The Guardian

by Alexshy

13. Sequence of tensions - part 2

“Hello! Hello, anypony alive here?” the old gate creaked, letting Alex in; from the first look nothing had changed at the old smithy yard since his previous visit. The same desolation spirit haunted the surroundings and the rays of morning sun didn’t do much credit to the blacksmith’s hold, mercilessly highlighting every scratch and notch on time warn instruments. The smithy looked verily better under the bright daylight, now though only rolling tumbleweed was missing to make the scene complete.

Alex approached the furnace and leaned on the stone sidepiece, which was clean to his surprise, despite the general abandoned look. He ran his hand along the cold stones, the stones, supposed to be hot and breathe life into the metal.

‘Hmmm… Maybe it’s not that bad yet and the place can resurrect, if someone gives it another chance…’

“Hello there!” the door of the house opened and Alex turned to the clear girl’s voice from behind. “May I help you, sir?”

“Oh, it’s you again…” the young unicorn mare with silvery coat and bright golden mane and tail, braided tightly, accidentally voiced her thoughts. Alex raised one eyebrow.

“I mean, we saw you earlier, when you took a view over the smithy… and there is hardly another human in Ponyville,” she became slightly embarrassed and tried to hide that under a small smile, then returned to the official tone. “So, how can I or my uncle help you?”

“Apologies for breaking in, miss,” Alex threw a look over the smithy, justifying his interest and impatience upon entering the yard. “My name is Alex and, as you properly noticed, I’m indeed the only human in Ponyville… and most likely the whole Equus at the moment,” he let out a smile as well, then elaborated. “I need to see the blacksmith, Will…smash Steel,” he stumbled on the unusual name. “As I’d like to place an order…” Alex refrained from adding “if you are taking any”.

“Uncle Will!” called the filly inside the house. “Uncle Will! A client here! Can you come?”

Alex heard the stifled happiness in her voice, as if she was afraid to scare away the accidental, first for the long time period customer, and smiled inwardly, simultaneously swallowing a lump. ‘Now careful!’ he told himself – considering what Luna said about the blacksmith, showing that help was included in his plans was highly unwelcome at the moment. For the time being he was only a customer.

Meanwhile, the muffled answer from inside the house and quick enough, firm hoofsteps told Alex that the old blacksmith was hardly the retirement material yet; that put more weight on the hope shoulder of the scales.

“Oh, where are my manners?” remembered the unicorn filly, blushing slightly. “Guess, lack of communication imprints the habits. I’m Silver Ingot, Willsmash Steel is my uncle, as you heard. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Mutually,” Alex took another, better look over her. Quite tall for an average unicorn, slender and light, with amazingly long legs and golden hair; bright eyes and faint warm smile (that was the natural form of her lips) lightened her muzzle. She reminded him of some Earth actress, Alex couldn’t remember the name. The cutie mark looked as some complex silvery pattern of foliage-like jewellery, as far as Alex could see from that distance; one shouldn’t stare close on barely known filly’s flanks.

“Yes, Sil,” the old unicorn appeared in the doorway and Alex could estimate his strong frame, accurate beard and attentive perceptive glance. The coat and beard were touched by silver of age and when the blacksmith turned to him, Alex could see a black patch over one eye and a few old, yet still noticeable scars across his muzzle. But everything told that the old soldier was still solid as a rock, strong and full of life, and only the absence of customers threatened to make his mastery rust.

“Have I heard you right, Sil?” repeated Will. “You said a customer. I thought, I forgot the sound of that word,” he chuckled lightly, subtly examining Alex.

‘Sil,’ thought Alex meanwhile. ‘The name suits her.’ He remembered the movie, it had nothing common with the blacksmith’s niece, except name… and the look. ‘What was the actual actress’ name,’ Alex mentally cringed at his holey memory. ‘There was something Russian about it…’ Alex shook his head, returning to the present day.

“Good morning, sir!” Alex bowed his head slightly. “I would like to place an order, you heard right.”

“Name’s Alex, uncle,” added the filly. “He seems to be serious about the order so far.”

“I see, child, I see,” the blacksmith looked at Alex, studying his potential customer. “So, young gentlecolt, you are going to place an order here, not at some big facility in Canterlot, despite you see the condition of our smithy; moreover, you know the rumours or at least heard something down in Ponyville, yet ready to work with us, don’t you?”

“I think, it will be worth the risks,” Alex allowed himself another smile.

“Don’t get me wrong, sir,” explained Will after a moment. “I’d be immensely happy to finally have a customer, but we simply can’t allow ourselves start working and then drop everything amidst, if that customer refuses to work with us due to any… considerations. And not even due to financial reasons…”

“It seems, I understand you,” interrupted him Alex, nodding. “I dare to assure you, I prefer to judge pe… ponies myself, this usually calls for working with them first. Besides, methinks your mastery and scrupulosity are crucial in mine case, not your past.”

The old blacksmith perked one ear, but fortunately, he seemed to not talk to princess Luna personally, so that small slip didn’t alert him.

“Thus, as I said,” continued Alex, seeing his collocutor attention. “I’m absolutely positive about placing my order here… if you don’t have any objections now and in the nearest future.”

Old Will nodded shortly and Silver Ingot approached her uncle, putting her fore hoof on his shoulder, like silently supporting him in his decision. It was obvious that this order meant much to both, rather psychologically, than profit-wise; in the latter case, one order would be a single drop falling on the sandy hill, changing nothing.

“You see, I have a few blueprints with me,” Alex waved the tube of papers. “If you don’t mind, I will show you, what I need to be done; so, if you can make that, we’ll call it a deal and can discuss the details.”

“Hmpf!” chuckled the old blacksmith, then waved his head towards the door. “Let’s go inside…”

*

After half an hour they were still sitting behind the table, examining the blueprints, Alex explained what he needed.

“An unusual order, to be honest. And mere forging is not enough here, I’ll need to cast some details,” Will shook his head. “What do you say it will be?”

“The casing and some inner parts of the machine,” Alex rearranged the blueprints to make them observable at once. “Machine converting kinetic energy to electricity, but a compact one, not like those magical or atmospheric you have. So, you can make these, don’t you?”

The old unicorn huffed, then muttered, cupping his beard with the hoof. Silver Ingot put full teacups in front of them, took her own and sat next to her uncle. It seemed, she knew his work well enough likewise.

“This is some complex forging, but I said I could do it and I still stick to my words. Yes, I can make them.”

“Excellent!” Alex’s face brightened. “There is absolutely no deadline on the work, as I understand the complexity. Any reasonable time is okay. So how much will you take for those?”

Willsmash named the price; frankly speaking, Alex was ready to hear a sum twenty-thirty percent higher.

“Half right now, the rest after work is done,” after sharing a hoofbump, Alex started to count necessary bits.

The blacksmith levitated the papers to see them closer and examined them very carefully again, muttering something under his breath. Alex was quite impressed, how fast old Will engaged in the work; perhaps he was waiting for that chance for too long.

“One more thing,” Alex smirked. “For the faster start… I decided to eliminate some supply issues. So, the coal is mine.”

Will froze, like struck by the lightning, even his niece turned, wondering, if she heard the human right.

“Yes, the price we agreed on is for the job only, I’ll pay for the coal and materials separately,” Alex’s tone was inflexible.

The sound of approaching and stopping cart interrupted them, making turn their heads to the window: something heavily loaded just stopped outside and a loud voice inquired, if there was anypony at the smithy.

“And here they are, right in time!” exclaimed Alex exiting to the yard and seeing a full cart of coal and two earth pony stallions, who brought it here. He turned to the blacksmith. “Apologies for that little disturbance. Where should they unload?”

Will cleared his throat.

“You know, sir, you remind me of a certain princess,” he was rather amused by that little trick, than angry. “By your meticulous advance planning and confidence in it playing out, just as you want. If the nature of your order wasn’t totally weird… if not say insane – the customer is always right of course, yet still – I would think that you were working for princess Celestia, whatever she was planning this time.”

Alex raised his hands in a comic gesture, smiling.

“I’m on mine own, in the earnest.”

*

This shift wasn’t any different than all the others, in fact, it was going to end even calmer, considering that day’s cargo throughput. Alex put his helm into the locker… when the sound of agitated voices from the personnel room attracted his attention. What could the colleagues discuss in such a manner in the end of the day? Alex slammed the locker shut and headed to the muffled sound source.

A few freight workers and the stationmaster were arguing about something, when Alex opened the door; he thought, he heard a tint of fear in the voices.

‘What the hell is going on?’ the palpable tension made his nerves tingle warningly.

“What’s up, gentlecolts?” inquired Alex, coming closer and leaning on the column in the center of the room (the main station office building was old enough, built in peculiar style).

“Ah, Alex, come here,” the stationmaster was visibly concerned, yet annoyed as well. “This is near your area, as far as I know. Have you heard or sensed anything unusual near the 7^th warehouse hangar?”

“N-no…” Alex strained, the question reminded him of something unpleasantly familiar. “But I finished the work about fifteen minutes ago, then went here, so I might miss all the stuff. And what’s going on?”

“Those guys,” his chief pointed the fore hoof at three workers, two of which were nervous to the point of visibly shivering. “Those guys told that it was completely impossible to approach the 7^th hangar, because of the unbearable feeling of anxiety and fear, painfully real, as they said. They came exactly ten minutes ago… to tell that story. And I say “What the hay, gentlecolts?”” he turned to the workers.

“B-but…” started one of them, a young unicorn, he held calmer than other two, but Alex noticed his pupils still being pinprick. “You may go and check yourself, chief. We couldn’t bear that longer than two minutes, it ran over us like a loaded rail-layer…” The stationmaster only huffed taking off his cap and wiping the forehead.

‘Fuck!’ inwardly dropped Alex – the whole situation sounded like unfortunate déjà vu.

“Wait,” he outstretched his hand warningly. “Nopony go there yet, please. I’ll check myself.”

“What?” everypony present turned to the human in bemusement.

“What I said!” cut Alex short. “First, I suppose I know, what it is all about; second, the 7^th is the so-called “dark hangar”, with inflammable goods stored. At that moment…” he threw a glance at the wall clock. “… it must be pitch black thither for you all. I shall go!”

“Is the main hangar door locked?” he turned to the unicorn colt, who seemed to hold himself in the hooves better.

“Yes…” started the latter timidly, then said more firmly. “Yes, locked tight, I’m sure.”

“Excellent!” Alex squinted. “Please, somepony go to Ponyville, find princess Twilight Sparkle and tell her exactly that “our old “friends” returned to freight yard, hangar 7”. Twilight knoweth what to do!” he continued, despite surprised whoop. “Please, gentlecolts, for Celestia or Luna or whoever else’s sake… DO NOT open the 7^th hangar, before I give you a sign or Twilight arriveth. I particularly insist on that request of mine being fulfilled.”

A few ponies nodded, as the human seemed to influence them positively with his confidence.

“I can go… Tell princess Twilight…” volunteered the young unicorn. “Of course, if you have no objections, chief,” he looked at the stationmaster.

The stationmaster waved his hoof permissively, his thoughts were clearly written on his muzzle. ‘Whatever trick those clowns decided to throw in the end of the day, at least they won’t buck up the daily work. Better Alex, than those three – at least he seems to know, what he is doing, besides, he sees there better indeed…’

“Excellent, partner!” Alex cheered the colt with a smile and the unicorn teleported in a flash.

“Okay, gentlecolts, let’s start,” Alex already ran to the door. “Remember not to approach the 7^th too early!”

“Hey!” shouted the stationmaster after him. “Where? Without the helm?! Darn…” he waved his fore hoof once again, as the door slammed behind Alex’s back.

Alex flew, like having wings, almost not touching the ground; the Sun was setting and long shadows fell between the warehouse buildings.

‘Damn! Tis not what we need hither definitely!’ thought Alex. ‘Merlin’s pants, I am lucky as usual – the “dark hangar”, I can’t even use any fire thither. Ughhhh!!!’

He slowed down, approaching the necessary warehouse, as he thought; silence was his only advantage at the moment – he needed to know exactly, what he was going to deal with. Despite he was almost sure, that was another Seeker. He quietly approached the long hangar, strangely he felt nothing here, nothing alike he felt near the first Seeker at the old mill. Alex listened, leaning to the wall – nothing moved inside.

Theoretically, the workers could play a prank on each other from time to time… But those three couldn’t be pretending, that Alex was absolutely sure about: they were literally shaking and some aching anguish was seen in their eyes, even after they came to safety. They looked like ponies, objected to the real Seeker impact, no doubts.

Alex accurately approached the corner of the hangar, the large doors were closed and strengthened with a thick bar indeed. But… there was a round digit painted on the doors.

‘Horse apples!’ swore Alex. ‘That’s 10^th! I still bucking mistake them…’

He burst running again, catching up lost time; for some weird reason the 7^th warehouse was quite far from the 10^th.

But it was the real deal there! Even at some distance Alex could feel them. Yes, exactly them, as the sensation was very strong and he could distinguish at least two creatures.

“Better and better!” huffed Alex, running. He switched to walking not far from the proper hangar and now could definitely hear muffled movement inside. The next second the monsters seemed to stumble.

‘Damn! They felt me likewise!’ thought Alex. ‘Well, I extend mine hope, they can’t tell, whither I am exactly…’

He checked the main doors – they were locked as well and ready to hold quite an attack from inside if necessary. There was a narrow metal staircase at the side wall of the hangar, leading to the door at the top level, which opened to the catwalks under the roof of the warehouse. The latter was quite high for Alex’s liking.

Alex smirked unkindly, taking off the boots at the bottom of the stairs. ‘It seemeth, either I kill mine acrophobia eventually, or it killeth me!’ He tried to ascend soundlessly, accurately stomping the cold metal bars with his bare feet.

‘Now easy…’ the door needed to be opened slowly, Alex lifted it slightly on its hinges not to cause a tiny screech: it was indeed pitch black inside. Far below (it seemed perhaps twice further to Alex) only the glowing arrows, drawn on the floor and marking the passageways between stacks, penetrated the darkness – Alex involuntarily swallowed a lump, climbing on the narrow catwalk with railings. He closed the door after himself with the same precautions, effectively cutting off the only light source, except the long narrow windows at the very top of the hangar under its roof. Those merely lit themselves and a part of the wall nearby, when the sun rays were falling at that angle.

A few seconds passed, before his eyes accommodated to the darkness and Alex’s “night sight” started working; meanwhile, he turned all ears and could clearly hear something unconfidently tramples in the middle of the building.

