//------------------------------//
// Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1 
// Story: Untouched by Human Hands 
// by Acmos 
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There was a cheerful morning, with the sounds of a waking city, tea and a light breakfast, just like Sweetie Belle loved. And it happens that it is as if Pinkie Pie herself planned it! And not in terms of the abundance of sweets... The day started pretty well: a leaflet with the seal of the Equestrian Guard was found in the mailbox, that from this very morning the special regime was canceled. You could play with your friends again, not waste your vacation days, sitting at home behind closed doors and shutters! Cook's mom, however, doubted if this was a good idea. After all, the sheet also contained instructions on how to behave when meeting a stranger who was still wandering somewhere near Ponyville. However, the guard assured the residents that the stranger would not harm them - you just need to try not to attract his attention with loud sounds and not run away, barely seeing a creature moving on its hind legs. If she speaks, the best Not to seek the attention of a bunch of other ponies, but to try to understand what the stranger needs... If just something suspicious happened on the streets of the town (for example, an adult pony appeared without a tag. Does this happen at all?!), you must report to the guard. From the words of her parents, Sweetie knew that the stranger had smashed the pastry shop and put the whole city on his ears with his smoke bombs, and this instantly became a topic for gossip between her mother's friends. Sweetie Belle may have stayed at home out of sheer caution, but another day locked up would have been very hard to spend. And since dad also spoke out for the end of the home regime, intending to start the day off with a fishing rod in his hooves, mom gave up. Taking from them a promise not to do stupid things, she separately punished Sweetie not to try to make friends with the alien until the guards figured it out in all this mess. The unicorn easily agreed - she was not so eager to meet with the one who last morning managed to drive all the ponies out of their houses and, in general, arrange a Las Pegasus pandemonium from their modest town.

As Sweetie swallowed the pancakes, she wondered if she and Apple Bloom would be able to meet with Scootaloo tonight. Daddy said something last night about how the guards blocked the railway and carefully searched the rare trains that passed through the station with secret special spells... The pegasi's parents were away, so Scoot again settled with the aunts. If only the guards did not stop the movement at all! Holliday and Lofty might have lived some distance from Ponyville, but Sweetie suspected that yesterday's turmoil and the measures taken by the Guard might spread to the suburbs as well. Such a dominance of guards has never happened here, even with Celestia's official visits! And the unicorn had no doubt that Scoot would be able to persuade her guardians. The aunts will probably breathe a sigh of relief when Scootaloo sets off to visit her friends. A day and a half locked up for a poor pegasus is enough to start running on the ceiling... Dad had just started his morning newspaper, filled with the wildest theories about what had happened and high-profile headlines, when a visitor showed up at their house. Not the same two-legged alien, but also not the most expected on the doorstep. The diamond dog was pounding at the door!

Sweetie has seen these rude dogs a couple of times outside her sister's boutique. They lived on hills rich in nuggets, charging the miners for the extraction of crystals on their territory; they made visits to the city at most two or three per month. Sweetie had no idea how her sister managed to bargain such favorable terms with them that the leaders of the two-legged brought her supplies to the workshop themselves, called her "Mrs. Rarity", after which, having received a reward, they tried to get out of the city as soon as possible, pressing their ears and holding their tail. They weren't pleasant types of dogs, but at least they didn't bother the people of Ponyville. This short, even shorter than average pony dog ​​squealed, waving its paws, and from his chaotic speech Sweetie caught only that "they are not to blame", "the shop was not closed earlier" and "we will do everything, just remove this fiend of Tartarus!!! "

Taking a pancake with him, Dad rushed after the brown dog, which was showing the way. Sweetie, don't be a fool, happily galloped after her, to the indignant cry of her mother, blurting out that Rarity's establishment did not concern the alien in any way, and in general she had already had breakfast. How could one ignore the case that affected the whole life of her beloved sister?! When Sweetie, out of breath, finally got to the Carousel, a rather ironic picture appeared to her eyes. Dad was chewing on a pancake, groaning and trying to hide the laughter that was choking him; the dog next to him was already dancing with nervous excitement. The sister's boutique looked great as always - the design personally designed by Rarity shouted that the guest could count on the most biased service himself. From the large, circular windows, dresses invaded, each a flawless product of Rarity's art, polishing the fabric into fluidity and grace, just as a gem is cut by a jeweler. How everything shone and sparkled here! A wonderful place - light, airy and delicious in its own way, like a real wedding cake. Sweetie had involuntarily forgotten why she had come here. The unicorn would like her sister to let her work here and help with orders! But Sweetie Belle's latest creations, which she intended to wear to the Mark-Seekers-travelers-to-the-North-Pole, nearly fainted the older filly. Strange, Sweetie felt that she was exactly the same as the traditional clothing of the Yakis for protection from a particularly hard frost! And even this time I didn't sew them on five legs. And now Rarity has left at all, on an errand from Princess Celestia... Too bad! Well, it doesn’t matter, they’ll make up for it, Sweetie didn’t have any plans until the cold weather, what could be altered with her sister!

Finally, Sweetie drew attention to the cause of this commotion. There are several guards in the neighborhood of the boutique. th - they only laughed, but did not risk coming closer. On the sprawling tree, where Sweetie often climbed with her friends, hung two more diamond dogs, clutching bark and branches to a shiver. It should be noted that the dogs were dented and scratched. And below... there, right under the tree, Opalescence strolled imposingly, looking up predatory. Meeting her gaze, one of the dogs swallowed and made an attempt to climb higher, stepping on the head of his comrade, which caused him to burst out with a deaf curse.

The dogs were dressed in their own traditions - roughly knocked down vests and nothing more, but collars with a scattering of large, clear crystals gave out the leaders in them, the very ones who sometimes came to bow to Rarity. The unlucky visitors again brought her a cart of selected jewelry for sewing - it was lying upside down at the entrance to the boutique. As the hastily frequenting Spot explained, the boobies had no idea that the owner of the establishment could leave him for a while. You never know, maybe the door just jammed! Well, the dogs with all their bad power and moved inside. How could the dogs know that a cat with the most nasty character in Ponyville and its environs would be waiting inside them, jealously guarding the owner's property, rightfully considering them their own? There were no thieves in the city, so Opalescence reacted to such blasphemy without hesitation, turning, according to the dogs, into a "real nightmare", a real whirlwind of steel hooks and white wool crawling into the mouth. The cat drove two of the largest unlucky visitors to the tree and now cut circles below, purring and as if inadvertently showing its claws. She apparently considered it beneath her dignity to crawl after the lathered dogs, who had no idea about grace and fashion... The guards pulled themselves up just like that, for the company, and quietly discussed whether to attract two-legged "for violation of public order and breaking with penetration" ( the dogs, who rushed out in panic, safely knocked out the door), but did not dare to approach the cat. Sweetie winced as she remembered her attempts to make friends with her sister's pet. Something told her that the guards stayed away from Opalescence for the same reasons, and not because the cat belonged to the embodiment of one of the Elements of Harmony. Only Fluttershy could get along with her...

Dad, having laughed, decided to shield the dogs: he told the guards that Miss Rarity was unlikely to be in the claims, but if anything, he would take full responsibility. Like Sweetie, he was not very well versed in the affairs of his eldest daughter, who had long become an adult filly and went on an independent voyage, but Rarity, against the background of the same favorable exchange conditions, was hardly convenient for her "business partners" to be pulled into all sorts of interracial proceedings. Then it was Opal's turn: dad tried to persuade the cat for a good five minutes in the most polite tone, and she finally mercifully decided to spare her victims, disappeared into the boutique, wagging her tail goodbye. With an expression of indescribable happiness on their bony faces, the dogs jumped down, barking voices thanks to Dad and Spot, who, with his small mind, guessed to find someone from the relatives of "Mrs. Rarity". When the guard asked why today, at such a difficult time for the Ponyville, they brought jewelry for exchange, the dogs turned pale - and said that it was better for the guards not to know what would happen if the "mistress" missed one or two stones in the ordered crystals. And they could disappear, because according to the dogs, a strange creature came to them at the mine for the second time. The first time he ran away, giggling shrilly, like a madman, but that night he also attacked the guard, knocking him out and demonstratively tidying up the collar, claiming the right to the territory! For the dogs, this was considered a serious insult and a challenge, so the supply of stones could have been delayed... For Rarity, of course, this was unacceptable. With the hasty explanations about the attack, the senior guard exclaimed "But from this place, let's get more details!" dragged the dogs towards the town hall. They protested listlessly, but did not kick too much.

Sweetie Belle, who had been trying to insert a word or two throughout the conversation, just sighed. Adults were so boring sometimes! They all have some difficulties, bow to each other, express their thoughts sometimes so floridly that their ears curl up into a tube... She told her dad that she would go and find Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and wished a good catch. Sweetie moved along the winding paths that entangled all of Ponyville and illusoryly enlarged the size of the town. Everything seemed calm, the usual measured course of life was restored, recalling what had happened only by the guards of the princesses, who moved in two or three. Sweetheart realized that even the scheduled train had arrived when she saw two other Sightseekers at the station, discussing something violently. While the unicorn galloped happily towards them, Apple Bloom rummaged in her little bag, and Sweetie saw a coil of rope in the earth's pony's hoof. Scootaloo looked questioningly at Apple Bloom, and when she nodded in the affirmative, she giggled unkindly, rubbing their grandmas against each other and looking around with the air of a seasoned conspirator. Then she noticed Sweetie Belle - and the air was filled with the cheers of the foals.

The unicorn had a keen feeling that today the meeting of the Markers could bring especially big trouble, but the desire to talk with friends and curiosity about what they were thinking up without her, overpowered the desire to turn around and gallop home at full speed. Embracing, Sweetie Belle listened to the incredibly informative story of Scootaloo, who was released by the aunts on the condition that she would promise not to get into trouble and spend a day or two at the Apple farm. Apparently, Holliday and Lofty thought that between the guards of the princesses, closer to the princesses themselves, the pegasus would be safer than among several cottages in the suburbs. Of course, Scoot ignored the instructions of the guardians, as soon as Apple Bloom, who met her, initiated her friend into the latest idea. Without Sweetie, the ponies agreed to track the alien on their own! Ideally, in general, catch him in a snare that the earth pony promised to install "exactly like in that old book."

“You're the first to get into them yourself, Bloom!” Sweetie protested. “What are you making this up? Do you really want to get into the Everfree?! Forgot how we almost got caught by the cockatrice? We would have stood there until he got tired of it! Or until they found us... What would have happened to my mane during this time, can you imagine?! We are disenchanted, and in it branches, insects, in the mud and wild rain, everything is infested... Eugh!”

“Come on, we are only on the outskirts, we will not wander far! Let's set the trap and go straight back! I definitely heard that he ran away in that direction,” Scootaloo began to persuade her fervently, and from the way the pegasus' eyes glittered, Sweetie realized that she would stand firm for Apple Bloom's idea. “Do you remember how the Powerful ponies fought with the aliens from the Universe, but then it turned out that all this was due to the fact that they did not understand each other? The Quadropods turned out to be good, they made friends with the ponies and promised to fly over to visit! Maybe it will be so with us?”

“Scoot,” the unicorn sighed, rolling her eyes, “what did Twilight Sparkle tell you about aliens?”

Scootaloo pouted. Lowering her head, she grumbled from beneath the curls of her purple mane:

“They don't exist...”

