Twilight Sparkle was not a happy mare at present.
It wasn’t often one saw the princess of friendship in such a deeply dark mood. To see her frustrated was more common, yes, but this wasn’t the same. A frustrated Twilight was more loud and quick to complain or protest the circumstances causing her aggravation. A truly angry Twilight, however, was colder, quiet, but bearing an expression such that it was almost chilling just how much it conveyed her anger. One could almost see the flames of her temper burning behind her eyes. It was not the sort of emotional state everyone hoped to see her in upon her return to Ponyville, for which Applejack was apologetic about, as it had been her assignment to guarantee that wouldn’t be the case. But then Twilight’s trip also hadn’t gone as planned and had been terminated sooner than expected for good reason.
Twilight’s five friends knew that her temper wasn’t entirely unjustified given recent events; the changeling and Spike had managed to give her the slip once more, even after Twilight herself all but stumbled upon them practically by accident while in Vanhoover. And according to Applejack, it certainly hadn’t been from the lack of trying to stop them on Twilight’s part, as Applejack claimed the mare had “nearly turned the whole dang city upside-down searchin’ fer ‘em.” Unfortunately, the effort still hadn’t been enough, and the two runaways Twilight sought slipped through her hooves a second time, this time making off with an airship Twilight discovered they had managed to obtain.
Now, at Twilight’s pressing, a hunt across Equestria was underway in hopes of finding that airship and capturing it with its crew of two aboard, in her hopes of ending the matter once and for all. To achieve this, she initially relied upon the authorities at Vanhoover to assist in the search of the area for the missing airship. When it, unsurprisingly, didn’t turn up, Twilight managed to arrange to have the royal guard jump in and help expand the search come the following morning, leaving the royal guard to continue searching while Twilight remained in Vanhoover attempting to find clues about where the two might be going, or what the changeling Twilight presumed to be leading the pair planned.
This search for clues did not go well. Part of it seemed to be simply that there were few clues to be found, though Twilight was not at all convinced of that. The other, however, was that the Vanhoover locale were not being as helpful as Twilight had hoped. Most of the locals, upon hearing the tale of what was happening, preferred to just stay out of it, and most could only say that they didn’t know anything at all anyway. It seemed Spike and the changeling had kept their interaction with the rest of the city mostly to a minimum and to the general neighborhood where they had taken up residence these past four moons. The rest, those who did know either of the pair, were oddly less likely to be willing to help.
Their employer and landlady, Fly Leaf, the mare who probably knew the most, refused to tell Twilight anything, and indeed had only aided in the pair’s escape. And as punishment for that, Twilight saw to it that Fly was arrested and placed in confinement for the time being until a more permanent ruling could be made. Because of Fly’s actions justifying such treatment in response certainly weren’t unfounded, the authorities backed Twilight up on that, but many of them were slow to follow Twilight’s lead on everything else, wondering if her approach to the matter was truly appropriate for the circumstances.
Other locals who directly knew Spike or the false identity the changeling had been using were usually quicker to defend the pair than to support viewing them as criminals. Even staff at the Vanhoover airship yard, the same yard that had the rogue airship take off from and had more than one of their employees attacked, seemed hesitant to withdraw their support for the pair, especially the changeling who many of them claimed to have gotten to know while he was applying for an airship pilot’s license (and the fact he successfully got one without any suspicion was something Twilight swore to “fix” at a later date) and didn’t support the idea that he was as dangerous as Twilight claimed.
One of these employees, a gruff griffon getting up there in years and who went well out of his way to track Twilight down not long before she left Vanhoover, told her in person just what he thought of her handling of the matter…and he did not hold it high regard, suffice it to say. Despite being uncertain upon learning the pony he knew was in fact a changeling in disguise, this griffon was still completely confident that he was “someone with a good head on his shoulders” regardless and refused to believe that everything he had done while in Vanhoover was a “bold-faced lie” just so to further some “half-flanked nefarious scheme.” So he especially did not appreciate Twilight claiming to the contrary on that. He also turned out to be Twilight’s breaking point, getting furious at the apparent lack of cooperation she was getting from everypony and just couldn’t fathom why. She likened it to all of Vanhoover being on a different wavelength from her, a notion she seemed to find absurd.
She probably would’ve kept pressing the matter there longer however, were it not the fact that both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna sent her notification pressuring her to hold off taking any further actions on the matter and allow them to take charge of the search for now, advising her to return home to Ponyville while the two sisters worked out something from their end. To Twilight’s added frustration, they did not elaborate on what, and in fact gently and politely refused to at this time, giving no clear explanation for this refusal either. Twilight still had enough details that she strongly suspected her fellow princesses had discovered something, possibly something important, yet bafflingly to her, they were unwilling to share with her what it was.