Mentally anathematizing his acrophobia Alex slowly crawled along the catwalk; it belted around the hangar and a few sections ran across the whole building in several places, giving access to almost every stack top. Alex could see almost perfectly already, yet he was to move carefully, orienting by the sound, as he hadn’t noticed the Seekers yet and revealing himself too early wasn’t a part of his plan.

They must have just appeared or materialized, if we call it that way, and having no actual eyesight got a bit distracted in that narrow cluttered place. Alex didn’t spot any traces of the Dark Mist and concluded, it was used to form the two (he was now sure, there were two of them) creatures in entirety. Turning to the cross-section Alex lingered for a moment, freezing on the spot, when empty space appeared under him; his eyes were directed strictly forward as he was unsure, if he could go further, accidentally throwing a look down.

Alex proceeded, more rustling and rumbling sounded in the darkness to the right; finally, he reached the high, long stack of crates near the middle of the hangar and was able to slide down to it. He was to avoid making a single sound, the Seekers could clearly feel his presence and it made them “nervous”, as he could tell. Some humming reached his ear from the right again and Alex decided to get closer to the source of it, before taking a look down. He thought, it would be harder for the monsters to find his exact location, if he was right above.

Quiet hoofsteps told Alex that he reached the point and he accurately looked over the edge: there were two dark silhouettes down below, one Seeker quietly stomped on the spot, another was rising to its legs from the floor. Alex decided to watch them for a short while, the last time he didn’t have any chance to examine his rival properly, as the whole encounter was fast and violent. He realized though, he had limited time, before those two took action or the workers arrived at the hangar and tried to open the door, if no signs of activity were visible. The latter could turn out a calamity, Alex was to avoid at all costs.

The Seekers started examining the area around, it was only a matter of time for them to realize, they were in a confined space, and start to look for an exit… or try to make a new one. The last encounter clearly told, they were capable of such. Two monsters rumbled and bumped around, slowly getting away from the spot of their supposed arrival. One looked a bit darker to Alex and he wondered, if the Seekers could vary, till that day nothing told that, all the previous incidents looked very much the same.

It was too high to climb, or better say, jump down here, for anypony and Alex threw a look to the far right, where he spotted a notch in the otherwise ideally even stack. Crates weren’t properly arranged there yet and formed uneven steps at that moment, which could be used to get to the floor quietly. Crawling low in that direction Alex kept watching the Seekers from the corner of his eye, they already reached the main hangar doors. There was no time to waste, Alex snuggled to the crates, almost flowing from one to another, lower and lower, finally reaching the floor.

Meanwhile, the Seekers examined the doors: the lighter one (now Alex could clearly tell, it looked less solid, like if it wasn’t enough Dark Mist for two, but he thought it was hardly the reason) quietly and almost unconfidently bumped it with the hoof, then slid it down with a nasty sound against the hard wood; another one found a narrow stairs to the right, leading to the catwalks. This, darker one tried to go upstairs, but the construction was too unstable for the big carcass, it wiggled, losing balance, and crashed down onto the floor breaking one wooden beam of the railing. The whole image could seem funny, if Alex knew not that the abominations were deadly dangerous, for the ponies at least.

The darker Seeker started trying the door as well, like feeling that it was the only actually fitting their size way outside; another one headed around the hangar and disappeared behind the crates to the left. Alex slowly approached, keeping himself low and quiet. He spotted a passage between crates to his right and slid inside, now being completely invisible from the doors. Trying to attack the Seeker from behind the corner Alex quickly got around the smaller stack and took a look – the Seeker was still at the doors, stomping from one hoof to another, it seemed to get nervous, as Alex approached in the shadows along the right wall. The creature bumped the doors with more force than before, obviously checking the lock durability; Alex was in a couple of yards already, still unnoticed.

About twenty minutes passed since the moment Alex left the main office, he was sure they managed to notify Twilight, so, the ponies might come at every moment. Another Seeker was still somewhere at the back of the hangar. Alex made a final pounce! Surprisingly, his palm met the solid and quite cold, for a living thing, flank, fingers slid on the smooth skin, instead of going right through the Seeker, bringing damage and “death” to it.

Alex had no time to wonder the irrecusable fact, that particular Seeker was somehow fully material, when his enemy twitched convulsively and sent hind hooves to own protection rather instinctively, than consciously. Alex caught both in his chest and felt like being hit by a bus, he was sent flying parallel to the floor and ended up crashing into the staircase to the upper level. Sparkles lit before Alex’s eyes, as the sharp pain pierced his right side. Through the red tint he noticed the wooden beam protruding through his body at the moment. Thankfully, it seemed no vital organs were affected, still, there was a lot of blood coming out.

The latter was going like in slow-mo: Alex saw how the Seeker wriggled between the crates and the door, frantically looking for the escape. Then a new wave of pain came: his body started regenerating fast, squeezing the wooden pole inside like a vice, trying to push the foreign matter out and making Alex involuntarily groan from striking pain. The Seeker, which first rushed into the walkway between the crates, returned to the door, it found no other way out, and seemed to decide that attacking the human, while the latter was immobilized, was a good idea – it headed right to Alex, obviously going to buck him a few times more. The Seeker sped up, going to throw its fore hooves at laying Alex with the whole weight of its large body and smash the human.

Alex heard a nasty dry crackle from behind and found that he finally could move freely again: his body broke the wooden beam, he got impaled onto, pushing the smaller pieces of wood out. Overcoming the pain Alex got to his knees and pulled remaining part of the pole outside with a loud groan, more blood splashed out; the broken end was spiky, all red and wet. In his blurred vision Alex saw the hulk of the Seeker towering above with hooves raised, ready to stomp… Dark spots floated in front of his view, but Alex turned over the beam and stabbed the Seeker in its belly with the bloodstained end, pushing it forward with his whole mass.

The Seeker got intercepted mid-pounce, like shot on the flight; it tumbled over and crashed to the floor in convulsions. Apparently, each part of Alex, including his own blood, was deadly for them, as Alex could never believe that a hit with a wooden stick could instantly take the Seeker down. At the moment though the monster was twitching on the floor, weaker and weaker with each stripe of Dark Mist flowing out of its wound: some stripes dissolved in the air, some flowed to Alex, being absorbed by him.

Next moment Alex heard two things almost simultaneously: the voices behind the door, accompanied by the sound of the door lock being opened… and quiet rustle behind himself. Alex looked over his shoulder: another Seeker made a whole loop around the hangar and returned to the exit, finding no alternative. The wound closed quickly, getting rid of the small flinders, but Alex felt like losing a half gallon of blood; hissing and spitting from the pain he tried to reach the wooden stick still protruding from the first Seeker’s corpse. The Seeker behind stepped back, but Alex saw, it was taking space to speed up, the bucking stick got stuck and didn’t give up.

The sound of the opening door made Alex’s mind clear at once. ‘Even if Celestia is already there… how many ponies shall suffer, before she taketh the Seeker down?!!’ Alex cupped his closing wound with his palm, collecting still flowing blood, as a wicked idea came to his mind. He already guessed that the second Seeker was like the first he ever encountered, not fully materialized one: that was the reason why this one looked lighter, less solid than another.

The Seeker took a speed up and launched itself forward, jumping over Alex and its “partner” in the pool of Alex’s blood, but Alex managed to throw his right hand with the rest of his strength. The line of large blood drips raised in the air, piercing the Seeker like machinegun bullets. This monster landed, stumbling, and crashed to the floor, like the previous one, twitching – the “taste” of Alex’s blood didn’t rub it well likewise. Leaning on hands Alex crawled forward, seeing the opening hangar doors and rushing to reach the Seeker before anypony accidentally could. He “grabbed” its hind leg with the last forceful push. The shiver came throughout the defeated creature, it twitched convulsively, being crumpled and torn like an origami figure, falling apart to the clouds of the Dark Mist.

Alex tried to sit, raising his hand to cover the eyes from the unbearable light, coming through the opening hangar doors. He saw princess Celestia glowing like a supernova, ready to take down the monsters, before fainting and finally hitting the floor.

*

Saying that she was utterly shocked by the first sight would be likely saying nothing: the first image, when the doors opened, was quite thought-provoking by itself. Celestia could spot the huge heap of the dead Seeker further in the hangar, the blood pool and trail towards the doors, where Alex sat, covering his eyes from the bright light, over what resembled another Seeker very slightly; the cloud of Dark Mist at his feet floated to Alex, being absorbed by his body. The eyes of the human were pitch black at the moment, perhaps due to the pupils widened enormously, because they started narrowing quickly in the light. His eyes returned to their usual sea-green colour, finally rolling up, and Alex fell unconscious, which wasn’t strange, considering the amount of blood he lost.

“Twilight, could you, please…” the princess nodded to her apprentice, then she turned to the guards following. “Keep the citizens away and take this out, please,” she pointed at the dead Seeker with the gold-shod hoof, “I need to examine it.”

The guards accurately levitated the large carcass, carrying it outside the hangar; strangely there was no blood, except the red human’s one – it seemed the only thing, which flowed out of that body, was the Dark Mist, like if it was the actual “blood” and force of the Seekers. Other guards ousted the civilians to a considerable distance, to avoid the unnecessary witnessing.

“Ohhhh…” with a groan Alex awoke, feeling himself being supported from behind by somepony. “What… Is the Seeker… Has it hurt anybody… Mmmfffffff!” he almost hissed, the side still ached and his sight was floating around.

“Take it easy…” he heard Twilight’s voice, finding himself leaning on her, as she kept him in sitting position. “You’ve lost a lot of blood, Alex!”

Next thing he could clearly see was Celestia’s muzzle, her eyes looked fixedly into his and she tilted her head left, then right in his field of view. Alex’s eyes followed the movement and the princess seemed to be satisfied with him being fully conscious.

“How are you?” Celestia watched his reaction. “Does it still hurt? What do you feel, Alex?”

“I’m… fine…” creaked Alex, coughed, clearing his throat and squinting from the pain again. “Less fine, than… actually fine, but… I’ll be okay. The shirt is completely ruined though,” he faintly smirked, throwing a look over himself.

Twilight nervously chuckled, it was her exactly, who ripped his shirt open to check his wounds, finding a small star-like scar on his side, luckily between the liver and lung, which already looked quite old – Alex’s body was patching up at the visible pace.

“Princess, are you sure, he is entirely adequate?” she watched him with concern.

“Twi, what are you talking about?” Alex rolled his eyes, trying to sit straight and finding that quite a task at the moment. “I was always like that… The weakness is a new thing though,” he looked at Celestia. “Your Highness, I hope nopony suffered… The doors were opening, when the Seeker tried to escape.”

“Everypony is fine, as I may judge,” Celestia allowed herself a small smile. “Perhaps a bit shocked by the whole scene… but we tried to clear the area fast enough. As for the Seeker… it was down, when we entered, you were… consuming it, don’t you remember?”

Alex downcasted, hearing the mixed mischief and concern in her voice. What could he do about that and about him being able to absorb magical force in general?

“Another one was already dead,” continued Celestia, looking fixedly into Alex’s eyes. “It was different from what we saw before. Fully materialized this time, embodied, if I may say so…”

“I’ve noticed,” smirked Alex sadly. “I tried to touch it, when it bucked me… and threw to the stairs… Princess, when you finish with your research, please, burn that thing completely.”

“Actually, I thought about the same,” the princess straightened, throwing a quick glance outside. “You need to have a rest, Alex. Twilight, please, take him to your home and ensure everything is alright. Don’t notify anypony, except Fluttershy about the incident…”

“I’ve already told Spike to go after her in half an hour…” Twilight’s ears flattened. “I hope, I did nothing wrong, your highness?”

“That’s fine,” Celestia’s glance was a bit absent, she seemed to think about something else already. “We’ll finish here and I’ll join you at the library. Don’t go anywhere before,” she turned to Alex again, making sure he got her right. “Can you move?”

Alex slowly turned over to his knees, then tried to rise: the pain seemed to retreat, but he was to lean and hold on the nearest crate not to fall.

“I can go,” he waited, until the world around stopped spinning in his sight. “A bit weak, but that’ll pass…”

“No need to strain yourself right away, Alex,” Celestia had another point of view on his condition. “I’ll send guards to carry you to Ponyville, you’ve lost too much blood to be galloping around tonight.”

Later, when they crossed the field between the railroad and Ponyville, Alex was to admit, that the princess had a point; he fainted twice and it would be a certain problem for Twilight, if not the guards, who carried him.

The Sun rolled behind the horizon completely, when they reached the Golden Oak; the long shadows, cast by torches on Ponyville streets, fell on the ground. Thankfully, the library was close to the edge of the town and they met nopony on their way, still, Alex was sure that not later than tomorrow’s noon the whole Ponyville would discuss the rumoured version of the incident, as the station workers would surely share, what they could have noticed. The lack of actual information would make ponies’ imagination go wild, but Alex could do nothing about that. He decided to rely on Celestia and her ability to think out a plausible version of the events for the masses.

Opening the door with her magic Twilight followed Alex to the couch, as he walked by himself through Ponyville. The guards made sure that the human was delivered safely and left them alone, but stood outside, Alex could hear them talking quietly behind the front door. But that was the least thing bothering him at the moment, Alex leaned on the backrest and closed his eyes.

‘One thing Tia noticed right – the bastard was fully material!’ he rewound the recent events again and again. ‘And that’s totally different brew now. Those I can’t eliminate right away, while their… “touch” can be quite hurtful.’

“Okay, wait here…” Twilight interrupted his thoughts after making sure Alex was placed comfortably enough and wasn’t going to fall anywhere. “I’ll make some hot chocolate, you need something to compensate for your blood loss…”

But before she was able to finish, the front door burst open so fast, it slammed the wall, and a pink-yellow flash blazed into the room, slowing down and stopping at the couch. Alex knew who that was, yet he made an effort not to jump on the couch with his legs, when Fluttershy stopped almost with a hearable scratching of her hooves on the floor. Apparently, the guards outside were instructed not to let anypony out, before Celestia came, but not to prevent somepony from getting in.

“Oh…” exhaled Fluttershy, she leaned to Alex, putting her fore hoof on his knees. “Thank Celestia, you are okay!” she dropped next to him, breathing heavily, her big eyes were dilated and wet. Alex wrapped his arms around her shoulders, bringing Fluttershy closer, and she snuggled to him, quietly sniffing.

“I’m okay, okay,” repeated Alex, stroking her mane and trying not to look at Twilight at that moment.

