Düsseldorf inspired, similar to my first visit here, a lot of respect in the ponies, as Twilight immediately noticed that the city area of Canterlot would fit in here twice. The skyscrapers were higher than the tallest building in Manehatten, Rarity had said, before I noted this wasn’t even the largest city on Earth.

“Pay attention! Julian here is a civilian and is not well-versed in flying. I expect that you’ll take care of him like a raw egg!” Shining Armor marched up and down before his subordinates and barked out his commands. “You will not establish contact or the like. We want nothing to happen like the last time, so that one of us ends as a prisoner.” With that sentence, he threw a look over his shoulder, then cleared the throat and dedicated himself again to the job before him. “You know what we’re looking for. As soon as we’ve found a landing strip, we’ll contact Light on the radio.” I pointed at the transceiver around my neck. Julian and Rainbow also had one. The last two were claimed by Armor and Luna. She had taken hers, however, in her cabin with her. “You will report any sighting or occurrences, no matter how trivial they may seem. Rainbow Dash will accompany Shooting Star, and Julian will go with Night Hawk. Everything understood?” The entire lot saluted, Julian almost knocking his headset off. He had not completely gotten used to using hooves yet. “Then move out!” The four of them began to beat their wings and jump, one after the other, like divers from a ship. Nevertheless, Rainbow could not resist turning the jump into a somersault.

“Did you find something?” Trixie asked me over my shoulder. I had stood all this time a bit apart from them and had tried to recognize any known structures. Unfortunately, I had only been to this city four times in my life, and three visits were only in the airport area. But not even this I could find.

“No. I had always arrived by the train and never saw a lot from the town except a shish kebab booth.” I brought a hoof to my head.

“What…?” I used the other to block the question.

“Don’t ask, Trixie…” I put both on the ground again so that I did not have to shift my weight so unpleasantly anymore, and looked down again from the rail and into the town. “From this angle of view, I will never recognize anything.” From above, everything looked so wrong.

“The ship won’t be able to go down further or we could get stuck somewhere or collide with a building,” explained Trixie, not understanding what I had meant. I took up one of the ropes and bound it to, with a little help from my magic, around my belly.

“Fix the other end somewhere please.” Trixie took over control of the rope that I passed to her, and I jumped on the rail.

“What do you plan?” It was something stupid that I had already begun to panic from.

“Getting a better overview.” I swallowed and exchanged horn for wings before I jumped.

“Light!” Trixie shouted from behind me, and I saw Rarity and Twilight hurrying towards us. My attempts to find a rhythm were messed up with the adrenaline running through my veins. If I didn’t do so quickly, I would experience an unpleasant jerk since the ropes were not very elastic. It did not help that I had closed my eyes after a few seconds, and thus there was nothing left to do except dangle at the end of the rope and wait before I would be pulled up like a fat herring again. I tightened every muscle and waited and waited and waited, but nothing happened. Carefully, I opened an eye and saw that I remained at the same height. The wind up here made it seem that I was falling when instead I was actually floating. A look back showed that my wings had decided to work, and I drew in a deep breath, which was unfortunately too early. Before me was a tall building, and I was aiming to smack onto the top floor at my current height. I succeeded in flapping my wings as rapidly as I had ever done before and slowly got to the required height to prevent crashing into the glass window. My hooves trailed a little above the roof, though the worst was prevented.

“Light! Are you crazy?! What was that all about?” Twilight’s voice came through the earphone around my neck, which I ignored for now. As Trixie had Armor's radio, both of them had to share that one.

“What’s wrong on the ship?” I heard Rainbow ask, as we all on the same channel.

