The Guardian

by Alexshy

11. Ponyville

Twilight admitted that she had quite a few things to arrange and headed to Ponyville Town Hall, despite it was obvious, she had several questions and barely held herself not to start “interrogating” Alex on the spot. Evidently, her unusual silence during their balloon flight fruited ripe. Nevertheless, Twilight parted Alex and Fluttershy, saying them a good-bye, with visible regret; Alex was sure, she would shake her answers from him, like Applejack her apples from a tree, well, at least try to, at the closest occasion possible.

As there was only one road here and Twilight went in the direction they practically flew from, Alex wanted to walk in the one, Fluttershy obviously came from – opposite the town; Fluttershy blushed and released him, soaring in the air and then landing next to him. Riding home in his arms was still a little bit much for her, besides, random ponies could be met during the short walk. She trotted along, as Alex tried to conform to her speed not to make her run, and the rest of the way they simply talked about random things, weather, recent events in the town: mostly Fluttershy told him about what he missed during the month spent in the “medical” facility.

Alex tried not to show the consequences of the seeker encounter, besides, his chest almost ached no more, only some stiffness in movements remained. But Fluttershy noticed him being slightly beaten up anyway; perhaps she didn’t want to ask him here, but rather in a more private and comfortable atmosphere. Alex thought about what and how he could tell Shy, without making her excessively concerned about himself; he was absolutely sure that certain details would.

Anywhere they passed by, Alex saw and felt the signs of summer taking over: the leaves on the trees and shrubs became bigger and darker, the fields changed their colour slightly, even more of the insects appeared. The birds though became less hearable, but that was natural: now with nests being built, they needed to address their growing families more than their songs. The windflaw suddenly brought the strong scent of honey from the west and remembering Ponyville surroundings Alex realized that Applejack’s apiary must have been running nicely as well.

The stream, the bridge, Alex saw the few smaller trees hung with birdhouses already; when some fish splashed in the stream, they crossed the bridge at that moment. His stomach replied to that splash with quiet plaintive squeaking, which Alex tried to ignore and hide with a prick from his conscience: the fish in this stream, like any living creature in a certain radius (except snakes), were good friends of Fluttershy.

When they reached the fence and were ready to enter the cottage’s yard, Alex looked back and spotted somepony, some pink pony, who hopped after them through the fields like a fluffy ball.

“Shy, I think it’s Pinkie,” Alex touched Fluttershy’s shoulder lightly, attracting her attention – she was opening the gate at the moment, quietly humming something tender. “It seems the quiet time is over,” he chuckled.

Fluttershy stretched her neck and looked, where he pointed. Her expression became ambiguous: on the one hand, she was always happy to see her friends, on the other hand, she evidently knew what Pinkie wanted and wasn’t sure, if it was the right time and place.

“Yeah, it’s Pinkie,” sighed Fluttershy. “And I think, I know, what she is going to tell…”

‘Well, at least that’s not Rarity!’ thought Alex. ‘If I saw Rarity, hopping like that after me, I’d have looked for a helmet, vest and a nicely locking basement with food and water reserve,’ but he said instead. “Let’s find out, maybe it’s not that awful…”

“Oh, no, it’s not awful at all,” said Fluttershy with a strange smile. “But… W-well, you know Pinkie… You’ll see…”

“Hey-hey!” there was a good twenty yards between them, but Pinkie covered them in a few hops; Alex shuddered. “Finally! Here is our human! Hi, Flutters; hi, Alex. How was the flight?” she asked with a sly smile.

Alex raised one eyebrow at “our human”, but returned the favour answering Pinkies question.

“Hi, Pinkie. Not bad! At the very least calmer, than one of the previous on that balloon,” he looked fixedly on her.

Both! girls’ noses and cheeks became pinkish (on Pinkie it looked reddish rather) and they embarrassedly downcasted. Alex started to realize the line-up of the night visitors, who startled the castle guards about a week ago.

‘But, Fluttershy!.. I can’t believe. I wonder, what they heard and saw, or what Twi told them, as she most likely found out as much as she could. Merlin’s pants!’

“Cough… Well,” continued Pinkie after a delicate pause. “I’ve met Twilight and she told me about the reunion…”

Before returning to natural colour Fluttershy’s cheeks flamed up again. “Squee!..”

“So I asked her, if we could finally return to our plan,” Pinkie pretended that she noticed nothing. “Okay, okay, MY plan,” corrected she under the fixed glance of her friend. “Actually she agreed with quite a look and a heavy sigh, but…”

‘I’m dying to find out why…’ sarcastically thought Fluttershy.

“…but we finally can throw our long awaited “Welcome to Ponyville, Human!” party,” nailed Pinkie with a victorious look. “Although, not that grand, as I expected, and with the limited number of invited guests.”

Alex facepalmed, but quickly pretended that he thought deeply, leaning on the fence.

“Practically that means us all, except Rainbow most likely,” she added in half tone, then continued more brightly. “The fillies then, they haven’t yet met you in person, Alex.”

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind, Fluttershy,” remembered Pinkie finally. “Hope, you both don’t mind,” ended she, smiling widely again.

“I-I don’t know…” Fluttershy timidly looked back at her house. “I m-mean, of course, my little friends… can cope with that for a while. Just not too noisy, okay?” she quickly added.

“Let’s come through that now,” Alex leaned to Fluttershy and whispered in her ear. “Once… and while it’s not overboard; besides, it could be fun, if we keep it under control. If you don’t mind, of course…”

“We could gather outside, no big deal!” added Pinkie, flattening ears and making puppy eyes.

“Okay, okay,” Fluttershy finally gave up. “But no “party cannon”, Pinkie, and I mean it. I don’t need some of the animals to have a heart attack.”

“Boo!” pouted Pinkie, but it was an obvious play as her eyes shone in anticipation.

“I have no objections about no “party… cannon?!”,” Alex raised both hands. “I can surely have a look at it any time later. But isn’t it a bit early indeed? I mean, if we make much ado of it, somepony may become interested…”

“That’s exactly what Twilight is dealing with now,” waved Pinkie. “She was going to visit Mayor Mare to ensure that everypony would be notified, that using magic on you is prohibited. I suppose, everypony will know that till tomorrow’s evening anyway.”

“Well, I have lots of things to prepare,” she jumped on the spot enthusiastically. “Won’t disturb you more, pals. Have a nice evening!”

And with a wink and meaningful smile Pinkie Pie turned and hopped back to Ponyville, Alex and Fluttershy exchanged glances and shrugged.

“At least that will keep her busy for a while,” muttered Alex approaching the front door. “And we may extend our hope for not facing more of the sudden ideas. After you, dear…” he stepped aside, opening the door.

“I wouldn’t be so confident about that,” Fluttershy threw a quick glance on him from under the long eyelashes. “Thanks!” she entered the house, Alex followed.

The majority of small animals and birds whisked to their nests, startled by the newcomer; they have forgotten him most likely as he didn’t spend much time with them. Although, the familiar squirrel recognized him and hopped on his shoulder. She sniffed his ear, which made Alex giggle from ticklish feel, and then quickly examined his few pockets, climbing on him like on a tree. When she found nothing, she ran away, but returned shortly and to his surprise Alex found a chestnut on his palm, where he held her.

“Thanks, little one!” chuckled Alex, scratching the squirrel behind the ear.

Angel, who hopped from somewhere, shared the usual fist bump and quickly made an innocent look, tapping his hind paw and almost whistling, when Alex glanced on the small pinholes on the inner side of the front door.

Alex took off his boots and “flew” up the stairs to leave the bag in the bedroom; when he returned, he suddenly felt that his energy reserve for today was almost drained. Fluttershy was in the kitchen already, fluttering between the sink and the stove, humming something again; the delicious scent of fried mushrooms and something, Alex couldn’t recognize, filled the air. Despite all his protests, she made him sit and Alex leaned heavily on the table, finally feeling that the fight didn’t come unnoticed by his body – he was at the very start of the road yet.

‘Road? Which road, pray tell…’ thought Alex tiredly, feeling that his eyes were almost closing, then opening, then closing again…

He was in his room in Canterlot castle, or better say, the “medical” facility; sitting at the table with the book in his hands Alex watched the setting sun in the small barred window. He threw a quick glance at the wall clock – supper time. At least there were no damned tests that day, that only made it quite nice already.

The hoofsteps behind the door notified him of the approaching nurse. But why he was hearing them like they were close, almost next to him? Alex looked back, no, the door is still closed. The delicious smell of homemade food reached his nostrils, something resembling mushrooms with unknown sauce.

‘What? Here, in the facility? Homemade food?’ Alex cringed at the thought that those wicked experiments affected his brain the undesired way. He must be totally seeing, hearing and smelling things.

‘Congratulations, weirdo!’ smirked Alex inwardly. ‘You’re not only a sleepwalker now, but full-time hay head buck.’

Somepony put the tray in front of him, the smell made Alex’s head spin and mouth water.

“Alex, dear, what’s wrong?!” “Ginger” leaned to him looking into his eyes from a couple of inches distance…

Alex twitched and… opened his eyes, finding himself in Fluttershy’s kitchen, sitting at the table. A plate with delicious homemade food was indeed under his nose, spreading steam and aroma, which made him feel the hunger twice stronger.

“Alex, what’s up with you? You’re scaring me…” repeated Fluttershy, leaning to him and looking at his face with concern.

Alex shook his head and focused his eyesight on her incredible turquoise eyes.

“Ah’m… cough… I’m okay, Shy, don’t worry…” he touched her cheek gently and Fluttershy snuggled to his hand. “I’m just a bit tired from all.. the stuff. And… I’m… I was there again, in Canterlot castle… when I closed my eyes.”

“Sorry, if I scared you, sweetheart.”

Alex leaned forward and covered her lips with his own, feeling that Fluttershy eagerly answers, much more enthusiastically, than when they parted the month ago. They could stay that way for quite a while, but Fluttershy said that the dish was better while hot and returned to her plate with a bit pinkish nose. She was smiling though, throwing quick glances at him out of the tail of her eye.

With each piece of food Alex felt that the fatigue gives up its positions. Not entirely, just backing up, promising to return, when he lessens his defense, for example tonight, but he already felt himself a living person, not a puddle of a sleepy human.

At the table Alex told Fluttershy briefly about his mishaps in Canterlot, not darkening the colours obviously – he knew from Twilight already that Fluttershy had a general idea about the nature of the experiments, being held there, and being run on Alex specifically. There was no need in giving her even more ground for anxiety. Obviously, he didn’t mention his sleepwalking yet, just like his fight with the seeker. There were too many unknowns, even for him; too early for sharing the few thoughts with those, who were already more than concerned about his well-being. Nevertheless, he caused a few excited and a few terrified exclamations from Fluttershy and inwardly praised himself for providently not telling her more.

Alex mentioned casually the invaluable help of princess Luna and her general compassion to his problem; he managed to catch the spear glance, Fluttershy threw at him from under eyelashes. She didn’t say anything though, except vague and simultaneously meaningful “Hmmm…”

He didn’t allow her clear the table on her own though and, after they quickly washed the dishes, suggested to get outside, as the lack of the fresh air was perhaps his second main problem of the last several weeks.

“I planned to check the animals,” said Fluttershy. “So you can join me, i-if you’re not too tired for that.”

“Naturally, I will!” Alex brightened up at the opportunity to distract himself from sad memories. “I hope, I won’t startle any of them… much,” he added not entirely confidently.

“Don’t worry – you’re with me!” Fluttershy cocked her head, proudly raising her nose in a joking manner, Alex couldn’t help but smile.

He was completely astonished by the quantity and variety of the animals and birds, Fluttershy had on her back yard. Truth to be told, he had no time or chance to estimate her household before, as he managed to get out of the house once only. And even that one time he was busy enjoying the mere fact he was in the open, then, later – the company of princess Luna. The actual yard appeared to be much bigger, than Alex suspected and saw in the… show. Now Alex cringed each time, when he remembered the show, so weird it seemed: this was the reality, objective, hearable, palpable; his previous life seemed more like a “show” from time to time. Alex shook his head, trying to drive away that scary thought.

There were mostly relatively small and timid animals and birds, but Alex knew that even completely wild (in general sense) ones, like foxes and badgers, came to Fluttershy from the woods, when they needed help. The most amazing thing was: nobody touched or hunted smaller or weaker ones here, even if natural laws supposed otherwise. This could be explained only by Fluttershy being really able to communicate with each and every of her animal friends. The final confirmation was a bear, which stomped heavily, passing by, and waved to them with his fore paw. Fluttershy nodded in response and Alex realized that it was Harry.

Alex couldn’t help but instinctively watched the bear from the corner of his eye, till the latter disappeared behind the trees on the edge of Everfree. Most likely that was exactly the case, as Fluttershy once mentioned, when Harry went hunting. She only shrugged lightly, so Alex realized, that she merely accepted that, as the inevitable “evil”, as some animals couldn’t be complete vegetarians; not wanting to know the details simply and knowing for sure that Harry wouldn’t touch any of those, he knew. Alex thought that the bear went to the river for a fish or two most likely. There were also snakes, whom nopony would mourn about much; Alex knew at the very least one exact alicorn, who would be happy, if the snake population in the nearby forest became smaller. He decided firmly to join Harry someday, as he felt himself exactly that “animal”, which couldn’t be complete vegetarian all the time. That was, of course, not for the fluffy ears of the surrounding ponies… but snakes, if cooked properly, were fine enough.

It took them about an hour to attend all those, who needed that, despite Alex helped, where it was possible. He noticed that the absolute majority of animals didn’t run away from him, even if squinted first suspiciously; the mere fact that he was with their friend Fluttershy made him non-dangerous in their eyes.

‘Fortunately, they never saw an average human from my world!’ thought Alex, being inwardly ashamed for the behaviour of quite a big part of his kin.

Finally, they finished and sat under the familiar to Alex big tree, relaxing and watching the sun, which slowly drowned behind Everfree. Alex leaned on the tree trunk and Fluttershy put her head on his shoulder, snuggling to him. He hugged her, gently stroking her shoulder and burying his face in her splendid hair, inhaling the smell of the flowers and honey and listening to her quiet breath. When he started scratching behind her ear, she rubbed against his cheek like a big cat, causing him to chuckle.

“What? That feels so nice,” cooed Fluttershy, turning to face him.

“I know, that is why I’m doing it,” said Alex, feeling himself being dragged into the bottomless depth of her big eyes. He slightly booped her nose with his own, but that didn’t distract her a iota and in a second their lips melt into each other’s again, while her fore legs wrapped around his neck.

Alex had no idea, how long they spent under that tree: when they headed home, the sky got almost completely dark and the first stars appeared. Fluttershy trotted lightly, there was something dancing in her gait; Alex watched her and felt that… he was doomed – there was no chance for him to choose. He inwardly facepalmed. And if he tried to imagine both girls together, side by side, it was even harder. Then sudden realization that he was pondering, almost choosing the… marefriend! hit him as a 200 pounds mallet, making him facepalm once more.

‘I’m thinking, as if it is 100% defined that I’m staying here for good…’

The next surprise awaited him in the bathroom, when Alex got to the first floor, while Fluttershy lingered downstairs for some reason. Alex turned on and adjusted the water, got rid of his clothes, throwing them into the laundry bin, and stepped into the tub. When he took the shower head and switched the flow to it, turning to the wall to place it on the holder, he noticed another holder, attached to the wall almost twice higher than the lower one, so it fitted his height. A heartily smile curled his lips, when he put the shower head on that holder and stepped under the water streams, feeling like warm flow takes away all daily problems with dust. Of course, it was a temporary, but simply amazing feeling.

Alex just managed to wash his head and rinse the foam off, when he heard the quiet sound of the opening door; in a few seconds he felt a warm touch of the coat on his back and two gentle hooves wrapping around him slightly below the chest level. An average pony was about his chest to shoulder high, when raising on their hind legs, so, the small hot kiss was placed somewhere between his shoulder blades. Alex slowly turned in that embrace and was met by the determined look of deep turquoise eyes. He took Fluttershy in his hands, lifting her and giving her the ability to wrap all the four legs around him. Now her face was a bit higher than his own and her fore legs wrapped around his neck. Fluttershy’s cheeks were pinkish, but something told Alex, that wasn’t the colour of embarrassment that time, when she leaned to him and kissed with a thirst of a traveler, who covered a few dozens of miles in the desert without water.

Alex stepped from under the shower slightly and turned to be able to lean on the wall. Supporting her with one hand he stroked the margins of her wings very lightly. The result was instant and avalanche-like: with a loud flap the wings went fully spread, almost knocking down the shower curtain with the beam, they looked suddenly large in the small room and felt amazingly strong, when Fluttershy snuggled into him even tighter, pressing him into the bathroom wall. Alex kissed her neck and felt that the sigh went seemingly from the very deep of her self. When Fluttershy waved her head, a thick braid fell on his shoulders, telling him, what made her linger downstairs…

*

Next morning greeted Alex with a few early sun rays, which danced on his nose and made him shield his eyes with the hand, waking up slowly. He accurately slid from under Fluttershy’s hoof, which rested on his chest, put her head on the pillow and kissed her on the nose. Fluttershy muttered something through her sleep, when Alex untangled from the sheet, they were covered with, and got up. He watched her with a smile: she grabbed the pillow, which he was resting on, and snuggled into it, her sumptuous mane got unbraided and, along with her tail, covered nearly half of the bed.

Adjusting the curtains, so the sun didn’t hit Fluttershy in the eyes, Alex thought about the oncoming day: Mayor Mare hardly informed everypony yet, so the visit to the town and possible job search were the tasks for tomorrow likely. Then he remembered about Pinkie and her plans for the evening and inwardly braced himself.

‘Well, that’s inevitable! And knowing Pinkie, it’s better to be done that way, than involving half of Ponyville,’ Alex firmly decided that anything Pinkie could plan was better to be performed outside – the less work for Fluttershy and him bringing the house to order after. Especially if the fillies were expected; he knew already (Fluttershy told) that they were like a small, but very meticulously overwhelming hurricane sometimes, when brought together.

Alex quietly took a shower, dressed up and headed downstairs, followed by Angel bunny, who stopped pretending that he was sleeping in the living room armchair, when the signs of upcoming breakfast appeared. Deciding on milk and cereals for himself and a big carrot for Angel Alex made coffee, inwardly smiling about Fluttershy still sleeping tight, despite she was usually an early lark. This time he managed to find a pencil as well as a sheet of paper, so any fire tricks were unnecessary.

“Good morning, sleepy filly! I’m outside. I hope, the coffee is still warm, when you find it…”

The note was placed on the table next to the coffee pot, which Alex covered with a thick towel to keep hot. Alex went outside, deeply inhaling the fresh morning air and trying to remember, where Fluttershy kept all the stuff for her little friends. The bunny preferred to stay at the house, than wandering around that early, and curled in the armchair again, nesting with all the possible comfort.

It took Alex some time to find and sort things out and he was already feeding the chickens, when he heard a series of bumps and sounds of very scurrying somepony, galloping downstairs. The hoofsteps entered the kitchen and stopped, after a few moments of silence a quiet melodious giggle reached Alex’s ears through the open kitchen window, then it opened wider and Fluttershy appeared in full glory of her bed head.

“Good morning, restless… colt!” Fluttershy blushed at her spontaneous joke, while Alex praised the look, she was so homely beautiful at that moment. “I’ve almost lost you… well… you know…”

“I’ve heard, Shy!” Alex laughed, startling the chickens and making them resentfully cluck, running around his legs. “Next time, please, be careful, running downstairs, while you’re not fully awake…”

“Oh, that’s…” Fluttershy’s nose became even more pinkish. “I’m fine. I’ve just opened a few doors too harshly… Anyway, what are you doing there?”

“I decided that your little companions shouldn’t suffer from us getting up later, regardless to the reason,” Alex continued filling the bird feeders. “So am doing, what I can. But the good part of treatment is still yours, Shy, as I have no idea what to do and not every animal here trusts me enough.”

“Bear with me for a few minutes more,” Fluttershy rubbed her eyes. “I’ll join you soon. Can’t believe, I overslept.”

“Well, there was a reason,” smirked Alex and Fluttershy waved her hoof at him, feeling that her cheeks start flaming again and backing up to the kitchen. She poured herself a cup of coffee and took something else for her simple breakfast and after a short while Alex heard her heading back upstairs. In a few minutes more Fluttershy with slightly damp mane joined him outside, explaining and showing, what she usually did for her animals.

