Thiemo took a deep breath of the fresh air out in the city park of the Empire. A bandage that he hadn’t noticed at first after the fight yesterday was still wrapped around his head. Underneath it was an ointment that was supposed to reduce the swelling. In the end, it had been the hoof of his marefriend against his forehead that had sent him into the land of dreams. In his mind, that process had gone differently, but he didn’t mind either version. To be a bit honest, he had to remind himself at the end of the fight that he didn’t want to have won. He had been so engaged in the fight, had found so much fun in it. Luckily, he had managed to soften his fall.

Sighing, he tried to shut out everything around him. He wanted to use this day to do what he probably should have done long ago: he would build himself a totem today. The sea breeze crystal in baguette cut was held in a cage of high carat gold, which held the stone on the upper third, leaving a lot of space to be inspected. It now hung around his neck and already emitted magic, which felt like the sea breeze it was named after. Thiemo thought he could even smell the salt.

Laughing foals, amongst them also his daughter, reminded him of where he was. What he had actually tried to forget. To create a totem, all four elements would have to be present. The city park provided three by itself. The candle in his hand, which he had brought, would provide the last one. Around him was a circle of salt in the sparse grass, which he had made according to the instructions that Zarni had left him. He opened his eyes again and let his gaze wander. Around him were hundreds of ponies sitting on blankets in the park and enjoying the warm sun on their coats while their foals were frolicking around on the nearby playground.

“No matter where you look, life always takes familiar forms,” he recited something he had learned years ago. So many on this planet was alien to him, but this sight, more than anything before, reminded him that it didn’t matter how different everything seemed to be, in the end there were always similarities. A simple lesson but one that not everyone had learned yet. Even he had taken a while. How long was he here so far?

Just as he was about to count the exact days, he understood something. It was so trivial and simple that he had overlooked it all these years. In every living thing was magic, although in different amounts. Was it wrong to say, then, that magic equalled life? Another look around him only brought more thoughts. All the ponies around him were beaming with magic. Even the griffons, now that he had some near him that were not lunging at him with their claws, seemed to have a bit.

“It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” an unfamiliar voice suddenly asked. It was definitively female, deep and melodic. It was worthy enough to belong to a singer, maybe even a siren. Thiemo turned around and found something that definitely wasn’t there before: endless nothing. It engulfed him so suddenly like the voice he had just heard. But there was something in all that black something. Blue dust wavered around him, mixed with what seemed to be thousands of stars. And he quickly remembered that he had already been here once. This was the place where he had talked with Blue Light. Unlike last time, his nakedness was still covered by his clothes, causing him to sigh in relief.

Curiously, he looked around, searching for the source of the voice. “Hello?” he tried carefully and began to run through the mist. While waiting for a response, his thoughts once again tried to figure out what this place was. It was obvious that it was another kind of existence, but he wanted to be able to describe it better. Unfortunately, his knowledge about astral planes was limited. At least he knew that they existed, but that was about it. So instead of looking into the endless abyss offside of the path, he reached out his hand and touched the mist. Much to his surprise, it wasn’t cold, but rather warm and felt like someone was putting their hand on his. As if someone wanted to calm him.

“Over here!” he heard the clearly happy voice again. His eyes wandered into the direction of the noise and finally found the source. In the middle of the floor was a hole filled with water clearer than any he had seen. “Finally you are here!” the voice came out of the hole, or rather the water. Thiemo took a step back, as the former was rising into the air and began to take a form. The head was clearly that of a pony. He could recognize that shape with their distinct snout everywhere. The rest looked more like that of a dolphin. While there were forehooves, the hind legs were replaced by two fins. On its back, the creature had another fin and its body ended in a long, elegant fishtail. Its mane seemed to be the sea itself, as if it begun from it and stretched into eternity. Or just flow back into the hole in the ground.

The mare, which had just formed out of water in front of his eyes, smiled at him as she noticed his confused expression. During that, her eyes sparkled in a deep green, which stood in very strong contrast to her grey skin. Then the human understood who was standing in front. It was no one but Undine, Lady of the Sea and Water, origin of all life itself. Slowly, he got down onto his knee and bowed to her, not wanting to insult this being in any way possible.

