Amaryllis looked from the edge of the arena over to her coltfriend, who was just cleaning his sword from the sand. The fight against Gravity had left clear marks on him. His beloved coat displayed two new holes, the knees of his pants were skinned, and his morale had dropped low. She could clearly feel his frustration.

The other contestants around the combat field made way as he swung his sword one last time, stored it in the scabbard, and trotted over to them. “Well, that could have gone better,” he said, more to himself than to her. He ran his hand through his hair, some sand falling out of if it. Amy dodged the sand by averting her head quickly before she went over to him and softly snuggled her cheek against his.

“Sure, but it was your first fight. Didn’t you say that a plan never survives first contact with the enemy?” Thiemo took his left hand and patted her free cheek.

“I think that was Night Hawk. But that doesn’t make it any less true.” Amy slowly pulled back her head, but not without briefly licking his cheek. She had read in one of her mother’s books that ponies did this to show affection towards their loved ones. She had wanted to try that out for days now. Since he responded with a smile, she figured that she had done it correctly.

The moment was interrupted by a gagging sound. “Oh, someone feeling left out, eh?” Thiemo said with a grin towards Auralia, who still stood next to Amaryllis. “Well, come here then.” Before the filly could react, he placed his hands around her and lifted her to his eye level. Then he began to place some quick kisses on her forehead before he blew on her stomach. Auralia slapped around wildly with her hooves while she tried to press some words out of her mouth, but they died again and again in her laughter.

“Leave something for me,” called Applejack’s voice from above them again. The mare leaned over the railing of the tribune and watched them play below her with a smile. Amaryllis did the same. Thiemo had changed. From what she knew of him, he was an immature larva when he came here, egoistic and a problem case. The latter was probably still a bit true, but especially in the last months, he had changed more and more. Albion had left its mark on her human, the same way she left marks on him. The same counted for the foal that was gasping for air in his grip while he still attacked her stomach. About four months ago she had been sitting in some hole under the ground that her mother called an empire. Today she knew better. It had been a hideout, and she had sat in the darkest corner of it all. How rare had it been that she had seen the daylight with her siblings? She hadn’t lived a life but an imprisonment. Now she was free. She had a family, a coltfriend, and could stand out in the open. Well, she was still in her disguise, but in due time that would change too. Thiemo was the best thing that had ever happened to her, even though she didn’t think so at first. After all, he had been the reason that she had been exiled and hurt. Right now, however, she didn’t regret that. Not one single bit.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Auralia protested as she blocked his attack by pushing his face away with both forehooves. “You usually aren’t so clingy.” The human stopped briefly, causing the filly to lower her hooves. Quickly, he placed one more kiss on her forehead before putting her to the ground.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Amaryllis coughed slightly.

“Well, he was happy to see both of us for one. We give him a feeling of home. That, together with the decision to at least temporarily settle down in the Empire, has raised his mood, despite the fight that took place. Then he also has fun in annoying you a bit.” Both blinked at her. “I’m a changeling, remember? Well, at least to a degree.”

“Dad is right, you’re a shrink.” Laughter came from Thiemo while giggling came from the tribunes. A few seconds later, Twilight and Rainbow leaned next to Applejack over the railing.

“So, the human is staying here? Good, I still have a crow to pluck with you.” Rainbow pointed at Thiemo and slammed a hoof on the railing. “He’s just lucky that I’m incapacitated.”

“Yer pregnant, Rainbow, and it’s nothin’ he’s responsible for,” Applejack said and rolled her eyes. The pegasus mare just snorted and leaned back into her seat.

Suddenly, Auralia gasped for air. “Hold on! You’re staying here?” Thiemo nodded. The filly grinned over both ears, jumped for joy, and excitedly ran around the legs of her father and Amaryllis, all the while squeaking something that sounded like “Yes!”

If there was one unnerved unicorn in the Crystal Empire right now, then her name was Lyra Heartstrings. She sat in her small hotel room over her own notes that she had made after the encounter with Index. She had spent the last week comparing what she had seen with data that she still remembered from her history classes, which was little to none. Unfortunately, the public library left much to be desired, because for some reason, most parts of the last two to three thousand years were missing in their literature. It was like everything was against her, even her parents.