Their resistance at keeping Twilight in the loop only caused her inflamed temper to flare up even more than it already was, but with some additional prompting from Applejack, perhaps the only one who was keeping the alicorn from flying off the handle altogether at the moment, Twilight acquiesced to the requests of the princesses. They were both on the first train back to Ponyville by midday the day following Spike and the changeling’s escape, and Twilight was secure back in her castle once more by that same evening.
Come the day after that though, Twilight had decided that despite the wishes of her fellow princesses, she still wasn’t going to sit idle over the matter, and decided she was going to do something to continue the search on her own. This brought them to that afternoon, Twilight having called her five friends to an emergency meeting in the throne room of her castle so to discuss plans, gathering themselves around the map of Equestria and centerpiece of the room to do so. Starlight Glimmer was invited to participate as well, but first had been asked by Twilight to go and collect some documentation Twilight wished to use for the meeting and was expected to be gone a few more minutes still until she returned. In the meantime, there were plenty of other things the six could discuss…most of them dealing with Twilight herself.
“Twilight, dear, are you certain you’re doing okay?” Rarity couldn’t help but inquire as they all sat around the map in their respective thrones. The fashionista had been regarding the alicorn with some mild concern for a while now; she had seen Twilight looking far worse than this before now, and Twilight was still trimmed and groomed in appearance as she usually did…but there was something in her expression, the way she carried herself, that seemed… decidedly off-kilter.
Twilight took in a deep breath. “I’m managing fine, Rarity,” she assured patiently, trying to wave the matter aside.
“Are you sure? Because, no offense darling…you don’t look like it.”
Twilight rubbed at her temples with her hooves and sighed a little. “It’s been a rough couple of days, I’ll admit, but I’m pushing through. I don’t have a choice right now.”
“That’s no excuse for being all grumpy-gussy, though!” Pinkie Pie remarked, shooting Twilight a grin. She tapped the toothy smile with a pink hoof. “C’mon Twilight, turn that frown upside-down!”
Twilight responded merely shooting Pinkie a flat and weary expression, silently conveying she certainly wasn’t in the mood for this.
Pinkie’s grin faded into a wince. “…or not.”
Twilight sighed and managed a small apologetic grin. “Sorry Pinkie, it’s just…I’m worried. Worried about that changeling and about Spike…I’m worried he might be in even more danger now than he was before.”
“Are you sure you really know that for certain though?” Fluttershy timidly asked.
“You still got the changeling on the run at any rate,” Rainbow Dash added from where she had been casually leaning in her seat. “That’s gotta count for something.”
“That’s not good enough,” Twilight persisted. “He’s still out there, free to cause trouble.”
“Yeah, but it’s going to be a lot harder to so do with everypony out on the lookout for him,” Rainbow retorted simply. “Disguised or not, I figure he’s not going to want to draw much attention to himself right about now.”
“That might be the big problem we have right now, then,” Rarity reasoned. “He’s being hard to find because obviously he doesn’t want to be, more so than before.”
Applejack, who had been fairly quiet for most of this, was shaking her head. “Ah still don’t know ’bout all of this,” she admitted. “Sumthin’ don’t add up like it should. Iffin’ ya ask me, Spike an’ that changelin’ were fittin’ in a bit too well at Vanhoover if they were just plannin’ ta make trouble.”
“I highly doubt Spike is the one wishing to cause trouble,” Twilight pressed, still adamant that Spike wasn’t voluntarily doing all of this. “At least, not deliberately.”
“Yeah, but accordin’ ta you, the changeling does,” Applejack pointed out. “Which is wut bugs me ’bout it. Everythin’ we were able ta learn about the pair in Vanhoover seemed ta suggest that the changeling was actually a fairly respectable citizen as far as anyone ever noticed. Even the police didn’t have much ta say ’bout him. Their only records was that he got mixed up in a gang fight couple moons back, but had ruled that all the evidence suggested he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not really a lot ta suggest makin’ trouble really is wut he plans.”
Rainbow, however, simply shrugged. “So he’s been lying low, keeping quiet,” she stated. “That doesn’t mean he’s not using the time to spy on us or something.”
Twilight nodded in agreement. “One of the many distinct possibilities we face,” she agreed. “But we’re going to have to find them again before we’re ever going to know for certain just what his plans truly are.”
“Okay, so we’re joining the world’s biggest game of hide and seek ever!” Pinkie summarized as she studied the holographic map of Equestria stretched out between them. She melodramatically considered their options for a moment, rubbing her chin with one hoof. Finally, she glanced at Twilight. “Any ideas on how we’re going to win this game, Twilight? I mean, Equestria’s a seriously big place.”
“Big, but still finite,” Twilight corrected. “If he’s still in Equestria, then there are only so many places he could be.”
