//------------------------------// // Traitor // Story: Grief is the Price We Pay // by Scyphi //------------------------------// Spike was immensely relieved to see Thorax return safe and sound and with the needed items requested. “Oh thank Celestia!” he declared when Thorax galloped up to where the dragon had been hiding, waiting for him. “I was getting worried that you had gotten caught or worse!” “Nope, nopony even seemed to suspect me luckily,” Thorax said as he began to drop his crystal guard disguise. “But we still need to hurry and get out of here. I overheard plans that they intend to storm the frozen wastes around the Crystal Empire to chase out any changelings they find hiding out here, and I got the strong impression they’d use force to do it.” Spike groaned at this news. “Oh of course they are, why would I expect them to do anything else at this point?” He opened Thorax’s saddlebags and pulled out the train pass and bag of disguises. “Well, today was going to be the best day to hightail it out of here anyway. Unless this mess has changed that, Twilight and Starlight are scheduled to head back to Ponyville tomorrow. Somehow I think there’d be trouble if we wound up sharing a train with them.” Thorax hesitated to respond, debating whether or not he wanted to tell Spike the conversation between Twilight, Starlight, and Shining Armor right now as well. He instead chose to bring up another subject. “So how do we want to get on that train anyway?” “If my train pass is still good, then getting on the train won’t be the hard part,” Spike explained as he opened the bag of disguises and quickly began to don a small trench coat and sunglasses. “The hard part will be getting both of us back over the Crystal Empire border so we can even reach the train.” Thorax considered the idea for a moment. “I think I have an idea for that,” he said and pulled out the cloak he had also snagged while he was in the palace. “Think if I draped this over my back, you’d be able to hide under it without drawing attention?” Spike, in the process of pulling out a fedora and a puffy orange wig, studied the cloak for a second. “I guess,” he said, feeling the garment with his claws. “But why, what are you thinking?” “I noticed when coming back here that some of the guards patrolling the border are wearing cloaks,” Thorax explained, draping the cloak over himself. “You know, for the cold. So I figure they wouldn’t see anything amiss about a guard passing through that’s wearing such a cloak.” He transformed back into the crystal guard once more. “So if we can just hide you under it in such a way that I can smuggle you in without drawing attention, we’re in! The only other thing we would need to protect ourselves from then is the spell they’re using to check out anyone trying to enter the empire.” Spike perked up in alarm at this. “Spell?” “Some sort of anti-changeling spell they’ve tried to devise…but obviously because I managed to slip past it just fine without being discovered, it’s rubbish. I don’t know if the spell would be capable of detecting you hiding though, so to play it safe, I’m going to cast a small spell of my own on you that should mask you from detection by it.” He proceeded to cast the spell on his friend with his cyan magic, the spell doing little more outwardly than briefly tickle the dragon. “Then once we’re over the border, we can duck into an alley or something and I can switch to some other pony disguise and we can head for the train station.” Spike grinned in approval as he donned the wig and then hat on top of it over his head. “Sounds like as good a plan as any!” It took them a little bit to figure out how exactly Spike was going to hide under the cloak though. At first Spike figured he could just climb onto Thorax’s back while disguised as the crystal guard and then drape the cloak over top of him, hiding him from sight. But the saddlebags Thorax had brought and they agreed they should hang onto wouldn’t fit over both Thorax’s back and Spike, and draping the cloak over the saddlebags looked peculiar enough that they agreed it would only draw unwanted attention, the very last thing they wanted at this point. Furthermore, Thorax feared hiding Spike on his back made his back look too lumpy to be believable. Spike then noticed that the cloak, when draped over Thorax’s back, was large enough to almost reach down to Thorax’s hooves, and thought maybe he ought to hide under Thorax instead. They quickly noticed a problem when Thorax saw that the cloak didn’t reach down far enough and left Spike’s feet still visible. But Thorax was able to quickly adjust this by tweaking the height of his crystal guard disguise a little, making him short enough that the hem of the cloak was practically dragging the ground. Doing this meant Spike had to bend over a little in order to be able to hide under Thorax, but with the cloak draped over the disguised changeling, they were satisfied that Spike could not be seen this way. After taking a moment to coordinate their walking so Spike could walk in step with Thorax without the two accidentally tripping each other up, the two then nervously made for the empire’s border, hoping for the best. From where he was hid under Thorax, his friend’s warm belly brushing against his head, Spike naturally couldn’t see much of what lay outside the cloak while it was draped over the disguised changeling beyond a small patch of frost-encrusted snow as they walked over it. Thus it was hard for him to see when they would near the border. Nonetheless, the dragon could still tell as they drew close because he could hear Thorax’s breathing turn from long and relaxed into something more quick and