For the first time that Auralia could remember, she had no idea what she should do. None of her father's teachings seemed to even begin to fit the situation. She could not even use her usual strategy of seeking safety in flight while pointing a hoof at somepony else, as it would mean leaving her aunt alone with the strange man.

He had recently gone to bring a pillow, and Aura had taken the opportunity to leave the elevator and go behind one of the large flower pots in the entrance hall to hide. From here, she now watched as the man kept an eye on the unconscious Danielle, all the while mumbling to himself. She did not know who he spoke to, but it seemed the conversation got more heated as time went on.

A new explosion outside the hotel caused the filly to wince again. The noise offended her ears, but at least those metallic carriages had stopped their honking. Some still blinked like crazy, but that was all.

The man also jumped at the explosion. This time he spoke even louder to whoever he was talking with, and Aura began to understand some of the conversation. Apparently he was talking with his brother, who had to be near. She followed the man's gaze outside. Where it had been empty before, a woman suddenly landed. Wings of fire sprouted from her back, and she had a changeling in her arms. From her hiding place, Auralia saw the two exchange a few words, then the woman got back into the air and quickly disappeared from sight. All that was left was the changeling, who hobbled over to the revolving glass door that marked the entrance and waited.

The man, who had to been standing next to Danielle, started to root around in his pocket, searching for something. He finally found his keys, as the foal recognized the jingling, and inserted one of them into a lock next to the door. It took a few seconds, then the door started to move, and the changeling entered.

"~Thanks, Pete. Thought I’d have to sneak through the basement."

"~What's going on? No one’s giving me an answer. All I can hear are blasts, and Mother and Kevin keep telling me to stay here!" Auralia did not understand a word, for they conversed in the language of her father and aunt, but she was sure that the two knew each other.

“~Mother believes that Aunt Chrysalis sent our guests. One of her children was among them." Both the changeling and the man turned to the counter, and Auralia saw her chance to get outside. While the human had opened the door, he had not yet closed it. From her small scuffle a few days ago, she knew that Danielle weighed less than her father. Moving her would be relatively easy.

A final look towards the man and changeling reassured Auralia that they could not see her at the moment. Slowly, with careful steps, she came out of her hiding spot. Her hooves slipped over the marble floor as she walked over to her aunt, not taking her eyes off both of them for a second. She froze as the changeling suddenly stopped and listened, but he continued to walk after a few moments. The man opened a door behind the counter, and both disappeared in the room.

This was her chance. Auralia charged forward and reached the motionless body of her aunt. She didn’t seem to move and did not show any other signs of waking anytime soon. Auralia placed her ear on the woman’s chest to check her heartbeat. She had a rough idea of where it was in a human, but unlike with her father, there were those soft pillows of meat in the way. Eventually she found it, a bit above the left lump. Her heart was racing, contrary to her still body. The filly could now also feel her breath. It was more akin to panting, short, rapid breaths through her nostrils. Her father had often made such a sound after a chase.

Now that she knew that her aunt was alright, it was time to get her out of here. Her teeth bit into the woman’s trouser leg, and with only a slight struggle from the filly, they began to move towards the exit. A sympathetic hiss escaped Auralia as Danielle’s head slid off the pillow and struck the ground. Still, it wasn’t as though she could avoid it. What she hadn’t expected was the moan that escaped her aunt. Aura stopped for a moment and listened. The voices could still be heard from the next room, meaning that they likely hadn’t heard them over their conversation.

With a sigh, Auralia dragged Danielle towards the rotating door. She placed her between the two glass walls and leaned with all her strength against one of them. The door began to turn, but suddenly stopped again. Confused, the filly pressed a bit harder, but the counterweight remained.

“Oh,” she whispered, and with the promise to apologize later, she dragged Danielle away from the other wall. Now that the blockage was out of the way, she pushed the door the remaining way and they reached the eagerly anticipated freedom. Her eyes darted around the area as best as she could manage. It seemed as though all the humans were gone.

“Pssst…” Auralia flinched as she heard the voice. “Over here.” Her head shot to the right at first, then to left towards the alley with the back entrance. Golden eyes met blue, or rather one golden eye. The other one seemed to be distracted. To her disbelief, Aura knew the pegasus that waved her over towards the alley.

“Miss Derpy?” the filly asked, amazement evident in her voice, but the only response she got was an even stronger wave from the pegasus mare. Without further ado, she grabbed her aunt’s jeans with her teeth again and began to drag her towards the alley. Miss Derpy, who seemed to have achieved what she wanted, disappeared around the corner. Obviously Aura wanted to know why and how Miss Derpy was here, but right now the only thing that mattered was that she had help. Even though the mare didn’t have the best reputation in Ponyville, she was still known to be helpful and friendly.