“Does it really matter what you call it?” perplexed, Apple Bloom interjected. “An alien of dimensions, this planetary of yours... All of Twilight's words are clever! The main thing is that he is not from here, not ours. And this is the coolest thing!” Apple Bloom waved her hoof somewhere in uncertain distance, and the pegasus nodded in agreement, supporting her. “Imagine, Sweetie, how cool it would be to get the layman's Cutie Mark? No one will have this, here are those horseshoe!”

“I don’t understand,” Sweetie narrowed her eyes, sighing to herself. Convincing the friends was no easier than forcing an ill-mannered minotaur to turn off the path, “are you going to catch him or is it still possible to establish contact?”

“One does not interfere with the other!” Scootaloo burst out laughing. “This is how we catch him, so we will immediately establish contact. I give you my word, he will speak to me!” a little belligerently ruffled the wings of the pegasus.

“Girls, what if there is no more contact?” continued to pry the unicorn. “My sister and I went to visit miss Sparkle a week ago. She let slip that this new job is very difficult! And the world on the other side is completely wrong, it does not obey... Why do we need such marks, if they may never be useful again?”

This time, the words of the unicorn really hit the mark - Scoot and Bloom were seriously thoughtful. Gradually, an insight appeared on their faces that the fact of receiving such an exotic mark, perhaps, would be very pleasant, but what will the Markers do next in life? They really could not remember foreigners in Equestria landing every Monlabor.

“So what am I,” said Apple Bloom in frustration, looking at the bag with an embroidered apple on it,” in vain fiddling with these dusty books in the attic?”

“Bloomy, your snares wouldn't have kept him alone. As far as I heard, he single-handedly destroyed the Sugar Corner, so the guards...” Sweetie Belle wanted to cheer up her friend with this, but made it only worse: the muzzle of the earth pony was noticeably sour. Scootaloo snorted, irritated trying to hide her sadness, as she always did:

“Ugh, Sweetie, you are not helping help!”

“No, she's right, Scoot…” Apple Bloom sighed. “Let's go to the clubhouse or something, girls. Maybe we’ll consider what else, how else to get our marks... I just wanted to get it before the start of the new class, yep. I suppose these two chickens will lag behind us when they see that we are no longer empty-headed...”

Sweetie felt a twinge of remorse. Friends often pulled her into trouble, but they wanted to do the best... And the idea of ​​being the first to get acquainted with the appearance-changing alien (what did he really look like, I wonder? Mom claimed that a pony friend saw him as running around rejuvenation of stones!) was certainly seductive. Although, on the other hand, this brought back memories of a wedding in Canterlot, and Sweetie became afraid... Feeling that she would regret it, the unicorn blurted out:

“Girls! But what if a stranger wants to come to us?”

“Eh?” Apple Bloom turned her head in bewilderment.

“What? Is it like this?” got interested in Scootaloo. “What, you want to lure him out of the forest?”

“Well, maybe not lure him out,” Sweetie was embarrassed by such close attention, still not really formulating her notion into a thought. “But the guards in leaflets and advertisements wrote that he himself could go to the pony. He needs something from us, you see... Maybe, instead of looking in the woods, we will try to make him come to us?”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other. Emboldened, the earthly pony blossomed into a smile and nodded in a businesslike manner.

“Well, that's another matter! Maybe not for the sake of marks, but for so... Why should the preparations be wasted in vain!” Bloom patted the bag with her hoof, from where she fished out the rope for the trap. “I brought some apples for us on the road, took a flashlight, and what about little things...”

“Uh-uh... and how do we do this?” Fiercely Scootaloo scratched her ear, looking around. Sweetie Belle called the other Crusaders to follow her, and foals clattered slowly toward the road that led from town to the farm.

“We need to understand what the alien needs from the pony,” Sweetie said instructively. She was briefly interrupted when the foals met Colada with her sister Berry Punch, who were walking and chatting merrily about something of their own. Having found out the latest gossip (it turned out that Their Highnesses were not going to leave the city yet, they settled in the town hall and received all the correspondence from Canterlot there), Sweetie and her friends moved on, thinking as they walked:

“If we find out what the alien is looking for, and we get it... What do you know about him?”

“He has one eye!” Scootaloo blurted out immediately. “But he is not a pirate a hundred pounds. Doesn't pull. What?” Bumping into the interested looks of foals, she shook her head. “I haven't seen him, honestly! It's just that the pegasus guard at our station said something in conversation. Well I and...”

"Overheard," Apple Bloom giggled.

“I didn't listen to anything!” Scoot was indignant. “He talked openly with his friend, loudly! He said that the one-eyed pegasus in Ponyville had thrown him so badly last morning that he flew a good two dozen yards...”

“But a flying pegasus is a common thing, isn't it?” Apple Bloom did not understand.

“He did not fly away on its own, Bloom! Stucked into the ground, only armor saved the poor fellow from serious injuries,” Scootaloo excitedly jumped a couple of times in place, chirping her wings. “I did not hide anywhere and did not hide, in short, I immediately climbed into my carriage!”

“We believe, we believe,” Sweetie gasped, suddenly realizing that everything could be much more serious than she thought. “So he seriously fought with the guards?!”

“What is it!” Scootaloo waved her off. “I gave a couple of cuffs to those who got hot under the hoof, and fled right there. If Rainbow Dash had been here, she would have bucked him up!” said the pegasus dreamily, probably in her thoughts already presenting an epic brawl for the title of the main bully of Ponyville.

“And you still intended to catch this alien on your own?!” Sweetie Belle couldn't believe her ears.

“So why so and so? Just when they caught him, they would tell him that cultured ponies do not behave like that…” objected Scoot, but in a far from confident tone.

“Well, I didn't know such details when I was looking for a recipe for an alien trap,” Apple Bloom wrinkled her nose. “But you know what I’ll tell them, Sweetie? You can trust the princesses. The guard hung out announcements that everything will be fine, and the stranger can not be scared. So why run in circles ahead of time?” she added with discouraging logic. “So come on, lay out what you know.”

“Wait, Bloom,” the pegasus shook her head. “The newcomer, like, and looked at your farm? Chatting something like that on the platform,” Scootaloo pointed her hoof behind her back.

“Oh, nothing interesting,” Applejack’s sister shrugged. “I myself did not see, but Granny said that he took a hose from us to water the flower beds. And from the heels of fertilizer bags.”

Scootaloo goggled her lavender eyes at her.

“For flower beds? Why is that?! Just showed up here, and already decided to close up a florist?”

“How do I know, Scoots?” giggled the pony, probably imagining an alien in a lace apron, on a par with miss Daisy watering flowers from a can. “So what, Sweetie? Spread it out, don't let it go! What do you know about the stranger?”

Sweetie Belle hesitated. Now, knowing about not the best relations of a guest from another world with the Guard and, probably, the princesses, she was ready to grab her head - how bad and, most importantly, hopeless the case looked, in which the Markers were ready to get involved! But she couldn't just leave her friends if they really wanted to meet with the alien at build... not strangers, after all, ponies. Cautiously, Sweetie Belle continued:

“Well, I'll add on my own... As I said, he broke through the wall of Sugar Corner, even twice. And he plowed the field near the market with his machine. I know it sounds silly, but maybe...” Sweetie looked timidly at her friends awaiting her verdict, “does he just like to break things? Breaking through walls? If we took more wood from the sawmill, we could build something that the alien would want to break. Although,” the unicorn was sad, “when we were carpenters, it didn't work out very well. Probably, this is not how we get the attention of the alien.”

For a while, the foals stood with the mines of the highest concentration on their faces, thinking in a way that had never happened in any of Miss Cheerilee's lessons. But here Scootaloo summed up:

“I'm sorry, Sweetie, but some kind of nonsense comes out. As I see it, these three things are not tied to each other at all. And in general, I already have a headache from all these thoughts,” complained to Scootaloo. “Maybe while we go for a milkshake? Then to the clubhouse.”

“Oh!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, pleased that her friends had delayed the dangerous topic. “A milkshake is good, let's go!”

“Hey, Sweetie...” Apple Bloom laughed as they turned towards their favorite cafe. “Do you think there is a label in their alien world "pirate-wrecker-gardener"?”

“I don’t know,” the unicorn shook her head. “Twilight said there was very little magic in that world. Very, very little. And he is not a pony... Probably, he may not have a mark at all, like griffins and other races.”

“But in our Universe its lot of magic, at least fill up!” exclaimed Scootaloo, slowing down at the side of the road and looking at her friends. “Well, how will he get it?!”

“And at the thought, Scoots!” Apple Bloom's ears stood up erect at these words. The pony immediately forgot about milkshakes. “What if he wants to get her?”

“Well... In the ads, the guards wrote that he might look like an adult pony without a Cutie Mark...” Sweetie Belle thought. “It seems to be. But this is very strange girls! We better not get into this,” tried to calm their white pony. “Remember how the changelings copied the guests? They replaced them entirely, with tags together, but here...”

“Cool!” Scootaloo summed up, safely losing sight of the entire part that concerned changelings. “This is how we will lure him out! We are also looking for our marks, so we'll get to know each other!”

“How does an alien know we're trying to find them?” Apple Bloom doubted.

“Everyone around you knows that, you fool,” giggled the pegasus, hoofing around the nearby houses and ponies that spent their day off in various ways on city lawns and verandas.

“What did you call me?!”

“Girls!” Sweetie quickly intervened, preventing a scuffle, albeit a playful one, and spreading the foals to the sides. “Girls, but we are not the only ones who have no tags! There are ponies younger than us…”

“So we must be the first to be in time! Let's go!” Apple Bloom almost jumped off, never specifying where the three of them should go, but this time she was stopped by Scootaloo herself.

“Stop! Quiet!!!” she blurted out in a terrible whisper, throwing herself at her friend.

Not expecting that her hind legs would be grabbed by a dexterous pegasus, Bloom fell to the grass with a squeal, managing to knock Sweetie off her feet with an absurd dance pirouette. The heap-small with groans and chuckles began to creep quickly, but then Scootaloo again gave a muffled voice:

“I said - hush! Don't move!”

“What are you doing, Scootaloo?” the earth pony was surprised, shoving the apples back into the bag with a hoof, rubbing them on her fur.

“What? What did you see, Scoot?” Sweetie Belle shook her head in concern. Couldn't the alien find himself in Ponyville in broad daylight?

The scooter racer flicked her eyes to the right instead of answering and hissed:

“Take a look at the cafe! See?”

From Sweetie's point of view, there was nothing of note. It was still morning, and there were not so many visitors. But no, rare guests did drop in here: not far from the tables, on the summer veranda, a pair of armored thestrals stood and quietly discussed some of their affairs. They were in Ponyville only during Nightmare Night and could be seen when the guards accompanied Princess Luna. Sweetie Belle also remembered that a group of thestrals had once been in the city passing through, they even dropped in to her sister for a new thing, but this was not the case.

“Come on quietly, follow me!” ordered Scootaloo, falling on all four legs. “Under the bench, live! Crawling, crawling!”

“Do you want to overhear them?” Sweetie Belle was surprised.

“Now - yes! At the station, I did not overhear anyone, they themselves!”

