> Untouched by Human Hands
>  by Acmos
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Black Hawk Down - 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle stood, watching the crashed craft and she was at a complete loss. A new question caught her mind, one of many today: What madpony would think of building a rotorcraft based on something as unreliable as pure mechanics? Without the owner's personal magic, such as Pinkie's pedal umbrella? And what kind of madpony would design a flying vehicle whose fall was unstoppable?! 

Twilight honestly tried to do it. When the black colossus broke through the veil of the cosmic bubble and roared down and to the side, spinning around its axis, straight towards Ponyville, the unicorn's heart skipped a beat. But then, coming to her senses, she put all of her strength in the magic of levitation. And ... the rotorcraft, as if nothing had happened, continued to fall. It only slowed down a little, breaking the telekinetic grip, and simply not reacting to the original component of the spell, as if Twilight was trying to apply force to a non-existent object, pouring energy into nowhere and dissipating it in space. Matter under the control of Twilight simply ignored it with such startling indifference, as if the sorceress were just a small foal taking the very first timid steps in mastering magic.

And how well it all started! The long preparation for moving between worlds was completed, everything was ready for the experiment. Princess Celestia herself approved of it and sent four select guards to ensure safety. The unflappable unicorns were supposed to support the disciple if something went wrong and ensure safety during the ritual.

But everything did not go as planned by the sorceress and student of Princess Celestia. It was too wrong! Twilight thought nervously as she noticed a couple of strands sticking out, curling from her bangs. But she still hesitated whether to come into contact ... with such an unusual history of witchcraft! 

The parallel world, the existence of which Twilight had proved six months ago, puzzled even her mentor, who had seen all sorts of strange things in her life. In addition to completely natural sources of energy, for example, stars, that were supposed to surround the other version of Equestria, and the echoes of which were detected by analog meters, that reality had practically no magic. If in Equestria the original history of magic that was reliably recorded by the chroniclers spanned at least seven millennia, then... on the timeline recreated by Twilight using the records of Star Swirl, the era of magic took no more than sixty ordinary seasons. Timid bursts of energies with a fairly rapid increase towards the middle of the scale, and with rather long periods between those large spells that could be detected...

Then there was a decline. The very end was a singular release of a large spell in an area in which powerful and mana-consuming magic was never even close to being performed (the last thing this looked like was a magical war that ended that world). And then everything – as if cut off. It's like all the magic from that world was gone... gone forever. Twilight could not even imagine how different the inhabitants of that world were from the Equestrians in terms of culture, because she could not imagine a single adequate scenario according to which magic here, in present Equestria, could evolve in that way. The Princess of the Day and her sister were lost in in no less guesswork, but Twilight's timid offer to establish contact was reacted to quite favorably.

Celestia believed that nothing irreversible could happen: the power of friendship would prevail over any disagreements (which Luna knew firsthoof, and therefore had no objections either. Cadence, on the other hoof, reasoned quite sensibly that the aunts and her gifted pupil in matters of experimental magic trampled not only Discord, and she decided not to give advice). Or, in extreme cases, magic arts would do the job...

The eyelid on Sparkle's left eye twitched. No, nothing prevailed! She let her mentor down, failed to foresee such... such a development of events! But Twilight had to, otherwise what kind of researcher would she be? If she let something into Equestria... if something terrible entered here that no one else has ever encountered before... if there was no way to deal with this, or the price of victory was too high... Would Twilight Sparkle’s name be written in the Equestrian chronicles as the one responsible for all this?! the unicorn thought in panic. This could not be allowed. It was simply impossible to imagine such a thing!

But, nevertheless, it happened. Noting that the use of magic in that world was also limited locally, as if it was not used everywhere, but on some periphery, Twilight began to prepare the ritual of sending. So what if the data obtained made you wrinkle your nose and fiercely scratch with your hoof behind your ear? Maybe there were very few magicians in that world, and they were all so weak that they could only afford one or two spells of class B for the season?

The unicorn did everything so that the packet sent «to the other side» reached the addressee and was understood in the correct way, in the spirit of «let's get acquainted, and even better be friends». Photos, data on the biology of the planet’s species, music recordings, a few simple examples of magic matrices, logical pictures... There was a message, compiled in a common language, and a maximally adapted textbook for learning Equestrian.

If the aliens cannot make out the text, then at least they will understand that intelligent beings using structured writing and language wanted to meet them... With the other contents of the package Twilight wanted to convince these creatures from another world of the ponies’ sincere friendliness. Pinkie also advised sending a couple of signature firework pies to the other side and Lyra tried to shove several of her brochures with a bunch of questions into the trunk, but Sparkle was strongly against such a load. And it could be understood from her standpoint.

Twilight was worried a lot during the upcoming ritual. It was unknown how the aliens would react to the food sent to them, which is suitable for pony consumption. Or even worse, if they think that the food is poisoned, and it could very well be a poison, due to their possible differences in alchemy! Uncertainty was something that disturbed Twilight's soul at this moment, but also brought a lot of excitement, as was visible in her sparkling eyes.

However, Rarity surprised Twilight by not thinking about her boutique outfits or fabrics when asked about providing one of her clothing samples. “Darling ... Without knowing the preferences, let alone the appearance of the client, I will never send them consumables. After all, I need to tell my client a lot about pony culture first! The first impression is the most important, and I'm not going to do it blindly! It won’t do much good to my inspiration if I'm wrong in my guesses!" Rarity said dramatically.

Fluttershy, as usual, was afraid of the unknown and therefore limited herself to a few photographs of rare birds and flowers. Modest but tasteful.

Rainbow Dash, as always indifferent and even with a bored expression on her face, reacted to the magical experiments of her friend Twilight in the usual way: "Twi, you know, I don't understand anything about your egghead stuff! So call me if the aliens start dropping into Equestria and provide some action, otherwise you have those guards to watch your magical experiments explode and form bubbles in your flasks... it will be so boring! " Rainbow Dash said and crossed her hooves over her chest, narrowing her eyes slightly.

Well, now Rainbow will certainly shout something along the lines of "I missed everything!!!" since she didn’t come rushing in the blink of an eye to the noise that the otherworldly machine made. It meant that mare had nodded off somewhere on a cloud, so you won’t be able to wake her up even with the party cannon.

Pinkie Pie went to the first launch of the ritual, which was held outside the village, without any invitation. However, she did not enter the danger zone, but instead fished out a huge bucket of popcorn from her mane and began eating it with enthusiasm, singing approving chants during breaks: “Twi in science - fight boredom! Open the portal - the holiday will go uphill! Hey, do you want some popcorn?" said Pinkie Pie with a smile and handed the coveted bucket of popcorn to a really busy (and therefore a little grumpy) Twilight.

However, no matter how Twilight Sparkle checked and rechecked the carefully calibrated formulas, after a dozen attempts to send the package… nothing happened.

The impression was that the object that she was trying send during the period when the use of magic was most intense, simply ... did not want to be received. It's not even that the magician’s intentions were misunderstood on the other side – Sparkle would have known if her attempt at creating a transition has set forth at least some conscious response, even an effort to influence the passage by the other magicians. But none of this happened. Twilight's attempts to reach out to the locals of that world were simply ignored, as if there were no sapient beings in that version of Equestria, and magic was just a natural phenomenon, not much different from the same life cycle of stars.

Noticing that her friend is sad, and the experiment does not want to end with even the tiniest explosion, Pinky urged her not to be upset. “Loosen up, Twilight! All these scientific puzzles that don't work according to your plan will still be there! Do you want me to put a cupcake in your eye, if it helps in your confidence?!" said Pinkie Pie and pulled a bun out of her mane.

Pinkie, no matter how serious she is, was first of all a good and caring friend, so she offered everyone present to go the Sugarcube Corner, which the guards calmly refused. However, Twilight did not pass up an opportunity for a couple of cups of tea and few pastries to calm her nerves.

Twilight was used to always bring results proportional to time and effort spent. In the end, she spent the whole month preparing this event ... and how involved she was in her work! Moreover, how much paper and ink was wasted to keep up with charts and other measurement data in her research! Working with the library catalog would almost stop if it weren't for her number one assistant!

After trying the ritual with a different time interval a week later and again without getting a result (as the always cheerful Pinkie judged, the sorceress refused to count failure as a result), Twilight decided that something needed to be changed in the technique.

If the diamond cannot be found on the mountain... the dog will look for it under the mountain, as ponies said. Twilight decided to do the opposite: use someone's ritual as a binding and generalize the energy of that world. To move away from it, and try to drag anything in her direction. To her disappointment, no otherworldly spells were fit for that. The point of contact was always huge, titanic masses. Judging by the frequency of penetration of the magical streams, it was either water or soil.

Seriously, who would cast Class B spells in water and earth? Who might like a natural disaster made from land or water? The spells there, of course, served as much purpose as "shaking the air", and Twilight already had a headache from trying to understand why they wasted so much of the natural energy - this is with its otherworldly rarity!

The further the unicorn moved along the timeline, calculating parameters and looking for an object of a suitable size for which it would be possible to create a shell of an enclosed space, the less hope she had that her discovery would be recorded in history and in magic textbooks. However, Twilight was used to getting things done without giving up halfway through seeming hopelessness... And in the end, she was rewarded for her efforts.

That very last case; a one-time use of a spell with a certain magical subtlety in an unseen place until now, namely, there the sorceress found an object for which the transition could be made. Small enough to be enclosed in a sphere (though much larger than any unit that any of the famous sorcerers used in their experiments), it definitely matched a magical reaction, dense on one hoof and patchy on the other.

The next morning, Twilight Sparkle, in good spirits, stepped out onto the platform, settled down across the river from the side of the forest, and performed an impeccable ritual under the watchful eyes of the guards. Everything was going well until Pinkie, who had reappeared to support her friend (this time with a picnic basket, from which Gummy's face sometimes stuck out as he passed the cakes and fruits to his master), shouted "Ouch!" and fainted.

And then the bubble of the enclosed space burst, and everything flew into tartarus.

Twilight was ready to praise the Goddess for the rest of her life that the guards jointly put a screen in the path of the rotorcraft, preventing it from sticking into the outskirts of the town. Although the spell turned out to be weaker than Twilight's talent and skill could reproduce, the unicorn at that time was too shocked and frightened. Unthinkable! Some element of the universe opposed her will! It was even worse than wading through the Everfree to the Castle of the Sisters, bypassing more obstacles than she had ever met in her entire life in Canterlot... only to discover that after overcoming said obstacles their only hope - artifacts capable of overpowering the demonic essence imprisoned on the other side of the cold space orbit, that accumulated rage and anger for a thousand years - disappeared. The variable that held the whole equation was deduced from the problem... it was a terrible feeling, really. Then Sparkle found the strength to not give up and fight on; her new friends helped a lot by their determination and unanimous support, but now... 

Twilight pushed the limp Pinkie, and she, without opening her eyes, said in an extremely serious tone: «Pinkie’s feeling overwhelmed. Please repeat your request later. » 

At another moment, Twilight would certainly have smiled at the joke of her inexhaustible friend, but back then it scared her even more. Nevertheless, the pink fidget breathed evenly, despite the sudden interruption of motor activity (Pinkie staying still? Nonsense!). Realizing this, Twilight with a flash of teleportation brought her to retreat into the shade of the canopy, where the equipment stood, and in the next leap, she was already at the black bulk of broken metal. Without a moment's hesitation, she cast a powerful dome spell...

Twilight thought she had made the right decision. In a fever of events that spun at a galloping pace, she managed to notice the propeller on which the car was supposed to stay in the air and put the dome in the first place because in such a fatal collision, the abs-transducer could explode. The unicorn hastily cast a spell to stabilize it ... But then she realized that this measure would lead nowhere. There was not even an erg of magic in the machine - the spell simply dissipated as soon as it formed under the dome. It was like deriving a formula that turns a caterpillar into a butterfly and applying it to a brick! And then Twilight did not feel at all how a dense ball was unfolding among the debris of metal, this complex combination of created matrices, which could lead to an uncontrolled release of energy that accumulated for flight.

A mechanical structure made of metal collapsed onto a plot of land, completely frightening and confusing the unicorn guards. This could be seen even without disassembly, even considering that it was crumpled and completely unusable. A lot of joints and dangling wires stuck out of the structure, liquid of unknown purpose oozed from built-in reservoirs, a cobweb of cracks glittered on numerous pieces of glass... Something was moving behind the glass, or was it just a trick of light that was playing out in her imagination?

Then a part of the rotorcraft's casing flew into the dome from the inside, in such a way that Twilight screeched and jumped away, and the guards raised their spears to readiness.

Then it jumped out of the smoke… the two-legged creature! Twilight could not have known what the otherworlders looked like, but they had several theories on this score. In particular, if macroevolution in that dimension proceeded worse in its diversity, but with a clearly expressed periodicity (based on the use of large, clearly distinguishable class B spells), then this could lead to the emergence of a completely intelligent life form and a complex type of musculoskeletal system... There was a certain similarity in the history of magic among the extinct centaurs. But... Twilight couldn't even imagine that they looked that way. No one in Equestria and beyond could have guessed that such creatures could be found anywhere!

The sorceress heard the voices of the ponies behind her, who plucked up the courage to look out from behind the market stalls, as they whispered in dismay...

And they had a reason! Shrouded in acrid smoke, an elongated figure spread over the dome, from which all colors seemed to have been squeezed out. As if carved out of gray stone, the newcomer stood on his hind legs, as long as two watchtowers, with his forelegs leaning against the barrier. Spreading clawed fingers, an eerie parody of a griffin's claw, as if ready to grab and tear flesh at any moment, fiddled along the inner surface of the dome. His entire body was covered with the same colorless basalt growths, roughly repeating muscles and skeleton at the same time - like a large forest wolf, standing on its hind legs, only made of stone. The only thing that stood out in this mess of twisted hardware was the eyes on the creature's small head. They burned with red fire, rushing from one field of view to another, and seemed to be trying to remember everything and everyone who was on the outskirts of the city.

Twilight went cold inside as the creature's face turned towards her. It looked like a face covered with dry parchment, with bare skin and small eyes. He looked long and hard at the frightened unicorn. It was impossible to read any emotion on the flat face with the fold of the mouth; the stranger, it seemed, without malice, without fear, looked at the one who pulled him out of his homeworld. This is how a collector looks at an exhibit of his collection, at an already impeccable acquisition, which he inherited in the course of a dizzying search, which now brings not anxiety, but satisfaction. Perhaps it would be much less scary if the foreigner were simply growling or otherwise showing aggression...

The creature's flat, broad chest heaved convulsively, the wings of a short, pointed nose fluttered. Ears, pressed against the sides of the head, remained motionless, giving no hint of the stranger's mood. A reddish mist started generating from his back, after which he briefly swung and hit the barrier with his front paw. 

Twilight felt the resistance threshold rise. Many ponies screamed and dived back into cover, when with a dull sound the stranger struck again, much faster than the last time, trying the barrier for strength... Finally, the creature retreated further into the dome. It stopped glaring at Twilight from under frowning dark eyebrows. His very short mane did not stand on end, showing the strongest alertness, and the unicorn exhaled with visible relief. Not everything was so bad... A couple of ideas even flashed through her head on how to start a conversation... Can a stranger understand sign language? How different are they from those common in pony society? If Twilight had been her own psychologist, she would certainly have noted that a whole swarm of new questions that immediately settled in her head is a sign of restoration of mental balance. 

Then the foreigner took a step back, hiding behind a smoke screen... Twilight heard his phrase in a, barking, abrupt language, not at all like the melodious voices of Equestrians or the guttural squawks of griffins. After a couple of minutes, the earth perceptibly trembled, and lumps of soil, charred turf flew in all directions, bouncing off the obstacle outside...

When Twilight came to her senses and brought down the dome under the ground to the state of a sphere, the alien had already left. Without the risk of opening the barrier, the sorceress pumped out the smoke that filled the dome and the liquid that produced these vapors when ignited. She sifted through every inch of the earth with magic, but it was all in vain. Apart from the wreckage of this rotary-winged, metal monster, nothing else remained in the quarantine zone. It was a real CATASTROPHE!

"Twilight!" Spike reminded of himself warningly, seeing the expression on her face. "It is not your fault. It was impossible to foresee this!"

The compassionate dragon who ran to the terrible crash was changing the water compress on Pinkie's forehead and even scribbled a note to the hospital while Twilight tried to clean up the mess. He reacted rather calmly to the black machine, considering that he had not seen its short flight, and now he saw in it just another product of misadventures... also known as Sparkle’s experiments.

"But you've probably thought about it," the young dragon objected, smiling approvingly. He knew her too well, since she raised him from birth (hatched from an egg). “Everything will end well! As for me, you have fought with much more evil guys than some two-legged ones on flying pieces of iron. The same Discord... Brrr..." Spike said, trying to cheer Twilight. "You will see. The biggest problem the aliens will give us is explaining to Pinkie why the welcome party should be postponed!"

Pinkie Pie instantly came to her senses, and her ear twitched nervously. 

"Wa-a-ait! What did I miss? Problems? Well, at least Dash will be happy! By the way, did someone say "party postponed"?! No way, I'm just ready! Mmm...” Pinkie Pie had to chew hard when Twilight interrupted the tirade took the apple and cinnamon from the basket and stuffed them into her friend's mouth.

“Pinkie, not now,” said the unicorn wearily. “If you feel all right, could you please find Rainbow...? If someone can quickly find and get her, it’s you!” After looking into her mischievous eyes, Twilight spoke with a serious voice, while the tension from all this setup was still thick in the air. "It is not a joke! Tell her to raise the weather brigade! We need the keenest of eyes and the fastest of wings here right now!"

Chewing an apple with cinnamon and saluting, Pinkie perked up even more and sat up in a guard pose with a serious look. “Ya-Vol, mein generail! If necessary, I am always ready!" Almost instantly, leaving behind a cloud of settling dust, Pinkie Pie picked up the cruising speed of a gallop. The party queen fled towards the town square, where the town hall was. Nevertheless, at the same time, Sparkle heard the ending: “But you owe me, TWILIGHT! Party for our guest, as soon as you know what he is! Please remembe-e-e..."

"Phew..." Twilight breathed out.

The native of the stone farm was a good pony, always ready to support in difficult times, but the sorceress very much doubted that Pinkie's talent would be useful here. The last thing that a creature from another dimension, cut off from his usual environment (judging by its appearance, in this respect it is nothing like Equestria), disoriented and frightened, will be pacified by is Pinkie’s party, which is likely to seem overly active and loud, maybe even threatening for him! If Twilight knew anything about interracial psychology, it was that aliens who were very different from ponies should be treated like a big, angry and ill-mannered dog.

With such attention, it may even regard affection as aggression... In addition, this stranger has fully demonstrated that he can cause trouble! For a creature in which there was not a drop of magic, he too easily threw this piece of metal and went underground - he definitely lacked the grace of diamond dogs, those inherently talented miners, but the very fact... a creature is hiding under Ponyville now, which cannot be felt and could not be affected by magic, except indirectly, as a protective barrier! A dangerous, resilient creature that can survive the crash of the heavy rotorcraft and move incredibly quickly!

"Miss Sparkle," The senior guard uniformly reminded her of his presence. “As you are responsible for this ritual, we await your decision. Should I notify the rest of the guards about the potential danger?"

Could I clean up the mess myself? Twilight thought with a sort of undercurrent bitterness as she watched the battle unicorns re-energize her barrier. Could I put everything back in place before the Princess finds out about this mess? She entrusted me with an important matter...

"Twilight!"  The dragon pulled her back again, frustrated by the painful emotional struggle that was reflected on his friend's face.

“What Twilight?” Sparkle grumbled. “What «Twilight», I have been Twilight forever!”

"Well, let's say, not forever..." Spike said and scratched his chin in bewilderment. “But the Princess has known you for way more than a year. Don't try to be shy now! Write her a letter; don't be afraid to ask her for advice! Princess Celestia knows for sure that you will not bother her in vain. Moreover, after the wedding..."

Twilight thought hard for a while, weighing the pros and cons, but in the end, she could not find anything that would contradict Spike's words. Seriously, could she endanger all the other residents of Ponyville and not report this incident to the Princesses, just to get a delay on fixing the mistakes and consequences of all this chaos that reigned after the invasion of at least one alien? To earn extra points in Celestia's eyes? Seriously, Twilight? the unicorn was horrified at her thoughts. It seemed that you grew out of it! 

Twilight smoothed her mane with an awkward movement, removing the hairs popping out of the straight strands. She sighed and tried to calm down.

“Thank you, Spike. I learned this lesson in full...”

“You are always welcome,” her irreplaceable assistant replied contentedly.

“Lieutenant,” Twilight spoke firmly to the assigned guard, “notify the local authorities and everyone you deem necessary. We may have... problems. We do not know what to expect from this creature, and what secrets of another dimension it has dragged to our side.”

The guard bowed briefly to the Princess Celestia's protege, and then called out to his colleagues, intending to clear up the situation for them.

Meanwhile, Twilight turned to the dragon, “Spike, I need to send a letter to the princess...”

"It's already done, dictate!" Spike said with a smile on his face and waved his quill expressively, unrolling the scroll. He was glad for Twilight that she was finally able to get her thoughts together and start planning, as was her nature.

“Dear Princess Celestia!” Twilight began to dictate quickly: “The ritual of transition between dimensions was completed successfully. However, I am compelled to report that here, in Ponyville, at least one representative of another world was transferred. It is impossible to determine more precisely, since the stranger I saw managed to escape... The creature was not subject to the direct effects of magic. As implausible as it may sound, I suspect that magic does not exist in that world... or it exists in a form that has not been encountered by any of the currently living, nor any sorcerers-eyewitnesses of ancient times. I will present my thoughts on this in a detailed report later, but now I have to ask for..."

Bon-Bon, who perfectly saw most of what happened during Twilight's last experiment, hurried home in high spirits, throwing the binoculars on her back. There were things to prepare for... there were old things to dust off. Crossing the threshold of her pastry shop, the beige pony practically sang in the sweetest voice (which made her friend on the second floor swallow nervously, for this tone did not foreshadow anything good for their peaceful life in Ponyville): 

“Lyra-a-ah! Please tell me, Lyra... could these «humans» of yours grow their claws about twenty inches? Well, then I have good news for you...”
> Black Hawk Down - 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex Mercer sat in a tree and methodically cleaned the M249. Diligently, he ignored the howling of the creatures below, and was filled with the most gloomy thoughts. The last few hours have merged into some absurd kaleidoscope, consisting of an excess of feelings, sudden revelations and restrained curses mixed with a cough, which Alex gave out when he saw how much the light machine gun was soiled. After all, every detail will have to be sorted out, every section of the tape, if necessary, so that it does not wedge after the first shot and does not burst the barrel! But it was necessary, it was necessary to check... and time has endured for quite some time now.

Not to say that Mercer would prefer to return to the state that gripped him an hour ago - complete confusion in half with bitterness that he did not have time to say goodbye to Dana. When the timer of the bomb lives out its last seconds... how much can you think about, can slender logical constructions be built, being on the verge of your own death? Absolute, as the past Mercer-skeptic believed (and his follower was in solidarity with him in this regard), the end? Probably, few people think at this moment about how much they did not have time. The fear of death is a corrosive thing, and no matter how people boast of their civilization, the thoughts of the majority in the falling plane will be filled with chaos, a painful premonition of the end. And when your death is expected from a nuclear bomb, turned by mass culture into something terrible, the scale of the catastrophe from which is indescribable... There is no room left for hope that you will somehow survive.

For eighteen days of the epidemic, Alex Mercer was used to not being afraid for his own life. There were episodes when fear and anger took possession of him... When a giant creature carried away his sister - perhaps the only person for whom Mercer was really going to fight on. Or when his only chance to end this madness, Colonel Taggart, fled from the mutant in a thermobaric tank... Yes, some part of Mercer's soul was seized by fear as he took UH-60 away from the city, into the Atlantic waters. 

At that moment he wanted to leave everything as it is, without drowning out «own» thoughts in his head with mental attitudes and shock doses of neurotransmitters. If he wanted any kind of interference in this whole mental organization... it was the need to be heard in the hour of death. Mercer did not want to die in a flash of an atomic flame alone, forgotten by everyone and, undoubtedly, classified by the government after the incident. The battle with the virus and the soldiers who were absurdly devoted to the charter is over; New York has been given a grace period of three and a half minutes. Alex Mercer had no choice but to exchange his life for the survival of the city and the people to whom he owed. However, he would have been filled with much greater calmness and faith in “what seems to him to be right,” if someone accompanied him into oblivion, and finally said a kind word or two. The line of convinced introversion of Alex on the verge of death cracked, desperately wanting to find unity with other sentients...

Well, apparently, his plea was heard, although a higher power (if it really put her ethereal hand here) interpreted the request with the most sadistic, most perverse logic that Mercer could imagine.

He, having thrown a bomb into the ocean, only had time to turn the helicopter on the opposite course, as all around was flooded with a blinding flash of a chain reaction seeping through the armored glass. The burst of energy, embodied in Kelvin with a mantissa of as much as 8 units and no less monstrous pressure, arrived in time a fraction of a second later. The red-hot ball swallowed the car, turning it into steam without a trace, including the pilot... Well, Mercer thought it was about to happen. In fact, the state in which he became aware of himself a moment later was the last one that would fall under the category of «complete non-perception». It did not even resemble its faint resemblance, which could be achieved in a chamber of sensory deprivation.

"Ha-kha ... Well, nothing has hinted that everything around me is now created by consciousness itself, seized by the agony caused by the overload of absolutely all the senses in this split second." He had to overcome the craving for rapid breathing and adapt the nasopharynx. However, the "toxic air" had to be let out less often, just for the sake of full-fledged verbal communication.

Indeed, when a colossal release of energy flooded all the space around... Mercer continued to feel himself. The usual logical layer of consciousness of chimeras (1) , the bricks from which new knowledge was formed, even banal tactile sensations and the roar of a screw... All this remained in their proper places in the picture of world perception. But his eyesight suffered - the picture was so distorted, dazzled with such acidic shades and glare that Mercer wanted to rub his eyes. Why did not darkness fall on him instantly, the absence of any feelings, caused not by the blinding of the poison outbreak, but the destruction of all the organs of perception?

Then it dawned on him through the whirlwind of indicators and the screams of a siren that the engine had died, and the rotor was now being supported, in addition to the Christ's nut, by honest inertia alone.

It can't be like that, Alex thought a little dazedly. A surface nuclear explosion, no matter how powerful it may be, is not capable of significantly affecting electronics, even if the complex onboard system of the Hawk! The shock only intensified when Mercer realized that he did not feel the urges of the Hive Mind, which had come from the center of the city's power earlier - as if the evolved one was forcibly surrounded by a bubble of mental silence, a dialogue with himself. Such silence that the chimera turns into an animal acting on instincts, as in the case with the parasite (2), and the evolved one plunges into hibernation. Mercer, cursing from his suddenly unaccustomed vision, feverishly tried to put the car into autorotation mode, but the doctor could not see the mental colors of what was happening. As if... at once he became an ordinary person, unable by the power of thought to gain complete control over his own life. Words could not convey how frightened Mercer was. For a week now, he had not been afraid of something so much that it fanned in the depths of his soul the fury that had recently descended on Taggart. Powerless rage, the worst possible type of anger.

Mercer's efforts, which were augmented by the experience of the military pilots absorbed by him, however, remained unsuccessful. Not only did the turbines die instantly, without even sneezing a couple of times goodbye, but the lift dropped almost instantly, ignoring the still-supposedly spinning propeller. The car went down sharply and hit some obstacle in its trajectory with monstrous force, so that Mercer was thrown into the cockpit, barking both flesh on metal and metal on flesh. The helicopter, having fallen on its side, practically disintegrated into pieces, the propeller notably plowed the asphalt and the ground, uprooting the axle from the depths of the engine. But after a minute, all this chaotic movement around died away, and the sounds that accompanied him died down.

Wait ... Earth? Asphalt? Noises for these substances were most appropriate, but not for the water that was supposed to surround Mercer, ten or fifteen miles around! He deliberately went beyond the critical zone for New York...

No. Even though the Hivemind is covered, I still cannot be considered a human... it seems. Absentmindedly noted Alex, ripping himself from the wreckage of the dashboard. Noting that his body was seriously injured, with a single motion, Mercer fixed the open fracture of his leg; restored the integrity of the crushed skull and generally spurred regeneration. And I’m still alive... for some damn thing, I’m still not broken up into molecules. Why is that?

Mercer was dimly aware of the ensuing action. Despite the fact that other superpowers that had not gone anywhere calmed him down, made him clear his mind, and the tongues of anger subside, turn into familiar embers, the events turned out to be too absurd and too different from his ideas about how this world works.

For starters, the crashed helicopter was not flooded with water, but with gas clearly unsuitable for breathing. Mercer began to choke and cough, as if he had been poisoned with blood toxin again - no, besides, Zeus had long evolved immunity to the surrogate! Mercer began to choke and cough as if he had been poisoned by a blood toxin again, although it was only a sensation. In addition, immunity to a surrogate called "Zeus" has long been developed! Moreover, from this mixture it was not possible to isolate a single grain of oxygen, which is so necessary for a developed organism.

It was as if Mercer was forced to breathe pure sarin or some other nasty mutating gas, that did not cause much harm, but had zero oxidative value and even wasted energy on filters. Mercer put on armor, preparing for a meeting with an unfavorable external environment, and she had to become unfavorable, this is after a nuclear explosion in the middle of the ocean, in which the new Alex would simply go to the bottom! However, the head had to be left uncovered. The visor, like other attributes of the information field, did not work - with a monolithic shield, Alex, apart from heat radiation, did not feel anything as cut off. Nonsense!

Even if Manhattan was miraculously hit by an explosion, on the eighteenth day of the epidemic, Green bio-reserves remained in the subway and sewers, hidden by the thickness of the earth, its deep hives, to which the explosion did not reach and which should have been registered by Mercer's viral location! The strangest and wildest theories were born in Alex's head as he, choking on toxin and often blinking, looked for a way out. In the end, Mercer, knocking out the skewed door, rushed through the clouds of dust to fight back any possible troubles... but immediately bumped into a partially transparent screen. A deep crimson hue, it cut off the smoke and dust that enveloped the smoldering helicopter, and refused to let Mercer continue.

Excited by the pace of events and their diversity, Alex punched the obstacle with his fist. The barrier did not even think to give up, as it turned out to be devoid of elasticity. Striking again and convinced of the uselessness of the force method, Mercer clung to the glassy curtain and narrowed his eyes , peering into the colorful surroundings until the pain in his eyes. What he saw... well, let’s say, could be considered as someone's imposed memory, the delirium of a drug addict, so colorful that Alex's brains went overboard.

The problem was that not a single military and scientist, not those few civilians that he was forced to absorb when the invisible resource of stability ended, and the virus turned on its intelligence jammer...(3) None of these people did not bequeathed to Mercer something so heavy. And it was all as if for real. The arrival would not be so stable and Alex doubted that if any drug had an effect on him, then the mutant could control this vision with full sense of a sober head.

"Well, you can't say that the situation is under my control now," Alex muttered, driving in the barrel of the machine gun and slamming the bolt box.

He captured this standard watcher’s machine gun from the wreckage of the UH-60 along with the emergency package that suffered the least (biscuits and other food from it were absorbed immediately, as soon as the nature of the local living creatures became clear). Flare gun included. Mercer, accustomed to relying on his own strength and survivability, used a firearm only in those cases when it was necessary to suppress a lightly armored enemy, maintaining a distance, the same grenadiers, and therefore rushed to the exit with his bare hands. But after what he saw... his confidence in the justification of his own efforts, let's say, was somewhat undermined. Therefore, Alex decided to take with him everything that could help him in the prevailing back... situation. True, after going underground, the fruit of human engineering needed cleaning.

What did Mercer see at the crash site that shocked him so much? Well, first of all, suddenly, instead of an autumn night, day came on the street. And this sun by no means flooded the landscape familiar to the eye of a seasoned New Yorker. Take at least the squat houses of the frame type, and not the straight rows of towers engulfed in flames of anarchy and infection. Instead of rare walkers - a crowd of four-legged mythical creatures. Much stranger ... mutants. Parodies of intelligent life, and their reaction could not be called anything other than intelligent! Considering their reaction to the fall of a black flying object.

The animal would have run away without looking at the road, but many of them, hiding in all directions, looked out of their hiding places with curiosity. And they spoke! Damn it, their voices were muffled by the dome, but Mercer could hear their language! Real sound code with constructs that create a word, although unlike any other language Mercer has heard of!

I remember very well that no one infected with the «Light» except the Runners spoke clearly. Couldn't even seem sentients. And apart from... me, Alex thought for some reason. Meanwhile, several creatures, instead of keeping the distance, on the contrary, reduced it. Larger than those that Mercer had noticed earlier, with more elongated muzzles, and the plate armor with the centurion's crest was definitely not part of their protective cover. Among them, a smaller individual stood out... and they all had a cone-shaped outgrowth on their heads, just the same making up a single whole with the body. These «horns» shone in the most varied colors, and spears flew around the big ones, captured by auras of the same color.

Okay, for a moment the idiotic thought flashed through me that the shock wave had thrown me all the way to Brooklyn, internally shuddering, Mercer thought. But this is somehow too much even for the inhabitants there... 

It took Mercer's perception no more than a minute to notice the details and process the entire array of information that was collected. But the contradictory conclusions drawn from this information became the last straw - usually preferring to face the problems face to face, the scientist this time just ran away. Alex, deciding that it is possible to go crazy in places more adapted for this, moved away from the barrier, grabbed the first supplies that came to hand and was like that. The evolved one did not break into the «glass» again, trying it for strength, or cowardly hammered into the bowels of the scrap metal that made up the «Hawk». He simply rushed, feverishly working with his newly grown claws, to bury himself underground. Alex could not do it as efficiently as the hydras did, but fountains of soil filled the space of the dome, which covered the helicopter. Fortunately, the dome did not turn out to be a sphere, and no obstacle to the evolved was found underground. Slowly enough, he moved somewhere that Mercer saw as the border of the settlement. His houses stood a little to the side of the fallen helicopter, separated from it by the river, so no obstacles were foreseen...

And now Mercer was already standing in the thicket of the forest, which was spread out not far from the village, and hid the belongings he had taken with him, somehow masking it with grass in a deep ravine. Alex did not know what to think now and what scenario could be called «correct» in the given circumstances.

A pitiful remnant of morality, the concept of "man is a social being" with which Mercer was captured in a helicopter rushing towards the ocean, once again clad in monolithic armor. Alex understood this, and it cannot be said that it somehow bothered him. The much more "advanced" ones were concerned that if everything really happened, he was not on Earth.

In the worst possible scenario, not only will he never return to his normal habitat, but he will never see his sister again. But Alex could not even say goodbye to her! This worried Mercer very much... One thought brought bitterness into his mind - to accept a guaranteed death in order to save the city... But it is quite another to survive and not be able to return to the city to see Dana and the doctor Ragland (to whom Alex felt obligated)!

Not only the absence of information fields prompted Alex that the place in which he had found himself had nothing to do with the good old Earth. The identity, in fact, was, but purely visual: the local grove was similar to the Caroline forests, with the exception of a minimum of conifers. Well, also the magnitude of gravity was almost identical to that of the Earth. Mercer addressed endless requests to the Web of Intrigue, trying to find in the memory of the scientists he had devoured at least something that could clarify the current situation, but the mutant could not draw a single parallel with the data collected by him...

The first is the atmosphere. More rarefied, with a lower refractive index. Absolutely and irrevocably toxic; there was not a hint of oxygen content in it. Now what? Sealed tanks, where you can hide and calmly pull the levers, taking into account what you saw here are unlikely to be found. What, the pinnacle of evolution will have to carry balloons behind his back ?! Alex thought angrily. The evolved one rolled up all the mucous membranes that could absorb the toxin, blocked its analogue of the alveoli, letting gas into the lungs only to fill the vocal cords with sound - the sound came out higher than usual, although he was very far from helium peeping. And all the same... in an economical mode, using only the mass available here and now (the reserve for the same regeneration and devastating attacks, closely related to information technology, disappeared with it), the evolved one had a good day if it was in stock. The gas no longer corroded the man's throat, did not pinch his dry eyes with pieces of ice, but the same brain work consumes tons of glucose. Mercer, having spent another small particle of the reserve, performed an analysis in his chemical laboratory, interspersed with weaving of intestines... The result was no less stunning than the events of half an hour ago.

The local air contained no less than eleven distinguishable components. But the only one that Alex was able to recognize, and which had a fraction of at least a fifth, was beryllium.

Gaseous, so it, beryllium. Damn expensive and extremely toxic metal in this land was, as they say, never breathe. But why, then, he was the usual, quite comfortable outside temperature, and did not boil Mercer in armor alive with vapors red-hot to the state of plasma? To this question Alex, with a certain doom, decided not to look for an answer yet, considering it secondary. Not a survival task for the next day.

Mercer considered the question-and-consequence question to be far more important. Namely, where to get resources to continue the functioning of the platform? Literally everything that surrounded Mercer at that time, the virus did not consider it a living thing. Trees, insects in the air, birds, frog , which Mercer, swiftly throwing out his hand, caught in a ravine, and then stared long and stupidly at the panicked amphibian, enveloped in a cloud of infovirions... and even this ordinary grass underfoot, from which it would be possible to suck out a miserable amount of calories that could be thrown into the furnace, and cellulose to strengthen the armor. All this, no matter how juicy, filled with colors and abstract life it seemed, was inedible. Simply incompatible with viral technologies. Mercer watched the galloping frog with an almost hateful look. A yellow-plated bird sitting in a nearby tree tilted its head to one side and whistled. She did not seem at all frightened by the neighborhood with the person. Something was seriously wrong with the local flora and fauna. From the point of view of both infectiousness and apoptotic abilities of the cells that inhabited Alex's «lymph», (5) it all represented... just an empty space. Eating local animals would be like gnawing stones. Soft, easily breaking, consisting of cells with quite a cytoplasmic gel... but, of course, not replenishing the mass. In the end, evolved, with all their merits and (at the exclusive desire of the individual) theoretical freedom from all shackles, remained a form of life based on carbon, and not, say... silicon. If during these hours Mercer does not find a working solution, then he will have to enter into unprepared contact with the natives... And this, taking into account what he saw, is fraught.

The third question was, perhaps, the same consequence. Shine. What if we assumed that it wasn't just that there was something wrong with the local organic molecules, but at a lower, elementary level, were things no less miraculous? The photons are local, massless particles, either shifting the usual spectrum, or overloading it... Before going on reconnaissance, Alex calibrated his eyes. The tedious riot of colors and the overall brightness significantly reduced the tone, but the saturation of the image remained. Mercer was willing to swear that the current picture of this world could only be seen in idiotic cartoons, that during his adolescence, Saturday blocks were filled. It was... annoying. But it was perfectly acceptable compared to the prospect of an energy hunger strike.

The bird, somewhat reminiscent of Cardinalis, only of a rich yellow hue, issued a couple more trills, after which it flew away somewhere in the direction of the village. Mercer did not like her behavior, which somewhat resembled a Marine detection drone. As soon as I return from the reconnaissance, I immediately take my belongings and go even deeper into the forest, he decided. The fourth question... one might say, was a generalization of the three previous ones. What happened with a Mercer land mine? What kind of place is this that ignores the usual laws of being, and how did the evolved one come to be here? Alex was not ready to give an unambiguous answer, nor to come up with a theory that more or less inspires confidence. Everything around could be a cunning imitation designed to confuse Mercer, but who cares? Not that old Mercer trusted the one-monk name principle, but such an overwhelmed concept is overkill. Moreover, it would not have any effect on a scientist. Since the fall of 2008, Alex was no longer surprised by such nonsense as the complete collapse of the pillars of his life - suppressing the outbursts of emotions, he continued to think logically, scrupulously calculating the options and choosing the optimal moves. This world? measurement? the spatial pocket of the reserve mass? certainly had nothing to do with the afterlife - both in its classical representations and in terms of the fantasies of more modern authors. The fact that the coordinate and abstract principles of his consciousness worked together, without merging into the usual imitation of someone else's consciousness, was the best confirmation of this... Well, the work of chimeras was observed in the body, which had already become a familiar and inseparable part of Mercer. Nothing has hinted that this Alex is different from the fact that eighteen days ago he escaped from the morgue and stabbed both the military and the mutants released through his own fault.

Speaking of chimeras. Mercer, as soon as he got out of the ravine, happened to observe another quirk of the local fauna - and his surprise this time did not grow to shock. The reserve has already ended, where one could be even more surprised today. For in the windbreak, far from the animal paths, a creature wandered into the noise, which could well be mistaken for a mythological chimera... but no, the beast had only one head. But morphologically - the chimera is the most natural: the body of a lion, a huge scorpion tail and leathery wings. If they once belonged to a bat, then the dimensions of a bats of an ordinary person would have plunged into awe. Mercer, standing up to his full height, did not move. Claws were not scary to him - in this creature they were in every way no more dangerous than the claws of a hunter or a penetration by a tank shell. There was an insignificant possibility that in the poison (if the tail of the creature really worked in the manner of a scorpion) there would still be a component that would be able to have a negative effect on the evolved... Again, unintended spending, bringing a hungry coma closer. During the epidemic, having received a free minute or two, Mercer even distantly pondered what would happen if there was not a single source left on Earth from which he could feed his brains, delaying madness; Considering that matter is more mundane, something to feed the body, not the spirit, the planet will always be available. That's irony, now he had a chance to check exactly the opposite case - when there is nothing to work on the platform, and not the mind... But no, Alex was not afraid of the tail either, deciding that he should be faster than a large, more inert monster.

He did not move even when the creature came close, puzzledly jerking and bristling his bright mane. And... the closer it got, the calmer it became. With the last noisy breath sniffing, the mutant looked at the motionless Alex; already quite lazy, feline glance slid along the ravine, where the hiding place had been laid. Throwing out his tongue, the nightmare lion licked his protruding fangs and lightly pushed Mercer in the stomach with his paw - then a little harder, as if trying to pick up a plate of armor with his claws. Alex wanted to touch the rough fur of the animal, but he had already left the object of interest and walked away with a relaxed gait - not at all cautious, as he was approaching the evolved one, with the tail in a fighting stance.

Perhaps... from the point of view of the creature, Alex also did not appear to be a living object and, accordingly, an object of hunting. There is no smell, there is no habitual appearance of prey and demeanor... Not otherwise, the creature showed only curiosity to the «revived sculpture», with which it would be just pleasure to sharpen the claws - Well, the purpose of this is much better served by the trunks of age-old trees. Somehow quite casually experiencing contact with the local dominant predator (Probably. Mercer could not be sure that something more terrible and toothy was not found here), Alex generated a camouflage under the local riot of colors and set off on reconnaissance to the edge of the forest. This was not the case when the introduction of the evolved worked - when walking around in front of everyone in someone else's shell, using the appropriate motor skills and areas of long-term memory, that is to say, is more convenient than just hiding from prying eyes. Even if the aborigines were edible - which Mercer, based on the data already collected, highly doubted - the evolved would not be able to adapt himself and the chimeras inside for a non-humanoid design. Probably so. Of course, until you try it by mouth, you will not know... but it was not possible to try now. If these creatures are really capable of what Mercer noticed out of the corner of his eye... For the same reason, he was not going to pry closer to the houses until nightfall; And so he went beyond the border of the forest, disguising himself among the tall bushes and grasses, freezing at the approach of at least something that was larger than field animals. When a dog ran by - quite similar to an Earth Border Collie - Alex went cold inwardly. He even laid out a tentacle under a layer of scabie (6) , preparing to punch the animal in the throat before it barked to attract the owner's attention... but his newfound chemical «invisibility» coupled with excellent disguise did not disappoint. The dog ran past, intently sniffing at the ground and periodically raising its nose in the wind; Mercer, after waiting for some time, continued to build out of himself a military saboteur-plastun. He had an idea to dispatch the distal part in front of him, the chimera as a drone, as Alex did during the capture by McMullen, but to let a particle of himself, weaker than the whole, and even equipped with a much smaller spectrum of perception, into unknown territory, Mercer considered not the best idea... So, firmly promising himself a bonus in calories for the harmfulness of being in this place, Alex was forced to move forward.

Mercer crawled until he came out on the local inhabitants, who settled down around the «Hawk», which almost fell on their heads. And the first thing that the doctor of biological sciences could say, observing them... no, in those miserable minutes, the first contact did not seem to him at all. These creatures were definitely endowed with intelligence - communicated in an unknown language with long vowels. In the village, apparently, they naturally lived with all the infrastructure they owed, like some kind of people. Around the «Hawk», they deployed something like a search operation: they did not go one by one, here and there were strong-looking creatures that were engaged in a leisurely survey of the surroundings. There were also several individuals in the same armor - apparently, representatives of law enforcement agencies. The xenomorphs were definitely... aware of the presence somewhere in the vicinity of a whole evolved, and did not even skimp on a number of countermeasures. Something told Alex that the villagers would not stop at this - and the set of measures would not be supplemented by an appeal to «expel demons» to the local analogue of the priest, if they have one. Not the worst case scenario, in fact. Aggressive medieval blockheads could be killed like the same warriors, without burdening your conscience with outpourings on the topic of ends and means.

Unless, of course, you take into account... uh, medieval, almost fantasy magic?

Unfortunately, in this respect, Mercer's vision did not fail either. Xeno has fully confirmed the possession of a whole set of supernatural (by the standards of people) capabilities. As Mercer watched, that purple approached the dome, her horn lit up, and the weakening of the barrier was gone. Then she spoke to another creature of a gentle shade of orange so naturally, as if the technology of the force field here (and it really reminded her) was the purest routine, and the creature did not violate a dozen laws of physics right at that moment. The ability to levitate objects, including themselves, was also confirmed: the winged morphs that patrolled the sky kept in the air with an area of ​​plumage clearly insufficient for a more rarefied atmosphere... Well, that is, Mercer, during these days, also learned to stay in the air until its horizontal speed remained, and it had no wings at all. And even if they did, it would be almost impossible to use the swing with the standard Mercer design... a heavy, powerful skeleton, increased muscle density and tolerable aerodynamics, except that when covered with armor, they did not dispose to such an energy-consuming process as flight. Alex had very vague suspicions that his glide was based on an unknown principle of shielding, which turned off immediately as soon as the mutant flew out of the smog that enveloped Manhattan these days... But here, here, what kind of gravity compensated for the winged? What kept them in the air? The atmosphere was clear, suburban clean, if and not to be considered absolute toxicity for Mercer. No signs of spray hives were found... and in general, a rather meager variety, represented by only three morphs, made it possible to decide that these creatures are not mutants like «Light», but the result of a natural process of evolution... Damn it! Yes, if you do not look closely, if you do not pay attention to the calculated size of the buildings, as if on hobbits, and to remove these strange strangers from here, it turned out that Mercer was brought into the most ordinary country settlement with frame-type houses! This could not be, nonsense and surrealism!

And, nevertheless, the creatures were in no hurry to drop out of existence, in spite of all Mercerian «it cannot be» continuing to exist and developing violent activity. Standing for a minute or two under the dome, Alex suspected they were huge cats that would reach the pelvis with the top of his head, wearing hats in places, and for the most part fancy curling wigs - despite the general acidity of the range, the colors of the latter looked quite harmonious with the owner's coat. Sentient cats with outstretched paws and large head on a sufficiently long and agile neck, sometimes winged and horned. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But now, looking more closely, Mercer struggled to keep himself from clutching his head. Everything turned out to be even worse for his already worn-out reason... Small neat jaws, clearly not belonging to a predator forced to tear the dense fibers of meat with his teeth. More protruding profile of the muzzle, large expressive eyes, very poorly defined nasal cartilage; the ear, again, resembled a cat's very distantly... and no signs of many phalanges on the limbs.

This is Zeus that, Alex thought with longing, unblinking gaze drilling an orange specimen that crouched on its hind legs and was explaining something to her companion, actively gesticulating with the front, really got into the myths of Ancient Greece ? Maybe it still seems to me? 

Indeed... If this species had something to do with the family Equidae, then its winged subspecies could well qualify for the definition of «Pegasus». And considering that Mercer recently met an animal in the forest, which human taxonomy could only refer to mythological...

Well, in appearance and especially in behavior you cannot say that they are ponies, of course. Only the clatter of neat, obviously well-groomed hooves, and gives out, sighed to himself Alex. However, not an indicator. People, too, in general terms do not behave like their relatives in the branch of the family... Although the misanthropes, very conditionally including the predecessor Mercer, would probably disagree with me. 

Perhaps all three morphs were exactly that subspecies, despite such significant differences. The same local «standard» dwarf cat horses did not seem to be neotenic juveniles, an early stage in the development of their more advanced forms, stag and pegasus. Alex managed to spot a very small horse with wings on the edge of the settlement, which curiously moved towards the source of universal alarm, but was led away by the watchful mother. Yes, in these sentient beings, sexual dimorphism does not seem to be very different from the higher mammals of the Earth. Heavier bones, wider chest and more evolved musculature in males; in contrast, females put on a slender stature, slightly wider (based on proportions) hips and a riot of hairstyles, including lush tails.

With some part of his brain, Mercer noted that by all this enumeration of familiar terms and new facts, he was giving himself a reprieve. Thus, it fences itself off from chaos, which threatened to swallow Alex's mental activity. At the edge of his mind, feverish scraps of thought flashed and died. This is what I now will you order me to think? the evolved one complained. That the bombing threw me somewhere in the countryside, where unaccounted Gentek mutants live, which are the descendants of local horses? What kind of bestiary of the name of old MacDonald gathered here ?! Then to these questions were mixed with confusion. What should he do? What to do in conditions of such limited resources, unusual uselessness for his body of any thing that constituted the new environment? How, finally, can he return home; what should be done at least to find out how he got here? Do you really have to risk your newly acquired salvation from the inevitable end, rashly bow to the newcomers and hope for the best? The man never trusted the «hope for the best» method - neither the old Alex, nor the new one. No, during the epidemic, with its innumerable set of dangers from both the infected and the military, Mercer did not particularly worry about his own life - it was once commonplace. But now... in order to get the opportunity to return to his usual world, to calculate the moves - to think how to protect himself not from the numerical superiority of terrible creatures and no less terrible executioners in black, but from colored talking horses! How ridiculous is this twist of fate! Mercer suppressed a chuckle that would have smacked a little hysterics if he were verbally embodied.

Still operating in economy mode, Alex moved back, this time making a detour through the gardens and slowly sowing everything around with infovirions. Until the energy reserve approached a third, he could afford it... Maybe he could have hooked at least something suitable for a super-efficient heat engine inside him, which suddenly became so picky at once. And he really managed to detect it - a real trace of oxygen, very close! Having gone further into the field, the evolved one stumbled upon an object that, like much in this place, looks utterly... familiar. Something elongated, small in size, crimson-pink and motley, in appearance - paper. Made of ordinary cardboard, although it was already clear that it was not based on cellulose from the point of view of evolved. For obvious reasons, Alex was unable to make out the letters of the local language, but the drawn sparks, darkened inner walls and a thin piece of wood gave an unambiguous conclusion.

Petard, stated Mercer with such a mental connotation, as if it were a continuation of the local attraction of madness. No, well, maybe, of course, there is also a custom to accompany the festival with fireworks, so it flew into the fields... 

Having received a sample for research that somehow responded to his mentality, Alex ran his finger along the inside of the cardboard tube for a while, after which the intestinum process, (8) made its way through his lumbar fascia, from the owner's hand licked and dragged into the bowels of the peritoneum. 

Mercer «thought» for a while, subjecting the compound to analysis, and then, unable to restrain himself, quietly issued, “The mind is incomprehensible... Kha, what does the powdered oxygen in the rocket?”

Some nonsense came out. Who would use not even liquid, but solid oxygen in some kind of cracker instead of industrial rocketry? Potassium nitrate, ordinary saltpeter, that is, it is much cheaper if the locals get it for the production of gunpowder in at least some similar way... And firearms, meanwhile, were not visible.

It was then that Mercer froze in place. Could it be that... the puzzle was beginning to take shape? Alex crumpled the cardboard in his hand, falling into complete numbness - he became even more motionless than during his disguise, when he pretended to be part of the local flora a dozen minutes ago. He really did have a working theory: perhaps the local elements had half the atomic number, had half the mass. Hence, in particular, the rarefied atmosphere. If the elements correspond in terms of electron-acceptor activity to the Mercer counterparts having the same number... but at the same time exhibit the physical properties of terrestrial elements with twice the mass, then Mercer's oxygen is the usual sulfur for ponies. Alien equine oxygen is actually terrestrial beryllium!

Mercer swallowed a non-existent saliva. His eyes flashed with the contentment of a solved mystery - well, or the development of a concept that temporarily corresponded to the picture of a new world for him. Well, in general, for any person new; Alex deeply doubted that in a world where the intelligent were already represented by zoomorphs, hominids were also able to develop within the framework of the evolutionary doctrine. As for his relationship with the local periodic table, it was not possible, but this is how it seems to work. Their oxygen could not oxidize the fuel, and the lift of the rotor dropped instantly due to the lower density of the atmosphere. But what happened here with the atmospheric pressure, is it very similar to the Earth's? Then it came out... Alex grimaced, rubbing his temples. With an almost audible creak, he was rolling his brains of a new model, considering his assumption. Much more enthusiastically thought that at least now he knew exactly where he should go first...

Alas, a quiet retreat for the implementation of our plans did not work out. Mercer did not know who such a big-eyed was looking for there - maybe he himself lost his guard and gave out a concentration of vapors greater than necessary, and a reddish haze became distinguishable up close. Perhaps this individual was not speaking to him at all... but Mercer decided that it was he who was shouted in an unfamiliar language. Deciding that it was useless to pretend to be a rag anymore, and until the whole population ran to the flyer's cries, Mercer threw up his head - and saw how the pseudo-pegasus was staring at the stranger, who no longer hid his presence. Judging by the shape of the muzzle and the lightweight build, the female is the color of sky blue with a variegated, rainbow-colored mane. Mercer noticed her a couple of times in the sky at the moment when he was approaching the village. This individual was very fast - in the blink of an eye she was removed from the place to disappear behind houses or get close to a group of other pegasus. She shouted something again in a hoarse voice, frowning quite humanly and pointing at him with her front foot.

Behold the devil, the evolved thought darkly, it started. 

Alex jumped on the spot, grouping with equal zeal as he burst with a cannonball into the ranks of the opponents. Rolling up the camouflage coat, the look of which he gave to his scabie formatam, the mutant rushed back into the forest, completely forgetting about the moderate waste of calories. Diffusing into the air with an ergonomic gray lightning, Mercer pursued only one goal: to prevent falling under the local telepathy, it is still unknown how it would have worked on him. Breaking the distance was more important than trying to maintain camouflage and what a evolved pursuit could equip. The glass cutter, as he had already mentally christened the pegasus for her raspy voice, flashed somewhere in the field of lateral vision, and did not even think to lag behind. She even tried to block his path, to direct him in the other direction... Mercer was really lucky that there were no other pegasus next to her who could play as a team of beaters. The fact that the winged one rolled to the side when Alex did not slow down, taking her on a ram, reassured the mutant: perhaps a sentient (both literally and figuratively) horse really feared that it would be rushed into it at such a speed. Mercer's truck, rushing under its honest hundred miles, could not budge - let alone a living creature of flesh and blood would have crashed against him into a bloody mess with fragments of bones. Although, taking into account their abilities, the same telekinesis and levitation, with which Alex until today has not had a chance not only to feel on himself, but also to see... Not a fact, not a fact. A tactical retreat, as always during an encounter with the intelligent-menacing unknown, was the best solution. This was clearly not the case when the «I don't know what you are, but I know I will kill you» tactic worked.

The pursuit of Mercer never took place. It is unlikely that they lagged behind him, and it is unlikely that the azure one was afraid to fly at high speed between the trees, given what miracles of maneuverability she showed - rather, the locals tried not to climb into the forest. Well, considering that here it was so easy to run into a giant poisonous cat... Nevertheless, grabbing his stash in his arms, Alex ran further, tangling his tracks. Already at cruising, moving through the thicket, he stuck straight into a thicket of blue flowers - obviously toxic for Mercer, since he was noticeably sick. Cursing the local nature, where, wherever you go, you will certainly be met by chemical weapons, Alex shook himself off the thorns of the already quite ordinary blackthorn and undertook another race. Exactly until then, he ran, until the wolves made of wood followed him.

Nature, when I thought “What else can you surprise me with here?” it was a complaint, not a suggestion, gritted his teeth with Alex. He has already spent b o most of his reserve, and therefore made the only correct decision. Reasoning that the further into the thicket he will run, the more delirious (although much more already) and more dangerous the forest will begin to throw surprises at him, there was only one option - to stop and get ready for his plan. If these creatures were related to dogs not only in appearance and habits, but also in innate qualities, stopping was... permissible. Mercer flew up the tree, clawing at the bark. He noted with a grin that the arboreal biomechanoids hadn't followed; like ordinary wolves, they took the tree in a ring, howling and getting up on its hind legs, as if they had driven a squirrel or some other tenacious living creature onto its paws.

Once the doctor of genetic sciences, this alignment was quite satisfied. Having put in order his poor belongings, he sat down to disassemble and clean the machine gun. Alex's thoughts were still gloomy, but the outlined plan, a series of meaningful actions that had to be performed to rectify the state of affairs of his own, brought some order to the general... confusion caused by this world. Again, Mercer was not going to waste time, pulling out a map of the area from under the gaze of the local people. All he had to do was take the virion search tracks downwind and find the nearest swamp. Not that he would suddenly be impatient to buy moonshine from horse rednecks, if they really lived there. It's just that the sulfur content in peat bogs could reach ten percent - but it's good if there were one or two for Mercer. This was the best chance if the mutant did not want to face the aborigines unprepared. Shouldn't he have plundered the stocks of fireworks from the local organizers of anniversaries and funerals? Although... also a thought. But in this strip of vegetation there had to be somewhere to find a swamp with much more significant reserves, it had to be... And the local sulfur as a universal oxidizer was far from the most interesting guess that was spinning in his head, yes. Alex snorted cold beryllium plasma, pushing in the tape and jerking the bolt. When in Belvedere Castle an army transport man tore off his arm with a Bushmaster shell, and it grew back in a matter of ten seconds, Alex thought that the power of metabolic processes evolved in numbers is not inferior to a nuclear power plant. But if his superficial, non-foreman This theory is correct at its core, and the regularity of the periodic table extends to other elements, then... from his point of view, the local aborigines should seem no less eccentric. They are all walking atomic bombs. Well, nuclear combustion of lithium, is it known?

“Well,” almost casually summed up the line Mercer, taking one of the overgrown weeds below at the sight, “it remains only to check whether the usual chemistry works with my usual matter as it should. Who knows... Maybe my flesh has not come off my bones until now only because my body works more... adapted to local realities. I wonder if I will ever be able to find out everything, what the virus is capable of?”

The short burst only provoked the quasi-wolf: 5.56 bullets inflicted minimal damage on the tree, swelling the fibers and covering the animal's body with a network of cracks. But the machine gun worked as the engineers who created it intended: without access to the local air, the Earth's chemicals calmly reacted and released the necessary energy. The creatures were not frightened by the shots; it looks like the pieces of metal stuck in the wood only made them angry. Mercer, almost pacified by the result, put the M249 aside and aimed down the flare gun.

The wolf took up the flames, darted among his fellows, smoking steam from the damp wood - his brothers shied away as if death itself had passed them by. Alex jumped down, and the blow that followed the sticky landing was terrible. An armored fist chopped up the wood on the head of the nearest creature, so that the chips flew in all directions. The wolf died instantly - well, or finished his parody of life, showered with a pile of branches.

“Well, we must have run away,” Alex muttered under his breath, throwing a machine gun over his shoulder and looking after the frightened yapping flock. Thinking, he took off the pit, snaking between the trees in an economical mode. The route was calculated so as to move at an average distance from the border of the forest, along the river. One of its tributaries could well have originated in a swamp... With a machine gun behind its back and an emergency package in hand, no more than fifty miles per hour was the speed of the evolved one - but this was quite enough to throw information carriers upward in the spaces between the trees, beyond the crowns... Shooting a dry gaze at the most unfriendly shadows that were buried in the thicket, Alex would not have let himself be caught by surprise. There is no such convenient information environment for the virus? There is no habitat at all familiar to his human experience? Spit. What the hell are telekinetic horses to him? Mercer single-handedly left such a hole in the military budget of the most powerful country in the world that it would take all the power of the US printing press to patch it up. He has already entered into a battle with what people could see until the fall of 2008 only in Hollywood bad taste or some other fiction similar to them. He will most likely win, and this time, he will emerge victorious - no matter how much blood has to be shed. However... this should have been avoided until Alex could say for sure what the zoomorphs were, and until they showed open aggression. Not that Mercer was concerned about the peaceful pioneering of a new intelligent species by mankind - in general, after the revelations of Cross, Alex could call himself a human only with a rough assumption.

Well... Wherever you look, there are restrictions that he imposes on himself, guided solely by his common sense. Well, so what? Genius was often born in constrained circumstances, and his predecessor was already a genius.

He will return to his sister. He will certainly find a way to get out of the place where he managed to hide from a nuclear explosion. And if it turns out that Alex Mercer found himself here by the intrigues of not some higher powers, to which hands will be short for a very long time, but the magical ponies he saw at first glance... he will make them return everything as it was. Mercer thought he had means of persuasion of a wide variety of calibers and characteristics. He will thank for the salvation - and then very, very politely ask them to kick out of this nightmare of the epileptic back into his dimension, or as in terms of quantum mechanics, you can also call the states of the universes. Then he will ask a little less politely. Then another - and so on until the expected result is achieved.

If the refueling turns out in the remaining day (save Mercer from the need to devour his own limbs and secondary systems in order to last longer!), Already at dusk he will be able to visit the notion town. It was necessary to somehow return to the wreckage of the Hawk and grab what Mercer needed, but then his hands did not reach. Necessarily necessary - maybe Alex was, finally remembering his former self, primarily an expert in genome theory, but he unpacked some knowledge of helicopter pilots, including on debugging on-board electronics. “The armored personnel carrier of the Marine Corps consists of 19 main systems and more than 25,000 parts. In the next 8 months, you have to learn them all ”, hmm. Even if, according to the new idea, for the sake of this it will be necessary to enter into direct contact with the locals. Save their local gods to show hostility... Because if Mercer is cornered, he will have to show hostility in return.

The prototype of the most advanced military machine, equipped with a human shell and, by some oversight, found itself in the world, which was the last to need military action, and got down to work.
> Survivor Type - 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the eighteenth of Sweltember, and the day was drawing to a close. The sky was cloudless in summer. Ponyville weather brigade worked out their budget conscientiously, not even knowing that a whole princess would come to visit them. Only a couple of mischievous curly clouds drifted away somewhere behind the hills, driven by a warm wind... The air was filled with the breath of spruce and oak groves and there was no need to filter it with spells, as in the industrial districts of Trottingham. The rains, silvery meadow grasses with dew, were pure in the true, not factory-Cloudsdale sense, and that purity could be tasted with its refreshing coolness. The lands near the Eternal One, this great source of free magic, only intensified the feeling of unity with nature, so that the local hills and fields did not know peace from the prolific life... It seemed that one could lie down on the lush grass and do absolutely nothing, until the end of time enjoying this splendor.

Celestia loved being here in Ponyville, which invariably awakened in her soul a song of nostalgia for the good old days. Then, after a series of Dark Years and the establishment of true Harmony, many ponies left their homes to find refuge in the sunny and welcoming lands. Founded by the Smith clan many years later, and then inhabited by other venerable families, the town was the embodiment of serenity and simple happiness. Everything here exuded optimism. There were no herds of carriages and office clerks in these parts, always in a hurry about their business and, it seemed, did not notice all the white light around, like on Mainhattan. The cheerful bustle and pandemonium of Las Pegasus, noisy and satiated, did not circle around. The inflated dandies and rakes from among the unicorn aristocracy did not turn up their noses, the theoreticians and practitioners of magic did not gather their gloomy professional councils in order to discuss questions of materialism, transfiguration and chronological existence for hours on end. If it were not for the responsibility to her little ponies and the affairs of the state, the diarch would gladly spend a vacation in this wonderful place...

Well, here you are not enveloped in a suppressive-magic cocoon just because you wanted so much for your niece in order to have a fun wedding, Celestia smiled to herself as the pegasus in her harness began to descend over the city. Friendship, seemingly invisible bonds, united the whole of Ponyville. In the darkest days, the inhabitants did not leave their neighbors alone, invariably supporting each other, and again the carefree laughter and music of Harmony flew upward, destroying the discord.

It smelled of apples and coniferous forests, rye and hay, sweets. Here lived pretty filly and glorious stallions, cheerful and hard-working, who knew better than anyone that there is no grief-reliever better than a helping hoof given to another pony. Celestia is not the only one who would like days in such an atmosphere of exceptional comfort to last as long as possible. If it were not for respect for her sister and the established order, which was only violated by the reincarnation of Nightmare, Celestia could have postponed the sunset, giving all sentient ponies here a little more time to raise their mental tone and just have fun.

However, today the Equestrian mistress could delay the onset of darkness not out of personal preference, but because of the notorious responsibility. In the dark, as you know, it is much easier to bury everything gray, unknown and possibly dangerous... And in Ponyville This time the princess of the Day was brought not by the cake baking and their signature brewing, but by something more serious. The sensitive scent of the alicorn, on approaching, felt the tart smell of burning - not too strong, but alarming in its own way. And the town itself, floating under the carriage, looked unusual: rare ponies moved in short dashes only to dive into the house and close the door tightly behind them. The shops lowered their windows, the stalls were locked up everywhere, the foals with their ringing laughter and games were not at all visible, the songbirds, it seemed, had fallen silent, fearfully crouching in the tops of the trees. Run through the stirrup street tumbleweed, and pure Fillidelphia from the times of the invasion of parasprites there will come out. The only thing missing is the croaking strumming of an Appllusian guitar, the disturbing play of a harmonica and the rhythmic beat of hooves to complete the picture...

This is not to say that Celestia did not approve of such measures. Moreover, Lieutenant Pin Spare certainly did not give the impression of a green recruit who needs the slightest excuse to play the war.

The emergence from another world of a flying machine with a creature that managed to survive the crash of this machine without any magic and give her a break was reason enough to shift all urgent matters to her sister Luna, who was still asleep, grumbling. Celestia couldn't help but smile as she remembered the look on her face when her sister threw a stack of documents and letters onto her bedside table and declared, "I'll definitely get some fruit for you on my way back!" and gracefully dodging the telekinesis-thrown pillow. Such exquisite experience has been cultivated over the centuries of their sistership... Anyway, Celestia began to prepare for an urgent visit to Ponyville.

The princess saw fit to bring several squads of guards with her, in addition to the fact that Twilight had to support - if not for safety, then for the peace of the people of Ponyville. They all landed in the market square, as deserted and devoid of the usual bustle. While the unicorns and the pegasus carrying them briskly lined up in boxes and listened to the captain's directions, Celestia spoke with a local government official.

Madame Mayor sadly assured her that the city would be able to handle the next troubles on its own, without distracting the diarch from matters that were undoubtedly much more important, but Celestia allayed her concern with a few general phrases. In the end, Twilight was the crown's personal apprentice, and Celestia herself approved of the ritual, and therefore had to make sure everything went smoothly. Well, or, as now, eliminate the consequences and minimize the negative reaction of the subjects ...

Madame Mayor went with a messenger to the town hall, and as soon as the guardsmen briefly reported "Roger that, Your Highness", scattered among the patrols, including air, Celestia, along with Shining Armor, walked past the tents to the range. The turquoise of the warding sphere was still visible from afar, but Celestia's eyes were invariably attracted by the confectionery signs, including rustic flower cakes. True, enterprising merchants fled at the time of the crash of the rotary-wing ship, and together with all their goods ...

Celestia sighed, spreading her wings and furtively looking to see if she had put on a couple of extra pounds. True, the pastries and the fruits of the labor of their little subjects, which Luna loved so much, will wait. Business comes first. Accompanied by a pensive captain, the princess went to the crash site, beyond which began a vast meadow and thicket. Stopped by the protective shield of the unicorns and covered with a sphere, the rotorcraft still remained a black, smoking trail on the ground, while at the same time it made the surrounding grass smolder, which had already been reliably extinguished and was only peacefully smoking, spreading the smell of burning and wet steam.

The machine itself was a pile of wreckage; the wings and propellers were broken, and the hull was crumpled, bursting in places, so that the rotorcraft turned into a twisted heap of metal. It didn’t at all resemble the pedal-powered aeronautics that unicorns and earth ponies sometimes used to visit Cloudsdale — it was a grim mass, and the jagged edges of the metal, like jagged teeth, only intensified the rejection. A grotesque sight that did not fit into the pastoral rural landscape at all...

Twilight at the dome almost jumped with impatience, apparently noticing the crews that had flown in through the air, and she was ready to rush towards Princess Celestia, but it was beyond her strength to escape the readings of the sensors.

Then she saw her brother: "Shining!" exclaimed the unicorn. "Are you here too?"

“Hello, Twiley,” the captain of the guard hugged her, removing his helmet and smiling cheerfully. “As I see, you don't get bored here... Maybe this is such a property of your friendly company? As soon as you arrive at the palace, everyone gets up and everything flies around!”

“Yeeeeeeeee! The big kind captain is with us again!” Pinky shouted, unexpectedly jumping up the unicorn on a wide back, clad in armor, and starting to jump happily on it. “Now we will catch this little coward in no time, feed him a sweet pie for courage and give him a party in honor of his arrival in Equestria! How is Princess Mi Amore doing in marriage? Oh, and hello to you, Princess!”

“Princess!” gasped Twilight, as if remembering something very important. She instantly wrenched herself out of her brother's arms and rushed to her mentor. “I really really didn't want it to work out like this! I really didn't think that...

“I believe, my dear student,” Celestia replied softly.

An exchange of pleasantries followed, Twilight's best friends included, as each of them expressed their respect to the diarch with their own brands of affection. The princess liked these ponies, as they did not look for benefits for themselves in friendship with Celestia's student and did not try to fake their feelings in order to attract royal attention to themselves. Well, apart from that harmless and mostly unworthy of attention scuffle over a ticket to the Gala... The fact that the little talented recluse has a circle of acquaintances who are always ready to help and share their opinions with Twilight, no matter how far away her mentor was, warmed Celestia's heart. There were also non-ponies in there: Spike, who was sitting on a box of magocapacitors, had established friendly relations with the nerdy unicorn since childhood. Owlowiscious, Twilight's pet, in turn, hooted politely from the top of the reciever antenna.

Lieutenant Spare, who was calmly waiting for the greeting session to be over, saluted as soon as Celestia turned to him, after she finished discussing the taken safety measures with Twilight.

“Your Mightiness. Captain,” he saluted Shining already, looking with some surprise at Pinky, who sat on his back, to whom the guardsman for some reason let go of such liberties.

"Lieutenant, you set a curfew as soon as the creature escaped from the dome?" Celestia asked. "There were reasons for that? Frankly speaking, from the letter of my student, I could not decide that Ponyville so immediately needs restrictive measures..."

Noticing that Pin Spare was embarrassed, obviously starting to go over his own actions in his mind for their correctness, the Princess of the Day calmly added:

“Nobody blames you, I just ask you to allow my own ignorance. While there were arguments and gatherings in Canterlot, I received a second letter from Twilight, but it only spoke about the nature of the machine and some essays about this creature from another dimension. You also found footprints that led to the forest... Something happened that I did not take into account?”

“While you were on your way, Your Grace,” the lieutenant nodded, “we actually found the place where the creature came to the surface of the earth. Quite on the edge of the forest, so there was no need to think too much... In addition, Miss Fluttershy reported that one of her singing acquaintances saw an alien in the ravines by the river, hiding his things. Surely he picked them up among the wreckage of the car... We, of course, then checked, but apart from his traces there was nothing there.”

The pink-haired pegasus nodded somewhat embarrassedly and, turning to the nearest bushes, whistled. A bird immediately fluttered out of there and settled on its head, its screaming yellow plumage harmoniously combining with the delicate shade of Fluttershy's fur. A little cautiously, the birdie glanced at Owlowiscious, but the latter merely lifted his bushy eyebrows and sank into slumber again. Spike barely stifled a yawn, releasing tongues of green flame from her nostrils, and Applejack pushed her hat over her eyes, melancholy chewing on a blade of grass and blinking sleepily; today, rich in out-of-bounds events, has definitely worn out the Ponyville dwellers. Except, perhaps, Rainbow Dash - that intrusion into the measured rural life of an alien from other worlds was perceived as a long-awaited adventure, judging by the wide grin.

The bird chirped something in its own language, after which Fluttershy nodded and addressed the princess: "Princess. Chuck told me that the first time ... this two-legged creature was worried. It did not know where to go ... it seemed that he was about to run in a panic in circles. And after his appearance, Chuck flew to a very loud crackling in the forest and howling of tree wolves ... Other forest dwellers said that he was already moving purposefully, as if he knew exactly where to go. He has entered deep into the Ever-Free Forest!" Fluttershy winced, but then looked at Celestia with a kind of hidden determination. Exhaling as if gaining strength, the beast-lover spoke quickly: “Princess, we must help him! He is harmless, just scared and does not know how to behave... He did not harm anyone, even just ran away from Rainbow! If he chose to meet with the inhabitants Ever-Free Forest. One, he probably does not understand us at all. It is necessary to somehow show that the ponies are not his enemies!”

Celestia saw perfectly well that the pegasus of the kindest soul was not afraid of a mysterious stranger, whom she did not even have a chance to see, and not that the ponies around were agitated, but the uncertainty and chaos of the Ever-Free Forest. And also the fact that someone's life in his thicket could be endangered. Even if it was a strange, lanky, alien like no one else. If anyone should have been entrusted with the fate of Discord, to show him that life is not only eternal fooling around and pranks, from harmless to rather evil, and to convince him to moderate his ardor, then only Fluttershy. The problem was not the chaos itself, but its excess. With too much order, even such a wonderful place as Equestria will turn into a quagmire of inexpressiveness and laziness, boring, like an evening at the next Gala. Without a bit of chaos, there is no place for the birth of new phenomena - in chaos, as the clearest example of this, life was born. Fluttershy, on the other hand, could well go beyond the generally accepted framework, accept and understand someone who violates the established order of ponies and does not see anything wrong with it; the element, which Harmony chose her to incarnate, spoke for itself...

Judging by the frowning of her eyebrows, Twilight was fundamentally disagreeing with her friend. And she did not fail to voice her own position: “Fluttershy, you seriously?” Twilight said skeptically. “Harmless? It seems to me that "harmlessness" is not the thing that magoevolution develops in parallel with the ability to survive with the most severe bodily injuries and the speed available only to the best of the prize racerunner!”

“That's right, dear! Moreover, it went underground like an iron through folds of fabric, and underground creatures... fi, they are still rude ones, just like their element!” Rarity snorted, remembering something with an expression of obvious disgust on her face.

“N-no… I meant that…” Fluttershy quickly retreated, her cheeks pinkish desperately. “I didn't want to, if that!”

“Rara, Twi, stop pushing!” stood up for her friend Rainbow, flying closer. “Maybe he is something like a giant upright turtle, all the same in armor except for the head was chained! Tank won just like that you can't get it, with his shell, and he won't hurt a fly! True, for a turtle, this two-legged one has gotten too fast...”

“Oh! What if he's actually a highly organized parasprite, thrown towards us in order to reduce the Equestrian strategic stocks of cakes and marshmallows?!” The pink pony chef jumped up in horror on Shining's back at once. “Horrible! I urgently need to check...”

“It’s unlikely, sugar,” the farmer besieged her with true phlegmatism, spitting out a blade of grass. As often happened, she listened more than she spoke, and if she wanted to intervene, she expressed herself strictly to the point. Trouble in Ponyville because of another Twilight experiment? Just think... Not the first time, ponies will cope with everything if they put in a little more effort than usual. Applejack paused and explained to the audience: “I trained Winona on these scoundrels so that it would be discouraging for them to meddle on the farm. She didn't smell anything, so everything is fine. Not a parasprite, whatever it is.”

“Ah, well then, good!” instantly perked up pink bouncy. “I already thought that my tail does "vzhzhzhzh" and "derg" because this alien decided to rob Sugar Corner and take out all our supplies, making the simplest saline solution from sugar and immediately using it! Probably the tail is just happy that we are all here today!”

“Pinky, I don’t mind trusting your instinct, especially after how many times it has helped us out… but what weirdo needs your entire assortment?!” Twilight wondered. “It will burst in the most natural way!”

“Maybe these otherworldly aliens have a very good appetite, and their grannies are the happiest grannies in the world!” Pinkie Pie said instructively. “Imagine: grandsons always eat porridge to the end!”

“Often - along with the plates...” snorted the dragon, for which the assimilation of inorganics was a matter of habit.

“... and grannies!” the air gymnast burst out laughing, in whose vision the picture of the otherworldly meal seemed to come out hilarious.

“Rainbow!” the yellow pegasus was horrified. “Shame on you, it's not funny!”

“It's okay, Fluttershy,” Celestia thought it necessary to continue with a chuckle. “My little pony, did you say something about the alien escaping from Rainbow Dash?”

“Ah... this?” the pegasus flapped its wing, letting go of the bird, and that with a cheerful chirp flew away towards the forest, getting ready for bed. “M-maybe the lieutenant will tell you about this further?” the begging-shy expression on Fluttershy's face would not leave anyone indifferent. “Please..?”

Naturally, Celestia had already turned to Pin Spare. It was not with pincers that they had to pull from Fluttershy word by word, when she had already reached the ceiling of determination and said everything that she considered necessary to report to the guards? The last thing Celestia was going to do in this life was to abuse the psyche of her little subjects...

With a nod, the lieutenant began to present a short excerpt: “Be that as it may, Your Grace, after arranging his things in the ravine, the creature returned. Miss Fluttershy, thanks to the birds, found out that it carried with it a device vaguely similar to those that were attached to the crashed rotorcraft, only a reduced resemblance. We assumed that the creature could return to the car for something else, so we set up a guard. Two guards, sent together with Spare to watch the ritual, agreed to hit the shafts of their spears against each other. We hoped to manage only by attracting the weather brigade and alerting the residents... However, the creature, apparently, caught sight of the guards and did not contact us. It only used her stealth skills to spy on the inhabitants of Ponyville.”

“I told you, Dash.” Twilight said quietly but reproachfully. “You have to be more cunning! If you pretended not to notice him, you could tell the weather brigade and take it together... You could finally tell me, and I would immediately teleport there, enclose the area in a protective sphere!”

“Twilight!” Fluttershy protested. “You can't just shut down living beings in the spheres! He hasn't done anything bad to us!”

“If he doesn’t realize that he cannot survive in a world with a different percolation matrix without our help, then it’s better that way!” anxiously bit the lip of the unicorn. She, too, was definitely worried (albeit in a different vein) that a stranger, pulled out of her homeworld through her fault, could die here. “And in general, this is all in the name of science! When else will there be a chance to establish contact with a representative of a technically advanced civilization? Maybe the two-legged with his machines will do just fine without us and will be lost forever in Equestria! Catch him later...”

“Always you, Twi, in your nerdy style you think to turn everything.” Muttered Rainbow Dash, but somehow without a fuse, as if admitting partly her puncture. “Where is all the fun? Did you really think that I, the coolest pegasus in Equestria, wouldn't want to compete with a new kid? If not to blow it up, then at least in terms of speed? There they.” Rainbow waved vaguely towards the protective dome. “Should definitely know a lot about entertainment, since a stranger rushed so easily after he was supposed to break into a cake! Can't you see it from that angle? All you have is some kind of digital literacy, squiggles...”

“No!” Celestia's student shook her head vigorously. “I never wanted to drive at crazy speeds and fight! With very, very, very rare exceptions!”

“That’s your problem.” Pegasus said authoritatively. “If you suddenly acquire wings, you will sing in a different way! And a stranger, bless you, took the acceleration when he tried to break away from me, yes, only the flanks sparkled!” Rainbow snorted with laughter, throwing back the swirls of her bright rainbow mane. “Runs for the ground with stunned what a decent speed! If nature did not deprive him of his endurance either, he would take the first prize in the Autumn Race for sure!” stopped short and realizing that this could belittle her own achievements, Dash instantly changed her tone from enthusiastic to patronizingly indifferent: “Well, while I'm in the air, this cornstalk definitely has no chance! So we'll see who wins.”

“Rainbow Dash, do not try to climb to him again!” Twilight exclaimed angrily. “And if he again deliberately swoops in on you, and you do not have time to dodge? We still don't know how he thinks and what he thinks! Don't make sudden mistakes, please!”

“Don't make mistakes?!” Rainbow chuckled. “Excellent advice for those who are not afraid of mistakes, Twi! This is all nonsense, he was not going to ram me! He saw perfectly well that I could fly around him once or twice, that at any moment I could jump to the side, so he just took it weakly.”

"Oh ya? It turns out that our brave Rainbow Dash gave it to some stranger weakly?" Applejack said with a smirk on her face.

"Ummm... Yes, this fool himself could not have walked away!" Rainbow immediately denied it, looking at the earth pony with ill-concealed discontent. “I really did him a favor! If he crashed into me, he would face the uncontrollable blow of my strong wings, and he would be bad! What will the other ponies think? He just raced like a wild mustang, and then fell off some friendly poke! The first impression, most importantly, could not be taken for some kind of weakness! How else to dissolve all this diplomacy of yours?!" Rainbow ruffled the fur on her chest and placed her front hooves at her sides as if she were about to defend her position.

"How interesting..." Said the local trendsetter, and playfully blinked her eyelashes. “But nevertheless, my dear Rainbow, if all this were only part of the performance, so that this ... creature would not crash its muzzle into the dirt in front of us, why would you fly back in maximum excitement? And while everyone heard you shouting: "I was almost knocked off my feet by a hefty alien!" and "Have you seen how he runs, just amazing?"

“Khe! Rarity!” Сhoking with indignation, the sports pony soared into the air. “You are not helping!”

The Princess of the Day received the lieutenant's report, while listening to the friendly squabble with sincere amusement. Messengers from the Cakes brought pastries and tea, medium infusion, with hints of prunes; to taste, well, in no way comparable to the variety that was served to Celestia in the palace, but possessing this wonderful zest of simplicity. Everything got better with a cup of such a truly divine brew... and a piece of cake.

In general, the diarch got an idea of ​​the situation: in her vision, the alien turned out to be too strong and self-sufficient to accept the hoof of help and regard the other sentient ones around him as the only ones who can save his life. Then, bewildered, he wanted to find out at least something about the place in which he found himself, and moved to Ponyville, but there Rainbow Dash frightened him off with her overwhelming pressure... that all this confusion would soon settle down and end in peace... There was, however, a lot of incomprehensible things in this story. And Celestia had no choice but to build versions until this two-legged man was able to talk. How did he turn out to be the point of application of the ritual, and even on a complex, physically vulnerable aeronautical apparatus, and why was this case the last in the history of that world? Why did the stranger go into the wild forest so easily? Did he have everything he needed to survive in this unadapted world for him? Finally, what will be the reaction of the two-legged to the fact that he will no longer go back, as they did not want to take Twilight's diplomatic greeting to the other side?

The last question was especially acute for Celestia. In the actions of her student, undoubtedly, there was no malice, but the very fact that Twilight Sparkle pulled out from another world an intelligent creature, who did not count on it at all, could not have the best influence on the sensitive unicorn. So far, Twilight's thoughts were undoubtedly centered around the very fact of a successful ritual; the perspectives he could open and the challenges that a stranger could throw down to her intellect. But what will happen then when the filly considers the ethical side in millet, will see in what happened the responsibility for someone else's ruined life, albeit in a lightened form?

It would be an important life lesson that Celestia hoped Twilight would have a long way to go... After the wedding in Canterlot, the princess apologized to her student, whose arguments she so lightly dismissed, counting on the protection of the capital. The unknown, capable of hiding right next to you, turned out to be a hundred times more dangerous than the many threats that Celestia faced during her long reign...

After exchanging assurances of mutual trust, Twilight showed nothing that she began to value her mentor less: she still shared her thoughts and talked in letters about what she's been doing this week. The ritual of inter-world travel captured the whole unicorn, and Celestia felt in the messages, usual for Sparkle in such cases, the tension of the task, the inspiration. It was hoped that Twilight this time too would not accumulate a burden of heavy thoughts in his soul until it ended with something unpleasant, but would turn to Celestia for advice... after all, today she notified the mentor immediately. Good sign.

“We also believe, Your Grace, that the creature cannot be detected by standard spellcasting techniques, just as its crew was not enchanted by Miss Twilight's enhanced levitation matrix.” Pin Spare continued, meanwhile. “On our second escape from Ponyville, we threw a couple of standard paralysis and recognition spells after him, but none of them even noticed him. The creature is capable of changing its outer coverings in an unspecified range, but definitely with great speed; they were removed under the armor in a matter of a couple of moments.” As if apologizing, the lieutenant added: “And it does it quite naturally, Your Grace. Miss Rainbow recognized his disguise only when the stranger moved, and there is no doubt about the vigilance of the eyes of the leader of the local weather brigade.” Rainbow proudly put her hooves on her hips when she heard these praise words addressed to her, but Spare had already moved away from the topic: “He recreated unfamiliar vegetation with great accuracy. The color and texture were completely consistent with the original ... We think that a foreigner is able to recreate the appearance of other objects if his transformation is based only on visual similarity. Perhaps the looks of other ponies too," The officer finished his report.

Celestia nearly choked on a piece of cake. Shining Armor, who still had fresh memories of his own wedding, reacted in a similar vein, although he spent most of it in an enchanted state. The rest of the ponies also began to suspect something...

“Only alien changelings we lacked, which cannot be detected by conventional methods!” The captain of the guard finally squeezed out. “If so, then every boulder, every stump of suspects can be recorded! Pinky, please get down, you will flatten me...”

“And I do not lean on baked goods at all!” the pink pony stuck out her tongue, but she jumped off Shining's back. “I am light as a feather!”

Considering that Pinky could ride like a mountain goat, it was hard not to believe her. Celestia chewed a piece of cake on the machine and washed it down with a good sip of tea, then refilled her cup. Spare, realizing that things could turn out to be a little worse than expected, went into detailed explanations - what, where, when and how, and why Pinkie gave him the whole story about Zekora, who had a couple of biscuits and a balloon wrapped in Sugar Corner in the morning. Celestia sipped her drink slowly, hoping that her favorite flavor and aroma would drive away the disturbing thoughts. Without magic, a foreigner could not be a changeling, of course, but the very fact of controlling his appearance opened up many... probable threats to Celestia. And if you add to this unconditional stamina and physical strength, if his car did not have some incredible means of rescue in an accident, then... Judging by the conversation of other ponies, not all of them were worried that the alien might turn out to be something like a werewolf stealing love...

Fluttershy shyly assumed that a stranger without magic could disguise himself in the image and likeness of a chameleon, and these reptiles have always been distinguished by a meek disposition. Rainbow Dash was delighted at all: even though the creature did not look like a beetle, now the pegasus had an excellent reason to blow it up and, thus, measure its strength. Twilight recklessly argued with Rarity, who had gone into quiet panic, making up arguments on the go why the alien, although he towered over ordinary ponies as much as a whole height, could not be the alien Queen of the changelings, just as he did not resemble an ordinary individual. Applejack, despite her drowsiness, with all her appearance showed confidence in herself and her allies - where is the alien to the fortitude of the earth ponies and the harmony of the Ponyville in general. And Pinkie Pie... well, she was just Pinky. Celestia's view of the situation with the everlasting spirits of the pastry chef, of course, could not coincide, despite the solidarity in the same plan of love for baking.

“Twilight, be so kind.” after thinking a little more and, finally, putting the cup on bottom, turned to the student Celestia. “Remove the barrier.”

“O-of course, princess...” Twilight responded a little nervously. “I didn’t try to disassemble this jumble before your arrival… There… do you understand?”

“I know, my little pony.” Celestia smiled affectionately. “Don't worry, this... This mess won't affect me in any way.”

“Are you sure, Your Grace?” Pin Spare snapped up immediately. “We scanned everything. Nothing that could pose a threat, no toxic substances that could react, but still...”

“It's all right, Lieutenant. I just need to check something out personally.” Celestia muttered as Twilight swirled the removal matrix quickly. Okay, Tia, it's time to shake things up and revive some experimental magic techniques for a change. Let's hope that Swirl's apprenticeship was not in vain, the princess sighed to herself. Twilight, the rarest fusion of intelligence and kindness, the most talented young sorceress that Celestia has ever met, did a good job on the machine... For example, she established with the help of an independently developed flux crusher that the body of the device from the point of view of magic was rather a non-metal with an admixture of magnesium, although physically showed the properties of the best steel. Celestia wanted to look at the crash site from her own thousands of years of experience, believing that some of the details the unicorn simply did not consider outstanding. In the end, Celestia would always have time to turn to Neighsay and his moth-touched singers, as well as other Canterlot wiseacres, if openness and friendliness suddenly fail, and outrageous conservatism mixed with paranoia is needed.

Using sections of her own protective barriers, Princess Celestia slowly, with a terrible grinding, parted the collapsed body. She paid a little attention to all kinds of wreckage that the guards had piled up next to it, outside the dome. Details of the machine from the impact were scattered over a large area, fortunately uninhabited. Tubes with numerous holes and intricate objects with curved metal rods sticking out of them were attached to the small wings of this metal alien object, half submerged in the ground. Pulling aside the door that seemed to lead into the rotorcraft cockpit, Celestia wrinkled her nose in a far from regal gesture as she, protected by a pair of tension spells, puffed out clouds of smoke from the wires still smoldering in the interior of the this is an unknown flying vehicle. Then the Equestrian mistress became almost ill at all: blots of sintered blood blackened all over the cabin. There was no doubt that any living creature without magical shielding, if it were here at the moment of its fall, would turn into shapeless, metal-torn remains.

Celestia could not help imagining how the pungent smoke from electronics that did not use enchanted circuits, and therefore much more demanding and sophisticated, filled the lungs of the alien; how he twitches, crippled and still does not understand why his car so suddenly collapsed to the ground, spinning around its axis. How blood spurts from terrible wounds, pouring over the instruments, how the nauseating smell of burning flesh spreads around...

For a moment it seemed Celestia that she would lose consciousness from a long-forgotten feeling of disgust. Whole generations grew up in Harmony, ordinary ponies have even lost the habit of, if not any, then most of the manifestations of troubles, which with such a crushing effort could crush the life of a rational person... turn the highest values ​​into nothing. Neither Twilight nor the others should have dealt with such a thing.

Celestia exhaled slowly and forced herself to look again at the bloody footprints. Having created a diagnostic spell of her own invention, after the invasion of the changelings, modified in order, the princess found out the reason why the attachment to ordinary organic matter did not work on a stranger.

The alien turned out to be a magnesium-based life form, the very one that Twilight recognized as an additive to a "non-metallic" metal from another world. But that wasn't even what caught Celestia's attention. The organic matter in his blood simply... collapsed. His blood did not clot under the action of enzymes, but seemed to be rotten to its core. All complex organic compounds have turned into scraps of molecules, meaningless rubbish. This... this led to some disturbing thoughts, in particular about the long and firmly forgotten (so she and her sister tried) the art of necromancy. One got the impression that the alien did not want to leave traces behind him, by which it was possible to find him, and for this he gave the order to his body as others possess the mind... His disguise could well fit into this concept.

Taking a sample and destroying other traces of otherworldly blood, Celestia backed away from the rotorcraft, carefully stepping through the wreckage. With the same protective stripes, the diarch separated the smaller crippled device from the wing of the car and, covering it with barriers, carefully began to disassemble, opening the seams and twisting the screws. Twilight watched her mentor's actions without stopping, almost gasping; others on they simply did not know how to react to this act of regal vandalism. Soon, Celestia was able to isolate the component that interested her: a ribbon made up of many scaly segments unwound on the golden edges of the force shield.

Having extracted from one such cylinder, made with the same alien metal, Celestia levitated it by the sharp tip and called Shining Armor: “Captain. Please come here.”

He immediately approached the princess, putting on a helmet just in case. Looking sideways at the alicorn's manipulations in bewilderment, Cadence's husband recalled his presence: “Your Mightiness?”

“I could be wrong, Shining, but this machine was fitted with some sort of self-loading stinging jets.” Celestia said quietly, watching the cylinder unfold in weaving of screens, shedding a thin shell, exposing the powdery contents and an upper nucleolus that resembled a rounded arrowhead. “I would like all guards to be familiar with their history, in particular information on how to defend against them.”

Twilight’s brother pondered, apparently recalling his lessons at the Canterlot Military Academy, then apologetically announced: “Your Grace, but this is a very old weapon... Historians know that the process of alchemical release of energy, which gave the sting speed, was developed by earth ponies even before the unification of the tribes! And with the founding of Equestria, with the massive use of non-lethal homing spells and other long-range controls, the stingers lost even the little relevance that they had! The massive enchantment of the armor of their earth ponies, winged comrades by unicorns put an end to the developments of the Dark Ages completely... Really, otherworldly aliens, with such an impressive flying technique, have not yet passed a similar period of history?”

“Not really, Captain,” Celestia sighed. “I'm afraid that world is not able to get out of that state, because there is simply no magic in it. This weapon, and that it is a weapon, I have less and less doubts - is made of materials not affected by magic in any way. But besides, it, like the flying machine itself, looks as if the most precise methods were used in its creation. Not at all like those crude crafts made by the tribes of the Strife, is it?”

Shining Armor nodded in concern, and Celestia thought that since such complex rotorcraft were allowed to exist in the creature's homeworld, they probably weren't something out of the ordinary. Moreover, technology could lead aliens beyond much more distant horizons than the imagination of Equestrians allowed... Although, undoubtedly, without magic, their capabilities were seriously limited. 

Nodding to herself, Celestia finished slowly, “You can't build such a machine and a weapon for it on a one-off basis... Without magic, otherworldly this species would need mass production tailored to the needs of the military industry, and thousands of intelligent aliens attracted to it. Perhaps that world is a rather... warlike place.”

“I see, Your Grace. Limited resources.” Shining grimaced. “If they do not have magic, then the crops are left at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather and pests. If there is no magic that makes life easier, and these machines take a lot of time and money, it will be much easier to select the finished one! Moreover, their innate impenetrability, speed and strength... With such an arrangement it is not a sin to fight...” Shining with an extremely serious expression on its face looked at the Lady of the Sun. “Your Grace, what are the recommendations for the guards?” 

Celestia scanned the Ponyville houses that were so close to the creation of a possibly inhospitable and bitter world. Reporters have not yet spread all over the world where their beloved princess went, and local newspapers could well have limited themselves to a report in the spirit of "Twilight Sparkle again has something wrong with experiments, do not forget to take an umbrella with you in case of an unidentified flying object falling"... Still, Celestia did not see the need to escalate the situation yet. If she has learned anything from a long series of decades, it is that preventive measures inevitably carry more evil in themselves, after all, magic was able to cope with the widest range of consequences. It was not worth multiplying troubles for others without a serious need for that. The readiness to fight from the very beginning and the accumulation of forces for this will not force the reasonable to abandon aggressive plans, it will only provide them with zeal for even better preparation. And the alien, even if he came from a world without magic, tying many hands... well, he did not have time to leave a bad impression of himself; did not hint at all that he was going to apply his features with devastating consequences. Elements of Harmony, which were seen by many as a universal solution, could work on a representative of another world... radically.

Or it might not work at all. In a softening tone, Celestia replied to the captain of her guard: “We are still not under threat of invasion, Shining Armor. The creature is one, and it is not familiar with our world, in contrast to the same changelings. I think new instructions that were compiled with the expectation of counteracting them, will come in handy here. Unless...” Here Celestia looked at the crumpled cab of the car, smashed by a blow on a power barrier. “All the guards need to rely on protective penetrating screens. Levitation matrices, magic absorbers and other protective means against our new acquaintance will not work.”

“Got it, princess,” the senior guard saluted. “Allow go?”

“Of course, Captain,” Celestia replied with satisfaction. 

Shining could be counted on, because what the princess of the Day asked him, the unicorn knew better than most. Not everyone can create a stable barrier that encircles the whole city... Shining Armor, gently nudging his sister with his shoulder and saying something like “Now we'll take care of everything, Twiley, don't worry about anything.” Shouted to the lieutenant: "Lieutenant Spare, in any case, I will be with Madame Mayor in the city hall! Now I will urge my guys on, and you can consider that the shift is over! They will put up a new shield, then you and your shift will go to rest."

“Wow, this is a great idea, Shini!” Pinky exclaimed, rolling up to Celestia like a pink bun and opening her puppy eyes at her. “Princess, we are all slightly stunned here from the concentration of events and want to go to rest! May we? Please-please-please!?”

Celestia gently ruffled the fidget mare's mane and said just as carefully: “Of course, Pinkie Pie. Go home, my little ponies, since we’ve got it all sorted out. Morning is wiser than evening."

“Yeeeee! Girls, how about a pajama party tomorrow afternoon? If the guards decide to keep us at home, there is no time to waste!”

“Princess, my equipment…” Twilight jerked, but Celestia reassured her that the instruments, along with the machine, would be under constant surveillance by the guards. The ponies began to disperse, yawning; got together with Sparkle and the dragon, but the princess delayed him a little.

“Thank you for convincing Twilight to contact me immediately, Spike,” the sun princess expressed her gratitude with a wink.

“But... but how you guessed, your...” he was surprised, although much less than when the diarch of all Equestria landed on the balcony of the library. Celestia smiled back.

“Shifting the magical problem, which is most problematic to cope with, on the mentor - it was not very typical for Twilight, was it?”

“Yes, I guess... I mean, nothing special, in general...” embarrassed, the dragon grumbled, after which he bowed briefly and began to catch up with Sparkle. “Well, I went!”

With a last nod to the lieutenant, Celestia stepped aside to set off the sunset. She stood on a meadow overgrown with tall grass and looked back - to where the Sun was leaning towards the horizon over the city, and where at the foot of Ponyville lay a sullen alien machine, poisoning the rural pastoral with a grotesque detail. Her tail with a second screw, broken but still protruding, pointed directly at the Everfree Forest, as if in an accusatory gesture.

Where are you, our mysterious two-legged guest? Celestia thought absently. Will Equestria bring new encounters and formations, knowledge and joy? Or will you become just one of many who vehemently denied Harmony, hindered its accession, were intolerant of the happiness of others? The princess of the day sighed, spreading her wings and going to appeal to the luminary, whose embodiment she had been revered for many centuries. Of course, she would like everything to be done in peace. But with this creature... for some reason it seemed to Celestia that everything would not be so simple here, not in the usual categories of good and bad.

“Tss! Your Mightiness…”

Suddenly, the alicorn's hearing caught familiar speech. Tilting her head, she saw someone's light yellow face, for some reason covered by a helmet with green streaks, and therefore faintly distinguishable in the grass. From the dark mane, pink and purple strands of which gathered into graceful curls, tufts of green stuck out. Glancing sideways at the guards at the crash site and noting that they only reacted to the princess buried in the grass with a puzzled shrug, Celestia peered at the stranger more closely. A rope with a grappling hook was tied around the filly's back, and a folding wand apparatus hung around her neck.

“Agent Drops?” the princess was seriously surprised. “I thought you resigned and left for Phyllidelphia! And why did you roll in the grass entirely?”

“To catch an object, I have to think like an object!” The earth pony proclaimed in a conspiratorial tone. “I have some information about the human that Twilight and her friendly company, I bet, did not notice!”

“Huma... about whom?” Celestia looked a little confused. The word to her, who still spoke with the speakers of the ancient Equestrian dialects, was familiar, but distorted by time until she almost completely misunderstood the subject that the word was supposed to mean.

“Oh, that's what my friend calls him, she once buzzed all my ears with her new hobby.” Sweetie Drops explained willingly. “Human” is a modified transcription of the old word form... There is something like “mastering the height”, “possessing power”, “striving upward” or simply “elongated”. Lyra has a whole science fiction club among her acquaintances. based on the idea of ​​the existence of alien species.” Pony winced as a blade of grass tickled her nose, and barely held back a sneeze. “But I doubt that apart from walking upright, our mutual acquaintance matches their fantasies. Lira generally likes to think that humans are a race of kind, intelligent species who carry ponies in their paws and look after their manes...”

“I feel you have something that makes you think the opposite, Agent Drops,” smiled the princess of the Day. “I'm all in attention. Share your valuable observations so that the guards do not waste time in vain? By the way, where did you get any information about the alien?”

The pony, beaming, stretched her hoof somewhere to the west of the crash site, “As soon as Twilight moved from theory to practice, I set up an observation post in the tree. Far from the landfill, but it was just right for surveillance on the sly! How I felt that something bad could get on our side...”

Celestia almost laughed when she imagined Agent Drops leaning out of the hollow of this very tree, clutching his binoculars and sticking out his tongue out of diligence, then screaming three times with a jay and hiding back. But she did not want to offend the brave little pony, which was always so serious about preserving the peace of the citizens, and who more than once hunted down monsters, which gave rise to the wild magic of Equestria. Some managed to pacify or tame, setting aside reserved zones for their habitation, but a few, the most vicious and incorrigible, replenished the casemates of Tartarus. Sweety Drops had more than a dozen "sealed" monsters on her account, so Celestia did not see the point in not listening to her opinion.

The pony, meanwhile, said with ardor: “Your Grace, I can swear that the creature has the skill of self-transfiguration. From above I could see how it turned its own paws into large claws, completely different in structure from the original! It easily cut open the sod and went underground... Considering what he also showed us, like the same disguise thanks to the cover, I would have treated this alien in the most skeptical way! It is possible that he is going to attack Ponyville!”

Celestia frowned in concern. Now she did not know what to think about this biped, as if in a mockery he was turning non-standard magic practices without any magic. Should it be considered a metal golem, so complex that it could be thought of as a living being, only not based on carbon? Who, in addition to himself, was a golem and by very indirect signs, also a necromancer? Diarch could not understand how this vinaigrette of absurdity, a heap of fragmentary observations, could be built into a coherent theory.

“Fluttershy said the creature looked disoriented when it first got here. Why do you think it is going to return, if the second time has set itself some goal outside of Ponyville?”

“His machine is left here,” Sweetie said calmly, as if it were a matter of course. “With all due respect, Your Grace, Fluttershy has a wide and detailed knowledge of the animals she loves, but to see in this alien another lost animal, which must be helped by all means - bad idea. "Human" obviously has a full-fledged mind and is able to set priorities. Even if something distracted him, he retreated only temporarily, in the expectation that his car had become unusable, and we will deal with it for a long time. If we want to catch him, I would recommend weakening surveillance of the crash site and setting up an ambush of pegasus among the clouds. Or, since you said that the rotorcraft carried some kind of ancient weapon, it is better to immediately deprive the alien of this opportunity and move the wreckage away from sin to Canterlot. True, in this case, a person can definitely lose interest in Ponyville and hide, and where his next blow will be inflicted, it will be impossible to predict. The choice is yours, princess...”

Probably, the help of the guardians of the Moon will still be needed, Celestia finally decided. The Phastral tribe had more experience in countering threats not tied by magic alone. And the presence of the youngest sister would be useful - she could try to look into the dream of a "person" if he had a subconscious. It is unlikely that the two-legged will sleep sweetly on a foreign land, and it is unlikely that Luna will be able to find him, pull out from his mind something other than scattered fragments of ideas and images, but who knows... Finally, the Princess of the Night herself could help her sister with fresh ideas and non-standard, which here would certainly be required, by an approach. No matter how much Lulu felt at times a craving for the old order and the same reckless conservatism in public, her sister would feel helpless in other ponies's dreams if she did not have the exceptional plasticity of consciousness and developed empathy. It was extremely difficult to stun the unknown to the one that herself was once turned into a nightmare. In a few moments, Celestia already knew which lines would be sent to Luna just after sunset.

“Let's not rush things in this regard, we know almost nothing about this creature, besides that we know very little. But I will take measures so that neither the citizens of Ponyville, nor anyone else is hurt,” agreed the princess. “Do you have any other guesses or suggestions, Agent Drops?”

“When hunting large, exceptionally tenacious game, the main thing is to find the right means and deliver one guaranteed blow.” Sweetie said so colorfully, as if she really was a primitive hunter defending her herd from wild ophiotaurs. “From what I’ve heard, you cannot use a spell to draw heat out of a person in order to freeze him or put him to sleep, just as you cannot paralyze him. Your Grace, use indirect influence on occasion. If a person cannot be electrified with an ordinary caste, let the guard create a voltage difference and strike him by transmitting electricity directly! Let them freeze the air around him, and instead of invisible spells use ordinary cables guided by telekinesis!”

The pony nodded emphatically at her sling with a hook. Celestia only smiled knowingly. No, the retired agent certainly did not try to curry favor after that fiasco with the bugbear, hoping to return to the service of the Crown, she only followed her vocation on occasion, and did it very well. Sweetie was a cute filly and seemingly harmless, just like a surprise candy... that under the bright wrapper can hide unexpected and sometimes knocking out tastes from you.

“Aren’t you being overly belligerent, Agent Drops?” The princess asked softly. “Still, I expect a sentient being to seek peace, not war. I express my gratitude to you for your service to Equestria, but I still hope that these tips for keeping a person by force will not be needed by the diarchy...”

“It was not advice, Your Grace. Simple guesses based on logic; You yourself will perfectly understand without me what and how to use against a stranger,” pony looked at her seriously, “I will call this advice: be careful and observe constant vigilance! Strong monsters can be seen from afar, they make themselves felt and are not afraid of a fight. Weak monsters are usually taken with cunning, like changelings, but cowardly and quickly surrender to the mercy of the winner. And then... all at once, it seems. Watch out for stabs in the back, they may be too strong. Do not allow yourself to think that you alone can set a trap on this monster, he can pretend that he has fallen into it, so that already you have made a mistake.”

It sounded quite assertive, so Sweetie Drops covered her mouth in dismay, twitching herself in front of the Equestrian mistress, but Celestia did not pay any attention to the omission of formalities. How much easier it would be if the person did not show separate fragments of the threats that she had to face on the throne, but simply would not be completely familiar to the princess! Or, in extreme cases, needed help after the crash of the apparatus, allowing the inhabitants of Ponyville to patch themselves up. The two-legged's distrust of a pony so unlike him evoked very sad thoughts. After all, mistrust and threat go side by side, they are eternal comrades... And, unfortunately, during her long life the alicorn could not avoid too many mistakes based on them. Celestia sighed and nodded.

“That's good advice, my little pony. I see that this kind of mistake can be very costly for all of us. So what about...” Celestia cut off the unspoken question as Agent Drops lifted her head restlessly and then pressed herself into the grass.

“Somebody flies here! I have to go,” pony squeaked at last, hiding in the meadow thickets on her bellies. “If anything, find me in Ponyville! Tell any city dweller that you would like to buy sweets from Bon-Bon!”

Some ten seconds later, a pegasus from the royal guard, covered in soap, glided down.

“Your Grace, were you going to lower the sun?” He breathed heavily, landing next to the princess and saluting. “Guilty of interrupting you, but the matter does not require delay!”

“Yes, sergeant.” Celestia said all over. Had something serious already happened in Canterlot during her short visit to Ponyville? If only Luna did not get mad because of the petition of another nobleman and did not begin to spread the old order everywhere...

Pegasus, meanwhile, fished a scroll from his sling and gave it to the princess with a bow: “Report from the northern borders, Your Grace! It took only an hour in the palace office.” Meaningfully looking around, the guardsman, lowering his voice, said: “It has returned.”

Celestia, at that time breaking the royal seal, turned into a kind of alabaster statue, to which an unknown joker attached real golden regalia. The eyelid on the princess's left eye twitched slightly, and for the first time in a long time, an expression that could be attributed to obscene flashed in her thoughts: Blessed flanks of Mine! How is it all at the wrong time...
> Survivor Type - 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex Mercer sat, gloomy as a thundercloud, up to his neck in the swamp mud, diligently pretending to be a hummock. The frog, nestling on his armored forehead, was already tightening its evening roulades with his companions, and the damn pony still did not want to leave.

How's the pony? The set and general appearance of the zoomorph in her, perhaps, corresponded to the previously encountered individuals, but the coloring did not make me think that everything around Mercer was the fruit of a powerful acid hallucination. Most of all, she resembled a dwarf zebra with a mohawk of a white and dark gray mane. A belt with baskets was thrown over the back of the aboriginal life form, in which it folded some local plants. She seemed to be humming something to herself - in her variation of the local language, a poetic syllable was clearly traced. Hydra, on the other hand, did not pay the slightest attention to the herbalist.

Yes, when Dr. Mercer poked his head into this place, he was not in for a warm welcome. There were no problems with finding the swamp, as well as with a leisurely walk along its outskirts, which looked quite, um, comfortable. That is why Alex decided to get away from the paths and wooden walkways trampled by strangers. The man moved into the depths of the bog, stopping from time to time to collect soil samples... The place was not the most pleasant: the bubbles of gases, nitrogen and methane harmless to Alex, swelling on the surface, were flavored with a cocktail of complex compounds of carbon dioxide - his something beryllium from the point of view Mercer's component and was poisonous even more deadly than the atmosphere of the new world. Alex decided to grit his teeth and endure. He should have had no difficulty in creating a local extractor using the technology he had spied on from Green. Providing himself with a solid form of an oxidizer suitable for breathing, the evolved one saw as a matter almost already accomplished...

The local nature, meanwhile, again had its own vision of how many obstacles to load on Mercer's shoulders, sprinkling the next portion of poison from above. As soon as Mercer figured out the territory in which he should deploy vigorous activity, how to see who came to visit him, a natural dragon climbed. And, unlike the image of a winged colossus, which is familiar to many, the creature's neck was a considerable length of its body. Alex involuntarily backed away and fell back into the mud when heads with a clearly unfriendly expression of bony muzzles loomed over him, cutting the muddy water. Long necks bent with astounding agility for their size, in the blink of an eye encircling the evolved, still prostrate, ring of predatory eyes framed by spiked ridges. The look of one of the heads, however, quickly changed from decisively threatening to some kind of discouraged, as soon as she took a noisy breath. Expressions of facial expressions on a seemingly lean, not provided with intelligence muzzle, only aggravated Mercer's confusion. The sight of a monster able to squeeze out something besides growling and hissing was incredibly alien and repulsive for a person. Probably, Alex reacted more calmly to the first meeting with the hunters in Gentek than to the next proof that the local fauna possessed some rudiments of intelligence. When other heads, with some confusion, began to circle around Mercer, he, unable to bear it, jumped to his feet and rushed to break the distance as usual.

Well, no matter how you look at it, it wasn't the wisest decision. Maybe the creature possessed some kind of pursuit instinct in the image of a dog "run - catch up". Maybe if Mercer had remained motionless, she would have decided that the gray movable stone was not of interest to her, and would have gone to fill up the quagmire, as Zeus ignored the scorpion. Or maybe, if Mercer had hit one of the heads properly, processed it to a crushed skull and scraps of flesh, then a creature that suspiciously resembled a hydra from Greek myths would have decided that it is more dear to associating with a brave midget, and would also prefer to fuck off. Be that as it may, it was not possible to find out, since the dragon rushed after Mercer.

Roars and whistles swept through the swamp, and waves swept through the water as the creature tore its massive body out of the swamp and rushed after it, stomping loudly with just one pair of paws. This is truly a godless mistake of nature, reluctantly, unkindly emerged from the dark abyss of Darwinism. Fortunately, even in the absence of normal traction, Mercer remained faster than the agile-headed, but clumsy body of the monster. He was pulled out only once with a blow from a massive jaw, but Mercer's bones extinguished not only compression when falling from a building, but in general almost any crushing force, so this only forced the mutant to make a couple of shorter jumps and set the elbow joint on the run. As a result, Alex flew up to another spreading tree, something resembling a willow, jumped to another and got lost in its crown. The hydra raged somewhere off to the side, stirring the water, crushing with a crash the innocent tree that Mercer had climbed a dozen seconds earlier. The creature turned its heads in an attempt to find a nimble bipedal intruder so suddenly disappeared from the field of vision of as many as four pairs of her eyes, but she did not want to pay attention to the neighboring one.

