Thiemo sat in his chair in the large double room that he and Amaryllis had been assigned, surveying the large pile of paper he had been assigned to translate. The problem had to do with the small fact that he could hardly write the ponies’ language, let alone with quill and ink. It also got complicated by the occasional sneeze that would escape him and shake his body, causing him to spill ink several times on the paper, rendering his miniscule efforts worthless. The reading aspect took a little while, but if the words were already arranged in the right order, it rendered things easier to decrypt.

Another problem was that sometimes he got the words out of context, just like when he had begun to learn how to read and speak French. It had begun with him picking up a book with simple words and their translations. Even with only the little French from school, he had managed to understand most of it and slowly but steady, with every book, the language got clearer to him. Today he could say that he could speak it like a second native language. Or at least he could a few years ago.

Still, with a lot of effort and some help from Amaryllis, he had finished one page in two days. Of course, his source of help had proven to be another problem. Amaryllis. Yes, he liked her, despite her being an alien; he could see himself getting to know her better. The thing was that they only had known each other for less than two months, and a kiss was not much to simply dive into a relationship. Well, at least not for him. On Earth, Thiemo had had his fair share of girlfriends as life was wont to provide. Even on Albion she would not be his first one. That title belonged to Deerling. Soon after their relationship had begun, however, she had told him of her decision not to follow him, along with something about how he was not ready.

What she had meant when she said that was something he had figured out himself in the dungeons recently. He hadn’t reacted as strongly as with Amy back then, but she had felt it. The denial that dwelled deep within him, the self-hatred, the queasiness at the idea of being intimate with another species. Interspecies relations were perfectly normal on Albion, judging from some of the couples he had seen, but humanity hadn’t reached that far in their thinking. Hell, not only did many societies have problems with people of one race being in relationships with someone of another, there were also those who disapproved of those who sought companionship with those of the same gender. Not that Thiemo had anything against homosexuals. Some of his friends were gay; some were even in relationships, bringing their partners with them to parties and such. Just like every other couple when they were drunk, they weren’t above openly showing their affection to each other. Instead of feeling disgusted, he had been happy for them.

Even if he told Amy he could look past that, he needed time. His conundrum wasn’t helped by the fact that she didn’t need any time. All that led to him now trying to figure out, while staring at the relatively simple texts on the wooden desk, how he could tell her that things were moving a bit too fast. She was not very subtle in this way either. She had gotten clingier, knotted their tails together, and was basically by his side all the time. To top it all off, she had asked the escort, who brought them to their room, what the second bed would be for. Luckily, the guards stayed professional and had said it was standard for these rooms.

Thiemo didn’t need long to figure out that they weren’t stationed in an ordinary guest room. For one, he had noticed that the service rooms were very close. This part of the castle had also appeared to be remarkably empty. He had spent most of the first day eavesdropping at the door, but, except the change of guards, nothing happened. Finally, there was the magical seal in the hallway. They would have never put something like that in the open where it would have just disturbed the usual traffic within a castle. The room had no windows, but it was an easy price to pay considering the massive upgrade from their damp cell. They even had a small bathroom with a shower which they made a good use of.

With a sigh, Thiemo snapped back into reality and tapped the quill against the paper. The ponies had given him a simple list with names of different medicines and tools. For whatever reason, they wanted it to be translated. He began the slow process of writing down the translated word for bandages as the door opened, and a maid with a trolley full of fruits entered the room. “I’m here with your dinner.” Much to Thiemo’s amusement, all female personal wore the proper attire - a black skirt with white frills and apron. The one who brought lunch even wore a bonnet.

“Thanks. Just put it over there.” Thiemo blinked from the change of light from the door to the hallway. “And could you ask your boss for more candles?” They had apparently figured out that it was a bad idea to let him get him anywhere near crystals, even if they were just for brightening the room. Even though the guards had looked so lax, they seemed to have planned everything out pretty well for him.

That brought his mind back to Amy; the situation with her was anything but well planned out. He didn’t like to admit it, but he could really use someone with some experience in the subject of dating someone outside your species. Billy would surely have a word or two to say, maybe even his brother, Sheriff Sourpuss Dusk Star. Only he doubted he would ever let him speak a single word. The maid closed the door behind her, and Thiemo heard the two guards locking the door again.

