The group didn’t have much time to celebrate the reunion. Amaryllis only managed to exchange a few words before Auralia’s number was called again. “Watch carefully, dad! Now I’m gonna show you what I can do!” she shouted to him while running backwards, before she jumped into the combat field.

“You should really take a look at her,” Amaryllis agreed as she gently laid her head against Thiemo. “She threw her last opponent out of the stadium.”

The human looked at his marefriend in disbelief. Sure, Aura was exceptionally strong, but not that strong. “You mean out of the ring, right?”

She slowly shook her head. “Straight out of the stadium. Sure, he was a pegasus, but still…” Thiemo nodded. To be honest, he didn’t really have to time to think about that right now. In his mind, he still tried to become clean with himself about the deal that he had just made with Eris. Her words still resounded through his head, reminding him that if he won, he would get a chance get home. Emphasis on him, singular. Since his collapse in the archive, he had begun to get accustomed to the thought of spending the rest of his life on this planet. Having Amaryllis with him was a great help, just like his daughter. Other ponies like Cadance showed him that it was possible to have a comfortable life here. Meena had demonstrated how she actually had one. She lived in a herd, helped raise the foals of the other mares, and was a recognized doctor.

During his time in the tavern under Rolaf, he had thought about his career options during the monotonous tasks. He had seen and experienced a lot. He could write down his tales and try his best as an author. And if that wouldn’t do, he knew more than enough series from television that he only needed to slightly adjust. Suck it, copyright. Of course he could also copy inventions from Earth, but unfortunately he didn’t know much about how to build a phone or anything like that. It would also have to be something that couldn’t be done with magic. At the end of the day, that wasn’t so easy.

It wasn’t like his experience as computer scientist could help him. He had only spent a month on the job before he woke up in the ruins of Cervidas. And then there was only one apparatus in the Empire that could be called a computer, and he doubted that he still had access to that place after his little theft of the once confidential information.

All in all, he would have to start from nothing, but that hadn’t stopped him the last time, and at least this time he spoke the local language. However, it did not solve his current dilemma. In one thing he was sure: he would never leave Auralia or Amaryllis. But seeing his grandparents again… his sister… maybe his parents... It was just too tempting.

“Thiemo?” Amy’s voice reached him. “The fight’s already started.” Rapidly blinking like he was waking from a dream, he forced his concentration on the field where Auralia, like Amaryllis before, was standing against a unicorn. The yellow mare had a grim expression on her face and levitated a dagger in her magic. When she tried to hit Aura with it, the little filly skillfully dodged one attack after another.

“Come on, Aura, use your head. Block the dagger once with Protes.” The staff hung in its bracer form around Aura’s left foreleg, unused. If she did what Thiemo had just mumbled, the dagger would fall to the ground and she would have the chance to counterattack. Unfortunately, the filly didn’t seem to think of that. She dodged two more attempts by the mare to strike the filly with her blade, but now the mare stood directly in front of her. His daughter tried with a good old fashioned kick with both hind legs, but the unicorn was prepared and jumped a step back. Aura fell to the ground since she expected to hit something and braced herself. Before she could get back on her legs, however, she stood up on her own. The mare had managed to wrap her in a magical field, making her levitate. At her wide eyes, Thiemo noticed that she was feeling the magic-absorbing effect of Protest. Without further ado, she threw Aura out of the ring. Thiemo sighed.

With quick steps, he was at the place where Aura had landed. The unicorn mare walked past him, and he could clearly Protes’ cost. What confused him, however, was how she knew to avoid the staff completely disabling her levitation. Thiemo had realized that trick a while ago. While Protes basically nullified spells that were directed against it, it only sucked in the magic around it. So if you were levitating the bearer, Protes only sucked the magic out of the spell behind it. If the caster could fuel enough magic into it, the spell remained intact. But now the mare was one step away from collapsing.

“I hate to be thrown into the sand,” Auralia said and spat out some sand. “Why is it still happening though?” Just as Thiemo was about to reply, the voice of the judged sounded as he announced the points.

Taking it as a sign, he didn’t delve into his daughter’s question. “Everything alright?” he asked as he took her in his arms.

