Striving for Perfection

What did I do wrong?

That was my first thought when I started thinking again. It's one thing to win with great difficulty and quite another to definitely lose. Hell, I don't even know how to react to this. Should I respect her? No, I shouldn't be a stupid animal who respects only the strong. I need to think about it.

In the absolute darkness surrounding me, an image of a man of about fourteen appeared. Who is it? Oh, yes, Max is a school bully and the first person I've had a fight with. Obviously, even though I beat him, I learned some tricks from him. If a fight hadn't happened to him, I wouldn't have started using his punches on the run.

Max's image changed to another one. Now a man of tall stature and large build appeared in his place. Bob is an aggressive idiot and a boxer, it was really difficult to fight with him. I learned almost everything from him: the stance, the main blows and aggressive tactics with ignoring the pain.

Bob's image dissolved and took on a different look. This time it was the image of a short Asian man. Praset is an arrogant kid from Thailand and a karate expert, how he bored me with his somersaults and jumps to the side. I learned all possible kicks and dodges from him.

A realization came to me. Every serious opponent of mine has been copied by me to one degree or another. Maybe she was able to beat me, but if I analyze everything I've learned about her, she won't have a chance.

Praset's image has changed dramatically and turned into an Experiment. I began to remember the fight with her to the smallest detail. The image copied her dodging to the side and flying. Having examined these actions more closely, I realized that she used all four hooves to dodge and lift into the air. If I hurt one of her hooves, her mobility will drop significantly. But how can I hurt her hooves if I haven't been able to hurt her badly even using everything I have? If she fell to the ground from my arrow, it means that she has a slight weakness to magic. I just need to strengthen my magic and then I can defeat her.

The image continued copying and made a sideways turn that turned into a kick with the back foot. After several repetitions, I realized that when adapting to a human figure, it turns into a somersault and a kick. The image began to copy her hail of blows, but realizing that I could not alter any of this in my own way, I began to work out the roll turning into a blow. The image appeared in front of me, and I started practicing a new attack on it. I did a somersault to the side and when I was next to the image, I struck with my foot, thereby pushing off of it by a couple of feet. Despite the stiffness in my movements caused by the desire to copy perfectly, as I imagine, the blow looked very effective, so I started repeating it, periodically changing the side I was dodging. After a while, I heard a voice behind me.

"You know, the fact that you fainted from overexertion is not a reason to hold a grudge against us." Said a female voice that I immediately recognized.

"I'm not going to negotiate with my dream, disappear." I said, continuing to practice the blow.

"I assure you we are not a part of your dream, we are the Princess Luna the keeper of dreams." Said the so-called "Luna".

"Let's say I believe you, then why are you here?" I said without interest, continuing to practice the blow.

"We have been trying to find and get into your dream for a long time and now we are here."

"What can I tell you? Congratulations that you have fallen into the dream of an ordinary person, Mrs. Keeper of dreams, you can be proud of this and go about your business." I said, wanting to end this conversation as soon as possible.

"Can you behave less rudely?" She asked with irritation in her voice.

"Let's do the following: you will leave me alone and it's better not to enter my dreams at all, but in return I will always be as polite to you as possible."

"Very well, I hope you will stick to your part of the agreement." Said the Moon before, judging by the sound, flying away.

As soon as she disappeared, I continued to practice the blow.

I woke up with a groan of pain due to the many wounds on my body. Looking back, I saw a window, a bedside table with a lamp turned off and a jug of water, and two chairs in the corner. The sun shines through the window, illuminating the room. Shouldn't I be considered a criminal and be in a prison cell? After examining my body, I saw a lot of medical bandages and casts. Will I ever wear clothes instead of a ton of bandages? Where's my coat? I quick look around the room, but I couldn't find a coat. Heck.I wasn't going to and I'm not going to help these ponies with technical progress, but if they can understand how my phone works, then this could lead to a breakthrough in progress. I hope they haven't learned how to use electricity yet.

While I was thinking, the door to the room opened and a unicorn with white fur and a bright blue mane and tail entered. The unicorn was holding a notebook and a pen. Seeing me conscious, his eyes widened with a mixture of fear and surprise, and he came a little closer to me.

