• Published 19th Apr 2017
  • 6,988 Views, 152 Comments

The Guardian - Alexshy



A regular human Alex gets transferred to Equestria. Desperate to return home at first, he notices himself changing. The time comes for him to decide for Equestria destiny. Will he conform? Which path will he choose? Are Celestia's fears justified?

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22. Truths and Dares

The Sun already got high enough when one specifically stubborn ray finally sneaked between the curtains and started brushing across the sleepy muzzles of Storm and Aurora, making them squint and grimace amusingly while still in their sleep. For a few minutes, the colt did his best to evade the mischievous sun glare, turning away diligently, but the light slowly and relentlessly followed. Besides, Storm caught a faint wave of some delicious smell, most likely of the breakfast cooked – for a long moment, a mirthful smile was lighting his sleep. Then the sunlight caught up to his face again; a quiet giggle reached colt’s ears through his undoubtedly very interesting dream.

“Oh, come on, sis!” sleepily drawled Storm Sunflower, frowning a little and funnily twitching his nose as the stubborn sun ray persistently flickered behind his tightly shut eyelids. “Stop toying with the mirror, okay?! I was having such a nice dream and you’re waking me, hay-head!”

Another tiny girly giggle followed and the sun spot moved a bit. The colt groaned; almost jerked out of his sleep, he was determined to linger in the soft comfort for at least several minutes longer.

“Hey, that’s unfair!” the thin sleepy voice sounded unexpectedly close from his left and a small hoof nudged Storm in his side lightly. “You woke first,” muttered Aurora plaintively, “went for a mirror to send sun glares in my muzzle. Don’t deny, I heard the door opening! And now blaming me for that?! Cheeky brother…” And she nudged him again, sniffing resentfully into Storm’s shoulder.

At this moment, the colt remembered that he heard the door being opened and closed indeed; Storm thought that the sound, just like the following faint rustle, was a part of his dream he didn’t recall well, unfortunately. But…

‘Wait! If Aurora was sleeping next to me all that time …’

‘Hmm… I definitely nudged my brother; I could hear him and feel his shoulder…’

One more quiet but audibly joyful laughter reached foal’s ears, accompanied by the faint lavender aroma finally trailing up their nostrils.

‘There must be somepony else in the room!!!’ both foals jumped up in the bed as if being bitten by a mosquito. “Squee!..”

They froze immediately, unable to say anything in surprise, only letting out a loud squeak of amazement.

Right in front of them, placing an armchair behind the footrest of the large bed, there sat an alicorn mare smiling and having a lot of fun. The sparkling blue aura, her long horn glowed with, enveloped the edge of the thick curtain, pulling it slightly aside and letting a beam of sunlight enter the room and reach Sunflower siblings’ muzzles – Storm and Aurora were to thank her for their “bright” awakening. Sly sparks glowed in the dark blue eyes of the night-coloured alicorn while she watched their abashed muzzles with entertainment. Flowing softly over her shoulders, armrests and edges of the armchair, the waterfall of the mare’s dark, shiny mane and tail reached the floor. It covered seemingly half of the room with its silky lushness, constantly wavering like a lake of liquid night starry sky.

Completely dumbfounded, Storm and Aurora blinked, rubbing their eyes – events of the previous day flashed in front of them – unable to realize at the first moment where they found themselves. Shock, grief, hope, then humble joy and finally, tranquillity raced across the foals’ muzzles in a second, as they remembered the eve, their house ruined by the Seekers, their parents suffering, the trip to Canterlot and the place they ended up at finally. Smiles returned to the muzzles of the foals for a while, then they returned to the present, remembering they were not alone.

The horn, the vast tightly folded at the moment soft wings, the night-blue coat told them whom Storm and Aurora Sunflowers were facing. A tiny glare of another sunray on the small black diadem crowning the mare’s lush mane behind the helical horn confirmed their guess, just as the big crescent moon cutie marks on her flanks. The relaxing lavender flooded the foals when the alicorn tilted her head, glancing at them with another smile.

“Y-Your Highness!” both foals exclaimed simultaneously, staring at their company with widened eyes and bated breathing. Aurora faintly nudged her brother again, as if asking him to confirm that she wasn’t sleeping still, and cleared the throat.

“Ehmm… P-princess L-Luna? Squee…” she squeezed out under her breath.

“Yes, mine lief! And whom didst thou expect? The Hearthwarming Spirit?” the sparkles in dark blue eyes were laughing.

Storm and Aurora exchanged bewildered glances. ‘I shouldn’t be probably surprised already, after yesterday’s scene in Canterlot, but I still am…’ read in colt’s one. ‘Well, we saw two princesses as close as we can see each other, then why not the third one?’ blinked Aurora with a tiny shrug.

“Your Highness!” suddenly remembered both, trying to make a decent bow while still sitting on the bed.

“Yeah, yeah, I received that ye recognized me. Nice to meet you, little Sunflowers, likewise!” chuckled the Princess waving her fore hoof.

The foals had flushed confusedly but suddenly brightened, watching their royal visitor with interest; their vision of the Night Princess underwent another shift, already changing after the last Nightmare Night celebration. However, back then they couldn’t see her that close and talk with her that simply.

‘It seems it’s not that terrifying, especially with that exactly alicorn…’ flashed in Storm’s mind and he returned the smile timidly.

“Aahhmmm…” Princess Luna yawned reservedly, daintily cupping her mouth. “Apologies! The night was busy forsooth…”

Aurora was catching each of the princess’ words; she listened to her tilting the head aside then nodded to some of her thoughts with a tiny chuckle.

“By the way,” the Night Princess glanced at them slyly, “I put mine hoof into your dreams to be peaceful last night specifically. Methinks you both deserved that like nopony else…”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Storm bowed again in gratitude. “But… How? The princess… here…”

“I wanted to check if ‘t be true everything was alright,” the Princess laughed as if a silver bell rang. “Mine dearest regal sister was so kind to tell me your story and… specifically what befell in the throne hall a day ere!” she couldn’t hold back another dainty giggle making both foals involuntarily smile as well. “ Thus as soon as mine night duty came to an end, I travelled hither.”

“So, Your Highness and the human are good friends indeed…” Storm blinked, waking completely and mentally scolding himself for clumsiness. ‘Of course, they are… you even shouldn’t have asked after the last Nightmare Night celebration!’ Seemingly his sister thought about the same replaying that scene mentally, as both young Sunflowers blushed lightly.

“May we…” Aurora started timidly. “Your Highness, may we ask, please?”

“Oh, of course, ye may. I extend mine hope I am capable to fulfill your curiosity then,” Luna waved her fore hoof nonchalantly. “And… Hither informally… ye may call me Luna or even… auntie Luna, if ‘t be true ye like,” the alicorn princess winked playfully, once again making the foals gawk at her in bewilderment.

‘They are somewhat alike with their ease of communication!’ flashed in Storm’s mind. ‘For all that I knew about her story, Princess Luna worked really hard on herself. It looks that with the considerable influence of Princess Twilight…’ smiled he inwardly.

Meanwhile, his sister dared to ask what bothered her.

“Princess Luna, are all the humans like this? Because… you seem to know him well enough… errmmm…” the filly stumbled confusedly.

“My filly, I know him as a person rather, as for humans in general…” the princess fell into thinking. “Mine knowledge is limited forsooth – I knew only two humans throughout mine life, Alex included,” elaborated the princess. “Answering your question, Aurora… correct? So, answering it, he wasn’t the same Alex ye can see today at which hour he arrived in Equestria.”

“You mean the wings, the… armour, which appears and vanishes on demand and so on,” nodded Storm.

“Yes, kids, these were results of his… equestrian residence. However, I shan’t say that he didn’t contribute to them arrant,” Luna glanced at them mysteriously. “Character-wise, forsooth, Alex was alike from the very start… mayhap a little more light-headed at first,” chuckled she heartily. “But all humans differ I suppose, just like ponies. They simply turn out to be more flexible at which hour it cometh to rapidly changing circumstances.”

Storm nodded understandingly; he already managed to witness that rapid accommodation to some extent; Aurora delved into some thoughts. It wasn’t clear if she believed in Princess Luna’s vision of the humans’ nature, having personal conclusions.

“Oh, for that matter, you’d better ask somepony else hither in the town,” Luna sported a dainty smile as if guessing about girl’s doubts. “Ye may have heard about one girl – Lyra Heartstrings – she is, I shan’t avoid this term, obsessed with the humans, in the earnest. The entire species I guess…” On reflection, the princess added. “However, she may tell a zilch more that the foals should receive, yes…”

“Okay, foals!” the princess suddenly remembered. “Alex sent me to wake you both and we are lingering hither in conversation. He seemeth to have some plans for your day…”

“Yeah! I probably should have gone myself rather,” before the foals froze at the thought of somepony actually sending the Princess with some task, the bedroom door opened, revealing Alex himself. “Come on, the breakfast is long ready,” the light grumpiness in his tone was obviously of a joking nature.

“Get up, sleepyheads!” with a smile, Alex clapped his hands. “Wash up and get downstairs. If I don’t have something to make your day interesting, I really don’t know kids at all.” He put his hands on Luna’s shoulders, gently stroking the soft blue coat, making her purr from pleasure.

“Aye-yawn, sir! We’re… yawn… going, sir!” Sliding from the bed Aurora and Storm watched with wide-opened eyes how the human wrapped his arms around the shoulders of the sitting Princess, kissing Luna on the neck. Mare’s wings ruffled; being nuzzled tenderly on her flowing mane, Luna squinted, tilting her head slightly and receiving another kiss on the tip of her perked fluffy ear.

Quietly giggling, the foals whisked to the bathroom as told to do; Storm closed the door with an unambiguous face.

“Close friends, yeah,” he glanced at Aurora meaningfully. “Last time I saw mom looking exactly alike was when dad asked her gently to hurry up, so we didn’t get late to the celebration in Ponyville. Yeah…”

The memory of the brighter days made Storm sigh too heavily for a colt; heading to the sink, he turned on the water and began washing the remnants of sleep off his muzzle. Waiting for her turn, Aurora didn’t waste time, leaning to the closed bathroom door and snuggling the curious ear to its surface.

“What are you…” Storm turned to the sister, going to stop the water, but she waved him to leave it running.

“Shhh…” Aurora cupped her mouth with the fore hoof signalling Storm to keep silent; rolling his eyes, the colt leaned to the door next to her. Both foals held their breath, trying to catch every sound from the room.

“…stay for breakfast, dear?”

“Thanks, lief! But I suppose ye both don’t need me falling asleep amidst…” a silvery giggle was interrupted with a tiny yawn. “Apologies! The night was quite a burden.”

“I had it with Tia actually,” elaborated the princess; the pleasure of being cuddled was evident in her murmuring voice. “Surprisingly, she was an early bird this morning! I mean, even earlier than it was necessary to raise her Sun, so I have myself filled and thus became twice sleepier. Don’t want to slow thee down with thy morning plans.”

This was followed by the audible kiss and murmuring; the foals exchanged the mischievous glances behind the door, feeling the flush rushing up their cheeks.

“Thou art planning to… take them to the smithy, am I correct?” Luna’s voice was dreamy, breath – fitful.

“Yeah, don’t want them to stay bored at home. Shy will be busy and providing her with more concerns isn’t in my plans. Be it summer, I’d stay calm about the kids being occupied and engaged much – they would love the animals…” the human chuckled. “Now though I need to find some other… educational entertainment. Not that I could take them with me…” lowering the voice, Alex said something to the princess; both pairs of curious ears couldn’t catch a word no matter how hard they tried.

“Tis reasonable,” the princess’ words were followed by intense feathery rustle.

Washing up any longer would look strange, so young Sunflowers finally decided to leave the bathroom; before doing that, Storm rushed to stop the water, but first, he made the flow even stronger for a second. Aurora cleared her throat deliberately, holding back giggles.

Their precautions were futile: upon entering the room, the foals witnessed Alex with a dreamy look, nesting in the armchair princess Luna occupied before; human’s eyes wandered somewhere else.

“Ah, here you are!” sporting a smile, he bucked up, launching himself out of the seat energetically. “Come on, kids! Breakfast awaits!”

“Don’t you say that the princess visits you that simply,” Storm sounded as if he was about to believe just anything. He and his sister noticed that Luna was nowhere to be found already – the regal alicorn must have teleported away when they lingered tactfully.

“Mhm… She is a princess, after all, does what she wants,” following the foals downstairs, Alex answered cagily; however, his warm smile was self-explanatory.

The image of Fluttershy flitting about the roomy sunlit kitchen made Storm and Aurora freeze admiringly for a second. Tenderly humming something sweet, the pegasus girl looked like a gracious ethereal fairy with her wings shining golden in the inclined sun rays and with her lush, heavy mane and tail, which she braided that morning. Looking back at Alex, Storm noticed the human watching the scene with content. The colt glanced at his sister and made a face, to which she replied with an understanding mien and a tiny giggle.

“And… why aren’t you eating anything? The breakfast is awesome!!!” exclaimed Storm, when everypony nested behind the large table and had a bite. Everypony, except Alex, who was leaning his back on the kitchen sink with his arms crossed and a mirthful expression on his face. “Thanks, Fluttershy!”

“Yeah, why?” quietly repeated Aurora, raising her eyes at Alex as well – she had noticed as well but shied out of asking him directly.

Fluttershy threw a glance at the human; a tiny mysterious smile curled the mare’s lips. Both foals alternated puzzledly from her to the human.

“Mmmm… Let’s say, in that condition, I don’t need any food,” smiled Alex. “Amusing, but I never thought about tasting something while sleepwalking before. Obviously, my real body needs food as usual… and it will have some as soon as it wakes…” added he, leaving the foals even more dumbfounded.

“Sleepwalking? Real body?..” asked Storm and Aurora almost in unison. They even froze in the middle of the next bite. “Isn’t what we see a…”

“Oh, I haven’t told you indeed. Well, how can I put it easier?.. When I fall asleep, I can consciously make a… some sort of projection of myself, which is material enough to interact with the world around,” with these words, Alex lightly knocked his finger on the sink behind. “As I found out, I can affect things a bit differently at the same time. It’s better to show you,” he threw a quick look around the kitchen. “This will fit!”

In front of the foal’s bewildered eyes, a large apple, lying calmly on the windowsill before, rose in the air and slowly floated towards the table. It made a small loop around Storm, who felt completely spellbound, then touched lightly one of his perked ears, then another, then sat for a second on the tip of his nose, making Aurora giggle nervously. Finally, the apple reached the table and cracked itself in halves, placed in front of them both.

“Wow! Aura…less magic!” Storm woke up first; he swallowed and stared at Alex amazedly. “You told that you couldn’t do magic…”

“Well, that’s not actual magic… Or… I don’t know…” Alex pondered how to explain. “I can affect the material world around me… somehow… while sleepwalking. But my actual body can’t! It’s complicated, kids…”

“Isn’t it…” Storm fidgeted a little. “Isn’t it something that Princess Luna practically does?”

“Luna can affect your dreams, changing the reality through them,” said Alex. “This is a bit different thing, but… I suppose, of the similar nature.”

“If this is not your real body, then how do you look material enough?.. I don’t understand,” barely whispered Aurora, supported by Storm’s quick nodding.

“My real body is sleeping tight at the other edge of the town at that moment,” chuckled Alex. “And this… well… as I said, this is merely a projection. Something which bears the features, traits and consciousness of me. So, technically speaking, it’s me!” Storm and Aurora shook their heads as if they were shaking off bathwater.

“Don’t worry, kids,” added Alex, seeing their bewildered gazes. “I don’t entirely understand how it works either; I never tried to analyze it, to be frank! But if you promise to behave,” he made a mysterious face, “later today, we can go and see me sleeping separately on the sofa!”

Storm felt how his eyes rounded even more, despite the thought that they already reached their limit seconds before. Looking at the sister, he concluded that she thought nearly the same. Their faces entertained the human.

“Come on, Alex! Don’t tease them,” interfered Fluttershy, but her eyes were smiling. “The foals need to eat properly! You’re going to take them for the whole day… I’m not doubting Silver Ingot’s hospitality, but… dinner time is going to be late enough.”

“Yeah, Fluttershy is right!” Alex turned serious at once. “There is a long day ahead. So, fill yourself, kids!”

“And where are we going?” only asked Storm when they dug into their meals obediently. Both Sunflowers were deadly curious about the plans for that day, especially considering it was starting that interesting. ‘Even magically!’ Storm inwardly smiled at their morning experience.

“To the smithy!” articulated Alex, then made the strict eyes. “So, come on, eat!”

The rest of the day flew in front of the foals’ eyes in one breath. Raised on the farm, Storm and Aurora got used to their days being fairly busy. But that was a totally different kind of busy now, all new and interesting for them. By the end of the day, Storm could bet that it was equally exciting for Aurora, even if she found the collective work of the human and the old blacksmith, mister Steel, a bit less fascinating than the jeweller mastery of the unicorn girl – Silver Ingot – whom Alex introduced them to.

Everything started from the relatively long road from Fluttershy’s cottage to the north, where the town of Ponyville could be seen through the crowns of the trees, which were losing the remnants of their foliage by those late autumn days. The road ran almost straight between the broad fields, where the small freshly-green grass was hiding from the upcoming frosts under the weakly waving carpet of the old and wilted summer one. Squeezed between the fruit orchards from both sides, these fields dragged monotonously to the river, with only a few separate trees scattered here and there on their surface and the only memorable landmark being the old white barn left to the road, midway to the town. The road ran into the peculiar woodwork bridge over the stream, entering Ponyville on the other bank, passing the large square and the Town Hall and flowing right into the pretty, even in November, town streets.

However, the human usually turned sharply left in front of that bridge to the narrower, less visible path snaking around the town outside of its boundaries. Alex always said that they did it to avoid unnecessary attention and chatter in the town, thus reaching the smithy faster. But the eloquent glances he used to throw at the colourful exquisite round building, further along the street than the Town Hall, told Storm Sunflower that the actual reasons were a bit more complicated than that. Exchanging understanding looks with Aurora, they never asked.

The named path wasn’t harder to trot on than the main road, especially when passing it with the friendly chatter and jokes. It quickly ran up and down a couple of hills, opening into another, spreading as far north as their eyes could see, grass field. The railroad ran its threads far away on the left; from the hill tops, the foals could occasionally see the steel snakes of trains arriving to and leaving the hidden behind the trees Ponyville railway station. Not far from the northern border of the town, there was a single house in the middle of the field. Every morning, it met them with the dense plume of smoke, coming from the neck of the large outside smelter – as the human called it; Storm was sure that the device had been never completely shut down or extinguished. It spread the warmth, drying everything around on a wconsiderable part of the smithy yard and making the foals feel that they were entering the hot tub after the windy road around Ponyville.

The blacksmith – old but husky single-eyed unicorn – turned out to be a welcoming and humorous pony, despite his tough life-beaten look. His niece, Silver Ingot, was at the beginning of the list of the sweetest and kindest girls, as Storm decided, unable to hold back a smile each time she met them. Corresponding to her name, she shone vividly and could brighten everypony’s day effortlessly. Another stallion working at the smithy, Diamond Chisel, always showed politely restrained involvement as well. By some sixth sense, Storm realized that all of them knew everything about the events on the farm, but prudently never touched that topic themselves. Frankly speaking, Storm was thankful for that, on behalf of his younger sister either: despite all the attempts to brighten their life, his heart shrank every time Storm’s thoughts returned to their parents’ condition.

Each day, shortly after their arrival, the work at the smithy started. Thanks to Alex’s and Uncle Will’s (so everypony called the old blacksmith) habit to leave the tools and materials in the exemplar order at the end of the current day, and plan and prepare meticulously for the next one, they always dived hooves over head right into the matter of the problem they were solving. There was always a place for both of the foals as well. Concerned about their safety only, Alex never forbid Storm and Aurora to try what they could cope with. Thankful for that, the foals did their best to follow the instructions literally, thus being of accurate help, not some trouble. To hold, fix some small detail in place, to bring a tool, to serve an extra pair of eyes, quite sharp and observant – neither brother nor sister had time for boredom. Engrossed by the new experience, the foals absorbed every grain of information given to them. As the result, by the end of the first week, Storm was more than confident about him being able to describe the sword making process in the tiniest details and, with a bit of help in force-demanding operations, probably make a decent one suitable for his size. Aurora gravitated to Silver Ingot’s craft more: when the foals got tired or simply hid in the house from the weather, the tall graceful unicorn girl showed and explained to them the secrets of her delicate but impressive work.

During their first day at the smithy, Storm saw by his own eyes the purpose and usefulness of so-called sleepwalking for that work. He already guessed that in such a condition Alex could control and operate way more tools than he could do using only a pair of hands. The chunks of metal, cold and heated, mallets, pincers, rulers and blueprints slid and floated here and there, each appearing at the exact spot they were needed at. But there was another use for that ability.

The smelter, which turned out of Alex’s own making and which attracted foals’ attention from the first glance, could operate in conditions nopony present could normally control. But these conditions exactly were necessary for it to produce the lion’s share of new advantageous materials the smithy became – as Storm and Aurora found out – famous for. There were days when both Uncle Will, Diamond and Alex worked in the sweat of their brows, making only the blanks for the advanced armour and weapons. Tons of the blanks as it seemed to the Sunflowers. Those days Alex came for them in that sleepwalking condition, letting him to operating the specific modes of the smelter later. In those days, Storm and Aurora cautiously avoided approaching the large stone beast, as they fancied a small sun tossing and turning and bubbling inside of the humming structure. The heat of the smelter went stronger, evaporating the morning fog at once and keeping a considerable spot around it dry when the rain or snow fell.

Sometimes Alex and Willsmash used the break for Alex’s continuous training: Silver Ingot asked Diamond Chisel to keep an eye on the foals, or even pulled Storm and Aurora closer to the porch, just in case. The foals didn’t protest as long as they could freely watch and Storm noticed that Alex never trained while sleepwalking.

“Why so?” he asked once, while Alex and Willsmash were taking a breath after a long fight, where nothing could be discerned in the mess of the flying clubs, blades and flashes of the glaive. “I can imagine what an advantage over the enemy it can give!”

“There were a couple of times,” Alex let out a small smile, ruffling Storm’s mane. “But I prefer to engage the enemy personally. You see, I don’t have all the conditions to guarantee I won’t be awakened by anypony accidentally…” Alex raised one eyebrow. “That would mean to leave the fight instantly if you were sleepwalking…”

“And which consequences it could bring to ones you’re trying to protect… better not imagine!” added he after a moment of silence. Storm only nodded shortly, pulling Aurora closer and hugging.

‘It’s better without any sleepwalking,’ agreed he inwardly. ‘I would like to know I don’t vanish when my sister needs me!’