“My, what a race…” huffed another voice from the front door. Spike leaned on the wall, holding on his chest and loudly breathing, he waved his paw in a greeting gesture. “Twi, I didn’t even finish talking or had time to jump on her back,” he quietly addressed Twilight after taking his breath a bit. “She flew like a spear, after I told about the incident at the station…” he breathed in noisily.

“What happened there?” Fluttershy wiped her eyes and raised them on Alex, still wrapping her fore legs around him. “Spike didn’t tell any details…”

Spike huffed quite audibly, following Twilight to the kitchen.

“Well…” Alex got ready to choose the words, telling Fluttershy about this evening. “The shift was over and I already got to the office, when…”

He told her about the workers being disturbed by something strange in one of the hangars and the rest in brief, avoiding the most graphical details. Her eyes dilated in terror nevertheless, when Alex reached the point, when he actually confronted two Seekers. Fluttershy squeaked, noticing his shirt being torn and bloodstained, and started palpating him.

“Oh, come on, Shy, it tickles,” pleaded Alex, calming her down. “I’m okay already. It was worse then… One of the Seekers appeared to be fully materialized.”

“You mean that…” Fluttershy covered her mouth with the fore hoof.

“Yeah, different to all the previous, that one had an actually solid body,” nodded Alex. “And I was able to touch and feel it, instead of mine hand going right through, instantly hurting it.”

“You mean that now they can actually hurt you in return?” Fluttershy was concerned about different things, than the Seekers becoming solid. “Oh, Alex, you shouldn’t forget that while you are immune to magic, even regenerating fast, you aren’t invulnerable,” she leaned to him again.

“It seems some of them indeed can now,” forcedly confessed Alex, comforting the pegasus girl gently. “Which makes me think, I need some sort of armour perhaps, if I keep dealing with that problem…”

“Alex, please! You shouldn’t,” started Fluttershy pleadingly, but Alex could hear growing confidence in her voice. “There are mages, who are specifically trained to deal that sort of things… and the princess herself…”

“Shy, come on,” interrupted her Alex. “I saw, what it cost the group of unicorns to simply restrain a single Seeker… and I saw, what the Seeker could do with the ponies, if they come too close!” Fluttershy wanted to add something, but Alex quickly continued. “And princess Celestia supposedly spends quite some power to take the monsters down… I only need to touch one or, in the case of a completely materialized Seeker, to hurt it physically first, to make their magic “flow outside”. Even my blood is deadly for them…”

Fluttershy squeaked at the word “blood” and squeezed Alex tighter, he saw in her eyes clearly that she was rock solid about convincing him to avoid confronting those creatures. Twilight returned to the room, levitating a tray with a steaming pot and some cups, Spike followed her closely and they became accidental witnesses of Alex’s with Fluttershy talk.

“Besides, didn’t you tell me, when we discovered, you can remedy the Seekers’ effects, that if it was necessary, you were ready to help,” exclaimed Alex ardently. “simply because you could and you should, as your nature told you?”

Fluttershy downcasted and forcedly nodded. Twilight put the tray on the low table and started pouring hot chocolate in the cups; she avoided any commentaries, rightfully supposing those two should solve their problems themselves. Spike pretended, he was not there.

“So do I…” continued Alex, looking Fluttershy in the eyes. “I can’t stay aside, when I can help and can do it without much strain.”

“That’s different!” Fluttershy was confident as never before, voicing her counter-arguments to Alex. “One thing is to help somepony heal, after they were exposed to the… Seekers’ magic. When you all are safe… you know, what I mean, Alex, don’t argue. And another – when you deal with those monstrosities one-on-one… or even worse, like today… And risk getting a few extra holes in yourself,” she gasped from the passion and the inward image of the situation.

“I shall think about some protection,” objected Alex immediately, starting to wind up. “As I said ere, tis calleth for the armour.” Twilight and Spike shared a glance, while Alex continued. “I shall talk to old Will, methinks we can make something to avoid further mishaps…”

“Oh, Celestia!” huffed Fluttershy exasperatedly. “Now it’s all about “old Will” again…”

Twilight raised the eyebrow, looking at Alex, like saying “See, I’ve told you”.

“Old chap’s past hath nothing to do with mine affairs or mine orders, current or planned anon,” tiredly breathed out Alex. “If ‘t be true he can do his job in accordance to the desired standards, I need nothing more. Besides, I am not entirely sure about the rumours ‘bout that gent being justified, in the earnest. Need to find out myself… So, what else can befall, pray tell?”

The audible metal clank from behind the front door interrupted them. Those were the guards saluting, as the next moment the door opened, letting princess Celestia in; she was to bow her head slightly to fit the doorway.

“Stay, stay seated,” she waved her fore hoof, noticing their attempt to raise and dragging an armchair with her magic. “Good evening, Fluttershy, my dear. Spike,” she nodded with a small smile.

Alex couldn’t tell by her expression, what she managed to find out, yet he thought that the news wasn’t entirely bad.

“I examined the remaining Seeker,” started Celestia without any preamble, straight to the point. “And must say that while having solid body structure, bones, flesh looking quite natural, it lacks the important internal organs,” she made a pause, letting the information settle in the heads.

“What?” Alex broke the silence first. “Apologies, your highness, but how is that possible?”

“Well, despite it had a so-called body, it was actually a meat puppet,” Celestia frowned, then continued. “They are driven and kept “alive” by the same Dark Mist, as non-materialized ones. That is why there was no visible blood, except yours…”

Fluttershy quietly squeaked, snuggling tighter to Alex, who rubbed his face and exhaled heavily.

“Methinks, ‘t bringeth us to one very interesting conclusion, princess,” he gritted his teeth, understanding the whole seriousness of his assumption. “The whole “body” thing was specifically done to protect their magical essence. At least ‘t looketh quite plausible for me.”

“Go on,” Celestia shortly nodded.

“Thither is some… feedback from the Seekers to their puppet master. Mayhap something or somepony, who is responsible for their arrival, knoweth ‘bout me… Well, not me in particular, but some method of destroying the Seekers’ magical structure at contact, thus trying to shield them with… rough matter.”

“There was at least one encounter in between that on the station and the one you took down with Luna,” Celestia raised one eyebrow, noticing the quick glance, Fluttershy threw at Alex. “Why wasn’t that Seeker fully materialized then? Moreover, why both of today’s monsters were not “solid”?.. Oh, thank you, my dear,” the princess accepted the freshly poured cup of hot chocolate from Twilight.

“I can only guess…” Alex stared blindly in the middle of his own cup, then he blinked and raised his eyes to Celestia. “Mine speculations lead me to one conclusion only: the distance or extreme complexity of communication between the Seekers and their host. Why somepony would spend so much power to send… dummies hither? Mayhap merely because they can’t appear themselves… yet. Or they must be sure the attempt is successful, as we know, the Seekers are actually seeking for something.”

“Besides,” in the sudden silence Alex started to calm down, thinking clearly. “the transfer itself or materialization are complex and cost much energy. Anyway, it took a couple of weeks to “realize” that a common Seeker risked being destroyed easily, work out some measures against that and send… “new prototype” here,” Alex smirked. “And from the two of them, only one arrived as fully materialized to my fortune!” Alex sipped his drink, feeling, how healing warmth spread throughout his body.

“That means we have a small advantage and some time to prepare…” Celestia delved into deep thinking. “To what exactly? I can’t tell now, can you, Alex?”

“I’d like to tell I can, your highness, but unfortunately…” he shook his head, warming his hands on the cup.

“By the way,” Celestia’s eyes glanced brightly at some thought. “It is safe to assume that you can absorb that Dark Mist without any visible harm to yourself.” Involuntarily everypony in the room strained at those words, but for different reasons, and the princess elaborated. “Can you feel anything during the process? Any memories or visions maybe? Something, that could help us understand, what we actually are dealing with…”

“It’s hard to tell,” Alex slowly shook his head again. “Everything is… hesitant at that moment… If we think about it, I could never absorb the Seeker completely yet, to tell for sure, if there is some link to their master at that moment… I definitely feel the power gain. I can feel their hatred… towards everything living, but it dissolves fast without any consequences… Something else, dark, thirsty for… I don’t know yet.”

“Apologies, princess,” Alex let out a sigh. “I can’t tell for sure now and I don’t want to make a mistake, which can cost a lot at the end of the day.”

“No need to apologize,” Celestia rose with a kind smile, going to leave. “These events are unfamiliar to you, just like to the others. Unfamiliar, sad and… dangerous.”

“Two more things…” remembered Alex. “I watched those two Seekers for a while and I can confirm that they don’t have any eyesight in our common understanding. And… that one fully materialized Seeker, it was laying on the floor, only started raising, when I found them. I think it takes some time to get that… as you called it “meat puppet” under proper control! Not a big detail, I admit, but it may be helpful somehow…”

“Oh, by the way!” Alex even rose from the couch. “Did you burn the…”

“It freed us of that task by itself,” Celestia allowed herself another dainty smile. “We barely managed to examine the remnants. It seems that without the force running it, the Seekers disintegrate really fast. It literally crumbled to dust in an hour.”

“Oh…” Alex froze in bewilderment, others looked equally surprised.

“Of course, I left guards at the warehouse,” added the princess. “And gave orders to clean everything there as soon as possible!” She addressed them all. “Well, good night… and take care, my little ponies, and you, Alex.”

“And…” she lingered for a moment more, emphasizing the next words. “I extend mine hope, you all realize how important it is to keep those events in secret for now. We decided that the version with a predator, accidentally getting to the freight yard and being taken down by the human and guards, would attract considerably less detrimental attention.”

Celestia left, followed outside by Twilight, who probably had another question or two, as usual; Alex tiredly lowered himself back on the couch, in warm Fluttershy’s embrace.

“See, even princess Celestia admits that it’s dangerous… for everypony,” Fluttershy nudged him lightly, returning to their previous discussion. “How can you throw yourself in the middle of that so light-headedly?”

“Oh, come on, Shy,” sighed Alex. “Don’t start it over again. I said, I would think about some sort of protection…”

“Yeah, yeah, pack yourself in steel with the help of that old suspicious blacksmith,” muttered Fluttershy. “We heard that…”

“The fewer Seekers remain, the less of them and the consequences you and everypony else will deal with!” Exclaimed Alex with an affected smile, kissing Fluttershy in the nose. She pouted and hid her muzzle on his neck.

“Alex, the princess told that the station master gave you a few days off,” Twilight returned after Celestia’s departure. “He saw the pool of blood, which flowed out of you,” whispered she in Alex’s ear for Fluttershy to hear that not; Alex nodded shortly.

“Thanks, I think I can put them to good use,” Alex stroked his marefriend shoulders lightly and Fluttershy showed her muzzle, blowing a stray hair aside.

“Now, mates,” the used cups started to stack on the tray, guided by Twilight’s magic. “you can stay here tonight, if you want. We have plenty of space.”

Alex looked at the window, at the falling darkness behind, imagined the necessity to get up early to go back home, as Fluttershy’s little friends would still need attention: it was better to strain themselves a little bit more at that moment, than the next morning.

“Thank you kindly, Twilight. But I think, we’d better go. What do you say, dear?” he turned to Fluttershy with a smile.

“I-if you can go that far safely,” she raised her turquoise eyes with concern. “Because if you faint midway, I-I’m afraid, I c-cant drag you…”

“Well, I feel better…” Alex got up. “A bit stiff in the joints, but nothing I couldn’t cope with.”

He stretched to the crackling in the bones, the already torn shirt couldn’t overcome that and fell completely apart. Alex sighed, rolling his eyes and making a face, while Twilight blushed and looked away.

*

Next morning and the whole day, to be honest, were restless; just as Alex worried, some rumours started spreading in the town, despite all Celestia’s precautions. The workers must have seen something, imagined even more and naturally shared some of that with their families, friends, etcetera. Those who heard less than others started to make guesses, one wilder than another.

Alex promptly hid in the shed with materials and spent the majority of the day working on generator parts, those he could start assembling without the results of blacksmith’s work. He showed himself several times, when especially persistent visitors came, but didn’t answer any uneasy questions, telling that everything was explained by the authorities already.

“Yes, there was some wild beast in one of the hangars.”

“I have no idea, which exactly, I’m still new to equestrian fauna… Besides, it was fairly dark there.”

“Must have gotten in from the nearest forest, the freight yard touches by its back side. The forest borders Everfree on the south, so, nothing impossible…”

“Simply cornered it and held still, until the help arrived. Yeah, got scratched a bit, but nothing serious. That’s all.”

“Blood! What blood? The trespasser knocked a few crates over, something might flow out. But we don’t store blood there, we’re not a medical facility.”

And something along the lines. Then Alex simply apologized, telling that he needed to work, and vanished behind the doors. Fluttershy got rid of the overly curious guests extremely politely, referring to being busy as well.

Quite a few ponies came and left in this manner, some were familiar to Alex, others were complete strangers.

Applejack came and asked about the incident and possible danger. She was specifically concerned, if that wasn’t an attack of fruit vampire bats. Fluttershy quietly snorted aside and Alex swore that he saw nothing flying during that evening, not even a leaf from a tree.

A few unknown ponies asked uneasy questions about what beast exactly was there and how it was treated. Alex and Shy got rid of them quickly, after Fluttershy quietly said that those were “animal rights protectors”. “Exactly that kind, which prefer making hype and feeding on it, instead of providing some real help, dear!”

A pompous stallion, who was concerned only about the party of some goods, he was to receive shortly, so it was supposedly stored at the freight yard. Fluttershy addressed him as Filthy Rich and he frowned and asked to be called “simply Mr. Rich”, making Alex stifle a laugh and tell Mr. Rich that he had no idea about his cargo, but if it wasn’t inflammable, it was stored hardly anywhere near the place of the incident.

Rarity came after that and Alex was to have a talk with her, as she was absolutely insistent to find out that he was fine. She told them with Fluttershy that some ponies seriously discussed, how the human “got into a fight with a manticore at the station freight yard”. Alex suppressed a shiver at the thought about the manticore and inwardly facepalmed.

‘“Got into a fight”, pray tell… What are these ponies thinking about?!’

Thankfully even Rarity found that sensational idea quite stupid; truth to be told, only because the last time, she saw a manticore, was more than three years ago. But she told another story, which made Alex worried a bit. Apparently, Sweetie Belle with her filly friends thought that the official version was “incomplete”. So, they equipped with binoculars and took a high ground behind the station fence, which allowed them to observe the hangars perfectly. They managed to notice the royal guards on their posts around one of the warehouses, widely open doors and more guards cleaning something inside. Some large stain on the hangar floor, as Sweetie Belle told her sister with dilated eyes and fitful breath.

