The ancient city was drowned in a dense fog of black miasmas, writhing as if alive, coiling around ruined walls and ruined buildings. The cracked stone sidewalks had long since been overgrown with moss, and the bones and remains of ponies were scattered at every turn, creating an ominous picture of desolation and death. The putrid air was saturated with the heavy, suffocating odor of blood, semen, urine, and excrement that made one's stomach turn and mind churn.

Silence pressed down on the ears, only occasionally broken by ominous rustlings.

In this suffocating gloom, the miasmas began to thicken, as if to gather in one place. Gradually the silhouette of a bipedal creature began to emerge among them, and its outline became more and more distinct.

A moment later, a naked man with a bag hanging from his neck emerged from the miasma. His right hand was tangled in the strap, but the man did not seem to be bothered by it, his face glowing with joy and contentment as if he had reached the pinnacle of bliss.

The happy expression contrasted with the contents of his hands, which were carrying fresh entrails wrapped in intestines in his outstretched arms. The blood-smeared face gave further clues as to exactly how he had disemboweled his victim.

The miasma covered most of the Crystal Empire, but by no means all of it. It was more like artificially created sections. Here and there, there were gaps in the miasmas, sometimes even the size of entire city districts. These sections were exactly where the crystal ponies were, doing the things they were used to doing - fearing, breeding, and devouring each other.

The man who entered one such gap did not encounter any ponies for only one reason: he was on the outskirts, and the miasmas moved periodically, and the sections along with them. He appeared in one of the newly emerged sections, which nobody really cared much about - most ponies were in the central areas after all, and moved in the wake of the miasmas. But all these subtleties of the local ecology hardly bothered the man.

Frozen for a moment, the man seemed to have decided on a direction and walked towards the central square, holding the entrails in his outstretched arms like some sort of offering to an unknown creature.

As he walked across the miasma-free street, black smoke began to billow from his body, forming into a nightmare. The nightmare's figure didn't change much, but its surface went in waves, like fat on a obese man's body. The nightmare began to sway from side to side, and finally, unable to bear it, opened its mouth and let out a soundless scream, which sent waves of energy flying in all directions. It wasn't some kind of attack. Nightmare was acting on pure instinct, trying to get rid of the excess energy that threatened to tear his body apart. Still, there was a lot of fear around and it fed perfectly.

Alexei, who had been hit by the nightmare, rolled sideways and remained motionless.

After a few seconds, his hand moved and hit the ground as he tried to get up. He failed. Everything around him was blurring and his head was splitting with unbearable pain. Groaning and pressing his palm into his face as if trying to get the pain out of his head, Alexei mentally called out to the nightmare and immediately began cleansing the energy in his body, expelling any remaining corruption.

After ten minutes of continuous work, he finally felt the pain go away and the hallucinations stop.

He could now open his eyes. Thanks to the nightmare he could see perfectly well in the dark and the first thing he saw was entrails. Quickly shifting his gaze to his stomach, Alexei breathed a sigh of relief - it wasn't his entrails.

The hallucinations themselves weren't dangerous, but what if he started using blood magic inside his hallucinations? For example, that seventh spell that sacrifices the caster's organs.

Squinting his eyes, he noticed blood on his face, and his mouth tasted metallic. Running his tongue over his teeth, he fumbled for stuck bits of flesh and something like wool. Alexei squinted as realization of what had happened came to him, but immediately put the thought out of his mind and concentrated on another question.

"What the fuck just happened?" he thought as he continued to anxiously examine his body.

Aside from a few missing fingernails, there was nothing wrong with his body. He could even guess how he had lost them. It wasn't blood magic; he'd probably lost them while he was getting those very insides with his bare hands and teeth. But right now he was more concerned with the source of the powerful hallucinations he was trapped in.

He had entered the miasma half an hour after the alicorns in the company of the Elements had gone in, and then he had woken up here. He vaguely remembered the contents of the hallucination, but had no idea what had happened. Right now, he could feel the corruption gradually accumulating in his body, but it wasn't enough to make him instantly go insane.

Glancing in the direction from which he had come and comparing a few scrappy memories, Alexei came to the following conclusion: he had fallen under some influence. He remembered exactly how he felt as he walked with those entrails in his outstretched arms. It was an offering to someone or something. And that something must have been the source of the corruption. Now it was clear where all the crows he had previously sent into the miasma had gone.

