Danielle was currently sitting in the kitchen of the White Dove. Next to her plate, filled with mashed vegetables and butter-covered crystal maize, was the book in which she had immersed herself. She had managed to stab a fork into her food, but her concentration was definitely elsewhere, Amaryllis was certain. The princess waited for another moment, then went past the veterinarian and took a seat from across her. Danielle did not look up from her book, having not even reacted to her arrival either. Amaryllis waited patiently, for if there was one thing she had, it was time. They were in the middle of the ocean and had several days of travelling before they reached Ti. Besides, it was rude to tear someone out of their thoughts. Amaryllis took the time to look more closely at Danielle. She wore the same coat as yesterday, that the white fabric intricately decorated. It was similar to Thiemo’s, though there was one significant difference. A thick strip of the same fabric ran down her back, right between her shoulder blades and hiding two small openings. It was almost as if Rarity had created the garment expecting that wings would sprout from Danielle’s back at any moment. That begged the question of whether the designer knew Danielle’s secret, and why did they tell her?

No, those were questions for another time, Amaryllis thought, shaking her head slightly. The movement seemed to have caught Danielle’s attention, as she looked up a second later. A frown flittered across her face briefly, and she carefully drew a long, violet hair out of her food with two fingers. "Excuse me," the princess said at once, pushing her mane aside with her magic.

"How long have you been sitting there?" Danielle asked, closing her book. She took her fork, which had until then been wandering around her plate aimlessly, into her other hand and speared some food that had surely grown cold by now.

"Not long, a few minutes maybe. I didn’t want to disturb you while you read."

"If this is about my brother, you don’t have to try. I agree with him. If my girlfriend had abandoned me while I was sick in bed, I would have reacted the same. And being angry at him, after all he did, for being scared... that takes the cake."

Amaryllis shrinked in her seat. "Yes, I've screwed up. But there must be something I can do to..." Her words drifted away as Danielle clinked her fork against her plate.

"You want to change his mind?" The princess was about to nod, but paused for a moment to think. Finally, she shook her head. "Good, because changing his mind would be impossible. He’s as stubborn as a mule. What you have to do is make him want changing his opinion. Show him that he can rely on you. That you've recognized that you made a mistake and understand what it means to be in a relationship."

She wanted to nod again but again paused. She had no idea what it meant to be in a relationship, truth be told. This was her first, after all. For her, their relationship had consisted of someone that she had adventures with and whose bed she shared, someone she liked and wanted to be around. However, this did not seem to be everything, and she had paid for her ignorance. To admit that to herself almost hurt as much as the conversation that she had with Thiemo. "What does it mean to be in a relationship?"

Danielle stared at her for a moment with her penetrating blue eyes, and Amaryllis realized that they were the same as Thiemo’s. "A relationship is hard. The first thing you need to know is that there aren’t just good times. There are just as many bad moments. The important thing is to work through them together. There are days when one sticks with the other, and there are days when you want to throw them from the third floor of a building. It’s important to remember the essentials. You love that person, you want to support them, even if you don’t always agree. Each member in the relationship has to want the best for the other. There’s no longer any ‘I’, only ‘we’. A relationship is hard work and consists of compromises." Danielle paused and didn’t seem in a hurry to continue, leaving Amaryllis to ponder her words.

She remembered their first meeting, her trip through Appleloosa and her time in Canterlot, the journey through the mountains and finally their time in the Empire. It had always been Thiemo who had struggled for her. It had always been Thiemo who had done something for her. He had never asked for anything. He had never complained. Sure, she'd healed him when they'd fallen into the depths. But that had been expected, was not it? She would have cured everyone, had it been necessary. It had been a coincidence that it had happened to the human for whom she had feelings. However, Thiemo had set his own goals aside for her, had set her goals above his own. He had been the one who had always tried to make her days ever more brighter. The improvised date in Sunnytown shot her through the head.

"I haven’t been a good girlfriend to him, have I?" she finally asked, looking up.

Danielle, who had since emptied her plate, pushed it aside and opened her book again, but said nothing. Neither did she need to, for the answer was obvious.

Twilight Sparkle stood on deck and looked into the distance. At least, that was how it seemed from her outward appearance. In reality, she too was lost in her thoughts. Over and over again, she went through every possible scenario. Hundreds of possibilities were calculated in seconds, sorted according to their probability and finally reduced to the most basic ones. That meant, she reduced the possibilities to those that had about a one percent chance of coming true. After sorting the scenarios alphabetically, she once again ran them through her mind. Many of them concluded with the destruction of Equestria, or Ti, or the Empire, or all. Each time, she made a small correction in her calculation in the place where she believed the result originated. Still, the result changed only slightly. With every scenario that ended in the total destruction of one realm or all, the princess felt a more assured of her decision.

