Exploring Equestria

by A_guy_from_Earth

7. Odd methods

Days passed. Researchers gradually got used to roles of castle servants and guards. Edez and Kor patrolled the castle in daytime, Max – at night. Affi and Karin kept it clean and shining. Oma welcomed the guests and toured them. Sheim began to make a garden around the castle and kept the building clean outside. Bluve cooked food for everybody and kept the pantries full. Zet’rar made small repairs – the castle still was settling – and helped others, mostly Oma, Affi and Karin. They did their everyday work, but didn’t forget about their duties as scientists. The castle, whole town of Ponyville and the nearest surroundings were completely mapped. Drafting of the taxonomy of local species was started – and drafting of taxonomy of edible (for them) organisms was almost finished. Social structure of Equestria and all other possible available information about the country was studied thanks to the rich castle library. Description of local technologies was started. And they began to understand what is this thing that locals call “magic”. All this they did insensibly, at their free time from castle duties, and sometimes they had to combine them. In general, they were very busy. But researchers liked it – there were so many new and interesting things to see, so many things to learn and master… They were tired, but they were glad.

They worked diligently, and this couldn’t be noticed.

So at one day, when they all gathered in the dining room for lunch, Twilight addressed to her subordinates:

“Guys,” she said when she finisher her meal. “There is something I want to tell you…”
“Yes?” researchers turned to her.
“Did something happen?” asked Kor.
“Or we did something wrong?” wondered Sheim.
“Oh, no,” Twilight shook her head. “You see… You are working here for fifteen days already, and during all this time you didn’t even have a break!”
“…and?”
“And this is wrong.”
“Well, in our homeland we had to work like this sometimes,” said Max.
“Yes. Or else you won’t earn much,” confirmed Oma.
“But you are in Equestria now!” exclaimed Spike. “Here you have no need to work all the time!”
“What do you want to say?” Edez raised his eyebrow.
“Take a break!” said Twilight.
“Ehm, what?” surprised researchers.
“I want you to take a break. Have some rest.”
“Yeah, guys. Relax!” smiled Spike.
“Relax?” exclaimed Affi. “But… there is huge amount of work! Who will do all it?”
“Yes! And, by the way, castle needs permanent care!” added Zet’rar.
“Oh, please…” Twilight waved her hoof. “We alone watched this castle for weeks before you arrived! It doesn’t need any special care!”
“So… you don’t need our assistance now?” asked Affi.
“You did great job, guys, really. But now you need to have some off-time.”
“We care about you,” added Spike.
“Well… As you say, as you say…” uttered Edez.
“I’m glad that you agree,” smiled Twilight. “And don’t worry about me and Spike.”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” smiled little dragon.
“Yes. You are free now, my friends!”

Researchers looked at each other, shrugged and said:

“Thank you.”

Twilight and Spike nodded and stood up.

“Relax. Walk in the park, visit some stores or salons or just go home and take a nap or read,” proposed Twilight. “Spend this time with pleasure!”
“Cut loose!” said Spike.

And they went away.

Team One watched them off, and when they got out of sight, looked at each other again.

“So, what do we do now?” asked Max.
“I don’t know…” uttered Oma.
“Me neither,” said Affi. “We didn’t plan any significant research for today and tomorrow, so… I’m just lost.”
“If so, then, maybe we should follow Twilight’s and Spike’s advice?” suggested Kor.
“Have a rest?” Edez and Karin turned to him.
“Well, yeah! We have been working here for seventeen days. Fifteen days and, not rarely, nights of work! I think that we earned some rest.”
“I agree,” said Bluve. “This off-time will be useful for us – after it we’ll be able to get started with new strength!”
“Well, it’s so,” nodded Edez. “Even a little rest is always useful…”
“Yes.” nodded Sheim.
“So, let’s go?” Kor looked at his colleagues.
“Let’s go,” agreed others.

They went out of the dining room and went to their corner – near the main entrance, in one of the small rooms, there was their storerooms. There they put off their uniforms, put them in closets, then they moved to the hall and soon left the castle.

They were free.

An hour passed since the moment when their off-time had started, but Max still thought about occupation for himself. He had no want to go home, no want to join anypony in their games and conversations and he had no money for café. Once he felt an urge to go to park and have some nap there, lying on the grass under spreading crowns of local oaks and elms, but this urge was transient and it quickly went away. So now he just wandered around the town and gazed. He looked at playing little fillies and colts, their businesslike parents. He looked at craftsponies making products in their stores or, sometimes, right in the street. He looked at flying pegasi, who made tricks between the clouds. He thought that it will help him finally decide what to do, but for a moment it gave no results. So he continued his stroll.

He reached the end of another street, turned to next one and gazed around to define if he was at this road before. Silhouettes of houses’ roofs and amount of potted plants at the windows said that he wasn’t. Max got ready to tread along this street as usually, but suddenly one thing caught his attention. It was an young stallion, no different from all other youths except for one feature: his hind legs were on the special barrow and were fixed. This very surprised Max: there were disabled here, in the world of magic? He thought that locals, although they haven’t good medical technologies, developed great curing methods based on using features of energy mix that fills environment of the planet. But, as it turned out, he was wrong – some diseases couldn’t be cured even with this powerful source.

As a doctor Max got interested: what was the ailment that paralyzed almost half of his body? He focused, strained his sensor organs and looked at the stallion. Radiation of tissues of all local organisms was quite intense, so Max without difficulties could look under the skin of disabled one. Brain and spinal cord were absolutely safe and had no abnormalities. He focused on the vertebral column. Cervical spine was all right, thoracic – too. But lumbar spine… There Max noticed traces of injury. But fracture was cured, vertebrae fused just like they had to. Then what was the reason? Max strained his sensor organs again, and soon he found it: though the bones were fixed, several nerves were dislocated. It wasn’t a bad case – the dislocation was minor, in fact – but because of it that guy was completely paralyzed.