A chill ran down his spine as he thought about it. He was well aware that it would be extremely dangerous here, but why had he underestimated the danger so much? None of his guinea pigs had returned from the miasma, but he dived in anyway. Was he already under the influence of something long before he went in? Was it some kind of spell, artifact, or material combined with all that corruption? The artifact draws him closer and the corruption slowly begins to warp his mind.

The only thing that reassured him was that whatever it was, it had achieved its goal and he'd gotten inside, so there shouldn't be a second attack of hallucinations anymore. Besides, judging by the fact that the wave of energy from the nightmare was enough to clear his mind - this trap wasn't that strong. Either that or it was also suppressed by the sheer amount of energy from the corruption hovering in the miasmas.

"Acceptable," Alexei nodded mentally, assessing the level of difficulty of the upcoming adventure.

How he got out of the hallucination was no mystery to him. Even though the nightmare had no consciousness, it was capable of following simple commands. More accurately, it was somewhat different. Alexei interacted with the nightmare through the mental energy that contained his thoughts. Earlier, he had wished that the nightmare would get rid of the energy while Alexei was in the process of refining it, and that thought had stayed with the nightmare that way. So while Alexei was in the hallucination, the nightmare continued to eject energy. However, there was a lot more fear inside the miasma, and at some point the nightmare got fed up and, acting on instincts, it "vomited" all the energy at once.

"Speaking of which," Alexei thought, rising from the ground.

Leaning over, he put two fingers into his mouth and began pouring the contents of his stomach onto the ground. Pieces of flesh, tendons, fur, grease, bone fragments and a lot of blood - there was no doubt left, he really had eaten someone inside those miasmas.

Taking a flask of water out of his bag, he drank about a liter in a volley and continued to clean his stomach until there was nothing left. After rinsing his mouth and getting rid of the unpleasant taste, Alexei noticed something he hadn't seen before because of the blood - a piece of hide with a fate mark in the shape of an black tree. It didn't tell him anything, so he quickly lost interest. He was more concerned with whether there was any problem with the flesh he'd devoured.

After moving away from the contents of his stomach, Alexei lay down on the stone sidewalk again - he was still dizzy. In addition, he began to feel the waves of lust and hunger coming over him more and more strongly. If someone walked into this section, he would see a heavily breathing man with a boner and drooling.

Having summoned the nightmare, he made a few changes: now he had to send a signal to the nightmare once a minute, if no signal was received - the nightmare would stop getting rid of energy and he would "vomit" again, which would knock Alexei out of his hallucinations.

Finally, he could allow himself to relax a little.

"Just wondering how much more I can take," Alexei smiled sadly and closed his eyes, letting his mind wander.

Despite everything that had happened, he was pretty calm. He was just a little tired.

He had managed to get this far not because of his intelligence, cunning, or some incredible willpower. He considered his greatest weapon to be his mindset.

He had just thrown up chunks of some pony's raw flesh, and he was quite calm. Did he think ponies were inferior to humans? No, they were just as sentient beings as he was.

In that case, could he now be considered a cannibal? Yeah, so what?

Okay, so now he's a cannibal. Does that change anything? No. Well, apart from the still possible stomach problems...

Maybe the flesh of an sentient being was different from the flesh of an non-sentient being? Also no. If you took away all the emotional stuff, it was just meat.

If there was one thing he knew about people, it was that they liked to complicate things where they didn't need to, and simplify things they shouldn't.

But Alexei was constantly busy removing unnecessary emotional overtones.

It started back on Earth. One could say that he didn't change much when he came to this world. Yes, only here he began to show his true self, but that was only because on Earth there was nothing to chase with such frenzy. Besides, there were too many cameras on Earth....

Fame? Money? Women?

Of all these things, he was only interested in money, and only as a tool.

His biggest regret on Earth was that he realized too late what he wanted out of life. By the time he realized what he wanted, he had already finished his master's degree three years ago. And he was left with a profession he didn't really want to pursue.

Not that he didn't like it - he chose it himself, and no one forced him to go to this particular university. It was just...

He regretted that he hadn't followed his childhood dream of becoming a scientist, and had chosen money instead. How could his fate have turned out in that case?

Alexei grinned, imagining himself somewhere in a third world country, conducting experiments on humans.

