Amaryllis was crying. She had no idea for how long. She wept, her entire body wracked with the motions, into the shoulder of the pink alicorn that held her upright. Again and again, she stammered apologies. For what, she didn’t even know. Maybe in the name of her mother, or simply for her own existence. Maybe for the suffering that they all had to go through. Maybe she was just apologizing to the world. “Shhh, everything will be fine. Everything will be fine.”

“W-Why?” she blubbered out.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza put both her forehooves back on the ground again but kept her wings wrapped around Amaryllis. “It is not your fault, not at all. If anything, you are a victim, like we all were.” With the tip of her wings, the Princess carefully wiped away a few tears. “No foal in the world is responsible for where they came from. They didn’t have a choice. You understand?” Amaryllis nodded faintly. “Please look at me.” Amaryllis sniffled, wiped her nose with a hoof, and then looked up, directly into the eyes of the Princess. “For me, you are a daughter that had been taken from me. You were made by the love that was meant for me. If anything, something was taken from both of us, and it is not your fault. Shining Armor and I knew that there had been this possibility, that you might exist. If we had known for certain, we would have let nothing stop us to get you. We would have never left you with that monster.” Amaryllis broke the touch.

“Which monster?” she asked cautiously.

“Chrysalis – we would have never left you with her.” Amaryllis took another step back, causing the first touches of worry to appear Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s face.

“She is no monster. She is my mother. She raised me, taught me everything I know!” Again tears ran down her face. “She is my mother!”

“Amaryllis… I didn’t mean it like that. You have to understand…”

“I know what horrible things she did! I know it!” she sobbed. “But she is my mother.” Amy noticed that her legs were giving in, but the princess was at her side in time to catch her with her wings. “She let us escape.”

“A mother always wants the best for her children, no matter what kind of creature she is. I never meant to say she was a bad mother, Amaryllis. But as you said so yourself...” Cadenza paused and hugged her tighter. For a while, they stayed in that position, Amy quietly crying while the alicorn softly embraced and stroked a hoof over her mane. “All I want is that, that if you want, you will consider me as a mother too. You have a home in the Empire. You will always be welcome here.” Amaryllis didn’t respond, instead just allowing the stroking continue.

Thiemo inspected the clear bottle for some clues on what he had just drank. The sake clearly hadn’t been sake. “I should have known it.” Not that it tasted bad. “Who would serve cold sake?”

“Only that that isn’t sake.” Thiemo almost dropped the bottle out his hand as he heard the voice and spun around. “That is moonshine.” In the doorway leaned a tall, white alicorn. Across his back ran a long, blue mane, traversed by a brighter stripe in the middle that ended in a ponytail. Thiemo leaned against the wall and slowly stood up as the alicorn quietly watched him. His cutie mark was a shield with three stars above it. In the shield itself, he saw a familiar symbol – the same star that was in Twilight’s cutie mark. He wouldn’t have to guess twice to know who this was. This alicorn was taller than him, even without the horn.

Thiemo looked at the bottle again and offered it to the prince. “Want some?” He smiled, nodded, and sat down on one of the cushions in the room. Flummoxed, Thiemo took another small bowl from the shelf and held it in front of the alicorn. A purple aura then floated it out of his hand.

“Shining Armor,” he finally introduced himself and raised the bowl.

“Thiemo,” he responded and clicked bowls with him. They both drank the strange fluid and put the bowls aside. “So, what can I do for you, your Highness?” Somehow, Thiemo had expected that he would be interrogated, but not by a member of reigning couple. Then he realized that this was Amaryllis’ father. Should he have made a better first impression? Hold on, why was that important to him now?

“Well, I wanted to see the human who brought my daughter home.” Right, he didn’t even know that he and Amaryllis were together. Lucky him! “And who also is the coltfriend of said daughter.” Good thing that Thiemo had already swallowed the drink, otherwise he would have bathed the alicorn in moonshine now. Hastily, he thought about what he could say now but decided to keep his mouth shut and his eyes locked on his feet. After all, Shining Armor didn’t ask a question that he had to answer. “How did you meet?”

By his tone alone, Thiemo knew that the prince knew more than it seemed. Also, he knew about their relationship. Celestia or Luna must have mentioned that in a letter. That and other things. “Well, I just fell into her lap.” Telling him that he had threatened and then more or less kidnapped her, where she also got hurt, would be a rather bad idea. Those alicorn horns all looked very sharp.

Shining Armor nodded and poured himself a bit more moonshine. “And then?”

“Well, she was exiled from her hive, so I took her in and promised to help her.” He shrugged. “Since we are here, I would say that I stuck to my word.”

“You sound surprised about that yourself.” Thiemo knew that the prince was just warming up now. “Doesn’t happen that often, does it?”