“And if he ain’t in Equestria?” Applejack prompted.
“Then we broaden the search further as deemed necessary. But we thought he might have left Equestria last time when it turned out he hadn’t…so I think there’s still a good chance he and Spike are still somewhere in the country. The question is just where.” Twilight leaned closer to the map herself. “Fortunately, we can rule out a number of locations already. We know he’s not in Vanhoover or many of the surrounding cities because we’ve already checked. We can also be reasonably sure he’s not in the Crystal Empire or Canterlot, and it’s doubtful he’d be any place like Ponyville while having Spike with him, as there would be too many witnesses that would likely recognize Spike, regardless of disguise.”
“That still leaves an awful lot of places to look, Twilight,” Fluttershy pointed out gently. “It’ll take a very long time to search them all. Are you sure it’d really be worth it?”
“Fluttershy does have a point,” Rarity agreed. “We simply lack the ponypower to conduct such a large search quickly, even with the support of the royal guard.”
“And wut are ya gunna do when ya find him, anyway?” Applejack asked, folding her forehooves.
“Attack and subdue him and ensure Spike is safely back in our custody where he belongs,” Twilight replied, gazing somewhat forlornly at the map before her. “Celestia, I never should have let him go in the first place…”
Despite being on the wrong side of the map to reach Twilight, Rarity nonetheless reached a reassuring hoof out to the alicorn. “We know it was trying circumstances with the well-being of many ponies potentially in the balance, Twilight,” she assured. “Perhaps letting Spike follow the changeling wasn’t the best of options…but while I think I speak for all of us when I say we all miss him at least as much as you do too, I know you didn’t have a lot of choices to pursue at the time. And with Spike being as…swayed as he was to the changeling’s side, the argument that this could have made him a greater security risk had he remained whether we liked it or not was, as much as I dread saying it, a point that shouldn’t be too readily ignored.”
“Ah’m more concerned ’bout the changelin’ at the moment,” Applejack said, gazing at the map with a conflicted expression. “Twilight says ta attack him if we find him…but I ain’t so sure that’s gunna be a good idea.”
“Why not?” Rainbow asked. “It’s not like we haven’t kicked changeling butt before. And there were lots more of them to fight last time. We’ve lucked out and only have one to deal with this time.”
“That we know of!” Pinkie piped in brightly and unhelpfully.
“It’s not the attackin’ part that that bugs me,” Applejack explained. “It’s whether or not we really even need to.”
“I…kind of have to agree with Applejack,” Fluttershy added and glanced at Twilight. “I’m not sure we really need to get so violent over this…and whatever happened to trying to befriend our enemies?”
“Yes dear, but that only works if the enemy is willing to make friends,” Rarity pointed out. “And we’ve already tried it with this changeling.”
Fluttershy looked at her questioningly. “Did we?”
A moment of silence fell in which no one gave an answer to Fluttershy’s question.
Finally, Rainbow changed the subject to bring up something else she had been puzzling over. “Here’s what I don’t get,” she said. She pointed a hoof at Twilight. “Back when these two first vanished, Vanhoover was one of the places you said you had searched. But they didn’t find anything then. And all the evidence suggests that’s where they’ve been this whole time, so, how did we miss them for so long?”
Twilight, who had been mentally reviewing things while gazing at the map, suddenly had a thought and looked up from it. “Maybe we didn’t,” she said. “Or rather…one of us didn’t.”
“…Twilight?” Applejack questioned.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight began, looking in the yellow mare’s direction. Fluttershy cowered a little at this. “You were in Vanhoover not so long ago. Because of it, I asked you when I left on my trip what sorts of bookstores were there that I should visit. In fact, I asked all of you what bookstores you all thought I should visit while I was out traveling, and all of you gave me a list of places to visit, which I thank you all for. But, looking back on it now…I can’t help but notice that all of these suggestions you five gave me were in support of places I should visit. Yet Fluttershy was the only one who told me a specific place I should not visit at all. Told me to not even bother, if I recall correctly, right?” Twilight tilted her head knowing at Fluttershy, looking at her with expectant, prying eyes. “So Fluttershy…why was it that place also happened to be the exact place Spike and the changeling had been hiding at?”
All eyes turned to Fluttershy, who ducked down even lower in her seat, looking ashamed as she realized she had been caught. Most of the looks were ones of surprise, but it was Twilight’s cold and expectant look that affected her the most.
Finally, Fluttershy caved in, squeezing her eyes shut as she bowed her head. “…I Pinkie Promised not to tell, Twilight,” she admitted.
“Oh!” Pinkie declared in obvious relief, like this sorted out everything. “Well then, that explains that.”
