“…thou can only delay the inevitable!!!” hissed her rainbow aura enveloped enemy, wriggling and struggling for a few moments more, before the final blast of combined magic sent the monstrosity to the place of prolonged imprisonment. The destructed walls, cracked and notched columns, pieces of debris and flickering torches smudged and trembled around her; everything became clouded by the milky white fog, she felt like fainting after the exhausting battle…
Suddenly the surrounding changed: there were no castle walls around anymore and fresh wind played with the grassy field in the brightening morning light, making her mane flow and filling the nostrils with unknown smells. Taking a look around revealed that she was standing on a high river bank and fields and meadows, marked with rare trees here and there, spread around as far as the eyesight could reach, limited by the dark stripe of the woods at the horizon. The only other noticeable tree mass nearby was a small grove, covering a low hill to the right. The Sun was rising completely unattended, but strangely that didn’t appear as a shocking surprise.
The approaching rumble came from the sky, making her stretch out the neck and watch anxiously: a gleaming flying machine appeared from behind the hill, large rotors kept it in the air; she remembered Twilight told about that thing once – humans called it “helicopter”.
Despite her being a quite noticeable spot on the grassy bank, the helicopter flew by, heading to something that completely slipped from her attention before – far to the left, in the light of independently rising Sun, lied the large city. Tall light-grey buildings, roads, parks and streets; it could look a piece of colourful carpet from that distance, but it was evidently real and resembled her… Manehattan from the first look.
‘Earth! That’s Earth,’ guessed she. ‘His homeworld…’
Large horses with wings were hardly an everyday occurrence for humans, but since the flying machine disappeared in distance, nopony else showed in her view as far as she could notice. As the peaceful silence returned, the birds started chirping, greeting the morning again; there were only them, fluttering above the field and diving in the grassy waves. Cautiously she took a look over the shoulder, a wide river lazily flowed in the twilight of high bank shadow, unreached yet by the sunlight; no unfortunate evidence there as well. The area seemed quite wild and inhabited, giving an opportunity to risk.
With a sigh she spread her vast wings and soared, heading to that grove nearby. She couldn’t tell why, but something attracted her to that tree-clad hill. Although, she decided to keep the safe distance and watch. Unaware of the reasons of both her attention to that place and sudden anxiety, she spotted a wide glade at the hilltop and managed to land on the large tree with thick branches, hiding in its lush green crown; surprisingly she could see everything in slightest details.
A small bright sparkle appeared above the ground in the middle of the clearing, quickly spreading into a portal, shimmering like a pool of quicksilver; a few unicorn ponies jumped out of that warp, heavily loaded, each with large saddlebags. They completely ignored that the portal immediately collapsed behind them and quickly started their work, unloading some equipment to the ground.
The winged observer noticed to her bewilderment, that all the unicorns were armoured, dark steel flickered in the sun rays, coming through the treetops. Unnoticed she watched, how a few of them started guarding the area immediately, spreading around the perimeter, one more unicorn gathered dry branches and cleared a fireplace in the center of the glade, another two addressed the brought equipment, assembling something of it. They moved like clockwork dolls, no commands, no talk, no unnecessary sound, except those their movements accidentally produced; the expression of neutral concentration was on each and every muzzle. And their eyes…
‘Oh, Harmony! These eyes… I’ve seen them already… That absent glazed look into the distance and calm emotionless indifference. But how can they act coherently then?!’
Meanwhile, the spurts of flame raised at the prepared fireplace, adding more light to the scene and allowing her to see the device, two unicorns assembled, in details. At that moment it looked mostly like a giant mirror frame, with crystals, built in the thickenings, complex carving, tubes wrapped around the edges, and massive stable base. The ponies put it on the flat even spot on the ground and continued assembling the remaining frame, now standing vertically.
One of the “guard” unicorns left his duty and joined another, who ignited the flames; the latter simply lay down comfortably on the grass nearby. The sparkle of magic fell from the horn of the guard pony, putting the lying one to sleep and causing a muffled gasp from the secret observer. She saw exactly that scene not long ago and realized to her terror, what could happen next… what should happen next no doubt.
It didn’t take a long time: a ghostly human figure started to materialize near the sleeping unicorn, gaining volume and mass. He obviously became larger, something dark concentrated behind his back, but when the human looked up and stretched, she could clearly tell, that was Alex. As much of him as left in that creature, clad in heavy black with silver armour, moody and dangerous!
‘Did he gain the ability to reach everypony through their dreams?!’ her thoughts bustled in panic.
The human, if Alex could be called that way now, inhaled and enormous black wings spread with soft rustle; a grim smile wormed on his face, resembling a motionless mask at that moment, dark shadows lied around the eyes, looking like two pools of the void – darkness splashed in them. Alex stretched out his hands to the fire and the flames obediently enveloped him, adding fiery “armour” to the steel one. He could fully control it, like during the first encounter with the Seeker; Alex looked right through her, evidently unable to disclose, as nothing reflected on his face, yet making the observer shudder inwardly.
With a few heavy flaps, sending hot sparkles fly around, he soared, like a giant phoenix, and made a narrow circle around the glade, raising higher and observing the surroundings. Now her vantage point in the top of the tree, concealed with leaves, seemed an excessive precaution not, as she wasn’t completely sure, if Alex really couldn’t see her due to some strange coincidence. She even crouched on her branch, when he passed above the tree, flames roaring fanned by the adverse air.
The familiar rumble, brought by the wind, caught her attention; looking over her shoulder and up in the sky she noticed the same flying machine approaching the hill. Naturally, the patrolling “human” spotted it as well, he stopped, hovering in the air, the flames burned brighter, as the helicopter quickly shortened the distance. Silence fell, as the birds hid and shut, startled by the mechanic noise.
With a blinding flash the flames formed a wider sphere around the winged sleepwalker – the second tier of armour, made of stripes and threads of swirling fire. Evidently, it was taken as a sign of aggression by the helicopter pilot, the machine muzzle lit up by the rotating with dry metal clatter device; the helicopter passed the glade, sprinkling it with small shiny metal cylinders. She could notice a few bright bursts in the flames, and guessed that the projectiles got incinerated there, not reaching the aim; the ponies below continued their meticulous work, like nothing was happening, not giving any attention to the battle unfolding above.
Alex made a loop and tried to latch to the bottom of the machine, perhaps he planned to turn it over, but the helicopter weaseled away at the limit of pilot’s reaction. Despite the shock, the latter was going to make another attempt; the pilot must have noticed the activity on the glade and hardly liked the look of it. The metal bird hovered at the distance and turned around almost on the spot.
Another wave of gunfire did nothing, but Alex wasn’t going to wait till the pilot switched his attention and provided danger for the ponies working below: a few clusters of flames dashed from the sphere to the machine in response, blooming with fiery roses on its hull. One reached the tube-like shape right under the rotors, the sound of tearing metal reached their ears and in a second the helicopter exploded in the sky, turning into the expanding sphere of scarlet, orange and bright white flames, hardly dimmer than the rising sun.
Stifling the silent scream with her fore hoof over the mouth she watched, how the burning parts of the flying machine fell far into the field like in slow motion, leaving dark threads of smoke in the air. “The human” returned and hovered above the glade, facing the distant city, obviously ready to prevent any new attack attempt. The ease, he finished the armoured machine with, was quite intimidating, and she considered her chances; any magic impact was pointless, as she knew, and she had no idea, where his actual body resided. Retreating looked like a much smarter decision, taking into account that she was invisible for them all somehow.
She spread her wings, ready to take off, but then her glance fell at the glade and the unicorns again and she froze, watching. The device was assembled and activated: with low hum and glow of the crystals in its frame, the “mirror” slowly filled with the familiar quicksilver-like matter, forming a portal large enough for a couple of royal chariots to come through. Time froze for a second…
The first row of horns, steel-shod hooves, armoured muzzles and heads emerged from the warp; hooves met the ground, ploughing it up, the next line of unicorns followed shortly, and next one, and next with no end to that.
They quickly spread along the glade, forming the front line facing the city direction; more and more ponies continued to arrive and, naturally, they started going down the hill, tacking among the trees, but keeping the order. That wasn’t a herd, an army, that was a swarm, with only unicorns in avant-garde and mixed after maybe the first hundred of lines. The avalanche of ponies, all heavily armoured, emotionless and still determined to execute whichever order they got, reached the field, muffling all the sounds with the trampling and gaining speed.
When steel clad pegasi started to fly out of the portal, it was too much for her. With a totally non-royal squeak, she spread her wings and soared, raising higher and distancing from the grove, ready to surround herself with protective shield at any second. She couldn’t afford to attack the ponies, yet was unable to take down the one, who guided them, risking to take as much damage as she could inflict. The swarm rolled below, spreading across the whole field, it’s aim was obvious – the city, unsuspecting and unprepared.
‘How many of them die in that horrible attack?!’ she painfully squinted.
Suddenly the wall of flames rose in front of the pony army, rushing forward and shielding them; it looked like their lead wasn’t going to trade any of them easily. With the roar of fire “the human” glided under her, flying low; she could feel the heat even on a considerable distance, fluttering in despair.
“It’s only a dream, Tia,” the familiar silvery voice made her twitch surprisingly, yet it was the most soothing thing, she could expect in the situation alike. “A nightmare forsooth, but it existeth in thy imagination only, heated by thy concerns and suspicions.”
The world around them froze, the swarm, the fiery menace, the grass and trees, as she could feel no wind… even the Sun stopped in the sky. With a fitful sigh Celestia turned around, to see her regal sister hovering next to her with a small pacifying smile, feeling a great weight off her mind.
“Comest with me, sunny!” Luna nodded, her horn lit up with the magic and everything around became smudged and rippled. “Thou hast spent hither too much time methinks. Tis nerves shuttering, I guess.”
“Arrrgghhh!” with a migraine-like groan Celestia unglued her head from the pillow. The next thing she saw, gaining focus, was Luna comfortably sitting in the armchair and watching her sister.
“That was only a dream…” muttered Celestia, raising on her fore hooves. “But what a nightmare it was!”
“How beest thee, sunny?” Luna slid next to her, sitting on the bed and nuzzling sisters shoulder, wrapping her in lavender aroma coming from the flowing night-coloured mane. She looked in Celestia’s eyes with concern. “Mayhap I should take thee out of thither long ere… Thou lookest shaky still.”
“Well…” Celestia cleared her throat. “Did you see it, Lulu? Did you see that… swarm?”
Luna shortly nodded, waiting for continuation.
“There were millions, I think… He must have mobilized half of Equestria!” Celestia squinted, sitting on the bed, trying to gather her thoughts. “Mares and stallions, young and strong mostly, all moving like enthralled…”
“Tia, please… That was only a bad dream,” Luna touched her shoulder lightly. “Thou seeing things, which bother thee, in a nightmare, maketh it a prophecy not.”
But the Day Princess got on her hooves and started measuring the room, voicing her concerns.
“It was him, you can’t deny, blueberry… It… he looked like Alex and was Alex exactly, but… different…”
“Nightmare Alex?”
“Oh, Lulu! I don’t find that funny at all,” Celestia threw a slightly reproachful at her younger sister. “He gained certain powers, that was the… sleepwalking version of him!”
“He could control the objects, he could control fire,” continued she, seeing that Luna was patiently listening. “Exactly like he did the first time he confronted that Seeker. When he travelled to the place through your dream, Lulu!”
A few seconds only quick hoofsteps broke the silence, Celestia huffed, shaking her mane and making rose aroma more pronounced; apparently, Luna decided to give her an opportunity to vent and tell everything.
“When I saw that poor unicorn put to sleep with a spell, I realized what was going to happen next,” the white alicorn cocked her head, her eyes shone. “But now he can reach anypony through their dreams… and can fly. He was invading worlds through portals, using the pony army and his ability to enter dreams. The one we saw, was his home world – Earth!”
“But what must have happened here for that to become even possible!” exclaimed she, waking her pet phoenix, who chirped loudly on her perch and flapped wings anxiously.
“Oh, Tia… Thou art talking about that, as if it was the reality, given and inevitable,” with her magic Luna scratched Philomena’s neck and back, calming the bird; Celestia watched the phoenix, cooing something quietly and stretching her neck squinting, and her own shoulders relaxed a bit. “I said that once and I’m going to repeat again: thou art suspicious about Alex, mayhap even afraid of what he may bring to Equestria, it’s natural that thou saw things bothering thee in thy dream, and Alex looked exactly like himself. All the rest is the result of thy daily stress, mine lief.”
“Thou workest more and get less and less sleep,” Luna took a look over her sister. “Thy concerns don’t leave thee for a moment, thus the result. Everything, what thou saw, are the elements of our everyday reality, simply combined in a weird mix in thy dream, thy tired mind gave thee mercilessly. We had a few morbid incidents in the past, so it’s natural forsooth that thou art overly cautious about everypony unusual.”
“But…”
“Sunny, thither is a certain difference between things, thou thinkest may befall, even thou fearest to befall and the things, which shall inevitably befall no matter what. A certain chance existeth of course, but…” Luna rose from the bed and approached her sister, looking into her eyes fixedly and absolutely seriously. “I can recognize the evil, thou knowest, Tia.” She fell silent for a while, then added. “I saw none in him!”
“Are you sure, sister?” Celestia leaned to Luna, putting her head on sister’s shoulder. “Because…”
“I am!” Luna’s answer was categorical. “Absolutely!”
“Now get some sleep, sis,” she nudged Celestia towards the bed lightly. “Thou needst rest, it’s only three past midnight, Tia. I can stay with thee for a while, if ‘t be true thou wantest.”
After lingering for a minute, Celestia nodded and returned to her bed, promptly fixed by her sister’s aura; she tried to nest comfortably, but something obviously didn’t get out of her mind, as her eyes were still full of concern.
“I have a feeling, we aren’t controlling the situation already…” muttered she quietly, laying her head on the pillows and watching Luna, who sat on the bed edge.
Luna simply shook her head slowly, kissing her sister and covering her accurately with the blanket.
“Sunny, dost not make thy wish to control the situation let the situation control thee…”
*
The look of slowly smouldering furnace was so heartwarming, contrasting to what it was a couple of weeks before, Alex simply stood for a while, leaning on the fence, and watched the embers, brightly glowing in early morning shadows, fanned by the light wind. No sound disturbed the peaceful silence at that moment, except some skylarks chirping far in the field. Rare sparkles floated in hot air ripples, dancing above the candent surface, and quickly vanished in the first rays of rising Sun.
Alex smirked and mentally wished Celestia a good morning, he didn’t hurry to bother the owners with his visit, as rightfully considered entering the smithy yard without invitation simply impolite. Although, knowing the old blacksmith and his niece being the early birds, he had no worries either – soon one of them would definitely look out of the house and see their guest; Alex decided to wait for a while, inwardly playing the possible course of their talk with Will.
The front door screeched, letting the sound spread widely in the cool morning air and revealing golden braided mane and its whole owner’s nicely shaped figure. Girl’s eyes took a look over the yard and stopped on Alex, Silver Ingot froze for a short moment, surprisingly blinking twice.
“Oh…” she looked embarrassed, but quickly braced herself and waved her fore hoof. “Come in. Just… a second…” she disappeared into the house and Alex could hear her surprised and slightly anxious voice. “Uncle Will!.. Uncle, Alex is here!”
“That early?! Hmm…” the old unicorn cleared his throat; Alex waited outside, listening to the hoofsteps approaching the door. “What’s happened, my dear?”
“I don’t know… I hope nothing serious, uncle. You’d better ask him.”
“Good morning, young gentlecolt… errmmm… man!” Will squinted at Alex patiently waiting in the yard, looking for tiny signs of bad news in the posture of the human; the blacksmith got used to them and treated the life realistically, to think that early visits meant bad news more often than good ones. That time he couldn’t find any visible precursors, despite Alex was like a tight bow inside, but Will didn’t hurry to relax and inwardly prepared himself for everything. “You wanted to tell me something, Alex? Well, this time is neither better nor worse than any other, go on, tell, what bothers you.”
“Actually, I wanted to ask rather,” Alex spread his hands, unsure how to approach his problem. After a short hesitation he decided to start with the main thing. “Would you take an apprentice, sir?”
“Aaaa… errmmm…” Silver Ingot dropped her jaw, unable to believe her ears. Her uncle treated that thunder strike statement with more moderation; apparently, Alex was least joking and Will was going to listen, what that strange human had to add. Alex used the sudden silence to his own advantage, elaborating fast.
“Sir, I have some fairly amateur experience of blacksmith craft, which accompanied my reconstruction and fighting training, but I would like to grow above mine limited knowledge. You see, what I’m trying to do can only benefit from me being involved in the production process personally. If I know what and how is done, I can find better ways to improve mine wares… and progress myself. And I mean not only and not mostly the generators,” Alex took a breath; seeing that the old blacksmith listened attentively, he continued. “That armour we make… I considered all possible variants and it looked like we couldn’t make it any better… while keeping it simple. You know, I have serious reasons to be unsure about strong magic associated with something, that concerns me directly, but that armour needs to hold against much more, than it can at the moment. I have a few ideas, which can hopefully improve our product technologically and… I will be glad to see you getting more new customers as the result. That’s possible, but… I need to be involved in the process to try that,” shrugged Alex, he wasn’t happy with his mess of explanation. “Besides, I’d like to hope that I’m capable of something more complex, than moving the crates at the freight yard.”
Will nodded shortly, acknowledging the latter reason being not the least important, he examined Alex fixedly, then took thought. Silver Ingot overcame her bewilderment and now quietly alternated between her uncle and the human, yet not entirely believing, what she heard.
