“Rarity, you still surprise me,” Estoc praised the white mare. “How did you manage to do that?” Twilight and the rest of the little group sat in an old cart that was pulled through the air by two pegasi.

“That was easy, darling. Sunny Town has to bring the wood to the sawmill somehow. I just told a worker of our unpleasant situation, and he agreed to leave us one of the carts. Since nopony would show up at work regardless, it will not be missed. Fortune was on my side on my way back when I met these two gentlecolts.” She pointed with a hoof at the two pegasi who pulled their cart through the air. Rarity had introduced them as Storm Cloud and Hopper. Both were young and seemed to be fresh out of the school from Cloudsdale. Probably as reinforcement for the local weather team of Sunny Town. “Of course, they were very eager to help a lady in need.” They seemed a lot less happy to Twilight, and she guessed that the word ‘Element’ had been dropped more than once if she knew Rarity the way she did.

“Okay, Ah agree that your way helped us this time,” Applejack said. This was the closest thing to praise Rarity would get from her in this case. “But ya shouldn’t wave the Elements around like they’re some kind of trophy.”

“Says the pony with a trophy wall in the barn,” Rarity replied snappishly and wrinkled her nose. “But you should now that I do not like it to use the Elements in this way. I am very well known for my fashion and not for having a stone nicely worn around my neck. Not like I have anything against it though. After all, the element perfectly suits my natural grazie. The fine workmanship that went into the gold, the regally cut jewel….” Twilight and Applejack both rolled her eyes as their friend drifted off in her own little world.

“If we keep this speed, we should reach the mountains soon,” Estoc, who had rolled out the map on the ground, said. “We have made a day’s travel in just a few hours then.”

“Did you hear the old guy? We! It was us who did it.” Hopper nodded in agreement at his friend. “Why can’t a Bearer and a Royal Guard take a chariot from the castle if they are on a mission?”

Twilight saw Estoc biting his lip. She knew that most of the resources were either used to secure the coasts or to search for the human. It wasn’t like they could have taken one even if they wanted to.

“Did I mention that this is an undercover mission?” Rarity spoke up. “Nopony is allowed to know that we are here. If somepony were to ask the princesses, they would deny everything.”

The two pegasi looked at each other and grinned. “Awesome, we’re on a secret mission!” They slammed their forehooves together which caused a slight jolt through the cart. “’Scuse us.”

The next hour of the journey passed by quietly for the group. For one, they didn’t want to disturb their drivers from their duties more than they already had, but mainly because everything that needed to be said was already said.

Rarity and Estoc were snuggling against each other a bit, just like Applejack and Auralia did. Twilight, on the other hoof, was nearly immune to the cold in this height. Cold winds blew through her mane, but for her, it was nothing more than a soft draft that seeped underneath a warm blanket. More annoying than unpleasant.

Unfortunately, the lull in activity caused her mind to wander to their conversation in the pub in Sunny Town. Were her mother and aunt tied into the events of the human Thiemo? Did they know of his escape plan, or even worse, help him with it? Wouldn’t that mean that she was acting against her mother’s will? A look at the little filly that was making herself comfortable in her friend’s forelegs made her get rid of that thought. She wasn’t doing this just for herself. Applejack and Auralia both had a right to talk to the human. Surely he knew more than he had admitted, maybe even something about Auralia’s origin. Twilight didn’t want to tell Applejack, but even though the spell had clearly shown that she was Applejack’s daughter, the results of her spell and some long nights of research were also pointing clearly towards something that she had tried to avoid thinking about.

This Auralia was not the Auralia that had disappeared.

“Umm, Miss… umm… we have a problem.” Twilight looked up from the floor and looked past Hopper, who had called for her. In front of them was the Chain, but also a large, black cloud bank. “We were taught that it’s not a good idea to fly in the mountains, especially not during bad weather.”

Estoc stepped next to her at the front of the cart. “Maybe we should land and go the rest of the way on hoof?” Twilight nodded, but it was already too late. A strong blow caught the flying wooden vehicle and violently shook everypony inside. Applejack held her hat with one hoof and Auralia with the other. Rarity, meanwhile, was less lucky. She was thrown over the edge and thrashed around while letting out a loud scream. Both Estoc and Twilight grabbed for her hooves and caught her just in time. “Hold on tight, Rarity…” Estoc groaned as he leaned far out of the cart.

“I got you, Rarity,” Twilight said as she engulfed her friend in her magic. The captain and the princess pulled with all their force and slowly lifted her back into safety. They all three fell down into the cart and breathed heavily.

“Thanks, my dears, I was thinking that….” Again the position of the cart changed, this time straight downwards.