“This is indecent...” the unicorn protested, but nevertheless crawled after her friends that they tried their best not to be seen by the batpony. The trio froze in fright when the guard put her tassel ears upside down, but almost immediately relaxed, and the filly breathed a sigh of relief. Ponies, of course, were curious creatures, but to meddle I am both princesses and their personal guards, it was not in their rules... And also, as Rarity taught, a real lady will not be busy with such a low business as sniffing out other people's secrets (unless it is really important things - for example, find out what perfume your opponent will use before the ball in order to prepare a decent answer). But, on the other hand, I really wanted to hear what the warriors of the people were talking about, that Princess Luna had chosen to serve her... The night pony, covered with an aura of mystery and mysticism, probably had something to say about the stranger who had appeared in Ponyville! Sweetie Belle consoled herself with the thought that this time eavesdropping on anyone's reputation would not hurt - the failed correspondents had long since abandoned any connection with the Chatterbox.

“... exactly in that area,” the slender pony was broadcasting with a slight northern accent. “The solar from among the landstrikers said that the fog only spreads more, even though it does not harm the swamp.”

“This is for now. It got darker in there, didn't it?” asked the second guard, with a darker lavender mane.

"Froggy Bottom," Scootaloo said under her breath. “They are definitely about him!”

“Right, night brother. And not just clouded - that rubbish seems to suck the light out of the air, the twilight is now standing,” the batpony stepped in place, clanking the plates of armor. “And any spells horned shields. They will not see there further than one and a half to two dozen jumps.”

“Rightly our element,” Thestral grinned with a jerky grin. “So far, Celestia is not particularly keen on military action...”

“No need. A friend of mine from the flyers says that the privates are mercilessly fooling. The creature is not nearly as dangerous as it seems. At the wreckage of the guard, consider, and did get off with a slight fright. As for the swamps...”

“Do you think Her Darkness will send troops there?”

“Who knows? The princesses know better where we will deliver the most,” the thestral said weightily. “But if she does, we'll be ready.”

“We’ll be ready, sister of the night,” agreed her colleague, after which he suddenly looked directly at the filly huddled under the bench and winked at them. Then the flyer spread his webbed wings and almost silently lifted himself off the ground, shadowing behind the nearest house. While the foals realized that their position had been revealed in the most shameless way, the thestral sighed and, turning, beckoned them to her.

“Get out already, young rangers...”

“How did you notice us?” Scootaloo grumbled resentfully, getting out from under the bench and dusting herself off. Batpony did not hide her mood, her eyes sparkled with cheerful yellowness:

“You were under a fairly high cover a dozen steps away from me,” the guard commented in a malicious tone. “It was not difficult to notice. And when they walked to the cafe, and without ours,” she expressively moved her sharp, as if always on the alert, ears, “improved feelings for a mile could be heard.”

Thestral took her eyes somewhere back from the wings of Scootaloo, and the unicorn realized that she paid attention to her empty side. Sweetie thought with displeasure that an adult who had arrived from the capital might, in Humanner of Tiara, express disdain, but the Thestral asked in a benevolent tone:

“Still undecided about your talents? If you suddenly decide to join the guard, keep in mind that you still need to work on the ability to conduct secret surveillance. It hasn’t worked yet,” she smiled again with her fanged, but not at all aggressive smile.

“Guards to go?” surprised Apple Bloom. “We did not consider such an option... And what, who is going to join the guard, does that mark appear at that moment?”

“This is how lucky,” the guard shrugged. Then her pupils narrowed, which made her gaze more severe:

“But what exactly does not give marks for is if you climb where three well-bred filly does not belong at all. Little ones, have you heard now that the guard makes overflights over the swamp? This red fog that made the rustle in Ponyville yesterday doesn't just block the magic. Something is happening in your Froggy Bottom that isolates and disperses the background magic in space. Have you already been told about the magic of the Universe in the classroom?” the Thestral looked searchingly at the trinity. Apple Bloom tugged at the bow on her head with an embarrassed hoof.

“It must have been something like that...

“Does she seem to permeate the whole world?” tried to remember the unicorn. “Allows us to do all sorts of magic tricks?”

“Yeah-yeah...” the guard nodded. “Okay, I will not load you - I can only say that the swamps from magic are now literally glowing. Even forest animals were drawn there. The alien that Twilight Sparkle summoned draws background magic from the ground and simply throws it away. It almost drains into the air. Our brainy ones say the effects can be unpredictable, so be obedient foals, don't go there, okay? Patrols won't let you in anyway.”

“Okay... Hey, we're not little!” belatedly outraged Scootaloo.

“We won't, we promise!” piteously looked at the night hunter Sweetie. “And we are very, very sorry that we overheard your conversation!”

“Yes, I'm sorry, please! Here...” the earth pony put her hoof into the bag and fished out the familiar rich red fruit. “Maybe you will take an apple? We have the best growing in the district!” Apple Bloom boasted with a bit of pride.

“Oh, are you Apple's girly? Yeah, I know that you really have the highest quality products,” the batpony looked around and nibbled an apple at Bloom, who was blushing with praise. “Come on, before I flew to the post. And my advice to you, little scoundrels,” the thestral, in the blink of an eye dried the fruit and licked her fangs with a long tongue, looked at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, “go to visit your friend, play something so that we don't have you all over The eternal one must then seek out and allocate detachments for this. In the open spaces of "Sweet Apple" everything is calm, the place is clearly visible, and it is quite distant from the swamps to the west. Yes, and we also have patrols constantly flying on the border with the forest.”

“Okay! Let's go there!” the foals chanted.

“Well, then I'll get up on the wing...” the night guard grumbled with satisfaction. “See you, the younger generation!” with these words, she soared just as soundlessly, only swaying the grass under her feet, and disappeared somewhere in the side of the market.

“Oh... We didn't even ask her name,” Sweetie Belle suddenly realized. Scootaloo looked at her friend bewildered.

“Who cares? The guard will catch the alien, and she will immediately move back to Canterlot, you will never see her again! That is why we must act now, before alien is caught!”

“What?!” Sweetie stared at her. “But she said that we have nothing to catch in the swamp... We promised!”

“Promises are one thing, Sweetie,” Bloom replied in the tone of a veteran hardened in verbal battles with Applejack, “and the opportunity to establish a connection with the other world... eh, to establish - such a chance is one for life, maybe! Yes! And it can fall out to us, do you believe?”

“Well, no,” the unicorn frowned. “I don’t want to drag myself into the swamps with you. The guardponies will instantly grab us and send us home by force, then you won't be in trouble! Mom and Dad will scold me!”

“Exactly! And so I got a cool plan!” Scootaloo proudly put her hips on her hips, as if imitating her idol with a rainbow mane. “We just need to make sure that there is an adult behind our trip! If we are not alone, we will not be so easily wrapped up.”

“How's that?” Bloom and Sweetie asked in unison, flapping their eyelashes.

“Well... Eh, let's at least ask miss Cheerilee!” suggested Scootaloo. “We’ll ask Cheerilee for a tour of natural history! In the swamp.”

“Are you kidding? She won't do that,” she shook her head. “And now it's summer, in addition, there are no classes.”

“Well, if we gather a group of people who want to... Maybe Zekora then ask? She lives nearby, and constantly goes there for herbs.”

“And what do we need then Miss Cheerilee if we gather a group of people who want to?” Apple Bloom asked innocently. “We will all go there and tell the guards that adults have organized an excursion for us. And they themselves, they say, will come up later.”

Scootaloo jumped happily in place, hugging her friend by the shoulders.

“Thinking what you need, Bloomy!”

“Yep! We, the Apples, are not only able to dig in the ground,” the pony proclaimed importantly. “So who are we going to call?”

“Snips and Snails... They could have been easily convinced,” the pegasus stamped with impatience. “But they will not go into the Everfree, I give a hoof to cut off... for these two Ursa was enough for the eyes.”

“Why think so many girls? Let's move to school, or what, it is not far off at all,” suggested Apple Bloom. “Whom we find on the site, we will invite! And then how it goes.”

“Yay! Who is the last - that curdled oat milk!” instantly took Scootaloo off the bat.

“Girls, you are not serious...” Sweetie Belle moaned dully, putting her hoof to her forehead.

“Hey Scoots, it's not fair!” shrieked, launching into a desperate gallop, Apple Bloom. She screamed, turning her head and spitting from strands of cherry bangs that crawled into her mouth as she ran:

“Keep up, Sweetie! Cutie Mark Crusaders cannot stand aside while all sorts of two-legged strangers destroy our pastry shops! Lets go-o-o...”

And Sweetie Belle ran, despite the fact that, like no one else, she understood the adventurousness of her friends' ventures. They will disappear without her! Sweetie's prudence and restraint hampered the ebullient initiative of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, preventing (at times) a bad situation from turning into an outright disaster. Well, and a fleeting opportunity to get the same badge, so longed for, played an important role in the fact that the unicorn allowed herself to get involved in all sorts of trouble over and over again. For the sake of the marks that the three-year-olds of the trinity had long received, Sweetie was ready to give a chance even to such a crazy idea, how to gather a group for a trip to the swamps where the angry alien settled.

The school building was smart and bright, as if nothing had happened in Ponyville. He usually emitted a special, low hum, a foal hum, never the silent rustle of notebooks and textbooks. From time to time, the ringing of the bell announced the end and beginning of classes, only now it was summer in the yard. But still, the Markers found several ponies on the court: Twist was playing here, with whom Apple Bloom began chatting with pleasure, and Rabi. Unfortunately, the girls flatly refused to get involved in an adventure with an alien. As if apologizing, Twist advised to invite Eroria, who was also eager for adventure - but the pegasus flew away from the site just a couple of minutes before the Markers arrived there. While the foals were discussing on the spinning carousel what to do next, Pipsquick approached them. He was a small, but very lively young pony, and he, too, had not yet received his mark. Scootaloo had hoped that now their team of contactees with strangers would be replenished, but Pip said that his mother would not pat him on the head for such a thing. And yet he volunteered to help the Markers - if not as a full-fledged member of the expedition, then another agitator. Pipsquick stated that he had time before lunch to try to convince someone else to join the girly team.

The next persons that the Markers encountered (and hoped not to encounter at all) were Tiara and Silver Spoon, who left the school and chatted cheerfully down the path to the city. It is a mystery that the two hooligans, who disdained both Miss Cheerilee's lessons and the games on the playground among other children, have forgotten here. They've been bothering the Markers since the day the teacher told the foals in detail about the distinctive marks and their importance in the life of the pony. As far as Sweetie remembered, Tiara was always playing on her own, but after that party, she and Spoon clung to the trinity, as if the Markers owed her family some money. The unicorn did not understand why the other pony should treat someone who had done nothing wrong to her, but the fact remained. Okay, if Tiara was a lonely bore, not willing to put up with ponies, like griffins - but she had a friend! Which shared her hobby for bringing the Markers... Sweetie felt bad even before Diamond Tiara accidentally turned her head, glancing across the site, and noticed the Markers. Her eyes lit up with excitement and anticipation of the upcoming squabble, an unpleasant smile played on her lips.

“Oh, Silver, just lo-o-o-ok,” with her pulling vowels, teasing "you-all-around-don't-stand-and-the-tips-of-my-hooves" sang Tiara in her voice. “Blankflanks showed up again!”

“Really! What have they forgotten here, I wonder?” artistically pressed her hoof to Spoon's lips, feigning genuine surprise. “Shouldn't they be engaged in another stupidity that hit their blank heads like that?”