“Light put a rope around himself and jumped from the ship.” That brought a ‘WHAT?!” from Julian. I ignored the conversations in the background and turned in order to get a better overview. I did this by simply beating a wing faster than the other, which was difficult since it was like one hand wanting to paint a circle and the other wanting to paint a triangle. However, I saw a structure that I recognized – the observation tower, as I called it. It was a sort of television tower, or at least I believed it to be, and further on top was a sort of ball that would serve as a vantage point. This tower was not far from the airport area. Joyfully, I looked high up to the ship where I could see Trixie and Twilight by the rails arguing, before I looked down again. This time, there were no feelings of motion sickness to threaten to overcome me, as I was only four and five seconds away from a freefall.

“Pull him up!” came through Twilight’s and Armor’s transceiver at the same time.

“Give me that.” I heard how Trixie gave the device back to Armor. “Light, what the hay are you doing?” I put on the headset, which also helped to block the wind rushing by my ears.

“I needed a better vantage point, another perspective.” I heard one of them groan as I released the button.

“And you thought doing something that you’re scared of was a good idea?” I still hung like a living yo-yo under the ship and looked upwards.

“No, that’s why I also fastened the rope, for security.” There was no answer as I felt like I was slowly pulled upwards. The rope now shone with Shining Armor’s blue aura. At the halfway mark, I stopped helping with my wings and let them do the rest. With a slight thud, I landed on my right side on the wooden floor of the Celestia and looked up into the furious faces of Trixie, Twilight, Rarity, and Armor.

“Darling, you simply cannot give us such a fright! What came over you?” I had a reason, a good one.

"As you noticed, it is going to be dark soon. After all, we’re in winter." What that meant on Earth, I had explained more than once. “Now that Nightmare isn't focusing on finding my family anymore, the shades will surely hunt again, so we have to deal with them again. Normally I wouldn't care, as the Celestia is safe, but we still have three foals on board. It would be nice to have a bigger camp that we can secure.” Twilight looked as though she wanted to say something, but her brother interjected before she could start.

“Reason, consideration, and action. Not perfect, but you actually took my advice. What did you find?” I saw Twilight and Trixie both looking as though they wanted to protest.

“A few miles in a northern direction is the television tower. From there, it is not far up to the Rhine and to the airport. It has large halls that we would use.” I grinned contently along with Armor.

“How big are the halls?” I only twitched my shoulders.

“No idea, but they’re definitely bigger than the Celestia, or at least one of them. Why?” I saw that he had a plan.

“Twilight?” With the mention of her name in that commanding tone of her brother, her head jerked in his direction. “Do you think it is possible to teleport the Celestia through the ceiling?" I immediately understood what he planned.

“Umm… Sure… With enough magic strength and knowledge of the surroundings, with some calculations, runes, and.…” She wandered off into her thoughts.

“Well, best start immediately. Trixie, see if you can help her.” Twilight was still in her thoughts, and only when Trixie nudged her did they come together to work out the calculations. “Good work,” Armor added before he disappeared into the conference room and left me with Rarity on deck.

“Why did you have to do that, Light? There was certainly a better and safer way, I’m sure.” It wasn’t over for her, it seemed

“Sure, but we would have had to recall one of the scouts, and I would have had to judge after his description – not very exact. Moreover, everything has some risks to it. The humans could have weapons and shoot at our friends in the air or the fact that you are here. Everybody is giving their best, even Fluttershy. I have seen her crying alone in the sickroom once. She was affected just as deeply as me, knowing how many have lives had ended here, and what do I do? I sit here when I could be flying outside. All that’s holding me back is this stupid fear of heights.” I took a deep breath. "My grandpa was a person you'd just want to avoid, to put it mildly, but he taught me one thing. You'll learn fastest by jumping in at the deep end.” However, he was also the cause of my fear of heights. We had once visited a dam with the whole family and stood at the top on it, I on the first step of the railing and looked down at the water. At that time, my grandfather had knocked into me so hard that I had almost fallen over the railing and into the water below. I believe that it hadn’t been intentional, but it scarred me for life.

“I know what you mean, darling. But don't you think that was a bit much for such a small thing?” Maybe a little, I had to agree to her.