*

That morning turned out a bit colder than all the previous; preparing the foals for their morning walk, Fluttershy gave both Storm and Aurora nice, warm scarves. They were from her own clothes, thus a bit long for the kids, but so soft and cuddly to wear that both foals immediately wrapped them around their necks as many times as it was necessary not to stomp on the ends, finally looking like two sparrows peeking out from their nests.

Leaving home very early, Storm and Aurora trotted next to the human on the barely visible road – it was too dark yet. The browned grass of the surrounding fields drooped wetly to the ground: the cold rain washed it overnight and, if not for the specifically poured thick layer of gravel, the road would turn into impassable dirt. The rare deciduous trees in the field – ones they could discern in the foggy twilight – threw up their bony branches to the sky. Storm was to admit that it would be creepy to travel the long path in that eerie hour alone with Aurora. With Alex, it was another story: both foals could afford to tease and joke on each other, not paying much attention to the shrill screams of some late to bed, nocturnal bird in the distance.

Thankfully, Celestia didn’t linger with her Sun much longer; the first rays already danced on the once red but now almost brown and shabby roof of the old white barn, which seemed floating on the waves of morning fog as some time-beaten steamboat. The sunlight started fighting with and quickly defeated if not the chillness then the darkness and fog at least, so when they reached the southern edge of the town, the landscape looked completely different, more welcoming. It even became easier to trot the road: the feeling Storm and Aurora eagerly greeted, pacing up cheerfully and following Alex on the usual route around Ponyville.

The hills were entirely lit by the rising sun, making it even warmer there when they reached them. Sporting a bright smile, Storm sniffed deeply; the wind brought there the familiar smells from the smithy: smoky coal, heavy scent of heated metal, oil. He twitched his nose funnily once more – a tint of coffee, undoubtedly made by Silver Ingot, told that everything was prepared there for the anticipated workday as well.

The colt looked back and winked to Aurora, but filly’s attention was chained to something other than the distant house in the field. Following her glance, Storm noticed three figures approaching them along the crossing road from the town. Their spacious saddle bags told that they were heading to the nearby school. The latter was situated most likely behind the large grove on the west, exactly where the crossing road ran down the hill. Noticing their company, those three noticeably sped up; in his turn, Alex stopped and watched them with a smile. Storm and Aurora shielded their eyes from the low sun; shining into the backs of the newcomers, it made them look like the black indiscernible silhouettes.

Upon the closer look, three figures turned into lively and cheerful fillies, slightly older than Sunflowers: an earth filly, a unicorn and a pegasus brisk like a ball of quicksilver. Letting out an anticipating squeak, the olive filly with large light crimson bows in her amaranth mane and tail took the lead and almost leapt into Alex’s promptly spread arms, making her scarf wave like a flag.

“Squeee! Ah haven’t seen ya for ages, Alex!” she nuzzled his neck, wrapping her legs around the human. “What’s the deal? You’re almost not showing up lately… well, at least during the daytime,” giggled the filly when Alex returned the hug and tickled her lightly, pretending that he wanted to toss her up in the air jokingly.

“That’s because I had loads of work, Little Apple,” Alex nuzzled the filly and kneeled to the road as two of her friends were catching up. “You know where to find me – at the smithy. I suppose you have lots on your plates either, as you don’t sneak around to find out what we are doing there,” laughed he.

Storm and Aurora alternated from one hoof to another and exchanged glances: the fillies looked extremely friendly, even if overly noisy at first, that dispelled foals’ shyness a bit.

“Yeah, the studies aren’t turning easier each year,” the pale grey, almost white unicorn filly with pink and lilac mane let out a tiny smile; she leaned to Alex to hug him as well and nuzzled the human on the cheek. In addition to the scarf – the unicorn filly wrapped in it tightly, looking similar to the brother and sister Sunflowers, even if the scarf was of her size – she sported a fancy pair of fluffy ear-warmers.

“To the smithy again, mate?!” the light saffron pegasus with the pink and purple mane and tail greeted Alex more reservedly than her friends did. Yet she hugged him tightly, bumping her forehead into his chest and squinting pretty, when Alex ruffled her short mane, releasing the earth filly. “Morning, fellas!” she winked to the Sunflowers joyfully. Even if the ruffled fluff on her chest told that she felt the autumn chillness, the little pegasus didn’t show any discomfort.

“On our daily route,” Alex nodded with confirmation; Storm noticed how he kept cuddling the pegasus filly for a while longer, warming her subtly. “Hey, girls, let me introduce!” with his free hand, Alex gestured the foals to come closer. “Storm and Aurora Sunflowers! They…” Alex stumbled. “I and Fluttershy are… Eh… They are living with us now,” he crumpled the phrase.

“We know… about the farm,” quietly said the redhead filly, batting her eyelashes. She and her pale-grey friend approached the foals with warm and encouraging smiles. Comforted by them, Aurora visibly relaxed and returned the smile, waving to the girls. Storm, however, suddenly flushed and felt fidgety, placed eye-to-eye with the two young ladies a couple of heads higher than himself.

“Kids,” Alex addressed Sunflowers, introducing the girls in the order of appearance. “These are my friends: Apple Bloom – you probably saw her older sister Applejack coming to the smithy; Sweetie Belle – her sister Rarity owns the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville, and Scootaloo,” Alex nodded towards the tomboy pegasus in his hug, “I bet her… sister Rainbow Dash doesn’t need any introduction,” he reminded the foals about the noisy gamine friend of Fluttershy, visiting them one evening, “being the famous Ponyville… boom-maker and weather-pegasus.”

Scootaloo threw a quick, suddenly warming glance at the human, her nose turning pinkish.

“Weather-pegasus? You mean like your friend, Rainstorm?” exclaimed Storm. “Cool!”

“Yeah, kinda,” Alex ruffled Storms mane, hiding the shadow of pensiveness behind a smile.

“You know,” Scootaloo reached Alex’s ear, almost touching it with her nose, “I start wondering, why you and Fluttershy aren’t planning any foals of your own still,” whispered she slyly, leaving Alex nearly thunderstruck by her innuendo.

Not hearing her words in entirety, both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle couldn’t help snorting because of the expression suddenly appearing on Alex’s flushing face, and even foals let out humble smiles.

“Eh… Well…” Alex felt how his ears started flaming under the fixed glance of the sly saffron fluff-ball. “It… turns out more complicated than it seems, due to the certain genetic differences… Oh!..” he stumbled, realizing what he had just said, while Scootaloo kept giggling under his arm. “Come on, girls! Weren’t you getting late to school?!”

“Frankly speaking, yes!” admitted Sweetie Belle seriously. “We need to hurry if we don’t want to disappoint Miss Cheerilee.”

“Have a nice day, kids!” she and then Apple Bloom hugged Aurora. “See ya, Alex!”

When two older girls nuzzled him in both cheeks, Storm fancied that he knew how a steam-boiler should feel, turning red as a carrot under the quiet accompaniment of Aurora’s giggling. That made him wonder what Scootaloo said to Alex, causing a similar reaction.

“Bye, kids! Bye, Alex!” flushing desperately, the pegasus filly quickly pecked Alex, making him blink confusedly. “Think of it…” she hopped down the hill, catching up with her friends. The girls headed to the school, looking back a couple of times and discussing something.

‘And what pray tell it was?’ asked Alex mentally, looking at dumbfounded Storm.

‘No idea!’ was seemingly written in the colt’s eyes.

“Come one, kids! We’re running late!” throwing a quick glance at the column of smoke, raising welcomingly above the smithy yard, Alex grabbed both foals under his arms, unfurling his wings. “Let’s take a shortcut!” exclaimed he, accompanied with two excited squeaks.

As if trying to prove its reputation of being fickle, the weather changed before they managed to reach the smithy. Suddenly starting to blow from the north, the wind quickly brought a string of grey clouds, then another one. The very moment they landed at the Steels’ yard, the sky became veiled, making the sun barely shine through the cloud curtain and effectively shifting the day gamma to dull and washed out. Thankfully, no signs of upcoming rain or snow could be observed.

However, that wasn’t a problem at the smithy yard – always warm, lit brightly and full of movement those days. The foals fluffed cosily, asking Silver Ingot to help them with their scarves, which she did with the kind laughter – the girl could appreciate their sparrow-like look.

The rest of the day went in the usual order: Willsmash, Alex and Diamond formed a living conveyor, assembling the parts they prepared, into the new guards’ armour. Perhaps Alex was a little absent and pensive, as Storm and Aurora could notice while helping each one of them when necessary. He seemed to be thinking something over and over: a part of his mind struggled with some dilemma, while the rest kept working automatically. He even missed the moment everything around turned silent for a second, continuing his meticulous work.

“Hmmm… Methinks the chunk hath cooled down considerably. Wouldn’t it shape faster if ‘t be true thou heat it again, lief?!” the silvery, mischievous voice made Alex’s heart skip a beat. “I thought thou knew better how to forge,” another chuckle followed; everypony present blinked fast at the unusual sight.

“Princess!” both foals jumped at the spot; Aurora and Storm were undoubtedly glad to see the surprise visitor, happiness glimpsed in their eyes.

“Kids!” the night-coloured alicorn glanced at them with a tiny bow of recognition and a dainty smile, making the foals fluff inwardly. “Mister Steel, Silver… Ingot,” trotting a loop around Alex and estimating his work with extremely gamine expression, the princess greeted the owners of the place.

Storm and Aurora watched princess Luna with wide-open eyes, feeling that the latter must absolutely have devised something, judging by what they knew about the Night Princess and saw at the recent Nightmare Night celebration; the foals didn’t want to miss any move or word. The chill November afternoon, warmed only by the flames in close vicinity, froze in silence for a moment, the only sound being the low hum of the working smelter and Alex’s precise, measured beating on the shaped chunk of metal on the anvil.

Throwing a glance at his niece, her uncomprehending puzzled look, Willsmash squinted expectantly; his eyes lit with barely sparkling amusement. The princess’ wish to tease the human slightly was so clear that the old blacksmith felt some foalish excitement to find out what would follow. He shook his head, answering the girl’s silent question, suggesting Silver Ingot to play along.

Feeling the soft nuzzle behind the ear and the touch of lavender breath on his neck, Alex stopped hammering the steel piece; with a tiny smile, he watched the flowing mane and the sensitive lips entering the edge of his view. Having a look at his work from all possible angles, Luna placed her head on Alex’s shoulder, snuggling to him from behind lightly. The blue, silky cheek slid on Alex’s; the innocently batting eyelashes tickled him, making his entire body strain from the mix of surprise and anticipation.

“I heard that some training befell hither occasionally, lief…” Luna’s voice was soft and, at the same time, extremely insinuating.

Willsmash chuckled; throwing a smiling glance at the blacksmith, the Princess could notice that the old unicorn had approximately guessed about her plans.

“At first, I wanted to have a look, as, alas, I missed… almost all the action during the Nightmare Night,” winking barely noticeable, Luna turned to Alex again.

‘Some diversity won’t hurt the guy! He becomes too pensive, not to say concerned lately. Can’t blame him, still…’ upon that glance, Willsmash was absolutely sure what the dark-blue prankster was plotting.

“But… what could be better than watching, thought I anon…” continued the Princess nonchalantly, snuggling her face closer to Alex’s and raising one eyebrow. “Taking a part in one, correct!”

‘She must have been bored as well – nothing happened since the Nightmare Night events, except the farm…’ Willsmash inwardly smirked, intercepting another bewildered gaze from Silver Ingot. ‘No wonder, the big filly needs some release.’

“Hmmm…” meanwhile, the Princess stepped back with a feigned brooding expression. “I haven’t done anything alike for aeons seemingly…”

Alex threw an inquiring glance at Willsmash. The old blacksmith only nodded shortly; he was levitating the glaive already.

“Soooo… I challenge thee to a duel, lief! A friendly sword match! What dost thou say, Alex?” the swan neck arched as Luna cocked her head; the dark lakes with sly sparkles inside splashed him with playful joy. “Shan’t hurt me either to flex mine rusted martial practice!” The gust of cold wind fanned her mane, making it float around the mare’s head like a broad sparkly halo.

“Fine!” smirked Alex, returning the glance with a surplus of mischief. “If that counts as a sword though…” the folded glaive, thrown by the blacksmith, laid in human’s hand obediently. ‘The girl wants to play? Okay then!’

“I see, you ain’t sleepwalking,” continued Luna. “Fair game! No magic… well, except me holding the sword,” she shrugged a little apologetically, “no tricks. Only speed… and steel!” With those words, her horn lit, forming a pool of blue aura near the princess. With a habitual movement, Luna started pulling something dark from that pocket dimension of hers.

‘This may become tougher than it seemed…’ with the widened eyes, Alex watched the monstrous sword of dimly glowing steel coming into the daylight. Dark-blue, going into black, the long narrow blade had undulated, sharply glowing edges. Inwardly shuddering, Alex couldn’t hold back, openly admiring the view. ‘Need to admit – the flamberge suits her!’

“Dost not worry, lief, I shall try to be gentle!”

“Errmmm… Wait!” Silver Ingot looked as if she just switched on. In a wink, the unicorn filly ran down the porch, grabbing both foals and pulling them back to the protection of the house. Neither Storm nor Aurora uttered a word during the last few minutes; both watched the unfolding scene with the glowing of excitement and anticipation eyes. Fortunately for them, the dumbfounded unicorn girl didn’t pull them further back than the porch.

“Not that I called much for…” squinted Alex. With a thin sizzle, the glaive unfolded in his hand; he stepped aside from the anvil. Enveloped in Diamond’s aura, the detail already floated away to the smelter.

“Well, youth, try not to blow the place apart, okay!” Willsmash watched them with nearly the same degree of interest as the foals did.

“Rest assured!” the Night Princess produced a wide grin, soaring into the air. “No casualties! Till prudent surrender?!”

“Fine! Till prudent surrender!” with a strong push, Alex rushed after her, unfolding the wings and raising above the smithy, the smoke, the dry grass anxiously waving under the wind.

“Now…” started Silver Ingot, throwing a concerned glance at the foals in her protection.

“But can we have a look?!” Storm looked up to the unicorn girl almost pleadingly; Aurora nodded quickly, her eyes chained to the figures receding up into the sky.

“Y-Yeah…” unconfidently drawled Silver Ingot, giving up under their puppy glances. “Just promise me to stay close…”

The fresh wind ruffling his feathers and brushing through the hair brought a smile to Alex’s face. Gazing down, he saw the smithy served on the ground like a colourful dish; the silhouettes of the ponies left below became barely discernible. The air was fresh up there, not tainted with anything routine. Even the sunlight seemed brighter, despite the mildly cloudy sky, there – far from the daily burdens.

‘Maybe that’s what I lack from time to time!’ Alex inhaled the full chest of late autumn freshness. His sight fell at his hands on the weapon: thinking of which, they were probably the weakest spot when unarmoured. Without the second thought, the thin metal band on his hand glowed, enveloping his palms with the armour gloves – now it was up to his reaction and speed to provide the untampered defence.

‘Thinking of tactics drives the daily problems away for a while, at least!’ he scanned the nearest clouds.

Luna had a small advantage; soaring earlier, she had time to look around and plan. Alex snorted inwardly: judging by the last mischievous look she gave, the big filly wasn’t going to make things easy for him. He braced himself, getting ready for any sort of surprise; however, he barely managed to react to her first move.

The large dark sword appeared across his course as if cast from the air, but Alex knew it wasn’t the case. Luna would never break her own words, using some magic to her advantage; the princess was naturally that quick. It wasn’t a strike, to be honest, the flamberge was simply put there, blocking his flight; Alex was to change direction sharply not to collide. He dodged aside, reflecting the sword with the oblique motion of his glaive – blades met with blood-chilling skirring sound.

“Wake up, lief!” giggled silvery from above.

‘Great! I’m perfectly confident in our steel…’ glimpsed in Alex’s head. ‘Let’s hope it wouldn’t damage the ancient sword; that would be very unfortunate. I bet anything, Lulu values it immensely!’

“Dost not worry, mine love!” somehow, she managed to read Alex’s thoughts off his face. “The sword was made by mine father forsooth. And that is the reason it needeth much more than that to give up!”

“That’s reassuring!” Alex rotated the glaive, bumping the flamberge back with another powerful blow. He rushed up, finally levelling with Luna so he could notice her movements and intentions in their entirety.

She started testing his defence, performing a series of direct attacks and using the sword on its initial purpose – swords always were rather piercing than cutting weapons. Hovering in the air in a relaxed manner, the princess literally tried to poke Alex with her night-coloured monstrous sword. Each time, even before approaching the effective hit area, the flamberge tip was met with the short fast strike of one of the glaive crescent blades, changing the direction and averting the sting. Causing the silvery giggle and another attempt!

Reflecting it, Alex rolled his eyes with a sigh: that alicorn school-filly was simply teasing him. He swirled the glaive, speeding it up and rotating around himself. In a second, the entire human body, except the wings keeping him in the air, was surrounded by the thin yet impenetrable shield of shimmering, sizzling steel. There wasn’t a chance for a simple direct strike to get through now.

“Hmmm… The timber-cutter move!” Luna raised one eyebrow, clearly hinting at Alex’s fight with the Everfree monsters.

Deciding that it was time for the attack, testing her defence instead, Alex suddenly rushed forward. The oncoming air made his ears pop from the speed. The blades met in a hard blow, spilling the bright sparks around and making Luna instinctively retreat a bit. The dark sword sounded like a large bell, sending the acoustic wave around.

“Nice, nice!” the princess was laughing, but her eyes squinted respectfully.

Down on the ground, all the present ponies stared up, trying to understand what was going on. The booming sound spread, reaching undoubtedly the town and far beyond. The foals pulled Silver Ingot from under the porch roof, following Willsmash, who watched the scene in the sky, hiding the smile in his beard. Diamond Chisel leaned on the anvil and only shrugged, answering the girl’s bewildered glance.

Drawing a vertical circle with her sword as if checking its integrity, Luna attacked with an unimaginable speed. Spinning in the dangerous dance, the duelists parted and approached again in the sky, each time followed with the bunches of sparks bursting around the meeting blades. The spectators couldn’t see the glowing eyes, the clenched in determined smiles teeth, the spread wings. From the ground, it looked as if two short spears – dark-blue and black – distanced and approached, colliding with the clanging of steel. Flashes lit the clouds, scaredly bustling around.

“Do they remember – that supposed to be a friendly training?” Silver Ingot realized that she asked a rather rhetoric question.

“I guess… for them it still is!” Diamond Chisel smirked as the next extremely bright cloud of sparks flashed the sky, followed shortly with a boom.

Alex was to admit that the princess was a tough rival, even harder to stand against than the old and battle-hardened blacksmith… even in a training round. Being able to hold the sword only with magic was never a weakness of hers: she could naturally stay out of his effective damage range, while still taking part in the fight technically – the flamberge always kept the human on his tiptoes. Capable of flying, Luna was twice more dangerous, attacking from any direction desired. If she could use any other magic, except holding her blade, she had been very hard to impossible to even keep up with, let alone defeat. For those using no magic in return, of course.

Watching for the huge sword in the chilly grey autumn sky, Alex was to stay in short-range defence mostly, blocking again and again with his glaive. Just like with the timberwolves, that couldn’t continue endlessly: the more forces he spent on deflecting her strikes, the less would remain at his disposal at a chance of the burst attack.

Instead of answering with the hard blow, Alex dodged the next strike. Making a loop in the air and letting the flamberge whizz by below, he quickly found the night-coloured silhouette against the background of flowing clouds.

‘Time to change the disposition a bit!’ folding his wings like an arrow, he rushed to attack, rotating the glaive. The clouds smudged around; Alex’s ears felt full of sizzling speed again.

The dark sword aimed right at the centre of the silvery propeller, Alex’s glaive turned in. But shifting aside at the very last moment, he caught the point of the blade slightly off the centre of his improvised shield. The glaive handle tingled, meeting the sword flat and momentarily luring it along its own circular trajectory.

With satisfaction, Alex could notice a glimpse of bewilderment in Luna’s widened eyes – the manoeuvre turned out entirely unexpected for her, making her lose focus for a fraction of a second. What was more important: she lost the grip as well. Whistling in the sky, the flamberge followed the glaive, then started falling due to its considerable weight and inertia. Alex smirked, dashing forward and shortening the distance.

Naturally, it would be strange to expect that her confusion lasted long; in a second, Luna dived in the sky, leaving Alex’s line of attack and catching the falling sword with ease. Turning around the next moment, Alex saw the alicorn mare on the opposite edge of the mentally drawn between them circle. Armed and ready to fight as if nothing happened.

With loud girly laughter, Luna dived again and jetted away from Alex, moving sideways and following that imaginary circle. Alex guessed that she planned to distract and finally get behind him.

‘Okay, you mocking bird, hold on!’ He rushed after her on the same trajectory, doing his best to keep the distance constant for that moment and the Princess in sight. Somehow Luna’s joy passed on to him.

‘Catch up with her… Catch… her! Prove myself and make her surrender!!!’

They pierced the low clouds and started ascending on a widening in the sky spiral, laughing and exchanging strikes, each blow harder than the previous.

“Good afternoon, mister Steel! Hello everypony…” the lilac figure with stripy mane appeared on the old road, hurrying to the smithy. Another, yellow, with the wings spread from anxiety, followed closely.

“What’s going on here, mister Steel?” Twilight approached the gate, entering the smithy yard and circling the present ponies with a puzzled look; she had to raise her voice to gain attention from them being enthralled by something above. Her eyes went from the smoking smelter and the empty anvil to smiling Diamond Chisel, who nodded to her and peered into the sky again. Then to Willsmash and Silver Ingot; the latter held the young Sunflowers close – all watched something above, greeting the newcomers short.

“Ummm…” Fluttershy peeked from behind Twilight’s shoulder, throwing an extremely puzzled glance at the scene. “Good morning, folks!”

“Good morning, miss Twilight, miss Fluttershy! Errmmm… a training… Yeah, a training!” the old unicorn was hiding a smile behind his moustache.

“A training?” Twilight asked again; Fluttershy kept looking around, evidently searching for somepony. “I was reading near the ajar window when I heard a loud… bloop. As if a huge and tight string broke.”

“So did I,” nodded Fluttershy. “I mean… that strange sound. I was at the market, and many ponies were startled by it, looking around.”

“I saw the flashes in the sky,” continued Twilight. “Above the smithy!” emphasized she meaningfully. “And when I went outside, there was a small herd of ponyvillers, already gathering at the square and the edge of the town.”

“You see…” Silver Ingot drawled somewhat strangely.

“Storm, Aurora! Thank Harmony, you’re alright!” interrupting the unicorn filly, Fluttershy cuddled the foals, only then noticing their excitement they watched the skies with. “I was concerned about you and… Alex. Where…”

“They were guessing, what was the reason of Steels launching fireworks… when it wasn’t even near to Hearthwarming…” Twilight let out a tiny unconfident smile, “and doubled in numbers, while I and Flutters were deciding what to do. I won’t lie if I say that half of the town will… shortly…” slowly added the girl, looking up like everypony did.

