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Alexshy

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Everything posted by Alexshy

  1. Alexshy

    Ask Luna

    Contrary to popular belief, the Moon isn't made of cheese... But thou knowest, moonstone in moderation is quite a diet for the immortals!
  2. Alexshy

    Ask Luna

    HMPF! Not something one may ask a lady!
  3. Alexshy

    Ask Luna

    Greetings, subject! A non-burdening question forsooth Pancake!
  4. Alexshy

    Ask Luna

    If 't be true thou address the fusty scrolls of the Equestrian History, thou may be reminded that it took a few powerful unicorns daily to manage the cycle ere. What a waste of magical power it was! *sighs* Fortunately, we took that burden with mine dearest sister
  5. Alexshy

    Ask Luna

    Alas, nothing changeth for me, lief! The royal attention is most demanded lately (with insomnia mayhap resulting out of that), but rest assured I keep at least one eye on our harbour of friendship daily! *hugs*
  6. And what's the problem while they are within the rules?
  7. Alexshy

    adventure The Guardian

    24. Crystal Empire Interrupted by the alarm clock ring, her sleep shattered to the slowly dissolving in the darkness pieces; Rainstorm was glad that it did. Unable to remember the details, she, however, had enough of those imprinted in her mind to understand that her dream wasn’t of the happiest ones. The mare sat in the bed, slowly returning to the reality around: her breath being the only sound, except the quiet heartbeat of the wall clock, breaking the silence of the bedroom. The double bed became too large for her alone, becoming suddenly cold a few inches aside when Rainstorm reached out with her fore hoof. With a quiet sigh, the mare got up and stretched, spreading her wings to the bone crackle. A quick glance through the window told her that the sky was yet dark and gloomy, just like her dreams before Rainstorm was dragged out of them into this grey winter morning. She had set the alarm specifically to have time for the morning patrol as early as possible, when she would be already able to distinguish the probable threat from the surrounding landscape. The daily routine remained independent from Rainstorm’s sentiments – for good or bad, she couldn’t tell. Thus, bracing herself, the mare trudged to the bathroom. The shower was a true blessing: it was taking away the bad memories, even if temporarily, giving her the so necessary charge. Besides running off her muzzle, the water mercifully hid the tears if the latter dared to show up. Rainstorm could always use the towel and pretend that everything was alright after exiting the shower. That morning was exactly one of those: the mare threw back her head with her eyes closed, letting the water run off her muzzle free. To imagine that it was taking away the troubles and sorrows with its gentle yet invigorating flow was quite encouraging; even if that feeling turned out short-living. As usual, Rainstorm left the bathroom, knowing that she was greeting another morning alive, not as some kind of a pony mat. The silence moved in and was living in the house with her, except the rare occasions when some relatives came, mostly Azure Wreath. The rest of the time, only the ticking of the wall clocks sounded in the empty rooms when Rainstorm determined hoofsteps didn’t disturb it. During the nights, unless some blizzard started howling outside, knocking on the front door and jerking the window frames, the house – Rainstorm wasn’t even entirely sure if she could still call it Home – became echoing. So, one could easily hear a letter falling on the floor from the table. With one exception – there was nopony to write letters or do their homework now. Everything she wanted, Rainstorm could tell personally those few she kept a connection with. That morning wasn’t an exception: going down, Rainstorm unwittingly listened to her booming hoofsteps; they were rolling off the stairs and through the ground floor, dying in the farthest corners of the rooms. The house changed its face and feel, and they were now hardly pleasant for the once happy mistress. Entering the kitchen, the mare leaned heavily at the table, closing her eyes and pondering about the breakfast. In fact, Rainstorm was to confess to herself that she was rather trying to fish some brighter images from her memory for a while. Something she still had no matter the woes which had struck. ‘Come on, girl, it’s not the best time to turn squishy!’ Finally shaking it off, Rainstorm made herself perk with some effort. After all, she had her self-assigned duty – the Seekers were not going to get rid of themselves. Throwing a glance at her reflection in the semitransparent cupboard door, she decided that breakfast could wait till after the morning patrol, except maybe the invariable cup of coffee. However, several minutes more could be spent brushing and braiding her long, wavy snow-white mane for better fitting into the helmet. The short and determined business knock on the front door sounded too loud in the empty hallway to be ignored by the mare pensively bringing herself to order. “What in Equestria?!” muttered Rainstorm, putting away the hairbrush; her feathers ruffled in foreboding. ‘Who may knock on my door that early?’ She would prefer any news to the ones about the exact black mysterious creatures. Right in front of the door, Rainstorm listened to herself habitually. Not that she expected a Seeker to knock. But… Not that she expected them never to invent anything new as well. Whoever that was, they weren’t felt like those beasts. ‘I wonder then…’ “Yes!” The opened front door revealed somepony, whom Rainstorm was least expecting to face. Streaming in the winter wind, the seemingly endless night coloured mane started entering the house, filling the hall with lavender scent, before its mistress even made a step. Never considering herself short, Rainstorm was to throw up her head to look at the alicorn princess overshadowing the doorway. Unlike those in the lightening sky, the stars filling the flowing mane shimmered brightly. The light from the hallway reflected in the silvery chest plate with the crescent moon and in the dark blue eyes. Two smiling sparks lit between the long light-blue eyelashes as the alicorn mare took a look over the owner of the house. “Errmmm… Your Highness!” Rainstorm hurried to make the belated bow, flushing at the inner image of her ruffled self with the half-braided mane. “Good morning!” Princess Luna seemed to be tasting these words as it was something she rarely had a chance to greet with. “I brought the… reinforcements!” added she as casually as somepony could at the first ray of the dawn. Apparently, the entire depth of perplexity was clearly drawn in the rounded electric-blue eyes of Rainstorm. With a dainty smile and light clacking of the silver-shod hooves, the Princess inched aside, showing a glimpse of the familiar blocky steel heads behind her to the bewildered mare. If the four guards felt awkwardly in their new armour, they did their best not to give that out. “C-come on in, please!” Rainstorm unfroze and backed up with a welcoming gesture, feverishly thinking what could bring such guests to her doorstep. “Coffee? I…” a part of her mind involuntarily snorted at the ridiculousness of the phrase and the moment, but she couldn’t help being hospitable. “Sure thing!” Luna wasn’t somepony to ask twice: bowing her head slightly under the lintel, the alicorn mare entered the spacious hall. The girl’s nose twitched, taking a sniff. “Although, thou needst to start all ov’r, Rainstorm. Methinks, that portion hath escaped the vessel and is frying now…” concluded Luna with a smile. Two pegasi and two unicorns followed the Princess; their armour was definitely of the human making but painted in recognizable dark-blue and violet colours. They instantly turned the large, empty room into suddenly herded; in bewilderment, Rainstorm inwardly admitted to enjoying that. “Reinforcements?” Rainstorm asked again, despite the princess’ remark and the faint smell of coffee boiling over. “Night Watch…” “Well, of course!” nodded the Princess seriously. “I always thought that the town was a zilch problematic for a single caretaker, forsooth. For the one who needeth to sleep at times at least.” Gesturing to the guards to stay in the lobby, she casually followed the pegasus mare into the kitchen, where the coffee calamity took place. Quickly cleaning and refilling the cezve, Rainstorm placed it back on the stove and peered at the Night Princess inquiringly, not forgetting to address her half-braided mane finally. “These valorous stallions may be not so experienced as thou art…” diving under another lintel, Luna took a look around the kitchen, making a mental note of its exemplar order and nodding with satisfaction to some of her thoughts, “…in terms of dealing with the Seekers but rest assured, they are specifically equipped and know well what they shall face.” The Princess glanced at Rainstorm, elaborating. “Besides, their main task shall be to detect the threat, trace it and keep the monsters separated from our subjects… until the elimination team arriveth. Well, unless two unicorns turn out to be enough. They aren’t supposed to perform any risky operations… thou as well, in the earnest,” Luna rose one eyebrow meaningfully. “I can see how five are better than one, Your Highness!” nodded Rainstorm, swaying back her braided mane. “And the reasons are understandable…” “Thither is one more nuance, thou art yet uninformed about…” examining the checkered tablecloth with exaggerated attention, Luna rose her eyes at Rainstorm. “[b]Four[/b] is better than one!” continued she after a meaningful pause. “These guards of Night Watch shall keep an eye on Ponyville for a while instead of thee, Rainstorm.” “Thou see, Alex may… Hmmm, shall need,” Luna corrected herself, elaborating at the widening again eyes of Mrs. Flume, “thy help in the Crystal Empire. So, thou needst to prepare for the trip, Rainstorm. Far but fortunately short as I am going to take the liberty of transferring thee at which hour thou art prepared.” “Rest assured, these chaps know what they are doing,” said the Princess before Rainstorm said a word. “They are well trained and… I dare to assume Alex would choose them in the situation alike.” “Oh, one more thing, Rainstorm,” Luna glanced at the mare strangely evaluative. “I wouldn’t have asked under different circumstances… but alas, we are to decide and act fast, without much time for the preparations.” Rainstorm nodded automatically, quite intrigued with what could make the Night Princess “ask for”. “Wouldst thou agree with the guards making a temporary… headquarters in thy house while thou art absent from Ponyville anyway?” Rainstorm blinked. “Dost not worry – the guys are neat!” Luna let out a dainty smile, watching the mare. “They shall attend to the household with arrant seriousness at which time defending the town from these sinister abominations.” Her collocutor shrugged shortly; taking an unwitting look around the room, Rainstorm remembered her recent reflections about the house being too large and empty for her alone anyway. ‘Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to make it serve some noble purpose instead…’ “Why not?” Rainstorm’s muzzle brightened. “The house is theirs… except a couple of bedrooms,” she stumbled and let out a faint sigh. “I’ll notify the… family.” “Tis wondrous!” exclaimed Luna, trying to keep Rainstorm on the bright wave. “I extend mine hope we can rule out the question of continuous placement anon…” “It’s not a problem; they may stay as long as they need!” Mrs. Flume looked concerned but for a different reason, which she lost no time to voice. “Your Highness! You said that Alex would need my help there. What’s going on? Is he okay?” “I wasn’t getting any news since they left for the Crystal Empire,” added she, looking into the deep, dark-blue eyes of her guest. “That makes me worry…” “Thou dost not need to, forsooth,” Luna returned the glance. “Everything turned out alright… that time, despite all the circumstances were hardly on their side. Alex had a hard day, that’s given, and needeth some time to recover…” “Forgive me, Your Highness! Please don’t hesitate to tell,” Rainstorm couldn’t stand the delay; Luna spoke in the most soothing voice, but the words “this time” and “some time to recover” were not the ones to tune the pegasus mare into tranquillity. “Is he severely wounded? Somepony else?” “No and no. Rest assured, Alex wasn’t wounded; besides, the worst hath passed – they did everything they could,” giving a tiny smile, Luna elaborated mercifully. “The source of his troubles was not in the Seekers but the elements rather. Saving the passengers from possible recurring attacks, Alex got severely frostbitten. However,” quickly added the Princess, before Rainstorm uttered a word, “his life is out of danger currently.” ‘If ‘t be true he was, I would be in the Crystal Palace in no time!’ Luna’s eyes flashed, and seemingly Rainstorm caught the unspoken idea. “He was to fly around the detached train car for several hours straight,” continued Luna softly while Rainstorm was trying to gather her thoughts. “They said it was enough to kill anypony… But Alex is not [b]anypony[/b]!” She nodded firmly to her thoughts. “Syne he was moved into a warm room, his body had taken care of itself perfectly. Alas, he is unconscious still, but I could reach out to him. Everything shall be fine!” concluded the Princess categorically, adding in half voice. “We need to pay more attention to the details next time.” “Ahem…” Luna’s eyes gestured towards the stove. Before Rainstorm took a move, the blue aura enveloped the cezve, moving it off the fire to avoid boiling out. “Allowest me to help thee hither.” “Oh! You… shouldn’t worry. Thanks!” Rainstorm jetted to the cupboard, returning with two cups, then rose her eyes at the Princess. “And… your escort, Your Highness?” “Methinks they shall be more than capable of helping themselves, at which hour thou introduce them into thy abode’s “yes” and “no”s,” Luna smirked, equally spreading the contents between the cups. “Thither is another matter calling for immediate attention! Thou can’t help him recover, but thou shalt be of great help at which hour he doth that himself.” Rainstorm nodded; Luna watched with satisfaction as the concern in the pegasus mare’s eyes gave way to determination. “Thou seest, the Seekers always were rare guests in the Crystal Empire,” explained Luna when both mares took a sip of the liquid cheerfulness. “Either they aren’t that immune to the frost – ‘tis failing to explain though the recent incident – or the Frozen North is less interesting for them, considering what they are searching. At which time it is undoubtedly a blessing, alas, the residents of the Crystal Empire have less experience in anti-seekers measures and thus need somepony to assist. The fastest and most successful Seeker elimination thither was still performed by mine sister.” “Speaking of experience, Your Highness,” Rainstorm interposed humbly, throwing her still damp braid back. “While mine was successful so far, it can hardly be called extensive.” “Hmmm…” Luna chuckled. “Thou still hath destroyed singlehoofedly twice more Seekers than many of the specifically geared for that guard mages. No place for superfluous humbleness hither, lief!” “That’s not solely my contribution, Princess,” Rainstorm gave a tiny smile. “If Alex hasn’t applied a scoop of his own blood to the spear blade… I’m afraid taking down both seekers would have been considerably harder!” “Oh! I was expecting some trick of that kind,” Luna muttered with a mysterious expression. “This is a zilch too radical, in the earnest.” “Anyway, back to our task!” the Princess shook her mane, causing another tide of lavender. “The numbers and behaviour of the creatures in the Crystal Empire show that they are plotting something. Likely something quite nasty! I prefer to prepare for the worst-case scenario. That is whither thy role lieth, Rainstorm! Normally, Alex would have done the job. Still, thy help would be valuable. But if,” Luna made a meaningful pause, “if ‘t be true, he is not capable of standing for the Crystal… Empire at which hour is necessary, thou probably needst to stand for him.” “I’m not diminishing Fluttershy’s virtues,” added she pensively. “But, alas, she isn’t enough of a fighter to keep them both safe!” “Understood, Your Highness!” Putting away the empty cup, Rainstorm nodded with her electric-blue glance only. “Tia… Mine royal sister, Princess Celestia, was planning to visit Crystal Empire herself,” drawled Luna. “Mayhap it befalleth that she is to confront the monsters. In that case, thy duty is the same – to help her; however, no sacrifice, please. Thy highest priority is the safety of you three. Tia is more than capable of coping with a few Seekers, methinks! Even if ‘t be true she needed to turn to… mass-destruction type of magic ere…” The pegasus mare coughed diplomatically, followed by Luna’s sly smile. “So?” Rainstorm fancied the deep-blue eyes peering somewhere deep beyond her own; her answer was ready long ago anyway. “I need some time to suit up, Your Highness,” she thought about her armour – durability came for the price of difficulties to put it on alone, “and have a word with the guards. Then I’m ready! Perhaps if somepony can help me with the armour, using magic, it would take less time.” “’Tis wondrous!” Bright sparks lit in Luna’s eyes. “Not a problem forsooth. Whither is thy armour?” “Dost not worry about the rest!” added she encouragingly; the blue aura accurately put the emptied cup on the kitchen table. “I shall make sure that thou art accommodated with all the amenities upon arrival. It’s better without breakfast!” noticed the alicorn mare cheerfully. “Upon the first time, teleporting may do funny things to thy stomach.” * “…thus the guards couldn’t even approach the area until that “tornado” started fading out!” one couldn’t tell by the stallion’s voice if he was vexed or, on the contrary, delighted by that fact. The low winter sun peeked into the high lancet windows of the Crystal Palace, making the colourful glares dance all over the inner walls. Ignoring the mere fact that it was December outside, some of the windows were slightly opened. Letting the breezy air inside, they revealed the landscape uncommon for the winter: snowless streets with houses hiding in their gardens – some trees and shrubs persistently manifested at least their autumn dress, some were stubborn in boasting green, the sown fields far behind the city outskirts, the variety of colours with green prevailing wherever an eye could reach. It could look incredible if not for the faintly shimmering barrier. On the verge of visibility, yet not overshadowed even by the direct sunlight, it played with all the colours of the rainbow, like a giant soap bubble wall, rising seemingly behind the horizon and gradually dissolving into the skies. Lingering at one of the windows, Princess Celestia caught herself on the momentary impulse causing her to give a small smile at the view; the latter was very contrasting with anything behind that “soap bubble” wall and even with the rest of Equestria at that time of the year, except maybe for the far southern regions. “Your Highness?!” Shining Armour’s concerned voice pulled her out of her musings. “Yes. Sorry…” Halfheartedly, the Princess turned away from the window; her expression changed from slightly absent to concentrated again. “Sorry, Shining, I simply… Each time visiting you folks in winter I think that maybe it would be a good idea to cover at least Canterlot with something alike. You see, most of the winter emanations are not to my liking.” “The Dome is managed by the Crystal Heart,” Shining Armour blinked, surprised by that sudden detour from the main course of their conversation, “but I can’t imagine…” “We could probably use the veins of magical crystals to reach a similar effect,” Celestia noticed pensively. “The entire mountain is riddled with them. Oh!” she suddenly gave a start, emerging from her thoughts. “I got slightly distracted by the advantages of the Dome. Excuse me, I’m afraid I missed the last couple of phrases entirely,” the alicorn mare glanced apologetically at her collocutor. “Well…” Shining Armour cupped his chin with the fore hoof, remembering where he was at when the view outside chained the attention of the Day Princess. “I was telling about our guards being unable to find the detached train car first, even if we were absolutely sure that we determined the location correctly. The scouts were crossing the area back and forth, not reporting anything significant.” “Later, the pegasi reported a strange weather effect right in the middle of the sector.” Both moved down the gallery when the unicorn continued. “It looked like a wide tornado, moving so fast, they were unable to get through the wind front.” “You know, tornados aren’t a rarity in the frozen plains, I have seen a few myself,” Shining Armour returned Celestia’s meaningful glance. “But even those guards, who lived here their entire life, called that one strange. The vortex was too wide for the wind that strong; normally, the tornado concentrates and starts sucking up objects from the ground.” “I’m not a specialist in tornados anyway,” shrugged Celestia, “so, if you say…” “The pegasi tried to investigate the phenomenon from above but failed. However, they noticed that the vortex wasn’t drugging anything significant up, except snow; yet it didn’t allow them to approach from the top either as if the blizzard wasn’t enough. The latter passed its peak and was fading already, so seeing the tornado was twice as surprising.” “We were to use magic to “look” inside,” elaborated Shining Armour, “and found out that the centre was some solid object resembling the missing train car by shape and size.” “Perhaps at that moment, our activity got noticed,” he smirked. “The tornado started fading slowly while keeping its width.” “While it shouldn’t do both at the same time…” guessed Celestia. “Exactly! Shortly, we could approach and bring the Icebreaker close enough to notice one single, large object flying in circles around the supposed train car… And at the moment we confirmed the train car’s presence, we could see the flying creature,” the stallion’s smile turned wide unwittingly. “Never seen a wingspan so wide, except for the grown-up dragon once!” finished Shining Armour almost enthusiastically. “Naturally, he was to make that… tornado by something,” the Day Princess muttered aside. “Errmmm… Shining, dear,” she suddenly stopped, looking over the shoulder. “We took the wrong turn. My usual guest room is in the East wing!” “Ahem… Your Highness!” the stallion’s voice turned serious at once. “I’m afraid we can’t offer you the same room as usual. My deepest apologies!” “There was one serious reason,” explained Shining Armour after a meaningful pause, “we were forced to use that room exactly. We really had no other choice but to place that human and miss Fluttershy there.” “Excuse me?!” Celestia’s eyes rounded while the meaning of the phrase came through her thoughts, caused by the already received information. “I can’t take the room I usually occupy for the several years in a row while visiting the Crystal Palace?!” “Not that it was crucial…” the Princess shrugged a bit confusedly, feeling that her initial reaction came out a bit thick. “But now I simply need to know the reasons…” She turned on the spot and headed along the familiar route, determinedly trotting on the echoing crystal floor and not leaving Shining Armour another choice but to follow. “Your Highness, you will see that the problem was insurmountable indeed,” diplomatically noticed the unicorn, catching up with the alicorn princess. “Due to the blizzard and prolonged flight, I believe, the human got severely frostbitten.” “I suppose the speed was too high while his equipment not entirely suitable for our climate,” elaborated Shining, catching Celestia’s glance. “He landed quite heavily when we started evacuating the passengers. Miss Fluttershy rushed to him, but the human fell unconscious, bleeding from his mouth.” “How is he doing now?!” the mild discontent in Celestia’s voice turned into concern. “That’s another mystery,” Shining Armour shook his head slowly. “Even after you notified us about… Alex’s, right? About Alex’s peculiarities. He is recovering now,” he said quickly. “But, frankly speaking, that was the last thing we expected.” “Do you mean that…” the Princess even stopped for a second. “The frostbite was severe. And the inward injuries were worse than the outer ones. His skin turned cyanotic due to the frostbite, but we did everything possible to transport him to the Palace and place in the warmth. Considering we couldn’t use magic on the human, I can’t see if we could cope any faster.” “And?” Celestia stared at Shining Armour almost with a naturalist interest. “The skin started getting normal as soon as we put him in a warm room. I’d say that the regeneration rate was incredible! However, the problem with his lungs looked incomparably worse,” Shining Armour shook his head. “The human breathed out blood for the first few hours, and the medics debated the drainage advisability. You see, they were confused by the restrictions on magic, naturally,” he gave an apologetic smile. “Nevertheless, they came to an agreement on one thing when we noticed the first recovery signs – they never saw somepony regenerating that fast! A few even confessed to us with Cadence that they would give an alicorn a fifty-fifty chance. But that…” he shrugged only. “So, I’d say his life isn’t in danger at the moment.” “The problem was,” continued Shining Armour when they passed the crossing and entered the Eastern wing, “that the human fell unconscious exactly when his wings had their maximum span. I believe, they should shrink somehow,” he glanced at Celestia inquiringly, “as I can’t see how he could walk or even stand on the ground with those.” “Naturally, we could do nothing with them,” added he, getting the confirming nod from the Princess. “Neither they looked as if they were going to react in the nearest perspective. Thus we were to place Alex into the largest room of the Palace – the only room fitting was the one Your Highness usually occupies while visiting Crystal Empire.” Celestia let out a tiny sigh, but it wasn’t clear if she was finding the situation irritating or comical now. “Even then, we were to disassemble and widen the window to lift him inside as we couldn’t fit those wings through any of the regular doors,” watching how Celestia rolled her eyes, Shining Armour added casually. “The palace carpenter is assigned to rebuild the frame from scratch, keeping it usable.” “Well, at least the rest of the changes have a purely cosmetic nature,” the unicorn huffed vaguely. “The rest?” Celestia glanced at Shining Armour, raising one eyebrow. “There were more…” “Hmmm… Naturally, we were to place them both into the same room,” shrugged the stallion. “Miss Fluttershy was specifically persistent to take care of the human. And, of course, we made some refurnishing of the room to fit these wings.” “Later, we found out that she was forced to stay in that room most of the time,” seeing that Celestia became truly interested, Shining Armour hurried to tell the Princess the rest, “as when she leaves him for a prolonged time, Alex turns restless even in his unconscious state…” “Sweet Harmony! How’s that manifesting?” The Princess looked at him fixedly, even stopping again. “He starts tossing about and his wings try to flap frantically,” sighed the stallion. “Interesting though, while setting in motion in such cases, they don’t fold or shrink or whatever they are supposed to do…” “Due to the size, they caused a horrible mess the first time that happened!” Shining Armour shook his head with a little, sad smile, elaborating. “We wanted to replace miss Fluttershy on her duty, you know, to give her a breath and… Cady volunteered to keep an eye on the human for a while.” “Well, Fluttershy left the room,” he shrugged at the obviousness of the result, “and after a few minutes, it happened. Cady said it was horrible; the wings almost sent some furniture fly. As the result, she is mildly cautious about the human, not to tell afraid.” “I guess it won’t hurt Luna to know that point of view as well,” noticed Celestia meaningfully. “Cadence rather admits that the human may pose a danger in certain circumstances if you’re talking about that, Your Highness,” Shining Armour raised his glance at her. “Not that he is deliberately dangerous. While she realizes that he was unconscious and couldn’t be responsible for the actions, she would prefer to keep some distance until he wakes at least. We decided to remove most of the furniture from the room, except the necessary minimum…” “Have you experienced anything strange in the palace, Shining?” Celestia interrupted him pensively. “If my memory serves me well, I have notified you about the rest of his peculiarities.” “Sleepwalking?” Shining Armour smirked, but his expression changed at Celestia’s serious look. “So, this is true! It was hard to believe, frankly speaking…” “So, you have not…” concluded Celestia with a chuckle. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t ask, Shining.” “I guess his fainting is deeper, more coma-like,” Shining Armour scratched his nape. “Yet he is recovering. Unfortunately, the medics can’t predict the exact terms – human physiology is still mostly an unfamiliar turf for us…” “Mind that we are dealing with not purely human physiology but rather the still evolving organism,” Celestia said, biting her lip pensively. “Anyway,” the unicorn shook his mane in a more cheerful manner, “we assigned a couple of professional maids to help miss Fluttershy, as she is practically to stay there all the time. Despite there being an interconnected bathroom, we put a bathtub into the bedroom itself to avoid further problems. Obviously, her meals are served there as well.” “The truly royal welcome!” Celestia gave a laugh; if she was disappointed by the situation, now that impression seemed to cease, facing the objective reasons. With a nod, she trotted on, thinking over something. “By the way, has my dear sister visited you already?” Suddenly her voice turned mysteriously insinuating; the Princess threw an inquiring glance at Shining Armour. “I was quite busy the last few days, thus, unfortunately, fell out of some of the events.” “Yes, Your Highness, she did,” with a light smile, the stallion easily switched to the offered topic. “The next day, after we rescued everypony. We were slightly surprised that her visit came out in a hurry. Yet, Her Highness, Princess Luna had time to exchange a few words with Cadence…” Celestia raised one eyebrow while Shining Armour continued. “Not enough to dispel Cady’s concerns but enough to ease them, at least. I believe that she knows Cadence’s point of view already.” “Frankly speaking, she spent most of her time here with miss Fluttershy and the human,” Shining lowered his voice. “Understandable, considering the circumstances and the importance of their visit, which is now hindered for an indefinite time,” he shrugged, missing completely the wry smile touching Celestia’s lips. “If Your Highness sent them to help us against the evident threat, relying on the effectiveness… I start to wish occasionally the Seekers making their next step as soon as possible while you are here to offer the helping hoof; otherwise, it will be quite problematic for us to cope with a whole group of them.” “No idea, what they… I mean Her Highness and miss Fluttershy, of course… were talking about,” added the stallion, “but Princess Luna left visibly encouraged if not to say satisfied. I suppose by the news that everything went without the casualties and the human was recovering.” “Doubtlessly!” Celestia chuckled shortly. “By the way, your sister came not alone, Princess,” Shining Armour threw a perplexed glance at her. “Leaving that visitor here in the Palace. “Alex’s aide. Methinks he shall need one!” that’s how she introduced the mare.” “How fascinating!” The sparks of interested amusement glimpsed in Celestia’s eyes, while the stallion went on with the story of the strange visitor. “…anyway, that pegasus mare isn’t going to leave her post, just like miss Fluttershy; looking like a statue most of the time, she literally guards the room entrance since arrival. That’s despite we are taking all security measures,” the cerulean eyes rolled sarcastically. “Come to think of it, I can’t remember even seeing her muzzle – she is always packed in that armour of hers, from hooves to ear tips.” “Supposedly, Lulu didn’t want Alex to be left unattended,” Celestia murmured as if speaking to herself. “We wouldn’t allow that anyway!” Shining Armour snorted with a tint of reproach; he could catch the phrase but clearly missed the mischievous smile it came out with. “Speaking of that armour,” remembered he – Celestia could catch the enthusiastic tunes in his voice at once. “At first, we kept guessing how she could even see anything in her helmet!” The stallion chuckled. “Sure, it looks kind of heavy and intimidating at the first glance. Strange and faceted,” Shining Armour fell silent for a second. “I haven’t seen anything like that, even from the Changelings.” A shadow of distaste slid across Celestia’s face; catching that, the unicorn silently nodded in agreement. “But then we saw how it works,” the same tunes of elation glimpsed in his words, now amplified as Shining touched his speciality. “At least when she is resting. I can’t imagine staying on duty all the time, full-clad, without enough motion or rest. But the secret is truly amazing!” The stallion’s eyes began shining brighter and brighter. “You see, Your Highness, the armour parts were made in such a way – when their owner is sitting, the upper parts interconnect with the lower ones, resting and spreading the weight on them. And so on, all the way to the floor, ground, whatever… That way she can sit… inside of her armour as if no weight was applied to herself. Like… like under some tight-fitting tent,” Shining Armour gave an enthusiastic laugh. “She is practically relieved of the armour weight during most of her duty!” “I suspect that being not the only secret of the armour,” his cheerfulness made Celestia let out a tiny sigh. The Princess was to admit again that Alex’s prognosis of the situation came true and his defence improvement plans started working, while Shining Armour added confidentially. “Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t mind equipping our guards with such armour and testing it in the field, so to speak.” “You will see for yourself,” whispered he to Celestia, as both approached the end of the gallery with the large double doors. With a tint of bewilderment, Celestia’s glance fell at the guards holding their post at a certain distance from the room doors, unlike the usual guarding procedure when they were ready to block the guarded passage with their bodies if necessary. Followed by Shining Armour, she approached, gracing the saluting guards with a slight nod and finally noticing the reason, which made the stallions in standard Crystal Empire armour keep some safety zone in front of the bedroom doors. The sight made Princess Celestia wince a little, despite she was familiar with the new armour samples. That one was different: at first, the silhouette sitting motionlessly next to the large doors reminded the Princess of the stone gargoyles of the Old Castle, so still and solid it looked. The steel-grey faceted parts of the armour formed seemingly the organic whole, barely gleaming in the twilight of the dead gallery end. No visible seams were breaking the figure covered with a complex pattern of thin lines on the metal surface. The sunlight barely came in that corner, thus it wasn’t easy to notice the still, silent guard at once. The stony gargoyles and dragons at the Old Castle had their own distinct, even if ugly, muzzles; however, that figure’s head was presented by the solid helmet, resembling a long hammer without specific traits. The Princess could notice several tiny reflections of herself in the polished metal facets. Celestia glanced back; Shining’s expression clearly stated “You see what I was telling about!” Something tinkled – the sound seemed to be coming from inside of that metal statue, which started unfolding like some intricate paperwork figurine before Celestia’s widening eyes. First, the headpiece detached a little, revealing the mobile connection covered with dense metal mesh from inside. Stretching its neck, the metal monster began rising to its legs with unbelievable for such a heavy-looking thing grace. With a faint metal sound, part came up after part, showing the flexible zones of the armour, which were completely hidden before, until the guard picked itself up to the hooves with a short cold clank. With the faint steel tinkling, it stretched its armoured on the margins wings; the braided tail covered with dense metal mesh swayed once from side to side. “Your Highness!” saluting Princess Celestia and Shining Armour, the mare’s voice came out slightly muffled like from the metal barrel. “Umm… Rainstorm,” the unicorn kept watching the armour with admiration. “How’s it going? Any news?” “Without changes, sir! But no news is good news as well in our case,” the armour-clad mare barely shrugged. “Alex is still unconscious and miss Fluttershy is taking care of him. Nopony, except the maids, left or entered the room.” “Thanks, Rainstorm!” Shining Armour let out a smile. Properly guessing the royalty’s intentions, Rainstorm providently stepped aside with a short metal clank, opening the way to the bedroom. “It seems that our guests enjoy wide support, Princess,” added Shining Armour for Celestia in half-voice when the high double doors started opening, enveloped by the golden aura. “Is she some sort of personal bodyguard or…” With a tiny huff, Princess Celestia even lingered for a second, answering his question with her own. “Would you be surprised if I tell that my dearest sister ordered the Night Watch to follow his commands if the human finds it necessary to acquire support?” “Hmm…” Shining Armour chuckled vaguely. “Probably wouldn’t. I see one thing for sure – that guy knows a lot about armour and weapons.” His muzzle became lit with an inspired expression again, just like when he described Rainstorm’s arming. The doors finally opened, revealing the heavy blackout curtains of rich burgundy velvet, tightly shut and shielding the entire passage from the accidental noises of the palace gallery. Peeking from under the edge of the curtains lying on the floor, there was a couple of large black feathers visible. Celestia blinked several times in perplexity – she remembered the room to be really spacious and the bed usually stood against the middle of the right wall. Spreading the curtains with her aura, she froze on the doorstep for a second: the view differed indeed compared to the last time she saw it. Occupying most of the opposite wall, the window became almost twice as larger than it originally was, reaching the floor now and being practically an exit to the wide balcony. Carefully fixed, the traces of recent hasty alterations were still visible on the stone; the entire sliding frame looked as if it was rather some temporary, even if masterfully implemented, construction than the finished solution. Coming through the uncurtained ajar window, the golden rays were flooding the spacious bedroom in light tones, looking now even broader as the furnishing became truly ascetic. Truth be told, the room was freed of most of the furniture Celestia remembered to be there. The only things that survived the changes were the large bed to the right with a couple of small nightstands snuggling to the wall and a modest couch in the opposite corner, presumably for the maids to take a short breath of their duties when needed. The left wall kept only the fireplace, lit and spreading the flickering glow along the floor at that moment. Next to it, on the narrow free stripe of the floor, there stood a moderate-size bathtub on the peculiar metalwork legs and a big copper vat, obviously intended for warming the water as the tub wasn’t connected to the general water supply. The smaller unobtrusive door to the adjacent bathroom was tightly shut. “Your Highness, Princess Celestia! Prince Shining!” Two maids in the neatly ironed uniform turned their heads towards the newcomers, greeting the royal alicorn and unicorn in restrained half-voice and cautiously checking their way before stepping back and bowing in respect. A glance down, and Celestia realized that their wariness was easily explicable. Nearly three-quarters of the bedroom floor were covered with the enormous wings, compacted as much as the troubled rescuers could afford, not hurting them. Even folded, their tops leaned against the wall at the head of the bed and their tips touched both opposite walls with the window and the door, leaving only a narrow space at the fireplace uncovered with the fluffy, irregular anthracite carpet. The light breeze played with the long feathers making their edges stir faintly. Naturally, both maids, Fluttershy and now Celestia were to look where their hooves went, walking on the wings only if unavoidable. Eyes closed, facial traits calm and limbs motionless, the human was residing on the wide bed, covered with the blanket slightly above the waist. The pillows were placed in such a way to keep his upper body in the semi-sitting position, which looked reasonable due to the recent problems with Alex’s lungs. However, his skin had its usual colour at the moment, showing that the worst passed indeed; only the dry, chapped lips told that the human was still far from perfect health. To the left of the bed, the black trembling feathers mingled with the long streaks of pink where the lush tail and mane covered the rest of the unoccupied floor and bed covers. Folding her wings tightly, Fluttershy nestled down at Alex’s side, resting her chin on the human’s shoulder. With her eyes tightly shut and her breath slow and measured, it was clear that the pegasus mare was sleeping. Yet at the same time, the girl looked impatiently waiting for Alex’s awakening, reaching his cheek with her nose as if trying to feel his presence constantly. The long curled eyelashes trembled lightly at the sudden disturbance, but Fluttershy remained deep in the Lunaland, wrapping her fore legs around the human’s arm. “Well…” Stepping over the long primary feathers at the doorstep, Celestia approached the bed from the hoofrest side, taking another closer look at the entire situation. “Now I see what you meant under trouble!” she glanced at Shining Armour, who remained at the entrance not to make the limited space even tighter. “Indeed, there was nothing else you could do.” “Can imagine the mess made by them flapping frantically,” added she quietly nodding towards the enormous wings on the floor – shuddering, the maids exchanged the concerned glances. “Poor Cadence!” “Yeah,” sighed Shining Armour. “She told me that his wings literally sent the chairs flying…” One of the unicorn girls reached out to wake Fluttershy up, but the Princess stopped her with a tiny gesture. “There is no urge for that! Let the girl rest.” “Thank you, Your Highness!” One of the maids whispered with gratitude. “She was bustling around him for the first forty-eight hours in a row… And is having very little sleep every day still.” “Keep your job done, girls!” Celestia nodded royally. “They need to recover fully, preferably sooner. This couple is our best weapon against the monster-intruders.” Carefully, not to step on the wings, she returned to the door, followed by both maids’ obeisance. “I admit, everything was done the best possible way,” gesturing for Shining Armour’s attention, Celestia said in half-voice. Suddenly her tone change a bit, and to his bewilderment, the stallion noticed how the princess’ white cheeks flushed faintly. “And… I would like nopony to tell him about forcing me out of my usual room later… However, I rather like how the new window came out,” ended she confusedly. “Oh…” Shining Armour coughed diplomatically. “Of course!” “One more thing, Your Highness. We had no instructions about the foals, so… I don’t know what to undertake,” added he with concern. “Foals? Which foals?” Celestia made quite an effort to keep the imperturbable look. “Umm… Two foals. A colt and a filly,” sighed Shining Armour. “They are coming regularly to find out how the human is doing, by their own words. Not that they are much of trouble… but my guards are already making fun bets regarding which entrance to the Palace they try to sneak through the next time.” * Pulling him from the tranquillity of nonexistence little by little, some distant sounds started reaching Alex’s hearing. Almost on the verge of it, they at least provided some dimensional depth to the endless darkness his consciousness was dissolved in. Or, perhaps, the direction, in which Alex – as soon as he started realizing himself as such – decided to move towards, to supposedly emerge from whatever strange condition he got into. If not physically, then mentally, grabbing onto those sounds as on the guiding thread and aspiring with his entire mind towards their source. At some point (when by his conclusion, he made quite an effort already) Alex realized that he was recognizing them. Unobtrusive and quiet, those sounds reminded him of shallow waters, moving lazily on their own or being mildly disturbed by somepony slowly wading through them. Serving as a background to them, so subtle that Alex even didn’t give it any meaning at first, the even noise of the flowing water was reaching his ears, making Alex completely puzzled regarding his possible location in the Universe. ‘…or rather falling water…’ glimpsed in Alex’s mind when he could remember the familiar sounding. ‘A waterfall?’ ‘Merlin’s pants! What is going on?’ he frowned mentally, if that was ever possible, gathering the scattered memories shard after shard. There were some he couldn’t find despite all the diligence. ‘We were travelling across the Frozen North towards… the Crystal City! Right… Then what can a waterfall do here? Where am I?!’ his consciousness twitched in bewilderment. Nevertheless, the sounds he heard were enough of a beacon; for the lack of anything else, Alex did his best to reach out to them. Feeling that the surrounding void started gaining volume and distinctness, Alex realized with surprise that it now resembled the darkness under the shut eyelids. There was some light, gently declaring itself behind them. Bracing himself for whatever he might be facing, Alex opened his eyes. He found himself lying on his back, facing the deep blue sky, which truth be told hardly resembled the usual view at the Frozen North as he had learned. The rare clouds were slowly flowing at an unimaginable height. No birds, no other sounds, nothing. Alex inhaled. The air was present to his relief; fresh and cool, it was nowhere as cold as supposed to be in the kingdom of eternal winter. And it tasted somewhat sterile, not tinted by any notable smell, thus confusing Alex even more. The human realized that wherever he got, was warm; not perceptibly hot, but simply comfortable. And there definitely was some surface, he was lying on! ‘Ohhh… We couldn’t have been taken to the Crystal City, under the magic dome, could we?’ with a little effort, Alex picked himself into sitting. “What is this place?!” unwittingly he asked that aloud when his vision focused on the surrounding landscape. The one Alex couldn’t recognize. Moreover, the next image made him wince in bewilderment – Alex found himself sitting on the surface of a small but very picturesque forest lake. Presumably, he was lying there seconds before as well. That perplexed the human instantly: one could easily lay on the water surface, but nopony could sit – Alex was sure about that. And even lying on water would have meant his body at least half-submerged into it, getting wet naturally. However, Alex not only felt completely dry but also that lake was felt as if it had solid, mildly cool glass for its surface. Sitting in bewilderment, Alex stretched his arm and slapped the lake lightly. Without any difference, it felt like a solid floor, even if he saw the splash and heard it. His pat caused the usual ripple and circles running on the water, yet Alex couldn’t feel any on his fingers. None was there when he got his palm closer to his eyes to check and even rubbed his face. ‘Errmmm… You must be kidding me with that “water”! Another… vision?’ Somewhere deep inside, Alex already started to guess about having one when he noted the lack of smells and other sounds in that place. Getting in terms with that fact, he poked the lake once more with the same effect. He could see and hear the water, even saw a few yards of crystal clear depth under the surface, but couldn’t feel the latter as an expanse of a lake. With a shrug, Alex got up and took a look around finally. The waterside was covered with grass and flowers, coming almost to the water edge; the small and large stones sitting in the lake near the shore looked as if they were specifically placed for the best view. Another glance at the sky revealed no sun visible, yet everything was lit by the soft light, almost like on the sunset when everything got painted into mild golden and reddish tints. There was one strange thing though, making Alex’s suspicion about having another vision even stronger – no dragonflies hovered above the water lilies. The latter glowed from the lake here and there like some white stars. Alex remembered that he didn’t notice any birds in the clear skies, any movement on the shore; a quick glance down reminded him that there were no fish in the depth under that strangely solid lake mirror. ‘Well, you lived up to that even – walking on the water,’ smirked Alex, accurately trying the surface, then heading to the shore, which wasn’t too far, ‘even if it is in your head only!’ However, no matter how many steps he made, Alex noticed that he was hardly approaching the shoreline. Either that place or vision was more complex than it looked at the first sight… or he simply wasn’t supposed to get there. ‘Like in a badly implemented computer game…’ Alex sighed. If there was no chance to proceed forward, maybe he could walk in another direction. A turn around revealed an awesome view of the mountains and a canyon. The latter was cutting the cliffy plateau and opened, taking the far side of the lake into the wide embrace. The left edge of the canyon mouth was the most beautiful waterfall Alex had ever seen, even if he could compare it with Winsome Falls. That one surely couldn’t boast the variety of rich colours, but it still provided quite an image to enjoy. Its main stream was wide and strong, falling down and filling the lake at its foot; the dashing down mass of water roared and produced plenty of water mist. But the river seemed to flow even wider across the plateau, thus many smaller and calmer streams were falling down the stone wall, almost covering it entirely with a shiny veil about two hundred feet wide and ending in the lake with noise and water foam. That water galore was shimmering with thousands of gems woven into it by the same strange light without the visible source, which was shining over the rest of the scene. That edge of the sky above the canyon and waterfall was almost completely overshadowed by a spanless mass of the familiar silvery branches and leaves shimmering with the silvery-green elusive gradient. Even from that far, Alex could see the subtle pulse of the forest giant; it was running in waves across the entire tree, making the glow flow through the branches and unusually large maple-like leaves. Impressed by the view, the human made a few steps toward the waterfall, finding out with surprise that proceeding in that direction was much easier – he was actually covering some distance, not walking on a single spot. Alex stopped again. As he remembered, there was nothing, resembling that lake, near the Tree of Harmony and the cleft it occupied; the latter was situated in the depth of Everfree, surrounded by the forest. Truth be told, the Tree he knew was bigger than any of the trees Alex saw in his entire life or could imagine… but it wasn’t [b]that [/b]enormous. The scene looked so surreal and somewhat artificial – he finally found the fitting word, remembering about his own perception being limited there – Alex caught himself making a funny face. In reality, the Tree of Harmony would never be supposed to be seen from that point. ‘So, it is you again!’ he smirked inwardly, taking a look across the faintly glowing crown; Alex almost heard the subtle chime produced by the forest goddess. “Of course!” The voice, which first seemed to sound in his head, made Alex flinch, even if it wasn’t his first audience at the Tree of Harmony. To his bewilderment, the voice turned up coming from behind rather, and the words were spoken, not translated right into his mind. That was the first audible sound there, except water, Alex’s breath and his own voice. Reaching his nostrils the next second, the lavender aroma told Alex that there was nothing to be alerted by. Slowly, he turned; the smile of anticipation was already written on the human’s face. Dark blue against the soft, even light, the alicorn princess returned the smile, approaching Alex; she walked on the lake surface as if there was never anything more habitual for her. The endless mane and tail of star-woven night sky were flowing in the insensible wind, even if Alex could sense no motion in the air around. Shaking them slightly in a casual manner, as if she just arrived there flying, the girl folded her wings and waved her shoulders slightly, stretching. Even then her silver-shod hooves produced only the tiniest circles on that weird water body; the Night Princess looked gracefully floating above the lake mirror, barely touching it. Alex caught himself staring at the alicorn beauty like enthralled. Staring until she approached, making their noses touch; her half-lidded eyes were smiling. “Of course, She is…” Repeated Luna; the long eyelashes faintly trembled as her eyes filled almost entire Alex’s sight. “Having reasons to expect thy faster recovery, methinks!” “Although, I know two others who anticipate that more!” added she after a short pause, nuzzling Alex tenderly. Unlike the “fake” water, that touch was felt by him in the entirety of its fluffiness, to Alex’s immense joy. “I am happy that thou art safe, lief!” Luna’s lips slipped across his. “Am I? What has happened, Luna?” Wrapping his arms around her neck, Alex snuggled his forehead to the girl’s warm cheek. “I… I can recall fighting with the Seeker and… getting rid of two of them. There were more,” Alex wrinkled his forehead, “but they refrained from attacking, I suppose.” “Fluttershy… and other ponies, the foals,” suddenly startled Alex. “Are they safe?!” “Worry not, mine love!” Luna’s wings wrapped him into a soft embrace. “Everypony is alright! They were unharmed at which hour the rescue team reached the detached train car,” added she soothingly. Alex slowly exhaled, his eyes closed. The Night Princess watched him with a smile – the human definitely felt more than was ready to show. “But I can’t remember what followed the fight,” Alex looked into the deep lakes of Luna’s eyes. “Everything is blurred after that point. And…” he took another, slightly lost look around. “I don’t know that place.” “I mean, I guessed that everything was happening in my head,” added he with a chuckle. “But I always thought it must be based on something familiar more or less.” “Not necessarily,” Luna’s breath was slowly ruffling his hair – it tickled a bit. “If ‘t be true She is projecting something in thy mind, lief. That place is real: it is a small forest lake in Everfree, far south from the Tree of Harmony and the Old Castle.” “So, that river and canyon…” Alex interrupted her; his eyes widened. “…the river and canyon crossing the road to the Old Castle, forsooth!” nodded Luna with a dainty smile. “As far as I can recall, everything thou art seeing reflecteth reality… with an exception of the Tree – it can’t be seen from that place. Hath She tried to tell thee something?” “Not yet but I can feel the presence.” “Mayhap it is merely a form of support for thy faster recovery?” Luna glanced at him slyly. She pulled Alex walking slowly across the “lake” with her, heading to the shimmering and playing with sparks of light waterfall. “Speaking of which,” Alex followed next to the Princess. His hand lay on her silky shoulder – the touch of somepony real in that strange vision was comforting. The touch of Luna herself was promising safety and a happy outcome. “Can you still enlighten me about the details? Ehhh… There… was a huge red locomotive… or was I hallucinating already?” “Thou was not, naturally,” the sparkles of amusement were dancing in Luna’s eyes. “It was the local track-cleaning and rescue transport. They call it Icebreaker. And it is actually of the giant proportions, lief.” “Everypony was safe at which hour Shining Armour and his guards reached the… crash site,” repeated Luna. “Not even cold… Mayhap just frightened a zilch, feeling like a fish out of the water. We both know what effects the Seekers can cause. One of them felt worse than the others, but nothing irreversible forsooth. Everypony was taken to the Crystal City, examined and allowed to attend to their own business later.” Alex slowly nodded on the go. Spending even a few minutes in a metal barrel under the focused attention of those monsters was probably equal to some infrasonic treatment for a human, let alone a couple of hours of the same “joy”. He realized that the one “feeling worse” was that unbalanced, goosy pegasus: surprisingly, the ill-tempered guy held for that long. “Thou art another story!” Luna stopped; the deep blue eyes glanced into Alex’s with sudden seriousness. “They say, thou was flying around the train car to protect it from the mind-wrecking scoundrels. For several hours at least!” She slowly shook her beautiful head. “Actually making some kind of snowy tornado the Seekers had no chance to pass. The rescue team couldn’t at first likewise.” “I had no choice,” simply said Alex, guessing the course of her thoughts. “There were many of them I couldn’t see and… I couldn’t afford to chase any.” “I know,” a tiny change of pitch of Luna’s soft voice gave out her concern. “Thou was frostbitten severely, Alex,” added she after a moment of silence. “Even knowing thee, it’s truly miraculous that thou art recovering without noticeable consequences. Thou and Shy are residing in the Crystal Palace as it was planned… with minimal corrections.” “Alas, thou art still unconscious, hence the vision,” added she, looking at Alex with sympathy. “Makes me wonder if sleepwalking is still possible in that condition,” drawled Alex pensively but his sly expression revealed him joking. “Thou art incorrigible!” Luna sighed, pulling him closer again. “If I were thee, I would have preserved energy for recovery instead of experiments in that case. Yes, that’s me saying that!” she glanced at him meaningfully. The following passionate kiss, however, hardly added to the mentoring atmosphere. For a few moments longer, Alex allowed himself to completely dissolve in that feathery fragrant embrace, giving up to the soft velvet lips, which were demanding and thirsty more than ever at that moment. Despite her words about limiting stresses in favour of recovery, it was obvious that Luna missed him a lot. “Everything will be okay!” Alex snuggled closer to the soft coat, stroking Luna’s back soothingly. “I’ll do my best not to force it, I promise.” “Wait!” Throwing a glance between her folded wings, Alex noticed that there was somepony else in his, or maybe his with Luna, vision. “Somepony is sitting there!” “Oh, that should hath happened…” Uttered Luna with a tiny smile; she nuzzled Alex tenderly. “Let us come closer and look,” she glanced over her shoulder at the wall of falling water. Alex already suspected, who that might be, judging by the colours and especially by the opulent mane and tail streaming down from where the pony was sitting. Needless to say, he was astounded by that presence, guessing if that were the tricks of the Tree of Harmony or one of the sudden equestrian wonders, which he failed to get used to again. At a closer look, his first assumption turned out true. Sitting on the large rock protruding from the lake bed in the shallows almost near the waterfall, the mist and occasional drops reached her and settled on the lush mane like some fine diamond dust, Fluttershy was peering musingly into the waters below. Undisturbed as there was no wind, her mane flowed down her shoulders and hips and together with her tail trailed from her cliff seat, almost bathing in the lake yet looking so still as if they were cut from the same rock. However, Alex immediately felt the beloved honey-floral aroma when they approached. The entire stance of the sitting girl expressed pensive sadness; although, not a tragic kind of that feeling but rather the sense of missing somepony dear to her, being unable to talk to. A faint anticipating smile could be read on her lips and in the bright turquoise eyes, no tears in the latter but rather a fatigue and patient expectation. There, the noise of the waterfall seemed overwhelming and, strangely, at the same time background as if the raging water was ashamed by its own intrusiveness and tried to stay subtle, not interfering with the rest of the sounds – Alex could perfectly hear their feathers rustling, their steps bothering the impossible lake surface, even his pacing breath and heartbeat. Thus his next step, causing a water splash, sounded for him almost like a shot. The long eyelashes trembled and batted twice as the turquoise eyes moved and glanced directly at Alex. Fluttershy turned her head, straightening as if something gave her a new charge of energy and making the sumptuous mane and tail finally move and flow on the rock, showing that she wasn’t an incredible masterfully made statue of herself. Alex could swear that recognition lit in her wide-open eyes when a tiny yet joyful smile slid across her lips. Still, the pegasus girl remained where she was, not uttering a word. “M-methinks, she isn’t a part of mine vision, correct? I mean… not created by the vision or… Her,” Alex gestured with only his eyes towards the enormous tree crown spreading in the sky, high above their heads, then turned to Luna. “But… What’s wrong with her, pray tell. I can see that Shy recogniseth our presence. Why is she so… detached though?” his voice faltered. “Rest assured, she is alright, lief!” with a tiny nod, Luna hugged Alex with her wing. “Tis being quite unexpected in every other case but not that one. However, it was mildly surprising for me, even if ‘t be true I anticipated that route of development.” “I assume that it can tell only about growing mental bonds between thou and Fluttershy,” noticing Alex still looked dumbfounded, Luna elaborated. “Thou art forming a similar connection with her, lief, as thou didst with me. But Shy hath no magic of that kind, even supposing that all the ponies possess some kind of magic… she nev’r had any related to dreams, as far as I can recall. Methinks, tis tethering the connection… from her side at least.” “Do you mean…” Saying that Alex was astounded was saying nothing. “I know that pegasi flights have magical nature, learned it on my own example. But this…” “Yes, lief,” Luna kept examining Fluttershy with appraisal in her eyes. “She shall be quite lucky, if ‘t be true she starteth to recognize that bond and receiveth some control of it. She could reach for thee at the hour of need at least.” “Reach?” Alex glanced at her pensively. “Wait! Don’t you mean that I… in that nightmare of mine… I thought that was a part of my dream only.” “No, lief,” Luna nuzzled him tenderly. “Thou hast called and I was able to heed thee, thus coming to the rescue. Thou knowest, I don’t like the others suffering even in their dreams unless that teacheth a lesson. Wasn’t thy case, methinks.” “Alas, I could only do as much,” she shook her head with regret. “I had no time to catch thee, only Fluttershy.” “Never mind! You did it perfectly,” Wrapping his arms around Luna, Alex stroked her neck. “Otherwise, that nightmare fall from the dam would have been twice worse!” Then he stepped closer to the “rocky seat” which Fluttershy still occupied looking tranquilly detached even if recognizing his presence somehow; stretching his arm, Alex was going to touch her cheek softly, but reconsidered, pulling back. ‘What if I only startle her?’ glimpsed in his mind. “I don’t know what exactly she is seeing in her dream,” elaborated he, looking back at the smiling Princess. “Don’t want to scare her if I touch.” “That I can’t tell at the moment,” Luna shrugged lightly. “I’m in thy dream, lief, not hers.” Together, they watched Fluttershy observing the lazy water curling around the rock – the flow caused by the waterfall reached there almost fading. In the ringing silence, Alex fancied that he could hear his thoughts aloud. He turned his gaze to the top of the waterfall, to the sky overshadowed by the immense silvery crown of the Tree, feeling a soft touch of Luna’s cheek on his neck. “I was thinking, my love,” uttered Alex, breaking the silence first. “There, in the frozen valley… I clearly felt that the Seekers wanted to get us, to prevent us from reaching our goal – the Crystal City.” “Mhmmm…” Luna murmured, cuddling him again. “Why did they suddenly abandon their attempts and leave? I eliminated only two of them,” Alex pursed his lips, thinking. “There were more. Exactly as the reports said – about two dozens of the creatures in total. I never saw the Seekers giving up on their aim that easily, even taking damage. And I must say they had an advantage that time – a new form of the monster appeared… was created… whatever. A flying one! They…” Alex suddenly noticed that Luna was quietly nodding to his words, without much concern or shock in her eyes. “I saw them, lief!” The girl noticed his abashed look. “Thanks to thee.” “Thou art unconscious for several days, Alex,” Luna elaborated mercifully. “Alas, I can’t be with thee all the time in pony, but I am always with thee in another way, mine love. I saw them in thy memories.” “Can’t say that was unexpected,” she glanced at Alex, who could only nod in agreement. “Quite nasty things forsooth – correct thou art!” “As for them “giving up”…” Luna shook her head slowly. “Methinks, ‘tis meaning that you both were not their main aim hither. Recallest whither we are, Alex. The main and the only biggest inhabited area is under the magic dome… its centre being the Crystal City. Seeking for something – I assume, it must be of magical nature – they have only one ripe target to aspire, in the earnest.” “The Crystal Heart?!” exhaled Alex. That sounded like a question and a statement of fact at the same time, as Alex was confident in his guess. “Twilight told me about it a couple of times…” Before Luna could confirm his assumption, a loud rustling sounded over their heads. It came up growing as a soft but overwhelming tidal wave and faded as suddenly as was born. Looking up, Luna and Alex noticed the shivers coming across the enormous crown of the Tree as if caused by a strong gust of cold wind. If Alex needed confirmation, he could have hardly gotten a clearer one. “I’m afraid thou needst to recover as soon as thou can, my love!” Intercepted by Alex, Luna’s glance turned unusually serious. “The rest is up to thee… to what and how ardently thou wantest.” “I want to solve that problem,” Alex didn’t linger to answer. “Isn’t it what we came here for in the first place? However, how’s that supposed to speed things,” he took a look around then over himself, “my recovery in particular? Or you’re insisting that it is rooting in my head now…” “All I got in Equestria, was thanks to you, Shy, Twilight, the others!” Said Alex ardently. “I will do my best to protect what we must, but how am I supposed…” “Thou art keeping to doubt thyself, lief!” Luna gave out a dainty smile, but her eyes stood serious. “Although, I must admit thou art catching up faster now.” “There is… something else, bothering you,” Alex said half-inquiringly, half-affirmatively; he squinted, looking into those dark blue lakes. “’Tis more of a prevision,” drawled the Night Princess. “The faintest feeling that you need to return as soon as you can. And I mean – return to Equestria, not simply regaining thy consciousness! But… for that thou first needst to recover and help Crystal Empire against whatever is troubling it. With Shy’s help if ‘t be true it is necessary or anypony else’s.” “Look, she finally dozed off!” One of the unicorn fillies in the maid uniform nodded towards the bathtub. “Let her sleep then. Poor thing!” Another maid followed her companion’s glance with a tiny sympathetic smile. “I heard that both had it hard on them. But the girl keeps being on her duty for a few days straight, sleeping with one eye open, having a half-bite, half-sip meal.” “I saw them when they arrived,” nodded the first girl, then her eyes turned dreamy. “I would like somepony like that guarding me when I’m injured,” she threw a spear glance at the pony shaped armour suit resting on the small couch in the corner. “Although, I’d prefer not to be injured at all,” the unicorn maid let out a quiet giggle. “I noticed,” another maid threw a smiling glance at her. “You tried flirting with her nearly from the start… to no avail though. I’m sure it’s a no-catch situation here, my friend,” added she, shaking her high manedo fixed with a black and white barrette. “They are completely tied together!” With these words, the unicorn maid glanced meaningfully at the large bed occupied by the single guest. Or rather by his wings mostly, as the human was unable to occupy the entire king-size bed but his powerlessly spread wings covered all the free space of it. Not stopping at that, they stretched further, resting on the covered by the soft carpet floor of the large semi-round room and almost touching the opposite walls. Aimed to fit that sudden feathery trouble, the room was freed of all the usual furniture, except the named bed, a wardrobe and a couple of couches at the wall farthest from the bed footrest. The large bathtub was placed closer to the ornate fireplace, leaving enough walking space around the bed. Barely illuminating the tub from behind, the embers of the slowly smouldering fire glowed softly, making the curvy tub legs cast long shadows, which were dancing around the room. The night was quite warm and the hearth was just guaranteeing the constant temperature together with the ajar window to the spacious balcony on the eastern side of the highest tower of Crystal Castle, where exactly that room belonged. Thus, to maintain comfort, the maids were simply to control the fire intensity or window gap. Adding to the hearth light, a large magic crystal was hanging on its chain from the high, sky-blue ceiling of the room; emitting the dim diffused light, that crystal served as the main chandelier – the room was prudently cleared of the candles and generally all the sources of the open fire. As Shining Armour already mentioned, the maids had the opportunity to witness how those lying seemingly limply wings could turn devastating in a wink of an eye. Leaving the lit fireplace was at first a matter of debate as well; however, as the human didn’t show the signs of sleepwalking so far, the royalty agreed halfheartedly that it was necessary to aid the sooner recovery of their guests. “Tough luck!” with a tiny humorous grimace, the first maid picked a short log with her aura, placing it in the fire; with the quiet crackling, the firewood lit, spreading the faint resinous smell. “If they are feeling each other’s presence even through the sleep or being unconscious… I’m out,” the girl threw her fore hooves up jokingly. She checked the window behind the slowly wavering curtains, noticing. “We should tell the carpenter to do something with the new frame – the wind still makes the large glass tingle.” “No wonder,” whispered her colleague, checking on the human, “they completely changed the entire construction in a hurry, simply to fit him through. At least it’s not an open hole in the wall now.” “Yeah!” the first girl levitated a large jug. “Well, let’s keep the water warm, so the poor filly doesn’t get cold, sleeping in the bathtub like that.” Filling it partially from the tub, partially from the copper vat heating next to the fireplace, the maid tried the water. Satisfied with the result, the unicorn girl headed to the tub where the pegasus filly was submerged in her dreams. Breathing measuredly, Fluttershy was sitting chest-high in the water with her coat looking fluffy from the warm humidity of the air. Flowing in the tub, her tail occupied the entire free space and made the water look pink. The lush mane was gathered and wrapped into an embroidered towel with coats of arms not to damp it in the tub; the long eyelashes were trembling faintly in the sleep but a tiny smile was adorning her face. The girl was seeing a dream, but for a change, it was something clearly happier compared to the recent ones. Adjusting the bed covers over Alex, the unicorn maid watched how her friend started to pour lovingly the warm water from the jug on the strained shoulders and wings of the pegasus girl. With quiet gurgling, the water was taking away the stress; Fluttershy stretched lightly in her sleep and straightened her shoulders. The smile came through more clearly, making the maid taking care of her produce a content mien. Her friend sent a meaningful face from the bed where the human’s eyes made a move under the closed eyelids as if he was observing something. * The twilight enveloped her as the usher mare held the curtains, letting the filly through one of the entrances. Stopping for a second so her eyes could accommodate the low light and let her go down the stepped floor, but no longer as the next viewer might bump into her on their way into the cinema hall. The latter was half-empty though: the fluent glance around the rows of seats told the unicorn girl that her precaution was redundant – foals could hardly be taken to watch a movie of that kind and the heads peeking from behind the backrests were few. The large rectangle of the white screen was dimly glowing in the even more muffled light, and the girl hurried to the seat marked in the ticket which she was still levitating in front of her. She inhaled the smell of the dry-cleaned upholstered seats, the caramel flavoured popcorn; a faint tint of dust coming from the carpeting spoiled the overall feel a bit, but it was inevitable for the place herds of ponies visited daily. Not for this movie session though – the genre was not a cash flooder there. ‘When was the last time I visited the cinema?’ inwardly chuckled the girl. ‘Oh, Celestia! I’m talking like some elderly mare…’ she rolled her eyes sarcastically, trotting down the stepped aisle. Making her stop, something caught the girl’s attention halfway down: a very familiar figure glimpsed in the middle of the otherwise empty row when the first frames appeared on the screen, highlighting the hall. With a tiny smile, the filly threw another look around, biting her lip at the sudden idea. ‘It’s unlikely that somepony complains if I take the seat not assigned for me by the ticket, so…’ the girl started to make her way to the familiar silhouette, which glowed with its light coat in the darkness of the cinema hall; she ducked down not to accidentally disturb the ones already sitting further up. “Umm… Hi! May I land here?” she cleared her throat and addressed the sitting unicorn in half-tone. “If I’m not a disturbance for you, sir!” “Mmm… Yes! Oh!” the stallion raised his eyes at her and they widened with recognition and surprise. “Silver!” he caught himself exclaiming and lowered his voice, throwing an apologetic glance back at the nearest two viewers who winced a bit. “Ingot… Of course, you may…” still looking surprised, Diamond Chisel pulled down the folding seat for her with his sparkly aura. “It’s a bit… unexpected…” “You can call me Sil, just like the others do…” with a thankful nod, the girl sank onto the offered place next to him. “Well, I avoided… public entertainment for a while indeed!” she glanced at Diamond’s muzzle – the colourful flares highlighted it, quickly changing one another. The usual pre-session movie advertisements started flashing on the screen. “Umm… Err… I didn’t mean that…” the stallion stumbled, whispering confusedly. “Sorry! I mean that this movie itself is an unusual choice for… for a girl and…” he faltered and fell silent, feeling that the words might lead in the unwanted direction. “Oh, it’s okay, Diamond,” Silver Ingot let out a tiny giggle. “I was never a fan of noisy herds, regardless to… you know,” she winked cheerfully. Noticing that in the light of another flash, Diamond Chisel exhaled with relief. “As for the movie itself…” started she. The screen went dark, then the new sequence turned out to be black and white – given in stylized font, an inelaborate title changed with the opening credits. “An old eastern story is…” Somepony coughed deliberately from the darkness of the auditorium behind. “Let’s just watch!” smiled Silver Ingot. A small hoof touched Diamond’s fore leg, making the unicorn freeze in surprise. A recognizable melody of the authentic stringed instruments started flowing from the speakers with the drums making the floor tremble slightly under their hooves with the low tones. “I’m still puzzled by the choice?” Diamond Chisel gave a laugh when they exited the movie theatre together two hours later, as Silver Ingot accepted his reserved offer to walk her home. “Given it wasn’t some kaidan, but still… a story of ronin’s fight for honour, peppered by a love motive. Why?” He was to wait for a couple of minutes. The town lights sparkled in the girl’s eyes; Silver Ingot was still there – in the snow-covered fir woods of the mountain slopes. The snowdrifts of evening Ponyville just helped the immersion. “Why?” the girl finally woke up, answering Diamond’s question. “I guess, this culture interested me since I was introduced to it in early flillyhood. Besides, I was always wondering about my uncle’s fascination with Neighpon. Sometimes I understand him,” Silver Ingot let out a tiny smile watching a family with two foals hurrying along the snowy street and outrunning them with Diamond – the happy voices of the foals kept ringing even at the distance. “That movie seemed to be a perfect choice to tune in to the traditional aspect. I admit, I never saw that one before,” she confessed jokingly. “He used to live there for quite a while,” elaborated Silver Ingot, throwing a smiling glance at the stallion. “Long before we met with uncle Will it seems. Uncle was with the army already,” added Silver Ingot pensively, “Maybe it was related. He wasn’t telling much about that part of his life. What he told – he had a close friend there. A neighponese mare, a bit older than him back then,” she kept telling on the go with a kind smile without noticing Diamond’s eyes watching her with admiration trying to pace up with the girl. “With two daughters… “Two fillies about your age,” uncle Will says. She was a local sword maker, a very masterful one by uncle’s words.” “Hmmm…” Diamond Chisel chuckled with surprise in his voice. “Yeah,” the bright eyes sent a sparkly glance at the stallion. “The mare sword maker, in Neighpon, long ago! Can you imagine, Diamond?” the girl wondered how easy it turned out – to talk heart to heart with him. “I guess she was a real master, so that rare case was explicable,” shrugged Diamond Chisel. “But you’re right, Sil… I’d call that very unusual for Neighpon.” “The more I wonder why he left anyway,” nodded Silver Ingot. “I realize that I should be thankful for things going that way exactly not another, but… Sometimes I feel for him. I only started to understand what a big part of his heart stayed belonging there.” “I wonder why he wasn’t going with you today,” Diamond Chisel kept kicking a small piece of ice pensively, then glanced at her. “Is mister Steel okay? I assume he would be an even more involved watcher of that movie…” “Strange that you asked,” Silver Ingot glanced at the stallion interestedly. “Uncle Will said that he wasn’t feeling well enough today,” she sighed. “I was going to stay at home then, but he insisted that I didn’t change any plans, saying it would be a crime to pull me back on the weekend… considering that we both weren’t exactly social for a long while. He said it was nothing serious and finally persuaded me to go alone.” “And was it indeed?” “Uncle said that he wasn’t feeling like trotting here and there all day long,” sighed Silver Ingot, the sparkles in her eyes dimmed a bit. Maybe it was because they were passing a poorer lit alley. “I know that he isn’t getting younger. There is nothing I… anypony can do about that, but…” The trampled snow kept crunching slightly under their hooves. “Hey, why am I talking about myself all along,” Silver Ingot bucked up, breaking the silence when they entered a brightly lit street again; the girl flashed a bit of forced smile. “And what did you find in that old movie? Come on, Diamond, spill… the gems!” the smile turned sincere; the filly nudged the stallion’s shoulder lightly. “Well, my story isn’t nearly as mysterious,” Diamond Chisel tried to feign exaggerated seriousness, failed and broke into a smile as well. “I lived in Neighpon with my parents for a while, when I was a tiny foal.” “Fascinating!” the girl's eyes widened; Silver Ingot’s mouth rounded. “So… we can say, we have some common threads,” added she coping with the first surprise. “I don’t remember much, but I definitely remember that it was a good time,” chuckled Diamond Chisel. “And I also remember watching that movie with my mom and dad… I still have no idea how they managed to take me through the usher in the cinema as it wasn’t exactly a kids’ show,” simply shrugged he. “It is one of the bonds tying me tightly with them… ever since they have gone,” added the stallion with a mix of happiness and sadness in his voice. “Besides,” he glanced at her after a second, deciding to change the mood, “I simply like the story very much. An outcast warrior, a ronin… Do you know who exactly ronins were?” Silver Ingot nodded; the girl already walked backwards listening to and watching him fixedly. “His fight for the truth and honour… His seemingly desperate feelings toward a nobility. I find that story inspiring at the very least.” “And he remained unvanquished till the end!” “Thanks to the strong core and his beliefs – yes!” Diamond Chisel confirmed with determination. “Not by that filly though!” a small snowball secretly made by the light-grey aura suddenly smacked against the coat on his chest; the girl gazed at him slyly. “Ouch! I guess… Kinda!” Diamond huffed, scooping some snow and powdering the prancing girl in return. “If I may ask… how many times did you see that movie?” Silver Ingot watched the stallion, biting her lip. “Hmmm…” Diamond Chisel pretended to be remembering. “Let me think… More than a hundred. Actually, I lost count a couple of years ago!” “Seriously?!” the girl’s eyes rounded; Silver Ingot burst with sincere laughter. “A hundred times?!” “Absolutely!” confirmed the stallion, trying to hold back a smile. “It’s not getting worse with each view!” * The faint floral-honey aroma kept teasing Alex’s nose until it became clear that it couldn’t be a part of his dream. Little by little, waking up his senses, more smells trailed up his nostrils – first clean and starched linens, then some medicine, and finally the thin tart smell of burning firewood mixing with tints of unfamiliar perfume. Regardless of what Alex was seeing at that moment, he noted unwittingly that he had hardly ever gotten a smelling palette that rich, in his most sophisticated dreams. Rustling with curtains, a gust of wind sneaked through the ajar window, sending a whiff across Alex’s face and dispelling most of the scents, except the initial floral sweetness. The latter became only stronger, disturbed by the breeze, which surprisingly carried no breath of the frosty winter but a feel of fresh spring morning instead. The airflow brought the distant hum – multiple sounds of a big city mixed in it casually, so nopony could distinguish the separate members of this choir while easily recognizing it in its entirety. The next moment, the noise was cheerfully interrupted by a joyous bird chirping. The sound kept floating in Alex’s right ear, arousing his consciousness – without much care of anypony sleeping or recovering there, the little feather-ball was jumping back and forth along the windowsill, loudly declaring its energetic presence to anyone who would listen. The chirping was so persisting, that Alex made a face in his thinning sleep. The eyelashes trembled and he turned his head, clearly feeling the touch of the cool bedding on his cheek. The human’s left hand moved a little, grabbing the linens lightly as if trying to explore that touch. His right hand, as well as his right shoulder, partially his chest and neck, was snuggled to something warm, soft and breathing, his skin meeting the silky coat when Alex tried to raise his arm. His seeking fingers slid on the velvet shoulder and dived into the flowing mane – the floral-honey fragrance became stronger – then travelled across the body cuddling to him, finally reaching the girl’s shapely hip. Recognizing that touch, Alex’s heart started beating stronger, speeding up the blood in his veins. The enormous wings covering the bed and half of the floor twitched; with barely audible rustling they started shrinking quickly to a more reasonable size as if suddenly returning under the conscious control. With a blink, Alex slowly opened his eyes. Undisturbed by the muffled light, his focusing vision revealed the high ceiling and something pink at the corner of his sight. Regaining clearness, Alex’s mind combined all the sensory stimuli… and a tiny smile brightened his lips. Lifting his head a little, Alex found out that warm, soft and breathing somepony snuggling to him was Fluttershy. The girl fell asleep above the bed covers, resting her head on Alex’s chest and wrapping her legs around him as if trying to make sure that the human wasn’t going to disappear suddenly. That image immediately called for the memory of Alex’s first waking in Fluttershy’s cottage when he just got to Equestria; it brought another smile to his face. Remembering what he could about their trip and adding his vision to that, Alex concluded that he had been lying around for a few days at least. With Fluttershy on guard by his side that entire time, he probably gave her quite a task – the interval between his fight for the train car and his recent vision was completely blank for the human. The long eyelashes were resting on her cheeks; breathing slowly, the girl remained in deep sleep even when Alex’s fingers ran lightly along her fore leg and shoulder, touching her warm, silky cheek. Exhausted by the chores and worries, Fluttershy didn’t wake when Alex planted a small kiss on the beloved yellow nose. ‘Did Luna manage to visit us personally?’ wondered Alex; strangely, he felt a faint note of lavender on Fluttershy’s face, like a drop of perfume on the warm skin. “Alex-s-s-s…” Fluttershy breathed out, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder tenderly. Her sumptuous mane tickled Alex’s face, making his smile wider. But the girl’s eyes remained closed; she was still in Lunaland, unaware of her special somehuman regaining consciousness in reality. “Mhmmm,” the small hoof stroke his chest through the covers. As if all of his senses suddenly returned to him in full strength, Alex felt very sharply how long he was lying there without moving. His entire body itched for action, tired of the long forced idleness, and he could hardly resist that call. Very carefully, not to disturb the sleeping marefriend, he slid from her cuddle slowly, tucking the pillow under the girl’s head. Untangling from the bed covers with all possible precautions not to wake Fluttershy, Alex got up. The body and limbs felt a bit stiff, but he assumed that the more he moved the faster it would pass. The room was truly spacious, even more visually, because – as Alex found out – it was nearly empty for some mysterious reason. A look around presented him with the large bed they shared with the sleeping pegasus beauty, a couple of modest nightstands and a bathtub in front of the fireplace. The precautions were not excessive as there was another pony in the room: a unicorn mare in maid uniform fell asleep on a small couch, which Alex hadn’t noticed in the corner before. She must have been tired of the constant vigil, just like Fluttershy. The maid dropped her chin over her fore leg on the armrest and the long strand of light hair escaping her uniform headpiece was wavered by the girl’s slow breath. The problem – bringing another strike of deja vu – was that somepony decided to treat Alex’s injuries while depriving him of his clothes. Again! Alex’s eyes quickly scanned the room, failing to find anything resembling a wardrobe. There was, of course, a possibility to return to the bed, but Alex could hardly cope with a few hours more without motion. With an inward groan, Alex rolled his eyes and grabbed the first getting in his sight towel from the edge of the bathtub, wrapping it around himself habitually. Then his eyes stumbled upon a humble door blending into the bedroom wall. Cautiously open, it revealed the most anticipated by him – the bathroom. However, a quick search around the smaller room gave nothing, except more towels and various bathing utensils; no sign of his clothes there either. Alex took some time, drinking the cool water right from the tap; that finally relieved him from the sandpaper feeling in his throat, making Alex feel that it was probably the tastiest thing he tried lately. ‘Well, one problem less!’ The peaky face, boasting some stubble and looking a bit raccoonish because of shadows under the eyes, smirked at him from the large mirror over the sink. Examining himself, Alex realized that he could eat a manticore, but that could wait as he needed fresh air more. “Oh, you’re here!” he even voiced that as his eyes stopped at the thin silvery band belting his forehead. Luna’s gift, the ancient helmet kept serving Alex as intended – nopony could take it off the head, even while its master was unconscious. That was totally things changing. Gapping the door, Alex took a peek – both girls remained asleep as he left them. Tiptoeing across the room, the human pulled aside the curtain he noticed before, revealing the large window occupying most of the wall and reaching the floor. A small bird chirped out loudly, scared by his sudden appearance and bursting away from the balcony. Alex threw a glance over his shoulder: thankfully, the feather ball didn’t wake anypony. Muttering something through her sleep, Fluttershy cuddled the pillow tighter. The sliding part was ajar; the human did his best to sneak out to the balcony and close the window quietly. Ruffling his hair, the breeze enveloped Alex’s body, cooling the skin and making the muscles strain in anticipation – it wasn’t particularly cold, like a Spring… With a foalish smile, Alex caught himself having no idea which time of the day it actually was: the Sun was three quarters up… or down its daily archway, because Alex didn’t know the location of cardinal points. Under the magical dome, presumably in the middle of it, one could hardly determine visually where the North was. Alex inhaled the full chest of cool air almost making his head spin. He stretched to the bone crackle, feeling how his lungs were spreading, enjoying the exercise. Obedient to his will, the thin stripe of silvery metal on Alex’s head started spreading the faint glow all over him, in a wink packing the human into the habitual armour. ‘Looking decent at last!’ smirked Alex, remembering that he hadn’t taken off the towel. ‘So I won’t shock anypony, taking a warm-up.’ With a screech of metal against the marble balcony floor, Alex jumped into the air, screwing into the clear sky. The wings seemed to miss the regular job; they unfurled and trembled, eager to show what they were capable of. A few storeys of the crystal wall and the high spiked roof whizzed by in a single wink. Scaring away a small flock of birds fluttering around the tower – they scolded the sudden peacebreaker with indignant chirping, Alex rose higher and hovered for a moment above the Crystal Palace. From this point of view, the entire building or better say the complex of them looked like a giant cluster of shiny crystals protruding from some vein. With its spiky shapes, smooth angular surfaces and asymmetry, shocking from the first sight yet elaborate, the Crystal Palace seemed to be rather a natural formation than something built by the masterful union of magic and hoof. Alex wondered if the palace was magically carved from the existing enormous crystal body or even magically grown as such. Reflecting in a multitude of the rainbow-shining facets, the sun glares almost blinded him; shielding his eyes, Alex soared higher, so the entire Crystal City spread underneath like a colourful circular map. The majority of the buildings repeated the architectural style of the palace but in miniature and obviously modesty. Looking like smaller slabs of crystalline ore, they started sending colourful sparks and glares around at the first change of lighting, giving the entire city almost a festive feel during the sunny days. The roofs were flat or barely slanted, covered with some dark material, contrasting to what Alex saw in Ponyville and Canterlot. That could probably be explained by crystal ponies’ attempt to use solar warmth in the region where the locals were not spoilt by sunlight and heat, even taking the magical aid into account. Considering the low sun trajectory – even Celestia’s magic couldn’t make the Day Star shine equally for the entire Equus – having some semblance of everlasting late spring was an awesome achievement. From the above, the city looked familiar and at the same time strange. Peering, Alex saw the same considerably narrow (due to the practical lack of massive transport) streets, occupied by the ponies hurrying on their daily business. The locals gave preference to the low-rise architecture, like most of Equestria: the houses and public buildings mostly had up to three-four floors maximum. That was the peculiarity Alex loved the most – a less dense population naturally provided less stress for each of the citizens and was in his opinion one of the reasons for general ponies’ geniality. The realization came suddenly – Alex couldn’t call the city green, which wasn’t a problem with any other settlement he saw, including such a huge one as Canterlot. Of course, there was enough vegetation surrounding the houses and growing along the streets, but due to Crystal Empire environment conditions, Alex couldn’t say that any of the building was literally drowning in the foliage like, for example, in Ponyville. The poorer, more stony soil and colder weather affected the local flora, thus giving the city different colour. With a few powerful wing flaps, the landscape distanced: Alex could cover the surroundings of the Crystal City with his sight while the smaller buildings turned into the dollhouses with the large chunk of shiny crystal protruding in the centre of the circular city – the Crystal Palace. The ponies looked like tiny sparkling ants, crawling on the colourful map below. Another characteristic the human hadn’t gotten accustomed still: not so explicit across the rest of Equestria, there, in the proximity of Crystal Heart and its magic peak, they literally glimmered as if their coats were made of some gems, at times having that impossible faceted look. Suddenly, inexplicable joy filled Alex; the light and wind kept pumping his soul with cheerfulness, and a wide smile found its way onto his face. Evading the dangers of the long hard road to the Frozen North, bringing all the co-traveller ponies unharmed (somehow, despite his prolonged blackout, Alex was absolutely sure that all the passengers arrived safely), Fluttershy keeping a constant eye on his recovery – everything made Alex forget about the imminent future troubles and the goal of their trip for a moment. He made a few loops and figures in the sky, inwardly resembling himself the birds carelessly skipping around the palace roof. That caused nothing but a chuckle and another burst of sparkling joy. A crazy idea – to check how high the magic dome spreads – came into Alex’s mind. Turning around in the air, he started to gain height, darting up from the palace grounds. Higher and higher, he could already take a look at almost the entire territory, covered by the life-saving magical cap. The view resembled what Alex used to see at home, except the trees were generally lower and prairie-like patches competed with forests where the soil wasn’t cultivated and turned into the patchwork of fields and gardens. Hills looked more pronounced on the face of the Crystal Empire, which was cut here and there by the separate rock formations showing the proximity of the mountains. The wind started whistling in the human’s ears with increasing speed; smirking, Alex was to call the full helmet to his service. “… thus I hope we’re coping well!” Following Celestia to the Palace doors, Shining Armour cocked his head optimistically. “Even if we lose sight of the pack occasionally, we are directing the creatures where expected. Without any casualties so far!” meaningfully added the stallion. The gravel square in front of the palace entrance separated it from the accurate garden, humbler and flatter than the one in Canterlot, yet treated as masterfully. A few gardener ponies were on their duty at that moment, trimming the hedges, watering the vast flowerbeds and adjusting the paths. Taking a look around, the royalties crossed a narrow landing and headed down the shimmering, almost transparent at some places stairs. “Or the goal of the Seekers matches our plans for now,” noting the guards’ salute with a slight nod, Princess Celestia wasn’t going to fall into excessive optimism easily. “What about the last phase? When, and if, they enter the dome.” “Basing on Your Highness’ idea, that the Seekers want to approach the Crystal Heart one way or another,” the stallion lowered his voice, “we prepared an area where the beasts can be contained for a while, using all sorts of distraction and confronted by one of the planned methods.” “There is a settlement near the dome border,” Shining Armour elaborated when they reached the bottom of the stairs. “We relocated the inhabitants completely, technically there are absolutely no civilians but… A large group of guards is residing there at the moment; the soldiers imitate the civil activity, in case our enemy receives any intelligence data. If they rely on any in the habitual sense of that term.” “Obviously, without their regular armour,” added he under Celestia’s glance. “They have it stashed and prepared. I admit that it is a certain risk,” shrugged the unicorn, “but they know what to deal with. I sent volunteers only and… would have been there myself, if that didn’t blow up the cover entirely.” “If only we could have the new armour,” Shining Armour shook his head. “We could try to eliminate the monsters on our own!” “So, what do you plan exactly?” Celestia kept watching the gardeners, but the white strained ear told that her question wasn’t dictated by casual curiosity. ‘If these two get to know each other better,’ glimpsed in her head, making the Princess purse her lips, ‘we will get a full-fledged militarist movement.’ “We’re going to… herd them into the town and lock there, then give some ground for our attack,” Shining Armour glanced determinedly. “The buildings are empty, so even if Your Highness is forced to use powerful Solar magic…” he made a meaningful face. “This is deemed inevitable destruction. We can rebuild everything later and save lives now.” The Princess kept silent; instead of an answer, Celestia’s eyes were chained to the ponies behind the green hedge. One by one the gardeners glanced up and remained staring at something; interrupting their work, they gestured one to another, attracting attention to the sky. Both Shining Armour and Celestia looked up just in time to notice the dark shadow which pierced the low cloud, folding its giant wings like an arrow. In a second, a distant bloop reached the ears of bewildered ponies on the ground. Rising between the rare clouds – humble parts of the solid gloomy blanket covering the rest of Frozen North, which were mercifully allowed inside by the dome magic – Alex couldn’t see the upper border of the dome itself while the faint rainbow tint of the giant soap bubble still could be spotted where it met the ground far away. Under the impression of his investigative idea, Alex completely missed the moment of crossing the sonic barrier when a sudden thought flashed in his head. ‘If I pop out of that bubble… can I return as easily? There must be freezing cold outside of the dome!’ the human was feeling some discomfort already, having no clothes under his armour. ‘Last time I messed with local weather didn’t end well yet I had warm clothes underneath!’ Throwing another glance up, Alex was to admit that the dome could spread high enough, letting the sun shine through unobstructed by clouds, so even oxygen problems could easily add to the temperature ones. Deciding that it would be smarter to ask than to try, he made a wide loop in the sky so fast, that the light dimmed in his eyes for a fraction of a second with the catching up overload. ‘So, this is what a jet pilot must be feeling!’ realization struck Alex together with the hissing noise catching up with him from below, making him praise his armour and especially Luna’s gift once again. The entire city looked like a small patch on the ground from there. Fortunately, long gone the times when the mere sight of that could drive Alex unconscious. Guessing how much time it took to reach that height and inwardly shocked by the result he was getting, Alex nevertheless smirked and darted to the ground even faster. It seemed he found out the key to his problem – motivation! At the bottom of the Crystal Palace stairs, Celestia and Shining Armour exchanged bewildered glances. “Did he just take the sonic barrier?” the unicorn’s words didn’t leave space for the doubt – the stallion knew whom he was talking about. “Inscrutable!” muttered Celestia, following the black dot in the sky. “The guards reported that he reached Canterlot from Ponyville neighbourhood in twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes… which,” the Princess was calculating for a couple of seconds, “which should give about seven-sixth of the sonic speed already.” “Naturally, I didn’t believe them!” She looked at Shining Armour pensively. “They wouldn’t have joked, of course, but I thought there was a mistake in their time perception due to the extreme situation…” A bright flash of pale-blue magic on top of the stairs interrupted her: the Princess and the unicorn stared at the light greyish-cerise alicorn girl galloping down the stairs in a completely non-royal manner. The long violet with rose and golden streaks mane fluttered behind and the crown with violet gem tilted dangerously on her head; the guards on the upper landing made an effort not to wince aside. Celestia couldn’t hold back a tiny smile – some traits of the former foalsitter could be easily recognized in Twilight. “Careful, Cady!” Shining Armour hurried to the alicorn mare. “What’s going on, dear?” “The human!” Cadence inhaled discomposedly; her light-purple eyes were tinted with panic. “He… vanished! I came to check on them… and found only sleeping girls there…” “We know already…” Celestia threw her eyes up, gesturing for the girl’s attention. Increasing in the sight, the black dimly shining in the sunlight silhouette approached the tower balcony, unfurling the wings and slowing down. Seconds later, the sound wave of another bloop and following humming noise reached their ears. “Oh!” Cadence gazed up just in time to notice the figure touching down and disappearing behind the balcony. “That must be at least twice the sound speed…” automatically noted Shining Armour. Without further ado, Princess Celestia lit her horn; the magical aura enveloped all three of them, teleporting the ponies to the tower. The armour boots heavily clacked on the marble floor; Alex folded his wings and was going to remove the armour, which didn’t feel pleasant against the skin, even if the speedy descent warmed it up a bit. However, the same feeling reminded him of the lack of something important in his wardrobe, so with a chuckle, he only commanded the helmet to open. An emotional squeak followed by the frantic hoofsteps reached Alex’s ears from behind the closed window. The window sash slid open almost hitting the frame; the curtains were flowing around a gracious figure – somepony winged was struggling with them to come through, causing a little smile on the human’s face. “Ohhhh, Ahhhhlex!” Finally, the annoying obstacle was overcome; the were curtains thrown aside with a sizzle of their bearing rings, revealing slightly out of breath Fluttershy closely followed by both unicorn maids. How she exhaled his name made Alex stumble a bit, reminding him of Rarity. Seeing that it was his marefriend still, he relaxed. “Don’t ever do that again!” Fluttershy wanted to grab him in a cuddle, but slowed down in time – the spiky armour wasn’t quite welcoming for that. “I mean… Alex, please… You could wake me up, before… You scared me so much!” She approached him, looking up into Alex’s eyes pleadingly. The maids kept dithering in the doorway with unconfident expressions. A bright flash made both unicorn girls jump on the spot with a squeak, bringing three more ponies to the balcony, which became herded at once. Strangely, Fluttershy didn’t even bat an eyelash at that sudden disturbance, staring at Alex and biting her lip. “Could you please… remove all that steel?” asked she a bit hoarsely; the girl’s eyes were still chained to Alex’s. “I can’t even hug you properly.” A glance over the shoulder confirmed the newcomers to be Princess Celestia and Shining Armour; the latter Alex hadn’t met personally before, but could easily guess based on Twilight’s stories. Princess Cadence – whom he knew from Twilight as well – was cautiously peeking from behind of her husband and aunt in law. “I’m afraid it’s next to impossible at the moment, my love,” Alex said softly, looking for a way to explain his problem diplomatically. “Because I would prefer to face the ladies, moreover, the royalty… errmmm… while being a bit more dressed. Alas, I couldn’t find anything…” “Oh!” Cupping her mouth with her fore hoof, Fluttershy remembered that Alex had just escaped the “hospital bed”; the girl’s eyes widened in realization, but Alex could swear that he noticed two gamine sparkles in them. The maids were doing their best to muffle their giggling but mostly failed, throwing cautious gazes at the princesses; then one of the unicorn girls bowed quickly and whisked back to the room. “One moment, please!” chirped she. Shining Armour was chuckling outright at the situation and the reaction of the mares; he nuzzled Cadence on the strained ear, making the Princess breathe out and relax – nopony was going to bite her. “Ahem!” Celestia’s cheeks flamed up and she tried hard to keep her face, squeezing out a wry smile. “I’m glad that… you both are okay now and…” “Your Highness! Excuse me please!” the distraction returned in the face of the unicorn maid, levitating something clean and folded. The clang of metal from the room told about another guest, making everypony turn heads. Contrary to the rest, Rainstorm could ignore Alex’s steel spikes to a certain extent, being packed in the finest possible armour herself. Rattling on the marble floor with her steel-shod hooves, the mare stormed through the open window and, before anypony could utter a word, rose on her hind legs, squeezing Alex in a hug with an earsplitting clang and screeching. She backed after a second in complete silence. “Errmmm…” Rainstorm sat down almost in a saluting pose. The long polished helmet covering the entire mare’s head, couldn’t hide the slight embarrassment in her voice. “Ummm… Glad to see you back in line, m… sir! No incidents happened during your absence,” added she in a deliberately business-like tone. “Ahem!” Celestia woke up first, blinking. She threw an appraising glance at the human. “Well… As you seem to feel well enough for the… flying exercises, I suppose you can join us a bit later and afford a discussion. Of course, after you fill yourself up,” the Princess took another look at Alex’s haggard face, “and…” Celestia stumbled as her glance moved to Fluttershy, who didn’t take her eyes from the human. With a sigh and indefinite hoof wave, Princess Celestia vanished with another magical flash. “Well… We shouldn’t be a disturbance as well, right, darling?” Princess Cadence pulled Shining Armour towards the room, nodding to Fluttershy and Alex. “We’ll see you later. Let’s go, Rainstorm!” She gave path to both Shining and the armoured mare, keeping behind and almost packing them off the balcony and the bedroom. “Thank you very much!” Alex could finally take his clothes from the maid. “Come on, Alex! Let’s fix you up,” perked up Fluttershy, dragging him into the room and towards the subtle door. “The bathroom is here.” The maids glanced at each other with mischievous smirks. Alex could barely enter and put his folded clothes on the first horizontal surface he spotted and address the magical band on his head. The bathroom door closed behind with a click of the lock as the silvery shine started removing the steel from him. “Alex!” Fluttershy turned around and wanted to tell something but the words stuck in her throat, making the girl swallow fitfully instead. Without hesitation, as the last armour piece left Alex, she simply jumped at him, wrapping her legs around her human. Alex staggered, barely staying on his feet; the towel dropped on the tiled floor. Feeling the soft warm coat against his skin and the tail wrapping around his leg, Alex could only hold Fluttershy, soothingly stroking her fragrant mane and shoulders while the girl gave him a deep, thirsty kiss. Her small fore hooves kept travelling along Alex’s back while Fluttershy continued working for his reactions. The latter didn’t linger to manifest themselves all over him: with the fluttering girl’s body snuggling tighter into him, Alex couldn’t avoid lighting up with passion, feeling the life in its entire brightness at once. Appearing again at the edge of perception, the lavender aroma only increased his arousal, even if it seemed somewhat strange there at that moment. “Strange… you smell of lavender a bit,” Alex nuzzled Fluttershy’s cheek tenderly when their lips parted for a short break. “Mmm… Luna was here with a short visit while you were unconscious,” something in Fluttershy’s voice made Alex focus his eyes on her muzzle, spotting how her cheeks gained a little blush. “It was her who brought Rainstorm… And… Umm, I was in disarray still. She did her best to… console me,” Fluttershy bit her lip cutely, lifting and reaching for something behind Alex’s back. The noise of the shower filled the room. “But…” added the girl, lowering herself and settling in his embrace before her turquoise eyes widened and lips dug into Alex’s again, making them both melt in another kiss, “that wasn’t eno-o-o-ahhh!!!” * “Oh, here you are, finally!” Celestia brightened, taking a greeting look at the human and the pegasus mare who entered the high but narrow arched doors. “We, frankly speaking, expected you a little earlier, but…” Catching a glimpse of amusement in the Princess’ expression, Alex and Fluttershy exchanged glances; Fluttershy did her best to imitate equanimity while both were taking the free seats at a big round table. With hidden amusement, Alex pulled a chair for the girl, helping her seat herself. “…it seems that I was right, delaying the meeting for an hour anyway,” the Princess was spinning a teaspoon with her aura musingly. Building guesses if the Princess was genuinely giving him time to catch up with the world after his prolonged blackout, Alex sank to the free chair. The chance was equally possible that Celestia was having fun, naturally guessing how Fluttershy could pounce Alex, seeing him finally safe and awaken. ‘She is completely in Fluttershy’s team, if that’s the term,’ glimpsed in Alex’s head, ‘preferring Shy being next to me all the time over Luna. I guess Tia hasn’t found out that we came to the… tripartite agreement!’ at that thought, he did his best for his feelings not to show up too obviously on his face, throwing a glance into the high windows at the opposite side of the hall. The image opening to his eyes behind was truly attention-worthy: placed on top of the subtle elevation amidst the otherwise flat Crystal City, the Palace provided an awesome chance to see far away to the border of the inhabited land and beyond, at least from that particular room. The broad garden, presented by undersized vegetation mostly, spread out below, barely tinting the bottom of the picture with green. The rest of it was taken by the naturally formed “valley” of fields and wealds between separate rock bodies and settlements, rarely framed with the dark-green brush of the fir woods. Alex remembered how Twilight told him about that land being recovered to the inhabitable condition not long ago, so the forests were still adapting to the less harsh conditions compared to the wind-ridden frozen wasteland, humbly taking back the territory in a more favourable climate. Anyway, it gave a beeline view to the icy mountains towering far behind the magical dome, the marge of grizzled gloomy clouds herding around their tops and a wide strip of the clear blue skies above. As the clouds moved, the sunlight shining from behind the Palace hit an occasional glacier, making it flash for a moment like a distant beacon of pure diamonds. Alex’s eyes slid across the politely expectant muzzles of Shining and Cadence – the couple was given the opportunity to enjoy that view on a daily basis, thus they could take the liberty to ignore the image, which lost part of its initial awe-effect on them – and with a tint of regret, the human was to return to the more prosaic matters. “As she arrived to help you with your task, I suppose,” before Alex could utter a word, the Princess noticed, “I thought it would be natural to invite your…” Celestia stumbled, looking for a neutral word, “your aide, ermmm, Rainstorm to join our meeting. All the data she can get may turn out crucial for your advantage.” Alex smirked at the sound of the opening doors behind – obviously, properly guessing Rainstorm’s mission, Princess Celestia didn’t yet give her determination enough credit. Showing up in the doorway, the pegasus mare made a few steps into the hall and froze on the spot, waiting for further orders. “Your Highness?” sounding like from a steel barrel, Rainstorm straightened as if she was on the Royal Guard’s duty or parade. “Come on in, Rainstorm!” With a dainty smile, Celestia nodded toward the gathering. “You will need to know, what you are going to face, my…” Alex figured out that the Princess was about to habitually address Rainstorm as “my little pony”, but evidently reconsidered as the term was hardly fitting for the tall, armour-clad mare. Raising her fore hoof in a welcoming to take a seat gesture, Celestia only let out a tiny sigh when Rainstorm approached, freezing again like a metal statue a few inches behind Alex and Fluttershy’s backs. “Your Highness! Before anything else is said, I need to inform everypony present about one very important thing!” Alex looked at Celestia deadly serious. “There is another, totally different in behaviour, kind of Seeker now…” He couldn’t tell that his words became a thunderbolt, but a pause that fell was more than self-explanatory. “The flying creatures… the Flyers, so to call, appeared during our trip to the Crystal Empire or some time before.” He heard a small tingle behind, but when Alex looked over his shoulder, Rainstorm was standing on the spot as a solid piece of rock. Whatever emotions swirled under her helmet, the mare didn’t utter a word. “Fluttershy mentioned some different creature, supposedly a flying one, you could catch a glimpse of when your train car got blocked by the snowdrifts,” the Princess closed her eyes for a second, pursing her lips as if she was hoping till the end for the news to turn out a mistake. “So, there are… flying Seekers now indeed. That changes things considerably!” “We haven’t seen any flying creatures so far,” Shining Armour cupped his chin with the hoof pensively. “However, we haven’t approached the Seekers too close, remembering about their mental impact…” “I would prefer to mistake but…” Alex shook his head slowly. “While quite clumsy and jerky on the ground, they are fast and dangerous in the air. Truly deadly in close combat, both on the ground and in the air, as they have sharp blades of bone-like tissue for their extremities and the pointy beak-like heads. And the beasts don’t hesitate to use them,” he tried to describe the monsters briefly to the present ones. “Oh, Celestia!” Princess Cadence gasped with widened eyes, quickly covering her mouth with the hoof. The white alicorn mare kept listening to the human passionlessly. “Yes, Your Highness!” Alex turned to the Princess of Crystal Empire. “I’m afraid they are quite nasty creatures. And, considering their only semblance of sense organ – the red “eye” just as the… normal Seekers have, these monsters provide the same effect for the unprotected ponies most likely.” “Keeping all that in mind,” Celestia looked at the human and the pegasus mare behind his back, “it gives only us three who can directly confront them.” “With all respect, I think you shouldn’t get too close to them either,” Alex made a pensive face but the Princess saw that there was no subliminal sense in his words. “Leaving that as some sort of backup plan we hopefully won’t need.” “Well, that’s exactly what we were expecting!” Shining Armour even leaned forward. “We practically laid a trap – cleared a seemingly inhabited area to lure the entire group of Seekers there and hold them, while somepony capable could deal with them by point strikes.” “Don’t worry, miss,” he turned to Fluttershy, who just raised her fore hoof, going to contribute to the discussion. “There will be no potential victims in the area when the Seekers arrive…” “Oh! That’s great, no doubt,” the pegasus girl gave a tiny smile. “What’s about your guards, Your Highness? I haven’t seen any protective armour used by any of them since we arrived in the Crystal Palace.” Shining Armour could only let out a heavy sigh. “That’s because we don’t have any yet, miss! Hopefully, we start getting it soon,” added he in a half-voice aside. “But all the guards were instructed to keep a safe distance from the creatures, directing the latter by magical means when possible.” “Surprisingly, while they don’t favour cold,” the unicorn smirked, “they do their best to flee the fire as well. We noticed that from the very first Seeker,” Shining Armour threw a glance at Celestia; Alex and Fluttershy noticed how the Princess nodded slowly. “So, we keep the constant red line between our guards and the monsters.” “Actually, we are… herding them since we discovered the group last time – yesterday, slowly pushing them towards the border,” added he. “But, Shiny!” Voicing her concerns, Princess Cadence looked startled at the moment. “Wasn’t it dangerous?” “I mean, what if he didn’t… what if he woke up several days later?” continued she in a calmer tone, throwing an apologetic glance at Alex. “And the Seekers entered the dome already…” “I decided to push only when Her Highness Celestia arrived,” with a slight bow towards the Day Princess, Shining Armour explained. His fore hoof softly lay on top of his wife’s fore hoof. “Weighing the risks, I still prefer to keep a constant eye on these beasts to losing them again, so they pop out when we least expect it. Moreover, somewhere deep under the dome already!” “That’s reas…” started Alex, stumbling when he realized – they said that simultaneously with Celestia. “Hmmm… That’s indeed reasonable,” repeated Celestia with imperturbable expression. “So, where is that place? Enlighten us finally, Shining?” “Just… a moment…” with almost an illusionist gesture, the unicorn materialized a large map, taking some effort to fold it by half. “Here it is! A modest settlement right behind the magic dome at the South-West,” the map lay on the table so its folded part appeared under Shining and Cadence fore hooves and the edge got in the sight of Alex and Fluttershy; leaning forward, Celestia could see the small dark point with an inelaborate name, highlighted by Shining’s aura. “Away from the South gate and railways, but close enough to call for reinforcements from there if necessary,” noticed the stallion, pulling another smaller map and laying it on top of the first. “Just a small town,” he nodded towards the detailed plan of the settlement. “But it has enough buildings and corners for the monsters to wander around, getting distracted.” ‘I hope that we won’t as well!’ smirked Alex inwardly, examining the map and realizing that it was impossible to learn it fast. “Excuse me, please,” Fluttershy was leaning over the plan, but one fluffy yellow ear perked, turning towards the doors. “It seems, somepony has an emergency!” Indeed, Alex and then all the rest noticed some distant noise, approaching from the long gallery and turning into the hurried drumming hoofsteps. The gathering exchanged glances; Celestia raised one eyebrow when the steps not even slowed down in front of the door but rather turned galloping as if the newcomer sped up seeing the close goal of his determined rush. Strangely, the guards outside didn’t even ask a word. The doors blast opened, letting through a breathless crystal pony guard – Alex imagined him running all the way from the Palace entrance and opening the doors literally with his forehead. The latter didn’t make Alex smile though. “Your Highness!” the guard bowed to Princess Celestia when he could squeeze a word out again. Celestia barely nodded, gesturing him to report without foreword. “Your Highness!” the stallion took his breath and turned to Shining Armour and Cadence. “The group of Seekers… has entered the prepared area!” Perhaps, everypony was already prepared for that situation emerging sooner or later – the news didn’t make an explosive effect. Alex could read a visible portion of readiness even in widened eyes of Princess Cadence. “The entire pack?” simply asked Shining Armour. “Yes, the entire pack,” confirmed the crystal pony guard. “About two dozens, as reported!” “So, it started!” the unicorn got up, straightening; sending a tender glance to Cadence, the light-cerulean eyes became hard and determined. “What will be our decision? I need to be with my serviceponies at the moment, regardless of it!” “We’re accepting the call,” drawled Alex, taking a look around the gathering; he then quickly pushed back his chair. “That’s what we planned anyway!” “Fluttershy,” he turned to the pegasus mare. “As there aren’t any potential victims in the area… I would like to ask you to stay here. No… I’m insisting on you staying in the Palace. Two dozens of Seekers is not something I’d wish you to encounter!” Throwing back the pink wave of her mane, the girl looked into his eyes for a second and silently nodded with understanding. “I guess it’ll take me some time to reach the border,” continued Alex. “Can you transfer Rainstorm to the site with you?” he turned to the unicorn stallion. “I’m not sure if I can teleport two of us to such a distance,” Shining Armour shrugged with regret. “Especially with all the armour…” Alex pursed his lips for a moment. “Tia, can thou give them both a lift, please?” the human suddenly brightened, shifting his gaze to the Day Princess and not paying attention to the shocked gasp reaching his ears from the opposite side of the table. “Methinks, thou hast the means to look after us despite the distance – that magic mirror of thine or something… Correct?! So, thou art our backup plan,” Alex smirked wryly, meeting Celestia’s glance, “in case we befall to fail.” The Princess slowly nodded in agreement. “Excellent!” Alex turned to Rainstorm. “Thou shalt be transferred next to the settlement. Watch the situation afore I reach thither on my own. Thy main task is to distract the creatures this time – please, dost not try to engage directly, especially on to the flying ones.” “Yes, sir!” the armoured mare almost saluted; even if Rainstorm expected more involvement, she didn’t let a tiny note of disappointment slip out. “You’re staying with the princesses, my love,” Alex hugged Fluttershy reaching to him. “We’re kicking some Dark Mist butts… and hopefully, no mass destruction magic is needed!” he sent a smiling glance to Celestia, heading to the doors. “Come with me!” the human waved to the crystal guard on the run. “You’ll need to show me the proper direction!” “Errmmm…” Shining Armour threw an inquiring glance at the Day Princess when the galloping steps faded behind the doors. Celestia only shook her head slowly, gesturing for him to join Rainstorm in the centre of the hall. They almost dropped out of the portal and it took Rainstorm a second to understand where the above and below were situated, even if it wasn’t her first teleportation already. Thankfully their hooves hit the ground immediately, yet for a moment she tried to spread her wings reflexively. Bringing Shining Armour and her to the destination, the teleport was already collapsing, flashing with a tiny bright spark in the end. When her senses returned to balance, Rainstorm took a look around – they found themselves at the grassy, open to all the winds and draughts hill overlooking the surroundings. The settlement, Shining Armour told about, wasn’t far, lying behind a grove of low trees at the foot of the hill. It wasn’t too big: the buildings of various heights herded together, forming the labyrinth of the narrow, crooked streets, as Rainstorm could see from their vantage-ground. The place was chosen specifically – one, unfamiliar with the town, could roam inside for hours, especially if all the obvious ways out were promptly cut. The latter was exactly the guards’ plan after luring the hostile creatures into that trap. The mare caught herself hearing nothing except the wind wrapping around the hill. That felt strange, as the mild climate offered the birds’ concerts to a grateful listener almost everywhere else under the magic dome. There though, the spreading silence could mean only one thing – something was going to happen; something that drove the sensitive feral inhabitants away from the area. That could seem suspicious to their enemy as well; however, Rainstorm remembered that the Seekers were known to pay little attention to the wildlife, generally ignoring anything that didn’t cross with their supposed task. Unlike the animals, Rainstorm and Shining Armour felt the faint signs of the Seekers’ presence right upon their arrival. The town ahead looked sleepy, but straining her eyesight a little more, Rainstorm spotted some movement: first at the far edge of the grove, then behind the natural covers – rock outcrops and small terrain folds occupied by runty vegetation – left and right of the settlement. The crystal guards circled the town, ready to hold the positions for a long time if necessary. Something touched her shoulder, screeching lightly on the metal of the mare’s armour – silently, Shining Armour gestured her to the large rock protruding lower from the hill. “As we still don’t know how observant these Seekers are,” noticed he when they hid in the shadow, “staying openly on the high spot could probably alarm them earlier. How long will it take the human to get here?” Shining Armour glanced at the mare inquiringly. “How far are we from the palace?” Rainstorm asked in reply, still peering into the town ahead. “It will depend on the speed but…” “The dome radius is about two hundred miles. We are close to the border.” “A matter of minutes,” she answered evasively. “He is constantly training the flight, so…” “I saw already,” smirked Shining Armour. “Fine! We prepared to hold them inside the town for several hours at least if no surprises emerge from their side.” “Rest assured, they can provide a few,” Rainstorm muttered aside. She sniffed the oncoming wind with her nostrils, making a concerned face. As if confirming the faint smell, several trails of smoke started rising into the sky, showing up at the various spots around the settlement. “What’s that?!” “How do you think we were going to keep them grounded?” the unicorn squinted slyly. “As soon as the Seekers got there, the obvious exits were barricaded by collapsed structures and fire – our guests seem to dislike the latter much! There is no exit from the town now, at least by the ground. But to find that out the monsters will need to find their way to the north edge of it, according to their course. And that’s not going to be an easy task either!” Shining Armour smirked meaningfully. “Hmmm…” Rainstorm huffed indefinitely. “Thankfully, the complex optical instruments turned out conveying their effects not!” the unicorn pulled out an altiscope, levitating it to his eyes. “Unlike the common binoculars, this one contains reflective parts,” Shining Armour explained with joy in his voice. “I tried it when Princess Celestia mentioned your protective helmet in one of her letters. Don’t tell Cadence though!” “And… here… we… are!” muttered he after a minute of concentrated observation. The stallion turned away from his optics and threw a doubtful glance at Rainstorm. “I don’t know if I can… adapt it to your headpiece…” “There is no need,” drawled Rainstorm, spotting a moving object darker than the roofs and stone walls. “I think I can see one. Near the town hall, right? Or whatever that tower is…” “Yeah,” Shining Armour pressed into the oculars again. “One, two… Aha…” estimated he, as more and more creatures were entering the open place cautiously. “As I said,” Rainstorm exclaimed, poking her steel-shod hoof up somewhere behind their backs. “Even less than ten minutes!” Staring up, both noticed the dark dot; it was constantly growing, surprisingly approaching them from a different direction than expected. Cutting the clear skies, it passed under the lonely cloud and moments later the cloud mass started curling and pulling after the faint trail, stretching out along the course of the flying object. The stallion gave a quiet whistle; from the corner of her view, Rainstorm saw him following the slowing down silhouette. “Made a hook,” Shining Armour noticed with satisfaction. “Approaching the target from the east. It’s reasonable – the sun won’t be shining into his eyes… Not giving out the Crystal City direction either,” squinted he approvingly. “That speed though…” he glanced at the mare when the loud air sizzling finally reached their ears. Rainstorm only shrugged; the polished metal of the helmet didn’t express anything. “I see you both know what you are doing!” the unicorn smirked, hiding the altiscope. “And I need to be with my serviceponies now.” Shining Armour nodded towards the town. “Keep the Seekers in sight until you soar, that’ll make your job easier,” advised he, disappearing with a flash. “Stay alive!” Unfreezing, Rainstorm jumped up, unfurling her wings. The steel-shod hooves gave a clank on the large rock, in the shade of which the mare was hiding a second ago; giving the additional boost, they sent her in the sky when the wings found the air stream. The grassy hillside interspersing with motley calvities of granite rushed back under her; faster and faster, till it smudged into a continuous green carpet. Rainstorm kept gliding low above the slope, gaining speed while staying undiscovered for the time being. At the bottom, the grassland gave way to the grove and Rainstorm was to soar higher. Snuggling to the ground, the low spreading vegetation turned out to be rather trees than some large shrubs. They were rustling and whispering in the wind cautiously as if sharing the strain of the moment before the inevitable battle. Inching above the tops, the mare slid left, going to get around the settlement and approach it from the South. The sun then should shine on her back, highlighting her approach yet at the same time disturbing the enemy, considering they still could rely on some sort of vision. Remembering about her main task – to distract the Seekers, giving Alex a tactical advantage to take them down, preferably one by one – Rainstorm threw a glance over her shoulder. The silhouette in the sky slowed down, reflecting the sunlight for a second and producing a blinding metallic flash. ‘He spotted the Seekers!’ with that guess, Rainstorm watched how the steel arrow in the sky dived down, entering the hedgehop almost in a wink, and started speeding up again. ‘I’m losing time!’ Rainstorm turned sharply, leaving the sun behind. She had her own weapon with her. However, the spear, while being effective upon the direct hit, could turn into a disadvantage in no time if Rainstorm missed the aim – for another attack, the mare was to retrieve her weapon from the ground, opening herself to the enemy’s retaliation. The town lay ahead, tied to the end of the road, which was snaking to the south under her wings. Rainstorm redoubled her effort: the stones and separate shrubs turned into striped flashing by. Cutting the field in the sight of the town edge buildings, a small ravine showed up. Some dull metal glow attracted Rainstorm’s attention – a unicorn guard threw his head up, gazing back and following the mare, who whizzed above their squad waiting for orders. The walls emerged as if growing from the ground – Rainstorm was to soar higher, taking a quick look around the town labyrinth. Several streets opening outside of the settlement were blocked by the conglomerations of debris. The heaps of stones and wooden beams sticking out with the sharp fractures were the parts of the nearest buildings most likely, demolished at the moment the black abominations deepened into the town. The smoke columns were rising here and there on the town border; Rainstorm caught a glimpse of crackling flames nearby. The pegasus mare smirked inwardly – Shining Armour approached the task of blocking the Seekers with all possible seriousness. Her eyes quickly found the small square near the protruding tower, town hall as she called it. The creatures were still there, choosing their way among several indistinguishable narrow streets. Soaring higher, to keep the enemy in sight and to show herself at the same time, Rainstorm rushed to the Seekers. She kept her wings at the right angle to make the oncoming wind sizzle loudly on the metal-protected margins; her shadow fell on the square pavement. The simple trick worked: regardless of the monsters simply feeling the ponies’ presence or hearing her, one by one, the centaur-like creatures turned, rising their “glances” at the approaching mare. Rainstorm shuddered: despite the protective helmet, she almost felt those shining red “eyes” peering into her at once. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the spear tighter. More and more Seekers showed up: coming out of the narrow passages between the buildings, emerging from under the colourful canopies, they were spreading around the square. Expecting an easy fight against a single enemy, over a dozen of the creatures came into her sight, yet Rainstorm could spot movement in the deep shadows of the adjoining streets – there were more of them. With a bright metal flash, something jetted in front of Rainstorm’s bewildered sight, cutting the town square in halves and sending the dust fly in two dispersing waves. It seemed to fall from the sky, passing the view in the lowest point of its bowl-like trajectory, then darting up again right at the edge of the square, almost scratching the edge of the nearest roof. The mare froze on the spot, hovering above the suddenly becoming motionless square. The next second, with a deep sound of a giant broken string – Rainstorm felt the urge to cover her ears – the shock wave came. Frantically flapping her wings, Rainstorm tried to hold on the spot, almost blown away by the air pressure, which made the monsters below stagger. All the dust was swept away in a wink, forming a semblance of dandelion fluff at the end of the square before settling. One of the Seekers in the middle of the ruffled square shuddered and started falling apart in front of her eyes. The strike of the glaive was such a monstrous force and speed, that it cut the creature in halves. Bemusedly, Rainstorm watched how the parts were sinking to the ground like in some slow-motion movie. The dark mist-like substance started coming out of the severed Seeker; it tried to pull up along the trajectory of the attacker but soon began to fall, thinning and spreading around without the point of gravitation. The steel shining spear was too high in the sky to be reached. The entire square came in motion as if hit by a spell! The Seekers rushed under the cover, hiding under the balconies and awnings, hurrying to the doorways and tight corners of the houses. Doubtlessly, it would be next to impossible to repeat the sudden aerial attack with ease. Sending mental damnation, Rainstorm scanned the square, looking for any aim she could hit with her spear. As if in reply to the threat, three slim dark silhouettes rushed into the sky, emerging from the unseen before nooks between the town buildings. Soaring from the farther part of the town, they managed to sneak further north than the main pack, apparently. Bony constitution, black leathery look of skinny bodies and large wings, which had long blade-like claws, same as their rear extremities ended with – Rainstorm realized that she was observing the creatures Alex barely told them about. The flying Seekers, the Flyers! Completely ignoring the bewildered pegasus, they darted after the receding attacker, quickly picking up speed. ‘Time to contribute, girl!’ grabbing her spear tighter, Rainstorm jetted after the flying monsters. In a few seconds, the realization came that despite her speed she was losing the race to the dark abominations, which were catching up with the human. Thankfully, noticing the pursuit, Alex was already turning around. Making a loop in the air, he dashed towards the Flyers, gaining the speed with incredible pace. Before the flying monsters could orientate, he halved the distance. The next second, Alex’s silhouette smudged in Rainstorm’s sight: folding the wings, the steel spear darted towards the three chasers, screwing into the air between them and momentarily appearing behind. An earsplitting bloop reached Rainstorm’s hearing – the string of ripped turbulent air struck the Flyers, scattering them away momentarily and swirling chaotically. Trying their best not to lose height, the monsters regrouped. ‘They don’t look beaten enough yet…’ thought Rainstorm, using that sudden confusion of the enemy to shorten the distance. Giving the enemy fair credit, the Flyers didn’t take long to recover, rushing the next second into an attack. Like some angry black wasps, they started circling around the human, seeking the best chance to strike him down. Alex swirled in the sky, reflecting their attacks, returning with gain whenever possible. The entire clash rolled up and down in the sky on the spiralling trajectory, making it hard to distinguish where each participant in the fight was. Steel clatter on the blade claws, air sizzle and bright bunches of sparks spraying out each time Alex’s weapon hit the bony extremities of the Flyers – Rainstorm reconsidered entering the fight as it was at that moment. It went without saying, approaching the battle meant suicide. That giant fan of steel, wings and claws would have ground the mare, even probably regardless of her armour. Instead of that, she started flying around, keeping a safe distance and waiting for a chance to attack a Flyer accidentally thrown out of the main mess. ‘Damn it! No chance to approach the monsters hiding on the ground with these bastards on your tail! Ready to strike you down the moment you gape,’ from the corner of her eye, Rainstorm kept watching the town square below, noticing how the Seekers began to crawl out of their cover cautiously. A reckless thought to kick them back into corners came to her mind, but before the mare decided to rush down… Marking the spot she was hovering over, as the town hall was hardly visible from their positions, and spotting the place Alex swooped down to, Shining Armour and his serviceponies entered the fight. Less than in a second, the air below filled with sparkling fireballs! Flying in on ballistic trajectories, the magical projectiles carpeted the town square and the nearby blocks. Each fiery cluster hit the ground with roar and boom, with its flames starting to flow around the place of impact; the flood of them turning the area into a burning and flickering apocalypse. Two Seekers, which managed to get out to the square, disappeared behind the raging wall of flames. But Rainstorm could clearly see – the rest didn’t hurry to meet such an infamous fate, staying under the protection of the stone buildings, which yet withstood the bombing, minimizing the fire hazard. Apparently, Alex decided that confronting the nimble Flyers in the air was a waste of time and effort because he suddenly dived and dashed to the ground, forcing the three of his pursuers to follow. ‘What a crazy idea!’ after the momentary confusion, Rainstorm darted after them. ‘Does he want to try pushing some of the flying monsters into the flames?’ On the one hoof, entering the crooked, narrow town streets would certainly lower the speed of the flying Seekers, making them a better aim for her. On the other – Rainstorm clearly saw that landing wasn’t his plan, yet manoeuvering in the narrow gaps between the buildings would be quite hard if not impossible for Alex with his speed and wingspan. Keeping some distance behind the entire group, Rainstorm watched with round eyes how the human scudded almost vertically to the edge of the town. The bony flying scoundrels followed close, spreading into a short diagonal line to notice and prevent any possible sharp manoeuvre of their aim. However, as Rainstorm noted with grim satisfaction, the closer to the ground they were getting, the slower became the Seekers’ speed. ‘Flesh puppets or not, they definitely don’t want to turn into a black splotch on the pavement!’ the wry smile slid across the mare’s lips under the helmet. She was already estimating the course and the distance to the flying monster going last, planning to hit him with her spear. By some incredible effort, Alex braked down a few feet above the stone-paved road; the long main feathers on the back edges of his wings even got bent up slightly on their tips. Turning almost at the right angle, he rushed along the street, which seemed a bit straighter and wider than the rest of the labyrinth. The Flyers drew in between the houses after him, forcedly stretching into the line and losing the advantage of simultaneous attack chance. The walls of crystal and bricks, the windows, the balconies and awnings, which she needed to dodge, started flashing by. Rainstorm tried to keep slightly higher than the rushing pursuit in her sight to be able to see the forthcoming situation, not missing an obstacle or a turn. They already passed two of them at that crazy speed; the Flyers slowed down considerably at the sharp turns of the narrow uneven street, but Rainstorm ignored the chance to strike the trailing one – she was quite busy with fitting each next turn herself. However, despite the heat and tension of the pursuit, Rainstorm started guessing the general direction of that race – Alex was leading them to the town square, doing his best to exhaust the Flyers by wavering them between the houses and corners. The mare was preparing for the square to suddenly pop ahead: in that case, she would need to pull up immediately. Perhaps, Alex was going to fly straight through the opening raging with flames, with the new projectiles hitting the square, to pull the monsters under the strike of the crystal guards; it wasn’t a suitable variant for her. Indeed, after another turn, a wider gap showed up ahead: a tiny piece of the blue sky, overshadowed by dense clouds of smoke, orange glares dancing on the walls of the houses on the edge of the square filled with flames. The latter began settling down though – fortunately, shortly after the air fight moved to the town structures, the crystal guards prudently stopped the shelling, fairly supposing they could easily hit the wrong somepony. The last several fireballs plummeted into the pavement, pouring it with the fiery spreading clouds, and the cannonade died out. Right in time, in the next second Alex burst into the town square, fanning the dying flames high with his wings and crossing the open space, leaving a bright fiery trail on the ground. Even if the monsters following him felt the burn, it turned out insufficient to distract, let alone stop them. Encouraged by the broad space, they immediately formed a line behind Alex, going to attack him at the tiniest chance. The human already headed to the opposite edge of the square, his speed dropped a little as if he was welcoming the black abominations to try their luck. Rainstorm gasped involuntarily – Alex was flying to the narrow gap between two large brick walls, it could hardly be named a street, rather some dark alley – it looked impossible for him to fly through there normally. The Flyers probably suspected the same, as they spread wider to intercept any Alex’s attempt to turn away in front of the approaching obstacle. The speed was still quite high. Several yards before the narrow gap, right when the collision seemed imminent, the wings sent the human forward, boosting him with one powerful flap. In a blink of an eye, Alex turned vertically, drawing into the alley parallel to its walls with a loud bloop caused by momentarily increasing speed. A strong draft pushed the dust and garbage outside of the opening. The middle Flyer entered the narrow alley automatically; by the uneven jerky movements and strange trajectory, Rainstorm realized that it wasn’t the preferred event development for the creature. However, she managed to notice how the monster straightened in the air and continued the pursuit into the darkness of the gap. The rightmost and going the last Flyer had time to correct its trajectory and drew into the passage almost normally, even if its speed dropped cautiously. The leftmost, closest to the improvised trap beast crashed into the edge of the gap, smashing hard against the house wall! The bricks started raining down with a loud rumble, large cracks running across the wall surface from the spot of impact! The dust fumed up, filling the air and covering the scene for a moment. Making an effort to hover straight, Rainstorm finally closed her mouth. She soared higher to be able to see where Alex was leading the remaining Flyers. Simplifying her task, a fountain of broken planks, pieces of cloth and various small debris burst from another end of the alley, showing where the race broke out to the wider street. Apparently, some obstacles in the narrow passage turned out to be unavoidable. Watching Alex taking right and generally clockwise regarding her, the mare understood his plan to bring the flying seekers to the central area at least once again. Doubting the second success of the same trick, Rainstorm dashed about the square in search of something which could help to get rid of the persistent flying bastards. She saw how one or another of the Flyers tried to rise higher from time to time to attempt an attack, making Alex change the course sharply, judging by how the creature stumbled and jerked in the air, diving down again after that. Her mind was ripping apart by the wish to help and the ringing alarm of one puzzle – where the rest of the Seekers could be. ‘Hopefully, they couldn’t get far from here!’ Making a loop around the town, she completely lost sight of the monsters, feeling almost guilty now. ‘They couldn’t escape discreetly, I’m sure… It was scorching Tartarus down there, they must have no time for the retreat!’ On the other hoof, flying around the square, Rainstorm didn’t notice any large ash piles or the Dark Mist spreading around; it allowed her to suppose that none of the Seekers was eliminated by the blind shelling. Meanwhile, the flames died down, leaving the pitch-black burn marks on the pavement and surrounding walls, but no signs of the remnants the mare was seeking. ‘They must be hiding somewhere…’ the mare stumbled mid-thought, flying past the town hall for yet another time – one of the walls of the tower was damaged. Most likely by the time, as the repair works were planned and one side of the tower was stuck all over with scaffolding. The top of the tower possessed no roof, gaping with the opening which welcomed all the winds and rains. Approaching the town hall, Rainstorm noticed the long cracks heading down the wall from the tower top; several temporary wooden strainers supported the wall along its height, literally not letting it crumble down under its mass. ‘If I can unbalance it…’ glimpsed in Rainstorm’s head. But before the mare rose higher to check the tower from the top, some sound from the square gained her attention. The dust had long settled over the place where the Flyer crashed into the wall. Despite Rainstorm’s hope that the beast buried itself for good, something slowly scrambled out from the pile of broken bricks with scratching and crackling. The debris started flowing down before her sight and a spear-like extremity showed up. The Flyer was doubtlessly wounded, and wounded severely; with one wing broken it couldn’t properly move, let alone fly. Resembling a crashed mantis even more, the monster pulled itself from the heap of rubble, crawling out clumsily and giving Rainstorm light nausea by its sight. Her first urge was to rush and finish the abomination for good, but the mare held herself noticing the determination, with which the half-crashed carcass clawed its way across the circle – the thing clearly had some goal. Hovering next to the town hall, the pegasus mare watched like enthralled how the broken Flyer crawled towards the wide low building with broad windows on the ground floor – probably the large store or some sort of covered market before. The beast reached the closest opening and pulled inside, grabbing the edge with its claws. Straining her eyes, Rainstorm fancied some movement inside that building, deep in the shadows behind the broken windows. “Of course!” the mare even muttered it aloud. ‘What a foal I was! They were hiding from the fire under the stone cover all that time. The fireballs could blast the windows and even smash the doors, but couldn’t harm the creatures inside!’ As if confirming her thoughts, a couple of black tendrils flashed in the opening: a big shadow moved from inside, hiding behind the frame and almost peeking outside. The bombing ceased and the Seekers started looking for ways to complete their task, whatever it was. Appearing in the light, the trunk-like leg of the same coal-black colour with its hoof gave a small bright sun flare on its leathery surface. That became the last drop for Rainstorm – weighing her spear, the mare darted down to the building, aiming her throw on the fly. Whizzing in the silence of the broad square, the spear scratched the thick leg of the centaur-like thing and stuck into the lower beam of the window frame with an echoing, vibrating boom. The scratch was enough though, the imbued blade did its job – barely wounded the creature almost fell inside the building. Soaring again, Rainstorm heard with a wry smile, how the Seeker collapsed on the floor, limping on the immediately turned inoperable leg. The creature was doomed to disintegrate slowly, with the human’s blood eating it from inside. The mare glimpsed to notice how the shadows inside recoiled deeper from their defeated kin. She picked her spear on the next dive, pulling it from the wood with some effort. The gaze inside confirmed her find: the darkness in the building stirred and wavered, flowing with the red sparks – more than ten, as Rainstorm noted, shuddering from disgust. However, it flounced away from her shining steel silhouette and the dry sound of the spear pulled from the frame. The crippled Flyer almost disappeared between its companions as the mare could notice, rocketing back to the tower. At a closer examination, it turned out that the top of the broken wall could easily be held by the large but quite time-beaten wooden beam. Breaking or shifting it down would probably make the entire thing collapse under the weight of the upper parts. Hovering over the town hall tower, Rainstorm kept watching the monsters’ hideout from the corner of her eye. None of the Seekers dared to show up in the openings; met by the deadly flying enemy, they preferred to stay inside. ‘Probably changing their tactics…’ Rainstorm made a wry face under her helmet. She just thought that she couldn’t see the backside of the building when the growing noise from her right announced the arrival of Alex and his pursuers. The mare soared higher above the town hall; she could see the flickering movement approaching the square and dodging between the houses. Risking to spoil everything, Rainstorm tried landing on the weathered beam – the plangent dry groan of the strained wood told her that she was on the right way. Popping up from the tower top, Rainstorm saw Alex bursting into the town square with the same two Flyers on his tail. Apparently, the human couldn’t lose any of the monsters in the narrow streets. “Over here!” Rainstorm started waving her fore legs madly; the scream bawled from her helmet, making the mare sound like some battle horn. Hearing her or noticing her frantic pantomime, Alex darted towards the tower as if the entire Tartarus broke loose after his heels. Freezing inside from the fear of setting the trap off prematurely, Rainstorm rushed down. All the four steel-shod hooves met with the wooden beam, kicking it down hard with all the weight the armoured mare could provide. The large timber responded with a sound of earsplitting dry shot, trembling but withstanding the strike. Squeezing out damnation, the mare rocketed again for a better kick and crashed down on top of her speed, angrily stomping the persistent wood – there was no time to waste; she noticed Alex halfway to the tower. The beam gave up under her second blow; with another dry shot of breaking wood, it cracked apart, skewing itself in a fortunate way and even putting additional strain on the wall which was already on its last legs. The latter trembled, letting out a long stony groan, and started to collapse, crumbling down level by level; Alex was already inches from the tower as Rainstorm could see, soaring and feeling pain in her strained legs – the hit was either way palpable. The human dashed through the cloud of dust and small falling stone specks, making it swirl and fan around from his wings. The first Flyer managed to pass as well, being hit by a couple of falling bricks. The entire mass of stones and broken planks of the collapsing wall dropped on the second Flyer, burying it under the tons of debris. Some broken beams looked sharp enough to give hope the menacing beast could stay there forever. Rainstorm couldn’t hold a triumphant scream; she watched how Alex pulled up sharply, luring the last Flyer to follow. ‘He probably wants to dodge it on the top of the loop, at the maximum overload,’ thought Rainstorm, ‘making a sudden dash from below and striking the bastard!’ However, the flying Seeker suddenly lost interest in the pursuit; bemusedly, Rainstorm watched the creature turning away from Alex’s peaking trajectory, slowing down and gliding towards the building the rest of the monsters kept hiding. The Flyer landed and quickly rustled inside on its blade-like legs through one of the broken windows. The silence that followed sounded suspiciously menacing to the mare. “Are they all inside?” Blowing her over by the wind, Alex returned, hovering next to Rainstorm, slightly aside not to hit the mare with his wings. “All which survived.” Rainstorm nodded silently. The two pairs of eyes were chained to the squat building: something strange was going on with it. The entire construction shuddered as if being pushed by some short seismic surge underneath. The low rumble came outside; rolling through the innards of the enemy’s hiding place, it reached Alex’s and Rainstorm’s ears on the lower border of their hearing. Powdering the window openings to zero visibility, the dust poured down from the walls and roof edges; separate bricks started falling down – squeezed out from their places, they dropped and splintered against the pavement, peppering the square with small shards. “Fall back!” Alex gestured to Rainstorm to keep a safe distance from the building. “They learned to fly out of the blue! Who knoweth what they are plotting now!” Realizing that he admitted the explosion possibility, Rainstorm nodded and pulled back and higher into the sky to avoid possible stone shrapnel. Meanwhile, the changes kept happening to the construction. The streams and tendrils of the so-called Dark Mist started trailing out from the gaps and openings of the building as if somepony began to pump the substance inside of the abandoned store. In a matter of seconds, the entire building was shrouded in that magical haze, fuming now strongly from the broken windows. It looked trembling through the Dark Mist as if it got into a strong torrent of heated air. ‘Merlin’s pants!’ Alex grasped the unfolding glaive firmly. ‘I extend mine hope they aren’t calling for reinforcements!’ The next moment the low hum shook the entire square: Rainstorm felt how the sound sent shivers down her spine literally. It seemed that the building had been ripped apart from inside and the stones and bricks groaned from the monstrous strain. In a blink of an eye, the cloud of Dark Mist enveloping the constructions pulled inside as if some giant magical pump sucked it all. After a second of ringing silence, which struck the ears hardly less than that bone-shuddering low-pitched sound before, the building started collapsing, folding like a house of cards before the bewildered sight of the human and the mare. Something huge, almost half the size of the building containing it, was coming out of the shattered store, rising from the heap of broken bricks, wooden beams and parts of floors. Unable to believe their own eyes, Alex and Rainstorm froze in the air for a moment. ‘They concatenated in a single… giant Seeker!’ There was only one possible explanation of what they witnessed and it struck Alex like a thunderbolt. ‘Granted it can be fought the usual way,’ glimpsed in his head, ‘but I’m afraid it can withstand much more before it goes down!’ The red orifice amidst the monstrous Seeker torso turned around like a giant beacon. That made Alex wonder if at that size the creature could reach the crystal guards blocking the town. Once coming together, the beast spread the ghostly tendrils of Dark Mist again. Sheets and stripes of black haze curled around the colossus’s legs like banners, flowing around the giant headless centaur figure. Strangely though, there was no anxiety or confusion in Alex’s soul, only focused calmness and judgment. What he noticed next made him smirk wryly – the hope to defeat the monstrous creature there and then wasn’t ephemeral… unlike the Seeker. Alex had no idea if the concatenated creature was supposed to be fully materialized but as soon as the process was incomplete, it evidently wasn’t. He could see the last parts of the demolished building falling straight through the enormous body of that behemoth! “Stay away from its blows!” Suspecting the Seeker to start their favourite bombardment by everything turning up under their extremities, Alex waved to Rainstorm to clear the way. Folding his glaive and clipping it to the belt, the human rocketed into the sky, starting to draw a wide loop and distancing from the fight scene. At a loss, the mare kept watching his silhouette, until the human completed the loop, turning to the giant Seeker and levelling himself low above the town. Rainstorm started to understand what Alex planned to do. Still considering it a completely crazy idea, she began rushing forward and about in front of the enormous creature, trying to distract it from manoeuvres. She was undoubtedly risking – nopony knew how fast that assembled Seeker could be, but that exactly was the reason to hold it grounded for a while. Mentally drawing a beeline between himself and the dark silhouette in the distance, Alex darted forward. It felt as if the wings were going to propel him with planet-escape velocity: the surrounding landscape smudged in his view upon the initial speed up. Keeping accelerating, Alex rushed towards the enemy, hoping that he took sufficient distance for that strike. Another boost came suddenly, making the world around him turn into a flowing colourful blotch; his sight reddened, making Alex forcedly dispel the thoughts about possible overloads and especially about what could happen if the Seeker managed to materialize before Alex reached him. Turning into a large steel bullet! The ears got stuffed up, the sight narrowed to the small spot with a floating dark figure in the middle. Completely entrusting himself to his wings, armour and helmet, Alex made the final effort. Folding the wings, so he formed a large drill, he turned himself into the spiralling jet. Noticing the white boiling turbulent trail appearing behind the steel spear, Rainstorm dashed aside leaving the Seeker alone. The mare knew, could easily guess at least, what was going to happen in a fraction of a second. The thin white line crossed out the square, cutting the air like a blade cutting the silk. Rainstorm could barely notice the bright spark at the pinpoint of that line, concerned about getting away from the impact front faster. The materialization process turned out more complex and lengthy, so the steel spark went right through the giant Seeker. For the tiniest moment it looked motionless. The next moment Rainstorm saw how the dark substance forming the creature started to trail out of the large hole on its side – the Seeker was pierced through. The Dark Mist pulled outside, curling around Alex’s trail. Even before collapsing, the black monster started literally crumbling: it looked as if the Seeker was imploding, being sucked into itself. Then came the shock wave. Mixing and swirling everything on the square and in the air around, it swept and crushed the creature like some paper cup, bombarding it with debris and dust from the destroyed building. Rainstorm could barely struggle with the air pressure, which almost hit her against the nearest wall then yanked the pegasus mare back towards the low-pressure zone, which was formed by the hypersonic “projectile”. She had no doubt – this time Alex topped the speed of sound far more than twice. As if trying to complete the effect, the sound wave finally arrived, bursting the rare surviving windows around the square and spreading around in a deep juicy bloop, which rolled across the town dying down on the periphery. That was the second wave, which almost completely overshadowed the first one, making it sound like an echo. Teetering in the air, Rainstorm looked around, scanning for Alex and feeling still stunned, not to say contused. Right before the shock wave came, she managed to notice the human correcting his trajectory up by some miracle and dodging the collision with the distant buildings. Fighting light vertigo, the mare finally found his silhouette in the sky. Wavering and stumbling in the sky, the human was landing on the spot where the remnants of the giant Seeker – the cloud of Dark Mist – were still wreathing and mingling with the dust. Before his legs touched the pavement heavily, the dark substance started pulling up to him, reaching and seeping through the gaps in the armour; the entire, looking like a jelly pile in the wind, cloud was absorbed by the human in less than a minute. The mare headed to the ground as well, while the last shreds of Dark Mist disappeared under Alex’s legs. For a moment longer, he stood listening for his senses and taking a look around. Rainstorm already landed in front of Alex, looking at him inquiringly when he finally nodded with satisfaction. The silvery glow enveloped the helmet, taking away a good portion of it and leaving only the habitual thin metal band around Alex’s forehead; only then, Rainstorm allowed herself to pull off her own headpiece after a bit of struggling with the straps. “Done with them!” summarized Alex tiredly. Gazing up at his face, Rainstorm noticed how the pitch-black eyes fluently changed to the regular sea-green but slightly bloodshot ones. “Are you okay?” with soft concern in her voice, she came closer ready to give him a shoulder to lean upon. “That dash…” Rainstorm fell silent. “Well!” Alex took a breath. “These wings surely have some magic to them. I thought I was going to become a plaice inside my armour during that last spurt!” He smirked. “Normally, I suppose, I should become a pancake indeed… Which tells us that we need to reinforce our armour more,” added he after a meaningful pause. “And you?” “A little beaten up by your shock wave, but I’m okay,” Rainstorm puffed away a strand of snow-white mane. “I managed to kill two Seekers! One with the stone fall,” she nodded towards the damaged town hall, “and one from the… ground pack.” “Cool!” Alex made a pondering mien. “I got only one!” He glanced at the mare with such seriousness, that she couldn’t believe her ears at first. Then the smile started sneaking onto Alex’s face slowly. After a moment of dead silence, Rainstorm gave under, bursting with uncontrollable laughter. She dashed to the human, grabbing him into a short but tight hug, finally letting the tension release her. Seeing Rainstorm unable to stop laughing, Alex broke into a wide smile, shaking from laughter a moment later as well. “Hey! We saw your last dash!” With a loud clap of the teleport, Shining Armour appeared next to them amidst all the mess on the square. “That was…” With a bright flash, two more unicorn guards arrived. “You went at least five times the speed of sound when crashing into that thing!” exclaimed one of them. “I was counting... Is that even possible?” “The area is safe now!” Alex said instead of an answer. Shining Armour chuckled indefinitely; he already turned to the guards, giving orders to extinguish the fires around the town, when another flash lit the square, making everypony shield their eyes for a moment. Another teleport brought three mares: one kept standing there with a subtle smile while the other two launched forward as soon as their hooves touched the ground. Alex barely managed to remove his armour – Fluttershy hung on his neck, nuzzling him frantically, while Princess Cadence grabbed her husband in an ardent cuddle. * “Where are the girls, I wonder?” Almost flattening the tip of his nose against the window, Spike took a look outside, at the round, rarely crossed by the random ponies square in front of the Golden Oak Library. “What time did you invite them to? The weather is hardly nice enough for taking a walk…” “Mhm…” It took a couple of seconds to focus on his words, raising her eyes from the book she was reading. “Oh… To half-past one PM, give or take several minutes.” Twilight threw her glance up to the wall clock. “It’s twenty minutes before two. But it’s winter, you know, Spike, roads tend to become longer in winter,” added she with a smile. “Don’t worry.” “Hmm…” the little dragon shrugged and returned to watching the outside, showing by his entire look that he was hardly convinced by the girl’s words. One thing Spike was right about – regardless of the clear sky and the sun shining as bright as it probably could in December, the weather was hardly welcoming for the prolonged walks. Seen from inside the Library only by the wildly swaying treetops across the square, the wind blew in strong drafts, pouncing occasionally and making the glass tingle in the colourful glazing on both sides of the front door. The empty now square had been regularly cleaned of the snow, the rest of which was trampled down by the ponies, thus the wind had little chance to raise some white powder into the air. Otherwise, it would have turned into a snowstorm near the ground; even then a hoofful of snowflakes flew by the Library door from time to time, quietly scratching along the glass as if pleading to enter. However, nopony was going to welcome the cold and snow there. Coming inside mostly through the stained glass entrance windows, the sunlight became coloured. Its mild rays scattered around the spacious hall, playing catch-up on the low tables and couches, riding along the multitude of book spines on the endless bookshelves and even curiously peeking into the kitchen through the open door. Having no dedicated fireplace, the room felt surprisingly warm and cosy: the secret was known by those familiar with the Library – the back wall of the kitchen hearth was also the sidewall of the hall. The only free spot in the room unoccupied by the books, so somepony knowing Twilight well could easily suspect some trick there. Wrapping her hind legs in a soft plaid, Twilight Sparkle was nesting with all the possible comfort in the corner of a large couch at the far wall. Probably her favourite place, as from there, the girl could easily see the captions of the majority of the books behind, reaching the necessary one with her magic, and the wall clock, which – let’s be frank – was rarely used while reading. Thus, lighting a couple of candles, as the sunlight was reaching that spot too scattered and the electric light could ruin the atmosphere of her comfy bookworm nest, Twilight dived into her book of choice, folding her soft lilac wings so she practically had a couple more pillows under her back. Throwing another glance at Spike impatiently trampling at the entrance, the girl returned to the interrupted line with ease, quickly submerging between the pages again. ‘He must be jumpy because of Rarity coming…’ that idea brought a smile to Twilight’s muzzle. ‘Everypony was so busy lately, we hardly met the last few days; besides, all the Seekers-related tension…’ the girl slowly shook her head at her thoughts. ‘And now she is coming and will be… undistracted for a change.’ Watching Spike’s passion and Rarity ogling the human, Twilight often praised her decision to plug the Mirror Lake with a large cliff – the idea of cloning Rarity had been clearly seen in Spike’s eyes at least once. Twilight shuddered and hurried to dispel the memory of the once misuse of the lake power. ‘No way, once was enough! Just imagine… several of her in a fit of despair…’ Thoughts like that were hardly welcome by the relaxed girl. Everything was prepared for the tea; all the plan points checked out most likely. Thus Twilight could mercifully allow the girls to be late. Several recent snowfalls made cruising around Ponyville very problematic, unless one used the regularly cleaned roads and paths only; besides, Applejack lived the farthest of them. Plain logic told Twilight that there was nothing to worry about. Some subtle noise from behind the front door made her dragon aide perk up; ungluing from the window, Spike rushed to open the door. Hearing the muffled hum of voices, Twilight rose her glance; levitating the book and the quickly unwrapped plaid aside, the girl jumped off the couch to meet her guests. The lilac aura caught and held the door edge – Spike had to brake down visibly, not letting the wind fly open it and hit the wall. The girl blinked – the sunlight was contrastingly bright, but the silhouette at their doorstep couldn’t be mistaken for anypony. In the stream of cold air, which threw a hoofful of snow inside, there stood Applejack, shaking the snow off her shoulders and mane. “G’day, partner!” the mare broke into a wide smile. Finally bringing herself to order, Applejack pulled off her stetson and brushed it with a sweeping motion, making the last snowdrift fall off the brim. “Ah may come late, but nothin’ can stop me from visiting friends, not even a blizzard.” Stepping aside, before Twilight could ask the question making her eyes widen, the girl cleared the way for the rest. “Howdy, Twi!!!” Applejack even staggered a little as a colourful jet whizzed by, stopping right in time not to jet-boop the alicorn girl. “What’s boiling, mate? From Pinkie’s words, I got that you wanted to tell us something,” Rainbow Dash squeezed stunned Twilight in a hug; then her glance darted to the bookshelves. Without lingering, the pegasus girl rushed along the bookcases, examining the shelves for the novelties. Rainbow preferred fiction but checked the entire stash habitually. Zero catch that time couldn’t spoil her mood and she landed next to Twilight with a smile. Meanwhile, two more girls – Rarity and Pinkie – entered, shaking the snow from their hooves and boots in front of the door. “Errmmm…” Twilight’s eyes slid from Rainbow to Pinkie, to Rarity, then returned to Applejack, whose coat was still sparkling with the multitude of tiny melting snowflakes. “It looks as if you were coming from totally different Ponyville, Jackie…” drawled she in bewilderment. “Ah was to cross the field,” Applejack smirked, checking the red band on her damp mane. “Even if today it’s unusually bright and sunny for December,” elaborated she under Twi’s puzzled look, “it’s blowin’ hard in the fields, making the snow from the plains fly into the air. It sweeps almost along the ground at times,” the girl shook her head. “Ah’d say it’ll bring some proper blizzard soon, remember my words!” “Oh… I feel for the students,” leaving her trendy boots by the front door, Rarity breathed a sigh of sympathy. “They need to cross a part of the field before school!” Untying the fancy shawl covering her mane, the girl levitated it into Spike’s paws, already loaded with Applejack’s and Pinkie’s scarves. Thrilled even with that attention, the little dragon barely managed to catch the shawl, as the unicorn girl absently dropped it – Rarity’s thoughts seemed to be somewhere else still. “It’s quite windy there, darling!” she finally noticed Spike, patting him on the shoulder. “Ahm… Err…” the dragon was about to melt into a puddle again. “We don’t notice it here usually,” Twilight came to help. “The Golden Oak is too large to give a creak even after strong winds. And that snow-hat muffles everything.” The snow remained laying in heaps on the large branches indeed; the tree giant didn’t even drop all the leaves yet. The latter simply changed their colour to deep-bronze and brown, unequivocally hinting at its name, but a good portion of them stayed in their places, holding the snow on the crown and letting it ignore even the strong gusts. “So, how are you doing, girls?” Twilight gestured welcomingly. “Pinkie! Pinkie?” “Ah? Oh…” the cotton candy mane shook as the girl giggled, pushing back to her neck the large fluffy earmuffs, which made her rather see, not hear the friend’s question. “I’m fine. Absolutely fine!” Pinkie broke into a smile. “Just busy, you know… As usual, Twi. Not that busy as I will be at the face of the holidays! Just regularly busy in the bakery…” she took a pause to inhale. “But visiting my friends is as important, so… I have a couple of hours while the next portion of dough is leavening.” “Let me help, Spike,” noticing Twilight’s aide loaded with a tray of snacks emerging from the kitchen, Pinkie rushed to him. “Cute stuff! Your own work… or Twi dared to take part?” “Oh, no! I’m not going to experiment on you girls,” the alicorn filly let out a tiny flushing smile. “So, worry not!” making the girls give a laughter, reassured Twilight. “Well, ya know, Ah have mostly nothing to do till late February,” following Twilight into the room, Applejack shrugged. “So, Ah’m all for the friendly gatherings this time of the year.” “And I have a day off from the weather duties today,” smirked Rainbow. “Funny thing, I’d have nothing to do even otherwise: there is no single cloud outside, a rare case for December,” she sighed with feigned discontent. “What an irony – having a day off on a clear day,” giggled she. “Don’t you say!” Twilight nodded. “What about you, Rarity? You look… absent… a bit,” throwing a concerned glance at her friend, the alicorn girl joined Pinkie and Spike in setting the table for tea. “Oh, it’s all about the sewing! Not coming out of my head, Twi,” Rarity swayed her mane back with a dramatic hoof wave. “I’m so thankful for that break, darling!” she batted her eyelashes, helping to levitate the cups to the low, broad table. “The Hearthwarming collection! And the Spring one is adding to the hassle… Even with the motorized sewing machines. Ahhh!” “That’s what I wanted to talk about as well – Hearthwarming!” noticed Twilight, as if by chance shifting that way Spike turned out next to Rarity. “I bet if Alex was here, she would forget about sewing for a while, rushing here one hundred twenty per cent more eagerly,” Rainbow quietly nudged Applejack, making both girls giggle. “I can hear you!” Rarity raised one eyebrow at the friends; Spike sent a sulky glance at Rainbow Dash while Rarity added plaintively. “I’m not exaggerating, girls. I have loads to make… Thanks Harmony, for the improved lighting – the evenings become darker and darker naturally.” “Yeah, and the Seekers are not going to thin out,” grimaced Pinky, letting out a smile almost the next second. “Hey, maybe nopony told them that they were supposed to become less active in the cold?” “Well, at least we have a more professional line of defence now,” noticed Twilight. “Four specifically equipped guards instead of one volunteer. By secret, Princess Luna informed me that she was going to send more as soon as they have enough armour – could be faster but they are to address all the possible regions. Isn’t it what you craved for, Rarity?” “Hmm… Knowing Rainstorm, I’d say that she is four-guards-worth on her pure enthusiasm,” smirked Rainbow Dash, picking her cup from Twilight’s aura. Applejack nodded pensively. “Oh, come on!” Rarity rolled her eyes; then her muzzle became concerned. “Speaking of the Seekers! Where are the fillies? The studies usually end… this-time-around!” “Don’t ya worry, partner! Thanks, Spike!” Applejack leaned to her friend, accepting her tea from the dragon’s paws. “The fillies are at the farm already! Ah checked on ‘em before leaving.” The relief glimpsed in Rarity’s eyes but the girl kept looking at the wall clock over the bookshelves, estimating something inwardly. “Oh, I hope that they didn’t swerve the last class for that…” drawled she. “And I sure do hope that “at the farm” didn’t mean “in the clubhouse” at least, darling!” the unicorn girl shook her sapphire mane with a meaningful glance. “Of course, not!” Applejack gave a sincere laugh, catching her stetson escaping her head at the last moment. “They are at home, sugar cube! And Granny Smith isn’t going to take her eyes off them.” “You understand, the girls I mean are the same Cutie Mark Crusaders we know,” squinted Rarity, making everypony around giggle. “Last time Ah saw them, they were very, I mean VERY busy with some astronomy stuff. Not goin’ to run anywhere,” Applejack added, seeing her friend’s doubt. “Besides, Winona is with them. She will defend the girls no matter what…” “The Seekers can’t affect the dog,” reminded Twilight; the girl sent an encouraging glance over her cup, enveloped in the lilac aura. “Most of the animals actually. A mystery for me, but… I remember Alex saying that and also that predators tend to attack the Seekers.” “Right!” Rainbow Dash lit with an idea. “Perhaps that is why we literally had zero monsters approaching the town from the south. Everfree serves us as a shield. I guess that Timberwolves take their prey regularly.” “Ah’d say, not much to take, partner!” With that memory emerging, Applejack grimaced. “The one Ah saw personally turned into some ashes and nasty black fog…” She broke off – the other girls, all like one, unwittingly shuddered. The long pause enveloped the room; everypony had more or less unsetting thoughts as the forest beasts were mentioned, the freshest of them being the incident during Nightmare Night when Timberwolves had nearly eaten one of the Ponyville school foals. When it came down to them, the girls always started having mixed feelings about who were the worst – the magical predators or the Seekers. “Well, girls,” thinking that the pause lingered a bit, Pinkie hurried to break it, “you won’t deny that it became safer anyway. I mean with the professional guards taking the duty around Ponyville.” The girl shook her cotton candy mane with emphasis, making it puff. “You don’t need to worry that much, Rarity. If I were the fillies, I’d rather go bonkers because of being foalsat that tightly!” she giggled despite the tint of concern on Rarity’s muzzle. “I wonder though, Rainstorm wasn’t simply replaced by the guards, she completely disappeared out of the town after Princess Luna’s visit,” added Pinkie pensively. “Is Canterlot suddenly short of the weather pegasi… or monster fighters for that matter?” Twilight bit her lip: they had discussed the events in Crystal Empire with her mentor the day before, and Princess Celestia assumed that the Elements of Harmony should be informed about the situation in general. However, they agreed that excessive dramatization would rather turn out harmful, loading the alicorn girl with a non-trivial task of delivering the news cautiously. Fortunately, Rarity’s barely contained snort distracted the company from Twilight’s visible hesitations. “C’mon, Rarity!” Spike seemed to wake from silent watching of her, making the girls stare at him in surprise. “What’s wrong with Rainstorm? You don’t pout at Flutters or… Princess Luna, if that’s what I’m thinking about,” he broke into a sly smile; Pinkie froze half biting through the cake and exchanged glances with Applejack. Only Twilight looked more concerned by some inner dilemma. “Or, by the way, at Twilight…” Spike nodded towards the lost in thought hostess. Rarity even put down the cup and looked at him as if seeing anew. “You know,” the unicorn girl cocked her nose and glanced down from under the thrown up eyelashes. “I’m enough realist to admit that Fluttershy is… errmmm… naturally without a rival here!” “Oh!” Rainbow chuckled, hiding her mien behind a large gulp of tea. Pinkie and Applejack laughed while Spike nodded with a meaningful face. “As for Princess Luna,” Rarity shrugged. “I’m not blind, darling; after all that happened, I doubt they can even be separated.” “Ya nailed it, partner!” Applejack threw her fore hooves up jokingly. “Only Mac could state it firmer.” “That Rainstorm upstart…” Rarity wrinkled her nose with a huff. “Calm down, mate,” Twilight shook her head with a smile. “Rainstorm is simply loyal. Very loyal!” “Heard that?” Rarity glanced at Spike meaningfully. “With all mentioned before, Twi is prudence and decency embodied!” Her exaggeratedly satisfied expression should mean that she reflected all the tricky insinuations. “By the way,” as if suddenly remembering, Rainbow turned to Twilight, “it’s been over a week since Alex and Flutters left. How’s it going without him, Twi?” “You mean without somepony, who either comes home bleeding out or with the new extremities,” Twilight glanced at her friend, “who sits with his pieces of metal long after midnight, then falls asleep over the blueprints and books, yet… keeps wandering around the town? Who…” “Yeah, yeah, exactly!” Rainbow kept nodding with a wide grin. “All of that, mate.” “It’s a bit boring,” simply said Twilight. “A little bit too quiet. Of course, I like order and stuff… But with him, it’s like a guaranteed guessing game of what surprise will come next. And I’m not always winning that game – it can be fun…” she let out a tiny smile. “Boring? Speak for yourself, Twi,” Spike rolled his eyes jokingly. “I have definitely felt the difference by the doubled kitchen duty at least!” “So… These two bring into your life the required dose of… how can I put that… less dangerous chaos,” Rainbow gave a laughter. “Interesting! You could always ask me though,” she spread her wings a bit, imitating the frantic flapping, “or… Discord.” Now both Applejack and Pinkie joined her giggling. “Thanks!” Twilight heartily shook her head, hugging and nuzzling Spike. “I’m so sorry, Spike. You know my cooking skills… I would probably need to put all my magic skills to use after that, curing us from of poisoning.” “Twilight, darling, maybe you need to take some household courses,” Rarity lit with an idea. “Lately Sweetie Belle made visible progress… Well, she didn’t actually explode anything in the kitchen last time, but that’s quite inspiring, so…” added she enthusiastically while Twilight inwardly shrunk at the image of the adult alicorn taking household lessons. “Any news about ‘em, Twi?” quietly asked Applejack, becoming suddenly serious after laughing. “Or, even better, from them.” “Yeah,” agreed Pinkie. “They just vanished out of the blue. I’d like to know what the deal was if you can tell, of course.” “Well…” Twilight finally made up her mind. “Let’s begin with this – Canterlot wasn’t their destination from the very start. Alex and Fluttershy are in the Crystal Empire now…” “Huh! I knew,” Pinkie easily overtook the surprised girls and Spike. “I knew, there was more to that. First them, then Rainstorm leaving… with the help of nopony else but Princess Luna herself. Hmmm, something tells me that there must be a big mess in Crystal Empire then…” “Calm down, partner!” Applejack pulled back the fluffy pink tail back. “Let your conspiracy get the actual soil to grow on as it is about to be spilt.” “Big” is the word, Pinkie!” nodded Twilight. “We suspected an attack at the Crystal City being prepared, and there was one…” she was going to get directly to the core problem. “Sweet Celestia!” Rarity’s eyes rounded when after several minutes Twilight drew the line under her brief story, completely omitting Alex’s problems with elements of the North. “So, they can literally combine forces now. The Seekers!” In her eyes, the girls could clearly see the frantic search for the new methods to make the fillies’ life safer. And harder! “I’m afraid – yes,” nodded Twilight regretfully. “However, I assume a single bigger creature is at least easier to notice and avoid. That doesn’t take away the entire problem of dealing with the huge thing though.” “I wonder, if they always could,” Pinkie squinted and cupped her chin. “You know, I would like to know how small and inconspicuous one could be and how harmful therein.” “Ah certainly hope they didn’t,” Applejack shuddered. “Ah would hate to think about countless tiny vermin of ‘at kind, nor of huge ones becomin’ usual.” “I highly doubt we ever had any cat-size Seekers,” Twilight shook her head with a sad smile. “Supposedly that trick is another reaction to them being attacked here and successfully eliminated so far.” “Hmm…” silent before, Rainbow Dash finally uttered. “Come to think about it, there is a bigger problem, girls. The flying monsters! So far we thought that at least skies were safe…” “As if we had it easy, risking to be attacked on the ground…” slowly muttered Twilight, feeling how the thought about an unknown flying threat – Princess Celestia couldn’t provide much detail – caused horripilation tingle down her back. “Pegasi can cope with that problem!” Rainbow shook her mane peremptorily. “Of course, we need protection from the mental effects at least. I guess that making it light enough is kinda problematic…” Hissing loudly, one of the candles behind the large couch flickered – the flame almost reached the chandelier metal and struggled in the middle of the shallow wax pool. Reaching with her aura, Twilight pulled another one from the nearby drawer and placed it right upon the burnt-out one, lighting from the second candle. After a momentary pondering, the girl lit a few more, as it started to feel a bit dark to her liking in the large room. Meanwhile, fairly supposing that a higher level of glucose in blood could help against stressful thoughts of all kinds, Spike chose a cupcake and was examining it from different sides, as if choosing where the bite would turn out tastier. He decided to treat the voiced problems philosophically, not because he was lucky not to confront a Seeker yet, but prudently assuming that the problems must be dealt with by those who are prepared for that. After the monster attack on the smithy was successfully repulsed, Spike started feeling much confidence in the joint capabilities. At least in the ability to provide a suitable defence. Twilight’s aide prepared to give the cupcake a bite when, suddenly, his expression changed, and Spike put the sweet treat back on the plate carefully. “Are you okay?” Pinkie turned to him immediately: willingly refusing a cake was an outstanding decision in her eyes. “Yeah,” Spike stifled out. “Just… a moment. Sorry!” A green flash lit the room brightly; burped out by Spike, a thin flare left after itself a medium-sized band-tied scroll, which would certainly smack into the dish of treats in the middle of the table if Twilight didn’t catch it with her magic. “No doubt, it’s handy!” commented Spike with a meaningful face, bringing back smiles to the girls’ muzzles. “But not in the middle of a meal.” “Hmmm…” Quickly unrolling it, Twilight already gazed through the letter. “Nopony cancelled the holidays at least. Although, I’m not sure I can imagine the Hearthwarming celebration this year. We are invited to Canterlot for the holidays, girls!” she addressed her guests louder. “To the Castle, to be exact. Us all, Spike, of course,” she kept reading while Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow and Pinkie visibly perked – the mere mention of one of the most important holidays brought a dose of optimism at once, “Alex and… and… Discord?!” “That’s definitely added in Luna’s hoofwriting,” Twilight looked closer while the girls burst into laughter. As her eyes kept running along the lines, the girl’s expression turned pensively concerned unnoticed yet by the rest. “Yeah, this Hearthwarming may turn out eventful… However, I don’t know how we are going to deal with the constant Seeker threat,” drawled she. A loud sound from outside – as if something hit the metal pan with a ding – made the rejoiced ponies fall silent and turn their heads. Exchanging the puzzled looks, the girls shrugged almost simultaneously while the wind hit the front door with a tiny squeal. “Spike, would you be so kind…” Twilight threw a glance at her dragon aide, who picked the cupcake again and was going to give it due attention. “We haven’t expected anypony else knocking… Hmpf, we don’t even have anything, which could sound that way. Maybe it’s one of those armoured guards.” “Ughh!” With a heavy sigh, Spike put away that miserable cake; following it with a dreary look, the little dragon pouted jokingly. “Why am I the only… delivery service in this house?” with an exaggerated eye-roll, he got up and trudged to the door. “Ahem…” Spike even grunted, stumbling at the doorstep for a moment and staring at something out of the girls’ sight. Applejack got up, looking at him inquiringly, ready to provide help if necessary, but Spike simply waved his paw indefinitely and slid out, cutting the frosty draught. The friends tensely listened to the muffled voices outside, a long metal screeching and receding flapping of some wings. In a minute, Spike returned, visibly trembling. “The w-w-wind is ch-chilling! T-too cold f-for a d-d-d-dragon!” His teeth were floating. Trying to dispel the cold with a single strong shudder, Spike glanced at Twilight and elaborated. “Another letter!” He handed her a standard envelope, making a wry mien. “It’s Derpy’s duty today.” Judging by the girls’ expressions, all of them could easily guess what that meant, even if Spike hadn’t added, making Rainbow and Pinkie snort. “Err... Our mailbox needs some… position readjustment now.” Picking the letter from his paw, Twilight already opened it with her magic. Her eyes quickly scanned along the lines and a smile lit the girl’s muzzle. “That’s from Fluttershy and Alex, girls! Hmm… hmm…” she kept brushing through quickly. “Fine! They are returning soon. Finally, we’ll find out the details. Especially about those flying monsters…” Twilight’s eyes shone with naturalist interest as she clopped her fore hooves together with an almost happy expression. “How soon is that “soon”?” Rarity threw her eyes up at Twilight inquiringly almost simultaneously with Rainbow Dash, who simply asked. “When?” The girls exchanged glances. “I simply feel better protected when the one immune to these monsters is here,” elaborated Rarity, waving her fore hoof with deliberate nonchalance. “I would like to hear about the flying jerks in detail straight from the pony’s mouth,” Rainbow’s tone was, on the contrary, unusually serious. “I would like to know what I can probably fly into!” Twilight returned to wading through the letter; the next several phrases brought a warm smile to her muzzle. “They just need a day or two more to… “visit Sunflowers as promised”. Excellent! So the foals have settled finally!” she nodded slowly. “Frankly speaking, I thought it would become more stressful for them to be torn out of two families in a row…” Twilight stumbled when the rest of the girls stared at her, realizing the underlying of her words. Pinkie and Applejack broke into a smile. “I always said that…” Pinkie stated imperturbably, making the girls laugh; Rarity perhaps less sincere than others. “Even with Princess Luna involved…” “[i]Anyfay, Ah finferely fope, fe maiffox can fait til ffeir return![/i]” reached the girls’ ears, making them look over at Spike. The little dragon finally sharked the entire cupcake of his choice with visible satisfaction, gazing at them like an owl through his mouthful. --- Author's note: If 't be true you like the story (and have FimFiction account, otherwise, you can't vote), please, take a minute to support the book hither: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/370173/the-guardian "Thumbs up" are very welcome, they help me promote the story. Mine most sincere gratitude in advance! --- A shoutout to the caring friend, good author and simply valorous pony - @Longhaul Read his stories, please: Same story on FimFiction: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/412124/lighting-the-dark-path Support the author thither please (thumbs up) they are really good
  8. Alexshy