“No! No, it doesn’t!” Twilight objected, shooting Pinkie a frustrated glare. “It doesn’t explain why Fluttershy still didn’t tell me she had found them regardless!”
Pinkie gasped in shock. “And break a Pinkie Promise, Twilight?!”
“Pinkie, I think we can make an exception to it when it happens to involve matters of national security,” Twilight stated sarcastically.
“But breaking a Pinkie Promise still destroys a friend’s trust in you!” Pinkie argued, emphatic about this. “It’s one of the fastest ways to lose a friend FOREVER!”
“You know, you’ve been saying that a lot lately,” Rainbow observed, mildly annoyed.
Pinkie looked at her and shrugged. “I can’t help it! It’s just so fun to say! For-EV-ver!”
“Now…wait, hold on a moment if we could please,” Rarity interrupted, looking confused. She gazed at Fluttershy. “Are we saying that you already knew Spike and the changeling were at this bookshop? If I may ask…how?”
“Um, well…Thorax—the changeling—had become very ill at one point,” Fluttershy explained simply. “And Spike sent me a letter, pleading for me to help.”
Twilight actually turned incredulous at this. “And you really helped that monster to recover?!” she exclaimed, shocked.
“He is not a monster,” Fluttershy reprimanded Twilight suddenly. “He’s just as much a living and breathing creature as the rest of us, and deserves just as much respect as such!”
“And how would you know?” Twilight demanded next.
“Because I’ve done what the rest of you haven’t,” Fluttershy replied firmly, or at least as firmly as her timid demeanor would ever let her. “I took the time to get to know him.”
There was another moment of silence. “What are you saying, Flutters?” Rainbow prompted at last.
Fluttershy averted her gaze, turning a little ashamed again. “I wasn’t sure at first,” she admitted. “But…the more I think about it, especially now after what’s happened…the more I think…Spike was right. The changeling really can be trusted.”
Applejack suddenly let out her breath in a quick, relieved, burst, slumping in her seat. “Thanks heavens then, Ah ain’t the only one!” she declared.
“Applejack?” Rainbow prompted, surprised.
“Look, it ain’t that Ah don’t think yer’re wrong entirely, Twi,” Applejack proceeded to explain to the princess who had begun gazing at her in silent shock. “But…and Ah’ve haven’t been wantin’ ta just flat out admit it…but ever since we figured out they were there in Vanhoover, my gut’s been tellin’ me that…that we’ve been lookin’ at this wrong. The actions of Spike and the changelin’ don’t suggest they’re sumthin’ bad out ta cause trouble…it suggests they’re sumthin’ that’s tryin’ ta run and hide from sumthin’ else in fear.” Applejack sighed, lowering her gaze for a second, abashed. “Like us.” Her gaze then snapped back up again. “And then there’s that Fly gal…Ah keep tellin’ ya…she’s tellin’ the truth. Ah just know she is, an’ Ah know Ah can’t prove it fer certain, but…Ah can just feel it.” She shook her head. “At any rate girls…we need ta change how we’re approachin’ this. Stop treatin’ ‘em like enemies an’ actually dare ta consider that they could be allies still.” She looked around at the other mares in the room. “Ah say we give ‘em another chance ta prove Ah’m right. Whadda’ya’ll think?”
There was no immediate response. Eventually, all eyes gravitated back to Twilight once more. Twilight, meanwhile, continued to gaze at Applejack in shock, but then her gaze traveled back over to Fluttershy. “I assume, then, that you would agree with that?”
Fluttershy slowly nodded.
Twilight sighed and collapsed onto the back of her throne, closing her eyes to think. No one dared to interrupt her. Finally, she straightened, shaking her head. “No,” she said with renewed determination. “No, as wonderful as it’d be to believe in that, I just don’t see the evidence to support it, and I’m unwilling to risk the safety of Equestria and all living within it towards a changeling just on a whim.”
“But Twilight!” Rarity objected, who had to concede a certain degree of appeal to Applejack’s idea. “It’s certainly more than just a whim! And anyway, showing the changeling a bit of support for a change might actually—”
Rarity was cut short when Starlight Glimmer suddenly burst into the room, alarmed and out of breath. “Twilight!” she exclaimed urgently. “There are full-grown dragons flying just outside, circling the castle!”
All eyes stared at her in alarm over this sudden turn of events. “Dragons?” Twilight repeated, stunned. “What are dragons doing here in Ponyville?”
“I don’t know!” Starlight admitted as she started to hurry around the table so to move closer to Twilight. “I just know that they flew into town just moments ago and they’ve been causing a panic ever since! They’ve taken position up around the castle, almost as if—”
But then Starlight got interrupted too when there was a resounding crash above them, and they turned in time to see a smaller dragon smash through one of the upper stained glass windows in the room, expertly flip about in mid-air, and then drop down hard on her feet, landing dead center of the map, right in the middle of the startled group. Straightening, the lithe dragon then removed her golden helmet, revealing her identity clearly.