Now her attention was chained to the grey clouds, which swirled as if a tornado was about to be born above the smithy. From time to time, the bright lights flashed through them, followed by the far and distorted sounds of colliding steel.

“Oh, dear!” Fluttershy cupped her mouth with the hoof when another loud strike pierced the sky and a lightning flash ripped the condensing clouds with its whip.

It became obvious that Luna was abusing the ranged attacks. Tactically or out of purely foalish wish to tease him – Alex had no idea. But she constantly kept the distance while they spiralled, exchanging the strikes. Of course, Alex realized that the flamberge needed some space to move and provide effective attack and, what was more important, defence. ‘But not that much of the space, right?!’

He needed to get closer at any cost, where Luna’s large sword would have lost its effectiveness without the proper swing… yet his glaive could still serve a convincing argument. That was the intended feature of the glaive, they with Willsmash made foldable – to provide at least some support at close distances.

Spreading his wings, Alex slowed down a bit, then suddenly rushed to the ground, making Luna follow, trying to guess what he suddenly got on his mind. The clouds stirred by two pairs of vast wings lingered for a second then slowly dragged down after them.

The ponies on the ground opened their mouths, when first the black arrow darted down, emerging from the cloudy whirlpool, then the dark-blue followed shortly.

“What…” with widening eyes, Twilight almost repeated the question she started with; Fluttershy simply sank on the ground watching the scene above in bewilderment. “A… friendly… training? Here from, it looks like some local cataclysm!” noticed she. The silhouettes in the sky continued spinning around some imaginary common centre, where they occasionally approached, making their shining weapons collide with clang and sparks gushing.

The clouds above them kept condensing, herding and pushing one another, like the sheep, scared by some predator and bunching together for protection. It seemed that their friction made the thunderstorm imminent – a couple more flashes illuminated the grey flocks from inside. The smell of ozone started spreading around, reaching the nostrils of the spectators on the ground.

‘Well, okay!’ Egged on by Luna’s constant teasing, Alex gritted his teeth, distancing from her after another easily reflected attack; the silvery laughter of that night-coloured girl was a pure provocation. Flying on a receding arc, Alex looked pensive as if estimating his next move and weighing the tactical chances. Pursing his lips, he squinted at Luna; she was juggling her monstrous sword nonchalantly… With a sudden thrust, the human dashed towards her! The sword she put to block his course whizzed by; Alex barely leaned aside in the air. Folding his wings, he sped up even more, seemingly focused on his aim only.

Seeing the seriousness of intents, the princess was to pull back her flamberge and prepare for defence. Not a frequent case that day! She was completely confident in her position, smiling at Alex’s daredevil attempt to change the balance. But…

There was no human at the spot, which Luna thought she was perfectly controlling! Her sword could meet nothing, where the speeding silhouette with black wings was a fraction of a second before. That made her blink confusedly for the first time. Instead of her sparring partner, she managed to notice some dark gust flashing by; a wave of air pushed her balance, so Luna was to level with a strong flap of her wings. The thick juicy sound reached everypony’s ears a second later as if some large string broke in the sky with a loud brass boom. It was the same bloop Fluttershy and Twilight heard being at the edge of the town before.

“He… did it again!” dropped Fluttershy, almost stunned at the spot. “Or his wings did… Topped the speed of the sound, I mean…” she gazed at Twilight in bewilderment. “I was sure he did when he followed us to Canterlot… and now again…”

“Topped considerably, I must say, judging by the sound of it and the timing!” Twilight watched the human with pure scientific interest slightly peppered with amazement. “Interesting, how…” drawled she pensively, cupping her mouth; apparently, the lilac girl was already calculating something inwardly.

‘Merlin’s pants! My lungs… almost ripped apart!’ Alex slowed down and turned around in the air, taking a breath painfully. ‘What was it? Way faster than the last time! I need to analyze that and… be more careful in future!’ However, he had no time to waste – that lightning-like roundabout manoeuvre bought him a couple of seconds before Luna could realize what happened. Smirking inwardly, Alex rushed forward; he was to do his best to use the lucky advantage.

She could block his blazing attack accidentally only, as later Luna was to admit. Rather instinctively than consciously sending the sword to rotate protectively behind her, the princess was still guessing where Alex disappeared to. Noticing from the corner of her eye some shadow, Luna fended off with her flamberge at the last moment exactly when Alex already slowed down his glaive, going to stop it as it was still a training match. Thus the blow came out not nearly as strong as the rest.

But it clearly showed what it was worth otherwise! With eyes widening with surprise and increasing respect, Luna turned around in the sky. She quickly dashed back, restoring the attack distance as soon as possible: with one tactical dash, Alex could approach where her sword had no space to move freely, yet his glaive was still a serious threat. The disposition was restored; however, crossing her weapon with Alex, now Luna had to be on constant guard, seeing that he was simply taking time to prepare and try another attempt.

Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged wild glances. Even Diamond Chisel looked more concerned than entertained now.

“Shouldn’t we stop them,” Fluttershy reverted her glance to the sky, “before something goes…” her voice died down to the barely audible whisper.

“I wonder, how could we?!” with more practical interest, Twilight watched Luna and Alex, who increased the speed with each move. “I could probably teleport their weapons somewhere… But… I’m sure Luna’s is protected from such an inelaborate trick,” she shook her stripy mane. “And Alex… well, it would be quite hard and dangerous to perform that on him.”

“That’s something I was telling you about…” Willsmash turned to his niece – holding the foals closer, the unicorn filly watched the fight with her mouth slightly open, not uttering a word still. This time the glance of his healthy eye was serious, without the foalish sparkles of amusement floating inside. Reverting her glance with an effort from the human and the Night Princess, Silver Ingot looked a bit lost and stared at her uncle inquiringly. The old unicorn returned the meaningful look and nodded towards Luna and Alex; he slowly shook his head silently. Willsmash didn’t say anything else, but the filly was sure she understood him properly, even if that was neither she wanted nor sincerely accepted.

It seemed that both Luna and Alex spend the lion share of their energy during this fierce fight, but neither of them looked as if they were going to admit that, let alone give up. By the look of bright gazes they threw at each other, of smiles which didn’t cease despite the hardness of the blows those two exchanged, it seemed that the entire fight could linger on for much longer. Teased by Luna, Alex was full of determination to make that blue laughing girl lose a bit of her self-confidence excess; spurred by his agility and endurance, Luna was all too eager to prove the value of her experience. Besides, at times it looked like a natural, exciting rivalry between a woman and a man. Anyway, Willsmash was right about one thing at least: to interfere at that moment would have been an extremely dangerous act.

The strikes rained down, spreading the metal clanking in the cold air. With each successful move, both Alex and Luna burst laughing now, as the training seemed to turn into entertainment for them long ago. Alex did his best to shorten the distance and make Luna use her sword as an ordinary warrior would do; in her turn, the Princess let him approach… but that tiny bit less than enough for making his plan successful. Needless to say, she had much fun in the process.

‘Fortunately, Princess Celestia has no look of that,’ flashed in Twilight’s head; the girl closed her eyes for a moment, thrilled by the mental image. ‘I so hope that won’t reach her ears otherwise! Could hardly make her more relaxed about the whole thing…’

Meanwhile, with one lucky strike, Alex managed to blow the night-coloured flamberge far enough. With a thin sizzle, the glaive in his hand started folding quickly; obedient to human’s will, it shortened as section went in after section. The crescent blades had turned in opposite directions and the whole thing resembled at that moment a double-edged battle-axe on an extremely short handle, held on its middle by Alex.

Him, folding his weapon at that crucial moment, distracted Luna for a short instant – evidently, the girl expected anything but that – it turned out enough for the human to appear next to the Night Princess with another lightning-like dash. In a wink, stopping at the eye-to-eye distance with Luna, Alex rested the folded glaive on the blue, fluffy shoulder and let out a smile.

“I guess that’s an end of the match… technically, my love!” his eyes shone triumphantly. There was no chance that Luna could parry the next move in the actual fight.

The Princess, whose mouth took a shape of the surprised “o” for a second, recomposed already.

“Hmmm… Methinks, thou shouldn’t relax that early!” she threw a shimmering, sly and at the same time enticing gaze at him from under the spear-long eyelashes and shrugged lightly. “Dost not count thy cockatrices afore they hatch, lief!”

To his sheer surprise, Alex could feel the ever so slight sting between his strained shoulder blades. Luna had already turned her monstrous flamberge over – at that moment, the tip of the sword was directed right at the human, making it hard to tell who became the actual winner.

One coal-black eyebrow arched; Luna’s eyes laughed, sparkling with excitement.

Her light-blue lips were so close…

Going all-in, Alex leaned closer and covered them with a tender yet overwhelming kiss, feeling how the pointed blade went away at once. He could probably celebrate the victory, smiling inwardly, but instead, Alex preferred to taste every tiny bit of their kiss, feeling the princess’ lips deeper and deeper.

“Mmffff! Mmmmm…” Luna still tried to fight back with her sensitive tongue, but she almost dropped her sword, melting on Alex’s lips instead. She wrapped her fore legs around him, nuzzling the human when they parted and gifting him with a slightly beclouded look. Not giving Alex a tiny respite, Luna went on to the second round with passion.

With their wings batting slower, the interwoven human and alicorn sank in the air significantly, greeted by the encouraging whoops of Storm and Aurora: even if Silver Ingot planned to cover the foals’ eyes from that outrageous scene, she forgot about that, staring instead in bewilderment.

Witnessing that from the ground, Fluttershy squeaked indignantly; the girl jumped in the air, soaring and quickly levelling with the couple. Not ready to let Luna get all the fun for herself, the pegasus mare pushed the sword away crossly and snuggled to Alex’s back, wrapping all her four legs around him with yearning desire, nuzzling his neck from behind.

That was the last straw, making even Twilight’s jaw drop. Entangled between two girls, Alex could barely keep the height, holding in the air. Nevertheless, all three were going down steadily. The huge flamberge fell first, stuck into the dust of the smithy yard and closely followed by Alex’s glaive.

Alex’s feet met the ground slightly unconfidently; both mares kept snuggling to him, so he didn’t fall only thanks to Luna. Stealing another ardent kiss, the alicorn princess let him go; somehow, she looked overly satisfied, despite the indistinct result of their training round.

To the common bewilderment, the next thing Luna did was a tender nuzzle she gave Fluttershy, who peeked from behind Alex’s shoulder, still holding on to him.

“Thou seest! It all cometh down to the allies at the end of the day!” she addressed the human, raising one eyebrow with a gamine smile.

Alex couldn’t hold back laughing; letting Fluttershy get around him and hold on to his chest instead of back, he cuddled both girls softly. Storm and Aurora already started hopping around dumbfounded Silver Ingot; the foals’ eyes shone brightly with the memories of the scene. The stallions chuckled, even Twilight allowed herself a tiny smile despite all the confusion.

“Oh?!” Picking up her sword, Luna stared at the edge in bewilderment – a few noticeable indents appeared on the ancient blade, probably for the first time for aeons. “Tis… unexpected!” she blinked at Alex.

“That’s the problem we can easily help against!” chuckled Alex, planting a kiss on Fluttershy’s immediately flushing nose and standing the girl on the ground.

“And we! We too!” eagerly exclaimed Aurora and Storm Sunflower. “Errr… We… could spin the sharpening wheel at least!”

*

Despite the thick silence of the library, the long-awaited sleep lingered to embrace Alex for quite a while already. His night vision let him see the interior perfectly, completely ignoring the darkness and letting the human examine the multitude of book spines filling the circumferencing his room tall bookcases. Fidgeting restlessly on the sofa, Alex already read all the nearest ones several times, currently trying to calculate the height and width of the shelving, based on the average book size. He inwardly facepalmed at the inevitable next step – counting the entire quantity of them in his room with desperate meticulousness, trying to bore himself to sleep, which lingered to come.

The fireplace burnt out, leaving the faint bitter smell of some peculiar firewood. Perhaps it was to blame for Alex’s strange cheerfulness in that late hour. Or, perhaps, it was the simple fact that he spent all the day working his butt off at the smithy. Due to the specific needs, Alex was to work while sleepwalking – they had a load of blanks for the new pony armour to make. Finally, the smelter almost glowed white and Alex felt as if he was going to follow suit. The sleepwalking phenomenon sometimes created a funny paradox: even if less strained physically, Alex still spent a lot of energy as it called for concentration and certain mental input. While technically sleeping, some part of his conscious was undoubtedly awake; so at the end of the day, finishing all the work at the smithy and waking in his room at the library, the human had a strange feeling of his personal timeline being somewhat warped or as if the day suddenly doubled for him. Alex was to admit that prolonged sleepwalking delivered a few troubles along with the advantages.

Thus spending the entire day alternating between the almost candent smelter and the workbenches, Alex simply “woke” up in his room in the Golden Oak Library at the end of that blacksmith rush… yet feeling nearly exhausted due to the mental strain. Even working with the prepared blanks shaping them, tempering, then proceeding to assembly, he was to keep one hundred per cent of constant control over the smelter, pushing it to the limits of the work mode. Addressing the armour making process with two arms, four hooves and two horns, Alex, Will and Diamond were to admit that it still would be a lengthy process due to the scale of their job. On the other hoof, disappointing Celestia and failing her hard-won trust (well, some semblance of it, as Alex always mentally corrected himself with a smile) was not an option.

Besides, Alex worked with the new armour, bearing the constant thought about pegasi suitable variant of it, keeping in mind his recent contract with Rainstorm. Having the hopefully live solution to protect her mind, the mare needed the lightest yet, at the same time, the most durable body armour they could produce. Alex still cringed lightly every time, remembering about the experiment they decided to carry out. In pursuit of technical perfection, he was seriously going to top everything done before; the smelter looked as if it was going to substitute the hidden behind the clouds sun on that gloomy November day, filling the surroundings with unbearable heat and smell of candent metal and stone.

‘Adding another layer of protection and steadiness outside wouldn’t be an excess!’ came to his mind when, with due apology, Alex delegated both foals entirely under the caring supervision of Silver Ingot. However, Storm and Aurora visibly limited their natural curiosity, keeping the proper distance and preferring some jeweller lecture to the proximity of the potentially dangerous device.

No wonder that despite he looked technically sleeping to the foreign observer, Alex felt a bit tumbled at the end of his workday. Yet his organism resisted the natural urge to rest, fairly supposing it had enough of it already. Inwardly anathematizing that inconvenient paradox of his changed nature, the human trudged to help with the dinner. Surprisingly, he didn’t mess anything up in that condition. Together with Spike, they managed to prepare a quite tasty let alone eatable meal.

Having himself filled, Alex returned to his room and attacked the blueprints with doomed determination – the anticipated sleep lingered to come. The rest of the evening passed like that until Alex caught himself repeating the same calculations over and over. Thankfully, he wasn’t getting different results each time yet, but the signal was clear – it was the time to call it a day and take some rest in the face of the approaching busy tomorrow.

‘To hell with that!..’

Feeling that the still air and silence were pressing, Alex thought that better his ass would freeze a bit than he spent the entire night bustling restlessly. Sliding from under the plaid, he parted the blackout curtains slightly and unlocked the window frame.

‘Sorry, Twilight,’ he shook his head remembering, how the girl sighed each time, coming across his habit to leave his windows open regardless of the season. Using the window instead of the front door became common practice for Alex, but at that time he made only a small gap, hoping that he wouldn’t cool down the room too much. ‘Yes, that would do it!’

Sending inside the thin stream of late autumn chillness, the ajar frame let in the usual nightly sounds. With a sense of accomplishment and a content smile, Alex returned to his sofa, curling into the plaid again and listening to the long-anticipated nocturnal concerto, which seemed the only thing he lacked to achieve harmony. The sound palette appeared more humble than in summer with its leaves whispering, birds singing and insects rasping. Yet the voice of wind groping its way through the tree branches, rare dogs in the town and the barely audible distant whistle of the train finally made Alex relax. Greeting the real sleep, he closed his eyes, and his vision slowly started to fill with the misty images of the first dream.

The light, appearing at first as a small shiny spark in the distance, slowly spread in his view as if Alex was approaching its source little by little.

‘Is it a star or something alike?’ he had no idea but noted that the movement towards sped up.

At the closer look, it started to seem as if Alex was travelling through some pitch-black tunnel into the unknown. The edges of that light were too sharp for a star, so the closer he got, the clearer he saw – the light wasn’t homogeneous, having some faintly guessable forms and contours inside. The human started wondering if that was how his arrival to Equestria must have looked to him… if he had time to focus on the view, so abrupt and speedy the extraction was.

The light occupied his entire sight; turning his head fast in surprise, Alex noticed that the darkness he travelled through ceased – the same milky haze filled everything around. Basing on his experience, Alex was almost sure that it was a dream. The condition physically accepted by his body and mind, not some sleepwalking moment when he was able to control the circumstances. His first assumption was another vision of the Tree of Harmony as it looked a bit similar; however, contrary to the latter, Alex felt some stiffness when trying to move. When his eyes accommodated or the brightness of the light faded slightly, he realized that something different was happening. Anyway, no sense of danger or anxiety touched Alex upon listening to himself, so he concluded that there was nothing to fear in that situation and decided to watch what was offered to his eyes.

As the white mist thinned a bit, Alex started to discern some contours in his close vicinity, recognizing the furniture edges. Evidently, it wasn’t going to be another talk with equestrian Gaia or whatever they called the spirit of Equus; she never accepted her visitors in some office-like placement. In a moment, Alex could see the surface of the long broad table running somewhere into the milky space and surrounded by the chairs. Those few, he could clearly see, appeared high-class comfy seating; the chairs and the table itself were made of natural dark wood, carved laconically yet stylishly and polished, allowing the human to suppose that it wasn’t some ordinary lair of bureaucracy. Fidgeting on the spot: all the motions still felt strained; as if Alex was pushing through water or even some denser matter. Looking around was surprisingly easy at the same time – he noticed the springy softness of the thick carpet under his feet, which only confirmed his assumption.

Something was strange about the furniture; only after a few moments, Alex realized what looked off to him. The chairs and the table, but mostly the chairs, while being comfy, were too high for those he got used to seeing in Equestria. For the last few months, lower armchairs corresponding to ponies’ physique were the usual view for Alex. Those though looked more like the human counterparts, seemingly from his former life. Trying to touch the backrest of the nearest chair, Alex realized that it could have taken a few minutes, at the very least, simply to raise his arm there.

With his vision clearing more, Alex saw that the table was indeed running long and meeting another desk under the right angle, reminding him of some supervisor’s office or a briefing room. Noticing the bookshelves occupying the right wall brought a tiny smile to his face. However, compared to Alex’s room in the Golden Oak Library, that office was considerably larger. Containing that large and long desk with all the chairs, the multitude of bookcases and supposedly more, the room was lit by three large windows at least. Uncurtained, they stood out in the milky haze as three brighter rectangles throwing the inclined rays of light inside. All three looked closed; through even denser misty stuff outside, Alex couldn’t see or hear a glimpse of what was behind them. Turning to the bookcases instead, he made notice of the wide variety of topics covered even on a couple of the nearest shelves he could clearly see; with another smile, Alex thought of his lilac friend and hostess first.

‘To think of it, it still reminds the visions She showed me,’ Alex listened to the ringing silence flooding the room. Unable to hear even his own breath, he tried to click the fingers but either failed to do that or didn’t produce any sound as well. ‘Except that motion stiffness! Why?’

The human caught himself feeling the distinct smell instead: warm wood of the rich, sunlit furniture, old but not dusty books providing a rather pleasant tint and… something very subtle, but yet persistent. Something Alex was unable to recognize yet but would compare to exquisite female perfume. He turned around in search of the source of it; the strange fog thinned too slowly for his liking.

Suddenly some intermittent hum appeared on the edge of Alex’s hearing. It gained strength as if somepony was increasing the volume of a radio-set, turning soon into separate phrases. They came indiscernibly, but Alex could tell there were two female voices in the process of slow talk. Or at least one was; another audibly younger voice sounded eagerly and impatiently, even if it tried to hold back.

Finally, the thinning mist revealed a glimpse of two silhouettes standing at the farthest window. The human strained his eyes to catch more but couldn’t see anything except the unclear contours. Sighing inwardly, Alex prepared to wait till the surroundings evinced themselves better. Meanwhile, both voices gained volume and legibility, increasing his impression of being slowly tuned in the visible and audible aspects of that reality his dream turned out to drag him in. If only his motion had “tuned in” with the same pace; truth be told, those restraints subconsciously began to irk Alex more and more with each second.

‘Now that’s something new!’ Alex forgot about frustration at once, distracted by the surprise of revealing persons – something natural for one accustomed to see a human in a mirror only for quite a while. Both seemed to stand their backs to him, watching something through the window – two dark silhouettes against its light rectangle. However, Alex was unsure if, in his current state, he could be spotted even looked directly at. The shapely woman with long wavy hair crossed her arms pensively; the contours revealed the slightly old-fashioned dress, the hem of which hid behind the obstructing desk. Contrasting to that, her voice left an impression that its owner was of the same age as Alex or even younger. She appeared very tall, so, dressed into something resembling the high school uniform, the girl next to her barely reached her chest level. Alex realized that both looked like a mentor and an apprentice, a momentary image of certain princesses glimpsing in his mind.

The girl threw back her long straight hair, glancing up at the woman and asking her some concerning question. The next phrase sounded discernible for their silent visitor as the volume finally “tuned in” for Alex.

“… the knowledge was always with me. Why? It’s still the question to answer. Anyway, I was only to realize and arrange all the parts for the streamline method,” the woman chuckled quietly. “Although, it took ages to bring the puzzle together the right way.”

“So… you really can summon it here?” from the back, it looked as if the girl even brought her hand to the mouth in awe.

“The so-called… ritual is complete, maybe not polished to perfection yet,” nodded her older collocutor after a moment of silence. “It’s complex and without any of the steps the entire array of them won’t work. I even came through it yesterday, verifying everything once again…”

“Without the final step, obviously!” added the woman at the silent shocked gaze of the girl. “As if completed, it has no retreat… for the time it works at least.”

Alex thought he even saw how the girl exhaled with relief. Nevertheless, she asked immediately.

“But… if that helps to stop the malevolent… Scherben?!”

“I’m afraid of that turning out as inevitability,” quietly dropped the woman with a tiny nod. “That knowledge being a… part of me can’t be a coincidence. What... if… I fear that it may recognize me and how exactly it recognizes me.”

“Fear?.. You?!” the girl stared at her in disbelief.

