Normally Thorax enjoyed the latter half of the work day in Fly’s shop, as it meant that, one, the work day was nearing completion, and two, he could walk away satisfied in having completed another day’s worth of good work.
But with the realization that it would be his last, he couldn’t today.
While Thorax sat at the front desk and waited for Spike to return, ready to depart from Vanhoover forever, the minutes dragged on agonizingly slow. It didn’t help that business had slowed down significantly, with scant few customers in the shop and few in need of Thorax’s services, leaving him with little to do but sit there and think about what he now faced.
Repeatedly he thought to himself that it wasn’t fair, that after so much time having successfully spent in Vanhoover without detection, without suspicion, it chooses now to unravel, after he and Spike had dared to think they would be forever safe here. Clearly not. It made Thorax angry, afraid, and above all, extremely depressed, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it now. He wished there was some way to fix things so they could eliminate the threat Twilight Sparkle now presented to them while also staying where they were, but he knew there was no way to do it. Spike was right. The smart thing was to flee, while they had a chance. And what a small chance it was going to be.
As a result, Thorax knew very well that it meant they would have to leave many of their possessions behind. If they had more time, they could’ve transferred all of it onto the Vergilius, the airship having sufficient space to house it all, but only did they lack that time, Thorax knew such a move would draw too much attention to them anyway. There was no way they could take it all with, and Thorax fully expected Spike would be in the middle of packing up the things they had always planned to bring should they reach this very point; food, water, useful tools for traveling, blankets, as much of their collected finances they could carry, and backpacks to carry it all in. The rest would have to stay.
Thorax lamented what would have to be left behind. His books, his record player and records, and more. Thorax wasn’t even sure they would have the chance to bring the supply of the Thornton Cheese he currently had made. It would all have to stay, and the thought weighed heavily on him, but he took faith in the hope that Fly Leaf would certainly find good homes for all of it in the end. But it wasn’t just the physical things that Thorax lamented he was about to lose, it was losing being here at all. He had become quite attached to life in Fly’s shop, and as he gazed around at the wood-paneled walls of the shop for what would likely be the last time, taking in as much as he could and burning it to memory, he found himself afraid leaving the familiar environment to wander back out into the unknown, something he had hoped he had left long behind by now.
He felt especially bad about having to leave Fly Leaf in the dark, and wished they could explain the situation to her, or at least let her know they would be all right. But they couldn’t even do that. He knew she’d no doubt learn the truth soon enough once Twilight inevitably returned and told all, but he hated that Fly would have to learn it second-hoof like that, and plus he knew Twilight’s version of the tale would be biased and inaccurate. After everything she had done for them and for taking them in like she had, she deserved far, far, better than this.
Worst of all was the realization that Thorax would likely have to abandon the Thornton identity he had built, which also meant he’d have to sever all ties to anyone familiar with it. This was bad enough, but it also meant Thorax would have to end relations with Trixie. She wouldn’t be able to stay in contact with him anyway, as she only had his Vanhoover address, and Thorax knew he shouldn’t give her any alternative while they were going on the run again. Thus he would never be able to communicate with her again, and would have to end it today, one way or another, whether he liked it or not. A daunting and horrible task indeed for him, Thorax at one point attempted to ponder how he ought to do that, what the best way to do it would be…but the thought of abandoning ties with Trixie, no matter how he did it, pained him so much it nearly drove him to tears, and knowing he needed to stay composed during this pivotal and sensitive moment, it was better to not dwell on the matter, pushing it aside for focusing on at a more opportune time.
If one ever arose.
It was perhaps the uncertainty of it all that was most vexing about it though. He didn’t know what lay ahead from here, just that they would leave Vanhoover and, barring no unforeseen complications—of which many dozens could transpire between then and now—they would go…somewhere else. He had no idea where; this was something he and Spike never had settled upon should things fail in Vanhoover. Both of them had begun to bank on it never coming to that. And now their reluctance to face that prospect was coming back to haunt them…but this, too, was a problem better left to face later.
For now, Thorax did as he was told. Keep up appearances while Spike secretly packed, and keep an eye out for any complications that could hinder their efforts to flee. He did so with reluctance, but did it he did. And the minutes continued to tick by. It felt like hours had passed by since Twilight Sparkle and Applejack had raced out the door on a false lead to find them and Spike had given his dreaded statement that they had to leave, but a glance at the clock showed it had only been ten minutes at best. A mere glimmer of time, yet one that felt like Thorax had spent an eternity of internal torture getting through.
But he still chose to not let it distract him and kept vigilant. He was eventually glad he did, because it was as he checked out one of the few customers that needed help during this space of time that he spied the first member of the guard outside the shop window.
Because Equestria was such a large nation and it’s royal guard could only ever be so big no matter what was done, the individual cities took it upon themselves to maintain their own private, volunteer, force of protective guards assigned to their city and meant to fill in with royal guard duties locally whenever the royal guard themselves weren’t available. Vanhoover naturally possessed such a militia, marked by the distinctive copper-colored armor they were issued. However, over the decades and as Equestria persisted in a long period of peace, the need for such a city guard diminished greatly, and support for it continued to degrade. These days, though the guard still existed, they were severely underfunded and understaffed, to the point that it was arguable if there was even enough guards in service with which to support the city in an emergency at all. Many locals wondered if the city guard was even still necessary and should be instead disbanded, allowing the Vanhoover police to fill in the job, as it often did on a day-to-day basis already. Usually the most service the guard saw was for ceremonial events within the town, in which they were present more for appearance than anything else, and was how Thorax was even aware of them at all, having seen a small party of them at one such event a couple moons back.