“Better now than later when it counts, right?” Rarity only nodded weakly and turned away from me. I know that I had been a little gruff with her and that she had only meant well, but it had been something that needed to be done. Nightmare had taken our trump card, our way home. In an emergency, if everything had gone downhill, Armor and I surely would have called a retreat. But now this option was not available to us anymore. As I saw them standing happily together, I realized what I was fighting for. So that family and friends and everyone else could smile again. Not just for the ones I knew, but for every survivor out there.

“Sugarcube, Rarity meant that in a different way….” AJ had come up to me while my thoughts had been on the town below

“I’m not hero like her, AJ, but I’ll do as much as I can from now on. I will have to talk to Rainbow about those flight lessons again. I'm sorry for overreacting but we are running out of options.” Just like my family members. My father was buried, my grandmother death and missing somewhere in Spain. Never mind that my best friend had been taken hostage by our enemy, or rather his remains. He had no immortal soul like Luna or a second one that he could trick Nightmare into taking. Then there was Enno, my mother’s boyfriend. There hadn’t been any word of him, and I did not hold out hope.

“Nopony says that you have to,” she said and cuddled up to me. Even my strong marefriend thought I needed a shoulder to lean on these days, but I did not complain.

“That is the problem. I could give more, but nobody requires it of me…” She looked to the ground guiltily.

“You’ve gone through so much already. We are afraid you were getting lost.” Yes, my thoughts and feelings were quite messy lately. Between the two of us, maybe I was the pregnant one.

“You remember the party and how Twilight told you the first time about Earth? How cold this place is and how cruel it could be?” She nodded. I would also never forget that day, because it had been more or less been the point of no return for me. “She was right. It blunts your emotions if you get slapped with misery and suffering every day. One hundred humans died in a plane crash." I twitched my shoulders. “And we have billions more to replace them.” She looked at me with a shocked expression. “War on all corners of the planet, and the victims only get a brief mention. What do their families get? A letter and a medallion for the loss of a son or a daughter? Humans have long forgotten the value of life, if living in Equestria has taught me anything. AJ, I want life, my life together with you and all the others, even if it’s in this hellhole. I want to get my family out of here and show them what it means to live.” In her eyes were tears, just like in mine. “It’s not fair what happened here, even though there are some bitter people who would say that humans deserve this. That they’re learning how lucky they had to been alive up until now.” I shook my head. “Nobody deserved this.” We paused our embrace, just resting against each other.

“Do you still wish you could stay here?” She asked after a few seconds.

“No… but… I don’t know yet. I wouldn't give up what I have for anything in the world. A wonderful marefriend, a new home, and new friends were more than I could have hoped for. But I also don’t want to let down my old friends.” I laid a hoof around AJ, which ended on the other side of her belly. It felt warmer than usual, probably to protect the life that was inside.

“Honey…” This was the first time she had called me that. I only hummed and listened to her words. “I was wonder to myself… if we make it back… would you want to make us official? It would mean a lot to me and my family—” At that point, I interrupted her with a kiss that felt like an eternity.

“Whatever makes you happy.” It felt weird how it wasn’t me on my knees while I held up a ring like all the other guys in the movies. With the disparity in genders in Equestria, I should probably not be surprised. We leant back against the rail and snuggled up a bit together.

“Congratulations, you two!” came from the headset. Startled, I jumped and looked around until I found the device around my neck. AJ had pressed the button the entire time she had leaned against me. That meant that Julian, Armor, and Rainbow Dash had to have heard. Rainbow, in any case, as it had been her voice which left the radio. The button had been released as we had come apart. However, this was pressed once more by an orange hoof.

“Rainbow Dash, didn’t your mother ever teach you not to eavesdrop on other people when they’re talking?!” she roared into the mouthpiece and by extension my ears, causing me to wince.

