“Something up?” asked Auralia, who lay in the corner of the bathtub and was bathed by Amaryllis with the shower head. This chlorine was an aggressive thing and burned not only the eyes. The princess had the feeling that it would bleach even the color from her fur. Certainly, Thiemo had calmed her down but also told her that she would be wise to wash out. Why such a thing was actually put in the water was a puzzle to her.

Amaryllis shook her head. “I thought I heard something." Again, she looked around. Near the bathtub were small shelves made from twisted wood that held bottles that promised she would have more beautiful skin or hair. Another promised that she would no longer shed. That caused her to ask herself if there were humans with scales like dragons and if they wanted to get rid of them. What would happen if she poured some of the shampoo over a dragon?

A compartment farther at the top of the shelves held a black box with various knobs and cogs from which a silver rod towered in the air. Because Thiemo had said nothing more when he had showed them the bath, she regarded it as better to leave it alone than to interfere. Moreover, the silver rod seemed to be very fragile.

To their side was a window, which looked as if it was made from crystal. It had made her smile when she first glanced at it. In the Empire, the walls were made from crystal; here, the windows. At least the walls there still made sense, but now it was impossible to see anything of the outside world through these windows. And was that not the point of a window? It could not be the toilet – it was something else, a mystery. On the one hand, it was a chair and with no hole in the bottom. Amaryllis would have no problem to use this since her legs were long enough. Miss Heartstrings could perhaps also use it with the funny way she sometimes sat, as Amaryllis imagined that humans also did so as well. However, a normal mare or a foal would have problems, to say nothing about a stallion. How could one be able to aim so high? This would be a recipe for an accident and a mess.

Then there were the two wash basins that were to be recognized easily as such, with the wide mirror behind it that took up almost the whole wall. Certainly, they were bigger than she would have liked and were accustomed to, but it wasn’t much of a problem. However, Auralia would be less happy with it.

Finally, there was still the shower itself. For humans, she was certainly it was big, but two ponies her size wouldn’t have been able to fit. Even with her and another person, more like a certain human, it would be rather close. The operation did not seem to differ very much. These were no levers that a pony could take in their mouth, but there were the same two knobs that were coloured red and blue that indicated their function. Several small holes on the showerhead betrayed where the water would come from.

She turned again to the bathtub that was now filled with a good amount of water and contained a more than well-soaked filly. Amaryllis opened her saddlebag that she had leaned against the door and levitated a bottle of shampoo for manes and fur out. With a quiet plop, she removed the cork from the crystalline vessel and poured some of its contents on the filly before her.

"This smells like strawberries,” Auralia complained and poked her tongue out.

“Your father seems to like the smell."

"He’s weird. He eats them voluntarily." That she could not contradict.

His sister safely stowed away on the sofa in the living room, Thiemo hit Lyra on her snout as she tried to approach her target. “How often do I have to tell you? You aren’t going to examine my sister! Do you have to fit into every stereotype for aliens!?” Lyra, her part, only flashed him an irritated look and squinted a little as she stared at the spot where Thiemo had hit her. Said human fell into the armchair and pulled out a kitchen cloth that he had stuffed into his coat, pressing it against the wound.

"But this is the perfect chance! She wouldn’t even notice it, promise!" Lyra tried to sound enticing and wiggled her eyebrows.

“No!”

"Aww…" With a hanging head, the mare hopped onto the other armchair and coiled up on it, her measuring tape on the ground, forgotten. "And what do we do now?”

Now was the time that Thiemo had come down somewhat from his euphoric high of the emotions and could think again a bit clearer. They had a big problem, namely that nobody could simply go to the city to procure something to dinner. Certainly, Westhill was not too far away, perhaps an hour on foot, but none of them could be seen. The ponies for the most obvious reason, and he himself was considered to be gone, something that didn’t need to be changed. Nevertheless, this was only a visit and not a return. They would need food. The solution of this problem lay, unfortunately, beyond their abilities for the moment.

"We wait for my sister to wake up, introduce you to her, and hope that she’s willing to go in the city to get something to dinner.” Hopefully a new chicken, he thought.

The sound of hooves came from the hall, and a few seconds later, Amaryllis entered into the room and looked frightened when she saw the bloodied cloth in Thiemo’s hand. "What happened?"

"A small accident with my sister," he answered and pointed at the sofa. "I think I surprised her a little more than she could handle.” His marefriend examined the sleeping woman on the sofa more closely. First her gaze wandered down her face, then to her torso and down to her feet and the wet socks that Thiemo now also noted for the first time. Naturally she had to have been below in the pool, otherwise where would she have gotten the bottle from?

"You look alike, but at the same time, you don't," noted Amaryllis as she finished her observation. "Still, I don’t have much experience with humans since I do not know a lot. And my brothers and sisters almost look similar. With the exception of Skyla."

