//------------------------------//
// 14. The Gala 
// Story: The Guardian 
// by Alexshy 
//------------------------------//

“Have you heard about the ghost, appearing in the southern fields?!”

Fluttershy perked her ears, turning back from the vendor and looking for the pony, she accidentally caught that from. She spotted a couple of mares, talking at the nearby grocery stall, and what she heard made her concerned at once.

‘Oh noes, are the Seekers already lurking at Ponyville doorsteps? And… Oh, Celestia!’ Fluttershy almost crouched. ‘Southern fields, it’s near the Clock Tower and… and my cottage.’ Her pupils became pinprick at the mental image of all the possible dangers to her animals. Meanwhile, the mares continued in half-tone.

“Have you heard about the ghost of the southern fields?”

“Oh, dear! Are there ghosts already now? Don’t you think, this and the recent announcement are connected somehow?”

“Hardly. The announcement was about some anomaly and horse-like creatures…”

“But you said “ghost”?”

“Did I say “pony ghost”, mate? No. They say, it’s tall and has two legs, it was spotted several times near the Clock Tower and the edge of Everfree, where the fields end. As described it resembles much that… human, you can see in the town sometimes. You know, the one working at the railway station and making electric stuff. But the last time I saw him, he was pretty much alive; besides, he possesses no magic…”

Fluttershy relief was so strong, almost palpable, she barely stifled a laugher. It must be Alex, Alex and his nightly walks. Sleepwalking or not, he wasn’t a Seeker and wouldn’t harm anypony. She raised an eyebrow though, the reasons, making Alex supposedly appear each night at the south-eastern outskirts of the town, were a mystery to her. Well, to tell the truth, she had one suspicion, but wasn’t sure, if that, making her flush and smile, reason was the true one. 

‘Well, ladies… Unable to cast spells and possesses no magic are different things, I suppose,’ she perked her ears again, but the mares chattered about something irrelevant already; apparently, one managed to convince another, there was no real ghost or something along those lines.

‘I can safely visit Twilight and find out how matters stand now,’ Fluttershy threw a quick glance at the Clock Tower, it was late morning and wherever Alex was, he definitely never stood at home at that time. “At home”… That sounded strange and Fluttershy thought that “at home” should have referred to the totally different place; that idea came so natural, it didn’t even embarrass her a iota.

Throughout the last few days they met several times with him, here and there, at the market, at the Apple farm, where Alex was still working on his devices, in the street. Each time Alex was nice, helpful, but simply friendly, like for example Big Mac could be… easily more talkative, of course, but still distant enough, not like the special somepony was supposed to be. Once Fluttershy even stifled an impulse to grab him and shake, kiss him and wake from his “winter sleep”, because he smiled, talked lightly, but never touched their mutual problems; Alex never tried to shorten that distance, they artificially made between them the last weekend. At the same time Fluttershy was completely sure, she didn’t deceive herself, seeing a faint shadow of sad pain deep into his eyes.

Occupied by those thoughts, imperceptibly Fluttershy reached the Library through the north edge of woken up and busy town, trotting almost automatically and absently replying to the greetings of ponyvillers. She emerged fully right near the Golden Oak, where her accidental glance across the field stumbled upon the distant trail of smoke, telling unambiguously that the old smithy started working again after a few years of inactivity. Fluttershy shivered and hurried to knock the Library door.

“Just a minute please!” the door opened and revealed Twilight with a feather on her nose, levitating a book and a feather-duster. “Oh, come in, Flutters. Sorry, I’m almost done!”

Apparently Twilight was performing some cleanup and rearrangement in the main hall, as a few stacks of books were still laying on the tables and floor and Spike balanced with another quite tall one; he peeked from behind of it, unable to greet Fluttershy properly, risking to drop those books, and muffledly muttered something.

“Morning! I didn’t mean to interrupt… ummm,” Fluttershy pointed with her fore hoof. “Twi, you have…”

Twilight squinted at her nose, huffed, blowing the feather off and sending it somewhere with a sparkle of her magic. “Yeah, that’s it…”

“Come one, dear, we’re almost done, no disturbance at all!” with a bright smile Twilight picked up the books from Spike’s paws and levitated them, putting at the desired places on endless shelves along the walls. Spike took his breath with visible relief and finally was able to wave to Fluttershy. “Good morning!”

“Those are from the lower shelves,” he selflessly pointed at the remaining stacks. “I’ll arrange them, Twilight…”

“Thanks, Spike!” Twilight nuzzled her small dragon aide, causing him to blush a little and wave his paw, like saying “You wanted to talk anyway, girls…”

“So, it’s been a while since breakfast,” Twilight turned to Fluttershy, while Spike started arranging the books, remembering where they were. “Do you want some tea or maybe coffee?”

“No, no, thanks, Twi,” Fluttershy scratched her nose confusedly, thinking how to say that, then finally decided. “I came to ask about Alex… and… how he settled here. Squee!”

“I understood,” Twilight let out a small smile, hugging her friend with the wing. “Well, he is quite undemanding, so… I suppose, what he has, suits him entirely.”

“I mean, now he has an advantage, knowing how I’m doing,” quickly explained Fluttershy, blushing for some reason. “As he seems to appear near my house on the nightly basis. But I know nothing about his wellbeing…”

“That’s the main reason he asked for the room on the ground floor, I guess,” Twilight headed to the door left from the front one. “Thus he doesn’t disturb anypony, simply walking out of the window, when necessary… nights included, I suppose. Actually, he doesn’t use the front door mostly,” added Twilight with a smile. “Keeping the window always open.” At that moment exactly Fluttershy noticed the fresh draught, she kept feeling for a while.

“Obviously, he will need to stop that practice and close it in the late autumn and winter, if necessary,” Twilight shrugged and Fluttershy’s heart made a leap.

“What?” Twilight noticed her frozen on spot friend. “Oh… Well, dear, I’m a realist… Princess Celestia works hard on his problem, devoting all the time possible, but I see that she isn’t approaching the solution yet.”

“Considering everything, I’m afraid that it may be impossible indeed to return him,” added Twilight after a pause. “I’m not telling him about my conclusions yet, of course…” Fluttershy let out a sigh, making her friend throw a quick interested glance at her.

“Anyway,” Twilight wiggled her wings, like shaking off the uneasiness. “He doesn’t make a secret of his work, Alex even showed me everything… I didn’t quite understand a few details yet,” Twilight blushed at the thought that she didn’t catch something up on the first try. “But technically I didn’t notice anything dangerous in his projects… And… I assume, he won’t mind, if we take a look,” she opened the door, welcoming Fluttershy to follow with a nod. 

Obviously, that smaller room was full of bookshelves as well, leaving uncovered only the window, now opened, and the area around the fireplace. The small couch was moved to the wall and its place in the center of the room was now taken by the large sofa, a few ponies could easily sit on it with comfort.

“The old one was too short for him,” Twilight followed Fluttershy’s glance. “Alex barely stretched in the morning, saying that he even fell from it once and regretting he didn’t stay on the floor after that.” She shrugged apologetically, seeing Fluttershy’s drooping ears. “Then he bought this one, they brought it the next evening with Big Mac and had some hard time taking it in… Alex suggested to drag it through the window, then they finally managed to squeeze it through the door.”

The fresh breeze curled and waved the curtains and rustled with the papers on the small table in front of the sofa. It was obvious from the first sight that Alex spent almost all his time here behind it. The sheets, covered with drafts, notes, some calculations, were held in place with an empty teacup and a few shapeless stones. Girls approached and Twilight picked up a pencil, blown to the floor, she returned it on the table with a smile.

“Funny, he is like a small foal, when it comes to the quills,” Twilight pointed at the papers with pencil writings. “Can’t use them normally yet, thankfully we have plenty of pencils instead.”

“And what’s that?” Fluttershy picked up one of a few sheets, which looked differently – the drafts and letters on them were thinner, yet darker, sharper and more pronounced, than the pencil lines.

“Don’t even ask, how he makes them. I have no idea,” Twilight shook her head slowly. “The lines look burned out on the paper, so I may only guess… I suppose, that’s connected to his sleepwalking somehow.”

“Did he tell you everything, Twi?” Fluttershy looked directly into her friend’s eyes. “About the reasons making him leave and…”

Twilight nodded shortly.

“He told about you wanting to decide, what is better for him,” Fluttershy’s ears flattened and Twilight continued. “About himself unable to accept that, about everything going too far between you and him, so, his possible departure could hurt you both badly.”

“Celestia! You can’t imagine what it cost me not to say that his departure became more and more ghostly with each day,” breathed out Twilight. “But Alex didn’t look like somepony, who solved his problem, on the contrary, he looked rather regretful and lost, so, I preferred to keep that idea to myself… Who knows, maybe I’m wrong… Sorry, Flutters!” added she, noticing Fluttershy’s expression. “He told me that you know everything about his newly gained abilities, and…”

“… about the princess,” Fluttershy finished for her quietly.

“And about princess Luna,” Twilight touched her shoulder lightly. “Fluttershy, I…”

“I’m okay, Twi. So, what do you think?”

“I said that I wasn’t the one who should give any advice here. You both are completely informed now, both are adults, nopony can solve that problem, except you. Remember, how I didn’t intrude into your and Rarity’s misunderstanding, when…”

“I know, I know,” squinted Fluttershy. “Please, go on.”

“Well, you both solved all the issues between you finally,” shrugged Twilight. “Thinking of it now, I suppose, I could do more harm, if I intervened with some advice. In this case I told Alex only that, considering everything he told and I saw myself, maybe it wasn’t necessary to “solve” the problem THAT way…”

“And?” Fluttershy examined the table and papers on it with exaggerated attention.

“And Alex said that I was most likely right,” sighed Twilight. “But any other way would be even more painful at the end of the day… and if he could return to the beginning, that would probably change nothing. I remembered about the time spells, how they tend to turn out and… Maybe he is right, Flutters? I know that hardly helps,” Twilight’s guilty look made Fluttershy lean to her with a kind smile.

“Never mind, Twi. Perhaps we both need to cool down indeed. Although, I have no idea how Alex sees that possible; I personally can’t approach the situation with a cold head still,” she sank down on the sofa tiredly; Twilight nested next to her.

“Actually, all the girls know, what happened,” Twilight’s ears drooped. “They don’t know all the details, of course, but it’s natural that they noticed the change during these few days.” Fluttershy slowly nodded and Twilight elaborated further. “I’ve no idea, if they told you anything…”

“Applejack and Pinkie visited me,” something made Fluttershy smile. “Rainbow is busy training all days long lately, and Rarity… Rarity, I suppose, is simply unsure how to react, being my closest friend.”

“One part of her perhaps thinks, this is entirely wrong,” added she with a shudder-like wing wiggle. “Yet another part doesn’t want to lose the sudden opportunity, making her miserable as the whole and hesitating to voice her concerns.”

“I can guess,” Twilight’s sigh was full of sympathy towards both of her friends, she didn’t know what to do and the books contained no exact advice for that case; the best probably would be to keep neutrality, which she tried her best at. “I saw her yesterday, Flutters: she was busy with that royal tapestry and talked a bit absently…”

“Oh, I have completely forgotten… that she asked to try to restore it. Did she succeed?”

“At the very least the work was boiling hot yesterday and it seemed, she was approaching her goal,” Twilight kept silence for a second. “But at the same time, as I said, she was a bit absent, maybe pensive. Like if she was pondering about something, mate. Anyway, she didn’t tell a word about Alex,” the alicorn girl said with a puzzled expression.

“Applejack preferred to stay neutral,” Fluttershy shrugged. “She was genuinely stunned by this news, but hoped we are smart enough to solve anything; she asked not to make hasty decisions. If anypony really surprised me, that was Pinkie. She tried to convince me, we were wrong both in words and acts, for perhaps a whole hour and said, she was going to give Alex a good kick, to call for his common sense. I’d say she was very determined of the latter. Squee!.. D-did she come here already?”

“Oh, Pinkie seems to seriously consider you and Alex a couple since he returned to Ponyville… if not since she saw you both for the first time,” Twilight laughed sincerely, wrapping her wing around Fluttershy’s shoulders. “I think, maybe she is not mistaking that much…” Fluttershy let out a sad sigh.

“Sorry…” Twilight leaned to her friend. “But you come together, it’s obvious… Yes, she was here… and pressed Alex for quite a while. She didn’t look convinced by the simple explanations that you both needed to think calmly about the future, and I’m sure, she will try to “put him on the right track” again. So, that’s how the things are, Flutters.”

For a few moments only the sounds from the street, coming through the open window, and another heavy sigh, dropped by Fluttershy, broke the silence.

“Hey, what are those for?” Fluttershy picked up one of the stones and turned it in her hooves, examining; the piece of rock looked porous, with shiny blotches in it.

“So, Twi, I finished with the books!” the girls were interrupted by Spike, appearing in the doorway and leaning on the frame. “Do you need anything? Maybe some tea…”

“Thanks, Spike, maybe later,” Twilight waved her hoof, welcoming her aide to come closer instead. Then turned to Fluttershy. “About those stones… Alex and Spike dug out some cave on the road to Winsome Falls, you know in the foothills north-east from the town. They made two “sorties” already,” she nodded fast, seeing her friend’s widened eyes. “Yes, during the last few days… and brought tons of those stones.” Following Twilight’s glance Fluttershy noticed the long crate, accurately placed under the window.

“So, what are you looking there for?” Twilight turned to Spike, raising an eyebrow.

“He looks for some minerals,” emphasized the little dragon. “Which exactly, I have no idea. Whether or no, gems don’t interest Alex at all, except maybe diamonds. Not that I objected much,” he smirked; obviously, Spike’s gastronomic demands were more than satisfied by that collaboration, as he could take all the found gems to himself. “Many of them don’t look like some ore even, which is quite strange, considering his latest interests.”

Spike unambiguously poked towards the drafts of metal details and notes about smithing.

“As far as I could understand, Alex wants to affect the properties of metals and perhaps smithing conditions,” Twilight shrugged, examining one of the sheets, covered in calculations and formulae. “I didn’t check yet, what exactly he was going to do, was busy with my own work, but… I may take a look, if you want to know, Fluttershy. Although, he mentioned something and seeing all those,” she pointed at the table. “I think he is going to quit the railroad warehouse work and concentrate on his generators and some… metalwork. Technically I can see, why it is more advantageous, than his current job…”

“Seeing him really determined and serious about his work, I advised Alex to write a request into the patent bureau,” added Twilight. “I assume his generators may be deemed an invention, let alone an improvement.”

“He must be quite busy lately,” muttered Fluttershy, sorting the notes mechanically. “Does he even sleep, Twi?”

“To tell the truth,” Twilight flushed a little. “I hardly see Alex more often, than when he lived with you. He gets up early, leaves to the station, goes to the smithy after or returns here and sits with his blueprints and notes till late night. He cooks for himself and leaves meals for everypony often, mostly breakfast,” she shrugged with a confused look; that was one of the rare cases Twilight was uninformed about something and couldn’t do anything about that. “I swear, we communicated more, when they were preparing those “geological trips” with Spike.”

Spike nodded shortly, examining the stone sample in his paws; he couldn’t see the reason somepony to be interested in that dull rock. Then left, saying that if girls didn’t need anything, he was going to address the dinner.

“Alex is going to build one of those generators for me next, then probably will be in the sight more…” said Twilight. “For now I know that he works late at night quite often, so I have no idea, how much he sleeps… and how he sleeps exactly,” added she quietly. 

Fluttershy, on the contrary, was entirely sure that Alex visited her neighbourhood nightly; she probably knew why and that made her heart flutter, despite their break – the Seekers felt his presence and avoided him, Alex simply tried to keep her safe that way. But if he did that in the regular way or during his… “sleepwalking”, that meant Alex was quite active almost twenty-four hours a day. Fluttershy’s ears drooped involuntarily.

“Did you hear those stories about the “ghostly creature”, Twi?”

“Yes, mate, of course, each day at the market… since Alex settled here,” Twilight produced a wry smile. “I suppose that you understand, what they mean actually. He is walking around the town at nights, mostly in your area,” snorted Twilight. “Because of his work or not… I never caught him sleepwalking actually, but on the other hoof, I sleep tight after daily duties…”

Twilight noticed that Fluttershy was hardly following her reasoning and raised the eyes at her friend – Fluttershy looked fixedly at something in the corner of the room, her eyes dilated.

“Oh, this…” following Fluttershy’s glance Twilight said in a strange tone. “It seems Alex wasn’t joking, talking about the armour. He stayed at the smithy overnight and then brought that. I believe it’s a prototype still…”

Fluttershy’s attention was captured by the human-size metal chest plate with stiffeners and clasps to mount, dark grey, shining wanly and evidently quite heavy, laying on the piece of cloth in front of the corner bookcase. The pegasus girl quietly gasped, noticing fresh burn marks, notches and quite a big area of crumpled and half-melted metal at the side of the armour plate.

“Don’t worry, Flutters!” Twilight caught her glance. “Those appeared yesterday, apparently they were testing it and… the results are yet far from ideal, as Alex said. He sat with his calculations till after the midnight.”

Fluttershy’s eyes were still chained to the damaged armour, she felt as her decision, to leave Alex with his shenanigans alone, is fading with the speed of light. 

*

Alex leaned over his notes, checking his calculations and the results again and again: apparently, there was no mistake and they have reached the limit of durability indeed; at least with the existing technology and materials. He could change the metal of the blank slightly, with a tiny increase of the qualities of the final product… but that was it. Not a big difference, nothing that could provide a significant safety boost against known hazards. He was to admit that making armour barely holding against the most common strong impacts looked hardly reasonable; besides, he was going to deal the potential enemy of greater power, than those ponies of Equestria typically confronted.

Of course, if whole earth scientific and industrial potential was at Alex’s service, he would never be in such a trouble; Alex would simply order a certain product with certain qualities… and the materials, technology and other aspects would be someone else’s problem, not his. But frankly speaking, on Earth Alex never came across anything, which made him prepare himself that way.

Here though the metallurgy didn’t have all those advantageous alloys, instruments and techniques yet. Surprisingly Alex admitted that it didn’t affect the everyday life of commoners in some detrimental way – ponies got used to relying on magic and quite succeeded in that. Earth ponies could always be sure, their problem, if revealed, would soon be solved with the help of their pegasi and unicorn neighbours, who can fully trust earth ponies wit, agility and diligence in return.

One might ask, of course, why Alex didn’t follow the well known and natural for Equestria way then… In that situation he could fully trust Twilight and even both other princesses to help. But… First of all, Alex was unsure about possible consequences, if he was provided magical help. He knew that only active magical impact, directed at him personally, provided unpredictable and often very dangerous results; nearby magic, if not touching him directly, passed unnoticed by his “defensive mechanisms”. But he didn’t want to rely on that solely, partially because he had no idea what effects the mixed magic interactions around him could bring and partially because it was clearly visible – his own abilities were still evolving; thus the simpler his defense would be (without effectiveness decrease, of course), the better.

And the second thing, but probably the most important one – Alex wanted to make that armour himself. With the help and knowledge of an experienced blacksmith – yes, but preferably without some powers that be, doing every significant part of work for him.

Exactly because of that Alex was to remember and meticulously collect all the shards of knowledge on metallurgy, chemistry, forging, he had remaining since his student years and historical reconstruction experience. He praised the masters numerous times for insisting on them all making armour and weapons themselves for their training, cramming the theory in the young hay-heads, not only fighting, but the supplementary aspects as well.

Alex squeezed his temples and tried to concentrate on his problem again, remembering the alloying additives and their effects, conditions of forging, necessary temperatures.

‘It seemeth, quite a grim painting is coming out,’ with a sigh Alex considered the forging methods he needed to use to reach the desired effect. ‘I shall reconstruct the whole smithy for that… No, that’s a bad idea. Methinks it’s smarter to build a new forge… arrant different…’ he started quickly drafting new form on the spare sheet of paper.

“What did you say, Lyra? I’m sorry I got carried away a bit…”

“I noticed,” muttered the minty unicorn with fake grumpiness in her voice. “Are you sure, Alex, you can do both things at the same time?”

“Yeah, I’m totally fine… if you don’t mind the pauses,” smirked Alex.

Despite his polite reply, the task actually became twice more complicated, as Alex was to concentrate on both. Alas, he could hardly find any other time to let Lyra ask her questions, yet not going to disappoint her, as Alex promised to arrange that meeting before the weekend.

It looked like there was no end to Lyra’s questions and comments; Alex wondered, if she, reading all the possible sources about those “mythic beings”, was going to verify every fact herself, having an alive human in her hooves. At least every fact, she had any doubts about. Lyra asked about human culture, including music, literature, art; traditions, Alex was to debunk some weirdest speculations with laugher; science and simple everyday life, the latter interested her hardly less than some more exotic problems.

Obviously he wasn’t an absolute authority in all the named fields, nopony can know everything; nevertheless, Alex tried to fulfill Lyra’s interest as accurate as he could, simply saying that he had no reliable information in several cases. At the same time he was working on his project, catching a few glances from her. After cultural and scientific review, which; confirmed quite a number of similarities between ponies and people (Alex wasn’t surprised much, to tell the truth), his minty interviewer decided to touch the topic of human evolution as the whole.

“I still can’t believe, despite I read that from a quite reliable source,” Lyra scratched the back of her head. “That humans… people evolved from the apes.”

“Do you have apes in Equestria?” the question amused Alex greatly. “I’m asking, because I haven’t seen any yet. On the other hand, I’m hardly a diligent tourist, so that’s excusable.” 

“Of course, we do, in the forested areas at the south-eastern part of Equestria mostly and… in Canterlot zoo, I assume,” Lyra looked puzzled still. “You probably know, they are quite messy and cheeky and impudent… can be totally unbearable… I mean, I admit that quite a lot of time must have passed to achieve that…” Lyra kept silence for a while. “But I still can’t believe humans… people, sorry, came from those…” she wrinkled her nose.

“Yet we did,” Alex laughed. “Us having culture, science, etcetera, generally behaving more decently; although, it’s not always the case,” added Alex with a grin. “doesn’t mean that our ancestors never hung from the trees. It took quite some time indeed. That is why I consider you, ponies, as much more fascinating… species.”

