Thiemo was experiencing that unpleasant feeling of deja vu. Once again he was sitting in an interrogation room, dressed in nothing more than a pair of boxers, waiting for someone to come and give him a lap dance. Somehow he doubted he would get one, but after a soldier had thoroughly checked every orifice, he thought he deserved one. Maybe he just shouldn’t have shouted “~Deeper!” They had also pulled his tail.

As he now rocked on the chair and waited for either the soldiers or Megan to come through the door, his thoughts began to wander to yesterday. He had almost died, people had gotten hurt, maybe even worse, and half a block had been razed to the ground. Oh, and there was also his sister, who urgently needed to get to Albion. He hadn’t planned for all this. It was supposed to be a short vacation to teach his daughter about Earth. The Highlands, Stonehenge, Buckingham Palace—these were the places that he had wanted to show her, not hate and destruction. Ariel had told him to be honourable and man up. Too bad Thiemo had never had a dad who could show him how. Still, he knew that a good dad didn’t bring his daughter to fight against chaos creatures and gods of fire.

The squeaking of the thick metal door startled Thiemo, causing him to flinch. An elderly man entered, dressed in a blue uniform that looked more like a suit and was decorated with various badges. In his left hand, he held a file.

“~Hello.” He took off his peaked cap, grey hair coming into sight. He placed his cap as well as the file on the table in front of Thiemo and sat down. “~I’m Major General James Hanson.”

“~Is that the reason why one of your soldiers shoved a finger so deep up my ass, or is that simply his fetish?”

The major ignored Thiemo’s words, or at least didn’t react to them. He took the file and opened the first page. “~Timo Morgan, born June 13th, 1990, one sister, Danielle Morgan, born April 2nd, 1988. Mother, Anna Carter, nee Morgan, married to Clint Carter. Father, Mike Morgan, died 1993. Lives with his grandparents in Scotland, Great Britain, who have custody for him and his sister. Grandfather is Hans Werner King, born Albrecht in 1930 in Hanover, Germany. Grandmother is Emilie King, born 1933 in London. The name ‘King’ became prominent after the war, as a small steel factory slowly became a worldwide concern. After it was bought by Thyssenkrupp in the eighties, Hans Werner King retired to his country house in order to tend to his grandchildren, for whom he had taken custody, after they had been taken from their mother, due to her history with drugs. Timo Morgan's behaviour was scrutinised during his school time, and he was expelled multiple times. A year after he graduated, he was reported missing by his family.” The major turned the page and pulled a pen from his shirt pocket. “~Would you please tell us where you have been, Mister Morgan?”

“~In a galaxy far, far away.” The major just raised a brow before he took a note in the file.

“~Maybe we should start with something simpler. Where were you in the past twenty-four hours?” As easy as it had been to retort with a clever answer for the first question, simply because he had years to think about it, it was difficult to answer the next one. Therefore, he simply remained silent. The major, however, didn’t seem to care if he talked or not. “~Maybe this will help you remember.” He rummaged around in the file a bit and pulled out a sheet of paper with a large photo on it, holding it in front of Thiemo’s nose. “~This is you, right?” He tapped on the photo.

Thiemo’s gaze wandered towards the photo. Megan was right. This was clearly the recording that had already been on TV, but in much higher resolution, making both Amaryllis and him clearly visible. The field of view was also wider. Mothma dominated a large portion of the picture. The cameraman must have tried to keep up with her, but only managed to catch her head and neck.

“~I see someone knows how to use Photoshop, but if you wanna add an alien into a picture, maybe use a better reference than a Saturday morning cartoon.”

“~Maybe,” the major replied, “~but this reference has requested asylum in the United States of America.” Thiemo had expected a lot, but not them admitting they had Mothma, especially not under their protection. “~She said that you and this female that’s pictured with you have come to kill her. That she is the last of an endangered kind, with an genocidal war being fought against her.” That wasn’t really a lie. “~All I want from you now is your part of the story. We know you had contact with life forms whose origins are not from Earth. We also know that the female in this picture is one of these life forms. Humans don’t tend to have wings.” The major grabbed the picture and put it back into the file. “~Don’t think we're stupid, Mister Morgan. All we want is to quickly resolve all of this.”

“~What’s there to resolve? Who goes to the slammer?” Thiemo stretched his arms, pointing at nothing, before he let them fall back to his side.

The major grinned. “~Definitely not. If it were up to us, no one goes to the slammer. You see, the world isn’t in the best shape. We need a morale booster and a 'first contact’ could be exactly that. Complications on such a historical day are understandable.”

“~An American first contact. Must be like a wet dream for you.”

The major didn’t get to reply. The heavy iron door behind him fell out of its hinges, falling to the ground with a loud thud. The major jumped, reaching towards his pants, but before his hand could get anywhere near a weapon, he was lifted into the air and pushed against the wall. Thiemo watched as his clothes slowly began to meld with the concrete.

