//------------------------------//
// 10. Applied sleepwalking 
// Story: The Guardian 
// by Alexshy 
//------------------------------//

“… and I would like to extend my personal observation further and state that I found the subject’s psychological condition slightly strange: the human stays extremely stable under all the emotional stress of the latest series of experiments, involving living third party test subjects. Despite visible disgust and regret find their way onto his face quite often during those tests, he evidently keeps all the strain to himself, not openly protesting… at least he did not till today. Because today’s tests seemed to get to his limits and we were to stop them prematurely, cutting low on our schedule, as it looked like it was only a matter of time before the human lashed out on the personnel directing those experiments if he could find them. I assume that he has it really hard, keeping it inside and I can only imagine, what is boiling there…”

This letter caught her in the library, where Celestia brushed through Starswirl’s section; apparently, Swirl the Bearded didn’t have a universal method of transferring magically resistant humans as well.

‘Now, this is great,’ thought Celestia, lowering herself on a couch in the long room filled with bookshelves. ‘The only thing we need is emotionally unstable “test subject”.’

‘What dost thou want, Tia?’ asked Luna’s voice in her head, as Celestia remembered their recent talk. ‘He didn’t want to hurt anypony, tis was granted methinks. But he is forced to drain the energy from strangers now, which supposedly can lead to death even, if ’t be true they keep the experiment (she pronounced “experiment” with audible repulsion) running long enough. I am endlessly surprised, he hasn’t caved in ere…’

“Indeed,” muttered Celestia quietly. “What should I want? Except trying to keep Equestria safe…”

The science group subjected Alex to the tests, the main course of which was magical interaction with living ponies, unicorns for that matter, despite it was known that it can provide a certain degree of danger in both directions. Some risks were to be taken if they wanted to know everything. Thus a few tests with positive magical impact were held already. It was agreed to avoid the negative impact, as the result was totally random and unpredictable in nature and, more importantly, in force.

The first series of tests, as the report confirmed, involved short sessions of harmless spell application, usually stopped at the will of the caster. The result was predictable: the unicorns felt strong constant drain since the first fractions of second as the magical bond was established. However, no intended effect of the spell was registered on the human, be it healing spell or levitation, or any other equivalently. The third-party test subjects were instructed to stop the spells shortly after starting, specifically before they felt queasiness or any other kind of discomfort, preventing their concentration on the task. They reported that it was hard enough even within a short period, as they became stunned almost instantly by the drain effect.

‘It looks like the reaction is getting stronger with each try,’ Celestia shook her head disapprovingly, returning to the report.

The second series of tests supposed prolonged (in adequate amounts) interaction, without breaking the contact. Thus the unicorns were to apply the spell and keep feeding it up to the point when they were unable to break the bond themselves. The barrier was implemented to break the effect upon outward command. Only two tests of that kind were run yet. In the first case, when the unicorn felt dizzy and lost consciousness in a short while, the human started shouting for them to stop the test. The actual quote contained some words not to be repeated publicly and Celestia frowned, reading the report. In the second run, the unicorn test subject fell from his seat under the drain effect and the bond ceased even before the barrier fell. The human jumped on his legs though and got to the door in a matter of seconds. He kicked the door with such strength and violence, that the sound rolled through the whole hallway of the building.

When the guards arrived, the human simply said to them “Escort me to mine room. Now!”

‘Now that’s something…’ Celestia even re-asked specifically, if the quote was 100% accurate, the answer was positive.

The guards were instructed to fulfil his request, given like order, to be honest; thus that test session was finished prematurely.

The princess addressed the last part of the letter again.

“He has it really hard, keeping it inside and I can only imagine what is boiling there. I keep wondering, if the stress has some outcome, as I strongly suppose, there must be some form of compensation…”

‘This way exactly Nightmare Moon appeared,’ it would be too mild to say that Celestia became concerned. ‘Back then Luna could cry and shout at me when we had bad days… But she never told me anything about her problems, which followed, when she locked alone in her room. Maybe I was the worst sister indeed, or maybe that couldn’t be helped. Anyway, she kept the major problem to herself, all the strain, all the negativity… and I found out everything, when it was too late for any remedy only.’

Celestia wiped a tear and squinted to keep back more of them.

“I advise, if I may, to end the tests as soon as possible, considering the results keep following the predictable pattern. Meanwhile, I’ll negotiate with the council and brush through our test schedule, to limit it to the absolutely inevitable minimum of remaining experiments.

If the rest of the tests confirm that conclusion, and we officially have no reasons to think otherwise, the generic decision is the following:

The human can be freed and socialized safely, where it appears appropriate for your highness, with one vital stipulation – strict warning (with the penalty in case of some violation) about the inadmissibility of magical impact on the human. Otherwise, it’s decided that the human is not dangerous for generally adequate surrounding, and merely needs “non-invasive” supervision. Further containment is considered excessive and detrimental. The amount of collected data is sufficient for your highness and royal magical council to continue the research of human feasible transfer methods if any exist…”

“If any exist…” muttered Celestia quickly scanning the rest of the letter. That was the problem – she still had no idea, if they could send him back in the nearest future. Each suggestion turned dangerous more or less after closer examination, and the council was close to admitting the defeat. She wasn’t going to give up that fast though, especially considering that real danger of the human, or absence thereof, was still questionable.

‘Well, Ponyville it’ll be for now,’ Celestia got up, heading to the bookshelves – the rustling army was waiting for her. ‘I guess, Fluttershy can cope with almost anything… and Twilight will keep an eye on him… “non-invasively”,’ she smirked sadly.

*

Alex sat behind the table, leaning on it with his elbows, his head rested on the hands, but his mind was full of unrest. The last series of tests really kicked him off the rails. He knew about something like that to be done, but couldn’t imagine, it would turn out so ugly: to know is one thing, but being ready to overcome all that appeared to be another story – he was simply shocked.

‘Didn’t Twilight tell them everything clearly enough?’ he shook his head in disbelief. ‘They fear the actual transfer can go wrong, yet they are ready to run those almost doctor Moreau kinds of experiments…’

He was deep in his dark thoughts, that neither accurate hoofsteps behind, nor familiar lavender aroma didn’t make him raise his head or turn. Alex’s reaction to the delicate hoof, which touched his shoulder, was the same as of a rock – namely nothing. Nevertheless, he said muffledly, like from a well.

“Luna? I’m sorry, dear, I’m hardly a good company tonight. Still under the impression of today’s… experiments!” Alex angrily snorted. “I couldn’t imagine, it would be so… so…” he gasped.

“I’ve heard about them in brief, mine lief,” Luna sat behind him, keeping her hoof on Alex’s shoulder. “Was ‘t that horrendous forsooth?”

“Even worse…” Alex turned to face her and Luna noticed that his eyes were almost black from hidden rage. “And I thought the first day of that crap was bad. So naive! It’s getting worse each day lately, deeper and deeper into the gutter…”

Luna stroke his shoulder gently, but Alex almost shuddered.

“Can you imagine a unicorn getting knocked out, because of the magical bond and drain between me and him, all voluntarily… yet, frankly speaking, I start having doubts about that part,” Alex gritted his teeth. “And the test, the bucking test continues! They tend to keep poor ponies that way for a couple of minutes more to register their bucking results!” blasted he, making Luna even squint a little. “And I can do nothing, except shouting at them and kicking the door of the test room, because the bond exists until they lower the barrier or the unicorn gets fully unconscious. I can’t do anything about that! Merlin’s pants, I have never felt that enraged and at the same time helpless…” he hid the face in his palms.

“Just imagine,” he continued, not giving Luna time to say a word. “They tested, what happened when the caster had visual contact with me, and what – when didn’t. There are unicorns, who can imagine the target for their magic well enough, even behind an obstacle, never knew that,” Alex nervously chuckled, it looked more like a seizure. “Then what happened, when there was a transparent obstacle between us… and one hay load of other wicked things.”

“Alex, I really feel for thee,” Luna leaned forward, but Alex backed up on his chair.

“Really?” he sounded suddenly cold and distant. 

“I can feel that they are rushing their experiments,” added he after a second a bit calmer this time. “For good or for bad, I don’t know. Of course, I must be glad, as it seems that I’m coming through the less ugly buck, than I could. But that’s not enough to make me happy… What if, instead of releasing me, they plan something else? Considering the dynamics, I fear, what upcoming stage can be… I almost pounced the guards today, again. They seem to understand, not giving me hard time, but perhaps I said something wrong – they were simply stunned by what I shouted… I can’t remember…”

“But they want to find a way to send thee back…” Luna felt that she hardly believed entirely in what she was saying. “I don’t know… Look, Alex… I’m sorry, I… No, thou art right! That could, that should be done differently.”

Her words, not defending them right away, made Alex calm down a bit; he loured at her when she removed her hoof from his shoulder.