“Hmmm… They might spill something this morning,” Alex shrugged, making the most innocent face, while Fluttershy glanced at him scowlingly, like reminding that he lost enough blood to continue messing with that problem. “That’s not my hangar, but I told them that the stack left to the entrance may tumble over…”

“What is more important,” he shook his head disapprovingly. “The girls shouldn’t get farther, than the gardens and fields around Ponyville. There are timberwolves in the nearby forests… I know, it’s not the season, but still…”

Rarity’s eyes widened and she quickly nodded in agreement.

“Timberwolves? Huh…” huffed Fluttershy, when Rarity left. “If only…”

Alex grabbed her, instead of answering, and started kissing and tickling, so she finally laughed, forgetting about her concerns for a short while.

“Ahem…” coughed somepony insinuatingly, making them both jump on the spot. “No, no, mates… Go on, don’t mind me!” added the minty-green mare behind the fence, making an overly mischievous face.

“Lyra!” exclaimed Fluttershy, flushing instantly. “Stop sneaking on others like that!”

“Okay, okay,” Lyra threw her hooves in the air comically. “I give up, just don’t stare at me like THAT, Flutters!”

“Hey, Alex,” she switched the topic instantly. “They say, you “got into a fight” with a manticore at the warehouse… Were a few stallions in the bar not enough?” Lyra giggled, watching how Alex slaps his forehead.

“Don’t know who told you that and don’t want to know! Or… wait…” reconsidered Alex. “Perhaps I want to know, not to tell those anything ever again.”

“I heard that from two mares talking at the market today,” shrugged Lyra, then added. “Not those you are working with, Alex, relax…”

Alex glanced at her strangely. ‘Is she stalking me? Merlin’s pants, not another trouble…’

“Actually, I came to check, if you remember that I was going to ask you a few questions about the humans and your arrival in particular, Alex.”

“Mine apologies, Lyra,” Alex rubbed his temples. “Methinks it’s not the best day for that. Thou seest, I am a zilch busy with mine pet project right now… Don’t want to buck anything up. I am a very-very distracted collocutor today.”

“… and why you talk like princess Luna sometimes,” continued Lyra, not being offended by his rejection, while Fluttershy gasped; Alex was a bit bemused as well. “But okay, we can meet later. Mind that I won’t let you go till the end of the week, until you agree to give me some time. I’m leaving for Manehattan for a couple of days, but wanted to interview you beforehand. There hardly will be any free time next two weeks, before the Gala,” added she with a bright smile.

‘Merlin’s… The Gala… Luna… tango!’ Alex felt the chills. ‘The time flies too fast. What would Shy say, if she is already jumpy about me and Luna?’

“Okay, mates, see ya!” and Lyra turned on the spot to leave, but was almost knocked down by another visitor, who seemed to teleport from the thin air.

“Weeee!!! Sorry, Lyra! Howdy?” Pinkie jumped on the spot a couple times more, while Lyra muttered something greeting and trotted away. “Hmm… What’s up with her today?”

But before anypony was able to answer, she continued with the speed of a machine gun.

“Oh, Alex, is it true that you took down a manticore at work? They say and I didn’t believe at first, but then remembered about cockatrice and timberwolves, and decided to ask myself. So is it, is it? Oh, by the way, Rainbow said “Poor manticore!”, when she heard that story,” Pinkie pouted slightly. “I think she is a little bit harsh to you. I mean, the manticore is definitely more dangerous than a typical human… Oh! Squee…”

Fluttershy giggled quite audibly, Alex stood, like hit by a frying pan; it seemed Pinkie had another of her typical hyperactive pinkie-mornings.

“There was no manticore, Pinkie,” slowly, trying to relax his mimic muscles, said Alex.

“A dragon?!!” Pinkie stared at him, jumping again once.

Alex heard a half-gasp, half-snort… half-trumpet from behind, like there was a young elephant, instead of Fluttershy.

“Yeah a dragon,” he gritted his teeth. “We played chess with Spike after my work and didn’t come to an agreement about score…” More of this crap and he would need to pick Fluttershy up from the ground.

“Come on, Pinkie,” Alex took her by shoulders and shook lightly, as her eyes seemed to reach the hairline. “I’m kidding! I have no idea, what it was… Some wild beast got into the hangar with inflammable stuff and I was to restrain it, before guards arrived. Otherwise, it could set something aflame accidentally.”

“Oh, so it wasn’t a manticore,” slowly said Pinkie, she seemed to be disappointed that such a sensational idea turned out fiction. “And I wanted to throw a party for Alex, surviving a deadly poisonous manticore attack…”

Alex facepalmed and groaned. But Pinkie suddenly nudged him with a wide grin.

“A-ha! I got you,” sly naughty sparkles were dancing in her eyes. “I was kidding… I simply came to find out, if you were alright… But the idea was quite promising,” added she, seeing that Alex started to relax too quickly.

Alex apologized and said that he still had lots of work to do, if he planned to assemble at least a couple of prototypes till the end of the week.

“A prototype of what?” Pinkie’s ears perked and she made an impatient hop.

“That’s a secret yet,” smirked Alex. “But I’m sure… I hope… it will end beneficial to each of you in own way. I can show you the parts of my work, but I won’t explain anything just yet.”

“What surprise will it be then?” Pinkie waved her fore hooves. “I’m sure I can wait, till it’s done. I have tons of patience, you know!” and Pinkie proudly puffed like a pigeon, making Fluttershy snort quietly again.

The girls were still talking about some random things, when Alex returned to his engineering. The rest of the day passed the similar way: a few more visitors with the same questions; it was exactly the day, when Alex truly realized that Ponyville was a small and very quiet town most of the time, so news like these agitated the herd greatly. Even after the town overcame a few incidents and cataclysms, since the Elements of Harmony revealed themselves. Getting no sensations the ponies lost interest though, finally accepting the official version of the events. Fluttershy shrugged, wished them a good day and they left after their own business.

The fillies didn’t come and Alex had a strong suspicion that they were to thank Rarity for that; she might have intercepted her younger sister with the hyperactive friends after the talk with Fluttershy and him.

Fortunately, no more familiar ponies came and he could concentrate fully: accurately making generator windings, assembling rotary inductor on the metal shaft, connecting the parts, which he could, as the whole construction was still missing the casing with the magnetic layer. The most troublesome part was the current collectors; Alex spent probably a half of the day trying to make them with limited tools: the contact should be constant and stable, yet not restricting the movement of the rotor. It wasn’t a problem for some factory, but he was to make everything almost manually; quite a hard, even if worthy, task.

Finally, Alex managed to prepare the details for two generators, one more set was half finished. Telling himself that it was unbelievably nice for a start Alex decided to perform precise fitting after the test run; when the casing parts were made and he could assemble the whole device.

There was, of course, a whole long road ahead: windmills and water wheels preparation or connection to the existing ones, where possible, load schemes and balancing, breakers, etc, etc. But the first step was made and Alex allowed himself a small tired smile. One more problem remained, Alex took a look over a couple of wire coils, made of highly refractory metal, which were specifically hard to find, but vital for the lightening part of his project. Electric lamps did exist in Equestria, but were rare enough and hard to get in the quantities necessary (as they were not overly needed everywhere). Alex was going to prove this problem to be solvable simpler and cheaper and hoped that Twilight could help him with it.

*

The Sun passed almost three-quarters of its daily path through the sky, when Fluttershy finished with her duties; the flow of visitors dried up and she could finally have some rest, making herself a cup of tea and nesting in the armchair. The wind changed its direction, entered the open window and played with the long light curtains, bringing floral scents from the fields and Everfree and freshness from the stream nearby. Birds’ songs and muffled mechanical noises from the shed mixed and got inside as the cacophony of various sounds.

Fluttershy enjoyed the serenity, sipping the hot tea and smiling to some of her thoughts, she perked her ears. During the last two hours the open window let her hear Alex quietly swearing in the shed, something was definitely going worse, than planned. She knew nothing about this technical stuff, therefore couldn’t be of any help and preferred not to interfere. But lately the sounds coming from the shed turned purely mechanical again, seemingly the solution was found and the work continued, letting peace reign over the yard again.

It was doubtlessly nice to know that he got the job done, slowly reaching the goal, but a shadow of anxiety touched Fluttershy’s muzzle, wiping the smile off: she was worried that Alex’s endeavours could lead him nowhere safe.

‘He wants to make something significant, to help others, to provide some material acknowledgement for everypony, who helped him – okay. But he needs to deal with that extremely suspicious blacksmith to do his work. Ponies wouldn’t tell things about Will’s army career for nothing, would they? He absolutely must have a couple of skeletons in the closet.’

Fluttershy shook her head at her thoughts, which became more and more uneasy with time.

‘And Alex keeps saying, he gives no damn about Will’s past as long as the latter does his job. I clearly see that he doubts the suspicions and sympathizes the blacksmith instead; probably even wants to find out the details about his past. Alex with his impulsiveness and vehemence and old Will with his dark veiled past. Wouldn’t seeking for the truth actually get Alex in trouble? Will can definitely draw him into something… or, what’s more possible, they will draw each other into something mutually. I’m afraid it will be worse than if Rainbow Dash had a younger competitive sister of the same temper!’

Her eyes dilated with the mental image of possible consequences.

‘Alex just arrived and faced all kinds of dangerous beasts, if not to mention the mere conditions of his arrival, got severely wounded, found out a bunch of new shocking details about himself, which, as he said, never revealed themselves at his home world. Being the “test subject” wasn’t a relaxing experience as well. Then those Seekers appeared and… the first thing he needed to do was to get himself right in the middle of the events. He is here for four months barely, but already needs some “body armour” to stay in one piece! What next?!’

Fluttershy made another sip of her tea, noticing that it became almost cold, while she was captured deep into her concerns. Things more important, than cold tea, bothered her at that moment though.

‘I’d really like to know, what princess Luna has to do about all that… I could think about romance, but wouldn’t she try to keep him near herself in that case? She seems quite calm about him being here with me instead. Of course, I’m just a little pony and may not see the whole picture… Unfortunately, being an Element of Harmony doesn’t help solve absolutely every relationship problem.’

‘But that’s the minor part,’ she put the cup aside and rubbed her temples tiredly. ‘Uuughhh! I can’t sit and watch as he gets himself hurt again and again, more severely each time. He may be magic resistant, regenerating, durable enough, but he is not immortal still. I can’t let him get into even more dangerous accidents… with armour or without,’ at the thought about armour Fluttershy’s muzzle became gloomy again.

“I must convince him…” said she aloud, when an insinuatingly mocking voice interrupted her.

“Convince whom and what about, if I may ask?” the draconequus appeared almost soundlessly and dropped into another armchair; Angel, napping there a second before, barely managed to whisk away and was now sitting on the floor, looking grumpily at the newcomer.

“Oh, Discord, it is you,” a small smile lit Fluttershy’s muzzle.

“Yours truly!” nodded Discord, saluting with his paw. “What’s up, Fluttershy? Talking to yourself… And I’m quite shocked to see you not wincing at once, when somepony suddenly appears! Are you okay?”

His observation was straight to the point – Fluttershy barely moved, when he teleported right into the room and flopped into the armchair.

“The last few weeks were so rich of events, not always soothing,” smirked Fluttershy sadly. “I guess, I’m getting used to the surprises, whatever they are.”

“Hmm…” huffed Discord, scratching behind his ear. “Maybe it’s bad… or maybe not so much,” He sniffed the air. “New tea?”

“Yeah, want a cup?”

“If you please! So what bothers you?”

“Alex!” simply said Fluttershy, heading to the kitchen for the teapot. “And his plans.”

Discord raised one eyebrow.

“As far as I can feel, he is still here…” He seemed to be listening to something. “In your shed, working on something… and… appears to be satisfied with results. What’s wrong with that, dear?”

“You see, he finds the troubles, he gets in accidentally and inevitably, to be insufficient to consider his life saturated, thus looking for more,” explained Fluttershy, she filled a large materialized out of nowhere cup. “And this work is something indirectly leading him to more trouble unfortunately.”

“Interesting…” muttered Discord, quite intrigued. “I’ll take a look, what’s that problematic thing, you are so concerned about, if you don’t mind.”

And before Fluttershy could say anything, he drew a circle in the air with his long claw; the circle turned into a glowing warp, which Discord immediately poked his head into, Fluttershy only squeaked surprisingly.

Alex observed the details, he managed to make, and pondered, if he had full right to call it a day and have some rest, he didn’t notice how the generator rotor on the table behind him popped two very sly eyes of mismatching colours and took a quick look around the place, taking notice of the human himself, the assembled parts and the remaining materials; eyes blinked several times.

With a sound of a tight cork being taken out from a bottle, Discord pulled his head out of the warp; the head still carried the shape of the generator rotor and with a good shake he returned it to its usual state. Fluttershy watched with dilated eyes, while the warp vanished.

“Well…” declared Discord with the most trivial expression, like nothing strange happened. “He is surrounded by some metal parts and junk and looks quite happy about that. Nothing particularly dangerous, as I could notice.”

“That’s the whole point, in those metal parts,” sighed Fluttershy, her eyes slowly returning to normal. “He wants, no doubt, to help everypony with what he is making… Some machine… t-to produce electricity the easier way… or something alike,” seeing that Discord still didn’t get what was wrong with all that, she explained. “But despite his means are good, he needs external help to finish his work.”

“He needs blacksmith’s help!” added Fluttershy dramatically, obviously expecting some reaction. “Come on, I told you about our blacksmith, at least once… didn’t I?”

“Yeah,” Discord musingly stared at his tea, making the liquid in his cup raise and take the form of an anvil. “I’ve heard something with one ear about old… funny name, ahhh… Will…smash Steel. Right?”

“Right,” Fluttershy wasn’t so calm though. “Then you probably heard about his reputation and speculations about the incidents during the war as well. He is a… dark horse really… forgive my pun. Now imagine Alex’s character multiplied by old Will’s influence… I’m afraid that the old unicorn can draw Alex into something… unruly.”

“Speculations! Exactly…” Discord raised the long claw insinuatingly to Fluttershy’s total surprise. “Have you ever thought that the blacksmith could be not so… villainous, as almost everypony preferred to think and tell.”