“Nothing is alright.” She pouted and averted her eyes. “I lost.”

“You still have one more fight ahead of you.” Slowly he went back towards Amaryllis, who awaited them with a smile.

“Well fought, Auralia.”

“Pah. I was bad…” Amy looked from the filly up to Thiemo, who was just shrugging helplessly. Of course, he could lie and tell her that she was good but her opponent was better. But he could also tell that she as a foal and simply lacked the experience and age, which would be the true. Instead, he decided to take a different route. Something that had been on his mind in the moments he had watched Shining Armor with Skyla.

“And why do you think you were bad?” Aura looked at him at first with an expression that said more than clearly that he was missing the obvious. But then she changed to a thoughtful look as she began to take the words to her heart. He carefully put her down, where she remained seated quietly, deeply in her thoughts. “Where were we?” He turned towards Amaryllis.

She fluttered her eyelashes. “I think here…” They leaned against each other and exchanged some kisses while Thiemo ran with his fingers through her mane.

“Hey! There are foals here,” a familiar voice interrupted them. With a dry chuckle, Thiemo turned around and looked down at the orange earth pony behind him. “How did it go?” Applejack looked a bit worried at Auralia. “She isn’t hurt, is she?”

“Only her pride,” Thiemo assured her. “She just decisively lost her second fight. She was a bit depressed, so I gave her something to think about.” He didn’t get along well with Shining Armor, but Thiemo had to admit that the stallion knew how to handle his daughter. He had no idea how much older the prince was compared to his sister, but the years clearly showed, no matter how many it was. Years that Thiemo himself was lacking. No one should be a father at twenty one or twenty two. Not that he was complaining though.

“Is my father here too?” Amaryllis asked Applejack, who was just waving her head in front of her daughter’s eyes without success. The mare pointed towards the tribunes where Thiemo spotted some familiar colours as well. Since they were at the third field, which was also the furthest away from the royal private seats, they didn’t have the luxury of talking with the others. “I’ll be going over to them for a moment,” Amaryllis announced as she went past the farm pony.

Applejack threw one last look at Auralia, who had come back to life and was kicking an opponent that only existed in her head. Apparently she really seemed to think about something like a tactic. “Listen, sugarcube, it’s about Auralia.” Judging by Applejack’s tone, it was something serious. “When Ah became her custodian, Ah was supposed to… well, ya know…” She pawed the ground.

“Sorry, but I’m not really familiar with the laws in Equestria, even though I was dealing with them a lot lately.”

“Right. Uhm, it’s just normal that a foal is given to an existing family here. Ya know, with a mother and a father.” Thiemo nodded. He could well imagine that something like that was normal. It wasn’t different on Earth as far as he knew. “With Twilight’s influence, I don’t have to prove anything yet, but… we won’t get around that forever. So Ah wanted to ask if it’d be alright if….”

“Hold on!” Thiemo couldn’t just believe it. “You want to say that we adopted Aura? We, as in we as a couple? Married?”

Applejack’s eyes widened. “What? No! Yes! No!” She took a deep breath and sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, sugarcube, yer a nice human and all, but… no. First of all, we earth ponies don’t marry. We leave that to the unicorns. That’s their thing. We live in herds.” Thiemo hadn’t thought about that until now. He had seen both marriages and herds on Albion. Diamond dogs lived in packs that usually consisted of some males and few bitches. Herds were usually a bit smaller, perhaps one or two stallions and up to six mares. Then Thiemo remembered what Lyra had told him about the history of Equestria, how every race used to live amongst themselves. It was easy for cultural differences to spawn there. “And secondly, not as couple but as herd partners.”

“What’s the difference? And more importantly, why aren’t you asking another friend? A pony?” Applejack eyed him strangely, but then shook her head as she remembered that he had no clue.

“Well, two ponies can be in a herd without ever being in love or gettin’ intimate. Let’s assume ya like a mare but she’s already in a herd. Ya could join that herd for her if the rest agrees. But that doesn’t mean that ya ever have to get intimate with any of the other mares.” Thiemo nodded again. What else could he do? “And now to yer other question. She sees a father in ya, and Ah don’t plan to take that from her. And Ah know that you care about her.”