“I have a total of three friends on this planet that mean everything to me. One of them is my daughter, then Amaryllis, and then someone who helped me when I first got here. Three!” He held up three fingers. “I promised something to each of them and kept it.”

“What a feat for a thief and murderer.” Both their looks grew darker. “Yes, my mother told me about you, human. Don’t try to deny it. If you hadn’t come to Equestria with my daughter and the filly, you would be in Tartarus or back on Ti now. Nevertheless, I’m thankful that you brought her here safely. That’s why I will grant you one week to leave the Empire. One week.” He emptied his bowl in one go, put it down on the desk, and stood up.

But before Shining Armor could even turn around, Thiemo was directly in front of him. “Now you listen to me! You have no idea what I’ve been through. You don’t even know half of what you think you know. Let tell you something, Shining Armor! The only armour that has never seen a real fight is the one that shines. I have fought for my life, and not all of Albion is like Equestria or this Empire. I was in areas where thinking, feeling creatures were traded for three bits like common goods. I defended myself, did what I had to, to stay alive. I lied, stole and killed, but only to see the next day. Do you really think I had fun doing so? That Auralia came into my life was the best thing that happened to me in years. And then came Amaryllis. I notice that since you came in here, you’ve only said ‘my daughter’. Her name is Amaryllis. Unlike you, I have cared about her for the previous months, and she cares about me. And don’t tell me you didn’t know anything of her existence. You won’t just simply forget if you’ve done it with a creature like Chrysalis. You knew, didn’t you, even if it was just a hunch? I would, no not just would, I HAVE been travelling... If she was really so important to you like you told me, what stopped you from looking for her? What?”

Anger, rage and hate. Those were the emotions that blazed from the blue eyes of the white alicorn as he stood nose to nose with Thiemo. His horn glowed as his mouth opened to speak, but he was interrupted as the door behind him opened and Rupie entered. “Pardon me, sir, but her Majesty said that you should come now.”

Thiemo was still breathing heavily after his outburst. Shining Armor snorted into his face before forcing a smile. “At once, Sargent,” he said without averting his eyes. “This is not over.” He pointed with a hoof at his eyes, then at Thiemo, and turned around. As the door closed and he was alone, Thiemo slumped down. He really had to stop messing with the authorities on this planet. First Twilight, then Celestia, and now Shining Armor. Now there were three, well, two alicorns that would rather see him rotting somewhere.

He reached for the almost empty bottle of moonshine and drank the rest directly from it. “Good stuff. Too bad it doesn’t have any alcohol.”

“I told Luna the same thing. Still, I thought it was a nice gift.” At this point, he wasn’t even surprised that someone else had snuck into the room. With a sigh, he looked to the entrance where, who would have guessed, stood another alicorn. The first thing he noticed was that she was pink, like a three year old had decided which colours her room should have. Her mane was pink, yellow, and magenta, not too dissimilar from Celestia’s, only that it wasn’t shimmering and waving in a non-existing wind. Her size was almost identical with that of the Avatar of the Light as well, but unlike Celestia, Thiemo would describe her with the word ‘hot’.

“If this moonshine isn’t alcoholic or salty, what is it?” The princess smiled and sat down where her husband had just been. Thiemo wondered how long it would take her to tell him that he would have to leave.

“Like the name says, moonshine. Something that only Luna can bring into liquid form.” Surprised, Thiemo looked at the empty bottle in his hand. “That is made out of moon glass. Collected dust from the universe that had been melted into glass. I-It was a wedding gift.”

“Oh.” Carefully, he put the bottle back down. “I’m sorry.” He looked over to her and noticed that tears were running down Cadance’s face. “I’m really sorry! I thought it would have been for the guests and…” She shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

“I am not crying because of that.” She sniffled and gulped. “It is just so good to see somepony again after so long. I knew that it would happen.” He looked at her in bewilderment. “May I take a closer look?” Thiemo didn’t know at first what she was talking about, but then he noticed that her eyes were locked on his cutie mark.

“Sure,” he answered and shrugged. “Go ahead.” Cadance took a step closer and softly stroked a hoof over the skin where the symbol was on his left shoulder.

“Exactly like I remember it.” It struck Thiemo like lightning. She knew Blue Light. She knew the symbol because she had been alive back then. He had never seen her in the recordings, but she was mentioned often enough. Still, he had given Twilight a promise, and he wouldn’t give Shining Armor the satisfaction to let him know that he had broken it.

He swallowed the question that was on his tongue and tried to change the subject. “How did it go with Amy?”