“Celly is not perfect, but I have certain doubts that she does nothing, if the pony in question is indeed guilty of some severe crime,” he continued, sipping his tea, while Fluttershy kept silence. “She likes giving “second chances”, of course, but still…” Discord shrugged. “Besides, maybe Alex wants to sort thing out himself or blacksmith’s past isn’t anyhow detrimental for his current work.”

Fluttershy facehoofed tiredly.

“You are talking exactly like Alex now!” huffed she. “He doesn’t want to be careful, when it comes to his… hardware. He is already talking about body armour… and that means more blacksmith’s work naturally.”

“Oh,” she blushed a little. “I didn’t tell you about the last incident…”

“I’ve heard a few bits here,” Discord looked at the ceiling with a totally innocent expression. “and a few bits there. But, of course, won’t mind hearing the whole story… as well as the conclusions you both might have made.”

“As for the rest…” he continued, putting the cup on the low table and leaning forward. “My dear Fluttershy, just imagine that his perception of “being careful” is a zilch different from yours… at least when he speaks about himself. Besides, he is already being careful, thinking of armour, thus trying to protect himself, whatever that means,” Fluttershy listened with ears drooped and Discord added. “I think that you shouldn’t rush it, as it may cause a purely negative effect from him.”

“And what do you know about those Seekers?” asked Fluttershy accurately, some idea came into her mind. “Moreover, what do you think about them? About the first incident?”

“The first incident ever or the first with your human involved?” re-asked Discord, paying exaggerated attention to his claws at the moment.

“The l-latter, if you are okay with that,” simply said Fluttershy.

“You probably know that he needs to simply touch the Seeker to destroy it completely,” Discord looked at Fluttershy very seriously.

“Yes, princess Celestia told me briefly about the incident, but I thought you knew more…”

“So, Alex and Celly and me as well, all think that his arrival is somehow connected to those Seekers, but for different reasons. Celestia, as usual, suspects some danger for the whole of Equestria and is determined to find out, if the human is, if not the driving force, but the reason for that trouble. She is worried and still unsure about him, and would rather send him back… if she could,” Discord rolled his eyes sarcastically. “Alex is still determined to return, he thinks that understanding the Seeker’s nature may help him do that… But he now wants to take down as many of those creatures as he can, I suppose. You see, what they do to your kin didn’t rub him well.”

At those words Fluttershy squeaked quietly and the sad expression on her muzzle turned to the concerned one again, while Discord continued.

“I don’t make any assumptions without facts and am simply curious about what is going to boil here. And I have no doubts that something is. To tell the truth, it would be extremely unlucky, if the whole Equus felt apart… I like this ball of rock kinda…” confessed he with a grin, then added with much more concern. “And I’d like to avoid you being hurt, Fluttershy.”

“Thanks,” Fluttershy let out a small smile. “So, you think those Seekers are a part of something bigger, right?”

“Very likely so,” nodded Discord. “So do others, I suppose… I mean Alex and…”

“But what can he do about all that?” exclaimed Fluttershy passionately. “The last time he got wounded pretty bad. I know he regenerates fast, healing his wounds at a visible pace, but… he is not immortal. I don’t want…”

‘…to lose him!’ ended she mentally. ‘Won’t you lose him anyway, if he is able to return to his home world?!’

“Hmmm…” Discord smiled strangely, for those uncommon to his appearance that might look like a threatening grin. “Immortality is a complex phenomenon, Fluttershy. I’m pretty sure, you want to say, he is not invulnerable.”

“Is there any difference in that case?”

“Of course there is!” Discord looked a bit affronted by her remark, not overly though. “Always. Remember the school in Cloudsdale, Fluttershy, biology classes… When does an organism start to age and finally die?”

“W-when the cells slower their division speed, thus regeneration, then cease to regenerate,” confusedly answered Fluttershy. “But I don’t understand…”

“According to what I found out about Celestia’s experiments… and their results,” Discord interrupted her. “His,” he pointed outside with his claw. “regeneration level and potential are that high, court mages and medics don’t dare to predict his lifespan now.”

He nodded meaningfully, while Fluttershy slowly closed her mouth in shock.

“But that doesn’t mean that, if somepony takes his head off, he is still able to survive. Sorry, Fluttershy,” quickly added Discord, seeing that she stiffened in terror. “I don’t know how to explain simpler…”

“I guess that is why he admitted the armour need finally. What was the premise, by the way?”

Fluttershy shuddered, obviously the mere memory of the “premise” terrified her, taking herself in hooves she told Discord about one of new Seekers being fully materialized and thus harder to take down, wounding Alex instead.

“Ah, so there is some feedback indeed,” muttered Discord, cupping his beard. “Even if a delayed one.”

“That’s exactly what Alex said and that’s making him think about some armour… while I’d like him to keep away from those Seekers, if possible,” confessed Fluttershy, then cocked her head with suddenly stubborn expression. “There are specially trained unicorns for that in the end of the day, royal mages, who know how to fight against magical threats!”

“…and we saw one of them exactly at the medical facility, being a complete vegetable after Seeker’s impact, until you gave him a good Stare!” added Alex, entering the living room and closing the front door.

“Good evening!” he nodded to Discord with exaggerated courtesy, then continued, addressing Fluttershy again. “The Seekers can’t tumble my brains at least, Shy. What’s so bad about helping to get rid of them?”

“Evening!” smirked Discord. “Perhaps Fluttershy thinks, it’s a bit bad that one of them tried to tumble your body instead…”

Alex squinted at the draconequus suspiciously. What could this weird chap tell already?

“Oh, I’m totally on the fence here,” Discord threw his paws in the air in a comical gesture… crossing “fingers” on his “tail-paw” simultaneously.

Alex tiredly dragged another armchair closer, grabbed the teapot and poured himself a cup; the tea was cold already and Fluttershy soared, when he tried it.

“I’ll make more…”

“No, thanks, Shy. Just boil some water, if you please. I’ll dilute that one.”

While Fluttershy was busy, lighting the stove, pouring water, Alex pondered, if he could ask some questions and hope to get proper answers without any harm done. Alex knew that Discord wouldn’t hurt Fluttershy on purpose, but he might already involuntarily tell something, which only amplified her concerns.

“So, why don’t you think it’s better to leave the Seekers to mages?” Fluttershy broke the silence, returning to the room.

“And why don’t you think the victims, already hit by Seekers, can’t cope without you, Shy?” confronted Alex.

“Oh, come on, that’s the different story,” Fluttershy threw her hooves up, calling the heavens to witness Alex’s stubbornness.

“Can you really Stare the one, “brainwashed” by the Seeker, back to normal?” Discord repeated with considerable admiration.

“Not exactly,” flushed Fluttershy. “I can… Stare them to amnesia, instead of complete inertness… and this is curable, as the princess says,” she turned to Alex, ready to convince him of being wrong. “Nopony could do anything effectively to him. Why shouldn’t I help if I can?”

“The whole bunch of mages couldn’t do anything effectively to the Seeker without risking their sanity… At least not take it down within a few minutes,” retorted Alex.

“I can’t believe there were not enough capable mages in Canterlot…” stumbled Fluttershy.

“That wasn’t in Canterlot exactly,” said Discord.

“But how…” started Fluttershy; expecting the next question Alex quickly interrupted Fluttershy, putting his hand on her hoof and stroking it lightly.

“So, what do you think about those Seekers? What do you know about them exactly?” he asked Discord; Fluttershy glanced at Alex, but said nothing.

Discord sighed, it was hard to tell, if he noticed how Alex quickly changed the topic.

“You probably know already that they are not independent, have one puppet master, who sends them through considerable distance to literally look for something here, they can communicate somehow with their master, but the distance or some other complexities make that communication delayed…”

“Speaking of non-independent,” added Alex. “The fully materialized Seeker turned out to be a dummy… “meat-puppet”, instead of a proper organism.”

“Hmm… that’s really interesting…” muttered Discord. “That tells clearly, whoever sends them recognizes your actions, which, I assume, work quite well, confronting those Seekers. As the so-called complete materialization was done the simplest way and looks to me like an attempt to prevent you from destroying the Seeker easily. Other than that, I know hardly more than you about them. There are some thoughts though…”

“Who or whatever is sending them, must be quite a powerful entity,” said he after a pause. “As the problematic transfer, delayed communication and some other symptoms tell us they must be sent from… what you call “another realm”. Their master forced to “squeeze” them through the matter of universe to Equus and be content with all the limitations it provides, even if it wastes much power, sending them… because getting here him or herself would cost much more for some reason.”

Fluttershy brought the teapot, refilling the cups and lit the candles, as it became dark outside; Discord continued.

“Will it stay that way, till they get their chance to find, what they are looking for… or their master comes eventually, is an open question still.”

“I don’t think that your arrival here is a coincidence,” he touched another concern. “Taking someone from the world without magic… Perhaps your summoner staked on your human nature. I wonder, if you were brought here specifically to confront these monsters and their puppet-master, in that case your new abilities must become a real surprise for your supposed enemy. Well, if it knows about humans…”

Fluttershy snuggled to Alex involuntarily and both sat quietly, listening.

“Or your magical resistance and other capabilities… just like the whole ability to develop them, are simply the byproduct of your transfer,” smirked Discord slyly. “Then it’s a big surprise even for your summoner. But I have doubts about the latter… Anyway,” he grabbed the teacup again. “I may be the King of Chaos, yet making wild guesses is not in my favourite practices list.”

“But what about that mysterious summoner? Do you… suppose anything? Celestia tried to find the one, who could do that, but, apparently, without any success. She thinks, that could help send me back,” Alex felt, how Fluttershy strained, but he was to ask that question.

Discord squinted at reminder about Celestia and her futile attempts to solve that “magical equation”.

“There is one assumption… But I hate groundless assumptions, as I said,” grumpily said Discord. “Besides, telling Celly that I suggested anything would guarantee her to avoid that route.”

“The problem is, she looks among those, who may do that, according to her own perception,” mercifully he gave some information away at last. “It may be helpful to remind her, there are still some powers that be on the Equus, motives of which even we can’t foresee entirely. Without mentioning me, of course, as the author of this idea.”

‘Great! He could have said nothing, would be equally useful,’ Alex internally waved his hand at that already.

“By the way,” Discord seemed to remember something. “You are so concerned to return, Alex. What do you think about the acceptance? Your image in the eyes of others, considering your new capabilities? I doubt the transfer back, if possible, will magically revert them…”

‘Fuck!’ the last phrase hit Alex quite hard, he was to admit that he already thought about that numerous times and the conclusions didn’t make him happier. ‘Why he even voiced that? And what’s more unpleasant – why he is straight to the point with it?’ Then a mischievous smile wormed on his face. ‘Okaaay! I can ask uneasy questions likewise.’

“Hey, while you are still here, Discord,” Alex tried to look only mildly interested. “Can you tell, why “Celly” is a banned word in Canterlot castle?”

Fluttershy squeaked quietly and Discord frowned, then he relaxed and shrugged, visibly accepting the inevitable.

“This is the rare case, when I prefer to play according to her rules,” said he with a sad smile. “If she wants the real reasons to not be named, so be it. She is the one who can tell or not tell, if finds necessary. Nothing too fancy, to tell the truth, more like a monument to… wrong decisions…”

“You were more than just friends someday, long ere,” Alex said thoughtfully, looking fixedly at Discord. “Tis the only case, at which hour two can “hate” each other so much and exchange spear hits without ignoring each other completely or starting a real war instead…”

“We were very young these days,” Discord seemed to look somewhere deep inside himself. “I could have done better, I suppose. She blames me entirely and, thinking of it now, I tend to agree with… Celestia. I was older, than the sisters, and must be more provident, yet failed. Well… I told you enough already… the rest is not my decision to reveal.”

“And she doesn’t want to be reminded about those times,” nodded Alex.

“As I said, nothing sensational,” Discord squinted with a sly smile. “At the very least much less interesting, than you, talking like princess Luna sometimes…”

And with a click of his fingers Discord vanished in the thin air; he managed to have the last word.

Despite all the attempts of Alex to dispel the impression, Fluttershy was very pensive and quiet for the rest of the evening. She replied absently and monosyllabically all the time and, when bedtime came, simply snuggled into Alex hiding her muzzle on his neck, apparently being deep into some thoughts still.

While the last phrase was dropped on purpose, Alex was almost sure that Discord was genuine during the rest of the talk. Almost… as it was Discord still. It didn’t look like he noticed though, what effect a couple of phrases gave on Fluttershy. It was safe to assume that she kept pondering henceforth about “how much Luna” she was to deal with. Stroking her mane and fruitlessly looking for some way to solve this dilemma Alex fell asleep.

*

Alex tried to utilize the next few days to the limits; the first one was thankfully a day off still, so he could give it entirely to working on his project. Thus he spent the whole morning explaining Rarity that the light-frame windmill at the backyard of Carousel Boutique won’t spoil the view, especially if properly decorated – he suggested to let Sweetie Belle paint the construction (while it was down) to fit in. Then he managed to convince the fashionista to give him the sewing-machine for modernization: thankfully Rarity kept the old one as the spare, besides, she was rather looking at Alex, than listening attentively to his arguments. Alex decided, that would do the thing; besides, he could add the newer machine, when Rarity saw the benefits of automation.

Next Alex headed to Twilight, as she was the only one, who could help him solve one relatively small, but not less sophisticated because of that, problem. The idea was to make the generators useful, even when they were not serving their main purpose, if possible. Alex was still short of some resources there due to his position, specifics of local industry and time limits; he decided to make as many parts as it was possible himself, so, his work would be more independent from rare details and facilities, easier replicable and could be applied literally everywhere in Equestria with a little bit of civilization present.

Thus he was to implement simple hardware breakers for his first prototype to avoid complex spare loads (except generic resistors) and add something to drain and utilize the extra energy. Naturally, lightening could provide that extra drain easily, while being energy consuming, yet useful addition. The problem was: Alex never saw an electric light bulb during his stay to Equestria, at least not at the places he was till that moment. Theoretically, he knew, they existed and were used in industrialized areas, but he had neither time, nor wish to look for them, when he supposed a replacement could be made relatively easy.

‘Technically it’s cheating’ smiled Alex inwardly, approaching the Golden Oak library. ‘But in the world, where magic goes parallel with technology, beating it sometimes, many technical problems are already solved with the help of that “cheating”. Why not mine?’