“You are going to confront those creatures, princesses warned about in their announcement, right?” finally slowly said the old blacksmith; raising his eyes on Alex and seeing his amazement, Will chuckled. “You are magic resistant, besides, you aren’t a pony, so, aren’t affected by the damage they inflict, you seem not to be afraid of some challenge… and you suddenly need armour, while it’s practically nothing to use it against, at least in that part of Equestria. I may be an old soldier, but I can add two and two.”
“Well…” Alex sighed, disarmed, then laughed. “It would be foalish to try to deceive you. Yes, Will, you are right, that’s about the plan.”
“But, uncle…” Silver Ingot touched old blacksmith’s shoulder and he shortly nodded, agreeing with her unvoiced concern.
“Alas, there is one thing, which makes me less enthusiastic,” with a sad smirk the unicorn stomped from hoof to hoof. “My own service is hardly demanded nowadays, let alone taking an apprentice and wasting somepony’s else time and effort. I’m afraid, you would only lose time, learning something,that you couldn’t apply later. Besides, we won’t have much to practice on, Alex – you are our first and the only one customer for quite a few years already.”
“Exactly!” ardently objected Alex. “I am still your customer… and I shall be for quite a while. It appeareth that many ponies in Ponyville need mine generators, I got a few more orders on the last week. That means a lot of work, and there shall be more…”
The filly gasped and cupped her mouth with her fore hoof, Willsmash squinted, trying to concentrate on some thought eluding him. Not giving them time to tell anything Alex continued enforcing his arguments.
“As I said, I have a few ideas, which can make our… your service unique, if properly implemented. Thither shall be customers, in the earnest!..” Alex bit his tongue, watching the squinting blacksmith, and quickly added. “I want to try something that can bring the smithy back to the competition… even stand out! It’s your choice, sir, to let me in or…”
“Are you going to say that you hope to compete even large companies?” Will shook his head, the human sounded crazy and at the same time quite confident in his ideas, that confidence strangely looked like having solid ground underneath.
“Not only and not exactly to compete,” Alex produced a sly smile. “I’m going to try and make them need our service!” the unicorn only huffed, but Alex continued. “Come on, we still have Ponyville to work for, we have our own time and… we have armour to improve. I’m sure, we can make it profitable after that likewise.”
Willsmash still weighed something inwardly, he threw a glance on his smithy over the shoulder and chuckled.
“Well, young gentlecolt, why not. But I stick to certain standards of my work and not going to refuse them, even if I didn’t have an apprentice for Celestia knows how long,” old Will squinted, a sly sparkle flashed in his eye. “You said, you had some experience, that’s nice… Actually, I’ve understood that already. You know, what you are doing, and that means, we will hardly stomp on one spot, if we have to work and learn at the same time.”
Alex produced a small smile, he was ready for something alike, that was only rational to find out the level of training of the potential apprentice. He even suspected the further route of their conversation.
“However, I firmly believe that one, who plans to progress in armour and weapon making,” continued Willsmash. “Must be able to imagine how to use their product, how it works in reality. Only in that case their work can be relied on.” Alex shortly nodded, inwardly praising himself for coming earlier. “Surely, your fighting training must make things easier…”
“I’m ready for the test, sir,” Alex inquiringly glanced around. “Right here, in the yard?”
“Uncle Will…” started Silver Ingot, but the old blacksmith interrupted her with a soft gesture.
“Calm down, child. I’m not that old to avoid recalling my early days and try, what Alex is worth in a fight. And don’t worry, I won’t hurt our guest much,” he squinted at his niece, making the girl flush.
“Let’s see,” muttered the old unicorn, heading to the empty part of the yard and a wooden rack with numerous poles and clubs sticking from it. “So, take your pick. I have real swords and spears, but that’s only a test…”
Alex pulled a long wooden pole out of the rack and weighed it in his hands, he swirled the “weapon” around himself, throwing it from one hand to another, checking the length and handiness. Willsmash raised one eyebrow and took two shorter clubs, levitating them with his magic.
“The rules are simple. No muzzle, head or below the belt hits. Everything else – at your discretion. Ready?”
Alex saluted with the pole instead of an answer… and immediately was to reflect an attack, holding his stick with both hands and knocking away the first bat, then ducking and blocking another, which approached from behind. Wood hit wood with distinctive loud dry crackle.
“The real enemy won’t wait and ask questions,” muttered old Will, trying to walk around Alex and find the blind spot in the defense of his deceptively lazily rotating pole. He made another attempt, again from two different sides at the same time. Silver Ingot watched them with dilated eyes from the front door.
Alex was to think and act quickly, the advantage was obviously at the side of magically driven clubs, capable to approach him from almost every direction and angle, yet he was to mind the pace, not to get exhausted earlier.
‘Must keep them away from my knees and shoulders!’ he made sure that nothing is going inside the “sphere”, he was drawing with his stake, as the properly placed hit could easily make his own strikes less effective for a while.
Alex dived under the next attack, so, the club stuck in the sandy ground, turned and hit another with full force to make it bounce further away; not wasting time he balanced the pole and dashed to the blacksmith…
“Quite nice, young gentlecolt,” huffed Will, when after half an hour they sat at the doorstep, breathing heavily; both clubs and the pole looked rather shabby, but the satisfied smirk on the scarred muzzle unambiguously told that the blacksmith liked, what he saw.
“Hmm… I would like to share that enthusiasm,” Alex cringed rubbing his side, he missed a couple of tangible hits there and at his hip. “If there were real swords, I wouldn’t have been in one piece most likely.”
“If you didn’t hesitate to attack me more often and aggressively,” the old unicorn looked at him fixedly. “I would have less time to plan my own attacks and chance to carry them out. It’s not the case to be unnecessarily polite, Alex. But to tell the truth, without magic I could hardly get past your defense either; whoever taught you, taught you well, you did right keeping that knowledge.”
“Okay, I’ll be less scrupulous next time…”
After a second Willsmash laughed loud.
“Well, you guessed right. Why don’t we try indeed, darn it! Ultimately, I’m not getting younger year after year,” he became serious at once. “When can you start?”
“I must round out my duties at the station first,” Alex imagined the station master’s expression, after being told he was going to leave, and shrugged. “They probably won’t let me out for a month, but I’ll try to bargain less.”
“Fine!” Willsmash levitated the pole and examined it closely. “Speaking of the weapon, if you really want to confront those creatures…”
“I was thinking about a long spear or something along those lines,” confessed Alex, stretching the aching side. “To be able to pierce the… them, afore they can buck.”
“You worked quite nicely with that stake today,” the blacksmith threw a quick glance at him. “It seems the weapon suits you well. Actually, I thought of a double-end glaive rather. You know what I’m talking about, right?”
“Hey, gentlecolts!” Alex’s reply was interrupted by a loud call from the gate; a long covered cart stopped there with uneven mechanic rumble and one of the stallions pulling it addressed them no doubt, as there was nopony else around. “Can I talk to the local blacksmith?”
Sporting a sly grin Alex pointed at Willsmash with his thumb, the latter seemed overly surprised by that sudden question, nevertheless took the business tone.
“What can I help you with?”
A muffled squeak from behind their backs made Alex look up over his shoulder and see Silver Ingot, who approached the door and watched the cart like some miracle.
Meanwhile, the driving stallion elaborated.
“Somepony in the town told us, we could find the blacksmith here… They mumbled something else,” he scoffed. “But I had no time for stupid rumours. We’re in transit here and the cart is badly broken… The darn thing is barely moving. I simply need somepony to fix it and do their job nicely.”
“Well…” Alex raised and winked at Will and the filly, who froze like thunderstruck. “It nev’r raineth all the time!” He wanted to say something about the Sun shining again, but reconsidered in time, rightfully supposing that it would be not entirely smart to remind the blacksmith about Celestia once again in the present context. “Apologies, but I need to go, for I hear the cargo calling,” with the light heart Alex bowed slightly. “Have a nice day, ye all.”
He quickly crossed the yard, while the old unicorn opened and closed his mouth, without proper words in mind; Alex addressed the newcomers.
“Hither is exactly the master you need. But mind, please, his quality work is expensive, in the earnest!” with the imperturbable look Alex hopped over the fence and headed across the field.
*
“…so, do you plan to build your “windmill” onto the...” Twilight switched her attention from the book to Alex, raising her glance at him and putting her chin on folded fore hooves.
“No, Twilight, I said that once and I’m still not going to attach anything to your Golden Oak, don’t worry. I’m going to put the rotor behind the library, in the field… It won’t be even visible from Ponyville due to the size of the tree. I pull the wiring from there and pass it into your underground lab, or better say “undertree lab”. Although, Twi, I can’t see how my mechanism can harm the oak, considering all the things that forest giant can cope with and evidently is not objecting against,” Alex closed a thick heavy geological reference book and took a look around, as if hinting of everything already built in the giant tree trunk. “Hardly the rotor at the very top would change anything, besides, we could put it really high for more wind power.”
“But I won’t do that, if you don’t want. We decided, so be it,” he weighed the tome in his hands, then threw a quick glance at the book’s original place, in the corner of the very high shelf, almost under the ceiling of the hall. Alex critically observed the thin long rung ladder. “Errmmm… Twilight, could you please…”
“Oh, come on Alex!” Twilight followed his glance and rolled her eyes sarcastically. “It’s only as high as that room is, not some chasm. You need to fight your phobia, if it is making even routine household tasks uneasy for you.”
“Actually, I do fight my phobia,” Alex downcasted. “With varied success…” then added mentally. ‘And mostly when my material body is guaranteed to remain unscathed anyway!’
“I agreed to double anti-fire precautions, building the scheme for your library, according to your concerns… Can you respect my own… quirks likewise?” He looked at Twilight pleadingly. “You don’t even need to leave the couch for that, Twi…”
“Oh… Okay,” the alicorn girl sighed and took the tome from his hands with magic, returning it to the proper place at the higher bookshelf. “I still think you should bring more effort, getting rid of your acrophobia, Alex, otherwise it may play an ugly joke on you someday.”
“Thanks,” Alex sighed with visible relief. “And speaking of my work, thanks for checking the contract for me.”
“You’re welcome,” Twilight’s eyes followed the lines in her book again. “I’ve run it through and didn’t find anything dubious or misleading, but I sent it to one friend in Manehattan to have a professional look. I think we must give him a couple of days. By the way, how do things go with the patent office?”
“I got all the necessary documents the day before yesterday,” Alex stopped gathering his papers and picked up the pencil, he dropped to the floor. “So, my invention has a completely legal status now,” he let out a small, but satisfied smile.
“I’m sure it’s only a formality and the contract is genuine, thus with confirmation of the patent office your invention will finally work for you, Alex,” Twilight looked at him again. “Are you still positive about leaving your current work at the station?” she watched him checking his notes.
“Yes, Twilight, I am. I see armour building as a more interesting job, besides I need to invest certain effort into it, as I think, I will come across more and more Seekers, while staying here. Of course, they were not overly happy with me leaving,” Alex chuckled, scratching the back of his head with the pencil. “But I had a talk with the chief and hinted quite opaquely that they will gain much more with me doing my other job, than staying at the freight yard.”
“I wanted to make their work easier since my first days there,” elaborated he, seeing Twilight’s questioning look. “And now with Canterlot Steam Company, adding their production capacity to my plans, I can actually do that.”
“I still can’t see how armour making can help that,” Twilight shrugged lightly.
“Well, armour is only the… “testing sample”, Twi, what I’m going to do can be applied more widely, but…” Alex looked at her fixedly. “Hey, I thought your evaluation of old Will was more on the prudent side?”
“My – perhaps,” Twilight turned a page, deliberately not looking at Alex. “But I can imagine that your business with the old blacksmith can probably change your image in somepony’s eyes, because…”
The accurate knock at the front door interrupted her, Alex looked through the window and exchanged glances with Twilight – the Sun was setting, visitors unexpected; Spike was taking a nap upstairs.
“Come on in,” Twilight raised her voice.
“Good evening, Twilight,” the door opened and closed and the familiar voice made Alex want to become invisible in his armchair. Sweetie Belle told him recently, that her big sister woke up late the day after the Gala, got down and had her late breakfast in silence, carefully remembering something or listening to herself, then was noticeably grumpy the rest of the day. ‘Failed expectations!’ concluded Alex inwardly, while Sweetie Belle described him “morning Rarity” in details, giggling.
“I just wanted to ask about one thing…” cooed Rarity, Twilight welcomed her with a wide gesture. “I was at the Apple Farm, with my sister, walked her there for the sleepover, the girls arranged… and then I decided to check you, guys, and ask.”
“Good evening, Ahlex, darling!” apparently, Rarity changed anger to mercy, as she dragged an armchair with her magic and nested closer to Alex with all possible comfort. “So…”
Alex and Twilight showed polite interest; Alex a bit less sincere, than Twilight, he was still unsure what to expect from the devoted unicorn fashionista, despite salvatory presence of another pony.
“As you both may know, I am going to present mine new collection soon,” Rarity cocked her head, throwing a spear glance at Alex. “I must say, it becoming ready sooner is solely certain human’s merit. To tell the truth, I’m almost ready to ask you do the same to my new sewing machine, darling,” she leaned to him adding in theatrical whisper, then returned to the main matter of her visit. “But I thought I could make the impression stronger, if I showcased another qualitative work of obvious importance. Besides, several dresses follow the gamma quite nicely, so…” Rarity raised one eyebrow.
“I wanted to ask, if you let me take the restored royal tapestry for a while,” Rarity addressed Alex, elaborating finally. “So I could exhibit it with the collection, darling. That would be fabulous!” exclaimed she enthusiastically.
With the light rustle, awoken by the louder voices, Spike appeared on the stairs, squinting at the bright light. He noticed Rarity and froze in the middle of the stairs, rubbing his eyes and staring at her sleepily, as at some miracle he didn’t expect to see.
Watching him Rarity laughed heartily and took a look around the room, like if she was seeing it for the first time or found some new aspect of it at that moment.
“I must say, you have quite a homely and cozy atmosphere here,” with a warm smile she nested deeper in her armchair. “Unlike some other places today…” a light shadow ran across her muzzle, attracting Alex’s attention.
“What do you mean?” he put his notes aside and Spike whisked to the bathroom to bring himself in proper order.
“Well, I could never think, I say that about Apple farm,” Rarity rubbed the armrest pensively. “But the atmosphere there, when we came, was like a minefield. I’m not committing a crime against truth, saying that, darling!” she waved her mane theatrically and elaborated.
“When we arrived, Applejack and Big Mac were arguing about old trees removal or something,” Rarity wrinkled her forehead remembering, it looked like if it took some effort and she flushed embarrassedly. “The funny thing is, I can’t remember the details well, but it didn’t look like usual Apple farm, to tell the truth. It seemed, Jackie didn’t want to remove some tree, because she thought it can be yet saved… awoken to life or something along those lines. And Big Mac said there wasn’t any alive twig and the tree could be used as the firewood only, moreover, it could probably contaminate the nearby ones, if it was ill,” Rarity rubbed her temples forcedly and Alex arched the eyebrow, listening very attentively since some moment. “Strange… I can’t… They listlessly disputed all the way I stayed, that’s for sure. Granny Smith grumbled about soot gathering in the chimney, so soon the smoke would come inside the kitchen rather. She said that there were quite a few young and strong ponies around, but things going that way, she would need to climb the roof herself or hire the sweeper.”
She put her fore hoof on Alex’s hand and this time he simply turned his palm up, taking her slightly trembling hoof gently and making Spike frown; the latter just returned, fully awoken, with clear eyes, but caught only the very tail of the story. He nested at the edge of the couch near Twilight and threw a reproachful glance at Alex.
“The girls started teasing each other and arguing about something almost the moment they gathered,” Rarity frowned a bit, her eyes were still focused on something seemingly far away, as she tried to recall the recent events. “But when I said that we should probably go home, they quickly calmed down, apologized… and whisked to the orchard, to their clubhouse, I guess.”
Alex’s face darkened, as he was thinking about something, and Rarity continued.
“Even I myself felt out of my element,” she chuckled nervously, stroking Alex’s palm absently and causing another fiery glance from Spike. “I remembered, completely without rhyme or reason, about my almost failed collection… you know that display for Hoity Toity,” she shuddered and looked at everypony present, like if only seeing them at that moment. “That was awful! Truly awful, why did I even think about that?” added Rarity in the dramatic whisper.
Alex and Twilight exchanged the glances; Twilight looked noticeably concerned as well and Alex realized, she must have thought exactly about the same as him. Releasing Rarity’s fore hoof softly, Alex got up.
“Look, Rarity, we need to go check one thing with Twilight,” he grabbed his notes and Twilight nodded fast. “You stay hither, with Spike… till we return,” Alex looked in the eyes of still not understanding unicorn girl. “We simply check, if ‘t be true everything is alright… with the trees… and the chimney. Besides,” he turned to Twilight, winking at her barely noticeably. “methinks, Apples need a small guidance in friendship right now.”
Spike alternated between them with wide open eyes and bemused look, Rarity felt nearly the same and watched Alex heading to his room, with slightly strange expression. Twilight got up and quickly put away the book she was reading; she trotted to the kitchen and when returned, unnoticed by others, there was a large medkit in the saddle bag she took with her.
Alex left his notes on the table, he used the moment Rarity was asking Twilight about something and subtly locked the door.
“Well, I’m arrant ready,” he waved Twilight from the front door. “Dost not worry, Rarity, we shall be back shortly…” Twilight rolled her eyes and followed him outside, into the thickening shadows.
“What was that, pray tell?” Rarity raised her eyebrow, but Spike realized, he was left to “guard and comfort” her and threw away all the thoughts about events unimportant for him.