“We are not monsters,” Luna looked into his eyes. “Thou hast made some friends hither, as thou said ere, recall?”

“I guess, those few aren’t enough for others not to consider me being a monster,” sadly smirked Alex, he was like a thunder cloud still. “Or not to do everything, so I look like one in their eyes.”

“Whom can I trust here? You, Fluttershy, a couple of others? Hardly enough to change anything, to make anypony change their mind,” he touched her cheek lightly. “Is it worth to put you all at the shooting range? Perhaps, I’d better be alone…”

“Dost thou love Fluttershy?” asked Luna quietly.

“I don’t know,” Alex downcasted. “I like her, if that matters, she is my friend and generally a nice girl, kind, caring, thoughtful. But sometimes she becomes overprotective, that is definitely what I could live without. But who am I to judge? It seems I am to be judged all the way rather!”

“Look, what do you want me to say?” Alex rubbed his temples. “I’m here for a month and there is a pony who wants me physically; a pony who needs me as a friend perhaps, but sometimes sees me as her own… somepony; I’m talking to you, the princess, one of the rulers of Equestria, like if we knew each other for ages… and I’m already almost in jail, at least it feels like that sometimes, by your sister’s command. And all those… tests!” his eyes darkened again. “Should I be entirely adequate?”

“And I’m getting all this when my only wish was to return home,” he added.

“Dost thou want to return home that desperately?” Luna asked sadly and Alex realized that her question meant “Do you want to leave Equestria that desperately?” at the very least… or even maybe “Do you want to leave me?”.

“I miss my family, my friends…” Alex said simply. Luna put her hoof on his knee. “I’m sure I’ll miss you all as well, when… if…” he gasped, then took a breath and… the cold breeze seemed to have begun to blow from his voice again. “But at the moment I’d better be alone; as I said, I’m not the best company right now.”

‘Why should the few ones, I admire and… love, obligatorily witness me being an emotional wreck, drained, undecided, restless?’ 

He turned away, leaning on the table again, his shoulders drooped; Luna didn’t know what to add.

“Look, didn’t you miss your friends, your sister, despite all the trouble, when you were banished to the Moon?” suddenly asked Alex sternly, still looking away.

“I didn’t have many friends ere…” whispered Luna. “And on the Moon… Thither was Nightmare Moon, she didn’t let those thoughts slide through, so… I don’t know…”

“But I understand thee, Alex,” she said after a moment of silence. “And I respect thy condition…”

Alex felt that the room became empty and cold, as the princess quietly left. He couldn’t help but confess himself that she sounded, moreover was offended. The more he thought about their short talk, the more he wanted to punch himself in the face. He could give anything for the ability to rewind the last few minutes and kneel next to her, hug her, ask her to forgive his totally misaddressed outburst.

How could he be such a heartless bastard?

*

Two days passed: nopony visited him, except the nurses, who brought the meals and regularly interested if Alex needed anything. First, he thought that Celestia “anathematized” him for the recent outbursts; he couldn’t imagine Luna putting her hoof to that, despite her being evidently offended after their last talk. But the general tone, nurses used to communicate with him, stayed the same: friendly, joking and, in case of “Ginger”, chatty as usual. So Alex realized, it must be another reason for them giving him unexpected rest: there was a positive aspect to that indeed – he wasn’t taken for any tests during those days.

Yet one thing bothered him more and more – Luna didn’t visit him as well. Alex wasn’t ready yet to try and reach her on his own, he inwardly scolded himself numerous times for being an ass and insulting her. Simply appearing out of the blue and saying “I’m sorry!” was not enough for what he did: namely reminded her about Nightmare Moon period of her life for the second time, exactly when it was extremely unwelcome.

That day Alex roamed the room like a hungry tiger its cage; since morning he tried to find some suitable way to apologize. He already decided to visit Luna, but there must be a necessary detail added – the apology itself! What could he do? He was too limited in his actions, even while he could move relatively free during sleepwalking, he was still captured by the castle grounds, unable to appear further than the certain range.

The miniature unicorn nurse involuntarily gave him an idea; more than an idea even, a plan. When she entered his room, Alex immediately spotted her happy and dreamy expression and thought that she must have heard or come through something really pleasant.

“You have some special occasion planned, don’t you?” Alex unintentionally smiled, her mood was contagious. “Congratulations!”

“Oh!” the nurse became confused a bit. “Is it written across my forehead that clearly? Not a special occasion though… Do you like flowers?”

“Moderately!” chuckled Alex. “But, please, do tell. I’d like to hear something bright for a change…”

“I simply adore flowers!” exhaled the mare, putting the tray on the table. “Especially roses. Maids told me this morning about amazing roses, which bloomed in the castle garden. They were making bouquets for princess Celestia’s bedroom and almost dropped unconscious, when the gardener brought those, then decided to use them obligatorily. I guess, the princess prefers roses as well…” she giggled.

“You should definitely see the garden, when… all this,” she looked around. “is over.”

“Mayhap…” muttered Alex in halftone, making the nurse perk an ear. “Not that I can do ‘t now by misfortune…” he remembered that he heard about somepony sneaking into the castle grounds a few days ago. Nothing happened and nopony was caught, perhaps it was even somepony’s mistake, but the guards outside the castle were on double.

“Are you okay?” the nurse looked puzzled. “Excuse me, but you’re talking strangely… strangely familiar… I…”

“Oh,” waved Alex, he realized his mistake, but tried to keep face, involuntarily remembering his dream. ‘Merlin’s pants! It is indeed happening…’ “I’m fine, was just thinking about something.” 

He squeezed out a smile, trying to make it look natural. The nurse returned the smile and nodded, but Alex still saw a shadow of concern in her eyes, when she left, wishing him “bon appetite”.

Alex couldn’t make himself pay even a bit of attention to his meal, two ideas drilled his mind. First, the hay was happening? Did he involuntarily start taking Luna’s “style” into himself indeed? That would be a major give away about their relationship for anypony around and Alex promised himself to watch his tongue better.

And second, apparently, he finally had a plan: he knew now, how he could apologize. Visiting the garden wasn’t the best idea, even for him – too open, too many guards could spot him at once. But he knew, he could get what he needed in the castle, where hallways, rooms, different nooks could give him enough cover during his escapade. An enthusiastic grin appeared on Alex’s face, it would take him only to wait till tonight and not start running on the walls of his room from impatience beforehand.

His optimistic thoughts were interrupted by the hoofsteps behind the door. Alex looked over his shoulder, that couldn’t be the nurse – too early, besides, there were two sets of hoofsteps again. That was interesting.

The lock clicked, turning away from the window Alex saw the horn, stripy mane, bright, curious eyes and the rest of Twilight, standing in the doorway. He was definitely glad to see somepony, somepony not involved in those damned experiments; however, his smile was not only sincere but fairly abstracted – his mind was overly occupied by the plan already.

“I’ll be right behind the door, princess,” said the guard, locking them both in.

“That’s hardly necessary,” frowned Twilight.

“Alex, I can finally talk to you,” her tone noticeably changed, when she addressed him. Twilight approached and raised on her hind legs, giving him a hug. “The girls, well… some… were asking, if you were okay here. And princess Luna (a small muscle in the corner of Alex’s eye twitched) kept her promise, so I am allowed to visit you now.”

Alex slightly stroked her shoulders, not knowing how to deal with a princess giving him a friendly hug… because it was another princess, not the one, whom he wouldn’t release from his hands that easily.

“Take your pick,” he made a welcoming gesture, circling the room with his hand. He chuckled and added, choosing his words carefully, because Twilight, he was sure, would recognize the connection immediately. “I hardly have a seat worthy of the princess, but all of them are at your service.”

“It’s okay, I can stand,” Twilight realized in time, he was joking, so let the “princess” part slide. “I’ve spent half of the day sitting with the books anyway. But that doesn’t matter… How are you, Alex?”

“Fine, more or less, especially lately, when they don’t run their… tests,” absentmindedly stated Alex, he turned the three drafts of the seekers, which still lay on the table, upside down – he had no idea if Celestia already informed Twilight about the problems and if it fitted her plans. “I’m rarely visited now though, that’s the drawback of a quieter life,” he snorted.

Twilight opened her mouth… then closed it, not saying what was right on the tip of her tongue.

“So, we can assume that you’re fine generally,” she said instead.

“We?” Alex blinked several times. Twilight was already informed about his condition, he asked to relay that to Fluttershy. Who else?

“Well, me and Fluttershy, then Pinkie would be glad to know you’re fine,” Twilight enthusiastically trotted around Alex, who thought at that moment that sometimes she mimics her mentor involuntarily. Then he remembered himself and facepalmed inwardly. “Rarity…” Twilight smirked.