Rarity gasped in surprise. “Princess Ember!”
With a thud, Ember unceremoniously dropped her helmet onto the map she stood upon, surveying the group with narrowed eyes until they quickly fell upon Twilight. “You!” she growled, pointing at Twilight with the tip of the crystalline staff she carried in her claws. “We need to talk.”
“Hey!” Rainbow snapped, immediately taking to the air. “No one just barges in here and threatens Twilight Sparkle out without risking a good beat-down in return!”
“Try it, and I’ll swat you out of the sky, pegasus!” Ember snapped back.
“Now hold on!” Starlight objected, intervening before focusing her attention on the unannounced dragon lord. “Just what is this about?”
Ember gazed a dark and knowing glare at Twilight. “I think she knows what this is about,” she replied cryptically.
Indeed, Twilight had been staring at Ember with narrowed eyes herself since Ember announced she wanted to talk with her and her alone. “Girls, could you all give us a moment?” she requested in a tone that suggested it wasn’t optional. “I would like to speak with Princess Ember alone for a little bit.”
The others hesitated, but then Starlight went into motion and started to usher the others for the door. “We’ll be right outside if you need us, Twilight,” she stated as they trotted out.
Twilight watched them go until the doors to the throne room had closed shut again before she turned her attention back onto Ember with a slight flick of her pupils. Ember’s gaze, however, had never left Twilight once. “Where are they, Ember?”
Ember folded her arms. “Safe.”
Twilight frowned. “Where are they, Ember?” she repeated, not satisfied with that answer.
“In my custody,” Ember replied curtly. “And far away from the likes of you.”
Twilight’s frown deepened. “How did you even find them, anyway?”
Ember shrugged dismissively. “I just thought about where I would go if I were Spike and went and searched that general area,” she answered. She permitted herself a small but smug smirk. “I’d say it paid off, don’t you?”
Twilight scowled and found Ember’s explanation that she basically just got lucky a little hard to swallow. “I say you’re bluffing and you haven’t found them at all,” she challenged.
“Spike thought you might say that,” Ember replied simply, and she pulled out a folded piece of parchment from one of the crooks of the golden armor she wore. Twilight snatched it from the dragoness and studied it. Opening it revealed an apparently blank interior, but what was written on the front was a phrase that made Twilight think otherwise.
“Say hi to Pinkie’s friend Inkie for me”
Twilight knew Ember couldn’t possibly know the significance of the code phrase, and it was clearly in Spike’s handwriting, so there was little denying who it had come from. At that moment, there was nothing more Twilight wanted to do than to take steps to reveal the hidden message Spike had undoubtedly concealed with invisible ink on the parchment, but satisfied enough that Ember wasn’t bluffing for now, Twilight instead set the message aside to address later. “So you have them,” she concluded. “What do you intend to do with them?”
“It’s not what I’ll do to them that you should be worrying about,” Ember growled darkly as she glared daggers at Twilight. “You have some explaining to do, after all.”
Twilight shook her head, unable to allow a small and bitter smile appear on her face as she believed she understood the problem. “With all due respect, Princess Ember, I don’t think you fully understand the depth of what you’ve gotten yourself into…”
“Oh, look who’s talking about who understands what!” Ember declared sarcastically. She jabbed a claw at Twilight. “I know what is going on here, princess, Spike and Thorax explained everything to me. Every. Thing.”
“I fear, then, that you have fallen prey to an ongoing deception that changeling has been promoting,” Twilight concluded gravely. “That changeling isn’t to be trusted, and I fear Spike is currently too misled to understand what he’s gotten himself into. The changeling, I suspect, may even be capable of a mental manipulation in which, to explain it simply, enables him to manipulate others like puppets.”
“Oh really?” Ember challenged. “Then, if that changeling isn’t to be trusted and is so dangerous…then why did you let him get away where he couldn’t be monitored in the first place?”
“We didn’t. We banished him from our lands for his crimes against ponydom. He shouldn’t even be in Equestria at all.”
“Ignoring the obvious flaws in that statement for a second,” Ember stated, drawing a glare from Twilight, “why did you banish him at all? What did he do to justify such a punishment?”
“Oh, I have quite a list,” Twilight assured, catching onto Ember’s doubt. “Kidnapping, impersonation, threating the royal family, trespassing, plotting treason and conspiracy, assault and battery both for civilians and officers, resisting arrest, theft, hijacking, deception, manipulation, endangerment, and that’s just for starters!”
“Well, gee!” Ember scoffed with obvious sarcasm. “Maybe he wouldn’t have done all of that if you weren’t so bent on doing him in!”