“Rarity, you know Twilight,” he waved his paw, ogling his white goddess with a smile. “She can be… a little strange sometimes. And Alex…” he shrugged. “…is Alex – that’s just another degree of weird, if you ask me. Well…”
*
“Next time, when you tell anypony not to worry,” Twilight huffed sarcastically, when the front door closed behind them. “Mind thy tongue better Alex, otherwise the effect may be contrary to expected.”
“Arrghhh!” groaned Alex. “It’s hard to notice in time… Lookest…” he made a visible effort. “Look, we must act fast. I can’t be teleported, Twi, so, you go there and try to find Jackie and Mac as quickly as you can, then find the fillies,” he looked at the darkening sky with concern. “I’ll return to my room and follow you by… sleepwalking.”
Twilight nodded nervously, she didn’t get used to that yet; Alex continued.
“Thus I can appear right where necessary, I hope… and I shall be of more help, in the earnest,” he kneeled to Twilight’s eyelevel. “Please hurry, but remember… and warn others – ye ain’t supposed to look at them… into their “eyes” at least. Beest careful!”
With a clap and bright flash Twilight teleported, Alex reached the windowsill in a couple of jumps and climbed back into the room; he searched fast, trying to make no noise – he needed Twilight’s sleeping potion. ‘Come on, come on! Whither it was?..’
*
She found Applejack with the teacup behind the table, mumbling something about “brutally treating the perfectly curable trees”; when Twilight burst into the room, her friend raised the eyes on her with slight bewilderment.
“Evening, Twi… What’s ‘bout all the hurry,” Applejack took a look over the ruffled princess. “Ah…”
“Listen, Applejack,” Twilight was at the “low start”. “There is no time to waste! Where is Big Mac?”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Applejack looked at her, exactly like when Twilight desperately tried to learn something about friendship and write a letter to Celestia, before the day ended – in other words, like at slightly nuts alicorn girl. “It’s late, and… Ah was going to drag the girls home already… You know, they never come by themselves. And you’re coming in like a storm… What’s the darn matter, partner?”
Twilight almost jumped on the spot, but took herself in the hooves and tried to elaborate as calm and simple as she could.
“It’s exactly about the girls. Although, we all aren’t entirely safe. Remember that royal announcement about the strange horse-like creatures? Well, we have reasons to think, at least one is somewhere nearby. We need to find the girls and bring them home fast. That’s why I was asking about your brother.”
“Tarnation!” Applejack dropped the cup, but didn’t even bat an eyelash at the sound of breaking ceramic. “Macky had gone to the town a tad before you came…”
Twilight groaned. ‘Things getting more complicated! Although… maybe the less uninvolved ponies, the better…’
“Are you sure, Ah mean… Ah be damned!” Jackie’s hooves dropped at the realization. “We started to feel strangely since noon… Ah have loads of work usually, so…” she scratched her head. “Now Ah can say, it felt… depressive. And the feel only doubled in the evening. What should we do, Twilight?!” she startled.
“Sweet Celestia!” gasped Twilight. “Things are worse than I expected! Okay, me and you, we need to find the girls fast… Where are they?”
“Must be in their clubhouse or somewhere near,” breathed out Applejack, when they ran out to the twilight. “Follow meh, Twi!”
They passed the barn, corral, beds of flowers and crops; the apple orchard stood as the dark wall, the pink stripe at the western edge of the sky was razor thin.
“I’m not orienting there, the apple trees look all the same for me!” exclaimed Twilight on the run.
“Just stick to mah tail, partner!” huffed Applejack, she dashed into the dark green tunnel between the trees, like a water snake gliding on the waves; Twilight could barely keep up.
Their nostrils were filled with the apples and damp soil smells, the trees seemed to run in gloomy rows into the infinity, touching by their crowns and whispering in the light breeze, as the two girls ran past them, frequent shrubs obstructed their view, throwing weird shadows; daily hum of the insects changed to silent dance of night moths between the trunks, and each sound made Twilight shiver – she knew well, what could be hiding in the thickening darkness.
“Remember, don’t look at them!” breathed out Twilight on the run.
Applejack gritted her teeth and almost doubled the pace, Twilight galloped on top of her strength, folding her wings tightly, as they were useless there. They made one sharp turn, then another and Twilight realized, she wasn’t orienting already; without golden mane and tail in front of her and light sandy stetson she would get lost easily.
Suddenly a flock of bats soared from the nearby shrubs, startled by the trampling, and swirled around Twilight. The young princess feared the snakes most of all, but she didn’t find the bats to be the fanciest critters either. She even crouched on her hind legs, almost scared by that surprise and shooing the flying shadows with her wings, squinting, as a few touched her muzzle accidentally.
“Shoo! Shoo, you, apple thieves!”
Finally, the bats dissolved in the darkness, Twilight turned her head quickly, taking a look around: Applejack didn’t notice the hitch and ran forward. Where actually… Twilight could hardly say, she wasn’t even sure, where they came from, at that moment.
‘Sweet Celestia! And what now? How can I find them?.. No, no, no!’ Twilight bustled around the opening, losing orientation completely. The night fell around quickly.
‘No, that’s not going to help! Stop, you silly filly!’ Twilight tried to calm down and grasp her thoughts. ‘I must hear them… I hope… But I can’t see even my own hooves.’ She tried hard to discern something in the deep shadows around.
“Jackie is going to kick my butt for that most likely…” muttered Twilight, finally finding a dry branch on the ground and mentally blessing the pony, who forgot to remove it; the rest of the orchard was meticulously cleaned, as she could have noticed. With a sparkle of magic the branch turned into a torch and Twilight headed into the orchard depth, levitating it high, not to set anything on fire. The wide ring of light drifted between the apple trees with her being the center of it. She managed to pass a few rows of trees, heading in the chosen direction, when the distant scream made Twilight jump on the spot, in a second she stormed towards the heard sound, not even thinking about discreetness. ‘Oh, just let me be late not!’ rang in her head.
Applejack reached the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse, built around the thick trunk of an old lush apple tree, and only then noticed, nopony was following her; she lost Twilight somewhere behind.
‘Tarnation!!!’ she took a look around, there was no sound, except wind rustling the upper twigs, the windows of the tree-house were dark and the trees around kept silence, not going to tell, where the three fillies could be. ‘Please, please, let them be okay!’
“Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle!” Applejack yelled so loud, that a single bat rushed into the dark sky from the nearby tree. “Scootaloo!!! Girls, where are you?!”
She made a circle around the large tree, looking fixedly in the darkness. A quiet squeak from the shrubs, made Applejack almost laugh with relief, but she knew, there was not the best moment for that.
“Girls, that’s me, come on out. It’s safe!” the feeling of great weight off her mind mixed with sudden anxiety and feeling of guilt, because of her leaving them in trouble.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo almost crawled out of the thick bushes to the opening, letting Applejack see the glistening terror in their eyes.
“Sis…” Apple Bloom shivered and gasped on a lump in her throat.
“Applejack, we felt that…” whispered Sweetie Belle loudly. “We felt fear and despair, it was like any hope left us…” she whimpered quietly. “We were so scared, auntie Jackie…”
“We extinguished the lights,” added Scootaloo, she tried to keep Dashie’s trade mark “So what?” look, but her lips trembled. “And hid outside, not to be caught in the house.”
“It’s okay, okay,” unusually softly said Applejack, she nuzzled each filly gently. “Ah found you and… it’ll be alright. We’re going home now.” The feel of anxiety grew and she realized that the troubles were only beginning.
Suddenly girls’ eyes dilated, the fillies produced an ear-splitting squeal and snuggled to her chest all together. The fear became almost unbearable.
“Something is behind me, right!” whispered Applejack and that wasn’t a question. Sweetie Belle sniffed and nodded convulsively, hiding her muzzle on Jackie’s chest, other girls snuggled even tighter. “Don’t look, just don’t look!”
‘You must be strong, girl!’ Applejack tried to breathe evenly and leaned on her fore legs, hearing a quiet stomp. Then another one closer, almost behind her tail, the sound turned into the tinnitus in her ears.
“Hhhha!!!” with all her strength and weight Applejack threw her hind legs in the air and felt with triumph, how they met something alive and flexible. The kick was so strong, it could break a young tree; Applejack almost fell flat, standing on her now trembling legs by some miracle.
With a muffled grunt, or maybe it was the sound of the flesh hit by her hooves, that “something” flew back a couple of yards and smacked into a tree, sliding and staying down. Applejack looked over her shoulder cautiously, feeling the strong urge to lay down and not move for a while; the dark heap under the tree was motionless and the feeling of fear and anxiety almost vanished. Almost!
“Oh, girls!” the glade suddenly lit with trembling fire and they saw Twilight approaching, keeping her eyes on the knocked down enemy. “Thanks Celestia, I finally found you! Is everypony alright? And what’s with that… thing?”
“We’re fine,” squeaked the fillies barely audibly, they found the strength to show their snoots from Applejack’s embrace. “Jackie kicked it,” the pride was audible in Apple Bloom’s voice, despite the fear. “Will think better next time…”
“Yeah…” Applejack shrugged with a tiny smile, kicking her stetson at the back of her head. “Ah… can hardly repeat that kick in a few days, partner.”
“Let’s go to the house. And quickly,” Twilight approached, lighting the scene with her improvised torch, to her surprise Jackie didn’t say a word about it, and forced herself to smile encouragingly to the fillies. “Wait…” she felt another wave of uneasiness rolling over them, like a strong tide, and threw the branch to the grass, embracing all the girls with her wings.
“Another one!” whispered Twilight, gathering all her strength and lighting her horn with a powerful spell. A magenta with lightning-like streaks dome of protective shield covered all the ponies, separating them from the approaching menace. With relief Twilight felt, as the feeling of despair weakened noticeably, but she wasn’t going to give up her concentration.
‘Don’t know how long I can hold the shield… but maybe that thing leaves us!’ she threw an accurate glance right above the grass towards the source of quiet unconfident hoofsteps behind the magic dome, noticing two pairs of strong almost pitch black legs with misty stripes curling around them; if anypony had some doubt, there they were dispelled – that was another Seeker.
With a gust of wind something else, dark and fast, rushed to the monster, knocking it off and going through it. An evil groan made the girls’ coats stand, when the Seeker crashed to the ground and wriggled in convulsions. Unknown force ripped it to the shreds and sheets of the Dark Mist, absorbed by the new shadowy visitor.
The latter turned his head, noticing the still smouldering “torch”, and in a second his frame became enveloped in bright flames, which lit and roared with new strength. Twilight recognized Alex, but couldn’t hold back a shudder still: his eyes looked like two wells of void on the fiery face, when he nodded to her.
Another Seeker started moving weakly, regaining “consciousness”… or it was its master, regaining control over their puppet. The magic shield faded and Twilight leaned on Applejack with a fitful sigh, she felt exhausted. Both girls and the fillies risked to take a look and noticed how the bright fiery silhouette lowered over the defeated, but trying to get up, monster and spread its “wings”, clenching to the Seeker.
The monster twitched and produced a loud groan, making the ponies jump on spot, the flames enveloped its carcass, destroying it and releasing the Dark Mist, which was visibly absorbed by the unexpected rescuer. The fillies hid their muzzles under Twilight’s wings again and, after a second, Applejack looked away as well. Twilight watched, as the Seeker turned into a large pile of dust, deprived of its magical substance. Alex rose and she saw an apologetic smile on his face, bringing palpable relief, as his look sent shivers along her spine; that emotion showed her, it was still Alex she knew. The “phoenix” quickly dissolved in the darkling orchard, taking all the light, except the barely burning branch on the ground.
“What… was that?” as the darkness fell, Scootaloo was the first to break the silence. “I mean… ehh…”
“That’s a… “guardian spell”,” downcasted Twilight, wholeheartedly grateful that the girls couldn’t see her pinkish nose and flaming cheeks. “I wasn’t supposed to use it, but I felt, I couldn’t hold the shield any longer.”
“You are indeed a great mage, Twilight!” squeaked Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle quickly nodded.
“Girls, please stop…” Twilight was embarrassed, but she couldn’t tell the truth – that wasn’t her secret.
Applejack kept silence, her expression was slightly pensive, but she shook her head, shooing some impossible suspicions away.
“Ah…” she cleared her throat. “Ah hope that’s safe to go home now. Twi?”
“Yes,” Twilight picked up the torch and made it burn anew, lighting their path. She remembered that Alex could feel the Seekers. “The… “guardian spell” is supposed to take all the nearby enemies, before… before it dissolves. Ahem…”
*
“Are you sure, it’s safe around, partner?” Applejack raised her tired glance on Twilight, when they put exhausted girls to beds, despite the terror, they came through, the fillies simply drowned into the sleep as soon as their heads touched the pillows.
“I’m sure,” Twilight nodded, heading to the front door. “But don’t go out tonight… I… I’ll try to make sure the orchard is completely clear… Simply better stay in the house, okay?”
“Eeyup,” after a short thought agreed Big Mac, who was already home, when they arrived, and listened to their brief story with gritted teeth at first, noticeably regretting that he couldn’t give the intruders a good buck himself. Applejack confirmed with a nod and Macky added. “Can you get home, Twilight? You look… beaten up.”
“It’s okay,” she smiled weakly. “I can manage.” She vanished with a flash…
Twilight was to lean on the library door not to fall, admitting that Big Mac was probably right – “beaten up” was mildly said.
“Psst…” the quiet whisper made her jump on the spot and she squeaked, when a dark figure detached from the oak trunk.
“Sorry,” Alex noticed her twitching. “I didn’t want to startle you. Is everything alright?”
“More or less,” breathed out Twilight. “I’m falling off my hooves though.”
“We still have Rarity to deal with,” chuckled Alex. “With all respect for her, I hope to send her home with the tapestry as soon as I can; you need some rest.”
When he vanished, Twilight opened the door, entering the brightly lit hall and squinting. Spike was entertaining Rarity with some talk, but both heads immediately turned to the sound of tired hoofsteps.
“Oh, Twilight, darling!” Rarity quickly got up and approached, letting Twilight lean on her shoulder. “You look… quite tired,” she stated accurately, then repeated Alex’s question in letter. “Is everything alright?.. And… where is Ahlex?”
Twilight let out a small smile and Spike cringed with badly concealed disappointment, but the sound of unlocking door made them all jump and turn to the small room. Alex appeared on the doorstep, holding the folded tapestry in one hand and rubbing his face, he looked like somepony suddenly awoken. Rarity dropped her jaw.
“Ahlex!..” started she, regaining the ability to speak. “You… you went with Twilight… How on Equus…”
Alex handed her Luna’s tapestry with a sly smile.
“I come and go through the window sometimes,” he shrugged with the most innocent look and Twilight giggled involuntarily, watching Rarity’s muzzle. “Thus I don’t bother anypony, if I’m late… Like tonight.”
When they finally sent Rarity home, convincing her everything is fine at the Apples and the girls are safe, it was far past midnight; Spike simply fell asleep and Twilight levitated him to bed. As the result Rarity left, proudly carrying her “catch”, and Twilight was almost sleeping on her hooves.
“Go to bed, Twilight,” Alex kneeled to her and hugged, stroking her sleepy head lightly. “I’ll put off the lights and… take care of the mess,” he nodded towards the teacups and books on the table.
“Can you do one more thing?” Twilight looked up to him sleepily. “I know, you will be… taking a walk… around the town anyway. Please, check the farm as well; the Seekers never appeared twice in a row, but…” she stopped at the middle of the stairs to the first floor. “Just in case.”
“Rest assured, Twi, I shall!” Alex shortly nodded.
*
The western edge of the sky glared with the bloody sunset, last rays flooded the landscape with hard light, adding almost visible glow to the edges of every tree, shrub and stone, sharpening the long shadows and making the world look frustratingly similar to the flat multilayered decoration in some theatre. The colours: bright yellow, red, dark golden, deep green, black and even blue of the clear evening sky, despite being saturated, looked gloomy in the ensemble. The air was still, not a tiny leaf moved, disturbed by the sudden wind; filled with the parched soil and somehow smoke smells, it provoked faint, but persistent inexplicable anxiety.
The princess floated above the discomposedly frozen orchard, her vast wings flapped slowly, keeping her in the air; Luna took a look around and frowned – something was definitely wrong here, she felt that her intervention was highly needed. The apple orchard shouldn’t be that quiet in the warm august evening: birds chirping and flittering, insects humming, wind playing in the crowns – there was nothing alike and the apple trees stood in even endless rows of silent austere guards.
‘What is going to befall hither,’ intently gazing into the distance of the nearest rows, Luna listened to her intuition. “To play out at this looking trivial, yet hostile stage.” Usually she appeared where and when necessary, it didn’t take much to wait that time either – suddenly the distant clatter of some hurrying hooves pulled her out of the deep thoughts.
‘Aha! Hither cometh,’ Luna soared higher, gliding a few dozen yards aside, closer to the source of the noise, and watched; it approached, heavy huffing added to it.
Sliding by, the apple trees looked like two smudged green and brown stripes, all the same for about half an hour. The apple orchard wasn’t the place Big Mac could get lost into, even in twilight, even after the sunset… well even with eyes closed probably. Even storming through the orchard, looking for his sister and fillies, after finding out the creatures in the royal warning were quite real and one of them (at least one) threatened the girls at that moment.
‘What the hay is goin’ on with our orchard?!’ McIntosh stopped, throwing a bewildered look around. “JACKIE!!! GIRLS!!!”
The yell of usually taciturn stallion must have been heard at least at a few miles range, and would definitely startle up a few birds already and some omnipresent pesky fruit bats; although, Mac’s voice seemingly met a cotton wall, reaching nopony. Big Mac rushed forward again, a little slower this time, the thought, he could take the wrong direction, looked completely inconceivable to him. Inwardly chilling he was to admit that he ran past that forked tree with a hollow in place of the broken branch at least five times already. Considering he was running in one direction, supposedly to the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse, all the time, that was… Sometimes it seemed that he was moving his legs on the single spot and some part of their family pride slid past him in an endless loop.
