//------------------------------//
// 9. Guinea pig 
// Story: The Guardian 
// by Alexshy 
//------------------------------//

The living room was much darker this evening, the sky behind the windows was covered by thick heavy clouds and the streams of water, produced by their stout bellies, went down the glass, dropping fanciful and sometimes extremely weird shadows on the walls and furniture with each flash of lightning. Alex caught himself on the notice that he didn’t hear the thunder: normally the sound was muffled with all windows closed, but this time there were flashes, yet absolutely no sound audible.

The main lights were out as if someone didn’t want to interfere with the play of this shadow theatre around the room. The only light sources were the hearth with half-burned logs, crackling lazily and sleepily, and an old torchiere, standing behind the armchair and providing a sharply defined circle of light (Alex wondered about soft shadows absence), bright enough to give the mid-aged woman ability to read, sitting in that armchair.

Alex breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of gummy firewood, fine thick furniture casing and something else resembling the mint drops, and made another step forward, stopping at another armchair and putting his hand on the backrest. The woman put down the book, she read, on her knees and took off the glasses; a kind welcoming smile brightened her face when she raised her eyes on Alex.

“Alex, dear!” she pointed to the armchair, he was leaning on. “It took you two weeks to remember that you still have parents.”

Pause.

He put both hands on the backrest of the armchair, but still kept standing. Apparently, he was saying something in return, as his mom was following the lines and nodded, but Alex couldn’t hear his voice. He didn’t have much time to wonder.

“Oh, dear, that was only a joke,” she chuckled, yet rather sadly than amusedly. “I know that you are pretty busy in the last few months and have too much on your plate. I’d simply like to see you more often. I guess I’m officially getting older,” another small smile.

Another pause. Or his silent reply…

“That wasn’t a complaint, God forbid!” his mother shook her head. “Neither a distress call. Merely stating the fact – I feel it…” Suddenly her eyes narrowed a bit, as she observed her son more fixedly. “Alex, is something bothering you? You look strained and… nervous. Look, son, sit down finally and tell me what’s the matter.”

Moment of silence.

“That’s a serious question,” she closed her eyes, her expression becoming serious instantly. “The biggest problem of choices is that they are inevitable. You can’t stop and turn back, avoid your choice, despite sometimes it seems you can walk around the problem. It will pounce you from every corner. And serious choices are entirely yours if they emerge in front of you. Nobody can help you decide, as it will be their choice immediately, not yours.”

Pause. Alex took a look around the room, it became noticeably darker. However, the torchiere and fireplace didn’t emit less light.

“I see where you’re going…” mom leaned to him, putting her hand on Alex’s arm. “But, fortunately, some choices can give you concealed freedom, my boy. Those are not that easy or difficult, as choosing one of the two options. Sometimes you can choose both or a mix of them, sometimes you even invent your own option or rule and force your unyielding choice “comply”.”

Alex looked into her eyes, as the room around started to fade, drowning in the twilight, which turned into full darkness. He saw nothing at that moment, he felt nothing already: no mom’s hand, no armchair beneath himself. Alex wasn’t even sure at that moment if he was standing, sitting, laying down or floating in complete darkness.

He blinked.

The darkness became different; he felt something… someone large, bulky and extremely unkind at a short distance. Alex tried his best to see what he was going to face, but the only thing he could comprehend was a lump of darkness even more black than surrounding space. Then six dim red lights appeared in three pairs… Or were them the eyes?

“… I could imagine, there is nothing to ponder about here,” a low voice, no it sounded more like a set of voices, as they mixed and reverberated, continued the conversation out of the blue. “You won’t be able to destroy me ever, human. Whatever you became now.”

“I admit,” insinuatingly continued his opponent after a pause. “There is a fair chance that I couldn’t destroy you either, in a desired reasonable period of time at least. The alternative is least entertaining, don’t you think?”

Silence. Dead silence.

“I will take what I need of Equestria anyway,” bluntly stated the set of rolling voices. “Yet I’m ready to negotiate. Think about it. Thousands of years Equestria was under the reign of the princesses… and turned into the still swamp. Sweet, harmonic, friendly… friendly sucking you to the very bottom, if there is any. And boring as nothing else can be.”

‘That depends on what you consider to be entertaining!’ flew in Alex’s head.

“You’re another story,” continued the “provocateur”. “You are human. Even more than a human now, but still enough human inside,” Alex almost felt, how the mysterious beast nastily smirked. “The humans are born to conquer, to fight and gain, but mostly to conquer, as far as I know your kin. And believe me, I know you well. Take out the princesses! It won’t matter for you if your swarms have “feelings”,” the voices sounded mockingly at the last word. “They will have aims and will follow you, setting those aims. I will show you, how to open portals to other worlds. Just imagine…”

‘Who the bucking hay are you?’ wanted to ask Alex when he heard another voice. His own voice, but coming outwardly.

“Tis could be reasonable, if ’t be true I were thee!” the voice, the mocking tone was undoubtedly his own, but…

‘What? Why am I talking as princess Luna!’ Alex was totally distracted. “He” meanwhile continued.

“Let me withhold mine enthusiasm regarding thy suggestion though. Mine level of trust is way afar from that.”

Alex facepalmed inwardly. He spent enough time with Luna, but the assumption that he could absorb her manner of speech that much seemed unlikely to him.

“Look at… thyself!” drolled his opponent. “You take too much of them inside already, while you could really make Equestria different. But, well, it was your choice…”

Alex twitched and… woke up in his room. 

*

Celestia tiredly closed her eyes. She almost beat Twilight record in the reading marathon during the few latest days, while she searched the Canterlot Library for a feasible method to magically transfer a magic resistant entity. The lack of realistic methods in this case was appalling, as the only visible result she managed to get daily, were the bloodshot eyes, well, not of their usual pink colour of the iris, but redder. Totally not suitable for the princess.

No wonder that the sun almost smacked down behind the horizon this evening, making everypony surprised by such sudden dusk and fast-falling twilight. That was the reflection of Celestia’s own tired condition and the liberty she couldn’t allow herself, unfortunately – to hit the pillows as fast as she lowered the sun. She needed that letter, as the direction of her further research was supposed to base on what she could read there, thus princess stood at the window and random observer could think that Celestia is enjoying the view of the night, coming over her domain. But her eyes were closed, the princess gave them long deserved rest, while she was thinking if she missed something in today’s studying. 

The sound of the materialized scroll, which fell on her table, rustling the papers, was like music for her perked ears. Celestia opened her eyes, heading to her desk, and sat there with comfort: she felt exhausted today. However, the golden aura enveloped the scroll unrolling it; skipping usual formal greetings, Celestia started reading, what was important to her.

“…
The following is a brief report of the second stage of human studying. During this stage, we plan to perform various tests of magical impact (and the corresponding reaction of the subject – human) of inanimate magical objects also known as artefacts.

The whole set of experiments is planned to be carried under constant observation and control of the mages of your royal council. We, in our turn, provide generic medical supervision and supplementary services, collecting data and building theories with the help of respected mages accordingly. The same refers to further experiments, involving living interaction (subject to further reports, when done).

The named artefacts are presented by simple metallic tokens, typically worn on the neck of the subject, or suitable to be placed on the subject any other preferred by the nature of the experiment way. They are made of simple bronze and crystals, and powered by the named mages with basic spells of different nature, range and target.”

“Why the hay, pray tell, can’t they write in simple Equestrian?” muttered Celestia. “The mere fact that it is comprehensible doesn’t make it comfortable to read yet.”

“Naturally, we can divide the artefacts on passive and active, with passive affecting some characteristics of the subject or third party, or environmental parameters, e.g. lighting level. Further on the impact of both passive and active artefacts can be directed to the subject himself or anything/anypony in a certain range. In addition to that, the impact can be positive and negative, regardless of the target of it.

We could test only the limited number of simple interactions for the first day of the second stage. Due to the named reason, we decided to cover the whole range of types of interaction, to have the most complete possible image. Basing on the results of today’s tests we plan to cover the entire variety of spells, your council mages find appropriate and necessary for our goal. The results of extensive tests will follow; while here is the summary of subject’s interaction with inanimate magical objects.

According to the conventional plan of tests, we started with passive artefacts.

Thus the simplest possible environmental interaction was chosen – the first test token was powered with lighting spell. The token was placed on the neck of the subject as a part of a necklace. N.B.: Here and further on the subject shows the high concern and cooperation level, placing, activating (when necessary) and operating the artefacts himself. The staff member leaves the prepared token on the test table, then, when the test room is clear, the subject puts the token on.”

“Hmmm…” Celestia raised one eyebrow. “This level of concern is too high if you ask me…”

“Oh, come on,” she reconsidered in a second. “He may be impulsive,” she remembered that kiss and blushed slightly, inwardly scolding herself for that memory, “but not completely mental. He must realize that harming my subjects won’t make his life easier.”

She continued reading.

“The first test didn’t bring any unexpected results. Thus when the lights were turned off in the test room, the token started to emit light, according to the applied spell. The decided period of each test is set at twenty minutes if no interaction takes place, or as long as is enough to register the results without detrimental effects to the subject or/and third party. During the whole test period, no extra effects were registered: the light emission stayed at the cast level without any changes, the subject didn’t report any physical or emotional change, the token preserved its initial condition (both physically and magically, as it was confirmed later when it was examined by the mages). The test was stopped and the subject had a short rest.

The second test included a passive artefact, affecting the third-party test subject – volunteer. This token was imbued with the spell, increasing the physical strength of the third-party subject on a short-range (the room perimeter), the primary subject – the human – was informed about the nature of the spell, the weights were placed in the test room. The primary subject put the artefact on, no changes of the state were registered on both the token and the primary subject. The third-party test subject entered the room. The volunteer immediately reported about the expected impact of the artefact, as test lifting showed that she was able to lift twice than her normal limit. No extra effects were registered, likewise the first test. The test was stopped, when the volunteer tried the number of weights and determined her new limit (under the spell effect), without any changes to the primary subject or the artefact.

The third test supposed passive impact on the human himself and the token was accordingly powered with the same strength increasing spell, but this time directed on the test subject respectively. The token was made specifically to be activated by pressing the crystal, to avoid unnecessary disturbances and “borderline effects” in the process of putting it on the subject. The lifting capability limit of the subject, determined by the medical tests, was approximately eighty per cent of his own weight, thus under normal conditions of the spell application, the subject was supposed to lift approximately twice of his own weight. However, when the subject put the token on and properly activated it, no visible changes were registered. The lifting limit remained the same as before the test, but the extra effect was registered instead. The visible bond formed between the token and subjects body. Thus when the subject lifted the token, a thin, bright aura thread could be seen, connecting the token and test subject. The subject reported token temperature increase and, in a matter of minutes, the token disintegrated, corroding (visually the process reminded the corrosion mostly, despite bronze is not supposed to corrode naturally) and crumbling to dust. N.B.: The test subject was visibly shocked by the effect, we suppose that the emotions were not simulated.

It is necessary to note that those tokens were specifically made as weak enough artefacts, without any extra protection of their own structure, to register the results of the tests in the quickest and most graphical way. Supposedly, any real artefact (possessing protection and a higher level of magical power) will resist the effect considerably longer (depending on the power and protection levels, yet it’s vital to notice that more powerful artefacts create more powerful interaction, thus the reflected effect is stronger as well), but still ceases to exist finally, when its magical (and presumably connected physical) potential wears out.”

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, thinking.

‘Bad, this is very, very bad. We, perhaps, could shield the human from the direct impact with some passive artefact, as the experiments allow. But the transfer supposes direct impact on the transferred object. And in that case, he starts draining the transferring magic again… or even worse, some unforeseen effect could be formed by the addition of the shielding artefact.’ 

‘Mom, where are you, when I need your experience in magic so much?’ a single tear stained the papers in front of Celestia.

After a minute the princess took herself in hooves and returned to the report.

“The next series of tests included the active impact in the same pattern: environment, third party subject, primary subject. As the results appeared to be similar, I took the liberty to compact the description as much as it was possible.

The first test supposed active interception of the environmental projectiles aimed at the test subject. We used buckball balls as the projectiles, launching them at the test subject at different speeds. The token was powered by a “sentinel” spell, which knocked down the projectiles with shock impulses and could be activated by the subject himself. During the test all the balls were taken down by the token, no extra effects on the token itself or the test subject were registered.

The second test in this series used a healing artefact, tuned to affect third-party test subjects. As the latter, a guard was used. After the primary test subject put on the token and activated, the third-party test subject made a cut on his fore leg. N.B.: The facial expression of the primary subject showed his negative attitude towards the method. The cut was healed by the artefact in a predefined manner and time. No extra effects were registered on the token and the primary subject.

The third test included the same healing artefact, tuned to affect the primary test subject. To trigger the effect the subject was supposed to make a small wound on himself. Considering the off-limits level of regeneration your mages made a few changes to the healing spell, namely prevented it from stopping when the wound healed. The proof run was performed without the token to determine the time of complete healing of the cut. During the actual run of the test same nature cut was made and no changes in healing time were registered, allowing to assume that the artefact didn’t affect the self-healing process. The rest reminded the passive counterpart of this experiment, namely – the bond was formed between the token and the subject’s body and the artefact was destroyed within minutes.

We considered it important to perform two extra tests with a purely negative impact on both the third party and the primary subject. The mentioned “sentinel” spell was used as the basis for these tests. In the first test, the token was tuned to bombard approaching third party subject with shock impulses and a guard in shock shielding armour was used as the third-party test subject. No other effects than pre-planned were registered.

The second test involved the “sentinel” token placed in the test room and tuned to attack any approaching living creature. The test subject – human – was supposed to enter the room and approach the token, causing the reaction. We did two runs: with the shielding armour and without. In the first run, the impulses were reflected by the armour and no extra effects were registered. In the second run, the human was attacked by the artefact when he approached at the defined range, but the impulse didn’t cause any shock effect on the human. Instead of that it visibly “dissolved” in human’s body and the artefact itself blasted in a flash, resembling electric discharge. No remnants of the token were found later.”

Celestia frowned, it seemed that Discord was right, not acting in his outrageous demonstration, despite how clownish it looked.

“Considering all of the above and to summarize the results, I can safely state the following. It doesn’t matter what kind of spell is used by the test artefact, passive or active, positive or negative, what actually matters, is the direction of the spell. Anything applied directly to the subject causes a magical bond forming and the draining effect, with the only exception that the negative impact causes the immediate and strong “backlash”. Otherwise, the subject is inert to surrounding magic as long as it doesn’t affect himself.

The disintegration of the magical artefacts can be explained by a complete magic drain performed by the subject, which causes deeper structural changes we have no ability to investigate for now.

We are going to test all the variety of the spells applied with artefacts, suggested by the council in the matter of the following week. But my personal suspicion is that the results will be nearly the same, regardless of the spell.

We plan to proceed with the interaction with third-party test subjects instead of inanimate artefacts when the current series of tests is over.

With endless respect and admiration,
always your loyal servant
…, MD


P.S.: Your Highness, princess Celestia, if I’m allowed, I’d like to take a liberty and advise against purely negative impact testing within living third-party test subjects series of experiments. It’s my official position.”

“Agreed,” nodded Celestia without hesitation. “Something tells me that being smacked by a frying pan is not the worst variant an offender could get.”

“And something also tells me that prolonged exposure to that “magical drain” effect can make a living mage share the unenviable fate of those artefacts,” she added, locking the scroll in the same drawer with similar others.

*

Alex put down the book and listened carefully. He spent the last two hours exactly that way – reading the book on Equestrian history, which was finally decided to be given to him, and paying attention to every sound, which reached his ears from the corridor. The pattern was almost the same as every evening: the guards passed his room approximately once in an hour, the wide confident hoofsteps of the second nurse passed once, and somepony galloped wildly in the middle of the first hour. Alex chuckled, he knew who that most likely was.

The second nurse, or as Alex, not knowing names, called her for himself – “Ginger”, whose duty was tonight, got late. “As usual”, as another nurse – that kind, petite “brunette” unicorn – mentioned, while bringing him his supper. She was a bit nervous, because that could interfere with her personal plans, but not overly nervous, which told Alex that it was the common practice for “Ginger” to do that. Shortly after he finished his meal, those galloping steps passed his door.