“Why so?!” Lyra stared at Alex, when she realized, he wasn’t joking.

“Supposedly, your ancestors didn’t have the social and political institutions, science and other advantages all the time since the beginning, gaining all those in the process of evolution as well. But you haven’t changed much physically, as I can assume. Your ancestors could have magic, but started using it consciously and in more sophisticated ways in the process of evolving only,” Alex took a breath.

“You developed mentally, gained advantages, but stayed the same in general…” Alex smirked at his thought. “That could mean that Nature considered you as nearly perfect as you were already.”

“Are you teasing me?” Lyra pouted jokingly.

“Not at all!” Alex started elaborating. “Look, apes needed to pick up sticks to help them with their needs, walked straight to free their “hands”, collaborated consciously and developed speech, invented writing, thought out laws and started inventing different tools and devices to make their life easier. All that, while constantly changing, which actually brought them from being “messy animals” to what you see in front of you, Lyra.”

“Well, ponies, supposedly did the same…”

“Exactly. Yet they had magic, well, some of them… And at the same time they didn’t change much physically. I find that overly interesting at the very least.”

“Maybe…” slowly said Lyra. “By the way, isn’t what you are doing now exactly inventing?”

“That’s an interesting question,” nodded Alex. “Well, technically I’m not inventing anything new in the universal sense.”

Seeing Lyra’s confused glance, Alex explained.

“Actually, you, I mean ponies, have the generators, metalwork, etcetera already, but the usage of those isn’t completely systematic. I suppose that’s because of magic. So, I’m simply filling the “gaps” in development,” smirked Alex. “Making various instruments, you simply didn’t think of some details, despite, them being able to simplify your life in various aspects galore. People don’t have magic, thus electricity mostly works for it – we need to take all those aspects into account to progress.”

“I didn’t see that your lack of magic made your work at the railroad station less effective,” smirked Lyra, making Alex wonder, how close she was actually studying her favourite object.

“Oh, come on,” huffed Alex. “That doesn’t mean they know nothing about operating things. They simply pay less attention to small details, because things like magic are constantly at their service.”

“That’s the biggest weakness of your great advantage!” Alex glanced slyly at the minty unicorn girl. “But if you combine magic with… errmmm… “magic-less approach”, your progress will be unstoppable.”

“Know what,” Alex turned the paper sheet and continued his notes and schematic on another side. “I think the most amazing thing done is the union of three tribes, Lyra. Ponies combined their advantages and started compensating their flaws together. Since then every foal has much more open roads almost after birth…”

“I on the contrary, despite being treated often like some mythic creature, feel myself… out of my element,” Alex chuckled at own accidental pun. “Everypony is easily superior to me on their positions, simply because the jobs you have, they mostly can do better; what I can do the best way, is practically undemanded here. Thus I need to look for any opportunity, I need to do something for my living. Covering, what you all missed, isn’t that bad and evidently pays back.”

“Hmmm… I think you shouldn’t be so harsh to yourself, Alex,” Lyra stopped writing and looked up at him very seriously. “I mean, all that humans do, they reach with their brains and hands only, even to be able to use electricity, you put quite an effort in; having no magic indeed and effectively overcoming it is hardly a weakness to me… You wouldn’t call the earth ponies weak at the end of the day,” added she slyly.

“Exactly,” said Alex with emphasis. “Look, Lyra, you are making your notes using your magic, right? But you do it like that, because you got used to it, it’s simply more comfortable. But Fluttershy…” Alex sighed, then continued. “Pinkie, Applejack can do the same, despite they have no unicorn magic. That didn’t make them less capable. Now look at me,” Alex raised his hands. “Tie my fingers together and I’ll become more helpless than a newborn foal. Merlin’s pants, I can’t learn to use a quill normally,” laughed Alex. “Why do you think I use those pencils? That is why I feel useless, when I do nothing here. I simply need to do something myself, with my own hands. I’m still in debt, of course, but I’m going to do my best to return it fully…”

“Speaking of hands…” Lyra even raised a little. “Can I have a closer look?”

“Sure thing, I’m not making a commercial secret of them,” chuckled Alex and Lyra left her notes and sat next to him.

“Fascinating!” exclaimed she after examining, touching and flexing his palms and fingers. “Don’t even tell… such a complex instrument, I won’t believe there are only a few things it can do better, than hooves or even magic. I stick to my point!”

Her delight and the whole image of the unicorn girl, looking at his hands with awe, were so cute that Alex involuntarily stroked her mane with a smile, ran his hand on her neck, then started scratching behind her fluffy perked ear. It wasn’t hard for him, yet Lyra melting at his touch and almost murmuring something like a minty kitten was so amusing. Alex ran his fingers through her mane and scratched behind Lyra’s ears for a while longer, causing her to lean on his arm; when she opened her eyes, they looked a bit crossed, her glance floated.

“Mmmm…” Lyra rubbed her cheek on Alex’s arm. “You can’t talk me round, this solely is enough an advantage!” She gathered her thoughts. 

“Besides, humans seem to be quite strong,” added she, touching his arm again and examining with her hooves.

Alex shrugged.

“Never thought about that specifically. If you ask me, I would never imagine in my turn that hooves can touch so gently…” Alex stumbled suddenly, he fancied the aroma of honey and field flowers.

“Don’t you say! I think, nothing special,” shrugged Lyra, still leaning on Alex’s arm. Suddenly she flushed a little; Alex noticed nothing, as he continued his work, leaving his left hand in her hooves.

“Errmmm…” Lyra was evidently unsure about her next question, making Alex surprisingly raise his eyes. “Can I… ask you… one personal… eh… i-if you don’t mind, of course. I simply need to confirm or refute a rumour,” she added quickly and embarrassedly.

The tip of her nose became visibly pinkish and Alex closed his eyes tiredly; by Lyra’s embarrassed look he guessed, what she was going to ask the next moment most likely.

‘Merlin’s pants, why… Why again?’

“Okay, go on, Lyra,” he rolled his eyes inwardly. ‘It’s better to end with this here and now, than return to it again later.’

“I’ve read…” Lyra’s voice went down to unconfident whisper, her cheeks started flaming; she inhaled fitfully and made another daring attempt more loudly. “I’ve read somewhere that humans… errmmm… human stallions,” Lyra stumbled and the flush reached her mane already. “… males can… well… compared to an average stallion, I mean,” now her ears were flaming. “last about fifteen times longer, well, you know… with the mare…” she brought her fore hooves together in an unequivocal gesture and her voice dropped again, so, she barely squeezed. “I mean… Squee!.. eh…” Lyra gasped and fell silent, yet looked relieved of that uneasy question, she somehow felt absolutely necessary to ask.

“Oh… you mean… while making love, right?” sighed Alex, but he wasn’t going to make Lyra’s life easier at that moment – it was her curiosity, so the embarrassment must be hers either. “So, a typical stallion, if I remember biology, can last one-two minutes, right?”

Lyra shortly nodded, red as the finest Applejack’s tomato, hiding her eyes.

“Well, the “rumour” is correct then,” mercilessly chuckled Alex. “As for an average man fifteen minutes is the minimum, if he wants his girlfriend to be satisfied.” 

Lyra squeaked quietly, while Alex elaborated.

“Personally, I don’t think that half of an hour is a big problem, if your partner needs that to enjoy it. Sometimes, even less is enough, but generally, as long as both like it, the more the better,” he barely stifled a smile, watching how Lyra’s flaming ears, perked involuntarily. “Including the foreplay, obviously,” he nailed the proverbial coffin.

“Eek!..” a quiet half-gasp, half-sigh interrupted their constructive discussion, making both Alex and Lyra turn to the door. Lyra jumped on her hooves and quickly returned to her place, checking her notes with exaggerated attention.

Rarity knocked the door frame markedly, apologizing for the interruption, but her dilated eyes and pinkish nose told Alex that she didn’t just come, on the contrary, she most likely stood at the entrance for a few moments before and definitely heard the last question and answer.

Alex facepalmed, quickly making it look like he was rubbing his temples tiredly. The last thing he needed, was Rarity hearing all that from himself, let alone that information sticking in her mind, encouraging her for more endeavours.

“Good afternoon, Lyra!” waved Rarity with exaggerated enthusiasm. “Ahlex, darling…”

“Howdy!” Alex sported a diplomatic smile, while Lyra nodded with an absently-innocent look on her pinkish muzzle.

“Oh, it’s so nice I found you here!” Rarity trotted in and rubbed her soft shoulder against Alex’s, giving him a loving glance and bright smile. “I thought, I absolutely needed to visit you today. I finally finished with the restoration!” exclaimed she and carefully placed, what she was levitating, in the middle of the table.

Embarrassment on Lyra’s muzzle changed by the expression, as if she suddenly came across a hornets’ nest, and she visibly tried to slide back with her armchair.

“So, according to princess’ Luna will, I return it to you, darling!” there was a faint tint of disappointment in Rarity’s voice, diluted in the vast amount of well deserved, to be honest, pride for her masterful work. She evidently ignored the mere fact that anything Luna and Old Castle related caused uneasiness in Lyra – the carefully folded cloth on the table was the royal tapestry, Rarity solicited to try to reconstruct in its full glory.

“Oh… How did you… It even looks newer, Rarity!” Alex stared at the tapestry, finding no words, touching it gently with the tips of his fingers. His eyes seemed to look through the royal banner though, as he thought at that moment about something unspeakably more gentle and silky than that – Luna’s shoulders, neck and mane, the main colour of the tapestry reminded him of. Alex blinked and returned to the reality. “It looks truly amazing!” He got up and unfolded the tapestry, raising it by the edge. “Mine most sincere gratitude, Rarity!”

The fashionista cocked her nose higher, her smile became wider; even Lyra, despite her cautiousness towards the artefact, couldn’t deny its beauty and the quality of Rarity’s work, watching with a slightly opened mouth.

“Thank you… I… have no words!” Alex carefully folded the tapestry again as a great treasure, then suddenly leaned and kissed Rarity right onto the proudly raised nose. She squeaked, flushing and batting her eyelashes fast, her eyes became dreamy at once, but at the same time she noticeably made some inward decision finally.

“Ahhlex, dear,” Rarity looked slightly unconfident, for the first time in quite a while. “Actually I looked for you, because of one more thing…” She lingered, like looking for words. “I thought… Could you… Umm… I’d like to ask you… if you could… keep me the company at the Gala?” She looked up to him with starry and at the same time pleading eyes.

For a fraction of second Alex froze on spot, but he couldn’t deny, Rarity did very much for him, including that restored tapestry. Besides, he didn’t want to offend her with refusing.

‘Okay!’ he sighed inwardly. ‘There will be a whole herd of ponies at the Gala, she can hardly undertake anything. Besides, I could really have some entertainment for the change… and Rarity is exactly the company to do it the most classy way.’

“I will,” he said simply, smiling sincerely and looking into Rarity’s eyes.

“Awwww!!!” Rarity grabbed and squeezed him slightly above the waist with her fore legs, then quickly regained more reserved posture, putting the lady look back. “Ahem… I mean, thank you, darling!”

‘Now there is no need to invent some way to get to the Gala to bring our plan to life,’ came into Alex’s mind. ‘If Tia wants it or not, I’m dancing with Luna!’ He smirked, anticipating the event wholeheartedly, despite the certain risk of Rarity trying to catch him off guard again.

‘Poor Spike!’ sighed Alex. ‘But I could hardly do anything to suit both parties. I promised to show no interest, but I won’t offend her on purpose. Besides, he is definitely going with Twilight anyway, having a chance to pay attentions to Rarity, if he wants.’

“Okay… Now I need to do something,” after getting the positive answer, Rarity suddenly became fidgety. “The Gala is nigh, I need to finish my preparations, darling!” she stroked Alex’s arm, looking at him affectionately, then turned to the door. “Have a nice day, mates!”

Alex and Lyra exchanged puzzled glances without conspiring, watching Rarity leaving with proudly cocked snoot; Alex shrugged.

*

“So, girls, he left Fluttershy,” in half voice Apple Bloom continued interrupted talk, leaning closer to her friends. “Asked Twilight for a room… and is living in the Library now. I mean, it will be easier for him, as I heard he is going to try his technical… mumbo-jumbo at Twilight’s place next…”

“That… stuff works quite nicely…” muttered Big Mac, heading outside for the rest of his work. They just had the dinner and, after clearing the table, the girls sat in a close circle for a talk. The big brother huffed, squinting at the sun, which passed the zenith, but still bathed the land below in heat, so the house was the only cooler place at the whole Apple farm. He was going to remove the cut dead trees from the far edge of the garden, quite the hard work, thus he left the girls at home, despite their attempts to offer some help. Truth be told, he had no illusions about their activity, realizing that the girls would spend their time discussing recent news, especially now, when they touched such a promising and curious matter. They came across it even before the dinner, when Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had enough of running about the garden and their usual noisy fun (a tradition of every Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting), they gathered around the table in the living room; little by little the talk reached what puzzled them much, as Big Mac could hear from the edge of his ear.

“Yeah, right…” Apple Bloom’s glance followed her brother and she added quieter. “But I still have no idea, why they broke actually… It’s so strange, I mean, they looked quite happy together and stuff…”

“He is working closely with that creepy blacksmith, as I heard,” continued she. “And Fluttershy was nervous about that and Alex possibly getting into some trouble or being hurt… So I heard,” she kept silence for a while. “I really have no idea how blacksmith work can be… well, of course, it is not selling flowers,” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “But still, it’s hardly more dangerous than any other hard work… I don’t understand, girls! I think there is more behind them breaking, than that only.”

“Maybe that’s because he may leave Equestria any time soon,” slowly and pensively said Sweetie Belle. “Alex doesn’t look like one, who can do that simply to hurt anypony…”

Scootaloo huffed.

“We’ll see, how it goes,” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Do you know the “hot news”? Rarity invited Alex to the Gala… And it seems he accepted her invitation. She was bustling around the house, busy with last moment preparations, when I left. She had two clothes cases with special Gala clothes supposedly, but she didn’t reveal, what was in them,” the filly nodded meaningfully after the girls’ surprised “Wow!!!”. “That’s given, she is treating the event and what she expects of it very seriously. But I don’t know for sure about Alex. So I’m totally going to return, before they leave and see everything with my own eyes, girls.”

“You won’t stay?” sadly muttered Apple Bloom. “I thought we could arrange a sleepover, girls… Granny Smith is going to bake her famous cakes this evening and…” she scratched the back of her head. “On the other hoof, I can understand your reasons, partner… You can see everything rightfully without making anypony suspicious.”

“This, and…” Sweetie Belle was unusually serious. “I’d like to be at Carousel Boutique, when they get back. I know, Alex will walk Rarity home and it may appear so, that my presence there is kinda more useful for him, than Rarity,” she raised one eyebrow and elaborated, keeping in mind the evening Alex came to Rarity for a haircut. “Been there, done that once, mates. So… leave me a slice or two of those cakes, please.”

“Rainbow Dash says that we must… beware of the human. She suspects, he isn’t that nice. Maybe she is right, girls?” Scootaloo voiced her concerns finally. “Look, one of us is already suffering, and because of him exactly, you can’t deny that!”

“Come on, Scoots,” smirked Apple Bloom. “Rainbow hardly ever talked to Alex to make any conclusions about him. I mean, sometimes it’s maybe good to be stubborn, but not when you have no real arguments… So, relax, partner.” She mimicked her older sister expression so well, that it caused an involuntary smile on everypony’s muzzle.

“Is Fluttershy being upset not an argument?..” muttered Scootaloo, not going to openly admit that her friends were actually right about Rainbow’s attitude towards the human.

“Oh, no, she actually exchanged one or two phrases with him,” Apple Bloom continued louder with a laugher and Scootaloo made a face. “When Rainbow was watering him mercilessly the whole morning.”

“Or was it a preventive measure,” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle kept giggling. “Afore he maketh something horrible?”

“Speaking of which,” Scootaloo stuck out her tongue. “Don’t you both think he sounds overly strange sometimes… overly similar to the certain princess. Maybe he is… older than he looks… and, you know… where he came from…”

Both fillies snorted.

“Scoots, if anypony knows there is no Nightmare Moon now, it is you. You met princess Luna personally and…”

“Wait,” interrupted Apple Bloom with a wide grin. “Why don’t you ask yourself, Scoots? Alex or the princess… I mean, princess Luna is your hero anyway.”

“Girls, I’m serious…” groaned Scootaloo. “Besides, Belle has better chances of asking tonight, when both our revellers return.”

“I wonder, how do you imagine that, Scoots?” Sweetie Belle rolled eyes. “I admit, if I were Rainbow Dash, I would have probably done exactly that: “Hey, Alex, ain’t you a Nightmare Moon agent?””

The tone turned out so close to the original, that all three fillies burst laughing again.

*

“Come on, Ahhlex, darling! We don’t want to get there late, do we?”

It was already half past four, the sun shining high into the almost clear sky with rare white fluffy clouds, running by, like small sheep in the Crystal Empire zoo. Gentle breeze bothered the tops of the crops around them, making the fields look like some green sea touched by low lazy waves. Too light to bring mess to her carefully laid mane – Rarity spent two good hours to reach the expected perfection – it came from the western orchard and brought the sweetness of the best Jackie’s apples getting ripe.

‘Interesting, what would he say about my another delicious apple dessert?’ flew in Rarity’s head. ‘Not that I was as masterful as Granny Smith at that, I admit of having lots of practice ahead, still… I keep the best recipe to try yet!’ she threw a quick glance at Alex following her across the field and a smile curled her lips.

She kept graciously prancing, keeping the lady posture, despite Rarity’s heart was ready to join the chirping birds choir, while she herself wanted to squeal and jump around as a small filly. 

‘The lady must be lady all the time, at least do her best to be; besides, I may look funny in his eyes, well, stupidly funny – definitely not the effect, I desire,’ Rarity threw another sly glance at Alex, who was distracted by something in the distance and now caught up with her. ‘Of course, he doesn’t look like somepony, who could frown upon a bit of foalish fun, but I need to be more accurate. Yet… Squee!!!’

Alex accepting her invitation to the Gala was a happy surprise for Rarity, truth to be told, she was ready for him refusing. She restored the royal tapestry for him, helped him solve his clothes problem, thus he had all the reasons to be thankful; although, he did quite a lot for her as well, maybe even more in the longer perspective, thus keeping her the company at the Gala was truly optional. Remembering the last less than successful attempt in her house, when he fixed the pipe, Rarity was to admit, she was as subtle as a steamroller that time. It was her mistake, caused purely by unsatisfied desire hitting the “safety valve”, and she promised herself to stock up with patience, strategy and wit for the future attempts. 

‘Calm down, darling,’ she held back all the jumps and squeaks, postponing them indefinitely, despite the electrifying jolt, which made her coat twitch, when Alex came up to her and put his palm on her shoulder lightly. ‘You may look sad, desperate, even ruined, or on the contrary squeakily happy… when necessary. But you must see the aim and tread lightly!’

“What was there?” Rarity batted her long eyelashes, minding the delay; Alex was never able to understand, why she, having her own natural beautiful ones, used those fake extenders so often.

“Oh, simply checked the clock tower… Aren’t we getting late?”

“Don’t worry, darling!” Rarity theatrically shrugged with a chuckle. “I’ve managed to book the tickets to Canterlot Express, besides, I always plan it that way to get to the Gala in time. Some ponies may think it’s great as long as you get there, no matter if you are late, but I prefer to be there from the very beginning.”

She cocked her head proudly, checking if the clothing cases levitated high enough to touch the ground not. Actually two of them, which unambiguously told Alex, Rarity prepared something outstanding for him as well; she didn’t let him carry those, but there was nothing offensive in that – Alex knew already how meticulous Rarity was with everything fashion related. He knew about her tasteful approach likewise, thus being calm and convinced, his supposed parade clothes to be classy enough. Alex decided to let Rarity have a fair bit of her innocent joy, he could bring own corrections to his image anyway, if her vision of him at the Gala appeared overly… outstanding.

Obviously, she couldn’t allow her best recent work sweep the road to the railroad station or get any stains from the thick grass and crops in the fields around, thus Rarity made all the necessary precautions and was very proud of herself.

‘Better safe than sorry!’ Rarity inwardly listed everything to be sure, she didn’t miss a single trivia in her Gala preparations. ‘Plan, hard work, result, that is how success reached.’

Busy with her thoughts she completely missed another glance, Alex threw back, otherwise, she could easily tell, one hardly observed the clock or time-worn tower with such an expression. Somewhere deep inside the feeling of impropriety of the happening kept gnawing Alex: he knew from Twilight that Fluttershy wasn’t going to the Gala. To be frank, Rainbow Dash was neither, but those were totally different things. First of all, Alex couldn’t give a damn about Rainbow’s plans for that evening; moreover, the farther from him, the better – Alex wasn’t entirely convinced, Dash could hold herself of playing some trick on him… even at the Gala. To become a ridicule for the whole herd, let alone Luna (despite he was sure, the princess wouldn’t enjoy his humiliation)? No way, thank you!

Shy was another case: her animal friends provided a certain problem, needing care, but practice said, they could easily cope without her for the several hours. The actual reason followed Rarity through the fields at that moment, as Fluttershy couldn’t go to the Gala with him, she decided to not go there at all. Not being a party pony in general, at least not liking the big herds of hardly known ponies, Fluttershy could go to the Gala with the rest of the girls, of course, but something told Alex that she feared, what she could witness: not him being there with Rarity (she was well informed about that), but him meeting Luna and possible consequences.

The unwelcome memory of her preparing the dress for that event (and the final fitting was not only a decoration to hide real reasons for Rarity to visit Fluttershy, when he just arrived) made Alex’s condition truly detestable. The guilt fought the rejection of being decided for, guided or even motherly protected and he couldn’t say for sure which side was winning at that moment.

“What’s wrong with you, darling?!” his stone face made Rarity emerge from her pleasant musings and she looked at Alex with concern and anxiety. “You look like you have seen the… Headless Horse!” with a small nervous chuckle Rarity tried to turn it into a joke.

‘Just mine inner demons, hardly headless, as I can hear their teeth clenching already!’ Alex cringed a bit.

