Instinctively, Thiemo put into practice what had just been a theory for him for all these years. He gathered the magic in his body, focused it in his right foot, and jumped. As if he was using a sapphire, he flew high into the air, just not as fast. It was still enough, and he rammed his shoulder into the side of golem, who stood opposite of Amaryllis, that had prepared to strike down the changeling. The magic in his body gathered again, this time in his fist. The knight had fallen to the ground already, and Thiemo used the opportunity to bring his hand down on the golem. Magic crackled around his hand like lightning bolts as it pierced through the stony warrior. In one move, he jumped off the golem as it hit the ground and remained there, motionless. Thiemo slid a bit over the moss until he came to a halt, crouching down. “My turn.”

He grinned at the confused Amaryllis and jumped again. His arms wrapped around the throat of the second golem before turning him around. With his legs pressing against the construct’s lower back, he began to pull at the head until it was separated from its shoulders, accompanied by a loud breaking sound and cracking. The golem went down to its knees before slumping to the ground, unmoving. Thiemo jumped off it, and without taking his eyes of the last one, he went over to where Protes was lying. The knight was holding its sword with both hands now and followed his steps, waiting for the right moment to strike. Slowly, Thiemo crouched down and touched his staff, not realizing that this was a mistake until the last moment. To his shock, the power flowing through him was gone. The magic was being siphoned from him. Before that, he had no magic, but now it was different. No, he could stop that. He guided the flow, not the staff. He was its master. Sadly for him, the knight wasn’t going to wait until he made things clear to the stubborn piece of metal. With heavy steps, it marched over to him, and Thiemo had no choice but to let go of Protes and roll aside. Only now did he realize how much power that action had cost. The two jumps and one blow were child’s play, but now he wouldn’t be able to do that again. He was keenly aware of how his victims must have felt when he used his weapon. Nausea and dizziness came over him, and he had to be careful to not fall over.

Amaryllis fired one missile after the other at the golem, but it ignored them completely. Thiemo was now completely in focus, its only priority. “Priority…” he mumbled to himself. “That’s it!” Eliminate everything logical and whatever remained must be the solution.” The stony knight lunged out again with its sword, but Thiemo remained in place. Their pose at the beginning, the buzzing, their actions. It was all so obvious, especially for him as a human who was used to these things. Maybe just not as modern.

The swords stopped above his head. “Thiemo!” Amy jumped towards him, but he stopped her with an outstretched hand.

“Don’t worry; he’s not going to hurt us anymore. Am I right, you stupid tin can?!” The knight didn’t move for a few seconds before it pulled the sword back and went back to its pedestal.

“What? Why?” Thiemo just grinned as the golem stepped on the pedestal again and rammed its sword back into the stone. Then its eyes went out. Thiemo fell to the ground laughing, one hand at his temple, another on his stomach. “Thiemo? What is going on here?” As Amy leaned above him, he pulled her to ground, hugged her, and gave her a few quick kisses. He continued laughing for a few more minutes while Amaryllis looked questioningly at the ceiling.

One stalagmite after the other whooshed past Twilight. “What did I say about any more outbursts?” she heard Hawk’s voice in front of her. Like the others, she was sliding down a tube that was cut into stone with no idea where it was leading.

“I said I’m sorry!” Lyra shouted in panic. “But I just couldn’t hold it.”

The squeals of a happy filly drown out the R-rated response that Hawk threw at the professor. “Hold on tight to me, sugarcube.” At least somepony was having fun in their situation.

“So, what happened?” Amy asked for the third time now, Thiemo having finally let out enough laughter to keep it under control again so that his answer wasn’t just containing out of gasps.

“S’cuse me.” He wiped a tear out of his eyes. “But I’m just laughing at my own stupidity. It was so obvious.” Thiemo leaned against his lower back, gained some momentum with his legs, and jumped from his lying position directly onto his legs. “Wow, that’s great. Now I can understand why Aura finds it so great to have power.” He offered a hand to Amy and helped her on her legs. “So, maybe you remember. When you had caught me, I had these strange plates with me. Colorful, with a lot of little, though not glowing, lights on them? No? Doesn’t matter. Those were circuit boards. Human technology.” He stopped for a second. “Maybe I should explain a bit more. Every civilization goes through a stage of trials. They try out what works best for them. Magic, alchemy, or technology. Depending on this, they advance.” Amy simply nodded as she soaked in the information.