But despite all of that lack of use, the city guards were all still trained with the same skills as any member of the royal guard, and were ensured to still be fully capable of providing the needed services if it ever arose, meaning they were still a force to be reckoned with. Plus, unlike the Vanhoover police who answered first to the leader of the city and then the royal throne second so to best serve Vanhoover’s needs, the city guard answered directly to the throne and whatever princess sat upon it. Therefore, when Thorax spied the member of the city guard strolling past in front of the shop and bearing the distinctive copper-colored armor, a rare sight, Thorax immediately feared the guard had been sent by Princess Twilight, who’d have more than enough authority to take emergency command of them if she so desired. And if Spike’s comments about how Twilight was likely to react to the present situation were true…
The guard did not enter the shop though, and instead strolled on past it, so Thorax told himself it was a false alarm. One guard passing by didn’t equate to trouble. But Thorax began to question that assessment again when he spied a second guard strolling past the shop a few minutes later, going the opposite direction from the first. Not long thereafter he spied a third go by, soon followed by a duo of guards walking by together. The space of time between each sighting was notably getting shorter and shorter too, to the point that Thorax knew it all couldn’t be a coincidence; they were here for a reason. It was when Thorax saw the first guard again, this time going the other way, that he realized what the guards was doing. They were discreetly surrounding the shop and patrolling around it, circling the area and no doubt on the watch for any escape attempts from the likes of Spike and Thorax. They were trying to keep them corralled there no less, and Thorax knew only one pony could be behind that.
Thorax was in the middle of debating what he ought to do about it, when Fly returned from the back. “Spark come back yet?” she asked as she stepped out of the batwing doors.
Startled by Fly’s sudden appearance, Thorax quickly shook his head. “N-no, no sign of him, Miss Fly.”
Fly stopped and gave him a look that was part confused and part concerned, and Thorax realized suddenly he was trembling slightly. “Is everything okay, Thorn—?”
“Miss Fly, can you take over at the front desk for me?” Thorax suddenly interrupted as he spied yet another city guard go past the front window. “I just remembered something I really, really, need to do upstairs.”
Fly frowned. “Well, actually, I need—”
“Okay, thank you!” Thorax interjected again, not waiting for an approval and turned and raced for the stairs.
Fly snorted. “You’re welcome!” she called sarcastically, but Thorax didn’t pause to listen as he galloped up the stairs.
He didn’t slow until he burst through the door of his and Spike’s room. “Spike, we have a problem!”
Spike, in the middle of finishing packing their travel bags which he had currently set out in the middle of the floor, looked up in immediate alarm. “What now?” he asked with obvious dread.
Thorax quickly shut the door behind him. “It’s the city guards,” he explained urgently. “For the past several minutes, I’ve been seeing them passing by the shop’s front window with growing frequency. I think they’re circling the building.”
Spike groaned. “Probably to make sure we don’t try anything,” he muttered. “And you said it was the city guard, the ones with the coppery armor, and not the police?”
Thorax nodded. “Yes, there was no mistaking them,” he said. “And I think they’re here because they are the ones who can take orders directly from a princess.”
Spike groaned again. “Of course Twilight would try something like that.” He quickly went back to packing. “We need to hurry. We can’t have much time left before they all start barging in here for us.”
“But how are we going to get out of here?” Thorax asked, anxiously circling around the bags to stand beside Spike. “If we try to go out the front door or even the back door, they’re surely going to try and block our way.”
“We’ll figure that out in a second, but right now help me pack. I’m worried as all hay that I’m forgetting something and now’s not the time for that.”
Thorax pulled the saddlebags he would be carrying closer to him and peeked inside. “Well, looks like we got everything important…I suppose that’s all we’d really need…”
“I know, I know, I don’t want to leave all this stuff behind either,” Spike stated, stopping to gaze sadly about their room. “I wish we could take it all with us…but you’re right, the bare minimums are going to be better. Anything more than that and it’ll just slow us down.”
Thorax also stopped to gaze about the room, and the idea of leaving it forever made his heart ache. He sniffled, finding himself fighting tears. “I don’t want to go, Spike.”
Spike gazed at his friend sympathetically. “I know you don’t,” he said, his own voice shaky, revealing that Spike was only just holding together himself. “But you know we don’t have much choice at this point. We can’t weasel our way out of this one, not this time.”
It was then that the door to their room abruptly burst open. “And why not?” Fly Leaf demanded firmly as she, for the first time ever, marched into their room uninvited and unannounced.
Spike and Thorax immediately jumped to their feet in surprise. “Fly!” Spike exclaimed, his eyes darting over at Thorax to double check the changeling was still disguised, despite knowing that Thorax had never dropped the disguise when he entered in the first place. “I thought you were downstairs!”
“And I should be, but you two are acting all…squirrelly,” Fly stated in a huff as she sat down, planting herself between the two and the door, their only quick way of escape. She took only one look at the bags, no doubt put together what they signified, and focused her frown upon her two employees. “What’s going on? You’re both hiding that Spike’s actually here after all, you both look like the world’s about to end, and now I see you’re packing! So I want an explanation. Now.”
Spike and Thorax shifted awkwardly and nervously, reluctant to give such an explanation, both because it would mean revealing details they had kept secret and because they both knew they had more pressing matters threatening them than Fly Leaf at the moment.