The doorbell sound loudly rolled through the large hall a couple of times, before Alex could hear the steps; the door wasn’t locked most of the time, as the majority of doors in Ponyville, yet Alex couldn’t simply enter out of common courtesy, that was a convention easy to conform to.

“Oh…” obviously Spike was surprised to see him. “I couldn’t imagine… Come in…” and the small dragon stepped aside, letting Alex enter the hall.

“I heard that you recovered fast and even saw the result myself,” Spike shook his head, closing the door behind Alex. “But you look quite cheerful for somepony, who had a bleeding hole in his side a day before. I guess, that’s good! Twilight!”

“Twilight!” yelled Spike again, so Alex squinted stifling an attempt to cover his ears. “That’s futile, let’s go and show you to her,” he rolled his eyes. “Guess, what she is doing right now. Two tries…”

“One is enough,” chuckled Alex, following Spike to the back room, which was filled with bookcases, covering the walls, just like the majority of other rooms here.

They found Twilight behind the desk, which could boast the exemplary order, except a few high columns of books. At least three of them were floating open around Twilight, while she was making some notes on paper, moving the quill with her magic and looking up thoughtfully. She definitely wasn’t there with them at the moment.

“Twilight,” with a smile Alex touched her shoulder lightly. “I’m sorry for bothering you, but… Twi…”

Twilight turned to him absently and Alex could see how almost a second was necessary to focus on him, instead of her thoughts, another second was spent for “switching off the studying mode”.

“Morning, Alex,” she probably realized what happened, so the tip of her nose got pinkish. “Did I hear you both not again?” Twilight alternated from Alex to Spike with a sheepish squeak. “Sorry, I was totally lost in my work…” she put off the quill, the books dived into their proper stacks.

“Good morning, Twilight,” Alex was smiling. “And yes, I noticed. Anything particularly interesting?”

“Well… It seems the connection is finally established,” snorted Spike quietly, turning to the door. “And I have my own duties, if you don’t mind.”

“Thanks, mate!” Alex’s grin became wider, Twilight nodded; Spike waved his paw with a doomed look, exiting the room.

“Nothing outstanding to be honest,” Twilight remembered Alex’s question. “I was trying to systematize new information about transportation and teleporting spells… provided by princess’ Celestia investigation of…” Twilight stumbled. “… of you, Alex. But unfortunately…”

‘Unfortunately, this won’t help me return home,’ finished Alex for her, but he wasn’t going to let the sadness celebrate its victory in his soul at that moment.

“Great!” Alex looked like teleporting spells was the most interesting thing for him. “Because what I hope you can help me with lies very close to teleportation, I believe.”

“Really?!” alicorn girl ears perked and there was even more interest in her eyes now. “And what can I help you with?”

Instead of answering Alex took out of the pocket and put on the free spot on the desk something, that looked like a homemade replica of a common light bulb: he managed to put the electrodes with a high refractory bridge between them into a vial of thick glass and melted its neck, sealing it shut; two metal wires still protruded outside.

“Isn’t it used to produce light by applying electric discharge to those wires?” Twilight looked up at him after examining the device; Alex nodded.

“But a good lightning will most likely blow that tiny thing apart,” Twilight threw another sceptical glance at the desk. “Of course, I can use magic to…” her horn glowed lightly.

“Wait, wait, wait, Twilight!” exclaimed Alex and she stopped, looking confusedly at him. “I’m not going to hit that with a lightning for sure. As for applying your magic to light it – it’s a great idea, thank you… But a bit later, to check, if my plan works.”

“You know,” elaborated Alex, seeing that Twilight looked at him with interest, but overly puzzled. “If we try to light that “bulb” right away, the glass will dim with metal evaporations and the bridge burns out very fast – there is air in the vial still. That is why I think, your teleportation spells can help me immensely, Twi.”

“You want me to…”

“To try and remove the air from the sealed glass vial, right,” nodded Alex. “Don’t worry, the glass is thick, it shouldn’t implode after that.”

“So you aren’t sure, eh?” chuckled Twilight, then concentrated on the vial. “Okaaay…”

Her horn glowed again, enveloping the improvised “bulb” in the lilac aura and lifting it afloat slightly. Twilight squinted, trying to perform the exactly requested effect… The bulb trembled, then fell on the desk empty. Completely empty! No air supposedly, no bridge… no metal wiring inside the vial. Twilight flushed, throwing a quick glance at Alex; her ears dropped and the tip of her nose reminded Alex of Santa’s deer.

“Well…” Alex snorted, scratching the back of his head. “Almost there. Almost, but not exactly…”

“Come on, stop teasing me,” huffed Twilight, nudging him slightly with her head. “I can do better, just need to adjust the conditions…” she was pinkish still.

“I believe wholeheartedly,” Alex kept giggling. “That is why I made a few of them.”

With these words, he took out another one and put it in front of Celestia’s apprentice.

When Alex left Twilight half an hour later, his pockets were full of inelaborate, but fully working light bulbs; they even checked one – Twilight used her magic to apply potentials to outer contacts. The bridge glowed bright, but the vial remained undimmed and the glow was stable, ensuring Alex that the construction was hermetic.

Another pleasant surprise awaited at home: Fluttershy told him that some details were delivered from the blacksmith. She told the delivery workers to put them in the same shed accurately, but Alex saw that she was quite concerned about these parts being not entirely safe. Obviously, the public image of old Will’s reputation was stronger than her and Alex let out a sigh.

This gave him the opportunity to prepare at least one full set for the demonstration. Alex assembled the generator, the spare load and balancing scheme, the engine, which technically was the reverse replica of the generator. He tried to work as fast as he could, while still maintaining quality and being accurate – he planned to deliver everything to Carousel Boutique and assemble all the parts into working complex at daylight.

Fortunately, the summer sun gave a plenty of time, thus when the ordered cart arrived, Alex loaded it, still having a couple or more hours of decent lightening ahead.

“Are you sure, it is safe, darling?” there was a fair dose of concern in Rarity’s voice, when she trotted around Alex, who was fastening the generator at the top of openwork frame, laying yet on the grass. Alex decided that the workers should erect the completely assembled construction, as he couldn’t trust others with assembly and nopony could probably force him to climb an upstanding windmill (higher than the boutique building) to mount everything there.

“Totally!” squeezed Alex, leaning on the wrench with all his weight to make the fastening rock solid. There was quite a strong smell of paint everywhere, Sweetie Belle murmured something under her breath, finishing her part of work on the giant windmill rotor, which shouldn’t spoil the boutique “chic, unique and magnifique” gamma, when put in place. She threw a quick glance on Rarity bustling around Alex, and produced a sly smile.

“Don’t you worry, Rarity,” Alex got up and stretched. “Despite it is a waste of wiring, I asked to place the windmill that way, so it won’t touch the house, even if it falls. Which it shouldn’t do, to be honest.”

“As for the rest…” Alex was distracted by Sweetie Belle “artwork”. “You can paint here, here and here, dear. But this part, please, leave as is.”

“Aye!” winked the filly, throwing another sly glance at her sister.

“As for the rest…” Alex continued explaining. “Everything is safe, if you follow the simple safety rules, applied to every electrical device: don’t touch bare wires, until sure, they aren’t under current, don’t wet them, don’t shorten, don’t tumble, twist, cut, etcetera. Don’t turn it on, if you have a feeling something is not right, or turn it off completely, if it was working before…” Alex stumbled, then squinted and let out an ear-splitting sneeze. “Oh… Sorry!”

“Oh, Celestia! It’s all because of that horrible paint,” Rarity nudged them both towards the house, then threw a loving glance over Alex. “Come on, darling, we all need to have a break… and clear the lungs of that smell,” she wrinkled her nose funnily, following Alex; Sweetie Belle skipped behind.

It was really a nice change to feel the aroma of delicious pie and tea, instead of paint, metal and oil. The fresh august wind brought sparrows chirping through the open window and remedied Alex’s breath. The setting sun painted everything outside in pink, yellow and gold and played in Rarity’s mane, making it shine with thousands of tiny sapphires. She was sitting and ogling Alex, who suddenly remembered about completely missed dinner (in his work he totally forgot about the proper meal, thanking Fluttershy, but refusing because of the hurry). The pie was truly awesome and they swept almost everything with Sweetie Belle, who got hungry as well.

Meeting Rarity’s constant glance and observing her dreamy smile, Alex tried to concentrate on the precautions, he didn’t voice yet, to ensure that the girls understood everything right. He was to go to the station for his regular work tomorrow, yet hired the workers to raise the windmill during the day, so, he could perform the final connections and run the device in the evening.

“They know what to do,” he ensured Rarity again, she was still worried that something could go wrong, but the fear to appear a scaredy pony in Alex’s eyes prevented her from saying that aloud. “They… and you both as well… should keep the lever, I showed you, down all the time and avoid shortening the lower contacts on the frame. I insulated them fine, but still can be shortened on purpose. Better not do that!”

Rarity nodded absently, looking at him and squinting like a big pleased cat.

*

Alex spent the whole next day like sitting on a hedgehog; he was to attend his usual duties at the railway station, but the anxiety didn’t want to let go. Despite being sure that nothing should go wrong (nothing could possibly go wrong, after checking and re-checking and fixing and… more checking), yet he was fairly nervous about that first run. Too much depended on it: the impression, the acceptance and finally the future of his suggestion; moreover, his own future, at least while he was in Equestria.

The reason was, Alex easily topped his abilities at the freight yard, there was nowhere to develop from the point he already reached. He could probably increase the speed of his work a bit, though it would need a fair bit of stress and concentration added. Was it worthy? Questionable. Another way was to build a precise mental map of the whole freight and start working with “eyes closed”, as Alex was joking sometimes, to turn literally into a… “freight bat”. Otherwise, Alex felt that if he had nothing to bother about, except his work, he would get deadly bored quite easily. For the moment he had no spare time for boredom, but the anxiety about his invention future was easily explicable.

Nevertheless, he managed to find time to visit the 7^th and take another look at the scene in the daylight. The hangar was open, the royal guards left the place already and his colleagues were stacking more crates to the middle row, where he was hiding during that infamous evening. Somepony managed to wash off the blood stains and repair the broken railing in the last two days, while he was absent. In other words, nothing told at that moment about the nasty scene, which happened here recently; Alex decided that suited him entirely.

At the end of the day Alex headed back to Ponyville calm, self-collected and… with an irreducible feeling of butterflies, bouncing in his stomach. He covered the whole road from the railway station to the town “on autopilot” and if somepony asked later, what and how he did exactly, he couldn’t probably answer.

Approaching Carousel Boutique Alex could estimate his planning and Sweetie Belle’s work: placed behind the house and painted with love and care windmill didn’t protrude like an object totally alien to the place. Inwardly smiling Alex made a note that evening breeze spun the large rotor quite fast, providing enough juice for the generator, when it was connected to the gears. The idea was simple – the windmill was hidden by the building itself and nearby trees, leaving only the rotor open to the winds. The boutique was the hardest place to fit his technology, but Alex started with it on purpose. If nopony said “Ewwww!” next morning, then it meant that they succeeded in this work both technically and ergonomically, making it easy to add to any existing household.

Both girls were waiting for him already and, after short greeting and listening to Rarity’s complaints about the workers making quite a mess of her lawn, Alex could address the final stage of his work. He connected the wiring to the windmill contacts, blessing the weather and finally insulating them, checked all the fastenings, then returned to the house. The main part of the work inside was already done yesterday, thus he was to finally connect the engine and lightening part of the scheme and double check everything. The moment of truth!

“Let’s try now. As I said, everything is safe, but I need thee to try every step thyself, so we can see, if ‘t be true thou art capable to operate ‘t,” a bit shaky Alex welcomed Rarity to her workroom, which was fairly dark, but Alex insisted, no other lights to be brought.

To tell the truth, Rarity was quite anxious as well about what was done to her workroom, the tip of her nose becoming pinkish from emotions; she didn’t find any drastic changes at the first look though. Maybe the old sewing machine became a bit bulkier, adding at the left part of its stand; wires were going right upwards to the ceiling from there.

“Have a look,” Alex walked her to the window, pointing outside at the openwork frame. “There are two levers on the frame.”

Rarity nodded shortly, she was too concentrated, even forgetting to throw a loving glance at him.

“The upper one grounds the generator firmly, that’s for severe rain and thunderstorm cases, not to burn the generator. I’ll add a better solution later,” Alex shrugged a bit confusedly, then continued. “The lower lever connects the generator to the gears, when lifted, so it starts working. They are connected that way, so when you ground the generator, you disconnect it from the windmill automatically.”

Rarity threw a pleading glance at him and sighed.

“Well…” Alex scratched his nose. “Let’s put it that way, if you feel that a lightning can strike the whole thing, you need to pull the upper lever down, that’s all. When you need the generator to work, ensure that the upper lever is up and turn the lower one up as well. You need to turn the upper first, if both are down.”

“That’s a bit better… comprehensible, darling,” breathed out Rarity, snuggling to him subtly.

“Go on, try to turn the lower lever up,” suggested Alex, rolling the eyes inwardly, feeling the warm shoulder leaning on him. “I suppose, thou can “grab” ‘t with thy magic from hither.”

After a second of hesitation Rarity indeed could envelop the named lever in the sapphire blue aura and with a bit of concentration turned it up. Nothing fascinating happened, except quiet hum going from somewhere under the window outside. Rarity let out a tiny nervous chuckle.

“That’s okay,” Alex smiled, foreseeing her reaction. “The generator is working now on the spare load, heating the air literally. I’ll try to get my hands on some batteries later, so we can store power and use it for lightening at least, when the generator can’t be operated.”

“If you say so,” cooed Rarity. “What next, darling?”

“Now turn that switch, please,” Alex pointed on the wall near the door.

With a click the room turned flooded with light, Rarity squeaked, squinting and snuggling tighter to Alex – a few light bulbs provided enough light to work as comfortably as during the day; the hum outside became almost inaudible.

“Errmmm…” Rarity looked up at him, finding no words yet, but Alex saw, how her eyes shone.

“Now turn on your old sewing machine,” suggested he with a smile. “No, no, not that way…” he interrupted Rarity, seeing that she habitually applied her magic to the wheel. “There is another switch on the stand.”

“It was a bit simpler before, Ahhlex,” jokingly pouted Rarity, presenting him a puppy look from her rich collection.

“The switches are for additional safety,” Alex shrugged slightly. “So nothing turns on, before you want it to, dear. You can adjust the feed as before by machine controls. There is a treadle on the floor, go stomp it.”

