"So, Fluttershy and Rarity," Twilight said as they stood in front of the Cutie Map, "it's time for you to go quickly off to Canterlot to solve whoever's friendship problem is! I hope it's not the Princesses again—it would be disastrous if they were arguing again!"
She picked the two surprised ponies up with her magic and brought them out of the room and slammed the door.
Fluttershy and Rarity looked at each other. Silence went between them for a few moments.
"Twilight's been pretty busy today, if you didn't know," Rarity said.
They trotted the carpet of the hallway.
"But, why is she busy?" Fluttershy said. "Twilight didn't tell us about anything later today."
"Oh, she is meeting with—"
The front doors opened and a nervous Thorax went in, facing his head in all directions and trying to make out words only to come up with single syllables.
"Ooh, Thorax!" Rarity said, her demeanor brightening while she galloped towards him and leaving Fluttershy.
Fluttershy smiled and fluttered her way to the changeling.
"Uh, hi," Thorax managed, waving a shy hoof at the approaching ponies.
Rarity gasped and moved a hoof towards her forehead. "Thorax! You don't seem to be wearing a crown! You don't seem to be wearing anything regal or royal for the occasion!"
"You've said that several times already, Rarity," Thorax said, lightening up a little. "And, like I've answered you those times, I don't need those royal clothes." Then, his face showed expressions of nervousness. "But, where's Twilight? Is she at the library or at the Cutie Map room?"
"She's over there," Rarity said, pointing a hoof at the large double doors at the end of the hallway.
"Thanks, Rarity!" Thorax said as he spread his wings and took off.
He rushed past Fluttershy. "Hi, Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy's mane was caught in the wind. She watched Thorax bolt through the hallway, making quite a noise with both the wind and the buzz. "Hi, Thorax."
The doors swung open.
Twilight glanced at Thorax.
"Sorry if I'm late!" Thorax said in an apologetic tone. "I...I don't want to cause any more unnecessary inconveniences or, well, any more problems."
Twilight smiled. "You don't need to adopt that kind of speech, Thorax! Look at me!" She paused for a while as Thorax took a look at her and her smile. "I still talk like I always did before I became a Princess!"
Thorax noticed the stacks of paper on the table along with more pieces of paper strewn about on the table. Ballpens and pencils were there, too, making the table look messy with information. "Uh, this looks very serious."
"Serious?" Twilight repeated. She glanced at the table with its many papers and writing instruments. "Oh, that's nothing! You don't have to mind all of that! For now, I guess. Not to mention what happened with a certain Solver this morning, heh-heh-heh-heh." She blinked.
"Wait, what happened to Solver?" Thorax asked. "Do you mean the crazy changeling?"
"Apparently, yes. He's now under the custody of the guards—"
"The royal guards?!" Thorax yelled, breathing heavily and quickly. "I didn't mean to cause a big problem for all of us! Is that what the papers are about? Do I have to sign something in order to get all of this to be gone and to be good and—"
"Not really," Twilight said. "None of the papers here are related to Solver whatsoever."
"Then, why is he in jail?" Thorax asked, sounding concerned and moving about nervously. "This is terrible! This might bring the Changeling Kingdom into straggling conditions!"
Twilight sighed. "There's that royal speech again, Thorax."
"Oh, sorry," Thorax said, flinching a little. "It's just habit, I think. A habit that I keep on going to whenever I'm in front of royalty like you because...I don't want to make a mistake!"
"That's alright, Thorax," Twilight said. "Now, take a seat."
The pony and the changeling took seats right beside each other.
Silence passed between the two as Twilight looked at the papers on the table while Thorax looked at her.
More silence passed.
Thorax touched the surface of the shiny table. "So, what's the topic for this afternoon's meeting?"
"Anything related to your kingdom, Thorax," Twilight said.
More silence passed as they looked at each other.
"You mean, this is some kind of report?"
"I wouldn't say 'report' exactly," Twilight said, gesturing anxiously with a hoof, twirling the hoof. "Rather, I would use the word 'story.'"
"It's alright," Thorax replied immediately. "It's...nice. Although, what about Solver? What did he do? Is this going to cause some kind of incident?"
"Solver is just going to be under custody for the day," Twilight responded. "By tomorrow, he will be free. I hope that's enough to soothe your thoughts. Let's not get very emotive about it."