Her mother might be the source of the trouble stalking the land, but war always required two participants. As much as Celestia had provoked them, the humans had answered accordingly. In the end, the Empire had paid for it. Her family had paid for it. Cadance wanted peace with Ti, but as long as Equestria had them cut off from the world, this was not possible. Peace was concluded with countries, not with prisons. The island was nothing else but the latter at the moment. Therefore, this was the path she had chosen, the one with the least resistance. As soon as the Crystal Heart was back in its place, Cadance would send her airships across the mountains to take Canterlot while Celestia’s own fleet was busy chasing humans. It was the path that would require the least sacrifice. Equestria would become a part of the Empire, and it wasn’t as if Cadance was a bad ruler. She, too, was family and wanted only the best for all her subjects, even those who were not ponies.

Twilight briefly recalled the conversation she had had with her mother about Blue Light after Thiemo had left for earth. How Celestia had described the events from her point of view, how much these descriptions differed from what Index had shown them. Humanity had manipulated her little sister, she had claimed, smothering her and finally bringing her to despair. And in her despair, Luna then threw Blue Light before her hooves. That had not been the case, Twilight had tried to explain her, but Celestia was too set in her ways to listen.

"Hey, Twilight," she suddenly heard Thiemo’s voice. She turned her head and saw the shaman coming out of the captain’s cabin. "What are you doing out here?

"I’m thinking," she murmured. "About what’s still to come, and about what happened. What would have happened if humanity and Equestria had remained friends? Would Blue Light still be alive? How would the world look now?" A new question shot through her head. "Would Shining and I even have been born?"

Thiemo shrugged. "I really can’t say. No one can answer these questions, at least not with any certainty. If Equestria and humanity had been at peace all this time, there would probably be much more technology. Perhaps it would be more like on Earth, with solid infrastructure between all countries for trade and travel. If one wants to get from one end of Albion to another, it’ll take them years. On Earth, you can travel around the world in twenty-four hours, and from what I’ve seen, we’re behind the humans on Ti by a few hundred years, as far as technology is concerned. I'm not saying technology is the ultimate solution—after all, you defeated humanity with magic, but if you had worked together instead... I can’t imagine it. The only thing I can safely say is that a lot of potential has fallen victim to hatred. On the other hand, your culture has certainly developed further, new spells replacing the what’s missing and so on. Still, you ponies lack the inventor's urge. You are content with your trains and airships, so why search for a way to travel faster? You would just miss the opportunity to admire the landscape during the journey." Thiemo reached out and pointed to the sea around her. "I can... not..." His words died on his lips as his eyes shifted. "Land ahoy!" He suddenly called and waved at the crew on deck.

The soldiers on deck hurried in their direction, and Twilight squinted her eyes to see clearer. She soon spotted what Thiemo must have discovered. On the horizon, the faint outline of land jutting out could be spotted. The alicorn quickly recalled the map of Albion to the forefront of her mind. It could only be the North Cape, the southernmost tip of the northern continent over Hosstralia, which was still largely undiscovered. That meant they were about halfway there.

"Here," she heard Windwalker say as she handed Thiemo a telescope. The shaman jammed it against his eye before almost immediately moving it slightly away. Quickly, he turned the lens to focus the view.

He clicked his tongue. "Beach, jungle, and even more jungle," Thiemo finally said. "Lyra mentioned that she and her parents had once took a vacation up here." He paused for a moment before speaking again. "I think Amissa Heaven was somewhere there. The flora is quite similar to what I can see and remember. In addition, people had settlements there, according to Lyra. It would make sense, since I don’t believe Celestia could capture all the survivors to bring them to Ti."

Twilight’s thoughts began to race. There, somewhere in the jungle, were the ruins of the human city, a secret that her mother had sworn to take to the grave. The danger was not worth it for the little knowledge that could be found there, Celestia had said. Twilight was nauseous at the memory. She did not want to protect her ponies, but the fact that she had slaughtered humans, that she had used her power to do so. "You can make out that the city must have been here by the flora?"

"No, of course not. I said it’s very much the same as what Lyra told me when we were on the way to the Empire, so I know that there must certainly be human settlements there. I know that Amissa Heaven must have been there from the log books, which I was allowed to translate. They spoke of a large continent with a tropical climate, where they found remnants of their ancestors. The description is true, and along with what Lyra said, the continent would be the first place where I would look. With an airship, it would probably be pretty easy to discover where the city was. Just look for a large crater."

