The preparations for the transition to autumn in Vanhoover had formally begun according to the weather reports in the paper, but despite a notable decrease in the ambient temperature in the city, the weather outwardly remained fairly calm and unchanged. This didn’t especially surprise Spike, who knew the autumn transition generally wasn’t immediate. Back in Ponyville, autumn normally wouldn’t settle in fully for another moon or more. However, according to Fly Leaf, Vanhoover, being further north, tended to start into autumn sooner than more southern towns like Ponyville due to the climate differences. The weather may be managed by ponies after all, but that didn’t mean the climate wouldn't still vary depending on the region of the world you lived in.
Or so both Spike and Fly Leaf attempted to explain to Thorax, who didn’t seem to understand. To him, the discrepancies all just seemed oddly inefficient. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just have autumn take place universally across the globe regardless of region? He assumed there was a more formal explanation as to why it was done this way that neither Spike nor Fly could give him, and made a mental note to research it further next time he was checking out new books from the library. In the meantime, Thorax decided to appreciate the slow transition to autumn anyway, as it at least meant it bought himself time to brace for it. Going from the colorful descriptions Spike had been giving him, autumn sounded visually beautiful, but being originally native to much farther south than here, Thorax was also dreading the cold that would come with it. His chitinous hide, of course, would provide sufficient insulation to bear it, and he had been wearing his new hoodie jacket every time he went out now, but that didn’t mean the cold was going to be any more enjoyable for him to be in.
Regardless, it wasn’t a bad day to be out and about in the city, and so for his lunchbreak that day, Thorax decided to go out and run a few errands. He was in a pretty good mood as he did so; there had been few problems of note that had arisen as of late. There was still the unresolved matter of the attempted intrusion upon Thorax’s mental scape of course, but there still hadn’t been any new developments on that, or any sign that there had been any second attempts at the deed or that any more were coming. This had been leading Thorax to conclude that, whoever or whatever was behind it, this had been the end of the matter. Of course this didn’t mean that Spike and Thorax weren’t still keeping themselves on guard for it, because they most certainly were; they had agreed it was better safe than sorry. But until it happened, they figured there were other things in life needing their focus more.
In this case though, Thorax was out on a personal and casual errand. He had learned that an old-timey bookstore across town was having a clearance sale, and as he was far enough into the Sky Trek book series and looking into securing copies of the books for himself, he was hoping he might find some copies there, especially from the early days of the series, which would be excellent finds from a collecting perspective. As the book series was just over fifty years old now, the first dozen or so entries in the book series had become increasingly harder and harder to come by over time, at least in their original printings, which Thorax preferred. Obviously, a number of reprints had been run over the years of these early books, but to Thorax the original printings were more desirable. He attributed this to his changeling nature; all changelings know that referring to the physical original wherever possible is the best way to form a disguise, and are trained with that in mind. Besides, Thorax preferred the original, minimalistic, cover art the early versions used that the more crowded and colorful later editions replaced.
Because of the location of the bookstore, Thorax took his usual shortcut through what Spike and Fly Leaf referred to as the “rougher” part of town. Thorax still didn’t quite see why they saw it so though. He granted that this part of town overall seemed a bit more run down, but the ponies he would occasionally meet within seemed nice enough…although admittedly he usually just ran into Ragg and his group of friends when heading through this part of town. As usual, Ragg and the group were approachable enough, cheerily greeting Thorax, asked him to do his usual “trick” running up and down the archway the group always seemed to be hanging around, before parting and letting Thorax go on his way. By this time, Thorax had begrudgingly conceded that Spike was right, and the group was no more than a gang that occasionally got into trouble…but the disguised changeling still preferred to think better of the group.
At any rate, he arrived at the desired bookstore a couple of blocks further on without further event and began skimming through their selection of books. It was indeed an “old-timey” bookstore in the sense that it specialized in selling in primarily old texts first printed decades back, usually with collectors in mind. But it also sold more recently printed books as well, probably so to appeal to more than one demographic of shopper. Because of this, while Thorax wasn’t able to find any copies of the desired early entries in the Sky Trek series that brought him here, he was able to find a copy of a relatively more recent entry in the series that he had actually just finished reading himself a week or so earlier and bought that. He also found a book supposedly detailing changelings themselves, written by a noted pony professor and published almost immediately following the Canterlot invasion. Skimming through it, he found nearly all of the details describing changelings given within were inaccurate to flat-out wrong…to the point Thorax thought it was hilarious, so he bought it too, for the laughs.