"Right." Thorax looked at the stacks of papers on the table. Then, he looked at Twilight again, whose face showed some anxiety. "The Changeling Kingdom is, like I said, nice. OK. We're making progress—not fast progress, but it is speeded up thanks to your continuous aid."
"I wouldn't want to leave you and the rest of the changelings without any guidance," Twilight said.
"Thanks again, Twilight," Thorax said.
More silence passed.
"But, now that the Changeling Kingdom is more stable, there's other things that my changelings are talking about, things to improve on. I keep asking them about what they think is best for the kingdom."
"And, what did they say?" Twilight said.
"They had many suggestions, lots of interesting, sometimes wacky, ideas. They talked about me having my own personal guard—but I don't like that. I understand the Princesses of Equestria having their own guards—"
"I don't," Twilight said. "I don't want to be obscured by lots of guards. Makes me look far away from the common pony."
"That's right, that's exactly what I was thinking," Thorax said. He placed a hoof on his chin. "Hmm, actually, it's more than just that. Chrysalis always wanted to be protected—she always thought that the entire hive was her own guard." He sighed as he looked down on the table. "And...the way she just throws changelings away like we mean nothing to her other than just protection." He sulked, a frown appearing on his face as his eyes trembled and became watery.
Twilight went down from her chair, walked to Thorax, and placed a gentle hoof on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Thorax. That's in the past. Chrysalis isn't your leader anymore. You're kind, you're good—and I'm sure that every other changeling is more than proud to have you as their king, Thorax."
The changeling sniffed. "Yeah," he said with a heavy and muffled tone.
Twilight smiled. "Now, let's think about the excellent present we have here! The today that's awesome, the time where changelings don't need to be oppressed!"
Thorax smiled.
Twilight happily went back to her chair. "Back to the topic at hoof—what other ideas are the changelings telling you? It's good to have feedback from them—they're telling you what's good for them, what they want, what would make them happy."
"Well, there's this one changeling—he's a nice guy—Phylum. Phylum told me about how we should have more money, more bits."
"OK."
"And, he told me that, to have more money, we should have to set up our own businesses."
"Didn't you already tell me that months ago?" Twilight asked, a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Well, it wasn't just businesses like stores in Ponyville or in Manehattan," Thorax clarified. "He suggested the idea of changelings handling jobs at stalls and stands like the ones in the marketplace here."
"Ooh, that's a great idea!" Twilight commented, paying him all the attention as her front hooves gripped the table. "I could amend to that specifications and improvements on that concept like which types of stalls and stands are suitable for changelings—maybe changelings will have the best conditions if they apply for being peanut vendors in big cities like Manehattan or Canterlot!"
Thorax cackled anxiously. "Twilight, your friends were right about you consistently being...uh...what do you call this?"
"Crazy?" Twilight said.
She laughed nervously, shifting her eyes here and there and leaning on the table before straightening up. "Well, yeah, sometimes I'm...like that."
And they were silent for a while.
"That's OK," Thorax said. "As long as you don't end up hurting anyone with that."
"I always have it under control, Thorax," Twilight restlessly chattered. "I've never done anything crazy that led to an entire town of ponies to be madly in love with a doll you had way back in your childhood just to be able to keep a good schedule on writing letters to Princess Celestia!"
"That was specific. Did you really do that?"
Twilight had an apprehensive face on. "Uh, yes."
Thorax turned his head to see the large and royal double doors. "I guess the ponies here were willing to forgive you after...whatever that was."
"OK, now we're getting too far away from the topic, from the proper discussion, Thorax!" Twilight hastily asserted while she, using her magic, brought the papers and the writing instruments closer to them. "Let's hear about the rest of the ideas your constituents have thought of!" She levitated a piece of paper and a pencil.
Twilight was smiling quite close to Thorax's timid face.
Thorax slowly moved his face away.
"Uh, the same changeling, Phylum, wanted to plant trees and, uh, other plants."
Twilight furiously scribbled on the paper. "Mm-hmm. What does he mean by that? Does he want to plant them practically everywhere in the Changeling Kingdom, or does he want to establish some grounds on where plants can be planted exclusively for changelings and visitors to admire? Or, does he just want to push a public effort on planting plants in their homes and in other buildings to make the kingdom more attractive?"
"He just said, 'Let's go plant!'"
Twilight looked up from the paper that she was magically levitating. "Uh, that's all? That's it?"
"That's what he said. Then, the next changeling raised his hoof and Phylum never spoke about any of his ideas again for that day."
