Meeting His Heroes

by origami

Cadance's Pep Talk

Inside the halls of the Crystal Palace, two sets of hooves could be heard click-clacking against the floor. Each set belonged to an equine creature. The first belonged to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, known more commonly as Princess Cadance and sitting ruler of the Crystal Empire. The other set belonged to Thorax, the newest addition to the citizenry of the empire, and a member of an enemy race known as the changelings.

Back some time ago, the changelings attempted to invade the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot. It ended in a failure, and resulted in the changelings being forcibly expelled from the city due to a spell cast by both the princess and her then fiance, Shining Armor.

During that invasion, Thorax had been witness to something he hadn't experienced before: Friendship. He saw this when he took notice of six mares that were fighting against a battalion of his hive-mates. The sextet fought the changelings with intense fervor, but always took caution that they were not harming each other. The changeling had been so moved by what he saw that he knew then and there that the answers to the problems that plagued his kind for centuries could be found with friendship.

After his many attempts to convince his hive-mates of what he saw that day ended in failure, he decided to abandon his hive and try to make friends in Equestria. Upon getting there, he was met with even more failure, being chased away before even having a chance to prove himself.

One day, he was drawn north by a strong outpouring of love, and found himself at the doorstep of the Crystal Empire. Witnessing the ponies there and learning that the princess and stallion who were to be married during the invasion now ruled over this place, Thorax made a desperate decision.

Approaching the empire without a disguise, he surrendered to the guards and made a request to see the princess and her husband. Being granted this request, he made his plea for them to accept his desire to be friends with ponies and learn about friendship.

Despite their reservations, the princess and her husband debated and came to an agreement that Thorax would be allowed to stay, but only if he was watched at all times.

That had been more than two months ago, and now, Thorax was living openly with the ponies of the Crystal Empire, who, despite initial uncertainty and fear, were beginning to treat him as the kindhearted creature he truly was.

Princess Cadance had taken a peculiar interest in Thorax. Despite the bad reputation his kind had earned from the attack, he was hopeful that it could one day be overcome, and that the other changelings could see that taking prisoners and stealing love was not only wrong, but also not the answer to their problems. It felt good to her to see that this former foe could turn over a new leaf, and she was convinced that, with the right kind of help, he could convince others of his kind to follow suit.

The princess and changeling continued down the hallway towards a dining hall meant for guests of the palace. Inside this dining hall was a surprise the princess had for the changeling.

Having heard his story and hearing confirmation as to the identity of one of the six mares from her husband, Cadance deduced that the ponies Thorax saw were Twilight Sparkle and her friends. She knew that the newest princess of Equestria would definitely want to hear that her example had inspired such a strong change, especially since that changed happened long before she became a princess.

So, with that thought in mind, she invited Twilight and her friends to visit the empire and enjoy it without the threat of some nefarious villain threatening to send it back to the frozen wastes it had once returned from.

"Princess," Thorax asked timidly, "are you sure this is a good idea?"

Cadance simply smiled. "Yes, Thorax. It is a good idea."

The response did little to nothing to quell his fears. "Princess Cadance, I know what you said earlier, but... do you really think that they'll trust me?"

Cadance's smile changed to a small frown. "Thorax," she addressed him, "I can't say for sure what any of the seven will do once we introduce you to them."

Thorax went wide eyed. "S-Seven?!"

Cadance nodded. "Princess Twilight has taken on a pupil named Starlight Glimmer. She's coming along to visit as well."

Thorax looked on the verge of hyperventilating. Cadance put a comforting hoof to his withers.

"Thorax," she spoke, "I know you're nervous about this meeting, but I assure you, nothing bad is going to happen. At worst, they just don't trust you, but I honestly don't think that will happen."

"H-How can you be sure?" he asked while calming himself down.

"Because I know that those six mares have befriended far more evil things than changelings" she answered. "True, there will be some tensions that need to be overcome, but if I can look past what happened between our two races and see the good in you, then those seven mares can do that as well."

"In truth, Starlight might be more willing to see you for what you are than the other six."

This remark caused Thorax to raise an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

Cadance looked to her left and right and then leaned in with a smirk. "Because Starlight is a reformed villain herself."

Thorax eyes went wide. "Y-You're not kidding?"

"Nope" Cadance replied. "She used to believe cutie marks were evil and convinced a whole village that getting rid of them would make them all better friends. Then one day Twilight and her friends showed up and convinced the ponies of the truth, which forced Starlight to run and hide."