With the knowledge that the blue pants really tasted strange, Aura previously only having her father's rarely-washed one to go by, she released her aunt again as she went around the corner. Aura turned around, searching for Miss Derpy, but all she could spot of the pegasus was her golden tail that disappeared at the other end of the alley.

“Wait up…!” the filly began to shout after her, but Derpy was already coming back, followed by a brown stallion. Auralia was sure she had seen him a couple of times in Ponyville as well, but didn’t know his name.

Well, it had looked for a second that they were coming towards her, but they now both seemed to have made a wrong turn. “But Doctor—!” she heard Derpy call, and with that they were both gone.

The thought of following them was suddenly interrupted by another explosion. As before, the small orange filly flinched as new impacts shook the ground. Her head turned and she saw huge parts of a building burying cars on the street beneath them.

A moan escaped Thiemo’s lips as he slowly opened his eyes, the black veil of unconsciousness retreating. For a moment, he had no idea where he was, nor what had happened. The room he was lying in wasn’t their hotel room, which was something positive at least, since he didn’t want to pay the bill for this chaos. Large parts of the ceiling looked scorched, lamps barely hung onto their fittings, and large couch now broken into uneven pieces. Something must have crashed through it at high velocity and split it in two. Judging by the fibres on his clothes, he had been the projectile. Then there was the hole in the wall that had human-like proportions.

That would also explain his headache.

The problem, Thiemo now realized, was that whatever or whoever had thrown him through this wall surely already had to be on their way here. Tumbling, bracing himself on the broken couch, he stood back up.

“A hotel?” he mumbled as he saw the logo on one of the scattered pillows around him. Slowly, the memories of the previous hour returned. With them came the anger and desperation.

Someone had attacked Amaryllis and had injured her so severely that their connection had been forcefully split.

The memories of Faust, who seemed to be a changeling queen, also returned, as well as the conversation with Blue Light. He had charged towards her, and immediately after the collision, Faust had grabbed and tossed him around like a doll.

His gaze wandered away from the pillow, back to the hole in the wall his body had created, where said opponent was now entering the room. The hole was too small for her, but the stones seemed to hold their breath and suck in their stomachs. Thiemo had to blink, but that was how it really happened. The red bricks directly at the opening suddenly had mouths and seemed to hold their breaths. One of them even turned blue.

She was a changeling, there was no doubt about it. Her wings were like those of a butterfly and orange, akin to her back shell, while her eyes had a white pattern that reminded him of his grandmother’s old wallpaper. She also didn’t seem to have any chitin, or it was hidden underneath a furry coat, reminding him of a bumblebee. No, not a bumblebee, a moth. As Thiemo was about to open his mouth and say something, he felt something dry on his lips and cheeks. He hadn’t even realized that he had been crying.

“Impressive that you still have the power to stand after the amount of magic you used. Now…” The changeling’s eyes quickly glanced over the destruction behind her. “Time that we change that.”

The surprised human had no time to react as his body was wrapped in magic, and he was once again thrown through the room. This time, however, he didn’t land on the couch, but through the dinner table. Rather, it was formerly a table, as only splinters remained. What surprised him the most was how little he felt. Something that would have usually been incredible pain was nothing more than a dull throbbing, as if he had stubbed his knee against the table. More of a nuisance than anything. Thiemo realized that this had to be some kind of alicorn defence. It would also explain why he barely felt Amaryllis’ magical attacks during the tournament. This defence, paired with the dampening of the arena, had almost negated them. He hadn’t toughened up or anything—he just had a damn good magical resistance.

Faust again enclosed him in her orange aura, and this time his body was fired against the ceiling, then the wall, and then again towards the ground, directly into the wooden splinters. The worst part was that he had no idea what he could do against her magical grip. In the past, Protes had preventing that from happening, so Thiemo had never thought it would be necessary to defend against such an attack. As a result, he did the only thing he could: nothing. He relaxed all his muscles and just lied there.

The breath of the changeling queen was the only sound he could hear next to the wind that streamed through the floor. She was breathing heavily, as she came closer with careful steps.

“I know that you are still conscious; your aura gives it away. You may be strong, shaman, but you are no match for me. You will be sorry for raising your hand against my children.”

This time, Thiemo didn’t want to make for an easy target. He tried to roll to the side, but he couldn’t escape the magic. Again he rose into the air against his will and was thrown against one of the large windows of the room. They were sturdy, built so that no human could simply smash them. Cracks were forming around him.

“Tell Chrysalis that if she even tries to set a hoof on this planet, I will do everything I can to destroy her.” He tried to move, to say something, but the pressure was too strong to even move a single finger. Faust drew back her head, and he was thrown against the window once more. This time, it gave way. Horror and panic flooded his senses as he plummeted, below him, nothing but thirty floors of air and his demise. On the face of the changeling queen, though, there was no emotion to be found. She seemed neither relieved nor happy. If anything, there was only a glimpse of sadness. Then he could no longer see her.