Biology. That's what he would have chosen and, knowing himself, one day in the pursuit of knowledge he would have gotten to that too. Very easily. Maybe he could even achieve some incredible results. Then he'd be killed by some big shot who decided to clean up the mess. Well, it would still have been an interesting life.

Circumstances were such that he couldn't go to a second university, and it all looked dubious. It was better to earn money and get the right contacts than to study for another ten years and naively believe that he would achieve incredible breakthroughs.

So all he had to do was make money and hope that one day there would be a breakthrough in science. There was still cryonics, but until those smart guys solved the cell damage issue, there was no point in thinking about that.

On the other hand, if he followed his childhood dream, he wouldn't be in this world. So he was even grateful to his past self.

This was how he lived his life, working and doing the things that made him happy - traveling, hitchhiking, reading, sports and computer games. Though he couldn't even remember what he had last played. For the last two years, before he went through the portal, he hadn't played anything at all. It wasn't that he didn't have time - he just didn't want to.

He might have enjoyed doing all that stuff, but he clearly realized that it was all just cheap. A cheap substitute to fill the emptiness inside him, nothing more.

But in this world, it was different. He felt like he belonged. He felt like he was doing something that actually had meaning. His life itself had meaning. As time went on, everything else began to make less and less sense to him.

Others might think he had some dark philosophy mixed with PTSD, and he himself was a rational lunatic, a homicidal maniac or something. It had nothing to do with reality.

In fact, Alexei had a huge secret. If it became known, even Celestia's jaw would drop for a moment.

Alexei was a happy man.

He was probably even in the top ten happiest beings in Equus. Fortunately or unfortunately, no such statistics existed.

Ever since that very night in the zebra tribe, when he had made a certain promise under the night sky, he had gradually become happier and happier. The promise itself was extremely simple: he decided that he would either achieve his goal or die trying. There were no other options - that was how he wanted to live his life.

This happiness had nothing to do with his successes or failures, with joy or pain. With each passing day, he felt... meaning. Anything, even the most tedious task, brought him satisfaction because he knew he was one step closer to his goal. Every day he was getting closer and closer to inner harmony.

If you think about it that way, in all those five-plus years, he had never had anything like a vacation. He'd hardly even had a weekend. Was he some kind of incredible workaholic or did he have an unbreakable will? He had none of those things when he started out. He just didn't feel he needed a vacation.

If his mind grew tired of intellectual work, he simply switched to some monotonous and simple tasks. If he was completely wrecked, as he was now, he would just relax for a while and then get up and keep going. There was no need for some steely will or anything, he never once forced himself to do anything - he enjoyed every second he spent on Equus.

The same was true for successes and failures, joy and pain.

Did he fail? Fine, he'd try again.

He wasn't a masochist, but even when he experienced pain, he was happy. What was pain compared to the happiness of finding meaning to existence?

He had long ago accepted his death. Even back then, under the starry sky, when he had made that decision, he had understood perfectly well what awaited him - most likely, he would die a horrible and painful death. And he was fine with that.

That's exactly how he wanted to die - doing the things that gave his life meaning. Of course, it would be even better not to die at all. Never. Well, that's what he was working on.

Right now he was smiling as he remembered crawling through the shit in the sewers on his stumps. He'd thought so much of himself back then, and this was what had come of it.

That was hilarious!

Unable to contain himself, Alexei snorted, and the memories of the incident grew more and more comical in his mind. If he said he was grateful for what had happened to him that day, he would absolutely be considered crazy, right? He must be horribly traumatized by what happened, right? But he was really grateful to the universe or whoever for the experience. It had become a really useful lesson for him.

Maybe he really was crazy.

It's pretty hard to analyze yourself, and even harder to convey your feelings to others.

Eternal life was a difficult, hardly feasible goal, but the mere pursuit of it already gave meaning to his life.

He clearly understood what he felt, but how could he explain this pursuit to others? It was impossible.

Would Luna understand him if he told her everything honestly? How would she react when he told her that if he couldn't continue on the path to his dream, he would just kill himself?

He had once spoken frankly with a stranger, and that man had said that his views resembled a kind of Buddhism. A dark, twisted version of Buddhism.

For example, Alexei believed that all life was equal. He'd even told Luna that a few times. But he doubted she understood what he meant.

