Spider webs, dust, and a dead cockroach were some of the things that occasionally assaulted him, and those were the pleasant things that Thiemo had to clear off his hand while crawling through the ventilation shafts of the Paradise. Aura was directly in front of him and had far less problems thanks to her smaller body. She would have to stand on her hind legs and reach up with her forelegs to even touch the ceiling. Thiemo, on the other hand, had to struggle more to move.

“Ouch, fucking damnit! Couldn’t they have built these shafts a bit larger in case something else than a pony dwarf wanted to hide here?” he grumbled after hitting his head for the tenth time. “I mean…” He reached out his hand and saw that he had grabbed onto another bug again. “Never mind.”

“Where are we going?” Aura asked and looked around the crossway they had reached.

Thiemo wiped the bug off his hand at his pants, wrinkling his nose in faint disgust. “We need to look for a quiet place where we can hide comfortably. Maybe a large storage room or down in the boiler room. It would at least be warm at night there. I don’t think the soldiers have noticed that we are still on board yet. They will probably stay for a few more days and then fly off again.” After he had seen Trixie leaving without them and he regained his composure, the first thing he had done was to grab Aura and crawl into the first hatch he saw. The hatch turned out to be a storeroom for the cleaners. However, since the chemicals that were needed for cleaning couldn’t be stored unaired, there was an entrance to the ventilation system in the wall. It didn’t look very inviting, smelled musty, and was dark, but they didn’t have a better choice. Thiemo could already hear hoofsteps on wood and ponies shouting orders.

Thiemo reached the crossway now as well and looked around. Up front, the shaft seemed to end back on deck; to the left, it seemed to go further down into the ship. “Over here, Aura.” The filly followed the left path and disappeared in the darkness within seconds. “Aura?” Thiemo crawled as quickly after her as he could, only to realize too late that the shaft suddenly changed its direction sharply downwards.

With a groan, Thiemo opened his eyes again. The last thing he remembered was this stupidly tight shaft that he and Aura had fallen down. While it wasn’t much of a problem for the little foal, he had bumped his head multiple times before he had gotten anywhere or the light had disappeared from his eyes. But he couldn’t have been here for too long, otherwise someone would have heard the clanks and were already looking for the source. If he had been lying here for a while, he would currently have found himself in chains no doubt.

Thiemo blinked a few times and eventually reached with one hand for his head that was busy revelling in the emotion known as pain. In that exact moment came into his field of view the ugliest thing that he had ever seen. “Ah! Gollum!” he shouted and tried to scramble back in panic. The creature that had come over to him did the same thing, only without the shouting. Thiemo now gave it a closer look. It wasn’t taller than a meter or so, was covered with a grey, leathery skin, and had a gigantic head for a much too small body. Bones could be seen poking through the skin in some places. What surprised him the most, and made his initial shout very accurate, were the humanoid features that it possessed. It walked on two legs as far as he could tell, plus it had feet that were not much different from his own. With a bit of imagination, one could call the things at the ends of his arms hands. However, instead of five fingers, it had three which were longer and ended in sharp nails. The thing that terrified him the most was the face. There were no lips, no nose - just nostrils and eyes that were as large as the ponies. Anything resembling ears were missing completely; only two little holes on the sides of the hairless head indicated that it could even perceive sound. To Thiemo’s sluggish mind, it was as though someone had placed the face on a flat plane.

“Flick is Flick, not Gollum,” the creature said and threw an angry glare at him, somehow managing to look offended. “Flick watches over strange thing for little pony.” His words were followed by the sound of little hoofsteps on metal, and a heavy iron door at the end of the room opened. A second later, Aura squeezed herself through the gap, a wet towel in her mouth.

As she saw that Thiemo was upright, she rushed over to him and passed him the towel. “Everything alright, dad?” she asked after he took the towel from her and pressed it onto his forehead. Immediately, the pain began to ebb a bit.

“I’m fine. Your new friend really startled me.” He leaned down to her. “What is that thing?” he whispered.

The two little claws shot between the human and filly and pushed them aside. Flick stepped between them, glaring at Thiemo. “Flick is no thing, you thing!” He tapped against Thiemo’s chest. “Flick proud goblin.” Goblins? There were goblins on Albion? Thiemo sighed. He really had to stop wondering about such things.

A pungent smell reached Thiemo’s nose, and he quickly pushed the goblin aside. “Proud goblin should take a bath.”

Flick bared his teeth, which were surprisingly sharp, and puffed himself up in front of Thiemo to look more threatening. “Flick hates water! Goblins hate water!” And now this all made sense. He looked around the room they were in. An old mattress with various springs poking out of it was lying in a corner. A tattered blanket, which numerous cockroaches had surely crawled over, was on top of it. In the corner, next to the heavy door, was something that must have been some kind of chamber pot. The other two corners were filled with pipes of all sizes. They must have landed in a maintenance room that also served as the living area of Flick.