Lyra had of course written to them to inform them that she had arrived in the Empire. Her mother had responded with almost three pages in which she complained that her former servants had been searching her house. Her father added that when they told her to search for a stallion, they thought it was understood that she had to keep it within their own species. Somewhere between the complaints were a few lines questioning her sanity and asking what had gotten into her and why she had helped a human to escape. Unfortunately, she could longer check them to prove their existence since the letter had fallen to spontaneous self-combustion. She hadn’t even opened her sister’s letter.

Angrily, her hoof wiped over her desk and the notes landed on the floor. “How long is Twilight going to keep me waiting? These are important historical events that will largely affect how we see humans. They were even once on the technological level of the Crystal Empire for Celestia’s sake!” Her head landed sideways on the almost empty table, and she snorted, blowing one of the last sheets of paper off of it. “I can’t stay in this hotel room forever.” She could if she wanted to. After all, Twilight was paying for it. It was the least the alicorn could do since Lyra had kept coming back empty-hoofed whenever she had visited her.

The human she had wanted to save was no help either. He didn’t even come back to her after trying to talk with Twilight. Nope, he had run out of the library, directly back to the palace, and had completely ignored her, even though he had promised to convince Twilight to finally publish the material. “Well, I’m a wanted pony in Equestria already,” she mumbled to herself while her eyes landed on the last remaining sheet on the table. “In any case, why does Twilight have any say here? Aside from her being the incarnation of magic personified? I mean, Thiemo was acting up not just with her, but with Princess Cadance too.” She had only heard rumours, but a few days ago, the royal voice of Shining Armor had basically shaken the entire palace. A talk with Estoc later and she knew that this was in reaction to one of two things. Either that he had spent the night with Amaryllis, like a mare and stallion doing it, or that he had demanded Princess Cadance’s throne. Since the princess had responded to the former by just nodding her head, at least according to Estoc, she didn’t believe that was the reason. Just as she didn’t believe that Princess Cadance would actually step down from the throne if he were to win the tournament.

“Hold on! The tournament! The princess and prince will be there, just like Twilight!” That was it. If she could talk to Twilight in front of her brother about the subject, she would have to speak out. And if not, Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance would surely inquire what she was going on about. But the best thing was that no one could arrest her for that. She basically had Twilight under her hoof and now just needed to push.

Hastily, Lyra began to gather the documents from the floor of her hotel room and brought them into the right order. It had been a good idea to write page numbers in the corners.

It was slightly funny how, now that all the combat zones were in use, the tribunes had emptied a bit. That also might or might have been because two dragons had landed behind Twilight and her friends. When Thiemo had spotted them in the air, he had almost ran against the tribune wall. Then he recognized Spike and concluded that the other, much more elegantly built bright red dragon at his side, must have been Ruby, who he had mentioned. As Rarity and Estoc, who had visited the two dragons in their lair outside of the town, stepped off Spike’s back, the human just grinned, slightly embarrassed.

To calm the rest of the slightly panicked spectators and some of the contestants, Cadance’s magically enforced voice had to be put into use to greet the new guests. The citizens of the Empire knew Sir Spike, as they addressed him, but that didn’t really account for most of the tourists. To Thiemo’s surprise, Deerling was one of the first who talked to Spike and Ruby and asked them if she could take a sketch of them. Purely for scientific reasons of course. He had expected that Zarni would beat her to the dragons, but she just sat there with closed eyes and puffed at her pipe.

While the conversation in the stands continued, Thiemo’s and Amaryllis’ attention went back to the ring. The fight didn’t stop for them, and they had missed a few quick matches. Right now, Entlas was preparing for his first fight. “I’m curious as to how he fights,” commented Thiemo to his marefriend as he comfortably sat down in the dust.

“Why?” Amaryllis did the same and sat down as well. She used her tail as a cushion to avoid getting dirt in any uncomfortable spots.

“I’ve never seen a stag fight before. They are all very peaceable, almost pacifists. They don’t even produce weapons. All they have are tools and antlers.” They watched as the impressive stag tested the ground with one of his hooves while his opponent entered the middle ring. It was a griffin whose brown coat was already traversed by a few grey streaks. What separated him from his fellow avians was that the feathers around his head and neck were not white, but in a bright brown, almost golden tone. The choice of his weapon was rather unusual as well. The griffon had some kind of metal appendage around both of his claws.

“And? Who do you think will win?” Amy asked curiously.