What's the difference between a pony and an ant? Nothing.

In Alexei's opinion, both lives were equal. Maybe he was better than that? No, he didn't think his life was more valuable than the ant's either.

So what was the value of all these lives? They were worth nothing.

To Alexei, killing a pony was equivalent to killing an ant, and killing an ant was equivalent to killing a pony. And how could he tell Luna that? It would be his last words before being sent to the dungeon.

And it wasn't that they were ponies or griffins or zebras. In Alexei's opinion, they were no different from humans. He had never killed a human on Earth, but he knew he could easily kill one if the need arose.

Alexei knew nothing about Buddhism and only vaguely remembered that the man had called it something like "cutting off the unnecessary". If you cut off all unnecessary things, like sentience and inflated ego, then a man and an ant are just two living beings. Alexei was in complete agreement with this.

All living beings are a set of dead elements, which, interacting, create life. If we think in this way, then the next step would be to recognize that there is no difference between a man and a stone. And that was a bit of a stretch, in his opinion. He probably wouldn't make a Buddhist.

He'd heard a thousand times about cops having nightmares after a shooting, or soldiers getting PTSD after coming home. It was all broadcast from everywhere. Everyone had some kind of preconception that killing breaks a person.

There was just a little problem. For some reason it was not popular to talk about people of a different category. There were enough people who passed their first kill with ease. And there were people who, not that they didn't get PTSD, but enjoyed the war.

It was highly individualized for everyone.

Alexei had a theory about it. A one-size-fits-all answer for any internal problem.

It was all about comprehension.

For example, why are we so horrified by killing? Why do we feel a kind of terror at the mere thought of killing, as if we're stepping over some unbreakable taboo?

His grandmother would say it's because the Creator put a piece of himself in us and we are all born good. Heh, that's bullshit.

Survival instinct is the right answer!

One day he was reading an article about how the brain works and it was like he had an epiphany. The article was about how our brains try hard to keep us in a positive frame of mind. It's happened to everyone when a cashier has been rude to you and you can't get a proper response. You get angry for a while, but, on average, after fifteen to twenty minutes you forget about the situation. Well, or you come up with a witty answer that doesn't make any sense anymore.

So this "forgetting" is the work of our brain, so that a person would not be sad, but would rather have a good meal and go to procreate.

Alexei even had a suspicion that it was from this peculiarity of our brain that the whole idea of karma or universal justice appeared. Some loser had invented this nonsense, and a crowd of other losers had picked it all up. Of course, dreaming that the universe will sort out your life is much easier than doing something about it.

In the same article, he saw a quote from another study. It was talking about the survival instinct and the origin of friendship as a way to increase the chances of survival, but Alexei picked up something else.

The point was that our brains, despite all their complexity, are still stuck somewhere in caveman times. We instinctively fear the dark because a beast might be lurking there. We instinctively fear snakes and spiders because they might be poisonous. We instinctively detest insects because they carry diseases and parasites.

What is the connection between the survival instinct and the taboo feeling against killing? It's all about our stupid brains.

What happens if a tribe member kills a fellow tribesman for no good reason? He would be killed or expelled from the tribe!

Expulsion from the tribe, in essence, meant death, because one was deprived of a safe shelter, the warmth of a bonfire, and a reliable source of food.

There are no tribes anymore, and no need to band together to deal with some saber-toothed tiger, but our brains still think otherwise.

Of course, the brain will come to be horrified if you think of doing something that it thinks puts your survival in doubt. So this terror that humans experience is not at all about killing another human being. It is fear of the threat to one's own survival.

Many people feel fulfillment when they do good deeds. Hold up a door, help with a stroller, pick something up off the floor, and you're thanked and you feel good about yourself.

Is the reason that we are all born kind?

Or is the reason that our brains see our actions as beneficial to our survival and reward us with a dose of dopamine? From our brain's perspective, by doing good deeds, we strengthen our position in the "tribe" and reduce our chances of being kicked out. Plus, in case of danger, we are more likely to get support from those we have helped before.

Many people from Earth would probably be at a loss as to how he can kill sentient beings in such cold blood and not be terrified by the killing. He's an emotionless psychopath, isn't he?

They just never thought about it or tried to find and conceptualize the reason for their terror. Alexei did it all the time.