With Rarity’s hoof on the treadle the old sewing machine came to life, filling the room with usual clacking. There was no cloth or threads on it, but it was obvious – the thing worked as supposed.

“Oh!” Rarity looked back at Alex with a mixed expression on her face; he was standing there, crossing his hands on the chest, grinning widely. “So I simply need to keep standing on it to…”

“Not necessarily,” smirked Alex. “Thus you control the feed entirely, but if you need it to constantly operate, simply apply more pressure to the treadle.”

Rarity pressed harder and heard a click. She threw a quick glance on nodding Alex and removed the hoof, the machine kept working steadily. Rarity pressed the treadle again to the click, removing the hoof, the machine stopped.

“It seems, I get it right,” she smiled a bit unconfidently. “I think, I get used to that.”

“Excellent!” Alex showed her both thumbs up, feeling relief and joy – everything worked. He could realize at that moment, how important it was for him and how stressed he really was, preparing. “Now your magic can be used to perform… more complex operations, getting even more outstanding dresses as the result.”

In a wink he found himself in Rarity’s embrace, when she raised on her hind legs and wrapped her fore legs around him, nuzzling him with closed eyes.

“Thanks, darling!” perhaps there was more subtext under those words, but at the moment Alex saw that Rarity was genuinely thankful for the help exactly.

“WOW!” the squeaky voice from behind reminded them about Sweetie Belle, who watched the whole process silently, with eyes dilated. She cleared her throat. “I mean… Wow! Really… This looks like some kind of magic,” she looked at Alex with a wide grin, then glanced at her older sister, who was still holding on him.

“Actually it is, what we constantly use instead of magic, having none of the latter. You have it as well, but not so widely spread and applied as in our world,” Alex smirked, holding Rarity with one hand. “And it was done thanks to your help as well, Belle,” he ruffled filly’s mane.

“Now, let’s hope, it works as planned on real clothes tomorrow,” chuckled Alex. “And nopony protests against their dresses being stitched by the electrical monster.”

“One more thing, Rarity,” remembered Alex. “I don’t know yet how much time or effort this will save you, but don’t speed up too obviously right away, not to become overloaded by the orders. And… if you want the same surgery performed on this one,” he pointed at the newer machine. “Ask anytime.”

Rarity let out a deep sigh of mixed feelings, she understood unwillingly that the lady should let the visitor free already.

*

The rest of the week flew by like one day: Alex worked, took measurements at girls’ places, planned and drafted the improvements, prepared parts; he crawled to bed late at night and fell asleep immediately, when sleepy Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around him. He placed the new order at the smithy and the faint sparkle of hope in the eyes of Sil and old Willsmash filled his chest with warmth and realization of following the right road. The old blacksmith solemnly promised that the parts would be ready in time, perhaps even earlier, and Alex interested, if they needed more coal.

Thus Alex was able to assemble and run another generator at Fluttershy’s cottage, this was connected to a waterwheel, as a quick stream nearby provided the constant energy source. Fluttershy asked him perhaps a hundred of times, if the wheel wouldn’t hurt the fish, and Alex patiently explained that he placed the parts specifically, so nothing and nobody could get stuck, and got rid of the sharp edges. Soon they could have the light independent of fire and fuel. Alex couldn’t think of some other use, except maybe heating, as in the face of approaching autumn and winter some animals could need more warmth and light. For the start it was more than nice and Alex caught himself on the thought that he was preparing, like if he was going to stay in Equestria for quite a while.

As he had another generator only half finished, Alex could only plan further installments for Twilight and Applejack. But he already saw the interest of others to his work, first pure curiosity, but it was enough to get ponies talking. Passing Carousel Boutique at least twice a day Alex saw ponies, stopping for a while, watching the windmill and bright light, coming from Rarity’s windows, and discussing something quietly. Alex smirked and headed his way.

The first swallow arrived, when Alex was at the Apple Farm, discussing his further work with Jackie and her brother. Well… Big Mac was mostly listening, of course; saying anything, when it was absolutely necessary.

“…so, you can have safe lightening anywhere on the farm, power the juicers during the cider season,” Alex leaned his back on the warm wall of the barn, heated by the evening sun. “Provide more light and warmth to the chickens in winter, pump the water to the crops and Granny Smith’s flowers more effectively.”

Applejack nodded, she stood crossing her legs and watched the sunlit apple orchard, spreading down the hill anywhere their eyes could see; she moved her stetson to the back of her head and squinted imagining the perspective. “More effectively” meant better harvest, more bits earned, less stress to the family and even the ability to help other relatives; this sounded worthy.

“Nice!” dropped Big Mac, placing himself on the lone haystack and taking a look over the sea of apple trees below from under his hoof, covering from the low sun. He estimated the ability to avoid spinning the juicers, until he was almost falling flat, to simply prepare all the cider in time for the thirsty ponyvillers; Rainbow Dash alone could probably gulp a barrel. There was enough hard work for him even without that, especially during the harvest season.

“And if we can squeeze enough juice, forgive my pun, for the pumps,” Alex was sure that a few windmills at that high ground would be enough. “We will raise the water pressure more than any water tower can provide and make the sprinklers really effective.”

“Ah can always ask Rainbow to drive more wind to the rotors, when it’s too hot and mah babies need more water,” Applejack munched on a straw with a happy smile.

“Just don’t tell her what for,” chuckled Alex. “Or she will be in a rage, finding out her weather organizing skills must accompany something of my origins.”

“Ah still have no idea, why she treats you that way, partner,” Applejack shrugged, stomping from hoof to hoof. “But this is Rainbow Dash, she changes her mind, only when sees rock solid reasons or is absolutely forced to…”

“Like with reading?” snorted Alex.

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Can we do something with those darned fruit bats, Alex?” Applejack looked at him with hope; it seemed, that was the question she silently pondered about the whole evening. “Ah told ya, they are a catastrophe, when they come in masses… If we could repel them somehow…”

“Well, if I can find proper crystals,” Alex ruffled his hair, pondering, how he could pull that out. “I could probably apply electric current to them and make them stridulate at unbearable for bats’ ears frequencies… Worth trying anyway.”

“Hey,” Big Mac even raised a bit from the stack of hay, looking fixedly at something down the road. “Somepony is coming. Hmm… I’d even say rushing” he huffed, pointing at the pony figure galloping between the trees up the hill.

Alex strained inwardly, lately, he didn’t expect any good news from anypony running to find him that fast; he was somehow sure, the visitor wanted to see him, not Applejack or Big Mac. Stretching out their necks nonetheless they couldn’t see in the counter light of setting sun, who it was exactly. The huffing, becoming closer, gave out the visitor to be a mid-age stallion. Applejack raised one eyebrow, then shared the puzzled glance with Alex.

“Good… Ummfff… evening!” huffed out the dark figure, coming closer and appearing the “Quills and Sofas” owner to Alex’s sheer surprise.

While the shopkeeper tried to catch his breath and tell, what exactly drove him here, Alex carefully examined his looks and didn’t spot any signs of fear. He allowed himself to relax a bit, as the anxiety the earth pony showed was seemingly of a business nature, not some danger.

“Good evening, Alex,” meanwhile the shopkeeper nodded to Jackie and her brother once more and addressed directly to the human. “I was looking for you, somepony at the market said you were here at the farm, so…” his breath was still faster than normal.

Applejack’s eyes alternated from him to Alex, Big Mac smirked meaningfully.

“Evening. What’s happened, sir?” Alex shrugged and showed polite interest, having no idea, what that was going to mean anyway. “I’m afraid, I don’t understand why…”

“Well,” the sand coloured stallion stomped from one fore hoof to another impatiently. “I’ve seen Carousel Boutique recently… From outside, then paid Rarity a visit to see the changes closer. I’ve heard others talking and… some rumours about her productivity boost.”

Alex sighed, despite his warning, Rarity simply couldn’t hold her perfection pursuit in hooves well enough.

“I don’t know, if it is true and what Rarity is doing behind the scene,” the owner of “Quills and Sofas” continued meanwhile. “But I saw the new showcases for her dresses and thought… I thought that my business could benefit from better light emphasizing the advantages of the goods sold,” he proudly puffed.

“Errmmm…”

“I was going to find you, Alex, and heard at least two ponies at the market pondering about placing an order,” he left Alex no chance to interrupt him. “Then I thought, the more I linger, the further in the queue I risk to stay. I knew, you were working with Applejack,” the stallion nodded to Jackie. “And somepony said that you were at the farm, so I decided to lose no time and find you first.”

Alex’s dream was exactly orders to start coming, nevertheless, when the first customer suddenly arrived, he froze like a salt column. Applejack nudged him lightly, Big Mac’s grin became even wider.

“Umm… Err…” Alex finally woke. “I think we can make a deal, when I finish with Jackie and Twilight.”

“Excellent,” the shopkeeper almost jumped with enthusiasm. “I just need the same “magic” as Rarity’s showcases to be done to my shop. And then we’ll see…”

Not entirely believing in his luck Alex quietly breathed out, while his new customer added.

“It’s probably late today, but I’d be glad, if you come to my office tomorrow, so, we can arrange the details. Oh, and don’t forget to visit the other two at the market,” he named the actual stalls. “But remember that I placed my order first, okay?”

“Sure thing!” Alex caught himself breaking into a wide smile, just like Big Mac.

*

Alex burst in the house, followed by the stream of evening chill and the smell of the wet oak leaves – the rain was coming from Everfree; he barely caught the front door from bumping the wall. Fluttershy, who sleepily sat in the armchair, preferring by habit the soft fire light to the newly installed electric one, almost jumped on the spot, dropping the book and staring at him surprisingly. Then she looked through the window, noticing quickly thickening darkness (clouds quickly covered the sky, promising the rain that night to be strong and long-lasting), and let out a sigh: she could never get used to him coming late, making her worry each time as the first one. But he brought more than the smell of the rain, she saw Alex being almost visibly charged, like electrified by the starting thunderstorm or… one of his generators.

“Shy! We scored!” in the couple of wide jumps Alex crossed the room, grabbing her with the plaid, Fluttershy wrapped herself in. “I’ve got three orders!”

Fluttershy, perhaps being sleepy still, didn’t quite understand him yet, her eyes becoming rounder and bigger, when Alex lifted her, snuggled and spun in an emotional swirl, laughing and making her let out a surprised squeak. Angel woke up and perked his ears, watching them and trying to understand, what happened.

“Those are proper orders, Shy!” Alex calmed down a little, he nuzzled her gently, looking in the eyes. “That means I’m actually getting paid and the ponies realizing the benefits of my suggestion. I know, it’s only a start, but it worked… It darn worked! Merlin’s pants!!!” he took a breath and sat, holding Fluttershy on his lap.

“Oh… Congratulations, dear!” Alex was granted with the cutest sleepy smile for the last few days, with a light heart and sincere laugher he buried his face in Fluttershy’s fragrant mane, kissing her in the top of her head. Fluttershy flushed and wrapped her fore legs around his neck. “I guess, that was what you desired much.”

They kept that embrace for a while. Fluttershy listened to Alex’s racing heart, he was completely overwhelmed by that sudden small success and she sincerely wanted to share his glee, but something elusive held her back, not allowing her to enjoy that uplift entirely. Alex closed his eyes, he preferred not to think about all the troubles, which might await, giving up to the feeling of another small victory and proximity of one of the girls, he owed that victory to. One of those who supported him, well, maybe not in every aspect of his endeavour…

“You probably can’t imagine, how much,” Alex touched her cheek lightly, when Fluttershy released him. “I can finally feel involved in building my own fate again… even if partially and stop being a “book character” without the distinctive role in the story, if you understand, what I mean.”

Fluttershy nodded slightly and Alex could notice a faint shadow of anxiety running over her face and taking a fair portion of pinkish colour from her cheeks and nose.

“That means…” accurately started she. “You will be making more of those… generators.”

“Generators, yes, and other things necessary for them working properly for the… customers,” Alex was still high as a kite, winged by the long anticipated, yet coming suddenly success. He released Fluttershy, letting her curl in her armchair again. “That’s a certain step forward from the freight work, isn’t it?”

“That means, more work along with the blacksmith?” she looked up at him, piercing his glance with her starry turquoise eyes.

“Oh, come on, Shy…” Alex huffed, but he couldn’t hold back the smile. “Let me show you!” He rushed upstairs to come back in a few seconds with a large stack of papers, which he placed on the table.

“Look!” he spread a few sheets, showing Fluttershy drafts and blueprints of the modified generator, engine and almost incomprehensible sketches of something, being his new ideas on the very early stage perhaps. Despite being unable to draw living creatures decently, when it came to hardware, Alex evidently knew his job.

Fluttershy approached him, raising on her hind legs and leaning on his side; Alex wrapped his right hand around her gracious frame, while she was examining the drafts.

“We can make those… and much more, when… if I can make the income stable,” Alex face got lit by another smile. “I have plans for the railway station as well, nopony will need to work in the unlit “dark hangars”, if I can pull that out! Not mentioning the opportunities for you, girls. Each of you!”

“You don’t understand, Alex,” Fluttershy clung to his hand, trying to tell him about her concerns. “I’m afraid of that blacksmith… just like many ponies in Ponyville are. There were a few quite nasty episodes during the war involving him. You know me, normally I can come along with almost anypony, but I’m afraid I can’t understand this one completely. If he has nothing to hide, why doesn’t he refute all those rumors?” she took a breath, then added more confidently. “There must be some ground under those rumours then. I’m afraid, it’s only a matter of time, when he drags you into a story. And you are facing enough troubles already to call for more.”

“Do I need to know about them, to be able to judge his work?” Alex couldn’t understand, why those otherwise friendly ponies alienated the poor unicorn that jointly. Except maybe Twilight, who was rather on the fence and cautious, but Twi was always more open-minded, than the rest. He wanted to say that they all feared Luna for quite a while, even after she was saved from the Shadow, like if she still was Nightmare Moon, but realized in time, mentioning Luna wasn’t the best idea at the moment. “He didn’t look a walking, talking menace to me, when I met him, Shy. He knows his job and, the main thing, I can’t work without his help.”

“As you said, it is only history now,” Alex looked at Fluttershy tenderly, however, his cheerful smile faded. “He does his part perfectly. Better than I can hope for, everything works, as I want it to.”

“I don’t doubt his mastery as a blacksmith…” sighed Fluttershy, she looked pleadingly into Alex’s eyes, then moved a few papers on the table. “And what is this, pray tell?”

