Auralia felt a prickle where her right hoof should have been. Slowly, the filly opened her eyes and was surprised for a small moment when she realized where she was. The last thing she remembered was looking at the funny moving pictures on the glass screen. Even if she hadn’t understood a word, it was funny trying to follow some of the stories. If she believed Miss Lyra, some of these stories of her mother had even happened. That made her giggle a bit to herself.

Now, however, the prickle became more and more disagreeable, and she carefully pulled her right front hoof from under her father who lay besides her in the bed. A look to the back revealed Amaryllis before she almost fell from the rather small bed. With the pressure gone, the tingle moved from her leg, though a new feeling soon replaced it.

Carefully, the foal stood up and rose with a small hop from the bed. She shook once from head to tail and passed a hoof over her mane. Thanks to the carpeted floor, she didn’t have to worry about waking up anyone when she left the bedroom and stepped out in the hall. Luckily, her father had only closed in the door a bit, otherwise she would have had trouble reaching the handles.

In the hallway, it was similarly dark like in the bedroom, which meant that it still had to be relatively early in the morning. If she could only remember now where exactly the bathroom was, then everything would be perfect. Tired and not yet quite awake, she looked at door to door, despairing to find the one in her memories, but luck didn’t seem to be on her side. It was on clumsy hooves that Aura took the stairs to go downstairs. She would have to hurry up, however, because if she pressed her hind legs together even more, she would have an unfortunate accident.

She trampled down to the first floor and looked once more for the door behind which she had taken a bath yesterday. Relief spread in her as she finally saw the door to her grace. She recognized it because of the funny symbol which was right on the door. However, relief became desperation as she found out that the door was not left open.

“Come on already, please, please, please.” She tried to reach the handle, but she was simply not big enough. She would have to jump, something that was not possible any more. Her hoofs clawed a few more times at the door in panic, but it would not budge. Aura therefore came to the conclusion that her father would forgive her if she had to break down a door.

Even before she could turn around, however, the door opened inwards and she looked at two long legs. These belonged, as she ascertained with a look upwards, to her aunt Danielle, the sister of her father. “Thanks!” she said in passing and squeezed herself past her aunt and into the room.

The lid slammed upwards and she scaled the white throne, as her father had called the thing, in a great hurry. To her, it made no difference what the toilet looked like, as long as she had to only press one button at the end to rid itself of the remains. With her small bottom over the big hole with water at the end, she wanted to thank her aunt once more for opening the door for her, but she had already disappeared again from the room.

After she had finally relieved herself of the tiresome pressure in her body and had pressed the button, she only looked up at the wash basin for a few seconds before she decided she could skip washing her hooves this time. She had forgotten, in all her excitement of reaching down to this room, of how tired she actually was, but now that a yawn burst free without inhibition, she realized how much she missed her warm blanket.

However, Auralia stopped when she saw her aunt. Danielle sat with her legs bent against the wall, leaning on the door and staring at one of the pictures hung in the hall. Curiously, Auralia followed her look and saw her father with some other humans standing before a large building. She looked at it carefully to check for her aunt. Yes, she was also in the picture, only her red mane there was not bound in a plait.

Her aunt, who had probably noticed that she had company staring at the picture, said something in her language. She sounded sad. Even if Auralia did not understand the language that her father spoke with her aunt from time to time, she was able to do to detect without any problem when sadness was conveyed. It reminded her of the first days as she had gotten to know her father. Particularly those first nights.

At that time, her father had talked in his sleep, writhing and waking up over and over again. She, because of her fear of the human, had always tried to remain as awake as long as possible. Not that he would devour her while she slept. Every time he had woken up, she had thought that it was too late. But then, after three or four days, she understood the nightmares he had. The big carnivorous human had nightmares and was sad. Then he sat there on his chair and talked to itself in his funny language. He had always done it in such a way as it sounded now with her aunt.

At that time, she had not helped him because she had some fear of him, or also because she did not know him. Today, however, she knew how she could cheer up her father and hoped that it could work on her aunt as well. She cuddled up to her, rubbed her cheek against one of the bared arms, and tried to press her knees even further against her body.

Her aunt barely seemed to react, only staring at her for a while. Auralia saw from the corner of her eyes that she seemed to have been crying. Despite that, Daniela lifted her into her arms and dug her face in Aura’s mane. Even more words Aura did not understand left her aunt’s mouth. She tried to understand them, to try and understand why her aunt was so sad. She looked from the arms again at the picture with her father. Was she possibly not happy that her father was there again? No, that was absurd. Maybe because he wanted to go so soon again? Yes, that sounded quite logical. She had also been sad and angry, really angry when her father left her in Ponyville. And now he made his sister sad and angry. The idiot. She would have to tell him with her hooves again.