Thiemo didn’t need to think long about the answer. “Okay, sign me up on that form.”

Applejack grinned, spat on her hoof, and held it out for Thiemo. “That’s how we seal deals in the Apple family.” He followed her example and grabbed her hoof.

“Ewww, that’s disgusting!” exclaimed Aura, who had watched everything from the side. “It’s bad enough that dad is always swapping spit with Amy, but that…” Aura stuck out her tongue while the grown-ups laughed.

“Amaryllis, up here!” Skyla exclaimed as she saw her older sister coming closer. Amy just had to giggle when she noticed the grumbling of her father as the young alicorn almost hung off his face to lean further towards her. Eventually he had enough and levitated her back on his back, whereas she quickly reached out her head past his neck and shouted and waved at her again.

With a nod, she greeted everypony present on the tribune. Aside from her father, there was her aunt, Rarity, Estoc, and even Lyra, though the latter was visibly staying in the back. “It’s nice of you to come here. Where is… mom?” She looked around but couldn’t spot the large pink alicorn anywhere.

“Mom took a detour through the market with Miss Fluttershy,” Skyla explained after a few seconds. “They wanted to buy something for all of us to eat.”

She had wanted to speak with her mother about the situation with Eris, without telling her anything of course. On the other hoof, wasn’t her father responsible for the security here? “Uhm, dad. Could I speak with you for a moment? Privately?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Sure.” He levitated Skyla off his back and onto Twilight’s. “I’ll be right back,” he said to her and flew down to her while Twilight was busy keeping Skyla from making a mess of her mane. “So, what is it?” he asked, looking slightly worried as he landed beside her.

Amaryllis got moving to bring some distance between them and the stands. “I’ve been thinking a bit and maybe, I mean only maybe… Would it be okay if I go on a journey?” Her father just blinked and looked up to the sky.

“If that is what you want, neither Cadance nor I will stop you. But I think we would miss you.” He really said ‘we’. “Especially Skyla and Cadance.” His gaze wandered back on her. “Why are you asking?”

Then Amaryllis got an idea. Not that this surprised her. Her mother, Chrysalis, had taught her for years to spontaneously come up with the best lies. She never was really good at it, but this lie was perfect. “Well, I thought that if I win the tournament, I could use my wish to go on a nice holiday somewhere.” Shining Armor raised a brow. “It’s not like the castle isn’t relaxing, but I was thinking about something like Hosstralia or maybe the Bridle Shore Isles.” She was just simply brilliant again.

“Why exactly those places?” She had thought of that already.

“My grandmother, Echidna, wrote about them in her diary, and I’d like to see them myself.” That wasn’t even a lie. She had read a lot in her grandmother’s diaries about the places she had been and what she had seen. “I don’t even want to stay there for too long.” How long would Thiemo like to be back on his planet? And what would he do with her when she told him about the present? “Maybe a month… something like that.”

The prince of the Crystal Empire rubbed his chin with a hoof while considering. “The Bridle Shore Isles shouldn’t be a problem, but they belong to Equestria. That means a lot of paperwork.” Amaryllis hadn’t even thought about it, but she was still a wanted convict there. “But Hosstralia is out of question,” he finished.

“Why?” she immediately questioned.

“Well, the attacks of the humans have increased. Equestria is positioning more and more soldiers at the coast. Plus Hosstralia is directly on the seaway between Ti and Equestria. I’m worried that you might get involved in the conflicts.” Amaryllis opened her mouth to reply, but her father was quicker. “And this isn’t one of the usual little adventures like that of my sister. I’m talking about a full blown fight. Even your little human couldn’t protect you there.” Both looked over to Thiemo, who was talking with Applejack. “What I have seen of him so far wasn’t too impressive either. He might be better than a normal human but nothing that could be dangerous to an experienced soldier. He’s been lucky to get through the preliminaries, but I don’t think he’ll beat the first round of the finale.”

Of course Amaryllis knew that Thiemo wasn’t the strongest there was, at least without magical aid. But she knew very well that he had an intelligent mind sitting on his shoulders, and even though it sometimes it produced a bit too much hot air than was good for him, it could also spit out the best ideas. After all, it was him who had gotten into a changeling hive and broke out of there or solved the riddle in the archive after taking out the robots. “I think he can manage,” she responded. “Just like he managed to bring us here.”