“What is the meaning of this?” came a thundering second voice over the astral plane. Wind, strong wind came towards him, and for a moment Thiemo expected it to take a form as well. But then he spotted a gigantic white griffon heading for them. Gigantic was a weak description. It would have needed three mares the size of Celestia standing on each other’s backs to look into her eyes. Thiemo would only just reach the end one of the forelegs if he would jump into the air. Outrage stood clearly on the griffon’s face as she landed, shaking the non-existent ground and blowing up blue dust into all directions. Her ice blue eyes pierced through Thiemo at first before she looked at Undine. “I heard the call of a shaman and find you here. Explain yourself, Undine!”

Her voice, her authoritative approach, paired with the enormous stature, filled the human with a fear he hadn’t felt in a long time. The fear of authority. He had feared Celestia for the power she controlled. He had feared the images of Nightmare Moon because that was what they were: true fear. This was the Mistress of Air, Storm at the Horizon. Ariel, avatar of wind, and she was mad. Who was he, a puny human, to dare to call two creatures that could smash him with ease? Damn it, he was shaking all over as the griffon stood above him and stared down at the sea pony next to him.

“Not only you heard the call, Ariel. This young human has called us both. Apparently one of us wasn’t enough for him.” Thiemo didn’t dare to look as the eyes of both avatars were on him.

“Oh, I know this one and I have still a few things to settle with him, Undine. Leave him to me.”

“You know that I cannot and will not do that.”

“If I may—” Thiemo tried to say.

“Silence!” yelled Ariel. “You have done enough already! Undine, this human has debts he has to pay for. I will not let you have him. If he wants to form a bond, it will be with me. After I judged him.”

Thiemo, still kneeling, suddenly felt a hoof on his shoulder and looked up at the avatar of water. “Why have you called both of us, child?” she asked, ignoring Ariel.

He gathered all his courage and stood up before he began to talk. “My name is Thiemo. I was taught by my master, Zarni, and I am ready to finish my apprenticeship. I bring the elements a tribute in exchange for a bond. Both water and wind are precious to me, so I chose the third option. I want to form a bond with both of you.” The faces of a both avatars were unreadable as he finished talking.

Eventually, Undine coughed slightly. “Well, it is unconventional to serve two avatars. However, it is the nature of water to adjust to the situation. You have spoken with wisdom and chosen your words carefully. The sea breeze crystal around your neck is a proof of the trust that has already been given to you, and I do not see myself in the position to decline you. I will join a bond with you, young shaman.”

“Bold, impudent as well, and with the head through the wall,” Ariel began, still visibly enraged. And what else she accused him off he didn’t even know. “Wind persistently forces its opponents to their knees, but you are a hothead who still has to prove his patience. If you really want to form a bond with me, you will have to pay your debts first.”

“And what do I owe you?” he asked, determined.

“Pain...”

Amaryllis was a bit disappointed. She had planned to annoy the human all day long, while he was wearing a specific piece of clothing. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found. This morning, when she was done in the bathroom, Thiemo had just disappeared. She had searched all the places where he could have been. At first in his rented apartment, where she had a discussion with a raging landlord. Not only had Thiemo not showed up there in a while and hadn’t done his part in cleaning the hallway, he also hadn’t paid his rent.

“And I don’t give a damn who his marefriend is! I want the rent by tomorrow or I’m gonna throw all his stuff out the window!” the stallion had shouted at her as she tried to resolve the situation. Amy doubted that he believed her to be said marefriend and would have paid for the rent.

Then she went to the bar, the tavern at the corner, where Thiemo had been working for a while. The griffon behind the counter had bowed quickly and then told him that Thiemo had quit his job because he had to train for the tournament. Since then, he hadn’t been seen there.

Now there was only one destination left as she walked through the city streets with her little sister. “Where are we going?” Skyla asked excitedly and shifted up and down on her back. At first she was confused why no guards were accompanying here, but then Amaryllis had realized how much the two trusted her.

“The last place I thought of was the library. He has spent some time there with Twilight.” Skyla made a sound of dismay as she stuck out her tongue.

“I hate the library,” she then explained. “Aunt Twilight had took me there a few times and read to me from some books. But those weren’t books! They didn’t even have pictures!” Amaryllis failed in holding back a chuckle.

