“One hundred and twenty-two.” Confused, Aura and Amaryllis turned around to Thiemo. “That’s how often we have passed this vase already.” With his right hoof, he tapped lightly against the stony pedestal the flower-filled antique rested upon. Well, at least it looked like one, he wasn’t exactly what one would call an expert on vases.

“Really?” The two trotted over closer, inspecting the fine piece that was decorating the hallway of the palace. “I also noticed that the hallways do look very alike but to think that they were all the same…” Amaryllis digressed and bit off one of the buds. “So sweet!” she exclaimed between her chewing.

Thiemo rolled his eyes, at the display. “Yes, I’m pretty much certain of it.” He pointed at a bit of soil piled up next to the pedestal on the fine carpet. “I put that pile up there about ten rounds ago. We’ve been going around in circles!”

“Wouldn’t we have had to take the same turn for that to happen, dad?” Aura asked, still inspecting the pile of soil. “And as far as I recall, that’s not what we have been doing. The soil could have been put there by someone who also happened to come along,” she offered, causing Thiemo to snort in derision at her weak reasoning.

“Riiiiight, that’s a likely story. So you’re telling me someone else took some soil from the flowerpot and placed it here. Behind the pedestal. Where you even have to search for it.” He felt like continuing his annoyed muttering but the saddened look on Aura’s face snapped him right out of his foul mood, leaving him feeling to kick himself for taking his frustrations out on the filly. “Sorry sweetie,” he said, going up to her and putting a hoof over her shoulders and pulling her into an awkward yet brief hug. “I just can’t get rid of the feeling that something’s not right here. It’s like the palace itself knows that we don’t belong here and is trying to stop us. Think about it. We haven’t seen not one pony since we were at the entrance hall and that was hours ago.” Both changeling and filly stared at each other and then turned to Thiemo, looking rather shocked and disturbed at his statement.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t sense any ponies nearby either.” Amaryllis lifted her head a little higher and looked around, closing her eyes as she concentrated. “Nope, nopony except the two of you. No other emotions.” Thiemo didn’t need any more proof to confirm his theory and gut feeling. Someone was aware of their presence and was hindering their progress. He did the only thing he could in this situation and sat down and made himself comfortable on the carpet. The two others stared at him for a few seconds, but then followed his example. “What are you doing, Thiemo?” Amaryllis asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice as he began taking in deep breaths, closing his eyes as he tried to concentrate.

“Well whatever or whoever is creating this paradox, one thing I’m almost certain of is that it’s of magical origin, so I’m trying to adjust.” He had managed to do so with the changelings already. To see magic was something different than doing so with a soul, but both were energies. If he could see what was going on, then maybe he could do something to stop it. Or to be more exact, his staff would stop whatever was impeding their progress.

Slowly but steadily, he shut off everything around him. The background noises like the steady breathing of his companions, the light that fell in through the windows as well as the natural magic that were a part of Albion. The way he saw it, once everything logical got shut off, then whatever remained must be the solution or at least a hint of the right direction to take.

“Oh come on! Move! Ugh, this is so boring!” His eyes shot open and he looked around confusedly as an unfamiliar voice whined its complaints. Amaryllis and Aura did the same, which meant both of them had heard the voice as well and he hadn’t finally gone off the deep end. Not today, at least. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” Thiemo couldn’t make out where the voice was coming from, but it was definitely female. Suddenly, a small lightning bolt flashed across in the small hallway and instinctively he covered his eyes. The next thing he was aware of was the terrified screams of his daughter.

“Aura!? What’s going on?” Thiemo forced himself to open his eyes, trying to see anything despite the pain that it brought him. Try as he might, however, everything looked like he was staring through a glass of milk someone had put in front of his eyes. He tried to feel his surroundings and hit something. His hooves made contact with a smooth, cold object and as he groped his way he found out what it was. Someone had actually put a glass of milk in front of his eyes.