“What's up with you, Spoon?” Scootaloo snapped, looking defiantly at the inseparable couple. “What have you forgotten here at all?”

“Yep,” Apple Bloom frowned. “Stomp about your business, there is nothing to climb into ours!”

“Look, what important birds!” Tiara snorted. “Have the adults chased you from everywhere, since you are hanging around here, on the edge of Ponyville? Well, I understand them...”

“And do you like Miss Cheerilee's classes so much, since you are ready to drop in to see her even in the summer?” did not remain in debt to Scootaloo, getting more and more inflamed. “Or are you afraid to stay for the second year?”

“What a mess! Dad will never allow this,” the filly turned up her nose. “I have a good, adult reason for being here. Mom and I dropped by to bring some serious things to the attention of the student council! Here they are preparing for the new school year, and they do not suffer from foolishness for days on end, like some. Like this!” 

The muzzle of Diamond Tiara suddenly acquired a sly expression, “Or are they hanging out here for a reason? Silver, remember the sheets the Ponyville Guards handed out?” she turned to her friend. “Don't you think that these are already rather suspicious by their blank flanks?”

“I don’t know,” the pigtailed pony patted her eyes. “The guards wrote that an adult pony who does not have a Cutie Mark is most likely that alien! And these,” she dismissively waved her hoof in the direction of the Markers, “should have received theirs long ago! Maybe we really should report to the guards? What if there are actually three of these eccentric aliens in Ponyville?!”

“Whose cow would bellow, four-eyed!” Apple Bloom frowned. “If anyone is an alien, it is you! You run up like not every old nag will allow itself. These pearls are yours, huge glasses, braids... Be!” the earth pony stuck out her tongue and closed her eyes, showing disgust for "high cuts", so that Scootaloo rolled with laughter. Silver Spoon, not expecting such a rebuff, nervously adjusted her designer glasses.

“What do you know about fashion, mud slut?! Take your words back!” screamed Tiara, standing up for her friend.

“Please stop... Seriously enough!” already firmly called everyone to order Sweetie Belle, fearing trouble that the Markers could call on their heads. While it was only a word Weird skirmishes, everything could manage only by bashing each other's nerves, but it's so easy to go over to mutual insults... So it's not far from a serious fight, and civilized ponies avoid it with all their might! Sweetie had no doubt that the same Scootaloo alone could trim the pampered earth ponies, but this would inevitably entail consequences. Especially if Apple Bloom smashes someone's nose with his trademark, family blow from the back right! There’s no problem: Diamond Tiara’s father did business with the Apples, and he wouldn’t just leave it like that... To Sweetie Belle’s relief, Bloom probably understood this, and so she just snorted in response:

“ Why am I a mud slut at once?” Apple Bloom inquired sarcastically. “And I thought you, too, liked to ride with rabbit ears on the farm! If you stomp past - come in, my sister will always give you a job!”

Tiara's sleek face twisted with poorly contained anger and disgust, and then Sweetie Belle giggled. She thought cheerfully how easily these two ponies got rid of their mines of superiority and aristocracy, as soon as they pressed harder. Maybe it was worth giving them such a rebuff more often, and not trying to prove something there?

“Never again...” Tiara hissed. “So that I once again..!”

Pipsquick, who was so perplexed looking from one group of ponies to another, got up from the seat of the spinner and tried to insert a word or two:

“Girls, maybe you won't be rude to each other, huh? And you, Tiara,” the foal pursed his lips reproachfully, “why bother them? What is it, since they have no marks? I don't have it either... Just think! Sooner or later, everyone will get it.”

“So much time has passed, and they are all flaunting empty sflanks!” calmed down, Silver returned to her caustic tone. “It’s more likely you’ll be elected president of the school, Pip, than these losers get their marks.”

“President?” Pipsquick was surprised. “What is it like?”

“No way,” Diamond Tiara looked down at him, grinning. “Get out of here, shorty. Can't you see - the adults are talking?”

“Adults?” looked around Scootaloo, then indignantly stared at the gray pony:

“Hey! You are not older than us!”

Pip looked at the bully resentfully.

“I may be short in stature,” with reasonableness, unexpected for such a young pony, he said, “but I have an excuse - a genicthread. And here you are, Tiara, of a short mind, once because of your height you laugh at me, and there is no excuse for this.”

Tiara and Spoon opened their mouths, so Sweetie pressed her ears, suspecting that some flying crow was about to be there. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were having fun with might and main - the pegasus happily shook Pip by the shoulders, so that the unfortunate filly's short mane twisted back and forth.

“So them! Know ours!” Laughing, Apple Bloom bounced her hoof on her hind leg.

“Cool you kicked her off, Pip!” echoed her friend Scootaloo. “Listen, what is gen-ic-thre-how-it-there?

“I have no idea!” the foal chuckled. “Dad told me to answer like this if someone starts teasing about growth!”

The hooligans finally digested the florid statement and realized that they were simply being bullied. Nostrils flaring, Diamond Tiara rushed forward toward the carousel.

“Who did you call a fool, brat?!”

“I didn't say!!!” squealed Pipsquick, jumping off the spinner and rushing to the exit, briskly turning over with his short legs. “You said it yourself!”

Yet another void-sided was defended by Scoot - literally. She raised herself up in the seat and ruffled menacingly, fluttering her foal's wings:

“Don't touch him!”

“Bye, Crusaders! Forgive me for not being able to sta-a-a-a...” came from the direction of Pip, fleeing in full spirit. The tiara, which had jumped back from the pegasus who had got into a fighting stance, grunted with displeasure, seeing that the impudent foal had escaped. Then a familiar defiant note emerged in her voice:

“And then what? What are you going to do to me, blank-flanked?”

“I'll dump you in the mud, if you continue in the same spirit. And Bloom will help me,” the pegasus promised gloomily, stamping her hoof on the board. Scootaloo may have had an overly lively character, but like any young pony, she was not in the habit of fighting. 

“And Rainbow Dash will complain about how she gets back,” she added, not so confidently.

“Oh, I'm so-o-o-o scared! Scared by the promises of a pegasus who still can't fly,” Tiara rolled her eyes. “You know, I'm going to ask my dad to hire me a flying carriage. What will you do then? Are you going to jump on the ground and swear, dummy, when I start throwing paper airplanes at you from above? This is all you can do, admit it!”

This was already too much. At the age of Scootaloo, most foals were already flying freely, and the pegasus was tired of waiting for a time when it could soar freely in the sky. Sweetie Belle knew that the indefatigable Scoot was optimistic about her "little problem" - all the more so on the scooter she did such tricks thanks to the wings that not every adult could do - but temporary absence and marks , and the ability to fly left its mark. Doctors said the same thing as adults about the mark: you need to wait, late development of the magic core and a whole bunch of all sorts of abstruse words... The thought of this gave rise to sadness: will they really receive their signs of talent only by old age? Sweetie hoped it wouldn't come to that. One way or another, the mention of the wings only added fuel to the fire: the pegasus jumped off the carousel, spinning it around its axis. The earth pony's words almost infuriated her.

“Watch your tongue, oiled chicken,” the pegasus growled, head down threateningly and ears flattened. “It hurts you have a long one!”

“Is this a Tiara? Ha!” Silver laughed. The pony rose to her hind legs, flapping her elbows like wings, and mimicking the clucking of a brood hen. “You can't fly here, actually! Chicken is not a bird, Scootaloo is not a pegasus! Ko-ko-ko!”

“Oh, you...” Scootaloo jumped, but the unicorn managed to stop her.

“Scoots, don't!” Sweetie Belle pleaded as she jumped off the merry-go-round and stood in front of the pegasus, blocking her path. “Please! They're not worth it!”

“Right!” Spoon chuckled. Tiara looked at this action with an indicative bored, arrogant look. “Stay where you are, blankflank chicken!”

“Rotten hay!” cursed Scootaloo, grilling her opponents with an angry look. “Sweetie, I have to endure this too?!”

“Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Stop it immediately!” Suddenly there was a displeased female voice.

Cheerilee appeared at the school's doorstep with a clearly indignant expression on her face, and Sweetie Belle breathed a sigh of relief. Their teacher was a very kind pony, the very pony after mom, dad and sister (although no one could get away from her homework yet). According to Sweetie, she would have made a great match for Apple Bloom's older brother: the soft pink airy mane that made the pony look like a cherry cream pie was very much combined with the burgundy fur of the Big Mac. And she had the most Apple's character... Cheerilee's talent did not dazzle other ponies with sudden insights, like that of the same Rainbow Dash, but found expression in long years of calm and conscientious work. What a shame that the idea of ​​the Crusaders with the elixir failed and did not give any changes in the personal life of their beloved teacher! Well, at least Sweetie hadn't heard of Apple Bloom's about anything like that.

“Tiara... Silver," Miss Cheerilee said reproachfully. “I already told you that the lack of marks among peers does not make them worse? And teasing Scootaloo for not flying yet... Aren't you ashamed?”

“But we haven't told a word of untruth!” Diamond Tiara answered innocently, flapping her eyelashes, as if not understanding why she was being reprimanded. “Chickens really do not fly! Although, even they fly, albeit badly at all... You yourself told us in natural history!”

“Yes! It's not our fault that these ponies haven't received their marks yet!” Spoon echoed her.

“Still, decent ponies don't behave like that! And even more so they do not express their opinion about others in such a rude form,” the class teacher remained adamant. “I want you to immediately apologize to the girls.”

“Miss Cheerilee, since when is it customary to apologize for the truth?” someone's displeased voice was heard behind her, and, to Sweetie's surprise, on the face of always calm and friendly Cheerilee flashed a shadow of irritation.

“With all due respect, Mrs. Rich, my job is to develop the qualities of all of my students,” the cherry pony said dryly, turning to face the speaker. “It is problematic when some of them are so... revealingly showing their disdain for other students. No one benefits from an unhealthy classroom environment.”

“I don't see a problem here, except that some of Tiara's classmates are forgetting their place,” something, and the respect in the voice of the mare who followed Cheerilee out of school didn't hurt much.

The stranger was beautifully dressed - it was Sweetie Belle, known by her sister to cutting-edge Canterlot fashion, had to admit. She was probably one of those ponies who considered themselves to be of the high class - who wore clothes not only for the sake of officialdom, but also to constantly stand out from the rest. This "Mrs. Rich" wore a gold choker and a matching crystal belt that fitted an aqua turquoise blouse to lighten her deep purple hair. The mare's mane and tail curled in long curls, which she shook, coldly looking at the frowning trio:

“So that I don't see any more of these barbaric... threatening gestures towards Tiara and Silver! Otherwise, I'll take action,” she said in a tone of disagreement, looking at Scootaloo. “As for you, Cheerilee — I myself know how to raise my daughter. Your job is to put into her bright head the few knowledge that you are able to give her before entering college,” the expression of Rich's face in direct text Om said that she longs for an early move with her daughter somewhere far away from Ponyville and the plebeians who inhabit it. “I’ll take care of the rest, including her ideas about our society.”

“Mrs. Rich, do you think it's normal that...”

“I hope we understood each other,” as if not having heard, the pink mare left the last word. “And if I don’t wait any longer for unfounded accusations against my daughter from her own teacher, it will be just wonderful.” 

