“...is it going to rain?”
Alex Mercer blinked in surprise when a drop of water fell on his nose, seeping from somewhere from the crown of an apple tree. He sat on the veranda with his clawed stubs of legs dangling down, watched the xenos’ children who played with the dog, and stroked the extremely happy Lyra Heartstrings. The pony was lively telling the information requested by Mercer, while Alex was answering in monosyllabic phrases, directing the unicorn's thoughts in the right direction. And now Lyra opened one eye and raised her head, which she conveniently placed on her hooves, and they, in turn, on Mercer's lap.
“No, no,” the mint pony yawned, her gaze following the falling cloud that was creeping north. “Just a lost cloud. From the Everfree, as usual. If it suddenly lingers over the city, the pegasus will drive it away...”
“Hrm,” Alex paused, then continued, as if shaking off his thoughtfulness along with a drop that broke on his nose:
“Habit. With us, if rain suddenly starts to fall from the sky... It means it will rain.”
“What an interesting pattern,” Lyra chuckled, lowering her head and again substituting her neck under the hand wandering back and forth along her back. “And what, absolutely nothing can be done? How do you deal with weather anomalies then?”
“No way,” human grinned. “We, Yian-kee, are tough humans... If our house is destroyed by a tornado, we just get insurance and build the same house in the same place. There are technologies for spraying chemicals that make ordinary rain clouds dissipate, but they are not cheap and are rarely used, for special events mainly... So in my homeland, we almost never have any problems with this”
“I think now I understand why you didn’t want to contact us,” stretched Lyra. “I would say that it is absolutely correct and natural that you did not want. I can only imagine how I would be disoriented... shocked even if I were in your world, where such a familiar thing as the changing of the seasons happens on its own. Brr! You probably have the whole planet there like one big Everfree forest...
“In general, it is. Unless all sorts of mew-tentz, out of the ordinary, and aggressive thickets you will not find there... Rainforests do not count. Again, our animals are unsentient being and shun humans, just as they avoid meeting in general with everything that has not appeared in their life before.”
“Well, you are sentient, but in this respect you were no different from your animals when you got to Equestria.”
“What can I do? In the social environment that humans have built, I could be confident in my own safety... The risk is minimal if you know how to avoid trouble. Most of my tribe don't even think about anything like that, let alone collide... They'll shake their heads at most when they see it on the news.”
“I'm glad to hear that,” Lyra nodded gravely. “It looks like you really do not have a bad life even without magic! And yes, they will "see"? How is it?”
Well, yes, our life is not bad, but only in the most developed countries and, as a rule, at the expense of others. Mercer chuckled to himself, aloud explaining to the “human expert” why the news bulletin on Earth can be seen, not just listened to on the radio. He wonders if the unicorn was trying to calm herself down, or was she just summing it up on the basis of the "true lie" that Alex had been diligently feeding her all this time? All you need to do is to bypass sensitive topics, without raising any abomination from the bottom, but without denying it, persistently not to call things by their proper names... senile Kenobi. Ha.
“In general, I know humans very well, and I know what to expect from them. But with you ponies... Eh-eh,” Alex threw back his head, idly watching the apple leaves in the wind. “Let's just say, you ponies, although inspired confidence in your appearance and behavior, but with your magic scared me almost to the point of hiccups.”
“Well, then we are quits!” Lyra smiled. “And you decided to start with someone you can study well before you go get to know all the ponies? To study us on his example.”
“This is usually the case, hm?”
“The girls, of course, were the first,” Lyra closed her eyes as Mercer began to scratch behind her ear. “I don’t think there is a world anywhere in which children are not innocent... And me?” as if offended, the unicorn puffed out her cheeks as a joke. “You only chose me on the basis of Sweetie’s recommendation? Based on what I'm passionate about...”
Mercer fingered the white strand of her mane near her ear, running his thumb over the short greenish fur, feeling the skin beneath it goose bumps. If this was the death throes of his gaseous state, it was extremely believable... and relaxing. The images and fragments of memory evoked by Green, from which an ordinary human would turn gray at once, and eighteen days of the horrors of Manhattan quarantine could go to hell when Alex Mercer was petting a pony.
"You are a very strange fan of science fiction, if you take the geeks of my world as an example," Alex said. “But I admit that compared to the ordinary citizens of Ponyville, who would have rushed to report to the Guards at the sight of me, you did not seem like a hopeless option. And, apparently, I made the right decision. You turned out to be mind-well... well, just a good pony too. I can work with such a reasonable person.”
“Oh, how flattered I am...” Lyra with difficulty, stifling yawn, made her eared (and partly horned) head comfortable, as if deliberately opening the graceful neck with the curvature of the lower jaw for scratching.
The sun had already passed noon, and the moment of meeting with the diarchy was more and more clearly emerging from the fog of uncertainty, but here, on the farm, peace and prosperity still reigned. A trio of foals ran nearby, filling the clearing with laughter and fervent cries. Curious little faces sometimes emerged among the trees, glancing at the clubhouse and their "new friend", but then the target-seekers again returned to the ball game. Diamond Tiara and Spoon were sunbathing in the grass, not occupied by the shade of the numerous apple trees - sometimes it seemed to Mercer that the ambitious earth pony looked at the trinity with some regret, as if she did not like the missed opportunity to play with the rest of the foals. But Tiara invariably turned her proud face away, to Mercer's grin. Lyra looked up into the face of Alex, who was thinking about the information received from her.
“You still don't trust...” the unicorn probably wanted to find another word, but they all did not seem to convey the way she saw Mercer, “... you can't trust princesses, can you? Are you so afraid of publicity through the guards? Why? I told you the real truth about them.”
“I'm too smart,” Mercer replied in monosyllables, but then added:
“Or too stupid. Looking from the position of whose world to look.”
Lyra flapped her long, almost human fluffy eyelashes and laughed out loud. Her lively sincere laughter, with the general musicality of the pony's language, was somewhat reminiscent of the chirping of birds in the dense foliage of an apple orchard.
“That's how it happens... You, humans, are strange folks! - having laughed off, the pony closed her eyes, being overwhelmed by affection and, probably, hoping to take a nap.
Mercer didn't mind. I just noted to myself that there are already five female foals hovering around a thirty-year-old man - this is somehow unhealthy about in. Alex knew intellectually that he should blame his upbringing and the excessive friendliness of the aborigines, with a minimum of ideas about personal space, but the situation did not become less unnatural from such self-hypnosis, occasionally giving rise to very uncomfortable thoughts. That did not prevent Alex from sending such thoughts to hell when the four-legged cuties asked for an arm.
Well, at least he found out that the adults here are also normal (as far as possible for a zoomorph) and not malignant. Lyra Heartstrings behaved quite nicely with him, without showing disdain. She, it seems, quickly came to terms with the fact that the alien from other worlds, meeting with whom she so longed for, did not differ from the pony only with pointed ears, a strong-willed curl of eyebrows and a trademark salute,(25) but a hellish cross between the T-800 and selected works by Giger(26) - a constantly transforming biologically dangerous garbage that can split into several parts and kidnap other humans' faces. Her initial reactions were not fake - it looks like Lyra really was not aware of all this movement around the human of Zeus, and just went after her friend, who, in Mercer's opinion, served as something of an informant. She was the most ordinary, slightly naive pony; which, in response to the words about a "mushroom cloud", will be surprised and ask if she understood correctly that a human moved to Equestria during a mushroom hike. Not devoid of a sense of humor and kindness, for Lyra's reaction to Mercer's "pitiful story", presented as an unfortunate joke, was sympathy and a desire to cheer, and not shouts of "What the hell is going on in your world?!" and "Are you a monster like them?!" Apparently, the ponies were really quite compassionate creatures... not all, but most. In vain Mercer spent so much time rummaging through the bushes, but it’s better to keep it out, as they say... Alex looked at the greenish xeno, which placed its front legs and head in his lap. She smiled through the doze - bodily contact with someone who was able to finish her off in a split second (and very clearly hinted at this at the meeting), gave her sincere pleasure.
Well, contact with the adult population can be considered safely established, Mercer thought to himself. All that was left was to hope that the local warriors, in the spirit of the mores of the civilian population, had a different idea of "acceptable losses", and Alexander would not be shut out of harm's way with a magiclear strike... Or a solar orbital laser, or even worse.
With the "First-of-Daughters" - and therefore baptized in the mental interpretation of Winona - the relationship also improved very easily. The four-legged watchman, of course, was unhappy that the thief had gone unpunished - where an ordinary dog could compete with Mercer, whose speed was close to racing cars, and who did not care about the increased molarity of erietrocytes in Winona's blood? Collie, having found a replenishment among the Crusaders, growled - but the little mistress convinced her that the friend of the Apples' property was more necessary, and he, of course, would return everything later. And in general, AJ will forgive him when he gets to know his new friend better! The half-sane companion willingly resigned himself to the intruder, the figure resembling a giant broken umbrella. Since Apple Bloom doesn't mind, he probably really is a friend, even if he did not have the usual smell.
Meeting with Tiara and Silver Spoon had much more fun. These two proud pigaliens showed up to the Crusaders on a visit without an invitation, immediately after Alex returned from a night-morning raid to the Everfree and to the swamps. Well-groomed earth ponies realized that yesterday's conflict on the site and the Crusaders who remained there after the departure of the inseparable couple is not without reason. For some reason, it was not in the foals' rules to drive out intruders by force, so little Miss Dad-I-Want-Another-Pony (this world was probably created literally for irony alone) more or less freely leaked into the clubhouse. And there they were met by Mercer - the fact that the foals came on their own, without a crowd of adults with pitchforks and torches, intrigued Alex and kept him from the urge to hide in the attic, as soon as "unverified personalities" appeared in the area of the sensors. Seeing a bony monster that with a barely audible crackle of chitin stepped out of the corner, the filly were about to screech, throwing themselves into each other's arms - but they were instantly grabbed by the trio of Markers and clamped their mouths. It was a sinful thing for Alexander to think that the filly were going to arrange a dark one for their enemies. However, Sweetie, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo just... did not even demand, but ask the bullies not to tell the adults that they were sheltering a foreigner. Tiara and Spoon were delighted to have received such a luxurious leverage to pressure and blackmail their favorite objects of humiliation, but Alex intervened. He quickly cooled the ardor of small ulcers in good Equestrian, first saying that no one would believe them. And then he simply confronted the fact that the house of the Crusaders for some time becomes a representation of an alien civilization and a neutral territory, therefore any quarrels and mutual hostility are prohibited here. If they don't like something - you are welcome out of here, no one is holding you.