He didn’t scream. He couldn’t; the wind made it impossible to open his jaw. His hand wandered towards his talisman, and as so often before, he tried to slow his fall. It worked, but he didn’t slow down enough. The asphalt came closer, and at this speed, he wouldn’t survive.

There was an abrupt jolt, and his stomach twisted and turned, but he was hovering in the air. “Thiemo!” This time, it was a purple aura that held him in the air, and his head moved towards the source of the voice. Something flew toward him, and he needed a moment to understand what he saw. It was Amaryllis; there was no doubt about it. The hair and wings were clear signs, but the rest was clearly new. He didn’t even know that she could shapeshift into a human. Possible, yes, but she had never talked about it with him, nor even shown any interest.

A magical bolt struck his shoulder and destroyed Amaryllis’ magical hold. He plummeted once more, but Amy was now close enough and reached out her hand for him. He did the same and grabbed her wrist, and with their touch, their connection also returned. The feeling of a soft embrace in his head was back again, and with it, relief for the human.

“Where to?” Amy asked with an unusually high voice.

“Up on the roof. We’ll have too much disadvantages on the streets!” With two flying participants in this fight, he would be useless on the ground. Every building was a potential cover for Faust, while he would only stand there. On the roof of the hotel, he was also out in the open, but so would be their opponent. “Oh, by the way, you’re looking good.”

More bolts flew past them into the sky, and a look behind showed the other changeling queen taking pursuit. “I can’t dodge well!” Amaryllis shouted as a bolt came too close for Thiemo’s liking. She just wasn’t quick enough.

“Throw me off on the roof! I should manage it.” He didn’t get a response as Amy swerved both of them to the left to evade another barrage. She flew a tight turn and headed directly for the roof of the hotel. Thiemo made himself ready to let go, but this time Faust struck. Amy yelped as her extended arm where Thiemo hung was hit. The human fell down onto the roof and rolled for a few meters.

“Fuck!” he snarled as he stood back up. Amaryllis had meanwhile begun to return fire with her healthy arm. Bolts met each other in mid-air, struck other buildings, with one or two flying in his direction, leaving him no time to relax. Magic was gathering in his right hand, and while running, Thiemo aimed it at Faust.

The magical bolt struck the distracted target, but the effect was limited. It pushed her back a few metres, but otherwise didn’t seem to have any effect, aside from Thiemo being under fire now. It seemed that he would need a bigger charge, but he would have to build that up, and that took time. The wind up here was so bad that he had no chance of giving Amaryllis any advice. Even if he could, their opponent could hear it as well.

From the corner of his eye, he saw how his girlfriend had used the ceasefire. The magical spheres headed towards Faust and began to circle her. The queen realized what was happening around her and rushed away, the spheres on her heels and firing from all directions.

At that moment, another sound reached his ears. Behind one of the buildings appeared a white helicopter. For a moment, he thought that it would be the police, but the big number at the side and the word “News” told him that it was only civilians who decided to risk their lives for a scoop. However, if they were here, police or even the military wouldn’t be far away.

Thiemo’s gaze wandered back into the direction where Amaryllis followed Faust with her spheres, giving her no chance to turn around and return fire. This time using both hands, he built up a magical charge, but he still needed more.

“Come on,” he mumbled, but the charge would not increase any further. It unleashed into his surroundings, destroying part of the roof and his clothes. Quickly, he pressed his hands together, forming a ball to contain the magic. “I’m so going into the internet hell for this…”

Now he could only wait. He would never hit Faust at this distance, with his only target guidance—his hands—being busy containing a magical bolt in its prison. He had to wait until they came back in his direction.

“...and that is why we are here. We just wanted to know who was behind that story in the window with pictures,” Lyra finished her tale. Both the changeling and the woman with the fiery wings looked at each other for a moment.

“So, let me see if I get this right. That changeling princess that I roasted was Shining Armor’s and Cadance’s daughter?” Megan asked, clearly worried.

“Well, Prince Shining Armor’s daughter. Princess Cadance had… adopted her? She gave a long speech about it during the tournament. Hold on… roasted?” Lyra couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Amaryllis no more?

“If what you say is true, that doesn’t matter,” Megan assured her. “Don’t worry, that’s my job. She’s going to be pissed at me.”

“With good reason,” Lyra agreed with a nod. “So, what do we do now?”

“We prevent—” A flash of light illuminated the already bright sky, and the eyes of all three wandered towards the hotel “… that.” Wings spreading, Megan rose into the air. This fight had to end right now.

Author's Notes:

I'm sorry for the long wait. But I'm finally in my new apartment and finally have internet again.
Everyone who's still reading, thank you for being patient.

Thanks to Gron for translating.
Special thanks to JBL for editing.