How much longer will I have to run from all the unimaginable bullshit here? Alex thought dryly, watching the monster keep trying to find the stranger that had wandered into his territory and crush him. It was only annoyance and Alex decidedly refused to call his actions cowardice. Wielded by Mercer, fear, and he would have run headlong further, or would have wanted to hide under the ground, between the roots of swamp trees, and not watched the hydra with a nasty suppressed disgust. Seriously, anyone could call Zeus' actions overly cautious?

A dimension where the laws you are accustomed to do not operate is a poor place to test the limit of your own capabilities. Who would ever think of throwing a blade at any object that seemed dangerous to you? Mercer was only trying to prevent mistakes that could end in the death of the most enchanting and stupid. With a minimum amount of energy, attack a creature that is quite small in size to Elizabeth's alpha hydra? Please dismiss. Maybe the local dragons, by all the rules, exhale a mixture of combustible gases, which will thoroughly roast Zeus through the joints of the armor. In the battles with all the new types of mutants, Mercer had no choice, the question stood squarely: either they would pull Zeus apart in pieces, or he would take them away. Here the choice was... even though it didn't get any easier.

Yes... The irritation seized Alex not at all because his fists were already itching, and not because some survival instincts told him to attack any creature that poses the slightest threat to life. The evolved self-preservation was really at its best - but at least he did not allow the cockroaches in his head to control him, until his reserve of mass became completely empty. Mercer hoped to assess the situation in the most sober way... if this concept is generally applicable to local realities, of course. What really bothered him and raised waves of discontent in his soul over and over again was mental exhaustion.

God, Alex thought out of place, a couple more days, and it will be three weeks since he slept. No, mentally his mind was in order. Reassembled with viral encodings, his brain evolved showed exceptional stability and efficiency no matter how long he went without sleep. Perhaps his gray cells now did not need to rest at all, as Mercer's body worked tirelessly... But Alex felt the tension accumulating during the epidemic, this brazen itch oppressing him. Mercer is corny tired. He simply did not have the opportunity to change his field of activity during these weeks. The threat to his own life and the safety of his sister exhausted his mind, forced 24 to 7 to keep himself in a state of complete concentration. Here... yes, exactly the same thing continued, only there was (so far) no need to snap back with the most destructive consequences.

Was the risk of being destroyed by the witchcraft of the locals worth it in order to immediately resolve this dilemma, to get the long-awaited rest - that is still a question. With a pretty straightforward answer, actually. In general, it was never worth it! Seriously, how can this be imagined? Come to zoomorphs and crumble in gestures like "Hou, mine is friend", which they will not be able to understand, even being as friendly as possible, due to the same fundamental differences in biology and the culture that flows from it? And there will be no notorious mood... Remind me what people usually do with such entities as Mercer? He didn't forge some stupid banknotes or stole a car, he just doesn't look like other reasonable ones!

Xenophobia, group isolation at the slightest difference is a very powerful property of the psyche, lying deep in evolutionary roots. Colored horses looked, of course, seemingly harmless, you can't say directly that they can turn reality upside down with an effort of will! They resembled something like big-eyed plush toys, but no one promised that it would work both ways. Alex would not be surprised if, after meeting with him, the ponies began to make a scarecrow in the form of Mercer, so scary in their vision that the crows would definitely have returned the lack of harvest for the past year. Considering that birds, too, seemed half-sane, the stupid joke took on a tinge of truthfulness...

Mercer chuckled mirthlessly. And turning into one of them is not for turning secret affairs under everyone's noses, but for the sake of establishing contact, trying to go "behind"... This would undoubtedly be even worse. People hunted a seemingly ideal Zeus just like that, and the man whom he trusted, who not only did not threaten him with a word or deed, but also, as Alex thought, provided security along with Dana, betrayed him! Parker needed only to find a reason, McMullen's unverified statements that Alex Mercer died, rotted from the inside, and his shell ku was busy with something terrible.

Something that behaves like the past Mercer speaks like him... but if you disturb him a little, the creature will pounce on its ally and devour him alive. The director, of course, did not forget to spice things up with stories that it was Mercer who set up an epidemic, allegedly he had been planning to do it for a long time. And Parker immediately chose to forget about all the materials that expose Gentek, which Mercer showed her. After all, McMullen is the most familiar, "pure" person, and people should stick to each other in the face of a biological threat. After all, there has never been such a thing that a person could wish harm to a representative of his species, right?

In fact, Zeus had only one chance from the very first contact to establish friendly relations with the natives: the very fact of his appearance to signify something positive. For example, like Dorothy(1) hitting some particularly vicious local sorceress with a helicopter. But, obviously, this did not happen - Alex had already exhausted his lifetime limit of luck, when in an incredible way he managed to fall out of the epicenter of a nuclear explosion into this... place. The option for the uninformed to stagger in order to find out how the zoomorphs can be liked by natural reasons disappeared. All that Mercer could now count on was not to rush headlong into the thick of things... Forget about his biological immortality (ignoring bullet wounds even in the brain was the best confirmation of this) and rely not on the resistance to adverse factors that "Black light”, but on the ability to survive in any situation. In two and a half weeks, his muscles became like bundles of steel ropes, and his step remained just as light. The shots were well-aimed, the scars from even the most terrible injuries disappeared without leaving a trace, like the marks from the very first fatal wounds received at the Penn Station. Resources are running out, there are no familiar technologies, there is not even a suitable atmosphere, from all the equipment - an already gutted emergency package, a signal pistol and a machine gun with one box? Just think... someone else here would have suffocated in the first minutes, and Mercer, you see, by Thanksgiving will be at home already...

Probably, the evolved safety factor will be enough to overcome any length of the road paved with yellow bricks. Probably, all this listing would pass for the mantra of the inter-world Robinson, if you considered yourself Alex as such. Nothing... Mercer had never felt well before and was generally discouraged when he had nothing to recharge with. Here it would be banal to throw at anyone out of hunger, if the virus turned on its intelligence jammer, and the information systems would sooner immerse the evolved in the conservation mode, but after half an hour or an hour the situation should have changed.

The hydra, which finally turned part of the thickets into a windbreak, finally calmed down. Her unsettled necks, with the loss of purpose for some reason, at once lost their awesome solidity, rushed in vain between the trees, interfering with each other. The quintessence of the rampage of the beast was that one of the heads brought down the barrel straight onto its companion, which immediately resulted in squabbling and hiss at each other. Another head looked at the started quarrel with an expression of rare contentment on the muzzle, which disappeared only when the creature headed for the bog, disappearing with noise and chomping in the swamp slurry. Mercer remembered from a past life that Siamese snakes also often did not get along with each other and died, despite the tricks of the staff who looked after them... Well, this dragon-like monster did not give the impression of a young individual who had not yet had time to gnaw its own throat, not least because of its size. If the monster has been in the vicinity of the settlement for a long time, and the natives do not react to this fact in any way...

Perhaps their dealings with the hydra never crossed. An excellent reason not to transfer the installation of the extractor somewhere else, but to stay here, with the monster by its side, just without attracting more of its attention. The very presence of the hydra should have discouraged the cat horses, unless, of course, Mercer did not reveal his location directly like this. Alex set the machine gun in the split of the trunk of the same tree, properly securing it with a belt. He was not going to spend ammunition on every little thing, but he took the signal flare gun with all the remaining ammunition with him, almost silently descending to the wet swampy ground.

“Everything gets better with a sip of oxygen!” Alex coughed, melting the top of the squib. “The clever guy found out, kha, hunter grab him!”

The thing was this: having visited Rome, Alex Mercer somehow did not notice the Pope. For some reason, the seasoned biochemist (as he remembered himself), for some reason, in a fit of inspiration, it struck in the head that as soon as he set up production of an oxidizer acceptable to him, all problems would be miraculously resolved. But oxygen isn't everything. He is only a mediator in the synthesis of energy, which Alex, as befits a decent aerobic, was forced to obtain from the outside.

Mercer could definitely launch some kind of substrate phosphorus analog. lation to a much wider flow than in ordinary erythrocytes, but he did not know how to recreate complex molecules out of nothing for this process. And even though at times it seemed to him that the building substances in the evolved organism were taken out of nowhere, they still had to be driven into this invisible reserve first, having appropriated, again, foreign organic carriers. Local sulfur, judging by the data from the samples, could be converted into an emulsion suitable for assimilation by a very simple and cheap process in terms of calories. But with the matter, things were... Well, not that Alex would take on faith the infallibility of viral postulates and the fact that the technologies of the "Black Light" would never let him die. Rather, he proceeded from what he had previously seen that in other areas the virus is capable of miracles no less that can be used to help the carrier. What is, after all, organic matter from which the evolved one extracts energy and building materials?

The essence is exactly the same: the solar energy stored in complex molecules, which has gone through more than one technological chain, in order to "revive" inert matter, ultimately transform it into the top of the food pyramid. And the sun here, I must say, communicated noticeably more energy per unit area than the earth's - Mercer deduced this from the same numerous receptors in the eyes. It did not fit into the temperate continental type of climate...

Alex could not explain much of what surrounded him, although he honestly tried. He had the impression that as soon as a moderately reliable concept was formed in Alex's head, according to which this world worked, some new fact popped up from nowhere and the whole scheme was scattered to shreds. Probably, this is how medieval astronomers felt themselves, creating cosmological theories, forced to rewrite them on the fly due to all the new discoveries made with the help of more and more advanced observation means...

And now Alex only sighed, absolutely not realizing why the local sun was already broken hour sticks out in one point of the firmament, and why, if it is so customary, this world is not a scorched desert. Perhaps these thoughts should have been abandoned for a while, referring to their own ignorance.

Mercer equipped the pyro cartridge with the infovirion concentrate he created and, having thought, again put the blank into the opened emergency bag. It was nevertheless necessary, first of all, to erect a small terraformer, and then to shoot into the sky, trying to accumulate a cloud of at least a million or two joules of energy. Most likely, the collector of nutrients will act as a storage device, and virions will only be transmitters...

He did not think about why the ecosystem of the virus launched in Manhattan Green should show the strictly expected qualities by Mercer. Alex saw patterns, and like a talented self-taught person, not yet grasping the essence of things, he could already figure out how to apply them in practice. He suspected that the mysterious abilities of the virus extended to many other aspects of biology... In addition, the "Light" proved to be an extremely stable system, so that out of the blue it would be so easy to bend over, too clinging to life, in contrast to the fighting strains burning in a bright, suicidal outbreak... And if Mercer succeeds in assimilating this energy, he will probably be able to collect organic molecules from much simpler ones, thus storing calories in them, and not taking them away from mutants and people - who, in turn, took transitional forms from the terrestrial flora and fauna.

Alex had already noticed, looking for a swamp, something similar to a huge apple orchard on the other side of the river. He saw much larger than all the fields and vegetable gardens that Mercer managed to see during his work as a special tactical scout. There should have been what the mutant was going to look for as soon as the action with the fallen helicopter was carried out. At high pressure, noble gases are capable of forming stable compounds with a number of elements, including magnesium... this inspired hope that Mercer would still be provided with organics. With a creak, but it will be.

A couple of hours later, sitting up to his neck in a quagmire, these thoughts echoed in the vaults of Alex's skull with dull irritation. Hope is a bad thing... Not only is it not known whether the expected result will be obtained, but it also forces us to go further, to wade through more and more obstacles, to expend even more energy, and it was almost impossible to replenish them “in the open field” here. Mercer's excuse was that he had no alternative. The evolved one managed to recreate something similar to a tumor, a hive chrysalis, which was now pulsing in the thickness of the swamp water, and which a dwarf zebra was about to stumble upon. The extractor spread his net, separating sulfur from the peat, and Mercer was now supplied with oxygen, which would allow him to spend his reserves more efficiently... only a pitiful stub remained of the reserve itself.

After several hours of work - coding, debugging a new structure mode, adjusting to a form - Alex felt more angry at his new state than satisfaction. Long since aveIt would seem that when you get the opportunity in the field to do what your former fortune considered the best of vocations, when instead of equipment worth millions of dollars and countless reagents, everything what you need for this - your own body and your will, understanding how it affects the body, and knowledge of the laws by which biochemistry works... it would seem that you need to rejoice and praise the providence that turned you into a superman, and not into a mindless walker. In the end, all the time until now, Alex has been deprived of this great joy - to learn something new on his own (and not stealing ready-made information from other people's brains, only by adapting it for himself) and delving into the human genome, creating something that should never have existed. A week ago, already in despair, it seemed to him that the battle would be eternal, hopeless - and he would lose more and more comrades-in-arms, like Alex had lost Karen's trust and how his sister had disappeared; will over and over again surrender the positions reclaimed from the virus. Mercer, in general, coped with defeatism. Only he did not take into account that this fight could continue on a much smaller scale; the fight will be with a virus that has already occupied its insides, and not the city's dungeons.

Mighty Zeus was now a sad sight. In order to isolate cellular tissues for the terraformer, they had to put under the knife... but a good half of the body went to the neoplasm, to tell the truth. It was not easy to convince my mechanical firmware that the only correct scenario was not to fall asleep until better times, but to continue acting. It is not easier than to discourage Azimov's positronic servants seeking to prevent harm to the owner, even if the infliction of this harm is the only chance of salvation. Some changes in the design, Alex turned into an eerie parody of a person, an even more unsightly version of a new self with dystrophic-looking muscles covered with plates of the lightest armor, with a narrowed chest and a stub of a head equipped with a single optical sensor... from nightmares.

Mercer's legs were now missing in the calf - instead of them something rested against the ground that human mechanics could call running prostheses. Created from a composite of cartilage and their own shin bones, they had equal elasticity and strength so that the mutant could move at the same speed. The grip dropped, you could forget about the long run on the walls, well and the body weight also seriously decreased, so as not to worry about skidding when cornering; and skyscrapers, in order to jump on them and dive on the heads of enemies, in the foreseeable future was not foreseen.

On the hands of Mercer, one could also easily issue a certificate of a disabled person of some degree... Not only did the volume of muscle tissue give him a victim of severe exhaustion, so there were three fingers left. The very minimum, so as not to bring the crustacean to the claws - two holding clawed phalanges and one opposed... Mercer's abdominal cavity was now absent as a class - only the spinal column protruded from the empty pelvic cup, covered with a corset of the dorsal muscles and vital conducting systems like the circulatory system.

What about? Intestinum prehensile went to feed the terraformer, because there was simply no one to hunt and devour. And the reserve of mass and other organs modified by the virus, each of which began to perform a number of completely new functions, may well make room and go into the chest. Moreover, there was only one lung left, and even then for a while. Filling the vocal cords with sound could well be needed within the framework of Alex's new idea. For the same reason, Alex kept his left hand with him for a while, and did not dispose of it right up to the elbow, attaching a machine gun to the joint with a descent option. He also depleted the heart muscle, which in its characteristics in a standard form came close to a powerful pump that pumps blood extremely evenly. Now, with the reduced volume of hemosurrogate, it began to resemble much more a human... Finally, Mercer's head lost its lower jaw, nasopharynx, scalp, all facial muscles and most of the neck; from a light armor shell, which gave the skull a flatter shape, a single right eye, eaten away by a cobweb of capillaries, frowned outward. The second eye socket was occupied by a thermal fossa sensor, similar to the standard helmet.

You can't say anything, well-written handsome, Alex snorted to himself, going over his new design features in his mind. If tactics of terror and intimidation are suddenly needed against the locals, it will be enough to pull on one of their skinned colorful skins, and you're done: with one appearance, the zoomorphs will vomit without exception, pee under yourself and turn gray in front of your eyes. If for them the listed reactions are considered a manifestation of horror, of course. Something similar to faded to gray hair... even the same old people were not noticed for a short time of espionage. Although... Maybe the natives float them to some local nursing home. Or simply, in the midst of a different world invasion of all sorts of old women, relatives forced them to stay at home.

For humans, the skinny, awkward Zeus would now undoubtedly also look extremely creepy. Dana alone could understand him... just as she took the Mercer hypostasis, renewed after Penn, and agreed to help him. Maybe she would give out her trademark "Yeah, you look shitty", as she reacted to the cancer serum, which brazenly burst into the chimerical balance of the evolved organism and then Dana would send him off on another assignment. Wondering what your sister would cook this time? Probably, with a whistle, she concluded: "Well, now you look like General Gravius!" Or what was the name of the cyborg from the prequels, which Dana lashed out at when Mercer was still in contact with her, absorbed in working on the Black Light project? There were times when they were much closer... when they both watched films in the nineties as teenagers and listened to music from one battered player. And now... now Alex was not even able to find out if Dana had woken up, if everything was all right with her. So much time has been lost, so many events have taken place that cannot be rolled back...

Mercer let out a short breath as he triggered vision calibration. Wilds of nostalgia and regret will not take him anywhere, only they will make him wander in circles, like this damn forest, at times, like animals, which began to seem reasonable, in its own way alive. It was necessary to soberly look into the future, without blurring gaze with a fog of sentimentality... Alex's new eye was also a simplified version of his old pair: eagle vision, an IR filter and the same ability to monitor data from organisms saturated with infovirions, he turned off as unnecessary, but still clearly distinguished details and had the ability to focus on them. It was only necessary to adjust the spectrum to the local color scheme - and to adapt the hearing to a more rarefied atmosphere, which would be very useful for a future action. 

Mercer hadn't really relied on his sense of smell before, preferring to act on a tip from the infosphere, which has never let him down in terms of choosing victims - although the standard design included a heightened sense of smells. On this “planet”, the sense of smell would not be useful to him at all, let alone the identification of individual scents when they merge into a single bouquet. So Alex took down the entire nasopharyngeal complex without regrets... practically. 

He thought with sadness that he had not experienced the pleasure of high-quality food for a long time, which Gentek ordered from fabulous earnings to the Renalia apartments or tasted at official receptions. Here the chance to remember your human habits will stand out, God knows when. It was possible to engage in self-criticism in more, hmm... civilized forms, as he did now, and not bother with cooking. From the memories of food, Mercer's spines ran spines of phantom cold, which indicated imminent energy starvation. There was still more than a day left for the icy numbness, but the reserve of fatty acid salts had to be replenished as soon as possible. Alex was about to take out the rocket launcher again and shoot upwards in order to link the cloud with the terraformer... when the local nature presented the evolved one with another surprise.

“You must be kidding! Kha-kheh...” Alex croaked with only his vocal cords, like a parrot.

If everything around Mercer really was the fruit of a powerful hallucination, then all that remained was to marvel at the gloomy genius of the subconscious, capable of generating such high-quality delirium. If everything around was set up in order to convince Alex of surrealism, but, moreover, the reality of what is happening, then the architect of the local matrix successfully failed. Mercer would rather believe in the existence of a secular paradise for atheists, where the greatest geniuses of humanity enjoy a carefree afterlife at will a deity they never believed in. For what was unfolding over his head could not happen in nature. The sun, which had previously calmly stood in the sky, moved from its place and crept towards the horizon! A little more and it would have given a completely convincing sunset!

"Alice in Wonderland seems to have believed six impossible things before breakfast." Mercer thought with a sort of hopelessness. I think I'll have to push the limits of this limit here. And how to push it apart!

Such an astronomical phenomenon Alex simply could not tamp into his long-suffering cranium. What could so easily turn an immovable planet so that a 23rd order thermonuclear reactor would stop irradiating one half of it, and the coolness of the night would come into its own? Why is everything on its surface not letit with a terrible speed away, simply swept away by a truly monstrous difference in moments of inertia? The scale of this phenomenon plunged Alex into a stupor and confusion, and no “magic” of the natives could satisfy him as a justification. Zeus stood there, watching the sunset, scrolling through one version of the madder than the other in his head, with a rocket launcher in his hand, while the night birds sounded around and the chorus of marsh amphibians sang. And then, yes, this pony disguised as a zebra came, and Mercer was forced to urgently pretend to be a mound, right with a sealed emergency package, went into the muddy water.

Alex now watched the aborigine with grim determination. He did not expect that locals would come here - probably few would dare to meddle in the possession of the hydra, since she is still not dead or at least driven away by the same guards. Even if Mercer jumps out of the bog, like a swamp troll, emitting a frightening roar, and the zoomorph runs away in panic... she, waking up from horror, will certainly rush to report "where it should", and Zeus's rookery will be revealed. Alex was not going to lose the source of the oxidizer, and the dwarf zebra was about to stumble upon the terraformer, which would lead to the same report to the local authorities. Mercer had… few options.

Zebra, meanwhile, moved through the swamp not just like a quadruped. Adjusted for zoomorphism, her movements could even be called graceful... she maneuvered between deep reservoirs, as if dancing, barely touching the water with her hooves, so that even circles on the surface did not diverge. Mercer thought that she was collecting the bundles of herbs she needed in such an extravagant way, so as not to attract the attention of the hydra, but the monster still heard her... a couple of heads crawled to the surface, blinking sleepily. To Alex's surprise, the zebra continued to slide like a drop, smoothly descending from leaf to leaf on a young shoot, and the appearance of the four-headed monster did not bother her in the least. In turn, the hydra also ignored the native. Only issuing a deep roar, pulled both heads back into the bog. Nothing hinted that the zebra was using something that would resemble the abilities of the horned... Mercer slammed his one eye in bewilderment. The gray herbalist evoked thoughts of shamanic mysticism her jewelry and coloring also smelled of something burning, unusual even by the standards of this world, a kind of African exoticism. If she had walked past the structure erected by Alex, without even looking at it, Mercer would have let the zebra go in peace out of harm's way. However, the aboriginal life form interrupted its viscous movements exactly opposite the reservoir with the tumor, and it was undoubtedly looking through the surface of the water exactly that at the terraformer... and by spreading out instead of one limb a narrow, short blade, it should be considered a dagger.

“Ahvaala re nootto prooruma iirte?” Suddenly, with complete calmness in her voice, said the zebra, turning in the direction of Mercer.

The expression on her face shook Zeus's confidence, kept him from immediately dashing forward with the blade raised to strike. The newcomer did not seem frightened at all and these creatures were capable of expressing fear through facial expressions, Mercer already knew that. Her big, clear eyes glittered with cunning, her lips were folded into a kind of expression that could be interpreted as a polite smile...

Zebra again expressed something to Alex in a clearly poetic syllable, to which the man could only squeeze out of himself that meaningful "Hm". Obviously surprised by the only sound, the herbalist, nevertheless, did not wait for the continuation, but laughed melodiously. She said something else, but the evolved one did not even try to delve into the regularity of the structures of the local language.

Tight knots of thoughts began to twist in Mercer's head again... If the zebra knew from the very beginning that he was here, then why didn't she run away at breakneck speed? Why, after all, didn’t she pretend she hadn’t noticed Mercer? And her reaction... Could it be that it was not the first time she met a person in this place? In general, a humanoid creature, for Mercer now resembled a person except that he was upright? Was Afro-pony not in the least afraid for her life, so she immediately made contact with a stranger from whom it was not clear what could be expected? Mercer could not understand what the striped Equiid was guided by, and it somehow erased all destructive thoughts from his head at once. After all, he was from a caste of highbrows, not crazy warriors, and included a local genocide regime only when problems began to threaten directly his life and the lives of people close to him. Whatever guided the zebra... it looked harmless. And she, having given out a couple of couplets to Mercer, took it out of a free basket... a deflated hot-pink balloon, put it on the ground and nodded at him, clearly hinting that Alex should take the rubber product - which spurred his brains Mercer finally freezes.

While the man was trying to combine the details into a digestible whole, the zebra, considering its duty fulfilled, went away. Zeus regained consciousness only when the reed thickets closed behind the native. He picked up an indispensable attribute of most holidays, examined it, stretched it out in knotty fingers. If the evolved memory did not fail (the last thing he would have thought of complaining about the "Black Light" infection), the inscription on the balloon was suspiciously similar to the one that Mercer had found on his spent fireworks.

“Huh... Okay, that was weird. Not weird enough, cough, to be in the top 5 craziest things today, but still.”

Alex narrowed his eyes as much as his sinewy eyelid would allow. This is what came out... Zebra decided to help him? She hinted, somehow having found out about the new inhabitant of the swamps, that he could find what he was looking for in the same place where the firecracker came from? How could she even know about his needs, damn it?! However, Alex might have thought about this later. It was necessary to track down the candidate for replacement before dawn, when the most persistent of the soldiers begin to nod off, and at once carry out their plans... If the zebra had an idea of ​​being evolved in the swamp and wanted to cause him trouble, I would, undoubtedly, inform the local law enforcement agencies, and did not come here in person only to distribute balloons to all mutants. She, too, looked very faintly like the dancing clown Pennywise.

Or, as a last resort, did she want Mercer to think so?

Alex, somehow shaking himself off the dirt, quite quickly for a prosthetic man moved towards the river, he was now running that very strange "invalid" gait, as if not finally deciding whether to move further on two legs or fall with his nose into the ground, on all fours. The man firmly decided not to be distracted by events of varying degrees of strangeness, making the tasks of survival and, in general, normal functioning as a priority. Although on the road, I must admit, some thoughts still haunted him.

Zebra somehow passed the forest, not possessing outwardly outstanding abilities and fighting qualities... it moved through the swamp as if it were a continuation of the local nature, and the same hydra did not pay much attention to it. Could it be that Alex's unconfirmed theories that the local nature as an entity had some kind of response to the actions of the rational are not so crazy? Mercer burst through the thicket, sweeping away everything in his path. Maybe that's why nature, figuratively speaking, tried to poison him with rat poison? Could it be that the local orderlies of the forest, these dog-like Pinocchios, attacked him to drive him out of the protected area?

Too bold statements, although not without grounds, Alex had to admit. The same wolves did not look like a tree form of life, which had sap instead of blood, and sap instead of lymph - so, a self-propelled heap of branches and vegetation, which, due to a misunderstanding, was given an animal shape. The "artificiality" of the creatures, however, did not really fit in with their behavior: the instinct of self-preservation they still had in a simplified form, which was evident from the first encounter with them. 

And the forest... although it was pretentious and surreal to the point of permissiveness, it still remained a forest. If Mercer were an ordinary person, he would use the usual rules of behavior here: do not meddle in where you can break your bones, do not touch unfamiliar flowers, mushrooms and berries, avoid animal paths and be attentive in order to notice a threat in time. True, the inhabitants of the terrestrial groves in most cases would have avoided a person themselves - but here, on the contrary, they had to twist their heads so as not to fly into some too brave living creature. 

And if in the continental strip of the Earth from the "suicidal" threats it was possible to stumble upon only a fox or a raccoon infected with rabies, then there were creatures from which you just couldn't climb a tree: they would easily follow you. Such as a hybrid of a chicken and a lizard the size of a good turkey that swooped down on Mercer's head from the crown of a tree. Emitting a grinding scream, something covered in dirty green scales with its paws grabbed Mercer's bony neck, trying to hold on to an impromptu perch due to leathery wings crowned with small claws. In the next instant, Alex's view was obscured by a chicken head with bloodshot eyes; he saw sharp teeth in a smooth, neat beak. And... nothing happened. 

Mercer looked with some curiosity at a representative of a species, an equal to which he could only recall a platypus (his stuffed animal at one time made a natural sensation in scientific circles), and he, in turn, stared at Zeus with such stubbornness, as if in this there was a higher meaning. He clearly did not intend to peck out an eye or otherwise torment the infected flesh. It's a pity - Mercer has already hit in the head to check how the local predator will react to his bio and chiincompatible flesh. It is desirable such that he could not swallow the evolved whole, like a hydra.

“Look, it won't take long for your eyes to burst!” Alex shared his thoughts with the creepy chicken in the intonation of an old turntable.

The gaze of the creature faded now only bewilderment was read in it. The creature jerked, spreading its honeycomb wings, and unclenched its claws, clumsily flying away like a chicken smack. Making a sound like an excited cluck, it disappeared into the thickets of bushes, deftly skirting the scattered trees and bending its tail like a snake. The creature was flying, probably badly and not far... Behind Alex, another hybrid landed on the trail, dousing the mutant with a stream of sudden wind, tilting its head to one side and revealing its beak studded with small teeth. He blurred, let out an irritated gurgle... But when he saw that Alex was not impressed by this, he probably decided that it was more expensive for himself to get involved with a lanky stranger, and he also promptly fled into the bushes. Alex only fought the urge to spit.

Madhouse. Definitely a mythological madhouse.

Past Mercer, in an absolute sense, did not particularly like nature, the man did not intend to give up the comfort of the urbanized zone and the benefits of civilization in general. He spent at least half of his free time from work and holidays in increasing his own knowledge, and not at all on country trips. Sometimes he and Karen sat up late over the materials and documents of Gentek, figuring out how the few surviving developments of the Carnival series (3) could help the main project. The rest of the evenings Alex spent in a place that he still considered his home, reading scientific publications, more fiction literature, listening to music... jogging in Washington Square, going to cultural institutions in Manhattan, to its most expensive restaurants, to meetings of others. luminaries of biological sciences.

When was the last time he got out of town there? Long, too long ago, and did not regret it at all. Mercer was not particularly enthusiastic now either, especially considering the assorted beasts that made up the local fauna. However... as soon as he passed a strip of forest, narrow by the standards of geography, some twenty kilometers wide, and went to the river, as nature somehow lost its fangs. Mercer heard not the gnashing of kuro-lashers, but the singing of night birds, quite similar to earthly ones, the splashing of fish in calm water, and not some kind of kraken, or what else the reservoirs here could swarmed with. A family of hedgehogs slipped past Alex, who was trotting at a wrong gallop, like crutches throwing back stiff prosthetic feet. One individual turned a funny face towards him and puffed trustingly with a wet nose.

Some kind of peace spread in the air. It seemed that all of Alex's hardships, which did not fit into the usual everyday, were left behind: government conspiracies, bio-weapons, Hope's secrets, shock groups, almost a million human deaths... reflecting the darkness of the starry sky and the light of the full moon. Across the hills where two streams flowing from the mountains merged, there was a small dam of a power plant. The houses of the town protruding from the night fog at its foot seemed very tiny. The windows only here and there were full of warm lights - the inhabitants indulged in serene sleep, gaining strength for another measured summer day. Reasonable creatures, into whose life he so unceremoniously burst... who probably grew fruits and vegetables, treated fellow citizens and bargained in their doll shops, built new houses, sewed clothes. They all did not even suspect that a creature who was responsible for a terrible catastrophe that befell a much larger city.

Alex, grimacing inwardly, went down to the water, slipping his foot on the clay with a spoon. No matter how pacifying this landscape may act, from the need to survive and the corresponding goals, the evolved had nowhere to go. Influencing the local population was essentially a one-off task, aimed only at getting hold of the equipment from the Black Hawk Down. Without the memory of the carriers and their mechanism of growth of the construct written in the genome, this was expected to be a difficult task, but feasible.

It was only necessary to reach an individual who stood above the rest in the hierarchy there, like the commanders of the guards - who would be ready to look in their mouths no matter what stupid things they did. The ability to imitate sounds, regardless of whether they made a conscious sense to Alex, should also help. Mercer climbed into the water and began carefully scraping his shell. Despite the other chemical effect, the properties of physics, local water showed the most common on the evolved: regularly performed the role of a universal solvent.

Alex didn’t want to spend grains of reserve to lick off all the impurities with the usual release of phagocytes (after which he could patch up the wounds)... and immersion in the image should be as capacious as possible, without any spots that appeared in the chews format. The evolved one will undoubtedly be revealed, but not immediately. By the time the locals realize that something is wrong with one of them, Mercer will expropriate the materials he needs and, without saying goodbye, will leave at dawn. Alex was not interested in outboard machine guns and rocket launchers, of course, which must have fallen into disrepair. What he needed to take away was the helicopter's radio station and its navigation module. Well, what else for little things from the troop compartment, if the locals have not yet stolen the alien shaitan machine for souvenirs. The navigator, combined with the on-board computer, is probably dead and cannot be restored... but it should have been snatched from under the hooves of the aborigines purely out of principle. What if their telekinetic abilities can somehow reconstruct complex electronics and extract information from them? It was impossible in any case to allow this to come into full contact (not like today with this mystical zebra). If it takes place, Mercer will decide for himself what information to provide to the zoomorphs and what information should be silenced.

But the radio... something could have happened with it. Tearing out the simplest contours from an advanced army station, combining them into a single whole and making them work. All this is possible, the knowledge of the pilots to repair the Hawk in the field was disposed to this. As well as piloting below the level of the rooftops, only this bird will never take off... Unless, of course, the local intelligent suddenly discover a wonderful ability to restore it. Mercer snorted as he climbed onto the sandy bank and turned to peer again at the distant silhouettes of houses on the other side of the river, upstream.

“I didn't even have time to really get acquainted with the other world... KHA! or what other race that most of all looks like horses subordinate to mankind, as I’m ready to consider them reasonable and somehow, hehe, with a creak, but reckon with their lives.” Grumbled Mercer, drying out under the night gusts of wind. “I wonder how these people, bigger than me, would react to them? Ahem... Ahem. Did you rush to establish contact with joy, or would you start to act in the spirit of those orators, according to which “man is a beloved of God's creations, created in the image and likeness”? If a person is objectively the only worthy bearer of reason in the universe, can you do anything with everyone else?” Alex paused briefly, recalling the details of "Carnivals" and "Crusader", which he managed to find out during those two and a half weeks of endless battle on the streets of the dying city.

Sighing, he concluded, “Probably. Kha-ha. Since even with their own people can do... that. Maybe it's even good that now I can classify myself as a member of this race with a huge assumption?”

The star-shining, serene moonlit night gave no answer. Mercer, having estimated on the ground an approximate route by which he intended to get to the bridges, sighed even more bitterly, and, hesitating to be sure, dropped to all fours. “Reasonableness by rationality, it's all clear,” his grumbling came through the rustle of the primary transformation, “but, kh-h-ha, I feel that for my completely human ego, this new experience will still be a humiliation.”

If one of the ponies or people could see that night the aberration that stood in the place of Alex Mercer ten minutes later, and then creeping over the grass, fingering his thin paws like spiders, disappeared into the shade of the coastal trees, he would probably say, that it would be better if he had never seen it.

The lone changeling just marveled at the radicality of the changes in the internal structure of the biped and, probably, even put in his memory a couple of especially sophisticated techniques.
> The Thing from Another World - 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Repeat, Sergeant,” Luna demanded, frowning at the Nightwatch Festral.

“Your Darkness... We are sure that nothing else has disappeared from the territory of the Sweet Apple,” the guard reported somewhat perplexedly. “Only fertilizers that did not contain magical minerals. The local owners know their goods in every way, so we can be sure...”

“What an absurdity,” the alicorn muttered. Then she, giving her muzzle an expression of slight sarcasm, looked at her sister:

“Deprived of initiative, then? Here, Tia, sign...”

The sister, who was ahead of her in acquaintance with the consequences that the stranger placed around him with a generous paw, only sighed. Morning, as they say, did not work out...

Princess Luna was in Ponyville by three in the morning. She did not have especially sublime romantic feelings for the town, unlike Tia, whom Ponyville probably saw as a welcome island of silence and freedom from the bureaucracy that she managed to get through in a thousand years of sole rule. But Luna were nice to the locals, from not the most pleasant page in the history of Equestria, they built a noisy and cheerful celebration. A princess who rarely made it out of Canterlot would love to take part in Nightmare Night this fall as well. She would not have done this in a suspicious attempt to somehow make amends for the fact that the incarnated Nightmare, in anger at her sister, completely forgot about her subjects, and even more so, Luna had no problems with reincarnating into this sinister hypostasis to the delight of adults and foals. Undoubtedly, the feeling of wrongdoing at times tingled the soul of the Luna... 

Sweeping away the nightmares allowed herself to turn into horror; for a thousand years, ponies went to bed, unable to count on the support of the one that protected their night's peace. Many were carefree and light in their thoughts, like Pinkie Pie, but someone allowed far-fetched problems to accumulate, settling down with a heavy burden for the whole day and taking possession of the ponies' minds, making them less happy. But still... Luna decided that it was not worth adding her own bitterness to communication with other ponies, including in their dreams. As well as using the old-fashioned Canterlot voice everywhere, of course. It was quite possible to contain gloomy thoughts already in their own dreams, where they were not able to disturb anyone except the Lady of Darkness...

Yes, Luna sympathize with the inhabitants of Ponyville. Naturally, she was worried when something went wrong with Twilight Sparkle's experiment that her sister, instantly sending all the courtiers, deigned to raise her regal croup above the throne and personally go there, taking with her almost a third of the Day Guard. On this, perhaps, one could finish: all six guardians of the Elements of Harmony and the embodiment of the Day Luminary, gathered in one place, this is not a force that can be neglected. Luna thought that whatever the problem was, she was unlikely to cause more inconvenience to the throne than Tirek had in her time. Sighing, Luna went deep into the documents, with which she was helped by Raven, her sister's well-trained assistant... And then, like a bolt from the blue, which was caused by a mischievous Pegasus, news came about the return of the Crystal Empire that afternoon. Perhaps Luna even sinned against the truth when she met her sister in Ponyville and expressed her claim to her; if she had stayed in the palace, she would have been surrounded by commotion and worries no less than Celestia was probably busy at that time. All the ponies around suddenly began to expect some decisions from her, almost revelations, so that the younger diarch was somewhat confused. She understood these ponies, responsible for the affairs of the state, who suddenly discovered for themselves that another ancient threat emerged from the succession of centuries, and it was not in a single person, but in the whole country. What happened to the people of the crystal ponies? Will not, like the return of Nightmare, turn out to be true, and these ancient beliefs? What if in a couple of days the northern lands shudder from the march of thousands of hooves bound with black iron, guided by the cold will of Sombra hypnotic abilities? Luna calmed the hottest heads, took up decrees on strengthening the border outposts, well, how much easier it was when she and her sister were responsible only for themselves, engaging in a fight with this sorcerer!

Luna said the following when meeting Tia, frowning sternly and almost switching to a Canterlot voice: “So, when something interesting is outlined by fate, our sister will deign to immediately run to the villagers to visit and leave Our Highness alone with a pile of statutes, to which, not otherwise, Discord himself put his paw!” Luna snorted furiously, flaring her nostrils. “And only when the affairs of the crown have turned into disaster, she will deign to call us for help!”

Celestia's guards who were accompanying her were subdued at once, swallowing almost audibly. They obviously didn't smile at being caught between a rock and a hard place in the face of a scuffle between the royal sisters... Celestia, even though she was taller than her sister, looked at her somehow from under her brows and pressed her ears:

“I just didn't want to disturb my little sister in vain at first...” Celestia made such a sad face that it would be impossible to be angry with her. Although for a thousand years the Luna had not forgotten these little tricks of the elder and the ways in which it was possible to fight them, she did not see the point in continuing the performance. Drowning in the bottomlessly touching eyes of Celestia, unable to maintain the mask of pomp and restrained anger, Luna laughed loudly and a second later she was echoed by the snow-white alicorn.

“You’ll spoil me completely, Tia.” Luna lamented, laughing. “I hope nothing serious happened in addition to the events of the day while I got here?”

“No, fortunately. The night is bright and full of peace with your efforts, sister.” Celestia smiled in response. “Our little subjects are no more burdened with the cares of the days to come than they are on any of your refined nights.”

"I know." Luna replied with dignity as she walked past Tia to the town hall. Ahead of the question, she added: “In the vicinity of Ponyville, I do not experience foreign and somehow prominent dreams, sister. But this is natural... I do not think that a foreigner would so easily lie down to rest in a new place for him. Many creatures may not sleep for several days before they hit the ground with fatigue.”

“You're right, Lulu.” Celestia nodded in response to the greeting from the Nightwatch squad that silently followed their mistress. At the request of her sister, Luna took them with her, so that the batpony, convinced couch potatoes, who got out of Canterlot only to accompany Lady Night, ended up in Ponyville before the fall holidays. Having extensive experience in fighting the creatures of chaos, with which it would be difficult to cope with ordinary magicians, their presence with the affairs of the crown was never required here... : they were lazy, therefore good-natured and practically did not intersect with ponies - too arrogant received a bunch of sparks in the nose from local wizards and left grumbling. But since Tia in her letter asserted that a “man” thrown from another dimension, according to all the laws of nature, should have died from his wounds, then this should have attracted the attention of the bailiffs of the Luna. The same arachnidus electric spiders that once dwelt in the very depths of the phestral caves quickly healed any of their injuries and happily absorbed directed energy, ignoring magic, but the night ponies got the hang of them. True, none of Equus's monsters, in addition, knew how to mimic with considerable skill...

After thinking, Luna asked: "Sure this "human" ability to disguise is not the first thing we should care about?”

“Of course. Although his abilities can cause significant harm, if used covertly, surreptitiously, it will be very easy to reveal him in the guise of a pony,” Celestia answered somehow completely nonchalantly. “What is easier - just use any spell with a binding on a suspiciously behaving pony and see if he ignores it. Another question - do we need to provoke him with this?”

“Again, this is your eternal expectation from others of exceptional prudence and in general all the best... Sister, are you suggesting to just wait?” Luna raised her eyebrows. “But what? That one morning on the doorstep of the town hall you will find a basket with flowers, fruits and a note in the spirit of “Sorry, I almost stuck my rotorcraft into your city, you want to talk about it”? By the way, where is the dessert you promised?” 

Not letting her sister interrupt her, the night princess demandedly looked at Celestia and shook her head, “And in general, why such confidence that this is a male creature from another world? I only hear about "him" instead of "it", even in the report that you sent me...”

“He arrived in our dimension in a war machine, Luna.” Celestia replied with a note of justified concern. However, her voice immediately gurgled its trademark serenity, which so amused the youngest in childhood and caused jokes from her side about the preachers. “And I understand that in a world without magic, war is the lot of males, as they are physically stronger. The stranger showed all the signs of a highly evolved organism, in no way related to the same insects. If the patterns of the difference between the sexes there are at least to some extent similar to ours, then our friend is a stallion. And that's not counting the secondary signs... few mare would agree to walk with such a crow's nest on her head, right? Again, his isolation, independence and unwillingness to make contact...”

“Extremely situational analogies, cultural differences can easily turn them upside down.” Luna snorted, shaking her ethereal mane. “I’m afraid to even imagine how their culture differs from ours, if it doesn’t have magic as such.”

“Perhaps.” Celestia didn’t argue. “Although they might have had factors that matched the influence of magic. Be that as it may, my dear sister, now I see no reason to prioritize the discovery of the creature and its capture. He has already shown himself to be a reasonable, sane creature, albeit by our standards and overly cautious. We only need to keep him in sight, if a stranger dares to appear in our eyes... I have information that he may try to do something with his car, and if everything really goes like this, then we will try to establish contact, but not hold back by his strength. The guards have already been informed of the measures of protection in case of... trouble. If a completely exceptional case occurs, and the humanwill show aggression.”

“Okay, for my two questions you answered. But what about the promised fruit?” Luna pouted, secretly anticipating how Tia would get out, explaining to the younger, accustomed to autocratic rules, that all merchants now see the seventh dream, and it is at least impolite to wake them up. As well as "in the name of the crown" independently carry out their reserves. 

Celestia, unfortunately, did not live up to expectations, saying with a bit of malice in her voice. “And the most exquisite fruits and sweets are waiting for you, sister, in the hall on the table. They were kindly provided to us by Madame Mayor... she has been keeping a supply in stasis since the last Night of Nightmares in order to appease the formidable celestial on occasion.”

“Who gave her this idea, I wonder...” Grumbled Luna. Going up to the terrace of the town hall, she looked around the town square with the statue of the earth pony, the collective image of the founders of the town. “I understand why, in this situation, there is a Night Watch, but I still cannot accept your so optimistic attitude.”

“My thoughts are not overshadowed by the movement towards the denouement of all this action, for Human chose to retreat, and not to break through to his car, acting by force. The experience of thestrals will be useful to us, Luna, not in an attempt to track him down.” Stopping in the doorway, said the day princess. “But in the same exceptional case of conflict. Your guards will help ward off the blow from our little ponies, if the humanrealizes that he will no longer be able to hide and there is nowhere to retreat. No matter how skillful he was at wielding his own body, his blood contained several simple compounds, and this is a great success, because a few hours earlier we knew almost nothing about the alien. As soon as I compose the flow matrix for the spell to search for these unique traces, we will no longer need to worry that the stranger lurked in plain sight...”

In turn, casting a glance at the square through which the three of her guards were walking, Tia squeezed her regal body inside and already from the building of the town hall added. “However, what are we all about a human? First, we need to decide what to do with the return of the Crystal Empire...”

Luna looked skeptically after the snow-white rump that disappeared behind the door leaf obligingly opened by a soldier. Of course, in her thoughts she gave free rein to imagination and artistic exaggeration, after all, the opening of the town hall, the meeting place for many ponies, was not an example higher and wider so that Celestia could easily enter the building... Strictly speaking, and with the doors of ordinary houses near the eldest carcass sisters had no problems. But Celestia will be forced to go on a diet, this is herself Luna has promised firmly. How many traditions through the efforts of the throne lost in this thousand and one years, the face (and especially the sides) of the crown had to be watched.

Ponies of most colors, of course, were ready to idolize alicorns for the mere fact of their existence, but if Selly had to roll into the throne room on a cart and allocate guardsmen to push her through the Canterlot arches... no, the inhabitants of Equestria would not understand this. Luna barely stifled a laugh, impressed by the painting in her head. Nothing... the coming of a man is a great reason for a sister to take the lead and run for once, stretch her wings. If Luna understood her sister, it was that she was very good at finding performers for a particular cause who were exactly suitable for this business. Based on the tasks that the humanset for the Equestrians, and the concept of an alien invasion in general, Celestia could well leave the stranger to herself, having detached... yes, the same Twilight Sparkle in the Crystal Empire. A young sorceress with a huge store of knowledge, a fresh look at the problem, openness and sufficient impartiality to the new and the unknown...

Celestia would definitely not want to go to the Empire if there was a possibility of repeating their mistake with the Luna, a mistake that remained unresolved, together with the usurper imprisoned a whole people of ponies in oblivion... Luna sighed barely audibly. She could help Twilight by going with her, crystal magic was a guest from the past, like Night Lady herself, and was disposed to understand the Luna, as well as her knowledge of the dark arts. Luna did not think that it seemed desirable to her to honor the northern lands with her presence, but if Tia considered that Twilight's help of the night diarch was necessary, she would not refuse her sister.

“She has been cracking pastries for so many years, and at least she hasnt gotten herself a little sore at all,” Luna voiced the belated thought, smiling mockingly. Noticing how her guardsmen were eloquently exchanging glances, the alicorn sternly warned them: “You didn't hear that. Disperse, set up a patrol schedule in accordance with the already existing one from the Day Guard. In which case, beyond the scope, act in excess of the instructions. Under my responsibility.” Luna clearly indicated her right in her voice.

“Of course, your Darkness,” the commander saluted her. Batponies, activating their amulets that were built into the cuirasses, unfolded their wings with a rustle and scattered in all directions. Some of them froze in the shadows of the Ponyville rooftops upside down, dimly twinkling narrowed eyes through the slits of the helmets. The lieutenant went somewhere in the direction of the market, because there, next to the otherworldly car, was the main post with the officers of the Day... Luna once again looked over the panorama of the night town, so unusually flooded by the guards of Canterlot. It would be difficult to imagine, if she did not have genuine memories of this, that once this collection of cozy houses, the residence of many good ponies was nothing more than a land of free wind and fertile lands. She remembered the nights on these hills, with a telescope and an armillary sphere, when she and Tia lived among the Everfree at the Sisters' Castle. From there, together with the court magicians, for many years they poured into Equestria a stream of scientific knowledge, artistic innovations, Tia's simple worldly wisdom and her organizational skills.

Princess Luna breathed in the air deeply, crystal clear, pleasantly stroking the fur and filled with the coolness of the night. He, this extraordinary air, was a part of the night, the elements of the Luna, when everything around becomes motionless, like a painting on an artist's canvas, at the same time remaining breathing and alive. Ponyville, a thousand years later, organically blended into these night colors, succumbing to a touching pacification; here the midnight breeze whispered in the foliage of the garden trees and crickets chirped in the well-groomed grass. And yet here, among the Ponyville and their dreams, no longer feeling like a stranger, a capital nobleman, striving to get away to the castle as soon as possible away from prying eyes...

Luna now felt some kind of discomfort. A slight feeling of anxiety devoured the princess - as if this night's peace were ethereal, could easily be disturbed, like life-affirming scenery in a theater creeping apart at the seams, ripped open by harsh reality. It was as if something surrounded Ponyville, hiding in the shadows, inevitably clutching the ring. As if an alien, alien life from other worlds watched the ponies, greedy and anticipating, endlessly envious and greedy.

Defeat, a quiet voice, on the verge of consciousness, reached the mind of the Luna, another, but from a new one. Isn't that what you're afraid of, Luna princess? Do you think that your nightmare can be translated into real life?

“Your time has not come yet,” Luna said dryly, turning around and entering the town hall. “And I feel that today, in general, the time for rest will come very soon.”

Sun guards under the roof of the town hall bowed her inside. Twilight Sparkle would probably be in the tenth heaven with happiness if her adored mentor got a night in the library, but her sister settled down in the city center. Madame Mayor, after all, needs to be aware of the business that the crown is about to arrange among the ponies, for which it has taken responsibility... The earth pony was there, in the hall at the large table on which Shining Armor spread out the cards, showing something to his subordinates.

Luna had not seen this mare, in charge of the city since the last Nightmare Night celebration and was amazed at how serious and collected the mayor looked without clown clothes. For some reason, she reminded Luna of a squat mining machine, ready to cut a deep trench in the solid basalt of bureaucracy. The gray-haired mane, dyed for solidity, was styled, in spite of the late hour, flawlessly; the eyes looked out from under the glasses at Celestia attentively, if not tensely, with a note of doomed fatigue, not at all enthusiastically inquiring, as was usually the case when Tia condescended to visiting simple ponies. Although coffee must have been at fault here; if Shining and the other guards were ready for a sleepless night thanks to vigor spells, the mayor, judging by the smell, kept herself on her feet the old fashioned way...

The ensuing meeting, with the presentation of arguments and excerpts from the scouts' report, took about an hour. Although the conclusions were quite predictable, Luna found this conversation useful. Her sister never considered herself an infallible ideal; The princess of the Night has seen more than once how she succumbs to a load of doubts, how she is distracted from the true state of affairs by the wrong direction of judgments - albeit very infrequently - and forcing her to make mistakes that are not complex in their essence, but simple. The Canterlot wedding is the best example in this millennium...

Luna could only give praise to heaven that the elder sister did not ossify her brains for a long one-man rule, ignoring the vision of others with donkey stubbornness, but very conscientiously checked her ideas about the world with new events, times and opinions... If not, it would be very bad for the Luna after exile to find herself not in her native land, albeit with forgotten traditions, but in such a version of Equestria. Sombra's empire would not have come out of my sister, but still little pleasant.

It was decided to send Cadence to the northern borders in the company of her husband, since the crystal ponies were once known for their love magic. And the help of the keepers of the elements of Harmony would definitely not hurt them. Six ponies are unlikely to object that in the midst of an outworld invasion, they are sent they are far away... If the alicorn sisters get down to business personally, then you don't have to worry about the relatives and friends left in Ponyville, for the princesses will resolve everything in the best possible way. Everyone should have done what he was good at... Good old Tia, diplomat and organizer of what to look for, Luna chuckled to herself as her sister gave her last instructions to Shining Armor. Celestia decided to send them on the morning train through Canterlot, and there, reunited with their intended niece, the ponies were to bypass the northern borders and meet with the scouts from the vanguard. And if Twilight, with the help of friends, stirred up the stagnant magic of the Empire and awakened it to life, coped with this difficult task, and Tia had no doubt that the unicorn would find a solution, then she would take another big step towards penetrating all the magic of Equus and becoming alicorn.

Celestia intended to keep Luna with herself and the princess of the Night perfectly understood that this was due to her qualities and a tendency to explore new horizons of thought, and not then at all, so that the younger one would not accidentally fall into something deadly. Only this time among the dark crystals of Sombra, and not the darkness of your own soul... It's nice when you are kept in sight, not to control, but because they are appreciated, Luna thought proudly when her sister clarified her position and gently declined her offer to go with Twilight. Despite her fears, the phenomenon of "man" in the pony world was indeed interesting to the Luna, after her return, tirelessly discovering new features of Equestria, which has changed significantly over the years. How will the creature react to the new world, which has never lived among ponies, does not have the slightest idea of ​​how to behave in their society?

If this foreign military man burst into Ponyville and, in a commanding voice, began to demand a meeting with the local authorities or, waving his stab weapon, scared the pony with his "stand-fear", the Luna would certainly condemn him, but could not help but understand... What stars shine over his homeland, if there is no one to draw a pattern with them in the night sky, and how is the course of the luminaries there? Can everyone like him demonstrate control of their own body at a level that many transfigurators cannot? Absorbed in new questions, Luna, in thought, did not even notice how her sister took something from the street, opening the window. The Princess of the Night only had time to notice how someone's yellow skin and a tail of shades of pink flashed, felt a breath of wind and some sibilant sound. Perhaps it was one of Tia's informants? 

Celestia unrolled a scroll similar to the ones delivered to her in a less extravagant manner and quickly scanned it with her eyes. “A report has come in,” she finally said. There was no anxiety in the elder's voice, but she was definitely worried. “I’ve just been informed that a man was seen entering the city limits about an hour and a half ago. Came out from the side of the forest, but not to the crash site; moved from house to house parallel to Stirrup street, disguising himself as a street setting. Unfortunately, even before the Night Watch arrived, his trail was lost.”

“Shall I raise additional units, Your Grace?” Shining immediately decided. “You don’t think it is insolence, but why was this report not delivered immediately, immediately after the discovery of the creature?”

“The pony herself didn’t want to be noticed, given Human’s disguise and long-term espionage abilities,” Celestia replied somewhat absently, levitating the scroll toward the Luna. “Taking into account that he again did not undertake aggressive actions and did not collide with the guards, Agent Drops continued to observe in the hope of finding his trail again... But, I am afraid, Human lurked somewhere in Ponyville. And until it starts to move, it will not be easy to find it.”

Luna quickly read the report while Celestia outlined the situation for Armor and Madame Mayor. The scroll even had a magical imprint of the image, which was captured by Celestia's informant. Heavens see... Luna had seen enough at one time and much more frightening pony-like silhouettes, even created them herself, while still in her and her sister's old castle, enchanting outstanding examples of armor... But the sight of a "man" moving on all fours really seemed gloomy. Like a skeleton of a pony of distorted proportions with a severed skull crawled along the street, pressing into the ground and knees high on its bony, spider-like legs.

“He's adapting,” Luna concluded grimly. “Changed his internal structure to be like us. It seems like it took him a while - not like a changeling that immediately flips over and gets into a fight.”

Celestia nodded, telekinesis raising a delicate cup of tea to her lips and sipping gently from it.

“Poor fellow,” she sighed, looking at the scroll again with some regret. “He was completely emaciated, and he could not find pasture here. I hope he gets enough blit is wise to ask us for help.”

Unthinkable, Luna rolled her eyes. It was said in plain text that a stranger who was in danger of being threatened was hiding somewhere nearby, and Tia was worried that he had nothing to eat here! Who is talking about what, and my sister is about satisfying not her own royal, but other people's appetites!

Madame Mayor blinked nervously several times, then looked at the Luna with hidden hope. “Your Darkness, are you saying that the alien can now take the pony's place? Become one of us? Can you prevent this?”

“We can. But there is somehow little sense in his actions,” Shining Armor considered it necessary to intervene, frowning at the map and marking on it with question marks the places where a human could go after losing a trace of this very "agent Drops". “The ponies are asleep now, and any civilian on the street will certainly attract the attention of the guards. This means that he will not be able to walk in the form of a pony in the open. He will not be able to pretend to be a Guardsman, since the triplets use the usual magic resistance check...”

“He might not know and get caught,” Luna suggested.

“Then we would already know about it,” the captain shook his head towards the window. With a thoughtful look, the unicorn walked around the table, after which he put the helmet that had been removed back on his head:

“He saw our magical abilities. No matter how new and frightening they may be for a stranger, he got some idea of ​​magic, and therefore fears us. Judging by the picture,” the husband of Cadence this time pointed with a nod of his head at the scroll, “in this state, the stranger is larger than ordinary ponies, so the choice for replacement is narrowed. Most of the inhabitants of Ponyville will not suit him, although he can easily try on the skin of almost any of the guards. For the reasons already mentioned, however, he will not do this. But what does he need then? A flying machine? Why didn't he try to infiltrate her, bypassing the posts, if she was still on the outskirts of the city?”

“Yes, you're right, Captain,” Celestia agreed easily. “Whatever a human needs, this is clearly not just an attempt to study us better through implementation. If a human wanted this, he would at least wait for the day when the ponies on the streets will become larger and it will be easier to get lost...”

“Are you going to stop the residents of Ponyville from leaving their homes?” Luna asked bluntly. Intellectually, she understood that to disperse everyone to their homes, to keep the ponies behind the bars in fear of the changing appearance of a stranger was not an option. As creatures deeply social, it is unlikely that ponies could withstand such isolation for a long time, and the benefits of it were seen as questionable. Celestia confirmed her sister's thoughts with a sad smile.

“I'm afraid we have no better option than to watch and be prepared for trouble, sister. A human in houses may well take on the appearance of their inhabitants... On the contrary, on the street he will be exposed even faster. Ponyville is a small town, everyone here is familiar with everyone, and neighbors will quickly notice that the changeling is behaving somehow differently, for example, changing his usual daily routine. I think a humanunderstands this... he does not need the appearance of a recluse pony, silently - because our language is not familiar to him - drinking tea alone and not calling friends to the gatherings.”

“Well, if so, I'll take your word for it. Who am I to question the position of an expert in tea ceremonies on every opportunity, just to appear inaccessible to the secretaries?” Luna smirked without malice, levitating a juicy grapefruit toward her.

“Lulu!” Celestia exclaimed loudly and resentfully enough that Madame Mayor backed away, fearing Sunshine’s anger. “I am amazed and upset by such unworthy behavior of my younger sister! Is that how you contribute to raising the authority of the crown by spreading these daring and implausible rumors about us?”

“I don’t know,” Luna pointed out her tongue. “The information is taken from open sources and is publicly available, remember the newspaper of those foals.”

“Shame you,” Tia pouted incredibly, then turned to Shining, who was struggling to contain his laughter, and declared in an emphatically official tone:

“Captain, the order remains the same. Do not engage in open combat, use defensive tactics and bundles of flows. Beat with crippling and lethal spells only in the event of a direct, unprovoked human attack. Inform the guards that they should treat the alien as... well, as an enemy saboteur with valuable information. If you take it, then carefully and with honor.”

“Everything is very clear to me, Your Grace,” Shining Armor replied, and, summoning an adjutant, went out into the night-shrouded square. He still had to leave instructions to his deputies before heading north.

“Did you mean it when you wrote that the creature is likely to be a military one? The local analogue of the Guards?” Luna asked quietly, looking after the captain.

“Yes, sister,” there was that hesitation in her voice again, concern about the fate of the little ponies. “Thinking of a human as an ordinary resident of that is measured on my part it was... it was not quite right. Although this does not impose corrections on our reaction to a human.”

“Can you explain?”

“Of course,” after exchanging a couple of common phrases with the mayor of Ponyville, Celestia let her go with a nod (the official bowed and walked to the exit from the hall, desperately trying not to yawn in the presence of royal persons). Then she condescended to her attention to the Luna:

“I hoped that a sentient being would seek peace, not war, and eventually make contact, because I was used to communicating with at least reasonable ones of their own kind,” Celestia smiled, gesturing to her sister to sit opposite. A decorative kettle from the service of the local administration hung in the air. “Do you have sugar in your tea or a bite?”

“Tia, it's time to learn over so many years...” Luna moaned painfully, but she took the cup into her telekinetic grip. She drank with pleasure - something, and Tia learned to handle tea accessories and tea leaves at a level comparable to the divine.

“I don’t know,” Celestia returned Luna's phrase in the sweetest voice. “When I see my little sister so preoccupied with important matters, my heart squeezes and overflows with an immeasurable desire to take care of her, to courteous, at least to offer a tea...”

“Tia!”

“Alright, alright, we will not remember that case,” the elder giggled, happily catching a piece of sugar with her lips, which Luna had thrown at her. “Perhaps, due to his innate abilities, a human would not have made contact - if his culture praised the cult of strength, male pride, independence... and this does not fit at all with his cautious approach, largely devoid of initiative. But what if you consider it a vocation in military affairs? Moreover, he should not be considered an ordinary guard, but someone closer to the leadership, officers, for I doubt that such a machine in their dimension devoid of magic can be supplied to everyone in a row, just as the need for such a supply is also doubtful. Such a soldier is unlikely to try to solve all his problems by brute force, head-on... What do you think, Lulu, what will such a disciplined and balanced soldier do, having fought off his platoon, having lost all contact with the higher authorities?”

“He will try at all costs to avoid contact with the enemy, establish communication with the command and request instructions, ideally - immediately go to his own,” Luna answered without hesitation. Even without knowledge of the military history of the Dark Years, she could have assumed something similar; this is how any intelligent being surrounded by an enemy would act. Realizing that the situation described by her sister was exactly like what happened during that day in Ponyville, Luna blinked:

“So this is it...”

“Indeed, Lulu,” Celestia modestly closed her eyes, tilting her head and sipping her favorite seagulls in an artistic gesture. “A soldier who has lost his own will try to send a request to his superiors for further action, and will enter into battle sooner only if he cannot be avoided - no matter how strong this individual may see himself. While you were getting to Ponyville, I checked the car again... there is definitely some kind of communication based on conventional radio waves.”

“Radio? How are regular music broadcasts” Luna was surprised. “But these… radio waves are so easy to intercept, what guards would want to use that instead of the exchange elixirs?”

“I feel, sister, otherworldly people as soon as they did not sophisticated in order to compensate for the lack of magic,” the princess of the Day shook her hoof diplomatically. “One smart filly from my agents offered to take the car to Canterlot, but I don't think that's the best idea for tonight… tonight. Now we know what the human guard needs - and we know where we can meet him. We actually have two options. Either let him do this, make sure that he is stuck here seriously and for a long time, and "their" will not be able to pull him out in any way... Or to catch a humanagainst his will and hope that our measures are enough, and no one will suffer. It is not hard to guess which method seems more preferable to me.”

“You are our incorrigible pacifist,” Luna grumbled, barely holding back her smile, and striving to break through the preoccupied face on her face. “Sometimes it seems to me that Tirek pulled all the hostility out of you in addition to magic, but he never returned it.”

“Was there any actions on the part of a human that would be worth showing hostility?” Celestia remarked reasonably. “Unlike Tirek and other power-hungry monsters, he invaded the measured course of the life of our subjects not of his own free will, and only caused destruction accompanying the fall.”

“But still, what if he is actually a follower of Chaos?” Luna narrowed her eyes, chewing with gusto the peel of a banana. “Who wants to see the world on fire, and is humble only now, until he is familiar with the state of affairs?”

“This is very unlikely, Your Darkness!” came to the hearing of the sisters of someone gladly a groaning voice, accompanied by the sound of shutters opening. Celestia perceptibly shuddered - it was clearly a surprise to her that a man (was it he?) So suddenly decided to make contact. As for Luna, she jumped up from the pouf and blurted out, pointing a horn with an already twisted cutting spell at the window opening: ”Who dares to disturb our Highnesses?!” 

In a fit of feelings, the princess of the Night inadvertently switched to the Canterlot voice, so that the pony thrusting through the window was literally swept out.

“Luna!” Celestia exclaimed reproachfully, rushing to help her subject. The Luna was forced to send the galloping guards and Madame Mayor, who rushed headlong to the aid of the princesses. When the commotion subsided a little, Luna took a closer look at the nocturnal visitor, whom Tia dragged through the window through the window by telekinesis, smoothed her puffed mane and sat down at the table, pushing a cup of chamomile broth closer to her. The mint-colored unicorn, bulging eyes, chattered her teeth and held her hardcover notebook tightly to her. Princess Luna felt familiar pricks of conscience, very similar to the feelings of a year ago, when a dark human showed up in the royal house and began to scare the courtiers, who had long been accustomed to the serene nature of Celestia.

“I'm sorry, little pony,” Luna said as gently as possible. “But tell me what brought you to the town hall in the middle of the night?”

“A-all right, Your Darkness,” the unicorn squeezed out of herself, sniffing at the contents of the cup and perking up noticeably. Her golden eyes shot towards the window opening, and the pony began to frequent, without taking her hooves off the notebook:

“I beg your pardon for interrupting you, princesses! I just saw how my friend Bon-Bon almost climbed through your window! She said during the day that she saw a real person, so I thought...”

This is no good, Luna frowned. Although Equestria has long passed the Middle Ages, something completely Tia dismissed her subjects, since her confidants so easily reveal to friends the details of the affairs of the state. Although... if you think about it, this "Bon-Bon" really had nothing to blame. And so all of Ponyville already knew that thanks to Twilight, something mysterious and, perhaps, unfriendly-minded had emerged from another world. From what the city gossipers would call him, nothing would have changed... Suddenly the Luna realized that “man” is only a modern form of the Old Equi dialect “sublime” - and this gave a new meaning to the designation of being. Luna had already opened her mouth to ask the unicorn again about the reasons for her visit, but the mint pony was ahead of the princess.

“Bon-Bon always said that my fascination with science fiction is, of course, good, but she is completely uninteresting!” she responded with inspiration. “But how I felt - one day Bon-Bon will also be interested in the idea of ​​the existence of humans! After all, you came here for the sake of looking for him and pouring into our society, Your Grace, right?!”

“You're right about something, my little pony. We will take care of the person, so you shouldn't worry that he will somehow harm the people of Ponyville,” Celestia smiled warmly. “You're Lyra, aren't you? Bon Bon told me about you.”

“Lyra Heartstrings, Your Grace. I'm a musician,” the unicorn bowed politely, breaking into a smile; The news that the Princess of the Sun herself knew her definitely delighted Lyra. However, she immediately shook her head and, remembering Luna's statement, fervently began to express her thoughts:

“Princesses, a human simply cannot be aggressive and somehow harm us! Bon-Bon spent the whole night trying to find him, but he, it seems, did not want to catch our eye! What is not the best confirmation of his peacefulness?” Lyra carefully took into her own field of telekinesis the bun that Celestia offered her, and, biting once or twice, continued a little thoughtfully:

“True, I did not expect such a determination to get involved in the business from her, Bonnie is still a friendly pastry chef, and not a hound in the care of Canterlot... Oh, I didn’t want to, sorry! Well, the alien, which is strange, is much less sociable than I and my associates imagined...”

Luna glanced eloquently at Celestia, who puffed out her cheeks at the mention of the secret guard, barely holding back a laugh from the mint pony's inadvertent shrewdness. But there were times when, for much less words, thrown in the crowd carelessly, the pony would have had a long and unpleasant conversation with the fearsome Sun Goddess... Having settled back on her pouf, Luna began to leisurely cut an apple into slices and in between times asked:

“Much number of like-minded ponies do you have, Lyra?”

“No, what are you, princess! But in this regard, a couple of penpals are enough for me,” pony replied carelessly, washing down the bun and looking at Celestia with a grateful glance. “Your tea is impeccable, Your Grace!”

“Thank you for your kind words,” the princess of the Day nodded gravely. “But all the same, Lyra, why exactly did you seek a meeting with us? For the sake of this, only you decided not go to sleep? I assure you,” warm sparks of joy danced in Tia's eyes as she circled them around the town hall, “we don't keep people in prison here. And we are not going to hide our guest from the ponies, if we consider him worthy of the citizens of Ponyville.”

“I thought that you have found out more about a human during this day than a modest musician can, Your Highnesses,” Lyra replied in a conspiratorial tone. “I wanted to know if a human really corresponds to my theories, so as not to hit his face in the mud when he meets, how to prepare for it! Perhaps, if between us there was a lack of pony mania, we could somehow help the alien with adaptation to Equestrian society and win him over!”

“It depends on what theories you and your friends put forward,” Luna grinned, putting another apple slice into her mouth. “Did your company consider it true, for example, the statement that without magic a humancan restore himself, being torn to pieces? Or that he is capable, in theory, quite tolerably of taking the form of a pony?”

“What? What are you talking about, princess?” surprised Heartstrings, putting her ears up.

“Luna, come on without such shocking details right off the bat, okay?” Tia shook her head, looking reproachfully at her sister.

“No, no, I will be extremely grateful to you if you share your knowledge about him!” learningly opened her eyes to the royal sisters. “Then I ask to be ready when I find myself in the thick of things! Do not blame the simple pony for her curiosity, Your Highnesses!”

“What are these events?” Luna decided to play it safe.

“I don't know! But something wonderful will surely happen! New friends are always good, but here you have an opportunity to make such an unusual friend!” Lyra said dreamily, moreover, pronouncing every word so carefully, as if she was not sure that the princesses would understand her. “Maybe he, with his otherworldly approach, would help us cope with the retaliation of the changelings! Although, since you say that he himself is to some extent a changeling, I'm not sure about that... But we could learn so many interesting things that are probably contained in people culture! Their books, mag-o-films, music, favorite foods! Maybe persuade him to give him a couple of massage sessions with his paws... hands!” Heartstrings' cheeks suddenly turned pink from a blush, and the pony lowered her head, hiding her eyes under a light green mane with white strands. Luna arched an eyebrow skeptically and looked at her sister. In her eyes, mischievous sunbeams still glittered - the words of the unicorn clearly intrigued Tia.

“Your optimism is commendable, my little pony,” pouring tea for herself and the new companion, Celestia remarked, smiling. “May I know what your conclusions are based on? And yes, "people"?

“That's what we could call their species! "Those who multiply," Actually blossomed thanks to the interest of the monarch's personage Lyra. “If I'm right, then without magic, their homeworld should have a lot more inhabitants than ours! Let me show you...” she tore off a notebook from her fluffy chest and opened it. “Anthropology. Secret. Exclusive property... ” Luna did not have time to see the cover further, because was on the table, but there was probably the name of the unicorn.

Well, that's it, there were two cheerful persons, Luna grumbled in her head, quietly trying to push the plate of pastries away from her sister.

However, despite the suspicion that Celestia was only then going to listen to Lyra in order to get a reason to continue drinking tea, Tia watched the calculations very carefully, not out of politeness and unwillingness to offend "her little pony." To Luna's surprise, the unicorn's notebook was indeed flooded with information, many of which might, ahem... be trustworthy. Something was flavored with evolutionary magibiology (even considering that in the view of Heart Strings, people were not able to wield magic).

For example, a description of how ungulates exist next to people as a domesticated satellite species, like the same cows, and therefore to ordinary pony people will react, having got to know them better, with exceptional friendliness, bordering on the desire to take care of the "pet".

Frankly speaking, the Luna did not manage to understand why "people" are obliged to be a peaceful race of researchers, philosophers and scientists, unlike her sister, which inserted many of her own remarks into the filly's reasoning. The idea that, due to the lack of magic, based on mere chance, the sex ratio should be approximately equal, and completely delighted Tia with its simplicity and brevity.

Although, according to Luna, it looked more like the embodiment of pony fantasies Heart Strings... Human did not even dare to announce himself, so until dawn the sisters passed the time, listening to the chirping of the unicorn, which, as they say, fluffed its tail with might and main from the attention of royalty.

When Lyra warmly said goodbye to the princesses and received Celestia's assurance that she would definitely be called if there was a need for dialogue with a person, Luna stood up and in a completely different stretched in a aristocratic manner. Her ears moved back and forth several times, cutting air. What if some of Heart Strings ideas are indeed true? Individuals with a penchant for science, like Twilight, are actually rare. For the most part they are creepy individualists, self-centered and instead of trusting relationships they prefer to build on the basis of tiye stationery. Fears about the existence of a whole civilization of highbrow creatures, without any witchcraft creating tools of murder, were difficult to discard...

Wonder if it was not about a representative of another world, but about a simplified version of Nightmare, which also hid in the shadows for the time being, Tia would have reacted to situations as careless? Hay! How much was incomprehensible in all this incident... Luna straightened a lock of her starry mane with telekinesis. She suddenly found herself thinking of a humanas of herself, the same guest from a world where the intelligent behaved differently than they are now; which could, without realizing it, harm with her usual behavior. 

As if reading her thoughts, Celestia looked at her sister with open malice. “People must have a strange society,” she said as the guard closed the heavy door of the town hall behind Lyra. “Who would have thought that our guest had so much in common with you, Lulu?”

"Much less than you think, sister," Luna snorted. The dark princess went to the window, which Tia had securely closed, and looked across the terrace at the night light. Her ability to feel the call of this silver essence, to touch her with her soul and thoughts has never failed, and this certainly means that she must soon enter a new day.

“Why is this? But what about, based on the conclusions of Miss Heartstrings, pride, a willingness to go to the end, adherence to other people's ideas and ideals, but, moreover, kindness and responsiveness, evolved empathy? Finally,” Celestia retorted in an unctuous voice, “your martial art, worthy of the masters of measuring the eternal battle? Remember how you were going to start a war with the hippogryphs just because you didn't like their ruling house's birthday present?”

“Tia!” instantly jumped up the princess of the Night, throwing a cautious glance at the day guards. They may have seemed imperturbable idols, but the opportunity to scratch with tongues outside of the service was probably not neglected. Only the ponies are accustomed to her demeanor, so rumors will spread again... “What are you inventing, there was no such thing!”

“Really, I messed up. Probably, forgetfulness begins to approach with age!” Celestia's sincere laughter sounded in the hall, only intensifying as the indignant and confused expression on the little sister's face disappeared, replaced by a smile. “I think you’re at a loss as to how Lyra’s visit can benefit us?”

“Did the concepts of this Heartstrings give you any suspicions already, sister?”

“Yes. I got a couple of ideas about human psychology, about how he thinks... and to whom he can turn as an interlocutor in the first place, finding himself in our world. To tell the truth, before Lyra's words, I did not think about it, I will need to somehow thank her on behalf of the crown,” Celestia got up, carefully levitating the elements of the service back onto the tray, and walked to the exit. “But more on that later... Will you keep me company, Lulu?” Celestia looked at her hopefully. “It's been a long time since we lit the dawn together and did not celebrate the sunsets, not even for too long... Maybe it is worth reviving at least this tradition?”

“Why not?” Luna did not resist, still under the influence of Tia's simple, but very infectious sense of humor. “Since we are here together, and tonight I postponed my watch...”

The guards opened the doors for them, and the sisters went out into the square. Passing the well-groomed flower beds, the princesses stood close to each other and turned their gaze to the sky, where the night was decorated with the efforts of the Luna. There was not a single cloud on the anthracite canvas; only occasionally colored trails of meteors, these eternal travelers, lined the starry pattern with orange and silver stripes. Turning each to their heavenly body, the sisters combined their movement into a single, perfectly synchronized mechanism. Focus of their will, a powerful, without exaggeration, stunning ritual, once available only to a collection of the strongest magicians of Equestria.

As if connected to its antipode by a single orbit, the moon rushed to the horizon at the same time as the sun appeared from over the edge of the earth. An embodied idyll, the peace of the night gradually gave way to the bustle of a warm summer day, like a pacifying calm on the sea gives way to a storm that rolls over wave after wave. The Luna breathed in the morning air with pleasure. She really liked this moment of the turning point of universal numbness, when all living things awaken from sleep, so that again, step by step, approach the realization of their best dreams that the inhabitants of Equestria could afford in their dreams.

There was a rustle in the bushes, the first timid chirping of birds. Few sleepy ponies that got up from at dawn, by virtue of their craft or habit, they got out of the houses in order to ask the guards about the past night. Insects stirred in the grass, an oriole flew from a tree at the other end of the square, swaying a branch. A bell rang on a newsboy's cart, and a dog barked from somewhere on the side of a farm in the hills. The solar disk grew brighter and brighter, rising higher, sending out its magic in all directions. The month, patronizing all creatures of the night and sheltering them from the sultry rays, dissolved in the lightened sky, and the sun came to replace it, invisibly saturating the daytime creatures with strength and energy.

“Moments like this are worth living forever, isn't it, dear sister?” Celestia rubbed her fluffy cheek against Luna's neck, smiling with a touch of captivating sadness.

"Yes, Tia," Luna whispered, indulging in many memories at once. “That's for sure.”

In half an hour with little, according to Tia's plan, it was possible to send messengers to the keepers of the elements of Harmony, ask for Twilight's help and give the filly time to get ready... However, fifteen minutes later, when the daylight finally took its place in the sky, and the sisters watched changing the guard and responding to the greetings of the so far few ponies, the plans had to be urgently revised.

Ponyville is in the grip of primordial chaos.

Human made a very impressive statement about himself. He attacked the city in accordance with all the rules of guerrilla warfare: with the launching of guards on false tracks, panic and beating sentries in dark corners. And he chose the only right hour for this: some minutes before the change of posts in the market area, when the guardsmen were relaxed after a quietly spent night, they were not sleeping yet, but they already saw the end of the watch. And so to such a pair of guards crept (completely openly) the most amazing and absurd sight in the world - the first lieutenant of Luna, Brave Noctus, drunk, as they used to say low-class ponies, to the horseshoes on ears. The smell of fermented cider, he spread around him very powerful, did not even try to fly, and his hooves were written out with such monograms and horse moves that gave the impression that this body did not belong to festral!

Luna thought irritably, not to spoil the person's face with a beam of directed energy when they met. Killing him will not kill him, but from the impudence of replacing her guardsmen and making them drunkards, it may heal. Although he shouldn't care; in the "emaciated" state, his muzzle was all of dubious attractiveness... On this bare skull and bones, covered with some self-transformed armor, Human put on a very skillful mask, if he stood motionless, he could not be distinguished from the guard at the post. But, obviously, he did not know how the muscles of the ponies work, how their facial expressions and manner of speech are manifested... Pretending to be in an inadequate state was an extravagant, but it worked very well: the day guards simply fell into prostration, for something like this had never happened to the servants of the law. Moreover, the stallion above their rank, stammering and hiccupping, demanded "in the name of the Princess of Luna" to deal with the barrier, because "something is needed there." When the guards timidly tried to object and point out that Noctus was unlikely to be able to give adequate orders, the pseudo-pony set in motion heavy stinging weapons: perhaps the most beloved phrase by all soldiers, “under my responsibility,” which at once removes all this responsibility from the performers, especially pronounced by the commander's shout, which does not tolerate objections. Not wanting to tempt fate any longer, the guards removed the barrier, and Human climbed inside the rotorcraft, muttering something under someone else's nose...

No, no pony would have become afraid of the festrals, which were once associated with the enmity between the Mother of the Night and her sister - for a millennium isolation, the Batponies did not become embittered or more warlike than they could have been. So, getting to know the festrals better, the ponies recognized them as a trustworthy tribe, albeit those still eccentric. However, who knows what to expect from a hefty bat pony, apples fermented sucking? Luna wanted to be angry with this couple from the Day Watch, but she knew intellectually that she had to be lenient with them. Man, he is a cunning manticore son! If the stranger had perfectly played the role of Noctus, calmly and without unnecessary shaking of the air, having given an order that did not correspond to the previously received information, the guards would have suspected him of a changeling and instantly twisted... well, at least they tried to do it. But what Human did was so atypical and full of shameless arrogance that it turned out to be like the truth. The guards were confused by the absurdity of the situation, and even cheated the commander of the Night Guards with a diagnostic spell.

True, almost immediately suspicions began to stir in their heads that this was all for a reason... One guard contacted the main post, while his partner resolutely blocked the path of the festral, which he pulled out on his back from the bowels of the car some rumpled iron container ner, but what's the point? The main obstacle for humans, the protective sphere, has been removed; he could achieve his goal by simply overloading the screen with a physical effect, for the alien clearly had enough strength for this, but the noise would inevitably attract the attention of the patrols. And so Human got a head start, for another ten seconds passed before it became clear that the true Noctus had not thought of leaving his post anywhere. The stranger did not try to come to an agreement with the angry unicorns.

Tia generally asserted later that although the human not show himself in the form of a pony as a "silent recluse", he could not learn the language right away, being at least three times unique. Although he easily changed his appearance, perhaps focusing on some creatures from his world, with all the resemblance worthy of a transfiguration of the highest category, it was only an imitation of a pony, applied to someone else's skeleton. His speech was exactly the same imitation, which is interesting, without any accent. He repeated entire sentences like a mockingbird would, with only his vocal chords! The human definitely read emotions well and, on an intuitive level, figured out which combination of sounds carries the meaning he needed, observing the guards during the night. But as soon as the situation went beyond the planned framework, the person's knowledge was not enough, so he growled like a wild beast, expressing disapproval and threat in the simplest way. At that moment, a trio of pegasus from the main post rushed to the rescue, and the stranger attacked. From his movements, this stiffness of facial expressions and drunken awkwardness, parodying a pony, instantly disappeared - only the smell of alcohol remained in place, for Human, who probably just climbed into the pharmacy and poured a bottle of apple alcohol on himself.

False Noctus rose on his hind legs, straightening and demonstrating his impressive, albeit diminished due to starvation, growth. The festral's gray hide and armor faded into red flashes, giving way to a cluster of armor plates and a skeleton as sharp in appearance as a broken doll. Lumpy bundles of muscle wrapped around bones and joints, forcing the eerie structure to move with incredible speed. Human had long narrow legs-stilts and a large chest, where most of his disguise had slipped under the axis of the spine. There was a screeching sound as the claws on its forelegs parted to the sides, throwing off imitation hooves. A quiet rumbling followed as Human aimed at the guards with his one real eye. Noctus's mouth suddenly parted in a nightmarish grin, hiding his lower jaw somewhere in the depths of his skull. The long, pony-shaped neck curved, throwing the skull forward, and Celestia's guards suddenly realized that they were looking in the face of a monster that hadn't been seen in Equestria for centuries.

Tartarus would have taken him, Luna thought anxiously as an hour later she watched the memories of a guard who did not need hospitalization. Human has succeeded in thrilling and disgusting even the one who has dealt with the most sophisticated of nightmares. I would hate to be near this creature without a barrier if it wanted to really get angry!

Human really turned out to be extremely dangerous in close combat. At a distance, with him, perhaps, no problems would have arisen, but with direct contact... Remembering Celestia's orders, the unicorns first of all attended to the setting of shields, but where there! Even before the currents were swirled, Human rushed forward, raising his leg to strike. One of the guards flew into the chest with a flat stilt, as if with an oar, throwing him away and knocking out his breath, and hitting the other two times on the head with his fist, causing a concussion. Human escaped the flyer of the Day diving at him with a spear by jumping into the air, making a strange pirouette there in a red flash with an instant change in trajectory and grabbing the Pegasus by the base of the wing. Fortunately for the guard, the only desire for such a menacing-looking creature was again to avoid a serious skirmish, and therefore the pegasus escaped with only a throw to the ground and a serious dislocation. When other pegasuses began to surround him, when the real festrals flew out to cut Human, he grabbed the iron box and rushed into the city, at the same time using his distraction maneuver. Immediately in different places of Ponyville, clouds of crimson suspension began to swell with chomping...

Naturally, the guards decided that it was some kind of dangerous magical composition, and rushed to save the local residents, disperse the fog with incineration spells (they did not think to react to the angry-looking Pegasus "clouds"), to provide assistance to the victims. Celestia and Luna did not stand aside, teleporting jumps from hearth to hearth and pulling out individual ponies, together with Shining Armor covering the affected areas with domes. From the point of view of the youngest, it was a spectacular transformation from a good monarch, the soul of the company, into a true ruler.

Tia instantly became decisive, collected and acting unwaveringly, just like in the good old days. The Ponyville residents did not help the cause, frankly panicking, rushing between houses, trying to call their relatives and friends in the clouds of reddish rubbish. Not realizing sleepily what was the matter, residents jumped out the windows, tried to grab some belongings with them, called for help from firefighters, a weather brigade and doctors. Domestic animals ran through the streets, the bell in the tower was buzzing alarmingly, the guards were abruptly cursing, the air was bursting from the screeching of frightened filly... No one was bored. When the commotion subsided a little (thanks to Luna, who barked in a Canterlot voice "PONY, QUIET!" counting the victims in the stampede: the composition was harmless. It did not affect the ponies at all, and apart from the effect of an ominous look of fog, in fact, it did not give anything!

Human did not waste even a minute from the new head start that the panic in the city gave him. Walking on foot with the speed of a good trotter, he moved straight to the Sugar Corner, sometimes, in an effort to achieve this goal, he began to jump on the roofs and push off the walls, spoiling the cladding. It's amazing how controllable this seemingly unstable two-legged canter was. Sharply pushing off with narrow legs-bones, he threw them back, bending his knees again, sliding on the ground and moving from a shallow run to a series of jumps, in his viscous grace, spreading in the air. Knocking out the window with his body and turning the oven along the way, Human flew through the kitchen, frightening to death the twins and the Cakes, who were forced to abandon their morning baking. Ignoring the cries of the pony and Mr. Cake that he was bravely going to chase Human away with a broom, the stranger broke into the warehouse and began to shop there... until she went downstairs to see what kind of funny bustle in the city had risen without her, Pinkie Pie - she was just sleeping before the "extraordinary daytime super pajama party."

Do we need to describe what happened next? What is, after all, a perfectly adaptable battle monster against one angry filly... A real pink tornado flew into the stranger, who apparently decided to throw a party on his own in honor of his arrival in Ponyville. Human tried to dismiss Pinky as if he were an annoying fly, but she instantly jumped away, rolled her favorite cannon from behind the curtains and treated the intruder with a good charge of cotton candy. Swearing in his own language and trying to somehow clean off the sweet lumps from the bone mask, Human retreated, taking with him several cylinders of helium and punching another hole in the wall of the pastry shop. Pinky, in her party frenzy, drove Human all the way to apple orchards, launching firecrackers and raspberry jam pies at him, after which, considering her duty fulfilled, she finally drew attention to the panic that seized the streets of the town. After thinking a little more, the filly happily joined in the panic, scampering around Ponyville screaming “It looks like a bubblegum default has fallen on us! Save your supplies!" and inviting others to engage in a pie shootout, since the human has escaped.

Pinky was now sitting surrounded by her friends, who had already packed up their belongings for a trip to the Crystal Empire, and boasted that she would certainly receive a medal from the princesses "For the defense of Ponyville against otherworldly invaders." She did this, undoubtedly, only in order to laugh good-naturedly at the expression on the face of Rainbow Dash, which again missed everything and will miss it, because the pegasus could not leave the request of the princesses without attention. Luna was just listening to the report of her guardsman, according to which Human did not run away, but jumped on the way to a farm next to the city, where he expropriated bags of fertilizers... based on magnesium and many other minerals.

Celestia stood by, and all the bitterness of the ancient peoples of Equestria was reflected in her amethyst eyes. The main destruction, rather minor, Ponyville suffered because of the ponies themselves, who did not know what to do and where they were attacked from, but the stranger encroached on the sacred, favorite institution of Tia! It's also good that the alien destroyed one load-bearing wall, so that the building only slightly sloped... If the Sugar Corner collapsed, Luna was not sure that her sister would not declare war on the human dimension without some prefaces. But the confectionery, of course, will be repaired at the expense of the treasury - they will also close up other traces in the idyllic picture that Ponyville made yesterday, without overturned counters, knocked out shutters and trampled morning newspapers. Their little subjects with Celestia will recover from the shock, will again safely go out into the streets and have fun... Tia, again, will find peace of mind as soon as the last brick is installed in its proper groove, and Cakes house will regain its original appearance.

Laughter, and this incident worried both Celestia and her sister much more seriously. Luna closed her eyes, listening to her alicorn feelings and echoes of intuition. Human did not have magic, but his innate powers definitely allowed him to bypass the limitations of living flesh in some way. Illumination came when Celestia managed to isolate the first complete traces of a person, which was this crimson suspension, once enclosed in organic capsules on several streets of Ponyville. Having rummaged in their own vast memory and arranged a short study, the sisters made a disappointing verdict - it was a microscopic organism that had little in common with the usual bacteria. Representing an inert structure, like some kind of pollen, it possessed a complex structure, uniquely created to separate and capture vital molecules, genitals, and integrate them into its own structure. And it's good that it didn't interact with the life of Equestria in any way!

Luna believed that the stranger knew about the harmlessness of his microscopic assistants to ponies, and sprayed them solely for the sake of distracting attention - after all, in any other case, Celestia would not have given him a trigger. In addition, from the wreckage of the car, he preferred to take, as Tia predicted, not a sting weapon, including its manual version that remained in the cabin of the rotorcraft, but a section from its broken dashboard. Like any sane sane, a human was primarily interested in information and its application, and for this he took a means of communication. However, if this intermediate life form was indeed responsible for the alien's almost magical abilities, creating weapons and menacing forms from his body... Luna did not want to think about what effect the red mist might have on a pony if he was adapted to them. It must have been a terrible sight. These thoughts further inflamed in Luna the desire to seize a humanas soon as possible, no longer exposing ordinary ponies to the blow, and with a passion to find out what he is capable of, until the alien showed his true essence, like Nightmare once did. The closed eyelids of Luna trembled finely.

Dark princess... Well, do you really think that I will be so easy for you? in the darkness, a skull appeared in front of her with only one right eye socket, grinning with its upper teeth in a malevolent grin. You will not be able to track me down, for you are always in the role of catch-up. You know that only one who takes the initiative can be called a monster? I don't need to look for a reason to expose your little ponies to harm. I do not seek praise and adoration as you grapple with the consequences of my coming here. You will always try to save everyone and protect everyone, and therefore you will lose, sooner or later. I do not need companions, because in the world of eternal war and eternal pain, only the right of the strong is respected. And who is strong? Strong is me.

Get lost, Tantabas! Luna hissed in her head. Human's skull swayed from side to side, as if expressing disapproval. In his single eye with a vertical pupil, the echo of the very essence that Luna had imagined in the night air of Ponyville froze. A long tongue protruded from the gap of the wet throat, not covered by the lower jaw, wetting flat teeth with small fangs with saliva. A bony paw stuck out of the darkness, clawing at the alicorn.

Do you really think you can drive me out of this world like you once did your dark self? Do you imagine that your experience will be worth something against me? You deign to amuse me, co-ruler of Equestria, the skull laughed disgustingly, croaking like a crow and splashing saliva. The claws on the narrow paw clenched, crunching their own flesh. You've met Nightmare Luna yourself! Are you still afraid to admit what's going to happen? I'm not going anywhere from you, Princess Luna. Once I came to another world, I forever turn it into my hunting grounds, as you wanted to turn Equestria into the abode of eternal night. A Titanide who has forgotten her own strength, did you think that someone else would not have the courage to go all the way?

A shiver ran through Luna's body. It took a significant mental effort to dispel the illusion created by her own imagination.

Tantabas in the form of a man turned around, putting his paws behind his back, and disappeared among the shadows, coughing and grumbling harshly:"We'll talk more, dark princess. In the meantime, go to your so-called "friends" who have defeated you twice."

Luna opened her eyes, feeling her ears tremble and a bead of sweat trickling down the satin fur of her forehead. She stood silently, with a tense and, clearly, an air unworthy of a princess and looked around uncertainly, but everything around was calm. The weather was good, the summer sun warmed up the skin pleasantly, the ponies around were no more noisy than everyday. Luna, slightly alarmed, checked the nooks and crannies of her own mind, but the servant, woven from the magic of shadows, dozed peacefully, waiting for his ruler to fall asleep and express the need for him.

Of course, he couldn't just show up in the afternoon against my will, the princess gasped. With a wave of her hoof, Luna dismissed the worried guardian of the Day, who was trying to foist either her or Celestia with a full list of victims due to the panic mood of the pony, but did not seek royal attention (from each for its own reason). Luna's gaze moved quickly between the lines, looking for some other possible traces of the presence of an alien that the guards might not have noticed. Anger seized her! Not only did the stranger come in a very shameless way to the town, inhabited to the tips of their tails by devoted pony, two regal sisters, he still had doubts and even some intangible fear in the soul of the Luna!

The princess managed to promise herself that even in case of a successful outcome, she would demand something from a humanas a satisfaction, but then Celestia sighed again, harder than before: “What a pity...” Said Celestia, sadly examining the building of the Sugar Corner, which has lost its former gloss and chocolate-cream appearance. The bravest ponies were now picking up broken boards, preparing to make the bakery look more or less marketable, but the scattered sweets, flour dust and the stove thrown out of the house definitely left a scar on Tia's heart... more precisely, Tia's stomach.

“Yes, it's a pity,” Luna snorted, humorously trying to suppress the irritation that caused the person's actions. “It’s a pity that I didn’t see your expression at that moment. I would give a lot for the reaction to the damage done to the holy of holies of Your Highness in this nice town... Not half a kingdom, but a lot.”

“Lulu!” Celestia whined plaintively. “It’s not good to laugh at your sister’s weaknesses!”

“These are not your weaknesses, but your strengnesses!” Luna retorted with a laugh. “You would use this favorite tactic of yours in interracial diplomacy - I could ruin any unfriendly people with their tea parties with ambassadors, and Harmony would come two hundred and fifty years earlier!”

“But I really wanted to try Cake's signature caramel truffles...”

“Here we go back to Canterlot, and if you don’t go on a diet, I’ll go back to Nightmare, seize power and cancel heavy breakfasts with the first decree, because morning will never come again!” Luna whispered terribly in her sister's ear. She shuddered and staggered away.

“Luna, you will not dare!!!” Tia was horrified, although her eyes sparkled with joy.

“…no, Sweetie Belle, you will obey your mom and dad and stay at home if the guards so demand!” instructed her sister Rarity. On the part of the fashionista, some preparations were still going on, and at a time when her friends had collected saddlebags a long time ago, she tried to equip as many things as possible with her, clearly under the impression of a man's attack on Ponyville. There were warm clothes, insect spray, cotton candy packs (which Pinky probably advised her) and heaven knows that... Spike, who was standing nearby, gazed at the swollen bales with the dispassion of a truly doomed. Rarity took a deep breath and concluded in an unchallengeable tone as she packed her last bag: “No Crusaders adventures yet, do you hear? But what if this terrible alien catches you on the street, while no one sees, and eats you?!”

“Oka-a-ay... Take care of yourself, ponies!” little unicorn, sighing, hugged her sister goodbye, waved her hoof and, under the supervision of the guard, which she delicately demanded from Celestia, Rarity went home.

“If anything, Macy will pick you up and Scootaloo at the station!” shouted after the nighting pony, immediately provoking this fashion designer and getting involved in an argument about the "subtleties of sisterhood."

Looking sideways at her sister, Luna saw the disorder on her face - real, not mischievous. Celestia definitely didn't like the fact that the peaceful town was occupied by guards, so he should have sent guards to the foals. She followed Sweetie Belle with a thoughtful look, then turned to the Princess of the Night.

“Alright, Luna, this is not the right hour for fun... Got something worth your attention?”

“I think I understood where Human stayed all this time before the attack,” Luna wrinkled her forehead, reading a piece of paper that came from Madame Mayor, who on the other side of the city was following the restoration work. “Literally under our noses!”

“How's that?” Tia was seriously interested.

“Your Grace, do I understand correctly that you took the sculpture from the fountain for restoration? I remember that during the last visit you said what you wanted… ” Princess of the Night began to read aloud, but then she simply handed the scroll to Celestia. “Everything is crossed out there, and at the end there is a note that they found the Prancing Pony in the fountain itself, melted into pieces. Human prepared the withdrawal with the help of his paint bombs... Then, while the guards were looking in the other direction, he separated the statue from the pedestal and hid it piece by piece in the water. The guards used only their checked flasks, at night no one approached the reservoir...” Muttered Luna, recalling her arrival in Ponyville. “Tia, he replaced the statue, created a cover like a stone and stood there until the morning, listening, looking and remembering everything around! "Under my responsibility" These are my words, the human only reproduced them in the voice of Brave Noctus!”

“And this is you in vain, Luna,” sister could not help but insert a note of censure into her speech. “It's good that the festrals flew up later than my guards, otherwise, if they were more aggressive, they could to suffer much more seriously.”

“Tia, Human has already voluntarily tried on a stone coat, he is no stranger to it,” the dark alicorn grinned. “Just don't tell me that after today you will again object to the strengthening of measures! Your soldiers rely too much on magic, and since a human ignores its indirect action, you cannot give him...”

"I will, Luna," Celestia interrupted quietly but firmly, carefully examining the paper from the local office. “This creature is civilized – Human ifestations of his abilities are strictly metered and controlled by him. Controlled by his mind. Human saw what our guards are capable of... for him magic is no less alien and frightening than these red "carriers" are for us. Given his own skills, a human could effectively defend his life, dealing with the guards one by one and even hiding behind their comrades. But he does not want to aggravate the conflict, only to become as ready as possible to meet with us... Do you really want to raise all the free pegasus on the wing and comb the surroundings, throwing all around with shock spells at the slightest movement? I don't think a human would be happy with this approach.”

“Swirl's Beard, Tia, of course I had no intention of turning Ponyville into a warzone!” Luna was indignant, stamping her hoof in elegant silver vestments. “But we just can't polish the horns just sitting there! Now the human is restrained, but won't it get worse?”

“And yet the statistics still speak in his favor, sister,” Celestia reminded gently. “We can show him hooliganism, violation of public order, damage to private and public property... well, and theft for a ridiculous amount. His maximum is an attack on the members of the Night and Day guards while on duty, and he could easily kill the guardsmen, or at least inflict damage that cannot be healed in a couple of days, but human spared them. Ordinary Might, he deliberately aimed at the back of his head in order to deprive him of consciousness, and not cripple him - one blow was not enough, and only the second, stronger one, provided him with a concussion. He was afraid that he would kill the guard with the first blow, Luna! The use of its "carriers", which are tightly linked to the biochemistry of that dimension, can not be considered at all: a human should be perfectly aware of our incompatibility, only having studied the nature of Equestria, which in the Everfold is represented in all its manifestations. Do you really believe that a foreigner would start such ceremonies if he considered us enemies with whom there is no negligible probability of negotiations? Yes griffin mercenaries a couple of thousand years ago, just sorting through the bar, and then Cloudsdale inflicted more damage, remember! Now it’s easy to surprise a pony, but if he were a subject of another power, an elite flyer that invaded our airspace and mischievous, I would simply demand a large fine and put Human out. But, since I am responsible for the fact that Twilight summoned a sentient being from another world, I myself put him in such an unenviable position...” Celestia stroked the Luna on the shoulder, having long ago replaced with this gesture the affectionate spanking that she once asked the younger mane. “Your suspicion, Lulu, rests solely on the stranger's unfamiliarity with magic and our very limited power over him. But I believe that there were those in his world for whom he was ready to ride a dangerous car, that the magic of friendship was familiar to him... even if it took some other, less material forms.”

“I confess that sometimes you can be very convincing, Tia, even if it is not about cakes,” the princess of the Night sighed. Could she not have known how exceptionally beautiful and kind Celestia saw the world, no matter how hardships around her tried to convince her otherwise, including her own sister, to force the Equestrian mistress to become someone else? Celestia meekly raised her eyes to the bright summer sky.

“I prefer not to hear the end of your phrase...”

“Of course... I just ask you not to forget that if your words are correct, we are dealing with a conscientious bearer of chaos, capable of adhering to some rules. Believe me, how long hesitated to plunge into your own madness and openly oppose you... these are the hardest to stop. Their fuse can smolder for a very long time. If he does go against Equestria, then...”

Noticing that Celestia fixed her eyes at one point, thinking hard about something, Luna hurried to explain:

“Hey, I didn't mean that you are even older compared to me!”

"I know," giggled the princess of the Day. “You just sound exactly like Agent Drops, only she hit the specifics and described it from the point of view of catching monsters. Maybe it's worth reforming the agency and taking it under your leadership? But you should definitely introduce Agent Drops, Lulu, you would get along!”

Luna barely refrained from arguing and beginning to explain to her sister why the Chaos monster, according to Starswirl's Bestiary, would come out of a man so-so (at the same time, as she did not want axis to admit this, calming your own nerves). It's for the best, Tia just approached Twilight Sparkle and her friends, starting to give the last instructions that could be useful to them in the Crystal Empire. Luna stood at a distance, looking around the town, and thought: how will the ponies see it when the magic of the empire is finally released, and the multicolored composition will bring them back? Will a lanky figure walk the streets of Ponyville, answering greetings with a smile and quietly longing for his lost homeland in the evenings? Or will it make a difference that the ponies will begin to quietly discuss for another month or two the extremely angry two-legged that flew a fleeting grain of sand in their lives and was struck by the celestial sisters, the longtime defenders of Equestria? More than a thousand years of battles and spending more peaceful days were on the side of the Luna, but now - only one morning, and she would rather go with Twilight for fear of disrupting Tia's action, which she conceived in Ponyville.

Shining Armor, already in his marching armor, listened to Celestia, then nodded and called to the others. “Well, ladies and Sir Spike, let's go? The train will leave soon, so we better take our seats.”

Taking most of the luggage with magic, for which the dragon was infinitely grateful, the captain of the guard bowed to the princesses and trotted towards the station, “Twily, are you coming?”

“Princess Celestia, I...” looked sadly at the unicorn's mentor. “I understand you, but I still don't think that entrusting me with the fate of an entire country is the best way out. Especially after… well…” Twilight glanced sideways at Sugar Corner. It certainly bothered her that the stranger she'd summoned from inside Equus was even less friendly than the sorceress could have guessed.

Luna frowned: young Sparkle did not hurt to acquire more confidence in her own rather considerable powers, if her sister considered her worthy of mastering the highest magical form.

But Tia resolved the difficulty immediately, as always gently: “You can do it, my dear student,” the princess of the Day firmly promised. “And I, in turn, promise that when you return, Ponyville will be as comfortable and safe as you remember and love. Luna and I will take care of that.”

The unicorn, her face brightened, nodded and looked at her friends much more resolutely. Those did not remain in debt:

“Stop blowing up snot, Twi!” That blue pegasus flew up to her. “Let's help, if anything, no crystals will interfere with me! Only, Your Highnesses,” Rainbow looked at the princesses with an imploring glance,” if anything interesting is outlined, please, do not start before our arrival! I really want to see what the arrival of the two-legged will result in! And today it didn’t work out to him... We’ll go back, and he won’t get rid of me so easily!”

“Let the alien still go for a walk, Rainbow Dash? So that he will continue to disturb the peace of our city?!” Rarity was indignant. “Well, I don’t want this!”

“This is what I think: princesses will figure out what to do without your advice, girls,” Applejack grinned, and the yellow pegasus with a cautious nod of her head expressed solidarity with her. “Happy everyone to stay here,” the earth pony waved her hoof to a couple of familiar ponies nearby and, arranging saddlebags on her back more comfortably, slowly galloped after Shining Armor.

“Come on girls! Long partings are extra tears, but we don't need this at all! Your Highnesses, adius!” Pinkie Pie went to overtake so briskly, as if the farmer was really going to arrange a race with her to the station.

“Goodbye Princess Celestia, Princess Luna!” Twilight said goodbye in turn, levitating small bags with Rarity. “I promise that I will do my best to solve this problem!”

Luna saw a smile of quiet pride slip across her sister's lips. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were really good, not devoid of pony charm. The Princess of the Night grew up and lived in a completely different era, where the aristocracy and powerful magicians were treated much more reverently, if not with apprehension; but she was willing to admit that sometimes Canterlot, with its endless vaulted halls and crowds of ponies constantly interceding for something, would get on Luna's nerves, as if squeezing her with all this mass of stuffy stone. Here, in Ponyville, the atmosphere was completely different. Twilight Sparkle, an indigenous inhabitant of Canterlot (and its libraries), also changed their views on life, simultaneously breaking the curse that took possession of the soul of the Luna. Simple ponies, simple, sincere relationships... Loyal to her comrades-in-arms and the inhabitants of Ponyville, Twilight was immediately inspired when she realized that through the efforts of the princesses, everything would be fine with her friends. Celestia definitely made the right choice when she sent her pupil here and Luna fully approved of her decision now... It didn't mean that she could not pin Tia, who was always so pedantic about everything related to teaching young talents.

“How much do you think your best student is about keeps in the Empire, before realizing that it has failed,” the lady of shadows innocently asked, looking after the friendly company that she was ready to hide behind the next house, “and run away from there in tears?”

“I'll bet for a week,” Celestia said, still thoughtfully, and stopped short... “Luna!!!”

“What? You got caught, not me!” the dark princess laughed, already dodging herself, only not from the pillow and lumps of sugar, but poking her long horn in the side. “Hey! Stop, just stop!”

The scuffle of the regal sisters ended before it really began, as a polite cough echoed behind them. Luna, which had not yet been left by memories of daydreams that was occupied by a stranger, with difficulty overcame the urge to turn into a fighting stance. Celestia, however, probably expected to see Agent Drops or someone like her, for the guard would have called himself openly and had a clearly distinguishable aura and Tia's surprise could not be hidden, because a zebra was located behind the sisters. Her eyes, not covered by the bangs familiar to many ponies, looked at the Equestrian monarchs calmly and directly. An image familiar from the last Night of Nightmares flashed in the memory of Luna, then the inhabitant of the southern plains dressed in the attire of a witch and let down her mane instead of the skillfully placed mohawk.

Unlike her sister, which the zebra remembered exclusively as accompanying her little admirers, Celestia definitely knew her more closely. Smiling benevolently, the princess asked: “Greetings, Zecora. Have you been brought to Ponyville by the antics of our guest from another dimension?”

“No, Your Grace, I managed to avoid the trouble,” zebra made a low bow, not expected from the side of the pony, but a xnixen. “Having recognized a human, I cannot call him a misfortune double.”

“Did you meet him in the wilds of the Everfree?” Tia asked worriedly. “I hope he hasn't caused you any problems yet? I didn't think we would need to raid the forest, but if you have an idea of ​​where the human might have stayed...”

Curiosity began to wake up in the Luna: what other discoveries will this new meeting bring, completely unexpected? Zebra raised its hoof warningly: “Recharge only, you won't find him thereat. There is no need to worry: your human is on the path neat.”

“What do you mean?” the sunny princess was surprised.

The zebra's story was weird because of her versification, but it conveyed the point pretty well. After listening to Zecora, Luna was not sure whether to be indignant with her or be glad that Celestia had found another like-minded human the part of the alien who believed that "everything is going well and will end well." However, the princess of the Night was also filled with a little bit of respect: an alchemist from distant lands dared to look into the folds of knowledge, where most of the magicians tried not to go into the magic of the past and the future without a harsh necessity! Luna still remembered how Starswirl had forced her and Tia to write on the board a thousand times, "I will never try to distort the equation of time again, each one!"

From Zecora's words, it turned out that her potion was not able to scale the timeline, even in the sense that the leap evolved by their mentor did, which shaped the future, taking into account the knowledge about him. All that the potion did was mark the key points of chrono-existence, forks, because of which the story could go in two ways, so different that it would be reflected in the fate of the whole reality. The composition, according to Zecora, was still imperfect, and a creature with only an alicorn stream width could jump over entire generations when used. But it turned out to be enough for the forest sorceress to see such a splitting point in the next day or three. Based on the rich experience of divination of her tribe, the zebra was convinced that all decisions that the royal sisters would make would be much less critical for pony society than her meeting with a man in a swamp.

In fact, Zecora showed courage (which the outsider probably appreciated, realizing that she was not going to inform the authorities about him) and unobtrusively invited him to Ponyville, pointing out exactly where the helium, so much needed by the person, could be found. Who knows how many lives could be cut off if the alien treated the ponies as something more hostile and rushed through the streets in search of chemicals, destroying everything in its path?

After all, as the zebra assured Celestia, the second path after the fork was much darker, for "this stranger is quick and evasive at the meeting, his flesh and bone became stronger than termite". Luna had no recollection of the last time a pony's safety was compromised simply because there was no suitable food for the guests of Equestria... although, according to Tia's notes, something similar happened to the delegation of yaks before they retired to their enclave. As expected, Celestia did not reproach the zebra for temporarily hiding information, but thanked her and made her promise to send a sample of the potion to the court alchemist when it was ready. Luna just sighed. She wanted to question the sorceress with much more passion, but the knowledge e of the orders that Celestia established made her pull herself up.

“You trust too much intuition of your subje...” Luna began with a note of displeasure, but the senior diarch interrupted her:

“Zekora is a famous potions master from the south, sister. Although she does not have the qualifications of our metropolitan institutions, I am aware of her skills and I know that you can trust her. If Zecora says that a human invasion of Ponyville will do more good than if we kept him away from here, so be it.”

“Perhaps,” Luna replied slowly. “But if you see such a picture, then the explanation of this zebra may not be enough for ordinary ponies, even if you already repeat her words. The inhabitants of Ponyville are agitated, dear sister, and some are terrified. If we let the alien continue to rush around the city, like a minotaur stung in the triceps, ruining houses and demolishing everything in its path, the ponies will begin to grumble, no matter how much they love the throne. They will have neither the opportunity nor the desire to leave their homes, they will stop seeing their friends and relatives, they will begin to worry about their safety...”

“Luna,” Celestia proclaimed almost solemnly, “I promise to give you and your guards full carte blanche in case the human still shows up in Ponyville in the same obnoxious manner.”

“Really?” the princess of the Night did not believe.

“Of course! Only a human will not do this anymore. To openly confront the guards when he has already mishandled and got hold of everything he needs is not the most expected of his actions, which we have to follow in the next couple of days.”

“I should have guessed there was a catch in your favor…” Luna moaned.

“Now a human will only search for information about the world he has entered. You noticed that his copy of Noctus's Brave did not bear the cutiemark, even though it was not very noticeable under the armor, right?”

Luna nodded in confusion, recalling the reports from the guards and the personal observation of one of them, which he entrusted to the sovereign of thoughts. The alicorn was puzzled by this detail: the alien exactly reproduced the appearance of the lieutenant, only examining him from all sides, but he could not make even a rough drawing, tracing paper from the greatest aspiration of the soul of all ponies. The same changelings easily forged someone else's matrix, otherwise special spells were not required to calculate them... There were no runes on the "true" appearance of a human - both his initial version and the exhausted one and his armor was uniformly basalt in color. Then, immediately after Human's attack, Luna put these facts aside in order to think carefully about him at her leisure, but now she did not understand how this relates to Tia's words.

“When he openly showed himself... When a human was so close, changing himself, I managed to feel him,” muttered Celestia, “almost as I once saw Tirek in my dreams. Empty vessel. Vacant place. Uncertainty. Something that borrows someone else's without having its own.”

“So it's not as ignored by magic as we initially thought?” Luna frowned. “Or are they purely mental emanations, like those of other reasonable ones?”

“A stranger should not be familiar with magic in the usual sense for us,” Tia responded thoughtfully. “But he clearly has some similar concept. Keep me posted, Lulu!” the elder sister looked at her pleadingly. “More precisely, it will be possible to say if you manage to establish mental contact with the creature. If a human can really feel the magic of our world, as I was able to detect this entertaining analogy, but, moreover, I am not able to reflect it on myself, as the magic does not leave traces on us before we know our true path, well... If so, thanks Lyra's reflections, I understand who a human can turn to for this knowledge in the first place.”

“Wait, sister,” Luna hurried. “You don’t think that... Are you really going to allow him to do this? Some kind of analogue of Tirek from the world without magic?!”

“As I said, the statistics are in his favor, sister. And I definitely don't think that there will be any complications with a civilized being. Reasonable, capable of limiting their inclinations, as a rule, seek to do the right thing. And if we direct his heart and mind to the necessary conclusion... You will see, in a day or two we will be good friends with the person, and such a wonderful event will not leave any pony indifferent. Especially miss Heartstrings, of course. I don’t know about you,” Celestia stretched gracefully, spreading her wings, “but this morning bustle has pretty tired me. Expressing solidarity with our thrifty future acquaintances, I will say that nothing pushes the boundaries of knowledge like a good breakfast. We will not bother the Cakes, they will have to be repaired at the expense of the crown, but I know an excellent place where are served the most exquisite...”

