'What was this idiot thinking by returning here if he knew that hell was expecting him?’ thought Robin as he paced around his flat and started, with a few gestures, to repair the damages. "He returned from a nearly perfect world to save what? The remains of a nearly destroyed civilization?" He snorted and, with another gesture, the destroyed window was whole again. Despite the short time that had passed, it had become very cold in the flat.

“Sir? We’ve loaded the creature on the truck,” reported one of his soldiers. Since he had proved that he was the most effective fighter against those damned shades, he was chosen by the group of survivors as their leader. Among them were many refugees from England, who were stranded here because of the blockade of the Mittelland Canal, meaning that ships couldn't pass.

“Thanks, Jonsen. Lock him up in the school,” he said briefly and closed the door again, which activated the magic seal. Exhausted, he dropped down in the armchair and lifted the half-empty beer on the ground that his old friend hadn’t drunk. “Why now, Timo?” he asked himself as he took the first drink. “I have everything under control. We’re surviving.” He got the pendant from his trouser pocket and looked closer at the black crystal. The magic energy pouring from it was unbelievable, so much so that even a non-magic being could still sense it. People were not unreceptive to magic, rather the contrary. How could they have an immunity to something that only a few had ever experienced?

“If I had the other five, we would be guaranteed our survival. Actually, who ever made him our redeemer, our savior?” Furious, he threw the now empty bottle against the wall, smashing it to pieces. “For the last few months, I was the one who ran things here, made sure we lost nobody else, and now he comes and wants to dig up our remains, our wounds?” He gave a bitter laugh, and a new bottle floated to him. “He sounds almost like my sister…”

Without a word, I was thrown in a room in the school that was closed with a heavy iron door. It was one of the former computer rooms, the doors made so that it would be more difficult for burglars to enter. The men had looked at me strangely during the short journey on the truck and also when I was carried through the halls of the school. Some women and children had run past or made room for the soldiers as they had went up the first floor. The short excursion had ended when I was placed in the room directly to the right of the stairs. I could not stir yet, paralyzed by the magic Robin had used on me.

I had tried to see if I could glimpse Dirk or Julian, but luck was not kind to me. Lately it seemed that bad luck had attached itself to me, but I seemed to always find a way to wriggle out of it. There was the fact that I had survived the parasprites, then the thing with Nightmare and Albia. It was already a miracle that I had become a pony in the first place, as the number of worlds that existed meant that I had beaten odds akin to winning the lottery.

To top off the wretchedness of my situation, my nose was itching something fierce. I tried to rub it against the linoleum ground, but it made little difference. It was only then I realized that movement had returned to me, and I could turn my neck a little. I built up momentum and then fell down on my back. Here was the ceiling that had already been there when I awoke this day. The panels were full of holes for whatever purpose they served. For me, they were a place to hide my pencils. I looked around in the room, but except for a chair, it was completely empty. There weren't any windows, and the only light came from a small lamp under the ceiling that ran with an energy-saving light bulb, so it didn't do much.

Finally, my right hoof moved and I could fight against this wretched itch. Relieved, my hooves dropped to the ground. “Come on already, Light… think…”

I had snuck out of school in the past, but my experience was more in the field of avoiding teachers than picking a lock. Moreover, there were surely guards on the other side of the door. Slowly and melancholically, I got on my hooves, but I nearly buckled at the first step towards the door. That spell had really hit the mark, like peeing against an electric fence, a rather embarrassing childhood recollection.

“Could I have some water?” I shouted when I was near enough to the door. I heard like feet running along the ground, followed by an awkward silence and then some whispering. They had probably not known that I could speak. Still, with the fact that they had my saddlebag and my other provisions, I needed something to drink. Maybe I should have taken the beer after all.

“Uhh… yeah, sure,” a nervous reply finally came back. From the voice, I judged him to be an older man, the squeaking of his shoes growing distant as he went away.

“What are you?” came from behind door just as I had turned around. “The boss only said that we should treat you well.”

‘That’s at least something,’ I thought while lying down.

“A pony and, if you want to add, an alien.” I could practically hear the gulps of the poor guy from across here. “I came from this world originally though. But something like that usually happens when they give you an anal probe.” Despite my weak state, I had to struggle not to laugh out loud at my own joke. To my delight, the guard seemed to believe me, which made my attempts at being serious more difficult. Now I knew why Rainbow and Pinkie liked to play such pranks. As my silent laughter petered out, I heard more footsteps.

“I have the water.” I knew this voice and, a few seconds later, the green iron door opened and another friend entered the space in the form of Julian. He seemed to have found a shaver and had probably enjoyed a shower. He had a bowl in his hands that he put down before me as he took the chair for himself and sat down.