“Well, it looks like both will use parts of their bodies as weapon. Entlas will surely use his antlers, the griffin his claw.” Thiemo stopped for a second. “No, I can’t make sense out of that. But that’s not the point. Entlas can block and attack with his antlers at the same time, just like the griffon can with his claws. So it comes down to who can use their body parts better.” His marefriend nodded. Many of the other contestants did the same as them and sat down to relax or save strength.

The two contestants in the ring stared one another down for a few more seconds, then charged at each other. Entlas lowered his head a bit and aimed at the griffon who was gaining speed with long steps similar to that of a lion, which a large part of his body consisted of. A second before they collided, however, the griffon made a large jump to soar over Entlas, but he seemed to have expected that. His head jerked up and blocked the claws that were about to dig into his neck. Both fighters used the built-up momentum to turn around on their heel, though the griffon spread out his wings as he did so, turning mid-air. He made Entlas lose his balance, his claws grabbing his antlers, forcing the deer to jerk his neck and pull out of the griffon’s grip.

Letting go, Entlas fell over as he stumbled over his hooves, landing in the dust. Entlas kicked around for a bit in confusion but still managed to dodge his opponent’s next attack by rolling to the side and jumping back up. The griffon was quickly on him again, landing and swinging his foreleg, he raked his claws across Entlas’ chest. He grimaced in pain, reared back on his hind legs, and kicked out with his forelegs. He struck the griffon, who then backed off and jumped back so that they were now standing in front of each other, both heavily breathing.

“Wow, did you see that?” came Rainbow Dash’s excited voice from the stands. “That was so cool!”

“And that was just one exchange of blows,” Shining Armor added. “It’s something different when two trained fighters stand against each other.”

“Do you know who that griffon is?” Twilight asked her brother, who then nodded.

“His name is Leonidas. He competes every year. He is a blacksmith and lives here in the Empire.” Thiemo gulped because Shining Armor was right. That was a completely different level than his fight against the unicorn mare with her gravitation magic. His gaze wandered over the other fights on its own until he thought he saw her. She sat in front of one of the other rings and followed the fight from there as well. One of the humans was up against a diamond dog. The human wielded a spear while the dog wore iron gloves.

Amaryllis suddenly nudged him with her hoof and pointed at the combat field in the middle again. However, his eyes were stuck on her white disguise for a few seconds, her long purple mane and how it laid over her white coat. Her white horn, throwing a shadow on her face while she looked at him quizzically. Her mouth that began to move. “What’s wrong? You look so strange.”

“Nothing, it’s just that this would somehow be equivalent to what I would do at a date on Earth.” Amy raised a brow, reinforcing Thiemo’s belief that the habit ran in their family. “No, I mean us sitting here together with other spectators and watching a play. From time to time, someone will stand up and block our view, someone will shout something, and from time to time, you will go to the washroom for five minutes or in the ring yourself.” Thiemo grinned, pretended he was yawning, and put a hand around Amaryllis before pulling her closer to him. “If it only were a bit darker now…”

A cough, followed by a small body that pressed itself between them, interrupted Thiemo as he was about to lean his head further over to Amy. Auralia looked at both of them, then took a seat between them. Amy just giggled at the little pony’s antics. “What? I couldn’t see anything,” she said innocently.

“Maybe we should follow the fight as well.” Sighing, their looks wandered back into the ring. Unfortunately, Entlas and Leonidas hadn’t waited for them to be ready. The griffon had just tried to strike the stag again, but Entlas blocked him with his antlers. However, his clawed gauntlet got stuck in between the spikes of his antlers and the deer quickly took advantage of the situation. He pulled with all of his strength and dragged Leonidas with him as he raised his head, lifting the griffon into the air. The griffon was only held above his head for a few seconds before he was sent crashing down into the ground. Thiemo felt not only just himself flinch but Amy next to him as well, as the griffon landed in the dust. It wasn’t over yet as his claw was still stuck and Entlas repeated the procedure. Again he raised the griffon into the air and threw him into the dust, this time on his back. The straps on his antlers had fallen off by now or were ripped after blocking various attacks.

For a second Thiemo thought that it was over, but suddenly Leonidas opened his eyes again and quickly freed his right claw from the jammed weapon that was wrapped around it. Entlas’ head went up again, but now only the weapon was stuck as his opponent rolled back on his legs. It took a moment for the stag to realize that the weight of the griffon was not where it was supposed to be, but by then it was too late. Leonidas sprung forward, put his unarmed claw around the stag’s neck, and made some quick blows with his left against Entlas’ side. The griffon’s balled fist colliding again and again with the stag’s ribs.

