The days of torture had finally come to an end. For the last few days, Shining Armor had me in constant movement from morning till evening, and when I had time in the evening to lay down, there was Twilight and her books right there to take his place. She tried to hammer one spell after another into my head, but nothing really stuck since I was simply too exhausted. At least I was able to make a shield which could hold up against Twilight’s bombardment for about ten seconds. Considering I had basically gone against a pony who was the embodiment of magic, I was more than happy with it. Shining Armor still thought that it could have been better, but for a week of training, it wasn’t a bad result. Okay, the week might not be over yet, but on the last day, a Sunday, I was supposed to relax.

Sadly, I never got to relax thanks to a certain pink somepony who lived in a bakery and whose screws were a little loose. On the first day of training, Pinkie suddenly appeared before AJ and me to congratulate us. We had to give our best to convince Pinkie to hold back with the party until the last day of training. For that reason, I had been dragged from my bed at 5am by Pinkie so I could get the keys to the barn. My muscles still ached as I stood in the kitchen and tried to fix myself some breakfast. My list for the day was long. I needed to cancel on Cheerilee. After just one day of work, I was already taking holiday leave. I also needed to get some things for the party like the present for AJ. Then there was the party itself. If I found the time, I wanted to stop by Vinyl and ask if she could do something with my old mobile phone. With as much as I did during the training, I never missed my old music. Turning up the sound system had been the first thing I would do after getting up back in my old home. When I left the house, I always had headphones, and in the car, the radio had always been on. You could say that music followed me everywhere I went.

I placed a plate in front of me on the table and relaxed while I ate my bread and cheese.

Morning AJ,

I need do some quick errands and go to meet up with some ponies. Just a few things before I need to leave tonight for Canterlot.

Light

I laid the note onto the dining table and put my plate into the sink. It was now shortly after six o’clock, and I was really hoping for Ruby to be up already. Ruby was the owner of the local jewellery store, and to my sorrow, the mother of Diamond Tiara. Her store seemed to be ordinary, but that lovely little foal must have gotten her behaviour from somewhere. I had made an order for a necklace which had, along with a few rubies, an amber stone in the shape of Applejack’s cutie mark. With a small bonus, Ruby had promised me that it would be finished by Sunday, and the party was the occasion to present it to her. This gesture had cost me, on Wednesday, my entire break along with a considerable amount of bits. Still, it would all be worth it in the end, as the saying went.

I left the house and stood on the broad path to try a little magic trick. I lifted an earth plate from the ground and floated it in front of myself before I stepped on it. It cost a bit more power to support my own weight as well, but it was doable, and so I glided towards the large gate at the entrance of the farm, only a half a meter away off the ground. I couldn’t stomach going much higher due to my fear of heights. Flying was best left to Rainbow Dash. Still, this trick could be useful when trying to reach higher places which was, as a pony, not so simple. To climb a ladder was nearly an acrobatic masterpiece, as was walking on the hind legs, which I had tried in the last few days. Armor wanted to see if I could handle a sword, and I wanted to try to use it with my hooves. I was able to shift my weight and to stand up onto my hind legs, still being an old habit, but it triggered uncomfortable pain in my spine, and I was more quickly back to the ground than I would have liked. Lucky for me, he thought that he had another idea and took the sword back. I believe I would have most likely hurt myself otherwise. Of course, I tried levitating it, but Armor was able to grab hold of the blade within the first few seconds. I just wasn’t skilled enough with levitation to wield a sword.

I reached the town, noting that there were a bit more ponies outside, which was unusual for a Sunday, but I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. I turned from the main road into a wide side alley in which were many different shops. Among those were the jeweller and the famous Quills and Sofas. I had done a little window shopping on my last visit here, and to my surprise, they didn’t just sell quills and couches, but all kind of utensils and furniture. As I looked through the window onto the sofa on display, which had a lot of similarities with the one Rarity owned, I noticed the young mare who I met a few days ago on the farm. With a long white mane and a bright orange coat, she just stood there and seemed to stare holes into the scenery. She seemed to have realized that I could see her reflection in the store window and quickly returned to reality and disappeared around the next corner. I blamed the stupid hoof band, which distinguished me and, for new citizens, still must be something special.