The forbidden fruit is known to be sweet. Naturally, the earth ponies, pink and gray, preferred to stay and snatch something interesting from the current situation, and not just tell the adults and stop the whole thing. Especially after Tiara decided that a luxurious servant would emerge from Mercer due to his design features... If an adult told Alexander this, the least he could count on would be a look full of contempt. And the Diamond Tiara looked very much like an adult; in the habits of this pony was imperiousness (at least over her faithful henchman), as well as some kind of arrogance, and it was clear that she considered herself more important than all those present. But nevertheless, she was a little filly, and already because of this, her type was, from the point of view of Mercer, rather comic, and not unpleasant, like her mother. Yes, Tiara and the Crusaders were in a quarrel, but it, did not concern Mercer in his opinion, and he could not look at the earthy one as a complete insignificance. Mercer was not a supporter of class neglect (both ways). Plus, Tiara sulked so funny when her attempts to attract Alex's attention ended in the same misunderstanding...
Mocking children turns out to be quite amusing, Mercer chuckled, looking at Diamond's bangs correcting under the guidance of a friend. I will definitely go to hell, if it exists in reality. Although I don't really care anymore.
To be honest, Mercer slowed down in this regard for a long time, for he was already afraid that a little more - and Tiara would have enough of a fit of indignation. The devil knows these super-emotional creatures, what can you expect from them? That children that adults absolutely did not know how to hide emotions, everything was written on the face. But very easygoing: the Crusaders were not so opposed to Tiara and Spoon staying in their clubhouse. Only yesterday it almost didn't come to a fight, but today they coexist quite peacefully, except that occasionally sidelong glances at each other are thrown.
Mercer thought he liked these ironing creatures. And the point was not even that his socioethical armor gave weakness, hungry for at least some kind of communication. Alex suspected that he would now be glad (plus or minus) the company of even McMullen himself - for all his shitty, with the director at least it was possible to talk on an equal footing - even the very devil, even that pink crazy. The latter is unlikely, of course...
Mercer, for all his faults, was very reluctant to be a misanthrope. A sociopath according to his professional profile from Gentek yes, no doubt - but a tolerant sociopath. Who would prefer not to stir up the conflict and grovel, which all around is insignificant, but to leave. If it didn't concern directly to his interests, of course. How little it takes to be considered unfit for society! Just demand business ethics from colleagues, from subordinates - the impeccable performance of their work, not to like the omission of formalities and not to expose everything personal, but to keep it for Karen and her sister. His life was completely under Mercer's control; any problem was solved with a couple of calls or intense brain activity - so why resort to lies, manipulations and put someone in a pejorative position with their decisions? And then the rules suddenly changed... It’s scary to imagine what an imperturbable human who is proud of the fact that he knows exactly what he wants and how to achieve this would become an intellectual if he didn’t lose his memory. Probably, Dr. Mercer would have become a real monster, turned into the most vile, most ruthless enemy, who does not matter who opposes him - a military or civilian shooting at him, guilty only of being in the path of Zeus. Having lost his memory, he had enough sense of "rightness" to minimize the sacrifice... Except for the moment when Green took his sister from him. It was there that the more and more asserting personality of Dr. Mercer unfolded in all its glory.
Alexander Mercer fully remembered and realized himself, which was already quite alarming for those who around him. But here... in Equestria, it was a different matter altogether. Alex's paranoia level steadily dropped as he got to know the world more. He fell so much that he began to believe that he liked the ponies - but only on the basis of a combination of factors, and not out of love for all living things. A sociopath is incapable of empathizing with others, but Mercer knew how humans think and why they do certain things. He, in turn, did not go beyond the bounds of decency until it made sense. If Mercer had met a girl at home who reacted to him like Lyra, he would have mumbled “I'm in a hurry” under his breath and disappeared out of sight, but here the rules changed again. Time is not really running out (Mercer, from Lyra's words, suspected that this was so), the locals are extremely friendly, a whole new world around is available for study, with completely different laws of life... Mercer hoped that the state of affairs would remain so - that these unicorns about princesses turn out to be true, and he doesn't have to use his entire arsenal. Because he would have done so at the slightest recorded threat, albeit with some of the bitterness earned during Manhattan outbreak. To paraphrase Nietzsche, the sociopath does not help out of compassion and sympathy, but from the excess of power. And when his power is threatened, the sociopath becomes insanely dangerous, without hesitation turning all his abilities that were previously used for good, already against offenders and everyone who fell under the hot hand...
Fuck, Alex thought angrily.I need a fucking vacation. If only in order to stop stuffing your head with such moral-painful stuff. I deserved vacation. It is certainly pleasant to be engaged in the work of a lifetime, but even I was not counted on such overtime. And sleep! A healthy sleep would be great.
Meanwhile, the same Scootaloo was a very revealing case. Her problem... interested Mercer, but in his world, Alex would not pay attention to such things, obviously not connected with a man and did not require his intervention. Now, even in Equestria, he could not feel the need to somehow help the pegasus, because the threat from the guards and the princesses did not disappear anywhere, demanded primary attention. To help yourself, for a start... But it was too late - the rational part of Alex's thinking had already presented arguments that solving the Scootaloo problem may well be the key to lifting the restrictions in the air for Mercer himself!
The mutant began to plunge into premature calculations and pondering concepts that could be useful to him immediately, as soon as possible - at least for the duration of a clash with the guards. Based on the words of Scootaloo, flying in this world, despite the different composition of the atmosphere, was not a very difficult task. Balloons, pedal energy converters, built-in gravity substitutes by nature... Find a source of horizontal speed is also possible. Only more speed will be required with such air for the screen effect to work as expected, and can keep the heavy Mercer carcass in the air. Meanwhile, Alex would prefer to fly where he pleases, to be able to independently move in three-dimensional space, and not to rush past the target with a swift comet, having no other choice but to fall down at the slightest slowdown. Zeus's abilities were also to some extent "magical" - there were enough oddities, like the same super-efficient efficiency, the emergence of matter from some invisible reserve, a disregard for all the principles of thermodynamics, taken together, and other elementary interactions, in the body of Mercer why- then beginners to play the fool. There should have been something here... a common multiple that could be used to benefit Mercer and Scootaloo. His influence on the biosphere of the Equestrian forest by the information environment was favorable to that.
Alex rubbed his chin in thought. The same rational part of his mind reminded him that he could do this more thoroughly when he solved many other problems that would certainly overtake the evolved in the event of a peace treaty with the princesses. When he does not have any business planned regarding survival and settling in this world, then Dr. Mercer will be able to fully immerse himself in research work. With some effort, Alex pulled himself out of the microcosm of formulas, magic multi-colored horses and the scientific method and saw that Lyra, snoring well, was now looking at him with one eye slightly open.
“Thinking hard about something… again?” she smiled mockingly.
"Exactly," Alex replied in a neutral tone. “Look, Fuzzy, you will spend a lot of time in my company, and this bad habit will become attached to you too.”
“Horror,” Lyra yawned, rolling over onto her back and holding her fluffy breast under her arm. “Then I will seize the moment as long as there is an opportunity, and at the end I will simply say "I do not regret anything."
You would regret little pony, Alex chuckled to himself, if you find out that these are humans are simply omnivores... and I, besides everything other things, do not disdain cannibalism. Although, if we really bump into the terminology, this is anthropophagy. One consolation - in the opinion of Mercer, the humans who fell for his grudge absolutely deserved it. Apart from a dozen civilians who were on his way, while Alex was in the mode of forcing instincts - there was no time for sentimentality, the choice is simple: either you will immediately get spare parts, or the action of the adrenaline rush will subside and you will fall to pieces.
Yes, Alex decided to build a reputation based on truth, albeit with numerous omissions. Less chances to deduce contradictions to oneself, less hassle of keeping the concept in mind - plus, this line of behavior was quite optimal. Princesses, there is something you don't like about humanity, but what have I got to do with it? I am an apostate, an artificial human without attachments (almost) and without banners, bribes from me are smooth. For humans as such, Mercer is not responsible - only for himself. The argumentation in favor of this line was simple, like everything ingenious... If the rulers of this idyllic world are not idiots, then they, being powerful magicians, learn a lot from the machine. Lack of witchcraft during assembly, long-range weapons, resource wars, complex fuel cells, advanced electronics, which is occupied by one specially enchanted crystal, and that's all. And if they are idiots and do not find out anything, it will be easy to fool the equally naive twins, they say, everything that Mercer wove to these five foals and the "human-obsessed nerd" is their personal fantasies and speculations. Mercer would take such a step with a heavy heart, realizing that he would mortally offend his first acquaintances in this world, but he would not hesitate to switch to an outright lie. It warmed his soul that, apparently, he would not have to do this - according to Lyra, the dark alicorn turned out to be more perspicacious than her sister and at least figured out that the rotorcraft was an army model.
That is why Alex has already begun to leak separate information to the girls and Lyra, forming an initial impression. Tell us about the worst alternative, and then assure that things are not so bad on Earth, and the interlocutor will be glad that you got off easy at home. Everything is cognized in comparison... What difference does it make that among humans there is still a leisurely kaleidoscope of betrayals and violence, invisible wars and nightmares of religious fanaticism - before, it was a hundred times worse, which is the pure truth! Plus, it's better to test such things on a relatively harmless civilian than to desperately improvise in front of someone who, with a wave of the horn, can burn you alive.
It's a pity that the moment was lost, Alex thought sadly and ironically. How easy and simple it would have been if he had stayed at the crash site and told the aborigines that with the transfer to their world he had once again lost his memory! Say that you have amnesia - and fuck about two zoomorphic princesses that they will prove by understanding the gears of Mercer's higher nervous activity. And then you can weave any nonsense, because everything that an evolved says can either be true, or at least carry a certain distortion of facts... Inappropriate, of course. Alex remembers perfectly the hassle with how his own fragments of memory somehow fell into place.
As Alexander decided, the moment was lost. Lyra asked him if human noticed gaps in his memory, and whether he even bore some other name in his home world, which led Mercer to certain suspicions - suddenly amnesia was something natural for the transition between universes? But with amnesia, Mercer was hardly able to act so decisively and thoroughly from the very first hours of his appearance in Equestria, and therefore Celestia and Luna such an excuse would not satisfy. Regarding the meeting, Alex received assurances from Lyra that nothing bad would happen to him in any case, that the princesses are just big ponies, which are very kind and generally wonderful, and the quick temper of the Luna is just a story, and in fact, dark the princess loses her temper much less often than they say in Canterlot.