“Are you serious? You really expect me to drink like a dog?” The bowl was really an old dog’s bowl. I glared at him took but still grabbed it and took a gulp.

“You are real?” Julian asked as I put down the bowl and wiped the remainder from my mouth with a hoof.

“What gave me away? Maybe it is my charm or the fact I had spoken to you?” I had not forgotten that he had shot me. I kept my eyes on the revolver that he had on his belt.

“Robin said you were telling the truth.” That surprised me. Although they were once my friends, I didn’t know that they had known each other. I had known them both from different circles. “I still can’t believe that you’re alive. I stood by your grave, man…”

“It’s happened a lot. Let me tell you that that wasn’t me the day that body died. When was the date?” He looked pensive for a moment.

“Last autumn, a few weeks before everything happened here.” So Changer had lived a summer as Timo. “And I’m sorry about the shot. I had been with Peter for a week, looking for food and other things of value. I haven’t been able to sleep…”

“Next time, I’ll shoot back.” I was absolutely serious. Before I would never have had the idea, but now two friends had already directed their weapons against me. “Do you know anything about my family, or why Robin is able to swing a red magic club?” Julian laid his arms on his legs and bent to look at me better.

“Dirk is here, but on patrol. I met Nils last when the military evacuated Dusseldorf. There are a lot of folks around here that you’d probably know, like my family.” I was happy for him that his family had survived. “Because of Robin’s magic… He was like a lot of people, an only survivor. When more and more were killed, he went crazy and destroyed more than half when they attacked. When the Colonel who had led us had died, he positioned himself as the top choice and became the new leader.” I could only imagine what Robin had gone through after he had lost Tanya. I would also have gone a bit crazy if something happened to AJ.

“Look, my friends are waiting for me. I have to get out of here.” He only shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything. All betrayers are thrown from the camp with their family.” That meant his parents would be in the line of fire, something I didn’t want.

“Then do me a favour and let me talk to Dirk.” He got up from the chair and knocked several times against the door.

“I’ll see what I can do, but I’m only a foot soldier. I don’t give any orders.” With a click, the heavy metal door opened, and he left alone me in the cell with the half-filled bowl of water.

“Don't worry, if I have to go, I will let you know!” I called after him before the door was shut. Now it was back to working on an escape plan.

It was later in the morning when Robin nervously entered the school through the side entrance of the cafeteria. In this sat several in his charge: women, children, and some old people. The latter he only kept because they had knowledge worthy of protection. They had no productive abilities and used food, water, and medicine. He might have thought that line of reasoning to be cruel in the past, but he had learnt to adapt and adjust. One of the soldiers met him halfway to the hall and handed a paper to him.

“Sir, this is the list of everything we managed to salvage in the past twenty four hours.” He skimmed over it quickly. Beside things like some canned food, hygiene products, and some common equipment, he noted something was absent.

“What is with the thing Timo had with him?“ he asked the young soldier, not older than maybe fifteen.

“Timo, sir?” He sighed.

“The pony you found.” A light seemed to glow as he flipped through a notebook that he had pulled from his waistcoat.

“Here!” he said after a moment. “It was some sort of bag, but its contents haven’t been gone through as yet.” Robin caught the book and read the few lines on it.

“Then we should go have a look.” With that, he handed the book back. “Perhaps it will have another pendant,” he thought to himself, feeling the one he had in his pocket. Together with the young subordinate, he went by the hall, past the rooms that contained the survivors living in them, past the stairs, and into one of the rooms on the ground floor of the west wing. ‘Warehouse’ had been written with a marker on the door where a guard stood. With a nod to Robin and company, he opened the door as they got closer and let them in. “Where is the bag?” The boy crossed the room with quick steps and pulled the desired object from a big blue barrel.

“Here.” He returned with it to Robin and laid the bag on one of the boxes near the entrance. With a hand, he checked it for magic traps, but there were none to be found, arcane or otherwise. The buckle snapped with the help of his fingers and released the contents of the first pocket. A bottle of apple-juice spritzer, followed by some apples, fell out.

“He had probably prepared for a longer excursion,” he thought to himself. “His ship must be anchored somewhere more remotely.” He dug a little further and eventually pulled out a large stone, almost transparent and about as large as his fist..

“Is that… a diamond?“ the boy asked, to which Robin could only nod. He felt the magic that it had but could not say what had caused it.

“Take this as far away from here as possible. It could be a tracker.” He allowed the diamond to fall into the hands of the soldier, who looked at it curiously.

“But wouldn’t it be unable to work without a satellite or something like that?” Sometimes he envied the unknowing minds.

