A True Person

"Well, that's pretty good," the unicorn muttered, raising his gaze to the gray pony in front of him. "There are a few rough edges, but the editor will deal with that. I like the idea. We'll publish your story."

The stallion's green eyes sparkled with joy upon hearing this. The unicorn only grinned seeing this - it was good to be young.

"Thank you, Mr. Ivory!" the pony said with deep gratitude. "It really means a lot to me."

"No thanks necessary," the unicorn smiled, but his serious look softened a bit. "How much do you want for your work?"

"I'll trust you on that one," the earth pony replied easily. "I am more interested in experience first and foremost than money."

Ivory looked at the pony carefully and nodded satisfied - he liked this young stallion's attitude. Even though he looked rather poor - he wasn't obsessed with money.

"Standard pay, then," Ivory nodded. "If the readers like your story - we'll come back to the matter. What's your name again?"

"Flint Dustcloud, sir," the pony replied politely.

"Good, then... come back on Tuesday," Ivory thoughtfully coaxed. "We'll see how your story is received."

"Thank you, sir," the earth pony thanked again, bowing to the unicorn.

Saying goodbye to Ivory, Flint left the magazine's office. With a satisfied smile, he walked briskly toward his home on Grape Street. His story was indeed going to be published. The horror genre was not very popular in Canterlot - the nobles preferred novels - but Flint wanted to write horror.

Besides, the genre had become quite hot lately.

Recently there was a big fire in one of the dungeons. Immediately someone leaked information revealing what happened. According to rumors, Princess Luna's bipedal friend turned out to be a terrible monster who kidnapped ponies and conducted terrible experiments on them. It was for this he had been imprisoned in a dungeon.

The human had indeed not been seen in the city for over half a year, which matched the information. However, the Crown rejected all these rumors and repeated its version - the human had died during an expedition to the Everfree Forest.But few people believed this official statement. This whole fire story looked too suspicious. Whether it was a human or some other monster was only of concern to the nobles who were once again pouncing on Princess Luna. The main thing was that no one knew if it had survived the fire.

The monster might be roaming around Canterlot right now. The guards had searched the town several times, but found nothing. It was rumored that they were now setting up posts around Canterlot, expecting the monster to move back to Everfree.

Flint's story was precisely about this very human monster. He even hoped that one day he could publish his collection of short stories that would make readers shiver with fear.

Upon reaching home, Flint saw Silver Breeze, from whom he rented a room, carrying a load of bags. The light lavender unicorn mare was always cheerful and energetic despite her age. Quickly running up to her, Flint took all the bags away from her despite her grumbling.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going shopping?" he said grudgingly, looking at the mare.

"I'm perfectly capable of going to the store myself," Silver muttered. "Not falling apart yet."

Grinning, Flint opened the door and carried the bags inside, quickly running around the kitchen and arranging the groceries in the cupboards. Looking at him, Silver couldn't help but smile. Contrary to her grumbling, she was already starting to subconsciously treat him like the own grandchild she didn't have. Flint was a real hard worker. He did all the household chores, worked in the garden, and repaired almost everything that needed fixing. But most importantly, he never complained. He asked nothing in return, but only, as he said, repaid her kindness and trust. She liked this respectful and hardworking stallion.

And not just her. He made friends easily with all the neighbors, even the grumpy nag from across the street. Silver remembered her first doubts when Flint had answered the ad for a room. But now all doubts had completely dissipated. He had taken on so much work that Silver felt so energized lately.

Even her sleep had improved.

"How did it go?" asked Silver, looking around the cupboards.

"My story is getting published," Flint replied cheerfully. "It doesn't pay much, but I'll write more soon."

Silver only shook her head, smiling. She wouldn't kick him out even if he stopped paying rent. And of course, he would never agree to such a thing.

"Then we're celebrating tonight," Silver smiled sincerely. "There'll be pancakes for lunch. You need to eat more, you look more like a unicorn than an earth pony."

"I'll try to eat as much as I can," Flint smiled widely.