So be it. The stars will converge, the ability to palaver and, if necessary, shamelessly manipulate will not leave Mercer. What's next? Well, we'll see, Alex thought. It mostly depends on whether the princesses can say "bon voyage" to Mercer and send them back immediately. If they enter the Earth after Alex, he and his sister will disappear, and let the horses agree with humans themselves, dropping their jaws along the way from how much Alex chose not to tell them about. But something told Mercer that they couldn't just return it... The only hope was for Novikov's self-consistency. When Mercer asked Lyra about the experiment of the very Twilight that the mint unicorn was interested in for obvious reasons, she said that Celestia's student was looking for a transition point in other time intervals. However, when Alex asked if it was possible to pull his endless copies from one point, Heartstrings was very surprised, and said that Mercer "is not there already." If so, man, if he had the opportunity to return earlier, he could not have prevented Manhattan outbreak, no matter what he did, for it absolutely happened... But, at least, he could return to his sister in time. If time in both worlds flowed simultaneously and independently, albeit at different speeds, well... There was hope for Bradley. Doc is still a well-connected head, he could take care of his sister in the post-quarantine period, try to get new passports before the regular army returns to the island...
Novikov's version, judging by Lyra's story about some twilight sparkle trick that sent herself into the past, but created the present with this, is more likely and much more convenient. Well... If the princesses are unable to help him, Alex will look for a way to return on his own - and sooner or later he will find it. If he has a conflict with the diarchy, Mercer will literally do the same, only a hundred times more complicated, because he will have to go underground and carry out all his affairs there, without advertising to the general public.
What will Mercer do when he returns to his world and pulls out his sister from Manhattan, where the epidemic died out through Alex's efforts, but was nearly burned out by a one-armed old fanatic "for faithfulness"? Dick knows. Maybe he’s drunk with grief, so the liver will have to grow four times the standard. Maybe he will take a new face and a legend and begin to live "like everyone else", finally finding peace. Or maybe he will try to conquer the world. For some reason, in the mass consciousness, this is what a genius with superpowers must try to do, invariably failing. What are these "geniuses" guided by, if it is much easier to seize power without using your insanely advanced technologies and riveting armies of henchmen,(27) but simply selling these same technologies to interested parties, manipulating the market and bribing politicians - that another question.
[i I wonder if scratches alone will be enough to conquer this world? Mercer grinned to himself. Funny idea, though unlikely. If the ponies had such an interest or even a need for the distal parts of the human body, they would have created some kind of surrogate long ago. Lyra, apparently, was almost fascinated by Mercer's hand, allowing herself to be stroked as much as she liked, but the others were unlikely to show such familiarity. Although... the devil will understand these ponies. In any case, the conquest of the world was the last thing that interested Alexander now - it was spinning at the level of random thoughts, they say that now he is much superior to humans and, if desired, could use his abilities at some global level. Dr. Mercer believed that a bad world is better than a good quarrel... He never once in eighteen days of quarantine did not think about what he would do when he cleared up the situation in Manhattan, but he knew for sure that in peacetime he was not going to improve his skills in destruction their own kind.
And the preparation that he started now... Well, the time was not yet peaceful from Alex's point of view, and the situation was rather paramilitary. If Mercer had stayed in his dimension, he, perhaps, in peace and quiet, studied his renewed himself in detail, but now the only thing left was to jump on top, take from one, the other, the third and filter out what the built-in AI offers, for the sake of their own novelties again and again entering into confrontation with him. He had to rely not only on proven knowledge, but also on intuition...
Mercer, using the surplus of building materials, chained almost all of his body in armor. Now it was full-fledged light scout armor, not bits! All movable joints were covered with plates, in the cavities under the protection, including of the lumbar muscles, a set of bolo bombs and glass "bitches" were waiting in the wings. Mercer always collected trophies from defeated enemies, be it memory, genome, ammunition, biomass or appearance... This time he redesigned Cross' unloading, comfortable, ergonomic and sharpened for battle with a single strong enemy, to suit his fighting style. He also impregnated the fabrics at the junction of the armor with his alkaline compounds, sacrificing only a slight decrease in the rate of their metabolism, and then suddenly again someone very clever will arrange a bombardment with jam... A separate battery gave Mercer almost the same level of transformation control - an invisible reserve in this the world has disappeared. Well, to his devil... all one resources for constant regeneration and devastating attacks to save at least another week. Three days of work in economical mode or fifteen minutes of a full-fledged, brutal battle with intensive use of Zeus's fighting skills is already good, against such opponents as Princess Mercer, more than ten will not last. This battle with human soldiers could be pulled out almost endlessly, retreating in time and focusing on the most dangerous targets, simultaneously dealing with small things and, in case of a serious threat, simply fleeing, being lost among the civilians; black-n-white twins are not so easy to get rid of.
Alex's brain, by the way, left in his head, primarily due to the complexity of full-fledged mental control at a distance. And a semi-autonomous drone like a hand will still not have the same fighting qualities... It would be possible to move the brain to where the enemy does not expect to find it, because the higher nervous activity of the aborigines in this world also arose due to the formation of a node near the visual receptors... At least in the torso, at least, sorry, in the ass... But why? Evolution may be a quirky lady, but most of the time she disposes of her children wisely. The head is more difficult to hit due to the smaller size and movable neck, ricochets are more likely from Mercer's helmet, while a critically vulnerable heart is already beating in the chest and the battery grumbles. So putting the brain in there for the sake of guaranteed coverage by the enemy of at least one of the components is such an idea. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, as one stern soldier who specializes in the extermination of fantasy fabulous creatures said...(28)
In short, Alex took into account, if not everything, then almost everything. If he really attracted the Crusaders to confront the diarchy, the girls would definitely draw on what man the surroundings of the clubhouse with felt-tip pens, with a bunch of colored arrows, a million marks and entitled "Plan of the battle". True, then the machine-gun point should also be placed in the attic window, as on a defended object, and the paint can should be hung on the attic floor, and not shoved into the chest...(29) All decorations and traps are placed, the energy reserve is optimal, taking into account the current reduced energy consumption. Alex Mercer was ready to receive guests, regardless of whether their intentions were good or...
“... or is it going to rain?”
Alex flinched as a cool drop smashed against the top of his head this time. Lyra, lounging on her back and folding her hooves on her stomach, tilted her head to the side in surprise:
“It looks like the weather crew has a lot of work to do today!” she whistled, watching a few more clouds that slowly drifted away towards Ponyville. “Everfree, probably, decided to give birth to a cold front.”
“Can pegasus intercept them in advance to prevent rain on the streets?”
“This is usually done...”
“Hmm. Then I'll go inside,” Mercer looked at Lyra, lifting his hand from her fur. Heartstrings' silence was more eloquent than words - the pony was caught in the process of stroking the fur on her chest. Alex explained:
“Don't want to be noticed ahead of time. Suddenly this weather patrol of yours will fly here.”
“You weren't afraid of the patrols of the guards, since you were sitting here!” Lyra looked up at him with a pitiful glance, desperately trying to invent a reason not to leave her familiar place.
“Nah...” Alex waved a joint hand with a glove brush. “They changed the flight routes every day, today they appeared here only in the morning. Get up, mammal, you'll lay all your flanks.”
Kicking up her paws, Lyra turned over and very gracefully got to her feet, stretching with pleasure - well, she was a slender xeno, more like a giant serval with a different head-neck-body proportion. Not a clumsy carcass about a quarter of a ton, due to its short stature excellent for working in mines. Mercer tried to imagine how dangerous the diarchs would be in close combat, given their even greater grace and light step. Do they rely only on brute force besides magic, or can they use some kind of personal weapon s and tricks? Gravity kills, Alex thought. Judging by the story of little Bloom, her older brother, thanks to this very gravikinetic amplification, could hit with a hoof like that, like a dozen super-soldiers kissed. Mercer wanted to substitute the appropriate input data, but for his firmware this question was reminiscent of the same wandering in the darkness of the Everfree, for there were no precedents. All four-legged opponents of the evolved took exactly that with suicidal pressure and attacks on the area, and not with a point style. Sooner or later, Mercer will go to wander around this often, at least begging the sisters for a demonstration of their martial art, but for now... Alex, pulling his head into his shoulders, slipped through the doorway like a silent ghost.
“All my plans are confused! A little more, and you would never return your hand back,” Lyra complained cheerfully, tapping after Mercer inside.
“If you take her away, Fuzzy, it will certainly escape and return to me. I don't even advise you to try. Dro-unz can be... unpredictable without my at least partial control.”
"Oh... Right," Lyra thought. “I just can't get used to such details... As soon as I decide that I got an idea of the Earth, you say something else to yourself, and I'm again at a loss! I think if I try to systematize the facts as my reflections on the human world, I will only get more confused.”
“I understand. In this regard, my perception of your world is not very different,” Alex grinned. “I still cannot fully understand where I ended up. And, apparently, I will never be sure that I understand... if I suddenly do not master your magic out of the blue, of course.”
“Your witchcraft will be enough, even over!” Lyra laughed. “The guards were talking that some kind of discord had started in the swamps because of your interference... Compared to other Equus races, you resonate very strangely with our universe, Alex. Very.”
"That's right," Alexander muttered under his breath, barely audibly. “I won’t be surprised if, in the event that all the ponies around suddenly start singing and dancing, I will fall and start to fight in a fit, bleeding froth.”
Mercer personally made sure in the morning that his efforts were turning the swamps into some kind of anomalous zone. In one place, the liquid flowed upward, spreading along the tree and already dropping from it, in another, in a single night, a young willow dried up to the skeleton, on another route the tussocks were frozen, as it happens only in winter... Arranged a picnic, m-mother of brothers, on the roadside, Alex cursed to himself. He was not going to do anything about this yet - the terraformer did not seem to notice the quirks of local magic and regularly smoked the information environment. And the forest living creatures did not seem to complain, because the same wading birds in the vicinity of the occupied zone only became more numerous. Human wanted to ask Lyra what exactly this music of Harmony and resonance with it is, but refrained. In time, he will learn everything.
“Can you tell me something else about,” Alex asked, stretching his neck into the attic and carefully scanning the space in case someone was hiding there, listening to the blows of rare drops on the roof, “how I got here?”
“As I already said, it was Twilight Sparkle who brought you here,” the unicorn eagerly began to rant. “She, along with her friends, is one of the keepers of the Elements of Harmony. Twilight even thought to use the elements themselves in the spell, as a powerful magical component, but they had no effect on your world... I'll introduce you to them if you want! Which pony of the six do you want to know first?”
“I'm more interested in the details of the experiment itself...”
“Ah, well then I will combine both!” Lira nonchalantly bummed her ears.
