Silence prevailed in the cabin that had been assigned to Thiemo. Amaryllis sat on a large pillow, her amethyst eyes gazing into his shining blue orbs.They were glowing in the sparsely lit room. They must have been like that for a while now, but definitely not when they had met for the first time. She would remember having led such a man through the hive all those months ago. Though it felt so visceral, it was almost a year since that day. However, that was not the point. "Why did you imprison Twilight?"

"Why did you just leave?" The question came from his mouth not a second after hers had closed.

She cocked her head. "I don’t know what one has to do with the other."

Thiemo sighed and rested his head on his hands. "Nothing at all. I just wanted to get it out of the way before we talk about anything else." He paused. "Or maybe it has a little to do with it. It would affect my choice of words."

"You know exactly why I left. Somebody had to do something. I was the best for this task. If you and my mother have made one thing clear to me, it’s that I’m a child of two different worlds. If I can help both sides..." Amaryllis breathed deeply. "And you…"

"...were too afraid." He slowly raised his left hand and held it straight in front of her nose. She was trembling. "I still am. I know that you have this ideal in you that won’t allow you to abandon the ones you see as your family. If I had to guess, it was the moment they called you to be their princess that the Empire became exactly that. I understand that. It must be a great feeling to be accepted by so many. I also understand that I’m not as important as your entire family. Really, I understand perfectly. But!" He placed his shaking hand on the table as he rose. "But am I not even worth being kept in the picture? I could have remained on Earth, along with Danielle. It would have been difficult, but... I could have gone back to my old life. Do you know why I didn’t try that? Because I have a life here. I have Auralia and I have you! You're not the only reason I'm here, but a big part of it. I don’t want you to be grateful to me, so that if things should not work between us, you have to stay with me out of any debt you feel you owe me. The only thing I ask is that my own marefriend tells me when she’s leaving. How would you feel if you come to my apartment one day and the neighbor told you that I moved out three weeks ago? That I don’t appreciate you enough to tell you something so important."

She did not need her connection to read Thiemo's emotions—they were clearly written on his face. "I ..." She could not find the words. Something in her throat knotted and she already felt tears sting her eyes.

"You've behaved like a stubborn child. Believe me, I know what that is like. You took the opportunity to run away after our first real argument, and locked me out so that you wouldn’t be reminded of it constantly. And because I'd otherwise have noticed that you were going." He sat down again and rubbed his forehead tiredly. "The pretext of wanting to help Equestria fit into your ideals. Opportunity creates thieves, as the saying goes.” Amaryllis did not know if she should be astonished or simply cry. This human, who stood opposite her, understood her so completely. Her countenance was akin to that of a nymph who tried to sneak a little love from their nurse with their large adorable eyes. And all this without a connection. She, on the other hand, had no idea what was really going on within Thiemo. Why couldn’t she find the words? “Everything has been handed to you up to this point. Your natural gifts have helped you, but you need more in a relationship. A relationship is hard work, compromise… and something you have to find out for yourself. I have it, maybe with a little help from your mother, but I did.

“I love you, Amaryllis, and I want you to know that, but you threw me away when I needed you most, because I couldn’t follow your ideals. And see where they’ve brought you. If we had only arrived five minutes late, then…" She was not the only one with tears in her eyes. "I can’t, Amaryllis. I can’t follow you like a madman into every battle your instincts carry you. Unlike you, I can’t put myself together again. One mistake and Auralia has no father. One mistake and Danielle doesn’t have a brother. All it takes is one mistake. I can’t fight with gods." There was a knock on the door and he waited a moment, fighting to regulate his breathing. A second knock sounded. "Yes?"

The general, whose name Amaryllis had discerned as Mustang, entered the room. At his side was her aunt, her wings tied to her body in a contraption of cloth and hinges. It did not look painful, but no doubt it itched and pulled as she saw Twilight’s wings twitch. On her horn, she also wore something that Amaryllis recognized as three rings when Twilight came closer. They were light blue, made of crystal, and reminded her a little of the ones that Celestia had given her. "The princess wishes to speak to you urgently. She was very persistent, no longer wanting to wait."

Twilight gazed at them for a moment before opening her mouth. "I want to know what this is all about. Why did the ponies of the Empire raise their weapons against us, and why were my ponies put into cells instead of in berths?"

Thiemo glanced at Amaryllis once again, a look that clearly indicated he wasn’t done with their discussion. He then stood and walked in front of Twilight. She reached up to his chin, but still had to look up as he closed in on her. "I thought I'd expressed myself clearly, Twilight Sparkle. The Empire has declared war on Equestria. You are our prisoners."

"But Cadance has promised—"

"Promises are there to be broken," he interrupted her, pushing her finger against his forehead. "I thought you were so smart."

"Cadance would never do such a thing!" Amaryllis felt the despair and disbelief that arose from her aunt. She could hardly believe it herself.