With another small flash of lightning, it disappeared and laughter sounded above their heads. “Oh boy! You should have seen your faces. Absolutely delightful!” the voice crowed. Ready to jump on the joker, he shifted his gaze upwards but the murderous glare he had intended for whoever it was shifted into something resembling shock and surprise. Below the ceiling hung something that loosely similar to a snake, one of the differences being that it had limbs as well. They were mismatched too, consisting of most of the colors one could imagine. Its head was one of a mare, with the only difference of a long sharp tooth that stuck out of its mouth, past the lopsided grin that was etched on its face. On top of the head were two horns peeking out from underneath the long white mane that looked as though it had never been introduced to a comb. One of the horns appeared to be a unicorn’s, though it was slightly hidden; the other looked more like the antler of a deer. Where the neck ended, the grey coat changed it color into brown, which covered the rest of the body. Two wings were attached to the back of the strange, snake-like creature; just like the horns, they were of two different kinds. One from a pegasus, the other one from a bat. The same differences was also evident in its limbs. The claws on the arms belonged to a lion and an eagle, while the legs were from a goat and even a dragon, just like the tail, which was scaly and at least half as long as the creature itself.

“Man! That must have been one hell of an orgy!” he blurted out. The laughter abruptly stopped and the gazes of the others in the room shifted towards Thiemo. “What? I know that the folks in Albion don’t always tend to stick with their own kind but this is downright ridiculous.” The laughter restarted, even more uproariously this time, only not from who he expected it from. He thought that it would be Aura, maybe some chuckles from Amaryllis, but he didn’t expect the creature he just had insulted to laugh.

“Ha ha ha! I like you, human!” the creature exclaimed, literally shaking with mirth as it tried to stop itself from laughing, stopping for a few seconds before bursting out again. After a few tense moments where Thiemo’s group watched silently, wary of any sudden movements towards them by the creature, it finally subsided, wiping the tears from its eyes. They fell onto the carpet with a muffled thud; to Thiemo’s eyes they seemed to be some sort of diamond gem. He tore his gaze away from them as the creature once again spoke, this time sounding more serious. “Very few people have the guts to say something like that to my face. Or when they did, they didn’t live long enough to tell anyone about it. But what am I doing talking about the old days like this?” The creature focused its sharp look down on them. This was the first time Thiemo noticed its eyes. There was no white, only yellow with shining red balls as pupils. The kind of eyes no one wanted to have on his tail in the darkness.

“Don’t you know who that is?” Amaryllis asked, shock evident in her voice, even looking slightly panicked. Before she could continue, however, a rope appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around her muzzle, effectively shutting her up.

“Now now now, snitching is bad manners as well as ruining the entrance of a lady, my dear. So be nice and quiet now, will you?” The claws of the creature spun in circles, like the rope around its victim. “My name is Eris, Minister for shenanigans and politics. And just between you and me, politics is a joke.” She bowed slightly. “And I couldn’t help but notice the unannounced guests in my castle. Which, if you haven’t noticed, are you three.”

“T-This is not the princesses’ castle?” Aura stammered but couldn’t help but looked curiously from beneath Thiemo’s legs. He hadn’t even noticed when she hid there.

“Eh, that is all very trivial.” Eris waved it off with her lion paw. “So tell me, what are a human, a changeling and a foal that is far too curious for her age doing in my humble summer residence?” Thiemo hesitated for a moment and looked down at his legs. He was still disguised in his pony form. That meant she was able to see straight through their magic like it was non-existent. Quickly, he peeked over to Amy, who was still struggling with freeing herself from the rope without much success. She as well was still in the form of a white mare with a two-colored violet mane. His backpack was still on her back and out of reach, just like his staff.

“Ummmm….. we lost our group during the tour?” It was worth a try. Unfortunately, the creature now known as Eris only raised a brow and frowned, showing she didn’t buy his poor and flimsy excuse. “Well, there is supposed to be a library somewhere. With books and stuff. We just wanted to take a quick peek and we will be on our way again. Just learn a little bit about magic, that’s all,” he continued, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Again Eris waved away his words dismissively. “Books. Boring. You could ask me; after all, I’m one of the most powerful beings in the world.” This time it was Thiemo who had to chuckle. Without any doubt this creature could use magic, but nothing she had done was able to really impress him so far.

“Excuse me, but the last one I heard saying that is probably still sulking inside the changeling lair. And I escaped without the help of any magic.” Eris descended from the ceiling and elegantly landed on her two legs, meaning that Thiemo was right in his speculation that she was bipedal, just like him. It became a habit for him to examine every new creature he met. Again, this was something he had learned from Zarni and it has saved his ass more than once.

Eris leaned forward until she could look him in the eyes. In full height she was at least two heads taller than Thiemo. “You want a proof? Catch!” He kept his eyes on what she threw in the air and was flabbergasted when his forehooves made contact with the object. He sat down on his flank and inspected what he just had caught. It was a blue ball of water with a few green patches. Then he looked at the latter a bit more carefully. America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia. He knew these patches, how could he not when they had been printed on every globe on Earth.