But for Max the most important thing was that this injury could be cured. He even didn’t need any instruments: some quick moves with his hidden claws and everything will be done. He could help this poor lad. So Max took it upon himself and rushed towards the injured pony.

In few seconds they met.

“Ehm, can I help you?” asked the disabled stallion when he faced with tall and quite broad-shouldered guy with resolute expression.
“Pardon me, but I wanted to ask you the same question,” answered Max.
“Help me? Well… I don’t know… I don’t need any help or assistance now. And, by the way, what help do you mean?”
“Let’s say that I can give you back one thing.”
“Give back? What thing? I don’t understand.”
“Just allow me to show.”
“Well, okay.”

Max gave a nod, approached his interlocutor and then… In a couple of seconds he stood on hind legs, touched injured stallion’s lower back and with sharp and quick moves of claws pushed some points near the spine.

Scream of pain resounded through the town. Disabled guys hardly managed not to fell down unconscious. Max, having finished, stepped back.

This happened in front of dozen ponies. For some seconds they were absolutely shocked and couldn’t do anything: how anypony could do such thing? But then they came back to their senses. And they attacked Max.

A couple of stallions grabbed him and yelled “What have you done, bastard?” Some old mares cursed him with all known ways. Other stallion without any words punched him in the face. Because of this Max barely managed not to lose consciousness: sensor organs are incredibly sensitive, and not rarely even one inaccurate touch can cause strong pain.

“Before you punch me again,” he said, slowly rising from the ground, “look,” and pointed to the injured stallion, who already recovered after pain shock.
“And what do you want to prove with it?” growled one of the attackers.
“Move your legs,” Max wheezed to the injured guy.
“What?” he surprised.
“Move your legs. All legs,” Max repeated.

Stallion on the barrow slowly made some moves. At first with his forelegs, and then, for everypony’s surprise, with his hind ones. The last moves were weak and little, but he did it. Paralysis disappeared.

“How? How???” surprised witnesses.
“I can move all my legs! I can move all my legs!” joyfully exclaimed the lad.
“Don’t rush to rejoice like this,” Max said when he finally stood up. “You still have a lot to be done. Stay on the barrow, but regularly train your legs, recall, how is it – to walk. Only after five or six weeks you’ll be strong enough to leave the barrow and walk on your own legs.”
“Still thanks a lot, thanks a lot, pal! It was damn painful, but now I am cured! Thank you!”
“You are welcome.”
“But tell me: what and how did you do? All the doctors said that they had no clue what is the reason of my paralysis.”
“Yeah, it was a real miracle!” said some ones from group of witnesses.
“Let’s say I have my own experience and methods, different from usual ones of your doctors,” answered Max.
“I don’t even know what can I do for you…” said the cured one.
“Please, I don’t need anything. Just remember: train your legs, slowly, but regularly,” said Max. “And now excuse me, I have to go.”

And he went away. Witnesses and healed lad saw him off and then started to disperse, having remained agreeably surprised.

Affi, unlike many of her colleagues, immediately decided where she will go: town’s Artisan Street. In her opinion house that they rented lacked ornamentations, and it was the paramount necessity to decorate the place where they lived. So she returned to the house, took a saddlebag and hundred bits and went shopping. The Artisan Street was relatively small – there were only dozen stores in it – and was near from the place where they stayed: it could be reached in three minutes of slow walking. So she was in no hurry – she’ll have enough time to visit all the stores and check every piece of art exhibited there, and even in this case she will be free all evening.

She leisurely approached the street, thinking about items for living room, when she heard a loud shilling voice. Some artist sold his goods. Advertising sounded pretty good, Affi got interested and decided to look. She quickened her pace. Few more seconds – and she was in the Artisan Street, short but wide road that joined two main streets of the town. In the middle of it there was an improvised scene, made from inverted box. Gray stallion with very shaggy mane stood on it and with fairest epithets described all the charm of the items that he was selling. He had been spoken for quite long time already – there was a small crowd of other interested around him. And all artisans of the Street looked at him with disgust and contempt – they obviously disapproved such way of trading.

But still it was interesting to look at what the visiting trader got. Affi came closer, jostled through the crowd and started to listen.

“…as I said, ladies and gentlecolts, this is an exclusive offer!” declared the trader. “You’ll hardly find such things even in Canterlot! Only here and only now – pieces of art right from El Fantea! With rich history! Real hoofwork and trunkwork!..”

Having head that, Affi got surprised. El Fantea was the place where Team Eleven settled, and because of this she knew how the thing stood. El Fantea was a big city, probably the most important cultural center of whole that continent, but it was situated in oasis in the middle of huge desert. Yes, there were several roads that lead to it. But because of the location visitors from other regions, even europonians, were extremely rare there. And number of equestrians visiting this city a year can be easily calculated with forelegs of a pony. So, as one might guess, the statement that goods in this trader’s bag were artworks from El Fantea had minimal probability for confirmation.

But when Affi reached this link in her chain of reasonings, voice of trader began to distract her.

“…this is the most wonderful samples of art of the desert nation!” he continued his advertising. “They are just incredible! You, miss,” he suddenly turned to Affi.
“Ehm, me?” she surprised.
“Yes,” trader nodded, grabbed her hoof and dragged her on the stage. “You look like a pony with a good taste and quite the experience in the field of art. So, what do you think about this statuette?” he took a wooden figure of dancing giraffe from his bag.
“Well… It looks… unusually, but it’s really beautiful, very nice and… has its own charm,” muttered Affi, still surprised and mixed-up.
“You see, ladies and gentlecolts, independent evaluation confirms everything what I said! So purchase these pieces of art, and you won’t regret it! Only twenty five bits apiece.”

And he took some more statuettes from his bag and put them on the “stage”. Listeners immediately gathered near and began to bargain. Affi meanwhile got down on the ground. She remained mixed-up for some more time after this, but then – thanks to voices of struggling byers – she shook her head and returned to normal. And she remembered her guess. So she addressed the trader herself:

“Excuse me, sir, but can you give me this statuette of a giraffe again?”
“Sure!” answered trader and gave it to her.