I continued to Ruby’s store and tried to open the door, but it was still closed. I tried to look through the window to see whether somepony was inside, but nopony was to be seen. As I started to get a little annoyed and was about to leave, I noticed the small sign on the door which read that collections were to be made at the back door. Relieved, I went around the house and saw that in the back was a normal residence added to the store. Even if it looked normal from the outside, the decorations were a extravagant and seemed quite expensive. Ornaments were on the shutters, and the door was rimmed with gold. From what I understood, the precious metals here were worth perhaps even more than they were on Earth. Gems, on the other hand, were so common that you could feed your dragon with them, but the metals were much rarer. The iron which was used in Shining’s armor was worth as much, if not more, than most pieces in the shop. The door had an engraving of a large ruby and a sack of money. I was sure that I was at the right place. I knocked a few times, and the door shortly swung open in a wide arc.

“Yes, who’s bothering us so early in the morning?” A little foal with bright purple-pink fur and a mane in the same colour with white streaked through it and a tiara on the head stood in the door. Her eyes were closed, and her muzzle pointed towards the sky.

“Morning, Diamond Tiara. Is your mother at home?” At the sound of my voice, she suddenly opened her eyes and spluttered in surprise. Panicked, she looked around hurriedly.

“Uhm yeah… uhh. Mister Light... umm… what brings you here?” Was she scared because I, as her teacher, was here? Normally I would have a little fun with this, but today I didn’t have time for it – just too many things to do.

“Don’t worry, Diamond Tiara, I’m just here to get something I ordered. Or is there a reason why you should be worried?” I was sure that there was something eating her up, but I would be better served to leave that to Cheerilee.

“Phew… I will fetch her right now. Just a moment.” She shut the door a bit and disappeared into the house. Now I started to wonder why the family even bothered to live here. They surely had enough money to buy a house in Canterlot.

“Ah! Good morning, Prince Light.” Ruby, an earth pony with bright pink fur and a red mane, came to the door in some sort of bathrobe. “You’re surely here to get your order. One moment please.” Without leaving me time to reply, she turned around and disappeared into the house again. With a faint click, the door fell shut right in front of me, and I just stared dumbfounded at it without knowing what to do. Bored, I drilled my hoof into the ground and waited for the door to open again. I looked around a bit and noticed the mare, who I had seen on my way here, again.

She had good reason to believe that he saw her and so she disappeared as fast as she could outside of the line of sight of the alleyway. She peeked around the corner of the house to see where the blue stallion was headed and was surprised to see that he was going to the jeweller, even though it was a Sunday. Her brain immediately jumped to several theories, but that couldn’t be. She would have known about it. She hated unicorns and their magic, but why was he even here? He couldn’t be him, could he? Sometimes she cursed that they had refused to say anything to her.

“Can I help you?” Startled, she returned from her thoughts and jump back a bit. In front of her stood the blue stallion she had been following the whole time. In his magical grip, he held a large box, a black flat box. She remembered it from home. It had always been lying on the commode in the bedroom. Damn it! He was far too close and would notice the resem— “Hello?”

“Uhm, nothing, everything is alright.” She needed to get away from here fast. As she went to go, she crashed into the box the stallion was carrying. It now fell to the ground, and a golden necklace decorated with rubies and ambers fell out of it, a necklace she had seen often. “Excuse me!” She still was in panic, but if she made a run for it now, he would get suspicious.

“No problem, at least nothing happened. If my magic was a little better, then it wouldn’t have happened in the first place. I am happy that I can at least get it to float.” And with those last words, he started to laugh. If he really was so bad with magic, then there might be a good chance that he wouldn’t notice the spell.

