//------------------------------//
// Thorax: Part Two 
// Story: The Royal Canterlot Family 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

"You can't be serious!" Thorax exclaimed to the queen.
"Believe me. I have never been more sincere."
"But to release you would mean we lose the ponies' trust!" the small changeling proclaimed and looked up to Mothball, "Moth, you can't consider this! It's too risky!"
But the taller changeling stood silent.
Chrysalis smirked, "My son knows the importance of producing an heir and he doesn't want his beloved to change for the colony. He knows this is his only option…"
Mothball glared, "What you are asking of us is serious…Thorax has just been accepted by the ponies, thanks to me. But that wouldn't have happened if Screwball didn't take a chance on me and fell in love with me. The ponies wouldn't have trusted us otherwise… We have gradually gained their trust, so to betray it… What you say is true, but I need time to think it over… I'll be back in a few days." With that, the two changelings took their leave.



"You have got to tell her!" Thorax pointed when they were back in the Empire and it was late at night. They were in Thorax's room since it was private enough away from the other rooms.
"I can't just go up to the daughter of a chaotic being and tell her that in order for the Changelings to continue, she must be turned into a changeling to help reproduce the colony! Not only that, but she would have to give birth to a royal changeling before she does become one!"
"But surely because she loves you so much, she would be willingly to do this for you… Isn't that the whole point of being in a devoted relationship? Lovers doing something for the other?"
"I… I wouldn't know. It's my first time in a relationship."
"Well, I haven't been in any relationship, but I watched so many couples over the eons that I know what makes a good relationship from a bad relationship. I'm sorry to say, but what you're doing now, hiding something this big from your girlfriend is making you head down towards a bad relationship."
Mothball sighed, "I really don't want to…"
"But you have to. The key to a good relationship is communication."
"You really believe it will work?"
"No relationship is perfect, but this helps it along the way."
He sighed again, "All right, I'll tell her in the morning."
Thorax gave a heartfelt smile.



Mothball was tossing and turning in his bed. He was having the worst dream ever.
"What do you mean I have to be a changeling?!" the dream Screwball shouted at him.
His dream-self yelled, "I never wanted this to happen! But I got no choice!"
"So I got no choice in the matter, too?! I can't be me?!"
"You'll still be you, just… in changeling form…."
"But I don't want to be a changeling!"
"Screwy, I love you, but don't you think you should make this change for me the way I've made changes for you?"
"If you really love me, you wouldn't force me into this! Because if you do, I won't love you anymore!"
The words echoed in his head and he woke up with a startle. Mothball held his hooves to his face. He knew then what he had to do.