“I take more after my father than Danielle. Add a few years, brown instead of red hair, and still shorter, and then you would have my mother.” And her behaviour, from time to time, had not been such a wrong comparison. They had both been mischievous as children, but it was always Danielle who knew when to stop and scolded him if he continued. Like when he wanted to stick tacks into the Legos he had scattered on the floor. He didn't know why he had wanted to do that, but his grandfather had surely deserved it at that moment.

“The red curse has spared me." Not that the red hair of his sister had affected him; it had simply been funny to annoy her about it. Too bad she couldn’t hear him right now.

"Danelle?” Lyra tried. Ponies and their peculiar pronunciation problems.

“Danielle,” he repeated.

“Danielle. It’s not so difficult,” Amaryllis also corrected.

“Could someone also repeat it for me in Equish?”

Thiemo had to consider shortly how best he could produce the sounds in the other language. Finally, "Daniela" was the best that came to him. The language of Albion simply did not give some sounds.

“That sounds more like an accidental assemblage of syllables,” Lyra noted the obvious.

“Well, that’s a thing with us humans. Thiemo, my name, is the same way, isn't it?" It seemed the mare only picked up on it at that moment. "However, we connect our names with something that means something, like a subject, quality, or something similar." That seemed to satisfy the professor. She rummaged through her saddlebag before she pulled out some paper and her quill, no doubt to record what she had just learned.

Amaryllis cleared her throat. "Let me see the wound." Thiemo moved the cloth aside, which drew a sympathetic hiss from his marefriend at the sight. “Hold on, I’ll fix that now." Magic gathered around her horn, and the stabbing pain that had been throbbing from his busted lip subsided considerably a few moments later. "It’ll be good as new in a few days," she concluded after the treatment.

"Thanks, Amy,” he said and gave her a kiss. Suddenly, Lyra collapsed from the sofa, followed by her paper and ink, the latter leaving its mark on the carpet. "Everything in order?"

"No idea. It just got difficult to collect magic.” Thiemo looked at Amaryllis, who had applied just a good amount to himself. When she shook her head, he closed his eyes and switched to his magical sight.

For a moment, Thiemo thought he had gone blind. Darkness, only here and there interspersed with small colourful wisps of magic, was to be seen. "It looks like Earth essentially has less magic than Albion." The planet they had just come from overflowed with magic, so much so that Thiemo could use his magical sight as a second pair of eyes. On Earth, it was squinting and watching blurry shapes move. What few wisps of magic that was here was drawn in by Lyra and disappeared into the mare. He could see it very clearly. "I would be economic with my magic if I were you. You’re exhausted and stored little magic in your body. I know that you unicorns generate it yourselves, but you’re running on reserve. Allow to go back up quietly." Thiemo understood why this had to be an unknown phenomenon for Lyra, since on Albion she would have taken it for granted, being so immersed in the magic-soaked environment, and would have recovered quicker.

"I think I’ll just go lie down,” Lyra grumbled in disgruntlement and coiled herself up on the armchair, her tail covering her eyes. She hadn’t been able to write even half a page, as Thiemo found out when he lifted the piece of paper and feather and laid them on the table. Also remarkable was how quickly the lack of magic had affected her mood, going from cheerful, almost euphoric, to depressed. Thiemo stored these symptoms for magic denial in the back of his mind. Fortunately, Lyra was the only one which was affected by it. Amaryllis had used her own strength and, with it, also her magic supply from the emotions that she took for herself. Aura, as long as she didn’t have to pull any strongman acts, would surely be safe. As for him, where did he get his magic from? It struck him just for the first time, but where did his magic actually come from? If he didn’t concentrate on it, he took nothing from the environment. Did the emblems on his shoulders supply him with so much magical energy that, up until now, it had hardly mattered to exhaust himself in the attempt?

His stomach rumbled again. Thinking on an empty stomach was an effort in futility, but because his sister was still enjoying her all expenses paid trip to the land of dreams, he didn’t have much of a choice but to wait. Unfortunately, pizza delivery services don't deliver out here.

"We should leave these two alone,” he said to his marefriend and stood up from the couch. "Hooves stay at your own body," he added quickly when he saw Lyra’s tail twitch. “You wanted to see where I lived?"

"I thought that this was your house?” Amaryllis asked, obviously curious. Technically, it wasn’t exactly a lie. It would be his someday. Maybe. He didn’t know the details of his grandfather’s will, but he knew his grandfather. He would bet his non-existent money on the fact that his grandfather would turn the house into a mausoleum for himself and throw Thiemo out on the streets. Fortunately, one could claim his inheritance in these modern times.

They left the living room and began to climb the steps, something that Amaryllis had some problem with. Hooves were no feet, and the steeper and narrower steps gave the princess something to work at. Either she had to make herself longer and take several steps at once or make herself smaller than she was. He couldn’t help but be reminded of a cat.

