Amaryllis could clearly feel the panic in the person at the wheel. She guessed it had something to do with the car behind them. However, the siren and the flashing blue lights on the roof of the car were a bit irritating. The best proof of it was Auralia, who kept both hooves over her ears in an attempt to block the noise.

“Fucking shit!” she heard Thiemo curse as he struck the steering wheel. “This just had to happen.”

“And what are we going to do now, Mister Smarty Pants?” Danielle asked, some panic also evident in her voice. “We have nothing. No valid passports, never mind a driving license. Oh! Don’t forget the three aliens in the back seat!” Sighing, Thiemo stretched an arm and waved to the other vehicle behind them.

“We could do the Brit,” he suggested when their own vehicle began to slow.

“No way!” Danielle immediately shouted. “I’m not doing that again.”

Lyra, who had hidden behind the back seat and observed the other car until now, turned around. “What is the ‘Brit’?”

Thiemo’s sister groaned. “Tell her…”

With a wide grin, Thiemo pulled his upper lip as far back as he could, along with his lower jaw, teeth showing. “Shagadelic baby!”

Amaryllis did not know whether she should laugh or feel sick. “Let’s not do that.” Besides, she wasn’t sure if she could copy that jaw movement. Or wanted to, for that matter.

“We don’t have everything we need,” Thiemo further explained as they came to a halt at the edge of the roadway. Then his look fell on Auralia. “But I have another idea. Danielle, didn’t you always want to be a mom?”

Danielle followed his gaze to Auralia, the idea seeming to leap from one to another. It was uncanny how they could both know what the other meant with only a sentence. Did humans have something like telepathy?

Then everything happened at once. Thiemo caught Auralia, told her that she should keep still, and tucked the filly under his sister’s pullover. Danielle reached for the bottle of water that was stowed away next to her and dribbled some of it on her hands before she sprinkled her forehead and hair. She then started to breathe quickly so that her face soon became red. Apparently not content, she gave herself a light slap on each cheek. By the time Amaryllis heard the driver’s door open from the other car, everything had already been put in place.

“Remain there and sit still as much as possible,” Thiemo hissed to Lyra and her, then rested his hands on the steering wheel. It became quiet. All that was to be heard was the light wheezing that Danielle expelled and the other cars that passed them on the highway. Finally, a person in uniform stood next to Thiemo.

Amaryllis tried to look at him without moving her head or squinting. He was large, both in height and width. The bulging shirt was held back by a belt that also contained several items. A star and a name tag was stuck on his breast pocket, and a funny cap rested on his head. “License and registration,” he monotoned and pulled out a notepad.

“Officer!” Thiemo suddenly shouted dramatically. “My girlfriend is getting labour pains! We don’t have time for this! We have to go to the hospital!”

“Nice try …” The officer looked up and saw Danielle on the front seat. She still breathed erratically and cupped her Auralia-belly with both hands. Unfortunately, that was the moment the filly decided she couldn’t keep still any longer, and one of her hooves pushed out from under the pullover. She felt renewed panic escalate in Thiemo. “Oh my God!” The notepad fell to the ground. “We’ll go in front; you follow us!” The officer, who had just looked like he would immediately fall asleep in the standing position, suddenly awoke to the life and hurried to his car.

Hardly had he reached when the siren howled again and, with squealing tires, the car started moving. “Too easy,” Thiemo only said and made their engine also wake to life. “Still, it was a nice idea to throw the water over your legs as well,” he told Danielle as they started moving again.

“This is the advantage when one comes to such a relatively small event in the city,” Thiemo said and opened the door to the suite. “None of the fans could hope to afford something like this, and there are enough free rooms.” He allowed his sister to enter, who had changed her clothes at the first stop. He wasn’t too badly surprised by the interior: bright wallpaper, large and wide windows that allowed a look at the streets of New York, and probably the richest furnishings that there was on this side of the river. All the wood was varnished black and white, bright accents that gave a certain atmosphere to the whole thing. It proved that you didn’t need gold to be elegant. “But it helps if one has the name Hans Werner King on their side. And his credit card.”

Danielle put down her remaining luggage and collapsed on the white sofa in the room. They had left most of her luggage in the car and had run from the edge of the town to here, as none of them had cash on them. There were cameras in police cars that would surely record number plates. After they had allowed the policemen to go on, they had abandoned the car as soon as possible. He did not want to sit in a vehicle and wait for it to be searched.

"I'm just wondering why Grandpa didn't freeze that card by now." She pulled her mobile phone from her jeans pocket and looked at the display. “Fifty two new phone calls. Some from him, others from mom. I bet he told her that we booked a flight to the States.”