“Alex?!!” what she held in her small hoof was a rough sketch of something resembling a… breastplate. With clasps to fit and spikes to keep enemies away or even hurt them. The papers got lit by a bright flash behind the window, shortly followed by a first thunder strike.

Alex intercepted her glance and shrugged.

“The recent encounter with the Seekers told me that I still lack of something,” he took another sheet from the heap; there was a study of the knee or elbow joint of the armour. “I wanted to visit old Will and discuss that tomorrow.”

“Alex, please, don’t…” Fluttershy snuggled closer to him, shaking her head and filling his breath with the flowers-honey aroma. “I don’t want you to suffer… W-what if you can’t… reflect their h-hits all the time?” her voice descended to a whisper.

“Shy, we both saw what those bastards do to your kin,” Alex buried his face in her lush hair, stroking her shoulders, trying to calm her down. “You couldn’t stay aside, when your help was needed. Moreover, you are going to help whenever necessary, despite I think getting closer to anything Seekers related is unsafe for you. I, in my turn, want to do, what I can.”

“You don’t have much against those monsters!” Fluttershy’s hooves travelled all over his back, like if she was looking for the way to keep him closer and away from dangers. “And you are moving from one dangerous decision to another, ever since you came here, lately it brings physical damage to you. I fear for you pushing the limits!”

“So dost thou,” dropped Alex, with a tint of irritation in his voice. “At the very least they can’t affect mine mind. Tis quite an advantage. The rest I can take care of, I extend mine hope decently enough.”

“Don’t start it again,” Fluttershy inwardly gasped. “I never need to face the Seekers directly, you are another story…”

“I can’t judge, whether mine arrival and the Seekers appearance are a coincidence or not, tis simply out of mine competence. But if ‘t be true I can help, why shan’t I, pray tell?” sighed Alex. “Besides, I have no idea how much time I have left hither, Tia is still working on returning me. I can’t simply step aside, when I can destroy the Seekers magic easily. The more I take down now, the less you, you all, need to deal with anon, when…”

‘This is it!’ Fluttershy even released Alex and stepped back a bit. ‘The main reason of my fear is that I can lose him anyway. Oh, Celestia, I will most likely lose him… not because of Luna, but because he doesn’t belong here. Doesn’t belong to me, unfortunately. But I don’t want to lose him earlier than I’m forced to.’

“Alex,” she said seriously. “Remember you aren’t immortal…” she remembered, what Discord said.

“Okay, I can’t say that for sure,” she shuddered inwardly at that thought. “You aren’t invulnerable, that’s the point. But you constantly behave, like if you are!” she facehoofed, then took a deep breath and quietly nailed. “I-I don’t w-want to lose you…”

‘Thou can’t imagine how I don’t want to lose you,’ flew in Alex’s head. ‘But I’m not sure if ‘t be true I may decide, let alone I am capable to.’

Fluttershy seemed to make some decision, an uneasy one, to tell the truth, her eyes shone and cheeks flushed. She didn’t bat an eyelash at the blinding flash of another lightning and ear-splitting thunder strike.

“I can’t allow you to risk that much thoughtlessly!” she exclaimed point-blank.

Alex’s eyes darkened, he squeezed the table edge, his fingers became white from tension.

“Apologies, what?” Fluttershy clearly saw, he tried his best to hold himself. “Methinks we have touched that aspect long afore… Ere me being taken to the Canterlot castle,” Alex took a breath, but he felt the need to talk that out. “I thought we agreed on that and extended mine hope, I was given enough credit to make even vital decisions about myself.”

“And how many vital decisions brought you to the mortal danger then, Alex?” retorted Fluttershy, starting to agitate as well. “I simply want you to keep your life, can’t you understand. Correct me, if I’m wrong, but I can see nopony else here, who is as much concerned about you staying in one piece and doing something for it!” she even stomped the hoof rest of the armchair, making the teacup jump and tinkle.

“I’m still in one piece and hither with thee,” Alex’s eyes returned to their usual colour, he closed them, embracing himself inwardly and coming to some uneasy conclusion; his expression turned sad and painful. “I try mine best to stay likewise and be helpful at the same time.”

“Barely!” usually timid Fluttershy was now like a comet on its trajectory. “You see, you don’t even understand, why I fear for you. If you can’t take care of yourself, somepony definitely must! Why not me?”

“Shy, please!” Alex said slowly, trying to think rationally. “We have discussed that afore, thou knowest. I still extend mine hope that I’m not somepony’s pet or something alike. Thou art the closest one for me hither…”

‘What about Luna then?’ Fluttershy barely held herself from saying that aloud.

“…and mine heart constantly aches, at which hour I think about returning. Tis escalated very fast forsooth. Not that I protested, guilty as charged!” Alex nodded with a sigh, then added. “And now thou art practically saying that thou shall decide for me, whether I can risk or not, how I must dispose of mine abilities. Tis arrant wrong, we shouldn’t come to that!”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something, but Alex continued, not letting her interrupt.

“Mine life shalt be shuttered most likely, I withhold any illusions regarding that. Considering all that happened, considering that I love thee, Shy (Fluttershy squeaked involuntarily), and…” Alex stumbled. “I don’t want thee to suffer even more. We can’t think straight and need to cool our heads, mine lief! Merlin’s pants, what are we coming to?..”

Alex covered his face with a heavy sigh, Fluttershy shrank into a ball in fear of what might follow, of what she was sure would follow; the silence pressed their ears, they could hear Angel stretching. Then another thunder strike rolled outside, making them all shudder.

“We need a break, Shy,” Alex felt that his heart dropped somewhere to the center of Equus. “Both of us… before we do something wrong. What I know arrant, we need to calm down and give each other some time to decide, what to do next.”

Fluttershy straightened, her eyes glared, she knew that wasn’t going to end well, but she couldn’t hold herself anymore.

“Before you make any more of your signature impulsive decisions,” she looked him straight into the eyes. “Can I ask you a question, that bothers me for quite a while?”

Alex shrugged, returning the glance. He wanted that talk to never take place, but the situation was stronger than him. He loved Fluttershy, he loved Luna, he drowned more and more in the circumstances… and each thought of possible departure made him freeze inside, despite he thought, he still wanted that. But did he really do? He wasn’t entirely sure of that as well at that moment.

“You took down the first Seeker… the first you encounter, together with princess Luna,” Fluttershy watched him fixedly. “But it was far from Canterlot, as we know. How could you get there shortly, if you are magic resistant, Alex?”

It seemed the questions broke the floodgates finally, Fluttershy’s eyes shone with tears, but she tried to sound calm.

“How is princess Luna informed about the small details of your life, when you are in Ponyville? Why are you talking like her that often, when stressed specifically? But the main thing, again, how could you get away from Canterlot that fast?”

Alex got up and kneeled to Fluttershy, looking into her sad eyes.

“I’m a sleepwalker,” that fell like a boulder from a cliff; Fluttershy gasped, her eyes dilated.

“Like… her?!”

“Not quite…” Alex raised his hand to touch Fluttershy’s cheek, but dropped it with a sigh instead. “She visited mine dreams once, at which hour I was unconscious yet. It started happening anon, shortly after my awakening.”

“But I can’t reach anypony that way,” continued he after a pause; Fluttershy remained silent, a single tear ran down her cheek and to the floor, making Alex close his eyes and swallow a lump. “I can reach only her dreams and… appear wherever she is. Or I can “materialize” without anypony’s help, but on a relatively short distance from mine sleeping body.”

“Tis complicated. I can affect the reality to the certain extent in that condition, move objects and do other things alike…” Alex added in the complete silence. “So yes, she was to teleport to that place and I… I followed.”

“All that time…” whispered Fluttershy. “You and Luna… were…”

“We saw each other frequently, talked and…” Alex slowly nodded, Fluttershy’s equanimity was unnatural, somewhat alarming. “And yes, we are more than friends forsooth… Thither wasn’t anything… thou knowest… between us yet. But… she is more than a soul mate for me. I think, I love her as well. It’s all complicated, Shy!” Alex groaned, gritting his teeth and ruffling the hair. “I can’t… Merlin’s pants, that soundeth terrible, I know! I can’t choose and feel like total scoundrel…” Alex fell silent.

Fluttershy slowly shook her head, like unable to believe into what was happening. She knew that she was suspecting it for quite a while and inwardly was ready for that turn. But when the reality hit, she didn’t resemble a pony who was truly prepared for that, being shaky and crushed.

“I guess, I better go now,” quietly said Alex, suppressing a strong wish to touch her face again; he wasn’t sure, if it could be properly accepted at that moment… Hell freeze, he wasn’t sure, if he was worthy anymore. “I extend mine hope, we can come to some conclusion, at which hour we calm down, Shy. Forgive me…”

‘No! I won’t let you go!’ flashed in Fluttershy’s head at that moment, right when another thunder strike rolled in the night sky. ‘YOU ARE MINE!!!’ But she just looked up at him with tears flowing down her cheeks.

Perhaps Alex could read that clearly in her raised, flaming, despite all the tears, eyes; he stepped back a little and shook his head.

“Where do you go?” Fluttershy asked instead, her voice became colourless, her ears flattened.

“Not to Canterlot, if that’s what thy question meaneth,” Alex said quietly, Fluttershy looked at him with a mixture of woe and hope in her eyes. “For the same reasons I’m not staying hither for now.”

‘Although, I must say, Luna taketh everything much more philosophically,’ admitted he inwardly.

“I suppose Twilight has some space, where I can calmly think, what to do with my miserable life now, what to do with us… still being “us”, Shy. I will understand, if you don’t want to see me, but I need you to know, I really love you… I… simply… don’t want that love to torture us to the end of our days and don’t know how to avoid that. I will do anything for you...”

Fluttershy simply waved her fore hoof weakly and Alex grabbed his papers, then headed upstairs – he didn’t have many things to pack.

The front door opened and closed, letting a few drips fall on the door step; the sound of starting rain muffled the receding footsteps.

Fluttershy turned and climbed back into her armchair, curling on the seat with her legs, ignoring the plaid, which remained forgotten on the floor. Angel bunny got next to her, feeling her sorrow, and Fluttershy held him closer.

‘Foal! Foal!’ spun in her head, while the elemental powers outside broke loose, flooding the dark room with light, flash after flash. ‘I knew that it could end like that! And Discord warned me not to push it hard on Alex. And then I still tried to talk to him, like to one of my wounded animals… Like if I knew better what was right for him. At least Alex admitted my right to help the Seekers’ victims, if I wanted.’

“We remained alone, Angel. Again…” whispered she, stroking bunny’s head lightly; a few tears dropped on his white coat.

‘But Luna… Alex… How could he do that?!’ she burst in tears, Angel lied low, waiting for the storm to run out.

‘But he was with me, while he could easily stay in Canterlot, nothing was preventing him from doing that,’ thought she after a few minutes, sniffing, sighing squeakily. ‘I saw, something was pressing him constantly, even when he tried to entertain me. I should be wiser, more careful…’

‘Now she will get everything…’ Fluttershy felt like a cold shard pricked her heart. ‘And you, little foal, delivered it with your own hooves.’

‘But we were friends! Long before he even appeared in Equestria. Is she really going to take him away, doing everything for that? We are best friends with Rarity as well, that doesn’t stop her from trying to seduce Alex. Yet I’m not very much jealous in that case, don’t feel the competition, or what?..’

‘Silly filly, Luna doesn’t need to try… She need only to bat her eyelashes. Others may be afraid of her still, but not Alex. He is exactly the one, who finds her attractive with all her shortcomings, if any exist… and she won’t lose her chance!’ Fluttershy inhaled fitfully, sniffing and wiping the tears. The rain outside “cried” for her, going to last for the rest of the night.

“I won’t give up on him that easily,” said Fluttershy quietly, but firmly, pounding the tears back.

*

The single doorbell sound woke her, but Twilight stayed in bed for a while longer, unsure if it wasn’t a part of her dream. She looked at the window, curtained from outside by thick streams of water – the rain lashed the Golden Oak mercilessly, despite the main thunderstorm already passed to north-east. Then a quiet knock on the front door convinced her, the doorbell she heard was real.

‘Oh, Celestia! I wonder, who dares to go outside in such weather that late,’ Twilight slid out of the bed, quickly wrapping herself in the nightgown. ‘Must be something urgent!’

Alex already raised his hand to knock once again, when he heard quick hoofsteps down the stairs, and in a moment the opened door revealed the quite sleepy Twilight, who shivered from the cold dampness, levitating a candle. The warm wave of air from the library made Alex almost weak in the legs and he leaned on the door frame.

“Oh, Celestia!” could only exclaim Twilight, when she saw Alex, wet and cold to the bone, standing on her doorstep. “What has happened? I mean… come in, quickly!”

She slammed the door behind him, effectively cutting all the rain and chill; quite in time, as the pool of water started forming under shivering Alex.

“Excuse me, Twilight,” muttered he, trying not to clack his teeth audibly. “I can’t ask anypony else… So, I thought, maybe you can…”

“Of course,” Twilight got it right at the first sight. “I have plenty of room. But… What happened, pray tell?”

“That’s a long story, Twi,” sighed Alex, downcasting. “Shy thinks, she knows better, what I should or shouldn’t do to stay in one piece… and is ready to “keep me safe”, if necessary. It escalated too fast… and I decided to leave, before… we lost heads completely. We both need to think calmly, but I have nowhere to go,” he looked at Twilight fixedly and added. “Besides, she knows about Luna… Luna and me,” he shivered convulsively and his fingers released the bag, which smacked on the floor, while Alex leaned his back on the front door.

“Oh…” Twilight flushed and picked up the bag. “I guess, the story can wait till morning… The bathroom is to the right and hurry, before you catch a cold. Where are you going to settle?.. I mean tonight, before we arrange everything properly.”

“I saw a couch in the left room,” with a faint smile Alex nodded towards the door. “If you don’t mind, of course.”

“But the couch will hardly fit,” Twilight measured him in one quick glance. “You’ll feel worse in the morning.”

“Believe me, Twilight, it’s the least important of mine problems,” sighed Alex. “I already regret what and how I did, but I hardly had any other way… not that I was able to rewind time likewise.”

Twilight opened her mouth, but reconsidered saying anything; she remembered that the last time she tried fiddling with time, wasn’t nearly perfect.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why'd you change the cover art?

[Alexshy]

And why not? The book is still WIP, so is the cover. We're (with the artist) are seeking perfection for your better experience.

[timd]

still like the luna thing

ps yay new chapter

pps still the good old annoying joke: look twilight!