They watched how Applejack held a hoof towards Thiemo and how he shook it before they both laughed about something that Aura must have said. “You’re talking like Cadance. She also thinks there is more to that human than meets the eye. Apparently because he has a cutie mark that is similar to that of Blue Light.” So Cadance and Twilight had finally talked with him. “I admit that I’m sure there is a story to it, but I’m also sure that it is nothing that justifies giving him blind trust.” Applejack nodded over to them with a smile as she walked past them, back to the tribunes where the others were waiting. For a few seconds they both remained silent, and then her father sighed. “I’m sorry for being so direct. Of course it is your decision alone if you want to trust him. It is just that I’ve seen his darker side. I’m worried that if it showed itself again, it could be directed against you.”

At the end of the day, he was just a worried father, Amaryllis thought to herself.

The changeling princess once again stood in the arena. Her last opponent for today was in front of her. She had won her second fight using the same tactic as well. That lump of a gryphon that had stood against her hadn’t been agile enough on the ground to dodge her missiles, and as he had risen into the air, she only had gotten one more side from which she could attack. She had gotten her share as well, but it was the second time she earned the full ten points. It was something that, after she had seen many other fights, wasn’t so easy. Many of the other contestants spent minutes just staring at each other and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. No one charged in a mad rush into the fight like Thiemo or her. After the second fight, her father had explained to her that there may have been another element as to why they had done so well: surprise. No one expected such beginner’s mistakes in a tournament full of pros.

Her third and last opponent was a crystal pony that was completely wrapped in an armour. She couldn’t even see the eyes. To make matters worse, the armour not only blocked weapons, but also magic missiles. Shortly after she fired her first volley, the missiles reflected off the armour and puffed out against the magic barrier that surrounded the field. Now Amaryllis was on the defensive. Her opponent charged at her relentlessly like a buffalo and tried to ram her again and again. How was she going to land a hit if his entire armour was basically a weapon and didn’t count as a hit? She had to think of something quickly.

She jumped to the side again and the crystal pony in silver armour slid past her, trying hard to quickly turn again. That was the solution. She had to get him in the right moment and bring him over the edge. Why worry about single hits if there was the perfect opportunity to just throw him out of the arena? And she already had an idea how she would do that.

As the stallion ran past her again, since she had dodged again, she sprinted after him and threw herself with her full weight against him when he came closest to the edge of the field. Nothing happened. He was too heavy and she too light. Surprised about the turn of events, she didn’t react when the stallion rammed his shoulder against hers and threw her to the ground, which at the same time counted as a point for him.

Amaryllis rolled to the side as the stallion lifted himself on his hindlegs to bring the front ones with full power down on her. With a few jumps, she brought some distance between them and took a deep breath. She was exhausted. None of her previous fights had taken so long before and she had put too much power in the first failed attack than she would have liked. Then there was the constant dodging which also tore at her strength over time. There was still a bit of love in the air, but the supply was quite limited thanks to the barrier. It basically restricted her from resupplying from the Crystal Empire.

Too late, she noticed that her opponent had built up speed again and so she didn’t manage to dodge. They collided hard, and like a puppet, Amaryllis rolled through the dust of the arena until she came to a halt. When she opened an eye again, she saw him coming towards her again, but she also saw the dust in front of her muzzle. Without further ado, she took a bit of it in her magical grasp, pressed it to a ball, and threw it against the helmet of the approaching opponent.

The small ball of sand and dust hit its target: the little slit in the helmet of her opponent that allowed him to see the world around him. Immediately the stallion turned his head towards the ground and began to shake it to get rid of the sand, but he still didn’t stop his charge. Amaryllis rolled to the side and hoped that it would go similar to what Eris had done and her opponent would throw himself out of the field. It, of course, didn’t happen. The stallion stopped behind her and continued trying to get the dirt out of his eyes. Since he was completely covered in armour, he couldn’t use his hooves and so he could only shake his head. It gave Amaryllis a few moments to catch a breath and rethink.