‘C’mon, ya ‘an’t find the proper place in yar own orchard!’ he froze on spot, listening, then shook his head with a loud huff; the silence around oppressed, thickened hostilely. ‘I could have laughed, if…’
“JA…”
Some muffled sound reached Macky’s ears and he leaped forward silently, preserving the breath.
It looked completely different for the Night Princess, observing the scene from above and slightly afar; the red earth stallion indeed looked running almost on spot, like in slow motion.
‘What a nasty nightmare!’ Luna frowned, her horn lit brightly with magic. ‘Thankfully, it needeth so little to fix some of them, no visible presence even necessary.’
‘Okay, grass, shrubs, apple trees… Wait, what?! Grass?!’ Alex bemusedly observed the surroundings, raising one brow. ‘That’s… kinda unexpected!.. It looks like… Like Apple’s Orchard, but what am I supposed… Oh!..’
A single glance up told him, his unwilling travel here wasn’t futile: the mere look of the night-coloured alicorn, floating above with her amazing starry mane and tail flowing and dissolving in quickly falling darkness, made Alex’s heart warm up and beat faster.
“Ahem… My princess?”
Luna threw a quick glance at Alex, the magical glow of her horn faded and she graciously, but quickly landed next to him, approaching with a smile and slight surprise in her bottomless eyes.
“I missed thee, mine lief!” In a second Alex’s face was on the inch distance from hers, feeling the soft feathery embrace, he cupped her soft shoulders and inhaled full chest of lavender; the princess voiced his recent thoughts almost exactly. “Tis quite unexpected!”
“I wanted to see you, Luna!” Alex touched her nose with his, closing eyes and smiling. “Although I expected to reach you in your room in the Castle.”
“Thou wast a zilch late then,” Luna nuzzled him with a silvery chuckle. “I was thither a few minutes ere forsooth, but…”
“I definitely didn’t expect to appear in the middle of… Apple’s Orchard, right?” Alex glanced around meaningfully. “Isn’t it your dream, my love?”
“Yes and… not quite,” Luna nodded, the slightest touch on her neck made her squint and sigh, Alex wrapped both arms around her. “Hast thou forgotten the nature of mine duties, lief?”
“Come, Alex, follow,” seeing his puzzled expression, Luna welcomed Alex, heading to the group of shrubs in between the tree rows. “I shall show thee. I extend mine hope, thou can tell me the latest news likewise, I heard thou made… art going to make significant changes in thy life since the Gala.”
“Yeah, right, Twilight’s being a diligent student,” smirked Alex, causing another smile on Luna’s muzzle. “Writing regular letters to Tia…”
“I heard a few bits at the breakfast, something about thou leaving the railroad station… But I prefer to hear those stories from thee, mine lief,” dropped Luna over her shoulder. Alex flushed catching himself upon staring at her swaying flanks fixedly.
“Hmmm… I will tell, of course,” he blinked, catching up with Luna shoulder-by-shoulder. “But first tell me why and where I reached you, as…”
Instead of an answer, the princess moved a few twigs aside and a small natural glade opened to their eyes; a few trees were missing in a couple of rows, forming an opening in otherwise even planting. In a second somepony burst in, trampling and breathing heavily.
“Thou dost not say…” Alex dropped his jaw, seeing the stallion, he obviously knew. “Tis… HIS dream?”
“The nightmare, better say… well, till recently,” Luna let out a tiny smile. “But, hush… We can talk anon! Now simply watch.”
Big Mac turned his head, trying to understand, where he heard the sounds from, when the shrubs on the opposite end of the glade parted, revealing Applejack, the fillies and Twilight, guarding the rearward and lightening the surroundings with her magic.
“Macky!” Applejack rushed to her brother, other girls followed. “Ah thought, you went to Ponyville… Have ya been lookin’ for us?” Alex heard a faint silvery tint in her voice, not natural for Jackie, but the red stallion was too happy to see them all, to notice anything.
“Eeyup!” sighed out Big Mac with noticeable relief, squinting, when Applejack hugged him with one fore leg.
“Twilight told me about the incident in the orchard,” the silky touch of Luna’s lips on his ear barely let Alex grasp the sense of what she was whispering. “It seemeth, Big Mac feeleth guilty for not being hither, at which hour it befell… while he actually isn’t.”
“Tis an arrant useless nightmare, pure suffering without any outcome,” Luna shook her head slowly and Alex was to agree. “I took the liberty to fix it a zilch, mine lief! His next dream shalt be peaceful. Methinks I can’t be blamed much for that… But… Thou said, thou hast news to tell. Let’s see, if ‘t be true I can take us to the proper place to talk, like I… summoned thee hither,” she giggled silverily.
“Methinks I know, what place it can be,” pondering for a moment, Alex looked at her sly muzzle fixedly. “Mine amazing princess!”
The world around blurred, when Alex caught Luna’s lips with his, snuggling to her. The ponies left the glade, disappearing in the darkness between apple trees; at the last moment Big Mac looked back and Alex noticed, how the stallion’s eyes suddenly rounded out like saucers, before everything vanished.
When he broke the kiss, rather from surprise, than willingly, Alex and Luna found themselves in the old, almost ancient, dark overgrown garden. Old large moss covered trees, thick grass coming even through gravel pavement, alleys almost unseen in the freely spreading shrubs and expanding flowerbeds, green hedges turned into walls through the time – all those gave little to no chance to recognize the preplanned planting by some caring hooves, which the garden didn’t know seemingly for ages.
A quick look over the shoulder and the old time-worn towers, empty windows, peeking rafters in places of roofs unambiguously told him, where they arrived.
“The Old Castle garden,” smirked Alex. “I had a strong feeling, thou wanted to talk hither. I haven’t seen it upon mine arrival, thinking about the exit from the castle rather; besides, I wasn’t particularly happy with the views from above.”
“Laugh, laugh, mine love! Thou can be amused by that… I, on the contrary, was unable to fly, even in mine dreams… well, regardless of whose dreams those are,” watching Luna giggling at the mental image of Alex, arriving at the highest intact tower of the Old Castle, he frowned jokingly, then grabbed the laughing alicorn into embrace and Luna could only blink her wide open eyes, as their lips met in another passionate kiss.
“Oh…” she breathed out after a few minutes of head-swirling pleasure, nesting her head on Alex’s shoulder. “Simply tallest me, lief, at which hour thou hast enough… for the start, as tis not the final destination of our travel. I wanted to show thee something else.”
“Hmmm…” Alex held her silky cheeks gently, diving into Luna’s dark blue eyes. “I have one idea… but I would like to check, if ‘t be true I’m right. So, lead the way, mine princess, I’m faithfully following thee. And dost not look at me like that, before I fall to thy hooves and thou needst to carry me,” added he meaningfully, forcedly focusing on the surroundings, instead of whirlpools of those eyes; he swallowed a lump, instantly making Luna produce another silvery laughter.
The princess released him and headed into the ancient garden depth, almost prancing like a joyous filly, throwing starry glances at the human, who froze for a short second, unable to break his stare at her sliding along the barely visible in the grass path. Finally, he twitched, waking from his contemplation, and caught up with his collocutor, pacing next to the Night Princess and listening to her light hoof steps, unable to startle the screeching cicadas.
“So, is it true, thou art going to leave the railroad?” Luna broke the silence first.
“Yes, mine princess. I almost did that already… a few formalities remain rather,” Alex nodded, moving away the branch overhanging the path.
“Exactly at which hour I thought that thou lingered too long at the place, which arrant conflicted with thy nature,” Luna’s smile flashed in the darkness.
“With thy help, confess that,” Alex replied. “One can’t attract the attention of large company directorate every day… And I was to start somewhere. But, thou art correct, only two Seekers… What a boring routine job!” he shook the head theatrically; Luna burst laughing again.
“Thou art incorrigible, Alex. Yet still?”
“I signed the contract with Canterlot Steam Company, within the conditions I mentioned afore,” Alex held Luna on her shoulder for a second to let an adder cross their path unharmed. “Besides, I still can work for ponyvillers, making the generators thither, at which hour CSC runs the Equestria-wide production.”
She threw a quick glance of satisfaction and admiration at her human.
“Now I have a strong base and can focus on what interesteth me more. Since certain moment some personal safety and ability to confront our shadowy “friends” are among mine priorities. Besides, methinks Ponyville blacksmith deserveth some support and helping hand in his struggle with time and progress…”
“I can understand thee arrant,” Luna nodded, leaning to him for a second.
“I decided that I can succeed at reaching both goals only in one case – working together with Willsmash,” Alex smirked slyly. “It shalt look like I’m interested in making advantageous armour and weapon against the Seekers, learn the secrets of the craft from Will and share mine own knowledge on technology, but even when I leave,” he noticed, Luna winced, and added after a pause. “if I leave, he can use those methods to compete with any company in Equestria at that moment.”
“Tis soundeth intriguing! Go on,” Luna headed deeper into the seemingly oldest part of the garden; she was to use her magic to softly clean their path of growing obstacles, the castle ruins couldn’t be seen from there because of the thick foliage. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed Alex’s slightly surprised expression.
“Really? Thou wantest to know, mine love?”
“And why not?” Luna glanced at Alex slyly. “I have learned to find out something new every day, ev’r since mine return. It nev’r hurteth, in the earnest.”
“Well, I plan to add some components to the source metal, mine curious princess, and generally change the smelting and forging processes slightly,” Alex explained briefly, what he had in mind. “The latter shalt demand for mine newly, so comfortably, obtained abilities much…”
They walked in silence, broken by the cicadas endless tingling and leaves whispering and gossiping above their heads, for a while, when Luna caught a glimpse of clearing ahead; with a bright smile she sped up slightly, asking Alex to continue.
“But with a few changes to the smithy itself, Will can use the advantages to the certain degree, even without mine aid,” Alex sighed, noticing her slight frown. “Well, if ‘t be true I am to leave, I want ye have something, helping you against those monsters. I can’t do much, thou knowest, mine princess… The closest to magic, I can perform, calleth for me sleeping in the process,” chuckled he.
They finally reached the opening, which attracted Luna’s attention from behind the trees, a small now, overgrown pond revealed itself to their eyes. It must have been larger and cleaner before, but years of unattended existence without care, cleaning and proper gardening around did their unfortunate job – the waterside constantly narrowed and the mirror of clean water in the middle became definitely smaller, than it was intended by the lost in time castle garden planners. Large round leaves occupied quite a portion of that limited surface, telling the observer about some rare water plant presence.
“Thou art already doing much, by merely staying hither and standing against those abominations!” Luna turned to face Alex and seek for his gaze.
“Eh… What?” A smile lighted previously concerned face, Alex observed the old pond with the satisfied expression, most likely telling about the proper guess, he made. With a sigh, although, not very disappointed one, Luna repeated.
“I truly don’t know,” Alex shook his head. “Thou knowest, Tia hath a point, noticing that me and them appeared almost at the same time. The connection must exist methinks… Another question is, what connection exactly?”
“I think oft, mayhap ye would have been safer, if ‘t be true I have had arrived not…” added he pensively after a second. Then seeing Luna’s sad muzzle, Alex tried his best to shake away those thoughts.
“Apologies, mine love… I still frequently think that I don’t belong hither… lately a zilch less to tell the truth.”
“So, is it, what I think it is?” added he, raising one eyebrow with a sly smile.
“It dependeth…” Luna tried to pretend, she was pouting, but couldn’t hold the face under his glance. “Okay, okay… It is. Tis the place they used to grow… and something telleth me, they still do.”
“Mindst that tis our dream, or mine, or thine… It’s hard to tell now,” she added with a tint of sadness. “I don’t know, if ‘t be true that pond still existeth in the actual garden. Daring to think it is would be heartwarming.”
“What is the dream or what is the reality?..” Alex had the impudence to mimic her and Luna quickly slid to him, wrapping in her wings.
“Mockingbird!” breathed she out, nuzzling him and sharing her breath with Alex again. With his fingers travelling through her mane, caressing her ears and cheeks gently, Alex dissolved in Luna’s embrace for a good few minutes; all the world around ceased to exist, even including the pond with the Star Lilies, he so wanted to see, truth be told.
“Forgiven arrant!” apparently the princess changed her mood to merciful, when they went for seemingly fourth or fifth round, after a momentarily break for the air. She nested her head on Alex’s shoulder, cooing something tender and nuzzling his neck; Alex could barely hear because of blood rushing in his ears. He placed his palm on Luna’s soft silky chest, sensing the fast beat, feeling how she calmed down slowly, their hearts amazingly getting synchronized.
“If… if ‘t be true I recall correctly,” Alex could clearly say something from the third attempt only. “We need to wait closer to midnight, mine love…”
Luna simply nodded shortly, her breath swept Alex’s neck, sending chills up and down his spine. Holding her gently by shoulders, Alex sat on the grassy shore and looked up into her eyes, then into the night sky… and stretched on the grass.
“I nev’r liked waiting, but this time it’s too different to refuse it,” he ran his fingers along her fore leg ever so gently.
The Night descended to him, surrounding Alex in lavender fragrant hair, snuggling warmly to his side; Luna rested her forelegs and chest on Alex’s, surprisingly he didn’t feel much weight.
“Thither is a thing that still concerneth thee, mine love,” she watched him from above with concern and something in Alex’s glance attracted her caring attention.
“Even a couple of,” Alex let out a tiny smile, stroking Luna’s mane, sliding his hands along her neck, enjoying her squinting from his touch… yet thinking about something else, as she noticed. “But I’m afraid, they shall be too boring and uninteresting for mine princess.”
“Oh, dost not be foalish, Alex, dost tell,” Luna’s nose funnily twitched and she nudged Alex lightly. “Thou knowest well, I shan’t be too intrusive…”
Instead of the answer Alex brought her face closer with both hands and kissed her snoot tenderly; naturally, the kiss migrated to the more advantageous area in a second. Luna closed her eyes and gave herself to the pleasure entirely, with ears perked, heart racing and her fore hooves frantically stroking Alex’s shoulders, seeking for better grip to bring him closer. She didn’t expect Alex to give up to the pleasure of stroking her shoulder blades and wings base lightly, which made her tremble, muffledly moaning through their kiss and wiggling her shoulders weakly, becoming softer and warmer at once.
“Th-thou shan’t go away… from m-mine question,” she emerged, fitfully taking her breath, granting Alex with the amazing look of her slightly veiled by desire eyes, and pecking him onto his nose, while they regained focus.
“Okay,” Alex sighed, pretending to be forced to spill the beans. “By mine princess command…” Luna squinted at him, but seeing Alex chuckling subtly, she huffed and nuzzled him, then nested her head on his chest.
“One of them is mine ambitious plan to deliver energy to the railway station,” Alex bathed his hands in the lavender fragrant mane, dissolving in heat, Luna’s soft coat provided. “I want to try placing a large generator at the Ponyville dam, obviously with the help of the Steam Company, as it’s some unrealizable work for me alone. Of course, I’m anxious about the possible outcome… but the main thing…”
Noticing, he fell silent, Luna murmured gently, encouraging Alex to elaborate.
“Thou hast seen that dam,” Alex faintly shuddered and Luna noticed, how his fingers stumbled in her mane for a second. “I don’t know, if ‘t be true I can attend the work, without getting to the top of it… W-which I desire to avoid at any cost, in the earnest!”
“That would hardly improve the work as the whole,” he added.
“Mine lief, thou can get thither while… “sleepwalking”,” Luna face, framed with flowing starry mane, overshadowed the sky, her eyes shone. “Methinks thou art less affected by thy… problem while doing that,” her soft lips touched and pressed his again tenderly.
“Oh, mine endless gratitude!” Alex retorted a bit grumpily, when he was returned his right to speak. “And if ‘t be true something goeth wrong… I can imagine and… I don’t need to scare the ponies… more than necessary,” added he, realizing that he hardly was an ordinary figure in their eyes already. “I shall need to find a solution, mine love… Thou can’t help hither, apologies.”
“Oh,” he remembered. “Twilight said likewise that either I expel mine phobia, or it may “expel” me. Tis easier to admit, than do,” sighed he heavily.
Listening to cicadas and watching the dark, stars woven tapestry of the sky, being overshadowed by seemingly darker clouds passing by, was undoubtedly easier than thinking about and voicing another problem. That one troubled Alex the most, he knew he was moving along the rightful path, but explaining that to others involved looked quite complicated at times. He rewound the possible routes, that talk could bring him to, again and again, each inevitably taking the dangerous direction in his mind. Alex woke up from his thoughts, feeling Luna’s fore hoof stroking his chest; gently, but unambiguously reminding him of her presence and attention, and his own promise to tell, what troubled him.
“Forgivest me!” Alex ran his hand over Luna’s muzzle ever so gently, putting the fragrant strand of her mane behind her soft ear and caressing her cheek. “Well… I shall try to explain. Both Willsmash and his niece literally saw the light, at which hour I placed quite a large order. I see the hope in their eyes for quite a while already… unlike the first day we met. Truth be told another couple of customers appeared, not native ponyvillers, but that was almost a miracle for Will.”
“I am to tread lightly, mine love,” Alex bit his lip. “The single sign that I’m working not only for myself, but trying to “help” them raise, and Willsmash shan’t be so trustful. Can thou imagine, I avoid mentioning Tia or thee in the talk, as she tried to help him and he may consider her trying the same again with mine hands. I know, the real future of that smithy is not in making generators details only, but… tryest to explain that to those unicorns, for whom it is the first real work for years.”