"Yes and no. My grandfather constructed a steel firm with his father after the Second World War. They melted what the Allied forces and the Russians left and sold it as building materials, something everyone needed after Germany was in ruins. Their success was inevitable and later they migrated to the United Kingdom. They were not just received warmly, but the economy here could also endure some fluctuations. He met my grandmother, and his father died and left him the only one to run the business. They had my mother and then sold the firm to a competitor for a huge price. This property here is only one of five houses that my grandfather owns around the globe, though this was the one where I grew up on with them. It also belongs to them, actually. But since I didn’t have anything after… Well, let’s just say that I needed a job, and they needed a housekeeper to clean everything here, so we had an agreement." With those last words, they reached the second floor, and Thiemo led her down the left corridor.

“Why did you grow up with your grandparents?”

Thiemo stopped walking. His voice was slow, considering the words coming out of his mouth, but she didn’t miss the gnashing of his teeth. "Because my mother was a rich, spoiled, little brat who wanted to live on her father’s millions. Every day was parties, drugs, and the police. My grandparents eliminated them the day she stood in front of his doorsteps, pregnant with Danielle. She had her child and simply went on with her life, together with all money what she could find. Then the whole thing repeated itself two years later.”

He took a deep breath, not realizing that he had raised his voice. "Our father – well, the guy who supplied her with drugs – obviously did not meet the approval of our grandparents, so they sued for the child custody. They put a lot of value on our educations to make sure that we did not turn out to be regrets like our mother." Nannies and no kindergartens; private lessons instead of elementary school; Roman Catholic boarding school instead of other continuing schools. He looked to Amaryllis and saw her slightly upset face. Anger must not taste very good. “Sorry.”

Now, at last, Amaryllis could understand. Understand why he had condemned her birth mother like that. "We… We both didn’t have it easy from the start," she spoke carefully and rubbed her cheek against his.

"No, we did not," he answered and put his arms around her neck. They stayed so for a moment before Thiemo released her gave her a smile that was obviously strained.

"So!" He clapped his hands. "My empire. This was, at least, my bedroom." Thiemo opened the door and they both walked in a brightly illuminated area. Wooden floor and white walls covered in posters were the first things to catch the eyes. In the middle, directly under the oblique roof, was the bed, a window nearby where Thiemo’s head had to have rested. Two cheap-looking cupboards with the remaining furniture were on the right, and on the left was a large mirror installed near the door. "I would say it’s a typical youth room. Posters from various stage plays. Well, actually they're called something different, but I don't think there is a word for ~movies~ in the Equish language," he explained and dropped backwards on the bed. "I can't believe that they left everything as it was. Someone might actually think they liked me.”

"Didn't your grandparents take you in because they liked you?"

"Maybe, but my grandfather liked children. They don’t contradict him. If they start to have their own opinion, that’s when things become bad. If I know him, he scrimped on the price to have here cleaned." Amaryllis looked again. If that really was the case, why was there no dust? It looked as though someone was regularly cleaning the room. There wasn’t any musty air. She hadn’t seen any moths when she opened the right wardrobe, and the bed was freshly made. Still, since his sister still lived here, she could have been the one who maintained it.

“I’m sure they love you very much in their own way.” Amaryllis’ eyes widened. So this was how it felt to stand on the other side of the advice. Good thing that Thiemo could not see her face.

Springs squeaked as Thiemo rose from the bed and suggested that she should follow him. Again in the hall, she closed the door behind her and saw her coltfriend as he walked off ahead of her. Hastily, she followed him and went into a room that he probably had spent a great deal of time in. At least, that was what she thought when she looked around. A comfortable-looking armchair stood next to a wooden corner table, and shelves were filled with books, frames, and showcases that contained a variety of objects. There was a blue ocarina in one, and in another, there were figures of humans dressed in some sort of costume as they raised their weapons in the air as they marched.

"Damn, they took all my devices.”

"Devices?" Amaryllis asked, still looking over the objects in the showcases.

"The police was surely on my computer and took everything to look for clues to where I was. I guess I’ll never see that hard drive, with the amount of…" He stopped shortly. “With the amount of material I had, they sure pocketed it. They even took the mouse and keyboard, the vultures. Those swine.”

Amaryllis did not know whether she had understood him correctly, she had no idea what pigs and birds had to do with losing his computer.

Danielle awoke slowly. Although she seemed to have slept, she was still tired. Her fingers grasped for her thick winter blanket, but she quickly found the thin material of the living room blanket wrapped around her. She had to have fallen asleep with the television. It wasn't cold under the blanket, but neither was it warm. Sure, it was spring, but the temperatures still were stuck in the lower regions, and the large house slowly warmed only if she turned on the heating. It was why she preferred the smaller rooms on the first floor, where she had transformed the guest rooms into her own living area.