Flick must have been caretaker of the ship, even if that role wasn’t voluntary. Lock a creature with a deadly fear of water onto a ship and it would make sure it wouldn’t sink. With his strange hands, he was surely better suited for the work than an earth pony or pegasus, and they could keep him like a dog down here and wouldn’t have to worry about payment either. They surely didn’t feed him anything else but the leftovers from the kitchen. Now that he thought about it, he even saw a few remains in the blanket.

Flick’s head suddenly jerked up. He had proven already that he could listen well with his strange holes. “Ponies coming down. Many ponies. Searching something. Searching thing.” He looked over at Thiemo and his look grew darker.

“Please, Mister Flick. My dad did nothing wrong. They can’t find him!” Aura pleaded and leaned with both her forehooves against one of his legs. Thiemo knew the tactic very well, for he had very often fallen for it. The problem was just to differentiate when the child in her was really speaking.

The goblin looked over at her, then back at Thiemo before turning away from them. Just as Thiemo was about to lean over to Aura, his head shot up again without moving his body. He looked at them briefly before turning away again. Thiemo had to admit that he was a bit scared of the ugly little thing.

Eventually, the goblin jumped on the spot. “Flick helps strange thing. But thing don’t break anything. Little pony neither. Flick get in trouble.” Thiemo nodded and stood up. Instinctively, he reached for his staff next to him, but to his horror, he felt only air as he grasped wildly. Quickly, he looked around, but nowhere in the room was it to be seen. Only after a few moments of frantic searching did he think to look upwards. Right there at the end of the ventilation shaft that they had fallen through, and a good way up, his staff was stuck.

“Damn,” he cursed. “Aura, come over here. If we work together, we might be able to—” Thiemo was interrupted by Flick grabbing him by his wrist and pulling him away. The goblin was not only agile but also incredibly strong. “No time. Ponies coming.” Flick pulled him out of the door, Aura directly behind them.

“That damn goblin.” Flick had dragged Thiemo and Aura deep into ship, told them to hide, and had then disappeared. That had been about six hours ago. Since then, they had neither seen Flick nor heard from him. Now they were wandering through the various small passages between the pipes and other machinery down here that kept the ship moving.

The sound of multiple heavy hooves on metal made Thiemo crouch immediately, Aura halting her movements next to him. That was the only advantage they had against the soldiers who were still on board and looking for them. Their hooves made it impossible to move quietly. Even if some of them could fly, it was too tight down here, rendering their wings useless.

Just as Thiemo wanted to get moving again, he heard a voice and took cover behind one of the thick pipes. He risked a look back into the narrow, sparsely lit hallway, catching a glimpse of two unicorns walking down the corridor. “You think that human is still here?”

“No idea, but until the commander says he isn’t here, we’re going to look for him.” The two mares walked past the pipe. “And it could have been worse. We’re on a cruiser. Surely we can jump in the pool before we leave again. It will take a while for all witnesses to be questioned and reports to be finished.” Thiemo cursed his usual luck again. All that meant was the soldiers would stay here for days. Days in which it would be hard to get water and food. Thiemo risked another look, but to his surprise, they had already disappeared. He switched to his magical sight, but there was still no sign. At least they were alone again.

“Okay, two things, Aura. First of all, we need to set up a camp and secure it. Preferably somewhere where they don’t expect us. Then we have to get something to drink and eat.” The filly next to him nodded. “Any ideas?”

Aura hummed for a few seconds while she thought. “When we play hide and seek, I always hide very close to you.” Thiemo knew that very well. One time she had managed to climb up a tree, under which he had been lying while counting, without him even noticing it. Without his magical sight, it would have taken much longer to find her. Not that he would ever tell her that he had been cheating, but he had started to get worried.

“If this ship is like every other one I’ve ever been on, then there are additional stairs for the personnel so that they don’t disturb the passengers. If we can find one of them, we would have easy access to all the decks.” The shaft they had fallen through was not that deep, so they were probably on the first or second underdeck. “There are plenty of store rooms on the way and canteens for said personnel. For the logistics to work, they would have to be in the middle of the ship. They could quickly reach every part of the ship from there.” Satisfied with his train of thought, he nodded. “So we are searching for the middle of the ship now.”

“Dad?” He looked down at his daughter who was pointing with her hoof somewhere. Thiemo followed her hoof and slapped himself. They had walked past the stairs already. If only he wouldn’t have such headaches. At least the only thing they had to do now was to leave the ship at the first available opportunity.

Thiemo pushed his pistol a bit harder against the mare’s side. “Sorry, Shimmer, but I don’t think I will be ready for duty for a couple more days.”

“Okay, Tabi, I’ll tell the boss.” Tense, Thiemo listened to how the other mare went back down the hallway behind the now closed door. As she finally was no longer to be heard, he let out a relieved sigh.

“I can’t stay locked away here forever. Somepony will notice something if they don’t see me for days,” his hostage explained. The unlucky earth pony mare had come into the store room yesterday, just as Aura and he were plundering it. Flick had actually returned after a day and brought him his pistol, which he must have lost somewhere. He would have preferred his staff, but it was better than nothing. Now they were hiding for the second day in the employee’s cabin of the Paradise, and Thiemo knew that she was right.