Affi thanked him and pretended that she began to examine the statuette. In fact she started to scan the trader’s mind. Some searches in the hidden parts, and she found what she wanted. Her guessing was confirmed: the things that this guy sold weren’t from El Fantea – he have never been abroad in his life. And these pieces of art… Being an industrial spy she saw many nasty and, sometimes, even terrifying details of fabrication processes, but the way how these statuettes were made sometimes was really eerie. And results of this eeriness are now sold to unsuspecting ponyvillers.

It should be stopped. This stuff was simply dangerous. But after everything what this guy told to his audience it will be difficult to dissuade them. Luckily, she was a telepathist, so she knew some methods.

“You know…” she started, addressing to the buyers. “I have to agree with this gentlecolt. It is really outstanding piece of art! Incredible work of unknown, but very popular master. Why so? Well, judging by these cleavages and splits he was in a hurry – he had to execute a lot of orders. And these wonderful traces of old age! They don’t appear with no reason. You have to make a lot of efforts to reach them – you need special treatment, you need special chemicals. Not rarely you have to completely forget about all the safety regulations! Yes, it’s a lot of work. And… Hm… These spots indicate that this thing also spent some time in a sewer. Oh, wait… My bad, it’s not spots from a sewer, it’s just spots from rust in a water. So, as you can see, these thing really are the result of enormous hoofwork and have rich history!”

All the buyers dropped their jaws. The trader was struck to the core and weren’t able even to babble. They all were so shocked that only began to came to their senses in a half of a minute. Buyers, looking at Affi, then at things in their hooves, started to put the statuettes back on the stage and with no words leave the street. Artisans mutely hided in darkness of their stores. And the trader… He just sat down. He felt slack, he didn’t know what to do now.

At this moment Affi suddenly felt sorry for him. Though he tried to sell forgeries, moreover, potentially dangerous forgeries, because of her he failed like this. She approached him, put her hoof on his shoulder and said:

“I’m sorry for that, but I couldn’t do otherwise: what you were going to do now is a bad thing. And I’m sure that you understand it yourself. So next time don’t do it. But I have to say one thing: you are really talented. If you forget about forgeries and focus on own original souvenirs, you can achieve a lot. Only don’t forget about safety regulations, okay?”

She smiled to him and went to the nearest store. And trader, when he returned to normal, took a thought and agreed with her.

Sheim, after some deliberation and hesitation, finally decided what occupation will be better for him now. So now he was going to the town park – after all these days a couple hours in the company of other autotrophic organisms, though immovable, absolutely silent and without any nervous system, will be very nice and pleasant for him.

He unhurriedly walked, thinking about and mentally preparing for meditation, when, after another turn, he saw an odd scene: near the wall of one house, where fresh – because there still was dust coming from it – small hole was made, gathered a group of two stallions, three mares and one little unicorn filly who was in one step from crying. Adults argued about something, but during the process regularly and alternately fell into a stupor. It was obvious that they were lost and didn’t know what to do, but they had to do something, or else it will be a tragedy for the foal.

Sheim got wondered: what occasion happened there? He went through a lot of variants of probable answers, but none of them could fit as explanation. It was a riddle for him. So he decided to learn the cause of the incident.

He slowly and quietly approached the group and when he got near asked:

“Please, forgive me for my curiosity, but what happened here? You look like you all have a very serious problem here.”
“Well… Yes,” said one mare, who, judging by her appearance, was the mother of this filly. “We have a quite difficult situation here.”
“And how difficult it is?”
“You see… My daughter’s doll appeared to be immured in this wall.”

Now Sheim was the one who fell into a stupor.

“P-pardon me, but… how?” he muttered.
“Little unicorns, when they learning how to use magic, sometimes lose control over it,” explained other unicorn. “Because of this rather powerful bursts happen, and results of them are absolutely unpredictable. Now because of such burst this filly’s doll was teleported in this wall.”
“Oh… Well, it’s clear now.”
“But the most terrible thing is that we can’t find it!” continued mother of poor filly. “We made the hole right in the place where the flash happened, but couldn’t find anything! And because of this we can’t teleport it back!”

Other gathered nodded in agreement.

“Well, can I help you in such case?” offered Sheim. “My legs are longer than average ponies’, so I may be able to find your daughter’s doll. ”
“Oh, thank you!”
“I haven’t done anything yet, you shouldn’t thank me. And now… Pardon me…” he approached the hole and put his foreleg into it.

And soon it turned out that he was right: after few seconds of palpating he touched an edge of something soft and covered with fabric. It could be only that occasionally teleported doll.

“I think that I found it,” said Sheim.
“Can you show us the place?” asked the mare.
“Sorry, but only approximately. I’m barely touching its edge.”
“If so, then can you get it out yourself?”
“I’ll try.”

And he tried. He put his limb as deep as he could, but result was the same: he could only touch the edge of the doll. He undertake another attempt, but still no success.

“You have a problem? You can’t get it out?” asked one of the watchers.
“I’m working on it,” answered Sheim.

He tried and failed again. He couldn’t pick up this doll – pony joints just couldn’t be wrestled enough. But… His present body was result of combination of pony and rugartairan genes. Rugartairans thank to structure of their exoskeletons have incredible mobility of their limbs. Now he has endoskeleton, and his moves are limited. But what if rugartairan genes didn’t lose all their power? He needs only to turn his forelimb a little more, and he will be able to pick the doll. A little turn in unnatural direction – and the thing will be done. Sheim focused and tensed. His face covered with wrinkles and… In a second later after this all gathered heard a crackle. They got surprised. Some ponies looked at Sheim. And at this moment two more crackles came. Sheim wheezed.

“A-are you all right?” gathered wondered.
“I’m fine,” wheezed Sheim in response.