“As long as we avoid using the credit card more, they should not find us. The London NYC charges this only a few days after our stay, so we have some time.” Thiemo bolted the door and threw his backpack next his sister’s suitcase. He further went past the sitting room and had a look in the kitchen. Here the table was made of glass, but the rest was constructed in the same style like in the sitting room: black wood and white upholstery. From the main room, three doors were seen. One probably led to the bath, the two others were the bedrooms.

“Hey!” he heard his sister shouting just as he was about to wander into one. “It’s sixteen o'clock.”

“Thanks!” He went back to the entrance. “I’ll be right back.” Taking the key to the suite from the table, he went through the halls and back to the lifts. He did not have to wait long until the doors opened and he was able to get in. His fingers pressed the button for the terrace, and the lift started moving with a small jerk. It reminded him a little of Cervidas.

It gave him some time to consider his reflection in the mirror. It was still unusual to see himself wearing something else than his white shirt, his coat, and boots. Jeans were still on his legs, even if a fresh one. And underwear. Now even the wide boxers were a little oppressive. The mirror in the lift showed his outfit as he stood there: a black shirt with the blood-red label ‘Die, Boom, Bang’ and his blue jeans with black sneakers. Maybe he should have taken his coat. It would have undoubtedly become cold on the terrace.

A short moment later, the lift stopped and the doors opened. This was not the roof but the uppermost floor, as Thiemo quickly ascertained. He had also expected that. Like every hotel, they were afraid of jumpers. That was always bad for business. Nothing else was left to him than to get out and to look for the stairwell to go to the roof.

A glance to the left showed several doors that probably had to belong to the most expensive suites of the hotel. After all, the higher you went, the more expensive they were.

A look to the right showed several other doors that also had to lead to other more expensive suites. His right forefinger briefly went to and fro as he counted out a direction, before he then turned to the left. And promptly again to the right when he saw the emergency plan near the lift. It showed that the third door to the right was the door he needed to take.

"Whoa,” was his first reaction to the closed door. “So much for that.” That he had planned everything so carefully and now should fail because of a stupid iron door. “Meh, they can put it on my tab.” He touched the lock and let his magic flow. Only some drops came to the surface, then more and more water gathered. Finally, the lock froze into a respectable block of ice that destroyed most of it completely. Slowly, he allowed the ice to melt again and pushed open the heavy iron door, causing small parts of the lock to fall. As massive as the door had been, it was also its weak point, for it was only as strong as the lock allowed it to be.

A harsh wind in his face was the first thing that he felt. Then, when he could open his eyes again, he saw the skyline of New York. For a strange reason, the view from up here, despite how majestic it might be, left him cold. Not only literally, as it was icy up here. Then again, it was also nothing in comparison to the views that the Crystal Empire offered.

He briefly looked around, keeping away from the edge. However, what he looked for was not to be seen. Well, that meant they had really waited for his signal. Thiemo took his totem off the chain and stretched it upwards with his hand. Now the only thing that remained was to hope that Amaryllis saw his improvised magic torch.

Thiemo further waved his totem in the air for a few more minutes until his arm became tired. Moreover, his shivering fingers urgently longed for a warm place in his jeans pocket. His view changed, and the unnatural blackness of this world almost without magic spread out before his eyes. The skies near him shone brightly enough to attract his attention.

Amaryllis was an alicorn, and if she could carry him, then she could also do the same for Lyra and Auralia. After they had separated in the car, he had asked them to wait for his signal. Since neither he nor Danielle had known where in New York their hotel was located, it wouldn’t have been wise to have the three ponies walking about with them as they searched.

His gaze fixed onto a shining purple shape in the air that clasped an orange bundle with all four hooves, while on her back was a shaking golden bundle. Amy had seen the magic of his totem and was now in flight to the hotel roof. Thiemo hung his totem again around his neck and switched back to his normal sight.

"Careful!" he heard Lyra calling as the princess braked sharply and dropped Auralia the last few centimeters into Thiemo’s arms.

“Hi Dad!” greeted his daughter, who got immediately a kiss on the forehead. “We tried to reach the clouds, but they’re much higher here.” The human laughed and tousled her mane after which he set her down.

Amaryllis had meanwhile landed with Lyra, who just rose from her back. “So? Any problems?” Thiemo asked after he and his marefriend briefly embraced.

“No, everything went well. I’m certain no one saw us,” Amaryllis answered and pulled down Thiemo’s head with some magic. “What surprised me was the amount of humans. And I thought in the other town there had been a lot,” she added after a short kiss.

“How are we going to find this Lauren Faust among all these humans?” asked Lyra. “I mean, there are so many!” The mare stood on the edge of the roof and looked down. “So many humans…”

“If I am right,” Thiemo began and opened the door in the hall for Amy and Aura, “then we’ll figure that out tonight. Otherwise, we simply go to that convention and catch her there. One way or the other, we will get to her.” Lyra had a last look down, then followed Thiemo’s emphatic wave to the others in the hall of the hotel.