“So is everything okay?” He simply nodded, picked the necklace back up, and placed it back in the case.

“You’re new in town, so may I ask you what your name is?” She could slap herself again. She thought of so many things but not a name? Quick, think about it. Ed? No, that would fit more to a stallion. ‘Quick, just say something,’ she thought, ‘otherwise, he will grow wary.’

“Aura.” Damn it, that was part of her real name.

“Hello, Aura, happy to meet you. I am Blue Light.” He reached out with a hoof on which was a hoof circlet. She carefully shook it and inspected the circlet. Two known symbols were engraved on it.

“May I ask why you wear the seal of the royal family?” She was curious. It was uncommon for someone of the royal family to be outside of Canterlot and even more to be on a farm. What confused her even more was that he supposedly was bad with magic. The royal family consisted only of unicorns and alicorns of tremendous magical power and skill.

“This thing? I have to thank my mother for it.” He shook a few times as if he trying to get it off and sighed when it was still there.

“Your mother?” She had learned the royal family tree in school, and the only female member that had children of her own was Princess Cadance.

“Celestia, big, white alicorn. Can be a real troll at times.” She couldn’t believe what she heard. Celestia, the goddess of the sun, was supposed to have a son, and he was standing right in front of her, strolling through a small town like Ponyville and entering and leaving the farm as he pleased.

“Wow, I didn’t know that Princess Celestia… Oh! I am truly sorry, your Highness.” She bowed instantly and expected to be lectured, but all he did was start to laugh again.

“It’s nice to meet somepony that doesn’t recognize me instantly. Come on, not so formal.” He held out a hoof and signalled for her to rise.

“Uhm.. okay.” Now was the chance, for when would she get another one to ask him? She couldn’t just stroll into the farm like that. “Could I show you something?” He just nodded. She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a picture, the one with the strange creature that she had found in the library. Carefully, she placed it in her mouth and showed it to him. His eyes widened, and suddenly the picture flew out of her mouth.

“Where did you get this?” With one eye fixated on the picture, the other one was more or less on her. He smoothed out the picture and cleaned it a bit before it disappeared from her sight again. “Sorry, but that’s a personal photo.” She must have found the owner, but where did he get it and what was that creature on it? Judging from his reaction, she didn’t want to learn it from him. “From where did you get this?” Now she was in a pinch. She couldn’t just say that she broke into the library, changed the formula, and took the picture.

“Found it! I just found it.”

I never thought I’d see the day where I found somepony who was a worse liar than AJ, but here I had a living example of it right in front of me.

“And where?” I really wanted to know that. I had seen it the last time before I was sent to the other dimension, so the other Twilight must have found it and put it in the envelope. There was no other explanation for it. It was new to me that ponies would break into other ponies’ homes. Actually, the entire concept of criminality was new to me here. In a world where there was some sort of police, there needed to be some kind of thievery, and my assumption was that I had a little thief in front of me. I still was wondering what she wanted with the photo or why she even showed it to me, but there was time for that later.

“I uhm… well on the street… right… back there.” She really lied a lot worse than AJ. It was almost unbelievable. Not a really good criminal. My visit to Vinyl sadly needed to wait. I was hoping to see whether I could start listen to music again, but this was more important.

“Ah yes,” I said and looked down at her. For a teenager, she backed down unexpectedly fast. Whenever I confronted one of my brothers, they always retorted with a snippy remark, or when my mother asked me something when I was little. Her eyes looked around the alleyway, and she seemed to search for a way to escape, but I wasn’t in the mood for running. My horn lit up, and faster than she could look, she was captured in a cage of stone.

“Hey, what gives?” As if she didn’t know what was going on.

“I believe that I’ve captured a little thief. This picture here should be in the library and not in your possession, and I highly doubt that Twilight just threw it out of the window.” Still, I would have to talk to her about forgetting to give it back. I waited for a reply or a defence, but Aura just sat down and remained quiet. “As you like. I have things to do. We’ll just have to continue this on the farm then.”

