Thiemo was sprawled out on the soft couch in exhaustion in Amaryllis’ living room. She basically had an entire apartment to herself, except a kitchen. During the entire time he had spent here, the human had learned to love the design. Everything had been too shiny and sparkly at first, but now he couldn’t get enough of the crystals. It was more like a car crash. Still, it had something fascinating to it. Especially since the coat of a crystal pony looked as solid as the table a few metres next to him, for example, but that wasn’t actually the case.

His mind was still going over the two fights that he had seen today. First Amy, whose wounds were still being treated in the royal salon, and then Eris’. After what Thiemo had seen from Jason, or so Amy had told him was the human’s name, he was no one to take lightly. No wonder he had won against a dragon. What still confused him was the way Jason had looked at him during the fight.

The door to the apartment slammed open. Thiemo jumped up and fell to the ground. “Don’t look.” Thiemo only saw black hooves dashing across the carpeted floor and heard the sound of the bathroom door as it was slammed shut.

“What?” The human stood up from the ground, dusted off his shirt, and reached for his coat that had been resting on his legs to serve as a blanket. He stepped out of the living room and into the bedroom, where the entrance to the bathroom also was, and carefully knocked on the door. “Amaryllis? Are you alright?”

Rumbling that sounded like the contents of a shelf had fallen onto the ground was the response that he got. “Y-Yes!” came the muffled voice of his marefriend through the door. Thiemo could only take a guess. Either they didn’t get it right in the saloon or…

This was as far as Thiemo got, as in that moment the door opened again and Amaryllis carefully looked out, just far enough for him to see her muzzle. “Everything alright?” Thiemo asked again and tried to catch a glimpse past the blocked door. Immediately Amaryllis closed it a bit further again with her magic.

“Yes, it’s just…” Thiemo sighed, pulled the door open with one strong pull, such that Amaryllis, who had been leaning against it, tripped forward and fell into his arms. The first thing that Thiemo noticed was the short mane of his marefriend. It barely reached down her neck. These few seconds were enough for the changeling princess to recover from the shock and stand back up. Pouting, she looked directly into Thiemo’s eyes. “It doesn’t suit me, right?”

Thiemo just shook his head in confusion. “What?” Her horn was engulfed in her purple aura, and something flew over from the bathroom and directly into Thiemo’s hands. The human inspected a collection of stitched-together papers for a few seconds before she flipped to one page and tapped on it with a hoof.

“There! It says that long manes are in this year.” Thiemo couldn’t believe his eyes. Not even in another world was he safe from these things. Women’s magazines, paper that printed one ideal that no ordinary mortal could reach. Well, his marefriend wasn’t one, but he wouldn’t say that he wanted to change anything about her.

Being the trash that it was, he held the magazine with his pointer and middle finger as far away from his body as possible and threw it out the open window. “That!” he said and pointed after the magazine, “is complete trash. Not worth the bit that it cost.”

“Five bits…”

“Five bits? Really?” Thiemo asked in disbelief. She nodded. “It’s not even worth one of them. If I could use both hands, I would have crumpled it up as well.” Cadance had sent him to the castle’s doctor after his return, who had cast another healing spell on him and gave him some ointment. His hand should be functional by tomorrow again. “Everypony is different; there is no set standard. You are perfect the way you are. How often do I have to tell you this?”

Amaryllis stopped for a few seconds. “Uhm… but I’m no longer who I used to be, right? I mean, a big part of me is missing—”

“Hold on,” he interrupted before Amy could say anything else. “Are you telling me that you thought I would no longer like you because of your short mane?” The red that gathered in her face was so strong that her head was almost glowing despite her dark coat. “Oh, you stupid mare you.” He pulled her head over to him and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Who put such ideas in your head?” This time, she pointed at the window. “Oh,” Thiemo just said. “Well… you shouldn’t believe everything that’s written down.” She nodded. Since Thiemo now had time to think, another question was on his mind. “So, this was your first haircut? Manecut?” She nodded. “Why don’t you just let it grow back with one of your transformation spells?”

“Oh, that’s impossible. We can transform into another species, but we can’t change our own. Well, if I would do that I would no longer be me. And you said I should let the transforming be unless I really have to.”