“I can’t imagine… I simply can’t tell them out of the blue, I involved the CSC into that work,” Alex took a breath and shook his head slowly. “That was necessary, that giveth us space for maneuver… but the mere mention of the company crossing their road shalt break the nerves of Will and Sil arrant.”
“Sil?” Luna raised one eyebrow.
“Silver Ingot,” Alex watched the princess, whose meaningful “Oh!” was quite eloquent. “What? Oh, comest on, Luna. She is a nice, cute, thoughtful filly, that’s all!”
“Fluttershy is nice, cute, thoughtful filly likewise…” Luna pressed her nose to Alex’s jokingly, then giggled after a second. “Aha! Got thee!..”
“As I said, I know how to make the smithy raise from the ashes again… But I must convince Will, that I do… knowing his stubbornness, tis not going to be easily reachable. I thought I could simply show him some advantages of the technology, I bear in mind, at least I have everything necessary for that demonstration now.”
“Then dost it, mine love,” Luna arched her neck, looking down at him and flashing her smile. “Thou dost not need to mention the Company yet. If ‘t be true I know something about thee, Alex,” elaborated she, amused by his surprised look. “I highly doubt, thou negotiated for the… development rights being reserved for thee in that contract for nothing…”
“Well, ” Alex downcasted most innocently. “Who knoweth, what I may come with anon…”
“Alex!” Luna kept staring at him.
“Okay, thou win,” giving up, Alex wrapped his arms around her swan neck again. “I had in mind a few difficulties, they can shortly meet in mass production.” He kissed Luna fast and, before she could squeeze him again, exclaimed.
“Lookest, judging by thy Moon, it’s close to midnight.”
Alex leaned on his elbows and raised a bit to see the pond, Luna graciously turned to another side, nesting her head on his chest as before, but facing the water as well.
A few miraculous stars of pristine white, tingling beauty shone between the large round leaves, drifting above the pond depths in the track of moonlight. Luna didn’t exaggerate, mentioning them: each flower was hardly smaller than Alex’s head, glowing with its finest porcelain grace and attracting numerous moths. The thin, but sweet and very distinctive aroma soon reached the unusual couple, silently admiring the Queen of nocturnal flowers.
“Mine love,” whispered Alex, touching Luna’s silky ear with his lips. “Do I harm the whole plant much, if I pick one flower.”
“Methinks not more than any other herb,” the flush of hers, understanding his motive at once, seemed awesome to Alex; he felt long fore legs squeezing him tighter for a moment.
“Then…” with a few seconds of concentration and a loud clap a single “star” came afloat in the air and, being followed by two pairs of eyes, finally landed behind Luna’s ear, fixed in her mane with the relatively long piece of remaining stem.
“I wonder, if ‘t be true the flower stayeth with thee, as we seem to be in somepony’s dream still,” Alex examined Luna’s extra crown with a hopeful smile.
‘I shall find the way to bring them to thee in reality…’ his promising thoughts dissolved in the loving embrace of alicorn princess, when her shining eyes filled Alex’s view and mind completely.
*
“Bouncing Barrels” bar was quite herded, like usual at that time of the day, but one company gained more attention, than all other ponies together. It wasn’t specifically noisy, although, definitely more vivid, than the rest; probably because the initiator of the party wasn’t a common occasion here. Rainbow Dash was a known lover of apple cider, but usually she preferred it freshly made from the Apple Acres harvest and rarely was the bar visitor. Maybe because she wasn’t a totally company pony type or maybe because she preferred a good nap to any other activities, when she had time free from her cloud bucking or training.
Nevertheless, she was exactly the center of the small pegasi company at that evening and if somepony took a closer look, they could notice, there were mostly those from her colleagues, weather pegasi, whom she could call her friends, maybe not so close like the girls, but still mates at work and… prank. The latter was the most common activity for Rainbow, when she didn’t work, nap or… get stuck with a book.
The whole celebration happened spontaneously, but it was obvious that the event causing it was important for her, making the tomboy pegasus suggest a couple of mares and a few stallions drop into that bar and have a drink.
Perhaps Rainbow planned the real party as well, when she could share the joy with the girls and have a chance to brag, moreover, argue with Applejack again on the eternal topic of “who was the most daring mare in Ponyville”. Nevertheless, that didn’t prevent her to pay tribute to “Bouncing Barrels” old cider, which was noticeably stronger than freshly brewed Apple Acres’ one, and relax. The rest of the company didn’t plan to fall behind as well.
“Well, I say, that’s cool that you have succeeded, Dash!” one of the stallions saluted, smirking. “Not only because you did, and actually showed Thunderbolts your best, but also because your training must be over… for now,” he looked around their company, like asking, if others shared his idea. “And we finally get our good ol’ Rainbow Dash back.”
“What do you… mean?” Rainbow turned to him and huffed, raising one brow. “Like if I was ever going to change. Hmpf!”
“He means that we were hardly seeing any Rainbow Dash lately,” another pegasus supported him with a laugher. “More like a dash of rainbow, jetting by few times a day, kicking a bunch of clouds as a part of her duty and vanishing for her endless training.”
“Not that you were an epitome of sociability before…” muttered he quieter, but loud enough everypony around to hear.
“Oh, stop inciting her!” nudged him a mare with tightly braided green blue mane, she threw a glance on Rainbow, who barely noticeably hiccupped at that moment.
“You wanna say, I’m becoming a bore?” Rainbow shook her head, arching the eyebrow again.
“Well, maybe not a bore… but we can’t remember the last time our Daring Dash pranked anypony or generally enjoyed a good joke,” both stallions kept giggling and others, including both mares, sported light smiles involuntarily. “You were either training or ears deep into the book.”
“Yeah, a bit more along that way and you can freely move to Twilight Sparkle, Dash!” added the first stallion, causing a few snorts.
Rainbows nose became pinkish. On the one hoof, despite the recently discovered love to reading, she still thought that calling her an egg-head or book-horse would be a terrible exaggeration; besides, Dash rightfully supposed that her love for only certain books (mostly Daring Do’s adventures) excused her effectively. On the other hoof, she remembered, who moved to Twilight not long ago, and the mere thought of staying with him under one roof sounded like a profanity to her. Accusing her of avoiding pranks was clearly an unheard-of strike at Rainbow’s reputation, she couldn’t allow.
“So… you are going to say that I ignore you, ignore any entertainment, maybe even becoming less awesome,” Rainbow Dash raised on her hind legs, fore hooves akimbo, pouting like a big sparrow. “Maybe even becoming an egg-head, right?”
“I had no time for pranks, I admit… But boring!” huffed Rainbow, putting down the empty mug and taking a look around, quickly figuring. “I’m becoming less socialite and more predictable, you say,” repeated she.
“Hmm… Clear and correct, position by position, like a written down list,” chuckled one of the stallions. “As we said, one more Twilight in the making…”
“That’s not going to end well…” muttered the mare with the short chestnut mane.
“Drop it, Rainbow!” another mare gave a killing glance to the snorting stallions. “They didn’t want to say…”
“Huh? They said it exactly,” Dash shook her rainbow bang. “That I can’t enjoy a good joke now and am turning into a… nerd, I suppose. Maybe that I’m even not daring enough,” she glared at the scoffers, who couldn’t stop already. “Perhaps they forget that air tricks are, leaving only books for me…” she gasped of resentment.
“Well…” slowly said one of the stallions, barely stifling another snort…
That evening wasn’t among the easiest for Alex, he had another talk with the station chief in addition to his regular work, consisting of loads of boxes, crates and sacks, logistics, in particular coordinating a group, which in record time loaded and sent to the southern border a very important train. Alex knew that the situation there, near the sadly known Badlands, was quite sharp – the Changelings didn’t want to calm down and conform to the agreements, constantly crossing the border and pestering small villages and separate farms. Thus that cargo train was of great importance for those, who uphold the border and unstable order along.
The chief only sighed, seeing Alex entering his office at the end of the day, he knew well, what the talk was supposed to be about. In his turn, he did everything possible to linger with Alex leave. Certainly, the latter promised quite an advantageous changes, as the result of him working in the different role, but the terms were uncertain still. Besides, the station master preferred the well known responsible employee, who could be put at the night shifts easily, if the necessity emerged, to the fantastic technological improvement of the freight work process, which nopony knew when to be implemented actually. Alex was to call for all his eloquence to prove his point and paint the benefits of his new job for the freight workflow in the brightest colours.
As the result, despite the aged stallion huffed through his moustache and wanted to keep Alex on his job for two weeks more at least, while they looked for the replacement (or better a couple of), Alex could talk through his own terms – working till the end of this week and staying available to be called for in case of some emergency for a while longer, if his new job allowed. The talk wasn’t overly heated, but Alex fell out of the office, feeling quite tumbled.
The road to Ponyville took him a bit more than usual, as Alex tried to relax during his walk and pondered about the uneasy task of telling old Willsmash that they would give out some work to the big company and cooperate in a way. There was a certain risk that the old blacksmith wouldn’t listen to any reasons and ideas, but would rather buck Alex from his home, prior to those ideas even had some chance to be voiced. Loaded with those thoughts Alex reached the town and, despite there was about a couple hundred yards to the Library, turned right instead, heading to the southern part of Ponyville.
Later Alex scolded himself countless times for that decision to visit a bar and have a mug of cold apple cider, instead of going straight home. Did he really need that cider that much at the end of the day? And they could definitely have made even better coffee with Twilight, than any bar offered… And the evening could have turned out calm and nice… for the change, but the choice was already made.
“Good evening!” with a smile Alex greeted one of the mares, he worked for at the market; two steps separated him from the bar entrance.
“Evening,” there was a fair dose of concern in the glance she raised at him, making Alex wonder. “So nice, I met you here. I’ve heard, you were going to leave the station, moreover change your job completely,” the mare shrugged with a tiny smile, like if apologizing for the town tattle; Alex inwardly cringed – definitely Ponyville was a small town, if even that decision of him was already a matter of “market talks”. “Well… That probably means that you won’t be able to offer me your service either. That would be really sad, let alone quite troublesome. Are you sure? If the rumors about your decision are true, of course.”
Alex sighed and produced a diplomatic smile.
“I plan certain changes indeed,” he confessed forcedly under the mare’s pleading glance. “But I won’t leave you in trouble, ma’am. What if, let’s say, I find somepony ready to change me on that job?”
“Oh…” his employer tried to hide disappointment and failed at that. “As the worst case…”
“I’ll try to find a capable pony, who can take some part-time job for the few extra bits,” Alex had a more cheerful look on the perspective. “And I’m more than sure they will cope with the task just as well as I did. Don’t worry, please.”
“Only if you find somepony as responsible and meticulous…” squinted the mare, smiling involuntarily at Alex’s encouraging expression. “Okay?”
“Rest assured, I will,” reassured Alex, already opening the bar door; he was almost inside, automatically crouching under the barrel above the entrance and waving to the mare with a smile. “Stay calm and have a nice evening, ma’am!”
“Sorry,” his smile became apologetic, as he involuntarily squeezed in front of another customer; the earth pony stallion only shrugged.
Alex let go of the door and turned; apparently, that small talk played its detrimental role in the further events.
“Hmpf! So, I can’t enjoy a good joke, something totally crazy and… and unpredictable,” huffed Rainbow dash angrily, putting her mug on the table. “I’m a boring and… totally unsocial pony…”
“Okay… I’m…” she jumped on her hooves and took a look around, then stared at the still having fun stallions scowlingly. “I… I’m going to kiss whoever enters that door right now. Yeah, be it a stallion or mare… Beat me to it,” she stuck out her tongue at them, making both mares shake their heads in disbelief.
“Easy stuff! And here goes the victim,” she perked her ears at the sound of the opening door.
In a prankish flurry Rainbow Dash turned to the sound, their table was close to the exit, otherwise she could notice something perhaps.
Still smiling Alex passed the barrel and straightened at that moment.
Rainbows felt dizzy from the sudden turn and already consumed cider, thus was to close her eyes for a moment, but she grabbed the newcomer firmly and placed a well-aimed kiss right on their lips.
The complete silence covered the bar with the deafening quilt. The bartender squinted, he knew both customers and was informed about… certain tension between them; judging by his muzzle, he already counted the inevitable losses. Alex’s eyes met at the bridge and he made a desperate attempt to start back, when the rainbow mane unambiguously told him, who was kissing him at the moment, but she held him tight. Nevertheless, he noted that Rainbow compensated the possible lack of practice with outstanding enthusiasm, but Alex was unable to pay due tribute; his mind searched for the ways to retreat in panic.
In a few infinite seconds the pegasus girl finally realized that the shape of pony muzzle should actually differ; Rainbow opened her eyes and tried to focus on Alex’s face. Her eyes dilated, changing the relaxed and content expression to utter terror.
“Mmmmffff!!!” Alex twitched and retreated, pushing her back with both hands, for his fortune Rainbow Dash loosened her grip out of bewilderment and jumped back as well. Her eyes quickly filled with rage. Alex shook his head like a dog, getting out of the water, and threw a quick glance over his shoulder at the door. Alas, a big company just entered the bar and totally herded the entrance (which was the only exit for Alex unfortunately), wondering about the jam-up reason.
“Youuuu!!!” Rainbow produced a roar, capable to put a timberwolf into shame; Alex barely managed to jump aside, when she landed on four hooves right at the place, where he was standing. Now she was effectively cutting him from the front door.
‘Here we go again!’ flashed in Alex’s head, he stifled a stronger damnation. ‘Merlin’s pants! Why on… Equus…’
The entire herd around them unfroze at once, flooding the room with the cacophony of voices; everypony talked and laughed, a few still sat in shock, the stallions from Rainbow’s company, first stunned by the incident, neighed shamelessly. Alex would be endlessly grateful, if they did not though, as they agitated enraged mare even more.
“Hey! The hay are you going to…” started the bartender, when Rainbow grabbed the nearest mug. Alex barely managed to dive under the table, when that mug smacked at its center, spraying the pieces around and making the ponies jump away.
‘Daaamn!’ thought Alex, carefully peeking from under the table… only to quickly leave his cover and look for another one, as Rainbow dashed towards him grabbing something on the run. ‘Tis shan’t end with one broken bottle now!!!’
They made a couple of circles around the hall: Alex maneuvered between tables and customers quite effectively, Rainbow followed close, throwing at him everything, she could pick, and trying her best to catch him and kick. A few attendees still laughed at no doubt looking hilarious for an extraneous observer scene, but the majority worried for their health already. It was a miracle, how they managed not to hurt anypony yet.
Finally, Rainbow Dash remembered that she had wings and Alex was to seek cover under the tables quickly again. She tossed about the bar, eyes flaming, nose and cheeks flushing; if she was a bit tipsy, the anger and excitement of pursuit made her sober at once, but the same feelings didn’t let her stop and cool down. In his turn Alex launched a few things at her, but the mare managed to dodge, scoffing his attempts; an unfortunate throw made one of the large windows crumble with woeful tingling, causing an angry shout from the poor bartender, forcedly witnessing his bar being ruined by those two.
Alex did his best to get to the exit, but the vengeful girl tried to leave him no chance; besides, the exit was occupied by those, who didn’t want to get hit with an accidental “flying saucer”, yet preferred to watch the play to the end. Rainbow advanced, Alex stumbled upon somepony’s folded shawl and grabbed it without a second thought, folding it tighter and throwing at her. The rolled cloth smacked right into Rainbows nose, making her huff and blink a few times. Somepony snorted in the corner.
‘Shut up finally, you…’ thought Alex, when Rainbow produced an ear-splitting squeal and stormed, seemingly ready to tear him apart. He managed to dive under her and hopped over the counter, landing on the floor next to stunned bartender and crouching, just like that stallion. Right in time: the chair crashed in the counter with a nasty crackle. The bartender glared at Alex with a mix of despair and anger.
“I shall pay for that mess!” breathed out Alex, trying to hear the “enemy” out, as raising was hardly a smart move at that moment.
“Ouch!!!” a bottle swept by something, Rainbow threw, rolled on the counter and fell on Alex’s head, hitting him quite tangibly. “Damn, I’ll show thee…”
Alex quickly moved aside to take her by surprise and raised behind the counter; he spotted an intact clay mug and grabbed it.
“Aha!” Rainbow fluttered right in front of the exit; she triumphantly pointed at him rubbing his head and looked for another chair to launch at the hated human.
Alex threw the mug, but either his aim was affected by the hit or he hurried a bit – the mug crashed exactly into the barrel, hanging above the entrance, and knocked the tap out. The effect was unexpected by Alex, who wholeheartedly believed that the whole barrel was a simple props. Contrary to that the waterfall of cold fragrant cider came down on unsuspecting Rainbow, making her lose height and huff under the sudden shower and Alex freeze for a second, estimating the effect, almost folding in half from laughter.
“Ha! Deuce!” Alex quickly jumped over the counter and dashed through the broken window outside, while stunned pegasus shook her head and wiped the cider off her eyes. He landed on all four and quickly raised, looking for the best possible cover, still snorting at the priceless image, he witnessed. ‘Granted – she is annoying as hell, especially now… but I’m not going to fight a girl, yet it hardly stops Dash on her way to bucking me aplenty!’
Outrunning Rainbow Dash at a beeline would be a futile attempt, as she would catch up with him fast and simply knock him down on the fly, then possibly jump on Alex till… till she considered her cider shower and, moreover, their unfortunate kiss (Alex shuddered) paid back entirely. His only chance was hiding and Alex thought about the area north of Carousel Boutique, where buildings stood close to each other, yet were a lot of narrow backstreets to lay low and wait till the infuriated pegasus calmed down and minded her own business.