"Are you awake?" he asked, coming closer to me in a voice wanting to get a negative answer.

"Yeah." I answered with difficulty because of my parched throat.

"I'm sorry, I'll help." He said before his magic enveloped the jug and brought it to my lips. Despite the fact that a small part of me wanted to keep my pride, I still opened my mouth to drink water.

"How are you feeling?" He asked while I was drinking water.

"Almost everything hurts and I don't feel the rest." I said briefly after stopping drinking water.

"This is quite logical considering what happened to you." He said, writing something down in a notebook.

"What happened to me? And where am I?" I asked, wanting to know more about what happened to me.

"Answering your first question, you went through the so-called "test of will. " At first we thought it was just a myth, but the princesses gave us access to some old archives from which we got information. The test of the will is a process in which the soul under the influence of the will of its owner passes its limit and significantly increases its strength. The main risk of this process is that the soul gains strength faster than the body is able to adapt to it, which is why the body receives severe damage such as yours. It should be noted that your body has become much stronger in all areas, but please do not try to repeat it intentionally, it is impossible.

"Answering your second question, you are in the Canterlot hospital. You were brought here yesterday by Princess Luna claiming to have neutralized you yesterday. She also asked me to collect some information about you if you allow of course."

Well, now I know that on this planet, or rather in the country in which I am, there is a monarchy as a system of government. The question is, why do they agree to obey someone who looks like a genetic experiment? It would be the same if the ruler by right of appearance was appointed a person who possessed the features of the Caucasian Negroid and Mongoloid races at once. Such a person would immediately either be burned at the stake or locked up in a laboratory, depending on when such a person appears. In any case, for the time being, I will maintain the image of a decent person. I really don't want to spoil the relationship with my doctor.

"Well, I will answer any questions." I said, preparing for a wave of questions.

The Doctor smiled broadly and began, "Great! The first question is what are you?"

"Human." I said briefly, not wanting to give him a reason for additional questions.

"The second question is, what do you eat?"

"Fruits, vegetables, and meat." I said, which made the doctor shudder but quickly recovered.

"Next, what's your name?"

"Daniel Ctumer."

"Age?"

"Nineteen years old."

"Work?"

"I don't have a job, but I'm studying to be a politician."

"Hobby?"

"I read books." I said, not wanting to get too many questions. Do you know how difficult it is to explain to people that you don't have a hobby and you just always do more important things? Exactly. So when I need to give a simple answer to this question, I just say "I read books".

"Talent?"

"What?" It was my turn to ask questions.

"Well, talent is your ability to do something better than others." The doctor said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I understand what talent is, I don't understand how to define it. Let's assume this situation: We have two people, one is an incredible artist, but very insecure about himself, which is why he considers himself a bad artist. He calls himself untalented. And the second is a mediocre artist, but arrogant, which is why he considers himself the best artist on the planet. He calls himself talented. The question is, which of them is really talented and who can objectively determine this? " I ended up with a question addressed to the doctor.

"They will be able to understand this by their cutiеmarks and the first artist will have it much more colorful than the second. "The doctor replied as if it was an obvious answer.

"Cutiemarks? And what if they both don't have them and never will? " I asked, continuing to ask questions. Useful fact: the easiest way to win an argument is to drown the opponent in questions and the more abstract they are the better.

"Impossible! All species have their own versions of cutiemark. Dragons and griffins have drawings on their claws, Minotaurs have the same drawings on their hooves, bulls, yaks and the deer have drawings on their horns. Are you saying that your species doesn't have its own version of a cutiemark?"

"No," I said, to which the doctor laughed. When he finished laughing and looked at my stony face, he asked.

"Are you serious?" He asked in confusion.

"Yes." I said, a little tired of holding the mask of a decent person.

After a couple of seconds of silence, he said, "Well, what do you do best?" He said, trying to improvise.