Then there was one more crackle, after this – a quiet but continuous scratching sound, and, in final, one big loud crunch. Sheim raled, staggered and… got out dirty, dusty, but intact rag-doll from the hole. Watchers gasped and in a moment rejoiced. Little filly exclaimed: “Yay! Thank you mister” run to Sheim and took the doll. Her mother and others sighed with a relief.

“Thank you a lot!” said the mare, “You really save our day.”
“You are welcome,” answered Sheim.
“We are very grateful. But tell us, what was that awful sounds? It looked like you wrestled your own leg there, and these shudders…”
“Well, partly you are right. I had to put a lot of efforts to get this doll out from the hole.”
“Can we help you?”
“Oh, no. I’ll handle it myself.”

He gave a nod to others and slowly hobbled away. And gathered began to fix the perforated wall.

Karin was heading to the town SPA. Warm bath, massage, hooficure, moisturizing mask… What else a mare needs for a good relax? During all those days Karin was probably the most hard-working member of the Team as she had to learn all the history of Equestria. She still had books to study, but it was small part comparing with the amount that she had already mastered. So she decided that she earned some good rest.

She was already near the SPA and looked forward to the coming session, when loud angry shouts from a side made her to return in the real world. Karin looked around and at the opposite side of the street found the source of the sounds: two colts-teenagers were arguing. They had been bickering for quite long time: their voices were hoarse already. And intensity of this arguing made to think that the end of this quarrel is not near.

After some time, having listened, Karin noticed one thing: the way how they addressed each other showed that these lads were brothers. And now they were cursing one another like each of them met his archenemy.

It was wrong. Yes, there may be disagreements between brothers, but they shouldn’t reach such state. Karin decide to intervene. She came closer to the wranglers and coughed loudly. Colts stopped to argue and turned to her.

“I understand that you, guys, were pretty busy, but still…” she started. “Your cussing can be heard from the Central Square. What’s all this about?”

Teenagers looked at each other.

“It was him!” said the one who was left of Karin and pointed to his brother.
“Me?” other lad resented. “It was you who started it!”
“I’m not asking who started it,” Karin raised her voice. “I asked what was the reason of your arguing.”

Colts faltered. They lowered their heads, looked to a side, and then the first lad took one thing from his saddlebag and showed it to Karin.

“This,” he said.
“Well…” Karin spelled, taking the thing in her hooves and starting to examine it. “Very nice part of airship engine, in good condition. Where did you find it?” she returned detail to the colt.
“I found it near the edge of the forest,” answered first lad.
“I found it, not you!” shouted other.

Karin growled. Lads silenced again.

“Well, we found it near the edge of the forest,” continued first. “We were just walking around, when we noticed something shining in the grass. We came closer and saw this.”
“Yeah. How it got there, we have no idea. But we liked it so we took it,” added second.
“So why then you were arguing?” asked Karin.
“Ehm… We couldn’t agree on who will keep it in his room,” answered second.
“If this was the reason of disagreement, then why not put it in other room? I don’t know, living room or dayroom?”
“Our parents won’t allow us do it,” said first.
“I see. Well, in this case you could make an schedule. For instance, one of you keeps this detail for a week, then other keeps for the second…”
“He will not comply with the schedule!” second protested and pointed to his brother.
“He will hide the detail!” objected first.
“Okay. Then I have only one variant,” said Karin.
“What is it?” wondered lads.
“We have to go to a forge to saw this detail in half.”
“NO!!!”
“We can’t do that!” exclaimed first.
“It’ll become just a trash!” exclaimed second.
“So you don’t want to saw it,” Karin looked at them.
“Yes,” nodded lads.
“Then you have to agree.”
“He will not follow it!” shouted colts and pointed to each other.
“I don’t know…” shrugged Karin. “You don’t want to agree and don’t want to divide your finding… It seems that I have no choice but to use the last way.”
“The last way?” surprised first.

Karin gave a nod.

“What is it?” asked second.
“Give me the detail,” said Karin.
“Ehm, what you are going to do?”
“Just give me that thing.”

Brothers looked at each other again and gave Karin the detail. She took it and then… quickly stood up and threw it away. Because of additional telekinetic push the detail flew over a third part of the town. In twelve seconds it fell into the nearest pond.

Lads froze with opened mouths. And Karin, having turned to them, said:

“Well, that’s all. I think now you’ll stop your pointless arguing,” and she went away.

She made only few steps, when one of the witnesses of the scene addressed her:

“You know, it was rather rude,” she said.
“You know…” answered Karin. “Sometimes the only way to make two stubborns stop the arguing is to force them to unite against the third.”

She sighed and continued her way.

There was no such question as a choice of occupation for Edez – since the first seconds he knew what he will be doing on his free time. After these hard days he wanted only one thing: come home, fell into a cozy chair and read a good book. The only question was what book to choose – during all three and a half million years of existence dreketanians wrote incredible amount of literature, septillions of books. And there were thousands of other cultures with quintillions and seztillions of their works… So it wasn’t easy.

Edez leisurely went home and intently thought – it was difficult even to choose a category. He didn’t watch the road attentively, so because of this for a few times he hit and almost knocked down other passers. But, in spite of this, he, after apologies, continued his walk without any changes in the level of attentiveness.

And he would reach the house like this if during one rare look-around he didn’t notice one unusual picture: a team of workers sat in poses of thinkers on their toolboxes and stared at the trunk of dead tree with no top and branches that once grew in a nook between two houses. A ladder has been put to it, and near some tools were scattered. The workers seemed to have no intention to do anything. It looked as if they wanted to hear the answer for the question of meaning of life from that tree. Edez got curious: what so special was happening here? He approached the team and asked:

“Excuse me, but… you have a problem here?”
“Well, yes,” one of the workers said, still staring at the tree. “We were ordered to cut down this tree. But it turned out that we can’t do it.”
“It’s just impossible,” added other worker.
“Impossible?” surprised Edez.
“We thought that if this tree is dead, then it’s mouldering, so we will be able to tumble it down easily,” continued first worker. “But very soon we learned that although the tree was dead, its wood remained solid. We couldn’t even move it. Then we started to cut it down… After twenty hits we made only small hole and broke the ax-handle. Then we tried to saw it into pieces… And got nothing.”
“You couldn’t even saw it?”