“I meant that for the bedroom. I love you, not a different mare.” Again Amaryllis turned red, but this time it was her who pulled his head over.

Cadance snuggled further next to Shining into her bed, careful not to awake Skyla who was sleeping between them. The filly had been so excited after today’s fights that she had fallen asleep as soon as they had gotten home.

Shining Armor, who had been reading a report from his soldiers, put it aside and turned towards his mare. The report hadn’t been important anyway, at least compared to the question that was haunting him at night. “Cadance, dear?” he asked carefully and only got a hum in response. “How was my brother? How was Blue Light as a pony?”

“He was…” she began without opening her eyes, her snout slightly buried in her daughter’s mane. “He was a clever young pony. Similar to Twilight, in many regards. But he was also like you. He was definitely intelligent, without any doubt, but he lacked her talent. He was… clumsy, to put it mildly. And when it was about certain things, like choosing the wrong time to say something, then he always knew the perfect moment for that. His magic was never stronger than that of a normal unicorn, if not even less. He had always struggled with levitation. Oh, and he was afraid of heights. Very afraid. He didn’t trust his own wings.” She giggled. “We got into a lot of mischief back then. I remember one time where we were in the gardens after the gardener had laid out a new patch and the ground was wet. We played in the mud, threw dirt at each other, only to realize at the end that we couldn’t free our hooves anymore. We stood in the garden for an hour before the gardener returned from his break.

“We loved to watch the blacksmiths at work. How they smashed down the enormous hammers onto the glowing red steel, again and again. The sparks used to fly like little fireworks. On rainy days, we would sit in front of the large windows and watched the thunderstorms. Used to count how many times the lightning flashed, and when the mighty thunder came, a cold shiver would…” Her husband put a hoof on her shoulder. “He was my best friend, Shining. He was family even before we married.”

“Tell me more about him.” Shining didn’t want to torment her. They were happy memories, and since she had been recalling them so often recently, it seemed like the best way to blow off some steam. And for him to learn more about a brother he never had.

“I remember when we snuck into the guardhouse once to get their swords. We wanted to play soldiers. We waited until the change of guards and then prised the lock open.” Cadance giggled again quietly and stroked through the mane of the sleeping Skyla. “That stupid lock. We both tried everything, but none of us could use magic yet. I had only woken a few years ago, and Blue Light had just started his lessons. We hammered with our hooves against the thing, and he even tried to chew through it. I don’t know how many minutes we tried until he noticed that the key was hanging next to torch on the wall. So we finally got in, and right after we got our swords, we were caught. The new guard noticed the missing keys immediately and wanted to check if everything was in order. We were both grounded for a few weeks, which happened from time to time. I believe that was the time that he began to read. Or the other time when we…”

Thiemo stood in the dust of the arena again. Before entering it today, he hadn’t really spent a thought about his opponent. He had expected many things, but not Amaryllis. His marefriend stood opposite to him, a smile on her lips that made it impossible for him to perform even one strike. Yet his hands made contact in the next moment, her face giving in to the violence. She was on the ground, but he didn’t let go off her. Internally, he begged himself to stop. He wasn’t the only one. He could hear Auralia clearly as she cried for him to stop, just like Cadance and Applejack. But he couldn’t, no matter how much he wanted to. Again and again, his knuckles connected with the jaw of the mare underneath him. More and more blood splattered over them, the dust, and his coat.

His right hand lunged out for another blow again. A tear fell to the ground before everything stopped. Something cold touched his hand, which finally made him stop. Back in control of his body, he turned his head to whatever had stopped him. He looked up into the face of the lunar princess. Luna stood above him, a smile on her lips as she slowly let her hoof in the silvery horseshoe wander back to the ground. Her horn was glowing, telling Thiemo that this was a dream that she had interrupted. A nightmare. Relieved, the human crumbled down and looked around. Amaryllis was gone, just like the blood at his hands and his coat. All that was left of her was a dark puddle in the sand of the arena. Another tear hit the ground.

“It seems like something is troubling you,” were Luna’s first words to him. The princess carefully sat down next to him and laid a wing over his back. “If you need someone to talk to, I am here.”