“I simply feel like a fish out of the water,” he squeezed out a smile. ‘No need to spoil the day for yet another girl…’

“You know, Rarity, I was never invited to such an event before, so…”

“Oh, don’t worry, darling!” Rarity stopped and leaned to him, nudging Alex lightly. “You are lucky to be in the right company for the events like that,” she playfully winked.

‘If only I could get an inner guide for my thoughts and deeds that easily…’ Alex knew well, he was wishing for too much.

They sped up, as the station was in direct view and the red loco was letting out long jets of steam already. All the tickets to the express appeared to be booked indeed, as there was no queue at the ticket office and the whole registration process took them a couple of minutes.

“Phew! Just as planned!” exclaimed Rarity, sliding the compartment door shut behind them.

“And we have plenty of time to bring ourselves to the exemplary order after that awful dusty road!” she accurately placed her dress cases on the seat and opened the carpetbag, which Alex put on the table, levitating a brush out and some other, supposedly hoof-polishing, instruments.

*

“So, is it your final decision, Flutters?” Twilight covered her friend’s shoulders with the wing, leaning to her and trying to find her eyes, hidden behind the lush pink mane. “I’m sure that your little friends can spend an evening without their caretaker; they were quite capable of that before.”

“Yes, Twilight,” Fluttershy’s quiet voice was determined. “I’m not going. I mean, I really have to do much for my animals… Besides, what’s the point?”

Mixing the ingredients for some medicine seemingly demanded for her whole concentration, but Twilight wasn’t that easy to trick. She sighed deeply and the prolonged pause made Fluttershy voice her concerns finally.

“Of course, Twi, I could arrange everything, so I had enough free time for the Gala,” Fluttershy put away the vials and turned to face Twilight, wiping hooves with the towel. There was something except sadness in her eyes, which made her alicorn friend look at her more fixedly. “But those galas are all the same each time… Remember, princess Celestia complained about them being a bore three years ago. There is no tragedy in missing one. Dashie is not going as well…” she looked away almost whispering.

“Dashie is head over hooves in her training,” retorted Twilight patiently. “She is daydreaming about impressing the Wonderbolts with some new tricks and spends all the time flying. If I didn’t know that’s for the Wonderbolts, I’d think, it’s some sleepless changeling in her disguise,” smirked she. “Rainbow neglecting a nap sounds like nonsense. But she will do as she wants anyway.”

“But you could spend the night with us three, brighten up the mood,” Twilight looked determined to cheer her friend up no matter what. “Simply distance from your problems.”

“Look I’m not going to either justify his act,” said she finally. “or blame him point blank, despite he could think better, before dating Luna, while… Ooooh!” groaned Twilight scowlingly. “See, I am judging already, while I probably shouldn’t. I’m not Alex, I don’t know how serious it was…” she fell silent.

“Actually, he said quite clearly, they were more than friends,” breathed out Fluttershy, then added quietly. “Yet I’m somehow sure they didn’t… umm…”

“What I mean,” continued Twilight after a pause. “ Is that you both are adults and the situation is better seen from inside, of course. But Alex going to the Gala with Rarity shouldn’t stop you from having some fun. She might be not entirely right, inviting him, but it didn’t look like she was going to from the start… Besides, from her point of view Alex was free at that moment…” Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy! I don’t know what to say, sorry…”

“What I know for sure, is that Alex accepted that invitation as a friendly gesture only,” Twilight put her fore hoof on Fluttershy’s lightly. “He isn’t happy about Rarity giving him excessive attention, nothing changed since the first day.”

“Oh, I know that,” Fluttershy allowed herself a tiny smile. “That’s not what bothers me, Twilight. I’m pretty sure Rarity would be tiptoeing around Alex, even if he went to the Gala with me, not because of ill will, but purely because she couldn’t hold herself.”

Twilight patiently waited for the rest of the confession.

“I’m not blaming him entirely for what happened either,” that statement made Twilight open her mouth slightly, while Fluttershy elaborated. “He was wrong, no doubt, but so was I. Probably because of different reasons… But I shouldn’t give up the fort myself, make it easier for him to leave. Alex keeps saying, we must cool down, because if he is to leave Equestria, that will be the more hurtful to break, the closer we become. But I think, I repelled him with my assertiveness, my wish to keep him safe. Yeah, I never thought I could say that about myself…”

“He may be selfless, when somepony needs help, but at the same time he can be selfish, when he fears for his freedom being taken over by anypony. Typical for a stallion… a man,” Fluttershy shrugged, turning to her ingredients again; Twilight noticed that her fore legs trembled a bit. “But I knew, it could turn like that, Twi. Yet I decided to try to convince him. We both can be stupidly stubborn, dear, and to be honest are worth each other,” sad chuckle mixed with the rhythmic sound of small mortar, while she ground up some herbs.

“But She takes him as he is,” Fluttershy suddenly moved the mortar aside and froze, looking into the window. “And I don’t feel ready yet to witness, how they meet at the Gala. I’m not sure, I can hold myself in hooves, Twi…”

“That is why I’m not going,” Fluttershy turned to her friend again. “And the dress,” she remembered with a sad smile. “Nopony saw it yet, except Rarity, I guess, it can wait for the next time. And if the fashion goes forward, I can always say that they understand nothing in the “retro” style!” dropped she with a tear in her voice.

The lump in the throat prevented Twilight from saying anything, in a flurry she embraced her pegasus friend and hugged tight.

“I-I… could stay, Flutters… really, if…” unconfidently started Twilight.

“No, no, no…” Fluttershy’s eyes dilated. “No need to do that Twilight, I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Besides, if you don’t go, Pinkie and Applejack can hardly operate the balloon, right?” a faint smile touched her lips. “And… you’re a princess, Twilight. You must be at the Gala.”

“Tartarus with “the princess”,” muttered Twilight grumpily, then added. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” repeated Fluttershy, releasing her friend. “Everything settles… somehow… eventually…”

“Okay…” sighed Twilight, shaking her head. “You’re a big girl… Just in case… We’re taking off in an hour from the balloon pad,” she looked at Fluttershy meaningfully. “An hour.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Fluttershy waved her hoof. “Have fun, girls. I mean that.”

*

The train covered mile after mile and entered the mountains already, it was safe to assume, two thirds of the road were left behind. They couldn’t see the sun, as the compartment window opened to the east, but the trees, which covered yet low mountainside, were painted golden, thus telling them, Celestia’s star was low enough above the horizon; the day was coming to its end. It was colder here at the foothills, more windy and the forest trees greeted the passing train with light bows of respect.

Rarity was chattering incessantly throughout the whole ride, she told Alex what to expect and which aspects to pay special attention to make a good impression at the Gala, named a few ponies, regular visitors of those social functions, acquaintance with which could help him in his further life in Equestria.

‘It seems, Rarity took mine inability to leave their world as inevitability… and is quite content with that!’ Alex inwardly smirked, sadly to be honest. ‘At least she is sincere in her wish to help me accommodate,’ at the same time he was to admit, that didn’t make the acceptance easier.

One look was enough to tell, Rarity was on the top of her spiritual ascent and Alex pondered, if that was her usual pre-gala mood or the company made it so clearly pronounced that time. He listened to her with one ear though, just enough to keep up with the route of her thoughts and fill the pauses with appropriate comments. His own head was partially busy, looking for the way to make their with Luna plan play out naturally enough. With Rarity inviting him to the Gala, he was totally safe as the part of the event at that moment, even if Celestia planned to have some rest of him, she couldn’t do anything till the point it would be futile to try.

‘I’ll be there and we’ll bring our plan to life with Luna, no matter what! I wonder though, what Tia can say or undertake, when she sees me?’ The image of Celestia’s expression made him chuckle inwardly. ‘I suppose my presence isn’t included in her checklist of “perfectly run entertainment”, yet she would hardly let it spoil the event for her. Well, we’ll see then…’

Alex threw another look through the window: the landscape was steadily raising, trees grew right next to the tracks here and it became noticeably darker. If he remembered the road right, the tunnels should start shortly and that meant they were approaching Canterlot. One more thought bothered Alex thereby – Rarity took two cases with her, obviously one with her dress and another with parade clothes for Alex. Supposedly they were to change (or in Rarity’s case better say dress) in the train to approach the castle in full glory; at least that was his fashionista companion’s plan.

But Alex didn’t feel daring to change in her presence at all and now frantically looked for some polite way to get out of that uneasy situation. Telling her directly seemed a bit harsh to him, as ponies’ relationship with clothes were still a mystery for Alex: they could pay no attention to the conventionalities in some cases, yet be overly meticulous in the others.

‘To undress almost completely in front of Rarity in that convenient compartment… Merlin’s pants!’ Alex cringed.

Maybe Rarity anticipated some involuntary striptease, but Alex wasn’t sure, it was worth the risk – the latest incident clearly showed, his unicorn friend could take any favourable chance.

“Hmm… It’s too dark here! We must be approaching the city, but I can’t see anything because of that wall of trees, besides the mountainside looks all the same everywhere,” suddenly complained Rarity, she didn’t give much credit to the forests and everything connected. “Ugghhh! It’s too bad the window is facing this side…”

Alex quietly took his breath.

“Perhaps I should go and check, where we are. We’re riding for more than two hours non-stop, it must be the time to dress up for the event already,” with a bright unequivocal smile Rarity opened the compartment door, exiting to the car passage to check the west facing windows. The door closed behind her automatically.

‘Please, enjoy the view for a while instead and give me a few minutes!’ with the speed of light Alex jumped to his legs and picked up the clothes cases, carefully opening them. ‘I must be lucky tonight!’

The first case revealed something red and aethereal through the slightly opened zipper and Alex closed it, putting aside. Despite all Rarity’s extravagance, Alex couldn’t imagine her dressing him in something alike. Another case let out something pristine white! Suppressing his first urge to squint, as the suit almost flashed in the twilight of their compartment, Alex raised the shoulders higher.

The pants were of the same style, he got used to; the free cut shirt with the lacy collar made Alex facepalm, but thankfully was moderate and the long band, accompanying them, was probably the fashionable tie. Remembering him despising the official style, Rarity didn’t include any jacket, rightfully assuming that her work was truly classy without. The fabric was unfamiliar to Alex: dense, but light on touch, silky and non-permeable, but not unpleasant to the skin. But the main thing everything was of blinding white colour, making Alex freeze for a moment!

Alex didn’t have time to stare at it in awe, one precious minute passed already. He accurately put the suit on the seat. Listening to the sounds from behind the door he almost jumped out of his clothes in a single jolt, quickly putting on the parade ones.

‘Let’s hope, I won’t be looking like a fridge at the end of the day,’ Alex quickly checked everything in the mirror on the compartment door and put the shoes back on. ‘Not entirely fitting, I admit… But…’ he threw another glance in the mirror. ‘Hmpf! I doubt anypony would look at them anyway.’

He stepped back; with the light noise the compartment door slid open.

“Oh!” Even if Rarity frowned upon the missed show, she did her best to show that not. “You are fast, Ahhlex! I guess, I need to catch up,” she closed the door with a small laugher and levitated the remaining dress case.

Alex returned to the window and promptly stared outside with exaggerated interest, giving Rarity time to dress with dignity… and trying to get rid of the uncalled thought that most of the time she was practically wearing nothing. 

Observing the darkening trees, rare road posts, grassy openings, passing by behind the glass, Alex listened to the rustling sounds behind his back. Despite the experience and magic, ready to come to the aid in particularly complicated situations, it took Rarity a good few minutes to cope with her dress and fit it properly. Alex was unsure, if providing her with a helping hand would be appropriate, besides, he didn’t want to give her the freedom of interpretation, being absolutely sure about how exactly could she take that act.

With echoing noise, born by stone walls, the train entered one of the mountain tunnels, Rarity even squeaked slightly from suddenly fallen darkness. In a second the train lamps turned on and the dark rocks behind the window changed to the mirrored view of their compartment, Rarity almost finished, spreading the fabric on her shoulders and stretching the sleeves or better say long “gloves”; Alex noticed they were not connected to the dress itself.

He turned around to face very proud and at the same time slightly embarrassed Rarity, as if she wasn’t entirely confident in Alex’s reaction. Although, her hesitations were completely futile, Alex was to admit, Rarity looked fabulous in her dress. Tightly fit at the upper body, it was opulent and freely flowing from the waist down, giving her the ability to move freely and visually counterbalancing her lush, beautifully laid mane. The dense fabric went to the chest, but ended slightly below fore legs, turning into lacy and transparent one, which ended at the collar; that upper part was practically invisible from the short distance, providing the impression of completely bare shoulders and low décolleté. That would look like a quite audacious human evening dress, if the ponies had cleavage, but Alex involuntarily concluded that proudly puffed chest fluff, coped with the substitution task quite well in Rarity’s case.

The large sapphire on the collar, and a few of its brethren, placed in the thin silver tiara, shining in Rarity’s mane, finished the ensemble. Everything looked perfect to Alex’s taste.

Although, it seemed Rarity had some trouble. With exaggerated grace, holding the dress in place on the shoulders with her magic, little fashionista approached him, raising on her hind legs and leaning on the table, bending her back.

“Darling, I need some help of yours!” Rarity shot him from under her long eyelashes, Alex noticed the tip of her light indigo tail waving from side to side under the dress hem.

“Any time, Rarity. What’s…”

She turned around and Alex saw that there was a long thin zipper at the back of her dress, opened at the moment, so, Rarity’s graceful back shone in the soft compartment lights, framed by the red fabric.

“Okaaay…” Alex inwardly took his breath and accurately took the fastener, feeling her sly anticipating glance over the shoulder. ‘No way I’m buying this old trick, dear! You look radiant in your dress, that’s given, but I’m not a whelp to fall for that.’

With a tiny smile Alex zipped the dress close, slowly and carefully not to pinch Rarity’s quickly heating (he almost felt that) skin. When he accidentally touched her coat between the shoulder blades, Rarity shivered and quite audible fitful breath left her lips.

“Here we are,” emphatically neutrally concluded Alex. “Fully ready for the event.”

“Excellent!” she turned to face him with slightly dilated sparkling eyes, then noticed something and theatrically frowned.

“Ahlex, Ahlex!” Rarity pulled the white band from his hand with a giggle. “You are incorrigible. This is an important part,” she shook her head, spreading the thin aroma of some fancy shampoo, while the band accurately formed a necktie on Alex, guided by the cyan aura. “Now it is significantly better!” she took out a sapphire clasp and fixed the tie, then added a pair of fitting cufflinks to his costume.

The train emerged from the tunnel, but the lamps remained on to compensate for the setting sun, insufficient to provide enough light. The forest was left behind and purely mountainous landscape took over, a few more miles and tunnels left before Canterlot.

With a quiet laugher Rarity took Alex’s hand and dragged him closer to the mirror, so he could estimate the final image in entirety. Obviously, she was going to play on the contrasts and Alex was to admit Rarity’s success: her rich red dress didn’t overshadow her natural coat colour, but emphasized it quite advantageously, making Rarity’s skin glow even under soft compartment lights; with the bright lights of the castle hall, she would hardly pass unnoticed by anypony. 

Alex’s costume was simple, but classy and outstanding at the same time, surprisingly fitting Rarity’s dress, despite the colour difference; Alex noticed that the latter was suspiciously human-like and was guessing, where this inventive unicorn mare could find her inspiration. He decided to ask Twilight a few questions later, as she mentioned that she had got her hooves on some historical notes about humans.

However, the laconic jewellery finished the impression, leaving no doubts to the beholder. When Rarity raised on her hind legs again and leaned to Alex, correcting his tie and throwing a satisfied glance into the mirror, it became strikingly obvious, that she exerted maximum effort for them to look like… a couple.

*

“Ah still can’t believe, he accepted her invitation, sugarcube!” Applejack shook her head, then threw a quick glance at the wide stairs, running from the castle entrance to the gravel square below, empty at the moment, but going to be full of arriving at the Gala ponies in the half of an hour. “After all the tricks our dear Rarity undertook to get her hooves on Alex… Besides, Ah was sure he would come with Flutters still.”

Twilight only shrugged, inwardly she decided to stay on the fence regarding those two; despite she found out more during the last few days, she felt, everything was even more complicated and she didn’t have the complete image yet. Pinkie let out a deep sigh, staying unusually silent; surprisingly she treated the incident most seriously among the girls, not accusing anypony, but actually seriously, quite concerned about the outcome.

Both girls arrived with Twilight on the balloon, slightly beforehand, as Twilight was to be at princess’ Celestia side right at the Gala opening, greeting the guests. As Celestia was still busy with some preparations (she preferred to perform the final check herself, guaranteeing the quality of the event, as nopony could dare to fail afore princess’ eyes), Twilight used a few free minutes to peek outside, to the terrace at the castle entrance. Maybe the fresh air helped to ease the nervousness, Twilight didn’t get quite used to the role of the princess at the galas, or perhaps she secretly hoped to see Fluttershy, finally reconsidering and joining them, on the road to the castle; although, Twilight couldn’t probably imagine the way, for Flutters to get there in time.

Twilight’s glance didn’t get unnoticed by Applejack, who understood it properly and sighed. Her dress could easily fit a social function and a classic fox hunt, if only ponies ever hunted foxes. The caring hoof of Rarity could be easily seen in how the dress reflected the personality of its owner: made in green, dark golden and light brown colours, not excessively volumetric at the hem, very convenient to move in, it could even seem a little bit rough for the occasion, if it wasn’t extremely classy, balancing on the edge between utility (valued by Jackie) and fashion (constantly upheld by Rarity). The high leather boots on Applejack’s hind legs were equally convenient for dancing and apple bucking, with the obvious visual lean towards dancing, as Rarity was uncompromising in that aspect.

“Well, girls, let’s go inside! I truly don’t like it, like if we are saying somepony’s vale,” with a sigh Pinkie seemed to make some decision. “You don’t need to greet the guests on those stairs, Twi, right?”

Pinkie shook her lush curly mane, everypony almost expected the confetti and streamers coming out of it, and turned on spot, making her opulent colourful dress rustle; the first look at it was enough to understand – its owner was the heart of the party on her own and could easily make quite a boom even at such a grand event as the Gala. She resembled a soft delicious dessert, not mawkish though, as sometimes Rarity knew perfectly, when to catch her flying imagination.

“I know, I know… But we can’t help them now, not by the mourning at the Gala definitely,” she looked at Twilight and Applejack over the shoulder, blowing away the lace, curled in the wind. “Believe me, if auntie Pinkie knew how to fix the situation, I would have tried my best already. Don’t make that face, Jackie,” smirked Pinkie. “I see you. I’m not talking about some love potion. But I totally have something to talk to Alex about…” muttered she aside.

“I guess, you are right,” those thoughts helped Twilight to switch her attention and become less shaky before the event. Later, when the Gala actually started, she would quickly calm down, but at that moment the Princess of Friendship felt out of her element, up to the point that she thought, she forgot something drastically important or her feverishly pink nose and trembling legs completely didn’t fit the expected role and amazing dress. The latter, luxurious and heavy, with wide and lush standing collar, rich decoration and deep gold and lilac colours, made Twilight suspect princess Celestia taking part in the choosing specifically to make Twilight get used to the regal role faster. The dress was perhaps easily more complex than Celestia’s one and according to Twilight didn’t fit her shaky condition completely. Although, this was a common situation, when Twilight prepared for something important… and didn’t make a “to do” list prior. Thus she took herself in hooves forcedly and squeezed out a smile.

“I would like to be able to fix the situation as well…”

“Here you are!” Spike appeared in the doorway paws akimbo, hailing the girls. “Do you three plan to greet the guests on that terrace? Twilight, please, wake up!”

“Hmm?!”

“Twilight,” sighed Spike. “There are no books here even, where are you travelling? Princess Celestia wanted you to help her with something.”

“Let’s go, girls… umm… unless you want more fresh air,” Twilight shook off the nervousness and followed Spike, who seemed to regain interest in the Gala, anticipating Rarity’s arrival most likely.

Twilight smiled upon remembering, how they came home about an hour after Rarity invited Alex. Lyra was still there, the flood of her questions just dried and Alex managed to finish his work, so they simply enjoyed some freshly brewed tea. Twilight shared her observation of very inspired and encouraged Rarity, they met on their way home. Chuckling she told about Rarity almost prancing, hurrying to Carousel Boutique, and voiced an assumption about the new collection being on Rarity’s mind.

Alex made a face and revealed the true source of Rarity’s inspiration; that wasn’t entirely unexpected, yet caught Twilight by surprise – she couldn’t imagine Rarity to actually dare. Personally Twilight thought about suggesting Alex join her and Spike, but she wasn’t sure both Alex and Celestia needed more time in each other’s company.

Naturally, Spike became grumpy at once and pouted till late evening, but eventually, he was to admit, there was no crime in Alex accepting Rarity’s invitation; it was totally her idea and refusing could undeservedly offend her. Obviously Spike decided that Rarity coming to the Gala was more important; besides, her coming with somepony, not interested in her personally, rather than a dedicated admirer, was almost a gift of fate.

*

“Hmm… We have a few spare minutes, Rarity!”

Alex jumped off to the platform and threw a quick glance at the wall clock of the station office, painted golden and red by the light of the setting sun. He filled his lungs with damp air, the loco stopped quite far from that point, their car was in the middle of the train and all the smoke was taken away by the constant evening wind coming down the mountains, leaving only a faint bitter tint in the nostrils. Long, flowing, mystically glowing in the bright station lights, sheets of fog curled around the light posts, benches on the platform and large regular trees behind the platform railing; Alex remembered that they passed a waterfall at the railway entrance to Canterlot. It was contrastingly fresh here after the warm comfort of the train compartments and ponies quickly filling the platform shivered and wrapped into their cloaks and shawls. Alex caught a few bewildered glances already, protruding like an iceberg from the stripes of fog, curling at his feet.

He smirked and turned to the car door, Rarity stood at the upper step, looking down at him with a bright smile. Alex eyed her crinoline, getting down the car steps seemed a non-trivial task for his companion; without the second thought Alex leaned to her and accurately picked Rarity under her fore legs, causing a tiny surprised squeak. He managed to lower her on the platform quite gracefully; obviously, her hind legs touched the ground first and Rarity put her fore hooves on Alex’s shoulders, staying like that for a moment longer and giving him a fiery glance of dilated eyes.