    Luna Fan Club

    I simply leave it hither: https://www.deviantart.com/yoye-wolfgrel/art/Princess-Luna-730064619
  9. *Returns boop to @Rising Dusk* Tee-hee! *boops also @Longhaul and @CypherHoof and hides in the cloudy sky*
  10. Alexshy

    adventure The Guardian

    23. On rail Iridescent with colours from sky-blue to aquamarine, so it looked made of a single chunk of some crystal, the large locomotive rolled along the boarding platform, pulling the long sheets of fog from the depot and the neighbouring waterfall and startling the birds from the tracks with another loud whistle. Water drops shimmered in the rays of the rising sun, quickly evaporating on the shining machine-hull of the slowing down loco. The rays lit the train cars from behind, falling through the gaps and forming the visible slanted areas of light and shadow. They coloured everything on the station into the pastel gamma, turning the entire image into some surreal oil painting with the help of the fog. The latter burst onto the platform, mixing with the smoke, pressing it to the ground with its damp, cold streams; the misty sheets trailed and curled around the light posts, curved metalwork benches and large trunks of the trees behind the platform railing. The platform came into motion with the awaiting ponies looking for their appropriate carriages, yawning, shivering off the damp morning chillness and stirring the fog with their legs while taking the seats according to the bought tickets. Contrary to the expectations, the Crystal Express was only half-booked from Canterlot, but those passengers were enough to herd the platform considerably. ‘Well, it’s the end of November, too early for the Hearthwarming visits and stuff,’ smirked Alex inwardly. “Nopony here wants to go where it is already colder unless absolutely needs to. Otherwise, the train would be full from here on… I bet it will be in a couple of weeks.” “Hmm… The first car!” Alex peeked into their tickets and chuckled in surprise. “Tia literally wants us to get to the point as soon as possible…” “Huh?” one fluffy yellow ear perked, turning to him; Fluttershy seemed a bit drifted into her own thoughts. “What did you say, dear?” She wanted to follow the boarding ponies, but Alex held her back gently. “Wait, Shy! Why don’t we let them forward?” Alex threw a glance at the station clock, covering his eyes from the sun; the clock hands send bright golden and red glares. “The herd isn’t that large, but let’s not hustle within. We have time to linger.” Fluttershy was to admit the reasons: staying behind, they managed to catch only a couple of interested glances – the majority of the ponies were too sleepy or occupied with their road plans to pay attention. In his turn, Alex was casually scanning the passengers, especially those boarding their train car. His glance slid across everypony passing by, not stopping on each for too long, yet making some mental list. A few business ponies with their thin cases and futile attempt to push the serious look through the sleepiness. A loving couple, perhaps just married, considering the hot adoring glances they threw at each other. Fluttershy wrapped her fore legs around him and nuzzled his chest, making Alex smile. Several mid-aged mares, travelling no doubt together, climbed into the train car one by one; the aunties – how Alex inwardly called them – restlessly chattered, complaining of the morning chillness and humidity and wrapping into their shawls. Judging by the humble to fate mien of the trainpony stallion, the latter already foresaw all the problems he received with that pack, including the iterating requests to tinker with the car heating. ‘Yeah, nopony would take your place gladly now, pal!’ smirked Alex, exchanging meaningful glances with Fluttershy. ‘Those few can deliver more headache than a full carriage of royal guards, going on vacation.’ Another mid-aged stallion cheerfully trotted by, burdened with a small saddle bag only – a seasoned traveller, pushing his light-brown cowboy hat to the nape and throwing a glance at the station clock before entering. The sun emerged from behind the train car roof, hitting into Alex’s eyes and making him shield with the palm: a mare with two foals, seemingly a colt and a filly, glimpsed in his sun-blinded sight. “Let’s move, gradually,” Alex pulled up both large bags; he wanted to grab the third one as well, but Fluttershy nodded towards her back unambiguously. Slowly, they followed the queue of the passengers, planning to enter the car the last. Two more couples passed their view, one of which attracted Alex’s attention by the overly pompous and cocky look of the pegasus stallion, looking around as if they were some royals amidst the market square. His marefriend smiled around a bit apologetically – for the pretentious companion she loved no matter what. Rolling onto the platform in the last few minutes before departure, a group of noisy, lively fillies and colts hopped to the car, joking and chattering like wound up. Most likely some students, perhaps of some artistic sphere, judging by their large sketch holders and folding easels, the company rushed into the train car by twos, jostling and laughing, making even the serious trainpony let out a smile. The unicorn filly, getting in the last, shot a sparkly gaze back at them, flushed and giggled when Alex helped Fluttershy into the car, then zoomed up the stairs with his heavy bags. The filly caught up with her mates, quickly whispered something to them on the go; as a result, a couple of students more glanced over their shoulders. “Are you the last ones?” In response to Alex’s nod, the trainpony stallion followed them into the vestibule, raising the ramp and closing the car door. “We set off in a minute!” he saluted habitually. “Please, take your seats – the train may jolt while we pass the switches and tunnels.” When they finally entered, the passageway was already empty: taking the seats as advised, the passengers had occupied their compartments, closing the doors and placing the luggage, preparing for a two-day ride. Reminding Alex of the large bees, the humming muffledly reached the corridor from behind of several doors. Just as the entire express, their car turned out half-occupied indeed. The bursts of laughter clearly showed the few sequent compartments the students settled in. With a smirk, Alex let Fluttershy forward and followed her to their stateroom. Sliding aside, the door revealed a compartment, quite similar to the ones Alex already had a chance to use, travelling from Ponyville to Canterlot and back. With the only exception of it being larger and visibly more comfortable; apparently, that one aimed to make the long, otherwise tiresome journey more pleasant to the passengers. To Alex’s surprise, it appeared that a two-seats luxury was booked by the princess’ order; the compartments they passed were four-seats as Alex could notice through the ajar door of one. The richer trimming called to deliver more comfort to the eyes during the several days of railroad boredom: the wooden details were of different, yet soft and non-contrasting colours, forming a fitting ensemble together. The folding table was wider, more solid in construction, so were the sleeping berths – visibly softer and cosier. The compartment window took more space on the outer wall but had forced triple glazing, unequivocally showing that the car was made specifically for the cold regions travels. Suitable for prolonged storing, the luggage shelves could be closed and even locked, compared to ones on shuttles and short-distance trains. Appraising Celestia’s foresight in his own way, Alex chuckled, raising one eyebrow. As they entered, the train car barely trembled; the loco started smoothly and slowly, boasting the well-maintained machinery and mastery of the motorpony. It moved on speeding up gradually: the bleary behind the condensing fog and steam silhouettes of the trees, lighting posts and station building started pulling back. The lamps floated behind the hazy glass like some jellyfishes; small drops smudged on the window surface as the Crystal Express gained speed. Despite all the accuracy, the car jerked noticeably on the first switch, making Alex catch Fluttershy around the shoulders, grabbing the table edge with his free hand. “Why do I have a feeling that Tia’s secrecy wouldn’t meet its aim,” muttered he, burying his face into the girl’s fragrant hair and inhaling, then exhaling slowly and warmly at her nape. “Besides…” Fluttershy cooed and shrugged in Alex’s embrace, snuggling into him and perking her ears from pleasure. The girl threw her face up, looking into his eyes, which pensively scanned the city landscape passing by in the window. “What’s bothering you, Alex?” her fore legs reached to wrap around his neck, and before Alex could reply, his lips were covered with Fluttershy’s kiss. Drowning in its sweet, long tenderness, Alex ran his fingers through the soft yellow coat and thought that it was easy to lose all the constructive thoughts during that gentle yet electrifying his entire body trip. “Mmm… The general ambiguity of the reports and Tia’s explanations…” Alex was to make a visible effort to tune in when their lips parted. “Of course, I can’t blame her, my love – she builds upon what she gets, but… The tickets booked by the royalty,” he chuckled, “and the trainmaster must be informed, naturally. Besides,” he looked down into Fluttershy’s turquoise eyes and stroked her shoulders, “I doubt that only one or two ponies know about the… “mission” there in Crystal Empire. The whole thing looks somewhat strange and…” Alex threw another look through the window: the train long left the station, and the car floor perceptibly tilted towards the movement direction, showing that they were descending the mountainside. The city buildings and streets were distancing from the tracks; leaving the wide buffer zone, they slid by faster and faster. The train passed residential areas as the number of floors decreased from the centre to the outskirts with the private building. “And?” the girl blinked, her eyes chained to Alex’s pensive face. “Have you seen the mare boarding that train? The mare with two foals…” Alex looked back at Fluttershy. “After that stallion in a hat? Probably… but not sure if I saw the details. The sun… umm… shone right into my eyes at that moment.” “Same thing,” chuckled Alex. “They reminded me of Sunflowers. And then I thought that they were going to leave for Crystal Empire as well… There from exactly the problems grow… Let’s say, I’m cautiously expecting more troubles from that trip than it seemed from the comfort of Tia’s study.” “Since when you’re being cautious?” Fluttershy glanced slyly; pulling up she planted another small kiss. “Every time, my love,” Alex squeezed her lightly, making the girl almost purr, “whenever I am responsible not only for my own troublemaking self!” Some growing echoing noise reached their ears from the left; jumping on another switch, the train entered the first mountain tunnel of the numerous. With whistling and sizzling and roaring, multiplied and amplified by the stone walls, it quickly pulled into the dark maw of the mountainside, making Fluttershy shortly squeak from the suddenly falling darkness. In a second, the bright train lamps turned on, changing the dark rocks behind the window to the mirrored view of their compartment. Alex looked into the sea-green eyes of his mirrored self, hugging the pegasus mare. For a second a strong déjà vu feeling visited him with the mental image of the very similar reflection but with Rarity in it; the mirror Alex shook his head like a wet dog, dispelling that image. “Well, as for the mare and foals,” said Fluttershy with a tiny smile, “we can see all the passengers soon, I suppose. Don’t worry about the rest beforehand, please.” She lightly stroked his palm on her chest. “By the way, have you seen that… pompous pegasus?” giggled the girl in a second, remembering. “Yeah,” Alex made a wry mien, making Fluttershy laugh. “The one whose mere look screams troubles when it comes down to cooperation.” The train emerged from the tunnel, but the lamps remained on: the motorpony properly decided that it would be a better economy not to jerk them on and off numerous times, as more tunnels were expected. The centre area of Canterlot was left behind, but the express constantly entered and left the living areas, which once were towns and settlements, but now turned into the districts of the spread across the mountain capital city. Diving into the echoing tunnels and emerging again, the train sewed its path around the mountain – as Alex could notice by the changing position of the sun – going down in the widening spiral. The purely mountainous landscape slowly changed, more trees started to appear between artificially greened districts. The forest was slowly taking over the stone, as the landscape was steadily descending: a few more miles and tunnels left before the express leaving the mountain. “Excuse me!” The trainpony unicorn coughed and knocked on the half-closed door of the compartment, peeking in when Alex and Fluttershy responded permittingly. “Sir, ma’am, your bed-change!” he was levitating a stack of folded bed linen. “Thanks!” Alex pulled the door wider, letting the stallion in; remembering about their luggage, he lifted and shoved two heavy bags into the luggage shelf and closed it, freeing more space of the compartment. Fluttershy put her saddle bag on the berth. “Would you like the lunch delivered here, or have it in the dining car?” The trainpony glanced at them, pulling the special drawer with his aura. “We probably take a walk a bit later indeed!” Alex and Fluttershy exchanged glances. “Excellent! I’ll leave these here,” the unicorn began to put the linen into the drawer accurately, “just call me if you need an extra change. The lunch menu changes to the dinner one at three pm in the restaurant. But if you need some tea or coffee,” he nodded towards the car passageway, “we have everything necessary, including hot water, right here in the car.” The train slowed down again, rumbling over the numerous switches and passing something resembling the freight depot. Under casual glance of the human and the mare, another district slid by. The living blocks interspersed bizarrely with industrial buildings and warehouses, framed by the usual vegetation. The large nameplate on the station building slowly entered Alex’s sight – the express was passing the area without a complete stop. “Canterton… Canterton…” muttered Alex, unwittingly loud enough to be heard. “I heard that title somewhere, or…” “You probably remember it from the sadly famous urban legend, sir,” the unicorn turned closing the bedding drawer shut and letting out a tiny smile. “About the long-closed Canterton high school and the ghost of one of the teachers inhabiting its walls. They neigh, the artist was brutally murdered by her ex. Sorry, ma’am!” added he, as Fluttershy shuddered visibly. “I’m sure that isn’t the context I can connect the title with,” noticed Alex dryly, pulling the girl closer. “I would have remembered otherwise!” “Well, eh… I hope you’ll enjoy the trip on the board of Crystal Express,” the trainpony saluted with his uniform cap, heading to the compartment door. “And don’t hesitate to call for any help necessary!” “He probably took us for the less problematic from all of the passengers, judging by our boarding and stuff,” chuckled Alex, cuddling Fluttershy when the door closed. “Hmmm… Maybe Tia wasn’t entirely wrong about that secrecy thing…” “You mean, he wouldn’t be so hospitable if we had tumbled into the car full armour-clad?” smiled Fluttershy. “Who knows…” Alex threw another look through the window: the landscape kept steadily descending, trees grew right next to the tracks here. It became noticeably darker as the train entered the properly forested area. Canterlot was left behind completely but the mountains. At first, it seemed that they were heading back to Ponyville instead, as the tracks reached the mountain foot exactly where tracks from their town approached it. For a short while, the express was even moving south on the plateau, then slowly turned north, running away from another line. Hugging the soft, warm shoulders from behind, Alex watched the passing by trees, the overgrown area. Their train was leaving the mountains, but it needed to cross the woods before running into the valley, a nice view of which they had from the height. Squeezed between the forest on the south – where exactly the Crystal Express was rushing through – and the hills on the north, the rest of the valley looked like some colourful patchwork of fields with single houses and farms scattered here and there. Darker near the mountain and lighter, almost like dusked gold, further to the west (the soil everywhere was already ploughed for winter); it was lit by the rising sun, which painted the clouds above the horizon with all tints of pink, yellow and golden. From here, they couldn’t see the sun, even if the compartment window was directed to the east, but the treetops looked candent, thus telling them that Celestia’s star rose high enough above the horizon. The November day was lighting up. It became colder here at the foothills, windier; the forest trees saw the passing train off with light bows of respect. Observing the highlighted woods, rare road posts, glades with wilted and browned grass passing by behind the glass, Alex let himself dissolve in the sensations delivered by canoodling Fluttershy – the tension was releasing him slowly. Giving him another short kiss, the girl slid out of Alex’s arms and headed to the compartment door. Watching the landscape with feigned equanimity, Alex heard how the door slid slightly open – Fluttershy checked the passageway – then closed with an audible click of the lock. The touch on his strained back, even if he expected it, sent a thousand volts of electric discharge along Alex’s spine. Rising on her hind legs the girl snuggled to the human softly. Her fore hooves travelled across Alex’s shoulders, then slid to his chest, as Fluttershy squeezed him tighter, resting her cheek between his folded wings. The latter already trembled excitedly; the quiet, tender sigh only strained them more. Turning in Fluttershy’s cuddle slowly, Alex saw the promising desire in her shimmering eyes, in her half-open moist lips. The turquoise lakes seemed vast; chained to his face, they called, dragged away seemingly his very soul. “Finally!” whispered Fluttershy; her voice was a bit hoarse with passion and a sense of her own courage. “I could barely wait…” Instead of an answer, Alex cuddled her tighter; he lifted the girl, sitting her on the table and inwardly praising its increased durability. Not bothering to curtain the compartment window behind her back, Fluttershy let out a tiny happy laughter and closed her eyes, pulling Alex’s head closer to her excitedly fluffed chest. The yellow wings flapped open when the fingers travelled tenderly through her coat, making the girl tremble. * The Day Court trudged like an old bullock cart in the scorching-hot afternoon, except it was crispy November morning instead. At least behind the high arched windows of the throne hall, the columns and walls of which, no matter how graceful they were, started to oppress the Princess psychologically. The visitors were few; however, it seemed to Celestia that she had spent an unimaginable amount of time sorting the problems they came with. No wonder that closer to afternoon, she felt completely wrung out; the thoughts floated as if in some haze, and the faint, deeply hidden feeling of anxiety didn’t want to leave her. Sneaking through the stained glass, the sunlight sent colourful glares playing on the polished to the mirror finish stone plates of the castle floor. The joyful spots of light brought a tiny tired smile on Celestia’s muzzle right the moment, she was about to think that sometimes she hated her job. Well, except the sun management maybe. The break wasn’t long – with a tiny cough, the day guard commander appeared in front of the Princess’ raised sight. ‘Sweet Harmony, the daily report!’ Celestia facehoofed inwardly, rolling her eyes subtly. ‘Okay! You just need to get over it as inevitable…’ Her mind was still far away from the throne hall in Canterlot, somewhere on the road to the Crystal Empire. The monotonous mumbling of the guard commander was seemingly entering one of the Princess’ perked ears, leaving her mind through another one like some telegraph tape. Without the noticeable processing at that moment. Thus the silvery voice addressing her was unable to gain the Princess’ attention at once. “Thou can’t be everywhere at once, Sunny!” softly repeated Princess Luna, appearing in Celestia’s field of view from the right. “Sorry, dear? Oh!..” Once again, the Day Princess caught herself upon the thought that her sister read her mind like an open book occasionally. ‘Perhaps it was written on my face too clearly!’ Celestia waved her fore hoof lightly, dismissing the bemused guard. Apparently, she heard enough of his report to conclude that the day guards could deal with everything without her direct intervention. “Shalt thou send them thither if ‘t be true thou wasn’t confident of their ability to rule out the situation?” with a sly smile, the big blue filly slid for a moment onto the edge of her throne, to the right of Celestia’s one. “Methinks they can perfectly cope!” ‘Not that I didn’t worry,’ added Luna inwardly, ‘but it’s another story!’ “Besides, how many Seekers can we take out at once, lief?” added she instead. “I’m not arrant sure… personally, mayhap one. Thou, Sunny – two-three at once maximum. ‘Tis doubtfully enough.” “Don’t diminish your virtues, Lulu!” with a tiny smile, Celestia leaned closer, nuzzling her sister behind the fluffy ear. Luna’s words made her relax a little. “It’s unusual to see you up that early… or maybe it’s better to say late into the day, Blueberry! Is everything alright?” noticed Celestia, referring to Luna being still awake, moreover, without visible signs of sleepiness. The Night Princess was heading somewhere and stopped for a moment, noticing her sister in the need of mental support. “Oh, that’s a planned meeting,” Luna stifled a tiny yawn, musingly watching the sun glares slowly crawling across the hall floor, “It couldn’t fit into mine nightly duties, due to all of the burdens. A few of the Night Watch commanders expressed their wilt to ask that valorous mare – Rainstorm – some questions. About dealing with the dark abominations methinks, but I preferred to find out the details afore,” she glanced at her sister. “You know already, Lulu?” Celestia stared at the bright sparkles dancing in big Luna’s eyes. “I got the letter a day ago and… haven’t yet told anypony. Including you, dear, as far as I can remember.” “Oh!” Luna let out a sincere laughter. “I guess that some rumours must have been spreading through the so-called “pegasi-mail” quite fast and… allowest me to put it that way, reaching Canterlot unofficially. Or, mayhap, dear Twilight was overburdened… or… That’s not the only matter she reporteth about, correct?” “Mail problems aside, I was quite impressed by the mere fact that a simple pony can not only confront a Seeker but defeat it. After such a short preparation period, I suppose!” Once again amazed by Luna’s ability to read between the lines, Celestia was to admit. “That’s an outstanding achievement!” “Well…” Luna nodded with a thoughtful gesture of her fore hoof. “I’d say that it was rather one of the best weather-pegasi… after Rainbow Dash, than a simple pony. As far as I know, she is a capable and strong flyer… The fighting skills are receivable. Besides, she hath the advanced armour protection, as I was told. Besides, she wasn’t alone throughout that fight methinks…” She drew a line under her mental list. “Otherwise, thou art correct, lief – it was quite an achievement!” “I suppose,” added she meaningfully, “we are to recall, who else contributed to that, dearest sister! By the way, if ‘t be true I understood them correctly, mine guards – some of them – were quite interested about that mentioned advanced armour and tactics, thinking, no doubt, that it would better be prepared.” “So, they practically wanted Rainstorm to… teach them…” Celestia threw a glance at her. “Mayhap rather share some observations,” dropped Luna casually. “Of course, they want to take a look at the armour likewise.” “I extend mine hope they learn everything they can!” added she brightly. “Those who want to, at least. And if ‘t be true they express their wilt to have similar equipment, even despite their new armour is good enough, I shan’t object either.” “They want to form some sort of Seekers Prediction, Elimination And Recon unit, don’t they?” Celestia looked dumbfounded; she blinked, leaning forward; even her wings unwittingly ruffled a little. “Methinks some of the day guards are hatching the ideas alike,” Luna drawled with a smile. “Mayhap they don’t yet know how to approach thee with ‘t. Thou probably shan’t deny – the more capable… seeker fighters we have, the better. Considering the creatures began to increase their ranks.” “Mmm… Whom that anti-seeker unit will be subordinate to then?” The Day Princess raised one eyebrow. “If ‘t be true thou art not confident about Alex still, why hast thou sent him to sort the Crystal Empire problems then?” Luna inquired insinuatingly. Whatever she was going to say, Princess Celestia clearly saw in her sister’s eyes the answer to her question. “Oh! Believe me, Blueberry, ever since Ponyville freight yard I am completely confident about Alex when it comes down to dealing with the Seekers,” uttered Celestia with a sigh. “I’m not entirely confident about him dealing with himself though!” “Therefore Fluttershy?” it was now Luna’s turn to raise an eyebrow sarcastically. “Well… The girl may provide unimaginable help if the monsters still manage to inflict some damage,” Celestia tried to sound casual, but the tip of her nose gained colour visibly. “Besides, Alex will be twice more effective having somepony he values the most to protect! And accurate!” “Thou art talking like a politic now, Tia,” chuckled Luna; her eyes flashed shortly. “Aren’t we both, Lulu?” parried Celestia. “Hmmm… Methinks I would be twice more effective in that role,” muttered Luna, averting her look, “considering that promise Alex made…” She straightened, stretching on her throne. “The way thou art putting it, Sunny, maketh me keep an eye on them, in case some help shalt be urgent!” “I still wonder,” shuddering inwardly at the thought of what these three might have thrown out if brought together, Celestia preferred to change the subject, “how did he manage to convince Rainstorm to stay in Ponyville and control the situation, instead of following him into the thick of it?” “I know that type of ponies – loyal till death! She hath left the weather service to devote herself to the fight against the Seekers, and would nev’r stay away of her aim by choice,” pensively said Luna. “He must have convinced Rainstorm of the importance and urgency of protecting the town in his absence.” “But the Seekers re-appear after some period of time only… However, times change… Maybe he suspects there could have been more arriving,” the Day Princess glanced at her sister puzzledly. “I recognize Alex!” Luna let out a silvery laughter in realization. “Knowing about that respite, he prudently left Rainstorm in Ponyville. Dost thou see not?” she glanced at her sister joyfully. “The… successful novice syndrome!” “What, sorry?” “I’m not that fusty, outdated piece of alicorn as somepony hither may bethink!” chuckled Luna, catching Celestia’s bewildered glance. “I heard that Rainstorm was so set on her mettle the last few days, as she nev’r was ere, since her family perished. Alex simply didn’t want that to hit her on the head, Tia, so, the girl shan’t do a horrendous mistake in her high spirits. Methinks that unwittingly he treats the Crystal Empire problem as more severe than it’s known to be.” “Hmm… Maybe you are right, sis…” drawled Celestia, then suddenly remembered. “You were right about Twilight mentioning more than that incident in her letter.” Seeing that Luna perked her ears in anticipation, the princess continued. “She thinks that it is important – and truth be told I share that confidence – to inform me about all the oddities in Alex’s dreams,” Celestia looked at Luna meaningfully. “Ever since the dam tragedy, it was nearly the same. But lately, there was a quite curious one. Not the sleepwalking, not some nasty nightmare, but a very strange vision, I’d say.” Briefly, she started retelling Alex’s dream involving the strangers. “Dost thou mean the human mares… errmmm… women?” this time Luna’s surprise was genuine. “Well, they looked like those, according to Twilight,” Celestia looked least bothered by that. “But I’m more interested in another fact! He mentioned hearing about some… Scherben,” added she pensively. “Are you familiar with the term, Lulu?” “That’s… Germane,” the Night Princess wrinkled her forehead slightly. “Meaneth… shards if ‘t be true I’m correct.” “Yeah, Twilight explained the same to Alex. Namely, that scherben meant shards, parts of something once integral,” quickly said Celestia. “I keep wondering if that’s connected with the Seekers somehow, or their… source.” “By Twilight’s words, as the human put it, it seemed to be a specific term, a name for some phenomenon, not just a word from his dream,” added she pensively. “Relax, Tia! Dost not try to jump over the shrubs before they have grown!” Heading to her meeting, the night-blue alicorn already rose from her throne, then planted a small kiss on her sister’s cheek. “Oh, I have an idea… Why dost not ask Welta about that? Mayhap our niece knoweth about some [b]particular[/b] meaning of that term.” * The next couple of hours, they rolled steadily, heading to the north on the straight as an arrow path through the patchwork valley of fields, farms and smaller settlements. Escaping the forested foothills, the train gained its cruise speed. Dragged by the crystal-looking loco, it whizzed past the small villages, not dropping the pace and occasionally rocking on the rail joints. The November sun reached its maximum, generously pouring around the so valued yet scarce in late autumn golden warmth. Lying on the berth relaxedly, Alex watched the rare alternating patches of light and shade, sliding across the opposite wall of the compartment accordingly to their cloudy counterparts on the sunlit sky, and the thicker shadows occasionally thrown by the large trees and posts they passed by. His fingers lazily brushed through the pink, fragrant hair of the girl resting on his arm. Snuggling her back into him softly, Fluttershy was breathing lightly and tranquilly; for a moment, Alex even thought that the girl had fallen asleep. It made him smile and plant a tiny kiss behind the warm fluffy ear. The ear twitched, perking at once. His eyes met the awoken, turquoise glance: Fluttershy looked over her shoulder, reaching him for a tender kiss. “What are you thinking about, my love?” the deep lakes peeked into him caringly; the filly turned to Alex, wrapping her legs around him and fondling her cheek against his chest. “About us… about… different things,” with all the elusiveness, Alex’s answer was to the point enough – right at that moment, he suddenly remembered about the recent talk with Cutie Mark Crusaders when Scootaloo bemused him with a single question. Feeling the echo of that, Alex still fancied the heat behind his ears. The girl murmured, snuggling tighter into him. “And you?” “I keep wondering,” slowly said Fluttershy after a moment of silence; the girl looked up into Alex’s eyes, “what could have happened in the Crystal Empire that the princess decided to send us… you… there.” The small hoof kept drawing the musing patterns on the human’s chest. “Even if I didn’t know that, I could suppose that these monsters appeared not only near Ponyville. But so far, the regions of Equestria seemed to manage the troubles on their own. Does it mean that the problem is expanding? More of the Seekers coming?” “Probably…” said Alex and then corrected himself. “Most likely, Shy. I told Tia – it was a war flaring up slowly.” He sighed. “Will it be as slow further on? We don’t have a regular living enemy to predict. Maybe, it’ll be a war of the one crucial battle, who knoweth…” added he gloomily. Fluttershy shuddered, and Alex pulled her warm body closer. “For the rest, I don’t know, seriously. And I don’t like the entire situation and our current mission in particular. Things are getting worse for sure.” “Do you think the other regions are having similar problems? I mean abroad…” Fluttershy bit her lip thoughtfully. “That depends on what the intruders need,” shrugged Alex. ‘I have only one person in mind I could probably ask about “abroad”!’ Brushing through her mane, he travelled his hand across the girl’s cheek and jawline, making Fluttershy squint from pleasure. “I have some assumptions… If they are correct – I’d prefer otherwise – it may turn ugly for us all. All other… countries included, I suppose. Not at that moment perhaps, but… We’re on the same… Equus at the end of the day.” Alex cringed: upon the second thought and considering the circumstances, the last phrase sounded out too grim, even for his liking. “Even that severely…” Fluttershy’s voice sank; the girl hid her nose on Alex’s chest. He huffed vaguely, then uttered with more enthusiasm. “We’ll see what the Crystal Empire is going to offer… Then, I think I’ll ask Tia a couple of questions more, which are bothering me for quite a while… Hey!” Alex let out a smile, trying to dispel the moody tone. “Let’s check the restaurant and try the vaunted lunch!” He held the girl tighter, getting seated on the berth with Fluttershy on his lap. Enjoying Fluttershy’s tender kiss on his lips, Alex gazed from the corner of his eye, reaching for his shirt carelessly thrown on the table. Exiting into the passageway, Alex noticed that it became quieter: the students – as he called the group of fillies and colts – must have settled down finally. All the compartment doors they passed were closed, except the trainpony’s; the ajar door revealed that the unicorn was reading a newspaper under the measured clatter of wheels, putting his uniform cap on the table. Most likely, the stallion wanted to hear what was going on on his accountable territory. ‘The rest must be having their lunch already, or resting,’ Alex thought with a smile, following Fluttershy to the next car. ‘We’ll be the last probably,’ he glanced at the wall clock handily placed at the train car exit. They passed several, swaying as the train moved. Going through a broad forest belt where the trees stood very close to the railway mound, the express slowed down a bit; it turned darker at once, as the fir-trees overshadowed the sun, spreading the smell of their needles and tar. The distant whistle of the loco reached their ears even through the closed car windows – the motorpony wanted to scare away the wild animals, which could be crossing the tracks. From a technical point of view, the dining car wasn’t much different from its human counterpart: getting into that car accidentally, Alex would easily have recognized the purpose of it by the mere look and inner placement of the parts. Coming through the typical for all cars small vestibule with two locked outside doors, they got into a larger hallway with a couple of doors leading to the washing rooms. Spending a couple of minutes to use one on its purpose, Alex and Fluttershy went further, past the quietly humming locked doors of some refrigerators, most likely, and right into the long dining salon. The latter even blinded Alex for a second after the relative twilight of the intercar passage, making the human shield his eyes instinctively. Despite the daytime, the broad room was brightly lit by the multitude of lamps spreading the warm light and cosy feel everywhere: on the dark wood-decorated walls, the soft comfy seats, the rich curtains on the wider than in the rest of the cars windows and the accurately served tables with the glowing-white tablecloths. That was practically explicable: first of all, the food always looked better in the warm light while the cold, especially blue one could make it look stale and unpleasant; the brightness in its turn was reaching two aims at once. It contrasted beneficially the overall darker and calmer gamma of the car trim for the dining salon not to look gloomy; besides, the Crystal Railroad was proud to confirm the quality and freshness of the products they offered in their trips. By the relatively narrow central passage, the salon was divided into two-seats dining zones on the left and four-seats – on the right for the passengers’ comfort and optimized placement. The soft wine-coloured backrests of the comfy couch-like seats were quite high, effectively forming some screen semblance and turning the dining zones into some sort of separate booths, so the travellers could enjoy their meal and talk, not bothering their neighbours much. The large windows were half-curtained, and the overall look of each placement could make you forget about travelling by train, if not for the measured wheel clatter and the landscape soundlessly flying by behind the clean-washed glass. Most of the passengers of their car were there, except for the students, who finished most likely or had their meal in the compartments. A few ponies more – various public, travelling alone or with companions – were the unfamiliar muzzles from the rest of the train. Noticing a few of the “aunties” sitting separately from the rest, closer to the buffet zone, made Alex smile inwardly. ‘These will probably be the last to start communicating with the fellow passengers, even if they are chatty within their own company.’ However, the quiet hum of the voices was yet subtle in the entire dining car: the journey had just started and most of the passengers were still to overcome the usual initial awkwardness to talk with the strangers. Not planning to cruise along the entire salon, Alex spotted a free two-seats “booth” on the left and gestured to Fluttershy welcomingly. The girl fluttered to her seat lightly, but the human was immediately reminded of relatively different pony furniture. There, where despite the preserved comfort, the placement was aimed to be more compact, Alex spent some time and quite an effort to place his limbs comfy enough, yet not obstructing the way for the rest at the same time. The wings, which stubbornly refused to reduce any more at that moment, and the legs, Alex couldn’t bend without trouble, delivered him a few tense minutes. Fluttershy watched him with visible sympathy. Still, Alex was inwardly against taking the four-seat zone for only two of them. “Why don’t you stretch them under the table?” the girl softly patted him on the hand. “There is plenty of space under my seat, you won’t disturb me, my love.” “Thanks, dear!” Grateful for that solution, Alex stretched his legs towards Fluttershy’s seat, not resembling himself some grasshopper finally. Instead, he felt a soft, warm touch on his ankles when the girl squeezed his legs with hers lightly. The wings were still a problem – Alex was to keep them slightly open, not to get them under himself. “Tia was right,” said he in half-voice, “about being as subtle as we could. We probably gained too much attention already.” Alex spotted an interested, amused glance of the stallion and the mare in the four-seat booth ahead. They quietly said something to their company, invisible to him behind the backrest. Alex brushed off the thought about inevitable side glances and curiosity – he was occupied by the more intriguing one. ‘Interesting, what would Celestia’s journey be like… if she travelled by train,’ Alex smirked, imagining all the trouble no doubt caused by the alicorn size. The waiter approached, freezing next to their table with the look of polite anticipation; Fluttershy and Alex spent some time deciding. Both finally picked the light variant of the lunch dishes; Alex still felt a bit anxious about the aim of their journey and suspected that Fluttershy had similar feelings. Besides, his choice was naturally limited, compared to hers, due to different food preferences. The railroad company, obviously, aimed towards ponies, forming their menu; the list of neutral suitable dishes was shorter than at home, where Alex could amend, cooking himself and reaching compromise. Waiting for their order, Alex took another look over the dining salon as far as his sight allowed; sitting his back to the entrance and due to his height, he could easily see other passengers over the booth screens. Those at least sitting their muzzles to him. ‘As usual, you can see the wide variety of characters during a prolonged travel in company,’ Alex’s sight lazily slid from one “booth” to another, watching the ponies minding their own business. However, the first impression was often wrong; Alex examined the travellers carefully, especially those he remembered to be boarding their carriage. Bothered by the subtle yet persistent foresight, he wanted to know, whom would he be forced to deal with in case anything went wrong. ‘When it comes down to the Seekers, things can go haywire any time,’ Alex thought with a deadpan. ‘If Tia started treating things seriously… some really weird crap must be happening there.’ Several business ponies were seemingly occupied by their work and the supposedly anticipated deals only. However, a few of them already started to show tiny signs of attention towards a couple of single mares travelling without companions. The natural communicativeness of the ponies started taking over the initial awkwardness. ‘These won’t pay attention, even if the land cracks in front of them and a dragon flies out… unless it’s beneficial for their business!’ smirked Alex inwardly. ‘They and the… “aunties” are the most troublesome groups, when things roll to Tartarus,’ he threw a glance at the small group of mid-aged mares at the far end of the dining salon. ‘Fixation or absentmindedness multiplied by exaggerated self-confidence… and in the latter case by the tendency to make much fuss over things as well,’ he shook his head at that thought. “Something’s bothering you, dear,” Fluttershy leaned forward, looking into his eyes inquiringly. “Just looking, with whom we are locked in the fast-riding metal barrel for the next couple of days, Shy,” Alex squeezed out a tiny smile. “Observations… What else can we do while we have no other information?” The girl tilted her head, raising one eyebrow sarcastically. “Okay, okay,” Alex finally gave up under her meaningful glance. “You know that I don’t like…” Alex stumbled, “the idea behind this trip.” He chose another word, because saying that he didn’t enjoy the trip itself would mean prevaricating. “Tia said nothing concrete because Shining Armour wrote nothing concrete. That doesn’t make it easier for us. A… pack of Seekers is pestering the Crystal Empire, that’s given! But there is nothing new; I mean we know that pestering is the only thing these freaks can do towards the ponies.” “You wouldn’t look anxious if there was nothing new,” said Fluttershy. “They know nothing exact about these Seekers, not even the exact number. But something isn’t just right to the extent it makes everypony worry and Tia go for preventive measures,” Alex’s facial expression was self-explanatory. “We’re going to travel across the almost wild territory, half of which covered with snow. I guess these two things are making me anxious, Shy. I can’t help but feel responsible for all the herd,” he took a look around the salon, “who have no idea about what is going on behind those walls. So, I’ll exhale only when we safely reach the Crystal City.” With their lunch delivered, Alex and Fluttershy got distracted a bit by the meals. However, even giving due to the finely prepared food, Alex kept watching the fellow travellers appraisingly. The married couples looked as if they were coming through another honeymoon, as he noted for himself with a smile. Unaffected by daily routines, mares and stallions showed their affection openly, probably stronger than during the regular busy days. Most of them obviously had pleasant expectations of that trip; even if it wasn’t pure entertainment for them, the mere place they were heading to was non-trivial enough to be promising. ‘It would hurt to ruin it for them!’ Alex glanced at the nearest couple: the mare and the stallion were quietly talking, leaning their heads to each other – they look absolutely happy. Alex’s hand reached and covered Fluttershy’s fore hoof. “Let’s hope nothing happens during the trip at least,” Fluttershy sighed. “I saw your entire fight with the Seekers at the Sunflowers’ farm. The trouble you had trying to keep the innocent victims unhurt…” she looked into Alex’s eyes. “Yeah… That’s always the worst thing…” nodded he, with an effort dispelling the mental image of the huge boiling spillway. “Speaking of Sunflowers… That mare with the foals,” Alex threw another glance at the far end of the dining car, but the wider load-bearing bulkhead in the middle obstructed the view. “Let’s go check when we finish!” Fluttershy nodded with a smile; the girl would gladly accept any reason to distract him from the stressful thoughts. As Alex could notice, the stallion he mentally named “traveller” was also there. Facing the train direction – and most likely watching the passing by landscape as Alex jokingly assumed – he was invisible to the human behind the high backrest. But the familiar brown hat rested on the table edge. ‘That must be among a few ones really prepared for anything. One who can provide some help instead of panic in a tight situation!’ There was another circumstance, which presence worried Alex even more than abstracted business ponies or “aunties” – namely, that couple of the white pegasus and his marefriend. Or, better say, the brash, bulky stallion part of the couple. The mare looked like a titmouse against his background. With the only exception, she was the background in their case. The couple occupied a four-seat “booth”, yet the stallion sat next to his marefriend. However, not to help her with the dishes or something else etiquette-dictated, as Alex saw. It was probably more comfortable that way. More comfortable to deliver his priceless thoughts to the mare: the white pegasus was constantly ranting about something. Louder than the other passengers, to be frank. Perhaps that placement allowed him to keep within the volume, not totally disturbing the neighbours. However, the mare didn’t look overly oppressed; throwing occasional loving glances at her partner, she managed to ignore his defiant and often openly annoying behaviour. The stallion already gazed disapprovingly several times at the human, which was standing out against the general herd too much. Apparently, he wasn’t of high opinion of aliens or anypony too different from him and kept throwing spiky glances at that weird, in his opinion, couple. ‘Your problem!’ remembering the incident with Upper Crust at the gala, Alex chuckled. That infuriated the “brute” even more to Alex’s vengeful satisfaction. At that moment, the foals at the far end of the salon got carried away with their antics a bit, showing up from behind the seat backrest. Not very stern, but definitely admonishing voice of the mare returned them to the ground, but the looks of the unusual mane colours – gradient of moon yellow-golden to coral pink of the filly and to steel-blue of the colt – turned Alex’s suspicions into the confidence. He and Fluttershy finished their lunch; nothing prevented them from checking. “Let’s go pay a visit, my love!” Alex nodded towards the depth of the dining salon, seeing that Fluttershy dabbed her lips with the napkin after the last dainty sip of tea. He smiled. “I doubt, that’s a coincidence: there can’t be many foals with such manes in Equestria.” It made him some effort to untangle from behind the table, but Alex was endlessly grateful to Fluttershy for the idea – his legs didn’t feel numb at least. Letting the girl lead the way, Alex folded his wings in such a way, not to knock off anything or disturb the rest of the passengers. Following Fluttershy along the central passage, Alex held on the backrests; the train went smoothly, but sweeping off somepony’s table wouldn’t be a nice thing to do. The wings trembled subtly as if ready to unfurl – he inwardly commanded himself to relax. The “traveller” was there, indeed, sitting alone in the two-seats “booth”. The light-grey earth pony stallion was already done with his lunch and fixed his gaze over the half-empty cup of coffee right into the picturesque far away behind the window. He watched the passing by fields and groves, the approaching from the west forest edge with a mirthful dreamy look as if seeing something not available for the casual eye. Unambiguously telling about the enthusiastic nature of the stallion’s thoughts, his ears perked from the sandy mane, and a wistful smile was coming through in his hazel eyes. ‘His regular journeys must be less cosy than Crystal Express ride. Perhaps, harder and more dangerous,’ Alex unwittingly followed the stallion’s gaze direction. ‘The guy is fully enjoying the rare case of travelling in such a level of comfort!’ Trotting lightly, Fluttershy slid like a pink-yellow floral cloud, waking the “traveller” from his thoughts. He glanced up at the passing by human, estimating his height and large folded wings with a single look. The reaction was surprising for Alex – with a friendly, understanding smile, the stallion reached with his fore hoof and shifted the wide-brim, light-brown hat further from the table edge. Glowing like a tiny spark, with the hat movement, the small crescent-moon shaped pin on the hatband caught Alex’s attention for a second, causing a smile of pleasant memories on his face. The next one was the “booth” occupied by the contrasting couple. The petite pale-saffron mare followed Fluttershy with a smiling expression, then alternated at the human and her chocolate eyes rounded; still, from surprise rather than from concern. The bulky pegasus’ sight slid across passing by Fluttershy indifferently but then he perked at once. Stopping at the human, his eyes squinted; quickly digging in his undoubtedly rich collection of displeased expressions, the “brute” fished out the most contemptuous one, presenting a mocking, defiant glance to Alex. Inwardly frowning, as the white pegasus kept examining him like some rare insect, Alex replied with an empty bored gaze of a fish, staring through the racist git as if there was an empty seat, then heading his way. That, no doubt, didn’t rub the disgruntled stallion well – he was quick to comment the situation to his marefriend, but Alex wasn’t listening to them already. Fluttershy looked over her shoulder at him; seeing who occupied the “booth” behind the bulkhead was unnecessary to confirm Alex’s assumption – the girl’s smile turned out self-explanatory. Noticing the approaching mare, both foals first froze for a second, then squeaked quite loud. Their eyes widened at recognition; Storm and Aurora Sunflowers almost jumped on their seats, so even the cups tingled on the table. Their caretaker tried reasoning with the foals but the next moment Crystal Chime saw, who caused that reaction, she broke into a smile instead. “Fluttershy! Squee!!!” “Easy, kids, easy!” the eyes of red gold glanced at the foals not as strict as they probably should, then alternated to the visitors. “Miss Fluttershy, good afternoon! Glad to see you!” Storm and Aurora kept bobbing impatiently on their seats like two little mice in the nest. The next moment, another visitor appeared in the bulkhead opening, overshadowing the passage and causing another loud squeak from the foals. The “aunties” in the far end of the salon began to romp anxiously. “Good afternoon, mister…” Crystal stumbled in subtle confusion, letting out another smile. “Alex. Simply Alex,” the human squeezed through with the quiet feather rustle. “They are a bit unruly today,” he smirked, nodding at the wings. “Glad to see you, miss Chime. Hi, kids!” he waved to the fidgeting foals. “Can you sit with us for a while?” Storm looked up at Alex, then turned to Crystal Chime almost pleadingly. “Auntie Crystal…” “If you both have time and don’t mind,” the mare nodded, gesturing at the free seat next to her. “Come on, sis! Now if you move your tail…” Storm quickly slid onto Aurora’s place, taking the filly on his lap. “Don’t cavort on me, right!” he grunted lightly. “Boo, I’m not that heavy!” drawled Aurora half-indignantly, half-jokingly, making both Crystal and Fluttershy chuckle. Noticing that the waiter, who already finished serving the “aunties” and proceeded further through the dining salon, was waiting placidly till the passage became unoccupied again, Alex quickly landed at the vacated seat. He did his best to compact himself, so his legs didn’t stick out too much; Fluttershy settled next to Crystal Chime. “It was a surprise indeed!” the mare alternated between her and Alex. “Are you travelling to the end of the line, to the Crystal City, I mean?” “I suppose - yes, miss Chime,” Alex nodded, then inwardly scolded himself for that strange-sounding phrase. Crystal blinked a couple of times at the vagueness of his answer; she threw another glance at him and Fluttershy and let out a tiny understanding smile. Guessing the direction of her thoughts, Alex coughed. ‘In the earnest, how else could I say if we still have no further instructions. Supposedly, Twilight’s brother can tell us something. But that’s not to be revealed anyway!’ “Cool!” Storm seemed to miss the curious detail. “You are travelling by the same train with us!” One could tell by the foals’ look that the journey must have turned twice more exciting for them at once. “Moreover, in the same car, as it turns out!” with a smile, Alex ruffled their manes lightly. “I’ve noticed you, folks, boarding at the Canterlot station, but the sun glare distracted me.” “Squee!!!” the eyes of both foals rounded; Storm and Aurora quickly exchanged glances. “Then… Then maybe…” started Storm unconfidently. He gazed at the sister, receiving meaningful face in return, and made up his mind. “Maybe we can visit you. If you don’t mind?” Aurora quickly nodded, glancing at Fluttershy and Alex. “Oh…” Crystal Chime shook her head. “My dears, please, excuse us for… for the slight intrusiveness! I can understand that the toy-making process isn’t so exciting as armour, fighting and so on,” with a dainty smile in the red-golden eyes, the mare looked at the foals embarrassedly. “Kids, really… Miss Fluttershy and… they can have their own plans, so give them some space…” “Of course, we don’t mind!” exchanging glances, Alex and Fluttershy said almost simultaneously. “You can come, kids. Compartment six,” the girl shook her lush mane determinedly. “It’s okay, miss Chime,” said Alex, smiling to the lightly flushing mare. “We really don’t mind them peeking in for a while, you either if you want. Let’s cheer up the trip for everypony present.” “Thank you!” Crystal Chime looked at him gratefully. “You both are too kind! I still think that we keep being a major nuisance for you…” “Not at all!” retorted Fluttershy ardently; Alex nodded. “Have you decided where you stop in the Crystal City?” Aurora asked, looking with the foalish directness at the human and the mare. Alex bit his lip not to smile: seeing how Crystal flushed to the roots, he could tell that she definitely predicted the possible further question. ‘We can’t say it plain, that the local royalty would take the placement,’ he had no idea how to react. However, Fluttershy was fast to save the situation. “We’ll stay at the friends’ place,” she stated with an unperturbed expression. “They planned to take that responsibility. But, of course, we can visit you, if you are okay with that,” added she cheerfully. “And when you all settle as well!” “I hope you’ll enjoy the Crystal Empire! The not-iced part of it at least,” with a sigh of relief, Crystal Chime threw a grateful glance at Fluttershy. “The Crystal City and the surroundings are covered by the magical dome, keeping it warm and nice to inhabit. Well, you’ll see for yourselves!” “I guess. Anyway, I’m enjoying the trip very much already,” throwing a glance at Fluttershy, who returned it from under her long semi-dropped eyelashes, Alex returned to the landscape flowing by behind the large train car window. The railroad ran through the fields, but contrary to previously seen, those were either abandoned or undergoing a prolonged “soil rest” period. The wild grass took over the vastness; large rocks protruded here and there from its now browned surface. The dirt roads, dividing the fields into the huge, almost regular squares, acquired the fluffy collars of bushes and small trees, which swayed their branches in the strengthening wind. A wild deer slowly moved through the nearest edge of the field: diving its muzzle into the wilted grass, it was looking for something almost parallel to the tracks and raised its head at the noise of passing train. The deer followed them with the casual, not nearly startled look, squinting in the scarce November sunlight, then returned to its interrupted business, making Alex conclude that the undisturbed animals there got used to the limited civilization presence. A dark patch along the far line of the horizon, the big city was flowing by, followed by the stripe of the forest, growing higher and closer; without the map of Equestria, Alex couldn’t tell where exactly they were travelling at the moment. About five-six hundred miles to the north from Canterlot, as he could figure out. There, at its northern edge, the sky was turning darker and heavier – seen from their position like the distant, grey, slanting veil, the cold rain was showering the land. Brought by the wind, a few drops fell on the window glass and raced down, leaving wet diagonal tracks. Alex’s sight fell on something he hadn’t noticed before: hiding behind the empty plates and cups, almost next to the window, a small clay figure stood, rocking slightly to the beat of the train. At the closer look of his surprised eyes, the toy appeared very familiar to the human. Two legs, two arms, half-spread wings… And, which was more important, moreover, astonishing for Alex, the facial traits of the figure were quite precise, not letting any room for mistake – the clay toy was his fairly reliable copy. Mildly confused by that sign of recognition and endlessly impressed by the level of precision – Crystal Chime managed to make such exact portrait in a few days, seeing him only once before – Alex turned his bewildered eyes to the mare. “Aurora asked for a soft plush toy…” explained Crystal Chime, letting out a slightly embarrassed smile; however, she could be rightfully proud of her masterful work. “But I thought that I didn’t have enough time and facilities to make a believable replica in such a complex and inflexible form as soft stuffed plush.” “So, this is merely the prototype,” Crystal waved her fore hoof while Alex blinked, feeling how his ears started getting ablush. Fluttershy watched the scene with a barely noticeable glimpse of amusement. Thankfully, the foals were distracted from the talk by some quiet romp they undertook. ‘What did I expect?’ thought he, remembering Crystal’s vocation. ‘I guess, she is very dedicated to her job!’ “But it turned out that Aurora loved that variant much as well,” added the mare. “He… You…” she shrugged lightly, “are protecting the filly when she sleeps.” Crystal nodded towards the figure and Alex met the serious, determined glance of his miniature copy. “Aurora takes him with her everywhere and… I suppose I’ll have a hard time taking the model back even for a while when I need it!” The vision of another toy, half a year distance from that day, stood in front of his mind’s eye, making Alex inwardly cringe a little. On the other hand, what else could he expect? If people had toy ponies, ponies might have toy humans equally. “Ahem…” the human cleared his throat, catching another smiling glance from Fluttershy. “Miss Chime, I’m, of course, very flattered by such attention but… I have a small request if you don’t mind me asking.” Alex leaned forward a bit, lowering the voice not to catch foals’ attention. “Whatever you do, please, don’t launch it into a series just yet!” * “Ooooohhhh!..” groaned Apple Bloom in a martyr’s voice, launching her bag into the deep comfy armchair in the corner. The filly trudged in the same direction across the soft violet carpet, which resembled some large flower with a spiral ornament in its centre. “It seems, they plan to squeeze the entire year program into our poor heads before holidays! For real!” She tiredly sank next to her bag, flattening in the armchair like a big rag doll – for a moment, the girl’s muzzle took an absolutely inscrutable expression of complete relaxation and pleasure, making her friends snort quietly. “Ah want to become a plaice...” muttered Apple Bloom; then she noticed her giggling friends and rolled her eyes, blowing a raspberry. “What? Don’t ya tell, yar enjoying it.” Then the girl remembered about the matter gathering them – the remaining homework, both girls asked Sweetie Belle to help them with – and her ears dropped again. “I think that my inner Twilight is about to give up…” Scootaloo let her bag down on the floor and simply flopped across the neatly made dark-green bed under the mauve patterned cover; her small wings weakly flattened on both sides. She took a floating look around the familiar room: the dark wooden panels, belting it to the shoulder height, the light-saffron wallpaper with a light-cerise pattern of curls and hearts, the mustard curtains on the window frame of the same dark wood. Trying to make a volitional effort over herself, Scootaloo said flatly. “Anyway, we should do what we planned, mates. I think if I lie down a little longer… you’ll need a couple of bulls to drag me off that bed!” “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle closed the door of her room accurately. Levitating her bag across the room, she put it onto the closed cover of the large toy chest, then tiredly nested on the edge of her bed, next to Scootaloo. “The teachers indeed seem to turn a little too… enthusiastic, making our load very heavy.” Both other girls could only snort at that politely cautious expression of educational disaster they had been having the last few weeks. “If [b]you[/b] say so, partner,” chuckled Apple Bloom, finding the strength to raise her head and shake it, “that means something already. You, who is hooves down better than us in all subjects…” “…except Alchemy,” amended Scootaloo, rising her fore hoof in an edifying manner. That gesture made all three fillies burst laughing despite the fatigue. “And Housecraft,” laughed Sweetie Belle, “don’t forget about Housecraft! Cooking especially. However, the last time miss Cheerilee said that,” she pretended to be remembering, “yeah, that “my undoubted progress turned the food of my making less dangerous but… she was probably going to order a set of blast-proof cookware anyway.” “Well! Nothing actually exploded that time at least!” the unicorn girl clopped her fore hooves together with an encouraging expression. Her friends reclined back, groaning, unable to laugh anymore. “Belle, please stop! Have mercy!” squeezed out Scootaloo, hanging limply from the bed. “Ah seriously think that there is a connection,” taking her breath, Apple Bloom said pensively. “Between Alchemy and Cooking progress, I mean.” “Maybe you’re right,” Sweetie Belle cupped her chin. “Still, my last experiment reproducing in school one of the potions Zecora taught us… filled the class with strange colourful fumes…” “Yeah, we all kept hiccupping the rest of the day,” squinted Scootaloo. “Just confess, it was a hiccup potion of your own making!” “Okay, okay, I admit that I need to cover the entire topic with Zecora once again, more diligently this time,” Sweetie Belle broke into a wide smile while the girls kept giggling. “I hope she can afford to repeat and you,” the unicorn filly launched a small pillow into having fun Apple Bloom, “can help me as well, mocker!” “Aha!!!” In a second, the air was filled with the soft flying projectiles of varied speed and lethality. To their surprise, the girls felt that the short but intensive romp full of action and laughter served them as the daily dozen rather, cheering them up enough to keep kicking. “Girls, let’s not forget, what we gathered for!” Levitating the entire heap of pillows onto the bed, Sweetie Belle lit the green lamp under the colourful ceiling of multiple tints of yellow – the light coming from outside wasn’t enough for studying already. “Okay, peace for now!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exchanged glances; the earth filly huffed away a small feather, which was floating in the air and landed on her nose. Even without the kinetic magic both fillies were seasoned professionals when it came to the pillow fights. “Back to the boring stuff,” sighed Scootaloo, diving under the bed for her bag, which got shoved there in the heat of the battle. Quite unusual for that place, the silence enveloped the room for the next couple of hours. The silence was occasionally broken by paper rustle or a sigh of diligent effort, not compensated by the anticipated result though. But that was exactly what they gathered there for – assistance and advice. Thus, quickly finishing with her own task, Sweetie Belle moved about her room, leaning to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo in rotation and explaining to them what her friends still failed to understand from the teacher’s words. Diving into the sky maps and reference books, both fillies even stuck their tongues out from their zeal to catch up. Peeking through the half-curtained window, the daylight faded little by little, as the lazy November sun hurried to finish the day early and roll in for rest. It looked like a dull yellow spot through the slowly flowing grey veil of thin clouds covering the entire sky. The shadows became longer and denser, but dispelled by the lamplight, they stood unnoticed by the busy fillies. Closer to the evening, out of nowhere, the thick soft snow started falling; in less than ten minutes – it stopped as suddenly as it started – almost the entire valley, the town, the surrounding fields, the roads got covered with a thin yet fluffy blanket. Everything said about that first snow would hardly survive the next day, but it clearly manifested what the calendars in every house were ready to state – winter came to Ponyville. The girls’ work took considerably longer than Sweetie Belle spent to achieve the same result, or even better, clearly suggesting that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo yet had goals to aspire to. But at least they coped with their job, and this time both were sure that it was worth the effort. “Phew!” Scootaloo caught herself thoughtlessly poking her pencil into the page for the last couple of minutes. “I think my head is incapable to accommodate any more information in one go, mates.” “Yeah, partner! But at least this time we really completed the task,” noticed Apple Bloom, slowly pushing the star map away from herself. “All thanks to you, pal!” she glanced at the unicorn filly with meaning and gratitude. “Yo! Hats off to Belle!” with a smile, Scootaloo stretched like a cat, arching her back and spreading the wings. “Mhhmmm!” “Oh, come on, girls!” Sweetie Belle dropped her eyes; her nose gained colour a little. “You could easily get the same result if you convinced yourself better that you need that,” she glanced at her friends slyly. “Frankly speaking, Astronomy is better to study with practical examples, not only theory,” added Sweetie Belle, gathering her books and papers and levitating them to the appropriate places. “But with the sky like that…” she slowly shook her head. “We could probably ask Twilight,” noticed Apple Bloom. “She has a powerful telescope… so, when the sky clears a bit…” “Good idea!” stretching as well, Sweetie Belle headed to the window. “Besides, she can share her knowledge, would be useful… Oh! Look! Girls!” squeaked she, throwing a glance outside. Attracted by her exclamation, the girls hurried to look, what brought their friend to such high spirits. Sparkling in the last rays of the setting sun, the snow-covered landscape behind the glass looked like the contents of a snow globe toy. For the first couple of seconds, the girls simply watched it with bated breath, forgetting to blink. The sun hid behind the horizon, leaving the scene to the shadows, which immediately took over, spreading and merging, enveloping everything in thickening darkness. The girls exchanged glances, probably thinking about the same. The winter was right on the doorstep. And with it, the holidays were approaching. Hearthwarming – family time, time of unity and wholehearted support, presents and fun. But… “Ah wonder, what Hearthwarming will look like this year,” Apple Bloom voiced the mutual thought, looking through the darkened window pensively. She glanced at the friends. “Ah mean if we can have at least part of the fun we do yearly… With all the stuff going around and…” “Yeah!” Scootaloo scratched behind the ear. “I heard a theory… by pure accident,” with a shrug, she returned the quick glance of the girls, “that these monsters, the Seekers… they may have no effective thermo… thermoregulation. I guess it means that…” “…if you get cold, you can’t get warmer by your own efforts,” nodded Apple Bloom. “We got it. So?” “Well,” with another shrug, Scootaloo looked outside, at the cold darkness dispelled by the random town lights, “they probably should appear rarer in winter in that case. Who knows…” “That’d be awesome!” said Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom nodded in agreement. “I can’t imagine winter without proper Hearthwarming, even because of those beasts!” The sound of hoofsteps in the corridor made all three fillies turn; somepony knocked on the door. “Sweetie Belle, have the girls already…” Slightly concerned, Rarity peeked in. Her concern was dissolving as her eyes shifted from one girl to another – full set! “Oh…” enveloping the fancy glasses, the sapphire aura moved them to the mare’s forehead. “What’s going on, sis?” pulling the door open with her magic, Sweetie Belle approached Rarity and nuzzled her gently. “You look… a bit…” “Thank Celestia, you all are still here!” When she spoke again, the relief in Rarity’s voice was almost tangible. Her glance travelled around the room, softly lit by the lamp, the girls’ half-packed bags and maps and pencils still remaining on the floor; with little effort, the unicorn girl made herself continue less anxiously with a smile. “Not hearing you, I was worried that your friends left already, darling.” Rarity returned the sisterly nuzzle. “Is everything okay?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo hurried to come closer, looking into her still widened azure eyes. “No. I mean, yes,” letting out a little nervous chuckle, Rarity exhaled. “It’s a bit late, girls. Too dark outside for the young ladies like you to roam around. Apple Bloom furthermore would need to cover quite a road through the fields and orchard to get home…” “Come on, Rarity! We’re not foals,” Scootaloo blinked, facing that sudden overprotective (from her point of view) position. “Besides, we always…” “I’m sorry, dear, but it’s not “always” now,” softly but firmly said Rarity, touching the filly’s shoulder. “The neighbourhood isn’t entirely safe at the dark time now. Previously we were protected, but for an uncertain while… We don’t have anything more reliable than an overly confident pegasus thinking that she can defend Ponyville alone.” The three fillies exchanged glances; it seemed each one came to the same conclusion, subtly rolling her eyes with a sigh. ‘Not another problem!’ Not giving them time to open their mouths, Rarity took her breath and stated in an objection-intolerant voice. “Everypony is willing to act as they find appropriate, it’s about their lives and families. But we are responsible for you. Yesterday, we discussed the situation and all the girls agreed…” The fillies froze, assuming the continuation. “Agreed that you must not stay outside till darkness!” Saying that, Rarity shrugged with a tint of regret, telling that she would prefer not to appear the herald of those compulsory limitations. “At least for the time, we are generally unprotected.” “But, Rarity!.. We don’t need a foalsitter! We know the surroundings like our four hooves… there is no place around Ponyville where you won’t see at least one pony in five minutes!” The girls started buzzing altogether. “Sis, Rainstorm must be capable enough if she was trusted to take that duty…” “Having no other variants at all…” Rarity managed to input dryly. “Rarity, we heard that she took out a Seeker on her own. Besides, they aren’t roaming the place in packs,” Apple Bloom looked up at Rarity insinuatingly. “Ah suppose it’s safe when it’s technically a day. Last time…” “It’s dark outside… technically,” Rarity raised one eyebrow. The girl let out a tired smile and shook her head. “Last time you were simply lucky not to be in the middle of the events. And the last but one,” she shuddered visibly, “you were lucky, Twilight and Jackie found you before the Seeker did.” “Apple Bloom, seeing you developing the same confidence as your sister is heartwarming,” Rarity hugged the filly’s shoulders softly. “If only it was supported by an ability to withstand the impact of these monsters…” “No, girls, it’s final,” she looked around the fillies. “We all decided: if you stay late in or close to one of our houses, you spend the night in the nearest one, not to roam outside after dark.” Wanting to retort at first, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exchanged glances; one idea fundamentally changing the matter flared up in their eyes slowly. From that point of view, the limitations stopped looking so oppressing to them. ‘A spontaneous sleepover!!!’ “Well…” drawled Apple Bloom. “Ah think everything isn’t that bad. Right, partner?” she nudged Scootaloo lightly. “Yeah, sure thing!” the pegasus filly woke up, while Sweetie Belle sported a cheerful smile. “If it’s necessary for our safety…” “Awesome!” concluded Rarity a bit cautiously as she managed to intercept the glances the fillies exchanged. “I’ll make dinner. Something that you all like, girls. I admit it probably won’t be as delicious as Applejack can offer…” “…still incomparably better than my snacks attempts!” muttered Sweetie Belle jokingly. “The idea looks prudent indeed. Thanks, sis!” “One more thing, darling!” Rarity looked at the unicorn filly and her friends very closely. “Try not to be overly loud, okay? I have tons of work, girls, tons of work!” she rolled her eyes in a theatric manner. However, Sweetie Belle knew that it wasn’t a figure of speech this time. “Anythin’ fancy?!” Apple Bloom asked with a smile, rightfully deciding that some creative thoughts might distract Rarity from possible suspicions. “Upcoming holidays, darling!” Rarity sighed. “I have a collection to finish. In three weeks, simply imagine! And a few personal orders won’t make themselves…” she cocked her nose, putting the glasses back in place. “There is a new dress for Babs, put on hold for nopony-knows-how-long! Sweet Celestia!” Rarity shook her head, turning to the door. “Thankfully, that one is for the next year, so there is no stress… Probably… I would like to make something special for your cousin,” she threw a bright glance at Apple Bloom. “You know, it’ll be Babs’ first Gala!” “Yeah!” the earth filly broke into a wide smile. “Half of her last letter was devoted to that! It was even strange to imagine Babs interested by such things…” Apple Bloom giggled. “Oh, one more thing…” Rarity turned in the doorway. “If I were you, girls, I’d keep my both eyes open even at daytime. Not to say bad about her personally, I don’t think Rainstorm understands all the seriousness of her current position. In her high spirits…” The girl shook her sapphire mane negatively. “She was the weather pegasus her whole life, one of the best, I admit. That doesn’t make her a reliable Seeker-hunter instantly; neither does the single fight she won.” “Right… What was I at? Dinner, dinner…” and Rarity flitted out of the room, murmuring under her breath. “[i]The rules of Rarity, guaranteed quality[/i] [i]This I can assure…[/i]” “I bet she is saying that because Rainstorm almost dragged Alex from her grasp that last time,” chuckled Scootaloo when Rarity’s hoofsteps faded on the stairs. “Is this what it looked like, Belle?” “She was pouting for the rest of the day!” Sweetie Belle snorted, nodding quickly. “I even reconsidered teasing her about that.” “Although, I must admit, she is rather busy…” noticed the pegasus filly. “… and naturally jumpy, as usual.” Finished for her Apple Bloom. “Oh, that’s another story,” Sweetie Belle jolted her mane; notes of sympathy clearly read in the girl’s voice. “Frankly speaking, when the old sewing machine was mechanized… and then the new one shortly after… I thought that Rarity would have more free time finally.” “But instead, she increased the speed and amount of daily work only,” the unicorn filly raised a meaningful glance at her friends. “When it comes to fashion, she is incorrigible!” “On the other hoof,” added Sweetie Belle a bit pensively. “Perhaps, that load of work will give Alex a breath.” The fillies burst laughing, but Sweetie Belle put her fore hoof to her mouth, signalling down with her eyes and a meaningful face. * Sounding almost lulling, the clatter of the wheels became monotonous, turning into a low pitch hum. The Crystal Express left another noticeable stop about half an hour ago and gained its cruise speed; it was going to jet nearly through the entire night before reaching the next large station for refuelling and checkup. The snow-covered plain spread out behind the slightly iced glass as far as the eye could catch. The occasional distant groves, rocks, rare separate buildings slowly floated by, dissolving in the thickening twilight; the actual speed turned visible only when the railroad posts or trees approaching the tracks wheezed past as smudged spots. As the train was approaching the Frozen North territory, the motorpony providently increased the heating; it made the small room a bit too stuffy for Alex’s liking. Without further hesitation, he pressed the round handle amidst the upper edge and pulled the unlocked frame down a little, letting the stream of frosty air inside. Bringing the faint bitter smell from the loco pipe – hit by the oncoming wind, the smoke plume was smeared along the train, trailing along the car roofs and slowly dissolving – it was still better than the stifling heat. The setting sun already hid behind the heavy clouds, delivering no light into the eastern windows. Alex lit the lamp – the landscape behind the glass “turned off” immediately, changing to the reflection of him turning the tap. Splashing a few handfuls of cold water into his face, Alex raised his glance at the mirror over the sink. ‘Hmmm… It has grown long again,’ he remarked musingly, examining himself and brushing his wet palms through the hair to smooth it down. The perspective of gathering it into a ponytail after returning from the Crystal Empire was unwanted yet real. Somehow Alex was sure that he would have little to no time for himself there. At the thought of visiting Rarity to acquire her hairdresser services again, Alex shuddered inwardly and woke up. In due time, he managed to notice the gazes she threw at Rainstorm; the latter nearly pulled the human out of the unicorn fashionista’s anticipating grasp. No doubt, Rarity had been plotting something for him back then. For them both! ‘Yeah, that’s a problem!’ Alex rubbed his face. ‘But I can’t walk around like some mope-headed girl… Maybe I should ask Fluttershy for help?’ he remembered that his marefriend shared some of Rarity’s virtues. ‘If she is perfectly capable of making a dress, then maybe… Of course, I could probably ask Twilight, but something tells me that she isn’t very keen on doing that with simple scissors… and magic is not an option. Besides, knowing her desire for experiments…’ he chuckled, shaking his head. “Okay! I’ll think about it tomorrow,” concluded Alex, brushing through his hair once again. Then, after a second thought, he closed the window – the next visitor could be less appreciative of the winter chillness. Turning off the light, Alex slid aside the restroom door and stepped into the passageway. To reach their two-seats luxury in the middle of the long, steadily rocking car, Alex was to pass several compartments, trying to drift apart with anypony he might run into in the moderately narrow corridor. Two doors in a row were locked: the auxiliary room and trainpony compartment – the first was usually locked unless needed and the trainpony was somewhere on his business. The thin scent of unfamiliar perfume reached Alex’s nose: as far as he could remember, he never felt that in their car. Before he could turn, puzzled by that, the train car jerked passing a junction or a switch; Alex was to grab the nearest window frame for balance. At that very moment, the next door on his right opened and somepony vivid and nimble, hurrying out from the unlit compartment, bumped into the human. “Oh! Excuse me!” A mauve unicorn filly with the fluffy violet mane resembling a big stack of wavy noodles glanced up at Alex. Before he could utter a word, the girl giggled and whisked into the next compartment like a drop of quicksilver, flashing with her eyes and smile. Through the ajar door, Alex could notice the “students” company herding the compartment and singing to the accompaniment of a guitar and harmonica. By the most humble standards, there seemed to be more passengers than seats in both compartments occupied by them; Alex chuckled, remembering that he heard the muffled noise when he passed their door before, wondering what the source was. Some colt’s voice greeted the belated one and her reply drowned in the burst of laughter before the door closed. Still smirking, Alex turned to continue his way and almost ran face-to-face into the trainpony. “Evening, sir!” the stallion saluted shortly, making a step back. Following Alex’s amused glance, the unicorn let out a concerned sigh. “Students!” the trainpony rolled his eyes meaningfully. “I sure hope they calm down on their own before they start bothering the rest of the passengers and messing with their sleep schedule. So I won’t need to talk them into order. Sorry, sir…” “It’s okay,” Alex shook his head with another smile. “As for me, they are just funny and… quite numerous!” ‘Me and Fluttershy aren’t always quiet either,’ jokingly glimpsed in his mind, ‘so…’ “There are no economy-class cars on the Crystal Express,” the trainpony explained, feeling the unvoiced question. “So it’s quite usual for the companies of youth to travel that way, students specifically. Thankfully, nopony complained today! Now, if you excuse me, sir…” with these words, the stallion adjusted his uniform cap with his aura and squeezed past Alex on the way to his room. “Good luck with the shift, I guess,” said Alex after him. The next two compartments were closed and quiet. Remembering that one of them belonged to the company of mid-aged mares, Alex tiptoed by, inwardly giggling and praising the decent soundproofing of the Express cars. It was surprising indeed that none of the “aunties” yet bothered the trainpony about the noisy neighbourhood, separated from it by one compartment only. Next to another luxury door, one of the business ponies was quietly talking with a young mare; her shortly cut accurate mane was sending into the air that faint scent Alex caught the trails of before. In the dim light of the passageway lamps, the heads of the stallion and the mare leaned close together; their soft talk, barely overshadowing the wheel clatter, definitely was not intended for the stranger’s ears. Recognizing one of the single mares, he saw boarding the Express in Canterlot, Alex knowingly shrugged and subtly cleared his throat, accurately declaring his presence. “Excuse me!” With the light feather rustle, he slid past the couple, leaning against the outer wall and replying to their slightly abashed glance with an apologetic smile. However, showing no reproach, both nodded understandingly to the human, then disappeared into the compartment, likely deciding to continue their interrupted talk in its privacy. Reaching their with Fluttershy room, Alex already put his hand on the sliding door handle, but a glance thrown into the window made him linger for a while. Timely guided by Celestia, the sun already hid behind the distant western mountains, leaving the valley flooded in the deep shadow. Manifesting their proximity to the Frozen North, the snow covered everything, even the trees standing separately or in small groves. At some places, the white blanket was so thick, it bent the large branches to the ground and made the fir-trees look like pyramids in winter camouflage. Enthralled by the scene, Alex stepped closer to the glass rectangle with a thin frozen frame. The soft hallway lighting took over the look outside – to see the landscape clearly, one should almost snuggle to the window. Alex did exactly that, using his wings to shield from the artificial light and letting the winter reveal itself in all the beauty in front of his admiring eyes. One by one, the stars began to show through on the mazarine velvet of the darkening sky, weaving the familiar and unfamiliar constellations little by little. First, the largest ones, then the tiny specks of dimmer or farther stars hurried to attend their nightly duty. Fighting the strong wish to open the window and enjoy the unobstructed panorama – which would have been immediately protested by some of the passengers most likely – Alex heard a couple of reserved hoofsteps and realized that he wasn’t alone in the car passageway. A short glance to his right told Alex that, moreover, he wasn’t alone admiring the view – the stallion, they with Fluttershy mutually defined as the “traveller”, was also staring into the window, pushing the unchanging hat to his nape. The human lit with realization, whom that stallion reminded him of by the hat, the checkered neckerchief, the general expression – Indiana Jones; the clean-shaved, well-rested version of at least. That thought made Alex giggle inwardly. Suddenly, a subtle yet expressively mirthful smile lit the traveller’s muzzle, which looked anticipating, as far as Alex could tell. The smooth sound of the door sliding open made them both turn back. With a slightly concerned look, Fluttershy peeked out of compartment number six. However, the girl’s expression changed to the relieved one when her glance stopped on Alex right behind the door. “You’re here! I started worrying a bit…” “The road back took slightly longer,” Alex couldn’t hold back a smile. “I wasn’t the only one who decided to stretch the legs tonight,” he pointed with his thumb back at the aisle, where a couple of students whisked forth and back between the compartments again. “Oh, I see! Good evening, sir,” noticing the stallion, Fluttershy greeted him with a friendly smile, getting the same in return. “Good evening, miss!” the “traveller” raised his fore hoof to his hat. “Well… Won’t bother you,” with an understanding glance, alternating between him and Alex, Fluttershy returned to the compartment. Exchanging the belated greetings, both Alex and the stallion addressed the interrupted stargazing again. Staring through the window at the flowing landscape, Alex kept guessing; his thoughts were occasionally circling around the crescent pin on the hat of his involuntary silent collocutor, but asking directly seemed too awkward to him. While he was absently reflecting like that, the picture behind the glass changed – rising from behind the train, the bright silvery light flooded the surroundings, making the cars throw long dark shadows on the snow-covered railway mound. The shadows rushed to catch up with their material counterparts in the futile race, becoming shorter and denser as the light rose in the sky. The entire valley sparkled with myriads of tiny diamonds when the moonlight played on the snowy fields, rocks and occasional trees. Yet invisible to them, the Night Beacon was slowly ascending, turning the blue colour of the sky lighter, hiding the smaller stars behind its silvery shine and leaving only the largest ones visible in their eternal pattern. “Amazing...” “Hmm?” Alex was pulled out of his thoughts by the quiet exclamation of admiration. “Isn’t it absolutely amazing?” the “traveller” looked at him, nodding towards the view outside. “Simple, yet magical.” “Most definitely!” Alex let out a dainty smile. “The masterpiece… and the artist herself.” “I’d say you are an admirer of moonlit landscapes as well,” seeing the stallion’s understanding smile, Alex glanced at the crescent pin on his hat. “Yes, kinda!” his collocutor gave a laugh. “But with a good reason, sir, rest assured.” “You see,” elaborated the stallion, leaning against the window frame, “I always had a habit to address the invisible yet omnipresent… eye in the sky for the guidance and oversight, especially during the most difficult night trips.” Throwing a glance at the moonlit valley, where seemingly every occasional rock and snowy shrub became revealed like at the bright day, Alex nodded. “First, unwittingly as if I simply needed some inward sign of support,” continued the stallion, adjusting the hat; the pin shimmered brightly in the light of car lamps. “Imagine my surprise when I once was honoured with the personal confirmation of that guidance. Even if I always knew that occasional watching over me was a tiny part of her duties – our Night Princess, naturally. Moreover, I got the material sign of that guidance and, may I call it, friendship, the keepsake of a kind,” added he after a moment of silence, pointing with his hoof at the hatband pin. Emerging from his thoughts, he raised his glance at the human. “I hope, I haven’t bored you with my memories.” “No, not at all! Do tell please,” Alex expressed genuine interest. “Oh, nothing too fascinating in the story in general,” smiled the stallion, but his smile told about him truly treasuring that memory, “except the actual visit from Her Highness, Princess Luna. I was on the routine trip to Oatlahoma – quite a long yet familiar road, I could probably follow with my eyes closed,” he let out a chuckle. “Knowing that I was going to wander into the night, I addressed inwardly the one who might easily provide the safety and guidance, if not physical then mental. Believe me, it’s as important, if not more.” “Oh, I understand. And can easily relate,” Alex nodded, returning in his thoughts into his early days in Equestria. “So, I barely hit the road when the Night Princess appeared on my way,” shrugged the “traveller” as if still not entirely believing his luck. “Her Highness was quite interested, why I kept starting each of my travels with the prayers to her, even if holding sway over the night was always her duty, thus putting me under her oversight naturally. She even blessed me by her company for a while,” the stallion let out a humble smile, “while I was explaining the nature of my usual requests being purely a source of my inner serenity and confidence. How honoured I was, told that my little prayers didn’t fall on the deaf ears, but rather gained some vivid interest from the one I never dreamed to see in pony lest alone talk freely.” “That’s so like her,” said Alex; his glance froze for a moment, directed seemingly in the distant space. “She may look unattainable at times, yet always ready to support those who need and deserve. Methinks she receives tides of prayers regularly; however, she singled out yours… it must be coming wholeheartedly forsooth.” “So it was,” confirmed the stallion, throwing another glance at the passing by shimmering plain. “I assured Her Highness of the purity of mine intentions as considering myself her friend was a matter of great happiness for me. And… got that token, I keep close ever since.” “Sometimes I strongly suspect,” the stallion leaned closer to Alex, lowering his voice, “that this small souvenir is imbued with the same featherweight spell, Princess Luna applied to my cargo wagon that night… Or maybe the warm feeling of protection causes that effect on me.” “I wouldn’t wonder if it is,” Alex broke into a smile, “if we’re thinking about the same Luna.” “You look… and sound like one knowing Her Highness well enough,” the “traveller” tilted his head inquiringly. “I’m here, in Equestria for about half a year only,” said Alex. “But yes, we are… [b]very close[/b]. That was an unimaginable gift of luck in my case, I guess…” The Moon rose high, making the shadows short and the entire landscape passing behind the glass – crispy contrast. Turning all the tints of blue, the deep clear velvet, spreading above the valley and the train cutting it, was barely stained; however, the moonlight revealed the dark stripe of heavy clouds along the northern edge of the sky. Rare snowflakes swirled in the air, pulled with the hurrying train and agitated by the smoke, erupting from the pipe of the loco. As the first ambassadors, they were reminding the passengers about the frozen lands still lying ahead. “If you don’t mind an advice from a stranger,” noticed the stallion when they both returned to contemplation. “Cherish that relationship no matter what, sir! Princess Luna is that special kind of a treasure-person, rare and difficult to find nowadays.” “I know,” simply said Alex. “Longhaul Hoofer, by the way,” his collocutor turned to him with an appraising glance. “Simply Longhaul for the friends.” “Alex…” Alex stumbled upon almost adding “the human” but held himself in time, properly assuming that he would sound unnecessarily official. ‘Celestially official!’ inwardly chuckled he, adding instead. “Simply Alex without any stipulations… as there is hardly another one here anyway. Nice to meet you!” “Mutually!” smirked Longhaul. “Hmmm, I know about a princess who introduces herself alike…” “Yeah…” It dawned on Alex that mister Hoofer was talking about Twilight, but he was captured by another question. “By the way, it seems that we were right. We with Fluttershy were guessing if you were some kind of a traveller,” elaborated Alex, nodding towards the compartment door. “Apologies if we took too much liberty accidentally,” added he with a guilty smile. “It’s okay,” Longhaul gave a laugh. “Especially as your guess was truly bull’s eye. Not that I ever was concealing it much. However, my travels were of a bit different, more prosaic nature than it is considered usually: I’ve been delivering cargo for my entire conscious life, and, daring to say that, have been almost all over Equestria with my cargo wagon.” “I see. So, while it was still travelling, it was kinda far from pure entertainment!” said Alex through a sympathetic smile. “Yes and no at the same time,” Longhaul stared through the night landscape; his hazel eyes turned to the events of his past. “Believe me, it was rarely boring, even occasionally entertaining… up to thrilling and some degree of dangerous sometimes. But hardly restful… Well, like every job, I suppose, even the favourite one. For which it is called a job exactly,” he gave out a smile. “So now…” “… I am in the middle of a different kind of travel. More refreshing to be exact. It’s nice to be carried once in a while instead of carrying. For a change!” chuckled Longhaul; his philosophical outlook made Alex break into a smile as well. “Thus, I’m using my free time to visit the places I missed during my cargo trips,” continued Longhaul, pushing the hat to his nape. “Some sights, more time to enjoy them rather than dashing by. Crystal Empire is one of such places I had no time to visit to my shame.” “Although, considering the possible weather there,” the stallion threw a meaningful glance at the strengthening snowfall behind the window – the sky wasn’t cloudless already; in the bright moonlight, the shadows were running across the valley like giant shaggy dogs, “something tells me that the next place I visit for leisure will be somewhere at the eastern coast, likely south-east.” “Can’t deny it’s reasonable!” chuckled Alex, watching the dance of the large snowflakes, which swirled in the wind wrapping around the train. “I haven’t yet seen the equestrian ocean likewise…” ‘Otherwise than in a dream,’ added he inwardly. ‘But that doesn’t count I suppose.’ “Supposedly, it isn’t too different from the ones in my homeworld, but still…” Alex caught a mental glimpse of his old dream, including him, Fluttershy and Luna somewhere on the shore. “I guess it is a natural wish,” Longhaul shrugged, “for a mid-aged stallion, who managed to earn enough to afford a small house somewhere warm and serene. Especially after the last few years, which were more than eventful and made me almost live on the road with my wagon,” added he confidentially. Alex wanted to say something when they were interrupted by the sound of quick, light hoofsteps; he remembered fancying a door sliding open subtly a while ago. “I extend mine hope we didn’t bother anypony by our talk…” muttered Alex turning to the approaching steps. At that exact moment, somepony small almost bumped into him, hugging above the knees. “Wow! Somepony said about their home world! By the way, you never told us anything about it, Alex! Why?!” Aurora’s eyes were shining with curiosity when she glanced up at him inquiringly. “We heard somepony talking in the corridor…” Storm was following her close; he was making a visible effort to hold back his enthusiasm, but it was obvious that the colt shared his sister’s interest. “And it turned out to be you, so… I hope we’re not bothering much, sorry!” “Good evening, sir! Please excuse us,” he greeted Longhaul a bit confusedly; getting a reassuring nod from the stallion, the colt let out a little smile. “It’s okay, kids… as long as you aren’t compromising your sleep,” with a chuckle, Alex picked up Aurora into his arms. “Storm… Aurora…” Miss Chime appeared in the hallway following the foals. Seeing a concerned expression on her muzzle, Alex nodded, greeting her and showing that it wasn’t much of a burden for everypony. Longhaul was watching the scene with kind humour in his eyes. “And how you got to Equestria also!” added Aurora, nesting with all possible comfort. “Good evening, gentlecolts!” Crystal Chime approached, still looking slightly unconfidently at the foals clinging to the human. “Excuse me! I hope that…” “Not at all! Don’t worry, ma’am,” Longhaul’s eyes were smiling. “I suppose they brought a fresh stream into our musings. It’s probably me who is interfering now.” “By no means, sir!” Alex shook his head, supported by everypony present. “Stay if you wish and if our company hasn’t become too noisy for your liking.” “Oh! It’s a full-time meeting! Mind if I join?” The door slid open behind Alex’s back, letting out a trail of floral aroma; with a smile, Fluttershy took a look around the small herd. Alex leaned in and planted a kiss at her immediately flushing nose instead of an answer. “Come on, Alex! Spill the beans,” Aurora nudged him lightly but impatiently, reminding the human of her question. Noticing the same urge in Storm’s eyes, Alex let out a feigned sigh and gave up. “Okay, kids. How can I put it simpler?” he pondered, how to depict his arrival in a less gruesome way than it originally looked. “Let’s say, I rode a thunderbolt,” Alex chuckled, trying to sound as jokingly as it was possible. “The heavy rainstorm started when I… departed. The oncoming car… errmmm, sort of automatic carriage, we use – it lost control and crashed, doors jammed. So, I was to help the other people,” shrugged he. “I got inside their car and then a lightning struck into it… somehow carrying me to your world!” finished he in a bit crumpled way. “I can’t explain better,” added Alex after a second of impressed silence, “as I still can only suppose, how it exactly worked.” “Maybe it’s for the best,” quietly said Fluttershy, throwing a meaningful glance at the human. Crystal Chime watched the suddenly hushed foals with a surprised smile as if seeing them for the first time ever. “Well, on the bright side of the Moon, nopony got hurt!” Alex drew the line cheerfully; the mood slowly passed on to the foals – Storm and Aurora gave smiles again. “I hope we don’t interfere with somepony’s plans at that hour,” Alex sat down cross-legged on the train car floor, pulling the foals closer, thus blocking half of the passage. With his eyes chained to the darkening sky behind the large window, Alex pointed at one group of the stars. “There, kids, is one of the phenomena I still can’t comprehend! See that constellation?” “It’s Ursa Major!” squeaked Aurora, excited to show her knowledge. “Mom usually tells us about the night sky…” “Right!” Alex hurried to distract the filly before she had time to get sulky. “And those three bright stars over there, rising over the horizon? That’s part of Orion. Now to the phenomenon,” added he mysteriously. “These two constellations are well known to me; we have them as well in my home world.” “Moreover,” continued Alex while the foals and, frankly speaking, everypony present tried to digest the meaning of that statement, “they both are a part of exactly winter sky on Earth, in the northern hemisphere. Where we are now on Equus either,” he said meaningfully. Crystal Chime blinked wonderingly – she started getting the course of human thoughts. Longhaul’s glance was still drawn to the night sky, but he clearly listened to the talk from the corner of his perked ear. Only Fluttershy, already familiar with Alex’s explanation of his travel and possible interposition of Earth and Equus in time and space, wasn’t surprised a iota. With a light smile, the girl kept listening, wondering how the human was going to explain the latter to the foals. “That could mean that Earth exists in its own dimension at the same spot where Equus exists in its one,” said Alex with an expression of residual disbelief. “How’s that even possible?” whispered Storm, following the human’s glance across the starry sky with the named constellations. “Believe me, half a year ago I would say this was nonsense as well,” chuckled Alex, ruffling their manes while his wings supported foals’ backs. “Just like about the multitude of other things, including… well… never mind. Back to the topic though. I don’t know half of the common constellations here. So,” he raised his finger, “how can our planets share the part of constellations and their positions while not being the same planet, and at the same time differ regarding the rest?” “I didn’t understand half of what you said, Alex!” Aurora nudged him with her nose and pouted jokingly, making everypony around smile. “Why don’t you simply tell about your home planet instead? Without much scientific stuff…” Alex looked through the window at the flying snowflakes – swirling and dancing, more and more of them competed with the stars in the night sky decoration, shimmering in the silvery moonlight. At the north, the gloomy stripe of the clouds became wider and wider, threatening to flood the entire scene with darkness. “Okay,” Alex gave up with a smile. “Not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” * Lit by a multitude of magical crystals, the large hall was so quiet that one could probably hear the strained hum of the uneasy thoughts of the light-grey unicorn. The latter measured the room with his steps from one wall to another, from the large doors to the wide window of stained glass. The silence got broken occasionally when the stallion paced up pensively, so his hoofsteps echoed under the high, randomly faceted ceiling. The setting autumn sun was unable to dispel neither the twilight, gathering in the far corners, nor his anxious reflections. Coming through the stained glass, its light could only send the faint colourful rays full of dancing dust specks into the room. The tightly shut window among other precautions was explicable: even managed exclusively by the weather pegasi under the magical dome, the weather fluctuations could disturb the proper work of the magical device of great importance and sensitive precision placed in that room. Once in a while, the concerned unicorn raced past the window: the long dense shadow cut the sunrays and fell on the giant table in the centre of the hall, running over the peculiarly made map of the lands. The Crystal Castle, towering in the middle of the city, the streets and buildings, big and small, the surrounding lands, spreading like the colourful patchwork blanket with the fields and groves, forests and lakes, rivers and roads, cutting that pie of land in different directions – everything was presented on that incredible miniature copy of the domain. The magical dome of the smaller scale than the real one covered the entire inhabited land representation. Faintly shimmering on the perimeter like some giant rainbow soap bubble, it was rising over the tiny landscape elements and became invisible in the air. The miniature low, dark clouds slowly flowed, wrapping and swirling around the ethereal yet impenetrable barrier. Contrasting with the inner one, the outer land looked hostile, whitened with the eternal snow and shining ice, peppered with rocks, only tinted here and there with patches of grim dense fir-wood; small settlements of industrial purpose like mining were scattered through the frozen grounds. The actual magical dome was exactly the same as its imitation depicted – the only reliable barrier between the heart of the Crystal Empire and the kingdom of winter around, the Frozen North. Mostly invisible, it protected the inner space from natural hazards and known hostile intrusions. One of the miraculous manifestations of the Crystal Heart – the magical artefact of the immense power, having the almost symbiotic bonds with the crystal ponies – the barrier allowed the inhabitants of the Crystal Empire to live and work safely, as the conditions inside were similar to Equestria. Moreover, it allowed the weather-pegasi to maintain the weather nearly perfect. Any jobs outside of the dome were well compensated; besides, the workers spent only limited periods of time in the “white lands”, in a rotational manner, so nopony stressed themselves excessively. However, as with everything in the endless Universe, the barrier had its flaws. Impenetrable from outside for the known threats – nopony could clearly tell how that process of recognition by the Crystal Heart worked – it could oppose nothing against the totally unknown menace or the attack from inside, by the threat already seeping in somehow. That had happened twice already – both times, only the unprecedented actions from the defenders saved the Crystal Empire from the seemingly imminent danger. Thus not being ideal, the magical dome still demanded constant vigilance from the Empire inhabitants and especially from the rulers of the domain. Yet again as many times that evening, the unicorn stallion stopped near the live map and stared fixedly at the motion playing up in front of his light cerulean eyes. Pursing his lips, he watched the small coloured flags, crawling on the landscape model as some bright bugs. A couple of them was moving inside the dome at its southern border; much more though were scouting the frozen lands outside along the south quarter of the rainbow hemisphere. Judging by the measured scanning movement of the marks, one could suppose that nothing unsetting was happening yet. Still, the eyes of the unicorn seemingly penetrated the distance, trying to see what hid behind the moving signs: he leaned forward, the sapphire with cerulean and phthalo-blue streaks mane fell on his progressively glooming muzzle. ‘Waiting is the worst thing possible!’ the stallion looked away from the magical map, which currently was unable to provide him with any new fuel for pondering. ‘But waiting helplessly for what the new day may bring is a crime!’ meeting the tired and stern glance of his dim reflection in the crystal wall, he clenched jaws – the lumps on his cheeks jumped up and down. ‘I don’t want to put everything at risk ever again…’ The hoofsteps drumming through the hallway made the unicorn turn to the sound expectantly. Slowing down, not to burst in like a hurricane, the guards’ commander appeared in the opening doors, stopping a few steps in with a salutation. With a tired nod, the unicorn welcomed the visitor to report without ceremony. “Your Highness!” Understandingly, the commander turned right to business. “Two news…” he cleared his throat subtly, “…both bad more or less, I assume.” “It’s easy to choose then!” chuckled the unicorn ironically; lately, the bad news was more usual than good. “Go on, commander!” “The weather outside of the dome is getting progressively worse,” the guard approached the map. “We expect the strong snowfall to begin in the next few hours.” “I’m afraid the pegasi can do nothing this time, except freezing in the sky,” he replied the inquiring glance of the unicorn. “Flowing around the barrier, two cloud fronts collide at the southern border; with the increasing wind, it already resembles a thresher up there.” “Well, we’re amidst the Frozen North,” dropped his collocutor; however, a shadow of anxiety slid across the stallion’s muzzle. “Snowfalls are usual for this time of the year.” “With all respect…” with the light clanking of the armour, the guard alternated from hoof to hoof. “Your Highness, this one is going to be massive by all the signs, threatening to block the roads outside of the dome. Railway tracks included,” added he after a second of strained silence. “Now, that’s unacceptable!” the unicorn’s muzzle gloomed, then he remembered. “And the other thing?” “The Seekers were lost of sight in the starting blizzard! The groups keep searching, but with no result so far,” the commander nodded towards the slowly moving flags on the map. The small magical clouds indeed herded at the southern border of the dome, getting gradually denser and darker. Judging by the unicorn’s expression, that was the most unwanted news to receive. “Any changes to their numbers?” he hurried to the map. “Where were they seen last time?” “Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to eliminate any of the creatures again,” responded the guard. “As for the location…” he stepped forward; a part of the burning up shining aura of his horn detached and floated to the giant table. The tiny light ball chose a spot on the map and settled like a glowing mark on the toy landscape. “The last information about the pack was there-about.” The unicorn stared at the spark sitting at the edge of a large stony valley, frozen and squeezed between two stripes of the forest. Searching for a moving target during the strong blizzard was a bad and futile idea there. But that wasn’t what made the stallion’s muzzle darken. With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes for a second – straight like a guitar string, the railroad from Canterlot was cutting the valley in halves. “What about the Express?” the unicorn shook his sapphire mane, glancing at the reporting guard gravely. “It is moving according to the schedule, Your Highness!” Even if the guard could ease the concerns of the unicorn, it wasn’t enough to dispel them completely. “Passing the Crystalshard mine, it didn’t yet enter the zone of possible snowdrifts.” ‘The question is, will it arrive before the full blockade?’ for the long silent minute, the light-grey unicorn fell into deep thoughts, alternating between the map and the patiently waiting commander. “Don’t waste the ponypower in the upcoming snowstorm!” He finally made the decision. “Send several groups to circle the valley, cover from the blizzard and wait for the further orders. Stay sharp!” “Even if it is fitting the schedule now…” the stallion glanced at the fading away sun behind the stained glass; his eyes narrowed. “We must get ready for the worst type scenario, commander. Prepare the Icebreaker!” “Your Highness!” the guard saluted. “That’s all, commander. Dismissed!” the unicorn nodded with permission. Meeting somepony in the doorway, the leaving guard stepped back with a bow, giving way to an alicorn mare, then hurried to deliver the orders. “Is everything okay, Shining?” the light-greyish cerise princess lightly trotted to the unicorn; swaying back her long wavy violet mane with rose and pale gold streaks, she looked into his eyes. “That dusk look on your face…” “More or less like every day lately, Cady,” Shining Armour forced out a smile, trying his best for it to look more natural. “But it may turn worse anytime soon…” he hugged the girl’s shoulders apologetically, being unable to tell the brighter news. “But… auntie Celestia promised to send help, didn’t she?” incrusted with a violet gem, the peculiar golden crown trembled lightly as the girl tilted her head. The light purple eyes looked inquisitively, then widened. “You are talking not about these monsters, right, my love? What then?” With a deep sigh, the stallion adjusted an out of place strand of her mane with his light rose aura. “Considering how the situation is developing, those sent by Princess Celestia may need our help instead, sweetheart!” His glance was tensely serious. “The blizzard is approaching the southern border; there is a high chance that snowdrifts will block the railway… It may turn out that we’ll need to save them from the snow captivity instead. The train was last reported here,” the tiny light of his aura marked the spot at the edge of the map. “By the time they approach the outskirts of the barrier, the road may become blocked already.” “Oh…” The princess looked at the glowing mark, at the tiny but menacingly dark clouds, gathering between it and the magical dome. “They have nothing to oppose the elements, I assume. It made me wonder, why auntie Celestia refused to arrive herself…” “I suppose she has matters keeping her tied to Canterlot at the moment,” Shining Armour decided that telling Cadence about Princess Celestia being unsure in her ability to take down the multiple Seekers… without mass destruction measures wasn’t the best idea. “Besides, if she has fewer problems dealing with the monsters than the rest of us, that doesn’t mean she has none. So, she sent somepony unaffected by the Seekers mental impact.” “But not the dangers of the Frozen North…” Cadence shook her head. “Still strange. I know Fluttershy. With all her undoubted virtues, she is not a traveller. Neither a fighter. What about that… human, right?” “All I know about them is – they exist. At least one does. Only my sister could give you a detailed answer, Cady,” Shining Armour chuckled, although not very cheerfully. “As I could understand from Princess Celestia letter, he is big, keen in mechanics and weapons, has a difficult character… and can easily take down the Seekers. Nothing about him being frost resistant was told, so I assume…” “As you put, it sounded nearly scary,” the alicorn mare let out a tiny smile. “We’ll see, sweetheart, we’ll see,” the light cerulean eyes promised loving protection. “With the creatures clearly aiming to reach the Crystal City while we may only guess about their intentions… we shouldn’t refuse any help offered.” “We had it close twice already!” uttered he after a moment of silence. “I’m not going to waste a possible chance or to risk putting our folk in danger and our protection to be compromised. Not any more!” * “Hmm… You managed to slip out with your story nicely, my love!” Fluttershy nuzzled Alex tenderly. “I’d bet everypony listened to it, not only foals. I did for sure.” A minute ago, everypony left, wishing each other a good night. Miss Chime took the yawning and almost nodding into the sleep foals with her. Longhaul, who stayed with the company till the end, listened to Alex’s story with a genuine interest of the traveller – even if realizing that his chances to visit the described lands were more than ephemeral. Nodding goodbye, the stallion lifted the hat before heading to his door, making Alex instantly regret that a handshake wasn’t an option with everypony in Equestria except Spike. Getting back into their compartment, Fluttershy and Alex just managed to sit on the berth facing the train direction. The dimmed lights made the swirling snow outside mix with the faint room reflection on the dark screen of the glass. Throwing a glance at the linen drawer, Alex was seriously pondering to make a bed first or simply fall asleep. “Yeah,” he said a bit hoarsely, feeling his throat asking for mercy after talking for so long. “The last thing Storm and Aurora need to know now is the supposed reasons and details of my arrival. As well as the rest relating to the monsters invading Equestria. I’d like to hope they’ll have no more Seekers in their life, but it’s out of my powers to guarantee that. They aren’t that small to not understand many alarming things happening, yet I’d better tell them a fairy tale, than that.” “Merlin’s pants, my mouth is a desert!” he reached for the half-full glass of water on the table and downed it at once; however, there was a strong feeling that it half-helped only. “That we can remedy, I guess!” before he could say a word, Alex found his lips covered by Fluttershy’s. The girl wrapped her fore legs around his neck; her fragrant mane surrounded the human, his view taken by the smiling desirously turquoise eyes, faintly glistening in the twilight of their compartment, like two deep lakes. “Don’t talk, Alex. Just feel!” In a second, Alex found himself melting in the soft fluffy cuddle while Fluttershy’s lips kept experimenting, making Alex’s head spin from pleasure. Sending his hands to travel across the girl’s back, shoulders and wings, he made Fluttershy murmur something through their kiss. No matter how persistent Alex’s palms were, stroking the heating coat, his mare wasn’t going to give up, even if her wings already trembled excitedly, barely held from unfurling ecstatically. “Mhhhh…” emerging from the seemingly endless kiss, Fluttershy took a breath. “Oh, it seems to be less fatigue in your eyes now!” she pressed her nose against Alex’s; the girl’s cheeks started gaining colour, but playful sparkles were dancing in her eyes. Distracted by another short kiss, Alex felt the soft touch of the girl’s fore hooves pushing him on the berth with sudden strength and determination. “As if I could argue now…” diving headlong into these deep turquoise lakes, he brushed his fingers through the girl’s flowing mane as Fluttershy leaned over him, inhaling excitedly. Before their lips merged again, Alex caught a glimpse of familiar sly expression, he used to see on another beloved face. * The sequence of jolts when the train braked, then started to speed up, then slowed again, crossing over the track junctions, finally pulled Alex out of his sleep. Opening his eyes, he was laying for about a minute, waking up completely. The train reached its cruise speed again; except for the occasional wheel clatter, only Fluttershy’s even breath was breaking the silence of the compartment – her head rested on Alex’s chest, hair tickling him lightly when the girl moved in her sleep. The room was still dark, making him think it was too early in the morning; however, throwing a glance in the window, Alex saw the sunlight falling on the passing by landscape slightly veiled by the snow. That made him stumble for a moment; absently stroking Fluttershy’s mane, Alex was lying, overwhelmed by the feeling that something wasn’t just right. ‘Yesterday, we, our berth was facing the train direction, now though…’ the answer even made him jerk of surprise. Indeed, the car was rolling Alex’s back forward. “What the…” muttered Alex, waking up momentarily. “It can’t be that we are going back!” “What’s up… my lo-ove?..” Fluttershy raised her head slightly, bathing him in the floral wave of her hair scent; the girl’s eyes were closed – she didn’t even really wake, only slightly disturbed by Alex’s motion. That little sleep last night definitely was not enough for her. “It’s okay, Shy,” Alex couldn’t hold back a smile, watching her mirthful sleepy face; still in Lunaland, the girl dropped her head again, planting a small kiss on his chest. She was about to nest, snuggling tighter and wrapping her legs around him, but Alex was full of determination to find out what bad joke was going to be played on them. “I’ll go check for a minute…” he uttered crumpledly, trying his best to get up without bothering the sleeping mare. ‘Did Tia make some mistake? As far as I know, she never travels by train, not needing it…’ little by little, he managed to slip from the girl’s embrace, gently leaving her under the covers and unwrapping himself. Nevertheless, Fluttershy muttered something through her sleep, pulling his pillow closer and nuzzling into it. Alex leaned closer and kissed the long, slightly trembling eyelashes; the girl made a faint attempt to reach for him, twitching her nose funnily, but the sleep took over, making Fluttershy drop her head on the pillow and snooze. Dressing quickly, Alex slid the door open and peeked into the empty passageway, then approached the opposing window. There was no doubt that their car was running backwards. Alex blinked several times with a feeling of something completely crazy going on. The sound of an opening door made him turn. “Good morning, miss Chime! Dost thou know…” he rushed towards the mare exiting the compartment like a drowning human towards the lifebuoy, even making her wince first, “…what is befalling hither?” Alex caught himself and lowered the voice, remembering that the foals could be sleeping still. “Good morning, Alex!” Crystal Chime smiled; the eyes of red gold looked up at the human. “You’ve startled me a bit…” “Apologies,” muttered Alex. “Still…” “You mean the cars going “backwards”, right?” the mare kept smiling, making Alex hope that maybe everything wasn’t that severe as he thought – he nodded resignedly. “We have passed Trottsburgh. The city is not particularly large; which can’t be said about its station and transport hub,” stated miss Chime as if it was to explain everything. Watching the human blinking bemusedly, she realized. “Oh, I’m sorry, Alex. You might know not… The cars of most of the trains are reattached to the locomotives oppositely, due to the peculiarities of Trottsburgh station layout and sorting process. The Crystal Express is not an exception,” explained the mare with an apologetic smile. “Nothing bad happened, we’re still going north, it just seems that the cars go backwards.” “I knowingly take tickets to the first car,” added Crystal, “as it becomes the last one for the second half of the trip, allowing us to rest from the loco noise and smoke before boarding off.” “Merlin’s pants! It was that simple, yet gave me a few stressful minutes,” exhaled Alex, shaking from the silent laughter. Another glance through the window told him that he could probably notice that they were still going north by the Sun position. If he wasn’t startled by the seeming weirdness of the situation. “So, Tia still made a mistake. Slightly different one, but…” “We were supposed to arrive in the first car,” feeling a load off his mind, Alex elaborated to confused Crystal. “But she never travels by train, so…” “Well, what’s done – done for good. If we had gone as she planned, then we wouldn’t have boarded the same train car with you, miss Chime!” Alex broke into a cheerful smile. “Indeed, I take that coincidence as the happy one,” nodded the mare. “Besides, it made the trip a lot easier!” “You both are coming along with the foals awesomely,” she explained. “Thanks a lot for helping them to fixate on the problems not. Not to mention that they became suddenly obedient,” added Crystal amusedly. “Makes me wonder, if I had looked like a human mare, maybe they would have obeyed a bit more out of impression in my case as well.” “I have nothing to complain of with Storm and Aurora, but… I simply can’t be stern with the foals and sometimes they feel that too well,” Crystal Chime shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing though.” “Don’t ever change, ma’am!” Alex shook his head. “Not with the kids, at least. They need you as you are, especially now.” Returning to the compartment, Alex was seriously considering the advantage of diving under the covers, into the warm embrace of Fluttershy again. The majority of the passengers seemed to share Alex’s sentiments about the early rise as the only one he met was miss Chime; the rest were still sleeping. Quite a reasonable decision if you were travelling a few days through the frosted land and the only foreseeable entertainment would be the breakfast, which, furthermore, was served in the dining-car till eleven. The train was proceeding steadily; nothing could seemingly interfere with its unshakable run. However, nopony would doubt the direction of their travel as Alex could confirm now: the landscape behind the window turned more and more untouched with each mile. The settlements, even the mere signs of civilization became rarer; as for the large cities, Alex suspected that Trottsburgh was the last they passed that day. Patches of the forest started to come across rarer as well; denser and gloomier, they looked like the regiments of tall, hard-faced soldiers in the rifle-green overcoats with snow-covered shoulders. Separated by vast fields of whitened, frozen land with the iced rocks scattered across, those regiments were not going to wait for the stragglers – the occasional separate trees on the plains looked bent down, crooked by adversities and unhappy. Apparently, strong winds were common for that land. Indeed, Alex could easily see the elements raging as the snow became denser: the gusts of wind raced the plains, wrapping their semi-transparent sheets of dusty snow around the obstacles. Winter reigned there most of the year and its presence clearly felt even in the safety and warmth of the train car, behind the thick triple glass of the window. No animals could be spotted by the cursory glance, except a few of large birds, rising from the woodland and diving back into the safety of the forest after a loop or two, making it easy to presume that it was too cold yet. Or even simply quite cold; the temperature didn’t rush up with the rising sun, judging by the wide frame of ice on the window glass. With loud noise and clatter, the train jetted over an openwork bridge above the sudden deep ravine. Far below, squeezed between the sharp rock shelves and chained in ice, a river was lying like a snaking band of hardened grey tin. Half of a year ago, that image solely would make Alex’s heart drop into his stomach or even lower; now though, he watched the landscape, slowly lightening by the rising sun through the cloudy veil, with the growing concern. Even without a map, by the look outside, he was going to suppose that they had already crossed the boundary of Crystal Empire. ‘Somehow I doubt that the ponies, willingly living here, are easy to discompose,’ concluded Alex darkly. ‘Yet some circumstances made them ask for help.’ While he was pondering, the train slowed down noticeably, making Alex wake, looking for the reason for that. The latter appeared after a short while in the form of some station, even rather an observation post next to the railroad. A few snowbound buildings surrounded by the fence slowly passed by in front of his eyes. The older and the bigger one was accompanied by the newly built, enforced windmill stirring the air with its rotor blades. Flaunting behind the flowing snow veil, the big, polished steel letters “CSC” were attached to the metalwork frame. Apparently, his generator found its use there as well, in that Celestia-forsaken corner, making Alex smile involuntarily. “Well, smart decision,” muttered Alex while the Crystal Express started to speed up again. “Especially as winds blow here three hundred sixty-four days a year, except one when they have a day off!” “Mmhmm… Good morning, dear!” Before Alex turned to the quiet rustle behind, two fore legs wrapped around his chest lovingly; he cupped the gentle hooves with his hands, feeling the softness of the lush mane and the girl’s warm cheek, snuggling between his shoulder blades. * The last early sunset of that autumn painted the fields around the smithy light orange and pink, casting long thin shadows of the lonely standing trees and large rocks scattered around. They stretched out their clock hands south-east, almost corresponding to the real four hours past noon. As planned by the weather pegasi, the snow kept covering everything around with the thin plaid; judging by its persistence, there was no doubt that the plaid was going to turn into the proper blanket by the next morning. The wilted grass was drooping to the ground under the increasing load, covering securely the young green blades from the upcoming frosts. Passing these folds, the sunlight painted the pink-orange sea rippled with darker waves, over the fresh white snow, making the long shadows look like some kraken tentacles endeavouring to reach the smithy from the north-west. Steels’ house and yard seemed the only serene and warmed island – not the least because of the candent smelter – before the calm harbour of Ponyville. Leaning at the fence, Diamond Chisel kept staring at the field ahead, submerged into the thoughts known to him only. They decided to finish earlier that day, due to all the routine work being done, common orders completed. Alex’s departure made unexpected changes to their work schedule. Fortunately, they managed to produce quite a lot of blanks for the new armour, technically loading the smithy with assembly work for a while. However, with the finally increasing interest of the royalty, Diamond Chisel suspected that with the current production pace the stash could dry out faster than expected. For the first time in a while, they started feeling the labour shortage again. Alex promised to have a word with Princess Celestia about enforcing the smithy with some of the royal guards’ armourers. But nopony knew if he had time to do that – they left in a rush with Fluttershy, making most of the acquaintances guess, what could have happened in Canterlot. Yet, that wasn’t the main reason for the unicorn’s concern. Diamond Chisel started feeling some uneasiness a while ago; something he couldn’t even explain to himself, something of foreboding nature. Remembering the effects, the Seekers could cause, the stallion started watching the fields and his colleagues. But Steels looked calm and concentrated, the fields could be seen far through and little by little Diamond Chisel convinced himself that it was some trick, played on him by his conscious. Normally, he would have left the smithy after the work day, heading to his home at the eastern edge of the town. However, that day, the stallion lingered, unwittingly obeying his sudden gut feeling. Meticulously gathering the tools, Diamond Chisel checked everything twice, if not thrice, cleaning the work zone and levitating all the remaining stuff to the appropriate places. Even when Willsmash headed into the house after discussing tomorrow plans shortly, he stayed on the smithy yard as if waiting for something and thus watching the field subconsciously now, letting the snowflakes slowly settle down on his mane and coat. “It’s getting colder here!” the quiet voice made the stallion turn. “Even despite the working smelter.” “Yeah, perhaps it is. Look at that red sunset, well, what’s left of it – it’s going to get frosty tomorrow. I think this snow is going to stay,” Diamond Chisel let out a strained smile, not wanting to pass his anxiety. His glance nolens volens returned to the snowy field behind the fence and road. Trotting lightly from the porch, Silver Ingot approached him. Following the stallion’s concerned glance, the unicorn girl took a long studying gaze across the fields. The wind played in her golden fluttering mane and tail, making Diamond Chisel throw an admiring side look. “Are you okay?” Silver Ingot eyes scanned him attentively. “You’ll have a long road ahead. Why don’t you come in for a cup of hot tea?” the girl nodded towards the house with its welcoming, warmly lit windows. “Wait! It’s not the cold, right? You look…” Her bright glance slid across his muzzle, then turned to the field again; noticing nothing unusual, Silver Ingot looked at Diamond Chisel inquiringly. “Don’t you feel it?” the stallion looked at the filly fixedly, trying to read something in her expression. “Something… I… I can’t explain. Something uneasy, so to speak!” “Probably,” Silver Ingot blinked, not quite understanding. “We are a bit overloaded. Not sure if we have enough metal and details to keep producing till…” she bit her lip pensively. “And something happened in Canterlot, I suppose, otherwise…” “But these are the problems we can do nothing about at the moment,” Silver Ingot looked up at him with a faint smile. “Even if we worry naturally.” “No, it’s another… thing,” uttered Diamond Chisel. “I thought about all these, but understood – that feeling must have different nature. Perhaps with the same reasoning as you, Silver Ingot,” the stallion kept watching the field from the corner of his eye. Suddenly, his muzzle twitched, noticed by the girl, finally passing the anxiety to her. “Wait! What was it there? Just…” Diamond Chisel was absolutely sure that it wasn’t his imagination, despite he spent half an hour staring in the distance – one of the large dark rocks far in the field just made a move in the rays of the setting sun. His concern finally passed on to Silver Ingot entirely – now, the girl watched the strange object fixedly; a small muscle trembled under the coat on her shoulder. Hardly because of the cold wind. “Go inside, please! Quickly!” Diamond looked into her widened eyes. Silver Ingot definitely felt something, she couldn’t explain easily like before. “It’s approaching…” “It may be an animal…” the filly said not very confidently; her eyes were still chained to the dark silhouette, which – as they both saw clearly – was moving behind the veil of falling snow. “Oh, come on, Sil!” groaned the stallion, out of concern addressing the girl as only her uncle and the human did. “An animal that large, seriously?” “It’s winter now. What could it be, except some bear?” explained he, answering her bemused glance. “Isn’t a bear enough of a reason to get out of its road anyway? Especially in winter! But I’m sure it’s not a bear, not at all!” Diamond Chisel looked at Silver Ingot almost pleadingly. Meanwhile, the dark spot in the field paced up. “Maybe it’ll wander by…” muttered the girl as if seeking confirmation of her words from Diamond Chisel. “It’s quite far…” “It won’t!” stated the stallion doomedly. “Don’t you see? There is nothing in the field except us. In that direction at least.” He pushed away from the fence, politely but persistently trying to direct Silver Ingot towards the porch. “Wait! What about you?” her eyes reverted from the approaching creature – both of them could make up the distinctive features already – and stopped at Diamond’s muzzle. “You don’t have time…” “I’m not going anywhere,” uttered the stallion gloomily. “Here, I have everything necessary to confront the monster… if used properly.” “But…” the girl’s eyes dilated from the understanding of what he was going to undertake. “Wait, Sil,” interrupted her Diamond. “If we all simply hide inside the house, it’ll be only a matter of time for the monster to find a way in. Then we’re worse than dead, right?! Remember, what two of them did to the farm of Sunflowers!” With those words, Diamond Chisel pulled one of the unicorn-fitted helmets from under the canopy. Mounting it over his head, he fidgeted with the clasps for a couple of seconds, blindly trying to direct them with his aura. Silver Ingot rushed to help, but the stallion recoiled, waving his fore hoof and finally fixing the armour piece in place. “It’s not fitted for you!” squeaked Silver Ingot. “You won’t be able to see properly…” “Not the best visibility,” smirked Diamond Chisel under the steel. “But I can see enough!” Levitating a heavy pan of bolts, nuts and small metal clutter, he jetted to the smelter, opening the delivery tray and wincing back from the heat bursting out. Under Silver Ingot’s bewildered glance, he smacked the pan down in front of the tray, just far enough not to melt it with all the contents yet making it heat up almost immediately. “I’ll be fine!” the bulky metal head looked over the shoulder, catching Silver Ingot into the view. ‘I’d like to believe!’ added Diamond Chisel inwardly, cringing from the approaching wave of anxiety. “Hopefully, somepony else from the town noticed… everything!” “Behind that snow?!” Silver Ingot still lingered. “Now go!” almost shouted the stallion. “Tell Willsmash and don’t show up outside, till… Till it’s safe to!” He kept waving her off with his fore hoof until the girl finally ran up the porch, disappearing behind the front door after another desperate glance at him. The Seeker – nopony would now doubt the origins of the approaching creature – already covered half of the distance separating them and sped up even more. Through the narrow visor, left for him by the unfitted helmet, Diamond Chisel could clearly see the four thick legs supporting the equine-like body and torso attached to its front, the swirling stripes of dark substance around the beast, the menacingly glowing red “eye”. ‘Come on, freak!’ Diamond Chisel grinned wryly, throwing a glance at the crackling pan full of candent metal junk. He took another moment to find and pull closer another one with the same load, prudently deciding that later he might have no time for that. ‘Let’s see how you can stomach some spicy stuff!’ The last dozen of yards before the old road, the Seeker turned to almost galloping, not giving any doubts regarding its intentions. The monster was ploughing the snowy field with its legs, leaving a wide stripe of disturbed, spread wilted grass where it passed. Jumping out on the road, the Seeker suddenly stopped to Diamond’s sheer surprise. The stallion was sure that the beast could at least feel his presence, perhaps, both Steels in the house as well. Rushing to the smithy wasn’t accidental – even if the Seeker was simply wandering before, it clearly aimed at the blacksmith’s house when Diamond Chisel spotted it fortunately. However, at that moment it looked as if the monster suddenly lost its confidence of fast attack, feeling that the pony in front of it not only wasn’t turning into a motiveless rag doll, but didn’t even plan to flee, somehow ignoring the Seeker’s mental impact. The potential victim was on direct “eye contact” distance, yet kept obstructing the creature’s path. Giving the beast no chance to react, the sparkling aura enveloped several bolts from the red-hot, almost skewing pan, forcefully launching them at the enemy. The metal parts drew shiny, slightly spreading arcs in the cold air of the grey frosty evening; not having time to cool, most of them hit the motionless target directly. To Diamond’s joy, the Seeker made an unconfident step back, shiver travelled across its huge frame. Hissing at the impact, the candent details penetrated the monster’s body deeply, falling out slowly and unwillingly, leaving noticeable holes in its skin. There was expectantly no blood, but the Dark Mist trailed faintly from each of the small wounds. Diamond Chisel had no idea if those abominations could feel any physical pain, as he had very little knowledge of their nature, mostly limited to the information told in the official warning several months ago and random things the human used to tell. However, one thing was clearly visible – the nearly molten metal wasn’t digested well by the monster, no matter how much alive it technically was. The Seeker reared up, lifting its torso and fore legs with heavy hooves. Diamond suddenly realized how huge his enemy was – at least thrice his size, husky and durable at the mere sight, but that rather made the stallion angry. Blood rushed into Diamond Chisel’s head, muffling all the feelings except contempt towards that chunk of flesh attacking the innocent. The Seeker made a step back as if losing balance but the unicorn was sure the monster did that to gain more momentum, as Diamond Chisel already foresaw the next move. The rock-solid hooves rushed down driven by the entire creature’s mass, smashing into the frosted ground and making it palpably shake under the unicorn’s legs. The cooling down metal details slipped out of the monster’s body, their glow dying out in the snow. The Seeker’s move was an intimidation and self-remedy act simultaneously. ‘Huh! Don’t like it!’ scoffed Diamond Chisel under his helmet. Yet it was too early to celebrate: the creature moved forward again, full of determination to reach the stinging foe, which turned out suddenly annoying despite the size. The long swaying tendrils of the Dark Mist snaked out of the Seekers body; gaining mass and density before the eyes, they possessed even more threat than the column-like legs of the monster. Diamond Chisel had no time to linger – one or two black tentacles were already wrapping around the fence planks, going to clear the way even if the Seeker was large enough to simply step over the obstacle. Scooping another portion of hot metal parts with his aura, the stallion threw it at the monster, aiming higher in an attempt to smite the torso-like part of it or even the red orifice, habitually taking it for an eye of the creature. The latter was glowing brightly in the condensing twilight; with grim satisfaction, Diamond Chisel noticed that the helmet was actually working. The heat of the fight did the rest – the unicorn felt almost calm now, even if he suspected it to be some hopeless tranquillity. He didn’t hit the “eye” of the Seeker, but a good portion of almost liquefying metal hit the large carcass again, making it wince back and buck to shake the burning projectiles off. The tendrils pulled away, swaying in the air chaotically. ‘Please, let the monster be dumb and straightforward enough!’ glimpsed in Diamond’s head. ‘That will help me gain us more time.’ Reaching for the next candent load, he was constantly thinking of another fearsome possibility. If the Seeker decided to retreat and go around the smithy, attacking it from the sides or the northern edge, farthest from the smelter, that would seriously complicate Diamond’s task. The unicorn couldn’t dash back and forth, picking the new portions of heated scrap and hoping wholeheartedly that the Seeker wasn’t ramming into the house the next moment. Throwing a desperate glance at the armour stand, Diamond Chisel was to admit regretfully that taking any melee weapon wouldn’t tip the scales for him – sword and spear combat wasn’t his turf. His best chance would still be keeping the Seeker on the distance, dodging its tendrils and constantly peppering the monster with the sizzling hot details. Meanwhile, the Seeker rushed to attack again. Jumping over the snaking tendril, which tried to knock him off his legs, Diamond Chisel picked up the entire tray, deciding to give his enemy a bath worth of Tartarus. Risking to scorch himself as well, the unicorn launched the tray over the attacking Seeker – the shimmering rain showered the black creature, highlighting the space in the several yards radius. ‘Somepony, please, notice that!’ flashed in Diamond’s head when he yanked another tray of bolts and nuts closer to the smelter maw, realizing that chances to keep the monster distracted that way were melting as fast as the trampled and ploughed snow around. The mental wave rolled over the stallion, making him stumble and cringe. If the Seeker couldn’t roar or groan aloud in a common way, it definitely felt and reacted to the impact. Feeling as if he was bucked hard into his chest, Diamond Chisel straightened with visible effort, watching the monster prancing and stomping behind the smithy fence in the attempt to get rid of the scalding treat. ‘Anypony!’ Diamond Chisel was about to grasp the closest to him spear with a thin, wide, razor-sharp leaf-like blade – plenty of those dully shone under the canopy; it was only a matter of seconds for the monster to recompose and try to outpace its enemy, looking for another weak spot in the spontaneous smithy defence. The new tray had no time to heat to the maximum temperature. The stallion already was reaching for the spear, ready to exchange his sanity or even life on a higher price. In the limited sight of his helmet – Diamond Chisel already blessed the device numerously – he watched the Seeker shaking off the remaining shrapnel and already aiming to go around the smithy, attacking it from the “cooler spot”. “Watch out!!!” sounded seemingly from the gathering clouds. Something flashed in the evening sky, making Diamond Chisel throw his head up in the last hope. Glinting dully in the firelight, the steel silhouette folded its wings and screwed in between the swaying tendrils of the Dark Mist on an absolutely crazy trajectory… cutting against the monster’s left fore leg. The hit was tangential and visibly not very hard; however, the Seeker collapsed on that knee as if it was shot through. Encouraged by that sudden help, Diamond Chisel grabbed the weapon with his aura and levelled it for the better aim. With all his anger gathered in one strike, the blade sizzled in the cold air, hitting another fore leg of the monster, making it kneel down helplessly. Watching in awe the shimmering silhouette, which spread its wings going for another vertical loop, the stallion noticed from the corner of his eye that the monster’s left leg was turned completely inoperable, almost turning into some sort of jelly right before the sight. The Seeker still jerked, trying to get up and continue the fight or maybe flee, but the defeat was obvious. Reaching the highest point of the loop, the winged figure turned around and darted to the ground, making it almost impossible to follow its flight because of the speed. Something detached from it, cutting the air and penetrating the Seeker’s back, practically impaling the monster, pinning it to the ground. Spreading the wings and slowing down, the newcomer landed next to Diamond Chisel with a strong gust of wind sending the remaining snow fly. The Seeker trembled one last time; shivers ran across its large body. Right before the eyes of bewildered Diamond Chisel, the creature started disintegrating, crumbling into a heap of harmless ash-like substance. The Dark Mist was leaving the falling apart carcass in sheets and threads, weakly trailing in the winter air and slowly dissolving, caught by the wind, which began to disperse the black ash. “Huh!” the mare’s voice huffed from under the patterned steel of the helmet. “Surprisingly, it works perfectly still!” Diamond Chisel turned to her uncomprehendingly, then followed the armour-clad mare’s sight. In some unfathomable way, part of the remaining Dark Mist gathered around the blade of the stuck into the ground spear; seeping into it, the substance seemed to be consumed by the sharp edges of the weapon. “Alex’s blood…” the pegasus in dark grey armour turned, elaborating. “He applied it to the blade to help take out the Seekers faster. Almost dried but it still works. It burns them like acid, eating the bastards from inside… Fascinating!” Soaring again, the mare headed to the spot where the Seeker hit the ground; examining the place, she pulled out the spear from the thinning pile of ash, handling her weapon with care, then returned. “R-Rainstorm…” creaked Diamond Chisel out of his throat full of sandpaper, making it sound as it was way more “s”es in her name. “What? How…” Before the mare could reply, the door behind them slammed open. Outstripping the blacksmith appearing on the porch, Silver Ingot ran down the stairs and rushed to Diamond Chisel. Giving the stallion a quick integrity inspection, the filly grabbed the confused unicorn in a sudden hug. Diamond felt a couple of tears burning his cold shoulder through the coat. Releasing him after a second, the girl sniffed and let out an embarrassed smile. Approaching them, Willsmash nodded; his healthy eye flashed joyfully, reflecting the glints of the smelter. Finally realizing that his knees trembled treacherously, Diamond Chisel felt as if he was pressed down by a rock. The stallion strove to get rid of the helmet, trying to grasp the clasps with his aura but with little success. “Can you please help me?” he cleared his throat. “I can’t see a thing!” “Yes… Just a minute…” shaking off moisture from her eyes, Silver Ingot rushed to take the armour piece off Diamond’s head. “Well, I’m glad I could get here in time!” cheerfully noticed Rainstorm, watching the scene. Pulling up her precious spear, she explained. “Yesterday I heard that the guys from the freight yard complained that the last shift was harder than usual. You see, the “old chap” – railway station master was out of sorts… and gave them hard time. An outstanding occasion, if you know him. Besides, they all looked somewhat not at ease…” Finally taking off the helmet, Diamond Chisel stared at her, blinking. Silver Ingot and Willsmash looked not entirely understanding as well. “That made me thinking, what if…” with a light clank of her armour, Rainstorm elaborated. “So, I returned to the station several times while patrolling around today, flying around it and searching. Everything seemed quiet until I checked once more in the evening and saw… your fireworks across the field,” she chuckled echoingly under her helmet. “I darted here and, well… that was the right thing to do!” “Thank you both, guys!” the old blacksmith’s voice was full of gratitude; he turned to Diamond Chisel. “Without you, son, we wouldn’t have made it through! It was mind-wrecking enough even from behind the house walls.” The stallion nodded confusedly; most of all, Diamond Chisel craved for some rest at the moment, feeling his entire body numb. “I wonder,” uttered Rainstorm, staring pensively at the almost dispelled pile of ash, “if that Seeker appeared with the one we managed to destroy with Alex. It looked a bit smaller than the first one. It had to be sneaking around unnoticed for quite a while… We need more ponies on guard!” The mare squinted. “Anyway!” She shook her head almost joyfully, making the armour tingle again. “I hope we are not going to see them for a while.” Rainstorm took a look around the company. “You need some rest, folks! Have a good night!” “She is right, son!” noticed Willsmash, watching off the soaring up mare. “We need to warm you before you caught a real cold. Come on in…” Diamond Chisel closed his eyes in agreement. Supported from both sides by the old blacksmith and his niece, the stallion followed them into the house. * Propping up his chin, Alex stared through the window at the smudged view behind the snow-covered glass. Starting subtly and stealthily, it looked more like the wall of snow after ten; the snowflakes didn’t dance and swirl gracefully anymore, they turned into the white scratchy curtain, which snuggled to the compartment window, wavered by the strong gusts of wind. The latter, unleashed by the inhospitable nature of the Frozen North, attempted to slow the Crystal Express and howled plaintively, realizing the futility of its efforts. The Sun barely peeked through the running clouds, the shadows of which condensed, then suddenly dissolved almost completely when a clear spot appeared, letting some extra light through. Rarely seen before, birds and animals disappeared completely, as far as Alex could discern in the mess of snow-veiled blots the landscape turned into. ‘Reasonable,’ Alex shook his head – the flickering outside lulled, making even the thoughts flow slower. ‘It looks as if a strong blizzard is going to start. Everypony is hiding…’ “What are you thinking about, my love?” quietly nesting next to him, Fluttershy hugged Alex from behind, nuzzling into his nape with a tiny sigh. “The weather…” Alex tenderly rubbed his cheek against the soft fore leg. “If it keeps raging, or gets any worse… the snowdrifts won’t linger to appear. I don’t know how much that loco can pull through, but I know for sure that the Frozen North – if half of what I heard is true – can easily offer way more.” “How much is before the Crystal City yet?” he turned to the girl after a short silence. “Mmm… We passed Trottsburgh city two hours ago…” Fluttershy bit her lip; the long eyelashes batted. “Several hours more. I can tell only approximately…” she glanced at him meekly. “More than six, I think, but that depends on the train speed.” “Methinks we haven’t lingered anywhere so far,” pensively drawled Alex, pulling the girl closer and placing her on his lap. “But I don’t know if we still can outrun the elements.” They both noticed the Express paced up compared to the first day of their journey; as if in reply to their worries, the train rushed forward, making the clatter of the wheels merge into an even hum and balancing between the attempts to catch up and general safety. Reaching their ears from time to time when the wind blew along the train, the long plangent whistle was tearing the snowy silence – speeding up the loco, the motorpony warned accidental deer and elks, which may occur on the tracks, to get off the rushing machine’s way. Since breakfast time, the Crystal Express did its best to deepen into the Crystal Empire territory as much as it could, aspiring to reach the Magical Dome before the roads turned unusable for a while by the snowfall. During the breakfast – Alex and Fluttershy preferred to have it in the dining car, one more curious detail became revealed: the numbers of passengers of their car thinned considerably. Taking a look around the dining salon, Alex couldn’t find the detached group of “aunties” and the usually joyful and noisy pack of the students; one or two business ponies travelling with them as well were absent. At first, Alex thought that some of them might prefer their breakfast delivered to their compartments; he chuckled at the unlikeness of that for the students at least. However, passing the two compartments later – they were coming first in the direction of the train after the cars reattachment – Alex couldn’t hear the usual hum of the colts and fillies voices, which made him wondering and knock on the compartment door before those two. Their trainpony quickly made the situation clear, telling Alex that the students and so-called “aunties” got off the train overnight, reaching their destination long before Trottsburgh. As the stallion added with a smile, he wouldn’t be going to miss any of – too much hassle from both the groups during the long ride. One of the business ponies boarded off in Trottsburgh. The rest of the passengers were still present, as Alex could judge by the familiar muzzles seen at the dining car. Thus their company now consisted of miss Crystal Chime with Storm and Aurora, the seasoned traveller Longhaul Hoofer, two more business ponies, that cockish pegasus stallion with his spouse, two married couples more and the trainpony himself. Although, Alex wouldn’t mind being relieved of the necessity to observe that snobbish winged brute for another day. ‘Well, you can’t have all the comforts at once!’ he smirked inwardly, heading to their compartment. However, Alex was to admit that fortunately either the car bulkheads were sound-proof or the white pegasus wasn’t so mouthy without the wide audience – anyway, Fluttershy and Alex were not disturbed by their neighbours and could hope to be of no disturbance as well. The wind became raging; throwing handfuls of dry spiky snowflakes at the compartment window, it minimized visibility outside, so only the nearest to the tracks objects whizzed by as dark smudged spots of different shapes. From time to time, it brought the faint bitter smell, pushing the loco smoke to the ground almost parallel to the train; with a wry face, Alex got up and checked if the window was tightly shut. It was. But something other than that attracted Alex’s attention, making him forget about the window at once. He could swear he saw something flashing by behind the glass but in a completely unusual way, unlike the rest of the landscape details. “What the…” Alex glanced over the shoulder wildly; Fluttershy was sitting on the bunk, murmuring something and braiding her mane. Her long luxurious tail rested next to her already gathered into a thick tight braid as well. “Did you see that, Shy?” “Saw what?” the girl raised her turquoise eyes at him. Any other moment, that glance could make all the thoughts flee from Alex’s head in a wink, but… “Something flew by the window a moment afore. A dark silhouette…” “Maybe a close or fallen tree,” Fluttershy blinked with a tiny smile but clearly got the seriousness in the human’s voice. “If it was, we’re lucky it didn’t fall across the tracks…” “I’d like to think so,” Alex shook his head; squinting, he kept peering into the snowy mess outside, passing his concern on to the girl. “It flew in the train direction, Shy!” Before she could realize what it meant, their car jerked tangibly – their bags clanked on the luggage shelf. “Wow-wow-wow…” Alex was to grab the table edge to keep balance; Fluttershy gracefully leaned back on the bunk not to slide to the floor. “Kinda large for a switch!” But the human’s voice wasn’t jocular a iota. “Somehow, I doubt that our motorpony could be so careless,” Fluttershy peeked through the window from behind Alex. “Not after a day of the nearly perfect ride.” Their eyes met, telling Alex that they both were thinking about the same. “Somepony else should have noticed,” muttered Alex, sliding the compartment door open and listening. Indeed, at least three more doors opened with a specific sound. “What was that?” inquired the stallion from his left; the business pony’s muzzle kept an extremely puzzled expression. “I nearly fell from my seat!” he shook his head reproachfully, not hurrying to return to his compartment as if expecting some explanations from somepony. “Oh, Celestia! I hope we didn’t run over something!” Crystal Chime peeked from her compartment anxiously; the mare glanced over her shoulder and told something to the foals, calming the scared kids. “Does anypony know what happened? Alex?!” she noticed him checking the hallway window view. “No idea, ma’am!” Alex’s tone was saying instead. ‘I don’t like that very much!’ “What the buck that motorpony thinks of?!” the white pegasus peeked out of the compartment. “Do they want to ditch us all!” His eyes scanned the passageway in the search of somepony he could blame for the inconvenience. However, this time common sense took over, or maybe the innocence of the present ones was too obvious even for him; thus, huffing loudly at the view of Alex, the stallion returned to the compartment. “I’m going to sue the railway company…” the closing door cut the rest of the phrase and the flowing, soothing reply of his wife. Alex would have chuckled at that under the different circumstances, but this time something felt seriously wrong. “Dear?” Fluttershy showed up from their luxury, touching him lightly. “Anything?” Now her eyes looked seriously concerned, examining Alex’s puzzled face. “Did somepony hit the emergency switch?” another door slid open; suppressing a yawn, Longhaul gave a smile. “I dozed off… and that shook me back awake!” “Wait!” exclaimed Alex, raising a finger. “The train. It’s slowing down!” “Oh, dear,” exhaled Crystal. “We must have run over something!” Fluttershy bit her lip. Without further words, Alex started first towards miss Chime, quickly recollected and turned back to the other end of the car, to the anxiously hurrying towards the passengers trainpony. In reply to Alex’s inquiring glance, the latter only shrugged, uninformed about the problem like the rest. Rushing past the unicorn, Alex jumped out into the vestibule, jerking the door open. For a very long minute, nothing disturbed the complete silence, except slowing down wheel clatter – everypony, including the new puzzled passengers peeking into the hallway, realized that the train was going to stop. The barely closing vestibule door slammed open again, revealing the human. A strange mixture of shock, sarcastic admission and realization could be read from his face at the first glance. “There is no train…” dropped Alex. Somepony exclaimed sceptically. “There is no train!” in reply to Fluttershy’s fitful exhale, Alex repeated loudly, so everypony could hear him. “Our car has got detached from the rest and is stopping now!” “What?!!” a couple of stallions rushed to witness that themselves, squeezing past the trainpony and frozen in place Alex. When they returned in a second, their muzzles clearly told that the human wasn’t joking. “What should we do now?” a mare pulled one of them closer, snuggling to her spouse with a desperate expression. “It’s… it’s a few hours till Crystal City still!” That phrase – almost the call for help as it sounded – woke Alex from his momentary stupor. Or maybe that was the train car, which rolled slower and slower and finally stopped with a light vibration travelling through its entirety. “Please, sir, gather everypony in the hallway!” the human addressed the trainpony. “Longhaul, can you help us as well?” After the affirmative nod of mister Hoofer, Alex explained. “Our car was receiving its heating from the loco, like the rest of the train. It’s only a matter of time afore we start freezing hither. If we are not troubled otherwise prior…” added he in half-voice, making only Fluttershy catch what he meant. “Please, make everypony take any warm clothes they might have had and gather in the hallway!” called he after both stallions. “That applies to everypony present likewise!” Alex looked around the group of ponies almost apologetically, then hugged Fluttershy’s shoulders lightly, directing the girl to their compartment. “Comest on, Shy. I thought it would befall another way, but… I can’t allow thee stay unprotected, lief!” barely audibly added he. Noticing with relief that the ponies began to follow his advice one by one, Alex closed the compartment door and quickly pulled one bag from the luggage shelf. “Time to suit up, mine lief!” he was already pulling Fluttershy’s gear out of the bag. “They shall be coming shortly!” “You think…” Fluttershy looked up into Alex’s eyes when he was helping her to put the armoured suit on. “I’m adamantly sure of that!” dropped Alex, accurately packing his marefriend into protection he and Rarity meticulously improved lately. A couple of minutes, only rustling broke the tensed silence of the compartment. “Can I leave the helmet for now?” leaning on the table, the girl looked over her shoulder as Alex carefully zipped the suit on her back, locking the additional plates over the seam. “Don’t want to scare anypony in vain, foals especially!” “Okay, Shy!” Alex nodded understandingly. “But promise me to put it on when it is necessary! I extend mine hope that moment shan’t befall…” added he under his breath. Instead of an answer, Fluttershy reached for him and gave Alex a loving kiss. The hum of concerned voices outside told Alex that the ponies started returning, following his instructions. Their appearance was met with a few astonished exclamations when the rest of the passengers saw changed Fluttershy. “Wait, wait, wait! What’s all that about?” one mare pointed at Alex’s marefriend; anxiety made her voice rang. “Are we under some attack, for Celestia’s sake?!” “A minute of patience, please, everypony!” Closing his eyes for a second and taking a deep breath, Alex raised his voice. “I shall try to tell briefly, ladies and gentlecolts!” “What the hay is going on?! I demand explanations!” the arrogant pegasus stallion stated intrusively. ‘That’s exactly what I’m going to do, moron!’ With a sigh, Alex mentally counted to ten, not to pour his entire contempt on the guy. “All of you might have heard about the monstrous creatures, randomly terrorizing Equestria the last half of year – we call them Seekers,” Alex took a look around the small herd. He was to say that regardless of him wishing to be wrong. “I have strong reasons to assume that we were detached from the train exactly by them. And, answering your question… we are probably going to be attacked in some way sooner or later, ma’am,” he nodded towards the scared mare clinging to her spouse. The muffled grumble rolled across the company and died out when Alex raised his hand, asking for attention. “Besides, we have another relentless enemy – the cold,” stated Alex harshly, not going to inspire any futile hope. “That is why I asked you to take all the warm stuff you have. We need to keep everypony warm and protected the best way we can… Then keeping the creatures away from the car will be my job,” he drew the line. “What do they need?” right to the point, the business pony, their neighbour from the fifth compartment, asked. “Most likely to prevent us both from reaching the Crystal Empire,” simply stated Alex, letting out a wry smile. “Afore thou speakest out any suggestion…” he turned to the white pegasus, who already opened his mouth. “This girl is thy only way to stay sane if ‘t be true the Seekers arrive,” Alex glanced at Fluttershy meaningfully, then added. “That concerneth everypony hither!” With satisfaction, he caught the short reproachful look the pale-saffron mare gave to the “brute”. But the latter wasn’t going to give up easily. “Who made you the chief, I’d like to know?!” huffed he with a challenge in his voice. “Nopony! Howev’r, I know what to do at least,” Alex replied with a long fixed glance into the pegasus’ eyes. “Wantest to lead? Beest mine guest and take the duty and all the responsibility!” “Now, when that problem is solved…” Alex stated with dry emphasis. “Wouldst thou mind if ‘t be true we disassemble the wall between our compartment and thine?” he addressed the business pony. “I can explain.” “Well, it’s mine only formally for the ride time,” smirked the stallion. “So…” he made the welcoming gesture. “If our trainpony has no objections and you are the one who negotiates that through with the transport company later.” “Errmmm…” the trainpony unicorn wasn’t getting the course of Alex’s thoughts yet. “Believe me, that’s the last thing we should care about now,” said Alex to both stallions. “We must do the following!” he turned to the trainpony, seeking his support. “First, gather all the passengers in the two luxuries in the middle of the car. For which, we are going to merge the compartments. Then block the compartment windows and the ones in the hallway opposite the doors. Mister Hoofer, I’ll need your help.” “With pleasure!” Longhaul touched his hat readily. “Then we need to keep the merged compartments warm at any cost,” Alex turned to the trainpony, trying to ignore the audible howling of the wind outside. “Dost thou have anything that could serve as a stove, sir?” “Hmmm… Hardly,” the unicorn rubbed his nose, then brightened. “Wait! We can use the boiler technically, simply need to get rid of the water and cut the top. It’s high enough so the smoke will trail under the ceiling and the train car ventilation should serve as the pipe,” added he. “And… I’m Cab Forward. Can call me Cab, gentlecolts.” “Alex,” Alex introduced himself. “It’s pleasant to know we have a purposeful yet level-headed companion!” He gave a smile. “So, mister Forward, please, drain the water into as many containers as you can find – we’ll need it. Then bring the boiler. And… give to drink everypony who needs, while it’s warm, but in moderation. Water means gold, nopony knows how long we are grounded for.” Alex pretended to not hear the sigh of terror rustling from the herd; while he could understand them perfectly, giving up to the feelings alike wasn’t constructive. “We’ll help to look for the bottles and… stuff,” two married mares volunteered to help. The third pulled to aid, but her pegasus partner held her back, whispering something in her ear, making Alex squint. “Take the keys to the auxiliary compartment,” Cab levitated the ring to them. “You’ll find the med-pack there, bring it as well!” “Excellent!” Alex finally allowed himself to believe that they had a chance to make it through. “Mister Hoofer, let’s get the necessary tools!” without further words, he squeezed through the passengers and rushed along the car, closely followed by the traveller and the trainpony. “That’s what we need!” Alex stopped in front of the fire extinguisher board at the end of the train car, next to the boiler; his glance fell on two large fire axes and a crowbar. Picking the axes for himself and Longhaul, Alex handed the crowbar to the trainpony unicorn with enthusiastic surname. “I suppose the boiler will give up faster that way.” For the next several minutes, the entire herd of the passengers was listening tensely to the loud crackle and clicking, then increasing rumble coming from behind the closed doors of the compartments five and six. Soon it started to sound like a couple of elephants ruining everything inside, making a few ponies exchange concerned glances. “Is it indeed as severe as he said?” Crystal Chime, whom the foals subtly kept pulling closer to Fluttershy little by little, looked at the girl almost with the hope of getting negative. “About us being attacked by these creatures,” added she in half-voice not to agitate the herd more. “I’m afraid yes, ma’am,” trying to keep everypony present in her sight, Fluttershy nodded seriously. “I never witnessed or heard about a train car detaching on its own before. Chances are high that we were delayed deliberately.” “Are you both afraid of nothing?” Storm’s fore hoof clanked lightly on the dark patterned steel plate on her shoulder. “Are we going to end like… like mom and dad?” almost whispered Aurora. “I can’t tell for Alex… but I am afraid,” throwing back the pink braid, the girl leaned closer to the colt. “But that won’t help us make through, so, I’m trying my best to hold…” “We are going to do everything possible to not let that happen!” Fluttershy let out a tiny smile and nuzzled the filly’s mane. Carrying the bottles and the med pack, both couples returned – the stallions went searching with their spouses. Taking a look over their find, Fluttershy noticed how few the suitable containers were. “Unfortunately, this is all we could dig out!” answering her glance, one of the stallions shook his head slowly. “We’ll need to preserve the water anyway,” with a regretful look, he rushed with the bottles to the end of the car, where metal crackling of the uprooted boiler was sounding from. “Truth be told, I wonder why we aren’t attacked yet,” lowering his voice, Alex told Longhaul confidentially when the compartment doors closed behind them. “Usually, these scoundrels aren’t lingering to act!” added he, shoving the fire axe under the bunk fastening and leaning on the handle with force. “Maybe our car rolled far enough from the spot it was detached from the train,” Longhaul shrugged and got down to work from his side. “We may turn out lucky to have some more time to prepare if the named creatures lose us in such a blizzard.” Unsure if the Seekers ever relied on sight or had any, Alex kept silent. They were to detach the berths from the inner wall between the compartments first. Both tried to work as fast as they could while keeping all the screws and nails usable. Strained silence from the passageway and the audible howling of the wind from behind the snow-blinded glass goaded the human and the pony to hurry. “We need to fasten both berths over the compartment windows,” Alex explained the plan. “Triple glassing or not, I don’t want you all to test its durability if the Seekers try to break through!” Longhaul nodded. Not wasting time, they nailed the removed bunk to the outer wall, almost completely obstructing the compartment window. The compartment submerged in darkness: a tiny stripe of light still shone through above the upper edge of their improvised shutter. “Will hold… if they don’t try to ram through with their entire mass,” Alex propped the berth additionally with the wide folding table, jamming it that way, nopony could unfold it anymore. “But that will be my job to prevent.” “You’re going to go outside…” that wasn’t a question, rather a statement of the fact; the stallion shook his head. Grinding off the closet in the corner, Longhaul examined the inner wall appraisingly while Alex was performing the final check of their barricade. In a second, he attacked the bulkhead with his axe, completely disappearing behind the cloud of dust and wooden debris. Several well-placed hits and the loud rumble told about the successful completion of the task, as he crashed through into the next compartment. “Hmmm… Luckily, it wasn’t bearing and durable,” huffed the stallion. With an earsplitting sneeze, Longhaul showed up again in the newly made opening. “Yeah,” Alex responded muffledly; with the collar covering his nose and mouth, Rarity’s sweater came out really handy. “I’m afraid that’s the only option,” he waved his arm, driving the dust away. “We can’t let them in, yet I’m sure that these guys will insist on meeting me personally.” Longhaul only chuckled, shaking his head. Together, they ripped off another berth, blocking the window tightly, then started demolishing the rest of the wall dividing the compartment, trying to strike more and breathe in less often. “Alex, they are asking if you haven’t broken out from the train already,” when the loud crashing fade out a bit, the door of the compartment slid open, letting out a cloud – Fluttershy even started back for a second. “Oh! Errmmm…” She huffed the dust away. “I… I am glad some of them kept their humour still,” Alex couldn’t hold back the cough. “We’re done. Give it a moment to settle down!” He and then Longhaul emerged from the darkness of the merged now compartments, shaking off the small wooden trash and blinking in the suddenly bright light of the hallway. “Watch out! Coming through!” supported by the magical aura, the boiler appeared in their view, resembling a long grey zeppelin sausage. “Sorry, folks,” mister Forward addressed the ponies forced to give the wall. “Here it is,” reported the unicorn, putting the heavy thing at the quickly cleared spot. “We filled all the bottles we had; let the thirsty ones drink while you were… working. Unfortunately, I was to pour away quite a load as well,” the trainpony shrugged regretfully. “Never mind! Nowhere to contain, it would be wasted anyway,” Alex wasn’t going to let them concentrate on the regretful thoughts. “Please, sir, take a couple more bunks off with mister Hoofer,” Handing the axe to Cab, said Alex, “and block these windows as well.” He pointed at the ones opposing the compartment doors. “Take them from the farthest compartment,” added he after both stallions. “You, I mean all of you staying here, will need to stoke that oven somehow,” elaborated Alex when both stallions glanced at him inquiringly. Not wasting time, the human fished out something large, sharp and shiny from his luggage. “That means collecting anything that can serve as firewood!” The brought up object turned out to be the folded glaive, causing an excited whoop from Storm Sunflower. Before the surprised eyes of the herd, Alex pulled the boiler into the compartment, leaning over the metal barrel and examining it. “Better start from the farthest ends of the car,” he raised his glance at the listening ponies, “as I expect these creatures to become only more impatient and aggressive with time. Thus the shorter your supply routes become, the better.” “Quite encouraging…” one of the married stallions shook his head, but Alex saw that it was a mere statement of fact than a rebuke from him. “Well, I’m not going to lie that it’ll be a walk in the park,” chuckled Alex. “You will need to take everything that can burn, including the luggage you can sacrifice. It’s crucial to keep you all warm for as long as you can. Break the inner trim, take the doors of the compartments, the berths, but keep the outer walls intact obviously. Yeah, don’t disassemble the aux yet,” with the short, well-aimed strikes, he started cutting off the top of the water tank of the boiler. “And… the main thing – wherever you go and whatever for, don’t go alone!” articulated Alex, making sure that everypony heard him. Longhaul and Cab nodded, going to complete their “defence line”. “Hmpf!” forcing his way between them, the white pegasus seemingly felt the urge to declare his opinion again. “You all staying here”? What does that mean? What are [b]you[/b] going to do then?!” “Go outside,” imperturbably stated Alex, without even a glance at the annoyance, “and make sure none of them finds its way into our carriage!” hearing the crashing sounds coming from afar, he nodded and returned to dissecting the boiler. Thus, when both stallions returned after several minutes, loaded with two berths, an improvised oven already waited, placed in the middle of merged compartments. Alex cut off the top and a large rectangle opening in the side of the boiler, striking a few small holes near the bottom edge of the water vessel. “Put the firewood here, into the upper tank,” he pointed at the side hole. “Don’t forget to save it – we need to survive, not overheat. Besides, don’t forget about the smoke,” reaching the car ceiling, Alex ripped away two ventilation grills, revealing the shaft openings. “It’ll go away naturally if produced in moderation,” he nodded at the ventilation holes at the bottom of compartment doors and the vents in the ceiling. “The car airing system will serve as the natural chimney as long as there is some draught.” “Well…” Alex took a look around the increased room while Longhaul and Cab were nailing the windows shut. “Errmmm… And whose is that?” in the darkened compartment, he pointed at the bag casually thrown at the survived bunk. “Let me…” the business pony peeked in. “That must be my neighbour’s,” the stallion hoof-bumped his forehead. “I totally forgot…” “And where is he?” accurately inquired Alex, inwardly knowing the answer – he saw exactly that stallion with some unfamiliar mare on the eve. “He went to visit his new acquaintance,” shrugged the stallion, his nose turned slightly pinkish though. “That single mare… He headed to see her in her compartment this morning – that’s in another train car; didn’t return since…” “Hmmm…” muttered Alex. “That may help. Your neighbour may need something from his bag or return and notice… there is nowhere to return. Let’s hope they can notify the station earlier about our absence,” elaborated he, then clapped his hands, making some ponies wince. “Now, come on, everypony! Take your seats according to the booked tickets,” Alex smirked sadly. The feeling growing inside was too familiar to provide tranquillity; seeing understanding in Fluttershy’s eyes, Alex decided to keep silent – he could sense the approaching Seekers already. “Why does this feel like a trap?” sighed one of the mares when the comrades in misfortune pulled inside; somepony already brought a bunch of newspapers, making the first humble lights dance inside the cut boiler. “Because this train car was supposed to turn into such as soon as we got detached from the rest of the Express. Sorry, ma’am,” Alex slowly shook his head, watching the entering ponies. “However, it’s in our power to turn it into a fortress instead!” Waiting for the last of the passengers to enter, Fluttershy pulled him closer. “Why don’t you want to face them while sleepwalking?” gesturing to lean closer, the girl whispered ardently in his ear. “It won’t be as risky… Besides, the frost wouldn’t affect you this way!” Alex kept watching the ponies huddled around the slowly warming up oven. With much relief, he noted that the foals and their aunt, just like the rest of the mares, were let closer to the life-preserving fire. The rest gathered around, instinctively keeping some distance from the outer wall of the car. The white troublemaker nested in the corner when his attempt to squeeze closer to the centre failed; the pegasus grumbled something yet didn’t bring much trouble so far. Alex let himself think that perhaps they had a chance to whisk away from the danger this time. “Can you hear me? You’re going to freeze, Alex!” Fluttershy shook his arm, waking Alex to the reality. “Why not…” “Sorry, Shy, but I decided!” Alex cupped her cheeks, looking into the shining turquoise eyes lovingly. “This time I can trust my physical form only. Don’t you get it?” he took a look around the crushed compartments. “Where do you think I could stay to guarantee my sleepwalking uninterrupted?” asked Alex quietly, in the most soothing tone he could manage. “If something or somepony wakes me amidst the fight, I won’t be able to react fast being disoriented and…” Fluttershy pursed her lips silently, still clinging to his arm. “Shy, please understand, if I’m awakened, I’ll… quit the fight instantly. That lets the monsters do whatever they want for a while,” Alex pulled the girl closer, hugging softly. “What if one of them gets inside while I am sleepwalking?” he inwardly shuddered. “At the very least, I shall be awakened up and attacked, not receiving a chance to react properly. And in the earnest, I hate to think about it getting to you all first…” “B-but… You can miss a Seeker regardless of your form, nopony is perfect! So what’s the point risking?” the girl wasn’t going to give up. “Then I am to miss none!” stated Alex. “In mine physical form, mine readiness for the battle doth not depend on the car being sealed from the beasts. Givest me a promise – stay safe and take care of Crystal and the foals! I shall take on the rest outside…” Instead of an answer, Fluttershy rushed into what was left of their compartment, returning with Alex’s bag in a moment. “Put on what you can!” peremptorily stated the girl, dropping it at the human’s feet. “Don’t you hear it raging outside?!” At that moment, something barely knocked on the car casing. That could be snow thrown by the rioting wind; however, Alex noticed how the ponies strained. He could see the tiny sparkles of terror in their eyes and knew what that meant. Unzipping the bag, Alex quickly pulled out an extra sweater as some compromise. “I can afford as much!” he shook his head. “I’ll feel myself like a barrel under my armour otherwise…” His eyes searched for somepony while he was pulling the sweater on; attracting the attention of Longhaul and Cab, Alex signalled them to come closer. “My friends,” Alex lowered the tone when both stallions approached, “within these circumstances, I can count on you only. You two and Fluttershy. I would like you to keep the rest of the passengers… well, as strange as it sounds, under control. For their own sake. Panic is our worst enemy! I can imagine how it feels, mister Forward,” he addressed the trainpony unicorn, who swallowed nervously and constantly looked back at the herd. The stallion focused on his collocutors with visible effort. Longhaul, whom Alex already brought up to date regarding some of the Seekers’ peculiarities, was holding up incomparably better, yet it was clearly taking some concentration to consciously ignore the mental pressure and anxiety the creatures brought with them. “They are on the verge of panic already, because of the situation itself. Any step further may bring chaos into our task. I shall do my best to keep the creatures at some distance, but… alas, their effect hath some range, so…” Alex shrugged meaningfully. “There is one thing though…” added he. “While others may be frightened to death, there is one who is arrant unpredictable. One who can worsen the situation by the mere incoherent acts.” Three ponies exchanged glances; apparently, Alex had no need to explain whom he referred to. “Watch this “brute”!” stated Alex quietly. “And watch close!” “Are… Are you going to confront them,” the trainpony jerked the head convulsively towards the train car door, “like that?” The stallion pointed his fore hoof at Alex’s sweater, which didn’t look formidable by the military standards. “I admit you have your own methods, but that’s…” he shook his head, not going to voice what he was thinking. “Of course, I’m not that presumptuous to go out unprotected,” Alex let out a tiny smile. “And as you mentioned – I have my own… little secrets!” The next moment, the thin metal band on his forehead enveloped in the silvery glow, the wave of which travelled across the human, making both stallions take a step back. Surprised, Longhaul and Cab witnessed how the unusually looking armour started appearing on the human, leaving only Alex’s head uncovered. “I won’t wish you good luck not to jinx it away!” Fluttershy held him back for a second when they reached the train car vestibule. Laying his hand on the door lock already, Alex turned and looked into the turquoise eyes; leaning closer, he gladly noted that they had no fear in them but some stern determination instead. “Simply return in one piece, okay!” carefully avoiding the spikes, the girl reached his lips with a short but meaningful kiss. “Neither shall I then,” the armoured glove travelled clumsily through the lush, fragrant mane. “Simply stay safe, my love! All of you. It shan’t be arrant easy, I’m afraid.” With a click of its lock, Alex slid the exit door aside – the strong wind immediately threw a bunch of snow into the opening not losing that chance. Fluttershy stifled a shiver under her armour, throwing a glance at the ponies behind: both stallions already returned to the herd – Longhaul’s rational voice reached them, calming somepony in the compartment. “Lock the door after me, Shy,” the words sounded muffled as the helmet appeared around Alex’s head. The human jumped off the edge, forcedly pulling the door against the efforts of the strong wind, which ruffled and fluffed the feathers on Alex’s wings. “And don’t open any of them or the windows unless I clearly tell you that I need to get inside!” Fluttershy nodded shortly, squinting from the gusts throwing the strands of her mane in her face. The shut door isolated the train car from the raging weather. Minding the time, Alex took a minute to examine the butt of the train car nevertheless. The soft, made of some rubber-like material sleeve, supposed to envelop the intercar passage, was hanging limply, torn to multiple scallops by the mass of the transport piece. Some of the metal constructions inside it were skewed and twisted a bit, showing the forced and improper nature of the detachment of their train car. ‘Hmmm… Sure thing, it wasn’t an accident!’ leaning over the train coupling, Alex examined the mangled hook and stubs of some pipes, which once connected their car to the train heating and braking systems and were now cut open like veins and vessels of a dissected limb. ‘The strike was direct and deliberate!’ He straightened up, struggling to see anything in the swirling mess surrounding them. Accompanied by some haze, the snow formed a white wall, limiting Alex’s visibility by a thirty-yard diameter area. The big snowflakes – beautiful, yet anything but fluffy – were dancing in the changing wind. From time to time, flowing straight to the ground, the ghostly veil jerked aside occasionally and fluttered in visible sheets and strands when stronger gusts drove the snow almost horizontally, making it even harder to discern something around. Neither of the actors of that surreal play planned to calm down – it wasn’t a question of when the blizzard ended but rather of how long they could hold on until the help was supposed to arrive. In one direction, running from under the train car, the rails were frosting right in front of his eyes, becoming dull and disappearing under the surging snow even before they hid behind the milky haze. Turning back, Alex could barely see the opposite end of the blue carriage. Intended to look bright and optimistic during the ride, it suddenly turned dark and gloomy in that place where the grey-white sky subtly transformed into the grey-white land in the details-erasing blizzard. No matter how hard he tried, Alex couldn’t see what surrounded them behind the visibility line; it could be a forest or some cliffs or endless plain miles and miles around. The latter was more realistic to suppose, judging by the speed of wind howling wildly in the narrow gap under the train car. Alex could see neither if there was any danger lurking around them in the snowy haze. But he could feel it. Or them rather. Several creatures, more than five as he concluded. They didn’t hurry to approach but at the same time were not going to leave. Alex shook his head slowly: he could imagine the condition of the ponies inside the train car – the Seekers were giving them a hard time even before actually appearing in the view. Unfurling his wings, Alex soared, shaking off the snow and bursting it into the air. He had no right to leave the motionless train car even for reconnaissance purposes, but undertaking nothing wasn’t his credo either. Seeing Fluttershy’s concerned glance in the exit door window, Alex nodded to her shortly, then rose higher when the girl disappeared in the depth of the train car. He landed on the car roof, fairly supposing that it could give him some advantage – thus he could see a bit further (or at least Alex tried to convince himself) and everywhere around their railway carriage. Not wasting time, the human squeezed the glaive handle: with the quiet rustle, the weapon started growing in his hand obediently. The sections unfolded one from another, locking and forming a proper handle; finally, the blades turned into the armed position with an icy zap. ‘I’d prefer it to get stuck in the armed position, than in folded,’ inwardly smirked Alex. Folding his wings that way, so he could at least pretend to be ignoring the strong wind blowing into his back, he prepared to wait for the mean opponents. “What was that sound?!” one of the mares rushed to Fluttershy as soon as the girl returned to the ponies waiting in the compartment concernedly. Looking around, Fluttershy noticed the same shared questions in the eyes of the rest and did her best for her tiny smile to look natural and encouraging. “Alex got to the train car roof. He could probably see better that way in the snowy mess outside – the blizzard is truly blinding,” she shuddered as if still feeling the gust of wind throwing the snow into the passageway as soon as they opened the door. Trying to assure herself, Fluttershy added. “Don’t worry, we own the situation so far!” “…or get into a safer place…” quietly huffed the white pegasus in his corner. Even if he muttered that for himself, Fluttershy caught the phrase perfectly – a grimace of reproach appeared on the girl’s face. “Why don’t you join him… and explain the undoubtedly approaching monsters about your supremacy personally?” she squinted, turning slowly and measuring the “brute” with a meaningful look. Her opponent huffed something again; not getting a definite answer, Fluttershy nodded inwardly and addressed the rest of the herd. “The railway tracks are completely blocked by the snow, as I could see,” the girl noticed ruefully. “A few yards forward and the road turns into a snowdrift already.” A sigh of concern rolled across the darkened compartment lit only with a weak glow of the improvised oven. “Which makes that,” Fluttershy nodded towards the flames dancing in the cut boiler, “really vital. Staying together and quiet – as well!” added she with emphasis. “If snow is blocking everything,” Storm Sunflower threw a worried glance up at Fluttershy, “how are we going to be rescued?” At these words, Aurora snuggled closer to her brother, looking into Fluttershy’s eyes with the hope that the mare in steel had some reassuring answers. “How?” whispered the filly under her breath. “I suppose they have… suitable resources,” Fluttershy nuzzled the kids. “The rescue team. They live here constantly. That’s not the first blizzard and snowdrifts in their practice! We just need to hold on for a few hours.” “On the other hoof, the snowdrifts aren’t that bad in our situation,” added Fluttershy pensively. “How come?!” hugging the foals, Crystal Chime glanced at her uncomprehendingly. Half of the ponies followed suit, raising their surprised eyes at the girl. “With the road blocked by snow,” elaborated Fluttershy, “we don’t risk the following train to crash into us at least. There will be no trains until the railroad is cleaned – that means until we are picked up by the railroad emergency team.” The trainpony grunted concernedly; realizing that it sounded not very optimistically, Fluttershy could only shrug. “If choosing between two evils…” The girl attempted to encourage the rest. “At least, we have one problem less to worry about!” “She is right!” Mister Hoofer supported her wholeheartedly; his nod looked probably more confident than the stallion felt, but he gave a sincere smile. “Why don’t we go and find more fuel?” Longhaul picked up the fire axe. “I mean, while it’s still quiet and we can move freely across the train car.” “Yeah! Let’s go,” Cab Forward gladly grabbed onto that possibility, welcoming something to distract from the feelings delivered by the creatures outside, “and take everything we can tear off from the farthest compartment!” he levitated the crowbar as if weighing it in the air. “Don’t forget about the extinguisher board itself,” noticed Longhaul. “It was made of wood…” He fell silent when the white pegasus suddenly got up, making his way forward. Everypony around seemed to be equally surprised by that – seeing him willing to help was the last thing passengers expected. The stallion picked up one of the axes, showing determination by his entire look. Longhaul and Cab exchanged glances and Longhaul shrugged, letting the pegasus through; the compartment door closed behind them. “What?!” With the habitual challenging look, he turned, noticing the glances the other two stallions followed him with. “Didn’t expect that, eh?” “Frankly speaking – yes,” Longhaul’s expression and smile couldn’t cause aggression probably by the pickiest standards; however, the irony in his voice was also audible. “Why if you weren’t happy about the methods used anyway?” “Well…” The “brute” gave Longhaul a long evaluative look, but failed to find any dubious undertone and cocked his head again. “We are going to survive, are we not? I’d prefer to be sure that we have enough firewood not to freeze then.” The trainpony made an understanding mien, but he intercepted Longhaul’s meaningful glance and nodded when they both let the pegasus forward. “Where do we start from?” “Let’s disassemble one of the water closets and “tenth” first,” the trainpony pointed counter the train direction, “as we decided to keep the aux yet.” The wind and snow were not going to give up easily: even despite the higher vantage point, one and a half dozen yards in any direction – and everything turned into a smudged mess. It resembled some white noise on the television screen… with the exception that it was white noise on the white background. Inwardly anathematizing the circumstances, Alex took several cautious steps along the train car roof. He was to be careful: warm air escaping through the vents turned the roof metal around them icy and slippery, especially for steel armour soles. As far as he could see, the train car roof was empty, untouched, with the only scratches appearing on the metal because of his spiky boots. So was the area around the car; no signs of intruders, no trails. Although, the latter would be smoothed out fast by the omnipresent snow. Alex already felt how the small snowdrifts tried to form on his shoulders and head. He walked to another end of the train carriage, peering into the surroundings yet seeing nothing except the flying snowflakes galore. The scratching and creaking he heard were coming from inside the car; straining first, Alex relaxed a bit – those were the sounds of volunteers scavenging for the firewood. However, he was to believe his inner feeling to know – they were not safe. That sensation couldn’t be mistaken for anything: several creatures were lurking around behind the blizzard. ‘More than five,’ Alex listened to himself. ‘No, rather more than ten!’ ‘They became surprisingly cautious this time,’ a grimace distorted his face under the helmet; Alex wiped the mirror-like faceplate from the settling snow. ‘Something new! They were usually more hit-or-run straightforward…’ He headed back across the train car, struggling with the wind and trying to step lighter, not to alarm the already frightened ponies inside. Something on the edge of his sight made Alex stop abruptly. A dark silhouette glimpsed through the snowy veil. A flying silhouette! Slowly, trying to miss no single movement around, Alex turned on the spot, examining the landscape as thorough as nasty weather only allowed. The dark shadow – Alex saw it for a fraction of a second only, not sure if it was really a thing – was too large for a bird. Considering the blizzard, the place and the mere fact that they hardly saw any birds in the sky that day, he was to dismiss that idea. On the other hand, as Alex admitted, he was inwardly prepared for something alike. ‘If the… common Seeker could accommodate quite fast, turning from ethereal to fully materialized to reflect the threat coming from me more effectively…’ The dark shadow glimpsed again. Even if it was only a smudged dash against the snowfall, Alex was now completely sure – that wasn’t a product of his imagination, fatigue or dance macabre of the blizzard. One more thing was obvious – the creature was nimble enough, especially compared to the common Seekers. ‘Nimble and kinda slim… judging by its frame!’ Alex slowly turned around, starting to rotate the glaive. He just reached the end of the car where he started, thinking out hectically whether he had any way to notify those inside the train car about the danger. ‘Staying on the spot isn’t a good idea anyway when you have such a bullet flying around!’ Besides, he had no idea how many of those could actually attack. However, the creature suddenly landing on the opposite end of the train car roof, made Alex freeze and stare at it amazedly. Accustomed to the generally horse-like look of the regular Seekers – Alex cringed at the idea of how regular those bastards became for him – he was expecting something along the same lines. Something like pegasi of Equestria, but not what he was finally observing in entirety silently. Hands down, the vision was surprising and disgusting at the same time: the raven-dark creature standing on the metal roof shared with the familiar Seekers the same glowing, red eye-like orifice, the colour and the misty substance visibly flowing and curling around its body. The similarities ended at those! The Flyer (as Alex mentally named the new abomination at once) most resembled some sort of bony pterodactyl, covered by dimly glistening black leather, with leather-like plicate wings instead of upper limbs. Threads of the snow carried by the strong wind swirled around the creature’s legs and unusually long “thumbs” on the tops of its wings. Thin and blade-like, the extremities seemed to be made solely of sharp bones coated by the dark skin everywhere except razor-sharp edges. Imagining how the creature must walk with the audible clacking and creaking with that constitution made Alex shudder. Standing on the tips of those four legs, the monster slowly turned its head. Whatever it had for the head, as it practically consisted of the single red “eye” and the same long sharp blade where the normal bird would have had its beak. A single look at that thing was enough to conclude – the monster was created to kill primarily. The Flyer’s stubby butt surprisingly had no tail, and Alex inwardly thanked for no extra weapon added to the beast’s arsenal. Strangely, the monster didn’t rush into attack as if studying the human first, making Alex wonder if the so-called Flyer had some actual vision in human or pony sense, or relied on the different senses instead. The creature definitely originated from the same roots as the Seekers, except being faster (at least in the air) and more morbid. Knowing that he was to get rid of that vicious generosity someday, Alex didn’t attack it first either and was watching the flying Seeker with growing disgust. The more Alex was staring, the more agitated the creature turned. Its short jerky movements reminded the human about some mantis, an oversized and extremely ugly one. Starting to spin his glaive again, Alex made a small step forward. The metal roof produced a barely audible tingle. The monster turned its head to Alex, sharply, momentarily. Like a wild splice of bird and insect, it jerked, stepping aside and turning to face the enemy. If not seeing, the Flyer was definitely feeling human’s presence, just like its predecessors. So far, it didn’t look afraid of his presence or simply cautious, rearing up and demonstrating the blades threateningly with short abrupt movements. While it stomped on the spot (surprisingly heavily for its constitution), one of its claws accidentally penetrated the roof; going through, it got stuck in the metal for a moment. With a freezing heart, Alex wondered how sharp and dangerous those blade-like legs must be. Granted, they could hardly damage his armour, but the mere force of the strike was quite impressive of an image. Using two fire axes and the crowbar to their advantage, three stallions already finished ripping off the wall panels and trim of the train car lavatory. They tried their best to produce less sound – inevitable though if one tried to disassemble the wooden parts in a hurry – listening every moment to the muffled footsteps coming from the car roof. “That seems to be all we could rend here!” Longhaul took a look over the heap of wooden planks and debris. “Fine!” Cab’s eyes performed the final scan of the small room for anything that could still be used as fuel. “I’ll go pick the extinguisher board off the wall and you two… can start with the tenth,” the unicorn waved his fore hoof towards the next compartment. “Wait!” the white pegasus glanced at him as if the trainpony started behaving suspiciously insane. “We were not supposed to go alone anywhere. Besides, I suppose that we should bring these first,” he poked the wooden heap. “Less noise and so on…” “Fair point,” not expecting himself to come to a consensus with that guy, Longhaul was to nod nevertheless. Cab shrugged. Enveloping the door with his aura, he accurately peeked into the passageway, checking both ends of the train car, then turned to his companions. “It’s clean!” the unicorn waved at them to follow, grabbing a good portion of wood with his magic. But before the three stallions made a few steps into the passageway, the roof above them sounded with loud blood-chilling skirr – the ceiling trim parted, breaking into small pieces, which powdered the frozen ponies, and revealing the metal parting into a widening hole. Something long came through, reaching almost the middle of the passage and shining with the sharp edges. The stallions could barely dodge the seemingly imminent strike and flattened along the corridor walls, watching with dropped jaws how the thin, black extremity jerked and wiggled convulsively. Something horrid on the train car roof was trying to free its undoubtedly stuck part, pulling the blade-like thing with screeching and crackling of the metal above. Feeling how his heart slowly returns to its normal pace, Longhaul took a look around his companions flattening along the walls; he gestured with his eyes only towards the middle of the train car. However, one of them seemed to have a different idea: cautiously shifting around the sharp source of danger, the pegasus, who was to recoil to the window when the monster hit the roof, was going to join them at the inner wall of the passageway. “Shhh!” Longhaul cupped his mouth, signalling them to stay quiet by his entire look. The bulky stallion nodded; but instead of holding his breath upon reaching the wall, the pegasus reached for the crowbar, Cab was clutching tightly at. The unicorn released the metal bar easily, not understanding the need completely. Noticing the tiny lights of mad excitement in the eyes of their companion, Longhaul could barely shake his head. Grabbing the tool more comfortably, the white pegasus suddenly attacked the claw still protruding from the ceiling. Attacked with surprising strength and rage, making the crowbar produce a humming sound. The fountain of sparkles splashed from the spot where the metal bar met the creature body, whatever the latter consisted of. Freezing for fraction of a second, the monster’s leg started twitching stronger. “Don’t like it, bastard! Take this! Take more! And here is another one!” The strikes followed with the speed of a machinegun, as the “brute” shouted, agitating and enraging himself more and more. “Get lost, you fucking crab!!! Out of here!!!” Longhaul and Cab froze, watching how with the muzzle twisted with rage, he bashed the jerking blade-like leg, again and again, causing new sparkles to fall. Finally, no matter how durable the monster’s extremity was, it started pulling out almost in panic. “Beat you, wretch!!!” the pegasus almost twitched with a psychotic grimace, throwing the crowbar up. With the last strong pull, the sharp claw finally popped out of the metal trap, followed by a few clacking steps on the roof outside. Dropping his weapon with a loud tingle, the stallion grabbed the firewood he carried before and rushed into the depth of the train car. In the falling silence, two stallions exchanged dumbfounded glances; Cab could only shake his head slowly and Longhaul understood him without any words. If not for the steps outside, it seemed they could hear the snow falling on the metal roof. Quickly gathering the remaining wood, both hurried to the merged compartments, not forgetting to pick up the axes and misfortunate crowbar with them. The pegasus stallion already piled up his load next to the dimly glowing boiler and was standing, doomedly resting his forehead against the bunk they nailed over the compartment window and breathing heavily. Under the uncomprehending glance of his wife, he quickly turned around and cast a rancorous glance at the incoming. “What did I say?!” quietly but venomously started the “brute”. “This is some bullshit trap! No?!” “I’m sure that was a pure accident…” accurately noticed Longhaul, putting his load on the floor and keeping his eyes on the opponent. Fluttershy pulled the foals back, subtly shielding them and Crystal with herself. “The creature had no intent to get inside. Neither did know about us… Yet!” added he with emphasis, pulling his hat lower. “If we…” “Accident, for buck sake!!!” the pegasus punched the soft bunk violently, making the train car casing hum hollowly. The fire of dangerous folly was still burning in his narrowed eyes. ‘This one will kill us all if he keeps making that much noise!’ Fluttershy caught Longhaul’s meaningful look. But before they could say or undertake something, everypony heard another quiet voice. “Why don’t you simply calm down, mister?” To everypony’s surprise, Storm stepped forward from behind Fluttershy; measuring the pegasus thrice larger than himself with the calm look, the colt was entirely confident in his right. “If you want us [b]all[/b]…” Storm emphasized deliberately, “to survive, you either do something for that… or don’t prevent others from doing.” The stallion’s jaw dropped in bewilderment; truth be told some other passengers followed suit. Meanwhile, watched by Crystal Chime with the entirely new look, the colt glanced at Fluttershy, then Longhaul and added. “Shouting won’t help… unless you want to join Alex and try shouting at monsters to repel them… probably.” The pegasus opened and closed his mouth at a loss; looking around the compartment and meeting mostly the reproachful eyes, he wanted to reply to Storm in his usual manner, but… “Look, sir! Your wish to help was appreciated…” Longhaul stepped between them; an epitome of subtlety, he scratched his nape with the crowbar he was still holding. “But your aggressive spurt wasn’t.” “It wasn’t smart to give out us hiding here,” added he after a heavy meaningful pause, adjusting his hat. “And if you keep making noise and putting us all in danger… I will be forced to knock you out, sir! Understood?” “And I have enough sheets to tie you into a mummy if you keep making trouble,” mister Forward gave the brute a look from under the brows. The pegasus froze, choking on words because of that organized counteroffensive. Prudently catching the moment, his spouse pulled him back, whispering something calming into the white strained ear. However, intercepting her glance, Fluttershy noticed that it was rather thankful than any else. Miss Chime pulled Storm back, shaking her head slowly; however, her eyes were smiling when she looked at her nephew. Aurora looked at her brother with plain astonishment. “Thanks!” whispered Fluttershy to Longhaul. “For a short while, I thought I would need to kick him myself…” She threw a meaningful look on her steel-shod hooves. The attack from inside of the train car turned out for Alex hardly less surprising than for the Seeker. Watching the twitching creature attempting to free its leg from the metal trap, the human even forgot to attack the monster. To his bewilderment, Alex realized that he was hearing the shouts coming from the train car – somepony attacked the Seeker’s leg deliberately and violently. He unfroze only when the Seeker finally managed to pull out his blade-like extremity, stomping his legs with visibly more accuracy now. Grabbing the glaive firmly, Alex prepared for the uneasy battle: despite the sharp, jerky movements, the seemingly clumsy creature turned out quite fast and tough. With the steel rattle, the Seeker dashed to the human, resembling the attacking mantis even more at that moment. The first strike of the monster was deflected by Alex with a single wide swing of the glaive! The steel met the creature’s claw… sending sparks fly into the air! That blow could easily cut the equine-like Seeker’s leg off and even made the Flyer step back. However, the glaive only scratched the dark chitin-like surface of the claw. Comforting himself with a thought that the strike came out merely tangential, Alex was to admit that it would take more than one blow to cut off extremities that durable. After a momentary confusion, the creature produced another dry clicking sound – it was unclear if the monster itself or its angular legs made it – and resumed the interrupted attack. The winged abomination aspired to pierce its enemy or at least inflict cuts as severe as it possibly could. The human and the Seeker started spinning in the deadly dance; each tried to incapacitate the opponent faster, ensuring the damage would appear hard enough to finish the enemy. As if breaking from its leash, the wind started howling shrilly, coming in strong gusts and pouncing the fighters. It swirled around them, throwing handfuls of snow in Alex’s face and ruffling the feathers of his wings, making them stand. Desperate to sneak and trail in and between the armour parts, as the frost wasn’t a threat for the fast-moving, heated human at that moment, the wind found its vengeful joy in pushing Alex in random directions, using his wings as a sail. Wholeheartedly hoping that the wind was hindering the monster’s movements as much, Alex noticed that his enemy wasn’t feeling very confident on the train car roof. Of course, some jerkiness was dictated by the “flyer’s” gnarly, wicked constitution – it was hard to expect it to move on the ground or generally any surface as fluidly and naturally as its equine-like brethren. But there was more to it; that variant of the monster looked as if it was created to be the perfect airborne killer… at the expense of treating its ground capabilities slipshod. ‘Some…thing created you in a hurry!’ Alex smirked inwardly. ‘To react to the quickly changing circumstances and threats for their mission, whichever it was. It seems,’ he swayed his weapon sharply; hissing in the air, the glaive beat off the Seeker’s claw, sending another large bunch of sparks flying as if Alex was forging some metal instead, ‘that the distance and…’ Alex made a lunge, trying to use the momentary gap to his advantage and make a hole in the monster’s wing at least, ‘…informational delays are indeed a thing!’ The abomination managed to fold in some inscrutable way, diving under the glaive and evading the piercing strike; in the attempt to hit the human’s legs instead, the monster made a wide grappling move while staying low. ‘These guys aren’t to be underestimated!’ grinning wryly, Alex jumped right in time to dodge the long blades trying to catch his legs. The wings unfurled, keeping him in the air; with all possible strength – he had no time or space for a proper swing – the human’s right foot met the creature’s “beak” with a booming sound. ‘However…’ As the result of the sudden counterattack and its gravity centre shifted, the beast lost its balance and was to lean on its fore claws, spreading its wings quite clumsily. The glaive already flashed in the snow-filled air, aiming down! Catching that opportunity, Alex did his best to hit the monster’s wing. Pinning the thing to the train car would be the perfect gift; damaging its wing would suffice either. He missed it by a mane strand though! With some incredible impulse, seemingly using its hind legs only (Alex was surprised by those blades being capable of that), the Seeker managed to whisk back like some giant, pulling its wing from under Alex’s impaling hit. Alex was to pull the glaive back, quickly interrupting the strike, not to get the blade stuck in the train car metal, and the monster had time to regain its balance, rising to all four. The creature strained; however, not to pounce again, but rather soar as Alex noticed in the last moment. Not losing a second, he rushed to the monster, shortening the distance and barraging the Seeker with short, strong blows. Each one sent bright sparks into the cold air: the glaive slipped off the creature’s claws surface, leaving scratches and notches. To cut those blade-legs, Alex needed to strike at the right angle or aim slightly above the claw, at the point it attached to the rest of the wing. It was nearly impossible at that pace of attack. However, that wasn’t what Alex actually planned. ‘So, you want to get airborne again, bastard!’ Breaking the creature’s balance with hard hits, Alex aimed each second blow at the Seeker’s wings, constantly threatening to damage them. ‘I’ll be damned if I allow such a missile attack in the air!’ The dark spawn of somepony’s perverted mind was to retreat, defending its obvious advantage the creature couldn’t use at the moment. Its enemy seemed to guess the only real weak point and wasn’t going to let the Seeker soar as any attempt to spread the wings would mean having them cut off in a wink. Clicking and scratching on the roof metal, the monster backed off, forced to deflect the hail of strikes peppering the train car with sparks on each impact. ‘I’ll pinch it in the corner of the roof and…’ Alex squinted – a stroke of darkness glimpsed in the surrounding snowy mess. ‘Another one! That’s going to be harder than it looked!’ Thankfully, he spotted the approaching silhouette reflecting in one of the blades of his weapon. Inflicting another short blow to the enemy almost flatwise with the glaive, Alex dashed into the snowy sky right the moment before another flying beast reached the scene of the fight from behind. The result surpassed his most optimistic expectations – Alex couldn’t hold back a snort, making a loop in the air. With the speed that high, the flying Seeker couldn’t interrupt its dash momentarily; another monster was focused on the human who unexpectedly stopped the attack and soared. With dry crackling, one creature crashed into another: locked together, the entire heap rolled on the train car roof with the loud rumble; beating out more sparks and wearing off the ventilation caps, they disappeared behind the edge, smacking into the snow. Alex fancied a muffled cry of fear coming from inside of the train car. “What’s going on, for Celestia’s sake?!” the pupils of one of the deadly scared mares shrunk to the pinpoints; another one wasn’t far from fainting, shaking visibly. “Quiet! Quiet, please!” Fluttershy tried to calm down the alerted passengers, pulling both mares closer to the centre of the small herd. Strangely the noise from above didn’t startle her much – somehow, the girl was sure that nothing was threatening Alex’s life at that moment. “Alex is simply trying to fend off the… whatever has found us. Just stay quiet!” Articulated she with emphasis. “Don’t be afraid, kids!” She leaned to the foals. “Everything is going to be okay…” ‘I wholeheartedly hope!’ added Fluttershy mentally. “I’m fine,” Storm was surprisingly calm, even squeezing out a semblance of a tiny smile. “I didn’t expect it to be a picnic after Alex said we were going to be attacked.” “They haven’t been at our farm! Lucky ones!” shrugged Aurora, glancing at the still panicking mares; the filly snuggled to her brother habitually but accepted the circumstances with sad tranquillity as well. “Oh, my dear!” Miss Chime shook her head, hugging both foals tightly. ‘If somepony described me this day a year ago,’ Fluttershy sighed, watching them, ‘I’d have told them to go get their head checked… What have we lived to?!’ She caught herself on listening carefully to the silence which fell outside interrupted by the draughts of wind only. The new feeling – awareness that Alex was unharmed – was strange but calming. ‘It could be even laughable… if not happening with us!’ Alex was to admit. Unfortunately, none of the monsters looked hurt, as he could notice, reaching the train car edge and checking on them. Not even stunned much. Taking a few moments to untangle, the Seekers got up and turned around slowly, bogging down in the snowdrifts; a pair of red “eyes” glared at Alex again. That, hilarious otherwise, mishap even played into their claws: watching them climbing out of the snow, Alex missed the perfect moment for attack. When he realized it, both monsters already were spreading their wings. With the first strokes looking clumsy, the flying abominations rose into the air heavily; but as soon as they got on their wings, their clumsiness vanished at once. Getting on their wings, both flying monsters effectively gained their attack speed in a matter of seconds. They started circling the train car, and none of the Seekers was going to wait till Alex soaring – he was to dodge the first attempts to knock him down as soon as he took off. There in the sky, the creatures turned into truly dangerous enemies. Distancing and approaching again they never gave the human the second strike after he deflected their short attacks, fleeing right when Alex was about to reply with a surplus. The snow was swirling in the crispy, frosty air, so were the combatants. Three dark silhouettes in the misty sky spiralled around the imaginary axle drawn through the train car centre, coming closer for a fraction of a second to exchange strikes with metal clanking and fountains of sparks. Realizing their tactics, Alex became endlessly thankful to Luna for their recent friendly fight. The entire situation that day looked overly similar, making the human wonder if that had been a lucky coincidence or the Night Princess had had a hunch about something alike happening. Thus, fortunately, he entered that fight prepared, understanding his abilities better and ready to use them to his advantage. ‘Not much, though!’ Alex thought, making the glaive skirr across the incoming monster’s “beak” with a flash of sparks and a nasty screeching sound. The black wretch slapped its wings and turned away immediately before he could aim another blade of his glaive into the monster’s belly. ‘Don’t know how long they can keep that way… Long enough to become a problem, I’m sure!’ Alex noticed the unfortunate similarities with his fight against the timberwolves in October. Basically, the new Seekers simply tried to impale their enemy on the fly, coming at him at their maximum speed and fleeing again as soon as their attempt failed. They turned out what Alex suspected them to be designed for – the large bullets. Even if dumb and straightforward as they were, the two flying creatures were quite tough to stand against. Alex suspected that with growing numbers of such enemies the problems would grow in geometric progression. There was another thing complicating the fight: Alex couldn’t let himself move away from the snow-covered train car. Despite any circumstances, he was to keep the situation controlled, the ponies – safe from the monsters lurking around in the snow. Besides, a few more yards aside or up into the sky, and the train car started dissolving in the flowing snow veil – it was so easy to lose the spot, getting too far from it. Deadly easy! Everything looked the same around because of the blizzard; losing the train car from sight, Alex could lose it for good as only his vestibular apparatus could tell him where the ground was, let alone anything else in that case. However, that seemed to be the thing the monsters aspired to do – luring the human away from the crash site, thus giving their company a chance to approach the prize and try it by the tooth. The first time he noticed it was when Alex attempted to chase one of the creatures after a specifically impudent attack. As if crossing some invisible safety line around the train car, Alex felt how the other creatures started towards it, making him delay his revenge and return at once. The carriage itself and its passengers might be not so important for them. But Alex had no doubts that Fluttershy’s ability to cure the ponies affected by those creatures might put her under their attack ever since. That and the general chance to distract the human from the fight, thus making him vulnerable to their attacks were most likely what the flying bastards aimed at. ‘Okay, bony heads! It’s either strike or run situation for you anyway, unlikely that you had any alternative,’ Alex decided to bring the fight back to the surface – the train car roof looked suitable enough. ‘Let’s play by my rules, flying rags… As long as your mates keep hiding their butts in the snow!’ Folding his wings, Alex darted towards the ground, making the snow swirl in his trail and braking right above the train car. Exploded by his dash, the thin thread of smoke spread flat; the shreds of it kept flowing down the roof edges for a while, pressed down by the wind. Hovering over the frosted metal, Alex began taunting the creatures to attack the promising target, as if telling – “Here I am, come and get!” Having no other way out of that lingering encounter, both Seekers continued their attacks on the human as expected. Seeing that their enemy was not going to chase them, they soon concentrated on the power of their impact, trying to hit the human with their entire mass, accelerating as much as possible. There exactly, the lessons learned in their fight with Luna came to use: no matter how hard the Seekers tried to smite the human, the taunting winged figure always appeared slightly aside their aim just a second before they hit. Alex was about to suspect that those creatures were capable of showing the signs of enragement or frustration, so persistent those living bullets turned in their attempts to get him down. They whizzed in the gloomy, snow-filled sky like a pair of angry supersonic wasps, coming down one by one on the maximum speed and making the snowfall follow them, bringing bunches of snow into Alex’s face. He only brushed them away with laughter – suddenly the situation turned even slightly amusing. Besides, Alex noticed that he was spending a lot less energy that way than keeping the useless round dance in the sky. Even if his dodges looked more like teleporting for the foreign eye. One moment the hovering figure froze barely above the train car roof. The bony flying menace was coming fast, folding its wings and aiming its spear-like beak at the human; the red eye focused on the target almost hatefully. It seemed nothing could save from the approaching missile. The next moment it was already nothing at the spot and the flying creature heavily changes its trajectory, almost slapping its wings on the train car metal and turning into the sky again. The human appeared a couple of yards aside in a wink, lazily trying to slap the Seeker with his glaive but without much effort – he was perfectly holding his position. ‘I wonder, how much time will it take those bony heads to realize I can keep that play longer than they imagine!’ Deflecting the Seekers’ repeating attacks, Alex wasn’t forgetting to throw an occasional look around in case any of their mates decided to infiltrate the train car in that ruckus. So far none of them in the field (Alex assumed that it was actually a plain around them) dared to try; all seemed to be waiting for him to make a mistake and fall. Seeing another attack incoming, Alex inwardly sighed and got his glaive ready. The wings strained, the next second making the snowfall around smudge like an unsuccessful photo and sending him not strictly aside but rather towards and under the rushing creature. The glaive jerked in his hand, bringing a vengeful smirk to Alex’s face. With the nasty ripping sound, one of the blades met the leathery wing of the monster, tearing it across almost from the margins to the back edge. The flying thing fell on the damaged side, losing height. Feeling the overload with his entire body, Alex braked and turned in the air. The world around regained sharpness momentarily. The next moment, the giant feathery wing slapped the wounded Seeker on the fly, knocking it down at once and practically smacking it into the train car roof, breaking the thin ice with the creature’s body. Alex froze in the air for a moment, watching the Seeker – beaten but not defeated – rising heavily and clumsily to its legs. The right wing of the creature trembled, flapping heavily when the dark abomination tried to soar, but it was unable to lift its owner anymore. With dry knocking of the claws on metal, the ex-flying monster turned around, not going to give up. From the corner of his eye, Alex noticed another creature landing on the roof edge behind him. Without further lingering, both Seekers attacked at once, trying to take Alex into a tight vice of razor-sharp claws striking from both sides in a raging attempt to take down the persistent and so far invulnerable enemy. The fight burned up with increased strength. Spinning like mad and delivering strikes back and forth, Alex noticed with grim satisfaction that the armour they made with Willsmash was still doing its job perfectly. The occasional hits simply slipped off its smooth faces, screeching on the steel but unable to penetrate the plates. As for the closer encounter, the monsters preferred to avoid it, prudently keeping away from the tactically placed metal thorns. Realizing that it turned into the battle of endurance and the advantage was after all at the enemy’s side, Alex would prefer both Seekers attacking him from one side as while he took on one monster, another had time and opportunity to check his armour for strength. The creatures in their turn appeared smart enough to recognize Alex’s efforts to properly “herd” them and face both at once. Through the array of flailing blows, the combatants were constantly stomping around, making the train car roof hum with rattling metal sounds. The monsters did their worst to spin Alex, expecting him to get distracted or even fall; needless to say that all they would need in that case was to pounce at him with the combined mass and wait for their “friends” to arrive. Alex, however, tried to dodge the hits and tactically lure or force both creatures to one side of himself. Rotating his glaive like a deadly propeller, Alex started advancing, bashing the crippled monster repeatedly and pushing it to the train car edge. The double-bladed weapon whistled in the air, fanning away the flying snow and smacking heavily into the Seeker. The human hit it in all the possible ways, aspiring not to cut but rather stun and push off, delivering the flat strikes and aiming into the monster’s head. Kicking the Seeker off the roof would give Alex time to deal with another creature one-on-one as the first one couldn’t get back from the ground with its ripped wing. As soon as Alex started feeling triumphant – the first Seeker’s butt was inching towards the roof edge, almost reaching it and making its owner fret, another Seeker rushed into a fierce attack, drumming the human’s steel back with the claws and flapping its wings with the loud noise. While not immediately threatening, those hits were quite palpable and distracting as if Alex was safely (thanks to the armour) yet persistently bucked in his back not by a pony, but by a full-grown horse or alicorn for that matter. However, the next strike was definitely aimed to try piercing the armour or at least give Alex a severe concussion: the Seeker attacking from behind leaned back to gain momentum, aiming its pointy beak right between the human’s shoulder blades. The planned strength of the blow would have made Alex lose balance or experience a moment of overwhelming pain enough to perform an undeflected series of dangerous hits. Throwing a glance over the shoulder, Alex bashed the frontal Seeker across its pointy head as hard as he could, making the creature flinch back. He started turning right in time: the hit was supposed to turn out monstrous, but the beak of another Seeker slid on Alex’s armour with a loud skirring sound, barely contacting the armour. On the contrary, the back blade of Alex’s glaive found its aim, sticking out of the red “eye” of the rear Seeker. The glow faded, and the disgusting bony creature froze for a fraction of a second as if switched off by somepony’s invisible hoof. The Seeker twitched once and went limp, hanging with its weight on Alex’s weapon. Turning around, Alex forcedly pushed the creature aside, pulling the glaive out not to let it get stuck in the monster’s skull. The large wing finished the job, striking the already disintegrating carcass off the train car roof, into the snow, where the defeated Seeker collapsed with its entire weight, scratching the metal with its blade-like legs. ‘Damn it!’ flashed in Alex’s head – his leg slipped on the iced metal and in a wink Alex fell flat on the train car roof, crumpling the last surviving ventilation cap. The hit was so hard it would beat all the air out of the human’s lungs; by some miraculous coincidence, Alex tucked and managed to fold his wings in time. They softened the fall, not turning out a perfect target for the remaining enemy. Nevertheless, the train car roof and the snowfall tripled in Alex’s view for a moment. Meanwhile, another Seeker recomposed from the human’s attack, distancing from the roof edge and having enough time to plan out its vengeance. Its opponent was lying flat on his back, open for the attack. Not lingering for a second more, the Seeker rushed forward, swaying and hitting with its fore claws one by one, as if trying to make the human pay the full price for the damaged wing. Almost pushing with his legs from the rising and hitting down blades, Alex spent several moments snaking away on his back from under the attacking thing. The latter was so determined to finish what it started that the strikes became heavier and more enraged second by second. The last strike was so strong, both claws of the Seeker went deep through the metal, making the flying beast wriggle and jerk for a while to release them. Thankfully, Alex fell with his wings folded. Thus, pushing away from the stomping thing, he rolled to and over the edge of the roof, grabbing the narrow water tray with one hand. Making his fingers almost creak inside the armoured glove, Alex swung with his entire weight; unfurling and giving a monstrous flap, the wings provided the additional impulse, throwing him back to the train car top. Regaining the balance, Alex applied all the force into a single, wide swish. It was impossible to miss at that moment! With a well-aimed strike, the glaive met the Seeker’s neck under the right angle, chopping the monster’s head off and sending it flying into the blizzard, sticking into the snow with its sharp beak. The black abomination flopped down like a sack of rags, clacking its lifeless claws on the roof! Swirling and curling into the thin threads and strands, the Dark Mist started escaping the decapitated body, flowing above the icy metal towards Alex, finding the tiniest gaps between armour plates and seeping inside. Standing on the train car roof, Alex took a look around – nopony and nothing dared to approach them from the surrounding snowfall. The white swirling veil ate all the sounds and colours, and nothing disturbed the swirling snow globe they seemed to get into. The human caught himself on the urge to turn his eyes to the train car occasionally while watching the landscape; that was the only way to ensure that something still kept standing on the solid ground, the only way to avoid inevitable vertigo. The Seekers’ presence vanished completely as Alex could tell. Either the creatures decided to leave the unbreakable prey alone or at least distanced far enough for him to feel them. However, Alex wasn’t that naïve to indulge in vain hope that the black monstrosities completely gave up the idea of attacking the so promising train car stuck in the snowdrifts. ‘I am still alive only because hoping for the best I was always inwardly prepared for the worst!’ a wry smile ran across Alex’s face when the magical helmet opened for a short while to let in some cool wind. ‘Hopefully, I can teach the ponies around the same useful trick, as so far I could see only a few of them treating the situation truly realistic.’ ‘But before that, I need to keep that forsaken train car safe by any cost! At least for several hours more, until the help arrives…’ With a sigh, he commanded the helmet to close again: what Alex planned was an unsafe thing to perform without protecting his face. His best chance to avoid all the nasty moves the remaining Seekers could undertake was to keep them away from the train car and the ponies inside. Alternatively – to keep the train car isolated from the outer impact. Mentally drawing a circle of twenty-seven yards in diameter, with the train car in its centre, Alex soared again. His secondary mission was not to freeze solid in the continuing blizzard. As before, moving was his best friend in keeping the acceptable temperature. Speeding up slowly, Alex started circling the drowning in snow train car along the mentally drawn line. His wings didn’t betray him so far: unfurling to the maximum span, they carried him slightly above the motionless carriage. More and more snow was rising from the ground. In a few minutes, Alex reached the speed he so successfully used a few minutes before, his wings pulling even the falling snow after him. * The wind calmed down considerably: it wasn’t dragging the large snowflakes parallel the ground anymore but rather made the white grainy veil flow slowly changing direction from time to time and swirling gracefully. Mercifully letting the last rays of daylight through, the clouds thinned, making a casual observer wonder, how such an amount of snow could still be produced. Indeed, the visibility didn’t improve a iota – once limited by the raging blizzard, the view was now blinded by the falling dense snow. Undisturbed silence spread in the frosty air, seemingly letting one hear how the scratchy icy flakes settled one over another with a faint dry rustle. Not a single bird was staining the snow-filled sky; not a single animal dared to leave its prints on the virgin white cover of the valley. However, the seeming improvements were insidious. Vanquishing and finally driving away the warm weather front, the wind stopped raging, yet the cold air masses kept flooding the valley, constantly flowing from the North and coming around the magical dome. In the face of the approaching night, the temperature was going to drop even more. The snow hardened, compacting under the weight of adding layers. The cold tranquillity of the place was hardly less dangerous than its wrath. Suddenly, a faint shiver came through the blocked tracks. Thin cracks ran across the snow crust. The snowdrifts crumbled a bit, flowing down the railway mound while something large and heavy moved along the valley, making the ground tremble. Cutting the persistent snowfall, the two blades of bright light started scanning the darkening surroundings, fumbling around the railroad and snatching details of the landscape from the snowy haze. With growing tremors, the snow gave up; it began escaping the rails, pushed by a giant steel wedge. A gust of hot air pushed the snow veil away, making the separate snowflakes melt on the fly and revealing the mammoth, fiery red locomotive. Topping the three-storey building in height, the monster rolled forward using both railway track pairs, easily cleaning the road with its shiny snow grader which was attached to the loco muzzle like an enormous cowcatcher. The golden digits “303” shone through the dusk from the red hull. Covering several yards by inertia, the machine stopped slowly, exhaling a giant cloud of steam which completely dispelled the snowfall around for a while. “Give the main light!” sounded from the top of the locomotive: barely guessing from the ground, the upper platform was hiding in the twilight. With a loud click, a broad cone of blinding light fell on the snow-blocked tracks, immediately turning dusk into day for the dozens of yards ahead. The main floodlight couldn’t be turned, always shining in the “Icebreaker” direction unlike the humbler searchlights, but it clearly showed – there was nothing to search for in the viewable distance. The snowflakes seemingly tried to sneak away from its shine, bashfully falling on the empty railway mound. ‘Strange! We already reached the location, they were supposed to detach,’ Wrapping into his cloak, the light-grey unicorn peered along the cone of light shimmering with myriads of falling sparks as if trying to notice something beyond its boundaries. Unwittingly he continued aloud. “According to the words of that stallion and other passengers, who felt the jolt…” “Slow ahead! Dead crawl!” he leaned over the railings, addressing the motorpony, who was waiting for the further orders, peeking from the located lower cabin. “Last thing they need is the Icebreaker accidentally running into them,” muttered Shining Armour. Coming from above, the feathery rustle distracted the unicorn from his thoughts. A pegasus guard landed on the platform a bit further: ruffling his feathers and shaking off the snow, he didn’t want to spray the royalty with it. “Your Highness!” the guard approached, saluting; the unicorn nodded impatiently, telling him to continue. “We found something on the tracks… about a mile ahead.” “Something?!” Shining Armour raised one eyebrow, watching the guard expectantly. “Ahem… This… object is standing on the rails,” the pegasus cleared his throat and elaborated a bit confusedly. “It’s nearly the train car in size, so we concluded that must be our goal.” “What do you mean under “nearly”?” Shining Armour interrupted him. “Is it the train car or not?” “That was the actual problem,” the pegasus’ nose flushed, which could look comic for the royal guard under the different circumstances. However, both stallions couldn’t probably find anything funny in the current situation. “The thing is standing in the middle of some sort of tornado. Namely – the strong whirlpool of wind and snow, making it impossible to approach. Our search team could discover it and estimate the size of the object inside only with magic,” added he apologetically. “Even so, there is strong interference, Your Highness! Unicorns said that the spells barely came through, but they could glimpse something big circling the object slightly above its height.” “That must be them! What else…” Shining Armour jerked his shoulder convulsively. “But…” “Commander! Your Highness!” before any of them could utter a word, another pegasus emerged from the snow in the darkening sky. “The snow barrier is fading,” he kept hovering above the upper platform. “If it keeps that way, we can try to check the object in a few minutes.” “Commander!” Shining Armour turned to the guard on the observation platform. “Return and take the lead! Approach the object when possible, but don’t take further actions till we arrive.” “Ahead two-thirds! Keep the main light!” swaying the snow-powdered sapphire mane aside from his muzzle, he waved his fore hoof to the motorpony, who kept listening to the talk above, when the pegasi left saluting. The earth pony stallion nodded and disappeared into the depths of the loco. A second later, with a loud sigh of the steam engine and metal rumble, the giant red locomotive started, mercilessly crumpling and shoving aside the snowdrifts. Pulled from the snowy darkness, the rest of the train revealed itself one by one: the huge fuel tank, the powerful telescopic crane on the separate chassis, several empty platforms and a couple of regular-size auxiliary locos attached at the tail. * Alex had to slow down – he had almost no strength left and the reserves were draining fast. Spending the last few hours jetting in the air around the motionless train car – actually, he long lost the count of time – Alex felt as if there was no single cell in his body that wasn’t freezing. Perhaps the motion was the only thing holding him from hitting the ground like an icicle. That and the reassuring occasional view of the thin smoke thread still coming from the carriage. The enemy presence vanished long ago, but he couldn’t allow himself to lose vigilance; the price of the tiny mistake could have become unimaginable. When the bright light flooded everything and started approaching, Alex was ready to believe he was seeing things already. The speed dropped even more, he was barely holding in the air, keeping himself on the fly with slow heavy wing-strokes. In the thinning snowfall, he started noticing dark figures, surrounding the train car. Those were not Seekers: normal, pony-like silhouettes caused a faint smile on Alex’s face. ‘It seems that we made it!’ It was time to land and Alex went to another, last loop. Colourful blots were floating in front of his eyes. The giant red locomotive, slowly crawling into the view, looked surreal, smudged and flickering in the cloud of steam it spewed. Even when the blinding frontal spotlight faded. Appearing against the huge shiny snow-scrapper, somepony galloped towards them from the rescue train. The figures around, recognized by Alex as the guards, rushed to the train car. The passengers already started to climb out; staggering and stumbling, they entrusted themselves to the rescuers. Alex almost fell through the air, lurching on one wing. Levelled off by some miracle and the quick wing-flaps. The legs met the ground as if they were made of wood. The silvery glow enveloped the helmet, removing it and opening his face to the gust of snow carrying wind. Like through the dream, Alex saw the dark slim silhouette detaching from the group of passengers and examining them guards; it darted to him, smudging in the air like a stroke of steel, yellow and pink. Alex wanted to smile, but broke into a cough instead; the snow-covered valley started swirling around him. Making a couple of unsteady steps, he fell flat, spreading the huge wings forcelessly. A spring of blood escaped Alex’s mouth, planting a handful of rubies on the snow ahead. --- Author's note: If 't be true you like the story (and have FimFiction account, otherwise, you can't vote), please, take a minute to support the book hither: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/370173/the-guardian "Thumbs up" are very welcome, they help me promote the story. Mine most sincere gratitude in advance! --- A shoutout to the caring friend, good author and simply valorous pony - @Longhaul Read his stories, please: Same story on FimFiction: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/412124/lighting-the-dark-path Support the author thither please (thumbs up) they are really good
  11. Tehee! *Boops @Sparklefan1234 back*
  12. Alexshy

    adventure The Guardian

    A small draft spoiler of the future endeavours:
  13. It's finally up!