‘Truly the Element of Kindness embodied,’ thought Alex quietly feasting his eyes on her, bustling around them. ‘Her vocation is to sympathize, help and… well, love.’

He caught a moment, when she stopped for a while, to kneel and hug her. Alex wanted to say something, but realized the words were excessive, when she snuggled to him and he looked in Fluttershy’s eyes.

“That was… quite an experience!” she whispered into his ear, kissing behind it. “I-I wouldn’t m-mind to repeat… if I’m alive enough after all the boom, Pinkie is going to arrange… if you are okay with that.”

*

When the regular morning inspection was over, Fluttershy decided to go to Ponyville: they were running short of some food and household stuff. Alex was going to join her, but she managed to convince him to wait for a day more at least, until Twilight could confirm that everypony is informed and no magical incident can occur. Remembering the first Lyra’s reaction Alex was to agree with Fluttershy and simply asked her to check the general store for some filler and suitable paint – looking at the pinholes at the front door every day already got him. Besides, that would be an ideal way to occupy himself before Pinkie’s party (Alex still didn’t feel much urge to celebrate, so it was more for her than for him indeed); besides, light smell of paint would convince everypony to stay outdoors and that was a nice change, as Alex had enough of four walls for the next few months perhaps.

While Fluttershy was in Ponyville, a sudden idea caught Alex and made him sit and dive into deep thoughts. When his future was undefined, that problem seemed distant and insignificant; to tell the truth, he never actually thought about that being a problem before. Now, when he more or less was defined as a Ponyville resident (regardless for how long) and considering he was firm about not being a constant “guest”, which meant getting a job first, this issue raised before him and unambiguously claimed about itself. His “citizenship” and legal status! Being the only at the moment, as far as he knew, human in Equestria, he practically had neither the former, nor the latter; both de jure and de facto. Any employer would like the workers to have both, so it was a large problem anyway.

While anypony (any actual pony) here could get some job, especially when the employer was in dire need of free hooves, even without paperwork, Alex was a totally different story. For example, seasonal work at the field or garden or heavy lifting needed the employer to know you and where to find you mostly, without excessive bureaucracy – if you were a pony! But Alex, as he forcedly admitted to himself, still was Celestia-knows-who for the absolute majority of the locals, so could hardly get any job without some sort of his legal status definition.

Despite all that, he decided firmly to try to negotiate for at least something, not later than next day, because addressing Celestia right at that moment didn’t look like a good idea to him: she had enough of him after the last two days most likely. Alex imagined how his attempts to find a job would look like, he didn’t know if to laugh at the obviously hilarious image of an “alien for hire” or grit his teeth at futility of that attempt. Perhaps Applejack could help for the start, but Alex knew that she was on the fence regarding him and listening to Rainbow, how the human couldn’t be trusted, hardly was going to be entirely welcoming.

Thus he forced himself to pretend everything was normal, when Fluttershy returned: it was entirely his problem and he was going to solve it himself, even if that demanded for disturbing Celestia again. Fluttershy brought, what he asked for, so, Alex shooed all the unhappy thoughts away for a while and focused on the front door. Angel poked his nose closer, when Alex was filling the holes, perhaps with a faint shadow of remorse on his muzzle, but when Alex opened the paint can, Angel snorted and whisked in the garden. The smell was strong indeed, they were even forced to have their lunch in the yard, where Alex tried his best to clean the lungs, leaning to Fluttershy and snuggling into her mane. Nevertheless, when he finished painting the door with the second layer a few hours after the first pass, Alex felt a bit dizzy and hoped that completely open door would dry mostly till night, so a few open windows were enough to feel that smell in the bedroom not.

The sun was slowly approaching the western edge of the sky and they started preparing for the upcoming party. Fluttershy said that it would look like a picnic with a bit of celebrating feel to it most likely. At least she hoped that Pinkie wouldn’t throw some crazy trick, besides, the “Party Canon” was banned this time. Alex was already interested, what it was, but agreed that refusing it was a nice idea, if they didn’t want to attract half of Ponyville attention. So, they took a few plaids and a gramophone outside and chose a suitable place in the garden.

Alex was totally amazed by that old piece of art the gramophone was. Of course, he expected something like that to be used as a music playing device in the world where steam engines were still dominating, but the mere fact that he saw one as a child at granny’s house made him treat that vinyl player like a rarity.

“Just wait and you’ll see a totally different side of Twilight Sparkle,” giggled Fluttershy, nodding at the gramophone. “If she likes the music and decides to dance.”

“I supposed, you all liked to dance,” smirked Alex. “Or…”

“Oh, we do,” Fluttershy still smiled mysteriously. “But believe me it’s a totally different story, when she’s at her best.”

“Dance, like nobody… umm… nopony is looking,” muttered Alex. “It’s been quite a while since I did.”

“What, honey?” asked Fluttershy, putting the picnic basket on the grass; Alex had no idea, what she cooked, but it smelled delicious.

“I said, I haven’t danced for quite a while,” Alex tried to take a peek into the basket, but was gently stopped by a small hoof.

“A-ha! Just have patience.”

“By the way, would you like to learn some human dance moves?” Alex kneeled to Fluttershy and grabbed her into a hug.

“Perhaps,” she giggled, kissing him in the nose. “Teach Twi as well, that won’t hurt.”

A bright flash and a loud clap and Twilight appeared personally, but not alone: she teleported a few baskets and a big cardboard box with her.

“Good afternoon, pals,” greeted Twilight, then took a look on the sky. “Or should I say “Good evening” already?”

“We just talked about you,” Fluttershy puffed a few strands of pink hair from her eyes, while Alex inwardly noted that she didn’t jump on the spot, when Twilight teleported this time. They were still keeping their embrace.

“Really?” smirked Twilight. “It looks like you both were more busy with each other…”

“Ahem… And what’s the stuff?” Alex nodded towards baskets, changing the topic, while Fluttershy hid her becoming pinkish nose on his chest.

“This? Oh, I’m helping Pinkie to deliver, what she can’t take on her own,” with a bright smile Twilight pointed on the cardboard box. “That’s a cake, for example, others are something special of her making as well, I suppose.”

“Looks serious,” Alex didn’t know how many of them will be on the party, but he already had certain doubts about them being able to consume all these. “Are you sure, she is not inviting more than we know?”

“Don’t worry,” waved Twilight. “That’s Pinkie, she will help us with all those. Sometimes I wonder, how she can combine all this with being fit…”

“Did you guys decide to run it outside,” Twilight looked around. “Well, there was no rain in prognosis at least.”

“It’s easier to fit everypony’s habits that way,” shrugged Fluttershy. “You know, the fillies like to run around and make a mess anyway.”

“Besides, it smells of paint a bit inside,” mentioned Alex. “We had some repairs and painting today.”

“Oh, yeah. The front door and the holes…” guessed Twilight, making Alex blush.

“Alex, I forgot the records,” remembered Fluttershy, facehoofing. “Can you, please, bring them as well? Check the second shelf of the bookcase in the living room.”

“Hmm… We have music tonight…” Twilight stomped from hoof to hoof and Alex smirked, heading to the door; the show promised by Fluttershy was granted evidently.

“So who’s coming exactly?” asked Fluttershy, when Twilight nested on the plaid, they placed on the grass. “I had no time to ask Pinkie, as she was flying like a hurricane.”

“Thankfully, not many,” waved Twilight. “I noticed that Alex was still undecided about big herds… just like you Flutters,” she stuck out her tongue jokingly. “So, except me and Pinkie, there will be Rarity and fillies, and Spike… and that’s all I guess.”

“Then why Spike is not with you?” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “He’ll get late, if walks here on his own.”

“You know Spike,” huffed Twilight. “There is a special occasion and Rarity is coming… What do you think he is doing? He asked for a half of an hour more, as he is undecided about what to wear.”

Both girls giggled, then Twilight added.

“I will pick him up in…” she looked at the Sun. “In about twenty minutes. If he is ready… and if not, it’ll be his problem.”

“I’m glad that Lyra is not coming tonight,” added Twilight, looking at the road to Ponyville. “I have nothing against her, but in that case “Welcome to Ponyville, Alex” party would quickly turn into “Q&A with Alex” or even “Interrogate Alex” evening instead.”

“Oh, noes…” gasped Fluttershy. “That’s the last thing, we need right now, after…” she stumbled, but no explanation was necessary.

“Exactly,” continued Twilight, then she remembered something and chuckled. “And with her usual remarks about “fifteen times longer” and so on… What? Fluttershy?!”

Twilight looked fixedly at her friend, who became red as a carrot meanwhile, and…

*Giggle-snort*

“Fluttershy? So you… both… errmmm…” Twilight made big round eyes, stifling that outburst. “So is that true? I always thought, it was some weird mistake, despite it was stated as a scientific fact…” she talked quickly, as usual, when she was eager to find out something new, sometimes completely ignoring the delicate details.

“Tell anypony and I’ll Stare you, Twi,” Fluttershy glanced at her from under the long eyelashes. “Especially Rarity!” she added in a second.

“Oh… I… I guess the answers are all “yes” then,” smirked Twilight, her eyes were still a bit dilated. “Well… Congratulations! Errmmm…”

“Twilight!”

“Okay, okay! You know me, won’t tell,” Twilight still smiled slightly, then added. “Pinkie Promise.”

“Here they are. Took me a little longer, as I had no idea that the “second shelf” meant “the second from the top” actually… and why are the books upside down?” Alex returned with the records and looked at the girls in surprise, handing them to Fluttershy. She was a fair bit pink still and Twilight stared at him with a strange expression. “What? What are you girls up to…”

“That looks like one of the jokes, Discord could play,” said Fluttershy, gladly changing the topic; Alex squinted at Twilight once again, so she unfroze and looked away in embarrassment. “Sometimes that’s stronger than him, I guess – he must have turned it upside down. The bookcase is symmetric, so nopony noticed, until you started looking for the records.”

“Hmpf,” Alex shrugged, thinking that Discord was even stranger, than he considered him to be initially. That was more harmless, than being poured some water on, anyway.

“Hey, look!” he straightened, observing the road from under the hand, the Sun was low, shining into his eyes from aside. “Somepony is coming, must be the rest of the company…”

“Oh, if you excuse me…” Twilight raised on her legs. “Just a second, I’ll bring Spike… whatever stage of preparations he is at,” she added with a devilish smile.

Alex still looked at the road: he spotted two pony figures, one was hopping the familiar way and he could be sure that was Pinkie Pie, even if the Sun didn’t let him see the colours exactly. Another one, pacing proudly and graciously, must be nopony else, but Rarity; Alex inwardly grasped himself, getting ready for… for anything. And he could spot somepony, who ran in circles around the girls, making them move slower, than they could, and almost blurring in a colourful stripe… or, better say, three stripes, as Alex concluded, when looked more fixedly.

‘The fillies,’ guessed Alex. ‘Those, whom I heard about, but never saw in person yet.’

Twilight vanished in the flash of magical light and in a second or two appeared again with a… small pink dragon with green spikes, who sported an elegant black bow-tie. That was seemingly everything Spike – and it was exactly him – had time to choose, or the only thing he considered fitting the occasion (seeing Rarity obviously, not the party itself, as Alex concluded).

“Woah!” exclaimed Spike, jumping down from Twilight’s back. “He is even bigger than I thought… Errr… I mean, hi!” he waved his paw.

“Woah!” mimicked Alex. “A real dragon! A real talking dragon! Merlin’s pants… I mean, hi!” with a smile he handed Spike his palm for a handshake, but then, seeing as Spike looks puzzled, Alex remembered that Spike spent all his conscious life with ponies. So he changed the palm to a fist, that came through better and they shared a fist bump, slightly softer variant of hoofbump, ponies got used to.

“It seems I’ve heard exactly those words from somepony else once,” smirked Spike. “Was it you, Fluttershy?”

“Perhaps,” nodded Fluttershy, then she started opening the basket. “Come on, mates, give me a hoof. The girls are coming. From you, Alex, a helping hand is expected,” she nudged him lightly.

Spike looked at Twilight, she just shrugged, making a face, like saying: ‘Yeah, as you see!’

They just managed to unpack the food, Alex wondered once more about the quantity of sweet stuff Pinkie provided, when the girls and fillies approached the gate.

“Hey, fillies and gentlecolts,” Pinkie greeted them all with a wide grin. “Good evening. Here we are and we won’t let you become bored,” she glanced at three fillies meaningfully. “And here is our lucky… man!” and Alex couldn’t say a word before he became enclosed in a bear hug. “Good to see you… finally free.”

“Thanks, Pinkie!” breathed out Alex, rubbing his ribs, this pony had quite a grip. “I’m glad to see you, too.”

“Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash couldn’t come, she was training, again,” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Something to impress the Wonderbolts. But I’m sure, she joins us mentally,” she didn’t let the uneasy pause hang too obviously. “And Applejack is overly busy with some work in the garden, she told me, but I didn’t understand much from the specific terms…”

‘Or she is still undecided, if I’m an awful threat, a carnivorous alien or something of that kind…’ sadly thought Alex, but the next phrase told him that he might be dramatizing things a bit.

“But she sent a few bottles of finest apple cider, apologizing she couldn’t come and wishing you to finally settle in Ponyville and find your place,” Pinkie shook her saddle bag a tiny bit, making it produce an unambiguous sound.

Alex thought that it was a nice sign of Applejack, if being not entirely on his side, not thinking of him as a dangerous extraequestrian creature at least.

Rarity raised on her hind legs to hug him as well, but she did it lightly and extremely graciously, batting her long eyelashes and looking into his eyes. Alex couldn’t help but compare her mentally with a big kitten, involuntarily leaning closer and getting a warm kiss on the cheek. He noticed with the corner of his eye, how Spike frowned slightly at that scene.

‘Great,’ thought Alex. ‘The little guy seems to have a crush on Rarity. Perhaps, I could explain to him that I’m not going for THAT competition,’ Alex suddenly had an idea, which could help him cool down Rarity, as he hoped.

“Good evening, Ahhlex, darling!” almost purred Rarity, releasing him and ogling once again. Her tone didn’t leave room for any doubts about her future plans regarding his humble persona.

“Evening, Rarity,” Alex tried to stay cool and composed; Fluttershy smiled, that was obviously the case, when she was completely confident. Alex imagined her modeling for Rarity and his heart fluttered.

“Hi, girls!” he turned to the fillies, who, perhaps the first time for the day, sat still on the grass, completely stunned. “So, you’re obviously Sweetie Belle,” he nodded to unicorn filly. “You’re must be of Apples family, judging by your coat and freckles,” Alex winked to red-haired one. “That tells us that you are Scootaloo,” with a cheerful smile he turned to the most confident among them, pegasus filly with shortly cut, unruly mane. “Nice to meet you all in person, sorry, in pony.”

“H-hi, Alex,” said all three girls at once, with slightly unconfident smiles, he was still an unknown figure for them. Scootaloo added.

“You look bigger than on the sketches…” she gasped and her nose quickly began to get pink.

“Sketches?” Alex raised one brow, all three fillies looked at each other and Alex turned to Rarity and other girls. “What sketches?..”

“Oh, just the stitching and modeling sketches, I did for your clothes, darling,” quickly replied Rarity, but her obvious embarrassment and pinkish cheeks told Alex that there was more to those sketches, than simple stitching. “The girls haven’t seen you in… person, but on those sketches only…”

“Oh… Okay,” Alex told himself to sort out that question later, he had certain assumptions, but… they were a bit wild, so… ‘Later. Let’s not spoil the evening anyway.’

“At least they didn’t lie about me having one head, two hands and two legs,” he laughed, noticing that the fillies relaxed a bit and started instigating each other quietly.

“Errmmm… Is it true that the magic has no effect on you?” finally made up her mind and asked Apple Bloom. “And that you can take magic from a unicorn.”

Twilight quietly squeaked, she was unsure, if Alex would react normally to questions alike after all the experiments, yet feared that some questions would still raise. But Alex just smiled, a bit tiredly to be completely honest, and sat on the plaid, welcoming the fillies to come closer with a gesture.

“Well, I don’t know myself, which of that is true and which is partially true,” he said. “I won’t say that magic has completely no effect on me, just not the one the caster wants to achieve. As for the rest, yes, I’m afraid, that’s true, that is why exactly everypony was warned to avoid applying magic to me.”

“Was everypony warned by the way?” Alex turned to Twilight.

“Yeah, I guess the information settles well in the heads till tomorrow morning,” nodded she.

“Excellent,” Alex looked at the fillies again, who gathered the courage to come closer. “But I’m not some kind of a magic… vampire. I don’t control that process, nor drain some magic willingly. I’m not… Nightmare Alex,” he smiled.

“You don’t look like one indeed,” Sweetie Belle jokingly squinted at him. They with Apple Bloom came closer and Alex could stroke their manes. Sweetie Belle even snuggled into his hand, and both girls looked very much like kittens at that moment as well, Alex noticed how Rarity smiled, obviously, her sister coming along nicely with Alex fitted her expectations. Alex sighed inwardly.

Scootaloo though sat at a tiny distance and examined Alex thoroughly, as if she wasn’t entirely sure that he was a totally safe acquaintance. Instead, she asked a bit bluntly.

“And what else can you do, except reflecting magic?”

“A nice question, Scootaloo,” smirked Alex. “And very vital one. I guess I’ll find out in a few days, what I can do in your world for living.”

“Oh, Alex is being overly humble,” chuckled Twilight. “He is much more capable than he admits, as we could see…”

Alex quickly made big scary eyes towards Twilight, pressing his lips into the thin line and then articulating with them only “L-A-T-E-R!”. Fortunately, nopony seemed to notice.

“Twilight means my outstanding regeneration levels and extreme durability against applied magic,” said Alex with a wry smile. “As the latest… experiments have shown.”

He got up and took a look over their preparations, then facepalmed, as if they missed something.

“We got only teacups, Fluttershy, and we have some cider now. I’ll bring some glasses,” he said heading to the house. “Twi, would you be so kind to help me.”

“Careful, the door is still sticky,” warned Alex, hearing that Twilight trots behind him and turning to the kitchen.

“So?” Twilight got straight to the point as they entered. “What did you want to say in private, Alex?”

“Look, Twi,” Alex opened the cupboard, looking for the glasses, then leaned on the table. “I know that what you saw in that mirror in Canterlot yesterday looks a bit strange and needs some explanation…”

“At the very least,” Twilight nodded, scanning the inside of the cupboard. “We were both completely stunned… Well, I guess, Celestia a bit less than me, but still. What the hay did we saw?”

“I wish I had a passable explanation myself,” sighed Alex. “My relationship with magic is too complicated even for the whole Royal Council, not for me only. Don’t know, if the only simple theory, I have now, satisfies your interest at least partially…”

Twilight silently nodded him to continue.

“Well, I don’t know how it works exactly… I guess only strong interaction causes that, or maybe certain bonds are necessary for magic to work that way,” Alex took a few glasses himself, then turned to Twilight. “Besides, I suppose it worked only during the short period after my arrival, because lately I was subjected to the tons of different spells and neither made me a “superman” or something…”

“So what do you think about all that… “seeker hunting” and…” Twilight looked up to him with sparkles of scientific interest in her eyes.

“Well, I can only guess, but…” Alex shrugged. “When you tried to heal me, as Fluttershy told me later, you didn’t get any visible effect, but later my regeneration level became excessive, borderline excessive as they told me at the… “facility”. A bit later Luna… (Twilight blinked) princess Luna tried to reach my dreams, interested in what I was exactly. She succeeded, but I got the ability to reach her dreams as well… and even more, as you saw. Neither Lyra’s spell, nor the spell galore in Canterlot didn’t change anything, but I can guess certain magic can, or could… change me somehow. I just don’t know what conditions are necessary for it to work, nor I control the entire process. And… well… and that’s all for now…”

“I’ll tell you, if I find out something… anything,” he added after a pause. “But I would like you to keep it between us… four, including Luna and Tia (Twilight raised an eyebrow), for now. And I don’t want to make Fluttershy worried specifically,” he added meaningfully.