Alex dashed left and down the street towards Rarity’s home hearing from the corner of his ear the loud angry scream, which only made him double the speed.
“I will get you, scrub!”
He was almost behind the first alley corner, when Rainbow jumped through the broken window and turned the head fast to spot her offender. Apparently, she caught the glimpse of his back, because the mare produced a victorious (quite prematurely, as Alex thought) yell and soared, chasing him. Thankfully Rainbow flew straight after Alex, she was so angry and eager to get his miserable ass that simple idea to fly higher and watch his path didn’t come into her mind.
Alex got far enough into the alley and passed a few crossings already, actually, they were more like sideways between houses; the stuff, ponies didn’t find a place in their homes, was stored in some of them: carts, barrels, some crates, flower pots and other similar things. Twilight slowly flooded the town and Alex thought, he had a good chance to flee and hide, before the storm died.
He turned on the next corner and snuggled to somepony’s door, hiding in the shadow of the deep door frame. Right in time, the next second the blue smudged silhouette flashed by, leaving a comet-like rainbow tail; Alex froze and almost stopped breathing, the hearing was his best defense at the moment. Rainbow Dash stopped further down the alley and fluttered, exasperatedly looking around, she couldn’t believe, she lost the human. Alex could hear her receding, muttering something unpleasant in his address; he looked out accurately and slipped from his hiding place, trying to get away quietly and unnoticed.
Lady Luck decided to tease him more, Rainbow Dash became tired of fruitlessly looking for Alex and turned back almost ready to stop her pursuit… when she noticed him quietly leaving the scene. Her “hunting spirit” got new fuel and with a loud holler Rainbow dashed after the human again. Alex whisked into the sideway and with the speed of light made a few turns between the houses, trying to make her lose his trail again. Fortunately, he had a couple seconds of advantage, thus managed to dive into some dark narrow space and crouch behind the large crate.
After a few minutes of tension Alex’s knees subtly hinted him that it would be quite nice to stretch them or simply walk a little. Rainbow Dash flew past his improvised shelter twice already and it was only a matter of time, when she could finally check that gap; time worked against him.
Alex got up and looked around carefully. He found himself in a small passageway between two buildings. There was nothing, except the crate, he was crouching behind. As far as he could see in the falling twilight, there was a dead end, blocked by a stone wall, between buildings on the other side of that passage. The height of the wall didn’t leave a chance for any doubts – he couldn’t climb it. And despite being narrow, this opening wasn’t narrow enough for him to climb up, using opposite walls. There was a tree behind the dead end, but it could equally be none, as Alex couldn’t reach lower branches either.
Two doors lead to the passageway, both locked and he had no time to try his luck with any of the locks. Besides, that would be breaking into somepony’s property with damage inflicted. There was one dimmed window on the right wall, next to the crate. Alex tried what appeared to be some sort of French frame; thankfully it wasn’t locked and gave up. Moving it very slowly, not to let it screech or bump the other half of the frame, he raised the window, making an opening wide enough to squeeze through, then accurately closed it behind.
When Alex’s eyes accommodated to the low light, he found himself in some sort of storage with lots of clean and folded towels, bathrobes of pony size and fashion and generally different sorts of bath or sauna accessories on the numerous shelves. Praying for the narrow door on the opposite wall to be unlocked, Alex accurately pressed the handle.
‘By the name of Celestia… Yes!’ the handle gave up freely and the door opened. ‘Now, quiet. You don’t need anypony to join the race, drunk and disgruntled Rainbow Dash was enough for me tonight.’
He then cautiously squeezed through the door and entered the new room. It was a much bigger one with a large marble basin, built into the floor and filled with hot water and bubbles. The air was humid and warm, steam filled the room making it harder to see the details. A few folded towels and colourful vials surrounded the basin’s edges. Enveloped in the relaxing aroma Alex thought that it could be quite nice to take a breath here and plan his escape, but…
When Alex saw who was sitting in the basin, in a completely relaxed pose, with a damp towel on her eyes, he froze on spot.
‘Merlin’s pants!’ Alex’s eyes desperately looked for the exit, while he was trying to not move, not breathe and, frankly speaking, become completely invisible. ‘By sheer luck she isn’t facing me and seemeth uninformed of mine presence… yet.’
The horn, the pristine white coat, the blue strand of hair protruding from under the towel, which was wrapped around her head to keep her mane dry… Alex didn’t see the cutie mark underwater, but the whole ensemble of features was enough for him to fall into quiet panic. Especially considering the situation they both got into.
‘Just when I thought the evening had a tiny chance to end well…’ sighed Alex mentally. He tried to make a tiny careful step aside. Maybe his clothes rustled or maybe the base of his shoe met the floor faster than it was necessary…
“Uhmmm… Lotus? Finally,” Rarity stretched in the basin and leaned forward slightly, while straightening her shoulders in the most graceful way. “I think I’m ready for a massage, you master so well, darling. It was a long day…”
‘Damn, Damn!!! DAMNDAMNDAMN!!!’ Alex’s thoughts ran and bounced inside his mind like a pack of mice deadly scared by a stray cat, while his eyes madly moved from one object in the room to another.
‘I guess, tis mine karma,’ he gave up and thought of the way to sneak out of the situation with all possible dignity.
Alex approached the basin and kneeled at the edge, he took one of the vials with the liquid, resembling the massage oil to him. Thankfully it was indeed something alike, as he found out, opening it. Lavender scent flowed into the hot air, making Alex stumble; for a tiny moment he returned back to the Old Castle garden and the overgrown pond bank, to the tender embrace of the incredible alicorn princess and felt her lips on his own – the memory was so fresh and vivid, Alex barely stifled a sigh.
‘Okay, careful now!’ Alex forcedly returned to reality, shaking his head. ‘If ‘t be true thou art lucky, thou shall sneak out of hither without troubles soon.’
A few minutes passed in almost complete silence with only Rarity murmuring and stretching under his… fists. Yes, Alex decided that the only way to keep his cover was to use fists for massage, as his hands with fingers wouldn’t ever deceive even a blindfolded and overly relaxed pony into thinking, she was massaged by hooves. It was very unusual and troublesome for him to refrain from using the most natural tools, every human had since birth, and still stay gentle, yet effective with Rarity’s skin. He caught himself numerous times upon massaging her with open palms, almost “clawing” her white coat, like cats did with soft furniture. With the only difference, he had no claws thankfully. Alex planned to round up the treatment in a couple of minutes and quietly sneak through another door he spotted, this one must have lead to the exit eventually.
“Ohhhh…” Rarity waved her shoulders. “It seems that you’re on a roll today, darling. I can’t remember last time, when your massage was SO delightful.”
“Uhum…” hummed Alex, trying hard to make it sound like an agreeing snicker, a proud pony could produce, when he saw Rarity’s horn glowing with magic; she started lifting the towel from her eyes.
‘I be damned!’ flew in his brain, when he was desperately asking for some miracle to help him stay covered.
Of course, he could stretch the towel from her head onto her eyes and flee. But Alex admitted, it wasn’t the best idea. First of all, Alex couldn’t do this to a lady, not mentioning that Rarity was always kind to him and offending her was the last thing, he wanted to do. Allowing that debacle to happen would no doubt offend the sensitive fashionista immensely, perhaps, up to effectively cutting him off the only reliable source of clothing in Equestria.
Alex decided to flee right away and jumped on his foot. Apparently, his luck decided to play a nasty joke on him right at that moment, as Alex stomped on a folded towel, slipped and fell into the basin with a giant splash of water and bubbles.
When he emerged, coughing and shaking his head to remove water from the ears and eyes, Alex was granted the picturesque image of Rarity, sitting with her forelegs raised, hooves covering mouth, eyes dilated, almost twice bigger than normal, if that was even possible. Usual for such a surprise shriek didn’t come out and died as a tiny squeak, coming from her mouth. The towel fell from her mane, revealing now the cutest messy head of sapphire colour. When Alex wiped his eyes regaining non-blurred sight, he couldn’t help admitting, she was very beautiful, despite all the shock drawn on her muzzle.
‘C’mon Alex, don’t let it stun you,’ he reminded himself. ‘Get away, before she realized, what is going on!’ He didn’t like the fast-changing expression of Rarity’s eyes.
“Alex?!” creaked Rarity, she then cleared her throat and continued in suddenly softer and eager voice. “Well, my birthday is distant, but somepony apparently decided to send me a present beforehoof. Right, darling?”
“Wait,” some thought just visited her and her eyes widened again. “So that was you, giving me one of the best massages in my life?!”
Alex automatically nodded, while giving her a deadpan look, with his head completely empty at the moment. The white unicorn presented him her best bed eyes and a smile, that woke Alex from his stupor. He noticed that his shirt was being pulled away over his head, while equine vixen’s horn glowed again. With one fierce pull he found himself sitting in the hot basin with foam, stripped to the waist, with quite determined Rarity next to him. Alarm, alarm!
‘Oopsy! Magic may not affect thou, but not the things on thee,’ Alex returned to clear thoughts at once. ‘The longer thou stay, the fewer clothes on thy body!’
He already felt, she wasn’t going to stop at that; fortunately, it wasn’t so easy to cope with belt buckle underwater.
“Come on, darling, nobody takes a bath while clothed,” giggled Rarity and slid closer. She tried to enclose him in a hug, when Alex stormed out of the water.
“I promise to consider thy proposal…” he breathed out, while crossing the room on all four and grabbing his wet shirt, Rarity dropped.
“…some other day!” he raised on his feet at the door and blasted through, throwing the last glance back to see, how Rarity snorted and slammed both hooves against the water in despair, causing one more splash.
In the corridor he almost bumped into another pony with a fillet on her head, keeping her mane up and not obstructing her sight or operations. Perhaps that was exactly Lotus – one of two sisters who run the spa salon (as Alex finally realized, where he “broke into”) – who was going to check Rarity. She almost ducked in terror, following with dilated eyes the strange tall wet figure, which fell out into the corridor and almost rolled over her.
Alex jogged to the door on the opposite side, supposedly leading towards the hall, reception and exit to the street. He tried to dry himself with his shirt and found that to be completely futile; he was soaking wet with only hope to dry outside after a while. One more desperate yell reached his ears from behind.
“AHHHHHLEEEEX!!!”
Next door released him into a wide hallway with reception counter, a fancy thick carpet on the floor, potted plants with large leaves, resembling small palm trees, and a few couches. Alex rolled his eyes thankfully, that looked like an exit and there was nopony behind the counter. Inwardly apologizing for the wet prints, Alex crossed the hall and opened the front door a little, listening. It was quiet outside, but chances, Rainbow was ambushing, were still high; although, he couldn’t find a reason for her to wait for him exactly at the SPA… unless she heard the noise from outside.
‘If she pounces me now, I’ll probably shriek and faint,’ chuckled Alex inwardly, trying to calm his beating heart. He weaseled outside and took a quick look left and right; no sign of the rainbow menace was encouraging. A quiet giggle made Alex freeze and carefully turn; thankfully, that wasn’t Rainbow Dash anticipating the “final strike”. Two young mares at the table of the street café across giggled at the sight of wet, stripped to the waist human with ruffled hair, tiptoeing out of the SPA salon.
“Hmpf!” Alex took a breath and straightened, he flexed a bit an winked at them with the most mischievous expression, making them snort, leaning to each other and flushing. He sent them an air kiss to complete the effect, causing another wave of uncontrollable giggling, and ran back past the bar towards the Golden Oak Library, rightfully concluding that Rainbow would hardly muck about the place, she took part derailing. The Sun almost set, but Alex promptly kept closer to the walls, putting his shirt on and checking the air from time to time, he had more than enough surprises already.
There was nopony at the Library front door and the area seemed clear, but Alex didn’t want to tease his luck and crossed the street beforehand, approaching the library from behind, under the cover of thick foliage. He took another careful look at the square and above and quickly hopped over the low windowsill of his room, heading to the ground floor bathroom first.
The short examination under the bright light showed that he looked quite a mess, besides, all the dust he raised, running across the town, now turned into the dirt on his clothes. Naturally, all went to the laundry basket. With a sigh Alex turned on the water and climbed into the tub, relaxing under the warm streams and letting them wash the dust off. He let the tub fill, putting the plug after a few minutes, and simply sat there with eyes closed.
‘What rabid fly bit her?’ Alex leaned on the edge, rubbing his face tiredly. ‘First she grabs me and kisses and then gets mad about that. I admit, she was a bit tipsy most likely, but still… Girl, brace yourself finally!’
The tub finally filled, letting Alex warm up, but before serenity embraced him, some sound made him turn off the water and listen nervously. Somepony knocked on the front door persistently.
‘Not again!’ Alex rolled his eyes, hearing how Twilight went downstairs; he could bet, he knew the visitor – well, that was natural, hardly anypony in the town was uninformed, where Alex resided.
“Evening, pal,” Rainbow sounded a bit tired, but as stubborn as usual. Alex turned into the pair of very sensitive ears.
The situation could hardly be worse, he was trapped in the relatively small, brightly lit room, without any hiding place and with a single entrance and exit simultaneously; moreover, his clothes were in the laundry basket and any retreating plan was hardly feasible.
“Good evening, Dash,” Twilight made a considerable effort to stifle a yawn. “Can I help you?” Alex heard she made it sound sympathetically, despite having no idea, what made Rainbow wake her.
“Y-yeah…” Rainbow seemed to realize that her question sounded quite strange, she remembered about her reputation too late and tried to word it the most neutral way possible. “Did you saw Alex, Twi?”
If somepony could be named a slow thinker, that was definitely not Twilight, besides, something on Rainbows muzzle alerted her, after a short pause and another small yawn, which made Twilight look most innocent and uninvolved, she said.
“I haven’t seen him here, Dash, if that’s what you mean. I was at home the whole evening and he didn’t come in my presence. But what do you…”
“Oh, look,” Rainbow squinted and pointed over Twilight’s shoulder. “You left the lights in the bathroom!” she visibly twitched towards the slightly open door.
“Ahem…” Twilight raised her voice a bit, keeping the deadpan look. “I was going to take a bath and go to bed actually, when you knocked,” she threw an unambiguous glance at herself, dressed into a fluffy bathrobe. “But if that reassures you…”
She quickly trotted to the bathroom, inwardly praying for it at least to look empty, and opened the door, blocking it first from Rainbows inquiring glance.
Praising the not filled to the edge tub, Alex got down, leaving almost only his nose above the water. Twilight took a fast look around the room, with a tiny sigh subtly moved Alex’s shoes aside and behind the door with her fore hoof and turned to her impatiently jumping pegasus friend, who tried to throw a look over Twilight’s shoulder.
Rainbow observed the bathroom, making sure there was no place to hide, and downcasted with a disappointed and a bit embarrassed look.
“Sorry, Twi! A-actually… that doesn’t matter. I can always find him later…”
Twilight shrugged with a tiny friendly smile, inwardly noting that the latter sounded quite threatening, considering Rainbow’s attitude towards the human.
“Okay… Eh… Have a nice evening, pal, and… Good night! Yeah…” feeling the growing embarrassment Rainbow preferred to retreat.
“Good night, Dash!” Twilight held the door for her friend, stifling a giggle; seeing her bloodshot eyes, she added. “Have some sleep, mate.”
The door closed behind puzzled girl; Twilight leaned on it and chuckled, she lingered for a while, listening that Rainbow actually soared, then headed to the bathroom door.
“You can tell me the whole story tomorrow, okay,” Twilight raised her voice a bit, stopping in the doorway and looking fixedly at the tub; she didn’t hold back the next yawn. “I suppose that can wait and I’m going to bed. Please take care of the mess after yourself, Alex. And… the towels are in the closet.”
With a quiet splash the hand with raised thumb emerged from the tub, making Twilight snort and shake her head.
*
The rest of the week turned out a messy and mad race, Alex tried to tie all ends at the station freight at once, while still having some time for his smithing studies. It appeared that he didn’t forget too much of his previous practice; it was limited to most basic knowledge, yet gave an ability to make simple things on his own without much guidance. That provided the certain advantage, as they managed to pace up making the generators for Alex’s current customers from Ponyville; although, Alex saw the assembly and installation of them as a problem, as his free time became nonexistent. He almost finished his work at Apple Acres, but with all the activities he was engaged in already, electrifying the library became delayed for the undefined period; thankfully Twilight didn’t object, she rather watched Alex with growing concern about his stability.
Naturally, Alex couldn’t deprive old Will and his niece of sleep, so, he always appeared for a few hours right after the main work at the freight and before the whole Ponyville drifted to sleep. That practically limited his daily schedule for the next several days to working, eating and sleeping, the latter being quite short, to tell the truth. Every night Alex walked around Ponyville, taking his “duty” as serious as possible: he circled the whole inhabited area to watch all the borders of the town, eastern orchard, the smithy and hospital on the north, railway station and Apple Acres on the west, Fluttershy’s cottage and the Clock Tower on the south. Everything seemed quiet night after night; Alex knew, it was only a short break, as the observations told that the Seekers reappeared after a few days period, yet it gave some time to prepare.
He kept looking for a simple way to convince the blacksmith that the generators were the passed step; giving them out to a big company didn’t mean that the smithy was going to be left jobless again. Alex could imagine Will’s reaction to the mere fact that big companies crossed his road again, moreover, the one, who brought some hope regarding smithy’s future, welcomed them. Despite the most natural act in that case would be bucking Alex out, he needed to be listened to completely first, that was the most complex part of his plan. Finally, he decided that demonstrating the new horizons, they were going to pursue, was the smartest way, as Alex had everything prepared; mentioning Canterlot Steam Company role in their play needed a proper moment though.