Exhausted, he rose from his chair and straightened his skirt. That was the best name he could come up with for his new piece of clothing. It reached down to his knees and at least covered most of his body parts. Together with the bathrobe and the socks, he was feeling comfortably warm. He took one of the apples from the trolley and took a contented bite out of it. They were good, very good. Another positive to come from their move was that the food didn’t seem to be leftovers and dinner scrapings. A yawn drew his attention towards Amaryllis who was moving a little on her bed and seemed to be awake now. She hadn’t been interrogated since they came here. “Hey,” she said tiredly and curled herself in the sheets she had knocked away while asleep.

“Hey.” Yep, this definitely wouldn’t be strange in the future. Before any of them could say anything else, someone knocked on the door and it opened immediately, demonstrating again just how much their privacy was valued here. Instead of a maid, Lyra or Captain Estoc, a strangely familiar orange mare entered the room. Her blond mane, ironically tied together into a ponytail, was covered by a Stetson. Thiemo usually didn’t care much about cutie marks, but since he just held an apple in his hand, it stuck out to him. Three red apples adorned her flank.

“Howdy!” she greeted them friendly enough. “I was just hoping you had a moment of time for me.” Thiemo, having an accent of his own, couldn’t get around noticing hers. She shuffled the words a bit, almost like a slang. It reminded him closely to what the Texans did with English.

She nodded at the two guards who followed her into the room, and the door closed again. “Umm…sure, not like I’m going to be going anywhere soon,” he said dryly. “Just one question: do I know you?” Something was familiar about her, but he couldn’t put his finger on precisely what it was. Her coat reminded him of Aura, even though it was a bit brighter. “Achoo!” he sneezed, sniffling afterwards.

“Gesundheit. Mah name’s Applejack. Ah was one of the ponies in the maze, but we only met briefly.” Thiemo thought about it for a moment, but he couldn’t remember her at all.

“Sure, if you say so. I’m Thiemo and that’s Amaryllis,” he introduced himself and the changeling on the bed. She had rolled on her stomach and watched the scene from aside. Applejack shortly nodded towards her but didn’t pay her much attention.

“Ah want to make it short. It’s ‘bout Auralia.” Thiemo rolled his eyes. So she had told them her whole name. Somehow he had hoped she would keep it a secret, but what was done was done. He was certain she had told them more than that during all this time.

However, that could wait. “Is she alright?” he asked, folding his arms. Of course the ponies would treat her well, but he was still worried. After all, he hadn’t heard anything from her for days. All Lyra could tell him during their last talk was that she hadn’t met Aura so far and didn’t even know who she was.

“She’s fine; she’s with mah brother right now.” Thiemo was happy to hear that and nodded. “Ah came here to thank ya for caring about her and bringing her back to us. She told us a lot. What you have done, where you have been on your way here. How you’ve all met.” Thiemo said nothing about that. It was a sad memory, thinking about the gaunt, almost starved little filly. “Err…Twilight is searching for a spell, but we’re almost certain that she’s family. The Apple clan is large, yet we have a lot in common. Also…her name. I suggested it to her mother. Making me one of her many aunts. So…thanks for that. Thanks in the name of the Apple family. If the circumstances had been different, I would have invited you to our farm, but now….” Her voice tapered off, the uncertainty of the fate of the human standing before her causing her to hesitate what to say next.

“It is how it is.” Thiemo noticed how his voice had begun to sound hoarse, causing him to swallow. If it was true what this pony was saying, Aura belonged to a huge family. That was what he had always wanted for her. At the same time…this would mean the end of their time together. He would have to pull himself together, for now at least.