Mercer, in general, for a long time (since the night before last) did not leave the suspicion that he was summoned to this world, for it is usually exactly the opposite. The discoverers themselves are trying to get to a new planet in order to proudly plant their flag there - well, or at least send an automatic mission there, collect the same samples for research. According to Lyra's description, this is how Alex could have been dragged to Equus, but what did Twilight Sparkle hope to gather in the epicenter of a nuclear explosion? Mercer also considered three options why the purple unicorn herself did not go to visit humans. First, the spell is very difficult, requires incredible preparation, and it will be problematic to return back. As a result, this option disappeared, since according to the same Lyra, the Sparkle experiment, although it was extraordinary, was something supernatural, that would require the sacrifice of the inhabitants of an entire continent, or something like that, it was not. The second option - the ponies fear for their lives and evil alien invaders, therefore, for a start, they wanted to find out at least a little about this new world, calling something from there. The third option is that the reverse transition is impossible. Alexander's gloomiest predictions came true: mint ponand stated that she wanted to add her list of questions to "friends from another world" to that same diplomatic collection, but as a result Twilight could not send it anywhere.
The so-called "six" was, apparently, the main support of the diarchy, when the measured life of the pony was disturbed by someone, and the case began to smell like kerosene. Mercer did not have to worry about this: the fluffy incarnations of artifacts of incredible power departed to neutralize some threat from the north, which in Celestia's vision turned out to be more serious than the hante-kyilla prowling through the shadows . (30 ) Information about the personal qualities of the guardians Mercer safely ignored - he only noted that one of them was that pink electric broom that let the mutant go a couple of pies. Your realities are wonderful, Equestria! Here, for example, not only access to weapons of mass destruction, which at once erases any harmful element from reality, had a personality with a non-zero chance of mental deviations, but the fuel for this weapon was... friendship. Yes, you heard right, Dr. Mercer! Twilight’s sonderkommando fought every unknown shit with the help of friendship, in particular, during the confrontation with the Inconsistent, her close relationship with her friends somehow put everything in its place.
Alex would treat Lyra's words with the deepest skepticism, for combining friendship with affairs of state importance... Celestia has such priorities as a ruler, considering that a true friend will hope that he has the decency to betray his country.(31) However, Lyra's other data on Equestria was quite accurate, correlating with what the foals were telling, without the slightest clue from them. The unicorn only gave more detailed answers, supplementing them with details, so Alex saw no reason not to trust her. Of course, Mercer was not very interested in any small things, such as the rate of gold-backed currency, local cuisine, holidays and haute couture for those who did not see the point in sparkling a causal place. First of all, he wanted to get an idea of what to expect from local customs and geopolitical conditions, specifically from princesses...
“...for us, ponies, having friends is very important,” meanwhile Lyra finished her excursion into the environment of Twilight Sparkle. “Friendship is the highest gift of mind, comparable to magic, love and recognition of the life’s value. Of course, the keepers are less different from each other than you are from the ponies, but, nevertheless, they are very different. They had to face a lot - and friendship helped to overcome everything, not to plunge into discord, but to further strengthen warm relations with each other. I think...” Lyra openly, with inexhaustible trust in her eyes looked at Alex. “No, I'm just sure that you too will get along with them - and with ponies in general!”
“Hrm-m,” the evolved one checked how bolo-bombs jump into the cleft of his arm, one after the other from under the lumbar plate, pushed out by an ordinary screen. It was not a theatrical gesture, but a movement designed at the level of reflex - right there, as when entering the focus mode on the target, the skills of military shooters and ballistic tables, helpfully reassembled for a double projectile and introduced by AI into the subcortex, were stirred up. “I think you wanted to tell me a little more about Equestria’s history,” Alex muttered, dropping the ammo back to his spine. “If so, I don’t mind. A living impression is sometimes better than dry lines in a textbook.”
“Well... well, okay,” Lyra spread her hooves, a little disappointed that Human seemed to prefer not to notice the heartfelt speech. “But I hope you will forgive me if the story seems prepared in advance, as if it were taken from the same textbooks. I thought the aliens would have to explain something like that anyway... I'm afraid you are the first in line, so I have not perked up yet!” giggled Lyra, making herself comfortable on the pouf, next to which stood Alex.
"Not critical," Mercer tilted his head towards her, placing his hand behind his back. “So I'm listening to you?”
For half an hour, Alexander enjoyed the sound of the melodic voice of the unicorn, after which he became firmly convinced that once upon a time, ponies fought and did quite medieval atrocities for themselves (even if compared to the Earth and a clearly light version). All three races lived separately, taking full advantage of the "excess of authority" before each other in managing weather, astronomical phenomena and terraforming, plotting all sorts of intrigues for each other. But then, at the very least, they came to an agreement, and with the accession of the sisters, the world began to align itself with forgiveness and general tolerance. The sisters acted wisely - they did not rush to plant democracy wherever possible with fire and sword, but acted according to a long-term plan, mainly by affection and diplomatic methods. So what? Lyra, of course, did not say this, but it was obvious to Mercer that if one of the local kings did not suit the princesses, they could literally outlive him, along the way, processing the heirs. And alicorns everything succeeded - only one and a half thousand years ago, a considerable time after the sisters overthrew the Incompatible, on most of Equus came the state of the public, which is now called Harmony. Powerful sorcerers do not sit in their laboratory castles, fenced off from the problems of "these mud-slugs" and "flying rags", but calmly carry them out next to them and share the results of their labors. At least fill up the resources, no one encroaches on someone else's in an attempt to increase their own wealth... with rare exceptions like the same dragons, which, due to longevity, have remained terrible owners and collectors of jewelry. The re-flashing of the social principles of Celestia and the Luna was a success - hunger, poverty and wars remained something at the level of children's fairy tales, and they are remembered only by archaeologists, textbook compilers and other scribblers like scribblers who create historical and romantic works. There are no regular troops in Equestria - only the personal guards of sisters and law enforcement agencies in large cities, where the concentration of ponies have increased so much that the competition and the accompanying conflicts, of a very modest scale, are felt, have a monopoly on violence. Scootaloo also told Alexander about some kind of airwing with a difficult to translate name, where her mentor hoped to get in, but among the guards Alex did not notice such "pilots". And that was good... Mercer didn't need fucking super-soldiers who in addition can fly. Brr... The nightmare of the evolved, not otherwise.
The ponies could not boast of their religiosity (fanatics and hunters for "demons" could not be feared), although their alicorn rulers were very much loved and revered. Revealing the topic of wing-horns and casually mentioning the very princess, the pink cherub Cadance, Lyra touched upon a thing that, as Mercer believed, could be dispensed with in such a super-technological world, and which, like religion, is marked by the seal of atavism - the institution of marriage. Mercer, from the confused speech of the unicorn, who again flushed with a furry muzzle, like a real chameleon, understood only that in the old days "it was worse", but now everything is decorous and decent. What exactly this was supposed to mean, Alex did not understand, and he was not even interested. I barely realized that with the prevailing order, the ponies create a completely stable environment for growing and raising offspring, and the concept of promiscuous sex life is generally absent. How did zoomorphs come to this, if even in a world with an equal sex ratio there are frequent examples when reasonable instead of regular mutual confirmation of their masculinity and femininity every few days achieve this confirmation from scratch with someone else is a mystery. They were completely devoid of jealousy, or what? Well, it didn’t really correlate with the emotional nature of the understanding...
With the weather, the clarity (Mercer could have sworn that this play on words in his head inadvertently) was much more. Equestria had a rather short cold season, which served rather to unload the weather balance and give a Christmas atmosphere to the holidays. Superocean was not controlled by anyone - it was one huge anomalous zone on a par with the Everfree. The ponies swam and fished mainly along the coast; it makes no sense to go around the planet if you can navigate along a calm and relatively wide coastal strip. It was somewhat reminiscent of the situation with the ancient Greek ships, which, due to technical imperfections, including the lack of a compass, did not sail directly from Europe to Africa and vice versa, and the same Odyssey stretched out for ten years. In general, if Mercer on Earth were told that in one city (not counting local edits like the Ponyville weather brigade) winter is being prepared for an entire continent, he would look at the interlocutor like an idiot. But that was exactly the case here. Just one proprietary argument of humans, a nuclear mine under the bottom of the "Black Hawk Down", would have been enough for Cloudsdale to drive Equus into the state of the Martian wastelands... An excellent bargaining chip with the princesses, isn't it? But Mercer no longer had a nuclear bomb... aside from the speculative lithium explosiveness of the Aboriginal humans. And it is unlikely that he would have dared to blackmail the population of an entire planet - his original was an eccentric scientist and sociopath, not a psycho. Although... we all say "I'm not capable of this" until it really squeezes, and the Marine agents in civilian life will not go on your heels.
Overall, progress and society in Equestria was a strange mess. Alex did not exclude the possibility that technologies were used only those that, in terms of magic, expended more effort than if they were reproduced "mechanically". In the end, what is more probable: the existence of a whole world of dullards who somehow managed not to get rid of themselves from the world, or is it just that everything around Mercer seems unusual to Mercer? Maybe the ponies just didn't like excesses and preferred live communication. - there was no need for them to have all these Internet and cellular networks, if no one is in a hurry to go anywhere. Some things could be missing due to ethical considerations, the same conceptual culture of peace and mutual understanding - especially considering that many technologies in humans were tested in the military sphere, and then they were already adapted to the needs of civilians... It all went sideways so far - Mercer serpentine had no intention of inventing and generally progressing the name of one archaeologist.(32) Alexander is here from hand to mouth, he is an uninvited guest... Well, maybe he was invited, since he was dragged here by force, but the ponies hardly needed his advice and opinion - and this is already enough to shove their human pride deeper into the liver and all the analogies that pop up in my head with the predictions of Dr. Suresh (such as: Alpha, a new dominant species, plus Betas, who are engaged in "elite" and delicate works, plus Gammas, who control the weather and are engaged in all sorts of nonsense of dubious objective necessity, plus Deltas, which in the sweat of their brows they provide daily bread, equally Brave new world. For cretins, poor fellows Epsilons, only half sentient fauna would have passed). Alex could have long groaned that in Equestria no one is burdened by his caste and is generally happy only because the ponies did not know the best and were brought up as members of a society of consumers close to the absolute. But he admitted: that one is healthy, then another, as they say... Perhaps the way of life of a pony, which is fatal for any human civilization due to stagnation and loss of the ability to adapt, as the Roman Empire disappeared, in the world of magic was a natural consequence, and not a false one. way, dead end. And as for the immortal super-beings in the government... For a short period of time, in the conditions of the leaping progress of the 20th century, they might only be harmful to humans, but in Equestria they could be vital for the preservation of civilization as such.