Alex froze, catching every word, feeling that he was about to hear something important; even the sensation of being restrained seemingly stopped bothering him at that moment. Stumbling upon an unvoiced phrase, the woman cocked her head as if bothered by something she suddenly fancied. Perhaps it was that familiar to everypony feeling of being watched as she started turning slowly, looking over her shoulder.

Unsure what could happen next, as supposedly those two finally noticed his presence, Alex made a desperate attempt to rush forward, to try and catch at least a clearer glimpse of the mysterious collocutors. He was sure he never saw or heard them before, thus their appearance in his dream was utterly strange. Needless to say, since his arrival to Equestria, he only saw a few people in the dreams in general, their number limited by Alex’s parents and ex-girlfriend.

To his frustration, he could barely move his arms still; every movement took as much effort as if he was pushing his body not even through water but through the cooling down molten metal rather. In his turn, Alex felt the glance of the woman sweeping across his frame. Unable to tell if she actually saw him, Alex gritted his teeth – both the woman and the girl remained dark silhouettes for him in the counter light coming from the window.

‘Did she just twitch, raising the hand to her mouth?’ Alex had no time to analyze, shocked by the palpable touch on his chest.

The vision began to recede, dissolving in the white haze, or Alex was forcedly pulled out of his dream. Returning to reality, he felt the chillness; the sounds came back presented by some strange rustling.

“Mmmm…” muttered Alex; he realized that the touch on his bare chest wasn’t a part of the dream. The first thing he came up to, emerging from his sleep, was a pair of very concerned and widened mild-violet eyes right above his face. Holding back the first natural urge to jump up, Alex inhaled noisily, moderating his racing heart, thrilled by the strange dream and non less strange awakening.

The eyes blinked and backed up, revealing Twilight’s concerned muzzle in its entirety and the candle she levitated; the reflections of the latter danced in them, making them seem even larger, glistening brightly.

“Oh…” The flush started flooding her face quickly; sitting on the edge of his sofa, Twilight squeezed the collar of her night gown on her neck, another hoof was resting on Alex’s chest, before she pulled it back. “Are… Are you okay?” the girl straightened up, giving him more space. “I mean… you were bustling in your sleep, Alex.”

“I’m fine… I think… Just had another strange dream, Twi,” Alex blinked away the remnants of sleep, waking completely. “And… What’s going on?”

“I thought I heard some noise…” quickly said Twilight; looking aside, the girl tried to overcome the confusion caused by the realization of how she was leaning over Alex moments ago. “You did something strange… moved your arms as if… as if trying to pull apart some curtains,” she glanced at him pensively. “Or swim… I don’t know, Alex. It didn’t look like something I saw before, so I hurried to check if you were alright.”

“Thanks, Twi. I’m fine,” repeated Alex, raising onto his elbow. “I can’t even tell if that dream was a bad one… very strange – yes… Anyway, a rather pleasant change from the nightmares I habitually see.”

“And what it was?” Twilight managed to brace herself already and the girl’s natural curiosity got ahead of her as usual.

“I don’t remember much…” drawled Alex; he preferred not to worry his friend with something, he didn’t figure out himself yet. Not at the face of everything they came across recently. “There were some… people… I haven’t seen them afore…”

“People?” the girl looked at him fixedly. “You mean… humans, Alex? You didn’t see many humans in your dreams lately, right?”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded, rubbing his face. “A woman, and a girl… Complete strangers I think. However… No, nothing… I can’t remember the details,” he let out a tiny smile. “Still better than…”

“You are still seeing occasionally… the dam,” under her breath uttered Twilight, glancing at the human apologetically.

“Yeah,” Alex sat on his sofa. The black wing hugged the girl’s shoulders softly. “Though, I must say, less frequently. Maybe because I finally managed to accept the inevitable,” he shrugged, thinking. ‘Or maybe because the talk with Rainstorm helped me to patch up a bit.’

“I’m glad!” simply but wholeheartedly said Twilight, flushing again slightly.

“Thanks for your constant care!”

“Speaking of which…” raising to her hooves from under Alex’s wing, the girl threw a glance over her shoulder at the opened window. The November night did its best to sneak in, playing with the curtains and making them flutter lightly in the cool air flowing inside.

“I don’t know how you can survive here, Alex!” Twilight shook her head puzzledly; levitating the candle to the low table, she headed to the window with full intent to stop that disgrace. She suppressed a shiver, fidgeting with the curtains. “I would freeze my plot off in that chill. It’s not May outside, you know,” she glanced back at him with a smile.

Alex leaned back on his pillow; resignedly allowing her to close the window, he nested more comfortably, still thinking of something.

“By the way, Twilight…” he raised his eyes at her, when the girl already picked up the candle with her aura on the way to the door, making the alicorn filly return and look at him inquiringly.

“Have you heard… Do you know, what… errmmm… “Scherben” means?”

“Scherben?” Twilight rolled her eyes, remembering. “Scherben… That’s from Germane,” finally smiled she. “That means “shards” as far as I remember, sharp-edged parts of something once integral… Why suddenly… Where did you get that from, Alex?” the girl stared at him at a loss.

“A part of my dream, methinks…” muttered Alex pensively. “I guess I heard that word in it, Twi. Thus wanted to find out what it was. Thanks again!” he looked at her with a soothing smile.

‘That doesn’t explain though, how the shards can be “malevolent”!’ gloomed Alex inwardly.

“Strange as said. It doesn’t really matter perhaps…” shrugged he under Twilight’s puzzled glance. “Just a dream… I’m sorry for waking you up again!” Alex smiled apologetically. Feeling that his body demanded the proper rest, he almost drifted into sleep again.

“Hey! What’s going on… here?” Spike’s face showed up in the doorway; taking a quick look around, Twilight’s aide dropped his tone, noticing her with the candle over the almost sleeping again human. “I saw the light and went down to check if everything was fine,” added he quieter.

“Shhhh…” Twilight shook her head. “Nothing. Alex simply had one of his nightmares,” the girl shrugged, levitating her candle and guiding Spike in front of her out of the room. “Scherben… scherben…” muttered she, crossing the threshold and closing the door behind.

*

“Come on, man! These carrots are way too expensive for what they look like…” Alex pulled up the large basket, showing sarcastic doubt. “I’d better buy some from Apples. Definitely, would be of better quality for a fairer price!”

“As you wish,” the marketer stallion chuckled, glaring at him sharply. However, he had nothing to impute for the human was polite enough to voice his indignation in a low tone, not informing the nearest market of the presumable problem. “Nopony insists; it’s buy or pass!”

“Where did they come from?” inquired Alex, throwing another glance at the presented goods.

The stallion grunted something indistinctly into his beard; Alex only waved his hand, rejecting the dubious deal. Frankly speaking, he asked the price only seeing the new muzzle; the seller and the goods made him suspicious. Alex squinted.

‘I probably need to ask if somepony in the town or nearby lost a part of their harvest…’

Forcing his way through to the less herded place, he put his basket on the ground for a minute and checked the list – quite a long one. Smiling inwardly, Alex inhaled the cold air mixed with the various tasty smells galore. The autumn wind brought little snowflakes and swirled them above the square and the heads of the pony herd; it needed the new toy as it had blown off the leaves from the surrounding trees completely. The low sun barely pierced the thin but solid layer of the grey clouds, lighting the stalls, the wooden crates with their contents, the mingling ponies. Even in November morning with its snow dancing in the air, it didn’t feel cold in the middle of the market square throng.

‘I’d better move,’ Alex ran with his eyes through the list once more and adjusted the collar of his warm, newly-knit sweater – that was the case when Rarity’s attention was very welcome. Picking the basket, he wanted to dive into the market stir again but heard somepony addressing him.

“Ahem, excuse me! Alex?!”

The human looked over his shoulder and a sincere smile lit his face: a cerise mare waved her fore hoof above the heads of the nearest ponies; the seeking look of her light-green eyes stopped at him as she started making her way through the herd.

“Good morning, Miss Cheerilee!” Alex put his basket back down with a cheerful nod and readiness to listen.

“Good morning, Alex!” the mare swayed her striped pale-rose mane aside from her muzzle and glanced back at the herd, taking a breath. “Phew! I saw you at the edge of the square, but… pulling myself through turned out a harder task than I planned!” she chuckled softly and Alex noticed two spacious saddlebags at her sides. “May I have a couple of minutes of your time?”

“You can have as much as you need, ma’am!” with another smile, Alex nodded towards the basket at his feet. “I have a long shopping list and if, presumably, you have just started yours, we can brush through the market together and talk. If that’s okay…”

He personally met Miss Cheerilee – one of the school teachers – only once, during the fire at Ponyville school, but that experience confirmed all the respectful stories Alex heard about her from the fillies. Naturally, that caring, motherly mare was on the list of ponies Alex would aid anytime! However, at that moment, Miss Cheerilee, usually frank and straightforward, looked strangely hesitating. Letting out an encouraging smile, Alex thought that he had properly guessed the topic she considered delicate; thus he nodded, gesturing Miss Cheerilee to tell freely what was bothering her.

“Errmmm… That’s about the foals,” Miss Cheerilee stumbled, her nose turning pinkish; in the other time that could look amusing, but the question was undoubtedly serious. “I… We all know what happened at Sunflowers’ farm…” she shrugged almost apologetically. “Their foals you and miss Fluttershy took custody of… for a while already. They don’t attend school so far. Excuse me, Alex, but that can turn into a problem… they can miss a considerable chunk of the program. And catching up would be troublesome.” With her entire look, the cerise teacher-mare expressed the hope that her appeal wasn’t intrusive, genuinely concerned rather. Before Alex could open his mouth, Miss Cheerilee added in a convincing tone. “Don’t worry, we all understand the situation, and there won’t be any bureaucratic problems – we’ll just put them into the age-suitable class for now. Besides, I know that the girls, I mean Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, would gladly take patronage and help young Sunflowers with studies.”

“That problem’s nature is different a bit, Miss Cheerilee,” Alex picked up his basket and they started drifting across the market slowly. He offered help with the saddlebags as well, but the mare shook her head with a smile, telling that she was okay with them. “It’s not the real… custody,” Alex downcasted, “we’re simply looking after Storm and Aurora temporarily before their own aunt arrives from Crystal Empire. She’ll be the real caretaker while their parents are recovering.”

“Oh…” Miss Cheerilee nodded understandingly; although, she saw the tint of regret in Alex’s eyes.

“You know, it was a question of sending them to an orphanage for the period necessary to find her, for her to sort out her own business and arrive,” Alex glanced at Cheerilee meaningfully. “I couldn’t allow that, be it a couple of days or weeks, regardless!”

“I see,” she patted his arm reassuringly. “And nopony knows how soon she may come…”

“Exactly!” said Alex as they slowly moved along the stalls, stopping from time to time according to their lists. “I’m surprised it took that long already, but I can imagine the trouble – she has her own business there…”

“I mean that letting them go to school here in Ponyville, giving them new friends and interests… barely diving in, then having it taken from them away…” Alex stumbled and cringed. “I would have hated that as a kid. No reasons to suspect Storm and Aurora think differently.”

“I suppose Crystal Chime has no plans to stay in Ponyville,” quietly added Alex when they stopped at the next stall. “So, the foals will attend school in Crystal Empire for now…” Miss Cheerilee nodded accordingly.

“But while they are here, we both do our best to make their experience as cloudless as possible,” shrugged Alex, looking into the light-green eyes. “Personally, I wouldn’t mind to…”

“Of course,” the mare let out a tiny smile, understanding the unspoken. “That is why I thought that the fillies could help. You know, the girls were overly enthusiastic about that lately,” added Cheerilee in half-voice, leaning closer to Alex. “Perhaps they thought that you would take the responsibility for the entire time necessary.”

“If only I could offer less trouble,” chuckled Alex. “Sometimes only trouble!” he stepped aside to let a busily hurrying ponyviller through. “Sorry!”

“But thanks for caring and the offer, Miss Cheerilee!” he glanced at her warmly, as they continued their meandering route across the market square. “I promise to contact you if… if anything changes and they linger here for a longer while.”

“By the way, how’s the school doing after… after everything?”

“Well, I must say that everypony came over that easier than I expected,” Miss Cheerilee smiled heartily. “Everything was fully restored, thanks to princess attention. And thanks to you and miss Dash, nopony has got hurt!” added she with emphasis.

“I was surprised how the foals took things much easier than the adults… the staff, I mean,” the mare shrugged amusedly. “For many of them, even for my class, everything looked more like an adventure than the serious danger it actually was. Kids!”

“Well… It’s better that way!” said Alex confidently.

“I wanted to ask you of one favour, Alex,” remembered Miss Cheerilee, as they stopped, letting Alex take the turning heavier basket into another hand. “We’re going to have a so-called accident prevention day at school, with thematic lessons and so on… Could you please attend the fire prevention lecture? I’m sure, the students would love it and probably take more out of it, paying more attention naturally.”

“I…” Alex was a bit dumbfounded by that sudden request; he scratched his nape. “I’ll see if I can come, miss…”

“Hey, hey! Alex!..” interrupting him, somepony’s call reached their ears through the hum of the mingling herd. Alex noticed a couple of familiar manes making their way towards them with Cheerilee.

“Morning, girls!” Alex waved to approaching Applejack and Pinkie when they finally squeezed through the most overherded place. “Mind if we step aside a bit before we are getting stomped on?” chuckled he, then turned to Cheerilee. “You have a few spare minutes, Miss Cheerilee, don’t you?”

“Morning, partner! Morning, Miss Cheerilee!” Applejack looked over him and his spacious basket with a bit of surprise. “Ah thought Ah saw you here yesterday…” noticed she with a smile. “And the basket was hardly smaller…”

“That time was for Twilight,” shrugged Alex, “and today Fluttershy asked to help with the shopping. We have doubled numbers now!” winked he. “So, I’m trying to take as much load from her as possible.”

Together, they four found a small space unoccupied by the goods between the two neighbourhood stalls, so nopony could run into them.

“You know, Alex, you could come to the bakery with your… with the foals someday! I’m super-duper-one-hundred-per cent sure they will like it!!!” Jumping on the spot, Pinkie habitually took the bull by the horns right away. As far as Alex could notice, that was the well-known Pinkie Pie back, not some mare becoming pensive when it came down to him and his troubles. He could be guessing, but most likely it meant that some information had slipped out; Alex inwardly sighed, while the pink quicksilver ball continued. “What’s the fun for the kids to stick at the old smithy all day, every day?! I could teach them to bake pies instead… And we’d have much fun for sure!”

“It looks like a nice idea indeed…” carefully started Alex; from the corner of his eye, he saw how Miss Cheerilee nodded in approval.

“By the way,” Pinkie wasn’t going to let him word out his thought in entirety, but at least Alex got the confirmation for his assumptions, “your solution was kinda surprising for me… for us all. I mean the girl’s idea… to share you,” she lowered her tone, so only them four could hear, and nudged Alex with a sly mien. “Never thought that Flutters and princess Luna could come to something like that, not Flutters at least, but… As soon as everypony is happy and back into the friendly mode, I’m satisfied!” She glanced at him meaningfully.

“Come on, Pinkie… Hush down please,” pleaded Alex, seeing the shocked expression freezing on Miss Cheerilee’s muzzle. “Merlin’s pants! How many ponies are informed in detail already? I… I mean that we don’t make it the secret behind seven seals, but not advertising it at every corner either!”

To her honour, miss Cheerilee regained her composure fast enough.

“Well, it’s not my field to judge…” she shook her head, blinking fast and producing a tiny polite smile. “As long as everypony involved is fine with that, as miss Pie said.”

“Yeah, ya three are going to rock some minds, bet on that, partner,” giggled Applejack, winking to Alex. “Ah can imagine the face of princess Celestia, when…” she snorted again.

“Somehow, I doubt that she is uninformed,” Alex said with empasized dryness, which only amused both girls even more. “Still then?” he turned to Pinkie.

“Well, me and Jackie, as you see…” Pinkie rolled her eyes remembering, or maybe surprised that Alex was bothered by such trivia. “I’m sure, Shy mentioned it to Dash… or Rainbow stuck to her, seeing the change of mood. If you think Celestia knows everything, then I’m sure that Twilight does as well… or you told her already – you two book-heads getting along that nicely,” she raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, Alex! Why are you so jumpy about that? Everypony will know… sooner or later,” Pinkie blew a raspberry, surprised by his sudden slow-wittedness.

Alex could only grunt dumbfoundedly; miss Cheerilee either coughed or chuckled.

“What Ah know,” uttered Applejack with a wide grin, “is that Rarity will be beside herself because of that decision! When the situation was in limbo, she could try to plough her own garden bed; now though, her chances became below minimal. Right, partner?”

‘Let’s start from her chances never were higher than minimal,’ thought Alex and muttered. “I bet that won’t stop that Rarity I know…”

The thought about the inevitable maintenance job for Rarity’s generator – at the face of approaching winter, a complex of preserving operations was necessary – now looked more of a minefield.

“Hey, Ah left my stall onto Big Mac to catch you specifically,” as if reading Alex’s mind, Applejack remembered suddenly. “Wanted to ask ya for a favour. You can guess, sugarcube – the windmills, generators and all yar technical mumbo-jumbo need some maintenance before the real frost comes. As for the anti-fruit bat buzzers, Ah think we can simply stop them completely, till the next season, right?”

“Know what?” Alex’s face brightened with the salvatory idea. “I’d rather start with your request, Jackie!”

‘That gives me time to form a strategy much needed for dealing with our overly inspired fashionista,’ lit in his mind.

“Maybe even tomorro-OH!”

Somepony almost bumped into Alex’s back. With a perplexed expression, he started turning – they specifically got away from most ponies path and, except a couple of old mares, nopony grumbled about their company blocking the road. The look of the familiar minty fluffball quickly turned it into a smile.

“Lyra!”

“Hmmm… Surrounded by some mares as usual…” not losing her breath at all, Lyra Heartstrings noticed casually, almost as if for herself solely, bemusing Alex again. As colour slowly gained his cheeks up to his nose, Pinkie and Applejack started giggling and even miss Cheerilee let out a little smile.

“I have a message for you, Alex,” not confused a iota, Lyra continued as if nothing happened. “I passed the Library and… looked in on Twilight’s light and…”

“And… Wow, man, that pony helmet looks dreadful and… awesome at the same time,” the sparks of excitement and almost maniacal inspiration lit in Lyra’s eyes so suddenly, that Alex even stepped back a bit. Others simply blinked at that unsuspected change of the subject. “I was at the Oceanarium in Manehattan once… Well, that thing reminded me of the Hammerhead shark’s head. You and Rainstorm, what are you guys plotting?!”

“Ahem…” Alex patted the minty mare on the shoulder cautiously. “Methinks we started that thou had some message for me…”

“Oh… Well… You’ll tell me later then, right?!” looking as if she was pulled out of the dream sequence, Lyra glanced at him more meaningfully. “Well… Yeah… When I was there,” another sparkle ran through her sight shortly, “Twilight got a letter regarding the foals – young Sunflowers you and Fluttershy took temporary custody of…”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m listening,” freezing inwardly from the foreseen reply, Alex impatiently pulled Lyra away from the mental images of his work he didn’t hide away again shortsightedly. “What about them?”

“In brief, they have contacted Sunflowers’ aunt,” gave up Lyra. “As far as I remember, she is rounding up with her business and plans to come with the nearest Crystal Express to take the foals with her. So, Twilight asked me to find you and tell that…”

‘And what else did you expect?’ Despite he was inwardly preparing himself for something alike, Alex’s face turned to stone. Lyra kept telling something, but he looked detached. The rest of the mares turned sympathetically silent.

Alex woke up from a light touch on his arm, seeing miss Cheerilee leaning to him, stroking his hand lightly with her fore hoof.

“If you don’t mind an advice,” she said quietly, so only Alex could hear. “If I were you, I would have started doing everything you planned for them, losing no time. I mean, visit the bakery and so on…”

Swallowing a lump, Alex quickly nodded.

*

“Something is bothering you, Alex, right?” the unicorn blacksmith sank on the porch step quietly. Seeing that the human barely nodded while his eyes were still watching something in the nearest galaxy, Willsmash continued. “You were always vivid and positive, optimistic when it failed the rest of us… And the last few days you look… lost, yeah, lost is the word. Doing your work well, concentrated on it as usual, but some spark is visibly missing. While the movements are perfect to automatism, you look somewhere inside most of the time. May I know what’s the trouble?”

For a while, Alex kept watching the gloomy low skies, as if he missed the question asked on a couple of foot distance from his ear. Changing their colours from the light-grey (very few spots were of that one, to be honest) to the various sorts of dark steel, soil, raven-wing black and so on, the heavy clouds slowly drawled along. Overloaded with rain or maybe even snow already and definitely armed with some stormy charges, they didn’t hurry to deliver their freight. As if they knew that nothing and nopony (even the weather pegasi didn’t interfere into that seasonal process) would prevent their slow cruising from seemingly the Frozen North itself directly towards the broad fields and orchards of Appleloosa, the cloudy ridges of Las Pegasus, the rainforests and swamps of Thumpa. Or maybe they realized the futility of their mission at least then in November when the great forest of Everfree still stood at their way with its impenetrable barrier of warmer air. Everfree lived by its own rules and made the cold, cloudy fronts split or go around it till early winter.

The rare snowflakes, swept by the wind from the slowly rolling cloudy freight cars, danced, swirling slowly in the cool air. They avoided entering only the wide column of the hot air, visibly flowing and flickering over the neck of lazily breathing smelter on stand-by – igniting and heating up the device every morning was harder than keeping it constantly at the low fire. The never-ceasing now scent of heated metal and oil was interrupted by the smell of autumn even at the smithy yard. The slight wind only brought it there, unable to drive away the natural smithy breath or bother noticeably the withered browned grass, which forcelessly leaned to the ground, sending a grass blade or two fly away from time to time.

“And I still think that it’s not the weather!” noticed Willsmash.

“Yeah, Uncle Will,” finally Alex emerged from his thoughts, glancing at the blacksmith over the shoulder. “There is a problem! A certain puzzle I’m unable to solve, no matter how I try…”

“Well, I’m all ears if you’re ready to tell…” the old blacksmith squinted his eye slyly. “They neigh that the problem becomes twice lighter if shared between two.”

“For now, it’s more like boring complaints,” chuckled Alex. “But anyway, as we have finished our work for today. Thanks, Uncle Will!”

“I guess the problem is not of technical nature, otherwise, you would have already solved it, Alex… or addressed me,” Willsmash looked at him completely seriously.

“It’s hard to tell,” Alex shrugged almost guiltily; everything told that the problem was pestering him. “I believe it is at least partially technical… while it looks… Well, you’ll see yourself,” he shook his head. “After the accident on the farm, I was to follow the foals, Fluttershy and the guards to Canterlot on my own. They all were utterly surprised to see me that soon, as they teleported there in several… hops. So, we counted the timing and it turned out I travelled about three hundred miles in twenty minutes!”