“She’s been asking for you for days now, and after all what happened, I don’t want to stop her from seeing you.” She turned away slightly from his gaze, steeling herself for what she was going to say, yet knowing there was little she could do to soften the blow. “I just want to ask you to not to make it any harder than it already is. Ah know what you mean to her, and I think I know what she means to you. But she belongs to us ponies, not a human. I…I hope you understand,” she struggled to get out, desperately trying to keep her eyes locked with the human, hoping he could see the sincerity, the compassion, the sympathy she had for him. Right now it didn’t matter that he was a human, it didn’t matter that he was in cahoots with a changeling, it didn’t matter that he had tried to steal her friends and even her own Element of Harmony. Right now, she was practically ripping Aura away from a parent, a parent who she could genuinely see cared for the filly, and it left her feeling guilty, ashamed and a host of other feelings wrapping themselves coldly around her. The fact that she was experiencing all these emotions and would still take Aura away left a bad taste in her mouth.

“When I found her on Dragmire, Equestria was far down on my priority list. The island was a terminal for…many things, information and knowledge being only a small part of it,” he replied dully, his voice sounding far away. “We stayed for a while…everything went how I wanted it to…then everything collapsed. I realized how dangerous it was. We left the island behind us and headed straight towards Canterlot. I knew there was a large library here. It was nice pretext. After all the stories I heard about humans, I knew how welcome I would be here.” Thiemo tried smiling, but the rending of his heart made his attempt look feeble. He looked down at the pony in front of him, wishing he could feel the mood to smack her, throttle her, scream at her. All he felt was the familiar hands of exhaustion grip him once again, sapping away all his energy. “Things you do for family.”

Applejack nodded at him, either not noticing his look or pretending not to. “We’re coming to visit you tomorrow afternoon,” she softly said, turning around. The guards opened the door for her, and then the room fell silent. Thiemo sat next to Amy on the bed and put a hand on her back, leaning on her slightly. She said nothing, just wrapped her tail around his. It was a nice touch. She was there for him, and it was moments like these that assured him that time was all he needed. Or at least that was what he desperately wanted to believe.

His vision began to blur, and hot tears began to streak down his face. He welcomed them.

Estoc, Captain of the Royal Guard, loved the time he spent in the castles gardens before the start of work. It didn’t matter whether it was spring, summer, autumn or winter, every season brought new advantages with it. The upcoming winter brought silence. It was a time he used to contemplate, his mind drifting to why he had chosen this life.

Well, he had just followed his brothers who had all served in the Royal Guard. But now he was the higher rank, something he rubbed in their muzzles every now and again. Estoc remembered exactly how Captain Shining Armor, now out of service, had come to him with a mug of cider and announced that he got promoted. Shortly after, he had announced his engagement with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and the upcoming wedding.

Estoc had had to go through his own baptism of fire. The battle for Canterlot was a period of time that nobody who had served would ever forget. He could still remember the faces around him, the nervousness, the horror, the anticipation as the barrier was breached and hordes of changelings invaded the city. The Royal Guard had held their ground, fighting bravely to the last stallion, but had still been annihilated. Everypony who hadn’t surrendered or were unable to fight due to their wounds were nothing more than a name in a memorial plaque now.

The same thing counted for civilians. No matter if they were young or old, mare or stallion, whoever had made a stand had died. Estoc had never surrendered and he had paid a price for it. The scar was on his chest, nowadays covered by his armor; he showed to everypony who doubted it. The siege of the city had lasted for a week until Princess Twilight Sparkle, though not a princess back then, had managed to escape with Princess Cadenza from their prison deep below the city, freeing the captain and started the counterattack.

It was a moment he could remember even now as he entered the maze. A shield had rushed through the city like a cleansing fire, crushing every changeling who stood in the wrong spot and threw the others far away. The battered Royal Guard had used the moment and grabbed their weapons to put the remaining changeling to flight. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had managed to escape out of the cocoons they had been trapped in and recovered quickly. Princess Celestia herself had clashed with the leader of the changelings, a certain Queen Chrysalis, but was narrowly defeated. Moving the sun and the wedding preparations had weakened her, otherwise it would have never had come that far. Princess Luna had been ambushed in her sleep. She was the wilder one of the royal sisters, and if she had been awake, the changelings wouldn’t have held the city for even a minute. She was known to be virtuoso with the sword, even training her Nightguard personally.