“Tia, damn it, you are an unfortunate glutton! We’ll go back to Canterlot and I'll personally take care of your figure!” Luna howled in an almost Canterlot voice through her sister's malicious laugh. “I'm serious!!!”
> The Thing from Another World - 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex Mercer, disguised among the bushes, sat on the hillside and calibrated the radio station with his only hand, which he managed to resurrect with a sin in half. The navigation module, of course, was left in a hiding place in the swamp - it turned out to be a natural suitcase without a handle... Carrying with you, replacing the virus information environment with technology, is inconvenient, useful only in the distant, potentially unattainable future, to quit is waste. Mercer simply didn't have the tools and knowledge to fix such a subtle problem. But a radio with a pair of active circuits is different, to restore it is not to assemble a space dish in a shed. Mercer knew what circuits could be mutually replaced in this seemingly harmless box, where to throw the wires and where to connect an antenna made from improvised materials... The decision is temporary, of course - if it turns out that local lawyers do not own radio technology, then in the Black Hawk Down only for the sake of assigning a navigator and a couple of remaining emergency packets, and it was worth climbing. Yes... the lack of other consumers of familiar technologies from whom they could secretly steal was seen as a big problem.

But Mercer will be able to survive, using technologies that are already viral. Even if he did not have giant industrial units, extensive electrical networks and factory complexes, one after another releasing formidable armored divisions into the streets of Manhattan, but he had almost waste-free production and close to 100% efficiency. The swamp swell was regularly generating solar-charged mass - very slowly based on local elementary elements, but it was a success. The surrogate had to be additionally treated with helium, which Alex quietly absorbed through the lung, melting a garden hose into his trachea. The opposite end was lost behind the back, where a pair of small sharpened cylinders, under the size of cat horses, were fixed. It could be considered that the operation ended in complete success... Unless, of course, you count the attack of that crazy pink pony.

Crazy world! Could Mercer, being in his right mind and sober memory, have assumed that he would someday be fired at not with 120-mm land mines and salvoes of "Hellfires", but with cotton candy and pies?! Cotton wool, however, looked damn delicious - earth glucose is excellent fuel for the brain. It is a pity that trying this cotton candy is like chewing scraps of asbestos... The jam went worse, because there was some component in its watery base that caused severe chemical burns to Alex upon contact with tissues. I had to, gnashing with the few remaining teeth, wash myself in the swamp water and pick out the burning muck from under the armor plates. In fact, Alex was lucky that everything went as planned, strictly according to notes. The evolved had a hastily drawn up escape plan in case of failure, which included a balloon that was seen in the city, a couple of benches, a lamp, a newsboy cart and a white cat seen in an alley that decided to take a walk at dawn... It's good that this plan was not destined turn into action - Alex wasn't sure he could live peacefully after this humiliation.

Speaking of sunrises. Mercer, pretending to be part of a local cultural site, managed to find out the reason for their suddenness, like the sunset, which he had observed hours earlier. The location was perfect; as you know, you want to hide well - hide in plain sight, and the building next door was clearly the social center of the town. Alex quietly broke the sculpture and melted it with a charge of phagocytes, dropping pieces into the fountain. A risky, in fact, move - if some local saint was depicted, then especially zealous clergymen only got an extra reason to burn it. However, judging by the cheerful expression on the statue's face and the ease with which it rushed up, Mercer doubted this. It was ridiculous to believe that Alex would fit in a volume corresponding to local females, but the statue was larger than them, only maintaining proportions... The Luna still hung motionless in the night sky, a scattering of stars gleamed at the evolved overhead, but he could no longer afford admiring the local beauty. Mercer watched everything around him, noticing patrol patterns, recording conversations, and memorizing the movements of the armored ponies. Sullenly I thought that he would not be able to fully reproduce one of them: walking on all fours with twisted shoulders was, of course, an entertaining experience, but it was only an imitation, a substitute for a real ODE of a pony, as his jacket was an imitation. During the fight against the epidemic, Mercer already had an idea whether he could create a structure similar to a hunter for himself, but in this place even the starting, genetic data had nowhere to take! It is not clear how the bones move, how the ligaments of muscles flow under the skin... The hours passed imperceptibly, one after the other, until the night haze near the town hall with its lighted windows suddenly began to gradually melt, turning into twilight. Mercer even managed to be delighted: how, is there really a normal dawn here? He focused on the town hall e, and the gift of speech left the evolved... although he was already deprived of the opportunity to speak, as ordinary people do.

She came out onto the terrace.

To say that Mercer was dumbfounded was only to call him once more disguised as a statue. If the ponies he had seen earlier looked more like very, very high-quality, insanely realistic plush toys, then this creature was much closer to the embodiment of the concept of "aesthetic beauty". Although the real reason for such a strong impact on Alex's appearance could also be that the new type was the only individual that at least somehow resembled horses familiar to humans - and therefore finding it in the local colorful kaleidoscope was akin to Corbusier's dog.  (1) An impeccably clean hide, milky white and almost gleaming with gold, like her regalia - sophisticated, thought Mercer, that was the word for this design. The last humanAlex could consider himself to be a specialist in horse breeds exhibitions, but even in his opinion, the mare's shape (hardly, given the dimorphism he saw, it was "he") attracted attention. Almost a swan neck, a more austere muzzle, on which expressive eyes were located, not devoid of a spark of reason and self-esteem... An absolutely fantastic mane, sparkling blue-green, although it was difficult to say what it owes such a color - to its roots or strength that made it flow as if in a liquid stream. Not so tall for Mercer, the mare was one and a half times ahead of other ponies, and with the tip of the horn she would have gotten the top of the old form of the evolved one.

"Horns?" This winged mare also had a telekinesis tool with her, in addition to her luxurious wings! Taking into account jewelry made of precious metal, including a crown devoid of any pretentiousness, and seeing on the part of the guards the obvious submission of a large individual... This is what happened, the local hierarchy was based on biological superiority? This is interesting, not just shocking, Alex thought, fighting the temptation to get to know the creature better. What did McMullen write about genetic programs? Rigid innate patterns of behavior, instincts as such are not observed in intelligent... All the skills of primates need additional training - both humans and chimpanzees do not understand from birth, for example, that the hierarchy can be based on who eats for whom. But a human possesses the gene memory in non-encoded sequences, which the virus uses as a master key. So could the local intelligent people have had something similar, only taking into account the "witchcraft" they saw, using it with might and main? Or did this plaster queen take her place not so much by gene programs and magical dominance, but by inheritance? For personal qualities, after all? If the development of their species was in any way similar to that of terrestrial horses, then emotions could evolve from the corresponding instincts: the main concern of representatives of the genus Equus, social animals is to ensure safety for themselves and their relatives... In higher primates, everything is much more blurred and demanding on direct transfer of experience, but the horse instinctively seeks obedience, because a loner is less likely to survive, escape from predators, and the group's experience can be relied on in search of water and food. And if in ordinary ungulates the hierarchy in most cases is determined by age, state of health and experience, then here at the helm was... it turns out, here the most evolved individual demanded to herself respect and obedience in exchange for the safety of the herd, as if in their evolutionary doctrine was influenced by the patterns of polymorphism?

There was definitely a hierarchy among the locals, only some sort of wrong one. When the second "elongated" mare arrived on a flying carriage, moving by itself in quite Aristotelian physics,(2) and began to angrily pronounce something white, even though she was smaller, Alex realized: aha, the new one was even higher rank. Imagine Mercer's surprise when both not-very-cat-horses laughed merrily and in a much more informal atmosphere began to whisper as if they were close friends or even sisters! At that moment they were the last to resemble the members of the horse inquisition sent by the Mercer’s soul... Not medieval blockheads. They also corresponded to the usual image of the medieval aristocracy, looking at everyone else like dirt, they also corresponded so-so: they spoke with their soldiers in a polite tone, calmly - and they responded with restrained respect. The reaction to the mint-colored pony that poked into their window (not the one that crept up to the town hall under an inverted box, conveyed something to the mares and disappeared on the roof with the help of a rope, involuntarily reminding Mercer of one captain of the Black Watch) was also strange. After a couple of hours, the horse left the building, smiling from ear to ear, humming something and not having any problems with the guards. Such a strange attitude towards unequal self (by the standards of almost that the old Western environment) clearly spoke of an alien psychology.

The second horned-winged quadruped, meanwhile, also seemed to be the most entertaining specimen. The head with a luxurious flowing mane seemed larger in relation to the body; the proportions different from her friend and the shorter stature made the mare look like a teenager, but those restless, penetrating eyes and long eyelashes could only belong to an adult. The cat-horse crowned with silver was as blue-dark as the night itself - its hooves seemed to be made of chiseled obsidian, the ballerina's ankles maintained a proud posture... into a fist and beat mercilessly. The first mare even seemed now in comparison with the late, softer, airy or something... "plump" for such an elongated creature (especially a horse) would sound strange. If Mercer got it right, Snow White's name was Coaeluum, and the smaller one was Loodai; the guards singled out in a voice an appeal to individuals of a higher rank, well, and put the same title in front. Alex was just watching the patrols of a dark girl that clearly bore the features of bats - another bizarre mockery of this world at its knowledge! - but then Yin and Yan left the town hall. Out of the corner of her eye, Mercer noted a slight smile on her lips, instead of the preoccupied efficiency and ambition she had displayed upon arrival. The thought flashed through him that the mares were definitely relatives - they behaved too relaxed in relation to each other. Alpha individuals, meanwhile, came out to the square and settled down next to each other, turning away from Alex. Their horns glowed softly in the darkness of the night; the poses changed, expressing concentration and exertion.

Alex Mercer precipitated. Unnatural, he still managed to avoid a nuclear bomb.

And it was not at all because Alex experienced another shock that it finally dawned on him when he looked at Yin-Yang: all the natives (including the nag with water manes) are fucking exhibitionists. It was, in fact, foolish to expect that xenos, looking like higher mammals, would reproduce by budding. Mercer did not think that his thoughts at such a moment for some reason should take condemnation - for him, the clothes were just another optional body cover, and the technically advanced also sported naked, and constantly. Maybe it was a completely different matter. Alex was not eager to discuss this topic.

Here is the sun and the moon, suddenly swapping places in sync - it was really worth your attention. A planet that easily changes its torque, which makes it easy to "switch" between a satellite and a system-forming star... Could this phenomenon be linked with two alphas who illuminated something with their horns at night, aiming at the sky? Some quantum violinists know what Sir Hawking would have thought if Alex Mercer had been. But if it really was true... Yes, the decision to flee instead of establishing contact was correct - if Mercer had stumbled upon local celestials, into whose dimension he so maliciously flew, he probably would have already hung crucified on a dissecting rack, hung with a bunch of pipes and disassembled for parts... (3) Hell, how strong are these creatures supposed to be? Over the eighteen days of the outbreak, Alex tracked down one of McMullen's old colleagues, who claimed that Green was, despite a primitive vision from the Marines and Gentek, a "personalized evolution" in the flesh. And who were these - the embodiment of heavenly bodies?

Seriously though, Mercer should have been very careful until he figured out all this supernatural, potentially inexplicable bullshit. Maybe these queens, if the evolved one touches someone seriously, they will be swatted from orbit with a meteorite, or they will be sent to the sun altogether. Mercer would be sweating cold if he could in his current statue-like state, when the white cat-horse glanced at him, turning towards the streets. What else could they be capable of? If only, in addition to freezing breath and weather control, the alphas did not have X-ray vision... Fortunately, the wing-horns did not pay attention to Mercer, and they were clearly going to leave the square. Alex would have exhaled with relief with his only lung, if the airways were not blocked by a mineral-like cover: two super mutants moving space objects without much stress - for one night this is too much, it was time to be honored to know. Moreover, the most suitable time was coming, the changing of the guard... The blue-and-white duet, of course, seemed to be magnificent creatures - Alex would not have come up with a better and more elegant design for a four-legged, combining the features of a zoomorph with full-fledged intelligence. However, the abominable hunter-leader did not scare him as much as these fluffy twins, in theory, not capable of causing more rejection than some kind of cat! Huge, at once built shorthair cat, streamlinedI am sensible and in a wig with a built-in wind generator. It's a shame that Mercer had to make do with only scraps of data and associations from a past life - clearly insufficient to begin to understand all this devilry.

As the poets say, all I know is that I don't know anything about it, the evolved one muttered to himself, breaking the outer cover, and disappeared on the roof of the nearest house, gently pushing himself off the pedestal. And it's good that the guards at that time were looking the other way: the prospect of getting stuck in the image of a statue and enduring impudent pigeons until the next night, say, did not inspire. It was necessary to hurry, until the streets of the city were blocked by ungulates with the rising of the sun... Yes, if only for the part of ignorance, this town, inhabited by creatures with superpowers! Either everyone here is so rich that magic capable of being provided with excesses is considered ostentatious and bad form, or poor, dragging out a miserable rural existence, and look happy and peaceful, because they are zombified by the witchcraft of this couple. In theory, if the "magic" of these ponies is in any way similar to its human representations, then an object of any complexity can be obtained without infusing much effort and without stretching gigantic production chains, without creating the corresponding sectors of the economy. Of course, the economic models of people are hardly applicable to a world in which there is some semblance of technology, which, according to the precepts of Clark (4), can be considered magic, but still! The idea that zoomorphs are very (by the standards of humanity) consistent and at the same time for them nothing is of particular value, Alex saw not without foundation. The same source of energy, a dam with a power plant was available here, as if waiting for someone to power powerful machines from it and turn on the switch to turn on the civilization familiar to Mercer...

But no - the town was almost never electrified, and the lanterns worked on some other principle, as if they had let in unusually bright fireflies. Offhand, the pony village seemed small, but built up densely, diligently. Most of all, it resembled a garden overgrown with moss, where houses were placed between crumbly earth and stone paths, many of which were piled up with fanciful facades, tents and spiers. An institution with a sign, the drawing of which repeated the one seen in the balloon, and could at all serve as an illustration to the antipode of the word "laconic". The market, not far from which the UH-60 was thrown, seemed to have spontaneously emerged; on every free patch of it there were some kind of pens, counters. Among the tents with multi-colored awnings could be seen the local headquarters of Yin-Yang's henchmen - Alex did not get even closer to them, deciding that he had got enough intonations and data for the momentary needs. During the short walk in the open... nothing happened. During the day, there were a lot of ponies who walked past Mercer, who had dug in in the gardens, on some sort of pony business and periodically asked the knowledgeable, but because of what, in fact, all the noise, and why was there smoke from the outskirts of the settlement? Now almost all the civilians were asleep, and there was no need to be afraid of some particularly big-eyed Glass Cutter. The evolved vampire pony under the canopies of the houses avoided thanks to the IR sensor (they turned out to be quite alive and warm-blooded), and if someone unaccounted for it and noticed, then apart from a long glance at their commander in the back, Alex, apparently, did not wait for a reaction... From a distance, he was not that much different from a normal pony, almost eliminating the uneven, limping gait and hiding much of the curvature of the spine. In the guise of Loodai’s officer, quietly cursing the unusual design, Alex with a bottle of alcohol borrowed from a pharmacy (well, at least in pharmaceutical traditions, another world showed similarities to Earth) crept up to the helicopter. He had already walked through the city on four legs, hiding his bare flesh in the shadows, collecting phrases and details - the main thing was not to be seen by the patrols - but now it was time to get out of the shadows, to enter into short-term contact with potentially unfriendly creatures. The ponies probably already knew that the evolved one was able to change shape; Alex saw in the eyes of the guards, as he hobbled towards them, suspicion, replaced in record time with bewilderment and shock. The plan was, in fact, idiotic - to take it like that with impudence, impudently... But it worked! I didn’t have to knock out the guards, try to break the barrier on our own and then break off in front of the crowd that came running, that I just wanted to ask how to get to the library. What a big one, damn it, it was a tree...

Mercer was even delighted when the guard's stupor passed, and the small ponies - only in comparison with the original form of the evolved - tried to stop him. Dammit! To pretend to be a horse, to crawl on all fours... If Mercer had an alternative, would he engage in such absurd nonsense? Alexander understood that his craving for anthropomorphism and other culturally determined traits were to blame for such a reprehensible attitude, but to do with it was not going to do anything. Probably, with such an approach, it would not cost him anything to rip off the head of an armored pony; Whoever says horses are better calming than a cup of lavender tea have not actually tasted real tea. Communication with Equiids shook Alex no worse than the injection of an adrenaline rush right in the heart - and at such moments Mercer became usually nervous and truly deadly. And, nevertheless, Human, who quite recently killed a reasonable one, was like pressing a button, restrained himself. Perhaps the main reason could be the fear of snatching a kick from potentially omnipotent beings (if the local sun and Luna were not giant lamps, holograms, or how else could this phenomenon be truncated with Occam's razor). Maybe the bestial human nature was guilty, which did not put their own kind in anything, but did not tolerate bullying of a defenseless animal. Maybe it happened because the same sentinels could harm his sister, and here Mercer was responsible only for himself - that's the laws of wartime on his part and ceased to operate. Or was Alex sparing them simply because the ponies weren't edible?

Truth must have been found somewhere in the middle, taking a certain share from each motive. Be that as it may, thanks to the surprise effect, Mercer scattered the guards like kittens - at a distance, being prepared, it would probably be more difficult to deal with them without critical self-harm... Alex would give a lot now for a javelin with a set of charges. Paired with a machine gun, he should have gone very well, because air conditioners on local roofs could not be expected to be found, and the concentration of birds in the air steadily increased. Leaving behind several guards with either bruises, or fractures and concussions, Alex rushed into the city. Where there were cakes, festivities and balloons, it should have been revealed what the balloons were inflated with. Reddish-red smog of virions, harmless media that dragged out the virus-affected neighborhoods, could not read data here and mark targets for Mercer, but quite well excited the local population. Surprisingly, the four-legged soldiers instantly forgot about the evolved and began to pull civilians out of the hearths! The patrol would not have done that, but these sorcerers... apparently, the difference in psychology again affected. Still not enough for Mercer to rush to the noses with open arms, however; Alex waited until the last that a snow-white arch-witch would appear right in front of him in a golden flash and knock out with a death ray, but everything turned out well. Moving at a fast pace, jumping over houses and screaming zoomorphs with the usual dexterity, the evolved one took the necessary chemicals and was like that.

Human was busy fixing the radio until noon. He left the terraformer with his left hand, in exchange for some remote means that would help to cope with the flyers, attached a machine gun to the clawed stump and went to the hills that surrounded the settlement. The hunger of reason, which a couple of times overtook Mercer during the fight against epidemics, was still not felt, even his slightest hints. As if... as if he had been cut off, left beyond the bounds, a place of mind-emptying striving, giving way to some... incompleteness? It was as if a piece had been cut out of Mercer, an outlandish message he had not read, about which he could not remember anything except that this message in his homeworld was supposed to burden Alex's brain. And the attachment of this mental baggage had to be located somewhere in the area of ​​the shoulder blades - as if a piece of a puzzle had been squeezed out of its structure, now Mercer understood this sensation that way. Something that should have mattered in the wake of Green's assassination has disappeared. But what? Is it not the drawing of his jacket, which could be easily reproduced, copied at any moment? (5) point, dissolving among the vegetation using the same camouflage coat. While scouting the surroundings, he was disturbed by some rather large creature and, hiding, foolishly stuck into the underground passages - but fled from there even faster, giggling nervously. Not only did Alex get too sick, because his head was occupied with the most stupid thoughts, a state of euphoria and a completely inappropriate desire to have fun (7), but he was also barked by the local inhabitants. Several dog-headed mutants with impressive-looking muscles did not pursue him and, after barking for an ostratus, disappeared among the boulders, raising clouds of earthen dust. Well, yes, they would try to grab Mercer! Larger ponies, unambiguously intelligent due to the wearable armor and cold weapons, they still did not resemble creatures capable of purely physical parameters to pose a threat to a evolved one. Compared to the hunters who were able to open the Abrams like a tin can, these mutants did seem like Maltese lapdogs. Be a virus for overgrown dogs adapt At first, Mercer could have created not bad minions, fierce and very dangerous. Under the feet of an unsuspecting victim, the muscular scruff of the neck breaks the ground, a twisted mouth flashes, and it is followed by the main blow, flying over the head with two huge gray anvils with razor-claws... However, Alex wrote off all these remote plans for the air - what- then it was unhealthy in the paths of dogs and in the surrounding environs, even more harmful than the already familiar plasma of beryllium. Well, no one guaranteed that local excavators could not single-handedly pull a train and cause an earthquake with a snap of their fingers. Mercer's pony studied at least superficially.

When Alexander, having cleared his stomach, sat down again by the handles of the station and pulled out a homemade antenna, the atypical fun left Human, but the feeling that his life was a performance, and he himself was an actor, who, due to the collapse of the scenery you have to improvise terribly, and a new plot twist is about to fall on him. Mercer hooked up the miraculously surviving dashboard battery by shooting his eyes over the top of his equipment. The world around him was crazy, behaving terribly wrong... But Alex could not help but admit that he could be called, in a very familiar framework, beautiful. For the locals, it probably smelled of not toxic metal, but the multicolored herbs summer-like juicy, swaying under the oncoming wind. A small cozy town in a valley, on the other side, closed by a huge dense forest, filled with a thousand rustles and birdsong... Not a bad place to spend your vacation at any other time, in fact. A female pegasus flew in the distance, pushing a large curly cloud ahead of her. She moved relaxed, basking her light lavender skin in the sun and exposing her almost white mane to the currents of the wind. Mercer, captured by this picture, looked at the fragile representative of a world unfamiliar to him and wondered what need in general could force him to invent a way to move around the sky no longer lights, but clouds. Another evidence that he got into some kind of a children's fairy tale, where everything is fluffy, bright and magical. Well, poisonous be healthy, not without it.

Yes, the world was outwardly pretty, almost idyllic, if you do not look at the details and do not grab your head for any reason. But this world was alien to Alex Mercer, a creature who could not even define himself. Universe, seriously? Zeus didn't even have five minutes to think about what these eighteen days have turned him into, and in addition he is being thrown into a whole new world, into a completely unfamiliar state of the environment? Even the Luna here was incorrect, giving out clearly not reflected light, because it was not possible to assimilate it into a cloud, as the radiation of a daylight. Celestial bodies here were controlled manually... accumulated, that is, if the natives could influence the change of seasons in the same way... Yes, and at a smaller level, they could also engage in terraforming, judging by Humaneuver with a cloud from that pegasi.

“This world seems artificial, huh,” Mercer grumbled, tuning into a number of frequencies. “Let it turn out to be an artificial formation, a secret government testing ground in the Atlantic, where I accidentally thundered. Khu-ha... Or beyond the Arctic Circle. Or something else. Anything, if only on Earth... Universe, please!”

Having stumbled upon a couple of waves of ponyaty music, Alex listened to the unusual sound for a while, after which, with a sigh, he turned to the familiar military bands. It was fucking stupid... but Alexander Mercer just had too many brains to recklessly hope for anything less obvious. Sighing, Alex again brought the earpiece that he had scratched out of the only headset he found to the slit in his skull, and began in a strange voice:

“Red Crown, this is Citadel-17. Kha... I crashed in an unknown area... My resources are running out, it is not possible to establish coordinates. The on-board computer is out of order. I ask, kha, evacuation... landmarks - a small settlement, located in the bend of the river...” Mercer called and called the data known to him, until he finished the request. The only response was a static hiss. After waiting a little in reception mode, Mercer began to re-dictate the introductory:

“Red Crown, this is Citadel-17. I was wrecked in an unknown, hah, area...”

Half an hour later, when the radio station crashed into silence at the click of a toggle switch, Mercer tied it up with a banner of mass and put it behind his back, to the life-giving balloons. The cold forend of the machine gun pressed against the forehead, the eye closed, the claws of the only right hand clenched convulsively, so that whitish blood oozed out of the cuts - in the absence of oxygen, the numerous iron with which it was saturated did not instantly oxidize, giving the usual crimson, which pretty much frightened the evolved one at night. Mercer never received a clear reception and blessed military "I hear you well, Citadel." Calling home from a party where everything is charged with drunken fumes, and calling a taxi did not work. Alex's thoughts were confused, reminiscent of the speech of an unknown madman who was eager to convey some valuable information to the environment, but was unable to do so. Once he had already fallen for something untested, for self-deception, when he decided that he was able to deceive the monstrous state machine and not pay for it. Is anyone surprised that this method didn't work again when used again? The likelihood of success was... well, let's say, no more than Alex's ability in this world to blow up local residents, just touching them and using nuclear forces to start a lithium reaction. It is unlikely that the Universe would be generous with a gift comparable to this... She's too nasty bitch.

After a little hesitation, Alex got on his prostheses and wandered towards the descent from the hilly ridge. The locals, no doubt, had a radio - they could have detected how the stranger was trying to get in touch with their own, so they should quickly get out of the pegasus' zone of responsibility. At other times, Alex's thoughts would have captured, perhaps, aggressive and conceited attitudes. Almost three weeks of fighting on the streets of the doomed city tempered the mutant, the source of which volunteered to come under Green's wing. His canopy almost destroyed Zeus - but every blow, every bullet he spat out, stopping the streams of a blood surrogate, every killed made him stronger. Forged more and more perfect forms. Obviously, they would not be enough here... Previously, people tended to appease the deities, imaginary interaction with them. Challenging the god of winds, will you dare to engage in a fight with his material embodiment - a tornado? If you are a mere mortal, it will be at least stupid. But if you have already died once, if a turbine rumbles in your chest, extremely evenly dispersing blood throughout your body, and your bones are stronger than aircraft steel, you have the opportunity to rebuff the forces of nature. Perhaps the incarnations of celestial phenomena too! Survival is not the strongest and not the smartest, but the one who best adapts to changes - so it was said long ago by one humanwho is well versed in biology. And in the art of adapting, Dr. Mercer was a true professional... Then, a couple of days ago, Alex would not have been afraid to oppose Yin-Yang, if they caught his sister with the edge of their unfriendly attention.

Now Mercer grumbled to himself under a nonexistent nose: "We will work with what we have." To understand this world (and it seems that it really was a different dimension, where it was thrown by a nuclear explosion in an unknown way) outright was unthinkable, and for sure the natives did not think exactly like people. But, on the other hand, negotiating with the xeno for Alex now seemed a hopeless task due to rationality and civilization, even if they walked on four legs, and were chemically twisted in the Shancourtua spiral. (8) However, before meeting with their rulers, it would be nice to learn something about these same mares from independent sources... more or less independent and not influenced by public opinion. With a flexible enough mindset to let a strange-looking alien come closer to him and not poke spears in his direction.

Mercer nodded to himself. Insufficient data problems in his past life he loved. The head of a evolved humanwas not sitting on a long neck for beauty, you know - his new state could not only quickly move in space and make holes in living beings that were not provided for by physiology. From under the zygomatic arches of Mercer, with a rumbling rumbling spiky plates extended upward, capable of being controlled by muscular effort. Pretending to be one of the xenos is a dead act, but Alex could have started to look a little more friendly, more familiar. If the evolved one understood correctly, the ears played an important role in the expression of emotions among the Equiids, so it was a reasonable move. The natives already knew that Mercer was different from them and was capable of sneaking into other people's skins. But if he remains himself, moreover, he begins to look a little more familiar, discovering the channels of information familiar to him...

Funny, Mercer suddenly decided. A long neck, exceptional bony, stilted legs, a mask in the shape of a skull, bony "ears" were added, the cough, due to the toxic air, has not gone anywhere... well, now he is officially Grievous. Mercer recalled the correct name of the general, accidentally stumbling upon it in the memory of the pilot, under whose "guidance" he was restoring the radio. It remains only to walk hunched over, hands behind his back, and reflect on the intrigues against some local Kenobi. Well, those astropathic twins, white and dark navy blue, were (9) retired Jedi fugitive for looks. In any case, there was no similarity between them and that rather lively-looking old mare who raised her high at the sight of Mercer on the farm.

Alex suddenly turned around and threw out his hand, just towards the trees. An organic bolo projectile immediately flew there, for a couple of which the evolved one spent almost all of the accumulated reserve. Mercer peered through the M249's sighting bar into the green. Just a moment ago, it seemed to him that someone motionless, extremely reminiscent of a pony, froze there, but the vein turned out to be wound around the most ordinary rotten stump. The mutant, now more like a walking skeleton, frowned, crouched down and froze, listening intently through the louder rumbling that preceded the delayed detonation. However, he was soon forced to admit that there was nowhere to hide among the pair of trees on the hill - Mercer could see perfectly well that he was here alone, and he had no reason not to trust his improved vision. No unusual sounds, lights or shadows...

“The worker's plan may have appeared, but, kha, the nerves are naughty,” finally grumbled Mercer, going up to the stump in the shadow of another tree and removing the bolo from it, deactivating the bomb next to enzymes, this tiny analogue of a devastating attack. “Gods, I really need to sleep.”

Alex, reopening the helium supply, galloped on with a side step. He didn’t turn around anymore, though the mutant had a vague sense of bad omens haunted him. Therefore, he did not see how, after seven minutes, the stub of a tree disappeared in a flash of green flame, and large frightened eyes stared in the direction of Ponyville. The changeling's neck was still sore as the biped's weapon gripped it so hard. This drone did not consider itself the smartest member of the swarm, but he definitely had the brains to understand that some terrible and dangerous predator burst into the life of this disgustingly kind pony - with no less ambition than the Queen and a desire to remake everything for himself.

Changeling transformed as a Pegasus and darted in the opposite direction as fast as his wing-force would allow. It was becoming too dangerous to keep track of this two-legged... It would be enough if he reported to the Queen about what he had seen.
> Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a cheerful morning, with the sounds of a waking city, tea and a light breakfast, just like Sweetie Belle loved. And it happens that it is as if Pinkie Pie herself planned it! And not in terms of the abundance of sweets... The day started pretty well: a leaflet with the seal of the Equestrian Guard was found in the mailbox, that from this very morning the special regime was canceled. You could play with your friends again, not waste your vacation days, sitting at home behind closed doors and shutters! Cook's mom, however, doubted if this was a good idea. After all, the sheet also contained instructions on how to behave when meeting a stranger who was still wandering somewhere near Ponyville. However, the guard assured the residents that the stranger would not harm them - you just need to try not to attract his attention with loud sounds and not run away, barely seeing a creature moving on its hind legs. If she speaks, the best Not to seek the attention of a bunch of other ponies, but to try to understand what the stranger needs... If just something suspicious happened on the streets of the town (for example, an adult pony appeared without a tag. Does this happen at all?!), you must report to the guard. From the words of her parents, Sweetie knew that the stranger had smashed the pastry shop and put the whole city on his ears with his smoke bombs, and this instantly became a topic for gossip between her mother's friends. Sweetie Belle may have stayed at home out of sheer caution, but another day locked up would have been very hard to spend. And since dad also spoke out for the end of the home regime, intending to start the day off with a fishing rod in his hooves, mom gave up. Taking from them a promise not to do stupid things, she separately punished Sweetie not to try to make friends with the alien until the guards figured it out in all this mess. The unicorn easily agreed - she was not so eager to meet with the one who last morning managed to drive all the ponies out of their houses and, in general, arrange a Las Pegasus pandemonium from their modest town.

As Sweetie swallowed the pancakes, she wondered if she and Apple Bloom would be able to meet with Scootaloo tonight. Daddy said something last night about how the guards blocked the railway and carefully searched the rare trains that passed through the station with secret special spells... The pegasi's parents were away, so Scoot again settled with the aunts. If only the guards did not stop the movement at all! Holliday and Lofty might have lived some distance from Ponyville, but Sweetie suspected that yesterday's turmoil and the measures taken by the Guard might spread to the suburbs as well. Such a dominance of guards has never happened here, even with Celestia's official visits! And the unicorn had no doubt that Scoot would be able to persuade her guardians. The aunts will probably breathe a sigh of relief when Scootaloo sets off to visit her friends. A day and a half locked up for a poor pegasus is enough to start running on the ceiling... Dad had just started his morning newspaper, filled with the wildest theories about what had happened and high-profile headlines, when a visitor showed up at their house. Not the same two-legged alien, but also not the most expected on the doorstep. The diamond dog was pounding at the door!

Sweetie has seen these rude dogs a couple of times outside her sister's boutique. They lived on hills rich in nuggets, charging the miners for the extraction of crystals on their territory; they made visits to the city at most two or three per month. Sweetie had no idea how her sister managed to bargain such favorable terms with them that the leaders of the two-legged brought her supplies to the workshop themselves, called her "Mrs. Rarity", after which, having received a reward, they tried to get out of the city as soon as possible, pressing their ears and holding their tail. They weren't pleasant types of dogs, but at least they didn't bother the people of Ponyville. This short, even shorter than average pony dog ​​squealed, waving its paws, and from his chaotic speech Sweetie caught only that "they are not to blame", "the shop was not closed earlier" and "we will do everything, just remove this fiend of Tartarus!!! "

Taking a pancake with him, Dad rushed after the brown dog, which was showing the way. Sweetie, don't be a fool, happily galloped after her, to the indignant cry of her mother, blurting out that Rarity's establishment did not concern the alien in any way, and in general she had already had breakfast. How could one ignore the case that affected the whole life of her beloved sister?! When Sweetie, out of breath, finally got to the Carousel, a rather ironic picture appeared to her eyes. Dad was chewing on a pancake, groaning and trying to hide the laughter that was choking him; the dog next to him was already dancing with nervous excitement. The sister's boutique looked great as always - the design personally designed by Rarity shouted that the guest could count on the most biased service himself. From the large, circular windows, dresses invaded, each a flawless product of Rarity's art, polishing the fabric into fluidity and grace, just as a gem is cut by a jeweler. How everything shone and sparkled here! A wonderful place - light, airy and delicious in its own way, like a real wedding cake. Sweetie had involuntarily forgotten why she had come here. The unicorn would like her sister to let her work here and help with orders! But Sweetie Belle's latest creations, which she intended to wear to the Mark-Seekers-travelers-to-the-North-Pole, nearly fainted the older filly. Strange, Sweetie felt that she was exactly the same as the traditional clothing of the Yakis for protection from a particularly hard frost! And even this time I didn't sew them on five legs. And now Rarity has left at all, on an errand from Princess Celestia... Too bad! Well, it doesn’t matter, they’ll make up for it, Sweetie didn’t have any plans until the cold weather, what could be altered with her sister!

Finally, Sweetie drew attention to the cause of this commotion. There are several guards in the neighborhood of the boutique. th - they only laughed, but did not risk coming closer. On the sprawling tree, where Sweetie often climbed with her friends, hung two more diamond dogs, clutching bark and branches to a shiver. It should be noted that the dogs were dented and scratched. And below... there, right under the tree, Opalescence strolled imposingly, looking up predatory. Meeting her gaze, one of the dogs swallowed and made an attempt to climb higher, stepping on the head of his comrade, which caused him to burst out with a deaf curse.

The dogs were dressed in their own traditions - roughly knocked down vests and nothing more, but collars with a scattering of large, clear crystals gave out the leaders in them, the very ones who sometimes came to bow to Rarity. The unlucky visitors again brought her a cart of selected jewelry for sewing - it was lying upside down at the entrance to the boutique. As the hastily frequenting Spot explained, the boobies had no idea that the owner of the establishment could leave him for a while. You never know, maybe the door just jammed! Well, the dogs with all their bad power and moved inside. How could the dogs know that a cat with the most nasty character in Ponyville and its environs would be waiting inside them, jealously guarding the owner's property, rightfully considering them their own? There were no thieves in the city, so Opalescence reacted to such blasphemy without hesitation, turning, according to the dogs, into a "real nightmare", a real whirlwind of steel hooks and white wool crawling into the mouth. The cat drove two of the largest unlucky visitors to the tree and now cut circles below, purring and as if inadvertently showing its claws. She apparently considered it beneath her dignity to crawl after the lathered dogs, who had no idea about grace and fashion... The guards pulled themselves up just like that, for the company, and quietly discussed whether to attract two-legged "for violation of public order and breaking with penetration" ( the dogs, who rushed out in panic, safely knocked out the door), but did not dare to approach the cat. Sweetie winced as she remembered her attempts to make friends with her sister's pet. Something told her that the guards stayed away from Opalescence for the same reasons, and not because the cat belonged to the embodiment of one of the Elements of Harmony. Only Fluttershy could get along with her...

Dad, having laughed, decided to shield the dogs: he told the guards that Miss Rarity was unlikely to be in the claims, but if anything, he would take full responsibility. Like Sweetie, he was not very well versed in the affairs of his eldest daughter, who had long become an adult filly and went on an independent voyage, but Rarity, against the background of the same favorable exchange conditions, was hardly convenient for her "business partners" to be pulled into all sorts of interracial proceedings. Then it was Opal's turn: dad tried to persuade the cat for a good five minutes in the most polite tone, and she finally mercifully decided to spare her victims, disappeared into the boutique, wagging her tail goodbye. With an expression of indescribable happiness on their bony faces, the dogs jumped down, barking voices thanks to Dad and Spot, who, with his small mind, guessed to find someone from the relatives of "Mrs. Rarity". When the guard asked why today, at such a difficult time for the Ponyville, they brought jewelry for exchange, the dogs turned pale - and said that it was better for the guards not to know what would happen if the "mistress" missed one or two stones in the ordered crystals. And they could disappear, because according to the dogs, a strange creature came to them at the mine for the second time. The first time he ran away, giggling shrilly, like a madman, but that night he also attacked the guard, knocking him out and demonstratively tidying up the collar, claiming the right to the territory! For the dogs, this was considered a serious insult and a challenge, so the supply of stones could have been delayed... For Rarity, of course, this was unacceptable. With the hasty explanations about the attack, the senior guard exclaimed "But from this place, let's get more details!" dragged the dogs towards the town hall. They protested listlessly, but did not kick too much.

Sweetie Belle, who had been trying to insert a word or two throughout the conversation, just sighed. Adults were so boring sometimes! They all have some difficulties, bow to each other, express their thoughts sometimes so floridly that their ears curl up into a tube... She told her dad that she would go and find Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and wished a good catch. Sweetie moved along the winding paths that entangled all of Ponyville and illusoryly enlarged the size of the town. Everything seemed calm, the usual measured course of life was restored, recalling what had happened only by the guards of the princesses, who moved in two or three. Sweetheart realized that even the scheduled train had arrived when she saw two other Sightseekers at the station, discussing something violently. While the unicorn galloped happily towards them, Apple Bloom rummaged in her little bag, and Sweetie saw a coil of rope in the earth's pony's hoof. Scootaloo looked questioningly at Apple Bloom, and when she nodded in the affirmative, she giggled unkindly, rubbing their grandmas against each other and looking around with the air of a seasoned conspirator. Then she noticed Sweetie Belle - and the air was filled with the cheers of the foals.

The unicorn had a keen feeling that today the meeting of the Markers could bring especially big trouble, but the desire to talk with friends and curiosity about what they were thinking up without her, overpowered the desire to turn around and gallop home at full speed. Embracing, Sweetie Belle listened to the incredibly informative story of Scootaloo, who was released by the aunts on the condition that she would promise not to get into trouble and spend a day or two at the Apple farm. Apparently, Holliday and Lofty thought that between the guards of the princesses, closer to the princesses themselves, the pegasus would be safer than among several cottages in the suburbs. Of course, Scoot ignored the instructions of the guardians, as soon as Apple Bloom, who met her, initiated her friend into the latest idea. Without Sweetie, the ponies agreed to track the alien on their own! Ideally, in general, catch him in a snare that the earth pony promised to install "exactly like in that old book."

“You're the first to get into them yourself, Bloom!” Sweetie protested. “What are you making this up? Do you really want to get into the Everfree?! Forgot how we almost got caught by the cockatrice? We would have stood there until he got tired of it! Or until they found us... What would have happened to my mane during this time, can you imagine?! We are disenchanted, and in it branches, insects, in the mud and wild rain, everything is infested... Eugh!”

“Come on, we are only on the outskirts, we will not wander far! Let's set the trap and go straight back! I definitely heard that he ran away in that direction,” Scootaloo began to persuade her fervently, and from the way the pegasus' eyes glittered, Sweetie realized that she would stand firm for Apple Bloom's idea. “Do you remember how the Powerful ponies fought with the aliens from the Universe, but then it turned out that all this was due to the fact that they did not understand each other? The Quadropods turned out to be good, they made friends with the ponies and promised to fly over to visit! Maybe it will be so with us?”

“Scoot,” the unicorn sighed, rolling her eyes, “what did Twilight Sparkle tell you about aliens?”

Scootaloo pouted. Lowering her head, she grumbled from beneath the curls of her purple mane:

“They don't exist...”

“Does it really matter what you call it?” perplexed, Apple Bloom interjected. “An alien of dimensions, this planetary of yours... All of Twilight's words are clever! The main thing is that he is not from here, not ours. And this is the coolest thing!” Apple Bloom waved her hoof somewhere in uncertain distance, and the pegasus nodded in agreement, supporting her. “Imagine, Sweetie, how cool it would be to get the layman's Cutie Mark? No one will have this, here are those horseshoe!”

“I don’t understand,” Sweetie narrowed her eyes, sighing to herself. Convincing the friends was no easier than forcing an ill-mannered minotaur to turn off the path, “are you going to catch him or is it still possible to establish contact?”

“One does not interfere with the other!” Scootaloo burst out laughing. “This is how we catch him, so we will immediately establish contact. I give you my word, he will speak to me!” a little belligerently ruffled the wings of the pegasus.

“Girls, what if there is no more contact?” continued to pry the unicorn. “My sister and I went to visit miss Sparkle a week ago. She let slip that this new job is very difficult! And the world on the other side is completely wrong, it does not obey... Why do we need such marks, if they may never be useful again?”

This time, the words of the unicorn really hit the mark - Scoot and Bloom were seriously thoughtful. Gradually, an insight appeared on their faces that the fact of receiving such an exotic mark, perhaps, would be very pleasant, but what will the Markers do next in life? They really could not remember foreigners in Equestria landing every Monlabor.

“So what am I,” said Apple Bloom in frustration, looking at the bag with an embroidered apple on it,” in vain fiddling with these dusty books in the attic?”

“Bloomy, your snares wouldn't have kept him alone. As far as I heard, he single-handedly destroyed the Sugar Corner, so the guards...” Sweetie Belle wanted to cheer up her friend with this, but made it only worse: the muzzle of the earth pony was noticeably sour. Scootaloo snorted, irritated trying to hide her sadness, as she always did:

“Ugh, Sweetie, you are not helping help!”

“No, she's right, Scoot…” Apple Bloom sighed. “Let's go to the clubhouse or something, girls. Maybe we’ll consider what else, how else to get our marks... I just wanted to get it before the start of the new class, yep. I suppose these two chickens will lag behind us when they see that we are no longer empty-headed...”

Sweetie felt a twinge of remorse. Friends often pulled her into trouble, but they wanted to do the best... And the idea of ​​being the first to get acquainted with the appearance-changing alien (what did he really look like, I wonder? Mom claimed that a pony friend saw him as running around rejuvenation of stones!) was certainly seductive. Although, on the other hand, this brought back memories of a wedding in Canterlot, and Sweetie became afraid... Feeling that she would regret it, the unicorn blurted out:

“Girls! But what if a stranger wants to come to us?”

“Eh?” Apple Bloom turned her head in bewilderment.

“What? Is it like this?” got interested in Scootaloo. “What, you want to lure him out of the forest?”

“Well, maybe not lure him out,” Sweetie was embarrassed by such close attention, still not really formulating her notion into a thought. “But the guards in leaflets and advertisements wrote that he himself could go to the pony. He needs something from us, you see... Maybe, instead of looking in the woods, we will try to make him come to us?”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other. Emboldened, the earthly pony blossomed into a smile and nodded in a businesslike manner.

“Well, that's another matter! Maybe not for the sake of marks, but for so... Why should the preparations be wasted in vain!” Bloom patted the bag with her hoof, from where she fished out the rope for the trap. “I brought some apples for us on the road, took a flashlight, and what about little things...”

“Uh-uh... and how do we do this?” Fiercely Scootaloo scratched her ear, looking around. Sweetie Belle called the other Crusaders to follow her, and foals clattered slowly toward the road that led from town to the farm.

“We need to understand what the alien needs from the pony,” Sweetie said instructively. She was briefly interrupted when the foals met Colada with her sister Berry Punch, who were walking and chatting merrily about something of their own. Having found out the latest gossip (it turned out that Their Highnesses were not going to leave the city yet, they settled in the town hall and received all the correspondence from Canterlot there), Sweetie and her friends moved on, thinking as they walked:

“If we find out what the alien is looking for, and we get it... What do you know about him?”

“He has one eye!” Scootaloo blurted out immediately. “But he is not a pirate a hundred pounds. Doesn't pull. What?” Bumping into the interested looks of foals, she shook her head. “I haven't seen him, honestly! It's just that the pegasus guard at our station said something in conversation. Well I and...”

"Overheard," Apple Bloom giggled.

“I didn't listen to anything!” Scoot was indignant. “He talked openly with his friend, loudly! He said that the one-eyed pegasus in Ponyville had thrown him so badly last morning that he flew a good two dozen yards...”

“But a flying pegasus is a common thing, isn't it?” Apple Bloom did not understand.

“He did not fly away on its own, Bloom! Stucked into the ground, only armor saved the poor fellow from serious injuries,” Scootaloo excitedly jumped a couple of times in place, chirping her wings. “I did not hide anywhere and did not hide, in short, I immediately climbed into my carriage!”

“We believe, we believe,” Sweetie gasped, suddenly realizing that everything could be much more serious than she thought. “So he seriously fought with the guards?!”

“What is it!” Scootaloo waved her off. “I gave a couple of cuffs to those who got hot under the hoof, and fled right there. If Rainbow Dash had been here, she would have bucked him up!” said the pegasus dreamily, probably in her thoughts already presenting an epic brawl for the title of the main bully of Ponyville.

“And you still intended to catch this alien on your own?!” Sweetie Belle couldn't believe her ears.

“So why so and so? Just when they caught him, they would tell him that cultured ponies do not behave like that…” objected Scoot, but in a far from confident tone.

“Well, I didn't know such details when I was looking for a recipe for an alien trap,” Apple Bloom wrinkled her nose. “But you know what I’ll tell them, Sweetie? You can trust the princesses. The guard hung out announcements that everything will be fine, and the stranger can not be scared. So why run in circles ahead of time?” she added with discouraging logic. “So come on, lay out what you know.”

“Wait, Bloom,” the pegasus shook her head. “The newcomer, like, and looked at your farm? Chatting something like that on the platform,” Scootaloo pointed her hoof behind her back.

“Oh, nothing interesting,” Applejack’s sister shrugged. “I myself did not see, but Granny said that he took a hose from us to water the flower beds. And from the heels of fertilizer bags.”

Scootaloo goggled her lavender eyes at her.

“For flower beds? Why is that?! Just showed up here, and already decided to close up a florist?”

“How do I know, Scoots?” giggled the pony, probably imagining an alien in a lace apron, on a par with miss Daisy watering flowers from a can. “So what, Sweetie? Spread it out, don't let it go! What do you know about the stranger?”

Sweetie Belle hesitated. Now, knowing about not the best relations of a guest from another world with the Guard and, probably, the princesses, she was ready to grab her head - how bad and, most importantly, hopeless the case looked, in which the Markers were ready to get involved! But she couldn't just leave her friends if they really wanted to meet with the alien at build... not strangers, after all, ponies. Cautiously, Sweetie Belle continued:

“Well, I'll add on my own... As I said, he broke through the wall of Sugar Corner, even twice. And he plowed the field near the market with his machine. I know it sounds silly, but maybe...” Sweetie looked timidly at her friends awaiting her verdict, “does he just like to break things? Breaking through walls? If we took more wood from the sawmill, we could build something that the alien would want to break. Although,” the unicorn was sad, “when we were carpenters, it didn't work out very well. Probably, this is not how we get the attention of the alien.”

For a while, the foals stood with the mines of the highest concentration on their faces, thinking in a way that had never happened in any of Miss Cheerilee's lessons. But here Scootaloo summed up:

“I'm sorry, Sweetie, but some kind of nonsense comes out. As I see it, these three things are not tied to each other at all. And in general, I already have a headache from all these thoughts,” complained to Scootaloo. “Maybe while we go for a milkshake? Then to the clubhouse.”

“Oh!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, pleased that her friends had delayed the dangerous topic. “A milkshake is good, let's go!”

“Hey, Sweetie...” Apple Bloom laughed as they turned towards their favorite cafe. “Do you think there is a label in their alien world "pirate-wrecker-gardener"?”

“I don’t know,” the unicorn shook her head. “Twilight said there was very little magic in that world. Very, very little. And he is not a pony... Probably, he may not have a mark at all, like griffins and other races.”

“But in our Universe its lot of magic, at least fill up!” exclaimed Scootaloo, slowing down at the side of the road and looking at her friends. “Well, how will he get it?!”

“And at the thought, Scoots!” Apple Bloom's ears stood up erect at these words. The pony immediately forgot about milkshakes. “What if he wants to get her?”

“Well... In the ads, the guards wrote that he might look like an adult pony without a Cutie Mark...” Sweetie Belle thought. “It seems to be. But this is very strange girls! We better not get into this,” tried to calm their white pony. “Remember how the changelings copied the guests? They replaced them entirely, with tags together, but here...”

“Cool!” Scootaloo summed up, safely losing sight of the entire part that concerned changelings. “This is how we will lure him out! We are also looking for our marks, so we'll get to know each other!”

“How does an alien know we're trying to find them?” Apple Bloom doubted.

“Everyone around you knows that, you fool,” giggled the pegasus, hoofing around the nearby houses and ponies that spent their day off in various ways on city lawns and verandas.

“What did you call me?!”

“Girls!” Sweetie quickly intervened, preventing a scuffle, albeit a playful one, and spreading the foals to the sides. “Girls, but we are not the only ones who have no tags! There are ponies younger than us…”

“So we must be the first to be in time! Let's go!” Apple Bloom almost jumped off, never specifying where the three of them should go, but this time she was stopped by Scootaloo herself.

“Stop! Quiet!!!” she blurted out in a terrible whisper, throwing herself at her friend.

Not expecting that her hind legs would be grabbed by a dexterous pegasus, Bloom fell to the grass with a squeal, managing to knock Sweetie off her feet with an absurd dance pirouette. The heap-small with groans and chuckles began to creep quickly, but then Scootaloo again gave a muffled voice:

“I said - hush! Don't move!”

“What are you doing, Scootaloo?” the earth pony was surprised, shoving the apples back into the bag with a hoof, rubbing them on her fur.

“What? What did you see, Scoot?” Sweetie Belle shook her head in concern. Couldn't the alien find himself in Ponyville in broad daylight?

The scooter racer flicked her eyes to the right instead of answering and hissed:

“Take a look at the cafe! See?”

From Sweetie's point of view, there was nothing of note. It was still morning, and there were not so many visitors. But no, rare guests did drop in here: not far from the tables, on the summer veranda, a pair of armored thestrals stood and quietly discussed some of their affairs. They were in Ponyville only during Nightmare Night and could be seen when the guards accompanied Princess Luna. Sweetie Belle also remembered that a group of thestrals had once been in the city passing through, they even dropped in to her sister for a new thing, but this was not the case.

“Come on quietly, follow me!” ordered Scootaloo, falling on all four legs. “Under the bench, live! Crawling, crawling!”

“Do you want to overhear them?” Sweetie Belle was surprised.

“Now - yes! At the station, I did not overhear anyone, they themselves!”

“This is indecent...” the unicorn protested, but nevertheless crawled after her friends that they tried their best not to be seen by the batpony. The trio froze in fright when the guard put her tassel ears upside down, but almost immediately relaxed, and the filly breathed a sigh of relief. Ponies, of course, were curious creatures, but to meddle I am both princesses and their personal guards, it was not in their rules... And also, as Rarity taught, a real lady will not be busy with such a low business as sniffing out other people's secrets (unless it is really important things - for example, find out what perfume your opponent will use before the ball in order to prepare a decent answer). But, on the other hand, I really wanted to hear what the warriors of the people were talking about, that Princess Luna had chosen to serve her... The night pony, covered with an aura of mystery and mysticism, probably had something to say about the stranger who had appeared in Ponyville! Sweetie Belle consoled herself with the thought that this time eavesdropping on anyone's reputation would not hurt - the failed correspondents had long since abandoned any connection with the Chatterbox.

“... exactly in that area,” the slender pony was broadcasting with a slight northern accent. “The solar from among the landstrikers said that the fog only spreads more, even though it does not harm the swamp.”

“This is for now. It got darker in there, didn't it?” asked the second guard, with a darker lavender mane.

"Froggy Bottom," Scootaloo said under her breath. “They are definitely about him!”

“Right, night brother. And not just clouded - that rubbish seems to suck the light out of the air, the twilight is now standing,” the batpony stepped in place, clanking the plates of armor. “And any spells horned shields. They will not see there further than one and a half to two dozen jumps.”

“Rightly our element,” Thestral grinned with a jerky grin. “So far, Celestia is not particularly keen on military action...”

“No need. A friend of mine from the flyers says that the privates are mercilessly fooling. The creature is not nearly as dangerous as it seems. At the wreckage of the guard, consider, and did get off with a slight fright. As for the swamps...”

“Do you think Her Darkness will send troops there?”

“Who knows? The princesses know better where we will deliver the most,” the thestral said weightily. “But if she does, we'll be ready.”

“We’ll be ready, sister of the night,” agreed her colleague, after which he suddenly looked directly at the filly huddled under the bench and winked at them. Then the flyer spread his webbed wings and almost silently lifted himself off the ground, shadowing behind the nearest house. While the foals realized that their position had been revealed in the most shameless way, the thestral sighed and, turning, beckoned them to her.

“Get out already, young rangers...”

“How did you notice us?” Scootaloo grumbled resentfully, getting out from under the bench and dusting herself off. Batpony did not hide her mood, her eyes sparkled with cheerful yellowness:

“You were under a fairly high cover a dozen steps away from me,” the guard commented in a malicious tone. “It was not difficult to notice. And when they walked to the cafe, and without ours,” she expressively moved her sharp, as if always on the alert, ears, “improved feelings for a mile could be heard.”

Thestral took her eyes somewhere back from the wings of Scootaloo, and the unicorn realized that she paid attention to her empty side. Sweetie thought with displeasure that an adult who had arrived from the capital might, in Humanner of Tiara, express disdain, but the Thestral asked in a benevolent tone:

“Still undecided about your talents? If you suddenly decide to join the guard, keep in mind that you still need to work on the ability to conduct secret surveillance. It hasn’t worked yet,” she smiled again with her fanged, but not at all aggressive smile.

“Guards to go?” surprised Apple Bloom. “We did not consider such an option... And what, who is going to join the guard, does that mark appear at that moment?”

“This is how lucky,” the guard shrugged. Then her pupils narrowed, which made her gaze more severe:

“But what exactly does not give marks for is if you climb where three well-bred filly does not belong at all. Little ones, have you heard now that the guard makes overflights over the swamp? This red fog that made the rustle in Ponyville yesterday doesn't just block the magic. Something is happening in your Froggy Bottom that isolates and disperses the background magic in space. Have you already been told about the magic of the Universe in the classroom?” the Thestral looked searchingly at the trinity. Apple Bloom tugged at the bow on her head with an embarrassed hoof.

“It must have been something like that...

“Does she seem to permeate the whole world?” tried to remember the unicorn. “Allows us to do all sorts of magic tricks?”

“Yeah-yeah...” the guard nodded. “Okay, I will not load you - I can only say that the swamps from magic are now literally glowing. Even forest animals were drawn there. The alien that Twilight Sparkle summoned draws background magic from the ground and simply throws it away. It almost drains into the air. Our brainy ones say the effects can be unpredictable, so be obedient foals, don't go there, okay? Patrols won't let you in anyway.”

“Okay... Hey, we're not little!” belatedly outraged Scootaloo.

“We won't, we promise!” piteously looked at the night hunter Sweetie. “And we are very, very sorry that we overheard your conversation!”

“Yes, I'm sorry, please! Here...” the earth pony put her hoof into the bag and fished out the familiar rich red fruit. “Maybe you will take an apple? We have the best growing in the district!” Apple Bloom boasted with a bit of pride.

“Oh, are you Apple's girly? Yeah, I know that you really have the highest quality products,” the batpony looked around and nibbled an apple at Bloom, who was blushing with praise. “Come on, before I flew to the post. And my advice to you, little scoundrels,” the thestral, in the blink of an eye dried the fruit and licked her fangs with a long tongue, looked at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, “go to visit your friend, play something so that we don't have you all over The eternal one must then seek out and allocate detachments for this. In the open spaces of "Sweet Apple" everything is calm, the place is clearly visible, and it is quite distant from the swamps to the west. Yes, and we also have patrols constantly flying on the border with the forest.”

“Okay! Let's go there!” the foals chanted.

“Well, then I'll get up on the wing...” the night guard grumbled with satisfaction. “See you, the younger generation!” with these words, she soared just as soundlessly, only swaying the grass under her feet, and disappeared somewhere in the side of the market.

“Oh... We didn't even ask her name,” Sweetie Belle suddenly realized. Scootaloo looked at her friend bewildered.

“Who cares? The guard will catch the alien, and she will immediately move back to Canterlot, you will never see her again! That is why we must act now, before alien is caught!”

“What?!” Sweetie stared at her. “But she said that we have nothing to catch in the swamp... We promised!”

“Promises are one thing, Sweetie,” Bloom replied in the tone of a veteran hardened in verbal battles with Applejack, “and the opportunity to establish a connection with the other world... eh, to establish - such a chance is one for life, maybe! Yes! And it can fall out to us, do you believe?”

“Well, no,” the unicorn frowned. “I don’t want to drag myself into the swamps with you. The guardponies will instantly grab us and send us home by force, then you won't be in trouble! Mom and Dad will scold me!”

“Exactly! And so I got a cool plan!” Scootaloo proudly put her hips on her hips, as if imitating her idol with a rainbow mane. “We just need to make sure that there is an adult behind our trip! If we are not alone, we will not be so easily wrapped up.”

“How's that?” Bloom and Sweetie asked in unison, flapping their eyelashes.

“Well... Eh, let's at least ask miss Cheerilee!” suggested Scootaloo. “We’ll ask Cheerilee for a tour of natural history! In the swamp.”

“Are you kidding? She won't do that,” she shook her head. “And now it's summer, in addition, there are no classes.”

“Well, if we gather a group of people who want to... Maybe Zekora then ask? She lives nearby, and constantly goes there for herbs.”

“And what do we need then Miss Cheerilee if we gather a group of people who want to?” Apple Bloom asked innocently. “We will all go there and tell the guards that adults have organized an excursion for us. And they themselves, they say, will come up later.”

Scootaloo jumped happily in place, hugging her friend by the shoulders.

“Thinking what you need, Bloomy!”

“Yep! We, the Apples, are not only able to dig in the ground,” the pony proclaimed importantly. “So who are we going to call?”

“Snips and Snails... They could have been easily convinced,” the pegasus stamped with impatience. “But they will not go into the Everfree, I give a hoof to cut off... for these two Ursa was enough for the eyes.”

“Why think so many girls? Let's move to school, or what, it is not far off at all,” suggested Apple Bloom. “Whom we find on the site, we will invite! And then how it goes.”

“Yay! Who is the last - that curdled oat milk!” instantly took Scootaloo off the bat.

“Girls, you are not serious...” Sweetie Belle moaned dully, putting her hoof to her forehead.

“Hey Scoots, it's not fair!” shrieked, launching into a desperate gallop, Apple Bloom. She screamed, turning her head and spitting from strands of cherry bangs that crawled into her mouth as she ran:

“Keep up, Sweetie! Cutie Mark Crusaders cannot stand aside while all sorts of two-legged strangers destroy our pastry shops! Lets go-o-o...”

And Sweetie Belle ran, despite the fact that, like no one else, she understood the adventurousness of her friends' ventures. They will disappear without her! Sweetie's prudence and restraint hampered the ebullient initiative of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, preventing (at times) a bad situation from turning into an outright disaster. Well, and a fleeting opportunity to get the same badge, so longed for, played an important role in the fact that the unicorn allowed herself to get involved in all sorts of trouble over and over again. For the sake of the marks that the three-year-olds of the trinity had long received, Sweetie was ready to give a chance even to such a crazy idea, how to gather a group for a trip to the swamps where the angry alien settled.

The school building was smart and bright, as if nothing had happened in Ponyville. He usually emitted a special, low hum, a foal hum, never the silent rustle of notebooks and textbooks. From time to time, the ringing of the bell announced the end and beginning of classes, only now it was summer in the yard. But still, the Markers found several ponies on the court: Twist was playing here, with whom Apple Bloom began chatting with pleasure, and Rabi. Unfortunately, the girls flatly refused to get involved in an adventure with an alien. As if apologizing, Twist advised to invite Eroria, who was also eager for adventure - but the pegasus flew away from the site just a couple of minutes before the Markers arrived there. While the foals were discussing on the spinning carousel what to do next, Pipsquick approached them. He was a small, but very lively young pony, and he, too, had not yet received his mark. Scootaloo had hoped that now their team of contactees with strangers would be replenished, but Pip said that his mother would not pat him on the head for such a thing. And yet he volunteered to help the Markers - if not as a full-fledged member of the expedition, then another agitator. Pipsquick stated that he had time before lunch to try to convince someone else to join the girly team.

The next persons that the Markers encountered (and hoped not to encounter at all) were Tiara and Silver Spoon, who left the school and chatted cheerfully down the path to the city. It is a mystery that the two hooligans, who disdained both Miss Cheerilee's lessons and the games on the playground among other children, have forgotten here. They've been bothering the Markers since the day the teacher told the foals in detail about the distinctive marks and their importance in the life of the pony. As far as Sweetie remembered, Tiara was always playing on her own, but after that party, she and Spoon clung to the trinity, as if the Markers owed her family some money. The unicorn did not understand why the other pony should treat someone who had done nothing wrong to her, but the fact remained. Okay, if Tiara was a lonely bore, not willing to put up with ponies, like griffins - but she had a friend! Which shared her hobby for bringing the Markers... Sweetie felt bad even before Diamond Tiara accidentally turned her head, glancing across the site, and noticed the Markers. Her eyes lit up with excitement and anticipation of the upcoming squabble, an unpleasant smile played on her lips.

“Oh, Silver, just lo-o-o-ok,” with her pulling vowels, teasing "you-all-around-don't-stand-and-the-tips-of-my-hooves" sang Tiara in her voice. “Blankflanks showed up again!”

“Really! What have they forgotten here, I wonder?” artistically pressed her hoof to Spoon's lips, feigning genuine surprise. “Shouldn't they be engaged in another stupidity that hit their blank heads like that?”

“What's up with you, Spoon?” Scootaloo snapped, looking defiantly at the inseparable couple. “What have you forgotten here at all?”

“Yep,” Apple Bloom frowned. “Stomp about your business, there is nothing to climb into ours!”

“Look, what important birds!” Tiara snorted. “Have the adults chased you from everywhere, since you are hanging around here, on the edge of Ponyville? Well, I understand them...”

“And do you like Miss Cheerilee's classes so much, since you are ready to drop in to see her even in the summer?” did not remain in debt to Scootaloo, getting more and more inflamed. “Or are you afraid to stay for the second year?”

“What a mess! Dad will never allow this,” the filly turned up her nose. “I have a good, adult reason for being here. Mom and I dropped by to bring some serious things to the attention of the student council! Here they are preparing for the new school year, and they do not suffer from foolishness for days on end, like some. Like this!” 

The muzzle of Diamond Tiara suddenly acquired a sly expression, “Or are they hanging out here for a reason? Silver, remember the sheets the Ponyville Guards handed out?” she turned to her friend. “Don't you think that these are already rather suspicious by their blank flanks?”

“I don’t know,” the pigtailed pony patted her eyes. “The guards wrote that an adult pony who does not have a Cutie Mark is most likely that alien! And these,” she dismissively waved her hoof in the direction of the Markers, “should have received theirs long ago! Maybe we really should report to the guards? What if there are actually three of these eccentric aliens in Ponyville?!”

“Whose cow would bellow, four-eyed!” Apple Bloom frowned. “If anyone is an alien, it is you! You run up like not every old nag will allow itself. These pearls are yours, huge glasses, braids... Be!” the earth pony stuck out her tongue and closed her eyes, showing disgust for "high cuts", so that Scootaloo rolled with laughter. Silver Spoon, not expecting such a rebuff, nervously adjusted her designer glasses.

“What do you know about fashion, mud slut?! Take your words back!” screamed Tiara, standing up for her friend.

“Please stop... Seriously enough!” already firmly called everyone to order Sweetie Belle, fearing trouble that the Markers could call on their heads. While it was only a word Weird skirmishes, everything could manage only by bashing each other's nerves, but it's so easy to go over to mutual insults... So it's not far from a serious fight, and civilized ponies avoid it with all their might! Sweetie had no doubt that the same Scootaloo alone could trim the pampered earth ponies, but this would inevitably entail consequences. Especially if Apple Bloom smashes someone's nose with his trademark, family blow from the back right! There’s no problem: Diamond Tiara’s father did business with the Apples, and he wouldn’t just leave it like that... To Sweetie Belle’s relief, Bloom probably understood this, and so she just snorted in response:

“ Why am I a mud slut at once?” Apple Bloom inquired sarcastically. “And I thought you, too, liked to ride with rabbit ears on the farm! If you stomp past - come in, my sister will always give you a job!”

Tiara's sleek face twisted with poorly contained anger and disgust, and then Sweetie Belle giggled. She thought cheerfully how easily these two ponies got rid of their mines of superiority and aristocracy, as soon as they pressed harder. Maybe it was worth giving them such a rebuff more often, and not trying to prove something there?

“Never again...” Tiara hissed. “So that I once again..!”

Pipsquick, who was so perplexed looking from one group of ponies to another, got up from the seat of the spinner and tried to insert a word or two:

“Girls, maybe you won't be rude to each other, huh? And you, Tiara,” the foal pursed his lips reproachfully, “why bother them? What is it, since they have no marks? I don't have it either... Just think! Sooner or later, everyone will get it.”

“So much time has passed, and they are all flaunting empty sflanks!” calmed down, Silver returned to her caustic tone. “It’s more likely you’ll be elected president of the school, Pip, than these losers get their marks.”

“President?” Pipsquick was surprised. “What is it like?”

“No way,” Diamond Tiara looked down at him, grinning. “Get out of here, shorty. Can't you see - the adults are talking?”

“Adults?” looked around Scootaloo, then indignantly stared at the gray pony:

“Hey! You are not older than us!”

Pip looked at the bully resentfully.

“I may be short in stature,” with reasonableness, unexpected for such a young pony, he said, “but I have an excuse - a genicthread. And here you are, Tiara, of a short mind, once because of your height you laugh at me, and there is no excuse for this.”

Tiara and Spoon opened their mouths, so Sweetie pressed her ears, suspecting that some flying crow was about to be there. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were having fun with might and main - the pegasus happily shook Pip by the shoulders, so that the unfortunate filly's short mane twisted back and forth.

“So them! Know ours!” Laughing, Apple Bloom bounced her hoof on her hind leg.

“Cool you kicked her off, Pip!” echoed her friend Scootaloo. “Listen, what is gen-ic-thre-how-it-there?

“I have no idea!” the foal chuckled. “Dad told me to answer like this if someone starts teasing about growth!”

The hooligans finally digested the florid statement and realized that they were simply being bullied. Nostrils flaring, Diamond Tiara rushed forward toward the carousel.

“Who did you call a fool, brat?!”

“I didn't say!!!” squealed Pipsquick, jumping off the spinner and rushing to the exit, briskly turning over with his short legs. “You said it yourself!”

Yet another void-sided was defended by Scoot - literally. She raised herself up in the seat and ruffled menacingly, fluttering her foal's wings:

“Don't touch him!”

“Bye, Crusaders! Forgive me for not being able to sta-a-a-a...” came from the direction of Pip, fleeing in full spirit. The tiara, which had jumped back from the pegasus who had got into a fighting stance, grunted with displeasure, seeing that the impudent foal had escaped. Then a familiar defiant note emerged in her voice:

“And then what? What are you going to do to me, blank-flanked?”

“I'll dump you in the mud, if you continue in the same spirit. And Bloom will help me,” the pegasus promised gloomily, stamping her hoof on the board. Scootaloo may have had an overly lively character, but like any young pony, she was not in the habit of fighting. 

“And Rainbow Dash will complain about how she gets back,” she added, not so confidently.

“Oh, I'm so-o-o-o scared! Scared by the promises of a pegasus who still can't fly,” Tiara rolled her eyes. “You know, I'm going to ask my dad to hire me a flying carriage. What will you do then? Are you going to jump on the ground and swear, dummy, when I start throwing paper airplanes at you from above? This is all you can do, admit it!”

This was already too much. At the age of Scootaloo, most foals were already flying freely, and the pegasus was tired of waiting for a time when it could soar freely in the sky. Sweetie Belle knew that the indefatigable Scoot was optimistic about her "little problem" - all the more so on the scooter she did such tricks thanks to the wings that not every adult could do - but temporary absence and marks , and the ability to fly left its mark. Doctors said the same thing as adults about the mark: you need to wait, late development of the magic core and a whole bunch of all sorts of abstruse words... The thought of this gave rise to sadness: will they really receive their signs of talent only by old age? Sweetie hoped it wouldn't come to that. One way or another, the mention of the wings only added fuel to the fire: the pegasus jumped off the carousel, spinning it around its axis. The earth pony's words almost infuriated her.

“Watch your tongue, oiled chicken,” the pegasus growled, head down threateningly and ears flattened. “It hurts you have a long one!”

“Is this a Tiara? Ha!” Silver laughed. The pony rose to her hind legs, flapping her elbows like wings, and mimicking the clucking of a brood hen. “You can't fly here, actually! Chicken is not a bird, Scootaloo is not a pegasus! Ko-ko-ko!”

“Oh, you...” Scootaloo jumped, but the unicorn managed to stop her.

“Scoots, don't!” Sweetie Belle pleaded as she jumped off the merry-go-round and stood in front of the pegasus, blocking her path. “Please! They're not worth it!”

“Right!” Spoon chuckled. Tiara looked at this action with an indicative bored, arrogant look. “Stay where you are, blankflank chicken!”

“Rotten hay!” cursed Scootaloo, grilling her opponents with an angry look. “Sweetie, I have to endure this too?!”

“Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Stop it immediately!” Suddenly there was a displeased female voice.

Cheerilee appeared at the school's doorstep with a clearly indignant expression on her face, and Sweetie Belle breathed a sigh of relief. Their teacher was a very kind pony, the very pony after mom, dad and sister (although no one could get away from her homework yet). According to Sweetie, she would have made a great match for Apple Bloom's older brother: the soft pink airy mane that made the pony look like a cherry cream pie was very much combined with the burgundy fur of the Big Mac. And she had the most Apple's character... Cheerilee's talent did not dazzle other ponies with sudden insights, like that of the same Rainbow Dash, but found expression in long years of calm and conscientious work. What a shame that the idea of ​​the Crusaders with the elixir failed and did not give any changes in the personal life of their beloved teacher! Well, at least Sweetie hadn't heard of Apple Bloom's about anything like that.

“Tiara... Silver," Miss Cheerilee said reproachfully. “I already told you that the lack of marks among peers does not make them worse? And teasing Scootaloo for not flying yet... Aren't you ashamed?”

“But we haven't told a word of untruth!” Diamond Tiara answered innocently, flapping her eyelashes, as if not understanding why she was being reprimanded. “Chickens really do not fly! Although, even they fly, albeit badly at all... You yourself told us in natural history!”

“Yes! It's not our fault that these ponies haven't received their marks yet!” Spoon echoed her.

“Still, decent ponies don't behave like that! And even more so they do not express their opinion about others in such a rude form,” the class teacher remained adamant. “I want you to immediately apologize to the girls.”

“Miss Cheerilee, since when is it customary to apologize for the truth?” someone's displeased voice was heard behind her, and, to Sweetie's surprise, on the face of always calm and friendly Cheerilee flashed a shadow of irritation.

“With all due respect, Mrs. Rich, my job is to develop the qualities of all of my students,” the cherry pony said dryly, turning to face the speaker. “It is problematic when some of them are so... revealingly showing their disdain for other students. No one benefits from an unhealthy classroom environment.”

“I don't see a problem here, except that some of Tiara's classmates are forgetting their place,” something, and the respect in the voice of the mare who followed Cheerilee out of school didn't hurt much.

The stranger was beautifully dressed - it was Sweetie Belle, known by her sister to cutting-edge Canterlot fashion, had to admit. She was probably one of those ponies who considered themselves to be of the high class - who wore clothes not only for the sake of officialdom, but also to constantly stand out from the rest. This "Mrs. Rich" wore a gold choker and a matching crystal belt that fitted an aqua turquoise blouse to lighten her deep purple hair. The mare's mane and tail curled in long curls, which she shook, coldly looking at the frowning trio:

“So that I don't see any more of these barbaric... threatening gestures towards Tiara and Silver! Otherwise, I'll take action,” she said in a tone of disagreement, looking at Scootaloo. “As for you, Cheerilee — I myself know how to raise my daughter. Your job is to put into her bright head the few knowledge that you are able to give her before entering college,” the expression of Rich's face in direct text Om said that she longs for an early move with her daughter somewhere far away from Ponyville and the plebeians who inhabit it. “I’ll take care of the rest, including her ideas about our society.”

“Mrs. Rich, do you think it's normal that...”

“I hope we understood each other,” as if not having heard, the pink mare left the last word. “And if I don’t wait any longer for unfounded accusations against my daughter from her own teacher, it will be just wonderful.” 

Throwing these scathing words into Cheerilee’s face, she quietly looked at giggling bullies, “Diamond Tiara, I'm going to spend the rest,” this time a regretful glance at the school building, “of my priceless spa day. You can go for a walk with your friend, but be sure to have lunch at the restaurant. By all means until three o'clock! At your age, you should eat healthy, high quality food, not pasture. And do not try to opt for that eatery again! What would grandfather think if he saw you with such... such filling?!”

“Okay, Mom,” the filly muttered. Sweetie noticed that as soon as Mrs. Rich turned her close attention to her, Tiara seemed to be replaced. Her eyes fearfully ran from side to side, either looking away, or looking around in the hope that no one would witness the shameful scene. When the mother moved away from the school area, Tiara, exhaling with relief, screamed with Spoon "to be stricter with Aloe and Lotus, for they have been performing their duties very badly lately," to which the mare nodded gravely. A couple of seconds later, when the eldest Rich disappeared behind the gate, the friends rushed, laughing, to the other end of the site. Scared Twist, that she preferred to get out of the area on the spot, good-bye, they earned another disapproving glance from Cheerilee.

“What a fruit is this Mrs. Rich,” muttered Scootaloo under her breath. “Well, now it's clear where Tiara picked up all this foolishness.”

“Yep,” Apple Bloom looked sullenly after the pink haired woman. “Her Dad, she still seemed to be nothing like when we had... He is still a chuck-maker, but keeping his mouth shut was enough tact. And here, in general, discord, understand that...”

“Girls...” the teacher approached them with a guilty expression on her face.

“We weren't going to disturb you, Miss Cheerilee, really!” Sweetie Belle obeyed. “It's just that these nasty ponies are always bothering us!”

“Girls, I'm not angry at all. To tell the truth,” the cool pony smiled sadly, “I must apologize to you.”

“Apologize?!” the Crusaders were surprised in chorus. “For what?”

“Spoiled Rich is the head of the student council... and a very wealthy pony, too. So I have very little authority in her eyes or in her daughter's eyes,” Cheerilee sighed. “Unfortunately, girls, it is not in my power to influence the current situation. There is not even much to find fault with, so that Tiara and Spoon are transferred to another class - they are at the very least studying, and their personal teachers are pulling them out,” looking around, Cheerilee lowered her voice. “I can only advise you not to start the fight first, otherwise everything may turn out... You do not want public censure, girls, right? But if they were the first to use force, immediately grab the ponies that were nearby and run to the mayor's office to testify! Ponies like Tiara are afraid of publicity, and next time she will think a hundred times before pestering you.”

“That's the point! These two unfortunate cowards will never be the first to jump into a fight!” indignantly jumped on the spot Scoots, chirping her wings. “They know that I’m going to rattle their polished faces like a nut even without wings!”

Cheerilee smiled affectionately and stroked the pegasus's head, ruffling its swirls.

“Don't be upset, Scootie, and don't listen to tiara's stupidity,” she added. “You’re still flying around, so you’ll get disgusted and miss the days in Ponyville, when flying was a dream, not a duty!”

“Na-a-ah, I'm not Fluttershy, learning to fly, and then stomp all my life on foot...” giggled Scootaloo, leaning on the hoof of her beloved teacher. “I’m not complaining, Miss Cheerilee! I'm just tired of waiting. Would rather!”

“Next year, we’ll go on an excursion to Cloudsdale in class,” Cherily promised solemnly. “We’ll put on you all the appropriate spells - and fly from cloud to clouds even all day. And do not worry about the opening of the magic core, occasionally you can afford it.”

“Oh, I've been there a couple of times with my mom!” Scootaloo exclaimed, turning to the Markers in joyful excitement. “It's very cool there! You will definitely like it, girls!”

“Miss Cheerilee, and we're here, you know, about the excursion came,” began Apple Bloom, innocently (and not at all suspicious) looking at the teacher. “Tell us, can you hold an extraordinary, in natur…”

Her words were drowned out by the whistle of the wind, so that the foals turned away so that the air stream would not hit them in the face. Sweetie even at that moment it seemed that under the carousel, on which they had recently been sitting, something large was stirring, but the unicorn attributed it to the greenery that fluttered in the wind. When the foals squinted at Cheerilee again, next to her was a pegasus in sunguard armor and a saddle bag containing something massive.

“Miss?” the guard asked politely. “Good day with you. Tell me, are you one of the ponies who work at the school here? On approach, I saw you leaving the building.”

“Y-yes, I'm Cheerilee. I teach here...” replied the earth pony, a little confused by the appearance of a messenger from the diarchy. “What's the matter, sire? Something happened?” asked pony. “Everything was in order in our establishment after yesterday. So, we are slowly preparing for the new academic year...”

"Very good," the guard nodded. “Are there other teachers in the school now? Other ponies in general?”

"Only Betsy besides me, and a couple of support staff," Cheerilee mused. “Also our editor-in-chief with an assistant. If you have something urgent for a particular pony, you can leave it with me, I will pass it on!” She looked at the Pegasus saddlebag with understanding.

“You’ll be good too, Miss Cheerilee,” the guard easily agreed. “I have an assignment for the school from Her Grace... Important enough. May I ask you to speak in private, maybe in your classroom or in the teacher's room? And then I look,” Pegasus grinned, “here someone who is overly curious is warming his ears. You don't need to look at me like that, guys,” Pegasus frowned. “You will know too much - you will grow old soon.”

“So maybe we want to become adults as soon as possible!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “At the same time we will get our marks!”

“Girls, girls!” Cheerilee caught herself. “Go for a walk or swim, otherwise classes will begin soon. See, a messenger flew to us from the princesses themselves? This is the business of the school, there is no need to get into it with all four... If it is something for everyone, I will definitely tell you.”

“But Miss Cheerilee-e-e-e...” put up sad faces of the Crusaders, eyes fixed on the package that the guard carried.

“No «buts»! Go ahead and go about your business, my little ponies!” Cheerilee nodded and turned toward the porch, signaling that the conversation was over. “Please follow me, sire...”

The teacher went inside to talk to the guard in private - well, or by calling Miss Betsy, who taught the older foals. Scootaloo took offense for the sake of appearance, but then obediently walked away from the school building. Hearing about what the guards are talking openly is one thing, but here it really was the case of the all-holdings of Equestria, there is no time for jokes...

“Eh-eh, again adults are secretive with their secrets!” Scoot sighed. “If only once we were given something to participate in!”

“Well, doesn't it seem so interesting?” suggested Apple Bloom. “The princesses rule Equestria, they fiddle with papers every day. Maybe they just wanted to paint the school's participation in the upcoming harvest parade? Or some other paperwork.”

“Yeah, and have you equipped your own guard for this?”the pegasus squinted. “Nah, Crusaders, I can smell a secret secret here! And I think we should debunk this secret somehow! Are you with us, Sweetie?” noticing that the unicorn looks at one point and does not react to her friend's initiative, Scootaloo waved in front of her face:

“Hey! Ponyville is calling Sweetie Belle! How can you hear?”

“What’s up, Sweetie?” the earth pony was surprised, turning in the same direction.

“Ah, nevermind,” the unicorn said thoughtfully, shoving Scootaloo aside and still staring at the carousel. “There was something under the spinner... It seemed, probably.”

“Oh yeah?” Apple Bloom narrowed her left eye and lowered her head, peering under the boardwalk with seats. “There’s nothing there, Sweetie. There is only one earth, but the grass is yellow.”

“So what do we do now?” Scootaloo scratched her scruff. “We did not invite anyone to our team. And if we offer each of our school, go from house to house and ask, the evening will come...”

“What, what? What is it, blank flanks? Did you ever want to make new friends for yourself, but no one wanted to hang out with you?”

Diamond Tiara couldn't resist making her comeback as nasty as possible.

“Not again...” moaned Scootaloo, painfully covering her eyes.

"Let's get out of here, girls," Sweetie moved first, and the Markers followed her. With a quick step, so that their retreat did not look like a panicky flight, they went to the exit from the platform, but Tiara and Spoon were faster.

“Really! Who wants to be friends with losers like you?” assented Silver. Together with a friend, they circled around the huddled Crusaders, like lava piranhas, cutting off the path through the gate.

“Probably, throughout Equestria, no one tried to get tags so many times... and never got it!” Tiara chuckled. “Your company will definitely be included in the history textbooks!”

“Another word, and I...” Scootaloo began threateningly, but a pony with an ornament in her bangs interrupted her:

“What? Well, what are you going to do?” snorted Diamond Tiara. “You never even have your parents at home, so that you have someone to stand up for you! Are they really so disappointed in you that they prefer to go away, just not to see their daughter?”

“Do you have any parents at all, chicken?” Spoon echoed her. “I bet you’re making these stories up about them!”

-“'m not inventing anything, they just left for another trip! And you will talk badly about them - it will not seem a little!!!” screamed Scootaloo, trembling with indignation and resentment. Sweetie Belle had a lump in her throat - she knew that Scoots was, albeit very brave, but a small filly, and such words hurt her to tears. The unicorn felt that a little more, and she herself would cry out of bitterness for her friend.

“With such sma-a-a-all wings, I would behave more modestly, unpegasus,” Tiara said instructively. “My family... My complete family will always support if I...”

“Girls...” with an unreadable expression on her face, Apple Bloom was looking somewhere in the direction of the school. “Wait a minute! Look...”

“P-please...” Sweetie Belle started swallowing, but then, breaking loose, shouted right in Tiara's face:

“Please stop! We'll just... We'll just leave and won't bother anyone!”

“And you, Sweetie Belle?” instantly switched to a new victim pink pony. “How does it feel to have such a famous sister mean nothing? You're a unicorn, so why can't you do any of those unicorn tricks of yours? What can you do? Burn breakfast? What fun it will be for the whole of Ponyville, if you get such a mark!”

Tears welled up in Sweetie's eyes, and she hid her face under the curls of her mane, not wanting those two nasty ponies to notice her weakness. Apple Bloom, understanding everything perfectly, turned around and angrily began to frequent, hugging her friend:

“Don't you dare say that! Sweetie Belle is very nice pony!!!” the earth pony barked. “And talented! She sings great, here! You can even say a word about her - you will deal with me!”

“ Empty words, just like your flanks!” Tiara giggled happily. “Blankers! Blankers! Blankers! You will never get such beautiful tags as we have!” she put on display her croup.

“Listen, you...” Apple Bloom looked at the school again, then, bulging her eyes, began to look around nervously, which earned incomprehensible glances from the other two Markers. “This is not the place now, there...”

Diamond Tiara, along with Silver, began to sing one of the songs of her own invention, which she loved to bring the Markers, but Sweetie no longer listened. Apple Bloom's strange behavior made Sweetie's heart pound faster - she had a sticky feeling that the troubles she had been trying to avoid all morning had finally caught up with the three. While Scootaloo snapped listlessly at the singing ponies, Sweetie also looked around the area - but everything was calm.

“Bloom?” raised eyes wet from tears to the friend Sweetie. “What happened?”

“Bump, bump!” not wanting to hear anything, Tiara and Spoon pulled on their favorite teaser in chorus. “Sugar-lump, rump!”

The earth ponies once again demonstrated the envy of the Markers by throwing up their flanks, and Sweetie could not understand why the site suddenly seemed so frightening to her. It seems that all the same, the most common constructions for games peeped out of the grass. The meadow outside the fence, leading to the western hills and overgrown with low bushes, also remained calm. The ropes intricately wrapped around the climbing net, the swing creaked, overgrown with moss at the base, the slide stood, the poles, the carousel-twirl slowly turned back and forth...

”Diamond Tiara! Silver Spoon! Stop it immediately!” someone's very angry voice suddenly rumbled over the platform.

The foals jumped in surprise. Apple Bloom flattened her ears; she blinked fearfully, pressing herself against Sweetie. Tiara, on the other hand, was not so easy to infuriate, if it did not concern mutual insults. Turning to the school, she said in an extremely displeased tone:

“Miss Cheerilee, didn't you hear what my mom told you about...” Diamond Tiara stopped short when she saw that none of the teachers were in sight. As for Silver, she was scared to death. The beautiful gray fur on Spoon's face had taken on a kind of pale greenish tint, and the ears cut the air.

“Tiara,” she whispered hotly, running up to her friend, “let's get out of here immediately!”

“Why is that?! Just because some adult said...”

“Haven't you heard about yesterday morning?!” Silver looked around in panic, grabbed her friend, who squeaked in protest, and dragged her into the city. “Mom told me how at the market... shu-shu-shu...” that there she whispered in Tiara's ear, it was already impossible to hear. But, probably, the arguments turned out to be worthwhile, since the Diamond Tiara, already on their own, rushed after Spoon at full speed, leaving the Crusaders wonder what it was now.

“Who said that?” whispered Scootaloo. “Like Miss Cheerilee, like she’s not.”

“It seems to me that the sound did not come from school. From somewhere with...” Sweetie began, wiping her tears with her hoof and peering into the tall grass until her eyes hurt, but then Apple Bloom squealed:

“Here it is! This is it again!!!”

“Where?!” Scootaloo jumped up. “What were you mumbling about?”

“That's what I was trying to say!” blurted out the earth pony, pointing her hoof somewhere in the direction of the school. “Here it is, running again!!!”

Something big and dark chimed in the grass from the school, briskly fingering with its paws, dragging a black-gray-red tail behind it. The creature flew under the merry-go-round, on which the Marksmen discussed their affairs until recently - and disappeared, as if it had never existed!

“Horse apples!” Scootaloo swore from fright. “Girls, did you see that?!”

“I saw, I saw!!!” squeaked Apple Bloom.

“No, did you see that, Bloom?!”

“Girls... What is it?” Sweetie asked fearfully. “Isn't it time for us to run away?!”

“What other chirping, Sweetie?” Scoots was indignant. “When is there... this! What is this, by the way? No, seriously?”

“I told you - I saw him on the window! It got out of school!” explained Apple Bloom, staring at the spinner, under which the tailed creature disappeared. “I never saw such insects in Ponyville! It opened the shutters and got out!”

“So is this one of the Everfree?” surprised Scootaloo. Her wings were erect, showing the highest degree of arousal (and willingness immediately take to her heels).

“What has it forgotten at school? And Miss Cheerilee, and the guard?” Sweetie whispered. The bitterness of Tiara's offense slowly receded in front of curiosity and a bit of fear. “Did they even see it?”

“Nah, Granny Smith has never seen such people in her lifetime, but she has been to the Everfree so many times, ennobling the volt-apple trees...” Apple Bloom nervously fiddled with the bow.” Well I say those - only him and saw how it jumped off the windowsill and disappeared in the grass! By itself - a purely gray spider, big, only with four legs and a tail!”

Sweetie Belle looked at her incredulously.

“Apple Bloom, Miss Cheerilee told us... Spiders have eight legs, like an eye! And if it has a tail and it is a scorpion, then where are the claws?”

“Don't bother me about my feet, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom giggled. “Yesterday, while I was digging in the attic, I disturbed a bunch of spiders. How they fired me! So I remember perfectly how they look. And I learned to count even before school with my mother, even though I grew up on a farm,” the pony noted with pride.

“Could this be an entirely magical creature?” suggested Scootaloo. “Do you remember those "clowns" about which Twilight spoke? We also offered her help in calculations...”

“True, we did not understand anything,” Apple Bloom sighed, not forgetting to follow the carousel. Slowly she walked in a circle, looking at the structure from other sides.

“Or is it one of the new creatures of the forest,” Sweetie muttered. At the thought that the trinity might be alone with such, the unicorn felt a desire to nervously bite a hoof, but she pulled herself up. A true lady would never do that!

“Or is it just a spider. But it differs from ours, because he... uh-uh...” thought Scootaloo. Then the pegasus looked dazedly at her friends, who responded in kind.

”... otherworldly!” The Cutie Mark Crusaders came to this idea almost simultaneously, all three of them.

This thought captured the foals' senses with a pleasant sensation of mystery. Could it be that what they longed to see, all this time, was spinning somewhere nearby, as soon as the hoof was stretched out? And there is no need to go to this terrible forest, where everything goes so wrong, as usual!

“Girls, do you think this is the alien?” Sweetie asked quietly.

“He's another,” just as quietly dismissed her assumption earth pony. “Granny and AJ saw him. Sisters generally said that he is huge, that your timberwolf. She also told me not to approach him on occasion... Girls, you won't tell her, will you?” Pleadingly looked at her friends Apple Bloom, and they hastened to assure her that everything will remain strictly between the Marks Seekers.

“I'm with you girls,” Sweetie sniffed.

“You can count on us,” Scootaloo nodded importantly. “But still, if this is not the same stranger who perpetrated the pogrom in the "Sugar Corner"... Then what? He, too, was dragged to Equus by Twilight's spell, or what?”

“I don’t know,” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Maybe it's his pet?”

“Are you serious? Why should other worlds keep an insect in their pets discord?!” Scootaloo laughed. “Bloom, it's not Winona for you, spiders are willful creatures!”

“Actually, Fluttershy is making friends with several...”

“So then Fluttershy!”

While the two girls were arguing, Sweetie finally realized what was bothering her. Not even a quiet grunt, which manifested itself as soon as the alien spider disappeared into the earth under the carousel, but the earth itself. It was too... earthly? Sweetie could not express in words why, concentrating on this layer of soil in the shadow of the circle, she began to seem so wrong to her. And when a red fire lit up among the rare blades of grass, staring straight at her, Sweetie Belle whispered:

“Girls... He's here.”

“Is it an alien?!” Scootaloo was immediately alarmed. “And where is "here"?”

“This isn't ground.” Sweetie nodded toward the carousel. “He pretends like changeling does... Just don't play a pony. And the abuse at Tiara came from somewhere... from there.”

“Is it true?” Apple Bloom asked in a slightly hoarse voice. “He was sitting here all this time?!”

"I think so," Sweetie whispered. “He repeated for Miss Cheerilee... Probably should have heard her. Do you know how a magpie can copy sounds?”

“Well, then...” without thinking twice, Apple Bloom took another apple out of the saddle bag and, slowly stepping on the grass, carefully began to approach the spinner.

“Stop!” the unicorn went into quiet panic. “Stop, Bloomy! Maybe the adults should be called first? Where are you going?!”

“Why pull something?” the earth pony was surprised.” We, without any adults, were going to establish relations with a stranger! Make friends with him, that's a lot. So I will help, since you are a little coward,” Apple Bloom giggled.

“I'm not afraid at all!” Sweetie squeaked, offended. Of course, she was a little scared, well, just a little! But still not enough to look away from Apple Bloom, who came close to the carousel and left the apple on the grass.

"Hey," Apple Bloom called the shadow uncertainly, stepping back. “Thank you for driving these bad ponies away!”

Nothing happened for about a minute, and Sweetie decided that she was just imagining it all. The unicorn was even ready for the jokes of friends, but suddenly that very quiet grunt resumed. Before the eyes of the foals holding their breath, a paw appeared right from the ground - gray, long and skinny. She pulled and pulled from under the merry-go-round, so it seemed that there would be no end to her. The paw was crowned with a brush with long knobby fingers, which really made it look like an outlandish spider, and short blunt claws, like Spike's. Opening her fingers like a midnight flower her petals, she grabbed the apple brush and dragged it back into the shadow, again becoming an inconspicuous handful of earth.

“Look, he took...” Apple Bloom breathed out with some satisfaction. Scootaloo looked up at her fellow-thinkers, smiling happily and dazedly, and Sweetie smiled shyly back. It seemed that the pegasus was about to squeal with delight. Then a striking sound was heard to the foals' ears, and the paw again appeared to the Celestine light. Only this time he returned the apple... from which a quarter had been neatly cut. The alien pushed the fruit towards the Crusaders with a claw, and even Sweetie could not contain her emotions.

“Wow!” gasped the unicorn. “You tamed him, Bloomy!”

“That! is! so! cool!!!” danced on the spot Scootaloo, hugging the earth pony.

“And you were afraid, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom laughed happily. “You can trust the one who didn’t give up our apple, I’m telling them for sure! Moreover, he is familiar with the rules of good manners, he took only his share! What kind of monster is he from the Everfree after that?”

“Okay, okay, I admit! So, Crusaders, we must think quickly!” Sweetie Belle hastened. “What should I say? Shall we invite him to the clubhouse? But we have an eerie mess for a red carpet there! If Mr. Alien agreed to wait...”

"Mister alien" to wait until the passions subside, resolutely refused. With a screeching noise and the sound of crumbling earth, he jumped out from under the merry-go-round, so that the foals squealed, clutching each other. However, the stranger threw himself in a completely different direction, to the fence - the filly only saw how something shapeless, black and gray, covered with rags the color of the same earth, galloped away, as if flying over the grass. Already on the move, it began to change color, starting to acquire the colors of grass and trees, getting lost against the background of the meadow with its color, reminiscent of a patchwork quilt... The stranger dived into the bushes with a crash - and he was like that.

“Crusaders, in a pursuit!!!” Scoot blurted out, rushing forward, but Sweetie, at the cost of incredible efforts, reined in a nimble friend, catching her by the tail.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” the pegasus was indignant. “I would have caught him, no doubt|!”

“You don’t have a scooter,” Sweetie Belle whispered, glancing sideways at the school building. There, as if someone heard their cries... “And he runs in the field, and not along the road!”

“But... but!”

“Scoots, we'll find him later, exactly as they say,” Apple Bloom muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “And now - smile and wave! Someone is coming! We smile, I say!”

Miss Cheerilee appeared on the porch with a familiar Pegasus. The guard's sling was now empty. Fortunately, the guardsman looked at the foals, smiling from ear to ear and taking on the most innocent look they were capable of, with curiosity, not suspicion. The cherry pony cleared her throat.

“Girls! Well, what is that din and shouts again?” Cheerilee looked at them reproachfully. “You make us look bad in front of the royal court!”

“Sorry! We won't be anymore!” Sweetie murmured, flapping her eyelashes. “We just played...”

“Trivia, Miss Cheerilee,” the pegasus nodded to her. “Good sun and fair wind to you,” having risen into the air, the guardsman safely departed to the city hall, or where he was still flying from. The target-seekers were left alone with the teacher, who was looking at them suspiciously, who knew the whole three too well. Cheerilee scanned the landing, as if to make sure it hadn't been destroyed by another foal trick...

“Tiara and Spoon have escaped! And we just... Played!” Sweetie chirped to distract her attention. “Am I right, girls?

“Yes! We were definitely not trying to get our cutie marks by meeting with-UM!” Apple Bloom's hoof, covering Scootaloo's mouth, did not allow her to finish the phrase.

Finally, the secret weapon of the Crusaders, their innocent stares, effective (in their by no means humble opinion) no less than Fluttershy's gaze, worked - Cheerilee shook her head and, saying goodbye to the foals, went back to school. The grief contactees breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sisters of mercy, it seems, no one noticed anything!” Apple Bloom wiped sweat off her forehead.

“Yes! I already thought - everyone, they have sailed, they will be taken to their parents now!” Sweetie chuckled.

“But they didn't come!”

“Yes! And this is awesome!” Scootaloo laughed. “But all the same,” the filly became sad, looking reproachfully at Sweetie, “why didn't you let me gallop away after the stranger? I might have found him on a fresh trail...”

“Scootaloo, are you able to find the same changeling in Ponyville?” Sweetie covered her smile with her hoof.

“Maybe I can!” the pegasus promised with a challenge.

“No, girls, our guest changes his skin so that pegasus vision is not your assistant here,” Apple Bloom thought. “Here Winona is needed. Maybe she can sniff out something.”

“Will she agree?”

“Probably. She never minds a stretch, and mah sister is gone,”Apple Bloom rubbed her forehead as if remembering something important, then added apologetically:

“But then AJ will certainly learn everything from her...”

“So maybe we don't need to look for the alien ourselves anymore?”

“How is it "not to search"?” friends looked at Sweetie Belle in surprise. She deigned to explain in a satisfied tone:

“Firstly, we already wanted the stranger to pay attention to us and come to us. Secondly, he went to the contact himself!” Sweetie Belle nodded at the carousel. “For us in front of Tiara and Spoon stood up? Joined! And from the rest of the ponies, he only did what he ran away! And he took your apple, Bloomy!”

“Do you think he chose us to meet ponies?!” gasped Scootaloo.

“I don't know!” the unicorn smiled cheerfully. “But I think he’ll come himself if he wants to. He can become almost invisible. If he hadn't sworn at Tiara, we wouldn't have noticed him, maybe!”

“So,” Apple Bloom decided, “well, then I won't ask Winona for now. In general, girls, it’s definitely shining at noon,” the earth pony, squinting, looked up, where the sun was sending summer warmth to the whole sky. “Let's go to the clubhouse, we'll discuss what to do there! Without extra ears and these pests,” Apple Bloom looked around, as if fearing that the bully might return. “At the same time, we'll have a bite to eat with what the kitchen has.”

“I'm in!” Sweetie exclaimed.

“Me too! Come on! Come on!” Scootaloo echoed her. “Cutie Mark Crusaders - go ahead!”

Apple Bloom, proud of her sister’s bit of solidity, led their small group to the farm. The country road wound past the pine trees, past the gnarled old oaks and ash trees. These trees probably knew to the very first inhabitants of Ponyville, including the Apple family. But now, among the crowns, dressed in rust-colored bark and waving shaggy foliage, grumbled like an old man in the wind, young, cheerful apple trees, hung with ripe fruits, were full of flowers. As the Marksmen entered the thick of the trees, a view of the farm itself opened up. It was good here - maybe not like in my sister's boutique, but attractive in its own way. Sweetie Belle, getting off the road, galloped merrily to the gate on the green carpet, pleasantly springy under her hooves. And the air here was special in its own way - the Apple Bloom house always smelled pleasantly of fruits, fragrant hay and pastries... It's a pity that the Markers had to hurry up, busy with their next idea, which threatened to turn the Ponyville residents' idea of ​​a guest who flew to them from another the world! Sweetie Belle would love to just play on the farm with Winona and her friends. But sometime next time...

However, the foals did not manage to get off so easily by jumping into the kitchen. They passed a thoughtful test by Big Mac, who made sure that the filly from Ponyville came safe and sound, and answered a couple of tricky questions, which the usually laconic big guy was generous with. It's good that Sister Apple Bloom set sail - she would have seen us in an instant, mentally thanked Sweetie's heaven when Macintosh expressed his approval with his "Agas" and let the Markers go home. Then they were approached by a couple of filly from the numerous relatives of the Apples, who were currently visiting the farm. Apple Bloom introduced them as Flitter and Bumpkin - they arrived in Ponyville to select some rare variety for the sweets they were producing. Bloom said that this was not all the guests - her cousin Babs from Mainhattan itself was to arrive very soon, and after the harvest, all Apple family were supposed to visit the farm this year with their visit. Giggling at the danger of the "apple invasion" and its consequences for the town, the foals arrived at the kitchen, and there...

“Apple Bloom, you're back, my dear! Hello Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, hello dears!” Mrs. Smith greeted them.

And no matter how the Crusaders protested, they had to sit down to dinner. Soup-puree with thistle and tomatoes, hot vegetable salad, traditional apple pie for dessert - it all tasted excellent, but the foals sat on pins and needles, waiting for all three dishes to be served and it would be possible to rush headlong into the clubhouse. And Granny Apple Bloom was in no hurry - she regaled them, as always, cordially and at times drove them into a stupor with her eccentricities. Well, at least the elderly mare today did not speak in poetic half-hints, like the sphinx from the sultry sands of Somnambula, and did not immerse herself in the memories of her youth and all kinds of stories, of which she knew a great many. Perhaps, as Applebloom argued, during the collection of volt apples, each phrase of the old woman had its own context, in which even her craziest dictum could mean something, but it was very difficult to figure it out. Apple Bloom just got a taste of it, as usual she began to insert her comments and ask Granny Smith about some details, ignoring the pleading looks of her friends to silently agree with everything - and this took the mare to some completely unimaginable horizons of thought, again postponing dessert. As a result, Mrs. Smith began to complain about the timberwolves, which "have already become so insolent that they stood up on their hind legs and their garden accessories are stolen from honest farmers, yes!"

“Granny, AJ told you - not a wolf, it was an alien!” giggled Apple Bloom. “Twilight Sparkle threw it to us in Ponyville. He is alive and intelligent, just scares by us, like the creature of the Eternal!”

“Yep”,  Maki agreed gravely.

“Alien? A fugitive foreigner or what? So that's why bats fly over the farm often!” Granny Smith shook her head. “They'll make it up too! And if he is alive, why doesn't he eat normally? Skin and bones alone, like your pieces of wood, will not be confused for long! Oh, my vision is not the same...”

“Your eyesight is normal, Granny!” laughing, cheered the old mare Apple Bloom.

They barely waited for Mrs. Smith to serve her signature pie, grabbed a piece, thanked the Apples for their hospitality and, having received permission to leave the feast, rushed out, almost pushing each other out the door. Apple Bloom was the first to screw out of the farm, skillfully bypassing the beds and jumping over the fences - the long practice affected... The way to the Markers' house did not take much time, especially if Winona, who loves jogging, joined the foals. The mares with difficulty untied themselves from the dog fawning towards them - but in the end Winona, yawning, turned around and ran towards the farm. Sweetie thought that, now far from the other ponies, she might one day be frightened by a strange stranger who was creeping somewhere nearby, hiding among the trees. But today, the unicorn, perhaps, would have stayed for the night with her friends without any hesitation - and this is at the very border with the Ever-Wild! It seemed to her that in the twilight not a monster would wander, but another friend... Not represented in faces, but already showing a desire to make friends. And that was great! Asking if she could stay, Sweetie squealed happily when Apple Bloom nodded graciously - Flitter was going to town anyway, so she could send a note to the unicorn's parents that their daughter was under reliable protection.

“So, Crusaders,” Scootaloo solemnly proclaimed, climbing onto the veranda of their clubhouse and looking down at her friends, “I think we all agree here that the stranger has earned our trust and will not go to destroy Manehattan, as in the plot "Invasion of the Quadropods to Maretropolis "! Therefore, I vote not to tell adults about him for anything, and to make contact on my own!”

“Agree!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

“Me too! Me too!” Sweetie Belle supported them happily. Twilight Sparkle would probably have done a lot better than they, the students of the Ponyville school - in all of Canterlot, as the unicorn heard, there was no other such talented expert in magic and the study of the unknown. Everyone knew that - a protégé of the very Celestia Twilight did not become for a beautiful mane (and she was very beautiful, although not the same as Rarity's!). HOh, how she still wanted to grab a bit of glory herself - and get a cutiemark, for sure this time! Scootaloo jubilantly jumped into the air and, fluttering her wings, sank down next to her friends:

“Unanimously!” she threw her hoof into the air, and the filly, in a single impulse, repeated her gesture. “Resolved! CUTIE-MARK-CRUSADERS-WITH-ALIEN-CONTACTORS, YA--

“QUIET!” suddenly barked Apple Bloom, her eyes fixed on a tree nearby. Something was rustling in its crown, probably a large bird.

“There's no one here but us, Bloom!’ justifyingly, muttered Scootaloo, starting to look around fearfully. “Who will hear?”

“Quiet, I say! Look...”

A huge tailed spider, the same one that Apple Bloom had spotted for the first time, jumped down from the tree and went to the clubhouse of the Crusaders, briskly fingering its knobby legs. As he approached, Sweetie Belle felt uneasy - she finally realized that the alien's "pet" looked exactly like his paw. Was he able to run his limbs by themselves?! Sweetie had never heard of such magic... It looked eerie in her eyes now, but curiosity overcame the hidden fear of injury. Maybe it's like those super secret spells that you can surely find in the granaries of Canterlot's most famous wizards? Well, then the stranger should have been treated with all politeness, like nobility, probably... In the eyes of Scootaloo, Sweetie did not see fear at all - there was only excitement there, which was not extinguished even by the fact that the creature was even larger near it: it would easily grasp its face foal, spreading out these processes.

“Sweetie, get the net here!” whispered the pegasus, but Apple Bloom nipped her idea in the bud.

“Wait, Scoots,” she said, watching with interest the creature that seemed to emerge from the thickets of the Eternal Forest, but did not show the slightest bit of aggression. “Let's see what it will do.”

The spider ran up and stopped, staring with a red dot between its forelegs (fingers?! Brrr...) at the Crusaders. Then, as if having made some decision, he swayed from side to side and, pushing off with his tail like a snake, two leaps up the stairs. Scratching the tree with its claws, the creature climbed the wall of the house and climbed through the second-floor window, purring like a big, stupid cat. The foals looked at each other in bewilderment:

“Did he come to visit us like?” clarified Scootaloo. “If only for the sake of decency he greeted or something!”

"It's not the alien himself..." Sweetie Belle said in confusion. “We think so, don't we?”

They went, opening the door, into a room that was bright and comfortable, but found no one - everything was exactly as Sweetie remembered from the last meeting of the Markers. But no... Many of the drawers were half open, their contents lying on the floor, and a pile of drawing sheets had collapsed behind the cupboard. Did they already have this «spider»? But where is his master?

“Looks like your offer to wait a bit out of date, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom's excited voice came to her ears. “Right now we will meet.”

The Earth Pony pointed to the stairs that led to the attic floor. There, on the step, lay a quarter of an apple. Scootaloo sniffed the slice and, chuckling, asked:

“Maybe it's some other apple? Maybe Big Mac is joking like that?”

“No, Scoots, that's it,” Apple Bloom replied confidently, lifting a wedge and turning it in her hoof. “There are marks from the claws, and the size is the same as the cut on the apple was. Won't you trust Apple family member to sort apples?!”

“No, no, how can I? I believe!”

“You think that... big one is there?” Sweetie nodded her head warily.

“Yep!”

“We will now meet with a guest from another world! Awesome!” Scootaloo was the first to move up the steps. “Can't believe it!”

The foals, having agreed to climb up at the same time in order to cover each other on occasion, scolded and giggled somehow climbed the narrow stairs, hugging each other closely with their barrels and in the process almost collapsing down twice. When three curious little faces looked out of the hatch, he appeared to the foals' eyes.

Alien in the very meaning of the word - that's what Sweetie thought when she saw a dark figure in the attic and froze a little. The newcomer was huge — even taller than the Big Macintosh who reared up. The dimensions of the creature were felt despite the fact that it was sitting on the floor, crossing its narrow legs, ending in either sticks or hockey sticks. The stranger was sitting not like a pony, but straight, as if he had swallowed a pole, only drooping his long neck so as not to prop up the ceiling with his neck. A single eye, like a mythical Arimaspi, with a red iris and a vertical pupil, coldly looked at the old drawings that he held in his bony spider paw, which had already returned to its rightful place. The second leg was almost twice as short, and continued with its incomprehensible metal device with pipes sticking out of it. Sweetie Belle was surprised to recognize in the cylinders that peeking out from behind the broad back of the creature, cylinders like the ones from which Pinkie Pie filled the balls in front of the by parties. From one of them, a flexible hose, suspiciously reminiscent of the one from the farm, led straight into the creature's neck for watering the flower beds. The rhythmic hiss with which the stranger puffed with gas, and his bony muzzle with a gap in the place of his left eye, somehow reminded of the pony who once came to Ponyville to drive away twittermites - he also wore cylinders and a mask... Along his back, or in general, only one spine was fastened with dimly gleaming red clots, seemingly solid, similar to large amber. In the same place, a metal box with a large number of wires and a long wire was attached to a sling, and something that resembled a rivet gun was also adjacent to it.

Sweetie Belle had no idea what he was. Well, he certainly wasn't one of the races that were in Equus that Miss Cheerilee was talking about. The alien did not have anything that would look like a mark. All this did not bother the Scootaloo - having got out of the hatch, the pegasus walked around the guest in a wide arc, looking at your saucers with round eyes, occasionally expressing delight with a businesslike puff. Slowly Scoot approached the stranger, stretched out her hoof... The stranger twitched her ears, and the filly, screeching, jumped back, without touching him. The stranger still calmly continued to sort through their long-abandoned books on hoof-making. He did not pay attention to the Markers as if on purpose.

“Aweso-o-ome...” whispered Scootaloo. - Our own alien! Sitting right at our clubhouse, Crusaders!

“This is definitely him,” the earth pony echoed her in the same joyful whisper. “Applejack talked about something like that!”

“Girls,” out of fear, remained standing on the stairs of Sweetie, “What if it's really a changeling? There he is... No wool, smooth all over, no bright colors, all so... sharp!”

“You chatterbox, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom chuckled. – “Cnahgelings have fangs and empty eyes! And he has no dragonfly wings.”

“Their queen was different too!”

“Sweetie,” Scootaloo looked at her mockingly, “he sits on the rump calmly, does not hiss, does not brainwash anyone, leafs through our books! What is the changeling after that?”

Admittedly, in their place for Twilight Sparkle, the argument with books would already be enough to consider the creature friendly. After thinking, Sweetie decided that it was worth giving the stranger a chance, and not running away so immediately with screams. He was creepy, of course - what seemed like a flat heap of earth beneath the merry-go-round turned into a towering parody of the diamond hound at the Marks Seekers clubhouse, which was known for its lack of manners. A very skinny diamond dog, as if starved to death. Not that Sweetie had ever seen creatures that were malnourished, but judging by the horror stories that she loved telling Pinkie Pie to those who refused her treats, this is how it should look. Gray-black plates were interspersed with what looked like bare skin covering a skinny body — Sweetie couldn't figure out where the armor was and where the outsider was. Or was he all covered in armor? And if it was not a helmet on his head, but the head itself... Well, it was not so scary, although it didn’t have any cheeks or lips to reflect emotions, as ponies were used to. She reminded rather of an outlandish southern mask with teeth, as in Zecora's hut. The position of the ears was also encouraging - they were in a calm position, relaxed. The unicorn made one last attempt to appeal to the minds of her friends, but more to clear her conscience:

“Scoot, Bloom, I heard when I saw Rarity that Dash wanted to fight him! Do you think he could be dangerous?”

“Do you know more or less good in a fight ponies that Dash not would like to face off?” Scootaloo was genuinely surprised. “He quarreled with the guards, Sweetie, she wouldn’t want to!”

“Okay, okay, I got it,” Sweetie Belle grumbled, finally going up to the attic and glancing at the alien.

“Everything will be all right, Sweetie, you'll see,” Apple Bloom smiled broadly, but then scratched the back of her neck.

“In general, it's enough to use tongues, girls. It seems that it is a little indecent that we are right in front of him,” - she nodded her head towards the silent bulk, “we are discussing here.”

“Who cares? He probably doesn't understand us!”

“But he drove away Tiara for a reason!” Apple Bloom reasonably remarked to the pegasus suggestion.

“Ok, now we'll check,” Scootaloo said bravely and, taking in more air, fearlessly moved straight to the stranger. Standing to one side of him, the flyer stared up.

“Uh-uh...” without thinking of what to say, she blurted out:

“Hello! How are you?”

Now, quite unexpectedly for the foals, they managed to get the attention of a stranger. The newcomer turned towards the sound gently, measuredly, with the already heard grumbling and clicking. He turned his head on a long neck just like Owlowiscious, who lived with Twilight Sparkle in the library. A clear and focused gaze, like a griffin, seemed to be the most attentive I studied all three foals.

“Whoever you are, welcome to the Cutie Mark Crusaders treehouse!” Scootaloo announced happily, pointing with her hoof at all the decoration of the second floor. “Make yourself at home!”