“Humans have tried with magic first, which obviously didn’t work. At some point, in secret, some of the brighter heads went from magic to alchemy. Both fields are closely related in many points for the unknowing. Magic potions and stuff. The alchemy persisted for a longer time than the not functioning magic, but it reached its limits after a few centuries. There was only technology left, and big surprise, we were really good at it. Within hundreds of years, compared to the tens of thousands of years of human history, it was everywhere. The last thing I knew before I was ripped from Earth was that they were beginning to build robots. Machines that looked like us, could think and everything else. Artificial humans.” Thiemo raised a finger and walked over the ripped off head of one of the golems. He looked inside and returned with a wide grin. “Here.” He threw the thing in front of her hooves

Many strange thick and thin threads were sticking out of the head. A strange, greasy fluid was flowing out of the thicker ones that were now spreading over the moss. It smelt burnt, and a single spark came out as she smelled at it.

“Cords, wires, and stuff. Nothing more. The red glowing eyes? Lamps. Everything’s mechanically.” Amaryllis kicked the head aside. She couldn’t stand the smell.

“And what was so funny about that?”

“Simple. These robots were guards. Defenders programmed to fend off attackers. The first one I climbed must have thought I was an attacker. When I evaded and ran away, it was clear. Only enemies would run away.”

“So you stood still so it will think you’re a friend? Isn’t that a bit too… simple?”

“Sure, but don’t forget one thing. They are just machines who follow orders. They can’t think on their own. But this is only part of the story. I was wondering for a long time: why are ponies so much more afraid of humans than they are of griffons? I mean, we have no claws, can’t fly, and are as effective against magic as I am with hitting this wall with a stone. But this explains everything. The humans on Albion must have been much more advanced than it seems. The only question is what kept them running for a thousand years. The more complex the machine, the more maintenance they need.”

Amaryllis thought for a moment. “So the traps were technology as well?”

“Sure,” Thiemo answered while leaning over the smashed-in torso. “The runes were surely just lamps as well that glowed from underneath the stone to simulate the magic.”

A faint scream sounded through the chamber. Amaryllis perked up her head and tried to find its origin. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” The noise got louder and louder.

“It appears it comes from…” She looked around until her head pointed at the ceiling. “Above?” At that same moment, a piece broke out of the ceiling. Fifty meters above them appeared one figure after the other. The first one was wrapped in a cowl, but it unfolded dark wings as soon as it noticed it was in the air. The thing behind it did the same but flew immediately after the next two who now had wings. Three more figures followed; all of them appeared to have no wings. The last white dot, however, did have them and followed the lead of the second. Only three fliers and four fallers didn’t match up. “I’ll help them!” Amy shouted and lifted into the air. She looked one last time at the ground where Thiemo looked around panicked and then disappeared underneath some plants.

She quickly flew towards the first falling point that could only be Applejack. In her forehooves, she held the screaming Aura who had her eyes closed. Applejack saw her coming and reached out a hoof for her. Amaryllis pulled and placed them both on her back. Even if the mare was a heavy earth pony, she was still lighter than the combination of Thiemo and Aura. “Thanks, sugarcube. This could have ended nasty.”

“No problem.” Amy flapped her white wings a bit stronger to keep them all in the air and looked at the rest of the group. Night Hawk was still descending. Twilight had managed to catch Lyra, and Heart held with both forelegs the struggling Rarity. Panicked, she looked further down to see Estoc still falling towards the ground. Unlike Rarity, he wasn’t kicking around, instead just looking straight up. Without warning, Thiemo jumped out of a tree. If she didn’t know any better, she would say he was flying right now. With his hands, he grabbed the captain of the Royal Guard out of the air and disappeared behind the greenery again. Amy heard Rarity as she stopped flailing around, making it easier for Iron Heart to slowly carry her down.

Amy followed her slowly and touched down a moment later on the glowing moss in front of the stone wall with the golems, or robots as Thiemo had called them. She was followed by Twilight and Lyra, while Night Hawk was the last to land. With gnashing teeth, she tucked her wings back at her side. “Stupid stalagmites,” she mumbled.

“Look, for I have saved a fair maiden!” Thiemo strutted over to them out of some bushes. Estoc was basically lying in his arms. The stallion tried to hit the human’s face with one of his legs that were pointed up in the air, but it was proving difficult. Then, as he arrived next to Rarity, Thiemo just dropped him to the ground.

Floundering, he turned around and got back onto his legs and fixed his mane. “Not that I’m not thankful, but was that really necessary?!”

“Well, usually the prince receives a kiss for saving the princess,” Thiemo returned and held his cheek out to him. Estoc waved him off with a hoof, only to be hit by Rarity’s.

Estoc went bouncing on the ground before the whimpering mare threw herself around his neck. “Never do that again! Never!” she shouted at him while slowly cutting off his oxygen supply with her grip. While the two remained in their embrace, Amy saw Thiemo searching for his coat in the corners of her eye, just to get have it reach Twilight. Her eyes widened as her eyes saw his shoulder.

“Is that?” Instead of the coat floating into Thiemo’s waiting hand, she pulled his arm down to her and carefully stroked over the symbol on his shoulder with a hoof. “That is a cutie mark!”