Finished at the bookstore then, and the allotted time for his lunchbreak ending soon, Thorax started the trip back for Fly Leaf’s shop, and again took his shortcut through the rough part of town. He expected to find Ragg’s gang in their usual spot and to go through their normal routine like always, and like he had done when passing through here not more than twenty minutes earlier. Instead though, as he approached, he saw the group standing around the archway as usual, but something seemed notably different. It was only as he drew closer that he realized it was because Ragg’s group had been joined by another group of lanky teens like them. Except where Ragg’s group was composed of mostly reddish-colored earth ponies, the new group was almost entirely composed of bluish-colored pegasi. Additionally, the new group all wore some kind of scarf about their necks, while Ragg’s group all wore some kind of hat, except Ragg himself, who today only wore a black t-shirt.
Thorax slowed as he started to approach, feeling puzzled, and noticed there was a clear divide between the two groups, and the mood seemed…tense. He could smell the feelings of apprehension and distrust on the air. Ragg and a burlier teen from the other group—Thorax surmised he was the leader of the pegasi group—were engaged in quiet but flurried conversation. Thorax had come to a stop just a couple feet away from the gathering, beginning to wonder if maybe he shouldn’t be interrupting, when one of the ponies in Ragg’s group spotted the camouflaged changeling and nudged Ragg so to point it out to the teen.
Ragg paused in the conversation and looked in Thorax’s direction. “Thorny!” he greeted in his usual manner, but then gave Thorax an apologetic grin. “Hey listen, you’re probably not going to want to come through this spot right now.”
“Oh, okay, I’ll go around then,” Thorax said, not wanting to cause trouble, and started to turn and leave. He quickly found his path blocked by a couple of ponies from the pegasi group.
“What is this, Ragg?” the pegasus Ragg had been conversing with said darkly. “Who’s the beatnik? I thought we agreed no outsiders for this meet’n’greet.” He shot a glare at Ragg. “Or is he one of yours? Recruiting unicorns now, are we?”
“Leave Thorny out of this, Q-Tip,” Ragg responded in a similar tone to the stallion, apparently by name. “He’s just passin’ through…he didn’t know what was gonna be happenin’ here.”
“Yes, I seem to have arrived at the wrong time,” Thorax offered helpfully, seeing no easy way past the ponies blocking his path and turned to watch the two group leaders and wait for a resolution.
“Shut up, beatnik!” Q-Tip shouted in Thorax’s direction then faced Ragg again. “You know the rules, Ragg, I never thought you’d try and break ‘em, but then again, I guess I ain’t surprised.”
“Really, Q?” Ragg questioned in a challenging tone. “I think you’re just lookin’ for any excuse to cause trouble.” He nodded his head at Thorax. “If you’re so sure I’m tryin’ to sneak a fast one on ya though, then go ahead, check Thorny out.”
“I think I will,” Q-Tip said, and lumbered over to Thorax.
Up close, Thorax couldn’t help but notice that this was indeed a burly pony, the sort one wouldn’t want to get angry, and stood about half a head taller than Thorax. The fact he had a thin scar running down one of his sky blue cheeks didn’t help with the intimidating figure he posed. Nor did the fact that his right wing appeared to be twisted and mangled from some past injury. Thorax wondered briefly if he might be a cripple and unable to fly. At first Q-Tip just stood there and looked Thorax’s disguised form up and down. But then he stepped forward and began to roughly give Thorax a pat-down, although what he was looking for, Thorax could only guess. He then pulled open one of Thorax’s saddlebags and pulled out the Sky Trek book Thorax had bought, and held it up before the changeling skeptically, as if this proved a point.
“Like I said,” Q-Tip said, turning around to face Ragg again, casually tossing the book over his head. “He’s a beatnik.”
“Hey!” Thorax cried out, quickly grabbing the book with his magic before it hit the ground. “That’s in mint condition!” He quickly tucked the book back into the safety of his saddlebag before turning back to look at the ponies surrounding him, all looking in his direction. Thorax decided to use the chance to pose a question. “Also, what’s a beatnik?”
“I said shut up!” Q-Tip shouted suddenly, and whirled onto Ragg. “He may be a beatnik, but I can see why ya’d want him around Ragg. Just what were you tryin’ to pull?”
“If you wanna make something of it Q, then why don’t you already?” Ragg challenged with a scowl. “That’s why you and your lousy gang are really here, ain’t it?”
“Lousy?” Q-Tip roared, and suddenly grabbed Ragg by the collar.
Thorax tensed as he sensed the tensions within both groups spike sharply, and realized suddenly that he had come directly between two rival gangs, one of which apparently looking for a fight. He swallowed. “Look, I think I should just go…” he began, pointing a hoof behind him.
“Thorny, you’re good with that horn of yours, right?” Ragg asked seriously as he glanced at Thorax, who kept surprisingly calm while Q-Tip’s hooves twisted the collar of his shirt.
Thorax looked up at the disguised dark-grey horn upon his brow. “…yes?”