The intruder tilted his head-mask slightly to the side and moved his ears into a position of slight interest.

“It seems, he is not one of the chatty ones,” Apple Bloom giggled.

"He just doesn't know our language," Sweetie Belle said quietly. “In the other world, they probably speak differently.”

“So what should we do with it now?” offended that her attempts were unsuccessful, Scootaloo pouted. “To play the "be quiet" game or what?”

“Why be quiet?” thought the unicorn. “He understood what our apple is, that it is cut into slices and eaten. This means that he also recognizes its image. If we could communicate using images, then...”

“Wow, right, pictures!” gasped Scoots. “Now we are talking, Sweetie!”

She quickly drove down and brought in a couple of sheets of blank paper with a pencil. Quickly, with zeal waving her purple mane back and forth, Scootaloo began to draw something that Sweetie recognized Equus - with a very conditional similarity of a continent, but quite recognizable. By drawing the sun and Luna on the sides, Scootaloo, somewhere in the middle of Equestria, marked the Apple farm and sketched the clubhouse of the Crusaders. Surrounding this very composition with several pony figures, Scootaloo finished creating, spat a pencil and exhaled with satisfaction. The newcomer watched the filly's manipulations with the same polite curiosity, but remained silent.

“Equus,” jabbed her hoof at the planet Scootaloo. “The sun. The moon,” the same fate befell the painted satellites of their universe, which made friends with the alicorn sisters. “And we are here!” Scootaloo giggled happily, pointing to the painted farm.

"Po-ny," Apple Bloom said slowly, pointing first to herself and then to her friends. “We are ponies. We live on Eq-woo-us, you see? And where are you from?”

The intruder was silent, drilling the foals with his one eye, and Scoots whined doomedly.

“What kind of misfortune is this?! We just met with a real alien, but he doesn't understand any belmes in our opinion!”

“Maybe he is not from another world?” Apple Bloom suggested, bewildered. “Maybe Twilight Sparkle was wrong? If he is just an animal, which of the distant edges of Equestria, which can scratch with its tongue only like a parrot...”

“Well, no, Twilight was sure...” Sweetie began, but then the stranger began to move again. His paw, just as slowly and carefully as he took the apple, reached out to Scootaloo and picked up the pencil. Fascinated, the pegasus handed him a sheet of blank paper, and the stranger began to build lines on it himself, separating figures and creating images. When he finished, the foals gasped - this was another planet, not at all like Equus in the atlas! There were continents and oceans of strange, sometimes elongated from pole to pole shapes - and on one of them the stranger sketched a collection of tall houses, just like the Manehattan towers! Next to them were two figures - two-legged and broad-shouldered, but not very similar to the guest of the Crusaders, if only because they looked much stronger than him. They also had both eyes in place, the sharp corner of the nose and the schematic thread of the mouth were there! The second figure was lower, with a narrower waist and slightly wider flanks. She also had a mane drawn much longer than the nest that crowned the head of the first figure! Probably, in that world, filly looked like that... Or just the guest adjusted to manner of depicting Scootaloo? He himself had no hair... The stranger jabbed his claw at the male figure, after which he patted himself on the chest, in which the ribs were clearly visible.

“He understands us! And he is still from another universe!” Scoot exclaimed triumphantly.

“What does he look like at home?” surprised Apple Bloom, looking at first at the picture, and then at the stranger skeptically. “Why is it wrong now?”

“Looks like he needs it. He's what he wants, so it happens,” suggested Sweetie.

“Or, indeed, on our grubs he was thinner, as Granny said,” the earth pony giggled.

“So can we get him something to eat?” suggested the unicorn. “At home from breakfast, the pancakes should have stayed!”

“Wait a minute with all your treats! Everything needs to be done officially, as if our club had a new member! Khe-khe,” the pegasus cleared her throat and, having got into a very proud pose, held out her hoof to the stranger for shaking. “Scootaloo welcomes you to Equestria! These are my best friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, they are very nice ponies! Let's be friends too!”

Sweetie Belle could not help admiring the courage of Scoots, who, as a little filly, so easily offered their friendship to the unknown newcomer. And she even stretched out a leg to him - a powerful paw, equipped with claws, could break, grind an unwary pony into dust, only by closing on her body! The unicorn froze when the stranger allowed himself to slowly reach for Scootie - but he pulled away almost immediately. The stranger looked down at his own paw, squinting, and there was doubt in Sweetie Belle's eye. Then his limb the dark shimmered with many shades of red, accompanied by grunts, and the brush changed, as then on the landing he changed his cover! The claws retracted like Opal's, rounded as if they were tiny hooves with soft leather pads. Wasting no more time, the stranger wrapped his toes around Scootaloo's leg and shook it very gently. He came from afar and must have gotten very tired, hiding from noisy adults, that's why he chose us to meet, Sweetie thought suddenly, smiling happily. And now the one for whom the princesses took a bunch of guards with them, fearing for the safety of their little ponies, gently shakes her friend's hoof - as if afraid to harm and ruin her beauty!

”Ze-ushs,” briefly, as if through clenched teeth, the wanderer between the worlds introduced himself. Then he copied Scootaloo in a terribly squeaky voice:

“Welcomes you to Equestria.”

The foals fell to the floor laughing, jerking their legs, trying again and again to reproduce his intonation, and Alex Mercer coughed in displeasure, shutting off the helium valve behind him, which he had already forgotten about.

The misunderstanding of the first contact was successfully resolved - not least thanks to laughter and genuine amusement. Pinkie Pie would be happy.
> Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex Mercer sat on the floor with his jogging prostheses crossed, leafing through his high school biology textbook, stroking a rather grunting xeno on the head, and pondering how the best genetic engineer on planet Earth had come to such a life. Not in terms of decisions and actions that led him to an outbreak of the virus in Manhattan and becoming a new self, but the fact that the conditioned "stress", the tension of the evolved brain significantly lost ground in this place, where he found himself against his will. How little a man needs to develop a new comfort zone for himself after eighteen days in hell! All that is needed is to replace the control levers of the Abrams, in which Mercer's claws clung to a crunch, with children's books; ruthless, fearless hominid-like monsters - to intelligent and friendly living creatures that do not mind at all that you beat them on the back of the neck instead of ripping off the scalp and then chopping off the head. Periodically, with a long tongue protruding directly from the esophagus, eat up the NATO self-heating canned food, which warms that stub of the left hand with pleasant warmth. To enjoy the forgotten taste of food, simple and solid - devouring zombies and soldiers in such a short time, rituals and the necessary halo of emotions did not have time to get it, it's clear.

Yes! It's good to be alive, damn it. Like a storm that all these weeks had been gathering over the head of the newly-minted Ubermensch and, as a result, almost erased him into atomic ash, suddenly retreated, throwing him into a quiet haven. You also want to know that Dana is not in danger... Make sure that Green has not done something secretive with her, turning her sister into a weapon against Mercer. Ragland cannot do it alone; I would be sure that the sight of the infected does not deceive Mercer, that everything is in order with Dana... Then it would definitely be possible to rest. To forget about sleep, to shift thought processes to chance, digital dreams of machines, which were now the subconscious of Alex. In this reflection of the Earth, at first glance, he could afford to rest. Mercer has been in the measurement of colorful horses for more than two days - but he has not noticed in the local society manifestations of pain, terrible diseases, poverty, insanity, crazy warriors who are ready to give the whole city to the virus to feed just because it will allow the upstarts from Gentek a few more to make brilliant discoveries. Nothing that Mercer was used to dealing with, in a word. Viruses, in principle, were not found here, as a phenomenon, if Alex correctly interpreted the scraps of information that he managed to pull out from a medical reference book. Bacteria - please, the same illustrations in the book did not allow their existence to be interpreted differently, but here are the obligate parasites of the domain from which Mercer earned his living... It seems that they were completely impossible to find here. There was also a section in the reference book devoted to sores and pathogens of a "magical" nature, but for Alex it was a forest even more dense than the Infinite-freedom-from-creation, through which the evolved one had a chance to wander. And his new acquaintances were too young to help Mercer in this field, and they only blinked at his badly posed questions. Well, they clarified the basics of local literacy and the life in general - and thanks for that. The books, again, were brought in. It was hoped that this specialized guide had not been stolen insolently from the equine doctors; I would not like to start peaceful contact with the small people accustomed to stealing... It is not the first time for Mercer to appropriate everything that is bad, including military equipment, and these people still have their whole life ahead of them.

The trinity of foals, meanwhile, perfectly illustrated the serenity that reigned in this town, extending to the older generation as well. The overwhelming majority of the xenos were cheerful, smiling, many were completely hyperactive, which made Mercer in the process of espionage them for every fireman to stay away. The mess, which now settled on Alex's lap, also had a very violent character, but this caused a smile rather than rejection... The zoomorphs did not seem happy due to the general zombie - why should they be dissatisfied, in fact? All are attached to some kind of work, well fed, have a roof over their heads, there is something to occupy their leisure, based on what they see. It would be funny if, in the presence of real "magic", they did not have all this, but were forced to plow for twenty hours a day in the mines. As Mercer had already postulated, in a place like this, he would not mind relaxing, allowing himself, after eighteen days of continuous running with scissors, to clear his mind of unnecessary impurities. There is no need to put the skin under the splinters, the zombie apocalypse does not threaten to spill out beyond the Upper and the tricks of Green to take over the whole world... In the forest nearby, the birds are singing, and not hovering with a menacing scream, black helicopters, again, the "last argument of kings" does not threaten is about to swallow most of New York with a red-hot ball. But Mercer reminded himself again and again that the lull was temporary, forcing his mind to throw off the shackles of the approaching drowsiness and work on. The thunderstorm may have passed by, but the element is fierce and unpredictable when it comes to Greens and other creatures with forces that go beyond the usual human framework, beyond the boundaries of immediate comprehension. The queens, whom the foals denoted by the more tender and feminine tonality of their adjective "dominant", were dangerous, no matter what their intentions were. Princesses (as it would be more accurate to denote the title in a literary translation) could turn the calm into an all-crushing hurricane in a single moment, and the moon pony - literally. And although the usual guards also gave a damn about the laws of physics and common sense, familiar to Alex, they were by no means weaker than winghorns. As long as he was not overwhelmed with numbers and trapped in an open field, Mercer could have escaped at the expense of his speed and newly discovered immunity to directed "magic." But seriously to fight with those who are immediately capable of freezing you into a giant piece of ice or appearing at another point in space-time, at once getting away from the blow... All the tricks that Alex has nothing to fend off with, is simply dishonest!

Unsurprisingly, Mercer kept hiding for a while. Being in the house of the Seekers-designation, Human constantly kept in touch with the three photocells, detecting the movement of large objects and combined with heat sensors, but everything was calm outside. Only once a pegasus guard flew past, of whom, with the cancellation of the curfew, there were still a lot of them in the city and its environs. He could not see anything - but the little conspirators, not wanting to share their find with the world, would have shut the windows tightly and barricaded the door, if the white unicorn had not resisted this. She said something about "dark" and "sca-a-a-ary". Fortunately, the remaining two friends agreed with the arguments, because they did not smile at them sitting in their own club with only flashlights. The fact that it would generally look too suspicious, the little ones did not take into their heads. The apple-burgundy stallion that looked at them ten minutes later did not find anything suspicious: Alex sniffed into the attic with a fractional clatter of claws, raising a whirlwind from paper, as soon as he recognized someone approaching the tree instead to pass by. Having sent an inconspicuous brush for reconnaissance, he found out that Shu's relative had dropped in to check whether all the foals were in order against the background of the events of the last couple of days, and brought them some vegetable sandwiches for a snack. The laconic pony only chuckled in response to the chirping of the light yellow filly, but apparently did not notice anything superfluous. Maybe he considered the collection with many books to be their next amusement - all the more so, with fright, Rustle managed to grab the book upside down and, sitting on the floor, was trying hard to pretend concentration, staring at it. Or maybe they really wanted to take on the mind against the backdrop of the imminent school year, about which Mercer has already managed to snatch information from the overloaded data stream that the foals poured on him after establishing contact with them. Anyway, senior... cousin? brother? uncle? It doesn't matter if he took the paper chaos condescendingly. Well, think about it, the small fry again decided to play something. The stallion left to bother about the household with the rest of the workers who lived on the farm (a pattern or a funny coincidence, but almost everyone from the company could boast of "apple" shades of fur). Mercer, having monitored that the object was removed from the controlled area, cautiously moved to the stairs. When Shu quietly called by the name he introduced to the xenos and by which his enemies called him, he leaned out from the second floor, conscientiously twirling narrow plates like locators - showing alertness, but not aggressive. Hanging down with a ball-shaped head on a long neck with a face-mask, clipping "ears", for the second time he made fun of the filly. Alex again considered it a success: his corrected "robotic" appearance, if not attractive, was neutral in degree to seem funny with a pinch of comic. Shaking her head when Marshmallow offered him a sample of local cooking - she was not offended, however, already knowing about the gastronomic preferences of a guest from another world - Mercer returned to isolating the information he needed. I had to bother to find out if the xenos could let him in; can Alex, in their understanding, be generally friendly, associate with something from their culture conducive to communication, like the same Number Five.(1) And in general, is a fleeting impulse to protect from hooliganism and get closer to the children of the local Equids is a good idea, different from marasmus.

Having lost hope of contacting "friends", Mercer spent the rest of yesterday in the swamps, scouting the area and slowly pulling the terraformer net even further. Checked if everything was in order. I noticed several winged patrols - but they did not descend to the trees, apparently fearing not only the hydra, but also the territory captured by the red smog in general. Now Mercer understood that the environment simulating the life support of the virus was also creating interference in the magical background, and there was no way to "enlighten" it. The intruders set up surveillance over the area and quieted down... Perhaps they were preparing an operation to eradicate a genetic weed that took down such extensive roots? Be that as it may, the battle ponies did not climb on the rampage so far, and they were of little interest to Mercer. The forest dwellers did not bring any trouble to Alex either - in the territory that a large predator, the hydra, staked out for itself, they were represented by amphibians, birds no larger than a heron and other harmless living creatures. They could not be bothered at all, forcing them to flee - in a swamp, with constant fogs and abundant moisture... "It was difficult to name. The creature looked lazily up at the bony biped. Raising her mouth, she flicked her fangs, curved like a scimitar, after which she still slowly swam away, rowing with her paws and tail, which were hard, as if from a stone, hewn out of stone. When the creature finally disappeared into the quagmire, Mercer, under the cover of the branches, moved on, letting the scout ahead of him.

Yes, now he could afford it. Alex saved up a little more (by the standards of evolved) calories and building materials, having used up all but one of the helium cylinders. I could have allowed myself more fat on my bones - but I preferred to lower the reserve to the terraformer, to capture an ever larger territory, in order to arrange a large salt battery as soon as possible. To increase the period of autonomous activity to at least three days, and not to run from refueling to refueling in the swamps... Maybe the soldiers subordinate to these queens on one of the evolved routes are already preparing to intercept! But on the other hand, Alex added veins and muscles to his full-fledged arm, provided his own reserve of energy - and reproduced the fourth finger for symmetry, because it would be inconvenient to run the hand with a tripod. Two thumbs, each on its side, two forefingers... The construction looked a little like a familiar hominid. Well, and the appearance was limp, rather resembling a shabby spider with claws and a burning point of the sensor between the front legs. The construct is small, but the benefit is great... Just like during captivity, into which the lifeless body of Zeus was taken, as he believed, by McMullen. Invisibility due to its small size should have become its main trump card. As for the rest of the body, Alex left his only lung despite the meager reserves of gas. I wanted to remove it after I broke into the town, but assumed by the end that normal contact could take place, including verbal one. I did not recreate the second hand from the stub at all, preferring to spend the materials accumulated from the terraformer on a few more bombs. A hand and a half - still not two, but to think that this could make Alexander a less lethal enemy was a dangerous mistake...

Mercer spent the night in the forest itself, according to the foals he later christened either Eternal Wild or Eternal Free. The speculatively single living organism reacted more calmly to its return this time, as if it was accustomed to an unusual visitor that did not harm its inhabitants last time. At least the four self-propelled woodpiles that met at the leisurely wandering Alex on the way, grumbled dully, falling on all four paws, but preferred to retreat. The trailing wolf just snorted, throwing a handful of earth towards Mercer with its rear pieces of wood. Either the dogs were more experienced and more careful than their unlucky predecessors, or... maybe they were really controlled by something, and they were entirely artificial creatures - to a greater extent than Mercer now saw himself. In the treetops sang drto a friend, nocturnal birds flitting from branch to branch; occasionally a man heard the screams of creatures and howls, the source of which among the animal world of the Earth would be difficult to name. The Luna, probably subordinate to that dark pony, added mystery to the alien forest, painting silvery halos through the foliage and shading the age-old trees, giving them the appearance of fairy giants silently towering over Alex. There was no smell of acidic marsh gases and those cheerful flowers that gave off mustard gas in part - a cool wind blew over the muscles, bleeding off the free heat from them. Foliage rustled under the stilts of the measuredly rearranged feet.

Again, as then on the shore a day ago, he wanted to stop. He wanted to close his eyes and raise head to the sky, squeeze the more nonexistent toes, rake them a living carpet of forest grasses and fluffy moss. An orange-yellow silhouette flashed over man's head, while the heat sensor responded in a brilliant flash. The source of light flew around the clearing, and Alex watched in fascination as the radiant play of flame that enveloped the creature in the night. The mutant closed his eye, hoping to at least mentally transfer himself to the unknown nature of his native Terra. Mercer thought it would be pleasant for him to walk on soft moss and dewy grass, and think of something detached. At least not that Mercer more and more reminded himself of a research probe with a machine gun at the ready, thrown into another world by an unknown creator who was indifferent to the fate of creation.

But now the fiery bird flew away, occasionally filling the night with its sonorous trills, and the obsession passed. Alex flinched, opening his eyes. How long was he prostrated in hostile territories? A minute? Ten contemplated local beauty? It was still a few hours before dawn; memories of the fact that intelligent beings are capable of summoning him here with the power of thought quickly returned the thoughts of the evolved to their usual cold mood. I didn't want to rest anymore - the rhythmic sound attracted the attention of the mutant, returning him to a strange, terribly wrong world. Sullenly Alex began to type his step further, until he went out into the woods, and then found himself completely in an open field. There, crossing the valley with tens of kilometers of rolling rail, a freight train was passing, illuminated in the night by lanterns. The source of the sound, which sounded differently in a rarefied atmosphere and was not immediately recognized by Mercer, no doubt, was the freight train and served.

“Railroad...” Alex muttered, assessing his position on the orienteering, which he created in his head thanks to the information technology of the virus. “Khe... Okay, it took me far.”

It was time to round off and rearrange the stilts in the opposite direction. Finally, Mercer took a look at the night before him. One could, if something happened, get lost among the carriages and, like that, unnoticed in the darkness, calmly leave somewhere far away from the local civilization. The guards are now surely checking the paths leading out of the city, but fooling them would probably not be too difficult. Although... Alex has already been thrown into the wilderness. No highways, not even country roads, except for those that intersected in the town - all around the forest, ravines, mountains and water bodies. Even now, when Alex moved away from the village at a decent distance, as far as the eye could see, there were plains mixed with hills, untouched by technogenesis. And the fact that the queens arrived in the boondocks personally, and did not send some local special forces to deal with Mercer, clearly indicated the seriousness of their intentions. No, God forbid, they would not immediately destroy the mutant, but gutting and seeing what useful things can be obtained from Zeus is easy. Past experience was not in their favor; Mercer had every reason to distrust governments in any form. Even if cat horses have a different psychology, from his point of view it was not a sin to fly to a remote province for such a tidbit... Not that Alexander had a good idea why he could be needed by witchcraft zoomorphs.

Well, maybe the pony town and the adjacent lands were not so miserable for the country (or what other forms of territorial formations were adopted by the ponies?). Stumbling into a network of ravines, somewhere in the foggy distance turning into a rocky gorge, and following it back to the city, Mercer stumbled upon the ruins of clearly defensive purposes. Not a forest straight, but a storehouse of surprises! The ancient stronghold, although it had seen better days, still looked solid and in its scope reminded of its former greatness. A little imagination - and thanks to the surviving towers, it could be mistaken for the castle of Dr. Frankenstein... Wasn't this whole forest a secret testing ground with laboratories hidden in the wilds of the middle lane? Are the products of out-of-control experiments running around here? Mercer watched the remains of the fortress for half an hour, but did not find any signs that it is here that chimeras continue to be born in an autonomous mode, in manner of placental welding of the Hunter-Leader, created from parts of individual animals... Only the wind blew through the ruins. Having chased the occasional adventurous thought through the convolutions and dismissed it, Mercer just shrugged. There was not enough data to allow such a evolved descent to climb into the shelter of local sorcerers, albeit an abandoned one - so he got away, deciding to leave the attraction for later.

Alexander made the rest of the way without incident. Taking off all his belongings, including a signal flare gun with a couple of cartridges, he carefully scrubbed the shell in the spring again, cleaned out the weapon - it was not enough for the sensitive nose of the Equid, inherited from four-legged ancestors, to catch the sulfurous (for local) smell from the heat circuits. He no longer came across mutant chimeras, either in terms of a heat trail or in fact. Only on the way to the city of Mercer began to feel nauseous, and auditory hallucinations again intensified. The suspicions were confirmed when Alex pulled out a Geiger counter, the only worker of the three, found in the emergency packs of the biodefense troops. The device really chirped deafeningly, and Alex took to the right, nervously looking around and with difficulty restraining the laughter rushing out. So it was the radiation in the hills that ripped Mercer out of his bad mood? It was funny in itself: an ordinary human would already be bleeding, covered with radiation burns, and Mercer had enough to vomit - and Homeric laughter quickly lost power over his emotional mood. Apparently, indeed, his body brought radioactive plasma with fluorescent particles into the enzymatic bag, and then made a discharge. Apart from the nervous system going crazy, other sensations were almost identical to the drug waste: dry mucous membranes, painful sensations in the muscles, pressure surges in the joint capsules... Nature here completely ignored the increased radiation background, remaining healthy and luxuriant.

What the hell? Didn't the radiation cause neutron activation only on Mercer on the pony planet, without harming the rest of the matter? The dogheads from the hills, even though they looked uglier than ponies, well-groomed and beautiful in their own way, were not the ulcer-eaten creatures living in the epicenter of the "dirty" bomb explosion. Toward dawn, Alex made his way to the hills, determined to use some more of the reserve instead of tissues and fluids, which would have to be thrown out as infected. The dogs now seemed even more imposing fighters than they had when they first met, a sort of Tolkien orc — stocky, with broad shoulders, a sloping head, and mounds of muscle covered with short hair and stiff bristles rolling under their hide. Yet the dogs also seemed peaceful; although they had a fighting spirit (and silly), they had neither fortifications nor other wisdom of fortification art at their disposal. Nothing hinted that they were at enmity with their neighbors of acidic shades - so, for the sake of form, a guard at each entrance to the mines stood yawning into a fist. One even managed to react, when something almost silently flew out of the darkness, which consisted entirely of bones and joints. Eyes bulging, flea food raised its spear, opened its bony mouth in a vain hope to warn its relatives. Mercer simply lowered his fist on the bowler hat, crushing it, and the dog collapsed as if knocked down, bringing his eyes to the point. Until the creature woke up, he quickly made a short inspection of the caves near the entrance. The counter started to crackle, but on one subject it was downright pissed off.

“No, friends, I'm not a discoverer of new worlds, kha, as if in the classic sci-fi,” Alex, doomed-cheerfully, was talking to himself after sunrise, hiding at the other end of the town in the bush. “Hey, and a philologist I’m not just like that. (1a) This is not inhabited Mars, damn it, this is the natural world of the post-apocalypse! There is no food, the air is poisoned, the water is not suitable for drinking... inhabited by mutants, tree robots and lithium-based androids. But there is no particular need to attach a gas mask and there is no need in Hazard suit! I remember that Hope's Carnival-2 passed under the guise of testing the newest rad-protector... Well, they never lied.”

A collar with a small crystal, which Alex stole with the guard slowly beginning to come to himself, and became the subject of his interest. The glowing mineral, like quartz sintered after a nuclear explosion, served as an object of decoration. The tunnels probably mined it in the depths of the hills - already at the entrance to the evolved one, they met the details of the miner's life and the development of the territory in general. Lattices, lanterns hung under the arches, boxes, supports, some kind of pipes, rough rails made of metal, leading even deeper down... Maybe an identical geological layer lay in the forest, or maybe not, just something similar in "magic" nature, because the "hot spot" was much more modest in size, and Alex got out of it without any problems.

Yes, now that Alex once again cleared his stomach and cleared his mind, he realized that radiation is a sign of some particular kind of witchcraft. What the evolved human perceives as a negative factor is sufficient for local matter. internally safe alpha particles - or equids with other animals were completely screened, by default they had the same "magical" neutron stability. Crystals... Alex noticed a faint trace of radiation not only in the decorations of individual ponies, but also in the armor of the bat-hybrids, and in the spearheads carried by the hornless and wingless ponies. The xenos had technologies for processing this mineral and using it. Could it be that crystals are included in the construct of other devices, more complex and familiar to Mercer, like the same radio station? Not computers, let's say, and cell phones - but everyday miracles, like hair dryers in the spa, past which a brush has slipped, ovens for cooking and lanterns that do not require electricity and are not connected by wires to a dam, but are directly supplied with energy, like Tesla's receivers?

Complex devices. Meaningful purpose and integration into everyday life. All this could have been taken from scratch, presented by the same celestials as a gift to primitive villagers, but the likelihood of this is extremely low. Magic, read the highest technology, can allow progress, pioneering... and experiment, a faithful companion on this path, familiar to Alex. Someone from the highbrow ponies could finish badly - hence such an interest of the mighty of this world? It is not clear why the four-legged scientists turned their gaze to the mutant almost erased from the dimension of Terra, but... It seems that it was the ponies who were responsible for his moving here. After all, Alex saw out of the corner of his eye during a crazy race through the city, as alabaster grace disappears in a flash of golden light. Teleportation and the transition between universes (a different mass of elementary particles allowed such a conclusion to be drawn) are not the same thing, but the difference is not great for a humanof the twenty-first century. Although it was written in fiction, one hell of a thing in terms of accessibility, the phenomenon turned out to be near-divine.

Damn it, Alex thought as he followed the brush route to his new destination. Maybe he is being careful excessively? Xenos may know about the evolved no more than Alex about them, they should be afraid of everything unlike them, buried in the shadows - but now they wander the streets, unafraid and smiling, with such warmth with each other starting conversations, as if yearning to sit locked up! They quickly calmed down... only yesterday morning broke into the city, and today only individual guards on patrol and repair work at the fountain, pastry shop and a number of houses that were damaged by Alex remind of this. Was this exceptional peacefulness a consequence of the fact that xeno psychology grew out of the herbivore lifestyle? If so, this whole situation could really be a product of chance... and not a carefully planned operation to catch living weapons in another dimension.

“But what this situation will turn out to be, kha, that's another question,” Mercer muttered.

Terribly thirsty. To wet the throat with normal water, and not with distillate from modified kidneys, feel the familiar even tastes and smells, and not the metallic taste of beryllium on the mucous membranes. Now, even if by some unknown miracle it is possible to get a flask, then how to pour its contents into this... what used to be called a mouth. Natural cloaca on the back of the upper jaw - where under the eye sockets the "mask" bones joined the cranium, exposing the failure of the trachea and esophagus. To reproduce the sampling tongue, or something...

Alex shook his head, chasing away thoughts of water. Well, let it be, since the containers in those emergency packages were smashed by a blow. Will endure, not small. All these were needs exclusively from the category of psychological ones - those to which the mind clings, trying to convince the mutant of the phenomenon of "former self". Well, now he is definitely less than a man - half of the analogs of systems and organs have disappeared... So far, it was difficult to form a complete opinion about what the Mercer virus turned into, and indeed there is no time to breed philosophy. And so there are enough troubles to raise the troubles of our modern history. About cat horses, however, it has not yet been possible to create a digestible and self-consistent concept. Now Mercer attributed all sorts of anomalies to the fundamental differences of the zoomorphic culture, due to their nature, evolved in a way that a human could never have - but the ubiquitous details of "similarity" made Alex tormented by vague doubts. Replace the ponies with people, remove magic tricks, and he would immediately say that this city is someone's colony, where all the dissatisfied were unloaded, so that they would not get in the way. They settled them on free land near the disfigured exclusion zone, leaving very few opportunities to change their lives and attitudes towards it, vegetating (by the standards of the technogenic civilization of the 21st century) in poverty.

One thing could be said for sure - this is not the Old West, if only because the kids at school study and have fun, and do not work, getting out of their small forces, shoe shiners, factory apprentices and chimney sweeps. Rightly judging that the volumes in the previously seen library will be too complex, and their abundance will delay Alex for a long time in search of the necessary book, evolved to school and went. The establishment was located in some semblance of a park area on the edge of the city, surrounded by trees and a hedge, behind which the same hilly terrain lay. Leaning out of the bushes, Mercer looked from the playground to the building, painted with colorful ornaments and hearts. He was embarrassed by the authenticity of the classical English school, combined with a "toy" palette. The silence, unusual for this kind of institutions, was also straining - the school was empty, except for a few heat traces of adults, possibly from among the staff. There were no lessons, either because of an alien invasion, or because of the summer vacation... Only a couple of children were observed in the far corner of the playground. Throwing the machine gun behind his back and rustling his camouflage coat in the grass, Alex somehow huddled under the carousel-twirl, released his brush for reconnaissance. Down through the slowly opened basement window. Past the printing press and the skinny-looking foal - already up the stairs. Hide on the ceiling from the vibrations of an adult pony that quickly clicked along the corridor. With a barely audible creak, open the door of one of the classrooms and climb inside. Concentrating on his perception of the "spider", Mercer strolled around the teacher's desk and began to examine the bookshelves.

Hmm, a problem. The Equid language was hard; the meaning was determined not only by the combination of sounds, but often also by the tonality, highlighting a certain part of the phrase with the voice. Well, purely musical notation! Copying third-party conversations will not help you figure out the details - you cannot make out the features of grammar without help from the outside, without someone who will at least tell you what designation a subject has in the language of tetrapods. And on fragmentary data and computing power of machines, albeit extremely adaptive, it was possible to derive the structure of the language from etymology for a very long time. After rustling the paper on the classroom shelves, Alex could only make out that the hoofed animals also had adventure literature (judging by the cover), purely "fabulous" books with vivid illustrations and even... comics.

Damn it, thought Mercer hesitantly, while the brush was briskly fingering with clawed fingers, leafing through the colorful issue with either local superheroics, or some other pulp fiction in pictures. The xenomorphs certainly had the rudiments of mass culture, which means that among its adherents there could be found those who dreamed of other worlds, of meetings with aliens who come not only to enslave and destroy... an alien robot ready to make contact? This version was not so different from the real state of affairs. Some of the AI-stitched insides allowed Mercer to be attributed to a completely different, hitherto unknown to science species. Now, however, he is more of a drone than an autonomous combat vehicle: there is no more synthesis station in the abdominal cavity, all that is superfluous has been loaded into the resource deposit. Chemicals from the farm were also sent there. It is curious, but could Alex now be ranked as a specific species? Indeed, at that time, the evolved one had changed even more... Taking the genotype of the hunter with his shortened legs as a basis, Mercer created a new platform adapted to disguise as a four-legged - but, moreover, it copes well with upright posture. Was there for him at all now the border of being "the former self"?

Again, uncomfortable and untimely questions popped into my head. Grimacing mentally and from the outside (at least trying to portray this expression on the pale skin that made up the stub of his "face"), Alex again plunged into the study of pony books. A history textbook with illustrations stylized as old engravings was a good find. In addition to the already familiar black and white twins, who, naturally, occupied not the last place in the history of the people of intelligent cat horses, I came across other races. At first, Alexander even doubted whether he had another book of fairy tales at his disposal? But the further he deepened, the more clearly he realized that these were not fairy tales... It was, his mother, a natural dragon surrounded by some pilgrim ponies with a volcano in the background. Among a couple of dozen more engravings, about the content of which Mercer had absolutely no idea, there were meetings of ponies with a crowned griffin, shaggy stags and other obviously intelligent creatures, for they were also depicted with adornments or wardrobe details attached.

Mercer slammed manual and jumped to the floor with his brush, huddling under the modest size of the desk. Having wrapped a muscular "tail" of flexors around the drone, he disconnected from it. It was required to ponder the news from the category, in which one is crazier than the other. If this is true, and the intersection with this world extends to human folklore, if other "magic" fables are just boring everyday life... Mercer did not know how to react to this. But, as far as he understood, something that would resemble people was not here. On the contrary, the cases are interactions with other intelligent species, completely unlike anything, were documented - so the fate of Gulliver is unlikely to be prepared for the evolved. (2) Mercer will be mistaken for a representative of an alien race, and will not be seen in him as a strange anomaly among cattle , wild and aggressive, but for some reason dressed up in a camisole. Yes, he should not be taken for unreasonable in case of establishing contact, especially since Zeus has already discerned the ability to communicate and use technical devices... And if you run away, considering the contact to carry more risks than benefits? Where should Mercer go in that case? Found among textbooks, he had to go through the atlas, but he practically did not understand anything. This land was a mono-continent in manner of Pangea. Although separate climatic zones were visible, the scale turned out to be difficult to imagine, because the system of coordinates and calculus was also unfamiliar to Human. So guess now: either they have a planet twice as wide as the Earth, on most of the surface occupied by one endless ocean and polar ice, or some magic is responsible for the gravity almost identical to the Earth. As it should be, there were marks of settlements in the atlas, photographs with views of them. A large city on the seashore, suspiciously reminiscent of his native New York, and in particular a statue in the bay, gave Alex a paranoia. Too many coincidences! But how will it turn out that this is still an imitation in a dying brain, from the fragments of Dr. Mercer's restored memory of his world, which has collected this narcotic delirium of acidic shades? Borrowing such scales in the cultural layer on the theory of Multiple Discovery (3) cannot be written off!

Absorbed by the confusion among the mental images that swelled in his feverish brain, Alex did not immediately notice how someone was sitting on the carousel directly over his head. At first, a sarcastic voice reached the evolved attention. Alerted, Mercer gave focus on two small ponies, which he had not observed on the site until the moment the scout was sent. And finally, he realized that the carousel squeaks slightly from above, as if taking on someone's weight. From there, more muffled children's voices were heard - and insult and discontent were noticeable in them. Spinning the merry-go-round, one more foal jumped off towards the two "standard" filly. The swirls of her cherry-hued mane bulged, like little wings, the expression on her face could not be called anything other than belligerent. Her gray opponent just burst out laughing and murmured something in her tongue, while the filly with the striped mane looked at the flyer with obvious disdain. The noise of the girl squabbling flaring up made Mercer painfully close his eyes. In the middle of the entire site, they could not choose a better place, the hunter grab them!

Praise to Linnaeus, when the second pony jumped off the spinner, the white unicorn, already ready to take the fighters away, the foals called out from the school porch. A female of the color of a ripe cherry, leaving the building, looked sternly at the juvenile bully and reprimanded them. To this, the lilac-mane chirped something, making excuses, blinking her eyes with sincere misunderstanding. Directly innocence itself... Alex, due to the specifics of his life, for a very long time had no business with such an audience, but she was familiar to Dr. Mercer. When, after the teacher (probably it was one of them), a cat-horse came out with an arrogant expression on its face, and, in turn, began to express a complaint to Cherry, Mercer quietly snorted. The color scheme is similar - most likely, the "little princess" with a hairpin in the form of a crown was the daughter of the oversized mare. And the parent was clearly unhappy that her child was thrashed, albeit verbally. An apple from an apple tree is also often a bad heredity, both in the terran dimension and here... Having bowed dryly to the mentor of the youth, the mare gave her daughter a parting word and went into the city, lifting her nose as if she was afraid that her wig would fall off her. Silver with pigtails and pink, shouting something after her, cleared out to the other end of the site, giggling wildly. The teacher went up to the trio of foals that were indignantly babbling under their breath; to the unicorn and pegasus, a "regular" filly was added to Mercer's field of vision. She began to explain something to them - in a gentle, calm voice. Alex considered the state of affairs to be normalized and was about to take the brush out of the school... But then a pegasus from the Golden Guard landed nearby, blowing a gust of wind on the pony and forcing Mercer to flatten even more in the shadows, merging with the ground.

Let’s see, thought Alex, noticing a bulky sling bag on the back of the winged one and how surprise appears on the teacher's face as they talk. I think this ornithopter is here for a reason.

The little ones in the neighborhood pricked up their ears, afraid to miss a word. Alex understood them: for interest it was enough that the already familiar title of wing-horns flashed through the guard's speech. Perhaps the soldier only brought orders for child safety, but Mercer I sensed that everything was not so simple. Then Cherry remembered that it was too early to initiate the children themselves into this kind of matter... Politely, but firmly, the pony sent them away, in turn inviting the guard to follow her into the building. The foals looked disappointed, but Alex had no time to be careful and figure out what they would do because of this. Will not miniature horses, which in the future are going to grow into full-fledged distortions of reality, turn the entire site upside down from resentment, discovering Mercer?

After activating his channels of perception in the drone, Mercer got out into the corridor, moving along the ceiling in the same direction as the ponies were heading. They, conducting a quiet conversation among themselves, entered another classroom, bright and spacious. Alex, so as not to attract attention, at the last moment slipped through the closing door. When the Equids were distracted by each other, he hid behind a trash can. The drone scanned the room with its sensors, focusing on the pony crouched at the table. The desks were even smaller here; the junior grades were engaged here, apparently, staffed with the same trinity of filly and their enemies they saw. In the conversation between their teacher and the guard, familiar words and combinations flashed, but the meaning could not be determined until the pony with a pale pink mane leaned on the table, looking expectantly at the guard. He hesitated and took out a large box from his bag. Cherry opened it - and Alex naturally made the drone a stance, straining all its articulated legs, like a hound sensing prey. For the most seductive picture opened to his gaze... Scrolls with a minimum of text unfolded in the air - all diagrams, pictures, logical constructions. Something that looked like a map of a star system. The same schematic data on the biology of ponies of all three main species, and much more.

Is this a local version of the Voyager gold plate? getting into the typical excitement of a researcher that he found the right path to gaining knowledge, Alex thought. But then reasonable questions cooled his ardor. Where did this data come from? If they were collected in a hurry, then why are they not with the officials who could be contacted by the alien in case of contact? But if this is the established procedure for contact with new races... Did the pony scientists expect that they would be able to pull someone intelligent from another dimension? They so easily decided to pull this someone out of his home world, if not killing, then fucking breaking his psyche? Under the carousel, Mercer grumbled faintly, annoyed with his own thoughts. Why did the messenger of the aristocrats responsible for day and night bring this chest so openly? Wouldn't it have been better to hide your intention by simply teleporting the bait to the right person... uh, pony, transfer it in stealth mode, or by some other magical method? To lure Mercer with this data, supposedly just by default, by some pony from the local educational system, as the same manual for children, and then catch the mutant?

However, if you remember that zebra... Most likely, the local rulers know that Zeus does not trust them. Maybe they still haven't tried to take Mercer seriously because this race is peaceful, not only in appearance, but also in deeds? In theory, they may indeed fear accidental victims; even though Alex cannot compete with two astropaths, his mind has already considered hundreds of ways to do good and do justice, if they are completely cornered. The queens might have decided that Mercer would detect the covert transmission of information that Alex needed to learn and perceived as something dangerous. Is that why they are going to leave their message with the teacher, with whom the alien could establish contact, since she is sweet, kind and has experience of communicating with individuals who are just about to enter the society of adult ponies? Maybe the parcel was not specifically addressed to Cherry, but to the teachers of the school as a whole... Can a newcomer trust such an unstable and frivolous stratum of society like children? No seriously?

Who knows if the wing-horns didn’t want Alex’s line of reasoning to go exactly in this rut. They gave a handbook on applied eco-walking to the teacher without hiding, only overly curious children were escorted out - that is why Mercer would not think to step on the carpet paved for him. The white mare, as the oldest and wise for years, clearly knows how to read other people's moves. But did she not think that Alex might consider the teacher to be an unreliable source? Who would seriously trust the judgment of a human who is part of a (speculatively) hostile system? Into the scorching heat this box with self-unrolling scrolls... While the guard was giving Cherry some more instructions, Alex led the brush out through the barely open door into the corridor. Not seeing anyone on the street, he carefully opened the window and got out. And I immediately noticed that, on the one hand, the situation had changed dramatically - but, moreover, returned to normal.

First, one of the three previously seen filly, with a lush ban volume on her head and a small bag, staring directly at Mercer. At the part of him that froze on the windowsill, to be more precise. Alex instantly threw the drone into the grass, burrowing into the ground with sharp movements, like a sandy six-eye Sicarius, and merging with it, after which he switched to the main body of his body.

Secondly, two sleek little ponies are back. As soon as the teacher was absent, everything became as before: they galloped up from the far edge of the site and continued to bully their peers. The whole company has already moved away from the carousel, giving Alex a good overview. It seemed that the white unicorn was about to cry - and her winged friend was furiously flaring her nostrils, hinting with all kind that some people would now be poured on the first number. For sim on the yellow pony, all trying to convey the idea of ​​the huge spider on the window to them, they could not get distracted.

Something stirred deep in Alex's soul. It was neither the solidarity of a botanist hounded at school, nor a suddenly heightened sense of justice. Alex didn’t like bully, regardless of whether they threw offensive language or sent packs of anti-personnel grenades at Mercer and shocked him, this is true. But he didn’t like muddies, being himself a rather unpleasant type in stressful situations, in the sense that he had to put up with their existence; to choose the lesser evil, to act as he did not want to under other circumstances. Quick legs and lean body of a teenager more than once saved the "upstart from the orphanage" from hooligans. Others were able to buy off their homework... The most implacable (and just as fast) retreated when it came to them: you can break a face like Alex in blood, break his nose and hands - but you yourself will bitterly regret having contacted him. Everyone knows what can be done to you in such a shitty institution as an orphanage if you are not able to stand up for yourself. And when Mercer grew up, finally got out into people and helped his sister to get out of the lower classes of society, got the complete, as he believed, control over the world that he had been building for himself for years... exist. The latest successes buried their names in the memory of a man - now these plebeians were not able to cause at least some harm to the young, but already quite famous scientist. By the power of authority, his own mind, and crisp green bills, Dr. Mercer believed himself capable of solving any problem.

Most likely, the reaction to the skirmish of children was played by ordinary human empathy, from which there is no escape, even after learning to kick a car flying. Alexander Mercer was not exactly a stale biscuit. The concepts of protecting the weak and the needy, helping "their own", the same Dana, were so strong that they were the first to resurrect after the name in a head devastated by neuroblocks. Then Mercer did not doubt the reasonableness of the attitudes, without any questions he went to his sister to help. Yet now he would have preferred a neutral position, without interfering with the personal affairs of the xenos. Not the place, not the time yet. Alex would have said nothing...

...unless the pink filly pointed to the thigh of her hind leg as if she were showing it up, showing off. Evolved blinked in surprise. He found it difficult to determine the age of the foals by eye, because the range went from eight to thirteen... Well, if we take the specimens seen earlier for the structural extremum, they seem to be too small for adolescence. Why did the "princess" shine with the thigh muscle? The foal looked like no larger and no more evolved than the objects of her with a gray friend of ridicule. Still making fun of the trio, the hooligans pulled on the song, God knows what content. The Equid language itself was very melodious, but the obvious rhymes made it possible to distinguish between ordinary speech and versification, as in the case with the zebra. The poems are unnatural... They don't look like beadles, and it's still a long way to Christmas,(4) for some reason Mercer remembered. The suspicion of the already familiar "incorrectness" of what was happening twisted his feelings to the maximum, forcing his eyes to bite into the filly, and send the stub of his left hand under a camouflage coat behind his back, where the machine gun was fixed with elastic ligaments. Having finished the song-teaser, the insolent living creatures gave out several final short rhymes, clattering their hooves and leaning their elbows against each other. With a last exclamation of joy, they threw their cereals into the air and plopped down their tiny tailed butts in a high-five manner.

If Mercer had had his lower jaw at that moment, it would have naturally dropped.

What's the bloody hell going on here, in disbelief, Alex thought feverishly. The firmware of his brain in front of such fragmentary data frankly gave up. I don't understand. To a certain extent, I don't want to understand!

The ponies didn’t show off their thighs, how are other representatives of the fair sex proud of the size of their breasts? And if so, aren't these two too small for such a small one?! What did Mercer have a rather silly thought about? be? As that supercomputer used to say: Christ, what an imagination I've got! (5) Alex thought displeased. Most of the Xenos weren't worn - well, given that wool already had enough protection from the sun, cold, and dust, that made sense. Probably. But during his spy games, Mercer never had a chance to see something that was drawn to emancipation and free morals, despite the general walking naked. And when he did stumble upon something like that for the first time, it turned out to be two foals, which were barely ten knocked offhand! The whirlwind of associations raised by the case, which did not fit into any predicted framework, made irritation splash out. Enough of me with brain-carrying, but, moreover, useless information to download, the Universe! Alex boiled, once again changing his vocal cords. Fuck off!

Mercer gave the tirade that he heard about the hooligans from the teacher - only made the sound louder and more threatening. All five foals jumped on the spot. The sleek muzzle of the crowned woman was already distorted with discontent when she realized that she was being lectured again. But the gray pony, not finding the source of the sound, was terrified. Ignoring the objections of the pink, she dragged her to the exit from the site, whispering something feverishly into her fluffy ear and fearfully looking around. While the inseparable trio were distracted by nasty things and head-spinning trying to figure out where Cherry was broadcasting from this time, Alex threw the drone into a gallop. And again the pony with the bow turned out to be more observant than her companions: she saw how the articular body and the wriggling "tail" were hiding under the twist in the grass. Now she managed to get the attention of her friends, for the foals held their breath and stared straight at the merry-go-round.

Mercer connected the wrist to the joint, habitually connecting the muscles to the main systems and securing them in the right places. Now he was motionless again, merged with the ground and looking from the side as an uneven layer of soil, which for some reason had been thrown to the base of the post. In theory, it was necessary to get away from here, since Mercer was lit up, and there was a guard nearby... But Alex just waited, not knowing what he was counting on. The foals looked at the merry-go-round with apprehension, especially the unicorn. The moisture that appeared before her eyes had already dried up, and the little one seemed to have completely forgotten about the recent offenders, at once switching her attention to a new nuisance that could happen to them. The orange and yellow ponies also stood on bent legs, ready to give a fight at any moment - but Alex saw how the scourge of all parents flared up in their eyes, irrepressible, almost suicidal curiosity.

In the end, after whispering among themselves and having come to an agreement with her friends, the "earthly" pony sideways and sideways crept up to the carousel and fished an apple out of the bag on its side. The usual kind, one of many that grew in well-tended gardens outside the city, and not an extravagant creature of the forest. Placing it carefully on the grass, she strummed with a short note-phrase - and stepped back. Friends, drilling an entertainment projectile with their eyes, on the contrary, moved closer. Alex sighed, blinking slowly: he still felt an imperfect option, which he pondered after the radio session ended. Getting in touch with xenos children... Doesn't sound like much, but in theory it makes sense. Alex had no reason to trust their teacher, but the children's minds themselves might not have been touched yet by propaganda of all stripes, if such was practiced here. What if the foals have not yet taken the boring teachings of adults seriously, which princesses are important and worthy of worship if they have outdoor games, sweets and interesting books? Having disassembled their speech and separating fables from reality, it would be possible to isolate information about the state of affairs, from first hand... to get it on the hooves.

Will they let Mercer in? At school, Alex did not notice drawings and books on space themes and flights to other worlds - which is strange for a race whose chosen representatives literally own space objects. But, even if, for some unknown reason, the cosmos is not conquered by Equids... As Alex has already found out, zoomorphs were a little like the medieval rabble, except for the dirt under the hooves of those who had never seen anything. Although they have those who consider themselves superior to others - well, without this, and in a super-technological universe, you will not manage, you see. For a demon from the depths of the underworld (if Mercer hadn't washed off the smell of marsh sulfur, this comparison would have been even more relevant), the alien in the eyes of the droopy would not have been accepted either... At worst, not in the case of these little ones - they seemed to Alex rather brave. Especially the Pegasus, who is not at all prone to girlish stereotypes in Humanner of that pair of hooligans. Well, purely a little boy, if you don't pay attention to a more gentle voice and constructive! Fuck knows how Equid society was in terms of gender roles; most of the civilians seen were females, while the royal guard consisted mostly of males. They have tut what, was there a division of the way of life according to the type of the Spartans? Greco-Roman style helmets, again...

Ah, empty. Thinking this way and that, Alex very slowly, palm up, without making raking movements, so as not to frighten off a trifle, stretched out his hand. With the tips of his claws, he symmetrically grabbed the apple and just as slowly dragged it into the shadow. The foals gurgled with joy - but they were even more delighted when Mercer returned the apple, cutting out a quarter with his claw, as befits a guest invited to the common pot.

Then Alex heard the guard moving in the school, talking slowly with the teacher he already knew. He decided not to find out what the filly would do anymore - suddenly, having suddenly changed his mind, they would turn to a representative of the authorities? Putting his knees and elbows up, Mercer, like Jack the Lantern, ran off into the thickets of bushes, jumping over the fence in one stringy jump. The foals, of course, squealed in surprise, but their voices sounded more of joyful excitement than fear. Turning his head back on the run thanks to a long neck, Mercer saw how a piggy with a lilac mane almost rushed in pursuit - only the curly one grabbed her tail with her teeth, barely restraining her friend. But, although she was the most cautious (or simply had the greatest bit of common sense among the whole trio), the white pegasus did not report. Until the guard rose into the air, quickly heading to the center of the town, the unicorn, along with the other two filly, diligently pretended that nothing had happened, and in general they were counting crows here on the site. Then, looking around, they walked away, conspiratorially exchanging glances and, in an enchanting atmosphere of secrecy (as they probably thought), discussing an unexpected meeting.

Done, Alex drew a line by following in front of them through the woods. Sometimes the truth hides from the smart, but is revealed to the simple-minded... Maybe Harper Lee was not so naive in her "Mockingbird", claiming that children are able to see what the half-closed and tired eyes of adults are not capable of. Maybe Spielberg's turtle was right when he did come into contact with children - especially of such a kind as this trinity, which does not run almost under the protection of parents. For foals, if engravings don't lie, alien races are nothing new. A stranger, albeit a creepy one, will be perceived by foals as a large dog, which must certainly be brought home, warmed and fed. And, of course, hide from angry adults who prohibit everything potentially unsafe, but so alluring with the spirit of adventure. It was not worth changing the appearance - it was just that the rough shapes of the armor plates were made more elegant, giving them the smoothness of the metal, cutting off sharp corners. It was possible to pretend not to be a wandering between the stars or the leader of alien legions, but... just a stranger from another world, without unnecessary details. There is no need to be original and invent an incarnation of anti-life, or God knows why else the local sorcerers with their archaic way of life can accept the zombie virus. The language barrier, again, will only play into the hands of the lack of details...

There was definitely something... wrong about child spying. The fact that Alex was thinking about how the foals would like it, in principle. Such a state was a novelty for Alex: to represent himself in someone else's skin, to withdraw reactions to stimuli... As if he was again conducting sabotage work at the military base, which will certainly end with a grandiose fireworks and the death of all those involved. The original Mercer was not used to getting what he wanted with psychological tricks. High social status, detachment from the world of people far from science, money, again, that by their presence they do all the work and allow them not to intersect with the stratum of the social environment, laughing at science for ornate words - all this eliminated the need to adjust oneself to others. Inborn abilities, qualities and knowledge of how the world works, gave Mercer an understanding of how the rational thought, even taking into account some of his traits of a sociopath, but still... Still, Alex was aware that being updated he was much better now I was calculating the options when it came to people, and kept these innumerable relationships in my head. Eighteen days of fighting for his own life, working as a half-educated detective and betrayal taught Mercer a lot. "Black Light" perfectly trained his new home, made him act with concentration and without the right to make mistakes, hoping that Mercer would be able to adequately perform in non-standard, extreme combat situations - just in such a way that the mutant was now trying with all his might to comprehend.

Do the children go for their own? Alex looked at the quarter of the apple, which he dragged away, holding it in the left "stub". Well, Mercer is not proud enough to refuse compromises with what seems unusual and even wild to him. What can you not do to get out of the heap of troubles; a few days ago, Zeus had to learn to fly on the "Black Hawk Down", that he was in He considered total control of the sky by warriors useless, and today, already evolved in the guise of a la Grievous, flaunts. In general, he was lucky that the color and sound perception of the xenos turned out to be, if not identical to that of a human, then similar enough to go to his own. A different universe, different rules: even though xenos would pass for higher mammals (including secondary sexual characteristics), who knows... There was nowhere to take data from the consciousness of the absorbed - the perception of some colors, spectra, again, contrast and the depths of the pony could differ from the human optimal. Another argument in the piggy bank of the strategy chosen by Mercer.

Noticing how the three foals turned onto the road leading to the apple orchards, Alex reasoned that they were heading to the old woman who had scolded him. Apparently, the farmers' daughter invited her friends to visit in order to keep secrets - there were fewer guards outside the city, which meant that there were fewer prying eyes. Although Alex still spotted a couple in the vicinity of the farm, when he broke away from the foals, every now and then they stood up for the next dispute, and ordered the drone to reconnoiter. While scanning the area, I turned the screw on the remaining helium bottle; Alex decided to assimilate the supply and process a fuel cell surrogate with it, otherwise you never know... Still, what good, his test contact will be misunderstood, the guards will fly into the cries of the rednecks, and he will have to fight seriously for his life.

Um, maybe in this regard Alex also turned up the situation, guided by the filter of perception of the original Mercer and the earth culture. These earth ponies did not shine in manners specifically - it was noticeable from them that they represented the most provincial sector, where mechanization was at least involved... but the "magic" left its mark here too. Harvests on the farm were collected, be healthy - the same apples grew as they were on the selection, ripe and liquid, as if a whole army of workers were still waxing them on the branches! Well, or Lovecraft's Color(5) ran everything here. True, it was not clear that in this situation, with such a riot of plant life on the territory of the farm, a small grove made up entirely of skeletons, in which Alex barely recognized the same apple trees, would make it. The eerie-looking plants were clumsy and generally gave the impression of being dried out a long time ago, but no one was going to cut them down. But even without a "dead" section of workers for such a territory, there were ridiculously few... is-here ". Alex's theory that Equids are fabulously rich found another confirmation - during the harvest ripening period, the main pony took it and screwed it up indefinitely, leaving the farm for a small group of close and distant relatives. Still, to deal with the land in this world was more like a hobby than a harsh necessity of the Middle Ages, when in the sweat of your brow you have to plow like a draft horse just to last one more season.

Rednecks were also wrong here - in the sense that they did not resemble the inhabitants of a certain state, for whom it was a matter of honor to urinate on the gene pool. They made the same impression as the townspeople: well-groomed, hard-working, loving to laugh, without any rabid xenos-things (except for an overly active elderly mare that could relax in a rocking chair, and already five minutes later gallop to the barn, groaning and clucking something to himself in Equid). Pony, who was now a senior, on the contrary, would pass for a model of equanimity. Alexander was only amazed when he saw the stallion playfully moving a huge barrel with something heavy; despite the bulky muscles, powerful, but without a hint of caricature of a bodybuilder, despite the reduced density of objects, it was a very impressive demonstration of the local abilities.

Yes... The locals were just toilers, such well-to-do farmers, not crazy rednecks. It is unlikely that Mercer would have been greeted here with a volley from a double-barreled - not only because Alex in principle did not see a firearm in this world, plus the same big man could crush bones to dust to someone else with his bare hooves, but also because of the pony's peaceful disposition... However, Alexander preferred to still be buried from the eyes of the uninitiated. Having discovered a classic tree house in the vicinity of the farm, Alex decided that the building was the clubhouse of the trinity, whom he knew in absentia, and hardly anyone would look there besides them. Evolved into a club house and climbed, sending a drone in auto mode, to place sensors on the periphery of a huge apple tree. Not a bad place to hide, actually: the branches formed a green canopy that effectively limited the view of the pegasus. To the attic and even higher, into the crown of a tree, one could climb rather narrow ladders. Inside the house was the even coolness of a room in the shade. Where-then there was a barely audible buzz, suggesting an old lamp - but it could be bees or insects that are unique to this world. There were several tubs with unpretentious plants, a map of the city with many notes and posters hung on the wall, including an azure pony that almost flew into Mercer - her color scheme was difficult not to recognize. Was the express train an example for the young people here? Well, well... Also in the corner of the room there was a lectern just for the height of little ponies, writing materials, stacks of magazines, a small amount of furniture and poufs for sitting. Having rummaged among the things and not finding anything interesting, Alex left a wedge of apple on the steps to hint at his presence and not to scare the small fry. Slowly, assessing the stability of the alien wood against its weight, he climbed to the second floor. There he slowly sifted through old drawings and books, until he noticed the approaching filly. Then the brush returned and, immediately attracting the pony's attention, climbed into the attic window.

Now, having introduced himself and found a point of mutual understanding, Alex could take a closer look at all three, learn the foals' habits, without huddling under the merry-go-round in three deaths. But he still hunched over so as not to support the ceiling with the top of his head in a sitting position - he bent his neck, throwing his cut head forward and lowering it below the level of the collarbones. The point of view was unusual, but, at least, he did not seem now unknown giant for foals, evolved barely reaching the middle of the thigh of his old legs. Alex did not experiment and reproduce the missing facial muscles, because he still did not know the exact construct of the pony's faces. He will make some more face that will be regarded as anger or a threat... It is better for the time being to keep the monotonous expression of a "mask" with indicators-ears and a single eye, than to clear out the consequences of the Evil Valley later. It is curious, but what would be the reaction of the small ones to the usual horse's face, and do they have more primitive relatives here along the branch of the family? It was worth clarifying...

The red-haired filly, who greeted Mercer without hesitation, grabbed his finger with her teeth and pulled him to the first floor, as it turned out, to an impromptu lecture. The flyer stood at the pulpit and hummed something very solemnly, showing Human a cloak with an embroidered foal silhouette. She circled the space inside the house with her leg and... very demonstratively, downright demonstratively in relation to Mercer, poked her thigh. The yellow pony happily drummed its hooves on the floor, the white one gave an allusion to the applause, sitting on the croup - Alex was almost covered with a wave of flashbacks from the playground. Noticing that the stranger was staring at the pegasus, eyes wide open and apparently not realizing, she frowned, but repeated the same sequence of actions and expressions. The filly kept churning selflessly, not paying attention to the unicorn who was trying to stop her, and Mercer barely escaped from strain, trying with his mind to figure out what the foals were trying to say and what had their flanks got to do with it. parts. The fact that they had an ordinary school-age girl's club here was understandable: posters with a Glass Cutter, paper, coloring, embroidery, crayons, and other children's belongings like a small piano were available in full. But what united the filly was something that was new to man, something exactly that was alien, if Alex understood correctly. Talent? Purpose? With the current vocabulary, it was difficult for Alex to understand; The intonation of the words with which the pegasus denoted the whole trinity was... more souled, or what?

Finally, together, the two friends quieted down the flyer who had gotten used to it. While the pony with a bow was holding back, clasping across the body and covering her mouth with her hoof, an information terrorist (she was still trying to add something, indignantly puffing and chirping her wings), the unicorn stepped in. She, like a redhead ten minutes earlier, took a sheet of paper and began to draw on it with a pencil, working with surprising dexterity with her teeth. Then she approached Alex, slightly apart her front legs and lowered her picture-explanation to the floor in front of him. The curly-haired filly’s gaze expressed something between interest and slight apprehension - she still did not trust Alex enough to fearlessly approach him closely.

Chuckling to himself, Mercer looked at the drawing, hoping to finally find out what the little ponies had been trying to explain to him all this time. Schematic representation of groups of all types of ponies, except pied horns. Both adults and smaller children had some kind of... symbols in the area of ​​the fifth point, of various types and shapes. A bee hive, a soccer ball, a crystal, a note - the unicorn did a good job, because not a single pair of identical icons was, and they were drawn with all (for a child of primary school age) thoroughness. To the side of the general mass stood three equally schematic foals, enclosed in a circle, but they did not see the symbols on their sides... It was not difficult to notice that his new acquaintances served as prototypes of the drawn ponies. Unicorn even for a particularly dull stranger next to the tree-club trio, in which Mercer is now located, she sketched.

Evolved looked at the artist skeptically, then turned his gaze to the wall, where sheets of paper were hung with all the same symbols in all their variety. Many were crossed out, and Alex, suppressing the urge to scratch his bare skull in puzzlement, stared back at the white pony. "Signs", obviously, were of great importance for their company... What did they symbolize by themselves - a profession, a life vocation, with which the girls had not yet decided? But why, then, the little sorceress portrayed the other foals as if they had already acquired a profession, and not at school, let's say? And damn it, what does the asshole have to do with it, someone will already explain to him?! Wanting to clarify, with a beckoning motion, Alex demanded a pencil, which the unicorn easily pushed towards him with magic. With the tips of his claws, Mercer neatly grabbed a small writing utensil for the size of cat horses, and casually sketched an apple. Thinking that the "earthly" pony was most drawn to the farmers' daughter by color, he beckoned her to him, to which the filly reacted willingly: she was not afraid of Mercer almost as much as the purple-headed daredevil. The mutant has already applied his creation to the side of the pony, without touching its fur (offering prayers to all gods in a row so that this innocent action does not go to the natives for harassment). Looked interrogatively at the unicorn - did you mean that? Does your friend want to continue the family business? The white one nodded happily - and the yellow one was completely excited, constantly chirping in her own language and almost lovingly looking at Alex's very nasty drawing. Who knew that Equid kids could draw better with their mouths than a mature man under thirty with a full (almost) set of fine motor limbs... Mercer was about to draw his next picture question, but the pony with a bow suddenly stretched out her hoof and moved it hand, so that the drawing was exactly on her thigh. Looking at Alex, she gave out a short trill of an affirmative character and smiled cheerfully.

Anxiety gripped Mercer. The apple... It was... not just a symbol that is figuratively attached to a particular pony. Now Alex understood that these signs were something more material for the filly, something for which a specific place had been allocated, the thigh of the hind leg. The little ones were eager to receive "signs", perhaps not to be different from the rest of the ponies. But in the eyes of Mercer, they did not differ from adults or their peers in any way! In eyes...

Unless Dr. Mercer doesn’t see these signs. He doesn't see something that the three think he should have. Could it be that human perception still differed from the point of view of the Equids in some of its components? Not just colors, spectra... but whole pictures? Mercer reflexively lowered his head, looking at his hip - the children were staring at the same with interest, but no intelligible reaction followed from them. Alex, turning the sheet over, erased all the symbols on the pony images that the unicorn depicted with an eraser. Turning the drawing to the girls, he pointed first to himself, then to the empty sides of adult ponies-abstractions. Alex played a note of negation, and then immediately pronounced a combination of sounds in Equid for "vision." He shook his head and shrugged to be sure.

It seems that he made the foals understand him: the whole trio looked at him incredulously and with confusion in their eyes. Maybe they decided that Mercer had real vision problems, for the yellow pony brought her face close to the mask and, squinting, began to look at Alex's eyes. At her command, the pegasus dragged a first-aid kit with the usual red cross from behind the cabinet and began to busily gut its contents, in the process managing to get entangled in bandages and almost knocking over something that looked like a bottle of peroxide. Suppressing laughter (for a miracle in feathers, which must have often climbed into a box for plasters, looked extremely comical with gauze hanging from his nose), Alex calmed the little one. Not in the most suitable way, however - he, having decided to finally test his theory, reproduced the drawing of his jacket on the thigh, where the muscles were wrapped around the bones and covered with an elastic protective layer, which passed into the armor on the sides. I didn't even have time to inquire about anything - but I already understood what mistake I had made. The filly's eyes lit up with an almost fanatical brilliance, and they vied with each other to demand from Mercer, no doubt, the same thing that he had done for himself. With great difficulty, switching to active gestures, drawing a dozen images and occasionally inserting separate familiar words, the evolved one convinced them that this was just a stupid picture, an imitation, a disguise that was no more significant than the hat you were wearing. At the same time, I made sure that for the ponies these symbols were really important, because the foals decidedly did not want to just paint the marks. The kids were looking down - but when they saw that Mercer spoke began to cough again, and a joyful cry of unknown persuasion was emitted in chorus. Putting their mouths together in fright and looking out the door just in case, they with triple zeal began to persuade Alex to treatment, which included pouring into him all the fluids that were found in the first-aid kit. They also wanted to bandage the stump, mistaking his hand as damaged... Mercer, of course, opposed this. But he quickly managed to switch the attention of persistent filly: it was enough to show that the newcomer was interested in the new world around him... And books, yes, all sorts of books that the pony would have the knack to bring to Mercer. And help him with his studies, of course. Well, how can you refuse the honor of helping an alien guest take the first timid steps in the land of Equids? The unicorn and the earth arranged a short council between themselves and, without thinking twice, splashed in different directions, leaving the overseer with the distinguished guest.

While the yellow and white ponies were away, Alex felt himself fully as a swindler-simpleton who decided to make a living by kidnapping children, from the story of the unforgettable Henry. Pegasus bombarded Mercer with a bunch of questions, the meaning of which was solved at most in two and a half - and those were in the spirit of "Are your alien oranges round too?!" As if this were not enough, the redhead constantly strove to be closer to Mercer, to put her hooves on his knees and look straight into his face, which made Alexander feel awkward. When the curious foal, completely brave, climbed to the alien device that Mercer's left arm was crowned with, he had to pull it back. The machine gun was on the safety lock, but also an unloaded gun, as they say... The Evolved sternly muttered, pulling aside the hoof with which the pegasus had already reached for the box and the trigger guard: No. You can't. Denial is a puppet. Then the machine gun was completely discharged, and together with it, the tape was sent to the second floor and the stairs leading there were removed, and at last he threatened the foal with a finger. It is unlikely that here Mercer could need a weapon this very second, so it was better to take it out of harm's way. From the raking paws of children, to be more precise.

Wings of misery was indignant with such arbitrariness, of course, she even showed her tongue to Mercer. But she didn't manage to sulk for a long time - a mutant from another world looked too interesting for a pegasus, attracting attention. She returned to trying to establish live communication with the alien. Although she did not succeed in completely annoying Alex, who sailed into the jungle of her own thoughts, generated by the surrealism of what was happening. Mercer was a genetic engineer... he imagined himself to be a serious man with no less serious problems in his life, and not some kind of nanny, but even he found it difficult not to admit that the local children were still pretty. Look at the living creatures that naive eyes opened at you, wrinkling her nose with displeasure, and lips that do not exist on their own begin to disperse in a grin... What a combat bundle of feathers and fluff! It was recalled that the increased concentration of lithium, which was the basis of local life forms, had a beneficial effect on the stability of the psyche, studies were carried out in the same Texas... True, only inside, in the composition of an aqueous solution, and not on the fact of being near a person.

Despite the fact that the little one brought Alex into a semblance of good mood, Human kept up the conversation reluctantly, fearing to attract attention from someone who could bypass the perimeter of his alarm system unnoticed. When he answered, then in monosyllables, copying the speech of the Pegasus, most often reporting that she did not understand what she said, but sometimes agreeing or refuting. While the court and business, with the help of pictures asked to name all the objects in the room, and then began to memorize, for the sake of fidelity, repeating aloud after the Pegasus. Mercer no longer squeaked, because he used up the helium reserve and removed the empty cylinder to the second floor: after two entries into the radioactive zone, his fuel charge was depleted, and it was necessary to make up for the shortage. With longer sentences, Mercer gave up speaking until the wisdom of the local language was taught by someone more sophisticated and less hyperactive - a white pony, for example. Without copying other people's phrases and sound constructions, taking as an example only the logic that the virus managed to concoct on the basis of dispersed data, Alex said as an online translator - disgusting, often distorting the meaning. To the little songstress, he probably seemed to be a real broken toy, which as a speaker wheezes, croaks, or squeals and grunts. Judging by the way the foal frowned at Alex's attempts, the bear, from the point of view of the locals, not only stepped on his ear, but also danced a step there. But just to reproduce the voice of the redhead and associate it with the designated object, the evolved one turned out great, yes. Then, when two volunteers returned and began to study Alex more thoroughly, he began to slowly learn the meaning, which individual notes carried in themselves...

What could Alexander say after one and a half to two hours of intensive assimilation of information? The fact that the etymology in the language of tetrapods was - brains scrapped do you! The same names of the Seekers-designation were a mystery to Mercer. Of course, even at the first meeting, they introduced themselves to the alien guest, poking themselves into fluffy breasts, but since it turned out to be too tricky, unusually musical for the human mindset, Alex mentally designated the foals in his own manner, Rustle, Marshmally and Shu (for a change)... When Mercer decomposed their Equid names into their constituents, he began to come out at all some kind of nonsense. Well, how, tell me, can you take seriously someone called "Delights-rings"? Although, if you take a literary translation, the name for a white unicorn would be very suitable... And the truth is, her voice was the most gentle among the whole trio, melodious, like a silver bell. The problem, obviously, was that Mercer took their names literally - for ponies, certain combinations of word-notes had long lost their meaning, turning into labels with a certain emotional color. The name of Mercer, after all, also once meant not just a person, but the concept of "protector of people"... Sinister irony, given that Alex was protected only by a couple of people, and the rest, who had stupidity to stand in his way, was not reckoning with the means.

With the Equids' writing, also built on principles that are not similar to any other language, things were even better - the evolved one mastered the same base, a kind of set of hieroglyphs for tolerably reading a newspaper from the Japanese. It’s bad, of course, that Alex perceived the squiggles of the four-legged as an outlandish mosaic crossed with Morse code, but in the end he learned to distinguish between individual constructions, and then to isolate the general meaning, systematizing and supplementing the missing information, as his body, which was blown to pieces by the brain, restored. Praise the viral neuromachineering that is firmly entrenched in Mercer's cranium! As soon as the factor of emotional color, so important in the speech of Equids, was removed, and the usual sequences of symbols were given, the logic of the machines began to work at full speed. To hell with systems theory - with a leap of organization on the collected data, this onboard AI solved the problem in the same way that it took care of the basic movement skills of Mercer, completely after the "death" of not familiar with the updated body. In more complex books, the context should have become important when translating, well, the evolved one should not get used to leaving the easiest and most seductive ways as untrustworthy. To the devil, information specially prepared for contact by concepts - Mercer himself will search, separating the wheat from the chaff. And where his imagination and eyes fail, as in the case of talent marks, the language of pictures will come to the rescue. Alex once again looked thoughtfully at the childish scribble on the wall. Aborigines had schematic, figurative thinking, and this opened up a huge field of activity for Mercer. Another world, another universe, crazy rules - but the laws of logic were applied here, which indescribably pleased Human. His "teachers", in turn, were pleased with the achievements of the student, who had to say only once to memorize, and not all 300. Judging by the conversations, the filly, against the background of their successes, seriously thought about the career of teachers, although only recently they were seriously going to become "Alien Doctors". Not ADHD, but they did go from one extreme to another very easily. It was possible to understand them: what they had not tried so that they could get these... mental labels, or what else the invisible devilry was.

Alex has also improved his verbal communication skills. It is enough to express yourself in a broken way and, moreover, not to ruin the delicate ears of the pony, asking clarifying questions. And there were a lot of them: the white unicorn brought not only the alphabet and other "tutorials" from the section of children's literature (it is unlikely that the librarian began to pry out why the schoolgirls needed these primitive albums. that only half of the town will burn this time). Marshmally in all seriousness got hold of a book of household and sewing magic, hoping to teach a stranger "witchcraft"! Well, or at least to acquaint with the basics, because the unicorn herself was not yet a specialist in this matter, her telekinesis was very weak.

Naturally, the workbook for housewives is not a "magic physics course for the highly advanced", but Mercer is somewhat more complicated and would not have been able to figure it out. With the explanations of the girls, he not only evolved some theory about how spells work, but also transferred their effect into his familiar phenomena, the concepts of the world of people. So, Alex realized that telekinesis was not just a sequential movement of an object in three-dimensional space, but two spells combined in one. This was, first of all, holding the zero weight spell, and then directly moving, applying force. That is why Marshmallow, with a sin in half capable of lifting light objects for a short time, could not even move a finger on Alex's hand, referring to "too much, too heavy". The evolved one felt a weak field pressure, but not so much that the finger's own weight yielded to him, even completely relaxing the flexor-extensor muscles. The first component had exactly that" internal "effect... on cellular structures, on molecules, quantum quantities in general. Just as some mechanisms of the pony's talents were not imprinted in Alex's brain, so their spells of this kind did not work on him, imprisoned for the matter of his native dimension. While all four interactions, the same gravitational field, worked on Mercer; "external" effects, just as the aircraft steel from the Black Hawk calmly preserved its properties in this world, and electrons continued their continuous run in his brain.

The unicorn added, panting, that telekinesis requires constant concentration, and Mercer is also very heavy... there is a reserve. Controlling the aura in real time, which worked as a capture grid and used the same energy-intensive barrier principle, was much more difficult. Damn it, Marshmallow claimed that she almost had a sewing scissors spell - because it was highly specialized, clearly spelled out and required very little effort, while creating two full-length barrier strips that cut the fabric! But at the same time, she could not literally do the same with pure telekinesis, or tear the fabric by pulling on both ends! More and more miraculous and miraculous this world seemed, although not devoid of its own non-obvious logic. You can also drive a peg into the ground with a couple of strong hammer blows - or you can try to screw it into the ground with your bare hands for a long time, exhausted, although both are the work of familiar human hands...

The most interesting thing was that the obstacle was not the cloud of ionized gas itself, which was intangible and freely swirled around the object to which telekinesis was applied. The luminous facets distinguished by Alex were only a consequence... The foals generally asserted: adults taught them that by its nature this light is related to what is "in them"! And "on them" - therefore, in case of exhaustion or some other magical trouble, the ponies could naturally fade, which, according to the trinity, happened to their acquaintances after meeting the "Incompatible". The color of their fur, eyes and other parts of the body literally was not due to pigmentation, in the general case, the same spectrum was determined as the "magic" of the owner! Marshm’s aura looked green, which differed from her fur and curly mane, but this green was light pastel shades, did not stand out from the general color range and harmoniously complemented the iris of large eyes. Such concepts, which were different from everything that Alex knew, almost made Human give up the assimilation of one class of data halfway and go headlong into a medical reference book. And where did the little ponies get it? And, anyway, maybe they were going to become doctors, but they abandoned it...

So, the glow that Alex discerned that enveloped the telekinesis subject was not an impenetrable bubble like a barrier that could block the path of microscopic particles like a cloud of virions. But it functioned according to similar principles - it was based on the tangible manifestation of the quantum world. If Mercer understood correctly, in its pure form the barrier was a local initiation of the Planckian prohibition: reality in a given plane simply became solid, although there was no solid object there. Hoof kinesis functioned on a completely different principle, the same for all three races of ponies - it was completely invisible, but still influenced Mercer. Another surprise seized the evolved one when he realized that Shu was pulling his hand, drawing attention to himself, just putting his hoof! Perhaps a narrowly directed distortion of gravity, a kind of natural magnetism... It is difficult to believe in the existence of something that you cannot see and for which there are no generally accepted models, devices that would allow you to detect the reflection of these indistinguishable things in the material world! But in this dimension, there were absolutely other quantities that influenced at a much lower level than a human is able to perceive - but they could be noticed due to the same ionization of the air. Be that as it may, Mercer felt relieved: he did not go crazy when the filly began to convince him of the existence of marks, which for the evolved did not exist.

 One thing pleases, man thought, that they have these "marks" on the sirloin parts, and not, let's say... on the forehead. Otherwise, if I went out to the guards at the turntable... Ha, it would have been a fiasco even more shameful than the CIA screwed up with Ames. (6)

The trinity of ponies, on the contrary, were head over heels happy just because they now have a friend who is not only empty-sided himself, but also other ponies from the "Markers" in this regard. e is different. Alex didn’t want to think that children were just another means to an end for him. Having so easily accepted the alien giant into their company, treated him completely unjustifiably, they did not deserve all those plans that Mercer had in his head "as a last resort", hoping that if desired, the pony could be easily manipulated. Ultimately, in Alex's opinion, lying was an ungrateful affair, the lot of the weak, unable to influence their fate otherwise, even if you call it differently, the same "advanced user interface" or "politics". Mercer did not like to lie for the same reason that he happily forgot his offenders, leaving only a hidden dislike for all kinds of brethers - by deed he got out into people, by diligence and his own skill, and not by idleness. The truth for Alex, a man whose profession in her eternal search was indicated, was not an empty phrase, and too long suppression of it began to torment Human. He even gave out to his sister, unable to resist, the shocking information that the killed to some extent continue to live inside him. He was not even going to figure out what kind of reaction this would cause, and whether Dana would refuse to help him since then!

But now, when his survival could depend on a well-constructed lie... Now Mercer needed to determine the line of behavior in case he could manage to make peace with the representatives of the local nobility. Can wing-horns recognize lies? What in general will do Alex more for this hour, true or false? To imagine that he is so unique in the human race (which is true, because Green and the Runners were creatures of a completely different kind, not to mention the standard representatives of homo ss) - will inevitably raise the questions of the queens "why so?" and sound fears, because experimental models are accompanied by a bunch of side-by-side surprises, often unsafe. Well, if the sorcerers understand that humanity is practically defenseless, then they will be able to invade the Earth, planting their vision of "friendly-relationship-and-magical-arts." And if you pretend that people are more powerful than they really are, that they are all like Zeus, to whom it is much more difficult to do evil in any of its manifestations? If you get carried away with inventions, the archiwizards may notice contradictions; Mercer will make a mistake in his improvisation, sooner or later he will stumble, inventing the details of the social system among supermen. Alex can create a model, develop a theory, but without amendments, which is given by the great assistant of the scientist, Practice, a man will certainly miss the details... Ponies have been living in a society of superpowers for, probably, more than one thousand years, they can immediately spot the shortcomings of his theory... And if these creatures are really so open and friendly, then they will not like how Mercer immediately begins to lie with inspiration, without blushing, for no particular reason. Keeping silent is also not an option - it means that a guest from another world has something unpleasant and threatening to hide...

Alex sighed, pulling up a book from the tattered pile Shu had brought him. Wherever you throw it, there is a wedge everywhere... So now Mercer is weak, since he is going to put on masks and images again? Well, if you follow the philosophy of his original, he really was stronger when he was an ordinary person. Not in an absolute, but an equalizing sense, for Alexander was simply not paid attention to by forces with which one would not otherwise reach. And now, in this regard, he was also not in the most advantageous position. Shining-brightest... Shining. Celestial. Celestia - yes, that was the best way to interpret her name from Equid, - to fight her seemed a hopeless affair, just like competing with the awakened Vesuvius. The forces are incomparable; lava will continue its advance, burning everything in its path, no matter what you do. You can only run away, hoping that you will be in time faster than the eruption reaches its peak and kills everything around with poisonous gases, burying in addition under a layer of ash and hot stones. With the hurricane, wherever it went, maybe Alex would have competed: simply by starving, clinging to something stronger, waiting until the riot of nature subsides. But to fight with all the power of the sun... No. The devil knows whether Princess Celestia was his personification only in the culture of the aborigines, or in fact, too, but for some reason it did not smile at provoking the anger of the four-legged monarch and on her own skin of her ability to test Mercer.

Although, maybe Alex won't need any special super-tricks in the field of diplomacy. The creations of the alicorns (by the name of the source of their magical powers) were exceptionally ancient, if the foals are to be believed, however... The conflict between the gold-bearing mare and her sister happened a thousand and two years ago, but they did not resemble a thousand-year-old creature in human understanding - with the same the Raimon Fosca(7) showed no even the slightest resemblance. Hardly anyone could call these clear eyes that of the vile old women tired of life; based on the one he saw actions and demeanor, Alex would have given twins twenty or thirty years, no more, by psychological age. Ordinary ponies, kind and empathetic, about which the foals spoke with great trepidation and respect, but without the excessive deference and fear that adults could instill in them. The Luna, according to the young ponies, not even in the capital, but in a provincial town, personally led the carnival terrorizing neighbors for sweets (how long will this world make Alex feel uncomfortable with parallels of all stripes?). The elder sorceress did not shy away from indulging in this little happiness every day. Marshmally showed Alex a faded binder of a newspaper, on one of the pages of which Celestia, with a thieving look around, was devouring a cake! What are the notional incarnations of the Kubrick monoliths, unknown and incomprehensible... Who knows if all this was not masks? In a personal meeting, Alex can also notice what has long become habitual for ponies, recognize cheating and cunning deception. In the meantime, there was simply not enough data. Look, the foals argued that the alicorns really manipulated the Luna and the sun - but they were clearly not space objects familiar to the 21st century man, for "they saturate day and night creatures with power." Well, okay. Mercer will force them to take the first step, look at the line of behavior of the alicorns when they meet, then he will dance from her. Alex got hold of even b o more data than he hoped for. Thought the Equid children would make him difficult, but the foals were very easy to get along with. And yet, alicorns may have been a level higher than children's ideas about them. I had to prepare a little more, take into account something...

Yes... What can he say, the friendliness of the locals was amazing. The little mares showed interest in Mercer not just as a living toy, but as a playmate, although they knew him at most for several hours. Alex understood this from their conversations: the ponies were already discussing with might and main who it was worth introducing the two-legged to in the first place and where to bring them, whether he would become the ambassador of other strangers at Celestia's court, and whether the overly cautious Rare would not mind if her sister was genuine the newcomer will lead friendship. It is unlikely that in the understanding of the trio, Alex was the same cub, given the size - rather, an eccentric adult who, for some reason, does not know anything about their world and does not mind sitting with the little ones and listening to their stories. But Mercer didn't pull a full-fledged pony either - maybe that's why the foals treated him so easily, not counting him as a part of society, in front of which you need to perform some obligatory rituals. Or, in their eyes, he was still something like a pony, who is easy to trust, only looking different - a kind of bewitching anomaly, like the "thin man" Botet(8) for other people? Maybe. One of them was trying to observe rituals and conventions as if... Looking at how the ponks ate flower-berry sandwiches, Alex only grinned. While her winged and "earthly" friends were eating so that it cracked behind her ears, the unicorn ate neatly, biting off small pieces and from time to time cleaning the fur around her mouth with a napkin. She glanced sideways at Mercer, as if fearing that the tall guest in every sense would be disappointed with her manners - it was felt that the mentioned Marshmallow’s sister was training in this regard. Well, purely little lady, Alex cheered up in his thoughts. Not like that pink coquette, but kind-hearted and gentle, even though it fell out of the image of a unicorn once or twice, at the slightest provocation becoming an ordinary restless child. She had suggested even earlier to run home in order to treat the newcomer to oat pancakes with cinnamon and apple jam, which should have been left over from breakfast. If Alex had taken the local chemistry as it should, he, in a good-natured mood, would certainly have played along by answering: "You shouldn't, my lady, I'm ready to be satisfied with a sip of water and a bar of soap." Only then would I say to see the reaction of the foals. But what is true is true, salts of higher fatty acids have indeed proven to be a good alternative source of energy.

He had to explain to the filly in simple words that the local complex organic matter, if it takes any action on a stranger, is the most negative. There was nothing to treat the pony, in turn, so that the biscuits from the emergency packaging, which Alex got hold of during the final raid for electronics, Human grinded off himself, just for the sake of company. He warned me about a trifle, so that they would not quietly think of something that seemed edible to carry or to pick up random crumbs. From Alex's supplies, if not fatalities from severe food poisoning would have covered, then gastric lavage was definitely guaranteed... It's like eating dirt. He warned him, but all the same, he needed an eye and an eye behind the ponies: as soon as Mercer turned the bottom of the military canned food, so that the chemical underneath would warm the contents, Rustle immediately thrust her muzzle under his arm. She was very curious about what this alien was in the gloomy tin is piling up. Alex, while glancing at the biology textbook, absentmindedly patted her head, ruffling his mane with knobby fingers - but immediately pulled himself up. I thought the foal would get scared, bounce off the evolved one, which so easily touched her, forgetting that this was not a pet animal... Pegasus froze, as if listening to her feelings. Then the redhead simply jumped into his lap and, stomping, sprawled in the middle of Mercer's skinny legs, as in a nest, dropping her chin on the fleshy thigh. She thrust herself into her personal space assertively, without the slightest embarrassment; She raised her eyes inquiringly at Alex - why did he stop? Go on!

Now it's time for Human to scare. Mercer barely resisted the urge to fly up to the ceiling, like a frightened cat - otherwise the small fry would fit into the wall, raise a cry, and the trust in the "new friend" was seriously undermined. After a little reflection and correlating his gesture with the programs of behavior of the aborigines, the evolved one realized that nothing critical on his part was allowed. A couple of times he saw adult ponies patting foals on the back of the neck in the same patronizingly friendly way, and they took it for granted, the usual parental caress. True, none of those seen on the continuation insisted... Was it really in the constructive of the distal part of the Mercer? The touch of their hooves felt different thanks to gravikinesis, but they were familiar with the concept; for the ponies, tactile contact was something much less intimate due to the limited gestures, apparently. Rich facial expressions and the position of the ears are still not enough. For pink and gray cereals, colliding was exactly the same as giving five, a harmless gesture, this was Mercer in his head invented... anything.

The friends looked at Rustle with wide eyes - impatience was clearly beginning to appear in the Pegasus’ eyes, and Mercer decided. What a wigged wonder, he chuckled to himself. Under other circumstances, it would have been suspicious that the self-preservation instinct of the redhead was completely absent, but it must have been no fake. The ponies were trusting not only of the royals, but in general to everything that did not look particularly gloomy and demonstrated the friendliness of intentions - they spurted to the sides from the falling helicopter, only their tails dangled in the wind. Raising his hand unhurriedly, Alex mentally designated the "friendliness zones" tested by espionage: the back of the head, the upper part of the forehead, the cheeks, the part of the temporal ridge behind the ears, the scruff of the neck. Everything else is an unsafe field of activity and, most likely, fraught with cultural consequences. Spreading his fingers apart, Alex gently scratched the filly’s head, imitating the touch of an ordinary human hand - with the tips of rounded claws and only during the first contact with ordinary skin pads without the rigidity of the chitinous cover.

The first time he did it consciously, listening to his own feelings, Mercer ruled that the ponies were definitely not plush toys. The difference in terms of perception was probably the same as between human hair and that of more primitive hominids. Well, not that Mercer had experience in this regard - he never touched an ordinary horse in his life. But Alex was sure that the little pony's skin was not at all like the pile of the unreasonable. It's like a fur satin covered Rustle's skin, just like a delicate child's fluff. Humane, even though it was a tousled whirlwind, was amazing for the quality of the hair that flowed between the fingers one to one. Alex blinked slowly, like a huge, bony owl, and pulled the ear plates into a "neutral" position. He liked the feeling of stroking a warm live marshmallow. The mess and did softly melt under the touches of the evolved. Her small wings, so neatly pressed against the fluffy barrels, hung down relaxedly - only from time to time the flyer slowly folded and spread them again, like a cat trampling its owner with pleasure. Were all ponies affectionate and sociable to the extreme, that's your imprint? The red-haired friends were definitely - realizing from the satisfied chirping that the newcomer was so free to arrange a head massage, they began to drill Alex with touchingly pleading glances. Human just shrugged his shoulders and stuck his eyes back into the book, turning the page with the tip of his tongue. He had only one normal hand, so those who wanted to become "full-fledged contactors" had no choice but to wait their turn.

It was a completely new experience in the madness that has circled around Mercer for the past forty-eight-plus hours. Could he so easily sit with children on Earth and stroke their heads? No , definitely not. In his native States, doing this with an unfamiliar child would be akin to suicide, and Mercer had no acquaintances who would approve of such an attitude towards their children. As well as in general acquaintances with children, to tell the truth. This means that the same directives of perception on anthropomorphism were guilty of the fact that Alex was quite easy with the redhead on his knees humbled? It is easy to stroke someone who looks partly like the usual four-legged satellites, and who asks for the arm himself... In general, Mercer did not like domestic animals - in the sense that he could not help but recognize the usefulness of many of them, but for the fun of keeping those same dogs in his apartment "Renalia" would not. Dr. Mercer decidedly did not see anything so touching in the animal's attachment to the owner, given that it was based not on the merit of the owner himself, but on millennia of selection by behavior, ordinary instincts. It's like having a demanding car that follows orders in a slightly more creative way. If Alex understood anything about the concept of "love", it is that its basis is more of a chance, based on a sample of starting values, the basis, rather than a natural outcome of a certain sequence of actions... At least that's how it happened with Karen. More by inertia, by itself. But if not sympathy for cat-canine habits was the basis of Mercer's friendly attitude towards filly, then what? Alex hoped that it was not a tendency to dominate, a desire to feel his own superiority, for in the caress of another intelligent was definitely something patronizing from his anthro-point of view.

“It's all about strange...” Alex croaked in his native language, but with these thoughts he jumped off quite easily. Ponka, who was basking on his thigh muscles and grumbled something approving under his breath, would have just passed for a visual aid. Occasionally the "manual" opened one eye, when Mercer, with a stub of his hand, stuck a textbook under his nose, asking a question about the meaning of local squiggles, and in a sleepy voice clarified what she knew. It seemed that a little more, and old Salvador could write with a purple-headed molten time... The unicorn and the earth pony jokingly fought for the right to be next, with screeching rolling on the floor and throwing puffs at each other. Studying the anatomical drawing of the Pegasus in the textbook, Alex watched out of the corner of his eye the faint tension of the muscles that set the little foal's wings in motion as she folded them in a gesture of contentment. The evolved would still have time to outline all these cultural oddities, not to haste - now it was just possible to assimilate fragmentary data about equids.

There was something to think about. Rustle, for example, seemed quite light, weighing almost nothing for a creature of this size - not only was the density of matter almost twice as low as usual, but also a different structure of bones. But besides, her tissues were no less durable than those of creatures based on terrestrial dihydrogen monoxide, and the impulse of the same Glass Cutter (judging by the stories about the achievements of the mentor, about whom Rustle willingly told Alex), be healthy - such a gust of wind cannot be blown away. Rather, she herself will rip your flesh from the bones, just flying by; even if the redhead embellished the abilities of the best Pegasus for the sake of words, the possibility of the existence of organics capable of moving at supersonic speeds and without any problems experiencing huge overloads was very impressive. Mercer himself has been doing things for the last twenty days that ordinary people never dreamed of in their lives, but still... You can't really fly in such an atmosphere - the wings of pegasus, probably, only served for maneuvering.

Human, shooting an eye to the sides, exhaled an imperceptible cloud of virions onto Rustle's back. They could not penetrate into the cells and read the gene code in this world, but they carried out the bearing of three-dimensional space, such information dust is much less dispersed. Trapped in a small amount of sweat, in its watery base and clogged in the pores, the virions formed a model relative to each other, and Mercer now felt the tension of the skin, the pony muscles flowing under it, setting the skeletal base in motion. Curious, man suddenly thought. Is there an analogue of a cherub in the culture of a pony, given that intelligent ones with wings already exist in their world?

But no, the creature was not drawn to the four-legged angel, although the analogy suggested itself. The differences were too great - not just a genetic chimera, composed mostly of an "earthly" pony, to which an unknown joker had welded its wings. Such a concept would have a right to exist, given that the wings of the Pegasus did not provide adequate lift. And yet Rustle did not fall into the same category as Mercer's hands - koi, mutating and changing their fundamental structure, remained part of the body solely due to the placental connection. If you hadn’t felt Mercer with your mind, I wouldn’t have believed it, despite even a good description in the textbook, however... Yes, the wings of a pegasus, even such a young one, were an amazing constructional highlight. It is not enough to attach them for maneuverability, you need to correlate with the aerodynamics of the rest of the body, arrange the necessary drives in the muscles of the back. Just think about it! A mammal with sets of limbs for two fundamentally different purposes is not your legs, which have been retrained from grasping and supporting distilize in a clean support for bipedal locomotion! Alex was going to make more detailed models in the future, but he already had a growing suspicion that pegasus are the most "natural" creatures that appeared as a result of evolution... Although, like the "Black Light", this evolution could be deprived of a long a series of trials, mistakes and any rudiments - generations went to a predetermined goal, more and more ideally adjusting their body to a certain pattern of flight and control of atmospheric phenomena. With unicorns it was not clear - in the chapter of the textbook devoted to their characteristics, there were quite specific words, the meaning of which the foals from the junior class could not explain to Mercer. With the earthly, on the contrary, everything was relatively simple. On average, a more powerful locomotor apparatus, as well as a predisposition to alchemy and everything that is associated with abstract "life", like healers...

Speaking of the representatives of these two subspecies, they finally managed to come to an agreement among themselves. The yellow filly, realizing that her friend is still a little wary of the newcomer, and fights for the right to be next by inertia, out of sheer prank, yielded with a giggle. The unicorn's eyes flickered. She clearly did not expect to overcome the stronger earth pony, and hesitantly began to mutter something in her defense. Bursting with laughter, Shu almost forcefully pushed her friend to Alex, and he, with a hoarse sigh, lightly slapped Rustle on the top of his head, capturing her attention. It was possible, since the tactile effect was so much to their taste, and to caress the remaining two - it cost nothing to Mercer to repay the foals with such a trifle for sincere kindness. To be honest, the process itself gave him some satisfaction.

Pegasus hardly understood Alex's gesture as he tapped the dial of an imaginary watch on his wrist with the tip of his tongue, but she did. Sighing in frustration, she made way. Stretching on the floor and flexing its wings, Rustle chirped like a hummingbird, and Mercer thought they were definitely smaller in scope than a couple of Pegasus foals he had seen, although they looked no less evolved. Maybe there was some other subspecies that flew like a helicopter, since the lift did not depend on the wings? Alex vaguely recalled that before his eyes, Rustle had never even tried to get off the ground. Too small yet for flying, how weak was the unicorn's telekinesis? Well, maybe the pegasus had little lift, but the horizontal speed was more than enough, if you believe her boastful demonstration of a scooter and a helmet.

The candle-wax pony in Mercer's lap did settle down, even if she looked up with caution. When Alex ran his fingers into her lush curls, gently stroking the skin between her ears, the unicorn almost immediately relaxed. The soft touches of the skin plates, interspersed with the scratching hardness of the nail, made the little girl break into a satisfied smile and cover her eyes. Alex almost drowned in the stream of tactile information. The winged foal, of course, was the most real disheveled, but even its fur did not contain a single bald spot, Humane was obedient to the hand and pleasant to the touch, but the white pony... Her skin was something truly magical was. It was, in general, given that it did not reflect waves of a certain length, namely that it emitted them, very evenly and softly, moreover. Not the fur behind the ears - pure velvet. The silky mane was no less delightful; it was felt that the little lady was specially caring for her, in contrast to the friends, who were limited to simply keeping their whirlwinds clean. If Mercer had a nose at that moment, he would certainly have begun to peck at them, spitting on the guards prowling somewhere outside, eager for his capture. But still, he continued to keep his own mind in good shape, for the reconnaissance mission had not yet been completed. Sleep a man now - and in the worst scenario, his sleep threatened to become eternal, even though his renewed body should have been incredibly sensitive to sleep. The long-awaited moment of relaxation, a stop in this protracted race, still did not come. Mercer was still alert, still ready for trouble. But the evolved one deserves a little respite, when you can take a breath, jumping in one place, so as not to stall at idle, right?

Taking the future sorceress to his knees, Mercer realized that he had finally fallen into this trap. It would be very difficult for him now to betray the trust and hospitality of the foals. Probably, all the same, the fatigue of the mind, which needed to grab onto something in the midst of this world, which went beyond all limits, affected itself. Something Mercer could concentrate on so that the current wouldn't pull him down... Anchor. It is difficult to recognize as a mortal threat, one of many for all these days, a young big-eyed xeno with a pink-purple mane, who, with pleasure, measures her hind legs with pleasure and stretches her neck, trying to prolong your touch. An innocent and supremely harmless creature plunged Alec he was almost in a trance, so he barely resisted the temptation to lower his hand lower, run his palm along the unicorn's back, passing her amazing fur between his fingers. He woke up only when he sent a hair that had fallen out of his mane into his “mouth”, hoping to decompose it into basic ones - and he bitterly regretted it. The taste of pony turned out to be like the corresponding cobaltate... Not to say, again, that Mercer had to try this cathode earlier, but the evolved one suspected that he was in this spectrum of sensations. Mother of mercy, what a rubbish!

Put it aside, you fucking naturalist! startled, recovering, Alex. Do not sleep and do not let go of your hands! It was definitely not worth climbing anywhere except mane and cheeks, where gestures of approval were captured. It was still not enough to get into a mess, because of the difference in cultures among the local pedophile reputation! Brr, Mercer shrugged his shoulders chilly, drowning out the urge to vomit. Abomination. It's even disgusting to think.

“I’d be a terrible father if I’m seriously worried about such things,” Alex muttered bitterly in his native language, closing the biology textbook. She and Karen never raised the topic of paternity, as if tacitly acknowledging the futility of this case. So they left it on "the beautiful horison", which will certainly be reached someday. Maybe later, after the wedding, which, in general, is not in a hurry for two young scientists either... Who knew that everything would turn out in such a crappy way?

”What?” uttered a note of incomprehension to Shu.

”Nothing, Rosemary-Blossom” Mercer answered in a benevolent voice of Rustle. ”Please, better serve, my plants-forest-book,” he nodded his head at the unicorn dozing under his hand, as if hinting that he did not want to get up and disturb her.

”Good! Show interest!”

The girl was clearly delighted that the distinguished guest had done away with boring adult squiggles and turned to a topic that she knew in some way. Shu brought in bundles of old books tied with twine and pretty dusty somewhere in the attic, among which there was another primer and several albums of a similar purpose. Probably, this is what the yellow pony studied before going to school. The rest of the volumes turned out to be manuals on agriculture and botanical reference books - Alex was especially pleased with the clearly hand (hoof) written collection of flora and fauna of the Everfree Forest. Mercer obediently familiarized himself with all the wild counterparts of the crops that Shu's relatives grew on the farm and which she did not fail to brag about. After that, to the filly’s question, sounded with bated breath, he assured her in an expert tone that they had the largest and best farm of all that Zeus had seen in his lifetime - without lying a single word. Mercer was one hell of a village life, except that he watched briefly on TV, and the orchards with vegetable gardens of horse villagers really impressed with their production and scale... Shu squealed happily, so Marshmally sleepily muttered something in the spirit of "let me sleep" under her breath and turned away head. Enjoying the touch no less than the white pony, Alex began to slowly palpate her scruff, so that the unicorn really began to snore, opening her mouth amusingly.

Rustle, meanwhile, seizing the initiative, took Shu's old diary away and began to show Alex the "coolest things" that were found in the surrounding forests. Mercer regularly read the text, listening to her comments, tasting new words and outlining perspectives for himself. Most of the information turned out to be not that useful (from the story of how the foals almost fell for the chef's teeth, Mercer only made a note that one of the pegasus could almost melt their brains with a glance) - but something seemed to Alex interesting. For example, familiar tree wolves were described as creatures capable of sneaking up completely unnoticed... The damn triffids of the local spill were not at all reflected in the magical background, unlike other creatures of this kind, which Mercer, based on descriptions of Rustle, christened golems. Probably, this property would make ideal predators out of dogs, but only there were no serious attacks from their side. Ponies that accidentally wandered into their territory will not tear apart - but they will spoil the skin, driving you out of the forest; until you pull out all the splinters, you will regret a hundred times that you were born, if there is no doctor at hand with a potion to remove foreign objects. Occasionally, the creatures got out of the Everfree, as if their patrol program was malfunctioning, but everything invariably returned to normal. The day wolves-dendrotransformers (merging into one large mechanoid came in a set) were often carried out in the form of a bush, recharged from the local abnormal sun, but they could easily be taken out of this state, being disturbed... Hmm. It was impossible to spot them with spells, but to smell them completely - the characteristic smell of either freshly cut grass or resin gave out the creatures with their heads, warning of their presence somewhere nearby.

Mercer had a good idea in addition to the one that was visiting him at the sight of blue flowers. The very ones that he caught a glimpse of, already independently leafing through one of the reference books, and which, with their pollen, caused acute discomfort, bordering on the desire to die. After asking Shu for clarification, Alex recognized from the tone of the pony that for the aborigines such thickets were something more neutral than dangerous. The quirk of the local nature was called "Painful-Mockery-Hyperbolizing", but Mercer called the plant shortly, without sentimentality: "Poison bitch." For the inhabitants of this world, the pollen was not lethal - it brought troubles of a magical nature, and therefore the evolved one had immunity to it. It seemed that the effect was accidental, although Shu claimed that the disease was somehow connected with that very talented mark. More precisely, Alex could not understand, but he already counted it for the jackpot. Randomness is an ideal weapon against the system and its minions, but here it grows right under our feet, available in the form of natural chemical weapons! Just add water... spray that is - and you're done! Hope's sources would have been jealous, there was no need for any race markers.

“So, the plants are no dead,” man clarified in bewilderment, when Shu, angrily rubbing at Rustle, returned the hoof to herself and showed Mercer the beauty and pride of the apple family - "Discharge-fruits" , which were originally a wild magical species, but through some cunning manipulations with watering cans and glass jars (?!) migrated from the pages of the diary to the ponies in the garden.

“Confirmation! They always be like that, during the harvest, changes are noticed!” the pony with a bow nodded. Then, on reflection, she slammed the book and gently hid it behind her back, looking hopefully at Alex. “Enough about our world, please! We will not know about your details at all, told us? Who is you there? How are you...

The yellow filly spat out new questions, and Mercer just cursed to himself. How can explain to silly ponies, without exchanging for hour-long lectures and not blurting out anything important, but also without looking too secretive, what the earth was like - and what place did Dr. Mercer occupy in life there?

“An interesting question,” - said Alexander thoughtfully and unhurriedly, buying himself a little time. “In fact, I am not anything less than a person,” if he understood correctly, this word in a pony meant precisely that a creature with its type of musculoskeletal system, and not a specific race, “but not anything either else. Just be aware of who I is no longer.”

The foals looked at each other, blinking. Then the pegasus asked in such a tone, as if she suspected that they were making fun of her:

“Is this more riddle?”

“Mine wasn't understand,” the farmers' daughter honestly admitted, looking at Alex with surprise. - “How could you not see who you be? Haven't you found talent significant of your? But you say that you have cute-marks for lack!”

“Well, no,” the evolved shook his head. “I told you that I was like that... When she”, Mercer nodded his head at the snoring Marshmally, “spoke about the magic of movement. No gravitationally!”

“Aha! You be like Nyu-tno! Opener!” giggled Shu, recalling a short excursion into scientific mythology from Mercer. “His will give him an apple on the head! And he immediately opened it!”

“What kind of gravity? Items without magic just fly down! Pegasus knows this better...” - puzzled scratched Rustle behind her ear.

The foals got into a heated discussion about whether Rarity should stand under the apple tree, which Sister Shu is shaking off at that very moment, at the next fit of creative impotence. Mercer, realizing that he would completely confuse not only the foals, but also himself, decided to act directly, without offense. Having woken up Marshmallow with that gentle patting between the ears, Alex sent the little lady to the floor, got to his feet, so that the foals involuntarily took a step back. Taking a machine gun from the attic, Mercer stuffed a tape into the bolt box and tidied up his belongings. Drown a tin can, a gutted emergency bag and an empty cylinder in a swamp, and that's the end of it - there is nothing to scatter with obvious evidence.

“Girls,” he used a generalizing word that he heard on the site from the foal teacher. “My language is correct not yet. It is important to study better for the conversation, but was is important to stronger find an adult who answers the adult's question. Can you find once? Before meeting the Princesses. After that I will tell you everything that you want. An agreement?”

“Agreement,” the little ones nodded seriously, not even really grasping the essence of Alex's words. Then only Marshmally, the most sensible, seemed to have caught some wrong and asked:

“You are a stranger, they accept and help. Why, then, immediately not the princess?”

“Live Long. Seen everything,” Alex grinned, flexing his spine and checking if all the bombs were in place. 

Then he condescended to explain, ”Know you. No-now acquaintance with princesses. Mighty magician. Afraid.”

Little ones tried to convince him that Luna and Celestia are the best and kindest rulers in the world, who will certainly enter the position of a foreigner and easily forgive that he plowed the outskirts of the city with his "paddle machine", but Mercer was adamant. How could the foals, in fact, know that the words formed from "rule" had been causing indigestion in Mercer for two months already, and for the last three weeks they had completely activated in the evolved many basic terrorist instincts, such as: introducing, obtaining data, disclosing with superior damage. Is it so easy to trust four-legged entities, which is objectively much stronger than Zeus in a direct collision? Not the best survival strategy.

Alex liked the fact that the small ones did not openly insist on their position at the suggestion of Rustle - they understood that adults, because of their tricks with a stranger, could be upset with something that they, children, would not understand. Perhaps the eyeballs occupied a greater proportion of the skull in foals than in humans, but foals have thinking cap on them. The restless girls were clearly not the kind who talk about their dolls all day and arrange toy tea parties; based on how easily the trio threw off the possibility of pairing Alex with the princesses, man's suspicions about their rich experience of adventure on the fifth point only strengthened.

Shu first said that they should have turned to someone named Constellation-in-Twilight as the smartest pony in town, but she left with Marshmally's older sister to the north, to some now forgotten empire... The gray-white punk reasonably retorted: since such a thing, the designated man would still not have come up, since she was Celestia's own protégé. Rustle suggested a zebra - One-who-conjures-through-the-brew, that lived in the distance, did not particularly go into pony affairs, but had a reputation as a wise and balanced mare, to whom it is not shameful to turn for advice. To be sure, the pegasus even sketched it on a piece of paper, and Mercer recognized the herbalist she had met earlier. Alchemist? Not quite, the meaning of the designation was a little different... The yellow pony agreed, saying that she and the zebra had already been connected by some successfully resolved case, but Alex was already opposed. Having met a forest witch, he could not call her hostile (and worthy to be killed by a helicopter for the sake of local recognition), but she was too strange for Mercer. Unpredictability was not what he wanted to see among the qualities of his informant...

The third candidate was proposed by Marshmally, immediately after Alex dismissed Shu's plans to sneak into the school and arrange a confrontation with one of the teachers there. Another unicorn, a female, according to the white one was "an expert on humans" and shared her hobby only with a narrow circle of initiates. Mercer agreed, never being able to understand what a pony was and why, in general, in the world of four-legged, someone could think of the life of upright creatures in the head of a hobby. A local conspiracy theorist and green man? The very same man striving for contact with minds from other worlds, whose existence Mercer suggested by the presence of any kind of science fiction and comics? Okay, not the best option, but it will make decision. Mercer will only need to extract some data from this unicorn in person, and then the whole world has to stop. One hell about his close acquaintance with the trio in a day, in a maximum of two, the whole city will find out - Alex did not create any illusions that the talkers would be able to keep such a tasty secret, sooner or later they would say it out of pure bragging or in some other way attract the attention of adults. Let this information bomb go off when it is convenient for Mercer...

Alex leaned over to the window and looked out, peering cautiously from behind the curtains. It was getting close to evening, and soon the little ones were to be invited to dinner. All three of them gathered to spend the night on the farm, judging by their conversations, under the protection of the Apple family and a pair of winged guards that patrolled the city boundaries on this site. Another sleepless night... Not so bad for a man who used to pore over a new project until dawn, grabbing a fleeting idea by the tail. Mercer is no stranger to it. It was time to remember the very first days of becoming evolved. It's time to stretch your bones a little... and hunt, only in the real jungle, not urban.

Zeus surely had to deal with these remaining fleeting details. He is well armed for trashy, in which the villainess-fate threw him, circumstances. Machine gun, a solid supply of low-power bombs that can only inflict damage when detonated at close range, immunity to directed magic, territory control. On the side of Alexander - speed, surprise, fear and sophisticated in their cruelty, inventions, which can become a revelation for members of the local archaic society. Alex will assume that princesses are ordinary politicians, not superintelligents; if they could go into the separation of streams of consciousness, were strong in mult-tasking and have used levels of planning above second for millennia, like Seldon, (10) it would certainly be reflected in their personalities. Probably. But if Mercer is wrong... Well, one thing is reassuring: the likelihood of peace negotiations with arch-ancient creatures, for some reason loving to tinker with primitive equids compared to them, is quite high. Mercer did not know how he would have acted in the position of twin monarchs - if he had stayed in his world, finding himself in terms of the development of other people higher after that incident. Unfortunate, perhaps. Although, how to think... On the one hand, his original, with his outburst of anger and inept bluff, sentenced many New Yorkers. On the other hand, if Mercer hadn’t announced the government’s dirty tricks so loudly that it would never be cleaned up, make him McMullen finish the development of the latent version - and much more people around the world would suffer. And the elected representatives wanted to spit on US citizens outside the elections and paying taxes, just give them an excuse to let them down the chain dogs in black uniforms, as it turned out. Maybe if Alexander stayed in his home world, he managed to make sure that the sacrifice of all these people was not in vain? I would use my latest capabilities for the benefit of mankind, ignite biotechnology as the dawn of a new era of science and medicine...

Ridiculous. What the fuck is the difference now? The hell! Got stuck where, with talking horses, maybe he’s not has a tea party - is it meaningful to hesitate because of an unfulfilled? It was necessary to get out of this place, even if you had to risk begging for help from the locals. Otherwise, the only thing that will remain is to treat oneself with trials, that fall not only on the shoulders, but on the soul, on the human spirit. Alex chirped softly with his windpipe, drowning out the echoes of his conscience. In the rare moments of the lull of the epidemic in Manhattan, he experienced this feeling, although he was very reluctant to admit it to himself. Now is especially the wrong time. Alex will reflect on the everyday life of the world he left behind if he returned there. When returns, to be more precise - he will certainly return. If an event seems impossible, it only means that a permissive discovery has not yet been made.

“Do you hear, Universe?” muttered Mercer, almost with hatred looking out of the window at the azure sky. “At least you dare not behave differently in this world! This is how you always worked, do you hear?!”

The wonderful summer sky, touched by fluffy clouds, remained deaf to the words evolved like the stars above the river surface. Mercer now knew that the sky would always be bright here, as long as the Pegasus were watching the weather and directing atmospheric activity in the right direction. And the stars here were artificial, completely subordinated to the will of the dark alicorn. Looking for signs of fate, obscure answers in the sky controlled by intelligent beings? What an amazing irony... The foals fell silent and looked at the evolved one, tilting their heads to one side. Just now, they were whispering about their upcoming adventure, the essence of which was to make hilariously stupid decisions and follow them through. Alex, hearing everything perfectly, involuntarily smiled to himself - the girls were going to try to find out from the newcomer the essence of the occupations and professions of his home world, in order to arrange a series of terrorist attacks... sorry, that is, to try themselves in these crafts. Perhaps the Enlightened Buddha himself would not have been able to delve into a number of inferences that led Rustle to the conclusion that a new acquaintance would certainly volunteer to help them if the filly were treated to milkshakes in their favorite cafe.

Alex cleared his throat and reminded them that local produce would not be good for him - and refreshed the foals in their memory that they should introduce him to that same unicorn tomorrow. Tomorrow, if they so want, Zeus can tell something about his world, albeit about the crafts that bind human society together. A deafening, ecstatic screech sliced ​​across Mercer's eardrums, making him flinch. By the pricking of his thumbs- with such an approach to secrecy that it was possible for a whole trio to announce the whole district to their "CUTIE-MARK-CRUSADERS-HUMAN-IMITATORS-YAY", Mercer could even today wait for the capture command to visit. Nothing... He's almost ready. The evening and night will still be spent, although preparation is never enough. Alex, grumbling goodbye that he would find the foals in a convenient place in the morning, was already turning to the exit - but then he was pulled by the leg.

“And what about mine?” Shu squeaked, looking pleadingly at the evolved. ”It's my turn to come true...”