“Well try already! You can’t cast two spells at once. When you want to move me, you’ll need to open the cage, and in the time you need to recast a spell, I will be long gone.” So she was a teenager. I was relieved I wasn’t wrong. I added my second source and formed the levitation which surrounded the cage in an orange glow. “What? How are you doing this? This shouldn’t be possible!”

“Just because I am not good with levitation doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything. I believe you underestimated me, Aura.” As she had a shocked look on her face, I happily went on my way, with her floating alongside me, to the next store to do my shopping. During the entire time she was in the cage, she didn’t make a sound. One or two ponies gave us a confused look, but since I was the one who led the cage, nopony asked. The whole thing could have gone differently, so thank you, stupid hoof circlet, I thought to myself. As we reached the grocery store, I put the cage down in front of the door.

“Thieves are sadly not allowed inside,” I simply said and quickly brought everything I needed. Pinkie had brought biscuits without end and was bringing a cake later on, so all I needed to buy was punch and some refreshments. I brought a big bottle of fruit punch, lemonade, which tasted like rose and tulips, but also normal one like cherry as well. Apple juice and water just wasn’t right all the time. Lucky that AJ couldn’t hear that. I made haste, and my instincts didn’t prove me wrong. As I stepped outside, I saw a crowd of ponies around the cage and Aura, who was trying to break the stone with a few strong kicks.

“Thank you for watching over my wares,” I said to the bystanders. I turned the stone into iron with some magic and lifted the cage back from the ground. Admittedly, I did wonder to myself why she didn’t ask somepony for help, like another unicorn, but that was her problem. I went leisurely back to the farm and still had the grim-looking but quiet thief floating behind me. “Why did you break into the library?” No answer was also an answer. Good. Actually, it wasn’t, but I couldn’t just force her to talk. However, the pony that currently was in our barn could. If I unleashed Pinkie onto her… or was that too cruel?

It took a while, but finally we arrived at the farm. To my surprise, it was already nearly afternoon. The way to the barn was about thirty minutes; with the load, maybe just a bit more. Where did the time go? I went as planned straight to the barn, just to realize that it was locked.

“Pinkie! Open up, it’s me.” Something clattered in the barn and suddenly the upper half of the door opened and revealed a pink pony with a few streamers in her mane and a party hat on her head.

“Hey, Light, sorry, don’t have time, need to prepare everything!” And with a bang, the door closed again. I could forget the Pinkie torture then. Aura, in the meantime, had made herself comfortable in her cage and had fallen asleep. I knocked against the bars, which startled her awake.

“Hm… uhm… what?” Sleepily, she looked around. “No, no, no, NO!” She turned a few times around herself and seemed to be in panic. “I can’t be here! I am not supposed to be here.”

“Would you rather be handed over to the Royal Guards?” She seemed to consider it for a few seconds. I just wanted to give her a little scare and then talk with Twilight and AJ about this thing. Twilight was the victim, maybe me as well, and AJ was the Element of Honesty. Even if she had a hard time lying, she would find out the truth easier than me.

“What’s going on out there, sugarcube?” called a well-known voice. Its owner soon followed in its wake. AJ stepped out of the front door and looked at the whole spectacle in front of her. “Why is there a filly in a cage?” I looked at Aura, who had become so pale that it was actual visible through her fur.

“I caught her as she tried to steal this here from the library.” I levitated the photo out of the paper bag, in which were the drinks, and gave it to AJ. She looked at it and then to me.

“That’s your family?” she asked after a few seconds and I nodded. “It’s kinda... cute?” She didn’t seem to know what to say at the sight of humans. “I am the big one on the picture. Next to me are my brothers, and behind us are our parents. I took it along with me on a trip.” I looked at Aura, whose thoughts seemed to be racing. “So what do we do with our little thief here?”