Throwing these scathing words into Cheerilee’s face, she quietly looked at giggling bullies, “Diamond Tiara, I'm going to spend the rest,” this time a regretful glance at the school building, “of my priceless spa day. You can go for a walk with your friend, but be sure to have lunch at the restaurant. By all means until three o'clock! At your age, you should eat healthy, high quality food, not pasture. And do not try to opt for that eatery again! What would grandfather think if he saw you with such... such filling?!”

“Okay, Mom,” the filly muttered. Sweetie noticed that as soon as Mrs. Rich turned her close attention to her, Tiara seemed to be replaced. Her eyes fearfully ran from side to side, either looking away, or looking around in the hope that no one would witness the shameful scene. When the mother moved away from the school area, Tiara, exhaling with relief, screamed with Spoon "to be stricter with Aloe and Lotus, for they have been performing their duties very badly lately," to which the mare nodded gravely. A couple of seconds later, when the eldest Rich disappeared behind the gate, the friends rushed, laughing, to the other end of the site. Scared Twist, that she preferred to get out of the area on the spot, good-bye, they earned another disapproving glance from Cheerilee.

“What a fruit is this Mrs. Rich,” muttered Scootaloo under her breath. “Well, now it's clear where Tiara picked up all this foolishness.”

“Yep,” Apple Bloom looked sullenly after the pink haired woman. “Her Dad, she still seemed to be nothing like when we had... He is still a chuck-maker, but keeping his mouth shut was enough tact. And here, in general, discord, understand that...”

“Girls...” the teacher approached them with a guilty expression on her face.

“We weren't going to disturb you, Miss Cheerilee, really!” Sweetie Belle obeyed. “It's just that these nasty ponies are always bothering us!”

“Girls, I'm not angry at all. To tell the truth,” the cool pony smiled sadly, “I must apologize to you.”

“Apologize?!” the Crusaders were surprised in chorus. “For what?”

“Spoiled Rich is the head of the student council... and a very wealthy pony, too. So I have very little authority in her eyes or in her daughter's eyes,” Cheerilee sighed. “Unfortunately, girls, it is not in my power to influence the current situation. There is not even much to find fault with, so that Tiara and Spoon are transferred to another class - they are at the very least studying, and their personal teachers are pulling them out,” looking around, Cheerilee lowered her voice. “I can only advise you not to start the fight first, otherwise everything may turn out... You do not want public censure, girls, right? But if they were the first to use force, immediately grab the ponies that were nearby and run to the mayor's office to testify! Ponies like Tiara are afraid of publicity, and next time she will think a hundred times before pestering you.”

“That's the point! These two unfortunate cowards will never be the first to jump into a fight!” indignantly jumped on the spot Scoots, chirping her wings. “They know that I’m going to rattle their polished faces like a nut even without wings!”

Cheerilee smiled affectionately and stroked the pegasus's head, ruffling its swirls.

“Don't be upset, Scootie, and don't listen to tiara's stupidity,” she added. “You’re still flying around, so you’ll get disgusted and miss the days in Ponyville, when flying was a dream, not a duty!”

“Na-a-ah, I'm not Fluttershy, learning to fly, and then stomp all my life on foot...” giggled Scootaloo, leaning on the hoof of her beloved teacher. “I’m not complaining, Miss Cheerilee! I'm just tired of waiting. Would rather!”

“Next year, we’ll go on an excursion to Cloudsdale in class,” Cherily promised solemnly. “We’ll put on you all the appropriate spells - and fly from cloud to clouds even all day. And do not worry about the opening of the magic core, occasionally you can afford it.”

“Oh, I've been there a couple of times with my mom!” Scootaloo exclaimed, turning to the Markers in joyful excitement. “It's very cool there! You will definitely like it, girls!”

“Miss Cheerilee, and we're here, you know, about the excursion came,” began Apple Bloom, innocently (and not at all suspicious) looking at the teacher. “Tell us, can you hold an extraordinary, in natur…”

Her words were drowned out by the whistle of the wind, so that the foals turned away so that the air stream would not hit them in the face. Sweetie even at that moment it seemed that under the carousel, on which they had recently been sitting, something large was stirring, but the unicorn attributed it to the greenery that fluttered in the wind. When the foals squinted at Cheerilee again, next to her was a pegasus in sunguard armor and a saddle bag containing something massive.

“Miss?” the guard asked politely. “Good day with you. Tell me, are you one of the ponies who work at the school here? On approach, I saw you leaving the building.”

“Y-yes, I'm Cheerilee. I teach here...” replied the earth pony, a little confused by the appearance of a messenger from the diarchy. “What's the matter, sire? Something happened?” asked pony. “Everything was in order in our establishment after yesterday. So, we are slowly preparing for the new academic year...”

"Very good," the guard nodded. “Are there other teachers in the school now? Other ponies in general?”

"Only Betsy besides me, and a couple of support staff," Cheerilee mused. “Also our editor-in-chief with an assistant. If you have something urgent for a particular pony, you can leave it with me, I will pass it on!” She looked at the Pegasus saddlebag with understanding.

“You’ll be good too, Miss Cheerilee,” the guard easily agreed. “I have an assignment for the school from Her Grace... Important enough. May I ask you to speak in private, maybe in your classroom or in the teacher's room? And then I look,” Pegasus grinned, “here someone who is overly curious is warming his ears. You don't need to look at me like that, guys,” Pegasus frowned. “You will know too much - you will grow old soon.”

“So maybe we want to become adults as soon as possible!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “At the same time we will get our marks!”

“Girls, girls!” Cheerilee caught herself. “Go for a walk or swim, otherwise classes will begin soon. See, a messenger flew to us from the princesses themselves? This is the business of the school, there is no need to get into it with all four... If it is something for everyone, I will definitely tell you.”

“But Miss Cheerilee-e-e-e...” put up sad faces of the Crusaders, eyes fixed on the package that the guard carried.

“No «buts»! Go ahead and go about your business, my little ponies!” Cheerilee nodded and turned toward the porch, signaling that the conversation was over. “Please follow me, sire...”

The teacher went inside to talk to the guard in private - well, or by calling Miss Betsy, who taught the older foals. Scootaloo took offense for the sake of appearance, but then obediently walked away from the school building. Hearing about what the guards are talking openly is one thing, but here it really was the case of the all-holdings of Equestria, there is no time for jokes...

“Eh-eh, again adults are secretive with their secrets!” Scoot sighed. “If only once we were given something to participate in!”

“Well, doesn't it seem so interesting?” suggested Apple Bloom. “The princesses rule Equestria, they fiddle with papers every day. Maybe they just wanted to paint the school's participation in the upcoming harvest parade? Or some other paperwork.”

“Yeah, and have you equipped your own guard for this?”the pegasus squinted. “Nah, Crusaders, I can smell a secret secret here! And I think we should debunk this secret somehow! Are you with us, Sweetie?” noticing that the unicorn looks at one point and does not react to her friend's initiative, Scootaloo waved in front of her face:

“Hey! Ponyville is calling Sweetie Belle! How can you hear?”

“What’s up, Sweetie?” the earth pony was surprised, turning in the same direction.

“Ah, nevermind,” the unicorn said thoughtfully, shoving Scootaloo aside and still staring at the carousel. “There was something under the spinner... It seemed, probably.”

“Oh yeah?” Apple Bloom narrowed her left eye and lowered her head, peering under the boardwalk with seats. “There’s nothing there, Sweetie. There is only one earth, but the grass is yellow.”

“So what do we do now?” Scootaloo scratched her scruff. “We did not invite anyone to our team. And if we offer each of our school, go from house to house and ask, the evening will come...”

“What, what? What is it, blank flanks? Did you ever want to make new friends for yourself, but no one wanted to hang out with you?”

Diamond Tiara couldn't resist making her comeback as nasty as possible.

“Not again...” moaned Scootaloo, painfully covering her eyes.

"Let's get out of here, girls," Sweetie moved first, and the Markers followed her. With a quick step, so that their retreat did not look like a panicky flight, they went to the exit from the platform, but Tiara and Spoon were faster.

“Really! Who wants to be friends with losers like you?” assented Silver. Together with a friend, they circled around the huddled Crusaders, like lava piranhas, cutting off the path through the gate.

“Probably, throughout Equestria, no one tried to get tags so many times... and never got it!” Tiara chuckled. “Your company will definitely be included in the history textbooks!”

“Another word, and I...” Scootaloo began threateningly, but a pony with an ornament in her bangs interrupted her:

“What? Well, what are you going to do?” snorted Diamond Tiara. “You never even have your parents at home, so that you have someone to stand up for you! Are they really so disappointed in you that they prefer to go away, just not to see their daughter?”

“Do you have any parents at all, chicken?” Spoon echoed her. “I bet you’re making these stories up about them!”

-“'m not inventing anything, they just left for another trip! And you will talk badly about them - it will not seem a little!!!” screamed Scootaloo, trembling with indignation and resentment. Sweetie Belle had a lump in her throat - she knew that Scoots was, albeit very brave, but a small filly, and such words hurt her to tears. The unicorn felt that a little more, and she herself would cry out of bitterness for her friend.

“With such sma-a-a-all wings, I would behave more modestly, unpegasus,” Tiara said instructively. “My family... My complete family will always support if I...”

“Girls...” with an unreadable expression on her face, Apple Bloom was looking somewhere in the direction of the school. “Wait a minute! Look...”

“P-please...” Sweetie Belle started swallowing, but then, breaking loose, shouted right in Tiara's face:

“Please stop! We'll just... We'll just leave and won't bother anyone!”

“And you, Sweetie Belle?” instantly switched to a new victim pink pony. “How does it feel to have such a famous sister mean nothing? You're a unicorn, so why can't you do any of those unicorn tricks of yours? What can you do? Burn breakfast? What fun it will be for the whole of Ponyville, if you get such a mark!”

Tears welled up in Sweetie's eyes, and she hid her face under the curls of her mane, not wanting those two nasty ponies to notice her weakness. Apple Bloom, understanding everything perfectly, turned around and angrily began to frequent, hugging her friend:

“Don't you dare say that! Sweetie Belle is very nice pony!!!” the earth pony barked. “And talented! She sings great, here! You can even say a word about her - you will deal with me!”

“ Empty words, just like your flanks!” Tiara giggled happily. “Blankers! Blankers! Blankers! You will never get such beautiful tags as we have!” she put on display her croup.

“Listen, you...” Apple Bloom looked at the school again, then, bulging her eyes, began to look around nervously, which earned incomprehensible glances from the other two Markers. “This is not the place now, there...”

Diamond Tiara, along with Silver, began to sing one of the songs of her own invention, which she loved to bring the Markers, but Sweetie no longer listened. Apple Bloom's strange behavior made Sweetie's heart pound faster - she had a sticky feeling that the troubles she had been trying to avoid all morning had finally caught up with the three. While Scootaloo snapped listlessly at the singing ponies, Sweetie also looked around the area - but everything was calm.

“Bloom?” raised eyes wet from tears to the friend Sweetie. “What happened?”

“Bump, bump!” not wanting to hear anything, Tiara and Spoon pulled on their favorite teaser in chorus. “Sugar-lump, rump!”

The earth ponies once again demonstrated the envy of the Markers by throwing up their flanks, and Sweetie could not understand why the site suddenly seemed so frightening to her. It seems that all the same, the most common constructions for games peeped out of the grass. The meadow outside the fence, leading to the western hills and overgrown with low bushes, also remained calm. The ropes intricately wrapped around the climbing net, the swing creaked, overgrown with moss at the base, the slide stood, the poles, the carousel-twirl slowly turned back and forth...

”Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Stop it immediately!” someone's very angry voice suddenly rumbled over the platform.

The foals jumped in surprise. Apple Bloom flattened her ears; she blinked fearfully, pressing herself against Sweetie. Tiara, on the other hand, was not so easy to infuriate, if it did not concern mutual insults. Turning to the school, she said in an extremely displeased tone:

“Miss Cheerilee, didn't you hear what my mom told you about...” Diamond Tiara stopped short when she saw that none of the teachers were in sight. As for Silver, she was scared to death. The beautiful gray fur on Spoon's face had taken on a kind of pale greenish tint, and the ears cut the air.

“Tiara,” she whispered hotly, running up to her friend, “let's get out of here immediately!”

“Why is that?! Just because some adult said...”

“Haven't you heard about yesterday morning?!” Silver looked around in panic, grabbed her friend, who squeaked in protest, and dragged her into the city. “Mom told me how at the market... shu-shu-shu...” that there she whispered in Tiara's ear, it was already impossible to hear. But, probably, the arguments turned out to be worthwhile, since the Diamond Tiara, already on their own, rushed after Spoon at full speed, leaving the Crusaders wonder what it was now.

“Who said that?” whispered Scootaloo. “Like Miss Cheerilee, like she’s not.”

“It seems to me that the sound did not come from school. From somewhere with...” Sweetie began, wiping her tears with her hoof and peering into the tall grass until her eyes hurt, but then Apple Bloom squealed:

“Here it is! This is it again!!!”

“Where?!” Scootaloo jumped up. “What were you mumbling about?”

“That's what I was trying to say!” blurted out the earth pony, pointing her hoof somewhere in the direction of the school. “Here it is, running again!!!”

Something big and dark chimed in the grass from the school, briskly fingering with its paws, dragging a black-gray-red tail behind it. The creature flew under the merry-go-round, on which the Marksmen discussed their affairs until recently - and disappeared, as if it had never existed!

“Horse apples!” Scootaloo swore from fright. “Girls, did you see that?!”

“I saw, I saw!!!” squeaked Apple Bloom.

“No, did you see that, Bloom?!”

“Girls... What is it?” Sweetie asked fearfully. “Isn't it time for us to run away?!”

“What other chirping, Sweetie?” Scoots was indignant. “When is there... this! What is this, by the way? No, seriously?”

“I told you - I saw him on the window! It got out of school!” explained Apple Bloom, staring at the spinner, under which the tailed creature disappeared. “I never saw such insects in Ponyville! It opened the shutters and got out!”

“So is this one of the Everfree?” surprised Scootaloo. Her wings were erect, showing the highest degree of arousal (and willingness immediately take to her heels).

“What has it forgotten at school? And Miss Cheerilee, and the guard?” Sweetie whispered. The bitterness of Tiara's offense slowly receded in front of curiosity and a bit of fear. “Did they even see it?”

“Nah, Granny Smith has never seen such people in her lifetime, but she has been to the Everfree so many times, ennobling the volt-apple trees...” Apple Bloom nervously fiddled with the bow.” Well I say those - only him and saw how it jumped off the windowsill and disappeared in the grass! By itself - a purely gray spider, big, only with four legs and a tail!”

Sweetie Belle looked at her incredulously.

“Apple Bloom, Miss Cheerilee told us... Spiders have eight legs, like an eye! And if it has a tail and it is a scorpion, then where are the claws?”

“Don't bother me about my feet, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom giggled. “Yesterday, while I was digging in the attic, I disturbed a bunch of spiders. How they fired me! So I remember perfectly how they look. And I learned to count even before school with my mother, even though I grew up on a farm,” the pony noted with pride.

“Could this be an entirely magical creature?” suggested Scootaloo. “Do you remember those "clowns" about which Twilight spoke? We also offered her help in calculations...”

“True, we did not understand anything,” Apple Bloom sighed, not forgetting to follow the carousel. Slowly she walked in a circle, looking at the structure from other sides.

“Or is it one of the new creatures of the forest,” Sweetie muttered. At the thought that the trinity might be alone with such, the unicorn felt a desire to nervously bite a hoof, but she pulled herself up. A true lady would never do that!

“Or is it just a spider. But it differs from ours, because he... uh-uh...” thought Scootaloo. Then the pegasus looked dazedly at her friends, who responded in kind.

”... otherworldly!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders came to this idea almost simultaneously, all three of them.

This thought captured the foals' senses with a pleasant sensation of mystery. Could it be that what they longed to see, all this time, was spinning somewhere nearby, as soon as the hoof was stretched out? And there is no need to go to this terrible forest, where everything goes so wrong, as usual!

“Girls, do you think this is the alien?” Sweetie asked quietly.

“He's another,” just as quietly dismissed her assumption earth pony. “Granny and AJ saw him. Sisters generally said that he is huge, that your timberwolf. She also told me not to approach him on occasion... Girls, you won't tell her, will you?” Pleadingly looked at her friends Apple Bloom, and they hastened to assure her that everything will remain strictly between the Marks Seekers.

“I'm with you girls,” Sweetie sniffed.

“You can count on us,” Scootaloo nodded importantly. “But still, if this is not the same stranger who perpetrated the pogrom in the "Sugar Corner"... Then what? He, too, was dragged to Equus by Twilight's spell, or what?”

“I don’t know,” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Maybe it's his pet?”

“Are you serious? Why should other worlds keep an insect in their pets discord?!” Scootaloo laughed. “Bloom, it's not Winona for you, spiders are willful creatures!”

“Actually, Fluttershy is making friends with several...”

“So then Fluttershy!”

While the two girls were arguing, Sweetie finally realized what was bothering her. Not even a quiet grunt, which manifested itself as soon as the alien spider disappeared into the earth under the carousel, but the earth itself. It was too... earthly? Sweetie could not express in words why, concentrating on this layer of soil in the shadow of the circle, she began to seem so wrong to her. And when a red fire lit up among the rare blades of grass, staring straight at her, Sweetie Belle whispered:

“Girls... He's here.”

“Is it an alien?!” Scootaloo was immediately alarmed. “And where is "here"?”

“This isn't ground.” Sweetie nodded toward the carousel. “He pretends like changeling does... Just don't play a pony. And the abuse at Tiara came from somewhere... from there.”

“Is it true?” Apple Bloom asked in a slightly hoarse voice. “He was sitting here all this time?!”

"I think so," Sweetie whispered. “He repeated for Miss Cheerilee... Probably should have heard her. Do you know how a magpie can copy sounds?”

“Well, then...” without thinking twice, Apple Bloom took another apple out of the saddle bag and, slowly stepping on the grass, carefully began to approach the spinner.

“Stop!” the unicorn went into quiet panic. “Stop, Bloomy! Maybe the adults should be called first? Where are you going?!”

“Why pull something?” the earth pony was surprised.” We, without any adults, were going to establish relations with a stranger! Make friends with him, that's a lot. So I will help, since you are a little coward,” Apple Bloom giggled.

“I'm not afraid at all!” Sweetie squeaked, offended. Of course, she was a little scared, well, just a little! But still not enough to look away from Apple Bloom, who came close to the carousel and left the apple on the grass.

"Hey," Apple Bloom called the shadow uncertainly, stepping back. “Thank you for driving these bad ponies away!”

Nothing happened for about a minute, and Sweetie decided that she was just imagining it all. The unicorn was even ready for the jokes of friends, but suddenly that very quiet grunt resumed. Before the eyes of the foals holding their breath, a paw appeared right from the ground - gray, long and skinny. She pulled and pulled from under the merry-go-round, so it seemed that there would be no end to her. The paw was crowned with a brush with long knobby fingers, which really made it look like an outlandish spider, and short blunt claws, like Spike's. Opening her fingers like a midnight flower her petals, she grabbed the apple brush and dragged it back into the shadow, again becoming an inconspicuous handful of earth.

“Look, he took...” Apple Bloom breathed out with some satisfaction. Scootaloo looked up at her fellow-thinkers, smiling happily and dazedly, and Sweetie smiled shyly back. It seemed that the pegasus was about to squeal with delight. Then a striking sound was heard to the foals' ears, and the paw again appeared to the Celestine light. Only this time he returned the apple... from which a quarter had been neatly cut. The alien pushed the fruit towards the Crusaders with a claw, and even Sweetie could not contain her emotions.

“Wow!” gasped the unicorn. “You tamed him, Bloomy!”

“That! is! so! cool!!!” danced on the spot Scootaloo, hugging the earth pony.

“And you were afraid, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom laughed happily. “You can trust the one who didn’t give up our apple, I’m telling them for sure! Moreover, he is familiar with the rules of good manners, he took only his share! What kind of monster is he from the Everfree after that?”

“Okay, okay, I admit! So, Crusaders, we must think quickly!” Sweetie Belle hastened. “What should I say? Shall we invite him to the clubhouse? But we have an eerie mess for a red carpet there! If Mr. Alien agreed to wait...”

"Mister alien" to wait until the passions subside, resolutely refused. With a screeching noise and the sound of crumbling earth, he jumped out from under the merry-go-round, so that the foals squealed, clutching each other. However, the stranger threw himself in a completely different direction, to the fence - the filly only saw how something shapeless, black and gray, covered with rags the color of the same earth, galloped away, as if flying over the grass. Already on the move, it began to change color, starting to acquire the colors of grass and trees, getting lost against the background of the meadow with its color, reminiscent of a patchwork quilt... The stranger dived into the bushes with a crash - and he was like that.

“Crusaders, in a pursuit!!!” Scoot blurted out, rushing forward, but Sweetie, at the cost of incredible efforts, reined in a nimble friend, catching her by the tail.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” the pegasus was indignant. “I would have caught him, no doubt|!”

“You don’t have a scooter,” Sweetie Belle whispered, glancing sideways at the school building. There, as if someone heard their cries... “And he runs in the field, and not along the road!”

“But... but!”

“Scoots, we'll find him later, exactly as they say,” Apple Bloom muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “And now - smile and wave! Someone is coming! We smile, I say!”

Miss Cheerilee appeared on the porch with a familiar Pegasus. The guard's sling was now empty. Fortunately, the guardsman looked at the foals, smiling from ear to ear and taking on the most innocent look they were capable of, with curiosity, not suspicion. The cherry pony cleared her throat.

“Girls! Well, what is that din and shouts again?” Cheerilee looked at them reproachfully. “You make us look bad in front of the royal court!”

“Sorry! We won't be anymore!” Sweetie murmured, flapping her eyelashes. “We just played...”

“Trivia, Miss Cheerilee,” the pegasus nodded to her. “Good sun and fair wind to you,” having risen into the air, the guardsman safely departed to the city hall, or where he was still flying from. The target-seekers were left alone with the teacher, who was looking at them suspiciously, who knew the whole three too well. Cheerilee scanned the landing, as if to make sure it hadn't been destroyed by another foal trick...

“Tiara and Spoon have escaped! And we just... Played!” Sweetie chirped to distract her attention. “Am I right, girls?

“Yes! We were definitely not trying to get our cutie marks by meeting with-UM!” Apple Bloom's hoof, covering Scootaloo's mouth, did not allow her to finish the phrase.