Mercer has an uncomfortable feeling in the lower chest. It occurred to him that if this goes on, then the affection of children will spread to adults, and this will cause difficulties in terms of their perception by a potential adversary who can literally distort reality. The danger of being "mentally rooted" in this world alarmed Alex even more than the likelihood of never returning home. Under her stern, appraising gaze, Shu made a face of genuine frustration, and Mercer realized that his battle-hardened psyche was t not an assistant - Human softened not just at the sight of the upset pony, but also because the occupation she was asking for was to his liking. When white and red ponies, who had already received their share of affection, began to ask for a friend, Mercer finally gave up. He won't lose it if Alex's prolonged respite is extended for another ten or twenty minutes... Moving away from the door, Mercer sat down on the floor with a quack, mentally preparing to listen to another fucking interesting story from a foal's life.

“Okay then,” he slapped on the thigh, in his native language beckoning the filly with a bow. “Come here, little thing.”

“Yay!”

In the end, Alex thought melancholy, surrounded by three fluffy, lively and moreover hugs loving warmers, it was a surprisingly good day.

Changeling, on which the Queen, after listening to the elixir of Exchange in the shelter, entrusted a dangerous (and certainly honorable) mission, thought at that moment something diametrically opposite.
> The Bothersome Man - 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Lyra, are your humans big one?”

“Sweetie Belle, humans are not "mine", they are just...”

“And do humans eat fertilizers?”

“What?!” the mint pony was amazed. “Sweetie, humans, of course, can be omnivorous, but not to the same degree! If they really don't have magic, and moreover, they were herbivores, they definitely look different due to a much larger digestive tract! And in order to digest all sorts of chemical... Uh, well, I'm really afraid here even to assume how humans...”

“And is it true that they can climb the ceiling?”

"Oh, Sweetie..." Lyra sighed resignedly. “I don’t know what the three of you were thinking up there, but with each question, the confidence in me grows that it will be a waste of time.”

“Don't worry, Lyra!” one of the Crusaders giggled, pushing off with her hind legs and swimming a short distance through the air. The bundle of balloons she was leading was so large that Sweetie seemed about to fly into the sky. The only thing left to do was to thank the Ponyville weather control squad, which always worked conscientiously. Next to the Everfree, on a windless day... Well, if the wild wind did blow, or Sweetie Belle, due to her foal's recklessness, risked taking an extra bunch of balls and set off on a journey, swelling the valley with her squeals, there would be someone to save her besides safely the departed Rainbow Dash or the Mare Do Well, which has not appeared in public for a long time. In Ponyville, some completely indecent number of princess guards, including pegasus, was formed. True, the reason for that was weighty...

Lyra Heartstrings smiled at her thoughts and at the words of the white unicorn, who assured her that she would "love it". It was easy to understand that the Crusaders decided to celebrate something - they needed the balls for the sim. Of course, Lyra understood that the girls were up to their next prank, and therefore reacted to Sweetie's proposal to go to their "secret clubhouse" to meet with a "real man" (which the last parasprite knew about in Ponyville) with skepticism. It didn't make much sense for her to go there - but so what? There was nothing much to do on Sunday, there was still a lot of time before the autumn tour, Bonnie either left on business, or continues to scour Ponyville, for some reason sniffing out traces of an alien invader... Maybe she wanted to please her best friend by personally giving her a man in a gift box tied with a bow? Lyra giggled, remembering how super-serious the expression on Bon-Bon's face was when she spoke with Celestia herself in the darkness of the night and disappeared as quickly as if she had flown away like a Pegasus. Be that as it may, the alterations that the Crusaders regularly got involved in were always a reason for Lyra to laugh and, in general, were the key to a good mood - why not pretend that she believed? And when Sweetie Belle, who showed up in the morning on their doorstep from Bon-Bon's house, whispered that this "someone" who needed Lyra's help and wanted to see her was a stranger who caused a commotion in the city, the dreamer unicorn was intrigued. Well, how really the trinity of filly, if not found a man, then attacked his trail? With such a temptation, Lyra could not cope - and she did not see the point of her own curiosity in giving battle. Well, tell me, bad things can happen in such a cozy and quiet place like Ponyville? Not counting the rampage of the inhabitants of the Eternal One, the vestments in the flesh of ancient nightmares, time paradoxes, ecological catastrophes due to dragon breath, the truly explosive experiments of Twilight Sparkle, and so on and so forth. After all, humans in her understanding were supposed to be a peaceful, not prone to aggression race, otherwise how else can you build a civilization in a harsh world devoid of magic? Yes, humans could be friends almost more than ponies! And those rumors that at dawn an unknown monster attacked the guards in the middle of the cutiemarket, so that they barely fought back... Yes, anything could happen, up to the fact that rumors will remain rumors. Probably, there was a misunderstanding between the guards and Human, so they scared each other. Moreover, the guards informed the residents the very next morning that everything was in order!

Lyra liked to think in a similar vein - that contact with aliens will be established with the most prosperous outcome, and that the inhabitants of Equus are not alone in the foreseeable part of the Universe. And although even in ancient times the strongest magicians, including Star Swirl, came to the conclusion that life (except for its energy forms) in the near space as such is absent, this did not prevent Lyra from fantasizing. She was not alone - a few writers who tried themselves in the path of a science fiction novel believed that aliens could be of regular geometric shapes, such intelligent magic crystals. Some, on the contrary, believed that they would be the same four-legged, similar to ordinary ponies, only of a different color and coat structure, corresponding to the conditions of an unknown planet. Her pen pals were doing their best, inventing one form more unprecedented than the other. There were also intelligent trees, and creatures that consisted entirely of gears, and the personalized music of Harmony, which was left without masters due to some kind of global catastrophe.

As for Lyra, the idea of ​​a world without magic seemed to her the most attractive, because of this it was completely different from Equestria. The unicorn, which Bon-Bon called nothing less than a "wide-profile dilettante", evolved a whole concept of two-armed and two-legged creatures, created by someone who does not know and for what purpose. Well, that is, Lyra believed that these creatures could be artificial in manner of ordinary golems, for the spontaneous generation of the mind is a fable from the category that the alleged heroine Irling is in fact her alter ego. Or that the Somnambula pyramids were built by the same aliens; not so stupid, but still funny. However, humans created by universal workers and guardians of the world in which they were settled, unlike ordinary golems, could develop and act outside of gesture their frames set by the wizard. Having received the initial order to improve the world around them and fulfilling it more and more diligently, humans considered that they, too, were part of this world, and the order also extended to them. This conclusion led to a brief but turbulent evolution, analogous to the magic spiral of Equus, and over several generations, humans have become so complex that they have become indistinguishable from living beings, possessing high intelligence, tremendous strength and technical knowledge to compensate for the lack of the ability to witchcraft. Moreover, these creatures, rightfully deserving natural wealth, wisdom and strength, did not turn into swaggering sleepyheads, like dragons who did not care about the rest of the world, but continued to live - create objects of art, dissect the world with threads their technical achievements and scientific discoveries. Obviously, the more primitive inhabitants of that unfriendly world, including the four-legged, humans could tame and keep as pets. Lyra knew that it was foolish to expect her own fantasy to be embodied in reality, but she could not help herself - the unicorn really wanted to see tall, exotic creatures somewhere far away, next to which you feel like a loved, protected and sleek pet... In fact, her idea had only a couple of advantages over others: it was logical (as it seemed to Lyra), consistent and better evolved than other theories. Aliens could just as well be talking fish like sea ponies if their planet evolved mostly in the oceans... Lyra would not mind creating a full-fledged novel about a world she invented or something like that, but her writing skills left much to be desired the best.

But now - just one discovery, one ritual performed by Twilight Sparkle, and Lyra received serious hints that her invention is not so different from reality! In a parallel dimension, judging by the description of Bonnie, who accidentally happened to be nearby during Twilight's attempt to reach him, something two-legged and two-armed was driving the complex car. Princess Luna said something there, supposedly a human is able to change himself - maybe this is because humans have become their own masters? - but under the image invented by Lyra, the guest from another world suited very well. And the fact that the rotorcraft was supposedly a military device, like siege engines and other remnants of the Dark Years... nonsense, rumors. From Lyra's point of view, the wreckage did not hint at this, even if the car was large, dark, with an aggressive-looking runes in the form of a black star and a trident. The unicorn wanted to study the transport of a human better, perhaps to grab some souvenir as a keepsake, but the guards dispersed all the ponies to their homes. And then it was no longer possible to get through to the alien rotorcraft: neither delicate requests, nor even a light flirtation with one of the cordon guards helped. What can I say, the ponies of the royal guards were not only desperate warriors, but were also excellently trained, famous for endurance, if necessary, they could depict insensitive idols even all day long... Lyra hoped that the human did not begin to perceive them as a serious threat, otherwise, he could have simply escaped to some other Equestrian city - and Lyra was not joking at all when she told Princess Celestia that she wanted to be in the center of events!

Two unicorns, young in body and young in spirit, stepped onto the road leading to the Apple farm, which supplied delicious fruits and vegetables to the tables of not only many locals, but also other ponies in Equestria. Lyra was not afraid to move away from the city in such a turbulent time, even though she revered Ponyville more than the land around him (especially considering the proximity of the Everfree). It must have been painful for other Canterlot immigrants to look at the local leapfrog of architectural styles and buildings, but Lyra loved with all her heart these cozy houses, shops, summer verandas and hospitable sellers, a leisurely pace of life, colorful flower beds and lush lawns, her neighbors. And as according to her, if a human was really unfriendly, then he should be feared precisely in the city, where there were many random ponies, and not in the surrounding fields and meadows. There was no one to disguise as, perhaps, to pretend to be a random bush or tree. And if the alien found himself on the same Manehattan, where there are more than a thousand ponies, then a human could have been searched for decades... Thinking that the foals, due to their curiosity, could stick their nose where Lyra would not have thought , she asked:

“Sweetie... Listen, do you know what the human forgot in the cutiemarket? And why did he make such a commotion in the city at all? I know everyone is just talking about "Sugar Corner", but as for me...”

“Oh, nothing,” the pony carelessly waved her hoof away. “He said he needed a radio and supplies from the crash site.”

“Really?”

“Yep!” Rarity’s sister nodded seriously. “You know, Zeush complained that the radio did not was not useful, so Apple Bloom is playing with him now. Come on, Lyra, let's hurry!”

Sweetie Belle ran and flew ahead like a playful puppy, showing the way, while Lyra blinked in confusion. Zeush? So, according to the cutiemarks seekers, was Human's name? Their rally was overgrown with more and more details, and Lyra wondered why the foals had to invent such a well-evolved fable. Didn't they become in a couple of weeks such rabid lovers of science fiction as Lyra saw herself? Although, this trinity will become... The unicorn might want to believe the little pony, with quadruple enthusiasm to meet this "mysterious stranger" she moved, but the strange nonsense about humans that Sweetie Belle was interested in did not give Lyra any rest... These details destroyed the picture, knocked down the whole serious mood! Well, how, tell me, can you imagine a human breathing helium? A mass of relief, smooth muscles, which communicates exclusively in falsetto like a chipmunk, which only Fluttershy can disassemble... Lyra could hardly restrain her laughing bursting outward when she imagined a swearing man jumping up and down, indignantly shaking his hands and squealing. If it were true, humans would die out - from only one incessant laughter at each other!

Well, Lyra shrugged philosophically as Sweetie Belle turned off the road and took her in a roundabout way deeper into the apple acres. In any case, she was about to find out what the girls were up to, so there was no point in thinking ahead. On a winding path laid by the Crusaders far from the eyes of strangers, they came to a house on an old apple tree. There was no one nearby, except that from the clubhouse itself there were unintelligible voices, probably from Sweetie Belle's friends. Then Lyra saw Winona, the Apples' pet, dozing on the veranda. The dog watched the pony with one eye open and ears erect. When Lyra's guide, jumping up and allowing the balls to drag herself up, was on the stairs, the collie wagged her tail, slowly got up on her paws, stretched. Yawning, Winona trotted to the door and darted inside, while Sweetie Belle waved her hoof, inviting Lyra to follow her.

“Don't be afraid of him! At first I was also a little afraid, but he is peaceful, honestly!”

"Wait, Sweetie," Lyra slowed down with all four, beginning to suspect something. “So is it true? All the things that you said?”

But the pony no longer listened to her - she drowned in a heap of squeaky balloons and, with a puff, began to push them through the door. When Lyra went up to the veranda, with a couple of claps, all this multicolored mass finally cleared away after the unicorn. The muzzle of a bespectacled filly flashed between the curtains, but she was clearly not one of the Crusaders. Lyra pricked up her ears. From the house came a grown male voice, and even if there was nothing suspicious about it, it did not belong to Apple Bloom’s brother or any of the stallions that Lyra knew. Again, the voice sounded rather strange, although there was a sense of self-confidence in it, and Scootaloo's echoing voice was cheerful and careless... Lyra, hesitating, pushed the door with her hoof and took a step forward, inadvertently pressing her ears. Now she had no idea what to expect from a meeting at clubhouse. Clouds of confetti, a waterfall of punch, and firecrackers from Pinky's unexpected return? The alien who took on the guise of Winona? Or was it Discord himself, who wants to reward the Crusaders with orders for the feasible introduction of chaos in the life of Equestrians?

However, everything was quiet inside the house. The dog lay down in a ball in the corner, next to his little mistress - and Apple Bloom, with a soft pad attached to his ear and the most responsible expression of his face, flicked switches on a metal box, which with a wire antenna with a bunch of wires really resembled some wild one, assembled from handy trash radio station. On the right side of the door, Lyra looked with surprise at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon - it was the latter's glasses that confused the unicorn when they appeared in the window. As far as Bon-Bon's female partner knew, this pair of bosom friends did not get along with the Crusaders at all, and what they were doing here was still a mystery. Tiara slowly sipped a bottle of carrot soda, inserting a straw into a glass neck. Seeing Lyra on the threshold, the gray pony bent down to her friend's ear and said something quietly. Tiara ran around the newcomer with her narrowed eyes, as if checking for resilience, then muttered something that should signify agreement, and grinned. The foals kept in their corner as if apart, but the conversation of the other ponies listened attentively, ears perked up.

“...our flight is not a cheap pleasure, available to an ordinary citizen except in a passenger seat, as you travel on trains and in skewbald sleds. Well, there, not counting the little things like gliders. Man by his nature cannot fly, Scootaloo... He needs, firstly, complex machines along with a huge scope of their service, and secondly a large amount of skills and knowledge. We call these brave humans pie-lotz .(1) Flyers... And only a small number of them, truly excellent flyers, can compete in the air with your... Rainbow Dash. You pegasus are too nimble.”

“Wow!” exclaimed Scootaloo. “Do you even have such?”

Did the ponies talk there? The balloons filled the middle of the room with their colorful mosaics, so Lyra quietly walked around, past Apple Bloom. The radio chirped, unfamiliar letters and symbols glowed with yellow lights on its buttons, but the conversation in the opposite corner of the room completely captured the unicorn's attention. The phrases were constructed with a strange accent, as if the speaker was pulling the vowels through force, trying not to break into a short yelp like diamond dogs. However, the speech was still cleaner and easier in comparison with the ponderous, if not barbaric, dialect of these two-legged. On the contrary, he made some sounds softer than they should, as if due to inexperience... Lyra, far from the most famous, but talented musician, only had to hear the sound once to understand: the common language for the speaker is not native. And after realizing after a moment's stupor what exactly the stranger was talking about, Lyra hardly rushed to the source of the sounds at a gallop. All this was not a joke of the Crusaders, just think! The mint pony telekinesis shoved the annoying balls out of its way, saw a real alien... and was stunned.

“Bloom, aren't you tired?” in a kind of inhibited state Lyra heard the voice of Sweetie Belle behind her. “There is no human music there! Just some stupid roll call...”

“Shh!” the earth pony raised her hoof to her lips, “I almost drowned out Vinyl's broadcast!”

“Nothing of the kind, you're just broadcasting noise! And you yourself listen to it.”

“Nah! I know it works like Twilight fixtures! If you press all sorts of buttons with a clever look, then sooner or later you will certainly have a resu...”

“No nah, yeah!”

“If you don’t want to get the cutiemark - move away and do not bother!” out of excitement, Apple Bloom stuck out her tongue, twisting one of the frequency players to the maximum. “And here I will try my luck!Ret-krau, (2) this is the clubhouse of the Crusaders! Calling the Wonderbolt Strike Team! Reception?”

“In vain, probably, I mentioned the electronic warfare,” shook his head on his long neck lanky... something. “Well, no matter what the child is amusing...”

The eerie creature towered over the table and Scootaloo, who was sitting next to it. It resembled either a giant spider, or some shabby, gaunt Appleloosian vulture - with the same hunched neck, rushing down and forward. If there were birds in the vicinity of Appleloosa that instead of feathers would be dressed in stone and dark plate armor, of course! The armor plates covered every inch of his body, warped, making it impossible to see the details. The creature had only one arm - which split into two smaller arms at the elbow joint, with narrow palms and two fingers crowned with impressive-looking claws! These organic instruments of tormenting flesh were fiddling about on an oilcloth-covered table with something dark, cylindrical in appearance, entirely entangled in thin ropes and plates. Slowly, droplets of a whitish viscous liquid slid down along it, like condensation on the egg of an unknown creature. From time to time from the claws thrust into the damp interior of the device, streams of steam began to curl, and a quiet grunt was heard. Meanwhile, the monster turned to Scootaloo again and nodded.

“Yes, we also have such unique ones. But do not look at me - the rotorcraft on which I flew would not have competed with the Rainbow. He's just carrying humans and... some payload,” the monster hesitated for a second. “Those who are bound by marketable laws...”

“Laws of markets,” Scootaloo corrected him immediately.

“As for me, the meaning would be more appropriate "laws of commerce," Tiara snorted from her corner.

Lyra looked at the Diamond Tiara with an extremely stupid look, and then at a couple of bags with the logo of "Dunk Laboratories", the largest supplier of alchemy from Trottingham, that lay near the table. It must have been the apple food they used on the Apple farm, but why did the Crusaders bring it to their clubhouse?

“Well, ordinary humans are content with less. Our skies are plowed by machines that are more modest in technical terms, but larger. These are huge steel colossus that quickly transfer cargo from continent to continent and those humans who are not ready to spend the days of their lives on a sea cruise or a train...”

“What about airships? Airships also carry a lot at a time!” Scootaloo did not retreat.

The monster, like a spider, twisted everything with its two-in-one limb, cutting through the air with claws glistening with moisture, like scissors. His movements were unhurried, eerie, and not at all like ponies. When he once again raised his hand, lifting it high and with the precision of a surgeon making an incision on top of the cylinder, Lyra made out the lower parts of the bodies a, hiding under the table. It sat like a man could sit on the floor - but what were those legs! About the length of the forelimb, like a pony's, they were thin and stiff, with a single joint closer to the groin that bent the knees at sharp angles upward. The legs ended with bone plates with a spur, this dull gray hook, undoubtedly designed to catch, hold and tear prey... They were not at all like the same clawed, but fluffy paws of good-natured manticores or sleek bird griffins! There was something in these legs, and indeed in the guise of an alien, from an insect... When a tentacle protruded from under the chest of the creature and, throbbing with wet pulsation, sucked to the cylinder with a munch, Lyra felt her veins begin to shake.

“In my world they have long outlived theirs,” the creature patiently answered the pegasus' question. “Ar-Len-joer (3) is fast, unlike an airship, not so afraid of winds, but with its speed and weight it is still clumsy. However, we also have other cars, single and double elusive iron falcons. Much faster and more maneuverable, capable of spinning in a twinkling of an eye and braking in the air, breaking the sound barrier. Why can't they, depending on the form!”

“Maybe...” Spoon raised her hoof uncertainly. “Maybe better a "model"? "Form" refers more not to properties, but to appearance...”

“Thank you, little one,” the biped made a strange gesture with two halves of his hand, showing a ring with his claws. “In general, this is the pinnacle of our aeronautical technology. Only our guards can afford to useintie-septo...(4)”

“Oh, I see!” Scootaloo nodded. “We also have the best of the best Pegasus in Wonderbolts!”

Lyra understood why the stranger's voice seemed strange to her - not even because of the sound, but because his lips at all did not move! They just weren't there! On a round head with a flat muzzle, everything was that a gleaming red eye and an upper jaw, like some skeleton in a zoological museum or an antiquity shop! The dark hole in the nose cut through the muzzle with such clarity that Lyra could not help but think that he had been bitten off. The left eye socket was closed by some kind of plate with a notch that bit into the bone... on the sides of the head, much lower than those of the pony, the ears were located, and the bone plates protruded upward. Sometimes they moved, parodying the emotions Lyra was accustomed to, but the pointed ends of the plates discouraged any desire to associate them with the pony's ears.

Moving her gaze to the five foals, who, who where carelessly settled down a couple of feet from the monster, Lyra felt a lump in her throat. Merciful sisters! shocked, she thought. What kind of horror is this? And why does it call itself a human?! It's as if Lyra's invention appeared in a nightmare, as if in mockery, connecting separate truthful details with a collection of claws and sharp teeth! Literally the only thing that kept the unicorn from fainting was the monster's articulate and filled with some foreign, but still meaning speech.

“Great!” Scootaloo concluded with enthusiasm. “I wish I could get the Pie Lot cutiemark! It's probably like a derby, only cooler and in the air!”

Lyra was staring in horror at the stranger's mutilated face, and then he turned his head right behind his back, like an owl, and looked directly at her.

“Um. I wouldn't say that, Scoots,” the “human” suddenly frowned, gathering his skin in a fold over his surviving eye. “Although we do have races on a light version of these machines.”

While the alien and Lyra glared at each other, one disgruntled, the other half-dead from fear, Sweetie Belle spoke up. Like a well-mannered filly, she patiently waited for her friend and the monster, who were enthusiastically chatting, to pause to insert a word or two.

“Zeush, Sugar Corner hasn't been reopened yet, and Pinkie Pie is gone!” reported the unicorn, nodding at the multicolored armful, which she brought with her. “But I said that it is very, very necessary for our new friend! I said he literally cannot live without holiday balloons, and Mrs. Cake allowed me to visit the pantry!”

The stranger blinked, breaking eye contact, and Lyra breathed often and loudly. Her heart was pounding - the gaze of either a feline or a reptilian eye, combined with an eerie physiognomy, literally riveted her to the spot. It seemed to Lyra that a couple of seconds more, and a skinny, but tall and tenacious monster would rush at her, swallow her along with her mane and tail, and spit out the horn and pin it to the wall in manner of a trophy.

“Sweetie Belle! You are my smart girl,” the wrinkles on the scraps of the "man's" face smoothed out when he turned to the foal. “You really helped me. All of you, - the self-propelled skeleton nodded to pegasus, which already wanted to be indignant. “I'll get your pocket money back to the last bit as soon as I get hold of the local currency.”

“But I have no pockets,” said Sweetie, looking at her flanks, as if she were really checking to see if Rarity had secretly clothed her sister in one of her creations before leaving. Then her face brightened:

“A-ah, you mean the Crusaders Foundation? Oh, come on!” Sweetie smile cheerfully. “We are always glad to new members of the club and are ready to help ponies without cutiemark! Well, not-ponies too... And ponies with a mark too... But they were often just unhappy with our help.”

The filly walked over to what the foals called "Zeush" and jabbed her cheek against the hard side from the side where his hand was missing. Lyra watched without blinking as the stranger raised a limb in response. Overflowing scarlet light, grunting - and the forked hand was cleaned dry of mucus, and the claws somehow incredibly folded, retracting inside the fingers. Lyra opened her mouth in surprise.

“Aren't you the charm itself?” the alien grunted with a sigh. The bony monster stroked the unicorn's cheek with his hand, brushing the tips of his fingers over the ear, which made her giggle happily.

This... this creature does not threaten Sweetie Belle, Lyra thought suddenly. On the contrary, in a conceptual manner, it expresses approval and patronage! The girls were in the same room with this, it seems, since the morning, but they were safe and sound! In disbelief, Lyra watched the monster gently scratch her friend between the ears, and the little unicorn tramples her hooves with pleasure and strives to climb onto his lap. And, apparently, not only Lyra felt a fleeting prick of jealousy; Diamond Tiara snorted haughtily and turned away, continuing, however, to look sideways at the target-seeker striving towards the big man. Scootaloo's keen eyes did not hide it, so a sarcastic smile played on the pegasus's lips. But she disappeared almost immediately, because Scootaloo kicked Zeush's side with her foot, demanding to resume the story that had been interrupted:

“Li-i-isten, can you make such an inte... Well, can you build a machine from your world? - she stared at her interlocutor with eyes shining excitement. - Well, at least small one?

Skullhead hesitated before asking the next question - it was clear from the narrowed eye that avoided her gaze that something was bothering him.

“Scootaloo, I don't want to offend you, but...” finally, in a flat voice Zeush said. “You can't fly, can you? Do winged ones have complications in your world that cannot be cured?”

Tiara and Spoon heard this, quietly exchanged a few phrases and giggled. Scootaloo looked at the hooligans with hostility, already took in more air, preparing to reprimand the enemies, but then the monster shouted at them:

“You know the rules, girls,” the voice of the stranger was not angry, but the foals instantly signed off.

“We are silent! We are silent, honestly!” the gray and pink earthlings pressed their ears.

“I'm not sick,” snorted Scootaloo, looking angrily at Tiara, but turning to her alien "friend". “You know, it would be better if I was just sick! Then doctors would put me on the wing, that’s all. It's just that the magic core is not yet fully formed, and the front part of the body outweighs.”

“So the whole question is you need to... wait? Are you tired of it?”

“Well, of course!” the pegasus was indignant, frowningly looking behind itself and spreading its small wings. “Dad took me to fly on a glider, my mom skated me many times, but this is not at all the same! There is no feeling of lightness, still pulls you to the ground. And you won't be asking them all the time! And when I tried to beg Twilight for these gravita... graviza... Gravithings, in short! Well, in order to lighten her weight, or what kind of spell, so she said that this is contraindicated... Like, the center of gravity due to such crutches will not be formed correctly, and it will be difficult to retrain when the wings acquire the required strength.

The stranger was silent, stroking Sweetie on the head, which comfortably located between his legs, and thought hard about something.

“Well,” he finally summed up. “You will sooner or later order with lifting force. But my relationship with it are more complicated, exactly the opposite is the case. The force of the lift is maintained until the speed drops,” the alien gave a short chuckle, blinking unhurriedly. “Acceleration from one jerk is enough only to fly from one side of the street to the other...”

“Wait a minute,” Apple Bloom, finally leaving the radio alone, walked over to the rest of the ponies and sat on the floor, peering into the stranger's face. “So you are not only this pay-lo… Pie… em, flyer, can you still fly by yourself?”

“Recently I learned, but badly and not...”

The alien shuddered, falling silent in mid-sentence, but a moment later spoke calmly:

“Why did you decide that, little one?”

“Well, rotorcraft hover in the air without any speed, just like pegasus! Don't even ask Granny here, everybody knows,” Apple Bloom scratched behind her ear, puzzled. “And your flying machine is a rotorcraft, grown ups told so. And is there a lot of use from a paddle, which can fly over the only one street?” the earth pony giggled.

“Maybe we misunderstood him?” exchanged glances from the earth pony Scootaloo, but the «human» raised his hand, warning their argument:

“Apple Bloom got it right,” the stranger spoke slowly, in a tense tone, as if he was trying to remember something. “But my capabilities are… difficult. Quite a personal question. I would prefer not to go into details for now.

“Okay,” Scootaloo shrugged. Pegasus made a sweet face, giving her muzzle a pleading expression:

“So will you craft me a flying thing from your world? Pretty ple-e-e-ase?”

"No, I can't build one, Scooti,” the alien replied mildly. “I am not an aircraft technician, not an engineer, and by profile I am not even a flyer... I am, first of all, a biogeez.”

“Biologist!” the foals burst out laughing, including Tiara and Spoon. Sweetie Belle added in an instructive tone:

“These are ponies like the ones those skeleton textbooks made!”

"Biologist," Zeusch said firmly. “I own the secrets of my body... I know how other bodies and wildlife in general work, but in all other respects, if it is not connected by reflexes, I am a dilettante... a dilettante who has picked up the top. Apparently, I...” the "human" paused and grinned again. He finished his speech with great sarcasm in his voice:

“But, apparently, sometimes an amateur-generalist can be more useful than forty thousand specialists in their field.(5)”

“Oh, so I will still wait for my personal Inteh Septo?”

“It really can't be.”

“Well damn,” Scootaloo sighed.

“Sorry, little one,” the alien gently ruffled the pegasi's mane. “Even if I understood their structure and had the ability to accurately create the details, in your world pla-aen(6) will still not fly. We have them designed for a different density of the atmosphere.”

“I'm not little,” Scootaloo grumbled from under her bangs, as if angry at the alien adult, but in fact very pleased with the attention he gave her. Zeush, on reflection, added:

“Unsurprisingly, you are using magical varieties of bladed machines and airships. Of course, it is possible to create a model sharpened for the realities of your world, to build something superior to a glider, but this colossus will have a wingspan... This  will be no longer an IS. It is irrational, and one discord Pegasus will be more maneuverable. Even if you use your technologies, then...”

The newcomer suddenly waved his hand like a pony, driving away an invisible fly with its tail:

“So Sweetie, get off. I need to finish preparations...”

“Okay!” easily jumped onto the floorboards of the unicorn. “And what for?”

“To meet the royal persons, of course! What a celebration if the object of their attention suddenly falls from lack of energy?”

“So you decided to meet them after all?!”

“I never ruled out the possibility that I could afford such a meeting...”

The stranger opened one of the bags next to the table with his claw, lowered his head and began to devour the ash-colored powder with a gurgling sound. The tentacle that connected it to the cylinder glowed with a dull orange light and began to contract even more intensely. As for Lyra, she was experiencing what could be called a culture shock. The stranger did not seem to be aggressive, even friendly - the foals were not at all afraid of him and, it seems, had known for quite a long time, and not just met. But holy are Celestia's flanks! Is this horror really a representative of the civilization Lyra dreamed of meeting with? Are humans really not former golems, but insectoids?! Yes, even the queen of changelings, under whose hypnosis Lyra was not lucky to get, and even had less insect features with her! The unicorn didn’t know which heavens, which were in control of fate, should complain about such misfortune.

Meanwhile, Tiara and Spoon, who had arranged a meeting between themselves in the form of feverish whispers and waving hooves, seemed to come to an agreement. The foals' muzzles took on a sly expression, and the pink earthy pet proclaimed:

“And you would not want the Princesses to know that instead of adults, with cutiemarks ponies communicate with blankfl... Uh, these three are sitting in the house, right? Would Her Grace consider you, well... too frivolous to accept as an ambassador of another world?”

The stranger looked up from the already empty sack and looked at Tiara - and she fearlessly withstood the terrible, according to Lyra, look. Shaking off the fertilizer crumbs, the big man ran a hand over his bare teeth.

“Girl, what do you think?” Zeush asked with a bit of malice in his voice. “The princesses already know it. Well, at least by the evening they will find out,” a long, like a butterfly's tongue stuck out from under the teeth, with which the bony creature began to quickly pick up the caked remnants of the chemical. At the same time, he did not stop talking - still, he did not have a mouth, and the sound seemed to come straight from his lungs!

“You, ponies, are simple-minded creatures, of course, but someone from the inhabitants of Ponyville noticed how Sweetie Belle was walking with an armful of balls. And there was also this one with her,” he jerked his head towards Lyra, “who is supposedly known for her love of phantasy tick and ideas about intelligent aliens. Someone may remember that an unknown stranger visited the same "Sugar Corner". And if all these facts reach the princesses, it will not be difficult for them to add two and two, I think...”

As if fearing an outsider's displeasure, Silver Spoon added:

“Well, if you promise to go to school for class and help us make a presentation about your world, we can tell our version of events!” She patted the eyelashes of the pony in glasses “We’ll say, you were with us all this time, and Sweetie Belle... so, passed by! Everybody will believe us, our families have an excellent reputation!”

“Hm-m-m-m...”

The intruder seemed to be seriously thinking, throwing his head back to the ceiling, so that the Crusaders looked at him with distinct concern. Finally, Zeush again turned his gaze to the well-groomed ponies, and apologetically asked Silver:

“But you, too, do not have these so-called "marks", do you?”

“How is that?” Tiara almost dropped the hairpin from her bangs in surprise. “And what is this?”

She pointed to her own cutiemark, which almost mirrors the jewelry worn by the understand.

“I don't see anything here. An ordinary filly flank. Well, how ordinary is not for me to judge, not so many species from your tribe have seen close up... But yes, the flank, perhaps a little more well-groomed.”

“You yourself are... a species!” Tiara exclaimed resentfully. “Here it is, my mark, here! Are you blind or something, with one eye?!”

“No, empty. Not even a speck. Perfectly clean pink coat.”

“A-a-a-ah!!!” howled Tiara, clutching her head with her hooves. The fact that someone had ignored her tag so ingenuously certainly didn't add to the mood of the girl.

“My not so well know your language... Explanation, what you do said now?”

“Ugh!” pouted Diamond Tiara, trying with all her might to ignore the trio of filly, who could hardly hold back the laughter, breaking out from such a picture. “He's just laughing at us, Spoon!”

“Ti, what if he really just doesn't understand?” Silver wrinkled her nose, puzzled, straightening her glasses. “These three said that his eyes were arranged differently... Maybe not worth it..?”

“Don't be silly, he understands everything perfectly!” stamped with her hoof Diamond Tiara, rolling a bottle of soda and looking angrily at the alien - he was again twisting something in a cylinder on the table with his scissors brush. “Pegasus care about the weather, unicorns are strong in applied magic, griffins are the best traders! But this is all nonsense! But this view, whoever he was...” Tiara lowered her voice and enthusiastically whispered in her friend's ear, so that everyone in the house could hear:

“It is downright ideal for caring for the fur coat and mane of earth ponies! Without any telekinesis and wings, there are so many built-in instruments in one paw! Imagine what will happen when his second one returns! I... we just have to get it for ourselves!”

The monster, presenting itself not at all as it should be for the creatures of the Eternal Wild's magic, looked at Tiara with an unblinking gaze, and then calmly concluded:

“If I were you, I would beware of squirrels... Anything can happen.(7)”

“Squirrel?” from surprise even Tiara forgot to be indignant. “But what have the squirrels to do with it?”

“What are you talking about, Zeush?” in turn, the Crusaders did not understand.

“Auf?” raised her head Winona, wrapping her head in search of animals with a fluffy tail, after which you can run around and drive to a tree.

"Nah, nevermind," grumbled a guest from another world. “This is about my... humanity,” the creature stretched its muzzle up and moved its neck. A strange grunt this time came from his chest, and the plates on it moved. “So, here I am again and unwell. Uh... I think I messed up something in your language, didn't I? Scootaloo, kheh, this is only a temporary measure, forget about this first aid kit already. Kha. I can't pick up your sores at all.”

“Oo-oo-oo...” the pegasus returned to her place, after she had jumped to the closet. “So uninteresting.”

With a creak of stretched latex, the creature pulled the balloons to itself, unhooking one of them, and Lyra felt the need to break the silence that had lasted from her side and say something. Anything. For too long, the unicorn has been posing as Fluttershy, who is about to go out in public. Although the idea of ​​attracting the attention of someone with a burning eye with a vertical pupil, jagged long legs like a Chrysalis, and sharp claws was frankly so-so in Lyra's opinion. But even to be silent, not to react in any way was already beyond her strength! She should have chosen the first sentence very carefully, if she did not want to provoke the creature and find out what it, discord take it, is...

“You...” began Heartstrings, swallowing. She completed the sentence faster than she could think.

“Are you talking?”

Perfect start, mentally put her hoof to the forehead of the mint pony. I couldn't ask anything more stupid, you fool?! It's just bIt was stronger than Lyra. When the stranger looked at her again, loosening the ribbon on the ball with two halves of his hand, all her admonitions in the spirit of "he is good", "he is kind" and "he is affectionate with children" vanished without a trace. Lyra could not help but pay attention to the fact that the «human», like a giant grasshopper, has a body covered with a dark chitinous shell, armor in rare places exposes a sickly gray skin, that instead of a face marked by intellect and pride, he has an indistinct stub. Any pony in her place, accustomed to a well-fed and carefree life, could think of only one thing: just expect trouble from such an awkward creature. And it's better to run altogether as long as the skin is intact. It's not even Zecora, who just by her appearance made a rustle in Ponyville - this is a much higher level! The way the stranger inhaled the balloon, as if inflating it the other way around (why?!), almost paralyzed Lyra's thoughts... again. The creature coughed, put down the latex rag and, looking oddly at the unicorn, shrugged.

“Why not.”

“Sweetie Belle, sweetheart,” almost crying from the struggle tore her with herself, plaintively held out the unicorn. “To whom did you bring me?”

“How to whom?” she was sincerely surprised. “This is Zeush, human! The one that Twilight Sparkle dragged into our world,” said Sweetie proudly. “He is our friend, researcher, biologist and, you know, Wonderbolt... I mean, a flyer!”

“This is human?!” Lyra looked around the Crusaders with wide-eyed, as if hoping to subtract mischief and a joke on their faces.

“Well, yeah,” a pegasus with a lilac mane looked at Lyra in bewilderment. “Doesn't he look like what you described? Two hands... were. But two legs, and walks straight! When not running on three... Well, a bald head with a flat muzzle still...”

“He doesn't look human at all!” Lyra protested, watching as the creature absorbs the contents of the balloons, one by one. “Certainly not on those as I imagined them!”

‘You know, little pony, you also look like xeno familiar to my contemporaries very, very distantly. Khuh,” either sneezed, or almost owl hooted the stranger. “But I'm not complaining.”

“Oh, he ate a little!” Apple Bloom chuckled. “You should have seen him yesterday, Lyra! Just like the skeletron from Ogres and Dungeons!”

“Well, maybe I was not in the very dawn of strength, but I lived up to my reputation, so...” "human" muttered under his breath, in the end it was completely unintelligible. Lyra, chewing her lips in confusion, looked hopefully at the Crusaders:

“Girls, what a stupid joke are you playing with me?”

“And now I'm offended, by the way. Kheh,” Zeush grumbled, tossing the last colored rag to the floor. “I do not advise you to think that I am some kind of joke of nature. Many thought so...” stumbling in mid-sentence, he suddenly reached out and pulled the tentacle hose out of the device he had been fussing over all this time. With a chomp, this appendage retreated into the chest, disappearing under a piece of carapace, and the monster slapped its two-fingered palms against each other, rubbed them. It was an eerily minotaur-like gesture - if minotaurs in Equestria had one arm, two! The stranger repeated the same sequence of actions and strange, animal sounds, and the cough suddenly left him at once:

“Now let the whole thing be infused, and with a favorable outcome, I won't need the alveoli another three days...”

“Cider is infused,” told, raising her hoof, Apple Bloom. Then she looked down at the webbing cylinder and giggled.

“This is not a drink, is it?”

“No, Bloom. This is my source of food,” noticing the elongated faces of the foals, the alien hastened to give an explanation:

“Not in the sense that I'll literally eat it. It is rather... Energy. A crystal of pure alchemistry. Battery for organics. You do not seem to have such.

“If this is a crystal, you can say "accumulate charge", "charge", Lyra timidly suggested. “And if alchemistry, then "reacts", "synthesized"... The last, if you need to get something new from several.”

“The battery must produce synthesis from the surrogate,” Zeush looked at her carefully. “Does that sound normal?”

Lyra nodded in confusion.

“Very good,” the monster breathed out a red cloud on the device, suspiciously reminiscent of those that excited Ponyville a couple of days ago. The scarlet substance was absorbed into the shell of the cylinder, which made the cylinder hum, barely audibly, and a thin stream of steam began to curl upward. – “I'll remember this.”

“According to some words, as you can see, we still have to work and work, but he grasps very quickly!” boasted unicorn Scootaloo, looking at the stranger with such pride, as if he were her pet, trained for the exhibition. “Yesterday he spoked in such a way that my ears were wilting, but today he’s really good!”

“Your merit, girls,” Zeush did not persist.

“Only the cutiemarks of the translators we never received,” Apple Bloom complained, looking sadly at his empty flank.

“Oh, there will still be...” the "human" patted her on the back of the neck, and the foal closed her eyes contentedly. “Maybe you’ll try all the activities of the world, and you will have a universal mark that can be interpreted as you like.”

“Universal?” Scootaloo tilted her head to one side. “Like you?”

“I don't want to be a dilettante!” Sweetie Belle was worried, however, she immediately looked repentantly at Zeush:

“Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you...”

‘It's okay,” the alien chuckled. “I don’t have a cutiemark. In my world this case... it is more difficult and simpler at the same time.”

“Interesting,” Apple Bloom wondered, “how can a cutiemark look like, what does mean everything?”

“Well, if you mix everything in a row, you get chaos... But Discord didn't have a mark at all!”

“Discord cutiemark?” Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out in a gesture of dislike. “Well, I do not want! Fi!!! Scootaloo, I don't want mark like this!”

Diamond Tiara clearly wanted to put in a sarcastic word, or even two, but, looking at the stranger, wisely decided to keep quiet. Lyra wondered how a guest from another world had learned to speak with a pony in record time. Had he forced one of the unicorns to cast a spell on him by force? A griffin, a friend of Rainbow Dash, who, as Lyra realized, lived with her family among the Pegasus, once flew into Ponyville and learned the pronunciation of sounds from childhood. Her speech in terms of the range of tonality was very similar to the alien dialect, unlike the translation spell, which itself forms simple verbal constructions and rather clumsy substitutes for concepts - this was often used by merchants who came from distant regions of Equus... But at the same time, the spell adapted all words, and there was a clear lack of vocabulary in the dialect of this huge spider-man! Couldn't he learn to "profit" for these two or three days, and therefore missing some particulars?! Meanwhile, Zeush looked up at Lyra with a narrowed eye:

“Well,” he said in a businesslike manner, pronouncing the words so separately and distinctly that it was clear to everyone, “You seem to have already understood that I am different from your ideas about humans... Whatever they may be. You know,” the stranger raised himself in his place, “at first I wanted to ask you about the local order, about princesses in general. I’m completely limp with you,” the stranger complained to no one to whom. “I don’t follow the language, I didn’t even look who it was coming to my residence. A large object is recognized, plus a small Sweetie - it means that everything is in order, with her confidant, you can not be distracted even by recognition through optics. Grm-m-m... And chatter - well, you also need to learn to speak cleanly, and without live communication with native speakers it is almost impossible.”

“Uh-uh...” Lyra said thoughtfully, not knowing how to react to such words. The stranger suddenly turned around like a giant wood louse, rising to his feet and clattering his spurs. The unicorn felt her heart pounding as the creature's head swung up to the ceiling and its shoulders straightened, visually increasing the space it occupied. In the house of the Crusaders, comfortable and filled with summer warmth, it suddenly became cramped and uncomfortable at once...

“So you, then, are the confidant of the princesses, since you easily went to them at night. It means that you are person concerned,” the monster rasped gravely. “And now also a witness. I'll have to term-ineyet,”(8) legs, sharp as spears, in one step brought the monster close to its victim. “The standard physique of an equid female... you brought me a little meat, Sweetie. But as the last component for the battery will fit...”

Black claws with a red tint gleamed in the rays of light coming through the curtained windows. Zeusha's skeletal torso swayed backward and menacingly forward. The upper jaw bristled with a row of sharp fangs. In his gaze, Lyra, dwelling in wild, primal horror, saw darkness without a single spark of light. No mercy, no hatred - just frozen volcanic lava, still hot, ready to explode in a stream of fire and destruction at any moment.

“Ai-i-i-i...” Lyra made an attempt to scream, but squeezed out only a plaintive squeak - the quintessence of helplessness in front of a powerful and ruthless predator. She backed away, already ready to rush out with the last of her strength, breaking down the door, but then the foals rushed to the monster:

“Don't!” Scootaloo began to scare, jumping up and grabbing the stranger by the knee. “Lyra is good! She's good pony, honestly!”

“It's my fault!” echoed her Sweetie Belle, along with Apple Bloom straddling the other leg, not in the least afraid of bent claws. “I offered, but did not know... where Lyra went there! She has nothing to do with it!”

“Em... What are you going to do with Lyra?” Silver Spoon said in confusion. She and Tiara did not seem to know how to react to what was happening.

“Just kidding, don't worry,” the alien muttered, replacing the fangs with flat, even teeth, as if they weren't there. “The battery has already received everything that needed.”

Not at all burdened by the Crusaders, the «human» has overstepped Zero through the curled up Lyra, placing her long, thin legs like some kind of wading bird. Convinced that the danger for the unicorn had passed, the foals were delighted, counting on the continuation of the ride - Scootaloo even climbed the monster on the scruff of the neck, which earned another displeased look from Tiara. However, Zeush, having grabbed the fidget, simply went to the far window. Only now Lyra saw between the pots on the windowsill glass soda bottles filled with some substance of a dull blue color. In the same place, on a sheet of paper, a liter of "Do not touch!" The monster lifted one of them, looked through the glass at the light, checked the neck as if smeared with reddish wax - and then began to stuff small pieces of glass in comparison with it somewhere in the lower back, under the armor. Lyra silently watched as all four bottles rustled into the armor, and the plates folded back into place. Zeusha's fearful gaze softened again, and to Sweetie Belle's confused excuses, he replied:

“Nothing, little one. It’s not your fault, I suppose,” then the creature’s voice quivered as he turned to Lyra.

“And yet, mammal, start talking - why did you go to the princesses?”

“Me?!” Lyra, it seems, still did not believe that she had not been devoured. “I just wanted to find out from the princesses what they learned about a human... And I myself told them about what humans I represented! Nothing more, I swear by heavens!”

The mint pony, with all her frightened eyes, watched the broken figure, which approached her and sat on the floor, crossing her legs, resting her double "hand" on her knees.

“Well,” muttered the creature, “an ordinary citizen climbs into the monarch's window in the middle of the night to share his fantasies with her majesty’s... strange enough to be the norm for your world. Consider that you convinced me,” apparently, impressed that Lyra still does not roll with her hooves up, imitating impressionable Ponyville flower girls, or, at worst, does not run headlong away from the Crusaders' house, he nodded approvingly:

“Scared, but not as scared as you could have, huh? Well done. You will suit me.”

“Wh... What kind of jokes you have!!!” Lyra screamed indignantly.

“Quite normal dark humor,” the creature snorted, glancing condescendingly at the unicorn. “I'm a doctor, I'm supposed to.”

“Are you also a doctor?” surprised Apple Bloom. “Can you, this, heal other ponies?”

“Humans,” corrected her «human», thoughtfully propping his jaw with his hand. “It seems that once again the language map has shifted. I don’t heal humans,” Lyra heard a strange grin in his voice again, “I have no legal right to do so. But in an emergency, I can help. Look, do you have any sort of ranks for students... researchers?”

“Ranks?”

The Crusaders looked at each other.

“Well, Twilight Sparkle is, um, a scientist,” Sweetie expressed the general opinion. “And a disciple of Her Grace.”

"There is a rank “Doctor of Applied Magic” in Canterlot, if you... that's what you mean," Lyra muttered, but then it dawned on her.

“And what if I started to run? If I wanted to report to the guards?! Would you...”

The spherical head with fins-ears turned, and the stranger turned to Lyra his expressionless, not counting the eyes, physiognomy.

“Why? I would have tied you up and left you in the care of these young lil terr-o-rizzt,(9) that’s all,” the monster shook his head towards the inseparable trinity. “Or maybe I would have let you go in peace; I am already ready to meet princesses, have taken into account almost every alignment. Civilians cannot harm me in any way... I care about my safety, but I will not interfere if any of those present wants to leave. Right, little one?” he turned to the gray earth pony

“Well... yeah!” Silver Spoon nodded uncertainly. “When we came here in the morning, we were a little scared, and when wanted to leave, no one was holding us.”

“See?” Zeush raised his bald eyebrow. Then, with a sigh, he beckoned the pony with glasses:

“So be it Spoon. I see how you looked at my dist-alize.”

Tiara ran up to the foals sitting in a circle and the «human» first, sideways pushing Silver, who was delighted, but the monster did not seem to pay special attention to her. He offered a suddenly widening palm with retracted claws, and Spoon, hesitating, stepped on it with all four hooves, balancing with difficulty in such a small area. The stranger carefully carried the foal to his lap and, having settled it there, split his arm with a slight crack. Diamond Tiara puffed out her cheeks and blushed to the accompaniment of the quiet but harmless giggle of the cutiemarks Seekers - it seemed that the earth filly would burst with indignation.

“What’s your name, mammal?” Zeush asked the unicorn sympathetically, loosening Spoon’s braid, which turned into a silky mane with a silver sheen. Before Lyra could open her mouth for an answer, Scootaloo blurted out:

“She's Lyra! Lyra Heartstrings, we told you so! She musician, and moved out of Canterlot, and...”

“Well, can't she answer herself?” the «human» grimaced. “I know, Scoots. I just hoped to get her out of her stupor with a question that she could easily answer.”

Lyra really felt relieved - at the sight of Silver quietly sitting on the stranger's lap, though not from the question. Contact... was getting better. She could not completely get rid of the unpleasant feeling - as if the pony was in the same room with the conjuring Twilight Sparkle, who once, out of the best intentions, decided to supply the doll with a spell of attraction and made the whole city rush after her. Here you can't do without a dugout made of pillows... But Lyra, nevertheless, felt now from the sight of a «human» something besides a quiet panic: interest, curiosity, excitement. Especially after his hand gathered back into a four-fingered palm and wrapped his fingers in soft skin, like elongated hoppers.

“Lyra... It seems like a normal name,” Zeush carefully took off Silver's glasses and put them on the floor. “I was going to call you "Fuzzy" in my thoughts at first. In general, on this basis, any of the locals would come up, but as the first adult acquaintance, and your bangs with a tail are lush, mischievous...” the stranger, in turn, ducked his fingers into the flowing mane and stroked Spoon several times on head, closed his eyes. “Then I decided that it looks too much like a pet's nickname. "Mint" is banal, "Celery" - somehow does not sound. Then you will  Ljier-rah. This is the name in my native language of the instrument that supposedly depicts your rune,” the stranger clarified in a completely pacified tone,“ and which I alone do not see as a discord. Well, at least the ear will not be corny with your onomatopoietism... I'm not sure that this word of yours is the best fit here. Never mind.”

“My name is close to the old Equi word form "melody",” Lyra smiled timidly. “So this option is quite suitable.”

The stranger fell silent, with measured movements scratching the scruff of the extremely pleased Spoon, Tiara sulked silently, the Crusaders waited for the conversation to continue, and Lyra decided that the guest from a parallel world was passing the baton to her. She immediately asked a question - due to the fact that this detail in the speech of the erect spider seemed very strange to her. Was he really so alien to Equus' universe that even Harmony did not pay even a tiny fraction of her attention to him?

“Can't you see the cutiemarks?” the unicorn looked askance at him, remembering the dialogue between Zeusha and Tiara. “Really?”

The monster-who-was-not-so-monster, catching the familiar panicky notes in her voice, opened his eyes, not stopping to stroke the finally relaxed Silver.

“I still scare you, pony,” he stated.

“Well...”

“But they are not afraid,” the stranger nodded at the Crusaders, not looking up from his occupation. Scootaloo at these words ruffled with such a proud look, as if she had decided to immediately receive the guardsman's mark. “Probably, you have the effect of disappointed expectations. Or simply because you are a newcomer, and the foals of the local ponies, due to the proximity of the Ever-Wild, have a downright all-metal psyche,” grinning, Zeush suddenly threw his head back, naturally removing it behind his back. “Anyway... I've already had time to experiment with the girls. The scientific method is mine everything; it allows you to learn the method itself... and your perception too.”

The unicorn looked warily at the rather smiling Mark Seekers. The word "experiment", in view of his residence in Ponyville Twilight, for the locals could mean anything, and therefore Lyra, in advance prepared to be horrified, asked doomly:

"Experiment" in what sense?”

“By the simplest experience, it was found,” muffled from the back of the stranger, “that a direct binocular gaze, the gaze of a predator taller than you, does not awaken evolutionary phobias in ponies. It seems that for girls it was not an obstacle when I observed with full-fledged double optics, and did not follow from the corner of my eye. After all, you, too, have not badly evolved binocular vision... So,” his words were interspersed with grunts and red veins, which swiftly snorted along the neck bent to the side and back, tied with ligaments of muscles. “You can perceive a human face and its emotions - not like a pony's face, but still.”

When Zeush returned his head to its proper place, Lyra gasped. Instead of a bare skull, on the neck sat a head covered in pale pink-yellow - not the most common, but quite healthy shade - skin, with rather sharp features compared to ponies. Lyra thought that she had never seen such a face among the species that inhabited Equus. The stranger's hard dark mane seemed to be cut short, but it was noticeable that it had not been properly groomed for a long time. A sharp nose with thin wings and a very sharp chin with a massive lower jaw stood out on a flat face. The cat's eye was now covered with heavy eyelids, and the corners of the lips that were too prominent on the hairless muzzle were curved in a barely noticeable cheerful (so it seemed to Lyra) grin.

It... was not the face of a typical person, as Lyra had imagined. If only because it was not devoid of a more or less familiar mane, as well as small, rounded ears, which were quite distinguishable. Well, on the other hand, it was much more attractive than a faceless bone horror, roughly cut, as if sewn by some crazy surgeon from separate scraps of flesh. And when the vertical pupil of the creature suddenly widened, turning the eye into a familiar pony, albeit a smaller one, the obsession almost completely lost its power over Lyra: the cobweb of capillaries dissipated, disappearing somewhere under the eyelid shaded by the browbone. Instead of an inflamed scarlet color, the iris was filled with a dull blueness, as if a colorography had appeared - and then the bone plate in the second eye socket suddenly opened, crawling to the side and turning into a part of the temple. From the depths of the skull, it protruded, before our eyes (Lyra was not a fan of puns, it just happened) overgrown with skin the same quite ordinary eye... Tiara expressed their common opinion with Spoon about what they saw briefly but neatly, wrinkling her nose:

“Fi.”

But Silver Spoon did not see anything - she lay with her eyes closed, completely surrendering to the sensations and from time to time sighing contently.

“You yourself are "fi"! In my opinion, it's cool - so easy to change your appearance!” objected Scootaloo. “Listen, can you show any of the Wonderbolts?" she looked slyly at Zeush. “The queen of changelings could do that too! I bet you can't?!”

“Better Miss Cheerilee!” giggled Apple Bloom. “Then we can say that all homework is canceled! All this will hear and confirm that she said so! Can you?”

“Bloom, we can't do that! What Applejack will do to us when he finds out, can you imagine?!” gasped Sweetie Belle, but Tiara looked at the earthy one with a bit of respect - it seems that she decided in her own way that she was not so empty-flanks and hopeless, since she immediately gave out a cunning and attractive plan.

“Some other time,” human moved his jaw, as if checking the safety of his teeth. “This is the standard form of my head - this is how it looked when I first got into your world,” he carefully looked at Lyra, as if wishing to more accurately capture her reaction. “Is it better?”

“Much better,” the unicorn nodded with relief. “You are in this form, uh, normal, although not at all a pony.”

“Well, thanks, I guess,” human muttered under his breath, starting to scratch Spoon under his chin.

Although part of the Ponyville inhabitants would have scattered to the sides because of his height, just like that, out of harm's way, now Lyra clearly understood that the alien did not wish her harm, did not pose a threat to the ponies - otherwise what were all these ceremonies for? The sense of humor of the guest from another world was strange, no doubt, but he is definitely not a monster and not a tartar creature who has no sense of tact and no concept of elementary politeness. Deciding to finally dispel her fears (for the words about "the look of a predator" alerted the unicorn), Lyra carefully considered her question. To ask so head-on would probably be a shame, and Zeush's face did not seem to look like a pony-eater - he showed no more prehistoric fangs... Maybe initially his body was also somehow different, like a face, and not as if taken from a huge insect?

“Um... Listen...” remembering another at least strange expression of the stranger, Lyra asked:

“Look, are your species not mammals? It's just that you have some kind of body... Strange. I don’t understand whether it’s a reptilian scale, or a beetle shell, but now you have a face...”

“I was originally quite a primate of the mammalian class,” replied the stranger reluctantly. “Now - the jester knows him. Something... in between.”

Noticing how elongated the faces of his listeners, Zeush correctly interpreted their surprise and, raising an eyebrow, asked:

“Am I so different?”

“Not a single place!” Lyra exclaimed. “You have no hair on your face, tiny ears, which, moreover, are pressed against the skull! The nose is generally protruding almost like a griffin's beak, and the forehead is high!”

“No, no, what kind of monkey are you?” shook her lush mane with a bow Apple Bloom. “You now look more like a pony with a muzzle, as for me! You, of course, lack normal ears...”

“Stop... Are you a marmoset?” Scootaloo giggled, staring at her alien friend. “Wait, for real?!” the pegasus stopped when Sweetie looked at her sternly, as only a real lady could, even if she was only a couple of feet height. “Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't mean it, honestly! It just sounds too stupid...”

“There is no... error here?” Sweetie asked hesitantly, as if trying to smooth over her friend's rude directness. “Maybe you were wrong in the word again? Monkeys jump, usually on all fours, and you... Well, you, when you are not hiding, walk straight? They also climb trees in the jungle, but not the ceiling!”

“Oh, Sweetie...” smile Zeush darted to the unicorn, massaging the scruff of Silver Spoon, who even opened her left eye, squinting and trying to figure out what was causing the noise among the ponies. “If it were not for the structure of your legs, I too would never rank the ponies among my relatives...” human thought for a good ten seconds, after which he concluded:

“Hm, there is no suitable analogy for your world. Judging by the data from the reference books and the collective knowledge of this trinity, in your language "horse" means an equopodized mouse,” it seems that he specified more for himself than for Lyra. “I remember that I was asking the second side question... Well, chee-rup (10) does exist in your culture - in the form of a pink alicorn, which instead of a bow uses spells of attraction... Ha,” Zeush let out a short, sharp laugh, like he coughed.

“Are you talking about Princess Cadance?” surprised Lyra, who once acted as a bridesmaid of the most enviable bride of all Equestria. “Why does she need a bow? She is a magician, not a guard, her husband is in charge of the royal guard...”

“Why, why...” human dismissed. “At least to drive away competitors in view of their rich choice from her hubby. Well,” the stranger stretched, with a juicy crunch fingering the plates along the spine. “As a mercy to your feelings, little ponies, I can declare with full responsibility that I definitely have nothing in common with yours primates. I just used the word that I thought was the most appropriate to describe the term,” he pronounced the last phrase not so confidently, glancing at his little assistants, as if expecting that they would rush to correct Zeush. “But on my planet we are relatives, although our paths parted a long time ago, we never crossed again. Evolution is such a thing...” tearing off his hand from Spoon's mane, he waved it vaguely in the air, fingering. “It often creates forms in front of which the mind and its habitual framework succumb. Many of my species do not even want to know about our relationship with monkeys, despite the obvious evidence, and amuse themselves with fairy tales about creators from heaven, then from distant stars, then from where else there is enough imagination...”

Lyra would have thrown her ears up on hearing about a sticking point with her theory, but her mind was busy desperately trying to isolate, in a mentoring tone similar to the one Twilight Sparkle loved to crush on, any useful information about humans. Needless to say, perseverance (in the usual pony pose) and the ability to listen to the lecturer at the conservatory were not her serious sides.

“Meanwhile, all of us, representatives of wildlife, are relatives to one degree or another... A bacterium and a wandering albatross - no matter how big the difference, somewhere very far away on the evolutionary tree they will find a common link,” the newcomer continued meanwhile. Some new sounding was manifested in his words - enthusiasm, as if the speaker straddled his favorite topic and gave the listeners what he knew very well. “Walking upright turned out to be a winning strategy, here we will also write down the increase in the volume of the cerebral cavity... all this changed us, humans, beyond recognition, as natural selection changed in half with magic and your ancestors too. Of course, I do not consider you primitive analogs from my world, despite the fact that the self-name of your race comes close to them in meaning. To me, you are xeno - an intelligent form of otherworldly life, the most competitive and fit species on your planet. And judging by your reaction, I am no way a stupid monkey for you either,” the alien finished calmly.

The ponies, including Lyra, exchanged glances and nodded fervently. Only a madpony could have imagined such a thing - especially considering that in order to imagine a monkey stripped to a skeleton, and even talking, leading an almost scientific debate... It was necessary to have some truly strange mindset, which Lyra, to her relief , did not possess. She didn't want to have nightmares later. Zeush nodded in response.

“Well, that's agreement. And about my very distant resemblance of a muzzle to a pony...” he squinted his eyes at Apple Bloom, smiling thinly. “Kan-verge-ntshne, (11) as I know. Organisms of different ranks under similar evolutionary conditions have the same traits... We are not looking for anyone but humans, asLem said , (12) - Zeush briefly called someone's name, as if spitting out a small pit. “But it seems to me that it is more correct to say "we with a high probability will not find anyone but humans. You have not hands, but gravitators, some strange hair and skin in terms of the absence of pigment - but at the same time a brain volume similar to a human, much closer to the human anatomy of a muzzle, almost the same sector binocular gaze, modified for the pronunciation of articulate sounds, the oral apparatus...”

“O-o-oh! Sweetie, why did you help him with that stupid reference book?!”

“I didn't want to! Who knew that this was his talent in life?”

The stranger kept pouring new learned terms, and the foals, without words understanding each other, got hold of a deck of cards from the box. Judging by the way Scootaloo rolled her eyes, this was not the first time they had seen a similar attack of talkativeness from a new friend, and they knew it would be for a long time. Apple Bloom silently offered Tiara a game, and she, sighing, reluctantly took the cards, starting to cut into the usual 2 by 2 along with the Crusaders - probably, the earth pony also wanted to pass the time until the strange adults lost all interest in them. Lyra, by virtue of her concern with the question, understood some part of what Zeush was talking about. Her theory about the artificial origin of humans was bursting at the seams - well, but they were not, judging by the words of the alien (but not by his appearance, not counting the head), strange dangerous garbage from deep space, but quite a species subject to the theory of evolutionary magibiology. And the further the stranger plunged into his reasoning, the more Lyra became convinced of the truth of this conclusion.

“…this is not to mention the fact that you, like humans, are not busy all day in obtaining food, but have time for intelligent activity,” summing up the line, said a guest from another world. “The volume of your digestive tract is much more modest than that of your own cows. Although, it must be admitted, the strangeness of metabolism is more to blame than diet. The sun recharges you, doesn't it?” Zeush chuckled. “Magic... If I understood correctly, your species is young precisely because of it, and intelligent life now corresponds to the stage of a supercontinent on my planet. Evolution proceeded at an insane pace, which is why most species carry zoomorphic features. If there were magic on my planet, humanity would probably be talking lemurs with magic twigs,” noticing the round eyes of Lyra, who was impressed by his knowledge of Equus, human shrugged his shoulders:

“I Learned most of this from books. The kind you had at your school. The rest is... personal speculations.”

“Do you also know our writing?”

“Without going into nuances - now I know,” Zeush nodded. “As Scootaloo said, I'm a fast learner.”

“A-ha,” muttered the pegasus, looking intently at the cards, hoping to find there a particularly large party that Diamond Tiare and Sweetie Belle could shake off.

“Based on my experience with girls, I dare to hope that you understood my dialect all this time.”

“Quite,” giggled Lyra, already looking much more openly in the human's face.

“We can also communicate through Scootaloo, if you are jarred by how fake I am talking,” the stranger again focused on combing mane of Silver Spoon, which was already snoring softly on his lap. “She did not mind acting as a translator on a permanent basis.”

“No, you shouldn't! I understand you perfectly well,” Lyra crossed her front hooves with inspiration. So many questions were spinning in her head! She is in fact talking with a representative of a foreign civilization, and he does not mind answering her questions at all! “You see, I didn’t expect the meeting to be so... chaotic! I just got all the prepared themes out of my head! And I didn't take Sweetie Belle's invitation seriously, left the notebook at home...”

“Nothing! I would also consider it a joke, probably,” the white pony laughed, handing over the three horseshoes to the forced partner.

“Well, I won't push you. Make your thoughts. I hope that you, in turn, will answer my questions already,” human shrugged his shoulders again, but this time more casually. Lyra could not understand how this gesture came out so expressive for him, given that one shoulder joint was missing. Suddenly it dawned on her:

“Wait... Bonnie told me you had two arms when the rotorcraft crashed! Have you lost it in the Everfree? This is an unfriendly place for an unprepared pony... um, a human,” the unicorn looked at Zeush with sympathy. “It’s a pity that no one could warn you... Probably, no one would want monsters to attack him like that from the doorway! You should have stayed with the pony... Oh. Who knew...”

Human, bending his neck, looked in surprise at the left side of his body. Then he smiled at Lyra with a snort.

“Ah, you mean this... Everything is all right, I just let it go for a walk.”

“Who?” the mint pony was surprised. “A hand?! Is this your jokes again?”

“Trust him,” Apple Bloom said earnestly, looking at Lyra over her cards. “In his world, "biologist", you see, means the same as "wizard"!”

“Nonsense. This is not witchcraft... he has no horn, no mark,” Diamond Tiara bit her lip, avoiding looking in the direction of human, which betrayed her displeasure. “How does Spoon allow such a skinny one to touch herself,” she muttered under her breath, frowning amusingly.

Lyra looked around the foals with a dazed gaze - who reacted quite casually to the news that the alien's hand had fled somewhere by itself.

“Can you do magic? Do humans have magic?! Indeed?” she already stood up for all four in surprise. “Is that why you learned our language so quickly and made yourself a normal face?”

“This kind of ability - only I have and only over myself,” replied the stranger dispassionately. “The rest of the humans are doing something similar... But with much more costly methods and on a more modest scale. Using complex machines, we create new plants with the characteristics we need on the basis of existing ones, like earth ponies. Or we create medicines, we treat congenital diseases,” he pondered, remembering something, and added:

“We can only hope that the transfer of such an amount of matter and the active use of my abilities did not increase the risk of your sun exploding,” a note of irony clearly sounded in Human's voice. “Anything more likely than the war with recklessness will still be won.(13)”

“Huh?”

Zeush gave the unicorn a distant gaze, then sighed.

“Doesn't matter.”

“Wh... Why only you?” Lyra asked the question with such fervor, as if she hoped to break through the barrier of incomprehension, which from time to time he erected with his mysterious, probably related to the native world of man, speeches. “Why don't the others have that? Are you like an alicorn among humans?”

“Well, that's hardly likely... Because the power of science, that's why,” Zeusch snorted. “For the time being, I was at home in terms of natural capabilities an ordinary person. Two arms, two legs, head, average physical parameters in all respects. Growth is considered average at home. But then - thanks to the same science - I changed. I got the opportunity to change myself at my own discretion and adjust to the task at hand.”

Lyra did not fully grasp what the alien was talking about, but, apparently, Zeush's case for his planet was... atypical. Unique. Maybe the scientists there, unable to accept Twilight Sparkle's message, have embarked on some grand experiment in order to in turn contact Equestria? Did they choose a candidate from among their ranks to do this? Lyra blinked, feeling that a little more, and her brains will boil, so that clouds of steam will be drawn from her ears.

“But... if you can be anything, then why are you now like...” without having figured out how to describe his condition and not offend the alien guest, Lyra poked her hoof in his direction,  “this?”

“Evolution is not always about improvement. Sometimes, to adapt, you have to step back, otherwise it will throw you to the sideline. Evolution does not tolerate losers, ”Zeush shook his head almost proudly. “And to open a new business, one way or another, you need start-up capital,” he added, and Tiara nodded in agreement. “I was not ready for the realities of your world. Nobody would be ready. So I had to bring a part of my body into the technology that allows me to exist, ignoring inedible flora and fauna and switching to the simplest chemicals,” Zeush's limb again split into separate hands. Two-fingered hands flashed quickly, gathering Silver's mane into a neat braid, like manipulating golem on a conveyor belt. “Long and disadvantageous compared to standard human methods, but possible. I could appear before you in the guise of a human - but with the current level of mass it would probably be even worse. Believe me, a man with wasted muscles and a complete lack of subcutaneous fat is a sight to behold... Two days ago, I was a pale likeness of myself. Today...” human patted Silver between the ears, waking up the earth one, “I'm worth something more.”

Ignoring the fauna... Again those slips of his, thought Lyra. Zeush seemed to deliberately tease, sow doubts in the soul of the unicorn; each new fact, voiced by him, only gave rise to even more questions! Deciding that it was worth following Applejack's example, and straightforwardness would be the best of the ways, Lyra asked:

“You...” she hesitated, but asked the question, as it seemed to Lyra, with the most courageous and determined look:

“Honestly, are your species a predator?”

The foals, who have almost finished the game, have their ears pricked up again. Silver, blinking sleepily, scanned the floor around Zeush's legs with her hoof:

“Am I... missing something? I just closed my eyes for a minute...”

“I am different and cannot be responsible for all of humanity,” the stranger said, looking seriously at Lyra, passing glasses to Spoon who squeaked happily. “Personally, I can live half-badly on minerals and your incredibly strange sun. But my source, human, is omnivorous.”

“Ah,” Lyra smiled with relief. “Then it's all right. This was what I was hoping to hear.”

“Well, great,” the alien guest raised his eyebrows. Before Lyra, pacified by the words of Human, had time to ask a new question, he added:

“In general, humans can live without protein food, but badly and not for long. Brains will not work, joints will be desstroyed... Rickets, other delights of a poor diet. Substitution of meat is possible, but still not enough. We have no way to feed on background magic - only that will be stolen from other high-energy systems. The efficiency of a level that allows such tricks is available only to me... I think so.”

Noticing that the foals were looking at him, widening their eyes, and Lyra gasping for air without speaking - even Winona seemed to look at him reproachfully - human looked around in bewilderment:

“Did I say something wrong?”

“Wait... are you eating your pets?!” gasped Lyra, flopping back to the floor in surprise. “But you said that humans are omnivores!”

“What kind of discord pets...” muttered Zeush, stroking the head of the worried Silver, soothing her. “We have dogs and cats, other companions - they are our friends, and live, as they are lucky, a happy and relatively long life. And there are such as, for example, chicken...”

Sweetie Belle, who looked confusedly from Lyra to human and back, finally decided on the side to support - and this choice was definitely not in favor of the mint unicorn.

“Ponies keep them for fluff and eggs,” she said quietly, looking inquisitively at human's face, as if trying to figure out if he was joking. “And you? Is it really for the meat?”

“But I thought, since you have chickens... Oh, yes. I remember,” Zeush responded inappropriately.

“We are omnivores, yes,” exclaimed Diamond Tiara, “but who would put meat on this list?!”

“I heard from Scootaloo that some winged ones eat fish, the same griffins...”

“That’s fish,” Lyra shook her head. “It's not the least bit intelligent, and many former predators eat her. Pegasus too, and this is completely normal... We believe that when magic began to fill our world eating meat was in vogue, but it was so long ago that there is no evidence of this.”

“Really? So, the use of exactly red cell fibers for you is not even medieval savagery, but something zha-ras-ik?(14)” human bared his teeth, showing even white number of them. “Come on, Scootie,” having put the yawning earth pony on the plank floor, he squinted his eyes at his most faithful assistant and showed her his scythe-toothed grin:

“Do you think I could harm you? Are you scared?”

“Why be scared?” the pegasus was surprised. “You have such fangs that you I hardly distinguish it! I'm not afraid of you! You didn’t do anything bad to us,” the girl boldly reported, and Lyra, quite reassured by the human’s “head replacement”, in her thoughts agreed with Scootaloo: it was difficult to be afraid of what you’ve never seen - such an aspect of humans' life rather seemed strange.

“There we go. And you, Lyra Heartstrings, have on a note... Humans are not primitive hunters, but quite a evolved civilization. We have everything that can be put on stream, from toothpicks to nuclear machines,” human poked his finger somewhere at the ceiling, as if he had really flown from space. “This is almost all of your living creatures semi-intelligent, judging by what I saw. And we have achieved that the chicken is, consider, your fish. Just a piece of meat with a nerve knot completely susceptible to apathy - but swinging out a couple of weeks before its presentation. Some even think that this is the merit of any harmful drugs...” Human grinned badly. “Fools do not realize that the metabolism of these creatures is already working at the limit - you will not accelerate it even more. All this,” he looked at Lyra from under his brows, “differs from your point of view, pony?”

"Well, if only a little," Lyra said carefully. “I just didn't think that humans are not like us... in terms of friendship with almost everything that lives on Equus.”

“Even if I suddenly turned out to be a dangerous pony-eater, you are inedible for me, absolutely and irrevocably,” human got to his feet and walked to the table. “Now I get around by creating an artisanal chemical factory only on your land, on your own sun.

“Dangerous pony-eater" thoughtfully examined the smoking "battery", and Apple Bloom suddenly conspiratorially jabbed a mint unicorn in the side with her elbow.

“Come on, Lyra!” the girl winked at her. - Zeush is a real human, as you described them, he is very good guy!”

“Not good as you think, little one,” the alien chuckled.

The girls were quiet for a while, focusing on the game that was already drawing to a close - hooves clattering to the floor. Human, too, fell silent, contemplating the product of his magical-not-magic art. Lyra hesitated, got up and walked over to him.

“They're not afraid of you at all,” she said quietly, looking over her shoulder at the foals. “Although they did not expect to meet you, probably...”

“Well, as I said, this trinity would have enough courage for a dozen cou-arde la-ne.(15) Plus, I've proven myself pretty well... and made an effort not to scare them, unlike you,” human who was squatting, suddenly put one finger at a right angle and, folding the rest, pointed behind his back. “And these two... probably think of me as something like a lost adra-ed.(16) Golem servant,” human nodded at his double hand, as if pecked with a sharp nose. “Don’t be afraid of me either, little pony. I do not represent a danger to the reasonable...” again Human made this strange pause, as if for the umpteenth time cutting himself off in mid-sentence, “gathered in this room. And maybe I am different from humans as you imagined them, but I can assure you: my predecessors, without any fangs, folding arms and claws, were doing, in fact, the same thing as I was - selection... In a more common sense than this word is used by earth ponies. New properties of organic matter were consolidated and designed... All in all, the difference is that the products of their talent took from several weeks to tens of years, while for me it took several hours.”

“I'm not afraid, it's just...” the unicorn suddenly thought that such a corrosive and thorough human as Zeush could not help but learn about the attitude of ponies to pets before meeting Lyra. On the other hand, he did not even say that he did not know this...

He was waiting for this question, Lyra was surprised to herself, and wanted to solve it in her own way? Lyra did not understand the subtleties, did not feel false, but if this was plan of a guest from another world, it was played out like clockwork. Almost like Discord - he could seem gallant, perform some insignificant at first glance actions, but everything he did with a pony ultimately led to contention and deception. All these human’s "I could", his ability to portray other faces, like a top-notch changeling... Lyra decided that if we were to be frank, then to the end. Wouldn't this by no means stupid rational be angry for the fact that she is not such a frivolous filly, like some of the townsfolk of Ponyville? From what Sweetie Belle was saying, Human was looking for someone like that.

“You know how to manipulate... uh, manage sentient ones, right?” Lyra asked in an almost reproachful tone, although she perfectly understood that there was nothing to blame the stranger for. Not all ponies in Equestria were like the locals with their simple and good-natured morals... To her surprise, the stranger did not even think to deny:

“As much as I know. At home, I was the head of a large scientific project, so administrative skills and the ability to negotiate were needed,” he patted the plate on his chest with his palm. “But I do not like this occupation, and even more so I do not like to abuse it. I've been on my own all my life. My own. I am not a puppeteer, but the most ordinary person... perhaps with an overly outstanding destiny. Which turned me into a crossroads of all forms and directions, all biological techniques known and unknown to human-kind. Yes.”

“So you, uh, are you... an alien changeling? Metamorph sorcerer?”

“Not in the sense that you put it here. You may not believe, Lyra,” human widened his eyes, so that Lyra could not help laughing, “but humans are just what they are. Countless beliefs, cultures and traditions. At my house man can be anything and anyone - magic has nothing to do with this, and neither do my abilities. Someone, if he could survive getting into your world, would hope for the friendliness of the natives. Someone like me would have found reasonable caution in themselves and collected the data first. Someone would run away in panic, shouting about "four-legged horror" and giving praise to the heavens that the gods saved from meeting them. And someone else would have gotten into the credibility of the Crusaders and with the help of them carried an explose-machine into the real residence of the princesses, which, perhaps, could take them out of the game. And there are many more probabilities...”

“Really? So many different options?” Lyra was surprised. “I thought that at most you would refuse to meet ponies, and the princesses will have to look for you elsewhere...”

“We say that how many humans, so many opinions. It seems that we are much more individualists than you.”

“Perhaps...” Lyra agreed, and immediately got scared:

“Are you serious about girls?! Why would you need to attack the princesses?! You...” noticing the malice on the human’s face, Lyra breathed out with relief:

“You're kidding again, right? There's no plan to attack the princesses with the Crusaders, is there?”

“We won!” shouted Sweetie Belle, holding out her hoof to shake her opponents - and partner. Tiara, however, took the victory for granted, did not give a hoof and, lifting her nose, simply walked away with Silver to the wall.

“We demand revenge!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said in a voice indignantly. Sweetie Belle convinced them with a few general phrases that her alliance with Tiara was only temporary, and they could easily play 3 on 3 against someone else. The foals, giggling and embracing, jumped up to Zeush, who had risen to his full height, and he looked at them with a slight smile.

“Of course, there is no such plan,” human laughed. “This trinity is much more attractive to me in the form of innocent cuties than the blind instruments of my will.”

“What? What? And what have we got to do with it? - turned the heads Cutie Mark Crusaders. “And what did you and Lyra talk about? How can a instrument be blind?”

Human smiled, but his eyes remained absolutely serious. Lyra laughed in response.

“I think I understand now why you play with words like Canterlot's egghead guys. Because you were one of those at home! You would have come to the court of princesses, oh, you have.

“No way,” the stranger shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably, pursing his lips. “I'm not arrogant type, little pony. And my species in term of manners is not entirely the same as me. We have not only incomprehensible sublime concepts and scientific theories, but also good, simple, exactly what you understand. Friendship, for example.”

“Twilight Sparkle was interested in friendship a year ago!” Scootaloo interjected immediately. “She even sent letters to Her Grace!”

“Exactly! She will probably be interested in how you make friendship in another world!” Sweetie Belle echoed her. “But she left now, took all her friends, and my sister too!”

“We are also interested!” Appleboom stood on the hind legs, with the front legs resting on human's thigh. “Can you tell? Oh please!”

“Well, like everywhere else, probably,” human shrugged his shoulders, sitting back down on the floor, bending his strange legs and folding almost in half. “Arranging joint gatherings, going somewhere, helping each other, finding common interests, just communicating, keeping friends from any ill-considered nonsense... Eh. The latter, unfortunately, not always.(17)”

“Oh-ho, so not all humans are so calculating and buried in dark corners suspicious guys?” Lyra giggled. “Will you let me be one of your first friends in Equestria?”

Human looked at her in surprise.

“One of the first? Do you think other ponies can trust a strange, unlike them biped?”

“Of course!” the unicorn nodded confidently. ‘From another world, who does not want to acquire another? You probably have so many interesting and unusual things! And Equestria has a lot to offer you! You probably already figured that out yourself, didn't you?”

Zeush's face, suddenly impenetrable at once, was turned towards the front door. Lyra thought that if he were a pony, the foreigner would now wiggle his ears warily. She raised her head, noticing his interest in the space outside the house, and Winona, but then Zeush finally woke up. Closing his eyes wearily, human spoke quietly:

“New friends in the new world, huh? I don’t have time for this. I'll show you something, little pony,” he raised his voice to the foals.

“Scoots, paper and a couple of pencils! I guess a little memory training won't hurt.”

“Oka-a-ay!” pegasus rushed to the cabinets and began to rummage there with all the enthusiasm. Finally, Scootaloo procured a blank sheet of paper and ordered writing materials, choosing from the entire range of the largest and longest. When she brought them to Zeush, he grabbed one pencil in each paw, and under the pony's curious glances, he began to create.

Lyra watched with amazement and delight as on the paper, through the whirlwind of flickering limbs, something like black-and-white photographic prints began to appear. In the foreground there were two, of course, humans, and in the left, the unicorn easily recognized her new acquaintance: the similarity of their faces was obvious. A man dressed in either a dark coat or a jacket - it was difficult to judge by the cut of humans - hugged, putting his hand on his shoulders, the smaller creature to his right - in a simple dress with an open top. Zeush looked relaxed here, looking at the colorographer with a patronizing, cheerful gaze. The human mare — no doubt it was her — also smiled and was very at ease. The features of the mare... woman were just as sharp and wrong from the pony's point of view, except for the cheekbones, but the outlines of the lips spoke of sensuality; the look of deep dark eyes attracted attention, and in the short, slightly lighter mane than her companion, there was something impressive.

“So this is you!” surprised Apple Bloom, hoof pointing at the painted massive figure. “And who is next to you? Did you have a very special somepony there?” giggled the earth filly, looking slyly at human.

“My sister, Dae-na,” he answered with undisguised nostalgia. “Something like this we humans look in everyday life. As I said, the form of my present is only a guarantee of survival in your world. Dae-na was... is my best friend.”

Lyra finally relaxed: the couple depicted on the sheet seemed to be something as similar as possible to the humans the unicorn saw them: the figures were dense, stretched up, completely covered, judging by their appearance, with strong muscles and smooth skin. It seems that she just came across some kind of too eccentric and strange in terms of abilities instance... Lyra was a little embarrassed that not only her brother and sister, but also the figures of other humans were wrapped from head to toe in clothes when The decoration of the building in the background did not at all hint at some kind of festive reception. Rather, it looked like one of Manehattan's malls, where there were many similar tiers and shop windows. The mint pony wanted to clarify whether the general wearing of clothing was a tribute to some kind of tradition, but Human suddenly continued:

“In truth, the only real friend I've ever had and whom I could trust unconditionally,” he chuckled. “I don’t know how to be friends in your usual sense, pony. So it seems to me.”

Lyra looked at human in disbelief.

“Did you only have one friend?”

"It's so-o sa-a-ad," Sweetie Belle looked at her visitor from another world with her big, pitiful eyes. “You must have been very sad to live there alone.”

“I couldn't complain. For humans like me, it's okay, Sweetie, believe me,” human smiled at her with curling lips. Lyra warmly thought that for a short time in Equestria, the little unicorn seemed to have become human’s favorite. “I had several acquaintances, good persons with whom you can have a few words and share your opinions. But such, um, neutrality... quickly collapses in the event of serious trials, under the blows of which real friendship will withstand. I liked to think that the less you see a thing in your life, the more value it gets.”

“Friendship is not a thing that benefits from being alone,” Lyra shook her head. “It helps ponies every day and in the most difficult times, but living with one single friend is no better than without friends at all. This can escalate into mania.”

"You're right," the alien tilted his head. “But who said that this is something bad?”

“You can become dependent on him - a friend will be what you need every day, and this is already an infringement of his free choice...”

“However, all these are words,” human waved his hand, turning away. “It does not matter.”

A Bon-Bon’s friend saw how his pupils narrowed for a moment, and his face took on an absent expression.

“Why friendship does not matter?” asked Lyra, a little offended that the human so easily ignored her ardent speech.

“It's not about friendship,” Zeush snapped his jaws. “When I left my world, my sister was in danger. I must get back to her as soon as possible. I am obliged to protect her.”

“Oh,” pressed their hooves to the lips of Sweetie and Apple Bloom. “Something serious?”

“If so, we must hurry! We need to talk to Twilight right now...” Scootaloo looked seriously at human, but then she remembered that person in charge of the experiment had left for the north. “Eh, well, with Princess Celestia, that is, as we suggested! And with Luna!”

“Is your family in danger? If this is not another stupid joke, then of course you should turn to Their Highnesses...” Lyra tried to hide her sadness and disappointment in her voice. If everything was so serious, then, of course, the human needed to return to his native world. The unicorn cheered up, deciding that once a human managed to come to Equestria, then such a brainy person like Zeush will certainly find a way to return here, no matter what Twilight said!

He would hardly leave his sister if she was in danger, Lyra thought suddenly. But why then did Zeush end up being transferred to Equus? Had he been sent to visit a pony against his will? Or is it all just a series of coincidences, a coincidence that Twilight was caught by him? While the unicorn puzzled over this riddle, Tiara, who came up with Spoon Diamond, unceremoniously pulled a sheet with a picture-cardography to her and began to study it. In the end, she even sniffed, and then busily asked:

“Didn’t you say you couldn't draw?”

“I don't know how,” was his answer.

“And what is this if not a group portrait in pencil?!” the earth filly was indignant, deciding that Zeush decided to laugh at her again in his simple manner.

“This is an old photography from my house,” the human dismissed her claims. “I only reproduced it’s impression from memory, associating the movement with a pencil with the same means of disguise as my subcutaneous tissues. Even then you need to be able using a camera, to take into account all these exposures and lighting. And in this,” he took the leaf from Tiara with a dexterous movement, so that his fingers closed almost under her nose with a click, “there is not an ounce of art. And my hand, giving out this "picture", was not engaged in creativity, but represented the same object as the wrench, only fully automatic... even self-learning.”

“A hand-made cardography...” Diamond Tiara muttered, looking at Spoon. “We could make money on such a novelty.”

“Tool!” Sweetie Belle reminded herself. "Tool" you probably meant to say, not "wrench"! This is more generalized.”

“Not interested, Tiara,” Zeush calmly answered the pink pony, who I have already offered him to divide the proceeds "seventy-five by thirty." And, as you might guess, the little entrepreneur was going to take the most of the proceeds for herself "as a distributor and representative of alien wonders in Equestria"!

“You again saved me from embarrassment, milady Belle,” human ceremoniously bowed his head, addressing now to Sweetie, “and brought me a little closer to theponyception of your world. Thank you.”

‘You're welcome!” joyfully announced the unicorn, a little embarrassed that she is called "milady." “I'm interested in myself! Thanks to a conversation with you, we will find out what features your society has, and what cutiemarks we can get from there!”

“Overdo it somehow, and get the cutiemark of the cutiemark seekers...” the alien remarked with a laugh. The next word he uttered in his native language, groaning at it, like a dog barking hoarsely:

“Rik-ershkhn... (18) No more jokes, Lyra,” he turned to the mint pony. “Here with someone, and I always have time to talk with the princesses. First, I would like to end the conversation with you. And since we decided the most, I'm not afraid of this word, strange from your point of view, sides of being me, found out that I'm not so different from you in other aspects...” human looked at Lyra with his attentive small eyes, from which it was so difficult to guess what he was thinking. “Since we understand each other well, I suggest you, Lyra Heartstrings, start our relationship from scratch…

“What, really?!” 

“…as if there were no threats to tear to pieces, the horrors of eating half-sane meat and other nonsense,” the alien looked at her in bewilderment. “How do you, ponies, start making acquaintance?”

“But you seem to be introduced to each other?” surprised Apple Bloom.

“Not really, little one,” human replied apologetically. “Actually my name is A-legs-ande Mer-sher, or A-legs, for short. I thought it was too difficult for you, but since our acquaintance is acquiring more details...” noticing the puzzlement on the faces of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, human added:

“Ze-ushs is also my name, but it's more... a designation. Nickname.”

“A-lags... Alex,” Lyra softened what she heard, listening to the sound, as to the iridescence of strings. “And what does this name mean in your language?”

Human seemed confused. Puzzled, he ruffled his short mane.

“In my day, names no longer mean more than the humans who… wear them. For us, a name, besides appearance, is an opportunity to be different from the herd.”

“But still?” Lyra asked curiously. The foals did not lag behind, their ears pricked up with might and main.

“Protector... Protector of the living and spice merchant. And the nickname in the original sense meant "bright sky."

The combination seemed unusual, as if it was composed without listening to Harmony, from two randomly taken pieces. Mercer is a solid name, someone who does some big business picks up a lot at once. Alexander, judging by the contrast, sounded with a hint of a noble rank. After listening to the sound again and driving it through her experience, Lyra asked:

“Em... can I call you Xander?”

Human looked at her as if he had seen a unicorn for the first time. Then, immersed in thought, rattled like a calculator cabinet:

“Hrm-m-m...”

“Um, Xander?” Lira waved her hoof. “Are you still here?”

"Never mind," Sweetie Belle giggled. “If he thinks and begins to puff like the sister of Pinkie Pie, it means that the next couple of minutes Alex will not be able to reach him.”

“Which of her sisters?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Pinky didn't elaborate!”

“And if he says "it's very simple", from what was said further you will not understand a single word, most likely,” Scootaloo laughed and went to the table, attracted by a loud crash. “It seems that Alex and Twilight are traveling in the same carriage!”

Lyra finally realized that the outsider decided to think it over immediately; To a resident of a world devoid of magic, he probably thought it strange that a unicorn without knowing an alien language so easily made a diminutive, more pony-correct form of his name.

“I’m not a linguist,” Lyra explained, hoping by this to bring a human out of the state of meditation, “but I feel such things well. "Xander" would sound right, harmonious... musically. You can call it innate intuition, one of the sides of my talent. But many just say...”

“… magic,” human finally summed up. “I shouldn't be so surprised, considering how I got here... Well, thanks at least not "Sandy". In fact, you can call me whatever you want. But "Alex" would bring me the most satisfaction. "Dr. Mercer" is already for colleagues...”

“Oh, okay. If I am not mistaken, do you have such a manifestation of humans' aspirations with the help of magic? Like magic itself?”

“Your truth... But it never bothered us.”

Human was quite willing to give answers to questions, was friendly and open, except for the mystery of some of his sayings. So next Lyra asked the question, not expecting to receive something shocking in response, believing that the otherworldly would no longer be able to surprise her:

“So how did you get here? I mean, what did you do if you were the one who got Twilight?” clarified the unicorn. “Does it have something to do with the fact that your sister is in danger, or that you are different? At first I thought that other humans had chosen you to be sent to Equestria, but now I don't know what and think...”

Alex gave Lyra his branded appraising look, but the next moment he sharply turned his head to the table:

“Scootaloo!” not angrily, but very close to this he said. ‘What did I tell you about my reagents?”

Pegasus, who had previously been standing on the table and trying to peer into the battery from above, jumped away, fluttering its wings. She grumbled, putting her hoof on her front leg over the other and looking down:

‘They are unstable...”

“And that means..?”

“That they can explode like a very large fireworks display,” the pegasus giggled. “Come on, Alex! I am fast, in which case I will bounce!”

“Unleashing energy is at its best! I myself have not yet fully figured out how all these systems work,” the human looked at her sternly. “Content in general can react to heat and rush at you, considering it a consumer of energy! And I do not smile at all to look your parents in the eyes and explain why their daughters missed a pair of limbs and received chemical burns half a face. So,” he pointed his finger at the door, looking around the foals with a glance,” you, foals, would go out into the street. Go play the ball while the weather is nice. And here I am going to talk to Lira on serious topics.”

“Oh, come on, Sandy-i-i... We have good weather here almost always! What did we not see there on the street? And with you I wonder-oh-oh...” the pegasus took on a truly innocent look, but human shook his head:

“This won't work for me, Scootie, I'm not your teacher. Don't be stubborn, go!”

“Okay...” Apple Bloom sighed, heading for the exit. “You, adults, always keep secrets behind closed doors... Winona, lets go for a walk!”

“Well, Scoots, have you finished badly?” Sweetie Belle squeaked resentfully, whose touching look this time did not make the slightest impression on Alex.

“Whatever!” snorted the pegasus, fighting off Winona, who was circling around them, pleased that the gatherings at the clubhouse had finally ended. “Alex is a guy, he’ll resent for about ten minutes and he’ll stop… Girls, let's go to warm up or something!”

"Go, ponies," Alex ushered them off, including Tiara and Spoon, whom he looked at especially expressively. “Just remember - no mutual grudges. I'll find out,” he tapped a finger on his temple.

“What about me?” the pink earthling tried to be indignant. “When will you scratch me already?!”

“I’m going to have open-heart surgery soon,” Alex grumbled, pushing Diamond Tiara out the door with his massive figure, just hanging over her. “Come on, the flowers of life, there is no need for you to look at this.”

“What? How can life be floral?” Tiara was surprised at last, but Human had already closed the door behind her, and then he closed the window with curtains.

As soon as Lyra was left alone with a person, it was as if he was replaced. All gaiety disappeared from Alex's face completely, like dust that had been wiped off with a damp cloth; deep-set eyes gazed at Lyra sullenly and without particular disposition.

“Okay, now let's talk seriously,” he said lifelessly. “You’re not a foal, and you can be privy to more substantial and less... disingenuous details. Although, how to think about it…” a sharp grin traced the person's face, turning a rather pleasant face into some kind of evil mask. “Listen to stories about their adventures, so the endurance of your cubs is downright iron. The Everfree's school of life, not otherwise... However, I have already said that.”

“Children,” Lyra corrected, looking puzzled at her interlocutor. What caused such a sudden mood swings? “Children, if generalized, or foals, if you refer to the species. Cubs are more of a semi-intelligent...”

“Don't give a damn,” human dismissed. “Are you asking why I came to Equestria, and not someone else? It's a long story,” in Alex's voice were notes of real anger, and Lyra fearfully pressed her ears. “I lost my memory. Gained a power that my Air-ish ancestors never dreamed of. I confronted a sinister government organization that forced me to brew all this tartare cauldron, fought with ferocious monsters, suffered terrible injuries,” human's gaze became clouded, and his voice trembled, as if his mind remained in time, where he did not want to return at all. “I remembered my former self, collected it piece by piece. Wounded more than once, but never defeated, I went through all the trials of fate, regardless of losses. In this war, I lost my legs and almost lost my sister,” human looked with hatred at the elastic bone stilts with a spur, which in fact did not resemble the foot of anyone that of living beings. “In the last desperate dash, I overtook the humans whom I considered responsible for all this pain and madness. They had already collected everything they needed and wanted to destroy the whole city, so that the world would not know about their crimes... I prevented them by taking the most powerful explosive machine from the city to the ocean. And here I am.”

“Oh. I... I...” dumbfounded, Lyra at first did not know what to say. Finally, she went up to Alex and, standing on her hind hooves, hugged him by the armored belt, expressing sympathy and personal experience:

“I’m very, very sorry that you had to go through this,” she concluded sadly, pressing her cheek against what the human was supposed to have a belly, and worrying that the alien probably doesn’t feel Lyra’s fur with his armor and the warmth of her body, cannot feel her support. “I hope that your affairs will get better…” 

Suddenly it dawned on Lyra that one of the details of this terrible story somehow did not agree with what she knew. The unicorn unclenched her legs, looking with disbelief at the again impassive human face:

“Wait a minute!” the pony exclaimed. “But when Bon-Bon saw you... She said nothing that your legs are not in place! On the contrary, she said that you are all completely stocky and dense! None of this,” Lyra swept her hoof around the human physique, including the stilt legs, “you hadn’t!”

Alex was silent, staring sullenly at the unicorn. And suddenly he... smiled, and then laughed shortly - like a big old raven croaking.

“You mammals are so sentimental, this is something,” human patted Lyra condescendingly on the head, and she, put into prostration by her discovery, did not even notice that they had actually touched her with a hand. “I thought everyone in your world is like naive children, and here I will completely lose my qualifications. But, apparently, I am once again pleasantly mistaken.”

“What qualifications? Do you humans have…” muttered the unicorn, still not believing that this heartbreaking story, spoken with an absolutely serious face, was entirely a joke. “I-is all your humor based on violence and loss of limbs?”

“Yes. Not. Probably?” Human raised his eyebrows. “Of course not, Fuzzy. Just my mindset...”

He was friendly again - as if there was no cold aloofness and grief on Alex's face a minute ago over the war-shaken human world. Either he had a diploma from a drama school in addition to his degree, or... Maybe this he meant when he said that humans can be "whatever" in terms of cultures, beliefs and psychology? And the whole difference between Alex and other humans is that he was additionally "improved" by the coordination of his body as well? Anyway, Lyra pouted, looking reproachfully at human:

“Listen, why are you again deceiving me?”

“A serious human who owns his life and destiny will not lie about trifles,” Alex shook his head. “I openly let you know about the untruth, and therefore I was only joking,” he went to the window and looked out, examining the surroundings of the apple orchard between the curtains. Then he sighed:

“Sometimes your whole life turns into one unsuccessful long-drawn-out joke. For example, by answering the question who created whom.(19)”

“Well, I don’t know what to say... I already imagined myself such things,” Lira laughed, deciding not to pay attention to the next strange dictum of Mercer. “So, everything that you said was a joke?”

A mine of sly amusement remained on Human's face - but, moreover, it seemed to Lyra that something flashed in his eyes that could be interpreted as regret.

“It so happens that a good prank is based on a bit of truth. (20)”

“Ugh, you are wagging the tail again!” shook her head unicorn. “Why are you smart guys just not supposed to speak directly?”

“Not least because I'm afraid of the scenario "Mortal Torment of the Alien",(21)” human responded, walking back to the table and carefully leaning against the wall next to him. “I'll start telling you everything - I'll ruin your mind. You have one won’t initial impression of what impact it had.”

“No way!” Lyra answered firmly. “You may be strange... Very. But you seem to be good guy! Girls would hardly trust you if you were an unpleasant type or capable of somehow ruining a pony, like Discord.”

“Oh really?”

“So, let me collect my thoughts...” Lyra raised her hoof, closing her eyes, but immediately stared at human again:

“Wait, is it really so bad living on your planet? These "sinister organizations" are not giving life to ordinary humans?”

“What is our life?” Alex shrugged philosophically. “Life is a game... Do you have card games with an element of randomness at all?” he waved his hand, remembering that there were more ponies in the Crusaders’ clubhouse just recently. “Ah, well, yes, the girls just played in some kind of unintelligible, from my point of view, tossing. I don’t know about you, Lyra,” the stranger snapped his joints, glancing at the battery and squinting, “but in our world the quality of life depends not only on what cards you get, but also on how you play them. I won, with very mediocre starting conditions, thanks to diligence and talent, I managed to win the prize.”

"Break the bank" if you are talking about a big win. We have gambling establishments in Las Pegasus, generally speaking...”

“Roger, accepted, remembered,” the human raised his hand in a welcoming gesture. “I had an excellent life by the standards of any human. Only at the end in this sense I went bankrupt, and even then out of my own stupidity. However, I didn't have much choice... How do you say there, oxalis is not sweeter then sorrel?” faced with Lyra's incomprehensible gaze, human raised his eyes to the ceiling and quietly snorted:

“Don't bother you, little pony, we humans live fine. Earlier, like yours, it was worse. Then our "princesses" came into play, constraining factors, and diplomacy, trade and other antics of this kind became preferable. As I said, until recently I could not complain,” human put one leg after the other, knocking out a simple rhythm against the wall with his fingers. - We have many countries and many different races, although they all walk on two legs and can interbreed with each other, differing only in skin tone, eye shape, and a number of other genicthread traits. Many worldviews... We have our own "kingdoms of griffins", which had a glorious past, but without a clear position got lost and do not know what to do now. We also have possessions about which the ordinary man in the street only knows that they exist, but the rulers have to reckon with them...” perhaps the surprise on Lyra's face appeared too clearly even for a foreigner with his completely different culture, because he winked :

“Wondering how I knew all this? My renewed memory is even more than a cardographic one. In addition to the reference books that Sweetie Belle taught me, I also came across a history textbook at your school... then, when I Learned the language, I got acquainted with its contents from memory.”

“And what happened before your, um, "Age of Harmony"?” feeling that she will regret it yet, asked Lyra.

“A terrible mess,” Human shrugged, “even worse than yours. Wars, epidemics, prejudices, slavery and the terrible illiteracy of the population,” Alex rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose with his fingers - this is how human portrayed either despair or fatigue, or maybe both. “Although in the dark times there were many things that would not allow those decades to be attributed to the dustbin of history. Great geographical discoveries and inventions that became the basis for civilization in its modern form, scholars we revered, unique architectural monuments...”

“Well, if you are already civilized...” the unicorn remembered that Princess Luna openly ranked the alien rotorcraft as a military one. “Just don’t tell me that you are still fighting on such a scale.”

“Conflicts do happen, even though they're rare now,” Mercer reluctantly objected. “It seemed to me, or did you ask not because you were worried about the very possibility of war in our world?”

“No, that's not the point. This is not at all... We also had conflicts, even after the accession of Their Highnesses, even though the parties managed to come to an agreement most often,” Lyra answered cautiously. “It just seemed to me... If this was your machine, in which you flew into Equestria, then you could be a soldier. And you don't want to deal with the princesses, you behave more like a representative of another state than on your own... I have no idea how you can be a scientist and a soldier at the same time, but that's my impression,” Lyra giggled. “Like this.”

Mercer looked at her from under his brows, and the unicorn thought that the sudden guess in her head was quite consistent with the fact that Alex called himself a "dilettante", "grabbing the top."

‘Smart little pony,” human muttered. “You like theories of conspiracing, eh? Do you think I am a soldier who did not want to be a living weapon and fled from fulfilling his duty to another world?”

Mint unicorn shook her head.

“You may be careful, yeah, but you don't look like a coward!”

“Well, I never would look like it,” Alex grinned. “In fact, I was working on a project that in the long term was supposed to end all wars, future and present. Establish a new order on the planet...”

“Wow! So you were supposed to play the role that the alicorn sisters played with us?” inquired Lyra, grabbing the tail of the thought that had already flashed earlier.

“What?” Alex raised one eyebrow. “No... I don’t think that analogy is appropriate here,” he disagreed with a chuckle. “A new world has come... For me alone. My old way of life was crushed into dust, my state declared me the persona nan gra-ntno and arranged a hunt for me... If I stayed at home, I probably would only have to do what to hide from everyone.”

“Really?” Lyra wondered. She could not imagine that the Royal Sisters began to persecute someone so viciously - even a magician from among the court, who would have cast a spell related to the forbidden. And to think that the pony was deprived of the company of others and was an outcast all his life... “You were treated cruelly.”

“But they made me strong. Able to do something that takes humans thousands of times more time and resources,” the human's face remained calm, but Lyra with some seventh feeling felt that inside he was literally boiling with anger. “I am far superior to ordinary humans. I became faster and inconceivably tenacious, became even smarter. I survive in your realities, which would kill another human in less than five minutes. ”

He pointed to a neck with a long trachea, streaked with ligaments of muscles that go right under the skin of the face.

“Wait... No, no, kha, seriously, wait,” the unicorn gasped naturally from surprise, bulging her golden eyes at Mercer. “So is it that other humans in Equestria will never be able to get? They are here...” looked with fright at her new acquaintance Lyra, “...will they die?”

“Why "will never be able"?” Alex grunted. “Humans went down to the bottom of the ocean, and flew into space, and landed on our moon, where the conditions, to put it mildly, are not a resort either. They even arranged a walking tour along it, even if the time spent there was limited.

“You flew into the space and moon?! Just like pegasus, or have you messed up the word again?”

“Ah, a long story in which everything is mixed; from politics and patriotism to the same conspiracy theory and imaginary connection with the Carnival project...” muttered Mercer. “In short - truly astronomical amounts of money, a bunch of complex mechanisms, countless gallons of burned fuel and protective suits that preserve our atmosphere and our conditions. I don’t need one...” Alex tapped his knuckles on the irregular plate in his side. 

“This Twilight Sparkle of yours is lucky that it was me who was caught unprepared. I have no doubt that the horned clever girl is worth something, but she might not have time to figure out what kind of intervention the alien needs to save life.” Mercer arched his neck, hunching over, dropping his head almost to Lyra's level. “By the way, another argument to the question of whether I am a primate or another form of life I am. By all indications, I am still a different species... What is not mixed in me now - unused geni-threads inherited from old branches were activated, new sequences were recorded by horizontal transfer...” 

Human thought, but this time to climb into jungle his own head and ignore the world around him in no hurry, “Yes, you can generally not look for "for" and "against", here just one argument will be enough. I doubt as hell that I could have interbreed with my former relatives... in the familiar sense.”

The unicorn thought that humans in massive protective suits arriving in complex cars in Equestria is, of course, something interesting, but still not at all... Well, Alex was also "not at all", but at least he could keep his hands out of massive hoppers! Fingerlings, that is.

Okay, the mint pony dared, plucking up courage. We will work with what we have!

“I know you’re tired of my questions,” she said delicately, “and I’m a little embarrassed to ask, but... Can I look at your hand?” Lyra giggled in embarrassment, but firmly continued to look Human in the eye. “I mean, touch it?” I understand if you have any taboos on this, and you don't want to...”

A stern, almost impenetrable face with magnificent cheekbones now seemed to be looking at Lyra with a certain amount of arrogance.

“Which of my relatives would give something like "if you don't want to, I will understand" - and I would suspect him of trying to manipulate the entry-level.”

“What do you mean?” Lyra was surprised. – “Wait, I don’t bother you at a...”

“…but something tells me that in your case it was the usual politeness,” Mercer did not let her finish. “Regarding your request, in my understanding and habits, equids are generally not intended to touch... to caress humans. We are not in sov-yat rashza.(22) Anyway, okay,” Alex concluded after a short thought, squatting down and stretching out his hand, “I have recently formed a whole set of limbs of various purposes, but for some reason I have confidence that you specifically need this option..”

“What do you mean?” asked the unicorn, coming closer.

Alex's hand has changed again. She had not looked so bad even before - not at all like those knotty, creepy hooks, but now Lyra saw how from somewhere out of the joint, shimmering red, a fifth finger, opposed to the other four. Human turned the hand over, palm up, and Lyra was able to see how tiny wrinkle lines appear on the skin in the place where the palms were pressed against obe. On the rounded tips of the fingers, one could see hardly distinguishable waves, spiral patterns... the nails were quite small, the same flesh-colored with a narrow light border. The pony looked timidly at Mercer.

“May I?”

He made a vague sound, apparently indicating agreement. Lyra, touching her hand with her hoof, cautiously looked Human in the face in case it would cause him discomfort - of course, he did not even frown. The hand turned out to be the same as Lyra judged by its appearance - smooth and rather gentle... If only you do not look "deeper". The skin, hairless, but covered with a barely noticeable fluff on the outer side of the palm, was soft, pliable, easily displaced if pulled to the side with gravikinesis. It's like regular pony skin, which was covered with fur on most of the body. But if you press harder, you could feel the stiff muscles entwining the bones - as if there was a metal frame under the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous fat. The tendons on the knuckles were taut like piano strings! The stranger willingly allowed Lyra to bend and unbend his fingers, but as soon as she tried to tilt her hand in the joint, the unicorn ran into some kind of insurmountable resistance. Noticing Mercer's grin, the pony frowned and pressed harder, acting in addition to telekinesis, but the hand did not give in even a millimeter.

“Green Hearth's Warming tree!” the unicorn gasped, panting. “You will not budge!”

“Naturally. Even now I am one and a half times heavier than a human of my build. All three and a half of you,” Alex grumbled. “And the muscles, I think, can work just as well as your magic-reinforced heavyweights. Plus, telekinesis has only a partial effect on me.”

Lyra... liked the hand. She was interested in not even a complex design, at first glance fragile, dressed for safety in a soft leather case, but something else that both fascinated and repelled the unicorn. Probably, the very idea that delicate and delicately acting fingers, as if by nature intended to stroke and comb a pony's fur, seemed surprising to her, could at any moment give way to the sharpest claws that jumped out from somewhere out of harmless-looking flesh. Bound power, latent threat - however, it was never used against the ponies, the same guards who, according to rumors, got off with bruises and crumpled ribs, as if they had a fight in a bar. Deciding that this time was enough, and with her attention she could disgust a guest from another world, Lyra released her brush from the magic field. She didn’t want to seem annoying or eccentric. Or both.

“Interesting,” Lyra summed up, smiling cheerfully. “In Equestria, you will not find a race with just such a structure of limbs.

"Well, okay," Alex muttered. “By the way, it's good that you reminded me. Here I was stroking the girls' heads with this very hand and patting them by mane... Does this mean something in your culture besides approval and expression of friendship?” having regained his hand, the alien looked at her thoughtfully, removing the "thumb" in the joint and giving the hand a symmetrical look. “Considering that you have not reacted in any way to my actions with Spoon, this should be a common practice. Am I right?”

“Uh... Well... yeah?” agreed Lyra, unable to understand what Mercer is driving at.

“Nice. Since you were so preparing for a meeting with me, this is the first question for you, little pony,” the stranger straightened up, putting his hand behind his back and looking expectantly at Lyra. “Tell me about the limits of the permissible. About your rules of social behavior, instructions for which, if not problematic, then you will have to rummage through the local library - and I do not have access there yet. Can I only pat you on the head? When meeting alicorns, can't I look in the eyes or is there some other hassle?”

“Well, in general, there are no special restrictions. For us, ponies, tactile contact is generally accepted and important... It is customary for us to tap our hooves against each other when we meet, bows... Well, this is what all sorts of dandies in Canterlot do. Just try to be polite to Their Highnesses, and...” the unicorn began, but then it dawned on her. “Oh, exactly!”

The guy is cunning - took it right off the bat on his own, and I forgot about it for joy, the mint pony thought. So, Lyra is calm... don't be ashamed of him. You are no longer a young silly girl who just graduated from music school, but the first of the ponies... adult ponies who can tell him about this and prevent all kinds of trouble. Be gracious, dispassionate, and unshakable. Yes, it will.

“As I said, we love gatherings and friendly hugs,” giggled Lyra, coping with a second hitch. “If you are a friend, then the pony will not mind if you stroke her, including on the back. I certainly won't mind...”

“Ly-ra!” human snapped his fingers, frowning. “Don't be distracted, please. Facts. I need facts, not personal experiences!”

“Oh, sorry!” the unicorn came to her senses. “Yes, there is nothing more to say - with torso everything is in order, with legs too. Pegasus are generally very fond of basking, caring for each other's chest fluff. Belly... If the pony trusts you, I think she will allow her belly to be scratched,” Lyra giggled, but immediately returned her seriousness to her tone:

“Do not touch the lower abdomen... I think you yourself perfectly understand this. With a head like you have already figured out, I did not notice anything strange. Ears... Well, it's kind of personal, but if you accidentally get beaten, then it's okay, we love it too. And yes, the most important thing!” Lyra, catching her breath, carefully looked at Human, wanting to see his reaction. “Do not touch the interwing space... That is, the flying muscles of the pegasus and the base of the horn of those who own them.”

The stranger looked at her without blinking. Then he grunted briefly:

“Reason?”

“This is a very personal place,” Lyra replied, gradually turning to something close to a whisper, twitching her ears. “Like the wings in general for pegasus. There are enough nerve endings to... Well, you know. That is, you, of course, do not know, but you understand me, right?” Alex was silent, looking at her strangely, and Lyra hurried up, as if trying to give out the information in a single piece and never come back to it:

“Well, the horn is a very delicate magical tool, therefore it is considered a personal space. You can't just, um... throw a unicorn off balance just by accidentally hitting him in his bangs, but you better avoid that, okay?”

Not a single muscle twitched on human's face, but he glanced at the door as slowly as if he feared seeing a ghost there. The unicorn was finally embarrassed:

“Don't tell me that you are with Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle... oh,” Lyra broke off and spoke even more embarrassed:

“I do not blame you, if anything... You are from another world, so some embarrassment was inevitable, I think,” the unicorn nodded to the stranger with understanding. “Well, Scooti is still small, she, in principle, is not capable of thinking in such a way. You, most importantly, do not repeat this again!”

“Nothing happened,” with the voice of a man, it seemed, it was possible to concrete the walls, it sounded so emotionlessly monolithic. “I was careful. I believed that this kind of misunderstanding... could happen, and imitated only what I saw. That would be... unpleasant. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Oh, well then, everything is all right,” Lyra breathed out with relief, glad that they quickly skipped over a sensitive topic. “I hope you are not offended by my suspicions. And... um... I also hope that you are at least somewhat familiar with court etiquette and the basics of diplomacy. Our rulers are very kind and good ponies, but they are still not convinced professors... Princess Luna, if you press her with such a verbal stream… most likely she will not stand it and will overlap you with a Canterlot voice. You see, she's in a new type of Equestria relatively recently, and...”

“I have etiquette,” Alex interrupted her with such a businesslike air, as if he was really going to dig between his own convolutions for its presence. Then he focused his eyes on Lyra's horn.

“A slender magic tool,” Mercer narrowed his eyes. “A vulnerable point?”