Contrary to the miniature unicorn, “Ginger” was a fairly tall, leggy earth pony. She was vivid and chatty, even too vivid in Alex’s books and she was indeed ginger. Despite her chatty nature, she bona fide avoided giving out personal information or generally anything about the experiments or personnel, so all her chatting was limited by weather, casual stuff, flowers growing in the Royal Garden or cinema (in those moments Alex got stiff, as he had no idea if he was able to get to the cinema alone or with… anypony in the nearest future), but that was an avalanche nevertheless. So, each time, when she left waving her sunny tail, Alex felt that serenity was almost palpable in those moments. 

Due to the same reason Alex didn’t ask about things that bothered him, as with “Ginger” his questions would become known by guards, maids, nopony knows whoever else… and finally by Celestia, not by malevolence, but just because of “Ginger’s” curiosity and loquacity. The faster method to bring them to Celestia was, perhaps, going and whispering them himself, right into the princess’ soft ear.

Alex waited for “Ginger” to come as usual to check him before the sleep and ask if he needed something. There were certain positive aspects though: Alex knew for sure that after that visit, she would stay in the nurse’s room for the whole night, unless he called specifically, and would be most likely chatting with the guards when they stopped by during their patrolling. The guards became more relaxed and distracted that way, so his plan could play out nicely; it would be very helpful if they didn’t listen for every tiny sound in the building.

He decided to go further with his “personal experiments”. Nothing too outstanding, nothing harmful, but if he was caught, that wouldn’t be beneficial for his general image, especially in the eyes of Celestia. Alex thought that if he was locked physically, nothing still prevented proxy Alex to have at least some freedom and get for a walk. One thing was to see the small square of the night sky through the barred window and totally another – to be able to stand under it in its entire glory. Alex planned to exit his “cell” tonight by “sleepwalking”, get to the roof and stay there as long as he could afford, not being caught by the guards. He chuckled, anticipating his small adventure, which called to dilute his routine.

Getting out of the cell was an easy task: Alex could place “himself” everywhere on the fairly short distance, while on the long distances he needed the anchor, the one and only princess Luna – Alex didn’t try to reach somepony else’s dreams and he rightfully assumed that he couldn’t. Speaking of which, there was a certain possibility of Luna visiting him, but he was sure that the princess could find him easily and wouldn’t get him into any trouble.

Getting to the actual roof of the building offered a bit of an issue though. Of course, Alex could try to appear right there (being unable to actually transfer himself, the only method of “teleporting” he knew, was getting into his real body in a fraction of second, when he voluntarily or forcedly gave out his proxy control), but there were some problems with that. First of all, Alex couldn’t properly visualize his destination and risked to appear somewhere in the building still, moreover right before the eyes of somepony, that definitely wouldn’t be the desired result. And second, let’s be frank, Alex wanted to have a certain element of risk, making his way up, avoiding unwelcome eyes and ears; princess Luna gave him very accurate characteristic.

Thus after the nurse left, wishing him a good night, Alex waited for a befitting period of time, letting her return to her usual activity: reading or talking to the guard, who already passed his door once again, and finally decided that it was time. He lay on his bed and prepared to his gamble, freeing his mind of irrelevant thoughts and travelling to the Luna’s kingdom.

After about ten minutes, Alex appeared in the dimly lit corridor, behind the door of his room. He couldn’t throw a look through the small opening on the door, as it was blocked (just as the whole doorway) with the magical barrier from that side, contacting with which could bring unforeseen consequences, Alex preferred to avoid. But he knew for sure that anypony, who wanted to check their “guinea pig” for magic, would see him sleeping peacefully… and he doubted that anypony would look at him long enough to suspect that not moving human looked strange. For that moment everything was more than fine, even the supposed magical guarding device, Luna told him about, didn’t react to his trick. Perhaps, it was tuned to address the break out attempts of physical Alex only.

‘Surely it could be a bit darker here, that would provide more freedom of movement,’ regretted Alex, getting closer to the wall and listening to the possible sounds from behind the numerous doors. 

He could try and extinguish a few light sources, as the corridor was lit by common candles in the chandeliers. With a sly smile, Alex thought that his idea to try making environment-friendly electricity generators for his living had good potential. But extinguished candles could startle the ponies, besides, somepony could decide to go and fix the issue, so Alex left them alone.

One door was slightly opened and threw a bright stripe of light on the floor. The muffled talk from behind witnessed about the nurse being on her duty and, as supposed, distracting the guard from his duty. Alex smirked.

‘Thanks, Ginger, that you are making them less edgy and suspicious… Though you could certainly do it not right on my way to the stairs,’ he thought, remembering the approximate building layout.

Alex was taken for the experiments to the underground levels of the facility, as he could assume, getting a few floors down via the same staircase. If his memory served him well, this was the first floor, the building had a couple of floors more above that one and, supposedly, if there was an exit to the roof, it should be at the end of the staircase.

Fortunately, he was barefoot and didn’t make much noise: proxy Alex always appeared, looking the same as real Alex. This time it was apropos. Perhaps, he was able to change something in his appearance during sleepwalking, Alex never tried.

Slowly and carefully he approached that opened door, listening to the talk, flowing from inside the room. Alex thought that it would be nice to have some plan, in case the tone of that talk changed and the guard appeared in the corridor the next moment. He stopped halfway through the corridor and quietly tried the nearest door. It was locked. Remembering how to deal with material objects Alex accurately mentally nudged a few more doors and one of them opened slightly, but with an audible screeching.

‘Merlin’s pants!’ breathed Alex inwardly, when the voices became quieter and the talk stumbled. He slid to that opened door in a wink, ready to burst in, if anypony showed in the hallway. The door led to the toilet and Alex scolded himself: if he was to hide, there wasn’t much space in, besides, the light, if turned on, would make the whole idea useless. Unfortunately, he didn’t have invisibility in the list of his abilities and hadn’t asked Luna, if that was even possible for one to perform during sleepwalking. But to his relief, nopony appeared in the corridor and the paused talk was resumed soon, most likely they didn’t hear the screech well enough and left it all to their imagination. Or that particular guard was interested in “Ginger” more, than in his duty; anyway, she distracted him well enough for Alex to proceed.

When he approached the nurse’s room door though, Alex spotted the top of the shadow, dropped by the guard in the lit doorway. 

‘He must be standing right behind the opening, leaning on the doorframe, chattering with the mare, yet at the same time listening and watching the corridor through the gap,’ assumed Alex, facepalming inwardly. ‘There is no way I can pass right now, as he will notice the movement most likely. And despite he won’t catch me anyway, he will see enough for me to explain too much later.’

‘And I can’t stay here, as, sooner or later, the guard will continue his walk through the building and again see me… or even worse, another one will come from behind,’ Alex took a quick look around. There was literally nothing in the corridor to use for cover and enough light to render almost every attempt futile.

Nevertheless, there was another door opposite the nurse’s room; the plate said “Storage” and the lock looked rather simple. Alex slid to that door and leaned to it, trying the handle – locked. He then put his palm over the keyhole and concentrated on the lock mechanism.

It took him a good couple of minutes to imagine the deadbolt and how it backed away from the hole in the door frame. Alex moved his hand away from the door edge and heard the quiet sound of the metal bar sliding back into the lock.

‘By the name of Celestia!’ Alex automatically wiped his forehead, like if proxy Alex could sweat… or perhaps he really could. ‘Just don’t bucking screech that time.’

He slowly opened the door and entered, stopping in the doorframe and waiting, till his eyes accommodate to the darkness. “Storage” meant lots of stuff and Alex didn’t want to knock something down and startle the whole building. When he saw that he could step aside behind the door, not dropping anything, he closed the door behind himself, not letting it lock again. Alex became all ears. He needed that guard to leave the room and the floor in general, and also a few minutes before the next guard enters the corridor from another side, being able to spot Alex.

Several minutes seemed an eternity before the chatter and laughter stopped and Alex heard the sound of the opening door and hoofsteps receding to the left.

‘Yay, I’m lucky tonight!’ Alex looked out of his hiding place, smelling of detergent and something else chemical, and found that at least the door to the nurse’s room wasn’t left wide open. He quickly passed the stripe of light, falling from the gap.

Alex covered the rest of the floor in a few jumps, as he still remembered that somepony could appear at the opposite end of the hallway at any moment. He leaned on the door to the staircase, feeling the cold surface with his ear and listening – silence. 

‘Well, I hope, he won’t suddenly decide to go back,’ Alex opened the door.

Good thing – the staircase was empty, bad thing – the staircase was well lit and… empty! No nook or cranny to hide, if somepony suddenly opened the door on any of nearest landings and observed the narrow stairs, instantly spotting him. So, Alex made up his mind: he concentrated and extinguished all the candles in the stairwell from his floor to the top.

‘At least this will give me a few seconds, if anypony opens the door from the lit corridor to the dark stairs, to spot them and flee,’ smirked Alex in the pitch-black stairwell, slowly starting to recognize the contours of stairs, railings, walls and doors. ‘And they won’t see me right away, even if the darkness makes them suspicious.’ 

If he stopped for a moment and thought better, he would probably realize that he wasn’t naturally supposed to see that well without any light. But instead of wasting time on useless analysis of himself, he spent a second to open the door to the floor corridor slightly.

‘Let’s say it’s the draught, which took the lights out. Besides, I can hear better if somepony approaches the stairs…’ Alex walked up, performing the same trick with the doors on the remaining landings, but came across a surprise at the end of his ascent.

The stairs ended, there was a landing, an obvious door to the last floor – Alex saw the corridor behind it, but no ladder or hatch to the roof, nothing, just solid walls and a ceiling.

‘Buck my life!’ Alex gritted his teeth. ‘I spent the whole evening, waiting for the small opportunity to get under the open sky and it all stumbles upon the stupid hatch absence.’

‘I always thought that if one has a roof, one must have a way to reach it,’ he scratched the back of his head. ‘If I’m not mistaking, the roof here is flat, so… They must at least remove the snow in winter somehow!’

Then he remembered about pegasi and that didn’t add any optimism. Alex thought that technically he could try the same: namely, fly to the roof. But there was a big difference, to raise a few feet above the solid floor of Luna’s room balcony, or to open a window if it could be opened, in some room, high above the ground and… actually fly to the roof. There was one hell of a difference for an acrophobic human, who just started to fight his phobia… in the sleepwalking state only yet.

‘Okay, that’s “plan B”,’ decided Alex. ‘If I find guts for the “plan B”. They simply must have some way,’ he tried to convince himself, exiting the dark staircase and squinting in the light of the upper floor hallway.

‘Taking out the lights here would be extremely stupid,” thought Alex, trying the doors one by one methodically. ‘Too obviously suspicious for anypony, who enters the hallway.’

He crossed the whole floor to the opposite end: locked cabinets, open toilets – two of them, one on each end of the hallway, and the unlocked door to another staircase. Alex checked its landing as well – nothing again. Execrating the architect he returned to the main corridor, Alex left the door to those stairs slightly open as well to hear, if anypony approaches from that end. He started checking the doors once again, more desperately, than really expecting the result, as if there was an exit to the roof, it should naturally be obvious and unlocked. Alex realized that he was thinking, using human logic, but he assumed that fire safety was generic enough to be the same anywhere.

Right at the moment he almost reached the middle of the hallway, Alex stopped and listened carefully. He was sure that he heard something, most likely from the second stairwell. A coughing sound came from there followed by steps, Alex quietly swore and his gaze rushed frantically around – he had no time to reach any of the opened toilets unheard. Then his eyes stumbled at the inconspicuous narrow door, which he took for a wall closet for the first time and barely nudged. 

This was the only chance and Alex turned the knob and forcefully pulled the door. Fortunately, it gave up and Alex saw another short set of narrow stairs and one more door at the upper end of them, barely visible in the darkness. There wasn’t much time to hesitate, as the hoofsteps were almost behind the door to the hallway. At the very least that was a better hiding place than the unlocked, well lit and fairly small toilet.

Wasting no more time Alex stormed in and tried to close the narrow door fast, but without any bang. Just in time: the unicorn guard appeared in the far end of the corridor the same second Alex closed the door behind himself. He was slightly puzzled by the stairs door, which was opened to leave a noticeable gap, and inwardly scolded his colleague, who supposedly left it open previously. Meanwhile, Alex flew to the top of the stairs at his tiptoes, almost bumping in the upper door, as his eyes didn’t yet accommodate to the pitch-black room. He froze there, leaning on the door leaf and listening, feeling his heart under the throat and adrenaline pumping through his veins. Amazingly the proxy kept all the feelings of the real Alex, at least those, which he subconsciously allowed to reveal themselves.

The steps approached the narrow door below, Alex stiffened, and passed it, though slower, than the guards usually patrolled: Alex heard them so many times through the last several days, so he could tell the difference. At that moment Alex prayed that this door was unlocked as well, as he had no time to look where the lock was at least approximately, so he would be to find it at first, before even trying to fiddle with. The door looked all smooth for him, even without a visible handle.

He leaned on it and pushed and with a noticeable resistance the door opened finally – Alex fell out on the roof, almost falling on all four. Raised gaze found the dark-blue sky and the glowing stars, Alex took his breath and closed the door, which was on the highest wall of the small superstructure, lit by the moon. He sat on the roof in the shadow of that exit, leaning his back on the door and relaxing. Alex glanced at the diamonds scattered on the dark velvet of sky and suddenly burst out laughing. For no particular reason, just at the childish feel of well-made shenanigan, he laughed and laughed, feeling how adrenaline left his blood and gave place to unbelievable serenity and some happiness. He was happy to simply sit there under the sky, watch the stars and feel the fresh wind on his face. That was worth returning to his comfortable “cell” after a while and being a guinea pig for yet another day tomorrow. Besides, he finally put his new abilities to the test and some actual usage, not giving up to circumstances, but staying above them, albeit in such an unusual way.

‘And despite my body is still there in the locked room,’ he thought, still smiling widely. ‘That’s me, who feels the wind, the smell of flowers, looks for familiar constellations… That’s a victory, even if small, still a victory!’

*

The complete darkness in this stairwell, at least on the upper floors, as he saw the light coming from the lower levels, was a surprise, moreover, an unpleasant and strange one. The guard lit the candles back with his magic and quietly started descending. He disturbed nopony on his way down though, noticing and closing the slightly open doors at two more, previously dark, landings. The last landing without the light was the one on the floor with the human test subject, so the guard started to show anxiety when he entered the hallway. Everything looked normal though, at least at the first sight.

The guard quickly, but as quietly as he could on his hooves, approached the lit nurse’s room – it was fine here as well: the nurse sat at the table, reading something and raised her eyes on him with a smile when he entered. She didn’t look, like if she heard or saw something unruly.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” she asked amazedly, obviously noticing him being stiff. “You look a fair bit jumpy. Is everything okay?”

He watched her fixedly for a few seconds, instead of the answer, considering if she was not enthralled, and visibly relaxed, when decided, she was consciously unconcerned.

“This is what I want to ask you exactly,” he said quietly. “Is everything okay?”

“In the name of Celestia, just tell what…”

“Shhh…” hissed the guard, gesturing the ginger nurse to shut up. “Be quiet and tell me: have you checked the human recently?”

“I did before he went to sleep,” she raised one eyebrow. “But the door was locked and the barrier… I heard nothing since then, he didn’t call… Besides, your partner… passed about twenty minutes ago.”

The guard smirked, he thought that “passed” was a humble term for sticking here for half an hour and chattering, instead of patrolling the floors, and certain pink spots on nurse’s muzzle told him he made a right guess.

“Well, let’s go and check,” he concluded. “If everything is indeed calm and quiet, as you claim.”

The nurse huffed and took the keys, and they both quietly exited to the hallway.

“I don’t see anything wrong,” whispered the nurse, when they approached the door to the human’s room. “It’s closed and the barrier is on.”

They came closer and the guard threw a look through the peephole: in the faint light of the moon, coming through the barred window, he saw that the human was on the bed, laying on his back, obviously sleeping and the even breathing raised and lowered his chest rhythmically. Nurse’s muzzle peeked through the opening, appearing right next to guard’s and making him slightly confused by that sudden proximity.