“Let me talk to her, sugarcube. You bring the drinks into the house first.” I did as I was told and went with the bag into the house, but not without wishing AJ a good morning the right way. I loved kissing her, but this time it was accompanied with a gagging sound from Aura.

This couldn’t be. She had found him, and to top it all off, he had captured her in a cage and thought she was a thief. How he made the cage and at the same time was able to levitate her was incomprehensible. Her biggest problem right now was headed straight towards her: her mother.

“Howdy, may I ask your name?” She shouldn’t get close to them. That was against her instructions. Twilight had explicitly warned her about that, but what else could she do now.

“Latrine?” Okay, she would never buy that. The mare’s expression confirmed her belief. “Aura…” She sighed, and this time Applejack looked more satisfied.

“I take it that’s not your whole name?” She was simply too good with uncovering lies.

“It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t be here!” She needed to get away from here. Who knew what could happen.

“You’re lying… Besides, you seem familiar. Do you belong to the Apple family? I thought I knew all my relatives.” Applejack seemed to ponder on that. Now was her chance. Blue Light was not around, so the spell was no longer active. If she could bend the bars, it would serve. She kicked with all her might against the iron, but except for her own pain, nothing happened. “One heck of a kick you got there, missy. Now tell me who you are and where you’re from?” She couldn’t say anything. Twilight had mentioned that if she revealed anything, they might reconsider their decision, and she would never have been born. She needed to watch out.

“Find out anything yet?” There he came again: her possible father. Why did nopony ever tell her about him? Why did her mother never talk about him?

“Just her name – Aura. She doesn’t want to talk, sugarcube.” What did they want to do with her? If she didn't talk, she would get into trouble, but if she did, she'd get into trouble as well. The question was: which was the lesser evil?

“I already know as much as that. I thought we should wait on Twilight. Maybe she knows something we could do, and it was her library which was broken into.” Twilight definitely would recognize the spell, and in the future, her Twilight would know that it would go wrong and never send her. No, she couldn’t let that happen.

“No, please not Twilight Sparkle! She can’t see me!” Could she speak with them? Would they believe her?

“Hey, Applejack, what’s going on out there?” The barn opened, and Pinkie Pie looked at the three. With a jump, she was next to them and reached through the bars. “Hi, you are new here, aren’t you? ‘Cause I know everypony in Ponyville, and I haven’t seen you before. My name is Pinkie Pie! What’s yours?” The party pony looked with widened eyes at her and waited for an answer.

“This is Aura, and I caught her as she was trying to….” Light did not get further as Pinkie disappeared with a whoosh into the barn. “And another party guest for our party…”

“Party?” She was curious. What were they celebrating, and why not a surprise party as was usual for Pinkie?

“Well, since you’re here anyway… AJ, would you be so kind and inform our first guest?” He leant against Applejack, who got a little red in the face. “Look at it as practice – you’re going to answer a lot of questions today.

“Well, if you say so, sugarcube. Well, Aura, I don’t know if you know what it means since you’re relative young… but… well... uhm… I am pregnant and today we’re going to celebrate it a bit.” It didn’t take long for her to put it all together. Here in front of her stood her mother and her father, who she had never met, right in front of her, and they said to her that they were pregnant with her. So nothing could happen anymore, for she existed already. So Twilight’s warning was obsolete, right?

I had to say it felt good to hear AJ say it, even if the result was different from what we planned. I expected that she would be happier for us, but Aura didn’t seem to be excited about it. It was more accurate to say that she didn’t show any reaction at all.

“What do we do with her, AJ? I can’t keep her in that little cage for the entire day, well until Twilight is here.” AJ collected herself again, but she seemed a little off, like if she was somewhere else right now. That was a little weird for her.

“I have an idea. We just lock her into the barn with Pinkie. Then she can make herself a little useful, and nopony has ever escaped Pinkie.” And the Pinkie Torture was back in game, something I greatly agreed with. I nodded to AJ, and she opened the lower half of the barn door. I levitated the cage to the opening and opened the right side of the cage, but Aura remained in place.