"Including," nodded Heartstrings. “The horn is quite difficult to damage because of its magical structure, but if in some incredible way it will be possible to do this, the injury will be very serious, almost incurable,” Lyra shivered chilly, wrinkling the fur of her withers. “And just a blow on the horn, in which the spell is twisted, isn’t such a pleasure.”

“This was predictable. Nevertheless, thanks for substantiating my suspicions,” human smiled, again "coming to life" with his face and starting to demonstrate something besides sarcasm. “Scootaloo is not capable of thinking in such a way.” Judging by the sound of your speech, it meant physical impossibility, not foal psychology and, due to age, the absence of sex education. Explain.”

“Sex? How can you teach someone their gender?” Lyra blinked in bewilderment, but immediately realized what was the inaccuracy of the stranger's speech. “Ah... That's what you mean.”

Here's a stallion! Again he turns on this topic, giggling to herself, Lyra thought. Although, considering the tone of his voice... Perhaps his egghead essence has leaped up again?

“We, ponies, have such a perception,” Lyra's cheeks turned a little pink, but she continued firmly - the alien should have Learned such things in order not to consider the ponies as some "wrong" otherworldly. Well, that is, Lyra suspected that specifically his kind, these humans, were more closed and had a more detailed concept of personal space, like the same amphibian beeches of the Great Desert - since they all wore clothes... Not everyone in Alex's world tried to resemble aristocracy in a row? Human looked at her expectantly, and Lyra, after a pause, revealed her thought:

“The hormones and the proper receptor system are not yet fully formed in foals. In adult ponies... We kind of... do not notice such things until there is no corresponding smells... pheromones...” the unicorn was filled with color more than before, “stimulation, taste, corresponding, in the end, the situation and forcing thoughts in this direction. We just don't see things like that that can cause, uh... arousal. Therefore, no one worries that everyone goes without clothes. This is not a social form of education, but, as you said, a more physical level. And if you stroke a random pegasus on the street between the wings, for him it will be any gesture, but not...” Lyra squeaked against her will, pressing her ears and staring somewhere to the side, “erotic!”

Human chewed his lips, muttering something under his breath.

“Blind spot... Well, I guessed that since you are mammals, you are not...” he snapped his fingers, choosing one of the special constructions that were rarely found in everyday speech that were studied through reference books, “asexual , and the corresponding organs are not intended for decoration. So stroking the flying muscles of a Pegasus is like stroking a human on any other erogenous zone hidden by clothing? Most likely, it will not cause an effect, but it will be perceived as a very ugly gesture... Interesting,” Alex paced the room, thoughtfully putting his fingers to his chin. “I guess I was not so wrong when I thought about your desire to obey - no matter where it came from...”

Lyra was embarrassed to the extreme, but she tried not to show it anymore. And as soon as a human managed to speak so dispassionately, as if they were not discussing something personal, but over a cup of tea, they were unassumingly talking about the weather schedule? Meanwhile, Alex, turning to the second circle, suddenly stopped and looked at Lyra:

“I thought you had some kind of eye-hide magic...”

“What-what kind of magic?” Lyra got interested.

“Well, hiding,” Mercer put his hand to his right eye. “I thought that since you all go without clothes, then the intimate parts of the body can be muted, like insignia take place on your sides. But since you are all hollow-flanks to me, then...”

“Nah, illusions are unpopular... they are easy to dispel, unlike the magic of changelings, it is easy to recognize, but also difficult to reproduce,” Lyra shook her head, but then raised her eyebrows:

“Oh! I think I understand your train of thought...”

“Well, yes. Ponies, the same girls or, do not bring fate, princesses think that everything is in order, and I talk to them decently, but in fact I have the opportunity to look at them shamelessly. It is dishonest in relation to the interlocutor, don't you think?” human put his hand on the armored side, calmly looking at Lyra. “Not that I don’t give a damn about your nakedness, but I am drawn from such a concept... vizhe-niz-mez, (23) or what? And this is disrespect for others - and first of all for oneself.”

The mint pony looked inquiringly at Human's face, and he seemed to have already said everything he was going to. When Alex, in turn, gave Lyra a bewildered look, the unicorn gave up:

“Oka-a-ay… I honestly did not expect this from a guy. Your way of thinking is quite...” Lyra wanted to say "liberated", but then seized on a more suitable and, as it seemed to her, neutral word, “adaptive for a creature from another world. As for me, your reaction to our order is strange for someone who covers every inch of his body with clothes at home.”

Mercer raised an eyebrow in a decidedly ironic gesture - not like Applejack, who thus showed deepest skepticism about your wishful thinking.

“Adaptive?” in the voice of a man could be heard stinging notes. “If you mean my ability to adapt, then adaptability has nothing to do with it. First, sorting out these kinds of things is part of my job. And secondly, I have almost twenty-six cycles... yours. And nearly thirty of mine. Not fourteen,” Mercer looked up at the ceiling, “to look away and blush desperately when describing such things. And I had to grow up in my time... quickly. Though not in terms of these very relationships.”

Lyra wanted to be offended, because in her vision such dispassion was not the norm, demanded significant mental efforts for naturally emotional ponies. But, on common thought, Lyra decided that Human did not want to offend her, because she was still not used to the realities of Equestria. Golden sparks of mischief flickered in the eyes of the unicorn:

“Great!” Lyra laughed, wagging her tail playfully. “Since you’re so unbreakable, I don’t think you mind petting me?” the pony made big eyes, looking at the frowning Alex. “Pretty ple-e-ease? You can scratch on the back too!”

For a second or two Lira, holding her breath, thought that Human would refuse her or play some terrible joke in his own manner, but Alex suddenly dropped to one knee, resting the articular element of his armor on the floor.

“Mammals...” the two-legged grumbled, pursing his lips and generally trying to sound displeased - but there was no anger in his voice. When Lyra approached human, trustingly nuzzling her outstretched palm, he stroked her cheek - and Mercer's expression subtly changed for the better.

“You yourself like our fur, don’t you?” giggled Lyra, when human raised the brush higher and patted her on the head.

“Hmm,” Alex closed his eyes, just like when he was brushing Silver Spoon's mane. Little by little, his face took on a relaxed expression. “I’ll deny everything, little pony. What your are evidence?(24)”

“Well, you didn't seem to mind when Spoon... O-o-oh,” Lyra quite stretched her neck when her palm went down, running along the spine, driving a wave along the light green fur.

“It was a rhetorical question.”

Lyra exhaled happily. It felt no better than Lotus and Aloe, the acclaimed gravikinesis who ran the Ponyville spa - they were just different. Exotic, if you will - even more wonderful than she imagined. Not an even squeeze of magical fields, but smooth, lively and resilient flesh and blood that exudes a pleasant warmth. The uncomfortable thoughts that these dexterous fingers could break the unicorn's neck, simply cringing on it, completely disappeared, leaving a barely noticeable peppercorn of imminent danger, which only plunged into a state of bliss more than frightened. Lyra could probably stand for a day under only one hand of a person, or even three - but when Alex scratched her scruff to pleasant creeps and once again descended his fingers to her shoulder blades, a door creak and an uncertain voice were heard from behind:

“Scoot, has it been ten minutes?”

“Exactly... Oops! Are you busy here?”

The Crusaders lined up at the doorframe in a pyramid, peering inside, whispering and giggling. Diamond Tiara and her inseparable friend made a face a little behind. Scootaloo looked at the pink earthy pet, fiddling with her eyebrows.

“Jealous, Tiara?”

“No way!” she shook her hoof dismissively. “He himself must earn the right to touch my exquisite coat!”

Mercer, meanwhile, ripping his hand away from Lyra, slithering steps toward the door, moving frighteningly smoothly above the floor.

“Children, what did I tell you? - he said reproachfully, gently pushing the foals in the forehead with his palm and closing the door behind them, sliding the latch. - If so, this dwelling ceases to be a neutral territory and becomes my undivided possession for ten... - looking at the battery that suddenly stopped smoking, Alex raised his voice:

“…for three minutes!”

“What?” was heard Scootaloo's indignant voice outside. “But this is our clubhouse!”

“He took the house away from us!” Apple Bloom echoed her.

“Come on, this is just a couple of minutes!”

“What if he hits on the head with a fireworks display?”

“Don't talk nonsense!” Sweetie Belle giggled muffled. “Humans eat all kinds of alchemicals, not fireworks.”

“And what if the battery goes bang?”

“Well, you don't go to battery anymore,” heard Tiara's mocking voice. “So it shouldn't...”

“What are you hinting at?!”

There was a stomping on the stairs, and the voices of the foals died down - and Lyra was still in blissful detachment. Her pipe dreams of the human world, albeit too in an extravagant way, did come true - which could not but warm the pony's soul. The unicorn watched Alex with a solitary gaze, who, muttering something about "keeping the temperature," loomed over the table. Whatever synthesis he was waiting for, the alchemy of man did its job: the battery now emitted a barely audible hum, and the pale pink color of the veins disappeared, leaving only an even crimson flicker of lights with a glimmer of orange.

“Lyra, look away,” Mercer told her, brushing off the web of veins from the surface of the cylinder. The battery turned out to be metal with some kind of multi-colored drips, and the unicorn decided that Sandy, apparently, had used an ordinary paint can as a container, having made several holes in it. What an eccentric man! “After that we will end our conversation... in the fresh air.

“And scra-a-atchi-i-ing?”

“If that's what you want,” Alex slanted his discerning eyes at her.

“What I want?!” Lyra laughed, obediently turning away to the wall.

“For your own good, do not peep and watch that these five do not rush at the door at once. You have castles, of course...”

Naturally, as soon as Lyra heard the grumbling and the rough clang of armor, she was tormented by curiosity - what is the alien going to do? Maybe he will just throw the can behind his back, connecting it with this tentacle or artery to his circulatory system? Or, judging by the noise his armor made, is Alex going to remove his armor that helped him survive in Equestria? The temptation to find out what humans are hiding under their clothes (let Mercer, in his words, tNow it looked completely different than it was at home), it was too big. When the barely audible smell of sulfur spread in the air, Lyra slowly, pressing her ears, turned her head. Human stood with his broad shoulders spread apart...

... and his chest was opened. Lyra had never seen anything like it - plates of armor parted to the sides, ribs bulging like feathers in the tail of a monstrous bird. In the hole, the heart and the weaving of some internal organs gleamed wetly, pulsating rhythmically. The bellows of the lung remained motionless - only a fleeting shiver ran through them. Some ligaments were flowing, drops of whitish liquid oozed along the edges of the terrible wound... Alex raised the "battery", and three tentacles protruded from the top, which had previously connected it to Mercer's chest. The octopus in the jar rushed to the very depths of the flesh, joining one discord with the well-known diaphragms and vessels. Alex inserted the battery to the right of his own lung, somehow slyly, turned it with a metallic noise, locking it in place - after which the ripped upper part of his torso closed exactly like a cage, closing the grid of ribs and plates of armor, lowering the arc of the solar plexus from above. Human took a deep breath, lifting his head and gruntingly flexing the muscles on his one arm. His blue eyes flashed with the familiar scarlet lights, and for a moment it seemed to Lyra, frozen in horror, that her new acquaintance himself had become somehow more impressive, bigger, stronger.

“Ye-e-eah...” Human rumbled. “That's better. I feel like a man again... Now I'm ready,” he turned his whole body to the unicorn. Alex looked at his new acquaintance with the same measure of malice. There was no doubt: he expected that Heartstrings would succumb to the temptation and spy on him, therefore he did not send her away with the colts. “Lyra? Lyra, are you all right?”

Pony, who was so fond of anti-magic fantasy, but turned out to be not very ready to meet her live, did not answer - she quietly went into a saving swoon. Perhaps today there were enough impressions for Lyra Heartstrings...
> The Bothersome Man - 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“...is it going to rain?”

Alex Mercer blinked in surprise when a drop of water fell on his nose, seeping from somewhere from the crown of an apple tree. He sat on the veranda with his clawed stubs of legs dangling down, watched the xenos’ children who played with the dog, and stroked the extremely happy Lyra Heartstrings. The pony was lively telling the information requested by Mercer, while Alex was answering in monosyllabic phrases, directing the unicorn's thoughts in the right direction. And now Lyra opened one eye and raised her head, which she conveniently placed on her hooves, and they, in turn, on Mercer's lap.

“No, no,” the mint pony yawned, her gaze following the falling cloud that was creeping north. “Just a lost cloud. From the Everfree, as usual. If it suddenly lingers over the city, the pegasus will drive it away...”

“Hrm,” Alex paused, then continued, as if shaking off his thoughtfulness along with a drop that broke on his nose:

“Habit. With us, if rain suddenly starts to fall from the sky... It means it will rain.”

“What an interesting pattern,” Lyra chuckled, lowering her head and again substituting her neck under the hand wandering back and forth along her back. “And what, absolutely nothing can be done? How do you deal with weather anomalies then?”

“No way,” human grinned. “We, Yian-kee, are tough humans... If our house is destroyed by a tornado, we just get insurance and build the same house in the same place. There are technologies for spraying chemicals that make ordinary rain clouds dissipate, but they are not cheap and are rarely used, for special events mainly... So in my homeland, we almost never have any problems with this”

“I think now I understand why you didn’t want to contact us,” stretched Lyra. “I would say that it is absolutely correct and natural that you did not want. I can only imagine how I would be disoriented... shocked even if I were in your world, where such a familiar thing as the changing of the seasons happens on its own. Brr! You probably have the whole planet there like one big Everfree forest...

“In general, it is. Unless all sorts of mew-tentz, out of the ordinary, and aggressive thickets you will not find there... Rainforests do not count. Again, our animals are unsentient being and shun humans, just as they avoid meeting in general with everything that has not appeared in their life before.”

“Well, you are sentient, but in this respect you were no different from your animals when you got to Equestria.”

“What can I do? In the social environment that humans have built, I could be confident in my own safety... The risk is minimal if you know how to avoid trouble. Most of my tribe don't even think about anything like that, let alone collide... They'll shake their heads at most when they see it on the news.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” Lyra nodded gravely. “It looks like you really do not have a bad life even without magic! And yes, they will "see"? How is it?”

Well, yes, our life is not bad, but only in the most developed countries and, as a rule, at the expense of others. Mercer chuckled to himself, aloud explaining to the “human expert” why the news bulletin on Earth can be seen, not just listened to on the radio. He wonders if the unicorn was trying to calm herself down, or was she just summing it up on the basis of the "true lie" that Alex had been diligently feeding her all this time? All you need to do is to bypass sensitive topics, without raising any abomination from the bottom, but without denying it, persistently not to call things by their proper names... senile Kenobi. Ha.

“In general, I know humans very well, and I know what to expect from them. But with you ponies... Eh-eh,” Alex threw back his head, idly watching the apple leaves in the wind. “Let's just say, you ponies, although inspired confidence in your appearance and behavior, but with your magic scared me almost to the point of hiccups.”

“Well, then we are quits!” Lyra smiled. “And you decided to start with someone you can study well before you go get to know all the ponies? To study us on his example.”

“This is usually the case, hm?”

“The girls, of course, were the first,” Lyra closed her eyes as Mercer began to scratch behind her ear. “I don’t think there is a world anywhere in which children are not innocent... And me?” as if offended, the unicorn puffed out her cheeks as a joke. “You only chose me on the basis of Sweetie’s recommendation? Based on what I'm passionate about...”

Mercer fingered the white strand of her mane near her ear, running his thumb over the short greenish fur, feeling the skin beneath it goose bumps. If this was the death throes of his gaseous state, it was extremely believable... and relaxing. The images and fragments of memory evoked by Green, from which an ordinary human would turn gray at once, and eighteen days of the horrors of Manhattan quarantine could go to hell when Alex Mercer was petting a pony.

"You are a very strange fan of science fiction, if you take the geeks of my world as an example," Alex said. “But I admit that compared to the ordinary citizens of Ponyville, who would have rushed to report to the Guards at the sight of me, you did not seem like a hopeless option. And, apparently, I made the right decision. You turned out to be mind-well... well, just a good pony too. I can work with such a reasonable person.”

“Oh, how flattered I am...” Lyra with difficulty, stifling yawn, made her eared (and partly horned) head comfortable, as if deliberately opening the graceful neck with the curvature of the lower jaw for scratching.

The sun had already passed noon, and the moment of meeting with the diarchy was more and more clearly emerging from the fog of uncertainty, but here, on the farm, peace and prosperity still reigned. A trio of foals ran nearby, filling the clearing with laughter and fervent cries. Curious little faces sometimes emerged among the trees, glancing at the clubhouse and their "new friend", but then the target-seekers again returned to the ball game. Diamond Tiara and Spoon were sunbathing in the grass, not occupied by the shade of the numerous apple trees - sometimes it seemed to Mercer that the ambitious earth pony looked at the trinity with some regret, as if she did not like the missed opportunity to play with the rest of the foals. But Tiara invariably turned her proud face away, to Mercer's grin. Lyra looked up into the face of Alex, who was thinking about the information received from her.

“You still don't trust...” the unicorn probably wanted to find another word, but they all did not seem to convey the way she saw Mercer, “... you can't trust princesses, can you? Are you so afraid of publicity through the guards? Why? I told you the real truth about them.”

“I'm too smart,” Mercer replied in monosyllables, but then added:

“Or too stupid. Looking from the position of whose world to look.”

Lyra flapped her long, almost human fluffy eyelashes and laughed out loud. Her lively sincere laughter, with the general musicality of the pony's language, was somewhat reminiscent of the chirping of birds in the dense foliage of an apple orchard.

“That's how it happens... You, humans, are strange folks! - having laughed off, the pony closed her eyes, being overwhelmed by affection and, probably, hoping to take a nap.

Mercer didn't mind. I just noted to myself that there are already five female foals hovering around a thirty-year-old man - this is somehow unhealthy about in. Alex knew intellectually that he should blame his upbringing and the excessive friendliness of the aborigines, with a minimum of ideas about personal space, but the situation did not become less unnatural from such self-hypnosis, occasionally giving rise to very uncomfortable thoughts. That did not prevent Alex from sending such thoughts to hell when the four-legged cuties asked for an arm.

Well, at least he found out that the adults here are also normal (as far as possible for a zoomorph) and not malignant. Lyra Heartstrings behaved quite nicely with him, without showing disdain. She, it seems, quickly came to terms with the fact that the alien from other worlds, meeting with whom she so longed for, did not differ from the pony only with pointed ears, a strong-willed curl of eyebrows and a trademark salute,(25) but a hellish cross between the T-800 and selected works by Giger(26) - a constantly transforming biologically dangerous garbage that can split into several parts and kidnap other humans' faces. Her initial reactions were not fake - it looks like Lyra really was not aware of all this movement around the human of Zeus, and just went after her friend, who, in Mercer's opinion, served as something of an informant. She was the most ordinary, slightly naive pony; which, in response to the words about a "mushroom cloud", will be surprised and ask if she understood correctly that a human moved to Equestria during a mushroom hike. Not devoid of a sense of humor and kindness, for Lyra's reaction to Mercer's "pitiful story", presented as an unfortunate joke, was sympathy and a desire to cheer, and not shouts of "What the hell is going on in your world?!" and "Are you a monster like them?!" Apparently, the ponies were really quite compassionate creatures... not all, but most. In vain Mercer spent so much time rummaging through the bushes, but it’s better to keep it out, as they say... Alex looked at the greenish xeno, which placed its front legs and head in his lap. She smiled through the doze - bodily contact with someone who was able to finish her off in a split second (and very clearly hinted at this at the meeting), gave her sincere pleasure.

Well, contact with the adult population can be considered safely established, Mercer thought to himself. All that was left was to hope that the local warriors, in the spirit of the mores of the civilian population, had a different idea of ​​"acceptable losses", and Alexander would not be shut out of harm's way with a magiclear strike... Or a solar orbital laser, or even worse.

With the "First-of-Daughters" - and therefore baptized in the mental interpretation of Winona - the relationship also improved very easily. The four-legged watchman, of course, was unhappy that the thief had gone unpunished - where an ordinary dog ​​could compete with Mercer, whose speed was close to racing cars, and who did not care about the increased molarity of erietrocytes in Winona's blood? Collie, having found a replenishment among the Crusaders, growled - but the little mistress convinced her that the friend of the Apples' property was more necessary, and he, of course, would return everything later. And in general, AJ will forgive him when he gets to know his new friend better! The half-sane companion willingly resigned himself to the intruder, the figure resembling a giant broken umbrella. Since Apple Bloom doesn't mind, he probably really is a friend, even if he did not have the usual smell.

Meeting with Tiara and Silver Spoon had much more fun. These two proud pigaliens showed up to the Crusaders on a visit without an invitation, immediately after Alex returned from a night-morning raid to the Everfree and to the swamps. Well-groomed earth ponies realized that yesterday's conflict on the site and the Crusaders who remained there after the departure of the inseparable couple is not without reason. For some reason, it was not in the foals' rules to drive out intruders by force, so little Miss Dad-I-Want-Another-Pony (this world was probably created literally for irony alone) more or less freely leaked into the clubhouse. And there they were met by Mercer - the fact that the foals came on their own, without a crowd of adults with pitchforks and torches, intrigued Alex and kept him from the urge to hide in the attic, as soon as "unverified personalities" appeared in the area of ​​the sensors. Seeing a bony monster that with a barely audible crackle of chitin stepped out of the corner, the filly were about to screech, throwing themselves into each other's arms - but they were instantly grabbed by the trio of Markers and clamped their mouths. It was a sinful thing for Alexander to think that the filly were going to arrange a dark one for their enemies. However, Sweetie, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo just... did not even demand, but ask the bullies not to tell the adults that they were sheltering a foreigner. Tiara and Spoon were delighted to have received such a luxurious leverage to pressure and blackmail their favorite objects of humiliation, but Alex intervened. He quickly cooled the ardor of small ulcers in good Equestrian, first saying that no one would believe them. And then he simply confronted the fact that the house of the Crusaders for some time becomes a representation of an alien civilization and a neutral territory, therefore any quarrels and mutual hostility are prohibited here. If they don't like something - you are welcome out of here, no one is holding you.

The forbidden fruit is known to be sweet. Naturally, the earth ponies, pink and gray, preferred to stay and snatch something interesting from the current situation, and not just tell the adults and stop the whole thing. Especially after Tiara decided that a luxurious servant would emerge from Mercer due to his design features... If an adult told Alexander this, the least he could count on would be a look full of contempt. And the Diamond Tiara looked very much like an adult; in the habits of this pony was imperiousness (at least over her faithful henchman), as well as some kind of arrogance, and it was clear that she considered herself more important than all those present. But nevertheless, she was a little filly, and already because of this, her type was, from the point of view of Mercer, rather comic, and not unpleasant, like her mother. Yes, Tiara and the Crusaders were in a quarrel, but it, did not concern Mercer in his opinion, and he could not look at the earthy one as a complete insignificance. Mercer was not a supporter of class neglect (both ways). Plus, Tiara sulked so funny when her attempts to attract Alex's attention ended in the same misunderstanding...

Mocking children turns out to be quite amusing, Mercer chuckled, looking at Diamond's bangs correcting under the guidance of a friend. I will definitely go to hell, if it exists in reality. Although I don't really care anymore.

To be honest, Mercer slowed down in this regard for a long time, for he was already afraid that a little more - and Tiara would have enough of a fit of indignation. The devil knows these super-emotional creatures, what can you expect from them? That children that adults absolutely did not know how to hide emotions, everything was written on the face. But very easygoing: the Crusaders were not so opposed to Tiara and Spoon staying in their clubhouse. Only yesterday it almost didn't come to a fight, but today they coexist quite peacefully, except that occasionally sidelong glances at each other are thrown.

Mercer thought he liked these ironing creatures. And the point was not even that his socioethical armor gave weakness, hungry for at least some kind of communication. Alex suspected that he would now be glad (plus or minus) the company of even McMullen himself - for all his shitty, with the director at least it was possible to talk on an equal footing - even the very devil, even that pink crazy. The latter is unlikely, of course...

Mercer, for all his faults, was very reluctant to be a misanthrope. A sociopath according to his professional profile from Gentek yes, no doubt - but a tolerant sociopath. Who would prefer not to stir up the conflict and grovel, which all around is insignificant, but to leave. If it didn't concern directly to his interests, of course. How little it takes to be considered unfit for society! Just demand business ethics from colleagues, from subordinates - the impeccable performance of their work, not to like the omission of formalities and not to expose everything personal, but to keep it for Karen and her sister. His life was completely under Mercer's control; any problem was solved with a couple of calls or intense brain activity - so why resort to lies, manipulations and put someone in a pejorative position with their decisions? And then the rules suddenly changed... It’s scary to imagine what an imperturbable human who is proud of the fact that he knows exactly what he wants and how to achieve this would become an intellectual if he didn’t lose his memory. Probably, Dr. Mercer would have become a real monster, turned into the most vile, most ruthless enemy, who does not matter who opposes him - a military or civilian shooting at him, guilty only of being in the path of Zeus. Having lost his memory, he had enough sense of "rightness" to minimize the sacrifice... Except for the moment when Green took his sister from him. It was there that the more and more asserting personality of Dr. Mercer unfolded in all its glory.

Alexander Mercer fully remembered and realized himself, which was already quite alarming for those who around him. But here... in Equestria, it was a different matter altogether. Alex's paranoia level steadily dropped as he got to know the world more. He fell so much that he began to believe that he liked the ponies - but only on the basis of a combination of factors, and not out of love for all living things. A sociopath is incapable of empathizing with others, but Mercer knew how humans think and why they do certain things. He, in turn, did not go beyond the bounds of decency until it made sense. If Mercer had met a girl at home who reacted to him like Lyra, he would have mumbled “I'm in a hurry” under his breath and disappeared out of sight, but here the rules changed again. Time is not really running out (Mercer, from Lyra's words, suspected that this was so), the locals are extremely friendly, a whole new world around is available for study, with completely different laws of life... Mercer hoped that the state of affairs would remain so - that these unicorns about princesses turn out to be true, and he doesn't have to use his entire arsenal. Because he would have done so at the slightest recorded threat, albeit with some of the bitterness earned during Manhattan outbreak. To paraphrase Nietzsche, the sociopath does not help out of compassion and sympathy, but from the excess of power. And when his power is threatened, the sociopath becomes insanely dangerous, without hesitation turning all his abilities that were previously used for good, already against offenders and everyone who fell under the hot hand...

Fuck, Alex thought angrily.I need a fucking vacation. If only in order to stop stuffing your head with such moral-painful stuff. I deserved vacation. It is certainly pleasant to be engaged in the work of a lifetime, but even I was not counted on such overtime. And sleep! A healthy sleep would be great.

Meanwhile, the same Scootaloo was a very revealing case. Her problem... interested Mercer, but in his world, Alex would not pay attention to such things, obviously not connected with a man and did not require his intervention. Now, even in Equestria, he could not feel the need to somehow help the pegasus, because the threat from the guards and the princesses did not disappear anywhere, demanded primary attention. To help yourself, for a start... But it was too late - the rational part of Alex's thinking had already presented arguments that solving the Scootaloo problem may well be the key to lifting the restrictions in the air for Mercer himself!

The mutant began to plunge into premature calculations and pondering concepts that could be useful to him immediately, as soon as possible - at least for the duration of a clash with the guards. Based on the words of Scootaloo, flying in this world, despite the different composition of the atmosphere, was not a very difficult task. Balloons, pedal energy converters, built-in gravity substitutes by nature... Find a source of horizontal speed is also possible. Only more speed will be required with such air for the screen effect to work as expected, and can keep the heavy Mercer carcass in the air. Meanwhile, Alex would prefer to fly where he pleases, to be able to independently move in three-dimensional space, and not to rush past the target with a swift comet, having no other choice but to fall down at the slightest slowdown. Zeus's abilities were also to some extent "magical" - there were enough oddities, like the same super-efficient efficiency, the emergence of matter from some invisible reserve, a disregard for all the principles of thermodynamics, taken together, and other elementary interactions, in the body of Mercer why- then beginners to play the fool. There should have been something here... a common multiple that could be used to benefit Mercer and Scootaloo. His influence on the biosphere of the Equestrian forest by the information environment was favorable to that.

Alex rubbed his chin in thought. The same rational part of his mind reminded him that he could do this more thoroughly when he solved many other problems that would certainly overtake the evolved in the event of a peace treaty with the princesses. When he does not have any business planned regarding survival and settling in this world, then Dr. Mercer will be able to fully immerse himself in research work. With some effort, Alex pulled himself out of the microcosm of formulas, magic multi-colored horses and the scientific method and saw that Lyra, snoring well, was now looking at him with one eye slightly open.

“Thinking hard about something… again?” she smiled mockingly.

"Exactly," Alex replied in a neutral tone. “Look, Fuzzy, you will spend a lot of time in my company, and this bad habit will become attached to you too.”

“Horror,” Lyra yawned, rolling over onto her back and holding her fluffy breast under her arm. “Then I will seize the moment as long as there is an opportunity, and at the end I will simply say "I do not regret anything."

You would regret little pony, Alex chuckled to himself, if you find out that these are humans are simply omnivores... and I, besides everything other things, do not disdain cannibalism. Although, if we really bump into the terminology, this is anthropophagy. One consolation - in the opinion of Mercer, the humans who fell for his grudge absolutely deserved it. Apart from a dozen civilians who were on his way, while Alex was in the mode of forcing instincts - there was no time for sentimentality, the choice is simple: either you will immediately get spare parts, or the action of the adrenaline rush will subside and you will fall to pieces.

Yes, Alex decided to build a reputation based on truth, albeit with numerous omissions. Less chances to deduce contradictions to oneself, less hassle of keeping the concept in mind - plus, this line of behavior was quite optimal. Princesses, there is something you don't like about humanity, but what have I got to do with it? I am an apostate, an artificial human without attachments (almost) and without banners, bribes from me are smooth. For humans as such, Mercer is not responsible - only for himself. The argumentation in favor of this line was simple, like everything ingenious... If the rulers of this idyllic world are not idiots, then they, being powerful magicians, learn a lot from the machine. Lack of witchcraft during assembly, long-range weapons, resource wars, complex fuel cells, advanced electronics, which is occupied by one specially enchanted crystal, and that's all. And if they are idiots and do not find out anything, it will be easy to fool the equally naive twins, they say, everything that Mercer wove to these five foals and the "human-obsessed nerd" is their personal fantasies and speculations. Mercer would take such a step with a heavy heart, realizing that he would mortally offend his first acquaintances in this world, but he would not hesitate to switch to an outright lie. It warmed his soul that, apparently, he would not have to do this - according to Lyra, the dark alicorn turned out to be more perspicacious than her sister and at least figured out that the rotorcraft was an army model.

That is why Alex has already begun to leak separate information to the girls and Lyra, forming an initial impression. Tell us about the worst alternative, and then assure that things are not so bad on Earth, and the interlocutor will be glad that you got off easy at home. Everything is cognized in comparison... What difference does it make that among humans there is still a leisurely kaleidoscope of betrayals and violence, invisible wars and nightmares of religious fanaticism - before, it was a hundred times worse, which is the pure truth! Plus, it's better to test such things on a relatively harmless civilian than to desperately improvise in front of someone who, with a wave of the horn, can burn you alive.

It's a pity that the moment was lost, Alex thought sadly and ironically. How easy and simple it would have been if he had stayed at the crash site and told the aborigines that with the transfer to their world he had once again lost his memory! Say that you have amnesia - and fuck about two zoomorphic princesses that they will prove by understanding the gears of Mercer's higher nervous activity. And then you can weave any nonsense, because everything that an evolved says can either be true, or at least carry a certain distortion of facts... Inappropriate, of course. Alex remembers perfectly the hassle with how his own fragments of memory somehow fell into place.

As Alexander decided, the moment was lost. Lyra asked him if human noticed gaps in his memory, and whether he even bore some other name in his home world, which led Mercer to certain suspicions - suddenly amnesia was something natural for the transition between universes? But with amnesia, Mercer was hardly able to act so decisively and thoroughly from the very first hours of his appearance in Equestria, and therefore Celestia and Luna such an excuse would not satisfy. Regarding the meeting, Alex received assurances from Lyra that nothing bad would happen to him in any case, that the princesses are just big ponies, which are very kind and generally wonderful, and the quick temper of the Luna is just a story, and in fact, dark the princess loses her temper much less often than they say in Canterlot.

So be it. The stars will converge, the ability to palaver and, if necessary, shamelessly manipulate will not leave Mercer. What's next? Well, we'll see, Alex thought. It mostly depends on whether the princesses can say "bon voyage" to Mercer and send them back immediately. If they enter the Earth after Alex, he and his sister will disappear, and let the horses agree with humans themselves, dropping their jaws along the way from how much Alex chose not to tell them about. But something told Mercer that they couldn't just return it... The only hope was for Novikov's self-consistency. When Mercer asked Lyra about the experiment of the very Twilight that the mint unicorn was interested in for obvious reasons, she said that Celestia's student was looking for a transition point in other time intervals. However, when Alex asked if it was possible to pull his endless copies from one point, Heartstrings was very surprised, and said that Mercer "is not there already." If so, man, if he had the opportunity to return earlier, he could not have prevented Manhattan outbreak, no matter what he did, for it absolutely happened... But, at least, he could return to his sister in time. If time in both worlds flowed simultaneously and independently, albeit at different speeds, well... There was hope for Bradley. Doc is still a well-connected head, he could take care of his sister in the post-quarantine period, try to get new passports before the regular army returns to the island...

Novikov's version, judging by Lyra's story about some twilight sparkle trick that sent herself into the past, but created the present with this, is more likely and much more convenient. Well... If the princesses are unable to help him, Alex will look for a way to return on his own - and sooner or later he will find it. If he has a conflict with the diarchy, Mercer will literally do the same, only a hundred times more complicated, because he will have to go underground and carry out all his affairs there, without advertising to the general public.

What will Mercer do when he returns to his world and pulls out his sister from Manhattan, where the epidemic died out through Alex's efforts, but was nearly burned out by a one-armed old fanatic "for faithfulness"? Dick knows. Maybe he’s drunk with grief, so the liver will have to grow four times the standard. Maybe he will take a new face and a legend and begin to live "like everyone else", finally finding peace. Or maybe he will try to conquer the world. For some reason, in the mass consciousness, this is what a genius with superpowers must try to do, invariably failing. What are these "geniuses" guided by, if it is much easier to seize power without using your insanely advanced technologies and riveting armies of henchmen,(27) but simply selling these same technologies to interested parties, manipulating the market and bribing politicians - that another question.

[i I wonder if scratches alone will be enough to conquer this world? Mercer grinned to himself. Funny idea, though unlikely. If the ponies had such an interest or even a need for the distal parts of the human body, they would have created some kind of surrogate long ago. Lyra, apparently, was almost fascinated by Mercer's hand, allowing herself to be stroked as much as she liked, but the others were unlikely to show such familiarity. Although... the devil will understand these ponies. In any case, the conquest of the world was the last thing that interested Alexander now - it was spinning at the level of random thoughts, they say that now he is much superior to humans and, if desired, could use his abilities at some global level. Dr. Mercer believed that a bad world is better than a good quarrel... He never once in eighteen days of quarantine did not think about what he would do when he cleared up the situation in Manhattan, but he knew for sure that in peacetime he was not going to improve his skills in destruction their own kind.

And the preparation that he started now... Well, the time was not yet peaceful from Alex's point of view, and the situation was rather paramilitary. If Mercer had stayed in his dimension, he, perhaps, in peace and quiet, studied his renewed himself in detail, but now the only thing left was to jump on top, take from one, the other, the third and filter out what the built-in AI offers, for the sake of their own novelties again and again entering into confrontation with him. He had to rely not only on proven knowledge, but also on intuition...

Mercer, using the surplus of building materials, chained almost all of his body in armor. Now it was full-fledged light scout armor, not bits! All movable joints were covered with plates, in the cavities under the protection, including of the lumbar muscles, a set of bolo bombs and glass "bitches" were waiting in the wings. Mercer always collected trophies from defeated enemies, be it memory, genome, ammunition, biomass or appearance... This time he redesigned Cross' unloading, comfortable, ergonomic and sharpened for battle with a single strong enemy, to suit his fighting style. He also impregnated the fabrics at the junction of the armor with his alkaline compounds, sacrificing only a slight decrease in the rate of their metabolism, and then suddenly again someone very clever will arrange a bombardment with jam... A separate battery gave Mercer almost the same level of transformation control - an invisible reserve in this the world has disappeared. Well, to his devil... all one resources for constant regeneration and devastating attacks to save at least another week. Three days of work in economical mode or fifteen minutes of a full-fledged, brutal battle with intensive use of Zeus's fighting skills is already good, against such opponents as Princess Mercer, more than ten will not last. This battle with human soldiers could be pulled out almost endlessly, retreating in time and focusing on the most dangerous targets, simultaneously dealing with small things and, in case of a serious threat, simply fleeing, being lost among the civilians; black-n-white twins are not so easy to get rid of.

Alex's brain, by the way, left in his head, primarily due to the complexity of full-fledged mental control at a distance. And a semi-autonomous drone like a hand will still not have the same fighting qualities... It would be possible to move the brain to where the enemy does not expect to find it, because the higher nervous activity of the aborigines in this world also arose due to the formation of a node near the visual receptors... At least in the torso, at least, sorry, in the ass... But why? Evolution may be a quirky lady, but most of the time she disposes of her children wisely. The head is more difficult to hit due to the smaller size and movable neck, ricochets are more likely from Mercer's helmet, while a critically vulnerable heart is already beating in the chest and the battery grumbles. So putting the brain in there for the sake of guaranteed coverage by the enemy of at least one of the components is such an idea. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, as one stern soldier who specializes in the extermination of fantasy fabulous creatures said...(28)

In short, Alex took into account, if not everything, then almost everything. If he really attracted the Crusaders to confront the diarchy, the girls would definitely draw on what man the surroundings of the clubhouse with felt-tip pens, with a bunch of colored arrows, a million marks and entitled "Plan of the battle". True, then the machine-gun point should also be placed in the attic window, as on a defended object, and the paint can should be hung on the attic floor, and not shoved into the chest...(29) All decorations and traps are placed, the energy reserve is optimal, taking into account the current reduced energy consumption. Alex Mercer was ready to receive guests, regardless of whether their intentions were good or...

“... or is it going to rain?”

Alex flinched as a cool drop smashed against the top of his head this time. Lyra, lounging on her back and folding her hooves on her stomach, tilted her head to the side in surprise:

“It looks like the weather crew has a lot of work to do today!” she whistled, watching a few more clouds that slowly drifted away towards Ponyville. “Everfree, probably, decided to give birth to a cold front.”

“Can pegasus intercept them in advance to prevent rain on the streets?”

“This is usually done...”

“Hmm. Then I'll go inside,” Mercer looked at Lyra, lifting his hand from her fur. Heartstrings' silence was more eloquent than words - the pony was caught in the process of stroking the fur on her chest. Alex explained:

“Don't want to be noticed ahead of time. Suddenly this weather patrol of yours will fly here.”

“You weren't afraid of the patrols of the guards, since you were sitting here!” Lyra looked up at him with a pitiful glance, desperately trying to invent a reason not to leave her familiar place.

“Nah...” Alex waved a joint hand with a glove brush. “They changed the flight routes every day, today they appeared here only in the morning. Get up, mammal, you'll lay all your flanks.”

Kicking up her paws, Lyra turned over and very gracefully got to her feet, stretching with pleasure - well, she was a slender xeno, more like a giant serval with a different head-neck-body proportion. Not a clumsy carcass about a quarter of a ton, due to its short stature excellent for working in mines. Mercer tried to imagine how dangerous the diarchs would be in close combat, given their even greater grace and light step. Do they rely only on brute force besides magic, or can they use some kind of personal weapon s and tricks? Gravity kills, Alex thought. Judging by the story of little Bloom, her older brother, thanks to this very gravikinetic amplification, could hit with a hoof like that, like a dozen super-soldiers kissed. Mercer wanted to substitute the appropriate input data, but for his firmware this question was reminiscent of the same wandering in the darkness of the Everfree, for there were no precedents. All four-legged opponents of the evolved took exactly that with suicidal pressure and attacks on the area, and not with a point style. Sooner or later, Mercer will go to wander around this often, at least begging the sisters for a demonstration of their martial art, but for now... Alex, pulling his head into his shoulders, slipped through the doorway like a silent ghost.

“All my plans are confused! A little more, and you would never return your hand back,” Lyra complained cheerfully, tapping after Mercer inside.

“If you take her away, Fuzzy, it will certainly escape and return to me. I don't even advise you to try. Dro-unz can be... unpredictable without my at least partial control.”

"Oh... Right," Lyra thought. “I just can't get used to such details... As soon as I decide that I got an idea of ​​the Earth, you say something else to yourself, and I'm again at a loss! I think if I try to systematize the facts as my reflections on the human world, I will only get more confused.”

“I understand. In this regard, my perception of your world is not very different,” Alex grinned. “I still cannot fully understand where I ended up. And, apparently, I will never be sure that I understand... if I suddenly do not master your magic out of the blue, of course.”

“Your witchcraft will be enough, even over!” Lyra laughed. “The guards were talking that some kind of discord had started in the swamps because of your interference... Compared to other Equus races, you resonate very strangely with our universe, Alex. Very.”

"That's right," Alexander muttered under his breath, barely audibly. “I won’t be surprised if, in the event that all the ponies around suddenly start singing and dancing, I will fall and start to fight in a fit, bleeding froth.”

Mercer personally made sure in the morning that his efforts were turning the swamps into some kind of anomalous zone. In one place, the liquid flowed upward, spreading along the tree and already dropping from it, in another, in a single night, a young willow dried up to the skeleton, on another route the tussocks were frozen, as it happens only in winter... Arranged a picnic, m-mother of brothers, on the roadside, Alex cursed to himself. He was not going to do anything about this yet - the terraformer did not seem to notice the quirks of local magic and regularly smoked the information environment. And the forest living creatures did not seem to complain, because the same wading birds in the vicinity of the occupied zone only became more numerous. Human wanted to ask Lyra what exactly this music of Harmony and resonance with it is, but refrained. In time, he will learn everything.

“Can you tell me something else about,” Alex asked, stretching his neck into the attic and carefully scanning the space in case someone was hiding there, listening to the blows of rare drops on the roof, “how I got here?”

“As I already said, it was Twilight Sparkle who brought you here,” the unicorn eagerly began to rant. “She, along with her friends, is one of the keepers of the Elements of Harmony. Twilight even thought to use the elements themselves in the spell, as a powerful magical component, but they had no effect on your world... I'll introduce you to them if you want! Which pony of the six do you want to know first?”

“I'm more interested in the details of the experiment itself...”

“Ah, well then I will combine both!” Lira nonchalantly bummed her ears.

Mercer, in general, for a long time (since the night before last) did not leave the suspicion that he was summoned to this world, for it is usually exactly the opposite. The discoverers themselves are trying to get to a new planet in order to proudly plant their flag there - well, or at least send an automatic mission there, collect the same samples for research. According to Lyra's description, this is how Alex could have been dragged to Equus, but what did Twilight Sparkle hope to gather in the epicenter of a nuclear explosion? Mercer also considered three options why the purple unicorn herself did not go to visit humans. First, the spell is very difficult, requires incredible preparation, and it will be problematic to return back. As a result, this option disappeared, since according to the same Lyra, the Sparkle experiment, although it was extraordinary, was something supernatural, that would require the sacrifice of the inhabitants of an entire continent, or something like that, it was not. The second option - the ponies fear for their lives and evil alien invaders, therefore, for a start, they wanted to find out at least a little about this new world, calling something from there. The third option is that the reverse transition is impossible. Alexander's gloomiest predictions came true: mint ponand stated that she wanted to add her list of questions to "friends from another world" to that same diplomatic collection, but as a result Twilight could not send it anywhere.

The so-called "six" was, apparently, the main support of the diarchy, when the measured life of the pony was disturbed by someone, and the case began to smell like kerosene. Mercer did not have to worry about this: the fluffy incarnations of artifacts of incredible power departed to neutralize some threat from the north, which in Celestia's vision turned out to be more serious than the hante-kyilla prowling through the shadows . (30 ) Information about the personal qualities of the guardians Mercer safely ignored - he only noted that one of them was that pink electric broom that let the mutant go a couple of pies. Your realities are wonderful, Equestria! Here, for example, not only access to weapons of mass destruction, which at once erases any harmful element from reality, had a personality with a non-zero chance of mental deviations, but the fuel for this weapon was... friendship. Yes, you heard right, Dr. Mercer! Twilight’s sonderkommando fought every unknown shit with the help of friendship, in particular, during the confrontation with the Inconsistent, her close relationship with her friends somehow put everything in its place.

Alex would treat Lyra's words with the deepest skepticism, for combining friendship with affairs of state importance... Celestia has such priorities as a ruler, considering that a true friend will hope that he has the decency to betray his country.(31) However, Lyra's other data on Equestria was quite accurate, correlating with what the foals were telling, without the slightest clue from them. The unicorn only gave more detailed answers, supplementing them with details, so Alex saw no reason not to trust her. Of course, Mercer was not very interested in any small things, such as the rate of gold-backed currency, local cuisine, holidays and haute couture for those who did not see the point in sparkling a causal place. First of all, he wanted to get an idea of ​​what to expect from local customs and geopolitical conditions, specifically from princesses...

“...for us, ponies, having friends is very important,” meanwhile Lyra finished her excursion into the environment of Twilight Sparkle. “Friendship is the highest gift of mind, comparable to magic, love and recognition of the life’s value. Of course, the keepers are less different from each other than you are from the ponies, but, nevertheless, they are very different. They had to face a lot - and friendship helped to overcome everything, not to plunge into discord, but to further strengthen warm relations with each other. I think...” Lyra openly, with inexhaustible trust in her eyes looked at Alex. “No, I'm just sure that you too will get along with them - and with ponies in general!”

“Hrm-m,” the evolved one checked how bolo-bombs jump into the cleft of his arm, one after the other from under the lumbar plate, pushed out by an ordinary screen. It was not a theatrical gesture, but a movement designed at the level of reflex - right there, as when entering the focus mode on the target, the skills of military shooters and ballistic tables, helpfully reassembled for a double projectile and introduced by AI into the subcortex, were stirred up. “I think you wanted to tell me a little more about Equestria’s history,” Alex muttered, dropping the ammo back to his spine. “If so, I don’t mind. A living impression is sometimes better than dry lines in a textbook.”

“Well... well, okay,” Lyra spread her hooves, a little disappointed that Human seemed to prefer not to notice the heartfelt speech. “But I hope you will forgive me if the story seems prepared in advance, as if it were taken from the same textbooks. I thought the aliens would have to explain something like that anyway... I'm afraid you are the first in line, so I have not perked up yet!” giggled Lyra, making herself comfortable on the pouf, next to which stood Alex.

"Not critical," Mercer tilted his head towards her, placing his hand behind his back. “So I'm listening to you?”

For half an hour, Alexander enjoyed the sound of the melodic voice of the unicorn, after which he became firmly convinced that once upon a time, ponies fought and did quite medieval atrocities for themselves (even if compared to the Earth and a clearly light version). All three races lived separately, taking full advantage of the "excess of authority" before each other in managing weather, astronomical phenomena and terraforming, plotting all sorts of intrigues for each other. But then, at the very least, they came to an agreement, and with the accession of the sisters, the world began to align itself with forgiveness and general tolerance. The sisters acted wisely - they did not rush to plant democracy wherever possible with fire and sword, but acted according to a long-term plan, mainly by affection and diplomatic methods. So what? Lyra, of course, did not say this, but it was obvious to Mercer that if one of the local kings did not suit the princesses, they could literally outlive him, along the way, processing the heirs. And alicorns everything succeeded - only one and a half thousand years ago, a considerable time after the sisters overthrew the Incompatible, on most of Equus came the state of the public, which is now called Harmony. Powerful sorcerers do not sit in their laboratory castles, fenced off from the problems of "these mud-slugs" and "flying rags", but calmly carry them out next to them and share the results of their labors. At least fill up the resources, no one encroaches on someone else's in an attempt to increase their own wealth... with rare exceptions like the same dragons, which, due to longevity, have remained terrible owners and collectors of jewelry. The re-flashing of the social principles of Celestia and the Luna was a success - hunger, poverty and wars remained something at the level of children's fairy tales, and they are remembered only by archaeologists, textbook compilers and other scribblers like scribblers who create historical and romantic works. There are no regular troops in Equestria - only the personal guards of sisters and law enforcement agencies in large cities, where the concentration of ponies have increased so much that the competition and the accompanying conflicts, of a very modest scale, are felt, have a monopoly on violence. Scootaloo also told Alexander about some kind of airwing with a difficult to translate name, where her mentor hoped to get in, but among the guards Alex did not notice such "pilots". And that was good... Mercer didn't need fucking super-soldiers who in addition can fly. Brr... The nightmare of the evolved, not otherwise.

The ponies could not boast of their religiosity (fanatics and hunters for "demons" could not be feared), although their alicorn rulers were very much loved and revered. Revealing the topic of wing-horns and casually mentioning the very princess, the pink cherub Cadance, Lyra touched upon a thing that, as Mercer believed, could be dispensed with in such a super-technological world, and which, like religion, is marked by the seal of atavism - the institution of marriage. Mercer, from the confused speech of the unicorn, who again flushed with a furry muzzle, like a real chameleon, understood only that in the old days "it was worse", but now everything is decorous and decent. What exactly this was supposed to mean, Alex did not understand, and he was not even interested. I barely realized that with the prevailing order, the ponies create a completely stable environment for growing and raising offspring, and the concept of promiscuous sex life is generally absent. How did zoomorphs come to this, if even in a world with an equal sex ratio there are frequent examples when reasonable instead of regular mutual confirmation of their masculinity and femininity every few days achieve this confirmation from scratch with someone else is a mystery. They were completely devoid of jealousy, or what? Well, it didn’t really correlate with the emotional nature of the understanding...

With the weather, the clarity (Mercer could have sworn that this play on words in his head inadvertently) was much more. Equestria had a rather short cold season, which served rather to unload the weather balance and give a Christmas atmosphere to the holidays. Superocean was not controlled by anyone - it was one huge anomalous zone on a par with the Everfree. The ponies swam and fished mainly along the coast; it makes no sense to go around the planet if you can navigate along a calm and relatively wide coastal strip. It was somewhat reminiscent of the situation with the ancient Greek ships, which, due to technical imperfections, including the lack of a compass, did not sail directly from Europe to Africa and vice versa, and the same Odyssey stretched out for ten years. In general, if Mercer on Earth were told that in one city (not counting local edits like the Ponyville weather brigade) winter is being prepared for an entire continent, he would look at the interlocutor like an idiot. But that was exactly the case here. Just one proprietary argument of humans, a nuclear mine under the bottom of the "Black Hawk Down", would have been enough for Cloudsdale to drive Equus into the state of the Martian wastelands... An excellent bargaining chip with the princesses, isn't it? But Mercer no longer had a nuclear bomb... aside from the speculative lithium explosiveness of the Aboriginal humans. And it is unlikely that he would have dared to blackmail the population of an entire planet - his original was an eccentric scientist and sociopath, not a psycho. Although... we all say "I'm not capable of this" until it really squeezes, and the Marine agents in civilian life will not go on your heels.

Overall, progress and society in Equestria was a strange mess. Alex did not exclude the possibility that technologies were used only those that, in terms of magic, expended more effort than if they were reproduced "mechanically". In the end, what is more probable: the existence of a whole world of dullards who somehow managed not to get rid of themselves from the world, or is it just that everything around Mercer seems unusual to Mercer? Maybe the ponies just didn't like excesses and preferred live communication. - there was no need for them to have all these Internet and cellular networks, if no one is in a hurry to go anywhere. Some things could be missing due to ethical considerations, the same conceptual culture of peace and mutual understanding - especially considering that many technologies in humans were tested in the military sphere, and then they were already adapted to the needs of civilians... It all went sideways so far - Mercer serpentine had no intention of inventing and generally progressing the name of one archaeologist.(32) Alexander is here from hand to mouth, he is an uninvited guest... Well, maybe he was invited, since he was dragged here by force, but the ponies hardly needed his advice and opinion - and this is already enough to shove their human pride deeper into the liver and all the analogies that pop up in my head with the predictions of Dr. Suresh (such as: Alpha, a new dominant species, plus Betas, who are engaged in "elite" and delicate works, plus Gammas, who control the weather and are engaged in all sorts of nonsense of dubious objective necessity, plus Deltas, which in the sweat of their brows they provide daily bread, equally Brave new world. For cretins, poor fellows Epsilons, only half sentient fauna would have passed). Alex could have long groaned that in Equestria no one is burdened by his caste and is generally happy only because the ponies did not know the best and were brought up as members of a society of consumers close to the absolute. But he admitted: that one is healthy, then another, as they say... Perhaps the way of life of a pony, which is fatal for any human civilization due to stagnation and loss of the ability to adapt, as the Roman Empire disappeared, in the world of magic was a natural consequence, and not a false one. way, dead end. And as for the immortal super-beings in the government... For a short period of time, in the conditions of the leaping progress of the 20th century, they might only be harmful to humans, but in Equestria they could be vital for the preservation of civilization as such.

Well... bearable. The caramelized hell, where Dr. Mercer was exiled for the dying sin of rage, is not drawn. It seems possible to live, adjusted for wearing a hazard suit. The aborigines, with Mercer’s legend, cleaned up of frankly black edges, will not beat him down - Lyra, in spite of the horrors shown by Alex, was quite fond of him and did not mind if Mercer called her Fuzzy. One of the diarchs in the recent (for her) past was a battle magician and a noblewoman, whose word, in principle, cannot be challenged - which means that the principles of a guest from another world should not seem so wild to her. And magic... to hell with her, with magic. For ponies, even with their ubiquitous witchcraft, the world was orderly and logical in its own way. Until the Inconsistent appeared on the horizon, he was in the adaptation of Discord, or someone like that, capable of linking completely unrelated phenomena with a snap of his fingers and humiliating logic by his very existence. Turn lead into gold... Gold. Silence dragged on, and Lyra impatiently crossed her hooves:

“Come on, Alex?” she looked with curiosity at human. “And what can you say after hearing all this? What's your impression of Equestria?”

“I’ll say I don’t understand how your economy works,” Alex muttered, “and I haven’t figured out how I can fit into it. If it's not so much money that matters as pedigree and status for you, then I'm out.”

“Is that all?” the unicorn stared at him. “This is the whole conclusion that you made?!”

“What were you waiting for? For most of my life, I behaved like pregmetizz...(33) You, ponies, do not have such a word at all, it seems. And no wonder,” Mercer shook his head on his long neck. He raised his hand in a conciliatory manner.

“Your world is normal, and its inhabitants are pleasant. If this were not so, I would be worried about this, and not about the means of subsistence... More precisely, I can exist without your gold, but sooner or later the exchange of some things will be outlined. The same sophisticated equipment.”

“Oh, oh, you are a scientist, I understand! Twilight somehow grumbled that the wrong devices were delivered to her for the amount paid! And it’s not even Ditzi’s fault, but it’s just that some amateurs are sitting in Trottingham...”

It seems that all sentient humans, regardless of the world, need money in one way or another, Alex chuckled. And where there is money, there are shares, gambling, insurance, fraud, lawyers, divorces, the housing issue - and all these aspects of the bureaucracy of the ponies were somehow deprived. Mercer did not know how they had a cunningly built system, but he understood perfectly well that being an evil genius pays off only in crappy spy thrillers, but in Equestria this is hardly highly rated. And... a discord with him. As a last resort, you can always rob the director of the water pumping station.(34) In the sense, well, it can't be that the ponies literally do not need anything? So that the two worlds would have nothing to exchange? Yes, Mercer has something to interest the local demigoddesses... Biotechnology is the same in which Alex was a master still e before your transformation. Judging by what Alex heard from Lyra, in the rarest of cases of irreparable loss of a limb - which could no longer be implanted back - the ponies were keen to make prosthetic golems tied to the wearer's energy. Why, then, did they not have in the course of recreating from scratch from the flesh of the host, if even on Earth scientists conducted experiments to grow individual tissues and organs? The liver is completely child's play... The evolved one smiled badly when a difficult but funny idea hit him in the head. You can go further, and if Alexander Mercer completely loses his self-respect, he will make money on luxury goods! Will make from infected flesh in the image and likeness of faceless, silent and extremely helpful drones with strictly prescribed behavior and functionality. Bishop - to every home! Well, that is, in those houses that are ready to part with a tidy sum of these same "bits", and then regularly lay out for maintenance and replacement of salt batteries... Sentient beings, born with a silver spoon in their ass, are usually greedy for all sorts of curiosities, so that there should have been no sales problems. Exactly until the moment when these ponies decide that artificial servants are so vulgar, and in general, the fashion for them is already ending...

“... it started raining there! We'll sit here for a while,” one such sentient creature went inside the house, even if the invisible to Alex spoon was "on", not "in". Silver walked to the middle of the room and looked puzzled at the closet:

“Where are your towels, blank... Apple Bloom?”

“Bottom left in the drawer!” came the voice of a yellow pony outside. The Crusaders, a cheerful and slightly drenched crowd, accompanied by a shaking off Winona, burst inside, began to wipe their fur and manes, which had suffered from the warm summer rain. “Watering, it seems, was scheduled only for the day after tomorrow... I suppose they were displaced because of the guards flyers!”

-“Apparently, as your wonderful Rainbow Dash left, her whole team of loungers instantly forgot about their work!” in the voice of Diamond Tiara sounded almost childish resentment. Her lush curls, due to the drizzling rain, lost their shape and volume, while the earthy ran to the clubhouse of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“No way!” Scootaloo's angry voice came from under the towel.”Dash is the coolest pegasus in all Equestria, she has a brigade on the line!”

“Don't quarrel over trifles, girls,” Lyra chided them. “And with you, Tiara, nothing terrible happened! Just a few droplets of wild rain fell...”

”A few?” - pink touch-up rose from its place, desperately wrapping itself in place in an attempt to better see mane, looking for a mirror. “Not two, how did I feel?!”

How do they get helium in Cloudsdale, I wonder? Alex thought idly. If by transmutation of ordinary air, then wouldn't it be cheaper, given the large scale, to produce it yourself by purchasing appropriate refrigeration units, and simply drive natural gas out of the swamps? Mercer realized that in order to settle in Equestria, he would need to fill huge gaps not only in the knowledge of the parallel universe as a concept, but also in the conceptual sciences. Of all these mysterious areas, magibiology was the most explored for Alexander, even if he could not influence this section "directly". Human even felt very at ease when he studied the conceptual medical reference book and came across the usual terms and definitions, even his favorite theory of nerve conduction. However, trying at least offhand to figure out what place Alex could take in Equestria, he realized how scanty were his ideas about the same atmospheric phenomena that did not take the last place in the life of ponies, and for Pegasus they were generally boring everyday life. It was necessary to catch up... Alex shook himself of obsessive thoughts when he was tapped on his leg:

“Why are you frozen here?” demandingly looked at the tall two-legged Tiara. Mercer smiled.

“Well, I'm trying to decide which business will bring me the greatest benefit and the least number of problems.”

“Benefit?” the pink earth pony squinted. “That is, to work for someone? For money?”

“Including.”

“’Just in time you thought about it. You arrived here with practically nothing, Alexander,” Tiara was filled with importance, “and lost almost everything in the crash, apart from a couple of your silly toys. Therefore, I, Diamond Tiara, generously offer you the position of my valet. Perhaps now I am too young and undemanding,” the Crusaders looked at each other expressively at these words, “in order to acquire a personal servant, but when I grow up a little, I will definitely have to follow my status, and help...”

“I don’t think I want to,” Alex replied dryly.

“So think again, mister,” Diamond looked at human as if she considered him a little smarter up to this point. “Serving my family will bring you stability and prosperity. I mean, how soon will you be able to adapt hop and get hold of one of the pony's recognized sources of income? And where are you going to live - our library or what? Ha! Cultured ponies shouldn't be so easy to hang out in public places.”

Sweetie Belle, poking to the evolved, beckoned him with a hoof, and Alex obediently tilted his head to the little unicorn.

“I don’t advise you,” she whispered in Mercer's ear. “Working for Tiara isn’t a pleasure. I mean, not even fun! When she was editor...”

“I, unlike some, knew what the ponies wanted! And the ratings of the newspaper perfectly confirmed this,” having heard everything perfectly, the earthy snort snorted, proudly throwing up her muzzle. “And the fact that some personal principles did not allow you to follow my instructions exactly - only your problems.”

Alex almost burst out laughing. He did not know how he would have done with it in his home dimension, but in Equestria, Mercer would definitely have turned out to be a useless parent. Well, how can you get angry with such a fluffy spoiled darling? Moreover, to punish her... Diamond Tiara twirled one of the curls of her exquisite white and lilac mane with her hoof.

“Oh, I think my hair is in an inappropriate condition after the rain,” she said innocently. “What do you say, Alex? It will make, for starters, for a test of professionalism. Moreover, you have a good recommendation from Spoon, my best friend!”

“Um, Tiara...” Lyra turned to her reproachfully. “Actually, when another pony, or anybody else, is asked for something, it is customary to say “please”.”

“Useless ceremonies!” with a note of arrogance she disagreed. “He has what I'm interested in, and I'm offering a fair price for it. Let him agree, or... all the same, he agrees! Personally, I do not see a better option for a foreigner than what I suggest.”

Mercer bared his teeth in a grin.

“Take your time, young lady. Would your parents approve of hiring some terrible stranger without their knowledge?”

“Dad will do as I ask,” Tiara said dreamily, obviously already making some plans with Alex's participation. “And Mom… you looked very decent on your hand-made prints, as befits a pony from high society. If you become like that again, and not with this walking horror,” she bored her face, nodding at Mercer's bone-like legs, “then she certainly won't mind. If you need time to recover, I understand. But do not think that it will be possible to drag out forever!”

“So,” raised the last finger up Human. “Wait a minute.”

Mercer looked out the window, where, despite the drizzling rain, the sun was shining brightly, for the rare clouds were unable to cover it. He had already pondered how ponies see him... So it turns out that for them he is normal - not only for Lyra? Since Tiara in all seriousness claims that the standard look will appeal to her mother, that still four-legged bitch, and will not cause her hysteria. It didn't seem like the colt wanted to joke at Mercer in this way, and why should she be so difficult? Who knows if Alex's distrust is based more on his anthropomorphic point of view than on logic and facts? Maybe he knew how to outwardly become a copy of a pony, to speak their language, but Alex never really was a pony, and thanks to the neuron bridge he never got into their heads. Plus, humanity has never met representatives of xenomorphic races, and certain patterns of behavior during this very meeting were evolved only by science fiction writers and ufologists... Mercer dropped his chin in his palm, hunched over and frozen in a pose reminiscent of Rodin's The Thinker. We judge by ourselves, we are not looking for anyone but humans... Finally trust the ponies that Alex saw as something normal and not particularly aggressive, or continue to act as if Mercer was dealing with humans, let and four-legged eccentrics? It is not known which is worse.

Am I normal in the first place for myself? a strange thought flashed through Alex's mind. It would be better, of course, to remain the same, familiar oneself, one of the leading scientists Gentek, who is honored at ceremonies and tipped for the Nobel Prize, and who is not hunted by the secret services of the most powerful country in the world... and now, potentially, also colored magic horses. On the other hand, doesn't Mercer now have excellent eyesight, perfect vitality and a musculoskeletal system that is not resistant to any adversity of fate? How can you be dissatisfied in his place? In any case, if Mercer sneezed at the Hayflick effect and morphogenesis, once growing his hand torn off by the Bushmaster's projectile, then his hair will never fade, and old age for Alex has ceased to exist as a phenomenon altogether. The virus's technology deserves credit, if only for giving it an almost unlimited amount of time to return to his sister.

“Hm-m-m...”

"I suspect it will take a long time," Scootaloo chuckled. “He went into himself again.”

“Tiara, he would never agree!” Sweetie Belle frowned. “Alex is a scientist, he has plenty of things to do!”

“Pfe! In his free time, I’ll let him do whatever he wants!”

“You must understand, stupid,” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, “Sandy can't just stay with you or other ponies so easily! His sisters are in trouble there, and in general he settled in the swamps, from there he pumps out of the ground everything he needs! He doesn't give a damn about your beats! He, this is... the swamp doctor, see! Like Zecora almost.”

“Swamp?!” surprised Diamond Tiara. “Why would he, an important human from another world, meddle in such a disgusting place? You brought him balloons, doesn't he feed on helium?”

As the girls started arguing until they were hoarse again, Alex's expression became more and more like someone who had made an important decision. Human himself clearly understood that sooner or later he would have to start a new leaf. Mercer lost his world not three days ago... as early as two months - when, in his paranoia, he finally decided that he was being held in Gentek for waste material, and his most talented and valuable employee would be sent to the expense of his most talented and valuable employee, as soon as he achieve a new outstanding result in the project... Everything that happened after that fateful decision, including the shooting at Penn, is agony... the illusion that Dr. Mercer will be able to return everything to its place. Nothing would have become the same, even if Alex had stayed in his home world. He is not lost, he still has a significant goal - a duty to his sister, which did not hesitate to help him, although Mercer crushed the sentinel's heart in front of her eyes and, in general, for the last six months was engaged in some dark and mysterious affairs, preferring to cut everything off with Dana contacts. And he will fulfill this duty, sooner or later, if Novikov is supportive of Alexander. Until then... Alex just wanted some peace. A new life(even if, on the one hand, temporary, and on the other - for an indefinite period) could be started here as well. Now seems a splendid time to begin, as the classics write, eh? (35) Alex thought complacently. Someone else, with fewer troubles and cunning plans, would be better suited for the position of a contactee with naive and generally kind multi-colored xenos, but we have what we have. Complaining about fate is useless; you cannot run away from the problems generously poured by it - only fruitful work on yourself and your environment can solve them. What Alexander Mercer broke by his stupidity, he can now give a new shape. Where you have suffered a crushing failure in your past life, you can still achieve success. Dr. Mercer, like a pioneering geologist, discovered in the new world rich deposits of opportunities... and he was going to develop them. For a human who lives primarily with the mind, and then with the heart, the world of magic and wizardry could be a truly impressive plot twist.

“Actually, I can't do without you all… things,” Mercer interrupted the protracted squabble of foals, satisfied with the decision he had made. He sat down on the floor, pointing with his hand in the direction of the forest and swamps near the river:

“With my personal technologies, I cannot effectively isolate your helium from the gas mixture - they are designed to process oxygen. I need a more physical level... In my world, helium was obtained by fractional distillation, and this requires a low temperature and appropriate units, which I do not have.”

“Fractionated of what?” surprised Apple Bloom, exchanging glances with her friends, but Scootaloo just waved her hoof - eh, the two-legged again took up his own.

“Low temperature?” suddenly interjected Diamond Tiara. “So why do you need these... units?”

“So that there was something to function on, of course,” Alex shrugged. “That's why I was thinking about arranging supplies from Cloudsdale in exchange for gold, or doing them myself. To buy refrigeration equipment there, the volumes are expected to be solid...”

“Oh! Well, the final product itself is usually more profitable to produce, but it requires more initial investment, which pays off much longer,” Tiara sat at the window opposite human and looked at him in bewilderment. “So what's the problem? Why do you need refrigerators? Pegasus will be able to create a vortex for you and bring cold air from the upper layers of the atmosphere, if you need a lot of it! Usually such things are included in the budget of a city or an enterprise, but since you were going to live separately...”

The Crusaders stared at Tiara in silent amazement - as did Alex.

“How do you know this?” with involuntary respect in her voice asked Scootaloo, nee pegasus. “You are interrupting from C to B!”

“Ha! I don’t need Miss Cheerilee’s stories about stupid yaks or how pegasus live in this Cloudsdale of theirs,” a sarcastic grin flashed across the pink pony's lips. “It’s much more useful to know what they need and how to do business with them. While someponies,” Tiara condescendingly squinted her eyes at the inseparable trinity, “take on a thousand different cases and do not bring one to the end, others purposefully learn to manage the company. And it will become entirely mine in the future! Note this, Alex.”

In Equestria with terraforming and atmospheric processes... and processors as easy as possible, Alex almost slapped his forehead with his palm. There's magic right there! All problems, in theory, should be solvable, albeit in other ways than on Earth. I need to remind myself of this more often, since even elementary school girls have to do it.

“Child, I'm not going to become your valet, don't even ask,” Alex looked seriously at the earth filly, “but remind me to buy you a couple of ice cream.”

“Three!” instantly opened the auction Diamond Tiara.

“Five if you give one to each girl.”

“Deal,” Tiara agreed easily after hearing about the rate hike, but then it dawned on her. “Hey! Is it not me that everything is relied on for the idea?!”

"Don't be that little greedy," Alex snorted, hiding a smile. “They gave soda to you with Spoon.”

“Just because you asked! And in general, there is no need for the product to disappear, since you just needed the bottles.”

“And now I ask you. The Crusaders also deserve, they helped me not only in word, but also in deed. And yes, it is harmful to crack so much sweet in one face. What would your mom's side grandpa say, hmm?”

“None of your business!” growled Tiara, turning away.

“Okay, okay, you little scratch-cat, come here,” Alexander, letting out a laugh, snatched the Diamond Tiara, squeaking in surprise, under her chest and carried her to his lap. “You are my last not petted one.”

Contrary to the first impression, this fluffy caustic will probably make sense, Mercer thought, splitting his hand and trying on the rather grunting Tiara. By the nature of her future spouse and relatives she will bring to white heat, of course, but she is hefty purposeful. To her parents, but Pavlov's technique... Do not pay attention if Chewing gum does indecency, but encourage if she does something useful and good. Or at least he says the right things. You look, a conditioned reflex in a pony, in whose tribe instincts play a far greater role, will develop. Mercer looked up at the mint unicorn, smiling warmly at the sight.

“Lyra!”

“I'm listening! What’s up, Alex?” she reported cheerfully, jumping up and almost saluting from Mercer's commanding tone.

“While I am here dealing with mane of this pretty coddle,” Mercer expressively poked his finger at the Tiara spread over his knees, “be a good pony, go to the princesses and tell them what I want to speak. They are probably already tired of waiting... Since you can vouch for them, let them come here.”

“Got it!” giggled Lyra, goodbye butting Mercer with the back of her head in the shoulder and heading for the door. “Will be done at its best! Wait for the guests in fifteen minutes, I rode off.”

The foals chased, discussing the upcoming visit of the princesses straight to the clubhouse of the Crusaders, Lyra Heartstrings opened the door, preparing, despite this stupid summer drizzle, to go to Ponyville... and Mercer suddenly realized that the rain did not think it would end. He only became stronger, so that the path winding between the apple trees almost disappeared behind a curtain of elements.

“Well, what a rain!” surprised the mint pony, looking out. “Sa-a-andy, should I wait or go right now? I can even now, I am a disdainful mare, but appear before the princesses in the mud and all wet...”

Stop. What was the last snag there?

Alex forgot at times that there was magic here. The thought of this went somewhere on the periphery of consciousness, without visual confirmation. Talking and intelligent zoomorphs don't count.

He forgot that control of the weather in Equestria is much easier.

You mother-!

As if emphasizing the suddenness of insight, lightning illuminated the doorway, and a real downpour like a solid wall enveloped the apple orchard and the entire clearing in the middle of it. The foals screamed at the unexpected thunder, and Apple Bloom rushed to close the shutters on the windows of the house.

“Lyra...” Alex muttered in confusion. “Lyra, close the door.”

“What? What happened? This is an ordinary thunderstorm, albeit not on schedule... Only at the end of the month it should have been.”

“Close. This damned. Door,” Mercer hissed, pushing Tiara to the floor and pressing his back against the wall near the south window. Winona, running up to the same window, spun at Alex's feet, whining. Collie was not scared, but something clearly alarmed her. Maybe it was just the transmitted mood of the mutant, who immediately tensed...

“What is it, lassie,” Alex chuckled softly, patting her neck, calming the dog, -“someone fell into the well?(36)”

“Auf...”

“Yes, I think so too.”

It's too late. They lulled vigilance with a gradually gathering rain, just like in his homeland, and not at once coached into the experience... And now, having prepared, they cut off all the channels of Mercer's control at once. Optical motion detectors - all white noise from the shower is overwhelmed. Thermosensor... Mercer, pulling the hang over his eye the plate, already leaked to the western window and quickly scanned the area through the gap in the shutters. Empty, not the slightest trace of heat. And surely all the surroundings were already closed by a huge barrier so that the troops had where to turn around, but at the same time, the mutant was not able to avoid the cordon. They also blocked the underground - not so much the local warriors are cretins that they could be carried out twice for one trick.

“You say you had such a thunderstorm only at the end of the month?”

“Well yes! What about?” it seemed that Lyra still did not fully understand what kind of trouble they all got together. A smart but naive kind pony; it would be good for her not to recognize even a small part of what Mercer had to go through, and why it was the humanwho was now so alarmed.

“Could Dash really do it again?” suggested Sweetie Belle. “I remember when she tried to get a ticket from Twilight...”

Scootaloo rolled her purple eyes.

“She’s go-o-one!”

“Oh, right.”

"Houston, we have a problem," Mercer muttered to himself. “Get ready, ladies, we have guests. I recommend everyone to crawl under the table and not shine,” noticing that the mint unicorn was looking at him suspiciously, Alex shook his head, “This is not a joke, Lyra. Not once.”

While the Crusaders briskly crawled under the table, barricading themselves with seat poufs, Alex unconsciously ran his fingers over his shoulder, where until recently there was a stump of his left hand. Where? in his thoughts, he pulled back the second fully recreated limb, which "got agitated" when receiving a whole unusual class of data and sent a request to change position - where visibility would be better. Location! Alex practically felt the four-legged warriors, hidden by all sorts of spells, squeeze the ring under the trees and above the thunderclouds. All that is missing is the increasingly frequent squeak of the detection detector and the panicky whine of Hudson at his side. I saw from where, from what direction this time the trouble was coming!

“Hey! Weren't you going to tackle my mane?” indignant pink earth pony, which Spoon with the last of her foal strength tried to pull under the table. “I demand... please, since we are now friends, please you to continue!”

“All later, Tiara,” Alex did not even look at her.

“It's just an ordinary thunderstorm! Such a big two-legged and suddenly afraid of her? Ha!”

Mercer turned his head towards Diamond Tiara.

“I said,” Alex gave her a cold look, “later. Go to the others, pony. Immediately.”

Pony was clearly not going to give up so easily, but the expression on Mercer's face, previously always friendly or impassive, made her freeze for a moment - and this already gave Silver Spoon a chance to carry out her plans. With a squeak, Tiara disappeared under the table, and a pillow immediately took its place. Lyra lay nearby, covering her head with her paws, and Winona perched beside her, fearfully pressing her ears. The unicorn looked anxiously at Alex - he nodded to her and again stared into the space between the shutters. This is where the power of magic is visible... The power of several nuclear power plants in the sky in just a couple of minutes, and this can be done not by top-class specialists, but by ordinary pegasus workers? Yes please! Mercer decided that it was impossible to pull any longer, something urgently needed to be done. But what? Okay, since they went to war on him, and a fight is inevitable, it is vital to strike the first blow. Break down the wall of the house with the shout "Here I am, four-legged bastards!", And then burst into the ranks of an invisible enemy, like a fucking Rambo... and die insultingly stupid. You can wait until the enemy stumbles upon his traps, try to take unexpected moves, acting through stealth and hoping that this will be enough to get close to at least one of the princesses and cut her heart with an organic kukri knife, blow from below or to the side. After which, again, to be incinerated by the second sister.

I would be fucking useful now with a personal detachment to distract attention, like the same "Sages", (38) Alex thought angrily. I hope the creatures of Everfree will last at least a minute or two against this crowd.

Bad. The alignment is too bad. The enemy has both a numerical advantage and a technical one. Alex did not think that the sorcerers would take him like this without warning and attempts to negotiate, humanly, according to all the rules of the assault. What else can be done in this situation? Think Dr. Mercer, Alex pulled himself together. His main superpower is naturally excellent brains, further improved by a virus, and not at all the ability to make living objects stop jerking their limbs. Without his mind, Alex Mercer would just become another pumped-up super-soldier dolt, a stupid warrior who suddenly Learned to run up the walls and jump up a good thirty feet.... But why, after all, did the diarchs decide to take it by storm? Mercer didn't hurt them much, as they did to him, that's why Zeus was... restrained. Circumstances have changed? If Celestia and Luna really know he's here, they could drown Mercer by simply turning the planks into a swamp! Or simply pull out the small ones with a flash of the teleport, and freeze the evolved one at a single moment to the state of a metamorph, which has not yet been dug out by polar explorers! But Marshmallow, Scootaloo, Shu, Lyra and Tiara with a Spoon were still in the house...

“Fakk,” Mercer cursed briefly in his native language.

They think I have taken hostages. Alex's insides have gone cold at the thought. Yes, that's right... If the ponies were here of their own free will, and the diarchs knew it, the civilians could simply be teleported out, and Mercer would have been captured for a more... private conversation. Most likely, they are afraid that Zeus did something wrong with them for the sake of his own safety. Hypnosis, mutant neural parasites, alien unrecognizable magic - the options are countless. Sisters fear, let's say, not without reason, but even a sociopath has standards. Mercer didn't consider himself a bastard enough to use children, even xenos, as a bargaining chip. At least not consciously. When four combat carbines are almost point-blank pointed at you, it's generally difficult to rationally think... it's difficult even for such an expert in this matter as Dr. Mercer was.

Well, well, well... Alex seems to have guessed whose initiative it was. The same Lyra would not have thought of such a thing - if the foals are not afraid, they look not scared, but satisfied with the closeness with the alien, then everything is all right with them. Celestia might have thought so too. But Her Darkness Luna... Naturally, a different constructive and accompanying culture, as well as the social order, leave an imprint, but the dark diarch still remembers less happy times. She did not have time to lose her shape, she is able to put herself in the shoes of the enemy...

Mentally, she is much closer to humanman. Surely she fell into the trap of Hobbes, according to which aggression is a natural evolutionary process. The mistress of the night is not ruled by malice, but by banal rationality... only Alexander doesn't get any shit from this. He has only a few minutes to live "happily ever after in the world of colored horses" if Dr. Mercer does nothing. If Alex had found out what Luna was like earlier, he would have climbed to the colts with two dicks! And even if the enemy does not plan to kill him, will he be given the opportunity to justify himself, or will he be immediately shoved into some no-nonsense zone 51 for experiments?

Well-well-we-e-ell... And this was worth checking now. So, it means that Luna got used to pretending to be a noblewoman, having only relatively recently begun the process of adaptation to modern society, she didn't? Maybe Alex is not all of himself a noble lord to master a high syllable, but in anticipation of death you will not sing so much. The main thing is to add more righteous indignation to your voice and to do your best to maintain a serious attitude, because the absurdity of Alex's notion threatened to stand on a par with the madness of the little world. Not to mention the fact that the irony of the situation, unlike Mercer, the ponies will not be able to appreciate... Unless, of course, the princesses can not immediately get into Dr. Mercer's head - according to Heartstrings, the dark alicorn was famous for this, with might and main according to the dreams of the inhabitants of Equestria (and they did not mind at all), so such a possibility could not be ruled out. Yes, if not for the need to prepare a "reserve airfield" in case the Luna really turns into a polygraph, Mercer never went to such an improvisation! As well as personally would not start running on all fours, pretending to be a zoomorph, yes. Truly, desperate times - desperate measures...

”Luna of Equestria!” Alex rumbled, opening the door slightly. ”My name is not familiar to you, but you can call me Grievous. Do you really think that I will use children as... prisoners?!” Alex let the cold in his voice, but still not enough to sound contemptuous. ”I cannot interpret your actions in any other way. And I, as a war general, find them offensive to the extreme!”

On the street, the rain continued to gush, occasionally it rattled in the height, and Alex did not hear any other sounds. Looking back, Mercer saw Lyra, clearly impressed, staring at him with all her eyes, and the foals cuddling their faces against the embrasure of the pillows. Alex winked at them and tried again.

”If honor is not an empty phrase for you, I demand a meeting with you face to... face!” Alexander tried his best with all the might of his only lung. ”Leave tricks for your impressionable subjects and disperse the clouds! Let me see you! In turn, I give my word of honor that I do not keep the ponies here by force, and did not cause them at least some harm or other interference! They are with me voluntarily, as friends, and at any time they are free to leave!”

Mercer didn't hear the answer. Not because he did not wait for him, but because for the next half a minute he was completely deaf. The sonic boom carried it along with the door and spread it across the opposite wall. When Mercer darted to the side, leaving the "line of fire" and huddled under the windowsill, he realized that the echo of the enemy's VOICE carried some meaning, and did not aim to simply demoralize the evolved one for a second or a half.

“Why is this banshee banging again?” human complained, rubbing his ear. “My eardrums are almost out of order... Lyra? Hey!” he called to the unicorn, huddled into a ball and struggling to pretend that she was not here. “Hey, Lyra! What did she say?”

“You must go out alone!” Lyra squeaked. “Five minutes of the deadline, and all alone! I don’t know how you upset Princess Luna, but she’s terribly angry!”

“That's how it is,” grinned Mercer, looking out of the corner of his eye from behind the window sill, not risking approaching the doorway. “Her Darkness will deign to be angry. Just nice…”

The rain cut off, and Mercer now clearly saw the scale of the tragedy that had happened. There was nowhere to run: Alex watched the flicker of the barrier, the top of which was lost among the gloomy clouds that had driven under the dome. There were no windows or open spaces between the apple trees. Evoking a healthy laugh, similar to toy soldiers, but very dangerous in number as opponents, the guards were seen here and there, occupying shelters and tree crowns, and also spreading themselves in the air with a net. There were earth ponies, and unicorns, and pegasus, and those flying ponies serving only the dark princess... they were all angry for some reason. Mercer did not perceive them as an amorphous crowd, but diligently recorded the location of each enemy fighter, noticing little things up to the expression of their faces. They certainly did not land at the time of the ultimatum of the Luna - the plan, the arrangement was felt in their battle formations... Except for the flyers, whom Alexander decided to take over entirely, most of the crowd would completely fall into the range of fire and traps with which Alex has generously surrounded the clubhouse of the Crusaders. The enemy did not bother to notice them yet, let alone defuse them - it seems that the "invisibility" of Alex's technologies worked like clockwork. Excellent, just wonderful!

“There you are,” Mercer muttered, focusing his gaze on the dark alicorn in the front row. Beautiful one, damn xenowitch! The expression of the muzzle is strict and sublime, the blue-raven wings are spread, the slender figure in a single impulse rushes to the enemy's position, some obviously nasty spell is twisted on the horn... The inevitability itself is right - in the middle of a storm, which the soldiers and their leader did not touch due to enchantment, Luna probably would have looked even more spectacular. The silver breastplate, which can pass for steel in color, only complements the look of the experienced warrior...

But where are you, Celestia, the pony-like Uriel?(39) Alex asked a reasonable question. Are you hiding, playing some kind of game of your own, or did Luna really come here alone?

“Sweetie Belle, do you have textile here?” Alex asked quickly. Surprised that no one was answering him, he turned to the table:

“Sweetie-e? Didn't you fall asleep there?”

“We are under siege, and you called yourself some kind of Grievous!” came from behind the pillows, and large purple eyes stared at Mercer. “Say the password! What if suddenly you are not Alex?”

“Scootie, what the password?” human was genuinely amazed. “All this time I was in the same room with you! I have no time for your mirac-”

“Yes, yes, we have it, there is upstairs among the shelves!” pushing back the pouf, the curly head of the unicorn appeared out. The little beauty looked at Alex trustingly:

“Rarity sometimes gives me scraps of fabric! This is how I made our capes, and sometimes I try to create something myself...”

"Good," Mercer tilted his head, moving his bodies to the ceiling in one fluid motion. “For a couple of minutes a raincoat on me, as I understand it, you can't sew?”

“No way, you're too big!” Sweetie gasped, looking up and down at Alex with her curious green eyes. “What, have you really decided to become the Cutie Mark Crusader?”

“Really?!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo have already leaned out from under the table. Sweetie Belle, after a little thought, shook her head sadly.

“Sorry, but since then Rarity has been hiding the fabric from the gold lining from me... And the emblem will need to be made a new one, with a human figure, so that it should be right!”

“No matter,” Mercer leaked into the attic, and finding a whole roll of some faded gray, fairly dense fabric (it's no surprise that Sweetie’s sister was generous with such an amount, these are not all colorful cashmeres and silk), in the same way went downstairs, diligently avoiding shots at the door and windows. Spreading flat on the floor, Alex nodded at the unfolded parcel and clicked his claws. 

“Can you at least show how the pieces of fabric can be folded and stitched to more or less hold? I'll put it together quickly.”

“I can!” the unicorn nodded happily, but immediately doubted:

“And you can't do it yourself, prettier, how did you take on the shape of a pony? Changinglings, it seems, can transform right with clothes...”

“I have a reason not to do this.”

Oh you, proud battle-princess, Alex thought sarcastically, under Sweetie's leadership, skillfully joining strips of fabric with living and welding. Celestia did not even think to appear in the field of view of the optics. The dark one decided to take Mercer personally, without the help of her sister? Alex may have pretended to be a noble, but he is not a single place a duelist. He is used to playing either as tough as possible, breaking through the enemy's defenses with all his might, like a knight in the heaviest armor with a two-handed sword, or as dirty as possible, regaling the enemy with artillery strikes, pouring fire on them from the commander of the Abrams, setting mutants on the military and vice versa , inflicting exhausting wounds with claws and retreating again. One does not interfere with the other, and you will try both methods now on your wonderful fur coat, The evolved smiled grimly. Horses love to crunch human fingers, but I can stand up for myself so that it doesn't seem like a little. Do you want to see how big my teeth are, Princess Luna? I can easily arrange it for you - now that I see your Highness! In vain, perhaps, with a shovel in his claws spent the early morning hours?

Lyra watched Mercer's preparations anxiously. Finally, she asked cautiously:

“Have you done this before?”

“You mean, did I meet in an extremely tense atmosphere with a representative of an immortal zoomorphic dynasty?” Alex chuckled, putting the finishing touches on his future outfit. “Never.”

Lyra remained serious. After hesitating, she continued her thought in a whisper:

“No... I mean, you said you were at odds with your government? Did you... did you oppose them?”

“Why did you decide that?”

“You're not scared at all. You look...” Lyra looked timidly into his tense face, “rather angry, like the Luna. You act so quickly as if you have big experience in such matters.”

“Not too big. Of the royal subjects - I fought only with one Queen of the Hive...”

“Do you have your own Chrysalis on Earth?!” gasped the Crusaders and Lyra at the same time.

"I have no idea who this Chrysalis is..." Mercer muttered, raising new images in his mind. “Done! Now it's time,” he stood up to his full height, turning away from the pony and picking up his handicraft, streaked with reddish lines, in a hand that had gathered again.

Closed arena. A crowd of enemies in branded armor. Sounds like something that just can't go well, or just a very specific surprise costume party. Judging by the words of the foals, they have a whole tradition in the city to welcome newcomers like that... And Dr. Mercer prepared to give a worthy answer. According to the second level of planning, the pony warriors know that he has set his traps. It's even good that from a position of pure strength Alex cannot act, flooding everything with a stream of mass - in this case he would simply be frozen into the ice... But if the enemy is weakened, and his cunning devices are revealed and are at gunpoint, why not chat? Luna knows that he can grow extra limbs, but Alex does not do it instantly... And to the rocket launcher, which from the waves of scabie appeared on his belt, he will reach with his free right hand. Likewise - about the right grip of the fake machine gun, which Mercer was already forming behind him. Living tissue began to slip from Alexander's face, required in another part of his body. Why, one wonders, pay attention to some kind of differentiation in the spine of a mutant if you can't see it in detail with a magic X-ray, and when he has a much more obvious weaponry? And the pollen of the Poisonous Joke, which he hid in saline and glass, has already partially lost its properties, separated from the parent flower, you can not be afraid of it! Well, Mercer suspected that she had lost, for this rubbish had a much weaker effect on his health. But in containers of biomass, hidden in a couple of places, being diluted with infovirions, the pollen retained its properties, and how! An excellent flash-noise mine should turn out, and invisible, moreover, due to the technology of the virus.

Well, a cloak... A cloak made of matter created by concepts, for those skilled in the magical arts, for sure is the same as transparent - look, Princess Luna! This is what the stupid mutant is trying to hide from your sight, everything is hung on it, like on a Christmas tree. Let the toys from the dimension of the incessant war draw your attention... Mercer irritatedly wiggled the bony "ears" that once again protruded from the grooves of his bare skull. He would also have at his disposal coaxial machine guns from the Black Hawk hangers, and a couple of warheads made of missile units... Eh, it's not bad to dream. Alexander wrapped himself in a gray sackcloth, completely hiding his figure and leaving only arm up to the elbow, head and the tips of the prostheses. It would be nice to recreate another claw in the front, in addition to the spur... moisture, plus the grass covered with dew, the clutch could fall.

“Well, how do you like the new outfit?” asked the white unicorn, stretching out her hoof and touching the edge of the cloak in which Alex was wrapped.

“As if it was sewn for me in the best salon, “Mercer gently stroked her between the ears. “Thanks for your help, Sweetie.”

“Are you sure?” the pony giggled. “If anything, go to my sister - you will get the same, only much more beautiful, just so that you can go to receptions to the princesses as an ambassador!” her smile became mischievous. “I promise I will put in a good word for you. And Rarity herself will be interested to hear how things are going with fashion on Earth!”

“Don't worry. I feel that in this vestment I will look in the eyes of the princesses good...” Alexander pointedly moved bone indicators of mood, “deadly.”

Heartstrings looked anxiously at Alex, who winked at her with the remaining eye - a heat sensor plate had grown into the other again.

“Everything will be all right, Lyra,” he assured, carefully checking all the telepathic connections with the grown neural nodes. During the capture by McMullen, he had to fully control two drones at once... Here, too, there is one complex drone and many simpler connections, for which it is enough to send a single signal and not worry about them anymore. It is somewhat reminiscent of the work of an explosives engineer at a festival of fireworks, except that the outcome of clicking a toggle switch will be much more varied.

“YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE LEFT, GENERAL! OUR HIGHEST PATIENCE WILL BE OUTSIDE OF THIS!”

The Canterlot voice made the walls tremble, but now Mercer could at least discern what was addressed to him. Human chuckled as he turned to exit.

“It's not good to keep Her Darkness waiting... I'll go.”

Maybe I should sing and dance in front of this cat-horse, or will it be an overwhelming demonstration of my power? Alex thought sarcastically. Now his favorite part was coming... ever since Penn Station. Sentient ones will chat about a stranger and not so garbage, in every possible way delaying the moment when the test tube slips out of the hand, and the bullets leave the barrels of their carbines and in a cloud of powder gas will fly at Dr. Mercer. Everyone involved understands that this is inevitable, but they strenuously pretend that a worst-case scenario simply cannot happen, that’s all.

Or maybe everything will be okay this time? He would like to…

Slack, reverse. You are worried, doctor, Alex summed up, and he objected to himself:

Not particularly. Another day, another important elimination goal, which should be reached by hook or by crook. No romance, no atmosphere of old westerns, where the hero has to go out of the saloon to meet the crowd and, in every way overcoming, to get rid of it. The only difference is that a bunch of tanks and helicopters were chasing me under the gun of the mighty of my world, and here are their magical counterparts. No wonder I feel at ease.

And the lack of open territory, the limitation of the area of ​​the fight is just fine. Mercer can't escape, yes, but if the Luna really thinks that Zeus's maneuverability has limited its perimeter... She only gave him more tactical opportunities, if only because new directions for attack appeared. The Planck Barrier supplied by the magicians here is not super-smooth material. The frictional force is sufficient. Even if the barrier is similar in its properties to glass, Mercer has experience of moving on such planes. Unless this time breaking the "glass", clinging tighter and extending the run almost indefinitely, will not work - well, at least local newspapers will not burst into articles about the fact that "many skyscrapers in Times Square were mysteriously damaged."

Okay... It seems like Mercer took everything into account. He was going to follow the original plan - a relatively peaceful beginning, a invented story to test reactions. How will the princesses behave if Alex reveals to them that there is something much greater than himself behind him - a whole otherworldly faction with a huge army and, judging by the transfer of Mercer, the technology of moving to these very other worlds? It is also a guarantee that the mutant will not be sent out so straight away for experiments, but at least considered a valuable hostage who should be handled with care so that humans do not descend on Equus with a return visit... Alexander's idea will either result in an already inevitable confrontation, or, in a more optimistic course of events, everything will be reduced to a joke, as in the case of Lyra. The locals are not deprived of a sense of humor, they must understand. With a wet click, Alex's lower jaw split into two halves again and went into the neck, hiding under the cheekbones, and the mutant turned around at last:

“Okay now. You're safe here, pony, and you'd better stay in the house until someone picks you up. Either I'll call you or the princesses. Winona, guard the girls, do you understand?” the collie barked readily, and Mercer nodded. “Lyra, take care of them. Especially about one pink touchy one,” Alex grinned, bumping into a frightened, offended look among the pillows. “Otherwise, it seems to me, give her free rein, and she will beat Luna for interrupting our session of caring for mane...

“I owe you a favor!” shouted from the heap of pillows Tiara. “I remember, Alex!”

“There is no more Alex here,” Mercer, slyly bending his neck, hunched over and pulled his head into his shoulders. “On the bridge is Grievous, Drone General of the Federation of Independent Biotechnologies! It's time to make some noise, kha-khe... In every sense. Kha.”

“Be careful!” Lyra said with fright. “Whatever you do, apologize to the princess! This is all some kind of mistake, Luna is very kind, she will understand!” convinced that Alex was not listening to her again, Lyra jumped up, ran to the gray figure and grabbed her by the clawed paw, demanding attention to herself.

“Promise everything will be okay! And that you can do without the explosions of these reagents of yours and self-harm! Say "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Say now!”

“If they don’t do anything that I didn’t deserve, I will certainly…” Mercer began to weave verbal lace as usual, but the unicorn looked at him so seriously that Human gave up. He was going to give the princesses a chance anyway. Exactly one fucking chance. Mercer has already been betrayed enough... Come on, surprise me, new world, sighing to himself, Alex thought.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, blah-blah-blah,” Alex waved his claws, frowning at the sci-fi lover. “Are you satisfied now?”

“Absolutely!” Lyra smiled, returning to her corner and busily covering her head with her paws. “Now that you said, you can go. Good luck with Luna there!”

“Good luck! Don't mess up with the Princesses!” the foals squeaked in chorus.

“Do you all understand that to my perception it sounded like a meaningless, albeit rhymed gibberish? Khe,” Alex muttered to himself under a nonexistent nose.

And then he went out.

Far to the north, Pinkie Pie stumbled as a tiny drop of blood oozed from her nose and fell into the snow. The filly, quietly complaining about "an abnormally high concentration of references in Ponyville," began to ask Twilight if Discord could have returned during their absence... Well, or some Other-Discord-Quite-Reverse-That-Transfers-Wade-Rivers. Having received the assurance of the purple unicorn that Discord was still chilling in a stone prison, and she had never heard of any "Other Discord", Pinky, quite satisfied, hurried with her friends after Cadance, her husband and a detachment of scouts. The snowfall was intensifying, and they still had so many things to do in the Empire...
> Going Inside a Storm - 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bon Bon, also known Bonnie, also not-so-known secret agent Sweetie Drops stood among the detachment of thestrals and thought about options. She saw the situation far from being the best. The stranger introduced himself as a general from the world - it was not for nothing that his flying machine had a sign of belonging to some faction! But even if we forget about this "small" problem for a while, what other tricks can this so-called Grievous throw out? What if he doesn't think of going outside - how can you even storm a solitary room with thin wooden walls?

Bon Bon was used to dealing with monsters over a wide area - hooligans in closed rooms were usually dealt with by the same Manehattan patrols who had experience in pulling ponies out of establishments that had sorted out cider and began to row. And here, in general, the house of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, that and look, will fall apart, burying foals under a mountain of planks! And although the monster's lair seemed extremely unreliable, one should not forget that the alien had strengthened it with numerous traps, which the guardponies diligently paid no attention to. Besides, it was only five miles from Froggy Bottom, where the sulfur miasma had blossomed even more since last night, and the wild magic field had done something incredible with scientific instruments and sensors. What else could Grievous bring from there?

“Can't wait to hang the new trophy on the wall, huh?” a thoughtful voice was heard nearby.

Sweetie squinted her eyes to the left. The batpony, whom Princess Luna had entrusted with the care of the "civilian specialist", grinned sadly to her side. Among other thestrals, who returned to the service just a year and a half ago, she had never heard of any secret "agent Drops", and therefore reacted to the earthly pony with a certain degree of skepticism. However, she could be useful if things turned out badly, so she was in no hurry to verbally bicker and spoil her relationship with the night pony in advance. After all, the servants of Her Darkness were also more secretive...

“Hmm,” Sweety muttered vaguely to herself.

“What?” did not understand a colleague of the thestral, a stallion with a coal-black tail and red eyes with a vertical pupil, looking at the guard in bewilderment.

“Nah, nothing...” she narrowed her eyes, glancing at the silenced headquarters of the Crusaders. “It's just that our fearless huntress-spy believes that military action is indispensable, although this stranger did nothing but avoiding a fight.”

“Maybe he is powdering our brains with his speeches, while he is preparing an escape right now?” the guardpony suggested uncertainly.

"Don't even hope," Bon Bon warned quietly. “Now this metamorph is not so easy to escape, and he knows it. And the monster, which has nowhere to retreat, only becomes more dangerous.”

“Um,” the stallion scratched his free chin. “And what is our plan, then? What if he doesn't want to go out at all?”

“You heard it yourself - the old one,” the thestral sighed, checking the combat hoppers. “The sunflowers will take care of his traps and control of the territory, while we surround and pull out the civilians.”

Sweetie Drops narrowed her eyes as the sun brightened the landscape, breaking through the ring of rain clouds, playing on the dewdrops in the grass. Some five minutes ago in the apple orchard there was a haze, so beloved by night ponies, and the downpour gushed as if not into himself. But now the summer sun was sending out its rays in all directions, and the main barrier became clearly distinguishable. Then Grievous caught Her Darkness - he demonstrated that he was not such a monster, that honor for him was not an empty phrase... reminded Princess Luna that what everyone was doing five minutes ago was contrary to the principles of the proud warrior, which she was... In the new millennium, the word of honor of a respectable pony was appreciated, but then, during the just approaching Harmony and before it, during the period of unrest and turmoil, it weighed even more.

Bon Bon shivered under the armor with the guardian eye. She was not accustomed to wearing a cuirass, much less a night pony, and Sweetie was still moving cautiously in her armor. But she admitted that they could be useful to her even more than the usual leather armor of a hunter. The mentor told her: if you are in the minority and a fight cannot be avoided, you need to hit first to reduce losses, no matter how much you want it - that means if Grievous lies about his honor and other things, he will attack first. It was necessary to be ready not only to avoid blows, as Sweetie usually did, but to withstand his blow, for the alien was downright obscenely fast for a creature on foot.

“If you don't have a chance to avoid a fight with him, aim for the lower limbs. This will reduce his mobility,” she reminded the thestrals up close. “As a last resort in the neck. I assume that you need to decapitate this metamorph in order to inflict minimum damage on him and at the same time incapacitate him.”

The night ponies looked at her in amazement.

“I've never heard of anyone needing to be decapitated,” the thestral muttered, “to minimize his damage.”

“Don't worry, Drops. It won't come to extreme measures,” the night mare pushed Bon Bon in a patronizing manner with her elbow in the side. “We're not idols like the sunlowers, we even know how to use our hooves! There are many of us, but he is one – we’ll take him easy...”

“Krhm,” the pegasus from Her Grace's guard boomed discontentedly, hovering in the air nearby. “I would ask.”

“Oh, come on, Skip!” the thestral bared her fangs with an innocent expression on her face. “But seriously, the alien agreed to negotiate, didn't he? Hey,” she looked seriously at Bon Bon, “you will see, the children will be free in a dozen minutes. I give you my word.”

Maybe you're right, Sweetie Drops thought not so optimistically. Maybe we really won't need this collision and everything will be fine.

“What will come of it, we all dragged ourselves here in vain?” grumbled the batpony, flexing his shoulders and neck, stepping over the hoops with dagger-like claws. “Don’t think I’m all for it if the foals are easy to free, but we have the most boring airline in Equestria! There is no observation deck, not a single pretty stewardess, no refreshments en route. The cap, which poses interesting fables on the road, and then sailed to the north on public affairs!”

“Stop you talkers!” Lieutenant Noctus shouted at them. “Gathered! There he comes out.”

Even in the morning Bon Bon, if she was worried about the neighborhood with a stranger, was quite a bit - not least because after that commotion at dawn she managed to float her friend outside the "danger zone". It seems that Sweety chose the arguments correctly, so silly Lyra really suspected that they wanted to surprise her in the form of getting to know human, and therefore Bon Bon should be given time to prepare and "suspecting nothing" to live in a suburban motel.

As for everything else... Of course, the alien left behind in Ponyville, gave work to painters and glaziers, and also stirred the minds of the population. Sweety had heard a lot: that the human had stolen a carrot from Golden's garden (as it turned out, they were gophers that had lost their girdle during Fluttershy's absence), and that the aliens on their black rotary-winged ponies would soon begin to kidnap ponies in order to put them on terrible tests like a tickling test, and that half of the inhabitants of Ponyville have long been replaced by invaders in the manner of changelings... Mrs. Delicious generally claimed that a man had stolen her pet, a cheetah named Blaze, but no one in Ponyville probably believed this at all. Rather, the poor fellow fled on his own, taking advantage of the turmoil to take a break from the old lady's overprotectiveness. Much more Bonnie was not worried about the complaints of talkative and overly impressionable mares and their favorite gossip, but what invaded the world of ponies - because it began to take over their world!

In the swamps, inexplicable, chaotic phenomena still took place. For lack of a better substance, which grew in Froggy Bottom, was dubbed "Red lichen": it really was something like a symbiotic organism with tissue separation, the same veins were present in its structure for transporting fluids and minerals. She seemed to cover everything around with wax, bite into the soil and go under the water - while she was exactly that alive, breathed, according to Princess Celestia, producing millions of "carriers" that play the role of accumulators and transmitters of solar energy. The substance seemed harmless: it didn’t eat trees, climbing over them, didn’t touch living creatures. All I did was suck nutrients from the soil and drain sulfur from the swamp. But how long will such a lull last?

Not only one Bon Bon was disturbed by the discovery that the actions of an outsider are aimed, so to speak, at "rooting" in Equestria. Her Serene Highness had deigned to introduce Agent Drops to her crowned sister a day ago - and she clearly did not share Celestia's positive attitude.

“Tia, he attacked another living creature!” said Princess Luna, looking with indignation at the elder sister. “Don't you think that the newcomer, with your connivance, became convinced of his own permissiveness? If we allow him to continue to gain strength, human can cause us trouble,” the alicorn categorically summed up, “and serious!”

“If I understand his way of thinking well, then no,” Princess Celestia, neatly stacking the Canterlot mail, allowed herself a smile. “He went into the mines only because he knows the world around him, Luna, and not for the purpose of insulting. Maybe human does not know us well, but he must understand that all our moves are only security measures, and not an offensive against him. And the person understands that if he dared to commit really a serious offense against the inhabitants of Equestria, then neither I nor you would be so patient, my dear sister.”

“It's not about me or you,” Luna grumbled. “I am not speaking from the standpoint of humanal relationship to human, not that he is a threat, but what he can become. You promised that you would give me and my soldiers freedom of action if he opposed us. What if standby Doing this will not even be useless, but harmful for our subjects?”

“Lulu, we’ve already said that it’s pointless,” Celestia winced, signing another paper. “If human was going to somehow oppose us, then he would not limit himself to petty dirty tricks. He is a reasonable and cautious creature, a military officer, not some narcissistic sorceress or our mutual acquaintance, for whom logic is the last thing that worries him in the world. The only way for human to surpass the diarchy is to find a way to ruin our lives forever. And this search, even taking into account the secrets of his native dimension, may take him years, if not decades, which he does not have. To make contact with us is the only reasonable conclusion that he will follow, and very soon,” Her Grace blinked sleepily and with difficulty suppressed a yawn, almost planting a luxurious blot on the parchment. “I’m surprised why you continue to follow your point of view, when there are no prerequisites for this at all,” she concluded, beckoning the guardpony, handing him the parcel and, with appropriate instructions, ordering him to transfer it to the Ponyville school.

Her Grace's calculation, she told her sister and Bon Bon, was based on her great experience in recognizing magical disturbances. She believed that the Marks would be one of those things that would most interest a stranger in the new world - the human himself did not wear the insignia, but he had some kind of similar mechanism, even though it could not be called Harmony even with a stretch. Firstly, a newcomer from a world where war could still happen, would rather turn to the mare as a weaker and more affectionate creature, a less bright dominant. In kind-heartedness, most of the Equestrians of the stronger sex were not inferior to their passions, but a stranger could not know this! Since there were fewer stallions, this factor did not reduce the list of "potential contactees" as much as desired.

The second factor consisted in the following: a strong, but for some reason extremely cautious alien would rather prefer a calm, balanced person for the first contact, moreover, possessing the necessary knowledge. If Twilight Sparkle hadn't went away, leaving her owl to look over the library, maybe a stranger would have wanted to talk to her... If only somehow he hadn't found out that she is a student of Celestia, of course. The second factor cut off a much larger number of "candidates", because according to the not modest opinion of Bon Bon, born Canterlot, the same inhabitants of the capital were not callous in comparison with the Ponyvilleans, but they were certainly more restrained in manifesting their feelings. Hyperactivity and throwing on the neck with open arms to the alien, according to Her Grace, would definitely not like it. And then everything is simple. Adults have a label - younger ones don't. So, from the point of view of a stranger, growing up must somehow be involved here... including learning, gaining knowledge.

The night passed quietly for Bon Bon. After a short patrol, not finding anything suspicious, she nodded on the cornice of one of the houses covered with soft hay, even in a dream, just in case, waving her ears, catching unusual sounds. But Her Grace did not sleep, worked all night; as it turned out, she was recreating the spell of searching for a stranger in his tracks - "carriers". When Bon Bon looked into the town hall late in the morning, hoping to get some instructions, Princess Celestia almost fell asleep on the go, feeding herself exclusively with vigor spells and strong tea - as it turned out, over the past three days, the alicorn slept less than six hours.

Princess Luna has returned: she had a chance with a detachment of thestrals to visit the central column of the "lichen". Alicorn was full of enthusiasm, although she could not find any traces of human. As it turned out, she decided to check her sister's words that the stranger would learn a new world, and then took the crystal from the collar from one of the dogs. It turned out that the magic of crystals, which was currently supposed to attend to the far north of the Guardian, unlike many other spells, had an effect on the sprouts of alien life! Small charges "lichen" happily ignored, but when a certain power of the spell was reached, it seemed to shrink, covering itself with a protective shell and going into hibernation mode, like stone cacti under the scorching daytime sun.

The joy of Princess Luna from the realization that she had discovered the alien's weakness was not overshadowed by even more alarming news: the chaos in the swamps did not subside overnight, when the red cloud was not engaged in absorbing energy, but gained strength. Where light electrical discharges were hitting the ground yesterday, sheaves of lightning burst out the next morning, albeit safe for Pegasus, but quite capable of throwing the same unicorn into shock. The heat spots turned into real torches of fire and pools of boiling water, and the frozen soil was piled high with columns of ice. Forest living creatures, until recently, felt at ease in the swamps, fled from there even faster than migrated to a zone full of free magic. It was still not enough to the beliefs in the manner of discord magic were reborn into some kind of monsters from a parallel world, which is all saturated with this fog!

Princess Celestia, with a puzzled shake of her head, thanked her sister for the discovery and in turn said that she had just finished displaying the search matrix. Luna, seeing her, changed her face and dragged the yawning sister into the hall, where they began to fiercely (in the case of Her Grace, sleepily) arguing behind closed doors, ordering no one to bother them, unless something happened.

Naturally, such was not long in coming. Sweety, never having received specific instructions from Her Grace, took on the burden of a lone agent, which she did more than once or twice, and went on a patrol that was invisible to the prying eye. As soon as she heard Rainbowshine on the street excitedly tells the guardpony that the Marksmen were following an adult pony without a mark in the direction of the farm, looking so indifferent as if they were not interested in anything in the world, Bon Bon rushed back. The mare got to the town hall faster than the guards, for she had her own secret paths all over Ponyville... but she was late anyway.

Princess Celestia was asleep, happily sniffing the roulades, dropping her muzzle into a plate on which there were only shortbread crumbs. And all would be fine - well, think, Her Grace got tired, composing a matrix of search for a very complex and unknown type half-alive from the point of view of a pony's organism, decided to snore for another hour or two on the third day. But according to the assurance of Luna, this dream was artificially induced. Even the talents of the princess did not help - Her Darkness jumped out of her older sister's dream, without spending a couple of minutes there, her forehead was covered with sweat. Alicorn just muttered to herself: "So much... so many", and refused to expand on this topic categorically.

The culprit of this misunderstanding was found quickly: Celestia's favorite drink. As far as Bon Bon knew, it was almost impossible to poison an alicorn, because, being a powerful magical creature, Her Grace could identify all the "unfriendly" components at a time. Putting to sleep is also not easy due to the peculiarities of metabolism, but a small dose of sleeping pills will at least be recognized as something harmless, the same sedative. The fact is that something else was mixed into the tea - a similar composition was used at a wedding in Canterlot by changelings to keep their victims unconscious. It was something different and at the same time similar - the soporific enzyme of werewolf saliva, together with a magic-suppressing cocoon, introduced the victim into a trance, allowing the love essence to be slowly sucked out. And here, using the matrix that Princess Celestia, by a lucky chance, managed to reveal to Luna, Her Darkness found out that the composition literally glowed from the presence of a stranger!

“We have a problem,” Luna raised her voice in front of the officers as the guards who came running confirmed Sweetie's story. “A huge problem, and my sister will stay in the world of dreams for some time,” at these words, Luna shuddered, shrugging her shoulders chilly. “All this can be a trap, for the stranger clearly does not compete with us two. But with one... Well, this impudent upstart will regret that he chose the wrong princess as his target!” Luna threw up her wings menacingly, to which the Thestrals responded with an approving grunt.

Sweetie Drops thought that the "sleeping pill" could have been intended for Luna as well, as human more decisive and quicker for reprisals where Her Serene Highness would not rush to conclusions, but, naturally, the cups turned out to be confused. Or maybe the composition was supposed to put both princesses to sleep, but Luna refused the cup carefully offered by her sister, being heated by an argument... Be that as it may, the alien, according to Rainbowshine, was not very different from the Equestrian changelings, and even dared use as cover for foals! Luna, who sincerely loved the children of her subjects, was not going to put up with this.

“My sister is a good pony,” the Princess of the Night exclaimed sternly, “if not the best I have ever known. Although not a warrior, the ruler always came out of it excellently. But we cannot wait until she wakes up and begins to act with pomp, unleashing the diplomatic fetters. The children of the local nice ponies need help. Lieutenant,” she turned directly to the commander of the Solar Guard, “will you begin to follow my orders, as if my sister had given them?”

“Yes, Your Darkness,” he agreed without batting an eye, saluting.

“Excellent,” Luna nodded with dignity. “Where can a stranger be found now?”

“It's hard to say for sure, Your Darkness,” Bon Bon said. “But if there were fillies with him, then it is worth checking the farm and its surroundings. I thought that he had an underground lair and passages somewhere, however, apparently, he moves on foot.”

“In that case, Lieutenant, take four-fifths of the composition, and get ready to attack,” Luna snorted, barely holding back her anger at the alien. “Send scouts and notify the owners of Sweet Apple. Noctus,” then she turned to the commander of thestral, pointing her hoof at Bon Bon, “give this pony a suitable armor and attach her to the vanguard. Sweetie Drops was once a loyal servant of the Crown and personally saw the monster, has experience in clashes like him. Let everyone listen to her opinion, if necessary!”