“Oh,” Alex looked like he swallowed a wasp, he muttered after a short while. “Twilight, let’s not agitate her too much, even before I’m out of here…”

“By the way,” Twilight picked the theme eagerly. “It looks like you will get out soon enough indeed. Maybe princess Celestia has no way to deliver you home yet, but she got all the necessary information to continue her investigation. Yet there is no need to keep you locked here, as far as I know. The princess is very concerned about your… problem, Alex.”

“Or, better say, about kicking me out of Equestria with fewer consequences possible,” Alex made a face.

“Oh, I’ve asked her, if expulsing me to the Moon looked a prominent variant for her,” apparently Alex was going to have some innocent fun, Twilight clearly needed more than a simple confirmation that he is fine. But what information, the curious alicorn could crave, did he have? Maybe if he lured her off her planned route, she could slip and give away, what she needed to know. Not giving her time to react he added. “It seemed that Celestia took that suggestion without much enthusiasm though.”

“You did WHAT?!” squeaked Twilight, she sat on the floor and looked at him with the dropped jaw. 

“It was a simple banter,” Alex waved his hand. “No…pony suffered!”

Watching how she sat on the spot still, he got to the bathroom and filled a glass with water, then returned and placed it right in her field of view, before her eyes, which stared straight at one spot.

“Twilight?!”

Twilight hiccupped and blinked several times, focusing her eyes on him, then on the glass. Alex put it on the floor, so she could pick with her magic, not risking touching him, and Twilight downed it in a couple of gulps.

“Thanks,” she said a bit hoarsely. “Ahem! So, is princess Celestia a frequent guest here?”

“Not very,” Alex took the glass, returning it to its place. “But she doesn’t let me get bored definitely,” the irony was dripping from that phrase.

“And princess Luna?” Twilight tilted her head with a small smile. “She relayed messages from you to Fluttershy and she negotiated my visits mostly. It seems you got protection here, Alex.”

‘Careful, Alex!’ He remembered that story with trespassers and squinted at Twilight. ‘No, that can’t be. Not Twilight… What could they see, if…’

“I have no idea, Twilight.” Alex tiredly lowered himself on the chair. His thoughts returned to his plan when she reminded him about Luna. “I have seen Celestia, the “doctor”, two nurses and guards.. that’s except… “third party test subjects”,” he dropped the last words through teeth. “You are the first pony… person uninvolved in all that. I saw princess Luna at the appointment, as you know, and a couple of times later. Not enough to call that a “frequent guest” or “protection”.”

“And while I’m endlessly joyous to see thee,” he closed his eyes for a second. “Let me extend my apologies, as the recent days took the best of me forsooth.”

He leaned to her and lightly stroked her shoulder, as Twilight still was out of her element. Twilight twitched, unfreezing, and blinked.

“Wait, wait,” she raised one eyebrow and one ear, looking at him, that could look awfully comic, if… “What did you just say?”

‘FUUUU…’ Alex made an innocent face while stiffening inwardly.

“What? I said that I needed some rest, that I was glad to see you, Twi, and happy to know that others were less concerned when they were told that I was still alive and in one piece,” he shrugged. “I think I missed nothing.”

“But…”

“Twilight, I’m terribly sorry, please, if you have time, come tomorrow. I’m shattered indeed and need some sleep,” he hugged her. “I truly appreciate, but you see I’m erratic and… how Rarity calls that? Oh, yes, “half-horned” at the moment,” he chuckled, walking Twilight to the door.

When the door closed behind puzzled and stunned Twilight, Alex released air almost with the sound of a boiling pot and leaned his forehead on the cool wall. Her look, when she left, told him that Twilight was full of suspicions, as she got now even more questions than before her visit and almost no answers.

‘Her curiosity is indeed twice larger than that girl herself,’ a kind but concerned smile appeared on his face. He had nothing against Twilight, but what would she do with the answers, she wanted to get? And he was now sure, that the day guards tried to catch the intruder, somepony, or better say “somealicorn”, definitely poked her curious nose into their with Luna affairs.

‘You’re a true genius as well,’ his sarcasm was enough to pave a road when he remembered about Luna and what he said. ‘Sure thing, Twilight felt like smacked with a… pan, but when she recovers, she will be running on walls to find everything out.’

‘Well, I’ll think of that tomorrow,’ he decided to follow his plan. ‘Some rest is what I need now before I go to apologize.’

*

The wall clock showed 10 pm and Alex impatiently fidgeted on his bed, watching the sunset through the window. There were some flaws in his plan, but he preferred to think about them not. First of all, he was going to push his current abilities to the limits, he needed to get to the castle unnoticed, yet able to move freely. The ideal starting point was Luna’s room, as he knew it well and Luna herself was hardly there, after raising the moon – she didn’t expect him and hardly was going to come as well. That provided the difficulty though – he was to get there on his own and the distance was considerable.

Alex promptly waited till the moon took its rightful place in the sky… and about half an hour more, giving Luna time to attend to her nightly duties. ‘I hope, she has some and won’t be on her balcony, for example; I’m not ready for a plain talk, yet. Yeah, yeah, I know, offending somepony is always way easier than apologizing,’ he sighed.

The rest was almost routinely stuff: Alex placed himself comfortably enough on his bed, inwardly regretting that it was “Ginger’s” duty tonight as well; however, he couldn’t change the plans, the information provided by her predecessor was vital. Then he closed his eyes, cleared his mind from everything unnecessary and concentrated on his destination.

In a couple of minutes, he stood amidst the familiar bedroom. Alex made a note that he was able to transfer himself faster and faster each time. Unfortunately, long distances were still a major problem: Alex felt, like if he ran 110 yards in 6 seconds.

Trying to relax and catch his breath he looked around: the same scene, except the armchair was moved slightly and contained a book, laying on the seat. The backrest kept the scent of lavender, like if the princess left her comfy place just a few minutes ago; Alex leaned on it, inhaling deeply, he imagined how Luna spent the evening reading, and smiled unwillingly.

‘Merlin’s pants! Man, you’re “lucky”, you got between those two girls: Fluttershy and Luna. Try your best now to wriggle out somehow. Preferably without casualties!’

As he expected, Luna wasn’t here at the moment, Alex even cautiously checked the bathroom and took a look at the balcony. Another door, he spotted this time, lead most likely to the dressing room and was locked now. Alex thought that he should have a chance to see how pony dresses looked like some other day; listening at the door returned nothing. He had the complete freedom of action for a while. Another quick look around and Alex spotted a vase, which suited his needs. 

‘Nice!’ he half-filled the vase with water in the bathroom and put it on the study, where he noticed an inkstand earlier.

The worst flaw of the plan were the guards: several aspects depended on how many of them, how attentive and where exactly were placed. Alex approached the big doors to the hallway and listened. A few minutes passed in complete silence, then he heard a quiet metal clank. The guards were present, fortunately not right behind the doors, almost leaning on them, but still too close to miss him, if he tried to sneak out of the room.

Praying for hinges to be greased Alex slowly opened one leaf, leaving a narrow gap to see the part of the corridor behind. The major part of his view was occupied by a large standing chandelier under the arched window, opposing the door and slightly to the right.

“Her Highness, princess Luna, left the balcony door open again.” Alex heard one quiet voice and his heart made a jump. He was ready to hide when the voice added. “There must be some strong wind outside to open that door.”

“Yeah. I’ll close…” he heard another voice.

‘Please, let there be only two nearby,’ Alex crossed his fingers and mentally pushed the chandelier, hearing the hoofsteps.

The chandelier swung and slammed on the stone floor with a clunk of a mallet, candles hissed, going out in the spreading puddle of wax.

‘That’s not enough to make them jumpy,’ Alex had no other way than making a small fire show. With loud crackling a small sparkle from the still-burning candle “jumped” onto the spread and quickly hardening wax spot, putting the whole surface on fire. He knew that the very moment he gave up control, the whole thing would extinguish itself, but for the guards it surely looked serious enough. The proximity of cloth banners added to the trouble.

“Hey! What the?..” the steps stopped, then he saw how both guards rushed to extinguish the fire and get the chandelier up; a few candles still burned, throwing uneven twitching shadows on the walls.

Alex pushed the door leaf more, just to have a gap wide enough to squeeze himself through, and slid into the hallway. Damn, the gallery was huge, perhaps it went across the whole castle or half of it. Not losing time Alex quietly stuck to the wall and sneaked in the shadows behind the columns, as far from the muffledly swearing guards, as he could in a couple of seconds. Right when he released his mental grip, the fire died as fast as it started, leaving the puzzled guards scratch their heads. Alex crouched behind the familiar armoured pony statue and tried to arrange his further route, pushing away the thought that he was to return the same way later. Fooling the guards for the second time wasn’t doing to be an easy task.

Another problem was the direction, Alex had no reliable information about the castle, some faint memories, accidental clues only. He needed to get to the certain room, but all he knew about that room was that it must be guarded as well, having similar large doors… and… well…

‘I guess, Luna would have had a good laugh, if she knew about my plan, totally confirming her mental image of me,’ smirked Alex, trying to remember at least anything, which might help him in his crazy endeavour.