Thiemo shook his head slightly. "You don’t know what humans are capable of when pushed back against a wall. The same is true for ponies. She lost her husband for a war in which her country was not even involved. Others have lost their family and friends for a war that was not theirs. And then came great Equestria who still required support."

"Shining was my brother as well! My family and Amaryllis’ father!" Twilight reached up to Thiemo on the tip of her hooves, pressing snout to nose. "Not only Cadance has lost family."

"No, of course not. However, since it was not our war, we decided to make it ours. Celestia thinks for some reason that the humans on Ti need to be further antagonized. Let her indulge her thousand-year-old hatred, but she should not believe that she can pull the Empire into the abyss. We are leading this war to end it, not to wipe out anyone. We will tackle the root problem."

"But the humans of Ti are our enemies! They followed Nightmare Moon. They took two of my brothers. Shining and then..." Twilight looked at him squarely in the eyes. "You."

Thiemo chuckled hollowly. "You're making the same mistake as Cadance. I'm not Blue Light. We share something important, but I am my own person. I have my own life and make my own choices, no matter what the symbols on my shoulders say. Your ponies put too much emphasis on these symbols, pushed onto you as 'destiny'. We humans believe that we have our own lives in our hands. At least those without brain damage who believe that there is an invisible guy who lives in the clouds," he added quickly when Twilight looked at him questioningly. "Was that all?"

Twilight glanced past Thiemo to Amaryllis. She was still sitting on the cushion, looking back with a scrupulous look. "Amaryllis, do you agree? As a princess of the Empire, you could rescind the order.” The thought had already occurred to her. That was why she had first asked Thiemo about the reason they had attacked the Equestrians. But since she knew this now...

"Yes, I could," she replied to her aunt. After a moment, they both averted their gazes.

"It's nothing personal, Twilight. Damn, I still think of you as a friend." The princess smiled slightly when he said that. "Still, this is not just about us. We have to stop Celestia, but first we have to restore the Empire back to full force." Amaryllis watched Thiemo's gaze wander into a corner of the room. Then he sighed after a few seconds. "We need to get the Crystal Heart back. After that... After that, we end this stupid war, which should have ended a thousand years ago."

"Good," Twilight suddenly said, and her horn began to glow. The rings reacted immediately, and ice began to form around Twilight, but that did not stop her. She levitated the three rings from her horn and the ice dissolved into dust. Then, with one or two targeted magical strikes, the device opened over her wings, and she stretched them out. "You have no idea how much they've been itching." The princess grinned slightly as she began to preen her feathers. Mustang coughed briefly and looked away.

Meanwhile, only Amaryllis seemed to have noticed that Legion, having hitherto been lying in the corner of the room, had flown into Thiemo's hand not a second after her aunt had begun to cast her magic. "I think our prisoner will behave. Mustang, you can go. Actually, we should all go on deck. I have something else to do."

They both followed Thiemo and Mustang to the deck of the White Dove, the Crystal Empire ship that had broken through the clouds less than three hours ago. The name was ironic, Amaryllis was sure. On the other hand, with what Thiemo had told her and Twilight, there was the possibility that it was not. After all, this ship served as a tool to end a war.

"Captain Windwalker," Thiemo called out over the heads of dozens of soldiers who were rushing to attend to their duties. "Are we in position?"

The captain, an ice-blue crystal pony mare that had a horseshoe superimposed over a cloud as a cutie mark, was at the head of the airship. She wore no armour, but a uniform of the same colour. "Have been for about an hour, sir. But if I may ask, why? We can’t fire from this angle. It would be too steep." Thiemo stepped beside her and looked down, then quickly backed up.

"No, everything is fine this way," he said, taking a deep breath. Amaryllis came to the edge and looked down. They were high, halfway between the earth and clouds. Not directly above the fortress, but slightly off. How far exactly, however, she could not say.

Her aunt also stretched her neck over the railing of the White Dove and looked down. "What are you doing?" she finally asked.

"Well," he began, "we’ve eliminated the surface threat, but I couldn’t dream of going into the depths of the fortress or commanding soldiers to do so."

"Not that you could," Mustang murmured.

"Or that I have the authority to do so," he added. "I’m actually a special representative."

"He’s only saying that because he wasn’t allowed to call himself a spy," Danielle interjected as the woman came out of the captain's cabin. "Hello, Twilight, Amaryllis." The two princesses returned her greeting, only slightly surprised. Danielle wore a long white coat decorated with the colours of the Empire. Since this was open, one could still see her everyday clothes, but also the crystal belt buckle in the form of the Crystal Heart. The coat was similar to Thiemo’s, there was no doubt.

"This is Rarity's work," Twilight noted immediately. "It suits you."

"And I don’t stick out like an orange pylon," the woman agreed, nodding slightly to her brother.

He only rolled his eyes. "Family, you gotta love em," he commented dryly, beginning to roll up the sleeves of his own cloak. "Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that you put your sunglasses on, place your seats in an upright position, and lower your jaws. What you’re about to see might be shocking.” He reached out and muttered a word," Legion."