“Oh…” mister Steel even grunted unwittingly.

“Yeah… A few of us couldn’t have been mistaken the same way. So, that meant that I crossed…”

“…the sonic barrier!” Willsmash finished for him with a smile.

“Or, better say… the wings did,” Alex rolled his eyes. “I’d have thought that it was total nonsense, but was to give up to the evidence.”

“Later, several days ago, the same thing happened during our with Luna training duel,” Alex added after a long pause – he was watching the waltzing snowflakes reaching the ground and ceasing, melting and sinking into the soil. “I… they…” he shrugged with his shoulders and wings both (the gesture, which earth ponies and unicorns always found amusing). “They rather. They did it again and I was able to go around or approach her faster than Luna was capable to notice. Even if the result was dubious, I practically finished the duel that way.”

“So?” Willsmash thought that he guessed the roots of Alex’s problem, but preferred to get everything from the first hands.

“To cut things short,” Alex cupped his chin musingly, staring into the distance again, “I can’t get the same result during the usual flying. No matter how hard I try… Even during the hardest training, I fly maybe a bit faster than I usually did.”

“In that duel… I thought my lungs would rip apart when I darted past Luna. By that sign, I’d say the speed of sound was topped considerably. Nothing alike during my attempts to repeat that,” added he regretfully. The old unicorn nodded.

“You see, Uncle Will, that would be a wonderful advantage. Flying is the only fast enough method of travelling across Equestria for me,” elaborated Alex. “The faster, the better, as I found out myself that the ends here are far between each other.”

“And judging by the increasing numbers of the Seekers related incidents, soon I will need every advantage possible,” muttered Alex after a second.

“So, you think you need to get full control over that ability…” Willsmash ruffled from the specifically cool gust of wind, then glanced at Alex pensively. “For now, it looks as if the wings decide for you both whether you need to move faster or not. Hmmm… Interesting,” he smirked at some idea. “It turns out that you can… boost up when the reason is crucial and urgent. Be it your own subconscious or, as you consider it to be, your wings “separate will”!”

“Yeah, exactly when I thought that we agreed to act accordingly with them, for we are the single creature, at the end of the day,” Alex let out a short laughter, his eyes still sadly searched for something at the horizon, “they decided to act on their own again.”

“Even if! You are the head still!” Willsmash ruffled his moustache; seeing that Alex lingers to catch up, he elaborated. “That will probably work exactly that way if you envision it that way; doesn’t matter if the result is as desired. All you need, son, perhaps is to… believe that your case is urgent and thus “convince” your wings to contribute.”

“Hmmm… It’s not unexpected, but is eccentric enough… that it may actually work!” Alex let out a smile. “Everything is in my head, you say?!”

“More or less,” nodded the blacksmith seriously. “The power of belief, moreover, conviction isn’t to be neglected. I found it out myself… the hard way,” he gloomed for a moment, then shook away the thought, adding softly.

“Something tells me that it’s not the only thing burdening you,” Willsmash threw a studying gaze at the looking absently human. “It is a mere temporary inconvenience while you are concerned by something deeper, son. Right?”

“You’re quite observant, Uncle Will… As usual!” Alex downcasted. “There is… one more… thing.” He scratched his nape with a heavy sigh, then said with a wry smile. “Auntie Crystal” is arriving in a couple of days…”

Incomprehension turned into realization on the unicorn’s muzzle as the blacksmith savvied, whom Alex was talking about. Willsmash bit his lip understandingly.

“Yeah,” grimaced Alex. “Not that I didn’t know that it would happen eventually. And it’s the correct thing to do, de jure and de facto – Storm and Aurora will be better with their own aunt. But… de facto, something feels wrong… empty about all that.”

“As you might have guessed, Uncle Will, I didn’t take the foals with me today not because of the weather!” with a sad smile, Alex turned to Willsmash. “I thought about letting them spend more time with Shy, as otherwise she sees them mostly after the sunset…”

“Crystal Chime will most likely take them to the Crystal Empire…” he said simply. “An obvious way out methinks. Their parents’ condition is far from acceptable to be observed by the foals, let alone enjoyable. The prognosis is positive, but still… Storm and Aurora better spend some time with their aunt, to return home when… when there is home for them here again.” At these words, Alex pursed his lips tightly.

‘Liar! There was home for them here as much as we could provide…’ but he stifled that inside, adding instead.

“Alas, we both got attached to the foals much… We’re not the best example of… Nah! Anyway… I can’t tell, what the morrow would bring most of the time, so…”

“Of course, I try not to show them my thoughts…” Alex squeezed out a smile.

The blacksmith listened to him silently, crossing his fore legs on his chest; he looked submerged into some memories of his own. Willsmash’s breath curled into the small clouds of steam in the chilly November air.

“I may sound banal,” finally started he quietly, “but so be it, I don’t care. Sometimes, Alex, the circumstances are way stronger than us. But, life taught me that not all of them need to be fought against ruthlessly.”

“Let’s take the wars for example,” elaborated Willsmash. “When I attended the army, the possibility of a war was obvious. But, like many ponies, I took it exactly as possible – somewhere, someday – not imminent.”

Alex nodded, following the course of the unicorn’s thoughts.

“When it comes,” Willsmash shrugged casually, “one can do nothing about that fact. You simply choose your side and fight for what you see worth. I want to talk about the consequences rather.”

“You know, son, because of that war I lost more than an eye… or the reputation…” the old blacksmith’s eye squinted into the distance, seemingly disparately longer than the seen horizon. ‘The totally different future for me, I miss and at the same time let go easily, looking at Silver Ingot now!’ thought he.

“The latter, I believe, can be restored in entirety!” ardently inserted Alex. Willsmash Steel let out a small smile.

“Even if not, that’s not the most important thing in my life. When I think about Silver Ingot, I bless the way things had gone. Dreading to simply think, what could have happened to her, if we didn’t cross at the right moment.”

“Moreover, I would have probably changed something about my life if I could… only a year ago,” added Willsmash. “But I wouldn’t now, Alex. I’m more than thankful for what we have right now and here. How would it be otherwise? Well, I don’t want to speculate on that, honestly.”

The blacksmith fell silent: they both thought of something personal, of the inevitability of possibilities. The first meeting with Fluttershy rolled over again and again in Alex’s head.

“Sometimes… things need to get worse to get better finally!” uttered Willsmash with a sigh. The old blacksmith looked weighing an idea to share something; Alex held his breath – that was going to be something inmost.


The cold rain fell and fell; starting in the early morning, it watered the mountain gorge, changing only its intensity, not ceasing completely for a minute. It seemed that the skies ripped open and were going to flood the land below mercilessly. Wherever the gaze reached, the grey clouds spewed the torrents of grey water – it was likely the same higher in the mountains, considering the high and sharp peaks were perfectly able to pierce the cloudy cisterns. Thus the shallow stony stream, squeezed tightly by the cliffs at the gorge bottom, quickly turned into the roaring flow, which picked and dragged even the large stones with it. The elements on the ground refused to stand behind the heavenly ones and raged endlessly in that competition. To the afternoon, the stream occupied hardly less than one-third of the canyon depth; a bit higher, and the suddenly gone rabid, stone crushing water would provide visible danger to the high metal openwork bridge, connecting the edges of that huge ground wrinkle and the crucially important road above.

That road was the only one strategic transport artery for the many miles around between those mountains and the further desert; dashing between the dunes and cactuses, straight as an arrow, it lead directly to cultivated fields and fruitful gardens of Appleloosa. No wonder that it was an aim and the desired prize for the advancing army of Changelings: once again, their queen Chrysalis decided to claim more land, more riches of Equestria and more cheerful, happy, loving ponies to let her coldhearted minions feast upon. The main forces were still far behind, but a small scout party of mica-winged, cheese-legged pony-bugs was sent to take the bridge over the cliffy canyon and keep it under control until the entire horde arrived.

Realizing that the Changelings just had to get over that single narrow crossing to widely spread across the entire plateau like the flow of omnivorous locusts, the Equestrian command took the only feasible in the given circumstances decision. Thankfully, the small population of the borderlands was providently evacuated as soon as the first intelligence about planned irruption had come. A small but well-prepared squad of equestrian guards was sent towards the metalwork bridge for the tactical strike. Otherwise, it would become immensely more problematic to suppress the spreading invaders and the losses would be incomparably larger.

The squad reached their destination point on the eve night. Entrenching on their edge of the canyon, they planned to perform a sortie to the other side in the morning. The latter turned out a fatal decision. The coal-dark moonless night passed peacefully, without any surprises, thus at the crack of the dawn, the guards moved out to encamp on the far edge and start their work from the far end of the bridge. According to the intelligence, the changelings were in the two-day-march distance. The dense fog raised from the bottom of the gorge, born by the cold waters running below; clouds curtained the entire sky, hiding the sun from the view and pouring the endless dull rain – the visibility constantly degraded as the new and new watering echelons arrived. The very moment the pony squad crossed the bridge, the changelings struck!

“Small” always differed for the equestrian and changelings’ sides: the bug-butts scout party they encountered was four times more numerous than the pony squad, even by the most humble evaluation. The fight was fierce but short! For a few minutes, the shouts and magical flashes, followed by explosions flooded the canyon, countlessly reflecting on its sharp cliffs and stone caves and slowly dying far away in the grey haze. Everything came to an end very shortly under the overwhelming enemy force. Only the whisper of the rain and the distant noise of the water below were disturbing the dead silence falling on the cliffs again.

The changelings acted more cautiously: discouraged by the visibility tending to zero or by the sudden enemy squad (they had no idea how many of the pony guards might be on the other side nearby), they decided to entrench and hold by any means possible their edge of the gorge, waiting for the main forces to arrive and taking down anypony entering the bridge from the equestrian side. Quickly dragging away the bodies and cleaning the area in front of the crossing, the bug-butts set up a camp, hiding from the chill and rioting elements.

As if lamenting the violent act, which took place between those mountains, the streams of rain showered persistently the mossy stones and ground. Probably after the noon – it was hard to tell, due to the entire sky veiled and the sun looking only a lighter spot on the cloudy surface when it was turning thinner for a short while – the trickles of water reached the bottom of the shallow pit filled with the bodies of the defeated pony guards.

‘Am I dead?’ lit in the head of the unicorn stallion coming to senses. ‘Then… Why is Tartarus so cold… and moist… And cramped!’

It was also too dark for Tartarus according to his conception of that eternal place of rejected souls’ confinement. Finally, the unicorn could feel his entire body, happily concluding that it seemed intact, but utterly surprised by the fact he still had any. That and the mere sensation that he could barely move any extremity due to the constant feel of the pressure around made the unicorn suspect that he was probably still in the land of the living.

The surmise that he could have been buried alive, taking as perished by some horrible mistake, made the young soldier shudder in terror. The unicorn jerked, doing his best to try and feel something around to find out, where exactly he got. Little by little, he could free one of his fore legs and cautiously palpate the stifling void in front of him. The next feeling almost made him faint again in the fit of horror, as his conscious was yet weak enough for the experiences alike: under his seeking touch, the darkness took shape of the hoof, followed by the ice-cold leg, then metal plating. The latter was recognized by the unicorn as the Guard armour. Freezing for a moment to calm down the heart quivering somewhere near his throat, the stallion made another attempt of reconnaissance – nearly the same was everywhere his fore hoof could reach. The only feasible explanation was that he ended in the one pit with his squad-mates dead bodies, but turned out to be still alive by some miraculous luck.

‘Was it luck indeed?!’ glimpsed in his mind at the edge of insanity.

‘The last thing I can remember,’ the stallion forced himself to hold back the shivers, which tried to shake him uncontrollably for a moment, ‘was the blinding-bright flash hitting the ground nearby.’

Upon the second thought, he decided that it was some spell turning misaimed when one of his fellow unicorns was taken down by the attackers. The darkness dusked upon the stallion right after that flash; most likely, he was contused by the close impact, thus perceived as dead by the changelings and moved away with the rest of the bodies.

On the one hoof, that was some sheer luck that he could breathe still. On the other hoof, nopony knew what waited for him above. With another shudder, he preferred to hope that it wasn’t a thick layer of the ground covering the improvised grave. However…

‘I can still breathe!’ beamed in his mind. ‘And could breathe for probably a long while, before the rain trailed down to wake me. That unfortunate gutter I fell into couldn’t be very deep…’

The smells of soil, water and wet moss took over the fumes and blood; they finally persuaded the unicorn that he was alive and therefore not ready to be buried. The nearest aim was to climb out that pit by every means possible, then…

‘Then I’ll look,’ decided he, one by one pulling his legs out of the blood-chilling captivity and trying to position himself vertically at least. ‘Need to be extremely careful – I don’t want to reveal myself to the bug-butts!’

Fighting the lump, choking him and forcedly stifling the tears – he knew well each of those silent corpses obstructing his path to freedom when they were his still breathing companions and friends – the unicorn inched to the surface. It seemed an hour to pass before the muffled sounds of rain and rare thunder strikes reached his hearing; the drops of rain trailed down his muzzle in thin cold streams. The last part appeared to be the hardest: climbing outside was very risky and the stallion prayed for the pit to be far enough from the camping changelings.

First his fore hooves, then the horn finally felt the chill humidity. The dim, rain-veiled light blinded the unicorn for a moment; the air outside seemed enravishing and sweet, despite it smelled of mossy stones and water only. The lucky guard froze for a while; pretending to be an integral part of this horrid slaughter for occasional foreign eye, he took a breath and cautiously peered into the dense fog flooding the area. The wind was bringing the quiet distant voices: thankfully, the changelings entrenched far enough to spot at once one of their victims turning to life and escaping.

‘I need to hide somewhere before they feel my presence!’ the stallion jerked faster, freeing the rest of him from that crude mass grave. ‘Bastards!’ he made an effort not to say that aloud when he took a look over the entire scene.

To his luck, the snide enemies didn’t even burden themselves to properly cover the bodies with ground or stones: they did not care, going to pass that place like a devastating hurricane. Nevertheless, to continue surviving, the unicorn was to cross that pile of his former fellows anyway.

‘Tartarus!..’ the heart jumped when his glance stopped on the cold, lifeless eyes of another guard, stumbling on that last empty, distant gaze. The unicorn lingered for a second to close those eyes – that was as much as could be done. Later he could never imagine how he could have crawled a couple of yards over the dead mates. Finally rolling to the ground, the stallion felt completely forceless as if his legs suddenly turned limp and jellylike; it took him a couple more minutes to recompose and think straight.

However, he needed to get out of sight quickly. The sound of roaring water told him the direction where the edge of the canyon was; staying on the open ground was dangerous even in the fog that dense – the changelings could feel a living pony nearby. Flattening on the stones, the stallion proceeded to the water noise source, listening to the occasional voices every moment; thankfully, nopony even thought to approach – the bug-butts forgot long ago about the enemies they dumped so flippantly. The fog and rain, which probably were among the main reasons his squad got ambushed, now were his main blessing, covering the unicorn’s escape.

‘Sweet Harmony!’ upon reaching the canyon, the stallion was to take a minute: his head started spinning involuntarily at the face of grey space, looking filled with some cotton but actually hiding the considerable depth and sharp uneven cliffs on the bottom. The roar of water overshadowed the rest of the sounds there; the stallion imagined for a second the raging flow scrapping the canyon walls below. ‘What am I supposed to do next?! They would have been nuts if they didn’t secure the bridge entrance from this side!’

His perplexity was rational: even under the cover of the darkest night, it was nearly impossible to sneak past the awake changeling, as the scoundrels easily felt all the bright feelings of the pony folk, feeding on them exactly. The only way, which at least seemed possible, was to try to sneak past the sentries from within the canyon, hoping that the weather, the stone wall and the seeming impossibility of that manoeuvre (for every sane creature at least) would provide temporary protection.

The stallion remembered about a narrow maintenance tunnel – they saw on the eve, examining the bridge from another side – more like reliable scaffolding at some parts. Supposedly, it came under the entire bridge from one canyon edge to another. That was his only chance to cross unnoticed. If only he could get down the canyon wall a little and crawl to the nearest bridge support. However, the omnipresent humidity made that plan quite dangerous – large and small mossy stones became quite slippery.

“Celestia! I’m not some mountain-goat…” he even whispered aloud, looking over the edge, the danger of falling off a cliff was at that moment incomparably more palpable than the chance to be heard by the enemy. ‘How am I even supposed to hold on to that with my hooves?!’

For his sheer luck, the gorge sides were not that smooth with rock strata revealed by wind, numerous gullies and potholes, rare crooked bushes and roots protruding from the wall and snaking on its surface. Nevertheless, the unicorn’s heart was beating somewhere between his ears when he carefully rolled over the edge and started slowly descending, probing each point he was going to rest his hoof at twice or even thrice.

‘Damn it!’ inwardly swore the stallion; he was to move slowly, doing his best to control the hardening breath and trying not to think how his manoeuvre could look for the foreign eye. A pony sprawled on the steep, slippery rock wall, creeping sideways like some insane bat! That should even look hilarious if it wasn’t that deadly. ‘Every sound can kill me… if the wet cliffs don’t do it earlier!’ the stallion listened to the crackling of the rock, forced to scrape off the moss sometimes to be able to step further. So far, the sounds following his risky endeavour fell into the gamma, one could hear in the mountains on a day with the weather that nasty.

Protruding from the wall a few feet below, a narrow stony ledge looked for him the celestial blessing: rock stratum went into the mist as far as the eye could pick and was to reach the bridge supposedly. At least the guard, who started feeling each of his muscles to that moment, wanted to hope so. As thin and slippery as it was, that natural perch still gave minimal support for his strained hind legs. Deciding that he had descended enough to stay unnoticed, the unicorn began to move along the wall horizontally, as soon as he made sure that the ledge could bear his weight. Even so, he moved only one leg at a time, placing his hind legs widely apart and carefully checking the spot before shifting his weight to that support.

‘That won’t play out well!’ thought the stallion, taking a minute rest – the muffled voices sounded closer and closer; he was approaching the bridge even if he couldn’t see it because of the fog. ‘I need to undertake something for the bug-butts to overlook my escape…’ Remembering that the changelings felt the rest of the ponies mostly by their bright feelings presence, the unicorn shuddered inwardly at the thought of what possibly could make him pass the patrols unnoticed.

‘It’s only theory, but… suppressing all these may turn me invisible for their senses,’ beamed in his mind. ‘For that though… Oh, Celestia! How can I manage that and still not fall?..’ he closed his eyes for a moment, realizing that his only chance was to drive all the bright feelings away, imagine something so unnerving to make himself almost desperate. Therefore his last question was as relevant as possible.

Shivering at the necessity to torture himself so mercilessly, the unicorn tried to imagine himself failing his task. ‘There his dead crumpled body lying limp on the bottom cliffs, the changelings’ army arrives and marches across the bridge, widely spreading on the other side and taking the road to Appleloosa… and then city by city, town by town, village by village – to Canterlot!’ At that image, his back turned burning hot immediately and the cold sweat covered his forehead. The speed of advance decreased by half; the only other thought was to keep himself on the narrow ledge and still moving. Slowly, clumsily, as if he suddenly turned a couple of hundred years older, but still moving.

The view of the bridge openwork constructions emerging from the foggy veil was so shockingly hopeful, that the stallion closed his eyes, diligently visualizing the sharp cliffs washed by raging waters to dispel any encouraging thought. It wasn’t the right time for them! Making his task easier, the rocky strata he was limping along ended right near the edge of the support, not under its salvatory shadow. The stallion hardly needed to fake the despair now – climbing up on the unreliable gorge side, almost in the open view of the changelings above, seemed an impossible mission.

The ascent felt as if it was taking an eternity for the soldier; his every muscle, probably every cell of his body ached to the end of it, trying not to utter a single crackle, not to kick a single stone off the wall. The stallion felt like a time-worn rag when his fore hooves finally reached the long-awaited metal of the openwork constructions. By the time he could climb on them, he mentally added another hundred years to his perceived age and seemed as if not having any feelings at all.

The stallion already saw the hatch leading to the maintenance tunnel from this side of the bridge, trying to not thank the universe for that, as it would be undoubtedly a bright impulse, when one of his strained legs met the metalwork with a distinct sound of a hoof on the metal. The guard froze that very moment, holding on to the constructions with the remaining strength and listening while dying inwardly.

“Hey! You heard that?” expectedly reached his ears from above. A quiet, almost hissing voice dropped silent, as the guarding the bridge changelings tried to catch anything else. In the silence, disturbed only by waters and wind in the canyon, the phrase sounded as if the speaker was next to the hiding guard. “Swear on my head, it was a metal clank!”

“Let’s check the bridge,” replied another voice with the same hissing tones. “Maybe some of the fluff-heads remained and tries to sneak on us from the other side. Or maybe it was the bridge crackling from the weather…” added it with a tint of boredom.

The goddess of luck, if there ever was such, definitely favoured the unicorn that day. Keeping quiet as a mouse, he heard, how the slow cautious hoofsteps approached the bridge above his head and stomped on its echoing surface. After a short pause, while the sentries above tried to hear some other sound and the unicorn below did his best to pretend to be just another of the bridge constructions, the changelings moved forward.

With his trembling fore legs – he didn’t dare to use magic so close to the sensitive enemy – the stallion was opening the hatch, trying to move it in the unison with clanking steps above. He fixed it open and almost fell inside the maintenance tunnel. The body immediately turned into some sort of strange pony jelly; he lay completely senseless for a while, not finding strength even for trembling as the overworked extremities seemed to be made of lead suitable for the forge only.

After the indefinite period of time, by the monstrous urge of will, he made himself raise the head and move forward. The rest of the path took him almost half an hour, as the stallion was to belly crawl in the complete darkness, cautiously feeling the surface in front of him and stopping from time to time to listen if nopony was chasing him. The farther the muffled sounds remained, the easier his way became.

He almost bumped into the closed hatch on the other side.

“Please, let it be unlocked! Oh! Thank Celestia…” it was a feeling stronger than him; the unicorn gave no damn about being noticed when he prayed. The metal cover gave up and opened, letting in the fresh air and light; the latter blinded the stallion for the second time that day, but he was out of his mind from happiness. Flopping out of the tunnel on the sloping mountain side, the stallion snuggled to the rock wall like to the mother’s chest; tears of mixed relief and sorrow trailed from his eyes unwittingly.

‘Escaped!.. Escaped?! Finally escaped! Sweet Harmony!!!’

Recomposing after a while, the stallion climbed out of the canyon and leaned on the large roadside rock, taking a breath. The road to Appleloosa was straight ahead; squeezed between the mountains, it exited to the desert a few miles away. He didn’t feel the additional hundreds of years anymore. But…

The stallion looked over the shoulder. The bridge barely fancied through the fog. Judging by the light, as much as there was, a few hours still remained till the sunset. The lonely unicorn guard took thought.