Twilight spun around immediately to see that Storm Cloud hung lifeless at the cart. “Cloud got hit by something at the head! I can’t keep us up!” Hopper shouted, panic evident in his voice while his wings were beating asynchronously. Without blinking an eye, Twilight jumped out of the cart into the air and with a short blink of her horn, she unfolded her wings. The first thing she noticed in her new position was that they were already halfway down to the ground. Hopper’s eyes widened as he saw her, but that was last thing she was worrying about. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the cart and its valuable cargo. Slowly but steadily, her purple aura formed around he improvised chariot and began to slow it down.

“Land the thing, Hopper, I can’t keep it up forever!” She expected that he was nodding since he made no sound, but she felt that the weight got lighter as his wings found their rhythm again. Twilight slowly opened her eyes. The cart, now stabilized, was now steadily on its way down. “What was that? Were we hit by a storm?” She saw some blood running down Storm Clouds head.

Hopper looked around quickly. “I think it was hail.” Right on cue, some small balls of ice began to rain down. This time, it was Rarity who reacted as she put up a magical umbrella over the cart.

“Twilight, darling! You have to protect yourself!” she shouted to her.

“I can’t,” she grunted. “I gave everything to keep us in the air.” Her wings were burning from the unusual effort. She was no Rainbow Dash and rarely flew faster than she had to or was carrying weights. Then something big hit her in the back, and for a moment, she lost her grip on the cart. “Everything’s alright; this was just a big one.” They were only a bit over a hundred meters over the ground. They would make it soon. The wind made them drift off further than she had expected. Underneath them was no longer the foot of the mountain, but already the start of the pass itself. “I’ll bring us down now.”

Her statement was followed by another hailstone that hit her right between the wings this time. She flinched again as she was hit at the back of her head. This time, it was enough for her to lose her concentration. The cart slipped out of her grip. For a few seconds, it seemed like Hopper could hold them, but then they were plummeting down. Twilight rushed quickly towards her friends, but the last thing she saw was a hailstone the size of her hoof coming her way.

“Let me help you.” Thiemo’s hand was pushed aside by Amaryllis again. The princess had fallen down in the snow for the third time now. Not because of stones being in her way as she had claimed but because of hunger and exhaustion. Thiemo could see it more than clearly.

The wind was sharp, fresh snow and light hail falling down on them. “I told you already that you should leave me alone.”

“You’re going to break down here. You need to eat something.” Thiemo looked over to the rest of the group, seeking for help, but they only shook their heads. What could they have done anyways? It wasn’t like they could force Amy to eat. He sighed and stroked through his snow covered hair and continued his way. Amaryllis was walking in the front now so that everyone had an eye on her.

It didn’t take a minute after the incident that Lyra showed up next to Thiemo. “What happened in the village? When we arrived there you were coming along together quite well.”

Thiemo threw a quick look up front to see if Amy was listening, but the wind seemed to be too loud for that. “Disagreements about what is between us.” Lyra didn’t seem to be happy with his answer. “Amy is feeling something for me that I can’t give back to her.”

“You can’t or don’t want to?” He had to give props to the unicorn. She wasn’t dumb.

“It just wouldn’t work. I travel to find a way home. A place where I could take none of you. And she is a princess. Not just in one empire, but in two. Surely her parents would have something to say if she settled for a mere mortal yet alone someone of a different species.” The last part was a very petty excuse; Thiemo knew that while the words were still leaving his mouth. There weren’t many whose opinion he cared about, especially on Albion. The few regents he did know of were not included on that list.

At least he seemed to have gotten Lyra off his back with that. At least, until her face brightened up. “I knew it! You are not from Ti, let alone Albion! I knew it! You are talking about your home like it was infinitely far away, but Ti is just a ship ride away.” Thiemo rolled his eyes. It wasn’t like he made a big secret out of it, he just never explicitly told anyone. “So, how did you get here? Long distance teleportation? A hole in space and time? A spaceship?”

"I highly doubt it was an Einstein Rosenberg bridge. To be honest, I don’t even know myself. I blinked once and was no longer in my apartment. A moment later, I landed here in my pyjamas. And before you ask, yes, that is the name for a hole in space and time. According to the theory, it connects two points in the universe.”

“What’s a universe?” Thiemo had expected a lot of questions, but not that one.

“Well, everything that is out there. Stars are just far away suns, and all of them have more planets around them. No one exactly knows how large the universe is.” Lyra swallowed loudly, finding the information hard to digest.

“That means Princess Luna isn’t moving one sun, but thousands?” Thiemo wrinkled his forehead.

“What? No. I don’t think the princesses would be capable of doing that. Why do you think so?”