The worker pointed to the top part of the tree. There a blade of two-pony saw stuck out from the trunk. Handles of the saw were broken off.

“Oh…” uttered Edez.
“Exactly,” sighed the worker. “Roots of this tree spread under the foundations, so it’s dangerous to pull it out with magic. We tried everything what we could. What should we do now – we have no idea.”
“Yeah… It’s a very bad luck…”

Having heard this story, Edez began to pity these guys. They really tried, strove, but because of absolutely unforeseen circumstances failed. He wanted to help them, so he concentrated and started to stir up his physical and engineering knowledge base. He tensely thought for a minute, and one idea came to him.

“Guys!” he exclaimed. “I think I know how to help you.”
“Really?” workers turned to him. “How?”
“You will bring all your force to it?” suggested one.
“What? No, we will solve this problem with scientific method. If we want to remove this tree, we need a box of big nails, one big metal dowel and somepony who can cast a lightning spell.”
“A lightning spell?”
“Yeah. Remember what lightnings do when they hit the trees? Now I offer to do the same, but under controlled conditions.”

All workers turned to the only unicorn in the team.

“Ehm, well… I knew some spells that may fit, but… I’m not so skillful and powerful.”
“It’s not necessary: we need only to crackle this tree,” explained Edez.
“Oh, if so, then I might be able to do something.”
“Good!”
“Only one moment: we haven’t nails and dowel,” intervened other one.
“And what should we do now?”
“Well, there is a construction area near here, we can take some stuff there,” said the worker who told Edez their story.
“Excellent! So, bring the inventory and we’ll begin!” grinned Edez.

Two young worked nodded and run away. Soon they returned with all necessary stuff, and team set to work. Stallions took their hammers and began to nail down. They worked on different levels at the same time, so in five minutes eight vertical rows of nails were made. Then Edez climbed up and with all his might stabbed the dowel in the broken off top of the tree. The preparations were finished. It was possible to fire the lightning.

“Are you ready?” Edez asked the unicorn worker.
“Honestly… I’m not so sure,” he answered.
“Oh don’t worry! Everything will be fine! Trust yourself! Just focus properly and cast it!”
“Well, okay,” he quietly gulped, closed his eyes and focused.

Soon his horn started to glow. Then a little sparks appeared in the aureole, and their length and number began to grow. Some more time – and he will be ready to fire. His colleagues with great tension waited for this. Unicorn strained and prepared to release the charge. And at this very moment Edez insensibly put his hoof on stallion’s back. He decided to support the unicorn with additional amperes and volts – Max and Bluve found that thanks to ETS locals are quite resistant to electrical shock, so he didn’t worry about unicorn health, he’ll be fine – and quickly imparted the energy. Unicorn screamed, his horn flashed, and the lightning was released. It hit the dowel and in a moment spread through the trunk using nails as guiding lines. And the tree literally burst up: with a thunderous sound it crackled, dangerous steel rain of nails poured down, dowel stuck in thatch of the nearest house. Workers gasped, Edez laughed, a bit maniacally. Mission was accomplished: the tree was split, and the only thing what should be done was carefully demount it.

“I told you that it gonna work!” exclaimed Edez and hugged the unicorn.
“Yeah…” muttered surprised stallion.
“It was awesome!” exclaimed young workers.
“But also quite dangerous,” added their colleague.
“I should agree, but it was effective, right?” said Edez.
“I’d say that it was super effective.”
“Then fine!” he smiled. “So, do you need other help?”
“Oh, no. Now we’ll be able to handle this ourselves.”
“As you say. Good luck!”
“Thank you! Good luck to you too!”

Edez gave a nod to the team and continues his walk. And workers started to disassemble the crackled tree.

Oma was going to the town’s greatest café. She, as all other members of the Team, was already acquainted with local cuisine, but she wanted to try something new. Comparing with typical ration of chemosynthetic creatures menu of equestrians was very and very limited, so she was wondering how ponies add diversity in their gastronomy. Yes, there were a lot of edible plants here, but after all the variety provided by ability to digest almost everything, organic and inorganic, vegetarian diet seemed to be extremely restricted for Oma. She more than once addressed Bluve, trying get better understanding, but still often though about how ponies can excel during cooking. And she was thinking about it now.

But soon she’ll probably get able to find the answer: the café was already near. The building wasn’t so big, dining room occupied only half of the total square, but it had large summer terrace and some tables right in the street. Because of spotted top surface and roughness under it these tables looked just like amanita, and researchers got incredibly surprised when they learned that they actually are mushrooms, except that they belonged to other genus. Lunch break was already over, so only three tables were taken: on the terrace, in its corner, one stallion was taking a nap after hearty meal, near the entrance an old mare with very indifferent face drank her tea, and aside, at the farthest mushroom table was happening something that captured Oma’s attention. She made few steps back and hided in a shadow of the nearest house. There was a couple of young stallion and mare, they were talking very emotionally. Lad complimented and admired the girl, pleaded her, told her that she is the only one, that she is the meaning of his life. The mare nodded, thanked him very much, but answered with refuse. It continued for some more minutes and ended up that girl thanked the lad for the lunch, but said that she just can’t be with him. Young stallion, having heard another refuse, hung his head, quietly apologized and slowly left the café.

Oma watched all this and sighed. Another broken heart… How many times such things had happened? Inattention, indifference, inadequate self-conceit, inability to notice and appreciate, ruined hopes, dreams and aspirations of billions. That’s how destinies got broken. As a sociologist and psychologist she constantly faced with such things. It happened to her acquaintances, and it almost happened between her and Zet’rar. Yes, there still were some tensions in their relationships, but they found each other and began to come together. She came to her senses in time and could avoid the mistake. Now she understood, and she wanted to help others understand it too.