‘The last time Tia almost caught us, she was heading to her room and passed Luna’s by. I was in the facility already and the research started. Where she could go from that late if she had a whole day of regal duties?’

Alex froze, as the patrol of two armoured unicorns passed his hiding place, but the latter appeared to be good enough, nopony noticed him behind the statue.

‘The library! She mentioned that she spent there more time than Twilight recently. So, Luna’s room is somewhere amidst the library and Celestia’s room.’

‘Now, if only I knew, in which direction the library was,’ huffed Alex sarcastically, accurately looking out into the gallery.

To the right, where he came from exactly, the gallery was relatively short: Alex could see the turn and something resembling stairs, perhaps even a tower. However, to the left, the gallery ran far away and got lost in the distant twilight, he couldn’t see where it ends. Alex was thankful that the hallway wasn’t lit better and especially that the moon wasn’t lighting the facade (at least he thought that the side of the castle behind his back was the facade) directly, it would be impossible to hide there otherwise.

‘Celestia’s bedroom is hardly in the tower or somewhere alike,’ pondered Alex, scratching his chin. ‘But the library could be there… or on another floor of the castle and there is a staircase to the right.’

‘Her room must be somewhere on that gallery, similar to Luna’s…’ Alex realized that all his assumptions are based on his subjective human logic, but he couldn’t simply stop a guard and ask, where the library was. Asking where princess Celestia’s room was would be a top wicked trick likewise, Alex quietly giggled at the mental image. ‘So, to the left we go.’

Crouching, flattening himself to the wall, freezing behind the columns or statues, when necessary, Alex slowly advanced. There was no risk for him personally, but his apology deserved to be performed faultlessly, making him dissolve in every shadow on his way not to be spotted and forced to flee. He thought that he was crawling for an hour already, but he hardly could proceed faster. Faster meant less cautiously and he was to play dead at least thrice: twice, waiting till the patrols pass (one was going from behind), fortunately, Alex noticed them in time; and once, when two patrols met almost in the middle of the gallery and… stopped, chattering about some irrelevant crap. Alex leaned his forehead on the cold column, which he hid behind.

‘Come to think about that, “Ginger” isn’t that bad!’ he thought, feeling himself starting to boil. Finally, some higher rank guard came and kicked the lazy asses back on their routes. The commander in his turn lingered on the spot for a while, thinking about some of his own pegasus business, so, when Alex could move further, he had no idea, how much time he lost because of them.

Mentally anathematizing every chatterbox Alex feared that his time was quite limited, considering all the tricks, he pulled already, and especially those, he was going to pull. And he had to return as well.

Finally, he reached the place resembling the one in front of Luna’s room. Large noble doors, same hallway layout and the guards.

‘Be blessed symmetry!’ winked Alex. He stealthily approached the doors and the guards as close as he could, staying unnoticed and unheard, and crouched behind the pegasus statue. He didn’t have much time, as some patrol might arrive and he would need to wait till they pass or change.

‘Here goes!’ Alex squinted and pushed another chandelier lightly, it responded with an audible metal clank. The guards perked their ears and stared into the hallway, Alex did his best not to snort at that image. ‘Thank you, Luna, you’re truly marvellous! This is where your lessons come to practice.’ he thought.

Then it was time for a more interesting thing: Alex started to pull a few long banners, which hung in the wall niches, making them waver.

“Did you see that?!” one of the guards lit his horn and headed to the source of disorder. Alex yanked the far banners a couple of times more and froze. The guard reached that part of the gallery exactly and was looking around with extremely puzzled expression. Another one tried to see anything from his place at the door, but there was nothing to look at obviously.

Alex sneaked closer and stopped behind the column, near which the first guard stood earlier. It was a couple of yards to the door and… maybe four to another guard, which was visibly ready to join his partner if the situation demanded, but still was unsure about leaving the post even for a short while.

‘Come on, just get a few yards away!’ Alex gritted his teeth, then turned to the hallway and pulled the banners again, making them twitch.

“Just stay where you are!” the first guard waved his hoof, while still trying to spot the reason for the banners’ strange behaviour. “There seems to be nothing here, but…”

“That’s strange!” Another guard threw a quick glance over the shoulder to the door, making sure it is closed and nopony is going to change that. “Maybe we should notify the nearest patrol? Somepony needs to check it thoroughly, while we stick to the post…” 

‘Just don’t do that!’ Alex prayed for the guards to be less thoughtful at that time, otherwise, it would become impossible to get through. ‘A couple of steps into the gallery would be ideal though.’ 

He jerked the banners once again, not even looking at them, and when the guard checked once more, if everything was in order and turned away, pulled the door, making a gap.

“But what caused that?” he heard from the gallery. “A draught? I can’t feel any…”

The nearest guard gave up to the anxiety and, let’s be honest, curiosity and made a few steps into the gallery towards his partner. Alex threw a quick glance at them, noticed that their attention was totally fixated on the banners and surrounding part of the gallery, and rolled into the door like a hedgehog, quickly and softly closing it behind, just a second before the guards looked back and decided to return to their post. 

‘Phew! They really didn’t have any strange crap happening for quite a while!’ smirked Alex, taking a look around, when he raised to his legs. ‘The last several years must have been spent without any serious conflicts. First the trespassers, then this, if I were in charge, the castle would have been crawling with guards from the dungeon to the roof, but… Either they are too relaxed, or don’t expect anypony sneaking through that way.’

‘On the other hand, they got used to dealing with magic, perhaps even trained to feel some, and what I’m doing is not magic… at least strictly speaking doesn’t look like one,’ Alex thought that he found a plausible explanation. ‘Nevertheless, unicorns must recognize the kinetic impact, they are so good at themselves. Well… I can’t say that I’m complaining, they didn’t.’

The room, he got into, was similar by size and layout to Luna’s, but decorated in lighter tones generally. Dimly lit noble furniture, fireplace, undraped windows, letting moonlight inside, a few vases with flowers and… Alex spotted, what he needed: a big vase with a sumptuous bouquet of dark purple roses, those exactly petite unicorn nurse told about. There was perhaps a hundred of them, Alex could feel the aroma from his spot.

‘Excellent!’ he thought. ‘Taking out a few won’t make much difference.’

There was a problem though, moreover, two of them. The image of illustrious pink, green, turquoise mane on the pillows of the large bed made Alex freeze, Celestia was sleeping, but…

‘Well, you didn’t expect her to be somewhere else when you planned that, did you?’ he asked himself. ‘Now it’s not the time to linger!’ He listened to the sounds, coming from behind the door, apparently, the patrol changed, but he couldn’t hear too much of concern or anxiety in the voices.

‘Fine, if there are other guards when I try to get out, it’ll be even better,’ smirked Alex.

Another problem was presented by a big fiery bird, sitting on the high perch near the footrest of Celestia’s bed. It could be sleeping, but unfortunately, right now the bird opened one eye and watched Alex fixedly.

‘Isn’t it a phoenix?!’ Alex slowly breathed out. ‘Well, it’s now or never!’ he told himself, slowly approaching the table with the roses. ‘I can always flee, simply vanishing… but it would be a iasco of my plans!’

The phoenix watched him, turning her head (Alex remembered what Fluttershy told him about that bird and inwardly grasped himself – Philomena, that was the phoenix name, had a really strange sense of humour). For now though, she looked rather interested, than startled, and kept silence at least. Alex thought that he preferred to walk under manticore’s nose once, or twice, or even thrice, to that slow stroll under the phoenix fixed glance, with Celestia sleeping in a few yards.

The princess sighed through her dream, turning to another side and making Alex’s heart skip a beat.

‘OUCH!!!’ thought Alex, approaching the vase. ‘Now I know the easiest reliable suicide method,’ flew in his head. ‘Just come close and boop her nose!’ Alex shook his head, smirking, despite his back was cold as ice.

He took out a dozen of roses, checking twice, then looked over his shoulder – Philomena still watched him with interest. Alex made the main bouquet look untouched, then took the roses and after a moment of thinking separated one. He turned back but stopped halfway.

“Thanks for not giving me out,” he whispered barely audibly with a small bow and handed the rose on the long stem to the phoenix. Alex knew that parrots at least ate flowers and even small twigs sometimes, he had no idea if phoenixes found flowers interesting, but occupying her with something else than his humble self could be useful.

With quiet sound Philomena grabbed the flower with her beak and munched on it, Alex was to admit that roses smelled delicious indeed. Letting out a smile Alex held the rest eleven roses close and headed to the door. There was silence behind, letting him think, there were only two guards again. This time it was a harder task though: he was to open the doors and leave at once, there was no chance to distract them first.

Alex looked over his shoulder, the phoenix was busy with the flower. The phoenix! Alex remembered again, what Fluttershy told him – the phoenix and her tricks!