“Well, Luna also moves the…” Lyra didn’t get any further as Amaryllis fell into the snow again. Quickly, they both rushed through the snow towards her.

“Amy, are you alright?” Again his hand was slammed aside by a black hoof.

“Leave me! Or have you forgotten that I am a princess?!” Apparently, she had heard them. “Leave me alone!” She again slapped in his direction, but Thiemo caught her foreleg mid-air. Hawk and Heart, meanwhile, had come to them as well and watched the scene.

“If you don’t start eating now, you won’t make it over the pass alive. So eat now or I will make you eat.” They stared at each other for a few seconds, but the princess made no attempts to comply. Thiemo didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth a try. He let go of her foreleg, grabbed her head with both hands, and pressed his lips against hers. The last time they had done this was in the dungeons of Canterlot castle.

No one said anything, and he noticed how surprised Amaryllis was. The muscles in her neck relaxed as she leaned more into his hands. But then she realized what was going on, and before he knew it, two hooves were pushing him aside. Breathing heavily, Amaryllis stood up, corrected her saddlebags, and angrily glared at him. For a short moment, Thiemo thought she would slap him, but she just turned around and let her tail whip against his cheek. And if that gesture wouldn’t have said it all already then her look did. For a short moment, her feelings for him had turned into hatred, but she seemed stronger. It must have worked.

“Are you alright?” Heart asked, worried, and helped him on his legs again.

Thiemo started to beat the snow off his clothes. “It’s okay.” No, it wasn’t okay. Amaryllis didn’t deserve to be treated like that. He didn’t like to admit it, but she had gotten as important to him than Aura. He wanted her to get home and be happy. And in this plan, he wasn’t part of the happy ending. Nevertheless, it was hurting, just like back then with Deerling, just that it was his fault this time.

“Then onwards, we should reach the pass by sundown.” Hawk pushed him from behind and then rushed past him to Heart. Now just Lyra was at his side again.

“Tell me, Lyra, is love always so complicated?”

The mare seemed to be a bit surprised by the question. She thought about it for a while before giving a response. “Not always, but it is said that it’s worth fighting for.” Thiemo just nodded. “Did you never have a special somepony?”

“I’ve fallen a few times for some girls in school, but it never worked out. Back then, I was someone else. Not less complicated, but shyer and more introverted. And not the fittest either.” He smiled at the thought, at the memories. “Today I would call my past self a loser.”

Thiemo saw that Lyra started to get a few problems with the rising snow, so he grabbed his backpack from her back. “Thanks. But one question: how old are you?”

“You’re only the third pony to ask that. The first one was Aura of course, and Luna was the second. When I left my world, I was seventeen. I must be a little over twenty now. I can’t tell for sure since our calendar might not necessarily fit with the one on Albion.”

Lyra seemed surprised. “You’re still almost a child!”

“That’s what the princess said. And how old are you?”

“I’m thirty-nine years old in our time. I just got my doctorate a few years ago and finished my education with that. I’ve studied longer than most ponies, and I haven’t even passed a third of my lifespan.” Thiemo had never thought about that so far.

“How olds can ponies get anyways?”

“Unicorns can get up to two hundred years. Pegasi around one hundred sixty and earth ponies one hundred eighty.” Thiemo nodded at the facts just like at most things on Albion. It must have been the magic that made them grew so much older than ponies on earth. At least he could now care about other things.

Twilight slowly awoke. Something cold and heavy was lying on her body. She blinked a couple of times as the snowy scenery of the Chain slowly came into focus. She sluggishly brought her hooves underneath her and tried to get up. Her body was numb, and if she were a normal pony, she would have suffered from frostbite by now. Being what she was, she managed to shake off the snow and folded her wings back to her side. Immediately, the warmth began to return underneath them, which released a satisfying moan of her. She looked around the closer surroundings but found no sign of the cart or her friends.

She cautiously took her first steps, fighting against the snow and wind at every meter. “Rarity?! Applejack?! Auralia?! Estoc?! Hopper?!” She called for each of them but got no response. They couldn’t be far. As they fell, the cart was right next to her. Unfortunately, she found no sign of the pass she saw from up high either. “If they made it, they must have gone to the pass. It is the most logical decision,” she said to herself loudly to calm herself. Internally, she was overflowing with emotions, but she had to keep a clear head. Panic would just make everything worse.

Flying was out of the question. The wind was too strong, and her view was too limited. She had to find her friends in a different way. One hoof in front of the other, she marched through the snow that was reaching, even with her slightly larger body, to her stomach. Every few meters, she called out for her friends again but got no response. The roaring wind gave her voice no chance. Of course, she could get louder, but was it worth risking an avalanche? No, she wasn’t here alone.