“See,” she hissed touchily. “He’s sleeping, okay? Was there any need to scare me?”

The guard huffed, he wasn’t so easily convinced. He produced a short quiet whistle, causing the glare of the nurse, but the human stayed the same, not twitching a zilch, breathing quietly. There was no doubt, he was sleeping and couldn’t exit his room, making strange things happen. To be sure the guard nudged the door slightly and found out that it was locked.

He shrugged and waved his head towards nurse’s room, heading there first with the nurse following.

“Okay,” he said when they returned to the brightly lit room. “Let’s say, I believe. And he didn’t leave his bed for the whole evening. And the lights in the left stairwell went out because of the wind, as somepony, some idiotic pony, left all the doors open from this floor and above. Although it’s strange…”

The mare listened to him with wide-open eyes.

“But do me a favour,” he continued. “Raise your pretty plot and check the human at least once in half an hour, please.”

*

Alex caught himself on the strange observation: he could recognize some of the constellations easily, yet some of them were totally unknown to him. He found Orion, both Ursa major and minor, some others, but again the position of them wasn’t entirely familiar to him.

“On the one hand, the well-known constellations can mean that I’m at least in the same sector of the galaxy, where the Earth is,” pondered Alex, enjoying the night sky view at the same time. “But, on the other hand, there are too many, I have no faintest idea about and can’t recognize. I admit that I’m a crappy astronomer, if any at all, still… That doesn’t entirely compute.”

“Or I am on the Earth, but in some other parallel dimension and reality,” he twitched upon a wild idea. “That would be quite an irony, the universe likes so much!”

“Hardly though,” he was to confess the brilliant guess to be an absurdity. “Unknown constellations and the maps from the book speak against that. I couldn’t recognize any single continent or territory. The geography is completely different, that couldn’t be Earth in the wildest approach.”

“That means I’m still in the middle of nopony-knows-where,” sighed Alex, not even noticing that “nopony” didn’t make him cringe inwardly now.

A lone cloud ran over the moon, which moved across the sky and now glowed slightly to his left, making the lit part of the sky almost turquoise with a bit of pink tint. The amazing eyes of Fluttershy, sad, filled with tears, just like they were on the day of his departure to Canterlot, appeared before Alex’s inner sight. He placed his hand on his chest involuntarily – his heart faintly ached, a cold needle of regret stabbed it.

What was she doing there, far away, in Ponyville? What was she feeling? Alex could safely assume that he knew her well enough after those few days, they spent together. Shy was an open book – she never concealed her thoughts and feelings. She couldn’t lie, even if it was a lie for salvation – anypony close to her, could tell that something was bothering her, some second level of the feelings, she was trying hard to suppress, but inevitably giving out by her look, posture and behaviour. So, Alex could tell that she was genuinely upset, if not to say ruined, by his forced leave. He knew that she must still be, thinking again and again about something she could do, but did not to change the situation. She took him to her home, didn’t let him die, not thinking about image or reputation, forgetting about all her fears and weaknesses (even if they were imaginary). That’s where they were close indeed: she always tried her best to do things, which depended on her, the most proper way, becoming desperate, if she failed, especially if the fail rooted not in some force major, but rather in her incapability to handle the situation. Alex thought that it was the reason for half of her insecurities – she wasn’t afraid to do, she feared to fail. Sometimes an emergency was needed to make her act, like an imminent danger to her friends. But when she made a decision, especially in the named urgent cases, she was rock solid. That was what he loved about that girl.

‘Loved about that girl… Loved… that girl?!’

Alex definitely felt special about Fluttershy. He wouldn’t make a crime against the truth, supposing that he found actual friends during just a few days in that world, and it was a miracle by itself. But Fluttershy was more than a friend. The question was: how much more than a friend? Like Elen, whom he perhaps didn’t think about the last few days. Or even more… Alex bit his finger, eyeing the turquoise sky around cloud-veiled moon. 

‘Luna…’

She was another part of that complex puzzle. Alex knew that he was free in his decisions, yet he would give his life for this incredible princess without the second thought. She found potential in him, taught him much already, assumingly was completely sincere with him (Alex remembered their last talk when Luna told him about her parents: that wasn’t artificial in the slightest). What was more important – she trusted him. Not mentioning the obvious affection, mutual, as he admitted. All that could hardly be done just to confront or surpass her sister. Besides, what Alex saw spoke for the sisters not having any stupid competitions long ago, evidently “growing” above those things; they were heartily concerned about each other instead. So, was the bottom line of all that… him and Luna being more than just friends as well?

Less than a month in Equestria and things were becoming more and more complicated. But Fluttershy… Alex felt extremely uneasy about how things went with her, for the start they shouldn’t part like that. He couldn’t find a proper name for that feeling yet, assuming that love was perhaps a bit overboard and premature for such a short relationship. But at the end of the day who could know? That wasn’t because he undoubtedly owed his life to her or even because she accepted him so easily. There was something about Fluttershy herself, which made him want to keep her safe, protected. 

‘Isn’t it exactly love, Alex?’ he squinted at this inner voice suggestion.

Luna, on the contrary, was totally confident, amazingly treating him like an equal since the first day. Alex had no illusions about actually becoming equal someday, but that was evidently the advantage of the alicorn princess: she could choose one, put at her side and try guiding that one to at least some level of equality. On the other hand, another advantage of being a princess was an ability to abandon the chosen one as easy as to choose, not feeling obliged to explain her choices or reconsideration of them. Although, Alex couldn’t find any visible symptoms of their relationship being something lightweight and shallow.

While he could tell fortunes about Luna’s motives, one he knew for sure: he wanted to know how Fluttershy was doing, to tell her that he was alright in his turn, nothing awful was happening there… yet. Alex suddenly understood that she was crying not only and mostly because things went wrong, but most likely because she thought that he might end being transferred home without any chance for them to meet before that or ever again. Despite that he said, he would return for a while no matter what. Tormenting her like that was the last thing Alex wanted to do. And as soon as he couldn’t contact anypony, except a few permitted persons, while being thoroughly examined, he could at least try and relay a message. The most uneasy thing about that: the only person he could trust, doing that, was the one, who could be personally interested in NOT relaying anything to Fluttershy perhaps. Alex could imagine, how it would look like.

‘Luna, dear, before you kissed me breathless, please remember to tell Fluttershy somehow that I’m okay and she shouldn’t worry!’

Alex rolled his eyes, cringing at the mental image of the scene. Yet he would despise himself for not telling Shy anything, while still having a chance to lessen her anxiety. 

‘This will call for grade A diplomacy not to suck drastically… or at least grade B+,’ smirked Alex, following the shooting star, which crossed the star embroidered sky, and wishing wholeheartedly to finally come to be at home. ‘I’m more than sure that Luna is capable to unearth the double bottom anyway, but it’s better to be not that obvious.’

The moon moved further on its nightly route, lighting more space behind that roof superstructure, in the shadow of which Alex hid. He was going to move a little, as the light border was about to cross his bare feet, making them shine in the moonlight and revealing his hiding spot right away if there was an eye, ready to notice. Lingering as long as he could Alex simply enjoyed sitting there, leaning on the still-warm wall, stargazing and breathing in the aroma, he couldn’t estimate fully in his personal cell: roses, surprisingly, here in Equestria they had some species which produced strong sweet aroma, so unlikely for roses; acacia as well…

‘Merlin’s pants!’ realized Alex. ‘It’s June already… if their acacia isn’t much different from our… and I’m still sitting on the spot, almost literally.’

Lavender…

“Ahem,” Alex raised one eyebrow, not yet turning his head, but already smiling when he heard a soft, intermittent, surprised sigh. “Howdy, Luna. What an excellent night, isn’t it? Have you decided to join me and enjoy that amazing view of the starry sky? Do you usually sneak onto… anypony like that?”

“Dost thou always get out, the time thou art not supposed to… and sit like that, simply asking to spot thee?” Luna huffed in return, approaching from behind and sitting next to him.

“Among all the lunatic, forgive my pun, things thou didst, tis easily holdeth the first prize for that hour,” there was a slight concern in her voice, although, not some disappointment when she nuzzled his shoulder lightly. “Art thou going for a record, Alex?”

“By the way, how could thou…” she was genuinely interested and Alex hurried to satisfy her curiosity.

“Oh, that’s easy,” he turned his face to touch her muzzle and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. “You may get used to it, but I know it’s you as long as I can feel my lavender fragrant… goddess.”

A small gasp told him that, despite Luna might find the praising of her pony subjects natural, she was pleased by that spontaneous and cordial compliment, coming from the human.

“And answering your previous question… No, I haven’t gone mad… yet. Was approaching that though, almost running the walls in my room lately,” continued Alex. “If not the book, free time would be awful. Now I can read, I do push-ups, squats, everything space of my room allows, including even handstands, but I can’t effectively turn off my thoughts.”

“Besides,” he added after a while, interrupted by a loud scream of some night bird in the garden, Luna perked her ears as well, before it got silent again. “Besides, I wanted to find out, if my new abilities have more practical usage…”

“And how effective they are…” nodded Luna, looking at him, her eyes were smiling. “Just like me, learning my first spells when I was a filly. Thou needest to be cautious still…”

“And that’s you, who telling me that,” chuckled Alex. He turned a bit to look into her eyes and moved closer. “Oh, you remind me of one thing: can one become invisible during that “sleepwalking”?”

“Somepony just almost got caught once… or twice… or a few times,” articulated Luna with feigned strictness, tilting her head. Alex shrugged.

“Well,” she had mercy finally. “One can hideth their presence really well, as for complete invisibility, I don’t know. I’ve never tried myself, wasn’t necessary, as I said, concealing thy presence is enough oft. Methinks tis a level of magic, when thou shalt control the process entirely, for invisibility to not become non-existence.”

Alex spotted a faint shadow, running across Luna’s face.

“Sitting hither in the open wasn’t the smartest thing,” she said, while Alex ran his fingers on her cheek, behind her soft ear and brushed through Luna’s hair. “Ahhhh! Don’t try to distract me, Alex! The night watch reporteth to me, that’s granted… but still, something can reach Tia’s ears, especially in thy case. Shan’t be helpful at all.”

“At least that can be fixed with ease now,” Luna’s voice trembled, surprising Alex a bit when she spread her wings in a welcoming gesture. “Comest closer, mine lief!”

She “grabbed” him the same familiar way, covering entirely with her wings and making him snuggle into her. A small satisfied sigh left her chest when Luna rested her head on top of Alex’s again; he snorted.

“What?” she muttered, squinting and shivering when he stroked her neck. “I really like to hold thee like that.”

Alex leaned on her forelegs. Everything was amazing, yet he thought hard, how to proceed with what he planned regarding Fluttershy and her fears. A few minutes passed in complete silence, if not mentioning that night bird, which started crying plaintively again somewhere in the darkness of the castle grounds. Alex listened to Luna’s heartbeat and she rubbed her chin and neck on his head slightly, which, to be honest, made her breath noticeably deeper and her pulse a fair bit faster. Alex struggled with the wish to reach her lips and forget about everything for a while, feeling as his own heart started to accelerate.

Like in confirmation of her earlier words a dark shadow crossed the roof. Alex threw a short glance at the sky to spot a pegasus… with bat wings. A… bat pony! Alex reminded himself that he came to self-agreement to wonder about nothing. Still, as Luna said, it was obviously one of the Night Watch on their duty, so, Alex understood that princess’ appearance was right in time. He was perfectly hidden in her feathery grasp and… the princess had full right to enjoy her night walk anywhere; even if she preferred some stargazing on the roof of medical, or whichever else, facility, nopony would object.

Finally, Alex decided to proceed very carefully, starting as far from the main concern, as it was possible, still keeping the logical flow.

“Have you heard anything new from your sister, Luna?” each touch on her silky coat was one step towards losing his control and clenching to her, caressing and kissing; Alex tried to stroke Luna’s neck gently, in a relaxed way, to calm her heart race, while he tried to cool down in his turn. “Anything that could speak about even tiny progress regarding my problem…”

“Tia didn’t tell anything fancy ere,” Luna shook her head, ruffling Alex’s hair lightly. “I am not involved in that work of hers directly… but I can see that she returneth from the library or the council sad, concerned and even a bit grumpy. Tis speaketh for itself, doesn’t it, Alex? Methinks thither is hardly any progress yet.”

“Frankly speaking, I don’t understand the necessity of all those experiments,” Alex sighed. “It’s like we are going in circles without any real reason. I could suspect her playing for time, but I see no reason for that either. For what I know about your sister, the last thing I can imagine is her doing anything irrational or aimless. What then? I mean, it’s clearly known now that I’m resistant to any magic directed at me. Why try each tiny variation, when the result is generally predictable?”

“I thought, that was understandable,” chuckled Luna. “Tia tryeth to find some way around that limitation of thy newly received trait, paying attention to each possibility. Besides, I’m sure she believeth that careful approach will be only beneficial for everypony, including thee. Knowing thee, I can safely assume that thou shall jump into the portal, hoping for the best outcome, while not being sure, ‘t is at least safe.”

Alex shrugged, then remembering that Luna couldn’t see that move, said.

“Perhaps. The more time passes, the less sure I am that I could enter the portal, without the second thought.”

“What dost thou mean, Alex?” the surprise in her voice was genuine. “Dost thou wish to return not already?”

“I still do. But the time is working against me inevitably,” explained Alex. “I mean the more time passes, the harder it will be for me to return… and for the others to accept that. First, there are two witnesses of my so-called death, I suppose… Everyone should already have visited my funeral back on Earth. I can imagine the effect my supposed return provides.”

“And the second thing: I can hardly tell or explain what happened with me, avoiding the nuthouse,” he added with a tiny smile. “The later I return… if I return… the more of an alien I will be for everyone there. Perhaps at some point even more than I’m an alien for you all.”

“Less than thou art thinking, in earnest,” peremptorily stated Luna and Alex felt her warm lips on his neck. Trying his best not to melt Alex gathered all his audacity; it was just a matter of time before Luna could become less interested in the talk, preferring more pleasant ways of communication.

“Know what, don’t ever turn to the modern manner of speech, Luna,” he tried not to lose the thread of their talk, while electric discharges wandered his neck and shoulder from her kisses. “That makes you even sexier… if you can be more. For me at least,” he blushed heavily, feeling the places she kissed became flaming hot. “I know, I’m an egotist.”

“Not more than me, Alex, not more than me,” chuckled Luna, rubbing her cheek against his. “Can I ask thee likewise?”

“Of course, my princess!”

“Dost not ev’r become… “normal”, Alex. Overly rational, prudent and… boring. In other words, dost not become non-thyself, I shall hardly bear that.”

“Tis thou can rely on me in rigidly,” teased Alex.

Luna squeezed him tighter, finally finding his lips and effectively shutting him for a good few minutes, while she yearningly caught up to her desired level of interaction. 

“As few real friends as I have,” finally released Alex grasped all the willpower not to turn to her and wrap into the proper embrace, with all the consequences for the coherent talk following. He still needed to reach his goal. “But I doubt they can understand what I may tell in all honesty, let alone any of my new features if I keep them. Just imagine their shock.”

“Dost thou think that they would be less shocked than me upon thy “I’m the night!” gimmick?” the quiet laughter rolled through Luna’s swanlike neck, vibrating and making the hair on the back of his head stand. “Or less though.”

“Oh… You are going to keep reminding me about that shameful event forever, aren’t you? I mean as long as I’m here…” Alex felt how blood rushed in his face.

“Mhm… Mayhap for a while…” huffed Luna, returning her head on top of his. “Speaking of thy friends possible reaction, isn’t it a good test for thy friendship then?”

“Should friendship be even tested?” asked Alex instead of answering her question. “Besides, it will be an endurance test for me anyway, as keeping the old friends naturally means for me abandoning new ones. I believe I made quite a few, despite the brevity of my stay here. You, for example, or the girls I met first, when… well… when I regained my consciousness.”

“I extend mine hope for I’m a tiny bit more than a friend,” Luna pouted jokingly. “But I understand what thou art talking about. Tis a choice I can hardly help thee with. Entirely thy burden, apologies.”

“I know,” with a sigh, Alex carefully probed the turf. “And I don’t want to make it harder for everypony if I add more moral troubles to the parting.”