“What about the things we saw that day?” Twilight wasn’t going to give up before asking every question that bothered her. “Particularly you controlling objects, making things fly, making yourself fly… and all that fire show at the end. I admit, the way you took down the Seeker could be explained your magic draining ability, but the rest…”

“Luna explained to me a few things,” Alex let out a small smile. “I tried myself and learned something, I guess I’m not hopeless. But as you may notice I can’t do that all, when I’m awake or sleeping normally. And the fire… Well, that was my first experience, when I came here, so, later, I guess, fire became most responsive in my case…”

“But princess Luna affects the dreams of her subjects, not the reality itself,” Twilight looked stunned still.

“Art thou entirely sure?” Alex seemed to dive into deep thinking. “Art thou sure, thou can define whither thy dream endeth and reality reigneth, at which hour thou art sleeping?”

Twilight dropped the glass, she was holding with her magic; with a blazing dash of his hand Alex caught it in the air, like if he suddenly woke. Twilight forcedly closed her mouth.

“What do you think, you just said?” she asked quietly after a second.

“Umm… That you can’t be sure, if Luna is changing your dreams, or the reality through your dreams, or simply the reality around you, if you are supposedly dreaming at the moment. Something like that, right?” Alex shook his head.

“I mean, do you know, HOW exactly you said that?” Twilight corrected herself.

“Don’t you see, what is happening, Alex? You sometimes speak exactly like princess Luna, even like her, when she is worried much,” explained she, seeing Alex’s bewildered glance. “Her ancient language takes over specifically strong in that case.”

“I’ve noticed…” muttered Alex, then sighed. “Look, Twilight, that’s complicated. You want the answers, I don’t have yet, in the earnest.”

“But…” Twilight touched his hand.

“They say, if you communicate with an interesting person… pony in that case, too much, you start accommodating to some of their habits, and vice versa,” Alex put the glass on the table.

“Alex, for Equestria sake! You didn’t sound like you were mimicking or “accommodating to Luna’s habits”, you sounded, like it was your native manner of speech for ages!” Twilight wasn’t so easy to distract.

“I still stick to my point,” Alex provided her fitting competition. “What’s wrong in me taking something from her in. She was the only person, who talked to me normally for the whole month in Canterlot… well except one nurse, but she was to keep silence on the experiments matter.”

“Errmmm…”

“I don’t imply that any of you were indifferent about me or my fate, Twi,” amended Alex. “Especially Fluttershy. But… you were here in Ponyville and did, what you could, right? Yet she was the only one there, who treated me like an individual, not the “primary test subject”. I’m not afraid, claiming that without her I would most likely become completely mental or at least asocial.”

Twilight kept silence, somewhere deep inside she understood that Alex was right – before she was allowed to come, nopony except princess Luna could treat Alex as a person.

“And you see a particular problem in me speaking like princess Luna sometimes. Why? I have no idea, how that happens, Twilight. But, know what, I find her manner of speech cute, awesome… well, attractive, Twi. Yeah, I said that. I do forsooth!.. Oh, don’t look so shocked, please, like if you see a snake…”

“Oh, Alex,” Twilight downcasted with a sigh. “The problem is not in you talking, like anypony. The problem is in you changing, sometimes completely strange and unpredictable. Where will it lead finally, do you know? I don’t, so does not Celestia, and that bothers her. Me either…”

“Art thou capable to change anything, Twilight?” Alex spoke ardently; Twilight gasped. “Or the fate is called that, as we are unable to do anything with what is supposed to befall. The only way to stop changes, thou fearest, is to eliminate the source completely,” he squinted at her. “I’m sure Celestia hath thought ‘bout that variant, mayhap even more than once. Thou can as well, who am I to object? While it shalt surely work, dost thou see ‘t as a worthy way? Art thou ready to try?”

Twilight closed her eyes, she had no answers for those questions, inwardly facehoofing at the flood of “old speak”, poured on her.

“Hey, guys, we became afraid, you got lost in the house,” Fluttershy entered the kitchen and stopped, examining Alex and Twilight, both holding the glasses, they obviously found easily, yet both in the state of deep thinking or being puzzled by something.

“What’s up with you, Alex, Twi?” Fluttershy’s voice became worried. “You both look, like you’ve seen a ghost…”

“Twilight asked about some results, we got in Canterlot,” Alex unfroze and took a few glasses in one hand, hugging Fluttershy with the free one. “And they were indeed strange. I don’t know what to think of them myself. That’s not mentioning I’m entirely far from magic. But I guess I should accommodate to it being everywhere around,” he kissed her lightly with a smile.

“Oh… Well… L-let’s go then, if you found the glasses,” Fluttershy alternated from him to Twilight. “Don’t make everypony wait.”

Alex caught the moment, when they were exiting the cottage, to lean to Twilight and whisper in her ear.

“Please, Twi, I hope we agreed, you won’t tell about the seekers and other… things yet. I really don’t want to scare anypony…”

Twilight nodded shortly; she kept to herself, what she thought at the moment.

Finally, all the snacks were unpacked, glasses filled with cider for adults and juice for fillies and Spike: the latter was very prudent in that regards, keeping himself alcohol-free even while having a chance to get it – the dragons are naturally way more… alcohol-tolerant. Everypony chose a place of their liking, unobtrusively placing Alex closer to the center, next to Pinkie, who, being the actual guest here, was de jure the hostess of the party, as it was entirely her idea and mostly her realization. She puffed her mane and tail proudly and obviously was going to throw a speech.

“Fillies and gentlecolts… ahem,” Pinkie looked around. “Better say, gentleman and gentledragon,” she giggled and Spike nodded, raising a claw. “I was going to arrange that party long ago, but the circumstances worked against us all…”

Alex thought, he didn’t notice himself being worked against, at least regarding the party, but said nothing, just smirked, not wanting to be a spoilsport. Meanwhile, Pinkie continued.

“First Alex wasn’t in suitable enough shape, then some regal interests took over. Mates, I waited a whole darn month to say those words. Besides you, girls, held my hooves tight all the way. Even now I’m half restrained in my favourite work – party making, with no Party Cannon allowed,” Pinkie sniffed regretfully. “We gathered here in close, almost family company… To be honest I could hardly remember running a party like that…”

“But,” she added more cheerfully. “I say, let’s have fun and let’s share some fun with one, who, as I think, needs it right now. Something to brighten up his day, well, sorry… evening…” she turned to Alex. “I hope, you can find yourself here in Equestria, while you are here, or…” she sighed meaningfully. “At least you have friends here, Alex, and we’ll try to make it easier for you, and easier to make new friends as well,” she winked, raising on her hind legs. “So, Welcome to Ponyville, Alex!” half-yelled Pinkie, spreading her fore legs and kicking a small box behind her with one hind hoof – quite a trick for an Earth pony, to be honest.

Alex thought, that Pinkie could do that even louder, she simply remembered about Party Canon ban and didn’t want to be one herself, but the next moment he gasped…

The box opened and released a colourful band with letters, a bunch of balloons and tons of confetti and streamers; the latter flew out in a blast with the muffled sound of a trumpet and Alex involuntarily chuckled. Evidently Twilight put her hooves on that surprise, as the band hung itself, attaching to the tree branches, to be read with familiar “Welcome to Ponyville, Alex!”, so did the balloons.

Fluttershy, who sat next to Alex, put her head on his shoulder and the confetti rained on them, just like on everypony present. Alex looked closer and noticed that quite a portion of confetti was heart-shaped.

“Twilight?!” he squinted on alicorn girl, removing a shining heart flake from his glass.

“Don’t look at me like that,” replied Twilight with a satisfied smile, cocking her head. “We ran out of simple round confetti with Pinkie, while preparing the surprise greeting. Only those left. We couldn’t let you have a dull small amount of them,” she threw a sly glance at him.

Alex sighed, inwardly facepalming, and downed his portion of cider, catching a few surprised looks. The drink didn’t look much different from apple juice to him, but it was seemingly strong enough for ponies to be treated as proper alcohol. Others finished their glasses in smaller portions, trying the snacks.

‘Great,’ thought Alex. ‘If my life here gets on my nerves, it would take quite an effort to even get drunk the right way.’

Nevertheless, despite Alex was initially sceptical about the whole party thing, it was really going better, than he expected. Everypony just talked, laughed and enjoyed the meal and company. Alex liked that he didn’t get overly more attention than others, even if it was technically “his” party. He ate and drank less and watched and listened more, finding out new tiny, but meaningful aspects, about his new friends. The more he thought of them, the more he admitted that he liked them. The whole party wasn’t much different, than any close company, he had on Earth before.

He felt the warmth of Fluttershy at his side, hugging her with one hand, looking in her eyes and chatting with her and Twilight, who he teased every time possible, still thinking that the heart-confetti trick wasn’t accidental. Pinkie was the soul and engine of the company, stirring it, not letting them catch even a faint shadow of boredom. Spike tried his best to gain Rarity’s attention, becoming especially eloquent tonight. Rarity divided her attention, responding him, talking with others and sneakily ogling Alex, evidently regretting that he was “guarded” from both sides by Fluttershy and Pinkie. The fillies took part in the whole company, but in their own way, as they couldn’t sit quietly long enough – they started running round and about, startling squirrels and sometimes bumping into Alex, who caught them with laughter. They reminded him about his cousins more and more, with the only difference that there were three of them.

Alex felt almost like if he never got nobody-knows-where, almost like home, not twitching about that already. The ambiguous feeling visited him: the warm homely attachment to those ponies and the thin stinging pain in his heart at the realization and fear, as he was inevitably to leave them someday (alas, he still hoped to get back home). He was to admit that it would hurt him, and saw that it would obviously hurt quite a few of his new friends; that didn’t make things easier. Trying to become possibly less emotionally attached at first he drastically failed at it finally. Choices, losses, if only he could avoid at least some of them in his life…

He thought about Celestia and Luna; how many losses they managed to overcome being eternal. His problem was hardly different: the mere fact that he could feel the pain less than eternity, didn’t make it less painful for him. Alex sometimes wondered, theoretically, how could an immortal person live? Not building any attachment at all, being a coldhearted slab of a person? But, for example, Luna was nothing like that… and if to think about it, Celestia as well. So wasn’t Twilight, considering she was now an alicorn.

The last thing Alex could imagine was that Luna avoided building strong attachment, it neither felt, nor looked like that. And Fluttershy was totally giving herself to her feelings. Then Alex remembered about regeneration tests result and Celestia’s words that she wasn’t going to predict his lifespan now. He closed his eyes and gritted the teeth not to moan in despair.

Perhaps, Fluttershy felt that something was not right with Alex, because she stayed close, snuggled into him, her gentle hoof stroked his back soothingly. And Alex ran his fingers through her mane, inhaling the aroma, nuzzling her cheek (and making Twilight smirk quietly), while feeling a stone over his heart becoming a boulder, then turning into a rock slowly. But he tried to keep up with the girls and the party feel. Thus a couple of hours passed and the Sun was about to dive behind Everfree.

‘Anyway I doomed,’ admitted Alex. ‘Isn’t it better to relax and enjoy, what I have right now and right here?’

‘If only it was as easy to do as to say,’ he sadly smirked; Fluttershy looked into his eyes with worry, her latest kiss wasn’t friendly, it was rather spousal… like last night. ‘I must ask Celestia, how she keeps her composure, constantly facing that problem.’

Right at the moment Alex remembered about Celestia, Spike made the round eyes and… suddenly burped with a small flash of green fire coming out of his mouth.

“Sorry,” muttered Spike confusedly, catching the scroll, which materialized in the flash. “That’s from princess Celestia,” he handed the scroll to Twilight, who unrolled it with magic and quickly scanned the header.

“Actually, it’s addressed to you, Alex,” Twilight floated the scroll to him with a surprised look on her muzzle.

Alex held out his hand and caught the scroll, when Twilight dropped it. When he unrolled it entirely, another, smaller sheet of thick, hard paper fell out of the scrolled letter on his knees. Alex put it into his shirt pocket, starting with the letter first.

“Dear Alex…”

He widened his eyes and chuckled, imagining Celestia’s expression, when she wrote that, despite it was only a figure of speech.

“…As your departure was slightly chaotic and preceded by the certain stupefying event, detrimental for careful planning, we all forgot about the very important aspect of your residence here, in Equestria. Namely – your legal status, or unfortunately the lack thereof. (You certainly have to blame mostly yourself for that and I’m still waiting for some articulated explanation, when you manage to sort this out, but that’s the matter of future appointments).”

Alex almost saw how she smiled at that phrase.

“…Thus I’m going to correct that unforgivable mistake and define your citizenship once and for any time necessary for your residence in our domain. The applied document should be enough for you to be accepted as a sterling Equestria citizen and make any legal deals freely, if any questions arise. To keep it safe and by hand is now entirely your task.

Your (for the time being) Sun Monarch,

Princess Celestia”

‘Well, I’m legal now – that’s good,’ Alex smirked, examining another sheet of paper, he took out of his pocket again; that was technically a passport, visa, registration, all-in-one, signed by the monarch to eliminate any doubts of authenticity. ‘But at the same time I’m a full-time equestrian now, that means, if Celestia finds it necessary, my ass is served on a silver plate. I guess one can’t have one without another.’

He carefully put the document back, then folded the letter and shoved it in the pocket as well. At the same moment Spike produced another green flash and caught another smaller scroll, which he gave Twilight as well. She nosed at it slightly and handed to Alex with a raised brow.

“That seems to be for you, too.”

Alex unrolled the short notice, feeling lavender smell and guessing who else could realize; he noticed, how Fluttershy stiffened a bit. He couldn’t blame her, it was obvious enough, if Celestia wanted to add something, she would most likely add it to her first letter. He couldn’t blame Luna either, as she was unable to add to Tia’s message:

“At midnight. I extend mine hope thou hast thy list ready as well, mine lief.”

Alex tried to keep dispassionate face and thought, if that generosity of princess Celestia wasn’t a result of Luna’s work. But he was thankful for that anyway; just in time, he had no idea how to proceed with job search without that.

Right at that moment Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped at Alex and all the three rolled on the grass in free-for-all romp, tickling each other and laughing; Scootaloo followed, waiting for a tactical moment to take down Alex, who, frankly speaking, missed the beginning of the “attack” and was in a less prominent position. The fillies obviously got tired of quiet sitting and that forced minute of silence, when Alex got his letters.

“Phew!” breathed out Pinkie. “Everything is okay, thanks Celestia. Because I thought, somepony put a silencing spell on you all.”

“These three are enough to break any dull spell forsooth,” Alex tried to take his breath, but he was to stop tickling and release Apple Bloom, when other two girls piled up, and finally all three victoriously sat on him. “Okay, okay, I give up! There are too many of you and when you jump around, it seems to be twice more,” added he with a laughter, putting them one by one on the ground and sitting straight.

“Don’t know about you,” stretched Twilight. “But I agree with the girls – enough sitting, time to move your flanks a bit.”

In a wink she reached the gramophone and started to brush through the records, looking obviously for something quicker and more energetic, than soothing ambient, that was on at that moment. Soon the track of choice was found and put and Alex, to his surprise, found that equestrian dance music wasn’t too different compared to familiar Earth compositions. He grabbed the cover and read the name “DJ Vinyl Scratch”.

“Hmmm…” Alex raised one eyebrow, placing himself near the gramophone and watching the girls. Well, he could easily join the lambada like chain, but some of their tricks definitely called for four legs rather than two. But the best show started, when Twilight decided to solo.

Fluttershy warned him, but still, Alex tried his best to keep face while watching. With her eyes almost closed, sometimes even sticking out her tongue a little in zeal Twilight danced and spun and jumped, on her hind legs, on one fore and one hind and sometimes even touching the ground with one leg only. She was evidently having great fun, but Alex couldn’t escape the feeling that it resembled some martial art occasionally and it wasn’t totally safe to get close, before Twilight starts hearing something except tunes. To the end of the track Alex was holding himself as much as he could to avoid neighing like a horse, despite all the pun.

“What?” Twilight stopped and looked at snorting Alex, when the music ended. “Anything wrong?”

Alex shook his head violently instead of an answer, showing her both thumbs up and wiping the tears of restrained laughter.

“Won’t you mind, if I show you all, how people dance, in return?” asked he, when he caught his breath.

“Well, of course,” Twilight broke into a smile.

“I have no objections, darling,” slowly said Rarity, causing another spear glance from Spike.

“Okay,” Alex rose and approached Twilight first. “This will need two legs on the ground, some concentration, rhythm and… Well, let’s see how it goes.”

He explained Twilight that she should stand on her hind legs and give him one fore leg, putting another on his shoulder or as near as possible, that wasn’t too hard, as they were almost of the same height, when she was on her hind legs.

“That’s called “waltz”,” Alex put his right hand on her waist, causing Twilight to blush a little. “I doubt you have music for that, so I will count and lead, explaining to you, what to do, if necessary. You should follow my moves and general direction.”

“Sounds not too difficult,” said Twilight with a smile. “I think, I understand.”

“Don’t let your tail get in your way!” smirked Alex. “A-a-and…”

They made a few circles, Alex measured the count and corrected her; he was to admit, Twilight was a diligent pupil and stepped on his feet only twice, yet lightly. After the second circle she got the rhythm completely and Alex stopped counting reserving the breath for movement, spinning Twilight, who obviously started to enjoy the dance, laughing like a filly.

“Hey, don’t use wings, Twi,” exclaimed Alex. “Don’t cheat, or we both fall!”

They stopped after a while and Alex supported Twilight for a few seconds, when she stood on her four.

“I think, my head is still dancing,” giggled Twilight. “An unusual feeling.”

“Just stand still for a while, it’ll stop happening with practice,” Alex bowed, then added with a smile. “Mine endless gratitude, princess.”

Twilight huffed, then started giggling again, as he obviously said that to tease her.

“Unfortunately, this calls for at least nearly equal height of the partners,” said Alex, looking at the fillies and pondering, how he could deliver it to them. “I could lift you, girls, but this will hardly tell you what you need to do.”

“I think, I saw and heard enough to understand the basics,” declared Spike. “So, if you girls don’t mind, we could try…”

Counting Alex was to admit that Spike was hardly less capable, than Twilight: he grasped the rhythm fast enough and was able to make the fillies join the fun easily.

So, Alex was to go a few rounds with each, so at the end he started feeling his head dancing, even when his legs didn’t, just like Twilight. Besides, he didn’t know exactly what time it was; the starry sky said about it being late enough, so the girls were to bring and light candles and a few lanterns. He trusted Luna to be prudent enough and check the ground before appearing, but still didn’t want to make her wait long enough, so became a little nervous about that.

Pinkie didn’t like waltz much, as Alex expected, it was to slow and dry for her. But nothing could spoil her mood and Alex promised to think about something more suitable for his vivid friend.

Fluttershy was a timid and… well… shy partner, so she was sometimes a tiny bit late for the movement, but in general Alex was to admit, she was the most fluent and gracious at the movements themselves.

‘More practice and, as the result, confidence,’ thought Alex. ‘And perhaps practicing tete-a-tete.’ He understood what that could end with, but it wasn’t a crime against truth to say, that would suit them both.

Rarity took the lesson with major enthusiasm, even more than necessary perhaps, but that wasn’t a surprise for Alex.

“Okay, Rarity, just give ‘t some space,” smirked Alex, when Rarity snuggled with almost her entire body to him. “That’s not tango.” His eyes glazed for a moment – last time he was dancing tango with Elen on her birthday, seemed aeons ago, in another life.

“What’s wrong, darling?” asked Rarity and her eyes started shining, like if tears were going to appear. “Am I such a bad dancer? You seem to stumble at spot…”

“No, no, it’s okay,” unfroze Alex, making himself to smile heartily. “Just a little memory… What were we at?.. Oh, you see, there must be at least a… hoof between us for it to go properly.” He noticed from the corner of his eye, how Spike watched them, resembling a snowstorm cloud.

When everypony, -body and –dragon lost their breath and decided that it was great, but it was the right time to call it a day and have some rest before the next busy weekday, Alex caught the moment and asked Spike to help him with dishes and stuff, so he could share a few words without curious fluffy ears around.

They gathered as much as they could carry without breaking anything and headed to the cottage. In the kitchen Alex put his load on the table and, ensuring that nopony except Spike was following, turned to the dragon boy.

“Listen, Spike,” he started without unnecessary preface. “I understand that you have feelings for Rarity, but…”

Only the long practice allowed Spike to put the dishes, he carried, on the table without dropping, as he stared at Alex.