Alex felt slightly embarrassed, as half of the herd on the platform interestedly examined them at the moment or so he thought.

“Thanks, darling!” breathed out Rarity, unfolding the soft, dense red cloak and wrapping it around her bare shoulders. She kept holding on him and leaned closer. “We shouldn’t hurry too much, Ahlex,” whispered she in his ear, when he leaned closer. “Let the herd unflood the platform and head to the castle, so we can follow more freely. It’s not like the third ring in the theatre, darling!” she almost cooed.

Alex nodded shortly, he understood Rarity’s reasons and inwardly wondered, how she kept following her plan of gaining attention “the proper way”. Her calculations were simple: that wasn’t the last and only wave of guests, so they wouldn’t come “late”, still they wouldn’t hurry and hustle in the herd, but would instead catch the short pause between “main waves”. But the main thing was, Rarity and Alex arrive at the castle entrance, ascend and enter the hall under the dozens of glances of ponies already present at the top and bottom of the castle stairs.

That being Rarity’s “red carpet” wasn’t hard to guess; she prepared to “walk out” her outstanding dress, appear in the center of the big herd with an unusual partner and simply entertain herself as much as possible. Rarity sincerely believed, she would entertain Alex as well that way; so, with a tiny smile Alex gave up and allowed her to bask in the rays of her well-directed performance.

Thus they lingered a bit, waiting till the main mass went ahead; Alex shrugged under a few more couples of evaluative eyes. Distracted by enjoying the evening sight of the surroundings (he was unable to estimate it fully the first time they came here with Fluttershy) at first, Alex found Rarity still nesting in his warm hands – it appeared, they stood like that the whole time the majority of the passengers trotted by; the glances were explicable and Alex inwardly facepalmed. Rarity’s nose was slightly pinkish, when she released him and stood on her four legs, but her eyes were starry and shone with badly concealed triumph, while they headed to the station exit side by side.

Further the terrain started to ascend and they need to go up or by the zigzag path, when the street architecture didn’t offer the straight line. Alex admitted that he couldn’t probably find the way to the castle fast enough even on his second arrival at the station; besides, the atmosphere that time was more relaxed and he used that opportunity to pay deserved attention to the city views, prudently not looking back, down the mountain, of course. Involuntarily the same comparison with Minas Tirith, the White City from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, came to his mind, causing another smile.

Alex didn’t cease to wonder the mastery, the architects combined the stone terraces, buildings and flora with, practically turning whole Canterlot into blooming garden with white stone walls protruding from the foliage, but not breaking the natural beauty. It must be full of life during the daytime, but now only rare birds broke the silence, chirping in the gardens drowning in falling twilight, which was softly diluted by the street lights. The only sound becoming stronger, as they approached the castle, were the tidal waves of the noise of ponies, gathering at the upcoming Gala.

“Come on, Ahlex! I said we must linger a bit, but I didn’t mean we must catch another herd going after us,” Rarity looked at him over the shoulder with a laugher, she led the way almost prancing, on her peak of inspiration she anticipated ascending the stairs so visibly that Alex chuckled quietly. Rarity threw a sly glance at him. “What?”

“You’re like a… filly on her prom night, Rarity!” Alex raised a brow, returning her glance with dividends. He heard the approaching noise from behind, supposedly from another wave of guests, and was to admit her reasoning.

“Hmpf! I haven’t had such fun for a few months already,” she cocked her head and almost jumped on spot enthusiastically. “Especially in such a nice company!” her half-lidded eyes shot another spear at Alex and very pleased with herself Rarity proceeded, looking at him playfully from time to time.

Soon Alex noticed that the road to the castle, which towered its whole white mass above them already, was designated by additional lightening, so, even a newcomer could probably avoid getting lost on his way to the Gala. That discovery turned out futile though, as after three or four turns they finally entered the short, straight as a tensioned string, path to the castle gate.

*

Stomping on the gravel path behind the castle gate Alex inwardly braced himself: Rarity’s calculations were correct, quite a herd of guests gathered at the bottom of the stairs and the top landing, before the doors to the hall. The mares straightened out their dresses, couples met their kith and greetings and small talks filled the air, making that hum, which could be heard long before the castle gates, delivered by evening breeze.

‘Okay, you knew about that,’ Alex inhaled deeply and followed Rarity, adjusting to her pace. ‘You and Luna had certain plans for that evening, that’s primal, so, take that “red carpet stroll” as inevitable “evil” and stay cool!’

Giving that wise advice was obviously far easier than following it, while pacing along that path, which seemed about a mile long to Alex, under all kinds of glances: from interested and evidently smiling to surprised and bluntly shocked. To the honour of the guests Alex couldn’t tell, he spotted any visible negativity, caused by his arrival; perhaps ponies, who gathered here, could cope with their feelings better or the majority of them simply decided to conform the general spirit of the event, keeping their thoughts to themselves. That allowed Alex to relax a tiny bit, to let one single hair of the fiddlestick loose.

Rarity distracted everypony’s attention quite successfully as well, she paced right to Alex, nodding with an almost regal smile to the ponies, she knew personally. Her head was proudly cocked, letting the mane, gathered into complex sumptuous hair dress, sway lightly. There wasn’t a single mare left non-stunned by Rarity’s dress: they stopped half-word and followed her for a moment with nearly opened mouths. Whatever they thought about her dress and were going to discuss later, one thing was certain – it was seemingly unusual and audacious enough for the pony society; if Rarity wanted them to be noticed, she topped that by quite a margin.

Alex would be happy, if she completely overshadowed his presence, but obviously, that wasn’t a part of her plan; considering his costume and height difference, everypony paid attention to Rarity’s unusual partner as well. Meanwhile, Alex tried to think about Luna and what they wanted to do at the Gala, constantly catching himself at the urge to take his girl’s arm, remembering that Rarity had legs and it would be quite uncomfortable for her to walk like human pairs supposed to.

‘Something tells me that, if Rarity knew about that gesture,’ Alex chuckled inwardly. ‘She would have coped with any inconvenience to add that to her performance.’

They came up to another pair at the bottom of the stairs and Alex noticed a familiar muzzle to his surprise: he saw the stallion already, when they with Fluttershy got rid of numerous visitors after the warehouse incident – Filthy Rich or “simply Mr. Rich”, as that one preferred to be named.

“Good evening, Mr. Rich!” Alex nodded with a diplomatic smile and the stallion replied, taking a look over Alex and Rarity and sporting a sly smirk.

His spouse, as such a characteristically similar mare could hardly be anypony else, stared at them with dilated eyes for a second and Alex spotted from the tail of his eye, how she quickly whispered something into husbands ear right after them.

Rarity stopped for a second and took a quick critical look over herself and Alex as well, like checking, if everything was according to her preplanned order.

“Are you ready, darling?” like there were at least several “a”s in “darling” Rarity asked him in half-tone, but at the same time quite a few guests heard that and turned.

“After you, Rarity,” Alex made a welcoming gesture and suppressed one more impulse to offer her the hand, he followed slightly behind instead, securing Rarity in her long dress on those quite steep stairs.

‘I would bring Shy up in mine arms!’ flashed in his head suddenly. ‘And let a few snobs fall down in jealousy!’ He caught himself on flushing slightly.

‘I must be here with her instead,’ his heart pounded and Alex went up the stairs, like a robot, looking at one spot in front of him. ‘But we let ourselves go too far already… If I leave… When I leave, she will suffer, we will both suffer… She treats me like her… man already… Merlin’s…’

Perhaps his eyes looked glazed, when they reached the top, Rarity turned to Alex with a fair dose of concern.

“Is everything alright, Ahlex?” she looked up into his eyes. “You look a bit…”

“I’m okay, dear,” Alex shook his head, emerging to the reality, he took a deep breath, noticing the smell of the garden flowers, the baskets of which the stairs were ornate with, at that moment only. Alex could swear, he felt the aroma of honey and field flowers a moment ago.

“Oh, let’s go then!” with a tender smile Rarity leaned to him, rubbing her cheek on his arm.

The doorway was free and in a second Alex and Rarity stepped into the long corridor with columns, so familiar to Alex by his first visit to the castle. Two guards opened another pair of doors for them, letting into the giant hall and making Alex shudder involuntarily from the unwelcome déjà vu feeling. But the following surprise was even stronger.

Right a few steps behind the doors Alex saw two figures, he couldn’t mistake for anypony, despite the bright light coming from behind them, making them appear as two dark silhouettes in Alex’s and  Rarity’s sight.

“… and meeting the guests right from their first step for the change, instead of sitting there, like a stone statue until the last one arrives.” Celestia nodded to her companion with a smile. “I may actually like that method, Twilight.” 

Her long, flowing, almost white but with faint coral tint, as Alex could see in the bright light of numerous chandeliers of the hall, dress with gold ornament and lilac elements made quite an impression on him, when Alex’s eyes accommodated. Surprisingly the dress author managed to make it lush, at the same time not making the princess look even bigger, compared to common ponies, than she actually was. Yet, when Celestia spread her wings under pure inspiration and excitement, the look was stunning indeed.

Alex and Rarity approached, the princesses turned to the newcomers, interrupting their talk.

“Welcome to the Gala, our valorous po…” Celestia forgot about the old formula, seeing who arrived that time. Even if she was surprised to see Alex there, nothing reflected on her muzzle, at least at that moment the princess coped with her feelings and corrected herself. “Welcome to the Gala, Rarity and Alex…” 

Alex noticed the final stumble and inwardly thanked the princess for not adding formal “the human”. Rarity bowed low, delivering Alex totally inappropriate for the event memory of the circus horses; he couldn’t do anything with himself, the pose was very familiar. Stifling the smile Alex bowed slightly. 

“Come, join the guests.” Celestia raised her gold-shod fore hoof in the welcoming gesture. “We will attend to you all shortly.”

A mischievous thought flashed in Alex mind, with extremely gallant, yet lightning-like (not giving the princess any chance to retreat), gesture Alex took her hoof and with another bow barely touched with his lips above the golden attire, inhaling the faint roses aroma.

“Your Highness!”

Rarity froze on spot, Celestia’s eyes met at her bridge, as she stared at Alex with her nose and cheeks getting pinkish; then she threw a quick glance at Twilight, forgetting to put her leg down, despite nobody held it already.

“It’s just an ancient human tradition to greet a noble lady!” Twilight obviously lately paid more attention to small details of human studies, than Celestia did. Her wide smile could make any dentist cry of despair and realization of self-uselessness, when she warmly greeted Rarity and Alex… keeping her hooves on the floor though and not letting to play the same trick with her. “Welcome, friends!”

“Oh!” Celestia finally put her hoof down, quickly checking, if anypony saw the scene, her cheeks were still out of their usual colour. “Ahem…”

Twilight intercepted the glance, Alex scanned the large hall with methodically, she raised to her hind legs and leaned to his ear.

“She will come down later, Alex. Still preparing something. She didn’t tell what exactly,” with sly sparkles in her eyes Twilight watched confused Alex.

“Come on, Alex, only Spike is more obvious than you,” she added in half voice, nodding and welcoming Alex and Rarity to join the herd in the hall.

“Please, don’t tell that you invited Discord likewise…” Celestia asked Twilight barely audibly, but Alex was able to hear the hope in her voice.

Among the gathering guests Alex quickly found the ponies, he at least knew well, maybe because they stayed near the entrance, instinctively supporting their friend, or maybe because Rarity’s style was truly unique, making the girls stand out from the herd easily. Anyway, Alex nodded to Rarity, drawing her attention to their friends and changing the course.

“Applejack, Pinkie, what a wonderful evening, girls!” almost murmured Rarity, throwing another spear glance at Alex, who made his best diplomatic expression and greeted the girls with a light bow, obviously noticing their slightly strained smiles.

“Good evening!” Applejack and Pinkie reservedly and almost synchronously waved and Pinkie added barely audibly. “Unfortunately not everypony is able to enjoy it…” getting a light nudge from Applejack, whose smile at that moment became even wider.

Alex inwardly admitted that he deserved a good kick for all that, thus when Applejack addressed him, using the moment Rarity told something Pinkie about her dress, he was ready to listen to all the unsightly truth about himself. The bigger was his surprise to hear otherwise.

“Look, partner, Ah’m not going to spoil the evening by that talk,” Applejack squinted towards girls to be sure they are still busy. “Not going to judge you both, yer are adult ponies… Eh…”

“It’s okay, I get what you mean,” Alex nodded with a tiny smile.

“If you did this exactly, Ah believe there were some reasons, right, pal?” Applejack looked over her shoulder, Rarity was still explaining to Pinkie that the dress needed to be worn with grace, not hopping like a doe. “Ah’m going to trust Twilight’s judgment in that case…”

“Thanks, Jackie!” breathed out Alex. “Despite how pathetic it may sound now, I… we had reasons forsooth. I admit, I started worrying about that too late, mayhap even when nothing can be helped already.”

“Wait, Alex,” frowned Applejack. “Ah said, Ah need no explanation now. What Ah was going to tell – please, be smart, pal!” she nodded towards Rarity meaningfully. “And… one more thing. Don’t let Pinkie catch ya for a talk, she is full of determination to tumble ya for leaving Flutters.”

“Excuse me, girls, but I need to take Ahlex away from you! Have fun…” Rarity cheerfully dragged him further on under the fixed look of pouting Pinkie.

In the last half of an hour Alex greeted an uncountable set of guests, it seemed Rarity knew personally the lion’s share of Canterlot beau monde; he had time to get tired of nodding, supporting the more or less meaningful small talks and smiling, smiling, smiling… while accurately looking around every time possible.

‘Whither is Luna?’

He was able to sneak away from Rarity a few times and meet the ponies, he knew; there were not many of those though. Alex stopped by Mr. Rich once again and interested, if the latter got his party of goods in time and decent quality, getting a cheerful “yeah” back; Mrs. Rich looked at Alex far more benevolently after him sympathizing their problem.

Mayor Mare asked Alex, if he liked his stay in Ponyville, and Alex wholeheartedly dispelled her concerns, rightfully supposing that mentioning the single case at the bar is unnecessary. Although, he wondered, if her question was more of the professional nature, but she looked quite sincere.

“Excellent, dear!” with a smile she patted his arm lightly. “The longer you stay, the more you enjoy our quiet town. You’ll see!” Alex inhaled loudly.

Rarity intercepted him again and introduced to a bunch of stylishly looking ponies – owners of a few fashionable boutiques in Canterlot – as she explained. A few mares and a stallion, each one gave due attention to their looks and congratulated them (mostly Rarity) for “masterful approach”, “pushing apart the boundaries” and something else Alex didn’t trouble himself to remember.

Frankly speaking, the rainbow flickering of the guests in their colourful dresses behind his eyes started tiring Alex slightly, he escaped the “fashion club”, voicing some plausible reason, and leaned on the column in a quieter corner, observing the hall; they made almost full circle with Rarity and the guests kept coming, making the scene properly herded. Alex thought, that some actual entertainment wouldn’t be detrimental already.

There was another problem: while Alex was perfectly able to enjoy the drinks on the Gala, the light snacks were not designed for humans completely. Alex had no doubt in his ability to digest, for example, a daisy sandwich; he was rather unsure about that process being enjoyable though. That wasn’t, of course, something to blame the organization for, but evidently added to his feeling of not entirely belonging.

Deep into his thoughts, Alex didn’t notice a light touch on his sleeve at once.

“Oh…” he emerged to the reality, focusing on the mid-age pastille unicorn with suddenly bright yellow sandy mane in simple, but very expensive looking tuxedo and thin glasses, aiding sharp insightful grey eyes. “I’m sorry, was carried away a bit… Can I help you, sir?”

“Most definitely,” the stallion levitated his glass aside and bowed slightly. “As obviously you are exactly that Alex, I’ve been told about, there is hardly any other of your kin in Equestria, right?” he sported a small smile.

Alex nodded, his interlocutor’s serious and official tone suggested listening to him very attentively.

“I’m Solid Deal.”

“It’s nice to meet you, sir! But…” with semi-questioning intonation Alex showed polite interest and perplexity at the same time.

“I’m from Canterlot Steam Company,” Solid Deal elaborated, while Alex strained inwardly. “Somepony, I guess your good friend, suggested me to pay attention to a few interesting devices, built lately in Ponyville.”

Alex raised one eyebrow.

“I decided to see with my own eyes… and must say that I was quite impressed with what I saw, sir,” the unicorn made a wide gesture with his fore hoof. “A fashion boutique with local production, two different households, a farm…”

“Well… the farm is still in the making,” humbly amended Alex, suspecting the further course of their conversation and mentally praising himself for foresight.

“It doesn’t matter, sir, it is!” Solid Deal nodded meaningfully. “And I’m informed about your future plans…”

“A shop and few more households, maybe something else, yes,” Alex confirmed, looking directly in his collocutor eyes. “So, what do you think about them?”

“I still can’t forgive myself, and in my face the whole company, that we overlooked such an opportunity,” Solid Deal’s tone was a bit grumpy, yet humorous, and Alex noticed how he funnily wrinkled his nose in a theatrical frown. “As I said, I was impressed. By how you incorporated various power sources as well. Power from thin air,” he shook his head. “But what’s done is done. We’re catching up here.”

“You have nothing to worry about, Alex… Can I call you “Alex”, sir?” After short confirmation Solid Deal continued. “I made inquiries in the patent office…” Alex held his breath. “… you so promptly addressed recently. They confirmed your invention status, actually they have already sent you all the patent documents, must arrive shortly.”

Alex inwardly took a deep breath, not letting an overly enthusiastic smile appear on his face. Meanwhile, Solid Deal sipped from his glass and changed his tone from jokingly grumpy to purely business.

“Naturally, I have a suggestion, well, Canterlot Steam Company does rather. With all respect, you can’t cope with mass production, which actually your device demands for. This is exactly our company’s turf, thus we could use your invention and launch it, for suitable compensation and to mutual profit, of course. What would you say, Alex?”

Alex inhaled, grasping his nerves in a fist and pondering about how daring he felt actually.

“The suggestion is very interesting, I admit; moreover, I’d be happy to co-operate, sir. Methinks forty percent could be called that “suitable compensation” exactly,” he stated insinuatingly.

“My!” the glasses even jumped on Solid Deal’s nose. “I knew, it wasn’t going to be easy, but… That’s a strike, sir! I was going to offer twenty actually. Twenty percent of the income is quite a nice compensation for non-exclusive rights, as I think this exactly what you are aimed at.”

“Thirty.”

“Hmmm…” the unicorn cupped his chin with the fore hoof, he threw a quick glance up at Alex, then stared into his glass, like if the solution of his dilemma could be fished up there.

“Come on, sir!” reminded about himself Alex. “Simply imagine the conveyor belt with new shiny generators with CSC logo on them.”

Suddenly Solid Deal laughed loud.

“Okay! You have convinced me. Thirty. That’s final offer…”

“And I keep exclusive rights on development,” quickly added Alex. “So, I am responsible for future improvements of construction, technology and so on.”

“That was exactly what I was told about,” the unicorn sighed. “That you would give me some hard time making that deal.”

“But we will have priority, implementing every improvement you make,” squinted he.

“Of course,” Alex nodded. “And if the company can’t make any details, we produce the necessary.”

“Oh, that hardly will be the case,” chuckled Solid Deal, not believing in such a nonsense, that Canterlot Steam Company can’t cope with some hardware; yet he threw an estimating glance at Alex. “Okay! Thirty percent of income, exclusive development is yours and exclusive production is ours… unless we can’t manage something. In that unlikely case we call for your help. I suppose, I missed nothing,” summarized the unicorn.

“Deal!” Alex and Solid Deal shared a hoof bump and the stallion added. “I’ll send you the documents to make it official, supposedly you have somepony to assist you with legal aspects and present your interests, checking them, so we can quickly reach the final consensus.”

“Rest assured, I do,” Alex nodded with a smile. ‘I need to ask Twilight to have a look or help me find an attorney as soon as possible.’

“Excellent!” Solid Deal nodded. “I wish you to enjoy the Gala, sir. And I’m more than sure that you are capable to entertain yourself, if needs be.”

“Same to you!” Alex saluted with the half-empty glass, the drink was familiar apple cider, light and refreshing. “And thank you, Solid Deal!”

Alex took a look around the large hall, the herd became even bigger, if that was possible, and Alex thought, if any dances were supposed, the majority would need to spread along the walls to provide some entirely free space. Lazily listening to the rhythmic hum of ponies talking, he scanned the scene, when his glance was intercepted by princess Celestia; realizing that she gained his attention, she nodded to him from the middle of the sea of ponies.

He pushed himself away from the column, with a thankful smile left his glass on the tray of the young unicorn maid; lingering when necessary, apologizing, smiling Alex without much effort made his way through the herd to the princess.

“Your Highness?”

“Finally, you found something to entertain yourself at our Gala, Alex, a few ponies you know and share common interests,” Celestia’s tone was peaceful, despite his trick. “I’m glad you can enjoy it.”

“Well, I met a few old acquaintances yes,” Alex took another wide look over the hall. “and made a couple of new useful ones indeed. But without your regal sister, princess,” he bowed his head slightly. “Without princess Luna the event seems to be unforgivably incomplete.”

“Oh, I see…” Celestia let out a tiny smile and Alex noticed two sparkles of amusement deep in her eyes. “The evening has just started and she was preparing something special, not even telling me… Besides, princess Luna is to attend to her usual duties, Alex.”

After those words Alex really noticed that the princess has already lowered the Sun and darkness flooded everything behind the castle windows; he didn’t pay attention to the night subtly claiming its rights because of bright lights of the Gala.

“Truth be told,” Celestia suddenly changed the topic, fixedly watching Alex. “I expected you coming with Fluttershy… if you found any interest in the event. But I can’t even see her anywhere, and you making Rarity a company instead. Is everything alright with Fluttershy, Alex? You were close enough, therefore I decided to ask you.”

“It’s a long story, your highness,” with a heavy sigh Alex looked up at the princess.

“I think, I have some time for a brief exposition,” with a kind, yet unobjectionable smile Celestia encouraged further explanation.