“I’m concerned about Fluttershy’s reaction,” elaborated Alex after a moment of silence, feeling how Luna barely perceptibly strained, listening to him. “She was totally upset by how the things went. I mean, my departure and almost imprisoning… I admit it’s not,” he added. “and I have nowhere to go anyway, but it looked like one.”

“I would like to tell her that I’m generally okay… yet,” Alex noticed that Luna listened to him attentively. Even if that didn’t rub her well, she wasn’t going to deny him help. “Despite that, if the experiments go in the direction, I suspect them to, that can become a painful experience. Errmmm… this better not be told though... I’d like to tell her that she and Twilight couldn’t probably do better, which I’m endlessly thankful for, and remind her that I’m still going to tell her this in person, regardless to the result of those experiments.”

“I’ll tell Twilight to deliver that to thy addressee,” nodded Luna, thinking for a minute. “And I’ll try to negotiate Twilight’s ability to see thee as well.”

“By the way, thou forgot about Rarity…”

“Oh, please…” begged Alex. “Let me deal with her when I’m able to do that myself. I still think it is a good idea to let her thoughts about me cool down a bit – no need to remind her. I’m not sure, if it works anyway, as her affection was quite stormy. Physical affection, mind that,” Alex shuddered.

“Art thou against physical affection of a pony?” teasingly interrogated Luna.

“No… I mean… Oh, you…” Alex felt his cheeks getting hotter. “It’s kinda hard to decide when one is ready to pounce you on the first sight,” he concluded firmly.

“I know,” Luna kept having fun. “I saw a few of Rarity’s dreams recently, just of pure interest… Thou wouldn’t believe…”

“Please, Luna, have mercy, don’t tell,” gasped Alex. “I can imagine… not sure if I’m happy that I can though.”

Luna giggled like a school filly, thinking that she wouldn’t mind trying something of Rarity’s ideas in practice. But she decided that it was a bit early to mention that. Even so, a certain red flashed through the blue coat on her silky cheeks quite noticeably.

“Wait,” Alex watched her carefully; the realization made him red as a carrot. “Does that mean that you have seen me… in that… delicate aspect as well?” he facepalmed.

“A little,” confessed Luna, downcasting, now even her nose was pinkish. She quickly added. “Please dost mind, that was only Rarity’s imagination…”

But something in her voice told Alex that she didn’t mind finding out. Of pure interest, of course… Yeah!

After a few minutes of meaningful silence, Alex cleared his throat.

“So… It’s still undecided if I can return to my home world. Is there at least any hope?” he noticed how that made Luna instantly serious.

“I have nothing to add, unfortunately… Tia tryeth her best, besides she can’t break her own promise without reason. Believe me, unfortunately, she is very uneasy about thy arrival and presence. She hath some concerns about thou, something more serious than about a stranger appearing out of nowhere, she is not telling yet.”

“It sounds like if Celestia is deliberately keeping you away from that work. At least I feel that way,” Alex said guardedly. “I’m sorry if I…”

“She forsooth is, Alex,” he clearly heard Luna’s sad smile in her reply. After a short pause, she elaborated. “Ever since mine return she tryeth to keep me protected from any mishaps, she feareth may befall. Tis like coming back to the times, when our parents were with us or shortly after… when Tia filled for both mom and dad for me,” Luna’s voice warmed. “I was a little filly then and Tia took care of me. The only difference we are not fillies at the moment, but still she tryeth her best… Methinks she feeleth guilty for what she hath done… or hasn’t done, partially causing Nightmare Moon to upraise.” 

“Sometimes I envy you a little,” Alex reached her neck, wrapping his hand around and running his fingers through Luna’s mane, making lavender aroma even stronger. He scratched behind her ear, feeling, how it moved, pressing tighter against his fingers, and how Luna leaned to his hand. “I am a single child of my parents. I have only cousins, I rarely see… saw… Damn it!”

“What?” murmured Luna, when she stopped literally purring under his touch. “Mine deepest apologies, I became distracted a trifle.”

“I said, I was a single child, no brothers or sisters,” chuckled Alex. “Unlike you, my princess.”

“I don’t mind sharing,” Luna’s sly smile, her teeth flashed in the moonlight. “But forsooth thou art receiving enough attention from Tia already.”

“Oh, I can’t probably express my endless gratitude sincerely enough!” with a laughter Alex turned to face Luna and theatrically bowed with almost palpable irony. “I can imagine… Although, Tia… ahem, princess Celestia can’t ever surpass the amount of teasing you provide; as a big sister or not, you’re beyond the competition.”

“Thou thinkest? A big sister is not the position I am craving though,” Luna’s eyes pulled him like two neutron stars. “And calling her “Tia” is alright, at which hour thou knowest her better. Just dost not call her “Celly”, she won’t smack thee on the spot, but doing this isn’t the smartest achievement,” Luna giggled.

“You certainly won’t tell me why, right?” 

“Apologies, I’m not the one, who must tell thee. But thou shalt be sure, if ’t be true Tia telleth thee someday, this would mean thou gained the highest level of trust possible.”

“Not in this life, I guess!” Alex’s glance alternated from Luna’s eyes to her lips. He decided to take the initiative and put both his hands on her silky cheeks, pulling her lightly and pressing his lips against hers, while his tongue attacked for dominance. Luna’s excited squeak came out muffled; she wrapped her fore legs around him. The moonlit roof swirled around them and the time stopped.

“Wait! Something…” aeons after Alex suddenly twitched. He looked like he was listening to something or trying to feel, while Luna nuzzled his cheek lightly.

“It seems, somepony tries to wake me up!” with widening eyes he realized, what the source of his sudden anxiety was. “Merlin’s pants, whoever it is, they found the least suitable moment.”

“Thou needest to go then, mine lief,” Luna smiled and unwrapped him. “Don’t kick that ruffian too much, at which hour thou see them.”

“It will depend…” Alex didn’t finish, but stole one more passionate kiss from her lips, fading in the thin air.

*

“What?” muttered Alex, waking up in his room. “What’s going on?”

“Is the building on fire?” he focused his eyes on the extremely concerned muzzle of “Ginger”, who shook him mercilessly with wide-opened eyes. “Hurricane? Flood?.. Changelings?” he remembered, what Fluttershy told him.

“Oh, sweet Celestia! You’re okay,” breathed out the pony nurse, calming down a bit. “You can even ironize that…” she visibly pouted. “You haven’t changed your sleeping pose for quite a long while and…”

‘Damn!’ thought Alex. ‘You’re not only chatty but observant as well. Quite a combination…’

“… and I was unable to wake you for the good ten minutes,” words were ready to flood Alex, as “Ginger” elaborated on her concern with the machinegun speed. “Thank Celestia, you were breathing and otherwise looking fine, so I didn’t need to call medics, but I was going to call for help anyway. Listen, I was trying to wake you up for the good ten minutes and you didn’t give… a buck!” she became embarrassed and fell silent.

“Look, I’m really getting tired of all those experiments,” Alex sat on his bed and rubbed his face, thinking that it was a major flaw in his disguise – staying physically motionless while sleepwalking. One can suspect something. “Emotionally, you have no idea how much. Yeah, I sleep tight when I’m bucking tired. Sometimes I drop like a log. I’m fine, really, thanks for consideration though!”

He got up and headed to the bathroom, filling a glass with water and downing it in one gulp – all under the undiverted glance of the nurse.

“I’m indeed okay,” repeated Alex, returning to the room. “Look, everything is fine,” he raised his hands and mockingly turned around twice, showing himself from all the sides.

“Yeah…” slowly said “Ginger”, thinking about something. “And why are you fully clothed?”

“Sorry?” huffed Alex. “I said I drop like a log sometimes. And… do you say, you are coming here for a… striptease?!” he let out a chuckle, making her instantly blush heavily. In her case, it looked as if she was burning.

‘That’s good, will distract her from unnecessary suspicions at once,’ Alex tried his best to keep his inward mischief well concealed. 

“Oh… I-I mean… Squee!..” the nurse lost the thought, becoming even more confused. Then she tried to keep the face. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay… I guess… Good night, then.”

When she left, shaky and strained, Alex returned to his bed and tried to nest more comfortable this time, feeling the curious glance through the peephole for a while.

‘I need to be more careful now when it’s her shift.’


*

‘Damn that forest, that rain… and that mission as the whole!’ inwardly spat a young unicorn, when he slipped once again on the wet leaves, covering the fallen tree trunk, and was to jump forward not to fall. The stallion wrapped himself tighter in the cloak and looked up from beneath the hood grumpily, squinting as the big drops fell on his muzzle – the rain was hard and even thick foliage couldn’t hold it entirely. ‘It’s raining cats’n’dogs since sunset, it seems – even more as we reached the forest!’ He quietly sniffed, feeling that only a miracle and a warming spell separated him from catching a nasty cold that night.

‘Whoever planned that mission must be a complete hay head,’ he scoffed, trying to see at least something in the wet rustling darkness around. ‘What was the point in hunting Celestia knows whom at night… moreover a rainy night in the thick forest, when we can’t even use the lights? Idiots!’

The situation was indeed far from routinely. They, the whole magical support group, were gathered late in the evening, off schedule, and given orders. The orders were simple and common for a young mage, who entered magical corps and learned exactly that – to find a magical creature and restrain it, or destroy if other methods fail. But it appeared to bring a bunch of problems almost immediately.

First of all, they didn’t know shit about what they were going to encounter, nor they were given any additional information. This was the worst aspect, which made him instantly hesitant – normally no mission started without an extensive briefing. That time they knew only that their aim (and enemy) is big, dark, magical and dangerous.

‘How fascinating,’ he smirked inwardly. ‘Now we will know that the thing, which kills us is big, dark and… dangerous. Like the latter was any time different.’

The only specific information was that the scouts managed to trace their enemy, they called it “seeker”…

‘What a nonsensual name,’ huffed the mage, trying his best to determine what is in front of him, a branch, his own leg or maybe a snake. ‘To the Tartarus with that darkness, the sun will rise in about half an hour, but I can easily break a couple of legs till then.’

…so, they traced the seeker to that part of the forest, which protruded from the main mass of the woods far into the fields as a giant green tongue. Traced and effectively locked there, as it wasn’t reported leaving. Then their group was assigned to brush the forest.

While it could seem relatively small… from pegasi point of view, high above the scene, it was actually quite big to cover it on hooves. Big and dark and wet and nasty, with plenty of hiding spots. They all could stamp in circles with the monster (and he didn’t ever doubt, it was yet another monster), it even being behind or between them from time to time.

The pungent odour of mycelium on the damp ground trailed up his nostrils, almost making him sneeze a few times.

‘Who could suffer, if we surrounded that part of the woods and kept it locked till sunrise at least,’ wondered the unicorn. He wrapped the cloak tighter again and pulled the hood down to avoid more water coming from above, as the wind shook the treetops. ‘We could at least see further than our noses… and perhaps that bucking rain ended. What was the need to hurry, like if it could lay an egg or multiply.’

“Horse apples!” hissed he quietly, stumbling again on some root and accidentally touching a big shrub, which granted him an ample cold shower. ‘Bless the cloak.’

They were actually to keep silence and proceed as discretely as it was possible. Nopony should rush forward or go on a random trajectory, not to be taken for the enemy and put under “crossfire”.

He approached a clearing in the forest and stopped on the edge, hiding in the shade of trees and bushes. It was a fair bit lighter on the glade, making it easier to orientate, but it made anypony coming out of the forest to the opening clearly visible as well.

Scanning the opening as through as the darkness allowed, he pondered, if it was smart to check it now or wait for at least one more member of their group to arrive. But it was quiet around and nothing moved on the glade; a huge fallen tree lay closer to the opposite edge, black crooked roots protruded in the air like tentacles of an old big octopus.

He exited the forest and quietly crossed the glade, scanning its perimeter for any movement, which might occur under the trees. Nothing. Approaching the fallen trunk the unicorn thought that even such a big tree couldn’t have such a clod of roots. Besides the dirt must have dried already and fallen down – the tree was dry and lay there for quite a while already. He came closer and closer, quietly trying to approach the black clod and check, if nopony was hiding on the other side.

CRACK!

A small branch got under his hoof and sounded like a muffled shot, broken in half under his step.

‘Damnation!’ The young stallion froze on spot, listening if anypony moved, noticing him. The next moment the “clod of roots”, well, actually what was hiding under the roots of the fallen tree, moved and started to rise, stretching and turning to the stunned unicorn. It looked like a giant pony body on long strong legs, with a strange lump instead of normal pony neck and head. A red dimly glowing orifice showed itself on the upper part of that lump.

‘What a buck?! Big, dark and… I have no doubt, extremely unkind by its look!’ the unicorn barely managed to launch a bright spark into the air – agreed signal to call for reinforcement in case somepony from their group finds the enemy; he was going to use the light spell and prepare to attack the monster. The dark misty figure finally turned around and towered above suddenly feeling himself a dwarf unicorn, the red eye, or whatever it was, “stared” at him, glowing brighter and brighter, as if that abomination finally noticed its foe.

The unicorn tried to launch a powerful blast at the seeker, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t sure if it was still him. His whole consciousness seemed to be squeezed and dragged through some kind of tunnel and… He felt nothing, thought nothing… He was nothing when his alive but totally indifferent body hit the ground.

The air above suddenly became filled with flashes, crossing the space from different directions and bombarding the dark seeker’s carcass, but the unicorn didn’t see that. He might look and hear, but he didn’t register anything, while the challenged by mages monster produced a low growl, visibly backing up under dozens of magical projectiles.

*

“How much for ten?” Twilight pointed to the fine big carrots on the grocery stall, taking a scroll out of her saddle bag and checking the list.

“Two bits, princess!” the shopkeeper turned to her quickly, finishing the deal with the previous customer; Twilight thought that he would probably turn to her even from a still acquiring one, and mentally facehoofed about the “princess” part. She already formed a habit to cross Ponyville with wings tightly folded and not flapping them without a reason, but only her close friends were fine, calling her simply “Twilight” or “Twi” without a second thought. Sometimes she thought that life would be easier if alicorns were a bit more common.

“Fine. I’ll take those,” Twilight picked those, she found suitable. “And… Oh, hi, Lyra!” she waved to a minty coloured unicorn, which tried to gain her attention.

“Good afternoon, pr… Twilight,” Lyra corrected herself under Twilight’s insisting glance. Then she leaned closer and added in half voice. “I’d like to know about… well, you know who, if I may ask of course.”

Twilight nodded and pointed aside with her eyes only, saying they needed a bit more privacy for that talk, while she paid for the carrots, and both girls moved further, whishing the shopkeeper a good day and letting others approach the stall.

“He is still in Canterlot if you’re about Alex,” said Twilight quietly, when they distanced from the busy spot. “Nopony is allowed to see him yet, but Luna told me that she would try to make me an exclusion.”

“Princess Luna!..” Lyra coughed and lowered her tone when Twilight hushed on her. “So, Princess Luna is managing this… problem,” said Lyra in a more restrained voice, looking around, but nopony noticed in the routine market humming.

“Actually, Princess Celestia does,” Twilight wry smile could encrypt any type of thoughts, so Lyra didn’t load herself much with that, focusing on the main matter instead. “But princess Luna… helps, where she can.” 

“So, if I can see him, I could find everything out from the first hooves… sorry, hands,” Twilight snorted and checked carrots in her list, putting the scroll back into the bag. “Until then I can’t find out anything fancy. Anything, which may interest you.”

She chose one carrot from her bunch and cleaned it with magic, removing the thin peel with all the dust, so the carrot became almost sterile. Spending so much time reading books and some ancient faded scrolls, Twilight always took care of her eyes and managed to avoid glasses, despite all the strain on her eyesight.

“Treat yourself…” she handed the carrot to Lyra, but Lyra shook her head, thus Twilight munched on it herself.

“Thanks, Twilight,” carrots didn’t bother Lyra at all at that moment. “So, he is not going home anytime soon, I mean, out and away from Equestria.”

“Not in the nearest future, as far as I know,” nodded Twilight. “Certain difficulties are emerging, connected to some of his traits. Transferring him appears to be not an average task, even for Princess Celestia.”