“What?” Aura shouted. “Why is everyone getting one but not me?” The rest of the group gathered and stared at the mark on his shoulder. Thiemo, meanwhile, sat down on the ground in annoyance while Amy leaned towards the filly on Applejack’s back.

“I don’t have one either,” Amy said and softly nudged her.

“You don’t count. You’re a changeling.”

“This is unbelievable! I’ve never heard that a human could get a cutie mark.” Twilight continued to pull at his arm while Lyra, Applejack, Rarity, and Estoc gathered around him. “How did you get that? Spare no detail!” Clearly out of nothing, Twilight produced a roll of parchment and some ink before pulling a feather out of one of her wings.

Thiemo just blinked, baffled. “Where did you get that from?”

“A little trick from Pinkie Pie. Now tell me. How did you get it? I’ve never seen such a cutie mark. These are two moons, right? What could it mean? Oh, all the possibilities. Humans could get completely different cutie marks than ponies. A completely new field.” A high squeak escaped her mouth as she was visibly resisted not jumping around in ecstasy.

Thiemo leaned a little towards Rarity. “Is that normal?” The mare gave him a nonplussed look and nodded.

“So, tell me! How did you get it?” He sighed. She wasn’t going to let up on this anytime soon.

“Let’s just say I had an enlightenment.” Never before had he seen a grin turning into the opposite so quickly. “What?”

“That can’t be it! What did you do to get it?” Thiemo pointed at the small pool of blood at one of the pedestals.

“I was just lying there and watched as those robots tried to squeeze us to death.”

“Robots?” His hand continued towards one of the defect golems lying on the ground behind Twilight. Surprised, she turned around, and Thiemo wondered how she could have not seen the large scrap of metal before.

As quickly as Twilight’s attention has fallen on him, just as quickly it was gone again. Now the damaged machine was the most interesting thing the world had to offer to her right now. She put her nuzzle into the hole that Thiemo had punched into its chest, only to then look into its decapitated head. “This is so exciting! It is unlike everything I know! Rarity, you must have a look at this!” She tried to look over at her friend, but forgot that she still had her head in the remains and was now wearing it like an oversized helmet. It was, of course, too heavy for her, and after a few shaky steps, she fell on the ground. Lyra managed to jump aside just in time.

Meanwhile, Thiemo was looking at the cutie mark on his right shoulder, which had stopped glowing by now. The two moons were perfectly identical. What was that light? What did it mean by hastening their meeting? His eyes wandered towards his left shoulder, where of course the same symbol was. With a blink, he changed to his magical view. Magic was flowing through the parts of his body that he could see, but not as much as the first time. It was like the appearance of his cutie mark had released a strong magical wave that he had been riding for a while. But now the water was calm again. A fitting comparison to his blue aura, the same blue of the light he had seen.

A look around the room showed that Amaryllis was busy playing with Aura while Applejack was sitting next to them and laughing. Rarity was basically still stuck at Estoc’s side. From the ground, he had seen everything. Heart had reached the Captain before Rarity and tried to grab him. But he must have sent her off to get Rarity despite his own well-being. One the one hand, it was noble, but on the other, it was surely expected from a soldier and Captain of the Royal Guard. For the white mare in his forelegs, it didn’t seem to make a difference.

Thiemo stood up from the moss-covered ground and threw his coat around him again, which was now perfectly covering the cutie mark. Together with his tail, it was now the second pony trait of his. Maybe the Elements were behind this as well? “Are these dangerous?” Hawk asked from the side while she watched the princess playing in the junk.

“As long as she’s not drinking the liquid that comes out of these things, she should be fine. They are guards and only attack when they sense danger.” Hawk nodded apprehensively.

“And what are they guarding?”

“Apparently more of these large stone tablets like these here with their pedestals. Only they are supposed to contain information. I think we should have a look around. Maybe it explains what this all is down here.”

“I hate to admit it, but I agree with you. Griffon skeletons that refuse to just die? Traps that are targeted at ponies?” So she had noticed it as well. Who was he kidding; she was an expert. “Strange armor from humans, and a place built by changelings? No matter what is down here, apparently at least three species thought it was valuable enough to die for it.”

“Three? I think if three knew that something was down here, more would have noticed as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be a collaboration between all large nations of Albion.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I’ve never seen anything that ponies could leave well alone.” Hawk gave no response. Thiemo looked over to Protes, which still lay lying in the dried moss on the ground. None of them could touch the weapon anymore. Then his daughter came into his field of view.

Author's Notes:

Well, well, well. Look at that. Looks like we got us some technology. If you didn't guessed it, I used the robots from the alien movies as model for how the robots look on the inside. Just that you can imagine better. But that leaves us with the question: What were they guarding?

And god damn feed me some comments. I really want to know what you guys think!
Also, blog entry: Klick Me!

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

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