He had killed a Siwazuri, and it was his first kill of a sentient being, and he felt nothing but battle fatigue.

You'd think he had some extremely dark and cynical view of the world, but that was wrong too. Alexei liked the world as it was, and he didn't think it was horrible at all.

It was just that most people were used to dividing everything into black and white. And not just divided, some went even further: if they suddenly saw black, they pretended that it did not exist, and refused to see anything but white. Others, having seen black, focused exclusively on it, became depressed and chewed antidepressants by the packs.

Alexei saw both black and white and all other shades, and he was more than satisfied with everything. He'd never been depressed in his entire life.

Was this how he was supposed to tell something like this to Luna? He would immediately be considered a threat to society and locked away.

He couldn't talk about it with anyone who cared about him, and self-reflection was getting him nowhere. Earlier, back on Earth, he had thought a few times about how he had become who he was, but he found nothing unusual about his life. There had been no childhood mental trauma, no abuse, and he had grown up in a wholesome family. He didn't remember any specific situations that had affected him greatly.

There were only two interesting things he could identify.

When he went to school, to his surprise and dismay, he noticed that he stood out from the other children. It was all about the expression of emotions.

What would a seven year old do when he was told some great news? Smile, laugh and run around like a madman in a fit of ecstasy.

If the news is bad or sad, the child will cry, seek support and all that.

This was not about young Alexei at all.

He felt joy and felt sadness, but it never poured out in such a stormy stream, as it naturally turned out in other children. He did not remember a single occasion when he had sincerely jumped for joy. All the good things, even the very good things that happened to him at school, at most brought a smile, and even then a feigned one.

He spent most of his early childhood either reading books, wandering the woods, or fishing. He wasn't some outcast, and there were plenty of peers in his neighborhood. He just liked it better that way. When he went to the first grade, he realized to his shock that he didn't even know how to smile properly. He could only smile with his lips, which caused confusion among his classmates.

Maybe he was still young and naive, but Alexei quickly realized that if he didn't think of something, he would become an object of mockery and bullying.

So he began to observe other children and copy their behavior. He didn't try to imitate anyone in particular - he had enough sense to realize that would be too suspicious. He picked out a few patterns of behavior that seemed acceptable to him, mixed it up, created his own role, and started playing it out. When he had free time, he was constantly running through different social interactions in his head and thinking about how he would play out this or that situation.

This habit, by the way, stayed with him for the rest of his life. Only now, instead of social interactions, he was running through the worst possible outcomes in his mind and thinking about what he could do about it.

Of course, he didn't limit himself to thinking alone - he also used to practise in front of the mirror and make adjustments.

Alexei had learned to play his role in about six months and had more or less managed to fit into the team without arousing anyone's questions or suspicions. He seemed to be just a shy boy who needed time to open up.

At first, having to watch his behavior and express the right reactions caused him constant stress, but after a couple of years he got so used to it that it became a natural part of himself. If earlier, during a conversation, he had a thought in his head like "okay, now I have to show sadness and express sympathy", soon he was showing everything he wanted the other person to see on automatic.

Then, he was very worried about it and felt that he was strange, a freak, but then he was glad for this school experience. He was good at observing, reading emotions and imitating anything. That would come in handy for him many times in the future.

He fit in quite well and managed to maintain good relationships with both honors students and bullies.

A couple of years later, there was one incident that Alexei did not consider particularly significant, but it was a little interesting.

There was a newcomer in their class who decided to make a name for himself and move up the hierarchy, choosing Alexei as the object of bullying. The choice was quite understandable: a rather quiet and calm boy with good grades and on a good account with teachers, and also a chess player, who went to competitions from the school a couple of times. Alexei had been playing chess since he was five years old and by that time had already managed to take first place in the town and reach the first junior category. In general, he was a total nerd and a perfect target.

The first time he faced bullying, Alexei was confused. What was he supposed to do?

One adult - his grandmother, once advised him that in such cases you should just ignore, and the bully will get bored. Oh, how naive he'd been then to believe that nonsense.

After a couple months of jokes and ridicule, he finally had a serious conflict with the bully. As usual, it was over a woman.

They both wanted to give the same girl a gift for March eighth. The conflict began with a verbal scuffle, but at some point Alexei received a kick - the sole of a shoe in the face. It was spring outside, there was slush all around, and many people ignored the need to wear a change of shoes. All that mud was now on his face.