“I have no plans to kill him!”
“You could’ve fooled me!” Ember suddenly stooped down low to put her eyes more on level with Twilight’s. “They’re scared, princess. Scared for their very lives because of you.”
Twilight, to her credit, hesitated for a moment. But soon though, she was pressing on, taking on a dark tone. “Are you implying they have done all of this simply in self-defense?” she asked. “How does one commit crimes like these in mere self-defense?”
“They weren’t the ones to commit the first crime!”
“Oh? And, pray tell, just what that first crime is?”
Ember’s eyes narrowed accusingly. “Racism, your highness. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? This isn’t about what the changeling has done. This is about what the changeling is to you.”
Twilight’s anger flared at the blatant accusation. “That’s ridiculous,” she snorted.
Ember tilted her head at Twilight, willing to challenge that. “Then if the changeling is really your enemy…why banish him, allowing him the chance to cause trouble again later, instead of simply imprisoning him for questioning? That way, you could also learn vital information about your enemy, and how to better combat them in the future.” Ember pulled back again, regarding the pony princess critically. “It seems to me that you passed up on an excellent opportunity there on poor reasoning.”
“First off,” Twilight began, “the changeling had made it clear that he wasn’t going to relate anything to us of the scheme that had brought him there to the Crystal Empire.”
“Probably because there is no scheme.”
“We can’t assume that.”
“A pity, then, you didn’t keep him around long enough to determine that, hmm? He is, after all, still a changeling, raised in a changeling hive, and knows more about changelings in general than either of us ever will. Some of that information you could’ve learned through mere observation, but you didn’t even think to do that, did you? So I ask again, why didn’t you try it?”
Twilight didn’t reply. But she didn’t have to. Though Twilight was clearly trying to hide it, it was clear from her expression that she had realized no one at the time had even stopped to consider that, being more focused instead on simply eliminating the threat they feared the changeling presented to them.
Ember couldn’t help but roll her eyes at it. “I’m suddenly less than confident about Equestria’s tactical abilities now,” she muttered aloud.
Twilight simply shook her head. “What are you trying to prove with all of this, anyway?” she asked.
“I’m trying to make you see the error of your ways before you do something you really regret, but I can see it’s going to be much harder than I anticipated,” Ember explained. She was clearly getting frustrated. “You are just so…blind! No, worse than blind! Willfully ignorant!” For a fleeting moment she almost turned pitying. “Whatever happened to that famed Equestrian desire to befriend everything you meet?”
Twilight leveled her gaze with Ember’s. “Equestria doesn’t befriend enemies.”
Ember laughed sarcastically at this. “Oh really?” she said, straightening and beginning to circle around the edge of the map she still stood upon. “I happen to know a few notables that would like to say otherwise.”
“I mean it, Ember. Equestria doesn’t just—”
“Discord.”
Twilight paused. “That doesn’t count, we had to befriend Discord, because he was too dangerous—”
“Trixie Lulamoon.”
“…how did you know—?”
“Starlight Glimmer.”
“Starlight wasn’t…I mean she’s—”
“Princess Luna.”
“That’s…that’s not—”
Having finished a full revolution around the edge of the map, Ember came to a halt before Twilight again, thumping the end of her staff against the crystal table beneath her feet as she spoke her final example. “Me.”
Twilight abruptly fell silent.
“Don’t you remember?” Ember pressured, refusing to let Twilight ignore it. “After the Gauntlet of Fire…you promised me friendship…that being friends with Equestria would be far more beneficial for both of our races than being enemies, that there was no greater magic than that of friendship, that with friends supporting you, you could do anything and have peace and unity be assured! Race, species, or past history didn’t matter! Anyone could be made a friend, trusted as a friend, of any type, including dragons! You had this glorious vision for a future built on such a friendship! We spoke of peace and friendship between our kinds, for no reason other than because we could! You told me all of that! You PROMISED me all of that!” Ember’s expression turned incredulous. “So what’s the deal with refusing to befriend ONE changeling?”
Twilight was quiet for a long moment. “A changeling cannot ever be trusted.”
Ember’s scowl turned dangerous. “Then it was a lie,” she concluded. “All of it. Everything you told me about friendship, especially you supporting it, BELIEVING in it…was a LIE!” She shook her head, almost sadly. “And like a fool, I believed you.”
Twilight chose to not answer, instead coldly gazing straight ahead. “Tell me where they are, Ember,” she concluded firmly. “And I will take them off your claws.”
Ember glowered at the princess, offended she wasn’t even going to acknowledge her words. “You will not lay one hoof upon them so long as I am dragon lord.”
Twilight rose from her throne. “Tell me where they are,” she repeated firmly. “Don’t make me have to use force to take them from you.”