“Close enough is mildly said, your highness,” Alex braced himself inwardly, telling their story as it was. 

“…it became stronger than ourselves finally. I can barely cope with the break now and Shy… apologies… and Fluttershy even wanted to affect mine decisions, those she judged to be dangerous to mine wellbeing. You can see, princess, mine own concern returneth to me to strike mine own back… twice harder, it seemeth.”

“The girl is quite strong in her affections indeed,” quietly stated Celestia, closing her eyes. Then she looked directly into Alex’s again. “But that’s not the only case, right?”

“Verily! I realized, mayhap too late forsooth,” Alex confusedly looked aside, while Celestia squinted, catching his thickening accent. “That the imminent partying would be unbearable for us both… especially for her. The more severe, the longer we keep the unity.”

“Apologies, princess!” Alex interrupted his story, noticing Rarity, sending him welcoming signs across the hall, and waved back, gesticulating that he could come in a few minutes. Thus the sad long look, Celestia gave him, passed completely unnoticed and didn’t alert Alex, while it definitely was to.

“So… That’s purely mine decision, princess, and arrant mine guilt, but we needed to cool our heads up. I don’t know any solution for that now, have no idea, whether we can come to something anon, in the earnest.”

“I see,” Celestia nodded shortly and to his relief Alex didn’t spot any disapproval in her sigh.

“Rarity did me quite a few favours, your highness. So, at which hour she asked me to join her at the Gala, I agreed without any back thought, as her friend and out of pure gratitude. And… And Fluttershy… decided that if ‘t be true she wasn’t coming with me, she wasn’t coming at all,” Alex let out a heavy sigh. “So, yes, I am forsooth guilty of her absence.”

“It’s a complicated question, Alex. Guilt and…” Celestia slowly shook her head. “There are too many complicated questions arising lately.”

“You need to hurry,” she lightly touched his shoulder. “It seems Rarity is showing impatience already!”

“By your leave, your highness!” Alex nodded and Celestia waved permissively with a smile. Thoughts about Fluttershy made Alex miss the fair dose of concern in her expression again.

He tried to tune in a brighter mood on his way to Rarity, slowly making his way through the ponies, wandering around, and trying to switch his thoughts towards the unexpected luck with the Canterlot Steam Company. Suddenly he realized that in absence of Luna (Alex didn’t see her yet), he was the second largest creature at the Gala after Celestia, and not less bright one in his white clothes, protruding like an iceberg above the herd; that mischievous thought made Alex chuckle. He threw a glance to the orchestra, playing something soothing and unintrusive, heating up before the actual performance for the dancing couples; the kapellmeister though looked a little nervous, scanning the hall for something or somepony.

“What amused you, darling?” Rarity raised on her hind legs, taking Alex under the arm finally and catching a few surprised glances from the guests.

“Oh, something quite important just happened,” Alex looked at her, leaning her head to his arm. “If I’m lucky, I may consider my generators to start being profitable at last.”

“And you, are you enjoying the evening, Rarity?” asked Alex, watching the herd; the single guests were still coming, despite the Gala was officially open for quite a while – nopony thought it was a totally bad idea to be late to the beginning, the most important thing was to be at the event anyway. He stopped a waiter and took a couple of glasses from his tray, offering one to Rarity and trying the refreshment himself. There was some light wine in them, not usual apple cider, Alex got used to in Ponyville, but something with complex vinegar, fruits and flowers blend.

“Ahlex, darling, I do, without any doubts,” Rarity raised her voice a bit to overshadow the orchestra and took the glass with her aura, releasing Alex and throwing a starry glance at him. “Naturally, when you attend to them all, they become slightly boring, dear: same talks, same stilted snobs, to be honest,” she batted her lush eyelashes. “I asked you to keep me company within reason, Ahlex – now it is completely different.” 

“And I’m happy, it turned out that way,” she graciously leaned on his hand, causing Alex to kneel to her eye level.

“For the plans, which are coming true!” she raised the glass, floating it with her magic, with a bright smile, looking into Alex’s eyes.

“For our plans!” Alex supported her toast most neutrally, he spotted the sly sparkles deep into Rarity’s eyes, but could do nothing about it, except being twice more careful. Their glasses met with a tingling sound and they sipped the wine, doing it well deserved justice.

“Hmmm… This year it’s excellent,” Rarity squinted, enjoying it. “I wonder, if princess Celestia changed the…”

She suddenly stumbled and Alex noticed anxiety in her widened eyes, which looked at something… or somepony behind his back.

“Excuse me,” Alex softly touched her shoulder, slowly getting up and turning to the source of Rarity’s obvious unease. He didn’t notice anything particularly alarming there, just two unicorns in their evening dress, most likely a married couple, belonging to Canterlot high society, as Alex could determine in a couple of seconds, while he examined them. They stared at him in return with a strange mix of interest and hauteur.

“Oh, who do we see here?” the eyes of a grey stallion with the dark-grey mane focused on Rarity, who seemed to forget completely about her happiness, she proclaimed just a second before. Alex spotted a shadow of vile pleasure in them, as the unicorn in tuxedo looked like a school bully, who noticed his favourite victim. “ Dear Rarity,” this sounded like a mockery, falling from his thin mouth. “I hope, you are enjoying the evening.”

The olive unicorn mare with white and light-violet mane kept staring at Alex, like at some rare specimen. She could look very pretty in her evening dress, if not a constant faint expression on her muzzle, like if something not very pleasantly smelling was placed under her nose.

With an inward sigh Alex looked back at Rarity, her desperate glance clearly said “And here troubles begin!”, but she grasped herself and addressed the couple with a forced smile (which seemed painful enough to Alex).

“Good evening, Jet Set! Upper Crust! I suppose, you’re enjoying the gala… We surely do,” she tried her best to look and sound cheerful, but it came out noticeably forced, through gritted teeth to be honest.

“My! You came with a partner,” the stallion showed simulated amaze, like if spotting Alex just at that moment. “Well, dear Rarity, maybe you introduce us…”

“Of course,” reservedly said Rarity. “Where was my head? This is Alex, my good friend and… a human, as you both might notice.”

“Alex,” she turned to him and he heard how her voice trembled ever so slightly. “Let me introduce you Jet Set and his lovely wife Upper Crust,” Alex heard faint irony tint at the word “lovely”, while Rarity continued. “Significant – I won’t lie, saying that – part of Canterlot toffs.”

“It’s been a pleasure,” nodded Alex diplomatically, inwardly getting ready for anything, as he knew that facial expression – a ruffian was always a ruffian, of the upper class or not.

“A human?!” Jet Set’s voice seemed to gain an octave in fake surprise. “I’ve never heard about such thing. Did you, darling?” he turned to Upper Crust, sounding like “Wow, that thing talks!”

“No, dear, never,” his wife slowly shook her beautiful head with a sly smile. Jet Set made a step back, as if he wanted to see Alex better as the whole.

“To me it looks like a big talking ape…” musingly muttered he, examining Alex from head to shoes. “Where did you get it from, Rarity? And more important, what for?”

Alex squinted at the couple, gritting his teeth. A small town bar or regal function, morons were omnipresent, but he couldn’t simply knock this one off, compromising Celestia’s Gala. Rarity noticed, how the nodules jumped up and down on Alex’s cheeks, when he tried his best to keep calm. Meanwhile, Jet Set continued.

“I wonder, what are you keeping it for, Rarity? Surely an ape can’t be a sterling companion for the Gala… Oh, you had it dressed, quite fancy I must admit…” he chuckled, welcoming his wife to share his entertainment. Alex noticed, how a small herd started to gather around them four, sticking their fluffy ears to an obviously heating talk. “Are you going to advertise your new line here that way? But you were always stitching for ponies, not apes, if I’m not mistaking…”

Upper Crust giggled evilly, while Rarity was about to burst into tears, keeping herself restrained by a monstrous effort.

“Or maybe, you need it for some other service, heavy lifting, guarding… Or some other kind of things,” concluded Jet Set in a manifestly vulgar tone. “I’ve heard, apes were specifically dexterous at some… errmmm… physical activities,” he smirked, glancing at the nearby witnesses with the expression of a hooligan, successfully throwing his best (at being the worst) trick.

Alex looked at Rarity, her lips trembled, she swallowed the treacherous lump, trying hard not to let a single tear out. She raised her big shiny eyes at him, noticing, how Alex’s own eyes started to darken with the rage slowly boiling inside.

“Rarity, mine lief, givest thy… mantle to me, please,” Alex leaned to her, gently touching her shoulder. Rarity nodded in confusion, having no idea what Alex needed it for, but allowing him to take it.

Alex dragged fine silk mantle off her shoulders and slowly folded it, then once again, making the cloth piece in his hands shorter and thicker; he then quickly stepped to the unicorn, who was still smiling, but not so confidently already.

“I extend mine hope, that thou spoke with full responsibility for thy words!.. Sir…” added Alex mockingly. “Ergo the retribution is not a surprise for thee, moreover, thou can support thy claims by thy deeds, as insulting the lady isn’t something, I count an act of dignity!” and with those words Alex slapped Jet Set on his muzzle with the folded mantle several times, with considerable strength. “Or shall I consider thee a filthy ruffian, a lump of cowardice henceforth?”

That made an effect of the triggered bomb, Upper Crust simply gawked at Alex with utterly stupid expression, while her husband was plain stunned. Not for long though.

“You!!!” almost roared he. “I’ll crush your miserable ape ass for that!”

“Mine impatience in waiting is endless forsooth!” Alex folded the hands on his chest, measuring the unicorn with the glance of the naturalist, spotting a rare vermin. Rarity gasped at his words and realization of what might follow. “Carest to choose thy weapon… sir! However, pickest wisely, as the magic is not going to provide the desired effect,” chuckled Alex.

“Huh! I need no weapon, filthy critter,” Jet Set was beside himself of anger, his horn lit with the magic. “Prepare to be tossed, like some pretentious trash, you actually are!”

Rarity closed her eyes, she knew too well, what would happen. A bright flash was followed by somepony’s bewildered choked shout; when Rarity opened her eyes, she saw, just like everypony gathering around them, how Jet Set was hung in the air by his tail, surrounded seemingly by his own magical aura. Alex stood next to Rarity with an uninvolved look, lazily observing the unicorn, which was slowly turning, being sometimes jerked higher, then lowered again. Jet Set muttered muffled curses, straining himself to free from the grasp, becoming a frightening surprise for him, his wife was close to syncope.

“What’s going on here, pray tell?!” the soft, but stern voice drowned out the choir of ponies, gathering around them.

Alex looked over his shoulder, noticing princess Celestia in her sumptuous dress, working her way through quite a herd, which subtly gathered around the place of the incident. She approached him and Rarity and looked at the playing out scene over Alex’s shoulder.

“Alex!” Celestia threw a quick glance at him. “Could you, please, put him down?”

“Mine sincere apologies, princess,” Alex looked up to her muzzle, his eyes were laughing, while he kept the serious face. “I have no power to do ‘t, in the earnest. As you may remember, I can’t cast.”

Celestia sighed, closing her eyes, while Alex continued.

“Tis… no more brain than a stone je… Apologies! Tis… stallion insulted Rarity, so, I saw my duty in standing for her. I challenged him to a duel, your highness, leaving him the choice.”

“Alex!” Celestia’s voice was reproving, but he could hear a stifled laughter in it and she returned him the mischievous glance.

“I warned him about magic becoming a certain problem, in the earnest. But he preferred to try nevertheless. The rest you can have a pleasure watching, your highness.”

Meanwhile, Jet Set kept spinning, his powers were ceasing and he twitched weakly, still trying to set himself free. Upper Crust tossed beneath him, bending her fore legs pleadingly.

“Princess!!! Please…”

“If ‘t be true he stoppeth trying to grab me with his magic,” noticed Alex calmly. “He hath a fair chance to become free… from his own magic immediately. I’m not insisting, tis merely a friendly suggestion.”

Celestia snorted, apparently this farce was too much for her already, yet Alex noticed that she wasn’t entirely upset about Jet Set getting his punishment. It seemed that he had it coming for some tricks alike, he might throw quite often. A golden beam from Celestia’s horn set the stallion unconscious… and the magical bond ceased immediately, as Jet Set couldn’t apply his magic anymore. His unconscious self smacked down, landing on the muzzle, quite hurtfully, as Alex could suppose, but nopony, except Upper Crust, seemed to be very much concerned about that.

Celestia waved to the guards, ordering them to take the unconscious troublemaker to the hospital. Whining and throwing angry glances at Alex Upper Crust followed. Rarity, who seemed to wake up from her stupor at that moment only, convulsively grabbed his hand; Alex granted her with an encouraging smile.

The least sound, Alex expected to hear at that moment, was applause, but he was to admit, there were them exactly. Alex looked around to spot two stallions, who approached and watched the whole scene and now stomped their fore hooves on the stone floor, producing the sound, evidently supposed to be the local variant of applause. They threw utterly amused glances at leaving Jet Set and his wife, then turned to Alex.

“Mine gratitude!” Alex bowed theatrically, smirking.

“This was quite a show,” the pink stallion with white mane let out a sincere smile. “Thank you… Sorry, I don’t know your name, sir. Finally, that jerk had it fully on his own head.”

“Yeah,” confirmed another one – the white slender pegasus with light-grey mane. “Jet Set is always so unbearable, trying to show by any means, he finds applicable, that he is higher, than anything or anypony, especially those he can’t understand or accept personally.”

“He is full of his xenophobia and coxcombry,” nodded the pink stallion. “But this may teach him a lesson! Although, he is extremely amnesic to good lessons, if this is the same Jet Set, I know.”

Both stallions giggled, bringing their heads together.

“Oh,” remembered the pink one. “Where are my manners? I’m Slingshot… and if you find races interesting, I suppose you must have heard my name occasionally…”

“A name like a good spaceship launch,” Alex let out a smile.

“And this is my coltfriend,” Slingshot gently leaned on pegasus’ shoulder. “Silver Chord. He is an artist, Vocal Chord’s guitarist. Ever heard of Vocal Chord band?”

“Do I look like one, who does?” chuckled Alex. “No, sorry… Cause I’m a human and… I’m… in transit here. Hope I do,” added Alex barely audibly, then continued louder. “I’m Alex. Well, I’m magically resistant, which this guy failed to comprehend, thus getting it back on him.”

“It’s been a pleasure,” sincerely said Slingshot and Silver Chord nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve heard something about humans as a foal, but never thought I could meet one… when I heard that royal announcement, I thought, it was… well, it didn’t sound serious to me,” he shrugged with an apologetic smile.

Alex felt a soft warm touch on his arm and his eyes met with Rarity’s; she quietly approached and wrapped her fore legs around him.

“Ahlex, darling, do you still need it,” she pointed at his hand and Alex realized that he was still holding her folded mantle.

“No, Rarity, thanks. And sorry…” Alex covered her shoulders with the silky cloth; Rarity rubbed her cheek on his arm.

“But why? You shouldn’t be, that was quite…”

“You are with Rarity,” a wide smile appeared on Silver Chord’s muzzle. “Congratulations, she‘s quite a figure in the fashion world. So it was her, you stepped in for against this moron…”

“Twice more points to you,” added Slingshot, he raised his fore hoof and Alex shared a hoofbump without hesitation.

“Well, enjoy the night,” said Slingshot, after Alex introduced both stallions to Rarity, who appeared to know Silver Chord’s music, but wasn’t a fan of races, so Slingshot was a new pony to her. “And remember, if you come to watch the races, find me, free tickets to Jet Set’s “teacher” and his company,” he winked and both stallions mingled with the herd.

Rarity snuggled into Alex, but before she was able to say anything, they heard fast approaching hoofsteps. Celestia, who managed to sort the problem out at that moment, was followed by her sister.

At the sight of the younger princess Alex gasped, all the thoughts flew out of this head at once, leaving it empty and quickly filling with the thumping sound of his racing heart.

Apparently, not only Rarity decided to play on the contrasts tonight. Alex knew from the girls, who mentioned the galas shortly, that princess Luna usually preferred the dresses of the classic fashion: wide hem, tightly fitting bodice, high and lush collar; besides, the colours were always matching or fitting her starry mane and tail. The more stunning her current experiment looked, making quite a few, if not the majority of, heads turn and follow her for a while with a mixture of shock and rapture in the glance.

Alex, who wasn’t visually familiar with usual Luna’s style, froze on spot like a stalagmite, forgetting about all the words, frozen on the tip of his tongue, and simply staring, staring, staring… Contrary to the tradition, Luna chose the blinding white colour for that night and Alex thought that the long seemingly glowing from inside gown could easily make his own costume drop out of the competition as grey and dull in comparison. The dress, strapless, unique in its simplicity, yet elegance, tightly fitted Luna’s figure, advantageously emphasizing all the lady curves it was supposed to. It started under princess’ fore legs, forming the proper décolleté and probably using some magic to hold in place, silkily embraced her body and freely flowed down with quite narrow long hem. Sporting no visible décor or accessories, it simply shone, emphasizing Luna’s coat and starry-night mane in full glory of their variety of blue tones, and Rarity’s slightly opened mouth clearly told that half of Carousel Boutique could be bought for a roll of the fabric that fabulous dress was made of. The tiara-like crown and silvery hoofwear were the same, but Luna complemented the ensemble with the different, narrower and more elegant necklace, so it didn’t overshadow heavily her décolleté.

When Alex regained his ability to breath, he absently noted that Luna’s dress in its hemline is barely fitting the pony anatomy, making the princess move with short quick steps to pace with the older sister. Although, it had a high cut on one side, almost at the entire leg length; the edges were held together with silver clasps at that moment, but apparently the cut could be used for more comfortable movement at any time. Alex realized that the whole dress was designed to satisfy and highlight the moment, they both anticipated the most; the glimpse of Luna’s cutie mark made his heard jump and a small content smile curled princess’ lips.

“Well, thankfully Jet Set didn’t suffer much and we may deem the incident over… technically,” Celestia still looked concerned. “Are you alright, both of you? Alex… Alex!”

“Ahem… Princess? Apologies!” Alex twitched and emerged to the reality, looking up to the white alicorn; his eyes slowly returned to their usual size.

“The ponies keep discussing it and hardly anything can be done about that!”

“Excuse me, princess, I can’t help that,” Alex shrugged, clearing his throat and turning to the younger sister.

“You royal highness, princess Luna!” Alex followed the formal protocol, bowing with the whole elegance he was capable of, while still lavishing glances of delight. “Now the evening seems to be complete finally, like your Night after the moonrise!” 

“Alex, Rarity, good evening!” with a dainty smile, yet bright and extremely sly sparkles in her eyes, Luna bowed slightly, responding to Alex’s compliment and the reverence of finally unfrozen Rarity. Then the shadow of concern tinted her serene face and she addressed her sister. “I must have missed some incident. What exactly our subjects keep discussing, Tia?”

Celestia lingered with the answer, looking at Alex fixedly instead; he sighed, visibly pondering about the words to describe the situation, which would be less provoking the explosion. Alex remembered Luna’s reaction to the incident in the bar, Jet Set had a fair chance of his unconscious self to be kicked once again and considerably harder this time. Besides, making Rarity come through the details of that talk again seemed unnecessary to him.

“Your Highness, we came across… one of Rarity’s acquaintances,” Alex tried his best at keeping the poker face and neutrality in the tone. “He wasn’t the epitome of mannerliness, to tell the truth… Perhaps he never saw a human prior… Errmmm… Possibly he masked his surprise under being simply rude, but… he ended up voicing the suspicion that I was an “ape”. Maybe my posture made him say so…” diplomatically added he, inwardly shrugging and getting ready to what might follow.

Pause! Watching how Luna closed her eyes and pursed lips Alex almost felt the electricity quickly filling the air. 

“Ape?” Luna’s voice was quiet, yet full of arctic ice. “Posture?..” added she slightly louder and the metal notes in her voice made Alex think that it would be hardly smart to calm her down by the well-tried method in front of the whole herd. Yet he would gladly take the risks, if she continued in the Royal Canterlot Voice, whatever happening after…

“I shall show them the “posture”…” hissed Luna, squinting, her nose became pinkish from stifled rage. “Well, Merlin’s pants!..” dropped she suddenly with a challenge, making Alex literally drop his jaw. A few nearby ponies interrupted their talks, turning to their small company and watching with growing interest.

Luna’s horn flashed with a bright magic orb, making everypony, including Alex, froze; Alex thought that he even pitied the poor moron, as he knew, Luna was perfectly capable to reach Jet Set from here. But the magic aura enveloped Luna herself instead, leaving Alex guessing, what idea came into that pretty head.

When the flash faded, surprised and shocked sigh rolled across the hall accompanied by the loud trumpet sound from the orchestra podium – somepony clearly had less self-control and expressed their awe by breathing into the instrument accidentally. Now the dress was completely fitting, as Alex could notice with great relish: the décolleté, the narrow hem, the high cut – everything; despite being totally inspirational move, Luna’s spell came awesomely to the place.

Luna stood on her hind legs: not raised for a while, but exactly stood, quite comfortably, as she managed to alter her posture to become closer in shape to Alex. He completely understood those who gawked at the Princess of the Night, including the kapellmeister; Twilight mentioned polymorph magic once briefly, but Alex never saw it in action before. Although, the kapellmeister was professional to the bone, and despite the initial shock, followed each princess’ move with great attention; Alex started understanding, what she was going to undertake.

So, Luna kept her natural muzzle, mane, tail, hooves, everything a dignified alicorn should have, but she made herself smaller in size, completely fitting Alex’s height. She could move on two legs fluently now, freeing her “hands” to hold on the supposed partner. The dress fitted her like the second skin and Alex involuntarily noted that Luna remembered his first dream she visited, making the décolleté be not only a “concept”. Yet Alex was thankful, she didn’t mimic the whole girl appearance from their first “meeting”, staying the same Luna he loved and anticipated to see on that gala.

With another spark of her magic Luna unfastened a few clasps to be able to move faster, her mane formed a starry halo around her, when she quickly approached Alex, who barely stifled the urge to touch the silky coat of her leg visible through the high cut. He raised his bewildered glance on her instead, having no words.