Well... bearable. The caramelized hell, where Dr. Mercer was exiled for the dying sin of rage, is not drawn. It seems possible to live, adjusted for wearing a hazard suit. The aborigines, with Mercer’s legend, cleaned up of frankly black edges, will not beat him down - Lyra, in spite of the horrors shown by Alex, was quite fond of him and did not mind if Mercer called her Fuzzy. One of the diarchs in the recent (for her) past was a battle magician and a noblewoman, whose word, in principle, cannot be challenged - which means that the principles of a guest from another world should not seem so wild to her. And magic... to hell with her, with magic. For ponies, even with their ubiquitous witchcraft, the world was orderly and logical in its own way. Until the Inconsistent appeared on the horizon, he was in the adaptation of Discord, or someone like that, capable of linking completely unrelated phenomena with a snap of his fingers and humiliating logic by his very existence. Turn lead into gold... Gold. Silence dragged on, and Lyra impatiently crossed her hooves:
“Come on, Alex?” she looked with curiosity at human. “And what can you say after hearing all this? What's your impression of Equestria?”
“I’ll say I don’t understand how your economy works,” Alex muttered, “and I haven’t figured out how I can fit into it. If it's not so much money that matters as pedigree and status for you, then I'm out.”
“Is that all?” the unicorn stared at him. “This is the whole conclusion that you made?!”
“What were you waiting for? For most of my life, I behaved like pregmetizz...(33) You, ponies, do not have such a word at all, it seems. And no wonder,” Mercer shook his head on his long neck. He raised his hand in a conciliatory manner.
“Your world is normal, and its inhabitants are pleasant. If this were not so, I would be worried about this, and not about the means of subsistence... More precisely, I can exist without your gold, but sooner or later the exchange of some things will be outlined. The same sophisticated equipment.”
“Oh, oh, you are a scientist, I understand! Twilight somehow grumbled that the wrong devices were delivered to her for the amount paid! And it’s not even Ditzi’s fault, but it’s just that some amateurs are sitting in Trottingham...”
It seems that all sentient humans, regardless of the world, need money in one way or another, Alex chuckled. And where there is money, there are shares, gambling, insurance, fraud, lawyers, divorces, the housing issue - and all these aspects of the bureaucracy of the ponies were somehow deprived. Mercer did not know how they had a cunningly built system, but he understood perfectly well that being an evil genius pays off only in crappy spy thrillers, but in Equestria this is hardly highly rated. And... a discord with him. As a last resort, you can always rob the director of the water pumping station.(34) In the sense, well, it can't be that the ponies literally do not need anything? So that the two worlds would have nothing to exchange? Yes, Mercer has something to interest the local demigoddesses... Biotechnology is the same in which Alex was a master still e before your transformation. Judging by what Alex heard from Lyra, in the rarest of cases of irreparable loss of a limb - which could no longer be implanted back - the ponies were keen to make prosthetic golems tied to the wearer's energy. Why, then, did they not have in the course of recreating from scratch from the flesh of the host, if even on Earth scientists conducted experiments to grow individual tissues and organs? The liver is completely child's play... The evolved one smiled badly when a difficult but funny idea hit him in the head. You can go further, and if Alexander Mercer completely loses his self-respect, he will make money on luxury goods! Will make from infected flesh in the image and likeness of faceless, silent and extremely helpful drones with strictly prescribed behavior and functionality. Bishop - to every home! Well, that is, in those houses that are ready to part with a tidy sum of these same "bits", and then regularly lay out for maintenance and replacement of salt batteries... Sentient beings, born with a silver spoon in their ass, are usually greedy for all sorts of curiosities, so that there should have been no sales problems. Exactly until the moment when these ponies decide that artificial servants are so vulgar, and in general, the fashion for them is already ending...
“... it started raining there! We'll sit here for a while,” one such sentient creature went inside the house, even if the invisible to Alex spoon was "on", not "in". Silver walked to the middle of the room and looked puzzled at the closet:
“Where are your towels, blank... Apple Bloom?”
“Bottom left in the drawer!” came the voice of a yellow pony outside. The Crusaders, a cheerful and slightly drenched crowd, accompanied by a shaking off Winona, burst inside, began to wipe their fur and manes, which had suffered from the warm summer rain. “Watering, it seems, was scheduled only for the day after tomorrow... I suppose they were displaced because of the guards flyers!”
-“Apparently, as your wonderful Rainbow Dash left, her whole team of loungers instantly forgot about their work!” in the voice of Diamond Tiara sounded almost childish resentment. Her lush curls, due to the drizzling rain, lost their shape and volume, while the earthy ran to the clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“No way!” Scootaloo's angry voice came from under the towel.”Dash is the coolest pegasus in all Equestria, she has a brigade on the line!”
“Don't quarrel over trifles, girls,” Lyra chided them. “And with you, Tiara, nothing terrible happened! Just a few droplets of wild rain fell...”
”A few?” - pink touch-up rose from its place, desperately wrapping itself in place in an attempt to better see mane, looking for a mirror. “Not two, how did I feel?!”
How do they get helium in Cloudsdale, I wonder? Alex thought idly. If by transmutation of ordinary air, then wouldn't it be cheaper, given the large scale, to produce it yourself by purchasing appropriate refrigeration units, and simply drive natural gas out of the swamps? Mercer realized that in order to settle in Equestria, he would need to fill huge gaps not only in the knowledge of the parallel universe as a concept, but also in the conceptual sciences. Of all these mysterious areas, magibiology was the most explored for Alexander, even if he could not influence this section "directly". Human even felt very at ease when he studied the conceptual medical reference book and came across the usual terms and definitions, even his favorite theory of nerve conduction. However, trying at least offhand to figure out what place Alex could take in Equestria, he realized how scanty were his ideas about the same atmospheric phenomena that did not take the last place in the life of ponies, and for Pegasus they were generally boring everyday life. It was necessary to catch up... Alex shook himself of obsessive thoughts when he was tapped on his leg:
“Why are you frozen here?” demandingly looked at the tall two-legged Tiara. Mercer smiled.
“Well, I'm trying to decide which business will bring me the greatest benefit and the least number of problems.”
“Benefit?” the pink earth pony squinted. “That is, to work for someone? For money?”
“Including.”
“’Just in time you thought about it. You arrived here with practically nothing, Alexander,” Tiara was filled with importance, “and lost almost everything in the crash, apart from a couple of your silly toys. Therefore, I, Diamond Tiara, generously offer you the position of my valet. Perhaps now I am too young and undemanding,” the Crusaders looked at each other expressively at these words, “in order to acquire a personal servant, but when I grow up a little, I will definitely have to follow my status, and help...”
“I don’t think I want to,” Alex replied dryly.
“So think again, mister,” Diamond looked at human as if she considered him a little smarter up to this point. “Serving my family will bring you stability and prosperity. I mean, how soon will you be able to adapt hop and get hold of one of the pony's recognized sources of income? And where are you going to live - our library or what? Ha! Cultured ponies shouldn't be so easy to hang out in public places.”
Sweetie Belle, poking to the evolved, beckoned him with a hoof, and Alex obediently tilted his head to the little unicorn.
“I don’t advise you,” she whispered in Mercer's ear. “Working for Tiara isn’t a pleasure. I mean, not even fun! When she was editor...”
“I, unlike some, knew what the ponies wanted! And the ratings of the newspaper perfectly confirmed this,” having heard everything perfectly, the earthy snort snorted, proudly throwing up her muzzle. “And the fact that some personal principles did not allow you to follow my instructions exactly - only your problems.”
Alex almost burst out laughing. He did not know how he would have done with it in his home dimension, but in Equestria, Mercer would definitely have turned out to be a useless parent. Well, how can you get angry with such a fluffy spoiled darling? Moreover, to punish her... Diamond Tiara twirled one of the curls of her exquisite white and lilac mane with her hoof.
“Oh, I think my hair is in an inappropriate condition after the rain,” she said innocently. “What do you say, Alex? It will make, for starters, for a test of professionalism. Moreover, you have a good recommendation from Spoon, my best friend!”
“Um, Tiara...” Lyra turned to her reproachfully. “Actually, when another pony, or anybody else, is asked for something, it is customary to say “please”.”
“Useless ceremonies!” with a note of arrogance she disagreed. “He has what I'm interested in, and I'm offering a fair price for it. Let him agree, or... all the same, he agrees! Personally, I do not see a better option for a foreigner than what I suggest.”
Mercer bared his teeth in a grin.
“Take your time, young lady. Would your parents approve of hiring some terrible stranger without their knowledge?”
“Dad will do as I ask,” Tiara said dreamily, obviously already making some plans with Alex's participation. “And Mom… you looked very decent on your hand-made prints, as befits a pony from high society. If you become like that again, and not with this walking horror,” she bored her face, nodding at Mercer's bone-like legs, “then she certainly won't mind. If you need time to recover, I understand. But do not think that it will be possible to drag out forever!”
“So,” raised the last finger up Human. “Wait a minute.”
Mercer looked out the window, where, despite the drizzling rain, the sun was shining brightly, for the rare clouds were unable to cover it. He had already pondered how ponies see him... So it turns out that for them he is normal - not only for Lyra? Since Tiara in all seriousness claims that the standard look will appeal to her mother, that still four-legged bitch, and will not cause her hysteria. It didn't seem like the colt wanted to joke at Mercer in this way, and why should she be so difficult? Who knows if Alex's distrust is based more on his anthropomorphic point of view than on logic and facts? Maybe he knew how to outwardly become a copy of a pony, to speak their language, but Alex never really was a pony, and thanks to the neuron bridge he never got into their heads. Plus, humanity has never met representatives of xenomorphic races, and certain patterns of behavior during this very meeting were evolved only by science fiction writers and ufologists... Mercer dropped his chin in his palm, hunched over and frozen in a pose reminiscent of Rodin's The Thinker. We judge by ourselves, we are not looking for anyone but humans... Finally trust the ponies that Alex saw as something normal and not particularly aggressive, or continue to act as if Mercer was dealing with humans, let and four-legged eccentrics? It is not known which is worse.
Am I normal in the first place for myself? a strange thought flashed through Alex's mind. It would be better, of course, to remain the same, familiar oneself, one of the leading scientists Gentek, who is honored at ceremonies and tipped for the Nobel Prize, and who is not hunted by the secret services of the most powerful country in the world... and now, potentially, also colored magic horses. On the other hand, doesn't Mercer now have excellent eyesight, perfect vitality and a musculoskeletal system that is not resistant to any adversity of fate? How can you be dissatisfied in his place? In any case, if Mercer sneezed at the Hayflick effect and morphogenesis, once growing his hand torn off by the Bushmaster's projectile, then his hair will never fade, and old age for Alex has ceased to exist as a phenomenon altogether. The virus's technology deserves credit, if only for giving it an almost unlimited amount of time to return to his sister.
“Hm-m-m...”
"I suspect it will take a long time," Scootaloo chuckled. “He went into himself again.”
“Tiara, he would never agree!” Sweetie Belle frowned. “Alex is a scientist, he has plenty of things to do!”