Minutes seemed like hours as she went on her way. Panic slowly was getting to her, but then she found a clue. Hoofprints, already a bit covered by snow again, in front of her. She quickly began to follow them. But why was there only one trail? Did the others lose each other as well? It was then that the realization hit her, causing her stomach to clench. They were her own. Defeated and beaten, Twilight let herself sink into the snow. A few tears fell down from her face into the snow and melted small holes. “Rarity, Applejack, where are you?” If Rainbow was here, she could fly in this weather. Or Pinkie Pie. Her Pinkie sense had helped them more than once out of a forlorn position. She would just twitch or flop around a bit and would be able to show them the right way with closed eyes.

But Twilight was neither Rainbow nor Pinkie. Maybe it would be best to just sit the storm out. With a swing of her horn, single blocks of ice flew out of the ground over to her and started to form a round wall. A few minutes later, the princess sat in a small igloo, her wings pressed at her side and thinking about how she could pass the time.

Maybe it was hours, maybe just minutes. She had no idea how long she was unconscious. The sun began to set, and the darkness started to rise. The storm, however, remained as strong as it was and made no signs to change that any time soon.

Suddenly, her ears perked as she thought she heard a voice in the distance. She stepped out of her safe shelter and listened into the nightfall. It was quiet, but it was there. Twilight ran off and galloped into direction of the voice. “I’m here!” she shouted over and over after she heard the other voice again. Finally, she saw a figure. A single pony marched through the snow directly towards her. She teleported the rest of the way and found a very exhausted and shivering Hopper. Pegasi shared some of her resistance to the cold, but the storm must have been too much for him.

“Princess!” he shouted as his eyes met hers, a smile on his lips. “I’m… so glad… to have found somepony.” Twilight wasted no time as she placed a hoof on his back and teleported back into the direction of her igloo. She needed a few attempts, but they eventually landed out of the storm in her icy shelter. Immediately, the stallion dropped to the ground, and Twilight threw one of her wings over his back. “Princess… Storm… He… He’s not moving anymore. He was so cold…” he said between his sharp breaths and chattering teeth.

“I am so sorry, Hopper.” Twilight pressed him closer to her to share as much of her warmth with him as she could. “We should have landed sooner. As soon as we saw the storm.”

“Not your fault… princess. Nopony could… expect the sudden change of wind.” Twilight nodded even though she was not convinced. And she was confused as to why she hadn’t noticed the change of wind. She was no expert, but wasn’t she part pegasus? But Hopper seemed to have been surprised as well. Did somepony manipulate the clouds?

She noticed that the teeth of the stallion had stopped chattering. “Hey, Hopper, wake up! You can’t fall asleep now!” He jerked up and nodded. Twilight had no choice. Alone, she could have waited, but now there was another life on the line. “I’m going out for a second.” Quickly, she stood up and stepped outside. The last sunrays fell through the thick snow. Twilight aimed her horn towards the sky and did what she probably should have done hours ago.

Freezing, Thiemo stepped inside the tent he shared with Lyra. Amaryllis had decided to sleep with the two soldiers to avoid him. “The snow is only getting worse outside. I hope it will be over tomorrow.” Despite his enchanted clothes, the temperature had begun to be more than a slight inconvenience. And they weren’t even two thousand feet high yet. One foot was about one and a half hoof. The Chain was five thousand hooves high and the pass about three thousand. With the storm and the snow, it was about minus thirty degree outside. Even too cold for pegasi, Hawk had said.

“I hope so,” Lyra agreed and tended to her cup of hot chocolate. Thiemo sat on his sleeping bag and took the other cup out of her magical grip. “Heart said that the pass was mostly protected from the wind, but still…” Thiemo could understand her concerns. If he had understood the description correctly, the pass was something like a tunnel with walls of ice that was dug through the snow. Or more like a wide shaft.

“By Celestia!” Suddenly, Heart’s voice sounded from outside, causing Lyra’s cup to fall to the ground.

“Damn!” the unicorn cursed while Thiemo was already working at the zipper of the tent, which wasn’t quite easy with just one hand. He fell more or less out of the tent as both the medic and the Captain were looking up in the sky. High up on the mountain glowed a purple star, surrounded by smaller ones.

“But that is….” Hawk asked and Heart just nodded. “What is she doing here?”

Author's Notes:

That's all folks. For those of you who didn't noticed: My other story, The precious Life - Nightmare, is back on the road.

Also I'm working on something more... mature, if you get my drift. Drawn the cover today, and written the first two chapter over the last days. But I don't know when I will publish it. We will see.

Thanks to Gron for translating this chapter.
Special thanks to JBL for proofreading and editing.

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