If it was possible, Ember’s glare somehow turned even more dangerous than before. “Try it,” she said slowly, deliberately, “and it’s war, princess.”
Twilight returned the glare with a dangerous one of her own. “You aren’t leaving me much choice then,” she pointed out.
A long moment of intense silence fell as Twilight waited for Ember’s response “My father told me once that even the greatest will fall for petty reasons,” she murmured darkly. She stared at Twilight with a look that bored into the alicorn’s very soul. “So look how far the great have fallen.”
The thinly veiled insult finally pushed Twilight over the edge. With a furious yell, the alicorn had lit her horn and was lunging herself at the dragon. With a retaliatory bellow of her own, Ember threw herself at the princess in the same moment, bearing the bloodstone scepter down with intent to strike Twilight with it. Both were ready then and there to do battle.
But then the throne room doors burst open and turquoise magic immediately seized them both, halting them in mid-lunge and leaving them hanging in midair. “That’s enough!”
Frozen as they were, both Ember and Twilight turned their heads as much as they could to see who the pony that had halted their fight was. Standing in the open doorway was Starlight Glimmer, her horn shining brightly as she worked to keep the two in position and looking disappointed. Behind her stood Twilight’s friends, all wearing varying expressions of shock, dismay, sadness, and even a little anger. A tense moment of silence fell as they all stared at one another. Finally, Starlight alone stepped towards the pair.
“Twilight,” she said calmly, addressing the princess first. “I wish to inform you that I have found a design flaw in your throne room; the doors are not soundproof, making it rather simple for a pony to eavesdrop on the happenings taking place within. Especially when those within start shouting. I believe you may want to fix that at your soonest convenience.”
She then turned her attention to Ember. “Dragon Lord Ember,” she addressed politely. “We appreciate you coming all this way to voice your thoughts on the matter, and I can assure you that we will take them into immediate consideration. But now that you have made your point, I think it will be in everyone’s best interests if we didn’t keep you here any longer.”
Then, keeping a careful eye on both of them to ensure they didn’t try again to attack each other, she slowly lowered them back down to the floor in standing positions, releasing her magical hold upon them. Fortunately, though both of them were still giving each other dark glares that suggested this was far from over, neither of them tried to resume the fight.
Ember conceded to Starlight’s request, shrugging off the lingering tingle of Starlight’s magic before turning to grab her helmet from where she had left it on the map. “Fine,” she said as she said one last statement of warning to Twilight. “But know this. That peace, trust, and friendship between ponies and dragons we had spoken of? So long as you are leading the way, there will be none of that between our kinds.”
Then, with that ominous final statement, she returned her helmet to her head and vaulted herself into the air, flying up the high vaulted room, then, likely out of spite, she smashed through a second stained glass window, shattering it as well, instead of flying out the one she had already broken on her way in. The ponies gazed after the departing dragon for a long moment, but then their gazes returned to looking at Twilight while Twilight looked back at them. A long and tense moment of silence fell.
“Twilight,” Rarity finally spoke, looking hurt. “Were you really willing to resort to such grave actions over this?”
“I—I…that wasn’t what was going on…” Twilight fumbled, trying to explain her way out of this, justifying her actions. “Ember…she was just—it was never so bad as any of—”
“Twi, you nearly just started a war over this,” Rainbow interrupted bluntly.
“An’ a pointless one at that,” Applejack added sternly. “Just so ya could git at one rogue changeling.”
Twilight closed her eyes and let out her breath, trying to calm herself down. “All right, so I let my emotions get the better of me for a moment there,” she confessed. “But as you’ve all clearly already heard, Ember is helping to hide the changeling, enabling him, and it’s only going to come back to harm all of us. For all of our well-beings, I can’t just let Ember do that, so I was trying to convince her to just let me handle this, and get it done right. Now, with all of your help, perhaps we still can get this resolved already and get that changeling the punishment he deserves and…”
“No.” All eyes turned to Fluttershy, who was gazing at Twilight sadly, but with determination. “No, Twilight. I…I can’t keep supporting this. This is…wrong. You should know that. This…this isn’t the right way to resolve this. At all.” She gazed a little sheepishly at the others, looking a little ashamed to be doing this, but she didn’t back down either. “It’s time we stopped looking at this so aggressively and started working at resolving this peacefully, because I’ve met the changeling, got to know him…he doesn’t match up with you are telling us about him, Twilight. I don’t think he really means any of us harm.”
Twilight gazed at her for a moment. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” she stated. “But I can’t agree with that. It’s just too dangerous.”
Fluttershy let out a little sigh at that, before drawing her breath back in with a deep inhale, drawing strength. “Then I’m afraid you’re going to have to do it without me. I won’t be of a part of any plan that demonizes Thorax any longer. That’s…that’s just how it’s going to have to be.”