Before the fourth blow landed, the judge had already stepped into the ring and ended the fight. “That was awesome!” cheered Rainbow Dash, followed by a loud whistle from Applejack. Estoc and Shining Armor applauded while Skyla excitedly jumped up and down on her father’s back.

“I have to admit that, even though it looked a bit barbaric, it has some entertainment value,” Rarity gave as her first comment of the day to the acts in the arena. “There’s just something about two muscular males fighting against each other to prove that they are strong enough to protect their chosen partner.”

“And that’s the reason why women on Earth watch football,” Thiemo said in his native tongue. While Amy understood the sentence itself, her questioning face made it clear that she had missed the joke as Thiemo laughed.

“What do you mean no entry? I’m with Twilight Sparkle, as in Princess Twilight Sparkle.” The guard at the entrance to the arena didn’t even blink as Lyra pressed her snout against his. “I demand immediate entrance.”

The sparkling stallion in silver shimmering armour softly pushed her back. “No entrance to the public. If you want to see the fights, return in three days for the finals.” Lyra gave him her best puppy eyes, but the Crystal Guard remained unmoved. There only remained one option, and so she took a page out of her sister’s book: she threw herself on the ground and started to cry.

Tears began to run down her cheeks and she sniffled. “That’s abuse of authority!” she shouted and held up her hoof. “This stallion attacked me!” Some of the ponies who were walking by stopped and looked over to her.

“Miss, I’ll have to ask you to—” Her obstacle didn’t get any further as two more mares stepped in his way. They immediately began to berate the poor stallion about what could have possessed him to just assault a citizen and Celestia knew what else. Lyra didn’t pay attention as she just sneaked through entrance and into the atrium of the stadium during all the fuss.

She quickly looked around. There was the counter for the registration or to buy tickets. Since this was a festive event, she wouldn’t need any. The stairs further to her right, which led up to the stands, were guarded just like the entrance. Luckily, the colleagues of the guard hadn’t noticed the little turmoil outside and just continued staring straight ahead. Curious as to what they were so fixated on, Lyra quickly followed their gazes and could only groan. At the other wall hung various posters from clubs that invited the spectators after the games. On one of them was mare in lingerie leaning against a pole. Even with the black bars – there were foals running around here after all – it was still very suggestive. “Well, she really doesn’t look bad,” Lyra admitted as she inspected the poster closely.

That was another reason as to why she would probably never bring a stallion home. She just didn’t feel much for the other gender. It didn’t mean that she had never tried them before. She had a few short relationships with one or two stallions. It was just the ratio of mares to stallions. While maybe one stallion a month managed to catch her eye as he walked by, twenty mares or so would do so in the same time. The fact that she had spent the past two weeks alone in the hotel while everypony around her fucked their brains out hadn’t really helped her frustration, especially since her cycle had caught up to her during the second week.

Pushing the naughty thoughts aside, Lyra continued on her way and just stepped past the guards to the stands. After all, why would they stop her if she was already in? Soon she would meet Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor for the first time. With that, she could tick off the majority of the Equestrian Royalty. She had to meet Princess Luna yet, however. And her family had had the gall to think that she would never amount to much. After all, she was now known in all of Equestria, even though as a convict. Twilight surely would set that right as soon as they returned home.

Lyra reached the last step and got a unique view over the entire arena. Immediately her view wandered over the various spectators. “Not for the public my flank,” she mumbled. She finally found the VIP stand, but unfortunately it was deserted. “Where are they?” In that moment, someone nudged her against the shoulder, which she ignored. Again someone nudged. “Hey.” She pushed the hoof aside as it nudged again. As it nudged her again, she turned around angrily, only to see two furious-looking guards and mares glaring at her. Lyra gulped, laughed nervously as she always did, and took flight.

Thiemo’s second fight had gone far better than expected. His opponent, a crystal pony stallion who wielded a sword in his mouth, was quickly taken care of. Unlike Gravity, which was the name of his first opponent as Amy had informed him, he stood no chance against his magical speed boost. It was another ten points for him and a whole zero for his opponent, who was now eliminated. With only one more fight ahead of him, in which he could get a maximum of ten points, the stallion would never get enough points.