She quickly developed the action plan. The renounced stallion was plodding down the alley where she was standing, and it was just what she needed. She leaned on the wall and began to wait.

When sad lad came closer, Oma spoke:

“She was quite harsh, I think.”
“Huh? Who is here?” stallion shuddered.
“Don’t be afraid,” Oma appeared from the shadow. “It’s just me.”
“Eh… Pardon me, but I don’t know you, miss. Who are you?”
“Let’s say that I am the one who can help you resolve the situation.”
“What situation?”
“This one,” she turned to the café. There still was that girl – she stayed to have a couple more cups of coffee.
“Help me with this?” exclaimed stallion and looked at Oma with angriness. “Who do you think you are?”
“A pony, versed in psychology and some other things,” she answered and then quietly sighed. “I’m very familiar with such situations, and I don’t want anypony have them.”
“Oh…”
“I really want to help you, believe me.”
“Well, I don’t know… I tried many different ways, but didn’t achieve anything. I have no idea what could be able to help me now.”
“There’s always a way. But first, tell me more.”

Young stallion nodded, and they stepped aside, back in the shadow of the house. There lad told Oma his story. Having listened it, she mentally shook her head: the case was very similar to her and Zet’rar’s. This youth met that girl at painting courses and quickly got acquainted. At first they were just friends, but then lad started to fell something more for her. And he told her about this. She, having learn about this, hesitated. Lad continued to show her his feelings, but girl’s responses remained uncertain. The pattern of her actions showed that she also has great feeling for him, but something prevents her to love back. It seems that she makes excessive demands on the chosen one and, at the same time, doesn’t know what she wants. Well, in that case, the only necessary thing for solving the lad’s problem is to give this girl a push. And how to do it, she already knew.

So Oma told the lad her plan. He, having heard it, was taken aback: Oma offered to show guy’s fiancée that he in case of refuse will easily find another mare, and for making greater impression Oma agreed to be that another mare. Sight of such stunning beauty as Oma near him will give her – if she really loves him – the necessary push.

All they have to do is to play a little scene – walk near the café, having a romantic chat. But before this they need to wait some time – it will make the scene more believable. So they waited until the moment when the girl ordered the last cup and began to act.

Young mare carefully drank her coffee and looked at the street. She slowly turned her head, gazing around, and when she focused on the end of the alley… She almost dropped her cup: her stallion walked together and chatted with another mare! And what mare: graceful, slender, tall, long-maned… And how they looked at each other!..

“What else do you do?” asked the tall beauty.
“Well, except that I draw and photograph.”
“And what do you draw? Portraits, still lives?..”
“I prefer landscape. It fascinates me since foalhood: views of nature – mountains, forests, hills covered with meadows, waterfalls… Also I like to picture buildings, especially ruins. I think that they have their own special beauty.”
“Oh, it’s very romantic.”
“I like that you like it.”
“You are just wonderful!”

And at this moment Oma decided to one more thing to provide greater impression: she stood on hind legs, grabbed the lad, tightly embraced him and gave him a thing known as yedeizan passion kiss. It’s incredible and unforgettable, in comparison with it all other just pales. That cuddle, that fever… Yedeizan girls lay themselves out when they do it. Kissed at these seconds just stop their breath – partly because yedeizans for greater effect pull out some air right from their lungs. And what they do with their tongues… It can’t be described – one just have to experience it.

Oma kissed the lad for almost a minute, only then she released him. Overwhelmed stallion, when he got free, at first tried to stand on his own hooves, but then, when he managed to remain standing, he looked at Oma and kissed back. At this moment Oma appeared to be overwhelmed one – usually guys after first experience of yedeizan passion kiss barely remain conscious. She didn’t expect locals to have such stamina. They’re much stronger than they thought… And, by the way, they are incredible kissers.

It was the last straw. Girl, looking at this, just boiled up. She crushed the cup in her hooves and roared. In a moment she was near the couple and with one move threw Oma off, although she was one and a half times bigger. Oma fell down, and crimson with indignation mare yelled at her:

“Don’t you dare approach him!!! He is my coltfriend, not yours! Understand?”

The plan worked. Oma mentally smiled and gave a nod. Girl hemmed, took lad’s hoof and said: “Come, my dear,” And, having kissed him, quickly dragged her fiancée away. Stallion – when he recovered after surprise – found a moment, turned back to Oma, smiled and silently said “Thank you”. Then they disappeared behind the turn of the street.

When they went away, Oma laughed. Everything turned out to be even better and greater than she expected. Now these two will be happy. She stood up, shook herself and entered the café. It was necessary to celebrate the new union.

Kor walked away from the town. He was heading to the starship – only there was device what the needed, bioreactor. Even a decade of vegetarian diet is pure nightmare for a verekan. So now he wanted only one thing: to eat meat, preferably fresh, with blood and a lot.

He had to do it. For preventing incidents. Because if you dream that you’re having a snack cooked from your employers, then it’s the sign that time has come.

He was already approaching the town border when he heard three loud screams. It was Daisy, Lilly and Rose. Things like this happened quite often: on average, once a week – Team One learned about this in first days and at the same time witnessed such case. These mares not rarely panicked because of insignificant reasons, so ponyvillers got already used not to pay attention to it. But now there was something wrong with these screams: they were much louder than usual, and amount of wailing was larger. If so, then… maybe, something bad really happened to them? Kor, though he originated from one of the most dreadful group of creatures in the Union, in reality was rather kind-hearted one. He couldn’t just ignore it, so he rushed to the flower shops.

When he ran to the place, he saw that his guessing was right – bad thing had really happened: a group of about hundred famished parasprites attacked gardens of flower-girls. Lilly, Rose and Daisy were terrified. Some other citizens tried to drive the pests away, but parasprites didn’t react on all their attempts and continued to gorge. They had already destroyed third part of all flowerbeds, and when they’ll finish the rest was matter of minutes. And there was no certainty that they won’t attack anything else.