“Errmmm… Is it that obvious?” Spikes eyes wandered around the kitchen. “I told…”

“Twilight didn’t tell me anything,” guessed Alex with a smile. “And none of the girls did…”

“Oh…”

“Well, I’m not blind… and you are… eloquent enough, Spike, if I can state it that way,” continued Alex. “But I wanted to tell you that you were worrying in vain, I’m not after that prize, honestly.”

Spike made round eyes and, while he was looking for words, Alex continued.

“Rarity is a good friend, that’s given. But I’m not interested in her otherwise as a friend, Spike. And her… overwhelming attention sometimes strains me. Moreover, ‘t scareth me oft.”

“You speak stra…” squinted Spike, but Alex didn’t give him time to think about that, mentally scolding himself for that mind slip.

“I mean, I won’t refuse to help her, if she asks, nor will I single her and dance with her not. But those are purely friendly gestures, I think. Same, for example, refers to you helping Fluttershy, if necessary. But I don’t expect anything more from Rarity.”

“So, if you understand me right,” continued Alex, seeing that Spike finally listened to him very attentively. “I, let’s say, will be only happy and thankful, if you take your chances, proceed and gain some more attention from Rarity, thus making her give me less of her attention. I, in my turn, will try to avoid her traps at my best, like I’m, frankly speaking, doing already for quite a while.”

“I’m completely honest with you and think it’s fair enough,” Alex held out his hand for a shake and Spike accepted after a second of thinking. “So it’s up to you now.”

“Hey, what are you guys up to now?” the girls entered the kitchen and caught the glimpse of their handshake.

“We were discussing the evening and decided that it won’t hurt to gather like that from time to time,” stretched Alex innocently, he yawned. “Sorry…”

“Yeah, right!” confirmed Spike with a wide smile, ogling Rarity.

“Just don’t tell Pinkie right away,” smirked Alex. “I’m afraid, she can decide “from time to time” means tomorrow. Methinks thither were some precedents, right, Fluttershy? Where is she, by the way?”

“She can indeed,” giggled Fluttershy. “She’s outside with the girls…” she and Rarity noticed nothing, but Twilight frowned a bit and signaled Alex with her eyes to watch the speech.

Rarity left soon, with visible regret, she was to walk Apple Bloom home, while Pinkie escorted Scootaloo. Twilight and Spike helped a bit and left as well, when they all brought everything to order.

“Alex, I’m going to fall on spot…” muttered Fluttershy, her eyes were closing and she leaned on him.

Alex looked at the wall clock – it was half before midnight – and inwardly took a breath. He then took Fluttershy in hands and headed to the stairs, she curled in his arms snuggling her warm frame to his chest and nuzzling his cheek, her forelegs wrapped around his neck.

“Mhhmmm…” Alex saw that she was half-sleeping already, when he carried her to the bedroom. He was to put her on the bed and then undo one side, then move Fluttershy to undo another side. Undressing he put his clothes on the footrest, knowing he would need them in half an hour. Fluttershy snuggled into him, when Alex got under covers and started stroking her head.

After about twenty minutes it became apparently too hot for her, as she moved aside slightly and uncovered. It was the right time and Alex kissed her lightly on the shoulder and slid out of the bed. He dressed again quickly, watching Fluttershy sleeping; her amazing hair spread on the pillows, she was slightly smiling through her sleep. Alex felt a tiny prick of conscience, being with two girls didn’t look entirely right to him… and was to admit that he hardly ever could make that choice.

*

Alex ran out of the cottage, almost not touching the ground, it was already five past midnight. He got around the house to the same tree, he sat under, when met Luna personally for the first time. It was darker tonight: clouds, appearing out of nowhere, overshadowed the moon. A lonely nightingale still sang optimistically, expecting the sky to clear and Luna’s Moon to bless the ground with its presence. A big moth touched Alex’s cheek with its velvet wings, when he approached the tree and leaned on the trunk, waiting for the princess. The minutes passed slowly, if only the wind could pep them up, just like it drove the clouds, making them run faster, and ruffled Alex’s hair. The same wind brought the smell of hay from the meadows, but there wasn’t any lavender tint to it yet.

After about ten minutes, which seemed an hour to him, something rustled in the shrubs behind Alex… and in the next second he found himself in the middle of a warm, silky, feathery, lavender fragrant flurry, which caught and whirled him, finding his lips and yearningly conquering them.

“It’s been more than a day,” said Luna, sitting on the ground and finally giving him some breath. Her fore legs rested on his waist, while her wings habitually wrapped Alex, holding him closer to her. “I’ve started to feel lonely, mine lief!”

“I can guess!” Alex wrapped his hands around her swan-like neck, waiting till the world around him stop spinning. That was probably a futile attempt, as Luna’s dark blue eyes, looking into his from a few inches distance, didn’t help to get a clear head. He kissed her, making Luna close her eyes and squeeze him tighter with a quiet moan. “Methinks thou art overmodest about that.”

Luna’s ears perked and she stared at him in surprise.

“Sorry, Luna. I’m not trying to mock you, not a zilch, in the earnest,” tried to explain Alex. “Oh… Don’t know how it happens, but I really find your manner of speech very attractive and… I guess there is more to it. Twilight already told me, it was a part of my changes, which bother her… and Celestia. Not the old language itself, but the whole process of me changing.”

“Mayhap Celestia worries even more than Twilight, she thinketh of them as of something dangerous,” added Alex quietly, snuggling his forehead to Luna’s nose bridge. “’t was amusing forsooth, how Twilight was shocked each time, ‘t slipped through. But I understand thither is nothing to celebrate.”

“Mayhap thou needest to control thy speech a bit more then,” chuckled Luna, nuzzling his cheek. She put her head on his shoulder and let out a satisfied sigh. “I’ll be frank with thee, ‘t was… very unusual to hear thee speaking alike, even for me. I can imagine how everypony around thee can react,” she giggled again, like a silver bell rang.

“I try my best,” Alex said, running his fingers through her mane. “But it slips out, when I least expect. It comes naturally, when I worry or…”

“I can feel thy heart racing,” with a small smile Luna put her hoof on his chest.

“You’re a tease,” smirked Alex. “First of all, I’m glad to see you. Besides, I was a bit late – waited till Fluttershy falls asleep. We had that “Welcome to Ponyville…” party, Pinkie was craving for, so Shy got a fair bit tired and almost collapsed.”

Luna raised her head and looked into his eyes again, she wasn’t anxious, her expression was unusual though… concerned and interested at the same time. Alex wondered, if she knew anything about previous evening, but apparently, she didn’t show any discontent anyway. She snuggled tightly into him again and the new kiss was long and indescribably tender, not unveiling the mystery of her thoughts at that moment.

“I’ve waited for you a bit,” Alex almost touched her lips with his own. “I know - the girls can’t come earlier,” two joyful sparkles glanced in Luna’s eyes at those words. “But I worried, you wouldn’t come; something could interrupt you.”

“Not in that case,” simply said Luna and the ambiguous feeling visited Alex again: he sharply felt that he couldn’t make this choice ever and was doomed to feel guilty for that. “So, how did the party go?”

“Way calmer, than Pinkie planned initially,” Alex kneeled in front of Luna, when she gave him the freedom of movement, folding her wings. Her fore hoof still rested on his shoulder though, as if she didn’t want to break the touch completely. “She brought tons of sweet stuff of her own making… and I think I had the weekly reserve of dessert tonight.”

“Applejack couldn’t come, but she was busy. And Rainbow… well, Rainbow Dash still had her reasons to distrust me. I have no faintest idea why though.”

“Rainbow Dash is too demanding to herself, if ’t be true thou askest me,” nodded Luna. “’t overplays oft, especially at which hour she treateth others the same. Tis will settle someday.”

“I can only hope,” sighed Alex. “Even Rarity held herself in the hooves tonight… almost,” he rolled his eyes. “We mostly talked and had fun, the fillies added to it a lot… Methinks they are much like mine cousins,” his eyes glazed for a tiny moment. He found the strength to switch the thoughts though. “Yeah, one more thing, dancing…”

“Dancing?” Luna snorted, then started giggling like a school filly. “Mine apologies, Alex,” said she after a while, taking her breath. “I simply…”

“Imagined Twilight?” Alex raised the eyebrow, that guess was easy.

“Correct,” Luna started shaking from laughter again. “No offence to her, but it’s always such a view…”

“Well, I’ve shown the girls, how people dance,” noticed Alex. “And it seems Twilight grasped it nicely. At the very least it looked classy enough for the first time.”

“Really? And what didst thou teach them? How did the others do?” Luna leaned to him again and the talk was interrupted by the more pleasant activity for them both.

“It was a bit embarrassing for Fluttershy, but she is very gracious and fluent, she’ll grasp it fast…” answered Alex, when he could.

“Rarity asked her to model with reason,” noticed Luna, nodding.

“… and it was a bit slow and boring for Pinkie, which I wasn’t surprised a bit with,” Alex ran his fingers behind her ear and down Luna’s neck, hearing how her breath deepened at once. “Methinks we should find something faster and… crazier for her,” he smirked, then a faint shadow of vexation ran over his face. “Rarity was her usual self, she was since we met...”

“Naturally,” snorted Luna again, Alex glanced at her, feeling that another commentary about Rarity’s dreams was on her tongue. “Dost thou know that I can dance the “human style” likewise.”

“How come?” Alex was totally caught by surprise.

“One human taught me long ago,” Luna glanced at Alex from under her eyelashes. “Ere to Nightmare Moon days. We were almost fillies, at least I was, at which hour Starswirl summoned a human in the Old Castle by pure accident. Something went wrong with one of his spells, so, the warp appeared and then the human fell through. Nopony knew, who was more shocked: the human or Starswirl himself.”

“I can imagine,” huffed Alex quietly. “I believe though the human was shocked more. You all here somehow got used to seeing different sentient creatures, but in my world people are the only truly sentient species known for now. So, how it was?”

“Starswirl needed some time to prepare the proper spell, ere the old chap was able to return the human…”

“So that human could get back?!!” Alex interrupted her fast, Luna noticed two hot sparkles, which burnt deep in his eyes, and downcasted.

“Alex, mine lief,” she said with a sigh. “That was a common human, not the one like thou art at that moment. He was neither magic resistant, nor reflecting the spells. The problem grounded in the proper returning, not in the human traits. It took Starswirl half a year to properly synchronize the spell and return the human to the same place, he was taken from. Not sure if ‘t be true to the same time though, I can recall Starswirl complaining about the extreme complexity of that task. Mayhap the time on… Earth flew not at the same pace, as for that human hither.”

With a heavy sigh Alex unconsciously snuggled into her tighter, putting his head on Luna’s shoulder, as in drastic need of some support. Feeling how his fingers tremble slightly Luna preferred to change the topic.

“Well, back to our matter of interest,” she said exaggeratedly cheerful. “This human taught, well, tried to, me and Tia simple dancing moves. I’ve managed to succeed at exactly what thou said – “waltz”, if ‘t be true mine memory serveth me well.”

“I’ve started with it, because it’s simple forsooth. Equally for professionals and beginners, who got used to standing on four legs, instead of two,” a weak tint of a smile touched Alex’s lips.

“I started learning a more complex one,” continued Luna with palpable relief that he distanced from the sad thoughts. “It was called “tango”… or something alike…”

“Yeah,” smirked Alex. “There is such a dance, it’s more… intimate than waltz so far.”

“So, I succeeded… more than Tia… She took all the mistakes too close to her heart, especially if ’t be true she couldn’t do something and I could cope with it,” said Luna with a tiny sad smile. “Now I see, tis was the very beginning of the unholy vista, leading us both to the Nightmare Moon problem…”

“Let us return to the more pleasant aspect of mine memories, if ’t be true thou dost object not,” Luna shook her head, shooing the mental image of them quarreling with Celestia. “I would like to refresh my “mastery”,” she chuckled. “I would like to do that with thee, Alex!”

Alex wrapped his hands around her neck and the following kiss was more than self-explanatory.

“I… guess… tis meaneth… “yes”,” muttered Luna in between the attempts to fight Alex’s tongue for domination.

Alex slightly nodded, not breaking the kiss or the embrace.

“What exactly do you want to practice?” breathed he out, when they parted for air.

“And what dost thou think, Alex?” one could drown in her eyes, hypnotized by her sly smile. “I choose tango… unless thou hast more interesting suggestions.”

“That will need you to come here, as I won’t be able to reach Canterlot, while you are awake, Luna,” Alex pondered. “Too far for my capabilities.”

“Methinks I can find time for that.”

“We will need to define your skill level and then… Do you need that for some special occasion? I mean, if there is some… deadline or…” asked Alex.

“We’ll have a ball in the castle in… three weeks or about,” Luna wrapped him in her wings again and Alex got the hint, he sat closer and leaned on her, letting her hold him and put her head on his. “’t would be amazing, if ’t be true thou could attend it somehow. Thou could have a look at our festive dresses, as thou wished, and we could bring some fresh stream to ponies’ dancing repertoire.”

“Fresh?” Alex let out a laughter. “That dance is about a century old at my world…”

“Tis fresh enough for a three thousand years old princess…”

Alex threw back his head, dragged Luna closer and covered her mouth with another kiss to stop that blasphemy.

“I have certain doubts,” chuckled he a while later. “Tia would hardly send me an official invitation. And I’d like to specifically ask you, Luna, not to put yourself as a target, trying to invite me somehow. So that’s an open question still, mayhap I could find some way. I’d happily be your partner, of course.”

If Alex could see the more than enthusiastic sparkles in Luna’s eyes, he would guess that wasn’t entirely because of the upcoming dancing lessons.

“And, please, take into account that it’ll be harder to move in your dress, if you practice first without it.”

“I can’t help that unfortunately,” Luna nuzzled his cheek. “It isn’t ready yet and now, at which hour I have some new ideas, I may ask for some changes in design… Besides, I would like ‘t to be a surprise.”

She wrapped him tighter and for quite a while they both forgot about dances, balls, dresses and problems, almost forgot about breathing, sharing one breath passionately.

“Ahhh, mine head is spinning,” weakly said Luna, she folded her wings and lay on the grass, taking Alex with her, so he was to lay next and put his head on her chest, looking into the sky. Luna’s mane covered them both, silkily touching, lulling.

“I could spend the whole night tis way,” Luna’s fore leg nested on Alex’s shoulder and Alex thought, he could easily say the same thing, listening to her heart. “But thou needed some help, if ’t be true I’m not mistaking, mine lief.”

After a short hesitation Alex took out a folded sheet of paper, Luna’s magic enveloped it, unfolding and holding in front of her eyes. The list was long enough, Alex hoped, he didn’t forget anything, he couldn’t make himself initially. Luna scanned the list for whole several minutes, while Alex patiently waited, what she could say: he was ready to hear that something is totally impossible to do here; in his thoughts he tried to compute different alternative variants for the most complex parts.

“Copper wire, magnets, dense fabric… the long list of metal parts… hmmm,” Luna turned her head to look at him. “Thou forgot about one important thing, thou won’t be able to make anything without, mine lief – the bits!”

“The money, you mean?” re-asked Alex.

“Exactly.”

“Come on, Luna, I can’t! I told Fluttershy the same and I’m telling thee. I’ll try to earn myself enough for the start at least, while…”

“Alex, don’t be foalish. How much can thou earn in, allowest me to think, a week or two?”

“A week?!” Alex’s eyes rounded. “I thought, getting all those would take much more time.”

“Not for me, mine lief!” smiled Luna. “Besides, methinks I know where to look for those. I can load Fillydelphia Steam Company with the majority of thy list, Alex. But I’d like to advise thee to go to the Ponyville blacksmith for the metal parts. The old chap is a noble soldier and true master of his work. I haven’t seen him personally, Tia told me about, but her words were more than praising. I knew his father and grandfather though, both were good blacksmiths as well – tis their family business. Mayhap old Will is coming through less than the finest times now. There are gossips about him around, but thou shan’t believe them, Alex. The old unicorn is the honesty embodied, he will tell thee his story mayhap, if ’t be true ye find some rapport. Thou can find him at the north edge of Ponyville, an old smithy, I’m afraid, even a bit ruined at the moment.”

“How could that happen to an honest person… pony… unicorn?” Alex even raised on his elbows.

“Tis a sad story, Alex,” Luna sighed. “The clients flow dried out naturally, as he grew older and big companies took a part of the market, so, he has less than half of the customers, he used to have. But the worst thing is gossips: some ponies think differently about his soldier career, some consider him to be strange, offish, even malevolent… But finally many try to avoid him. He has a fair pension as a veteran, tis enough to live fine with his niece, he took, when her parents died. But his smithy is… slowly extinguishing and he is too principled to take direct help; I know, Tia tried… to no avail.”

“Yeah, sometimes I see absolutely no differences between people and ponies,” sighed Alex.

“The tragedy is in him unable to find any apprentice or at least some helping hooves,” Luna closed her eyes. “He is desperate about forwarding his mastery to somepony, but can’t do it still, while not getting younger.”

“Mayhap ‘t is a nice idea to ask him for a job as well,” Alex voiced his thoughts. “I’m free from local prejudices and now, when my legal status is defined…”

“Speaking of which,” Alex turned to face Luna. “I probably should thank you again for making Tia define it.”

“What art thou talking about, Alex?” asked Luna, covering him with her wing and bringing closer.

“I’ve got a letter this evening and… practically a “passport”,” smirked Alex. “Wasn’t it you, who convinced Tia to do that?”

“Hmmm… she did ‘t that fast,” muttered Luna, then added. “Wrong guess this time, mine lief. I was hardly less surprised than thee, at which hour Tia talked about ‘t during the breakfast. She froze with a teacup for a good few minutes, muttering something about “unforgivable lapse” and “job getting problems” and then said with a sigh that she had to correct her own overlook regarding you, while you were forced to stay resident.”

Alex glanced at Luna in disbelief.

“What?” chuckled she. “I tell thee, Tia is not a monster. She… “bounces on corners” oft. Too much oft. But doth any of us do that nev’r?”

They talked for the whole two hours more, about various things, not paying attention to the time or fresh wind, as Luna’s wings served a good cover for both, staying close, holding hooves and warming each other with mutual affection.

“I will regret that words in about a few minutes,” said Alex finally. “But I’m afraid I need to go, Luna.”

“Unfortunately, yes,” sighed the alicorn beauty, now resting her head on his chest. “Tia will raise the Sun in an hour or so. Besides, thy little pegasus fairy may become worried,” she stroked him gently with her hoof.

“Apologies, Luna. How art thee about all that?” carefully asked Alex. “I can’t do anything… Tis hard to explain…”

Luna raised her head and looked directly into his eyes, Alex saw a smile on her face, perhaps because his anxiety was easily audible.

“I’m not going to start a… marefight over thee, Alex,” she honestly told him. “Not now at least. Why should I spoil our relationship with that? We’re both adults, so is Fluttershy, and none of us is engaged… I’m sure ‘t gets sorted out somehow, someday. Now I’m going to enjoy each day or night I can spend with thee, especially considering thou can vanish as suddenly as thou came hither!”

Her deep dark-blue eyes filled his consciousness, as her lips pressed tightly to his own, hurrying to get more, before they were to part for a long while.

*

It was too late in the night, or better say too early in the morning, to get asleep and hope for a nice recharging rest; one would rather get up feeling even worse, than not sleeping at all. Besides, Alex hardly had any wish to sleep: amazingly, time spent with Luna refilled his reserves better, than any sleep, he was ready to face another day. That is why he simply got into the bed and spent the rest of the night, guarding Fluttershy’s sleep. She felt his presence, right when he returned, and snuggled into him, putting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her legs around him. With a quiet sigh Fluttershy smiled through her sleep; she nuzzled his neck and inhaled deeply.

“Your Highness, princess Luna, please… don’t take Alex to Canterlot again…” muttered Fluttershy in her sleep, her expression changed to slightly anxious. Nopony knew what she dreamed of before, but right at that moment the remaining lavender scent apparently woke some of her deeper concerns. That could seem funny for a random observer, but Alex gasped: Fluttershy suspected some interest from Luna, despite she could be unsure which exactly; besides, it was only a matter of time, when she could find out that frequent presence of the lavender aroma was more than just her dreams. Alex inwardly facepalmed, he had no idea how to avoid hurting one of them deeply. Another part of him faintly smiled at the thought that Luna was with him even more, than he could expect. Fortunately, the aroma winded out quite fast, but Alex told himself to be more careful next time.