    2016549473_AlexshysWriter3_1.thumb.jpg.825f35a3d7e2ba5b1d4b8bc356cd9628.jpg

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. CypherHoof

      CypherHoof

      Hey, long time no see! Just in time for G5 :D

      *huggles the princess*

    3. Alexshy

      Alexshy

      Not arrant sure that G5 rubs me the correct way though :orly:

      *hugs everypony*

    4. Loyal Defender

      Loyal Defender

      Hey, good to see ya!

  14. Alexshy

    adventure The Guardian

    22. Truths and Dares The Sun already got high enough when one specifically stubborn ray finally sneaked between the curtains and started brushing across the sleepy muzzles of Storm and Aurora, making them squint and grimace amusingly while still in their sleep. For a few minutes, the colt did his best to evade the mischievous sun glare, turning away diligently, but the light slowly and relentlessly followed. Besides, Storm caught a faint wave of some delicious smell, most likely of the breakfast cooked – for a long moment, a mirthful smile was lighting his sleep. Then the sunlight caught up to his face again; a quiet giggle reached colt’s ears through his undoubtedly very interesting dream. “Oh, come on, sis!” sleepily drawled Storm Sunflower, frowning a little and funnily twitching his nose as the stubborn sun ray persistently flickered behind his tightly shut eyelids. “Stop toying with the mirror, okay?! I was having such a nice dream and you’re waking me, hay-head!” Another tiny girly giggle followed and the sun spot moved a bit. The colt groaned; almost jerked out of his sleep, he was determined to linger in the soft comfort for at least several minutes longer. “Hey, that’s unfair!” the thin sleepy voice sounded unexpectedly close from his left and a small hoof nudged Storm in his side lightly. “You woke first,” muttered Aurora plaintively, “went for a mirror to send sun glares in my muzzle. Don’t deny, I heard the door opening! And now blaming me for that?! Cheeky brother…” And she nudged him again, sniffing resentfully into Storm’s shoulder. At this moment, the colt remembered that he heard the door being opened and closed indeed; Storm thought that the sound, just like the following faint rustle, was a part of his dream he didn’t recall well, unfortunately. But… ‘Wait! If Aurora was sleeping next to me all that time …’ ‘Hmm… I definitely nudged my brother; I could hear him and feel his shoulder…’ One more quiet but audibly joyful laughter reached foal’s ears, accompanied by the faint lavender aroma finally trailing up their nostrils. ‘There must be somepony else in the room!!!’ both foals jumped up in the bed as if being bitten by a mosquito. “Squee!..” They froze immediately, unable to say anything in surprise, only letting out a loud squeak of amazement. Right in front of them, placing an armchair behind the footrest of the large bed, there sat an alicorn mare smiling and having a lot of fun. The sparkling blue aura, her long horn glowed with, enveloped the edge of the thick curtain, pulling it slightly aside and letting a beam of sunlight enter the room and reach Sunflower siblings’ muzzles – Storm and Aurora were to thank her for their “bright” awakening. Sly sparks glowed in the dark blue eyes of the night-coloured alicorn while she watched their abashed muzzles with entertainment. Flowing softly over her shoulders, armrests and edges of the armchair, the waterfall of the mare’s dark, shiny mane and tail reached the floor. It covered seemingly half of the room with its silky lushness, constantly wavering like a lake of liquid night starry sky. Completely dumbfounded, Storm and Aurora blinked, rubbing their eyes – events of the previous day flashed in front of them – unable to realize at the first moment where they found themselves. Shock, grief, hope, then humble joy and finally, tranquillity raced across the foals’ muzzles in a second, as they remembered the eve, their house ruined by the Seekers, their parents suffering, the trip to Canterlot and the place they ended up at finally. Smiles returned to the muzzles of the foals for a while, then they returned to the present, remembering they were not alone. The horn, the vast tightly folded at the moment soft wings, the night-blue coat told them whom Storm and Aurora Sunflowers were facing. A tiny glare of another sunray on the small black diadem crowning the mare’s lush mane behind the helical horn confirmed their guess, just as the big crescent moon cutie marks on her flanks. The relaxing lavender flooded the foals when the alicorn tilted her head, glancing at them with another smile. “Y-Your Highness!” both foals exclaimed simultaneously, staring at their company with widened eyes and bated breathing. Aurora faintly nudged her brother again, as if asking him to confirm that she wasn’t sleeping still, and cleared the throat. “Ehmm… P-princess L-Luna? Squee…” she squeezed out under her breath. “Yes, mine lief! And whom didst thou expect? The Hearthwarming Spirit?” the sparkles in dark blue eyes were laughing. Storm and Aurora exchanged bewildered glances. ‘I shouldn’t be probably surprised already, after yesterday’s scene in Canterlot, but I still am…’ read in colt’s one. ‘Well, we saw two princesses as close as we can see each other, then why not the third one?’ blinked Aurora with a tiny shrug. “Your Highness!” suddenly remembered both, trying to make a decent bow while still sitting on the bed. “Yeah, yeah, I received that ye recognized me. Nice to meet you, little Sunflowers, likewise!” chuckled the Princess waving her fore hoof. The foals had flushed confusedly but suddenly brightened, watching their royal visitor with interest; their vision of the Night Princess underwent another shift, already changing after the last Nightmare Night celebration. However, back then they couldn’t see her that close and talk with her that simply. ‘It seems it’s not that terrifying, especially with that exactly alicorn…’ flashed in Storm’s mind and he returned the smile timidly. “Aahhmmm…” Princess Luna yawned reservedly, daintily cupping her mouth. “Apologies! The night was busy forsooth…” Aurora was catching each of the princess’ words; she listened to her tilting the head aside then nodded to some of her thoughts with a tiny chuckle. “By the way,” the Night Princess glanced at them slyly, “I put mine hoof into your dreams to be peaceful last night specifically. Methinks you both deserved that like nopony else…” “Thank you, Your Highness,” Storm bowed again in gratitude. “But… How? The princess… here…” “I wanted to check if ‘t be true everything was alright,” the Princess laughed as if a silver bell rang. “Mine dearest regal sister was so kind to tell me your story and… specifically what befell in the throne hall a day ere!” she couldn’t hold back another dainty giggle making both foals involuntarily smile as well. “ Thus as soon as mine night duty came to an end, I travelled hither.” “So, Your Highness and the human are good friends indeed…” Storm blinked, waking completely and mentally scolding himself for clumsiness. ‘Of course, they are… you even shouldn’t have asked after the last Nightmare Night celebration!’ Seemingly his sister thought about the same replaying that scene mentally, as both young Sunflowers blushed lightly. “May we…” Aurora started timidly. “Your Highness, may we ask, please?” “Oh, of course, ye may. I extend mine hope I am capable to fulfill your curiosity then,” Luna waved her fore hoof nonchalantly. “And… Hither informally… ye may call me Luna or even… auntie Luna, if ‘t be true ye like,” the alicorn princess winked playfully, once again making the foals gawk at her in bewilderment. ‘They are somewhat alike with their ease of communication!’ flashed in Storm’s mind. ‘For all that I knew about her story, Princess Luna worked really hard on herself. It looks that with the considerable influence of Princess Twilight…’ smiled he inwardly. Meanwhile, his sister dared to ask what bothered her. “Princess Luna, are all the humans like this? Because… you seem to know him well enough… errmmm…” the filly stumbled confusedly. “My filly, I know him as a person rather, as for humans in general…” the princess fell into thinking. “Mine knowledge is limited forsooth – I knew only two humans throughout mine life, Alex included,” elaborated the princess. “Answering your question, Aurora… correct? So, answering it, he wasn’t the same Alex ye can see today at which hour he arrived in Equestria.” “You mean the wings, the… armour, which appears and vanishes on demand and so on,” nodded Storm. “Yes, kids, these were results of his… equestrian residence. However, I shan’t say that he didn’t contribute to them arrant,” Luna glanced at them mysteriously. “Character-wise, forsooth, Alex was alike from the very start… mayhap a little more light-headed at first,” chuckled she heartily. “But all humans differ I suppose, just like ponies. They simply turn out to be more flexible at which hour it cometh to rapidly changing circumstances.” Storm nodded understandingly; he already managed to witness that rapid accommodation to some extent; Aurora delved into some thoughts. It wasn’t clear if she believed in Princess Luna’s vision of the humans’ nature, having personal conclusions. “Oh, for that matter, you’d better ask somepony else hither in the town,” Luna sported a dainty smile as if guessing about girl’s doubts. “Ye may have heard about one girl – Lyra Heartstrings – she is, I shan’t avoid this term, obsessed with the humans, in the earnest. The entire species I guess…” On reflection, the princess added. “However, she may tell a zilch more that the foals should receive, yes…” “Okay, foals!” the princess suddenly remembered. “Alex sent me to wake you both and we are lingering hither in conversation. He seemeth to have some plans for your day…” “Yeah! I probably should have gone myself rather,” before the foals froze at the thought of somepony actually sending the Princess with some task, the bedroom door opened, revealing Alex himself. “Come on, the breakfast is long ready,” the light grumpiness in his tone was obviously of a joking nature. “Get up, sleepyheads!” with a smile, Alex clapped his hands. “Wash up and get downstairs. If I don’t have something to make your day interesting, I really don’t know kids at all.” He put his hands on Luna’s shoulders, gently stroking the soft blue coat, making her purr from pleasure. “Aye-yawn, sir! We’re… yawn… going, sir!” Sliding from the bed Aurora and Storm watched with wide-opened eyes how the human wrapped his arms around the shoulders of the sitting Princess, kissing Luna on the neck. Mare’s wings ruffled; being nuzzled tenderly on her flowing mane, Luna squinted, tilting her head slightly and receiving another kiss on the tip of her perked fluffy ear. Quietly giggling, the foals whisked to the bathroom as told to do; Storm closed the door with an unambiguous face. “Close friends, yeah,” he glanced at Aurora meaningfully. “Last time I saw mom looking exactly alike was when dad asked her gently to hurry up, so we didn’t get late to the celebration in Ponyville. Yeah…” The memory of the brighter days made Storm sigh too heavily for a colt; heading to the sink, he turned on the water and began washing the remnants of sleep off his muzzle. Waiting for her turn, Aurora didn’t waste time, leaning to the closed bathroom door and snuggling the curious ear to its surface. “What are you…” Storm turned to the sister, going to stop the water, but she waved him to leave it running. “Shhh…” Aurora cupped her mouth with the fore hoof signalling Storm to keep silent; rolling his eyes, the colt leaned to the door next to her. Both foals held their breath, trying to catch every sound from the room. “…stay for breakfast, dear?” “Thanks, lief! But I suppose ye both don’t need me falling asleep amidst…” a silvery giggle was interrupted with a tiny yawn. “Apologies! The night was quite a burden.” “I had it with Tia actually,” elaborated the princess; the pleasure of being cuddled was evident in her murmuring voice. “Surprisingly, she was an early bird this morning! I mean, even earlier than it was necessary to raise her Sun, so I have myself filled and thus became twice sleepier. Don’t want to slow thee down with thy morning plans.” This was followed by the audible kiss and murmuring; the foals exchanged the mischievous glances behind the door, feeling the flush rushing up their cheeks. “Thou art planning to… take them to the smithy, am I correct?” Luna’s voice was dreamy, breath – fitful. “Yeah, don’t want them to stay bored at home. Shy will be busy and providing her with more concerns isn’t in my plans. Be it summer, I’d stay calm about the kids being occupied and engaged much – they would love the animals…” the human chuckled. “Now though I need to find some other… educational entertainment. Not that I could take them with me…” lowering the voice, Alex said something to the princess; both pairs of curious ears couldn’t catch a word no matter how hard they tried. “Tis reasonable,” the princess’ words were followed by intense feathery rustle. Washing up any longer would look strange, so young Sunflowers finally decided to leave the bathroom; before doing that, Storm rushed to stop the water, but first, he made the flow even stronger for a second. Aurora cleared her throat deliberately, holding back giggles. Their precautions were futile: upon entering the room, the foals witnessed Alex with a dreamy look, nesting in the armchair princess Luna occupied before; human’s eyes wandered somewhere else. “Ah, here you are!” sporting a smile, he bucked up, launching himself out of the seat energetically. “Come on, kids! Breakfast awaits!” “Don’t you say that the princess visits you that simply,” Storm sounded as if he was about to believe just anything. He and his sister noticed that Luna was nowhere to be found already – the regal alicorn must have teleported away when they lingered tactfully. “Mhm… She is a princess, after all, does what she wants,” following the foals downstairs, Alex answered cagily; however, his warm smile was self-explanatory. The image of Fluttershy flitting about the roomy sunlit kitchen made Storm and Aurora freeze admiringly for a second. Tenderly humming something sweet, the pegasus girl looked like a gracious ethereal fairy with her wings shining golden in the inclined sun rays and with her lush, heavy mane and tail, which she braided that morning. Looking back at Alex, Storm noticed the human watching the scene with content. The colt glanced at his sister and made a face, to which she replied with an understanding mien and a tiny giggle. “And… why aren’t you eating anything? The breakfast is awesome!!!” exclaimed Storm, when everypony nested behind the large table and had a bite. Everypony, except Alex, who was leaning his back on the kitchen sink with his arms crossed and a mirthful expression on his face. “Thanks, Fluttershy!” “Yeah, why?” quietly repeated Aurora, raising her eyes at Alex as well – she had noticed as well but shied out of asking him directly. Fluttershy threw a glance at the human; a tiny mysterious smile curled the mare’s lips. Both foals alternated puzzledly from her to the human. “Mmmm… Let’s say, in that condition, I don’t need any food,” smiled Alex. “Amusing, but I never thought about tasting something while sleepwalking before. Obviously, my real body needs food as usual… and it will have some as soon as it wakes…” added he, leaving the foals even more dumbfounded. “Sleepwalking? Real body?..” asked Storm and Aurora almost in unison. They even froze in the middle of the next bite. “Isn’t what we see a…” “Oh, I haven’t told you indeed. Well, how can I put it easier?.. When I fall asleep, I can consciously make a… some sort of projection of myself, which is material enough to interact with the world around,” with these words, Alex lightly knocked his finger on the sink behind. “As I found out, I can affect things a bit differently at the same time. It’s better to show you,” he threw a quick look around the kitchen. “This will fit!” In front of the foal’s bewildered eyes, a large apple, lying calmly on the windowsill before, rose in the air and slowly floated towards the table. It made a small loop around Storm, who felt completely spellbound, then touched lightly one of his perked ears, then another, then sat for a second on the tip of his nose, making Aurora giggle nervously. Finally, the apple reached the table and cracked itself in halves, placed in front of them both. “Wow! Aura…less magic!” Storm woke up first; he swallowed and stared at Alex amazedly. “You told that you couldn’t do magic…” “Well, that’s not actual magic… Or… I don’t know…” Alex pondered how to explain. “I can affect the material world around me… somehow… while sleepwalking. But my actual body can’t! It’s complicated, kids…” “Isn’t it…” Storm fidgeted a little. “Isn’t it something that Princess Luna practically does?” “Luna can affect your dreams, changing the reality through them,” said Alex. “This is a bit different thing, but… I suppose, of the similar nature.” “If this is not your real body, then how do you look material enough?.. I don’t understand,” barely whispered Aurora, supported by Storm’s quick nodding. “My real body is sleeping tight at the other edge of the town at that moment,” chuckled Alex. “And this… well… as I said, this is merely a projection. Something which bears the features, traits and consciousness of me. So, technically speaking, it’s me!” Storm and Aurora shook their heads as if they were shaking off bathwater. “Don’t worry, kids,” added Alex, seeing their bewildered gazes. “I don’t entirely understand how it works either; I never tried to analyze it, to be frank! But if you promise to behave,” he made a mysterious face, “later today, we can go and see me sleeping separately on the sofa!” Storm felt how his eyes rounded even more, despite the thought that they already reached their limit seconds before. Looking at the sister, he concluded that she thought nearly the same. Their faces entertained the human. “Come on, Alex! Don’t tease them,” interfered Fluttershy, but her eyes were smiling. “The foals need to eat properly! You’re going to take them for the whole day… I’m not doubting Silver Ingot’s hospitality, but… dinner time is going to be late enough.” “Yeah, Fluttershy is right!” Alex turned serious at once. “There is a long day ahead. So, fill yourself, kids!” “And where are we going?” only asked Storm when they dug into their meals obediently. Both Sunflowers were deadly curious about the plans for that day, especially considering it was starting that interesting. ‘Even magically!’ Storm inwardly smiled at their morning experience. “To the smithy!” articulated Alex, then made the strict eyes. “So, come on, eat!” The rest of the day flew in front of the foals’ eyes in one breath. Raised on the farm, Storm and Aurora got used to their days being fairly busy. But that was a totally different kind of busy now, all new and interesting for them. By the end of the day, Storm could bet that it was equally exciting for Aurora, even if she found the collective work of the human and the old blacksmith, mister Steel, a bit less fascinating than the jeweller mastery of the unicorn girl – Silver Ingot – whom Alex introduced them to. Everything started from the relatively long road from Fluttershy’s cottage to the north, where the town of Ponyville could be seen through the crowns of the trees, which were losing the remnants of their foliage by those late autumn days. The road ran almost straight between the broad fields, where the small freshly-green grass was hiding from the upcoming frosts under the weakly waving carpet of the old and wilted summer one. Squeezed between the fruit orchards from both sides, these fields dragged monotonously to the river, with only a few separate trees scattered here and there on their surface and the only memorable landmark being the old white barn left to the road, midway to the town. The road ran into the peculiar woodwork bridge over the stream, entering Ponyville on the other bank, passing the large square and the Town Hall and flowing right into the pretty, even in November, town streets. However, the human usually turned sharply left in front of that bridge to the narrower, less visible path snaking around the town outside of its boundaries. Alex always said that they did it to avoid unnecessary attention and chatter in the town, thus reaching the smithy faster. But the eloquent glances he used to throw at the colourful exquisite round building, further along the street than the Town Hall, told Storm Sunflower that the actual reasons were a bit more complicated than that. Exchanging understanding looks with Aurora, they never asked. The named path wasn’t harder to trot on than the main road, especially when passing it with the friendly chatter and jokes. It quickly ran up and down a couple of hills, opening into another, spreading as far north as their eyes could see, grass field. The railroad ran its threads far away on the left; from the hill tops, the foals could occasionally see the steel snakes of trains arriving to and leaving the hidden behind the trees Ponyville railway station. Not far from the northern border of the town, there was a single house in the middle of the field. Every morning, it met them with the dense plume of smoke, coming from the neck of the large outside smelter – as the human called it; Storm was sure that the device had been never completely shut down or extinguished. It spread the warmth, drying everything around on a wconsiderable part of the smithy yard and making the foals feel that they were entering the hot tub after the windy road around Ponyville. The blacksmith – old but husky single-eyed unicorn – turned out to be a welcoming and humorous pony, despite his tough life-beaten look. His niece, Silver Ingot, was at the beginning of the list of the sweetest and kindest girls, as Storm decided, unable to hold back a smile each time she met them. Corresponding to her name, she shone vividly and could brighten everypony’s day effortlessly. Another stallion working at the smithy, Diamond Chisel, always showed politely restrained involvement as well. By some sixth sense, Storm realized that all of them knew everything about the events on the farm, but prudently never touched that topic themselves. Frankly speaking, Storm was thankful for that, on behalf of his younger sister either: despite all the attempts to brighten their life, his heart shrank every time Storm’s thoughts returned to their parents’ condition. Each day, shortly after their arrival, the work at the smithy started. Thanks to Alex’s and Uncle Will’s (so everypony called the old blacksmith) habit to leave the tools and materials in the exemplar order at the end of the current day, and plan and prepare meticulously for the next one, they always dived hooves over head right into the matter of the problem they were solving. There was always a place for both of the foals as well. Concerned about their safety only, Alex never forbid Storm and Aurora to try what they could cope with. Thankful for that, the foals did their best to follow the instructions literally, thus being of accurate help, not some trouble. To hold, fix some small detail in place, to bring a tool, to serve an extra pair of eyes, quite sharp and observant – neither brother nor sister had time for boredom. Engrossed by the new experience, the foals absorbed every grain of information given to them. As the result, by the end of the first week, Storm was more than confident about him being able to describe the sword making process in the tiniest details and, with a bit of help in force-demanding operations, probably make a decent one suitable for his size. Aurora gravitated to Silver Ingot’s craft more: when the foals got tired or simply hid in the house from the weather, the tall graceful unicorn girl showed and explained to them the secrets of her delicate but impressive work. During their first day at the smithy, Storm saw by his own eyes the purpose and usefulness of so-called sleepwalking for that work. He already guessed that in such a condition Alex could control and operate way more tools than he could do using only a pair of hands. The chunks of metal, cold and heated, mallets, pincers, rulers and blueprints slid and floated here and there, each appearing at the exact spot they were needed at. But there was another use for that ability. The smelter, which turned out of Alex’s own making and which attracted foals’ attention from the first glance, could operate in conditions nopony present could normally control. But these conditions exactly were necessary for it to produce the lion’s share of new advantageous materials the smithy became – as Storm and Aurora found out – famous for. There were days when both Uncle Will, Diamond and Alex worked in the sweat of their brows, making only the blanks for the advanced armour and weapons. Tons of the blanks as it seemed to the Sunflowers. Those days Alex came for them in that sleepwalking condition, letting him to operating the specific modes of the smelter later. In those days, Storm and Aurora cautiously avoided approaching the large stone beast, as they fancied a small sun tossing and turning and bubbling inside of the humming structure. The heat of the smelter went stronger, evaporating the morning fog at once and keeping a considerable spot around it dry when the rain or snow fell. Sometimes Alex and Willsmash used the break for Alex’s continuous training: Silver Ingot asked Diamond Chisel to keep an eye on the foals, or even pulled Storm and Aurora closer to the porch, just in case. The foals didn’t protest as long as they could freely watch and Storm noticed that Alex never trained while sleepwalking. “Why so?” he asked once, while Alex and Willsmash were taking a breath after a long fight, where nothing could be discerned in the mess of the flying clubs, blades and flashes of the glaive. “I can imagine what an advantage over the enemy it can give!” “There were a couple of times,” Alex let out a small smile, ruffling Storm’s mane. “But I prefer to engage the enemy personally. You see, I don’t have all the conditions to guarantee I won’t be awakened by anypony accidentally…” Alex raised one eyebrow. “That would mean to leave the fight instantly if you were sleepwalking…” “And which consequences it could bring to ones you’re trying to protect… better not imagine!” added he after a moment of silence. Storm only nodded shortly, pulling Aurora closer and hugging. ‘It’s better without any sleepwalking,’ agreed he inwardly. ‘I would like to know I don’t vanish when my sister needs me!’ * That morning turned out a bit colder than all the previous; preparing the foals for their morning walk, Fluttershy gave both Storm and Aurora nice, warm scarves. They were from her own clothes, thus a bit long for the kids, but so soft and cuddly to wear that both foals immediately wrapped them around their necks as many times as it was necessary not to stomp on the ends, finally looking like two sparrows peeking out from their nests. Leaving home very early, Storm and Aurora trotted next to the human on the barely visible road – it was too dark yet. The browned grass of the surrounding fields drooped wetly to the ground: the cold rain washed it overnight and, if not for the specifically poured thick layer of gravel, the road would turn into impassable dirt. The rare deciduous trees in the field – ones they could discern in the foggy twilight – threw up their bony branches to the sky. Storm was to admit that it would be creepy to travel the long path in that eerie hour alone with Aurora. With Alex, it was another story: both foals could afford to tease and joke on each other, not paying much attention to the shrill screams of some late to bed, nocturnal bird in the distance. Thankfully, Celestia didn’t linger with her Sun much longer; the first rays already danced on the once red but now almost brown and shabby roof of the old white barn, which seemed floating on the waves of morning fog as some time-beaten steamboat. The sunlight started fighting with and quickly defeated if not the chillness then the darkness and fog at least, so when they reached the southern edge of the town, the landscape looked completely different, more welcoming. It even became easier to trot the road: the feeling Storm and Aurora eagerly greeted, pacing up cheerfully and following Alex on the usual route around Ponyville. The hills were entirely lit by the rising sun, making it even warmer there when they reached them. Sporting a bright smile, Storm sniffed deeply; the wind brought there the familiar smells from the smithy: smoky coal, heavy scent of heated metal, oil. He twitched his nose funnily once more – a tint of coffee, undoubtedly made by Silver Ingot, told that everything was prepared there for the anticipated workday as well. The colt looked back and winked to Aurora, but filly’s attention was chained to something other than the distant house in the field. Following her glance, Storm noticed three figures approaching them along the crossing road from the town. Their spacious saddle bags told that they were heading to the nearby school. The latter was situated most likely behind the large grove on the west, exactly where the crossing road ran down the hill. Noticing their company, those three noticeably sped up; in his turn, Alex stopped and watched them with a smile. Storm and Aurora shielded their eyes from the low sun; shining into the backs of the newcomers, it made them look like the black indiscernible silhouettes. Upon the closer look, three figures turned into lively and cheerful fillies, slightly older than Sunflowers: an earth filly, a unicorn and a pegasus brisk like a ball of quicksilver. Letting out an anticipating squeak, the olive filly with large light crimson bows in her amaranth mane and tail took the lead and almost leapt into Alex’s promptly spread arms, making her scarf wave like a flag. “Squeee! Ah haven’t seen ya for ages, Alex!” she nuzzled his neck, wrapping her legs around the human. “What’s the deal? You’re almost not showing up lately… well, at least during the daytime,” giggled the filly when Alex returned the hug and tickled her lightly, pretending that he wanted to toss her up in the air jokingly. “That’s because I had loads of work, Little Apple,” Alex nuzzled the filly and kneeled to the road as two of her friends were catching up. “You know where to find me – at the smithy. I suppose you have lots on your plates either, as you don’t sneak around to find out what we are doing there,” laughed he. Storm and Aurora alternated from one hoof to another and exchanged glances: the fillies looked extremely friendly, even if overly noisy at first, that dispelled foals’ shyness a bit. “Yeah, the studies aren’t turning easier each year,” the pale grey, almost white unicorn filly with pink and lilac mane let out a tiny smile; she leaned to Alex to hug him as well and nuzzled the human on the cheek. In addition to the scarf – the unicorn filly wrapped in it tightly, looking similar to the brother and sister Sunflowers, even if the scarf was of her size – she sported a fancy pair of fluffy ear-warmers. “To the smithy again, mate?!” the light saffron pegasus with the pink and purple mane and tail greeted Alex more reservedly than her friends did. Yet she hugged him tightly, bumping her forehead into his chest and squinting pretty, when Alex ruffled her short mane, releasing the earth filly. “Morning, fellas!” she winked to the Sunflowers joyfully. Even if the ruffled fluff on her chest told that she felt the autumn chillness, the little pegasus didn’t show any discomfort. “On our daily route,” Alex nodded with confirmation; Storm noticed how he kept cuddling the pegasus filly for a while longer, warming her subtly. “Hey, girls, let me introduce!” with his free hand, Alex gestured the foals to come closer. “Storm and Aurora Sunflowers! They…” Alex stumbled. “I and Fluttershy are… Eh… They are living with us now,” he crumpled the phrase. “We know… about the farm,” quietly said the redhead filly, batting her eyelashes. She and her pale-grey friend approached the foals with warm and encouraging smiles. Comforted by them, Aurora visibly relaxed and returned the smile, waving to the girls. Storm, however, suddenly flushed and felt fidgety, placed eye-to-eye with the two young ladies a couple of heads higher than himself. “Kids,” Alex addressed Sunflowers, introducing the girls in the order of appearance. “These are my friends: Apple Bloom – you probably saw her older sister Applejack coming to the smithy; Sweetie Belle – her sister Rarity owns the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville, and Scootaloo,” Alex nodded towards the tomboy pegasus in his hug, “I bet her… sister Rainbow Dash doesn’t need any introduction,” he reminded the foals about the noisy gamine friend of Fluttershy, visiting them one evening, “being the famous Ponyville… boom-maker and weather-pegasus.” Scootaloo threw a quick, suddenly warming glance at the human, her nose turning pinkish. “Weather-pegasus? You mean like your friend, Rainstorm?” exclaimed Storm. “Cool!” “Yeah, kinda,” Alex ruffled Storms mane, hiding the shadow of pensiveness behind a smile. “You know,” Scootaloo reached Alex’s ear, almost touching it with her nose, “I start wondering, why you and Fluttershy aren’t planning any foals of your own still,” whispered she slyly, leaving Alex nearly thunderstruck by her innuendo. Not hearing her words in entirety, both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle couldn’t help snorting because of the expression suddenly appearing on Alex’s flushing face, and even foals let out humble smiles. “Eh… Well…” Alex felt how his ears started flaming under the fixed glance of the sly saffron fluff-ball. “It… turns out more complicated than it seems, due to the certain genetic differences… Oh!..” he stumbled, realizing what he had just said, while Scootaloo kept giggling under his arm. “Come on, girls! Weren’t you getting late to school?!” “Frankly speaking, yes!” admitted Sweetie Belle seriously. “We need to hurry if we don’t want to disappoint Miss Cheerilee.” “Have a nice day, kids!” she and then Apple Bloom hugged Aurora. “See ya, Alex!” When two older girls nuzzled him in both cheeks, Storm fancied that he knew how a steam-boiler should feel, turning red as a carrot under the quiet accompaniment of Aurora’s giggling. That made him wonder what Scootaloo said to Alex, causing a similar reaction. “Bye, kids! Bye, Alex!” flushing desperately, the pegasus filly quickly pecked Alex, making him blink confusedly. “Think of it…” she hopped down the hill, catching up with her friends. The girls headed to the school, looking back a couple of times and discussing something. ‘And what pray tell it was?’ asked Alex mentally, looking at dumbfounded Storm. ‘No idea!’ was seemingly written in the colt’s eyes. “Come one, kids! We’re running late!” throwing a quick glance at the column of smoke, raising welcomingly above the smithy yard, Alex grabbed both foals under his arms, unfurling his wings. “Let’s take a shortcut!” exclaimed he, accompanied with two excited squeaks. As if trying to prove its reputation of being fickle, the weather changed before they managed to reach the smithy. Suddenly starting to blow from the north, the wind quickly brought a string of grey clouds, then another one. The very moment they landed at the Steels’ yard, the sky became veiled, making the sun barely shine through the cloud curtain and effectively shifting the day gamma to dull and washed out. Thankfully, no signs of upcoming rain or snow could be observed. However, that wasn’t a problem at the smithy yard – always warm, lit brightly and full of movement those days. The foals fluffed cosily, asking Silver Ingot to help them with their scarves, which she did with the kind laughter – the girl could appreciate their sparrow-like look. The rest of the day went in the usual order: Willsmash, Alex and Diamond formed a living conveyor, assembling the parts they prepared, into the new guards’ armour. Perhaps Alex was a little absent and pensive, as Storm and Aurora could notice while helping each one of them when necessary. He seemed to be thinking something over and over: a part of his mind struggled with some dilemma, while the rest kept working automatically. He even missed the moment everything around turned silent for a second, continuing his meticulous work. “Hmmm… Methinks the chunk hath cooled down considerably. Wouldn’t it shape faster if ‘t be true thou heat it again, lief?!” the silvery, mischievous voice made Alex’s heart skip a beat. “I thought thou knew better how to forge,” another chuckle followed; everypony present blinked fast at the unusual sight. “Princess!” both foals jumped at the spot; Aurora and Storm were undoubtedly glad to see the surprise visitor, happiness glimpsed in their eyes. “Kids!” the night-coloured alicorn glanced at them with a tiny bow of recognition and a dainty smile, making the foals fluff inwardly. “Mister Steel, Silver… Ingot,” trotting a loop around Alex and estimating his work with extremely gamine expression, the princess greeted the owners of the place. Storm and Aurora watched princess Luna with wide-open eyes, feeling that the latter must absolutely have devised something, judging by what they knew about the Night Princess and saw at the recent Nightmare Night celebration; the foals didn’t want to miss any move or word. The chill November afternoon, warmed only by the flames in close vicinity, froze in silence for a moment, the only sound being the low hum of the working smelter and Alex’s precise, measured beating on the shaped chunk of metal on the anvil. Throwing a glance at his niece, her uncomprehending puzzled look, Willsmash squinted expectantly; his eyes lit with barely sparkling amusement. The princess’ wish to tease the human slightly was so clear that the old blacksmith felt some foalish excitement to find out what would follow. He shook his head, answering the girl’s silent question, suggesting Silver Ingot to play along. Feeling the soft nuzzle behind the ear and the touch of lavender breath on his neck, Alex stopped hammering the steel piece; with a tiny smile, he watched the flowing mane and the sensitive lips entering the edge of his view. Having a look at his work from all possible angles, Luna placed her head on Alex’s shoulder, snuggling to him from behind lightly. The blue, silky cheek slid on Alex’s; the innocently batting eyelashes tickled him, making his entire body strain from the mix of surprise and anticipation. “I heard that some training befell hither occasionally, lief…” Luna’s voice was soft and, at the same time, extremely insinuating. Willsmash chuckled; throwing a smiling glance at the blacksmith, the Princess could notice that the old unicorn had approximately guessed about her plans. “At first, I wanted to have a look, as, alas, I missed… almost all the action during the Nightmare Night,” winking barely noticeable, Luna turned to Alex again. ‘Some diversity won’t hurt the guy! He becomes too pensive, not to say concerned lately. Can’t blame him, still…’ upon that glance, Willsmash was absolutely sure what the dark-blue prankster was plotting. “But… what could be better than watching, thought I anon…” continued the Princess nonchalantly, snuggling her face closer to Alex’s and raising one eyebrow. “Taking a part in one, correct!” ‘She must have been bored as well – nothing happened since the Nightmare Night events, except the farm…’ Willsmash inwardly smirked, intercepting another bewildered gaze from Silver Ingot. ‘No wonder, the big filly needs some release.’ “Hmmm…” meanwhile, the Princess stepped back with a feigned brooding expression. “I haven’t done anything alike for aeons seemingly…” Alex threw an inquiring glance at Willsmash. The old blacksmith only nodded shortly; he was levitating the glaive already. “Soooo… I challenge thee to a duel, lief! A friendly sword match! What dost thou say, Alex?” the swan neck arched as Luna cocked her head; the dark lakes with sly sparkles inside splashed him with playful joy. “Shan’t hurt me either to flex mine rusted martial practice!” The gust of cold wind fanned her mane, making it float around the mare’s head like a broad sparkly halo. “Fine!” smirked Alex, returning the glance with a surplus of mischief. “If that counts as a sword though…” the folded glaive, thrown by the blacksmith, laid in human’s hand obediently. ‘The girl wants to play? Okay then!’ “I see, you ain’t sleepwalking,” continued Luna. “Fair game! No magic… well, except me holding the sword,” she shrugged a little apologetically, “no tricks. Only speed… and steel!” With those words, her horn lit, forming a pool of blue aura near the princess. With a habitual movement, Luna started pulling something dark from that pocket dimension of hers. ‘This may become tougher than it seemed…’ with the widened eyes, Alex watched the monstrous sword of dimly glowing steel coming into the daylight. Dark-blue, going into black, the long narrow blade had undulated, sharply glowing edges. Inwardly shuddering, Alex couldn’t hold back, openly admiring the view. ‘Need to admit – the flamberge suits her!’ “Dost not worry, lief, I shall try to be gentle!” “Errmmm… Wait!” Silver Ingot looked as if she just switched on. In a wink, the unicorn filly ran down the porch, grabbing both foals and pulling them back to the protection of the house. Neither Storm nor Aurora uttered a word during the last few minutes; both watched the unfolding scene with the glowing of excitement and anticipation eyes. Fortunately for them, the dumbfounded unicorn girl didn’t pull them further back than the porch. “Not that I called much for…” squinted Alex. With a thin sizzle, the glaive unfolded in his hand; he stepped aside from the anvil. Enveloped in Diamond’s aura, the detail already floated away to the smelter. “Well, youth, try not to blow the place apart, okay!” Willsmash watched them with nearly the same degree of interest as the foals did. “Rest assured!” the Night Princess produced a wide grin, soaring into the air. “No casualties! Till prudent surrender?!” “Fine! Till prudent surrender!” with a strong push, Alex rushed after her, unfolding the wings and raising above the smithy, the smoke, the dry grass anxiously waving under the wind. “Now…” started Silver Ingot, throwing a concerned glance at the foals in her protection. “But can we have a look?!” Storm looked up to the unicorn girl almost pleadingly; Aurora nodded quickly, her eyes chained to the figures receding up into the sky. “Y-Yeah…” unconfidently drawled Silver Ingot, giving up under their puppy glances. “Just promise me to stay close…” The fresh wind ruffling his feathers and brushing through the hair brought a smile to Alex’s face. Gazing down, he saw the smithy served on the ground like a colourful dish; the silhouettes of the ponies left below became barely discernible. The air was fresh up there, not tainted with anything routine. Even the sunlight seemed brighter, despite the mildly cloudy sky, there – far from the daily burdens. ‘Maybe that’s what I lack from time to time!’ Alex inhaled the full chest of late autumn freshness. His sight fell at his hands on the weapon: thinking of which, they were probably the weakest spot when unarmoured. Without the second thought, the thin metal band on his hand glowed, enveloping his palms with the armour gloves – now it was up to his reaction and speed to provide the untampered defence. ‘Thinking of tactics drives the daily problems away for a while, at least!’ he scanned the nearest clouds. Luna had a small advantage; soaring earlier, she had time to look around and plan. Alex snorted inwardly: judging by the last mischievous look she gave, the big filly wasn’t going to make things easy for him. He braced himself, getting ready for any sort of surprise; however, he barely managed to react to her first move. The large dark sword appeared across his course as if cast from the air, but Alex knew it wasn’t the case. Luna would never break her own words, using some magic to her advantage; the princess was naturally that quick. It wasn’t a strike, to be honest, the flamberge was simply put there, blocking his flight; Alex was to change direction sharply not to collide. He dodged aside, reflecting the sword with the oblique motion of his glaive – blades met with blood-chilling skirring sound. “Wake up, lief!” giggled silvery from above. ‘Great! I’m perfectly confident in our steel…’ glimpsed in Alex’s head. ‘Let’s hope it wouldn’t damage the ancient sword; that would be very unfortunate. I bet anything, Lulu values it immensely!’ “Dost not worry, mine love!” somehow, she managed to read Alex’s thoughts off his face. “The sword was made by mine father forsooth. And that is the reason it needeth much more than that to give up!” “That’s reassuring!” Alex rotated the glaive, bumping the flamberge back with another powerful blow. He rushed up, finally levelling with Luna so he could notice her movements and intentions in their entirety. She started testing his defence, performing a series of direct attacks and using the sword on its initial purpose – swords always were rather piercing than cutting weapons. Hovering in the air in a relaxed manner, the princess literally tried to poke Alex with her night-coloured monstrous sword. Each time, even before approaching the effective hit area, the flamberge tip was met with the short fast strike of one of the glaive crescent blades, changing the direction and averting the sting. Causing the silvery giggle and another attempt! Reflecting it, Alex rolled his eyes with a sigh: that alicorn school-filly was simply teasing him. He swirled the glaive, speeding it up and rotating around himself. In a second, the entire human body, except the wings keeping him in the air, was surrounded by the thin yet impenetrable shield of shimmering, sizzling steel. There wasn’t a chance for a simple direct strike to get through now. “Hmmm… The timber-cutter move!” Luna raised one eyebrow, clearly hinting at Alex’s fight with the Everfree monsters. Deciding that it was time for the attack, testing her defence instead, Alex suddenly rushed forward. The oncoming air made his ears pop from the speed. The blades met in a hard blow, spilling the bright sparks around and making Luna instinctively retreat a bit. The dark sword sounded like a large bell, sending the acoustic wave around. “Nice, nice!” the princess was laughing, but her eyes squinted respectfully. Down on the ground, all the present ponies stared up, trying to understand what was going on. The booming sound spread, reaching undoubtedly the town and far beyond. The foals pulled Silver Ingot from under the porch roof, following Willsmash, who watched the scene in the sky, hiding the smile in his beard. Diamond Chisel leaned on the anvil and only shrugged, answering the girl’s bewildered glance. Drawing a vertical circle with her sword as if checking its integrity, Luna attacked with an unimaginable speed. Spinning in the dangerous dance, the duelists parted and approached again in the sky, each time followed with the bunches of sparks bursting around the meeting blades. The spectators couldn’t see the glowing eyes, the clenched in determined smiles teeth, the spread wings. From the ground, it looked as if two short spears – dark-blue and black – distanced and approached, colliding with the clanging of steel. Flashes lit the clouds, scaredly bustling around. “Do they remember – that supposed to be a friendly training?” Silver Ingot realized that she asked a rather rhetoric question. “I guess… for them it still is!” Diamond Chisel smirked as the next extremely bright cloud of sparks flashed the sky, followed shortly with a boom. Alex was to admit that the princess was a tough rival, even harder to stand against than the old and battle-hardened blacksmith… even in a training round. Being able to hold the sword only with magic was never a weakness of hers: she could naturally stay out of his effective damage range, while still taking part in the fight technically – the flamberge always kept the human on his tiptoes. Capable of flying, Luna was twice more dangerous, attacking from any direction desired. If she could use any other magic, except holding her blade, she had been very hard to impossible to even keep up with, let alone defeat. For those using no magic in return, of course. Watching for the huge sword in the chilly grey autumn sky, Alex was to stay in short-range defence mostly, blocking again and again with his glaive. Just like with the timberwolves, that couldn’t continue endlessly: the more forces he spent on deflecting her strikes, the less would remain at his disposal at a chance of the burst attack. Instead of answering with the hard blow, Alex dodged the next strike. Making a loop in the air and letting the flamberge whizz by below, he quickly found the night-coloured silhouette against the background of flowing clouds. ‘Time to change the disposition a bit!’ folding his wings like an arrow, he rushed to attack, rotating the glaive. The clouds smudged around; Alex’s ears felt full of sizzling speed again. The dark sword aimed right at the centre of the silvery propeller, Alex’s glaive turned in. But shifting aside at the very last moment, he caught the point of the blade slightly off the centre of his improvised shield. The glaive handle tingled, meeting the sword flat and momentarily luring it along its own circular trajectory. With satisfaction, Alex could notice a glimpse of bewilderment in Luna’s widened eyes – the manoeuvre turned out entirely unexpected for her, making her lose focus for a fraction of a second. What was more important: she lost the grip as well. Whistling in the sky, the flamberge followed the glaive, then started falling due to its considerable weight and inertia. Alex smirked, dashing forward and shortening the distance. Naturally, it would be strange to expect that her confusion lasted long; in a second, Luna dived in the sky, leaving Alex’s line of attack and catching the falling sword with ease. Turning around the next moment, Alex saw the alicorn mare on the opposite edge of the mentally drawn between them circle. Armed and ready to fight as if nothing happened. With loud girly laughter, Luna dived again and jetted away from Alex, moving sideways and following that imaginary circle. Alex guessed that she planned to distract and finally get behind him. ‘Okay, you mocking bird, hold on!’ He rushed after her on the same trajectory, doing his best to keep the distance constant for that moment and the Princess in sight. Somehow Luna’s joy passed on to him. ‘Catch up with her… Catch… her! Prove myself and make her surrender!!!’ They pierced the low clouds and started ascending on a widening in the sky spiral, laughing and exchanging strikes, each blow harder than the previous. “Good afternoon, mister Steel! Hello everypony…” the lilac figure with stripy mane appeared on the old road, hurrying to the smithy. Another, yellow, with the wings spread from anxiety, followed closely. “What’s going on here, mister Steel?” Twilight approached the gate, entering the smithy yard and circling the present ponies with a puzzled look; she had to raise her voice to gain attention from them being enthralled by something above. Her eyes went from the smoking smelter and the empty anvil to smiling Diamond Chisel, who nodded to her and peered into the sky again. Then to Willsmash and Silver Ingot; the latter held the young Sunflowers close – all watched something above, greeting the newcomers short. “Ummm…” Fluttershy peeked from behind Twilight’s shoulder, throwing an extremely puzzled glance at the scene. “Good morning, folks!” “Good morning, miss Twilight, miss Fluttershy! Errmmm… a training… Yeah, a training!” the old unicorn was hiding a smile behind his moustache. “A training?” Twilight asked again; Fluttershy kept looking around, evidently searching for somepony. “I was reading near the ajar window when I heard a loud… bloop. As if a huge and tight string broke.” “So did I,” nodded Fluttershy. “I mean… that strange sound. I was at the market, and many ponies were startled by it, looking around.” “I saw the flashes in the sky,” continued Twilight. “Above the smithy!” emphasized she meaningfully. “And when I went outside, there was a small herd of ponyvillers, already gathering at the square and the edge of the town.” “You see…” Silver Ingot drawled somewhat strangely. “Storm, Aurora! Thank Harmony, you’re alright!” interrupting the unicorn filly, Fluttershy cuddled the foals, only then noticing their excitement they watched the skies with. “I was concerned about you and… Alex. Where…” “They were guessing, what was the reason of Steels launching fireworks… when it wasn’t even near to Hearthwarming…” Twilight let out a tiny unconfident smile, “and doubled in numbers, while I and Flutters were deciding what to do. I won’t lie if I say that half of the town will… shortly…” slowly added the girl, looking up like everypony did. Now her attention was chained to the grey clouds, which swirled as if a tornado was about to be born above the smithy. From time to time, the bright lights flashed through them, followed by the far and distorted sounds of colliding steel. “Oh, dear!” Fluttershy cupped her mouth with the hoof when another loud strike pierced the sky and a lightning flash ripped the condensing clouds with its whip. It became obvious that Luna was abusing the ranged attacks. Tactically or out of purely foalish wish to tease him – Alex had no idea. But she constantly kept the distance while they spiralled, exchanging the strikes. Of course, Alex realized that the flamberge needed some space to move and provide effective attack and, what was more important, defence. ‘But not that much of the space, right?!’ He needed to get closer at any cost, where Luna’s large sword would have lost its effectiveness without the proper swing… yet his glaive could still serve a convincing argument. That was the intended feature of the glaive, they with Willsmash made foldable – to provide at least some support at close distances. Spreading his wings, Alex slowed down a bit, then suddenly rushed to the ground, making Luna follow, trying to guess what he suddenly got on his mind. The clouds stirred by two pairs of vast wings lingered for a second then slowly dragged down after them. The ponies on the ground opened their mouths, when first the black arrow darted down, emerging from the cloudy whirlpool, then the dark-blue followed shortly. “What…” with widening eyes, Twilight almost repeated the question she started with; Fluttershy simply sank on the ground watching the scene above in bewilderment. “A… friendly… training? Here from, it looks like some local cataclysm!” noticed she. The silhouettes in the sky continued spinning around some imaginary common centre, where they occasionally approached, making their shining weapons collide with clang and sparks gushing. The clouds above them kept condensing, herding and pushing one another, like the sheep, scared by some predator and bunching together for protection. It seemed that their friction made the thunderstorm imminent – a couple more flashes illuminated the grey flocks from inside. The smell of ozone started spreading around, reaching the nostrils of the spectators on the ground. ‘Well, okay!’ Egged on by Luna’s constant teasing, Alex gritted his teeth, distancing from her after another easily reflected attack; the silvery laughter of that night-coloured girl was a pure provocation. Flying on a receding arc, Alex looked pensive as if estimating his next move and weighing the tactical chances. Pursing his lips, he squinted at Luna; she was juggling her monstrous sword nonchalantly… With a sudden thrust, the human dashed towards her! The sword she put to block his course whizzed by; Alex barely leaned aside in the air. Folding his wings, he sped up even more, seemingly focused on his aim only. Seeing the seriousness of intents, the princess was to pull back her flamberge and prepare for defence. Not a frequent case that day! She was completely confident in her position, smiling at Alex’s daredevil attempt to change the balance. But… There was no human at the spot, which Luna thought she was perfectly controlling! Her sword could meet nothing, where the speeding silhouette with black wings was a fraction of a second before. That made her blink confusedly for the first time. Instead of her sparring partner, she managed to notice some dark gust flashing by; a wave of air pushed her balance, so Luna was to level with a strong flap of her wings. The thick juicy sound reached everypony’s ears a second later as if some large string broke in the sky with a loud brass boom. It was the same bloop Fluttershy and Twilight heard being at the edge of the town before. “He… did it again!” dropped Fluttershy, almost stunned at the spot. “Or his wings did… Topped the speed of the sound, I mean…” she gazed at Twilight in bewilderment. “I was sure he did when he followed us to Canterlot… and now again…” “Topped considerably, I must say, judging by the sound of it and the timing!” Twilight watched the human with pure scientific interest slightly peppered with amazement. “Interesting, how…” drawled she pensively, cupping her mouth; apparently, the lilac girl was already calculating something inwardly. ‘Merlin’s pants! My lungs… almost ripped apart!’ Alex slowed down and turned around in the air, taking a breath painfully. ‘What was it? Way faster than the last time! I need to analyze that and… be more careful in future!’ However, he had no time to waste – that lightning-like roundabout manoeuvre bought him a couple of seconds before Luna could realize what happened. Smirking inwardly, Alex rushed forward; he was to do his best to use the lucky advantage. She could block his blazing attack accidentally only, as later Luna was to admit. Rather instinctively than consciously sending the sword to rotate protectively behind her, the princess was still guessing where Alex disappeared to. Noticing from the corner of her eye some shadow, Luna fended off with her flamberge at the last moment exactly when Alex already slowed down his glaive, going to stop it as it was still a training match. Thus the blow came out not nearly as strong as the rest. But it clearly showed what it was worth otherwise! With eyes widening with surprise and increasing respect, Luna turned around in the sky. She quickly dashed back, restoring the attack distance as soon as possible: with one tactical dash, Alex could approach where her sword had no space to move freely, yet his glaive was still a serious threat. The disposition was restored; however, crossing her weapon with Alex, now Luna had to be on constant guard, seeing that he was simply taking time to prepare and try another attempt. Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged wild glances. Even Diamond Chisel looked more concerned than entertained now. “Shouldn’t we stop them,” Fluttershy reverted her glance to the sky, “before something goes…” her voice died down to the barely audible whisper. “I wonder, how could we?!” with more practical interest, Twilight watched Luna and Alex, who increased the speed with each move. “I could probably teleport their weapons somewhere… But… I’m sure Luna’s is protected from such an inelaborate trick,” she shook her stripy mane. “And Alex… well, it would be quite hard and dangerous to perform that on him.” “That’s something I was telling you about…” Willsmash turned to his niece – holding the foals closer, the unicorn filly watched the fight with her mouth slightly open, not uttering a word still. This time the glance of his healthy eye was serious, without the foalish sparkles of amusement floating inside. Reverting her glance with an effort from the human and the Night Princess, Silver Ingot looked a bit lost and stared at her uncle inquiringly. The old unicorn returned the meaningful look and nodded towards Luna and Alex; he slowly shook his head silently. Willsmash didn’t say anything else, but the filly was sure she understood him properly, even if that was neither she wanted nor sincerely accepted. It seemed that both Luna and Alex spend the lion share of their energy during this fierce fight, but neither of them looked as if they were going to admit that, let alone give up. By the look of bright gazes they threw at each other, of smiles which didn’t cease despite the hardness of the blows those two exchanged, it seemed that the entire fight could linger on for much longer. Teased by Luna, Alex was full of determination to make that blue laughing girl lose a bit of her self-confidence excess; spurred by his agility and endurance, Luna was all too eager to prove the value of her experience. Besides, at times it looked like a natural, exciting rivalry between a woman and a man. Anyway, Willsmash was right about one thing at least: to interfere at that moment would have been an extremely dangerous act. The strikes rained down, spreading the metal clanking in the cold air. With each successful move, both Alex and Luna burst laughing now, as the training seemed to turn into entertainment for them long ago. Alex did his best to shorten the distance and make Luna use her sword as an ordinary warrior would do; in her turn, the Princess let him approach… but that tiny bit less than enough for making his plan successful. Needless to say, she had much fun in the process. ‘Fortunately, Princess Celestia has no look of that,’ flashed in Twilight’s head; the girl closed her eyes for a moment, thrilled by the mental image. ‘I so hope that won’t reach her ears otherwise! Could hardly make her more relaxed about the whole thing…’ Meanwhile, with one lucky strike, Alex managed to blow the night-coloured flamberge far enough. With a thin sizzle, the glaive in his hand started folding quickly; obedient to human’s will, it shortened as section went in after section. The crescent blades had turned in opposite directions and the whole thing resembled at that moment a double-edged battle-axe on an extremely short handle, held on its middle by Alex. Him, folding his weapon at that crucial moment, distracted Luna for a short instant – evidently, the girl expected anything but that – it turned out enough for the human to appear next to the Night Princess with another lightning-like dash. In a wink, stopping at the eye-to-eye distance with Luna, Alex rested the folded glaive on the blue, fluffy shoulder and let out a smile. “I guess that’s an end of the match… technically, my love!” his eyes shone triumphantly. There was no chance that Luna could parry the next move in the actual fight. The Princess, whose mouth took a shape of the surprised “o” for a second, recomposed already. “Hmmm… Methinks, thou shouldn’t relax that early!” she threw a shimmering, sly and at the same time enticing gaze at him from under the spear-long eyelashes and shrugged lightly. “Dost not count thy cockatrices afore they hatch, lief!” To his sheer surprise, Alex could feel the ever so slight sting between his strained shoulder blades. Luna had already turned her monstrous flamberge over – at that moment, the tip of the sword was directed right at the human, making it hard to tell who became the actual winner. One coal-black eyebrow arched; Luna’s eyes laughed, sparkling with excitement. Her light-blue lips were so close… Going all-in, Alex leaned closer and covered them with a tender yet overwhelming kiss, feeling how the pointed blade went away at once. He could probably celebrate the victory, smiling inwardly, but instead, Alex preferred to taste every tiny bit of their kiss, feeling the princess’ lips deeper and deeper. “Mmffff! Mmmmm…” Luna still tried to fight back with her sensitive tongue, but she almost dropped her sword, melting on Alex’s lips instead. She wrapped her fore legs around him, nuzzling the human when they parted and gifting him with a slightly beclouded look. Not giving Alex a tiny respite, Luna went on to the second round with passion. With their wings batting slower, the interwoven human and alicorn sank in the air significantly, greeted by the encouraging whoops of Storm and Aurora: even if Silver Ingot planned to cover the foals’ eyes from that outrageous scene, she forgot about that, staring instead in bewilderment. Witnessing that from the ground, Fluttershy squeaked indignantly; the girl jumped in the air, soaring and quickly levelling with the couple. Not ready to let Luna get all the fun for herself, the pegasus mare pushed the sword away crossly and snuggled to Alex’s back, wrapping all her four legs around him with yearning desire, nuzzling his neck from behind. That was the last straw, making even Twilight’s jaw drop. Entangled between two girls, Alex could barely keep the height, holding in the air. Nevertheless, all three were going down steadily. The huge flamberge fell first, stuck into the dust of the smithy yard and closely followed by Alex’s glaive. Alex’s feet met the ground slightly unconfidently; both mares kept snuggling to him, so he didn’t fall only thanks to Luna. Stealing another ardent kiss, the alicorn princess let him go; somehow, she looked overly satisfied, despite the indistinct result of their training round. To the common bewilderment, the next thing Luna did was a tender nuzzle she gave Fluttershy, who peeked from behind Alex’s shoulder, still holding on to him. “Thou seest! It all cometh down to the allies at the end of the day!” she addressed the human, raising one eyebrow with a gamine smile. Alex couldn’t hold back laughing; letting Fluttershy get around him and hold on to his chest instead of back, he cuddled both girls softly. Storm and Aurora already started hopping around dumbfounded Silver Ingot; the foals’ eyes shone brightly with the memories of the scene. The stallions chuckled, even Twilight allowed herself a tiny smile despite all the confusion. “Oh?!” Picking up her sword, Luna stared at the edge in bewilderment – a few noticeable indents appeared on the ancient blade, probably for the first time for aeons. “Tis… unexpected!” she blinked at Alex. “That’s the problem we can easily help against!” chuckled Alex, planting a kiss on Fluttershy’s immediately flushing nose and standing the girl on the ground. “And we! We too!” eagerly exclaimed Aurora and Storm Sunflower. “Errr… We… could spin the sharpening wheel at least!” [b] [/b] * Despite the thick silence of the library, the long-awaited sleep lingered to embrace Alex for quite a while already. His night vision let him see the interior perfectly, completely ignoring the darkness and letting the human examine the multitude of book spines filling the circumferencing his room tall bookcases. Fidgeting restlessly on the sofa, Alex already read all the nearest ones several times, currently trying to calculate the height and width of the shelving, based on the average book size. He inwardly facepalmed at the inevitable next step – counting the entire quantity of them in his room with desperate meticulousness, trying to bore himself to sleep, which lingered to come. The fireplace burnt out, leaving the faint bitter smell of some peculiar firewood. Perhaps it was to blame for Alex’s strange cheerfulness in that late hour. Or, perhaps, it was the simple fact that he spent all the day working his butt off at the smithy. Due to the specific needs, Alex was to work while sleepwalking – they had a load of blanks for the new pony armour to make. Finally, the smelter almost glowed white and Alex felt as if he was going to follow suit. The sleepwalking phenomenon sometimes created a funny paradox: even if less strained physically, Alex still spent a lot of energy as it called for concentration and certain mental input. While technically sleeping, some part of his conscious was undoubtedly awake; so at the end of the day, finishing all the work at the smithy and waking in his room at the library, the human had a strange feeling of his personal timeline being somewhat warped or as if the day suddenly doubled for him. Alex was to admit that prolonged sleepwalking delivered a few troubles along with the advantages. Thus spending the entire day alternating between the almost candent smelter and the workbenches, Alex simply “woke” up in his room in the Golden Oak Library at the end of that blacksmith rush… yet feeling nearly exhausted due to the mental strain. Even working with the prepared blanks shaping them, tempering, then proceeding to assembly, he was to keep one hundred per cent of constant control over the smelter, pushing it to the limits of the work mode. Addressing the armour making process with two arms, four hooves and two horns, Alex, Will and Diamond were to admit that it still would be a lengthy process due to the scale of their job. On the other hoof, disappointing Celestia and failing her hard-won trust (well, some semblance of it, as Alex always mentally corrected himself with a smile) was not an option. Besides, Alex worked with the new armour, bearing the constant thought about pegasi suitable variant of it, keeping in mind his recent contract with Rainstorm. Having the hopefully live solution to protect her mind, the mare needed the lightest yet, at the same time, the most durable body armour they could produce. Alex still cringed lightly every time, remembering about the experiment they decided to carry out. In pursuit of technical perfection, he was seriously going to top everything done before; the smelter looked as if it was going to substitute the hidden behind the clouds sun on that gloomy November day, filling the surroundings with unbearable heat and smell of candent metal and stone. ‘Adding another layer of protection and steadiness outside wouldn’t be an excess!’ came to his mind when, with due apology, Alex delegated both foals entirely under the caring supervision of Silver Ingot. However, Storm and Aurora visibly limited their natural curiosity, keeping the proper distance and preferring some jeweller lecture to the proximity of the potentially dangerous device. No wonder that despite he looked technically sleeping to the foreign observer, Alex felt a bit tumbled at the end of his workday. Yet his organism resisted the natural urge to rest, fairly supposing it had enough of it already. Inwardly anathematizing that inconvenient paradox of his changed nature, the human trudged to help with the dinner. Surprisingly, he didn’t mess anything up in that condition. Together with Spike, they managed to prepare a quite tasty let alone eatable meal. Having himself filled, Alex returned to his room and attacked the blueprints with doomed determination – the anticipated sleep lingered to come. The rest of the evening passed like that until Alex caught himself repeating the same calculations over and over. Thankfully, he wasn’t getting different results each time yet, but the signal was clear – it was the time to call it a day and take some rest in the face of the approaching busy tomorrow. ‘To hell with that!..’ Feeling that the still air and silence were pressing, Alex thought that better his ass would freeze a bit than he spent the entire night bustling restlessly. Sliding from under the plaid, he parted the blackout curtains slightly and unlocked the window frame. ‘Sorry, Twilight,’ he shook his head remembering, how the girl sighed each time, coming across his habit to leave his windows open regardless of the season. Using the window instead of the front door became common practice for Alex, but at that time he made only a small gap, hoping that he wouldn’t cool down the room too much. ‘Yes, that would do it!’ Sending inside the thin stream of late autumn chillness, the ajar frame let in the usual nightly sounds. With a sense of accomplishment and a content smile, Alex returned to his sofa, curling into the plaid again and listening to the long-anticipated nocturnal concerto, which seemed the only thing he lacked to achieve harmony. The sound palette appeared more humble than in summer with its leaves whispering, birds singing and insects rasping. Yet the voice of wind groping its way through the tree branches, rare dogs in the town and the barely audible distant whistle of the train finally made Alex relax. Greeting the real sleep, he closed his eyes, and his vision slowly started to fill with the misty images of the first dream. The light, appearing at first as a small shiny spark in the distance, slowly spread in his view as if Alex was approaching its source little by little. ‘Is it a star or something alike?’ he had no idea but noted that the movement towards sped up. At the closer look, it started to seem as if Alex was travelling through some pitch-black tunnel into the unknown. The edges of that light were too sharp for a star, so the closer he got, the clearer he saw – the light wasn’t homogeneous, having some faintly guessable forms and contours inside. The human started wondering if that was how his arrival to Equestria must have looked to him… if he had time to focus on the view, so abrupt and speedy the extraction was. The light occupied his entire sight; turning his head fast in surprise, Alex noticed that the darkness he travelled through ceased – the same milky haze filled everything around. Basing on his experience, Alex was almost sure that it was a dream. The condition physically accepted by his body and mind, not some sleepwalking moment when he was able to control the circumstances. His first assumption was another vision of the Tree of Harmony as it looked a bit similar; however, contrary to the latter, Alex felt some stiffness when trying to move. When his eyes accommodated or the brightness of the light faded slightly, he realized that something different was happening. Anyway, no sense of danger or anxiety touched Alex upon listening to himself, so he concluded that there was nothing to fear in that situation and decided to watch what was offered to his eyes. As the white mist thinned a bit, Alex started to discern some contours in his close vicinity, recognizing the furniture edges. Evidently, it wasn’t going to be another talk with equestrian Gaia or whatever they called the spirit of Equus; she never accepted her visitors in some office-like placement. In a moment, Alex could see the surface of the long broad table running somewhere into the milky space and surrounded by the chairs. Those few, he could clearly see, appeared high-class comfy seating; the chairs and the table itself were made of natural dark wood, carved laconically yet stylishly and polished, allowing the human to suppose that it wasn’t some ordinary lair of bureaucracy. Fidgeting on the spot: all the motions still felt strained; as if Alex was pushing through water or even some denser matter. Looking around was surprisingly easy at the same time – he noticed the springy softness of the thick carpet under his feet, which only confirmed his assumption. Something was strange about the furniture; only after a few moments, Alex realized what looked off to him. The chairs and the table, but mostly the chairs, while being comfy, were too high for those he got used to seeing in Equestria. For the last few months, lower armchairs corresponding to ponies’ physique were the usual view for Alex. Those though looked more like the human counterparts, seemingly from his former life. Trying to touch the backrest of the nearest chair, Alex realized that it could have taken a few minutes, at the very least, simply to raise his arm there. With his vision clearing more, Alex saw that the table was indeed running long and meeting another desk under the right angle, reminding him of some supervisor’s office or a briefing room. Noticing the bookshelves occupying the right wall brought a tiny smile to his face. However, compared to Alex’s room in the Golden Oak Library, that office was considerably larger. Containing that large and long desk with all the chairs, the multitude of bookcases and supposedly more, the room was lit by three large windows at least. Uncurtained, they stood out in the milky haze as three brighter rectangles throwing the inclined rays of light inside. All three looked closed; through even denser misty stuff outside, Alex couldn’t see or hear a glimpse of what was behind them. Turning to the bookcases instead, he made notice of the wide variety of topics covered even on a couple of the nearest shelves he could clearly see; with another smile, Alex thought of his lilac friend and hostess first. ‘To think of it, it still reminds the visions She showed me,’ Alex listened to the ringing silence flooding the room. Unable to hear even his own breath, he tried to click the fingers but either failed to do that or didn’t produce any sound as well. ‘Except that motion stiffness! Why?’ The human caught himself feeling the distinct smell instead: warm wood of the rich, sunlit furniture, old but not dusty books providing a rather pleasant tint and… something very subtle, but yet persistent. Something Alex was unable to recognize yet but would compare to exquisite female perfume. He turned around in search of the source of it; the strange fog thinned too slowly for his liking. Suddenly some intermittent hum appeared on the edge of Alex’s hearing. It gained strength as if somepony was increasing the volume of a radio-set, turning soon into separate phrases. They came indiscernibly, but Alex could tell there were two female voices in the process of slow talk. Or at least one was; another audibly younger voice sounded eagerly and impatiently, even if it tried to hold back. Finally, the thinning mist revealed a glimpse of two silhouettes standing at the farthest window. The human strained his eyes to catch more but couldn’t see anything except the unclear contours. Sighing inwardly, Alex prepared to wait till the surroundings evinced themselves better. Meanwhile, both voices gained volume and legibility, increasing his impression of being slowly tuned in the visible and audible aspects of that reality his dream turned out to drag him in. If only his motion had “tuned in” with the same pace; truth be told, those restraints subconsciously began to irk Alex more and more with each second. ‘Now that’s something new!’ Alex forgot about frustration at once, distracted by the surprise of revealing persons – something natural for one accustomed to see a human in a mirror only for quite a while. Both seemed to stand their backs to him, watching something through the window – two dark silhouettes against its light rectangle. However, Alex was unsure if, in his current state, he could be spotted even looked directly at. The shapely woman with long wavy hair crossed her arms pensively; the contours revealed the slightly old-fashioned dress, the hem of which hid behind the obstructing desk. Contrasting to that, her voice left an impression that its owner was of the same age as Alex or even younger. She appeared very tall, so, dressed into something resembling the high school uniform, the girl next to her barely reached her chest level. Alex realized that both looked like a mentor and an apprentice, a momentary image of certain princesses glimpsing in his mind. The girl threw back her long straight hair, glancing up at the woman and asking her some concerning question. The next phrase sounded discernible for their silent visitor as the volume finally “tuned in” for Alex. “… the knowledge was always with me. Why? It’s still the question to answer. Anyway, I was only to realize and arrange all the parts for the streamline method,” the woman chuckled quietly. “Although, it took ages to bring the puzzle together the right way.” “So… you really can summon it here?” from the back, it looked as if the girl even brought her hand to the mouth in awe. “The so-called… ritual is complete, maybe not polished to perfection yet,” nodded her older collocutor after a moment of silence. “It’s complex and without any of the steps the entire array of them won’t work. I even came through it yesterday, verifying everything once again…” “Without the final step, obviously!” added the woman at the silent shocked gaze of the girl. “As if completed, it has no retreat… for the time it works at least.” Alex thought he even saw how the girl exhaled with relief. Nevertheless, she asked immediately. “But… if that helps to stop the malevolent… Scherben?!” “I’m afraid of that turning out as inevitability,” quietly dropped the woman with a tiny nod. “That knowledge being a… part of me can’t be a coincidence. What... if… I fear that it may recognize me and how exactly it recognizes me.” “Fear?.. You?!” the girl stared at her in disbelief. Alex froze, catching every word, feeling that he was about to hear something important; even the sensation of being restrained seemingly stopped bothering him at that moment. Stumbling upon an unvoiced phrase, the woman cocked her head as if bothered by something she suddenly fancied. Perhaps it was that familiar to everypony feeling of being watched as she started turning slowly, looking over her shoulder. Unsure what could happen next, as supposedly those two finally noticed his presence, Alex made a desperate attempt to rush forward, to try and catch at least a clearer glimpse of the mysterious collocutors. He was sure he never saw or heard them before, thus their appearance in his dream was utterly strange. Needless to say, since his arrival to Equestria, he only saw a few people in the dreams in general, their number limited by Alex’s parents and ex-girlfriend. To his frustration, he could barely move his arms still; every movement took as much effort as if he was pushing his body not even through water but through the cooling down molten metal rather. In his turn, Alex felt the glance of the woman sweeping across his frame. Unable to tell if she actually saw him, Alex gritted his teeth – both the woman and the girl remained dark silhouettes for him in the counter light coming from the window. ‘Did she just twitch, raising the hand to her mouth?’ Alex had no time to analyze, shocked by the palpable touch on his chest. The vision began to recede, dissolving in the white haze, or Alex was forcedly pulled out of his dream. Returning to reality, he felt the chillness; the sounds came back presented by some strange rustling. “Mmmm…” muttered Alex; he realized that the touch on his bare chest wasn’t a part of the dream. The first thing he came up to, emerging from his sleep, was a pair of very concerned and widened mild-violet eyes right above his face. Holding back the first natural urge to jump up, Alex inhaled noisily, moderating his racing heart, thrilled by the strange dream and non less strange awakening. The eyes blinked and backed up, revealing Twilight’s concerned muzzle in its entirety and the candle she levitated; the reflections of the latter danced in them, making them seem even larger, glistening brightly. “Oh…” The flush started flooding her face quickly; sitting on the edge of his sofa, Twilight squeezed the collar of her night gown on her neck, another hoof was resting on Alex’s chest, before she pulled it back. “Are… Are you okay?” the girl straightened up, giving him more space. “I mean… you were bustling in your sleep, Alex.” “I’m fine… I think… Just had another strange dream, Twi,” Alex blinked away the remnants of sleep, waking completely. “And… What’s going on?” “I thought I heard some noise…” quickly said Twilight; looking aside, the girl tried to overcome the confusion caused by the realization of how she was leaning over Alex moments ago. “You did something strange… moved your arms as if… as if trying to pull apart some curtains,” she glanced at him pensively. “Or swim… I don’t know, Alex. It didn’t look like something I saw before, so I hurried to check if you were alright.” “Thanks, Twi. I’m fine,” repeated Alex, raising onto his elbow. “I can’t even tell if that dream was a bad one… very strange – yes… Anyway, a rather pleasant change from the nightmares I habitually see.” “And what it was?” Twilight managed to brace herself already and the girl’s natural curiosity got ahead of her as usual. “I don’t remember much…” drawled Alex; he preferred not to worry his friend with something, he didn’t figure out himself yet. Not at the face of everything they came across recently. “There were some… people… I haven’t seen them afore…” “People?” the girl looked at him fixedly. “You mean… humans, Alex? You didn’t see many humans in your dreams lately, right?” “Yeah,” Alex nodded, rubbing his face. “A woman, and a girl… Complete strangers I think. However… No, nothing… I can’t remember the details,” he let out a tiny smile. “Still better than…” “You are still seeing occasionally… the dam,” under her breath uttered Twilight, glancing at the human apologetically. “Yeah,” Alex sat on his sofa. The black wing hugged the girl’s shoulders softly. “Though, I must say, less frequently. Maybe because I finally managed to accept the inevitable,” he shrugged, thinking. ‘Or maybe because the talk with Rainstorm helped me to patch up a bit.’ “I’m glad!” simply but wholeheartedly said Twilight, flushing again slightly. “Thanks for your constant care!” “Speaking of which…” raising to her hooves from under Alex’s wing, the girl threw a glance over her shoulder at the opened window. The November night did its best to sneak in, playing with the curtains and making them flutter lightly in the cool air flowing inside. “I don’t know how you can survive here, Alex!” Twilight shook her head puzzledly; levitating the candle to the low table, she headed to the window with full intent to stop that disgrace. She suppressed a shiver, fidgeting with the curtains. “I would freeze my plot off in that chill. It’s not May outside, you know,” she glanced back at him with a smile. Alex leaned back on his pillow; resignedly allowing her to close the window, he nested more comfortably, still thinking of something. “By the way, Twilight…” he raised his eyes at her, when the girl already picked up the candle with her aura on the way to the door, making the alicorn filly return and look at him inquiringly. “Have you heard… Do you know, what… errmmm… “Scherben” means?” “Scherben?” Twilight rolled her eyes, remembering. “Scherben… That’s from Germane,” finally smiled she. “That means “shards” as far as I remember, sharp-edged parts of something once integral… Why suddenly… Where did you get that from, Alex?” the girl stared at him at a loss. “A part of my dream, methinks…” muttered Alex pensively. “I guess I heard that word in it, Twi. Thus wanted to find out what it was. Thanks again!” he looked at her with a soothing smile. ‘That doesn’t explain though, how the shards can be “malevolent”!’ gloomed Alex inwardly. “Strange as said. It doesn’t really matter perhaps…” shrugged he under Twilight’s puzzled glance. “Just a dream… I’m sorry for waking you up again!” Alex smiled apologetically. Feeling that his body demanded the proper rest, he almost drifted into sleep again. “Hey! What’s going on… here?” Spike’s face showed up in the doorway; taking a quick look around, Twilight’s aide dropped his tone, noticing her with the candle over the almost sleeping again human. “I saw the light and went down to check if everything was fine,” added he quieter. “Shhhh…” Twilight shook her head. “Nothing. Alex simply had one of his nightmares,” the girl shrugged, levitating her candle and guiding Spike in front of her out of the room. “Scherben… scherben…” muttered she, crossing the threshold and closing the door behind. * “Come on, man! These carrots are way too expensive for what they look like…” Alex pulled up the large basket, showing sarcastic doubt. “I’d better buy some from Apples. Definitely, would be of better quality for a fairer price!” “As you wish,” the marketer stallion chuckled, glaring at him sharply. However, he had nothing to impute for the human was polite enough to voice his indignation in a low tone, not informing the nearest market of the presumable problem. “Nopony insists; it’s buy or pass!” “Where did they come from?” inquired Alex, throwing another glance at the presented goods. The stallion grunted something indistinctly into his beard; Alex only waved his hand, rejecting the dubious deal. Frankly speaking, he asked the price only seeing the new muzzle; the seller and the goods made him suspicious. Alex squinted. ‘I probably need to ask if somepony in the town or nearby lost a part of their harvest…’ Forcing his way through to the less herded place, he put his basket on the ground for a minute and checked the list – quite a long one. Smiling inwardly, Alex inhaled the cold air mixed with the various tasty smells galore. The autumn wind brought little snowflakes and swirled them above the square and the heads of the pony herd; it needed the new toy as it had blown off the leaves from the surrounding trees completely. The low sun barely pierced the thin but solid layer of the grey clouds, lighting the stalls, the wooden crates with their contents, the mingling ponies. Even in November morning with its snow dancing in the air, it didn’t feel cold in the middle of the market square throng. ‘I’d better move,’ Alex ran with his eyes through the list once more and adjusted the collar of his warm, newly-knit sweater – that was the case when Rarity’s attention was very welcome. Picking the basket, he wanted to dive into the market stir again but heard somepony addressing him. “Ahem, excuse me! Alex?!” The human looked over his shoulder and a sincere smile lit his face: a cerise mare waved her fore hoof above the heads of the nearest ponies; the seeking look of her light-green eyes stopped at him as she started making her way through the herd. “Good morning, Miss Cheerilee!” Alex put his basket back down with a cheerful nod and readiness to listen. “Good morning, Alex!” the mare swayed her striped pale-rose mane aside from her muzzle and glanced back at the herd, taking a breath. “Phew! I saw you at the edge of the square, but… pulling myself through turned out a harder task than I planned!” she chuckled softly and Alex noticed two spacious saddlebags at her sides. “May I have a couple of minutes of your time?” “You can have as much as you need, ma’am!” with another smile, Alex nodded towards the basket at his feet. “I have a long shopping list and if, presumably, you have just started yours, we can brush through the market together and talk. If that’s okay…” He personally met Miss Cheerilee – one of the school teachers – only once, during the fire at Ponyville school, but that experience confirmed all the respectful stories Alex heard about her from the fillies. Naturally, that caring, motherly mare was on the list of ponies Alex would aid anytime! However, at that moment, Miss Cheerilee, usually frank and straightforward, looked strangely hesitating. Letting out an encouraging smile, Alex thought that he had properly guessed the topic she considered delicate; thus he nodded, gesturing Miss Cheerilee to tell freely what was bothering her. “Errmmm… That’s about the foals,” Miss Cheerilee stumbled, her nose turning pinkish; in the other time that could look amusing, but the question was undoubtedly serious. “I… We all know what happened at Sunflowers’ farm…” she shrugged almost apologetically. “Their foals you and miss Fluttershy took custody of… for a while already. They don’t attend school so far. Excuse me, Alex, but that can turn into a problem… they can miss a considerable chunk of the program. And catching up would be troublesome.” With her entire look, the cerise teacher-mare expressed the hope that her appeal wasn’t intrusive, genuinely concerned rather. Before Alex could open his mouth, Miss Cheerilee added in a convincing tone. “Don’t worry, we all understand the situation, and there won’t be any bureaucratic problems – we’ll just put them into the age-suitable class for now. Besides, I know that the girls, I mean Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, would gladly take patronage and help young Sunflowers with studies.” “That problem’s nature is different a bit, Miss Cheerilee,” Alex picked up his basket and they started drifting across the market slowly. He offered help with the saddlebags as well, but the mare shook her head with a smile, telling that she was okay with them. “It’s not the real… custody,” Alex downcasted, “we’re simply looking after Storm and Aurora temporarily before their own aunt arrives from Crystal Empire. She’ll be the real caretaker while their parents are recovering.” “Oh…” Miss Cheerilee nodded understandingly; although, she saw the tint of regret in Alex’s eyes. “You know, it was a question of sending them to an orphanage for the period necessary to find her, for her to sort out her own business and arrive,” Alex glanced at Cheerilee meaningfully. “I couldn’t allow that, be it a couple of days or weeks, regardless!” “I see,” she patted his arm reassuringly. “And nopony knows how soon she may come…” “Exactly!” said Alex as they slowly moved along the stalls, stopping from time to time according to their lists. “I’m surprised it took that long already, but I can imagine the trouble – she has her own business there…” “I mean that letting them go to school here in Ponyville, giving them new friends and interests… barely diving in, then having it taken from them away…” Alex stumbled and cringed. “I would have hated that as a kid. No reasons to suspect Storm and Aurora think differently.” “I suppose Crystal Chime has no plans to stay in Ponyville,” quietly added Alex when they stopped at the next stall. “So, the foals will attend school in Crystal Empire for now…” Miss Cheerilee nodded accordingly. “But while they are here, we both do our best to make their experience as cloudless as possible,” shrugged Alex, looking into the light-green eyes. “Personally, I wouldn’t mind to…” “Of course,” the mare let out a tiny smile, understanding the unspoken. “That is why I thought that the fillies could help. You know, the girls were overly enthusiastic about that lately,” added Cheerilee in half-voice, leaning closer to Alex. “Perhaps they thought that you would take the responsibility for the entire time necessary.” “If only I could offer less trouble,” chuckled Alex. “Sometimes only trouble!” he stepped aside to let a busily hurrying ponyviller through. “Sorry!” “But thanks for caring and the offer, Miss Cheerilee!” he glanced at her warmly, as they continued their meandering route across the market square. “I promise to contact you if… if anything changes and they linger here for a longer while.” “By the way, how’s the school doing after… after everything?” “Well, I must say that everypony came over that easier than I expected,” Miss Cheerilee smiled heartily. “Everything was fully restored, thanks to princess attention. And thanks to you and miss Dash, nopony has got hurt!” added she with emphasis. “I was surprised how the foals took things much easier than the adults… the staff, I mean,” the mare shrugged amusedly. “For many of them, even for my class, everything looked more like an adventure than the serious danger it actually was. Kids!” “Well… It’s better that way!” said Alex confidently. “I wanted to ask you of one favour, Alex,” remembered Miss Cheerilee, as they stopped, letting Alex take the turning heavier basket into another hand. “We’re going to have a so-called accident prevention day at school, with thematic lessons and so on… Could you please attend the fire prevention lecture? I’m sure, the students would love it and probably take more out of it, paying more attention naturally.” “I…” Alex was a bit dumbfounded by that sudden request; he scratched his nape. “I’ll see if I can come, miss…” “Hey, hey! Alex!..” interrupting him, somepony’s call reached their ears through the hum of the mingling herd. Alex noticed a couple of familiar manes making their way towards them with Cheerilee. “Morning, girls!” Alex waved to approaching Applejack and Pinkie when they finally squeezed through the most overherded place. “Mind if we step aside a bit before we are getting stomped on?” chuckled he, then turned to Cheerilee. “You have a few spare minutes, Miss Cheerilee, don’t you?” “Morning, partner! Morning, Miss Cheerilee!” Applejack looked over him and his spacious basket with a bit of surprise. “Ah thought Ah saw you here yesterday…” noticed she with a smile. “And the basket was hardly smaller…” “That time was for Twilight,” shrugged Alex, “and today Fluttershy asked to help with the shopping. We have doubled numbers now!” winked he. “So, I’m trying to take as much load from her as possible.” Together, they four found a small space unoccupied by the goods between the two neighbourhood stalls, so nopony could run into them. “You know, Alex, you could come to the bakery with your… with the foals someday! I’m super-duper-one-hundred-per cent sure they will like it!!!” Jumping on the spot, Pinkie habitually took the bull by the horns right away. As far as Alex could notice, that was the well-known Pinkie Pie back, not some mare becoming pensive when it came down to him and his troubles. He could be guessing, but most likely it meant that some information had slipped out; Alex inwardly sighed, while the pink quicksilver ball continued. “What’s the fun for the kids to stick at the old smithy all day, every day?! I could teach them to bake pies instead… And we’d have much fun for sure!” “It looks like a nice idea indeed…” carefully started Alex; from the corner of his eye, he saw how Miss Cheerilee nodded in approval. “By the way,” Pinkie wasn’t going to let him word out his thought in entirety, but at least Alex got the confirmation for his assumptions, “your solution was kinda surprising for me… for us all. I mean the girl’s idea… to share you,” she lowered her tone, so only them four could hear, and nudged Alex with a sly mien. “Never thought that Flutters and princess Luna could come to something like that, not Flutters at least, but… As soon as everypony is happy and back into the friendly mode, I’m satisfied!” She glanced at him meaningfully. “Come on, Pinkie… Hush down please,” pleaded Alex, seeing the shocked expression freezing on Miss Cheerilee’s muzzle. “Merlin’s pants! How many ponies are informed in detail already? I… I mean that we don’t make it the secret behind seven seals, but not advertising it at every corner either!” To her honour, miss Cheerilee regained her composure fast enough. “Well, it’s not my field to judge…” she shook her head, blinking fast and producing a tiny polite smile. “As long as everypony involved is fine with that, as miss Pie said.” “Yeah, ya three are going to rock some minds, bet on that, partner,” giggled Applejack, winking to Alex. “Ah can imagine the face of princess Celestia, when…” she snorted again. “Somehow, I doubt that she is uninformed,” Alex said with empasized dryness, which only amused both girls even more. “Still then?” he turned to Pinkie. “Well, me and Jackie, as you see…” Pinkie rolled her eyes remembering, or maybe surprised that Alex was bothered by such trivia. “I’m sure, Shy mentioned it to Dash… or Rainbow stuck to her, seeing the change of mood. If you think Celestia knows everything, then I’m sure that Twilight does as well… or you told her already – you two book-heads getting along that nicely,” she raised an eyebrow. “Come on, Alex! Why are you so jumpy about that? Everypony will know… sooner or later,” Pinkie blew a raspberry, surprised by his sudden slow-wittedness. Alex could only grunt dumbfoundedly; miss Cheerilee either coughed or chuckled. “What Ah know,” uttered Applejack with a wide grin, “is that Rarity will be beside herself because of that decision! When the situation was in limbo, she could try to plough her own garden bed; now though, her chances became below minimal. Right, partner?” ‘Let’s start from her chances never were higher than minimal,’ thought Alex and muttered. “I bet that won’t stop that Rarity I know…” The thought about the inevitable maintenance job for Rarity’s generator – at the face of approaching winter, a complex of preserving operations was necessary – now looked more of a minefield. “Hey, Ah left my stall onto Big Mac to catch you specifically,” as if reading Alex’s mind, Applejack remembered suddenly. “Wanted to ask ya for a favour. You can guess, sugarcube – the windmills, generators and all yar technical mumbo-jumbo need some maintenance before the real frost comes. As for the anti-fruit bat buzzers, Ah think we can simply stop them completely, till the next season, right?” “Know what?” Alex’s face brightened with the salvatory idea. “I’d rather start with your request, Jackie!” ‘That gives me time to form a strategy much needed for dealing with our overly inspired fashionista,’ lit in his mind. “Maybe even tomorro-OH!” Somepony almost bumped into Alex’s back. With a perplexed expression, he started turning – they specifically got away from most ponies path and, except a couple of old mares, nopony grumbled about their company blocking the road. The look of the familiar minty fluffball quickly turned it into a smile. “Lyra!” “Hmmm… Surrounded by some mares as usual…” not losing her breath at all, Lyra Heartstrings noticed casually, almost as if for herself solely, bemusing Alex again. As colour slowly gained his cheeks up to his nose, Pinkie and Applejack started giggling and even miss Cheerilee let out a little smile. “I have a message for you, Alex,” not confused a iota, Lyra continued as if nothing happened. “I passed the Library and… looked in on Twilight’s light and…” “And… Wow, man, that pony helmet looks dreadful and… awesome at the same time,” the sparks of excitement and almost maniacal inspiration lit in Lyra’s eyes so suddenly, that Alex even stepped back a bit. Others simply blinked at that unsuspected change of the subject. “I was at the Oceanarium in Manehattan once… Well, that thing reminded me of the Hammerhead shark’s head. You and Rainstorm, what are you guys plotting?!” “Ahem…” Alex patted the minty mare on the shoulder cautiously. “Methinks we started that thou had some message for me…” “Oh… Well… You’ll tell me later then, right?!” looking as if she was pulled out of the dream sequence, Lyra glanced at him more meaningfully. “Well… Yeah… When I was there,” another sparkle ran through her sight shortly, “Twilight got a letter regarding the foals – young Sunflowers you and Fluttershy took temporary custody of…” “Yeah, yeah, I’m listening,” freezing inwardly from the foreseen reply, Alex impatiently pulled Lyra away from the mental images of his work he didn’t hide away again shortsightedly. “What about them?” “In brief, they have contacted Sunflowers’ aunt,” gave up Lyra. “As far as I remember, she is rounding up with her business and plans to come with the nearest Crystal Express to take the foals with her. So, Twilight asked me to find you and tell that…” ‘And what else did you expect?’ Despite he was inwardly preparing himself for something alike, Alex’s face turned to stone. Lyra kept telling something, but he looked detached. The rest of the mares turned sympathetically silent. Alex woke up from a light touch on his arm, seeing miss Cheerilee leaning to him, stroking his hand lightly with her fore hoof. “If you don’t mind an advice,” she said quietly, so only Alex could hear. “If I were you, I would have started doing everything you planned for them, losing no time. I mean, visit the bakery and so on…” Swallowing a lump, Alex quickly nodded. * “Something is bothering you, Alex, right?” the unicorn blacksmith sank on the porch step quietly. Seeing that the human barely nodded while his eyes were still watching something in the nearest galaxy, Willsmash continued. “You were always vivid and positive, optimistic when it failed the rest of us… And the last few days you look… lost, yeah, lost is the word. Doing your work well, concentrated on it as usual, but some spark is visibly missing. While the movements are perfect to automatism, you look somewhere inside most of the time. May I know what’s the trouble?” For a while, Alex kept watching the gloomy low skies, as if he missed the question asked on a couple of foot distance from his ear. Changing their colours from the light-grey (very few spots were of that one, to be honest) to the various sorts of dark steel, soil, raven-wing black and so on, the heavy clouds slowly drawled along. Overloaded with rain or maybe even snow already and definitely armed with some stormy charges, they didn’t hurry to deliver their freight. As if they knew that nothing and nopony (even the weather pegasi didn’t interfere into that seasonal process) would prevent their slow cruising from seemingly the Frozen North itself directly towards the broad fields and orchards of Appleloosa, the cloudy ridges of Las Pegasus, the rainforests and swamps of Thumpa. Or maybe they realized the futility of their mission at least then in November when the great forest of Everfree still stood at their way with its impenetrable barrier of warmer air. Everfree lived by its own rules and made the cold, cloudy fronts split or go around it till early winter. The rare snowflakes, swept by the wind from the slowly rolling cloudy freight cars, danced, swirling slowly in the cool air. They avoided entering only the wide column of the hot air, visibly flowing and flickering over the neck of lazily breathing smelter on stand-by – igniting and heating up the device every morning was harder than keeping it constantly at the low fire. The never-ceasing now scent of heated metal and oil was interrupted by the smell of autumn even at the smithy yard. The slight wind only brought it there, unable to drive away the natural smithy breath or bother noticeably the withered browned grass, which forcelessly leaned to the ground, sending a grass blade or two fly away from time to time. “And I still think that it’s not the weather!” noticed Willsmash. “Yeah, Uncle Will,” finally Alex emerged from his thoughts, glancing at the blacksmith over the shoulder. “There is a problem! A certain puzzle I’m unable to solve, no matter how I try…” “Well, I’m all ears if you’re ready to tell…” the old blacksmith squinted his eye slyly. “They neigh that the problem becomes twice lighter if shared between two.” “For now, it’s more like boring complaints,” chuckled Alex. “But anyway, as we have finished our work for today. Thanks, Uncle Will!” “I guess the problem is not of technical nature, otherwise, you would have already solved it, Alex… or addressed me,” Willsmash looked at him completely seriously. “It’s hard to tell,” Alex shrugged almost guiltily; everything told that the problem was pestering him. “I believe it is at least partially technical… while it looks… Well, you’ll see yourself,” he shook his head. “After the accident on the farm, I was to follow the foals, Fluttershy and the guards to Canterlot on my own. They all were utterly surprised to see me that soon, as they teleported there in several… hops. So, we counted the timing and it turned out I travelled about three hundred miles in twenty minutes!” “Oh…” mister Steel even grunted unwittingly. “Yeah… A few of us couldn’t have been mistaken the same way. So, that meant that I crossed…” “…the sonic barrier!” Willsmash finished for him with a smile. “Or, better say… the wings did,” Alex rolled his eyes. “I’d have thought that it was total nonsense, but was to give up to the evidence.” “Later, several days ago, the same thing happened during our with Luna training duel,” Alex added after a long pause – he was watching the waltzing snowflakes reaching the ground and ceasing, melting and sinking into the soil. “I… they…” he shrugged with his shoulders and wings both (the gesture, which earth ponies and unicorns always found amusing). “They rather. They did it again and I was able to go around or approach her faster than Luna was capable to notice. Even if the result was dubious, I practically finished the duel that way.” “So?” Willsmash thought that he guessed the roots of Alex’s problem, but preferred to get everything from the first hands. “To cut things short,” Alex cupped his chin musingly, staring into the distance again, “I can’t get the same result during the usual flying. No matter how hard I try… Even during the hardest training, I fly maybe a bit faster than I usually did.” “In that duel… I thought my lungs would rip apart when I darted past Luna. By that sign, I’d say the speed of sound was topped considerably. Nothing alike during my attempts to repeat that,” added he regretfully. The old unicorn nodded. “You see, Uncle Will, that would be a wonderful advantage. Flying is the only fast enough method of travelling across Equestria for me,” elaborated Alex. “The faster, the better, as I found out myself that the ends here are far between each other.” “And judging by the increasing numbers of the Seekers related incidents, soon I will need every advantage possible,” muttered Alex after a second. “So, you think you need to get full control over that ability…” Willsmash ruffled from the specifically cool gust of wind, then glanced at Alex pensively. “For now, it looks as if the wings decide for you both whether you need to move faster or not. Hmmm… Interesting,” he smirked at some idea. “It turns out that you can… boost up when the reason is crucial and urgent. Be it your own subconscious or, as you consider it to be, your wings “separate will”!” “Yeah, exactly when I thought that we agreed to act accordingly with them, for we are the single creature, at the end of the day,” Alex let out a short laughter, his eyes still sadly searched for something at the horizon, “they decided to act on their own again.” “Even if! You are the head still!” Willsmash ruffled his moustache; seeing that Alex lingers to catch up, he elaborated. “That will probably work exactly that way if you envision it that way; doesn’t matter if the result is as desired. All you need, son, perhaps is to… believe that your case is urgent and thus “convince” your wings to contribute.” “Hmmm… It’s not unexpected, but is eccentric enough… that it may actually work!” Alex let out a smile. “Everything is in my head, you say?!” “More or less,” nodded the blacksmith seriously. “The power of belief, moreover, conviction isn’t to be neglected. I found it out myself… the hard way,” he gloomed for a moment, then shook away the thought, adding softly. “Something tells me that it’s not the only thing burdening you,” Willsmash threw a studying gaze at the looking absently human. “It is a mere temporary inconvenience while you are concerned by something deeper, son. Right?” “You’re quite observant, Uncle Will… As usual!” Alex downcasted. “There is… one more… thing.” He scratched his nape with a heavy sigh, then said with a wry smile. “Auntie Crystal” is arriving in a couple of days…” Incomprehension turned into realization on the unicorn’s muzzle as the blacksmith savvied, whom Alex was talking about. Willsmash bit his lip understandingly. “Yeah,” grimaced Alex. “Not that I didn’t know that it would happen eventually. And it’s the correct thing to do, de jure and de facto – Storm and Aurora will be better with their own aunt. But… de facto, something feels wrong… empty about all that.” “As you might have guessed, Uncle Will, I didn’t take the foals with me today not because of the weather!” with a sad smile, Alex turned to Willsmash. “I thought about letting them spend more time with Shy, as otherwise she sees them mostly after the sunset…” “Crystal Chime will most likely take them to the Crystal Empire…” he said simply. “An obvious way out methinks. Their parents’ condition is far from acceptable to be observed by the foals, let alone enjoyable. The prognosis is positive, but still… Storm and Aurora better spend some time with their aunt, to return home when… when there is home for them here again.” At these words, Alex pursed his lips tightly. ‘Liar! There was home for them here as much as we could provide…’ but he stifled that inside, adding instead. “Alas, we both got attached to the foals much… We’re not the best example of… Nah! Anyway… I can’t tell, what the morrow would bring most of the time, so…” “Of course, I try not to show them my thoughts…” Alex squeezed out a smile. The blacksmith listened to him silently, crossing his fore legs on his chest; he looked submerged into some memories of his own. Willsmash’s breath curled into the small clouds of steam in the chilly November air. “I may sound banal,” finally started he quietly, “but so be it, I don’t care. Sometimes, Alex, the circumstances are way stronger than us. But, life taught me that not all of them need to be fought against ruthlessly.” “Let’s take the wars for example,” elaborated Willsmash. “When I attended the army, the possibility of a war was obvious. But, like many ponies, I took it exactly as possible – somewhere, someday – not imminent.” Alex nodded, following the course of the unicorn’s thoughts. “When it comes,” Willsmash shrugged casually, “one can do nothing about that fact. You simply choose your side and fight for what you see worth. I want to talk about the consequences rather.” “You know, son, because of that war I lost more than an eye… or the reputation…” the old blacksmith’s eye squinted into the distance, seemingly disparately longer than the seen horizon. ‘The totally different future for me, I miss and at the same time let go easily, looking at Silver Ingot now!’ thought he. “The latter, I believe, can be restored in entirety!” ardently inserted Alex. Willsmash Steel let out a small smile. “Even if not, that’s not the most important thing in my life. When I think about Silver Ingot, I bless the way things had gone. Dreading to simply think, what could have happened to her, if we didn’t cross at the right moment.” “Moreover, I would have probably changed something about my life if I could… only a year ago,” added Willsmash. “But I wouldn’t now, Alex. I’m more than thankful for what we have right now and here. How would it be otherwise? Well, I don’t want to speculate on that, honestly.” The blacksmith fell silent: they both thought of something personal, of the inevitability of possibilities. The first meeting with Fluttershy rolled over again and again in Alex’s head. “Sometimes… things need to get worse to get better finally!” uttered Willsmash with a sigh. The old blacksmith looked weighing an idea to share something; Alex held his breath – that was going to be something inmost. The cold rain fell and fell; starting in the early morning, it watered the mountain gorge, changing only its intensity, not ceasing completely for a minute. It seemed that the skies ripped open and were going to flood the land below mercilessly. Wherever the gaze reached, the grey clouds spewed the torrents of grey water – it was likely the same higher in the mountains, considering the high and sharp peaks were perfectly able to pierce the cloudy cisterns. Thus the shallow stony stream, squeezed tightly by the cliffs at the gorge bottom, quickly turned into the roaring flow, which picked and dragged even the large stones with it. The elements on the ground refused to stand behind the heavenly ones and raged endlessly in that competition. To the afternoon, the stream occupied hardly less than one-third of the canyon depth; a bit higher, and the suddenly gone rabid, stone crushing water would provide visible danger to the high metal openwork bridge, connecting the edges of that huge ground wrinkle and the crucially important road above. That road was the only one strategic transport artery for the many miles around between those mountains and the further desert; dashing between the dunes and cactuses, straight as an arrow, it lead directly to cultivated fields and fruitful gardens of Appleloosa. No wonder that it was an aim and the desired prize for the advancing army of Changelings: once again, their queen Chrysalis decided to claim more land, more riches of Equestria and more cheerful, happy, loving ponies to let her coldhearted minions feast upon. The main forces were still far behind, but a small scout party of mica-winged, cheese-legged pony-bugs was sent to take the bridge over the cliffy canyon and keep it under control until the entire horde arrived. Realizing that the Changelings just had to get over that single narrow crossing to widely spread across the entire plateau like the flow of omnivorous locusts, the Equestrian command took the only feasible in the given circumstances decision. Thankfully, the small population of the borderlands was providently evacuated as soon as the first intelligence about planned irruption had come. A small but well-prepared squad of equestrian guards was sent towards the metalwork bridge for the tactical strike. Otherwise, it would become immensely more problematic to suppress the spreading invaders and the losses would be incomparably larger. The squad reached their destination point on the eve night. Entrenching on their edge of the canyon, they planned to perform a sortie to the other side in the morning. The latter turned out a fatal decision. The coal-dark moonless night passed peacefully, without any surprises, thus at the crack of the dawn, the guards moved out to encamp on the far edge and start their work from the far end of the bridge. According to the intelligence, the changelings were in the two-day-march distance. The dense fog raised from the bottom of the gorge, born by the cold waters running below; clouds curtained the entire sky, hiding the sun from the view and pouring the endless dull rain – the visibility constantly degraded as the new and new watering echelons arrived. The very moment the pony squad crossed the bridge, the changelings struck! “Small” always differed for the equestrian and changelings’ sides: the bug-butts scout party they encountered was four times more numerous than the pony squad, even by the most humble evaluation. The fight was fierce but short! For a few minutes, the shouts and magical flashes, followed by explosions flooded the canyon, countlessly reflecting on its sharp cliffs and stone caves and slowly dying far away in the grey haze. Everything came to an end very shortly under the overwhelming enemy force. Only the whisper of the rain and the distant noise of the water below were disturbing the dead silence falling on the cliffs again. The changelings acted more cautiously: discouraged by the visibility tending to zero or by the sudden enemy squad (they had no idea how many of the pony guards might be on the other side nearby), they decided to entrench and hold by any means possible their edge of the gorge, waiting for the main forces to arrive and taking down anypony entering the bridge from the equestrian side. Quickly dragging away the bodies and cleaning the area in front of the crossing, the bug-butts set up a camp, hiding from the chill and rioting elements. As if lamenting the violent act, which took place between those mountains, the streams of rain showered persistently the mossy stones and ground. Probably after the noon – it was hard to tell, due to the entire sky veiled and the sun looking only a lighter spot on the cloudy surface when it was turning thinner for a short while – the trickles of water reached the bottom of the shallow pit filled with the bodies of the defeated pony guards. ‘Am I dead?’ lit in the head of the unicorn stallion coming to senses. ‘Then… Why is Tartarus so cold… and moist… And cramped!’ It was also too dark for Tartarus according to his conception of that eternal place of rejected souls’ confinement. Finally, the unicorn could feel his entire body, happily concluding that it seemed intact, but utterly surprised by the fact he still had any. That and the mere sensation that he could barely move any extremity due to the constant feel of the pressure around made the unicorn suspect that he was probably still in the land of the living. The surmise that he could have been buried alive, taking as perished by some horrible mistake, made the young soldier shudder in terror. The unicorn jerked, doing his best to try and feel something around to find out, where exactly he got. Little by little, he could free one of his fore legs and cautiously palpate the stifling void in front of him. The next feeling almost made him faint again in the fit of horror, as his conscious was yet weak enough for the experiences alike: under his seeking touch, the darkness took shape of the hoof, followed by the ice-cold leg, then metal plating. The latter was recognized by the unicorn as the Guard armour. Freezing for a moment to calm down the heart quivering somewhere near his throat, the stallion made another attempt of reconnaissance – nearly the same was everywhere his fore hoof could reach. The only feasible explanation was that he ended in the one pit with his squad-mates dead bodies, but turned out to be still alive by some miraculous luck. ‘Was it luck indeed?!’ glimpsed in his mind at the edge of insanity. ‘The last thing I can remember,’ the stallion forced himself to hold back the shivers, which tried to shake him uncontrollably for a moment, ‘was the blinding-bright flash hitting the ground nearby.’ Upon the second thought, he decided that it was some spell turning misaimed when one of his fellow unicorns was taken down by the attackers. The darkness dusked upon the stallion right after that flash; most likely, he was contused by the close impact, thus perceived as dead by the changelings and moved away with the rest of the bodies. On the one hoof, that was some sheer luck that he could breathe still. On the other hoof, nopony knew what waited for him above. With another shudder, he preferred to hope that it wasn’t a thick layer of the ground covering the improvised grave. However… ‘I can still breathe!’ beamed in his mind. ‘And could breathe for probably a long while, before the rain trailed down to wake me. That unfortunate gutter I fell into couldn’t be very deep…’ The smells of soil, water and wet moss took over the fumes and blood; they finally persuaded the unicorn that he was alive and therefore not ready to be buried. The nearest aim was to climb out that pit by every means possible, then… ‘Then I’ll look,’ decided he, one by one pulling his legs out of the blood-chilling captivity and trying to position himself vertically at least. ‘Need to be extremely careful – I don’t want to reveal myself to the bug-butts!’ Fighting the lump, choking him and forcedly stifling the tears – he knew well each of those silent corpses obstructing his path to freedom when they were his still breathing companions and friends – the unicorn inched to the surface. It seemed an hour to pass before the muffled sounds of rain and rare thunder strikes reached his hearing; the drops of rain trailed down his muzzle in thin cold streams. The last part appeared to be the hardest: climbing outside was very risky and the stallion prayed for the pit to be far enough from the camping changelings. First his fore hooves, then the horn finally felt the chill humidity. The dim, rain-veiled light blinded the unicorn for a moment; the air outside seemed enravishing and sweet, despite it smelled of mossy stones and water only. The lucky guard froze for a while; pretending to be an integral part of this horrid slaughter for occasional foreign eye, he took a breath and cautiously peered into the dense fog flooding the area. The wind was bringing the quiet distant voices: thankfully, the changelings entrenched far enough to spot at once one of their victims turning to life and escaping. ‘I need to hide somewhere before they feel my presence!’ the stallion jerked faster, freeing the rest of him from that crude mass grave. ‘Bastards!’ he made an effort not to say that aloud when he took a look over the entire scene. To his luck, the snide enemies didn’t even burden themselves to properly cover the bodies with ground or stones: they did not care, going to pass that place like a devastating hurricane. Nevertheless, to continue surviving, the unicorn was to cross that pile of his former fellows anyway. ‘Tartarus!..’ the heart jumped when his glance stopped on the cold, lifeless eyes of another guard, stumbling on that last empty, distant gaze. The unicorn lingered for a second to close those eyes – that was as much as could be done. Later he could never imagine how he could have crawled a couple of yards over the dead mates. Finally rolling to the ground, the stallion felt completely forceless as if his legs suddenly turned limp and jellylike; it took him a couple more minutes to recompose and think straight. However, he needed to get out of sight quickly. The sound of roaring water told him the direction where the edge of the canyon was; staying on the open ground was dangerous even in the fog that dense – the changelings could feel a living pony nearby. Flattening on the stones, the stallion proceeded to the water noise source, listening to the occasional voices every moment; thankfully, nopony even thought to approach – the bug-butts forgot long ago about the enemies they dumped so flippantly. The fog and rain, which probably were among the main reasons his squad got ambushed, now were his main blessing, covering the unicorn’s escape. ‘Sweet Harmony!’ upon reaching the canyon, the stallion was to take a minute: his head started spinning involuntarily at the face of grey space, looking filled with some cotton but actually hiding the considerable depth and sharp uneven cliffs on the bottom. The roar of water overshadowed the rest of the sounds there; the stallion imagined for a second the raging flow scrapping the canyon walls below. ‘What am I supposed to do next?! They would have been nuts if they didn’t secure the bridge entrance from this side!’ His perplexity was rational: even under the cover of the darkest night, it was nearly impossible to sneak past the awake changeling, as the scoundrels easily felt all the bright feelings of the pony folk, feeding on them exactly. The only way, which at least seemed possible, was to try to sneak past the sentries from within the canyon, hoping that the weather, the stone wall and the seeming impossibility of that manoeuvre (for every sane creature at least) would provide temporary protection. The stallion remembered about a narrow maintenance tunnel – they saw on the eve, examining the bridge from another side – more like reliable scaffolding at some parts. Supposedly, it came under the entire bridge from one canyon edge to another. That was his only chance to cross unnoticed. If only he could get down the canyon wall a little and crawl to the nearest bridge support. However, the omnipresent humidity made that plan quite dangerous – large and small mossy stones became quite slippery. “Celestia! I’m not some mountain-goat…” he even whispered aloud, looking over the edge, the danger of falling off a cliff was at that moment incomparably more palpable than the chance to be heard by the enemy. ‘How am I even supposed to hold on to that with my hooves?!’ For his sheer luck, the gorge sides were not that smooth with rock strata revealed by wind, numerous gullies and potholes, rare crooked bushes and roots protruding from the wall and snaking on its surface. Nevertheless, the unicorn’s heart was beating somewhere between his ears when he carefully rolled over the edge and started slowly descending, probing each point he was going to rest his hoof at twice or even thrice. ‘Damn it!’ inwardly swore the stallion; he was to move slowly, doing his best to control the hardening breath and trying not to think how his manoeuvre could look for the foreign eye. A pony sprawled on the steep, slippery rock wall, creeping sideways like some insane bat! That should even look hilarious if it wasn’t that deadly. ‘Every sound can kill me… if the wet cliffs don’t do it earlier!’ the stallion listened to the crackling of the rock, forced to scrape off the moss sometimes to be able to step further. So far, the sounds following his risky endeavour fell into the gamma, one could hear in the mountains on a day with the weather that nasty. Protruding from the wall a few feet below, a narrow stony ledge looked for him the celestial blessing: rock stratum went into the mist as far as the eye could pick and was to reach the bridge supposedly. At least the guard, who started feeling each of his muscles to that moment, wanted to hope so. As thin and slippery as it was, that natural perch still gave minimal support for his strained hind legs. Deciding that he had descended enough to stay unnoticed, the unicorn began to move along the wall horizontally, as soon as he made sure that the ledge could bear his weight. Even so, he moved only one leg at a time, placing his hind legs widely apart and carefully checking the spot before shifting his weight to that support. ‘That won’t play out well!’ thought the stallion, taking a minute rest – the muffled voices sounded closer and closer; he was approaching the bridge even if he couldn’t see it because of the fog. ‘I need to undertake something for the bug-butts to overlook my escape…’ Remembering that the changelings felt the rest of the ponies mostly by their bright feelings presence, the unicorn shuddered inwardly at the thought of what possibly could make him pass the patrols unnoticed. ‘It’s only theory, but… suppressing all these may turn me invisible for their senses,’ beamed in his mind. ‘For that though… Oh, Celestia! How can I manage that and still not fall?..’ he closed his eyes for a moment, realizing that his only chance was to drive all the bright feelings away, imagine something so unnerving to make himself almost desperate. Therefore his last question was as relevant as possible. Shivering at the necessity to torture himself so mercilessly, the unicorn tried to imagine himself failing his task. ‘There his dead crumpled body lying limp on the bottom cliffs, the changelings’ army arrives and marches across the bridge, widely spreading on the other side and taking the road to Appleloosa… and then city by city, town by town, village by village – to Canterlot!’ At that image, his back turned burning hot immediately and the cold sweat covered his forehead. The speed of advance decreased by half; the only other thought was to keep himself on the narrow ledge and still moving. Slowly, clumsily, as if he suddenly turned a couple of hundred years older, but still moving. The view of the bridge openwork constructions emerging from the foggy veil was so shockingly hopeful, that the stallion closed his eyes, diligently visualizing the sharp cliffs washed by raging waters to dispel any encouraging thought. It wasn’t the right time for them! Making his task easier, the rocky strata he was limping along ended right near the edge of the support, not under its salvatory shadow. The stallion hardly needed to fake the despair now – climbing up on the unreliable gorge side, almost in the open view of the changelings above, seemed an impossible mission. The ascent felt as if it was taking an eternity for the soldier; his every muscle, probably every cell of his body ached to the end of it, trying not to utter a single crackle, not to kick a single stone off the wall. The stallion felt like a time-worn rag when his fore hooves finally reached the long-awaited metal of the openwork constructions. By the time he could climb on them, he mentally added another hundred years to his perceived age and seemed as if not having any feelings at all. The stallion already saw the hatch leading to the maintenance tunnel from this side of the bridge, trying to not thank the universe for that, as it would be undoubtedly a bright impulse, when one of his strained legs met the metalwork with a distinct sound of a hoof on the metal. The guard froze that very moment, holding on to the constructions with the remaining strength and listening while dying inwardly. “Hey! You heard that?” expectedly reached his ears from above. A quiet, almost hissing voice dropped silent, as the guarding the bridge changelings tried to catch anything else. In the silence, disturbed only by waters and wind in the canyon, the phrase sounded as if the speaker was next to the hiding guard. “Swear on my head, it was a metal clank!” “Let’s check the bridge,” replied another voice with the same hissing tones. “Maybe some of the fluff-heads remained and tries to sneak on us from the other side. Or maybe it was the bridge crackling from the weather…” added it with a tint of boredom. The goddess of luck, if there ever was such, definitely favoured the unicorn that day. Keeping quiet as a mouse, he heard, how the slow cautious hoofsteps approached the bridge above his head and stomped on its echoing surface. After a short pause, while the sentries above tried to hear some other sound and the unicorn below did his best to pretend to be just another of the bridge constructions, the changelings moved forward. With his trembling fore legs – he didn’t dare to use magic so close to the sensitive enemy – the stallion was opening the hatch, trying to move it in the unison with clanking steps above. He fixed it open and almost fell inside the maintenance tunnel. The body immediately turned into some sort of strange pony jelly; he lay completely senseless for a while, not finding strength even for trembling as the overworked extremities seemed to be made of lead suitable for the forge only. After the indefinite period of time, by the monstrous urge of will, he made himself raise the head and move forward. The rest of the path took him almost half an hour, as the stallion was to belly crawl in the complete darkness, cautiously feeling the surface in front of him and stopping from time to time to listen if nopony was chasing him. The farther the muffled sounds remained, the easier his way became. He almost bumped into the closed hatch on the other side. “Please, let it be unlocked! Oh! Thank Celestia…” it was a feeling stronger than him; the unicorn gave no damn about being noticed when he prayed. The metal cover gave up and opened, letting in the fresh air and light; the latter blinded the stallion for the second time that day, but he was out of his mind from happiness. Flopping out of the tunnel on the sloping mountain side, the stallion snuggled to the rock wall like to the mother’s chest; tears of mixed relief and sorrow trailed from his eyes unwittingly. ‘Escaped!.. Escaped?! Finally escaped! Sweet Harmony!!!’ Recomposing after a while, the stallion climbed out of the canyon and leaned on the large roadside rock, taking a breath. The road to Appleloosa was straight ahead; squeezed between the mountains, it exited to the desert a few miles away. He didn’t feel the additional hundreds of years anymore. But… The stallion looked over the shoulder. The bridge barely fancied through the fog. Judging by the light, as much as there was, a few hours still remained till the sunset. The lonely unicorn guard took thought. Except for his dead body on the canyon rocks, all the horrific images he painted in the mind to pass the changelings unnoticed we still possible in the nearest future. Battles, losses, devastated villages, death… ‘Well! We will see then!’ the stallion smirked. ‘I’m still a part of my squad!’ squinted he meaningfully. As such, he knew where the hidden stash of explosives they promptly left before the sortie was. As a blacksmith in his civilian life, he knew the weak spots, the strain vectors, the points of load concentration… the places to position the charges for the maximum damage! Trotting faster and faster, the unicorn hurried up the mountain side towards the small cave. The next several hours were the hardest for him. As exhausted and psychologically devastated as he was, the stallion was to stand probably the most important battle since his birth – staying awake till the nightfall was crucial for him. ‘Let yourself close your eyes for a second and you’re screwed!’ repeated he inwardly. ‘There won’t be any way back or another chance, mate!’ The nasty dull rain fell and fell. Unable to spoil the charges carefully hidden in the small dry cave, it was trying its worse to lull the unicorn. To stay awake, the guard gathered a load of small and large sharp stones and paved himself the most uncomfortable and hardest bed he could imagine. Laying on it, even in a dry place and relative warmth, was extremely unpleasant, but at least each time his head made an attempt to nod in, it cocked up immediately, unable to find a feasible spot to rest. His only concern was to keep enough strength in his tired muscles to complete his mission, as his current position didn’t provide any relaxation. There was nothing else he could do – returning to the bridge during the daylight, let alone doing something with it involving magic, wasn’t the smartest thing to undertake. The first thing he did, returning to the cave, was taking his armour off. With all the seeming irrationality of that, it was the smartest choice: being spotted by the prevailing enemy, the stallion wouldn’t benefit from the armour, otherwise carrying any excessive weight was futile, considering what he planned to do. ‘It’ll be another story when the night falls,’ thought the unicorn. ‘Most of the changelings will fall asleep, the rest won’t be very sharp either!’ he remembered the strange trait of those bug-ponies to become stiff when darkness and especially chill fell – there was a reason they stuck to the south, despite the Badlands were less than a fancy place to live. ‘If I keep as low and discreet as I can, this may play out as intended…’ Nothing changed after the sunset: the rain kept falling, increasing the humidity to the perceptible level; the clouds overshadowed the sky seemingly in two or three layers at once. Thus no moon lit the path of a single pony cautiously heading back to the bridge, carrying the heavy saddle bags of some load. ‘Thank Celestia, it’s quite warm still,’ the stallion glanced at the fog forming the drops of water, settling as tiny silvery spheres on his coat. ‘But the temperature is decreasing! If I succeed… Drop it, soldier! [b]When[/b] I succeed, I need to be moving fast, not to freeze till morning.’ Barely discernible in the falling darkness, the bridge was empty and silent. Only its far end was faintly lit by the distant campfire. The changelings reacted the chill and humidity worse and, staying for the night, were to seek the means of keeping at least some warmth. The unicorn strained his eyes: a couple of smudged shadows sleepily moved in the circle of light; the crossing itself was practically unguarded. With a wry grin, he started descending accurately under the bridge leaf – the later his actions were spotted, the better. ‘The best – if not spotted at all… before it’s too late!’ thought the compelled saboteur, looking for a flat spot on the mountain side. ‘Okay!’ the stallion inhaled, levitating the heavy bags down to the stony platform and taking a look over the dark constructions. ‘Don’t know how I manage it alone, but…’ To his sheer luck, the falling temperature made most of the fog in the gorge condense by this hour. Safely hidden in the wide shadow of the bridge, the unicorn started implementing his plan. The first oblong charge floated to the desired place: the aura holding the object was the weakest possible, not to be spotted by an occasional observer; however, the light it gave was enough to see the nearest metalwork. Thus the guard perfectly knew where to place his gift. That was the moment his former knowledge came to the full application again. Each new charge was placed at the crucial place: beam conjunctions, where three or more of them were fixed with multiple bolts, several points across the arcs supporting the bridge leaf, a couple of charges right under the far edge of the crossing, to reliably cut it off the canyon wall. The mines were relatively small but weighty. The stallion could avoid skimping them – there was nothing he could apply the explosives to anyway – each one would do its job perfectly when going off. Realizing that he could never manage to set the chain interconnection of the planted charges singlehornedly, the stallion was to go with the separate cord for each one. He cut the cords short enough, not to give the enemy time to undertake anything, still within the certain plan. Thus the farthest charges had the longest cords, the closer – the shorter. Ideally, that would let him set all of them off almost simultaneously and still gave about two minutes of time to leave the impact zone safely. With all the precaution and pauses, when he froze, making the next charge stop floating in the damp air, to listen if nopony was patrolling the bridge, it took him a few hours to position all the explosives properly. A couple of times, the stallion thought that he was about to get caught by the changelings: once the charge met the beam with an audible clank, amplified by the night gorge and hardly muffled by the stream raging below, the next time something clipped off the construction and fell when he fixed the charge in place. Most likely a nut rusted off and fell from its junction point – the stallion shook his head in reproach. It was way past midnight when the job was finally done. Unnoticed and undisturbed by the enemy, the stallion sat on the emptied now saddle bags and took a breath, observing the work of his magic and hooves. Listening to the night, he was surprised by the sudden silence: even the waters at the bottom of the bridge sounded distant, not so standing out. The night seemed to be freezing in anticipation. In anticipation and fear of what should follow shortly. ‘Well… The moment of truth!’ the stallion inhaled the full chest of the smelling of water and moss darkness. Seconds later the series of magical sparks floated to the placed charges one by one: first to the further ones, then closer and closer to the place he was hiding. The unicorn used the promptly made difference in cord length. Ensuring that all the crucial points lit throwing around small sparkles with the quiet fizz, he hurried up the mountain side, leaving his cover. Maybe they heard the cords burning, maybe some sixth sense alerted the changelings, but some concerned activity started at the other end of the bridge. A few worried shouts echoed in the distance; somepony already trotted on the bridge, clanking on its metal surface. The unicorn didn’t even look back – he was sure that nopony spotted him; besides the time was extremely short. Almost galloping, with his remaining strength, the stallion reached the road side and rolled over the large overhanging rock, hiding under its protection right at the moment the night became bright as the day. He could be proud of his work – the charges set off almost simultaneously. The darkness blasted into thousands of shards! The bridge, enveloped in the several roaring globes of fire, ceased to exist in less than a second, taking those who tried to cross it. The rocks boomed, echoing the explosion and making the unicorn crouch lower, as the blood-chilling rain of sharp debris showered the road and the mountains in front of his view – his cover turned very useful for one not wanting to become a metal stake impaled stew. When the shockwave passed, the unicorn climbed out from that nook and trotted along the road, away from that place. The canyon still flickered brightly behind. A single glance over the shoulder told him that the remaining bridge constructions were blazing like a bunch of dry matches in the flames of the special highly effective thermite additive, containing in the used charges. A few dark shadows helplessly bustled at the other side of the gorge, looking smudged against the giant fire. The unicorn smirked and, with the last bit of strength, hurried along the road between the mountains, while the night still crackled and hissed, burning out behind. It took him two hours more to reach the desert. In the face of the vast, sandy with rare and mostly thorny vegetation surface, which started being painted pink by the rising sun, he let out an exhausted smile. Almost falling off hooves, unable to see well from the colourful spots floating in his eyes, the young guard of Equestrian army, Willsmash Steel limped to the roadside and almost fell in the shadow of the large rock, leaning to its western side. Even before touching it, he drifted into the dreamless sleep resembling more the fainting of exhaustion. “It appeared that I slept for more than a day, son,” chuckled Willsmash, throwing a glance at silent Alex. “I have no idea how I wasn’t found by any of the predators common for that area. Guess that was another example of unimaginable luck. That way exactly, I was found by the arriving main forces of the Equestrian army.” “So… That’s not when you… When…” Alex stumbled, barely nodding and gesturing with his glance towards mister Steel’s muzzle. “Sorry, Uncle Will…” “No, that’s another story,” the blacksmith shrugged with a tiny smile. “However, not very distant from the first one. A month later, when I fully recovered and returned back to duty, we were sent northwest along the border. To another of a few places the enemy army could use to infiltrate Equestrian territory effectively.” “You know,” added Willsmash, “contrary to popular belief, not all the changelings – I’d rather say less than one-fourth of them can really fly. Thus for them, the mountains always were as much of an obstacle as for most of the ponies. And magic is a complex thing anyway, so…” Seeing that Alex kept sitting silently and expectantly, the old blacksmith sighed and continued sadly. “The next episode wasn’t nearly exciting. Although, we can call any of it exciting only sitting here in safety…” Alex nodded, thinking gloomily about something. “…that was the one I left the army after,” said Willsmash. “Not much to tell about indeed.” “In brief, I was to trade off a few lives to save a few thousand,” he gave up after a silent minute. “But that didn’t make the choice easier or… nobler. I was leading a unit already,” the old unicorn let out another sigh. “The command decided that the previous operation was a success, despite the losses from our side. Huh! It was a miracle only in terms that I survived. The rest though…” Willsmash pursed his lips. “How on Equus…” started Alex; he stumbled confusedly. “The command was reasonable, evaluating your acts, Uncle Will… But…” “You mean, why the public opinion of me became so low, Alex?” smirked Willsmash. “I suppose, some still can’t reconcile with the mere fact that I survived… when many didn’t. You see, the common opinion, among the civilians at least, was that I traded to spare my life somehow… Considering there were minimal casualties from the changelings’ side in that episode… maybe they have some weird reasons to think so, I don’t know. The second episode was only one extra reason to strengthen their speculations.” “A month later – I finally recovered and tried to catch up with the daily duties – we were transferred northwest along the border. To support the troops holding another pathway from Badlands to Equestria… The same mountains, same chilly winds, same morning fog, just a little further to the north, thus a bit colder and more deserted. You know, Alex, that’s the part of the continent where the mountains not only cut between our lands but go almost directly from north to south deep into the Badlands – the area not overherded even by Badlands’ standards, not only by Equestrian,” the images of distant past unfolded in front of the old blacksmith’s inner sight as he was telling his story. “It was ten times harder to cross the ridges there than in that bridge area, even for the winged creatures… Even if there was a more or less usable pass.” “I guess, Chrysalis’ plans for that area were based exactly on those supposedly thoughts of the Equestrian command!” Willsmash chuckled sarcastically. “That if the pass was hardly crossable, then it shouldn’t have been guarded heavily… Well, it was almost right! Almost…” “Don’t say that such an obvious hole was underestimated!” Alex rolled his eyes, recognizing some similarities with their current situation. “I don’t know, son,” the unicorn shook his head slowly. “When we arrived, they already blew up and blocked the main passage. But the changelings pushed and pushed. By that moment, there were more wounded – more or less severe – than those capable to fight from our side.” “But it wasn’t the worst thing…” continued Willsmash after a pensive pause. “Civilians! Many of them were in the settlement right below the mountain pass exit. Those who provided garrison supplement and simple farmers, their families…” he grimaced from inward pain and continued. “We reported the situation right upon the arrival, but it would take some time to replenish the ponypower even in the best scenario.” “It was my decision and my responsibility,” added the blacksmith. “Thankfully, the open encounter was impossible. What could sixty guards probably do in that case against the prevailing enemy except die? And I didn’t count the locals at all, my stallions only. The changelings tried to conquer the narrow path in the cliffs remaining there at that moment…” Willsmash fell silent and seemed submerged in his memories to the unfathomable depth, so Alex even wanted to gain his attention politely but the unicorn suddenly continued his story. “I decided to trade a few lives against several thousand… and I have no regrets. Would do that again, as many times as necessary. Yes, Alex, the settlement was that large,” the blacksmith raised the suddenly getting tired glance at the human. “Ten guards remained, including me, to defend that narrow cleft in the rocks. I chose each one myself and… would probably choose the same ones again.” “The rest,” Willsmash let out a tiny smile, “took the wounded and retreated to the town. They were to organize the immediate departure of the civilians.” “But…” Alex wanted to say that slowly retreating farmers would be easy prey for the breaking through changelings anyway. “That is why we were to hold the pass for twenty-four hours at least, more if we were lucky,” Willsmash guessed Alex’s next question. “Twenty four hours was more than enough to prevent the enemy from catching up with them. We knew that reinforcement was on the way, so it wasn’t the act of complete despair… Almost!” half-coughed, half-chuckled the blacksmith. “We held for two days,” simply stated Willsmash. “I witnessed the death of my guys with my own eyes, one by one… With my eye by the end of the first day,” corrected he with a wry face. “By some strange luck, I was the one who survived again… The avant-garde of the advancing reinforcement pulled the detonator from my weakening aura when I was nearly delusional, as they told me later.” “Don’t thou say, Uncle Will, that those two episodes – with their outcome as it was – were exactly the reason for your continuous alienation?” Alex almost shouted, catching himself in time upon that and lowering the tone. “I… I can’t even…” he choked on words. “I’m afraid they were,” simply said Willsmash. “Don’t forget son, those who judged back then didn’t have all the details behind their sight as we do. They had several dead soldiers, one survivor… Twice. The first time, the enemy casualties were minimal… They started suspecting…” “Both times the strategic goal was achieved!” Alex interrupted him. “Both times thy decisions and acts helped to save many more lives than were lost during the missions!” “That’s what we can conclude… seeing the events in their historical perspective,” shrugged the old unicorn. “I suppose for them things looked differently. And the rest… You know, Alex, I’m not even sure that all the ponyvillers know what exactly they “must avoid the Steels” for,” added he with a sad and almost apologetic smile. “That’s exactly it!” Alex inserted ardently. “They don’t know why, but they must avoid you because some no more brains than stone pony said it was the proper thing to do. That thing hath the same roots as the reason making the builders call me an ape… with the only exception that in thy case that madness hath more massive nature.” “I still fail to see thy fault in thine survival, Uncle Will!” added he. “Methinks one extra death wouldn’t make the situation less tragic, on the contrary rather…” “Perhaps, they would have had nopony to blame then,” shrugged Willsmash. “I see your reasons, son, but… try to explain them to the families of the killed in action.” “Personally, I regretted my survival either,” confessed the old blacksmith. “Knowing that it wouldn’t return my ponies, I still preferred to join them… before I found out about my brother and his family, about Silver Ingot… Since the day I started looking after her, seeing her grew from the tiny foal into the pretty girl you know, I never regretted that lucky survival, not any single time again.” “Frankly speaking, I was always sure that I depleted my limit of personal luck for those three cases,” chuckled Willsmash, glancing at Alex slyly. “Survived two times and found out about Silver Ingot, taking custody of her. But shortly after we saw you at our smithy gate, I started thinking that there was a little bit more left.” “Seeing where we are at the moment and how things are playing up for us, I wasn’t wrong!” he winked to the still pondering human. “Methinks the society could have manifested more understanding!” Alex slowly shook his head. “Until recently, your reputation consisted mostly of the rumours they invented themselves about you both… What did Sil do to deserve that, pray tell? Well, I guess this is the vision of those who never sacrificed their lives,” added he scowlingly. “I wasn’t sure if I needed to fight the public opinion,” sighed Willsmash. “Especially as we managed to make it through. Besides, I really felt scratching the bottom of my own luck.” “I extend mine hope we can change things completely anon!” Alex even clenched his fists, infuriated by the ponies stubborn in their speculations. For him, it was enough of a sign that, by the words of Twilight herself, half of the town gathered, guessing about the “fireworks” – their training with Luna – but nopony approached the smithy except Twilight and Fluttershy. Even after many of them cautiously resumed placing orders there. “For each its time!” smirked Willsmash; the old unicorn sat staring into the condensing darkness slightly dispelled by the warm glow – Silver Ingot started turning on the lights in the house. “We can’t predict all the turns, but everything done has its purpose!” He threw a meaningful glance at Alex. “I think you need to be somewhere else already, son. Could bet on them waiting for you back earlier tonight…” “Yeah, Uncle Will, I guess so…” Alex let out a smile, returning to more positive thoughts at the mention of Fluttershy and the foals. He threw a glance at the house behind with its warmly lit windows. “Wish Silver Ingot goodnight for me!” “And… thanks again, Uncle Will!” That came from the darkening skies already, accompanied by the sound of receding wings. * “Here. We. Go!” Alex breathed out, forcing the wrench a bit further down with each word. The bolt gave in a tiny bit and turned with an audible short dry sound, reaching its complete stop. “Solid as a rock!” He removed the wrench and took a critical look over the base of one of the windmill props: one of the four places where the openwork metal frame connected to its counterparts concreted deeply into the ground. Performing the prophylactic maintenance for Rarity’s generator, as he promised, Alex started with checking all the joints and bolts fixing them, examining the entire construction for the possible signs of rust and generally brushing off the dust and fallen leaves from the large frame of the windmill. To do that, he was to fly around, occasionally clinging to the metal frame like a bat and paying each nut and bolt some attention. That level of precaution wasn’t unnecessary, as the windmill was placed amidst the glade in the garden behind Rarity’s house, so its rotor couldn’t catch the twigs and branches of the nearby trees and at the same time was opened to all the winds reaching that place. Naturally, the winds were expected to be strong during the approaching winter, straining the entire construction considerably. Each loose joint became a source of vibration and increasing vibration would yank and loosen the weak bolts more, making the entire construction dangerous. Dust and dirt were simply unwelcome, capable to clog up the moving parts, so was the rust. “Now it’s ready to withstand all the winter surprises,” Alex put away the large wrench. “We need to repaint a couple of spots, there and there!” He pointed at the top of the frame, under the rotor part. “Otherwise, it’s in perfect condition.” Saying that, Alex pondered: the windmill was high enough to peek from between the lush garden trees, thus reaching the top of the frame was a non-trivial task even for a unicorn. With a sigh, he was to admit – he either needed to do it himself or ask one of the pegasi for help. “As you say, darling!” batting her long eyelashes, Rarity cooed sweetly. “I know nothing about your technical stuff, so I trust your judgment as it is, Ahlex!” Sporting two pairs of her best fashionable boots, a short warm jacket with a fluffy collar and a pair of comfy ear-warmers, the white unicorn mare bustled around the working human since morning. Sweetie Belle was at school with her friends, so Rarity could devote all her attention to the one, who, frankly speaking, would prefer to have less of it for his inner tranquillity. To her credit, the glamorous fashionista was of some help either, not only circling around Alex and entertaining him with nonchalant chatter. Unexpectedly, she volunteered to hand him the various wrenches, picking them with her aura from the tool set and levitating to Alex, while he examined the metal frame. That, of course, freed him of the necessity to descend numerously, but at the same time impressed Alex beyond imaginable. He fancied that level of cooperation in the so-called dirty work to be rather suspicious. ‘While much easier physically,’ said Alex to himself, remembering how he performed similar procedure for Applejack with her several generators, water pumps and anti-fruit bat buzzers, ‘the same work hither is evidently more psychologically straining… considering the… working conditions!’ He threw a glance back at watching him with a content smile Rarity. There, in the middle of her garden, practically hidden from the foreign eyes even in late autumn and without possible support of Sweetie Belle (who could restrain Rarity’s ardour at least by her mere presence), he was to keep a constant eye on the girl. The latter already locked at him like a homing missile and looked as if she was only choosing, which side to approach from. Spending quite a long time with him, but technically out of reach – while Alex was examining the frame and Rarity could only watch from the ground – wasn’t making his task easier. Rarely for late November, the sun was shining through the bare garden trees, sending the sun glares dance on the metal surfaces. The snowflakes swirled in the already frosty air; however, piercing the rare thin clouds, the sun rays warmed pleasantly everypony ready to expose to them. The town sounds reached the back garden muffled, incapable to break the almost mirthful mood of the place… which kept Alex on pins and needles! ‘It was more intimate in the SPA back then only! Ughhh!’ Checking the transmission shaft, Alex disconnected it from the gearbox and reached for the proper wrench from the tool kit unfolded on the barely touched by hoarfrost grass. His sight met one already enveloped in the sapphire aura and levitating midair. “Mmm… Not that one, the next smaller please,” he squeezed out a smile, intercepting the girl’s half-lidded glance. “Thanks, Rarity!” Opening the casing, Alex felt her scorching attention with his entire back. The peculiar heavy viscous smell of the greasing filled the air. To prepare the gears for winter, it was to be changed for the denser, more cold-resisting one. But before that, he needed to remove the remnants of the old; gathering it into the can and wiping everything he could reach, Alex heard how Rarity moved closer. “Ewww! It’s sticky by its mere look, darling!” drawled she. However, the voice Alex heard was quite cheerful and even musing, not nearly as loathing as could be expected towards the substances alike. Throwing a glance over the shoulder, the human noticed how the unicorn girl was watching his hands cleaning the mechanism; with a dreamy face, Rarity was biting her lip. In her glazed eyes, Alex clearly saw the readiness to drabble in that oil all over, if only he would be the one rubbing her back under the hot shower later. Alex shuddered, so vividly he imagined the entire scene as if he was able to read Rarity’s mind at the moment. At the latest Sisterhooves Social festival, the girl already found out that getting dirty wasn’t deadly at all, especially if that was called for better understanding between the sisters. Here though, the possible prize looked even more promising. Weighing the chances, Rarity was going to use the tiniest one most determinedly if that could bring the achievement closer. Alex already planned the retreat ways, hearing the excited intermittent breath behind his ear. The salvation came at a moment and in a way least expected – right from the clear sky literally. Some shadow fell on the windmill base, obstructing the sunlight for Alex and Rarity; a dash of grey with long show-white stripes almost fell from above and jetted around the windmill, around the dazed human and unicorn. Almost whistling with the strong oncoming wind, the smudged silhouette made two or three full circles, making the remaining dry leaves rise in the air and swirl like a small hurricane. The newcomer turned out a tall cloudy grey pegasus mare with snow-white mane and tail; she drop-landed right next to Alex, inhaling the air noisily. “Oh, dear! What a ruffianism!” startled by that flashy appearance, Rarity even jumped back a little. Overcoming the initial fright, she threw a reproachful gaze at the mare. “What’s the urge for such a noisy rush?!” “Rainstorm?!” Alex blinked, he just dropped the wrench and the can; oil trailed down his fingers. “The Seeker! At the Winsome Falls! Come on, Alex! We should hurry!” Before anypony could utter anything else, Rainstorm, who already regained her breath, blurted with the speed of a machine-gun, completely ignoring the incoming glares from Rarity. “If we want to… if we want to intercept it… before it runs away or… Alex?!” she shook him on the shoulder impatiently. “Sorry, Rainstorm. What again?” Alex looked as if he was splashed with the cold water; seconds ago he feverishly sought for the means to dodge the next Rarity’s desire tide – the transition became too abrupt for him. “Yeah,” noticed Rarity a bit grumpily. “Personally, I didn’t understand a thing…” Sending an electric-blue spear from her wide-open eyes into Rarity, Rainstorm took a deep breath. “The weather pegasi,” rolling her eyes, she started anew, that time slower, more measured, “spotted something large, dark and hideous near Winsome Falls. When I heard that, I flew there to check myself… And, of course, I saw that… monster wandering among the trees. So I dashed to the smithy, then to the Library, where Twilight told me that I could find you here,” she took another impatient look around, circling “here” with her eyes. “Please, Alex! We need to go fast before the Seeker runs away or hurts somepony or… does anything else as awful. Especially if we want to… you know… test that thing!” her electric-blue eyes addressed Alex, turning from scornful to almost pleading. “Fine!” catching her eager glance, Alex accepted the inevitable. “But we need to suit you up for that and…” “Exactly!” Rainstorm jumped on the spot. “The shorter is the time! I did what I could…” she waved her tail; Alex and Rarity noticed that she already braided it and her long wavy mane tightly. “But I need some help with the rest!” “…and I need to fix that in place first,” Alex returned the gearbox cover on its place and started screwing in the bolts by hand. “I heard that name – Winsome Falls, but have no idea where the area is,” he glanced at Rainstorm, who alternated from hoof to hoof, ruffling her wings impatiently. “You’ll need to show.” “Ahlex, dear!” Rarity levitated a piece of clean cloth for him to wipe machine oil off the hands. “It’s a precious picturesque place we like to go camping to with the girls!” She realized those two being serious about confronting the Seeker on sight. Approximately knowing how exactly they could do it, she looked up at Alex. “I mean… Try not to… demolish the place completely, please! It would be awful to lose such a beauty!” Rainstorm huffed quietly; Alex checked the transmission shaft once again and locked it in the unattached position. “Apologies! I shall return anon and finish with it,” he turned to Rarity with a forced smile. “Please, dost not touch anything till then!” “Of course, darling!” that was said already into the backs of two winged figures, soaring up with a swirl of leaves from her lawn. “Like if I would…” watching the receding black wings and still levitating the cloth, Rarity added quietly with a sigh. ‘Yet another chance lost!’ could be read in her resigned look. “I trained to fly in it all the time since you gave it!” confessed Rainstorm under Alex’s surprised glance, when they darted from her house twenty minutes later. “It’s unusual for the start… The worst is the helmet – it limits the view indeed, but…” ‘But I have an aim!’ added she inwardly, raising higher with a few powerful flaps and heading north-east of the town instantly. Alex followed Rainstorm, watching her moves with involuntary admiration: the mare managed to get accustomed to the weight of the armour and all the additional clumsiness unbelievably fast, making her flight look almost unaffected. “Rainbow Dash helped me with the weather job, while I was training!” said Rainstorm. “Actually, she took my shift a few times,” added she with a mixture of gratitude and awkwardness. Most of the preparation time, they spent putting all the armour on Rainstorm, not to mention that Alex checked each clasp and buckle twice. Heavy on the first sight – it covered the entire frame of the pegasus mare – that armour was the lightest Alex and Willsmash could make, while still keeping it effective protection. The only piece, still unattached for the reasons mentioned, was the helmet, strapped at Rainstorm’s hip. That exactly set of armour was made specifically for her, by the mare’s precise measurements, and had a couple of secret features. The entire shape, while staying as aerodynamic as possible, was made angular and sharp. Not only to reflect possible projectiles but to rip and cut the potential enemy flesh upon collision, thus playing on the natural advantages of the lightning-fast pegasus and practically turning Rainstorm into a light flying tank. Remembering Alex’s stories about human history, Twilight once said that he definitely took some inspiration from the combat helicopter shapes when projecting that armour. But the most significant was another secret feature, Alex and Willsmash tried to implement for the first time. When its owner was in the most natural pony resting pose – sitting on the ground – the armour parts came into contact with each other that way the weight of the upper details was distributed to the lower ones, so the entire construction practically held itself without much strain to the owner. They planned to use that method in all the future versions of guard armour, but decided to test it first. However, despite all of the advantages, Alex wanted to be personally sure that everything would go without a hiccup, thus checking and tightening everything again and again, while Rainstorm already asked him to hurry. “Art thou sure thou can cope with that?” he nodded towards the short spear-like weapon Rainstorm carried; together they decided that due to the Seekers’ usual size and bulkiness, testing their durability and stamina wasn’t Rainstorm’s aim, especially for her first try. Her best chance would be to break the monster’s integrity with one fast strike, for which Alex had one more unvoiced yet plan. “It seems that you are even more concerned and jumpy about the entire thing than I should be!” instead of an answer, Rainstorm let out a tiny smile, pulling the weapon closer to herself. “I’m fine!” Alex muttered something anxiously on the fly. Sliding by under them, the town was left behind; fields and orchards started flashing by. The entire landscape went constantly uphill and the first rock formations appeared, protruding on both sides of an old dirt road they used as the landmark. The low mountain slope appeared as if popping from under the ground; Rainstorm darted up and Alex was to follow her, while the road snaked below, meandering up the mountain side. The human and the pegasus mare emerged from behind the mountain plateau… and Alex couldn’t help opening his mouth, stunned by the revealed sight for a second. There lay a woodland valley, squeezed by the mountain shelves from west and east. Coming over the plateau edge, the road entered it and headed north, becoming overgrown little by little and turning into a forest path, then gradually dissolving between the trees completely. The forest wasn’t very thick there, denser at the edges of the valley and looser in the middle, where it was cut by the joyfully running stream. The latter threaded through the entire valley from the north, becoming more and more affluent and then turning east, out of their view; coming from the distance, the loud noise of the large waterfall hinted of where the entire water mass went. Alex was to admit that with its natural terraces and variform deciduous forest the valley was a very picturesque corner of Equestria, even in those late autumn days. But that wasn’t the main peculiarity of that place. Shimmering in the bright sunlight with all the colours of the rainbow, numerous waterfalls, large and small, were cascading from both mountain shelves into the valley. Mixing and merging there, they formed that stream in the middle. Alex astonishment was easily explicable: all colours of the rainbow wasn’t just a figure of speech, called by the play of the falling water in the rays of the afternoon sun. Each of those waterfalls was of its own colour, juicy and bright; together they formed and repeated over and over the liquid flowing rainbow, covering the mountain slopes. Alex thought that the reason for that natural phenomenon was in some minerals coming to the surface and forming the streambeds, specific for each waterfall, as coming together on the flat they merged into an unbelievably crystal, yet simply transparent water, like all colours of the rainbow form the white colour when mixed. “Winsome Falls!” stated Rainstorm, throwing an amused glance at the dumbfounded human; then the mare turned serious. “Let’s find that abomination before it reaches some dwelling!” “Wait a second!” gesturing for her to follow, Alex landed on the dirt road at the valley entrance. “Before you run into the Seeker…” when the mare landed next to him, Alex took the helmet from her hip. “Here goes,” he put it on Rainstorm’s head, gathering her snow-white braided mane inside and ensuring that the head piece was properly fixed. “One last thing!” before Rainstorm could say anything, Alex pulled her short spear and squeezed the pike in his hand, cutting the skin on his palm. He quickly covered the blade with his blood, before the visibly healing wound patched up completely. “You’ll need one good hit! Stick it right into that bastard, girl!” he looked into her widened eyes. Scanning the woodland below, they slowly progressed north. Oaks and beeches slid by under the spread wings, spreading their branches as wide as the space allowed; interspersed between them, smaller aspens fluttered their remaining almost brown leaves in the wind. Long threads of the darkened from the cold air moss trailed from the older trees almost reaching the ground. Tall slender birch trees stood separately in small groups, like some shy fillies at the ball; dropping their summer dresses completely, they looked into the cold unusually clear sky wistfully. The thick, moderately dry soil was densely speckled by some deciduous, thus already bare, and by the frost-hardy juniper-like shrubs; the latter were flaunting their juicy, almost untouched attire. All the water in the valley quickly gathered in the multitude of streams and springs created by the shiny colourful waterfalls, to gather finally in the main flow. Thankfully the forest wasn’t very dense; easy to look through without most of its foliage, it couldn’t effectively hide a large enough, moving creature. Alex felt the presence of that malicious creature as soon as they reached the valley. The sensation was quite weak at first, making him hope that the Seeker, which could feel the human as well, wouldn’t be repelled by it instantly. He threw a quick glance at Rainstorm: unable to see the mare’s muzzle because of the helmet, Alex still noticed, how ruffled her wings became, being the clear sign of uneasiness and anxiety bothering her. “If that’s what these monsters make one feel,” the voice sounded muffled, like from the steel barrel, “then, I suppose, this-a-way!” hovering in the air, Rainstorm poked with her fore hoof somewhere north-east. Inwardly praising the mare for listening and remembering everything he told her about the Seekers, Alex confirmed Rainstorm’s reasoning. “Lead the way then,” he nodded with a light smile, appreciating the easiness she dived and sped up with towards the source of the mental disturbance. They descended a little, flying now barely above the highest tree tops. Alex knew that the monster couldn’t see in the usual sense of that term, but he preferred not to risk anything. It was the first encounter for Rainstorm, besides, practically an experiment – he wanted to keep the conditions as close to ideal as possible. She lead them almost in the beeline, despite Alex thought that locating the creature would take more effort for the beginner. Perhaps her purposefulness and determination had sharpened the mare’s senses; nothing could distract Rainstorm from her aim. Only once, she turned back, missing the maximum of the Seeker-induced effect, but quickly realizing her mistake when the tension started to fade. The mare and the human slowed down, proceeding with even more caution and spotting their enemy almost simultaneously. Gliding in the air, Rainstorm slid closer to Alex and silently gestured towards the eastern mountain side, where the forest became denser. Alex nodded; hovering with the slow, strong flaps, he already saw the dark spot moving through the thicket. Even a single glance was enough to tell that the Seeker tried its best to sneak along its path as stealthily as the large bulky carcass could only allow. Keeping under the large trees where possible and quickly crossing the open glades, it wasn’t wandering but clearly headed to some, known only to its master, aim. ‘Even if their method of orientation isn’t some vision literally, it still must be quite effective to compete with such!’ Alex watched, how the dark abomination traversed the forest, avoiding the obstacles with ease of a sighted creature. By the movements, visible weight and density of it, he concluded that the Seeker was fully materialized. It was trotting through the thicket, stopping for a moment, as if the monster was sniffing out something, even turning back and making a small slow loop occasionally – feeling Alex’s presence, it was alerted but couldn’t determine the proper direction yet. However, despite the disturbed movements, the Seeker kept its general direction south-wise. “This one, surprisingly, wants to stay unnoticed from the very beginning!” noticed Alex, gesturing to get lower between the trees. He remembered that previously the Seekers never tried to sneak or hide on purpose unless being chased by something threatening them. “If it keeps that way, it reaches the Winsome Falls edge in no time,” Rainstorm voice became worried. “And if it prefers to stay unnoticed… except the old road, there is a covert path along the large waterfall. The monster can reach the north-eastern wing of Everfree… or Ponyville from the east if it needs,” added she meaningfully. ‘Everfree… Again Everfree’ feeling that he was overlooking something important, Alex squinted – compared to the nearby vegetation, the beast looked at least four times larger than the pegasus mare. He glanced at his companion: despite the closed steel helmet, Alex could almost see her nearly pleading eyes. He was to admit that they had no other chance; besides, Rainstorm was right – nopony knew where the monster could head, exiting the valley. Alex pursed his lips. “That Seeker is fully materialized,” whispered he to the listening mare, “thou needst to pierce its skin… whatev’r it hath, hard enough with thy spear.” “One last time, Rainstorm, art thou confident about thy acts?” Weighing her weapon instead of an answer, the mare darted towards the Seeker. Alex could only follow her: far enough not to interfere the fight, which was going to rage in a moment, yet close enough to come to Rainstorm’s aid if anything went unruly. As if confirming Alex’s concerns, the Seeker entered the open bank of the nearby stream and stopped; the monster almost looked lost. But the reason was different: the Seeker heard the approaching threat – seeing the abhorrent enemy in a stone’s throw, Rainstorm couldn’t hide the whiz of the steel, caused by her daring dash. The beast turned around; in a moment, its red glowing “eye” stared right at the attacking pegasus. Time stopped! Like enthralled, Alex watched the reared up Seeker and dashing Rainstorm, who turned into the aimed strung spear herself. However, his consciousness already relaxed as if telling him that somehow everything turned out exactly as they planned it to do. Reaching her maximum speed in that reckless dash, Rainstorm couldn’t avert her trajectory fast, even if she wanted. She looked as if she was going to pierce the enemy with her entire self, literally going through the Seeker. Amazedly, Alex had to admit that a blow that hard would have undoubtedly crumpled the monster, despite its advantage in size and mass – it was as dangerous for the mare herself though. Raising its fore hooves to deflect the blazing attack, the Seeker miraculously dodged at the very last moment. Rainstorm whizzed by, for a short moment meeting with the enemy “face-to-face”. Nothing happened! Slowing down with the visible effort, the mare turned around and hovered in the air, regaining her breath. ‘It worked! The helmet worked against the Seeker!’ beat in her head constantly; unwittingly Rainstorm shouted that aloud with elation, making Alex nod with a tiny smile. However, it was early to triumph. Encouraged by the armour effectiveness – even the general psychological pressure caused by the creature stopped bothering her noticeably – Rainstorm undertook a series of fast dashing attacks on the Seeker, dancing in the air around the hopping beast and trying to find a weak spot in its defence. On the one hoof, she could handle the situation perfectly – the overwhelming feeling visited her for the first time after that unholy day on the dam deprived her of the family. On the other hoof, the Seeker wasn’t going to become a clay pigeon either: the beast was fully aware of the threat that strangely durable and immune to its impact pegasus mare provided. Besides, Alex couldn’t keep enough distance to eliminate his own influence completely, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to watch and come to aid in time. Thus the monster, feeling his presence, was trying its best to evade the fight and start escaping the valley. Trying to keep both Rainstorm and Alex in front of itself, the Seeker started darting around, squatting on hind legs and retreating. It was to turn and react fast, as the infuriated by the fight mare gave it no time to relax. However, the Seeker kept using its fore hooves to its defence quite effectively: every branch, every large enough stone on the ground became tossed into the air and launched towards the enemy with bullet speed. A few quite palpable hits screeched on the angled armour, thankfully doing no harm: the slanted surfaces did their job deflecting the projectiles and quenching their energy. One thing though made Alex squint in concern and grit his teeth: those monsters never tried that before – the sheets and tendrils of the Dark Mist shrouding the Seeker condensed suddenly. Swaying in the air in front of the beast, they formed another frontier, distracting the attacker and preventing the well-aimed critical hit. In addition to that, some of them began grabbing various wooden trash from the ground, launching it into Rainstorm as well. In a moment, the mare faced the already doubled or even tripled defensive action. Alex cursed inwardly and unwittingly slid closer: the Seeker started jerking and flouncing about like rabid, feverishly seeking for an escape. “No! Please! I can manage it!” Rainstorm’s voice sounded weary to Alex, despite it still was full of enthusiasm. She kept circling around the enemy like the angry steel wasp eager to sting with her blood-covered spear. Reluctantly, Alex was to soar higher, returning to the previous distance. Regardless of her agility and speed of the experienced weather-pegasus, Rainstorm was to be careful: her wings – her greatest advantage over the enemy – were also her weak spot, forcedly left uncovered by the armour. Besides, she realized that letting the Seeker kick her spear away from her would be the worst mistake: picking it up during the fight was very problematic to impossible for her. Alex saw that concerned about her weapon integrity the mare couldn’t perform the proper strike – fast and powerful enough to penetrate the Seeker’s carcass. He was to admit that the dark abomination was surprisingly quick; wherever Rainstorm directed her hit, speeding up with the spear, there exactly the rock-solid hooves appeared, striking in the air and making her avert the sharp tip. Fanned from the small open glade by the circling rivals, the dry leaves and dust swirled up and clouded the fight; the clank of steel and the clatter of the heavy hooves overshadowed the sound of the nearby waterfall. ‘Why doesn’t she try to strike it into those tendrils?!’ flashed in Alex’s head. ‘That would be easier than trying to reach the body and my blood would still do the job!’ However, he realized that any advice could help or turn fatal equally easy, distracting Rainstorm in the heat of the battle. Right in that moment of doubt, the unfolding tendril met the attacking pegasus in the air, hitting her side like the unrolling whip directed by an experienced herdsman. The strike was accidental, it came out not overly hard either, but it still appeared enough to make Rainstorm lose momentum, knocking her to the ground. For a second, the armoured silhouette disappeared in the dusty cloud; Alex’s heart sank. Thankfully, the mare’s fall was directed away from the seeker: Rainstorm managed to fold her wings before hitting the ground and rolled to the edge of the glade with the clink of metal, losing some feathers. While she was stunned, the Seeker chose between the chance to attack and the ability to escape. Clumsily hopping on its hind legs, it turned on the spot and dashed away, seeking cover in the thicket and aiming to the valley exit. “Rainstorm!” not giving a cockatrice ass about the escaping monster, Alex rushed to the mare; from his sight, hitting the ground was hard enough to wound her. But Rainstorm was getting up on her hooves already, shaking her head as if she got slightly contused. “I… I’m okay! It’s just a few feathers!” she looked up at Alex and picked up the spear. “I can continue, but don’t let it escape!” After a moment of hesitation, Alex nodded. The monster didn’t have time to get far. Gritting his teeth from anger, Alex darted after the Seeker. The air sizzled in his ears, muffling everything around except his own heartbeat. The ground below him, the trees and shrubs around, smudged into motley mishmash; several waterfalls on the mountain side merged into the proper rainbow sheet in his sight for a second. Alex caught up with the Seeker on the riverbank. Outracing the beast, he turned around and hovered low above the ground, cutting its escape route. Dust, small twigs and leaves shot up into the air, directed by the powerful flaps of the vast wings. The Seeker braked sharply, almost furrowing the ground, then turned around and took off away from the blinding wall of forest trash and the pursuing sense of danger. It undertook a few attempts to hide under the vegetation and run around Alex, but the latter followed the creature closely, blocking its way each time and forcedly driving the Seeker back to the battle site. Finally, the Seeker ran into the nearby waterfall edge, having no other way than intended. Herded along the bank, it jumped out back at the glade. With relief, Alex noticed that Rainstorm had already recomposed; with a light metal tingle, she soared, ready to deliver more punishment to the monster. The battle returned to square one. Startled by the certain death coming on it from behind, the Seeker preferred to face the enemy, which it had chances to defeat. Going to fight to the last for its existence, moreover, for its task completion as Alex suspected, it ran directly to the mare. The opponents clashed again, exchanging the blows of hooves, steel and everything that came into their reach. The sun hid behind the sudden oncoming cloud and a draught of wind tossed again already settled dust and leaves. ‘Calamity! She taketh it harder, in the earnest!’ thought Alex. ‘It’s almost like mine encounter with the Timberwolves – she is simply losing time and strength that way!’ The Seeker already started pressing Rainstorm to the edge of the pond formed by the colourful waterfall. ‘It’s of no good!’ Rainstorm breathed heavily. ‘I can’t reach that bastard upfront!’ thought she, during another attempt to come around the turning to face her creature. Her sight fell on the monster’s plot the Seeker constantly kept away from the fight. ‘If only I could poke the monster in its fat ass, which it keeps low to the ground!’ She realized that with each passing minute her chances to outspeed the two-core carcass wilted out. Before Rainstorm could do anything else, another strike of unwinding tentacle sent her directly into the pond. Alex roared and unfolded the glaive, but before he rushed to help, the mare already surfaced the water. Thankfully, the waterfall basin was quite shallow. With the loud tingle of steel, Rainstorm shook herself like a dog, sending the drops fly; she was angry like a devil. The unfurled wings couldn’t lift her back into the sky; they were soaked through with water, becoming heavy and useless at once. Realizing that the monster wouldn’t give her a second chance to climb out, Rainstorm dashed to the shore, loudly splashing the water around. She barely climbed onto the low bank, when the creature – stunned by the sudden vanishing of the enemy – came into motion again. Sensing her again, the Seeker rushed at the mare with the speed of an express. Something overshadowed the light for her; glancing up, the mare saw the unfurled wings occupying half of her sight and the glare on the unfolding glaive. Unable to fly with the wet wings, Rainstorm decided to go all-in: holding the short spear closer, she desperately rushed directly into the attacking beast. It appeared almost next to her; raising on its hind legs, the Seeker was going to crush the mare once and for good. The red spark on its torso glowed viciously! Putting all the remaining strength into that hit, Rainstorm dived under the attacking monster, using their size difference to reach what was previously unreachable. In a foolhardy dash, she thrust her weapon into the creature’s belly, opened to her for a second… and rolled aside in the last moment. Already aiming a blow, Alex stopped and hovered in the air. The wound received by the Seeker wasn’t that severe itself; the spear tip barely entered the body. But as soon as it penetrated the skin, Alex’s blood came into play – clutching into the monster and eating away at its “flesh” like acid, tearing apart the very essence and the magical bonds holding the Seeker into one. The dull groan rolled across Winsome Falls valley, fading in the forest – shrouded by the falling apart and dissolving Dark Mist, the creature collapsed on the ground in convulsions. Escaping its disintegrating carcass in dishevelled threads and sheets, the magical essence started trailing towards the landed human, being absorbed by him and ceasing. “This is it!” Rainstorm got up; spreading the wings, the mare shook the dust off them, then slowly approached the defeated enemy – little remained of it. “And stay down!” exclaimed she feelingly, stomping the steel-shod hoof onto the place the Seeker hit the ground and scattering the remnants of the Dark Mist. Caught by the strengthening wind, they were carried away and dissolved tracelessly among the trees. Grabbing that single cloud overshadowing the sun, the wind started herding it away: the bright rays pierced the grey veil and fell into Winsome Falls valley, flooding the glade surrounded by the old spreading trees. Standing on the single untouched spot on the bank of the nearest waterfall basin – the rest of the glade looked as if it was ploughed by a dozen of road scrappers – the mare and the human raised their eyes at the flowing water. Dark green in the shadow, the narrow water sheet shimmered in the sunlight like a flow of liquid emerald, sending the bright glares to play everywhere its waters reached as drops and mist. The dusty steel of Rainstorm’s armour, the mirror-polished surface of the heavy, long helmet, her wet wings – everything shone with the multitude of joyful sparks. Hundreds of bright emerald eyes glared sharply from the spread cloud-grey feathers as if promising peril to the potential enemies. Letting out a sound, which could only be interpreted as an overly satisfied huff, Rainstorm was fidgeting with the clasps; after a moment of struggling, she tore the helmet off brashly, closing her eyes for a second and inhaling the tart forest chillness. ‘That’s the retribution I couldn’t ever dream of!!!’ The strengthened wind was unbraiding and fanning up her long snow-white mane; it kept catching more and more fallen leaves, swirling them and giving birth to a small tornado around Rainstorm and Alex. Going through the waving branches, the sunrays threw the flickering light spots on the ground. A mysterious smile lit the mare’s muzzle, making Alex glance at his pegasus companion inquiringly. “I have something to say!” the electric-blue eyes shone, raising to the clearing sky; faltering first, her voice suddenly deepened. “That’s not a spontaneous decision, the idea was hatching for a while… And now I’ve got the best approval of it! So, please, listen…” Puzzled by her gravely tone accompanied by such a mysterious start, Alex could only nod. “As the one who not only can clear these monsters from our world for good, but make others capable of that…” “Rainstorm?!” The mare shook her head impatiently, calling for his attention. “… please accept… my service to the master! Henceforth and till the end…” Rainstorm bowed her head; the white mane veiled her face, but Alex felt how tensely she looked for the answer. It seemed that the whole forest around fell silent for a second; even the wind quieted down, paying respect for the waiting. “I… I can’t accept the sacrifice so great, Rainstorm. I’m not some… sovereign or a… warlord,” the hand rested on her shoulder. Before the sparks of hopeful inspiration could fade, Alex kneeled to the mare and looked into her eyes. “But… help of the faithful friend is another story!!!” * The slanted rays of the late autumn sun were illuminating the large gallery, casting very long shadows of everything they passed by. It wasn’t that early in the morning, but given it was late November the day star was still quite low over the horizon, peeking into the high castle windows and playing with the stained-glass mosaic. Mixing with the light of the torches, it provided the colourful flickering under the high arcs and between tall columns; otherwise, the place would look gloomy during that season. Going along the hallway, under the mildly puzzled looks of the Day Guards, Alex and Fluttershy kept guessing what happened, making princess Celestia need them so urgently. The letter from her was business-like short and didn’t explain anything, except telling that she needed them for some case of high secrecy and importance. Naturally capable to add two and two, keeping in mind what type of case Celestia could need them both at the same time, Alex supposed that they would need some adequate protection during their endeavour. While his own was always within, thanks to the magical helmet – Luna’s generous gift, Fluttershy would obviously need her own means to overcome various hazards; Alex strongly suspected that the latter would mostly be of the Seekers origins. Fortunately, planning and undertaking the experiment with Rainstorm, Alex paid extra attention to that aspect. He cautiously discussed that problem with Rarity – Alex found out that challenging her with the matters of her trade was unimaginably safer than with his mere proximity – pulled by the right strings, inspiration flooded the enthusiastic unicorn mare, making her even safe to work side by side. Even if she still kept producing all sorts of affectionate sounds when Alex accidentally touched her, the work, especially unusual and sophisticated, was in the first place for Rarity. Thus for the last couple of weeks, they managed to bring Fluttershy’s famous spec-ops suit as close to the proper armour as it was only possible during the period that short. Leaving the durable but thin inner tight-fit layer, Alex and Rarity enhanced the suit protection by adding the metal armour plates in the crucial points and the same chain-mail-like fabric Alex used in his own armour in the joints, which needed to stay flexible and durable at the same time. Remaining easy to use and nice to wear, the suit became equally tough by its nature as it was by its looks. Following Alex through the long castle gallery, Fluttershy sported exactly that suit at the moment and felt mildly concerned; her wings, unfurling occasionally from anxiety, were quite indicative. They arrived at the castle a few minutes ago. For that, they were to wake up at the crack of dawn – Alex was to prepare on the eve and then snake out of the library, not waking anypony in the morning, all that solely to help Fluttershy suit up. Hitting the railway station in half an hour, they took the first train to Canterlot and spent the nearly four-hour ride in fruitless attempts to guess what princess Celestia could need them for exactly. That’s not mentioning the necessity to help Fluttershy suit up once again during the ride… “Why fully armour-clad?” the guard at the castle entrance measured them with suspense, which looked naturally but was obviously played up. He and his colleagues were informed about their arrival and most likely instructed to let through or guide Alex and Fluttershy to the princess’ study. Flying without any delay, right from the station to the castle, the human and the pegasus mare decided to enter the latter the usual way, as the regular guests or solicitors would do, even if they both could get right to the Princess with ease. Out of pure courtesy, both landed at the castle gate and made the entire way to the entrance, walking the most civilly, throwing a few glances at the long gallery windows and balconies, which opened to the façade. No wonder that Alex grimaced at that ostentatious security enforcement attempt. The other reason was plainer, simpler and more obvious. Just a couple of days before, Crystal Chime – the aunt of Storm and Aurora Sunflower – arrived in Ponyville by the Canterlot Express and came to Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight met miss Chime at the station and came with her. Most likely, that was also Twilight who arranged the trip, so, Crystal Chime arrived in the morning; they appeared at the doorstep when both Fluttershy and Alex were with the foals. Crystal Chime was almost a copy of her sister Willow: the same stance, attractive muzzle, the kind and loving glance of the sparkly golden eyes. The latter though had more of the red tint, like the red gold; the tiny laughing threads, which could be seen from the close distance in the corners of her eyes, told that Crystal was slightly older. Unlike her sister, she was cutting her soft curly light coral mane shorter. Her light-greyish emerald coat kept that crystal faceted shine, making Alex stumble in surprise – he saw a crystal pony for the first time in his life. Seeing the saviours of her family in person, the mare flushed to the roots of her mane from confusion – she couldn’t find the proper words and those she could have been preparing jetted out of her mind in a second. With her cheeks sparkling and playing with the gradients of pink and light-emerald, like some may bug elytra, she rushed forward and squeezed tight first Alex and then Fluttershy. Tears sprinkled from the red-golden eyes when Crystal started nuzzling and cuddling the foals as if trying to make sure they were there indeed, not ashamed of that inevitable awkwardness. Of course, both little Sunflowers were happy to see their auntie, the only family member they could freely stay with at the moment. However, their eyes were on the wet spot when the foals were to say goodbye to the pegasus girl and her human: Storm and Aurora got really attached to them for the last couple of weeks. Leaving Crystal Chime for a minute, the foals hung on Alex, pulling Fluttershy closer, thus staying in that collective hug for a while. “If you come to Crystal Empire, visit us any time you want!” Crystal shook her shoulder-cut mane determinedly. “Miss Sparkle has my address. You’re always welcome…” her voice faltered and the mare sniffed. “Sorry!” “Yeah, promise to come!” Storm and Aurora supported her wholeheartedly, making Alex give his word. Seeing them leaving with Twilight and Crystal Chime, Alex swallowed a lump; he hugged Fluttershy, whose eyes were glistening with tears as he could notice. Alex sighed; it was natural that he still had the right to keep some residual grumpiness and a low tolerance for the stupid bureaucracy. “Her Highness’ message supposed some… trouble…” dropped the human, scanning the entrance hall behind the guards’ backs. “That was only a natural choice!” “Hmmm…” muttered the leader guard. “We were warned indeed of the importance…” ‘Then why the hay you’re lingering hither?!’ Alex inwardly facepalmed with the strength which could knock a manticore down. “…you may go, but leave your luggage here at the entrance,” meanwhile, the guard continued, glancing at their “luggage”, humbly presented by two bags – the larger backpack was Alex’s. “You may take it upon leaving wherever Her Highness needs you to.” “Excuse me?!” Alex wondered if he had misheard them. “Leave our bags hither? For the morning fog and general chillness to make our clothes as unpleasant to use as possible? Methinks I haven’t heard about a rule alike…” Unbeknown to him, Alex’s wings unfurled of frustration, stretching up behind his spiky armoured shoulders; Fluttershy looked slightly absent – the girl alternated from hoof to hoof, throwing glances at the gallery above. “Arghhh… Very well, we’ll bring them under the roof. Are you satisfied now?” groaned the guard commander, rolling his eyes in annoyance. After his slight gesture, one of his stallions pulled the bags inside, behind the first pair of castle doors. “You will find them in the entrance hall when you need them.” “Well… I guess that’s the best we could hope for!” smirked Alex ironically. “Let’s go, Shy. I think Ti… princess Celestia is expecting us for a while already!” “If you need direction, the guards in the castle can guide you!” huffed the commander – he knew that one of the visitors would be problematic. “That won’t be necessary, thanks!” Alex coughed, stifling a laugh – he knew perfectly where they needed to be. The gallery leading to princesses’ rooms was accessible from the façade; with a short glance up, Alex soared, making everypony crouch from the wind the unfurling wings made. Fluttershy flew right behind him. Followed by the bewildered looks from the castle doors, Alex quickly chose the closest to the left end of the gallery balcony and headed there. In a minute, a couple of armoured boots and two pairs of elegant hooves clanked on the open broad stone platform surrounded by the pony-chest-high railing. Throwing a quick look behind, Alex shrugged; the castle yard lay like a dish with cloudy edges, while the rest of the mountain side, Canterlot and the valley far below were hidden in the cold mist. Without saying a word, he and Fluttershy ruffled and shook their wings, shaking the small drops away; that simple thing made them share a sparkle of laughter. Still smiling, they entered the high archway of the long gallery, greeted by the slightly bewildered guards, which even jerked towards the sudden intruders first, then relaxed upon recognition, throwing a couple of reproachful glances at the extravagantly appearing guests. Looking at the edge of the hallway, where it turned to the tower stairwell, Alex headed left confidently. One thing he knew, smirking inwardly – he couldn’t get lost here for sure. Even if he hadn’t been there for a few months, Alex perfectly remembered which rooms and where located at this gallery. Winking at Fluttershy to dispel her tension, he hugged the girl’s fluffy shoulders lightly, beaconing to follow. Passing the high ornate double doors to Celestia’s bedroom, Alex and Fluttershy stopped in front of the next guarded ones. Taking a thorough appraising look over the visitors, one of the guards opened the door for them. “Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia is waiting for you!” Inhaling deeper, Alex moved aside the woven curtains behind the doors, making way for Fluttershy and himself. The large room under the high ceiling was decorated in light colours. The walls were almost entirely covered by the bookcases; with the déjà vu feeling, Alex noted for himself again that Celestia chose a perfectly fitting apprentice. The high window let the dim November light into the room and make the noble furniture and some books’ spines send humble sun flares. Reflecting in thousands of pendants of the large, single chandelier hanging from the centre of the ceiling, the light of several additional torch lamps helped keep the summer warmth there. The heavy table could easily compete with a billiard one; the high armchair behind it completed Celestia’s workplace. This time it was already occupied by Her Highness self; Alex and Fluttershy took a few steps further on the shin-deep carpet, approaching. The princess’ eyes were still chained to some documents on her desk; she kept studying them pensively – the only sign that Celestia recognized their arrival was a noticeable greeting nod, while her expression oscillated somewhere between gloomy and concerned. Both human and pegasus mare stopped a few steps before the broad polished tabletop. Alex threw a glance at the papers, guessing if they were connected to the problem the princess needed them to help with. Fluttershy still looked a bit nervous, her movements became slightly sharp compared to the usual tender pony girl posture. The improved helmet, strapped to her side while unused, clanked shortly on the armour plate on the girl’s hip. The large, pale-magenta eyes blinked at that sound and turned to Alex and Fluttershy, widening even more and rounding in a second. For a whole long minute, Princess Celestia stared inquisitively at her visitors. “Sweet Harmony!” her habitual restraint let her down for a moment and princess Celestia openly facehoofed with a sigh. “I didn’t deserve all this, did I?” muttered she as if talking with herself, then added a bit louder. “Are you two complete hay-heads, Alex? Just look at you both…” she shook her head, refusing to believe her eyes. “I could expect something like that from my dearest sister… but you, Fluttershy… I admit it was a surprise to neigh the least!” “Ahem!” Alex made a politely puzzled face, while Fluttershy seemed genuinely off guard, not catching up on what was causing the princess’ reaction. “And what’s wrong, Your Highness?” “I would suppose something preventing your good hearing, Alex, if you were in your helmet…” said Celestia dryly. “As I said, have you seen yourselves? Wasn’t the secrecy one of the aspects I mentioned in my message?..” With a shrug, Alex paid some attention to their with Fluttershy reflection in the large mirror next to Celestia’s study – according to him, it showed nothing overly extravagant. Fluttershy in the reflection looked up at the mirrored Alex and alternated from hoof to hoof with a quiet metal clanking of the armour. “How do you plan to maintain secrecy with that look?” the Princess raised one eyebrow ironically. “What would the ponies say, noticing you both at the railway station dressed… should I better say armoured like that. You both looking as if you were going on a war!” “Isn’t it already?!” before Fluttershy could say a word, Alex quietly articulated. “Excuse me?” arching her neck like a swan, Princess Celestia turned to him. “Isn’t it already a war?” repeated Alex clearly; his eyes narrowed ever so lightly. “Already with its casualties, damage and… almost – if your guards had been a tiny bit more cautious – orphans?” added he poisonously. “The war isn’t always as loud and overwhelming as we get used to reading in the books! It starting subtly doth not mean it is not starting at all…” “For a claim that severe, you need some evidence more serious than several incidents, Alex!” calmly retorted Celestia, but the air in the room seemed to start electrifying. “You won’t deny that the Seekers don’t attack anypony, except you, on purpose.” “They are literally seeking for something. Which for lest I know, alas… But methinks I’m close to the right guess,” Alex cocked his head with a challenge. “Not for ponies – yes, not for some commonly accepted wealth… yet that doth not mean their search is anyhow beneficial for us,” the human emphasized that last word. “Neither is their hypothetic master’s will, rest assured!” “Believest me, Tia! It’s a war!” he drew the line confidently. “Even if…” Celestia let out a stifled smile. “That doesn’t mean you need to reveal your current aims to everypony. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t have your… armour, Alex, Fluttershy. But marching in it like that isn’t what we need for your task, believe me!” “For the last half a year, you went a long road, Alex,” quietly sighed she, “but sometimes… I can clearly recognize the guy, sneaking along the castle galleries at night, knocking down chandeliers and setting the royal banners on fire to distract the guards!” Alex snorted shortly, relaxing a bit, while Fluttershy asked something more significant. “Railway station?!” the pegasus girl blinked in confusion. “Excuse me, Princess, but we just arrived here by train and… nopony was concerned too much about our looks…” “I meant, in your further journey!” smiled Celestia diplomatically. “I doubt we need excessive attention to the simple fact that the designated Seeker fighters leaving full-clad for Crystal Empire. At least for the sake of not revealing that we leave our area less protected…” “Crystal Empire?!” now both Fluttershy and Alex couldn’t help exclaiming in bewilderment. “Yes! Crystal Empire,” Celestia tilted her head and glanced at them both imperturbably; enveloped in the light-golden aura, two rectangles of thick paper with shiny embossment floated to Alex and Fluttershy together with the aroma of roses, as the princess’ mane kept flowing even in the still air of the study. “Here are your tickets for the Crystal Express, departing,” she glanced at the large clock at the opposite wall, “in about an hour, from Canterlot railway station.” “Apologies, but…” “I hope, you’ve read the rest of my letter more attentively, Alex,” Celestia’s ironic look was unbearably confident as if the mere departure was already a solved question, “and packed some warm clothes, for the Frozen North isn’t called so for no reason.” “I packed warm clothes anyway, for the winter is coming!” said Alex with frustration. “So did Fluttershy. But… Crystal Empire… Now?! What’s the race for if ‘t be true I may inquire?” “Yeah…” drawled Fluttershy, throwing a quick concerned gaze up at Alex. “It was… a bit…” she stumbled, noticeably looking for a more polite word, “unexpected. We haven’t much time to…” ‘Thanks to Harmony, I asked Jackie and Rainbow to take care of my animals!’ jetted in her head. ‘Those which aren’t hibernating anyway… And Angel stays with Twilight for a while – they seemed to find common ground with Spike, so, I can be calm at least about that. And…’ ‘Merlin’s pants!’ Alex inwardly praised himself for prudency: he had mixed feelings about vague Celestia’s letter from the very start and decided to take some necessary precautions. ‘I managed to notify Twilight what to do in the emergency cases; the rest will think we stopped in Canterlot for a while. But more importantly, I gave complete instructions to Rainstorm!’ Alex sighed at the thought of that premature, thus unwanted but inevitable choice. ‘Alas, in mine absence, she is the only one capable of confronting and defeating at least a single Seeker.’ ‘Please! May it be calm there for a week…’ pleaded he inwardly. ‘Or… Damn, I have no idea how long we are going into that!’ “I wouldn’t ask you both if the situation didn’t demand,” firmly stated Celestia, pointing at the papers in front of her. “Crystal Empire needs help against the Seekers! It sounds as if they are having a major breakout there…” Alex groaned, rubbing his temples; the Princess noticed how he instinctively jerked in an urge to undertake something. “…for the time being, they manage to distract the monsters and keep it without major harm or destruction, let alone casualties,” added Celestia more soothingly. “But these are Seekers and…” “… you can’t predict what they would play out the next moment!” Alex finished for her grumpily. “That’s what Shining wrote in the letter exactly! And that’s why I thought your help may become in demand there, dear!” Celestia alternated to the pegasus girl; Fluttershy simply nodded seriously, making Alex admire her capability to brace herself in a wink when it was gravely necessary. “Okay!” Alex closed his eyes for a second. “What else should we know, Tia?” he already resigned inwardly with the inevitability of that journey’s evil. “The letter was vague in that part,” Celestia’s voice turned genuinely regretful. “As you know, approaching the Seekers is fraught with consequences for the absolute majority of us. So… the information isn’t perfectly accurate and systematic.” Alex smiled inwardly, hearing the familiar judicious tones: not earlier than that morning, Twilight did her best to calm him down regarding the sudden journey. Meanwhile, Celestia went on. “They can’t tell the exact numbers, but…” she squinted, “there is a general feeling that the numbers are different each time, even if the Seekers move in a single… well, herd, mostly.” “How is that…” Fluttershy looked confused. “That’s why we suspect a major breakout, my filly. Mind that the numbers change not only into the increase side, but vice versa,” the Princess raised a meaningful glance from the letter. “So, I didn’t embellish the situation calling it utterly strange.” “There is something strange in the Seekers behaviour and movement as well,” added Celestia. “But the general tendency is towards the Crystal city,” ended she with emphasis. “Yes,” nodded the Day Princess, seeing Alex’s expression. “No matter how hard Shining’s guys try to distract the monsters, they seem to find the course. Singling out one or two of the Seekers for an elimination attempt didn’t give anything either. Especially considering that they can only try burning the monsters, which in the Frozen North conditions is quite problematic. Now you understand…” she ended abruptly. A long pause hung, finally broken by the metal tingle when Fluttershy and Alex exchanged meaningful glances. “The train is chosen as, unfortunately, we have no other means to deliver you both faster,” added Celestia with regret. “And flying there isn’t an option obviously. If not because of weather, then because of the distance – the Crystal Express covers it in almost three days, and it’s quite a fast transport.” Alex grimaced, imagining the possible length of their absence. “Exactly! That’s why we don’t need to inform everypony about that journey openly!” Celestia looked into his eyes fixedly. “We’ll do our best to keep things in hooves here meanwhile!” she watched him for the signs of bitter irony, which according to the Princess were inevitable, but this time Alex said or expressed nothing alike. To Celestia’s surprise, he only uttered. “Please, do your best!” ‘…Crystal Chime was to take the foals to the Crystal Empire as well! Merlin’s pants! Wouldn’t they be safer hither in that case?!’ flashed in his mind; at the same time, the very resembling Princess Celestia voice in his head scolded Alex at once. ‘Would you really expect Storm and Aurora staying with you two forever?!’ “Okay!” Alex inhaled noisily in a minute, making a decision after glancing at Fluttershy and getting a tiny nod from her; somehow, Alex felt that their thoughts were very similar at that moment. “We’re in, Tia! Anything else?” “I sure hope you can find out more at the spot and… rule out the situation,” the Princess said softly. “If you need any supplies, we can provide almost anything. Although, don’t overload yourself as you can get the same in Crystal city. Shining will provide military support, but… you know…” “The fewer amnesiacs, the better!” shortly nodded Alex. “Yes, we understand.” “There was nothing we could do, Alex!” said Fluttershy, nuzzling him softly, when they waited for the train on the platform half an hour later. “How many of the monsters could they probably take out? And judging by the princess’ words, there are more than a dozen. Even the princesses can confront only one or two without major harm to themselves,” she dropped silent for a moment, then added. “And I’m not sure that Twilight or Cadence are in that group… There in the Apples’ Orchard, judging by what you told, Twi could only shield from them for a short while, I suppose…” “That is why I hate doing that, Shy,” drawled Alex submerged in gloomy thoughts, despite the floral fragrant cuddle. “Leaving Ponyville and the nearest area almost unprotected, leaving Rainstorm to take on the burden… Nah!” “Alex, you couldn’t cover the entire Equestria in a second anyway,” the small hoof stroked his arm. “I sure hope that princess Celestia puts her guards to better use than before, as she promised. But…” “But?..” Alex looked into the girl’s eyes with interest; Fluttershy’s expression was unusually sly at that moment. “Well, while you were busy, discussing the possible precautions with Twilight,” the filly raised one brow, “I managed to write a short letter to Luna. She must have already gotten it, as Twi promised to deliver it immediately.” “Regardless of how Celestia sees our… mission,” continued Fluttershy, while Alex stared at her in surprise, “I asked Luna to keep an extra eye on the situation. Supposedly, her Night Watch can provide a valuable addition to the protection… definitely, the more determined one. Even in the daytime, I’m sure.” She shook her mane, bathing them in another wave of floral-honey aroma. “Errmmm…” only could utter Alex. ‘I hope she doesn’t give up to the urge to help us more actively at our destination area!’ instead of any words he leaned in, finding the girl’s soft lips and giving her a kiss. The platform was quite herded even at that early hour. The passing ponies threw mildly surprised glances at the waiting aside human and the pegasus mare on her hind legs, hugging him and resting her head on the human’s chest. But as both Alex and Fluttershy were without their armour already – Alex prudently helped the girl change in the castle – the attention was nearly moderate, letting them both hope that they fitted Celestia’s expectations. A series of distant whistles sounded, approaching the station; Alex looked at the bags at his feet – with the third added, containing the girl’s armour – and hugged Fluttershy’s shoulders tighter. --- Author's note: If 't be true you like the story (and have FimFiction account, otherwise, you can't vote), please, take a minute to support the book hither: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/370173/the-guardian "Thumbs up" are very welcome, they help me promote the story. Mine most sincere gratitude in advance! --- A shoutout to the caring friend, good author and simply valorous pony - @Longhaul Read his stories, please: Same story on FimFiction: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/412124/lighting-the-dark-path Support the author thither please (thumbs up) they are really good
  15. FYI: whom that may concern