“Naturally!” huffed Lyra, perhaps a bit louder than necessary, she still remembered their first encounter and her own purblindness, which could end with an accident. “Hey, Flutters and Pinkie coming!” she waved to somepony behind Twilight.

Twilight looked over her shoulder: both named girls made their way through the herd indeed. Well, actually Fluttershy made her way, while Pinkie was simply hopping around her, miraculously managing not to bump into anypony and keeping their conversation with Flutters at the same time.

The girls noticed Twilight and Lyra and changed their course. When they finally approached, Twilight and Lyra greeted them. Twilight hugged Fluttershy, keeping in mind the recent condition of her friend; catching Pinkie was a deadly trick anyway.

“Hi, girls,” Fluttershy’s voice was even quieter than always and despite she tried to put on something resembling a smile, the whole image came out fairly painful, making Twilight’s heart ache in empathy.

“Hi, Twilight! Hi, Lyra!” Pinkie made a few circles around them three, still hopping in her usual manner. Evidently, she was in a bright mood, which could be spoiled perhaps by a notice that the party, Pinkie was going to, was cancelled. Undoubtedly she sincerely tried to cheer up Fluttershy through their entire market run. To no avail, as the girls could see, but Pinkie wasn’t going to give up that easily.

“That’s great!” Lyra continued their interrupted talk. “So I can still talk to him about things, which interest me.”

Lyra apologized for being busy and trotted somewhere on her own, wishing the girls a good day.

“What is great?!” Pinkie stopped circling and hopped on the spot, tilting her head in a curious manner.

“If you, girls, keep quiet and don’t inform half of Ponyville, I’ll surely tell you,” Twilight looked on them both with a bright smile, then added. “And could you, please, stop for a while, Pinkie. I feel that my head starts hopping with you…”

“Is that bad?” Pinkie produced a wide smile, but stopped hopping, she just stepped from hoof to hoof, that was better though. “Okay, okay, now do tell.”

“First of all I’d like to tell you that Alex is fine,” Twilight noticed how Fluttershy transformed as quick as thought: her head cocked, her eyes became alive and certain sparkles returned to the depth of those turquoise lakes, even a small smile found its way on her muzzle.

‘Girl, I’d call that “love”,’ inwardly smirked Twilight and continued. “He doesn’t find his whole time in Canterlot a pleasant vacation, but he is… fine…”

“More good news – I can probably visit him soon, so ask what you need to know and I’ll tell you everything from the first hooves later.”

“He’s okay, that’s enough for me,” Fluttershy noticeably cheered up. “But… if you can, Twilight, please, ask if they are going to let him free soon.”

“I will,” Twilight nodded. “But it’s mostly up to Celestia, you know. But that’s not all, girls. One more thing: there are major problems with him and magic combined, thus with transferring him magically. So, he is not going anywhere anytime soon. That means…” Twilight smiled.

Pinkie, who kept silence unusually, ruffled her mane, raised onto her hind legs and spread her fore legs, inhaling deeply and pumping her cheeks… Fluttershy reacted in a flash, she grabbed Pinkie and promptly put the hoof over her mouth; the resulting sound came out as a muffled trumpet, instead of whatever Pinkie planned to shout.

“Let’s not start about Welcome to Ponyville Human party again!” articulated Fluttershy in a slightly hissing voice. “Well, until it is really time to… if you don’t mind…” she calmed down a bit and blushed under the surprised glance of Twilight.

“It’s never too early, sometimes it can be too late!” Pinkie pouted slightly when Fluttershy released her, but she kept jumping on one spot, obviously taking no offence.

“Twilight,” Fluttershy put her hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “I asked you before and I’m asking you again. I want to see him.”

“I realize that Celestia can make an exclusion for you,” she said before Twilight could open her mouth again. “But waiting, till he is out, is too long for me. There must be some way for me to visit him, perhaps you, as a princess, could help me to get through… You know, that doesn’t need to involve princess Celestia…”

The last phrase abashed Fluttershy, as she lowered her head a bit and her ears flattened, still she looked into Twilight’s eyes rather demandingly than pleadingly. But mostly that phrase caught Twilight off guard, she saw her friend differently, not for the first time already.

“I’m in,” Pinkie raised her hoof. “I mean, you will need somepony to help anyway. I’ll be your…” she paused. “… ground support.”

Twilight ruffled her bangs and looked over two girls, pondering about the venture, they were going to attempt, and the possible consequences. Surely nopony sends a princess, even a new and inexperienced one to the unicorn kindergarten, but the wrath of princess Celestia could be considerable if they screwed on this one. Why the feeling of a swamp, sucking her in, wasn’t leaving her ever since she saw, how Fluttershy’s eyes brightened after mentioning Alex. Still, the whole situation interested her much, she was ready to admit that. And the role of princess Luna in that play. Perhaps ponies didn’t even have a proverb “Curiosity killed the cat”, otherwise Twilight should know it for sure and it could affect her decision. Perhaps.

“Okay, in an hour in the library,” with a sigh Twilight made up her mind. “Don’t tell others though.”

“Jackie and Rarity have younger sisters, who will sneak-follow them even to the Tartarus if some “performance” is granted,” she elaborated further. “And we don’t want the girls involved more than they are already. One is enough, the whole CMC is an armed fuse. And Rainbow… something tells me, Rainbow won’t participate anyway.”

“Now finish with your stuff and I’ll be waiting for you… and thinking,” added Twilight in half voice.

*

Alex measured his room with his steps. He couldn’t make smaller steps, as they made him nervous, and measured in wider steps the room provided completely depressive mood by its smallness. The table and chair were moved to the window, so Alex could have more light when reading and there was more space in front of the bed to exercise… or flee to the sleeping disguise, if necessary.

Reading didn’t give him much, except killing time though – they made pauses between experiment days, still, the number of spells and artefacts Alex was subjected to was enormous; with the same results each time. Alex couldn’t find enough information about human encounters in Equestria in a simple historical book, even a good and thorough one, let alone any clues of how they returned to their home world. It seemed that people were a special subject here in Equestria, not broadly covered in the common historic study, due to safety reasons most likely. Asking for a specific source was still something Alex inwardly negotiated with himself about: it could attract unnecessary attention to him. Alex decided to play by Celestia’s rules, at least to the point when she openly admitted to being able or unable to transfer him. Then he would act on his own.

Two sets of hoofsteps in the corridor dragged him out of his thoughts. First hoofsteps were slower, but it was obvious that both ponies trot together and Alex realized, that effect appeared because of the size difference. Perhaps he knew, who could be behind the door.

The quiet sizzle of the turned-off magical barrier was followed by a loud clank of the door lock and Alex prepared to meet his “guest”. Alex chuckled at that thought.

Watching as the illustrious mane of pink, green and turquoise strands (the latter reminded him of Fluttershy’s eyes in a flash) flowed inside through the opened door, followed by the tall, graceful, white frame, Alex bowed. A bit, not to strain his tired self more than necessary, yet not to appear discourteous in the eyes of princess Celestia.

“Your Highness! How did I deserve the honour of being visited by the princess of Equestria herself?”

“Good afternoon, Alex the human!” Celestia couldn’t avoid noticing the faint irony in his words, yet the calm smile curled her lips. “I was going to visit you sooner or later anyway, but I’m too busy with my daily regal duties… with the addition of your delicate problem, mind that, please. I’m not a monster.”

“Neither am I… your Highness!” bluntly stated Alex. “Yet I’m enclosed here for… about two weeks already and being subjected to numerous experiments, which, if I may judge, bring similar results, all as one.”

“From all the… subjects involved, you are supposed to be the first interested that your transfer happened without any flaws,” chuckled Celestia, but her smile became a bit artificial, strained. She trotted inside his room and Alex felt, how the free space shrunk. With Luna, there was no such effect, despite she was only a bit smaller than her older sister. 

“The more time passes, your Highness, the less cautious I became,” Alex faked a bright smile. “Perhaps, at some point I will be ready to jump into the portal without any idea of the outcome, just to do something, you know.”

“Hmm… This is exactly the reason, why I should be cautious, even extra cautious, on my own and it appears that on your behalf as well,” Celestia’s smile became sincere again and Alex thought that she was an epitome of “big sister aspect” at that moment; it didn’t make his condition easier though. “I don’t know, what consequences your deed of that kind can bring to the whole Equestria. And if you don’t care about yourself… I am to care about all of my subjects.”

“Fair point,” nodded Alex, the ironic expression didn’t leave his face though. “But I’m afraid there is more to my condition here. As far as the experiments go, I can predict the next stage perhaps. And I’m taking the liberty, and full responsibility for my words, to say that I’m entirely against the idea of somepony suffering because of the features I possess now but don’t consciously control. I’ve seen what happened with some… artefacts, when we interacted for too long…” Alex stumbled.

“This is another reason, why we must investigate your abilities thoroughly,” Celestia raised one brow at his last phrase. “Somepony should guide you through the entire process of transfer, so it’s better we find out about all the possible surprises here and now, when we control the process, than meeting the problems during the transfer, when we have no time or means to deal with them,” speaking that way Celestia trotted slowly around Alex, just like at the beginning of the audience, as if she was examining him for symptoms, known by her only. Alex tried to shake off the unwelcome similarity to a big white shark circling her prey and involuntarily made a small slip.

“Tis if thou control the process…” muttered he barely audible and bit his tongue immediately, noticing how Celestia’s ears instantly perked – she was right in front of him at that moment. She turned to face him, but didn’t show any signs of anxiety; perhaps, she pretended that she heard nothing, or indeed thought, it was her imagination. Alex scolded himself mentally nevertheless.

“I have more concerns about your arrival,” said Celestia instead. “And much more serious ones.”

‘Here it is, exactly what Luna told me about,’ thought Alex, bringing all his attention at guard and showing her with a nod that he is ready to listen.

“We got precursors of some… unkind force concentrating in distant corners of Equestria for quite a while before your strange arrival. Initially, we thought that it was some emanation of King Sombra, despite he was defeated and technically destroyed.. but with magical enemies you can’t have it simple. Do you know, who King Sombra is, Alex the human?”

“Yes, Princess,” Alex tried to predict her route of thoughts, but couldn’t imagine the connection at the moment. “In brief, Fluttershy told me about him and the Crystal Empire. And, please, stop reminding me that I’m a human, princess. I know it well; besides, I am the only human in your realm for quite a while,” he threw a glance at the book on the table, Celestia’s eyes following. “It really alienates me even more, than I myself could do.”

Celestia nodded.

“Later we found out that it wasn’t Sombra: too many differences, despite visible similarities. But I told you about precursors. There were a few real encounters later. When the force concentrated and produced something, we never actually dealt with before,” she made a dramatic pause. “There is an actual victim of that encounter already, Alex.”

“Fortunately he is alive,” continued Celestia, when Alex raised his eyes on her. “But he is… “hollow”, emotionally drained. He seems to be in the terminal case of amnesia, Alex, only worse. He lives, he has all the simple needs and can suit himself, but he has… no wish to. Medics need to feed him and he swallows, what is put in his mouth, but he won’t take another spoon himself, even if the death from starvation is imminent. He doesn’t recognize anypony, he seems to lose the mere wish to live…”

“That sounds awful!” Alex dropped his hands. “But I sincerely can’t see how I…”

Instead of the answer, Celestia levitated a few sheets of paper from under her wing to his table.

“Take a look. This is what appears when the Dark Mist concentrates.”

Alex turned away from her and approached the table, slightly moving the sheets to keep them all in sight at once. There were three of them. Each one carried the image of a dark creature, formed seemingly of some flowing mist, four-legged, with a body of a horse and a torso resembling a human, with a glowing orifice (as much as pencil or charcoal drafts could convey) in the middle of the upper torso. The only difference between the images was the angle and perhaps scale.

“This is as much as we have, I saw one myself, and those images were made by the mages, who encountered these ghastly creatures on a fair distance,” Celestia approached him from behind and Alex felt her breath on his neck. “The victim of the close encounter could perhaps see more details, but apparently he is not in the right condition to tell about them. To be honest, he is not in any condition technically. It looks like he is dead mentally while being alive physically,” her voice trembled barely perceptible. “Have you ever seen something those monsters alike?”

Alex’s hand, which rested on the table, clenched into a fist. He slipped between the princess and the table and came to the window, looking outside, turning his back to Celestia, long, silently.

“We call them… started to call “seekers”,” said Celestia quietly. “As their behaviour reminds of seeking something when they materialize and gain force. Speaking of mages, we need quite a bunch to eliminate one such abomination, and they seem to grow stronger. They feel magic and chase the caster, who aims at them. They cause panic and psychosis in my subjects, Alex. Have you ever seen alike before or after coming to Equestria? Right when you came to Equestria?”

Alex spun around in a wink.

“There are creatures in human mythology,” he started muffledly. “Called centauri. They resemble those freaks drawn by your men… ponies. But centauri supposedly, supposedly because they are mythic, look like a complete human torso with the hands and head planted instead of the head and neck on the horse body. I’ve no idea if they are genuine or some sort of hybrid according to the legends, but they surely aren’t devouring any miserable souls, even if they aren’t extremely polite and hospitable.”

“And, no, I didn’t see any of those or centauri equiprobably, before or after my arrival, because A: centauri are mythic, non-existent in reality…”

“Talking ponies are non-existent in your reality as well,” confronted Celestia.

“… and B: I don’t take a company with… mind sucking monsters!” Alex took a breath, feeling how cold anger inevitably floods him. “Your Highness, I understand what you are suggesting,” he articulated quietly and ice cold. “But my life for it, I never… summoned or controlled anything like those. Even if you don’t believe me, look here,” he pointed to the barred window, then glanced around his room. “You know that I can’t cast magic consciously, I couldn’t even avoid a glass of water from this strange Discord guy.”

Celestia silently cringed a little.

“Partially you are right, Alex…” she put her hoof on the papers forcedly, making the table screech. “I can hardly see you as the driving force of that curse… But I’m more than entirely sure that your arrival somehow is connected to those encounters.”

Alex stepped to the table quickly, leaning over it and putting his hand on Celestia’s hoof. Surprisingly the princess didn’t pull her warm fore leg away at once.

“Tell me frankly, princess, do you really want to return me or just get rid of me at any cost?”

“Does it make any real difference at the moment?” Celestia closed her eyes, slowly pulling her hoof from under his palm. “You bring changes with you. For good or bad, I don’t know yet. But I can’t take any risks, as the price is too high.”

Alex didn’t find what to say on that.

“Besides I can’t predict your actions yet. I see too much of Discord in you,” the sad voice of Celestia made Alex look up to her to find the eyes showing visible regret. “With one obvious exception: I’m sure you can’t harm the innocent consciously. For now at least…”

“Well, there is something reassuring about me,” there was only sadness in Alex’s grin, not even irony at this time.

“You know, Discord wasn’t the walking menace first as well. But as I said, everypony tends to change. He had been strange and unpredictable, but nothing compared to what he was exactly before the girls showed him the difference,” there was something faintly in the princess’ expression, something Alex couldn’t yet recognize. He decided to go all-in.

“Was it the time, he started calling you Celly… your highness?”

The change was so sudden and noticeable, that Alex needed to force himself to stay visibly indifferent. Celestia brought her face close to Alex’s, really close, eyes to eyes, her horn slid on his hair.

“Don’t tempt me, Alex the human,” she said quietly, but meaningfully, through gritted teeth. “As I may reconsider and… take some risks.”

“Which for example?” Alex brought his face even closer, narrowing his eyes. He could feel her breath on his nose. “I’m short on my chances anyway.”

Perhaps the alicorn princess was fairly surprised by that reaction, as she visibly relaxed and the feeling of thunderstorm cloud vanished from the small room.

“The Moon is now vacant, as you properly noticed before,” said Celestia with a snicker.

“Oh, that’s an argument,” Alex backed up a bit, raising both hands in theatrical “peace” gesture, then launched another arrow. “Considering the given conditions, I would end there together with you most likely. That’s not what I’m wholeheartedly ready for yet.”

He could expect any reaction, but this. To Alex’s utter surprise Celestia laughed heartily.

“Although, you’d need to wait for a little while – and what are few decades for you – before I die…” added Alex, crossing his hands on the chest. “…if I don’t die right away without the atmosphere. So it won’t be such a big problem for you.”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple now, Alex,” Celestia’s voice became more serious at once. “Your current regeneration level speaks for you hardly dying due to any natural reason in the nearest perspective. I can’t predict your lifespan with what I got.”