After that, something clicked in Alexei's head.

In the classroom, besides the two of them, there were only girls then who couldn't break up the fight, so they rushed after the teacher.

When the teacher came running in, she saw a very interesting picture: Alexei was banging the unconscious boy's head against the corner of the desk.

Clumsily, it had to be said, but it was much harder than he had thought. The unconscious person resembled a sack of potatoes: just as heavy and difficult to move.

Alexei still remembered what he was thinking at that moment. Had he wanted to kill him? Oh, no. He just wanted the guy to cease to exist.

The guy was taken away in an ambulance - Alexei may have been clumsy, but he was very persistent. He was sent home, and the weekend followed, so he didn't get back to school until Monday. Entering the classroom, Alexei faced what he had seen only in movies: his classmates were silent at his appearance, and then he heard whispering behind his back for a long time.

No one touched him again until the end of school, and Alexei stopped believing his grandmother's life advice. It had been a wonderful time.

That girl he was in love with had also managed to distinguish herself by breaking her abuser's head with her heel. Maybe he fell in love with her because he sensed his soul mate. And they say opposites attract.

Too bad she turned out to be a drug addict and a slut in high school.

He wasn't without sin, though. In his "brilliant" plan to get close to this girl, he ended up sleeping with three of her friends. You could say they're even.

Now her image will be with him forever in a mental spell. Life really is a funny thing.

The second significant incident happened to him when he was about eight years old.

His aunt, his grandmother's sister, who was remarkable for her wild religious fanaticism, often came to visit them in town. She was an Old Believer, who even television and fiction books were considered the devil's tricks.

Naturally, little Alexei was not allowed to quietly watch cartoons and read fiction, and his grandmother only gave in to her sister.

In the end, looking for information to fight with his aunt, he read the Old and New Testament in a volley. The funny thing is that most of the believers he met in his life couldn't even get through the Bible, which is a short extract of these two books.

After reading these books he disliked God very much - young Alexei found him an extremely unpleasant person.

At the same time, although he found some inconsistencies, he continued to believe that God existed, because all the adults around him believed in it.

But he didn't like God so much that Alexei decided for himself that even if he eventually went to hell, he wouldn't follow all these commandments and obey this being.

One must take into account that he had a very vivid imagination and a read Old Testament behind him. He visualized in great detail the scenes of being dismembered and fried on a griddle in hell. And still he decided to rebel.

Later Alexei will remember it with a smile, but it was a rather serious decision for an eight-year-old boy.

His aunt died four years later of a stroke, much to Alexei's delight.

"Rest in peace," Alexei grinned, opening his eyes. "I've really been taken somewhere... Is it because of that illusion?"

Many times on Earth he had wondered about his life, but this was the first time since arriving on Equus. That's what happens when you let your mind wander.

It was time to move out.

He wished he could stay here and just work on the nightmare, but first he needed to find out the general situation in the Crystal Empire. The strangest thing was that he still hadn't heard any sounds of battle — there was dead silence all around.

Besides, he was quite capable of moving and refining the nightmare at the same time.

Rising, he pulled a drape from his bag, the one the changelings had stolen from Canterlot, and wrapped himself in it, creating a sort of short toga. Not that he cared much about nakedness, but the thought of walking around the Crystal Empire naked made him feel a little uncomfortable - after all, he'd lived most of his life in human society. Given the psychological pressure he was already under, he decided not to resist and dressed up after all.

His imagination gave him a new picture of him chasing the local monsters with a boner.

"It wasn't me who got locked up with you - it was you who got locked up with me," Alexei quoted, laughing at the scenes swirling in his head.

But after a second his face turned serious - the time for rest and relaxation was over.

Clutching the spearhead from Canterlot in his hand, Alexei headed for the miasma wall.

The space rippled, as if swept by invisible waves. The air shuddered, forming bizarre patterns like the surface of water in a breeze.

And the next second, six ponies fell to the sidewalk with a thud. They looked dazed and disoriented, as if they had been torn from their familiar world and thrown into a completely alien dimension. With a groan, they tried to get up, but immediately collapsed to the ground, losing their balance. Their legs shook, like newborn foals who didn't know how to use their limbs.