“Something’s come up, Miss Fly,” Thorax finally offered, being deliberately vague. “I’m…afraid we have to leave.”
Fly wasn’t having it though. “No one’s going anywhere until I get an explanation,” she firmly said.
“I don’t think we even have time for that even if we wanted to, Fly!” Spike retorted straightaway, trying to sympathetically convey the urgency of the matter to Fly in as few words as he could. “Look, I’m sorry Fly, I really am, neither of us wanted to be put in this situation, but we have, and I genuinely believe…”
“You really expect you’re just going to waltz right out of here with no warning without giving me some kind of reason why first?” Fly interjected, unswayed still.
“Fly Leaf!” Spike snapped while Thorax shifted guiltily. “We absolutely do not have time for this! In order to explain this enough for any of it to make sense, I’d have to go into great detail about who we are, where we came from, why we had come here to—”
“Then skip it,” Fly interrupted to suggest, waving her hoof dismissively. “I already know most of it.”
“I can’t just skip it!” Spike declared, throwing his claws out in exasperation. “How can I just skip it when it’s all so important to…” he trailed off as what Fly had said started to sink in fully. Both he and Thorax stared at Fly in surprise for a moment, but Fly’s only continued her stern gaze at the pair. “What do you mean you already know? How could you possibly know anything about any of this?”
Thorax then gently intervened. “Miss Fly,” he said in a soft and apologetic voice, “I’m afraid we haven’t been entirely truthful with you since the beginning.”
Fly gazed at them for a long moment, her expression not changing except for the metaphorical gears that could be seen turning behind her eyes. Finally, she made her response. “I know.”
Spike and Thorax’s eyes went very wide at this, the reality of Fly’s words starting to hit them that she might, baffling somehow, already know the truth. Thorax, completely shocked, instinctively opened his mouth to make some kind of exclamation or retort. But Spike quickly stopped him. He couldn’t see how Fly could actually know the truth, and wondered if perhaps this was instead some sort of misunderstanding. Or, though Spike hated thinking about it, it was a bluff on Fly’s part to try and trick them into admitting the truth. Seeing they needed to tread very carefully then, Spike made a quiet motion for Thorax to remain silent and leave the talking to him, not wanting to accidentally let something slip until he better understood just what it was Fly claimed to know.
“Fly,” the dragon began slowly, addressing the earth mare directly, “you couldn’t possibly know everything.”
Fly simply shrugged. “I likely don’t,” she relented. “But I’m pretty sure I still know enough, so please, just tell me.”
Spike still refused to do so. “Then just what, exactly, is that you already know?” he challenged, calling what he hoped was a bluff.
Fly’s gaze narrowed slightly, demonstrating that she was indeed reluctant to say just what it was she claimed she knew. For a brief moment she and Spike simply stared each other down, both stubbornly standing their ground and not wanting to budge. Finally though, Fly caved, and nodded her head in the direction of Thorax’s disguised form. “I know Thornton’s not a pony.”
Thorax inhaled involuntarily at this and started to move forward, again opening his mouth to speak. Afraid he’d say something reckless, Spike again stopped his friend, holding him back and motioning for him to stay silent. Knowing that Fly had only revealed she knew he wasn’t a pony but not that she knew more than that, he knew there was still a chance—albeit a slimmer one—that Fly still didn’t know the whole truth. For all he knew, she had only taken a guess to what the truth might be, assuming something that might not actually be true, and didn’t want to admit it in case she was incorrect. Spike didn’t want to reveal anything until he was absolutely certain this wasn’t the case. Plus, he might still be able to dissuade Fly and leading her to believe something different from the truth. Once he was assured that Thorax wouldn’t do anything rash and kept quiet, Spike turned his attention back on Fly, choosing his words carefully.
“So if he’s not a pony, Fly,” Spike said slowly and carefully, eyes locked on Fly Leaf, “then just what is it that you think he is?”
Fly broke her unwavering gaze finally and sighed, suddenly turning apologetic and concerned. “Spike, really, you don’t need to hide it anymore…”
“I’m not telling you anything on the subject until you answer the question, Fly,” Spike declared firmly, laying down the line.
Fly fell silent for a long moment. Her gaze shifted continuously between Spike and Thorax, and her firm attitude was rapidly ebbing away into something much more apologetic and dismayed. It was clear she didn’t like being forced into this situation any more than they did. At one point she even averted her gaze, staring at the floor for a tense moment, as if ashamed. She saw they weren’t going to bend though, so finally she faced them again and took a deep breath, opening her mouth to speak:
“I know Thornton’s a changeling.”
The statement hit Spike like a jolt of electricity, and his alarm over his and Thorax’s situation that evening doubled in that moment. Regardless, his first instinct was to deny Fly’s statement as truth, doing nothing to confirm it so to next ask for validation on just how Fly had come to reach this conclusion. This question ended up getting left unasked though, as before he could stop him, Thorax suddenly pushed past Spike to advance on Fly, dropping his disguise in a whoosh of cyan flames so to spread his sparkling gossamer wings, ready to use them for a quick escape, while brandishing his pointing changeling horn at Fly, lit with a cyan aura as he prepped a stunning spell to have at the ready. Fly, to her credit, blinked and pulled back slightly at this sudden transformation, but Thorax wasn’t focused on that.
“How did you know?” the revealed changeling demanded in a harsh voice. He sounded like he was trying to sound commanding, but instead he came across as sounding hurt and betrayed.