“Not really cooperative, this bunch,” Megan said as she entered the room, annoyance etched on her face.

Amaryllis stood in front of the mirror in one of the guest rooms of the house. She watched her mirror image for the hundredth time now. Her mane was long again, like there had never been a human with a flaming sword searing away half of it. The numerous uneven spots on her wings from regrowing so often were gone as well, and the small scar on her right foreleg was also missing. It was as though she had never been on this entire adventure, as if she had never met Thiemo and Auralia, and still lived in her mother’s hive. She would cry, if she hadn’t already.

It hurt just thinking about it. She felt so much love, not only for Thiemo, but also her father and Cadance, Auralie, Twilight, and Lyra—so many people she would have never met.

She wished that Thiemo was here to hold her in his arms, but he was on his way with her murderer. Of course it was important that they got home, but why did it have to be with her? It didn’t help that she could feel what Megan experienced when she looked at Thiemo. The Avatar might have acted cold and remorseless, but her emotions spoke a different language. It made her feel even more depressed and angry.

Flames engulfed Amaryllis, and in the next moment, the changeling princess was gone and a human girl had taken her place. She had the same long, violet-blue hair and wings, but aside from that, she couldn’t recognize herself. Her proportions felt so alien—it was hard stand on just two legs with her new centre of mass, and with her horn no longer holding back her hair, it often blocked her view.

And these hands. So delicate, as if they could simply shatter if something happened to them. Still, she knew what these fingers were able to do, having seen and felt it herself. Smaller versions of them were on her feet, but they didn’t really seem to serve any purpose. They could neither grip the carpet she was standing on, nor were they particularly flexible. Thiemo had told her that they were there to be rammed into inanimate objects, and that she and these ‘toes’ had something in common. She still didn’t understand what he meant.

Next were the teats, or were they udders? The princess wasn’t sure that either was the name of these things on her chest. The minotaurs called them udders, according to the books she had read. She also didn’t understand why they were swollen, but that seemed to be normal. Many women she had seen had similar proportions hidden underneath their clothes.

Amaryllis jumped up and down once and watch herself in the mirror. Immediately she realized how impractical these human udders would be. Flames kissed her skin again and left her with much smaller ones. They were still clearly seen, but not so large that they tugged at her like weights as she jumped again. Plus she no longer looked like a pregnant mare.

Satisfied with the result, she began to test her balance. She tried to stand only on her right leg, then the left. After she managed to do so for a minute each, she began to jump on one leg, and it didn’t take long before she could do so with both.

“What are you doing?” Auralia’s voice startled Amaryllis. The foal stood in the doorway and watched the naked woman doing gymnastics.

The changeling princess jumped down from the bed and stretched her limbs. “Trying to get a feel for being a human.” She bent forward and touched her toes with her fingertips. She had watched Thiemo try that one morning. According to him, only millimetres had been missing.

“And? How does it feel?” the foal asked curiously as she continued to observe Amaryllis.

“Well, strange. Pony and changelings are very robust, solid, but not so agile. I mean, yeah, we can turn our legs into all kinds of directions, but that's nothing compared to what this body can do. No wonder your dad is so good at it. It’s completely different than anything I know. Even my teats are somewhere else, and I have no tail to cover my privates. Even if I had one, it would only cover my rear.” Aura nodded. “Now I can understand why humans wear clothes. Before I started with my exercises, I almost felt cold without my fur.“

“Why would anypony want to see where I pee from?” Amaryllis blinked. How should she explain that to a filly? “What’s so special ‘bout it?”

Why was her mouth so dry? “Well, it’s the place where foals come from?“ That was the best reply that came to her without being too graphic.

“Yeah, sure. I’ve seen where foals come from. From eggs.“ Amaryllis wanted to reply, but Aura was faster. “If you wanna be like all the other adults, fine. I'm not stupid.” And with that, the princess was alone again.

Shrugging—a gesture she had seen often enough—she went back to testing her body. She built up a bit of momentum, ran towards the wall, managing to get climb two footsteps before pushing herself away, spinning around in the air and landing back on her feet. She was sure she could do more than that.

Thiemo had had this feeling for quite some time. It was like a tug at his pants whenever Auralia wanted to show him something, like that annoying feeling after you just left home and you wondered if you forgot something, like a half-full bladder while getting a haircut. In short, it was annoying, but not painful. If he had given this feeling a name, it would be called Navi.

It was this feeling that dogged Thiemo's heels as he followed Megan through the underground complex of Area 51, with his companion melding the soldiers’ clothes with the wall as the duo came across them. Any bullets that were fired at them struck the force field that she had cast around them and fell to the ground like worthless scrap.