“Pfe! In his free time, I’ll let him do whatever he wants!”
“You must understand, stupid,” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, “Sandy can't just stay with you or other ponies so easily! His sisters are in trouble there, and in general he settled in the swamps, from there he pumps out of the ground everything he needs! He doesn't give a damn about your beats! He, this is... the swamp doctor, see! Like Zecora almost.”
“Swamp?!” surprised Diamond Tiara. “Why would he, an important human from another world, meddle in such a disgusting place? You brought him balloons, doesn't he feed on helium?”
As the girls started arguing until they were hoarse again, Alex's expression became more and more like someone who had made an important decision. Human himself clearly understood that sooner or later he would have to start a new leaf. Mercer lost his world not three days ago... as early as two months - when, in his paranoia, he finally decided that he was being held in Gentek for waste material, and his most talented and valuable employee would be sent to the expense of his most talented and valuable employee, as soon as he achieve a new outstanding result in the project... Everything that happened after that fateful decision, including the shooting at Penn, is agony... the illusion that Dr. Mercer will be able to return everything to its place. Nothing would have become the same, even if Alex had stayed in his home world. He is not lost, he still has a significant goal - a duty to his sister, which did not hesitate to help him, although Mercer crushed the sentinel's heart in front of her eyes and, in general, for the last six months was engaged in some dark and mysterious affairs, preferring to cut everything off with Dana contacts. And he will fulfill this duty, sooner or later, if Novikov is supportive of Alexander. Until then... Alex just wanted some peace. A new life(even if, on the one hand, temporary, and on the other - for an indefinite period) could be started here as well. Now seems a splendid time to begin, as the classics write, eh? (35) Alex thought complacently. Someone else, with fewer troubles and cunning plans, would be better suited for the position of a contactee with naive and generally kind multi-colored xenos, but we have what we have. Complaining about fate is useless; you cannot run away from the problems generously poured by it - only fruitful work on yourself and your environment can solve them. What Alexander Mercer broke by his stupidity, he can now give a new shape. Where you have suffered a crushing failure in your past life, you can still achieve success. Dr. Mercer, like a pioneering geologist, discovered in the new world rich deposits of opportunities... and he was going to develop them. For a human who lives primarily with the mind, and then with the heart, the world of magic and wizardry could be a truly impressive plot twist.
“Actually, I can't do without you all… things,” Mercer interrupted the protracted squabble of foals, satisfied with the decision he had made. He sat down on the floor, pointing with his hand in the direction of the forest and swamps near the river:
“With my personal technologies, I cannot effectively isolate your helium from the gas mixture - they are designed to process oxygen. I need a more physical level... In my world, helium was obtained by fractional distillation, and this requires a low temperature and appropriate units, which I do not have.”
“Fractionated of what?” surprised Apple Bloom, exchanging glances with her friends, but Scootaloo just waved her hoof - eh, the two-legged again took up his own.
“Low temperature?” suddenly interjected Diamond Tiara. “So why do you need these... units?”
“So that there was something to function on, of course,” Alex shrugged. “That's why I was thinking about arranging supplies from Cloudsdale in exchange for gold, or doing them myself. To buy refrigeration equipment there, the volumes are expected to be solid...”
“Oh! Well, the final product itself is usually more profitable to produce, but it requires more initial investment, which pays off much longer,” Tiara sat at the window opposite human and looked at him in bewilderment. “So what's the problem? Why do you need refrigerators? Pegasus will be able to create a vortex for you and bring cold air from the upper layers of the atmosphere, if you need a lot of it! Usually such things are included in the budget of a city or an enterprise, but since you were going to live separately...”
The Crusaders stared at Tiara in silent amazement - as did Alex.
“How do you know this?” with involuntary respect in her voice asked Scootaloo, nee pegasus. “You are interrupting from C to B!”
“Ha! I don’t need Miss Cheerilee’s stories about stupid yaks or how pegasus live in this Cloudsdale of theirs,” a sarcastic grin flashed across the pink pony's lips. “It’s much more useful to know what they need and how to do business with them. While someponies,” Tiara condescendingly squinted her eyes at the inseparable trinity, “take on a thousand different cases and do not bring one to the end, others purposefully learn to manage the company. And it will become entirely mine in the future! Note this, Alex.”
In Equestria with terraforming and atmospheric processes... and processors as easy as possible, Alex almost slapped his forehead with his palm. There's magic right there! All problems, in theory, should be solvable, albeit in other ways than on Earth. I need to remind myself of this more often, since even elementary school girls have to do it.
“Child, I'm not going to become your valet, don't even ask,” Alex looked seriously at the earth filly, “but remind me to buy you a couple of ice cream.”
“Three!” instantly opened the auction Diamond Tiara.
“Five if you give one to each girl.”
“Deal,” Tiara agreed easily after hearing about the rate hike, but then it dawned on her. “Hey! Is it not me that everything is relied on for the idea?!”
"Don't be that little greedy," Alex snorted, hiding a smile. “They gave soda to you with Spoon.”
“Just because you asked! And in general, there is no need for the product to disappear, since you just needed the bottles.”
“And now I ask you. The Crusaders also deserve, they helped me not only in word, but also in deed. And yes, it is harmful to crack so much sweet in one face. What would your mom's side grandpa say, hmm?”
“None of your business!” growled Tiara, turning away.
“Okay, okay, you little scratch-cat, come here,” Alexander, letting out a laugh, snatched the Diamond Tiara, squeaking in surprise, under her chest and carried her to his lap. “You are my last not petted one.”
Contrary to the first impression, this fluffy caustic will probably make sense, Mercer thought, splitting his hand and trying on the rather grunting Tiara. By the nature of her future spouse and relatives she will bring to white heat, of course, but she is hefty purposeful. To her parents, but Pavlov's technique... Do not pay attention if Chewing gum does indecency, but encourage if she does something useful and good. Or at least he says the right things. You look, a conditioned reflex in a pony, in whose tribe instincts play a far greater role, will develop. Mercer looked up at the mint unicorn, smiling warmly at the sight.
“Lyra!”
“I'm listening! What’s up, Alex?” she reported cheerfully, jumping up and almost saluting from Mercer's commanding tone.
“While I am here dealing with mane of this pretty coddle,” Mercer expressively poked his finger at the Tiara spread over his knees, “be a good pony, go to the princesses and tell them what I want to speak. They are probably already tired of waiting... Since you can vouch for them, let them come here.”
“Got it!” giggled Lyra, goodbye butting Mercer with the back of her head in the shoulder and heading for the door. “Will be done at its best! Wait for the guests in fifteen minutes, I rode off.”
The foals chased, discussing the upcoming visit of the princesses straight to the clubhouse of the Crusaders, Lyra Heartstrings opened the door, preparing, despite this stupid summer drizzle, to go to Ponyville... and Mercer suddenly realized that the rain did not think it would end. He only became stronger, so that the path winding between the apple trees almost disappeared behind a curtain of elements.
“Well, what a rain!” surprised the mint pony, looking out. “Sa-a-andy, should I wait or go right now? I can even now, I am a disdainful mare, but appear before the princesses in the mud and all wet...”
Stop. What was the last snag there?
Alex forgot at times that there was magic here. The thought of this went somewhere on the periphery of consciousness, without visual confirmation. Talking and intelligent zoomorphs don't count.
He forgot that control of the weather in Equestria is much easier.
You mother-!
As if emphasizing the suddenness of insight, lightning illuminated the doorway, and a real downpour like a solid wall enveloped the apple orchard and the entire clearing in the middle of it. The foals screamed at the unexpected thunder, and Apple Bloom rushed to close the shutters on the windows of the house.
“Lyra...” Alex muttered in confusion. “Lyra, close the door.”
“What? What happened? This is an ordinary thunderstorm, albeit not on schedule... Only at the end of the month it should have been.”
“Close. This damned. Door,” Mercer hissed, pushing Tiara to the floor and pressing his back against the wall near the south window. Winona, running up to the same window, spun at Alex's feet, whining. Collie was not scared, but something clearly alarmed her. Maybe it was just the transmitted mood of the mutant, who immediately tensed...
“What is it, lassie,” Alex chuckled softly, patting her neck, calming the dog, -“someone fell into the well?(36)”
“Auf...”
“Yes, I think so too.”
It's too late. They lulled vigilance with a gradually gathering rain, just like in his homeland, and not at once coached into the experience... And now, having prepared, they cut off all the channels of Mercer's control at once. Optical motion detectors - all white noise from the shower is overwhelmed. Thermosensor... Mercer, pulling the hang over his eye the plate, already leaked to the western window and quickly scanned the area through the gap in the shutters. Empty, not the slightest trace of heat. And surely all the surroundings were already closed by a huge barrier so that the troops had where to turn around, but at the same time, the mutant was not able to avoid the cordon. They also blocked the underground - not so much the local warriors are cretins that they could be carried out twice for one trick.
“You say you had such a thunderstorm only at the end of the month?”
“Well yes! What about?” it seemed that Lyra still did not fully understand what kind of trouble they all got together. A smart but naive kind pony; it would be good for her not to recognize even a small part of what Mercer had to go through, and why it was the humanwho was now so alarmed.
“Could Dash really do it again?” suggested Sweetie Belle. “I remember when she tried to get a ticket from Twilight...”
Scootaloo rolled her purple eyes.
“She’s go-o-one!”
“Oh, right.”
"Houston, we have a problem," Mercer muttered to himself. “Get ready, ladies, we have guests. I recommend everyone to crawl under the table and not shine,” noticing that the mint unicorn was looking at him suspiciously, Alex shook his head, “This is not a joke, Lyra. Not once.”
While the Crusaders briskly crawled under the table, barricading themselves with seat poufs, Alex unconsciously ran his fingers over his shoulder, where until recently there was a stump of his left hand. Where? in his thoughts, he pulled back the second fully recreated limb, which "got agitated" when receiving a whole unusual class of data and sent a request to change position - where visibility would be better. Location! Alex practically felt the four-legged warriors, hidden by all sorts of spells, squeeze the ring under the trees and above the thunderclouds. All that is missing is the increasingly frequent squeak of the detection detector and the panicky whine of Hudson at his side. I saw from where, from what direction this time the trouble was coming!
“Hey! Weren't you going to tackle my mane?” indignant pink earth pony, which Spoon with the last of her foal strength tried to pull under the table. “I demand... please, since we are now friends, please you to continue!”
“All later, Tiara,” Alex did not even look at her.
“It's just an ordinary thunderstorm! Such a big two-legged and suddenly afraid of her? Ha!”
Mercer turned his head towards Diamond Tiara.
“I said,” Alex gave her a cold look, “later. Go to the others, pony. Immediately.”