"And when are you going to get your mane in order already?" the mare rebuked, examining his shaggy black mane. "You'll never find a mare if you're like this."

"I've already found a beautiful mare," Flint replied, winking at Silver.

"Flatterer," the mare snorted, turning to the cabinets. "Now get out of here before you get a cup on your forehead. You know how I can be when I'm cooking."

Chuckling, Flint headed for his room. Taking off his bag, he sat down at his desk and began looking through his papers.

After a while, a black rat jumped out from behind the bedside table. It looked around and quickly ran towards Flint. It jumped on his shoulder and began to squeak something in his ear. A smile appeared on the pony's face as the rat finished its report.

"Tonight is going to be fun," Alexei thought, stretching.

He was still getting used to his new pony body, finding it not very comfortable. But it was a great disguise. The transformation didn't give him any of the abilities of earth ponies, he was still human inside. If he had been scanned with a spell or blood drawn for analysis, the results would have shown him to be human. It was only his appearance that had changed. Thanks to a spell that made it seem like there was magical energy, the man was easily lost in Canterlot while being searched outside the city.

This spell was of his own design. It utilized mental energy like all nightmare spells. In the six months he had spent in the dungeon, he had only been able to create this simple spell. He couldn't test spells while wearing those shackles. Even one spell was already a great result. Although it could be revealed with a scanning spell, Alexei didn't worry about that.

No one walked around Canterlot throwing scanning spells in all directions.

Each mage had their own unique methods and secrets. They were something sacred and untouchable. They were one's strength, confidence, and effort - no one would like it if someone tried to pry them out. What if someone with bad intentions found out their secrets? Other mages could come up with countermeasures to suppress them completely. Each spell could be blocked or neutralized with another spell. Just like how the griffins and pegasi had easily countered his pain spell earlier. Though they had been very lucky.

The man could refine his spell and bypass the griffins' defenses. And so on ad infinitum.

In Equestria, as elsewhere, such actions were considered an attack. Anyone exposed to such a spell had the right to self-defense. It was not uncommon for the overly curious to be killed, but that was considered excessive self-defense. Of course, everything depended on the status and strength of the opponents, but in general it was like this.

The royal guards could stop, arrest and interrogate using scanning spells. However, they needed at least some reason to do so, and they didn't scan everyone.

Alexei was distracted from his thoughts of the night ahead when Silver Breeze's voice came from the kitchen.

"All set!" she called out.

Alexei smiled, thinking about his relationship with Silver. She treated him like a grandson, even though he was technically twice her age. He'd lived fourteen false lives inside Tree's mind before he'd managed to free himself by slaughtering Canterlot. He had over seventy years of memories, and his mental age had already passed a hundred. It was a pity, but most of those memories were useless. If one added Saada's memories from his alchemy training, the number was impressive.

By connecting with the nightmare, his mental capabilities had improved noticeably. Without it, he wouldn't be able to withstand so many memories at once. However, he was still barely on his feet when he came back to reality.

The Tree wanted to change him, but in the end, the man was even more firmly established in his life path.

"Coming!" he exclaimed joyfully as he rose from the table.

At that time, the black rat stealthily disappeared behind the nightstand.

The flapping of wings pulled Twilight away from her book, and she looked up to see an owl flying away to hunt. The pony's gaze shifted to the sky, which had already turned into a dark canvas studded with stars.

"Is it night already?" Twilight thought in surprise as she saw the owl off with a glance. "Have a good hunt."

She set the book aside and stretched lazily. Her mood had improved noticeably lately. She was still puzzling over the problem set before her, but she wasn't about to give up all the joys of life. She was even ashamed of the outbreak of obsession into which she had sunk for several months. If she kept it up, she would end up as a human. The human wasn't obsessed with his desire, though. He seemed to genuinely enjoy the path to the goal itself.

Twilight frowned, thinking about the human. She couldn't understand him - he had too extreme a personality. Which of the things he showed were true and which were false? He managed to fool even the princesses by pretending to be a lunatic. Now he's escaped and roamed free. Though no trace of him had been found so far, Twilight was sure he was alive. He had definitely survived.