"Nothing." I said, trying to finish this survey. Do you know how poorly many people understand such abstract things as self-improvement, philosophizing, analyzing their mistakes and correcting them? Exactly. Although I am against alcohol, my grandfather's phrase fits perfectly "God gave me a mouth to drink beer and not to explain elementary things to stupid people."

The doctor looked at me in shock for a few seconds. He was able to gather the strength to look at the notebook and say "The next and last question. How do you feel about your duties?

"I always fulfill my duties, provided that they were discussed in advance, but I will not do what was discussed without me. " I answered in detail, deciding that the last question deserves a good answer.

The doctor wrote it down in a notebook "This is the end of our survey, get well Mr. Ctumer." Said before leaving the room.

At the last moment, he turned around and asked, "Mr. Ctumer, let me ask you my personal question."

I gathered all my willpower not to yell at him and answered "ask"

"Rumors about your speech in Ponyville spread quickly. Knowing that you have defeated the elements of harmony, many ponies have locked themselves in houses in the hope of avoiding your "hunt" despite the fact that you were neutralized. But at the same time, now you were behaving like a polite and calm pony why? "

"My attitude to the interlocutor depends on whether I consider him suitable, but I am always polite to people of a socially important profession. "

"I understand. " Said the doctor before leaving the room.

Fuck, I forgot to ask how much I will be treated. When the doctor left the room, I tried to get up, but realized that I could move my fingers at most. Excellent, I am immobilized in a potentially hostile environment and have no means of self-development. There's not even a clock here so I can find out the time. Could this day get any worse?

After an indefinite period of time, there was a knock on the door. Why would someone knock on the door to a patient, given that I am immobilized? Okay, knocking on the door is obviously not the most relaxing sound.

"Come in!" I shouted. The door opened and two ponies entered my room, one of which I recognized as Princess Luna. The second pony was white and also like the Luna with wings, horn and iridescent mane similar to a combination of blue, green and pink. Two genetic experiments? In any case, the pony with the multicolored mane had an impenetrable expression on his face and Luna tried to do the same, but not as successfully as her partner. Do you know what I do when I see this? I just remember jokes and smile. It confuses people.

If I was healthy, it would be possible to fight, but now I have to negotiate. Anyway, I need to answer their stone faces. The bear was walking through the forest, saw a burning car, got into it and burned to the ground. Representatives of all genders went to the bar and booked a table for two. Great, smile, now I just need to hold on to it.

For a second, I saw the confusion in Luna's eyes. The reception works flawlessly. While I was mentally celebrating my victory, the second pony said.

"What are you so excited about, Mr. Ctumer? " The second pony said in an authoritative voice.

"I'm just a cheerful and positive person who is glad that I'm still alive. " I said, trying to create a cheerful voice.

"You're lying," Luna said, putting me in a stupor.

I fell into a stupor for a couple of seconds, but eventually gathered myself and replied, "I assure you, Princess, there are very few things that can make me mad, and one of them is a lie."

"Don't try to deceive us," Luna said, confusing me.

"Okay, okay, I'm smiling because I remembered a joke, are you satisfied with this answer?" I said, ceasing to imitate a cheerful voice and returning to my standard passive-aggressive tone.

"Quite," Luna said shortly before the second pony took a step forward.

"Mr. Сtumer, do you know how many crimes you committed yesterday in Ponyville?" The second pony said with a note of anger in her voice.

"I beat up some "guards", you need to prepare them better, and I wanted to take some books, but I was attacked by some elements, so I had to defend myself and probably damage property, that's all." I said, remembering everything I had done yesterday.

"You have very accurately repeated your crimes of yesterday, but do you know how many years you can be put in prison?" She asked.

"Firstly, why are you asking me a non-philosophical question if you know that I don't have an answer to it, and secondly, I don't care who you are and what you can do," I said, raising the aggression in my voice with each word.

Both ponies fell into a stupor for a few moments, but Luna was the first to recover. "You violated the deal." She said, barely restraining anger in her voice.

"No, Princess, you are mistaken, the contract was that you do not enter my dreams and I am always polite to you and only you." I said with a strong emphasis on the word "you".

"In that case, my sister is also part of this deal." She said.