He didn’t need a therapist to know what this dream meant. The face of the smiling Amaryllis while he hammered down on her had spoken a clear language. He betrayed her in a gruesome way. He had whispered honey into her ear while he prepared the dagger that aimed at her heart. And he felt like the piece of trash that he was. All because of a stupid bet. All to bring his soul, his conscience to peace. Despite the surprisingly wise words of Night Hawk, Thiemo was still far away from forgetting what he had done to reach his goal of finding a way back home. And now, with Zarni and Deerling here, it seemed like the past was catching up to him. He was the top of a card house, from which the cards at the bottom were slowly but steadily taken away, one by one.

He didn’t need anyone to talk to; he didn’t need anyone to listen. He needed someone who could understand him. Someone who was just there. This someone had come and broken the barrier. Tears ran down his cheeks while the wing of the princess again and again ran across his back. “I just don’t know what to do,” he whimpered. “It’s all too much, it’s…” That was all he could say.

“Shhhh.” Luna gave the agitated human next to her a squeeze. She just sat next to him while Thiemo let his emotions catch up to him. For the human, it could have been hours, but he had no idea. After what felt like an eternity, the tears finally stopped and he began to dry his face with both hands.

“Thanks, Luna,” he eventually said. “Although it was probably not the reason you came.”

“No, but I am happy to help,” she replied with a smile and slowly pulled back her wing. “And you really do not want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. “No. I know where my mistakes lie, that’s not the problem. It is rather about living with them.” Luna nodded.

“A fate that we share.”

Again Thiemo stood in the dust of the arena. Before entering it today, he hadn’t really spent a thought on his opponent. Luna had distracted him too much in his sleep and afterwards for that. The conversation with the princess followed him around all morning. He had so many questions for her, but he didn’t get to ask a single one. Rather the opposite had been case, for he had even more now. Millions of souls lived on this planet, so why was the Princess of the Night so fixated on him? At first he had waved it off with the reason that he had to open the chamber for Amaryllis and perhaps also Twilight. However, by now it was clear that it was meant for his eyes too. There was a connection that troubled him a lot. It meant that it wasn’t a coincidence that he was here. He had dismissed those thoughts because Meena had been teleported here from Earth as well. But there was still the cutie mark on his shoulder. It was an uncomfortable thought that he had to get used to now. Also, there were more important things to concentrate on currently.

Opposite him was Entlas, Deerling’s fiancé. Slightly torn ribbons were on his horns, his thin armour seemingly made out of a leather-like material. Deerling wasn’t sitting far away from Auralia and Amaryllis in the royal seats. After all, she was one of Cadance’s guests.

Loudmouth gave his usual fare and the shield rose, noticeable by the vanishing of the sounds of the spectators. Thiemo had bound Legion with a golden chain to his left hand so that he no longer had to search for the stone. The rest, about three sapphires and lapis lazuli, all which remained from the fight against Hamson, was in his bag as usual. He had made a critical error. Thiemo had forgotten that he couldn’t register any new weapons as soon as the finale began, including ammunition. This only left him with his shapeshifting weapon, the enhancement through his own magic, and a maximum of twelve spells that he had to ration over the upcoming fights. He could only hope that Entlas proved to be a lesser problem than Hamson.

The stag was already approaching the fight completely different, and Thiemo remained patient as well. This time, none of them were charging forward. Not that Thiemo had planned to – he remembered how well the stag could block with his crown. All that would happen would be giving him some free shots. “So we finally meet, oh great Bananarama.”

“Looks like it.” Thiemo had no idea how to react. The sarcasm was clear. But to be honest, he wasn’t really out for a duel of words.

“Did you really think you could fool everyone, human? I know what you are, and I know that you exposed our king to ridicule.” To say that Thiemo was perplexed would be an understatement. “I hoped to meet you here when my loved one showed me the letter of her Majesty Mi Amore Cadenza. You have damaged her reputation as well.”