“As if I had any another choice if you occupy the channel.” I could tell that she rather fancied that excuse, as I could practically hear the grin from over the radio. “But much more important than that: herd or that mono-thing?” I knew what Rainbow meant and that monogamy was the exception rather than the norm, though it seemed that it was the majority setting in Ponyville. “I mean, your family isn't as big as it is without reason, isn't it, AJ?” Something clicked, and I remembered the day after the spring party. Several mares of the Apple family had sat in the kitchen and what some of the stallions had said now made more sense in this new context. Moreover, it explained why the family was so damn big.

“I leave this decision…” I answered before I saw my fiancé’s face. “No, the mono-thing, Rainbow…”

“What’s that about a herd?” came Julian’s voice across the channel.

“I’ll explain it to you later,” I answered, irritated.

“Okay, forget it. Still— Hey!” I heard something scrambling.

“A herd? What are you talking about?” Hawk butted in. This could last for a while.

I was right. I spent the next half an hour on the radio and argued with the disagreeable questions from Julian and the interruption of Rainbow and Hawk. Only when I pointed out that they should be looking for something did they finally quieted down. AJ had smiled for the first five minutes of the conversation, then had disappeared back downstairs while rambling about Pinkie and how she couldn't shut her mouth. I had an idea of what she meant, and the last thing I wanted was a party in a theatre of war. That was simply disrespectful, but I also doubted that was that was a reason Pinkie would accept to have none. Now I leaned by the rail, glad to have a break, and looked as we flew over the Rhine. It wasn’t as wide nearer the airport, so we should reach soon enough.

“It really is a large city.” That was Cadance, who had probably come from down below. If she was up here, then that meant Rarity was probably the one who was at the controls. In general, the ship seems to be easily controllable. There was a lever to control the angle of inclination and the rest was done by the steering wheel. The only thing missing was an altimeter and artificial horizon, so you had to trust your eyes and experience. That was something that would not prove difficult for the experienced designer.

“And it was once so full of life,” I sighed as an answer and looked down on the streets where nothing stirred. However, I did not want my good mood to be erased so quickly. “What can I do for you, Cadance?”

“I wanted to congratulate you and AJ.” She took me from the side and threw her hooves around me, but not so firmly as AJ had always done. “You were quite a sight, and the glass by the lantern is not as thick as you might imagine. Moreover, you went back and forth with Rainbow about it,” she answered my unspoken question with a smile.

“Do not get me wrong, Cadance – I am happy. It’s just not the right time or place to celebrate.” She nodded with that same smile on her face.

“Light, we’ve found something,” Julian’s voice came on radio. He had used some of my old nicknames on occasion, but now he seemed to be used to my new one. Then again, he probably thought of it as another nickname.

“What makes you so sure?” I looked over to Cadance with my question asked, who tried to follow the conversation in her head, because I only had the headset only halfway on my head, and she couldn't make out what was said.

“For one, a car battery was hooked up to a transmitter, which was hooked to an antenna. Then there are still four people with weapons and binoculars standing on the roof.” On the one hand, I was glad that we had found some people; on the other hand, they were with weapons. I understood that they were most likely looking after their own protection, but it would be hard to not imagine them as turning into aggressors. “On top of that, they are watching you.”

“How do you mean?” I looked over the edge, but I could see neither Julian nor those four people he mentioned.

“They have binoculars and are look over here to the Celestia. They definitively know we are there.” They knew that somebody was there, not what we were. There was no possibility that they knew that magical ponies from another world awaited them.

“Well then, we know where we must look. Everybody, come back to the Celestia in such a way that they do not see you. We are here at the airport and will base our camp here.” I saw the Armor looking to his wife in from the corner of my eyes as he came up from below deck, and he nodded to confirm my orders.

“Understood,” came from Julian, then from Rainbow. Armor placed his headset on and pressed the button.

“Everyone, prepare for a teleport. Tonight, we sleep indoors.”

Author's Notes:

Translating and editing done by JBL