    The fresh and steaming episode of Kaidan to poni ( 怪談とポニー ) - Factory Reset is released (in process, entirely on Aug, 15th) on mine FimFiction list: https://www.fimfiction.net/user/293719/Alexshy/stories

    If you are 18+ and have Mature filter open there, you can enjoy it.

    I'm still debating inwardly the possibility of making a PG or PG-13 adaptation of Kaidan to poni episodes 1 and 2, thus making them suitable for MLPF general audience :orly:

    P.S.: Still alive, writing... Expect the next chapter of The Guardian :LunaMCM:

    1. TheRockARooster

      TheRockARooster

      That’s awesome, Alex. ;)

    2. Cash In

      Cash In

      Sounds interesting. I'll check it out!

    3. Twilight Luna

      Twilight Luna

      Hello mine Princess! :ticking: I’m glad that you posting here again. :) You have been missed. :adorkable: I’ll have to check out your stories. Mine is up on fimfiction. :fluttershy:

  16. Oh! Holy Moon...burgers!!! :D

    I've just received mine access to the forum page today, and...

    AWWWW!!!

    Thank you, everypony, for you remembering me and your kind wishes for mine Birthday!

    859999967.thumb.png.ee9792d5728dba31f2467d428562c64f.png

    *hugs @RaraLover @Denim&Venöm @Twilight Luna @TheRockARooster @Dark Qiviut @Rising Dusk @Sparklefan1234@DivineStorm1000 @Longhaul @CypherKirin*

    I'm so touched!!! :LunaMCM:

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. Flutterstep

      Flutterstep

      Mmmmm... Moon burgers :nom:

      Welcome back! :LunaMCM:

    3. CypherHoof

      CypherHoof

      *Hugs*

      We have missed you and your tea parties, my princess....

    4. CheeryFox
  17. Spoilers are bad... Spoilers are good...

    spoilersaregood.thumb.jpg.8c20da1610d136513f1ca53adb59083b.jpg

    *dainty alicorn giggle*

    https://www.fimfiction.net/user/293719/Alexshy

    https://www.patreon.com/LunarCycleStudio

    1. Show previous comments  22 more
    2. Fluttershy Friend

      Fluttershy Friend

      But I will not give up! :D

      images.jpeg

    3. TheRockARooster
    4. Fluttershy Friend

      Fluttershy Friend

      They do the same gesture, they feel a presence of each other, a kind of connection, cooperation, sharing info, looks like something related with the portal, the noosfera. Especially Miss Singularity's hand touching....gives such kind of thoughts, ideas.

      pobrane.jpeg

  18. It's up, fine pony folks! :LunaMCM:

    jjek-1512228690-370173-full

    Chapter 21 is available now.

    1. Show previous comments  2 more
    2. CypherHoof

      CypherHoof

      It is good to see you my princess - you were sorely missed. Might we hope you will be around more anon?

    3. Alexshy

      Alexshy

      @CypherHoof 🐎 I don't know yet, in the earnest. RL taketh much time and strength to keep up with.

    4. CypherHoof

      CypherHoof

      That is true for all of us I think, but MLPF is a place to take a break from much of that....