She would have to end this quickly. The same trick wouldn’t work twice if he could use his eyes again. Maybe she shouldn’t have given up her wings for a weapon in case she wanted to use them. She was still in her pony form as a unicorn, but that she was a changeling should be her biggest trump. But what good would it do if she didn’t score enough points to get through? So far she had twenty and she would need at least four more to get into the finale after today’s preliminaries.

To put it simply, she had no other choice. She concentrated on the image in front of her inner eye and brought the runes into the right order for the spell. She had used her version of the spell so often that the normal shape shifting spell of the changelings was almost unfamiliar to her. Now she felt how the all-changing green flames engulf her body.

With a grin, she watched her new form. It was big, heavy, and with two horns on her head. She now had a brown coat instead of her previous one and four shorter legs than she was used to but which were perfectly suited for what she had planned. If her opponent could be like a buffalo, then she could do that too. She pawed the ground a couple of times to get a feel for her new hooves before she directly aimed for the stallion who still tried to get the sand out of his eyes. He stopped as he heard Amaryllis approaching, which wasn’t hard with her new form. He stopped shaking his head wildly and braced his feet against the ground of the arena, preparing for the impact.

No doubt he expected her to try ramming against him. What he didn’t expect was that it would be a buffalo that would ram into his side this time. The stallion had no chance. Like a cannonball, he rose from the ground and flew at an insane speed out of the ring. He landed with a thud a few metres out of the combat field where a few other contestants had just stood but fled as they saw the stallion flying towards them. Satisfied that it was over, she swapped back into her form of a white unicorn with the blossom on her flank, the only thing that she didn’t need to create. She hadn’t checked it, but she was sure that even her buffalo form had her cutie mark. Maybe she should do that later in her chambers.

Contented, she left the combat field as the judge announced her next ten points. With that, she had won three fights with a perfect score and her spot in the finale was secure. It was the maximum score after all. “For a few seconds I was really worried about you,” was the first thing Thiemo said as she returned to him. “Was a tough opponent. I wasn’t sure if I would have beaten him.”

“Unfortunately I had to shape shift.” They gave each other a kiss. Then Amaryllis noticed that someone was missing and that various other contestants were staring at her with wide eyes. She couldn’t hear what they were whispering about, but she could feel their emotions. Some ponies were scared while others were disgusted. About what exactly she couldn’t tell. Either it was that a human was together with a changeling or vice versa. It didn’t matter which of the two, all that mattered was for her to give Thiemo another kiss. A few months ago she would have wished that the ground would open up and swallow her now, but she was a different changeling now, a different mare. “Where’s Auralia?”

Thiemo nodded over to another field. “Her fight began a minute ago.” They quickly got moving and crossed the few metres that separated them from the middle combat field in the arena.

As they arrived, they saw that Aura was fighting against a griffon this time. He was acting less demure with her and tried to grab her with his claws from the air. The filly therefore pressed herself close to the ground and rolled through the dust and out of his reach.

Amaryllis and Thiemo watched the play carefully. “Can she win this?” the princess eventually asked. To be honest, Thiemo had no response for that. If she could manage to get the griffon down on the ground, she could surely score a few more hits. But the opponents in the last fight were thinned out far enough that most of them already had an idea what was awaiting them. Auralia had made the same mistake as him and had done other things when she should have been watching the other fights.

“The griffon knows that he is dealing with a physically strong opponent. He no doubt watched her fight—”

“Just about everyone here knows that. You’ll notice if a contestants gets thrown out of the stadium. She was lucky that he wasn’t hurt,” Amaryllis interrupted him.

Thiemo nodded and continued, “That’s why he’s making all the attacks from the air. Quick and many strikes. He wants to wear her down. I wouldn’t do it any differently if I knew that my opponent could take me out with one hit.” Just as he finished talking, Auralia didn’t manage to dodge the next plummet of the griffon. He grabbed her in his claws, whereupon she slid for a few metres over the ground. Lucky for her, he couldn’t grab her.

For a second, none of them moved. Surely the griffon was worried that he was hitting the foal so hard that he would be disqualified. Aura had the chance to get back on her four legs again. Only when she stood her opponent began to prepare for the next attack.