For the human, it couldn’t be any better. He had won two of his three fights with ten points. Maybe it was because he had gotten lucky with his opponents as Shining Armor put it. Nevertheless, he’d have to lose with zero points now for someone to take his spot in the finale, something Thiemo strongly doubted.

As he stepped over the white lines in the sand that marked the combat zone for the third and last time today, he was sure to leave victorious again. Then again, the same thing could be said about the mountain of a diamond dog who had joined him. The dark grey, almost black coat, the bashed-in face of a boxer that rested on around two metres of muscles and a club over his shoulder, paired with the grin on his face, spoke volumes. Maybe Thiemo wasn’t as certain anymore.

Taking a deep breath, he considered how to approach this. Large enemies usually meant they were slower. Diamond dogs also weren’t known as the smartest creatures on this planet, which he could confirm from his own experience. Quick single blows and retreat before he could counterattack, that was the solution his brain came up with. At the same time, his stomach told him that it wouldn’t be so easy, otherwise the gigantic dog would no longer be here.

Just then, the judge signalled the beginning of the match. Before Thiemo could even draw his bastard sword from the scabbard on his back, the club of the diamond dog made contact with his shoulder. The diagonal swing of the club connected hard and Thiemo flew backwards, his shoulder striking the ground hard as he spun over before he came to a halt. Despite the magical dampening field of the arena, his left shoulder was in agony, pain shooting through him as he slowly tried to stand back up. “Fucking hell,” he snarled and looked up. As he did, his eyes widened, and in that split instant, instinct took over rational thought and he dived out of the way of the massive club hurtling through the air towards him. Thiemo had not expected the giant to actually throw his weapon at him. It landed with a thud in the sand, kicking up plumes of dust exactly where he had been standing just a few moments ago. The thinnest part of the club was as thick as his lower arm, while at the top it was as thick as his head. This fight would have been over if it had struck him.

The diamond dog charged at him at full throttle. Thiemo hurriedly tried to reach up over his shoulder to draw his sword. The angle was awkward and pulling it from the scabbard in this desperate scenario was extremely difficult, the blade drawing out part way before sticking as the scabbard fought with the human’s angle of draw. From the corners of his eyes, Thiemo could see what the dog was planning. The boundaries of the ring were just a metre behind him. The human reacted quickly and charged as well, right at the diamond dog. The dog wore a confused expression for a brief moment when he saw the human move, but then grinned wickedly and leaned over further, preparing to meet the human’s charge with his own. Thiemo had no interest obliging him, however, finally drawing the blade from its scabbard and holding it in a low guard in front of him. While running, he threw himself halfway to the ground and slid through the legs of his opponent, he twisted his body to the right just as the dog’s momentum bore him over the human and swung his sword arm around. The right handed swing cutting across the side of the dog’s left knee. The dog howled as he went to the ground himself and landed in the dust right next to his club.

Thiemo stood back up immediately and sprinted back to his opponent. He was still lying with his nose in the dirt, and Thiemo quickly made a second and third strike across his back, but he didn’t get to a fourth one. With two paws pressing against the ground, the dog threw himself up off of the ground and landed on his back, burying Thiemo under all his weight. “Annoying human. Hamson smash you.” Thiemo would have responded, but air was something that was painfully missing in his lungs.

The dog used Thiemo as a cushion for a moment or two longer, rolling back and forth to crush him under his weight before rolling off and getting to his feet. Thiemo was happy that his chest was no longer used as a seating cushion for an oversized diamond dog and was about to stand up, but something grabbed his leg. With wide eyes, he watched as the dog easily lifted him into the air, Thiemo now hanging upside down with his limbs flailing. He swung his sword and managed to score a hit against his paw, but the dog didn’t let go. Hamson lunged out and threw Thiemo through the air. He knew that he wasn’t going to land in the arena this time, and there was no way to avoid it. Instead, while flying through the air he swung his sword around blindly, hoping to at least score one more point by hitting the dog with a last, desperate gambit before the end. Then he felt the ground welcome him joyfully in its stony, unforgiving embrace and the voice of the judge ended the fight.

“Number one hundred and twenty is victorious. Ten points for you and four points for number two.” Groaning, Thiemo continued to lie there as a few other contestants looked down at him.