“There is nothing to fear. Pinkie doesn’t bite. Well, except if you’re a cupcake.” I pushed her with a hoof into the barn, and AJ closed the door behind her. Eagerly, we waited a few seconds and listened to what would happen in the barn, but it remained quiet.

“Well it’s still better than if I kept an eye on her.” I turned myself back to AJ, who still seemed lost in thought. “What’s up?”

“I don’t know, sugarcube. I could have sworn that she somehow belonged to my family.” I never was good in differentiating between ponies. I knew what I liked about AJ, but I used the fur, mane, and cutie mark to separate them.

“A cousin maybe? But then why is she here, and why would she break into the library?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just see what Twilight has to say once she’s here. I’m going to be in the house preparing a little snack. Could you fix up the path a little?” AJ pointed at the road which led to the house. It was a little bumpy, and the weather had left its marks.

“Sure, no problem.” And so I started to flatten it back out again, meter by meter.

My name is Auralia Apple, and I am thirteen years old. My mother is Applejack and my father obviously Blue Light, son of Princess Celestia herself. Of course I knew my mother, but I never got to meet my father. Neither my mother nor my Uncle Big Mac, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy ever talked about him. All they had ever told me was that he had died in an accident. I had searched the graveyard for his grave many times, but there was none. I had put up with it for years until I found an old picture where my mother was with an old friend of hers, Twilight Sparkle. Until that moment, I thought that those two just couldn’t stand each other.

My mother practically hated anything to do with magic, and that included unicorns as well, so it was even more shocking to see this blue stallion just strolling in and out of the farm as he pleased. To hear that Twilight and Applejack still seemed to be friends was the icing on the cake. Since my mother in the future had never given me an answer on the picture, I had decided to find Twilight Sparkle. To my surprise, she knew exactly who I was, which meant that she knew my father. Still, just like the others, she never told me anything about this good stallion. I started visiting her in secret to try and see if I could pry anything from her, anything, but she had remained silent. After a few months, she had made me an offer: she would send me to the past so I could do my own investigation, and all I had to do was simply change a formula in the library while I was there. Everything had gone as planned, so I could now make it back on my own, or at least that was how Twilight explained it to me. That little detail, along with many others, like the fact that I was from the future, who I was, and so on, I had been told to keep to myself, l. She warned me that if I did tell ponies the truth, it could have some unwanted consequences, but wouldn’t her traveling and changing the formula do the same thing? The more I tried to think about it now, the more Pinkie got on my nerves.

“Hold the streamer.” She pressed the end of a long streamer into my hood, and with a jump, hung it up on the ceiling and knotted it at one of the crossbeams. My parents would be celebrating a party and would announce that they would be having a foal – me. I don’t know if I would be able to stomach the entire thing. This world seems so peaceful, and the both of them seemed so happy, so what happened? What kind of accident did my father have, and why did Twilight want me to change the formula? Did he maybe have something to do with that? Couldn’t I just ask her then? That would surely have some sort of effect on the future, if not worse.

“So, what do you think of your party?” I was startled a bit. Did Pinkie know? She pointed at the banner on which was written, ‘Congratulations Applejack and Blue Light,’ and after that was scribbled with paint, “and Welcome Aura”. The irony behind it would have made me laugh, if this weren’t such a complicated situation.

“It looks… nice?” Pinkie beamed happily and skipped through the barn.

“That’s super, especially if the reason is twice here.” Now I could be sure that Pinkie had a hunch, and I didn’t ask myself any further as to where or how she knew – it was Pinkie. She had been often on the farm when I was smaller, most times because of some event like my birthday, but otherwise I only saw her rarely. Mom delivered the apples to the bakery where she worked, but even there she wasn’t this active. Something horrible must have happened, and I was sure that it had to do with the formula and my father.

“What do you mean, Pinkie?” I needed to know how she knew and if I needed to silence her somehow. I hoped she could keep a secret.