Thiemo could see the frustration on the face of his daughter. She was desperately thinking about what she could do, her eyes skimming over the field.

The griffon plummeted down again, directly at the filly. She saw him coming and reacted. She jumped on her hind legs and used all of her mass to bring her forelegs with as much power on the ground as possible. At first Thiemo thought that she planned to somehow hit her opponents head, but that wasn’t the case. Dust rose up, displaced by the force that Aura had created. With her orange coat, she was almost invisible in the sandy dust cloud.

It was too late for the griffon to slow down or veer away. He flew directly into the cloud with no chance to protect himself from any incoming attacks. A second, it couldn’t have taken any longer. Still, it felt like an eternity to Thiemo. Then the griffon came out on the other side of the cloud. In his claws he held Auralia, who he then proceeded to throw out of the ring. Quickly, the human ran past the other spectators and over to where his daughter had landed in the dust again. Her coat was a mess, and he could clearly see the marks at her side that the claws had left. Tears were running down her muzzle as he carefully took her in his arms. “I lost,” she sniffled.

The judge announced the score, but Thiemo ignored it and slowly went to the stands with his daughter in his arm. “We have a saying on Earth. It’s the effort that counts.” He gave her a smile and nudged her nose. “But your last trick, the one with the dust, was smart. I’m very proud of you.” Immediately, the filly wiped the tears out of her eyes and tried to grin, but it was obviously forced.

Applejack, who was already on the tribunes with the others, leaned over the railing down to them. “Is she alright?” she asked, clearly worried.

“I think so,” Thiemo said.

“I’m fine, mom,” the filly added. The mare sighed in relief.

“Then what do ya think about having some ice cream?” Aura nodded hastily and jumped to ground, pain and grief completely forgotten about the thought of the sweet dessert. “Ya can come to if ya want, Skyla,” Thiemo heard Applejack say as she made her way to the atrium.

Aura looked around to him one last time. “You can go,” he said, and with that she ran down the stairs, a little ‘ouch’ sounding up on each step.

“Uhm, sir?” an unfamiliar voice spoke up. Thiemo turned around and saw a crystal pony with a cap on his head, identifying him as a staff of the tournament. “Am I right in the assumption that this is your foal?”

“Certainly.”

“Then I have to inform you that she was disqualified. She broke her opponent’s jaw in the last fight.” Surprised, he looked past the official and back to the combat field. The dust had finally set, and Thiemo now knew what had happened in the cloud. Aura hadn’t just blow up some dust, she had basically blow up the ground itself. A pillar was poking out of the ground, and around it were more officials and the judge, all of them unsure at what to do with it. The tip of the pillar was lying next to it, probably cut off when the griffon crashed into it. He was next to it and was treated by a familiar figure. Meena was the doctor for other species in the Empire after all.

“Should I help with the pillar?” he asked quickly, and the pony in front of him nodded.

“That would be nice…” Not that he was doing it because he was nice. After all, it was their responsibility to keep the fields in a good state, not his. No, he rather wanted to inspect the pillar. How had the filly managed to do that?

Author's Notes:

Funny thing is, JBL asked me just yesterday if there will be a "harem" for Thiemo. No, there will not. He argued that AJ and Thiemo are pretty close, mother and father and so on. Yes, that they are, but only as friends. AJ is the only of the "Mane6" Thiemo would actually call a friend at this point. They came together because they both care for Auralia, but they ain't in love. I'm thinking about adding a total optional character at this point later who wants to be with Thiemo, but she is denied of course.

At the moment (11.01.15 18:44) I'm working on act 17.4. Finished 17.3 earlier this day. When JBL gave me the corrected chapter I realized the first time today that it actually was Sunday. Worked through the night while listening to Manowar. Would anyone believe me if I told them I'm a German Metal-head who normally listens to Rammstein, Hammerfall, Blind Guardian, Nightwish, and so on? Doesn't seem to mix well with "Smile, smile, smile" ^^

WACKEN!!! *ähm*

Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you find any typos we missed, don't hesitate to point them out. Until next week.

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

And give this story a try too:
The Elements of Friendship, Book I: Harmony