They should be kicked away. But how to do it if there’s hundred of them? Kor, having went over the options, found only one way: to scare the hell out of them. And he knew how to do it.

He silently approached the swarm. He had very resolute look, so other ponies with no words stepped aside and made way for him. Kor stood right in front of munching creatures and looked at the nearest parasprite. The parasprite looked at him. They stared at each other for some seconds and then… Having grinned, Kor jerked and in a second parasprite disappeared in his jaws.

Other parasprites in that moment immediately stopped to eat. They looked at Kor for some time, and then, having realized the situation, screamed and flew away back to the forest. Kor saw them off, and when the last ones got out of sight, spat out the swallowed parasprite. Slavered pest hurried after his fellows. And Kor started to spit furiously.

“Akhe! Khe! Aaahh… Jeez…” he uttered when he finally cleaned his mouth. “What a muck…”

And then, suddenly, he realized how it looked from the side of ponies. He coughed once again, slowly raised his head and looked at the witnesses. They looked at him too, and for a while they all presented a dumb scene.

“Ehm…” Kor felt a bit embarrassed.
“Th-thank you,” muttered Rose, who came to her senses first. “F-for s-saving our g-gardens.”
“Y-yeah, th-thank you,” added her friends.
“Ehm… You are welcome.”
“W-we are very grateful for this,” said Lilly and, after short pause, continued. “Maybe, we can do something for you in gratitude?”
“Oh, please, no! This little act isn’t worth it.”
“But it was very important for us!” exclaimed Daisy.
“You are our savior!” added Lilly. “Although your method was very strange.”
“Yeah,” agreed Rose. “And, by the way, where did you learn it?”
“Well… Some time ago I had to drive some parasites away from my grandparent’s garden. All usual ways I’d already tried, and they gave no results. It was necessary to come up with something new. So, experimentally, I found that the most effective way to get rid of pests is to scare them. And the way I used turned out to be the best.”
“Yes, it’s very effective, but still very queer,” said Rose.
“I can’t even imagine how it was possible to hit upon such idea!” exclaimed Lilly.
“Honestly, it wasn’t first time for me,” said Kor.
“What?” exclaimed flower-girls.
“Yeah… Once I got lost in a swamp. Spent six days there… And you just can’t survive there eating only reed and fir needles.”
“Ow…”
“Yeah… That’s the story.”
“Well, still thanks a lot.”

Kor gave a nod and said:

“Can I help you with anything else?”
“Oh, no. We’ll be able to handle the rest ourselves,” answered Rose, Daisy and Lilly.
“Then good luck, ladies,” Kor bowed and went away.

When flower shops and gardens disappeared behind the turn, Kor accelerated. It was necessary to get to the ship as quickly as possible. To endure the taste of parasprite, this rottenness, was impossible. He had to eat something after it, and urgently.

Fortunately, the suffering wasn’t long.

After some meditation Bluve finally decided what she will do in her spare time. The weather was wonderful: air was warm, sky was clear, sun was shining – perfect conditions to spend some time near a river and swim a little. Anxaiman are originally amphibious species, and although now they spend dozens of weeks on land, they are always glad to return to water.

The road to the most secluded and beautiful places ran through the town park. Today it was especially good: trees and grass quietly rustled under light wind, flowers adorned vast meadows, and all this was full of life – different little birds twittered far and near, squirrels darted in crowns and voles darted in grass, bees buzzed and dragonflies hummed around, grasshoppers chirped… Idyll, in one word. And Bluve enjoyed this beauty. She trotted along paths, peered, listened and admired.

She was relaxed and blissful, when a deep loud sigh disturbed the harmony. Bluve stopped. The sigh repeated. As the first one, it was very heavy. The one who made it was not just dejected, he was in the state of universal despondency. Such sighs one usually can hear when results of long and thorough work fail. If so, then somepony has great problems. And compassionate Bluve couldn’t just pass by. She headed to the place from where those sounds came.

Having waded through thicket, she came to the point. There was an old stallion in uniform of a gardener, who sadly looked at pond. And the pond… The pond bloomed. Because of flourishing blue-green algae it even changed its color. Looking at this, Bluve sighed too. The case was really bad.

“Yep, this is serious,” she spelled.

Park worker, having heard her, turned and looked at her.

“Oh, yes…” he said. “I’ve been working here for thirty years, and I haven’t seen such bad cases.”

Bluve gave a nod of understanding.

“And what to do now?” continued the gardener. “The cleaning will a week at least! Even if I’ll work together with all my colleagues. And there are no guarantees that it won’t happen again!”
“Yes, but… There are some ways…” said Bluve.
“There are? Really?”
“Well, yes. They may not help you so much with the cleaning – you’ll have to do it the usual way – but they guarantee that algae won’t appear again for a very long time.”
“Please, tell me about them. And, forgive me my curiosity, where did you learn about this?”
“I had hydrobiology courses in university, and thanks to them I know some things about maintenance of ponds. And what about the method… For preventing the appearing of blue-green algae you should reduce amount of organic matter in the water. After the cleaning you have to remove greater part of the bottom sediments, that silt. Then you have to provide better aeration of the water. This can be achieved if water in the pond will be well-mixed. You may use special devices for this or… do the following thing: put some black sheets on the bottom. During the sunny days they will get warm and thus warm water near them. Warm water moves upwards, and so the convection process will be started. Water will be mixed and, thus, well-airated. Only thing you have to do is to clean the sheets from sediments – just a couple of times during the season. Or you can dig a creek from the pond to the river and make a spring on the pond’s bottom – this will also create current, necessary for aeration.”
“Well… These sound like really reliable ways, but… They’re very costly. And amount of work is also quite large.”
“I know, but these ways will allow to avoid such problems in future.”
“I understand, but… they’re too laborious. I need another way. Is there anything else what can help me?”
“In fact… Yes – it’s chemicals. But they aren’t always reliable and provide only temporary effect.”
“It’s better than rummaging in this pond anyway. So, what do you recommend to use?”
“Well, you may try blue vitriol, for example. A little dose is needed, and effect is quick…”
“That’s more like it!”
“… but then, after some time, algae will appear again. And you’ll have to use vitriol again, and use bigger dose. Then the cycle will repeat and… In the end, the pond will be dead, completely lifeless and poisonous.”
“Ehm…” park worked faltered. “It doesn’t sound very good.”
“It’s so. And the same problem with all the chemicals.”