The east edge of the sky started to get golden and pink, when Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes. She focused her sight on Alex and snuggled to him tighter with a smile.

“Good morning,” she kissed him under the ear. “How long have you been awake?”

“For a while,” Alex run his fingers through her mane, kissing her in the nose. “You are my little sunflower, Shy. Well, you’ve missed the sunrise, but only once…”

Fluttershy’s cheeks got tinted pink.

“I… ummm… there was a good reason. Who can know better than you, Alex?” she slightly nudged him, then leaned over. Her amazing turquoise eyes filled his view, while she covered his lips with hers, watching his reaction and apparently enjoying each moment of it.

Needless to say, this sunrise got missed as well.

*

After a quick breakfast Fluttershy threw a glance at the clock and shook her head, it was 7 am already. She couldn’t remember last time, when she got up that late in summer, well, except the one, which made her blush a little still. She had the usual morning routines laying in front of her, so she couldn’t join Alex on his first Ponyville visit.

“I’d like to have a good run around the town, it seems that the last month of sitting in the closed space with limited movement wasn’t entirely beneficial for me,” explained Alex. “Don’t want to look like a badger… no offence to badgers, of course. Besides, I can run into somepony, who needs a pair of helping hands – it’s long overdue to look for a proper job for me, considering I’m going to stay for quite a while…”

“Just be careful, dear, okay!” Fluttershy sighed deeply, making Alex realize at once that she was still thinking, he was rushing things up, but she didn’t say anything about his job search “obsession” this time. “I don’t know… We can’t be completely sure Mayor Mare succeeded to notify absolutely everypony about you and magic. Promise me, you will stay out of the trouble, Alex,” she looked at him pleadingly.

“I will try my best,” Alex hugged her with a smile. “It’s just a town of friendly ponies… I hope… well mostly at least, not some rendezvous with… timberwolves,” Fluttershy shuddered, while he continued. “Even if troubles tend to find me recently, what could probably happen in Ponyville?..”

“I would like to go with you so much,” Fluttershy looked up to him. “But I have my little friends to take care of…”

“There is no need to divest them of your care and attention, because of me, dear,” Alex was at the front door, putting on his boots already. “Look at me, I suppose, I can cope with problems myself as well.”

“I know,” Fluttershy said with a sad smile, following him to the door. Alex couldn’t get rid of the feeling that there was much more subtext under those two words.

“Everything will be alright,” he kneeled to her and planted a long tender kiss. “I’ll have a walk, find at least some job and stop hanging on your neck entirely,” Alex looked into Fluttershy’s eyes tenderly. “That’s for the start… and then, we’ll see.”

‘I can’t go anywhere, guarded by one of the girls each time,’ he thought, but kept that to himself. ‘That would be ridiculous… And if I meet Rarity and she goes a little bit too enthusiastic, I’ll have the whole town to run and hide,’ Alex smirked inwardly.

He passed the yard, opened the gate and stretched hard, inhaling the delicious morning air deeply. It wasn’t yet hot, as the Sun was fairly low, but the wind changed from the nightly cool one to warm, bringing the smell of wild strawberry from the field. The wooden planks rattled, when Alex jogged across the bridge, entering the road to Ponyville. He slowed down at the crossing and threw a quick glance to the big old clock tower amidst the field to his right.

Alex was to admit that again, the show didn’t do it much justice: there it looked insignificant, hardly suiting the purpose of a clock post; nevertheless, in reality it was rather some old stronghold ruin, the remaining tower was simply huge with the two time worn wall remnants connected to it like wings. Only the lower half was somewhat restored and the clock was mounted in the middle of the tower, but it was apparently enough for it to be visible from any point of Ponyville, despite the trees surrounding the area and effectively hiding the lower buildings from the town view. The upper section was yet untouched and still wrapped in scaffolding, the whole tower most likely being locked from a random visitor to prevent accidents, as the lower clouds easily touched the upper unroofed landing.

Alex checked the time, then shuddered, when his glance brushed the upper unstable part of the tower and the “toothy” top. He preferred to turn his back to the dark structure and head straight to Ponyville, speeding up, as Alex felt, some training was necessary – the whole month spent locked in 4 walls didn’t pass unnoticed by his body, so, Alex felt some strain in muscles, when he shouldn’t normally. He chose the tempo and passed the uncultivated field, which most likely was “resting” this season. Alex enjoyed the view of distant fruit trees and the smells from the field and the garden, breathing deeply and regularly on his run.

A small disturbance appeared, right when he passed a long old abandoned, but yet solid barn, built right in the middle of the field. It was presented in the form of a fairly small, but very dense, darkening cloud, which aligned to his course and practically followed him, overshadowing. Alex remembered his self-promise to not wonder, considering where he got, but admitted that at the moment it was harder to do: the weather was perfect, the Sun was raising, so was the temperature, and the rare clouds were white, light and flying high… except for that lone one.

Meanwhile, it darkened more and more, when finally reached the colour of full-time thunderstorm one, a single short discharge wormed across its belly. Now the cloud was right above Alex and moved with his speed.

‘Shit!’ Alex sped up some more. ‘Exactly when the last thing I need is some rain…’

Like the answer to his concern, the floodgates above him went open and in a matter of seconds Alex became soaking wet from the heavy rain, which suddenly poured on him from that relatively small cloud. Thankfully it was quite warm already, and the rain couldn’t change it noticeably, still Alex looked, like he was bathing clothed in the nearby lake, and his boots started sloshing.

Alex changed his course and headed into the field, praying for the ground to be smooth enough not to stumble on something and roll on full speed. He hoped to get out from under the rain, considering the size of the trouble, but to no avail. The mean cloud followed like on a leash, despite him running on full speed almost in zigzag trajectory, showering Alex mercilessly – who may think, there would be so much water in it.

‘Merlin’s pants!’ Alex threw a quick glance over himself, thinking about keeping the breath only. ‘Now my chances to be hired become thinner, than the spring ice, at the half of the decent places, I planned to visit. All because of that fucking cloud with its rain.’

His initial plan was to visit the Town Hall and consult Mayor Mare, if there was some job available for him, be it for her or somewhere in the town. She knew about him from Twilight at least and he thought that it would be easier to start that way, especially now, when he had his citizenship legally confirmed. But now he doubted the practicability of that visit – he looked like a wet stray cat and wasn’t sure, if he could find an appropriate explanation for his condition, even in the world, where strange things, including magic, tended to happen.

The reserve of water seemed to be reached for the cloud, when Alex crossed the big bridge over the river at the actual edge of the town; the rain became thinner and slower, but that could hardly help, because at that moment Alex wasn’t sure, if he didn’t consist of 99 percent of the water, instead of normal average 70. He stopped for a moment, making his choice and a mental note that the cloud stopped as well. A quick glance to the left and Alex shook his head: of course, the Carousel Boutique was within easy reach and he was sure that Rarity would gladly accept him anyway, perhaps even more eagerly, when he looked like that, but…

He turned right and quickly passed the Town Hall, heading to the market: plans changed according to the reality, Alex decided to start from the simplest opportunities, which didn’t demand for some strict dress code. ‘Still, fuck that cloud!’

Fortunately, it was early in the morning, so the town wasn’t yet herded and nopony got a chance to enjoy a show of a soaking wet human runner, being lazily showered by almost emptied cloud, which finally became thinner and lighter again. Alex reached the market, when the rain stopped completely, but the cloud was still following him. He was about to suspect Discord, as the source of his problems; frankly speaking, it was a joke right in his spirit, besides, a perfect revenge opportunity for the “pan incident”. But Alex knew that Discord wasn’t a frequent guest in Ponyville, besides, that would be too much, considering he made him look stupid in front of the princesses already.

The market was only opening, with the stalls slowly getting prepared by their owners, those who managed to arrive already, being early larks. Alex spotted the familiar hat and the straw-blond mane underneath at one of the tents and headed towards immediately. Apparently, Applejack was one of those early larks, so she was preparing for her market shift with the help of her brother, who unloaded the crates from the cart at that moment.

“Good morning, Applejack!” Alex came closer, raising his hand in salutatory gesture.

“Morning!” she raised her eyes on him and a small smile transformed into a wide grin, when Applejack scanned him from head to feet. The sympathy for Alex’s strange and miserable look was clearly written in her big green eyes, but she couldn’t hold herself from laughing naturally. “Or was it not entirely good for somepony? Have ya jumped into the lake on yar way ‘ere, Alex?”

“Yeah, and I decided that I was to jump there with all my clothes specifically,” muttered Alex. Perhaps he had enough reasons to frown, but imagined his own look instead and involuntarily started snorting with her. “No, there was another reason for that. Can I use your tent for the cover, just in case?”

“Sure thing!” Applejack nodded, still giggling. Then she moved a bit and turned to her brother. “Hey, bro, that’s Alex, Fluttershy’s new friend, I told ya ‘bout, and, ehh, a human, as ya may notice. Alex, that’s Big Mac, my older brother, ya probably know already…”

“Morning, Big McIntosh,” Alex waved his hand. “Nice to meet you in… pony!”

“Mutually,” Big Mac waved his fore hoof, then returned to his “logistics”.

“He is always that eloquent,” smirked Applejack. “So, what brought ya ‘ere that early… And what’s yar problem?” she looked over Alex once again.

“I know,” Alex slid under the tent. “I planned to look for some actual job today, thus coming early. But it seems, I’ve got… “discorded” on my way here,” he nodded towards the cloud, which still hung nearby, waiting. Alex thought, he could hear some muffled laughter coming from there. “Never could imagine that amount of water holding in such a cloud. Was being poured on from that barn in the field… Now, I guess, I’m kinda limited in my choices, as I can’t expect being looked at seriously enough.”

“From the old long barn on the road to Flutters’?” Applejacks eyes widened. “Ah’d say that’s quite a shower…” the sympathy took over in her eyes, perhaps even more, when she realized that Alex couldn’t apply to the good half of possible places successfully now. “Ah think, that’s hardly Discord. Ya know, he’s not an entirely welcomed guest in Ponyville still. But Ah know, who that can be…”

The laughter became obvious and Alex convinced himself, he was not hearing things. Applejack raised her head and yelled.

“Dash!!! C’mon, show yarself… The joke became old, don’t ya think?”

A ruffled rainbow head showed up from behind the cloud edge and a couple of sly magenta eyes glanced at them. Evidently, Rainbow Dash had much fun, she couldn’t stop giggling and visibly forced herself not to fall back on the cloud; Applejack rolled her eyes and Alex frowned, the whole thing could be funny, if he was simply having a walk, not trying to find a job.

“Hey, what’s up?” inquired Rainbow Dash with fake interest. “Isn’t showering in the morning simply healthy, be you a pony or… a human?”

“Ah think, it is too much already,” Applejack found the prank less funny, than her friend did. “Don’t be so foalish, Dash! Besides, Alex…”

“Wait,” Alex put his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. He wasn’t sure, if informing Rainbow that she managed to make him put his foot into it twice: once literally and once figuratively, wouldn’t make her fun double. “Can I take it for a moment?” he glanced at an empty bucket.

“Be mah guest,” Applejack nodded with a puzzled look on her muzzle.

Alex grabbed the bucket by the handle and headed to the fountain on the market square, where he scooped it full of water. Meanwhile, Dash still rolled from laughter.

“Come on, Jackie, don’t be a bore, that’s only some water! You’ve missed much, he was zigzagging like a rabbit on the road. The guy seriously thought, he could outrun me!” she huffed proudly, then added, seeing that Alex returned. “And I got a good exercise, bucking and dragging that cloud. That was quite a work! Alex, you could say “thanks” for all the effort to deliver that shower to you, don’t you think?”

“What? I can’t hear ya!!!” Alex got hold of the bucket better. “Mind to land here and repeat, eh?”

“I could try to throw it,” he told Applejack from the corner of his mouth. “If I was sure that it wouldn’t come back on our heads. Besides, I don’t want to break your bucket.”

“Thanks, I have washed my muzzle already,” Rainbow snorted again from above. “But I see that I need to bring more water next time, your ears definitely need more treatment, Alex!” and sticking her tongue towards him she flew away, pushing the cloud.

“Ugghhh!!!” Alex shrugged and put the bucket down. “I guess that’s one-nil in her favour… Okaaay, it’s not the end of the day.”

“Actually, she’s not that bad, Alex,” Applejack chuckled. “Yet Rainbow’s jokes can be tough indeed. But she always knows when it’s really time to stop…”

“Somewhere in between breaking my limb and killing me instantly, right?” Alex saw, how Applejack gawked at him, and added. “Tis a joke. Relax Jackie, I know that thy friend knoweth, whither to stop… Still would prefer, if she stopped a couple of tons of water before,” he sighed, while Applejack squinted at something that seemed very familiar to her.

“By the way, thank you kindly for all the cider for yesterday’s evening,” Alex bowed slightly with a smile. “I’m so sorry, you couldn’t come.”

“No probs,” Applejack seemed to make a connection not and relaxed. “Ah need to apologize, but ah was too busy, simply couldn’t cut some free time, sorry. So, what are yar plans exactly?”

“Well, at the moment I can try only a few applications,” said Alex, examining his wet self. He took off the shirt and squeezed the water out, catching a couple of quick glances from mares at nearby stalls and a raised eyebrow from Applejack. “I’m going to ask ponies at the market, if they need help with heavy lifting, namely a loader for the start and end of their marketing day… Besides, I know you have a railway station, can check there as well. And I’ll check for some more sophisticated stuff later, when… if I manage to reach Ponyville unshowered,” he smirked, then added. “I see you have that part of work covered.”

“Yeah, the jobs are pretty limited at Ponyville, mostly taken, if ya ask meh,” sighed Applejack, then added with a wide grin. “But Ah think ya will easily cope with what ya planned. Ah know only one two-legged creature bigger than ya… and he is a minotaur.”

Now it was Alex’s turn to burst into laughter.

“What?” he wiped a couple of tears, seeing how Applejack raised an eyebrow. “I need to ask Rarity for a T-shirt with writings both on the chest and back:

1.Yup, I’m a human.

2.I’m that big, no illusion.

3.I’m not a bald bear, minotaur or let alone an ape.

4.I can’t cast. Totally.

5.Don’t cast on me, will backfire.”

“And the sixth one – “See, Ah warned ya…”,”Applejack snorted, then started giggling with him.

“Well, good luck then, Alex,” breathed out she, when they calmed down a bit.

“Yeah, I’m sure I’ll need plenty of. Thanks, Jackie!” Alex put the shirt back, feeling that he got a free cooling at least. “Have a productive day, too. And don’t hesitate to tell me, if you happen to have more work on your farm and not enough free… hooves to cover it,” he winked.

Alex couldn’t complain much about that morning, he managed to reach an agreement with two stall owners on the market; both were mares, both witnessed the scene between him and Rainbow Dash and had their laugh, but both had no extra hooves to help them with daily (or better say, regular morning and evening) lading, so that job was guaranteed. One more trader was unsure, but said that he will address Alex, if he had an extra load to operate. That was enough already to cover daily needs, thus Alex was glad he didn’t need to live on Shy’s expense any more.

Generally, he got equal shares of interested, friendly, neutral and disparaging looks that morning. All like in every other society, nothing to worry about. Naturally, the document, signed by Celestia herself, helped much to turn neutral attitude to more interested and friendly and even some negative – to neutral at least. But as Applejack said, jobs were very limited in Ponyville and mostly taken already, Alex should be happy he found at least a couple of employers for partial-time work that fast. That was normal for a relatively small non-industrial town with calm, hasteless life, where every business had its history and long-established traditions. For example, Alex couldn’t comprehend why quills and sofas were to be sold specifically in one place, but everypony took that as given, the shop was even named simply like that: Quills & Sofas.

The negotiation with traders on the market took his whole morning though, so when Alex finished with that, the Sun was high already, spreading hot rays of Celestia’s blessing around. There was a positive side to that: Alex finally dried out completely. But he decided to stick to the plan and check the railway station that day, and then… Then it would depend on the results and remaining time, he was still to come to the market, as he ensured both mares that he can start with his job as soon as necessary.

He ran through the northern part of Ponyville, catching more of surprised looks. Of course, everypony was informed by Twilight and Mayor Mare about the human presence, but one thing was to know and totally different – to see themselves: for the majority “a human” was an abstract enough term, so they saw one in front of them for the first time. Fortunately, nopony took him as a dangerous creature just because of his magic resistance, simply accepting the announced precaution “as is” – no magic? okay!

Alex in his turn enjoyed the view of picturesque houses and cottages with wooden and hay roofs, large and small gardens, flowers galore, accurate fences and everything, which makes small towns, where everypony knows and mostly respects each other, so special and different from “stone jungles”. Alex realized that he could hardly ever find the place in the whole Equestria, where his former speciality is demanded for, but he wasn’t going to mourn about that – having it simpler, closer to the ground was good enough for a change. ‘At least while I’m forced to stay,’he thought.

Fluently he crossed the north part of the town, making a mental note of an old smithy, which he spotted through the clearance between town houses. The place looked fairly dead, even from the considerable distance – the smithy was at the far north outskirt of Ponyville. It was natural in its best days, as it kept ponies safe from constant noise and movement at the facility… when the smithy was in best shape and running full day. Now though it only helped ponyvillers forget about the old blacksmith more and more. According to Luna’s words, he didn’t even come to Ponyville recently, his niece could be seen from time to time at the market or in some shops, when they needed supplies. Alex sighed, it seemed that this quiet place selected and made an “alien” for themselves, even more unwelcome, than him – a creature from another world – was.

Alex knew that he couldn’t cope with his planned task without a good portion of blacksmith work, he hoped that both the place and its owner are still in good enough shape to fulfil his demands. And if not… Well, he decided that it was worth trying to raise the smithy from ashes. What the princesses failed to do, because of the stubbornness and pride of the old blacksmith, unwilling to accept “charity”, Alex could do as a simple customer and… perhaps, an employee. Back in his historical reconstruction practice they were to make weapons and armour for themselves and Alex had some experience; the real smithy looked like an unreachable dream, but now he could try himself on that turf as well. Still, while he could freely try applying for a job there, placing an order or investing in the smithy some other way demanded for an important component, he didn’t have at that moment – bits, god damned money. Thus it returned him to moving and stacking the crates and other stuff, where it was possible and paid for.

Occupied by the sad thoughts about unenviable blacksmith’s fate and his own limited capabilities Alex slowed down a fair bit. He didn’t even notice how he reached another local sight on his way to the railway station – the Golden Oak Library, and at the same time the home of Twilight Sparkle. Only when he accidentally spotted a few small oak saplings in the shrubs at the edge of the street and felt the smell of oak leaves, Alex woke from his trance. He raised his head, examining the tree giant, which namely contained the whole library, with all the rooms and books, inside its trunk and lower thick branches. The oak was huge, but the mere fact that somepony could live, work and study inside, like in a proper building, put Alex’s self-promise, to wonder not, to a serious test. The forest giant apparently had no problems at all about the rooms being carved in its trunk, somepony hanging bookshelves, putting furniture in, trotting about and minding their own business in an actually living tree: this was the most amazing part for Alex. And one more thing, the Golden Oak reminded him instantly about two other trees: the huge one of unknown species near the place, his transfer occurred (back on Earth), and the Tree of Harmony, he never actually saw, except in his weird dream. Alex already started having doubts that the tree at his “point of departure” was a complete coincidence.

After having plenty of enjoying the view of the mighty forest giant, Alex noticed that a window was open on the “ground floor” (apparently having windows and balconies, built in the tree itself, didn’t hurt the oak a zilch either), left of the front door. He came closer to see a relatively small room, the walls of which were covered with bookshelves (supposedly like any of the other rooms in the library), but most important – Twilight nesting on a couch and reading a book, which she levitated in front of herself, turning the pages with her magic.

“Good afternoon, Twilight!”

“Hey, Twi!” Alex was to repeat his call twice, before Twilight raised one ear first and then her eyes with a slightly absent and puzzled expression. When the book released her and Twilight focused her glance on the source of disturbance, a smile appeared on her muzzle.

“Hi, Alex!” her expression became slightly embarrassed. “Sorry, didn’t notice you coming. I was reading about teleportation spells; it seems I know everything about them, yet checking if you can find out something new never hurts.”

“I might have gotten a bit distracted from reality,” she put the book away, marking the page with a band. “How many times did you call?”