In a yellow flash of light, Screwball and Mothball were back at the changeling castle again. She smiled at him, "I'm glad you're working at your relationship with your mom. Maybe it could help her turn to the light."
Mothball gulped, "Yeah. I really hope so, too." His heart and stomach cringed with guilt. He took a deep breath and said, "Okay…Here goes nothing."
When he knocked on the door, Chrysalis opened her peephole and asked with a snarl, "Yes?" When she realized who it was, her eyes widened with pleasant surprise and her voice changed to silky, "Why, Mothball. I didn't expect you back so soon."
He said in a low tone, "Let's just get this over with."
"Over with?" When her son reached for the door handle, she gasped in hopeful anticipation and wetted her lips, hissing, "Oh! Yes, yes! Do it, Mothball! Do it!"
At that moment, Screwball knew he was about to do something terrible. She cried as she tried to stop him, "Wait, Mothy! What are you doing?!"
He lit up his horn and unlocked the lock on the door.
BLAM!
The swarm of flying, cackling changelings blinded Mothball's vision, but his ears caught the sudden yelp of his sweetheart.
He heard Screwball scream, "Mothball!"
When Mothball could see again, the changelings were already through the force field and flying farther and farther away. When he searched the swarm for his mother, his heart dropped when he saw her carrying a magenta-colored pony.
In total shock and overwhelming guilt, he breathed, "No…"
The guards then rushed up to him and one of them said, "What have you done?! You let them get away!"
Mothball only answered, "I know…"
The other guard said, "Then you are under arrest for the release of Equestria's most dangerous criminals."
Mothball gasped in shock and tried to explain himself, "No, wait! It's not like that!"
He knew he couldn't rescue Screwball by being in prison, so he flew away as fast as he could. When he dodged the Pegasi guards successfully, he took the form of a Pegasus and flew to the Crystal Empire undetected. But once there, he discovered that Twilight, Starling, and Thorax were in Canterlot due to recent events caused by him. He donned his disguise again and headed to Canterlot.
When he got there, by pure luck, he saw Thorax walking by a palace window and so knocked on it. When his brother turned to see what it was, Mothball turned back into his original self.
Thorax asked as he opened the window, "Mothball? What happened? Where's Screwball?"
Mothball said uneasily, "Umm…" He looked at both ends of the empty hall and then pushed Thorax into a broom closet before closing the door.
Thorax asked in concern and semi-fright, "Wha – What's going on?!"
Mothball shushed him, "Shhh! Keep it down!"
"H-how do I know you're really Mothball? I got it! Answer me this: how did we first meet?"
The prince gave an agitated sigh and answered, "I fell down a gorge and you saved me. Happy?"
Thorax sighed in relief, "Thank goodness." He then asked in worry, "But where's Screwball? I thought you two were just talking in private."
Mothball said nervously, "Yeah…about that. I didn't really talk to her. I just sort of…asked her to take me back to the changeling castle and I…freed Mom."
"You what?!"
The door then opened and a voice said, "Funny. I was about to ask the same thing."
Thorax and Mothball gasped as they looked up to see an angry Discord towering above them with his arms crossed. Mothball tittered, "How much did you hear?"
Discord's eyes glowed menacingly as he said, "Every word." With that, he grabbed their tails and the changelings gave a yelp.
Discord had called his wife and in-laws to the throne room, and when Twilight sat on her throne, he told everyone the whole story. Fluttershy gasped and her eyes welled with tears when Discord explained that Screwball had been taken by Chrysalis.
He then said angrily, "Behold, the conspirators!"
In a flash, Mothball and Thorax appeared wrapped in chains held by Discord. The princesses' and the husbands' eyes flew wide open at the sight of the bound changelings.
Twilight said to Discord, "Isn't wrapping them in chains is a little excessive?"
Discord scoffed, "For you, maybe." He then gestured at Mothball as he said, "Thanks to this miserable, two-timing prince of the changelings, my Screwball has been TAKEN!"
Mothball refuted, "I didn't want it to turn out that way!"
Discord glared at him as he said, "Oh?" In another flash, Mothball was free but held tightly in Discord's hands. "Then what were you planning to do with her, then? Hmm? Spirit her away so you could have her to yourself? Never let her see her family again?! Tell me where she is, Scumball! TELL ME!" He shook Mothball violently as he shouted that.
Twilight commanded, "That's enough!" She shot at Discord with her magic and encased him in a crystal block. Only his hands were free, but Mothball fell from them in exhaustion. Fluttershy eyed at her sister and Twilight's expression said, It was only necessary. The alicorn sighed as she walked up to her frozen brother-in-law, "Look, I know how hard Screwball's kidnapping must be for you, but there's no reason to take it out on Mothball."
Fluttershy said, "I understand you haven't really been trustful of him, but you should at least hear his side of the story before jumping to conclusions."
Discord used his free talon to snap himself out of the crystal block. He then scowled, "Why are you taking his side in the first place? Don't you trust me, the more reliable source?" When his wife and in-laws gave him deadpanned glares, he said as he crossed his arms, "Oh, fine. Let the changeling prince defend himself."
Mothball took a deep breath and explained, "Look, I love Screwball, but I was worried about what would happen if I took her as my queen –"
Discord scoffed, "Isn't it a little too soon to think about that?! You should know better than to rush things!"
Mothball retorted, "That's exactly why I did what I did! Royal changelings such as me always have to keep the species going. Since I'm a prince, my bride would have to turn into a changeling so she could reproduce a new army. I didn't want that for Screwball, so I went to my mother to see if there was another way to have her as my wife without the transformation."
Thorax backed for him, "Yeah. And Chrysalis said that she could have another royal changeling if she and the others were let out of their prison."
"I didn't want to free Mother, but since I was afraid that Screwball was going to reject me if I told her about the transforming-into-a-queen thing, I had to do it, to let Screwball and me live in peace."
Fluttershy comforted him, "Oh, Mothball. I know how much you love Screwball, but you should know that she wouldn't have hated you if you told her."
Discord rolled his eyes as he said, "Yes. As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with her. I'm a hideous creature much like you, yet I found love with my sweetheart."
"Maybe Screwball saw something in you that made her take a chance on you."
Her husband said, "Well, I, for one, am not taking a chance just sitting idly by and waiting to free Screwball. Let's just get over there and rescue her already!"
In a flash of white light, everyone in the room was teleported to the outskirts of a barren wasteland. Standing out from the dry ground was a tall castle dotted with holes and had changelings buzzing around its spires.
Discord cracked his knuckles and said, "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
Both changelings then cried, "Wait!" Suddenly, they pounced on him and pinned him to the ground.
Thorax explained, "The queen has a throne that can make any magic but changeling magic useless within its barrier."
Mothball said, "Mother told me stories about her old haunt and how the throne was carved from a dark stone."
Twilight said as she lit up her horn, "Well, one way to find out." She went to the edge of the cliff and suddenly, her magic faded away in a bluish wisp. "Yep. She has the throne, all right."
Discord grumbled as he got up, "Now this is just wonderful. How are we going to rescue Screwy now?"
Mothball said, "Like we told you, only changeling magic works in the castle."
"Oh, please! If you think I'm going to trust you to save my daughter and not endanger her like you did today, you're out of your –"
Twilight interrupted, "Discord, I know you're angry with him, but if you try to infiltrate the castle without your magic, you could end up being captured as well. I think Thorax and Mothball are Screwball's only chance."
Fluttershy touched Discord's lion paw and said, "Please let them do this. It would make up for what happened at the other castle. Let Mothball prove himself to you."
After a few moments of silence, Discord groaned, "All right. Fine." He then warned the changelings as his hands began to glow yellow, "But if you don't rescue my Screwball…" He lifted his hands and the growing ball of magic over his head as he continued, "…then don't ever come BACK!"
As he said that last word, his blast of magic hurled the changelings through the air until they landed roughly on the dry ground in the wasteland.
Thorax spat out the dust and said to Mothball with a worried expression, "I think he's mad."
Mothball said agitatedly, "You think?" He stood up and said, "Come on. Let's rescue Screwball."
When they started walking, Discord shouted from the edge of the wasteland, "Hello! What's taking so long?! You can fly, for Pete's sake!"
While Discord still badgered the changelings from afar, Mothball sighed in exasperation, "If he ever becomes my father-in-law, he'll be the death of me."



In the throne room, Chrysalis watched from a hole as her son and Thorax were flying stealthily to the castle.
The queen hissed pleasantly, "Yes…Come to me, my precious heir. The Changeling Kingdom will soon have their prince again."