Pony was clearly not going to give up so easily, but the expression on Mercer's face, previously always friendly or impassive, made her freeze for a moment - and this already gave Silver Spoon a chance to carry out her plans. With a squeak, Tiara disappeared under the table, and a pillow immediately took its place. Lyra lay nearby, covering her head with her paws, and Winona perched beside her, fearfully pressing her ears. The unicorn looked anxiously at Alex - he nodded to her and again stared into the space between the shutters. This is where the power of magic is visible... The power of several nuclear power plants in the sky in just a couple of minutes, and this can be done not by top-class specialists, but by ordinary pegasus workers? Yes please! Mercer decided that it was impossible to pull any longer, something urgently needed to be done. But what? Okay, since they went to war on him, and a fight is inevitable, it is vital to strike the first blow. Break down the wall of the house with the shout "Here I am, four-legged bastards!", And then burst into the ranks of an invisible enemy, like a fucking Rambo... and die insultingly stupid. You can wait until the enemy stumbles upon his traps, try to take unexpected moves, acting through stealth and hoping that this will be enough to get close to at least one of the princesses and cut her heart with an organic kukri knife, blow from below or to the side. After which, again, to be incinerated by the second sister.
I would be fucking useful now with a personal detachment to distract attention, like the same "Sages", (38) Alex thought angrily. I hope the creatures of Everfree will last at least a minute or two against this crowd.
Bad. The alignment is too bad. The enemy has both a numerical advantage and a technical one. Alex did not think that the sorcerers would take him like this without warning and attempts to negotiate, humanly, according to all the rules of the assault. What else can be done in this situation? Think Dr. Mercer, Alex pulled himself together. His main superpower is naturally excellent brains, further improved by a virus, and not at all the ability to make living objects stop jerking their limbs. Without his mind, Alex Mercer would just become another pumped-up super-soldier dolt, a stupid warrior who suddenly Learned to run up the walls and jump up a good thirty feet.... But why, after all, did the diarchs decide to take it by storm? Mercer didn't hurt them much, as they did to him, that's why Zeus was... restrained. Circumstances have changed? If Celestia and Luna really know he's here, they could drown Mercer by simply turning the planks into a swamp! Or simply pull out the small ones with a flash of the teleport, and freeze the evolved one at a single moment to the state of a metamorph, which has not yet been dug out by polar explorers! But Marshmallow, Scootaloo, Shu, Lyra and Tiara with a Spoon were still in the house...
“Fakk,” Mercer cursed briefly in his native language.
They think I have taken hostages. Alex's insides have gone cold at the thought. Yes, that's right... If the ponies were here of their own free will, and the diarchs knew it, the civilians could simply be teleported out, and Mercer would have been captured for a more... private conversation. Most likely, they are afraid that Zeus did something wrong with them for the sake of his own safety. Hypnosis, mutant neural parasites, alien unrecognizable magic - the options are countless. Sisters fear, let's say, not without reason, but even a sociopath has standards. Mercer didn't consider himself a bastard enough to use children, even xenos, as a bargaining chip. At least not consciously. When four combat carbines are almost point-blank pointed at you, it's generally difficult to rationally think... it's difficult even for such an expert in this matter as Dr. Mercer was.
Well, well, well... Alex seems to have guessed whose initiative it was. The same Lyra would not have thought of such a thing - if the foals are not afraid, they look not scared, but satisfied with the closeness with the alien, then everything is all right with them. Celestia might have thought so too. But Her Darkness Luna... Naturally, a different constructive and accompanying culture, as well as the social order, leave an imprint, but the dark diarch still remembers less happy times. She did not have time to lose her shape, she is able to put herself in the shoes of the enemy...
Mentally, she is much closer to humanman. Surely she fell into the trap of Hobbes, according to which aggression is a natural evolutionary process. The mistress of the night is not ruled by malice, but by banal rationality... only Alexander doesn't get any shit from this. He has only a few minutes to live "happily ever after in the world of colored horses" if Dr. Mercer does nothing. If Alex had found out what Luna was like earlier, he would have climbed to the colts with two dicks! And even if the enemy does not plan to kill him, will he be given the opportunity to justify himself, or will he be immediately shoved into some no-nonsense zone 51 for experiments?
Well-well-we-e-ell... And this was worth checking now. So, it means that Luna got used to pretending to be a noblewoman, having only relatively recently begun the process of adaptation to modern society, she didn't? Maybe Alex is not all of himself a noble lord to master a high syllable, but in anticipation of death you will not sing so much. The main thing is to add more righteous indignation to your voice and to do your best to maintain a serious attitude, because the absurdity of Alex's notion threatened to stand on a par with the madness of the little world. Not to mention the fact that the irony of the situation, unlike Mercer, the ponies will not be able to appreciate... Unless, of course, the princesses can not immediately get into Dr. Mercer's head - according to Heartstrings, the dark alicorn was famous for this, with might and main according to the dreams of the inhabitants of Equestria (and they did not mind at all), so such a possibility could not be ruled out. Yes, if not for the need to prepare a "reserve airfield" in case the Luna really turns into a polygraph, Mercer never went to such an improvisation! As well as personally would not start running on all fours, pretending to be a zoomorph, yes. Truly, desperate times - desperate measures...
”Luna of Equestria!” Alex rumbled, opening the door slightly. ”My name is not familiar to you, but you can call me Grievous. Do you really think that I will use children as... prisoners?!” Alex let the cold in his voice, but still not enough to sound contemptuous. ”I cannot interpret your actions in any other way. And I, as a war general, find them offensive to the extreme!”
On the street, the rain continued to gush, occasionally it rattled in the height, and Alex did not hear any other sounds. Looking back, Mercer saw Lyra, clearly impressed, staring at him with all her eyes, and the foals cuddling their faces against the embrasure of the pillows. Alex winked at them and tried again.
”If honor is not an empty phrase for you, I demand a meeting with you face to... face!” Alexander tried his best with all the might of his only lung. ”Leave tricks for your impressionable subjects and disperse the clouds! Let me see you! In turn, I give my word of honor that I do not keep the ponies here by force, and did not cause them at least some harm or other interference! They are with me voluntarily, as friends, and at any time they are free to leave!”
Mercer didn't hear the answer. Not because he did not wait for him, but because for the next half a minute he was completely deaf. The sonic boom carried it along with the door and spread it across the opposite wall. When Mercer darted to the side, leaving the "line of fire" and huddled under the windowsill, he realized that the echo of the enemy's VOICE carried some meaning, and did not aim to simply demoralize the evolved one for a second or a half.
“Why is this banshee banging again?” human complained, rubbing his ear. “My eardrums are almost out of order... Lyra? Hey!” he called to the unicorn, huddled into a ball and struggling to pretend that she was not here. “Hey, Lyra! What did she say?”
“You must go out alone!” Lyra squeaked. “Five minutes of the deadline, and all alone! I don’t know how you upset Princess Luna, but she’s terribly angry!”
“That's how it is,” grinned Mercer, looking out of the corner of his eye from behind the window sill, not risking approaching the doorway. “Her Darkness will deign to be angry. Just nice…”
The rain cut off, and Mercer now clearly saw the scale of the tragedy that had happened. There was nowhere to run: Alex watched the flicker of the barrier, the top of which was lost among the gloomy clouds that had driven under the dome. There were no windows or open spaces between the apple trees. Evoking a healthy laugh, similar to toy soldiers, but very dangerous in number as opponents, the guards were seen here and there, occupying shelters and tree crowns, and also spreading themselves in the air with a net. There were earth ponies, and unicorns, and pegasus, and those flying ponies serving only the dark princess... they were all angry for some reason. Mercer did not perceive them as an amorphous crowd, but diligently recorded the location of each enemy fighter, noticing little things up to the expression of their faces. They certainly did not land at the time of the ultimatum of the Luna - the plan, the arrangement was felt in their battle formations... Except for the flyers, whom Alexander decided to take over entirely, most of the crowd would completely fall into the range of fire and traps with which Alex has generously surrounded the clubhouse of the Crusaders. The enemy did not bother to notice them yet, let alone defuse them - it seems that the "invisibility" of Alex's technologies worked like clockwork. Excellent, just wonderful!
“There you are,” Mercer muttered, focusing his gaze on the dark alicorn in the front row. Beautiful one, damn xenowitch! The expression of the muzzle is strict and sublime, the blue-raven wings are spread, the slender figure in a single impulse rushes to the enemy's position, some obviously nasty spell is twisted on the horn... The inevitability itself is right - in the middle of a storm, which the soldiers and their leader did not touch due to enchantment, Luna probably would have looked even more spectacular. The silver breastplate, which can pass for steel in color, only complements the look of the experienced warrior...
But where are you, Celestia, the pony-like Uriel?(39) Alex asked a reasonable question. Are you hiding, playing some kind of game of your own, or did Luna really come here alone?
“Sweetie Belle, do you have textile here?” Alex asked quickly. Surprised that no one was answering him, he turned to the table:
“Sweetie-e? Didn't you fall asleep there?”
“We are under siege, and you called yourself some kind of Grievous!” came from behind the pillows, and large purple eyes stared at Mercer. “Say the password! What if suddenly you are not Alex?”
“Scootie, what the password?” human was genuinely amazed. “All this time I was in the same room with you! I have no time for your mirac-”
“Yes, yes, we have it, there is upstairs among the shelves!” pushing back the pouf, the curly head of the unicorn appeared out. The little beauty looked at Alex trustingly:
“Rarity sometimes gives me scraps of fabric! This is how I made our capes, and sometimes I try to create something myself...”
"Good," Mercer tilted his head, moving his bodies to the ceiling in one fluid motion. “For a couple of minutes a raincoat on me, as I understand it, you can't sew?”
“No way, you're too big!” Sweetie gasped, looking up and down at Alex with her curious green eyes. “What, have you really decided to become the Cutie Mark Crusader?”
“Really?!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo have already leaned out from under the table. Sweetie Belle, after a little thought, shook her head sadly.
“Sorry, but since then Rarity has been hiding the fabric from the gold lining from me... And the emblem will need to be made a new one, with a human figure, so that it should be right!”
“No matter,” Mercer leaked into the attic, and finding a whole roll of some faded gray, fairly dense fabric (it's no surprise that Sweetie’s sister was generous with such an amount, these are not all colorful cashmeres and silk), in the same way went downstairs, diligently avoiding shots at the door and windows. Spreading flat on the floor, Alex nodded at the unfolded parcel and clicked his claws.
“Can you at least show how the pieces of fabric can be folded and stitched to more or less hold? I'll put it together quickly.”
“I can!” the unicorn nodded happily, but immediately doubted:
“And you can't do it yourself, prettier, how did you take on the shape of a pony? Changinglings, it seems, can transform right with clothes...”