Gardener looked at the pond and sighed.

“Well, it seems that I have no other choice.”
“Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.”
“The next week will be very, very intensive… Thank you for advices!”
“You’re welcome. I was glad to help.”

They nodded each other and left the pond. Bluve went further, and gardened rushed to prepare for the upcoming work.

Zet’rar was walking around the town. He wasn’t going to any special place, he just wandered along the streets. He liked it: Ponyville was perfect place for strolls, very picturesque and peaceful. The stroll itself relaxed, and being outdoors cleaned his mind from heavy and bothering thoughts. This felling of clarity was great, and he didn’t want to lose it.

But, unfortunately, nothing in the Universe can be eternal. Quiet late afternoon was grossly violated by a series of angry shouts. The shouts were harsh and full of resentment. And, judging by the number and rudeness of swearwords and peculiarity of their using, they came from builders. They had problems with materials – they had a small shortage, but because of it they now blamed each other and all their providers.

If so, then the problem is not so simple as it seems. But you’ll never know without seeing. So Zet’rar went there to find out what was the reason.

After a couple of turns he came to the place. It was one of town’s small shops, closed for some days because of construction of awning. The area was fenced in, tools and building materials were just at the places where they may be needed – in short, there was real working environment. But there was no work – all three builders stood in the middle of the area and sparred.

Zet’rar decided to intervene.

“So, why you’re standing idle?” he said when he approached.
“Wut?” workers stopped to swear and turned to him.
“It’s none of your business,” said the forepony. “We didn’t call you.”
“Well, I perfectly heard your altercation and thought that some help of a colleague might be helpful for you.”
“Wait, you are builder too?” surprised another worker.
“Not quite – I’m an engineer. It may be even more useful. So, I heard you lack some materials, right?”
“Well, yes,” answered forepony after a sigh. “We’ve just found that one girder is missing. One and only damned girder, but without it construction is impossible!”
“Okay. And what kind of girder it was?”
“Standard wooden girder, 4x5 inches, two steps long, made of larch,” answered third worker.
“Ehm, and there was nothing in the town’s construction materials store that could fit as replacement?”
“If only it was so simple…” sighed the forepony. “That girder was made of mountain stone larch, solid but rather light wood. It can’t be replaced with another wood – it’ll violate the structural integrity. And the only provider is situated in Dodge City.”
“Oh…” Zet’rar stumbled. “It complicates the problem.”
“Yeah…”
“But still there should be a way… Hm… You know, if we can’t find a replacement among other wooden girders, we can use other materials!”
“Other materials?”
“Yes! We need to find another light but solid stuff.”
“You’ll never find anything as good as that larch,” said the forepony.
“You haven’t even tried yet. It’s quite possible that we’ll find what we need here and soon… Hey, by the way, what about other stuff that you have?”
“I don’t know… All other wood we’ll need later,” said second worker.
“And what about non-wooden materials?”
“Well, we have cardboard,” answered third worker and pointed to neatly stacked pile.

Zet’rar turned to look at it and for a moment got bowled over: that amount of cardboard would be enough for providing thorough insulation for two houses at least. Why there was so much material for one small awning? The reason was unclear, and Zet’rar was not going to look for it – having such perfect example as Pinkie Pie, Team One had already learned that logic here is very specific and not rarely leaves for smoke breaks.

“Okay, I see…” muttered Zet’rar. “And something except the ca… Wait… Wait! This is just what we need!”
“What? Cardboard?” surprised builders.
“Yes!”
“Excuse me, but how the heck you are going to replace wood with cardboard?” asked the forepony.
“It’s just ridiculous!” added second worker.
“Let me ask you one question,” said Zet’rar. “How long ago your textbooks on materials science were published?”
“Um… Eleven years ago.”
“Then you are not familiar with the latest achievements in the field. Just allow me to show one thing.”

Zet’rar took a knife and came closer to the pile of cardboard. There he took one sheet and cut eight elongated rectangles from it. Then he, having put the knife aside, accordion-folded the rectangles. When it was done, he put cardboard pieces on the ground so that the fold were perpendicular to surface. And then he… stood on them. And cardboard withstood. Builders gasped: Zet’rar, in fact, stood just on pieces of paper, and they didn’t even crumple! It was incredible.

“See?” Zet’rar meanwhile turned to builders. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he stepped back on the ground. “And now imagine: you made two or three hundreds of such folds, then paste them together with a good glue, press them – you may use other board and girders for it, only tie them up – and wait until the glue dries. You’ll get durable and at the same time light material! You’ll only have to saw out the fragment of necessary size and treat it to make nonflammable. Yes, it will take some hours, but you’ll have no need to go to Dodge City, and you can continue the construction!”

Workers exchanged glances.

“You know… It might work!” said third builder.
“Yeah!” smiled second worker. “If only eight folds were able to sustain his weight, then two hundred will easily be able to sustaint whole awning! Isn’t it right, boss?”
“Agree…” said the forepony. “It’s really amazing method.”
“I told you!” smiled Zet’rar.
“Thank you. Well, my lads, we need some glue and ropes.”
“Yes, sir!” said workers
“Thanks again!” forepony nodded to Zet’rar.
“You’re welcome!”

And, having said goodbye, technician left them. He continued his leisurely stroll. Workers began to to prepare the mold and cut the cardboard. The work will be long.