With his days spent like that, Alex got away and returned home in time, when nopony could see him; Twilight realized that everything was more or less alright only by the things changing their places nightly. Nevertheless, she caught him on the third day and, seeing Alex walking like a somnambulant, told him quite sternly that he should reconsider his routine to become less stressful. Albeit, there was an obvious advantage in that: Alex could easily evade all Rainbow’s attempts to get him, so far she made quite a few, trying to ambush him in the morning at the library (thankfully the “morning” started much earlier for Alex than her) and later in the town. She kept circling around the Golden Oak until Twilight, who knew about the reasons at that moment, told her to “leave a letter” for Alex instead. Rainbow Dash flushed to the roots of her colourful mane and left, confusedly muttering something, making Twilight chuckle reservedly. But the pegasus girl didn’t drop her hunt altogether, she even appeared a couple times at the station, looking for her “offender” from the skies; the co-worker stallions warned Alex in time and he kept extra vigilance.
Thankfully Dash slept her hind legs off at nights, besides, she was uninformed about his sleepwalking, so after the sunset Alex was relatively safe of her presence. Although, in that state Alex was hardly an easy target and it wasn’t obvious, who could rather get bucked that time – Alex could give Rainbow a proper “bath” once again.
That evening Alex appeared at the library before the sunset and Twilight realized that he wasn’t at the smithy yet, changing his usual route for some reason, as he used his free time reading the notes, choosing and gathering into the bag numerous stones and ore pieces from his quite large collection.
“You are definitely plotting something with the blacksmith…” with a smile Twilight watched Alex pensively picking the salad during the supper. “All those preparations… and you being absentminded and nervous, Alex. Today’s being a big day, right?”
“Well, that’s rather me plotting,” Alex switched attention from his plate to Twilight. “Will is completely uninformed yet of my plans. But yes, too much depends on my talk with Willsmash tonight;the last thing I need is my… our,” the symbolic nod to Spike was met with salutation gesture from the little dragon. “meticulous preparations to end futilely.”
“Yeah, we didn’t dig out half of the cliff for nothing,” snorted Spike. “And it seems Alex is going to take half of that heap with him. I wonder, what use all these stones can be of at the smithy…”
“That’s because you paid more attention to the gastronomic value of our finds instead of geologic,” chuckled Alex. “Because another half of that heap ended in your stomach, Spike. Except diamonds only, which, surprisingly for you, I will need for my work likewise.”
“Oh!” Spike raised his paws. “I won’t deny, that cooperation was… quite fruitful, nor will I object the further… research of that kind,” he licked his lips unambiguously.
“Guys, can you be serious for a while at least?” huffed Twilight, watching them snorting. “Alex?”
“Well, the contract with Canterlot Steam Company is signed already,” Alex put away the fork and rubbed his chin. “And while all the Ponyville customers remain ours anyway, their number is limited. Alas, I have no idea, if ponyvillers start coming to old Will with their problems on their own,” he sighed, shaking his head slowly. “The Equestria-wide production is CSC task now, we even don’t have suitable production capacities. Although, we can focus on the development and some other more advantageous aspects. But those are reasons, one must listen to them and another have a chance to tell them at least.”
Twilight nodded, understanding already, what he was going to say.
“How do you think, Twi, Will can take the news about another large company taking that job away?”
“I think, he wouldn’t be happy, to say the least, considering all the history of his relations with the companies,” Twilight’s glance, raised at Alex, was extremely serious.
“Exactly! That is why I’m going to show him, that we are going to win, despite it looks a desperate attempt at the first glance. These generators are the passed step, they give me a solid base to lean on, but we must focus on something immeasurably more advantageous… with the help of certain improvements of technology, of course. That’s what I’m going to show Willsmash tonight and that called for some preparations… thus the few last days were especially hard!” Alex made a sip from his teacup, backrest creaked slightly, when he tiredly leaned on it.
“I’ve noticed,” something made Twilight smile. “Or better say, I almost couldn’t notice you for the last few days. By the way, you promised to tell me about that story with Rainbow, but I couldn’t catch you up since that evening,” she shrugged innocently. “Never mind, Alex, I’ve been told everything already.”
“Really?!” Alex looked like there was nothing interesting him more at that moment, than the story, Twilight heard from somepony; although, he kept his sarcasm on the leash yet. “And what did they tell?”
“I’ve heard that from Rarity and Rarity heard from somepony else, she mentioned Aloe or maybe Lotus,” Twilight stared at the ceiling musingly, while Alex inwardly facepalmed. “Among other things, Rarity sulks each time hearing your name lately…”
“Simply because I managed to escape one of her flirting attempts again,” Alex put in and Spike joyously huffed.
“They say,” Twilight continued tranquilly. “They say, you and Rainbow Dash were kissing at Bouncing Barrels, yes, Alex, half of the customers clearly saw that… and then you both, don’t look at me like that, that’s the exact quote – “smashed the bar as a haystack”!”
“No! Way!” Spike looked like he needed help to pick up his jaw from the table, he alternated from Alex to Twilight like a startled owl.
“Wait…” to tell the truth Alex didn’t look much better than Spike. “They can’t say… Do they actually…”
“Just in case,” Twilight let out a tiny smile. “I don’t believe in that fascinating story as well, I suppose some mistake took place…”
“Exactly!” Alex even raised a bit from his chair, Spike still tried to close his mouth. “I don’t know what was in Rainbow’s head, but that was a mistake, quite unpleasant mistake, I must say… That’s why, as you say, we “smashed the bar ” anon forsooth… Tis was arrant Rainbow’s fault, she threw out something crazy and yet she blamed me for that.”
“But… if ‘t be true half of the town telleth the story in that way now…” Alex groaned in a second and covered his face.
“Oh, don’t worry, they will forget in a short while,” Twilight giggled, taking her cup. “Rumors are our curse, but they fly by fast naturally. Oh… the bartender came the other day and asked me to tell you that the compensation was quite enough, so, you aren’t anathematized at the place, Alex. Of course, he expressed his hope, neither you nor Dash will inflict as much destruction next time.”
Alex let out a muffled groan of wounded elk, the mere fact that Spike closed his mouth with a clap and now giggled as well, finding the story quite amusing, didn’t make his condition better.
“By the by, he said that Dash was angry, when he suggested her to compensate half of the damage… but quickly reconsidered, when he told her, you were going to pay the whole sum.”
“I did forsooth, thought that it would be easier that way,” nodded Alex, showing his flushing face. “The rest was so Rainbow Dash – from me… she shan’t accept a sip of water in the desert methinks.”
“She twisted around, looking for you,” Twilight smirked slyly.
“Looks like you are twice lucky,” concluded Spike. “Being that busy all the day long lately.”
“Yeahhhh…” Alex took a breath. “Look, Twi, it was a pure accident. Some of Rainbow’s crazy pranks went wrong or something… I don’t know, in the earnest.”
“So…”
“It was an accident!” with emphasis repeated Alex, slowly regaining his natural colour. He preferred to change the topic, adding with a yawn. “Well… It’s nap time methinks…”
“Errmmm… I thought, you were going to the blacksmith tonight,” Twilight’s surprised glance followed Alex heading to his room. “Now I don’t understand anything, sorry…”
“Thou seest, Twilight,” Alex lingered at the door. “The advantages, I need to show Willsmash, call for some of mine new abilities to succeed anyway...”
“Don’t ask, I understood nothing myself” was reading in puzzled glances Spike and Twilight shared, Spike started to clear the table. The more surprised they became, gawking at him, when after a few minutes Alex appeared on the doorstep of the room with a bag, ready to depart.
“Ehhh… Mmmm”
Alex beckoned them silently instead of an answer; Twilight already started guessing what it was about. Spike, who never saw Alex sleepwalking before, dropped his jaw the second time for that day, seeing Alex serenely laying on the sofa, evidently sleeping and… Alex standing in the doorway, holding a bag and smiling slyly. The little dragon turned his head that fast, it seemed, he had two faces at once.
“I’d like to ask you, mine friends, for a favour,” Alex (the awake one) leaned closer confidingly. “Don’t wake me, even if… Celestia falls from the sky hither.”
*
“No, uncle Will, the road is empty still,” Silver Ingot looked over the shoulder and shook her head. The cooling evening wind, making the field ripple with its green tide and pushing the light smoke of Will’s furnace to the ground, flowed around her slender frame and played with a few loose strands of her braided mane, throwing them on her muzzle and making her huff them away cutely. Silver, or as Alex called the filly – Sil and she didn’t object, as it sounded strangely cute, leaned on the fence and observed the road to Ponyville again, shielding her eyes from the setting Sun with her fore hoof.
The old blacksmith watched his niece with a mix of love, admiration and faint sadness: under his daily care grew a wonderful, thoughtful, beautiful rose, who could make any dignified stallion happy… only if the named stallion was free of prejudices and unaffected by the community rumours.
‘Almost impossible in our area…’ sighed the old unicorn, throwing a look at the field and squinting because of the sunlight. Willsmash could probably drop everything, as he could never imagine selling the smithy within the given circumstances, and move to some new place with his niece, where they could be completely new ponies, unbeknown to the locals, so Silver Ingot probably had brighter future. Those thoughts visited Will numerous times and it wasn’t the financial aspect, which held him back – they would still have enough for the living. Strangely though, both he and Silver didn’t want to leave the town. The blacksmith’s heart ached each time at the thought of leaving his ancestral workplace to decay without caring and capable hoof and eye; in her turn Sil carried no unholy thought of leaving her uncle alone in his struggle, saying that it wasn’t the place to change, but rather the ponies, themselves included.
“Strange… He never sabotaged our work before or changed the plans without notice,” Will shook his head, casting the sad thoughts away, and frowned with concern. “Something must have happened…”
“Maybe he is busy tying the ends at the station,” Sil threw a quick glance at him, barely shrugging. “Alex is going to leave them all in all, must have lots of work to finish before that.”
“Maybe you are right, child. Hmmm, perhaps I did right, not fanning the smithy stronger before the night. If we don’t pay for coal, that doesn’t mean we must waste it… Still, it’s strange…” Will didn’t have time to tell, what he considered strange.
“Oh!” Sil’s amazed exclamation made Willsmash raise his head and look fixedly at the road, the eyes of both ponies involuntarily dilated, they could have sworn, there was nopony a moment ago; now although, the tall human figure singled out amidst the green sea, with the large bag on his shoulder Alex headed to them and waved, noticing the unicorns watching him from the distance.
“Where did he appear from?”
“I didn’t notice, child! Just a second before there was nopony… One needed to teleport even to appear from the clear skies,” Will and Silver Ingot shared a puzzled glance; the road made a turn in the field and Alex marched right towards them, crossing that turn.
“Uncle… he looks… unusually fluent,” the unicorn girl watched the approaching figure fixedly with a pensive expression. “Like… floating?!”
“Oh, my filly,” chuckled the blacksmith, shaking his head. “It must be the warm air from the heated road…” Silver only shrugged; Alex quickly crossed the trampled space behind the fence, opened the gate and stopped amidst the yard, dropping the heavy bag to the ground with a loud stony clank.
“Good evening! I apologize for being later than usual,” his smile was usual and sincere and Silver shook her head dispelling strange thoughts. “It took me some time to prepare for this evening and convince princess Twilight Sparkle to cover me up…”
Willsmash raised one eyebrow, some question evidently was getting ripe on his tongue, when Alex elaborated with another disarming smile.
“I know, I know, please forgive the delay and surprise… and the whole strangeness of the following… I planned to show you the real aim for us, if we want the smithy to work further and even advance.”
“But I would like to ask you to keep everything, ye see tonight, in secret for the time being,” added he in the inquiring silence. “Whatever ye see and think of ‘t!” he emphatically waited for their gesture of agreement.
“Did you find a way to make your armour more durable?” brightened up Will, when it was up to his work, other questions might wait. “I can’t figure out entirely, why you don’t want magic to our aid; it’s proved, as you say, that magic, not directed at you personally, doesn’t give any side effects…”
“Oh, tis simple,” chuckled Alex, a little nervously, yet bracing himself quickly, as he crossed the “start line” and there was no way back already. “Ye all got used to the magic to your aid any time, I got used to living without it, I want to do something working as intended myself. Besides, mine own existence proves one fact, magic not always worketh. Armour is not a thing, which failure in certain circumstances may be treated easily…”
“I wanted to show something arrant different tonight,” elaborated Alex. “But vital for the armour anon and… for the future in general.”
‘For the future of the smithy, if we want it to have any,’ added he inwardly.
“No, please, not yet, that shan’t be necessary,” seeing that blacksmith’s magic enveloped the bellows, readying to fan the furnace, Alex stopped him softly. “With your permission, I would like to start from the ground and show you, what we shall do to have real advantages in the competition. I promise, I shan’t break anything,” added he, noticing how Will barely audibly, yet skeptically huffed at his mention of “advantages”.
The old smelter breathed with heat, not the inapproachable hell of the roaring flames, but the calming heat of a stone oven in some old house; evidently the blacksmith used it earlier that day, maybe even before the noon. Alex opened the main camera hatch, here the heat was obviously stronger, borderline painful for everypony, and loaded an iron ingot and a few “stones” from his bag. The human added a few smaller ones, taking them from several pockets of the bag according to some, known to him only, system; he overshadowed the hatch and left both unicorns only guess, what he was going to achieve. A few shovels of coal followed into the smelter through the side hatch, which clanked, when Alex forcefully shut it closed and locked.
“That will take quite some time,” noted Willsmash, shaking his head, and Silver Ingot nodded. “You should warn us that you needed the smelter, Alex, I could keep it hot…”
Alex let out a tiny smile and patted the side of the smelter with almost a friendly gesture, making Silver cry out in terror and awe; nopony, being sane, should touch it, even not fully heated, risking to fry their hooves. Girl’s eyes dilated, old unicorn’s mouth opened slightly, then both squinted in disbelief, seeing that Alex’s hand didn’t feel any worse. He stood, facing the smelter, downcasting in almost pensive manner, leaving them puzzled of what he was waiting for.
Suddenly the smelter “sighed” quite loudly, throwing the cloud of coal dust from its upper opening, and for a second flames flashed above it. Like enthralled Will and Silver watched the stone beast huffing and breathing faster, till the sounds turned into the even hum of flames inside.
“What in the name of…” started Will, Alex watched the smelter, folded hands and slightly absent glance gave him the totally uninvolved look, but the old blacksmith couldn’t be distracted that easily. “How’s it even possible. Sir, I would like…”
“Please, let me finish first. I shall answer all the questions anon, let them appear,” Alex raised his eyes on them with a disarming and slightly sad smile. “I promised, I wouldn’t break anything…”
‘Huh! Easier said than done,’ he listened to the roar of flames in the humming and crackling smelter. ‘The thing is working at twice its usual load. Quite much for an old piece of history, we shall need a new one definitely, arrant different.’
“There was something strange in Alex tonight,” emphatically whispered Silver Ingot, leaning to uncle’s ear. “And… the way he is talking… I swear, I heard that already. A couple of years before, I can’t remember only, where and whom from.”
In about fifteen minutes of complete silence, broken by the smelter noises and rare quiet whispering of the unicorns, Alex interrupted his mute contemplation and finally moved, showing that he was an alive creature, not some stone statue. The Sun set already and his face was highlighted by the gleam of smelter’s muzzle, when he glanced at the smithy, looking for something under its awning.
Perhaps the old blacksmith and his niece thought that self-igniting and fanning smelter was the main surprise of the evening, but the old mold for a sword billet slowly floating past them made them wince and instantly freeze. With dilated eyes they watched the mold, landing at the smelter muzzle; Alex forcedly pressed the lever and brightly glaring metal flowed, spreading sparkles and hardening in the air, filling the form. The mold crackled and hissed under the abnormal heat and suddenly burst a crack, thankfully the steel solidified quickly and nothing came out through the hair-thin opening.
Alex slowly headed to the anvil, following the mold, floating in the same direction; all that time neither Willsmash, nor Silver sounded a word. He grabbed a mallet, leaned against the anvil, three more flew from the workbench under the awning and froze afloat near; Alex totally ignored the usual pliers though.
The mold turned upside down above the anvil and with a hit of the mallet a candent steel stripe fell out with a muffled clank and fountain of sparkles. Peacefully smouldering furnace threw out flames and roared, lighting the whole smithy yard; the glowing steel blank turned, driven by the unknown force, putting its sides under Alex’s aimed hits. Three mallets followed, working at the whole length of the future sword. Will and Silver Ingot shared a silent glance.
Half of an hour passed in the measured rhythm of steel hitting steel, shaping it, bending it to master’s will, making all the sounds around the old smithy die; even the birds fell silent in the field, unaccustomed to somepony working that late there. The metal clanked, the sparkles sprinkled around and hissed, fading on the ground, water in the tray splashed and boiled, cooling the slowly gaining the desired shape sword.
Alex didn’t have time for sophisticated design, he needed utility and quality of the cut first: there was no handle in that sword only a thick round shank instead, the whole product was rather a sample for demonstration, than a finished weapon. Although, the thin steel stripe shone in the flames of the furnace, after the water tray cooled it for the last time, letting out a fountain of steam. A few minutes more at the grinding stone and Alex examined the semi-sword, turning it in his hands and checking the balance. He looked satisfied with the result, smiling to some thoughts and swaying his product, leaving a glowing trail in the air.
“Looks like a crude sword, doesn’t it?” he turned to the silent unicorns, who watched him fixedly, evidently opening a new page in their book about Alex. “Let’s be honest, I don’t pretend for a true mastery or quality of design yet. But it’s not the main thing about this sample. Let me show you…”
With those words Alex rested the point of his sword in the notch of the old anvil, he noted beforehand, and forcedly pressed on the “handle” – the metal strip bent in an arch… but didn’t break and returned to its initial shape completely, when Alex released it.