“Twice… only!” chuckled Alex.

“You’re either very loud or lucky… or both at the same time,” laughed Twilight. “Usually it takes more, when I’m into a book. Come in by the way, the door is unlocked.”

“Thanks, Twi. I’ll come a bit later, if you don’t mind. I’m afraid, if I get inside now, I become even more distracted from reality and stay for quite a while, examining your unusual apartment and I still have things to do,” explained Alex. “Don’t think that I’m neglecting your invitation, please.”

“That’s okay,” Twilight got up and approached the window, leaning on the windowsill with her fore legs. “I understand your concern. The first reaction is always strong. I myself was stunned the first time I got inside.”

“I mean, I saw even more books gathered at one place, of course,” she elaborated. “But the whole place packed inside a giant tree made me freeze in awe. So your worries aren’t groundless,” she giggled, then suggested. “Come closer then and don’t mind the flowers under the window. They are spell protected, one can’t crumple them,” Twilight cocked her head, visibly proud of her invention.

Despite her words, Alex carefully stepped over the plants of the improvised front garden to approach the window.

“So what are your pressing problems?” asked Twilight with a smile, when he leaned on the low windowsill from the outer side. “How’s the first day in Ponyville generally, Alex?”

“Not bad. At least I’m not generally frowned upon or being chased and watched, like a rare animal…”

“You haven’t yet met Lyra, I suppose,” huffed Twilight. “She’ll give you some hard time with her human obsession, will see.”

“Just when I supposed, the calm and boring life awaited,” shrugged Alex, making them both laugh. “Actually I was looking for some job, to cover at least simple living needs. Just as planned. Fluttershy may say that I don’t need to, out of her endless kindness and sympathy, but I can’t be an eternal guest, let alone freeloader.”

Twilight nodded slightly, her expression clearly said that she expected exactly this, with a faint tint of satisfaction, because of her assumption being correct; while Alex continued.

“Naturally, I got equal loads of positive and reservedly negative reaction, both at my own self and my application attempts. But I guess that’s normal, considering who and where I am.”

“Jobs are pretty limited here,” said Twilight with visible regret. “So, somepony may think that you are going to steal some and frown upon that. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of your needs.”

“Yeah, that’s what Applejack told me this morning exactly,” Alex ruffled his hair, finding them a bit messy after the shower provided by Rainbow Dash. “I met her at the market, her and Big Mac.”

“Actually,” continued he. “I could only find a couple of places where my service of a loader was needed. Well, for now, it’s not bad anyway, at least it should pay regularly and cover the basics.”

“Something tells me that you are aimed for more,” Twilight smiled with her eyes only. “Heavy lifting is not yours, despite you can cope with it evidently,” she threw a quick glance over his frame.

“Yup. I have certain plans. But they need some solid ground at first,” sighed Alex.

“I found some help,” he added cagily. “The rest depends on me entirely. Thus I plan to visit the railway station, Twilight. I hope there could be more job, even if it is still loading for the start.”

“And I wanted to see the blacksmith,” Alex said after a pause. “Luna… princess Luna told me in brief about his harsh fate and him refusing to accept any direct help. Maybe I could change something… elusively, I will need his mastery anyway for what I plan to make.”

“Hmmm…” Twilight pondered, Alex’s amendment didn’t slip from her attention. “Did she tell you about his reputation as well?”

“She did. Just as she told me, tis a nonsense,” Alex frowned a bit. “I can’t believe in the earnest, he hath done anything, making the whole town alienate him severely, at which hour none of the princesses hath reacted to that. Celestia is not omnipresent forsooth, but I doubt, she knoweth not about any crime of her subjects at the end of the day…”

As usual Twilight visibly strained at his old language strike, perhaps a bit less this time, getting used to that manifestation of concern.

“I’m not jumping any bandwagon, Alex,” she explained fast. “Not in my habits, as you may have noticed. But the general attitude towards old Will is, let’s say, less than entirely friendly,” diplomatically rounded it Twilight. “It is based on rumours, of course, and I can hardly tell which of them have real ground and which – none at all… But be aware that you may feel it as well, working with him close; ponies will surely have concerns,” she added with a guilty look.

“I’m ready to take some risks,” chuckled Alex. “Besides, I can’t proceed without his help.”

“I’ve noticed that already,” Twilight made a face, then suddenly became serious again. “Just mind that, please. I won’t judge you, you’re an adult and Will’s past has nothing to do with any of your current plans, besides it’s a long gone history, whatever it was. I still can’t be sure about others…”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Alex took her hoof in hands for a second, leaning closer. “I truly appreciate. Promise to be careful. Usually, I can unravel a person… pony, well, you know, pretty accurate. But thank you anyway.”

“Simply be prudent, okay?” Twilight gave him a hug, stroking his back with her fore hoof. Alex inwardly smirked, Luna would never give him that advice, knowing that he hardly would be overcautious.

“Okay,” he waved her goodbye, stepping over the flowers again and going around the Oak Library. The station was already visible from here across the wide field.

Despite his initial worries, the railway station appeared to be more welcoming towards Alex, than the market. Alex was to make another mental note that in reality it looked different: maybe the station, its main building, office was relatively small, but it was accompanied by a variety of huge warehouses in the terminal area. Being practically the main and only transport artery of Ponyville the station handled loads of different stuff, coming through it daily, and stored for a while, like at the transit depot. Thus capable hooves, and in his case – hands, were always in need there.

After a few questions being asked, Alex quickly found the stationmaster and addressed him with the application. It would be a crime against truth to say that the stationmaster wasn’t surprised, even stunned a bit, by the fact that a human (a mythic extraequestrian creature according to the majority’s ideas) came to ask for a job. The unpocketed documents quickly dispelled his doubts, when he saw that the human residence in Ponyville was approved by Celestia herself. Of course, the chief knew about the human from the Mayor Mare announcement, but extra caution was never excessive, when you were managing a strategically important transport hub.

Fortunately, they indeed had a vacancy at warehouse work, practically the same loader, but with more responsibility and wider set of duties. It paid back better as well, compared to simplistic market work. Thus when all the legal questions were rounded and Alex proved that he knew, what he was going into actually, he spent the rest of the day getting acquainted with the whole facility and his personal working area.

One could easily get lost at first in the web of service lines and variety of buildings at the freight yard and Alex chuckled once again at the memory of how the station was portrayed in the show: namely a small office building and a couple of railways. That was totally different from what Alex faced in reality, but he hoped to learn the place layout in a few days, so he didn’t need a map further to do his job. For the first time observer the large hangars of warehouses looked all the same, which in company with narrow dark passages between them could give the creeps to a novice. At least they had numbers, written with bright paint in large digits; Alex assumed they were clearly visible even at the night time.

The Sun started to roll down already, when Alex finished his first “tour” around the station complex and learned what needed to know to start working, at least what he could learn right away. He was going to start right the next day and promptly negotiated the working hours, considering that he had some job at the market as well. The stationmaster was surprised by that request first, but when he found out that Alex was trying to combine three work places at once, practically being nobody in Ponyville, he seemed to understand his position and reluctantly agreed (later he was to admit, he made the right decision).

Remembering that he was to arrive at the market in time – being punctual at the very start was vital – Alex departed, keeping in mind that he planned to have a closer look at the blacksmith’s place on his way back. Thus he crossed the few railways and the field, separating the station from Ponyville, but this time headed more north, avoiding the actual streets and getting around the town through its northern outskirts. After a few minutes of walking Alex exited to an old road, it looked rarely used, all bumpy and unmaintained, totally unnoticeable from the field; he could never tell there is one, if he didn’t come to it accidentally. Alex guessed that it could lead him exactly to the smithy and this simple guess, accompanied by the condition of the road, made him produce one more heavy sigh. It seemed that blacksmith’s business was in a really deplorable state, the only source of stable income being Will’s soldier pension, as Alex was told. This road, supposedly connecting the smithy with the railway station, was now almost unused, as the stream of materials, orders and customers turned into a thin rill, and Alex thought that the road from the smithy to Ponyville was hardly in better shape likewise.

‘I wonder, if ’t be true I want to achieve the impossible,’ Alex gritted his teeth. ‘Extending mine expectations further than simply making some necessary parts for the generators with the help of the old chap. Mine order shalt hardly change much, tis needs more interference, than I thought. Methinks, I found the next step after loader work. At least I must try…’

Alex took off his shirt, exposing his back to the Sun, which wasn’t hot already, and quickly walked up the road, inhaling the mixing smells of the field flowers and dry dust.

*

“Uncle Will, come here,” Silver Ingot stopped setting the table and approached the open window. “Take a look, there, behind our fence.”

The breeze, playing with the curtains, prevented her from seeing the stranger well and the young unicorn mare grasped the light cloth with her magic to move it slightly aside – just enough to see a strange creature outside. She pointed at him, when the old blacksmith approached.

Willsmash Steel only huffed quietly at the look of their “guest”, nopony could tell by that sound, what he thought about at that moment.

Alex just reached the end of the abandoned road to find that it led to the smithy indeed. He stopped behind the fence and took a long look around the house, the smithy, all the yard. The wind ruffled his hair and the whole look of the attacking and being accurately, but futilely, fought desolation ruffled his thoughts. For the time being he saw no effective ways to revive the place, despite looking for them desperately. Time worn, long ago extinguished furnace, old withered awning above the anvil, trough and larger instruments, weather-beaten closed shed, which most likely contained the workbenches and whole lot of smaller instruments and looked its large blindly shut gate at the anvil – everything told Alex than the old blacksmith tried hard to keep them in order, but each day had less and less force and inducement to bring them to former exemplary state. There was something fateful in that, like if he realized the futility of this care – there were hardly any customers coming in the nearest future, but his steel-fused soul protested against complete abandoning of his beloved craft and erstwhile pride. Alex wasn’t even sure that old Will could find it reasonable to fan the furnace and clean the crucible for the single order, which would hardly change the fate of the smithy, let alone save it.

The house was kept with more meticulous touch and Alex understood that old soldiers pension was by a narrow margin enough for the household, the rest was over the limits of the two, struggling with the herd’s prejudices.

‘Tis calleth for a more careful approach, than I thought,’ sighed Alex, sweeping the windows of the house with a quick glance; the curtain moved slightly on the open one. ‘I shall be ready, at which hour I come to make ‘t pump.’

Meanwhile, Silver Ingot measured his figure with her eyes once again.

“That must be the human,” she turned to her uncle. “I’ve heard about him yesterday’s evening at the Town Hall square, when Mayor Mare and princess Twilight made their announcement.”

“Quite an unusual case, you’re right, my filly,” muttered old Will, rubbing his chin. “I’ve heard about humans enough through my long life, a magically resistant one – that’s something new to me.”

“He doesn’t look dangerous though,” the young mare let out a small smile. “He looks a bit… lost, uncle. Or at least looking desperately for something.”

At the very moment Alex leaned on the still solid fence, frankly speaking, totally bewildered by the clear evidence that it had been quite a while, since the last time the fire blessed the old forge for some work.

“He may be looking for his own self,” sadly smirked the blacksmith. “Being an alien among ones unlike you, both physically and mentally, all of a sudden… that’s definitely enough to get lost. He is lucky, if he has at least a few ones, whom he can trust. I can only imagine, how he must feel sometimes.”

“Yeah, resembles our case, uncle Will, doesn’t it?” sighed Silver Ingot, heading to the half-set table, which she was distracted from by the unusual sound of steps, coming through the window, and then by the look of the two-legged stranger. “We are simple ponies, yet sometimes, very often, to be frank, I feel like an extraequestrian creature, when I come to the market.”

“I’m so sorry that I made you come through all that, my filly,” the old unicorn tiredly placed himself on the chair, which pleadingly screeched. “You are suffering the ponies’ mistrust because of my reputation only. It’s not your fault, yet it’s your reckoning.”

“Oh, uncle, please stop saying that,” his niece left the dishes and gently touched Will’s shoulder. “I can’t complain. What about should I really? You taking me as a foal, when mom and dad were kidnapped by the changelings? Saving me?”

“Otherwise I would have hardly make it to the orphanage,” she added quietly.

“Quite a few years passed since then,” the smile lit Will’s eyes. “A small weak foal grew up into a beautiful young mare.”

Silver Ingot blushed and looked away, involuntarily glancing through the window again.

“And now my past is staining your future, spoiling your life,” the old blacksmith downcasted. “Don’t you see, a young girl shouldn’t live like that.”

“We both can hardly do anything about that. Ponies have prejudices and… tend to believe what they hear. Especially if they hear that on every corner,” his niece wasn’t going to bow to or snap under life’s injustice. “I’m fine as I am, to be honest. And I’m happy that I can help at least a bit with what I learned. Making jewellery is still better than nothing.”

“You’re too humble, my dear. You’ve made a great progress recently. It’s a calamity, you’re getting barely tithe of what your work really costs.”

“Anyway, I’m not going to stop being myself simply to look more socially acceptable for anypony,” Silver Ingot cocked her head. “Even if I could…”

She finished the preparations and welcomed her uncle to their simple supper.

“He is standing there still,” noticed Willsmash, coming to the table. “I wonder what interest may he have… Or does our smithy look that stunningly awful already?” he chuckled.

Outside Alex weighted all pros and cons once again and flexed involuntarily. He threw one more glance on the house and turned to the road to Ponyville, immersed in his thoughts, absently putting his shirt back on. The market still waited for him, so did two mares, who he was to help packing their stalls.

“As you said, he must be looking for his own self,” Silver Ingot let out a small smile. “Right now he may be looking for a job. Can’t imagine what a human could do in his home world, but being thrown here he must think about most common vital things first, I suppose.”

“Well… The helping hooves… or hands are hardly necessary, if we aren’t supposed to have any customers in the nearest future,” the blacksmith seemed to be weighing something in his mind. “But if he came here and asked for a job… and had his hands growing from the right place, I would gladly hire him. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen most likely.”

“Physically he can easily cope with that work,” Silver Ingot measured Alex’s receding back. “Still I doubt that he is very enthusiastic about getting a job at the place, which is about to fall apart.”

*

Several days passed in routinely manner: Alex got up early and after a light breakfast headed to the market, where his two faithful clients waited for him. He was stronger than ponies and naturally could lift and carry more, so, seeing that everything was done fast and accurately each time and both mares had no problems with their worker, other traders estimated the possibilities and started asking for Alex’s service, when they needed extra help. If time allowed, Alex never rejected such work, as he realized that his further plans needed any bit, he could earn.

After the market, when the Sun raised higher, he ran to the railway station, put on his badge and helmet (Alex managed to find the fitting size) and dived into the busy life of the transport and storage facility. It could seem boring to an inattentive distant observer, actually, the work at Ponyville railway hub could be hard, exhausting, but never dull. One must know and keep in mind too much in addition to the labyrinth of the storage hangars and the hard work of lifting and moving the heavy crates itself, so even not mentioning the different nature (and conditions of storage, for example of alchemic ingredients of increased danger level) of cargo, one didn’t have any chance to get bored at that work.

The closer to the evening, the harder it was, because despite its importance, the station and the freight yard were very limited in lighting. Some types of goods didn’t suppose any fire being used near them, so firefly-lanterns were used mostly, when the sunlight was limited inside their hangars. Alex noticed that he could see in the darkness much better than any of the ponies: where he saw decently, others saw nothing. Thus dealing with loads in limited lighting conditions soon became his special well-paid task. And he knew, which place would definitely benefit from his upcoming invention; first he planned to use the wind power here. Alex was told that there was an irrigation dam at the river nearby, so later a water turbine could be placed at the spillway to feed the station needs (that would need a totally different, higher level of engineering, thus was a more distant plan).

First Alex was afraid that having magically advanced, kinetic capable unicorns, ponies would need his service as a loader not that much. But the reality told otherwise: nopony knew exactly why, perhaps because of historical prejudices, there were almost no unicorns, doing that “unpopular” work. Alex found that funny and totally impractical as, for example, Rarity could lift and move quite a large amount of things with her magic – Applejack told him once, how they went hiking and how Rarity took “a darn huge load o’stuff, consarnit! Ah never thought of her being able to carry that much…” But he could see only a couple of unicorns working at the freight yard and nothing told about them being straining themselves too much. That was pouring water on his wheel, fortunately. Besides, Alex was always guided by physics principles, while stacking anything, so once the stationmaster put him as an example to others, saying that “a bucking earthquake must occur to shatter that stack of crates”. Thus being friendly, where possible, accurate, strong enough and capable to work in considerable darkness quickly made him a valuable part of railway station team. There was one more positive aspect of the hard work – Alex felt that almost no remnants of the month, spent sitting in four walls, left; more of the same workout and he started gaining. No gym could ever offer that boost.

‘Now I need only to learn the placement of damned hangars perfectly,’ chuckled Alex inwardly. ‘And I can safely assume I will reach the upper limit of myself at that place.’

Finishing his daily part of work Alex left the station earlier, much earlier than others, as he was to reach the market in time and do the evening loading for the traders, he worked with. That was initially agreed, but lately Alex started noticing that nopony frowned upon that anymore – he managed to do tons of work fast and accurate enough even up to that early hour, so nopony objected he left the freight earlier.

Working at the market Alex saw and was able to share a few phrases with Applejack and Big Mac daily; he started helping them, when the load of goods, brought for selling, was excessive for two earth ponies to handle fast. Alex never took any bits in return, but he didn’t refuse some fine apples, if offered – Fluttershy loved apples, so did Alex.

He noticed that he was getting along nicely with Jackie’s brother, especially when working together, despite Big Mac being extremely laconic, mostly limiting the conversation to simple “Eeyup” and “Nnope”; a special case was needed for a more complex phrase to leave the taciturn stallion’s mouth.

A few times Apple Bloom came with her older siblings to help at the market stall and they both with Alex always found time for a joke or some merry fuss. Apple Bloom’s loud laughter spread throughout the market square, when Alex picked her up and tossed high in the air, then caught and tickled.

He saw Granny Smith once as well; mostly she visited the market later, when Alex was at the railway station already. That day she needed something for her special recipe, which took quite some time to prepare, so she was to get it in the morning to cook everything till dinner. Alex was awarded by “what a fine young… stallion” words of her, which made both sisters giggle and even Big Mac snorted quite audibly.

And Alex’s nights were often blessed by visits of his incredible princess, Luna never could bear more than a couple of days without him, thus their meetings became regular. So did their dancing lessons. Alex praised the simple fact that they with Fluttershy lived at far outskirts of the town, so, nopony could spot them with Luna, dancing in the moonlight. He chuckled each time at the mental image of somepony thinking they saw a couple of ghosts in the night veiled field.

Alex could assume that almost everything settled fine during his first few conscious free-roaming days in Ponyville. Everything, except three problems of different severity and nature.

The first and the biggest was his thoughts about returning home and progressively thinning chance to do that; they usually stood back, expelled by work or engineering (he had a large stack of paper, covered in drafts, “blueprints” and calculations, and smiled mysteriously, telling that it was a surprise, when Fluttershy asked, what was in them) or his time together with Fluttershy, but always returned, when Alex had a few free moments to himself. Accompanied by the insecurity regarding the feelings, he could leave a few ponies in upon his departure, they became almost unbearable; Alex tried to leave himself less unoccupied time possible. The nightly visits of princess Luna helped immensely, he could completely dissolve in her embrace, simply listening to her heart and not letting sad thoughts come through. They didn’t talk about his possible departure, but Alex felt that Luna was concerned hardly less, than himself: she snuggled into him and kissed so hard each time before leaving, like if it was their last one.

Another problem could be considered funny, if it wasn’t merely uncomfortable: Rainbow Dash found the idea of morning showers quite beneficial for Alex, besides, she never troubled herself with checking the temperature of the water in the cloud, so it was pure lottery; Alex started wondering if she secretly had some hardening program for him. Fortunately, Rainbow adored a good nap even more than a good prank, so her shenanigans could be easily avoided by sneaking along the road to the market earlier. But not very early, not to make Fluttershy protest the morning… deprival.

The third issue was purely cosmetic, if we can call it that way – Alex noticed that his hair grew too long to become a certain trouble. Shaving the stubble wasn’t a problem, but Alex could never cut his own hair properly and decently. One day he was to let out one more deep sigh and admit that visiting Rarity (as he knew nopony else, who could help him with the haircut) was imminent, before his hair started to obscure his view, hindering the work.