The princesses seemed to think the same, having put guards on her. Twilight thought it unnecessary, but she didn't argue. Ponyville was also patrolled by several squads. Shaking her head, Twilight pushed the thoughts of the human away - she didn't want to spoil her mood.

A smile slid across her lips as she remembered the fun they'd had at the Grand Galloping Gala. The happy faces of her friends flashed before her, and immediately she felt a pang of conscience.

She never got to talk to them.

Twilight sighed. Perhaps she was unnecessarily rushing things and falling back into obsession. Her habit of planning was playing tricks on her now. She wanted to talk to them and get a concrete answer she could work with. On the other hand, she was afraid of hearing rejection. She also realized that she was in too much of a hurry, but it was hard to break old habits.

"Calm down," Twilight told herself. "We have plenty of time. There's no reason to rush."

One day she would talk to them.

Her thoughts drifted to her conversation with Princess Celestia after the holiday night. There was so much she wanted to learn from her about the Elements. She had more and more questions lately.

What is Kindness? Kindness comes in many forms and can be contradictory.

What about Loyalty? It comes in different forms too.

Isn't it all subjective?

Then who defines the Elements they use? Themselves or Harmony?

They talked for a long time, but she never got concrete answers to many of her questions. The princess insisted that some things she had to figure out on her own, and for others it wasn't time yet.

Twilight sighed and looked at her Magic mark. Had she gotten it because she liked magic or was she into magic because she was fated to get the mark of Magic?

What is fate?

Her gaze shifted to the night sky and she sat like that for a while, looking up at the stars.

"Why do we live?" Twilight asked the sky.

The two unicorns stood in front of an abandoned building, inspecting their surroundings carefully. Noticing several approaching figures their horns shone brightly, preparing for a possible battle.

"Who is it?" one of the unicorns called out.

Anxiety swept over them when there was no answer to their question.

They were about to raise the alarm when figures stepped into the light - just a few beggars without fate marks, which immediately relaxed the sentries.

Such ponies were commonplace in these slums. Ponies without fate marks often became outcasts, or if they were unlucky enough, ended up on the streets. Homeless, hookers, addicts - there were plenty of ponies among them who were unlucky enough to be without a mark.

"Just a few coins, kind sirs," one of the beggars smiled ingratiatingly. "Very hungry."

The unicorns' faces wrinkled in disgust. They couldn't stand all those beggars. What annoyed them even more was that the three beggars were also unicorns. Their kind had sunk to such a low level. It would be better if they died and didn't defile this city with their existence.

"Get out of here before I break your legs," one of the unicorn sentries replied irritably.

He was eager for the end of his watch and perhaps a meeting with the mare afterward, but certainly not a conversation with this trash.

The beggars only smiled sadly and, bowing, turned around.

In the next instant, however, they attacked the sentries.

One of them died instantly, but the other one managed to put up a shield and resisted the barrage of attacks.

He was much stronger than these beggars, but there were three of them. Not even a couple seconds later, the shield collapsed. The unicorn gritted his teeth and blood dripped from his nose - the interrupted spell had backfired and hit his body. He tried to create a new shield to protect himself from repeated attacks, but he didn't have time. Something glinted in the air and pierced his head. The unicorn collapsed to the ground, dead.

A group of dirty ponies without fate marks were quickly approaching the building. Leading the way was a gray earth pony with several hatless nails hovering around him.

Four ponies standing in the distance on four sides of the building activated rune wands. A transparent shield enveloped the entire area around the building, blocking sound and the spread of magical fluctuations.

Several unicorns jumped out of the building, but they were quickly driven back inside by a barrage of fire.

"Begin," Alexei said, and the ponies scattered into position.

Several unicorns surrounded the building, ready to follow any command.

Meanwhile, Alexei pulled a pouch from his bag and headed towards the building while his comrades covered him, firing through the windows. Tossing the pouch inside the building, a moment later a massive explosion rang out, blasting out the rest of the windows.