Finally, the secret weapon of the Crusaders, their innocent stares, effective (in their by no means humble opinion) no less than Fluttershy's gaze, worked - Cheerilee shook her head and, saying goodbye to the foals, went back to school. The grief contactees breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sisters of mercy, it seems, no one noticed anything!” Apple Bloom wiped sweat off her forehead.

“Yes! I already thought - everyone, they have sailed, they will be taken to their parents now!” Sweetie chuckled.

“But they didn't come!”

“Yes! And this is awesome!” Scootaloo laughed. “But all the same,” the filly became sad, looking reproachfully at Sweetie, “why didn't you let me gallop away after the stranger? I might have found him on a fresh trail...”

“Scootaloo, are you able to find the same changeling in Ponyville?” Sweetie covered her smile with her hoof.

“Maybe I can!” the pegasus promised with a challenge.

“No, girls, our guest changes his skin so that pegasus vision is not your assistant here,” Apple Bloom thought. “Here Winona is needed. Maybe she can sniff out something.”

“Will she agree?”

“Probably. She never minds a stretch, and mah sister is gone,”Apple Bloom rubbed her forehead as if remembering something important, then added apologetically:

“But then AJ will certainly learn everything from her...”

“So maybe we don't need to look for the alien ourselves anymore?”

“How is it "not to search"?” friends looked at Sweetie Belle in surprise. She deigned to explain in a satisfied tone:

“Firstly, we already wanted the stranger to pay attention to us and come to us. Secondly, he went to the contact himself!” Sweetie Belle nodded at the carousel. “For us in front of Tiara and Spoon stood up? Joined! And from the rest of the ponies, he only did what he ran away! And he took your apple, Bloomy!”

“Do you think he chose us to meet ponies?!” gasped Scootaloo.

“I don't know!” the unicorn smiled cheerfully. “But I think he’ll come himself if he wants to. He can become almost invisible. If he hadn't sworn at Tiara, we wouldn't have noticed him, maybe!”

“So,” Apple Bloom decided, “well, then I won't ask Winona for now. In general, girls, it’s definitely shining at noon,” the earth pony, squinting, looked up, where the sun was sending summer warmth to the whole sky. “Let's go to the clubhouse, we'll discuss what to do there! Without extra ears and these pests,” Apple Bloom looked around, as if fearing that the bully might return. “At the same time, we'll have a bite to eat with what the kitchen has.”

“I'm in!” Sweetie exclaimed.

“Me too! Come on! Come on!” Scootaloo echoed her. “Cutie Mark Crusaders - go ahead!”

Apple Bloom, proud of her sister’s bit of solidity, led their small group to the farm. The country road wound past the pine trees, past the gnarled old oaks and ash trees. These trees probably knew to the very first inhabitants of Ponyville, including the Apple family. But now, among the crowns, dressed in rust-colored bark and waving shaggy foliage, grumbled like an old man in the wind, young, cheerful apple trees, hung with ripe fruits, were full of flowers. As the Marksmen entered the thick of the trees, a view of the farm itself opened up. It was good here - maybe not like in my sister's boutique, but attractive in its own way. Sweetie Belle, getting off the road, galloped merrily to the gate on the green carpet, pleasantly springy under her hooves. And the air here was special in its own way - the Apple Bloom house always smelled pleasantly of fruits, fragrant hay and pastries... It's a pity that the Markers had to hurry up, busy with their next idea, which threatened to turn the Ponyville residents' idea of ​​a guest who flew to them from another the world! Sweetie Belle would love to just play on the farm with Winona and her friends. But sometime next time...

However, the foals did not manage to get off so easily by jumping into the kitchen. They passed a thoughtful test by Big Mac, who made sure that the filly from Ponyville came safe and sound, and answered a couple of tricky questions, which the usually laconic big guy was generous with. It's good that Sister Apple Bloom set sail - she would have seen us in an instant, mentally thanked Sweetie's heaven when Macintosh expressed his approval with his "Agas" and let the Markers go home. Then they were approached by a couple of filly from the numerous relatives of the Apples, who were currently visiting the farm. Apple Bloom introduced them as Flitter and Bumpkin - they arrived in Ponyville to select some rare variety for the sweets they were producing. Bloom said that this was not all the guests - her cousin Babs from Mainhattan itself was to arrive very soon, and after the harvest, all Apple family were supposed to visit the farm this year with their visit. Giggling at the danger of the "apple invasion" and its consequences for the town, the foals arrived at the kitchen, and there...

“Apple Bloom, you're back, my dear! Hello Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, hello dears!” Mrs. Smith greeted them.

And no matter how the Crusaders protested, they had to sit down to dinner. Soup-puree with thistle and tomatoes, hot vegetable salad, traditional apple pie for dessert - it all tasted excellent, but the foals sat on pins and needles, waiting for all three dishes to be served and it would be possible to rush headlong into the clubhouse. And Granny Apple Bloom was in no hurry - she regaled them, as always, cordially and at times drove them into a stupor with her eccentricities. Well, at least the elderly mare today did not speak in poetic half-hints, like the sphinx from the sultry sands of Somnambula, and did not immerse herself in the memories of her youth and all kinds of stories, of which she knew a great many. Perhaps, as Applebloom argued, during the collection of volt apples, each phrase of the old woman had its own context, in which even her craziest dictum could mean something, but it was very difficult to figure it out. Apple Bloom just got a taste of it, as usual she began to insert her comments and ask Granny Smith about some details, ignoring the pleading looks of her friends to silently agree with everything - and this took the mare to some completely unimaginable horizons of thought, again postponing dessert. As a result, Mrs. Smith began to complain about the timberwolves, which "have already become so insolent that they stood up on their hind legs and their garden accessories are stolen from honest farmers, yes!"

“Granny, AJ told you - not a wolf, it was an alien!” giggled Apple Bloom. “Twilight Sparkle threw it to us in Ponyville. He is alive and intelligent, just scares by us, like the creature of the Eternal!”

“Yep”,  Maki agreed gravely.

“Alien? A fugitive foreigner or what? So that's why bats fly over the farm often!” Granny Smith shook her head. “They'll make it up too! And if he is alive, why doesn't he eat normally? Skin and bones alone, like your pieces of wood, will not be confused for long! Oh, my vision is not the same...”

“Your eyesight is normal, Granny!” laughing, cheered the old mare Apple Bloom.

They barely waited for Mrs. Smith to serve her signature pie, grabbed a piece, thanked the Apples for their hospitality and, having received permission to leave the feast, rushed out, almost pushing each other out the door. Apple Bloom was the first to screw out of the farm, skillfully bypassing the beds and jumping over the fences - the long practice affected... The way to the Markers' house did not take much time, especially if Winona, who loves jogging, joined the foals. The mares with difficulty untied themselves from the dog fawning towards them - but in the end Winona, yawning, turned around and ran towards the farm. Sweetie thought that, now far from the other ponies, she might one day be frightened by a strange stranger who was creeping somewhere nearby, hiding among the trees. But today, the unicorn, perhaps, would have stayed for the night with her friends without any hesitation - and this is at the very border with the Ever-Wild! It seemed to her that in the twilight not a monster would wander, but another friend... Not represented in faces, but already showing a desire to make friends. And that was great! Asking if she could stay, Sweetie squealed happily when Apple Bloom nodded graciously - Flitter was going to town anyway, so she could send a note to the unicorn's parents that their daughter was under reliable protection.

“So, Crusaders,” Scootaloo solemnly proclaimed, climbing onto the veranda of their clubhouse and looking down at her friends, “I think we all agree here that the stranger has earned our trust and will not go to destroy Manehattan, as in the plot "Invasion of the Quadropods to Maretropolis "! Therefore, I vote not to tell adults about him for anything, and to make contact on my own!”

“Agree!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Me too! Me too!” Sweetie Belle supported them happily. Twilight Sparkle would probably have done a lot better than they, the students of the Ponyville school - in all of Canterlot, as the unicorn heard, there was no other such talented expert in magic and the study of the unknown. Everyone knew that - a protégé of the very Celestia Twilight did not become for a beautiful mane (and she was very beautiful, although not the same as Rarity's!). HOh, how she still wanted to grab a bit of glory herself - and get a cutiemark, for sure this time! Scootaloo jubilantly jumped into the air and, fluttering her wings, sank down next to her friends:

“Unanimously!” she threw her hoof into the air, and the filly, in a single impulse, repeated her gesture. “Resolved! CUTIE-MARK-CRUSADERS-WITH-ALIEN-CONTACTORS, YA--

“QUIET!” suddenly barked Apple Bloom, her eyes fixed on a tree nearby. Something was rustling in its crown, probably a large bird.

“There's no one here but us, Bloom!’ justifyingly, muttered Scootaloo, starting to look around fearfully. “Who will hear?”

“Quiet, I say! Look...”

A huge tailed spider, the same one that Apple Bloom had spotted for the first time, jumped down from the tree and went to the clubhouse of the Crusaders, briskly fingering its knobby legs. As he approached, Sweetie Belle felt uneasy - she finally realized that the alien's "pet" looked exactly like his paw. Was he able to run his limbs by themselves?! Sweetie had never heard of such magic... It looked eerie in her eyes now, but curiosity overcame the hidden fear of injury. Maybe it's like those super secret spells that you can surely find in the granaries of Canterlot's most famous wizards? Well, then the stranger should have been treated with all politeness, like nobility, probably... In the eyes of Scootaloo, Sweetie did not see fear at all - there was only excitement there, which was not extinguished even by the fact that the creature was even larger near it: it would easily grasp its face foal, spreading out these processes.

“Sweetie, get the net here!” whispered the pegasus, but Apple Bloom nipped her idea in the bud.

“Wait, Scoots,” she said, watching with interest the creature that seemed to emerge from the thickets of the Eternal Forest, but did not show the slightest bit of aggression. “Let's see what it will do.”

The spider ran up and stopped, staring with a red dot between its forelegs (fingers?! Brrr...) at the Crusaders. Then, as if having made some decision, he swayed from side to side and, pushing off with his tail like a snake, two leaps up the stairs. Scratching the tree with its claws, the creature climbed the wall of the house and climbed through the second-floor window, purring like a big, stupid cat. The foals looked at each other in bewilderment:

“Did he come to visit us like?” clarified Scootaloo. “If only for the sake of decency he greeted or something!”

"It's not the alien himself..." Sweetie Belle said in confusion. “We think so, don't we?”

They went, opening the door, into a room that was bright and comfortable, but found no one - everything was exactly as Sweetie remembered from the last meeting of the Markers. But no... Many of the drawers were half open, their contents lying on the floor, and a pile of drawing sheets had collapsed behind the cupboard. Did they already have this «spider»? But where is his master?

“Looks like your offer to wait a bit out of date, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom's excited voice came to her ears. “Right now we will meet.”

The Earth Pony pointed to the stairs that led to the attic floor. There, on the step, lay a quarter of an apple. Scootaloo sniffed the slice and, chuckling, asked:

“Maybe it's some other apple? Maybe Big Mac is joking like that?”

“No, Scoots, that's it,” Apple Bloom replied confidently, lifting a wedge and turning it in her hoof. “There are marks from the claws, and the size is the same as the cut on the apple was. Won't you trust Apple family member to sort apples?!”

“No, no, how can I? I believe!”