Alex put the roses under his shirt, trying not to crumple them. The fireplace was lit and Alex dragged a strand of fire out of it; he wrapped himself in the fiery shield. It was time to recall what he learned from Luna. Alex raised the couple of feet above the floor and leaned forward, making the fire around him blaze brightly – Philomena watched him again, stretching her neck, with growing interest, making a quiet clattering. He burst through the door in one fiery flash, quickly passing stunned guards and getting lost between the columns of the gallery. Alex hid behind one and extinguished the flames at once, landing on the floor. He quietly took the breath, listening.

“Damned phoenix,” muttered the guard. “And her tricks again…”

“Hey, relax!” answered another voice. “She will get bored of that game soon.”

The silence that followed told Alex that the guards had a look into the room and… obviously, spotted the bird sitting on her perch, innocently munching on the rose. The silence became palpable, then the doors closed with a quiet “thump”.

Alex was considerably far already, barely holding himself not to burst into laughter. After that, his path back seemed to him at least twice shorter. He was lucky to pass the guards quickly, even when one of them started to sniff around loudly, saying that he could feel the strong rose smell.

To his sheer fortune, the guards at the Luna’s doors changed as well. Alex got closer and pondered: he could try to distract those too, but he would need to turn his back to them when trying to get inside. That wasn’t the best idea and Alex froze for a second, thinking, what he could use to his advantage. He tried to visualize Luna’s room with his inner sight, remembering the layout of it. There was some sort of curtain at the doors. ‘That should do the trick!’

Alex concentrated on the balcony door, opening it completely, then slowly opened one leaf of the door to the room. Attracted by a quiet sound both guards looked back and frowned.

“What’s with those doors today?” muttered one of them, entering the room. “It wasn’t any strong wind in the prognosis.”

“The previous shift reported the same,” answered another, he stayed outside though. “Maybe it’s better to close the balcony door before the draught knocked something in the princess’ room?”

‘If they both don’t enter, that won’t work!’ Alex gritted his teeth, he peeked from his hiding place.

If they were a bit more attentive, they could have noticed that the curtain was entirely blown outside, so the first guard was struggling with the cloth piece, trying to close the balcony door – thus the draught, coming from inside of the castle, couldn’t open the room door.

“Maybe you shut up and come to help me,” grumpily answered he. “Perhaps, hold this curtain!”

‘Thanks!’ Alex saw that the second guard entered the room and joined his partner. Alex slid into the room and hid behind the drapes, while both guards dragged the naughty curtain inside and closed the balcony door. They were already exiting, when one of them stopped and inhaled deeply.

“Strange… Can you smell roses?” he sniffed the air once more with a puzzled expression.

“That’s from outside,” waved another. “Princess Celestia’s favourite roses bloomed in the garden yesterday… Come on, there is nothing to do here…” They shut the doors behind them.

Alex raised one eyebrow, thinking again that the guards must have been having it easy for quite a while. They ignored distant impact amazingly easy for those, who used magic themselves. On the other hand, that wasn’t magic in the usual sense; besides, everypony knew, he couldn’t cast spells. Alex preferred to load himself not with guessing, if he was in those guards “dreams”, or vice versa, or he was “making the reality believe”, as Luna called that. 

He put the eleven roses into the vase instead, rejoicing that he managed to break none of them. Alex grabbed a quill, the sheets of paper were found in the upper drawer of the study.

It took him the good five minutes to understand that using a quill and ink was above his current skill. Why couldn’t there be a pencil, let alone a ball pen? The quill squeaked, Alex tried to make less noise and cringed when it did, and left blots: he threw two pieces of paper into the bin already.

‘Damn it in entirety and each blot in particular!’ exploded Alex inwardly, realizing that after all his risky tricks, some stupid quill could render his apology futile, if Luna couldn’t read a word normally. He desperately looked around, the fire was out in the hearth, but there were a few “alive” embers inside still.

Alex smirked, in a second the fire woke up and roared in the hearth and he could drag a thin thread of the flame outside, making it curl and add up into words. A scorched note lay down under the vase.

“Please, forgive me, if you can. I could never hurt you intentionally, was just a weird buck… as usual. Didn’t want you to see the wreck of mine, I guess, but I should think better of my words, instead of worrying about the look. Mine tongue was longer than mine thoughts, mine most humble apology!”

‘Not the epitome of eloquence, mayhap… Damn! Again!’ Alex thought that he hardly could make something better, he was already exhausted by that moment. ‘I’d rather take back each word, I said that night instead… but… Oh, well, I hope she understands,’ he threw one last glance around, making sure everything else was untouched and vanishing in the air.

The next moment he found himself in his closed room, laying on the bed. Alex smiled with relief and closed his eyes, in a few seconds he fell into the real, visionless dream.

*

“Oh, Philomena, you chewed the flowers again…” sighed princess Celestia, throwing the stem into her paper bin. The phoenix pretended to be dozing, but when Celestia trotted by, Philomena opened one eye with a sly sparkle and watched the princess, who already raised the Sun and was ready for her daily regal duties.

But first Celestia planned to visit Luna, ask her, if the night wasn’t stressful, listen to the news – do what she usually did, being a thoughtful older sister. She crossed the long gallery, followed by guards saluting and stopped for a moment in front of Luna’s room doors: two maids were scratching and cleaning the stone floor, removing a big hardened spot of wax. Celestia raised one eyebrow, looking inquiringly at one of the guards.

“The chandelier, your royal highness,” reported the guard. “It fell over last night and the wax got on fire. Nopony suffered.”

“Hmmm, the wax getting on fire is something new to me…” the princess pulled the door with her magic, entering her sister’s bedroom. “Good morning, Lulu!”

“Morning, Tia!” Luna delicately covered her involuntary yawn with the hoof, she looked happy, despite obviously being tired and sleepy.

“How was your night?” Celestia noticed her smile and watched Luna with interest. “Did something joyful happened?”

“Methinks having ‘t easy is joyful enough,” cooed Luna and nuzzled Celestia’s shoulder. “I feel amazing today, had a nice walk ere and… the night was quiet, no desperate subjects with nightmares,” she laughed quietly as if a silver bell rang.

Celestia blinked, last time she saw Luna in such a mood was quite long ago, then something else gained her attention. She approached the study with a bouquet of eleven bloody scarlet, carefully selected, fine roses in a vase.

“I always thought that you didn’t like roses much, Lulu,” smirked the Sun Princess, inhaling the sweet aroma.

“I didn’t and I don’t still, but some of the maids didn’t learn that yet, mayhap,” Luna came closer as well, smiling like a school filly; she read and removed the note already. It didn’t look like she was much disappointed by the “not favourite” flowers being brought, as Celestia noticed. “I allowed them to stay, if ’t be true the girls put them here.”

“But thou art right, mine favourites are the Star Lilies as always,” Luna closed her eyes for a moment, remembering. “Unfortunately the last place I saw them was the pond in the Old Castle garden... ‘t seems that was aeons ere.”

“Perhaps we could send somepony to bring them…” Celestia pondered about something, inhaling the flowery aroma.

“Tis an excellent idea!” sly sparkles danced in Luna’s eyes, but she couldn’t hold back another yawn. “Apologies!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! You are tired, Luna. Have a rest then…”

And kissing her sister on the cheek absently Celestia left her bedroom.

*

Alex sat on his bed cross-legged with a book, for the first time in a long while he was absolutely calm, even serene, the mental image of Luna receiving the flowers and his note made him smile. However, his pleasant thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the opening door: two guards arrived and despite their look wasn’t intimidating, Alex still pricked up.

“Follow us, sir. The princess wanted to see you,” nodded one of them. “And, please, take your belongings.”

It didn’t take long to gather, what he had, and the rest of the way Alex tried to remember if putting anypony in the dungeon was a common practice here still. On the one hand, it didn’t look like Celestia was totally mad with him, besides gathering his things could mean that she was going to release him finally. On the other hand, that equally could mean moving him to a better-guarded place…

‘That will be extremely “funny”, if my nightly journey leads to that,’ he rolled his eyes, following the guards to the main castle.

Finally, the throne room. The guards escorted him in and went away, leaving Alex with the same company as on his first day here: all the three princesses. The atmosphere seemed a fair bit friendlier though, Alex approached the elevation, put his bag on the floor and bowed slightly, waiting for Celestia’s words. He glanced stealthily at Luna and Twilight to find out the general mood of the meeting, they didn’t look concerned to him, yet he told himself that it was too early to relax.

“Greetings, Alex!” Celestia remained seated and Alex made a mental note that she wasn’t adding “the human” this time as well. “I ordered to bring you here to announce my decision regarding your further stay in Equestria, as you might understand.”

Alex waited silently, that wasn’t a notice of arrest, nor of an eviction though, and “further stay” told Alex that her announcement was hardly going to meet his desired expectations as well.