“I have a reason not to do this.”
Oh you, proud battle-princess, Alex thought sarcastically, under Sweetie's leadership, skillfully joining strips of fabric with living and welding. Celestia did not even think to appear in the field of view of the optics. The dark one decided to take Mercer personally, without the help of her sister? Alex may have pretended to be a noble, but he is not a single place a duelist. He is used to playing either as tough as possible, breaking through the enemy's defenses with all his might, like a knight in the heaviest armor with a two-handed sword, or as dirty as possible, regaling the enemy with artillery strikes, pouring fire on them from the commander of the Abrams, setting mutants on the military and vice versa , inflicting exhausting wounds with claws and retreating again. One does not interfere with the other, and you will try both methods now on your wonderful fur coat, The evolved smiled grimly. Horses love to crunch human fingers, but I can stand up for myself so that it doesn't seem like a little. Do you want to see how big my teeth are, Princess Luna? I can easily arrange it for you - now that I see your Highness! In vain, perhaps, with a shovel in his claws spent the early morning hours?
Lyra watched Mercer's preparations anxiously. Finally, she asked cautiously:
“Have you done this before?”
“You mean, did I meet in an extremely tense atmosphere with a representative of an immortal zoomorphic dynasty?” Alex chuckled, putting the finishing touches on his future outfit. “Never.”
Lyra remained serious. After hesitating, she continued her thought in a whisper:
“No... I mean, you said you were at odds with your government? Did you... did you oppose them?”
“Why did you decide that?”
“You're not scared at all. You look...” Lyra looked timidly into his tense face, “rather angry, like the Luna. You act so quickly as if you have big experience in such matters.”
“Not too big. Of the royal subjects - I fought only with one Queen of the Hive...”
“Do you have your own Chrysalis on Earth?!” gasped the Crusaders and Lyra at the same time.
"I have no idea who this Chrysalis is..." Mercer muttered, raising new images in his mind. “Done! Now it's time,” he stood up to his full height, turning away from the pony and picking up his handicraft, streaked with reddish lines, in a hand that had gathered again.
Closed arena. A crowd of enemies in branded armor. Sounds like something that just can't go well, or just a very specific surprise costume party. Judging by the words of the foals, they have a whole tradition in the city to welcome newcomers like that... And Dr. Mercer prepared to give a worthy answer. According to the second level of planning, the pony warriors know that he has set his traps. It's even good that from a position of pure strength Alex cannot act, flooding everything with a stream of mass - in this case he would simply be frozen into the ice... But if the enemy is weakened, and his cunning devices are revealed and are at gunpoint, why not chat? Luna knows that he can grow extra limbs, but Alex does not do it instantly... And to the rocket launcher, which from the waves of scabie appeared on his belt, he will reach with his free right hand. Likewise - about the right grip of the fake machine gun, which Mercer was already forming behind him. Living tissue began to slip from Alexander's face, required in another part of his body. Why, one wonders, pay attention to some kind of differentiation in the spine of a mutant if you can't see it in detail with a magic X-ray, and when he has a much more obvious weaponry? And the pollen of the Poisonous Joke, which he hid in saline and glass, has already partially lost its properties, separated from the parent flower, you can not be afraid of it! Well, Mercer suspected that she had lost, for this rubbish had a much weaker effect on his health. But in containers of biomass, hidden in a couple of places, being diluted with infovirions, the pollen retained its properties, and how! An excellent flash-noise mine should turn out, and invisible, moreover, due to the technology of the virus.
Well, a cloak... A cloak made of matter created by concepts, for those skilled in the magical arts, for sure is the same as transparent - look, Princess Luna! This is what the stupid mutant is trying to hide from your sight, everything is hung on it, like on a Christmas tree. Let the toys from the dimension of the incessant war draw your attention... Mercer irritatedly wiggled the bony "ears" that once again protruded from the grooves of his bare skull. He would also have at his disposal coaxial machine guns from the Black Hawk hangers, and a couple of warheads made of missile units... Eh, it's not bad to dream. Alexander wrapped himself in a gray sackcloth, completely hiding his figure and leaving only arm up to the elbow, head and the tips of the prostheses. It would be nice to recreate another claw in the front, in addition to the spur... moisture, plus the grass covered with dew, the clutch could fall.
“Well, how do you like the new outfit?” asked the white unicorn, stretching out her hoof and touching the edge of the cloak in which Alex was wrapped.
“As if it was sewn for me in the best salon, “Mercer gently stroked her between the ears. “Thanks for your help, Sweetie.”
“Are you sure?” the pony giggled. “If anything, go to my sister - you will get the same, only much more beautiful, just so that you can go to receptions to the princesses as an ambassador!” her smile became mischievous. “I promise I will put in a good word for you. And Rarity herself will be interested to hear how things are going with fashion on Earth!”
“Don't worry. I feel that in this vestment I will look in the eyes of the princesses good...” Alexander pointedly moved bone indicators of mood, “deadly.”
Heartstrings looked anxiously at Alex, who winked at her with the remaining eye - a heat sensor plate had grown into the other again.
“Everything will be all right, Lyra,” he assured, carefully checking all the telepathic connections with the grown neural nodes. During the capture by McMullen, he had to fully control two drones at once... Here, too, there is one complex drone and many simpler connections, for which it is enough to send a single signal and not worry about them anymore. It is somewhat reminiscent of the work of an explosives engineer at a festival of fireworks, except that the outcome of clicking a toggle switch will be much more varied.
“YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE LEFT, GENERAL! OUR HIGHEST PATIENCE WILL BE OUTSIDE OF THIS!”
The Canterlot voice made the walls tremble, but now Mercer could at least discern what was addressed to him. Human chuckled as he turned to exit.
“It's not good to keep Her Darkness waiting... I'll go.”
Maybe I should sing and dance in front of this cat-horse, or will it be an overwhelming demonstration of my power? Alex thought sarcastically. Now his favorite part was coming... ever since Penn Station. Sentient ones will chat about a stranger and not so garbage, in every possible way delaying the moment when the test tube slips out of the hand, and the bullets leave the barrels of their carbines and in a cloud of powder gas will fly at Dr. Mercer. Everyone involved understands that this is inevitable, but they strenuously pretend that a worst-case scenario simply cannot happen, that’s all.
Or maybe everything will be okay this time? He would like to…
Slack, reverse. You are worried, doctor, Alex summed up, and he objected to himself:
Not particularly. Another day, another important elimination goal, which should be reached by hook or by crook. No romance, no atmosphere of old westerns, where the hero has to go out of the saloon to meet the crowd and, in every way overcoming, to get rid of it. The only difference is that a bunch of tanks and helicopters were chasing me under the gun of the mighty of my world, and here are their magical counterparts. No wonder I feel at ease.
And the lack of open territory, the limitation of the area of the fight is just fine. Mercer can't escape, yes, but if the Luna really thinks that Zeus's maneuverability has limited its perimeter... She only gave him more tactical opportunities, if only because new directions for attack appeared. The Planck Barrier supplied by the magicians here is not super-smooth material. The frictional force is sufficient. Even if the barrier is similar in its properties to glass, Mercer has experience of moving on such planes. Unless this time breaking the "glass", clinging tighter and extending the run almost indefinitely, will not work - well, at least local newspapers will not burst into articles about the fact that "many skyscrapers in Times Square were mysteriously damaged."
Okay... It seems like Mercer took everything into account. He was going to follow the original plan - a relatively peaceful beginning, a invented story to test reactions. How will the princesses behave if Alex reveals to them that there is something much greater than himself behind him - a whole otherworldly faction with a huge army and, judging by the transfer of Mercer, the technology of moving to these very other worlds? It is also a guarantee that the mutant will not be sent out so straight away for experiments, but at least considered a valuable hostage who should be handled with care so that humans do not descend on Equus with a return visit... Alexander's idea will either result in an already inevitable confrontation, or, in a more optimistic course of events, everything will be reduced to a joke, as in the case of Lyra. The locals are not deprived of a sense of humor, they must understand. With a wet click, Alex's lower jaw split into two halves again and went into the neck, hiding under the cheekbones, and the mutant turned around at last:
“Okay now. You're safe here, pony, and you'd better stay in the house until someone picks you up. Either I'll call you or the princesses. Winona, guard the girls, do you understand?” the collie barked readily, and Mercer nodded. “Lyra, take care of them. Especially about one pink touchy one,” Alex grinned, bumping into a frightened, offended look among the pillows. “Otherwise, it seems to me, give her free rein, and she will beat Luna for interrupting our session of caring for mane...
“I owe you a favor!” shouted from the heap of pillows Tiara. “I remember, Alex!”
“There is no more Alex here,” Mercer, slyly bending his neck, hunched over and pulled his head into his shoulders. “On the bridge is Grievous, Drone General of the Federation of Independent Biotechnologies! It's time to make some noise, kha-khe... In every sense. Kha.”
“Be careful!” Lyra said with fright. “Whatever you do, apologize to the princess! This is all some kind of mistake, Luna is very kind, she will understand!” convinced that Alex was not listening to her again, Lyra jumped up, ran to the gray figure and grabbed her by the clawed paw, demanding attention to herself.
“Promise everything will be okay! And that you can do without the explosions of these reagents of yours and self-harm! Say "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Say now!”
“If they don’t do anything that I didn’t deserve, I will certainly…” Mercer began to weave verbal lace as usual, but the unicorn looked at him so seriously that Human gave up. He was going to give the princesses a chance anyway. Exactly one fucking chance. Mercer has already been betrayed enough... Come on, surprise me, new world, sighing to himself, Alex thought.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, blah-blah-blah,” Alex waved his claws, frowning at the sci-fi lover. “Are you satisfied now?”
“Absolutely!” Lyra smiled, returning to her corner and busily covering her head with her paws. “Now that you said, you can go. Good luck with Luna there!”
“Good luck! Don't mess up with the Princesses!” the foals squeaked in chorus.
“Do you all understand that to my perception it sounded like a meaningless, albeit rhymed gibberish? Khe,” Alex muttered to himself under a nonexistent nose.
And then he went out.
Far to the north, Pinkie Pie stumbled as a tiny drop of blood oozed from her nose and fell into the snow. The filly, quietly complaining about "an abnormally high concentration of references in Ponyville," began to ask Twilight if Discord could have returned during their absence... Well, or some Other-Discord-Quite-Reverse-That-Transfers-Wade-Rivers. Having received the assurance of the purple unicorn that Discord was still chilling in a stone prison, and she had never heard of any "Other Discord", Pinky, quite satisfied, hurried with her friends after Cadance, her husband and a detachment of scouts. The snowfall was intensifying, and they still had so many things to do in the Empire...