Spike angrily threw himself on the changeling, grappling at the changeling’s smooth chitin so to hold him back. “She knows because you just revealed yourself to her and confirmed everything, you idiot!” he snapped in the spur of the moment.
Thorax twisted his head around angrily, ready to argue back with the dragon, but it was then that Fly almost timidly intervened. “Um, actually, I, uh, have already seen Thorax out of disguise long before now,” she said, looking sheepish.
Both Thorax and Spike stopped in the middle of their imminent spat, the two freezing in mid-grapple, and whipped their heads around to stare at Fly blankly, not expecting her to reveal something like this.
“Since when?” Spike demanded at last, gaping at her.
Fly bit her lip while she rubbed one leg with her hoof, all of her former bravado gone in light of Spike and Thorax’s emotional display over this. “…you remember the second night you were here, the night I made the little celebratory dinner to mark you two becoming employees?” she asked softly.
Spike and Thorax exchanged glances, no less stunned. Surely she hadn’t known for that long?
Seeing the unasked question in their eyes, Fly pressed on. “So, um, that evening, well after you had both gone to bed, I was in my room, staying up rather late reading a book in bed, when I heard someone stepping out of your room down the hall. Wondering if either of you needed something, I went to peek out my door to see who it was, and, well…” she motioned to Thorax’s natural form, “…that’s when I saw Thornton here pretty much exactly as you see him now, standing there in the hallway and turning to head downstairs.”
Spike gaped at Fly for a moment, and then turned his head to look at Thorax, whose expression had simply turned blank as he recalled the event in question. “Thorax!”
“It was late, I thought everybody was asleep!” Thorax declared back in his defense. “Look, I probably wasn’t fully awake and thinking straight, all right?”
“What were you even doing up at that hour?” Spike demanded next.
Thorax tapped his forehooves together sheepishly. “Uh, well…”
At this, Fly couldn’t help but smirk a little. “Considering he came back upstairs a few minutes later with the leftovers of the cherry pie we had at dinner, I’d say it was to get a midnight snack,” she remarked a little teasingly.
Spike whipped back on the changeling again. “THORAX!”
“It was made with love!” Thorax retorted like this explained everything, as he usually did when it came to cherry pie.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute…” Spike interjected, cutting short the argument so to change gears. He pinched the bridge of his snout for a second before turning back to Fly. “You mean you knew…this whole time…and you never SAID anything?”
“Well, by that time, I had figured that if either of you were really going to do any harm to me, you would’ve done it by now,” Fly said, explaining her reasoning simply. “I decided then you were both harmless, meaning no ill-will. Besides…I had learned other things about you two so to get an idea of your real situation by then.” She averted her gaze for a moment, looking down at the floor while her composure turned somber. “The day you both first came into my shop, looking for a job…while you were both up here looking at the room and I had gone downstairs to assist that customer…the stallion just needed directions to get another store up the street, so I finished helping him well before you two came back downstairs. And, while I was waiting…I had noticed you had left your saddlebags by the front desk, and, well…I decided to take a peek.”
She shifted awkwardly. “It was pretty obvious you two were struggling more than you were letting on just by looking at you, but I wanted to be sure. And I was sure all right, after seeing what scant belongings you had. It was clear you both had…pretty much nothing. But I also found a train pass in there…with Spike’s name—not Spark—printed on it.” Spike winced, and glanced in the direction of their bookshelves, spying the very same train pass they had since been using as a bookmark poking out of one of Thorax’s books. “That was when I figured out you two had something to hide, and that was why I didn’t hire you that same day, and instead had you come in for a trial run at the shop first…I had wanted to be sure you two were really here to work.” She grinned slightly. “Obviously I decided you were.” She turned her gaze back up at them. “It wasn’t until the crystal guard came down here to Vanhoover looking for you to that I learned you two were pretty much on the run from the law, though.”
Thorax perked up at this, realizing something. “So you did recognize Spike in those wanted posters!” he declared.
Spike furrowed his brow, and glanced at Thorax. “What wanted posters?” he asked.
Thorax looked at him sharply, remembering he never did tell Spike about them. “Oh, well…” he began, then shrugged half-heartedly, grinning apologetically. “…I hadn’t wanted you to worry.”
Spike blinked, looking blank. “There were wanted posters of me?”
“The point is that was when I learned the basics of the story about you two,” Fly remarked, continuing her confession. “But by then, I had been around the pair of you long enough that I couldn’t believe the claims that you were trouble or meant harm. So…I chose to play along. Pretended I was the unknowing pony you hoped I was, and try and do what I could to assist.” Seeing the still-stunned looks from the two she was still getting, she chuckled. “Oh c’mon you two, you really shouldn’t be so surprised. Even if it weren’t for all of that, I was going to figure it out eventually. You both gave me plenty of chances.” She nodded her head at Spike. “Spike, you recall when Thornton was sick, the morning we had sat in the living room and talked about how ill he really was?”
Thorax, who of course had no recollection of such an event, glanced curiously at Spike while Spike slowly nodded his head, still getting chills at the memory of the emotionally intense day.
Fly nodded her head back. “Well, when you left your room that morning…you’d left the door open, leaving me free to steal a peek inside and see Thornton, undisguised…and terribly ill.”
Spike’s eyes widened as he reflected back on his memories of the day. Sure enough, he recalled that when he had returned to the room after talking with Fly that morning, the door had been closed, but he had no memory of closing it himself after he had flung it open when he raced out of the room earlier that same morning.