“To my regret,” meanwhile continued the princess. “We were unable to find a reliable and safe method to transfer you to your home world… yet, considering your specific features. Nevertheless, we’ll continue investigating the matter, assigning the best minds of royal mages council to that task. For the time being, the science team approves your complete socialization among equestrian subjects with limited supervision. They didn’t find any reasons to keep you restrained and suggested simple precautions instead, based on your magical resistance.”

Alex allowed himself to take a breath. Of course, he was stuck here for an undefined period of time, but at least not in a personal cell, as it seemed; besides, Celestia wasn’t going to give up on his case yet apparently.

“So, in normal pony language,” Celestia let out a small smile. “You will be returned to Ponyville where you first came to and assisted in reasonable ways with settling down for the period, needed to find a way to bring you home… or longer, if circumstances demand,” added she in halftone, but Alex realized, what that meant. “The citizens will be warned to avoid applying magic to you and generally avoid using magic in your proximity, when not necessary. The named supervision is merely a formality, don’t worry, and will be performed by princess Twilight Sparkle.”

‘Sounds not bad!’ Alex tried not to fixate on the thought that his stay might become prolonged, shooing away his memory of Celestia, claiming that she had no idea about his lifespan.

“I suppose, you won’t object, Alex,” the princess added. “That means also that if you have any concerns or requests, you can address Twilight freely, or us directly in the urgent cases.”

“Thank you kindly, your highness,” Alex answered reservedly, expecting some addition from her.

A quick glance at Luna showed Alex that she was smiling and his heart happily fluttered: she got his note and evidently forgave him. That alone was worth a couple of arrests.

Twilight nodded, Alex thought, she was happy to have an ability to study humans further… and the related aspects as well. He was a bit concerned that she wasn’t going to cease her curiosity regarding his relationship with Luna.

Suddenly a small flash revealed and dropped a scroll in front of Princess Celestia. She took it with her magic, unrolled and scanned quickly, frowning more and more with each second. Then she got up and magically dragged a big mirror on a stand from somewhere. Another bolt of magic, directed to the glass, made the mirror look like a pool of quicksilver first, then, to Alex’s amazement, an image appeared instead of the mirror surface. No, a “video”! Alex’s eyes widened at this interpretation of visual communication link, which he witnessed; Luna and Twilight came closer as well.

The magical vision showed a grove, a field, seen between the trees, some buildings barely visible far away. After a second a unicorn appeared in the “mirror”.

“Your Highness,” he reported. “My apologies for distracting you from your appointment…”

“It’s fine,” mercifully nodded Celestia. “I know, you won’t contact without a reason. Please, continue!”

“As you wish, Princess,” the unicorn threw a quick concerned look over his shoulder. “We located another place of Dark Mist concentration at Birch Grove Mill,” he named a place totally unknown to Alex. “In the buildings behind me, you can probably see them from here. Unfortunately, it reached the stage, when we can’t simply dissolve it before the transformation takes place. We expect a new seeker in a few minutes.”

Alex decided on everything already. While the mage was telling Celestia other details, he approached Luna and quickly whispered something to her. Twilight perked her ears, watching how Luna leaned to the human and nodded with a strange smile.

“… could try… and taking down… resistance,” heard Twilight separate words, but the whole sense was still a mystery for her. “… too far… need an anchor. … safe… sleepwalking! I’ll try… …”

“… please… careful,” Luna nodded once again. “Thou knowest… I’m in, of course.”

‘What are those two planning?’ Twilight’s eyes dilated. 

Meanwhile, princess Celestia inquired the mage commander.

“Do you consider our forces to be enough to take down the monster?” she asked bluntly. “Is my direct intervention necessary?”

“It’ll take some time, Your Highness,” said the mage. “But I’m sure, we can cope, with certain precautions, unless the seeker is much stronger, than the last one.”

“Your Highness!” interfered Alex. “Princess, let me offer my help!”

“Apologies,” dropped Celestia over her shoulder. “But this is a matter of great importance. Our subjects’ safety depends on… I…” she turned to them when the sense of his words reached her. “What did you say?..”

“I suppose I can help, Princess,” repeated Alex bluntly. “If you are ready to allow me and accept that help.”

He looked least joking and Celestia realized that; despite being still on the fence regarding his suggestion she said.

“Do speak. But as brief, as possible.”

“Princess, my magical resistance is not a secret,” said Alex. “Backfiring of any hostile magic applied to me – likewise.”

Celestia nodded.

“I would like to try dealing with those seekers, if you allow,” Alex squinted meaningfully. “To be honest, I didn’t like, what they did to your subjects. Besides, I’d like to show you, I’m not their… puppet master, as you may still suspect.”

Small pink spots on her cheeks told Alex that he was right in his assumption and he continued.

“I suppose these magical creatures won’t feel nice if I make direct contact with them. Well… Here is my suggestion in brief,” he waited for her decision, while Twilight stood, like hit by the lightning, because of what she heard, and Luna mysteriously smiled.

“But the distance to the place, they found it at, is too long…” Celestia took thought. “We can’t transfer you magically and you’ve heard him – it is a matter of minutes.”

“Your Highness, there is a reliable way to get me there,” Alex talked quickly, not giving her time to interrupt him or reconsider. “But I will need your sister’s, princess Luna, help.”

“She will be safe with the mages and I won’t let the seeker approach,” he added, seeing how Celestia’s eyes dilated.

“My life for it! No harm will be done to princess Luna!” he added quickly and fervently. “If I fail, they will transfer her here immediately!” Alex looked at Luna sternly, showing, what he meant exactly – “no useless heroism”! 

“I’m going to try!” said Luna in tone, disallowing any objections.

“All right,” Celestia gave up under doubled pressure. “But the full responsibility is yours, Alex, and I mean it. And if anything happens to my sister…”

“I know,” said Alex simply. “And I’m taking the full score, if necessary, but I’m confident, it will work.”

“What’s your crazy plan exactly,” Celestia squinted.

“It’s longer to explain than to try,” smirked Alex. “The only thing I need is something to put me to sleep, but not to stun me to the condition of a log.”

“I know, what can help…” suddenly Twilight regained her voice. They turned to her, while she wasn’t entirely believing that she was suggesting it. “I used that potion when I needed some sleep after hard and extended studying, but feared to forget, what I learned.”

Saying no more Twilight teleported with a flash and… after a couple of seconds returned.

“Here,” she handed the vial to Alex. “That’s not a spell, so I guess it’s fine. One sip only; I don’t know if it settles well if you take more.”

Alex nodded, then turned to Luna.

“Let’s go. But, please, tell them as agreed – if anything goes wrong, they take you here first of all. Promise!” he demanded.

“I’ll do, I told thee,” Luna let out a tired sigh.

“I need to be sure,” said Alex. Both Twilight and Celestia watched them fixedly. “Tell them, it’s your sister’s order,” Alex gathered all his impudence, ignoring Twilight’s gasp. Celestia was apparently too concerned about what they were going to do to pay enough attention to that little liberty of him.

Luna teleported instead of an answer, Alex gritted his teeth, turning to the mirror.

They watched, how princess Luna appeared in the field and was telling something to the commander insistently. The mage nodded, then he spread the cloak on the ground and Luna lowered herself on it. A magic beam from the horn put her to sleep almost immediately.

“What, in the name of…” started Celestia, boiling internally.

“No time,” dropped Alex. “Watch after us, in case… Damn, there must be no such case!”

He threw everything useless out of his mind, concentrating on his princess, and took a gulp from the small vial. Apparently, the potion was strong enough, as he stood for a second, then collapsed right on the spot; Twilight could only catch the vial.

Both Twilight and Celestia looked fixedly at the magical vision, feeling that their eyes becoming wider and wider at the scene, unrolling in front of them.

The unicorn commander almost backed up, when he saw, how some haze appeared next to sleeping princess Luna and quickly materialized into the human figure. Alex got up and looked around, despite Luna must have told the unicorn, what to expect, the latter was visibly shocked by what he observed.

“Commander, did you get clear orders from the princess?” Alex towered above him, trying to shake him to action.

“Yes…” The drill took over fortunately and the meaningfulness returned to the glance of the mage. “Yes, sir!”

“I insist that you follow that order in letter, commander,” repeated Alex. “If the seeker is not stopped or approaches your position, you must teleport her highness to the castle immediately. Princess Celestia won’t accept our failure!”

“If we succeed, simply wake her,” added Alex, turning away and heading to the field, visible between the trees.

He started running, almost not touching the ground, trying to reach the buildings as fast as he could, because he was to leave himself as much time as possible for the actual encounter. Alex didn’t know, how long he could control his sleepwalking, especially if some hard resistance took place. Fortunately, the grove wasn’t too dense and he could easily run through the spinney, hopping over the fallen trunks and startling birds and small animals, who hastily sought to get away from the route of living projectile.