Alex had a talk with both of his market clients to find the evening, when they didn’t need his help much, and when the stipulated day came, he headed to the south end of the town right after his station shift and taking a shower. Carousel Boutique was his aim and Alex was to admit that he found racing the manticore a bit less unnerving. The time was chosen not randomly at all, Alex extended his hope to see Sweetie Belle at home at this hour, thus her older sister supposedly should keep herself in hooves better… well, not pouncing him right at first sight at least.

When he reached the “chic, unique and magnifique” round building and stepped on the paved walkway across the front garden, he noticed the unusual silence, interrupted by Rarity’s sewing machine clacking only. Alex smiled – Rarity was busy with some work as usual (when not having her relaxing SPA treatment), and sighed – when Belle was at home, she produced more noise. He grasped himself and knocked at the front door. The sound of sewing machine stopped, Alex accurately knocked once more.

“Just a minute,” he heard the familiar “faceted glass”-like voice inside the house. “I’m coming.”

The door opened, revealing Rarity in all the glory of her pristine white coat and perfectly stylized violet mane and tail. She managed to take off her glasses, she used for stitching, but a meter band still hung on her neck and a pencil was casually placed behind her ear. Nevertheless, she kept the noble, almost regal look, easily; the image of her visitor made her noticeably relax, yet Alex spotted a couple of self-explanatory sparkles in her eyes.

“Oh, good evening, Ahhlex!” Rarity breathed out with a benevolent smile, batting her long eyelashes.

“Good evening, Rarity,” Alex couldn’t hold back the sincere smile, caused by her regal expression and the sewing tools combined.

“Ahem…” Rarity followed his glance and her nose become slightly pinkish, she made the pencil and meter fly back in her workroom with her magic. She didn’t hesitate much though and opened the door wider. “Come on in, darling. What is bothering you? Maybe I can offer my help…”

Alex followed Rarity in the living room and the salon at the same time, the dresses were presented along the walls and the thick curtains shielded the entrance to a couple of dressing cabins. He told himself that the curve, Rarity’s flanks followed, was hardly unintentional, and strained inwardly. Rarity welcomed him to take an armchair at the round table with a wide gesture, placing herself into the opposite one and crossing her legs in the most seducing for a pony way. A part of Alex’s mind was smiling at the obvious symptoms, another was preparing for any wild consequences.

“So?” Rarity placed her chin on her hoof, leaning on the table and staying the epitome of grace simultaneously. She tilted her head and batted her eyelashes, glancing at Alex from under them.

“Well… To cut things short, excuse my pun,” smirked Alex. “I had a long growing problem, Rarity – my hair. It’s a matter of days they start interfering with my eyesight severely, preventing me from doing my work… Not to mention that it’s getting too hot under that… mane.”

Instead of an answer Rarity got up and approached Alex, she examined his head from different angles, then raised on her hind legs behind his armchair and put her fore hooves on his shoulders. With a quiet sigh she nuzzled his hair, Alex inwardly praised the shower, he took after the whole day of hard work, then she rubbed her cheek against his head.

“Sweet Celestia!” Rarity finally voiced her thoughts. “You are blessed with such strong and good hair. It’s a crime to cut them short, if you ask me, darling.”

“I can’t walk around with a braid or… pony tail,” Alex rolled his eyes. “I’m already almost blowing the bangs like Fluttershy, when my hands are busy. But I can’t cut them myself not becoming a scarecrow instantly. From all the ponies I know, from all my friends, you are the only one, Rarity, who can do it properly, I suppose.”

“Right you are, Ahhlex!” Rarity cocked her head proudly and Alex realized that he played the right string. “But still, darling, it would be such a waste…”

After a short arguments exchange Rarity gave up, asking what Alex actually wanted to be done with his haircut.

“I suppose you are higher than simply asking for “cut-it-somehow” version, darling,” she murmured, ogling him. “You could probably draw, what you need.”

“Unfortunately, drawing is not one of my virtues,” sighed Alex. “You know, Rarity, there is a list of things, I’m a total loser and avoid scaring others by my attempts at. So, drawing is somewhere within… along with the ability to cut my own hair decently. I can only try to explain.”

He spent a few minutes more, telling and showing Rarity with his hands, how he needed his hair to be cut – very short at the back of the head and behind the ears, slightly longer at the top and front, but short enough to be able to lay without extra help.

“Well, that’s as thorough and detailed as I understand it and can explain without any experience,” Alex shrugged, then smiled. “You are certainly free to make the rest fashionable enough. But not too fashionable,” he winked. “Just remember that’s me, not princess Cadence.”

Rarity huffed, but she wasn’t offended a zilch, she nodded instead.

“Come with me, Ahlex, I have the suitable mirror and armchair in my workroom.”

But first they headed to the kitchen, where Alex made his hair damp under the tap above the deep sink. When he turned on the water, the pipes under the sink made a nasty screeching sound, Rarity frowned a little.

“They are that way for quite a while, darling,” she told him in an apologetic tone. “It’s fine when the water is running, but when you turn it on… you heard that.”

Alex weighed the idea to check the pipes for Rarity, he still was unsure, if staying with her tete-a-tete longer than necessary was safe enough.

“It’s very quiet in the house otherwise,” he mentioned instead. “I thought Sweetie Belle must have been at home that late.”

“Oh, she ran away to her club mates, they have some meeting about their cutie marks hunt,” Rarity laughed heartily.

“So we are all alone here,” she added with a sly smile, seating him in the armchair in front of a big mirror and covering from the neck down with a sheet. “Purely adult swim…”

Alex didn’t reply, he found it not prudent to interrupt somepony with scissors and cutting his hair, even if holding them with magic. Especially holding them with magic, he wanted his ears as… well, ears, not a distant memory. Besides, he noticed Rarity getting more and more heated, as she stayed around him. She approached him from one side, then another, snuggling into him, when it was possible, on the pretext of checking, how he looked in the mirror. He could feel the faster heartbeat and caught her glance almost undressing him, now it was up to him, getting out in the most diplomatic way.

Finally, Rarity was done with fine trimming and apparently satisfied with the result. She brushed the cut hair off Alex and took the sheet away, welcoming him to check the haircut in the mirror.

“I hope it’s close enough to what you wanted,” she looked at him from under her eyelashes.

“You’re joking, right?! That’s exactly what I wanted,” exclaimed Alex, examining himself from different sides. “Rarity, you’re a star, I can’t thank you enough. It’s classy… exceeds my expectations by far. I hope I didn’t interfere with your main work… too much.”

“That’s okay, darling,” Rarity stepped closer. “A nice activity change, when it was needed, and a break from my stitching work.”

“And a nice company,” added she with widening eyes, taking another step to him; Alex noticed the same sparkles in her eyes. “Just what I…”

A loud bang from the kitchen interrupted her, followed by repetitive thumping noise. Both Alex and Rarity burst there to be greeted with an image of a water pool quickly spreading from under the sink.

“The water pipe got loose,” Alex grabbed bewildered Rarity by shoulders to bring her to action. “Rarity, come on, where are the valves?!”

“The v-valves?” re-asked Rarity with widened eyes, but the image of Alex’s eyes at a couple inches distance seemed to wake her.

“Yeah, the valves, to cut the water,” Alex forcedly smiled in the most cheerful way, Rarity easily lost her head about simplest living troubles. “I need to cut the water, before your kitchen turns into a swimming pool.”

“Oh!” Rarity cleared her throat. “They are in the basement.”

She quickly trotted out of the kitchen and Alex followed her on the stairs behind the hatch. They quickly found the water mains’ entrance and the valves in the soft light of Rarity’s horn. Alex noticed that the whole place was kept in order, Rarity was faithful to her principles, but the plumbing certainly needed man’s hands; when he tried to close the valve, he was to put all his strength to turn them, as they got stuck pretty tough. The muscles on his arms popped like ropes and he noticed out of the corner of his eye, how Rarity watched him passionately. Finally, the water was cut and they got back to the accident site – the kitchen.

‘I’m getting wet again!’ thought Alex, kneeling and opening the cupboard under the sink to estimate the damage, fortunately it was clean water from the mains. ‘It’s getting routinely annoying.’

Rarity brought the lamp and Alex could measure the broken pipe – the hose from the mains to the tap got loose from its nut and the thumping noise, they heard, was the water coming out. There was quite a pool of it already, thankfully the floor was made of stone in her kitchen and to her honour Rarity didn’t drop a word about wading in the cold water.

“I hope the general store is still open,” Alex got up, noticing his pants got all wet from the knees down. “I’ll be back shortly. By the way, do you have a wrench, preferably adjustable one? I can attach the hose with bare hands tight enough, but it’ll better be screwed properly,” he added almost from the front door.

“I-I think, I saw it somewhere… I’ll t-try to find…” said Rarity, standing in the kitchen doorway, she was still in slight shock by the accident.

Chased by the setting Sun Alex thought that this race could easily beat the manticore one, when he jet-ran through Ponyville to the general store, followed by amused glances of a few fillies and stallions, and some disapproving by a few elderly mares. Fortunately, the seller understood him from the first word and after a few moments and spent bits (he bought an adjustable wrench as well, just in case) Alex “flew” back, passing the same ponyvillers once again, causing surprised glances this time.

To his surprise Rarity managed to clean up all the mess, while he was getting the necessary tools, moreover, an old wrench waited for him on the floor near the sink.

“You thought that such a girl like me must have no idea about the tools, confess, Alex?” Rarity pouted slightly, but made it so cutely that Alex laughed kindly.

“Well, maybe just a single thought. Sorry, Rarity,” he took the lamp and opened the cupboard again, pondering, how to reach the pipes in a more handy way. “Frankly speaking, I took it just in case. Besides, now I can hold the pipe in place with one and drive the nuts with another – twice effective.”

But Rarity didn’t plan to pout too long: when Alex got under the kitchen sink, laying on his back, as it was the best way to keep both hands ready for work, she placed herself at the kitchen table and put her chin on her hoof, watching him fixedly. Alex started unscrewing the old hose, throwing quick glances at Rarity and forcedly admitting that the whole scene reminded him more and more of a certain adult movie, involving a housewife and a plumber. Facepalming inwardly and shooing the idea away, Alex put more effort into the pipework and pressed the handle with a groan, so, finally the old nut gave up.

“Need some help, darling?” Alex noticed that Rarity already placed herself next to him and lit her horn. That made the scene lit twice better and Alex was to confess that it helped, but at the same time the proximity of her warm body was distracting him, nopony knew, what was up Rarity’s mind at that moment.

“Tis fine! Dost not worry,” Alex detached the hose and quickly tilted his head as a few drops of water came out of the pipe just to the spot, his face was a second ago. “Almost thither…”

Rarity let out a deep, and to be honest quite excited sigh, and apparently noticed nothing. Alex fitted the new hose and tightened both nuts to hold in place as long as possible, while Rarity watched him with deepening breath, he almost felt electricity coming from her.

“So…” started Alex making the final turn of the wrench, suddenly he felt gentle hoof traveling up his leg. Apparently, this caught him entirely off guard and with a gasp Alex raised on his elbows fast enough… for his head to meet the metal bottom of the sink with an audible boom. A flock of colourful birds fluttered in front of his eyes and Alex fell down, entering a well deserved for that reckless move black out.

When he regained his consciousness, Alex lied a few moments still, finding something wet on his forehead, something soft under his head and… something warm and alive on his chest. Alex slowly opened his eyes, focusing on Rarity’s eyes in a couple of inches.

‘Well, whom could I expect?’ blinked in his head.

Somehow she managed to drag him a little from under the sink and to the middle of the kitchen (quite an achievement for a pony unable to use magic on him), put a pillow under his head and the wet thing on his forehead was a towel, placed over his almost an egg size bump to cool it down. Rarity lay on his chest with a mixed expression of lust and fear for his condition, she watched his face for the signs of waking up all that time, but her hooves unconsciously stroked him. She threw a quick glance down, her lips were at the hair distance from his.

Not waiting for the continuation that was too obvious Alex cleared his throat.

“Ugh-oh!” His head was still spinning slightly, but he quickly examined himself mentally: fine, except the bump, and the main thing – his clothes were entirely in place, he was unconscious for a couple of minutes most likely.

“Thanks for placing me more comfortably,” muttered he, raising his hand and rubbing his face, thus naturally making Rarity back up a little to give him space.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, darling!” breathed out Rarity, still holding him in her grasp; she might move a little, but still was nesting cosily on him. “You’ve made me so scared, Ahlex…”

“That’s entirely my fault,” chuckled Alex, then squinted, the vibration made his head spin a little more. “Should be more cautious. I’ll be fine… in a while.”

“You definitely must lay still, darling! And I’ll be here in case you need something,” Rarity started advancing again as soon as he removed the hand. Alex felt, how her heated body trembled slightly, as her eyes and lips were approaching his.

The salvation came in form of the sound of the opening front door, apparently, the fillies had all their questions discussed and further adventures planned, so the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ meeting came to an end.

“I’m home, sis!” shouted Sweetie Belle from the door. “Rarity?!”

Then apparently she saw the light, coming from the kitchen, and a series of quick hoofsteps brought Rarity’s younger sister to the doorway, before anypony could move.

“Errmmm…”

“Good evening, darling!” Rarity rushed to explain, but her pinkish cheeks were quite eloquent. “We had a terrible disaster here – a water pipe got loose and a flood was inevitable,” she rolled her eyes dramatically, getting up from Alex’s chest and allowing him to sit finally, holding the wet towel on his head. “Thank Celestia, Alex came earlier for a haircut, so, he was here, when it happened. He practically saved the place and fixed the pipe, but then accidentally hit his head on the sink… I-I was checking, if he w-was getting better…”

“I see,” Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow, the memory of certain “stitching drafts” was too fresh and she was to admit that one of them reminded the scene close enough.

“Are you okay, Alex?” she came closer and looked into Alex’s eyes, her expression was sympathetic and understanding though, it seemed she understood the whole scene right.

“You must be hungry, give me a few minutes,” Rarity fussed around the kitchen, trying to change the accent.

“I’m fine,” Alex took off the towel and handed it to the filly with a smile. “Thanks to your sister, she did everything fast to remedy my mishap, and the bump is way smaller, than it could be, if not treated in time,” he felt his head with his fingers.

“Thank you,” he leaned closer and whispered in Sweetie Belle’s ear, when Rarity was busy. The filly simply nodded, understanding what Alex meant under that.

“Okay, girls, let’s try turning the water on,” Alex slowly got up, feeling that at least that wasn’t a concussion – his head stopped spinning and there were no noticeable aftereffects. He headed to the basement with Rarity following close, she generously provided the light, while Alex was turning the valve counterclockwise; this time it went much easier. Alex raised his voice to be heard out of the basement. “How’s it going, Sweetie Belle?”

“The water is going from the tap,” her head appeared in the basement hatch. “But not from anywhere else, it’s not supposed to… So, I guess, it’s fine!”

“Well… I’ll better go… home,” Alex let Rarity come first, then got out of the basement as well. “Before Fluttershy sends the rescue party after me. Oh… How much…”

“No, no, no!” Rarity quickly turned to him. “I wouldn’t take any bits from you for a simple haircut. Besides, you saved me from all… this,” she took a look at the kitchen door, rolling her eyes the most dramatic way again. “Are you sure, you can walk all the way to Flutters’?”

“I’ll do my best,” smirked Alex, kneeling to Sweetie Belle and stroking her mane, he winked at her, getting a smile in response. Then Alex got up to be enclosed in a hug by Rarity, who raised on her hind legs to give him one of her best “big kitten” looks, and kissed her on the nose lightly, making her blush and squint.

Both sisters walked him to the front door to make sure he wasn’t staggering, Sweetie Belle wanted to be sure Rarity wouldn’t throw any other trick as well. Alex managed to hear the loud huff of the filly, before the door closed, and giggled, imagining that Sweetie Belle would definitely comment the situation. The rest of his road to Fluttershy’s Cottage went without any “adventures”, despite the falling darkness.

“Oh, thank Celestia, you finally came…” Fluttershy even soared in the air from the armchair, she was apparently waiting for him quite for a while, worrying much already. “You have never come that late! Is everything okay?” she fluttered to him.

“I’m okay, Shy, calm down,” Alex caught her in his arms and she wrapped her legs and wings around him. “I visited Rarity for a long wanted haircut, a water pipe got broken in her kitchen, so I fixed it for her. Then… then she almost cornered me, well, you know… Thankfully, Sweetie Belle came home right in time and… that’s all. I was able to get home as well.”

“Well…” Fluttershy leaned back a little and examined him. “Quite a classy haircut, a bit of waste of your hair though… but I guess you aren’t going to sport a full-size mane,” she said with a chuckle. “And Rarity… is Rarity,” apparently she was quite confident, the latter wasn’t a competition for her.

“And what’s this, if I may ask?” his caring pegasus girl spotted the big bump on his head and examined it closely. “I think you’re not telling me everything,” she squinted at Alex jokingly, but her tone was serious enough.

“I accidentally hit the bottom of the sink while fixing the stuff,” Alex shrugged, rubbing the bump lightly. “And got unconscious for a couple of minutes. It’s exactly when Rarity almost cornered me, but first she managed to place me with comfort and put a cold towel on my head. Then her sister returned and prevented Rarity from anything, she was going to try.”

“Seriously, I’m fine already,” repeated he, seeing the concern in Fluttershy’s eyes. “We can hardly do anything else.”

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy frowned. “I at least could provide some cold for your bump as well.”

“It’ll hardly help now,” Alex stroked her mane. “But thanks anyway.”

“Well, I know another medicine,” she giggled. “Will serve you as a painkiller,” said Fluttershy covering his lips by her own.

“By the way, you’ve got a letter,” mentioned she after a few minutes of their lips being tightly connected.

“Me?” wondered Alex, thinking that this letter wasn’t smelling of lavender most likely, as Fluttershy mentioned it quite casually.

“It must be from princess Celestia,” answered Fluttershy, nuzzling his cheek. “I’m not getting letters smelling of roses on regular basis,” she giggled.

“Okay, let us see,” Alex reached the armchair and sat down, holding Fluttershy on his lap. He unrolled the small scroll, fragrant of faint roses smell indeed.

“Dear Alex…”

Alex involuntarily chuckled again and Fluttershy joined him, when she saw the reason for his fun.

“Dear Alex

Remembering our last talk I want to inform you that aforementioned unicorn is being transferred to Canterlot and will arrive at the medical facility of the castle at Friday night or Saturday morning, in case of any complications. Thus you can visit him on Saturday, if time matters for you. Needless to say that all necessary precautions are to be taken, as we don’t know how adequate (or not) the subject is.

Your (for the time being) Sun Monarch,

Princess Celestia

P.S.: If by any chance you want to take somepony involved with you, simply ensure that you both know well, what are you stepping into. Otherwise, you are free to have a reasonable company of those, you can trust and expect help from.”

Alex marveled once more at the foresight of princess Celestia, who worded her letter neutrally enough, obviously understanding that it could reach some third-party eyes, and leaving him the freedom to interpret it the desired way to others. Besides, she kept in mind the probability of him taking somepony (read Fluttershy) as the company and freed him from the additional task of asking her for permission, while it was possible.

“What unicorn is she talking about?” asked Fluttershy, looking at Alex wonderingly. “And why do you need to see him that urgently?”

“Celestia told me about the victim of one extremely strange accident, when I was in the Canterlot castle,” Alex answered evasively, he wanted to keep Fluttershy safe and far from everything involving Seekers. “I extend mine hope to think ‘t can help me solving mine problems,” he scolded himself for another slip, but the words already left his mouth.

Fluttershy’s ears flattened and her eyes dimmed, not because of the language, but because she understood perfectly, what he meant under “problems”.

“Can I go with you, Alex?” she asked quietly. ‘As your time may be approaching…’ she thought, but didn’t say that.

“Of course, Shy!” Alex held her tight, stroking her mane; the scroll fell down on the floor from his hand. “I’ll stop by Twilight tomorrow and write an answer to the princess, notifying her about you coming with me.” He found her eyes and kissed Fluttershy gently, making her cheer up a bit and give out a small smile. “Come on, I’m not leaving to anywhere in the nearest future…”

“I hope so,” Fluttershy snuggled into him with a happy sigh. “Hey, are you hungry? I’ve made an apple pie.”