Thiemo blinked. When did Entlas began to move? He had taken a few steps towards him already. Thiemo cursed himself as he realized what was going on here. It was the same as with Deerling’s performance. Somehow Entlas had hypnotized him. Thiemo had no chance but to attack. Concentrating magic into his feet, he sprinted with the power of an earth pony through the dust of the arena and towards the stag, who just calmly remained in his position. Something was wrong. Legion parted from the chain, and hundreds of little splinters suddenly formed a sword in his right hand. But instead of lunging out, he blocked.

The illusion faded as the blade hit Entlas’ crown. It hadn’t been large, but he had almost run directly into it. Entlas had ducked and had Thiemo lunged out, he would have gotten a hit in the stomach instead. He pushed himself away and slid backwards, his weapon still pointed at his opponent. Thiemo swapped his view, but he couldn’t see any magic. Nothing the stag was doing could have such an effect, at least to what he knew. “What’s the matter, human? Giving up already?” It was like his legs were growing heavier and his will to fight was slowly fading. Thick clouds hung over his thoughts. Attack, he still knew that. “Come on, show me what the great ape god can do.”

The solution was on his tongue, but it just wouldn’t come. So Thiemo did what he could and attacked. Again he charged at Entlas and brought his sword down on him. It went horizontally through the stag and suddenly he was gone. In the same moment, and just as suddenly, something rammed into his side and caused him to slide a few metres over the ground. The pain of the possible bruised rib and the slide cleared the clouds around his head far enough for Thiemo to realize that he was fully caught in Entlas illusion. But it was a mystery to him how he did that. All that the stag had done was talk.

Talking. There was something about that word, but before Thiemo could finish that thought, he felt antlers as they dug his lying body up and threw him into the air. Legion lost its form, changed back into the gemstone, and fell out of his hand. Then he was thrown with full force into the ground. For a moment Thiemo’s view turned black. How much easier would it be to just remain there, and for a moment, he played with that thought. His view returned, and he looked up into the face of his opponent that was smugly looking back down at him.

Something in Thiemo moved. He didn’t want to give the victory to this smug asshole. Just like he didn’t want to give him anything else. That was the stag that Deerling had rejected him for. He should be mad, even though he wouldn’t have met his daughter and Amaryllis otherwise. He should be seething with rage and unleashing it on his opponent. Thiemo could slap himself. And that was what he did. He raised his hand and slapped himself hard on the cheek.

The world around him began to change. Suddenly he stood back where the fight had begun. His feet were as light as he was used to and his head was free from the blockade. Only his cheek was hurting a bit.

Entlas sat opposed to him with a grin and pointed at the clock and the counter. There wasn’t even five minutes left, and the stag had scored one hundred twenty points. He must have hit him lightly while he was trapped in the hypnosis. But now he had a rough idea what had happened. Nothing. It wasn’t Entlas who hypnotized him; it had been Deerling during the opening ceremony. They had cheated, started the fight before him. And surely he wasn’t the only one. Somehow they had programmed trigger words into him.

“It doesn’t matter that you broke the illusion. You will never defeat me in five minutes.” And there was that grin again. But Thiemo didn’t bother about that. He pulled a sapphire out of his bag and charged forward. Entlas prepared for a frontal attack, but that wasn’t what Thiemo had in mind. He stopped directly in front of the stag again, creating a cloud of dust that engulfed them both.

“Two can play that game.” Thiemo changed his view. Even though the stag had nearly no magic in his body, the ground, and therefore the dust, did. Entlas was a dark spot in his view. A spot that he planned to wipe away. “What the judges don’t know won’t hurt them, right?” Thiemo could see that Entlas was turning to the direction of his voice, but that was the intent of his words. He used the remaining charge of the sapphire and jumped over the stag, kicking where it hurt the most. Entlas screaming in pain as his private parts were struck. There had to be a reason that there was a rule against that despite the shield. His opponent crumbled down and Thiemo stood above him. Now it was him who grinned down at him. Thiemo picked up the stack on his crown and started punching him in the face with all the force he could muster. He was sure that Entlas was unconscious after the third or fourth strike, but better safe than sorry. After the tenth hit, he threw him out of the dust cloud and followed him.