“Oh, you have nicknames, how cute.” He was silent as the princess giggled. “But to answer your question, I told her that she would always be welcome here and will have a mother. A family that she belongs to.” Satisfied, he accepted the answer. Like he told Shining Armor, he had kept both promises. Auralia was reunited with her relatives and Amaryllis had found her father, who was probably talking with her now. “We have talked a bit about her. Amaryllis is a lovely, smart, young mare. She reminds me a bit of Twilight. Must be in the family. But I have to ask you for one thing.”

Thiemo motioned her with a hand to continue. “And what would that be?”

“Be there for her. The next few weeks won’t be easy for her, and she needs familiar faces at her side.” So she had decided to stay. “It would surely mean a lot to her.”

“All I need is a bed and access to a library. That way, I can keep myself busy for a while.” Not that he had a new destination. In fact, Thiemo had no idea where to go next. He had gone far over his original destination in the form of Equestria, and the Crystal Empire was the northernmost place this continent had to offer. He had travelled over two continents already – a scary thought. Almost four years and still no clue for a way back home. If he didn’t find anything here, he would have to move on. Albion had more continents to offer. In the west, across the sea, was Heliopolis, and even further in the west was the island of Ti. There he was sure to find out more about his species and maybe even something about the connection between Albion and planet Earth. It was farfetched, especially since the humans from Amissa Heaven had been so advanced, far more than any civilization from Earth a thousand years ago was. Also, their glory days were over. Aschlant had told him that everything was powered by steam now. Cadance stroked over his shoulder one more time.

“I don’t think that will be a problem. The palace has many rooms.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had enough of palaces. I’ll take a room in the city somewhere.” He didn’t want to be locked in here, but also didn’t want to be near Shining Armor and his soldiers. One of the rulers had ordered him to leave while the other one wanted him to stay. No, he wouldn’t be around for the argument. “That way, I get to see more of the city.”

As Thiemo and Cadance left the little room shortly after, Amaryllis and Shining Armor already stood in the hallway. They weren’t looking at each other, instead focusing on the ground before their hooves. As they stood there like that, Thiemo had the feeling that it didn’t go too well. Cadance and Shining Armor rubbed their cheeks against each other, which was a sign of affection Thiemo had learned. “Rupie,” Cadance called, “would you show our daughter her room?” The guard came over from the large door with Cadance’s symbol on it and saluted.

“Yes, your Highness.” He went past Amaryllis, towards the teleporter. “If you would please follow me.”

Amaryllis looked up for the first time. She had been crying; that was obvious. Her eyes were red and the coat around her cheeks was wet. “Thiemo?” she whispered his name more than a question. Immediately, he was at her side and put a hand on her back.

Thiemo quickly went back to the door, looking down the corridor before closing it. Next to the door was a crystal, just like Rupie had told them. He would look into that later. He went back to the bed, where Amy was pressing a pillow against her chest with her forehooves. “He hates me.”

“Who hates you? No one hates you.” Thiemo sat down next to her and began to stroke her mane.

“My father, I know it. It is in his eyes. The disgust.” She sniffled and buried her face in the pillow.

Thiemo took her and the pillow into his arms. “You don’t know that.” For a moment, he considered telling her that Shining Armor wanted to protect her from him, but that was probably not a good idea. That moment wasn’t overflowing with emotions on his part. “I believe he just remembered what your mother had done to him.”

Her head perked up. “Not you too! All I’m hearing is how bad my mother is, what kind of monster she is! She is my mother!”

Thiemo pressed her a bit tighter at him. “Please listen to me. Amy, I love you, and you know it, but the reality is that your mother has done horrible things. She is a monster and your mother, but that doesn’t mean that you are one either. You are someone else and deserve to be treated well. You only deserve the best. Better than some hole in the desert, better than a life on the run, and better than me. I’m not different, Amy, I’m also a monster.” Thiemo looked in her eyes, her head sticking at his chest. “I have done horrible things as well, and still you chose me. One thing doesn’t exclude the other. Aura and you, you both changed me for the better. No one is asking for you to stand against your mother, because if there is one thing that I have learned, it is that love changes you. Continue loving her and maybe, one day, she will see clearer. I think Chrysalis wanted you to come here. She also just wants the best for you, so love them both. And about your father: get to know him, then he will realize that you are not daughter and monster, but only his daughter.” Her tears never stopped flowing as she leaned upwards and met Thiemo’s lips.

Author's Notes:

Another week, another act. I think it oblivious why Thiemo doesn't want to stay in any castle any time soon. The last castle he got in he didn't left for months.
Also, Amy is very confused. Why Cadance embraces her with open arms, as the saying goes. Did Crysalis really love her? Does/ Will Cadance or Shining really love her? She only knows for certain that her humans loves her. So, I call a time skip. Yes, next act will take place two weeks later. Just tell you guys now, not that you are to surprised.

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

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