“Well, when a coming foal is eleven months too ea—” I held my hoof against her mouth, but she just continued to talk.

“Pinkie, quiet. Nopony is supposed to know that. More importantly, how do you know that?” Wait, did I really expect her to give me an explanation?

“Well, you totally look like your mother and you definitely got the mane from your father, and since Twilight already traveled through time, it was pretty obvious, even though you aren't a unicorn."” Her smile didn’t leave her face for a second, and she simply grinned at me.

“Promise me that you will tell nopony.” Please, Pinkie, please.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I didn’t know what that just was, but I assumed that it was a promise.

“Thanks, Pinkie.” I was relieved, and since I was still here, that meant that nothing had happened. Probably.

“Well, come on. There’s still a good bit of decorating we need to do. Here, I still have a list of decorations.” She pulled it practically without looking from another crate which was nearly twice as big as the first two we had just emptied.

I didn’t get to leave the farm anymore thanks to my unexpected guest. I knew she wasn’t dangerous, but I still didn’t want to leave AJ alone with the little thief. Cheerilee I would see at the party, and Vinyl would just have to wait. Since Pinkie had Aura fully under control in the barn, it looked like I could just throw myself onto the couch and be lazy. I actually wanted to help AJ and Big Mac fix more trees, but they insisted that I used my day off to relax. So here I was, lying disgruntled on a couch while my pregnant marefriend was out working. She might be still far from being burdened by it, but it still just felt wrong. Every now and then, I fell asleep for a bit since a little bit of warmth made me dozy. As I was woke up from my third or fourth nap, I heard somepony in the shower and saw that Big Mac was at the dining table chewing on a straw. I stretched really good and looked at the clock, seeing that it was a bit before seven.

“Hey, Big Mac, everything upright again?” I was speaking firstly about the trees and, in a more roundabout fashion, the thing that stood between us: his sister. It took a while, but then there was an answer.

“Eeyup.” He didn’t show any expression and remained relaxed. I was a bit relieved after hearing this since I was living here with him. I had thought about buying a house of my own now that I had a job, but AJ wouldn’t let me leave the farm. If I wanted something for myself, it would be built as an extension of the house. That actually wasn’t too bad of an idea, the annex. When the foal got here, then there wouldn’t be a guest room anymore and… I was just making too many thoughts right now. I’d have time for that once I got through the next few days safely.

“I’ll go check on Pinkie and then stay in the barn. The guest should start to come soon.” Big Mac just nodded, and I went from the house into the barn. I knocked once and stepped through the door into the brightly lit room. Pinkie had hung a disco ball on the ceiling. The table was filled with baked goods and the drinks I had gotten, and each crossbeam was covered in streamers. Above all of this was a banner: “Congratulations Applejack and Blue Light and Welcome Aura!” The last three words were written on it afterwards, and the paint was a little out of place.

“Pinke? Aura?” I heard a giggle from behind one of the bale of straw and focused a little more on it, just to have a pair of pink hooves pull me through it in the next moment. Behind it sat Pinkie and Aura, each with a cup of tea in front of them, apparently having some sort of tea party.

“Hey, Light, can I offer you some?” She got another cup, almost out of nowhere, and put it in front of me. She pretended to hold a tea kettle and filled air into it before pushing it a bit closer to me. “So Aura here is absolutely eager to hear your story and how better to do it than with a cup of tea.” She continued to grin at me as if it was the most normal thing in the world, but Aura seemed to avoid my eyes.

“Excuse me, you two, but there is no time for that. The guests should be here any moment now.” Pinkie jump up and threw her cup away.

“You’re right, I forgot to open the gate.” And with that, she whooshed through the straw and disappeared. Not one second passed before she was back again and pointed at the ground. “Would you be a dear and wipe that away?” And with that, she was gone again.

“Sorry, I was just curious, and Pinkie said she would take care of it.” That she was curious was nothing new. Why else would she steal a picture?