“Follow me, lief!” Luna grabbed his hand gently, but firmly, and proudly cocked her head, making a barely noticeable nod towards the kapellmeister, who quickly turned to the orchestra and with a single glance brought the surprised herd to order. The familiar melody broke the forced silence and Alex let out a small smile, looking into princess’ bottomless eyes.

“Let’s show them… apes. Hmpf!!!” Luna dragged him to the center of the hall, where guests already formed widening free space, properly guessing their intent.

“Luna you’re simply… That was incredible,” whispered Alex. “What would Tia say though?”

“We shall find out a zilch anon,” Luna’s eyelashes flew up, the sly sparkles danced in her eyes. “I admit that wasn’t in mine plans, Alex. But came out quite nicely, considering I didn’t practice polymorph magic since last Nightmare Night; besides, we can dance easier now, mine lief!” She turned to him, reaching the spot.

Alex gallantly caught her silver shod fore hoof and placed his left hand on Luna’s waist gently, causing a barely audible sigh of excitement. He started leading without the delay, as the orchestra finished warming up and already played the melody, they had enough time to learn to be able to reproduce with closed eyes and probably tied hooves. Luna nodded approvingly, she didn’t spent her free time for nothing, being able to move properly without any count or noticeable guiding. Alex wondered how much time she spent training lately, as the dance came out fluently for her; Luna even was able to maintain the conversation without concentrating tensely on what her body was doing at every single moment.

“I thought about having the fingers likewise,” Luna placed her free hoof on Alex’s shoulder, the starry glance of her eyes seemed to pierce to the bottom of his soul. “But reconsidered the last moment. I didn’t try to turn into humans ever yet… Having an idea to try the same look thou hast observed in thy first dream, I entered, I was afraid to do something wrongly, lief! Henceforth hither I am of mine best effort…”

“People, my princess, people,” chuckled Alex lightly, holding her like the greatest treasure in the universe, advancing in cadena, making Luna step back, controlling the movements, minding the tail and at the same time enjoying the whole thing immensely. “I’m greatly thankful, you stopped, where you did, in the earnest. The result is exceeding all mine expectations!”

“Thou shan’t argue, that it’s easier to dance like that; I supposed that, but was surprised how much it is!” Luna snuggled to him, sharing the strong beat of her heart and feeling his one racing; she let out a satisfied smile. “Of course, it’s different from what I experienced afore, even on two legs, but amazingly easier, despite I didn’t try it,” she advanced in her turn, keeping her muzzle inches from Alex’s face, their glances constantly chained. The visible effort, Alex made, not to kiss her right at that moment, apparently brought her much pleasure.

“Oh, you are overly modest tonight, my love,” Alex brought her even closer, enjoying the look of dilated blue eyes. “You are wonderfully accurate and graceful, your highness! I couldn’t ask for more…” He spun Luna in a swirl, letting her away, holding on one hoof, then drew back, embracing from behind, enjoying the silky coat of her shoulders.

“Flatterer!” breathed out Luna, tilting her head back on his shoulder and almost touching Alex’s ear with her lips. “Although, thou art a good teacher, admit it.”

“I’m trying to conform you, my princess,” Alex chuckled, unable to shift his glance from her, from Luna’s smile, eyes, excitedly perked fluffy ears, from fast breathing and stretching the fabric of the dress chest.

Nopony dared to make them company in their dance, the guests kept the wide open space, Alex and Luna conquered entirely. The eyes of majority returned to their orbits already, yet the ponies followed them with the mix of surprised, amazed, enjoying and completely shocked glances. Among the herd with stunned, smiling and frowning muzzles (although, with the light heart Alex noticed that the frowning were in minority) Alex spotted two familiar stallions, sporting wide joyous grins; Solid Deal, whose eyes looked round behind the glasses, which he took off and started wiping, like trying to verify his vision; another unknown rank and fashion stallion with a beautiful young mare, the stallion nodded and a small smile curled his accurate moustache, his marefriend leaned on his shoulder with dreamy look. Then two mid age mares got into Alex’s field of view, those were frowning disapprovingly, pursing their lips; Alex noticed with a bit of gloating, they lacked the partners evidently.

Celestia’s and Rarity’s muzzles, who managed to get their feelings under control and watched him and Luna with eyes probably slightly wider than usual… 

Then guests, walls with chandeliers, high dark windows, everything merged into smudged colourful stripes. Luna’s mane surrounded them, touched Alex’s shoulders and face, they both were in their own lavender fragrant world, others were unable to reach or affect.

“So, what hath happened actually, mine lief?” Luna performed exemplar molino, holding Alex’s shoulder and keeping eye contact. 

“Everything was almost perfect,” Alex rolled his eyes. “Almost, because I tried to find you futilely all the time. Then a couple approached, it appeared that Rarity knew both well. Jet Set…”

“Oh!” Luna sigh was self-explanatory. “Tia didn’t have time to explain, but I arrant understand it now. After mine ill-mannered nephew Blueblood Jet Set is the second major Rarity’s disappointment in Canterlot upper crust… Excuse mine pun!” Luna smirked.

Alex briefly told her the rest of the incident between Rarity and Jet Set, not going deep into the details. He noticed in astonishment that Luna performed her part perfectly, almost automatically doing all the moves; she used her newfound biped form for the maximum advantage, trying the elements, they talked about, but barely tried with her, while learning. Thankfully Alex was ready to that turn right from the moment, she used her polymorph magic; although, he kept wondering, what she was going to undertake next.

“…and that was obviously too much to let slide,” Alex made a face. “I took Rarity’s shawl and slapped him nicely on the muzzle, telling everything, I thought about him and his manners.”

“So, thou practically…” chuckled Luna.

“Yes, I duelled him. What else did it look like?” Alex brushed her mane, letting the awesome hair flow between his fingers. “I left the choice to him and clearly warned him though that magic will backfire.”

“And he still tried to affect thee with it…” Luna finished for him, giggling like a school filly and leaning her head on Alex’s shoulder. “I recognize Jet Set – incorrigible no more brains than stone snob. I extend mine hope he got, what he “craved for”.”

“More than he could expect, my love,” chuckled Alex, leading again, as Luna was almost ready to stop and simply stay for a while in his embrace. “I won’t lie, I was even afraid a bit that the moron tried something different, than a kinetic spell, and the reaction would be overly strong and unpredictable. Thankfully he simply ended up being hung by his own tail.”

“Oh, lief!” Luna laughed openly, throwing her head back and making her marvelous mane flow, bathing them both in lavender. “Couldn’t thou wait a zilch with that, so I had a look likewise?”

After a few minutes of silent watching, princess Celestia and Rarity shared a bemused glance, evidently bearing the question: “Do you see, what I am seeing?”

With all due respect Celestia managed to control her thoughts and feelings noticeably better, although her eyes were still wider than usual. Rarity’s expression was still the mix of bewilderment, awe and, truth be told, despair; her lips trembled slightly, her wide open eyes shone and it seemed a wink away from the lakes to overflow. She opened her mouth, but the words got stuck somewhere amidst her throat, letting only a quiet intermittent sigh away.

“Exactly!” Celestia shook her head slowly. “I have no words either… What was that, pray tell?” She gently covered Rarity with her wing and nuzzled her ear reassuringly.

“I don’t know, your highness…” Rarity barely whispered. “But I can’t deny, they look… Ohhhh!” she squinted afflictedly and almost tore from her heart. “They look fabulous!” 

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” quietly muttered Celestia.

Meanwhile, the melody passed its climax, approaching finale slower, more measuredly; although, seeing the shine in Luna’s eyes Alex realized, her adventurous nature demanded for more. His amazing alicorn partner looked fixedly into his eyes and a gamine smile touched her lips.

“Knowest what, Alex,” playfully whispered Luna, watching him. “I’m arrant ready to try what we couldn’t do, at which hour I was larger and heavier than thou.”

“But it calleth for thy aid, mine lief!” her eyes were smiling, engulfing Alex, taking him away like a strong compelling tide. “As tis a game for both of us.”

“Llevada element? Merlin’s pants… Yes! Why not?” Alex lingered for a second only, giving back her smile and turning Luna fast, embracing her from behind; an excited squeak left her mouth, as she snuggled to him. ‘We only discussed that move, never tried it on practice, but… she seems confident and knows exactly, what she wants! My incredible princess!’

Three more pa to their triumph or fiasco… Two!.. One…

With the last high note they turned and Luna arched backwards, holding on his shoulder and hand and throwing her knee up on Alex’s hip, wrapping her leg around his; Alex supported her under strained shoulders, placing another hand on her cutie mark, which burned under his touch. He leaned to that alicorn beauty, his heart thumping its way out towards Luna’s raising chest, while she fluttered in his hands with eyes closed and her sumptuous mane flowing to the stone floor.

An eternity passed… Alex gently helped Luna stand up, they stood face to face, literally touching with their noses, holding hands and hooves; the sudden gust of wind threw Luna’s mane, covering their faces with the lavender veil, and Alex managed to steal a fast kiss.

“Thou art wondrous, mine princess!” Alex’s lips moved, but all he could hear was the sound of blood rustling in his ears. Luna whispered something, touching his billowing chest lightly.

When Alex could hear again, he thought first that the ceiling was falling, thunderstruck by the loud rumble around – perhaps half of the herd stomped their hooves on the floor, a few stallions were especially rampant. A wide grin wormed on Alex’s face, he knew, that was sound of their with Luna triumph. Less enthusiastic part of the guests kept stunned silence, but they both paid no attention to those.

Alex stepped back and kneeled to Luna, placing a kiss above her fore hoof and looking into her shining eyes, as the princess nodded benevolently.

Following Luna back to her sister and holding her “hand”, he noticed how the guests started mingling, flooding the center of the hall again and obviously anticipating more familiar music to dance. They quietly talked, throwing quick glances at Luna and Alex, making him inwardly chuckle.

Celestia met them with the poker face, carefully hiding her current emotions, but the absence of usual diplomatic smile didn’t bother Alex much this time.

“That was… quite an unusual experience, Alex!” finally finding the words the princess blinked, her left ear twitched up and down. “Although, after your the very first demonstration I am ready to the surprises seemingly of any kind.”

“Lulu, dear, what in Equestria…” she turned to her sister.

“Apologies, your highness,” Alex interrupted the Princess of the Sun softly with an apologetic gesture. “Princess Celestia, Luna…” Celestia quietly gasped.

“Could thou excuse me for a tiny moment longer, darling?” Alex kneeled to Rarity’s eye level, while she was looking up to him with a glimpse of tears in widely open hopeful eyes; Luna muffledly giggled at her sister’s expression at that moment. “I shall be back shortly,” he touched Rarity’s shoulders lightly, then quickly straightened.

Following his notable figure fixedly, Rarity bit her lower lip and watched Alex, approaching the orchestra podium. He gained the kapellmeister’s attention and leaned to the aged stallion, explaining something; the latter nodded finally, a smile made his moustache funnily wiggle, and turned to the musicians, raising the stick.

The sounds of the waltz, or something very similar from the usual Equestrian repertoire, reached their ears, before Alex returned to Rarity, making the majority of guests perk their ears: this was the melody they could perfectly dance under, in their own style.

Rarity threw her eyelashes up and her glance, dull and sorrowful lately, ignited again in a wink, when Alex bowed to her slightly, inviting for a dance. Straightening and becoming an epitome of grace again, she followed him side by side to the open space, already occupied by a few couples, who wasted no time with the first sounds of the local equivalent of the waltz.

Rarity took a victorious look around, making Alex smile inwardly, and raised on her hind legs, mercifully giving him one fore hoof and placing another on his shoulder. Standing straight she reached his neck only, forced to look up at Alex’s face constantly, but apparently, that didn’t spoil her pleasure; her starry again eyes and flushing cheeks clearly told that. They were given some space at once; perhaps, ponies feared such a large dancer as Alex slightly.

“Apologies, Rarity, I promised that dance long ago,” Alex leaned to her, pointing at Luna with his glance. “But this one is for you only!”

“For us, Ahlex!” Rarity batted her eyelashes, aiming that shot directly at her “prey”. “Maybe I am slightly angry with you… or maybe not, but you are atoning for your mistakes quite effectively, darling!”

“That was the actual plan!” chuckled Alex, spinning with Rarity fluently.

The guests joined the dance little-by-little, enlivening the evening; Alex’s glance jumped from one familiar muzzle to another, despite how few they might be. Mayor Mare in pair with an unknown stallion (Alex inwardly smiled, watching the stern mare having fun); Mr. and Mrs. Rich; that conspicuous high society couple of beautiful mare and noble stallion with a moustache, they felt and met his glance. Alex slightly nodded thankfully, keeping in mind their positive reaction to his dance with Luna, and got two dainty smiles in response.

They didn’t talk much with Rarity: she was the less confident dancer, and paid more attention to her moves and her dress not to stomp on it, trying to snuggle closer to Alex at the same time, when the moves allowed. In his turn Alex tried to control the situation constantly, supporting and helping Rarity, to make her experience the best possible.

He noticed Pinkie with a random partner, despite waltz being not her favourite dance, that pink lump of energy couldn’t stand still, given a chance to move. Applejack stood under the column with a pensive look, when suddenly a stallion approached her and bowed, inviting; dazedly Alex recognized Solid Deal. Jackie stumbled for a second and flushed, then a modest smile lit her muzzle and she nodded energetically.

Twilight, paired with Spike, moved quite classically and made Alex quietly snort, remembering her outstanding “exercises”, he witnessed once already. Spike was the only one, except them, dancing on two legs, but Alex and Rarity gained considerably more attention from the herd due to obvious reasons. Some ponies kept staring at them deliberately, throwing quick curious glances at the princesses, like trying to guess, what else that company could undertake tonight.

Watching sisters talking, Alex felt, how little inner discord nudged him under the ribs with a naughty thought, to check what effect could inviting Celestia make. Although, she was too large for him; besides, he remembered Luna’s words about her sister being not particularly good in dancing human-style; besides, Alex clearly knew the limits of his luck and dare for one evening. Now, when he wasn’t a prisoner or a test subject, the trip to the Moon in Tia’s company looked even less promising idea.

Luna noticed his glance and waved; Rarity nested her head on Alex’s chest, minding her horn not to poke his neck, her hoof stroked his shoulder unconsciously.

“Yet, Luna, dear, what are you doing for Equestria’s sake?” Celestia leaned to her sister, whispering loudly (although not too loud to let the nearby ponies hear) in her ear. “As it clearly was your idea as far as I could notice.”

“Defusing the incident, ye both told me about… and having much fun, in the earnest!” Luna threw a sly glance at Celestia. “What else did ‘t look like, Tia? Methinks galas are exactly about enjoying the company, dancing, having some fun, not about guests quarrelling or something alike.”

“And yes, that was mine idea from the start,” added she with a mirthful smile, watching the herd, like nothing happened. “For quite a while, if ‘t be true thou wantest to know.”

“Lulu, I thought, it was strange, when you spent so much time with the orchestra,” Celestia sighed. “But I couldn’t imagine it was going this far. It looked like something Alex could undertake exactly – random and… quite provocative.”

“Well, that was the point, Tia,” Luna was of the totally different opinion, finding the whole situation entertaining only. “I extend mine hope, thou understand, our little “show” shalt make everypony forget about the quarrel, the reasons of it, all the “strange effects”, Alex caused, ten times faster, than thy negotiation and persuasion. We haven’t done anything unusual, Tia, we simply danced,” Luna shrugged, stretching her wings graciously. “I say that again, I haven’t had that much pleasure for aeons it seemeth!”

“But the way you look… Lulu!”

“Hmm… I wanted to have the fingers likewise, must have been nice experience, Tia” Luna examined her fore hooves musingly. “But reconsidered at the last moment, didn’t want to fail something. I can’t recall, I ev’r mimicked a human afore, so… But it turned out well,” she raised her “hands”, stretching and doing a 360-degree pirouette. “What dost thou think, Tia?”

“Now the eyes of the whole herd are chained to you… and Alex,” almost hissed the Princess of the Sun. “And while he was in center of their attention all the evening, you attracted too much of it to yourself, Luna… To both of you at the same time,” added she meaningfully.

“Hmpf!” huffed Luna with a silvery laughter, making a few guests look back at her. “They shall talk about that dance, nice change from the usual boring court rubbish, I must say.”

“Besides, nopony dareth to mention any… apes now!” she snorted angrily, hot sparkles flashing in her eyes.

“Oh, that’s granted,” Celestia let out a wry smile. “But I’m not talking about that aspect only...”

“What then? We were simply having fun. And I’d like to believe, succeeded at that.”

“Exactly! Lulu, you both look like a proper couple tonight. Imagine the talks!”

“I extend mine hope wholeheartedly, we did!” slowly articulated Luna, smirking. “As for the rest – I don’t care, in the earnest. I advise thee to follow suit, sunny! They are always talking. Didst thou always take close to thy heart everything, the court gossiped about, Tia?”

“So, how long do you plan to keep that… look?” with a sigh Celestia preferred to change the topic. “It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, blueberry! But it’s utterly weird…”

“For the rest of the evening I suppose,” Luna said casually, shrugging. “I tend to like it, sunny.” She waved to Alex with a smile, causing Celestia to facehoof.

‘I guess, that’s a rare coincidence,’ Celestia watched Alex and Rarity, alternating to Luna and back. ‘They look so much alike. Rarity must have made quite an effort to achieve that effect subtly, but in case of Luna and him pure coincidence made the impression stronger… Poor Rarity…’ Celestia shook her head slightly.

Meanwhile, Rarity nested her head on Alex’s chest and completely gave up to his careful lead; what was in her head could only be guessed by her half-lidded eyes and dreamy expression, a mirthful smile made her muzzle lit with serenity and satisfaction.

Bathing in her undoubtedly promising thoughts she didn’t even noticed, how the melody came to its end and the hum of the herd reached their ears again. A few dancing pairs applauded and Rarity dazedly noticed that some applauded them as well as the orchestra, which did their job flawlessly to tell the truth.

“Oh, darling, that was fabulous!” Rarity’s eyes shone, she noticed that they stood in their embrace for a few moments after the waltz finished; Alex held her by shoulders gently and Rarity’s heart jumped like a sparrow on a twig. “Although, I’m a tiny bit tired,” confessed she apologetically, flushing a little. “I’m not used to moving on the hind legs for that long, Ahlex!”

Since that moment Rarity found the Gala, the guests, the program (which to tell the truth didn’t change much throughout the last years) simply fabulous; everything suited her as long as her own idea of the nicely spent evening came to the ealization in entirety… Well, maybe something was missing still, but in general she enjoyed greatly, what she had.

They made almost another full circle around the hall, spent in small talks; well, it was mostly Rarity who greeted the old kith and talked, Alex kept the diplomatic look and smile, fashion and style were not his stronger sides. Although, Rarity was quite surprised, when the stallion in thin glasses, who entertained Applejack with socialite talk, nodded to Alex and said something about their dance; Rarity even didn’t pay much attention to the actual words.

“Do you know him, Ahlex?” Rarity looked a bit stunned, when they distanced, so Jackie with her gallant couldn’t hear.

“Yeah, that guy… Solid Deal, he is from Canterlot Steam Company,” casually waved Alex, looking for somepony in the herd. “Talked to him a bit here on the Gala…”

Rarity opened her mouth to say something, but they reached Twilight and Spike at that moment and distracted Rarity lost the thread. Her bright mood drifted her away from anything non-important and she paid exaggerated attention to Spike with his jokes, laughing sincerely and nuzzling him gently on the head, making the little dragon flush instantly and release two heart-shaped streams of steam from his nostrils. She didn’t even notice, how Alex kept deliberate neutrality and the understanding glances they shared with Twilight.

They danced several times more and Rarity even benevolently switched partners with Twilight a couple of times; quietly giggling Twilight whispered to Alex that with more of Rarity’s favour she would need to carry Spike home like a balloon, holding by his tail. Alex nodded absently, he felt the fixed glance on his back and, looking over the shoulder, noticed Pinkie, watching him with a strange expression.

Little by little it passed midnight. Alex volunteered to bring the refreshments, while they came to an agreement, that Gala came out nicely, almost without weird incidents, sparing Jet Set’s vagary; he returned, then parted with Rarity, Twilight and Spike again.

At some point Rarity caught herself upon not being able to see Alex for a little while; she stumbled, answering Spike’s question, and took a quick look around. She could swear, she saw him a minute ago, cornered under the column by Pinkie, who meticulously tried to talk something through; Alex nodded and told her something, caught the concerned glance of Applejack from another edge of the hall, but smiled and waved both girls, showing he can perfectly handle. And indeed he managed to distract Pinkie and whisk away from her “mentor’s grip”.

Pinkie just joined them, her smile clearly told that she managed to deliver, what she wanted, at least partially, or so she thought. But Alex was nowhere visible…

“I’m sorry, darling,” Rarity patted Spike lightly. “Girl, please, excuse me!” 

She threw another concerned look over the giant hall, yet seeing no signs of her companion. Rarity crossed the hall, looked behind the rows of columns at both sides; there wasn’t a place Alex could stay unnoticed, definitely not among the herd, unless he decided to sit on the floor, but Rarity couldn’t imagine the reason for that. He wasn’t on the large open terrace either, among the few ponies, enjoying the fresh night air and more private talks, as she could see through the high windows, approaching them.

Almost about to ask princess Celestia of where her quite noticeable company could vanish, Rarity noticed that she couldn’t see one more character on that stage. Princess Luna was also missing among the guests, like Alex she should be easily seen above the herd, but… 

Rarity’s heart skipped a beat.

On another side from the entrance the hall opened to the long, almost dark now, dimly lit by rare torches, gallery and Rarity decided to look there, as it was the last possible place, Alex could reach without teleporting from the Gala. 

A sudden chilling draught fluttered the long red hem, curling around her legs and making Rarity involuntarily shudder: the gallery seemed to go across the whole castle, with a few turns to avoid racing winds, yet plenty of space to search for a couple of hours. Rarity turned her head perplexedly, she had equal opportunities to go left or right from the main hall, when she fancied distant voices from her right, coming from the twilight of the gallery.