Alex gasped.

“Don’t you mean that if I’m forced to stay here for whichever reason, I am to stick here for way more than a few decades?”

“Perhaps more than you can imagine, Alex.”

He gritted his teeth to keep the mouth shut, any words he had at the moment were definitely not for the ears of the princess. Alex walked around the table, took the chair right from under Celestia’s muzzle, turned it and dropped himself on. If he leaned a bit further, he would snuggle right into Celestia’s forehead; she watched him fixedly. But he didn’t notice anything.

‘Each moment better and better…’ rolled in his mind.

Alex raised his head, looked into her eyes and slowly shook his head, downcasting again. He felt a light touch of the hoof on his shoulder and Celestia silently left.

*

“So, you are absolutely willing to sneak to the Canterlot castle, find where Alex is kept and see him and, if we’re lucky and uncaught at the point, have a talk with him, right?” Twilight glanced over her shoulder from the bookshelf, which she was searching through.

Pinkie and Fluttershy sat in soft comfy armchairs in the lower room of Golden Oak Library. As it was decided, they finished their market run as fast as it was possible and came to Twilight’s place, where they could discuss their plan (if they were going to have any) without outsider’s curious eyes and fluffy ears. Pinkie fidgeted in her armchair noticeably – sitting still wasn’t her game, yet she was much calmer than usual, working out something. Twilight watched her fixedly, sincerely wishing for Pinkie’s new idea not being something troublemaking. Fluttershy joined her fore hooves together, perhaps she was pondering about Twilight’s words in the sudden silence.

“Oh, here it is,” Twilight finally levitated a thick tome and trotted to the book stand, where she placed it and started leafing over. “I’m trying to find something, which may help us sneak there unnoticed if were are going to go finally. But for now, I only stumbled across simple silencing spells and alike.”

“So, Fluttershy?” she stared at her yellow friend meaningfully. “I think answering that question is important.”

“It’s not about me being willing to do that,” with a sigh Fluttershy raised her eyes at Twilight, but her voice was firm. “I’m game without the second thought and you know it. It’s about others going to help, or not. Especially you, Twi. Because I understand that your responsibility is higher anyway and if you feel that our little endeavour is not worthy of risking Celestia’s trust, that’s pretty understandable.”

“I’m in,” said Pinkie, but her thoughts were somewhere else still, she was so quiet since they came; Twilight concerned about the possible outcome more and more.

“Frankly speaking,” Twilight turned over a few more pages. “I’m still hesitating a bit. Not entirely sure that it would be right if I help you with that escapade. Especially considering that if I refuse to help, nothing would be done and nopony gets reprimanded perhaps.”

Fluttershy huffed meaningfully, like saying that it was exactly, what she meant. 

“Girls, what are you up to again?” asked Spike, descending the stairs with a stack of heavy books in his paws. “I’ve just heard “Canterlot” and “uncaught”, and…”

“Twilight, don’t say that you’re going to sneak into the castle again… for whatever reason, just like last time when you wanted to delve into Starswirl section of the Royal Canterlot library!” his eyes narrowed, when he got down and placed the stack on the table. “Here, I found them on your nightstand… Wait! Do you need all those spells for THAT exactly?” Spike facepalmed with a sigh.

“Yup, Spike, exactly!” confirmed Twilight with a bright smile, she found the reaction of her aide quite amusing. If somepony could complain about their last trick of that kind, then it was not Spike definitely. He could complain only his greed and stomach, which wasn’t able to cope with that amount of ice-cream, Spike ate, hoping that it would be the problem of the “future Spike” and completely ignoring that he was to become that “future Spike” at the certain moment nevertheless. “Are you going?”

“Ummm…” Spike’s glance alternated from one girl to another. The “team” was unusual: in addition to Twilight, who could sign for any adventure out of curiosity, and Pinkie, who could sign for literally anything, if that promised fun… well, at least in Pinkie’s interpretation, there was Fluttershy, who wasn’t a typical adventurer type at all. It didn’t take him much time to combine all the initial data and Spike narrowed his eyes even more in suspicion. “What for?!”

“Fluttershy wants to sneak into the castle and find Alex,” giggled Pinkie Pie. “I think I didn’t miss anything important.”

Fluttershy nodded with a determined look.

“No way I’m joining that,” Spike shook his head fast. “And there are reasons for you all should reconsider as well.”

“Here,” he bent one finger. “The last time we sneaked in the library, not in the secured compartment. And it appeared that Twilight had full right to be there anyway, maybe not Starswirl section at that time, but still, it wasn’t nearly some crime. Besides, that was done out of pure curiosity and by mistake. Your mistake Twilight, which we laughed about later… and could laugh more perhaps if my stomach wasn’t aching,” he muttered grumpily, remembering the event.

“Then,” Spike bent another finger, not giving anypony time to say a word. “Twilight simply wanted to find a spell, she was going to use on herself to relay a message to herself as well. I know that sounds wicked,” he rolled his eyes. “But at least it wasn’t an attempt to communicate with somepony, who was not supposed to be communicated with by Celestia’s order. Twilight must know better, and while she would teleport you two,” he pointed at Pinkie and Flutters. “Before flak starts flying, she would get caught anyway and take the whole responsibility, despite being a princess.”

“And three,” he bent yet another finger. “While you three are natives, Celestia knows you well and cuts you some slack, besides, you’re Elements of Harmony, the human… Alex, right?.. The human will get to deal with all the consequences, not knowing about your plan even. I don’t want to be a part of it! The fewer of us involved, the less it looks like a full-time riot, the fewer asses of participants are kicked.”

“That’s quite a speech,” smirked Pinkie. “But we got your point, Spike. Right, girls?”

“By the way, what are you going to do?” Spike wasn’t going to give up his positions easily. “I mean, when you find him, Fluttershy. Ask him, if he is okay? But Twilight already told you, he was. Hold hooves… pardon me…” he nodded. “Hold hooves and hands through the window? You’ll have time for that when he returns. As, again, Twilight confirms, he can’t be sent home easily enough. Oh, well…” he waved his paw.

Fluttershy wasn’t going to think about things that banal and Twilight held herself not to suggest Spike to imagine Rarity on Alex’s place and himself on Fluttershy’s.

“I think we should make it simple,” Pinkie suggested her plan when Fluttershy and Twilight nodded. “We take a balloon to Canterlot castle. Yes, Twilight, it’s fast enough and silent and should hardly be sensed by princess Celestia, unlike your teleporting magic.”

Despite her staggering, Twilight was to admit Pinkie’s rightness and the latter continued explaining.

“So, we get behind the castle wall and supposedly nopony catches us, then we need to know, where he is kept. Twilight?”

“Well, I know, where he must have been escorted to,” Twilight scratched her nose, there was more confidence in her tone than in her gestures. “There is a hospital of a kind, but I know it is used for medical and applied wizardry research. Alex must be there. But we need to find the window of his room on our own and… not get caught by the guards of course.”

“Fine,” Pinkie vigorously jumped on the spot. “We need something dark and not movement restraining for clothes, especially me and Flutters, as only a blind pony can’t see us even in the darkness.”

“You must have your suit since the last time, Pinkie,” Twilight closed the book, which she looked through with one eye all that time, and took the next one. “Mine was almost ruined, but… But I’ll try to make something out.”

“Mine doesn’t cover my tail,” Pinkie frowned a little.

“Oh, come on, Pinkie,” Twilight chuckled. “Just braid it once in your life. Well, it seems, this is decided. Fluttershy?”

“Flutters can pull out her spec ops suit, made by Rarity with love and care when we sent her to you and Zecora; remember, when Trixie locked Ponyville completely,” said Pinkie with a sly smile. She turned to Fluttershy. “Do you still have it?”

“Somewhere I do,” Fluttershy nodded. “But I’m afraid, it’s not in the best shape at the moment. I could try to fix it though. I could do that myself, but I don’t have a sewing machine.”

“Don’t let Rarity suspect anything, okay?” Twilight sighed deeply, her ears flattened as if she wasn’t still sure that what she was going to do was right.

“So, have you finally decided?” Pinkie tilted her head, Fluttershy looked at Twilight fixedly as well. “We really need you, Twi. We don’t know the castle nearly as well and have no idea, where to look for Alex, and probably will get caught right after landing…”

“Okay, okay, I’m with you,” Twilight sighed once again. “Why I still have a feeling that it will bring more troubles than it solves? But I’m with you, as you will screw it on your own as Pinkie said.”

“Thank you, Twi,” Fluttershy hugged her.

“You, girls, are real maniacs,” Spike, who watched them all that time silently, shook his head. “All I can say, I wish you not to fail that… for everypony’s benefit.”

“Okay!” Pinkie clopped her fore hooves together excitedly. “When we’re going to start? I mean after we solve the clothing problem…”

“I’d say – three days on,” Twilight looked at them both. “This will give any of us time to reconsider at least.” Looking at Fluttershy she saw that it hardly was about her.

“By the way,” Pinkie approached Twilight and asked her quietly. “How did you know that Alex is okay and so on? You said you were only going to be able to visit him.”

“Princess Luna told me that, just like that she is going to talk me through all that… security,” whispered Twilight, whose expression hardly told, what she was thinking at the moment.

Pinkie raised one eyebrow.

*
---
The following scene needs to be read and imagined as a movie split-screen sequence, when two characters, their thoughts and feelings are shown simultaneously.
---

“Hmmph!” Up! And slowly do-o-own…

“Hmmph!” Up! And slowly do-o-own…

The “charcoal” image of the seeker-monster approached and receded in his view, while Alex did push-ups; he put the drafts in front of himself, so he could stare at them and think. Moving like a machine he concentrated on the images, coming to a conclusion that the more he thinks of what Celestia said, the less it appeals to him. At approximately 200 Alex kneeled on the floor and grabbed the papers.

‘Things are starting to get ugly. Apparently, the princess didn’t believe a word of mine,’ Alex kept examining the draft, inwardly disliking what he saw more and more with every second. ‘She keeps thinking that I may be connected to those bastards or even control them. What nonsense! She knows I can’t cast…’

‘But I can control things while sleepwalking, can’t I?’ Alex cringed, but his inner voice was right. If he could control fire, why shouldn’t one suspect him controlling the “seekers”.

‘I can’t deny that my arrival and appearance of those are too close in time to be ignored easily,’ Alex got up and threw the drafts on the table. ‘But if I remember Celestia’s words right, those “seekers” are what the… how did she call it?.. Dark Mist turns into when it concentrates enough. And the Dark Mist appeared way before my arrival, it just became more active lately.’

‘Aha… Lately means when I arrived,’ Alex facepalmed. ‘Surely, for an observer, it does me some justice,’ he huffed sarcastically.
*
A small green flash materialized as a scroll, which smacked on her table among the papers. Totally not surprised, as this happened quite often the last two weeks, Celestia took it with her magic and unrolled. It was a small report from the human research group, but what she read there made her rub her tired eyes and gained all princess’ attention at once. Omitting the preface this report was very thought-provoking, despite its brevity.

“… I consider it important to bring to your attention the following observation made by the nurse […]. Her shift was during yesterday’s night and a few strange things happened alongside this incident. Here is the full list of events, we found strange and attention-worthy at the very least:

The guards reported slightly opened doors to one staircase on the first, second and third floors. On the third floor, the doors were not closed on both ends of the hallway. Normally guards close those doors behind themselves, while patrolling. Nopony takes the responsibility for leaving them open during that night.

The lights were out on one patrolling round at the staircase, where doors were open on three floors at once: respectively on first, second and third floor’s landings, including intermediate ones. Ground floor lights were burning all the time normally. The above can be explained by the draught due to opened doors, but… the lights were normal in the third-floor hallway, which was open from both ends…”

A faint shadow of concern ran across Celestia’s muzzle.
*
‘So, if we take the whole chain of events from the start,’ Alex sat at the table and leaned on it, putting his chin on his knuckles. ‘First, the Dark Mist appeared, then I got here, in Equestria, somehow. For me it rather looks that not Dark Mist appears because of me, but vice versa… Mad, weird? Yes! But logically correct.’

‘And this… matter serves as some carrier for those things, according to Celestia’s words. It appears somewhere, accumulates, if nopony interferes, and then… Blam! A hideous centaur-like freak appears.’

‘A centaur-like freak which can make ponies lose their minds… At least ponies. Moreover unicorns. That means magic-capable, not entirely helpless ponies,’ Alex smashed his fist into the papers on the table. ‘Even more… This victim was part of the… interception squad, they knew the score and were trained to deal with something like that.’

He froze and sat still for a while, listening to the birds’ singing, coming through the open window. Alex didn’t even notice, how summer came, while he was sitting here. He raised and got to the window, the sun was slowly approaching the horizon.

‘I need to see that seeker victim,’ Alex drummed his fingers on the windowsill, watching the sparrows or perhaps some other small birds jumping and fluttering among the shrubs below. ‘What if I show him those drafts,’ he looked at the papers over the shoulder. ‘Maybe that makes him remember something. Interesting, did they try the same?’

‘The worst part of it is that they are close to hanging all the responsibility on me,’ smirked Alex. ‘Just because I’m an alien, who appeared in the wrong time and wrong place…’
*
The mere fact that “strange things” happened in the building, where the human was kept, exactly at the same night, when the seeker accident took place, could, of course, be a coincidence. Celestia realized that clearly and being the ruler of Equestria for almost an eternity she was higher than becoming all trigger happy because something seemed suspicious. But… she couldn’t ignore that entirely. Considering her other doubts, this didn’t make the whole image better.

“…The nurse reported that she was advised by the guard to check the human at least each half an hour after the above-mentioned events were registered. The human didn’t leave his room (locked) all night through. The nurse checked him every quarter of an hour instead and he remained in his bed all the time. She was alerted after the second or third check by human’s stillness: he didn’t change his position during the supposed sleep, despite she saw him breathing. The human lay on his back, straight and still. After two hours of the same behaviour, the nurse decided to check his physical condition and tried to wake the human. By her own words, she “shook him violently” for approximately ten minutes straight without any reaction from him. His breath and pulse were even, no dangerous symptoms were registered, yet she was going to call for help when the human finally woke up…”

‘Hmpf! This sounds very familiar. Very!’ princess Celestia chuckled ironically. ‘I watch the same scene from time to time when I need to wake Lulu early in the morning. If she had a busy night, I can’t make her open her eyes for quite a while… Yet the pose being unchanged…’

“The human confirmed his condition being normal and said that he was simply tired because of the experiments, adding that things like that happen with him when he “falls down like a log” because of the fatigue. The incident seemed to be over, but the nurse decided to mention it in her report according to the instructions: namely to report everything that differs from routinely events…”

Celestia galloped the rest of the letter, consisting mostly of the usual politesse and frowned. A sudden idea was worth checking. She turned the scroll and quickly wrote a few words on the opposite side. Another flash swallowed the rolled again scroll, sending it back with a query for elaboration.
*
‘Wrong… Was it so wrong indeed?’ Alex leaned on the windowsill, thinking fast. ‘I never believed in coincidences. And a few weeks in Equestria taught me that I was right, believing in them not. Especially in overly fantastic, like that one.’

‘There is no such thing as random “randomness”,’ he smirked. ‘The random part comes from us, not knowing every aspect of the problem. There is always a reason, even if we know about it not. Perhaps I was dragged here – and I’m sure I wouldn’t end up in another realm if hit by common lightning – because of something unruly was already happening in Equestria. What for? That’s another question to answer as soon as I’m able to.’

‘The main one remains!’ Alex shook his head. ‘Seekers or other magical crap, I need to get back home!’

Another sudden idea made him bite his finger, pondering…
*
The scroll returned with yet another flash and Celestia grabbed it in the air, quickly running her eyes across the few words, added to her question.

“The mentioned incident was observed by the nurse between midnight and 2 am.”

“Boss shot…” Celestia even said that aloud. ‘The seeker victim got hit approximately at half past three. Well, actually that proves nothing in favour of the human, against likewise. There are still many unknowns in that case,’ she sighed.