“You know, maybe we could make a quick stop at the playground in the park.” Since she wanted to rest her hooves as well, the idea didn’t seem too bad. “Maybe we can buy ourselves ice cream.”

“Oh yes! Please, please, please!” I want a big scoop of chocolate!” Skyla almost fell off her back as she leaned on her hind legs to show how big the scoop had to be. Amy doubted that there were any scoops larger than the head of a foal, but she didn’t want to burst her little bubble either. “And we should take one for Auralia too.”

“I doubt we can make it before it melts.”

Skyla looked at her in confusion. “Why? She’s over there.” The changeling princess, already on her way to the park, looked over the low fence that surrounded what her little sister was pointing at. On one of the slides sat the orange filly with white mane, shouting for joy as she was sliding down. And where Auralia was, the human wasn’t far away either.

Entering the park, she began to search for Thiemo, both with her eyes and her aura. What she felt as she connected with the human almost made her freeze. The human was terrified. No, it was more than that. Pure terror was what was exuding from Thiemo’s mind right now. Immediately she galloped forward, ignoring the fact that Skyla had fallen from her back, and followed the fear to its origin.

Skilfully, she jumped over the heads of surprised ponies enjoying their picnic, barged through the queue at the ice cream stand, and swirled up some grass as she ruthlessly put all her power into her legs. Her head jerked from one side to the other, always on the search for the slightest hint of where Thiemo could be.

Then she found him, covered by multiple ponies curiously standing around him. At first she didn’t notice it, but as the spectators finally made room for her, she saw that the human seemed to float. He was sitting cross-legged, his fists connecting at his knuckles in front of his chest, while he was hovering a few centimetres above the ground, his eyes closed. Around him seemed to float some water drops.

“Thiemo!” she shouted and tried to grab the human with her hoof, but a spontaneous shift of the air pressure held her back. She changed her sight and saw that the human was wrapped in cocoon of pure magic that even kept the air, aside from that which was already in there, away from him. Still, she tried again to reach her hoof out to him. The air jerkily pushed her entire foreleg aside with such force that her shoulder made an uncomfortable crack, and she felt something that felt like many tiny cuts. Not only on her leg, but also on the soft bottom of her hoof, blood was dripping down on the ground. “What happened here?” she asked one of the nervous-looking crystal ponies around her, in this case a mare.

“I don’t know, your Majesty. The human was just sitting there the whole time and suddenly…”

“Dad!” Amaryllis spun around and saw her sister and Auralia galloping over the grass-covered hill as well. “Dad! What’s going on here?” Before the filly could reach Thiemo, however, Amaryllis grabbed her tail with her mouth and pulled her back.

“Stay back. You’re going to get hurt,” she said firmly and showed the two fillies her injured right leg. “We have to get help…”

He had already asked himself, and now he knew the answer. Yes, the avatars could feel what was done with their power. Thiemo had to try and keep it together to not collapse into a whimpering bundle on the ground. He had always knew that this possibility existed, that someone somewhere would bring him to justice for the abuse of the knowledge that was entrusted him. At first Thiemo had believed Celestia to be that someone, but that turned out to be wrong. The real judge was much worse.

Ariel was still a white wall of feathers and muscle in front of him, staring down at him with a look that clearly told that he was nothing but a tiny insect to her. “Worm!” she snapped at him. “Go ahead, pee yourself in fear that your own stupidity has caught up to you. But this is not the reason why I wish for your punishment. I have shared my power with plenty, many of which cared even less about consequences than you. But you... you have no honour in you. Not a single bit. Killing is one thing. I do it every day to live. My children do it every day to survive.” She paused a second. “But they at least have the dignity to stand with honour in front of their prey. You are nothing but an honourless maggot who feasts on the remains and takes all the credit!” she yelled directly into his face. “And the worst thing is,” Ariel continued in a tone that came close to a whisper, “you probably still have no clue what I am talking about.”

“Blakkur.” The words escaped his painfully dry throat.

“Oho! I am surprised that you still remember the name, human.”

“And the other griffons of his crew.”

“And I know exactly that Zarni drilled into you. What is the highest principle of every shaman? What?” Thiemo mumbled something. “Louder!”

“Honour the life…”

“Louder or you will meet your creator right here and now!”

“Honour the life!”

“Come again?”

“Honour the life!”

“Again!”

“Honour every life!”