Twilight lowered her head and thought about everything she had known about Thiemo during his time on Albion. "Thiemo, why do you help the Empire? Ponies have never treated humans well. We have locked you up, and you were once almost banished to Tartarus. We even used the Elements against you. Why would you still help us?”

He handed the telescope back to Windwalker before looking down at her. "Do you want an answer or an honest answer?"

"Both?"

He nodded slowly. "If I had to give you an answer... because it is the right thing and because I can? It’s not like I’ll be in more danger than usual. After all, I know about Ti—it is a great prison for people. So I'll be among my peers. As long as I'm not telling everyone that I work for the Empire, nothing will happen to me or Danielle. We should be free to move. I am not helpless either." With the last sentence, he let some lightning flash from his palm. "My honest answer would be that I don't give a shit about the humans here. I don’t know them and think they're idiots. Who follows someone that calls themselves Nightmare Moon? They’ve contributed to their own downfall. I like Cadance and the Empire. In my opinion, she is a better ruler than Celestia and Luna. Your mother may be loved by her ponies, but all the inhabitants of the Empire, even those who are not ponies, like Cadance. I can understand why. She, for example, took in changelings even though they aren’t highly regarded. She has put the good of a people over her own personal feelings, something Celestia apparently could not. That’s where you were wrong as well—not all ponies have treated me badly. But that is only half the story. My daughter lives in Equestria with her mother, and not only soldiers die in a war. That is why I want this war to end. Even if I have to exhausted every dirty trick that the people on Earth have thought up over the past thousand years, I will do all that my power allows me to prevent what I most fear. Not because I want to save thousands of lives, not because of anything grandiose. I do what I do for a little orange foal that calls me dad, and people who have treated me well. That's all."

Twilight took a few seconds to take in all he had said. "We share the goal of preventing a new war, then.”

"Not a new war, Twilight. The old one was never finished, just morphing into a cold war that has been going on for a thousand years. "

"Then to prevent a new outbreak. I don’t want anyone to die, no pony, no changeling, no griffin, no humans. It all has to stop. For days I have been trying to find a solution where I don’t have to face my mother and my country in order to achieve this goal as quickly as possible without losses. No matter how many times I play everything in my head, it always comes back to the fact that my mother is the root of the evil. "

"I think you’re forgetting something important: our mysterious alicorn, now working with humans. I don’t know yet how he or she fits into the picture, but I would bet my staff on the fact that he or she had something to do with the attack on Antheon. I'm talking about Blue Light’s double and that Echidna said that they had been played. If that were the case..."

"Then someone pitted Equestria and Amissa Heaven against each other," Twilight finished the sentence. "But why? Why would a being do such a thing? What does it matter? And where does it come from? Why hasn’t anyone noticed in all these years?"

"No idea; there are still too many pieces missing in the puzzle. And I can’t confirm the theory either. Maybe Light really killed Antheon." Thiemo shrugged. "I can’t change it now. It happened a long time ago. We must concentrate on the here and now."

The armour itched at the most vexing places, and the smell that came out of the helmet caused her nasal hairs to curl. It couldn’t be helped, seeing as it was the only one she had found in the belly of the ship that halfway fit her. At least she was now able to leave her hiding place without immediately being recognized. Sometimes she hated that, as a pegasus, she was smaller than most other ponies. And the armour had been made clear for a pony mare. Daring sighed and shifted the chest piece with her snout. Her coat, thicker than that of the earth ponies to protect them against cold in the airy heights, would simply not rest easy beneath the gilded metal.

She crept farther through the corridors, always trying to ensure that she encountered as few soldiers of the Empire as possible. Something had happened, she was certain. So far she had not seen any of the soldiers of Equestria moving in the ship without escort. Besides, they were all unarmed. Had the ship picked up soldiers that had deserted Celestia’s cause? Daring stopped abruptly when she heard a familiar voice. She pressed against the wall and looked around the corner into the next corridor. There was a human walking toward her. It wasn’t any random one as well—she knew the human mare. She was wearing new clothes, but the voice and her whole demeanour was unmistakable. She was one of the two humans she had met in the bank. What surprised her even more was the alicorn by her side, for next to her was Princess Twilight Sparkle. The two of them seemed engrossed in a conversation as they approached her.

Daring had come across something. She had no idea what to do, but that would change soon. Her cutie mark was just itching at the thought. But that could also be the armour.

Author's Notes:

At this point I just want to thank all the readers that stuck with the story to this point.
I want to thank you all for your feedback and comments. Nearly 1500 thumbs up. You guys are amazing.

Special thanks to JBL for translating & editing.