Her today’s study didn’t give a result, that was already habitual, yet not less disappointing because of that. Sending the human to his home world by known means still looked impossible. At least if she didn’t consider “getting rid” of him, as he mentioned earlier.

Celestia smiled sadly. Straight from the shoulder, Alex mentioned the main problem she was to solve, weighing the danger he probably yielded.
*
That sudden idea seemed promising to Alex.

‘According to what I heard about those seekers, they must be entirely magical creatures, independent or not, but they are built, transferred and guided with magic… if I learned to recognize it.’

‘I’m immune to magic,’ a devilish grin wormed on Alex’s face, as he walked away from the window and back to the table, studying the drafts again. ‘Besides, it seems the hostile magic backfires quite effectively without harming me.’

Deep inside he knew that he already decided everything and nopony could make him reconsider.

‘I need to have “a good talk” with one of those bastards when they appear again,’ Alex preferred to ignore the chance to end like that unicorn, mentioned by Celestia. It was already unknown, when and if he could return home. And that “unknown” seemed to approach “never” each day. ‘If my conclusions are right, that would be a perfect chance to prove that I’m not their puppet master, nor carrying any malicious intent, before Celestia becomes convinced of the opposite. Besides, slab-heads will “think” twice next time, assaulting ponies.’

*

His feet hit the thick, soft carpet and Alex thought that he was extremely lucky that night. First, he managed to position himself that far finally – from his room in the “hospital” into Luna’s bedroom directly, and he felt somehow that Luna wasn’t sleeping at that moment, at least the bed was empty. That meant, he managed to cover a considerable distance without a so-called “anchor”, on his own. Second, he wasn’t spotted by anypony. Actually, there was nopony in the room: the ancient hearth muttered quietly with the fire burning inside, occasionally letting out a sparkle or two with louder crackle, the noble furniture was lit by the multitude of candles in the forged chandeliers, the big empty bed was yet undone, the curtain was slightly fluttering, telling Alex that the balcony door or at least the window was open.

Alex examined himself in the so familiar large mirror on the floor stand, the one he came “through” at his first visit, chuckling at the memory. He appeared the same as he got to “sleep”, that is why he got to bed clothed, each time he prepared his sleepwalking. Keeping the shoes would be suspicious, so at the moment he could forcedly enjoy the softness of the carpet with his bare feet. 

‘Where is Luna?’ he approached the curtain and moved it aside a little, taking a peek from the balcony door, which was indeed slightly opened. The uneasy feel didn’t entirely leave him, thus each time he was to deal with heights, even while sleepwalking, he felt his stomach getting tight. But it was already incomparably better than ever before, when any thought about a window higher than on the first floor, made his feelings go bonkers. There was nopony on the balcony and in the observable part of the sky. ‘I hope she hasn’t flown away on her regal business, otherwise my efforts are futile tonight.’

Alex returned to the room and stopped at the fireplace, thinking where the Princess of the Night could be at that time – late evening, not yet the night. From the balcony he could see the narrow pink stripe at the west edge of the sky, the sun was still setting… being set by Celestia actually. Hoping that Luna’s sister wouldn’t enter the bedroom to wish her a good night Alex mechanically dragged a long protuberance of fire from the hearth, making it stretch and squeeze several times like a harmonic, pulling and pushing it with his hand, then returned it to the fireplace.

Next moment he heard a quiet splash of water. Alex turned his head, trying to locate the sound when he noticed a narrow door at the opposite wall. It was decorated as the surrounding walls and hardly noticeable from the first glance. Alex guessed, there should be the bathroom. He approached the door, it was opened a little leaving a gap and making him able to hear, what was going inside.

“Ahem, Luna, I’m sorry, that’s me, Alex,” he tried to say that loud enough to be heard, yet soft and apologetically not to startle her. “Are you in?”

“Oh!” another splash of water and a quiet giggle, Alex blushed. “I’m in the tub, Alex, mine lief. At which hour hast thou come? I haven’t heard thee.”

“I’ve just… arrived. And… well, I can wait or come next time, if it’s not a suitable one,” Alex backed off the door but was stopped by Luna’s voice.

“Oh, no, no. Tis okay,” the hearty laughter made his heart flutter. “I got in just a few minutes ere. So thou art to wait for quite a while, that doesn’t feel quite right. And please don’t go.”

“I’ll breath some fresh air then,” muttered Alex, swallowing a lump in his throat at the thought, he was to spend some time on the balcony. “Just behind the curtain, in case your sister comes… for whichever reason she may.”

“Actually, I have a better idea,” said Luna cheerfully and Alex thought that he knew, what she was going to suggest. “Why don’t thou comest here. Mindst that I accept no objections.”

“That’s hardly a suggestion then,” Alex carefully entered the door, closing it behind. “To be completely honest, it’s not a common practice for me to join a lady in the bathroom.”

He was granted an amazing view of a spacious room with stone floor and walls of light colours, lit with the familiar candles and containing a large basin built in the floor in the middle of it. Well, it was a tub actually, but only a very greedy beholder could call it that way. The basin was filled with water, covered with a huge cap of aromatic foam, but the main decoration was the pretty alicorn head, looking at him above the foam. Despite being wet Luna’s mane miraculously kept its flowing look, making Alex freeze on spot, eyeing what he could.

“Alex, ho, did somepony glued thee thither?” Luna waved her fore hoof, smiling and making a few bubbles fly. “Comest closer!”

Alex gulped and made a few steps, he suddenly felt his head being empty and echoing.

“Huzzah!” Luna made a small splash, actually having fun. “He finally moved! What’s wrong with thee?”

“Nothing…” creaked Alex. Then he cleared his throat and repeated. “Nothing is wrong, Luna. Wrong is not the right word… But…”

“Oh,” her smile became even wider. “I suppose, I know. Ye, people, wear clothes all the time…”

“Well, mostly…” Alex couldn’t prevent his cheeks becoming pinkish again.

“If ’t be true thou see me without my neck plate and hoofwear,” giggled Luna playfully. “Doth that mean that I am naked according to thy rules? I mean… more naked than usual!” she nailed the coffin with the sly smile.

“Merlin’s pants!” breathed Alex, finally approaching the tub and placing himself on the floor next to it. He felt flames, which seemingly his neck and all the face were made of at that moment. It was that obvious because Luna was having fun at his embarrassment full time. “Please, don’t make that thought stick within my head, I won’t be of my normal colour ever again then.”

“Well, that’s not that awful, if ’t be true thou art able to joke about ‘t,” winked Luna, getting closer to the edge and leaning on it, laying her head on her folded fore legs. “But thou shan’t deny, that I am technically right.”

“That doesn’t make it less… Well… You know…”

“Know what?” It seemed Luna wasn’t going to let him have it easy. “I’m just reminding thee the obvious things… And thou – being… uneasy about them. How was thy day?”

With a sigh Alex lay on the stomach and leaned on his elbows, placing his head on the fists.

“Same as all the previous, I’m sticking with those experimental artefacts for a week already, it becomes kinda annoying. But keeping in mind what can be the next stage, I guess this one is not that bad.”

“Seeing you is what makes my day brighter, well, actually night,” he kissed her in the nose. “But I didn’t expect to see you…”

“Ummm…” Luna squinted and stretched, her illustrious tail emerged from the tub, decorated with ample amount of aromatic foam, and waved from side to side. “Every time I was able to cuddle with thee. I won’t mind… No, I would like to right now as well. A nice massage won’t hurt likewise.”

Alex gasped, making Luna instantly giggle again.

“Don’t thee be silly, Alex. Just get in.”

“Errmmm… I have one question, if I get into the tub in my clothes, will I wake up soaking wet in my room, when I end sleepwalking?”

“I. have. no. tiniest. idea!” articulated Luna, looking him straight into the eyes and raising one eyebrow with an unequivocal expression on her muzzle. “Fair chance – yes. Thou can only find out thyself.”

Alex let out a heavy sigh, Luna snorted at his embarrassment.

“Okay, can you still turn around? And… no funny business, okay?”

“Oh!” Luna raised her fore hooves in comic gesture, then she moved a bit and sat in the tub, stretching her shoulders and slightly wiggling her folded wings, yet looking away as promised. One ear was still turned to Alex, apparently controlling his progress. “Okay. We are not hurrying anywhere!” “reassured” she.

He managed to get rid of the clothes quickly enough, pondering if removing them by the willpower would be an easier and smarter decision in that case, while Luna listened to the rustle. Finally, Alex got into the tub behind Luna with a small splash, admitting that the hot water feels quite natural, despite him being not entirely real at that moment. He couldn’t still accommodate fully to his ability, thinking that it would need quite some time to accept it entirely.

The first touch of her silky coat on the shoulders and back caused a gentle “Ahhhh!” from the alicorn beauty and Luna slid closer to Alex, leaning forward and giving him the full field for treatment. Alex massaged her shoulders, gently, but firmly rubbing her skin, stretching strained muscles… and avoiding wings, remembering her warning.

“Tis amazing!” cooed Luna, waving her mane, when he scratched and stroked her shoulders and between the wings. “Why thou nev’r…”

“Because each time we were either snuggling,” chuckled Alex, making her almost moan. “Or you wrapped me in your wings, packed me tight and placed your head on top of mine. Not that I object, it actually feels quite nice. Just answering your question…”

“Thou can’t imagine, how nice ‘t feeleth,” Luna looked at him over her shoulder, moving a bit closer. “But I guess, I shall accept oft as well. If thou dost not mind.”

“I don’t,” Alex moved his hands a bit lower, to her back and sides, making Luna purr and stretch. “It feels great to massage you. But please sit still and don’t move, otherwise, my reflexes can take over,” he coughed.

“Somepony spoke about “funny business”?” teased him Luna leaning on him completely. “Besides, it seemeth thy reflexes already quite succeeded at taking over, Alex,” she kissed him in the flaming cheek, as he felt, what she was talking about.

“Sorry!” Alex hugged her gently, leaning on the basin edge and placing Luna on his chest. She wrapped one fore leg around his neck, kissing him in the chin, in the ear, nuzzling his cheek. He didn’t feel much extra weight, despite she was a bit bigger; the water and foam concealed that impression.

“I take ‘t as a compliment!” whispered Luna in his ear, then their lips met and the reality around vanished for a while, while they were sharing their breath.

When she calmed down a bit, satisfying her first thirst for him, and nested comfortably on his chest and shoulder, Alex felt like a boiling kettle. To relax he started stroking her splendid mane slowly, making Luna coo something tender and rub her shoulders and head against him, while he kissed her behind the ear.

“Thou makest me melt!” Luna wiggled her folded wings, involuntarily tickling Alex and making him hold himself hard not to stroke the margins. “Dost not stop, please!”

“If you don’t stop wiggling and applying extra pressure,” Alex deliberately kissed her in the edge of her wing, Luna arched and moaned. “My reflexes will go completely wild, up to uncomfortable. You see? And careful with your horn, please.”

“Thou…” hissed Luna, squinting at him, Alex closed her mouth with another kiss.

“I’m just showing you, what I feel when you snuggle into me like that,” innocently noticed he, when they parted for air. “By the way, the sun was setting when I came here. Aren’t you supposed to be raising the Moon, my princess?”

“The Moon is not always up right after the sunset,” huffed Luna, booping him in the nose. “Isn’t ‘t the same in thy world?”

“I guess it is,” chuckled Alex. “Sorry, I’m not an astronomer. Besides, you are completely in charge of the Moon indeed.”

“Exactly. And thou art a… “thinking machines” specialist. Tis kinda far from the Moon raising job,” Luna stuck out her tongue at him jokingly. “Tell me more about them someday, agreed?”

“I will, I will, my curious princess,” Alex leaned his head on hers, feeling her cool horn with his temple.

“Speaking of jobs,” he remembered after a while, listening to Luna’s quiet, relaxed breath. “Recently I thought what I can do for living in Equestria.”

“And?” Luna’s ears perked in attention.

“Well, I would hate myself being an… eternal guest. A parasprite, as you could call it,” huffed Alex. “I plan to pay my bills myself when I’m finally free enough.”

“I thought about what I could do here,” he continued as Luna didn’t interrupt him, listening with obvious empathy. “And the prognosis wasn’t very bright. Aside from simple hard jobs in the field or on the construction site, I can hardly be useful anywhere, as my profession is undemanded for in Equestria. I’m not a medic, or an artist, or a teacher…”

“But then I thought about another thing, I dare to hope I’m good at – hardware!” said Alex. “Not that type of hardware, which is native to my original work, something simpler… I pondered about simple commodities, which your subjects might lack in everyday life and it seemed, I finally found, what I can do to earn some bits.”

“Wend further, mine lief,” Luna looked at him with a smile. “I’m earnestly interested.”

“I wanted to try starting with electricity,” explained Alex, Luna raised her brows. “You know, Ponyville, for example, could only benefit from electrical lighting, it could be used to pump water in the houses easier and on Applejack’s fields in any direction, not using water wheels only. Rarity could use an electric sewing machine, freeing her magic to more outstanding stuff. Generally, every household could use an electric generator.”

“Aren’t they big and bulky and demanding for quite a few ponies to operate,” Luna was a bit sceptic.

“Well, those few you have and use in Equestria surely are,” smirked Alex, kissing her in the nose and making Luna blink from his sudden move and giggle. “I want to suggest small and environment-friendly ones. They won’t be bigger than your armchair and will be propelled by wind or water force entirely. You see, Luna, we, I mean people,” his eyes became sad for a second, but he shook that off and continued. “don’t gather lightnings or use magic to create electricity, but we use electricity instead of magic, we don’t have, quite often.”

“Tis may work…” thoughtfully muttered Luna, then she raised her eyes at him. “But thou can’t make those out of thin air, mine lief. Thou shalt need something to start forsooth.”

“Actually, yes,” sighed Alex. “While I can easily compensate for all the generosity of the girls, helping me out when I start making and installing these generators, I still need help to start.”

“Simply think about what thou needest,” Luna sat in the tub and turned to face Alex. “When thy list is ready, I’ll do what I can to give you a hoof.”

“But…” Alex felt his jaw dropped, as he sat there with a surprised and perhaps slightly stupid expression. He couldn’t imagine the princess to be that forthright and selfless. His heart fluttered, Alex couldn’t find words to express his gratitude. “I’m… I will compensate for everything as soon as I can… Thank you, Luna. You’re a life saviour!”

“Not that it was necessary,” Luna scooped a portion of foam with her hoof, putting a lump on the tip of Alex’s nose and giggling at him, huffing it off. “Methinks thy life is worth saving anyway. I want ‘t. Isn’t ‘t enough reason for a princess?” she cocked her head jokingly, glancing at him.

“Fine, I am slightly tired of thy technical talk,” Luna narrowed her eyes, while Alex looked for a suitable reply. She stretched out her fore legs towards him in unequivocal gesture, making Alex sit and move closer to cuddle him in a proper embrace. “Thy princess demandeth for a kiss, Alex!”

*

“Isn’t Fluttershy supposed to come already?” Twilight threw a concerned glance at the clock on the wall. She just helped Spike with her magic to bring the tea tray from the kitchen and was now sitting in her armchair, nervously fidgeting. For the last half of an hour, she checked the time perhaps ten times and each one didn’t make her less edgy. Everything was ready, they have their own suits fixed and prepared, but for some reason, Fluttershy needed more time with hers. Twilight couldn’t even read, despite usually reading helped her find mental balance and think clearly.

“Maybe at the end of the day she reconsidered,” noticed Pinkie, sipping her tea with unstirred expression. For a change she was totally calm this evening, even rock-solid; Maud could be proud with her sister today. That unusual calmness made Twilight even jumpier.

“Who? Fluttershy? Reconsidered?! Hardly so,” huffed Twilight, looking at the clock hands again. “Celestia! It’s half past seven… ARRRRRGHHHH!”

“Hey,” she turned to Spike. “Are you okay, mate? That’s not a cookie, you know…”

“Huh,” Spike, who didn’t say a word for the whole evening and was pondering about something, obviously important for him, stopped dunking a ruby into his tea. “Oh!..” he made a funny face, threw the gem into his mouth and gnawed it out with a loud crackle. “Indeed!.. I was just thinking, would Rarity shelter me, if princess Celestia catches you, Twilight, and puts you into the cell next to the human…”

“Thank you kindly!” Twilight nodded with sarcasm.