“Earth!” Nervously, he tilted the ball between his hooves. “That’s Earth! That’s my home world!” Aura, who was trapped between the ball and her father by now, tried to move the former further away from her to get a glimpse at it as well. In the end she pushed so hard that Thiemo couldn’t hold it any longer and it rolled down the hallway. “How do you know my planet?”

“Oh I’ve been there a few times over the years,” she said, waving a claw airily, seemingly oblivious to the shocked looks he was sending her way. “Truly a quite boring place. But I think that should show you that I don’t stand for any nonsense. Nonsense.” Again she laughed. “What is the point in making sense anyways?” Meanwhile, Thiemo was flabbergasted. He couldn’t believe someone here had knowledge about Earth. In the best case he had hoped that there, in some celestial map, he could find it or there was a spell to send him home, wherever that may be. But right now he had a creature that had been there! A slight cough interrupted his thoughts. “Very well then. May I get your names as well?”

“My name is Thiemo, this is my daughter Aura, and that over there is Princess Amaryllis.” Eris examined each of them briefly as he introduced them.

“Well, Thiemo,” she turned towards him again. “Much to my chagrin, I have to say that I’m terribly bored at the moment. Especially since you decided to not play along in my last game,” she stressed the last part for emphasis. He wanted to retort something along the lines of just where she could stick her games, but her claw came around his muzzle and tightened itself, preventing him from doing so. “We both know that this is unacceptable, right?” With a little force she made him nod his head. “I’m glad we are on the same level here.” She let go of his muzzle once again. “So, we need a new game and I just happen to have an idea for that.”

“And if we don’t want to play your game?” He immediately felt the desire to punch himself for asking the question as soon as he heard himself say it.

“Weeeeeell, unlike you I am welcome here,” she reproached him in a singsong voice. “I’m sure some guards are just around the corner.” Oh, he just had to ask. “So, here’s the plan. If you win, I’ll teach you something about magic. That’s what you’re here for, right?” Thiemo nodded reluctantly. “Great, here are the rules. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too bad.” Somehow he doubted that. “We will all have fun together.”

“All?” he asked, confused.

“Yes, the three of you. Either all of you play or no one does. And really, what would be the fun in that? Can I explain the rules now?” Thiemo remained silent and the only sound came from Amaryllis, who was still trying to free her snout frantically. “So… outside in the garden is a giant maze. I want you to go inside there and look for five amulets and a crown. There will be a few ponies trying to guard their worthless trinkets. Shouldn’t be much of a problem for you, right?” Thiemo considered it. Should he go into a maze in search for six artefacts for Eris? Why does this sound so familiar? At least it was just a maze inside a castle courtyard. Probably only built as decoration not to be used as one. And ponies? That shouldn’t be much of a problem. “Deal?” Eris reached out her paw.

“Deal.” Thiemo reached up and shook the creature’s paw and at that same moment he noticed his field of view changing. Confused, he looked towards Amaryllis, who had watching the whole scene so far and noticed that there was hint of red on her cheeks and she had shifted her gaze away from him.

“I must say, you humans are fascinating beings.” Thiemo followed Eris’ gaze and only now he noticed that he had no more fur on his skin. Quickly, he rushed over to Amaryllis to open the backpack and began pulling out his clothes hurriedly. “You can do this in the garden as well.” She clapped her paw and claw together. “I hope you’ll enjoy your time.” She chuckled to herself and with a final spark, the scenery in front of Thiemo’s eyes changed and only Eris remained in the hallway. “Time for my big appearance.” She grinned and flew off.

Twilight sat on her throne, listening to the words of a pony named Coin as he droned on boringly. Apparently, he owned a small chain of shops in Canterlot and Manehatten. “And that is why I am bid you, my majesty, to lower import and export taxes. Despite the close distance to the griffon kingdom, we can’t take any advantages out of it.”

Her eyes once again skimmed through the documents Coin had presented her. There were numerous tables with detailed calculations showing the effects of a tax reduction for his business and Equestria. “Well, Mr. Coin, this does good look on paper…” She pulled out a second sheet of paper, a file about her visitor. According to this, it was not the first time he came here to ask to lower the taxes. “… but have you ever tried looking beyond your own purse?”

“Of course, princess! As you can see, there are prognoses on the impact of lower prices for the population.” The stallion took a few desperate steps forward, but got stopped shortly by the two guards at the foot of Twilight’s throne.