anxious. Shortly thereafter, he also felt the disguised changeling’s muscles slowly tense, ready to act if things went wrong. But they didn’t. Again approaching the border from an inconspicuous angle for a presumed guard on patrol, the other guards guarding the border made no attempt to stop them, having assumed that Thorax was one of their own. The most reaction Spike heard was one of the guards giving Thorax a curt greeting as they passed and another asking if they were coming off of patrol, which Thorax returned simple answers to both in a gruff voice so to keep up appearances, but that was it. Spike didn’t even notice if the guards cast the spell Thorax spoke of or not, which just told him that even if they had, it clearly hadn’t given them away. So soon they had crossed the border, and Spike watched the small patch of snow he could see under the cloak as they walked gradually transform into the more familiar polished crystal flagstones that were the trademark of streets in the Crystal Empire. “We’re in,” Thorax whispered aloud, sounding relieved. “Just a second while I find an alley we can duck into.” It didn’t take long for him to slip between an inconspicuous gap that existed between two buildings. Once there, Spike was allowed to slip out from beneath the cloak, proceeding to don the fedora and wig back on his head, having removed them so to fit under Thorax. The changeling, meanwhile, transformed in the usual magical burst of cyan flames directly from the guard disguise to the disguise of the dark grey stallion they had devised in the cave earlier. He had not removed the cloak at all in doing so, but despite that he genuinely looked like just another one of the ponies in town. If it wasn’t that Spike knew better, he would’ve said that Thorax looked perfectly normal. “Ready?” Thorax asked as they finished adjusting their disguises. Spike, head now largely hidden under the hat, wig, and sunglasses, nodded. “Ready.” “Then let’s go. You lead the way to the train station.” They slipped back out into the streets by following the alley to where it opened up on the other side of the row of buildings and were able to slip in with the thin traffic currently on the streets without problem. Spike was able to get his first good look around the Crystal Empire for the first time since he was cast out, but naturally found that little had changed. Few ponies were out and about outside of their homes despite the hour, but this could be attributed to the fact that the crystal ponies were still hiding in fear from the changeling they knew was still out there and at large, possibly planning to attack. In reality, the changeling was already among them and was only planning to escape the empire undetected, but Spike shoved this thought down to join the many other bitter thoughts on the subject that had been collecting in his mind. After a block or so though, Spike eventually noticed that what few ponies that were on the streets seemed quite…glum. He quietly voiced this observation aloud to Thorax. “I’d noticed that too,” Thorax agreed, gazing at one sullen-looking pony as they trotted past. He turned to look around for a possible explanation. “The whole city seems to be in a gloomy mood, in fact. Even the amount of love the empire’s producing has decreased, though I didn’t really stop to think about why before now.” Spike was intrigued by the thought that the crystal ponies had become so glum it was cutting into its trademark love supply. “Wonder what’s causing it.” Thorax suddenly stopped, his gaze turning to look at a nearby stand. “I’ve got a hunch,” he stated. Spike didn’t like the sound of Thorax’s tone when he said that, but he found himself following the disguised changeling’s gaze at the newspaper stand. Despite already having a pretty good idea what he was going to find, the dragon trotted over and picked up one of the newspapers to look at its front page. The bold and unfriendly headline summed it all up nicely: SPIKE THE BRAVE AND GLORIOUS BANISHED! FAMED HERO ACTUALLY TRAITOR? Spike had wanted to keep reading, but found the accusing headline was all he could focus on, glaring at the offending print as he felt his chest heat up in fury. He hadn’t even realized he was just about to ball up the newspaper in his anger, possibly leading to worse still after that, when Thorax gently placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Now keep calm,” Thorax advised as he motioned for the dragon to return the newspaper with the stacks of the stand’s wares. He then glanced up at the stand’s proprietor who had been watching them idly. “Sorry about that,” he apologized on Spike’s behalf. “He’s been pretty shaken up by all of this.” The graying pony nodded in understanding. “I can certainly relate to that,” he admitted glumly, and didn’t seem to think more about it. “Come on Sp—Spark,” Thorax urged, quickly covering up their identities as he led the little dragon away and back on course. “We were heading for the train station, remember.” Spike let himself be led away, but it didn’t lessen his rage any as he continued to think about the headline. “Traitor,” he muttered to himself after a moment. “They’re calling me a traitor!” “Spike…” Thorax warned urgently as he kept alert for any ponies that might overhear. Fortunately there were none quite close enough for the moment. “I’m not the traitor!” Spike continued on in a growl. He shot a glare at a group of crystal ponies that were chatting across the street. “They are!” “I know,” Thorax hissed urgently, anxious to get his friend calmed down. “But this isn’t the time or place to be discussing it!” Spike snorted in frustration, but he nodded and spoke no more on the subject.