Yesterday, the soldiers had finally stopped the search and began to write reports. Should they managed to stay undetected for another day, they would be on their way again. “As soon as we land in…”

“Boardor.”

“You will never see me again.” The metal grid from the ventilation shaft fell to the ground, and Aura jumped out of it and onto the couch that Thiemo had placed underneath. She had a small bag in her mouth, probably filled with food that she stole from the kitchen. She spat out the bag and tiredly fell to the side.

“Somepony almost saw me,” she just said and yawned. Thiemo only let her go at dusk when all the other passengers would have dinner in the large hall. He didn’t like to do it, but she was quicker, agile, and more experienced than him.

Thiemo went over to her and exchanged the bag for a blanket that he put over her. “Maybe we should rest for a day. Even if they only think it’s the rats it’s just going to get harder.” The filly nodded, exhaustion evident in her eyes, almost in asleep already. With a smile, he placed a kiss on her forehead and sat down on the low table in the room. He reached for the bag and pulled a few flowers out. “Tulips?” he asked the hostage that was about to sneak out of the door. She just sighed, sat down next to the table, and began to eat. Then he searched for something for himself.

With one last jump, he finally grasped his staff. “The human is down here somewhere! We won’t land until we catch him!” a loud female voice barked through the narrow corridors.

The ship was directly in front of Boardor’s coast, and it was time to end this game of hide and seek. He had tied up his hostage quickly with a bed sheet and ran, together with Aura, back to Flick’s shack. It wouldn’t stop her long before she could alarm the guards. They had found too much liking in the Paradise’s pool and were now escorting the ship to the next safe harbour, for security reasons of course.

Luckily, Thiemo was intelligent enough to bring a chair down here, for whatever reasons they even had one, to reach his beloved piece of metal. And now he finally had it back in his hands. “He’s here!”

Thiemo spun around and saw a pegasus mare in golden armour standing in the entrance. Before he could do anything, Aura, who had hidden behind the heavy iron door, kicked it shut, and the face of the soldier met over a hundred kilos of door. Immediately, the pony went to the ground as blood spurted out of her nose. “Ouch…” Thiemo just said as he stepped over her with his daughter.

They rushed to the door, and Thiemo lifted Aura onto his shoulders before taking multiple steps at once. They went two stories up before he pushed a door open and stepped onto the deck. It was deepest night, and only the moon gave a bit of light. His gaze quickly wandered around, looking for a dinghy. “Halt!” Another pegasus mare came flying at him and held a spear with an uncomfortably sharp edge in her hooves. Her mistake was that she slowed down to land in front of him, and if there was one thing that Thiemo knew, then it was that ponies weren’t made to hold weapons. To be able to stand, they would take it into their mouth first and then tuck it under a wing. He used that to his advantage by grabbing the weapon and ripping it out of her hooves. Unfortunately, he used so much force that it went directly over board and disappeared with a quiet splash in the waves. But with the weapon left also the courage of the soldier, and she flew off again. Of course, not without calling for reinforcements.

On deck, he wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against pegasi and unicorns, and since he had been discovered, he wouldn’t have time to take a dinghy. He looked over to the lights of the city at the coastline. “It’s going to get wet,” he said to Aura and jumped after the spear.

Author's Notes:

I really like the old albums of Linkin Park (Meteora and Hybrid Theory). There are some songs in their newer releases I like too, but never the album as a whole.

What is there to know about this chapter? I will try to explain my thinking more in the future to improve your reading experience. Maybe you noticed that the all Guards Thiemo "met" during is stay on the ship were mares. Thats because the main force of Equestria is 90% female. You could say I ripped of a lot of stories with that, but it actually was only one. To give credit where credit is due: Xenophilia

If you didn't read it, I recommend it very much. Not for the clop but the social structure that is described there. It very interesting for me to read about a foreign society. And a society ruled by females, with herds instead of traditional relationships is exactly that.

I don't want to spoiler much but there was a little joke in that story that woke my interest. Celestia said as a jest that she wanted to be surrounded by likable/handsome stallions all the time. So they founded the "Royal Guard" for her. In Journey there a bit more but I like the joke so much that I copied it a bit. Also a friend of mine and fellow author, Hadschott, sees them only as a honor Guard and I agree. Let's face it, they suck. Maybe Shining Armor is an example but you all saw how easy they let the changelings take over their city and so on. The very moment Chrysalis revealed herself there should have been hundreds of guards on top of her. I mean, the shield fucking dropped AFTER she did that. Where where all these guards? Taking a nap like Luna probably did with staying up all night?

OK, I hope I got my point across. Another quick question. I know JBL doesn't like Estoc for reasons. But I would like hear you opinion on the character as well.

Additional info: Flicks name comes from "Flicken" - the German word for patching something up.

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

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