Thiemo even had a good idea what this feeling was: his talisman. The first time he had felt it only briefly as Mothma had taken it from him. It was a moment he would probably never forget, but at least now he knew that temporary separation wasn’t lethal, but rather annoying. Mosquito-bite-between-the-shoulder-blades-annoying.

“Why didn’t we do it this way from the start?” he muttered as two guards were glued at the ceiling. “I mean, it’s much easier this way.”

“I intend to have peace with the humans I vowed to protect.”

“They’re Americans. They don’t even know what that means!”

“Still... humans.”

“Yes, but assholes!” Megan stopped and turned around to Thiemo. “Okay, fine, but you have to admit, they have a higher asshole rate than the rest of the world.” Megan snorted, turned back around, and continued moving the protecting bubble forward.

“We have to take a right here.” Surely Megan understood that he was still angered over the... procedure he had to endure. They turned from one white hallway with armoured doors from time to time to the next. The only sign that they were not walking in circles were the new soldiers and the signs next to the doors. “So… you’ve been here before?”

“Difference is that all of this didn’t exist back then. It was basically just an airfield with some hangars. I think their office used to be a tarp that was held up by two jeeps, with a typewriter and a radio.” A yelp escaped from another soldier as she followed her comrade towards the wall. Thiemo wondered why they didn’t simply get out of their clothes. Was Megan really so mean that she also melted their underwear? Yes, she was, and somehow he liked that about her. Still, burning his immortal girlfriend wasn’t cool.

“I have a question. How was Blue Light? You said you knew him.” Megan stopped and turned around to him, this time with an expression that was a mixture of disbelief and pain. It struck him then. Megan had told him there had once been a Sunset Shimmer, that she had been that unicorn. She knew Blue Light and had been a member of the Children of the Night. What she never told him was the relationship the two had. “How well did you know him?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but remained silent. For a moment, Thiemo could swear he heard Light’s voice, shouting at him to not make things even worse. Maybe it was just his common sense at the sight of Megan.

“Stop asking stupid questions and tell me where we need to go,” she eventually gritted out and turned back around, her pace much faster than before.

Not that that was a problem, since she would stop every couple of seconds to glue another group of soldiers to the ceiling. If he had time to meditate and talk with Light, he would ask him himself, given that he would want to talk with Light. It was a bit ironic, given their relation, one he still wasn’t sure what to think about. Where did Blue Light stop and where did Thiemo begin? How tight was their bond?

“Over there. My talisman should be inside,“ Thiemo pointed towards a door like all the others. The sign next to the door declared the room as 'Laboratory Five'.

The digital lock beeped one last time as Megan lifted the entire door out of the hinges. The head of three scientists in yellow hazmat suits shot up to the two intruders. One stood directly above multiple objects, all of which Thiemo recognized. There was his iphone, the laptop with the added solar panels, and various pieces of clothing. Most of his clothes had rectangular holes in them, the scissors still in the hands of the culprit.

“Hey, that was my favourite Disturbed shirt!” Thiemo, still dressed in nothing more than a pair of boxers, went over and grabbed one of his shirts that was still intact and threw it over his head before taking the jeans that had been made for him in the Crystal Empire. “And where the fuck are my boots?” He waited a few seconds for a reply, but all three suits just looked at him. At least he thought so—all he could see was his reflection in their helmets.

“You should try a language they can understand,” Megan pointed out.

“Right…” The yellow suits were slowly moving away from what they were working on, their hands held into the air. A natural reaction, seeing that the duo had just barrelled through an entire company of soldiers without a scratch on them. And then Thiemo found the reason why they were here—his sea breeze crystal. It was jammed into a retainer under what seemed to be a microscope. He disliked the various pickaxes next to it. They must have tried to get a sample, but it seemed as if they were unsuccessful. “To me, my board!”

To his absolute surprise the crystal began to shake in the retainer, almost as if it wanted to break free. Unfortunately, it seemed to be too tightly wedged in, which made him walk over towards the microscope and take the crystal as well as the retainer. “~So, where are my boots?” he asked the scientist with raised hands who stood a bit away from him. “~And where is my other stuff from the hotel?”

“~Over… Over there,” a feminine voice came from one of the suits he looked at, and she pointed towards a few small bags with radiation warning stickers on them.

Rolling his eyes, he walked over and searched for the watch that Eris had given him. Much to his relief, he found it between his sneakers. They must have thought it was a normal pocket watch since it wasn’t opened, something he did now. Thousands of small stars came to the surface of the watch's face and sparkled. Not that he could read it, but he had no need for that now. It worked and didn’t seem to be damaged—that was all that mattered.

“I got it,” he said and showed Megan the watch. She just nodded and dragged a scientist over with her magic. He was clearly shaking.

“~You're going to tell me now where we can find Mothma.”

Author's Notes:

Come on, what did you expect? Megan is a powerhouse of magic. And we're only one chapter away from learning why and how Thiemo came to Albion.

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