“And how do you plan on stopping the smuggling?” Coin blinked a few times. “What do you think we are using the taxes for? The borders are large, Mr. Coin. What would stop a group of smugglers to elude the border post to bring their goods into this country? The guards who are getting paid by the taxes you want to lower. As Princess Celestia and Luna have told you numerous times, this is not possible. Furthermore, I am only their substitute and do not plan on acting against their will. Therefore, your application is denied.”

She let the paper with the calculations fly back to the stallion who grabbed them out of the air with his wings. “This is not the last thing I have to say in regards to this cause. I will show this to the parliament.” With that, he turned around on his heels and marched with his head held high out of the room.

As soon as the door had closed, Twilight breathed out in relief. “I hate it when it has to be so formal.” One of her guards giggled. At least, until he turned around and noticed Twilight’s look, causing him to quickly spin around again.

“Pardon me, my princess,” he stammered shortly after.

“What was so funny?” Twilight was not mad. It was nice to see that behind their stoic faces and all this metal, they were just ponies.

“Well, Princess Celestia often said something similar. Especially on a long day like today.” Twilight giggled as well at the thought. But her guard was right. Even if it was just shortly after lunch, she felt like she could drop straight into her bed again. The excitement with Eris earlier today didn’t just exhaust her, but many of the Royal Guard as well. She had to think of a solution for this problem. She would send a letter to Celestia or Luna, but they had explicitly told her that they did not want to be disturbed during the negotiations in Ib’xian with the Capricorns. The situation there was complicated enough already.

At that moment the two doors of the throne room swung open again. To Twilight’s delight, it was not another applicant but her two friends Rarity and Fluttershy. “Hello Darling. I hope we are not too late?”

“Oh, if we are late, it is my fault. I met Rarity on the way and…” Fluttershy explained faintly.

“Oh don’t worry, my dear. If it was as important as the note made it sound, Twilight would no longer sit idly by.” Her friends came to a halt in front of the throne. “What is so important, Twilight? I was in the act of creating a new design and Fluttershy flew all the way up here from Ponyville, the poor dear.”

Before Twilight could even ask what the two of them were talking about, they got interrupted by another voice. “LOOK OUT BELOW!” Rainbow Dash flew in through one of the (luckily) open windows. She tried to slow down her, as always, way too fast descent by taking a turn at a pillar, but it only ended in a crash landing on the long red carpet that had rolled up in front of her. Rarity and Fluttershy, as well as the two guards, managed to jump aside in time before Rainbow came to halt at the foot of the throne. She shook her head and jumped up on her hooves. “So, where’s the danger? Did a manticore escape a circus? Is the city falling of the mountain?” She gasped nervously. “Did Chrysalis or Sombra return?”

“Easy there, Rainbow.” Everybody looked at Applejack in surprise, who had just trotted in through a door on the left of the throne. “Twilight will sure as sugar tell us why I couldn’t finish baking my pie.” That she had been in the act of doing just that was clear. The remains of the batter were stuck to her muzzle and hooves. Then Twilight noticed that Applejack was staring at her, just like the others.

“Huh, what?” She said, mildly confused. “I did not call for you. I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“About that, silly filly.” Twilight screeched shortly as a pink hoof, wielding an invitation, waved in front of her face.

“Pinkie Pie! How many times do I have to tell you to not startle me like that?” Said pony was bouncing down from the large backrest of the throne where she had just appeared. Twilight had stopped trying to question this ability of hers a long while ago and just grabbed the invitation with her magic. “Hello Pinkie! I hereby invite you to a The-Afternoon-Is-Boring Party. Regards, Twilight.” She looked on the backside. It was empty. “I never wrote anything like this!” She did had a suspicious feeling as to who it might have been.

Just as she was on the edge on speaking it out the door to the throne room opened again, only this time distinctly more forceful, so strong that the door slammed against the wall, causing cracks to appear around it. From the other side a draconequus tumbled inside. “Oh no, it is horrible! A disaster, so to say!” she declared in a dramatic tone and hold her claw and paw to her chest. “Unspeakable!”

Fluttershy immediately flew over to her friend. “Eris, oh my, are you alright?” She took her paw to the side and a thick, red fluid dropped on the floor. Everypony in the room gasped in fright while Fluttershy quickly hid beneath the nearest pillar.

“Eris, what happened?” Twilight wanted to know, completely forgetting all her previous worries about a possible prank.