But this reveal only made Spike frown. “But that means you knew even before you spoke with me just how ill Thorax was,” he remarked aloud to the mare, looking baffled at her. “So…why didn’t you…?”
“…intervene to ensure Thorax’s health?” Fly finished. “Because like you no doubt were, I wasn’t sure I could find someone who could help him who’d also keep the secret, and I was hoping you really knew enough about treating a changeling to get him to pull through without that aid as you claimed.” She rose to her hooves slowly, starting to move closer to the pair. “But it’s also because I trust you. I trust both of you. Enough that regardless of whatever it was that you two had done, I’m on your side. I’ve been trying to tell the pair of you that you could put your trust in me, because I’m committed. I’m both willing and able to help you, in the past, present, and the future.” Her gaze then started to turn frightened and worried. “So please… I want to help and I’ve never seen the pair of you so frightened like this before…what’s going on?” She gazed at them for a moment, concerned. “This is about what happened with Princess Twilight, right? But what does she have to do with either of you?”
Spike frowned. “Twilight has everything to do with us,” he grumbled. “She’s the chief force behind trying to hunt us down!” He suddenly turned angry at Fly. “And even though you knew the truth about us, you all but gave us away to her!”
Fly’s brow furrowed, not following. “But she went away! You told her you weren’t here, but somewhere else!”
“And when she finds I’m not there, where do you think she’ll go next?” Spike reasoned. “She’s going to come right back here for answers, and Thorax and I can’t be here when she does! You told her too much when she was here, Fly!”
Fly hesitated, starting to see the significance. “In my defense, I didn’t realize the princess was even in the room when I first entered. I never even thought Princess Twilight was involved, or that any of this even went as high as the royal family, so—”
“How could you not have?” Spike interrupted, not convinced. “Back at the convention we went to a moon ago, when you caught me talking about Twilight while playing the piano…if you had really known this much about us by then, THAT should’ve made you figure it out that Twilight was involved!”
“But I didn’t!” Fly stressed. “I’m sorry, maybe I should’ve! But you never once referred to her as Twilight Sparkle, you only referred to her as Twilight, and to be quite honest, Spike, there are plenty of other ponies in Equestria with the name Twilight!”
Thorax knew nothing of the conversation they were talking about, but regardless, he still considered this for a moment. “She does have a point,” he admitted.
Spike wasn’t so easily swayed though. “My point is that Fly should’ve known that Twilight wasn’t just involved, she’s personally involved!” he pointed out, swinging around on the changeling.
“Judging from what you said at the convention, she was once your friend,” Fly recapped. “So I get it, she—”
“No you don’t!” Spike interrupted again, whirling back onto her. “Twilight wasn’t just my friend! She…she…” Spike trailed off, suddenly overcome with emotions. “Fly, I was abandoned as an egg, and Twilight Sparkle was the one who had hatched me, helped to raise me, and took me in…and until about four moons ago, I wasn’t just her trusted friend, I was her long-time personal assistant and…something of an adopted…sibling.” Spike’s eyes started to tear up, but the flare of anger behind it was still visible too. “She was family to me, Fly…and she threw it all away just because I sided with the changeling! She betrayed me, Fly! AND NOW YOU’VE ENABLED HER TO DO IT AGAIN!” Spike then dropped to his knees, emotionally overcome, yanking off his false eyeglasses to try and wipe away the tears.
Wearing an expression of concern and sympathy, Thorax wrapped a comforting hoof around the dragon. “She didn’t mean to, Spike,” he comforted. “She couldn’t have known.”
Fly heaved a heavy sigh, bothering by the sight of Spike overcome by this, lowering herself to the floor, troubled. “No, but I should’ve,” she mumbled. Seeing Spike too choked up to really talk at length, she turned to Thorax. “What happened?”
Thorax sighed himself, letting Spike lean on his chitinous side as he embraced the changeling’s comfort. “What happened,” he replied solemnly, “was me, really. Spike and Twilight had come up to the Crystal Empire to visit friends and family, but upon arrival, found the empire on alert because a changeling had been sighted in the area. Me. Fearing trouble, they wanted the changeling found so to eliminate the…threat they thought I posed. Spike was helping to search when he got separated from the group and…almost literally…stumbled upon me hiding in a cave.” He sighed a second time, clearly troubled by all of this. “The thing is, Fly, is that I never meant any harm…quite the opposite, in fact. Yes, I am a changeling originating from the hive of Queen Chrysalis and was one of her subjects…but after seeing the friendship among ponies during the invasion at Canterlot, I left the hive and came here, to Equestria, on my own to try and make friends with the ponies here, upon failing to do so with my fellow changelings back at the hive. I wanted to do what other changelings hadn’t…wouldn’t…because I think it can be done.” He shrugged helplessly. “But like the other changelings at the hive, nopony was willing to give me the chance. They all saw me as…something to be feared.”