“I’m that hungry, I could eat an elephant,” huffed Alex. “Well, figuratively,” he amended under her surprised glance. “But an apple-pie will fit as well.”

*

Friday came subtly, or, better say, it went unnoticeably till sunrise, when after a couple of hours it became obvious, that day would easily be the hottest day of that summer. Alex managed to get to the railway station without any problems, as it wasn’t too hot early in the morning. It was bearable in the cool twilight of the storage hangars as well, even if he was to move usual heavy loads. But when Alex was to get from under the roof, the sweat started running down him in streams after a few minutes outside, so, he felt like in the hot sauna at the very least… if not causing Celestia’s wrath upon himself.

The freight yard smelled of heated metal of roofs and rivets, wooden planks gave out tar in the scorching heat and the pathways added dust to that mix. No wind touched the boiling pot, which Ponyville with its surroundings turned into. All the animals and birds found their cover and even Everfree froze still as an enormous slab of malachite, placed on Equestria land. All the ponies looked for cover at the noon, any trading attempts were futile and the market square was deserted.

Alex wondered, if the weather pegasi decided to play some nasty trick on the others (which he knew was impossible) or planned an “Italian” strike. Perhaps it was Applejack’s special request to give fructifying cucumbers on the fields some boost after a few preceding rains; still, Alex thought that they could at least keep some clouds above Ponyville and one big above the station specifically. He envied the girls a little: Alex stopped by the Oak Library in the morning to write princess Celestia an answer and tell that he was going to come with Fluttershy (he asked the princess specifically not to discuss all the details about the Seekers in Fluttershy’s presence), when Twilight told him that they planned to spend the hottest hours at the lake, under the blessing shadow of a tree or a beach tent. Alex knew that even Rarity, who didn’t like the deep water, wouldn’t refuse to take a swim that day. But he was to deal with the goods and storage as usual, if he wanted to bring to life his ambitious plans. The sudden thought that he could leave behind something valuable, instead of suspicions and troubles, upon leaving Equestria, was heartwarming and Alex let out a tired smile and kept working.

This evening came, like the long wanted deliverance; as the market wasn’t working that day, Alex stayed at the station later than usual. He managed to do more work and, to be frank, was able to hide from the raging Sun as long as it was possible. It was still high enough in the sky, when he finally finished his shift and was going home; Alex lingered in the shower longer than usual, stayed under the almost cold water, realizing that it would take quite a while, before he could cool down himself properly again.

The Sun wasn’t as merciless, when Alex finally hit the road, but he was to admit, he went twice slower than usual, feeling himself like perhaps a lemon did, after a good portion of lemonade was made out of it. When the feeling of sandpaper in his throat became unbearable, Alex decided to stop by the “Bouncing Barrels” bar on his way home: a good portion of apple cider and some cover were exactly what his tired self needed.

Frankly speaking, he didn’t visit places like that in Equestria before, so there was a lion’s share of pure naturalist’s curiosity, Twilight could understand, in his motion – it was interesting, how a bar looked in ponies’ interpretation, especially considering that strong alcohol wasn’t something favoured by the majority.

A squeaky door opened, letting him inside the dimly lit large room, which didn’t look much different from any earth counterpart according to his fluent glance. The main part of it was occupied by the tables, taken by the couples and companies at that time of the day. There was a free space between the “tables zone” and the counter with high chairs at the far wall of the room, a fairly small stage – in the far left corner, empty at the moment, but undoubtedly used for some live music, when special occasions demanded. A couple of billiard tables to the right finished the ensemble and provided the willing with an opportunity to spend their free time more actively; a few young stallions lazily sent the balls rolling, taunting each other. A quiet calm music filled the scene and Alex guessed that it was the techno-magical Radio Equestria.

Generally, the bar looked much more reserved, than any alike on Earth: the ponies enjoyed their drinks and snacks, talked in half tone and simply saved themselves from the outside heat. There were no annoying tingling slot machines, ear-splitting music or extremely loud customers, let alone some drunk troublemakers, unless the company of grumpy looking unshaven stallions at the table in the corner could potentially stir the trouble. They looked like some construction site workers, a couple of younger ones and a few mid-aged, Alex never saw any of them at the market or station, so he decided that they must have been some builders indeed.

Alex remembered that he was technically a loader himself, looking perhaps the same way after a hard day; he shrugged and stepped over the doorstep with a light smile, slightly ducking under the barrel hanging above the doorway and heading to the counter, gathering surprised, interested and disapproving glances in equal amounts, as usual. Despite he wasn’t a total stranger for the majority by that moment, it seemed that the ponies didn’t expect the human to appear here all alone, without any company. The talks muted for a moment, but Alex wasn’t going to pay much attention to the herd and the usual hum continued after a short pause.

“Evening!” Alex nodded to the approaching bartender, placing himself on the high chair at the counter.

“Hey, it’s always nice to see a new face here,” the bartender greeted him with a social smile. “Good evening! What’s your choice?” Apparently, he preferred to stick to polite and business beneficial neutrality, regardless of what he thought.

“A pint of cider, please,” Alex returned the smile then added. “It’s hot as hell… errmmm… Tartarus today!”

“It really is,” the stallion turned to take a mug and fill it with cider from one of the barrels behind the counter, he dropped over the shoulder with a smirk. “But it’s darn good for the business, right?”

Alex chuckled in agreeing manner. The bartender returned with his cider and a carton mug stand, placing them on the counter in front of Alex.

“Thanks,” Alex raised the mug, the first gulp brought serenity to his sore throat. Suddenly the bartender strained, Alex noticed over the edge of his mug, how his muzzle gloomed, while the stallion was looking at something behind Alex.

Alex lowered his mug and ever so slightly turned his head to see from the corner of his eye a couple of stallions – the supposed builders – coming from their table. One was a young colt, another was fairly older, a middle-aged pony; Alex remembered that a few of disapproving glances were coming exactly from their company.

“Hey!” the colt started deliberately loud, when both came closer; Alex enjoyed his cider, while keeping them in his field of view. “I don’t come here to be drinking with… apes! Right?” he turned to his partner.

“Yeah,” spat the older one with a wry grin. It was so obvious, what they wanted to achieve, that Alex inwardly rolled his eyes.

‘Sometimes ponies and people are all the same indeed!’

“Well,” Alex made another slow sip, then accurately placed his mug on the counter. “There is only one bar nearby. So, as I’m forced to drink with horses,” he winked to the bartender slightly. “You can stomp your pride and drink with apes likewise!”

“What did you say?” both stallions came closer. When on their hind legs, ponies were just a bit shorter than him, besides, these stallions were naturally bulky, working hard all days long. Thus, considering the hooves, those two could provide some serious problem.

“Got cement in your fluffy ears, eh?” Alex took the mug in his right hand, taking another lazy sip. “Unfortunately I can’t recommend a suitable medic…”

“You!..” the younger stallion raised on the hind legs, putting his fore legs on the counter and overhanging Alex’s shoulder.

Nopony could hear, what he was going to say. Alex’s left elbow was still resting on the counter, but the back of his fist made a ninety-degree swing and met the bully’s muzzle with a sharp, hard, shocking punch. The stallion froze in the air for a fraction of second, then collapsed to the floor in his black out.

The following events happen that fast, so nopony could clearly see them. The older stallion appeared to be a lefty, thus, despite the unhandy position, managed to perform a strike, Alex unfortunately missed. Alex felt like meeting a fast closing door, when a hard hoof smashed into his left cheekbone, throwing him to the floor from the bar chair. He rolled and jumped to his legs, shaking his head. His cheek was quickly poured with heat, and the metal taste in the mouth was self-explanatory, yet a quick examination with his tongue told Alex that all the teeth were on their native places.

When he focused on his foe, Alex realized that the bully didn’t waste time: there was a thick glass bottle in his hoof already.

“Hey! Stop that bucking…” the bartender reached under the counter, most likely for some ponderable argument, but a short whistle from behind Alex’s back made everypony freeze.

Alex threw a quick glance over his shoulder to spot the billiard cue, which one of the playing stallions tossed him. Catching it in the air Alex turned to the older bully with an unkind grin, it was time to put his historical reconstruction practice to good use.

The cue hissed like a snake, cutting the air, while being spun by Alex around himself on a wide trajectory. He threw it from one hand to another, raising above his head; when his foe tried to estimate the direction of the hit, the cue lowered, making another full circle, and its end reached the bottle in his left hoof, smashing it into a load of useless splinters.

Not giving the bully any chance to realize the situation, the cue retracted, then Alex made a quick step forward, squatted, making another full circle with the cue and catching his enemy under his knees. The builder lost his balance and crashed down flat on his back with a thud, kicking the rest of the air from his lungs. With a lightning speed Alex got close and leaned over the defeated enemy, denoting, but not applying with the cue the lethal strike into his throat. The stallion, knocked out by the fall, weakly moved on the floor, trying to focus his eyesight; nopony rushed to help him.

The first one woke up from his blackout already and attempted to get up, but the legs didn’t serve him well enough yet, he knocked a couple of chairs to the floor, while twitching. Alex approached him, putting the cue in the left hand… He handed the colt his right hand and, after a moment of hesitation, the latter accepted the help, so Alex could raise him on his legs. He held the colt by his shoulder for a moment longer, giving his legs time to stop shaking.

“Apes don’t do this!” slowly and meaningfully stated Alex, looking into his opponent’s eyes, when they regained focus.

“Hey,” a heavy hoof lay on Alex’s shoulder and Alex regretted that the cue was in his left hand, he turned a little, getting ready to duck and strike from his right, but then spotted Big Mac’s smiling muzzle behind.

“Hey!” repeated Applejack’s older brother. “Cool down, big guy…” It was quite a long tirade for him, but apparently, it wasn’t the limit.

“It’s not like the others want to join the fun, right?” Big Mac patted Alex’s back, nodding to the rest of the builders, who humbly took their beaten mates back to their table.

The silence was torn by a few whistles and cheerful whoops from behind, Alex smirked, feeling his bruise, and threw the cue back to the stallion, who lent him his game accessory.

“Mine gratitude!” Alex caught a few interested glances of present mares.

Big Mac was really bigger, than any pony around, as Alex could notice, besides, he had an evident authority in Ponyville, so the incident died down immediately. Besides, Alex didn’t break anything, except an empty bottle, so, considering the builders started the quarrel, he was on the safe side.

McIntosh nodded towards the counter, then leaned closer to Alex’s ear, saying in half tone:

“Ponyville is a small town. You see, things going not so smooth at the building site, so they come here and drown their problems… or try to compensate by looking for some fight. Newcomers are always the preferable pray. Not your case though, right?” he chuckled.

They sat at the counter, defiantly turning their backs to the public.

“Need some ice?” the smile of the bartender was now sincere, apparently those stallions managed to get on his nerves before.

“I guess, I can live with it, as it is,” Alex touched his cheek, the swelling vanished already, as his regeneration took over; the colour effects were going to be visible for a few days more likely – no regeneration can remove the blood, shot out already. “Thanks anyway.”

“Okay,” the bartender shrugged and turned to Big Mac. “As usual?”

“Eeyup,” smirked the latter, reaching for his portion of apple cider. Apparently, the long sentences were not needed anymore.

*

“See, Flutter-nutter-butter, here he goes,” Pinkie smiled widely, placing her hoof on Fluttershy’s, when both girls heard the sound of the front door opening. “You’ve worried for nothing.”

“He is coming late the second time in the row, Pinkie,” Fluttershy tried to hold the small crocodile and tape up his tail simultaneously. “I wonder what troubles did Alex manage to get into today? Sit still, Gummy! You like putting your tail in the doorways, then you should like it being bandaged as well.”

Alex heard two voices talking as soon as he opened the door and entered, but he couldn’t tell right away who visited them with Fluttershy and inwardly prayed for them not to be Rarity – he couldn’t bear two evenings of her shenanigans one by one. He had nothing against Ra-ra personally, but what if she started making a pass at him again. Pinkie’s lush mane of the self-titled colour, appearing in the kitchen doorway, dispelled his concerns and Alex greeted the earth pony with a wide smile, preparing for a usual bear hug. Which obviously shortly followed.

“Well… here… we… are!” heard Alex satisfied Fluttershy’s exclamation from behind Pinkie’s back, when she finally placed the last tape and fixed it on Gummy’s tail. “And don’t put your tail in the closing doors anymore, okay?”

Fluttershy entered the living room, carrying the crocodile, and handed him to Pinkie.

“Why are you so late again,” quietly complained she, raising on her hind legs and wrapping her fore legs around Alex to bring him closer and kiss. “You know I’m worried much every time. You still don’t know the place, as well as the local ponies, and…”

Fluttershy stumbled mid-phrase, she stepped back and examined Alex’s face; Pinkie noticed the new “decoration” as well.

“A-and what is th-this?” apparently she was fairly shocked by the look of a fresh hoof shaped “blueprint” on Alex’s cheekbone. “Alex! You really… got in some t-trouble… How by Celestia’s…”

“Celestia definitely has nothing to do with it,” smirked Alex, running his fingers through Fluttershy’s mane and bringing her closer again, while Pinkie Pie quietly snorted behind. “Actually, there was nothing too interesting for an extended telling.”

“But...” Fluttershy’s eyes filled with tears, when she examined his bruise, ever so gently touching it with her small hoof. “Alex, Alex! Does it still hurt?”

“Not much, dear,” Alex kissed her on the nose at the same time tenderly wiping her tears. “Well, I worked my… backside out all day long… all hot day long, I must say. So I decided to have a refreshment and hit the bar at the south end of the town. How is it called?”

““Bouncing Barrels”,” hinted Pinkie. “One block down from Sugarcube Corner.”

“Yeah, so… I just got in and ordered some cider, when those two builders approached,” Alex continued, holding Fluttershy in his embrace. “There were actually more of them, but those two exactly thought, perhaps, that their evening lacked something.”

Fluttershy shuddered and Alex stroked her head lightly, feeling her warm wings enclosing him in addition to her legs.

“One said that he didn’t want to drink with apes!” Fluttershy gasped and Pinkie huffed disapprovingly upon that part and Alex chuckled a bit guiltily. “I told them that as I was to drink with horses… Sorry girls!”

“And what’s wrong?” Pinkie was genuinely wondering. “If you called a pony… well, a pony or horse. Technically, that’s a promotion in strength and size,” Pinkie giggled and even Fluttershy gave out a tiny smile, her eyes dried. “But I believe there is a certain difference between an ape and a human. Just like between a pegasus and… a certain L-word!”

“Okay… I told them that as I was to drink with horses, they could shut and drink with apes likewise,” Alex shrugged. “This apparently rubbed them the wrong way, so, the first guy tried to intimidate me and I hit him right in the jaw, instantly knocking down. But I have nothing to brag about – totally missed the second stallion’s strike, thus here is the bruise.”

“And?” Fluttershy looked up at him with questioning expression.

“Fell down, got up,” dutifully reported Alex, keeping the poker face. “Caught the billiard cue, kindly thrown to me by a fine stallion – a few played billiard there. My “enemy” already got a bottle somewhere.”

“Ouch!” Pinkie was a bit surprised by such a manifestation of sudden hostility in their quiet town and Fluttershy snuggled tighter to Alex’s chest.

“I was to remember my historical reconstruction fighting practice and first smashed the bottle, then knocked him to the floor and… well, showed that I was to be taken seriously. And that’s practically it,” Alex automatically stroked Fluttershy’s back while talking. “Then Big Mac appeared and we had a couple of drinks together. By the way, Shy, I came earlier today, than on Tuesday.”

“Aha,” Fluttershy looked at him fixedly. “I’ve told Pinkie about Rarity’s plumbing mishap already.”

‘But not about her attempts to use it to her advantage,’ said she with her eyes only, Alex returned her a loving smile.

“But you managed to get hurt twice in a few days, not at your work, mind that,” Fluttershy wasn’t going to give her positions easily.

“Come on,” Alex huffed loudly. “I heal like an… alicorn anyway.”

Pinkie snorted, then started shaking, stifling the laughter, and in a second they three laughed like mad.

“Okay, guys,” Pinkie wiped the tears and put Gummy, who looked at them puzzledly all that time, on her back. “You need some time for yourself and Auntie Pinkie needs to go home,” she made a face. “Have fun and… avoid traumas.”

Fluttershy blushed instantly and, frankly speaking, Alex was sure, he did likewise.

“Jokes aside, I seriously think that you need to be more careful, Alex!” Fluttershy looked into his eyes, after they walked Pinkie to the door, reconsidered of the late supper, took the shower and were slowly drifting to sleep after a long and tiresome day. “What about becoming more far-sighted and calculating, dear?”

‘And stopping being myself?’ wondered Alex, nesting better and hugging Fluttershy. “Look, Shy, I don’t search for troubles, troubles tend to find me lately – just about since my arrival here,” said Alex with a sad smile. “It’s not like it was another way first, then suddenly changed.”

“Besides, I want to be extremely sincere with you, Shy,” he added jokingly. “I need you – Fluttershy – as the marefriend, not as the second mother.”

“Hmpf…” huffed Fluttershy, raising one eyebrow. In a second she attacked him, tickling mercilessly. “Stop teasing me! You magic-resistant troublemaker, you…”

“Okay, okay, I give up,” Alex got tired of laughing hard, despite deep inside he was sure that his remark was fairly serious. “Better tell me about your day.”

“I was definitely less adventure-rich than yours,” Fluttershy kissed him, then nested on his chest, closing her eyes.

Alex touched her mane lightly, inhaling the incredible flower-honey aroma and listening about the girls’ day at the lake; Rainbow’s and Pinkie’s tricks and merry fuss; Applejack’s futile attempts to get tanned properly, so her freckles become less visible; Rarity’s drama and complaints about cold and deep water; Twilight, laying in the tent shade and watching all that above the edge of unalterable book; her own relaxation, listening to the most durable birds, who still sang, despite that heat. Until Fluttershy suddenly slowly repeated the same phrase twice… and then stopped amidst the next one. Alex felt her even, quiet breath on his chest, telling him that she fell asleep. Holding her and smiling he slowly closed his eyes.

Comments

[timd]

i like the story but the parts with luna more :P

[Alexshy]

8448452
I'm trying to give both girls deserved attention. Luna may look more attractive due to her experience and tactical approach forsooth, but Fluttershy shalt gain throughout the story. Yet she shalt need certain triggers for that, not very pleasant at first. But in the end of the day both... Well... I shall spoil no more

[timd]

8448772
ok thanks for summing that up ;)

[timd]

i can't wait for princess celestia's reaction and twillight's when luna and alex dance at the ball.

[Alexshy]

8452207
That shalt be more than thou can expect... the whole court either, in the earnest.

[timd]

8452217

[timd]

8248092
but i like a 3 billion story... then i have finaly something to do

p.s. it's a reaction for the coment from 15 june**

p.p.s.
look twilight i grew a moustache!.. urg where is the reverse spell!!

[NicLove]

*looks at the Book Cover*

Why does F.S. have a horn ?

[Alexshy]

8500317
Tis the mystery of the century!!!

I kid, I kid; check the description to mine series Fluttertease (the description is enough, if 't be true thou wantest to avoid explicit plot).

Another variant of the answer: Cause she deserves! or Cause she's now a Fluttercorn!

[Draskos]

when Alex got to the first floor, while Fluttershy lingered downstairs for some reason

I might have it backwards, but I think this states he was European. As I recall Europe and America differ on floor names. One has the ground floor named the 1st floor as it's the first floor you enter while the other has the one above it named the first floor as it's the first one up. Sadly been years since I've actually used an elevator so I don't remember which is which.

[Alexshy]

9848792
It's rather the narrator, who is Ponish not Amareican, than Alex

Ponish - ground floor, first floor, second floor (3 storeys above the ground)
Amareican - first floor, second floor, third floor (same 3 storeys above the ground)

[hyperiumon]

But Rarity didn’t plan to pout too long: when Alex got under the kitchen sink, laying on his back, as it was the best way to keep both hands ready for work, she placed herself at the kitchen table and put her chin on her hoof, watching him fixedly. Alex started unscrewing the old hose, throwing quick glances at Rarity and forcedly admitting that the whole scene reminded him more and more of a certain adult movie, involving a housewife and a plumber. Facepalming inwardly and shooing the idea away, Alex put more effort into the pipework and pressed the handle with a groan, so, finally the old nut gave up.

Call my man Johnny sins the way he's getting into these situations