“Can I use something of your metalwork, sir?” Alex turned to Willsmash; the latter stood like a salt column and barely jerked his head in a strange way, which Alex preferred to interpret as the permission. “Nothing too valuable, as I’m afraid, I will need to destroy the thing.”
He picked a metal rod from the nearby stand, the blank for some cart detail flew towards Alex dragged by unknown force. Nopony could catch the jet-like move, cutting the rod into half with a bunch of sparkles; both pieces fell to the ground and Alex cringed a little from the palpable hit and swayed his hand, holding the sword.
“Ehhh… I need more practice!”
“As you can see, adding some rare ore and minerals to the smelt made the final product more flexible, yet durable and capable to cut easily the simpler metal,” if Alex waited for some distinct reaction to his words, he was to wait, while what they had seen settles in Will and Sil’s heads; they definitely paid little to no attention to the technological advantages at that moment.
Alex sighed and stepped aside, then returned, unicorns’ eyes followed him. ‘Well, at least they are responsive!’ chuckled he inwardly.
“That’s only a start of the road we are entering… If you are ready to,” Alex tried to sound as softly as he could, perfectly understanding Will’s condition. “We’ll be able to make more complex alloys and durable things… if we can… if we can raise the temperature generally. As we are limited in the fuel, we shall need to raise the pressure to achieve the desired heat. For which I have certain ideas, how to reconstruct or, better say, rebuild the smelter and alter the furnace a zilch,” Alex added carefully. “That shalt demand for all mine capabilities… but methinks is worthy arrant.”
“What… Ahem…” Willsmash cleared his throat, convulsively nodding at something behind Alex’s back. “What, pray tell, is that?”
“Oh… Apologies…” Alex glanced over the shoulder, noticing the three mallets, patiently floating in the air near the anvil still; they accurately returned to their place at the workbench.
“You said, you aren’t capable of any sort of magic?” Silver Ingot measured him worryingly.
“It’s not magic…” bemused Will shook his head slowly. “Not magic in its common understanding. It’s something different. What?” he raised his eyes at Alex inquiringly.
“The humans are generally believed to be incapable of magic,” added the blacksmith. “Then who are you? What we saw, resembled magic evidently… unless it was and still is our dream.”
“Not yours,” Alex allowed himself a little smile.
“Rest assured, I’m a human,” seeing the old unicorn narrowing his eyes in confusion, Alex elaborated, adding under his breath “At least I would like to believe, I still am.”
“I’m a “sleepwalker”!” Alex tried to shrug in the most casual manner, perfectly understanding that it might not work the desired way. “I am on mine bed in the Golden Oak library at that moment… and yet I’m hither, telling you, how your craft can have… the second breath! Thusly it’s not your dream, formally it’s mine. Although, I don’t actually know, how to explain it better. Apologies!”
‘Luna knoweth neither!’ Alex inwardly wondered, if that amazing princess wasn’t overly loaded by that question, simply enjoying where things were going instead.
“Sleepwalker?!” Silver Ingot couldn’t hold back the dazed squeak. “But there is only one… pony, who is able to do that! How on Equus…”
“Thither are no humans on Equus normally,” Alex spread his hands. “None are usually taken hither by some wicked thunderstorm of unknown origin, no mind-wrecking monstrosities appeared out of the blue in Equestria till shortly afore… I’m afraid, I can’t answer thy question, Sil. I myself don’t know, whither it goeth.”
Alex examined the semi-sword in his hand, he stepped forward and handed it to Willsmash, turning the grip towards the unicorn.
“I shall leave now. Please, think, if ‘t be true thou are ready and comfortable to work with a… student of that nature, sir. I shall come on morrow… to start, unless ye want to reject mine collaboration. I can understand either. Although, please, keep mine little secrets as secrets… while it is possible,” Alex alternated between Will and Sil seriously.
“Apologies for the… for the shock, I guess… Have your night lightly!” he downcasted and before they could take a breath, Alex figure started to dissolve in the air, vanishing completely in a few seconds.
“He… forgot his bag…” squeaked Silver Ingot completely out of place.
*
The night was young and bright, being far from the New Moon; the silvery “lantern”, slightly bitten from one side, made the nearest part of the Milky Way pale compared to own glory and shine. Nothing could break the serenity reign: neither night birds, claiming their territory, light breeze, ruffling the treetops, rare chipmunks, whisking along the branches, playing and quarreling, minding their nightly business, nor the accurate steps, barely audibly rustling in the high grass. They crossed the field, creaked with the gravel of the pathway and stopped, their owner sniffed in the air, letting the sensitive nose catch the damp smell from the stream. The bridge planks rocked with the dry rattle, making the nearby birds silent.
The cottage stood silent and dark; an attentive glance told that the owners were peacefully having their deserved rest, none of the windows shone, at least from that side. Making sure of surrounding tranquility, the steps slowly deepened into the garden, going around the house.
Despite the long day full of useful chores, the sleep didn’t hurry to come and touch her with its caring wings; Fluttershy lay in her bed and listened to the night. The whisper of leaves behind the open window, letting the fresh tender wind inside; endless “crex-crex” of sleepless landrails in the fields along the stream; cicadas, chirring in the garden – all those could easily lull anypony. Anypony, but Fluttershy, whose head was full of uneasy thoughts even at that late and peaceful hour.
She rolled from side to side under the thin blanket, unable to fall asleep, staring at the window, the ceiling with wooden beams, the wall, the window again. The events of the last few days were not particularly calming: she listened to Twilight’s story with wide open eyes, barely breathing, the Seekers evidently became “brave” or impudent enough to appear almost in Ponyville.
‘Do they appear completely randomly? It looks so still, but…’ Fluttershy watched the shadows of the tree branches stroking the moonlit frame. ‘There must be a reason for them to appear in Equestria, I don’t believe they come to haunt us only… Especially after what princess Celestia discovered about their nature,’ the girl shuddered, suddenly she felt, how thin the blanket was, despite it was enough for the summer nights otherwise. ‘They are somewhat similar to changelings… I wonder, if the princess suspects any connection. Although, Chrysalis never used something alike, despite her passion to take over Equestria.’
‘Them coming here looks completely irrational,’ Fluttershy folded her wings tighter, dragging the blanket up. ‘Alex… destroyed five of them already, four near the town… Why would they keep coming to that part of Equestria, if their “master” knows, they are destroyed here? What they seek for must be really needed by one, who sends them with such determination.’
Fluttershy turned on her back and stared at the ceiling lamp again, she pulled the blanket almost to her chin and looked like a little pensive filly on the Hearth Warming eve at that moment.
‘It makes him confront them with more and more passion each time, more selflessly,’ a tiny sigh left her chest. ‘Tying himself more and more with this problem.’
‘What next?’ Fluttershy’s anxiety made her fiddle under the cover nervously. ‘Weapons? Hunting the Seekers regularly and “officially”?’ she even squeaked quietly; flushed and checked fast, but Angel was calmly sleeping, curling at the free edge of the bed. Fluttershy sighed again. ‘Joining the Night Watch?’
More darkness flooded her bedroom, a single cloud overshadowed the Moon; the same twilight crawled into the girl’s soul, when she remembered about the Night Watch and especially the one commanding them.
‘No, knowing Alex… he can hardly tie himself with the guards, not the obedient type,’ Fluttershy smirked sadly. ‘He wants to avoid anypony being hurt and, as usual, will be the first to take any damage. It seems nopony is actually going to warn or prevent him of dangerous moves; the old blacksmith must be happy, his mastery finally finds some use,’ she cringed.
‘We might have decided to cool down and treat our relationship with clear heads,’ her thoughts returned to what bothered her the most. ‘But it’s easier said than done. I can’t calmly watch how it plays out now… but… If only I knew, how to fix it...’
Tired from the sleepless watching Fluttershy scrambled from under the blanket; approaching the window, she leaned on the sill and watched the garden: the rare clouds ran across the sky, casting shadows below. There, at the window, the wind seemed fresh enough and the girl shivered a little, pondering, if to take the blanket and wrap into it was a better idea. She remembered about Angel sleeping on it and reconsidered, when suddenly some quiet sound from the garden attracted her attention.
Chills ran up Fluttershy’s spine with the realization that the sound was actually slow, accurate, but very distinguishable steps; she was close to panic, when she caught herself upon the feel… or better say the lack thereof. From Twilight and Alex she knew that the Seekers caused a variety of rather unpleasant feelings in everypony witnessing them: fear, despair, depression, anxiety, sad and painful memories. Fluttershy didn’t feel any of those, nothing new, except quiet regret about their relationship coming to such an unfortunate turn.
The steps stopped meanwhile, now they were somewhere under the trees in front of her window and Fluttershy praised the mere fact that she extinguished the light a while ago. The sigh, muffled, yet heavy and sad, made Fluttershy almost jump on her spot, but at the same time gave her an unimaginable relief – with all their strangeness Fluttershy could hardly imagine the Seekers capable to produce that sound. Listening to herself once again and noticing nothing alarming, she threw a quick glance over the shoulder at peacefully sleeping Angel and soared through the window, smiling happily and silently landing like a feather right under the bedroom window.
Fluttershy remembered about Alex’s nightly voyages around Ponyville, ending supposedly near her cottage; that explained the nature of the sounds and she headed to where she heard them from without fear.
The scene revealed to her eyes, when she accurately trotted between the shrubs and approached the farther trees, made Fluttershy stumble and freeze, the greeting stuck in her throat. Alex sat cross-legged, his back to the cottage, apparently relaxing and using the spare minute to train his new abilities, as he found the surroundings calm and safe. It could look ordinal… if he wasn’t “sitting” a few feet above the ground in the thin air, making small twigs, stones and other rubbish circle him on different orbits.
Fluttershy knew about his newly found powers and even thought that she accepted them as given quite calmly, but witnessing Alex… sleepwalking, she simply gawked and produced a tiny squeak.
Alex threw a quick glance at her over the shoulder, all the objects, he lifted, immediately fell on the ground, but he managed to stretch his legs and land like undisturbed, turning to Fluttershy with a slightly confused look. She unfroze and made a few steps towards him.
“Hey…” awkwardly started Alex. “How are you, Shy? I… I hope, I didn’t scare you,” his wry smile wasn’t entirely confident.
“W-well…” Fluttershy took her breath and giggled nervously. “Actually, y-you did… a tiny bit at first, w-when I heard you… Obviously, I didn’t know… it was you at that moment.”
“I didn’t mean to, Shy,” Alex shrugged apologetically. “I thought, you were sleeping already.”
“I would normally,” Fluttershy approached and looked up to him, making Alex kneel to her. “But different… thoughts made it hard tonight.”
“C-can I…” Fluttershy made one step closer and stretched her fore leg. “Ermm… Squee! I-I mean…” her ears flattened and nose became pinkish at once.
“Touch?” Alex guessed with a small smile. “Of course, I’m as solid as you or… or that tree,” he nodded and his hand met Fluttershy’s small hoof. The touch was warm and with a sigh she leaned to him, snuggling her forehead to Alex’s chest.
To her relief Alex hugged her as usual, like there was no unresolved tension between them: he held her shoulders warmly and brushed through the mane, inhaling its aroma. Fluttershy snuggled to his chest, like a little happy kitten, feeling Alex’s heart immediately speeding up. Alas, he held her quite reservedly, compared to what she got used to expect from him; that made Fluttershy realize, Alex, just like her, didn’t find any way out from their problem. A few seconds more the girl simply stayed in his arms, rubbing her head on Alex’s chest lightly, not wanting to move anywhere or say anything.
‘Where is Twilight with her time spell, when necessary? I could stay that way forever!’ catching herself on really meaning that, Fluttershy didn’t even wonder.
‘I missed you so much!’ she wanted to say, but instead changed that to a more neutral. “Do you come here often, Alex?”
“Nightly…” after a second Alex inched back and looked into turquoise eyes, raised at him. “Although, I come much later now, after the recent events. I circle the whole Ponyville, visit the farm and the orchard, then end here, Shy. Sometimes I go on my own, sometimes – like now, “sleepwalking”, as you call it. It seems nopony is actually and entirely safe now, if those monsters risk to approach the town that closely…”
“I know, Twilight told me everything. It’s a miracle, the girls didn’t get hurt!” Fluttershy noticeably shuddered in his arms. Unexpectedly, Alex didn’t get angry at Twilight, inwardly he admitted that Fluttershy had right to know everything about the situation with the Seekers.
“Exactly!” Alex shook his head reproachfully, lowering on the grass, he leaned to the tree trunk and Fluttershy nested next to him; after a second thought she wrapped her fore legs around Alex’s chest and he held her shoulders softly. “Nopony knows, when the Seekers materialized that time and how long they prowled around Jackie’s house; she said, they felt uneasy almost since noon.”
“Oh, Celestia!” gasped Fluttershy, throwing a quick shocked glance up at him. “I can only imagine, how they felt the whole evening… It’s unbelievable luck, nopony of them suffered!”
“Nothing except luck,” grumpily said Alex, stroking her shoulder absently. “They all minded their business, girls came for the sleepover, then Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Rarity left and nopony paid enough attention to what was happening. Each of them could become the next victim, if you ask me!” Alex let out a heavy sigh and fell silent for a while, listening to the landrails screeching.
“Interesting, what will Celestia say about all that?” Alex frowned. “Sometimes I wonder, if we did right, not telling everypony all the truth…” he pursed the lips. “However, that would cause more panic and rumours rather…”
“Probably,” Fluttershy slowly nodded. “The authorities and guards must deal with that, not common citizens.”
That phrase caused a quick glance from Alex, but he simply continued.
“It’s a case of no win, Shy. Either way is bad enough, as long as we all don’t realize, the problem is very serious and it affects all of us equally. It’s simply some of us can deal with it, one way or another,” Alex looked at Fluttershy meaningfully. “While others can’t… But at least they can be vigilant enough to help. Anyway, the Seekers must be treated as a threat, not as a phenomenon… and actively confronted.”
“That means, you…” Fluttershy returned his glance with dividends.
“Yes,” Alex shortly nodded. “I’m done with the station, Shy. At least as a freight worker. I’ve already started with Willsmash.” He noticed, how Fluttershy shivered and squeezed him tighter involuntarily, for her that meant not simple blacksmith work, but more Seekers, fights and danger.
“I feel, I can benefit from that, learn something, I don’t know and can’t do yet,” Alex’s decision was firm nevertheless. “And I know, how to improve the smithy in return. Finally, I can work on something meaningful, like those generators. That shall be quite helpful… against those Seekers either.”
Fluttershy kept silence, she told Alex already all she could on that matter and wasn’t sure, if his reaction could be more welcoming next time. Full of uneasy thoughts and unsaid warnings she snuggled to him tighter, staring somewhere into the distance; her large beautiful eyes shone in the moonlight, seemingly one step away from a sudden sad tear. Alex looked around, he didn’t want the girl’s thoughts going that route.
A green “butterfly”, made of a few tree leaves, landed on the tip of Fluttershy’s nose and slowly batted its wings, making the yellow pegasus squeak surprisingly. With a tiny laugher she wiggled her nose and huffed the “butterfly” away, it soared and fell apart in the evening breeze.
“I almost forgot,” she nuzzled Alex’s cheek lightly and giggled. “You don’t look like a dream to me, Alex, quite real on contrary.”
“That’s because I’m not in thy dream, Shy,” Alex put the loose strand of pink hair behind her ear gently, meeting her amazing eyes with his sad glance.
“Hey! Speaking of the rumours…” Fluttershy preferred to change the topic, nudging him lightly. “I’ve heard, you and Rainbow Dash had a rather saturated evening in the bar the other day. So, you even were to pay some reparations and… Rainbow is still dreaming to give you a kick. Did you forgot how to kiss, Alex? Or the cider affected you both badly…”
Alex facepalmed, flushing brightly, but Fluttershy’s eyes were laughing – that wasn’t the real accusation. He braced himself and told her the whole story briefly, extremely officially, straight to the point.
“I have no idea, what got into her ever-ruffled head,” Alex rolled his eyes sarcastically. “But who actually disliked the whole situation more is debatable. I’m fond of myself winning that bet.”
“Exactly,” chuckled Fluttershy, watching his confused face. “She must have had some of her wicked bets, otherwise I can’t imagine Dash doing that.”
“She hardly saw at first, whom she was smooching,” muttered Alex disapprovingly, shaking his head. “She was really drunk at that moment. Not after all the rumble though…” he smirked. “Still, I managed to get away.”
“Hmm… And why are you so humbly avoiding all the following… adventures?” Fluttershy squinted at Alex, sparkles of amusement shone in her eyes. “Rarity was very grumpy and dissatisfied the last few days, she didn’t want to talk… but Aloe enlightened me by secret, when we were at the SPA with Rarity yesterday.”
“Rarity!..” Alex groaned like a wounded beast. “I think now, if I knew, where I “broke into”, moreover, that she was there at that moment, I would rather go and give up to Rainbow… or play catch-up with her more…” he sighed heavily again, but chuckling Fluttershy made Alex smile finally. “I seriously don’t know, what to do with her. Sometimes she is borderline dangerous…”
“She simply has the entrained nature,” chuckled Fluttershy. “Our Rarity.”
“I’ll try to remember that next time, escaping her, if you think, that can help.”
Fluttershy nested her head on his shoulder, instead of an answer. The wind stopped blowing and it suddenly became very quiet around, like it becomes each time not long before the sunrise, before all the birds start singing, welcoming the Sun. Only the stubborn landrails kept screeching their “crex-crex” and the pleading cry of an owl came from the distant edge of the forest. Both Alex and Fluttershy watched the Moon, framed with the rare clouds, and each one thought of their own.