me about the crime that was just committed?" he asked me.

"Of course, go ahead," I told him.

"Can you give me a brief rundown as to what transpired," he told me, pulling out a notepad with his magic.

"Sure. Austin and I, that's my friend here, were walking towards this restaurant here to get some lunch, when a man came running out of the door. Austin got knocked down, and before he could get up, I took off after the man. I chased him down the street, that way, and before I could fully catch up to him, he ducked down a smaller street. Just before we got to the end of the street, I saw some boxes sitting on the ground next to a cart. I grabbed one of them with a levitation spell, and slid it in his way. He tripped over it, and I jumped on top of him to stop him from getting up. That's when you guys showed up and took him away," I finished my description of what happened. The guard was furiously scribbling something down, before looking up to me.

"Sorry, you said you used... a levitation spell? I don't follow, humans can't use magic," he said to me. I glanced to Austin who was smiling at me.

"Show him," Austin said to me. I looked back to the guard.

"Can I see your pencil for a second?" I asked him. He handed it to me, and I took it in my hand. I quickly locked on to it, and cast the spell.

"You.. how are you doing that!?" the guard asked me.

"I can use magic. Or at least, a little bit," I told him, before letting the pen drop into my hand.

"I... I've never seen a human that could cast magic before," he told me. I cleared my throat loudly at this.

"Of course. Is that all? Would you like to add anything else to the description that you gave me?" he asked me. I thought for a few moments, before deciding I was already content with my answer. I shook my head, and he nodded, closing his notepad.

"Well thank you for taking the time to tell my this information. You know, it's good to see citizens taking the initiative and chances to help other folks out around here. You're what we want to see in the guard!" he praised me. I gave a smile in response, before he gave me a look of scrutiny.

"You know, when you get old enough, you might consider signing up for guard tryouts. I saw you take off after that cook. With the way you run, you'd be a fine addition to the guard," he told me. I digested what he had told me.

"I appreciate your praise. I'll actually keep that on my mind, thanks," I told him. He nodded, before sauntering away, back to work. I turned to Austin.

"Man, can you run or what! That was crazy!" he told me. I turned around and looked back to the restaurant.

"Still wanna get some lunch?" I asked Austin over my shoulder. He smiled.

"Yeah, let's go," he said, and we walked into the restaurant, our stomachs rumbling.