“I told Spike all of this,” Thorax continued, glancing down at the dragon leaning on his side but starting to calm down again. “And after showing to Spike I wasn’t a threat, he was one of the few who believed me. Thinking he could help then, Spike thought he could help sway the ponies in my favor, help me to make those friends. We tried him testifying in my favor, giving them a chance to get to know me directly while disguised, to flat out telling them.” Thorax then hung his head. “…none of it worked. The other ponies only thought I was an enemy, thought I was lying, trying to deceive them, and worse still, had pulled Spike in with me. Believing, then, that I was too much trouble, they had me banished as a result.” He returned his gaze to Fly Leaf. “Spike wouldn’t have it, though. Not only did he know it wasn’t right, he knew that I had nowhere else to go, and would only starve on my own. So…he chose to go with me…and all of them, even Twilight…let him. We fled the Crystal Empire then, and eventually came here. Princess Twilight, so we’ve since learned, has been trying to seek us out ever since until today, determined to…well…”
“She’s not going to let Thorax get away with it,” Spike growled suddenly, having regained his composure, but his face was still a mixture of sadness and fury. “She’s determined that she will have her way. I left her world and my old life so to keep Thorax safe, but she won’t let me.” Tears started to well up in Spike’s eyes again. “And now my life is unraveling all over again.”
Fly went quiet for a moment then abruptly stood, growing determined. “No,” she said determinedly. “I’m going to fix this.”
“How?” Spike asked, pulling away from Thorax to watch her.
“When she comes back, I’m going to talk with that mare,” Fly vowed. “Set things straight.”
Spike shook his head in dejection. “She won’t listen to you!”
“I will MAKE her listen!” Fly snapped determinedly. “What she’s doing is wrong, neither of you deserve any of this, and its high time somepony said it to her face!”
Thorax’s gaze turned distant. “Actually, this might be the one chance we have to do it,” he admitted.
Spike gaped at the changeling in surprise. “Thorax, we can’t, she’ll—”
“Spike, things have changed since last time,” Thorax reasoned. “You heard her say it herself. She misses you immensely, to the point she’s willing to do all of this just to get you back. She’s desperate to have you back. If she could have at least that much, even if briefly, then she might be willing to hear us out this time!”
“Further, it’s not just your word this time,” Fly added. “This time, you’ve got me backing you up.”
“And Fly’s not the only one who’d support us!” Thorax continued in agreement. “We could call upon the support of others who have caught on to our secret and defended us. Ragg, Discord, Fluttershy, maybe even Princess Luna…” Thorax actually had to stop and grin a little as realization sank in. “We actually have much more support now than we did last time. Spike, Twilight might not be able to get away with this unchallenged this time. No pony could!”
Spike was still very skeptical and shook his head. “You don’t know Twilight like I do,” he said. “She’s past reasoning. I’ve seen her like this before! She’s so set on this that you aren’t going to be able to lead her away that easily, not when she would still have so much widespread support, and she’s a princess with authority that would overrule us! I don’t want to take that risk!”
“But you don’t also want to go back on the run though, do you?” Thorax asked seriously.
This gave Spike pause, and for a long moment he couldn’t give a response back. It was during that moment that all three of them were brought back to the reality as they distantly heard the shop’s front door open and close downstairs.
“Hello?” the voice of stallion was heard calling, his voice faintly echoing up the stairs outside the open door of their room. “Is anyone here?”
Fly glared back in the direction of the voice and frowned. “Look, I have to go downstairs and take care of the customers,” she said, turning back to the two as she started to back out the door. She pointed a hoof at them. “We’re then going to talk about this further. Do not go anywhere.”
She then exited the room and proceeded to trot down the stairs. Thorax and Spike remained where they were as instructed, the two exchanging silent but troubled looks, both wondering how things might still play out. Spike stopped to wipe his eyes of any lingering sign of his tears, determined to refocus on the task at hoof without indulging in his emotions for the time being. In less than a minute, Fly could be heard arriving at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor.
“Hello,” she greeted in the usual cheery tone she used to greet customers. “Welcome to Fly Leaf’s Books and—oh!” Her sudden cry of surprise drew Spike and Thorax’s attention to the still-open door of their room, listening. They were glad they did, for Fly then continued, raising her voice louder than normal, allowing them to hear her better from all the way upstairs. “I wasn’t expecting to be visited by a duo from the city guard this evening!”
Spike and Thorax turned and stared at each other in alarm, then hurried to stand in the open door so to listen better. They could hear one of the guards making a reply of some sort to Fly, but because they had no need to keep their voices raised like Fly would, it was hard to make out what he was saying. Spike quickly started to get frustrated, but Thorax motioned for him to wait a moment, and lighting his horn, cast a spell over the entrance to the staircase outside their door. Thorax didn’t explain what the spell was, but whatever it was, it caused the sounds echoing up from downstairs to be amplified enough to be more clearly heard.
“—reason to believe is a fugitive changeling,” the guard was in the middle of explaining to Fly, precisely what Thorax and Spike feared he would be. “As such, we request your cooperation, ma’am, in our search for any evidence or information on the matter at this time.”
“What in Equestria are you saying?” Fly Leaf was heard asking, sounding like she was acting like she was an unknowing bystander in the whole matter. “There are no changelings here, don’t be ridiculous!”
“Ma’am, as we explained, we have strong evidence to believe that one and a dragon he has kidnapped have been operating in hiding here at, or near to, this location,” The guard continued to explain patiently. “It is entirely possible you have been regrettably deceived in their identities, which makes it all the more imperative that we have your cooperation in securing their arrest. If you will please permit us entry, we will conduct a search of this building for them or any clues to their whereabouts.”
Thorax and Spike warily exchanged looks again upon hearing about the intended search.
“You can’t do that,” Fly insisted meanwhile. “This is private property! You don’t have the authority to trespass and conduct foolish searches on flimsy evidence just willy-nilly!”
“Ma’am, I respectfully request you do not resist, or I’m afraid we will have to use force for the good of your security and the security of other ponies.”