“A monster! In the garden! In the maze!” she explained and spun around on one leg before a very well-known couch appeared out of the thin air where she promptly dropped heavily on.

“A monster?” Rainbow was next to her in an instant. “Show me where it is and I’ll make mush out of it!” Her rear legs kicked into the air a few times.

“This is no regular monster. It’s a human!” Another gasp went through the ponies. “Accompanied by a changeling!” Another gasp could be heard. “And they have taken a foal as hostage!”

The gasp found its apex and Rarity dramatically lifted her forehoof to her forehead and struck a pose that seemed to radiate despair and woe. “The poor thing! It must be scared to death.” At that moment Fluttershy came back from behind the pillar, holding a large red bag in her mouth. She put it down next to Eris and began picking out various materials to dress wounds.

“A human? That’s terrible,” Applejack mumbled to Pinkie.

“Yeah! A Meany MacMeanypants human,” she agreed.

“’scuse me,” Rainbow threw in. “What’s a human?”

Pinkie grabbed Rainbow’s face and pulled her closer. Her eyes widened as she shouted, “You don’t know that? Humans are evil monsters that eat ponies. But even worse! They don’t like parties. NO PARTIES!” Rainbow looked over to Applejack who gave a curt nod as response.

“That is not all, Rainbow.” Twilight descended from her throne. “Humans are downright cruel. They torture, murder and plunder. All that only for their own amusement. Do you know the story of the headless horse?” Her friends nodded. “Do you know why he is headless?” Rainbow thought about it for a moment but shook her head. “Legends say that he was a general who served under Princess Luna, sent out to protect a village from plundering humans. Supposedly, he was killed by the leader of the humans that day. This human took, as proof of his victory, the head of the general with him and since that day he was wandering around Equestria, searching for what is his to finally find peace.” Twilight noticed Fluttershy’s trembling and that she had dropped the bandage she had prepared for Eris. “Of course this is just a legend. But unlike griffons, humans have no limitations when it comes to barbarity. They are extremely dangerous and not welcome here in Equestria.”

Suddenly AJ stomped her hoof on the ground. “I knew I heard this story before. Lyra!” Everyone stared at the orange mare. “You know, that one unicorn that’s sitting in the park all day, playing music to earn some bits.” The group thought for a moment before nodding. “She told me once she would be studying humans. But why would you want to study such nasty things?”

“We can’t care about that now, Applejack.” Something else was more important now and Twilight knew it. “We can’t allow a human to run around freely, even in the maze. We have to go there and catch him!”

“You will need the Elements for that,” Eris piped up from the couch.

“What? For a human? Even if they are as terrible as you all say, a few kicks and blows and he will wish that he never came here in the first place.” Again Rainbow performed a few kicks in the air.

“Ummm, hello! He injured me of all beings because they are immune against magic. Only the Elements can do something against him.” Twilight gave an approving nod.

“Then let’s go get them and…” Eris snapped her claws and the box with the amulets and the crown promptly appeared in Twilight’s hoofs. “That works too.” She opened the box with her magic and passed around the magical artefacts to the according pony. “Eris, can you teleport us down to the maze where you last saw him?”

Fluttershy coughed and panted. “Uhm… I would rather stay with…” Before Fluttershy could even make a step, Twilight pulled her back into the group.

“We need you, Fluttershy. Eris is strong, she can help herself. And it won’t take very long. We just go in, use the Elements once and we are done. Everything’s going to be alright, I promise.” Fluttershy gave a barely noticeable nod and got back into her spot. “Guards! Call the other units to the maze.” The two guards saluted and galloped out of the room. “So, Eris, can you teleport us now?”

Eris nodded. “Sure, everything to help.” She snapped once more and the world before Twilight’s eyes disappeared.

Eris looked at the slightly scorched ground where only a few seconds ago her friends had stood. Then she laughed. “That went better than planned.” She holds her sides in laughter and accidently touched the red liquid. Quickly, she pulled back her claw and looked at it for a moment before licking it clean. “Yummy, Ketchup!”

“Eris!” And there was Twilight Sparkle’s scream from the depths of the maze as soon as she had realized that not everything went according to plan. Now she just needed a good spot and enjoy the show that was about to start.

Author's Notes:

So, it is Thiemo, Amaryllis and Aura VS the Mane 6. Epic battle music anybody?

Special thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
And as you know it, also thanks to JBL for proofreading, editing, etc.