"Weird." Twilight examined the writing on her paper. "But, that's barely enough to cover even just half of the page, so what did the next changeling say? Also, cite his name—we need this for future reference!"
"Are we running late?" Thorax asked out of the blue. "You seem to be hurrying this up."
"No, we're right on schedule!" Twilight immediately replied loudly. "I am just accommodating for the event that you might tell me all kinds of neat ideas to see, to analyze, to append to! And, I'll have all of these ideas for the record!"
"Then you're going to publish a book?"
"'The Thoughts of the Changeling'!" Twilight announced, raising a hoof to the air and looking towards the colorful lights of memory on the ceiling.
Thorax looked on as Twilight kept her pose.
"Uh, Twilight?"
"Oops!"
Twilight hastily sat back on the chair, still levitating the paper and the pencil. "Now, what else did the changelings have to say?"
"Wow, time flies by so fast that it might as well be a pegasus that could compete with Rainbow Dash!" Twilight gabbled, walking with Thorax into the nighttime landscape of Ponyville with its bright—but, not too bright—lights and the general homely commotion going on inside. "If you want, you could spend some time with us in Ponyville again! It turns out that all of us are free for the night."
"Didn't you tell me that Rarity and Fluttershy were on some friendship mission in Canterlot?"
"They'll be home any minute now!" Twilight replied, her eyes widening while she grinned.
"It's OK, Twilight," Thorax said, holding out a hoof to her. "There's other places in Equestria to explore and to be in. I'll just take a train to another town or another city."
"Wait!" cried out a pony in the distance.
Thorax and Twilight looked.
A pony ran while she dragged another pony.
"Rarity?" Twilight asked loudly.
The white unicorn finally caught up to Twilight, carrying Fluttershy with one hoof and dropped her to the ground. Fluttershy was dizzy, her eyes going around along with her head.
"We're early!" Rarity yelled. "Now, I don't want to be called anymore during this very important week in fashion! You can let Fluttershy explain everything to you!"
Then, she stormed off.
Twilight looked at Thorax. Thorax looked at Twilight. They both looked at the disoriented and woozy Fluttershy.
"I wonder what must've happened in Canterlot," Twilight said. "Anyway, I don't think it was anything too serious. Probably just Fluttershy being caught up by the wind or something—it's sad if she has to go and fly in bad conditions, right?"
"Uh, I'll just go."
"Have a safe trip!" Twilight happily said as Thorax flew away.
Twilight pulled Fluttershy up. "What happened to you Fluttershy?"
"Uh..." Fluttershy said in a flighty tone. "Rarity...too...much...lateness...had...to...go...Carousel...Boutique..."
Thorax flew in the quiet night. He flew alone, passing by the fields of grass and the groups of trees. The hoots of the owls sprinkled the trip with a hushed noise.
Then, he stopped, alighting on the grassy ground.
He looked up.
The sky was beautiful in its dark blue and with its bright stars and its even brighter moon.
"This might be one lonely trip," Thorax said. "At least it's going to give me time to reflect, time to mull over what Twilight said and what everyone said in the Changeling Kingdom, every changeling there." He looked at the dirt path ahead of him, winding through the ground. "Still have to go through several towns, though. At least I could buy some food there, some things to give to my friends." He clasped his front hooves and smiled. "They wouldn't be expecting it—a pleasant gift for them to enjoy!"
Then, Thorax flew off again.
Cherry Jubilee sighed, walking towards a single wooden stall in town.
There was only one other pony on the street. A stallion wearing a big hat walked inside one of the wooden buildings. The doors closed and now Cherry Jubilee was the only pony outside.
It was silent. Although the lights of the buildings were on, there was no clamor, nothing out of the ordinary to make the mare afraid or concerned. All that went on inside the buildings was normal talk, talk about the day, talk about somepony's feelings, talk about what to do for the next day—Cherry Jubilee didn't mind them.
She carefully placed buckets of cherries on the wooden counter. She walked towards the front of the stall and looked at the sign on the top. "'Cherry Hill Ranch Cherries!'" she said.
Then, she went back to the back of the stall, laid a hoof on the counter, placed her head on that hoof, and sighed.
A buzz.
Cherry Jubilee looked here and there.
"It's Thorax!" the voice yelled.
The mare looked at the approaching changeling.
Then, Thorax stopped right in front of the cherry stall. "I wanna buy some cherries, please!"