Thiemo put on his clothes again. “It’s nearly time to go on the roof again,” he said to Amaryllis, who lay next to him on the bed. His sister was alert enough to inform Lyra and Auralia that they should sleep together in her room. Although Danielle had certainly also wanted to cuddle with the foal, a desire that he could understand very well, he had wanted to do so with someone a bit larger. They hadn’t been able to spend any time alone for a few days now, and Amaryllis would have probably needed it soon. Thiemo hoped that the walls of the hotel were thicker than they looked.

“But it’s so nice and warm under the covers,” Amaryllis said with a contented grin. “Why do you need me for that, anyway?”

“Four eyes see more than two. Besides, it could be necessary to fly around a little.” He squeezed himself into his old boots and threw on his coat. Now he looked to Amaryllis, who had tormented him with her words. Thiemo looked to her and saw that she did not lack strength or love – he had provided the latter just now in any case. She was just tired after the long flight. Jet lag still had them in its grip. Besides, the sun had scarcely set.

They both crept very quietly from the bedroom and afterwards from the suite. The hall of the hotel was still quite bright, but not a soul was to be heard or seen. That suited Thiemo quite well in regards to his plan. They went to the lift and went again as far up as it was possible. “What are we going to do?” Amaryllis asked to fill the silence in the elevator.

“Now, my guess is that Lauren Faust was on Albion. If that was the case, she had also gotten into contact with magic. With our magic view, it should be possible to find her.”

“And if she has no more magic in herself? Then we won’t be able to find her.”

“An error in reasoning that I also made. Every living being has some magic in them. However, it is usually so little that we do not see it if we do not look closely. It only became clear to me a short while ago. And if she is really again at the level of a normal human, we would have at least had a nice flight around the city.

Lyra awoke when a foot bored into her back. Her eyes opened and recognized the bedroom that also contained Danielle and Auralia.

Again she felt the foot in her back and turned round. Directly behind her lay the foal and slumbered with her hooves wrapped around the stuffed Applejack toy. Behind her was Danielle, looking much less peaceful as she tossed and turned in the bed. Carefully Lyra rose, stretched herself to avoid Aura, and started to shake Danielle. “Hey… Psst. Awake up, you have a nightmare.”

It did not seem to help. The young woman in red pajamas further writhed, while her hands clung to her own shoulders. Frightened, Lyra realized that the human was not having nightmares as she first thought. She was in pain.

Lyra hurried from the bedroom and into the bathroom and filled one of the mugs with water. Luckily, she had saved up her magic so that she was able to lift it without immediately collapsing on the ground.

With a full mug, she galloped back into the bedroom and levitated it to Danielle’s head. "Sorry," she muttered and dumped a cold flood over her head. This had the desired reaction. Danielle squealed, easily startled, and was suddenly vertical in the bed. For a moment, the woman stared in shock at the wall, then she embraced her body with her arms. She breathed hard, and Lyra now saw, in the pale light from the hall, that she was completely dripping with sweat. “Here, drink.”

A shaking hand caught the mug from the air, and in a hurry, Danielle drank some small gulps of the cold water. "Thanks," she hoarsely said and held the mug in Lyra’s direction. Before she could grasp it, however, it fell on the blanket and distributed its remaining contents there.

“What’s wrong?” the unicorn mare anxiously wanted to know. “Are you ill? Do you need something?”

“No it…” Danielle began and breathed deeply. “No… it’s good. This is nothing.”

“This doesn’t look like nothing.” Lyra already had a headstrong friend who tried to open her store even if she had high fever. She recognized more than well that this was not just nothing. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you had an attack.”

“It’s nothing. These are only cramps because of… a special time in the month, okay? Please, lie down again.” Danielle dropped on the bed and turned again on her side.

Lyra needed to search her mental notes for a moment. Then she remembered something. Danielle must be in heat! That was what was going on with her. All that they needed was a stallion. Well, at least if she wanted a foal. Feeling somewhat relieved, Lyra marched again to the other side of the bed and stopped. Her place was taken. Auralia had moved in her sleep and had lain down on her side. Sighing and glad about the fact that she had no foals, she rose once more, moved the small filly away a bit, and squeezed into the middle between Danielle and Auralia.

Even as her eyes slowly shut, two hands suddenly clasped her and pulled her closer to Danielle. She blinked in surprise when the human snuggled up to her and saw something that she did not like at all. Auralia looked at her and poked her tongue out. She had moved on purpose! Too bad it didn't bother Lyra in the slightest to be hugged by the human.

Author's Notes:

I shall call it the chapter of hints!

Special thanks to JBL for translating my mess.