Long rectangles of ghostly moonlight alternated on the gallery floor with warm yellow spots from the crackling torches; Rarity tried to keep in the shadows to stay unnoticed by the mysterious collocutors, slowly slinking forward and inwardly scolding herself for each accidental rustle of her fashionable dress. A strange thought about borrowing Fluttershy’s spec-ops masquerade suit instead popped in her mind, Rarity shook her head exasperatedly.

The voices became closer, Rarity could easily distinguish the male one – Alex. A couple yards closer, trying to breathe less often, Rarity slid further, staying at the line between light and shade, mentally blessing her relatively dark dress. She heard and recognized the female voice as well, silvery and tenderly flowing, with laughing notes piercing the quiet tone. But it wasn’t necessary already: Rarity could clearly see two tall white figures in the misty twilight under the column; stifling her rapid breathing she turned all ears.

“Thou art so heavily guarded tonight, mine lief!” Luna’s eyes radiated. “I thought, I had no chance to reach thee…”

Alex simply sighed, he was lucky, he could escape Pinkie with her attempts to drive into his head the idea about them with Fluttershy behaving overly stupid, breaking like that. He barely managed to intercept Luna’s glance and follow her to the gallery, sliding out of pink energetic pony grasp by some unbelievable miracle.

“I couldn’t simply leave them right away, my princess,” Alex looked into those large deep blue lakes, feeling he was sliding in, drowning already. “Besides, we needed the guests… and your dear sister to relax, enjoy the evening and loosen their vigilance, otherwise, we couldn’t probably be given a single chance to enjoy our talk.”

“Oh, Alex, Tia is already almost sure about us,” the dark blue beauty funnily wrinkled her nose, making a face. “Mayhap unsure about how far it hath gone, but arrant not having any illusions.”

“Well… my butt is still not served on a silver plate, so, maybe I was right not making things even more obvious,” Alex felt his heart beating faster, as Luna stepped closer.

“Or mayhap thou simply liked dancing with little miss Rarity,” giggled the princess, placing her fore hooves on his shoulders. “Comest on, mine lief, make a confession…”

Alex quickly pulled her closer instead of an answer, the silk fabric of her dress cooled his hand pleasantly; diving into her eyes Alex ran his fingers through Luna’s starry mane, causing another wave of lavender aroma surrounding them.

“Mayhap I’m wrong…” quietly added Luna, leaning to him and wrapping her “hands” around Alex’s neck.

“Rarity is a good friend, my princess,” Alex stroked her bare shoulders, making Luna coo and snuggle to him tighter with every second. “An awesome friend and I always tried to do my best to be thankful for that, but she allows her dreams run in front of the reality, I can do nothing about that, Luna. I accepted her invitation wholeheartedly, but as a friend only… Besides, I could hardly…”

Alex leaned to Luna’s soft ear and, despite she stretched her neck and perked the ears, Rarity couldn’t catch a word from the end of the phrase, said in a whisper; although, she could see Alex’s hands travelling across Luna’s back, stroking, caressing tenderly. Suddenly Luna rested her knee on the column, letting Alex’s hand drop on her hip and snuggling into him with her whole body.

“Thou dost not need to tell anything, lief! I know… I am arrant happy everything played out as it did. And… I enjoyed our dance immensely. Certain elements espe… Aahhhh!”

Luna squeaked and threw her head back, Alex squeezed her leg gently, placing a hot kiss on her neck and making Rarity bite the fore hoof in her hiding place, not to give out herself. Feeling Alex’s palm on her burning cutie mark, Luna held his head in place for a while, squinting and almost purring, then released and kissed his forehead.

“Something… is still bothering thee, Alex,” half-asked half-stated she, looking fixedly in his eyes. “Is it… thy parting with Fluttershy? What did actually befall, if ‘t be true thou can tell?”

“Yes, my princess,” Alex wrapped his hands around Luna’s shoulders, letting her nest her head on his shoulder, her night coloured mane covered both like the luxurious mantle. “I love you, I love her, I can’t decide… And I arrant hate myself for that. I fear the moment, I’m able to leave, the inevitable words and feelings… and I’m already unsure, if ‘t be true I’m doing right, trying to leave…” Alex took a breath. “Thou seest, Luna, I’m one big sack of contradictions lately, that helpeth find the solution not. The one, which shan’t be hurtful for us all.”

“Tia doth the best she can,” quietly said Luna, stroking his chest with her hoof musingly. “But I don’t know, if…”

“Fluttershy knoweth about us,” Alex sighed heavily. “I was to tell her that I am a sleepwalker… and all the rest naturally. In brief, but that changeth anything not.”

“I expected that, lief,” Luna nodded calmly, then she looked up into his eyes. “But that’s not the main problem, correct? Thither is more to your problem than that.”

“Truth be told, we parted the way, we should nev’r actually come to,” Alex downcasted. “Unlike thee, Luna, Fluttershy is uneasy about me unable to decide and choose, but at the same time she is uneasy about me wanting to decide on other aspects of mine future.” Luna waited till Alex elaborated.

“She feareth for me dealing with the Seekers, me working with the blacksmith… and at which hour I mention the body armour, she becometh shaky, realizing that I’m ready to take even more risks,” Alex rubbed his temples tiredly. “She wanted to decide what was safe for me and what wasn’t. And I simply can’t stand, at which hour others try to pamper me like that, without the actual reason.”

“Alex, Fluttershy was always of a strong motherly type,” Luna nuzzled his cheek soothingly. “It’s her native Element – Kindness. I’m ready to admit, it can be excessive oft, but…”

“… but I used that as an excuse, because I’m afraid of what can happen, when it’s time to leave, Luna!” Alex finished for her with a doomed expression. “It all has gone too far and we eagerly allowed that, the more painful it can be, when… She doesn’t have your serenity and wisdom, my princess, you are too different. But maybe that is why I am unable to choose. I said we must find some solution, but I don’t see any yet, I’m still at the starting point.”

“Knowest what,” Luna threw a sly glance at Alex. “Not so long ere, if ‘t be true any stallion made such a confession to me, I would have made him regret any tiny word of it most likely… But things change oft, so do ponies,” she squeezed him tighter, biting his ear slightly and making Alex gasp. “This solution is arrant thy burden, mine love.”

“Can I make another confession… while I am safe from the royal wrath seemingly?” Alex tenderly took Luna by her cheeks and stared into her eyes. “Luna, I appreciate your gesture verily. That made the evening, the dance, my experience special, for which I’m immensely grateful. But… could you please return to your usual form, my princess? Because that’s Luna, I once met and sincerely love. I don’t know how else to say, but… I’m quite happy with you being you!”

Luna’s eyes dilated, she stepped back a bit and in a second bright flash of magic returned the regal alicorn to her usual form and size, her dress magically fitting the changes. Alex couldn’t say a word before the dark blue and white flurry grabbed him into the warm, soft, lavender fragrant embrace, his lips melted into Luna’s and two white silhouettes became one again. 

For a few blissful moments Alex forgot about everything: the gala, the guests, the gallery. There were only them two in lavender clouds, holding on each other, sharing their breath ardently. Luna’s fore hooves stroked his back, pulling Alex closer to her soft warm coat, her eyes were closed, she even staggered and Alex was to support her a little, leaning his back on the column not to fall himself. He ran his fingers through her mane, touching her swan neck lightly, stroking her soft ears, which perked excitedly, like carved from the stone; Alex kept caressing Luna’s awesome hair, unable to stop, feeling its watery silkiness on his skin. Luna’s breath became noticeably faster, panting she rubbed her cheek on Alex’s, when they parted, then brought her nose to nose with him, hypnotizing with her half-lidded eyes… only to conquer his lips again in a series of fast hungry kisses.

“Lu-u-una-a-a!” Alex could only quietly moan, when she relaxed the embrace slightly. He blinked several times, focusing.

The magic of the moment was interrupted by a stifled whimper and loud sound of hoofsteps quickly receding from the place of their spontaneous rendezvous. Turning to the noise Alex and Luna were able to notice the edge of the red dress, flashing in the rectangle of moonlight.

“Merlin’s pants!” Alex facepalmed with a heavy sigh. “Right when she finally calmed down…”

“How long did she hide in the gallery behind? What do you think?” added he after a few seconds of awkward silence.

“Could do for any amount of time, but methinks the last few seconds were more than enough, mine love,” Luna shrugged, letting out a tiny smile and nesting her head on Alex’s shoulder; Alex exhaled forcedly, then lightly touched her silky cheek.

“I don’t want…”

“I know, mine love… And I know Rarity,” Luna stroked Alex’s chest lightly, trying to hide the sadness in her voice. “Thou needst to go, Alex. Follow her, so she maketh something weird out of pure emotions not. I shall see thee anon, mine lief!”

“Promise?” Very slowly, half-heartedly Alex broke his embrace with Luna, still holding her fore hoof. He had no tiniest wish to leave her sitting alone in that dark gallery, but at the same time understood that prone to overdramatizing Rarity could throw any trick, after witnessing them.

“Royal Word!” his blue beauty raised her nose comically, then whispered. “I promise…” Right before Alex caught another short, but very affectionate kiss of her lips. With a sigh she watched his back, vanishing in the shadows of the gallery; the accelerating steps faded in the distance.

Accurately, with an innocent expression Alex entered the large hall, trying not to gain unnecessary attention. A quick, but inspective glance around revealed no signs of his unfortunate fashionista partner.

‘Naturally!’ inwardly scolded himself Alex. ‘What else did you expect? Well, it’s already half past midnight, she could head to the station only…’

Bracing himself Alex headed to princess Celestia, easily finding her among the herd.

“Your Highness!” Alex cleared the throat diplomatically, elaborating, when Celestia turned. “Mine deepest apologies, the circumstances force me to leave the Gala. It’s been a pleasure, princess…”

‘Up to the certain moment,’ added he inwardly, then decided to ask. “Ahem… Maybe… Your Highness, did you see Rarity? We… errmmm… missed each other and…”

“Oh, of course, I saw her,” Celestia’s voice was noticeably dry. “She apologized and bid a goodbye a few minutes ago. I think I’ll be hardly mistaking, if I say her eyes were tear-stained… You can still catch up with her, if you want.”

“Thanks, princess! And excuse me…” Alex breathed out, bowing and almost running to the exit, making the ponies give him way fast. Celestia followed him with a concerned expression on her muzzle.

“What did I miss, Tia?” the silvery voice made Celestia turn and look at her sister.

“Rarity and Alex just left. I must say they crumpled their goodbye noticeably, can you imagine?” Celestia watched Luna fixedly, then smirked. “Oh! What made you reconsider, Lulu, against your extravagant look?”

“He simply asked me to,” stated Luna, not batting a single eyelash.


*

Alex found the road back quite easily: first he was able to check the “landmarks” from the castle terrace at the top of the stairs, the rest of the city lied lower and the station was discernible from the distance; besides, the road was still highlighted by extra lamps at the most unobvious crossings. Although, he took an extra turn once, but quickly oriented and returned, not even walking the whole block in the wrong direction.

The castle with its noisy party stayed behind and the streets were quiet, a single night bird chirped wistfully in the distance, a dog barked from behind somepony’s fence, disturbed by his steps, loud in surrounding semi-darkness. Everypony, who by any reason were not attending the Gala, already slept in their houses; the ponies usually got to their beds considerably early, if nothing demanded for staying awake late.

‘Well, not all the ponies…’ Alex looked back at the lit mass of the castle, the thought of ponies, preferring nightly activity, made him smile wide involuntarily. Perhaps even made his steps lighter, as after a few more minutes of wandering the dimly lit streets with dark gardens at the sides Alex finally reached the railway station.

The fog noticeably took over since evening and the bright station lamps on their long posts looked like floats, swaying above the white clouds in the cooling down air; they lighted the milky mist around, but were unable to let see through it decently. All the boarding platforms were empty at that moment as far as Alex could notice through the foggy veil. He scratched the back of his head; obviously, it was too early and the trains supposed to be given in time to take returning guests back, when the Gala is over. At that moment the cars were resting somewhere not to obstruct the transit tracks. But where?

With a low warning whistle a cargo train passed by, slowly dragging the heavy cars through the fog, like a long shoal of whales. Alex looked around as far as the mist allowed, it took him a while to spot a darker silhouette under the light post near the station office, ghostly shadow floating in the damp air.

‘Interesting, how do they fight the rust, if the proximity of that waterfall makes each evening alike,’ absently pondered Alex, heading to the building. ‘Or we are simply that lucky tonight!’ He thought that a bit longer and his fancy shirt would stick to his back.

“Good evening, sir!” Alex’s voice and greeting gesture pulled the station worker out of his thoughtful observation of the platform and tracks and made the earth pony stallion in railway uniform and cap pay his attention to suddenly emerging from the mist human figure.

“Evening. How can I help you?” the grey pony wiggled his moustache and looked over Alex from head to toes, his eyes stopped for a second on Alex’s tie and cufflinks.

“I’m looking for the… Southern Express cars…”

“They are at sidetrack five, down the dead end,” the stallion waved his hoof, showing the direction. “There. Just be careful not to slip on the tracks; you need to cross a few, sir. The fog is quite thick tonight…”

“And the…” continued Alex, but the railwaypony interrupted him, taking another look over Alex and stifling a smile.

“And your lady headed there a…” the stallion checked the office clock. “… a quarter of an hour ago. I thought she needed help crossing the rails in that dress of hers, but she was quite determined and quick…”

“She looked upset and mildly stressed,” added he with a tiny sympathetic shrug.

“Oh, mhm… Thanks,” Alex downcasted, heading in the shown direction. “Good luck on your shift!”

“Have a good night, sir!”

That sincere wish wasn’t excessive; although, Alex wasn’t entirely sure, if it had a fair chance to become implemented. The tracks he crossed were wet and slippery indeed. With the mental image of Rarity crossing them, supporting the hem of her dress with magic and swallowing tears, Alex inwardly scolded himself. On the other side, she knew enough about him and Luna, she knew everything about him and Fluttershy, he agreed to make Rarity’s company at the Gala, but if she expected much more of him, that wasn’t his fault – he definitely didn’t give her any chance to treat that evening anyhow, except as a friendly gesture. That was pure logic… Unfortunately, the reality felt uneasy anyway.

It was darker here, but Alex managed to almost bump into his train, even before his night vision worked; he raised the hand and touched the cold side with condensed drips, walking along the tracks and looking for their car. He didn’t know, if the lightening was working, besides, the compartment windows were from another side, thus Alex was to count the cars, considering the train was oriented exactly the same way it arrived at the station. Alex followed along the train, thinking about Rarity’s reaction.

‘What exactly she expected to see on the Gala? Me completely ignoring Luna? I tried my best to make the evening enjoyable for her… considering all, that happened. But if Rarity hoped that I would push Luna away, simply because I “came to the Gala with her”…’ Alex facepalmed inwardly.

Finally, the right car was found, Alex groped for the door in the light of distant lamp at the dead end and got inside. The corridor was dark, only a little light came through the windows from outside, but one of the compartment doors was loosely shut and a thin gap let out a stripe of dim light into the hallway. 

‘That’s going to be more serious, than I thought…’ Alex sighed and slowly shook his head, he seemed to hear a quiet whimper.

*

‘What did I do wrong?! Oh, sweet Celestia, why… why it’s always happening to me?’ Rarity didn’t change her pose seemingly since she entered the compartment, turned on the magical light crystals and dropped herself on the seat, fore legs onto the folding table and her head on her hooves, completely forgetting about the unforgivable possibility to crumple her manedress. Bitter tears of regret, when she mourned another lost opportunity, changed with moments of apathy and Rarity absently pondered, how she could affect the event and if she ever could change anything.

‘Everything was almost perfect,’ sighed she, accurately blotting the next portion of tears and checking, if her eyelash extenders were in place. ‘We had fun, Ahlex actually enjoyed the Gala… I could see that right before… before…’ she sniffed again, then let out a little smile. ‘It was the first time, when my encounter with Upper Crust and Jet Set ended differently. Unbelievable… but Ahlex easily made them pay for each evil word, still being above the situation.’

‘And he did it for me exactly!’ her reflection in the dark window covered with condensed water from outside nodded to her and Rarity examined her own sad eyes, tear trails on the white coat and tiny smile, that stayed for a while, when she remembered, how she watched the scene with dilated eyes and half-opened mouth; despite she was in shock, her heart fluttered happily at that moment. ‘He was completely calm, watching with the wry mocking smile, when Jet Set badmouthed him personally… and that smile turned into gritted teeth in a wink, when those two tried to insult me…’

Rarity let out a sigh, absently drawing the imaginary pattern on the glass with her fore hoof; her pensive reflection bowed the horn and sapphire tiara in her mane dimly flickered in the compartment lights.

‘The incident wasn’t a pleasant experience, of course. I can’t remember something like that happening, but there was no our fault in that – Ahlex warned Jet Set clearly, but the stubborn snob preferred to check himself. And even that couldn’t spoil the evening, princess Celestia was quite understanding and resolved the situation quickly,’ Rarity remembered, how she snuggled to Alex afterwards and he wrapped her shawl around her shoulders and hugged her; another smile, this time pleased and dreamy, appeared on her muzzle.

‘Princess Luna though…’ Rarity slowly shook her head with disbelief. ‘I always do everything methodically, meticulously planning everything beforehand, as father teaches me at every occasion. Planning is the key to success, I made this dress, quite daring for ponies, and Ahlex’s costume specifically to… “stake out the plot”. Everything worked just right, guests looked at us and saw at once that we came to the Gala together. But then her highness appeared,’ Rarity frowned a little, she still felt a bit insecure in princess Luna’s company. ‘And crossed out all my efforts…’

“Ugghhh, daaarling, you’re trying to compete a royalty! Don’t expect it to be easy,” Rarity said aloud, trying to swallow a lump and hold back tears, treacherously filling her eyes again.

‘Still… Her dress, despite being simple, looked more classy and daring at the same time. I wouldn’t wonder, if it held on with magic usage partially,’ Rarity rolled her eyes with a tiny viperous smirk. ‘Furthermore, it was of the same white colour as Ahlex clothes, what an unlucky coincidence…’ she inwardly facehoofed. ‘And when she threw out that trick… Ohhhh, she looked almost exactly as one of his kin… Sweet Celestia, they danced and looked like a couple. And there was true passion in their dance, not simple politesse or entertainment; she simply grabbed him and dragged to the center of the hall.’

‘How she leaned to him, looked and smiled…’ Rarity’s ears flattened. ‘And the last element… Ahhh!’ Dreamy sparkles shone in her eyes for a moment, she so wanted to be on Luna’s place there, not even thinking that it would be impossible to repeat every move with pony anatomy. Rarity squinted.

‘On the other hoof, it did only good actually,’ she let out a small sad smile. ‘Everypony stopped discussing the incident and switched their attention to Ahlex and… and princess Luna, their dance,’ Rarity sighed heavily. ‘Yet, he invited me next… Second, but I managed to look and move quite elegantly… and that dress paid for itself!’

Rarity cocked her head and seemingly enjoyed her memories for a few moments; then suddenly her joy faded again and head drooped.

‘But then… then…’ Rarity sniffed with a fitful sigh. ‘After a while I noticed that Ahlex simply vanished from the hall! He could want to take a breath on the terrace or… but he didn’t tell me a word,’ Rarity’s eyes glistened wetly again. ‘Then I noticed one of the princesses missing as well. Exactly THAT one!’

Rarity remembered, how she decided to look for Alex in the nearby rooms and hallways, checked the terrace, finally entered the long gallery behind the large hall; her breath became more and more uneven with each second and it traitorously tingled in her nose again. The image stood before her eyes too vividly to stay calm: she entered the gallery, took a look left and right, deciding, where the human might go, then headed to one side… she didn’t even remember, where exactly. Rarity thought, she heard quiet voices in the shadows of columns, further in the gallery… Slowly and accurately, not to let accidental hoofstep give her away, she approached the sounds. Then she was able to see two white silhouettes in the soft twilight under the large column. Then the two silhouettes… became one.

‘They simply glued to each other!’ tears ran down Rarity’s muzzle, as she quietly whimpered, masochistically recalling more and more details. ‘They talked so tenderly, almost cooed and Luna snuggled to Ahlex… then he asked her something and with a chuckle she returned to her usual alicorn form. Still, the snuggle became only tighter after… How they embraced each other…’

Rarity sobbed again, dropping her head on her fore legs, exactly how she did after running out of the gallery, squeezing an apology to the princess and leaving the castle in frustration and despair. She ran to the station, asked about their train and curled in the compartment like a small filly, deprived of a holiday.

‘Why it is happening to me each time? The worst thing ever… The worst thing that can happen to a lady at the gala!’

She pitied herself and inwardly complained about the injustice of that world, but a small voice told her that she was a silly filly and if circumstances were different, Alex would hardly ever leave Fluttershy, so she had even no chance for that attempt. Then an uncalled thought about trying, how it was to be at Spike’s place once, came afloat, but Rarity banished it away quickly.

Remembering about Spike Rarity thought that despite her mare charms always worked flawlessly on everypony (for example, Spike was unable to resist her slight eyelash batting), those arrows missed Alex completely and he managed to treat her kindly, thoughtfully, even gently… but as a friend only. That called out another burst of tears, but inwardly Rarity was determined to accept the challenge. She sniffed and let out a sigh full of sorrow, at the same time bracing herself and getting ready for a new “battle”.

‘Nopony can say that Rarity gives up that easy! We’ll see…’ 

What exactly everypony should see remained secret, as the steps and sound of opening door interrupted her thoughts and almost made her jump on the spot a little, despite Rarity anticipated it. She stayed in her sorrowful pose, crying and sniffing quietly, but one ear carefully caught each sound in the compartment. She heard, how Alex closed the door with a heavy sigh, then the seat went a bit down under his added weight.

Alex stretched his hand to stroke her mane, but the suffering girl sounded so miserably, he reconsidered, unsure if touching Rarity at that moment was a good idea.

“Rarity,” Alex cleared the throat, noticing that the cute white ear perked a bit more; the little fashionista still sobbed quietly. “Rarity, please… I’m sorry, it went that way! But…”

“Look… I couldn’t simply ignore others on the Gala,” said Alex quietly in the most soothing tone, he was capable at the moment; a whimper followed. “Not princess Luna definitely. She… she is one of the few, who really understand me, moreover, she is not indifferent to my fate… We are very close, emotionally, by our characters and…”

“I noticed…” another quiet whimper.