It took Sweety a split second to decide. Let the earth pony walk under the orders of the guards and specifically Luna of the earth was a novelty, to refuse, of course, was beyond her strength. Now Bon Bon understood that Her Grace had missed a little: the stranger was targeting not the teachers, but their students... and far from the most peaceful purposes. Foals. More risk, more windy, but more trusting. And if that - they can be easily used as hostages, subjugating the mind... Sweetie herself was horrified at her thoughts. Heaven, how infinitely far from the highest degrees of humanity was man! Lyra would have been bitterly disappointed. It's so good that she left... Bon Bon gritted her teeth, heading with the guards to leave the town hall. They'll figure it out. Neither Luna, nor the Guard, nor Sweetie Drops herself would allow harm to the little subjects of the diarchy - this more than fell under the definition of "intolerable manner," in which case Her Serene Highness promised to give Princess Luna "full carte blanche".

While the unicorns were preparing a massive teleportation to encircle the enemy, Sweety donned armor and admonished the thestrals, to whose squad Brave Noctus had assigned her.

“Most likely a fight is inevitable,” she told the night ponies. “If we can't free the girls outright, Princess Luna will most likely try to make contact with him and find out what the alien wants, but be prepared for the situation to quickly escalate. This creature is cunning and mostly unpredictable.

“I'm not sure I know who you are, Drops,” the senior guard said in a low but no less melodious voice. “What kind of experience do you have in subduing monsters? Ours saw you at Her Darkness with Celestia, but they never heard of you.”

The thestral radiated self-confidence - and that was why. Under the armor, a muscular chest covered with well-groomed fur was guessed, a toned body and trained wings gave out a wonderful flyer in it. Batpony's yellow eyes sparkled with anticipation of the coming battle.

“Now I am a civilian specialist. Once upon a time hunted monsters,” Bon Bon sighed. “That's all you need to know.”

“Hm, okay,” the mare held out, looking appraisingly at Bon Bon. She checked her accumulated blades and gently smoothed her purple hair as she pulled on her helmet. “I hope we are gonna get along just fine. My name is...” she briefly expressed herself in her northern dialect, which, when combined with the prefix “middle," should have meant, as far as Sweetie knew, “Witching Hour.” “But if anything, on the battlefield you can just call me Night,” said the night pony Bon Bon in a rather condescending tone.

Sweety bit her lip inadvertently. In any newly formed collective, friction arises, but now there was no time to settle them! She would not at all want the Thestrals to treat her words as the utterances of some dilettante, picked up by the princesses from the street. From this, in the end, the health and even, scary to think, the lives of girls could depend!

“I need to say a few words about your weapon,” meanwhile the thestral continued busily. “We have standard sets of potions and blades, and unicorns have added chains driven into the crystal if this "person" has to be immobilized. Are you sure you don't want to take something from our arsenal? Because a pie with jam, well, let's say...” she chuckled harmlessly, showing sharp fangs, “a weapon with a great stopping effect, if you load it in the face of an ordinary pony, but now...”

“This is exactly the quality that I appreciate when capturing monsters,” Bonnie replied as calmly as possible, checking how comfortably the throwing horseshoe slides off her hoof. “Usually I could impose close combat on the enemy, while remaining more maneuverable. But now I'm not going to, and I don't advise you either. This... creature...” Sweetie Drops hesitated for a second, “is extremely nasty in terms of abilities. It does not breathe, does not glow in a magical background, and practically does not get tired. He cannot be forced by pain to lay down his arms. And he’s really fast... so don’t meddle with him unless you’re absolutely necessary."

“Seriously?” Night raised her eyebrows. “As for me, it must be nonsense. The morning before last, he did just that in Ponyville he had sketched paint bombs.”

“In the swamp, these paintings caused fountains of flame, have you forgotten?” asked Sweetie, in turn wondering why such effects did not manifest themselves in Ponyville. Could it be that human still managed to learn how to control elemental magic?

“Well, I can't disagree here,” thinking, the batpony shrugged her shoulders, but the seriousness in her voice was gone, unfortunately.

“Maybe this alien is some secret development of the Council at all? - asked her co-worker ets at Bon Bon, flexing his wings. “This bunch of old grumblers is always doing strange magical things, and Princess Celestia, may Her Grace forgive me, loves to exile everything objectionable to Ponyville...”

“Well, it’s unlikely that Her Grace would have been lost in conjecture in that case,” the Batpony giggled. "Okay, Drops," Night smirked self-confidently. “Just give us a good moment when we can get close to this bogeyman,” she shook her head in the direction of the Apple farm, “and we will do the rest.”

“Teleportation expected in seven minutes!” announced the commander of the thestrals. “Everyone take their places, be ready to move out as soon as we disembark!”

The scouts, covered by the clouds, returned unopposed. According to their report, nothing particularly suspicious happened in the vicinity of the farm: the children played outside their tree house (there were five foals in total, not three), and the stranger lived somewhere under the crown or in the very headquarters of the Marks Seekers, so make out him it was impossible. Her Darkness immediately sent the pegasus under their own power to whip up the clouds of the Everfree. And when the guardponies with the camouflage charms thrown over them, with the noise-suppressing and water-repelling spells, found themselves among the humany apple trees, they were already greeted by a heavy downpour with thunder and lightning.

“Detachments, move,” came from the commander of the thestrals. “Don't forget to keep an eye on the territory.”

The unicorns put up a shield and aura against teleportation so that human would not try to use any other trick of the changelings and escape, and the night ponies, along with the rest, were already moving deeper into the apple acres. They walked dispersed so as not to be attacked all at once, but at the same time not to lose neighbors from the field of visual detection. The attention of the princess, who could be seen not far from Bon Bon, was riveted to the house in front - she left the environment on the pony.

We have a spy in the tree here, warned Luna over the mental communication of officers, sergeants and Agent Drops. Disguises itself as a mote. Do not touch those like him yet, he is still blind because of rain.

Her Darkness used exactly the spell that her sister had calculated to identify the red "carriers" of human, tracking their activity everywhere. No sooner had the ponies approached the clearing than Luna had already reported a lot of small objects underground - in her thoughts, only four were felt very clearly, the rest were blurry to the extreme.

Get ready. Magicians, distribute them among yourself - I will take over the person.

“How many, you say, he can have parts?” asked the thestral.

“Don’t know,” Bon Bon answered gloomily. “Maybe one, maybe four or five. I do not think that parts of a human lie directly under the ground. Rather, what he brought to Froggy Bottom.”

“Detachment, get together,” hurried their sergeant, a large Batpony of gray color. “We leave on the clearing. Take the flanks, closer to Her Darkness.”

I see a couple of underground channels underground here and here. Prepare the most powerful shields for them.

I don't like this, thought Bon Bon. Aloud she said:

“Do not go between them. And in general, it is better not to approach. Let the magicians take care of it.”

The pathfinders reported that in one place they stumbled upon a relatively recently dug up earth, covered with turf, but under it Luna did not find anything - only one hole contained the same clot of alien matter.

Most likely, the person did it to distract attention, reasonably suggested Luna. By the trees in the south, be prepared. An ambush is possible.

The human did not prepare himself badly, and the ponies walked straight through the traps they had prepared, for the time being ignoring them. Bon Bon was not a green recruit to panic about this. But it seemed to her that all this could have been done somehow... differently. Perhaps less aggressive, more targeted methods. The advantage in the number of fighters could have affected favorably, this is so, but maybe it was worth for a start just trying to take the girls away with small forces, while they, being hypnotized, pretend to be a normal game on the street, and not drive them inside with rain?

However, the answer was found almost immediately. Her Darkness was absolutely right about the situation! Princess Celestia managed to finish the spell, but did not calibrate it for the radius of sensitivity - just getting even closer, Luna confirmed in anger: the girls were not just under hypnosis. At least one of the little ponies had traces of "carriers". Very little compared to the concentration of the crimson fog, but there were traces!

“What a vile creature!” cursed the night pony, having heard this from the sergeant.

“Don't slow down, Night. Human should not have time to make everything only worse,” the commander brought her to her senses. “On position, everyone should be ready!”

Bon Bon, along with the others obediently formed a cordon on the flank, preparing to rush to the children, while Princess Luna with another detachment was about to attack head-on. Nobody was going to show any politeness and patience towards human! until Grievous spoke up...

And now the ponies stood and waited patiently for the creature to finish its preparations. Princess Luna decided to give him five minutes to see what the stranger would do... If, despite all the precautions, he smelled a pony, an immediate storm should not have set the weather. Their position was still advantageous in that Her Darkness recognized all of the intruder's traps, and the ponies could now easily avoid them, although they did not show it, but Sweetie did not think to relax. Bon Bon's muzzle slumped in the concentrated mine. The upcoming battle - she believed that there would be no way to do without hoof-blowing here - should have become something special for her quiet life in retirement. Maybe a return to basics?

The thestrals around Sweetie froze in fighting stances, the claws on their wings raised to swing. While the human in the house was wrapping himself in cloth, in the minds of Princess Luna, hiding her weapon from the view of an outsider, agent Drops quickly and accurately checked her equipment and emergency supplies in the bag on her back.

Will one be enough..? the earth pony thought briefly. Should be enough!

Well, something, but Pinkie's culinary abilities were hard not to take into account. It would be very nice if Bon Bon could perform her favorite trick - to shove a watch into the throat of a monster, which, when switched to eleven and pressed an inconspicuous button, literally sent the victim to the crib with a charge of sleeping gas, but alas... The simplest interactions, as she argued Her Grace, between the alien and Equus's universe, were possible, for the same electrons could somehow become replaced by the corresponding elementary particle. So the atoms of Grievous were able to form alchemical bonds with the atoms of the ponies.

But that was not a complex alchemy based on genitals like that used by microbes and living cells! And even if the master-transfigurator succeeded in deriving a formula for sleeping saliva that works on the alicorn as well, then the opposite was not at all necessary. In the manner of alchemy, other problems could arise... Well, if the person was not disguised, but was a real invisibility, because the light of the Equestrian sun, reflected from his body, was not perceived by the eyes of a pony, it would be very difficult. And so - the person could be seen.

And of course, you could kick him in the jaw. Bon Bon was going to do everything in her power and independence to stop this monstrous parody of Lyra's invention.

As soon as the earth pony decided so, the floorboards in the Crusaders' house creaked, and the human appeared on the veranda. The stranger walked on his long legs like a heron, measuredly, with dignity, but at the same time hunched over, as if trying with all his might to appear smaller - and even so, he was a couple of feet taller than Bon Bon and much wider at the shoulders. Leaving, he occupied the whole door reception, blocked the interior decoration of the house with its poufs, a table with a simple tea set and bright posters on the walls. The gray cloth wrapped around the human figure curled between the different shapes, making it difficult to tell if the alien's body was tense for the throw or relaxed.

“He's kind of a predator, so how does he estimate the distance to the target?” the whisper of the night pony came to Sweetie's ears. “I see only one eye...”

“By the spies in the trees, most likely,” Bon Bon hissed out of the corner of her mouth, watching the headquarters left by Grievous with all her eyes.

The human, who had already begun to descend the steps, suddenly froze in place. Without thinking twice, he turned around, in a couple of steps returned to the doorway and stepped inside, extending his claws forward. With a creak of wood, Grievous lifted the door, which had been torn from its hinges by the voice of Luna, with one hand, and somehow put it back in place, closing it behind him. Then, accompanied by the deathly silence of all the ponies in the area, he clumsily jumped down - like a retired Wonderbolt, who has not performed for a long time and looks slow and slow, although in fact he retained excellent movement skills in the air and muscle tone. A withered-looking skull-muzzle with very little skin covering the cheekbones only enhanced the resemblance to an old flyer, by the same Wind Ryder.

He's heading towards us. I don't feel any fighting spells with him, but keep your ears open, the Princess of the Night reminded of herself. A weak charge of Poisonous Joke is felt in the area of his belt.

Despite her readiness to use force and readiness to fight in general, Bon Bon still hoped that at least some decency would be observed, which in such a situation would be reduced to a conversation... albeit invariably leading to a fight, for, judging by the manner hold on, the human was very confident in himself. Without delaying himself in any way, without hesitation and hesitation, he moved towards Luna and the guards near her.

The human stopped, prudently not trying to get close to the delegation. This was not followed by a bow - the stranger looked directly into the princess's eyes, as if not paying attention to the other ponies. Finally, he broke the silence that had reigned.

“Glorious Luna of Equestria,” grunted Grievous from under the mask, “what do I owe this honor?”

His jaw-stretched skull and deep-set eye gave him an arrogant look, but the alien's voice was calm, there was no hint of hidden strength and ambition in it. This was in stark contrast to the way Grievous roared five minutes earlier. On the one hand, this was encouraging: the creature was not alien to self-restraint, unlike all kinds of monsters there. On the other hand, changing his mood so easily (to the point that Brave pretended to be Noctus), he could rely on cunning and easily hide a lie, so that any word of Grievous would be taken with skepticism by Sweety. Princess Luna understood this as well as she did, so, measuring the stranger with a hard look, she repeated in a Canterlot voice:

”With whom do we have the honor to speak, who came from another world?”

The general shivered under the sound of the princess's trumpet voice, pulling his head deeper into his shoulders, but he did not look away and the timbre of his speech did not change.

"What I am in your world... kha, Grievous, the supreme commander of the army of servants... that is, drones," he introduced himself again, clearing his throat damp.

Strange wording, thought Sweetie. Instead of "My name is Grievous" or any other idea that would pass for the etiquette of the Canterlot court, the general preferred the most widespread and general wording. At the same time, he fell silent, as if waiting for the reaction of the princess, continuing to drill her with a gaze from under the heavy browbone. In the thoughts of Luna, some of which she broadcast to the officers and at the same time to Bon Bon, surprise slipped. Almost immediately, however, Luna eagerly demanded details:

”If you are really a military general, from whose name do you speak?”

“I speak on behalf of the organization...” Sweetie thought that after these words the human made an inappropriate pause, “the name of which can be translated into your language as "Confederation".

Confederation. An old word, dating back to the time of the unification of tribes, which meant a commonwealth, which is not an indivisible territorial and legal unit, which Equestria was now. Sweetie Drops was pretty sure this could be true - given that Princess Celestia, in her boundless wisdom, suggested that the alien world might be torn apart by conflict. And if the ponies, without knowing it, get involved in one of these conflicts, and not on the side, whose representative can so easily use self-transfiguration in battle... Sweetie Drops seemed to be burned. She again dreamed of the terrible, jarring face with peeling skin, which the stranger addressed to the guards at the crash site.

Princess Luna, if she thought of something similar, did not show it. Obviously, already on the second question, she was tired of the fact that from human you have to pull answers almost with ticks, and he says practically the same thing that was already known from his monologue in the rain. Frowning angrily, she asked:

”How did you decide that you have the right to challenge us and demand a face-to-face meeting? After all, your title is nothing in Equestria, the title is haphazard for us.”

“Not to demand, just to make a claim,” the human did not raise an eyebrow at her emphatically hostile tone. “I, as the highest officer of the largest and most efficient army...” he made a tiny pause again, glaring at the face of Luna with his tenacious, attentive eye, “of the planet Earth, I wanted the accusations to be thrown in my face, and not being... meanly bound under the cover of bad weather. If you still have any complaints against me, of course.”

An unspoken threat? A clear enough hint that others will come for Grievous? Sweety did not know if the aliens could use Twilight's experiment as a master key to get into the pony world after their leader. However, there was no hint that Grievous doubted even for a split second that he was the master of the situation. If he left the hostages so easily, then he could afford it.

Or was it all a delusion? What if the alien really didn't capture the children, but just made friends with them? Sweetie would very much like this monster in the guise of a rational, albeit formidable, to turn out to be a decent creature by nature and only curious, as Her Grace claimed. On the other hand, to imagine a military general hunched over in the Marker's house and drinking tea with them from a toy service... It was something beyond the bounds of absurdity, even for Pinkie Pie. On the face of the princess, this was exactly what was read - "If you decided to appear innocent, then you should not pretend to be a high-ranking military man." Luna expressed herself aloud, however, differently:

”Human calling himself General Grievous,” the Princess of the Night furrowed her brows sternly, ”no matter how big your armada at home, it does not compete with the defenders of Equus. You will have nothing to please us and will not intimidate us so that the diarchy changes its requirements. Unleash the captured ponies immediately, or no negotiations will shine for you!”

The paw of Grievous, which until then squeezed the edge of his homemade apparel, spread her claws menacingly and sank down.

“I apologize?” for the first time since the beginning of the conversation, dissatisfaction clanked like metal in his voice. “I thought we cleared up this...”

”You heard,” Luna interrupted him. ”Woe to you, if you confused the ability of our people to show compassion, sympathy and friendly feelings with the weakness of pacifism,” the diarch impatiently shook her head, stirring up her wonderful starry mane. ”We will do everything in the power of the Crown to protect our little subjects if you decide to threaten them. Any use of your...” here Luna stumbled on level ground, and a shadow of slight disgust flashed on her face, “abilities will be suppressed.”

Bon Bon could not help but admire the unyielding endurance of the Princess of the Night, who was cold and dazzling in her regal anger, like silver, which was a symbolic regalia of the younger sister-alicorn. But on Grievous, the speech of Luna, it seems, did not make a special impression, because he only squeezed out of himself that the short "krhm-m". Then the alien brought his palm to the bottom of his mask:

“Kha-khe-kha-a-ha-ha-a…” he choked, desperately trying to mask the laugh that made Agent Drops stand on end on the back of his neck. The human made a short gesture with his paw, clenching and unclenching his articulated palm, and his serious speech suddenly changed its tone, sounded outright irony:

“Yes, yes, I already understood that you are in charge here. I, you know, do not ignore the need to speak with you, Your Darkness.”

Was this a mockery of the princess's entourage, which Grievous apparently ignored, without considering it as a serious threat? Or was he hurrying her in such a contemptuous manner, reassuring her of his interest in negotiations? Bon Bon did not know what to think, but she did not see any point in interfering, as did the guards following orders. In a much more relaxed tone than he should have in such a tense environment, Grievous explained:

“I meant, would you be so kind as to lower the timbre of your voice? I understand tradition and the need to crush the opposing side with an aura of superiority. But I went to meet you, gave you the opportunity to save face and forget about this little misunderstanding between us, and you...” the human shook his head on his unexpectedly straightened neck, tilting it to the side. Slapping the side of his helmet, as if getting rid of water in his ears, Grievous impressively wiggled a pair of bone spikes growing behind his temples, and concluded:

“My advanced audio sensors are not cheap, and in the materials of your world I am limited.”

“I don’t advise you to test my patience, General,” Luna hissed in her usual pony voice, screwing up her eyes badly, “for the five minutes allotted to you have expired a long time ago.”

“I wasn’t going to, Your Darkness. Great,” Grievous agreed unexpectedly easily, “let's say I let them go.”

While the guards closest to Luna exhaled mentally, happy that they could now concentrate on their task, and not on trying not to fly away from the princess's voice, she tried to figure out what Grievous was trying to get from her with another pause. As a result, the princess refused to play silent and answered an unspoken question:

“For this occasion, my sister and I will regard this as a circumstance that will mitigate the severity of your criminal actions. However, until the Crown clarifies everything that worries me and my sister, you will go to the dungeons of Canterlot. Depending on the goals that you pursued, whether your intention was malicious initially or naïve,” an angry mine on the face of Luna clearly demonstrated that she definitely does not consider the act of a stranger to be "unintentional", “your punishment will also be assigned. We, by the grace of sisters, so be it, close our eyes to the vanity that was organized by you in Ponyville. You will only be responsible for making the lives of our subjects the guarantor of your freedom.”

“How interesting,” the human said thoughtfully, as if thinking deeply. “I will repeat myself - interesting. I'm afraid that won't suit me,” he waved his paw vaguely in the air, snapping his claws. “Softly steal, Luna of Equestria, but hard I will have on your bed.”

In the slender ranks of the guards, someone gasped, unable to keep their feelings to themselves. The cheeks of a pair of mare and stallions in the neighborhood of Bon Bon, who outwardly retained their composure, flushed, either from embarrassment or from anger at the liberty released in the direction of the princess herself. Judging by the echo of thoughts that came from the direction of Luna, it took all her composure to keep her expression unperturbed.

“We're sorry, what?,” the alicorn inquired icily.

“Hm. Apparently, I did not take into account the context, and my algorithm for adapting dialectisms is not as perfect as I expected,” Grievous muttered without batting an eye. “You know, I still have difficulties with your language... Well, well, let's leave that,” he waved his paw so lightly, as if he had not just rejected human of royal blood in a particularly personal form. “If I let go of the whole friendly company gathered in the house behind my back, then I become about the owner of the luxurious prospect of knocking off a couple of years of imprisonment and will continue to be considered a threat to Equestria's security. After this, I think, there will be no talk of any of my research on free topics. But if I don't let them go...”

Luna, quite rightly suspecting that the mockery was allowed by Grievous deliberately and so conveniently covered by an imperfect knowledge of the pony's language, silently looked at him. Then her long graceful horn lit up - the thestrals tensed, ready to throw - and, tilting her head threateningly, she summed up:

“Then my guards and my sister will crush you, General. We will only have to intervene if we decide that you are not worthy of royal grace and your life should be taken immediately. If we decide so, then you will not escape alive from under the dome,” Luna slowly, which made the gesture seem even more threatening, twirled a uniquely author's spell on the horn, so that small crystals grew at its base. “And the children will be free - one way or another.”

The earth-droning guards and unicorns froze in their places, ready to block the movement of human in any direction. The wings of the pegasus trembled in fighting stances, the thestrals quickly turned their eyes from the Princess of the Moon to the object of royal anger and back, as if asking permission from the Night Mother to launch an attack. Grievous did not look at any of them. But Sweetie saw the sparks of dark amusement flicker in his gaze for a moment - the threat of Luna amused the human, no more. Well, or he skillfully did such a casual look... The human took a step forward, clawing at the edge of his homemade robe and wrapping himself in it even more diligently.

"Khe... khah... Are you really counting on this, or are such statements just another part of the ceremony?" the general asked with interest. When Luna indignantly was about to parry, he raised his paw, warning the dispute:

“It never occurred to me to question your concern for Equestria’s safety and your commitment to duty to your little ponies, Princess Luna,” the human doubled over as another coughing fit twisted him. “Kha. But you know much better than me that the last time Equestria fought unknown how many years ago, and that this lull... in a certain way affected the ability of your country to conduct military operations,” the princess already wanted to interrupt him, but Grievous inexorably continued, taking the heavier but calm and balanced tone:

“You know very little about me... so I would not be so categorical in the issue of open confrontation. I’ll ask you one last question, Princess of the Night,” the alien said in his ingratiating voice, “and I recommend that you think carefully before giving an answer. What if the ponies behind me refuse to leave this place? Want to stay here with me?”

There were no whispers among the ranks of the guards, none of the ponies moved. A few seconds passed, and Luna spoke up, looking at the stranger as if he were an insignificant disgusting slug, which is disgusting to crush:

“What were you thinking about?” she asked in disgust. “What were you thinking, General, since you did this? Why do we even have to call an officer's rank the one who hides behind children?” the wings of the angry princess were no longer spread out to the sides, but raised behind the back, as before a swing. “We were pleased to answer your challenge, even though you had the right and were not to demand it... It was not you who gave us the opportunity to save face, but exactly the opposite is true! We allowed your chaotic abomination to settle in the swamps and carry out dark deeds, while you do not meddle in the affairs of a pony, and did not begin to convince sister  to burn her out with all the power of the Sun!” words shape like arrowheads. “My poor all-forgiving sister patiently waited for you to condescend to talk with us, stop hiding in the corners like the last coward - and what about her now? Do you think you can hide from our anger by capturing the minds of the foals and threatening their lives?  Run without paying for it? Do you think we'll let you?!”

Bon Bon squeaked in a muffled voice. On Nightmare Night last year, Her Highness was simply unhappy with the pony's reaction, and therefore angry and upset. Since then, Agent Drops has not seen her, although Lyra caught a glimpse of the night princess at the wedding, which she enthusiastically told her friend about. During this couple of days, the "retired specialist" talked quite closely with the Princess of the Night, being represented by Her Grace, and personally made sure that Luna is a proud warrior, merciless to enemies in the past millennium, but kind-hearted and caring when it seemed to allies. Her Darkness was definitely worried that the alien might be a hostile creature threatening their subjects - but in recent years Bon Bon had never seen Luna so belligerent, so magnificent. Her heart begins to beat harder. She has devoted many years to the service established by Princess Celestia, and she cannot and what to complain about - but now Sweetie, with a bit of remorse, admitted that in her vision the princess of the Night possessed those character traits that the throne and the almost perfect Celestia were just a little lacking, well, just a little! Sweetheart Drops would have been happy to return to the ranks of Luna, although a peaceful life as a Ponyville pastry chef had its own charm. Suddenly, the alien decided that it was worth cutting off all the solemnity of the moment:

“So what if they don’t want to?” the cat's eye blinked sleepily, giving the impression that the alien did not care at all about the answer. “Come on, Princess Luna, tell me what's next?”

“The things of your abuse of nature will be destroyed,” Sweetie thought she heard Princess Luna grit her teeth at these words, but decided that it seemed to her, “everything that you brought into our world and poisons it with just your presence... Girls will be freed from harmful influences, be it chaos or disease. As for you...” Luna measured the person with a truly destructive gaze, “a couple of hundred years in the form of a statue is the minimum you can count on.”

Grievous made a sound that sounded like a mixture of chuckle and cough.

“Princess Luna,” he addressed his opponent's name again and seemed to shake his head regretfully. “Princess Luna, why do you still think that they are hostages, and not reasonable ones, who showed sympathy for the old general and deserved a bit of his sympathy?

“That's why you went about naked, General, but before meeting with us, you took your robes!” Luna pointed directly to the unfriendly action. Sweetie held her breath, unable to imagine how human would react to an outright provocation. How will he answer? Maybe he immediately attacks, realizing that the weapon under his homemade cloak is open? However, Grievous only shrugged his pointed shoulders wrapped in cloth in a pretentious manner.

“Oh, well, everything is just here. My culture obliges the military caste to carry this uniform, this piece of clothing in the presence of the upper aristocracy... usually the Confederation, but I'm afraid here you are the only worthy candidate for such treatment.”

Obvious deception, but you can't check! thought Bon Bon. In the culture of creatures building natural combat rotorcraft and fighting with stinger weapons, such overshoots can be - it is incomprehensible to the mind! Sweety was once again amazed at how skillfully the stranger had mastered his voice. He changed states at gunpoint of fifty horns even easier than Sweetie Drops expected from an opponent similar in nature to changelings! He was indifferent - now exponentially relaxed. Not a single inflection in tonality, not a single reason to doubt his words based on the sound, the very drop of flattery through the recognition of Her Darkness as equal or even higher...

“Really?” Luna asked coldly. “To create a defensive platform out of apple acres before the visit of the same aristocracy - is it also a tribute to the traditions of your people? To appeal not to sisters who hold power, but to the most defenseless creatures among the ponies - is that another glorious custom of yours?”

“We are not defenseless!” someone's indignant exclamation came from the side of the house, but it broke off instantly. Then the muffled sounds of a struggle followed, and everything was quiet.

When Bon Bon returned her attention from the Crusaders headquarters back to the person, she was sucked in the stomach. The pose of creation again indicated maximum concentration, the eye with the vertical pupil sparkled with anger, no more patronizing notes flickered in the tone - on the contrary, he was very angry.

“This is starting to tire me, Your Darkness,” Grievous rasped. The bony ears quivered, pushing back at an angle of anger and low-key threat, but almost immediately returned to neutral. “You are throwing accusations that are offensive to my people. Children are our greatest creation, and even the most notorious villain in the space of the Confederation will not dare raise a hand against an individual who has not reached the age of synthesis! If you were my tribe, we would already be dancing in the circle of blades for the insult you inflicted!” 

The human Sweetie's voice heard the growl of a huge, angry beast, but Grievous backed down almost immediately: “But I have not the slightest desire to spoil relations with the newly discovered alien race. I just want to know...

Whom did he call an alien? And if it comes to that, could it be that he feared the pony as much as the ponies feared Grievous? Sweety didn't know. In her memory, not a single monster, especially such a strong one, has run from a pony! And even more so, he did not go into legal intricacies when meeting with them, did not require satisfaction...

“...on what basis these disgusting accusations were made,” Grievous stood sideways to the princess, stretching his neck with a mask in her direction, gazing sullenly at Luna. “So can an officer, even if from another world, count on a fair tribunal? Will they represent at least any evidence of guilt, or will you immediately put me in stone fetters?”

For the first time, Bon Bon felt in Luna's thoughts that the princess was hesitating. The earth pony, too, could not figure out where Grievous was leading - after all, an examination of the Crusaders in itself would be sufficient evidence. The impression was that either Grievous was able to make his intervention completely unnoticed... Well, this is hardly possible, from the Princess of the Night, a mentalist of the highest category with thousands of years of experience, nothing can be hidden in the mind of a pony! Either in fact, Grievous considers himself innocent, and the princess's speeches are slander, just an excuse to capture him. But there was also the state of Her Grace, his natural-born saboteur, how was he going to explain? If the royal sisters take seriously the energy-distorting substance that has been added to the tea, they can find everything they need, all the evidence of Grievous's involvement! Bon Bon didn’t understand anything, so she stood quietly, trying not to draw attention to herself and figuring out how best to combine her skills with the thestrals if things went wrong. Princess Luna gathered her thoughts and pounced on the general again.

“Why are you playing these annoying games, Grievous?” snorted the diarch. “In addition to the condition of the girls, whom you hold by force, we have other evidence. Witness, I'll tell you straight. It was she who informed our warriors that the young Sweetie Belle and her companion were going towards the Sweet Apple against their will.”

“As I understand it, you just took the witness from random ponies from the street. They adore you so much that they will tell any fable for "thank you," regularity and balanced solidity disappeared from Grievous's speech, as if he now just wanted to speak to Luna, not giving her time to grasp the meaning of what was said. “I’m wondering how your witness determined that Sweetie Belle’s mind was enslaved by me? Our technologies above the most basic alchemy are incompatible! What prevents you from saying that the non-universal "magic", which cannot be detected, is to blame for everything, and end there? My word is against yours - in your world, in your country, among the crowd of your soldiers. How convenient, though!” Grievous said with undisguised sarcasm. Then he pointed with his paw to the Crusaders' house.

“I really expected guests this morning. However, they came here by invitation, of their own free will!”

Princess Luna squinted at Sweetie, so agent Drops imperceptibly (she hoped) swallowed. The pony acted with the best of intentions, and incapacitating Her Grace only confirmed that conversation with the guard, so even if Grievous was not here in business, Bon Bon did not distinguish herself in anything for which she could be reprimanded. Luna, of course, could be harsh and soon for reprisal - she almost forbade Nightmare Night for ever and ever! - but since the pony of modern times I have tried to be soft now, and is unlikely to rush to punish all those involved. Grievous, meanwhile, continued to pose as some kind of eerie parody of Discord:

“Come on, Your Darkness, what else are you going to show me?” he inquired sarcastically. “Almost hit the pony with the falling rotorcraft? I'm afraid it was a circumstance of irresistibal... irresistible force, it is better to ask a certain Twilight Sparkle. Kicked off your guardponies? It's a great crime for me too,” Grievous coughed with gloomy laughter. “Kha, as far as I know from the tales of the girls, this is what everyone is not too lazy to do. Had a conflict with the underground savages? Does it even touch you? Stole... um, steal? There was a case, I admit, but the fact that it was a matter of life and death justifies me. And I will immediately compensate for any damage done to the city as soon as I have the resources of the Confederation at my disposal!”

Sweety heard Night hissing quietly through her teeth in the neighborhood, and she could almost catch the thought of their patron instructing the Sister of the Night to remain calm. Over the past couple of years, the Guards have indeed faced forces that surpass their own capabilities, and have suffered defeat - but that was not their competence, for the royal sisters personally confronted the threats of all Equestria from time immemorial. The ponies were grateful to the guards already for the fact that they did not retreat in the face of great danger, a hopeless battle in advance, they won time for the Diarchy and the Guardians - and this ignorant "man" found only a reason for ridicule for this!

“...so you shouldn't blame me for the misunderstanding and possible breakdown of diplomatic relations!” Grievous croaked grumpily. “You and your sister should have thought of something better than downloading adaptation... adapted materials to a local school teacher and hoping that I would fall into an obvious trap!”

"General... weren't you at the Ponyville Town Hall this morning?" Luna asked evenly without specifically mentioning Princess Celestia.

The human looked at her strangely. Another second, and he again put on a mask of cold concentration, at once got rid of the stinging notes in his voice.

“I can be in two places at the same time. Yesterday I sent part of me is keeping an eye on the ponies in the hopes of getting to know you better. In the same manner, I made contact with the trio known as the Crusaders. However, during the night and this morning, I kept all my... components nearby, because there was no need for espionage anymore,” Grievous replied calmly. “Just admit that you have jumped to a conclusion based solely on unverified evidence, Princess Luna, and we will all go home peacefully. You lost your nerves, and you began to commit rash actions. That's all.”

Your Darkness, I think he's probing you, Bon Bon thought with all her might. Human juggles the style of conversation as he wants, comes from different sides!

I see, agent Drops, Luna responded, looking displeased at the general and clearly in doubt. Or chaos corrupted his mind even more than Discord's.

As if grasping that the person on whom the fate of human depended was not at all delighted with his manner of communication jumping back and forth, Grievous swept his hand wide, pulling aside the fold of his mantle:

“Be that as it may, I think we all came to the conclusion that there is no longer an opportunity to pull. The two worlds need to agree on something,” the human tilted his head, as if emphasizing the veracity of this statement. “I was just about to send my... new friend to invite you to talk to your sister. On my territory, of course. I do not see anything shameful in equalizing the chances a little with a bit of control, just as you decided to control,” Grievous first paid his attention to the battle formations, glancing at the guardponies, but a moment later again fixed his gaze on the princess, “Your Darkness, you have long were pleased to convince me that I was keeping the ponies by force as a guarantor of my safety. So why don't you ask them yourself and make sure that this, to put it mildly, does not correspond to reality?”

There was the sound of a falling foal's body, and a red-haired pegasus rolled out of the rickety door head over heels. Her friends with a squeak disappeared into the doorway, hiding behind the wooden walls of the headquarters. The mare, with the help of which the Crusaders more than once or twice shook the measured Ponyville life, gasped and rubbed a fresh bump on its head, formed from a collision with the railing. Then it dawned on Scootaloo that with her spectacular appearance, she managed to attract everyone's attention:

“Um... hello Luna!” Scootaloo bowed awkwardly, as far as possible with her hooves up. “Sorry, Ale... I mean, Grievous!” the young pegasus stumbled over his name, looking at the human with a sly expression on her face. “I didn't want to get in, it's all a stupid door! I just walked past it, and it opened itself”.

“It was necessary to shut the latch, you fool!” came a monstrously loud whisper from the house.

“Or look through the curtains”

“How do you still not get the marks of a slyboots, if you get in everywhere like that?!” came the fourth voice to Bon Bon's hearing, in which surprise bordering on discontent.

“What are you making up, stupid? How can such a mark look like?!”

“Like a hoof and a lot of pies!” the filly chuckled mockingly. “And if pies are with apples - then Apple Bloom is all the more suitable!”

“O-o-oh, what a mischief!” Scootaloo boomed under her breath, rolling her eyes to the sky.

“You know, I tell you..!”

“Tiara, be quiet!” pleaded the fifth filly. “It's like a serious conversation, like Ale... Grievous swears with the princess!”

“Swears, here's another!” the earthpony mimicked her. “As you know, Spoon, I don’t intend to sit here with these... with these three! I went! All the same, Princess Luna said that we should be released.”

“So, it seems, no one was holding us?”

“Yah you!”

The young lady mentioned by her friend, holding her nose high, with a proud expression on her face, appeared at the door - but then Tiara saw that in the air and among the trees there was nowhere for an apple to fall from the guards ready to attack. On such a meeting, the earthbound obviously did not count, since her eyes widened, and her mouth opened in silent questioning. She managed to squeeze out a frightened "Ay!"

Oh-no-no-no-no...

Sweetie Drops stretched her whole body convulsively towards the Crusaders headquarters, holding back with all her might so as not to go into a gallop. She knew perfectly well this gentle, musical golden aura, which had already grabbed Scootaloo by the front legs, preparing to drag her inside. But then the human described a circle with one eye, at the same time hiding his paw under the humantle:

“Girls, I tried my best to ignore your peeping, but it's just beyond my strength,” he indignantly moved the plates on the sides of the skull-helmet. “Apple Bloom, others, get out already! Well, you, homebrew fan, get out too...”

Scootaloo, breaking free from the telekinesis field, jumped off the veranda and sank to the wet ground, fluttering her wings. Pegasus ran up to Grievous, looking first at him, then at Princess Luna with sincere curiosity. Then the floorboards creaked, and in the doorway they looked like faces the rest of the foals.

Whatever happens, do not let them near you, until we allow the opposite, warned everyone Luna. If this stranger wanted to harm us with their help... We are obliged to save the children.

It seems that the Crusaders were seriously preparing to repulse the intruders who threaten their "new acquaintance." Sweetie Belle was clutching a cricket hammer that was too big for her. Apple Bloom did appear in the light of Celestine with a saucepan that had come from out of nowhere in their house on her head, so that only her nose was sticking out. Having knocked on the doorframe and oyknuv in surprise, the mare decided to leave her makeshift helmet - and the unicorn followed her example. Whispering among themselves, the foals went down the stairs. Diamond Tiara and Silver, looking somehow unusually disheveled, looked around with confused expressions on their faces, the little namesake Bon Bon - somewhat frightened, but moved towards Grievous and her friend without hesitation. The Apples dog followed the foals down, tail wagging uncertainly. An adult pony was at the rear of the procession...

“I tried my best to keep them under the table, but I only have front legs and telekinesis, and there are already five of these poor mare!” Lyra Heartstrings obeyed, prancing out of the room and at the same time building the saddest expression on her face, with which she loved to demoralize Bon Bon. “I'm sorry! It just happened.”

“Nothing terrible happened, Fuzzy,” Grievous answered her from below with a grin. “For now.”

“Good day to you, Princess Luna!” Lyra chirped cheerfully, going down the stairs. “Her Highness promised to call me if she succeeds in establishing contact with human, but it so happened that I myself had to call you today!”

The lingering hope that it was some other unicorn with a similar magical aura flared up and melted in Bon Bon's soul. While the thestrals around her winked in bewilderment, embarrassed by the sight of completely healthy and cheerful children next to a huge alien, Sweetie, unable to cope with the feelings overwhelming her, blurted out:

“Lyra?!”

“Eh..?” the mint unicorn froze with a hoof raised above the step. “Bon Bon?!” she gasped with no less amazement. “Bonnie, what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?!” she was indignant. Bon Bon could only thank the Goddess for not knowing about Lyra's presence in the Crusaders' house, which was under siege, even earlier! Well, how would fear for a best friend join the fight with a sense of duty and manage to gain the upper hand, leading to the failure of the entire operation? Try to sit still, when Lyra is there, maybe right now an unknown monster from another world is devouring both cheeks! Her Darkness raised an eyebrow at the mare who once served her regal sister:

"Agent Drops, do you... know her? Oh yeah, that's what Lyra Heartstrings was talking about...”

“Lyra, stand still, don't come!” exclaimed the earth pony, seeing that Lyra turned and galloped towards her. “Your Darkness, Lyra has nothing to do with it! She didn't know anything, really!”

“Bonnie, what does it all mean?” braking with all four, the unicorn squeaked in discouragement. "Why are you wearing the Night Guard armor?"

“I'll explain everything to you later!” Sweetie hissed, goggling desperately and hoping that Heartstrings would not suddenly find a burr in her tail, so that in her eternal cheerful manner she would rush to her friend's neck with congratulations - "Happy joining the Guard!" “Wait with questions, better tell me how you got here! What has this alien done to you?! Did he threaten you?”

“No, you wait,” Lyra suddenly frowned. “You left for the whole night, you said that you wanted to test some theory about an alien that you were one of the first to see... Then I saw you jumping on the roof of the town hall... Then, when the smoke bombs began to burst, you dragged me to the station, saying that it would be nice to temporarily leave the city, and ran away, leaving me with a suitcase... Hearth Warming tree, Bon Bon, did you really think that I would voluntarily go to the cottage village while you are here yourself catching a real human?!”

“Oh, Lyra, my aunties live there!” Scootaloo interjected immediately. “Do you want me to introduce you?”

“You really should have moved out and lived there for a couple of days!” Sweety cried out in annoyance. “I told you why, remember! Now everything was in jeopardy!”

“... and now you are standing here among the guards, in armor with the guards' insignia, and answering the name "Agent Drops"!” Lira poked indignantly in her direction with her hoof. “We have been best friends for so many years, shared the table and shelter together, trusted each other, shared the most intimate secrets, and all this time you were hiding... what? What else do I not know about you, Bon Bon?!”

Sooner or later, a secret will overtake you, and forever at the most inopportune moment, thought sourly the agent in retirement, which was so easily revealed. How could she know that Lyra would be here, to whom, due to their long and warm feelings for each other, excellent awareness of each other excuses like "I ended up here by chance!" Sweety has worked well in the Intelligence and Containment department and has never had such a blunder during her service. And her fault was that the bugbear smashed a couple of streets of Canterlot, it was nothing at all! Well, think about it, the unlucky trainee stole from the locker, which was not closed because of her forgetfulness, branded candy-jokers! Then, for the sake of laughter, he fed the next freshly caught monster on overexposure, and he took it and rush after the intern through the portal from Tartarus... Sweety occasionally dreamed of a nightmare in which the last day of the service was repeated over and over again - the beast clearly remembered her participation in all this chaos.

Yes, that day, despite an impeccable track record, was Sweetie's last as a huntress agent. The princess, due to the steadily decreasing number of really dangerous monsters at large, has long been looking for an excuse to disband the department and transfer the rest of their duties to the guard, but she felt sorry for so easy to dismiss the mare, who faithfully served the monarchy at that time. Celestia happily took the occasion and took advantage of it, ordering to immediately destroy all the information and keep the incident secret, as if jokingly signing a second non-disclosure agreement - only after that all the employees were issued excellent pensions. Sweetie Drops wondered why all this secrecy was. The result of the dissolution of the agency was a harmless act - having released the budget, Her Serene Highness simply sent it to some other area of the Equestrian state apparatus! Sweety hoped, by virtue of professional pride, that they were not exchanged for a secret increase in the number of bakers at court...

“Bon Bon is actually my operational call sign,” she said, shaking off the fleeting memories and sighing heavily. “My name... my real name is Sweetie Drops, and I did work for the royal court in the department dedicated to monsters and their neutralization. But that was when it was! And I...”

“But why are you participating in all this now?!” interrupted Heartstrings.

“If you had listened to me, none of this would have happened! Why did you crawl to the human? He is essentially a monster, albeit in the form of your fables! You acted very imprudently, Lyra, I shouldn't have told you about him at all!” angrily looked at her friend Sweety. “Because of you, Her Grace will have to divulge classified information!”

Bon Bon stopped when she saw a tear rolling down Lyra's cheek, leaving a wet path on her fur.

“I thought you were the most ordinary cute pony that you would not lure into all these creepy dangerous adventures that the Guardians are engaged in!” Lyra sniffed. “Bonnie, why is that? You have told me more than once that you are looking for a quiet life outside of Canterlot, that you are studying at the culinary to become a pastry chef...”

“So it was,” the earth pony looked down guiltily. “It's just not my only occupation... it was. Lyra, but this does not negate all the years of our friendship! I just... '' noticing Lyra's lower lip start to tremble, Sweetie Drops finally gave up.

“Forgive me… please?” she piteously drawled, feeling by no means at ease, for it was a novelty for Sweetie to play such a scene in front of a bunch of guardponies and the princess herself. “Lyra, I'm really, really very, very sorry! If I could, I told you everything, I swear!”

The mint unicorn threw herself into the soft grass and clasped her head with her hooves.

“Goddess...” she whispered.

“Lyra, please don't be upset!” Sweetie Belle ran up to her, hugging the unicorn with a running. “I'm sure Bon Bon is not out of malice, she wanted the best!”

“Yes, exactly, exactly!” the rest of the girls came to console her, even Diamond Tiara hesitantly stroked Lyra on the shoulder, as if she could not decide whether this act was worthy of a pony from high society. The unicorn sat in prostration, ignoring the dog, which licked her fluffy cheek with a desire to cheer up the pony, but then Grievous approached. Snapping bones and joints, he hunched over even more and lowered his head flush with Lyra’s, looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

“I thought you knew your friend was Celestia's informant in Ponyville,” the general said, puzzled. “If I knew in advance about your friendship, and this could be another reason why I would react to your appearance... with a certain amount of skepticism.”

“When we were still studying, all those trips of her to sweets festivals, when there was no trace of them in any corner of Equestria...”, as if not listening to him, muttered Heartstrings. “I feel like a stupid pony. Very stupid. And very offended. Just think! My best friend is actually a Canterlot secret agent...”

Lyra digested this statement for a while. Then, tearing the hoof off the head, she carefully added:

“My best friend is a secret agent of Canterlot. Who, on a tip from Her Grace, spies on aliens and tames monsters...”

A wide smile blossomed on the face of the unicorn - and then, without hesitation, she rushed towards her friend.

“Aweso-o-ome!!! I couldn't think that you are so cool, Bonnie!” she blurted out, literally hanging Bon Bon on her neck and hugging him tightly. “I mean, Sweet Drups, or whatever! I knew that you too would like to take part in all this!”

"Bubblehe-e-ead..." Sweetie croaked, desperately trying to draw a breath of air. “You will strangle me-e-e…”

The Crusaders squealed with delight and joy for instantly reconciled friends - but the thestrals blew whoever, avoiding contact with a potential hostage. Princess Luna, who was definitely confused by all this, did not even have time to telekinesis to drag Sweetie aside. However, she cut off the stream of thoughts addressed to other ponies almost instantly from Lyra:

“Agent Drops,” Luna said uncertainly, “we're sorry, but now... now you’ll stay with the girls and Lyra Heartstrings for the time being.”

“I... I understand, Your Darkness,” Bon Bon surrendered, in turn embracing Lyra and furtively blotting the tear that had come in her mane. “I feel myself in perfect order, if that!”

She really felt great - not only because Sweetie's soul had lost a decent weight of responsibility and a secret that she had pledged to keep even from Lyra. Bon Bon just felt nothing but happiness (and suffocation) when the unicorn rushed to hug her! Nothing that would hint that the stranger did something bad to Lyra, turned her into a weapon against other ponies. The amulet in the cuirass of the night ponies did not howl, signaling a threat, Lyra herself was still the same affectionate fluffy handsome man who cannot be seriously angry with... It seems that everything was all right with her, like with the girls. Only it seems! There was nothing to be sure about when it came to the otherworldly semblance of a changeling warrior!

“Krhm. So,” the "changeling" raised his paw to his head, but then, hesitating, lowered it, as if he stopped in mid-sentence, “I understand that we are all a little excited here, but let's not be distracted from the topic.”

“Let's not!” Apple Bloom concluded cheerfully. “I still do not understand why we should stomp from here! This is our headquarters, am I right, girls?” she clarified, glancing first at her friends, then at the dark alicorn.

“It's simple, Apple Bloom,” the human replied calmly. “For some reason, the princess thinks that I can keep you here by force.”

“Nobody can keep me here, I will stay myself!” said Scootaloo, but then became thoughtful: “At least until my aunts miss me,” the pegasus said, “or until Dash comes back. I have to help her with her training! She's really cool!” Scootaloo tugged at the stranger's homemade "robe", attracting his attention. “I will definitely introduce you to her, you won't regret it!”

“In that case, I'm afraid a stone dungeon awaits me for the next couple of hundred years,” Grievous complained, coughing. “Khe. You yourself heard what Her Darkness threatened.”

“How? This cannot be!” unexpectedly gave her sonorous voice Silver Spoon. “Princess... Your Darkness, how did he deserve such treatment? Al... Grievous hasn't done anything bad to us, really!”

“We will not leave him!” confirmed Sweetie Belle, hugging a thin armored leg sticking out from under the fabric and fearfully glancing at the slender ranks of the guards.

“But the princess wants you to leave this place... the area,” the human repeated patiently. “Shouldn't you, a trifle, obey and honor your crowned alicorn sisters?

“What does the money have to do with it?” Silver Spoon and Tiara were surprised in unison.

“Hmm, really. I chose the wrong word...”

Scootaloo, properly straining her foal's legs and fluttering her wings, jumped onto the human's shoulders.

“See? How do I leave you?” giggling, she said to Grievous in an almost absent ear. “You need at least one interpreter to talk to Princess Luna on equal terms!”

“Alas, given my financial situation, I cannot afford his services,” with a chuckle, the human raised his clawed paw above his head and gently patted Scootaloo behind the ear with the very tips of his claws.

“Lets deal, two...” the pegasus suggested busily, screwing up her eyes with pleasure, “so be it, one session of scratching, and we have an agreement?”

“Hey, and me, and me-e-e?!” voiced Heartstrings, temporarily unstuck from her adored girlfriend.

“You should get in line, Lyra! He still owes me,” Diamond Tiara reminded gloomily, after which she looked condescendingly at the pegasus:

“And you’re doing everything wrong!”

“What?” did not understand Scootaloo.

“Bargaining, of course! He has not yet had time to name his price, and you are already slowing down! Boggles the mind!”

“I'm next in line!” Sweetie Belle squealed.

Bon Bon, with a slightly dazed look, looked first at the foals, then at Lyra, then at Grievous. He looked extremely collected, unshakable in the face of the threat of being trampled by the crowd - but at the same time the stranger stood next to the ponies, who did not at all object to his society, who sincerely considered the stranger to be something as harmless and friendly as possible! Their behavior contrasted so sharply with the formidable appearance of a man, as if a rock towering on the guardponies that Sweetie Drops could almost hear the creak of the gears in her head, trying to unscrew the catch from this absurd picture... and did not find it. Grievous looked at Scootaloo sternly.

“Surely you don't want to leave?”

“Nope,” she answered carelessly, “I want to see how it all ends!”

“And the rest?”

“And we are your support group!” Apple Bloom chuckled, and the rest of the girls cheered her enthusiastically.

“Well,” Grievous shrugged philosophically, “in the face of such unanimous enthusiasm, I give up. You see, princess,” he looked at Luna searchingly, “these little... including not so little,” he corrected, squinting at Lyra, “tero-rizz want to stay in the thick of things completely voluntarily. What else do you need in order for you to be convinced of this?”

Princess Luna extinguished the horn, so that the crystals that grew on it melted into the air.

"Lyra Heartstrings..." she said slowly, looking probingly at the unicorn. “My little pony, do you really consider this... this creature as your friend?”

“Well, Grievous,” Lyra looked at him maliciously, “the weirdo is nowhere stranger, but in general, yes! I only know him for half a day or so, but I think that you can trust him, he will not say a bad word. He's cool, although he can be really a bore!” the mint unicorn, standing up on its hind hooves, rubbed its cheek against Grievous' elbow plate. “And he is kind, although with all his might pretends that it is not so. He's also masterfully cares for the manes!”

“The last one - just a fiction and a provocation,” Grievous calmly disowned, but his eye shot to the sides so quickly and nervously, as if he was really afraid that some completely indecent number of ponies might form right here.

“No way! You yourself are still a fiction-teller!” As if offended, Lyra stuck out her tongue at him, but then she laughed merrily. “Everything is as I said, princess, do not even hesitate! If anyone is trustworthy a pony, it is... Grievous. Yes, that's the name of the human, can you imagine? No, seriously,” she raised a perplexed look at the human, “what the tartarus are you thinking? Who, in their right mind, would call their foal... eh, a baby Grievous?!”

The alien fixed his vertical-pupil eye at Bon Bon. Coughing, he asked:

“Is she always like this?”

“Welcome to my world,” Sweety muttered, glancing suspiciously at the human.

“Hmpf,” Grievous chuckled. “Okay, jokes in different directions... em, aside, the human straightened up, becoming one and a half times higher and by this involuntarily attracting the attention of his listeners. “When we finish talking, you mares will go to the princess, and she will tell you what to do next. And if she sends you to Ponyville, you won't go looking for a way back under the dome. Yes, Lyra, it concerns you too. And you, Scootaloo!” he looked expressively at his little assistant, sprawled on the human's shoulders with the most innocent look her little face was capable of. “Do you understand, girls?”

“Eh, oka-a-ay,” the Crusaders sighed together with Lyra.

“Okay,” Diamond Tiara snorted as if doing a favor. “I don’t need your negotiations, conversations... Dad, too, always speaks to those who wish, and then he signs contracts with completely different ponies! I bet nothing interesting will come of it.” She beckoned her friend to follow her. “Spoon, we're leaving. When you, Gru... Gri...” 

Tiara twisted her face, as if from a toothache, and then finished: “When you intend to pay off both bills, you can find me in our estate. Speak to any pony and he will be happy to point out where the Rich family lives.”

“I'll keep an eye on them...” Sweetie Drops muttered, still looking at the human in disbelief and slowly pushing Lyra aside, “so that there are no complications.”

Human for a dozen or two seconds silently studied the Diamond Tiara, like an outlandish insect, and the mare, with all her cunning appearance, showed that they really were connected by some secret agreements. Then, turning his muzzle to Bon Bon, he briefly shook his head on his long neck, expressing agreement, and the earth pony mentally exhaled. The girls and Lyra did not show any detachment in behavior characteristic of the same mind control spell from Chrysalis, no obsessions... Well, if you do not count Lyra's hobby for such, but that was when it started! Agent Drops herself did not notice how she began to think about Grievous in a more loyal way - probably, similar thoughts visited the Luna, reassured by the sight of foals, who looked whole and head over heels happy that they had a chance to meet with a stranger even before the diarchy. Already much more calmly, the Princess of the Night turned to Grievous:

“Before you let them go...”

“This is their decision - not mine. It seemed to me that we had already passed this stage,” interrupting her, the human reminded her in a neutral tone.

“So be it,” Luna agreed, looking inquisitively at him. “But first, you will answer a few questions, which remained unclear.”

“Ask, and I will answer.”

“We need to know what represents the "Confederation" in your world, and what kind of place it occupies in it,” the first thing the alicorn asked. “You said that you sent the largest army on the planet, but there were others.”

“We are fighters for independence… and opposed to the dominance of technology,” Grievous said immediately. “Our control system does not fail. Doesn't know because we treat wildlife with respect and remember all lessons of history. We were going to leave the Earth, to make it a flourishing reserve for our biosphere and a monument to the culture of mankind. Dedicate ourselves to space, where we could travel between the stars and find the resources we need...”

Bon Bon did not understand at all why someone might need to fly into space and what resources could be collected there. Well... maybe that was true for a human world devoid of magic. Princess Luna flapped her long eyelashes in bewilderment.

“This sounds unlikely for Equestria, but... let's say. But what have you forgotten on Equus?” she asked. “How did you get here - and why was it you?”

Grievous allowed himself a mournful grin.

“You asked what place the Confederation occupied in my world, Your Darkness? Dominant. We won in a long and bloody war,” the general's paw clenched into a fist, “with the adherents of technologies. They themselves proved that their method of movement... flying in space can split our universe in half - but continued once to use it over and over both for a quick offensive and as a weapon on the surface of the sacred Earth,” the human's voice trembled with genuine anger, but almost immediately his tone evened out. “The Confederation was slower in this war, but we live for a very long time, and like no one we know how to wait. Years of traveling through our native system did not become an obstacle. We methodically squeezed out the enemy from wherever Roy could reach. We pressed them... until they imposed a general battle on us, bringing all their forces to the surface of the Earth with the next jump.”

“That is... you want to say that those magical indignations, which my sister's student noticed...”

“Every time you recorded energy emissions, there was another page of the war, tearing my home planet apart,” muffled from under the mask. “The enemy splashed out of the Rift in space-time, bringing death and destruction. Someone's lives were cut short and the onset of peace was postponed for another year or two or three, multiplying suffering. And this time, the Rift found itself right in my central headquarters. I don't know who was responsible for the leak... for the information leak. But I am sure that even without me, my closest associates obliged the enemy to pay a dear price for this attack.”

It... it sounded really awful, couldn't help but recognize Bon Bon. In contrast to her thoughts, Lyra rolled with laughter, with all her might plugged her mouth with her hooves, so as not to laugh out loud. Judging by this (and the way the foals puffed up their eyes in amazement), the human told them a completely different story. Grievous did not pay attention to the reaction of his "friends", did not make any attempts to somehow suppress it... What if exactly the opposite is true? Sweetie thought. He could have lied to the girls, but now tell the truth! Surely the foals got some kind of more cheerful version, and not a terrible tale about how the history of magic in another world was cut short by the war of Grievous, as soon as the history of magic in Equestria came to an end because of Tirek. Princess Luna, looking closely at the human, said:

“General... The surge that helped Twilight Sparkle move you here was the last in the history of your world, closest to us.”

“Is this true?” Grievous leaned forward, narrowing his eyes predatory. He waited for a nod from the princess and froze, anxiously moving the bone plates. Finally, the human breathed out with visible relief:

“So we won. It was not in vain...” for the first time a sincere smile was heard in the alien's voice, and not a grin or sarcasm. “Our enemies were defeated, and Space Leap technology was banned.”

“And what do you... What do you intend to do now? What will happen when humanity is victorious?”

“Humans after so many years will be able to forget about the war. They will fly to other worlds, begin to explore space, and not just our solar system,” Grievous raised his head to the sky, closed by a dome and around the edges of thunderclouds under it, as if his thoughts were striving for the unknown. “And I... I, apparently, were somewhat ahead of the events and have already found one such new world. Even if not on my own, but I can say that this discovery was good for me,” the human circled the foals standing next to him and Lyra with his paw, which made them whisper with chuckles. Sweetie Drops rolled her eyes. Hay, this fidget will never grow up!

Bon Bon still could not understand why people should fly into space - and how there could be found not one, but several inhabited worlds. Who knows if human said all this only then, in order to once again hint that other people are early or late to infiltrate Equestria? Did Grievous even manage to find out from Lyra about the transfer mechanism, or do people have some unfamiliar pony resources that allow, among other things, to move into another universe, and not be summoned there? Her Highness Luna was interested in something else:

“We understand that in the Confederation that is widely used... let's call it, say, "biomancy", opposed to technology and mechanisms in general.”

“We are not against technology, but against their thoughtless use. And for the over-success bordering on the destruction of the pony, which is attributed to injectable... invasive species, you can not worry... if you are about this,” as if guessing what they want to ask him about, Grievous calmly answered. “My copying options are limited. And not only the speed of mass production, but also my personal information bandwidth. The swamp hive is just my stationary life support complex. At home I carried its compact version in myself,” the stranger patted his chest with his palm.

“Okay, let's say I believe you,” the princess finally concluded, taking time to think. “We have one last question for you, General. What do you know about chaos and its manifestations?”

Grievous nodded understandingly.

“I know what you're driving at, Princess Luna,” the stranger said measuredly. “I can assure you that until the last couple of days I knew nothing about these matters... that is, the state of matter. There is no magic in my world in the form you are accustomed to, and I know about it only what I observed myself and what my assistants told.”

“Don't the effects of your technologies indicate the presence of chaos in its most basic form, freely saturated with magic?”

“Our technology does not contain even a grain of what is meant by your word "chaos". On the contrary, they are built on ordering everything and everyone,” the stranger raised his paw in a gesture of denial to his chest, palm away from himself. “The way my creation began to influence your world was not my business. I don't know... yet don't know how to explain this set of effects.”

Princess Luna stepped forward, alone, without an escort, who froze in their seats, watching the stranger intently.

“Good,” Her Darkness said succinctly that the answers were at least satisfactory. “Let all of them come to us in turn, and for this our conversation will be over, General... for the time being.”

While Lyra got involved in the argument between the Crusaders and Tiara and Spoon, who should go first to the princess, the human raised his hand and pulled her around her neck. Grasping Scootaloo with long knuckle fingers under the belly, which caused the pegasus to burst out laughing, hammering his hooves through the air, he put her on the ground and nodded his head towards the princess:

“Go. Angry and overly suspicious aunty Luna still seems to think that I keep you with me as a “human shield,” there was a sneer in Grievous's voice, but there was no trace of the poison of the beginning of negotiations. “Let's show that this is not at all the case.”

“Nonsense, Luna is good and not angry at all! Unless it can get a little bit if she doesn't get the Nightmare Night sweets,” Scootaloo giggled, stretching her legs. Of course, she was not in the least afraid of the patroness of the night, dreams and foals, but she was in no hurry to leave Grievous. He frowned with a single eyebrow.

“Go anyway. And you too!” he waved at the rest of the ponies. “Apple Bloom is over there, probably, grandmother and brother have already missed, and they may be looking for the rest.”

“Okay, girls, I'm going!”

“Where are you going without us?!”

“Wait for your turn, Luna asked!”

One by one the mare came up to the princess. She held them for a minute or two, performing her magic, which was inaccessible to most unicorns, and then directed them to the guards. The human, probably, understood that it would not cost Luna anything to teleport the foals away from him and strike with her trademark series of spells. With each pony disappearing from his surroundings, Grievous should have become more and more defenseless - but he did not show any changes in his behavior, did not show weakness.

What if he  deliberately  sends the foals away? suddenly thought Bon Bon when the princess finished with Lyra and she galloped merrily to the girls, looking over her shoulder. Sparing them by letting them go so they don't see what happens next? Fear almost knocked the legs of the earth pony, but when she approached Luna, the voice of Her Darkness rang out in her head again:

It's okay, my little pony. He is not at all who he claims to be.

Is that good, Your Darkness? Bon Bon was surprised. Sweetie was even more surprised when Luna surveyed her very briefly, as if solely to clear her conscience.

Yes, Agent Drops. Exactly. Stay with the foals and Leeroy Heartstrings for now, answered her thoughts that were filled with relief. Luna said aloud:

“At ease, my warriors, lower your shields! It seems to us that this creature is not an enemy to the pony people. We saw confirmation that these our subjects were indeed free to leave at any time.”

However, remain vigilant until the alien and I agree, added the princess in a voice Grievous could not hear. According to the foals' thoughts, his other paw lives somewhere here.

“Luna, and even if he would not let us go, why are all the guards here - yours and Her Graces?” Sweetie Belle asked delicately from among the soldiers. “You could have just asked!”

“We...” Her Darkness's voice faltered, then she replied in an unusually low voice:

“I couldn't help it, Sweetie Belle. We attacked your friend, because the situation around him demanded preventive actions on my part...”

“Preventive actions,” the human said thoughtfully. “I really like your language, Princess Luna. Even the phrase "kick the lying person" sounds so beautiful and graceful on it.”

“You won't be able to shift the blame onto my sister and me,"Grievous," snorted the princess, looking at the human with disapproval. However, she immediately replied in a softened tone:

“But I admit that our responsibilities included not only taking care of the safety of our little ponies, but also finding a more suitable way to show a creature completely different from our people that we are a nation of peace and do not wish you harm. Magicians!” Luna turned to the battle unicorns. “Remove the main dome, it is no longer needed.”

Bon Bon's heart beat so that it seemed to be heard by everyone around. Oh-oh-oh! she whined in her mind, looking at the protective sphere that was dissolving under the joint spells. A bad feeling gripped the earth pony. A scene flashed before my eyes: Princess Luna sends the foals away, and immediately Grievous opens his mantle, grows overgrown with a bunch of unplanned limbs with blades and crashes into the ranks of the guards! They already considered him a friend, they do not have time to figure out anything... For some time Bon Bon stood motionless, absorbed by the terrible figment of her imagination. Then the princess's voice came to her:

“Sergeant, send a couple of your warriors to get these youngsters and Lyra Heartstrings to the farm. Agent Drops, I need you here for now.”

Try to calm down, a modest pastry chef pulled herself up three days ago. Now she could no longer do anything - everything was in the hooves of Luna, and she knew her craft. Sweetie Drops hoped that the princess's words about "impersonating someone else" would really turn things around for the good of all the ponies. The newcomer will leave with the princesses to sort out issues of interracial diplomacy, Ponyville will return to a state of late summer bliss, and he and Lyra will forget these difficult half an hour at the Crusaders' house as a bad dream. Bon Bon several times deeply and silently inhaled and exhaled to calm the excitement.

“I'm going, Bonnie!” Lyra shouted joyfully. “Come back soon, we have something to discuss!”

Just a few minutes and it'll be over, Sweety thought hastily. She heard the chirping of the girls moving away, past the ranks of the guards, and then from the other side came the completely muffled exclamations of the owners of the farm, who were still not allowed to get under the dome. Probably, in the near future, the foals will be very busy inventing excuses for how they ended up in the epicenter of a military operation...

“I need to know, General,,” Luna spoke the last word with a distinct irony in her voice, “who you fought with before we can give you shelter. You have not named the name of the enemy, whom you managed to defeat in the future... only by your assumption. Ponies of Equestria are not going to be drawn into the war of another universe.”

Although Grievous' face was only a few of the muscles and skin centered around the eye, Sweetie Drops saw with fear that she was twisted with hatred.

“You are making me not have the best memories, princess. These nightmares in the flesh, perverted creatures of technology have poisoned our world for too long,” he hissed, turning his anger, as Sweetie now saw, not at Luna. “But I, so be it, will answer. We fought against those who in your language can be called "clone". Huge armies of clones, artificial warriors created by tech moguls, clinging to the past with all their might.”

“And...” from such a turn of events Her Darkness almost sat down on the ground with a croup. Using magic clones in the war - how was that even possible?! “And whose clones were they?”

“A terrible mockery of culture, of our history,” Grievous replied grimly. “Clones of President Lincoln, reprogrammed for submission and slavery.”

For a while, everyone was silent in confusion. Then Luna raised her well-groomed eyebrow as gracefully as only a junior diarch could.

“Was it a… joke?”

“Princess Luna must mean,” Sweetie Drops said hesitantly, “how can a student representative on the school council fight someone? Or are you wrong in the word?”

Grievous just waved his paw.

“You, princess, very badly know how to distinguish a lie from the truth,” not hiding his disappointment, he drawled, “and completely unable to read my thoughts. I had doubts about this, but now they have completely disappeared.”

Deathly silence served as his answer. Completely confused, but trying not to show it, the princess made another attempt:

“So this statement was supposed to be... a joke? If I knew what you were thinking?”

“Perhaps,” Grievous shrugged. “In fact, at first I thought to use the riddle about the sparrow to resolve the oppressive situation...”

“What other riddle about the sparrow?” unable to resist, squeaked Sweetie Drops.

“Very simple, little pony. What is a thirty-pound sparrow doing on a branch?”(1) asked Grievous, examining the claws on his paw with exaggerated attention - and immediately, without giving a second to think, something like a Canterlot voice, except that not blowing away from his place, shouted:

”CAKES! I WANT MORE CAKE! CAKES EVERY DAY! I LOVE CAKES VERY MUCH! NEED MORE CAKES!”

Some of the ponies did not understand what was being said, and fell into a stupor simply from a random (and very loud) set of words. Most of the barbs recognized and froze in shock. Princess Luna's face changed from one vague expression to another, and the shade of her cheeks ranged from crimson to deathly pale. One way or another, everyone present turned into living statues, except for Grievous, and stood there until Her Darkness laughed.

Alicorn no longer held herself back for the sake of her subjects - her laughter was like an earthquake. Luna laughed for a long time, until tears appeared in the corners of her eyes, and then Bon Bon giggled barely audibly, she was ashamed of it, and the thestrals frankly laughed with her - even the ponies from the Solar Guard lost their former equanimity, blushing from the strain, from all forces disguising laughter bursting out under the fits of coughing. It seemed that the light of the Sun became brighter, dispelled all the negativity of the last thirty minutes, and all the ponies were flooded with joy, as if Harmony itself had put a hoof on it.

Grievous watched the epidemic of laughter sweeping through his former foes with his trademark equanimity. Maybe he was thinking about the speed with which the emotions are changing, it is worth bringing in some kind of external stimulus, and how it can be used for your own purposes. Bon Bon mentally thanked Celestia for the fact that the course of guards training, through which, among other things, the monster hunters passed, included training in hiding their real emotions. It would be very uncomfortable if human attacked right now and took them all warm, simply making them laugh!

Grievous, it seems, had no intention of attacking at all. Crimson banners ran over his mask, forming mimic muscles, bony "ears" melted into the skull, and they were replaced by the missing lower jaw - and now the human already had the muzzle that Bon Bon saw at the crash site. Only this time she was not the focus of fear, confusion and panic haste. A polite smile froze on the human's face, the corners of his lips quivered with laughter, and his deep-set eyes no longer hinted at his kinship with the people of feline cunning.

“You are...  pha-ha-ha-ah... ” Luna broke off due to another fit of laughter, which was generated by her rich imagination of a mentalist, “... you are not general, right?”

“No,” the human grinned much more clearly now, “although I had to command a couple of detachments of soldiers.”(2)

“Did I understand correctly,” the princess wiped away her tears with telekinesis, making a great effort to hold back another cheerful sob, “that the version that you told the foals is true?”

“Exactly,” the human nodded, unraveling the hem of his robe, allowing it to hang freely. A skeletal body became noticeable - and a stinger weapon peeking out from behind him. “Your misunderstanding of this was evidenced by the fact that you called General Grievous a man. I suppose you would avoid juggling terms if you got into my head and found out what Grievous is,” the alien glanced at Luna from under his brows, without changing his mocking, but in his own way, friendly expression on his face. “I hope you will forgive me for this little test of your peacefulness... as I already forgive your mistrust in me.”

Goddess, mentally gasped Sweetie Drops. She had just realized how seriously she was mistaken in understanding Grievous's thoughts - even at the moment when she believed that he could combine the thoughts and aspirations of a reasonable one with the danger of a wild monster. No, he is something completely different! Did he really play a whole performance, put himself out as someone completely different just because he was afraid of princesses and ponies in general?! Who would ever think of being afraid of a pony?

“No hard feelings,” Luna returned the grin. “If not for my duty to the state and your common fears, we would not have delivered these unpleasant moments to each other. I propose to start all over again... as far as possible,” the alicorn allowed herself a short, cheerful laugh. “I'm not sure if I can even now understand which of your words are true. Maybe what you said was the theater of the absurd, but the actor from you really turns out to be a provost similar.”

The human ruffled his short mane, showing either confusion or awkwardness.

“It was not always so... and not in everything.”

“Did you really invent a whole life during so less time?”

“No, of course not,” Grievous disagreed. “This is one of the millions of stories that the inventors of my people have inhabited imaginary worlds. After being heavily modified, it seemed to me perfectly suited to the entourage.”

“But why did you have to present yourself as someone you are not anyway?,” Luna asked, puzzled.

The human raised his dark eyebrows.

“Honestly? I was not delighted with the idea of meeting creatures with whom I objectively could not do anything, and who do not know what their thoughts are about me. I didn't know what to expect from you with Her Grace. To pretend to be someone else, acting from the position of b about more opportunities and power than me, in theory, should have protected me from grabbing and scrutinizing, regardless of my desires. In addition, this image helped create personal ideas about the diarchy before we speak now,” with a sly cunning in his eyes the human looked at her, “so that I almost immediately saw that I could reveal my true cards, and not stubbornly bend the line with general. In my home you rarely see such a sincere, unseen... not indicative experience for children on the part of higher officials. And of course, my goal was to find out if you can immerse yourself in my subconscious the way you sleepwalk among the pony people,” 

The human tapped his temple with a claw that contrasted so sharply with his face, now covered with soft, smooth skin. 

“The first two of my statements fully corresponded to the image, but then more and more discrepancies followed... to which you did not react. In the end, of course, I would have been exposed anyway. And the girls, again, did not help, but by that time I was already confident in you. A more detailed version of Lyra's check, if you like... which I think you are already aware of,” he waved his hand in the direction of the farm, where the foals and Bon Bon's friend were taken away.

“Oh, believe me, you succeeded in that test perfectly,” sighed the princess. “It would have been so simple that I could determine from a distance what my opponent really had in mind... So you didn't have an army at your disposal?” Luna asked with a thin smile. “Just a handful of soldiers? Lyra was more inclined to think that you are a scientist than a warrior...”

“I’m a warrior, but only as a hostage to circumstances,” the human replied shortly. “You don't have to worry about intrusion. I do not represent any faction of the Earth. On the contrary, I alone... more precisely, with the help of a few people, I opposed one of the factions of my home planet. And just as my allies could not come to Equestria, so my enemies are not able to follow me - here you can be at peace. Our technologies...” 

The human winced, then finished: “We have no magic, Princess Luna. We are just learning it, we have found ourselves in the last couple of decades at the beginning of the ABC book. We are approaching the control of the most elementary particles by building a complex, cumbersome and energy-consuming machine...(3)

“You claim to be a loner. However, it was your machine, which was a rotorcraft, that bore heraldry on its armor, signs of belonging,” Luna remarked, looking expectantly at non-Grievous. 

He shrugged his shoulders as if the princess had asked something for granted: “Because I took it away from my enemies, of course.”

“Does this mean that everything told to me was fiction?” the tone of the princess finally changed to a peaceful one. It seems that what the foals told her about was confirmed in this personal meeting. Bon Bon thought that a way of false Grievous to deflect suspicion from himself and set the dialogue in a positive way with humor would be much more suitable for communicating with Princess Celestia, famous for her gentle disposition. However, in the case of Her Darkness, the stranger somehow managed to change the harness for a gallop... The stranger sighed, closing his eyes briefly.

“Not all,” he said as if the words were hard for him. “The words that the discovery of your world was good for me were not part of the invention. And not only in the sense that the ponies accepted me as a friend, for which I am sincerely grateful to them,” the human smiled again, encouraged by his recent communication with the girls. 

“The point is, I had to die there, Princess Luna. The fact that my transport was brought here by forces capable of becoming weapons is also true. The explosion was supposed to send me into the wasteland of dumbness and oblivion, but it was as if I found myself among a green oasis, where trees are bursting with juicy fruits, the water is clear as a mountain stream, and the birds themselves sit in your arms.”

“Still a weapon? Class B spells?” clarified the Luna. “This, of course, is unpleasant, but it does not pull on some destructive Rift, about which you spoke.”

“In my world, all its power is not directed at metamorphosis or other harmless focus, but at the transformation of the latent energy of the mother and into thermal energy. And I assure you - for people it is monstrous,” the human seriously looked at Luna, so it was clear - this is no joke. 

“Unlike your world, we cannot somehow repulse this "spell", surround with shields, direct its energy in a different direction. You can escape from it only by being out of range, or by hiding deeper into the ground. Or not let him activate,” the alien has already directed his hand towards the city, implying the place where his car fell. “It so happened that I found myself in the very center of such a man-made natural disaster. An incandescent hurricane that dries up rivers, melts mountains, and can turn a city five times your Manehattan's size to ashes.”

The Princess of the Night was silent, realizing what the guest from another world had said. 

The human chuckled mirthlessly: “I know what you’re thinking,” he told to Luna. “But I hope that you will understand: we, people, are not able to wait, like you and your sister, until the problems themselves fade into the background. Conditions on our planet have changed too quickly, and not only because of the bet on technology and the constant race of scientific and technological progress. Here I lied - we don't live long. The human age is quite short in comparison with the pony, and even if we compare it with the alicorn...”

“I didn't think that biomancers can live a little,” Luna was sincerely surprised.

“I am different from other people, Your Darkness,” as if the human reminded her, and Princess Luna nodded, confirming what was said. “For better or worse - this is a question to which I find it difficult to give an unambiguous answer. Be that as it may,” the human rubbed his chin with his palm, wincing tiredly, “I have familiarized myself with your story a little. The ponies also suffered and fought to create a better world... it's just that this process has not completely stopped here,” then he turned half-turned to the princess, looking somewhere to the side. 

“In my time, we live better than ever, and most people do not care that this achievement should be attributed to the fear of starting a war in which there will be no winners. This may sound unethical and unfair to you, but I ask you to be lenient, princess. It was so necessary for our planet, for my people,” human looked at her firmly. “One man's… hm, food is another man's poison. This flame was given freedom only twice... that is, already three times. All the other cases you have documented were only trials during the period of peace, not counting minor conflicts. On Earth, there was a big war about fifty of your cycles ago... well, if you count from the time when I happened to be transferred to your world,” the alien specified. 

“And that was already enough for a generation to change, for people to forget about the horrors of war and society began to resemble a very distant likeness of Equestria. Although the shortcomings of our society are much more noticeable, and evil is often irreparable, I have the courage to declare that the humans and ponies are both children of the peace.”

“And you, Xander?” Luna asked him bluntly.

“I’m not...” the human began, but then he shook his head.

“Oh, this Lyra. And I, kind of, the first in the previously unknown path of the superman, described in a number of theoretical works, but not in practice,” said the false-Grievous in such a dismissive tone, as if talking about something completely insignificant. “At home, all that I did well after the changes that made me this is to resist that very hostile faction and eliminate the consequences of their lust for power. There was no need to talk about peace,” the named Xander, throwing his hand behind his back, emphatically slapped the handle of his stinging weapon.

“It was both a gift,” he continued, “given to me according to the merits of my past life, and the curse of the inability to surrender when you are no longer weak and limited, when you no longer have excuses for failure. Maybe someone would dare to say that individuals would be better off when I lay down my arms. But I'm sure the world would have much worse if my enemies gained the upper hand and at least one country of the Earth received an even more powerful weapon capable of breaking this established balance. I comfort myself with the thought that after what I did, people decided to sheathe this double-edged sword, but alas... I can only talk about what happened to me, but not after.”

“Why was this weapon activated the last time?” Luna asked quietly. “How did you manage to fall under his influence?”

“I think you know from Lyra’s memory. The faction with which I fought cleaned up the traces of their crimes. I had no choice but to deal with everyone who stood in the way and take the weapon away from the city, into the bay,” the human muttered. “Better me than my sister and everyone else.”

Sweetie Drops listened, afraid to twitch her ear. This story was not similar to any of those fictions that she had read, and was seen, though no less fantastic than the one told by "General Grievous"... it seemed more... mundane, perhaps? From this point of view, human seemed to be an ordinary rational person who was driven into soap by neo ordinary circumstances. Due to this down-to-earthness, the history of man now felt more reliable, it was much more difficult to doubt it. And just empathy for the person was enough! Bon Bon thought that this version, as if drawn from a novel about a lonely heroine-knight, seemed to her much more pleasant and interesting than about some general who was waging an endless war of destruction. Xander should have been telling the truth from the start! And based on what Sweety knew about the princess, this should have been the right approach - after all, Luna once personally participated in battles, and the story of a simple warrior could cause her, if not respect, then reluctance to continue to suspect human!

“I didn’t lie about chaos either, Your Darkness,” the human added quietly, not seeing a clear reaction from the direction of Luna. “I have studied your world and the manifestations of its magic for many hours, but I have not learned anything that would help explain the phenomena at the swamp hive. On our... my planet, nothing like this is found, and even if we take into account the functioning of the hives there - they simply take the energy of the sun and minerals from the soil, absorb primitive organic matter, which is inedible here,” suddenly the gloomy voice of Xander recovered, and his gaze warmed:

“I would have wandered in the dark, literally and figuratively, but I met the foals. They did not question the suspicious biped about what happened in his world and what he was doing here. They just... wanted to befriend him and, if possible, help. So I learned about the kindness of your people and their morals,” the tone of the human was not ingratiating, although now his fate could be decided again; he simply stated a fact. “That the children of your subjects are perhaps the sweetest creatures in the universe. That friendly relations and peaceful coexistence are possible with you.”

“Ahem. So, that's why you peacefully planted this clearing with your devices,” a smile suddenly blossomed on the face of Luna, and a harmless sarcasm appeared in the tone. The human, grinning in response, raised his hand to the sky in a comic gesture:

“Your Darkness, please do not blame the lonely one, strapped for funds, that he is used to attack from the back, distract attention and take with sudden attacks. I am a tactician, not a suicider. By your behavior - when flying carts with soldiers suddenly began to fall from the sky, I mean - it was also impossible to assume that you were a peaceful race. The contact at the crash site took you by surprise, but following my soul... um, going for my head, you clearly prepared for unfavorable options, right?”

“But you were the first to demonstrate that you are not capable of getting along with a pony,” Luna retorted in an unctuous voice. “Instead of at least some attempts to establish contact with intelligent beings, you twice ran away from them, hiding, as if you had something to hide.”

“At least I didn’t try to escape now, although I was not just pursued by a creature that contradicted everything I knew about living nature, but was crushed by a psychic attack,” the human grinned. “I don’t know anything about the fashion of noble ponies and I can’t decide if red will suit you,” Xander squinted at the impressive wings of Luna, “but the cry “Off with his head” would have been heard from your lips like a glove.”(4)

“That was... another joke, which we cannot comprehend?” Luna asked thoughtfully.

“Hmm-hmm.”

A shadow suddenly ran across Luna's face, her lips pursed in displeasure. The Princess of the Night's eyes flashed with angry sparks. Sweetie Drops would have collapsed to the ground, hooves over her ears, but remained standing, true to her orders. Had a man somehow managed to offend Her Darkness, reminded her of some custom from antiquity? They've already made it up, it seems, and Xander just returned her playful tone!

“To challenge the Canterlot voice is an insult to us, human,” she said coldly. “You will speak to the Crown with due respect, otherwise you will not speak at all.”

Xander twitched perceptibly, rippling the hem of his makeshift robes. The joints on his long claw fingers clenched reflexively.

“I, um...” the human hesitated for a second. “Your Darkness, I did not even think... I have not yet understood very well the principles of the local socioethical matrix...”

“Hah, bought it!” the princess laughed cheerfully. “Didn't you think that I would forget about the accusation of insulting the dignity of “Combat General Grievous" and all your provocations, Xander?”

“Kha,” now the human was coughing and masking the exhale he allowed himself to make out of relief. “Looks like you caught me here, Your Darkness.”

“You really should have turned to us, and not run through the weeds of the Everfree,” Luna concluded, coming even closer to the alien. “Perhaps I will not tell Celestia about your... original way of restarting diplomatic relations, so that you could start from scratch with my sister, just like you did with me.”

“Hm. In this case, I am doing what was supposed to be done long ago - I apologize,” Xander made a gesture that consisted of a wave in front of you with a paw in combination with a slight bow. “But I have to insist that my actions were justified. I’m afraid I had no more reasons to be confident in your peacefulness before meeting the girls than you did in mine.”

“Even considering that we did not commit any frankly crafty actions against you?” Luna raised her eyebrows. "We just send a guard for the safety of our little ponies."

The human shrugged, returning a restrained smile to his face.

“Let's call it the influence of extensive negative experience.”

“If so, we will be able to talk about this later. Frankly speaking, me...” then Luna remembered that she is not the sole ruler in Equestria, “my sister and I were much more concerned about your abilities in biomancy than the problems of the world from which you came,” with these words, the Princess of the Night took another step forward and raised her right front hoof.

“Be our guest, Xander!” she said rather solemnly. “Although our meeting took place late, we are glad to welcome you to Equestria.”

“You are elevated in intelligence and captivating in speech, princess,” the human nodded ceremoniously, in turn taking a step forward and lowering his head to the level of Luna, “therefore, it will be my joy to become your guest.

Bon Bon once heard that the mare of the Canterlot aristocracy love with their ears, but Luna did not even take an ear to the compliment: she probably considered it a human attempt to create some kind of ceremony. She stretched her hoof forward with all visible dignity - not for the hoofer's kiss, as Sweetie Drops suddenly realized. After all, some two-legged ones had a custom to shake their paws, just as the tradition of bumping horseshoes against each other came from earth ponies!

It was again one of those tense moments: physical contact of the princess herself with a once-considered dangerous monster by a stranger. It is not surprising that the guardponies tensed again - the thestrals were not gnawing at their helmets at all from the desire to rush into the battle for the Night Mother. But Sweety knew that not one of them would budge, for the princess had forbidden the initiative, and she herself could easily stand up for herself. Nothing should have spoiled the moment of acquaintance with a representative of another world civilization!

“Alexander Mercer,” now without any piety, the human introduced himself as benevolently as possible, gently grasping Luna's hoof and shaking it up and down.

“Alegz-ande?” the alicorn was surprised.

“Alexander, for friends Alex,” the human opened his grip and lowered his paw down, unbending again, becoming noticeably higher. “Not Xander or Sandy,” he clarified in a grumpy tone, for some reason looking straight at Bon Bon nearby. “There were wandering around here... all sorts of lovers of literary translations.”

Bon Bon breathed out barely audibly (like other mare from among the Guardponies), still not believing that everything had ended well. Rainbow Dash would have been furious if she had stayed in Ponyville. Such a mess! So many preparations, so much painful tension, and as a result, not a single cuff was handed out! Agent Drops was more than pleased, feeling incredible relief. The stranger was frightening, shocking with his behavior, unlike any of the most diverse monsters she had to face - but now that they shook their paws... well, hoof and paw, it all ceased to matter. He can definitely become a friend for all ponies. Maybe the old guard golems with woodworms are similar, but they act in completely different ways... So Xander, although he has a number of changing features, in fact is not such - he is inclined to dialogue, he will not bite the hoof that strokes him, does not go against the ponies who were kind to him! His friendly relations with Lyra and the foals were the best confirmation of this.

“Well, Alekzander,” Luna smiled, walking past him to the guardponies, “in that case, I suggest you meet with my sister in Ponyville. In the town hall we will be able to talk at least about everything in the world...” exaggeratedly cautiously looking around, she lowered her voice:

“And I think you can already take off this fashion designer’s nightmare if you don’t want half of the city to be closed in their homes,” the princess added with a grin. “Agent Drops, you come with us. I think my dear sister will find your testimony extremely valuable on occasion.”

“Easily. I will do so,” the human, slowly striking a step with his narrow legs, moved after Luna. His hand reached out to the neck of his homemade robes. “Princess Luna, let me know something... You, putting pressure on me, never mentioned among the threats that you are porting... de-teleporting... will send me away from Equestria to my homeworld. For this, the first question that I have to ask you right here and now is...”

Speaking of Her Grace, to whom we are heading, Sweetie Drops thought as she watched the pegasus lead the storm clouds away from the meeting place. If both worlds are alchemically compatible only at the most basic level, as Mercer said... alicorns individually, who?

There was a whistle, and Alexander staggered when a powerful ramming spell of a poisonous green flew into his back. He almost fell face down, but reacted instantly - the human spread out in the air like a giant bat, fluttering the hem of his robe. Having made a mad somersault over his head, he landed on the veranda of the Crusaders' house, breaking planks and clinging to the massive branches of the apple tree with his claws.

Changeling did it, Bon Bon realized with horror. And not alien, but the most common.

“What happened?!” shouted the thestral, with whom she had spoken shortly before.

“Some of ours started it!” her commander responded, looking nervously at Mercer, frozen in a tree like a huge harpy in a nest.

There was a storm of emotions on the person's face - fear, confusion, pain, disgust. As if in disbelief, he again and again felt the plate of armor on his chest, on which a cobweb of cracks sprawled out - the spell pierced through Alex's chest, even though it came to its front part rather weakened. But it was clearly visible how a green park rose from behind the human's back, enveloping his figure in a shimmering halo, and a trickle of light liquid flowing down his leg, bubbling. With a mental call to the Goddess, Sweety removed the rope thrower from her belt. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end, and her intuition in panic squealed that everything that had happened was not good at all.

”Who dared?!” - Luna roared, casting an angry glance at the guards who were about to leave their positions. ”Who is this fool who dared to violate our order?!”

The answer, meanwhile, was right in front of the princess of the Night: the earth-monkey guards twisted one of the magicians, threw him to the ground, holding a shocker spear to his horn. He did not even think to resist. On the contrary, the unicorn lay calmly on the ground - and a grin of gloating and triumph spread on his face, with which he looked directly at Luna. The princess, giving the changeling a scornful look, turned worriedly to Mercer:

“Alexander, are you okay? Can you go? You will be given...”

He's not okay in a single place, froze with fear, Sweety thought, noticing how all emotions disappear from the person's face - only silent malice splashed in his eyes. He is in complete, all-consuming fury.

Princess Luna wanted to say something else, but suddenly Mercer stirred - slowly and jerkily like a broken toy, then straightening more vigorously and half-turning into what could be dubbed a fighting stance. The humantle, engaged in a green flame, slid from his shoulders, and for the first time the figure of a man became clearly visible. Plates of armor bulged, covering his entire torso with bandages and petals, a sting weapon, fixed on his back and somehow miraculously avoided being hit, gleamed in the light. Smoke billowed from a burnt hole in the neighborhood, and emerald flames erupted from there. Bon Bon could not believe her own eyes: not a single living creature could move after such a wound, especially with such steadfastness. The human's paw, grinding, reached behind his back, and his claws closed on the handle of the weapon.

“No,” the princess widened her eyes, immediately understanding everything. “Alexander, don't. It was not...”

The human gave her a cold look. Then he dropped his eyes; Alexander seemed to lose his resolve for a moment. In the blink of an eye, the human tore off this pile of metal and plastic from his back, turning the pipes towards the pony with a black mouth. Wasting no time in conversation, Luna struck with a force beam, knocking the weapon out of his paw. But instead of throwing the heavy device away, the spell smashed it to some formless pieces! Moreover, at the end of the day, the headquarters of the Crusaders managed to set fire to it, so that the door from its rightful place was again taken out inside, and the windows shattered to smithereens.

And then the spells flew around the ponies - that's what Sweetie Drops thought at first. It rumbled, rattled from the side of the apple plantations, and the air was filled with the whistle of many small clots of energy flying at a breakneck speed. The caster beat with a wide fan, forcing the earth ponies to collapse to the ground, covering their heads with their hooves, and the pegasus to rapidly gain height. A nearby night guard was struck in the side by one such projectile, striking a spark from his armor, and the second pierced his hind leg, blurring on the fur in a crimson spot and making him scream in pain, fall on his front hooves.

“He shoots from a stinging weapon!” screamed Knight, rushing to help her colleague.

“We are attacked from the north!” came the voice of the commander of the Solar Guard. “Put up shields!”

The human was not in the least embarrassed by the loss of his ranged weapon - unlike Luna. The armor on his elbow split into two plates, revealing the muscles stretched beneath it, the blood vessels, and the forked bone that served as the base. He did not budge, clearly hoping to carry out his plans before the ponies wake up from the shelling, they themselves will be able to suppress him and force him to obey. Xander applied breaking The limb tucked along the axis to the belt, like a ballet dancer, and his armor lit up with crimson flashes. He froze, and then abruptly threw his hand up with such a speed that Bon Bon did not even understand what had happened. Simply, the three pegasus, descending for a spear attack on the aggressor, seemed to stumble in flight...

Agile and fast flyers have never been particularly afraid of the maces of earth ponies and their swords. Therefore, since the time of the Unification, unicorns, when enchanting the Pegasus's armor, have relied on protection from point penetrating actions - the same arrows and fast burning spells. But what crashed into the pegasus clearly did not fall into this category. In the next moment, red stripes bloomed on the armor with a rumbling, and the flyers were naturally swaddled. Pulsating skeins of flesh bound their movements no worse than steel cables; the poor guys could only collapse to the ground and then flutter somehow, scattering feathers, straining all their forces, but not capable of breaking the creepy-looking fetters.

“We have a wounded pony! Doctor her, now!!!” the thestral was straining, right under heavy fire assisting the wounded comrade, biting the bandage with sharp teeth and pouring a healing potion from its reserves between the jaws clenching from the pain. However, the field orderly did not appear in any way - the number of victims began to grow at such a rate that even the princess did not have time to keep track of everyone.

“Magicians, attention!” the commander was straining. “Concentrate shields towards the north! Suppress with spells everything that moves and does not respond to callsigns!”

“And if... if he does not move and does not respond?!”

To me, too, the clever guy looked for, thought Bon Bon in prostration, while, together with the night guard, she dragged the languidly resisting thestral under the shields - he could fly himself, but with a loosened piece of metal bone, even the best flyer would not easy. Do you think he will sit and wait, without moving his paws, while we feed him? A man's chest burned, but at least henna!

In support of her thoughts, the stranger was frightened off by Princess Luna, who, in a flash of teleportation, reached the pegasus and helped them free themselves, freezing the bonds to the fragility of ice. Alexander darted from his place, avoiding the spells that were flying at him with mechanical precision in his movements. His face was focused, and his gaze was fixed on Luna, which, turning her attention to him, smeared on Alex's armor with telekinesis. Without straining a single superfluous muscle, Mercer easily ran through the telekinetic cage that was forming around him, leaving behind him a barely noticeable scarlet train, punctuated by greenish smoke. The invisible shooter immediately switched fire to Luna, but did not gain much success, since it was so for the princess's shield, seeds. Therefore, he again began to conduct in short bursts of suppression, preventing the ponies from sticking out their noses from behind the unicorn shields. Around him should have been falling apple trees, mown with retaliatory spells, dropping ripe fruits and upturning the ground with roots, but the unknown man's ally did not think to stop firing for more than a dozen seconds. Alex vanished into a dance of shadows and light, spells and clouds of dust. Sweetie Drops, who saw him disappear only a dozen yards from her, heard a voice behind her:

“Mother of the Night! Did you see it?” stared with horror at the Bon Bon thestral. “What kind of monster is he, Tartarus take him?! The land-crawler cannot move that fast!”

”Where is he?” through the roar of gunfire came the princess's voice of Canterlot. ”Where did he go?!”

“Dome!” the commander of the day guard came to his senses. “Now! Or he will run away!”

Don't, thought the earth pony indifferently. Please. She didn't want to be trapped here again, along with an alien from another world, when he openly entered the battle and managed to demonstrate that the numerical advantage of the guard was nothing for him. She had seen the guards' memories of a short scuffle at the rotorcraft... Now that was a completely different matter. Earlier, Alex warned with a roar of an attack, gave an opportunity to retreat, ran away, trying not to be seen by a pony. Now... it was some kind of silent vengeful entity cast in bone armor. The line crashed against the shield in front of Sweetie, so that the barrier became turquoise streaks.

He really wants to kill us! Where did I go? Would remain a humble pastry chef, sobbed Bon Bon, trying her best not to panic. Not my league at all! This creature telekinesis  the princess herself  ignores!

For the hunter and the monster is running. Mercer came into view as soon as Sweetie Drops thought of her own failure when confronted with him. The unicorns were just beginning to cast the spell for setting the main sphere, but then a man flew over them in a flash of scarlet light, throwing out from his belt shiny, elongated glass, covered with slime - like a heavy flyer from the conflict with Cloudsdale, carrying incendiary bombs. Princess Luna managed to conjure the purification of the Poisonous Joke even before the bottles burst with a noise , scattering its cloudy contents in all directions. But even such a violation of his plans did not stop the human. Alex landed, dug his claws into the ground, stared at Her Darkness and whispered a word that Bon Bon heard perfectly.

“Rise up.”

“My mother of Night! They climb out of the ground!” shouted another thestral as the wet soil under their hooves shook. “We need reinforcements!!!”

“The enemy is from the left flank, underground!”

“Horseapples, where has he gone again?”

“Mages, where is the discord shield?!” another flyer was indignant, descending to help the wounded.

“What do you think we are doing right now?!” the gray unicorn barked, continuing to cast a joint spell. “He distracts us all the time!”

The earth swelled - just in those places where "nothing was buried" to distract attention. Sweetie Drops saw Luna's face contort and the same horror flashed in her eyes as the rest of the ponies. Formless figures, smeared with earth, emerged from the ground, one after another, crowned with bald heads that resembled a human skull-helmet. The monsters furiously began to shake off the sticky mud after the recent shower; their formlessness thickened and took shape - and now among the ponies, getting up, ready to straighten their legs in a stringy jump, stood four large timberwolves. Only their heads were a jumble of flesh with nightmarish massive jaws and eyes hidden in the shadow of their sockets. The oak claws of the monsters gleamed with the same crimson light...

“Timberwolves!” in panic, one of the pegasus from above voiced the already obvious truth. “He subdued them!”

So that's why the magical vision was empty! Most of the ponies were not in the know, but the guards and the structures adjacent to them knew perfectly well that the security magic of the Castle of the Sisters was created to quietly chase and overtake intruders. As time passed after Princess Celestia left the castle, its magical defenses went wild and went to the Everfree, by virtue of an old habit of creating golems, growing thorns and pursuing anyone who wandered into her territory. No one began to deal with this, for those who knew the secrets of the castle left it after Her Grace and eventually died of old age, and the rest simply did not care. Even the most notorious adventurers did not think that there was something so valuable in the Everfled that it would be worth butting with a whole population of golemhounds for which. From their prototypes, the deer have inherited the ability to quickly recover and excellent resistance to any magic except fire. It was much easier for an ordinary pony to run away from them than to win in an open battle... But here there was no particular place to run.

“He took them under control!” the lieutenant of thestral was horrified. “Do not approach, let the magicians figure it out!”

“Claws!” Bon Bon shouted, regaining consciousness and somehow getting rid of her panic moods. “Beware of the claws, I don't like the way they look!”

The timberwolves darted among the ponies, growling dully and coughing like a dog. Ordinarily, they would not have approached such a large cluster of ponies, especially outside the Eternal One, and would have preferred to run away themselves, but here the golems seemed to be blind. Bon Bon tore off an explosive horseshoe from her belt, tossed it from a side position, and the tree dog howled, scraping his skin-covered face and charred chest with his paws, and then rushed away, not making out the road. He knocked down an earth-monkey guard, who did not have time to get out of the way of the inhabitant of the Everfree, and then bumped his head into the ground and tumbled over himself, flying into the unicorns occupied by the shield. A tangled tangle of bodies, united in a struggle, rolled over the grass.

“A battle has been imposed on us!” shouted from the direction of the apple trees. “The ponies are out of order!”

Princess Luna with a well-aimed shot smashed the monster to small pieces, but then was forced to come to the aid of her subjects, on which Alex was inhabited. He landed literally surrounded by a small detachment and, taking advantage of the fact that part of the forces of the guard was distracted by the fire of stinging weapons and woodpeckers, he began to methodically wean the annoying ponies to deal with him. Mercer rewarded a blow to everyone who approached, with a weapon or bare hooves - it didn't matter, and if his opponent could not dodge, then he was knocked out. The human made turns and beat with his feet, then with his only hand, firmly and accurately, finding vulnerabilities in the enemy's defense with amazing ease. He would have thrashed the guardponies in the tail and in the humane, if the massive earth pony had not pushed through his own defenses, hitting the square with gravikinesis so that Alexander's armor cracked, and he himself was thrown back. The human landed on all three limbs like a giant tattered cat, head bent to the ground and grimly examining the enemy.

“Poorly repeat with me, deadhead?!” the guardpony barked with angry bravado, taking acceleration.

Mercer retreated in front of a threatening week or two of bed rest, made a side jump. He froze for a moment, and then threw up a paw that was illuminated with red at once - it suddenly swelled three times, which made his fingers zeros in a pile of dark stone-like mass. Swinging properly, Alex struck the ground with all his might with the changed limb - now the restless guardpony had been carried away, and the ground around the place of the fight heaved. Several apple trees tumbled backward, the apples clattering like hail, as if a lost turtlesnap had stepped into the orchard. The human folded into a ball, throwing himself up and to the side, using a weighted paw as a counterweight, and the beam of Luna passed through the place where he had just been.

“We must leave...” Bon Bon looked around, but just at that moment the shield flickered around the battlefield again. “Damn it! Teleport us out of here, we must give the princess Luna space! He works for the guards!”

“We cannot, the spell against the teleport was still standing when it all began!” the unicorn suddenly changed in its face and collapsed to the ground, screaming at the top of its voice:

”Lie down!!!”

The tree uprooted whistled in the air, only slowing down a little because of the telekinesis of those present, knocking those who did not have time to get out of its trajectory, and immediately screams of pain were heard.

“Leg, my leg-ah!!!” screamed in pain a young mare in golden armor, staring in disbelief at his hoof, punctured by sharp splinters and twisted at an unnatural angle.

“Watch out!”

“Pony, back it up! Spells do nothing to him!”

Sweetie Drops was panting, leaning against an apple tree that had crashed into the ground, as if in an impromptu trench, and wondered how things could have turned out this way. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest - the human slipped out of the dust-agitated air like a huge dexterous lizard. Wherever his chosen target moved, Mercer followed her like a shadow, spinning nearby and waiting for the moment to strike. No, friendship magic won't work here, Bon Bon thought sadly. The ponies have pissed him off too much... or rather, don't ponies, but he thinks so. It was simply impossible to do anything worse. None of the guardponies fled in panic, but the battle formations were mixed. Derevolkos ran, stings whistled, the human himself did not give a second of respite to Luna, constantly distracted by the new victims, to any of the detachments... Complete chaos.

But the whistle just stopped for some reason. From time to time, the ceasing rumble of the gun suddenly broke off, ceasing to spit out metal pieces, but a ball of fire flew in from the thicket to replace them! Something resembling a large fireworks display spiraled and exploded into a reddish curtain. Bon Bon tried to figure out what that was supposed to mean, but once again Mercer caught her attention. Through a red fog filled with a suspension of "carriers", she noticed how the person stopped in place, made an incomprehensible movement. Agent Drops bit her lip as she watched a swirl of scarlet particles swirl around his elongated figure. As his paw returned to its original state, removing the stone, revealing burning wounds and sores on the skin, a fan of tiny lightning seemed to run along the ground. Sweety heard the crackle of electrical discharges even through the hubbub and screams of the ponies trying to deal with the indefatigable golems. It was too a big coincidence not to be like what the so-called "swamp hive" was doing!

Princess, thought Bon Bon desperately, hoping for a still functioning mental connection, He's so recharged by the sun! I beg you, burn this suspension!

Praise the Goddess, Her Darkness heard her subject, or simply had similar thoughts. It was only at the same moment when the pegasus, on her orders, threw incendiary mist around the perimeter, and the princess herself summoned a powerful stream of wind and dispelled the crimson fog - probably still fearing for the life of their guest, fooled by the changeling in the event of using fire, - Mercer immediately added a new factor on the battlefield.

While Luna was busy, something slipped out of the ground with a roar, dark gray, small and swift. It hung for a moment in the air, dragging a pigtail of reddish tentacles behind it, spinning around its axis with incredible speed for a living creature, scattering lumps of earth to the sides.

Bon Bon froze when another smoky spot bloomed with a crash in the clearing in the apple orchard - this time blue-violet. It appeared right next to the House of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, where a detachment of earth ponies occupied a position under the cover of flyers. And then a new gap enveloped the former Grievous, causing him to burst into a terrible cough and disappear. And then another one at the border of the dome. More, and more, and more...

Bon Bon knew what it was - but in the confusion of battle, definition eluded her. The attack was not serious, especially for the Ponyville people, who had long been accustomed to the periodic incursions of the Everfree into their calm rural life, and was "cured" by prolonged evaporation of spores from the skin in hot water. But right here and now, in a combat situation... The substance seemed to Sweetie predatory, dense and evoking a cold realization of what Mercer could do with her helpless pony efforts. So this is what the stranger concluded in his podza many surprises! He left them at the end, placed them at all in the wrong places where the earth had been dug up by tree-walkers, out of order!

“Poison joke!” shouted one of the earthlings and, dropping the spear, with his teeth pulled his less agile comrade away from the creeping cloud. Those who found themselves directly in the emission zone were less fortunate. Before the eyes of the frightened ponies, what was happening that only the Joke was capable of: the limbs of the ponies became soft, like plasticine, the horns turned into screwdrivers or spectacular mustaches hanging right over the eyes, the wings of pegasus turned into paper, then grew to completely indecent sizes, then they were plucked. One pony managed to become invisible at all, so that all that was left of him was the armor flying in the air. With an enviable calmness for Bon Bon, Princess Luna tried to help several ponies at once, making the work of the orderlies easier and giving the guard a respite in general, and Mercer disappeared again.

“Drops, do something!” Night pleaded, waving her ears warily, trying to determine where the trouble will come from this time. “Use your monster hunting skills or something!”

“This is not how the monster hunt works!” screamed Bon Bon, “I don't know what to do!”

“Come on, ponies!” there was a shout from the commander of the thestrals. “We need to stop him, or he will beat everyone up! We must beat everything that we have!”

“Lethal?!” the unicorn was horrified, knowing perfectly well that health is fixable, but not life.

“Hit him yourself with something more serious!” snapped the solar pegasus, trying to block the spread of the poisonous fog by air gusts. “Try to aim the one at whom the spells need to be directed exclusively by the experienced! And if we go into close combat with our hobbyists, we won't last long!”

“Aim for his paws!”

The beaters just followed this advice, only in relation to the timberwolves, trying not to get under their blow. They managed to stop another golem by entangling their paws with a chain emerging from a special crystal and interrupting them. The monster managed to get one of the guards, but bit him so absurdly and weakly that the guard escaped with only a small lacerated wound on the skin. Moreover, the bite damaged the jaws of the monster itself, distorted its bony mouth with fangs closing like teeth on two gears! Then an earth pony landed on the back of the tree pony, sending a powerful impulse of gravikinesis, and the golem scattered into numerous branches and scraps of vegetation. The power of the timberwolves was in their ability to absorb spells below a certain limit; no one but the largest individuals could boast of a strong body, as well as the ability to survive the shot of Luna. The bald, earless head, crumpled and torn, which at once ceased to be formidable, fell apart in the same rags as the sting tool in Mercer's hands. The scarlet claws slipped from the tree in blobs of an incomprehensible liquid and went out.

They were... the most ordinary timberwolves? Bon Bon suddenly understood. Who rushed about exactly like blind, because they were wearing some kind of stupid mask with a lousy view!

“This is all deception, as with Grievous! He did not subdue them!” Sweetie yelled, cupping her hooves like a megaphone. “It's a bluff! Forget about the Timberwolves!!!”

“If he bluffs, then he is weaker than he seems!” the thestral mare jumped up. “We must attack immediately!”

“Save your strength! If it breaks through to us, it will not be stopped!” the unicorn snapped.

Bon Bon fired a cable, moving in a group of thestrals, to which Luna had sent her, and found herself on the veranda of the already defeated headquarters of the Marksmen. Glancing around the battlefield, the pony saw not Mercer, but another gray, faded, swift entity. She ran out from the side of the apple grove - as if a giant centipede were streaming from the shadows of the trees. Bon Bon clenched another horseshoe in her hoof, feeling a trembling all over her body. Did Mercer really detach a part of himself and send him off to fight so easily?! Because what was in a hurry to the battlefield, well, very much resembled his hand. Only instead of fingers she had something that looked like the mandibles of an insect. The creature rushed, carefully avoiding the guardponies, connecting and separating the bristles of the armor and throwing out its articulated claws in vague movements. Sweetie Drops' eyes widened as she saw a huge spiral tentacle on her elbow, wrapped around a base, with a spiked ridge curved backward. The ominous creature was dragging a stinging weapon with it, an exact copy of the one that was on Alexander's back - well, or it was rather the very original. Bon Bon, waking up, threw her favorite weapon of pacification, but the grotesque-looking limb rushed in jumps, her claw-like paws barely touching the wet grass. Bon Bon tried to calm herself down, to bring her to her senses, but it was too late - a quiet squeak of horror escaped her.

If this was what the stranger was capable of with one paw, what will happen when he has  the second  comes back?!

“Tartarus' abyss! How many parts of it have dug in here?” the night pony was horrified. “Let everyone who stayed in Ponyville come here!” she shouted to the unicorn gu remaining below.

“We can’t! We can’t, i said!”

“Don't let him reunite!” squeaked Sweetie Drops, doomedly watching as the limb jumped over the earth pony, with all his might hit him on the helmet with the handle-stop of the weapon. “Don't let..!”

One of the pegasus really hit the self-propelled paw with a spear, drove it right into the joint of the plates on the joint, so that the armor was licked by electrical discharges. But nothing happened - the dexterous creature did not slow down, did not make a sound, only trickles of gray-pink-whitish blood poured out, and Sweetie, who did not even want to think about what it looked like, decided to swaddle the stranger with a cable with a spell of continuity useless - his limbs will simply separate, escaping from the fetters, and reassemble.

From the subsequent action of the agent Drops instantly broke through then. Appearing like a clown from a box, Alex was right there, and the limb fired tentacles right at his shoulder, digging and biting into the exposed plates of armor. With muscular effort, the body pulled up the missing part, moving together, coming together. Turning around its axis, the paw shuddered with a chomping sound - and now it was almost indistinguishable from its companion, working as if it had never left the place predetermined by nature. Any creature of flesh and blood, having received an amputation wound, could not easily attach what was lost back to itself. Bon Bon knew it was impossible. Even the installation of the prosthesis is done under the spell of sleep by a skillful unicorn, which connects all nerves and magical channels to the appropriate receivers, and nothing else! A living creature could not possess the properties of a golem! Mercer was alive by all indications, wasn't he?

“It heals faster than we damage it!” the thestral commander grunted in frustration. “We have to let the Mother of Night hit for sure!”

But nevertheless, despite all the "impossible" Bon Bon, Alexander flatly refused to disappear from the picture of the world. His body was racing forward, his head with eyes burning with restrained hatred looked straight ahead. When the princess blocked his path with many barriers at once, the human braked and stood on an earthen dump. He lifted the stinger, which he still held in his left hand; hit the lid, throwing it up, pulled out the remnants of the tape from the box melted by the spell, tore out the box with its claws and threw it away, inserted the edge segment of the tape back into the device, slamming it.

”Stop!” Luna exclaimed, flapping her elegant wings into the air. ”Why are you doing this?”

The human stared at the mistress of the Night towering over him. I pulled the lever on the stinging knife.

“Alexander, why are you silent?” made another attempt Luna, this time quieter, even with some kind of pleading intonations in her voice. “Say something!”

The human spat out his strange whitish blood and suddenly broke through a section of the barrier with one blow, immediately shot forward with his left hand, stretching out a tentacle with mandibles at the end, digging into the ground. Mercer, like a member of a lasso rodeo, flew out of the cage formed by the shields before it was restored by Luna. He let him go, breaking the distance, on the run firing behind his back, on Luna rushing after him.

Bon Bon dawned on just another burst of poisonous "fireworks" buried underground.

“Not this way!” she shouted to Noctus. “It is Her Darkness that should let us strike! He only lets ordinary ponies come to him!”

Princess, can you do something to delay him? You said that crystal magic should seriously injure him?

If it is necessary, I will do it, my little pony. I wanted to avoid this, but I really don't see any other way out.

“Pony, spells only scratch his armor!” set off to explain to the detachment of thestrals Bon Bon, jumping from the half-destroyed veranda and at full speed following the stranger. “But I need you to distract the alien so that I can get close to him!”

“Yes, he distracts us, be healthy!” the old friend Bon Bon was indignant.

“Exactly... A-ay!” one of the thestrals barely dodged a hefty devil dog, which rushed past with a crash, sweeping away everything in its path. Their commander bared his teeth in a dashing manner:

“Come on, pony! Don't you want to be the one to stop this over-the-top under-engineering?” he growled. “We have not yet encountered such a thing, but sooner or later we would have to! You knew what you were doing, so let's go and make the Night Mother be proud of us! Spread out!”

“Roger that!” the night ponies were now flying low above the ground, their clawed wings spreading menacingly.

“Use chains!” Sweetie Drops shouted, barely keeping up with the thestrals, drawing the attention of the other ponies as well. “He will undoubtedly split up to avoid being captured, but that will give me a few seconds!”

Not far ahead in the garden there was a battle, purple flashes flaring up. The detachment, ready to support Bon Bon, moved forward without hesitation: all explosive "surprises" on this They had already worked their way, and it was necessary not to be so careful. A devastated stinging gun flew past the guardponies, another pegasus suddenly fell from the sky, entwined with living fetters, like a vine... Leaving the regular unicorn with difficulty to cut them and provide assistance to the victim, the ponies finally reached the place of the fight.

Mercer nervously jumped from tree to tree, hiding in the crown and behind thick trunks, sometimes leaning out to prescribe a cuff for another victim, but Princess Luna steadily pressed him. From the magic spilling over the air, cold waves ran over the guardponies. Her Darkness used a good half of her "safe" arsenal to shield the ponies from Mercer, who found himself next to them. The earth around the trees stirred, turning into a viscous slurry and absorbing the supports on which the person moved. The air currents crossed and changed their relative position, threatening to blow off Mercer. Icicles grew directly on the trees, forming a cover no worse than a shield spell. At the end, Luna, taking advantage of Mercer's confusion and the fact that only a couple of earth ponies were next to him, increased the gravity on the square seven times, which made the guards hiss displeased through their teeth, and the human, as if in panic, curled up into a ball and immediately rushed out of the spell's area, fueling its speed with a crimson flash. As he rose again to his full height, Alex's attention was diverted by a pegasus, with a battle cry, appeared from behind the crowns of trees directly above him. Mercer hurriedly fired and struck, and then sparkling blue lightning struck him with great force. The human swayed, trying to cover himself with a kind of shield that had grown directly from his hand, but Luna continued to hold the spell, and he fell to his knees.