It went silent. Thiemo was still shaking all over as he felt the gigantic beak through his closed eyes, just centimetres away from his face and ready bite it off with one snap.

“I am not angry because you have killed. I am angry because of how you killed. You, someone who knows how it is to fight for your life. I am not angry because you killed my children. I am angry because you paid no respect to the lives that were taken.” Hearing this imperious voice, nothing more than a whisper, was worse than her shouting. “You should be glad that I am not Celestia. Unlike her, I am not condemning an entire race because they killed a few of my children. But what can you expect from an avatar of Life who does not understand death.” The beak moved away from his face, and Thiemo felt that Ariel was standing up again. “You deserve a punishment that will remind you of that.”

“What do you have in mind?” Undine asked. She was still balancing on her fin in the water and now put a hoof on Thiemo’s shoulder.

“Stop mothering the human,” Ariel growled at her.

“I cannot help it, Ariel, it is in my nature,” she replied with a smile.

The avatar of the Air looked at Thiemo again and seemed to consider. “I think I am going to let him feel what would have happened if his luck had left him at the wrong moment. If you could call it luck if someone is guarding over you. I will remind him of a nightmare. I would have just banished his soul where it belonged, but unfortunately that is not my decision. And unlike this worm, I do not arrogate what is not mine.” Ariel began to move her giant body into a crouching position. “In any event, do you accept your punishment?”

Thiemo didn’t know what to do. For the first time in a long while, he was clueless. Usually some idea or clue on what do came to him, and that was for much more complicated things than a yes or no question. Although said idea usually wasn’t the greatest. No, here and now, his mind was empty as he stared into the stern face of Ariel who awaited his answer.

He could say no, but that would deny him any chance to ever bond with the wind element. And he loved the wind, the speed that it gave him, the feeling of the air pressing against his face, the first deep breath at a rainy spring morning. He could say no and wait for when he would have to face the consequences of his actions sometime else. “I accept.”

A heartbeat, then everything around him slowed down. Faster than the blink of an eye, Ariel’s head jolted forward and pain shot through Thiemo’s body as muscles and tendons were strained, flesh torn, and blood pitched freely from where his left arm used to be. It was now in Ariel’s beak, where she slowly began to chew on it.

Thiemo screamed and fell to the ground, trying to stop the bleeding with his right arm. Blood coloured the black ground into a dark red as the human fought not to lose consciousness from all the pain. If he would stop putting pressure on the wound, he would bleed out.

He began to shake as more and more adrenalin flooded his body and dimmed the pain a bit. A bit. It still hurt more than anything he had ever felt before. At least now he could hear his own thoughts over his screams again. And he could feel something else as well: a beak digging into his flesh. His cut off flesh. To his horror, he realized that he could still feel every bit of his arm in Ariel’s beak. How she chewed slowly and swallowed each bit of ground up flesh.

Rolling and thrashing around in his own blood, he tried to regain control of his muscles again, but the pain just didn’t want to let go off him. This was no clean cut; the avatar had simply grabbed his arm and pulled it out, instead of pinching it off with her sharp beak. Flaps of skin covered the back of his hand; he could feel veins and muscles as the cold air touched them. His breath became quicker and ragged. He knew he was succumbing to shock, but he could do nothing against it.

“I think that is enough.” Undine came into his view, and both her hooves carefully wandered on his right hand, which still covered the stump that used to be his arm. “Shhhh, everything will be fine,” she said. He was engulfed by a chill that killed off everything he had just felt a few moments ago. The feeling of his meat in the body of the griffon ebbed as well.

His body relaxed, and he stretched out all remaining limbs. He didn’t care that he was lying in a puddle of his own blood; finally, the unbelievable pain was over. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but tears were running down his check. It was one of the first things he felt from his body again, then his rapid heartbeat, his aching lungs, and the relief of all muscles that had tensed up during the spasms. Slowly his arm wandered up and carefully covered his eyes, now spreading the blood over his face too.

It took a few seconds until Thiemo realized that it was his left arm and a few more until he registered how cold it felt. Confused, he hesitantly pulled it up a bit higher and saw white, with a bit of blood running down.