Ragg nodded slightly and faced Q-Tip with a glare again, the burly pegasus merely glaring back, waiting for Ragg to make the first move. “Better use it,” was all Ragg said before abruptly punching Q-Tip in the face with his hoof.
Like a signal had been given, both gangs were suddenly upon each other, trying to bash the other into pulp. Immediately, the training Thorax had been given as an invader back at the hive kicked in, and he lit his horn, spinning around in time to shoot two ponies charging to tackle him with stun spells, and duck as another pony leapt at him, sailing over his head. He rose again and continued firing off stun spells, trying to knock out as many ponies as quickly as he could. He tried to keep it limited to just Q-Tip’s gang, but saw several members from Ragg’s gang blindly charge him too in the heat of the battle and started stunning them as well.
The next couple of moments blurred by quickly, Thorax eagerly trying to keep everypony that charged him stunned and out of hoof’s reach, praying the fight would end soon. He feared at one point he might have to switch to a winged disguise to escape, risking the transition between them getting noticed, but it eventually started to calm down enough as more and more ponies went down in the fight that he thought he might be able to slip away unnoticed soon without resorting to that. But while stunning another pony that was leaping at him, Thorax suddenly saw another blue-green pegasus charging his left side out of the corner of his eye. He proceeded to spin around and aim his horn to fire his spell again, but this time he was a second too slow, and the pegasus slammed hard into Thorax’s side, pushing him a few paces back as they grappled.
Thorax lost his aim briefly, and before he could get it back, the pegasus swatted his hooves and managed to land a blow to Thorax’s horn. Thorax yelped at the jolt of pain this sent through his horn and felt it go numb, briefly unable to cast any more magic of any sort. The attacking pegasus used this moment to shove the stunned changeling against the wall of a neighboring building, pinning him in place while they continued to grapple. Realizing he was cornered and at a disadvantage though, Thorax reacted instinctively like the changeling he was and, permitting his fangs to burst out of his disguise suddenly, he sank his teeth into the pegasus’s shoulder, right where it met with his neck. The pegasus jerked back from the pain, and reacted by blindly punching the left side of Thorax’s head trying to get him to let go, managing to tear a hole in Thorax’s disguise over his face, the disguise being weakened as it was thanks to Thorax’s momentarily numbed horn.
Despite this, Thorax kept his fangs dug into the pony’s flesh, feeling the tickle in the base of the fangs as they pumped subduing venom into the assaulter’s bloodstream. Soon, the pegasus began to go limp as the venom acted, and finally he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Thorax let him drop and just stood there for a second, panting and recollecting his nerves. Pushing off from the side of the building, he looked around and saw the fight had apparently ended. As he surveyed the area, all he saw were ponies crumpled on the ground, unconscious. Believing himself the last one standing then, Thorax let out a whoosh of relief, and beginning to sense feeling in his horn again, he hid his fangs back behind his disguise and began to slowly seal the hole that had torn in his disguise, hiding his exposed changeling face once again. As he did so, he realized he should flee while he could, and turned to gallop off in the direction he had originally been heading for Fly Leaf’s shop.
That was when he saw Ragg was in fact still standing from the fight too, one eye already blackening, standing there and staring at Thorax with wide, wide, eyes.
Thorax’s own eyes widened, and one hoof went to his face in time to feel the hole in his disguise finish sealing itself. It was immediately clear what had happened. He saw, Thorax thought to himself in shock.
Thorax quickly braced himself for the inevitable reaction he thought would follow, debating his options, while inwardly trying to ready another stunning spell to use should he need to, only to find his horn still hadn’t recovered quite enough to form the needed spell. But Ragg did nothing except stand there and continue to stare, clearly too shocked to move. It seemed he didn’t know what to do. Eventually Thorax realized it didn’t matter now anyway; he could hear sirens rapidly converging on the spot they stood. Someone must have gotten word to the police during the fight, and now they were close enough that neither Ragg nor Thorax could hope to escape before they arrived.
So Thorax did the next best thing he could think to do. He brought his hoof to his lips and motioned for Ragg to remain silent, wordlessly conveying to keep what he saw secret. For a split second he wasn’t sure Ragg understood or would obey, but then slowly, ever so slightly, Ragg nodded his head. It was then that a police carriage came skidding to a halt just in front of the scene, the spinning lights on the helmets of the team of ponies pulling it flashing brightly.
“Don’t move!” a police pony ordered as the carriage doors sprang open and a riot team of unicorns stormed out. “Hooves where we can see them!”
Thorax and Ragg both spun around to face them, obediently throwing their forehooves into the air and surrendering. As the officers surrounded the pair of them, moving to cuff them, Thorax was somewhat surprised at the one thought that kept running through his head.
Spike is going to kill me for this.