The last line of the trees was infrequent and he spotted the unicorns, who formed the outer ring of the improvised cordon. He blazed past them, so they could only follow his trail. Hoping that they have some sort of communication and he was not going to get a magic discharge in his back, Alex proceeded. 

“Hey, don’t come too close, if you decide to constrict the ring!!!” he shouted on the run passing the second line of mages in the field; the grass rustled under his feet. Fortunately, he nearly didn’t feel any physical strain in that condition and decided to speed up more, as it was still about a mile to what looked like an old abandoned windmill with a few sheds nearby. 

Alex already saw that it was something unruly about that mill – the whole building was wrapped in some grey veil, separate “cloths” curled around the walls, waving and “flapping”, despite the wind wasn’t very strong. It resembled fabric and simultaneously smoke or mist if one could imagine some cloth made of them; besides, it looked disgustingly alive with its movement, reminding Alex of a breathing creature. Like a giant twitching octopus, which was going to produce something even more vile and dangerous. 

Alex just approached the first of a few large rocks, protruding from the grass here and there, when the veil suddenly retracted inside the building through the windows and cracks of time-worn walls. A distant muffled hum sounded above the field and the next moment… the old mill collapsed inside, crumbling into pieces and producing a high club of dust.

Alex could see the materialized Seeker inside that grey cloud, despite the fair distance. The pitch-black figure, surrounded by the strips of thinner mist, was really huge, perhaps thrice taller than an adult human, and looked exactly like on the drafts, Celestia showed him. It was a headless, armless “centaur” with powerful legs and one red eye, or mouth, or whatever it was, on its torso. The whole body looked like made of the same concentrated Dark Mist, which formed its tail and the strips curling around the body and legs.

At the same moment Alex realized that he could feel the thing: a lump of hatred, moving hunger and thirst, intention to devour everything light and kind, it could touch – he could point the direction the Seeker was in, even with closed eyes. Alex approached, but a bit slower, trying to examine the seeker better, while it was possible.

However, the beast spotted Alex as well, or better say, felt his presence, as Alex wasn’t sure if the thing had any eyesight in the common meaning. The seeker “stared” at him with his dimly red orifice, which started brightening up. Alex didn’t feel anything strange, perhaps the distance was too far… but the short holler from behind told him that the mages definitely felt some discomfort from the Seeker’s presence. He looked over the shoulder, the unicorns were slowly narrowing the inner ring, but nopony was hurt yet.

Alex went forward, the seeker most likely felt the danger, as it could do nothing with its approaching enemy. Or perhaps the thing could feel that Alex differed from those, it (or its kin) encountered before; Alex was sure that all the seekers were connected in between and to the same, unknown yet, root. So, the monster got out of the ruined building and tried to escape, it looked heavy, if something not entirely material could be deemed heavy, and moved in a tired canter, probably not gaining full potential yet, as it just materialized.

Alex burst at full speed, cutting the monster escape route; the wind whistled in his ears, as the field smudged in one mottled stripe. In a matter of seconds the seeker “realized” that it had no chance to leave the ring and outrun its pursuer; the monster quickly turned and galloped back to the ruins. It jumped over the remnants of the walls and its hind legs started working with the speed of a machine gun.

“Fuck it!” exhaled Alex, when debris, planks and fairly big stones flew his way. He needed to get into tactile contact with the seeker to try his hypothesis on practice, but now it suddenly became a very uneasy task. Alex ran to the mill in a broken line, ducking, hiding behind the rocks, where it was possible.

The bricks and wooden planks showered like the rain, the damned brute seemed tireless. Alex stumbled on something in the grass and got hit by a thick plank in his chest, thankfully the long side, not the tip, but the blow was still very hard. Cringing from the pain Alex dived and rolled under the next piece of wood, probably twice bigger, then hid behind a large rock. He could control objects, but he couldn’t concentrate on that many of them sent flying.

Things became serious: the seeker ran out of small debris and bigger parts of the building went into play, a long metal rail bumped into the rock, making it boom like a bell and Alex squint from a sudden loud sound. Alex looked out of his hiding place, swiped a thick beam aside in the air and blazed to the next rock, closer to the mill. He dived behind it, right when something very similar to millstone buzzed above and carved sparkles. 

‘Of course!’ Alex looked back and saw that unicorns came even closer.

“Hey!!!” shouted he on top of his lungs, addressing them. “Set something on FIRE!!!”

“Just fucking IGNITE ANYTHING!!!” repeated he, seeing them lingering.

A single beam of magic pierced into one of the sheds and the flames towered over it, devouring the dry wood. The smell of smoke, brought by the wind, which blew the fire stronger, was like a blessing for Alex, who had some sort of weapon or armour or both at once at last.

Alex raised his hand with the thumb up and jumped out of his cover. He blazed to the seeker, perhaps, even faster than before, stretching out his hand and dragging stripes of flames from the fire. The flames obedient to his command curled around his body reflecting the smaller “projectiles”, sent by the defending beast. Another batch of flames formed a stripy sphere around the human. Alex set a couple of wooden beams on fire, launching fireballs and taking them down.

“Do you see that as well, so I’m not daydreaming?” Celestia turned back from the mirror for a tiny moment. “Exactly when we were almost sure, humans can cast no magic… Though I have doubts, it is magic in the usual sense,” the latter sounded more like thinking aloud than directed to anypony.

“Errmmm… Princess, I haven’t yet seen somepony being in that condition,” Twilight threw an unconfident glance to Alex’s body on the floor. “He is physically here, yet… I… Do you have any explanation?”

“Really? You haven’t seen anypony doing likewise,” chuckled Celestia ironically, apparently what she saw exceeded her expectations of a human. “Haven’t Luna ever entered your dreams, Twilight? For me it looks very much alike.”

He was very close already. Remembering about direct contact Alex decided that he should attack the seeker from above, where it was most vulnerable; besides, the thing hardly could launch the debris up vertically.

Alex raised in the air slightly. Just in time! A large piece of the crumpled wall approached fast and Alex jumped right on it, running to the other edge, while it was in the air, to keep momentum. The Seeker produced a low roar, which sounded angry (if the creature could have emotions) and at the same time desperate.

Alex’s eyes dilated – the windmill rotor, launched by the black abomination, came his way, spinning, delivering death to unseeing – he forcefully pushed away from the wall piece and hopped on the rotor, setting it on fire and launching himself higher in the air. The rotor fell behind, plugging into the ground and cracking in two parts, which kept burning. Now Alex was almost above the ruined mill, feeling that he had no time to waste, as he reached the limit of his abilities.

Far away in Canterlot Princess Celestia blinked several times in front of the mirror, providing her with the magical vision of the battle ground. Something jangled behind her and Celestia turned back to see Twilight with open mouth and eyes like teacups, who dropped the potion vial, which she caught from the hand of real Alex when he fell on the floor. The thin squeaking sound was going perhaps from Twilight’s throat.

Meanwhile, Alex sent a band of flames at the remnants of the wall below, setting it on fire and making the black monster recoil. He floated right above the Seeker and, like somepony turned the switch, the fiery sphere blasted with a loud boom, igniting everything below, which wasn’t yet burning. Alex dashed down, right on the Seeker’s back, piercing it through.

Ear-splitting howl rolled over the burning mill, the wriggling monster collapsed over the standing human figure, raising a cloud of sparkles and ash in the air, and started convulsing on the ground. Unknown force tore it into pieces and stripes of Dark Mist: some dissolved in the air and flames, some retracted into the centre, being absorbed by the human body. In a matter of seconds everything was over.

“Eat it, soul sucker!” Alex showed a finger to his vanished enemy, dissolving in the smoke with a tired smile.

“Arrrghhh!” Alex hardened and tried to get up from the floor, he felt like being overrun by a truck. “Someone… somepony, give me a… hoof!”

Twilight unfroze and handed him her fore leg, Alex got up with her help, rubbing his chest.

“Damnation!” he muttered. “I can still feel the plank, that bastard sent into me… Apologies, princess!”

With a bright flash princess Luna appeared in the throne hall, apparently, she felt a bit dizzy from the sleep spell: she shook her head, focusing on everypony present.

“How are you?” asked Alex, leaning on Twilight still.

“Could be better forsooth…” a weak smile curled Luna’s lips. “Being the subject of sleep spells is not mine common practice. I missed everything, right?”

Alex released Twilight’s shoulder and came closer to Luna, cringing.

“I’ll show you later,” whispered he, smirking. “Ouch! The first time wasn’t performed ideally,” he shuddered, then added even quieter. “I hope you’ll keep visiting me when I am in Ponyville, my princess… that’s, of course, if I’m not entirely doomed after that little… adventure.”

“Naturally, I shall!” answered Luna quietly.

The magical mirror showed unicorn commander again and Celestia was talking to him at the moment.