  19. Alexshy

    adventure The Guardian

    21. There are no other ponies' foals “I suppose you may find this interesting at the very least, Blueberry!” princess Celestia grabbed it by the horn right upon entering the room. She lifted some rolled papers higher with her aura and waved them in the air displaying the matter of her concern. Asking the guards if her regal sister was in the room, the princess knocked nevertheless, only entering after the permissive response from behind the door – the sisters kept being amusingly meticulous in some aspects, such as privacy for example. The last few months though, Celestia was specifically careful when entering sister’s bedroom. This time it was submerged into faint twilight, lit by the fireplace and a few candles only. The fire had already faded, but the embers glowed strong keeping the November chill behind the ajar balcony door. Throwing glares on the polished furniture surfaces, they shimmered as the stripes of flame ran across and made everything in the room cast long dense shadows, which swayed and flowed on the heavy reaching the floor curtains, the large dresser mirror, the bookshelves belting all the free spots of the walls, and Luna’s wide desk. Quietly whispering, the embers sighed once in a while sinking lower and letting out a crackle as the tiny sparks launched themselves up the chimney. The Night Princess had been awake for a while already; the large bed was made and the maid left adding something fragrant into the hearth. Filling the air and mixing with lavender, fresh flurrying aroma floated around the room making even tired and sleepy Celestia feel chipper at once. Her sister nested in the broad armchair, her back to the warming fireplace, she was scanning through a scroll – the blue aura slowly reeled it in Luna’s sight. Whichever it was, the news brought a dainty smile on her face making princess’ eyes shine. The night-coloured waterfall of Luna’s mane and tail streamed over the back and armrests of her seat, gleaming with thousands of sparks where her own stars mixed with the glares cast by the flames in the hearth. “Good evening, Sunny! What’s bothering thee?” perking one ear, Luna turned to her sister; the lush thick carpet on the bedroom floor apparently wasn’t enough to disguise the visitor, even if Celestia’s golden-shod hooves were sinking in its tender softness up to the fetlocks. With a noticeably concerned expression, the Sun Princess pranced to sister’s desk, beckoning Luna with the fore hoof instead of an answer. “Have a look, Lulu,” Celestia put the scrolled sheets down; she spread them smoothly, moving the calendar saying November 3rd, 4 NLE slightly aside. With a nonchalant smile, princess Luna let the scroll she held curl up and put it aside raising from her armchair and almost prancing cheerfully to her desk. Strangely though, her smile remained becoming rather more mirthful as she examined the papers. What her sister brought looked like a newspaper editorial where, under the “The Canterlot Chronicle” header and the cheeky “Tricks and Treats” article title typeset large, a relatively dark unprofessional photograph was flaunting. On the hazed background where the wooden bridge could be barely discerned, “Nightmare Moon” and the human were depicted well enough to recognize at once. Obviously, Celestia was referring not to the place, in which Luna quickly identified the south edge of Ponyville, and even not to the participants but the situation rather. In that casually taken photo, “Nightmare Moon” was cuddling the human from behind tenderly squeezing his wings and shoulders with her fore legs softly and pulling closer. But Celestia’s flush when she threw looks at that image was caused by the simple fact that her sister’s lips were tightly locked on Alex’s planting a deep kiss; even that monochrome photograph couldn’t fail to reflect the passion of the latter. Mare’s wings were halfway to close before the obvious lovers, in the faint attempt to shield from the public attention, but something, most likely the sensation and excitement, made “Nightmare Moon” lose her guard and let the camera catch the moment. To top it all off, Alex’s head was thrown back to meet princess’ lips in the most comfortable way and one hand outstretched to caress the dark blue cheek. “So, what do you say to that?!” Celestia couldn’t stand the silence anymore seeing how Luna observed the page for a minute or about with the same content smile, frowning a bit only once. “The horizon is skewed!” after a few seconds more, Luna noticed thoughtfully; she lifted one eyebrow and performed a control shot. “And the focus is lost a little… But what didst thou wanted from an amateurish photo taken spontaneously at night in the torchlight, Sunny?” “Errmmm… That’s seriously the only thing bothering you, Lulu!” princess Celestia felt how her jaw was involuntarily dropping. “It was the pre-printing layout for the Canterlot Chronicle tomorrow issue we could intercept and withdraw barely in time. Half an hour more and it would have hit the press and half of Canterlot by lunchtime.” However, that tirade made the Night Princess only huff imperturbably, shrugging in the most relaxed way. “Calm down, Tia!” the big blue filly nuzzled her sister’s cheek tenderly. “If ‘t be true they wanted a sensation, then they have fallen arrant late, in the earnest. It may be some news for Ponyville, but rest assured, those in Canterlot who could be interested in that scene… had seen everything already at the Gala this Summer.” “Methinks half of our high crust would have rather complained about the leading article being boring beyond expression,” added Luna leaning her head on sister’s shoulder and rubbing her cheek against Celestia’s neck. “Dost not even let that into thy head, Sunny!” “But… but…” Celestia seemingly tried her best at finding some argument yet couldn’t imagine any capable to withstand sister’s tranquillity regarding the matter. “Somepony hath gotten their bearings really fast…” muttered Luna chuckling. “Dry shot anyway!” “Nothing changeth under the Moon. Canterlot Chronicle manageth to hit the yellow press margins ever and anon!” With her magic, she grabbed and crumpled the pages throwing the resulting clot into the fireplace over her shoulder and making a perfect hit. The dormant flames rose and devoured the papers at once, with the hunger of a manticore feasting on its prey. “Whence kissing the beloved one became a crime, Tia? Regardless of the social status or origin of the parties…” “Knowest what?” Luna looked at dumbfounded Celestia extremely slyly. “Be it a better photo or even a colour one… I’d demand for a copy to myself!” * Mornings at the farms always started early, even in late autumn when the crops were harvested, fields ploughed for the winter, cattle were safe, warm and fed in the sheds. Work on farms never ceased, for example, to keep the named cattle warm and fed. While sounding simple, it took quite some time and effort in reality, even not mentioning the smaller labours galore. Naturally, that morning at the Sunflowers’ farm wasn’t an exclusion. Almost with the sunrise, the large family house started filling with sounds: first yawning and sleepy ones then busy and cheerful shortly after. The two-storey building under the red tiled roof was built with love and thoughtfulness by Jocund Sunflower and Willow Chime several years ago when they moved from the Crystal Empire to the heart of Equestria; the area was chosen deliberately as the most suitable for their labour of dream by its climate and natural conditions. Built from the ground practically by the couple themselves with a bit of help of two salaried workers, this house became the material embodiment of their aspiration – peaceful life far from the herds and city noise, own farm and ground only waiting to be cultivated by careful and masterful hooves and finally a few foals to feel the air with much more pleasant noise of young laughter and shenanigans. With laudable meticulousness Sunflowers successfully brought their plan to life. A large plot was bought in the property for the part of the joint capital of Jocund and Willow. Immediately, Jocund started building the house and Willow joined her husband with determination mastering hitherto unfamiliar crafts in the process. The abode came out great, exactly as the young stallion and mare wanted; Jocund refused using paints where it was possible, covering the finely polished wooden details with transparent varnish to keep and emphasize the natural texture and atmosphere of the country house. Willow barely waited for the work being finished; as the last nail was hammered in and the house changed its building odours to the homely scents, she got pregnant and the celestial blessing gifted the family with a nice colt Storm then a filly Aurora three years after. Soon, every neighbour, despite the natural distance between farms and villages was considerable, knew the always cheerful and hardworking tea-green earth stallion with moon yellow mane and changeless straw in the corner of smiling mouth and his light-greyish emerald crystal pony wife, whose coat’s sparkling shine could probably fade a little since Willow left the Crystal Empire due to the distance from the Crystal Heart, but her long curly light coral mane became seemingly only softer and lusher with their family growth. Willow Sunflower was an epitome of tenderness and kindness (easily catching up to Fluttershy at that) regardless to the direction she aimed them: her foals, her significant other, the neighbours asking for help or to Sunflowers’ cattle or crops in the field. No wonder their house always kept that true hearth warming feel not only at the corresponding holiday but the entire year before and after. That was why that morning felt discernibly different for Sunflowers. Just like the day before when the whole family started feeling the indefinable anxiety and depression; it hit on them faintly first and then harder and harder till they, usually caring about each other, were to invest noticeable efforts to not reveal their feelings thus upsetting the dear ones. Each morning the foals spent a few minutes to rush and dash about the upper floor of their house, laughing and foaling around right after washing themselves up. That day, however, they simply went downstairs for the breakfast unusually quiet and serious, submerged in their thoughts to the level every happy foal commonly shouldn’t be. Greeting their parents, the colt and the filly noticed their father sitting silently at the large family table, resting his chin on the hooves; carefully hidden gloom was still glimpsing deep in his sky blue eyes and the appearing for the first time ever crease on his forehead. Jocund raised the eyes on his foals and let out a tiny smile wishing them a good morning, but his eyes looked seemingly through them, still fixated on some problem keeping him unrest. Throwing a glance at their mother, busy by the stove with the pancakes, which were Sunflowers’ breakfast that morning, the foals noticed with relief the unchanged tenderness and love written in her sparkly golden eyes, looking at them as always. However, Willow behaved visibly detached only slightly stroking her foals manes, which presented an outstanding gradient mixture of their parents’ mane colours perfectly fitting their names, upon greeting instead of usual cuddles and kisses. That solely felt like a thunder strike in the clear skies and exchanging the concerned glances Storm and Aurora quietly took their places, watching in dismay their mother silently setting the table for them. She finally sat a little further away at the table, which made both foals nervously fidget. The whole breakfast passed under the auspices of tense silence or short monosyllabic phrases, totally unlike all the other meals in that family. At long last, Storm couldn’t stand the so unusual for him tense atmosphere, deciding to find out its source no matter what. “Dad, mom!” started the kashmir-blue colt accurately putting off the cup. “What’s going on? Did something happen? You can tell, I’m big enough to understand,” added he quietly. “Yeah, mom…” Aurora raised her eyes of liquid gold already glistening treacherously. “Me too.” “Dad, the way you both look and… act today… It’s so unusual, so hard to understand…” muttered Storm, then he looked into father’s eyes adultly. “Do we have problems? We would do anything to help you with mom. I’m sure Aurora is with me at that. Please tell us!” “Well, son… Maybe it’s still not crucial. Maybe… but yet unpleasant,” the stallion uttered after a few silent moments as if he was choosing the proper words. “We bought too many cattle this year, you know… And… the harvest was decent, but I have very serious doubts that it is enough for us to cross the upcoming winter in surplus.” Jocund chewed his lip for a while. “And there is no question of expanding the fields next year as we planned… but frankly speaking, it would hardly help us at that exact moment anyway. I’m rather concerned about not selling the sheep, yet letting them starve wouldn’t be an option obviously.” “That’s in brief, Storm,” sighed the stallion, yet a faint smile curled his lips when he took a fresh look at his son as an adult helper already. “Are you worried about the farm business also, mom?” the colt alternated between father and her. “Or…” “You didn’t even hug us with Storm this morning…” his little sister looked at their mother with worry peppered with a considerable dose of natural foalish fear about parents’ wellbeing and family stability as the result. “Of course, I’m worried,” sighed Willow. “But there is a reason for me distancing. I feel as if I’ve caught a cold, dear… and I don’t want any of you getting ill as well.” “Oh, Aurora!” the mare reached daughter’s hoof. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. My head was full of other concerns… Please, forgive me for scaring you both!” Storm wanted to say something but stumbled lost in thought instead. Under any other circumstances, the colt would rather exhale with relief and smile inwardly – the problems described were actually far from something, which their family couldn’t overcome; moreover, they had already come across similar troubles numerous times as the farmer’s life was never supposed to be simple as an orange. But not this time for some reason. Personally, Storm was concerned mostly about his parents’ problems, his wish to support and help them and realization of the mere fact that he was unfortunately too young to do it effectively. There was also his sister: in the sad and tearful mood, she sat at the table unusually quiet and so unlike of bright and positive Aurora he knew. “Dad, when did you find out?..” asked Storm feeling that something was seriously wrong and it kept going since the day before. “Mmmm…” the stallion pondered. “Something around mid-October, son. What…” “Sorry! Mom?” inquired Storm – his faint suspicions started turning into an idea. “Do you feel bad since you fixed the farther hedge around the field with dad? Two days ago exactly, it was raining cats-n-dogs…” “Probably…” muttered the mare, then shook her curly mane glancing at her son – unnoticed by them, he had considerably matured. “And you, sis? Something is bothering you for some time?” before anypony could tell anything, Storm turned to the filly, putting the fore hoof on sister’s shoulder gently. “I’m afraid…” the filly sniffed not raising her eyes. “Mom and dad, and… and even you became strange… And I feel strange, too!” she bit her lip throwing a quick glance at Storm. “You seem to be right…” drawled Jocund realizing where his son’s thoughts headed. “Something really strange is going on since yesterday’s morning… or about…” “But we didn’t eat or drink anything unusual…” semi-inquiringly said Willow; she moved directly to the possible roots of the problem. “I heard sounds…” “However, we all feel depressed… seemingly out of the blue. Now, thinking of it better… We can make it, it’s not some mortal threat. As a last resort, we can ask aunt Crystal for a little help this year,” Jocund even let out a smile, as if he was trying it on the first time for that stressful day. “What, dear, sorry?” “I heard sounds…” repeated Aurora a bit louder, finally rising her scared eyes at the parents. “That’s why I’m scared… Some scratching and crackling… It came from the basement. Yesterday several times… and today when we went downstairs… I think I fancied it again.” “Definitely!” exclaimed the colt; his sky blue eyes stopped at his younger sister. “Now, when you said… I also heard it, just thought I was hearing things or the wind was messing with the house!” Not worrying about her cold anymore as there were more important things to consider, Willow got up and cuddled her foals tightly; the mare kissed Aurora’s cheek comforting her frightened daughter. “Scratching, you say…” the farmer pondered. “It wasn’t very loud indeed as we heard nothing with mom.” “Now, we didn’t have any rats for a few years in a row already. Maybe the pesky critters found the way back to the basement?.. Anyway, I will check today and get rid of them… just like the last time. Nothing dares to bother my sunny!” the first time for that day, Jocund smiled with his usual signature smile. The next moment something making them all cling to the seats happened, the floor under their hooves palpably trembled; even the large heavy proudly made by Jocund himself dining table moved a fraction of inch on the wooden floor, producing a nasty screech. The muffled prolonged crackle reached Sunflowers’ ears from below making the whole large house sigh. One more shiver came through the constructions. “What the…” slowly uttered Jocund rounding his eyes. “These nasty rats must be huge…” “Quickly! Get outside…” he jumped to his hooves gathering the family. “We never had earthquakes here, but…” Nuzzling calmingly her colt and filly, Willow followed them to the front door urging softly. Jocund looked back bemusedly at the doorstep: the furniture visibly shook, plates and cups started dancing on the table. The ponies rushed to the exit; quickly getting off the porch, they found out with amazement that the ground under their hooves was still. It was only their house shaking and rumbling, their beloved home, which turned hostile the day before. “I don’t want to risk!” Jocund called his frozen on the spot family. “If it’s not the quake, then we’ll wait here. Come on, honey, take the foals!” he already held open the large hatch cover of the cellar, which was originally built for some cold storage, but could easily be used as a storm or hurricane hideout. “There, big boy!” breathed out the stallion, letting his son step onto the dark stairs. “Hold your sister well… and don’t roll down you both.” He lifted the filly, helping to get over the hatch edge and making sure the colt was supporting her. “Mommy!!!” the girl cried already. “I don’t want to go without you…” “We’re after you, dear! Just get down with Storm…” “After you, honey!” the stallion held the hatch for her; he threw a wild glance over the shoulder on the shaking house. There went their dream! The large two-storey building let out a long groan; with heavy rumbling and dry shots of crackling and breaking wood, the house started to implode, collapsing like some cardboard and raising a huge cloud of dust into the air. In a matter of seconds their meticulous work, their fortress turned into a shaking pile of rubble; a trail of smoke snaked towards the low autumn sky and the smell of burning reached their nostrils. The noises faded; however, the pile their house turned into kept trembling. Something was fidgeting under the rubble, climbing outside of the ruin. In the moving debris, something huge raised higher and higher. Before Willow even put her hoof on the stairs, the glimpse of something horrid behind made the large hatch cover slip out of the weakening hooves of Jocund Sunflower; one of the metal support rods bent under an unusual angle and got between the cover and the hatch, not letting the latter close shut. * The room was semi-dark, despite Alex drew back all the curtains upon waking. The sky was a constant array of dully floating low clouds and their shadows flowed across the bookcases, chairs and floor making the room darker or lighter, depending on denser or thinner they were. It breathed with damp coolness through the ajar window; the light lingering rain veiled the landscape outside, rustling sadly on the glass. Alex didn’t turn the lights deliberately: the wind was so strong at times, its plaintive howls reached through the thick walls and the windmill rotated as if it was going to wrest its metallic bearing truss and fly away; they were to switch it through the speed reducer, otherwise, it would give enough power to light a couple of streets not only the Library. After the early breakfast, Alex returned to his room to check his papers and take some of them to the smithy, where another work day was waiting to start. For an unbeknown reason, he found himself near the window first, watching the depressing view outside and submerging into thoughts. The quiet knock on the door slowly pulled him out to reality. “Oh! Come in, Twilight,” with a light smile, he recognized the hoof easily; her manner to knock even at day time, even in her own house always looked funnily touching for Alex. “I simply wanted to find one book, if I’m not of much disturbance,” the opening door revealed one perked ear and one violet eye scanning for the human. Finding him and not registering anything concerning, the alicorn girl entered the room and Alex’s view entirely. The issue was that the books resided everywhere in that abode; the room where Alex moved into was a part of the Library and he merely added a sleeping spot for himself to it. Otherwise, the main space of the room was occupied by the books resting in the ceiling-high bookcases along all of the walls except the door and windows. Alex was pretty fine with that, especially considering that he could almost always find the book, which interested him, right in his so-called bedroom. But at the same time that meant that Twilight was occasionally forced to disturb Alex needing a book or two, or a dozen; at least she thought that she disturbed him, despite her human friend always tried to convince her otherwise. “Twi, that’s your home,” Alex shook his head once again, the thousandth time maybe. “I am the guest here, so it’s perfectly fine to not be that scrupulous.” “I know, I know, just a habit of checking,” Twilight trotted inside heading to the far end of the room and examining the shelves in her search for the book, “in case you are…” “I’m never naked outside of the bathroom, Twi!” chuckled Alex. “And if… then I’m not that naked for you to consider even in the mornings. Nothing that you haven’t seen already, to be honest.” The human was hinting the times when he had been wounded and unconscious at Fluttershy’s cottage and both girls had been to take care of him. “Oh! Stop it, Alex!” flushing a little, Twilight snorted. She stared at the large bookcase pensively cupping her muzzle with a hoof. “What’s bothering you again, by the way?” the girl took the opportunity to change the delicate topic as she noticed his gloomy glance Alex threw outside. “This!” Alex approached the low table and flopped on the sofa observing the papers galore in front of him. A large oblong metal construction rested over the pile of sheets: faceted, with the obvious muzzle part but without any notable visor, the front part of it was strangely elongated, protruding much further than an average pony muzzle would. It looked as if the upper part of it or better say the back part was made long enough specifically to balance the face. Under Twilight’s eye, he pushed the object with his fingers lightly and the large metal chunk slid with the upper paper sheet half of an inch producing a heavy sound. “I wonder if I even need to take it with me today to tune properly. It seems I made it for nothing as I can’t make up my mind to test it on somepony…” Alex sighed shaking his head. “The anti-Seekers helmet,” guessed Twilight, she glanced at him over the shoulder, levitating the books one by one with her aura and looking for the necessary one. “Yeah,” Alex sat half-turn pointing at the front part of the device. “Here, it seems blind, but actually contains a visor gap below and a system of mirrors inside, thus the muzzle part is so long. The helmet allows its user to see everything indirectly. The rest,” he clicked loudly on the backside, “is a simple weight equalizer.” “Point is I can’t choose or look for the so-called… “test subject”,” Alex shuddered at that word. “Was the one myself once – won’t wish that even to an enemy! I don’t know if the idea works one hundred per cent and don’t want to take responsibility for even one per cent failure if any…” “I see…” slowly and pensively said Twilight; she found the book and approached Alex, watching the creative mess on his table over human’s shoulder. “Speaking of which,” Alex smiled suddenly, “and entering the room at any time – I don’t keep anything top-secret here, so… Nevertheless, I clearly saw that somepony had looked over my papers recently,” he raised one eyebrow jokingly. “Oh,” Twilight looked confused. “I forgot to tell you… Lyra came yesterday. She was looking for you, but you were at the smithy already…” “Strange…” muttered Alex. “Nopony came to visit me there yesterday. Hmmm…” he shrugged with the fold wings, accidentally tickling on the nose the still standing behind girl. “Oh, sorry… And what did she want?” “I don’t know exactly,” Twilight blushed slightly. “She muttered something about her wanting to see how the only human in Equestria was doing and if you had any new interesting stuff… something along these lines.” Twilight sighed. “The point is I was in that room and before I spotted her, she was already examining your papers, Alex. In particular, she was quite interested in your latest blueprint of the armoured glove,” she pointed her hoof at the upper sheet, which the heavy helmet rested upon. “And she asked about that thing, of course. I… I answered as generic as I could,” Twilight glanced into Alex’s eyes with concern. “I hope I did nothing wrong…” “Oh, don’t worry, Twi,” with a smile Alex stroked her shoulder lightly, calming down his already worrying alicorn friend. “Methinks it’s a pure filly curiosity… Okay,” he slapped on his knees raising from the sofa. “It’s time to go, we have a lot of work with uncle Will today.” As usual with the words “uncle Will” heard from Alex, a tiny smile appeared on Twilight’s face. The sudden fast rattle on the front door made them both wince; perhaps it wasn’t the first attempt to gain the attention of the Golden Oak Library residents, the previous could be less audible. Then, an unheard incident for quiet Ponyville, the front door flung opened even bumping into the frame. “Excuse me!!!” the trumpeting male voice reached Alex’s and Twilight’s ears. “Is anypony home! An emergency message from…” Not listening to the end Alex already rushed to the main halls on his toes closely followed by Twilight, whose concerns didn’t prevent the girl from levitating the book with her. A ruffled and frothed unicorn guard appeared in their sight: the stallion breathed heavily and leaned to the doorframe. No matter if he was running or teleporting there, he had it hard on him, showing that wherever he came from, it was at a considerable distance. Looking at stallion’s seeking eyes, Alex sensed trouble. “Thank Celestia, you are here! Emergency message!” wheezed the stallion barely taking a breath. “Monsters… Seekers outbreak at the farm north-west from Ponyville! The direct princess’ order to notify you…” he stumbled and coughed, choking on words. Twilight squeaked out, dropping the book and cupping her mouth, Alex’s heart sank. ‘Shit!’ only flashed in his mind. Alex rushed to the guard barely holding himself not to shake the information out of the poor huffing stallion. “North-west of the town where exactly?” “Twenty miles north-west, beeline form here…” squeezed out the armoured unicorn. “Did it just happen?” dropped Alex on the run, with the lightning speed he dashed back to his room appearing in a second with a folded glaive in his hands. “The first signs were registered yesterday,” the stallion regained his ability to speak normally. “The farm was under constant observation since. But I believe the actual incident happened half an hour ago…” ‘Half an hour ago?! It could be a week ago with the same results now!!! Merlin’s fucking pants!!!’ Alex froze on spot with the skewed expression mentally going over the vast list of expressive words he couldn’t freely voice near Twilight. “You won’t miss the place – a large house with the red roof and lots of outbuildings nearby placed in a rectangle shape,” taking a glance over Alex’s face, the guard turned to the exit. “I need to go! I’m ordered to inform and bring there miss Fluttershy as well.” “Fluttershy?!” Alex’s heart skipped a beat. “So there are… victims?!” semi-affirmatively asked he or better say hissed coldly, making the guard flinch. “Y-yes,” reported the unicorn. “The farmer’s family was still there when…” Alex closed his eyes mentally counting to ten not to kill anypony on the spot; Twilight watched him concernedly, seemingly understanding his feelings. “Heed me at thy best,” slowly articulated the human towering over the pony guard. “I realize that ye aren’t obliged to follow mine… alowest me to put it as friendly advice. But… relay to thy… colleagues please that ye must cordon off the place of the incident and allow nopony inside the perimeter… thy mates included yet. I shall inform Fluttershy on mine own! Expect us shortly…” “Twilight!” he turned to the alicorn girl. “Please, beest so generous and let mister Steel hear about mine emergency… I don’t know whether I can address our mutual matters today and deeply apologize!” With these words Alex rushed through the front door, soaring right behind the doorstep, so only gravel creaked under his feet. “Sweet Celestia!..” muttered the stallion following the unfurled giant wings receding in the gloomy drizzling sky. “What was that…” “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else already, officer?” sarcastically inquired Twilight taking a raincoat from Spike’s paws when the guard nodded confusedly and departed with a teleport flash. ‘“Under constant observation” my ass!!! Seriously! Morons… they could easily leave the farmer’s family to deal with the Seekers themselves, with the same consequences naturally!’ at that moment, the nasty weather totally corresponded Alex’s mood; he was extremely disgusted by the authorities’ inertness and shortsightedness. ‘Merlin’s pants! It’s too late already… Was late yesterday!!!’ The rain fell endlessly; it muffled the sounds and washed away all the smells outside, leaving only dampness and wet leaves scent. The cold drizzle made Alex’s clothes stick to the body immediately. Somewhere far away, a single dull thunder strike rolled and faded in the heavy clouds. Clenching his teeth from barely controlled rage, Alex whizzed above Ponyville making the tiny water drops swirl behind him in a noticeable trail; a few random ponies were stopping and raising their eyes in surprise, following the dark arrow, which pierced the low bleak sky. In a couple of minutes, Alex crossed the town, darted over the stream and the southern field heading towards the noticeable clump of trees, which surrounded Fluttershy’s cottage. Alex sighed inwardly at the contrasting peace and tranquillity of the place, comparing to the events and the news he was about to bring; even the wind calmed down there and the rain felt less cold and nasty. Most of Fluttershy’s small friends hid or got into hibernation already making the cottage surroundings unusually quiet and deserted. Only Harry didn’t enter his habitual winter sleep yet. Yawning with his entire maw, the bear was slowly raking the old leaves in the front garden. The rain rustled on the large umbrella, which Harry tied to his back to keep over the head, and lulled the already sleepy beast; apparently he volunteered to that dull work deliberately to hibernate faster. At any other time that would have looked extremely funny to Alex; even at that moment, some deeper part of his mind chuckled at the opening view, but the current circumstances gave no place for jokes. “Harry!” not to startle the sleepy bear, Alex slowly landed in front of him. “Where’s Fluttershy? I need to talk to her, urgently!” The bear stared at the human as if princess Celestia suddenly dropped from the sky in front of him; stifling another yawn, Harry blinked several times digesting the question and resting the rake handle on his shoulder. Thankfully, the majority of Fluttershy’s friends understood pony or human speech and the bear finally poked with his paw towards somewhere behind the house. ‘In the back yard!’ guessed Alex. “Thanks!” shouted he on the run; slipping on the wet leaves, he darted around the cottage. The human even stopped for a second regretting of the inevitable breaking of that peaceful and beautiful moment. Quietly crooning something tender, his pegasus marefriend fluttered around and over the recently wounded and smartly fixed by their joint efforts maple tree; checking the integrity of the tar seal on the crack for the rainwater not to infiltrate, Fluttershy was barely touching the trunk with her gentle hooves. Apparently, the maple was doing well enough – a light peaceful smile was lighting girl’s face. ‘Forgive me, my love, for coming with that…’ Alex cleared his throat audible enough not to startle her, yet to gain attention the softest way possible. “Oh, good morning, dear!” Fluttershy’s smile became brighter as she turned to him midair. She swayed her mane back from her face; the wave of wet pink silk shone making Alex’s heart stop for a moment and his eyes capture that image forever in his soul. Lavishing a glance over her wet mane, he felt how his mouth was going to open involuntarily. “What’s going on, Alex?” the girl landed and looked at his face intently. The concern appearing in girl’s eyes, as she examined Alex’s ruffled and worried look, made him remember the aim of his visit fast enough. “Another Seekers breakout!” exhaled Alex closing his eyes for a second, not to show Fluttershy the sparks of rage deep in them. “Oh, Celestia!..” “I’ve been just notified about by a guard!” nodded Alex gloomily. “There is no time for a long explanation. A single farm north-west of the town, about twenty miles!” He gritted his teeth audibly. “The idiots were “monitoring”!” the human huffed. “Just imagine – were monitoring the “suspicious activity” for the whole day.” Fluttershy listened to him, cupping her mouth with the hoof and her eyes were widening progressively. “Yeah,” Alex interpreted her shock and unasked question properly. “There will be victims… or are already most likely, as the farmer’s family wasn’t evacuated in time. Therefore I came for you, my love.” “I’ll surely go,” amazingly, Fluttershy braced herself almost momentarily. The wind fanned the wet mane around her determined face. “What do I need?” “Nothing, except thyself!” Alex couldn’t hold back a smile witnessing such agility. “ And… I don’t doubt thy capabilities as a flyer,” he stated accurately, “but the distance is long while time – short, hence I shall carry thee…” “However, I can’t provide thee personal protection at which hour we arrive… and all the time after,” their glances met relaying Fluttershy all the seriousness of the matter. “Thou shall need to keep away from the incident till it’s over… as long as possible at least! Promise me…” For a very long moment, the man and the mare stood among the naked trees and the wind brushed the fallen leaves around their legs; the cool drizzle settled on their skin and coat. “I know!” Fluttershy suddenly brightened remembering something, her eyes shone. “By chance, I have something as if specifically made for that case. Come on!” seeing that Alex wasn’t going to move, the girl added soothingly. “Don’t worry, Alex! I won’t risk… without a crucial reason.” With that matter being sorted, they rushed to the cottage. “And what is this, pray tell?” Alex stared at something black and leathery by its looks laid out on Fluttershy’s bed. The thing or better say the clothes, as these were exactly, resembled some pony size and fashion catsuit of some looked thick and even armoured fabric, naturally making Alex blink in bewilderment. “I had no idea about something alike in…” “That’s a special operations suit,” with a tiny smile Fluttershy shrugged closing the large wardrobe closet. “Or so it was called by Rarity when she made it for me. Supposedly it was a Nightmare Night costume first, but you know Rarity,” the girl approached her bed, “she didn’t need to change much when I… needed…” “Needed what?” Alex looked genuinely puzzled examining the headpiece with full mask and night visor. “It’s a long story, next time probably,” Fluttershy let out a charming smile. “Remember somepony sneaking onto the Canterlot Castle grounds when you were… errmmm… examined by princess’ scientists…” Alex cringed at the memory of that period of his equestrian residence but immediately perked up gazing at Fluttershy. “…we…” “We?!” the human caught himself dumbfounded and rapidly blinking, while the girl was packing herself into the tight-fit suit diligently until her slender frame and the entire wings ended wrapped in the same fabric as well as the braided tail, which now resembled a whip. Various belts and cords crossed the suit boasting plenty of pockets with zippers. A knife in the sheath was strapped on the left shoulder its handle downwards; equally black medkit with the small purple cross took its strategic place on the left flank. The only bright part of the suit was the Equestria blazon on the left shoulder. “It doesn’t matter right now, Alex. What I say, it is a bit… tight,” Fluttershy put her hoof on his chest. “Could you help me with it?” She turned unambiguously demonstrating a reinforced zipper along her back. “I guess we can go without the head part,” concluded the girl when they finally managed to close the zipper, nodding towards the headpiece remaining on the bed. It was supposed to cover her whole mane and ears with the same black armoured fabric with metal-like netting. Fluttershy’s muzzle would be hidden behind some sort of a mask with the metal grid at the mouth part and valves, three tubes with lenses finished the ensemble with the visor. “The night vision is futile yet and it’s so gloomy outside, the helmet would only interfere.” “Well,” Fluttershy examined herself with a tiny nod of approval. “It surely won’t protect from serious threats, rather from some accidental cuts and bruises, but… As I said, I’ll be careful. Alex?” she turned to the silent till that moment human. The whole suit turned out sitting so tight on her figure, revealing only Fluttershy’s head with the lush silky damp mane and her tail; Alex involuntarily and loudly gulped, unable to pull his eyes off the girl and feeling the rising flush. While he helped Fluttershy dress the floral-honey aroma filled the room and Alex was to admit – a little longer and he would have started boiling. “Oh, come on…” bashfully, the pegasus girl looked aside; she nudged Alex with her shoulder then rushed downstairs. “You said we had no time!” “Wait!” Alex pulled her back when they stormed out of the front door and Fluttershy was already going to soar. “Remember? I was going to carry you.” “Are you sure you can withstand?” the girl measured his a bit distracted look, making Alex only roll his eyes. He tried to avoid concentrating on the sensations when she snuggled to him, wrapping all four legs around Alex and hiding her blushing nose on his neck. With a single powerful thrust, Alex soared securing the yellow filly in his embrace. The speed was so high, she felt her ears blocked; nevertheless, Fluttershy decided to bear that unpleasant sense and only buried her muzzle deeper to Alex’s chest, avoiding the oncoming chilling wind. Squinting, she glanced down from time to time to see how the landscape changed darting below them: the town flashed and was left behind, the railroad with always busy station and warehouses, then fields and woodland belts started blinking one after another. Fluttershy tried that speed herself only once: when she took part in pegasi joint lifting of huge masses of water for Cloudsdale Weather Factory. ‘He progressed immensely for the last couple of months,’ thought she when they passed one by one a couple of small villages; Fluttershy barely noticed how they whizzed by below. ‘It looks as if Alex was going to take the sonic barrier…’ glimpsed in her head. Only a wide cultivated valley spread out below; a thin thread of smoke, barely visible against the clouds, snaked to the sky at the horizon. “We got late!” Alex somehow squeezed out a croak and sped up even more. He already felt the non-mistakable for anything sense of tension, which usually came with the Seekers. “Harmony help them…” whispered Fluttershy stifling the tears. The thin cordon ring approached, soon they could distinguish the guards belting the scene of the incident far in the field below and the rare mages among them doing their best to shield the military from the seekers’ effects. “Are you ready? I’m going to drop you here, in the safer area!” Alex turned over in the air to let Fluttershy soar easier. “You too be careful!” she wanted to add something else, but instead planted a short hot kiss on his neck; separating from him and unfurling her wings, Fluttershy pulled aside. The sudden closing of their hideout before the parents could even attempt to get in with them brought the two foals in the state of silent shock for a while. Little Aurora wasn’t even crying, despite that would have been her most natural reaction at her mom failing her promise – for the first time in their life perhaps – namely, to stay with them. Instead of that, an expression of offence froze on her cute muzzle and in her widely opened eyes. Storm was completely terrified, and he wouldn’t hesitate of confessing that to himself later, mostly feeling than thinking at the moment he pulled his sister closer cuddling her protectively. When the sounds of collapsing house ceased, the unbelievable silence fell outside, rarely disturbed by the random heavy hoofsteps. The latter didn’t even distantly resemble their parents’ usual gait, mom and dad seemingly didn’t let out a sound. The surrounding darkness and lack of discernible information from the surface became stressful enough to switch at least Storm on. With a bit of surprise, he found out that the darkness wasn’t absolute, dispersed by a ray of light coming through a quite wide gap, which appeared because of the support rod getting under the hatch edge. Still holding Aurora close, Storm slowly moved closer and took a peek through the light. The rain fell and fell, filling the air with the cold drizzle; with monotonous rustle, it soaked the wilted grass and soil, slowly turning the latter into the dirt. Yet the high humidity was the only reason why the house remnants didn’t catch on fire – the thickening smoke trail already snaked from the spot where the kitchen hearth supposed to be. Water suppressed the fire but it didn’t prevent the wood to smolder slowly, producing more and more bitter and acrid smoke; it partially spread along the ground and trailed into Storm’s nostrils causing his throat to itch mercilessly. The colt tried his best not to cough, despite the next image stifled his breath even more. Their parents were still there: apparently, they had time to run a few steps from the hatch (Storm couldn’t understand why) and were lying on the greyish grass at the moment. The colt was unimaginably happy to see them alive; Willow and Jocund Sunflowers kept their heads above the ground strangely staring into the distance. At the same time, it looked as keeping the heads up took all their energy as they didn’t even move. Facing each other, their mom and dad seemingly didn’t even register each other’s presence in its usual sense: each of them rather looked through the partner, Jocund didn’t bother to rise to his hooves or help Willow up. The latter was specifically shocking for the colt, his first urge was to rush to the parents and look, what was going on with them. Coping with that urge as they were not left there with his sister for nothing, the next moment Storm turned glad that he stifled the cough earlier: with the heavy sound they already heard, a giant black leg with intimidating hoof stomped right near their hiding place, making both foals flinch. Then another. Something passed their view heading towards the debris. The foals could count four equine legs and lost count at the number of ghostly sheets and tendrils of some black mist curling around the mysterious creature. When the intruder receded far enough to show entirely in their narrow embrasure, Storm was to cup his mouth with the fore hoof to stifle an unwitting whoop: the monster looked like a headless torso put instead of the horse neck on the huge equine body, the extremities of constantly moving dark mist-like substance made for its arms and tail, the same dark mist veiled around the whole monster’s figure. It passed the lying stallion and mare indifferently, as if not paying them more attention than some natural obstacle on its way. Storm remembered at once, they were warned about such creatures in summer, to avoid them, especially any close contacts or direct look. Indeed almost instantly, the feeling of depression and panic became nearly unbearable and the colt realized that the stronger fear of the situation was the only thing overshadowing those sensations before. They had nowhere to run, practically locked in that cellar while the living terror prowled around. When another dark figure entered their view from aside, Aurora snuggled into brother’s shoulder with a muffled whimper. Storm felt that he was on the edge of sanity himself: he wanted to yell, to gallop somewhere, no matter where only to be as far from these creatures as possible. Thankfully, the happy foals didn’t have many unpleasant memories in their life, otherwise, they would probably have been flooded with them. Nevertheless, some yet withstanding part of Storm’s mind noted that the anxiety about his parents’ problems seemed to be taking over his conscious entirely. He had no idea how long they could hold before doing something in panic and becoming found by the monsters; Aurora silently cried on his shoulder. Trying not to look at the creatures, which were still slowly rambling around the ruins as if they were looking for something, the colt stared at the narrow stripe of the distant sky inwardly calling for any help the Universe could provide. Suddenly, to his faint hope, as Storm was ready to wait for any miracle, something changed in the sky. A little speck appeared; barely visible first against the grey running clouds, it grew in size approaching at a considerable speed. In a few seconds, the colt was able to discern two huge black wings, which carried that strange silhouette. Inwardly pleading that it wouldn’t turn out yet another relative of those monsters stomping around, Storm stirred up his sister lightly, silently nodding to look through the gap. Apparently, the dark abominations had no enthusiasm about the approaching something; they felt it at once, turning to face – if that could be said about something having no head – the flying object and straining visibly. One of the monsters started bucking the ground, frustrated or scared by the newcomer. Meanwhile, the flying silhouette slowed down a bit over the field and turned over in the air… dividing in two to the silent bewilderment of the watching foals. The smaller one, black with bright yellow wings and a streak of pink – a pegasus was guessed in this silhouette – glided by the wide arc landing in the field somewhere out of their view. The larger “part” turned over again and sped up visibly; approaching faster, it started shining metallically changing its surface in the air. In a few seconds, Storm opened his mouth involuntarily and forgot to close it, Aurora squeaked in surprise: they could clearly see a bipedal figure clad in spiked armour, its wings turned out really huge overshadowing part of the sky; quickly unfolding, some unseen by the foals before weapon shimmered in its arms. The arrived creature had no face – the smooth glass-like surface of the helmet shone reflecting the scarce daylight. At the same time, it looked like an enemy for the black abominations and one to be taken seriously: both monsters prepared for the battle, the dark mist seeped back into their bodies completely and strained legs ploughed the ground threateningly. Despite all the improbability of that, the coming creature was the only help the foals could count on. Leaving Fluttershy at the cordon distance, Alex could at least not worry about her; one thing he was sure about – the guards would never let anypony approach the incident scene while the Seekers were still there. From the bird’s view, Alex quickly estimated the situation. To his displeasure, both monsters turned out to be the materialized ones – the worst case among possible. Besides, they looked really large even compared to those he was to deal before. The human noted the farmhouse, which turned into a shapeless pile of rubble, the smoke trailing up and spreading around in the damp air and two lying on the wet grass ponies. The latter were alive but didn’t show more liveliness than a tree in still weather. “So… Late again… and there are suffered ponies already!” Alex gritted the teeth feeling how rages started boiling in him, emerging slowly but determinedly. “Okay, freaks! Let’s dance!” With is faintest mental order the armour began revealing itself, enveloping Alex on the fly, the last was the helmet, veiling his view with the thin transparent slightly refracting film and muffling away the sounds of the rain. Reaching and grabbing the glaive, Alex turned the ring unfolding the weapon. The Seekers felt his presence already, both huge black centaur-like monsters turned to face the enemy not going to give up easily. “They don’t pay much attention to the farmers!” automatically noted Alex. “That can only mean that both poor ponies were objected to the Seekers’ effect already. However, with a bit of luck, I may be able to keep the bastards away from them. It’ll make my job only easier anyway, as there is no chance I can take both ponies away before attacking.” He decided to force his own rules of fight upon the mind-wringing intruders to gain from the very start and keep ahead of them. The fast aerial attacks allowed Alex to use his main advantages – wings and speed, allowing to take over the large and restricted to the ground beasts. However, the human wasn’t short-sighted to call them clumsy or count on that; all Alex’s previous contacts with the Seekers showed that seeming dumb and bulky at the first sight, the monsters could move at unexpectedly high speed and deliver some really hard strikes if not taken seriously. They might be not very intellectual in general but they didn’t need to be, made with the sole purpose of seeking something and reflecting any threat violently enough to keep their own integrity. If not for Alex, they would have coped with that task perfectly as long as they kept away from the really large groups of guards or princesses themselves. Folding his wings as an arrow and preparing the glaive, Alex darted down; he planned to take out one of the Seekers or at least wound it severely with one decisive blow, driving it out of the fight at least temporarily. Inwardly thanking Luna for her gift, Alex was to admit its value, he felt the oncoming air even with the full helmet on when the surroundings smudged in his view with the ruins and two monsters being the only clear spot. No matter how nonintellectual they were, the latter resorted to their proven tactics, which was supposed to help them keep away the majority of living threats. Both Seekers jumped onto the large pile of house wreckage and let out their misty tendrils again. Raking the debris with their fore hooves and misty extremities, they chose out the sharpest and most uneven ones, quickly launching them at the enemy; the air filled with the cloud of stone and wooden shrapnel. Alex had about a second to react, spreading the wings fast and suppressing the impulse, feeling the enormous strain in the shoulders; the very next moment the vast wings flapped shut in front of him forming an angled, solid feathery shield. The improvised shards were loudly drumming into it, sliding off the smooth large feathers not doing any harm; a good portion of rubbish rained back on the offenders. At the moment of occasional pause in that shelling, Alex unfurled the wings soaring and regaining the lost height. He made a loop almost touching the low heavy rain clouds and faced his enemy again. Spinning the glaive in front of him and reflecting the projectiles in random directions, so they lost their impulse and feel on the ground, Alex rushed for the second attempt on the chaotic broken trajectory, avoiding the largest pieces of debris. In the cellar, at their safe vantage point, two foals opened the mouth silently at the battle view unfolding to their widened eyes. Storm Sunflower nudged his sister, glancing at her and nodding towards the fight: the monsters clearly had no time for the ponies at the moment. ‘Not good!’ glimpsed in Alex’s mind. ‘I can reflect the smaller stuff with glancing blows, but the truly large objects can damage the weapon.’ He was to dodge a few big chunks of the woodwork already as his glaive would get stuck in them, wrestled from Alex’s hands or broken. One of the larger stones hit him in the wing quite palpably making him squint and perform a somersault in the air. As if in confirmation of his thoughts, two black bastards below suddenly unearthed a large part of the hearth masonry from the ruins – the smoke plume became wider and thicker – heavily launching it at the approaching human. In a few fractions of second Alex got the strongest déjà vu feeling with his first encounter with the Seeker at the abandoned mill. There were the parts of stonework as well and the mill rotor back then. There was the sleepwalking Alex back then also. But the current Alex had wings – the acquisition, the whole importance and value of which he only started to comprehend. Rather automatically than consciously, the human dodged the relatively slowly ascending piece of stonework, then rushed after it in the sky. Alex already had the plan to stop that unfortunate advantage of his enemies on the ground. He caught the moment when the piece of hearth lost its impulse, outracing it in the air; in a wink, he turned over “landing” on top of that fragment and hitting it strongly with his legs. Correcting its trajectory, Alex kept pushing the part of the hearth speeding it up to the ground. “That way nothing will remain from our house at all…” whispered Aurora glancing at Storm. Her brother only gulped down, unable to peel his eyes from the heavy spear with the stone point coming to the ground. The Seekers realized what it was going to end with; stopping their shelling at once, they winced back. At that very moment, the chunk of stonework hit the debris pile right in the spot the monsters were second ago. The heavy strike shook the ground reaching even the foals’ hideout; the pieces of rubble sprinkled everywhere. ‘Crap! Missed!’ the last moment before impact, Alex darted from the stone surface towards the retreating Seekers. His plan was to smash at least one of the abominations but the latter turned out not so dumb. With a lucky sway of the glaive, he managed to cut off one of the misty tendrils, which quickly dissolved in the air, separated from its owner. However, that didn’t hurt the monster much. The only result was that the Seekers quickly drew their tendrils in, locking the Dark Mist inside of their materialized forms and relying on the physical impact again. They already turned around ready to face their enemy with large solid dangerous hooves. Their red “eyes” slid across the human’s figure, not making any harm to him, but unambiguously stating their strong wish to make that harm if only they could. “Does he plan to exhaust them?” not addressing anypony exactly, asked Storm. With his sister they watched, how the winged armoured creature swooped on the monsters again and again like a falcon, bringing down a cloud of sizzling strikes and looking for the moment to find and hit the weak spot. Alex already noticed that chosen tactics wasn’t working as he expected; while he had the definite advantage in speed and manoeuvre in the air, he still couldn’t hurt the Seekers seriously enough to take down at once for a number of reasons. Both monsters were fully materialized, complicating Alex’s task of contacting with the Dark Mist – the fastest and easiest way to destroy them. Their magical essence was carefully hidden inside the solid bodies, under the thick skin, not letting the human catch them off guard by an accident. Besides, the Seekers were really big, the amount of force put into their creation must have been considerable. The smaller cuts quickly healed on their coal smooth bodies, not letting anything out, as the materialized Seekers still had no blood in the common understanding of that fluid. The storm of aerial attacks Alex brought on them left the multitude of cuts, the same amount was dodged or reflected by their strong legs with hooves, but to make his attempt efficient, Alex seemingly was to cut in halves the retreating but constantly fighting back Seekers. “I’m afraid they may hurt mom and dad!” Storm even held his breath watching the skirmish of two equine-like and one bipedal creature. Indeed, attacked from above the monsters were to move constantly and their trajectory inexorably led them towards the spot where two affected ponies were lying still, watching the scene dispassionately. Step by step, pressed by their winged enemy, they approached Willow and Jocund. A few seconds more and the beasts, several times larger and heavier than an average pony, were already trampling near the farmers couple. The reaction was momentary: before the inevitable could happen, the flying figure left the monsters alone and soared higher. Making a loop in the air it approached the beasts from the opposite side, attacking them fiercely and hovering above the lying ponies as soon as the black creatures stepped back. ‘Nothing changed!’ thought Alex striking the enemy then quickly returning if they made any move towards the ponies. ‘To take them down I literally need to stick my bare hand into some large wound on them. Even my blood may hurt them, but it must get on their bodies to kill them efficiently.’ The Seekers seemed to have felt the weakness of their enemy, if not physical, then the tactical one. Finally, they separated but each showed the tendency to sneak into the centre of the circle mentally drawn by the human, where the affected ponies were. The dark bastards decided to use their own victims to distract Alex and make him disperse his attention. The situation changed! Under the new circumstances, Alex’s ability to fly became an ineffective advantage – with his giant wings it was impossible to manoeuvre close enough to the ground and the ponies. Any other position meant the considerable distance from them and the inability to protect in time if the Seekers approached for the strike. The latter already circled like two hungry sharks as if teasing Alex. It was an easy to make decision, without the second thought Alex rushed to the laying ponies and landed. Apparently, he was to take this battle on the ground where only speed remained from his advantages. The wings spread, keeping low and shielding the ponies from the accidental hit; Alex spun up the glaive ready to face the mind-wrecking bastards there and then. The rain poured mercilessly, drops drumming on the armour and feathers loudly and rhythmically. Fanning the old straw and grass into the air, the wind became stronger gathering the darkening clouds. The first thunder strike ripped the low sky with snaking lightning right above the ruined farm, making both foals in the cellar crouch and flatten their ears. The attack didn’t linger to come down at them, the Seekers cannoned into the battle realizing their advantage in number and position at last. The barrage of heavy strikes came down from the opposite directions on the human, threatening to crush the motionless ponies under his protection. The glaive blazed spinning, reflecting the strikes of the stone-hard hooves and spraying bursts of sparks at each impact. Alex was to stand still like a lighthouse, dividing his attention and the affected area of his weapon between two monsters in front and behind him. Slow and cold rage slowly raised inside the human making his eyes under the helmet almost black again. At the same time, he saw everything crystal clear as if the time around was flowing slower. Only the rare hits sneaked through his swirling shield of sizzling steel; they slid on the armour and quickly pulled away – the monsters felt all the danger of lingering in the proximity of those spikes and blades. Storm fruitlessly tried to swallow a lump watching how the two beasts were ramming into the sparkling dome formed by the strange rotating dual-bladed weapon. It looked as if flames were running between the fighting parties when the blades met the hooves of the attackers; the flashes were hardly dimmer than a few lightning bolts ripping the clouds above the increasing rain. “What if lightning strikes into them?!” squeaked Aurora. “I don’t know…” breathed out Storm, unable to look aside while the fountains of sparks flashed one after another at the constantly increasing rate. “Let’s hope it doesn’t!” The wings took their part in the fight as well, occasionally delivering a hard blow into the red-eyed creatures torsos. That served badly: suddenly the rear Seeker, flinching from the stinging lunge of the glaive stomped accidentally on the wing edge. Stomped accidentally but didn’t remove its hoof deliberately. The large wing appeared to be nailed to the ground, stretched and restraining the armoured creature; the ponies remained under it like under the huge feathery umbrella. By some inscrutable reason, they stood indifferent to all the terrifying events surrounding them, including the rain of sparks and heavy stomping of the beasts. Seeing how their defender struggled to free the wing, Aurora squeaked out, tears started filling her eyes. Overcoming the pain, Alex stretched the wing nevertheless – the rear monster kept pressing it to the ground, but there were two innocent ponies under it. The vicious wretch started drumming another fore hoof into the wing surface trying to get to the victims no matter what. However, either it didn’t have enough space for a proper swing or the wing turned out to be not so simple, the beast couldn’t get through. At least that allowed Alex to concentrate on the front enemy more keeping the situation behind at the semblance of control and delivering occasional lightning-like blows to keep the rear Seeker on distance. The next moment something, that nopony of the present expected, happened. With a bright flash of the teleport somepony else appeared under Alex’s stretched wing. Bewildered, Alex gazed down to see the unicorn guard teleporting right into the middle of the battle. The nameless hero diligently stared at the ground squinting not to meet the Seekers’ piercing “gaze” accidentally. Losing no time, he grabbed both motionless earth ponies, the farmer and his wife, to take them out of the danger zone. The next moment all three vanished in another flash taking them somewhere in the field. Where exactly didn’t matter as the ponies stopped being the involuntary hostages of the situation and the monsters at once. ‘Heh, we’ll see how it goes now!’ Alex grinned under his helmet. With the victims taken out of the enemy reach, nothing prevented him from finishing the monsters at the spot… except maybe the wing still nailed to the ground by the Seeker’s hoof. However, that little flashing fortunate moment was enough of the distraction; taking a glance at the saved ponies, Alex missed quite a heavy blow of the stone-hard hoof on his left shoulder. The armour absorbed most of the energy with the earsplitting boom, but the remaining impulse was strong enough for Alex’s arm becoming irresponsive for a while. Cringing, he felt that he couldn’t lift the left arm higher than his chest level without the overwhelming pain or move it at sufficient for the fight speed. Fortunately, the same teleport spell which made Alex miss the enemy strike served as the distraction for the beasts as well. The front Seeker lost a moment to continue and emphasize its advantage, delivering a few more blazing hits, Alex had fewer chances to reflect. The rear monster winced from the flash; losing focus, it leaned back a bit – that tiny weakness was enough for the human to jerk his wing from under the pressing hoof. The next moment the giant wings rushed forward and met in the stunning blow like a mallet and an anvil, heavily smacking the front Seeker from both sides, catching the monster off guard and disorienting for a short moment. Drawing a whirl with the glaive above the head and making the rear Seeker step back escaping the silvery shining death, Alex ripped the armoured glove off his contused hand. With a lightning-like swing, the blade painted red with the blood from the palm. Exhaling forcefully, Alex performed a wide sway and bent his knees; the glaive directed by one hand axed right on the monster legs. Like a felled tree, the front seeker collapsed to its knees and the glaive already raised for the finishing strike. “Hhhhaaaa!” Alex put all the strength into that blow, driving the blood painted blade deep into the middle of monster’s body; shivers came across the large carcass, the Seeker tried to raise on its fore hooves but it was doomed at the moment human’s blood found its way into beast’s body, already etching and destroying it from inside. But that wasn’t all: forcefully pushing off the ground, Alex ran up the convulsing Seeker frame. Using the glaive as a lever, he made a circle on enemy’s large torso, gaining momentum and throwing himself towards another monster. With a blood-chilling crunch, Alex’s bleeding fist smashed right into the red “eye” of the Seeker preparing to attack the human while the latter was busy with the monster’s partner. It ripped through, plunging inside; the second Seeker crashed to the ground as if it was shot with a bullet. Like thunderstruck, unable to move or utter a word, the guards in the field and both foals in their underground hideout watched the human standing on soggy slippery ground with the glaive buried deep into one monster and his arm ripping the life force out of another. Both Seekers twitched a couple more times and died down; the Dark Mist started flowing everywhere out of their bodies as if nothing could hold it inside anymore. Looking as if it tried to escape the inevitable, the dark substance was pulled into the centre, towards the human figure. Driven by the unknown force it gathered around, seeping into the invisible gaps between armour parts and ending up consumed by the human. For a very short moment, the silence flooding the scene became so overwhelming that the monotonous sound of rain seemed deafening to the ponies around. Two monsters’ bodies, bereft of their driving and binding matter, were disintegrating before the eyes of the astonished witnesses, turning into the clouds of dark ash-like substance pressed down by the water falling from the skies. “What the hay was that?..” started one of the unicorn mages. Not waiting any second more, Fluttershy soared and rushed forward, to the incident scene, where a few guards already walked carefully the saved farmers couple. The drizzling rain finally laid the dust and dispelled the remnants of the dark mist, which managed to escape their fate unconsumed by the winged creature; their parents stood supported by the royal guards, not knowing what to do with the victims next. Storm saw mom and dad being alive, but completely inert. Shockingly for him, they looked as if they barely found strength, moreover the wish to keep their heads up. The armoured figure approached and leaned down to them; the colt watched him examining mom and dad briefly. Storm remembered them all being informed about the so-called human and the strict warning about not using magic on him; the colt had much fun that time appreciating all the nonsense of notifying an earth ponies family about that. The fear for his parents and the concern about himself and his younger sister struggled in Storm soul; he didn’t know what to expect from that, frankly speaking quite intimidating, newcomer when the latter leaned lower and asked something. Not getting any response or merely any reaction from the pony couple, he seemingly lost any interest towards them, soaring with visible effort and landing on the top of the smoking debris pile, which was once Sunflowers’ house. Storm felt a faint warm touch on his shoulder, Aurora snuggled closer to take a look outside as well. The filly barely held back her visible wish to call her mom; her ears dropped, lips shook and eyes started filling with tears again. “Keep quiet!” just in case whispered Storm from the corner of his mouth and noticed how Aurora nodded fast, biting her lip. At that moment, another event participant entered their view: a pegasus mare was coming down unfurling her large wings. She managed to land gracefully on the slippery ground and, throwing her long wet mane back, started bustling around Willow and Jocund, examining them more carefully. Her gentle touch and care made both the mare and stallion move a little and removed the hard rock from both foals’ souls – at least their parents looked physically unharmed. Meanwhile, the human kept inspecting the house ruins, he moved slowly around the debris and seemingly even sniffed or tried to feel something, unknown yet to the watching foals. Finally satisfied with the results of his investigation and leaving the ruins, he joined the pegasus mare; the foals watched in bewilderment how the armoured figure and the mare in the strange tight black suit were quietly discussing something over their absent looking parents. They couldn’t discern the exact words but the whole tone was rather calming, making both foals relax a tiny bit. ‘Yellow coat, lush pink mane, soothing voice… That must be miss Fluttershy from Ponyville’ glimpsed in Storm head; from Ponyville his mind referred to the last Nightmare Night celebration. Seeing that the mare was addressing her armoured partner with a small but sincere smile, Storm made up his mind. He gathered all his strength to push the heavy cover from below and it moved a tiny bit. The armoured figure turned to them momentarily; the dim autumn daylight glimmered on the mirror-like face of the helmet when he noticed what probably seemed a part of the debris to him first. The foals instinctively flinched back, hearing the approaching heavy steps they snuggled closer to each other, despite there was no visible danger. Aurora stifled a squeak when the clawed metal fingers got under the hatch edge lifting it without much effort and throwing back; squinting from the light, suddenly appearing bright after the darkness of their cellar, the colt and the filly stared at their reflection in the mirror face for a very long moment. The human sighed hollowly; enveloping in the silvery glow, the helmet started fading, turning into a thin metal band around his head in a couple of seconds. The sea-green eyes looked at them with care and deeply hidden sadness. “So, whom do we have hither? You must be their foals, correct?” making a faint smile attempt, the human nodded back towards the ponies surrounded by the coming guards. Fluttershy remained near them selflessly shielding the lying on the ground ponies with her wings, as the rain never ceased; cool and annoying, it soaked the foals’ coat in a wink. “Yes!” Storm made an effort to climb out of the hatch when he felt two arms accurately lifting him and putting on the ground nearby. In a second, his confused sister appeared next to the colt. The giant black wing spread over them shielding the shivering foals from the elements. “We were in Ponyville at the last Nightmare Night celebration…” Storm finally made up his mind. “Now I remember, we saw you there… You are the Nightmare Knight, right?” “Errmmm…” the human seemed to be seriously stumped by that question. “Are they hurt? Can you help them?” finding out that their company was safe, the filly moved straight to the matter which naturally bothered her the most, interrupting the human. “They are fine physically,” the human shook his head with regret. “However, they were affected by the Seekers… to the certain extent,” dealing with foals, Alex did his best to find the possibly least terrifying words, “by these monsters you might have seen from your hiding place. Personally, I can’t help that…” “…and your lady?” bluntly asked the filly, throwing a quick glance full of hope towards Fluttershy, who was already heading to them. The guards helped the mare and the stallion to their hooves, covering both with raincoats and supporting as the couple didn’t show much interactivity or presence. The human wanted to say something, let out a tiny smile instead and lightly stroked her wet mane minding his armoured glove. “We’ll see what can be done hither. One thing I promise, we won’t leave you or your parents without help. They will be fine ultimately!” He expressed more confidence than he felt but Alex couldn’t do otherwise. “So…” he turned to the approaching mare. “What’s the prognosis, Shy? Can you do something?” “Miss Fluttershy! Please…” both foals threw a full of desperate hope glance up at the mare. “Oh, Celestia! Poor things…” she dived under his wing cuddling the foals in a wing hug, then looked up with all seriousness. “I’ll do my best, Alex. But not here, of course…” “Now, kids,” she looked at the young Sunflowers tenderly, “I’m Fluttershy as you properly guessed. What are your names?” “Storm Sunflower,” simply said the colt. “Aurora is my sister. Younger sister,” elaborated he getting a little pouting glance from the filly. ‘Great!’ Alex raised to his feet pondering. ‘We dealt with the monsters, fortunately. But the kids… they are left without the roof and the parents. Even if temporarily…’ “Ahem…” finishing his own survey of the ruined house, the guards’ commander approached making Alex frown with a frustrated expression; the human turned slowly and demonstratively. ‘Who knows what they are going to do with formally homeless foals…’ flashed in his mind. Alex preferred not to think that the foals became homeless mostly due to the officials’ lingering, otherwise he would probably have been raging full time. ‘Despite there is at least one true hero among them, the rest are completely drill-driven and most of them are incapable of non-standard actions demanded by the non-standard situations.’ “What were your orders for that case, officer?” he asked the guard insinuatingly calm; the latter raised one eyebrow with reproach, yet condescended to answer. “We’re going to take the victims to Canterlot. Obviously, you’re going with us… as the witnesses and participants of the incident,” uttered the commander. “The adults, who suffered from Seekers, will be getting the appropriate treatment. First from miss Fluttershy, then by the Canterlot local medical staff. The foals…” “Enough…” shortly dropped Alex, gritting his teeth in realization what he could hear the next moment. “We’re going with you, but…” “Fluttershy!” throwing the wet hair back from his face, Alex turned to his marefriend. “Please, whatever befalls, dost not leave Storm and Aurora out of thy sight!” after her nod, he addressed the guards again. “Fine! How exactly do you plan to transport everypony?” “Teleportation,” the unicorn shrugged with deliberate perplexity as if he was surprised by human’s slow wits. “As neither of us possesses enough powers for a single transfer, the several unicorns will teleport everypony one by one in a series of… hops to reach Canterlot in about quarter of an hour. The question is how you are going to follow,” he glanced at the human with emphasis, “as we can’t apply magic to you.” “I will follow you in my own way. Flying obviously!” smirked Alex wryly. “Fluttershy, dear, please do as I said, wait for me absolutely, don’t let them undertake anything in my absence!” “And…” he leaned closer to the guard making the unicorn involuntarily recoil. “Take that as a… friendly advice – don’t remove the cordon completely yet. I don’t predict the aftereffects, but…” “Don’t you worry,” added the human seeing commander’s puzzled face and properly reading the reasons. “I won’t be late after you… too much.” Freezing in awe, Storm and Aurora watched with widened eyes how the huge wings unfurled; a few flaps almost throwing everypony on the ground lifted the heavily armoured human, who hovered in the air and watched their departure. The officer was already giving out commands occasionally throwing scornful glances at the winged figure. A few unicorns joined them, the horn of one lit with magic preparing the transfer spell; the rest of the guards remained to patrol the ruins of the farmhouse. “With all the tricks you have shown here already, I’d like to see how you’re going to throw that one…” muttered the commander gesturing his guards. Before the teleport flash took them away, Storm could see how the human soared higher heading to the north. * ‘No doubt, they are going to shove the foals into some orphanage!’ Alex cringed bitterly, ruffling and shaking the water off wings. Automatically without even thinking about that, he did a barrel roll in the air making the small drips spray everywhere around. ‘It doesn’t matter how kind and understanding Celestia can be towards them, the procedure is verified over the years and natural for the officials… just like on Earth.’ ‘Even if there are some other relatives, they won’t be able to take the foals at once most likely. That again meaneth a few days in the orphanage!’ Alex shook his head in disapproval. The weather and surrounding landscape correlated with his mood surprisingly: rain-washed fields painted grey by late autumn, lonely houses scattered far in the valley, the distant stripe of the forest looking almost black and the dense fog curling under the trees like the dusty cotton – walling everything around, the cold rain seemed endless on this gloomy November morning. Alex circled the area with the farm outbuildings cordoned on the perimeter by the chain of guards; the large house looked like a smudged still smoking meteorite crater with the multitude of rays on the ground – the debris splashed outside with the centre in the spot where the large chunk of stonework fell. Only the foundation, still protruding through the rubble, showed the actual former boundaries of the building. Remembering the direction to Ponyville – south-east – Alex took the road directly to the east instead, approaching the line of the trees at a nice speed. Soon the dark pines began flashing by underneath, half-flooded by the fog deeper in the forest. In a few seconds more, the trees parted opening a wide clearing with the railways running amidst – he recognized the north line from the town. Alex hovered for a moment taking a look along the rails. Here on the flat, the road was straight as an arrow, directed to Canterlot and hiding in the misty tunnel between the trees further away. A sudden loud whistle reached his ears from behind and a train showed up breaking the wall of fog and making its clouds flinch and crawl away from the road. The dark blue locomotive pulled the endless tail of cars, puffing and rumbling; steam swirled around its heated body, which evaporated the mist and falling rain. Erupting from the tube in half with the sparks, the dense smoke cut the gloomy sky with its dark-grey blade: the train reached its top speed and no stops were supposed nearby, it whizzed under Alex letting out another warning whistle. The human squinted, the loco was easily making about one hundred and twenty miles per hour. ‘Postal express!’ Estimating the time, Alex smirked at the spontaneous idea. He dived down and spread his wings, speeding up next to the metal snake rolling and rolling along the rails. In a wink, he passed the rushing locomotive and managed to notice the rounding eyes of the motorpony in the side window of the cabin. Overtaking the train, Alex darted up into the sky as the direction was now clear. He pierced the thick layer of the low rain clouds, for a few moments feeling as if his face was wrapped in wet cold rags, even the armour cooled down immediately. Escaping that dampness and rising higher, Alex could see the tiny shining sparkle on the horizon – the ice cap of Canterlot peak shining in the morning light. The sun was still low but it was undoubtedly better than the chilling drizzle below. Taking the direct course to the shining mountain, the human felt how his dark armour slowly but determinedly warmed in the sunlight. ‘We can’t let them take the foals!’ With that decision, Alex darted above the curling sea of clouds sewn by the rare long lightning zigzags. The helmet appeared on his head shielding from the oncoming strong wind. Even being an adult, even realizing the whole severity of his current condition and the inability to revert anything, Alex constantly remembered his parents, seeing them in his nightly dreams and carefully suppressing the feelings during the day. He could perfectly understand the foals, deprived of their mom and dad at once with the perspective being quite cloudy, to say the least. To leave them without any actual home (not the formal house, some roof over their heads, but the homely feel itself) would be the worst choice at the moment, officially confirming their orphaned status and leaving them completely disarrayed. ‘Fluttershy would do her best of course, but she can’t hold them forever. I need to talk to the princess first!’ Alex gritted his teeth. ‘And the time is short!’ The wings folded into the large arrow automatically, everything smudged around him, distant objects rushing in his face so fast he lost the breath for a second; through his helmet Alex heard a juicy bloop as if some giant string broke. The air sizzled and hummed, being cut by his body at that unbelievable speed. * “Let us go, my dear!” Princess Celestia stopped looking back at somepony still hidden in the shade of the dimly lit gallery behind the Throne Hall of the castle. “Royalties never get late they deign to linger, of course,” chuckled the princess examining her dress critically, “but making your subjects wait too much isn’t something I personally approve. Respect is always bidirectional, remember that.” It was something unusual in Celestia attending her regular audience at the full parade, as such splendour was usual for the galas rather than the casual meetings princesses had numerous times a day or night, depending on which Crown it was referring to. However, the next moment, with a quiet rustle, a young mare in a radiant opulent dress exited the stripe of shadow between the rare torches, which accompanied by the narrow windows barely dissolved the twilight of the hallway. She stopped in the light looking slightly hesitant, closely followed by another milk-chocolate earth mare in a strict maid uniform dress. “Don’t worry, Velta!” Celestia let out a dainty smile watching the high society girl and her modestly looking protégé. “Aren’t we doing that to make you familiar with the routine, feeling comfortable when it is time for you to care of your heritage and subjects’ needs?” “You know, auntie Celestia, I’m more than ready to address the subjects’ concerns and needs!” the young mare cocked her head; to hear the tints of Germane accent in her Ponish one would need a truly musical ear. “The question is: would they see me as the one capable enough, considering…” she stumbled and light flush played on her snow-white cheeks. “It mostly depends on how you position yourself, my dear,” the princess looked fixedly at the daughter of her distant relative from the Germane royal line; Celestia knew that when it came to confidence and determination, the girl could give a hundred handicap points to anypony else. Actually, both girls could. “To doubt is normal; however, avoid showing that to those who trust and rely on you… Especially if they are less informed!” Celestia knew Velta’s constant source of concerns very well. Being born within the inscrutable but sincerely loving alliance of a single pegasus heiress of ancient Germane count family and a simple earth stallion, who reached the knight title all by himself (aspiring it in the end purely to be able to unite with his beloved without creating any false rumours), Velta Weisserstrahl inherited father’s genetics. To the chagrin of her pegasus mother, whose line even had unicorns as well, she turned out completely father’s daughter physically: with his stature and strength of an earth pony. However, this didn’t affect the relationships at all unable to shake Weisserstrahls position of one of the exemplar loving family. Nevertheless, proving her capabilities to the others and especially to herself became Velta’s credo almost from the cradle, as she inherited her mother’s character and strong will of the upper-class pony. “Yes, auntie Celestia,” the filly finally smiled; shaking her gathered into the high hairdo emerald mane, she glanced over her shoulder. “Come on, Evenia. Trainiere hart, siege leicht!” The long, coloured coal dark eyelashes batted once gesturing the agreement better than any words; actually throughout the years together the mares understood each other with half-glance, frequently making others wonder if the mistress and her handmaiden could exchange thoughts, despite both being earth ponies. The maid entered the light; the next careful look at her made it clear – her dress, despite seeming simplicity, was made with great class and meticulousness, likely by the same tailor as her mistress outfit. Evenia Getreu wore it like the royal attire, evidently treating her duty, if not say vocation, gravely serious. Serving the young lady as long as Evenia remembered herself, just like her whole family did for the Weisserstrahls for ages, she couldn’t imagine herself at any different position. Both girls caught up with the royally trotting princess, looking against her like two torpedo-boats near the white dreadnought. Especially Evenia who was quite miniature, thus often forced to dress her mistress from a small stool; the mare was to pace up noticeably, but nothing revealed that as she did her best to keep her flowing gait. Back into their foalhood, Velta could easily lift her slim and light protégé. Nothing changed since then, except both girls became more vox populi driven, not playing those games at least in public. “By the way, young ladies,” noticed the princess watching both girls and letting out another smile. “We treat that quite democratically here, however, there are theoretical cases when maids can’t follow the countess…” Both fillies slowed down, Evenia even stumbled and the flush started filling her muzzle to the roots of dull-golden mane gathered into a tight long braid, while girl’s eyes widened. She exchanged bewildered glances with Velta, unable to imagine the case when she couldn’t follow the mistress. The petite mare was even carrying a dagger with her to be able to stand on defence of the lady at any moment if necessary. “But there are, theoretically again, some methods to get around that onerous formality,” added Celestia with a sly wink, seeing the girls’ troubled and confused look. “I’m sure you both are more than capable to find a way out of the situation if it occurs. If not, then you may ask auntie Luna; you won’t find a better specialist in… errmmm… negotiating with circumstances!” The simple mention of princess Luna made Velta break into a smile, which pleasantly lit her beautiful and usually slightly arrogant face. If there was anypony in the Castle whom the filly loved and respected as much as Celestia, that was “auntie Luna”: the one in whose company Velta could easily feel herself without restraints. “I understood,” shortly nodded the girl returning the sly glance and even Evenia pursed her lips to stifle a smile. A few more hoofsteps and Velta was to squint from the bright light when the Throne hall opened to them in its entire splendour. Being a frequent guest in Canterlot, Velta froze in awe for a second each time entering it, just like the first one. Its beauty was accompanied by the bright sunlight: situated high on the mountain side, Canterlot never suffered from a stray rain, the sun being a welcomed guest all the time except some watering was planned by the weather pegasi. Even if it was simpler in comparison to the Canterlot one, Weisserstrahls owned a castle as well. Velta always felt as an autocratic princess back home, in its walls and galleries. Partially because of the parents’ attitude; they never ceased to cosset and spoil their single daughter. The Getreu family added to the company: both Evenia’s parents served Velta’s mother and father correspondingly, but they were glad and eager to fulfill any will of the young mistress as well. Velta’s father was the “worst” coddler; probably feeling guilty for the heredity turning out that unfortunate way, the valorous stallion pampered and indulged his daughter the most… except maybe Evenia, whose case was easily explicable. Thanks to parents’ love though the domineering and wayward filly grew up kind in general, returning them her love in surplus; especially to her father, whom she doted, unlike the rest of the stallions. However, in the vastness of that hall, under those high arcs, lit through the tall windows, Velta always felt lost and insignificant – truly the striking and unusual feeling for her. Maybe that was the reason for the girl to ask princess Celestia to guide her through the typical audience there exactly, moreover in full parade. Overcoming herself was the highest point of Velta Weisserstrahl’s aspiration. “Come here, dear,” when their eyes accommodated to the bright light, the girls saw the princess waving them from the elevation with two thrones at their end of the giant hall. “You too, Evenia. Don’t shy yourself out,” Celestia chuckled lightly. “You may take that place,” she gestured Velta towards the second throne when both fillies climbed up the three stairs separating the platform from the floor level. “Aunty Luna’s seat?!” Velta’s eyes widened almost awestruck. “No, no, auntie Tia… I-I may just stand… here with you…” “Oh, come one, my filly!” Celestia rolled her eyes theatrically. “Why such modesty? Rest assured, Lulu wouldn’t object that, especially in your case.” ‘I’m sure she would let do that the way less trusted person as well,’ glimpsed in her mind making Celestia snort under her breath. Overcoming the awkwardness, Velta barely perched on the edge of the throne, which seemed huge to the hesitant girl. Rich, with dark blue luxurious casing on its soft seat, already heated by the direct sunlight; the filly seemingly felt its warmth the moment she sat. Evenia froze beside her mistress; almost lost in the shadow of the large throne, the petite filly was still at the distance of reaching, hearing and assisting to her lady. As always. “Well, that’s not bad… for the start,” noticed princess Celestia, watching Velta’s fidgeting; throwing a single estimating glance over them all and the hall, she beckoned the nearest guard. “Let the first visitors in, officer!” she kept waving though, till the stallion came closer, then leaned to quietly add into the perked ear catching each royal word. “Warn them about all that… parade being done specifically for my niece enjoyment, not to scare them otherwise.” When the guard nodded and rushed to fulfill the order, princess Celestia straightened with benevolent and slightly detached expression, inwardly smiling at the attempt of Velta to find and try the most independent and proud look from her collection. ‘The girl has much to learn but she is a fast apprentice!’ * “So? How long are we going to hang around here?!” the commander alternated from one hoof to another impatiently, time and again throwing glances towards the clear skies. All they finally reached Canterlot, appearing the last time right at the foot of the high stairs leading to the main entrance of the Castle. It took the whole company a few so-called hops, when each of accompanying them unicorns transferred them all at the distance he or she was capable of, then the next one did the same in their turn – none of the unicorns was able to teleport from nearly Ponyville to Canterlot in the single go, each of the mages was to rest for a while after the distant transfer. Sending them back to guard quarters, the commander remained in the company of Fluttershy, both foals and a couple more guards; he visibly yearned to report to Her Highness and finish with the annoyance of that task, thus lingering at the doors made him more and more annoyed with each minute. “As much as it inevitably takes him to arrive!” quietly but adamantly stated Fluttershy, she kept watching the officer with reproach, wing-cuddling both foals who instinctively snuggled to the mare. Thankfully, due to the Canterlot high geographic position, the rain clouds remained far below letting everypony quickly dry and warm up under the blissful sunlight, which flooded the park in front of the castle. The deciduous trees had dropped their leaves already, standing dark and naked, throwing their empty branches to the sun, but the conifers, of which there was a considerable number in the park, evergreen shrubs and grass were still green, boasting almost fresh lushness to the beholder. The hedges seemed to be cut recently, as the strong smell of foliage reached their noses calming everypony down a bit. “We were waiting about five minutes maximum,” added Fluttershy keeping the ruffled foals under her wings. “And spent nearly fifteen, travelling over three hundred miles before, right?” “He said that he would come shortly after us,” elaborated she under the inquiring glance of the unicorn. “I suppose that five minutes aren’t the upper limit of “shortly” when it comes to that distance! So…” she jerked her nose letting him know that was the end of the discussion. “Calm down, kids,” Fluttershy addressed the unlucky foals quietly. “I’m not going to leave you! But it’s not going to be easy either, I’m afraid.” “Do you have any other relatives?” asked she the colt in half-voice; Fluttershy thought, she got what Alex was planning. The girl’s soul was torn apart by conflicting feelings of joy and uncertainty of own capabilities. “Yes, an aunt…” whispered the colt understanding where she was going. “But she lives in Crystal Empire. She works in the toy shop there and will need some time to get here anyway.” Fluttershy shortly nodded: normally, Storm and Aurora would have needed to spend a few days under the official supervision, but… The wind played with the manes of the becoming despondent foals when the guard commander huffed impatiently again. The sudden noise reaching their hearing made everypony look up: first, they heard the strange distant sizzling as if something large was cutting the air on high speed, it turned into the hum in a few seconds. A black dot appeared in the clear sky, quickly approaching and turning into an arrow-like silhouette. A white trail of turbulence followed the object, staying in the sky for a while after it passed. In a moment, the silhouette started slowing down, separating from the fading trail; the sizzle died down and the object went upwards for a loop to drop the speed faster. Making a flip in the air, it headed right to them aiming at the foot of the large castle stairs. * After about twenty minutes of a mad rush, Alex reached the Canterlot mountain side. He started slowing down a little beforehand not to hit the cliffs accidentally, that sudden boost became a total novelty for him as well. The industrial area stayed down under the thick blanket of grey rain clouds watering the factories and storage facilities mercilessly; the living districts spread ahead with the large white castle crowning the whole city higher on the mountain. Coming closer and slowing down even more, Alex reached the edge of Canterlot. Finally, his smudged on the edges vision came to normal again and he could see in detail the elegant and noble beauty of the city. Making a mental note of the large waterfall, shimmering with billions of diamonds in the sunlight, the adjacent railway station behind the city wall, Alex aimed directly at the white shiny mass of the castle, rising for a loop to drop speed. The white walls of terraces, high thin towers, colourful roofs and streets, filled with ponies passed below; facing the ground again, Alex scanned the castle park landscape for the familiar colours. He finally noticed the dark slim frame with spread yellow wings and pink mane and tail right at the bottom of the castle main stairs, surrounded by the guards and comforting two smaller figures. Alex dashed to them, turning in the air and spreading his wings to slow down and land. With a dose of spiteful satisfaction, he noticed the dropping jaws of the guards headed by their commander. Flapping the wings faster, Alex landed raising a cloud of dust and reached the stairs in a few quick steps. “So, how long did it take?” inquired he with a wry smile. “About twenty minutes, dear,” Fluttershy was smiling. “Twenty-two at maximum.” That made Alex stumble and count something mentally; he shook his head with a strange expression, returning to the important things. Noticing the faint shade of hope in foals eyes, Alex braced himself – he couldn’t let them down. The single glance at the officious muzzle of the guard commander made cold rage rise in human’s heart again: that one was more than confident to follow the procedure to the letter, not needing even regal encouragement. “They have an aunt,” Fluttershy reached to his ear rising on her hind hooves and stretching, saying in half-voice so only Alex could hear. “But she lives in Crystal Empire…” “Understood!” Alex nodded shortly, visibly glooming as his worst suspicions were confirmed, then he turned towards the guards. “Well, you were going to report to the princess as soon as possible, I suppose,” uttered Alex dryly, gazing at the doors at the upper end of the stairs. “I see no reason why we should linger now.” “Shy, stay with the foals no matter what!” he turned to the mare and his glance warmed up, then Alex leaned closer to the colt and the filly, adding quieter. “Kids, stick to miss Fluttershy, while I… negotiate,” he winked, then turned and rushed up the stairs, so the rest barely kept up. They passed the front door without a hitch, entering the long narrow hallway leading to the actual throne hall. However, the last doors were closed and the guards didn’t show much cooperation despite the commander of their escorting group was insisting on the importance of their report. “Her Highness is in the middle of the audience at the moment,” squeezed out one of the armed stallions. “We can let you in between the visitors perhaps, but not amidst the appointment!” With a sigh called to mask the inward fury, Alex moved aside the rushing to intercept him guards commander and stepped forward; Fluttershy managed to notice how human’s eyes darkened dangerously. * “…with that, you may leave, assured that the Day Crown is listening to your concerns,” princess Celestia kept the overly official tone deliberately to help her relative tune in easier and distract the filly from her own insecurities faster. “The repairs of the bridge will be co-funded from the royal treasury to suffice their completion in time.” She lightly nodded to the avalanche of gratitude poured by the solicitors, waving her hoof graciously, and smiled to Velta lightly as if telling that the latter should relax and stop taking the audience as something that terrifying. The mare and the stallion, evidently representing some small town in need of government help, stepped aside ready to leave with all the conventions of etiquette – they caught the tone of the audience at once, when some muffled noise reaching everypony from the far entrance doors stopped them. What sounded first as a heated argument, quickly faded making even princess Celestia stretch her neck and perk ears in curiosity. What happened next made all three mares on the throne elevation jump on the spot a little and the visitors – wince aside, then freeze in terror. Everypony fancied a loud, soft slap and the throne hall doors burst open; a stallion guard (whose muzzle probably pushed the doors exactly) entered sliding on the floor on his stomach like some penguin on ice. In a moment he crossed that way half the distance to the thrones and stopped trying hard to focus his chaotically rolling around eyes. Princess Celestia blinked twice, Velta felt how her mouth opens involuntary; on the one hoof, she found the scene downright comic, on the other, something outrageous was definitely happening. The rest of the guards around the hall raised their weapons keeping them at the ready. Something dark appeared in the doorway causing a tiny hiccup from the princess’ visitors. The wings “entered” first. They seemed to increase even more than it was necessary to keep their heavily armoured owner in the air, filling all the free space around the doors and making the nearest guards retreat a step. The longest edge feathers almost flowed around the columns, grasping on them like some octopus tentacles and literally pulling the dully shining figure into the throne hall. Alex didn’t remove his armour, only the helmet was habitually shimmering as a thin metal band around his head. The wings seemed to only spread further occupying more of the hall as he walked forward heavily, each pen-feather looked searching for something to grasp on making the guards step further aside from the columns those “feathers” curled around; the linear pattern played in the slanted sunlight on the spiked armour. Noticing as Celestia swallowed an involuntary lump, Evenia stepped from behind the throne. Like a shadow, the little mare slid out in front of sitting Velta, shielding the mistress with herself – the size of possible threat didn’t matter. “What’s with that performance?!” Celestia managed to pull herself together already and her voice suddenly thundered under the arches of the hall showing the premises of the Royal Canterlot one. “Care to explain yourself, Alex!” Velta threw a wild gaze at the princess alternating between her and the bipedal visitor several times. The unfortunate solicitors did their best to become invisible and only Evenia seemed cold as an iceberg, a tiny but very adamant iceberg. “Nothing fancy, Your Highness! Simply arrived with a report!” mockingly calm but hardly quieter stated Alex; stepping over the still lying flat guard, he spread his arms with wicked cheerfulness written on his face. A tense pause hung in the air. “According to the given orders,” feeling that he had all the possible attention, Alex started quietly, “your guards were “monitoring”,” he gritted his teeth with emphasis, “the possible Seekers breakout location.” With each word, human’s voice gained power and he almost spat the officious formula in disgust. “Twenty miles from Ponyville, a single farm, a family with two foals, Tia!” Velta choked on air from the seeming mutiny taking place, while Alex continued almost growling. “They registered the first signs of the Seekers… yesterday!” “They notified you and Fluttershy as I ordered in that case, didn’t they?” inquired Celestia. Her artificial calmness only infuriated Alex more. “Yes! Today!” he almost hissed coming closer, the huge black wings twitched nervously. “When the breakout. Actually. Started. Happening!!!” Celestia’s eyes narrowed at his tone, Evenia strained even more, the solicitor ponies were on the verge of fainting in general. Velta in her turn watched the scene with wide-open eyes hardly believing her eyes. “As the result,” Alex squeezed out a smile dripping with venom. “The farmhouse ended up ruined arrant! Mind that, Tia, before I attended the situation… Both farmer and his wife got under the Seekers’ malignant effect and are now… not themselves. Two foals lost their parents… even if temporarily, their abode, their calm and promising foalhood finally! All at once…” he clicked his fingers making a loud clank with the armoured glove. “I’m at a loss hither, Tia! Wondering,” Alex brought his clawed fingers together watching the princess fixedly, “if ‘t be true tis being the correct way to handle the situation?! They could evacuate the owners as soon as the suspicious activity was reported! They could inform us earlier… But instead,” he smirked bitterly, “they were “monitoring”! Letting us know only WHEN THE ACTUAL BREAKOUT STARTED BEFALLING!!!” he almost bawled out. “Alex!” sounded from the entrance doors; Fluttershy broke through to the throne hall. Faithful to her promise, the mare pulled both foals with her not leaving them with the guards outside and adding to the stir with their ruffled look and her outstanding action suit. Wrought-up to the extreme, the human let her call slip past his ears. “Well…” accurately stated Celestia. “Everypony is alive. The foals are safe as I can see. And the Seekers are taken down. Right, Alex? So what being so hyper for?” That was seemingly the last thing to hit the switch. In a few quick steps, Alex crossed the rest of the hall. Hanging over the sitting princess and barely minding the distance for his spiked armour, he grabbed the edge of her throne backrest so hard that clawed glove furrowed the wood. The wings shot to the ceiling unfurling fully. “Isn’t it truly wondrous,” roared Alex bringing his face nose to nose with sitting Celestia; the princess noticed how his eyes became almost pitch black, “that utterly strange, moreover dangerous things keep befalling, the subjects keep suffering and… the authorities are pretending that everything is in hooves!” he inhaled convulsively. “Sticking to the measures ideal for some peaceful times, not something alike we have presently!!!” A small trickle of dust fell from the ceiling. “Alex!!” Fluttershy was already near the thrones; both foals, even the younger filly, watched the unrolling scene with undisguised interest, alternating between the human, the princess and the rest of the present ponies. With the glow flaring up in her big light magenta eyes, Celestia straightened up, levelling her face with Alex and raising above a bit. Everypony almost saw the electrical discharges between these two when her voice rolled under the arched ceiling of the throne hall. “You are crossing the line, Alex!!! What is going on with you today?!!” “Me?!” The human leaned closer nearly pressing the tip of his nose to hers, making Celestia even pull back a little with some memory glimpsing in her wide-open eyes. “On the contrary! I’m perfectly in line hither! In the line of logical conclusions, mindst that please! Mayhap these foals are crossing the line? With their mere existence?! Becoming homeless at a wink because of ineffectiveness of… the crisis management!” “Do you imply that you could do better?!” “I could do faster in the earnest!” Alex shrugged both with his shoulders and outstretched flowing wings, the claws scratched on the throne backrest a little. “If given permission to deal with these monstrosities appropriately and arrant information in time…” he started to wind up again. “How can’t thou comprehend, tis turning into… a war with first victims already?!” “ALEX!!!” it thundered in the large hall so loudly, it made everypony instinctively duck a little; dust flowed from the ceiling again. Throwing back a wild glance, Alex noticed how Fluttershy was breathing heavily, spreading her wings and gazing at him and Celestia intently; now he understood how his usually quiet and restrained marefriend could shout at Luna even impressing the princess. “Can you stop? Please!” asked she in her normal voice already, which was perfectly audible in the surrounding silence. Using the moment, the visitor ponies attempted to slide out of the situation and the hall itself. Alex exhaled slowly and closed his eyes for a second; the spiked glove released the backrest. His wings shrunk a little but stayed spread in discontent. “Apologies, Tia! I… flamed up… a bit forsooth!” “Exactly! Just a little…” noticed the princess with dry sarcasm when he took the dignified distance. From the corner of her eye, Celestia noticed how Velta could finally close her mouth and Evenia relaxed a tiny bit. “I’m truly sorry about all what happened!” added Celestia softer. “But… I suppose you wanted something else except,” she raised one eyebrow, “except scolding the royalty like that…” “Sorry, Velta,” she addressed the filly while Alex was grasping his thoughts, “for the slightly messed up morning. That’s Alex, the human, Ponyville local engineer, the… only undoubtedly effective weapon against the monsters attacking Equestria, these Seekers you might have heard about…” ‘And the big pain in the plot!’ sighed the princess inwardly adding loudly instead. “Obviously I would prefer to introduce you the other way, but… Alex, this is Velta Weisserstrahl, my niece from Germane. And her protégé, Evenia Getreu,” she nodded towards the frozen girls. Alex nodded clumsily, barely sliding his eyes across the fillies he probably just noticed. “Yeah, I wanted indeed…” uttered Alex; he finally folded his wings, stepping back. The dangerous darkness in his eyes dissolved returning them the usual sea-green colour as he raised them at Celestia again. “Methinks I know what the standard procedure is in their case,” he glanced at the foals, “even if it takes their aunt only a week to come, they would be placed into the orphanage for that time period. Am I correct?” “I’m not going to allow that. Period!” stated Alex seeing the short nod of the princess. “We are taking them with Fluttershy, Storm and Aurora must have the real home until their close relatives can take care of them.” The princess looked at him with some interest as if she was least expecting that claim, then she took a look over Fluttershy spreading her wings over the two foals; the latter didn’t look scared at all, rather wondering what would happen next. “I think that can be done,” mercifully drawled the princess. “As I know that at least miss Fluttershy,” with that official tone, Celestia glanced at the human quickly, “has all the conditions for that.” “If the foals in question don’t mind that solution, naturally!” added she with emphasis then aimed her eyes at the colt and filly. “No, Your Highness! We don’t mind! We’ll go to miss Fluttershy and the… Nightmare Knight!” the foals exclaimed simultaneously; with anticipant sparkles in their eyes, both seemed to enjoy the whole scene rather. Celestia coughed and Alex facepalmed inwardly, with that phrase the kids hardly defused the princess sentiments towards him. “Then I think there is one problem less!” the princess mercifully nodded making the foals brighten. “I wonder if that truly called for so much noise though…” pricked she Alex once more. He moved his jaw making a suspecting face – Celestia agreed too easily in Alex’s opinion. But evidently, he had nothing to nitpick; with a tiny smile, Alex glanced at Fluttershy cuddling the foals. “Well… With that we leave,” he slightly bowed with gratitude. “Your Highness! Miss… mhm… Fraulein Weisserstrahl!” Alex stumbled a little on the unfamiliar name, then he noticed that the little maid was still shielding her mistress. Seeing her, at first Alex was really puzzled why Scarlet Rose got dressed as a maid, later he realized his mistake – the petite girl was an earth pony, not a unicorn. Now the mare was returning his glance with stern tranquillity, being the only pony in the hall not faltering at Alex’s more than impressive arrival. With the emphasized respect then human nodded to the little maid, causing the first-ever sign of her being a real pony not some masterfully made doll – the girl huffed gazing daggers at the troublemaker. With a tiny smile – he noticed a streak of bemusement on maid’s muzzle, Alex stepped back gesturing Fluttershy and the foals to follow. However, almost at the throne hall doors, he turned, remembering something. “I’m sorry, Princess!” he raised his voice a bit to be heard. “I thought about one question peeving me ever since the Baltimare incident I heard of…” “And what is it, Alex?” Celestia glanced at him with genuine interest. “Just trying to lay something in my head,” Alex scratched his nape. “What was the factory the Seekers appeared at there?” “There is no secrecy,” shrugged the princess. “It was a magical crystals refinery… and the monsters came there, not appeared at the plant.” “Hmmm…” it was impossible to decipher what he was putting into that ambiguous hum stumbling for a short moment with a pensive expression. * “What was that, pray tell? Auntie Celestia?” When these four finally left, Velta uttered a word for the first time since Alex stormed into the throne hall. In disbelief and bewilderment, the girl watched the visibly calm princess with rounded eyes. “I-I’m sorry… auntie Celestia, b-but… this is unprecedented… I mean that… creature… storms here… almost assaults the castle, to tell the truth. It’s some unimaginable impudence!!!” “As I said, my dear,” the princess casually scanned through the small scroll with the list of visitors for that day’s audience, “it was a human. I suppose you never saw one before, Velta…” noticing the dumbfounded filly shaking her head, Celestia elaborated with a tiny smile. “Normally, they look different, of course, have no wings and aren’t armour-clad… That’s a long story, believe me,” answered she the unvoiced question in Velta’s wild glance. “The thing is, at the moment he and the mare with him provide the most effective methods of confronting the magical abominations pestering our domain and the consequences of their contacts with the subjects,” the princess made that confession half-heartedly. “However, I must agree, Alex usually manages to scare the witnesses nearly more than the Seekers do…” added she pursing her lips. “He… called you “Tia”…” quietly drawled Velta still unable to believe her ears. “That happens when he gets wedged…” chuckled Celestia, seemingly bringing her far relative’s outlook to even greater disarray. “Usually when something contradicts his vision of justice or truth. Otherwise, Alex is meticulously courteous most of the time… even if a little eccentric sometimes…” princess’ cheeks gained faint colour at some memory, to filly’s terror. “Remember how he specifically recognized Evenia’s valour. I think he mistook her for somepony familiar from the castle at first…” The little maid audibly huffed making some effort to keep an apathetic face and refrain from frowning. “Anyway…” Velta Weisserstrahl was still shocked by Celestia’s tolerance towards that bipedal annoyance. “What does that ape-like brute allow himself?!!” This time even her maid, being an epitome of composure throughout the entire incident, couldn’t hold back a small but visible nod accompanied by an agreeing hum. “Hmmm…” the princess watched both girls amusedly. “The last pony who called him that way found themselves knocked out in less than two seconds…” seeing how the two fillies cocked heads almost identically, Celestia added, “…and was lucky not getting into hooves of my dearest sister after that. Although, I must confess they tried to hit the human as well… What I mean, if you need to find out more about the human, better ask Lulu – I suppose they communicate quite frequently.” “A-auntie L-Luna!..” this time Velta wasn’t even bothered maintaining her image dropping her jaw and widening her eyes again; the filly choked on words. After a long moment of silence, she shook her head in abashment. “Well… That won’t change my opinion of aunt Luna in the slightest, nor my respect of her, of course!” she finally squeezed out. “But to say I’m deeply puzzled by her attitude towards that… subject,” Velta made a visible effort to find a neutral word, “is to say almost nothing!” “My filly, I see your attitude towards the stallions, in general, didn’t change,” Celestia let out a dainty smile. “Oh, Your Highness, that’s my attitude towards their groundless highfalutin!” parried the filly. “Unlike my father, the majority of them have the entire world at their hooves almost since birth and by the so-called right of the latter!” Velta snorted loudly in vexation. “At least in Germane it is exactly that way! Your domain, auntie Celestia, is like a breath of fresh air in that aspect… Yet even here we can witness…” she made an indefinite gesture with her fore hoof, called to point at the recent events. “I’m sorry, auntie! You know me, I can defend my position for hours when it comes to that…” “Yes, my dear. And I’m glad that my nephew isn’t here at the moment!” that sudden tirade brought a little understanding smile on Celestia’s muzzle, showing that talks alike took place with enviable consistency. At the mentioning of prince Blueblood, a faint shadow of barely hidden disgust crossed Velta’s beautiful face. “Okay, let’s listen to the few remaining visitors, my dear,” Celestia waved her hoof to the guards to let the next solicitor in. “This audience lingered a bit too much, don’t you think? I feel for Evenia, who needs to keep on her hooves all that time.” “I’m sure we can compensate,” muttered Velta perking her ears and stretching a little, just enough not to destroy the dignified image of the future countess. “But, of course, as you say, auntie!” From the corner of her eye, the princess managed to catch the mysterious glance two girls exchanged with a little smile lighting their muzzles. * Getting out of the castle, Alex inhaled the full lungs of the fresh cool air thinking that Celestia agreed to fulfill his request suspiciously easy. Moreover, she looked unusually calm, considering how he entered the throne hall. Alex could probably say that he felt a little prickle of conscious… if he really did; he stood his ground though – the measures so far taken by the Crown were to say mildly half-hoofed. ‘Does she keep testing me?.. I wonder what she wants to prove then…’ He could still read a little reproach in Fluttershy’s eyes but generally the girl was glad that their problem was sorted almost peacefully. As for the foals, they were absolutely happy about not waiting for some official directions, not going to any orphanage, not sticking in the castle for nopony-knew-how-long. They were going to Ponyville instead; that was almost like going home, considering they visited the town several times before. Besides, their supposed caretaker for the next few days was supposed to be Miss Fluttershy. That strange human seemed okay as well; before, the foals saw only a few adults unconstrained like him. No wonder, they almost went prancing and running around Alex and Fluttershy when the whole company stopped for a moment at the upper broad landing of the castle stairs. The only thing keeping them from that was a sudden thought about their parents, which struck Storms mind momentarily extinguishing the started to flare up joy. It relayed to his sister as if by some magic, making Aurora fade as well only glancing at the older brother. “Don’t worry, foals!” Fluttershy properly interpreted the suddenly falling silence. “Your parents are going to get all the necessary treatment. I’m sure they will be fine as soon as it is only possible to assist,” added she softly hugging the dejected colt and filly with her wings. Even if she knew all the complexity of the task, there were so much confidence and soothing calmness in her voice – the foals simply couldn’t believe her not. Thankfully that made them thaw out a bit. “I knew, you would take care of them, miss Fluttershy,” Aurora Sunflower let out a weak smile but it was quite an encouraging change. “Speaking of which,” Alex sighed realizing that her work would only start. “You’ll need to stay and give them… initial pull, my love.” Both foals exchanged glances and Storm winked: the blissful trait of the unstained yet foals’ psyche making them concentrate on rather positive things, dissolving the negative experience quickly. “I know, Alex,” Fluttershy nodded; she glanced over the human and two foals with concern. “How will you reach Ponyville though? Don’t tell that you are going to carry them…” “Not that I even thought about,” chuckled Alex. “I doubt they need to travel all that distance carried like two kittens, right guys?” It was hard to say that Storm and Aurora objected anything, judging by their excited look; however, Alex on contrary knew well what he was talking about. About three hundred miles in the sky wasn’t the best experience for the foals, considering he either would be unable to carry them properly, or their speed would be rather slow. It wasn’t worth the effort anyway. “I think that in the worst case we’ll take the train,” said Alex quickly estimating the time and distance. “Will take the same several hours…” “Oooh!” drawled the foals with a touch of disappointment. “We thought we would fly!” added the colt looking up at Alex hopefully. “Come on, kids! Look at me,” Alex realized that he still was packed in his armour. “I can’t carry you safely or we won’t be able to reach a decent speed…” he shrugged as his armour shone brightly starting to fade and revealing Alex’s casual clothes; the thin metal band around his head remained. “Cool!” Squeaked out Aurora. “Is it the… thing on your head doing this?” she tumbled to the point fast. “Can all humans do that?” “No!” Alex broke into a smile involuntarily. “That’s a present, a very precious present of immense helpful value.” From the corner of his eye, Alex noticed how Fluttershy let out a tiny sigh. “Errmmm… most of the humans don’t have wings either…” “Can you do that again? Please?” Alex felt as the colt was pulling him on the tip of the wing lightly while his sister thought over the last Alex’s phrase with a little sceptical expression. “Oh… Okay.” Under the delighted glances of the foals and reproachful of the guards carrying their shift at the castle doors, Alex made the armour appear again, including the mirror-faced helmet. Storm and Aurora started jumping around when he removed it after a few seconds. Fluttershy watched them all with a light smile making Alex secretly feast his eyes on the mare who managed, by some inscrutable way, to look cute even in that formidable suit of hers. “Hey!” their joy was interrupted by another guard hurrying to them from the shade of the castle hallway; he slowed down catching up to them, huffing and catching the breath. “It’s good… Ufff… That you all are still here!” the guard took a look over the company. “Her Highness ordered to take you,” he pointed towards Alex and foals, “to Ponyville by a balloon.” The eyes of the foals rounded again and they let out an excited squeak while the guard turned to Fluttershy. “I’m sorry miss but you are needed here, obviously. I’ll escort you to the place where the… affected are kept.” Fluttershy nodded agreeing while Alex couldn’t refrain of a frown, despite he understood that the stallion used the most neutral term to refer Storm and Aurora’s parents. The foals seemed to miss that phrase thankfully and the guard turned to Alex again. “You three wait, please. I’ll return and show you to the balloon landing pad.” Catching Alex’s inquiring glance, he added following the mare. “Don’t worry, the princess ordered to give miss Fluttershy a lift as well when she is done with her work here.” “Yay! We’re going to fly back!” the foals unfroze the moment they left and started jumping around Alex again. “That’s super cool!!!” exclaimed Storm, then he stopped, remembering something. “And you yelled at the princess! For real!” he poked at Alex in bewilderment. “I never thought I would see something like that.” “Know what? That was super cool!!!” the colt broke into a wide grin while his sister giggled. “Umm…” Alex was going to reason with them but he felt how his lips started spreading into a smile unwittingly. “Don’t tell anypony! Okay?!” “You too by the way!” his eyes stopped at two ponies – a mare and a stallion – who exited the castle a second before and squinted in the light. They were trying to decide how to get around that company and especially the human as discretely as possible and stumbled noticed by him. “Listen… Please forgive me for scaring you and interrupting the audience so abruptly,” Alex stepped to the ponies, who winced back, despite he looked much less intimidating in his common clothes. “That was truly unwanted, thus… My apologies.” “But…” Alex paused with emphasis ensuring that two pairs of wary eyes fixed at him. “I need to ask you to hold your tongues about that scene. Let’s keep it between us, okay! For princess’ benefit…” * “Uncle Will, may I…” the filly knocked on the closed door lightly. The mere situation was quite rare for Steels’ house as when Willsmash worked he never kept that in secret from Silver Ingot. The latter suspected that secrecy wasn’t the actual reason that time either, but the old blacksmith was carried away by something important. “Yes, Silver, come in,” uncle Will hid a smile in his moustache when the filly curiously peeked inside. “Are you okay? Maybe need something?” Silver Ingot threw a concerned glance at the old unicorn blocking his work from her sight. “You are sitting here since morning… and it’s over lunchtime already. Maybe I should bring you at least some hot tea – it’s cold outside and you are keeping the window ajar…” She would have asked if her uncle needed anything anyway, but the main reason was Sil’s curiosity, which brought her there. The window indeed was opened slightly letting in the chilling autumn wind, but it appeared to be a deliberate measure as the twang of brazing, flux and resulting smoke trailed up girl’s nose upon the very entering. Seeing that Willsmash wasn’t objecting her curiosity, Silver Ingot came closer and peeked over uncle’s shoulder: soldering tools, some openwork metal casing, a few magical crystals – bare and packed into the setting formed artistic chaos on his desk. “I won’t object some tea, my filly,” nodded the blacksmith, looking up at his niece with a smile; the questions ripening in her were too obvious to ignore. Will’s smile became only wider when the prudently prepared teapot and a cup enveloped into her aura appeared from behind the girl – Sil came panoplied. “I wonder what captured you so much, uncle Will?” she noted as if meanwhile, filling the cup with steaming tea. “So, you even forgot about the meal completely. Looks like the part of the glaive…” she gazed at the desk again. “Yes and no,” the blacksmith snapped up the cup in the air with his aura. “You see, as our plans underwent serious corrections this morning, I decided to address the problem not giving me rest for a while already. Better say even two problems.” “As you noticed – these are the parts of the glaive, more like future parts… if I can make it work,” Will poked at the framed crystals faintly glowing violet. “Ever since assembling the folding mechanism I wanted to make it easily rechargeable. For the human in the first turn. And that means shielding them with the magical crystals from each other as otherwise it can bring the unpredicted but undoubtedly destructive results.” “Judging by the multitude of variants and… the process sticking amidst,” Silver Ingot shook her head lightly, “the thing isn’t working exactly as it was supposed to… yet.” “Well, for now, I either can’t shield the crystal and its magic from the contact with human hands upon changing…” chuckled Willsmash. “… or the mere connection of it to the rest of the mechanism becomes so complicated that it makes it easier to use somepony’s help to change.” “And the other thing?” Sil leaned over the table examining the sheets of paper mottled with the thin lines of some drafts so densely placed they even overlapped – so many variants the old blacksmith seemed to estimate. Drawings, notes and figures covered the papers showing the intense search of a viable variant. “Don’t look like parts of the glaive for me…” “I always thought that relying on a single solution was short-minded,” uttered the blacksmith taking another look over his notes as if he saw them for the first time. “It suits the weapons more than anything. Judging by the recent events, even the Nightmare Night incident showed that having something in addition to the glaive, something totally different maybe but as effective could be helpful.” “The few look like… Hmmm…” Silver Ingot levitated one sheet for a closer view. “Yeah, frankly speaking, I thought about some distance weapon,” nodded her uncle. “But considering the royal ban of the firehooves… I don’t know how exactly something alike would be accepted. For now, I’m mostly thinking of some melee variants instead. Hmmm… More sugar please!” Will held out the teacup. “It all balks into the physique and size difference…” drawled he while Sil added a couple more pieces. “As you know, most of the equestrian weapons are just too small and lightweight for the average human… and something tells me that Alex is a bit bigger than average. Thanks, dear!” Will made a sip and froze for a moment listening to himself and enjoying the warmth flowing through his body. “To make the warrior-weapon partnership effective, the one must truly feel their “partner” and be able to interact the best way possible.” “I guess so if the weapon resembles a toothpick in his hands, Alex may equally take a real toothpick with the same effectiveness, right?” Sil chuckled with a nod. “Exactly!” her uncle let out a smile. “The glaive we made suits Alex ideally due to the simplest reason – he chose it! He imagined and projected a weapon to his style, liking and abilities. Now the task is to come up with something as effective and suitable, but different from the glaive. In case of circumstances changing in the battle… and to surprise the potential enemy!” Willsmash winked with his healthy eye. “Hmmm… Maybe…” The filly cupped her chin with the fore hoof. “Uncle Will, why don’t you find that blade you’ve got while travelling to Neigpanese islands with the army? The last time you showed it to me when I was a foal, but it must be somewhere in the house still. As far as I know, the style it calls for is completely different from the glaive, so… How was it called? Katana, right?” “Yeah…” chuckled Willsmash; his eye veiled with the past for a moment. “It lies safely here indeed as every precious present with memories connected should do.” The blacksmith sighed quietly. “I wonder what the destiny of its previous master is. We were unable to contact ever since. And… Well, Sil, she was an adult mare when I still felt almost as a colt next to her… Life…” the moustache fluttered as a warm smile twisted Will’s lips; he didn’t tell what he supposedly was going to about his previous life, adding instead. “It’s a large katana actually, my filly.” “Well…” Silver Ingot smiled inquiringly. The filly didn’t interrupt her uncle’s musings understandingly. From the scarce moments, Will was in the mood to mention that period and related memories the girl knew that despite being spent quite far from home, these few years were a rare case of the happiest times of uncle Will’s life. Maybe even the happiest one. Silver Ingot often wondered, why her uncle didn’t stay there, feeling tiny pricks of self-consciousness for her secretly thankfulness for that turn of destiny – if Willsmash stayed in Neighpan, her own future would have been at the very least quite foggy… if any at all. “What stops you both from trying that variant,” asked the filly when her uncle woke to reality. “Maybe he can accommodate with a completely different style… I don’t know…” musingly drawled the unicorn. “The problem is that it is a “large katana” for ponies, Sil. Not for the human… For him this weapon will still be too light, he won’t be able to make a proper swing with enough impact…” “Besides… I’m not proud with that sentiment, Sil, but can’t help feeling the dread, thinking that something may happen with it,” confessed Willsmash with a smile of confusion. “I know it’s a weapon, and the weapon must live its… destined life. I never clung to the things, you know, except maybe that single case.” “It’s too dear to me,” Will shook his head after a short moment of silence. “Maybe I needed to let it go long ago… I don’t know. Maybe it would be better for everypony? Anyway, I’m not yet ready to do that, Sil.” “On the other hoof,” Will glanced at his niece more cheerfully, “I wanted to make a replica anyway… But I always wanted to leave the original one to you, my filly, when time comes,” old unicorn’s voice warmed up suddenly. “Oh, come on, uncle Will! I’m not the militant type, you know!” the filly gave a laugh. “She would have laughed at your assumption as well, dear, thinking that you underestimate yourself!” musingly said Willsmash. “And would have liked you, I’m sure… She had two daughters of her own; a bit younger than you currently…” “By the way, have you seen our new employee, Sil?” finally shaking off the memories completely, the old blacksmith changed the subject. “He is busy since the very morning…” “Diamond… Chisel, right?” Silver Ingot wrinkled her forehead slightly. “Last time I saw the colt outside, uncle; he interrupted for the lunch only. It seems he did every unfinished supplementary job we had for today. Impressive efficiency! At this pace, you can jump right into the main tasks, when you are ready to!” “Why don’t you bring him something warming to drink either then?” accompanying the smile, a spark of amusement glimpsed in Will’s squinted eye. “The wind is becoming icy lately, especially here at the windswept place,” noticed he, seeing the slight flush on filly’s muzzle; Will’s aura accurately closed the window as most of the soldering fumes winded out. Washing the town and the surroundings since morning, the drizzling rain finally died out as the thick low rain clouds ended up swept away by the strong fresh northern wind, which turned piercing and cold very shortly. Thankfully, it dried the wetness from the roads and streets, as otherwise, the latter could become even slippery. The field though absorbed most of the water and the uncut grass lied under the wind covering the ground limply like some seaweed during the low tide, filling the air with the tart smell of damp old hay. The same wind was driving mercilessly the scattered and disoriented clouds across the sky like the playful shepherd-dog drives the sheep, even letting the occasional patch of sunshine reach the ground. One of them fell on the smithy flooding the house and yard with unexpected light and warmth; it made Silver Ingot squint taking a look around from under her fore hoof as the filly peeked out of the front door. She providently levitated the teapot behind herself, hiding it from the outside chillness to preserve the best of the freshly brewed tea. Upon accommodating to the suddenly bright light, filly’s eyes found their new worker near the smelter: the stallion leaned over the long workbench he brought closer to the heat source; he concentrated on something small and calling for precision slowly rotating some reel with his sparkly aura. The guess of what exactly he could be making there caused a tiny smile on her muzzle; filling the teapot on the go, the girl crossed the yard. “Hey, you must be freezing, despite your closeness to the smelter, sticking here the whole day!” Silver Ingot levitated the steaming cup to him. “Are you always that meticulous, Diamond Chisel, or it’s because of the boredom of this mediocre day?” “Mostly. Especially when I am to learn and get accustomed to something new!” the stallion nodded but his eyes and the lion share of attention were still chained to tools on the workbench and the actual job Diamond Chisel focused on at the moment. “But you’re right, Silver Ingot, it may be a bit of both.” “Oh! You brought me a hot drink,” he gazed at the cup enveloped in the aura of quicksilver. “Thank you! Can you put it on the workbench here,” the stallion showed with his glance only. “I simply need to finish with that reel, sorry. Otherwise, the metal will either overflow or cool down and get stuck. Well, whom am I telling…” Diamond Chisel chuckled rotating the handle very slowly but with constant speed. The filly accurately walked around him and put the teacup where Diamond pointed, in his field of view but not to interfere with the current work. The day indeed turned out less promising than they were hoping for since morning when Twilight’s note arrived, ruining some of the plans and making the three unicorns quickly find other work calling for attention to fill the unexpected free time. Thus Willsmash locked in his room wizarding out some idea that haunted him for a while. After the usual household trivia, his niece addressed her abandoned for a while jeweller work alternately sketching something on the sheets of paper and rushing to construct and solder something small but very complex gripped on her desk into a few clamps of the corresponding size. Diamond Chisel in his turn managed to complete the whole variety of small and not so small auxiliary operations about the smithy, thus making their expected work easier in future as they could focus on the main things. At that moment he was making exactly what Silver Ingot asked for a while ago – namely, some thin silver wire. Usually, the process was separated into a few stages, all of them equally slow and boring but necessarily done one after another in the certain pattern: the silver stock, and it could be even old, broken jewellery bearing or their parts, was melted, poured into the small moulds forming the thin slabs of pure metal, then rolled in shafts with calibrated gaps and pulled through the plank with holes of the desired diameter. Diamond Chisel turned out tech-savvy enough to improve and simplify the process using the advantages of the smelter he was already acquainted with in general. He dragged an empty workbench closer to the smelter and placed the tools of his trade on it in a row, fixing them tightly on the surface. A few pairs of shafts with decreasing gaps, a few metal calibres gradually decreasing to the small windlass with changeable reels – all put in the order denoting the usual wire making process. With one exclusion! The stallion got hold of a belt somewhere connecting the rollers and the windlass that way he could rotate the handle of the latter and simultaneously propel the whole improvised conveyor. Putting the refractory container with silver fragments right next to the half-opened radiating shutter of the smelter, he waited till partial meltdown then tilted the whole thing a tiny bit, so, the thick almost liquid silver started flowing down slowly cooling and hardening in the cold autumn air. Diamond caught the tip of that almost-wire thing with pliers and slowly, not to break the continuity of the soft metal thread, pulled it through the whole row of tools he prepared and reeled on the bobbin fixing the end. Then, it was a matter of slowly rotating the windlass and pulling the naturally hardening silver thread, gradually rolling it to the desired diameter on the way. With a little smile, Silver Ingot watched the stallion who leaned over his makeshift machine-tool controlling the workflow fixedly. The short cut mane was gathered into a small ponytail fixed with a leather cord, the grey eyes followed closely the barely moving thread, which cooled down being reeled onto the coil and changing its candent shine to the dim glow in the dull November daylight. “Silver, can you please put the container horizontally?” Diamond addressed the girl when the bobbin he rotated became almost full. “So we can pause the process.” Nodding shortly, the filly put her own cup on the workbench; the quicksilver aura enveloped a thin leaf of metal, turning out to be the fragment of one of the early glaive blade attempts. She accurately pulled it from under the can of melted silver making the latter stand straight; the thin metal thread tore off the elongated tip quickly dimming in the air as it slowly pulled into the gap of the first roller. “So, are you a jeweller by your vocation, Silver?” when the coil filled with the last loops of the metal thread, which faintly tinkled jerked out of the last calibre, Diamond Chisel let go the handle; his bright scintillant aura picked up the cup. “Because I can’t imagine anypony else needing that much of silver solder,” the stallion made the first sip of the hot tea leaning on the workbench and inhaling the aromatic steam. “Yeah, I haven’t mentioned it indeed,” Sil’s lips curled into a tiny smile. “As one, I had better days; without the customers and with all the troubles lately I almost forgot about that passion. But we finally started getting the new orders, including the jewellery ones.” “Truth be told, the latter started coming in surprising numbers,” the filly’s smile became brighter; in her thoughts, she was returning to the job left in the house as her dreamy eyes seemingly saw some inspiration Silver ingot planned to implement in shiny metal and gems. “Prejudices or not, ladies still need something to impress the herd and so do some stallions.” “Hey, I wanted to ask before, as I couldn’t fish anything definite from these two,” the girl gazed sparkles at Diamond, “uncle Will muttered something indiscernible and… Well, you know Alex. He is smiling only when he refuses to give something out.” Silver ingot shrugged but rather with sympathy than frustration. “So, what made you look for that job here? I’m not objecting, of course. I’m genuinely interested, because of all those… talks, you know…” “Well… Let’s start with that one day I managed to cure from letting the common opinion affect me too much… and found out that it was exactly among the things holding me back from personal composure and happiness,” Diamond Chisel chuckled stealthily watching the tall slender girl and admiring her bright-golden long flowing mane and tail she didn’t yet braid that day. “Besides, I always thought that the… umm… town-folk version of your uncle’s story was, softly neighing, quite ambiguous. Common sense tells me that even a commander can’t be always blamed of casualties without the proper judgment, let alone a private.” “But who speaks about common sense when it comes to the rumours, right?” the filly glanced at him with a spark of interest. “Exactly!” huffed Diamond Chisel with a shrug. “Talking about curiosities is fun,” stallions muzzle cringed scornfully, “who would check the real facts… and what for, when it’s already fun,” concluded he with acid looks. “So, did you do?” Silver Ingot raised one eyebrow. “I mean checked the facts.” The stallion made a long sip and deepened into the thoughts. The girl kept waiting patiently for the answer; surprisingly to herself, Sil wanted to know what their new worker thought about that story. “Well,” Diamond finally broke the silence sounding very serious; he even put away the cup. “Frankly speaking, one doesn’t need more than the school history program to spot the inconsistency of those rumours. Naturally, one needs to pay to that history program slightly more attention than to the desk the book is placed on to do that!” The stallion smirked. “When studying, that means when I had more free time, I had some interest in Equestrian history, wars of the past included. The bridge episode actually is in the study book…” “Touched shortly, I admit, but…” he continued after a short pause, turning his back to the wind and looking directly into filly’s eyes. “But it’s enough to find out what happened then and what did not!” “So, do you prefer to believe what you see… well, read in this case?” “It’s not that simple, Silver. At least in this case. I stumbled upon that episode afterwards in a few other works on history, during the school and… The point is – everywhere it was the same, your uncle’s story was described similarly in all the sources I saw. Even if we take authors’ opinion and analysis into consideration…” “I suppose you know what that usually means,” the stallion glanced at Silver Ingot. “Okay, okay, I admit that it can mean that something is… “fixed”, but… such consistency of opinions everywhere rather speaks about pure facts.” “And the facts are,” added he, listing, “an ambush, his survival, the task of great importance being completed despite all the circumstances being against. To my mind, that’s what must be estimated first.” Silver Ingot listened to him with warmth in her eyes. “As for the moral side of the events…” Diamond Chisel chuckled levitating his cup again. “What could he have done? Survive not? Abandon the aim? He had all the reasons, moral and physical to do exactly that. Should he? To not be treated as he is presently in the town.” He sipped his tea and shook the head slowly. “I can’t tell what I would have done in his place, but… to think of it, your uncle did nothing wrong either.” “Thanks, Diamond Chisel!” that came out so quiet that the stallion barely heard, but girl’s brightening face told him that it was coming from Sil’s heart. “Mind that he continued with the army after,” added Diamond, “retiring after another incident only. Unfortunately, the information about it was truly scarce, I couldn’t find anything thorough enough, even feeling interested. But… I seriously doubt there was something, throwing a shadow on him! Considering that was the same Willsmash Steel…” Silver Ingot downcasted, then looked aside curtaining with her mane as if hiding her muzzle from the wind, which became quite fresh. “So, the so-called common opinion was the last thing determining my application here,” said Diamond Chisel in a brighter tone; he let out small laughter. “There is one more reason if you want to know, quite a down to the ground one.” “Really? Which one?” Silver Ingot raised her glance at him, shaking her head shortly to dispel something, which sparkled in her eyes. “Ponyville is a small town,” the stallion looked surprised by her question. “All jobs are taken and it’s a miracle when something new opens. That was my chance… to escape the place, the atmosphere of which began getting under my coat… and not in the good sense.” “Hmmm, that’s exactly what Alex said placing that ad,” Sil let out a tiny smile. “That the jobs were limited, yet needed, despite all the rumours. You tend to judge things more attentively, too, Diamond.” “Yeah, that usually helps,” the stallion couldn’t hold back a grin as well. “Even more – lately, when I started to trust my own opinion more than the often groundless public judgment. Come to think of it, perhaps I would like to find out who actually started that witch hunt long ago… and what for…” “By the way, Alex never knew what actually caused all the rumours,” Silver Ingot turned pensive suddenly. “He always accepted things as they were, saying that he couldn’t judge the past whichever it had been.” “I see that the human trusts what he sees and can “touch” more than anything, except for his intuition maybe.” “Celestia to the witness,” the girl took an appraising look over Diamond, “sometimes it seems that you met before with Alex. Eh?” She glanced at him intently. “Ahem…” the stallion cleared his throat. “Seriously though, it’s easier to find somepony who “met the human” in Ponyville than somepony who didn’t,” he scratched the nape with a strained smile. “So, naturally I did as well…” “Besides, he often appears in the town news and talks,” added Diamond Chisel before Sil could say a word elaborating her idea. “With the main source of the information being Lyra Heartstrings; I must admit that source never depletes,” chuckled he under Sil’s fixed glance. “However, giving her due credit, Lyra filters what she gives out very carefully. Even if she pursues her own interests, she always minds human’s either.” “Yeah, umm…” the unicorn filly felt a bit confused losing the thread of her thoughts. “Look, you’re shivering already,” Diamond Chisel took a fixed look over her frame. “That won’t go!” he shook his head with a smile. “The wind is really strong here. I bet Mr Steel would give me a good kick if he finds out that you caught a cold chattering with me.” * Despite the flight back to Ponyville took noticeably less time than one might think – somehow the balloons in Equestria managed to move quite fast making Alex think that at least that particular line was magically enhanced – the human started feeling his back and legs exaggeratedly sharp soon enough. Normally he couldn’t keep doing nothing for a long while; simply standing made Alex itch all over. The basket was relatively small not giving enough space to walk and stretch freely; besides Alex was to keep an eye or better say both eyes at double on two very active and curious foals. Feeling the responsibility for the safety and future of Storm and Aurora, he couldn’t simply sit on the basket floor leaning on the side, as he did during a few previous rides. Back then his mobility was limited by the simple fact that Alex was deadly scared of heights but the last few months changed everything; now Alex couldn’t jump out of the basket and follow the balloon on his own wings, simply because he worried about the foals becoming overexcited (if over was even applicable to their current degree of excitement) and risking to fall. Thus Alex spent about an hour lifting the brother and sister Sunflowers in rotation (he didn’t risk lifting and watching close both nimble foals at once) for them to be able to observe the passing by landscapes, squeaking from pleasure and looking with eyes wide open; even Storm forgot for a while that he was staying for the most responsible Sunflower for the time being. The elderly guard drove the balloon silently keeping the imperturbable expression on his seemingly cut from the old oak muzzle, yet Alex could notice from the corner of his eye how the old chap smiled secretly into his moustache watching the human babysitting two foals. With the landscape becoming lower and flat, dense rain clouds veiled the ground below as their guide kept the balloon above the elements, in the warm sunlight. However, that didn’t make the ride less interesting for the little Sunflowers: both of them were equally fascinated by the endless sea of swirling mist below as by the passing by cliffs, forests, fields and inhabited areas before. Alex was totally lost in conjecture how the guard knew when and where to land, when the latter made their transport slow and go down smoothly. For the human the image under their basket was all the same for the last half an hour; that was why going to Canterlot he was to find out the exact direction first, being unable to orientate otherwise in such weather. When first the basket with all the passengers and then the bright colourful balloon itself turned up submerged into the thick grey blanket of heavy autumn clouds, Alex was to kneel and cuddle both foals tight taking them under his wings. The clouds looked fluffy from the ground only; getting inside them, all the ponies and the human felt the chilling humidity on their coats and skin at once. Even the seasoned guard frowned a little wiping the mist settling on his muzzle. Thankfully that was the only bath the weather prepared for the travellers at that moment – the rain ceased underneath; probably, the running by clouds depleted their water reserve for a while mercifully leaving Alex and the foals almost dry. Another pleasant surprise waited for them at the town outskirts: near the balloon landing pad, Alex noticed the familiar lilac figure. The wind played with stripy tail and mane throwing the latter onto the waiting girl’s muzzle and ruffling her feathers. ‘I extend mine hope nothing else hath befallen hither during our absence!’ flashed in Alex’s mind. However, Twilight quickly dispelled his concerns; the alicorn girl was smiling when they landed. Of course, that could be the result of her watching the human exiting the balloon basket with Aurora Sunflower in his arms with her brother following close; girl’s expression puzzled Alex making him downcast while putting the filly back to the ground. “Here we are! Back home,” Alex coughed in confusion, throwing a glance at Twilight – her smile kept shining; the girl watched them, raising one eyebrow a little. “What, Twilight? Is something…” “Welcome to Ponyville!” Twilight greeted the foals, ruffling their manes lightly. “I hope your journey was fast and pleasant.” “Mostly yes, except for the last part with coming through clouds,” chuckled Alex still guessing what could amuse his friend so much. “The kids are alright though…” ‘What can’t be said about their parents!’ Twilight read in his eyes. “It was great, Your Highness!” reported Storm Sunflower with his eyes shining. “And exciting!” added Aurora even jumping a little. “I enjoyed flying… Your Highness!” Both foals bowed making Twilight embarrassed in her turn. “Umm… Simply Twilight, okay. Miss Twilight if you insist to put it more officially,” she masked her blush behind the smile. “Yes, Your… err… Miss Twilight!” exclaimed both foals happily. “I see you are completely ready, Alex?” the sly expression returned to Twilight when she lowered her tone leaning closer to his ear. “Ready for what?” Alex squinted at the girl suspiciously, as they let the foals run forward entering the road to Ponyville. “This-ahead,” nodded he to Storm and Aurora showing them the direction and surprised by their energy. “We’re right behind you.” “Well… for different things…” mysteriously smiled Twilight. “For the responsibility for these foals in particular!” “Mmm…” chuckled Alex walking along with her. “I was thinking that… Eh, never mind! Is everything okay? You came to meet us here.” “I thought that wouldn’t hurt,” shrugged Twilight. “To make the kids feel welcome and stuff… Everything is quiet if you’re about that, Seekers and so on. I told Mr. Steel that you had an emergency with our mutual “friends” and probably won’t be able to come to the smithy today.” “He said that it was fine, they could address the things, which didn’t need your attention,” she added answering Alex inquiring gaze. “Besides, you have an aide now. Sil though… Poor filly wasn’t herself when heard about Seekers,” noticed Twilight; Alex coughed slightly. “Princess Celestia informed me in general,” continued the girl smiling to the prancing foals. “Is it that serious?” she asked him from the corner of her mouth. “Well… They definitely got affected,” Alex gloomed at the memories of the morning events. “I sincerely hope that Fluttershy can turn that thing into amnesia again. She is still there in Canterlot, coming later today; Tia ordered to deliver her then.” “By the way, Her Highness asked me to watch after you better, especially that you rest at least sometimes – her exact words to tell the truth,” Twilight looked at Alex fixedly; she even forgot to speak quietly. “What did happen in Canterlot if I may ask?” “He quarrelled with the princess a little, miss Twilight!” chuckled Storm perking his ear right the second before, so he could hear her last phrase. “Can you believe, he shouted at princess Celestia, so even the dust fell from the ceiling?” “You did WHAT?!” Twilight felt how her jaw dropped involuntarily. “Yes, first the Nightmare Knight…” started Aurora with a giggle. “Ahem…” “…okay, okay! First, Alex shouted at the princess, then she at him… then… miss Fluttershy managed to reason with him,” summarized Storm briefly. “That was quite a look!” “Errmmm… I got really angry because of all the lingering and visible unconfidence of the authorities,” Alex scratched his nape shrugging while Twilight looked at them with round eyes. “I admit I was a bit harsh… But seriously, Tia behaves as if nothing outstanding is happening… And… Well, we came in the middle of the audience… but only two visitors were there at the moment,” Alex smiled wryly. “Oh, and some high society filly with her maid…” For a few minutes Twilight walked with them silently, opening and closing her mouth. She shook her head waking from her stupor only when they reached the outskirts of the town. “Errmmm… Well… Ahem,” Twilight’s eyes slowly returned to their usual size. “I guess it’s okay as you… But I would never imagine.” “We neither, miss Twilight!” chuckled the colt. “But you made Velta witness that, Alex,” drawled Twilight shaking her head slowly. “That would effectively make you an enemy… She, to put it mildly, doesn’t favour stallions in general.” “I guess I’ll live with that burden somehow,” Alex made a face. “So, it was decided that younger Sunflowers stay with you and Shy, right?” Twilight properly felt his wish to change the topic. “I insisted,” chuckled Alex. “They stay with Fluttershy technically,” whispered he, “but I’ll attend to them as much as I can either.” “At least until your aunt arrives from the Crystal Empire, right?” addressed he the foals louder. “How’s her name by the way?” “Crystal,” Aurora smiled brightly. “Crystal Chime! And she’s the best aunt in Equestria!” ‘Auntie Crystal from Crystal Empire,’ Alex smirked inwardly. ‘Let’s hope she is indeed the best!’ In conversation, they reached the first street of Ponyville and Alex stopped. There was no need to walk the foals through the town on the first day, gaining unnecessary attention; besides, he understood that despite their visible energy, the foals must have been reaching its limits already. “By the way,” Twilight opened her saddle bag and started digging inside hastily, “I thought you may need that at the end of the day. So… ummm… I took the liberty to gather and bring you this!” The girl levitated and dropped into Alex’s promptly stretched hands something tightly folded. Checking the parcel, Alex recognized a change of underwear wrapped into his clean shirt; for a moment he stood there blinking. ‘Did she really brushed through his clothes to bring that?!’ At rare occasions, Twilight could be even blunter than Pinkie when it came to her caring about the friends, but that time Alex was thankful for such tactlessness. “And here is another one – right from Rarity!” Twilight already handed him another larger soft parcel; the ribbon it was bound with over the thick paper formed a heart-shaped bow. “She came shortly after you left and was desperate finding out that she missed you by a matter of minutes, then asked me to give that to you. If I were you,” she leaned closer to him lowering the tone, “I would have unwrapped it only being alone – who knows what may be there.” Alex squeezed the larger parcel lightly – it was soft and felt as some fabric folded. He looked at Twilight and decided that the girl might have point. ‘It’s some clothes most likely, but I won’t bet on that!’ knowing Rarity, Alex rolled his eyes inwardly. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?” seeing Alex frozen at the spot, Twilight tapped his elbow lightly. “We’ll be fine. I’m going to cope,” Alex glanced at her slyly; a revenge idea for the earlier joke came into his mind. “Anyway, these are my first foals as well,” added he in girl’s ear making her suddenly flush to the roots of her lilac stripy mane. “Oh… Ahem…” Twilight made an effort, clearing her throat. “I guess we don’t need to expect you early today, right?” “Yeah. In the morning most likely,” Alex waved her; with the foals he was going to hit the road belting the edge of the town, thus bringing them to Fluttershy’s cottage faster. * After the long walk, the cottage emerging from behind the bare trees beckoned with a promise of anticipated rest. Even from the distance, it was bearing that unique homely feel, Storm Sunflower couldn’t explain even if persistently asked. Seemingly a common two-storey house, smaller than their own… At this thought Storm bit his lip not to show any sign of weakness; he promised himself to be strong as long as it was necessary and ever after for his little sister. Nevertheless, that simple cottage almost made one wish to live there; the more the closer they walked. Walls painted light, clean accurate windows, the whole well-maintained yard behind the low neat fence – everything at that place waited to provide the traveller comfort and repose, whoever that traveller was. When they came closer crossing the garrulous creek over the small bridge, Storm could see the numerous birdhouses attached here and there in the tree crowns, which hid them from prying eyes during the warm seasons. That dense placement made the colt wonder, how awesome must the place be, so all those birds could nest there at once overbearing the close vicinity of different neighbours of various species. Almost at the gate, the foals heard the distant even measured noise as if some giant beaver was lazily slapping its tail on the water. Impressed by this analogy, Storm didn’t realize at first that it was the large water wheel, which could be seen right to the cottage; the creek it was placed in skirted the backyard of the cottage. The human opened the barely creaking gate revealing the front garden with fallen leaves accurately raked by somepony and the flowerbeds already prepared for winter. Stepping on the gravel of the front walkway, Storm took another general look over the cottage. If he was asked to describe it as brief as possible, the colt would have probably answered that “the loving mare’s hoof felt everywhere in it”; he was sure that the impression wasn’t going to change upon entering the house either. “So, is this your house?” Storm was to throw his head back to look at human’s face. “I… I mean it’s cute, but…” the colt stumbled confusedly. “But?” smiled Alex enquiringly, he crouched not to make their height difference too oppressing for the foals. “Well… I would never think that somepony as you is living in a house like this…” Storm blushed a bit, unsure if he was tactful enough, still curious to the point he couldn’t have asked not. That made Alex plunge into the thoughts: several months in Equestria and he didn’t yet possess any place of his own while technically he could already allow himself a house. Being forced to call this world his home by the circumstances, Alex was still unsure where his mentioned real home was. ‘Is it because I can’t still accept the situation in entirety?’ Alex shook his head driving away from the unnecessary sentiment. He was to admit that Storm caught it perfectly – nopony could tell that Alex with his current lifestyle suited to Fluttershy’s dwelling. Could that be said about his temporary place at Twilight’s Library then? Anyway, that was hardly a fitting explanation for the foals. “You are way too observant for a colt of your age, Storm! But you both are still thinking of me as of Nightmare Knight, guys, aren’t you?” chuckled Alex softly. “Rest assured, that’s a misconception… And the second thing, it’s Fluttershy’s house, she lives here. I’m only a guest here, technically. Now, does that fit your world concept, bud?” “So are you two?..” first time since they arrived, Aurora asked a question, still watching the cottage with interest and admiration. “I mean… Eh…” She downcasted confusedly, but he understood the unvoiced part. “Not yet officially…” Alex shrugged with wings letting out a tiny smile and wondering how easy that tiny addendum went out. “Rather… dating?” her brother glanced at the human semi-inquiringly. “Mom and dad told us how they met and got to know each other!” “Nothing can escape your attention, Storm!” Alex ruffled colt’s mane lightly, noticing it still being peppered with ashes. “Yes, we are. I guess that can be named that way…” “Look,” Alex didn’t let the foals focus on that topic too much. “Methinks the first thing we need is to bring you both into some semblance of order at last.” “You know, you speak funny sometimes, big human!” giggled Aurora Sunflower. “Remember the Nightmare Night celebration, sis,” Storm winked at her meaningfully. “Alex speaks very much like princess Luna, of whom he is most likely a close friend.” ‘You don’t even know how close… but most likely are guessing!’ with a laughter Alex opened the front door letting both foals inside. “Woooow!” Storm and Aurora made a step and froze: the large bright living room was truly spacious and exceeded their expectations from the cottage. Practically merged with the hallway, which was presented rather by a small functional zone behind the front door, the main room occupied most space of the ground floor. Boasting the natural wood where it was only possible, the room was decorated in light yellow and green tones accompanied by pastel variations of brown. Yet the main motive was light, thus the living room looked sunny even on such a grey November day. Providently placed along the walls, the furniture left plenty of space in the middle, except for the sofa at the far end of the room and a couple of large armchairs. If necessary, more than two foals could easily play catch-up there. The next thing making young Sunflowers smile involuntarily was birdhouses. Despite their natural outside placement, there a few resided on the spots, quite unusual for a common house: along the walls and bookcases and under the ceiling. Some of them were still occupied by those who didn’t hide or leave for winter, as the light hurried rustle told the foals that their inhabitants whisked inside right the moment the unknown ponies entered the house. What surprised the foals even more was the exemplar tidiness of the place, unexpected for one populated by so-called wild animals. Something told Storm and Aurora, that case differed and the hostess indeed was easily finding a common language with the critters, as she was famous for. With a light scratchy noise, one specifically curious squirrel ran along the wooden beam crossing the room under its ceiling. The red ruffian jumped and landed right on Alex’s head where it quickly sniffed human’s ears, making him chuckle; the squirrel checked behind Alex’s shirt collar and on his shoulder, taking a seat and squeaking inquiringly. “Oh, sorry, I have nothing today!” Alex spread his arms smiling. “But I’m sure that not only you are hungry at the moment. We may try fixing that though.” “Cool!” exclaimed Storm Sunflower when the squirrel hung on Alex’s shirt its head down, firmly clambering the cloth with all her four paws and warily staring at the newcomers. “They aren’t afraid of you!” “Well, some animals are naturally darer than the others,” chuckled Alex. “Some got used to my presence and a few are simply overly curious and truth be told unceremonious.” Growing bolder finally, the squirrel got down Alex’s stretched arm and started sniffing Aurora’s mane tickling the filly and making her giggle. “Okay, the plan is as following!” Alex concluded cheerfully; he headed to the kitchen, large doorway to the left. The squirrel climbed back onto his shoulder, riding with comfort. “First you both need to eat, whatever we can find and prepare fast, then a bath and some, I’m sure, long-anticipated rest.” The other time the foals would have probably protested against the last position, but that day they obviously had enough; Alex saw that despite some natural confusion and well-played bravado, both Aurora and Storm were about to collapse from fatigue at any moment. “Hey, kids!” Alex turned to the foals glancing at them as conspiratorially as he only could. “Don’t tell Fluttershy that we swapped bathing with meals.” “Aye, sir!” The quick inspection of a pair of hands and two pairs of hooves came out successful and after a few minutes both foals were already sitting at the kitchen table, chewing the hastily cooked snack. The squirrel whisked away, back to its nest, getting the desired treat. Musingly watching the sleepy foals, Alex thought that he needed to make something more nutritive later; besides, Fluttershy was going to come tired and no doubt hungry as well. Alex smirked to his thoughts; adding the foals to his usual life looked a more difficult task than it could seem from the first glance, but… given another chance he wouldn’t have changed his decision. ‘However, letting them completely on Shy shoulders is unacceptable…’ Alex scratched his nape estimating his “parenting capabilities”. ‘Let’s say, I’m not the best role model after the work and till morning,’ he was to admit inwardly, ‘books and drafts, staying awake till late, sleepwalking. Kids better stay with Shy during nights!’ ‘Besides, Storm must have been studying at home already… Now everything is gone with the house.’ Alex frowned but then shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Well, a couple of weeks of sudden holidays won’t hurt both. Unless I can convince the schoolmaster to take the colt to the corresponding class… Or would it be better to talk to miss Cheerilee first?’ ‘Thankfully, Storm and Aurora are from farmer’s family,’ smiled Alex watching the foals, who meanwhile chewed and blinked almost at the same rate and speed; finally relaxing, their bodies remembered about being exhausted. ‘They know well how to entertain themselves without providing much trouble to the adults, they can help and they aren’t afraid of the variety of small work.’ ‘Resolved! I’ll be taking them to the smithy each day… If they aren’t interested with metalwork, I’m sure Sil can fascinate them with her jewellery. And the kids will have the whole playground at their service as long as I can convince them to stay within the nearest field boundaries,’ Alex nodded enthusiastically noticing the foals coped with the meal more or less. “Okay, sleepyheads, time for the bath. And then sleep. Pronto!” “I’ll clean everything, don’t worry,” with a smile, he noticed Aurora’s impulse to gather the dishes to the sink. “Let’s go while you still can keep on your hooves!” The foals barely moved their legs; Alex was to follow them through the living room and upstairs, ensuring that they didn’t stumble and roll down. Seeing that Aurora almost sleeps on the go, once in a while trying to lay her head on brother’s back, Alex picked her up in the first-floor corridor and carried to the room. The bedroom stayed exactly as they left it in the morning: the half-drawn curtains left it semi-dark, which was quite fitting to the current condition of the foals, the ajar wardrobe door barely swayed in the draught coming from the window. Alex was glad that the rain didn’t come through making a puddle on the floor. As they entered the floral-honey aroma embraced the human and the foals: Storm stopped and inhaled deeply breaking into a wide happy smile; even sleepy Aurora raised her head in Alex’s arms and sniffed with pleasure. Alex couldn’t help but join them in that mood; that scent was always able to tune him into a positive mood no matter what, just like another one. And the mixture of two, as he recently found out, was truly thrilling, almost palpably vibrant, making him… However, a slight hitch disturbed his pleasant flow of exciting thoughts right at the bathroom doorway. Alex alternated between the soft and relaxed filly in his hands and the colt sleepily leaning on the doorframe, then he looked at the large but single tub. “Mom’s always bathing us together,” sleepily muttered Storm, properly guessing the reason for awkwardness. “She says that’s easier and she can be sure that one of us stays clean while another is still being washed,” he sighed slightly at the memory about their mother, whose condition was questionable at that moment. “So it’s okay.” To save time as the foals were extremely sleepy, Alex decided in favour of a shower instead of a proper bath helping Aurora and Storm to get into the tub. The filly almost napped on her hooves when Alex put her down; she put her muzzle on the tub edge and let out a slumberous smile. “Let’s simply wash away the dust for now! You can properly soak in the water later,” Alex adjusted the water minding that typical horse comfort temperature was a couple of degrees higher than for an average human. He kneeled beside the bathtub switching to the showerhead, chuckling. “I’m sorry, kids, if that cheers you up a bit…” “Squee!” Aurora Sunflower even opened her eyes widely when the jets of warm water ran over her neck and back quickly soaking the coat; Storm started giggling at sister’s reaction but almost jumped at the spot as well when the stream reached him in his turn. However, the temperature was comfortable and both foals relaxed; the filly muttered something sleepily. “So… Does your aunt… Crystal, right? Does auntie Crystal work for a large toy market?” Alex’s aim was to keep both foals awake till they finished with the water procedures. “I mean she will certainly have some difficulties rushing here out of the blue.” He took the shower gel and squeezed some on filly’s back, passing it then to the colt. “She actually owns a large toy shop there in Crystal Empire,” Storm sounded rightfully proud for his aunt, “and even produces some toys of her own making with the help of her staff.” He sat on his plot and started washing his coat by himself while Alex soaped and rubbed sleepy Aurora. “Naturally, she will need to arrange everything before she can leave. Why do you ask?” he glanced at Alex with interest. “Did you study at home, Storm?” asked the human instead of an answer. The colt nodded shortly watching with a smile how his sister raised on her hind legs, putting her fore hooves on Alex’s shoulders for him to better reach her sides and legs. Being ticklish, Aurora started wriggling and tittering when he scratched along her ribs. “You both can’t sit in four walls from dawn till dusk and over, be it a week or a few,” Alex took a clot of foam from his cheek and put a large soap bubble at the tip of Aurora’s nose making the girl cross her eyes and try to huff it away funnily. “Here you go!” “If I can talk you through with the Ponyville school headmaster, so they let you attend… Which frankly speaking would be a miracle and you won’t fall back in studies, Storm,” Alex examined the filly critically and spotting no unwashed places turned to the colt, helping the latter with the back and hind legs. “But if I can’t, we will need to find for you both something to do, because I’m mostly busy the whole day, so is Fluttershy… a bit less in late Autumn and Winter but still…” “Hey, you thought that I reconsidered taking you both here, guys?” Alex looked at Storm intently; the colt downcasted. “I would never do!” Alex booped the storm cloud coloured nose lightly causing a smile on colt’s muzzle. “Speaking of work,” Storm visibly cheered up. “They say you’re working at the local smithy… Is it so?” “Yeah, and I thought about taking you both with me the next day,” Alex turned on the shower again and was already rinsing both foals. “Otherwise you would probably sour from boredom most of the day.” “Cool! I never saw how somepony worked with metal,” drawled Storm. “Can one learn how to make things like this?” he pointed at the thin band of Alex’s helmet. “Probably. Not so fast though. It’s the work of one very powerful alicorn mage; personally, I would never reach such level,” Alex let out a smile. “But the rest of the armour is of our own making. While it lacks magical powers, it’s quite durable on its own. I’ll show you then…” Aurora seemed less enthusiastic about the whole idea, so Alex added with a mysterious expression. “Anyway, I know somepony, whose work will surely fascinate you and gain your attention. Now! Let’s address the manes and tails!” and he started pouring the water all over the foals making them giggle and splash. “Can you read us a story?” That question caught Alex totally off guard when a few minutes later he carried the wrapped into a large fluffy towel filly back to the room; Storm followed closely not even daring to stifle yawns already. Trying to savvy hectically if he saw any kids’ books in Fluttershy’s cottage, Alex uncovered the bed with one hand, accurately putting Aurora down as she was. The filly momentarily curled into a comfortable ball burying her nose into the flower-fragrant pillow. “Give me a minute, mates,” Alex helped Storm onto the bed next to his sister. “I feel non-less sweaty and tired than you. Dying for a shower.” “Don’t go anywhere!” chuckled he storming downstairs to pick his folded clean clothes, which Alex left on the low table next to the front door. However, the minute he spent for that was enough for the exhausted foals to travel to Lunaland, surrounded and lulled by Fluttershy’s shampoo aroma. This way exactly Alex found them upon return: Storm Sunflower peacefully breathing in his deepening sleep and Aurora snuggling her forehead to brother’s shoulder with a tiny smile. ‘Maybe it’s better that way – I’m not in the mood for fairytales right now, besides I’m not sure if I can find any suitable book here.’ His glance fell on the large parcel, which lied in the armchair exactly where Alex drooped it upon entering. Checking the foals and making sure they were sleeping deep, Alex untied the scarlet heart of the ribbon and slowly unwrapped the gift. There were clothes indeed. Contrary to Alex’s fears the motley piece on top, white-grey with some complex black pattern, appeared to be a thick knit sweater. Considering the approaching winter, that was something Alex became genuinely happy about. Another one was a nice jacket; at first, he even took the material it was made of for some leather, but remembering where he was Alex quickly dismissed that assumption. At the closer look, the jacket turned out made of some wool. Even without trying them on, he was sure the clothes would fit perfectly, made entirely according to the proverbial Rules of Rarity. ‘Sakes alive! It seems I won’t be freezing this winter,’ Alex let out a quiet whistle. ‘All the same, we are unfair to the girl… sometimes!’ Opening the window a tiny bit to let some fresh air in, Alex headed to the bathroom in his own turn. Standing under the streams of running water and listening to its measured noise, Alex felt how the strain and troubles of the day slowly leave him as if being washed down the pipe with the sweat and dust. He couldn’t remember how long he spent in the shower nor he paid much attention to the time before that: it seemed a couple of hours to him; Alex had no wish to leave the warm water washing himself from head to toe at least two times. His shoulder stopped reminding about the morning contusion and that alone was a blessing. Feeling that he was about to creak from cleanness if rubbed, and changing into the fresh, Alex finally dragged himself out of the bathroom. Met by the quiet relaxed sniffing of the peacefully sleeping foals, Alex checked the wall clock. In reality, he hardly lingered more than for half an hour, but the sky began darkening showing him that the day passed its equator long ago. Even keeping in mind that it was November already, it meant that Fluttershy spent in Canterlot several hours, while the actual “operation” should have taken a few minutes maximum according to Alex memories from the last time. Back then, he, Fluttershy and Princess Celestia visited the first victim of Seekers’ mental influence; it took Fluttershy just a moment to Stare the enraged unicorn back to sanity. What could be different at that time? Alex had no idea. Before concerns crawled with their cold paws into his soul, Alex heard the front door quietly opening; the slow, tired hoofsteps followed and stopped somewhere amidst the living room. Alex’s heart made a jump; unable to hold back a smile, he rushed downstairs like flying trying at the same time to avoid much noise not to wake the foals. Fluttershy reached no further than the kitchen doorway, where exactly she leaned to the frame closing her eyes. The girl looked a bit ruffled, even her lush mane and tail seemed to dim a little; her suit was dusty to her knees telling Alex that she had quite a day and most likely ran all the way from the balloon pad to the cottage. But the closer look told him that Fluttershy was fine generally, simply overly tired, almost exhausted; that at least dispelled his worries at once as Alex was about to think that something could go seriously wrong in Canterlot making his marefriend stay there that long. “Oh, good evening, dear!” Fluttershy opened one eye first focusing on the human with a little effort. She then tried to turn to him, but still kept leaning on the doorframe with her side. “To tell the truth, I thought that it was going to be easier as well…” she properly read Alex’s expression and let out a tiny smile, shaking her mane. With relief, Alex saw that neither fatigue nor unusual troubles could affect girl’s cuteness and mood; the wave of floral-honey aroma reached him as Fluttershy threw back her mane glancing at the human more vividly. “How are Storm and Aurora doing?” asked she before Alex could say a word; Fluttershy took a look around seeing no sign of the foals activity in the house. “They were overwhelmed by the day,” shrugged Alex. “I could barely feed and wash them… and they fell asleep shortly after. They are tired but fine… well, as fine as one can be after similar things happening to them all in one day. I’m rather concerned about you, my dear,” he watched the girl still leaning on the doorframe. “What happened, Shy?” Alex kneeled next to Fluttershy and hugged her gently. “Did something go wrong with the farmers?” he lowered his voice as if trying to avoid telling the bad news to Storm and Aurora, despite both foals were sleeping deeply upstairs. “No, no, they are fine… finally. Well… as much as somepony finding themselves totally amnesiac at once can be,” with another faint smile, Fluttershy leaned on him allowing Alex to walk her to the kitchen, where he finally seated her. “But they are already treated by the best medics Celestia could find. I think they’ll be fine… after a certain while, of course.” “But it turned out so hard to help them at first, you can’t imagine Alex!” she raised her eyes at Alex, who picked the glass and was pouring some water for her. “I couldn’t simply Stare them right away and it was a surprise for me. As the result, I struggled for a few hours with that…” “But…” “Yeah, I thought that too. Thanks!” she took a sip soothing the dry throat and elaborating. “That first time it came out so naturally… like it usually does. But I couldn’t do it easily with the farmer and his wife. I wonder why.” “I mean, it’s no class if I spend so much time with a single pony when we are probably going to have many more victims of these monsters sometime soon…” Fluttershy looked at the human when he sat next to her hugging girl’s shoulders; she fell silent suddenly listening to herself. She seemingly expected to become shocked by her own spontaneous conclusion, but to her surprise, Fluttershy took that idea quite easily. “I need to learn how to treat them faster,” she shook her mane firmly flooding her human with sweet aroma again. “Well…” Alex pondered for a second. “Maybe it came out faster the first time because that stallion suddenly fell in rage and… could provide some real danger to the others. So your reaction was natural and justified, Shy.” “This time the farmers were completely inert,” he ruffled her mane slightly pulling the girl closer and stroking her hair gently, “so, technically you had no need to Stare them to adequacy, even if you realized that it was necessary due to their miserable condition.” “It seems, you need to learn to use your… errmmm… power somewhat on demand, not only when it is inevitable. Bee careful, Shy, it’s a powerful military-grade mass destruction stuff!” Alex chuckled; the daily tension called for some détente resulting in that clumsy joke attempt. “Mmm…” muttered Fluttershy. She raised her glance and Alex saw that the girl hardly heard or at least comprehended his last phrase. “What did you say, my love?” The last couple of minutes Alex was scratching her behind the ears, absently brushing through the lush, soft, fragrant mane; that made Fluttershy a bit cross-eyed and she snuggled to him softly. Suddenly Alex felt a small warm kiss on his bare chest, then another one and a series of them rising to his neck as the girl stretched to cuddle him. “You just came out of the shower…” Fluttershy wanted to wrap her fore legs around Alex’s neck but reconsidered examining her dusty suit closer. Alex pulled her closer planting a small kiss on the tip of girl’s nose and making her giggle quietly. She rested the head on his shoulder and glanced up at Alex, who noticed the playful sparkles lighting up in these beautiful turquoise eyes. Apparently, some power reserves remained non-depleted in her. “So, where did you place the little ones?” completely innocent question was followed by such a stretch, which made Alex’s blood run faster at once. “I hope you coped with their settling, Alex…” she snuggled closer to him tickling with the long pink mane. “I didn’t have time to check the guest room, let alone set it if it was necessary. So, I brought them to your room.” Alex stroked her mane softly making it emit more and more floral aroma with each touch. “Sorry if that brings some inconvenience, Shy. I was to arrange them for the night in your bed…” “It’s okay, Alex. Everything can be done tomorrow – we all had a tough day!” Fluttershy rubbed her cheek against human’s chest; she wanted to hug Alex but threw a regretful glance at the sleeves of her dusty suit instead. “I just had a thought, Alex,” the girl suddenly giggled; light flush barely touched her cheeks with tangerine tint. “Umm… Funny, yet… Not that it was a problem for me, but it suddenly came into my mind…” “What is it, my love?” “Exactly that!” Fluttershy giggled again and the flush spread a bit further to her nose. “I just tried to imagine what could your parents think if they saw me, not only sharing the house with you… but… being so close. Ahem, you understood perfectly well what I meant,” she nudged him jokingly, seeing that Alex looks a bit lost. “We are pretty much horses to your kin, right? And the horses aren’t very… errmmm… civilized in your home world. Luna, in her turn, is big enough to amplify that image.” “Ehhhh… What?” “Wouldn’t they be shocked that their son has a marefriend?.. The keyword being “mare”! Moreover, two marefriends!” the girl glanced up at Alex slyly. Alex blinked. For himself, he reconciled with this issue long ago: somewhere in Celestia’s medical facility, getting yet another confirmation that the number of legs and the smoothness of skin were the last aspects determining a personality. Besides, Alex was to admit that he wasn’t prejudiced towards the close interspecies contacts of the fourth kind from the beginning, as long as both parties were intelligent enough to make that decision together. “Oh, come on, Shy!” Alex even laughed aloud, then cupped his mouth, remembering about the sleeping foals. “They have quite flexible minds, dear. I’m sure it would have been enough for them to talk to either of you for half an hour to form the correct vision.” “And if they could find out what had happened to us during the mere half a year,” added he with full seriousness, “they would have admitted that things only went naturally.” “And… errmmm… Elen? Right?” “We were good friends long before we started dating…” with a tiny smile, Alex put it the simplest way possible. “I suppose I could have explained the situation to her if necessary. Anyway, it’s too complex to theorize about it now. I wonder why you asked in the first place.” “As I said, it just came into my mind,” the girl shrugged most casually, but her eyes shone with happiness. “So I wanted to hear what you thought about that. Umm, theoretically…” “I see,” Alex watched Fluttershy with amusement in his eyes. “Rest assured, the public opinion is the last thing to make me change my mind. Let’s say, if somepony feels uncomfortable around my girlfriend, they may as well not visit us at all.” He planted a determined kiss on the tip of her slowly regaining usual colour nose. “Can you help me once again, dear?” the girl slid to the floor leaning her fore hooves on the table edge and turning her back to Alex. She pulled her shoulders forward, so the suit stretched tightly between the shoulder blades flashing brightly in the soft light with its zipper. “I don’t want to stain you touching with it; the suit desperately calls for laundry.” Alex produced some indiscernible sound and swallowed, feeling his pulse intensifying; he caught himself upon reaching the zipper lock with slightly trembling fingers. Fluttershy sighed as he fidgeted with the intractable zipper for a while; Alex’s heart made a leap. Finally, he coped with the task unzipping the suit to the end of the fastener on Fluttershy’s waist and ran his palms under the thick armoured fabric on her shoulders pulling it off. Returning to the close contacts of the fourth kind, there was a girl in his arms, regardless to the species. ‘A beautiful… woman,’ that came out so natural, Alex even smiled inwardly, ‘so tender and graceful, dressed into something provoking the daredevil fantasies!’ “Mmm…” Fluttershy wiggled her shoulders with relief. “It might be comfortable outside, but spending the whole day in this suit indoors wasn’t quite nice!” She froze enjoying Alex’s touch on her coat as he pushed the sleeves off girl’s fore legs. ‘Hot?!’ pulsed in Alex’s head, when he cuddled Fluttershy tenderly, unable to resist. ‘You’re so hot in this suit! That’s for sure…’ Her coat felt so sharply delightful against his fingers; it seemed that some electric sparks were running between his hands and girl’s body. Alex caught himself upon flushing like a schoolboy first time touching some girl’s hand; but contrary to that schoolboy, he flushed not of embarrassment but excitement and knew what he wanted. Snuggling tightly into the pegasus mare, Alex buried his face deep into the mane, enjoying the touch of Fluttershy’s feathers on his bare chest. “Come on, Alex, stop it!” giggled Fluttershy. “I feel all hot and sweaty under the suit; tired or not I need shower not to become a repellent.” “Are you kidding me?” Alex lifted her long mane, which felt silky and pleasantly heavy in his hands; he ran his face up girl’s neck inhaling her heated scent and barely touching with his lips, making the mare shiver and squint. “You smell awesome, Shy!” Caressing her soft shoulders and back, Alex kept nuzzling Fluttershy until the short pink hair on her neck stood on ends; he buried his face in the soft pink wave kissing the girl on top of her head between the excitedly perked ears. Another shiver ran along mare’s back. Slowly, Fluttershy turned in his arms throwing her fore legs around Alex’s neck; thrill and surprise were written in her widened eyes where Alex could see his determined reflection. He leaned closer brushing through her flowing mane and making their nose tips touch. “Ahhhh…” Fluttershy wanted to say something but caught Alex’s tender kiss with her slightly open lips instead. She snuggled tighter to him, feeling the next second herself lifted and seated at the kitchen table. With a happy sigh, the girl answered him with full passion. “The foals…” breathed she out after a while when her head slowed down spinning. “They may wake at the unknown place and get scared! We can’t leave them for long…” “Then we have very little time, my love!” Watching Fluttershy’s reaction, Alex stroked her between the shoulder blades and started planting small kisses along her stretched in pleasure neck; the girl trembled, wrapping the legs around her human. * “She did what? Oh, dear!” Luna reclined at the throne backrest with a silvery laughter; it was so contagious that even her sister couldn’t hold back a tiny smile which glimpsed through the general grumpiness of her evening mood. “Mine crown to that! Tis wondrous, the girl is truly a pony of many talents…” “Excuse me, Blueberry, for being less enthusiastic about today’s morning incident,” Princess Celestia coped with herself pursing the lips and taking a deliberate look around the hall as if checking if nothing else had gotten damaged, while her regal sister kept having much fun. “You wouldn’t be either perhaps if you saw what it looked like with your own eyes.” The sisters met in the throne hall at the borderline of the Day and Night Courts when the day was about to call itself and the low sun barely peeked inside from behind the high, narrow, richly curtained windows. The alternative was meeting at the dinner when the regal sisters shared it, much like breakfast each morning. That day though, Luna woke up earlier than usual, perhaps because in November, the visibly gaining nights called for her feeling of duty earlier or due to some other unknown reason. Anyway, the Night Princess ordered to bring her meals to her room instead where exactly she stood for quite a while that day puzzling the guards with a long talk with some other mare, then thinking, then working at some document. The latter was mixed with mysterious laughter: evidently, the princess enjoyed something about that part of her work; Luna’s eyes sparkled with fun when she called after a maid to deliver the scroll. Thus despite the early fall of the twilight, Princess Luna got down to the throne hall quite late. The daily light gave place to the multitude of candles in the hanging from the ceiling large exquisite chandeliers and torches alongside the hall walls and columns. Despite the electric generators ready to be implemented where necessary, Celestia was adamant – all the premises of political and court value were to keep their traditional look. That included the lightening, so, the candles kept their place tinting the usually ringing silence of the throne hall with faint crackling and the air – with the smell of wax, aromatic quite often when Celestia was in the mood for that. The Day Princess almost became desperate to wait for her sister; it was obvious that Celestia anticipated the possibility to tell Luna something as well. Which she addressed almost at the first glimpse of the night coloured smiling alicorn mare. “The dust fell from that fusty ceiling! Really?!” Luna let out another burst of unconstrained laughter; obviously, her fun only doubled after she heard sister’s story. Even the little details were enough for princess’ joy to dispel the ceremonious silence rolling under the hall arcs so vividly that even some guards started smiling secretly. “I can imagine that as the result of thy efforts, lief, even if rarely… Or Alex’s… But Fluttershy!” Luna kept chuckling. “The girl progressed so much in terms of finding herself and confidence. Even more for the last half of a year methinks.” The Night Princess shook her head humorously but with visible respect. “The point is, only she could call him to order… even not from the first attempt,” Celestia lingered to share sister’s entertainment and lift. Perhaps, her slight grumpiness could be explained by upcoming winter not being “Celestia’s time” in general or by the need to lower the Sun earlier; moreover, to do that slowly for the prolonged time. Anyway, the white alicorn mare sighed with the most unhappy expression continuing her thought. “Not the daily court taking place, not the solicitors… Frankly speaking, he scared them deadly, not mentioning the overall image they received and might interpret wrongly. Not even the guests – Velta was with me this morning – could make him reconsider and mind the words better. And I’m not even talking about the looks here…” Celestia took a breath toning down her tirade a bit. “Not even the foals, if we speak about them finally… As they served the reason.” At the mention of the foals, Luna’s smile became even wider. “Well, thou can’t say that the carpenter failed at his vocation!” she took a closer look at the backrest of Celestia’s throne. “It looketh as if nothing was even scratched.” “Well, of course!” huffed Celestia proudly. “…as for the rest,” Luna produced another dainty smile, “Velta enlightened me ere, Sunny.” “Yes, yes, the filly hurried to share her concerns so much,” she answered Celestia’s unvoiced question. “She visited me shortly after mine awakening and didn’t skimp on colours painting that image,” sparkles were dancing in Luna’s eyes. “So?” apparently, even if the Day Princess expected some certain reaction from her sister, that wasn’t fitting the predicted margins. “Oh, comest on, Tia!” Luna waved her fore hoof nonchalantly. “I kept in mind that it concerned Alex… and that it was Velta telling the story. Thus I divided her impression by two… Hmmm, at the very least,” Luna’s lips curled again slightly. “And the result didn’t look like some calamity to me, in the earnest.” “I mean, I love the filly very much and respect her opinion. And I ain’t blind failing to notice that she returneth the attitude a hundredfold!” elaborated the Night Princess. “But tis Velta, Sunny. We all know her “love” for stallions, no matter of the actual species methinks. I doubt I lie telling that she and Alex in one place make an explosive mix in emotional sense… And that’s not even telling her Alex’s story!” Luna chuckled softly. “However, that can’t justify the whole play he staged here, sister,” retorted Celestia with a frown. “And the accusations he stated almost publicly…” “And what actually he did, Sunny?” Luna shrugged with the most unperturbed look. “Shook some dust off? Apologies, but methinks you three invested equally into that valorous act,” she smirked again at the mental image of her sister, Alex and Fluttershy having a bit of… “intense diplomacy”. “Made Evenia… Oh, Harmony!.. blush and confuse a zilch? Unpunishable in mine books! Mayhap we even need to thank him for letting the filly let loose slightly,” Luna openly giggled at that point. “Receive me correct, Tia, I adore the girl non less than Velta,” elaborated Luna replying the shocked gaze of her sister. “But methinks she started taking her duties overly serious lately. Recalling that thou art not an unbreakable ninja doll once in a while shan’t hurt. Dost thou think not, Sunny? Especially considering that Alex was – and that’s exact Velta’s words – simply paying respect.” “Did she say that?” Celestia looked genuinely surprised. “Mmm… Semantically!” Luna raised one eyebrow. “Methinks she is still undecided for herself if ‘t be true Alex, at which hour being perfectly polite verbally, is de facto desperately scoffing the collocutor he aimeth his sarcasm at.” “Hmm… Sounds familiar to me!” chuckled Celestia. “Well… That’s mine Alex for thee,” Luna smirked visibly proud. “Something tells me that under the different circumstances you would have enjoyed the big sister’s role as much,” the Day Princess watched her sister appraisingly. Luna huffed indefinitely, returning to the discussed matter. “To quote her exactly, she said that Alex was “respectfully impudent” or “impudently respectful”; she hadn’t decided yet. Truth be told, I couldn’t receive what Evenia thought about the situation because the girl was… diligently compensating for her momentary weakness the entire time we talked with Velta.” That made even Celestia chuckle; whatever happening, she couldn’t deny both her sister and niece the sense of humour. Then she turned serious again in a wink. “But you admit the mere fact of accusations being made, even debating the authorities, Lulu, don’t you?” “The question isn’t that simple, Tia,” Luna glanced at her sister suddenly serious. “If ‘t be true we concentrate at the substance omitting the form… his claims sound rightful to a certain extent.” “Wait, please…” she halted preparing to retort Celestia for a moment. “What exactly did he want? To receive the information about the Seekers-related incidents faster? More directly? Without the excessive procedures enveloping the contents… till it can’t be seen?” “Well, methinks he hath right to do that!” dropped Luna after a moment of overwhelming silence. “Especially keeping in mind that his and Fluttershy’s effective aid is needed anyway for settling the… so-called incidents; more importantly – their consequences.” “But…” “Apologies, Tia, but these two know what to do with the mind-wrecking monsters better than any of our mages, let alone guards. Thou shan’t deny that, correct?” Luna’s meaningful look made Celestia downcast and sigh quietly, inwardly admitting correctness of that assumption. The Night Princess kept nailing it deeper. “Moreover, it taketh thee too much power to eliminate the Seekers, even one of them at once. Alex, on the contrary, may have problems with the physical part of the encounter but their nature is nothing to him…” “You’re right, Lulu,” muttered Celestia, “but whatever you’re saying, that exactly aspect keeps bothering me.” “…in mine own turn I doubt I’m capable to inflict only physical damage to the monsters – that’s not enough oft, as mostly they are vulnerable to Solar magic, fire and… guess, Tia? Alex’s impact!” Luna simply waved off sister’s repetitive doubts. “Methinks the mere idea invested into those Seekers was that they were made specifically to confront us – ponies, unicorns, even alicorns. While Alex is naturally two steps ahead of them, despite their master attempts to accommodate to the changing circumstances.” “Still, what you suggest, Blueberry, is practically letting the guards report to the human about all the incidents with the Seekers!” Celestia cocked her head making the concern burning up in her eyes visible. “Even worse: to order them to report, perhaps prior to their reporting to us if I properly continue your thread of thoughts, dear! Moreover, to be sure the guards will need to report all the magical disturbances most likely.” “Hmmm… I fail to see the trouble hither, dearest sister,” Luna’s eyebrows flew up so genuinely that even made Celestia believe. “Carest to enlighten me?” “Where is the borderline then?” Celestia asked the rhetoric question. “We don’t yet subordinate the guards to him… but the first step is made that way.” “Thou art still thinking about that dream of thine, Tia?” Luna clearly saw the shadow of sister’s nightmare in her widened eyes. “Recallest what I said, a dream is only a dream oft!” “You can’t deny either that quite a few of the things I saw became true since then,” parried Celestia. “Not in the same form or combination but it’s still troublesome!” “You trust him, Lulu! Without any stipulations as I see,” she turned to her sister elaborating ardently. “And I’m still unsure… if I can, moreover, if I must do that. And the latest episode only strengthens my doubts!” “The problem even isn’t in Alex himself, dear,” calming down after that impulse, Celestia drawled. “I believe, he is a nice human… in general. Even with his impulsiveness. You see, Lulu, the problem is that sometimes when he sleeps… we all are a part of his dream. I suppose he can do anything at that time, even he doesn’t realize it entirely yet.” “Who can say that they absolutely won’t be tempted ever?” The Day Princess glanced at her sister meaningfully. “Oh, wrong pony to address then, Tia!” Luna shook her head rising the fore hoof in a defensive manner. “I’m definitely not the one to judge hither…” Celestia huffed emphatically. “…but, as thou said afore, I trust him,” simply said Luna. “If ‘t be true I learned anything then it would be learning on mistakes, own and others’.” She looked up at her sister to see Celestia flushing faintly. “Thus, listening to Velta’s story and on reflection about the entire situation, I decided and ordered the Night Watch to double their vigilance towards these monsters-related occasions and anything, which only may look alike, and… to report these to Alex immediately, regardless of the time and place.” Unable to believe her own ears, Celestia facehoofed while Luna continued adamantly. “The order must have reached the Night Watch guards already. Henceforth they are to provide any help necessary dealing with the Seekers, if ‘t be true the human and Fluttershy request.” “Oh, Harmony…” sighed Celestia; she sat there for a few minutes trying to lay the news in her head and regain emotional balance. By the look of her sister, the princess could tell that Luna was solidly determined about her order and wouldn’t change her mind – sometimes that girl could be amazingly stubborn in her decisions… just like their father. Following this memory with a faint sigh, Celestia wondered, for the umpteenth time, that huge favour of trust Luna done the human, knowing him for a few months only. ‘It’s more serious than I thought before. Purely by intuition, I asked him to take care of my sister… and it turned out having a deeper meaning than I implied. She loves him evidently! But so does Fluttershy; I saw that from the very beginning,’ Celestia shook her head. ‘Where will that lead?’ Thinking that she had enough for one day, the princess threw a glance through the nearest window where the last rays of sun faded in the spreading night. “Fine! You are a big girl, Lulu, you can decide for yourself. Let’s hope you both know what you’re doing. As for my part, I need to think it through… In silence and tranquillity,” Celestia rose from her throne nodding Luna good night. “Sleep is something that I need much as well; the day was too eventful for my liking.” “By the way,” halfway to the exit, Celestia looked over the shoulder, “speaking of reporting to Alex immediately… ermmm… “regardless of time and place” if I remember right… Did you inform Alex about that advantageous changes to his routine, Lulu? Not that I was judging your methods, dear, simply asking…” “Oops!” That needed no further explanation. Just like the gamine sparkles in Luna’s eyes and her entire look of a forgetful school-filly. Of the big, mischievous, dark-blue alicorn school-filly. * The hoof-made lake lied flat and calm at its widest edge facing the gently descending valley overgrown with the dense forest and belted by the railroad on the east. Born in the lake and running the waters through the valley, the river started its path between the sheer cliffs entering the plain soon, spreading wider and calming down for the most of the year, except those days when the heavy rains overflowed its cradle. The mist, which was specifically thick in that predawn hour, covered the entire smooth dark mirror of water with its thick milky swirling blanket effectively muffling every sound from the drops falling off the rare crooked trees at the cliffside to the lazy splash of some sleepy fish. However, even that thick cotton cover was unable to completely mute some monotonous hum coming from the farther narrower end of the lake. Except the few specifically prepared and equipped technical descents, the banks were steep and rocky making the casual observer wonder how those stunted trees survived on the seemingly bare stones while their siblings below in the valley and above on the mountain shelf grew unchallenged – it looked as if nothing could hold on the high sharp cliffs. The curious one should also have had a boat and a considerable amount of dare to find out what was the source of that noise becoming louder the closer to the narrow gorge one approached. Coming too close was neither smart nor advised though, as the daring adventurer would have been met by the steaming hasher of the sharp cliffs hiding under the dark surface and tons of roaring water crushing from the giant dam. Thankfully the strong current from the dam wall into the centre of the lake made it almost impossible to approach the foot of that artificial waterfall, unless the water flow was limited from above on purpose allowing the checking and maintenance of the dam base and the lower bed. That considerably lowered the number of accidents on the object, nevertheless, the duty engineer was always present at the lower observation post – a nondescript grey two-storey building placed at the stony bank of the lower basin. If one was not only curious enough but had an admittance as well, they could have entered the building, checked in with the named engineer on his post and taken the long twenty-storey way up the dam, through the brightly (thanks to the new generators) lit stairwell cut in the body of the mountain to the 120-foot processing and control level and gallery where the main dam machinery was placed. Or even to the upper maintenance level right at the top of the giant concrete wall, on 150-foot height. There the maintenance platforms stretched alongside the dam from both face and back connected with the few catwalks over the actual edge of the concrete wall; below them, the row of emergency gates was placed, closed at the moment unlike the work gates at the lower level, which spilt water twenty-four hours a day. With the commissioning of the generators, every square inch of the corridors, maintenance platforms and pathways accessible for the dam staff was brightly lit by the electric lamps when necessary. The very top of the construction resided in twilight though as nopony normally walked on the dam wall itself on the regular basis; mostly because it was usually too cold and windy there even during summer days. The lights were turned on when the maintenance works took place only. It was the first Alex’s visit to the site after the summer tragedy; it would be silly to assume that he didn’t force himself to come even if work called for that. However, Alex was to admit – he needed that: to overcome and release the past. He specifically arrived before dawn when fewer workers were present at the dam thus addressing the matters in relative tranquillity. Besides, he was to pick up Storm and Aurora later in the morning: Alex took the foals to the smithy with him the last few days as he couldn’t yet arrange Storm’s studying in the Ponyville school. He didn’t force the process too persistently though because inwardly admitted that Aurora would have it harder without constant presence of her older brother. Thus Alex’s common day started with coming to Fluttershy’s cottage where two foals already waited for him and their day at the smithy as for something immensely more interesting than common school. There was always something to do at uncle Will’s house even for the foals, despite Alex’s initial apprehensions: the little aid around the workbenches was in demand often and when it wasn’t, Silver Ingot took care of the foals showing them something from her jeweller mastery, accepted as a true miracle by the kids. Solving his questions at the machinery level, Alex went up to the dam control post and exited to the actual wall edge inhaling the fresh wind and cringing a little from the morning chillness – November reminded of itself even in Equestria with its milder, as Alex could have noticed, climate. Nopony could imagine a couple of months ago that he would take a walk on the dam top that easily; Alex smirked bitterly to that thought thinking for yet another time that he would give anything for being able to do that so easy back then when it was vital. Sitting down right on the dam wall edge, he wrapped himself into his wings tighter and took another look across the concrete monster connecting the edges of the natural mountain fold: the upper basin banks were usually deserted at that hour, the only lonely light glimpsed through the window of the upper post’s building he just came through. Far ahead and below, behind the forested valley, lied Ponyville faintly visible in the predawn haze. The sun wasn’t yet raised by Celestia and the eastern edge of the sky only glimpsed with the gradient of pink and yellow making the town and railway station further to the left of it look ghostly in the cold foggy air of the valley. Yet it gave some hope that the day might turn out sunny, despite the low heavy layer of the clouds overshadowing the sky above the dam and its reservoirs. Sitting cross-legged on the cold concrete, Alex watched the torrents of water escaping the ajar floodgates, storming down onto the turbines’ impellers and providing juice for the six new generators feeding electricity to the nearest region. The upper gates were closed at the moment and the entire hoof-made sea of water splashed lazily behind Alex’s back touching the maintenance platforms and almost reaching the dam edge. Filling the river, the recent heavy rains overflowed the upper basin and made the crew of the new hydroelectric station open the safety gates to controllably dump the water excess. As the result, the usually calm river billowed up and even down at the plains water touched the lower edges of Ponyville bridges keeping its level till that day. Trying to imagine the raging elements roaring at the foot of that concrete monster during the days of the emergency dump, Alex inwardly shuddered – nothing could reach the bottom of the lower basin, moreover, the lake exit safely. There was no chance to survive that fall but Alex kept questioning the possibilities and torture himself somewhere deep inside daily. One fact kept him doubting the seemingly obvious conclusion. ‘That river is the only aquatic exit from the dam spillway and the lake, it flows down the valley and belts the town,’ Alex sat on the dam edge staring into one point for so long, he even made the duty engineer on the upper post watch him from the corner of the eye, just in case. ‘It has several branches, of course, but all of them come through the inhabited areas… and the search was extensive. Anything should have been noticed anyway… Damn!’ the human closed his eyes. ‘And if, by some inscrutable miracle… why haven’t they appeared anywhere yet. No there is no hope they’re alive… But… I… can’t stop thinking…’ Something cold and tiny touched Alex’s forehead open to the morning wind then once again; the faint feeling existed for the short glimpse of time then vanished to appear inches aside. Alex opened his eyes: the low heavy slowly floating south-west clouds finally gave their crop; a few snowflakes fell onto his outstretched palm dying on the warm skin. Their tears mixed on the face with the settling on the skin thin mist rising from the artificial waterfall below – the cloud of steam and foam started shimmering in sunrise light. ‘What must the mother be feeling then?! Poor mare…’ realizing that he started freezing, Alex got up stretching the numb legs and shaking off water dust from his wings. The stripe of light at the eastern edge of the sky was widening gaining more tints of pink and yellow; at the dam though, the snowflakes started coming down denser as if the first November snow hurried to show itself before being driven away by the wind and sunlight. Alex turned back; he fancied the faint sound of flapping wings breaking through the waterfall noise. The sun was rising fast making him feel the difference at once, specifically contrasting on that chilly November morning. The first rays of it flooded the dam top making the far edge of upper basin gleam and play with millions of small diamonds; the borderline of light flowed down the concrete wall heading to the roaring water and machinery and reminding Alex of another morning with a painful throb of his heart. Covering the eyes from the glares of reflected light, Alex watched the pegasus figure lit by the rising sun; somepony approached from the upper lake’s shore intending to land on the dam where Alex stood. With the metal clank, the maintenance door of the upper post opened to the catwalks revealing the duty engineer; the concern was written on stallion’s muzzle – he must have noticed the newcomer and rushed outside putting on the safety helmet on the go. “It’s okay! I know her, everything’s fine!” Alex gestured calmingly to the engineer pony; he recognized the blindingly white mane shining the in sunlight. Seeing that the pegasus headed to Alex indeed, the stallion muttered something and waved his fore hoof; however, he kept watching, hiding inside the building only when the mare safely landed on the solid concrete next to the human. The strong gust of wind ruffled the feathers on her tightly folded wings and started rushing the cloudy herd above their heads driving the snow away from that place, somewhere to the western mountains. “Missis… errmmm… Rainstorm!” Alex decided to not remind the family name and address her by the first name instead; he was almost to shout because of the roaring elements, even turning his back to the noisy machinery and water. Having absolutely no idea what to say in such a situation, Alex made a few steps closer to the cloud grey pegasus mare and nodded trying to savvy the possible ways of dispelling the awkwardness. Meeting her at the dam was the last thing he expected even if assuming that Rainstorm could come there occasionally was basically natural. “Good morning, Alex,” the pegasus mare nodded softly; the shimmering electric blue eyes travelled over the human from head to toe, watching him appraisingly but without a tint of frustration to Alex’s relief. “I hope I’m not of much interference!” he finally made up his mind to talk approaching her not to shout, overtaking the roaring water; still, Alex was to raise his voice considerably to send his words through. “Do you come here often?” That sounded a bit off; Alex was about to scold himself mentally for that clumsiness when he noticed the mare smiling lightly. “No. That’s the first time, since… Since a while…” the vibrant eyes glistened treacherously but Rainstorm made an effort swallowing the lump; she threw back the long braid determinedly, the black band contrasting with snow-white hair. “I was actually looking for you today… and a for a couple of days before.” Alex stumbled, like thunderstruck, he froze and watched the mare, letting the rising with the wind thin water dust cover his wings, shoulders and face; with all creativity, he couldn’t think about the single reason making Rainstorm search for him. “You are quite hard to catch, Alex,” from afar, the mare continued with a little smile. “Especially to have a talk both of us would most likely prefer to stay private for now. You either sit in the library… and I’m not the type of pony to disturb others during their work, or at the smithy… lately with two foals. I heard the story, Alex,” she slowly nodded with approval, “and I think you both did right with Fluttershy. Anyway… the market is not an option,” continued Rainstorm while Alex was still guessing, completely dumbfounded, “due to the reasons I named. And…” she smirked wider, “I don’t see that well in the darkness to catch up to you during your… night shifts.” “So, when Twilight said that you were going to visit the dam – I decided to look for you at the library yesterday, without much success obviously – I thought it would be a chance,” shrugged Rainstorm casually. “Errmmm… Maybe we could talk somewhere,” Alex finally regained his words, “not deafened by all this water falling?” The mare nodded squinting from the opposing sun; so, they soared heading towards the upper lake bank. Alex waved to the engineer pony once again, signalling that everything was fine and followed by the sceptical eye of the stallion. “Well… if that suits…” Alex spread his arms apologetically, as if justifying the spontaneous place choice when they landed on the small open area separating the facility fence from the road running up the hills and down the mountain side to the lower post and the town eventually. “What did you want to talk about?” He wiped small water drops from his face keeping the wings spread to let the sun dry them faster; Rainstorm shook off the water like a bird ruffling her feathers. Any other time that would look amusing to Alex but he saw the serious and determined look on mare’s muzzle and stifled the smile. “Ever since that day,” started Rainstorm quietly, “I couldn’t find my place. Nothing seemed to be like before, nothing worked like before, despite I realized perfectly that the life went on… it was to go on no matter what.” Alex downcasted, surprised by that precise reflection of his own sentiments as the mare continued. “Even my… cloud-wrangling became not the same, Alex… half-hoofed to say the least… as it didn’t matter anymore. Or so I thought…” “I understand…” quietly sighed Alex. “As much as I can. If anybody wants to make that not happen nearly as much as you, then here I am… but…” “You can’t,” Rainstorm shook her head slowly, but without visible grief. “I can’t either… But don’t worry, I coped with that, Alex. I finally learned to release them and live on…” Watching her fixedly, Alex noticed that there was no tiny glimpse of pathos in mare’s words, she became strong enough to overcome her loss even if she wasn’t before and strong enough to admit and openly talk about it. But he also felt that it alone hardly was the reason Rainstorm looked for him for the whole three days to tell about; with a short nod, Alex prepared to find out the real one. “But with that, I realized that there was something absolutely worth doing, something I could and was to do for them… to be able to sleep and wake with a clear heart,” the mare raised her eyes at the human. “I know that you are the only one who really does something against those black abominations, the one who searches and takes effective measures; moreover, the one who can actually do something and isn’t hesitating to try. And the last incident on the farm only confirmed my confidence…” “I… I couldn’t cover all the cases anyway,” Alex shook his head raising hands in defence of the authorities. “The princesses and regular army do what they can… Only…” “Only they could have been more flexible, right?” Rainstorm let out a tiny understanding smile making Alex wonder how easy he could return it. “They do, but they don’t dare to risk… and the guards always wait for the others’ decision before acting.” Frankly speaking, Alex had nothing to retort with and hardly wanted, so the mare continued without hesitation. “I realized that there was a thing I wanted… no… desired to do,” Rainstorm’s face hardened. “To help get rid of those things as much as I only can. And… if there is a chance to eliminate a few myself,” she dropped with sudden determination, which even surprised her causing a shudder of unease. But Rainstorm recomposed in a wink. “Yes, to kill those Seeker-bastards if I can!” “I know that you are working on something to neutralize the Seekers’ effects on ponies, Alex,” the mare spoke ardently before he could even put a word in. “In theory, that is… And I know that to progress you need to… test… errmmm… what you already have.” A long pause hung; Alex slowly and noisily exhaled, like a balloon releasing the air. Deep inside he always knew that a similar talk would have place sooner or later, but being prepared for it turned out impossible. For a moment only the wind rustled in the feathers bringing the smell of dampness from the dam behind their backs. The human clenched and released his fists several times under the determined and anticipating glance of the pegasus mare. “I want to become that volunteer tester,” Rainstorm broke the silence first. “Not because I have nothing to lose… but because I have much to gain in case of success. I want to help and do something really necessary to stop them, to prevent them from wreaking havoc among us.” “Although, not that I had something to lose either!” she chuckled sadly but with calm realistic acceptance. “Who… Ahem…” hearing himself speaking a bit hoarsely, Alex cleared the throat and asked again. “Who told you about that… supposed testing, Rainstorm? I mean… I don’t deny that in general… Simply want to know… As I kept that in secret till the very last moment.” “I probably see the reasons making you do that,” Rainstorm nodded knowingly. “In my case you are free from their load, really. I realize what I want to do and am perfectly fine with that. I’m ready to take the full responsibility!” added she adamantly. “Still… If you don’t mind, of course…” “There is no secret here,” Rainstorm glanced up at the human. “Lyra Heartstrings told me that, exact quote, “the human is making the anti-seekers protection and needs to test it, but unsure about sending somepony into the field with the prototype”. We stumbled upon each other somewhere in the street. Not being close friends, she simply interested how I was doing, then mentioned your problems. I don’t even remember how the talk slid from me to the Seekers and the… helmet; what I remember now is that she approached me.” “By the way, she told me about the farmers family and their foals,” added the mare quietly. ‘Damn your curious nose, Lyra!’ Alex gritted his teeth not knowing if to anathematize or to thank the minty girl for that sudden help with his moral dilemma; he understood that his choice hardly became easier, but the pegasus mare kept watching him expectantly. ‘That must be the day when you looked for me but instead poked your nose into my papers noticing the helmet prototype and fishing out from Twilight everything you could.’ He frowned a little making Rainstorm bite her lip in concern. ‘However, I must admit you perfectly guessed everything untold, smart filly… Interesting…’ “Please, Alex…” the mare didn’t let him think to the end of what he wondered about. “I want to help, I want to be useful, I want to take part in… purging these monsters from our world!” Even if he might sound like an overexcited school-filly at the moment, Rainstorm’s voice gave out enough passion to sound rather convincing than comic. Alex made an indefinite gesture, which the mare preferred to take as the request of some time-out to think. ‘Interesting… Was it a carefully planned strategy, Lyra?’ Alex walked back and forth on the wet from the melted snow square all in a fluster. ‘Or was it pure coincidence that you came across the seemingly only sufficing variant in the town, which I overlooked or preferred not to take into account inwardly?’ he was to admit that there was reason in Rainstorm words no matter what he personally thought about the whole problem. ‘It surely doth look more like the first variant… Merlin pants! Tis wondrous thou had no idea about mine plans to have more helping hooves to deal with the Seekers! And… thanks Harmony,’ Alex chilled at the only thought, ‘that it didn’t reach the fluffy ears of, example gratia, school students! In this case, their enthusiasm would overshadow the common sense and survival instincts in no time…’ “Okay!” Alex stopped and looked into Rainstorm’s eyes gravely serious. “I confess – thou art saving me from stalemate situation. For which I’m grateful!” the light bow came out completely natural, without a tint of pretence, met with a simple nod of the mare. “But beest aware of some inevitable consequences,” Alex spoke ardently as if secretly expecting Rainstorm to reconsider and gladly giving her that opportunity. “The theory behind the protective helmet is as I said – only the theory. I have no idea if it really worketh… Moreover, I can’t guarantee thy mental safety in the process… and,” Alex pursed his lips, “I can only do my best to keep thee physically safe, but… the whole thing is a zilch different in thine case compared to mine…” “I know and I agree!” listening to this tirade, Rainstorm rolled her eyes with a little smile. “…then… What?” “I said, I realize all the stipulations,” the mare repeated patiently, watching Alex with interest. “I suspected exactly that after Lyra’s story… Otherwise, you won’t have a problem finding somepony for that… job, right?” Alex nodded bemusedly; he finally folded the dry out wings and looked a bit tired as if making that decision took some physical effort non the less. “Mindst that I’m still undecided about the… final step,” muttered he not giving up completely. “We shall see then… But at least thou can help me to fit and tweak the helmet and armour as well. But!” he glanced at the mare strictly. “Dost not blame me if ‘t be true I hold thee back against the Seeker instead of giving thee the green light.” “Okay, okay! Now calm down please, I didn’t get half of what you said,” Rainstorm broke into a laughter. “I promise, I’ll be a very obedient aide!” Something in her cyan eyes, maybe the naughty sparkles, told Alex that it wasn’t that simple but he truly had no other variants. He took a look around, over the rocky slope, the drying in the wind road, the clearing sky with the rising sun, as if asking them for advice without any hope to get any. Alex sighed shaking his head, but Rainstorm saw that it was the agreement. “Hmmm… I wonder if all the humans are that inconsistent at times,” the mare let out a smile, “or it’s your own… special talent!” “Actually, the majority of humans are like that. Big pain in their own… backs often,” huffed Alex; he smirked mischievously. “Don’t put your hopes up, I’m pretty common in this regard.” “Dunno, dunno…” Rainstorm slowly shook her head, then gazed at the human expectantly. “So?!” “Well…” Alex scratched his nape. “As we are at that, it would be stupid to lose time, right?” “Bear with me having a word with the dam staff, before we depart,” after her nod, Alex elaborated his idea. “Then we’ll head directly to the smithy… Well, not directly… I need to pick up Storm and Aurora from Shy first,” he couldn’t hold back a warm smile and Rainstorm caught herself on sharing it in a second. “We need to fit the prototype to you better and… well, generally take some measurements. I thought about making the lighter armour for pegasi specifically,” added he soaring. “Just a couple more minutes…” Heading towards the upper control post again, Alex left the mare at the square behind the facility gate. Rainstorm followed his receding shadow then turned her muzzle to the still warming sun, squinting and smiling to some thoughts faintly; regained tranquillity smoothed the started once appearing wrinkles of concern in the corners of her eyes. This way he caught her a few minutes later upon return. ‘A filly!’ chuckled Alex inwardly landing quietly next to her. ‘I wonder how ardent was her wish to help me eliminate these Seekers if… she even started looking younger having it granted?’ “Ahem…” he cleared his throat subtly. “Ready to go?” The dam with all its constructions and the road shrunk in the view and quickly left behind when they both soared heading to the south edge of the town, as Alex was to pick up the foals first. In practice, it meant that they were to wake up two sleepy heads most likely, wait till they bring themselves to order and have breakfast and only then head to the smithy all four. “I hope you don’t mind the delay and… a trot if I still can’t wake Storm and Aurora completely,” Alex chuckled glancing at Rainstorm, who flew to the left and a bit lower, thus giving him enough wing space yet keeping close enough to talk normally. “Not at all!” the mare watched the leafless trees running behind under their flying shadows; another faint smile lit her muzzle. “Great!” Alex coughed a bit confusedly. “Well… As I said we’ll need to make the better fitting of the helmet and think of some ways to simplify the process of putting it on and taking off for you, as I want all the ponies to be able to use it not only unicorns.” “You see, I always thought that the regular guards’ army was too slow and drill-bound to be effective in such a case of completely new and unknown, yet obviously mobile threat!” elaborated Alex, when they reached the field behind the forest line. “So are the mages, they stick to what they learned and follow the orders, even if see that it fails to work efficiently.” “A group of devoted enthusiasts may cope with the problem better, don’t you think? A squad where each member does what they can the best and can rely on others no matter what. Besides, these must be ponies devoted to their job, even more than that – inspired to do it well,” he gazed at Rainstorm whose eyes widened from some idea. “I think I know what you are talking about,” the mare looked genuinely enthusiastic. “Fast, flexible, knowing what to undertake and… passionate about succeeding. Yes. That would probably make such cases like Sunflowers’ and… and my… well, extinct.” “I would like to be a part of that,” added she under her breath. “That returns us to the question of suitable armour,” in his inspiration, Alex let the last Rainstorm’s phrase slip past his attention. “Light and durable, easy to equip and use for everypony, be they pegasi, unicorns or earth ponies. And the main thing – effective! That means – we’re starting from the smithy.” With a smile, Rainstorm watched him struck by his pet obsession evidently. “Here it is! Fluttershy’s cottage, I mean,” Alex woke, approaching the group of trees in the field; the shortening shadow of the enormous Clock Tower pointed exactly at it like the giant road-sign. The human chuckled descending. “Come on, Rainstorm. Let’s tickle some foals to awakening!” --- If 't be true you like the story (and have FimFiction account, otherwise, you can't vote), please, take a minute to support the book hither: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/370173/the-guardian "Thumbs up" are very welcome, comments either. Mine most sincere gratitude in advance! A shoutout to the caring friend, good author and simply valorous pony - @Longhaul Read his stories, please: Same story on FimFiction: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/412124/lighting-the-dark-path Support the author thither please (thumbs up) they are really good
  20. A little advice regarding Grammarly: Fix all the generic errors it highligteth and explaineth, then simply click on the Premium Errors section - they shan't be explained in detail, but each shalt be highlighted yellow in thy text. Thus using common sense and being attentive thou can easily lower their number by half at least.
  21. Alexshy