“We’re also not through with that. I still want to know what you wanted with that picture and why you were in the library. I am assuming that the picture wasn’t the only reason. Except for me and Twilight, nopony else has seen it.” She hung her head down again and tried to avoid my look again. There wasn’t any real damage, and I was just keeping her here to satisfy my own curiosity. I could literally feel that she was after something. Pinkie must have unsealed the big barn gate, for the two big gates swung outwards and the last few rays of sunlight fell into the barn. I immediately heard Pinkie talking with AJ and another voice which belonged to Twilight. A few others seemed to follow them, and I looked down at Aura, who seemed to be scared. “Come on, we can’t keep them waiting.” I grabbed her with a gentle levitation spell and pulled her from behind the straw. Next to Twilight were Cheerilee and Fluttershy, who were both happy about the drinks. I greeted them briefly and moved with my luggage into the direction of my marefriend and Twilight, who were talking about who knew what.

“Hello, look what I found today.” I let Aura float in front of me and placed her on the ground. Until now I didn’t notice it, but she seemed panicked. Served her right when you broke into another pony’s house. Twilight’s eyes widened, almost as in shock.

“What? Why? Who’s that, Light?” Her mouth was wide open, and I was really scared that a fly would get lost in there. Since Aura didn’t have any intentions of saying anything, I did it for her.

“This is Aura. I caught her this morning with a photo – the photo of my family to be exact. Actually, why don’t you hand that back to me already?” Twilight seemed to take a while finding a connection, but she got one.

“So she was in my library and stole the picture? Why would somepony do something like that? It doesn’t have a sort of value to her, does it?” Now she was asking herself the same question as I did.

“That’s it, and she is refusing to answer.” Both of our eyes were focused on Aura who was lying on the ground in a ball.

“But there’s something else. Don’t you recognize my magical signature?” She always had something new.

“Her what?” She rolled her eyes and pointed at Aura with a hoof.

“She’s radiating a strong magical signature; my own to be exact. I don’t know when or why, but there was a strong spell cast on her, and it’s still active.” I looked at the pile of misery on the ground.

“Wait a moment…. Are you saying that she… was conjured here or something. Or that her appearance… a changeling? But why your signature?” I was overwhelmed, at a complete loss. “You know what, Twilight, please take her. I currently have enough to worry about and a party which I have to partake.” I just left the two alone and made my way towards AJ. In the meantime, everypony we invited had arrived. There were naturally all of AJ’s girlfriends, Cheerilee, Shining Armor, Lyra, Bon Bon, Caramel, Big Mac, Carrot Top, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Even if I didn’t count Bon Bon and Lyra as my closest friend, AJ did.

“Howdy, everypony! I think we all know why we’re all here tonight. I first want to thank everypony who could make it.” A little applause interrupted AJ. “We would like to thank Pinkie for decorating. Thanks, sugarcube.” This time there was no applause for Pinkie.

“First off, we would like to announce that AJ and I have been a pair for a while now—” I was interrupted by applause, “and that I want to make it official with this.” I let the little package appear which, to my luck, succeeded. I had practiced teleportation with Twilight a bit and was at least able to teleport a book from point A to point B. Even if Twilight didn’t count it as a success, since the book was a pile of ash afterwards, it was one for me. I pulled the necklace out of the box and put it around AJ’s neck. She barely looked at herself and threw her hooves around my neck. I knew that this was already a lot for her. She didn’t like to show emotions often, especially in public.

“Thanks, sugarcube. It really is pretty.” The cheesy line remained stuck in my throat. “And now we have to announce something.” AJ took a deep breath. In the next few seconds, I look through the room and saw Pinkie smile. Twilight, who was focused on Aura and Armor, nodded shortly. “I am pregnant.” And then the party really started.

Author's Notes:

Anyone ever watches "Steins Gate"? If you didn't, you should. Thats how time traveling works. Or just take a ride in a blue box...

Thanks to Tripl3M for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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