"She spent a great deal of time afterwards plotting revenge and did so using a spell that allowed her to travel through time and alter past events, which resulted in outcomes that were highly unfavorable to the existence of Equestria. In fact, one of those outcomes was Chrysalis succeeding in taking over Equestria."

Thorax looked at the princess in shock and had a shiver run up his spine; the thought of his queen having taken over Equestria and enslaving all the ponies to either be drained of love or forced into labor caused him some obvious distress.

"Fortunately, Twilight was there to stop her" Cadance continued. "After having seen many horrible timelines caused by Starlight, Twilight decided to bring her to the future to see what her actions were doing. Starlight refused to believe any of what Twilight was showing her, and when Twilight questioned her about what happened to make her the way she was, Starlight showed Twilight the event that caused her to hate cutie marks in the first place."

"What was it?" Thorax asked the princess.

"It was Sunburst getting his cutie mark."

That revelation came as quite a shock to Thorax. "S-Sunburst?!"

Cadance nodded. "After he got it saving her from some falling books, he was sent away to Canterlot to study magic, which left Starlight alone. She grew to resent cutie marks and never made another friend from that day forward."

"Starlight then proclaimed her intention to cause her changes to be permanent, Twilight made a plea to her to give friendship another chance. Starlight was afraid to try, but Twilight eventually convinced her. Now, she's learning about friendship and making amends for her misdeeds."

Thorax stood for a moment taking in what he had just heard. This Starlight had once been an enemy of Equestria, but had seen the error of her ways and was reforming herself and making amends, just as he was, though he had never actually done any kind of wrongdoing explicitly. Could there be a chance that the mare would see the similarity of their situations and decide they could become friends?

The fading of hoofsteps brought Thorax back to reality as he saw the princess walking away from him. He quickly caught back up to her as they continued on down the hallway. Cadance had finished the story about Starlight Glimmer, but she was not completely done talking.

"When we get down to the dining hall, I want you to wait outside for a moment while I go in. I haven't told any of them about you yet because I didn't want Twilight or any of the other mares going into a panic thinking there was another invasion underway. With all of them here, I can handle the damage control much better."

Thorax nodded in agreement; it was probably for the best that the princess not cause any unnecessary problems in Equestria by creating a misunderstanding. He also wasn't keen on finding out just how powerful the seven ponies actually were; he knew from experience how strong unicorn spells could be and how much strength was in an earth pony's legs.

Cadance and Thorax had made it to their destination. The princess turned to the changeling and gave him a nod. "Try not to worry too much, Thorax" she said to him gently. "You've been a model citizen and have treated everypony here with the utmost respect. Keep doing that, and these seven mares will see that you are nothing like your hive-mates."

Thorax gave a nod and a smile as he watched Princess Cadance open the door and enter the dining hall.

Author's Note:

Here is the sequel to Pleading His Case, which is actually a midquel, as it takes place in the middle of that story. I actually had a much longer single chapter version of this going, but I decided to break it up into shorter parts to make editing easier. Not too sure when I'll get the next chapter posted, but I do plan on working on this story until it is finished.

Comments

[Melody Song]

Ooh, I can't wait to see more!!

[Windy0]

Please update soon. This fic is good.

[Yoshifan30]

During that invasion, Thorax had been witness to something he hadn't experienced before: Friendship. He saw this when he took notice of six mares that were fighting against a battalion of his hive-mates. The sextet fought the changelings with intense fervor, but always took caution that they were not harming each other. The changeling had been so moved by what he saw that he knew then and there that the answers to the problems that plagued his kind for centuries could be found with friendship.

That was still pretty Epic back in season 2 finale when they fought off the changelings

[Yoshifan30]

Cadance's smile changed to a small frown. "Thorax," she addressed him, "I can't say for sure what any of the seven will do once we introduce you to them."

Thorax went wide eyed. "S-Seven?!"

Cadance nodded. "Princess Twilight has taken on a pupil named Starlight Glimmer. She's coming along to visit as well."

Aww spike is not coming :(

[Yoshifan30]

Thorax looked at the princess in shock and had a shiver run up his spine; the thought of his queen having taken over Equestria and enslaving all the ponies to either be drained of love or forced into labor caused him some obvious distress.

Trust me buddy it wasn't pretty

[Yoshifan30]

Well this is a pretty interesting start of a story and it looks like Cadence is invited Twilight and her friends and this time there's no world problem and not only that this would be the first time they're going to meet with thorax and yeah the main six did not have good experience with them ever since season 2 but hopefully Cadence will calm them down first that thorax is not a threat well let's see how this will go