    adventure The Guardian

    20. Nightmare Knight The loud dry crash woke Fluttershy, pulling her from the deep sleep and warm comfy bed at once. Pushing away the blanket, she sat and stared in front of her for a few moments trying to understand, if the sound disturbing her was real or simply a part of her dream. Which, frankly speaking, she forgot already. The room was flooded with darkness and no light came through the curtains from outside. Fluttershy listened carefully: the rattle of rain on the windowsill and roof, plaintive cries of the wind and rare distant blasts of thunder told her that the latest forecast was correct. They said it was going to be a thunderstorm that night, but nopony warned it would be so strong. The pegasus girl checked Angel curling next to her on the blanket and hiding his nose under the paw. Seeking protection and comfort the rabbit sneaked to his master and slept, anxiously twitching his ear from time to time when sounds of thunder reached through the house walls. With a tiny smile, Fluttershy covered him with the edge of the blanket and slid to the floor; she approached the window, not lighting the lamp, and tried her best to see anything through the gap between the curtains. Nothing, except the wall of rain, a few leaves flying by behind the glass and chaotic waving of the twigs of the nearest tree, which can be seen through the night, not even lit by the Moon, which hid behind the dense, fast running clouds. Unable to disperse the darkness, frantically swaying electric light was the only tiny sparkle in the back yard. The wind raged like an unleashed beast, forcedly hitting the glass at times and adding strained creaking of the trees to the night sounds. Not finding the source of the noise waking her, Fluttershy returned to bed and tried to fall asleep again. It became a harder task, as she couldn’t help but thinking about her animal friends, living outside, for example, the hens in the coop. Realizing that they must be protected by the solid well-made shed, both from the chilling wind and the harm the raging elements can inflict, she couldn’t make herself stop worrying nevertheless. Fluttershy was to remind herself that all her little friends were safe, otherwise, she would have felt something already; finally, she managed to plunge into the restless sleep again, curling under the blanket and pulling peacefully sniffing Angel closer. The next morning was a perfect example of strange randomness of the weather in Autumn, in October specifically; when one day seemed like the heaven aqueducts split opened and all the elements in the world broke loose, while on another the weather could hardly be finer making it hard to distinguish if it was still Autumn or Spring began already. That morning was one of the latter: skies cleared up and the rising sun quickly dispelled autumn chillness, warming up the valley, the fields and sneaking between the remaining leaves into Fluttershy’s window. Fluttershy woke up when the first rays reached through the curtains, which she forgot to shut tightly last night, and warmly tickled her nose. The room miraculously changed, not provoking gloomy thoughts anymore; the girl stayed in the bed for a while, staring at the ceiling, brightly lit, so even the brown wooden beams looked completely different, lighter and homely. She tried to remember what disturbed her amidst the night. While she pondered if it was only in her dream or she actually got up, trying to see something in the back yard, Angel stretched and yawned widely, getting out of his blanket nest; he twitched his pink nose funnily and made a Victory sign with his ears, glancing at puzzled Fluttershy inquiringly. “Oh, Angel, you must be hungry, dear!” she finally paid attention to him impatiently tapping with his hind paw. “Just a moment longer…” Fluttershy jumped out of the bed, guided out of the bedroom and downstairs by the sudden idea; the rabbit blinked twice then rushed after her. To his surprise that run didn’t end in the kitchen, but rather continued out of the front door; Fluttershy stopped in the garden, under her bedroom window and tried to imagine vividly her midnight awakening. Finally, stepping accurately on the fallen leaves and avoiding the open ground, still wet and slippery, she headed deeper amidst the trees with a heavy foreboding, followed closely by Angel, who couldn’t understand why the so important breakfast became suddenly delayed. The image opening to their sight brought tears to the girl’s eyes and even the usually unflappable rabbit turned up his head, staring with flattened ears – the large maple tree, one Fluttershy loved to sit under so much, probably the oldest and largest tree in her garden, was severely hurt by the overnight storm. Thankfully the rain was so strong that the tree didn’t catch on fire, but an unfortunate lightning bolt hit the maple in the middle of its fork so hard, the long crack ran down the trunk separating it into two thinner halves almost to the ground. Fluttershy could reach the end of the crack standing on her hind legs and stretching. Angel sat and watched it silently with opened mouth, impressed beyond imaginable. Granted the trunk halves were strong enough to keep standing, but the mass of the branches from both sides made their task harder; upcoming stronger winds and snow could easily break one or even both of the parts, destroying the arboreal giant completely. Tears streamed down the yellow cheeks, Fluttershy couldn’t and wasn’t going to hold them: that tree was more than her friend, as long as she remembered herself, that old maple was there. Fluttershy loved to spend evenings under that tree, despite the sunsets were not visible from that spot, and watch the far-flung east orchard peacefully waving its crowns behind the field. They had picnics there when other girls visited her and… somehow their short dates with Alex, when he circled the town and surroundings nightly, happened in its vast shade as well. Of course, Fluttershy didn’t grow the maple from the small seed, watching it flourish and mature, but that didn’t make her feel less for the wounded tree. “Calamity! What can I do…” sinking to the ground and staring helplessly at the wide, cracked trunk Fluttershy didn’t notice herself asking that aloud, neither she noticed at once Angel lightly tapping her side with his paw. “Oh! What, Angel?” The rabbit poked with his fluffy paw somewhere behind his shoulder then he pretended to take off an imaginary hat and dusting it off by smacking on his hip, finally, he perked the ears, glancing at the girl expectantly. “A-Applejack?” Fluttershy thought that she recognized his pantomime. “Yes… She must know what to do in that case, you’re right Angel. Thank you, dear!” And, placing a small kiss on his snoot, she stormed away in a wink. Flushed and flattered Angel could only sigh and roll his eyes, watching the lush pink tail flashing between the trees; apparently, the breakfast was delayed even more than he could have expected. Promptly avoiding the cold and humid field, where the remnants of fog slowly but inevitably gave up positions to the gaining sunlight, Fluttershy rushed down the road to Ponyville. In a matter of minutes, she passed the old white barn, then cut sharply to the left, when the grassy field was replaced by the sparse strip of the forest – the west orchard buffer grove neighboured the town there. Pushing through the bushes and diving under the low branches, Fluttershy ran, paying no attention to the small twigs pulling her mane and dropping leaves on her. The tears dried out in the wind; biting her lip, the girl thought about the tree. What if they couldn’t do anything in time? She crossed a couple of streams over narrow wooden bridges and entered another road separating the apple trees from the grove; Sweet Apple Acres was already visible on the edge of the orchard, which extended as far as the eye could see. Feeling her sides aching from the mad gallop – she probably set her personal record reaching the farm in less than half an hour – Fluttershy took her breath and headed to the buildings. The sun already dried shorter grass there and the wind was bringing the warm smell of hay, making Fluttershy calm down a bit. ‘If there is anypony knowing everything about trees in Ponyville, that must be Applejack, she knows how to heal the tree wounds… anything that can be healed at least.’ Passing the windmill lazily stirring the morning air, she noticed that the doors of the large red barn were unlocked; the noise coming from inside told Fluttershy that Apples already woke, starting their workday. With loud barking Winona sprung out and started jumping around Fluttershy joyfully, recognizing their guest at once. The girl was to stop for a moment and pat the dog on her head, before approaching the barn, which seemed dark inside after the bright morning. The motes and hay blades danced in the light coming through half-open doors; the hay covered floor at the entrance was slightly wet. A bit further numerous haystacks piled up in two large stalls, going into the dark depths of the long barn. “Morning, Fluttershy!” Applejack waved her fore hoof, then grabbed the rope with her teeth, pulled forcedly and threw the bale of hay onto her back. “We left a few stacks right behind the doors yesterday,” explained she, disappearing in the shadows; with a light grunt, she put her burden into the pile. “Thank Celestia, none of ‘em got wet during the storm!” “Hey, pal, what’s happened?” appearing in the sight again Applejack finally noticed ruffled and heavily breathing Fluttershy. “Ah haven’t seen you that worried for ages.” She came closer and looked into her friend’s eyes with concern, then called for order the tail-wagging dog. “Calm down, Winona!” “That… storm…” Fluttershy took her breath. “Applejack, the large maple tree in my garden… I-I don’t know, maybe it was the wind… or maybe the lightning struck it. It’s almost broken in half!” she sniffed and looked at her friend almost pleadingly. “I thought that you might help. I mean… if anypony knows how to treat tree wounds, that must be you, Jackie…” “Oh, Ah see…” Applejack let out a tiny smile. “Of course, partner, Ah’m coming with ya, if it is so important. Give me a minute…” With a short thankful nod, Fluttershy watched Applejack carrying and throwing into the stack two remaining bales, closing the barn doors and telling Winona to stay at the farm to some displeasure of the dog. “Okay, I’m ready!” Applejack dusted off her stetson with such a familiar move, which would make Fluttershy smile under different circumstances. “You look like you ran all the way to the farm, mate…” noticed she, when they passed the gate and hit the road to the town. “Did you really?” seeing Fluttershy shrugging exclaimed Applejack. “Why didn’t you simply fly?” “I guess, it was stronger than me…” quietly said Fluttershy and flushed to the roots. “As usual in such cases.” “Hmm, it must be serious,” Applejack shook the head; Fluttershy kept silence, trotting forward intently so she made her friend even pace up a bit. “I don’t know…” finally dropped she, looking at Applejack with hope. “That’s why I called you, only you can tell. It does look serious to me.” “Well… We use tar to patch up the small wounds and cracks,” said Applejack, when they crossed the grove, leaving Ponyville on their left. “But something tells me it’s not yar case, right?” Fluttershy only sighed heavily. “You see, normally trees can heal pretty well,” explained Applejack, trying to cheer up her upset friend a bit. “The main thing is, how fast you can close the wound and pull the parts together tightly… before the crack edges dry up completely.” “That’s what I feared the most,” whispered Fluttershy when they cut the road through the grove again. “I seriously don’t know how you manage to help, as the main trunk is almost slit in halves, but I am to try at least.” “Let me see it first, then Ah can tell,” Applejack followed Fluttershy trotting between the trees in a calmer manner; bringing over friend’s support the girl seemed to relax but only a little. Applejack preferred the practical approach to the emotional one. “There are two main enemies in yar case, partner: the worst is anythin’ that can get into the crack – water, dirt, vermin, anything foreign to the tree, got it? And another is tree’s, well, its parts’ own weight – strong winds can make the damage worse.” “When you tell it that way, it makes me desperate…” Fluttershy ripped another sigh. “Just bein’ realist, sugar cube,” the sandy mare shrugged apologetically, “if the trunk is that large, yar say, it’ll be hard to impossible to cover the crack, let alone keep it that way. Hey,” suddenly she glimpsed an idea, “why don’t ya ask yar Alex as well. He looks technically savvy enough to come up with somethin’…” “Umm… Let’s start with him being not mine that much as you imply,” Fluttershy glanced at her friend with visible regret in her voice. “As much as Ah can notice, he isn’t staying in Canterlot either!” Applejack noticed meaningfully. The girls stopped and looked up when some large shadow passed above the treetops making the sunbeams on the ground flicker and thrash about; it was too big for an accidental pegasus, so the girls exited the grove a little cautiously. However, the answer was predictable. “Mornin’, Alex!” smirked Applejack, when making a small loop, ruffled and tired, Alex almost slammed next to them, sending the dust and blades of grass fly, as he folded his wings. “What ya doin’?” Fluttershy let out a tiny smile and waved her fore hoof, her thoughts were too busy with the accident. “Morning, girls!” Alex breathed heavily, visibly strained and sweating, he wiped his forehead. “What made you run back and forth so early?” “That’s unfair! We asked first,” Applejack raised one eyebrow puzzledly examining Alex from head to toe. “Okay, okay,” he paced with them on the road taking a breath, apparently, that walk was easier than anything he was up to before. “Don’t laugh only.” Applejack shrugged imperturbably as if saying that she got used to almost anything already, and Fluttershy expressed a glimpse of interest, showing Alex that he was safe to tell. “I realized that my wings were the only reliable fast way to get anywhere in Equestria,” elaborated Alex with an undefined gesture when they passed the old white barn with last humble shreds of fog hiding in its shade. “Unable to use magic, I either use them or have to stick to the trains and carriages, balloons aren’t the fastest transport as well. Besides, it’s plain stupid – not to use what is given so providently; these wings have yet undisclosed potential, so… I was training while the sun was still low. Trying to find out what they are capable of, you know.” “I guess, telling you to be careful is… well, excessive,” Fluttershy glanced at him with a faint smile. “Just be, okay? I-I mean you’ve mastered them only recently…” “I am prudence embodied,” laughed Alex. “But if you don’t try, you’ll never know. It appeared that I needed to be taken by the scruff and thrown into the situation to get over it… Acrophobia included.” “Actually, I planned to try taking the sonic barrier using them, in case I need to get somewhere really fast,” whispered he in Applejack’s ear. “Don’t tell Shy yet, she looks sad and burdened enough without extra worries. What’s up with that look of hers by the way?” “That’s exactly what we are goin’ to see, partner!” emphatically exclaimed she, noticing Fluttershy’s perked ear. “Ya need to have a look, too, Alex.” “If Ah were you, Ah’d have worried more that Dashie wouldn’t find out,” dropped Applejack from the corner of her mouth. “You stopped kicking each other on sight not long ago, Alex. Ah have no idea how she may react on such plans though…” “Well, the more reasons for me to force up my training if I may need to flee fast enough soon,” chuckled Alex. They were already approaching the turn to the clump of trees surrounding Fluttershy’s cottage in the field. Remembering girl’s anxiety, Alex scanned the landscape and the house itself but noticed nothing that looked unusual or might cause his yellow friend concern. “It’s in the garden, on the opposite side of the house,” Fluttershy read it in his attentively seeking eyes, opening the gate and letting Alex and Applejack through. Alex noticed a few relatively small branches broken by the night storm, but the rest looked normal to him: the shutters were in their places, the roof – undamaged, seeing that the house at least was safe made him take a breath. In a minute they crossed the front garden and walked around the house, then he understood the reason for Fluttershy’s distress. “Yeah…” slowly uttered Applejack lifting her head and knocking the stetson to her nape, “that’s worse than Ah thought…” The large maple tree looked quite bad even for Alex’s casual eye. According to his experience, each tree with such wounds started to ail sooner or later, naturally attracting harmful insects and diseases, rotting or withering, if only the strong winds or damp snow didn’t knock it down under its own weight, ending its suffering earlier. He didn’t need to look at Fluttershy to realize, that wasn’t the kind of answer she was looking for. “Well,” meanwhile, Applejack made a funny face, pondering and scratching her nape, “even that one can be helped… in theory, as Twilight could say. But only if,” she glanced at her friends meaningfully, “we manage to bring and fix both parts of the trunk together. Ah’d say today or next morning in the worst case… The best time would have been a couple of hours ago, to be honest,” she shrugged as if apologizing for the inevitable trouble. “And Ah mean squeezin’ both parts together really tight under “fixing”!” added Applejack. “Mah guess it’ll take lots of effort to do, the more to keep it staying that way – the tree is too old and large.” ‘Obviously, if ya don’t consider dropping that darn hard to carry out idea,’ read in her doubting eyes but the mare kept it to herself. “Listen, Jackie,” Alex walked around the tree examining the detriment. “I’m not a gardener, but methinks this case calls for technical approach. I mean the whole “bring and hold together” aspect. The live tree can’t be soldered… alas,” added he, running his fingers on the bark compassionately. “We use tar to patch up the tree wounds,” nodded Applejack, “but this one is too large…” Alex was to admit as well that the chances of success were illusive. Fluttershy alternated between friends with so much hope written in her eyes, that he gave up finally. Cupping Fluttershy’s woeful muzzle in his hands, Alex wiped her welling tears. “I’ll ask Willsmash, maybe he could come up with some idea how to hold that thing as a whole,” he shook his head, embracing the pegasus girl softly and planting a kiss on her nose. “See you in the evening,” he turned to contentedly watching them Applejack, “if we invent something; we’ll need Mac’s help… or even more folks to lend a hoof.” Next morning Fluttershy woke up to the voices and various mechanical noises under her window. The wall clock told her that it was very early and the girl yawned and stretched in her bed for a short while. Apparently, the concerns stressed her to the point Fluttershy dropped senseless into the sleep on the eve. Concerns! She remembered at once what was bothering her the whole day before and sat on the bed momentarily, throwing back the thin blanket. Making sure that her flurry didn’t wake Angel, Fluttershy rushed to the window and flung opened it: her garden was full of ponies and mechanisms at that early hour, making the girl cease her yawn at once at risk of dislocating the jaw. The grass around the ill-fated maple tree was quite trampled down already by the numerous hooves, but Fluttershy admitted that she could easily forgive that, if only the tree got all the necessary aid; besides, the grass could easily manage itself after an occasional accident, while the tree didn’t. Completely awoke, Fluttershy saw the old blacksmith and Alex drawing the rope through some wooden blocks, which formed a complex construction around the injured maple. A couple more stallions, whom she could probably see in the market, were stretching nearby – apparently, Alex had enlisted some support, not relying completely on their with Willsmash limited forces. Four large thick poles were planted deeply into the ground in two pairs on both sides of the tree and a mammoth-size, by the pony standards, sledgehammer rested next to one of them. Fluttershy remembered the booming sound reaching her ears through the deep sleep and most likely waking her initially. The named wooden blocks were attached to the metal-bound poles and some of them to each other, within the pattern and purpose Fluttershy was only going to understand. The girl fancied metal noise and Applejack entered her view with a large bucket, clattering its handle; she placed the bucket to the row of the similar ones, each filled with something dark brown as Fluttershy could notice. “Hey, good morning, sugar cube!” Applejack spotted her friend awoke and waved her fore leg greetingly. “Ah’m sorry for bringin’ ya some noise and mess today.” “Eeyup!” sounded a bit muffledly. Appearing from the bushes behind, Big Mac carried another bucket in his mouth and a couple more on the back. “This should be enough,” he placed his burden near the rest and smiled at Fluttershy. “Mornin’!” Muttering some hurried greeting, the pegasus girl rushed to the bathroom to splash a few hooffuls of cold water onto her muzzle and completely drive the Sandpony away. In a minute more she stood in the garden with Applejack and her brother, gazing amazedly at the whole bunch of blocks and the web of ropes surrounding the tree. “Like that, partner?” smirked Applejack chewing a straw. “The tree is huge and that’s all the help we have managed getting’ that early,” she nodded towards the stallions. “Seems, mister Steel foresaw that and suggested a system of blocks to aid our force from the very beginning. And the whole way of holdin’ the darn trunk together is also his idea. Well, those two will explain better… Ah underestimated the old fogey, even after all they with yar Alex did,” Applejack shook her head, pretending to not notice Fluttershy’s weak protest against the “yar Alex” term. As if in the answer to her words, the old unicorn finally noticed the proprietress’ arrival and head to their small group with a greeting smile. “I apologize for that early noise and all the stuff we brought with us,” he poked at the mechanism. “Oh, no worries, truly. Everything is okay!” Fluttershy started persuading him ardently that she had no objections as long as her tree had a chance to be healed. “Anyway, that’s me who called for help!” “Then, let me explain what we are going to do,” Willsmash smiled softly. “Mmm, to be sure it’s okay for you.” “As you can see, we plan to use a system of blocks to amplify our efforts and bring the trunk parts together. We wrapped the clamps with some cloth to minimize the possible damage to the bark,” Willsmash meant two large wooden things attached to the tree halves from opposite sides, the ropes started at them before coming through the multitude of blocks. “Thus we pull into one direction and the parts are supposed to… squeeze together.” “But how would it hold that way?” the concern gave way to the genuine interest in Fluttershy’s eyes. “Well, that’s the most interesting part,” winked the blacksmith. “A happy idea came into my mind that we had enough new metal of Alex’s making to use it freely, where it looked the most suitable. So, we made a few very durable and separable hoops to rivet around the trunk and make it hold.” “Don’t worry miss,” added the unicorn seeing the question in girls’ eyes. “The hoops are right of the size and we wrapped them as well to play as safe as we could…” “Morning, Shy!” completing the final checks, Alex joined them. He let out a small smile at the girl’s glowing glance and elaborated. “The thing is, that metal is completely inert, it won’t harm the tree anyway. We had two methods in mind: the first is letting the tree to grow around the hoops. It will do it at ease and, as I said, no harm would be done to the maple itself,” added he under the doubtful expression of his marefriend. “But, naturally, the metal hoops will stay inside of the trunk that way…” “And the second?” quickly asked Fluttershy making both Alex and Willsmash smile instantly. “Well, we consider leaving enough space between the hoops, to make and place new ones, of the slightly bigger size, each year, taking off the old,” Alex shrugged, inwardly smiling to his assumption about Fluttershy’s reaction turning out correct. “Obviously, these poles will need to stay here in that case,” he pointed over his shoulder. “I like the second method better!” categorically stated the yellow pegasus girl, making everypony break into an understanding smile. “Then we’re going to start! If everypony is ready?” after the approval nod from Alex, Willsmash waved to somepony else. “Silver, filly, will you give me a hoof?” Unnoticed by Fluttershy before, another member of the rescue team – the tall unicorn filly approached them, greeting her timidly. “Yes, uncle Will, when you need.” The thick ropes creaked in the ensuing silence broken only by the rustle of the leaves and strained breathing; being pulled through the old blocks, they were giving up slow and hardly. Ponies’ hooves ploughed the ground when Applejack, Big Mac and a couple of stallions joined Alex in their joint attempt to bring the trunk halves together. Naturally, unable to use a common harness, Alex was to make a large loop on his part of the rope and put it on one shoulder, across his chest adding a leather stripe underneath. All five strained their muscles at maximum and Fluttershy could see that a few months of work at the smithy left the noticeable trace; she could guess, who used that huge sledgehammer she spotted before. Little by little, with the barely audible creaking, the parts of the large tree started returning to their initial position; it became a bit easier to pull, as they got the halves moving. The blocks began to rotate and a few containing the ratchet locks started clicking slowly, fixing the progress of the rescuers and not letting the ropes pull back. “Could you please take a closer look if we pull the right direction, miss?” watching the blocks and correcting their position with his magic, Willsmash addressed Fluttershy. “As the only one here capable to fly and not pulling…” added he with a smile. “Oh, of course!” the girl jerked one ear funnily and soared, making a few loops around the wounded tree and examining the crack closely. “I think you doing it right,” she returned to them after a minute. “Not that we expected to combine the part ideally, right as they were,” noticed the unicorn, “but the closer the better!” “Okay, enough with resting, let’s try once again,” exhaled Alex, his muscles strained resembling some twisted cables, as he forcedly pulled his loop. He and Mac took the very end of the rope providing the main thrust, but the closer the trunk part came to each other, the harder it was to move them some more. Fighting with some structural changes which happened with the trunk, they did their best: McIntosh and Alex pulled bringing the tree parts closer, then Applejack and the stallions held their progress in addition to the blocks, letting the guys move a bit further before jerking the rope forcedly again. “Urrghhh!” Applejack clenched the teeth, her and stallions’ giant effort made the ratchets produce several clicks more letting Big Mac and Alex gain a few more steps. The tree parts were very close to each other, but the hooves started sliding on the damp grass and ground already. Alex had it the worst – his boots slid on the grass the most, telling him that their soles’ resource wasn’t endless and the problem of sooner replacement approached as never before. “H-hold it, Jackie!” breathed he out, hearing another click of the ratchet. “It seems we won’t go any further that way.” Accurately releasing the loop, Alex checked the trunk; the crack almost closed at the lower third and it was about a palm-thick gap at the top. However, looking at two deep ruts he managed to scratch into the soil, completely tearing away the grass, Alex was to admit, he could hardly be of any help that way. “Let’s try differently…” sitting on the grass, he started unlacing the shoes; the quick glance on the soles told him they were almost smooth, no wonder the boots slid under the load that heavy. “Okay, the final dash!” Alex returned to his improvised horse-collar. The next few minutes of forceful pulling and huffing showed that their task was going to be much harder than everypony planned. Granted that Alex’s bare feet slipped less, they pressed into the soil, but at least gave him stable support. The ponies plunged their hooves hard into the ground to gain and keep every inch. But when the ratchets fixed their progress and Alex and Big Mac almost sank down breathing heavily, there still was a tiny but noticeable gap between the trunk parts. “Ah thought mah biceps would pop…” uttered Applejack dropping on the grass next to Alex and leaning on his shoulder. “Isn’t lookin’ that we gonna pull the darn thing any tighter!” “Eeyup!” her brother wiped the glistening forehead throwing an evaluating glance at the maple tree. Both stallions breathed heavily and showed with all their look complete agreement. On that note, everypony present looked slightly depressed and the hope, which had once lit in Fluttershy’s eyes, faded. “Maybe we can clamp it that way?” the blacksmith wasn’t going to give up though. “We could probably still pull the hoops’ ends together and lock them…” “The lower ones will definitely fit,” noticed Silver Ingot, she walked around the tree, checking the crack. “No-no, this won’t cut it!” Applejack smirked sadly. “We need to close the gap completely and seal with tar for it to heal with time, otherwise…” she shrugged meaningfully. “I feel that we lack just a bit more impulse,” frowned Alex. “The gap is thinner than a dime already!” First, he wanted to try using wings to the aid, but quickly reconsidered that idea: right above the ground Alex’s huge wings would be useless for that task, likely sending dirt flying or hurting somepony instead of the help. The flapping above sounded almost like a long-anticipated sign. “Hey, folks! Whatcha all doing here?!” the familiar cocky voice reached their ears; throwing their heads up, the rescuers could observe the cyan ruffled mare hovering over the tree. “And what’s with all those ropes and stuff?” Rainbow Dash circled the whole scene twice, then quickly landed. “Some technical mumbo-jumbo! I could guess…” she squinted at the human. “Hey, Alex…” suddenly she noticed the depressed and miserable look on Fluttershy’s face, rushing to her friend in a wink and giving her a wing hug. “What’s going on?” Rainbow alternated between those present, then turned to Fluttershy again. “And why such sour faces, y’all?” Alex sighed only; truth be told, that was exactly the chance and free hoof they needed, but he was unsure yet if it was okay to ask her and about Rainbow’s reaction on him doing that. Meanwhile, Fluttershy shortly explained to her friend everything. “And that’s all!” snorted Rainbow Dash finally. “Know what, you should call me right from the start, pal!” she patted Fluttershy on the shoulder lightly, then soared hovering low over the grass. “Now, back to work everypony. Let’s do it!” the mare sported a cheerful grin. However, when they took their clamps and handles again, it turned out that there was nothing to grab on the rough and dirty rope for her. Rainbow gaze at the rope with doubt, visibly denying the idea of picking it with her teeth. “Fine!” the cyan ruffian wasn’t somepony easy to discourage. “You pull and I’ll push… somepony, to help!” Dash took a quick look over the company. “You!” she pointed at Alex unambiguously. “Your back is wide enough to place my hooves on it firmly. I’ll show you how to push!” “Just don’t push with flying…” Alex muttered feigningly grumpy, estimating the bruises small girl’s hooves could leave. “Spoilsport!” grinned Dash. “That was an awesome idea…” Once again, Alex felt how seemingly every muscle in his body strained when the rope stretched, looking aside her saw that everypony else was pushing their limits; next moment he felt Rainbow’s fore hooves between his shoulder blades. The pegasus mare started flapping her wings with insane speed causing the noticeable wind. Suddenly, Alex felt easier to pull, a power reserve appeared; pulling hard, he made a step, then another one hearing how the blocks started turning again. A click! One more! With a quiet crunch, the trunk halves finally touched; the ponies and human pulled a little more, for another click of the ratchets. “Quickly! The hoops!” exclaimed the blacksmith. “Already here, uncle Will!” Silver Ingot fixed with cotter pins of the same metal each hoop the old unicorn placed on the trunk. In five minutes the work was done, a number of wide shiny metal rings embraced the maple on about the foot distance one from another. Fluttershy whisked to the cottage returning in a moment with the jar of water and glasses and offering them to the exhausted company, who dropped on the grass nearby. “Well… The Moment of Truth!” smirked Willsmash when he and Alex started releasing the ratchets one by one, very slowly and accurately. The ropes gave slack and finally fell, but the tree stood as if nothing happened not giving out a creak. “Woohoo!” Rainbow Dash jumped and threw her fore hooves in the air. “Yay!” Fluttershy sighed quietly but wholeheartedly. “One more thing, girls!” the old blacksmith interrupted their elation. “Would you be so kind to patch the whole crack with that tar?” he pointed towards the row of buckets. “Of course, we’ll help you with lifting.” Silver Ingot nodded in agreement. “So, what are the chances?” sitting on the ground and watching Fluttershy and Rainbow flittering around the fixed tree, Alex hugged Applejack and Big Mac around their shoulders. “What would you say, Jackie?” “Ah’d say quite high!” Applejack habitually pushed her stetson to the nape examining the huge tree crown. “If nothin’ got into the crack…” “Eeyup!” confirmed the stallion, a smile from well-done job shone on his usually unflappable muzzle. “Yeah… If only the “anti-Seekers” helmet could be constructed that simply…” muttered Alex. “Never mind!” He waved casually under the puzzled glance of the Apple siblings. “Just my inner technical… or maybe even creative troubles!” Soon the last inch of the crack was properly sealed with tar and tired but satisfied girls returned the sticky buckets to the ground. Alex, Will and Silver Ingot were reeling the ropes and gathering the blocks into the cart they brought them on. High into the sky, the sun shone almost like in Summer, making Alex reconsider putting on his shirt, as he didn’t want to stain it. “Thank you so much, friends!” bringing her fore hooves together, Fluttershy hovered like a balloon filled with joy, she squinted and a happy smile curled her lips. “Jackie, Mac, mister Steel, Silver Ingot and Dashie, of course! Everypony! I have no words to tell how grateful I am for all, what you’ve done! Squee!” “Yeah, uncle Will, Sil, thanks for saving the day!” throwing the sledgehammer into the cart with some effort, Alex sported a wide smile. “Frankly speaking, yesterday I had no idea how to help, so… If not you, then…” he spread his arms. The next moment Alex was to catch and hold the yellow projectile jumping on him and cuddling. “Thank you, so much, my love!” whispered Fluttershy in his ear, nuzzling Alex’s hair and snuggling to him, completely ignoring the fact that seven ponies were watching, including two barely familiar stallions. “If you didn’t tell, I wouldn’t have probably asked anypony but Applejack about that tree…” “Well, well, don’t exaggerate, Shy,” Alex stroked the pink mane; wanting to put the girl back on the ground, he felt something strange happening – Fluttershy couldn’t release him that easily. The pegasus girl pulled her legs, twitched, then squeaked surprisedly and bashfully – her small hooves, most likely drabbled in the tar, stuck to Alex’s heated skin firmly. Fluttershy flushed to the roots of her lush mane, hiding her face on human’s chest. “Heh, you both need to wash that tar away now!” smirked Rainbow Dash slyly, she inwardly praised herself for abstaining patting Alex on the back with some comment, as her own hooves would no doubt do the same. At the very thought girl’s nose turned pinkish and pupils narrowed from that mental image. “Ehhh…” Alex grunted, unsure if to laugh over the situation or flush like his marefriend. “Well… We must go,” passionlessly noticed Willsmash, his eyes laughed though; the blacksmith nudged lightly his niece, who turned pinkish as well. “Come on, girl, we have lots of work at the smithy.” Partially that was the case indeed, at the same time the old unicorn noticed how Silver Ingot stared at Alex and Fluttershy, despite the embarrassment. “Yeah… And… I’ll bring the instruments later, uncle Will,” muttered Alex. “It’s okay, son!” the blacksmith winked. “Your friends already offered their help,” he nodded towards the stallions, who harnessed themselves to the cart already. “Don’t worry about that, you have your own “problem” to address!” Rainbow and Silver Ingot giggled, blushing desperately, and even Applejack coughed hiding her smile. * From the bird’s-eye view Everfree looked like a green fuzzy constantly swaying carpet; amazingly, but the deeper into the forest, the less the presence of Autumn felt. There, farther from the fringe, yellow and red colours were still rare guests, most of the crowns being freshly green. Maybe because it was warmer deeper in the woods and the inhabitants didn’t feel Autumn approach that sharply, or maybe because it was Everfree – living on its own, often very strange laws. The floral ocean spread everywhere, as broad as one’s eye could see, reaching the horizon and beyond on the south, no matter how high one tried to fly. Comparing to the entire forest size, the Old Castle was on the edge of it, but that “edge” was still over the mountain, the swamp, a few rivers and a canyon. However, what once took Alex the whole day on foot, was a matter of a few hours for a flyer. Alex didn’t consider himself a skilled one, let alone the best – he had one hell of a road to progress yet – but he was most confident about reaching the Castle in about three hours maximum. The same time the flight to Canterlot took at his current speed; trying to take the sonic barrier over the unknown area wouldn’t be the smartest idea. With a few powerful flaps the human raised higher, where no shadow could obstruct the warm sunlight heating the black feathers despite the oncoming cool air. Sincerely unable to imagine himself doing that only recently, Alex finally started finding pleasure in flying, as soon as he entirely felt the wings as an integral part. However, he still preferred to look forward than right down below. Thankful for the clear weather, otherwise he couldn’t either see the forest because of the clouds or warm himself, Alex looked for the familiar landmarks he remembered from his first ever journey in Equestria. The first landmark Alex spotted was something new he didn’t pass by on his arrival; the large glade in the woods was a bit aside from his path back then. Some dark monument towered in the centre of the grassy opening; he fancied a winged pony figure on the large rectangle block, but Alex didn’t have time for the sightseeing, simply noting the place mentally for the further occasion. He could say that he knew the nearest edge of Everfree on few miles deep decently enough, but didn’t remember coming across something alike yet. The first actually familiar landmark was the huge mountain, Alex once was to cross over on the narrow shelf belting it. At the view of the closer mountainside with its numerous terraces forming the giant natural stairs, overgrown with the shrubs and crooked undersized trees, Alex couldn’t hold back a smile. That was the place where his actual equestrian adventures started, changing his life the way it became. ‘I don’t want to imagine, what could have happened if I hadn’t come to the right place and time!’ Alex was to admit almost feeling the touch of the soft yellow feathers on his skin again. Last time, after patching up the cracked maple tree, they were to wash off that sticky tar indeed, ending together with Fluttershy in the shower and… Occupied by these thoughts, Alex even lost height a little; catching himself on that in time, he soared higher not to crash into the mountain and laughing inwardly at himself. The rocky mass slid underneath him in a matter of minutes and nothing blocked the tremendous view from his eyes anymore. Far-far away at the south Alex could discern the canyon, looking like a thin dark thread from that distance, and a tiny dull spark deeper in the woods – those were the survived roofs of the ancient castle, he headed to. So, Alex had a beeline to his destination; he sped up, planning to reach the castle till noon if the weather conditions kept being benevolent. ‘Alas, I had no chance to undertake a trial sortie,’ Alex was musingly gliding above the far mountainside which was the giant clay slide ending in the overgrown swamp. ‘Back then I had the only aim to get outside of the ruins and reach some civilization. Thus I have no idea how the Old Castle territory looks.’ ‘There wasn’t any garden in front of the entrance as far as I can remember,’ noticed Alex to himself, “so it must be on the other side, which I haven’t seen at all. Granted, there must be at least one pond as she said… But what if there are many? Ugh!” Realizing that he knew very approximately what to look for, Alex inwardly praised the idea to hit the sky early in the morning. Nopony knew how long would he search and he still had a busy day laying ahead, most of which he was to spend on the wing. About three hours of flight between Ponyville and the Old Castle and the same amount between the town and his final aim gave him a few hours to search, almost no time to rest, and even considering all that, Alex would have returned home after the midnight most likely. Hard enough, but on the other hand that promised one hell of the training, Alex was preparing for quite a while for. The changing landscape was flying past underneath, during the last couple of hours Alex had time to estimate the necessary speeds if he wanted to reach faster the castle, Canterlot, the eastern coast of Equestria, for example (he had the approximate map in his memory at that time). It turned out that he had to triple the speed of sound at least to be able to reach distant regions in reasonable time, especially if that involved reacting on Seekers’ attacks. That called for the certain effort and was a matter of perspective yet. Then Alex tried to imagine how migratory birds could sleep during their flight and still keep the height and course. The latter was the most difficult thing to lay into his mind, as Alex himself occasionally checked the direction to the constantly growing in size thread of the canyon and the noticeable spot of the castle behind. He almost started yawning, cheered up by the amusing occasion. Flying by, Alex frightened away a large flock of crane-like birds, gathering before their seasonal journey south-wise and digging out something at the shallows of one of the forest rivers. The large white-grey birds started gazing into the skies cautiously when his shadow slid across the bank, then the whole flock took wing flying slowly further down the stream, where the thick tree crowns almost covered the whole river width. ‘These… cranes must have seen only accidental pegasi here in the wild,’ smirked Alex inwardly. ‘Which makes me probably the largest threat in the sky…’ ‘…after the dragons,’ remembered he, taking a look around just in case. Soon enough, the landscape occupied by the large thick trees started narrowing and shifted to the right, giving way to the more rocky ground, which raised steadily towards his goal. The last rows of trees turned up squeezed in the narrow valley and Alex saw the old barely visible road emerging from under the crowns and going down to the narrow part of the canyon. The latter suddenly appeared from behind the high cliffs the landscape under him turned into. Aiming straight at the stone mass of the Old Castle, Alex threw a look at the broken bridge far below to his right and involuntarily swallowed a lump at the memory of his horrible rencontre. Only the ropes fastened together by a few planks remained above the abyss filled with the swirling non-ceasing fog hiding there from the warm sunlight. Damply glistening, the cliffs looked as unfriendly as half a year before, with occasionally falling small stones blown off the walls by the wind squeezed between them; roots and crooked bushes protruded from the stony surface here and there as if peeking into the darkening depth with the distant river roaring below. After the narrow bare stripe of ground on the opposite side of the canyon, the road dived under the foliage again occasionally revealing itself and hiding under the tree crowns – about a mile of last straight part of it to the castle entrance. ‘I wonder if there still are no large predators here, especially after the manticore left this area…’ Alex didn’t take any weapon with him, fairly supposing it would interfere with his plans for that day and relying on his speed and armour mostly, mentally praising Luna’s idea with the helmet once again. Coming into its rights, Autumn could be the reason for the surrounding silence, rarely broken by the birds, but Alex flew lower, preferring to keep an eye and listen just in case. Emerging from behind the last trees, the Old Castle appeared in his sight in its entire time-injured glory: the walls towered, looking blindly with their dark window holes and embrasures, partially collapsed towers still guarded the area and the wide stairs, withstanding the stone-shattering time, was running to the large double doors, one leaf of which lied on the stone floor, torn from the hinges. Having limited time for his quest, Alex reconsidered the idea to enter them and have another look at the throne hall where he spent his first ever night in Equestria. Instead of that, he soared higher raising above the chipped walls and galleries, flying over the inner yard and heading to the large park area, which he could already spot from there. The garden occupied many acres of land behind the castle; in some places between the overgrown trees, the ancient crumbling wall protruded, naturally unnoticed by him during his first visit. The paths and alleys were barely guessed among the verdure, run wild aeons ago; Alex fancied several garden sculptures in a few moss-covered stone moulds and once carefully trimmed but growing completely unruly since then trees. ‘Yeah, discerning anything in that mess would be one hell of a task… If there is anything to discern,’ sighed Alex. It took him a few rounds of flying low above the trees to find what he was looking for. Some glades looked like they could once be the garden ponds, but the time was merciless to them; shoaling and swamping during the last thousand years of oblivion, they slowly gone covered with grass and became solid ground or even worse, miry spots on the once glorious face of the garden. Finally, the glow of light on the water surface attracted human’s attention and Alex rushed to the farther, most overgrown part of the castle garden. This water body survived by some miracle, likely because it was erstwhile the whole lake, wide and deep; even a few centuries were not enough to wipe it from the face of Equus. Alex accurately landed on the edge of the large glade being slowly conquered by the trees and bushes, guessing that the lake must have been taking the place entirely when the castle was new. At present, the actual lake took barely one-third of its former bounds: water still shimmered behind the stripe of lakeside vegetation. Coming closer to water, Alex noticed that the lake surface was covered here and there with the familiar large leathery leaves, swaying on the light ripples caused by the breeze. Near the centre of the lake where it kept considerable depth, the leaves were almost twice the size of the rest, each easily as large as human’s torso. ‘They are that huge indeed! Fascinating!’ Alex caught himself staring at those green “rafts” in awe, he knew about some tropical flowers having such leaves, but never actually saw one before. For his luck, the leaves stood till the first cold, that seriously simplified Alex’s task; however, he was to admit that with the flowers it would be much easier. Pondering how cold the water could be in this small lake, Alex quickly took off his clothes leaving them on the grassy shore accurately folded and jumped into the water. Thankfully it appeared to be warmer than he expected, easily explained by the stillness, any running water would be chilling this time of the year. That turned out an underestimated first convenience, as the actual task took him more time and effort than Alex calculated preparing for his trip. Inwardly praising himself for finding in Twilight’s library the book on rare equestrian plants and studying thoroughly the corresponding section, Alex dived into the lake time after time, determined to pick up his prize no matter what. It took him more than two hours, despite he finally started following the stems coming down from the large leaves, as the water appeared to be considerably muddy near the bottom. Needless to say, it was getting worse after each unlucky attempt; this and the mere limit of air in his lungs, made him perform a seemingly endless number of dives, resting on the surface shortly. It was approaching noon when Alex, tired and chilled, finally emerged from the stirred up waters and swam to the shore; exiting the lake he was ready to flop, but first he took and stretched the providently taken cloth-bag. Taking out a sheet of fabric, Alex soaked it with water and wrapped something resembling three oblong lumps of solid mud into the cloth. Hiding his trophy back into the bag, he placed the whole thing into the shade of a small shrub and sprawled on the sunlit grass spreading his wings. The sun poured its gentle warmth over the human watching small clouds floating across the sky, the light breeze waved the grass and leaves making them whisper lullingly and bringing the faint smell of the overgrown lake. If he wasn’t to head back shortly, Alex would gladly fall asleep under that natural lullaby and rested for a while, but this part was barely half of his plans. Besides, resting in an unknown place having only a thin metal band on his head of all the clothes wasn’t the smartest idea. This being said, there Alex made another discovery – despite his numerous dives into the cool lake, the circlet remained warm on his head. In about an hour, when the sun warmed and dried him, Alex cleaned the remaining algae from his skin and got dressed. He nicely soaked the bag again, preparing for the return. The large wings spread sending the grass and leaves into the air, Alex threw one last glance at the water surface below. ‘Maybe I return here someday… This lake deserves the second chance!’ Flying above the garden and Old Castle grounds, Alex was going to head back home, when something stopped him, making land in front of the entrance. He couldn’t deny himself of taking another look at the giant throne hall, the place where, he was to admit that, his conscious equestrian life started. Getting up the wide stone stairs, Alex entered the broken doors, finding himself again in the high arched hall with long lancet windows and tiled floor. He didn’t run or rush this time, approaching the stepped elevation slowly, watching the dust specs dancing in the inclined sun rays coming through the windows. Two thrones were on their place, naturally. Alex went up the steps and stroked the armrest of the left one lightly, his contemplative glance stopped on the wall behind the thrones. The left holder was empty, as the night-blue royal tapestry adorned the wall of his room in the Golden Oak Library, folded twice, as it covered the floor otherwise. The right holder still supported the golden-white Day Crown tapestry. Following the sudden impulse, Alex soared with a smile; approaching the holder, he accurately detached it from the wall and brought the cloth stripe down. ‘Why not?’ he thought, carefully folding the tapestry tightly. ‘This one may return to its owner as well…’ A sudden feel made him wince and almost drop the tapestry; clenching his teeth, the human looked back at the castle doors. That feel was impossible to confuse with something – the proximity of the appearing Seeker made Alex gloom and sent goosebumps up his back. However, he finished folding the white tapestry without any rush, taking it under his arm. ‘Here nothing can hold me from taking the bastard out when and how I want!’ Alex crossed half of the throne hall at accelerating pace when the unambiguous feeling vanished as abruptly as it came. ‘Hmm… That’s really strange! And suspicious…’ Alex reconsidered and ran to the doors. ‘What’s going on hither?!’ He almost jumped out of the double doors, rushing down the stairs and mentally ordering to bring on the armour. The human figure lit with silvery glow and, clanking with his metal apparel, Alex stopped amidst the open space in the castle front throwing a piercing gaze around. At first nothing happened at all, but Alex wasn’t going to be easily persuaded: never before he came across a Seeker who “arrived” and completely vanished a few seconds later. Alex was one hundred per cent sure that he would have felt the monster if it was there still. ‘The silence is deafening!’ Remembering it then, Alex never noticed the animals reacting the Seekers’ presence anyhow. In the schoolyard and nearby and in Apples’ orchard – everywhere he heard the birds and insects, even when the Seekers appeared the next moment. The complete absence of birds’ voices signalled about some large predator presence rather than his usual enemy. Alex thought that leaving the glaive at home might be a bad idea. The familiar roar, sounding from the dense foliage on the opposite edge of the large natural square in front of the castle entrance, solved the question at once making Alex frown and clench his fists protected by the metal spiked gloves. ‘Damn! Like if I was missing your presence here!..’ With huffing and muffled sneezing of a large beast, the bushes across parted, revealing Alex’s old “acquaintance” – manticore! The human had no doubt it was the same one “greeting” him when Alex had just arrived: the large lion-like monster limped noticeably and its left paw and side of the muzzle were decorated with a few relatively fresh scars. The manticore leaned closer to the ground and let out another earsplitting sneeze, rubbing its muzzle with the paw and shaking its large head. Alex noticed that the beast looked grizzled, but taking a better look he was to admit, the reason of it wasn’t the age; monster’s head, shoulders and fore paws looked powdered, covered in some dark-greyish dust. It looked as if the manticore huffed into the almost burned-out fireplace, but at the same time wasn’t funny at all. Meanwhile, the master of the forest sniffed the air noisily and stopped; the slit-like pupils narrowed and the yellow eyes flashed – the manticore spotted the intruder. Making a few more steps towards Alex, the beast scratched the ground with his claws unambiguously and let out a roar, making a few birds escape the nearest tree in a hurry. Then the deafening silence fell for a few long seconds allowing to clearly hear the rustling of the leaves in the faint wind. It wasn’t clear if the animal recognized its former enemy, which in addition caused it to fail so painfully and ignominiously once. Alex was unsure if the manticores possessed of complex intellect, in that case the monster would have probably attacked him already. The prey looked no doubt differently for the manticore: ironclad and visibly… barbed, it looked larger, darker and definitely more formidable. Watching the puzzled and hesitant manticore, Alex remembered how the wild birds ruffled on purpose, trying to look larger and more threatening to turn the conflicts to their advantage. Now he could use that method easily. With a loud flap the huge wings unfurled throwing a broad shadow, the dark feathers dimly gleamed in the sunlight slightly ruffled by the wind on the margins. Without the second thought, Alex struck his steel gloves together, clanking the spikes and causing a few sparks to fall on the ground. That turned out to be a proper move: he caught out of the corner of his eye the barely noticeable retreating impulse of the beast. The evil yellow eyes scanned the human from head to toe or, better say, from the top of the wings to the steel spiky boots; the monster growled dully, to rather keep face than actually threatening. Regardless to its intellect level, it registered at once that prey had visibly thick skin, sharp claws and vast wings. The manticore, whose ancestors’ rudimental wings became rather a decoration long ago, realized that it had nothing to oppose the powerful aerial attack. Besides, Alex kept looking directly into the beast’s eyes, confident to show that sign of threat and challenge common for the animals. Still growling like a diesel engine running on idle, the monster preferred to recede slowly; deliberately demonstrating its spite and keeping the eyes on the human, the manticore backed away to the forest not to show its back shamefully. With an ironic snort, Alex pulled up his bag and soared; removing the armour in the air, he made a wide loop over the castle, followed by the grumpy growling from under the trees. ‘Interesting, what was that powder-thing covering its muzzle?’ Alex returned to his thoughts, taking the return course. The sudden guess was thunder-like. ‘The Seeker! I felt one before exiting the Old Castle… Then it suddenly vanished.’ ‘The manticore must have killed it! That is why the beast growled – the “prey” dematerialized as soon as it received crucial wounds, as they always do when defeated,’ Alex chuckled thinking about his sudden discovery, unsure if it was of the useful kind though. ‘So, the Seekers can affect only ponies with their powers?! The most sentient beings supposedly inhabiting these lands… That definitely adds to the whole image of those attacks as being purposely planned. But not flawlessly as we can see!’ Knowing the Seekers, Alex was sure, that one was taken by surprise by the manticore, otherwise the battle could last much longer; he noticed the tendency of them appearing larger and larger, both in mass and quantity. At least the good news was that the black abominations were vulnerable for the attacks of the natural large predators; it allowed to assume that the forests could confront that threat on their own to the certain extent. With those inspiring thoughts, Alex headed back north: the most outrageous part of his plan still awaited. Twilight was covering the land, but the night was still young; rather the late evening when the colours turned dull, yet everything becoming so clear and perfectly visible in the soft slowly fading light. Princess Celestia lingered on the balcony of her room, enjoying the tranquillity and freshness. She lowered the Sun moments before and was watching the show of interchanging colours at the western edge of the sky. ‘…these two must be planning something for the upcoming holiday,’ the princess inhaled the cool air descending from the snowy mountain top, with autumn slowly gaining it felt stronger and stronger each evening, despite them being quite warm yet. Continuing her thought, she watched the shadows slowly flooding the castle garden below, becoming almost solid in its distant corners. ‘It’s less than a month but I can clearly tell when they see each other – Lulu is shining the next morning and smiles slyly,’ Celestia sighed. ‘I hope they don’t throw out something overly eccentric.’ “Woe me, She brought you here for my burdens…” muttered she under the breath. “Now I don’t know what to expect the next day!” As if correlating with princess’ thoughts, something started happening in the castle garden. Squinting, Celestia watched the torch lights crossing the condensing shadows far below, she fancied the shouts of the guards and hasty commands. ‘What again?!’ inwardly groaned Celestia jumping over the balcony railing and gliding on the spread wings. She landed closer to the castle wall and leisurely headed towards the source of ado. The rare birds fell silent, scared by the scurrying guards and only the omnipresent cicadas screeched in the thickening darkness occasionally pierced by the torches. “Did they bother thee likewise, sunny?” the cheerful silvery voice made Celestia wince from surprise – the shadows under the alley trees parted, revealing the dark blue winged silhouette, whose large eyes flashed reflecting the fires. “I must confess, they puzzled me. I was going to attend mine nightly duties, Tia, at which hour all that fuss started to befall. Let’s go and find out, sister!” “I was going to suggest the same…” two alicorns headed along the alley to the largest congestion of the guards. “Do you have any idea, what that might be?” the Day Princess glanced at her sister. “Non the slightest,” the Night embodied trotted forward determinedly, watching the ponies with amusement; sparks danced in Luna’s eyes and her mane and tail seemed to continue endlessly into the stars filled sky. “Methinks somepony sneaked into the garden… again,” added she with a tiny laughter. “Your Highness!” the guard shift commander emerged like magic when the princesses entered the small round square between the flowerbeds and trimmed shrubs; he bowed to Celestia and Luna, reporting. “We noticed some movement in the park! I sent the guys to check, but they couldn’t catch anypony. But a few saw the intruder definitely, it moved quickly and smoothly, like a shadow.” “No, it’s not a Seeker, Your Highness!” added the stallion under the grumpy glance of Celestia. “But something comparably large.” Princess Celestia threw a meaningful gaze at her sister: the Seekers were something everypony present could easily feel, the rest of the options for some “large intruder” were truly limited. “Hmmm… I don’t know what to say…” Luna smiled mysteriously, catching the course of sister’s thoughts at once. “Thou knowest, sunny, I can easily feel the presence of our subjects, but not this time…” The loud distant splash deeper in the garden interrupted her. It sounded as if something large entered the water smoothly but still noisily due to its size. “That’s from the pond…” Celestia raised one ear and her eyebrow simultaneously. “Your Highness! Princess Celestia, Princess Luna!” the officer bowed apologetically, then he began shouting the commands into the darkness, gathering his guards and directing them. In a doubled flash, both alicorns disappeared, teleporting right to the supposed place of the incident. The princesses outrun the guards noticeably, materializing at the bank of the large water body and peering into the opening view. It was brighter there, as the pond or better say a lake was quite large, with a wide grassy shore separating the water from the last line of trees. In the shadows of the latter, both Luna and Celestia froze silently trying to get any glimpse of the foreign presence. Everything was quiet: the evening breeze barely moved the sedge and reeds here and there, some distant bird whistled twice shortly and the silence reigned again. The dark mirror of the lake kept rippling faintly, but that even disturbance could be easily explained by the wind, it wasn’t possible to determine some other single source of it. Numerous stars lit on the dark blue sky completely replacing the daylight by their soft glow. “I can see nothing forsooth,” whispered Luna from the corner of her mouth, her eyes scanned the lake surface reflecting the starlight. “What can we say about me then…” muttered Celestia, she all turned into hearing trying to catch the faintest sound. “I don’t have the night sight nearly equal.” Suddenly a tiny splash reached their hearing; the sisters noticed slightly stronger ripples coming in widening circles towards the shore. With a short huff, Luna soared spreading her wings, her horn lit brightly and in a few moments the light started flooding the area – far beyond the park, the Moon arose in the dark blue sky painting everything around in silver and making the circles coming from the centre of the lake clearly visible. However, there was no sign of any presence except them when Princess Luna landed softly, observing the finally lit water. “Tell me frankly, blueberry,” Celestia squinted, “could that be him?” “Oh, Tia, that could be anypony, literally,” Luna shrugged indefinitely batting her long eyelashes; her whole figure shimmered in the moonlight, making only stronger the impression that the night sky was the continuation of her mane. “I can feel Alex, if ‘t be true he is sleepwalking,” mercifully added she finally. “Obviously, it’s not that case, dear. But I can’t… errmmm… detect him in his usual condition. Why would he have ventured sneaking hither in the first place?” “Isn’t it a question to you two rather?” Celestia made a face. “Anyway, it’s quiet now…” she changed the topic as the first guards with their torches started appearing among the trees. Despite all of the precautions, the guards managed to notice him and Alex was to waste some time messing with them in the darkening garden, trying to disorient and leave behind. Just as planned, nopony disturbed him when he approached the large lake, at the grassy bank of which he and Luna met once. Inwardly regretting that he wasn’t some duck, Alex dived into the water; he could do nothing about the splash and realized that it could attract unnecessary attention. At least the lake was large enough, so he had a fair chance to retreat on the opposite side if somepony appeared. The first thing bothering him at that moment was the volume of his lungs, supposed to allow Alex to accomplish what he started in one go – it became too herded around. He was to admit his luck: when Alex accurately emerged, he could quickly spot some movement on the lakeshore – two large silhouettes under the trees, a bigger and lighter one and a smaller night-coloured one. ‘Damn! What could I expect with all the fuss…’ Alex threw a glance around, noticing a large fallen tree bathing its crown in the lake; fortunately for him, it must have fallen that day and whoever responsible for that didn’t have time to remove it. Filling his lungs with air, the human silently dived again heading towards that overgrown shore. He did his best to reach the aim underwater but his lungs were burning mercilessly when Alex dared to accurately emerge behind the sunken trunk. There, in the dense foliage, he could be not afraid of being easily spotted. However, Alex didn’t hurry to climb out of the water: first of all, he decided to watch and listen, but he couldn’t discern the words of the princesses quiet talk. Besides, Alex found out too late that the shore he hit was overgrown and wild, without a decent path to the water and quite muddy. The darker silhouette soared and in a moment the Moon poured its light on the surroundings shining on his hiding spot brightly. Muttering damnations under his breath, Alex snuggled closer to the trunk of the fallen tree, making sure that only his head showed above the water between the thicker branches. Fortunately, the tree kept its foliage mass almost entirely, not even withered yet, being partially submerged in the lake. Spreading his wings to keep them under the water surface, Alex stopped moving completely when the arriving guards rushed to search the lake shores; he tried to breathe once in a while, not to reveal his position by an accidental splash or movement. “Nopony here! Here either!” holding their torches high, the guards ran back and forth in a few yards distance, making Alex dive lower keeping only his eyes above the surface. “Where did they vanish?!” Having brushed the area around the lake several times, the guards gave up on the elusive visitors finally; by that moment his wings palpably soaked in seemingly half of the lake water, not to mention that Alex started freezing a little. He preferred not to think of the flying with wet wings, having no time or place to dry at least partially, let alone about bathing at nights in October being far from healthy, despite it was relatively warm still. At last, all the noises faded leaving Alex in the company of screeching cicadas only; he watched the lights receding between the trees on the opposite bank but stood motionless for a good few minutes more, just in case of some very meticulous pony trying to ambush the relaxed intruder. However, everything was quiet and Alex headed to the lakeshore doing his best not to slap the wet wings against water. It was overgrown there by the most modest standards, no wonder the guards couldn’t notice him even passing closely; Alex found himself soiled and covered in wet leaves and grass stems when he finally crawled onto the dry land. ‘Great!’ he thought rattling his teeth and feeling the goosebumps conquering half of his body. ‘Would I trade a cold for the surprise for my love?’ Deciding that it was worth the trouble anyway, Alex flapped the wings strongly while staying on the ground to dry and clean them a little at least; drops and dirt filled the air but at least he warmed up with intensive movement. Soaring like that was unusually hard, despite Alex had an experience of flying with his armour on already. ‘Doesn’t matter, it helps me warm myself,’ Alex smirked contentedly. ‘Hmpf! I did it anyway!’ With a few heavy flaps, he raised above the castle grounds heading home finally. ‘I’d kill for a hot tub now!’ When the guards found nothing, even if they visibly tried hard, Princess Celestia ordered them to return to their posts and continue the service as usual. The sisters headed back to the castle and Celestia did her best to take no notice of Luna’s sly mien; deep inside the older sister admitted that the irony was rightful, but admitting it openly was a totally different thing. “I really need to pay more personal attention to the guards training,” squeezed she out finally with a sigh, pursing her lips with concern. “When Shining held everything in his hooves, it was incomparably better! But now they have their own domain to supervise… and the guards relaxed noticeably indeed.” The Night Princess kept the polite silence trotting along with her sibling and pretending to be entirely occupied by the pleasures of their night walk in the garden. “Okay, okay, I admit it – you told me that long ago, blueberry!” one fluffy white ear twitched. “But… you know, I despise conflicts greatly… only as the last resort…” “I know,” softly said Luna raising her starry eyes at the sister. “But something is coming… If ‘t be true we don’t want the conflict, we must not let it ignite… and this calleth for vigilance and readiness.” She let out an understanding smile. “Well, on the bright side of the Moon, allowest me to take thee to bed, Tia. Thou had a busy day.” The sisters soared above the park with its flowerbeds and gravel paths, hedges and benches, heading towards the large lit balcony high on the castle wall. Another surprise waited for them upon landing: at the line of light coming through the half-curtained doors of the bedroom, there was some sort of parcel. Appearing to be the tightly folded thick white fabric, it made the princesses exchange glances. The cloth rustled softly, unrolling in the golden aura of Celestia’s magic, as the princess took the package and raised it to examine. The Day Crown royal tapestry from the Old Castle opened to sisters’ sight. “Ahem!..” Celestia squinted meaningfully at daintily smiling Luna as if saying ‘Now tell me it wasn’t him!’ During the breakfast Twilight kept thoughtful silence smiling faintly from time to time; she watched Alex fixedly as if trying to decipher what was on his mind. In his turn, Alex did his best to imitate the blissful ignorance almost sincerely surprised by his friend musings. “Did something happened, Twi?” barely keeping the poker face, Alex inquired reaching for another toast. “Thou art unusually quiet today…” He realized that he slipped only noticing Twilight’s victorious glance and sighed faintly. “Mmmm… Nothing in particular yet, but I wonder…” with a wry smile, Twilight watched him over the cup she levitated. “I stayed awake late last night… got absorbed in a book,” she shrugged when Alex coughed masking a giggle, “but that didn’t prevent me from listening.” “And?” this time Alex showed the polite perplexity, trying to guess how seriously his lilac hostess was “absorbed in her book”. “You appeared shortly before midnight,” purple eyes kept watching him fixedly but with amusement. “And rambled about the ground floor without the lights…” “I simply didn’t want to wake up anypony that late!” actually, he expected everypony to be sleeping upon his a bit messy arrival. “Well, you didn’t… Anyway, I listened to you moving things and rustling with something, rubbing and scouring… then filling the tub.” Alex sighed: seemingly, all his nocturnal escapade was monitored by her curious ears in details and he was to be thankful that she didn’t come down in person to inquire, what he was fidgeting there with. “You were impressively accurate, Alex, judging by only a couple of mud prints I was able to spot in the bathroom this morning. I can imagine how much you would need to wipe, missing only these two in the dark.” “Sorry, Twi…” “Oh, don’t worry, considering how long you soaked in the tub, thanks for cleaning the rest,” Twilight put down her cup and smiled, looking into Alex’s eyes. “Actually, I fell asleep before hearing you going to bed and worried in the morning if I wouldn’t find you sleeping in the cold tub.” “How did you manage to clean these wings?” added she suddenly. “I was considering even offering you some help… but realized it w-wouldn’t be… entirely decent,” the alicorn filly blushed and hid behind her cup making the human nearly choke on his coffee. “Ahem… Somehow…” clearing his throat, muttered Alex. “Thanks for the concern anyway!” Knowing about men and women taking the bath together in some cultures, he still shook his head dispelling the image of Twilight rubbing his back and wings. ‘Be grateful it’s not Rarity…’ the inner voice mercilessly reminded him. Alex gazed at the girl, her utter embarrassment told him that Twilight’s words rather manifested some friendly mutual assistance – ultimately, that was the same girl who helped to patch him up when he was completely unconscious – that made Alex relax. “What are you plotting, mate?” after a minute of awkward silence, the girl decided to change topic returning to her guess-game. “Ooze and coastal mud, Alex, the stains even smelled of some pond or lake.” Alex downcasted and Twilight continued pondering aloud. “It took you a whole day, it means that water body must be at least Canterlot-far, right?” “I can’t tell, yet,” Alex braced himself returning her glance. “That may completely ruin the meticulously prepared surprise. Moreover, the surprise, which is dear to me to turn out well,” confessed he. “I’m most definitely sure that you and Princess Luna are planning something for the upcoming holiday,” slowly said Twilight. “And I don’t want you to get in trouble. Both of you actually… That’s why asking.” “Oh, don’t you worry, Twi,” Alex let out a laughter. “What we plan for the Nightmare Night is completely innocent… Isn’t that holiday made specifically for jokes and pranks, both on Earth and Equus?” “And what did you do last night?..” she gazed at him slyly. “You know me, I won’t spill to anypony, including those involved. Even without the Pinky Promise…” “As I never told anypony about the reasons making you and Harry ramble about the surrounding Ponyville forests at least twice a week… and that frying pan, you are hiding in your room for me and Spike not to accidentally use for regular cooking…” suddenly added she with a strange but undoubtedly humorous expression. “Errmmm…” Alex stared at Twilight, unable to squeeze a word. “Don’t worry,” the girl waved her fore hoof nonchalantly. “I realize perfectly that humans are omnivores, like for example bears. And I admire your efforts greatly. Not to mention that I personally won’t complain about poisonous snakes population decrease around the town,” Twilight shuddered a little. “But Fluttershy is better to stay uninformed, naturally. So, Alex, you see that I can keep secrets…” “How?..” overcoming the initial shock, Alex unfroze. “I mean…” “Oh, that’s easy,” Twilight smiled and started gathering the dishes with her magic. “I visit Zecora regularly… You know about Zecora, Alex? So, she saw you both brushing the woods a few times… and was naturally surprised, what a human and a bear could scout out together. Also, she told me about noticeable snake populace decrease. The rest… Well, logic is my friend, Alex!” the girl glanced at him meaningfully. “By the way,” added she, “knowing and walking through a quite large area, Zecora didn’t come across any cockatrice for quite a while. The latter even she is happy about…” Alex chuckled then turned very pensive freezing with a plate in his hands. “Twilight,” started he slowly, “I suddenly thought… that zebra, Zecora… she lives at the edge of Everfree all alone and wanders the whole nearby woods…” “So what?” hearing Alex’s concern, Twilight put down the dishes and looked at him inquiringly. “How come, she isn’t afraid of these cockatrices exactly? If they are so dangerous for the ponies… I mean nopony can expect, what runs into you next moment in the thicket!” “Oh, that’s what you’re about…” Twilight smiled. “Zecora has an ancient tribal mask, she wears in the woods, especially in the less known parts of Everfree.” Seeing that Alex wasn’t comprehending still, the girl elaborated. “The main secret of the mask is that it allows the owner not to look on the object directly… Some trick with mirrors or something… I would like to examine that mask, but Zecora treats it too carefully to let somepony mess with it, let alone dis…assem…ble…” Twilight’s eyes began widening, as Alex, sitting still up to that moment, as if he was frozen, suddenly jumped to his feet nearly breaking the plate he held. “Of course!!!” he cried out making Twilight jump on her seat. “Arrrghhh… I was such an idiot! Not looking directly…” Alex grabbed his temples groaning. “Of course… That may work! Perseus fought Medusa Gorgo looking at her reflection in the shield!..” Twilight kept watching him with the mixed expression: somehow admiration and shock of witnessing a madman combined in her look. “Twilight! You’re a genius!!!” Alex jumped up to the girl lifting her in a hug. “Pure genius!” “But who in the healthy mind agrees to test that hypothesis?..” he stopped swirling the alicorn filly and pondered. “Errmmm… Alex…” with the blushing nose, Twilight touched his shoulder lightly reminding of herself still hanging in Alex’s arms. * Alex woke up and opened his eyes, a moment ago he had a very strong feeling that somepony called him; it could probably be a part of his dream, but the sensation didn’t vanish after awakening. Besides, he learned well that dreams and reality were connected to a greater extent than it was customary to think. Moreover, Alex simply knew what he needed to do and where he was to be at that moment. Thus, even if he was called in his dream, it wasn’t a reason to ignore that or think it was his imagination only. The wall clock showed a few minutes before one am, a rare case of him sleeping already at that time, instead of engineering something or taking a route around the town. Alex took a listen: the rest of the Golden Oak was quiet; wearied by the daily chores, its inhabitants saw the tenth dream already, even Twilight with her wont to read in bed. Forcefully rubbing his face a few times and waking up completely, Alex put on his clothes; habitually, he opened the window and got over the sill leaving the frame unlocked. He did that every time not wanting to wake anypony at the Library by turning on the lights in the main hall and using the front doors. He quietly swore and started to tuck the edges of his pant-legs into his boots – the grass under the window was cold and humid from the gathered dew and it seemed that Alex landed right in the middle of the wettest place. Promptly avoiding the shrubs belting the Library there not to take a chilling shower that early, Alex jumped over the flowerbed and took his way around the huge trunk to the front door. The square in front of the Library was completely empty at that hour, the suppressive number of ponyvillers were totally not nocturnal ponies. The human took a look around, over the dimly lit Ponyville streets meeting there, with their houses sleeping under the shelter of the trees; colourful in the faint light of the nearest light posts, they turned completely grey deeper in his field of view, where the ordinary pony eye could discern nothing. Alex inhaled the night freshness, swallowing lightly when the wind brought to him the smell of the mushroom stew with herbs made by Spike; thankfully, so he didn’t feel the immediate urge to return, they three gave it due attention last evening. Twilight decided to shut the kitchen door tightly, for the delicious smell not to imbue the rest of the Library, yet nothing prevented it to come outside making the passing ponies sniff the air and turn heads throughout the rest of the day. However, the same wind got under Alex’s shirt and ran along his ribs making the human shiver lightly and reminding that it went deeper and deeper into the Autumn. Feeling the accidentally brought that way surge of cheerfulness, Alex turned right, north-west and ran lightly across the square to warm himself up; it looked like a long walk awaited. Following the non-leaving him guiding sensation, he chose the narrow path snaking from the square among the trees and quickly leaving the town boundaries heading to the school. The night was dark, no Moon granting the skies its benevolent presence, but at the same time clear and Alex could see the dark blue carpet incrusted with thousands of stars in the gaps between the tree crowns. The omnipresent cicadas and the joining to them further in the field grasshoppers kept rasping, breaking the surrounding silence and making Alex think with a smile that the whole Equestria needed to freeze over for those stubborn insects to stop their nightly concerts and seek shelter for the coming Winter. Exiting from under the foliage roof, the path turned sharply to the south-west, directly to the school on the sloping hills; Alex’s direction was still north-west, across the field, which no doubt would make him wet head to toe, and the thread of the railroad. Not losing time for useless pondering, Alex soared spreading the wings widely and feeling the wind playing with the feathers and his ruffled uncombed hair. Making a loop under the star-woven sky and feeling the singular sharpness in thoughts and senses, Alex crossed the field leaving the rusty but still waving softly in the breeze sea of grass below. Across the rails, the station and warehouses never ended their bustle, only slowing it a bit during the night. Brightly lit in the necessary areas, they told that the Ponyville dam generators started working in full force; that woke a bittersweet feeling in him. Automatically, Alex listened to his senses, but everything seemed to be calm below and his spontaneous trip that night had another, completely peaceful purpose. Leaving the railway station on his right, Alex headed further towards the large lake surrounded by the old willows; the one where he learned to fly with the girls. Some inner feeling told him that it was his destination that night and the curiosity took the lead making Alex fly around the large water body first, trying to detect the source of his urge for that late walk. Like some black ink spilt on the reddened tablecloth, the lake stood out with its blackness even on the dark in that moonless night field. Shielded along its perimeter by various vegetation, the mirror of the water surface was completely motionless, undisturbed by the wind. Alex did one wide circle, then another, seeing no motion except his reflection in that shred of sky, which brought myriads of stars to the ground. Bathing their long drooping green braids, the large willows guarded the banks. He always wondered how those trees could keep their summer dress when others started to surrender to autumn painting; then suddenly drop their entire crown at once during one day. Alex finally landed near the place they started each day of his flight practice finding nopony on the wooden gangway either. Standing on the planks for a while, Alex listened to the screechy concert of the cicadas, catching no other sounds except his heartbeat and inhaling the damp, smelling of grass and alga air. Somewhere afar an owl uttered a hoot and fell silent. The stars blinked in the still water among the flat round leaves of water lilies. Returning on the bank after a few minutes of his futile vigil, Alex was about to confess his sudden night voyage stupid but he decided to wait for a while longer instead, as the feeling of him being needed there persisted. He walked back and forth, then turned to the lake putting his face to the light breeze; Alex froze on the spot crossing his arms on the chest. It looked as if he stood submerged in his deep musings but contrary to that Alex listened to the faintest sound attentively. Thereby he was able to register the lightest hoofstep on the grassy shore behind, a second before his nose told him who it was, as the wind faded for a while. Smiling already, Alex decided to act his role till the end, thus remained motionless inhaling the surrounding him lavender and guessing what to expect. “Finally! I thought thou would nev’r come…” the light warm breath touched Alex’s hair and in a moment he felt a tender loving bite on his ear. “Dost thou know it’s indecent to make thy mare wait, lief?” a tiny silvery laughter was followed by another passionate bite making the human realize – the last period they were separated with the princess came out too long for her patience to endure. Truth be told, being nuzzled by her on the hair, Alex felt that he was starting to boil as well when mare’s fore legs and wings wrapped around him. He turned in her embrace slowly to be met by Luna’s deep shimmering eyes. “The more you wait, the better the greeting is, my love!” his fingers travelled through her coat on the shoulders reaching the shoulder blades and stroking along and about; Alex wasn’t going to stop feeling how alicorn girl’s muscles strained under the silky skin and slight trembling went through her body. Being cuddled that way, he wasn’t able to reach her wings but, apparently, it wasn’t necessary that night, as even that touch seated Luna on the grass at once making her almost purr. “Thou!” groaned Luna squeezing him tighter. “Thou knowest that I missed…” she dug a kiss on his lips instead of the words. ‘So soft… And tender…’ the single thought floated in Alex’s head, while the man and the mare shared their breath snuggling closer and closer. Luna’s lips were gentle but demanding and Alex felt losing to them – his hands rubbed girl’s shoulders and back more and more chaotically. However, when she released him for a while, equally exhausted by that passion wave, Alex noticed, gathering his thoughts, that Luna looked as cross-eyed and melted as he did. “Wait a minute! Lu…” his voice drowned into another kiss, Alex tried to reason muffledly but soon gave up, returning her caresses with doubled ardency. Running his palms through the amazingly soft mane, he reached her sensitive ears and scratched behind lightly, making Luna moan and tremble again. “We demand more!” breathed out the Night Princess into his ear between attacks of her thirsty lips and seeking tongue, locking Alex in the feathery cocoon and surrounding with lavender aroma. Snuggled to her fluffy heating chest and stormed with kisses, Alex felt girl’s racing heart and decided to wait till this tide subsided. Indeed, after a few minutes of sweet madness, Luna calmed down a bit giving Alex some space; he cuddled her softly, kissing girl’s neck and stroking her soothingly. “Apologies!” Luna snuggled her nose to Alex’s forehead, trying to even out her rapid breathing. “I got… a zilch… carried away, mine love. Even if the princess must say that not, as Tia would say,” she giggled closing her eyes, while Alex stroked her cheeks lovingly, “I missed thee. Besides, with approaching celebration… and our idea. Whom am I trying to palaver?! I got excited, Alex. Nothing was befalling for quite a while…” “Hmm… I wouldn’t say so…” resting his head on Luna’s shoulder, Alex remembered his own latest events starting from the fire at the school and ending with his recent visit to Canterlot. “…except one thing mayhap,” Luna glanced at him slyly. “Thou knowest, somepony sneaked into the castle grounds a few days afore, played hide and seek with the guards in the garden startling them nicely. Oh, that was quite a sight!” she let out a joyful laughter. “Or… mayhap that was somehuman,” inquired she looking into Alex’s eyes; he could see the sparks of amusement and curiosity in these dark-blue lakes, “as we found another Royal Tapestry at Tia’s balcony anon. Soundeth familiar, lief, doth it not?” “Errmmm… I thought it would be a natural polite gesture to return another one to its owner likewise!” Alex pursed his lips with the most diplomatic expression. “Took a look around the Old Castle anyway, as I… wasn’t in the mood to appreciate its glory the last time…” “Oh, yeah! And the sightseeing trip ended arrant near our garden’s lake!” chuckled Luna nuzzling him again. “Something telleth me, it wasn’t that simple… Thou didn’t even visit me…” she pouted jokingly. “Believest me, I wasn’t quite prepared for that…” Alex clearly didn’t expect the talk going along that route. “Let’s say, not suitable for thy visual pleasure, mine love.” “Nonsense! That was nev’r a problem…” huffed Luna. “Thou art definitely hiding something…” she examined the human fixedly, then brought nose to nose with Alex. “Should I use… love torture to find out? Mayhap tickle thee till thou confess…” “Fat chance!” smirked Alex, staring into her eyes and putting his palms on Luna’s chest softly. “You know well you are way more ticklish than me, Luna. I’ll win that game flat. Better tell me what you planned for the celebration.” She watched him for a minute, half-heartedly admitting that Alex was most likely right about the outcome of the mutual tickling. “Okay. Why don’t we have a trot?..” decided Luna mercifully, adding aside and causing another smile on Alex’s face. “Methinks I need to cool down a zilch anyway…” They slowly walked along around the dark lake, followed by the cicada’s rasping; Luna leaned to Alex’s ear whispering something, occasionally letting out a giggle like a school-filly. “Isn’t it a bit much though?” Alex shook his head with a smile when Luna finished and waited for his reaction. “I mean we all had a few unnerving incidents already…” “Mmmm, hardly!” Luna shone with optimism. “First, it’s only a… how is it called now… prank?” after his nod she continued. “Second, it’s all the same each year. Granted, the foals love me, they love at which time I act as Nightmare Moon at the celebration. But what I realized since the first year back to Equestria, nice Nightmare Night fun calleth for a quality scare, so… it’s about time we bring some novelty, lief.” “Besides, Tia’s concerns gave me that wondrous idea!” the Night Princess broke into a sly smile. “Mayhap it even helpeth ease her tension, if ‘t be true she sees it’s a joke only. Who knoweth… Alex?” she peeked into his face, seeing that he slowed down noticeably, pondering about something. “What’s bothering thee, mine love?” “Different things, Luna, many different things…” muttered Alex; he stopped then as if waking from his thoughts. “Sorry, love!” he wrapped his arms around the alicorn girl. “Now when you mentioned armour and stuff… that led me to our current problems directly.” “The Seekers?” Luna nodded semi-affirmatively. “Exactly! You won’t deny them being a part of something bigger and more sinister,” Alex sighed, “but we are blindfolded still. Yet the dangers they deliver are more than enough for now to consider.” Seeing that he gained her keen interest, Alex started to tell about his recent troubles regarding the pony armour: in particular the helmet part of it, his hopes to shield the ponies from the Seekers mind-crushing effect and attempts to keep the protection practically usable in the battle. Luna listened to him not interrupting, nodding occasionally; she had already seen the victims, dealt with the monsters, and realized the complexity of the task. “…Twilight gave me an idea recently, by pure accident,” Alex let out a small smile, “but that was a lucky accident methinks. She mentioned Zecora’s tribal mask… which serves her protection against a random cockatrice in Everfree. I thought, what if breaking the direct visual contact would be enough to get rid of the devastating effect.” “So I’m working on it… when I have time,” he added after a moment of silence. “But I came to a natural problem: I can make a prototype which carries out the idea, but… That’s only an experiment, which can succeed or fail, yet the price of failure is too high. I can’t imagine somepony ready to try it themselves…” “I understand,” Luna nodded slowly. “’tis double trouble, Alex. And finding a so-called volunteer isn’t the main part of it, correct? Thy choice to allow somepony to take risks is rather.” “Yeah,” Alex frowned. “Even if somepony claims they are willing to, can I decide not knowing about the outcome?” he rubbed his temples. “Dost thou even sleep, Alex?” Luna examined him appraisingly. “Thanks to you, my love, I can rest physically at least. It’s not always sleeping, as we know it,” Alex shrugged with shoulders and wings simultaneously. “I ramble around Ponyville while sleepwalking often, still it’s better than nothing.” “Truth be told,” confessed he embarrassedly, “I still have occasional nightmares, when I sleep normally. I guess, some experience needs more time to wind out and some will never fade completely.” “Carest to share?” asked Luna, when after a minute of silence they moved on along the bank watching the scattered pearls above. She was to wait, watching the pensive human and once even pulling him away from the particularly dense bushes Alex almost bumped into. “Various things,” uttered Alex finally. “Mostly those you know already. The Dam,” Alex cringed visibly, “don’t know if I get rid of that ever, it returns once in a while… Sometimes I see my parents, whom I won’t see in reality ever again most likely. I see them aged and helpless, which maketh mine heart shrink and ache… or attacked by some robbers… or something else… alike. I see that but can’t help even in the dream,” he gritted the teeth making an audible sound. “Even saw my ex-girlfriend a few times…” Alex noticed the quickly perked blue ear and preferred to change the topic, rightfully thinking that there was nothing fascinating in his vision of Elen dating another man in his dream; he realized that maybe not right at that moment but within the following year it would be only natural. Instead of that, Alex remembered another dream, not entirely sure himself if that could be called a nightmare. ‘Probably yes,’ concluded he inwardly, ‘considering all the given circumstances and my inability to sort things out simply.’ “How would you like that one?” smirked Alex glancing at Luna. “We three,” she nodded slightly showing her understanding who that “three” meant, “are sitting in the room… some room, that doesn’t really matter. As if we were in the middle of some talk but then a sudden uncalled pause emerged spoiling the atmosphere completely.” He stopped under the large willow and turned to the princess with the unvoiced question in his eyes. “In that dream I have no idea what the talk was about or what caused the cooling silence. You both look at me and I feel the urge to say something, but I can’t… Can’t find the words and… The mere thought that words may be worse than silence… I usually wake at that moment,” dropped he cutting it short. “Still undecided?” Luna came closer touching his shoulder lightly; to his surprise, Alex couldn’t see any frustration in her beautiful eyes, some understanding rather. “I’d say it might be better that way but… we have all the time of this world…” “Which can’t be said about her,” quietly added Alex, he glanced at Luna seriously. “Besides, all the time of this world can turn out limited,” Alex followed the willow leaf, which dropped from the tree and slowly floated down; swirling and swaying, it finally touched the water surface, waking the ripples and making the stars flicker in the dark mirror of the lake. “With all the recent…” “Thou hast seen something else, correct?” Luna seemed to peek into the very depths of his soul. “Not a regular dream… More like a…” “…vision? Maybe,” Alex nodded slowly. “I don’t know what to make out of it yet…” He fell silent for a while, elaborating then. “I saw the Tree of Harmony again, Luna! Moreover, I heard it, like… like it was when the portal didn’t work. This time it wasn’t the single glimpse… It’s hard to explain forsooth!” “Mayhap thou shall show me instead then,” Luna watched him sympathetically. Before Alex could ask the stupid question “How?”, she moved closer to him, embracing with her soft wings. “Simply relax, lief. Relax and tryest to recall thy vision in details,” her eyes filled his entire view reflecting the stars; Alex started falling in the dark-blue velvet well. The ground under his boots, the cliff walls, the roots and ivy stalks entwining them – everything was emitting the soft silvery light telling Alex that it was most likely a dream, as even in Equestria common rocks didn’t glow all by themselves. He looked up, seeing the trees far above peeking over the edge of the cleft; they beamed with the same silvery glow. Everything around him stood out strikingly against the completely dark sky, where nothing could actually produce that light the landscape bathed in, convincing Alex it was happening in his mind rather. However, as he already learned, even if it was in his head, that didn’t mean it wasn’t real. Alex looked over himself: apparently, he was the only one keeping his natural colours there, like an actor, put among masterfully and lovingly prepared but still extremely surreal decorations. At least he certainly knew where he found himself; Alex walked, followed by the loud echo of his steps and small stones rolling from under his feet along the path inclined forward, deeper into the canyon and round its turn, where the turning blindingly bright glow came from. He couldn’t help but notice that the silvery glow was the main if not the only motive of that vision – as he decided for himself it was exactly the one. The surroundings were undisturbed by any other sensual stimuli: his ears couldn’t register any sound except that he produced, despite the foliage galore around and above, which should definitely rustle from the slightest wind. Come to think of it, Alex couldn’t feel any wind, the air was completely still. The same referred to the smells – there were simply none, except maybe something faint, yet very familiar to him, intensifying as Alex proceeded. Exiting the canyon to the broad cleft, the human was to shield his eyes with the palm of his hand first, so bright was the glow of the large tree at its far end. It looked exactly the same way as that one time Alex saw it in reality. The twelve-foot in diameter trunk bearing the enormous crown of silvery branches and leaves, the latter resembled maple ones being larger and thicker though – the Tree of Harmony. The tart scent filled the air, exhilarating, tuning to the cheerful mood despite ones will; the silvery glow faded slightly as Alex’s eyes accommodated and its slow strong pulse became visible. The Forest Deity breathed with life. Netting the low hill, the silver roots, large and small, covered the ground almost entirely. Bright sparks of the same silver light floated in the crown, all over it; looking like some large fireflies, they most likely were the part of the tree or its magic, as Alex concluded. He stopped: remembering how his single real contact with the Tree of Harmony ended, Alex preferred to keep as much distance from it as he only could. ‘Some miracles are better to watch from afar!’ decided he noticing how the pulse of the glow got in sync with his heartbeat; at the same time, Alex caught himself on hearing the quiet but discernible chiming of the giant tree. “Greetings, Guardian!” the deep soothing female voice sounded in his head; Alex was inwardly prepared for something like that and it didn’t make him wince like the first time. “Come closer! Don’t worry, it’s entirely safe,” added the voice with a tint of amusement. “I wouldn’t say it was so the last time!” Alex wasn’t inspired to agree with “her”, whoever it was. He shrugged with his wings meaningfully. Nevertheless, he approached a bit more; Alex’s head was full of questions and wasting the sudden chance to ask them would be simply stupid… if he already was there, be it his dream or not. Trying the surface with his foot, like a swimmer tried the water, Alex finally dared to stomp on the roots-covered ground, causing a barely noticeable change in the tone of chiming. ‘Is she having fun?’ He remembered how the princesses, mostly Celestia referred the Tree of Harmony, becoming more puzzled only. ‘Why “she” by the way?’ But the questions Alex started with were different. “What’s with that “guardian” stuff? Why the guardian? Why me, pray tell? I’m a simple human…” Alex stopped short, the feathers on his wings’ margins ruffled. “Okay! Scratch that… Not a simple human now, but still… I’m Alex, that’s all methinks…” “I’m afraid it’s not that simple now!” the human could easily imagine, how the owner of that voice was smiling daintily. “Patience, Guardian Alex… As for the why part, it’s up to you to decide… if you doubt the already known reasons still.” “Is that a dream of mine?” interrupted Alex adding inwardly. ‘Or I am dragged somewhere against mine will again!’ “That’s my way to contact you, Guardian,” the entity seemingly didn’t take offence by his little lack of tact, elaborating a bit more. “You can call it a dream if you want though.” “It’s utterly strange…” muttered Alex, automatically coming closer and looking at the Tree of Harmony. “It’s because I limited the perception purposely,” “she” sounded surprised by his question. “That is why you see, feel or hear less of distracting things. For now, I wanted to tell you one story, Guardian,” added the voice meaningfully. “Apologies?! A story?..” Alex shook his head and raised both hands in a shielding gesture. “I’m afraid I don’t arrantly receive… Is thither a supposed connection to our current problems?” “If I’m not mistaken, I mentioned patience already, no?” the voice audibly chuckled that time. “Simply believe, you need to hear that for your further… decisions, Guardian.” ‘What’s with that “guardian” kink every time?’ Alex nodded doomedly. “Okay, I’m all ears,” he said dryly, pondering if to seat was a good idea in case the story turned out to be long enough; however, he decided to keep standing so far to limit the contact with the silvery roots, just in case. “Excellent!” The glow of the Tree faded a bit more, preparing for the better storytelling atmosphere, as Alex decided for himself with a smirk; he was sceptical still. “There was a distant planet,” the voice was seemingly going to start from afar and Alex inwardly rolled his eyes, while doing his best to keep the diplomatic mien. “Well, it still is obviously, but our story refers to the ancient times… ancient for you, Guardian.” Listening to “her” with one ear, Alex was pondering if it was the right time to insist on calling him simply “Alex” or at least not calling him “guardian” all the time. He was genuinely irked every time called that way; as far as Alex knew, all of his attempts to help somepony while staying in Equestria were dictated by momentarily impulses of compassion, selfless mutual assistance, not some virtual duty feeling. He would do the same absolutely while staying in his world; where exactly, until the recent times, he aspired, only recently coming to terms with the thought that most likely he would never get that chance. He even admitted the positive aspects of staying in Equestria. But being assigned an uncalled position without even giving complete crucial information… That really looked like a flout. ‘How am I supposed to confront something I have no idea about?’ Alex cringed. ‘Thou either trust thy “employees”… or not but in the latter case dost not expect the due dedication.’ “The inhabitants, since the moment of gaining sentience, lived in harmony with nature and, what’s more important, magic,” the Tree of Harmony made a dramatic pause but the polite quandary was written across Alex’s face, while inwardly his condition could be rather described by the phrase: ‘What the hay I’m going to hear?!’ Nevertheless, that couldn’t put out of countenance his telepathic collocutor. “Yes, there was magic on that planet… and still is. But we’ll return to that moment a little later.” “The main thing is,” the soft voice continued, “while there were different times and, wars and conflicts or periods of undisturbed prosperity, they always felt themselves as a part of that planet’s life, never forgetting about being her children.” “Her?..” Alex thought that the personification came out very deliberate. “Love was more than a beautiful word. Duty, trust and honour were valued unconditionally,” “she” kept elaborating, as if not hearing his concern. “Friendship could not be bought or broken easily. And magic… Magic simply existed, recognized by all. Alongside with science, naturally, as two means of knowledge coexist without interfering or denying each other.” “In brief, life, bright feelings and harmony were really valued. Valued the most!” the female voice in Alex’s head stated feelingly. “But life, friendship and magic are the favourite bait for those, who can’t understand them entirely, secretly fear and hate, but most important crave to devour, annihilate, while still feeding on these positive emanations,” “she” audibly sank; the silvery glow faded even more in unison with the sad things the Tree of Harmony mentioned. “Happiness can’t be eternal or continuously long…” uttered Alex musingly. “Right you are, Guardian!” the wave of glow travelled from the roots of the Tree to its crown. “…but that’s the way we can distinguish it… and enjoy while it lasts.” A long pause hung in the air, in the silence undisturbed by the wind or leaves rustle and only the faint chime of the Tree of Harmony accompanied the thoughts of both. “There are and always were… and unfortunately always will be the powers which try to devour the life and magic in every world they exist or at least corrupt, turn them into something not burning these powers from inside by the mere fact of their existence,” the voice suddenly continued. “That planet didn’t become an exclusion, couldn’t avoid that fate.” ‘It’s always the same,’ Alex slowly shook his head in understanding, ‘there are always some, who can’t stand if the others don’t suffer…’ “Feeling united with their home world,” the Tree of Harmony stated solemnly, “the inhabitants confronted the global threat and prevented the tragedy, which seemed imminent.” “Good for them, I guess!” smirked Alex. “But still… how is that connected to our current circumstances, pray tell?” “The most direct way!” exclaimed the voice showing the glimpse of frustration for the first time; the whole Tree of Harmony flashed brighter for a second. “Your impulsiveness and restlessness, Guardian! They may turn out very detrimental for the task… or may not. It’s indiscernible yet…” “she” calmed down as suddenly as became agitated before. “The same fate awaits Equus if nobody interferes…” “However, despite the defenders managed to win a battle, they lost the war,” concluded the voice sadly. “Not entirely yet, but evil… The Evil, if you want to know,” added “she” meaningfully, “spreads and takes root everywhere it can.” “How come?” Alex gazed up at his magical collocutor. “If the… “inhabitants” averted the tragedy…” “Alas, all the attempts to destroy that evil completely have failed. The possibility of such is unknown.” ‘Great!’ huffed Alex inwardly. ‘It turns out there were more cases, which I won’t be told about most likely. And on top of that pie, we are going to face an invulnerable enemy. Merlin’s pants! Great at double!’ “Where it failed with force, the evil succeeded with trickery and villainy!” Alex could almost imagine how the ethereal female silhouette could bow her head in grief. “Alas, along with the noble defenders, there turned out to be enough of the eager onhangers. Enlisting their support the evil corrupts the mere life on that planet till today!” “Magic fell as the first victim!” elaborated “she” sadly. “Little by little, it became possible to make the natives forget about its mere existence, believe they never knew or used any, deem any mention of it as lunacy. The science was slowly turned into the rival, instead of the faithful ally, completely denying what was once supporting and completing it. At the same time, while it seemed completely impossible in that situation, the multitude of false beliefs and prejudices only widened. While some genuinely aspired to the reign of rationality and reason over the feelings – we’ll leave aside the advisability of that, they at least wanted the best – others abused that intention.” “Next, the common and natural values started being questioned. Love, trust, honour… Friendship finally!” the glow began to flare up again. “They were substituted, the most stealthily, by the cult of power and wealth.” “Tell me, Alex,” inquired the Tree of Harmony addressing the human by his name probably for the first time. “Even dealing with the commercial companies here, in Equestria, have you ever seen that money had such overwhelming power over your neighbours?” Alex could only shake his head slowly; never and nowhere in Equestria he could witness that. His own deal with Canterlot Steam Company, dictated to him by the most honourable motives at that moment, for a single short moment seemed something… not entirely deserved by this land. “Eventually,” softly concluded the voice, as if his collocutor could watch Alex’s torments, “the mere life started being depreciated.” “Was…” Alex raised his eyes at the Tree voicing his sudden wild guess. “Is that planet… Earth?” “Yes, Guardian, it is…” the Tree chimed louder in approval. “And it’s still struggling, ever since that battle was won and the whole war turned undercover.” “There was a powerful mage,” added the soft deep voice, “the one among those, who confronted the usurper.” “I can easily believe that some legends were developed,” Alex let out a smile, this time not an ironic but rather a tired one. “I always thought, and regretted, truth be told, that my home world had no magic. A minute ago I was told that all mine previous assumptions in that sphere were wrong. I’m at a loss forsooth…” he shrugged. “But thither always were historical persons, whom the folk started to ascribe magical powers over time. As a tribute to something they wished to exist but saw no signs of.” “Naturally!” this time “her” voice definitely chuckled. “But in that case it wasn’t ascribing only. He was a great mage of his time. Really was, mind that, Guardian. Really a mage! In that part and regarding his deeds, the legends don’t lie a iota. But the whole theory about his downfall from the charms of some… Lady is pure misconception…” “Do you know that every living planet has a spirit?” the voice dropped all the joviality, suddenly becoming entirely serious. “The soul, if you want to put it that way, the embodiment of the power of life they carry… Some may call it powers of nature or Mother Nature or even… Gaia, right? Is it the term still occasionally used in your home world?” Alex’s thoughts stumbled. He could easily accept the poetical naming of natural forces, he came to the admittance of magical forces beyond his former imagination limits (like the immortal princesses ruling the celestial bodies), but to confess that the whole planet might possess the consciousness… that was a bit much. ‘On the other hand, how is it less possible than the whole concept of noosphere?!’ glimpsed in Alex’s mind; still, he tried to find suitable words but failed. “The nature of that spirit never changes regardless of the name given by the locals,” with Alex’s “silent agreement”, the voice continued. “So, in a way, he indeed met the Lady… but it wasn’t his bane, Guardian! It was his vocation. The acceptance and realization of which made him a different person in a way. All he did before was a matter of public domain; all he did after was a bit more concealed from public eye… Perhaps that was a mistake, which eased the efforts of the attackers later.” “The mage was among those few who won this battle… delaying the fate of your home world!” that sounded like a thunder strike in Alex’s consciousness. “Becoming the last Earth’s Guardian!” “Wait!!!” hundred of questions swarmed in Alex’s head; so far everything he was told was truly vague. Perhaps, he had an idea about who that mage in question could be… but that guess was even wilder than the one he already made, despite last time he hit the target perfectly. However, before Alex could even think of and word out the most important for him, the silvery glow started brightening. It spread and flooded his vision, filling the surroundings with the dense silvery mist, so the Tree, the cleft, the surrounding forest, even the sky above dissolved in that milky haze. Alex couldn’t even see his own hand brought closer to the eyes. Apparently, that was the end of the audience. Alex winced and emerged from his vision. When he managed to focus, like waking from the deep sleep, he could see only the shimmering stars far above – he found himself resting on something soft and silky, looking into the sky. The stridulation of insects served the uniform background for the otherwise soundless night, the wind brought damp freshness from the lake; Alex thought that it was too late in the Autumn to lie on the ground, but amazingly, he was feeling warm. “Tis interesting and… quite ambiguous. Even for Her,” sounded near his right ear, weaving into his lazy thoughts – Alex didn’t yet recover from that sudden vision pulling him right amidst his recent dream. “Still provideth the ground for some analysis, lief.” Alex rallied and raised himself carefully leaning on the elbows, the soft and silky something he was lying on turned out to be Luna’s shoulder – the alicorn girl rested on her side on the grass, providing him support and sharing her warmth, when Alex was unconscious during his vision. It was the first time he came across that extravagant method of familiarizing with someone’s memories, no wonder the human felt slightly disoriented first. Finding himself practically wrapped in her starry mane, Alex smiled carelessly for a moment enjoying the lightest touch on his cheek, when Luna nuzzled him tenderly. He turned and wanted to give her a short kiss, but as soon as their lips met, the large blue wing covered Alex’s shoulders holding him in the place for a while longer. Truth be told for a lot longer than he planned. “Call me dumb, my love, but I didn’t get much out of that,” Alex made a sarcastic face when he was given back the ability to rest his head on Luna’s shoulder. “Except a vague and very superficial story about some powers changing the way of life on my native planet in ancient times. I get that there is a suspicion… or even confidence that the same powers made Equus their aim. But the rest still blooms with questions…” “Methinks we may safely conclude, we have the same enemy as thy home world met aeons ere,” the princess was more categorical in her judgments. “At least the Tree of Harmony presumeth that. I tend to believe her insight in the aspects alike!” “The Seekers truly don’t look like some powers going to corrupt the mere essence of life,” chuckled Alex. “Like somepony’s minions – maybe, their main purpose is to literally seek for something – okay, we know that as well. But isn’t it simply, I don’t know… stupid to send something so unreliable and, let’s be frank, dumb across the space to search.” “We don’t know what was used as the… first wave in the case with thy world, Alex,” Luna shrugged with wings, lightly ruffling his hair. “I still have mostly nothing but questions as the result of that story,” muttered Alex a bit grumpily. “Mayhap that was the exact purpose of even telling thee something, mine love,” Luna started nuzzling Alex’s hair and neck softly, occasionally planting a small kiss and quickly taking his frustration about the strange vision away. “She is responsible for bringing thee hither, and ev’r since, that was her chosen method – to make thee ask questions and seek answers thyself.” “Maybe…” Alex caught himself on absently stroking Luna’s fore leg as he melted from her gentle touch. Suddenly he perked up, returning to his favourite question. “By the way, Luna, why She? Does that mean that the Tree of Harmony is actually Equus… Gaia?! Because, I simply can’t imagine another magical… entity that powerful…” “She is!” the princess simply nodded. “The spirit of our planet. The Tree is her material embodiment. Something we can communicate with… when She wanteth that, of course.” “That doesn’t explain the strange fact that… She is informed about things happening on Earth in the days of yore!” Alex made a face. “And if we suppose that She knows more than tells… How’s that even possible?” “Alex!” Luna stared at him in surprise, the stars in her deep blue eyes shone brighter. “Apologies, but that… noosphere was a theory of thine! I guess it that Earth’s Gaia is still unharmed, even if ‘t be true the ranks of her allies thinned. Mayhap the ability of these spirits to communicate is exactly the part of that noosphere, dost thou think otherwise?” “Besides, at which hour She needed, She could pick thee from thy home world and bring hither at ease,” Luna let out a sly smile. “Fair point,” Alex was to admit; he stroked her cheek tenderly admiring Luna’s muzzle when she smiled. Remembering his first vision, where Luna appeared in his dream as a human female, he was to admit that he adored that expression regardless of the form. The pony version was even more enjoyable having the advantage of being unexpectedly cute. “The spirits of our planets must be really similar,” Alex started pondering aloud. “Considering the similarity of the conditions, the life itself… Why not indeed, maybe they are siblings in some way. It’s natural for sisters to have a heart-to-heart talk occasionally, right, Luna?” he glanced at her jokingly. “Hey! Are all such spirits… female sorta?!” it suddenly came to his mind. “In all the seriousness, I have no tiniest idea, Alex,” Luna raised one eyebrow at him. “Why don’t thou ask Her next time She wanteth to talk? And all the other questions thou hast… Mindst that I don’t guarantee getting the answers, but still worth trying methinks!” Alex saw the smile in her eyes; like a school filly, Luna was teasing him again. “Questions…” sighed Alex. “The same about that mage the Tree of Harmony mentioned… By the way, Luna, does the spirit of Equus have some actual name? I mean that addressing the powerful spirit, moreover a lady as the Tree… is a bit… strange to say the least…” “I don’t know either!” Luna shook her head with light regret. “She nev’r objected that name or being referenced as She, Her, etcetera likewise. So, what’s about that mage, Alex?” “I simply thought,” Alex turned to his side to see her better and looked into Luna’s eyes, “that magical abilities could be crucial for becoming that… guardian-thing.” He cringed a bit at that word. “I don’t like to guess what is expected from me… I wasn’t asking for that… honour,” Alex smirked wryly. “Even so, didn’t it render the whole idea futile? To bring someone who has below zero understanding of magic. Why me again?” “I guess that wasn’t the determining factor when choosing a human,” retorted Luna, raising a bit. “How many humans who know anything about magic currently dost thou know, Alex? Hmmm… Methinks the point was to get a human exactly… The rest of the motives though… Well, those were her estimations. Again, why not ask Her then… along with her name? As long as thou hast already established a relationship with the lady…” “If I can be sure in something in that world,” uttered Alex jokingly dry, “it is that you never cease teasing me, you mockingbird, you…” Not giving her time to reply, Alex pushed the alicorn girl back to the grass leaning over her and enjoying the excitement appearing in her widening eyes. The willow-tree kept shedding its leaves on the man and mare melting together in a kiss. * Spreading far in the cooling evening air, the sounds of mallet chopped the silence, otherwise broken by gusts of wind and the monotonous hum of the smelter. The latter worked in its regular mode, prepared for the ordinary job. The smell of heated metal mixed with the scents of dry grass and soil from the field, divided into rectangle sectors and ploughed along the contours, so it wouldn’t catch and spread fire in the still dry weather. ‘Autumn took completely over,’ Alex watched from under his palm the distant thread of the train pulling its smoke plume and cutting the rusted field in halves. ‘Why do I have a feeling that everything is going to heat up only?’ The majority of songbirds left, some headed to the south, some simply moved to warmer Everfree from the emptying field, their place taken by the omnipresent sparrows, titmice and crows. Occasionally, the wind dragged by the colourful leaves from a couple of trees at the smithy yard, reminding about the time order. But the Sun shone bright and the skies were still clear inspiring positive thoughts. Alex shook his head dispelling the memories of his recent vision with all its allusions. ‘Right now we have some issues of the day to address instead of guess-games regarding our future!’ Since noon he was busy with an urgent order: the directing rails for metalworking machines were not the most complex but meticulous job, as they needed to be precisely made from the metal durable to a wide range of effects, especially considerable loads under the high temperatures. Thus Alex spent half of the day on something looking for the uninformed eye like a bunch of simple rails, yet demanding attention and accuracy in the work. Not to mention that moving each was quite a tough (should we say weighty) task and Alex had time to regret he didn’t come to the smithy sleepwalking that day. The old blacksmith, on the contrary, hid in the house after lunch and most definitely worked on something new; Alex could occasionally hear metal noise and clanking sounding from the half-open window. He even fancied some strange cloud of violet fog or smoke leaving the window a couple of times. Uncle Will didn’t tell him yet what he was going to make, offering with a sly smile to have a look at the final product. “If I manage to make it play out well,” ambiguously said the old unicorn making Alex even more intrigued. Especially considering that he noticed how, in addition to the regular casts, Willsmash filled some prepared forms with the most durable metal the last time Alex was operating the smelter as the sleepwalker. Alex had some suspicions that it might be related to the glaive, as they finally come to a suitable constructive decision. The prototype was already made, stored in Will’s house not to bring it each time for training – the weapon came out huge by the pony standards and quite unhandy to simply carry around while not in the battle. They worked at the possible solutions for that problem, but till that day stumbled upon certain technical difficulties, not least related to Alex inability to contact with any foreign magic. Foreign because those who knew the human decided that his wings, sleepwalking and everything related were still magic, but different, mostly like Princess Luna’s inborn ability to reign others’ dreams. Thus, the second half of Alex’s day consisted of routine hard work, when the heavy mallet came up and down hitting the steel bars almost automatically as if becoming the natural continuation of his hand, and the attempts to guess what was made behind the curtains. A simple weapon could be assembled in less than an hour, considering Willsmash had all the parts prepared beforehoof; Alex assumed it involved something more complex than some plain mechanic. Finally, he was about to call it a day, with considerable effort moving the last metal rail under the canopy: the order was to be taken and transported on the next day. Scooping from the rainwater barrel, Alex was already washing the hands and cooling his face and shoulders when Silver Ingot suddenly ran onto the porch; taking a look over the yard and spotting Alex, she quickly waved at him to come. “Uncle Will wanted to show you something…” she started with a cryptic expression but Alex’s shirtless view made the unicorn filly blush habitually; with a smile Alex realized that noises from the window ceased a while ago indeed. “Okay, Sil, I’m coming,” he picked up his shirt and nodded towards the instruments. “Just a minute… I’ll tidy up here a bit.” “No worries! I’ll do…” with a smile the filly headed towards the “creative mess” enveloping the pliers in her aura. “Thanks, Sil! Just… be careful with the sledgehammer or don’t move it at all, I’ll bring it in later…” Alex hurried inside. In the dim light of the room – only the table in the middle was brightly lit – Willsmash met him, extremely pleased by his own technical achievement. Something oval or rather fusiform, about two foot in length rested in the middle covered with the thick fabric. “I finally managed to solve the problem!” the blacksmith pointed towards the mysterious object. “Come on, Alex, have a look. And a swing, of course!” the unicorn winked his uninjured eye. “It’s quite compact…” Alex involuntarily started smiling; his hand froze reverently over the cloth. “Uncle Will, don’t say it is the…” “See yourself!” the old unicorn nudged him lightly closer to the table. Holding his breath, Alex removed the fabric. What was underneath mostly resembled an elongated double edge war axe blade of unusual shape and without the actual handle: the middle part was a metal cylinder of the human’s grip-handy diameter, spindle-like with the nested sections visible on the narrowing ends, two double edge crescent-shaped blades were movably attached to the opposite tips, going towards each other on both sides of the middle part. The central shape had a visible ring near the convex round window shimmering with all tints of violet. The metal surfaces were snaking with the familiar peculiar pattern of lines, distinctive to their famous highly durable metal. When Alex reached for the object, it appeared strangely warm, making Alex glance at Willsmash in bewilderment. “I used our blueprints and drafts to make the details and the whole mechanism,” explained the blacksmith with a content smile, “but it would be dead if not one idea – I finally managed to put a magic crystal inside of the construction.” “And it actually works now!” added he proudly. “So, yes, it’s a glaive… as you meant it to be. Don’t worry, the crystal is isolated from the direct touch, remembering your uneasy relationship with magic,” mister Steel let out a tiny smile. Unable to believe his eyes, Alex picked up the unusual weapon weighing it in the hand. “It’s still quite heavy,” nodded the unicorn noticing that. “But at least it became handier to carry and use…” “And how do I…” Alex kept staring at the metalwork masterpiece in his hand. “Stretch your hand and turn that ring in the middle,” suggested the blacksmith. “I tested it already and it works fine, simply be careful not to pierce or knock over something with it. The ring is a bit tight,” noticed he, “and locks with a click in both positions. But it made to be easily operated with a single hand if necessary.” Following blacksmith’s directions, Alex outstretched the right arm with the glaive and turned the ring with his index and thumb fingers with a tiny effort; it went smoothly stopping with a dry audible click, the round eye glowed brighter. Then a miracle started happening: with a faint sizzle, the central part began to unfold section by section, turning into a nearly six-foot length handle. Each couple of sections from both sides turned a bit upon coming out, locking in position, as Alex guessed. Finally, both blades turned opening at thirty degrees angle and locked forming the bevelled tips of the deadly weapon. The glow faded. “It locks itself both after folding and unfolding, not wasting the crystal energy,” Willsmash started explaining the process, while Alex took the glaive with both hands bringing closer and examining it amazedly. “Thus it will stand any hit, which it would stand if made of the solid metal. Besides, if the crystal discharges completely after opening the glaive, it won’t accidentally fold until recharged.” “The eyelet gives you an opportunity to check the crystal condition,” added the unicorn. “If the normal shimmering fades visibly, it must be replaced. I’m still thinking of the ways for you to do it yourself,” confessed he, “meanwhile, somepony will need to do it for you and recharge the crystals. But don’t worry, Alex, one crystal can easily withstand many cycles.” “Now give it a swing!” with a smile, Willsmash moved the table aside with his aura, freeing more space in the middle of the room. Carefully, not to hit anything, Alex swayed the glaive; heavy on the first touch, it spun in his arm surprisingly easy, circling him in honed movement, obedient just like the still version was. Stepping back, the old unicorn watched Alex rotating their creation faster and faster with the enthusiasm of a foal trying the new toy. First carefully, as such exercises better were performed outside than in the room, even the biggest one in the house, then to the point when a glowing dome shielded the human who put to the use everything they trained. That wasn’t some wooden pole already but an impenetrable wall of steel for the possible attackers to take into account. Finally, Alex slowed down the weapon swing and took the glaive vertically, freezing on the spot for a moment and saluting to the master. “Thank you, uncle Will!” he looked at the smiling blacksmith with the deepest gratitude. “It’s wondrous forsooth!” Instead of an answer, Willsmash picked the cloth, which covered the glaive, with his aura and threw it to the ceiling towards the human; the stripe of fabric started falling freely but didn’t reach the floor, cut midway by a single aimed strike like it was thin air, not the thick linen. “When you need it compact, simply turn the ring back to the click,” casually noticed Willsmash, nevertheless extremely pleased by the effect. Needless to say, Alex immediately tried to fold the glaive watching the backwards process like enthralled. Then he unfolded the weapon once again, getting used to it. “Apologies, if ‘t be true I look like a foal with the new toy!” properly guessing the impression he made, Alex looked over his shoulder with a wide happy grin, giving the glaive another wide swing and picking it under his arm. “Uncle Will, may I…” “Tomorrow, okay?” Willsmash chuckled into his beard. “I need to adjust a few things yet.” “Not sure now if I can sleep well,” laughed Alex folding the glaive and returning it on the table. “Uncle Will!” reached their ears from outside through the open window. “Uncle Will, here they came regarding the job!” “So, you did it, Alex,” not believing his ears, the blacksmith shook his head with a smile. “And what’s more surprising – somepony actually reacted that call…” “What’s so strange about it?” Alex raised one eyebrow slyly. “We thought long ago that we could only benefit from a few helping hooves. And sending a vacancy ad in the local newspaper was natural. I was sure that it would work… and it did.” “Try to look at the life more optimistically, uncle Will,” added he with a smile, “ponies don’t necessary think bad about you, they rather got used to that being some… common practice here. Calls for changing methinks. Besides, sometimes pe… ponies simply need a job, not too dangerous – we surely care about safety – and without any crime.” “I’ll better check who it is…” still barely believing in that, Willsmash hurried outside; Alex lingered over the glaive, excitedly examining the blades, which seemed to glow in the dimly light. “There, that colt asked for the job vacancy we had,” Silver Ingot nodded towards the gate when her uncle showed up on the porch. “He is quite young but looks strong enough…” added she in half-voice. “Alex is also quite young,” shortly chuckled Willsmash. “Let’s see what this one has on his mind and what he is worth.” Lit by the low sun, leaning his fore hooves on the fence from the side of the road, a unicorn colt waited for the smithy owner; even if he was nervous, he did his best not to show that and so far coped decently, except maybe some stiffness in the pose, which he tried to make laid-back. Silver Ingot said “colt”, but he could be equally called a stallion; quite young and slim, but visibly muscular. Apparently, he wasn’t avoiding the hard work and had plenty of to practice. Waving the withered grass in the field, the cool evening wind played with colt’s mane and tail making a small muscle on his shoulder twitch lightly. “Good evening, mister! How can I help you?” the blacksmith approached examining the newcomer with the piercing look of his attentive eye. “Good evening, sir! Mister Steel, right? I’m Diamond Chisel,” the colt withstood the glance with entire seriousness. “I heard the smithy sent a vacancy ad, even saw it in the newspaper… So, you need more workers. They say the smithy is fully operational again, so… I think I’m exactly the pony you need!” concluded he with a small smile. “Hmmm… I like the spirit,” nodded Willsmash. “But I hope it’s understandable if I ask some questions.” “Well, I have… nothing to hide,” the colt waved his fore leg in a sincere gesture. “Did you have any experience with metalwork, Diamond Chisel?” the old unicorn proceeded right to the matter of things. “Which exactly, if yes?” “I’m afraid I have nothing to boast about here,” shrugged the colt. “Till today I have worked with metal in the form of finished tools and objects only. But I’m ready to learn everything I need to know and do…” The old blacksmith nodded at his words smiling; so far the newcomer made a good impression. Besides, they had nothing to choose from yet, frankly speaking, getting this one applicant looked a miracle to mister Steel. “Where have you worked before?” asked Willsmash pondering which position one could willingly change to the dubious smithy job. Deep inside he still wasn’t sure of citizens acceptance, despite the recent episode with Fluttershy, clearly showing that more ponies, than he supposed, were ready to deal with the blacksmith. “Formally I’m still working at the building site,” chuckled the colt a bit sadly. “You know, the construction at the north-east of Ponyville, but this job is coming to the natural end and…” “Formally? Sorry,” Willsmash blinked a couple of times, not completely understanding the problem. “Well,” sighed the unicorn colt, “I don’t feel myself a part of the crew anymore… Became a… white crow, since the time I parted some views with the rest of the team.” “Was that exactly what made you look for the different job?” the blacksmith stared at him puzzledly and the colt was to elaborate. “I reconsidered my attitude towards the foreigners… and that seemed to rub badly with the others. So,” he smirked wryly, “I nearly became one myself. Besides, as I said the construction is almost completed and I decided to try myself on the different field. But, yes, the former is the main reason.” “Uncle Will,” listening to them till that moment, Silver Ingot headed back to the house, “if you don’t need me, I’ll address the dinner.” “Yes, dear, if you please!” “Alex won’t stay for the dinner this time again, right?” asked the filly picking the door with her aura already. After the affirmative nod of her uncle, the girl sighed and disappeared into the house. “So it’s true,” half-inquiringly stated the colt, with some tension in his voice. “They said the human was working at the smithy… and it turns out correct.” “Yes,” Willsmash raised the eyebrow. “Alex is an equal partner here, so, naturally, he works at the smithy. Is there any problem? With the humans in particular…” “N-no, sir. Of course not!” however, the colt’s smile was a bit stiff. The next moment he glanced at the house behind Willsmash and strained. “Uncle Will!” sounded from the porch, Alex came down smiling. “That’s some real magic! I hope you finish with tuning tomorrow, am dying from the wish to try its full capabilities.” Willsmash looked over the shoulder: Alex shone like a polished horseshoe, apparently, the impression, given by the new glaive, exceeded all blacksmith’s expectations. Then Alex’s eyes stopped at the newcomer, the human blinked a few time and they widened, going from recognition to surprise and then to genuine interest. Quickly gazing back at Diamond, the old unicorn spotted a faint shadow, which slid across the colts muzzle, and a barely noticeable retreat impulse. However, the colt coped with himself and kept face. “So, this is our job applicant?” Alex showed nothing except hospitality. “Good evening!” “Mhm…” the blacksmith alternated between them with growing interest. “I’ve asked about the experience already. But even without it, the guy seems fine for our needs, as long as he is willing to learn.” ‘Yeah, especially that we have nopony else to come yet…’ chuckled Alex inwardly. Then he spread his arms. “Well, as long as the gentlecolt is entirely confident that he wants to try and isn’t afraid of hard work… I see no reasons to object either.” “Feel free to come on the morrow, sir!” Alex addressed Diamond, who stood with round eyes like thunderstruck. “And… welcome!” At first … looked completely frozen and Alex inwardly had a moment of foalish fun, imagining how Pinkie would surely have waved in front of his eyes or tried to wake him loudly. Coping with the feelings, their new workpony squeezed out words of gratitude and said goodbye crumpledly. “Was that one of the stallions, you came to blows with in the bar in spring?” Willsmash Steel followed the receding figure of the extremely puzzled colt when the latter finally left. “Yup! Uncle Will, don’t tell Sil about that, okay?” answering the inquiring glance of the blacksmith, Alex shrugged. “If he came here willingly, I want the guy to have a completely clean start. Our… racial dispute is water under the bridge.” “Hmmm… Fine!” the unicorn smiled into his beard. “Otherwise, he has fair chances to be morally executed daily… If only morally!” * “Is everything okay, Lulu?” Princess Celestia glanced across the table at her sister. “You are smiling quietly for the whole day… I know it’s your rightful holiday, but still… a bit unusual, blueberry…” Luna indeed was mysteriously cheerful: in the morning, when she entrusted the Court to Celestia with that tiny smile, and then later in the evening, right after getting up, preparing for her nightly duties, which included the special holiday activities on that day – all the time she was subtly enjoying some idea. Even knowing sister’s love for the Nightmare Night – the day when pranks were officially encouraged – Princess Celestia looked puzzled; she couldn’t remember her regal sister being so inspired the last year for example. “Simply anticipating,” Luna daintily sipped her usual coffee with the most innocent look, but the sparkles dancing in her deep blue eyes told her sister at once, there was anything but simple in Luna’s expectations. “I have so many plans for this night, so many places to visit. It’s always exciting, even more because of befalling once a year, sunny!” “Like every year, dear, when you try to cover all the significant places of Equestria,” noticed Celestia casually. “Do you plan to visit Ponyville again?” “Yes, Tia, like the good old tradition,” smirked Luna, putting her cup away. “Alas, only Ponyville is getting the special treatment tonight…” she sighed with a tint of disappointment. “It would be quite difficult to bring this trick to every place…” “Don’t overdo it… you two,” Celestia looked at her fixedly, while Luna was musingly observing the darkening sky behind the arched windows. “What? Oh… thou knowest us, sister, we are prudence embodied,” the big blue filly pretended to just wake up from her thoughts and shrugged. “No casualties!” “We?” with a wry smile the Solar Princess rolled her eyes, shuddering slightly at the word “casualties”; sometimes her sister’s humour was borderline scary. “Does “we” mean you – Luna Selena of Equestria… or is my primary assumption correct?” “Either way is valid, sunny!” Luna only smiled, wishing puzzled Celestia a good night. That day finally came; shorter than every previous one, while the nights fell darker and longer each. The air, misty and humid at night, was crystal clear in the daylight, subtly bringing the chillness of upcoming season. Managing to survive the Running of the Leaves, the golden and red foliage fluttered in the light wind from the western mountains. The spirit of general anticipation filled the air: the foals were given no homework for that weekend, thus having that Saturday completely free of celebration unrelated affairs. The adults in their turn were preparing to deliver them a long-awaited holiday and, truth be told, to enjoy the process as well, remembering their own adventures during Nightmare Nights. Thus Ponyville reminded some noisy beehive long before the actual celebration started. The activity was noticeably centripetal and reached its maximum at the Town Hall square – the largest open place of the town, where the majority of Ponyville-wide celebrations were usually held. Mayor Mare was extremely supportive of the event, even taking a significant role in it; her only stipulation was to aim pumpkin-catapults away from the actual Town Hall. The latter was easily affordable, aiming them towards the creek, skirting Ponyville from the south, so, the aquatic friends of Fluttershy could have personal part of Nightmare Night feast when an accidental projectile missed the targets and smacked into the waters instead. However, Mayor Mare never got tired to repeat each October 31st – “No pumpkin stains on the Town Hall, okay!!!” Applejack was to hire a few stallions to help with the loaded wagons, otherwise she and Big Mac would never manage to deliver in time all the treats Apple Farm usually supplied for the celebration. Harnessed like the others, she pulled the next overloaded cart, huffing tiredly. Her head was occupied by the dilemma: to put on her Nightmare Night costume meant to reveal it beforehoof and probably bedraggle on the road, but lingering with that could lead to having no time to put it on or forgetting something important. Applejack secretly regretted not following brother’s advice; Big Mac already had a word with Rarity, whose boutique was almost next to the Town Hall, and brought his packed costume, leaving it at unicorn fashionista’s home. Not doing that herself now looked even more stupid to Applejack, as the last stroke of her own disguise needed Rarity’s help anyway. Big Mac pulled his burden almost relaxedly and looked content, chewing a straw in the corner of his light smile. Applejack threw a glance at him; perhaps he thought about the better ways to set up the holiday attractions, he was going to help with after delivering the goods. Or, and Applejack had a strong suspicion of that, McIntosh heard out of the corner of his ear about the most likely being prepared surprise part of the party… But trying to pull a word about that out of his mouth was like watering the sand in Appleloosa desert. “Where are the fillies, Ah’d want to know?” Applejack pushed her stetson to the nape and wiped her forehead. “At the clubhouse,” shrugged Big Mac, still in his thoughts. “Last time Ah saw them there, with Babs. Making final touch to their costumes…” “Ah certainly hope they know, what they’re doin’!” smirked Applejack. Babs, Apple Bloom’s cousin, came to visit Apples on the holiday. Applejack was still unsure if the fillies were entirely safe with their older friend… or not, as that mischievous short-maned filly could equally keep the girls in hooves or serve exactly as a detonator for their TNT pack. But apparently, it was either sending them four to the clubhouse or putting all the watching after the colourful hurricane (plus Winona naturally adding to the rush) sweeping around the farm on the shoulders of Granny Smith. “Hmmm… Ra-ra, I still don’t see the point in the costume being quite alike the dresses you usually make,” Pinkie’s voice sounded muffled because of her own Nightmare Night disguise; she stepped back and looked evaluatively over Rarity’s long dress. “Maybe a bit more extravagant than usual… The bow and the whole length of it… Are you sure, you can walk normally? I mean, this should definitely get under your hooves.” “Besides,” she snorted quietly. “Nopony will probably doubt that it is you, knowing your artistic tastes…” “Oh, stop it, Pinkie, and help me tighten the belt properly!” Rarity rolled her eyes, batting the carefully outlined eyelashes: the whole dark and red makeup advantageously contrasted against her pale coat and she cocked her head graciously, boasting the high complex manedo her hair was constructed into. “You should educate yourself better, daarin’. That’s not “one of my extravagant dresses”! I’m the neighponese geisha assassin, dangerous mare fatale…” “Fotefeff! Ff fu fure, fu fan freaff fine fif ffat?” “What, sorry?” Rarity was too busy estimating the result in the large mirror. “I said, are you sure you can breathe fine with that?” Pinkie let go off the belt, when Rarity nodded contentedly, tightening her already shapely waist and letting Rarity fix the rest with her aura. “And… What if you need to run… I doubt you can in such a long dress…” “Hmpf!” huffed Rarity, she opened the hem cut and stretched her hind leg out, demonstrating a pack of throwing knives strapped to her thigh instead of the answer. “I’m not going to run from anypony! They should run,” glanced she at Pinkie with emphasis. “…and more of those are placed instead of the hairpins, yes.” Rarity winked. “By the way, with all due respect, I doubt I can see something creepier than your costume tonight… Unless you plan to throw the same trick as three years ago, daarin’. But I’m sure everypony is prepared.” “You know that was a mistake,” Pinkie Pie pouted jokingly. “And… scaring the hay out of others is the point of Nightmare Night, isn’t it?” “One of the points…” corrected her Rarity. “Another is to GET MORE CANDY!” exclaimed Pinkie, at that moment the large sundew-like floral maw slammed shut, making her owner sound muffled again. With a little effort, Pinkie opened the large raptorial plant flower mounted around her head and giggled, making the numerous green tentacles and leaves on her neck and shoulders shake; Rarity watched that scene with the mix of reproach and carefully hidden shiver. “I decided that dressing as chickens and stuff was irrational, when it came down to candy,” Pinkie raised one brow. “Omnivorous monster-plant is way better for that purpose! With that I can gather tons of it literally with little to none effort,” she sported a wide grin. “I’m sure you will,” muttered Rarity aside. “Would like to see a suicide refusing to pay that thing off.” “Knock-knock!” Rainbow tried the front door with a feeling of knocking on the fortress entrance. The shutters were closed on the ground floor, upper floor windows were curtained tight; no sound came out of the cottage and the whole yard looked as if prepared to stand an assault. The opening door revealed a small part of Fluttershy’s muzzle and her turquoise eye cautiously focused on Rainbow Dash. Obviously, the yellow pegasus girl expected somepony else and a certain dose of anxiety added to recognition and reserved joy in her glance. “Oh… Th-this is you, Dash,” Fluttershy opened the door a bit wider and Rainbow almost saw, how her friend scanned the landscape behind Dash’s back carefully. Angel’s pink nose peeked funnily from her sumptuous mane between Fluttershy’s perked ears; it was so funny, Rainbow couldn’t hold a snort. “Of course, it’s me, pal! Who did you expect – hurricane?” “Is there a difference?” Fluttershy let out a tiny smile. “Slip in!” she slammed the door shut the second after Rainbow Dash squeezed through. “Heh! You can brisk nevertheless, mate… That’s not bad!” she hugged Fluttershy tight, making Angel leave his cover and hop into the living room. “What’s going on though?” “Oh, you know,” Fluttershy rolled her eyes tiredly, welcoming her guest to follow the bunny; automatically Rainbow noticed the unusual silence in the cottage. “I thought it’s already started… l-like each year.” “I thought you have grown over this fear, Flutters, and wanted to bring you back to the herd tonight,” chuckled Rainbow Dash, flopping into one of the armchairs and glancing at the hostess slyly. “Especially since you are friends with… booooo!” she made scary eyes and waved her fore hooves in the air, “Princess Luna… Oops!” “Sorry, mate!” Rainbow cupped her mouth with the fore hoof, throwing a guilty glance at Fluttershy. “Oh, that’s okay, Dashie,” with a more relaxed smile Fluttershy brushed away sudden awkwardness. “We are friends with her, no matter what.” “Then why not have some fun indeed?” after a momentary thinking Rainbow cheered up again. She examined Fluttershy’s mane with interest. “You know, Flutters… We could… Really, we could paint you into Chrysalis! What?” “If I didn’t know you, I’d have thought you were joking…” Fluttershy stared at her friend bemusedly. “But this is a bit… much, Dash, don’t you think?” She picked up Angel and nested in another armchair, keeping him on her knees and shaking her head. “Why not?!” Rainbow seemed quite inspired by her idea. “You have mane and tail long enough, you can fly… better than you think,” she squinted at Fluttershy, “don’t deny it. And you can be quite… persuasive if you want. And that would bring a fresh breath into the celebration, if you ask me, scaring the whole town shitless!” Dash sported a wide grin. “Thanks!” Fluttershy wasn’t sure the idea was that bright. “I can’t… hiss like her. Yeah, definitely!” Rainbow Dash burst laughing, making both Fluttershy and Angel jump on the spot. “Hiss! Aha-ha-ha! Hiss… Seriously, Shy, you keep underestimating yourself!” Rainbow watched her friend admiringly. “With the proper disguise that wouldn’t be necessary! Telling ya!..” she kept snorting for a while. “Anyway, that’d be super awesome…” “Who are you going as?” Fluttershy interested politely, stroking Angel behind his ears soothingly. “Oh!” Rainbow Dash puffed proudly, clearly telling that Fluttershy’s method worked. “I think it won’t hurt if I tell you… especially as you’re not going to tell everypony,” she made a face and shrugged. “I’m going as Meteor-Mare. Kinda suits, right?” the cyan pegasus smirked. “I’m absolutely positively not going to tell anypony,” assured her Fluttershy with a kind smile. “Especially as I’m not going. But…” added she, not letting her friend object, “could the superhero start helping those in need already?” With those words Fluttershy pulled a huge and seemingly quite heavy bag from behind her armchair, pushing it towards silent Rainbow. “Can you place that next to the garden entrance, please. And that note on the gate, Dash?” Fluttershy smiled apologetically. “I’m afraid we’re under siege tonight…” Dumbfounded Rainbow Dash picked the announcement, written on the hard carton sheet. “PLEASE - take the treats you need (from the bag) - don’t forget others may need as well - the main request: do not disturb the animals Thank you very much and enjoy the holiday!” She still chuckled, shaking her head, while nailing the note to the gate. “Well, daarin’, if you don’t rush and dash, they will sit like a glove, properly spread and holding vertically,” Rarity bucked aside her long hem and stepped back to estimate the work done. Judging by her proud huff, she was quite satisfied. Especially that she needed to fix everything in a hurry, especially while being a bit restrained in her moves due to her own extravagant costume. Not to mention that she was to reveal her costume beforehoof to at least two of her friends, which Rarity did very reluctantly. “They look very natural if you ask me. Like a part of you, Jackie!” the unicorn fashionista pulled lightly with her magic the medium size manticore wings attached to Applejack’s back under the grey-sandy velvet overalls, quite similar to real lion coat, and nodded contently. “If you say so, sugarcube!” Applejack stepped back cautiously, not to knock over something in that kingdom of exemplar order, as her generous friend managed to tidy up the ribbons, pins and all the other accessories after Pinkie helped her to dress. The mare threw a glance over herself in the large mirror; the pleasure of realistically looking costume mixed with a tint of incertitude in her green eyes. “Ah’m worried if Ah don’t get too hot under that,” muttered she, seemingly not the first time as Rarity rolled her carefully outlined eyes. “Maybe fixing the wings with some belts would be easier… Ah’m almost of the manticore colour anyway…” “You think so, daarin’?! Remember. Three. Rules. Of Rarity!” uttered separately her friend. “I’m not going to trade any of them for ease,” the unicorn girl huffed. “Besides, where would you hide your cutiemark then, tell me? That’s not mentioning the ugly belts visible around your body. No, no, no! You won’t need to run like mad, Jackie. For once relax, daarin’! You already did everything you could to make it great, now simply enjoy the celebration…” She cocked up her head, flaunting the dark and bright-red makeup on her glowingly white skin, confidently shaking her high manedo; when it came to fashion-related questions, Rarity was steadfast like a rock. Applejack took a look over the Neighponese assassin: her appraisingly squinted eyes, fore hoof musingly cupping her chin, the throwing knives, as if by chance they shone behind the garter glimpsing in the high cut of Rarity’s long white dress. Naturally, the mare preferred not to argue over the insignificant things. “Well… as we have come to the agreement on this…” Rarity let out a victorious smile and began to pull a long leathery-looking hose over her friend’s braided tail. “Ouch!” Applejack alternated from hoof to hoof, Rarity probably pulled a bit hard. “Stand still, daarin’! One more pull…” the unicorn girl made one last effort and the manticore tail firmly nested over the natural one. “And be careful with it. The tip is quite heavy, don’t hit somepony with it.” With her aura Rarity levitated a large hairbrush from somewhere and addressed the lush fluffy mane made of false fur and attached together with the round brown ears to Applejack’s head over her own gathered and hidden mane. Gently holding the desperately flushing friend under her chin, Rarity started brushing future manticore’s mane through murmuring something under her breath. The whole image of the dangerously looking girl in a flowing white dress grooming the predator was quite picturesque and, apparently, there was at least one thankful beholder to admire it. “Eeyup!” sounded from the door to another room. Fully equipped in his costume, Big Mac was standing there for a while already, leaning on the door frame and enjoying the sight with an impassive expression but a smile written in his eyes. “What?” both girls inquired simultaneously; Rarity stopped brushing Applejack’s false mane and flushed a little as well. With her Nightmare Night costume and makeup it turned out surprisingly cute. Under sister’s glare, the stallion winked then pulled lower his wide tricorn with cuts for the ears and long shabby feather; he made an absent face, his sight glazed, eyes staring into one point. “Uuurghhhh!” uttered Big Mac and walked across the room with a staggering unsteady gait. His beautifully tailored camisole and pants were artificially worn out, made threadbare and torn in artistically selected places. The same treatment was delivered to his knee-high boots, which looked like they spent their long and glorious life in the multitude of raids and battles but still managed to hold together by some magic. His wooden sword was painted to look rusty and notched and an ancient pistol shoved behind the belt made an impression that it rusted in a single chunk ages ago. Deliberately stomping on one spot for a while as if he was troubled with choosing the direction, Big Mac turned to check the impression he made and glanced at the girls slyly. “Confess, Macky, you’ve chosen the role with fewer words on purpose, so this costume,” joking, Rarity nevertheless couldn’t hold back a shudder looking at his makeup, despite she herself painted all those scars, bruises and old wounds. In the dim light, the result of her mastery looked specifically believable: it seemed that pieces of flesh were really torn out here and there, a fake broken bone protruded from the ripped sleeve, carefully attached to appear realistic. “Eeyup!” McIntosh sported a wide grin, which came out both cheerful and, truth be told, intimidating, considering his current look. “Besides, this won’t prevent me from helping with the attractions.” “Just be careful not to scare away the foals, bro!” Applejack smirked watching him enjoying the costume as if her brother returned to the foalhood for this evening. “He is doing it too realistically, what a strike of inspiration!” the girls exchanged glances and Rarity nodded determinedly. “It was a good idea to go without the eyepatch…” “Look, daarin’, I think we must tidy up here as well!” With these words, Rarity began brushing the mane again. “Ah’m sorry, partner!” Applejack downcasted a little. “Ah should bring my stuff here beforehoof, not to detain everypony… just like Macky did. He is prepped and kickin’ already.” “Urrghhh!” behind their backs, the stallion swayed in front of the mirror, rolling his eyes in a terrifying manner. “Oh, come on! Stop it Mac!” giggled both mares. “You’re getting a tiny bit too much believable!” “Spike!” Twilight puzzledly examined the dark second level of the Library hall, there was no light in any of the rooms and only a few candles burned dimly on the ground floor. She checked the empty bathroom and the kitchen, also pitch dark – there was nopony in both. Alex’s door was closed but a stripe of light was peeking from underneath, showing that he was probably working even on the holiday eve. As he asked to stay undisturbed that evening, the alicorn girl concluded that hardly the human and her dragon aide would have some technical dispute, thus Spike couldn’t be there either. “Spike!” another call remained unanswered and only the even rows of books stared at her from the endless shelves around the darkening room as the last rays of sunlight slowly faded in the windows on both sides of the front door. ‘Where did this little imp go?’ “Pffft…” Twilight spat out and removed with her aura the false fangs, which frankly speaking were making her shouts sound quite muffled as the girl didn’t get used to them yet, despite they were one of the main parts of her tonight’s costume. “Spiiiiike!!!” she flushed a bit feeling a tiny prick of guilt; some rustle followed by a sigh sounded from behind Alex’s door when Twilight’s voice rolled across the Golden Oak Library without let or hindrance. “We’re running late! Where are you lingering?” added she less sonorously. With a well-discernible yawn sound, something fluffy if not say shaggy trudged from the darkness of the upper floor and started descending, muffledly yawning each next step of the stairs. Twilight watched the phenomenon silently with question and amusement mixed. “Well… yawn… to have a nap… be-e-e-yawn-fore the holiday was a nice thought,” muttered the fluffy creature, “the only… yawn… problem is to wake completely. Arrrghhh!” it bucked up a bit, ruffling even more. “Spike?!” Twilight stifled a smile; her eyes unwittingly rounded. “Yeah! Who else that could be, Twi?” the creature threw back the shaggy hood of the faux-fur cape revealing the sleepy but content muzzle of the little dragon. The next second Spike stumbled and bewilderment started filling his quickly waking eyes. “Whom is your costume supposed to present, for Celestia’s sake?” He still couldn’t hold another yawn, examining Twilight with wide-open eyes. “And why it’s so dark here anyway?” “That’s more atmospheric!” Twilight winked jokingly; the lack of light was indeed unusual for this place of knowledge even in the evenings. The few candles couldn’t dispel the shadows gathering in far corners of the large hall surrounded by the high bookcases, thus the room began looking a little creepy, quite suitable for the Nightmare Night though. “As for the costume… this time I chose something more in the spirit of the night,” Twilight put back the false fangs and cocked her nose. “I’m Count Dracula! Quiver you mortals!.. So, does it sound earnestly?” she stretched her old-fashioned tux and snow-white shirt with lush jabot, wrapping herself in the pitch-black cape with high collar and red lining. “That’s a powerful vampire from human mythology, based on the real historical figure by the way,” the girl squinted meaningfully. “The problem is, probably nopony knows a bit about him,” chuckled Spike. “Although I must confess, it looks intimidating anyway. So, I guess that you must be fine.” “Of course, I must be fine!” snorted Twilight quite proud of her effort; she shook her mane, which the filly gathered into a flat knot on her nape, pulling her bangs back as well and leaving only two strands to hang on both sides of her face – thus the manedo came out looking short and manly, yet antique to the extreme. “And what’s your costume representing, pray tell?” “I’m a weredragon!” proudly puffed Spike. “The weredragon! The one and only in Equestria! Rawr!” he stood on all four, putting the hood back on his head and puffing, so his cape looked even more fluffy and his tail, disguised as the wolf’s one, bristled. Spike giggled and raised back to his feet. “That’s was easy to make, Twi. Besides, I have my own fangs,” he grinned. “I like the result and must admit it wasn’t a bad idea.” “Well, certain progress since the year you dressed as a… dragon,” Twilight couldn’t hold back and sprinkled a laughter almost making her false fangs fly out of her mouth and causing another quiet rustle from behind Alex’s closed door. “At the very least it a better idea than your suggestion to dress me as a Neighponese ghost-filly from the well, with long black mane and in a white nightgown!” huffed Spike, he squinted at Twilight then at the door. “I guess where these ideas are coming from! But that one would be too much…” “Japanese, Spike. It’s called Japanese there,” Twilight let out a smile. “Don’t be a bore… That looks so unfamiliar and frighteningly eerie for our everyday life, you would certainly scare the hay out of everypony.” “But thanks!” retorted Spike with a dry mien. “I’ll let you both play with human mythology if you want. To dress me in a girly nightgown…” he snorted loudly. “Speaking of which,” the small dragon nodded at Alex’s door. “Is he not going to celebrate? Especially as they have a similar holiday at their home world…” “He said, he needed some quiet time for work,” Twilight shrugged, meticulously extinguishing the candles with her aura, so the large hall becoming completely dark with the faintest light coming only through the two windows and the gap under Alex’s door, “and would come later.” She wrinkled her nose and waved the hoof as the last candle went out with the dense smoke. “But I think he is plotting something for the celebration. Some surprise, maybe with somepony else,” Twilight leaned closer whispering in Spike’s ear almost hidden behind the fluffy hood. “He didn’t tell exactly, but I clearly saw Alex being slightly nervous,” she winked slyly, adding louder while trotting to the front door. “Come on, Spike! We’re late already and I don’t want to miss something interesting!” The square in front of the Golden Oak and the streets falling in were half-lit compared to usual Ponyville nights; maybe for the atmosphere or maybe to deliver more resources to light the Town Hall square, where the main herd gathered. One way or another, thick dusk made the costumes of scurrying here and there foals look winningly realistic, which was highly welcomed by the latter. Besides, it was the night among a few during the year when the foals were allowed to have fun around the town without constant parental supervision, so the youngsters did their best to use the chance to the fullest. For the whole evening, Twilight was to open the front door countless times for the next portion of costumed candy hunters, laughing and letting everypony go with some prize. The foals were still rather afraid to knock on Alex’s half-open window, despite the gamine wish to do that clearly read on their muzzles. The human in his turn supposed that he took enough part in the holiday bringing two large baskets of various confection from the market that morning, thus providing those proverbial treats. At that moment the numbers of the foals in the streets thinned and the general movement became visibly centripetal: everypony headed to the southern square, from where the breeze brought the variety of tasty scents and hum of the large herd. Wrapping up in the luxurious cape and closely followed by the Weredragon, count Dracula – also known as Twilight in common life – headed towards Carousel Boutique, the shortest path to the Town Hall from the Library. The closer to the Town Hall the more ponies filled the town streets; some foals still roamed about and tried their luck at the neighbourhood doors but the majority of the ponyvillers gathered at the “central” square already enjoying the treats, attractions and each other costumes. The main event of the Nightmare Night was also highly anticipated as a yearly tradition, as since her return, Princess Luna never failed to shed her attention on Ponyville on that holiday. Numerous ponies, foals and adults, outran Twilight and Spike; many of them glanced at the strange couple: some with interest, some with a smile, a few with genuine shuddering – Twilight’s costume was quite impressive. Even if the majority of ponyvillers didn’t have an idea about count Dracula, they caught the general vampire motive; besides, with the generous help of Rarity, Twilight evidently put her soul into the costume making it atmospheric. Thus when she decided to jokingly throw a grim glance and reveal a fang through a wry smile to a group of high school fillies, dressed as fairies, ghosts and mermares, the latter first squeaked in exaggerated fright, then sped up, running forward, laughing and nudging each other, looking back at the pale “stallion” with unnaturally red lips and his strange follower. Needless to say, that a fluffy dragon with a wolf-like tail was a view unusual enough for many of the passers to pay their attention to; Spike was completely satisfied with the effect as in general he preferred the sweets-and-candy aspect of Nightmare Night to the prank-and-scare one. “Well, it seems that this year everything is going to run smoothly again,” noticed Twilight when they passed the Bouncing Barrels bar and turned left on the corner to cut the path through some alleys. “Without the major incidents, I hope… We haven’t seen some undoubtedly prepared pranks yet, of course, but…” The sight of the bar sign and showcase made Twilight smile remembering the actual incident between Alex and Rainbow there and the talks it woke; she looked back at her friend and aide. “Don’t you think so, Spike?” “If you say so…” a bit muffledly sounded he crunching with something; Spike miraculously managed to get hold of some sweets already, completely unnoticed by Twilight. “Don’t forget about possible Alex’s plans, we know nothing about,” he reminded meaningfully. “And if that’s not enough… we always have Pinkie to the rescue. Hey, want some candy?” “Hmmm… Not now, maybe later…” muttered Twilight, clearly realizing that later it might be nothing to talk about when it came down to candies and Spike. His words made her pondering; while believing in the decent level of prudence of the human, the girl remembered that random foals threw out a wild trick yearly. Till that moment it got along without any accidents. ‘May it keep that way…’ A few more minutes of trotting, another sharp turn of the narrow alley, and the Town Hall square revealed itself to the friends’ view. Brightly lit by the multitude of torches and colourful lamps on the posts and ropes stretched in various directions, it seemed to hospitably accommodate the whole town. Costumed ponies were everywhere: along the stalls with different treats outlining the square, around the attractions where foals and their parents waited for their turn, mingling and chattering joyfully at the free part of the square, despite calling it “free” would be quite optimistic. However, surprisingly there was enough room for everypony to have fun and enjoy the Nightmare Night celebration, nopony felt constrained or unwelcome. ‘Almost nopony…’ corrected herself Twilight; scanning the vast square from her vantage point before they both entered the seething sea of ponyvillers, she couldn’t find at least one family anywhere – Steels. Apparently, Willsmash and his niece didn’t feel confident enough yet to join the celebration, preferring to watch it from the distance or simply not attending at all. Twilight couldn’t hold back a sigh of sadness imagining that. Otherwise, whoever only was there: foals and adults dressed as wizards, zombies and ghosts, based on their fantasy, time and effort devoted for their costumes. It didn’t matter that some characters repeated: Twilight could count a few different skeleton costumes, a couple of astronauts in round transparent helmets (she was almost sure that one colt simply put a round fish tank onto his head), pirates of different seas and cultures, mermares – mostly high-school fillies preferred that type of costume. One could easily form a whole assault squad from the ghosts of various sizes and forms to storm a small fort if necessary. Of course, there were a lot of unique and original ones: beasts and monsters, a few historical figures, Twilight even spotted one timberwolf and frowned lightly remembering the rumours of them coming quite close to the town that Autumn. A filly dressed as Princess Celestia glimpsed in the herd, making Twilight blink a few times first, questioning her vision of the mentor suddenly visiting Nightmare Night celebration. “Aha! Here you are!” something green and rainbow-tailed flashed past wincing from surprise Twilight and Rainbow Dash landed near them for a second only to grab her and Spike, pulling them through the slowly mingling herd towards the opposite edge of the square, closer to the attractions. “Come on, pals! Stop lingering there like unwelcome!” Twilight noticed that Rainbow had time to pay tribute to her love of the whole life – apple cider – and energy gushed over the edge of the already speedy and adventurous filly. Finding her path between the strolling and communicating ponies by some miracle, Dash pulled them past the large scene with completely occupied rows of seats: Mayor Mare declaimed something for the engrossed in narrative foals and a number of colts and fillies of a bit older age – that was a story of Nightmare Night origins and the tradition most likely. This year the mare dressed as a weeping ghost, quite veracious at sight, even mixing in the scary and attractive aspects. Twilight chuckled inwardly: Spike’s complaints about Mayor Mare’s totally unfitting and atmosphere destroying attempt to dress as a clown two years before didn’t fell on deaf ears. Be it a killer-clown not some regular hilariously clumsy one, that would have been a different story. “I flew past you, mates, two times before I spotted Spike in the herd!” Rainbow Dash stopped only when she brought them near the attractions and stalls with Apples’ treats, joining the rest of the friends there. “First I thought it was some unknown stallion,” giggled she, examining Twilight from head to hoof. “But there is only one dragon in Ponyville… even if dressed so… unusually!” “What’s the character, by the way?!” the cyan girl pulled Twilight by her cape lightly; her friend watched Big Mac trotting on the treadmill and spinning the carousel to the great pleasure of the riding and waiting for their turn foals. Twilight could appreciate the effort invested in his costume. Meeting her glance, McIntosh let out a small smile then made a scary face and grunted making the foals squeak and burst in a whoop of laughter. “Huh? What, sorry?” Twilight asked Rainbow to repeat her question. “Oh. Tonight I’m Count Dracula, the great and…” she stumbled and coughed remembering some associative link, “the terrifying vampire lord!” “That’s from human mythology…” inputted Spike glancing at Rainbow with self-explanatory mien. “Oh, I see!” meaningfully huffed the mare. “And you must be…” she looked fixedly at him examining, “… a weredragon, right?” “How did you guess?!” Spike stared at Dash. “Hmmm…” the Meteor-Mare sported a wide grin. “First, I’m the smartest mare alive… after Twilight,” added she. “And second, you definitely share my love for timberwolves imitation, so a pure guess… or maybe your tail suggested that!” The mention of timberwolves made Twilight fall into thoughts again until she was pulled out by approaching Applejack. “Roar!” she let out a slightly tired smile, demonstratively waggling her scorpion tail. “What a night! Ah have no spare minute…” despite she involved a few mares and stallions to help with the stalls and attractions, Applejack was quite busy, wiping the forehead with the lion paw of her costume. “Ah think we need to expand next year,” she said taking a look over overherded place with all the stalls and the row of catapults occupying the river bank part of the opening. “It becomes ‘bit tight ‘ere with all the stuff, sugarcubes!” Twilight nodded. She didn’t know absolutely all the ponyvillers like Pinkie, but watching the herd even she could spot a few new muzzles here and there; foals and their parents coming for the holiday from distant farms and mining villages, naturally they gravitated to the nearby bigger towns for entertainment. “And where are the rest?” as if reading her thoughts, inquired Spike taking a seeking glance over the closest part of the square. With a smile Twilight guessed whom he was looking for. “Pinkie?” Applejack shrugged. “She was feeling kinda tight ‘ere. Ah guess she is scurryin’ around the town on her candy hunt.” She chuckled watching the new ponies approaching the stalls and attractions, nopony left unsatisfied. “If Ah’m not mistaken, Pinkie wanted to check on Flutters also… even maybe try to talk her through to visit the celebration,” the girls sighed. “Ya know, each year is the same but she still hopes to persuade her one day.” “Mhm…” Rainbow Dash coughed strangely, she shook her head at girls’ inquiring glance and kept to herself that she suggested Fluttershy dress up as Chrysalis a few hours ago. “Must be cider coming up my nose…” muttered she embarrassedly. “Daarin’, I told her, that was a bad idea… considering her costume!” lazily spoke the familiar voice from behind making Twilight and Spike turn their heads. “But that’s Pinkie for you. Good evening, friends!” Their eyes stopped on the almost glowing figure behind making both count Dracula and Weredragon admit, that night Rarity probably topped her list of spectacular appearances. Her white coat looked as if the girl used some makeup to turn it ghostly glowing, competing with the colour of her long neighponese dress with thin bright red and black trim. Raising on her hind legs, Rarity leaned casually on the nearby stall; with a spark of reflected light, the throwing knives glimpsed behind the black garter on her confidently outstretched leg showing in the high cut of her flowing dress. Picking with her aura a hairpin, which turned out to be a narrow stiletto blade, Rarity threw a glance of the half-lidded lovingly outlined eyes over the company and began polishing her fore hoof examining it as if nothing else could interest her more. “I mean, Pinkie’s costume is outright scary… I don’t envy Shy seeing that in her yard probably,” uttered she blowing aside one of a few strands, which fell on her face escaping Rarity’s high manedo and fashioning her look somewhat relaxed but at the same time extremely tough. “Ummm… Errmmm… What?” Twilight opened and closed her mouth for a while causing Applejack and Rainbow giggles behind; the girls already saw Rarity and have some time to accommodate to her outstanding look, recovering from the initial amazement. Spike in his turn looked as if all of neighponese assassin’s knives bulleted through him, in other words, he was shot on the spot yet evidently enjoyed it immensely. Satisfied by the effect, Rarity let out a smile mercifully approaching and hugging Twilight, who still blinked slightly dumbfounded. But when the mare-fatale leaned and planted a kiss onto Spike’s nose, the girls thought that they nearly saw the heart-shaped scarlet bubbles coming out of weredragon’s mouth, ears and nostrils; Spike was on the verge of turning into a boiling puddle. “So, what do you think, Twi?” still chuckling, Applejack returned to her idea, while Spike was hanging limp in Rarity’s cuddle like a rag doll. “Ah’d say we’re moving the catapults and the whole shootin’ range behind the stream next year and freeing quite some space for the herd,” she poked her hoof at the row of pumpkin-launching mechanisms facing the field prepared for the game. “Thus Mayor Mare will finally calm down about the Town Hall safety once and forever!” Her suggestion made everypony turn to the outer border of the circle drawn by the light flooding the place. The latter provided perfect visibility for the ponies entertaining themselves on the Town Hall square but at the same time rendered everything behind that limited area of bright light pitch black for their eyes. The bridge and the opposite bank of the stream barely peeked from the darkness, the rest was veiled by the night stealthily seizing power. Raising from the stream, it mixed with the star-encrusted night sky, slightly diluted by their silvery light up there. “I begin worrying,” muttered Twilight; wrapping into her cape and pulling the collar higher, she stared into the night with concern, “like every year.” Unwittingly she came closer to the stream as if trying to see something on the other side. “You see, the entire town is gathered here… even the ponies from nearby farms and villages came,” elaborated she turning to the friends following her. “Everypony is having fun and nopony usually thinks there are distant places, which keep functioning despite the celebration. But while the station and hospital are occupied by professionals trained to react to every incident properly, there are ponies who stay alone, singled out… and unprotected if something happens. You know whom I mean…” “Hey! Why the sad faces?” she was pulled from her thoughts by some cheerful ringing voices behind the friends’ backs. “It’s Nightmare Night – time to have fun and stuff. What are ye mournin’ about?” “I thought about Fluttershy always staying alone and separated from the rest of us during that holiday, her and Steels,” sighed out Twilight slowly turning to the sound; in a second she froze on the spot shutting her mouth with an audible clank of false fangs, the girl was sure that the rest of her friends shared her sentiments. Right in front of them, on the grassy bank, sat four little abominations, one a bit taller than the other three. Granted these were simply costumed fillies, but… Without the exclusion, the costumes made count Dracula, Weredragon, Manticore, Meteor-Mare and even the Neighponese Assassin, who already saw Pinkie’s costume and seemingly couldn’t be surprised by anything, swallow nervously. Thin, in the grey-black tight fit tricots, painted carefully to look like bony yet tendinous bodies, in strange wide shabby cloaks, the four monsters grinned pleasedly with the wide toothy maws of their large skull-like papier-mache heads, coloured with fluorescent paint. The night breeze played with long hoary ruffled false manes, bringing chills into the souls of the beholders; Twilight heard a hiccup leaving Rainbow’s mouth. “We saw the light in Fluttershy’s cottage when leaving the orchard,” shrugged one of the monsters, tilting her head. “Ah guess that she must be okay with her animals.” “Do you like the costumes, sis?” asked another, sporting a horn on her head. “We spent the whole day preparing…” “Yay! Look at them!” giggled the third, the cloak on her back fluttered revealing the excited batting of the small wings. “We are the Four Wendigos of Ponepocalypse!” proclaimed she happily. “Ummm…” the larger creature timidly picked the ground with her hoof, glancing at Manticore. “The girls asked so much to think out something unusual… So, I came up with that… Don’t be mad with me, big cousin, okay…” “Babs!” breathed out Applejack. “How could Ah have not guessed?” “Of course, Ah’m not mad,” smiled she widely. “You were busy, didn’t get into trouble and… easily managed to make one of the best disguises for tonight, girls. Ah think that’s a win!” “Yeah! Even got me for a second…” half-heartedly confessed Rainbow Dash; she already started the cheerful fuss with the fillies when they began reeling around her with happy squeaking, so contrasting with their looks. Twilight and Rarity watched the scene with mixed feelings, as the girls’ costumes were truly impressive; Applejack was simply happy that Cutie Mark Crusaders didn’t get into a story. Spike… was a special case, ogling Rarity with almost heart-shaped eyes and not noticing anything around, even letting slide the fact that the fillies relieved him of a portion of sweets. He had time to regret not dressing as neighponese ghost, that way they would look quite fitting with Rarity. As if ordered, the full moon emerged from behind the eastern hills and hurried up from the horizon; the Night Princess prepared for her visits across Equestria. The silver light softly spread across the valley partially dispersing the thick darkness and flooding the distant fields up to the Everfree edge with ghostly glow, as the fog was already gathering above the cooling grassy plain. Floating above the mist, the rare trees looked like boats on the silvery sea surface. Far on the south, the friends noticed a small spark of light surrounded by the trees: Fluttershy’s cottage apparently was lit, warm and safe making them all breathe out with relief. “Yeah, let’s move the catapult range to the other bank next year,” stated Twilight when the whole company headed towards the celebrating herd, “and bring more lights here.” She cringed slightly in the cooling air. “The Nightmare Night is coming!!! Prepare your fright everypony!!!” chanted the herd on the Town Hall square; the moonrise cheered up the foals and adults unambiguously telling that their Princess was with them, mentally at that moment and in pony in the nearest future, visiting the town traditionally. The tall silhouette of the Weeping Ghost scoured among the holiday-makers; Mayor Mare gathered the foals before Zecora’s arrival and the usual trip to the old monument to Nightmare Moon on the edge of Everfree. “Relax, sugarcube!” Applejack hugged Twilight tickling her with the false lion mane. “Ah suppose yar fears are groundless tonight, everything is goin’ to slide smoothly like a plough on the dry soil.” “Yeah, Jackie, it seems I can relax only when I…” A sudden gust rushed through the square, making flames of the torches quiver noisily and the garlands of small colourful flags tremble frantically as if they were ready to tear from the ropes and go with the wind like the leaves from the nearby trees. Stopping for a moment and looking at each other with surprise the ponies turned their eyes to the dark, yet almost cloudless sky: nice weather was promised by pegasi and stars – the brightest of them – weaved the giant galaxy map on the dark blue canvas. One more bright star lit above Ponyville, dazzling and flaring up for a few seconds before fading away and everypony saw a small dark dot, darker than the skies around, which grew quickly approaching the town. In a couple of minutes, a large winged silhouette could be seen; the dim metallic gloss showed it wasn’t an ordinary pegasus. Lower and lower; the familiar chest plate and hoofwear glared in the moonlight, making everypony duck instinctively (despite they knew, they had nothing to fear in fact) when the tall dark blue alicorn hovered above the Town Hall square. Her mane and tail seemed endless, shimmering with stars and dissolving into the night sky, becoming a part of it as they waved in the insensible wind. The intimidating visitor inclined her head in the smooth round helmet, slit to let her ears and lush mane through; her eyes shone brightly, taking a look over the medley gathering below. “CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!!!” the deafening voice rolled over the town and spread across the valley as an unstoppable avalanche, fading at the edge of Everfree and making the trees tremble anxiously. “THE MASTER OF THE NIGHT GREETS YOU! MAY THE NIGHTMARE NIGHT REIGN OVER EQUESTRIA!!!” The giant figure landed quite gracefully, yet everypony felt the light quiver of the ground under their hooves; all the ponies bowed low, throwing cautious glances at the newcomer. “P-princess… Luna?” a colt wrapped in the bandages, he represented a mummy obviously, sounded with a mixture of hope and concern. Naturally, as the princess usually arrived in her normal form. “Of course, foals!” “Nightmare Moon” chuckled quietly. “And who did ye expect? Starswirl?” She glanced slyly over the herd, which visibly relaxed at those words of their princess, despite her unusual arrival. Even the first Nightmare Night after her return Luna came to Ponyville as herself, accompanied by the Night Watch guards; the same was the next year celebration. She played Nightmare Moon for the thrill and entertainment of the young colts and fillies, but usually later through the celebration when the foals headed to the monument in the Everfree forest to present the treats gathered by them to the Master of the Night. Thus her appearing without any escort and under the Nightmare Moon disguise right away was a surprise. Catching the familiar soothing tones in the deep voice of the princess, which echoed even when she didn’t use the Royal Canterlot variant of it, the ponies, adults and foals, allowed themselves to smile timidly. The foals though quickly gathered around their beloved princess, which towered above them, as in her nightmarish form she easily competed with Celestia. Rarity forgot that a moment ago she understood Fluttershy, who was avoiding Nightmare Night celebrations. Applejack threw a quick glance at Big Mac, who smirked too obviously, clearly showing that he knew something about the holiday, which others didn’t. Even the air seemed to warm up a bit and the hum of the herd quickly filled the spacious square again. “Your Highness! It’s such an honour… Have a taste of our finest bakery, please!” Applejack made a wide welcoming gesture, suggesting to pay attention to the stalls with Apple family products offering a great choice of the bakery, fruits, bakery with fruit filling and drinks. Her voice sounded a bit tense, despite all the girls knew the princess well; her unusual appearance puzzled everypony present. Choosing a piece of the famous apple pie, or even Apples’ Pie if giving it the due honour, “Nightmare Moon” gave it a dainty bite. With a toothy smile, she watched the foals competing in fishing large ripe apples out of the water barrel, using only their mouths, of course; however, Twilight could notice a couple of quick expectant gazes in the direction of the southern fields, thus her suspicions about something being plotted for the celebration turned into assurance. Meanwhile, the herd continued enjoying themselves: adults joining the foals at the attractions, remembering their own foalhood and having much fun, ponies paying due attention to the treats and bringing content smiles on the muzzles of Applejack and Big Mac, foals of all ages gathering around Luna. Those stared at “Nightmare Moon” with the full of love shining eyes, thrilled with their own bravery of coming close to their favourite princess; the ones getting a nuzzle or a mane ruffle from her, looked at the rest like somepony who successfully dared to take a celebrity autograph. The princess herself visibly felt much more confident than during her first Nightmare Night celebration after the return; she even took part in quite a few attractions including the “apple-bucking contest”, despite it wasn’t a sport she was really keen of. Luna was rather attracted by some aim involving entertainments like tossing the toy velcro spiders into the silky net. But her chosen sport was still pumpkin-shooting, no wonder that after a while “Nightmare Moon” ended at the catapult shooting range absorbedly examining that year device changes. Somehow, while staying with the girls generally, Twilight kept watching the princess, feeling more and more convinced that anticipation of something glimpsed in her eyes occasionally. The filly started to realize the reasons making Alex stay at home that night, but the actual plot intrigued her; while others evidently suspect nothing, Twilight noticed one more pony throwing similar glances towards “Nightmare Moon” – McIntosh probably had a chance to hear something at the market or from the human directly even if accidentally, as those two became good friends. With a smile the lilac girl admitted that the majority of neighbours often underestimated Big Mac’s watchfulness. “Calamity!” the first large pumpkin launched by “Nightmare Moon” missed the target by nearly a foot, smacking aside on the bank. The princess frowned but less than could have been expected in a similar situation. Luna missing the target was a shock for the herd, but Twilight saw that the princess watched the fields behind the stream with more attention than she paid to the actual aim; “Nightmare Moon” definitely expected something to happen momently. The anticipated events didn’t linger to start. First, another strong windflaw swept from the south over the herded square; it felt exactly like the one prevenient to the thunderstorm, making the torches flicker and the flags flap loudly, gaining everypony’s attention. Raising from beyond Everfree, the dark clouds stained the lit by the Moon skies; they impended at visible pace, but strangely kept over the valley thus leaving the night light unobstructed, so the misty scene was still nicely lit. One or two distant forked lightning bolts flashed the clouded sky and after a few seconds the sound of thunder reached the ears of ponyvillers. A strange hopping figure showed up on the road through the fields, approaching the town. Twilight and other girls watched it with a mixture of perplexity and concern. Finally, it reached the bridge over the stream and crossed it in a few familiar hops. However, the looks of that figure caused a few frightened screams in the herd, despite all of the ponies saw that persona already. “Now you understand why I said that her costume was probably the scariest, don’t you, daarin’?” Rarity appeared behind like a ghost making Twilight wince a little, the outlined eyes watched their mutual friend. “Made me shudder even when I helped her to dress!” The rest of the girls were to admit – Rarity told the truth: the large plant-shaped maw clapped with every hop, overshadowing her view and delivering Pinkie much trouble to keep the course, artificial leaves and green tendrils around her neck frantically waved in the air, giving her semblance with some extraequestrial monster. Some ponies from the herd already prepared to flee till the newcomer reached the circle of brighter light and they saw that it was Pinkie Pie – broadly known party-pony and confectioner. Her hooves braked on gravel with an audible screech, the fake sundew slammed shut again causing the frustrated grunt of its owner. With some effort, Pinkie opened that green maw huffing and breathing heavily. “Celebrating?!” loudly inquired she inhaling deeply and started jabbering at machine-gun pace. “Better look what is going behind my back, folks! I went to check upon Fluttershy, how she was doing alone in her cottage, maybe to convince her to finally join us or at least cheer up a bit on that festive night…” she took a deep breath. “Is she okay?” at the same time asked Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. “… she is, but that’s not the point, girls. She is fine with her animal friends in their volunteered solitude… as usual, but…” Pinkie rounded her eyes. “When I left her, I saw something exiting the woods.” “What the...” uttered Spike, he even refrained from unwrapping the next candy. “Not again, Pinkie!” The pink girl glared at him deadly serious, making others catch her anxiety. “Something?” Applejack raised one eyebrow. “Ah don’t understand. Can ya be more specific, sugarcube?” Twilight gazed at “Nightmare Moon” – the princess watched the scene with relaxed interest but the sparks of amusement danced deep in her eyes. “I don’t know…” exhaled Pinkie still taking her breath. “I only noticed it was something bipedal and large. When it entered the moonlight, I thought I’d better be here telling you about that. As I ran off, it didn’t approach the cottage but followed me instead…” The holler of fright interrupted her as somepony from the herd actually spotted something in the moonlit sea of fog. “Look!” Pinkie turned back and poked with her fore hoof towards the valley behind the stream. “Just look there!” Quiet at first, the herd started to grumble concernedly as more and more ponyvillers noticed what she meant. A large dark figure moved across the field heavily wandering above the floating milky surface. As Pinkie said, the creature looked bipedal, stripes of mist curled and swirled around its legs as it slowly but persistently strolled towards Ponyville with the pace of the approaching storm front. The clouds already moved closer, flashed and ripped by a few more bolts of lightning; the delayed thunder was rolling its loaded train cars across the sky. With the wind getting stronger, the fog reached the far bank of the stream and started to flow down to the water, separate sheets of it wreathing around the bridge railings already. The herd fell silent, unable to get their eyes away from the opening view. The figure looked huge to them, maybe because it really was, or maybe the silvery light, the haze and the large deep shadow it cast were to blame. Coming closer it appeared to shine metallically with its dark spiked carapace or armour; the armoured legs agitated the clouding mist as if the creature was wading in shallow water. It had two arms carrying some long object, which glimmered dimly in the silvery moonlight; what looked like a black hunch behind its back turned out to be a couple of folded wings. First ponies began to leave the square with the muffled hollers of terror when the intruder got into the bright spot and revealed its spiked head having no face or muzzle – the front surface was smooth and mirror-like, reflecting the glints of light. The first shreds of fog already snaked into the lit area on the near bank, flooding the bridge with the milky haze completely. With a loud flap, the creature unfurled its pitch-black wings turning out to be vast and soared making the mist around curl and follow it forming a ghostly column in the air. Coming into the moonlight it appeared to have two legs and two arms covered entirely with the same darkly gleaming spiked armour. It took a few powerful heavy wing-beats to cover half of the distance separating it from the square; the thick clouds drifted closer and closer to the town, overshadowing the starry sky almost completely. The wind blew stronger, but the frightened ponyvillers thought they were feeling the gust born by the giant wings. The herd finally unfroze leaving the square with scared neighing and cries; bustling in the squash they almost turned over the stalls, which kept standing only by some miracle, and began hiding in the alleys, thick bushes of nearby gardens, behind the porches of nearest houses. In a wink, the entire square became deserted with empty stopped attractions, a few flags laying on the ground and accidentally dropped food. But the cautious and at the same time curious eyes watched from every nook and cranny, how the events were supposed to unroll further. It turned out that only the girls and a few ponies, whose curiosity took over the fright, remained at the brightly lit square. Twilight – almost sure that it was some prank prepared by Luna and Alex, even if she started having doubts in the last few seconds. Spike silently clinging to her leg, his furry cloak and false tail looked bristled while he stared at the intruder. Rarity already holding the throwing knife with her aura – she seemed to immerse in her role overly that night. Naturally, Rainbow simply couldn’t flee spoiling her “the most daring mare” reputation and Applejack couldn’t leave her stalls unattended, especially considering that four “Wendigos of Ponepocalypse” peeked curiously from under one of them. Besides, Applejack was genuinely curious as well, as she thought she knew only one resident looking very alike the creature approaching. And, of course, she couldn’t show a weak spot in front of Rainbow, whom Applejack raced to “the most daring mare” title usually. Pinkie hid behind Big Mac, who watched the scene calmly; a smile of amusement curled the corner of his mouth as Twilight could notice in bewilderment. He definitely was better informed about the circumstances than the others. Staying to the right of Twilight, “Nightmare Moon” watched the whole scene with a dainty content smile, her mere sight convinced the girl that there was nothing to fear, despite the impressive scene unrolling before Twilight’s eyes. In a few more flaps, the armoured figure crossed the stream landing right after the bridge so heavily, everypony fancied the ground trembling under their hooves. Keeping the giant wings unfurled, so they overshadowed half of the ponies’ view, the newcomer stuck the object he carried into the ground; the latter turned out to be the long shining weapon, resembling two scythe blades put on both handle ends under an unusual angle. The next moment with the earsplitting sound of thunder, a lightning bolt dropped from the clouds swirling above the figure in the sky; it hit the weapon making it shine and soaking into the ground the second after accompanied by the joint scream of terror sounding from the surrounding the square darkness. The Nightmare Knight (how Twilight already called the monster) spread his arms, the spiked gloves squeezed the air with their clawed fingers predatorily. Everypony felt the push of air as if it was jerked towards the creature and the next moment all the torches and lanterns on the square went out – the flames flowed towards the hands gathering and curling into two large fireballs around the palms. “CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE…” started the intruder sonorously; the voice boomed from the closed helmet making the glass in Town Hall windows tingle. The fog swirled under his feet already; two fireballs reflected in the smooth mirror of the helmet, making it look like two flaming eyes were under its transparent surface. “Nightmare Moon” headed towards him majestically and greeted the Nightmare Knight with a light nod, sporting a content toothy grin. The next second Twilight, and frankly speaking the rest of the ponies present, started blinking puzzledly, as what they could never expect such a situation happening. The armoured figure started shaking visibly and the muffled trumpeting, which sounded from under the helmet, resembled most closely… a fit of uncontrollable laughter. The Nightmare Knight released the flames, which immediately flew to their original places and in a second the square was lit by the warm light of torches and colourful lanterns again. Nopony noticed how the heavy clouds vanished revealing the star-woven skies again and the fog crawled back to the field. The spiked glossy helmet shone brightly and the next moment only a thin metal band glimmered on the head of its owner. Alex folded almost in half, laughing till tears trailed from his eyes; he wanted to wipe them, reconsidered and took off the armoured glove first. “Just look at them!” he leaned to smiling “Nightmare Moon” nodding towards the curious eyes shining at the edge of the lit area and muzzles, which started peeking timidly out of the hiding spots. “Yet, they didn’t run away arrant…” impressed, he even stopped laughing for a second, then seeing the expressions of approaching girls, started snorting again. “Alex!!!” Twilight tried to glare at him reproachfully, but unwittingly she was smiling already; partially because it turned out to be an innocent prank, even if scary enough at first. The girl was to admit that the recent events made them all suspect the worst, unfortunately; she would be the first greeting the return of careless days. “Of course, it’s me!” Alex cracked a wide joyful smile. “Not some… Grim Reaper?!” “Ah thought the Seekers started coming in the new form…” Applejack squinted at him jokingly suspicious. “Ahhlex!” Rarity batted her spear-long eyelashes; she put the throwing knife behind her garter demonstratively outstretching her leg through the dress cut. “I almost threw that at you, daarin!” the unicorn girl produced a flirty smile. “Ahem… I guess it was smart to come armoured then,” winked Alex. “Now, when I’m safe… Am I? Excellent! It’s time to remove it to avoid accidents,” said he wrapping in the same silvery shine. The next second it faded revealing the familiar Alex in his usual pants and free-fit shirt to the gathering ponies, as the rest of the herd started entering the square timidly seeing that the danger was imaginary. His wings shrunk, enough for the human to be able to fold them properly. “Right in time, pal!” Rainbow Dash huffed with a tint of self-reproach; she was to admit believing in the play among the others and receiving some scare indeed. “I thought that Nightmare Moon returned again and… got herself a Nightmare Knight already.” The girls moved closer as the atmosphere became defused, but they all were outstripped by a flurry of little grey-mane monsters. Three of them rushed to the human and began running around him with cheerful and militant wails, then hung on Alex laughing, while the fourth sat at the safe distance still looking at the human slightly wary. “What’s with that… apocalyptical motive?” squinted Alex hugging Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, while Sweetie Belle almost climbed on his shoulders. “And you must be Apple Bloom and Jackie’s cousin… Babs, right?” he turned to the fourth filly with a smile, causing the girl to blush and shrug muttering something. “Ah’m asking myself the same question the whole night…” chuckled Applejack. “Even both of them, partner!” “I fell for that… Again…” sighed Pinkie Pie, finally approaching and nudging Alex, she pouted. “But you scared the hay out of me and the others with all that horrible camouflage of yours! Don’t even deny that!” “Says who?” Alex felt that laughter started raising up his chest again. “Have you seen yourself in the mirror recently, mate? I must say, I hurried to Ponyville when I saw some monster with tentacles rolling down the road towards the town.” Forgetting about her pouting, Pinkie already snorted at the mental image of herself rushing through the foggy field and admitting there was a reason in Alex’s words. “Eeyup!” sounded behind the girls’ backs. Big Mac watched the scene with an overly satisfied look. “Thanks, mate!” Alex showed him a thumb up, heartily grateful for keeping the “conspiracy”. “For not sharing what you might have glimpsed in my words. Otherwise, that would probably ruin the effect.” “Always welcome!” the stallion winked. “Secrets are grave with me, you know.” “In a way, I managed to… hmmm… “get myself the Nightmare Knight” forsooth!” Alex suddenly felt the warm feathery cuddle on his shoulders, when the fillies finally released him rejoining with Babs and watching him and the princess excitedly. The ponies hummed when “Nightmare Moon” leaned to the human and nuzzled him tenderly. Automatically Alex wrapped his arm around princess’ neck planting a kiss on her cheek and snuggling his forehead to her soft flowing mane much to the delight of the herd. And registered a flash even through his closed eyelids that very moment. Alex knew, there were photo cameras in Equestria, even if he didn’t come across any so far, yet one turned out to be nearby at the most unfitting moment possible. ‘Great! I hope the photo won’t hit the press… “Nightmare Moon and the human” – Tia will skin me alive; she is occasionally squinting at me already since the gala!’ “But how was it even possible?!” inquired Twilight loudly seeing that the herd was catching each move, while “Nightmare Moon” was still cuddling Alex. “Oh, that’s a rather simple trick,” smirked Alex feeling Luna’s shoulder heating his own. “I was sleepwalking all the time,” he lowered his tone, “actually I am now.” With those words, he outstretched the hand and caught an apple, which rushed towards him from one of the stalls with bullet speed. “Sometimes it can be “abused” for pure fun!” “And I took the burden of the rest of… special effects, weather and lightning,” “Nightmare Moon” shone like a school filly. “We caught ye all off guard, isn’t it wondrous?!” Right at the moment when Alex relaxed, enjoying the successful joke and planning to address the party by joining the rest of the herd with the girls, he fancied some faint noise from behind. “Help!” a weak exhausted voice sounded from the hat of mist above the water. “Please, help!” With the sinking heart, Alex turned on the spot instantly: two fillies, limping tiredly, crossed the bridge, showing from the dense fog. “Help!” repeated one of them; another simply slid down the railing to the ground losing all the strength. Reaching them first, to his utter relief, Alex found out that they were safe at least, exhausted to the extreme but not visibly wounded. The unicorn and earth fillies were a little younger than “Wendigos” who reached them second after Alex, curiously perking their ears but staying aside to give him space. Scratched and ruffled all over, both of them looked as if they wandered the forest for quite a while and covered considerable distance: small twigs and leaves got stuck in their manes and tails, dust-covered their coats turning into wet dirt on the legs, as the girls waded the last miles through the damp foggy field. They even smelled of dust and leaves, as Alex realized lifting the unicorn filly from the ground and heading with her to the rest of the herd; the earth filly followed supported by Babs and the girls. “Now, can… you tell what… happened?” he turned to the earth filly who seemed to be overcoming their compelled trip better when her unicorn friend was placed on Twilight’s cloak and Rarity already bustled around her with the brought by somepony medkit. “I haven’t seen anything serious, but… are you both wounded?” “No… sir,” the filly took some effort to whisper hoarsely; Apple Bloom whisked away and returned with some water and after a few sips the girl could continue. “We are just so tired… And the legs… ache… But we don’t know what’s with…” she choked on words and tears sprayed from her closed eyes. “Thither was somepony else with you two?” Alex felt the chills along the spine. “Calm down, lief, and tellest us everything!” Princess Luna approached insensibly and leaned over kneeled Alex examining the filly. “Tryest to be brief please!” The contrast between the appearance of “Nightmare Moon” and the soothing voice was so striking that the filly opened her eyes and looked at the princess and the human completely normal, the tears dried out as fast as they flowed. “I’m so sorry… Princess!” with an intermittent sigh started the girl barely audibly. “We wanted to prank you…” “Prank me?” “Nightmare Moon” sounded genuinely surprised and Alex shared her feeling. ‘To prank the prankster… How did they ev’r come to that idea? Moreover, hoped to succeed…’ “We thought… that we might… that we could probably… scare you, Princess. Or at least catch by a surprise…” the earth filly let out a weak smile but then squinted again from the upcoming tears. “It was our joint idea… Nopony is… Err… We are all guilty, all three of us. Only find him please…” “Whom, pray tell?” “Nightmare Moon” touched her softly with the wing comforting. “Dost not cry, dear.” Alex turned all ears prepared to catch every word. “Pipsqueak…” breathed out the filly. “We planned to… hide near the monument, wait till the rest of the foals arrive… and Your Highness as well, obviously. To check “Nightmare Moon’s” nerves! Sorry-y-y!!!” she couldn’t hold any longer and burst into tears. “Pipsqueak…” sighed “Nightmare Moon”. “Of course, how didn’t I guess ere!” she cuddled the filly softly with her wings, lifting with the aura and bringing closer to her friend; Alex followed, exchanging glances with Twilight who looked inwardly panicking. “We thought that we knew the road well,” added the unicorn filly quietly; she came to her senses with the help of Rarity and Applejack and picked herself to a sit. “But the forest looks… so different at night. We lost the road…” she sighed woefully. “Walked for a while with no direction… Pip claimed that he knew the path.” “I guess when he confessed of feeling as lost as we were, it was too late already,” added she slowly after a pause. “We were so scared…” cried her earth pony friend. “Then… these sounds and fog came… and we got separated with him in the dark. He must be there still… in the fore-e-e-est!!!” “So much for coming to the unknown woods without a pegasus…” muttered Alex so only Twilight and Rainbow, standing behind, could hear him. “How did you manage to find the way then?” asked he genuinely puzzled. “We didn’t… by ourselves I mean…” the unicorn filly downcasted blushing. “We… simply… saw somepony with wings in the darkness,” her friend sniffed and took the breath, “… and followed them quietly.” That could probably make Alex laugh under different circumstances – the girls noticed him on the fringe of Everfree and followed. He realized that they were so close to the fields at that moment that could find the town direction themselves, but darkness and fright prevented them from thinking straight. Yet they kept enough sense to savvy the way out. “Good girls!” he let out a small smile getting up. ‘Fortunately that was me, not something else with wings… don’t know what else you have here except dragons and manticores…’ “Methinks I know the rest,” Alex took a look over the herd, which made the quietly talking ring around them. “We must look for him immediately – the forest is dangerous at this time.” What happened next simply made everypony, except Princess Luna, freeze in bewilderment – the human simply dissolved in the thin air. In a matter of seconds, his figure turned more and more transparent finally disappearing to the silent thrill of the herd; the majority of ponyvillers simply dropped the jaws, their eyes popping of surprise. “What… the…” started Rainbow Dash frowning. “Aren’t we supposed to search?” “Wait!” Twilight held her easy jumping to conclusions friend. “I think I know what he is up to…” Indeed, after a couple of minutes of deafening puzzled silence, they all heard the approaching loud sound of the large wings, somepony did their best to reach the Town Hall square as fast as possible. In a second, sending dust and straws flying, Alex landed abruptly among the ponies. “Okay, now I’m ready,” he took the breath, squeezing something, which resembled a double-edge axe without a handle. “I’m going immediately!” “Shouldn’t we all…” started Rainbow, “Nightmare Moon” nodded. “No!” retorted Alex glancing at the girls seriously. “I need all the strong ponies hither to keep the citizens and the town watched after. Besides, it’s not safe thither, I heard the wolves earlier…” “Luna,” he turned to the disguised princess. “Zecora must come shortly, when she doth, join me in search, please. Methinks we can cope. Twilight, you, the girls, Zecora and Mayor Mare are more than enough to keep everypony organized and safe. I extend mine hope we’re not late…” “You don’t know where to start…” Twilight glanced at him with concern. “The monument,” simply shrugged Alex. “Isn’t it the statue on the large black block?” getting the confirming nod he added. “I’ll start from thither in spiral…” “Be careful!” “Beest careful, lief!” ‘I’ll better be fast!’ Followed by princesses’ parting wishes, with a powerful flap, Alex rushed into the dark sky, wrapping into his armour on the fly and unfolding the glaive. Contrary to what they got accustomed to during their scholar excursions to Everfree, the night forest appeared completely different: dark, ruffling, almost alive, damp from the fog and vapour, it unwelcoming and borderline scary to the colt. In fairness, he was to admit that all of their trips were rather superficial, barely scratching the fringe of the enormous forest; they never went deep, as the teachers preferred prudence to dubious experience. Maybe it was their fault he found himself there completely unprepared or… maybe he shouldn’t come there at all. However, he always thought that he remembered the road to the Nightmare Moon monument well. It would be probably true, if there was more light, natural or artificial, just as it was during his first Nightmare Night trip to the monument with Zecora. Hoping that he could orient from his memories, the colt was to witness, how progressively different every forest became with ceasing light. He was roaming for about two hours already if counting from the moment he confessed to the girls that he lost the path; more – from the moment he actually lost it but feared to admit his suspicions looking too feasible to ignore. Eventually, it turned out to be his idea to make a joke ambush on Princess Luna near the Nightmare Moon monument trying to scare or at least surprise her. He was simply very convincing, infecting two classmates with that plan, so the girls started to think it was mutual. So it had ripened into the gnawing guilt – he couldn’t hear them anymore, despite how carefully he listened. But the foal could hear enough at the same time, all the kinds of nightly noises which affect one’s imagination so much. The forest breathed, it creaked and rustled constantly and occasional wails of nocturnal birds didn’t make these sounds easier to accept; even without the rain, something dripped coldly every now and then onto his scruff, sending chills along his spine. He was fancying shadows in the dark thicket and that urged the poor colt to move, as staying on the one spot was even scarier. Maybe the same reasons made them three panic an hour ago and lead to girls and him losing each other in the woods. It happened as if by some wicked magic: one moment they trotted together stepping over the fallen trees, one by one on the narrow path, which rather glimpsed among the verdure, but as soon as the girls and he got distracted by something, it appeared that they couldn’t see each other, let alone reach. First they tried to call each other and gather orienting by voice, but for some strange reason, the foals only distanced more with each moment, finally getting completely disoriented in the quickly darkening forest. He tried to yell for a while longer but quickly fell silent after he couldn’t hear the fillies anymore. The colt remembered about the wild animals and wholeheartedly hoped that the girls did too, dropping the futile attempts to give him an audible sign. It could equally be a welcoming sign for the hungry timberwolves, who were known to come closer to the settlements in the colder season. The thought about these abominations made his head spin, or maybe that was the stuffy air filled with fumes. The colt snuggled his forehead to the wetly smelling pine and almost cried. From his current position, their idea stopped looking that bright and promising. ‘Shut it, Pip!’ in a minute he clenched the teeth listening to the rustling darkness around. ‘You need to get out of the forest and find help…’ With some effort he left his tar-smelling halt and moved on. ‘The road was visible back then! It couldn’t overgrow that much in two years…’ he tried to convince himself, groping onto that saving thought. ‘If the girls get out to the monument, they can probably return to the town without problems…’ The colt deliberately drove away the memory that they easily lost that path before. Besides, he couldn’t find the monument himself, no matter how hard he tried. Finally, the chilling thought that he was walking in circles, wider or narrower but still circles every time, visited Pipsqueak. “Sweet Celestia! How scary it is…” whispered he, simply to hear some voice, even if it was his own. The distant sound resembling howling almost made colt’s heart jump out of his throat, so fast and unevenly it started beating; it darkened in his eyes and Pip rushed headlong not seeing the way. Suddenly, some light glimpsed among the trees not far from him. The colt changed direction, dashing towards that clearance in the woods reaching it in a matter of seconds. Jumping out to a large glade, he took a breath. There was no monument, nothing familiar in general; Pip found another completely random glade nopony-knew-where in Everfree. Not giving him time to think about his situation, the howling sounded from somewhere very close that time. Pip took a look around: with ominous rustling the surrounding bushes parted letting out the timberwolves. One by one they entered the glade staring at the frozen on the spot colt with the evil glowing sparks of their green eyes. Looking for a single foal in the depths of Everfree seemed to be a desperately futile task, but Alex did his best to dispel those thoughts and concentrate on his search instead. He quickly reached the Nightmare Moon monument; able to distinguish the familiar silhouette from a lower height, he didn’t lose time for landing at the large glade but slowly flew on widening spiral scanning the thicket below. Extremely grateful to Luna for that favour – the Moon quickly reached zenith pouring all the light on the scene – Alex peered into the mishmash of swaying shadows and brighter stripes to the ache in his eyes. He wholeheartedly hoped for the foal to keep some intent to survive still and move, realizing that it was next to impossible to notice a motionless creature in such circumstances, even at daylight, let alone in the darkness, despite all the night vision capabilities one might have. Till that moment Alex was able to spot only a couple of owls seeking for prey in the dense carpet of the Everfree; they quickly hid in the thicker foliage as soon as his shadow slid in their field of view. The trees were giving way to bushes and the latter to the trees again, there were a few tiny openings in the overgrown forest, but nothing resembling a pony yet to be found. Alex circled and circled, scanning the landscape below, soaring higher and lowering again to see the terrain from different angles; he tried his best to shove the growing feeling of despair deeper, realizing that the task was getting harder with every next minute of fruitless search. ‘I did correct!’ he was convincing himself. ‘One winged rescuer can do more than a herd of roaming in the dark woods ponies…’ Of course, he could ask pegasi, but actually he needed only one pony instead – Luna; she could see in the darkness as well as Alex, what couldn’t be said about the majority of ponies, pegasi or not. Besides, he didn’t have a squad of well armoured and trained guards at hand and putting the citizens at risks wasn’t his aim. ‘No, thanks! Enough…’ Gritting his teeth Alex continued gliding over Everfree. Suddenly, almost on the border of his vision, Alex spotted some cautious movement. Realizing that a frightened foal would hardly sneak insidiously, he took a better look nevertheless. The dark shadows threading through the undergrowth were noticeably larger than an average pony and the whole manner of moving was different. On the one hand, Alex was glad they were not Seekers, the latter he would have sensed yet approaching the edge of the forest. On the other hand, the familiar green glow of narrow-cut eyes told him – those were timberwolves; Alex’s heart sank at the thought they could already have had their feast. ‘Merlin’s pants! May he still be unnoticed by these freaks!’ Trying to keep on the leeward side and doing his best to produce less noise possible, Alex approached the sneaking pack. New and new beasts entered his sight from the thicket. ‘One, two, three…’ when Alex reached a dozen, he was close to panic at the thought that the wolves finding the colt earlier than him; they had no wings thankfully, but they saw perfectly in the darkness and had numerical advantage and speed. At that moment one timberwolf stopped and started sniffing, followed then by a few others; they inhaled the wind greedily, then one of the beasts raised its head and let out a not very loud but blood-chilling howl. The whole pack turned and headed somewhere deeper in the woods speeding up on the go. Now, when they all started running, Alex could see all of them; to his surprise there was more than he thought, two dozens of beasts at the very least. Betting everything on that chance, as the coincidence looked very suspicious, Alex decided to follow – the wolves spotted something, which they took for easy prey. A large glade, which Alex didn’t notice earlier, opened to his eyes; from the bird’s eye view, Alex could see the small figure entering the glade and freezing at a loss. He finally found the missing foal but so the timberwolves did, the first of them already reached the surrounding the glade shrubs and entered the clearing. There was no time to keep silence, Alex rushed to the glade at full speed, so the wings produced audible swish. Having nowhere to run when the first timberwolf crouched with low-pitch grumble preparing to pounce, Pipsqueak closed the eyes. He couldn’t hold back the squeal, realizing that it was the last thing he could ever do in his short life. Unable to move, the foal heard a hard blow but strangely felt nothing except the gust of wind on his muzzle; some shadow covered him. He dared to peek slightly in the very moment to see how the giant black wing hit the timberwolf mid-jump, swiping it away and sending in the air. The wolf smashed its back into the nearest tree and collapsed like a rag. Pip was about to faint: some creature, seeming huge to the frightened foal, landed right above him gleaming metallically. The multitude of spikes strewed the armour, made of dark metal with thin linear pattern, the sharp-clawed fore paws squeezed some strange long weapon; Pipsqueak squinted aside spotting how the spiked leg scratched the ground seeking for a better stance and leaving deep furrows, the wings had lowered shielding him from the sides. The new monster looked at him from above and freezing from terror, the colt saw his own miserable and deadly scared reflection in the smooth mirror-like face of the faceted helmet. The rest of the wolves growled viciously, unambiguously stating their intents. Pip’s first impulse was to flee as fast as he could, but on the edge of sanity, he realized that the arrived creature was addressing him. “Dost not run if thou wantest to live!” the winged nightmare roared out muffledly like from the barrel. “They shall tear thee apart given the chance!” “Hie, climb on mine back!” one wing lowered to give the colt a lift; with the remaining strength Pip jumped and hung on it. In bewilderment, he saw that the row of long spear-sharp spikes went along the armour spine, they were so long that he could climb on them as on a ladder. Which Pip did, clambering on the shoulders of his unexpected saviour; he realized only then – that “monster” was the human, Pip saw numerous times in the town. “… but dost not step on the wings, for thou may fall!” another wing flapped out dartingly hitting two more approaching timberwolves, knocking them down and sending them rolling shamefully on the ground. It was clearly showing that the previous strike wasn’t only a lucky coincidence. Pip shrunk into a ball clinging to the spikes with the last bit of strength and keeping away from the vast wings, which folded again preparing for the battle. Furious at failure, the timberwolves howled and the nearest forest replied them in chorus: more and more beasts sprung out to the glade. Alex saw that the whole pack gathered to take them down, no less than two dozens. He grinned louringly under his helmet and grabbed the glaive for the better swing. ‘Come on, you rotten logs!’ But inevitably, Alex was to admit there were too many of them, strong, quick and determined; more than he would have expected for the one person to cope with. ‘They can easily exhaust me if the battle takes too long. I need to take down as fast and as many of them as I can, while I still can move fluently!’ Eager to overcome the unexpected, stubborn hindrance or somehow reach the foal and tear him apart, the timberwolves tried to go head-on; the three most impatient beasts pounced at him at once anticipating the easy victory as they most likely thought. The glaive swished in its wide swing and one silvery gleaming blade met the head with the yawping maw, cutting it off at once like a piece of soft cheese. Totally unusual for the battle smell of tar and fresh wood spread into the air and Alex thought that sharpening the blade to perfection wasn’t futile. The rest two wolves evidently hoped to dive under enemy’s arm and the slightly lagging behind wing, thus clinging and dropping him to the ground, but another blade met them flat at the end of the hard blow, crushing into their muzzles, striking out teeth and breaking the jaws. The glaive justified its purpose entirely and the following wing strike bumped the wounded and squealing wolves one into another, sweeping them aside. The human was to make a u-turn to fade the impulse and meet the beasts in the face again, simultaneously demonstrating the row of sharp spikes on the back. Realizing that the enemy turned out to be way more mobile and dangerous than they expected, the timberwolves rushed in front of him at the clearing, looking for a weak spot and advantageous moment for the next attack. They snarled angrily, the green glowing eyes glared at the human with wild malice but to his surprise, Alex noticed that all the beasts behaved nearly equally. There was no visible leader in that pack or at least Alex was unable to distinguish one at that moment. ‘Tis becoming complicated!’ glimpsed in his mind. ‘Killing the leader would have seriously shaken their confidence.’ The hive-mind behaviour could be probably explained by the peculiar nature of his enemy, being the wildest mix of plant and animal, but Alex had no time for biological research. Raising the glaive, he began to rotate it like a heavy nearly six-foot diameter propeller, placing the gleaming impenetrable shield between them and the wolves. The timberwolves became annoyed to the extreme: wherever the vile creatures tried to squeeze, thereto went the silver sizzling death, blocking their most dodgy attempts to attack. One, the most impatient or hungry, or maybe both simultaneously, pounced for the sheer luck into the seeming opening… only to be met by the whirlpool of steel. Ripped to shreds, the beast peppered the glade with its small wooden pieces, like a dry branch caught in a fan. That discouraged the attackers but only for a second at most; the wolves rushed at Alex with doubled persistence yet hardly more cautiously. The necessity to constantly think about the foal curled behind his shoulders made Alex’s position worse. He couldn’t move as fast as he would like to, fearing that the colt might fall to the ground; in that case his fate would have been sealed in a matter of seconds. In dispersing wolves, especially timberwolves, some fire could appear of invaluable help… but Alex realized that the reasons making him refrain from sleepwalking there were incomparably more crucial. Strike! One more strike! Sawdust and small leaves fanned into the air when another timberwolf was thrown away with a long torn wound on its side. ‘Damned wretches, when do you get it?!’ Angry roaring followed by a hard blow or sizzling cut was turning into the sound of flying away or heavily collapsing body. Alex did his best to keep the wolves up front, constantly turning and dancing on the glade; the wings were folding and stretching again, delivering the knocking the enemy strikes and sweeping the beasts which tried to attack from flanks. In an attempt to restrain the irritating foe, one timberwolf gripped the tip of the wing with its teeth. Folding momentarily, the wing pulled the dazed beast closer and impaled it on the promptly offered blade, making the attacker go limp at once when the turning glaive tore it almost in halves. Roaring and howling, the timberwolves became mad with rage as their attempts brought them more and more fails. Their behaviour turned chaotic and thus even more dangerous. Despite all his efforts and due to the inevitable fatigue, they started to get around the human, glaring at the unreachable for them so far foal. They couldn’t do anything with the armoured human, even if they would have succeeded at exhausting him and knocking down to the ground, but they showed unambiguously what was their real aim. Alex fought soundlessly if not taking the hardening breath into account: he was to fight not for a show or sport, but for one defenceless life, as he realized well that all the predators needed was to pull the colt off his back. ‘I need to train more!’ Alex began to feel all the armour on him clearly. ‘These are not Seekers, who crumble at the first direct touch… And the armour makes things tougher…’ “Look out! Behind!!!” “Get down!” without the second thought, folding his wings tight, Alex made the glaive draw a full circle above himself. Barely crouching in time, Pipsqueak couldn’t avoid glancing back at the right moment to see, how the wheezing shiny crescent dash cut the air and chopped away the grinning head of timberwolf and the very tip of Pip’s tail almost in the beast’s mouth. The claws creaked on the smooth metal surface of the armour and wolf’s body collapsed to the ground. Alex swung the glaive stopping it sharply aside and shaking off tar from the heated blade. He jumped back to keep all the wolves in sight again, using the momentarily pause to take the breath and plan further tactics. All over it turned out that he needed to take down the absolute majority of the pack for them with the foal to be left alone – inscrutably, the beasts kept ignoring their own casualties. Thus all other variants were extremely dangerous for his “passenger”. Apparently, the beasts decided to wear the human down and receive their prey at all costs. But there was absolutely no valour in their persistence. Granted they attacked the armed enemy without hesitation, but their initial intent – as long as Alex knew them – was always to outnumber and run down somepony weaker. Remembering his first acquaintance with them, Alex roared into the helmet muffledly, his eyes darkened. Dash – Strike! Dash – Strike! He did his best to catch the wolves at the end of their pounces, dodging them and bringing inescapable retribution whenever possible. Going into pure defence, Alex spun the weapon, constantly moving not to give them another chance to come around him and delivering only perfectly aimed hits back and forth, left and right, not wasting energy for enemies’ provocations. More and more timberwolves remained on the tar stained grass motionless or crawled away severely crippled, but many of them remained, beaten and wounded lightly and therefore extremely wrought-up. Flying away could look a feasible way out, but Alex was to admit, soaring from the flat ground with extra weight would have taken a few precious seconds, when his attention would have been dispersed. Perfect chance for the wooden bastards to use it to their advantage and drag the foal away. The roars and loud clanking of steel woke up the entire Everfree on a couple of miles radius and the forest froze in terror, waiting for the outcome of that brutal fight. ‘Fucking logs! What do you need to stop?!’ Alex retreated, making the sawdust fly with every hit he delivered to the timberwolves and occasionally squinting over the shoulder to ensure that Pipsqueak was still there, at the verge of fainting but still holding on. He missed one pounce, forced to change hand and smash the beast’s muzzle with the steel spiked glove. A few wolves regrouped already and were preparing to take on the human up front again, not giving him any breath. “ENOUGH!!!” the thunder-like voice rolled over the forest. Something overshadowed the moonlight and a blue glowing fireball of magic bolted into the ground in front of the attacking timberwolves; exploding like a good grenade, it blinded everypony for a few moments. It looked as if some giant hand brushed the remaining beasts away to the thicket like paper cranes – only their scared shameful squealing was reaching Alex’s ears from the darkness. “The saviour of the… night…” Alex exhaled resting one end of his glaive on the ground; he leaned on it, breathing heavily. “Thanks! They almost succeeded in getting us.” “Princess!..” at the sight of the large winged silhouette hovering above them, Pip squeaked with relief, still hanging on Alex’s shoulders. “Evening, young mister!” it was so strange to hear the familiar silvery voice coming from “Nightmare Moon” that Alex unwittingly smiled; she sounded jokingly, but the glance of the alicorn princess was serious. “We shall touch the reasons and lessons of this incident sometime anon…” promisingly stated she making the colt downcast in shame. The princess landed folding her broad wings. When moonlight could fall freely onto the glade, the eyes of “Nightmare Moon” widened. Parts of the beasts and a few wooden bodies were scattered all over the surface. “They were only wild animals…” started she with an audible tint of reproach. “Couldn’t thou simply have flown away taking the foal with thee? Instead of that… slaughter…” “Apologies, lief… I had no chance to take off risking him being dragged off mine back or simply falling!” retorted Alex looking right into her deep dark blue eyes with vertical slits of the pupils. “Barely finding him moments afore he was going to become their supper, I picked up the colt a fraction of second afore they pounced. Preferred not to risk…” Enveloping in a bright glow, his helmet dissolved leaving only a thin metal band on human’s head and making Pipsqueak nearly fall from his back from surprise. “Besides, they had no hesitations at which hour almost killing Fluttershy half a year ere!” added Alex meaningfully, pressing something on the glaive handle, so with light sizzle the whole weapon started folding and took its compact form in a few seconds allowing to attach it to the belt. She took another look at the glade, at Alex still catching his breath, at Pipsqueak barely holding onto human’s shoulders only because the spiked armour gave him a grip. “I… I’m sorry!” after a few seconds of thinking, softly said “Nightmare Moon”. “I could think better… Thou had no choice forsooth, lief!” The next moment she did something that made Pipsqueak release his hold in amazement; he would undoubtedly fall if the princess didn’t catch him up with her magic promptly. “Nightmare Moon” approached the human and gave him a long tender kiss. “Were they not supposed to return already, if everything went fine?” Pinkie peered into the star-woven sky. Despite the celebration turned out crumpled, nopony left the square and many did the same thing as Pinkie, watching the night sky and asking themselves one uneasy question. Somepony ran to find and bring there Pipsqueak’s mother and the earth mare sobbed quietly, consoled by a few neighbours. She didn’t know for sure, but the unknown was worse than any news. “Calm down, Pinkie…” Twilight asked softly, inwardly being reeled into a clot of tight nerves. “They have the whole Everfree fringe to search through…” at these words the sobs became more audible. “At the end of the day, the princess is with them and… Alex is worth something when it comes down to a fight, don’t you think?” Twilight added confusedly. “Exactly! And I am worried about them all!” Pinkie fidgeted on the spot impatiently. Rarity did her best to hold together, squeezing Spike and Sweetie Belle in her hug, but girl’s eyes were pinprick from deeply hidden terror. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Babs gathered around Applejack, who leaned on brother’s shoulder staring at one point, stressed and upset. Rainbow nervously flew back and forth in front of the falling quiet herd. “If they don’t show up for five minutes more, I’m going to join the search! Nopony can stop me…” she stated unobjectionably. “Who’s with me?!” The rolling over the herd hum showed that there were quite a few pegasi sharing Dash’s enthusiasm. So far, Twilight, Zecora (she just came to uphold the Nightmare Night tradition), Mayor Mare and a humble number of guards managed to keep the ponyvillers adequate and listening to the voice of common sense, but empathy could take over at any moment, making the situation only worse. “Shhh… Listen!” Twilight suddenly hushed, raising her eyes to the sky and trying to hear something. After a minute of tensed listening, they fancied the approaching sounds of wings cutting the cool night air. Highlighted by the Moon, two bright metallically glimmering dots appeared in the night sky. The silhouettes grew with each second, gaining the attention of all eyes of the herd; one moved fluently, another flew lower, heavily flapping its giant black wings. “Nightmare Moon” landed first, gracefully as every self-respecting princess usually did. Alex almost flopped to the ground, landing hard on one knee and keeping the wings raised almost vertically not to knock down anypony on the square. The herd tensely froze in silence. An embarrassed pony muzzle emerged from behind Alex’s shoulder, peeking through his ruffled hair. Resting his palm on the ground, Alex leaned lower letting the colt slide off his back; after a momentary hesitation, Pipsqueak darted through the parting herd towards his tear-stained mother. Even if the mare wanted to explain her son the impropriety of his deed, she forgot about that at once grabbing and squeezing the foal, kissing him frantically and weeping but from happiness already. The herd roared in delight and relief making the glass in Town Hall’s windows tingle and both Pip and his mom crouch. Alex barely had time to remove his sharp-edged armour before a white and greyish brown flurry grabbed him into a hug Harry-bear would envy, filling his vision with curly vanilla smelling mane. “You saved him!.. You saved my boy…” the mare wept hanging on human’s neck; Alex’s shirt was quickly getting soaked in the collar area. “Thank you! Thank you! I can’t… Thank you…” “It’s okay ma-am,” diplomatically started Alex, supporting himself with both hands not to fall forward on the ground – he couldn’t even get up before she grabbed him. “I found him… but… it’s the princess who saved us both, so…” he made an effort to get up, staggering when Pipsqueak’s mother released him. She darted to the sitting next to Alex and smiling “Nightmare Moon” and without second thought hugged her tight as well, somewhere around the chest, where the earth pony could reach, muttering the words of gratitude and sobbing. “Nightmare Moon’s” eyes rounded, she raised her fore hoof unconfidently and was stroking the mare on the mane and shoulders softly. In a moment the mare realized that something unusual was happening and stepped back a little, freezing confusedly: the situation, her own actions and princess’ appearance combined put Pip’s mom into cognitive dissonance for a while. “Oh… Your Highness! Forgive me please my…” “No-no, tis fine forsooth,” the princess chuckled lightly, then turned to the human with a sly anticipating smile. “Finally, thou art without these edges and thorns, lief!” before Alex could realize, he was captured in another very soft and feathery lavender fragrant embrace. He shook his head dispelling the silly and completely random thought about Luna smelling of lavender even in her disguise and guesses about Nightmare Moon’s native “flavour”. He was to admit, the warm cuddle was awesome, considering Alex felt quite beaten up and tired after the fight. In exchange for support and tenderness, Alex could come to terms with the fact that the entire herd was staring at him and “Nightmare Moon”, who rested her head on top of his with a blissful expression. However, Luna wasn’t going to stop at that; shielding them with her wing, she leaned closer and gave him a sweet passionate kiss. Tasting her lips, Alex was to throw back his head and wrap his arms around “Nightmare Moon’s” neck not to fall. Flushing at once, he noticed how purring from pleasure princess lost her guard for a second lowering her wing; a camera glimpsed in the whistling and cheering herd almost momentarily. ‘Merlin’s pants! They took a picture of that… Well… To hell with that…’ Alex turned in Luna’s embrace and cuddled her properly, brushing the fingers through her flowing mane and making the herd hoot even louder. “Alas… I need to continue mine voyage,” sighed “Nightmare Moon” still holding him with her wings. “But I’m not saying goodbye for tonight,” exhaled she in Alex’s ear quietly. “Have a very scary Nightmare Night, mine beloved ponies!” declared the princess, releasing her human and soaring into the night. “The Night Crown’s blessing is upon you!” she departed in a bright flash of the magical teleport. Sunday lied ahead and the common decision of ponyvillers was to continue the celebration by joining Pip’s miraculous rescue to the main event. Discussing the surprisingly lucky outcome of school-foals failed joke, ponies began mingling about the square again. The extinguished lanterns were lit, the torches changed where necessary, the attractions – wound up and Applejack already gathered volunteers to send to the farm for the additional snacks. Only an occasional curious glance thrown by somepony at Alex (as he was the single remaining participant – Pip’s mother took the colt home as it was too much of a shock for both) reminded about the incident. ‘All well that ends well…’ Alex was pondering if simply sitting down on the hoofworn grass on the bank was okay, as his whole body started aching from the strain. However, it could become only worse after resting on the ground. He also wondered inwardly, where the camera disappeared and how many copies of the photo would hit the public the next day. “One thing she is right about, daarin!” Alex almost jumped on the spot, so quietly Rarity approached him, entirely justifying her Nightmare Night character. “You aren’t bristling with thorns now, Ahhhlex! So nice for…” murmured she raising on her hind legs and taking his arm. Rarity snuggled to the human so tightly, Alex could feel every inch of her silky stylish dress and girl’s pacing up heartbeat. Too tired to resist, Alex sighed quietly and wrapped his arm around Rarity’s shoulders; the unicorn girl’s face took the expression, which usually appeared on Opal’s muzzle when Rarity’s cat was given sour cream to her heart’s content. As the result, melting Rarity squeezed him around the waist, snuggling even closer, almost nuzzling on the chest. “Looking good, you two,” chuckled Twilight, approaching them. “The Nightmare Knight and Neighponese Assassin!” dusting off her black-red cape and wrapping herself into it, she sported a wide grin, demonstrating the gleam of her false fangs. “Nightmare Knight…” repeated she, “that may stick!” “Look, I’ve long wanted to ask,” seeing that Rarity wasn’t reacting, Twilight raised closer to Alex’s ear. “Why didn’t you go after Pipsqueak while sleepwalking? That looked reasonable, as you have more capabilities that way… besides, less risky for you…” “It’s how it is on the first sight,” nodded Alex. “But actually it’s a bit more complex. Just imagine somepony waking the real me up during the fight… Yes,” he added seeing the girl paled suddenly, “I would have vanished amidst the fight – instant death to one I was going to rescue in that case. I preferred to take one risk than another…” “Hey! Why are you three sticking out here, aside from the fun?” Rainbow Dash popped seemingly out of the ground, pulling Twilight and Alex to the square with the rest of the herd. “It happens once a year and is going to be over this time soon!” “Sorry, girls. I feel a bit wrung out. Besides, I had different plans…” Alex shook his head entrusting softened and slightly cross-eyed Rarity to Twilight and Rainbow. “I’m going to check if everything is fine with Shy… and then, I think I visit Steels – I saw the lights being on at their place, so I won’t be an annoyance.” “I’ll be fine Twi. Not going to stay awake till morning anyway,” added he with a bit tired smile. “Don’t make too much noise when you and Spike return home.” * The cottage was surrounded by such an overwhelming and completely unnatural for that time of the day silence that Alex became suspicious at the moment approaching it; at the opposite side of the stream, even before crossing the small bridge, his surprise turned into concern and shortly after – anxiety. The mere fact that Fluttershy’s yard wasn’t occupied by some noisy and fidgety little critters was a sign of something truly outstanding happening there or… already happened. Alex involuntarily sped up, even if he trudged as a turtle before, having certain reasons for pensiveness and hesitancy. The latter could be easily explained by his aim leading Alex to Fluttershy’s cottage that day: he wanted to bring some clarity into their relationship. Or better say in the relationship connecting him, Fluttershy and Princess Luna. So far, things kept being complicated and clarity was rather a figure of speech, as Alex was to admit reluctantly. On the other hand, the current circumstances were far from being ideal either, at least without the “declaration of intent” from one or all of the sides. Currently, the girls were rather bearing each other’s presence and gathering them both around Alex was dangerously explosive; even despite their inborn sense of tact and dignity, let alone the known friendship between Princess Luna and Fluttershy, an occasional thunderbolt flashed in their mutual glances in such case. Putting his hand on the gate, Alex marvelled, how loud its creak came out in the surrounding him in the cool air silence. Granted, Autumn came to its decline and it was the second of November, so the majority of the small animals entered their hibernation already or were on the verge of, while the songbirds long left. However, not hearing the hens and not seeing any movement at the yard was unprecedented for that household. The whole place looked and sounded (or better say stood mute) like it was outwaiting non less than some carpet bombing. ‘Merlin’s pants! What hath befallen hither?!’ The human caught himself upon crossing the garden path almost on his toes, unwittingly conforming to the stressful atmosphere. The front door was unlocked, it wasn’t unusual or worrying per se as in general doors were never locked in Ponyville at daytime, which still didn’t cease to surprise Alex, accustomed to the “human society”. The mere fact that it wasn’t even properly shut drove him into the deeper anxiety. Trying to produce no sound, Alex opened the door and infiltrated into the hall leaving the entrance unblocked just in case. A quick glance around told him that all the things from the furniture to small trinkets were seemingly on their places, yet he couldn’t be absolutely sure, as he didn’t cross that threshold for quite a while. The cottage met Alex with the same silence; Fluttershy was never noisy, but silence accompanied by deserted outside only emphasized the impression of wrong. Not knowing what could be happening there, Alex decided to accurately check all the rooms himself. Naturally, he started from the kitchen – the next to the hall considerably large room. A fleeting glance from the doorstep didn’t reveal anything outstanding, except maybe a used cup neither removed from the table nor washed. Something crunched under his feet when Alex entered the room. Shifting his sight down, he froze on the spot like thunderstruck: shards of the broken porcelain plate glimmered dimly on the floor. There was nothing else except the plate parts and it didn’t look as if it was dropped accidentally. Alex thought that he was fancying some faint scent in the air but it was so thin making it hard to recognize. Suppressing the wish to shout her name, Alex clenched his fists; if any stranger was still in the house, they were to be found and treated accordingly. ‘Kicked in the ass for trespassing!’ Alex gritted his teeth audibly making two lumps on his cheeks twitch. Fancying some faint sound from the hall, he stormed back and threw another wild glance around the large room trying to locate the source. Another rustle came from under the large armchair right in front of him and in a second the casually thrown plaid moved slightly revealing the rabbit head, very unconfident and wiggling the ears warily. In a second Angel emerged from his hideout entirely and sat watching the human with the mix of embarrassment, anxiety and grumpiness, which could look funny under different circumstances. He threw a cautious look around and put a paw to his mouth calling for silence. “Heigh, Angel!” Alex quietly squatted down not to tower over Fluttershy’s little friend; he made an effort to relax his rope-strained nerves and smile as casually as possible. “Dost me a favour, tellest what hath befallen hither? What’s about all that silence, pray tell?” The rabbit stared up at him raising one eyebrow and placing his ears parallel to the floor in complete bewilderment. “Ahem…” Alex braced himself with a sigh leaning closer and whispering. “Can you… tell me what’s… happened here? The whole place looks as if… the air-raid warning was issued.” Angel sighed and facepalmed with the soft paw with a quite miserable look. “Did somepony come here before me?” Alex realized that without some basic knowledge of interspecies communication, which was foals’ game for his yellow pegasus friend but Chinese language for him, it went down to some guess-game. “Are they still here?” The rabbit nodded energetically, so even his ears waggled. Then Angel scratched his nape and decided to demonstrate graphically. He marched back and forth putting on an overly confident look, then sat again looking up to Alex inquiringly. “Guards?” Alex blinked a few times. “What guards could forget here?” Angel stomped his hind paw and shook the head quickly showing that Alex totally failed following his pantomime. With a sigh he repeated the show, now with exaggeratedly cheerful and proud yet at the same time gamine look. “Discord…” muttered Alex more to himself. “But he wouldn’t render the place that deserted…” Another facepalm almost made the rabbit fall flat; with an impatient squeak, Angel hopped closer to Alex and pulled the edge of his wing, jerking it a few times insinuatingly and making the human ponder for a second. “A princess?!” finally savvied Alex, his heart sank upon the next guess. “Princess Luna?” Angel nodded very quickly then crouched with his head in his fore paws. “They quarrelled?!” The rabbit threw such a glance up at him that Alex could almost read ‘You can’t even imagine how!!!’ in it. ‘So that’s what made all the animals hide!’ Alex could easily imagine Luna resorting to the Royal Canterlot Voice in the heated argument, but for what it’s worth, Fluttershy didn’t fit that image at all. Nevertheless, Alex was one hundred per cent sure, Luna would have never made some damage for the mere sake of the argument. ‘It comes out that Fluttershy broke the plate during the quarrel!’ His eyes rounded involuntarily. ‘It’s definitely time to interfere… even if it starts looking downright scary.’ Meanwhile, Angel pointed with his glance at the stairs unequivocally and made a desperate face. “They are both upstairs?!” breathed out Alex. “And it’s silent for a while already… What could be going on there?..” The rabbit nodded very fast, then rolled his eyes – ‘Well, what did you expect me to do anyway?’ “Ooookay…” Alex rose with a sigh turning towards the stairs. Feeling the sudden pull, he looked back to notice bemusedly how Angel pulled the tip of the wing and shook his head. “I must…” Angel only shrugged and waved his paw – ‘I warned you, but if you’re suicidal…’ “You know, the idea doesn’t look safe to me either…” smirked Alex. “Thanks, bro…” He headed upstairs trying to tread lightly – some wooden steps creaked audibly, while Angel followed his receding back and, just in case, hid under the armchair again. The bedroom door turned out to be slightly open throwing a narrow stripe of light into the darker corridor, but Alex couldn’t catch a sound from inside. For that he needed to come close and listen. Even without that he knew that both girls were inside: the honey-floral and strong lavender scents mixed were reaching him; now Alex realized what was that familiar faint aroma downstairs. Lavender simply had time to wind out considerably, since Luna left the ground floor. Feeling somehow that knocking would appear completely dumb, Alex swallowed and grabbed the knob; bracing himself, he flung the door open and made the first step into the bedroom. Made a step and was staggered; the sight opening to his eyes made Alex freeze on the spot feeling how his jaw was inevitably dropping. The room was exactly as he remembered it: with the bathroom door and the bed at the left wall and the hearth and the dresser at the right, the armchair and the bookcase near the large window – laconic and comfortable at the same time. The lights were out, the wind coming through loosely closed window played with the curtains slightly; soft evening light seeped into the room making the large wooden beams, crossing the white ceiling, cast deep shadows. Lavender and honey embraced Alex welcoming him like a long-anticipated guest; he realized why the aroma came in waves, trying to comprehend what he saw. Luna and Fluttershy were both sitting on Fluttershy’s bed: Luna deeper with Fluttershy nesting in front of her. Enveloping the large hairbrush with her blue aura, the princess was musingly combing pegasus girl’s long splendid mane. Ruffling like a bird, with her eyes closed dreamingly, Fluttershy faintly wiggled her shoulders from pleasure, almost purring and bringing a smile on Luna’s face. Girl’s lush pink tail probably waiting for its turn to be brushed interlaced with princess’ mane and tail, which covered almost the entire bed, flowing softly and shimmering in the slanting rays of light. Quick Luna’s glance she threw at Alex told him that the girls most likely were waiting for him since the moment Alex entered the cottage. However, the whole scene wasn’t artificial, as it would take considerable time and effort to brush Fluttershy’s sumptuous mane making it exquisitely smooth and silky – thus it wasn’t a play for his eyes exclusively; somehow the girls managed to find common ground. “Finally, thou art hither,” stated the princess wrapping her fore leg around Fluttershy; she buried her muzzle in girl’s hair and watched the human while peeking slyly from the soft cloud of the pink mane. Fluttershy opened up one eye focusing on Alex with some effort, then leaned on her friend’s shoulder, enjoying the cuddle. Under any other circumstances Alex would have found the whole scene utterly amusing, but that day he was extremely serious about his wish to sort things out. Yet at the same time, he couldn’t deny that the sight was quite arousing. Clearing his throat, the human made another step releasing the door handle. “How come…” started Alex noticing from the corner of his eye, how the bedroom door closed slowly enveloped in the blue aura. Without even looking back he knew that it stood under Luna’s magic, thus locked and promptly cutting all the escape ways. “Ahem… I mean what art thou doing hither, Luna?” “Well… I thought that ladies in friendship didn’t need special reasons to visit each other for some talk and quality time!” Luna shrugged with her wings in feigned surprise. “Am I correct, Fluttershy?” “Mhmm…” the pegasus girl murmured in agreement, snuggling closer to her bigger friend. “Seriously though,” the princess put away the hairbrush, “I came hither with the same aim as thou didst, Alex – to clarify our complex relationship. And… I must admit, the beginning of the talk was far from being relaxed or diplomatically discreet.” “Errmmm… Alex, stop playing shy at last,” Fluttershy looked at him lovingly but strictly. “Why don’t you come closer?.. We don’t bite!” both girls smiled daintily watching the human expectantly. Throwing one last glance over his shoulder, Alex made sure that the door was indeed wrapped in Luna’s magic; bracing himself, he approached the girls finally treating each other like real friends should. Seeing his doubts, Fluttershy patted the bed cover in front of her, letting out another encouraging smile. “What has happened here?” Alex sank at the bed edge. “The whole place looked… overrun…” “Luna came here about an hour before you,” Fluttershy started elaborating while Luna quietly snorted at Alex’s association, “ to talk about… us three. And…” Alex noticed her fidgeting in embarrassment. “And I lost my temper.” “Umm… I’m not quite…” Alex blinked. “I-I mean I’m not proud of it,” muttered Fluttershy, the flush started flooding her muzzle. “T-to tell the truth… I’m rather a-ashamed of that momentary impulse…” “That was quite a scene,” chuckled Luna softly. “I nev’r expected the talk to be easy, but…” Meanwhile, Fluttershy kept getting brighter and brighter in her flush. “Thou knowest that I resort to the Canterlot Royal Voice oft… Let’s say at which hour the situation demandeth,” the princess cocked her eyebrows meaningfully. “But… Methinks I didn’t yet come across somepony shouting back at me so fiercely!” To his surprise, Alex noticed that Luna cracked an almost content smile; he shook his head inwardly confessing that he couldn’t understand the girls at the moment. “Squee!” Fluttershy sat red as a carrot. “Please, Luna… I… I’m already…” Alex moved closer on the bed, finally sitting himself properly and taking Fluttershy’s fore hoof in his hands; he looked into her eyes. “We shan’t repeat all the words we have spoken about each other… Or mention the certain plate…” Luna decided mercifully, squeezing Fluttershy in her cuddle and nuzzling her mane intensively. “Tis history… of no relevance to our matter of importance forsooth.” “Are you both okay?” Alex watched the girls fixedly, trying to imagine the scene between them and admitting that he lacked fantasy to fancy it as large as life. Both nodded, Fluttershy relaxed a bit slowly returning to her natural colour. “Did you Sta…” “No! But I was close to that…” whispered Fluttershy bashfully. “Not that it would necessarily work on me,” smirked Luna slyly. “But the realization that we are friends appeared of greater value at the end of the day! Even if stimulated in such a way…” ‘Thither shan’t be a better moment!’ Alex braced himself. ‘Merlin’s pants! Head, why art thou so empty?..’ “It’s great, because…” uttered he finally, “I wanted… I…” “Afore thou say anything…” Luna stopped him softly, releasing Fluttershy from her embrace. “We didn’t tell thee the final point – the result of our talk.” The girls exchanged glances in the gesture of almost visible mental agreement. “So, we both are confident in our feelings…” Luna let out a dainty smile moving a bit on the bed. “Nothing hath changed over time or events…” “…and we admit that nopony should take losses!” added Fluttershy raising her glance at Alex. “But at the same time we don’t want you to feel as if you hurt any of us… or feel forced and tormented either.” “As two adult mares,” concluded Luna, “we decided that the best way would be to… share thee!” Her smile shone brightly and the princess looked extremely pleased with their with Fluttershy mutual solution. “Errmmm…” Alex wasn’t sure if he understood her properly. “What, sorry?” “Practically the same what we did all that time already,” said Fluttershy taking his hand. “B-but with… mutual consent. Squee! I-I mean between me and Luna… that is…” she downcasted confusedly. “Exactly!” ‘I wonder what they are up to?!’ Alex noticed the joyful sparks dancing in Luna’s eyes; Fluttershy slid closer to him. “Exactly as it soundeth!” Luna whispered in his ear but perfectly audible for everypony present. “Share thee… in all the meanings of that word… in turn or… simultaneously if ‘t be true that cometh in agreement with situation and desires.” “Yes… Even that way!” Fluttershy began to flush rapidly; with a relief, Alex saw that it was still his Fluttershy, whose decision took her quite a nerve and effort but at the same time her voice was extremely confident at that moment. “So… What didst thou want to say?” Luna breathed into his ear making the hair stand on ends on Alex’s nape and causing crowds of goosebumps; he realized that the alicorn princess ended up behind him, while he watched Fluttershy’s struggles. “It… doesn’t matter… now…” squeezed out Alex feeling her nuzzling his hair while Fluttershy leaned closer putting her fore hooves on Alex’s shoulders. “All that mattereth now is… us!” Luna let out a happy silvery laughter while he melted from her short hot kisses on the neck. Alex reached back with his fingers meeting the silky coat on Luna’s hip and making her sigh excitedly; he hugged Fluttershy with another arm watching the turquoise eyes moving closer and closer till they filled his entire soul. --- If 't be true you like the story (and have FimFiction account, otherwise, you can't vote), please, take a minute to support the book hither: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/370173/the-guardian "Thumbs up" are very welcome, comments either. Mine most sincere gratitude in advance! A shoutout to the caring friend, good author and simply valorous pony - @Longhaul Read his stories, please: Same story on FimFiction: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/412124/lighting-the-dark-path Support the author thither please (thumbs up) they are really good
  22. 32ht-1595717393-473799-full

    Canterton High: Ponynormal

     

    怪談とポニー

     

    An update on the novel status...

    IT'S PUBLISHED!

    Check it on FimFiction https://www.fimfiction.net/user/293719/Alexshy/stories

    Obviously, ye need to be legal and have your Mature filter properly set.

    1. Loyal Defender

      Loyal Defender

      Beautiful image! :squee:

       

  23. Dearest Subjects! :orly:

    I had drastically failed at being forgotten, as I saw... for which I'm wholeheartedly grateful to you all!!!

    Yes, you all! KEEP BEING AWESOME!!!

    *bows*

    Thanks a lot for your congratulations and birthday wishes!

     

    A tiny disclaimer hither (if 't be true ye don't mind): While I may still not be as active hither as afore, I'm back to literary work and regaining the drive. Thus the writing of the book shalt be restarted shortly. Meanwhile, we (Lunar Cycle Studio) are working on a new j-horror style story. Due to its M-rating it shalt be available soon on FimFiction for 18+ audience. Manga based on the novel is in TBD status, the new OCs (not all of them yet) can be seen hither: https://www.deviantart.com/yoye-wolfgrel/art/The-Curious-Four-848282310 (sfw image, don't worry)

    1. Show previous comments  7 more
    2. Alexshy

      Alexshy

      @CypherHoof 🐎 : The story barely mentions the Princesses, otherwise the characters are completely original.

    3. CypherHoof

      CypherHoof

      fair enough; my comment was more general, rather than specific to your new story :)

    4. Loyal Defender

      Loyal Defender

      Glad you're still around! You always brighten my day! or is it night...? :ooh:

       

  24. Alexshy

    Luna Fan Club

    We tend to think, having certain experience, even vast, differeth from being an epitome of named experience emotional manifestations While sorrows are no doubt somewhat beneficial for thy ponity and empathy in particular, I try not to fixate on them arrant.
  25. Alexshy

    Luna Fan Club

    Ahem! Whence we are the Princess of Sorrows exactly, pray tell?
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