“Everything alright?” asked a crystal pony. “Should I get a doctor?” Before Thiemo could answer, a shadow came over his face as Hamson stood in front of him and threw his sword into the sand. Without saying a word, the dog went on his way. Thiemo slowly stood back up and collected his sword.

“Number two?” asked the judge as he came up to him. “Let me congratulate you. With twenty four points, you are under the eight members of the diamond group who made it into the finale.”

Thiemo moved his neck in circles until a soothing crack could be heard. “Thanks,” he just said and took the parchment from the judge that confirmed his ranking. He was ranked eighth of eight. One hit less against the giant dog and he probably wouldn’t have made it.

Somehow – she didn’t even know exactly how – Lyra managed to get rid of both guards and the angry mares in the crowd. Now, however, she was where her journey had begun: in the atrium of the stadium. “Damn, I thought it’d be easier to get to the regents of the Empire.” She let the phrase melt on her tongue again and slapped a hoof against her head. “Exactly, Lyra.” With a groan, she looked out from behind the counter behind which she was hiding. Luckily it wasn’t operated since the preliminaries were already taking place. From time to time, smaller groups of defeated contestants left the arena but it was otherwise rather quiet.

As she heard steps, she immediately ducked behind the counter again, but when voices joined them, she had to look again. “Dad, you’re in the finale! That’s so great. I hope I get into the finale as well when I fight tomorrow.” Lyra looked over the counter and saw a familiar filly enter the atrium.

“I was very lucky with the last fight, Aura. That was by a hair’s breadth.” That was clearly Thiemo’s voice.

“Only with the last one?” she heard an unfamiliar deeper male voice. Then the rest of the group entered the atrium. Next to Thiemo walked Amaryllis and directly in front of her were Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, on whose back a small alicorn foal was peacefully resting.

“There’s always a bit of luck involved, your Highness,” Thiemo responded with a grin to Prince Shining Armor’s comment. The two exchanged some angry glares before Cadance stepped between them.

“Shining, why don’t you go ahead and carry Skyla to bed?” The stallion snorted, but then gave his wife a kiss on the cheek and left the stadium. Just as he was out of hearing range, she turned towards Thiemo and Amaryllis.

“Very well fought, Thiemo. You can be proud of yourself. Many come here every year to compete, but only very few make it on the first try.”

“Thank you, Cadance.” The princess smiled and turned away as well to follow her husband. “Cadance,” Thiemo held her back, “can we talk?” The human reached into the backpack on his back, where his sword also rested, and pulled out a small crystal that he held under the princess’ nose.

Her eyes widened. “Where did you get that?”

“Does it matter?” She shook her head. “So, can we talk?”

Cadance nodded. “Sure.”

“Good. Maybe you should go on ahead, Amy,” he said to the mare at his side. “I think this could take a while. And please take Aura with you.”

“That won’t be necessary, sugarcube,” came Applejack’s voice from the staircase that led up to the stands. A moment later and she was followed by Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Estoc, and Rarity. “Ah’ll take her back into the apartment with me.”

“Is my brother already gone?” Twilight asked and looked around the lobby, causing Lyra to quickly duck into cover again.

“He went with Skyla back to the castle,” Cadance explained. “She was tired and had to go to bed.” Hooves were moving, which had to be Twilight’s as she tried to catch up to her brother.

“Wait, Twilight, maybe you should stay as well. I have something to talk about with Cadance which has something to do with your research.” Lyra was annoyed that she couldn’t see the shocked face of Twilight now. The mare had stopped dead in her tracks but didn’t say a word, which clearly indicated that she was startled.

Rarity coughed lightly. “Well then, we’ll go on ahead already. We will meet in your apartment later, darling.” And with that, more hooves began to move and some even seemed to coming in Lyra’s direction.

“So, what do you want to know?” asked Cadance, whose voice was now significantly louder. Lyra peeked again and saw that Thiemo, Twilight, and Cadance were standing around one of the bar tables not far away from her.

Thiemo took out the small crystal again and put it on the table. “Hey!” Twilight spoke up. “Isn’t that from the archives?”

“I want to know what Project Echidna is.”

Cadance nodded neutrally. “Then we have to go far back. Back into a time where there were more alicorns. In a time where the alicorn race was at its peak.”

Author's Notes:

I could say so much at this point. I know you're probably exited and all that, but it will have to wait until next week. I will stay silent until then.

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

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