“No signs of the Seeker or Dark Mist,” reported the mage. “Your Highness, in the name of Equestria, what exactly it was?.. What did we just see?”

“Later, commander,” Celestia shook her head. “Now extinguish the flames and get back to Canterlot.”

“Already on it, princess,” reported the mage through the fading vision. The mirror dimmed, turning to its usual reflective state.

“Now!” Celestia turned to them. Alex and Luna stood, trying to keep innocent faces, despite a sudden and strange urge to laugh. “I always thought that my dearest sister, princess Luna, was the only one capable of… “dreamwalking” and affecting reality through somepony’s dreams. But it seems that I am wrong. Some explanation could be immensely useful, don’t you both think?”

“There is not much to explain,” Alex still held on his chest. “We (Celestia blinked) discovered that ability of mine accidentally. As your highness can see, it’s still not magic, as I can’t do similar things, when I’m awake. Besides, I can enter only your sister’s dreams, nopony’s else,” Alex decided not to tell yet that he could sleepwalk on short distances even without outer help.

“And how long “we” are experimenting, pray tell?” Celestia gritted her teeth, but her tone wasn’t overly threatening. “Moreover, when did “we” suppose to inform me about that “insignificant” plot of you two?”

“He is another story, I admit,” Celestia turned to her sister. “But you, Luna… I was least expecting that foalish behaviour of you, dear! What were you thinking about?”

Alex raised his hand before Luna could find some snarky reply.

“Excuse me, princess!” he moved slightly, entering Celestia’s view again and shielding Luna with himself. “That was entirely my responsibility, I was the one who was… “experimenting”; with manipulating objects as well. Besides, princess Luna can’t affect my ability to enter her dreams or block it,” he threw a quick glance over his shoulder.

Celestia squinted at him mistrustfully.

“Does that mean that Luna visited your dreams as well? Specifically knowing that magical interaction with you is dangerous?”

“The first time I noticed “strange things” happening, when I slept, was when I accidentally reached her dreams,” Alex thought that it was only partially a lie, as he was unconscious when Luna tried to enter his dreams the first time: so, technically, all he said, was true. He noticed, as Luna tried to tell something, but reconsidered when he voiced his version of the events. “I was simply shocked, perhaps, I was the most shocked one… And, yes, she did. But that was different, your Highness, there was never any drain. I can’t explain: maybe it’s some different magic, or not magic at all, as everypony understand it,” for the first time Alex thought that Luna’s ability indeed resembled pegasi ability to fly, rather than some intended magic – it was inborn, special.

“What about us all being able to see the trick, you threw? That’s not how Luna’s dreams manipulation works…” Celestia wasn’t easily convinced. 

“I can’t answer your question now, princess,” Alex downcasted. “I don’t know that myself. I’m a different story; I guess, it matters… And when I enter her actual dreams, Luna…”

Celestia raised one eyebrow.

“…princess Luna sees it differently. Well… It’s too complicated for my human mind to grasp yet, let alone to explain it. I need to sort everything out myself.”

“Besides, ‘t was my idea – to try taking down the Seeker,” he repeated meaningfully.

Celestia closed her eyes, thinking. Fortunately, Alex wasn’t alone this time, confronting her suspicions, he regretted only one thing – he couldn’t lean on Luna’s warm shoulder, Alex still felt fairly exhausted after the fight. A few minutes passed, it seemed an eternity to them, when finally the princess came to a conclusion.

“Very well, Alex. While the most natural and perhaps reasonable reaction on your today’s shenanigans would be putting you to the dungeon… which we didn’t do for a very long period of time, to be honest,” Celestia spoke strictly, but her eyes were laughing. Luna came closer to Alex and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, Celestia smirked. “But the recent circumstances showed at least that you had no malicious intent and despite glaring impudence and outstanding impulsiveness of your act, I withdraw the punishment with the light heart… mostly.”

“I will stick to the Royal Word given,” she added, cocking her head and making her illustrious mane flow. “You are returning to Ponyville as suggested. Perhaps the supervision will be a bit more attentive and strict,” the princess made a mischievous face. “Twilight, my dear girl, you are unusually silent today, please, unfreeze and listen to me,” she turned to her apprentice.

“Ahh… Ummm… I’m sorry princess,” Twilight looked a bit stunned still. “What did you want me to do?”

“I’m sure Alex won’t object if you kindly observe his well-being from time to time and inform us as well.”

Using the moment that Celestia and Twilight were talking, Luna nuzzled his cheek and Alex squeezed her fore leg slightly.

“Dost thou know, roses aren’t mine favourite flowers?” Luna whispered teasingly into his ear. “But I appreciate the move nevertheless…”

“Oh, mine regret is endless, mine princess,” Alex facepalmed inwardly at his mistake, but he couldn’t predict it really; he kept the same tone like her. “Let me correct myself, at which hour thou tellest me which are…”

“That’ll be quite a task to bring them hither,” she breathed out, remembering where they actually grew. “The Star Lilies grow in the pond of the Old Castle garden,” she tried her best not to grab him and kiss, as two witnesses were nearby. 

“Yeah, that would be a problem,” remembered Alex with a sigh. “Considering the rope bridge is now busted… not that I was ever happy to even see it, in the earnest.”

Celestia threw a glance at them at the moment.

“Now, Twilight, please, check, if the balloon is ready to take you two to Ponyville.”

“One moment longer, Alex,” Celestia turned to him again and waved her hoof. “For a word, please.”

Alex approached the princess and Celestia leaned to his ear, making her speech private.

“First of all, I would like to warn you, Alex the human (he cringed slightly), that while I value the safety and prosperity of my subjects most of all, there is one thing I value even more – the well-being of my sister. Seeing that she is taking part in your destiny scripting and generally finds some interest in your persona, I still hope that you avoid harmful deeds and detrimental decisions towards Luna. While you are near her, you are responsible for her safety at least from your own acts! And if you fail to comply, or, moreover, hurt her intentionally, I’ll ensure that your trip to the Moon is – she made an intended pause – lightning-like. If I am to travel there as well, I won’t deprive myself of an additional pleasure of kicking your… backside, before I return. I extend my expectations of being completely understandable to you! So, is it clear enough?”

“Celestially!” muttered Alex. The princess chuckled, then continued even quieter, almost touching his ear.

“And one more thing… I have no real evidence, we both know that… But if you sneak into my room once again… without permission… I suppose I can find a suitable dungeon for you, my dear, as long as the Moon is not an option,” Celestia sported a kind smile.

Alex kept the silent poker face. 

After a moment he remembered something and raised his eyes at Celestia.

“Can I place a personal request, Your Highness?” he asked quietly. Seeing that Celestia shortly nodded, Alex continued. “About the Seeker’s victim, you’ve told me. I suppose you plan to bring him to Canterlot to be able to examine better and try to help his condition.”

“That was the plan exactly,” Celestia confirmed cautiously. “He will be transferred to the same facility, you were lately at.”

“I guess…” cringed Alex slightly. “Can I have a word… well, at least have a close look at him, when he is here? With all the necessary precautions, of course. I mean he could hardly get any worse, but I hope to find out something, which can help us against the Seekers.”

“I think, I can allow that,” answered Celestia after the second thought. “Won’t hurt I suppose. But you can hardly get something from him – he is completely inert, as I said earlier.”

“Still I would like to try. Thank you, princess,” bowed Alex. He then turned to Twilight. “Let’s go to that flying menace, your balloon… before I reconsidered and decided to go to Ponyville on foot.”

*

The whole trip back to Ponyville on the balloon went in complete silence. Upon boarding Alex noticed the abruptly cut rope at once, a new one was tied next to the stub, but didn’t say anything, keeping his conclusions to himself. He didn’t shake much this time, rightfully deciding to accept the inevitable, and simply sat on the bottom of the basket, trying to fixate on the flight not.

Twilight was occupied with her thoughts, occasionally throwing a glance at him with a non-confident smile, but it suited Alex’s condition – he was thinking about his further life in Ponyville. Something told him, it might drag on for quite a while. Then he remembered about Fluttershy and a smile lightened his face.

Naturally, nopony was meeting them at the balloon pad at the outskirts of the town. The absolute majority of commoners knew nothing about him and Twilight was to inform Mayor Mare that everypony should be notified about the prohibition of magical impact on the human. Nopony seemed to give much attention yet to the newcomer.

But when the balloon landed and Alex exited the basket after Twilight, a yellow and pink blaze dashed to them and jumped in his hands. Alex promptly opened them to catch the body, which made him even stagger in surprise. In a second Alex found himself tightly wrapped by all four legs of a warm pegasus girl and surrounded by the cloud of flower-honey fragrant hair. He held her tight; with a small sigh, Fluttershy’s lips found his own joining them in the mutually enthusiastic kiss.

Twilight coughed, blushing and looking away; she took the liberty of notifying her friend about their arrival, but the result exceeded her wildest expectations.