Once again, Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Bearers had shown them how vital they were for the protection of Equestria. Well, every now and then and mostly for extreme emergencies. They had demonstrated their importance once again with this situation as, in the Circle of the Ten, she had stood against a human, battling next to the statues of important ponies like Star Swirl, Spell Shield and Nightmare Moon.

His thoughts momentarily shifted to that last pony, a small frown on his face. Even though the latter had been an enemy, she was the main reason Canterlot existed. Without her, he couldn’t begin to imagine how the country would be without her influence. Princess Luna had no less ambition for the kingdom than her evil match.

Among all his experiences, there was only one thing he regretted. Many of his comrades had families they visited during the weekend. Maybe he would meet a fine mare someday too. Maybe when all this chaos with the human was over.

He took another turn and saw the rising sun. He should head back and call the roll soon. It was something he loved to do, since he found a degree of sadistic pleasure watching new cadets falling out of their beds. He sped up his steps as he followed the way. Perhaps he should have paid attention to where he was going instead of watching the sky as something made contact with his face a moment later, and everything turned black. “What in Celestia’s name?” Estoc quickly reached for his attacker with his magic and freed his muzzle from what looked like to be the page of some magazine. He examined the page and quickly noticed from what kind of magazine it obviously came from. A mare in saucy clothes and a riding crop in her snout were a clear sign. “If I catch the cadet who leaves his ordure out here, he or she is in for cleaning the latrines with a toothbrush for a week.” Estoc levitated the sheet aside and saw that many more of them hung in the hedge in front of him or flapped around. With a sigh, he collected all he could find on his way.

Five minutes later, he had a considerable collection of destroyed pornographic magazines by his side. It had to be at least ten magazines once. A bit curious, he looked at one of the coversheets. “That thing is older than my mother!” Now with the image that the mare on the cover could be his grandmother stuck to his mind, he shot a disgusted grimace.

“Oh! I see I am not the only one who found something here.” A reflex from his years as a teenager made him hide the saucy magazines behind his back as he turned around to the voice. It belongs to Lady Rarity, who levitated a bag of rags next to her.

“Well uh…” Estoc didn’t know what to do now. He didn’t want to be found with such filth by a fine and beautiful lady. “What have you found, Lady Rarity?”

She walked over to him and levitated the bag between them before opening it. “A toothbrush, a bottle of cheap shampoo and some weird artificial entities. I believe the human has lost them in the maze.” Estoc signalled his agreement to her observation with a nod. It was strange that there were only two toothbrushes, but the human traveled with two more companions. But that was something for Miss Lyra.

“I will take these things and have them examined. Maybe Miss Lyra can tell us what kind of purposes these…” he levitated one of the objects out of the bag “… burned plates serve.”

“Well, I am not an expert, but I doubt they are supposed to be burnt. Looks like they are damaged.” Lady Rarity had a good eye. “But now show me what you have found, Captain.” She tried looking behind his back, but Estoc managed to hide the magazines quite well. “Oh, come on Captain.” She used her magic and caught Estoc on the wrong hoof. Through her surprising action, he lost his grip on the destroy magazines and the wind took them back into its control, blowing them into all directions. Alarmed, he saw Lady Rarity pulling one of the pages over to her. “Oh…” Her voice dropped into a note of indignation.

“It’s not what it looks like! I’ve just—”

“This collection is so out of date. One would think a Captain of the Royal Guard could afford some newer magazines.” Estoc could only blink in confusion.

“It’s hopeless!” Frustrated, Twilight closed another book and levitated it onto the quickly growing pile next to the table she was sitting at, the tenth or eleventh pile of this kind.

At the moment, she was sitting in the bowels of the archives of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, skimming through one book after the other, searching for the right spell. This was already her second station. She went through all the archives in the castle and through her private collection in Ponyville. But apparently it happened so rarely that a foal had to prove its lineage that no such spell existed.

She was close to writing another letter to her mother, but she hadn’t replied to her last one yet. It was something she could understand; she was busy with the negotiations. “Do you need anything, Princess?”