The field around the arena lowered, and Thiemo raised both arms victoriously into the air. “Unbelievable! At first Thiemo just stands there for twenty five minutes while Entlas scores against him and now this! He has defeated him within two minutes!” Thiemo quickly turned towards the scoreboard, which told him that the hundred and twenty hits had been an illusion as well, something that he had thought already. The illusion had been too fragile. It had been broken just by him hitting himself, and that just in his mind. If Entlas had really scored one hundred twenty hits again him, he also wouldn’t have just woken up like that, and also not in that state.

He had also learned something new. The spell over the arena didn’t know if someone was cheating. Thiemo also realized that another of his expectations had been confirmed. The contestants were trying everything to get themselves an advantage, some bolder than others.

Was Amaryllis proud of what she had done? She had to answer that with a clear no. At least, that was surely the answer that her father would have wanted to hear if he were to find out. She had watched Thiemo’s fight as one of thousands of spectators by simply changing into a pony she had seen in the atrium. Following her nature, at least to a degree, she had knocked out and hidden her victim. The green space around the stadium had proven very helpful for that, and the passing ponies just thought the pegasus mare on one of the trees to be a very tired mare who had decided to take a nap. Then she had reported to the judge as herself so that she could get locked into her room. Again with the help of her shapeshifting nature, she had brainwashed the judge a bit. He now that that she had stayed in her room, just in case. There was no one standing guard in the hallways, but safe was safe, as Thiemo had taught her.

She had watched, like the rest of her family, s Thiemo had remained still while the stag stepped on his feet a few times, which still counted as a hit. Then he just sat down at some distance from the human and played the waiting game. After five minutes, it seemed strange to her. After ten it was definitely strange, and after twenty she knew that something hadn’t been right. She had flown from her stolen seat in the tribunes to the front of the first row, much to the protest of the spectators sitting there. This way she could get a better look and immediately saw what was going on. The eyes of her loved ones had been wandering around, while his lips mumbled something inaudible. He had been caught in an illusion. She, of all people, would notice that. How much had she wanted to do something, but her hooves had been bound.

Luckily, Thiemo had found out himself that he had been trapped in an illusion and freed himself. She had been surprised that he knew how. He had never talked with her about that.

Amaryllis used the thundering audience, when the unconscious Entlas was being thrown out of the dust cloud, to make her way back to the preparation room. The judge that would be picking her was still under her spell, but she was worried that it didn’t last. Chrysalis had always taught her that it had something to do with your own will overwriting that of another.

And indeed she met the judge in the hallway, on the way to her room. Tensely, she waited until she knocked and shouted her name. With green flames, she broke her disguise. “Here!” she shouted towards the mare.

She turned around to her, looked at the door, and then back at her, visibly confused. “Did you just come out of the door?” The manipulation had lasted but barely. “I could have sworn…”

“Yes!” she shouted, perhaps a bit too enthusiastic. “You said that I was up next and went past you. Something wrong?” She had to get the judge to not doubt her, she knew that.

“If you say so…” The red crystal pony mare slowly went past her, eying her while doing so, but said nothing. Relieved, Amaryllis fell into a light trot behind her and together they reached the arena. Again she was surprised how quickly they had managed to turn everything into its original state again. A pony with a yolk, who had pulled a rake that had been attacked behind him, had just disappeared in another opening that closed behind him. Hidden doors explained the phenomenon.

“And let’s welcome Princess Amaryllis back into the arena!” Loudmouth’s voice greeted her. “As you can see, the last fight has left its marks. How will she manage this time?” Amy just snorted, although she knew that the words were just. She didn’t really understand herself what exactly had happened between the two humans. “And here we have her opponent. Let’s also welcome back Jewel Note!”

The princess looked over to the other entrance where the orchid-coloured crystal pony who had danced during the opening ceremony stood. It didn’t take Amaryllis long to remember that she hadn’t been sitting on the tribune amongst the other contestants. Through her performance, Amaryllis had at least a rough idea of what to expect of her opponent: fast movements and attacks, something that she had especially trained against. After all, she was expecting to fight against Thiemo, and he was still not in sight. He would probably take some time to sneak out and watch this fight.

Jewel Note bowed slightly. “It is an honour, princess, but please take no offense. I want to win.”