“Come on, Twi,” Pinkie put away her cup and smirked. “You look like you’re sitting on a hedgehog! Nothing happened yet…”

“I could be sitting on a porcupine, no big difference,” huffed Twilight. “As Spike properly noticed, if something fails, my ass is served on a silver plate. And the mere fact that I agreed to help you, girls, doesn’t make me like the whole idea more.”

“Fluttershy said Rarity needed more time with her suit, so they planned to do final fitting today, but it’s a bit late already,” she added. “What are they making there?”

As usual with somepony mentioning Rarity, Spike perked his ears.

“I hope Rarity finds out nothing about your crazy plan and doesn’t join you, girls,” he muttered with concern.

“I rather hope that Sweetie Belle finds out nothing,” noticed Twilight. “That would be a true disaster.”

Somepony politely knocked on the front door.

“That’s me, Fluttershy,” the voice came like out of the barrel. “Did you reconsider to go? There is a “Don’t disturb!” plate on the door…”

Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other, both raising on their legs. Spike got up as well, something was strange in that voice.

“That’s for uninvolved, Flutters,” accurately stated Pinkie. “Come in.”

The door opened and somepony slid into the lit room from the falling twilight outside.

“WOAH!!! What is that thing?!!”

Spike grunted, suddenly finding out that he was bending under the weight of a frightened lilac alicorn, who jumped into his hands.

“Ugh! Twilight,” he muttered through his teeth. “I thought, only snakes caused that reaction.”

“That’s… Errmmm…” totally stunned Pinkie raised one eyebrow. “Fluttershy?”

“What? You think it’s better without the mask, don’t you?” inquired the pony-like thing in pitch black catsuit. Slender, with the wings packed into the same fabric as well as the braided tail, which now resembled a whip. Various belts and cords crossed the suit; plenty of pockets with zippers; a knife in a sheath, strapped on the shoulder its handle downwards; equally black medkit with the small purple cross, placed on the left flank. The head part covered her whole mane and ears, which protruded, covered in black fabric with metal-like netting. Her muzzle was hidden behind some sort of a mask with the metal grid at the mouth part and valves; above all that three tubes with lenses finished the ensemble. The only light part was the Equestria blazon on the left shoulder.

“I think it is indeed,” Fluttershy took off the muzzle plate and apologetically smiled, watching her startled friends, her voice became normal. “Sometimes Rarity becomes obsessed, wanting everything to be ideal.”

“What in Equestria is that?” Twilight blushed and jumped off Spike’s hands.

“Umm… I asked Rarity to fix my suit and told her that I was going to cosplay Daring Do on the Nightmare Night,” giggled Fluttershy, spinning the mask on her hoof. 

“But Daring Do looks nothing like that,” gasped Twilight.

“I know,” Fluttershy waved her fore leg. “And you know. But Rarity doesn’t, she’s not a fan of Daring Do, just like anything connected with forests, nature and bugs.”

“But I guess, I shouldn’t mention the “spec ops” part really,” continued Fluttershy with a sly smile. “Rarity took that as the basis and made a little research on “spec ops” stuff, that is why, I guess, more time was necessary – she wanted to make it… believable…”

“She seems to succeed,” breathed out Pinkie, tilting her head while examining her friend.

“She even got a magical night visor with motion detector somewhere,” added Fluttershy, nodding towards the mask. “Sometimes her generosity goes really over boards.”

“Did you get here on your own?” suddenly asked Pinkie, scratching the back of her head.

“Yeah… ummm… I sneaked carefully through Ponyville,” blushed Fluttershy, then brightened. “The suit actually works, nopony spotted me.”

“I see…” muttered Twilight, her eyes were still a bit wider than normal.

“We don’t hear bells, nor see a whole herd with pitchforks,” noticed Spike, who just regained his voice. “I guess, nopony saw you indeed.”

“Okay!” said Twilight, checking her saddle bags once more, when they both with Pinkie changed to their own suits, not that impressive though as Fluttershy’s. “I suppose, we’re ready to go.”

“It would be better if we teleported right to the balloon pad,” she added, throwing the last glance at their preparations.

“Umm… Fluttershy,” Twilight squinted on her friend, who placed the muzzle piece back on. “While I appreciate that you can see in complete darkness now, that will be handy indeed, please, do me a favour – stay so I can see you and… don’t sneak on me from behind. Okay?”

“Squee!” Fluttershy nodded, flattening her ears. It could appear comic if she looked differently at that moment. Pinkie snorted, impatiently jogging on the spot.

“Good luck, girls,” Spike sighed and shook his head. “Don’t get your crazy flanks caught!”

Twilight shuddered before the bright flash took them three on their adventure.

*

It was perhaps about 10 pm or even later, when they finally landed right behind the wall in the far corner of the castle garden, as far from the actual castle as it was possible. Twilight brought the balloon lower and tied it as well when they tied the basket to the large tree trunk. Of course, their transport was a bit bright for that task, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any choice. Inwardly Twilight was ready that they would need to flee using her teleporting magic very likely, if they were spotted by the guards or if somepony spotted the balloon and set the guards on alert.

“At least it won’t be noticed behind those trees right away,” she shrugged, making the final knot on the rope. “Now quiet, please.”

Pinkie immediately crouched to the ground, mimicking the pose of a cat ready to pounce. Twilight rolled her eyes, she was sure that Pinkamena even tapped her hind legs and waved her tail at that moment.

“Can you at least be serious at the moment like this?”

“I’m serious,” stated Pinkie bluntly. “I am deadly serious. Where do we go, Twi?”

Twilight froze for a while, remembering where the medical facility was relative to this part of the garden.

“There,” she finally decided, pointing in the right direction. “But I can’t see hay in that darkness. The moon hasn’t been risen still.”

“Believe me,” huffed Pinkie. “When the moon is up, it will be only worse, as nopony can see us in the darkness at least.”

“I can,” a dim glow of the lenses, showed that Fluttershy turned on her visor.

“Right,” Twilight couldn’t help shuddering at that image. “You go first then, Flutters. Down that alley then to the right. Look where you stepping on, any crackle can give away our position. The garden is not heavily guarded, yet it’s better not to risk. Remember, there is also Nightwatch, they report to princess Luna though, but… If you see anypony, Fluttershy, just let us know… and everypony hops into nearest shrubs and plays dead, agreed?”

“Agreed,” muttered Pinkie. “Maybe we go finally?” she slightly nudged Fluttershy forward, then let Twilight follow her.

“Don’t be a scaredy-pony, Twi,” she winked. “I’ll be your shadow and cover your tail.”

Twilight facehoofed. She hurried to follow Fluttershy, almost holding her by her tail as it was impossible to see her in her suit in the night garden. Only when she looked over her shoulder, to wait for them with Pinkie, three faintly glowing spots gave out her presence.

Carefully, not to startle any night bird, as they heard a few, they reached the turn and trotted right, as Twilight suggested. There was indeed a lighter spot at the end of this part of the alley, the open space and the exit from the garden. If Twilight’s calculations were right, the building, where human was kept, was not very far.

Twilight looked up at the darker mass of the castle nearby, it seemed lifeless, except the few lit windows. At least nopony suspected anything… yet.

“Shhh!” Twilight almost bumped into Fluttershy, who suddenly stopped and stared somewhere into the trees on their right, quietly hushing them with Pinkie. They both flattened on the ground.

“What?” whispered Twilight in a minute, gulping.

“It’s just a squirrel,” said Fluttershy. “I’ve heard something, but it’s just a squirrel. Come on, girls, don’t lay on the cold ground.”

Within a few minutes more they reached the garden exit. It was lighter outside, besides the moon showed in the sky, slowly raising and adding light to the scene.

“Horse apples!” Twilight glanced at the Moon and the castle, which became grey, then white as the moonlight fell on the walls. “We could benefit from more darkness here and now.”

“Okay,” she took a look around to orientate. “See that building over there?” she pointed with her fore hoof at the four-storey building not far from the outer wall, but considerably far from where they stood. “There are shrubs and trees everywhere between its backside and castle walls, except a small clearing around the building, but we have no better variant. Let’s hurry though. Fluttershy, run fast under the wall, while it is still in the shadow and stop when you’re under the trees, we will follow.”

“But not too fast, not to be heard by others,” she added when Fluttershy nodded and burst forward.

“Well,” Twilight turned to the girls when they took a breath after their blazing run along the castle wall. They were nicely hidden in the thick foliage now, and it was safe to assume, nopony could spot them as long as they didn’t rustle too much. “Here we are. Unfortunately, I have no faintest idea which room exactly is his and where is the window, we need. One of those,” she waved her hoof at the building wall.

“I pray for it to be here,” she added. “Not on the facade. As there is also the exit, it is better lit and… facing the castle.”

“A great combination to get busted!” summarized Pinkie with a wry smile.

“Yeah,” whispered Twilight, when they accurately approached the borderline between shrubs and open space belting the building. “We should sit here quiet, watch and listen for a while. I’ve heard, Alex gets to bed late, perhaps we can spot the proper window.” Her ears flattened, the idea to go round the facility and search almost right “behind Celestia’s eyes” didn’t look alluring to her. “See that stripe of the bare ground beneath the wall?” she pointed to the open space. “The guards patrol there once in a while and we better not be in the clear view, when they come.”

A few minutes passed. They seemed ages for Twilight, the uneasy feeling of doing wrong started to press her again. Unable to sit completely quiet Pinkie tilted her head from side to side while watching. Fluttershy’s eyes seemed to be glued to the building in front of them, the direction of visor lenses told about that; she looked like a stone statue, sitting on her tail and scanning the windows. 

“Look!” quietly, but they thought it was too loud anyway, squeaked Pinkie. She pointed up.

“Shhhh!” both Twilight and Fluttershy hissed, but they spotted a flash in one window as well.

It took a couple of minutes more to move aside under the foliage cover to end right under the necessary window on the first floor. But now they could definitely hear quiet voices coming from inside. Two voices. The girls sat on the ground and listened carefully.

The man’s voice talked for a while, then they heard muffled laughter, in which female voice joined the man. Fluttershy stomped from one fore leg to another.

“That’s Alex’s voice, no doubt,” she whispered with the corner of her mouth.

The female voice said a few words and another giggle followed, then some rustling.

“Well, at least we can safely assume, he is fine,” stated Pinkie smirking and raising one ear.

“And another voice…” muttered Twilight, she was unsure… or maybe didn’t want to say that first. “I can’t clearly say…”

“I can,” Fluttershy’s voice dropped and she noticeably wilted. She surely could recognize that voice, eventually, she helped its owner train a more pleasant way to talk to the subjects, so she could distinguish it at any time. “That’s princess Luna…”

Twilight sighed barely audibly, while Pinkie raised a brow. Fluttershy’s tone was self-explanatory enough. Meanwhile, the talk from above continued its flow and it sounded least as an interrogation, but clearly as a friendly chatter.

“Twilight, please,” whispered Fluttershy. “Could you fly up to the window and take a look? Just stay unseen though…” she added.

With another heavy sigh, Twilight nodded.

“Just a couple of minutes,” she said, exiting the bushes and spreading her wings. “The guards can show at any moment.”

Twilight soared in the air, trying to flap not so loud while approaching the named window. Apparently, the two behind the barred opening were too busy with each other, so they suspected nothing.

“…as I expected,” said Alex’s voice with concern and regret. “The “doctor” came this afternoon and notified me that they planned a new stage of experiments for tomorrow – this time with living casters. I…”

“Dost thou expect those to be that malignant? I doubt Tia would put anypony’s life in danger,” a few hoofsteps and some rustling, followed by her satisfied sigh. Twilight stiffened.

“Mayhap, but what if things go slightly… just a tiny bit not as she expects?”

‘A kiss… Was it a kiss?’ Twilight blinked several times.

“I’ve seen what happens with artefacts after prolonged exposure to my drain effect,” continued Alex. “The last thing, I want to witness, is a real pony subjected to something alike. I was fidgeting all day long…”

“Oh, Alex, mine lief,” with more rustling cooed Luna. “If ’t be true I knew that I’d come to thee ere!”

Twilight floated in the air, wanting to find herself back on the ground, not hearing, what she heard, and not being obliged to tell Fluttershy. There was nothing wrong in the talk itself, well… almost, but she wasn’t sure, how her friend could interpret the situation as the whole. Fidgeting about that, Twilight decided to take a look anyway; she slowly approached the edge of the opening and looked above the windowsill.

‘Well, that’s definitely more than a friendly talk,’ she accurately backed down and quietly lowered herself near the girls.

“So?” Pinkie tilted her head meaningfully, while Fluttershy kept silence. Exactly that silence was what scared Twilight mostly at the moment.

“So, there is princess Luna in his room indeed,” accurately started Twilight, watching Flutters fixedly. “They are talking with Alex, about different things, nothing specific or related to his problem.”

“They talk like old friends,” feeling a certain stone over her heart finally said Twilight.

“We… I can’t show myself at the moment, right?” dropped Fluttershy; her voice wasn’t desperate and Twilight took a breath, but it was surely dull, colourless. “We don’t want to reveal ourselves anyway. Besides, it would be totally impolite to disturb the conversation that way…”

Twilight inwardly squinted, she heard that tone from Flutters sometimes, usually when somepony was to be stared in a matter of moments.

Something rustled in the bushes a few yards to their left and the girls crouched involuntarily, perking their ears, forgetting about their talk for a while.

“Shhh… Have you heard?” a distant voice asked; that could be a guard only. The restrained rustling approached slowly.

“Come on, girls,” unfroze Fluttershy, quietly nudging them both. “Follow me!”

“Do you remember the way?” squeaked Twilight, when they got up and burst away, the same way they came here.

“Of course!” dropped Fluttershy through the gritted teeth on the run. “This I can easily remember.”

“Hey! You! Stop right there!” guards voice barked from the dark shrubs behind them. “Some dark ponies fumble here!!! Let’s get them!”

“Aha, fat chance!” huffed Pinkie, jumping behind Twilight. “Come and catch first!” she made an indecent sound with her tongue and giggled.

“Here they go!” one more voice shouted from the distance. All were fortunately behind them. “They head to the garden!”

Last time Twilight ran that fast when they raced for the Crystal Heart hidden on the top of the tower. They covered the whole way back in a few minutes, not dropping a word not to lose their breath. Fluttershy indeed remembered the path perfectly, here they were, the trees, the balloon. The guards’ hoofsteps thumped somewhere behind in the alley, not too far though to linger.

Twilight raised the balloon and hopped into the basket next to Fluttershy. Pinkie was trying to untie the rope when Twilight’s glance dropped on the knife on Fluttershy’s shoulder.

“Pinkie, get in the basket, hurry!” Twilight grabbed the handle with her magic. “Drop the knots, I have a better idea.”

With a few hits of the knife, she cut the thick rope when Pinkie Pie hopped inside; the balloon started to rise.

‘Too slow!’ panicked Twilight, nudging it with her magic and directing it lower, right over the castle wall and away. The guards rushed about below, a couple of flashes traced in the night sky, but they weren’t aimed, likely fired in sheer hope to hit.

“Whew! Almost got caught,” said Pinkie when they took their breath directing the balloon right down the mountain, as close to the wall as possible not to be spotted, and burst up laughing.

“Yeah, let’s pray nopony recognizes, who was there exactly,” Twilight wasn’t so optimistic, but a small smile brightened her muzzle nevertheless. ‘Didn’t get caught! Isn’t it great already?’

Fluttershy was quiet, she dragged off her mask, her ears flattened. She looked at the basket floor fixedly and seemed to not notice her friends’ enthusiasm about the fortunate outcome.

“Come on, Flutters!” Pinkie nudged her slightly when she stopped laughing. “He was there talking to princess Luna… So what? Pray tell, have you seen them hugging, kissing… something else?” she made big eyes. “No? What’s the big deal then?”

“Yeah,” sighed Fluttershy. “Perhaps…” a wry smile appeared on her muzzle. Still was better than flattened ears and fireless eyes.

Twilight thought that it wasn’t the best time to mention that she saw Alex, sitting on his bed with Luna sitting on the floor next to him, putting her head on his chest and almost purring, while he stroked her mane.