Only one of them, Twilight, managed to rise to her trembling feet. Accustomed to teleportation, she recovered faster than the others and managed to pull herself together. Her violet eyes blinked, then narrowed in determination. Twilight looked around at the other ponies scattered on the sidewalk and made her way over to Pinkie Pie lying nearby.

"Why did you do that?" Twilight asked, eyeing the pink pony suspiciously.

She didn't remember Pinkie having an artifact with such abilities, but she clearly felt that she was the one who had done it. The situation was really getting out of control, but it would be safer to stay close to the princesses right now. So why had Pinkie separated them? Was she under Sombra's control?

"Because the next second we'd be dead," Pinkie smiled sadly and immediately coughed, staining the sidewalk with red spray.

Twilight froze, staring dumbly at the blood, trying to realize what she had heard. Pinkie really did have powerful intuition bordering on foresight, and it didn't seem like she was under Sombra's control... Death? Did they really almost die?

Twilight was brought out of her trance by a flash of soft light green color, as if it carried a spring and warmth behind it. Fluttershy flapped her wings, and streams of green wind played around Pinkie Pie, healing her inner wounds. Pinkie shuddered, then took a deep breath and opened her eyes to look at her friend.

"Thank you," she replied in a husky voice, receiving a soft nod from Fluttershy.

Twilight followed Fluttershy's gaze and looked at her rising friends. They had no physical injuries, but their psychological state... They looked like they were about to have a panic attack. Applejack clutched frantically at her favorite hat, Rarity wrapped her hooves around herself, trembling, and Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings nervously as if she couldn't find her place. Even Pinkie Pie, always cheerful and energetic, looked exhausted and lost.

The Elements of Harmony, even when sealed, still protected them from corruption, but it had nothing to do with their condition. Sombra had truly exceeded their expectations, leaving them in a state of extreme vulnerability and fear.

Twilight's brain began to work quickly, pondering her next actions. Panicking in this situation was even worse than facing Sombra. Though perhaps that wasn't quite the right comparison. Her thoughts were once again interrupted by a flash of green light.

Fluttershy stood on her hind hooves and took a few steps as if spinning in some ancient dance. Her wings flapped open abruptly, and a gentle green breeze blew across the street. Twilight immediately felt all fear and panic evaporate, the same feeling everyone else felt as peace and tranquility filled their souls.

"She really is something," Twilight thought to herself, throwing the pegasus a grateful smile. "I'd forgotten she could do that."

Fluttershy, like all other pegasi, possessed a wind attribute specializing in speed. But whether it was because of the influence of her profession as a veterinarian, or her gentle nature wanting to heal rather than harm, or a combination of both, Fluttershy went much further than the average pegasus. She used the attribute of wind and, with it, mimicked the spells of unicorns. All high-ranking mages were capable of such a trick, but Fluttershy wasn't even twenty yet.

"You have the space attribute?" Twilight asked, helping the pink pony up. "You never mentioned it."

Periodically, beings with advanced attributes were born. Sometimes there were even those with multiple attributes, like that griffin that now united the principalities. But the space attribute? That was exceptionally rare, with a one in a billion chance.

"Well, something like that," Pinkie replied evasively, tidying herself up. "A mare can have secrets, right?"

Twilight couldn't argue with that, nor did she want to - she was on edge right now. Having lost her Magic mark, she realized to her terror that she couldn't use most of her spells. She used to rely too much on her mark and the intuition it provided. Telekinesis and shields were still available to her, as were most low-level spells, but that was it. She could barely show a third of her former power now. At least she could cast night vision on everyone.

But she couldn't afford self-deprecation. The problem in the form of Sombra had to be dealt with. Only how? The Elements of Harmony were blocked. They'd tried several times already, but those vines hadn't reacted at all, as if they were indestructible.

It took a little more time for the friends to come to their senses, and then a heated debate began. The topic was the age-old question of what to do and how to do it.

Fluttershy, somewhat familiar with alchemy, suggested an idea, and Twilight, despite the craziness of the idea, had to agree. They needed the sap of the tree that sealed the Elements of Harmony. There were several possible outcomes, both good and bad, and yes it was all purely in theory, but they had no other options. What could they do? Rush to the princesses' aid? They would only hinder them from fighting. Without the power of the Elements of Harmony, Sombra would wipe them out.