“This is our chance!” Bon Bon quickly put the thrower into the hoof, prepared for a shot. “Go-o-o!”

“Forgive me, Alexander,” the princess said with regret, landing and walking with a brisk step towards the defeated man. Its horn, from where the crystallizing charge escaped, emanated steam, as if from overheating, “but this is necessary for your own good.”

The alien looked, frankly, not very good. The skin on his face darkened, his eyes swam with blood and stared convulsively in different directions, the humane burned out, the edges of the armor plates and cheekbones were covered with small transparent crystals that had grown inside. The small box on his belt, unlike the other false device, was in no hurry to dissolve - and it went into hysterical crackling.

Then the human, shaking his head shallowly, as if from shock, made a giant leap from his place and was next to the knocked down pegasus. Guardpony, trying to help him, the human threw back with a miserly blow of the hand, so that the flyer flew away and, with a short cry, crashed into a tree.

“Veal,” - muttered Mercer, not addressing anyone in particular, “ha... zet voz-ndd sach ea cheor nau woz-itt? (5) Ha.”

Despite the fact that the lightning warped his armor, made his movements more abrupt and incorrect, compared to a pony, human still seemed to live in a different stream of time. He was exactly that guest in this dimension, much more awkward and slower than his own. The only ones who could compete with humans were Luna and all the same Pegasus, but any of their attempts to descend for direct contact ended sadly. Bon Bon held her breath as the human flung out his hand with an imperceptible movement and closed the claws on the neck of the flyer, who was convulsively hammered in his grip.

“Kha... ha...” Alexander coughed, smiling unhealthily with chapped lips. “Ha-ha-ha-ah...”

“You... You... Why didn't it stop you?!” Luna blurted out resentfully, trying to gain time, starting to cast a spell of teleportation of an object of living nature with magic.

“What can I say...” Alex answered in a rattling voice, shrugging his shoulders in an exaggerated artistic gesture, “I am full of surprises sometimes even for myself.”

”Don't you dare touch...”

“Your Darkness?!” heard the ever-increasing stomp of combat hobbyists and the whistle of wings.

Another detachment reached them, the ponies in which were not in their backbone busy with helping the wounded and poisoned. As soon as he saw reinforcements, Mercer exploded in a red cloud, in addition activating the Joke around the edges of the free space. A pegasus ran out of the fog, getting rid of the rumbling luminous fetters on its legs, but not on the wings, which fluttered, pressed by tentacles to its sides.

“Above! He's on top, beware!” the flyer shouted, looking around in panic, rushing to run away.

Sweety suspected something was wrong and shouted to the thestrals to follow her even before the scarlet "carriers" and the joke were dispersed, and with a cough, both pegasuses emerged from the oddly mixing fog, even before they saw green sparks among the entangled wings.

“Those ropes of his explode in thirty seconds or something!” shouted the pony, that not long ago he crashed into a tree, hobbling, but stubbornly dragging his comrade away. There was a deep black hole in the guard's armor. “I barely managed to take it off! And even then not all...”

He doesn't know ponies at all, thought Sweetie, swinging on the line and rushing into the attack with the phastrals. The human may have won a few moments by embarrassing the merciful Moon with the sight of the victim and forcing the unicorns to target the treetops, but Agent Drops was such a pathetic trick not to circle the hoof. Would that pegasus have run away if he had freed his legs while his friend was lying unconscious by the tree? Wouldn't dare to come to his aid?!

Chains struck the big fake pegasus from crystals from all sides, wrapping around the first obstacle on the way, and he fell to the ground. Bon Bon saw that no less than two-thirds of the magical projectiles directed by the experienced hit the target - the stranger could not afford to run faster than an ordinary pony. One of the thestrals screamed in horror as the creature jerked wildly in its bonds, ripping off its bloody mask, flapping its fake wings from side to side.

Mercer got up, staggering, and even took a few steps, claws out of his hooves. And if earlier, despite his massive body in comparison with an ordinary mare and a o higher density, Alex moved with such speed, as if among his ancestors were purebred families of runners, and the force of gravity does not as for another creature of the same size, now... It really was a striking contrast. The creature stifledly wheezed - every step seemed to be torture for him and was given with difficulty, and the remnants of the pony's skin boiled, exposing bones.

But then the bundles of muscles bulged, and Mercer somehow stretched out his right paw. The links on one of the two chains blocking it cracked with a crystal clink... tiny tongues of green flame peeking out through the hole in his back shot up higher as if the bellows of his lung were fanning them.

“Keep it!”

It seemed that Mercer was twisting from the chains, inexorably preparing to break into a gallop. Terrified, Bon Bon jumped forward, mentally adjusting her legs. The thestrals, with their last strength, clung to the conjured bonds with their claws and teeth, using the trunks of the nearest apple trees as levers, twisting the human's paws.

“My loyal subjects, I am already here!” exclaimed Princess Luna, having time to fly faster than the guards to their faithful servants and began to recreate the gravitational barrier, building up massive crystals on the brushes.

Mercer opened his burnt mouth and outward, rolling down his neck in a stringy wave like a harpoon flew his tongue.

A long and mobile muscle, jumping from a twisted mouth, stretched out into a string and swept over the familiar Bon Bon, which was the closest. She screamed and tried to escape, but Mercer pulled sharply, so Princess Luna was forced to interrupt the spell for fear of hitting the guard. Alexander threw his head forward and hit the batpony on the fly with the failure of his nose, breaking the muzzle. Night screamed. From the blow she was thrown back, and the Thestrala fell to the ground on her back, her hooves pinching her nose and awkwardly flapping her wings. Mercer collapsed next to her, breaking the chains on his right leg. His eyes, already replaced by those of a cat, burned with madness.

“Midnight!!!” yelled one of the solar pegasus. He tried to grab the thestral from under the blow, but Mercer, with some contemptuous ease, grabbed him by the head and easily held the pegasus, clutching the claws on the helmet, with a metal groan of bark piece of armor. Then the human lunged with triple force, so that a pair of Batponies flew screaming into the trees before they could let go of the chains. Almost freed, shattering the crystals on his limbs, Mercer without a swing kicked the thestral trying to get up in the stomach, protected only by a magical aura, and the night guard wheezed in terrible pain, huddled in three deaths on the ground. Luna gasped in disbelief at such outright cruelty, and the pegasus cried out in a high, rattling voice, with all his might nailing a man with all his hooves. The hideous claws fluttered on the helmet. It seemed that they were about to close completely, crushing him along with the head of the unfortunate, like a jar of peaches under pressure... but instead, the human unexpectedly threw the guard away with all his might. He knocked another night guard down with a throw - he grabbed the hoof, pulled him over, turning it over in the air and hitting it on the ground like a sack of work clothes. Xander was about to roll to the side, but then Sweetie Drops did get to him, the rope whipping around his neck. She hit the human with an impulse in the hip joint, as hard as she could - so that he was distracted and, possibly, fell to the ground, while she herself jerked up his bony back.

Bon Bon was rightfully proud of her gravikinesis skills. And even though she was far from such talents as Pinkie Pie and the same Apple family, Sweety, by virtue of her first craft, was still a dexterous acrobat, capable of pushing monsters with no less monstrous strength. She thought that she would have the accuracy and ability to send an impulse to the stranger's face in order to gouge out his eyes, but not damage what he should have been in place of the brain. Bon Bon by no means she wanted to be cruel, and this method was disgusting to her, but in the fever of battle, the pony decided that it was better to injure a man than to watch him further maim the guards. Besides, with his talents for metamorphosis, Alexander will surely grow everything anew! The loss of his eyes should have knocked him out of the saddle, slowed down, and Princess Luna would be able to capture him. Otherwise, all this will not end in any way!

But first, a preliminary remedy. The world is so arranged that a mare, all other things being equal, is physically always weaker than a stallion, even if she is a strong earthly pony. With a boogeyman like Mercer, who is faster and more agile, Bon Bon does not compete at all. So for a successful strike, her attack had to turn out not only crippling, but also unexpected, discouraging. Sweetie had a fresh baked apple jam pie from a bag in her belt. Grasping one hoof on Mercer's armored shoulder, with the other Sweety lifted the improvised projectile over her head and swung it so that the already tired muscles responded with pain. She would have used a much more convenient jar of jam, but Pinky's advice not to follow exactly was fraught with danger. Regardless of what effect he was supposed to have on Alex, in the opinion of the cheerful Guardian, the person will at least be blinded, close his eyes, having received a test in his eyes.

“Open your mouth, human!” hissed the pony, smashing the pie right into the Mercer's face.

And in vain, what a second later I was convinced. Before Sweety had time to make a precisely measured gravitational blow, Mercer's facial bones... fell inward along with her hoof. The pungent smell of sulfur, indistinguishable from a distance, shied away. The human's face literally fell apart, so that light blood spurted out, and the edges of the monstrous wound pulled together the strings of something that looked like saliva. Sweetie Drops, struggling with a fit of lightheadedness, saw in the depths of the opened head a hemisphere of a light pink brain, which appeared from behind Mercer's high forehead, which, like a lid, had moved up...

Then the edges of the facial bones bared with a thousand needle teeth, and they closed on Bon Bon's hoof, digging into the flesh.

Sweety shook with pain and fear, jerked her leg back, but where there! During her work as an agent, monsters have repeatedly bit and scratched her, and if it were not for the capital's healers and some modified potions, the earth pony could boast an extensive collection of scars. But this... it was too crazy, too abnormal! Blood poured from many small wounds, the jaw-face pressed against her hoof more and more, so that Sweetie twitched in a death grip. Now she was not at all up to the original plan - especially since the person now had no trace of eyes.

Then Mercer's skull, which opened like a predatory flower at the seams of his bones, began to chew on the limb that had fallen into his trap.

A white flash blinded Bon Bon, and in a split second it was flooded with an ocean of pain, forcing the body to arch and beat in agony. She could feel the sharp teeth, except perhaps cutting through the flesh between her hoof and elbow, like a rusty, blunt hacksaw, tearing at muscles and tendons. Blood from the torn artery gushed out in a wide stream. With a disgusting crunching, the human bit through the bone, and Bon Bon fell to the ground.

Her back hit the wet grass. Bon Bon tried to rise up, clamp the wound, but, exhausted, collapsed back. The soaked stump of a leg flooded the green carpet with blood. As if from the side she heard her screams and sobs. The screams of the guardponies and the stomp flew to the ponies - the guards reacted to the human who had escaped from the encirclement. He took Bon Bon's hoof with him in his jaws, like a terrible trophy, without trying to do anything with the incapacitated pony. With a wrong movement, Sweetie Drops rolled over onto her stomach, released her surviving leg, trembling with pain, towards the farm. The pony stared at the dust curtain and the tears of the joke with dull eyes.

Nice idea, Pinkie. But this won't work with him a second time, she thought distantly. Lyra... I'm sorry. We focused on a new enemy... but completely forgot about the one we had just defeated. We've ruined everything. I'm so... I'm so sorry...

Strong hooves caught her and carried her somewhere. The grossly amputated leg seemed to be plunged into icy insensibility. However, in the next instant, the painful shock took its toll, and Bon Bon lost consciousness.
> Going Inside a Storm - 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alexander Mercer (what was left of him) spat out with his cranial mandibles as he ran, spitting out a hoof that he borrowed from a beige pony. Much worse than acid pie! Well, but an eye for an eye, he thought wickedly and ironically. The doctor had an opportunity to take revenge on the horse people for all the psychological and physical injuries to earthly children that these biting creatures have ever inflicted at fairs - and he, protecting the brain, used this opportunity without hesitation. Alex hesitated for these few moments while they tried to damage his optics. Probably, at that moment they could have swaddled him even more in chains, finally captured... But the guards who turned out to be nearby were clearly shocked that a creature from another world so easily cut off the leg of Celestia's servant. One armored Bat-hybrid made frequent swallowing movements, desperately trying not to vomit. Another individual, a "pure-blooded" mare, which had so far gone into hand-to-hand combat with a spear, froze in horror and only barely audible whimpering on one note, bundles and so big eyes, because it was so nicely doused with blood from the extremity chewed by Mercer.

“Merciful sisters!!!”

“Oh, Goddesses! He didn’t...?”

I didn't overdo it? Alex tried to figure it out. Was not premature such cruelty? Well, how will a moon-ass remember from his experience of the Middle Ages, what is "acceptable losses"? Maybe she will forget about her subjects right now from such a picture and will concentrate all her efforts on stopping the insolent monster! He will put all his strength into one powerful gravity well and simply press the developed one to the ground... crushing any of the ponies who accidentally happened to be near Mercer. By concentrating his attention and the focus of the sensors on Luna, Alex realized that the winghorn, occupied by the next victim, saw everything perfectly. Moreover, such an unfriendly action on the part of Mercer disheartened her: the alicorn flared her nostrils, her ears were pressed, the anger of a true aristocrat was read in her eyes. The human swore to himself, with a slight skid changing the direction of running by almost 180 degrees, and then flying up into the air altogether, dodging a beam of some bad kind of energy. Devil, there was no choice anyway! Fight off Alex now with less drastic methods, and he would be tied, so just follow the original plan. Don't let this treacherous bitch go on the offensive! Don't give her even a second of time to think about the balance between ends and means!

And how much time is left there for him? Why, the hunter tear her, solar demi-godhood has not yet appeared in person?! Teas with cakes drives and does not blow in the mustache, that her subjects are naturally killed here, or what? Well, is still not natural, so multi-colored xenos right on the battlefield had the opportunity to nurse conditionally wounded, and not to issue funeral sheets right away.

“Doctor here! Doctor, hurry!”

“Carefully! He's coming ba-a-A-A-AH!” Another dwarf horse abruptly cut off its scream, when the man at full speed knocked it down, practically flew into its face with its chest, perhaps not trampling it. Once again it seemed to Mercer that in this universe merciless irony ruled the ball.

Time, timer... Well, if Alexander Mercer were a real android, then his "vision of the terminator" would now show a whirlwind of indicators, of which exactly one was encouraging: the fire in the engine compartment was extinguished. And even then I had to rip off the upper muscle layers from the heart, throw them into the hole from being hit. The tentacle, which began to burn in flames, followed, which made repairs, for the green rubbish turned out to be extremely sticky, even worse than napalm. Burned mercilessly, did not react at all to blocking access to local oxygen.

Strictly speaking, due to signal substitution, Mercer did not feel as if a firebrand had been thrust into his chest. On the contrary, it was cold as in the ninth circle of hell. Chimeras, except that they do not yell with good obscenities, that the energy and building materials are close to each other, even taking into account the economical form of the scout. Alex did not take into account the danger of "freezing" his limbs to the point of impossibility to control them, as ordinary people stiffen their fingers in winter. There were also more serious problems... He will still lose physical the ability to move faster than the illusion will be capable of, which replaces the damage signal, complements the indication system and avoids neural blockade. Simply put, only when Mercer's kneecap is blown apart by another spell, then the leg will "mentally freeze" in the knee joint. If T Only there will be nothing to warm it with, that is, to allocate mass for repair.

And spare parts were not foreseen - in view of the very more serious problems that glowed with scarlet flashes of indication throughout the body. Critical depletion of the right scapular, right thigh armor plates. Desynchronization of the placental connection from the returned limb. A critical load on the heart, functionality is reduced. Unexpected abnormalities in the conduction of nerve tissue after being struck by crystallizing lightning. Damage to the cerebral cortex in its frontal part. The danger of repeated failure of optics, it is recommended to switch to a thermal trail. Well, the worst thing is the battery. Partial shutdown of systems after seven and a half minutes at the current level of power consumption.

And yes, how is lightning capable of irradiating radiation at all?!

As many as seven and a half? So where to hurry? Mercer would have grinned sarcastically, but his face was still a loosely assembled skull with no lower jaw. Let the mass consumption turn out to be more intensive than expected, the developed one still has a lot of time! It took Mercer only six to save New York from the apocalypse that he himself brought upon the city... with the broadest assistance of the US government, it was worth noting. He dealt with the Supreme Hunter in just three minutes. True, then it was a fight between two professional biological weapons, a fight for exhaustion, for the exchange of the most inventive techniques and blows, for their timely use. Not like now - hide and seek behind the backs of other people's minions, waiting for a convenient moment to attack, until the first serious mistake of one of the opponents. Up to a single successful attack that will decide the outcome of the battle and leave a bloody mess from the loser.

I wonder if you understand who you got in touch with, eh? Alexander thought angrily, keeping his peripheral vision on Luna. Do you have any idea who you decided to stab in the back? Are you afraid of predators, herbivore? Alex rushed in a wide arc to the border of the dome, as if breaking the distance with the night princess. If so, then in vain. The Predator itself is a vulnerable creature of flesh and blood, which does not at all want any hefty four-legged fool to break his head with a hoof. The predator always aims at the most vulnerable places, trying to finish off the victim as quickly and efficiently as possible, at the same time - safely, inexpensively in terms of energy. All he needs is for the prey to stop moving and let him get enough meat, to stretch out for some more time, leaving offspring with a successful outcome. 

Do you think a predator would torture you for days, weeks, fresh alive, tearing apart the flesh and the information it needs, because in your shitty wrong world you can't pump anything directly from your brains? making another long-distance jump and in flight releasing a bolo-bomb at the so successfully substituted pegasus. Guardian Night, you do not even know the pitiful quarter of real nightmares that I can bring on your subjects, otherwise I would not stick here personally to capture, but simply dropped a meteorite on me, spitting on all the victims among the civilians. Do you understand, you filthy anthracite, that the leg that was so easily gnawed off from Lyra's friend, the traumatic shock of this fluffy pretty guy, because of your whim, is forced to resist me - this is not my maximum, this is just the beginning?! 

“Group up!” came to Alex's ears the loud (but therefore no less melodic) bass of the officer. “Don't let him divide you, it will start now!”

As if having caught a wave of hatred coming from Mercer, Luna suddenly rose, with one powerful flap of its wings rose into the air. Great target! Distracted from the victims? Want to end the fight with one blow? Faster, faster, get away from the blow! Goes to another attacker! Attack! The swarm artificial intelligence embedded in the mutant produced variants with very different levels of reliability, but Alex chose to remain deaf to his advice when it came to predicting anomalies in this abnormal universe, especially the direct use of the princesses' abilities. No, Zeus will not attack right now, this is a deliberately losing move. Early, early... the location of the figures on the battlefield is not right, the pegasus will easily intercept his attack, plus there is a semblance of magical screens on Luna. Moreover, it is much stronger than usual from the guards, such a blow of a fist cannot immediately bring down.

The princess, meanwhile, raised her hooves to the sky. "Singing" some gibberish on a variation of Equestrian incomprehensible to Mercer, the alicorn gave out with a horn the glow of all shades of turquoise. The air around her somehow perceptibly thickened, and Luna, obeying the call of its mistress, began to appear more and more clearly in the sky, approaching the sun. As if overpowering resistance by day It shone, ignoring the whistle of the spells below and the mutant rushing across the battlefield, Luna continued to hold the occupied height until the satellite crawled onto the magical pseudo-star, leaving only faint stains from its crown. Twilight enveloped the battlefield, and only then did the cat-horse's pose stop showing the highest tension, as if it were manually... experimentally pulling a heavy load. On the contrary, now it was as close as possible to a fighting stance; the wing-horned pony turned into a giant bird of prey just before it fly down at peak, trying to overtake its prey. Luna's eyes lit up with a cold blue light, and then she (for lack of a better word) screamed. Having discharged her lungs in the Canterlot manner, the Luna rushed downward, burning the earth with a beam in the direction of Mercer's movement, but unable to shoot at him with direct fire for fear of offending her own. The battle cry was picked up by the Batponies, who immediately rushed after the evolved teams of beaters. The pupils of the hybrids narrowed to barely noticeable stripes, they themselves began to move somehow faster, in a more aggressive and reckless manner...

Oh shit, thought suddenly Alex, pulling his hand away from the sharp teeth that clicked a couple of inches from his forearm, It seems she still understood. 

Mercer brushed aside his whip with the flare of his whip, trying, as before, to grab and throw away the enemy who had climbed into close combat, but with a more maneuverable thestral such a trick did not work. The night pony flew away, breaking the distance with a single sweep, and in exchange for it two more men settled on Alexander, aiming at his limbs with sharp claws on its wings and accumulated blades. They still tried to incapacitate him, immobilizing now more radical, crippling methods - not to kill. Well, of course. The risk that a viral beast will rip or even devour one of their subjects is highly justified by governments of all stripes when it comes to Zeus' stuffing. If it were not for the notorious desire to capture Mercer alive for the sake of ingredients for a potion based on the blood of virgins, or whatever the pony queens indulge in quietly from the general public, he would have been incinerated a hundred times already. And so - a ray of energy all did that played the role of another beater, each time not reaching Alex by a foot or two or three. If at that moment Mercer had a hairline, a stream of cold plasma, maybe his eyebrows and cornea would be singed, but that's all. It will not work to drive Alexander, he will not shy away from the beam like a wolf along the flags... not like earthly ones made of flesh and blood, at least. Mercer, with an emphasis on his hands, rushing to the ground plowed by wild golems, dived into a previously prepared narrow hole, similar to those along which hunters landed at the siege of Times Square.

M-mother, after all, I went too far with gnawing off the limbs of the overly persistent and arrogant xenos! Alex cursed until a tunnel lined with epithelium threw him out from the opposite side of the Crusaders' house, which was engaged in flames. Too early, the dark one reached the boiling point, too, and even half of the enemy fighters were not out of action! Maybe Luna in its normal state served only as a background feed for the "creatures of the night", but from the ritual that the princess performed, the thestrals were not badly intensified. Hymenoptera shortened the reaction time, acted now... on a whim, or what? It became difficult for sensors and the eye to keep track of all of them as usual. The radiation damage, just now beginning to subside, also did not help the cause.

“All calm down! As soon as he appears, hit immediately on the area of the spelli-i-I-I-I!!!”

And yes, go into the scorching the radioactive hell, Luna! Mercer emerged to the surface and, clinging to a plate of armor, launched the commander unicorn into flight, only the wind in its tail flapped. Almost immediately, Alex increased his frontal armor, further protecting what little of value he had left — his brains. In terms of receptors, he completely switched to hearing and thermal perception, streaking the helmet with the usual scattering of sensory pits. One hell of a lot, watery eyes are vulnerable in an environment where spells have started to flicker so often. The low resolution of the sensors-cameras on the periphery will not play a role, since the civilians were removed, the cartridges have long been out, and an accurate sight is not required: there are only enemies around, there is no point in distinguishing between friends and foes. There is only the main target, the largest heat footprint, and its entourage. That's the whole alignment. It is a pity that the enemy sees no worse than Mercer in the twilight... Even at night, Alex was thinking of arranging a complete restriction of visibility thanks to infovirions, a preparation for the smog of a Manhattan outbreak, in case he was attacked by the guards. But he decided that even Celestia's soldiers would have something to oppose to this, the same helmets with night vision mode or, in extreme cases, infrared crystal-flashlights... Probably it was, since the solar cuirassiers did not lose their combat effectiveness from the change of time of day, poke back and forth like the next pym kutyatam did not hurry. And although they were a little dumbfounded due to the actions of the younger princess, the shouts of their commanders obeyed implicitly, dragging off the victims, diligently covering each other, setting up barriers controlling the territory and periodically firing Mercer with self-returning boomerang spears and ramming spells.

You can't pull anymore, decided Alex, when he had to dodge at an incredible angle to avoid the gas stream that hit after the underground passage. Luna, looking for a mutant who again managed to escape from the cordon, snorted angrily and rushed to Mercer at top speed. The most appropriate time, express test, right now! Alicorn was so inflamed that she hit where Mercer would obviously no longer be! With this attitude, she must fly into a trap, she must... Maybe, of course, Alexander underestimates Luna-faced, and she burned out the tunnel mainly because she wanted to deprive him of another means of fooling her head, to elude retribution. But Mercer understood this: it is unlikely that Luna will only imitate the weakness Alex is looking for. Based on the psychic profile that Mercer built during all this recent "diplomacy", she won't have the cunning to pretend to be weakened. Not now, not in the heat of battle. Meanness, intrigue, a shot in the back, poison in a glass - these are the weapons of the aristocracy in a relatively peaceful time, after all. For the battlefield, there are other, more effective means, and from the side of Luna, Alexander now expected the most straightforward, albeit deliberate actions.

“Your Darkness, stop! He's something behind...” came from somewhere the half-choked squeak of that same beige mare, which pretty much surprised Mercer.

But it was too late. The jumping mine "blew up" the earth and jumped up, almost close to Luna flying at full steam. The princess cast a cancellation effect on the go, but this time it was a different charge, one of the few that were filled exclusively with virions. Ordinary charges also easily removed the shield, but this was more likely a consequence of the magician's loss of concentration due to the Stinging Fool. Mercer knew that his information environment caused some kind of arbitrary bursts in the currents of what the aborigines called "magic"... He knew that the very fact of his life causes problems for sorcerers. he looked into the city at the light, it was imperceptible - the reigning sisters covered the areas of detonation with powerful spells, and not with personal physical barriers that move with the owner, more difficult to maintain and easier to neutralize with counter-spells, according to Lyra. In addition, the previous time, Mercer did not give his microscopic assistants a command to collect energy, an excerpt from the terraformer program...

As, for example, now. Trying this trick was not given in advance, even though the ponies, not counting their rulers with speculatively thousands of years of experience of intrigue, for the most part seemed to Alex as ingenuous and harmless creatures. Perhaps Lyra would not be tormented by suspicions if Mercer asked her to check the shield for breakdown, but the unicorn was a musician, not a martial artist, and she did not own anything from the specific arsenal of the guards. So, on trifles, everyday incantations, telekinesis, musical tricks, unpretentious protective measures in case of getting out of the forest of assorted angry creatures, but that's all. That is why Alex held his breath when a scarlet flash licked the barrier of Luna, enveloping the princess and spreading in the air with another smoke bomb, this time crimson...

“Princess, beware!”

“What's going on there?!”

Yes! Yes, dammit!

As soon as Mercer gave a signal, the barrier of the princess, which had already almost flew out of the crimson cloud, flickered and dissolved in pieces, and Luna itself stumbled in flight, as if it had fallen into an air hole. The anger on her sleek face gave way to confusion, but she almost immediately renewed the shield with her own spell, so that the entire breakdown took no more than a couple of seconds.

A couple of seconds!

Is it possible to demand more from the coincidence of circumstances? Two seconds in the focusing mode on the target, when the conductivity of the nerves at the cost of overloading the AI increases sharply, forcing the world around to freeze like a sleepy fly - there is already a whole life. Only the very confirmation of the factor that the technologies of the virus are capable of causing discord in the magical processes of even an alicorn now mattered, but not the duration of this factor.

Dr. Mercer felt that in the next few minutes he would be able to take a step that would put an end to this protracted buffoonery. He did not reveal his card ahead of schedule at all. Although the reminder that "magic" feels uncomfortable next to a stranger clearly cleared Luna's head, made her rise higher to the edge of the dome with a flash of teleportation, it will not complicate Mercer's life in any way. Probably, the princess of the night will not sink to the ground at all, and will begin to beat with a beam from an unattainable height for an organic "frog" and move the wounded by telekinesis. But Alexander did not need her to substitute herself a second time, to give the developed one another chance...

Continue shelling!” already with some almost anguish in his voice, the officer shouted. - We almost crushed him!

You need to make three times more effort so that I at least feel pressure from your group, you naive idiot! desperately trying not to laugh at the feigned radiation comic, Mercer thought. If it were not for the inevitable lethal response from the princess, you would have all been lying lifeless on the ground in varying degrees of integrity.

If only one could be smacked along the ridge with all his might, breaking his spine, the other was to release his intestines with a thorn that had picked up from the ground... But no, he had to hold back with all his might. If the pony-headed warriors could predict his tricks and detect the approach in advance, scanning the dust curtain, Mercer would have had a hard time, but not in the current situation. Alex believed that the guardponies had never encountered an enemy like him. Well, they did not feel the experience of fighting against the metamorph, which now can be a heavily armed bully, breaking ahead, and after a dozen seconds already a dexterous killer, tearing the victim's trachea from the back and striking lightly armored targets with a fleeting stroke. The guards worked out the algorithms as if they were dealing with an ordinary large monster, and the princess could not burst into a hundred small ball-shaped Lunas to cover everyone. Alicorns, for all their innate power, were obviously not strong at multitasking... An excellent alignment for field work developed.

However, instead of his usual symphony of well-coordinated destruction, Mercer simply fled, ignoring the enemy fire - pursuing almost the same goals as in pursuit of Taggart. Wet earth and claw-twisted blades of grass rose up under the stilts. Skip-skip-skip-skip. Mercer rushed with all his might, trying to keep at least one enemy target near him at all times. No matter how the ponies tried to break the distance, no matter how many shields, partitions were placed, Zeus was more agile, more agile, and quickly adapted to changing situations. They are trying to overwhelm his legs with a net - so he just soars into the air, dodging between subsonic spells, like a long-footed mutant weasel. They beat Mercer from above, trying to drive him into cover - but the developed one rushes to all four, like a giant spider, pressing him to the body to the ground, rearranging his limbs with incredible speed, thrusting his sharp elbows and knees up. In this state, Zeus looks even more like an unknown and deadly creature, which is why the guard nearby screams in fright when he jumps over her with a single jump, almost ruffling the crest with his claws. Her scream only dissolves into the general cacophony of the battle - thanks to Mercer, everyone under the dome was busy with something. Someone pumped out the victims of the shock dose. Bon Bon was pumped out the same, although it was dragged away somewhere out of sight of the sensors. The ponies were much stronger than they looked, earthly for sure... A couple of times, lost in radioactive delirium, Mercer did not calculate the strength, so his blow would surely have ripped the internal organs of a man - and these are nothing, they whine, roll on the ground, but they are quite lively, do not die from extensive internal bleeding. Aha, kind, harmless pussies, of course! Ubersoldiers without viral steroids...

Mercer cursed sullenly to himself, spitting the first burst of radioactive plasma. In a parallel slice of consciousness, scraps of analysis floated up, where he was mistaken in the perception of these illustratively friendly xenos. Where, well, where did he miscalculate, huh? It seemed to Mercer that his plan was good, optimal, and would lead to the best scenario. After all, he could not stand it when circumstances placed the heavy burden of improvisation on him and did not allow him to feel satisfaction from his own superiority, from complete control over his own life!

This day, which did not at all stand out among the last three, he needed to talk with a representative of the diarchy. He knew, thanks to the girls and Lyra, that the mental magic of Luna was quite capable of making any dialogue one-sided and more than unreliable for Mercer. Alex believed that a fictional personality with the introduction of more and more inconsistencies would help him deduct whether Luna could feel a lie and even get into a developed head, as Green did insolently when they first met. The low level of biomass only contributed to the reliability of the image of the biorobot, which Alexander diligently kept in his head. Everything seemed to go well, almost perfect, similar to the "disappointed" trick in the case of Lyra. The Princess of the Night was clearly relieved and became weight She was in a more endearing way when she found out that hundreds of thousands of enemy battalions were not going to invade their world, and the formidable alien weapon was built in fact only so that no one had to use it. People do not have the habit of throwing nuclear missiles around them at the slightest misunderstanding... And a stranger with an ominous orientation of skills is only one, and not a whole civilization, and he speaks quite peacefully, you can agree with him, and not immediately drag him to dungeons as a hostage! Mercer did not feel any pressure on the skull, as well as outright lies in the Luna’s words. The only serious doubt that began to gnaw at Mercer was the question: who might need to slander him? This very Bon Bon is completely crazy in her desire to stack monsters in piles and sees a boogeyman kidnapping children... a boogieponi where he is not?

So what went wrong? Luna did not even try to immediately justify herself, saying that slandering Mercer is the work of third unidentified persons, and if her servants, they will be held responsible for it. Mercer found it natural for her desire to continue to maintain an aristocratic manner, a "good face"... In the end, Luna herself initially reacted to the appearance of a stranger with skepticism. She prepared for aggressive negotiations, counting on the worst.

Mercer, on the other hand, hoped for the best, but reluctantly prepared for war. He also decided to reproach himself, thinking that the experience of his native Universe is unlikely to be useful here: I am paranoid. I'm an idiot by the standards of this world. I take precautions in the event of a development that is almost impossible to imagine in this dimension. Probably... There is only the possibility that I should slow down. And after shaking the hoof of Luna, Alexander mentally breathed out with sincere relief. It seemed to him that crushed, but not broken, he finally went through another moral crisis, keeping his principles intact. I have already dreamed about what topics I can raise in a conversation with the elder archiwizard, what properties of this world I can adopt, use them for the all-encompassing progress of my own state... Stupid, stupid, stupid human!

He decided on a combination of factors and a bit of faith in b o the greatest adaptability of the world of xenos to trust ponies, and what? Mercer believed that someone else would have considered Equestria a collection of concentrated delirium - bright, carefree, and caramelly squeaky teeth. But even Dr. Mercer, an adherent of a more rational approach, did not expect so soon to meet his most hated enemy in this corner of paradise - betrayal. Maybe the diarchy cares about its own people, maybe they are a peaceful nation , but then their own, and Mercer is a dangerous creature who knows what can be thrown out, so it is better to calm her down with sweet speeches and quickly take her into custody. Mercer is by no means a relative of someone from the ruling elite, not someone's sister-usurper (we will not specify, but still the same Yin), who, after referring to Luna, can simply be slapped on the back and moralizingly say "don't do that anymore." But everyone else should be allowed out of harm's way, after giving out cement vestments... The incompatible was even less fortunate, the park was left to decorate, and not quietly thrown into the river, not otherwise that he was always under supervision. From among the enemies of the diarchy, according to the girls, there were some "shape-shifters" from the time of the wedding in Canterlot, but Mercer was not aware of what became of them. Not otherwise, they also blew up with friendship magic with their shit.

Seriously, doc, are you learning anything? Alex hissed in anger, parrying the guard's blow with an emphasis on the claws and a sharp movement of the elbow, driving his teeth into his throat. Remember how many times it has already happened. How many were those who promised to help you, before whom you counted on trust, because you were bound by common interests. Each time there was no trace of their participation, as soon as they got what they wanted. The last two cases are the freshest, most painful, accentuated by a change in state. And unlike colleagues who thought they were the smartest and the smartest and most capable of fooling Dr. Mercer, Karen and Fake Cross didn't get off so easily.

They were aiming at the battery, bastards, Alex noted with some masochistic satisfaction, finally closing the hole on his back. They wanted an easy victory, immediately disarmed... Especially in such a case - if the lunar-sized person downloads the details of Zeus's internal structure from Lyra's memories - Mercer changed his organs before going out to the public, so that the charge after breaking through the armor on the scapula only set the heart on fire. Alex hoped that in the worst case, Luna would use this knowledge to incapacitate the developed one, take him alive... the worst prediction came true. Luna pony must have probed Lyra's memory and relayed the location to one of the soldiers in the rear. This is your main mistake, princess, with dark anticipation of n thought Alex. By relying on the guardponies, following due status, or simply wanting to intimidate Mercer with a crowd, Luna has significantly reduced the space for her own maneuvers. The human had no doubts: if they had performed "under the dome of thunder", one on one - and the alicorn would have twisted him in an instant. She missed her opportunity, and such an alignment would turn out to be death for the Protecting Dreams... How I want to rush to the damned hypocrite right now, to thrust a blade into the back of her head, so that the blade appears between her jaws, and then sharply pull up, breaking the horned skull!

Her mistake... You yourself, apparently, did not have much time to think about from your latest experience, came to an unexpected conclusion Alex. This is where Mercer's oversight lay: in his humanity, in his anthropomorphic perception. Working for people, working with people, Alex's thoughts and actions were constantly limited by the standards of society and the environment, which were adults with the manners of an eccentric scholarly fraternity. But next to the zoomorphic xenos, the safety systems were not involved... Mercer's behavior became much richer in emotions, and after experiencing an incessant, almost three-week stressful situation, he was by no means against communication. Having succumbed to these positive emotions, the dopamine storm in the glass, Alexander allowed the momentary benefit to prevail over his long-term plans! It would be better if he continued to hide, in the manner of a spy, studying the pony society from the inside, and only then Alex would make a decision about his disclosure!

Well, that's wonderful. If so, Mercer will simply return to a state similar to the one that prevailed upon him after McMullen's revelations. If the naughty bastards have rejected the proposal for peace and so want to get it to their collection of park statues, let them try to cope with a faceless, cold machine, which only cares about the optimization of calculations, and which until now has not killed everyone just because this option is guaranteed will lead to the termination of its functioning, here and now. Themselves asked for, you scum four-legged!

“Well, you asked for it yourself!”

One such four-legged, but rather cute scum right in the direction of movement turned out to be either overly lucky, or could boast a horn with better sighting. The mare's spell hit Mercer right in the ribs, and his body cramped. It seemed as if the mutant had been hit by a plasmoid, so that a plume of smoke was instantly formed behind Alex, and the armor in that place was scorched. Not a bad move, in fact: Mercer ignored any structurally complex spells, but the usual elemental ones... Electricity, temperature, radiation, radiation - all these negative factors could ruffle Alex, if they were not absorbed by his armor and, if at all, could catch a developed, winding circles in the clearing like a mad dog.

Lightning strikes twice, he thought briefly. It couldn't be said better.

“Alexander, you attacked my subjects, but I’m ready to close my eyes to that too,” rumbled a voice behind him, filled with restrained anger. “Listen to me! We are not responsible for...”

The human was unable to recognize whether this projectile was homing, like a real ball lightning, but the guard definitely achieved her goal. Alex slumped awkwardly to one side, hiding behind the crown of the uprooted apple tree and picking up limbs, struggling to become invisible. The muscular corset is damaged, Alexander briefly noted his condition, preparing to urgently pull the base. Guardponies... They, as Mercer thought, were not such shitty warriors, except that they were not used to the ultraviolence of the Burgess name.(6) It is their peaceful outlook on life that Alex will use as vulnerability when he will deal with Luna, and Celestia will appear according to his soul. Mercer could no longer be deceived by the sedate and benevolent image of the Lady of the Sun. Let the people they rule are rather herbivorous in nature, alicorns certainly were not. All their feigned pacifism is a deception, they were and remain children of the Middle Ages. Mercer didn't even think of listening to Luna's luscious speeches - he couldn't even imagine for a second that the Princess's personal guards, the only of its kind armed forces in Equestria, could be so incompetent. The incident could be dubbed an "annoying oversight" in some other surrealistic world, invented from scratch - where the elite military units recruit those reasonable ones who can not keep their nerves in check and shoot at the newly-minted diplomatic face shaking the hoof of their leader. The Noon Universe(7) of the same brothers in the swamp that had surfaced in their memory seemed to fit perfectly - there to the honorary position of pioneers, on the idea of the most responsible, competent and mentally stable creatures in the Galaxy, for some reason they admitted complete idiots.

Raising his head to the darkened sky, Alex suddenly remembered that the conflict between the younger diarch and his sister took place precisely because of her refusal to lower Luna. Dick you will understand why Celestia has not yet flown to the aid of her bastard sister, but Mercer now did not exclude the possibility that Luna hoped in this way to attract her attention. And if the alicorns sit down on Alex together... This will be the final fiasco - Dr. Mercer and so wasted b o most of his preparations. Either we will have to seriously consider extreme measures, or... no, we just had to hurry up, time was running out.

Forgive me, girls, Alex thought with a vague amount of regret, I think I'm a liar after all. and it's not destiny to treat them to ice cream. He will either hide from aboriginal society, starting his own undercover game, or...

And all because of you, crowned bitches and your minions, almost trembling with rage, Mercer turned his head towards the creamy white guard, who released a pretty fireball in his direction. Probably, in the twilight, the pits burning with red light, combined with expressive bubbling, overtook the mare with horror, as she swallowed:

“S-sorry... I didn't mean it, really!” as if seriously trying to ask for an apology, the unicorn looked down. “But you forced me!”

“You have nothing to apologize to him for, my little pony! Alexander, I suggest you immediately...”

While Luna continued to broadcast with inspiration, judging by the tone of a little calming down, Alex slowly finished his thought:... or what remains of him will be placed in autoclaves, around which the pony shines will try their best to build a theory of what Mercer is and what can you do with it. Sorcerers, more likely due to the patient's unwillingness to cooperate than for safety reasons, will begin to try to sew all sorts of magical devices and artifacts to him, like a dog's fifth leg, and among them there may be that sorcery that Alex, based on his genetics, will be able to master, and then and explain to the captors on the fingers that in his native language the expression "here hev ai bi-kamm" means. To save time... Mercer spent three weeks trying to solve this puzzle to the end, and then they will do the whole project for him for free, so that he will get everything then to get out and take over the work of understanding, as Alex collected other trophies.

No! Set aside random defeatist moods, mentally grimaced Alex, puffing with a single lung and accelerating the withdrawal of the decay-affected tissues of the sub-armor and cerebrospinal fluid. He is not destined to die either in the casemates of the four-legged esculapians, or in a stone shell. Alexander was not going to give up - he would survive, grow meat on his bones and leave this inhospitable country, not necessarily in such a sequence. Whatever the outcome, the fight with the diarch, in the end, still gave him a good chance of surviving and remaining at large, somewhere 65 to 30, 5 in his mind in case of unforeseen circumstances. The Evolved One slowly got up, swaying on his singed prosthetic legs, and looked expectantly at Luna.

“Stop,” she said imperiously from the domed skies, “until things get worse”.

Her personal guards were nearby, staring angrily with their feline eyes, but now keeping their distance, forming a cordon. Unicorns generated personal shields in front of them, earth ponies held spears at the ready in free gaps... Do they think that now he will not go anywhere from under the beam of the princess, which is guaranteed to knock Mercer out, since the mutant cannot reach her? Hell no! Yes, Luna is an old and experienced fighter - Mercer sees this by her concentrated gaze, which follows not only the developed, but also controls the entire sector around him, for now she knows for sure that the metamorph can strike with a still non-existent limb from any side, even tongue, even from the ground. But at the same time, the alicorn itself is a creature of flesh and blood with a completely human mind, it can be defeated, deceived, defeated again! Such a self-sufficient, mobile and super-protected combat unit, moreover, possessing solid firepower, can really be hit in only one way... A surprise attack. And it, as you know, is bad because the next time it will not work. Mercer doesn't need a second chance, he still hasn't used his first. And let's call a mine with infovirions, say... sabotage, reconnaissance in force without the intended distraction. Yes, that's better.

Alex, deeply biting his claws into the bark, bent over in a stringy somersault and, finally turning the tree out of the ground, threw an innocent apple tree into the ranks of the enemy. Stop. Is he a fool to stop permanently under enemy fire? Maybe Dr. Mercer also enter into a highly intellectual dialogue with an opponent, since he is given the floor? Well, no, Alexander will no longer give vent to the tongue that has untied due to hard radiation, and asks to demonically laugh out loud or release a caustic comment Aryan out loud, not in thoughts. He will never stoop to talking with the enemy, with the future filling for the coffins. Taggart is a rare exception... Just like during the race to the Brooklyn Bridge, there is no time to stop, there is no chance to block the path of the main goal. One has only for a moment to be away from the beloved little ponies of Luna - he will trample and will not notice, the developed one will not even have time to be frightened.

Don't look back, doctor, Alex spurred himself mentally. Run as fast as you can. Don't think about why or for what, don't think about cause and effect anymore. Follow only the outlined plan.

One of the last mines jumped out of the ground near the cordon, spinning madly like a top, and Mercer immediately rushed through the window formed by the poisonous smoke. With gleeful glee, he noted that the horn of the sorceress who had hit it sparkled with a beam of lightning, as if the Joke had strengthened her innate talent for controlling electricity, causing an overload or closing on itself. The unicorn screamed pitifully and, falling to the ground, began to convulse. If Mercer had more time, he would have prepared a love potion with the help of the girls as aerosol traps. Maybe the soldiers would go into hysterics from the wrong way of using, since this rubbish twists feelings to the maximum and obscures the mind, while leaving the victim the opportunity to speak quite articulately and more or less adequately act... Just think, a world in which there are three schoolgirls can easily mix a love essence! What's next? Truth Serum made with the DIY Kids' Kit? Rocket fuel at the school science festival? A particularly advanced version of Gilbert's Atomic Laboratory? just overloads receptors with a data stream. A feather of a pegasus... well, let it be due to the fact that the winged people are known for their somewhat windy and sometimes eccentric behavior.

Curiously, did the alicorns actually combine the features of the Pegasus, being a kind of higher evolutionary form, as Mercer initially believed, or were they a separate species, similar to commoners exclusively in appearance, with a number of design features? Insufficient data. Ponies of all three races could interbreed with each other, but the fact that Cadence willingly took a spouse from "ordinary" unicorns does not mean anything.

And yes, when will Celestia show up? Given the notion that Alexander had arranged, he would like to get out of the way by this time; the griffin island, which is easy to get lost among the rocks, should have come up. This ideological opponent of jogging and dieting will not be so far away. Although... Considering that Mercer is right now trying to finish off her sister (he did not see any other option to escape from the battlefield), and Celestia is still not in a dream... Maybe everything is not so scary? What if Celestia, for some unknown reason, can not be expected - it is not for nothing that the youngest expressed herself in the spirit of "what's wrong with her now"? - and Luna dimmed the lighting only so that, as that beige shouted, to take away from Mercer the opportunity to recharge directly on the battlefield, at the same time giving an advantage to the phastrals? From this position, Alexander was doing quite well: all that remained was to thin out the remnants of the flyers so that they would not become an obstacle at the very last dash, and to pull the ground forces to the other side of the dome, away from the makeshift infirmary.

Want to fight? Alex rustled his mandibles, rushing forward and to the side. Well, let them come up if the horses smile so much to substitute their fuzzy asses for his kicks! Come on, don't hesitate - Dr. Mercer is going to rip off your beloved princess's head, gnaw her to the skull, stick horn into a tree and make a great birdhouse as a result! I bet one of the well-known Guardians will be delighted with such concern for the forest birds!

“D-don't move!”

“Whatever you are, don't come near!”

While Alexander, in Jackie Chan mode, was scattering two muscular earth-droning guards (this turned out to be a little easier than picking up a pair of super-soldiers in hand-to-hand combat), Luna still managed to burn Mercer with a beam, almost scorching the guardpony. The hostile energies had badly damaged the winding of the whip, so that this limb was incapacitated for some time, and "preparation for muffling the systems" now threatened to come in two or three minutes. The response was a volley of corrosive, rusty slime, which Alex threw out through the heat loops on his shoulder blades, at once hampering the movements of three guardponies at once, who went behind him. Combat formation of a magician and infantrymen got bogged down head over heels, having ceased to be combat-ready. Maybe the composition did not eat at once the flesh to the bone, like a phagocyte culture, but in all the expanding chemical burns on the skin, there is also little pleasant.

”What are you doing, scoundrel?!” Luna rumbled in the tone of a noblewoman offended in her best feelings.

Guess in three times, bitch, Mercer muttered to himself. He had already made sure that it would not be optimal to grab the hostage - just as quickly the Luna teleported all the victims to be treated. Is that the whole guard at once to capture, for which Mercer has neither the mass nor the control, and one intelligent with a blade pressed to his neck, Luna will easily lead away from the clutches of the mutant.

Since she cares so much about her own people, and the whip is out of the game for a short time, it's time to divert the alicorn's attention and clear the sky a little. Two-fingered palms folded in ticks shot up sharply, launching the remaining bolos into flight. Inside the shell, which looks like frozen amber, there are two bomb-weights with several dozen turns of veins, which are not inferior in tensile strength to a hardened wire; skin. Alex's hand could independently calculate the trajectory of enemy flyers along the heat trail, and then push out the charge with the screen, unmistakably choosing the lead. Four bombs - three pegasus fell to the ground, screaming in pain - from the hematomas accompanying the fall, from the twisted wings, which busily began to entangle the tentacles, from cut wounds on the skin... Luna managed to save one of this fate by placing a barrier between the pegasus and the projectile...

Come on, forget about them, focus on the main threat, appealed to the rationality of Luna Mercer. And she seemed to listen, entrusting the care of the defeated flyers and their release to other magician guards. A graceful winged figure of a mare loomed over the running Alex with a gloomy shadow - it was about to attack. Surely she was going to use something new from her arsenal, since Mercer was still circling around the pony, jumping, maiming and again dissolving among the guards. A good commander would try to turn the tide in his favor, introduce additional conditions.

And so it happened - Luna changed her magic and this time beat with some kind of freezing ray, harassing Mercer with it, now not paying attention to her own. The princess must have decided that the rapidly growing layer of ice would be less dangerous for the henchmen, since the ponies themselves are heat engines and, in general, will be stronger than the usual mammals of the earth. Pegasus sneezed from a high cloud at low temperatures, but at Mercer's ice, perhaps, if not constrained movement, then slowed down.

Well, yes, I'm already slowing down, hurrying and falling, running and stumbling, gritted Alex indignantly, grabbing the heavyweight, stunned by this approach, under his belly, jumping up into the air with him and hammering his head into the ground, after what a cannonball flying off to the side. He's still too fast for Luna to focus a spell on him for any length of time to freeze Mercer. Another question - Alex himself became even more limited in maneuvers. Although, if you look like that... Developed from the very beginning could not turn around to the fullest, as he used to at home, so the difference with a ray of entropy, that without it, seemed insignificant in Equestria. Here is a fight with zoomorphic mutants in New York - it was a very spectacular process (for an observer not involved in the action), quite. Accompanied by top-notch dismemberment, crazy acrobatics and tossing everything at each other: from lamp posts, taxis and air conditioners to army trucks, helicopters and aerial bombs.

In Ponyville, Zeus is just... running around, occasionally snarling. But this monotony has come to an end. A few more furry four-legged guards made opponents of Alex, holding a shocking spear and horseshoe blades at the ready. Having decided on the basis of the alignment of forces of the enemy that the time had come, this time Mercer did not stand on ceremony and show complacency and made a counter attack extremely shortly and cruelly, with the release of a charged impulse. The unicorn guardpony tried to set up a barrier to block the blow, but Alex ducked under him and drove his hand into his throat with a crash, overloading the armor's aura. The stallion wheezed, rolled his eyes, and fell to his knees. With one right, already gathered for lack of ammunition in the usual armored fist, Mercer threw the fighter into the pair of thestrals accompanying him and, bringing his whip to strike, rushed forward.

Although the largest ponies of the people were much smaller than the super-soldiers, due to the four-legged platform they occupied b o the largest area horizontally, and it was difficult for them to approach all at once the elongated, high-spirited enemy, and even all these overlapping barriers, spells, long spears... Mercer successfully used this combination of factors. It is pointless to break the distance, it is harmful to abandon what was conceived - a much more formidable rival looms behind, whose magic makes the armor become covered with frost and small pieces of ice from a couple of successful hits.

The thestrals wanted to drag the victim behind them, but only a charged forward throw is a faster movement than bouncing backward, albeit with the help of wings with flight magic. Merce p simply struck from the side with a whip directly at the base of the wing, interrupting it, permanently depriving the hybrid of the ability to fly. It doesn't matter that ponies even know how to make such prostheses that they give a disabled person to rise into the air again - only Zeus will get out of the carnage under the dome alive today. The second Batpony Mercer, snapping his long neck, rewarded with a blow to his armored forehead right in the nose, turning his muzzle to one side, and then completely his palm opened like an excavator bucket. Releasing the blade-dagger, the modified thumb, Mercer broke free from this fight, parting through the skin and muscles of the thestral between the front legs, scratching the ribs, barking the cuirass and tearing off the plates of armor. Blood spurted out of a long wound with a generous stroke from some alternative artist. Thestral both flew backwards and fell with his broken muzzle up, twitching and almost on the ultrasound screeching from pain. And Alex, resisting the temptation to crush his throat in order to interrupt this scream that beat on the eardrum, galloped on to bypass the infantry and find himself behind the backs of the magicians, where his second escape route was located.

The first step is provocation. To create the appearance of already a real threat to the lives of soldiers, so that Luna has less thoughts in her head, but more anger. So that the dark princess wants to immediately unleash a fair punishment on Mercer... something more powerful. Something that hits the area and is guaranteed to cover a nimble mutant, supposedly not responding to telekinesis.

Mercer managed to bring Luna to condition from the very first call. She set the developed heat in all senses at once: under the dome, out of nowhere, a burst of clouds formed, the barrier sphere itself was swept by counterclockwise wind gusts, and lightning struck from the gloomy veil, but what! On the area where Alexander was and from where all the guards disappeared abruptly in flashes of light, a real electric storm fell. Who also chose Alex as his target! The human, shaken by the discharges passing through his body, sluggishly thought that it would be nice to try to make a good face in a bad game on his own - just the Luna began to carry another sublime nonsense in the spirit of "MY HORSE MAJESTY WILL CRASH THE FORCES OF EVIL AND PROTECT YOUR PERSONS!!!". Maybe, really, spin the lunar ass for a dialogue, invite her to join the developed one in order to jointly take the throne from Celestia? She, too, is not afraid of the night and did not shy away from extreme measures, at least in the last millennium. And as soon as Mercer's proposal hobbles (ha-ha) the flight of her thoughts - to answer in the same way: to shoot in the back...

No. Dr. Mercer will no longer rely on chance, on unverified facts, albeit due to the state of radioactivity. He will deal with the immortal grace, possessing godlike powers, here and now, and will not think about her resemblance to Alexander. Empathy is the whim of a disturbed mind. Victory at the cost of exerting all the mental and physical forces of his renewed state - this is where the true recipe for success is hidden! So Alex blew up the penultimate infovirion mine next to him and, hiding behind the curtain, fell into the second tunnel.

“Where... where did he go?”

“I don't see anything! All around this discord haze!”

“Medic here, now!”

“MEDI-I-I-I-”

Step two is distraction. Now is the time for the good old fade trick that Alex learned back in the early days of the humanhattan outbreak. The difference between how he destroyed Karen's killers, (10) and Alex's real move lies in an additional false target - when Mercer, in the guise of a commander, indicated one of the fighters as a potential enemy, a monster in a human shell, and under the guise of doing business. Ponies, creatures with a rich emotional palette and equally rich imagination, will do just fine on their own.

“Wings, what do you have?”

“Concentrate, my warriors,” Luna called to the guards in a tense tone. “He definitely stayed here, cowardly hiding from our sight. You can't escape the protective sphere, Mercer!” she raised her voice. “Stop this senseless resistance, and we will talk like civilized ponies!”

“If necessary, we shake up every grain of earth, Your Darkness!” responded the officer, still a little trembling with fear after Mercer sent him flying, as if launched from a trebuchet.

“There he is!!!” one of the night ponies suddenly shouted. “The wounded is being taken away!”

“Yeah, we caught him!”

Entering the tunnel, Alex almost immediately activated a small remaining fragment of the itestinum, which was used for battery fusion and partial recharging. The human had dropped it in advance about halfway to the border of the dome. Obeying the command, the tentacle clung to the armor of the red-haired pegasus, which, together with its partner, was dragging with an emphasis on the shoulders of another wounded. In the heat of the battle, the parasite was not noticed, and then it was too late. As soon as the pegasus approached the field hospital, surrounded by the most powerful shields, a tentacle quietly seeped into his tail and mane set by the mohawk. V Bending in a manner, dividing into more and more veins, it began to glow actively, just as Alex's tissues did during disguise. Naturally, it was a surprise for the guardpony that his comrades suddenly all at once followed his modest person with a resounding stomp. They looked the most unfriendly; even his partner, bulging his eyes, single-handedly pulled the victim away, shouting:

“Watch out, he's disguised as Flash Sentry!”

“What..?” the flyer opened his mouth in surprise. “But I am not at all-“

“Here it is, hold him!”

The Pegasus did not have time to say anything else in his defense, as he was overtaken by charges from spears. The air was filled with the hum of spells and barriers. Almost all free guards came running to keep the beaten "metamorph" in order, with rare exceptions like the remaining pegasus-sentries. Luna, convinced of the capture of a dangerous creature, sank to the ground, but continued to keep her distance - not because she was cowardly, but for the sake of control, in order to avoid losses among the soldiers of the diarchy.

“I didn't do anythi-i-ing...” the pegasus groaned, screwing up his black eye with a blind eye and desperately trying to figure out why everyone was so angry with him, and Her Highness personally imprisoned him in a multi-layered energy cage. “Please, do not need more-e-e... so hard!”

Having worked out its number and spent almost all the energy, the tentacle was released from the pony hair, fell on the barrier and died safely. The guardponies, who had recently beating their own colleague, froze, looking at each other in confusion.

“Em, this is Lieutenant Flash himself!” the commander exclaimed in amazement, casting some kind of diagnostic spell through the barrier.

The first time it was me, the second me, so now I am, huh? Not a bad attempt at the principle of three "yes", (11) medieval mugs, grinned to himself Alex, immediately jumping out to the surface like a concrete bomb in reverse shot. It took Mercer a split second for him, Luna and the final dug-in surprise to line up. And now it's my turn!

Step three is crushing. It does not matter that Luna has descended from heaven to earth - Mercer knows very well how to make her return there, to scare the princess. It is much more important that at the moment it has become much closer to the border of the dome, and does not fly somewhere at its very zenith. Do you think you alone can use such a powerful element as quantum processes to trivially control the territory? Alex grunted from under the lower edge of his helmet. Dr. Mercer was also able to do something similar, although due to the specifics of his metabolism, he preferred a more aggressive style, close combat interspersed with ranged attacks. Getting into a fighting stance, leaning slightly back and putting both hands at chest level, as if wishing to push away an invisible enemy, Alex sat down sharply and thrust his hands into the ground with full swing. The earth swelled when the nuclei of crystallization, using the soil as a base, rushed along two channels, torn apart by the mass, and sharp stalagmites suddenly began to pop out along their entire length. A palisade of dark thorns barred Luna from the outside world - the only passage was blocked by the lean figure of Mercer, and the main barrier flickered behind her.

Alexander rushed forward. The tightness of the two rows did not provide room for maneuvers, only made possible an obvious frontal attack, but right now Alex chose to take advantage of this narrow space and not go out into the open, to make a false maneuver. All in order to be at the minimum permissible distance from Luna in the absence of nearby interference guards, so that it would prefer defense to attack. The night princess nevertheless attacked, but due to confusion or some other factor, it was the same energy beam, and not some more suitable blow of the singularity, which at once would break Mercer's every bone and turn his internal organs into mush. Even if it were him, the spell is not instantaneously, the developed one has a couple, two or three seconds to approach... Alex dodged, jumping up; immediately after that, it collapsed downward thanks to the dash-screen. Mentally freeing the last tree wolf "from the leash", I saw through the sensors how the princess's beam behind him smashed the already burning house of the Crusaders into chips.

Apple Bloom will kill me, Alex thought sadly. Yes, and the final skiff has arrived at the onboard radio station. One thing is good - this rubbish managed to let the girls go, so they won't see what happens next.

Luna, in turn, remembered that Alex did not bother to create a roof over her head (and if he did, she would easily make a passage for herself), and in fact she can fly. In her place Alex would have suspected that something was wrong - well, what can you do if Luna is accustomed to taking "high gray-un" in the event of a threat, and not going down, burying herself under the ground. The alicorn soared upward to prevent the enemy from pulling one of his dastardly tricks in close combat. On the run, Mercer made a grasping movement, simultaneously with a jump forward, he sharply spread his palms on his double hand, clinging to the wolf by the withers. Creature Like the rest of the golems, all this time lay quietly underground, deprived of the ability to move, with its living paws and jaws wrapped around, and so as not to arouse suspicion, she was also not deprived of the figured mask of a hunter. Having found freedom at the signal of the neural node, the wolf began to climb to the surface, tearing a thin layer of turf with its paws. As soon as the spawn of the Eternal One got out of the ground a little bit, Alex flew into it, pulling it out of the hole at once, and then launching it into flight with one mighty throw.

Step four - the final attack, finally! Luna has long been convinced that the tree wolves hidden by Mercer are a trick for creating confusion and creating false targets. Like ordinary dendromechanoids, they were practically harmless for the same trained terrestrial monkey, and therefore this mockery of nature was accepted by Luna on the barrier without hesitation, continuing to scatter a beam at Alex. From the charged throw, the wolf shattered with a squeal on the force screen, crumbling down a disassembled blank for the fire - only a super-soldier could withstand such a collision.

Time slows down for a fraction of a second, when Alex focuses on the Pegasus - one of the survivors who were the first at the place of his personal showdown with Luna. They're fast enough to outrun the unicorns, sings, and thestrals, but not fast enough to realize that Mercer was counting for that. When something resembling a fairly burnt knight's armor for dystrophics flies straight into the face of their leader from behind a spiked fence, the pegasus does not even have time to understand that this is something new. Mercer, who until now only with filigree precision fired bolo charges at them, now flies into the air himself!

Out of the way, another useless henchman! Alex growls to himself. You are not worth a second of my attention! Evolved does not crash into its victim, but clings with clawed prostheses to the plates of armor and living flesh under them. Gaining speed even more, he pushes off and flips with a burnt swift to another guardpony, who flies a little higher. Barely touching the armor on his back and making a jump at the optimal angle, Mercer puts all the accumulated momentum to move to the sphere of the dome and run along it, fiddling with his foot plates, while inertia pushes the mutant into a glass-like state of space.

Only after that, he allows himself to return the circuits of perception, groaning from overload, to the usual mode of operation. Alexander was lucky enough to avoid "anti-aircraft fire", which would certainly have knocked him to the ground - most of the unicorns remained at the infirmary. A hail of spells was just about to fall on Mercer, so he was not afraid that a single stray plasmoid would deprive him of his only chance of victory. That this alien world would rudely interfere with the plan with its crazy realities.

Dr. Mercer succeeded. He ran extremely gracefully along the protective barrier and, putting all his strength into the last accumulation of charge, abruptly pushed off to the side, flying along a descending trajectory straight to Luna. Why should she look behind her back and up, if a creature from another world, unlike her, flies a little better than a chicken? By some miracle, the Lady of the Night did not just notice Mercer - she managed to react. She began to turn in the direction of the attack being made, still not believing that a developed one could strike at the level of her position in space... Luna knew that personal barriers would protect against any physical impact, and her trained reflexes, combined with the experience of a powerful witch and not such blows, did not howl in this split second that you need to leave with a teleport flash.

It was then that the parting gift of the piece of wood worked. The idea was simple: the mine would not jump to where the princess would hang out, plus, upon breaking the shield, it would leave from under the blow and restore barriers without waiting for Mercer's attack. This means that it was necessary to deliver an explosive package to Luna under the guise of something more harmless. And be sure to attack from two directions at the same time in order to knock her concentration, to divide her attention! If Alex detonated the charge on himself, Luna could have time to react and leave, leaving the developed one with a nose... well, that is, without him. On the contrary, the mine that fell from the throat of the tree wolf went off exactly then and exactly where Luna least expected it! A cloud of infovirions enveloped the princess - like an electronic electronic warfare grenade was thrown. Her barrier, like the first time, flickered...

The window!

Alex threw his right hand forward, putting every muscle of his over-optimal locomotive apparatus into the punch. The fist flew to the most vulnerable point that Mercer could reach in the shortest possible time - the graceful spiral horn that emerged from the bangs fluttering in the ethereal wind.

It should have felt more than just fucking how painful it was. Mercer had hoped to drive this bone growth right into the brains of the Princess of the Night. And then immediately carry out a series of blows, almost automatically, worked out by the Kadom movements to grind the already dead body, from above with a final double fold her vertebrae like an accordion and drive the skull into the chest. Just like that, for prevention. What if these magical superorganisms based on all three races have an oblong neck in addition to the brain, so that damage to the main one will not be so critical for Luna?

The blow came from the oncoming movement of the princess's head and therefore turned out to be especially powerful. So much so that the space surrounding Alex naturally exploded. Mercer came to himself a moment later, tumbling over his head on the ground. When the human collapsed with a crash on his back to the ground and began to rise quickly, bending broken limbs, one of the flyers swept past him, thrown by the explosion. For some reason, the poor man was shaken much weaker than Mercer - he even managed to somehow level his flight, but, exhausted, eventually he also collapsed to the ground. While the other ponies were busy gasping for air, Alex quickly focused on his main goal.

The culprit of all this disgrace lay not dead, but unconscious. The princess suffered a lot, and although Alex's fist did not inflict visible injuries, her silver diadem flew away somewhere behind the crowns of apple trees, and her impeccably polished horn was thrust into a fire. The same ash color, the same smoke curling upward from overheating... Instinctively or by virtue of the magical nature mentioned by Lyra, this organ survived a blow that could pierce human through and through!

Finish off. It was necessary to chop off the neck at once, and that's the end of it, decided Alex, like an animal, rushing on all fours to the princess, who was still breathing and, moaning, made weak attempts to open her eyes. Run up, with a limb changed on the move, make a circular motion and drive the blade into the insensible back of the head.

No! It is not known if I would have had time before she threw me off! he parried his own argument. What came out in the end is even better! The princess can be used as a hostage! Flood her bloodstream with anaerobic organelles similar to those scurrying through Mercer's lymphatic system, and...

The limb, stretched out towards Luna, was suddenly shot through by a flash of cold. Alex had only a dozen meters to pass, like a hand brought up for a new blow or grip, as if dipped into boiling water.

Extensive thermal damage! chimeras shouted in their machine panic. Ignoring armor!

”ENOUGH!”

Space exploded again, not only throwing Alex away, like a dog in the path of an aggressive drunkard, but also simultaneously demolishing the dome erected by the magicians. The barrier cracked open with a rumble and began to crumble even at the first sound of the Canterlot voice, as if it were really made of glass. Fragments of the dome dissolve before reaching the ground, and in the dazzling brilliance of these fragments, against the background of the rays of the luminary, which escaped from Luna that was giving it its rightful place, descended.

And here's an unforeseen 5% arrived, Alex thought wearily. He vomited radioactive plasma right under his feet, and suddenly there were no thoughts left in his head - neither his own, nor the noises of artificial intelligence, which, at Mercer's discretion, could sneak through flesh and bone, filling in the gaps in the brain, nor parasitic neurocurrents from being struck by lightning.

Was it all in vain?

Alex indifferently watched the snow-white mare with his visor, never realizing why he was fluttering and generally trying to get up. An impressive picture blossomed in his IR vision: new colors flashed, the space was filled with thermal radiation, with his perception filter evoking thoughts of ozone before a powerful thunderstorm. Mercer felt almost like a skin on himself the attention of the one who was infinitely more powerful than him. In such a sluggish state, the feeling did not even strike Alex as unpleasant. Did it feel like something... natural? The logical outcome of this whole protracted, stupid story. The completeness of the picture, which opened before the surviving photo sensors, filled Alex with calmness.

Out of old habit, he didn’t like the fact that potential hostages were disappearing from his field of vision. Mercer thought that the pony-headed orderlies in horror would drag the victims beyond the border of the destroyed dome, even prepared in his thoughts on the remnants of radioactive courage to sarcastically ask if these amateurs, who had nothing to do with anything bloodier than a cut from cooking, that it was impossible to move without preliminary help seriously injured, but they just began to disappear with the characteristic sound of teleportation. Probably, dropping Her Serene Highness Celestia along the way broke the barrier against the teleport outside the sphere.

I already hate her, Mercer calmly summed up to himself. The goddess-ex-machina descended from heaven at the very last moment, then, out of the kindness of her soul, to solve all the problems of the characters. Disgusting feeling. All your achievements, earned in the course of the play, turn into nothing at once... what you are not worth in comparison with the higher powers, and all this is accompanied by loud applause from the audience. I hate her with all my heart.

Alex watched, without any participation, as the picture that had developed around him was transformed. The guards arrived from the reserve remaining in Ponyville. Winged multi-colored figures emerged from behind rare clouds, their horned and "normal" versions were carried by flashes of light. Here and there were scattered spears broken by Alex, scraps of golden and dark blue armor, crystals knocked out of grooves and other things that once belonged to the guards, but the newcomers quickly cleaned up all the most valuable that he could use, and did not forget to control Mercer. The devastated machine gun was stolen. Behind him, Alex even saw how one of the healers fished out of the ground a Bon Bon limb, which had been bitten off to the elbow, and was heavily stained with earth and blood. Nervously squealing "Out of the way!!!", the unicorn telekinesis dragged the stump away. The broken trees were pulled apart, clearing the clearing, reaching those fighters who, after the injury inflicted by Alex, preferred to lie quietly and not shine. One of the guards bowed and handed Celestia the younger sister's crown, hastily wiping it with his own wing. The remains of the Crusaders' house were extinguished. It seems that on the periphery of all this fuss, members of a family of farmers were running, screaming in fright. Well, still, on the territory of their economy five minutes later the sunny Armageddon did not come... Or were they calling, looking for someone?

Celestia, meanwhile, was concerned about her sister's condition - her horn was enveloped in a warm glow, so that streams of liquid gold glided over the younger's skin. The picture, at the very least, brought to a civilized form of devastation did not make the slightest impression on Alex, did not cause any emotions. He knew for sure: there would be no good moment for an attack now. It was not in the least like Mercer being trapped in a Blood-Toxin-fueled hangar with a crowd of Marines and a dog-angry super-soldier. Even if we take into account that Celestia is now busy with improving the health of the youngest, he simply will not be allowed to knock out the most dangerous targets in order to deal with their retinue later. The white alicorn, again, can apply it again... with a microwave beam, or what? Look, the tissues of the left hand were baked right into the armor, it’s good that she didn’t mark the head, which was valuable as a prize. It will be necessary to find out what kind of attack this was... somehow later. Haha.

“Lulu, can you get up?” Celestia asked worriedly, holding out her hoof.

“Ye-yes, I can,” Luna muttered, wincing desperately as if from a severe migraine. “You are just in time, sister...”

“Guards!” Celestia raised her voice. “If you cannot move, it is better not to try to get up, now ponies will help you!” Grabbing her sister by the bend of her leg, the once sole ruler of Equestria gently pulled Luna up, putting it on her hooves. “How are you?”

“A couple of ribs seem to have cracked on the fall,” Luna gasped. “Haven't broken my ribs for six hundred years, except counting the last thousand. This discord bastard achieved a spontaneous release and...” the princess looked up, where the daylight had already come into its own, and shook her head:

“I'm sorry, Tia, but I haven't seen another way to call you.”

“It's okay, Luna,” Celestia smiled with relief. “Well, at least we evened the score again in asking “what did I miss? ”Luna reacted with a nervous laugh to this acuteness that only they could understand. “Now I will finish you, but give yourself a little brea-“

“And now...” the younger sister turned her head to Alex, placing the crown between her ears with incorrect telekinesis. Cold sparks of anger, knocked down by Mercer's blow, clearly flared in her gaze. Limping on her front left leg, Luna walked slowly towards him, flaring her nostrils:

“You, a miscarriage of Tartarus..!”

Come on, Alex thought almost indifferently, feeling for the stilts in a crouched position for a better support. Come on, dark princess, go berserk. You are weak, your power has been challenged by a simple hand-to-hand fighter. Don't you want to feel at least a little bit of your superiority? Jump to the already pretty battered mutant, wanting to trample him, to avenge the attempt on your majesty!

Please?

But Celestia was not going to give him another chance to take hostage, albeit a ghostly one. She took and intercepted her sister, resting the bend of the wing on a fluffy chest with a silver cuirass:

“Don't go near him, Luna.”

“Do you even know what we will do for this, you fake Generalissimo?!” the princess of the Night growled, her eyes sparkling unkindly.

My prediction in this path cannot be called reliable, but I absolutely know for sure what I will do to you when my tentacles reach you, sluggishly disappeared into Alex's thoughts. Celestia, making sure that Mercer's attention was riveted on the reigning sisters, took the floor:

“Enough,” she announced more calmly. “Alexander, right? Alexander, nothing irreparable has happened yet. That was an infiltrator of the species unfriendly to ponies - not our soldier. We call them...”

Do you really think I'll believe this? Alex thought bitterly. Now that I know that magic is not capable of such a thing? He won’t buy a fuck like that. Not again. (12) Mercer knew that there are so-called "changelings" in Equestria, which were mentioned by children and which are able to change their appearance, somehow feeding on psychic emanations aimed at the object of replacement. Only this is an obvious and convenient lie - for Mercer to surrender, because Celestia does not want to lose valuable biomaterial. I don't believe any third party got in here, thought Mercer briefly. I don’t believe it. It was a pre-directed performance of Luna to make him surrender and get by with a little blood. Everywhere lies. These millennial politicians have become so ossified in their lies that they continue to speak teeth to Mercer even when it became obvious that he would never trust them again.

But you suspect that there may be something else lurking here, right, doc? Alex asked himself. Some hitherto hidden facts that stand out from the general plan. Which do you consider unreliable, because they turn the whole picture, that you have drawn in your head, upside down?

“... and if you don’t believe me, take into account that you are surrounded,” Celestia raised her hoof, frowning at the concentrated mine. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t intend to just watch you injure our subjects. Please don't put up any more resistance. We will calmly deal with everything and discuss everything as civilized beings.”

Why discuss something? It has been worse, Alex chuckled to himself. Ha, not really... it couldn't get any worse. However, Mercer would not be surprised if this is not the limit of the local universe, and she has something to surprise Alex with.

Alexander still had a tiny but real chance. Judging by what he saw now and heard from the girls, Celeste, "Shining", although she has an outdated experience of combat clashes, prefers to crush with pure power, which she has - like Einstein's brains. Look how I broke the dome right off the bat. The dark princess is more dangerous by her more subtle techniques, but she is weakened... The shot with the microwave beam was warning, its purpose was to protect Luna from the encroachment of the evolved. If Mercer survived the next volley and dealt with the little sister, something could be done before Sel spat and baked his brains right in his skull.

Can the sun-blowing stop Mercer? Maybe, but she is unlikely to have enough reaction speed to understand. Luna had already tried to levitate Alex, and for obvious reasons it did not work: the first element of the spell was not superimposed on the otherworldly object, cutting off the subsequent matrix. Well, Celestia can also just blast the increased gravity across the area, like her sister, and Mercer will squeeze - especially since most of the victims have already been evacuated, while Alex was swarming, assessing the situation and making a decision.

Mercer accepted him. He rose to his full height, getting into a fighting stance, clawed arms bent to his chest and slightly spreading his elbows to the sides, stooped and threw his long neck forward. Fuck unhealthy doubts about facts. In the end, meticulous analysis is one thing, but finding the right solution in a combat situation is quite another. Alex had a whole minute before either allowing the body to feed on itself, or starting to turn off the peripheral systems... Who knows, otherwise Mercer would prefer to follow the advice of his internal systems aimed at keeping the body intact and relatively safe. "Run! Drapai as quickly as possible, especially since no one is in a hurry to install a new dome!" No... they will catch up, but there is no convenient trap or, in extreme cases, a military refueling station where you can lure the enemy. That's all, basta, Zeus ran back for these three weeks. It may not be possible to defeat him, but no one is stopping Alexander from trying. It's going to be fun now, in a way that doesn't at all suggest fun, Mercer thought. Celestia, correctly assessing his stance, only managed to open her mouth and squeeze out of herself:

“Please don-“

Mercer hissed, spat on caution, and zigzagged into the attack, dodging desperately and preparing a burst of infovirions on the move. The sun princess shibanula at his legs with a narrow beam of plasma - easily and without straining, as if she did not replace the entire grandiose ITER complex alone. Grimacing from the recent blow, the youngest launched a front of disgusting-looking shadows at Alex, which it was probably best not to step on. Mercer dodged the blow of the first sister, the shadow pulling the ghostly tentacles to him jumped with a jerk, shot Celestia with a whip, probing her defense and reaction. Alex escaped the spells that flew into him from the guardponies, slipping on the ground, basically did not notice the spear thrown at him, taking it with honor in his shoulder.

“Luna!” Celestia blurted out suddenly, turning to the younger one. “Now!”

I begged you for a long time I didn't have to. This time the youngest, taught by bitter experience and the briskness of the developed, struck not with a narrow beam, but with an extensive stream of cold air. This was clearly weaker than the entropy concentrate, which at once enclosed the target in an ice shell, but Alex was now unable to avoid it. The human chuckled at his thoughts, making a detour and swiftly approaching the royal sisters' disposition. Terribly cold, of course, but not absolute zero. And ice is taken only from atmospheric moisture, freezes on the armor with a thin crust, does not hinder movement... What does Luna want to achieve by this, to plunge Mercer into suspended animation, into hibernation? Or does he want him to faint from such a contrasting shower?

...uh-oh.

As if in confirmation of the thought that flashed among the convolutions, Luna stopped her attempts to freeze the developed - and immediately hit Celestia. This was not a directional plasma beam; thermonuclear energy was dispersed, burning Mercer like a vase in a pottery kiln.

Limits reached! Threat of loss of protective cover!

Mercer howled like an alien caught by a polar explorer's flamethrower. Not from pain, but from plunging into the ice abyss: each new jump responded with needles of cold, piercing straight into the nerve nodes. His armor... He saw how more and more pieces flew away from it, as if ripped off by air straight from a blast furnace. Even without taking into account Alex's own vitality, his lightweight armor was good, allowed him to ignore many penetrating actions, protected his wearer from temperatures close to extreme.

However, for such a sharp drop of these very temperatures, the reconnaissance's light armor was obviously not designed.

Alex's left prosthesis, a part of this very structure, broke on the next contact with the ground, unable to withstand the overload. Mercer collapsed with his helmet into the ground, not having reached a dozen meters to the princesses, froze with his mouth gaping in his mind. The stream of hot air that made his body peel off and burned instantly dried up, leaving only small tongues of flame that ate up the fringe of soft tissues protruding from the joints. Alex felt frankly lousy, in full accordance with the indication that a crimson halo had filled the visor. The trachea was burned, the winding of the whip too, the thermal circuits received a shock dose of heat, from which they actually have to get rid of, the armor was knocked down almost completely... It seems that he even managed to lose something from his internal organs when the ribs burst, when pieces of armor turned outward with an evaporating liquid. There is nothing to restore even vital systems, because in the mind's eye there is held what, for human perception, could be described with an orange-red status, like the visors of the Marine augmented reality:

The battery is depleted. Forced transition to power saving mode. The alternative is to go to the refueling station.

It's not that bad, somehow recovering from the first bout of cold, Alex decided. An almost monolithic helmet, this scalp fused with the skull, remained practically intact - except that the brain was squeezed in a hot vice. Here is a cunning horse! How an armored, weakly vulnerable to undirected spells and too fast a target to take alive? It's very simple - elementary physics! By knocking his armor off with an explosive expansion, Celestia and Luna joined forces to render Mercer virtually defenseless. Alex has nothing to grow new armor from, except from extra bones, or waddle around the battlefield on one leg, collecting pieces that have fallen off. Not so bad... Ha. Ha ha ha.

It seems that I am required to give out some kind of proprietary phrase in the end, he thought. Or to say something clever and with a fair amount of irony... "Moral of the story, children - do not try to shove the head on reasonable females who know how to juggle celestial bodies", for example. Yes, that will do.

It was the end.

Mercer put his hands on the ground, trembling, and got up on his surviving knee. Celestia gazed at him with pain in her eyes, probably masking her true feeling, disgust. Alex really looked unsightly, for the temperature drop skinned him, almost completely tearing off the exoskeleton. The bare segments of the muscles at Mercer's went whitish spots - this is how the hemosurrogate manifested itself, trying to cover at least some burns with nutritious gruel, and then with scabs. The spots were blurring, joining, streaming over the twisted remnants of the muscles... Alex felt that a little more - and he finally began to fall apart. The chest was exposed - there, behind the bars of ribs, the heart was throbbing convulsively and the insides were chomping. Luna about this whole picture, as expected, exuded hostility and dislike. Most of the rank and file ponies looked at what was left of Alexander with horror; few were still angry. One of these was the officer of the hybrids, under whom the developed disguised himself during a visit to the city. However, his feline grin quickly with was replaced by a frightened mine, when Alex, in turn, bared his chest, opened it slightly, moving his ribs like jaws, dumped out a pair of secretion glands, intending to make a sling out of them for the injured leg. It seemed impossible for the Batpony to become grayer with fear, but Luna's henchman somehow succeeded.

“Don't get up,” Celestia said flatly. “If my sister and I wanted to, you were long dead. Can't you see?” something similar to bitterness and compassion was heard in her voice. “We don't need to be enemies. Why are you trying to kill yourself... is this what you desire with all your heart? Enough, please. You lose. Why do you keep trying if it will destroy you?”

What can I say, the ability to give up was never one of my habits, gave a sharp whistle through Alex's burned trachea. Until now, this strategy has worked, albeit not without reservations.

Sing, birdie, sing. Whatever she said, no matter how pitiful she was, Mercer was unable to believe the white-skinned mare. He did not survive the nightmarish 18 days of the epidemic and the nuclear explosion in order to surrender in cold blood and be taken to pieces in the experiments of fucking dwarf horses. He labored in a new world, as he labored on the battlefields of Manhattan, working blindly to avoid such an outcome. Alex chose meaningful paths where others would blindly wander among the humany options. And then the fucking Celestia landed almost on his head, and all the efforts of the developed were canceled out with one single blow!

Whatever world you enter, whatever you do, you will be defeated everywhere from forces more powerful than you are, doctor, for some reason Mercer thought. Fatalism, like a Web of Intrigue, gently entangled the brain, absorbing rationality, freedom of choice, taking away the desire to resist, driving into a trance. The thought that everything could have been arranged better pleased Alex, reminded him that he remained a human being by so many percent, with his shortcomings and limited thinking. Honestly, there were plenty of options for how to arrange today's battle differently, to lead it to a different course of events. For example, the fight is not to be fought in an apple grove, but right on the farm, where there are more buildings, the same shelters, and you can not count dangerous surprises. If not for the damned time factor... Exploding chickens, a crowd running out of the poultry house at the enemy. In some way immobilize and hide the hydra in the swamp of the local pigsty. Blow up the mill with a volumetric explosion. Arrange an earth pony for D-Day, scribbling from a machine gun, digging in with your hand in some barn and periodically throwing bitchgranades with it. There were many options, except that the limit on the mass that Mercer had at his disposal did not disappear anywhere.

Alex stopped shaking from the cold for a moment. Restriction of mass, the remainder of his living cells and nutrients, the rest of his body... No one took away from Alexander Mercer the last opportunity, when he spent all the rest. Clenching his fists, Mercer turned and looked closely at the diarchs, who were all expecting something from him, maybe public repentance. It's not over yet!

Yes, maybe Dr. Mercer lost. But, as in his home world, always and everywhere he will have the opportunity of victory through defeat. If the method worked twice, then why not try it for the third time? He is Green's out-of-control weapon, a master of gene manipulation in a past life. And now, to start a pandemic of some particularly sophisticated strain, one index finger will be enough for Dr. Mercer.

Of course, he wanted to return to humanity, to his sister, to his own people, and to hell with them, with heartache and moral issues. But if an even tighter cell becomes an alternative, where there will be no other people besides him... There is nothing worse than being in the Mother's place, being a rational being. Alex knew it for sure, "trying on" the memories of the one who brought him back to life and who did not have a mind in the usual sense of the word. From this position, the need to die again, this time finally, did not frighten.

The scenario of "gray goo" Mercer would not have been able to achieve even in his home world due to the characteristics of phagocytes - and here, in Equestria, the eternally hungry microscopic piranhas had nothing to reproduce from at all. As much as Alex can produce them, so many will be at his disposal now. So why not use your body as building materials? The houses of the chimera, carefully guarding the wearer, for the sake of this, in emergency cases, even turning off the consciousness of actions, would definitely not allow them to do this. But in Equestria... something has changed. Here this fuse disappeared along with the urge to feed the brains of other people's lives, remaining conscious at any cost. And when Alexander gave the go-ahead, he did not feel any resistance from the built-in AI. The emergency status is just something and illuminated in front of the inner gaze with all the colors of the rainbow.

Self-destruct protocol initiated.

Inhabitants l the imphs of Zeus were very reluctant to touch cells with a friendly genetic code. But now they began gnawing at Alex's tissue, increasing their population more and more, especially zealously taking on the legs, the most useless part at the moment. Puffs of orange smoke billowed from the corners of Mercer's helmet, from the throat under the visor, from the heat loops. After gnawing at his thighs in a dozen seconds, the phagocytes took up the human's tattered torso, starting from the right side, where there was no longer a valuable battery, burning the flesh on the corresponding arm to the bone. For the sake of Alex's idea, it was possible to postpone the demolition of the only lung on the left... and also to heal the tattered throat. Painfully remembering how to speak without lips, Alex strained his vocal cords and uttered as ominously as possible, even in an insane tone:

”I really... loose... then... I will take your world... with me...”

Alexander really looked even more menacing than he had before. A crimson-orange glowing composition with a rustle began to swirl around his body, so that the guards began to murmur, even though no one stooped to a shameful flight. Today Mercer did nothing but bluff, but now he couldn't do without bluffing either. Otherwise, Celestia and Luna will simply teleport all those involved from here, and they themselves will leave the affected area. On the contrary, there was a chance that they would consider Mercer to be something more dangerous and grander than he is... again. That Zeus is able to devour not only himself, but all of Equestria. Look how at his feet the sod began to melt, leaving reddish streaks! The chance is criminally low, given the experience of communication between Luna and Mercer, but still.

And then everything is simple. They stay, try to somehow neutralize Mercer, and then zhahnet so that the bones will be gone. The release of infovirions under the energy intake will corrode their shields, and phagocytes will eat everything else. If the sisters run away, considering a bluff a bluff, and then return, or they watch from a distance inaccessible to Alex... Well, goodbye, Dr. Mercer, phagocyte culture will deal with your brain no worse than with other internal organs, and your the double postponement is finally over.

Luna and Celestia looked at each other with worried mines on their faces, as if mentally talking, deciding whether to throw away or try to freeze the alien into the ice. It will not work: phagocytes with proportional losses will eat up any material obstacle, and more serious tricks, like stopping time, will not work on Mercer. With every passing second, Mercer was approaching the critical mass that would allow him to reach the princesses at such a distance. The developed one shrank and turned into a smoking, gutted scarecrow, into some kind of caricature of a human body. Now all that was left of Alex was the head and the right half of the torso with an arm, so he had to lean on it so as not to fall prone to the ground.

“Stop,” Celestia said quietly, staring stubbornly at the human. “There’s no point in hurting each other anymore. Everything can still be fixed, Alexander. All of this is just one terrible mistake.”

Mistake? Mercer thought irritably. Shooting in the back is a mistake for her?! No, you couldn't afford to be provoked. Do not enter into dialogue with the enemy under any circumstances. Do not stop. Seeing that Mercer did not react in any way to her words, and the seething of microscopic culture around him only intensifies, Celestia commanded:

“Back off and place the main shield. Stay outside it until my sister and I return,” she addressed the order to the officers of the guard. The solar commander rushed to execute immediately, but the batpony asked cautiously:

“Your Darkness?”

“Do it,” Luna confirmed her sister’s order, frowning in concentration and creating complex-looking currents of energy with her horn that formed a red-hot cage around Alex. There was no fear on their faces. Either the alicorns saw through Mercer's bluff, or they did not understand exactly how Alex was going to harm them. But they continued to stay here, even if they entangled the developed with multi-layered spells, like a head of cabbage! How, in time, Yin-Yang sent their soldiers away - the chimeras were already climbing into Alex's brain, escaping from the sprawling machinery of the body. If one head survives, Mercer will not be able to cope with all the guards, but he will simply be able to escape, provided that the explosion will cover both sisters at once. Then immediately grow a few spider limbs to the smoking helmet and run away, finely seed them, bury in the roots of one of the apple trees... Energy. There is less and less energy. Mercer felt one of the two surviving photosensors go offline, and his own thermal vision field seemed to ripple, dimmer around the edges.

“Alexander, come to your senses,” Celestia started her song again. “You will not believe if I tell you about the guarantee of your immunity, but my word is worth a lot. If you owned magic, it would be easier for you to understand.”

“What happened here?!”

“I don’t know, but it looks just like after the Appleloosian rodeo, which didn’t work out! Hooligans embrace curled up again, or something like that.”

“Aha, how the whole earth is trampled and dug up! Oh, what about the apple trees? Girls, what should we do now?! Applejack will be furious!”

“Is this our treehouse burning down?!”

Well, yes, right in the middle of some lousy apple orchard, destroyed in order, near a village inhabited by intelligent colored equiids, agreed with Alex's voice coming from nowhere. Not the most shameful place to bend. Worse than the waters of the Atlantic, the deck of an aircraft carrier, or the central hive of the Butler Library? Toxic air and hostile mutaforms of life, again, are present.

Figuratively, Mercer's breath caught in his throat. Time for him almost stopped when the evolved realized who the voices belonged to, and that the triple heat trail that showed up among the apple trees was not at all from among the enemy.

“Princess Celestia?” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were surprised in chorus, already appeared in the field of view of the photocell. “Are you here too?”

“Silly ones, we saw Her Grace fly in and crash into the dome!” Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“Oh, really!” Sweetie squeaked, making a hasty bow. The rest of the Crusaders followed suit. “Princess, what's going on here? As Princess Luna let us go, everything was all right... We wanted to wait at Apple Bloom's house, and then everyone started running!”

“You at least warned that during the exercises our headquarters will be needed!” some angrily said Apple Bloom, trying her best to hide the insult from the diarchs. “We, of course, were going to ask Big Mac for help in order to repair a little, but not to the ground!”

“Nah, the treehouse is nonsense!” whined Scootaloo. “The Rainbow Dash posters are all burned out! And they were named, with her own shoe!”

“Scoots, she will sign at least a hundred more!”

“Oh! How are we going to keep the Marks lists now?! I don’t remember everything we tried!”

“Go right now, let's look, maybe something survived!”

“You again?!” Luna was amazed, telekinesis stopping Scootaloo, who rushed into the ashes. “Young ponies, how did it happen that you ended up here?”

“Well, as Her Grace removed the dome, we heard all this rumbling and decided to look!” happily reported Sweetie.

“We just had to run away from Granny and Mac,” Apple Bloom muttered under her breath.

“And then we had to crawl on my belly among the trees, hide from the guards,” Scooti grumbled, looking at her fur soiled with wet earth. “But they were busy, everyone was running in circles and shooting spells, like,” Scootaloo giggled. The pegasus probably perceived their presence in the real combat zone as a fun game of saboteurs. What can be said - all in her rainbow-colored mentor!

Celestia looked equally shocked, and Alex brooded frantically as the phagocytes gnawed at his fingers. No, no, no! What have they forgotten here? The relatives did not keep track of the mischievous foals... or is this another trick of the crowned sisters? Could Celestia stoop to such villainy to check if Mercer would risk exploding in a stream of a wave that eats away at everything in its path, like Green's, when his new acquaintances are nearby? She thinks this will force Dr. Mercer to abandon the only viable plan?!

“By the way, where did Alex go?” Sweetie Belle twirled her curly head. “Princess, you seem to want to talk to him? How did everything go?”

“Yep, can you tell us?” Apple Bloom echoed her. “Will he stay in Ponyville or will you take him with you to Canterlot first?” not for years, the observant pony suddenly froze, seeing something familiar among the pile of shields. “What... is Alex there?”

“Exactly, his helmet, almost like the first time we met!” confirmed Scootaloo, screwing up her keen eyes. “Just... listen, where is everything else? I can only see his hand in small things!”

“Alex!” the little unicorn gasped, the last to see what was in the maelstrom of energies and glowing scarlet smoke. “What happened to you?!”

The foals tried to rush to the developed one, but Luna with an unreadable expression on her face intercepted them with telekinesis.

“We had to do this, my little pony,” Celestia said quietly.

“Your Grace, in what sense "had to"?” Sweetie Belle didn’t believe.

“Doesn't he do it himself?” the earth pony asked a reasonable question. “The haze is spinning around him again, Sandy did the same thing before...”

“Why did anyone even need to do this with him?!”

“So the guards what...” looked incredulously at the royal sisters Scootaloo, “fought with him? All this time?!”

She will never take the children out of here, Alex thought wistfully. Believes that this will force Zeus to lay down his arms. Celestia does not know that Mercer is an alien machine, which, in theory, should not give a damn about everything except the task at hand. And even if I knew - those beginnings, the very roots of empathy, craving for "friends" that were always with Dr. Mercer, in this world involuntarily gave shoots. Will he be able to take innocent girls with him to the next world? Destroying civilians, not even to attract attention to the crimes of the United States, but just along the way, in a vain attempt to get at least one of your enemies? Will Dr. Mercer become an indifferent butcher like Randall, stoop to his level? Once Alexander made such a decision, without thinking about the New Yorkers, with 99.9% of whom he never communicated in his life, he did not even think to empathize with them. During the skirmish at the station, he did not even remember that among all these innocent people was his sister, too. Never again in his life would Dr. Mercer want to make such a decision. Abyss, I don't want to!

“Gi-i-irls... leave... go away,” Alex croaked in stiff vocal chords. His bluff was completely failed. What the hell do you do if Mercer just recently threatened to take the whole world with him?

“Ru-u-u-n... Run, I said!” gathering his last strength, the human barked. It became more and more difficult for him to remain conscious.

“We will not leave again, do not even think! You are our friend, and friends are not abandoned!” Scootaloo stamped her foot. “What's going on here, Your Highnesses?” apparently, realizing that the energy cell around the alien did not appear by itself, Scooti looked demandingly at the princesses:

“I don’t know what the guards and Bon Bon told you, but Xander is good! Can we get him and go? We were going to take him to the cafe at all!”

“Oh, heavens!” Sweetie was horrified, finally seeing what was left of Alex, let's say, a little, and the alien looked like a puddle of toxic mucus was about to spread.

“Ale-e-ex!” Apple Bloom shouted, clasping her hooves like a megaphone. “If you need this help, now is the time to ask! My sister, over there, the desire to do everything herself did not lead to good!”

“Princess Celestia, something is happening to Alex!” with trembling lips turned to the senior diarch Sweetie Belle. “Please, you must help him!”

“Yes, please! And remove this... this light show, here!” Scootaloo waved her hoof vaguely towards Mercer, struggling to free herself from the telekinesis matrix of the dark blue alicorn.

“I would be glad, my little pony, but your...” Celestia shook her head, looking inquisitively at the developed, as if trying to calculate how much time she has left before the explosion, “your friend is not going to listen to me and Luna. And my magic here will be practically powerless.”

“Sandy, quickly listen to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!” the little pegasus immediately began to scream. “No, really, they are good! Whatever you are doing there!”

“Alex, please! We don't want anything to happen to you!” tears flashed in the eyes of the unicorn. As the most astute of the trio, she clearly grasped that things were taking a turn that was not good and dangerous to the health of those involved. “If you quarreled with the princesses, you can still fix it! True-true!”

“Alex, we told you!” Apple Bloom tried again. “You have no need to run from every shadow in Ponyville, here everyone wants to be your friend, just like us! And princesses too, let them live on the mountain, and not in our Ponyville! Their Highnesses are good and very kind! How did you manage to quarrel with them?!”

“Ple-e-ease!” in chorus stretched the Crusaders.

Making sure that Alex responded to the calls of the trinity with restrained silence, and the swarm of cells around him did not think to calm down, Celestia said shortly:

“Luna, take them and leave.”

“Are you sure, sister?” the younger mare squinted at her.

“Sure. Wait for me... I'll be there soon.”

Luna vanished in a flash of blue light, taking the foals with it, ignoring their shrieks of protest and Sweetie Belle's whimpers. She did remove them, Alex thought distantly. Voluntarily deprived herself of her advantage. Goal? Now the main thing is to break through the shields with the ejection of virions, and even if Celestia gets the reaction to teleport away, she will be briefly touched by the ejection. Then imminent death will follow - phagocytes will be inside, penetrate into the bloodstream, devour her mucous and vital organs, multiplying at the expense of the supply of building materials that Alex has integrated into the culture from his body. Mercer could initiate detonation as soon as phagocytes took over his lung. But he was just waiting... not knowing what he was waiting for.

“I understand, Alexander, it's not easy for you to trust our people after what happened,” Celestia concluded with regret in her voice. “But I believe that the magic of friendship is familiar to you. We were all just very unlucky...” she shook her horned head in rue. “Don’t pretend you’re not at all familiar with kindness and compassion, Alex. In the first days of your stay in Equestria, you established friendly relations with the girls and miss Heartstrings, did not push four-legged aliens away from you. And if you are unable to trust me, please trust your new friends. Do not hurt them spiritually with your death.”

Did not pushed away, you say? It will be needed for business - I will greet giant intelligent insects by the paw, not like some kind of fluffy cuties that can distort reality, muttered to himself I'm Mercer. Nevertheless, he could not help but admit that Celestia's words found their purpose, and the prospect of upsetting his new acquaintances worries him, truly worries. That damn bitch knows how to hit the sickest one! You might think you can't beat off in front of the kids that you sent the alien home, or something like that! Alex thought angrily, desperately trying not to pass out before he sets off an explosion.

Inability to maintain higher nervous activity. Preparing to shutdown the main systems.

The contradictory feelings and aspirations that Alex experienced at that moment tormented his exhausted mind. A brood of chimeras, who took a liking to their head, bared their teeth, suppressing the hope that had arisen in the depths of his soul with a merciless machine logic. Hope is the worst helper, they said. Hope for a coincidence of circumstances is stupid - you can only rely on yourself. All the rest are either enemies, or a completely replaceable temporary resource. If you don't listen to the molecular murmur, the situation resembled...

Well, let's say, one of those situations in the life of Alexander Mercer, when emotions repeated that everything was bad, that there would be no more happy day. Alex had enough willpower and intelligence to reasonably understand: there will be better days. The sun will certainly rise and things will get better if he works hard and puts in a little more effort. And even more so, Dr. Mercer considered himself too rational a creature to even seriously think about suicide. But that was how Marser felt now - like putting Mr Smith to his chin and Mr Wesson to his temple.

And suddenly this unforeseen factor, a combination of circumstances, comes into play.

Just as Mercer is determined to pull both triggers, his sister calls him. Mercer lowers his revolvers and picks up the phone. Dana invites him to see some stupid science fiction film, saying that they have not seen each other for a long time except by video link... And Mercer, instead of making extra holes in his skull, will go, although modern science fiction seems to him to be inventive and stupid - he will not go because, that he wants to go to the movies, but to spend time with his sister. Because he will remember how people are arranged - the news of his death will hurt his sister, which Alex would never want to achieve.

Sister was one of the constants on which the equation of his human history was based. In his homeworld, Alexander almost lost Dana... again. In Equestria, Alex did not think about the fact that there was an opportunity to get other constants, although he did think about the likelihood of a new life - until he had a chance to get home. Mercer did not want to acquire vulnerabilities again.

Obviously vulnerabilities... that is, attachments did not ask Dr. Mercer if he wanted to acquire them or not. Last time, a man hurt others in order to hit the government harder, to prevent him from using the virus against the whole world. He warned people with the first ever act of biological terrorism and, as Alex believed, took dangerous secrets with him to his grave... How much is a new life worth it if he is going to do exactly the same here? If Alexander, as before, wants to hurt others, hiding behind some lofty goals?

Some of the writers, these eternal theorists, declared that the happiness of the whole world is not worth a single tear of a child. (13) At least if Alex is really dismantled for parts, the diarchy will lie to the girls, that Xander is okay, sent home or something, and little Sweetie needn't be sad. So... I guess Dr. Mercer was willing to take the risk today. The alternative to self-destruction is eternal torture and the service of a visual aid for pony sorcerers, so what? Dr. Mercer will find a way to get out with such an outcome. He always found that even if avoiding death meant conspiring with Green, albeit unwittingly. On the other hand, surrender is the only opportunity in which Mercer got a ghostly chance to stay free.

And it seems that he has enough stupidity to entrust his fate to this chance. Or is it to dispose of it wisely?

What if Alex stops acting according to the directives he drew up in Manhattan? Equestria has already changed Zeus, although the mechanical part of him was still reaching for the former structure of consciousness, imprisoned under the postulate "there are enemies around!" Or maybe, with Mercer's spell, he transferred into the world of colored xenos not entirely, only partially, creating an alternative version? Something wrong collecting at the place of arrival?

Be that as it may, Dr. Mercer was aware of the need for changes. Survival for some time now is not his only goal, otherwise he would be smaller than a beast - he would become a walking incarnation of the virus, as Cross tried to convince him of. So what if Alexander now acts humanly? merit and not by kinship, but simply by the fact of sincere sympathy? Take for granted the impression of foals about their rulers, for example. If Celestia had sped them away so easily, as if worried about civilian casualties, missing out on an extra opportunity to get Mercer's head unharmed...

Alex absentmindedly wiggled the stubs of his fingers, scraping the melted earth. The chemical storm around him slowed down, and then spilled to the ground altogether, turning the crowd of miniature killers into a mush of plasma and molecular debris. The glow that accompanied their work was extinguished; the growing humming and grunting died down. What remained of Mercer's body, with an emphasis on the elbow and on the first two pairs of ribs, nestled in the midst of the disgusting slurry, smeared from feet (justified assumption) to head in it and sluggishly bleeding with whitish blood. It seemed to Alex that Yan was about to turn away with a face of disgust, but her horn suddenly lit up, and the energy cell around the mutant scattered. With a creak of bones, Alexander listlessly raised his hand in order to somehow show the alicorn that he was surrendering. Celestia's face, apparently satisfied with this gesture, was touched by a smile:

“I am glad that you had a chance to make just such a decision.”

Alex shook, sinking into cold detachment. The pause that followed these words seemed unbearable to him - he had nothing to answer, for Mercer had neither his heart nor an air bag of his lungs. Probably, he should not have left silently, screwed in at last something like "I'll be back"(14) - well, no, and there is no trial. Plus, in such a state, nothing came to mind except the thoroughly ironic "Not bad for a human"(15).

Alex Mercer really held out well, even with a discount on the fact that they did not try to finish him off, only incapacitate him. But if he wants to survive in more serious clashes with the diarchy, whether they will be or not... He had to get better. Faster, stronger, more inventive to seriously confront the inhabitants of this world. Or at least one of its inhabitants.

Somebody named Chrysalis. Whoever she was, the queen of the changelings really set up Mercer, playing him against the diarchy... It is unlikely that an ordinary drone has enough brains for such an unobvious move. Only now, in the light of all that had happened, in the tide of calm orderliness of thinking born of entrusting his fate to Celestia's hoof, did Dr. Mercer realize the irony of what had happened. Just think, he was used again, this time setting on someone who was not even his enemy! Even in the world of bloody, colorful Equiids, doctors cheated, twisted them for their own purposes.

Alex was damn angry with McMullen. He reacted with tired doom to Karen's betrayal and was perhaps a little angry with Cross, since their goals coincided (as Alexander thought). But all the negative that Mercer in total experienced in relation to these persons was nothing compared to the fury, the fierce anger that awakened in Alex's fading consciousness from the understanding that it was another setup. Which one is there?

I’ll see her - I will destroy her without hesitation. I'll burn out all the hives, or where these Heinline bugs(16) have settled, decided Alex. No, though... I won't rush. I will enjoy every moment. At the same time, I will check if they have purple tripe due to a local analogue of hemocyanin.

Mercer knew how to intrigue and independently recognize intrigues, although he was not a fan of this business. He had to realize even earlier - no matter how Alex tried to convince himself otherwise, it was the work of "unidentified third parties", and not the initiative of the sisters. Luna suspected developed and jumped off, because the changelings did something to the older sister, took her out of the game for a while! And if it comes to that, if Celestia were "empathizing exclusively with her" scum, she could bluff without risking the girls, having received the thoughts of the foals from Luna, that Mercer is not indifferent to this trinity, that he would not use his weapon for fear of catching them... However, the eldest did not even think to do so. She did not press with authority, but continued to ask, hoping that Mercer would be smart enough to drop prejudices.

Now, abstracting from the question of survival, Alex saw the problem. As you know, the scientific method is based on the identification of facts, and if the observer's assessment of reality differs from these reliable facts, then he should make adjustments to his assessment.

Mercer didn't. He again allowed emotions to take over... only this time - negative with an eye on the experience of his home world, without making allowance for local realities. Here, the warm season could be late with the melting of snows, because the locals did not have time to prepare for it. Here, a lover of anthropology could climb into the window of demigod at night, and she would get nothing for it. Here a group of provincial women could inadvertently crush the most prestigious evening party among the aristocracy, and this did not entail dire political consequences for the country. Here t A swarm of restless girls could have infiltrated the war zone... although Alex would be much less willing to write off the latter as a coincidence, rather believing that this is a performance arranged by Celestia. All this chaotic life by the standards of an Earthling, all their stories... could not all this have been invented just to convince the suspicious Mercer of the integrity of the sisters? On human, all Equestria did not converge like a wedge!

In fact, from his current position, Alex was even a little surprised at how painfully he reacted. It would seem that he already has a lot of experience in the fact that "Mercer was betrayed and shot again," so that he should not have gushed with anger and sarcasm in his thoughts, but with stingy actions to give detention. A slight fool of radiation poisoning also played a role, but after getting rid of it, Mercer did not even think to reconsider his actions, to get out of the intended rut. Perhaps the contrast was to blame, all the same disappointed expectations... Only Alexander with cautious hope suggested that everything was over, that the ponies were friendly paws and that he could take a breath, as life immediately introduced him to another shock dose of negativity. Such a contrast prevented him from reasoning sensibly, without prejudice... It's a shame, but in retrospect it was expected.

Well, what can you do... Maybe Alex is now an artificial person, but among all this jumble of molecular drives and gears, quite human features are hiding for themselves, and not just pure logic. Mercer runs on all fours, but at any opportunity he stands on two legs, because walking upright sounds and looks proudly. The triumph of form over content, that's it. Mercer tries to be rational, to curb both his impulses of violent disordered emotions and cold detachment, but he is far from lacking in both. He slashes steel with the sharpest claws, but in the end he returns to his hands and himself the familiar look - the way he was during all these long years, in those forms that served him faithfully...

Critically low mass level. Impossibility to recreate life support organs and redundant systems. Inability to recreate higher motor skills.

...the kind that Dr. Mercer won't be able to support any time soon. Alex dropped his hand and began to slowly swallow it with the base of his neck. Obeying his will, the advanced helmet also began to change shape. It seemed to soften, and then froze in new forms, more and more adhering to the brain, forming a cocoon around this true value. Mercer convulsively sucked the remains of an arm and a pair of ribs into his neck until the vertebrae were the only bone outside the skull. Immediately after, using conservation protocols, he soldered two newly formed plates along the jaw line, bending them, creating one continuous chitinous membrane.

I always knew what I was, what place I was in the relationships built with my world, a thought arose and immediately disappeared in Alex's head. But in this world... I guess I'm confused.

Alexander could not say that he was better in Equestria than at home. Better than the last couple of months - of course, but this does not take into account the previous years of life. Mercer did not want to stay here forever - but he can relax at least a little in this place, get rid of negative impressions. He can gain new knowledge. He may feel the cool breeze on his skin again. He can make those around him look at Dr. Mercer with a smile, and not ready to stab him in the back. He can get him to have a friend like Lyra, but he crippled her best friend. She will probably hate him. He can…

He will face difficulties and overcome them, as always. Everything that happens to Dr. Mercer will become only a natural and predictable outcome of events, and no crazy surprises of this new world will not lead Alex astray. But right now, at a specific moment... Alexander Mercer just wanted to escape from all this horror that had accumulated in his mind. Then, having refreshed your filter of perception, rework the latest experience into something more digestible, put it on the shelves. Become more prepared for future successes, as he always did. And if he just made a fatal mistake and Celestia is going to gut him - spit. It is unlikely to be worse than the fate that went to Green: fifty years in a cage to serve as an inexhaustible donor of genetic material.

But if Alex was wrong, he will not meet again her... Dana, his sister. Flint, after all, girl! Alexander would be so confident in his own rightness and, um, human rights, whatever that means. A scientist always doubts everything, subjects it to reliability checks. This is his strength, but this is also his weakness. Will Dr. Mercer be able to live a little "small life" in nature, without fuss and all kinds of torment, pretending that he does not have the opportunities that Zeus now had? No. No - at least not and will not find out why Luna declared that the emissions of the responsible for the transfer of energy after that night stopped. After all, it could not have been that since then nuclear tests have not been carried out on Earth! Wasn't the world satisfied with general nuclear disarmament in connection with the situation in Manhattan?

I have to figure this out to find out how to get home, lying motionless on the ground with a skull-helmet, Alex thought. I'll be back, Dana, just wait for me. Just a little rest and move on. Tired... incredibly tired, the human noted the fact more than complained to himself. I'm going, sister. Just... just for a second I'll close my eyes.

The last photocell turned off, having exhausted its resource, the thermal imager too, and darkness fell. For some reason, Alex guessed that sentient bodies of Celestia were about to appear around his container, but the armored walls no longer absorbed any information.

The darkness around Dr. Mercer thickened, but the darkness in his thoughts receded for good. The abyss, into which he had almost collapsed even after McMullen's revelations, collapsed. Was it not the retribution that Alex deserved at least for the number of his victims, but another chance? Could it be that he did not lose, but has already acquired in this world something new, unique, which did not cause rejection from his beautifully crafted shell of figured human flesh?

Maybe oblivion is not what the path of human with an outstanding destiny should certainly end with?

Maybe what he's faced with is... the magic of friendship?

Maybe I'm just getting old. Middle age crisis. Against the backdrop of hostilities. I'm losing my grip. Getting sentimental.

In my head, of all the thoughts, the shortest remained, while the brain activity rapidly went to zero. Fragmented by conflicting thoughts, restructured by energy deficits, the consciousness was unable to provide the information density that usually took place in the brain of Dr. Mercer. Molecular processes, however, were not affected, and the chimeras continued their sluggish work on something the doctor knew much of himself, but by that time preferred to forget.

Mercer was surprised to find himself falling asleep. Really? Is this really happening? Alex admired on the last crumbs of consciousness. Will he really fall asleep now, go into a calm and long sleep? Until suddenly, in a panic, he jumps up in a hospital bed and discovers that he is wrapped in healing bandages with compassionate ponies, and Celestia and Luna are located next to Mercer, ready to decide the fate of the alien who has given them so much trouble?

The machines did not respond this time, hiding in his hemispheres, sinking into the gooey substance of a slumber, and severing the connection. They carefully monitored, memorized, cleaned up unnecessary and added new on a suddenly empty medium. The machines were working - and Dr. Mercer, who somehow managed to go without sleep for far not the easiest three weeks and did not go crazy, it was time to take a nap.

General shutdown of the systems of the leading person.

Switch to standby mode.

Alex Mercer resigned his post.

Alex Mercer did not laugh at the shock and confusion of the pony doctors when, with all the precautions of Celestia, the head of the alien was presented to them. When asked to do at least something for emergency resuscitation, regimental doctors only lit up with their hooves - how can you reanimate someone's head, which has nowhere to be sewn, and compounds to maintain it in stasis do not yet exist in nature?

Alex Mercer did not hear Celestia told Luna that she had never seen such a thing that everyone survived solely because of such a strong desire to kill another sentient. The younger sister reluctantly and a little guiltily agreed that there was a certain amount of irony here.

Alex Mercer didn’t see how sincerely the Cutie Mark Crusaders were happy that their friend was fine and would be on the mend soon. The mare was even more delighted when, after Celestia's words that Alexander's making a difficult but correct decision was entirely their merit, after this heart-to-heart conversation, the whole trinity was illuminated with a single magical aura, and the long-awaited Marks took the same places on fluffy flanks of foals.

Alex Mercer didn’t feel the ancient magic in the north flare up in a thousand flames, warming up the cold and stagnant blood of the Crystal Empire. Four days later, the Guardians returned to Ponyville - tired but satisfied, who were immediately swallowed up by celebrations, fraternization with relatives, big and small friends, joy for the former Crusaders, accumulated during their absence, in the end.

Alex Mercer just continued to function in a world alien to him, immersed in a dreamless sleep. For the first time in more than three months, he was not thinking about anything.

It was wonderful.