After receiving the signal, the unicorns created a shield around the building. At the same time, acrid purple smoke began to pour from several crevices inside the building as the rats worked off their food. The shield kept the smoke inside, preventing it from dispersing. Of course, the unicorns inside could block it with their shields, but the explosion should have destroyed their shields, so they definitely got a few breaths of smoke.

A few ponies and griffons ran out of the building, but they couldn't break through the shield and soon fell to the ground.

Alexei waited for a while and signaled. The three stallions and the mare drank the potion and put on their masks.

"Let's go in," the man said briefly, nodding to the unicorns maintaining the shield.

An opening formed in the shield, through which the four ponies quickly slipped and ran into the building, spreading out. The opening in the shield instantly closed.

Immediately, all sorts of magical projectiles flew at them, revealing the three surviving unicorns hiding under the shield. The unicorns created their own shields, and Alexei chose to dodge.

Finally the stream of attacks ended and it was time for the beggars to attack. The beggars didn't need to keep maintaining their shield to protect themselves from the smoke, so they went on the attack completely. Alexei was waiting for a good opportunity at this time. It soon appeared. A small crack formed on the surface of the shield. At the same second, a nail flew into the crack. By some miracle, the unicorn managed to dodge the fatal blow - the nail only slid across his skull. It was enough to make him lose his concentration. An instant later, the shield collapsed.

Immediately, electric spells flew at the trio of unicorns. Two, already unconscious, were thrown back into the wall, while the third was writhing convulsively on the ground.

"Who the fuck are you?" the unicorn hissed, trying to blare a horn.

"Newcomers," Alexei replied, telekinesis disrupting the forming spell. "But with potential."

Taking a cloth ball from his bag, Alexei squeezed it and quite ordinary black smoke poured from it. Mixing with the violet smoke, it reacted with it, causing all the smoke to begin to rapidly shrink towards the ceiling, and soon spilled a slightly murky water.The shield that surrounded the building disappeared, and behind them they heard the stomping of all the other ponies rushing into the building.

The gray pony's eyebrow rose as he saw the change previously hidden by the smoke. Where the unicorn that had dodged his nail should have been lying now lay a strange hybrid of pony and insect.

"A changeling?" thought Alexei in surprise. "What's he even doing here?"

He had heard about this race, capable of taking on any form, from Saada.

However, changelings were very secretive and not much was known about them. They lived somewhere in hives underground, could camouflage themselves well, kidnapped intelligent beings and fed on love. Alexei didn't even know if they fed exclusively on love or if it was just some supplement they needed. He was open to the possibility of meeting the changeling in some brothel, but what was he doing in this drug-dealing gang?

"I'll find out later," thought the slightly interested man.

Walking over to the changeling, he poured a sedative into his mouth.

"Kill everyone but these two," Alexei said, nodding at the leader and the changeling.

His companions immediately set about carrying out his order, twisted smirks appearing on their faces.

While the others went about their business, Alexei and a few ponies began searching the den.

Finally, they found the room the leader was using. In the center of the room was a vault covered in a web of runes. A square with many interconnected runes decorated the front wall of the vault. Alexei knew that activating the runes in the wrong order could trigger a trap or destroy the contents of the vault.

Back in the main hall, Alexei used his powers to telekinetically grab the swearing unicorn and drag it to the vault.

"Password?" Alexei asked, turning to the unicorn.

"Fuck you," came the brief reply.

Alexei mentally sighed. Was all of this really necessary? Couldn't they just tell him what he needed to know?

He looked toward the door, and it closed with a slight creak. Black smoke poured from Alexei's body. The unicorn's eyes widened in horror as the smoke rushed towards him and entered his nostrils.

After a minute and a half, the unicorn graciously agreed to provide the information Alexei was interested in.

"F-fourth, twelfth, seventh, ninth, second and fifth!" the unicorn spat out, foaming at the mouth. "Kill... kill me... please!"

"A little later," Alexei nodded, approaching the vault. "I still have a few more questions."

The unicorn first tried to trick the man by slipping in a false sequence, but soon realized his mistake.

"Do me a favor and pour energy into the array,'" Alexei said, turning to the unicorn. "But no funny stuff, okay?"