Twilight assumed that the source of that image behind Sombra's back was an actual tree somewhere around here, but Pinkie confirmed that she had indeed sensed something and even pointed out the approximate direction. The existence of that tree was looking more and more like the real thing. There was also the question of whether they would even be able to approach this tree? It was most likely the source of all this corruption, and the defense of the weakened Elements of Harmony might not be enough. They could only come and find out on the spot.

Pinkie, acting on pure instinct, had tried to take them away from the Crystal Empire, but it seemed they had just moved somewhere closer to the outskirts.

All they had to do was reorganize and head through the deserted streets of the Crystal Empire in the direction Pinkie had indicated. There was dead silence all around, and the lack of any activity only stressed them more.

Suddenly, they heard the quiet crying of a foal, accompanied by wails: "Save me... save me," coming from the neighboring house.

Rarity rushed towards the house, but immediately froze when Twilight grabbed her with telekinesis. Rarity was about to be outraged, but froze under Twilight's serious gaze. Making sure none of her friends were trying to do something stupid, Twilight signaled for them to get ready and stepped forward.

"Who's there?" she asked, keeping the energy in her horn up and ready to fight.

"You... you... can... help me?" a young voice slowly came from behind the door. "She left... Before... before that black fog appeared... I don't know where she is..."

"Who's left?" Twilight asked, keeping her guard up. "Your mom?"

Was there anyone here capable of resisting the effects of corruption?

"Yes... mom..." came quietly from behind the door. "Her name is... Ruby Heart. Will you help... find her? There's a drawing... come in and take a look..."

"What does she look like, little one?" Twilight asked cautiously, running over in her head the possibilities of what happened here.

"She's... beautiful..." came from behind the door. "She has... two eyes... two ears, one mouth and nose... You'll find her... won't you?"

As soon as the words came to Twilight's ears, she felt her fur stand up. Who would even say such a thing? Whatever it was - it sure as hell wasn't a pony!

She almost screamed when a hoof rested on her withers. Twitching, she saw Pinkie looking at the door with a serious look.

"Of course we'll find her," Pinkie said in a gentle voice, signaling to everyone. "We'll find her and bring her here. Just wait a little while."

A contented muttering sounded from behind the door, and all the ponies crept back, keeping their eyes on the house.

Only when they had moved a few hundred meters away did they exhale with relief - no one was chasing them.

"What the fuck was that?" Dash asked in a whisper, still looking back nervously. "What if we'd entered the house?"

Pinkie could only shake her head - they were overestimating her intuition. Yes, she could see some scenes of the near future, but it was all spontaneous and sketchy. Also, the future wasn't static in any way, so often she saw things that just might happen.

"Nothing," Pinkie replied, pulling a water-bottle out of the artifact. "After we came in - there was nothing."

Glancing at Pinkie gulping greedily, Twilight decided that everyone could use a short break. Running away from that strange creature, they had already come to the miasma walls, and it would be a good idea to rest and recover before going in.

Everyone else seconded the idea and reached into their spatial artifacts, pulling out water and recovery potions.

"Pinkie, do you think..." Twilight started, about to ask if she knew how far away that tree was, but stammered when she saw the look on her face.

Pinkie was staring at the wall of miasma, her face crinkling as if she was struggling to see something.

Twilight shifted her gaze, but didn't see anything there. She was just about to ask Pinkie what was going on when the miasmas dispersed and a bipedal figure emerged, covered head to toe in blood.

Twilight immediately recognized the creature that came out - the infamous man.

The man's right side was torn and you could even see his ribs, his left hand was missing several fingers, and all of his limbs were missing fingernails.

In his right hand he had some sort of split spearhead, and in his left hand he had a bone covered in scarlet runes.

His face, as usual, expressed almost nothing, but those who knew him well would say he was pleased about something, as if he had just won the jackpot.

Alexei noticed the resting mares, and squinted his eyes at them and took a quick look. Their weakened condition, the dim fate marks wrapped in some vines, and the bunch of artifacts on them did not escape him.

"What a surprise," Alexei smiled warmly as he greeted the mares who jumped up. "It's been a long time."

Author's Note

NOOOOOOOO!!! 😭😭😭 YOU MUST HAVE A DARK AND TRAGIC BACKSTORY

Haha, happy man goes brrr.

Alexei:

Fluttershy:

Pinkie Pie (just tired, you know):