“I know dad can sometimes an idiot, but he does not mean it in such a way. That’s just the way he is,” she assured her aunt with a smile. This only caused the woman to hold Aura tighter in her arms. If you want, I can give him a hit from you too. Celestia knows he surely deserves it.” This time, her aunt also giggled a bit and wiped some fresh tears from her face. Once more, she spoke some words that made Aura wonder if she had forgotten that the filly couldn’t understand her language. “If you know, Dad wants to know from where humans got the stories about my mom and her friends. So, if you come along with us, you can spend more time with Dad!” Daniela grinned only and stroked Auralia on her head with a sigh. Then she nodded. “You’re coming along? We must tell Dad as soon as he is awake. I am sure will also think it’s a good idea.”

Suddenly, her aunt got up to her feet and started to walk down the hall with the filly still in her arms. She spoke some more words and indicated a big clock in passing. They went up the stairs again and back to the bedroom where Amaryllis and her father slept. Danielle set her down before the door and gave her a small push. Then she understood that it was probably still too early and she should lie down once more. She looked briefly back to her aunt, who nodded with her red eyes and gave a smile once more in the direction of the bedroom. Auralia dashed back and gave her one more hug on her right leg before she proceeded back to the bed.

It was a noise that lured Danielle from her bed. Indeed, it did not belong to her alarm clock, but the fact that there was someone else in the house besides herself, an unusual fact. Tiredly, she stretched an arm under the warm blanket and reached for the clock that ordinarily lay under her bed. The alarm clock, built in a tennis ball, was of one of those brilliant ideas that she didn’t mind paying a bit more for. To bring it to silence, she simply had to throw it at the next wall. She blinked a few times to clear her eyes and swallowed. Lunch had missed her by a few hours.

However, the day she had had yesterday had taken its toll, and without the small foal who had tried to cheer her up, she would have gotten hardly any shut-eye last night. Tumanga was really too sweet.

Another loud noise from below made her wince, and Danielle decided it would be more smart to proceed from the bed and look at what exactly was wrong. She sat up, stretched herself as much as she could, and shuffled off to her wardrobe to find a dressing gown to slip over her pajamas. Her feet instinctively found her slippers, and thus equipped, she already felt rather ready face the insanity than she would have barefooted. Somehow, she still couldn't and didn't want to believe it. Down there, three ponies were wandering around because of what she thought to be the imagination of a woman with too much fantasy. Horns on their heads, wings on their sides, and able to speak too. If she would tell someone about this, she could strap on the straitjacket herself.

When she took the last step down to the ground floor, however, it was not the voices of the ponies in the house she first heard, but that of her brother’s.

“~Five, seven, three.” He was quiet for some seconds. “~Correct on the name King.” That he was quiet for a few seconds told her that he was probably on the phone. “~Exactly, the Kings. When would be the earliest appointment?” Danielle changed her aim from the kitchen to the sitting room where the phone was. “~The day after tomorrow? No, that is satisfactory. I guess your company will take care of the paperwork?” Thiemo saw her as she entered the room and nodded in greeting, which she answered silently. The latter simply wouldn't come as she saw her brother. Timo did not wear the rags he had on yesterday. Instead, he wore a very noble-looking black suit with a red shirt, though the tie was absent. The only tip that this wasn’t tailor-made by an Italian was the trousers. It had a flap behind it with button for his tail. This, just like his hair, looked substantially well-combed. The only things that remained the same were the brown boots on his feet. “~Yes, a person and three horses.”

Suddenly, Danielle realized what her brother was doing. He had booked a flight, a flight to the United States. He really wanted to go through with it. She had played with the thought to accompany him, of course, but she had her job and the work around the area. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized that she wasn’t going to lose her brother again. Not so soon.

“~Not without me,” she said quietly, glaring at him.

“~Change of plans. Two people and three horses.” She watched him intently as he focused on the person on the other line. “~Umm, certainly. It doesn’t have to be a jet if we can put the animals in the back. Or keep the animals to us. Of course they can charge us for any damage they might cause.” Timo indicated to her that she should wait a moment. “~Yes, clearly. Nine o'clock, I have it. Thank you very much. Goodbye.” Timo pressed a button on the cordless phone and laid it back on the station besides the door.

“~The day after tomorrow at nine o'clock?” Danielle asked quietly.

“~Yeah. They will send us some cars to fetch us, along with transportation for our ‘animals’,” he answered and made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. “~We will load them themselves, so none of the drivers should notice anything.”

Danielle suddenly realized something important. “~Hold on,” she said and moved up closer to her brother. “~Where did you get the money for this?” However, he did not need to answer her at all. Three figures he had called on the phone were a sure clue. And there, in his right hand, was the golden piece of plastic. “~You used grandfather's credit card? Are you still in your right mind? As soon as he sees the charge on the account, he will call here to find out how I’m planning to pay him back! Followed by the strong advice that I should already have my suitcases packed!” Her brother seemed impressed by her outburst. “~How did you actually find it?”

“~The doors in the house may be child-proof, but they can’t quite manage against a foal.” He grinned. “~All you have to do is remain quiet. I’m sure the old goat won’t find out right away.” They both looked at the phone for a few seconds. “~You’ll see, nothing will happen. Now, though, I have to go.” He hurried down the hall.