“Rarity, I don’t know, what you want me to say… and if I really need to report to anypony in that case,” Alex sighed and shook his head. He looked around the compartment and took out one of the clothes cases, opening it and putting on his seat. The cufflinks and tie clasp resisted him for a while, so he huffed impatiently, finally detaching them and putting on the table.

Alex took off his fancy clothes, trying to do that fast enough and not look at Rarity at that moment. Both white ears perked high already, hearing the rustle, Rarity fought a strong wish to turn and watch him. Alex managed to replace his daily clothes in the case with his fancy costume and put on his casual pants, when she gave up, letting out a particularly woeful sigh and sniffing again.

Rarity raised her head and looked up to him, Alex met the glance of large sad eyes, compartment lights reflected in them, shimmering like distant stars. Nevertheless, a small smile lit Rarity’s muzzle and she blinked several times, drying her eyes.

“It’s me, who needs to apologize, Ahlex,” whispered she finally. “I’m a silly filly… Dreamed things up, made myself a complete foal in front of Celestia and the guests, ran away like a tiny filly. We agreed to go together and have fun… and instead of that, I decided that I could…” she sighed. “As I said, Ahlex, a complete foal I am.”

“Don’t say that…” Alex left his shirt on the seat and sat next to Rarity, finally stroking her mane lightly. The girl squinted and unconsciously leaned to his hand, Rarity’s ears lowered horizontally and it looked a bit funny, how she enjoyed the touch. “I’m sorry, it turned out a bit disappointing to you… I… I really tried…”

“Don’t apologize,” an obvious sigh of pleasure left Rarity’s mouth. “I got… a bit… carried away… Cried like a little filly… all the way back here…”

“I think we need to have some rest,” Alex got up; even if Rarity preferred him to stroke her mane more, she didn’t show any regret. “The Gala will be over soon, but the road takes over three hours and we need to walk to the town from the station. Some sleep won’t hurt.”

“You’re right, darling,” Rarity got up as well, but leaned on the table with a sigh.

“I’m still a little shaky and weak,” she looked at him over the shoulder apologetically, then straightened up. “I need a couple of minutes…”

Alex nodded, he hung his clothes case and opened another, putting it on Rarity’s seat, made his one into a bed, using the bedding, mindfully brought by the conductor. When he turned, Rarity still stood with tiredly closed eyes, holding on the table. Alex approached her, taking her by the shoulders lightly; thick fog stuck to the window from outside, letting it reflect Rarity with Alex behind her. She barely noticeably staggered.

The touch on the dress zipper made Rarity wake from her thoughts and she looked at Alex over her shoulder; he noticed that she was actually tired, perhaps the evening and the following tense was too much for her. Gently opening the zipper Alex put his hands on Rarity’s shoulders, sliding the dress down; he felt how her coat instantly heated at his slightest touch, as unicorn girl leaned on him, looking up sleepily.

“Ahhhlex!” Rarity’s eyes dilated, when he took her under the fore legs and practically lifted out of the gala dress, sitting on his seat and letting her nest on his lap, wiping the remnants of her tears accurately. She couldn’t keep that surprised look for long though, her eyes were closing and she was soft and limp, like a doll. 

Rolling the eyes inwardly Alex felt, how Rarity wrapped her fore legs around his neck and nested herself on his bare chest. He held her warm body and inhaled the smell of her mane; Rarity nuzzled his neck gently, cooing something muffledly and placing a hot kiss under his chin. But before Alex thought that he might overdo with sympathy, he heard her quiet, even, relaxed breathing – Rarity fell asleep.

Wrapped tightly into his unicorn friend Alex shrugged and tried to get at least some comfort for himself: he lay on his, prepared for the night, seat and accurately placed Rarity the way, not to risk being poked with her horn in the eye. She immediately snuggled her warm back into him, smiling happily through her sleep. 

A whistle from outside notified about the loco arrival, muffled voices of the station workers, attaching the train, came from behind the window. In a few minutes their car jerked as the loco headed to the platform delivering the Southern Express to the waiting passengers. Alex held Rarity to secure her from sudden train pushes, he buried his face into her soft mane and stroked her shoulder lightly, thinking about all the troubles, this girl was going to bring him yet.

The train stopped again at the boarding platform, tired and enlightened voices of the returning guests filled the car. Somepony trotted back and forth behind their compartment door, but Alex didn’t hear that already. The following whistle and another push of the departing train were completely ignored by them – both Alex and Rarity slept tight.

*

“Knock, knock”

Fluttershy waved her mane to remove the naughty strands from her muzzle and listened. Was she falling asleep already and hearing that in her thin and transparent yet dream?

“Knock…”

Apparently, somepony was behind the front door, asking to let them in. The wall clock unambiguously told that it was half past midnight; quite late for her, no wonder that she felt drowsy, Fluttershy totally forgot about the time, distracted by her duties. Nevertheless, she approached the door calmly, neither timberwolves, nor Seekers knocked.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Flutters…” Rainbow’s voice was tired and colourless, but still easily recognizable… up to barely audible at that moment “So what?” tone to it.

“May I come in for a minute?” Rainbow floated like a balloon inside, when Fluttershy opened and nodded surprisingly, feeling that the sleep was dispelled completely.

“Sure… What has happened, Dashie? You simply burst in usually,” Fluttershy chuckled, but hugged Rainbow wholeheartedly. “I wonder, what could make you knock on the door tonight?” 

Rainbow wrinkled her nose funnily, like if she was going to make a face, then suddenly reconsidered.

“I’ve trained till late night, pal. While I was able to see the obstacles fine,” simply said she instead and nuzzled her friend’s cheek. “You know, I need to impress Wonderbolts, so I need to be awesome or not be there at all! Then I flew by and saw the light… and decided to check, if you were alright, pal. You’re not a night-bird, Flutters, so…” Rainbow shrugged.

“Oh, well,” suddenly exclaimed she. “I didn’t simply fly by… I wanted to see you, pal, and ensure you are okay. But trained till darkness and came that late instead. I guess, I’m lucky, you stood up that long. Sorry…”

“You are training all days long lately,” Fluttershy slowly shook her head. “Is it necessary to stress yourself that much?”

“Oh, Flutters, you know, what I think about that,” the rainbow pegasus girl rolled her eyes. “Of course, it’s worth all the effort… I can’t remember even, when I pranked somepony last time.” Rainbow Dash followed her friend and dropped into the armchair with a sigh of relief.

“This part I miss the most,” added she with a grin and sly sparkles lit in Rainbow’s eyes. “I have a few awesome ideas for certain human,” she winked mischievously.

“What?” asked she, seeing how Fluttershy glanced at her reproachfully. “Wasn’t he making you sad, moreover suffer lately?”

“Speaking of which… How are you, pal?” Dash examined her friend fixedly. “I heard, you were not going to the Gala because of him,” the contempt in her tone was enough to fill a small barrel.

“Not exactly so…” Fluttershy’s voice was more conciliatory. “Of course, if… everything was as usual… we would go there together,” she sniffed quietly and bit her lip. “But I had absolutely no drive to go alone…”

“You could go with the girls, pal!”

“Oh, you know, what I mean,” Fluttershy waved her hoof slightly. “Besides, Rarity invited him and Alex agreed to make her company. I simply couldn’t…”

“Ugghhh… Rarity!” squinted Rainbow. “Rarity in her repertoire!”

“Knowing Alex I am sure, it was simply a friendly gesture from his side,” Fluttershy let out a small smile. “Rarity, of course, may expect something, but I don’t know, what must happen for Alex to live up to her expectations.” 

“Knowing Alex?” her friend smirked venomously.

“Come on, Dash, don’t start it again…”

“Fluttershy, pal, I told you!” Rainbow leaned forward. “I told you all, the human wasn’t that nice. And look what has happened already… He made one of us totally upset already, moreover, crying…” Rainbow looked into Fluttershy’s eyes fixedly. “Don’t deny, Flutters. What next? He is dangerous!”

“Our friction with Alex,” Fluttershy pronounced it with pressure. “Even any of us being upset about that, don’t necessarily tell that Alex is dangerous to any of us, sorry. Him being unable to sort out his feelings doesn’t make him our enemy.”

“You didn’t know everything, Dash, I assume,” Fluttershy continued, giving Rainbow no chance to reply. “We both were not ideal, treating each other. I may be disappointed, even angry with him, but I’m not going to judge, whose guilt is heavier…”

“Still… he made you really suffer…” Rainbow looked at her friend, surprised by her determination, Rainbow’s stubbornness was yet hard to overcome. “That’s exactly what I warned you all about.”

“Wonderbolts are hard to impress, they bring much stress to your life, Dashie,” Fluttershy glanced at her friend with a sigh. “You are even upset because of something not going… “totally awesome” sometimes. That doesn’t mean they are dangerous and any of us, including you, Dash,” she stared at Rainbow fixedly. “must keep away from them.” 

“I’m going to believe him,” she added simply. “And see, if he… if we can find any way out of that problem.”

Rainbow kept silence for a couple of minutes, watching Fluttershy very attentively.

“I’m sorry, Flutters,” finally muttered she confusedly. “Sorry, that I poured salt on your wound. What happens between you is indeed not my business, pal. But I don’t know what to expect of him… and I don’t like that feeling.”

“And I don’t like the one causing that feeling, Flutters, sorry,” added Rainbow, getting up and embracing Fluttershy tightly. She clumsily stroked the soft pink mane.

“I know, what you think about him,” said Fluttershy softly. “But all that I saw and knew about him, told that he sincerely wanted to help those, he came across in Equestria. If he succeeded in that or not, it’s another question, Dash. Alex may be impulsive, even weird sometimes, he may behave like a complete hay-head, but he isn’t a monster.”

Rainbow Dash sighed.

*

Alex woke up, maybe the train car passing the railway switch was guilty of that, or Alex’s feeling of being captured and slightly strangled by somepony, which he had the last half of an hour through his sleep. The answer was more prosaic and less dangerous: Rarity turned over and wrapped all her legs around him, so his face ended snuggling into her neck, barely letting him breathe through her mane. Apparently, she dreamed about something pleasant; she didn’t wake, when Alex moved, letting out a sigh instead and nuzzling his head with a tiny smile on her muzzle. It took him a while to accurately slip out of her embrace, not waking Rarity up; she grabbed his pillow instead and cooed something, cuddling it even tighter, when Alex gently stroked her flank.

Taking a look into the mirror Alex smoothed his hair and wiped a couple of faint lipstick prints from his chest, Rarity didn’t lose time even while sleeping; Alex rolled his eyes, wondering how lucky he was not to be poked with her horn. The train passed another switch, they were approaching the station and Alex thought about packing.

The shirt, the boots, in a couple of minutes he was completely set. Rarity’s dress was still on the compartment floor, where they left it; Alex picked and accurately packed it into the clothes case, then swept the jewellery into the small carpetbag.

There was a dilemma now: he had two clothes cases, the carpetbag… and sleeping Rarity, and obviously only two hands. Alex decided not to wake the mare yet, because Rarity was really tired and because he was unsure about more fancy ideas, which could appear under that stylish manedress. Alex scratched his head, that wasn’t a really heavy load, but not quite handy to carry all at once.

‘Rarity will go mad, if she finds out, how I used my tie,’ the silky band was durable enough and Alex tied it to be able to hang both clothes cases and the carpetbag behind his back. Meanwhile, the train was slowing down, the wheels rattled on the frequently passed switches, the dim station lamps slowly floated by behind the compartment window. Alex took a quick look around, checking if he forgot to pick anything, then sat on the edge next to Rarity.

The loco softly rolled past the station, bringing the cars at the boarding platform and coming to a complete stop. Alex waited till all the ponyvillers from their car follow to the exit and leave, then lifted Rarity, who frowned a little, when he took the pillow out of her grip. Although, she consoled quickly, curling on his hands and wrapping her fore legs around his neck. With a happy smile Rarity nested her head on Alex’s shoulder, tickling him with her even breath.

‘I think, I can make it to Ponyville without resting,’ Alex estimated the weight, leaving the compartment. ‘Now all I need is to get out from that car safely…’

It wasn’t a trivial task, despite seeming simplicity, Alex descended the narrow steps really slow, inwardly praying for the express not to start moving again right at that moment and causing a few surprised glances and at least one understanding smile from the conductor and station workers. He was to wait till the train departed to be able to cross the railways and head to the town through the field.

The light breeze played with Rarity’s curled mane, throwing the strands into Alex’s face and making him quietly huff them away, but she still slept on his hands, lulled by his paced walk. Only once she muttered something, snuggling her warm body into him tighter and placing a hot kiss on Alex’s neck.

After a while, as the extra weight affected his speed, the rare lights pierced the darkness; Alex reached the edge of Ponyville. The town was deep into its sleep at that late hour, almost very early hour already, as the morning was nigh; only a few windows glowed on their whole way to Carousel Boutique. Although, one ground floor window was lit there, apparently Sweetie Belle didn’t go to sleep, waiting for her sister, or woke up already.

Inwardly regretting at that moment that he had no magic, Alex was to accurately knock the front door with his knee. In a moment he could hear the hoofsteps and non-suppressed loud yawn, making him smirk.

The door opened, the yawn transformed into “Eek!” sound and for a second the filly stared at him with open mouth and wide opened eyes. Then Sweetie Belle giggled, covering the mouth with her fore hoof.

“Good night, Alex, bring the big girl in…”

“Good night!” the whole scene made Alex smile wider, while he waited till she closed the front door behind. “Or maybe it’s “Good morning” already… Hey, can you help me a bit?”

“Oh, right…” Sweetie Belle untied the knot with her magic and levitated the cases and carpetbag to the nearest chair. “Did everything go fine?”

“More or less,” diplomatically shrugged Alex.

“She slept all the way home,” Alex nodded at Rarity, who nuzzled him with a sigh, making Sweetie Belle flush slightly. “I didn’t want to disturb her and thus carried from the station…”

“Squee! Sorry…” the filly jumped on the spot and turned to the stairs. “Come on,” Sweetie Belle skipped to the upper floor, Alex followed. She opened the door to Rarity’s bedroom and uncovered the bed, so Alex could accurately put Rarity down and make her comfortable. Frankly speaking, the girl let him go quite reluctantly, but soon stretched and relaxed under the blanket, Alex covered her with. Finally, he could stand up and flex the numb arms.

“Sleep well, Rarity!” Alex turned off the light and they exited with Sweetie Belle, closing the door quietly.

“Maybe some tea?” the filly looked up at Alex, when they headed downstairs. “It’s quite fresh outside already and…”

Alex thought that giving himself a ten minutes rest wouldn’t hurt, taking a seat and relaxing his legs and hands was exactly what he needed at that moment.

“Sure thing, Belle. Thank you!” he followed Rarity’s sister to the kitchen and dropped on the chair. “And one more thing, before I forget… Please, untie that band and put it into the case with the rest of the costume. And don’t tell Rarity, I used it as a sling, okay?”

“Well, I definitely must cover you, right?” Sweetie Belle agreed, giggling. She put the kettle and turned to Alex. “So?”

“What can I say? I’m not Pinkie,” Alex stretched to the bone crackle. “Big parties are nice, but in moderation… Definitely too much for me in one evening!”  

*

“Good night, Sweetie Belle!” Alex nodded with a light smile, then winked. “Be gentle with her in the morning!”

The filly snorted, closing the door; Alex leaned his back on the frame and inhaled the night air, gazing into the black velvet, woven with silvery constellations, and listening to the whisper of leaves in Rarity’s garden.

‘Rarity, Rarity…’ he slowly shook his head. ‘It’s a miracle, that day ended without… “casualties”.’

Alex pushed away from the wall, crossed the dooryard, exiting to the street and throwing another look back. The large rotor lazily mixed the air above the sleeping garden behind Carousel Boutique. The window at the ground floor became dark: Sweetie Belle must have headed upstairs as well.

‘I need to stop pushing my luck with Rarity,’ Alex rubbed his temples, feeling that sleep fled completely. ‘She may try different tactics, but at the end of the day, I see one thing – staying with her tete-a-tete becomes a hard game!’

He turned right, going east, instead of north-west – Alex still had one self-assigned duty to attend. The wooden bridge rattle under his quick steps, Alex’s eyes accommodated to the darkness already, his ears caught every quiet sound, including the splash of some fish in the stream below. Leaving Ponyville he took the road through the fields.

The wind became stronger in the open area, making the high grass bow in constant strong waves and turning everything around him into a dark green sea. Nothing interrupted the serenity of the moment, except rare sad cries of some night bird far away at the edge of Everfree. Despite all his problems, current and awaiting him in the future most likely, Alex felt the strange wish to whistle something quietly, a crazy thought came to his mind.

‘Maybe everything settles some day…’

‘Aha, fat chance!’ Alex sadly smirked, pacing forward on the dark road.

Suddenly the silver light flooded the fields: the crescent Moon emerged from the single large cloud and highlighted the road, waves of grass and the old white barn to the right – insensibly Alex covered half of the way. He sped up, then ran lightly to his aim, barely touching the ground with his springy steps.

The dark cottage met Alex with silence, not a single window shone; the large trees guarded its sleep, only even noise of the water wheel in the stream broke the lull. Alex felt that everything was alright here tonight, like numerous nights before. Nevertheless, he circled around once, not entering the garden and listening. The hens sleepily clucked in the wooden coop, something rustled in the tree top, perhaps a late squirrel fiddled in its hollow through the sleep. 

Alex spent a few minutes in the shadow of the tree, looking at the familiar window on the first floor, now dark and curtained.

A feeling of somepony watching him fixedly made Alex turn around. The moonlit field looked empty, farther was the dark, darker than the sky, stripe of Everfree, the pitch black mass of the Clock Tower penetrated the air to the far left; everything silent and motionless. Alex slowly scanned the neighbourhood, when his eyesight stumbled upon a low grassy hill with a single large tree in the field, halfway to the forest. A smile lightened his face, when Alex headed there.

“Art thou coming hither every night?” she was laying gracefully in the tree shade and it seemed the part of starry night sky descended and covered the ground around; Luna’s eyes glowed in the darkness slightly.

“Yes, regularly,” Alex simply sat on the grass next to her and Luna rubbed her cheek on his shoulder gently. “Sometimes personally… and sometimes through my “sleepwalking”.”

He moved closer and leaned to her, inhaling the lavender aroma, listening to the leaves above and feeling unusual tranquillity again.

“So, thou art exactly that “ghost”, rumours of which wander in the town,” whispered soft lips in Alex’s ear, making his skin crawl and heart beat faster.

“You’ve heard already…” Alex shook his head with a chuckle, then his tone suddenly became very serious. “I left her house, but I can’t leave her without any protection completely. Thou shan’t deny, the Seekers become more and more impudent… or arrant ignore ponies’ presence lately. It becometh dangerous, mine princess. What could they do next? I’m not going to foresee.” Alex turned to Luna and looked into her eyes. “What I know for sure is that they try to avoid contacting me, feeling mine presence and trying to leave the area.”

“So, I come nightly to check, if everything is alright, if she is safe; I can’t do otherwise,” continued Alex, relaxing a bit. “And make sure they stay away, even if they appear nearby. At least I will feel them… and try to… get rid of them.” Alex went silent, listening to the cicadas he paid no attention before. A couple of minutes passed. “Fortunately they didn’t show up in the sunlight yet, but… I feel out of my element each day, while I don’t know for sure…”

“I understand, lief!” Luna looked forward and, following her glance, Alex saw sleeping Ponyville below: rooftops between the trees, rare lights scattered across the streets. The Night Princess crossed her fore legs and put her head on top, watching the town; a few blades of grass trembled in her lavender breath and her awesome mane flowed, curling around Alex, giving him soft, watery, yet amazingly warm touch.

“I come hither each night I visit Ponyville, lief. Simply beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Beautiful…” but Alex didn’t look at the town at all. He ran his fingers through her soft mane, behind the horn and let his hand travel in her hair, to the back of Luna’s head, along her gracious neck…

“Dost not stop…” cooed the Night, arching her swan neck under his touch. Smiling, Alex did another pass under the sly glance of half-lidded eyes.

“I guess, it was you, who advised the Canterlot Steam Company representative to have a look at my humble efforts here,” Alex pondered aloud, while stroking Luna’s mane gently.

“They would pay their attention anyway, sooner or later, lief… Or somepony from the patent office would inform them eventually. I simply sped up the process a zilch,” the princess giggled like a small filly. “I extend mine hope the attempt wasn’t futile and thou came to some agreement with Solid Deal.”

“I… simply have no words…” Alex shook his head, catching himself on absently scratching behind Luna’s ear. She didn’t protest though, visibly enjoying it.

“Dost not worry, Alex!” Luna’s smile became even brighter. “It’s still arrant thy merit, not… “mine protection”!” she huffed lightly.

“I know Solid Deal for about two years,” elaborated she. “And he didn’t make a single harmful for the company decision yet. Methinks he isn’t in the directorate for nothing…”

“What?!” Alex froze. “Thou dost not say…”

“What terms did you come to?” Luna threw a quick glance at bemused Alex.

“Thirty percent,” slowly squeezed Alex. “Mine exclusive development… and they address me, if ‘t be true they can’t cope with any production. Merlin’s pants, I’d be more discreet, if…”

Luna burst out laughing instead of an answer, making the cicadas shut up instantly. She raised and moved closer, sitting next to him and putting her head on Alex’s shoulder, having much fun of his bewildered look.

“Thou tumbled him arrant,” she still giggled. “Thou seest, he must have been under the strong impression of their missed opportunity… and decided to catch, what they still could. I warned him that thou would give him hard time.”

Alex shook his head slowly, looking at one spot, somewhere miles behind Ponyville. A soft tender kiss on his neck sent an electric jolt along his spine, tearing a gasp from his mouth. Alex turned to the princess.

“Thou art mine soft feathery ruffian, thou…” Alex ran his fingers along her sensitive ears, feeling the strong urge to kiss them, caught Luna’s silky cheeks in his palms and brought his nose to her, looking into big blue eyes.