“I’m talking about magic.” To demonstrate, he made his hands and the stone glow. “It’s enchanted, and I have no intention in finding out how.” The soldier nodded and stowed away the diamond in his vest pocket. Robin had turned, in the meantime, to the pocket on the other side of the bag and brought out a headset with a transceiver. “Interesting. Timo must have made a stop at the Media Markt. To be expected from him.”

“Sir, it sounds as though you knew that thing.” Robin did not pay him any attention and turned the device on.

“Light? Can you hear me? Where are you?” sounded a female voice from the speaker. She spoke English, a language common enough here, though her accent was what caught his attention. It sounded Southern in some way. Although his mother was American, he had never learned a lot of the language. “We are sick with worry. I'm sick with worry. Please get in touch.”

“Who is that? And who is Light?” He ordered the soldier to remain quiet with a wave of his hand and listened further.

“I’ll try again in an hour. I love you, please come back,” whispered the voice. There were other voices in the background, though he could not understand what they were saying.

“Looks like he didn’t tell me everything,” he said and switched off the device. “Tell the guards I’ll check the prisoner later.” The soldier took this down in his book quickly.

‘I also want to know who this ‘friend’ of his is,’ he thought as he left the room and closed the door behind him, but not without taking the transceiver.

The worst thing about being in prison was that I had no idea of how late it was. It could be minutes, hours, or already a day. The other thing was that when I asked for a way to relieve myself, they put a bucket into the room. I absolutely refused to use it, because I would die in here with the bad smell. Now I lay quietly on the ground to spare my bladder and thought, as I had done over the last few hours, about how I could escape. I could teleport myself like Twilight, but I did not know the magic for it. If I simply melted the door, I would have the guards breathing down my neck in an instant, and I couldn't just melt the walls. On the left was the stairs, and I would be discovered immediately if I made a hole. The same was true for all the other directions, even under or above me. I was in a position where the surrounding rooms would most likely be taken, making any potential escape a short-lived one. Furthermore I had no intention of getting pumped full of lead . So the best thing I could do was to either count the black stripes in the marble-coloured linoleum plate or the holes in the ceiling. An opportunity had to come sooner or later, either when they brought me something to eat or changed the bucket.

My thoughts wandered to my friends on the ship, who were certainly worrying about me. AJ would undoubtedly give me hell, and Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight would certainly be more than willing to pick up the pieces. Begging for mercy wouldn’t help, and it wasn’t like I could go to the police and complain about abuse. I had to smile, but it was little things like that that helped me pass the time in here.

“Back away from the door. You have a visitor,” I heard the voice of the older man, followed by the click of the door. First came the end of a gun, followed by the the face of a bearded giant. Finally, I had a face to the voice. When he had checked the room and made sure that nothing suspicious was afoot, a boy, not much older than around thirteen came in. The giant had short blond hair and wore a green military vest with several crowded pockets. Nevertheless, it was the boy with him that had me stupefied. Either he had grown more, or I had become even smaller than I had thought. With shoulder-length dark hair and with his small glasses on his nose, my brother stood in the doorway. They both nodded to the guards, and the door shut again. His blond company took a seat on the chair that Julian had sat on, while Dirk came up and sat cross-legged before me.

“Long time not seen,” he said as he looked me over. His English was as broken as I recalled. He was never good with it and just managed a C average in school.

“I wish it would be different. How are you doing?“ His company said something, and now I understood his function. He was a something like an interpreter.

“It goes for me okay.” He seemed to search for the words for his translator to put forward.

“He wants to know why you speak no German,” he finally said.

“Situational history. Let’s call it a magical accident.” This was duly relayed, and my brother nodded before he once more put forward a question. Waiting for the translation was irritating.

“He wants to know what happened.” I looked to Dirk and saw in his eyes that he recognized that I was in here, yet he still was suspicious.

“You remember the day I woke up as this?” I paused as he was told the information before he nodded. “I was never transformed, in the real sense, but I exchanged places with a pony called Changer. It was him in my body who died, not me.” Again a break. “After what Nils did, the police came after us, and Twilight and I had to flee. We went to Equestria where the ponies live. Unfortunately, we had not thought about how I could return and that there might be a time shift. While only three months have passed for me over there, it seems like more than a year has gone by here.” When his colleague finished speaking, Dirk did something that I thought I would never experience, as he never was someone to show his feelings openly. He reached around me and pulled me in a firm embrace, which I answered with pleasure. “Do you know where the others are? Antje and Nils?” He seemed to understand the question without translation.

“Been separated. Dusseldorf...” He struggled for every word as he tensed. "Airplane to Munich.” I was surprised, as I couldn’t make out the city’s name.

“Munich,” repeated his company on the chair. I had a look at him and saw he was playing with something in his hands: the diamond from my pocket. This was to be my chance out of here.

Author's Notes:

Translated & edited by JBL
Proofread by Dj7291993