"No, Princess, I agree to fulfill any transaction only on the rights of the first version of the deal if you don't like my attitude to your sister so much, then she will also have to conclude an agreement, but I don't know what she can give me."

Luna tried to form a counterargument, but her sister stopped her and turned to me, "Did you really make a deal? If yes, can you name his conditions? "

"The terms of the deal are as follows, I quote, "you will leave me alone and it's better not to enter my dreams at all, but in return I will always be as polite to you as possible"have I violated the terms?"

Luna's sister stood, thought and said, "Okay, you really didn't break the terms of the deal, but why do you refuse to change the terms?"

"I want people to adopt the traits of perfection and become better when interacting with me, one of such traits is the ability to think about their decisions. A deal on the first conditions encourages people to do this. "

"And what makes you think that you are this perfection? "

"I didn't call myself perfection, I just compiled and follow the list necessary to achieve perfection. I could tell you for several hours the reasons why I do not meet all the points, but the simplest and most understandable of them will be that I am not the strongest being."

"Anyway, we came here to find out why you attacked Ponyville." Said the second pony.

Fuck. Considering that Chrysalis was able to ambush me, she will be able to eliminate me without any problems if I blab. But the Luna reliably detects my lies. I'll have to explain my philosophy to these idiots. Well, there is no choice.

"After learning about ponies from a biology textbook, I did the only reasonable conclusion ponies are several steps below humans, so the only reasonable solution for them is to follow perfection, but there is a problem. Ponies didn't even see perfection, and assuming that they were hooked on their nonsense, which they call correct, as well as some people, I decided to show perfection by force. "

Hearing my speech, both ponies in the room fell into a stupor. Idiots. After what seemed like an eternity, the Moon asked, "Mr. Ctumer, can you be more specific?"

I exhaled so as not to yell at the Luna right now and said, "I came to Ponyville for a show of strength so that the ponies would follow me, is that clear?"

The moon looked into my eyes for a very long time to determine if I was lying. As a result, she took a few steps away and whispered something to her sister. Luna's sister took a step forward and said, "How do you like this deal, Mr. Ctumer, we will help you become stronger, but in return you will not touch the pony and will follow our orders. Do you agree? "

"Three requirements: I fulfill only the first version of the order, that is, changing the order already given does not concern me, you give all my personal belongings to me and the last I want to make an unambiguous decision when I recover. Satisfied?"

"You have to make the final decision tomorrow at the latest," Luna's sister said in a tone that left no room for objections.

"Very well, see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow, Mr. Ctumer. " Luna's sister said before she and her sister turned around and left. Damn, I forgot to find out her name. As soon as they left the room, I started meditating out of boredom trying to pass the time. At some point it seemed to me that I was hearing a whisper, not a distortion of my thoughts, but a whisper. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it was enough to alert me. I felt something pressing on my leg, causing severe pain.

I opened my eyes and saw the changeling pressing on my leg. At first I fell into a stupor, but gathered my strength and whispered, "What do they want from me now?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what mistakes you've made. You killed seven guards, thereby violating the Queen's order and disappointed her by being captured. You should be grateful that at the initiative of Her Highness, the documents were substituted so that everyone thought that the order of the princesses simply did not reach Ponyville and the garrison always made up fourteen ponies. The Queen generously simply did not give you a reward for this mission, although she could have eliminated you for not following orders. And she knows that you want to make a deal with the princesses, she demands answers from you. " Changeling said, scolding me.

Damn. So what should I do? Wait, taking orders from the princess is very similar to serving in the army, so if I agree to the offer, can I tell Chrysalis that I'm operating behind enemy lines? Yes, it will work.

"Tell the Queen that I regret my actions and am now starting to act behind enemy lines." I said, hoping that this would be enough to make the changeling stop pressing on my leg.

The changeling stopped pressing on my leg "Pray that the queen accepts this answer." He said before a green flame enveloped him and changed his form into a nurse. He turned around and left the room. I breathed a sigh of relief and thought.

I have to sacrifice my freedom now to keep it in the future.