Fly could be heard snorting. “I’m not just letting you have free reign of my shop like that, not without some better reasons than this!”
“We have our orders, ma’am,” the guard replied, while in the background, Thorax and Spike could hear the front door of the shop opening again, announcing the arrival of other ponies, though could have no way of knowing who. Presumably, though, they were more guards, come to assist.
“On whose authority?” Fly demanded.
It was then a new, and unfortunately familiar voice, spoke. “On my authority, Miss Fly Leaf,” came the voice of Twilight Sparkle. She did not sound happy.
Spike felt a chill run down his back and looked at Thorax again. “We need to get the hay out of here,” he determined, deciding Fly’s attempts to shield them already a lost cause. He turned and raced back to their bags to resume final preparations, now hurrying as fast as he could and less afraid to cut corners. He knew there likely wasn’t time to be more thorough now.
Thorax, however, watched Spike go, but lingered at the door still, soon turning his attention back to the ongoing conversation two floors below.
“Princess Twilight,” Fly was heard greeting, though her own tone turned faintly hostile. Thorax could almost sense his employer’s emotive bitterness from here. “I actually would like to have a word with you…”
“And I with you,” Twilight agreed. “I have many questions for you. But first things first, Miss Leaf, I ask you stand aside and let these stallions do their work. Trust me…it is for the greater safety of Equestria. I’ve been chasing this changeling for four moons now and I still don’t know the full extent of his plans, but they can’t be anything good. And the more chances he has to carry them out…”
“How do you know there even is an evil plan?” Fly interrupted, challenging the princess.
Twilight chose not to answer the question, and instead took on a tone of forced sympathy. “Miss Leaf, I understand this is all probably coming as a big shock, but I’m afraid the two you are trying to protect are not who they seem, and one of them is highly dangerous, and the other a confused victim of the first’s scheming. It is imperative that you let us take him into custody and end this before more harm is done.”
“Over my dead body,” Fly growled in response. “I’m starting to think this is all just an excuse to fuel a petty vendetta of yours, and an abuse of power, so—”
But Twilight had heard enough. “Search the building,” she ominously ordered the unknown number of city guards now present. But judging from the number of bumps and thuds that Thorax could hear echoing up, it seemed to be a fair number of them.
“Thorax!” Spike cried in an urgent, harsh, whisper as he ran to their writing desk to yank out a sheaf of papers from its drawer. “Move! We need to get out of here before they get to us! Go grab as many bits as you can from the safe!”
But though he glanced in Spike’s direction, Thorax didn’t move, frozen in focus as he continued to listen to what was transpiring downstairs.
“First floor clear!” one of the guards was heard shouting.
“Two more to go then, gentlecolts!” another could be heard ordering and ponies could be heard mounting the stairs to the next floor.
“Thorax!” Spike hissed as he stuffed the papers into his bag, seeing the changeling hadn’t moved, or even put his disguise back up.
“They’re not listening to Fly…” Thorax muttered blankly.
“Yeah, I warned her about that…” Spike grumbled back in response, not slowing as he ran to their safe to pull out some of their savings upon seeing Thorax hadn’t.
“Princess, we’re already not finding much sign that there’s anybody else here than us,” a guard reported. “We’re still searching, but…”
“Miss Leaf,” Twilight could be then heard asking Fly. “Where are they?”
Fly didn’t respond. Thorax could just picture Fly instead giving Twilight a defiant glare.
“Where do they go when they don’t work here?” Twilight then asked when she got no response. “Do they live somewhere else? Or do they live here?”
Still no response from Fly.
“You live here, right? Where are the bedrooms?”
Fly still didn’t respond, but instead a guard did. “Looks like that would all be on the third floor, your highness,” he reported. “We were working a floor at a time here, but if you’d like I can send ponies to search now…”
“Do it,” Twilight ordered. “Miss Leaf and I will come with.”
More hoofsteps on the stairs were heard, and this time they were coming closer.
“Thorax!” Spike hissed again, having pulled out as many bits as he could and dumped them into one of Thorax’s saddlebags. “Time’s up!”
Heart beating anxiously and in fear, Thorax finally ripped himself away from the door, closing it quickly in hopes it would by them at least a moment longer. “Where can we go?” Thorax asked as he grabbed his navy jacket hung nearby and slipping it on. “They have the lower floors are blocked off, we can’t go out that way—”
“Then we go out the window,” Spike said, nodding his head at the sole window in their room. “You can carry me in addition to these bags, right?”
There was a flash of cyan flames as Thorax threw up his disguise as Thornton, but adjusted so that instead of being a unicorn pony, he was a pegasus with wide, elegant, wings. “We’ll have to find out,” he said, pulling on the saddlebags.
Spike meanwhile pulled on his backpack and proceeded to clamber onto Thorax’s back. “Where do you want me?”
“As close to my neck as you can, and hold tight,” Thorax ordered, tensing as he heard hoofsteps begin to reach the third floor landing. Carrying Spike, he hurried to the window and threw open the drapes. “This could be rough.”
He unlatched the window and threw it open, proceeding to carefully step out the window and onto the slanted roof outside. He felt Spike’s grip tighten about his neck, but Thorax was more worried about the ponies that he could now clearly hear on the third floor landing just outside the door of their room. Normally, giving the less than ideal area to takeoff, Thorax would’ve taken a moment to get proper footing, but hearing one the guards give an order to start searching rooms, and his and Spike’s being the closest and thus the likely first, he instead gunned it, and threw himself forward. Spike inhaled sharply as this sent them skidding down the slant of the roof haphazardly, but as the roof edge neared, Thorax vaulted himself off it, spreading his wings and taking to the air, veering over the roof of the building across the street before lifting up into the air, banking away from Fly’s shop as quickly as he could so to hopefully be out of sight of any of the guards that might peer out the open window while also pointing himself in the direction of the airship yard across town.