Except for his dead body on the canyon rocks, all the horrific images he painted in the mind to pass the changelings unnoticed we still possible in the nearest future. Battles, losses, devastated villages, death…

‘Well! We will see then!’ the stallion smirked. ‘I’m still a part of my squad!’ squinted he meaningfully.

As such, he knew where the hidden stash of explosives they promptly left before the sortie was.

As a blacksmith in his civilian life, he knew the weak spots, the strain vectors, the points of load concentration… the places to position the charges for the maximum damage!

Trotting faster and faster, the unicorn hurried up the mountain side towards the small cave.

The next several hours were the hardest for him. As exhausted and psychologically devastated as he was, the stallion was to stand probably the most important battle since his birth – staying awake till the nightfall was crucial for him.

‘Let yourself close your eyes for a second and you’re screwed!’ repeated he inwardly. ‘There won’t be any way back or another chance, mate!’

The nasty dull rain fell and fell. Unable to spoil the charges carefully hidden in the small dry cave, it was trying its worse to lull the unicorn. To stay awake, the guard gathered a load of small and large sharp stones and paved himself the most uncomfortable and hardest bed he could imagine. Laying on it, even in a dry place and relative warmth, was extremely unpleasant, but at least each time his head made an attempt to nod in, it cocked up immediately, unable to find a feasible spot to rest. His only concern was to keep enough strength in his tired muscles to complete his mission, as his current position didn’t provide any relaxation.

There was nothing else he could do – returning to the bridge during the daylight, let alone doing something with it involving magic, wasn’t the smartest thing to undertake. The first thing he did, returning to the cave, was taking his armour off. With all the seeming irrationality of that, it was the smartest choice: being spotted by the prevailing enemy, the stallion wouldn’t benefit from the armour, otherwise carrying any excessive weight was futile, considering what he planned to do.

‘It’ll be another story when the night falls,’ thought the unicorn. ‘Most of the changelings will fall asleep, the rest won’t be very sharp either!’ he remembered the strange trait of those bug-ponies to become stiff when darkness and especially chill fell – there was a reason they stuck to the south, despite the Badlands were less than a fancy place to live. ‘If I keep as low and discreet as I can, this may play out as intended…’

Nothing changed after the sunset: the rain kept falling, increasing the humidity to the perceptible level; the clouds overshadowed the sky seemingly in two or three layers at once. Thus no moon lit the path of a single pony cautiously heading back to the bridge, carrying the heavy saddle bags of some load.

‘Thank Celestia, it’s quite warm still,’ the stallion glanced at the fog forming the drops of water, settling as tiny silvery spheres on his coat. ‘But the temperature is decreasing! If I succeed… Drop it, soldier! When I succeed, I need to be moving fast, not to freeze till morning.’

Barely discernible in the falling darkness, the bridge was empty and silent. Only its far end was faintly lit by the distant campfire. The changelings reacted the chill and humidity worse and, staying for the night, were to seek the means of keeping at least some warmth. The unicorn strained his eyes: a couple of smudged shadows sleepily moved in the circle of light; the crossing itself was practically unguarded. With a wry grin, he started descending accurately under the bridge leaf – the later his actions were spotted, the better.

‘The best – if not spotted at all… before it’s too late!’ thought the compelled saboteur, looking for a flat spot on the mountain side.

‘Okay!’ the stallion inhaled, levitating the heavy bags down to the stony platform and taking a look over the dark constructions. ‘Don’t know how I manage it alone, but…’

To his sheer luck, the falling temperature made most of the fog in the gorge condense by this hour. Safely hidden in the wide shadow of the bridge, the unicorn started implementing his plan. The first oblong charge floated to the desired place: the aura holding the object was the weakest possible, not to be spotted by an occasional observer; however, the light it gave was enough to see the nearest metalwork. Thus the guard perfectly knew where to place his gift.

That was the moment his former knowledge came to the full application again. Each new charge was placed at the crucial place: beam conjunctions, where three or more of them were fixed with multiple bolts, several points across the arcs supporting the bridge leaf, a couple of charges right under the far edge of the crossing, to reliably cut it off the canyon wall. The mines were relatively small but weighty. The stallion could avoid skimping them – there was nothing he could apply the explosives to anyway – each one would do its job perfectly when going off.

Realizing that he could never manage to set the chain interconnection of the planted charges singlehornedly, the stallion was to go with the separate cord for each one. He cut the cords short enough, not to give the enemy time to undertake anything, still within the certain plan. Thus the farthest charges had the longest cords, the closer – the shorter. Ideally, that would let him set all of them off almost simultaneously and still gave about two minutes of time to leave the impact zone safely.

With all the precaution and pauses, when he froze, making the next charge stop floating in the damp air, to listen if nopony was patrolling the bridge, it took him a few hours to position all the explosives properly. A couple of times, the stallion thought that he was about to get caught by the changelings: once the charge met the beam with an audible clank, amplified by the night gorge and hardly muffled by the stream raging below, the next time something clipped off the construction and fell when he fixed the charge in place. Most likely a nut rusted off and fell from its junction point – the stallion shook his head in reproach.

It was way past midnight when the job was finally done. Unnoticed and undisturbed by the enemy, the stallion sat on the emptied now saddle bags and took a breath, observing the work of his magic and hooves. Listening to the night, he was surprised by the sudden silence: even the waters at the bottom of the bridge sounded distant, not so standing out. The night seemed to be freezing in anticipation. In anticipation and fear of what should follow shortly.

‘Well… The moment of truth!’ the stallion inhaled the full chest of the smelling of water and moss darkness.

Seconds later the series of magical sparks floated to the placed charges one by one: first to the further ones, then closer and closer to the place he was hiding. The unicorn used the promptly made difference in cord length. Ensuring that all the crucial points lit throwing around small sparkles with the quiet fizz, he hurried up the mountain side, leaving his cover.

Maybe they heard the cords burning, maybe some sixth sense alerted the changelings, but some concerned activity started at the other end of the bridge. A few worried shouts echoed in the distance; somepony already trotted on the bridge, clanking on its metal surface. The unicorn didn’t even look back – he was sure that nopony spotted him; besides the time was extremely short. Almost galloping, with his remaining strength, the stallion reached the road side and rolled over the large overhanging rock, hiding under its protection right at the moment the night became bright as the day.

He could be proud of his work – the charges set off almost simultaneously. The darkness blasted into thousands of shards! The bridge, enveloped in the several roaring globes of fire, ceased to exist in less than a second, taking those who tried to cross it. The rocks boomed, echoing the explosion and making the unicorn crouch lower, as the blood-chilling rain of sharp debris showered the road and the mountains in front of his view – his cover turned very useful for one not wanting to become a metal stake impaled stew.

When the shockwave passed, the unicorn climbed out from that nook and trotted along the road, away from that place. The canyon still flickered brightly behind. A single glance over the shoulder told him that the remaining bridge constructions were blazing like a bunch of dry matches in the flames of the special highly effective thermite additive, containing in the used charges. A few dark shadows helplessly bustled at the other side of the gorge, looking smudged against the giant fire.

The unicorn smirked and, with the last bit of strength, hurried along the road between the mountains, while the night still crackled and hissed, burning out behind. It took him two hours more to reach the desert. In the face of the vast, sandy with rare and mostly thorny vegetation surface, which started being painted pink by the rising sun, he let out an exhausted smile. Almost falling off hooves, unable to see well from the colourful spots floating in his eyes, the young guard of Equestrian army, Willsmash Steel limped to the roadside and almost fell in the shadow of the large rock, leaning to its western side. Even before touching it, he drifted into the dreamless sleep resembling more the fainting of exhaustion.

“It appeared that I slept for more than a day, son,” chuckled Willsmash, throwing a glance at silent Alex. “I have no idea how I wasn’t found by any of the predators common for that area. Guess that was another example of unimaginable luck. That way exactly, I was found by the arriving main forces of the Equestrian army.”

“So… That’s not when you… When…” Alex stumbled, barely nodding and gesturing with his glance towards mister Steel’s muzzle. “Sorry, Uncle Will…”

“No, that’s another story,” the blacksmith shrugged with a tiny smile. “However, not very distant from the first one. A month later, when I fully recovered and returned back to duty, we were sent northwest along the border. To another of a few places the enemy army could use to infiltrate Equestrian territory effectively.”

“You know,” added Willsmash, “contrary to popular belief, not all the changelings – I’d rather say less than one-fourth of them can really fly. Thus for them, the mountains always were as much of an obstacle as for most of the ponies. And magic is a complex thing anyway, so…”

Seeing that Alex kept sitting silently and expectantly, the old blacksmith sighed and continued sadly.

“The next episode wasn’t nearly exciting. Although, we can call any of it exciting only sitting here in safety…”

Alex nodded, thinking gloomily about something.

“…that was the one I left the army after,” said Willsmash. “Not much to tell about indeed.”

“In brief, I was to trade off a few lives to save a few thousand,” he gave up after a silent minute. “But that didn’t make the choice easier or… nobler. I was leading a unit already,” the old unicorn let out another sigh. “The command decided that the previous operation was a success, despite the losses from our side. Huh! It was a miracle only in terms that I survived. The rest though…” Willsmash pursed his lips.

“How on Equus…” started Alex; he stumbled confusedly. “The command was reasonable, evaluating your acts, Uncle Will… But…”

“You mean, why the public opinion of me became so low, Alex?” smirked Willsmash. “I suppose, some still can’t reconcile with the mere fact that I survived… when many didn’t. You see, the common opinion, among the civilians at least, was that I traded to spare my life somehow… Considering there were minimal casualties from the changelings’ side in that episode… maybe they have some weird reasons to think so, I don’t know. The second episode was only one extra reason to strengthen their speculations.”

“A month later – I finally recovered and tried to catch up with the daily duties – we were transferred northwest along the border. To support the troops holding another pathway from Badlands to Equestria… The same mountains, same chilly winds, same morning fog, just a little further to the north, thus a bit colder and more deserted. You know, Alex, that’s the part of the continent where the mountains not only cut between our lands but go almost directly from north to south deep into the Badlands – the area not overherded even by Badlands’ standards, not only by Equestrian,” the images of distant past unfolded in front of the old blacksmith’s inner sight as he was telling his story. “It was ten times harder to cross the ridges there than in that bridge area, even for the winged creatures… Even if there was a more or less usable pass.”

“I guess, Chrysalis’ plans for that area were based exactly on those supposedly thoughts of the Equestrian command!” Willsmash chuckled sarcastically. “That if the pass was hardly crossable, then it shouldn’t have been guarded heavily… Well, it was almost right! Almost…”

“Don’t say that such an obvious hole was underestimated!” Alex rolled his eyes, recognizing some similarities with their current situation.

“I don’t know, son,” the unicorn shook his head slowly. “When we arrived, they already blew up and blocked the main passage. But the changelings pushed and pushed. By that moment, there were more wounded – more or less severe – than those capable to fight from our side.”

“But it wasn’t the worst thing…” continued Willsmash after a pensive pause. “Civilians! Many of them were in the settlement right below the mountain pass exit. Those who provided garrison supplement and simple farmers, their families…” he grimaced from inward pain and continued. “We reported the situation right upon the arrival, but it would take some time to replenish the ponypower even in the best scenario.”

“It was my decision and my responsibility,” added the blacksmith. “Thankfully, the open encounter was impossible. What could sixty guards probably do in that case against the prevailing enemy except die? And I didn’t count the locals at all, my stallions only. The changelings tried to conquer the narrow path in the cliffs remaining there at that moment…”

Willsmash fell silent and seemed submerged in his memories to the unfathomable depth, so Alex even wanted to gain his attention politely but the unicorn suddenly continued his story.

“I decided to trade a few lives against several thousand… and I have no regrets. Would do that again, as many times as necessary. Yes, Alex, the settlement was that large,” the blacksmith raised the suddenly getting tired glance at the human. “Ten guards remained, including me, to defend that narrow cleft in the rocks. I chose each one myself and… would probably choose the same ones again.”

“The rest,” Willsmash let out a tiny smile, “took the wounded and retreated to the town. They were to organize the immediate departure of the civilians.”

“But…” Alex wanted to say that slowly retreating farmers would be easy prey for the breaking through changelings anyway.

“That is why we were to hold the pass for twenty-four hours at least, more if we were lucky,” Willsmash guessed Alex’s next question. “Twenty four hours was more than enough to prevent the enemy from catching up with them. We knew that reinforcement was on the way, so it wasn’t the act of complete despair… Almost!” half-coughed, half-chuckled the blacksmith.

“We held for two days,” simply stated Willsmash. “I witnessed the death of my guys with my own eyes, one by one… With my eye by the end of the first day,” corrected he with a wry face. “By some strange luck, I was the one who survived again… The avant-garde of the advancing reinforcement pulled the detonator from my weakening aura when I was nearly delusional, as they told me later.”

“Don’t thou say, Uncle Will, that those two episodes – with their outcome as it was – were exactly the reason for your continuous alienation?” Alex almost shouted, catching himself in time upon that and lowering the tone. “I… I can’t even…” he choked on words.

“I’m afraid they were,” simply said Willsmash. “Don’t forget son, those who judged back then didn’t have all the details behind their sight as we do. They had several dead soldiers, one survivor… Twice. The first time, the enemy casualties were minimal… They started suspecting…”

“Both times the strategic goal was achieved!” Alex interrupted him. “Both times thy decisions and acts helped to save many more lives than were lost during the missions!”

“That’s what we can conclude… seeing the events in their historical perspective,” shrugged the old unicorn. “I suppose for them things looked differently. And the rest… You know, Alex, I’m not even sure that all the ponyvillers know what exactly they “must avoid the Steels” for,” added he with a sad and almost apologetic smile.

“That’s exactly it!” Alex inserted ardently. “They don’t know why, but they must avoid you because some no more brains than stone pony said it was the proper thing to do. That thing hath the same roots as the reason making the builders call me an ape… with the only exception that in thy case that madness hath more massive nature.”

“I still fail to see thy fault in thine survival, Uncle Will!” added he. “Methinks one extra death wouldn’t make the situation less tragic, on the contrary rather…”

“Perhaps, they would have had nopony to blame then,” shrugged Willsmash. “I see your reasons, son, but… try to explain them to the families of the killed in action.”

“Personally, I regretted my survival either,” confessed the old blacksmith. “Knowing that it wouldn’t return my ponies, I still preferred to join them… before I found out about my brother and his family, about Silver Ingot… Since the day I started looking after her, seeing her grew from the tiny foal into the pretty girl you know, I never regretted that lucky survival, not any single time again.”

“Frankly speaking, I was always sure that I depleted my limit of personal luck for those three cases,” chuckled Willsmash, glancing at Alex slyly. “Survived two times and found out about Silver Ingot, taking custody of her. But shortly after we saw you at our smithy gate, I started thinking that there was a little bit more left.”

“Seeing where we are at the moment and how things are playing up for us, I wasn’t wrong!” he winked to the still pondering human.

“Methinks the society could have manifested more understanding!” Alex slowly shook his head. “Until recently, your reputation consisted mostly of the rumours they invented themselves about you both… What did Sil do to deserve that, pray tell? Well, I guess this is the vision of those who never sacrificed their lives,” added he scowlingly.

“I wasn’t sure if I needed to fight the public opinion,” sighed Willsmash. “Especially as we managed to make it through. Besides, I really felt scratching the bottom of my own luck.”

“I extend mine hope we can change things completely anon!” Alex even clenched his fists, infuriated by the ponies stubborn in their speculations. For him, it was enough of a sign that, by the words of Twilight herself, half of the town gathered, guessing about the “fireworks” – their training with Luna – but nopony approached the smithy except Twilight and Fluttershy. Even after many of them cautiously resumed placing orders there.

“For each its time!” smirked Willsmash; the old unicorn sat staring into the condensing darkness slightly dispelled by the warm glow – Silver Ingot started turning on the lights in the house. “We can’t predict all the turns, but everything done has its purpose!” He threw a meaningful glance at Alex. “I think you need to be somewhere else already, son. Could bet on them waiting for you back earlier tonight…”

“Yeah, Uncle Will, I guess so…” Alex let out a smile, returning to more positive thoughts at the mention of Fluttershy and the foals. He threw a glance at the house behind with its warmly lit windows. “Wish Silver Ingot goodnight for me!”

“And… thanks again, Uncle Will!” That came from the darkening skies already, accompanied by the sound of receding wings.

*

“Here. We. Go!” Alex breathed out, forcing the wrench a bit further down with each word. The bolt gave in a tiny bit and turned with an audible short dry sound, reaching its complete stop. “Solid as a rock!”

He removed the wrench and took a critical look over the base of one of the windmill props: one of the four places where the openwork metal frame connected to its counterparts concreted deeply into the ground. Performing the prophylactic maintenance for Rarity’s generator, as he promised, Alex started with checking all the joints and bolts fixing them, examining the entire construction for the possible signs of rust and generally brushing off the dust and fallen leaves from the large frame of the windmill. To do that, he was to fly around, occasionally clinging to the metal frame like a bat and paying each nut and bolt some attention.

That level of precaution wasn’t unnecessary, as the windmill was placed amidst the glade in the garden behind Rarity’s house, so its rotor couldn’t catch the twigs and branches of the nearby trees and at the same time was opened to all the winds reaching that place. Naturally, the winds were expected to be strong during the approaching winter, straining the entire construction considerably. Each loose joint became a source of vibration and increasing vibration would yank and loosen the weak bolts more, making the entire construction dangerous. Dust and dirt were simply unwelcome, capable to clog up the moving parts, so was the rust.

“Now it’s ready to withstand all the winter surprises,” Alex put away the large wrench. “We need to repaint a couple of spots, there and there!” He pointed at the top of the frame, under the rotor part. “Otherwise, it’s in perfect condition.”

Saying that, Alex pondered: the windmill was high enough to peek from between the lush garden trees, thus reaching the top of the frame was a non-trivial task even for a unicorn. With a sigh, he was to admit – he either needed to do it himself or ask one of the pegasi for help.

“As you say, darling!” batting her long eyelashes, Rarity cooed sweetly. “I know nothing about your technical stuff, so I trust your judgment as it is, Ahlex!”

Sporting two pairs of her best fashionable boots, a short warm jacket with a fluffy collar and a pair of comfy ear-warmers, the white unicorn mare bustled around the working human since morning. Sweetie Belle was at school with her friends, so Rarity could devote all her attention to the one, who, frankly speaking, would prefer to have less of it for his inner tranquillity. To her credit, the glamorous fashionista was of some help either, not only circling around Alex and entertaining him with nonchalant chatter. Unexpectedly, she volunteered to hand him the various wrenches, picking them with her aura from the tool set and levitating to Alex, while he examined the metal frame. That, of course, freed him of the necessity to descend numerously, but at the same time impressed Alex beyond imaginable. He fancied that level of cooperation in the so-called dirty work to be rather suspicious.

‘While much easier physically,’ said Alex to himself, remembering how he performed similar procedure for Applejack with her several generators, water pumps and anti-fruit bat buzzers, ‘the same work hither is evidently more psychologically straining… considering the… working conditions!’ He threw a glance back at watching him with a content smile Rarity. There, in the middle of her garden, practically hidden from the foreign eyes even in late autumn and without possible support of Sweetie Belle (who could restrain Rarity’s ardour at least by her mere presence), he was to keep a constant eye on the girl. The latter already locked at him like a homing missile and looked as if she was only choosing, which side to approach from. Spending quite a long time with him, but technically out of reach – while Alex was examining the frame and Rarity could only watch from the ground – wasn’t making his task easier.

Rarely for late November, the sun was shining through the bare garden trees, sending the sun glares dance on the metal surfaces. The snowflakes swirled in the already frosty air; however, piercing the rare thin clouds, the sun rays warmed pleasantly everypony ready to expose to them. The town sounds reached the back garden muffled, incapable to break the almost mirthful mood of the place… which kept Alex on pins and needles!

‘It was more intimate in the SPA back then only! Ughhh!’

Checking the transmission shaft, Alex disconnected it from the gearbox and reached for the proper wrench from the tool kit unfolded on the barely touched by hoarfrost grass. His sight met one already enveloped in the sapphire aura and levitating midair.

“Mmm… Not that one, the next smaller please,” he squeezed out a smile, intercepting the girl’s half-lidded glance. “Thanks, Rarity!”

Opening the casing, Alex felt her scorching attention with his entire back. The peculiar heavy viscous smell of the greasing filled the air. To prepare the gears for winter, it was to be changed for the denser, more cold-resisting one. But before that, he needed to remove the remnants of the old; gathering it into the can and wiping everything he could reach, Alex heard how Rarity moved closer.

“Ewww! It’s sticky by its mere look, darling!” drawled she. However, the voice Alex heard was quite cheerful and even musing, not nearly as loathing as could be expected towards the substances alike.

Throwing a glance over the shoulder, the human noticed how the unicorn girl was watching his hands cleaning the mechanism; with a dreamy face, Rarity was biting her lip. In her glazed eyes, Alex clearly saw the readiness to drabble in that oil all over, if only he would be the one rubbing her back under the hot shower later. Alex shuddered, so vividly he imagined the entire scene as if he was able to read Rarity’s mind at the moment. At the latest Sisterhooves Social festival, the girl already found out that getting dirty wasn’t deadly at all, especially if that was called for better understanding between the sisters. Here though, the possible prize looked even more promising. Weighing the chances, Rarity was going to use the tiniest one most determinedly if that could bring the achievement closer. Alex already planned the retreat ways, hearing the excited intermittent breath behind his ear.

The salvation came at a moment and in a way least expected – right from the clear sky literally. Some shadow fell on the windmill base, obstructing the sunlight for Alex and Rarity; a dash of grey with long show-white stripes almost fell from above and jetted around the windmill, around the dazed human and unicorn. Almost whistling with the strong oncoming wind, the smudged silhouette made two or three full circles, making the remaining dry leaves rise in the air and swirl like a small hurricane.

The newcomer turned out a tall cloudy grey pegasus mare with snow-white mane and tail; she drop-landed right next to Alex, inhaling the air noisily.

“Oh, dear! What a ruffianism!” startled by that flashy appearance, Rarity even jumped back a little. Overcoming the initial fright, she threw a reproachful gaze at the mare. “What’s the urge for such a noisy rush?!”

“Rainstorm?!” Alex blinked, he just dropped the wrench and the can; oil trailed down his fingers.

“The Seeker! At the Winsome Falls! Come on, Alex! We should hurry!” Before anypony could utter anything else, Rainstorm, who already regained her breath, blurted with the speed of a machine-gun, completely ignoring the incoming glares from Rarity. “If we want to… if we want to intercept it… before it runs away or… Alex?!” she shook him on the shoulder impatiently.

“Sorry, Rainstorm. What again?” Alex looked as if he was splashed with the cold water; seconds ago he feverishly sought for the means to dodge the next Rarity’s desire tide – the transition became too abrupt for him.