Since she didn’t want to remain cold, she would have to get up and go upstairs. Danielle noted, as she stretched out, that something felt wrong. Her socks were wet. Why were her socks wet? She had gone down to the pool and then…

All of a sudden, everything came back to her. Timo was here again! He was the homeless person who had gotten into her kitchen. He had thrown down the refrigerator, and she had attacked him with a bottle and had hurt him and... Danielle jumped up and threw back the blanket. Her gaze wandered through the room and found what, together with the appearance of her lost brother, was the reason that she needed a forced break after this eventful morning. On the armchair to her left lay a green unicorn with a lighter mane, interspersed with white streaks, slumbering peacefully before her. This alone was not enough to knock the socks off Danielle Morgan, a woman who regularly had her arm so deeply inside a cow that she sometimes thought she could tickle their noses internally.

Oh no. She knew this unicorn. "~Harper?~" she muttered in surprise. The tail of the unicorn that had covered its face until now moved to the side, and her golden eyes started at her green ones. "~Oh my God! She’s real!~"

"She’s awake! I missed my chance. Horse apples!"

Both startled themselves, none having any idea what the other had just said. Not that a chance would have existed, as they had spoken at the same moment. Danielle leaned forward slowly and stretched a hand.

"~Harper, are you really here?~" she asked uncertainly. The unicorn stared at her as the human’s hand got closer and finally made contact with her right front hoof. Danielle winced as the pony’s lethargy disappeared and she suddenly woke to life, surrounding her hand with both hooves and shaking it strongly. Her lips moved in a melodic kind, which had to be a language that was completely unknown to her, unfortunately. But this was real! This was Harper from her favourite series, here on her sofa, in the flesh and blood, not just a plain animation produced on a computer.

Her mane was more like human hair and full of volume, not simply hanging down like with regular horses. Her eyes, even if not so gigantic as in the series, were larger than the eyes of normal horses, but much closer together and allowed a much better sight forward. What a lot of people did not know was that horses had a blind spot directly forward, which was why they turned their head slightly when looking at something. But these eyes were positioned not only in a different way, no, they also seemed so much livelier as a tide of words escaped that resembled a melody. Her snout was narrower, shorter. She resembled a dog, to be honest, but with the lips, she nevertheless looked more human. And she breathed shortly through her mouth before she continued to speak, something else horses couldn’t do. She was real, first and foremost, directly before her, and still held her hand, even if she hadn’t stopped the shaking in the meantime.

Carefully, Danielle lifted her other hand and tried to warn Harper in advance, not that she was still scared of the hand. However, she seemed to understand the gesture, as she fell silent and seemed to wait to see what she would do next.

"Timo! You have to come see this!" she called and saw from the corner of her eyes how Harper’s ears immediately turned away. It was so surreal.

There was some rumbling overhead as her brother probably hurried to get downstairs to her. He ran into the room and stopped when he saw her, then looked at Harper. "~Good, you’re awake. Everything in order? She didn’t try anything, right?~" With those last words, he pointed at the unicorn, who was listening to their conversation, judging from the way her ears were swivelled.

"~I do not do so!~" she protested suddenly, much to Danielle's surprise, in broken English. She was struck immediately by how different her mouth moved, as if she had to difficulty in producing the sounds or had to fight to make them come out. "I don’t think I was in my right senses. I still apologized, even though I haven’t done anything." The rest was again said in her melodic language, for she could not understand what she said.

"I don’t know, Lyra. I think I’ll wait until I hear what my sister has to say." Danielle stared at her brother with an opened mouth. The same melodic language had just left his mouth, even if not so clearly as with Harper. But he spoke the language, and he seemed to know her. Could she and her brother… No, that could not be. Something like that didn’t occur in reality only in very bad fanfiction.

"~Did she do anything to you?~" The unicorn shot a sour look at Timo, whose gaze was focused on his sister, and she began to understand.

“~Wait, what? Do you know her?~”

“~Unfortunately. She can be a pain in the ass.~” He crossed his arms and returned the unicorn’s look. “~Danielle, this is Lyra Heartstrings. Lyra, this is my sister, Danielle.~”

"Lyra Halfstrings," Danielle repeated the newly learned name.

“Heartstrings,” Lyra corrected.

"~And the reason she wanted to apologize is because she wanted to examine you when you were unconscious. The dear Professor has chosen humans as her favourite subject.~”

Danielle grinned over both ears. "~Just like in the series!~" Thiemo looked at her in surprise, but her look went beyond him. Panic broke out on her features when she saw the being behind Thiemo. "~Look, behind you!~"

Danielle gripped the closest object, the lamp table near the sofa, and flung it at the approaching shapeshifter, only to see how this was caught in a mauve aura.

Author's Notes:

Well, that happened ^^

Special thanks to JBL for translating.

And maybe give this story a try too:
A New Sun