A flicker of incomprehension flashed in the unicorn's eyes, but he obediently lit his horn and began to transfer energy into the array.

Gradually, activating the runes in the right sequence, Alexei opened the safe. There was a pile of gold inside, but it wasn't the money that interested him. He pulled out some tattered ledgers and began to look through them. A smile appeared on the man's face when he discovered the list of business partners coded in those books. There were definitely nobles and some entrepreneurs among them.

The man was interested in some form of cooperation with them. He wanted to set up a charity organization for the homeless, and through the nobles he could launder money.
Right now, he was a bit broke. Previously, he had left several stashes of gold all over Canterlot, but after Alice's capture, he didn't even dare to go near them.

He still had to come up with a name and symbol for the future organization. Alexei didn't care about such trivialities, but he understood the point. The name and symbol increased the feeling of belonging, which increased the loyalty and engagement level among the members of the organization. One day they would wear the symbol proudly.

Wiping away the blood dripping from his nose, he only sighed - the nightmare's rejection process had recently begun. He knew time was working against him, but he wasn't about to give up. Alexei drank a bunch of supporting potions and fed the nightmare to its fullest, delaying the inevitable. For now, he had time, which he used to find a solution.

Calling a few ponies over, they put the gold into bags and together returned to the main hall, where they found a cart loaded with sacks.

"Look what we found, Flint," the green earth pony announced cheerfully.

"Destroy it all," Alexei shook his head.

He didn't want to deal with this. It was all too problematic.

Alexei had created the organization for two reasons: spreading rumors and gathering information. He was going to use his own hands, or rather hooves, to create an urban legend about a horrible human monster and become a bogeyman for the locals. His nightmare, unlike the others, could not roam freely throughout the Dreamworld. There was a certain range. So he was going to turn Canterlot into his hunting grounds.

Of course, doing this under the nose of the Dream Princess was a bit brazen, but in essence, it didn't change anything. She was free to roam the entire planet's Dreamworld, even though she was only helping ponies with nightmares.

There was also a problem with Luna. After the ritual, she could enter his dreams, so he couldn't sleep at night anymore. The worst part was that if his nightmare was destroyed, he would lose all his abilities.

So he had to target only those who slept during the day.

"Why don't we keep some for ourselves?" the green pony suggested.

The man glared coldly at the pony, and the pony backed away, swallowing fearfully.

"Remind me the rules of our humble organization," Alexei said, looking intently at everyone present.

The beggars looked at the green pony with displeasure. He should have pissed off their boss.

"Be sober," came a chorus of voices. "You want a drink, drink at home.

"You want a mare, make a house call.

"Don't attract attention.

"Keep your mouth shut."

Alexei nodded contentedly. He would have preferred to ban alcohol altogether, but they needed to relieve stress too. Let them drink, but only within the confines of their headquarters.

"I hope you are also mindful about consequences for breaking the rules," the gray pony smiled as he watched the reactions of those gathered.

Oh yes, they remembered perfectly well.

"Now let's get to the pleasantries," Alexei said as he opened the bag of gold.

A wide smile spread across his face as he saw the gleam in the beggars' eyes.

Many people thought these mark-less beggars were complete wretches, but he saw great potential in them. Success in life was not determined by any abilities, but by one's mindset. These ponies had the right personalities for his purposes. Angry and rejected, poor and deprived. He gave them more than gold, food and a roof over their heads. He gave them hope.

The man grinned, remembering a story. It seems to have been during the Roman Empire.

There were captured slaves laboring in a mine. Conditions were terrible, the food was poor, and the work was dangerous - dozens died every day. Of course, riots broke out all the time. Then the mine manager disguised some newly arrived overseers as slaves and sent them into the mine. They began to tell the slaves stories that a certain great general was coming here on a war and freeing all the slaves along the way. Soon he would free them too.

Immediately all the riots stopped. Having been given hope - the people already had something to lose, and they didn't want to take any chances.

And so they continued to die daily.

"New Hope," Alexei finally decided on a name. "That's what our organization will be called."