“Yeah,” noticed Rarity a bit grumpily. “Personally, I didn’t understand a thing…”

Sending an electric-blue spear from her wide-open eyes into Rarity, Rainstorm took a deep breath.

“The weather pegasi,” rolling her eyes, she started anew, that time slower, more measured, “spotted something large, dark and hideous near Winsome Falls. When I heard that, I flew there to check myself… And, of course, I saw that… monster wandering among the trees. So I dashed to the smithy, then to the Library, where Twilight told me that I could find you here,” she took another impatient look around, circling “here” with her eyes. “Please, Alex! We need to go fast before the Seeker runs away or hurts somepony or… does anything else as awful. Especially if we want to… you know… test that thing!” her electric-blue eyes addressed Alex, turning from scornful to almost pleading.

“Fine!” catching her eager glance, Alex accepted the inevitable. “But we need to suit you up for that and…”

“Exactly!” Rainstorm jumped on the spot. “The shorter is the time! I did what I could…” she waved her tail; Alex and Rarity noticed that she already braided it and her long wavy mane tightly. “But I need some help with the rest!”

“…and I need to fix that in place first,” Alex returned the gearbox cover on its place and started screwing in the bolts by hand.

“I heard that name – Winsome Falls, but have no idea where the area is,” he glanced at Rainstorm, who alternated from hoof to hoof, ruffling her wings impatiently. “You’ll need to show.”

“Ahlex, dear!” Rarity levitated a piece of clean cloth for him to wipe machine oil off the hands. “It’s a precious picturesque place we like to go camping to with the girls!” She realized those two being serious about confronting the Seeker on sight. Approximately knowing how exactly they could do it, she looked up at Alex. “I mean… Try not to… demolish the place completely, please! It would be awful to lose such a beauty!”

Rainstorm huffed quietly; Alex checked the transmission shaft once again and locked it in the unattached position.

“Apologies! I shall return anon and finish with it,” he turned to Rarity with a forced smile. “Please, dost not touch anything till then!”

“Of course, darling!” that was said already into the backs of two winged figures, soaring up with a swirl of leaves from her lawn. “Like if I would…” watching the receding black wings and still levitating the cloth, Rarity added quietly with a sigh. ‘Yet another chance lost!’ could be read in her resigned look.


“I trained to fly in it all the time since you gave it!” confessed Rainstorm under Alex’s surprised glance, when they darted from her house twenty minutes later. “It’s unusual for the start… The worst is the helmet – it limits the view indeed, but…”

‘But I have an aim!’ added she inwardly, raising higher with a few powerful flaps and heading north-east of the town instantly. Alex followed Rainstorm, watching her moves with involuntary admiration: the mare managed to get accustomed to the weight of the armour and all the additional clumsiness unbelievably fast, making her flight look almost unaffected.

“Rainbow Dash helped me with the weather job, while I was training!” said Rainstorm. “Actually, she took my shift a few times,” added she with a mixture of gratitude and awkwardness.

Most of the preparation time, they spent putting all the armour on Rainstorm, not to mention that Alex checked each clasp and buckle twice. Heavy on the first sight – it covered the entire frame of the pegasus mare – that armour was the lightest Alex and Willsmash could make, while still keeping it effective protection. The only piece, still unattached for the reasons mentioned, was the helmet, strapped at Rainstorm’s hip. That exactly set of armour was made specifically for her, by the mare’s precise measurements, and had a couple of secret features. The entire shape, while staying as aerodynamic as possible, was made angular and sharp. Not only to reflect possible projectiles but to rip and cut the potential enemy flesh upon collision, thus playing on the natural advantages of the lightning-fast pegasus and practically turning Rainstorm into a light flying tank. Remembering Alex’s stories about human history, Twilight once said that he definitely took some inspiration from the combat helicopter shapes when projecting that armour.

But the most significant was another secret feature, Alex and Willsmash tried to implement for the first time. When its owner was in the most natural pony resting pose – sitting on the ground – the armour parts came into contact with each other that way the weight of the upper details was distributed to the lower ones, so the entire construction practically held itself without much strain to the owner. They planned to use that method in all the future versions of guard armour, but decided to test it first.

However, despite all of the advantages, Alex wanted to be personally sure that everything would go without a hiccup, thus checking and tightening everything again and again, while Rainstorm already asked him to hurry.

“Art thou sure thou can cope with that?” he nodded towards the short spear-like weapon Rainstorm carried; together they decided that due to the Seekers’ usual size and bulkiness, testing their durability and stamina wasn’t Rainstorm’s aim, especially for her first try. Her best chance would be to break the monster’s integrity with one fast strike, for which Alex had one more unvoiced yet plan.

“It seems that you are even more concerned and jumpy about the entire thing than I should be!” instead of an answer, Rainstorm let out a tiny smile, pulling the weapon closer to herself. “I’m fine!”

Alex muttered something anxiously on the fly. Sliding by under them, the town was left behind; fields and orchards started flashing by. The entire landscape went constantly uphill and the first rock formations appeared, protruding on both sides of an old dirt road they used as the landmark. The low mountain slope appeared as if popping from under the ground; Rainstorm darted up and Alex was to follow her, while the road snaked below, meandering up the mountain side.

The human and the pegasus mare emerged from behind the mountain plateau… and Alex couldn’t help opening his mouth, stunned by the revealed sight for a second. There lay a woodland valley, squeezed by the mountain shelves from west and east. Coming over the plateau edge, the road entered it and headed north, becoming overgrown little by little and turning into a forest path, then gradually dissolving between the trees completely. The forest wasn’t very thick there, denser at the edges of the valley and looser in the middle, where it was cut by the joyfully running stream. The latter threaded through the entire valley from the north, becoming more and more affluent and then turning east, out of their view; coming from the distance, the loud noise of the large waterfall hinted of where the entire water mass went. Alex was to admit that with its natural terraces and variform deciduous forest the valley was a very picturesque corner of Equestria, even in those late autumn days.

But that wasn’t the main peculiarity of that place. Shimmering in the bright sunlight with all the colours of the rainbow, numerous waterfalls, large and small, were cascading from both mountain shelves into the valley. Mixing and merging there, they formed that stream in the middle. Alex astonishment was easily explicable: all colours of the rainbow wasn’t just a figure of speech, called by the play of the falling water in the rays of the afternoon sun. Each of those waterfalls was of its own colour, juicy and bright; together they formed and repeated over and over the liquid flowing rainbow, covering the mountain slopes. Alex thought that the reason for that natural phenomenon was in some minerals coming to the surface and forming the streambeds, specific for each waterfall, as coming together on the flat they merged into an unbelievably crystal, yet simply transparent water, like all colours of the rainbow form the white colour when mixed.

“Winsome Falls!” stated Rainstorm, throwing an amused glance at the dumbfounded human; then the mare turned serious. “Let’s find that abomination before it reaches some dwelling!”

“Wait a second!” gesturing for her to follow, Alex landed on the dirt road at the valley entrance.

“Before you run into the Seeker…” when the mare landed next to him, Alex took the helmet from her hip. “Here goes,” he put it on Rainstorm’s head, gathering her snow-white braided mane inside and ensuring that the head piece was properly fixed.

“One last thing!” before Rainstorm could say anything, Alex pulled her short spear and squeezed the pike in his hand, cutting the skin on his palm. He quickly covered the blade with his blood, before the visibly healing wound patched up completely.

“You’ll need one good hit! Stick it right into that bastard, girl!” he looked into her widened eyes.

Scanning the woodland below, they slowly progressed north. Oaks and beeches slid by under the spread wings, spreading their branches as wide as the space allowed; interspersed between them, smaller aspens fluttered their remaining almost brown leaves in the wind. Long threads of the darkened from the cold air moss trailed from the older trees almost reaching the ground. Tall slender birch trees stood separately in small groups, like some shy fillies at the ball; dropping their summer dresses completely, they looked into the cold unusually clear sky wistfully. The thick, moderately dry soil was densely speckled by some deciduous, thus already bare, and by the frost-hardy juniper-like shrubs; the latter were flaunting their juicy, almost untouched attire. All the water in the valley quickly gathered in the multitude of streams and springs created by the shiny colourful waterfalls, to gather finally in the main flow. Thankfully the forest wasn’t very dense; easy to look through without most of its foliage, it couldn’t effectively hide a large enough, moving creature.

Alex felt the presence of that malicious creature as soon as they reached the valley. The sensation was quite weak at first, making him hope that the Seeker, which could feel the human as well, wouldn’t be repelled by it instantly. He threw a quick glance at Rainstorm: unable to see the mare’s muzzle because of the helmet, Alex still noticed, how ruffled her wings became, being the clear sign of uneasiness and anxiety bothering her.

“If that’s what these monsters make one feel,” the voice sounded muffled, like from the steel barrel, “then, I suppose, this-a-way!” hovering in the air, Rainstorm poked with her fore hoof somewhere north-east. Inwardly praising the mare for listening and remembering everything he told her about the Seekers, Alex confirmed Rainstorm’s reasoning.

“Lead the way then,” he nodded with a light smile, appreciating the easiness she dived and sped up with towards the source of the mental disturbance.

They descended a little, flying now barely above the highest tree tops. Alex knew that the monster couldn’t see in the usual sense of that term, but he preferred not to risk anything. It was the first encounter for Rainstorm, besides, practically an experiment – he wanted to keep the conditions as close to ideal as possible.

She lead them almost in the beeline, despite Alex thought that locating the creature would take more effort for the beginner. Perhaps her purposefulness and determination had sharpened the mare’s senses; nothing could distract Rainstorm from her aim. Only once, she turned back, missing the maximum of the Seeker-induced effect, but quickly realizing her mistake when the tension started to fade.

The mare and the human slowed down, proceeding with even more caution and spotting their enemy almost simultaneously. Gliding in the air, Rainstorm slid closer to Alex and silently gestured towards the eastern mountain side, where the forest became denser. Alex nodded; hovering with the slow, strong flaps, he already saw the dark spot moving through the thicket.

Even a single glance was enough to tell that the Seeker tried its best to sneak along its path as stealthily as the large bulky carcass could only allow. Keeping under the large trees where possible and quickly crossing the open glades, it wasn’t wandering but clearly headed to some, known only to its master, aim.

‘Even if their method of orientation isn’t some vision literally, it still must be quite effective to compete with such!’ Alex watched, how the dark abomination traversed the forest, avoiding the obstacles with ease of a sighted creature. By the movements, visible weight and density of it, he concluded that the Seeker was fully materialized. It was trotting through the thicket, stopping for a moment, as if the monster was sniffing out something, even turning back and making a small slow loop occasionally – feeling Alex’s presence, it was alerted but couldn’t determine the proper direction yet. However, despite the disturbed movements, the Seeker kept its general direction south-wise.

“This one, surprisingly, wants to stay unnoticed from the very beginning!” noticed Alex, gesturing to get lower between the trees. He remembered that previously the Seekers never tried to sneak or hide on purpose unless being chased by something threatening them.

“If it keeps that way, it reaches the Winsome Falls edge in no time,” Rainstorm voice became worried. “And if it prefers to stay unnoticed… except the old road, there is a covert path along the large waterfall. The monster can reach the north-eastern wing of Everfree… or Ponyville from the east if it needs,” added she meaningfully.

‘Everfree… Again Everfree’ feeling that he was overlooking something important, Alex squinted – compared to the nearby vegetation, the beast looked at least four times larger than the pegasus mare. He glanced at his companion: despite the closed steel helmet, Alex could almost see her nearly pleading eyes. He was to admit that they had no other chance; besides, Rainstorm was right – nopony knew where the monster could head, exiting the valley. Alex pursed his lips.

“That Seeker is fully materialized,” whispered he to the listening mare, “thou needst to pierce its skin… whatev’r it hath, hard enough with thy spear.”

“One last time, Rainstorm, art thou confident about thy acts?”

Weighing her weapon instead of an answer, the mare darted towards the Seeker. Alex could only follow her: far enough not to interfere the fight, which was going to rage in a moment, yet close enough to come to Rainstorm’s aid if anything went unruly.

As if confirming Alex’s concerns, the Seeker entered the open bank of the nearby stream and stopped; the monster almost looked lost. But the reason was different: the Seeker heard the approaching threat – seeing the abhorrent enemy in a stone’s throw, Rainstorm couldn’t hide the whiz of the steel, caused by her daring dash. The beast turned around; in a moment, its red glowing “eye” stared right at the attacking pegasus.

Time stopped! Like enthralled, Alex watched the reared up Seeker and dashing Rainstorm, who turned into the aimed strung spear herself. However, his consciousness already relaxed as if telling him that somehow everything turned out exactly as they planned it to do.

Reaching her maximum speed in that reckless dash, Rainstorm couldn’t avert her trajectory fast, even if she wanted. She looked as if she was going to pierce the enemy with her entire self, literally going through the Seeker. Amazedly, Alex had to admit that a blow that hard would have undoubtedly crumpled the monster, despite its advantage in size and mass – it was as dangerous for the mare herself though.

Raising its fore hooves to deflect the blazing attack, the Seeker miraculously dodged at the very last moment. Rainstorm whizzed by, for a short moment meeting with the enemy “face-to-face”. Nothing happened! Slowing down with the visible effort, the mare turned around and hovered in the air, regaining her breath.

‘It worked! The helmet worked against the Seeker!’ beat in her head constantly; unwittingly Rainstorm shouted that aloud with elation, making Alex nod with a tiny smile. However, it was early to triumph.

Encouraged by the armour effectiveness – even the general psychological pressure caused by the creature stopped bothering her noticeably – Rainstorm undertook a series of fast dashing attacks on the Seeker, dancing in the air around the hopping beast and trying to find a weak spot in its defence. On the one hoof, she could handle the situation perfectly – the overwhelming feeling visited her for the first time after that unholy day on the dam deprived her of the family. On the other hoof, the Seeker wasn’t going to become a clay pigeon either: the beast was fully aware of the threat that strangely durable and immune to its impact pegasus mare provided. Besides, Alex couldn’t keep enough distance to eliminate his own influence completely, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to watch and come to aid in time. Thus the monster, feeling his presence, was trying its best to evade the fight and start escaping the valley.

Trying to keep both Rainstorm and Alex in front of itself, the Seeker started darting around, squatting on hind legs and retreating. It was to turn and react fast, as the infuriated by the fight mare gave it no time to relax. However, the Seeker kept using its fore hooves to its defence quite effectively: every branch, every large enough stone on the ground became tossed into the air and launched towards the enemy with bullet speed. A few quite palpable hits screeched on the angled armour, thankfully doing no harm: the slanted surfaces did their job deflecting the projectiles and quenching their energy.

One thing though made Alex squint in concern and grit his teeth: those monsters never tried that before – the sheets and tendrils of the Dark Mist shrouding the Seeker condensed suddenly. Swaying in the air in front of the beast, they formed another frontier, distracting the attacker and preventing the well-aimed critical hit. In addition to that, some of them began grabbing various wooden trash from the ground, launching it into Rainstorm as well. In a moment, the mare faced the already doubled or even tripled defensive action.

Alex cursed inwardly and unwittingly slid closer: the Seeker started jerking and flouncing about like rabid, feverishly seeking for an escape.

“No! Please! I can manage it!” Rainstorm’s voice sounded weary to Alex, despite it still was full of enthusiasm. She kept circling around the enemy like the angry steel wasp eager to sting with her blood-covered spear. Reluctantly, Alex was to soar higher, returning to the previous distance.

Regardless of her agility and speed of the experienced weather-pegasus, Rainstorm was to be careful: her wings – her greatest advantage over the enemy – were also her weak spot, forcedly left uncovered by the armour. Besides, she realized that letting the Seeker kick her spear away from her would be the worst mistake: picking it up during the fight was very problematic to impossible for her. Alex saw that concerned about her weapon integrity the mare couldn’t perform the proper strike – fast and powerful enough to penetrate the Seeker’s carcass. He was to admit that the dark abomination was surprisingly quick; wherever Rainstorm directed her hit, speeding up with the spear, there exactly the rock-solid hooves appeared, striking in the air and making her avert the sharp tip. Fanned from the small open glade by the circling rivals, the dry leaves and dust swirled up and clouded the fight; the clank of steel and the clatter of the heavy hooves overshadowed the sound of the nearby waterfall.

‘Why doesn’t she try to strike it into those tendrils?!’ flashed in Alex’s head. ‘That would be easier than trying to reach the body and my blood would still do the job!’ However, he realized that any advice could help or turn fatal equally easy, distracting Rainstorm in the heat of the battle.

Right in that moment of doubt, the unfolding tendril met the attacking pegasus in the air, hitting her side like the unrolling whip directed by an experienced herdsman. The strike was accidental, it came out not overly hard either, but it still appeared enough to make Rainstorm lose momentum, knocking her to the ground. For a second, the armoured silhouette disappeared in the dusty cloud; Alex’s heart sank.

Thankfully, the mare’s fall was directed away from the seeker: Rainstorm managed to fold her wings before hitting the ground and rolled to the edge of the glade with the clink of metal, losing some feathers. While she was stunned, the Seeker chose between the chance to attack and the ability to escape. Clumsily hopping on its hind legs, it turned on the spot and dashed away, seeking cover in the thicket and aiming to the valley exit.

“Rainstorm!” not giving a cockatrice ass about the escaping monster, Alex rushed to the mare; from his sight, hitting the ground was hard enough to wound her. But Rainstorm was getting up on her hooves already, shaking her head as if she got slightly contused.

“I… I’m okay! It’s just a few feathers!” she looked up at Alex and picked up the spear. “I can continue, but don’t let it escape!”

After a moment of hesitation, Alex nodded. The monster didn’t have time to get far. Gritting his teeth from anger, Alex darted after the Seeker. The air sizzled in his ears, muffling everything around except his own heartbeat. The ground below him, the trees and shrubs around, smudged into motley mishmash; several waterfalls on the mountain side merged into the proper rainbow sheet in his sight for a second.

Alex caught up with the Seeker on the riverbank. Outracing the beast, he turned around and hovered low above the ground, cutting its escape route. Dust, small twigs and leaves shot up into the air, directed by the powerful flaps of the vast wings. The Seeker braked sharply, almost furrowing the ground, then turned around and took off away from the blinding wall of forest trash and the pursuing sense of danger. It undertook a few attempts to hide under the vegetation and run around Alex, but the latter followed the creature closely, blocking its way each time and forcedly driving the Seeker back to the battle site.

Finally, the Seeker ran into the nearby waterfall edge, having no other way than intended. Herded along the bank, it jumped out back at the glade. With relief, Alex noticed that Rainstorm had already recomposed; with a light metal tingle, she soared, ready to deliver more punishment to the monster.

The battle returned to square one. Startled by the certain death coming on it from behind, the Seeker preferred to face the enemy, which it had chances to defeat. Going to fight to the last for its existence, moreover, for its task completion as Alex suspected, it ran directly to the mare. The opponents clashed again, exchanging the blows of hooves, steel and everything that came into their reach. The sun hid behind the sudden oncoming cloud and a draught of wind tossed again already settled dust and leaves.

‘Calamity! She taketh it harder, in the earnest!’ thought Alex. ‘It’s almost like mine encounter with the Timberwolves – she is simply losing time and strength that way!’ The Seeker already started pressing Rainstorm to the edge of the pond formed by the colourful waterfall.

‘It’s of no good!’ Rainstorm breathed heavily. ‘I can’t reach that bastard upfront!’ thought she, during another attempt to come around the turning to face her creature. Her sight fell on the monster’s plot the Seeker constantly kept away from the fight. ‘If only I could poke the monster in its fat ass, which it keeps low to the ground!’ She realized that with each passing minute her chances to outspeed the two-core carcass wilted out.

Before Rainstorm could do anything else, another strike of unwinding tentacle sent her directly into the pond.

Alex roared and unfolded the glaive, but before he rushed to help, the mare already surfaced the water. Thankfully, the waterfall basin was quite shallow. With the loud tingle of steel, Rainstorm shook herself like a dog, sending the drops fly; she was angry like a devil. The unfurled wings couldn’t lift her back into the sky; they were soaked through with water, becoming heavy and useless at once. Realizing that the monster wouldn’t give her a second chance to climb out, Rainstorm dashed to the shore, loudly splashing the water around.

She barely climbed onto the low bank, when the creature – stunned by the sudden vanishing of the enemy – came into motion again. Sensing her again, the Seeker rushed at the mare with the speed of an express. Something overshadowed the light for her; glancing up, the mare saw the unfurled wings occupying half of her sight and the glare on the unfolding glaive. Unable to fly with the wet wings, Rainstorm decided to go all-in: holding the short spear closer, she desperately rushed directly into the attacking beast.

It appeared almost next to her; raising on its hind legs, the Seeker was going to crush the mare once and for good. The red spark on its torso glowed viciously!

Putting all the remaining strength into that hit, Rainstorm dived under the attacking monster, using their size difference to reach what was previously unreachable. In a foolhardy dash, she thrust her weapon into the creature’s belly, opened to her for a second… and rolled aside in the last moment.

Already aiming a blow, Alex stopped and hovered in the air. The wound received by the Seeker wasn’t that severe itself; the spear tip barely entered the body. But as soon as it penetrated the skin, Alex’s blood came into play – clutching into the monster and eating away at its “flesh” like acid, tearing apart the very essence and the magical bonds holding the Seeker into one. The dull groan rolled across Winsome Falls valley, fading in the forest – shrouded by the falling apart and dissolving Dark Mist, the creature collapsed on the ground in convulsions. Escaping its disintegrating carcass in dishevelled threads and sheets, the magical essence started trailing towards the landed human, being absorbed by him and ceasing.

“This is it!” Rainstorm got up; spreading the wings, the mare shook the dust off them, then slowly approached the defeated enemy – little remained of it. “And stay down!” exclaimed she feelingly, stomping the steel-shod hoof onto the place the Seeker hit the ground and scattering the remnants of the Dark Mist. Caught by the strengthening wind, they were carried away and dissolved tracelessly among the trees.

Grabbing that single cloud overshadowing the sun, the wind started herding it away: the bright rays pierced the grey veil and fell into Winsome Falls valley, flooding the glade surrounded by the old spreading trees. Standing on the single untouched spot on the bank of the nearest waterfall basin – the rest of the glade looked as if it was ploughed by a dozen of road scrappers – the mare and the human raised their eyes at the flowing water. Dark green in the shadow, the narrow water sheet shimmered in the sunlight like a flow of liquid emerald, sending the bright glares to play everywhere its waters reached as drops and mist. The dusty steel of Rainstorm’s armour, the mirror-polished surface of the heavy, long helmet, her wet wings – everything shone with the multitude of joyful sparks. Hundreds of bright emerald eyes glared sharply from the spread cloud-grey feathers as if promising peril to the potential enemies.