“~What? Where do you want to go?” She ran behind him as he left the house and went outside. The first thing she immediately noted was that it wasn’t her car that was parked and waited on its driver. No, in its place was the Royals Royce Phantom that her grandfather owned. The car that was supposed to be securely parked in his garage on his property and, according to his instructions for her and anyone else stupid to try, not to be moved, not even a millimeter. Their grandfather might not spend a lot on luxury, but he loved to impress his guests. That was the reason why he had shopped for this car.

“~Are you crazy?!” She took some hasty steps out the front door, and a look to the garage confirmed who had opened it. In it were three guests from another planet as they examined the old Mercedes. It was also her grandfather’s, only that was more a hobby. The old red thing with fur seats was intended to tinker with. “~You can’t just take the car! Grandpa is going to kill me!”

“Morning Daniela!” greeted Harper, as she was discovered and waved at with a hoof. However, this could not interest Danielle in the least. She marched to her brother who had opened just the boot of the Royce and moved to him off the car.

“~What are you planning? What does all that have to do with it? How did you really get the credit card and the key for the car? And how did you get my car keys?”

“~I already said Tumanga opened the door to Grandfather's study for me. The credit card was in his small black book in the uppermost drawer as always. The car key was right next to it. I fished yours this morning from your trousers you threw on the ground. I went to town to get some breakfast.”

Danielle slapped him upside the head. “~Have you lost the little bit of brains you had left? You were taken for dead. What would you have done if someone had recognized you? What about if they saw your tail? Moreover, you do not have a driving license. What would you do if the police had stopped you? Everyone knows my car in the town. Did somebody see you? Did anyone ask any questions?” She took a deep breath. “~Stay calm.”

Timo only rolled his eyes and waved his companions over. “~Exactly, stay calm. No, nobody recognized me, and nobody asked me any questions. That’s most likely because I did not recognize anyone myself.” Danielle saw that the saddlebags had already been loaded. “~And now we have to go to Edinburgh; we still need some things for our plan. If you want to come along, I think you should hurry up and get dressed.”

Danielle saw red. It would be best if she punched her brother. Then once more for good measure. After all, he would be the one leaving in a few weeks and leaving her behind. Then she would be here and have to explain everything to her grandfather. But now the car already stood outdoors. The door had already been entered, and he had used the credit card. Her conscience was certain having fun right now.

“~And how are you going to hide these three?”

Timo knocked his left forefinger against the driver's door. “~The glass is already darkened. As long as they can remain in the car, they will be able to look around a bit and no one should be able to see them.”

She gnashed her teeth. Damn it, her brother hadn’t been back for any length of time and he was already bringing out the worst in her. “~Fine! I will come along as well. You’re not going anywhere by yourself. Someone has to make sure that you don’t cause even more damage.” Danielle caught him as he rolled his eyes. “~If you laugh, I’ll hit you,” she threatened. She could see the twitch in his muscles. “~Give me thirty minutes. I have to go…” Danielle briefly considered. “~I need to finish get dressed, and then I need to go to the stable.” They both looked down the area of the property. In a distance, near the main gate, the roof was to be seen that belonged to an old wooden stable.

“~Also, why do we have to go with this old thing?” Thiemo asked, irritation evident in his voice as he rose from the Rolls Royce. Unfortunately, he sat in the passenger seat, since his sister swore to God that if he would even try to drive a meter in it, she would call personally the police on him and report it as stolen. Because these expensive cars always had a GPS transmitter, Thiemo also knew that it was no empty threat. “We’ll be right back,” he said to Lyra, Amy, and Auralia who sat on the wide back seat of the car. Lyra was particularly excited to see a town filled with humans.

Danielle had already left the tarred drive and trudged on the slightly humid, foot-high grass. “~Well, I found him a few years ago, and now he’s pretty tame. And with everything that happened, I totally forgot to drop by.”

Thiemo followed his sister and jumped as they briefly came to a small fence. “~You have a few animals here? Sheep or goats, right? It makes sense, with all the space here.” They reached the stable that, upon closer inspection, Thiemo could see was more modernized. He had not really paid attention to it this morning, but the wood no longer looked as though it would be eaten away by worms and the roof seemed to be sturdy enough.

“~Umm, no.” Danielle opened the big sliding door and stepped through without another word. Thiemo walked behind her and was not completely surprised. In the not so small stable was a donkey, a light grey donkey that stood in a corner and chewed the last remains of a hay bale. Danielle was already at his side and turned the head of the animal in his direction.

“~Timo, I would like you to meet… Timo.”

Author's Notes:

I want to apologize in advance. I only been to Great Britain twice and only in London. So the cities and villages described I looked up on google earth. You know, walking in 3D through the city and watching pictures. The same goes for everything that will happen in the united states of america. I also want to mention the southpark rule: All characters and event in this story - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional.... (and so on.)

Questions? Suggestions? I don't bite ^^

Special thanks to JBL for translating and editing.