“Our bond is completed,” he heard Undine say. “A part of me is now a part of you.” Cautiously, he moved his white arm a bit and formed his hand into a fist. Ice, his entire left arm was ice. He looked further up where there had only been flaps a few moments ago. Seamlessly the ice went over into his flesh, directly where it had been cut off. No, a few centimetres higher even. “And a part of you is a part of me now.” She had taken something as well: the remainder of what Ariel had left of his limb.

Thiemo didn’t respond. Instead, he slowly lowered his arm back onto his head to give his body the desperately necessary cooling.

“You still have a lot to learn. Patience is one of them. Facing your fears is another. Your feet can only carry you so far, human, but you have proven today that you are ready to take those steps. Your debt is paid, and I too give you a part of me.” Thiemo felt a draft going up his right arm, and his eyes involuntarily jumped over to it. His arm no longer seemed to be there, even though he could feel it. Wind, his right arm was wind. Just as his fingers reached his right arm, snow swirled where they touched. “May this be a lesson to you, shaman. It was your own fault that brought you into this situation. Learn to take responsibility and learn from the past, especially from your own. Care about every living being around you, not only the ones close to you. And finally, open your eyes and see what lies in front of you and what happens around you.” Ariel sighed. “And one more thing: you will never truly control the air as long as you are afraid of it being all around you.”

A strong wind came out of nowhere and forced Thiemo to close his eyes. As he opened them again, there was nothing left of Ariel but a feather in front of his feet.

“Your journey will lead you to me one day.” Undine, who had now fully crawled out of the water, was lying next to Thiemo in his blood. For the first time, the human could see how big the sea pony actually was. Without doubt, she could compete with the largest sharks. “Maybe sooner than you think. And I ask you not to be mad at Ariel. She has only done what she thought to be right. Please think about her words again, and when we meet face to face again, answer me one question: what does it mean to live?” Undine smiled and gave Thiemo a quick kiss on his mouth. “Now wake up.”

Amaryllis still stood in front of the hovering human. The fear and pure horror that Thiemo had just felt were gone, but her worry was still there. He didn’t answer, didn’t move, and didn’t even seem to breathe.

“Dad, please. You’re scaring me,” Auralia spoke out loud what Amaryllis thought. She couldn’t do anything but plead. She had tried to get past the wall of air with her shields, destroy it with her missiles, and tried every spell she knew. All that it achieved was that the hill now needed new grass.

Crystal guards had formed a circle some distance around her and prevented the spectators from coming too close. One of them brought the message that her mother was already on the way here. “Thiemo,” she whispered to herself again without averting her gaze from him.

Then, suddenly and without prior warning, the human fell to the ground and with him the water drops that floated around him. Amaryllis fought against her instinct to immediately gallop towards him and quickly reached out her left hoof again. When the expected pain didn’t come faster than lightning, she stood next to him and snuggled her face against his, while saying his name over and over again.

A groan was all she got as a response, but she felt this was more than enough. Both her hooves wrapped around Thiemo’s chest, and she pressed him as strongly against herself as she could.

“Can’t… breathe…” She heard him coughing, and after ten more seconds, she loosened her grip. The first thing she noticed after looking in his eyes was that they were bloodshot, then how tired they looked. “What happened?” After all that worrying, Amaryllis was only capable of pressing the human against her again and sobbing. She had been so afraid.

Thiemo, meanwhile, managed to bring his hand to the amulet around his neck and looked at the sea breeze crystal. It sparkled and shone even more than usual, and he could taste the sea on his tongue. But he also felt the wind in his face and the water as it softly caressed his feet, as if he was running barefoot through the wet sand. Somehow it was different than before, as if there was someone behind all these emotions, like a soft hand that stroked his cheek. He was a real shaman now, connected to the spirits of the elements that guarded him.

For a moment, there was a white light coming out from his shoulders and slightly suppressed by his coat. It didn’t take a genius to realize what had happened. The cutie mark was completed, the bolt reappearing in the crescent moon.

Thiemo released the amulet and looked up. Between some crystal guards stood Cadance, a wide smile on her lips and tears running down her cheeks.

Author's Notes:

Well, Thiemo has a totem now. And we met two of avatars of the elements. This is the first time, Thiemo is a real shaman.
I would like to say so much more, but I will have to do that via blog. I played through "Ori and the blind forest" in one go last night and didn't get any sleep. Great game. Good night...

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