One of her guards opened the door every few hours, asking if she needed refreshments or something else. “No thanks, Spear. I’m alright.” The guard nodded and closed the door to the archives again. Twilight sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was late morning and she had wanted to be back in the castle hours ago. She wanted to finish her research here first before she did that, however. She knew how much it meant to Applejack on her whole family. After all the years of friendship and aid, this was the least she could do. All she had to do was find this stupid spell. Maybe she should have accepted the help of director Silver Script, but the poor mare was pregnant with her third foal and needed some rest.

“Twilight,” she could hear a voice whisper. She looked around and then shrugged. She was tired and probably just imagined that. “Twilight.”

“Spear?” No, the voice was too high for that. “Whoever you are, show yourself!” Twilight stood up from her spot and looked around. Shelf after shelf stood in the large room, illuminated by the morning sun shining through the windows.

“Twiiiiiiiilight….” The voice grew louder but distorted her name weirdly, stretching it out like butter over too much bread, one moment sounding faint and then sounding almost nearby. She had an idea who that could be.

“Rainbow, that’s not funny. Come on, where are you?” She went around between the windows and bookshelves, searching in the shadows for the pegasus who probably had a gleeful grin on her face by now. Maybe this was one of hers and Eris’ pranks.

“Twilight,” the voice came from the opposite direction this time, eliminating her last doubts. Only Rainbow Dash was fast enough to move through the entire archive in a few seconds. Since that was out of the way, Twilight moved back to her desk. Almost two hundred books were still waiting for her. She sat down on the cushion and opened the book with the unusual title - Unusual Spells with Unlikely Results - and began to read.

“Twilight!” Startled, she dropped the book to the ground and looked around. With a hoof on her chest instinctively trying to soothe her rapidly beating heart, she saw Pinkie Pie sitting next to her.

“Pinkie! How often do I have to tell you to stop scaring me like that! You are going to give a heart attack one day.” She glared at her friend with annoyance.

Pinkie only giggled. “You’re an alicorn, silly. You can’t get a heart attack.” Twilight took a deep breath, a lesson she had learned over time to calm herself down.

“That’s not the point! What are you even doing here? We all thought you were back in Ponyville.” Again, her friend giggled and waved it off.

“What do you think? The same thing you’re here for. I’m searching for the spell you and Applejack need.”

“Since you’ve disappeared?”

“Uhu.”

“Pinkie, that was one day before I even knew I would need it.” Pinkie only blinked, just like her little alligator did. “Doesn’t matter.” Twilight levitated the book back on the table and continued reading again.

“Twilight…”

“What?”

“I found it,” she declared proudly.

Now it was Twilight’s turn to blink. “What? Where?” Pinkie pulled a book out from behind her back and placed it on the table. “Thousand and one Party tricks. How to enchant your guests.” Twilight read the title. “Pinkie, these are tricks, not magic. That’s Trixie’s area of…expertise.” She turned the book around and quickly read its back. “Where did you even get that? I doubt they stored something like this in the archives for advanced magic.”

“Oh, there was a room with a lot of things. Books, homework, gold, socks, and much more.” Twilight nodded absently, shrugging it off as Pinkie’s usual gibberish. “There was a strange toilet with an old human with a long beard offering me a lemon drop. He wore some weird pointed hat like Trixie and his nose looked like it had been broken several times.” Twilight nodded again and looked through the first page of the book. Just as she expected, it contained a bunch of small spells for a party, like pulling a bunny out of a hat. “Anyways, I told him about our problem and he gave me this book out of a pile of other books. Then I was looking for you, but each time the exit was in a different spot until it was finally behind you.” Twilight looked around but only saw the wall with the windows behind her.

“Sure, Pinkie.” She flipped through a few more pages and stopped. “Family entertainment? The best spells for family reunions,” she read the title of the chapter. Quickly, she flipped through the pages and stopped at a page where multiple ponies glowed in the same color, or at least that was how the illustration seemed to indicate. According to the instructions, the closer the ponies were related, the brighter the family members glowed.” Twilight dropped the book and grabbed Pinkie’s face with both her forelegs. “This is exactly what we need!”

“Duh, that’s what I said. Does nopony ever listen to me?”

Author's Notes:

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter,
and also thanks to JBL for proofreading, editing, etc.