As they did so, Spike twisted his head back at the shop receding in the distance, feeling his heart sink as he watched it vanish in the sea of buildings that was Vanhoover, already missing what had become their home. Meanwhile, Thorax inwardly lamented to himself that, in the rush to leave, he had failed to take a final good look around their room before leaving.
The door to Spike and Thorax’s room was flung open a second time that evening, and the city guards filed into the room, quickly searching the room. As they did so, Twilight stepped into the room, idly looking it over with a critical eye, something already catching her attention about it. Behind her, a scowling Fly Leaf reluctantly followed the princess, being escorted into the room by one of the guards at Twilight’s request.
“Is this your room, Miss Leaf?” Twilight inquired as she scanned the room. “Or is it one of your employees, because this room doesn’t look like what I’d expect for a pony like you.”
Fly glanced at the alicorn, not happy. “Does it really matter?”
Twilight frowned, tilting her head at the nearby writing desk and some of the remaining papers still strewn upon it. “It just might,” she murmured, studying the familiar looking handwriting on the paper.
“Room’s clear!” one of the guard’s reported, poking his head out of the attached bathroom. “There’s no one here.”
Another was peering out the open window that hung over a window seat, and Twilight noticed Fly Leaf was watching this intently. “Something wrong about the window, Miss Leaf?” she asked in an interrogative tone.
Fly’s eyes returned to the princess. “Must’ve left it open by accident,” she murmured.
Twilight’s eyebrows went up skeptically. “Must’ve.”
The thumping of hoofsteps announced the arrival of a new pony on the floor and Applejack suddenly came rushing into the room. “Twi!” the country pony declared. “Those guards ya had surroundin’ the buildin’ ta keep an’ eye on it say they saw sumthin’ fly off from one of the upper floor windows just now! They think it was a pegasus carryin’ sumthin’, and…”
“That’s them,” Twilight said, perking up at this news but she also didn’t seem surprised. “It has to be!”
“They must have jumped out the window right before we got here,” one of the guard’s reasoned, leaning out the window in search for the target. “I don’t see them out there now, but they couldn’t have gotten too far…”
“Go after them then!” Twilight snapped at the guards. “Now! Don’t let them get away again!” She motioned them on as they started to hurry out of the room. “And get as many ponies as you can patrolling the borders and train stations! I don’t want them leaving this city without my knowing!”
As the guards gave answers to the affirmative as they filed out, Twilight turned her attention to Fly Leaf, advancing on the mare. Having already come to the deduction that Fly had tried to buy Spike and the changeling time to escape, she got right to the point. “Where are they going, Miss Leaf?”
Fly glared at Twilight. “I suspect away from you, your highness.”
“But where?”
“I’m not telling. Not until we’ve sat down and talked about this. Properly.”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed at the shop owner, then she jabbed her head at the remaining guard escorting Fly. “Take her downstairs and keep her under guard. I’ll be down in a moment to speak with her. I want to look around up here some more first.”
“Yes ma’am,” the guard said and led the defiant Fly out of the room as well.
This left only Applejack in the room with Twilight, who stood in the door, watching Twilight as the princess moved to the nearby bookcases in the room. “Ya really think it was them, then,” she said slowly.
“Who else could it be, Applejack?” Twilight asked as she scanned the books on the shelves, looking for clues.
“Ya don’t know that fer sure, though. Couldn’t it just as easily be someone else? Some random an’ innocent pony ya just given a fright bargin’ in like this?”
“Then why did they run?” Twilight reasoned, using her magic to pull a slip of paper being used as a bookmark from one of the books. “No, we’re onto something here, and Fly Leaf is trying to hide it from us.”
“That don’t excuse wut yer doin’!” Applejack sighed. “Look, Twi…Ah know ya want it ta be them, but Ah worry ya’re takin’ this too far on just a whim…ya don’t know it was them, ya have no solid evidence other than a slipped name an’ a few convenient coincidences, an’…”
“It was them,” Twilight assured, studying the bookmark in her magic.
“But how do ya know?”
Twilight looked up at Applejack and responded by floating the bookmark over to the country mare. Applejack took it into her hoof and studied it. She noted it was an old train pass, the edges worn and scuffed, and doodled onto many of the open spaces on the slip were strange round symbols with notches in them.
Applejack scoffed at it though. “Twilight, just because ya found sumthin’ with strange writin’ on it, doesn’t mean—”
Twilight used her magic to flip the slip over in Applejack’s hoof. Applejack studied the slip again, and this time noticed the name printed at the top of the slip, smudged a little over time but still plenty readable: “Spike the Dragon.”
Eyes going wide as realization sank in, Applejack looked up at Twilight, while Twilight stepped closer to her friend. “They’ve been right here Applejack,” Twilight said firmly as she strolled up and then on past her friend, watching her closely as she went past. “They’ve been right here this whole time, right under our snouts. And they gave me the slip once before, but I promise you…I am not about to let that changeling take Spike away from me again. Not this time.”
And with that, Twilight turned and trotted out of the room, leaving Applejack standing alone in the now abandoned room, lost in deep, troubled, thought.