The hundreds of crystals that consisted of the staff flew towards him, apparently coming from all corners of the ship. They hovered along his outstretched right arm and finally melded into his staff. "Ready," the monotonous voice of Legion sounded.

"How many sapphires do we have?"

"Five."

Thiemo grinned. "Load."

Amaryllis observed how not only the tip began to shine but also other splinters in different places. And suddenly she understood how Thiemo used this weapon, why he did not carry a bag of talismans with him. He had Legion absorb the talismans he had made. The staff was the bow and quiver at the same time.

Thiemo now stretched the staff towards the sky and began to make a slight circular movement. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then she turned her gaze upwards, realizing the clouds were moving. The grey blanket that covered the skies began to churn around like a whirlpool, growing darker as it began a slow descent. "Thiemo," she said hesitantly, looking down at the shaman again. Where previously his eyes had only slightly glowed, they were now blazing, as did his shoulders and the entire staff. Even those among them who could not see magic could certainly feel the charged atmosphere around them.

With every movement of his staff, the clouds rolled even more and moved like a screw towards the ground. Finally, they formed a tip that ended approximately at the same high as the airship. Then she saw the flashes. Inside the whirlpool, lightning flared constantly, too many to count. However, thunder did not follow. These were magic flashes. "Thiemo, what are you doing?" Twilight asked, as she also seemed to understand that the shaman had just tamed a natural force. He did not respond even as an arc of lightning streaked down and struck the fortress below. There was a thunderous explosion as stone flew in all directions, resulting in a large, gaping hole in the castle courtyard that revealed the surrounding rooms of the fortress. From their position, it looked as if thousands of ants were milling about, but Amaryllis knew better. The creatures did not seem to realize that they were exposed to daylight as they started climbing outside.

Thiemo rammed the staff onto the wooden floor of the ship, which shattered under the impact, and in the same moment, a gigantic bolt of lightning arced out of the spiral of clouds, illuminating everything for half a second, as if Celestia had decided to let the sun hang low today. Another half-second of silence was broken by the rumbling of another explosion, dwarfing the first in its sheer intensity. The stones that had once formed a fortress flew into the sea, into the surrounding mountains, and a few even managed to hit the bow of the White Dove. Rocks from the mountains broke apart and rolled into the river, which led into the inland, filling it within seconds. When the dust settled, Hoovegorod no longer existed. Where the fortress stood seconds ago, there was now only a large pile of rubble that blocked the access to the mainland.

"Ejection," Legion was the first to speak, and five charred lumps were expelled by the staff. They rolled a little, then crumbled to dust.

"~Oh yeah!" the shaman suddenly shouted with delight in English and turned to the others. "~Wild thing! You made my heart sing." He began to dance on the spot. "~Wild thing, you make everything... groovy."

Amaryllis ran a hoof through her mane, brushing off the detritus that had landed all around them. The only one who had been spared was Thiemo himself. He danced comically backwards, although it looked as if he were taking steps forward. "Thiemo!" Twilight suddenly yelled at him, wrapping her magic around his collar and jerking him down to her eye level. "That was one of the most important Equestrian fortresses. This was the only way to get from the inland to the sea, not only for us, but for other nations, too. How could you just..." Her anger seemed to waver and she released him. "We lost ponies to get this fortress back. To keep it."

"And you’ve still lost, even if you haven’t realized it yet. It was worth fighting for it since, like you said, it is only way into the interior mainland. But we can’t allow this important path to fall into the hands of the enemy. We can’t leave it to them. We can’t get out this way anymore, but they cannot get in. No doubt it will impact trade, but in the long run it saves the lives of thousands of civilians."

"My speech," Danielle said dryly, rolling her eyes.

"This was your idea?" Twilight turned to Thiemo's sister.

"Our idea," the shaman immediately interjected. "It was a necessity. What else should you do with a lost fortress that is considered impregnable?" He shrugged. "So then. Captain! Sails down; get us out here."

Windwalker nodded and turned to the deck. "You've heard him, get us in position and bring the fins out. We travel with the currents of the leylines."

Author's Notes:

I think of this as a very special chapter. If you know the meaning behind Thiemos name, it maybe will become more clear to you, too. Thiemo isn't his real name, only how the ponies can pronounce "Timo" in their language. Timo is a old Greek name and short for Timotheus: The God-fearing. Then remember that in the earlier chapters he stated that he didn't believe in gods, but now he revers to Amaryllis as one. Maybe they aren't gods in the traditional sense, but he acknowledges that Amy is a form of higher existence.

I often stated that I choose names with reason. This is the reason why the main human of this story is named Timo. As I planned this story I knew he would often interact with god-like beings. There wasn't any name more fitting in my opinion. And I actually wanted to take a different name to get another point across, but I had to scratch that in favor of this.

It is the same for his sister Danielle. Danielle, the female version of Daniel, means: The Judge. Think about it.

Special thanks to JBL for translating & editing.