Letting out a sound, which could only be interpreted as an overly satisfied huff, Rainstorm was fidgeting with the clasps; after a moment of struggling, she tore the helmet off brashly, closing her eyes for a second and inhaling the tart forest chillness.

‘That’s the retribution I couldn’t ever dream of!!!’

The strengthened wind was unbraiding and fanning up her long snow-white mane; it kept catching more and more fallen leaves, swirling them and giving birth to a small tornado around Rainstorm and Alex. Going through the waving branches, the sunrays threw the flickering light spots on the ground. A mysterious smile lit the mare’s muzzle, making Alex glance at his pegasus companion inquiringly.

“I have something to say!” the electric-blue eyes shone, raising to the clearing sky; faltering first, her voice suddenly deepened. “That’s not a spontaneous decision, the idea was hatching for a while… And now I’ve got the best approval of it! So, please, listen…”

Puzzled by her gravely tone accompanied by such a mysterious start, Alex could only nod.

“As the one who not only can clear these monsters from our world for good, but make others capable of that…”

“Rainstorm?!”

The mare shook her head impatiently, calling for his attention.

“… please accept… my service to the master! Henceforth and till the end…” Rainstorm bowed her head; the white mane veiled her face, but Alex felt how tensely she looked for the answer. It seemed that the whole forest around fell silent for a second; even the wind quieted down, paying respect for the waiting.

“I… I can’t accept the sacrifice so great, Rainstorm. I’m not some… sovereign or a… warlord,” the hand rested on her shoulder. Before the sparks of hopeful inspiration could fade, Alex kneeled to the mare and looked into her eyes. “But… help of the faithful friend is another story!!!”

*

The slanted rays of the late autumn sun were illuminating the large gallery, casting very long shadows of everything they passed by. It wasn’t that early in the morning, but given it was late November the day star was still quite low over the horizon, peeking into the high castle windows and playing with the stained-glass mosaic. Mixing with the light of the torches, it provided the colourful flickering under the high arcs and between tall columns; otherwise, the place would look gloomy during that season. Going along the hallway, under the mildly puzzled looks of the Day Guards, Alex and Fluttershy kept guessing what happened, making princess Celestia need them so urgently. The letter from her was business-like short and didn’t explain anything, except telling that she needed them for some case of high secrecy and importance.

Naturally capable to add two and two, keeping in mind what type of case Celestia could need them both at the same time, Alex supposed that they would need some adequate protection during their endeavour. While his own was always within, thanks to the magical helmet – Luna’s generous gift, Fluttershy would obviously need her own means to overcome various hazards; Alex strongly suspected that the latter would mostly be of the Seekers origins.

Fortunately, planning and undertaking the experiment with Rainstorm, Alex paid extra attention to that aspect. He cautiously discussed that problem with Rarity – Alex found out that challenging her with the matters of her trade was unimaginably safer than with his mere proximity – pulled by the right strings, inspiration flooded the enthusiastic unicorn mare, making her even safe to work side by side. Even if she still kept producing all sorts of affectionate sounds when Alex accidentally touched her, the work, especially unusual and sophisticated, was in the first place for Rarity. Thus for the last couple of weeks, they managed to bring Fluttershy’s famous spec-ops suit as close to the proper armour as it was only possible during the period that short.

Leaving the durable but thin inner tight-fit layer, Alex and Rarity enhanced the suit protection by adding the metal armour plates in the crucial points and the same chain-mail-like fabric Alex used in his own armour in the joints, which needed to stay flexible and durable at the same time. Remaining easy to use and nice to wear, the suit became equally tough by its nature as it was by its looks.

Following Alex through the long castle gallery, Fluttershy sported exactly that suit at the moment and felt mildly concerned; her wings, unfurling occasionally from anxiety, were quite indicative. They arrived at the castle a few minutes ago. For that, they were to wake up at the crack of dawn – Alex was to prepare on the eve and then snake out of the library, not waking anypony in the morning, all that solely to help Fluttershy suit up. Hitting the railway station in half an hour, they took the first train to Canterlot and spent the nearly four-hour ride in fruitless attempts to guess what princess Celestia could need them for exactly. That’s not mentioning the necessity to help Fluttershy suit up once again during the ride…

“Why fully armour-clad?” the guard at the castle entrance measured them with suspense, which looked naturally but was obviously played up. He and his colleagues were informed about their arrival and most likely instructed to let through or guide Alex and Fluttershy to the princess’ study.

Flying without any delay, right from the station to the castle, the human and the pegasus mare decided to enter the latter the usual way, as the regular guests or solicitors would do, even if they both could get right to the Princess with ease. Out of pure courtesy, both landed at the castle gate and made the entire way to the entrance, walking the most civilly, throwing a few glances at the long gallery windows and balconies, which opened to the façade. No wonder that Alex grimaced at that ostentatious security enforcement attempt.

The other reason was plainer, simpler and more obvious. Just a couple of days before, Crystal Chime – the aunt of Storm and Aurora Sunflower – arrived in Ponyville by the Canterlot Express and came to Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight met miss Chime at the station and came with her. Most likely, that was also Twilight who arranged the trip, so, Crystal Chime arrived in the morning; they appeared at the doorstep when both Fluttershy and Alex were with the foals.

Crystal Chime was almost a copy of her sister Willow: the same stance, attractive muzzle, the kind and loving glance of the sparkly golden eyes. The latter though had more of the red tint, like the red gold; the tiny laughing threads, which could be seen from the close distance in the corners of her eyes, told that Crystal was slightly older. Unlike her sister, she was cutting her soft curly light coral mane shorter. Her light-greyish emerald coat kept that crystal faceted shine, making Alex stumble in surprise – he saw a crystal pony for the first time in his life. Seeing the saviours of her family in person, the mare flushed to the roots of her mane from confusion – she couldn’t find the proper words and those she could have been preparing jetted out of her mind in a second. With her cheeks sparkling and playing with the gradients of pink and light-emerald, like some may bug elytra, she rushed forward and squeezed tight first Alex and then Fluttershy. Tears sprinkled from the red-golden eyes when Crystal started nuzzling and cuddling the foals as if trying to make sure they were there indeed, not ashamed of that inevitable awkwardness.

Of course, both little Sunflowers were happy to see their auntie, the only family member they could freely stay with at the moment. However, their eyes were on the wet spot when the foals were to say goodbye to the pegasus girl and her human: Storm and Aurora got really attached to them for the last couple of weeks. Leaving Crystal Chime for a minute, the foals hung on Alex, pulling Fluttershy closer, thus staying in that collective hug for a while.

“If you come to Crystal Empire, visit us any time you want!” Crystal shook her shoulder-cut mane determinedly. “Miss Sparkle has my address. You’re always welcome…” her voice faltered and the mare sniffed. “Sorry!”

“Yeah, promise to come!” Storm and Aurora supported her wholeheartedly, making Alex give his word. Seeing them leaving with Twilight and Crystal Chime, Alex swallowed a lump; he hugged Fluttershy, whose eyes were glistening with tears as he could notice.

Alex sighed; it was natural that he still had the right to keep some residual grumpiness and a low tolerance for the stupid bureaucracy.

“Her Highness’ message supposed some… trouble…” dropped the human, scanning the entrance hall behind the guards’ backs. “That was only a natural choice!”

“Hmmm…” muttered the leader guard. “We were warned indeed of the importance…”

‘Then why the hay you’re lingering hither?!’ Alex inwardly facepalmed with the strength which could knock a manticore down.

“…you may go, but leave your luggage here at the entrance,” meanwhile, the guard continued, glancing at their “luggage”, humbly presented by two bags – the larger backpack was Alex’s. “You may take it upon leaving wherever Her Highness needs you to.”

“Excuse me?!” Alex wondered if he had misheard them. “Leave our bags hither? For the morning fog and general chillness to make our clothes as unpleasant to use as possible? Methinks I haven’t heard about a rule alike…”

Unbeknown to him, Alex’s wings unfurled of frustration, stretching up behind his spiky armoured shoulders; Fluttershy looked slightly absent – the girl alternated from hoof to hoof, throwing glances at the gallery above.

“Arghhh… Very well, we’ll bring them under the roof. Are you satisfied now?” groaned the guard commander, rolling his eyes in annoyance. After his slight gesture, one of his stallions pulled the bags inside, behind the first pair of castle doors. “You will find them in the entrance hall when you need them.”

“Well… I guess that’s the best we could hope for!” smirked Alex ironically. “Let’s go, Shy. I think Ti… princess Celestia is expecting us for a while already!”

“If you need direction, the guards in the castle can guide you!” huffed the commander – he knew that one of the visitors would be problematic.

“That won’t be necessary, thanks!” Alex coughed, stifling a laugh – he knew perfectly where they needed to be. The gallery leading to princesses’ rooms was accessible from the façade; with a short glance up, Alex soared, making everypony crouch from the wind the unfurling wings made. Fluttershy flew right behind him.

Followed by the bewildered looks from the castle doors, Alex quickly chose the closest to the left end of the gallery balcony and headed there. In a minute, a couple of armoured boots and two pairs of elegant hooves clanked on the open broad stone platform surrounded by the pony-chest-high railing. Throwing a quick look behind, Alex shrugged; the castle yard lay like a dish with cloudy edges, while the rest of the mountain side, Canterlot and the valley far below were hidden in the cold mist. Without saying a word, he and Fluttershy ruffled and shook their wings, shaking the small drops away; that simple thing made them share a sparkle of laughter.

Still smiling, they entered the high archway of the long gallery, greeted by the slightly bewildered guards, which even jerked towards the sudden intruders first, then relaxed upon recognition, throwing a couple of reproachful glances at the extravagantly appearing guests.

Looking at the edge of the hallway, where it turned to the tower stairwell, Alex headed left confidently. One thing he knew, smirking inwardly – he couldn’t get lost here for sure. Even if he hadn’t been there for a few months, Alex perfectly remembered which rooms and where located at this gallery. Winking at Fluttershy to dispel her tension, he hugged the girl’s fluffy shoulders lightly, beaconing to follow. Passing the high ornate double doors to Celestia’s bedroom, Alex and Fluttershy stopped in front of the next guarded ones. Taking a thorough appraising look over the visitors, one of the guards opened the door for them.

“Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia is waiting for you!”

Inhaling deeper, Alex moved aside the woven curtains behind the doors, making way for Fluttershy and himself. The large room under the high ceiling was decorated in light colours. The walls were almost entirely covered by the bookcases; with the déjà vu feeling, Alex noted for himself again that Celestia chose a perfectly fitting apprentice. The high window let the dim November light into the room and make the noble furniture and some books’ spines send humble sun flares. Reflecting in thousands of pendants of the large, single chandelier hanging from the centre of the ceiling, the light of several additional torch lamps helped keep the summer warmth there. The heavy table could easily compete with a billiard one; the high armchair behind it completed Celestia’s workplace. This time it was already occupied by Her Highness self; Alex and Fluttershy took a few steps further on the shin-deep carpet, approaching.

The princess’ eyes were still chained to some documents on her desk; she kept studying them pensively – the only sign that Celestia recognized their arrival was a noticeable greeting nod, while her expression oscillated somewhere between gloomy and concerned. Both human and pegasus mare stopped a few steps before the broad polished tabletop. Alex threw a glance at the papers, guessing if they were connected to the problem the princess needed them to help with. Fluttershy still looked a bit nervous, her movements became slightly sharp compared to the usual tender pony girl posture. The improved helmet, strapped to her side while unused, clanked shortly on the armour plate on the girl’s hip.

The large, pale-magenta eyes blinked at that sound and turned to Alex and Fluttershy, widening even more and rounding in a second. For a whole long minute, Princess Celestia stared inquisitively at her visitors.

“Sweet Harmony!” her habitual restraint let her down for a moment and princess Celestia openly facehoofed with a sigh. “I didn’t deserve all this, did I?” muttered she as if talking with herself, then added a bit louder. “Are you two complete hay-heads, Alex? Just look at you both…” she shook her head, refusing to believe her eyes. “I could expect something like that from my dearest sister… but you, Fluttershy… I admit it was a surprise to neigh the least!”

“Ahem!” Alex made a politely puzzled face, while Fluttershy seemed genuinely off guard, not catching up on what was causing the princess’ reaction. “And what’s wrong, Your Highness?”

“I would suppose something preventing your good hearing, Alex, if you were in your helmet…” said Celestia dryly. “As I said, have you seen yourselves? Wasn’t the secrecy one of the aspects I mentioned in my message?..”

With a shrug, Alex paid some attention to their with Fluttershy reflection in the large mirror next to Celestia’s study – according to him, it showed nothing overly extravagant. Fluttershy in the reflection looked up at the mirrored Alex and alternated from hoof to hoof with a quiet metal clanking of the armour.

“How do you plan to maintain secrecy with that look?” the Princess raised one eyebrow ironically. “What would the ponies say, noticing you both at the railway station dressed… should I better say armoured like that. You both looking as if you were going on a war!”

“Isn’t it already?!” before Fluttershy could say a word, Alex quietly articulated.

“Excuse me?” arching her neck like a swan, Princess Celestia turned to him.

“Isn’t it already a war?” repeated Alex clearly; his eyes narrowed ever so lightly. “Already with its casualties, damage and… almost – if your guards had been a tiny bit more cautious – orphans?” added he poisonously. “The war isn’t always as loud and overwhelming as we get used to reading in the books! It starting subtly doth not mean it is not starting at all…”

“For a claim that severe, you need some evidence more serious than several incidents, Alex!” calmly retorted Celestia, but the air in the room seemed to start electrifying. “You won’t deny that the Seekers don’t attack anypony, except you, on purpose.”

“They are literally seeking for something. Which for lest I know, alas… But methinks I’m close to the right guess,” Alex cocked his head with a challenge. “Not for ponies – yes, not for some commonly accepted wealth… yet that doth not mean their search is anyhow beneficial for us,” the human emphasized that last word. “Neither is their hypothetic master’s will, rest assured!”

“Believest me, Tia! It’s a war!” he drew the line confidently.

“Even if…” Celestia let out a stifled smile. “That doesn’t mean you need to reveal your current aims to everypony. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t have your… armour, Alex, Fluttershy. But marching in it like that isn’t what we need for your task, believe me!”

“For the last half a year, you went a long road, Alex,” quietly sighed she, “but sometimes… I can clearly recognize the guy, sneaking along the castle galleries at night, knocking down chandeliers and setting the royal banners on fire to distract the guards!”

Alex snorted shortly, relaxing a bit, while Fluttershy asked something more significant.

“Railway station?!” the pegasus girl blinked in confusion. “Excuse me, Princess, but we just arrived here by train and… nopony was concerned too much about our looks…”

“I meant, in your further journey!” smiled Celestia diplomatically. “I doubt we need excessive attention to the simple fact that the designated Seeker fighters leaving full-clad for Crystal Empire. At least for the sake of not revealing that we leave our area less protected…”

“Crystal Empire?!” now both Fluttershy and Alex couldn’t help exclaiming in bewilderment.

“Yes! Crystal Empire,” Celestia tilted her head and glanced at them both imperturbably; enveloped in the light-golden aura, two rectangles of thick paper with shiny embossment floated to Alex and Fluttershy together with the aroma of roses, as the princess’ mane kept flowing even in the still air of the study. “Here are your tickets for the Crystal Express, departing,” she glanced at the large clock at the opposite wall, “in about an hour, from Canterlot railway station.”

“Apologies, but…”

“I hope, you’ve read the rest of my letter more attentively, Alex,” Celestia’s ironic look was unbearably confident as if the mere departure was already a solved question, “and packed some warm clothes, for the Frozen North isn’t called so for no reason.”

“I packed warm clothes anyway, for the winter is coming!” said Alex with frustration. “So did Fluttershy. But… Crystal Empire… Now?! What’s the race for if ‘t be true I may inquire?”

“Yeah…” drawled Fluttershy, throwing a quick concerned gaze up at Alex. “It was… a bit…” she stumbled, noticeably looking for a more polite word, “unexpected. We didn't have much time to…”

‘Thanks to Harmony, I asked Jackie and Rainbow to take care of my animals!’ jetted in her head. ‘Those which aren’t hibernating anyway… And Angel stays with Twilight for a while – they seemed to find common ground with Spike, so, I can be calm at least about that. And…’

‘Merlin’s pants!’ Alex inwardly praised himself for prudency: he had mixed feelings about vague Celestia’s letter from the very start and decided to take some necessary precautions. ‘I managed to notify Twilight what to do in the emergency cases; the rest will think we stopped in Canterlot for a while. But more importantly, I gave complete instructions to Rainstorm!’ Alex sighed at the thought of that premature, thus unwanted but inevitable choice. ‘Alas, in mine absence, she is the only one capable of confronting and defeating at least a single Seeker.’

‘Please! May it be calm there for a week…’ pleaded he inwardly. ‘Or… Damn, I have no idea for how long we are going into that!’

“I wouldn’t ask you both if the situation didn’t demand,” firmly stated Celestia, pointing at the papers in front of her. “Crystal Empire needs help against the Seekers! It sounds as if they are having a major breakout there…”

Alex groaned, rubbing his temples; the Princess noticed how he instinctively jerked in an urge to undertake something.

“…for the time being, they manage to distract the monsters and keep it without major harm or destruction, let alone casualties,” added Celestia more soothingly. “But these are Seekers and…”

“… you can’t predict what they would play out the next moment!” Alex finished for her grumpily.

“That’s what Shining wrote in the letter exactly! And that’s why I thought your help may become in demand there, dear!” Celestia alternated to the pegasus girl; Fluttershy simply nodded seriously, making Alex admire her capability to brace herself in a wink when it was gravely necessary.

“Okay!” Alex closed his eyes for a second. “What else should we know, Tia?” he already resigned inwardly with the inevitability of that journey’s evil.

“The letter was vague in that part,” Celestia’s voice turned genuinely regretful. “As you know, approaching the Seekers is fraught with consequences for the absolute majority of us. So… the information isn’t perfectly accurate and systematic.”

Alex smiled inwardly, hearing the familiar judicious tones: not earlier than that morning, Twilight did her best to calm him down regarding the sudden journey. Meanwhile, Celestia went on.

“They can’t tell the exact numbers, but…” she squinted, “there is a general feeling that the numbers are different each time, even if the Seekers move in a single… well, herd, mostly.”

“How is that…” Fluttershy looked confused.

“That’s why we suspect a major breakout, my filly. Mind that the numbers change not only into the increase side, but vice versa,” the Princess raised a meaningful glance from the letter. “So, I didn’t embellish the situation calling it utterly strange.”

“There is something strange in the Seekers behaviour and movement as well,” added Celestia. “But the general tendency is towards the Crystal city,” ended she with emphasis.

“Yes,” nodded the Day Princess, seeing Alex’s expression. “No matter how hard Shining’s guys try to distract the monsters, they seem to find the course. Singling out one or two of the Seekers for an elimination attempt didn’t give anything either. Especially considering that they can only try burning the monsters, which in the Frozen North conditions is quite problematic. Now you understand…” she ended abruptly.

A long pause hung, finally broken by the metal tingle when Fluttershy and Alex exchanged meaningful glances.

“The train is chosen as, unfortunately, we have no other means to deliver you both faster,” added Celestia with regret. “And flying there isn’t an option obviously. If not because of weather, then because of the distance – the Crystal Express covers it in about two days, and it’s quite a fast transport.”

Alex grimaced, imagining the possible length of their absence.

“Exactly! That’s why we don’t need to inform everypony about that journey openly!” Celestia looked into his eyes fixedly. “We’ll do our best to keep things in hooves here meanwhile!” she watched him for the signs of bitter irony, which according to the Princess were inevitable, but this time Alex said or expressed nothing alike. To Celestia’s surprise, he only uttered.

“Please, do your best!”

‘…Crystal Chime was to take the foals to the Crystal Empire as well! Merlin’s pants! Wouldn’t they be safer hither in that case?!’ flashed in his mind; at the same time, the very resembling Princess Celestia voice in his head scolded Alex at once. ‘Would you really expect Storm and Aurora staying with you two forever?!’

“Okay!” Alex inhaled noisily in a minute, making a decision after glancing at Fluttershy and getting a tiny nod from her; somehow, Alex felt that their thoughts were very similar at that moment. “We’re in, Tia! Anything else?”

“I sure hope you can find out more at the spot and… rule out the situation,” the Princess said softly. “If you need any supplies, we can provide almost anything. Although, don’t overload yourself as you can get the same in Crystal city. Shining will provide military support, but… you know…”

“The fewer amnesiacs, the better!” shortly nodded Alex. “Yes, we understand.”


“There was nothing we could do, Alex!” said Fluttershy, nuzzling him softly, when they waited for the train on the platform half an hour later. “How many of the monsters could they probably take out? And judging by the princess’ words, there are more than a dozen. Even the princesses can confront only one or two without major harm to themselves,” she dropped silent for a moment, then added. “And I’m not sure that Twilight or Cadence are in that group… There in the Apples’ Orchard, judging by what you told, Twi could only shield from them for a short while, I suppose…”

“That is why I hate doing that, Shy,” drawled Alex submerged in gloomy thoughts, despite the floral fragrant cuddle. “Leaving Ponyville and the nearest area almost unprotected, leaving Rainstorm to take on the burden… Nah!”

“Alex, you couldn’t cover the entire Equestria in a second anyway,” the small hoof stroked his arm. “I sure hope that princess Celestia puts her guards to better use than before, as she promised. But…”

“But?..” Alex looked into the girl’s eyes with interest; Fluttershy’s expression was unusually sly at that moment.

“Well, while you were busy, discussing the possible precautions with Twilight,” the filly raised one brow, “I managed to write a short letter to Luna. She must have already gotten it, as Twi promised to deliver it immediately.”

“Regardless of how Celestia sees our… mission,” continued Fluttershy, while Alex stared at her in surprise, “I asked Luna to keep an extra eye on the situation. Supposedly, her Night Watch can provide a valuable addition to the protection… definitely, the more determined one. Even in the daytime, I’m sure.” She shook her mane, bathing them in another wave of floral-honey aroma.

“Errmmm…” only could utter Alex. ‘I hope she doesn’t give up to the urge to help us more actively at our destination area!’ instead of any words he leaned in, finding the girl’s soft lips and giving her a kiss.

The platform was quite herded even at that early hour. The passing ponies threw mildly surprised glances at the waiting aside human and the pegasus mare on her hind legs, hugging him and resting her head on the human’s chest. But as both Alex and Fluttershy were without their armour already – Alex prudently helped the girl change in the castle – the attention was nearly moderate, letting them both hope that they fitted Celestia’s expectations.

A series of distant whistles sounded, approaching the station; Alex looked at the bags at his feet – with the third added, containing the girl’s armour – and hugged Fluttershy’s shoulders tighter.