“That makes two of us.” Loudmouth opened the fight and the two mares immediately got ready, both of them waiting to see what the other would do.

Her father had taught her that you had to take the wind out of the sails of quick opponents. They dodged and attacked when you did, which only worked if they were faster and within reach. Her wings were a bit battered, but a good portion of love last night had healed them well. With a few flaps of her shimmering wings, Amaryllis was in the air and out of Jewel’s reach. However, the crystal pony didn’t seem worried. She started to gallop, much to the confusion of the princess as she ran around below her. Then she jumped into the air and continued running in the air. Amaryllis couldn’t believe what she saw. A crystal pony without wings or horn was running in the air like it was just a road. Jewel Note turned in her direction and suddenly pushed herself off what appeared to be nothing. Like a cannon ball, the pony shot through the air and collided with the still-surprised princess.

The impact disoriented Amaryllis, and before she could distinguish any sense of direction, she made contact with the ground, one wing uncomfortably buried by her own weight. She screamed for a moment. And there her advantage had gone. She wouldn’t be able to use her wing again today. In that moment, she wished nothing more than being able to see magic like Thiemo to understand what happened.

By instinct, she gathered a bit of magic and built a sphere around her to gain some time to get back on her legs. Amaryllis could see Jewel Note through it and how she took another turn and waited in the air. For a few seconds, the princess considered trying it with her little sphere trick, but that would just be a waste. Being vertical usually was her advantage, but her opponent had that too now. Too many directions, which meant that she would be blasting out a lot of magic on the off chance of hitting her.

With her legs on the ground, the princess pressed her wings to her body and transformed into her pony appearance, minus the wings. This way, her opponent at least could no longer score on a spot where she had already been hit. She had thought about other forms too, but her injuries wouldn’t heal that way. There was no way she could fly now.

“What’s the matter, princess? Enough already?” Jewel glided through the air above her head, always around her shield. She could use her secret weapon, but for that she would have to get the crystal pony back on the ground. Lowering her shield, she immediately opened fire from her horn. As expected, Jewel Note glided through the air, much like during her performance. With elegant moves and little jumps up and down the air, she dodged everything that Amaryllis fired at her. Also as expected, she began to make her way towards her to score the next hit, and Amaryllis expected to have a reaction for that in her plan. She didn’t.

The hooves of her opponent made contact with the sand of the arena a few metres in front of her, raising dust as her hind legs kicked out. But she wasn’t the only one who struck. Amaryllis’ missile collided with Jewel’s right hind leg and created a rather interesting sound. Before Amaryllis brain could process it, however, the second leg hit its target and pressed into her chest. Quickly, the air left her lungs, and her legs gave way while Jewel quickly gained distance again.

With a gasp, the princess caught her breath again. She knew the sound that she just heard. She had it heard often enough in the city. Of course, she wore horseshoes and they had to be enchanted. That was her weapon.

Her eyes wandered up again where Jewel was floating in the air again. At least almost. Her right hind leg didn’t really seem to get a grip, and Amaryllis quickly found out why. Her missile had blasted off the horseshoe and it was now lying in the sand. If she could manage to loosen or destroy at least two more, then her opponent would be bound to the ground just like her now.

A list of all spells that she knew went through her head. There were a few healing spells that she had learned from her nanny. Then, of course, was the simple missile spell that she had used so often lately. There was the advanced version she had worked out with her father and of course her transformation and shielding spell. Theoretically, she knew hundreds more, but none she could cast without the according book on hand. Unlike her aunt, she didn’t have the memory to store thousands of spells. For now, she hid herself in her bubble again to be safe from further attacks.

“What do you think, Shining?” Cadance asked, worried. “Can she still win?”

“Of course. If she figures out how her opponent is operating after the last attack, that shouldn’t be a problem. She only has to realize that she needs to let her opponent come close to her. A few hits are unavoidable.”

Cadance looked down into the arena where her daughter stood within her shield and followed Jewel Note with her head.

“You’ll see, mom. Amaryllis can do this!” Skyla assured her confidently.

Author's Notes:

Today's authors note you will find here. Please read.

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

Edit:
Edited the scene at the end of the fight with Entlas to more resemble the German original.