“You think that... big one is there?” Sweetie nodded her head warily.

“Yep!”

“We will now meet with a guest from another world! Awesome!” Scootaloo was the first to move up the steps. “Can't believe it!”

The foals, having agreed to climb up at the same time in order to cover each other on occasion, scolded and giggled somehow climbed the narrow stairs, hugging each other closely with their barrels and in the process almost collapsing down twice. When three curious little faces looked out of the hatch, he appeared to the foals' eyes.

Alien in the very meaning of the word - that's what Sweetie thought when she saw a dark figure in the attic and froze a little. The newcomer was huge — even taller than the Big Macintosh who reared up. The dimensions of the creature were felt despite the fact that it was sitting on the floor, crossing its narrow legs, ending in either sticks or hockey sticks. The stranger was sitting not like a pony, but straight, as if he had swallowed a pole, only drooping his long neck so as not to prop up the ceiling with his neck. A single eye, like a mythical Arimaspi, with a red iris and a vertical pupil, coldly looked at the old drawings that he held in his bony spider paw, which had already returned to its rightful place. The second leg was almost twice as short, and continued with its incomprehensible metal device with pipes sticking out of it. Sweetie Belle was surprised to recognize in the cylinders that peeking out from behind the broad back of the creature, cylinders like the ones from which Pinkie Pie filled the balls in front of the by parties. From one of them, a flexible hose, suspiciously reminiscent of the one from the farm, led straight into the creature's neck for watering the flower beds. The rhythmic hiss with which the stranger puffed with gas, and his bony muzzle with a gap in the place of his left eye, somehow reminded of the pony who once came to Ponyville to drive away twittermites - he also wore cylinders and a mask... Along his back, or in general, only one spine was fastened with dimly gleaming red clots, seemingly solid, similar to large amber. In the same place, a metal box with a large number of wires and a long wire was attached to a sling, and something that resembled a rivet gun was also adjacent to it.

Sweetie Belle had no idea what he was. Well, he certainly wasn't one of the races that were in Equus that Miss Cheerilee was talking about. The alien did not have anything that would look like a mark. All this did not bother the Scootaloo - having got out of the hatch, the pegasus walked around the guest in a wide arc, looking at your saucers with round eyes, occasionally expressing delight with a businesslike puff. Slowly Scoot approached the stranger, stretched out her hoof... The stranger twitched her ears, and the filly, screeching, jumped back, without touching him. The stranger still calmly continued to sort through their long-abandoned books on hoof-making. He did not pay attention to the Markers as if on purpose.

“Aweso-o-ome...” whispered Scootaloo. - Our own alien! Sitting right at our clubhouse, Crusaders!

“This is definitely him,” the earth pony echoed her in the same joyful whisper. “Applejack talked about something like that!”

“Girls,” out of fear, remained standing on the stairs of Sweetie, “What if it's really a changeling? There he is... No wool, smooth all over, no bright colors, all so... sharp!”

“You chatterbox, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom chuckled. – “Cnahgelings have fangs and empty eyes! And he has no dragonfly wings.”

“Their queen was different too!”

“Sweetie,” Scootaloo looked at her mockingly, “he sits on the rump calmly, does not hiss, does not brainwash anyone, leafs through our books! What is the changeling after that?”

Admittedly, in their place for Twilight Sparkle, the argument with books would already be enough to consider the creature friendly. After thinking, Sweetie decided that it was worth giving the stranger a chance, and not running away so immediately with screams. He was creepy, of course - what seemed like a flat heap of earth beneath the merry-go-round turned into a towering parody of the diamond hound at the Marks Seekers clubhouse, which was known for its lack of manners. A very skinny diamond dog, as if starved to death. Not that Sweetie had ever seen creatures that were malnourished, but judging by the horror stories that she loved telling Pinkie Pie to those who refused her treats, this is how it should look. Gray-black plates were interspersed with what looked like bare skin covering a skinny body — Sweetie couldn't figure out where the armor was and where the outsider was. Or was he all covered in armor? And if it was not a helmet on his head, but the head itself... Well, it was not so scary, although it didn’t have any cheeks or lips to reflect emotions, as ponies were used to. She reminded rather of an outlandish southern mask with teeth, as in Zecora's hut. The position of the ears was also encouraging - they were in a calm position, relaxed. The unicorn made one last attempt to appeal to the minds of her friends, but more to clear her conscience:

“Scoot, Bloom, I heard when I saw Rarity that Dash wanted to fight him! Do you think he could be dangerous?”

“Do you know more or less good in a fight ponies that Dash not would like to face off?” Scootaloo was genuinely surprised. “He quarreled with the guards, Sweetie, she wouldn’t want to!”

“Okay, okay, I got it,” Sweetie Belle grumbled, finally going up to the attic and glancing at the alien.

“Everything will be all right, Sweetie, you'll see,” Apple Bloom smiled broadly, but then scratched the back of her neck.

“In general, it's enough to use tongues, girls. It seems that it is a little indecent that we are right in front of him,” - she nodded her head towards the silent bulk, “we are discussing here.”

“Who cares? He probably doesn't understand us!”

“But he drove away Tiara for a reason!” Apple Bloom reasonably remarked to the pegasus suggestion.

“Ok, now we'll check,” Scootaloo said bravely and, taking in more air, fearlessly moved straight to the stranger. Standing to one side of him, the flyer stared up.

“Uh-uh...” without thinking of what to say, she blurted out:

“Hello! How are you?”

Now, quite unexpectedly for the foals, they managed to get the attention of a stranger. The newcomer turned towards the sound gently, measuredly, with the already heard grumbling and clicking. He turned his head on a long neck just like Owlowiscious, who lived with Twilight Sparkle in the library. A clear and focused gaze, like a griffin, seemed to be the most attentive I studied all three foals.

“Whoever you are, welcome to the Cutie Mark Crusaders treehouse!” Scootaloo announced happily, pointing with her hoof at all the decoration of the second floor. “Make yourself at home!”

The intruder tilted his head-mask slightly to the side and moved his ears into a position of slight interest.

“It seems, he is not one of the chatty ones,” Apple Bloom giggled.

"He just doesn't know our language," Sweetie Belle said quietly. “In the other world, they probably speak differently.”

“So what should we do with it now?” offended that her attempts were unsuccessful, Scootaloo pouted. “To play the "be quiet" game or what?”

“Why be quiet?” thought the unicorn. “He understood what our apple is, that it is cut into slices and eaten. This means that he also recognizes its image. If we could communicate using images, then...”

“Wow, right, pictures!” gasped Scoots. “Now we are talking, Sweetie!”

She quickly drove down and brought in a couple of sheets of blank paper with a pencil. Quickly, with zeal waving her purple mane back and forth, Scootaloo began to draw something that Sweetie recognized Equus - with a very conditional similarity of a continent, but quite recognizable. By drawing the sun and Luna on the sides, Scootaloo, somewhere in the middle of Equestria, marked the Apple farm and sketched the clubhouse of the Crusaders. Surrounding this very composition with several pony figures, Scootaloo finished creating, spat a pencil and exhaled with satisfaction. The newcomer watched the filly's manipulations with the same polite curiosity, but remained silent.

“Equus,” jabbed her hoof at the planet Scootaloo. “The sun. The moon,” the same fate befell the painted satellites of their universe, which made friends with the alicorn sisters. “And we are here!” Scootaloo giggled happily, pointing to the painted farm.

"Po-ny," Apple Bloom said slowly, pointing first to herself and then to her friends. “We are ponies. We live on Eq-woo-us, you see? And where are you from?”

The intruder was silent, drilling the foals with his one eye, and Scoots whined doomedly.

“What kind of misfortune is this?! We just met with a real alien, but he doesn't understand any belmes in our opinion!”

“Maybe he is not from another world?” Apple Bloom suggested, bewildered. “Maybe Twilight Sparkle was wrong? If he is just an animal, which of the distant edges of Equestria, which can scratch with its tongue only like a parrot...”

“Well, no, Twilight was sure...” Sweetie began, but then the stranger began to move again. His paw, just as slowly and carefully as he took the apple, reached out to Scootaloo and picked up the pencil. Fascinated, the pegasus handed him a sheet of blank paper, and the stranger began to build lines on it himself, separating figures and creating images. When he finished, the foals gasped - this was another planet, not at all like Equus in the atlas! There were continents and oceans of strange, sometimes elongated from pole to pole shapes - and on one of them the stranger sketched a collection of tall houses, just like the Manehattan towers! Next to them were two figures - two-legged and broad-shouldered, but not very similar to the guest of the Crusaders, if only because they looked much stronger than him. They also had both eyes in place, the sharp corner of the nose and the schematic thread of the mouth were there! The second figure was lower, with a narrower waist and slightly wider flanks. She also had a mane drawn much longer than the nest that crowned the head of the first figure! Probably, in that world, filly looked like that... Or just the guest adjusted to manner of depicting Scootaloo? He himself had no hair... The stranger jabbed his claw at the male figure, after which he patted himself on the chest, in which the ribs were clearly visible.

“He understands us! And he is still from another universe!” Scoot exclaimed triumphantly.

“What does he look like at home?” surprised Apple Bloom, looking at first at the picture, and then at the stranger skeptically. “Why is it wrong now?”

“Looks like he needs it. He's what he wants, so it happens,” suggested Sweetie.

“Or, indeed, on our grubs he was thinner, as Granny said,” the earth pony giggled.

“So can we get him something to eat?” suggested the unicorn. “At home from breakfast, the pancakes should have stayed!”

“Wait a minute with all your treats! Everything needs to be done officially, as if our club had a new member! Khe-khe,” the pegasus cleared her throat and, having got into a very proud pose, held out her hoof to the stranger for shaking. “Scootaloo welcomes you to Equestria! These are my best friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, they are very nice ponies! Let's be friends too!”

Sweetie Belle could not help admiring the courage of Scoots, who, as a little filly, so easily offered their friendship to the unknown newcomer. And she even stretched out a leg to him - a powerful paw, equipped with claws, could break, grind an unwary pony into dust, only by closing on her body! The unicorn froze when the stranger allowed himself to slowly reach for Scootie - but he pulled away almost immediately. The stranger looked down at his own paw, squinting, and there was doubt in Sweetie Belle's eye. Then his limb the dark shimmered with many shades of red, accompanied by grunts, and the brush changed, as then on the landing he changed his cover! The claws retracted like Opal's, rounded as if they were tiny hooves with soft leather pads. Wasting no more time, the stranger wrapped his toes around Scootaloo's leg and shook it very gently. He came from afar and must have gotten very tired, hiding from noisy adults, that's why he chose us to meet, Sweetie thought suddenly, smiling happily. And now the one for whom the princesses took a bunch of guards with them, fearing for the safety of their little ponies, gently shakes her friend's hoof - as if afraid to harm and ruin her beauty!

”Ze-ushs,” briefly, as if through clenched teeth, the wanderer between the worlds introduced himself. Then he copied Scootaloo in a terribly squeaky voice:

“Welcomes you to Equestria.”

The foals fell to the floor laughing, jerking their legs, trying again and again to reproduce his intonation, and Alex Mercer coughed in displeasure, shutting off the helium valve behind him, which he had already forgotten about.

The misunderstanding of the first contact was successfully resolved - not least thanks to laughter and genuine amusement. Pinkie Pie would be happy.