She then turned and quietly walked out of the throne room again. The others stared after her in stunned silence.
Then Applejack slowly started to nod her head. “Yeah,” she said, her resolve growing. “Yeah, ya know wut? Fluttershy’s right.”
“Applejack…” Twilight breathed, shocked.
“Twi, yer startin’ ta take this too far,” Applejack argued, and for a moment the apple farmer looked afraid. “Yer willin’ ta risk countless lives fer no point, just ’cuz yer mad Spike decided ta side with a changelin’ instead of you. An’ ya know wut the honest truth is? He wuz right. He wuz always right. We never had any real proof the changelin’ meant harm. That’s just wut ya wanted ta believe…an’ that’s just dishonest. An’…as much as Ah don’t wanna Twi…Ah just can’t support that any longer right now.”
Then she too walked out of the throne room, silently withdrawing her support.
After a moment of watching Applejack walk out, Rainbow let out a heavy sigh. “Well, if Applejack and Fluttershy are out…” she muttered, starting to turn for the door.
“Rainbow!” Twilight started to object.
“Twi, I want to believe you, I really do,” Rainbow admitted. “You know I hate not being able to support all of my friends. But Applejack and Fluttershy are right. This is going way too far. And for what? Maybe that changeling is trouble…but he can’t possibly be so much trouble to be worth all of this trouble you’re causing now. You’re letting yourself get in too deep, Twi. Too carried away. And it’s frankly getting a little…crazy.”
Then, oddly more lethargic than was normal for Rainbow, she trotted out of the room too.
Twilight stared after her for a second then turned to look at Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “And you two?” she inquired, almost pleadingly. “Where do you both stand?”
Rarity averted her gaze slightly, deep in thought. “I don’t know what to believe, Twilight,” she finally admitted, looking forlornly at the alicorn. “But I do feel that whatever it is…this isn’t the way to resolve it. I want Spike back too, darling…but do we really need to cause more harm than what has already been done to do it?”
And with a heavy heart, she walked out of the room too.
Pinkie was left looking anxiously and repeatedly between Twilight and the door the others had walked out of, starting to tear up as she realized the position this left her in. “Don’t make me have to choose!” she wailed in dismay.
But then even she ran out of the room, suddenly in tears.
This just left Starlight, who after watching Pinkie leave, turned to gaze expectantly back at Twilight. Twilight, meanwhile, wandered back before her throne but didn’t sit in it. Instead, she ran one hoof sadly over the edge of the map, still displaying the holographic image of Equestria. Finally, she gazed at Starlight with a look of worry and dejection.
“Are you going to leave too?” she asked slowly.
Starlight bit her lip for a moment, lowering her gaze as she thought. “You are my teacher,” she replied at last, returning her gaze on Twilight. “And as your student, I feel my place is still at your side, as before.”
Twilight let out a long exhale of relief at this. “Good,” she said, then started to lean over the map as if nothing had happened. “Now Ember knows where Spike and the changeling are at, and I’d bet anything she’s heading back to them now…if we hurry, we might just be able to—”
“That doesn’t mean I agree with you on this, Twilight,” Starlight added suddenly.
Twilight, cut short, stared at her in shock for a moment. She let herself drop heavily into her throne, gaze turning vacant and stunned. Finally, she closed her eyes and hung her head, accepting this suddenly collapse of support. “Fine,” she muttered. “Fine! Just go, then. Go on, go.”
Starlight hesitated. “Are you sure?” she asked. “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to leave you like…”
“No, just…just go, I won’t keep you here like this,” Twilight said, shaking her head, waving one hoof to urge her student on out the door.
Starlight still hesitated. She gazed up at the windows Ember had broken, which had left shards of colored crystal littering the room. “What about the windows? I could—”
“I’ll worry about the windows, just…” Twilight caught herself and her anger suddenly vanished, leaving her looking sad and depressed as she slumped in her chair. “…I just need a moment alone to think, Starlight. Please.”
Starlight nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said softly and turned to exit as well. She paused at the door. “Just…shout if you need anything.”
Twilight didn’t reply or make any motion she heard or understood. She just sat there and stared at the floor, gaze vacant. Frowning and disconcerted, but not seeing what else she could do, Starlight sighed and continued on out of the room, leaving Twilight behind by herself. Twilight sat there in silence for a few moments, but then remembered the message Ember had brought as proof she had found Spike and pulled it back in front of her. Teleporting in a bottle of the solution that made the hidden invisible ink visible again from where she kept it stored in her writing desk, she then swiped the solution over the inside of the parchment with an included small brush and watched as the message within faded back into view. It simply read:
“Thorax is a friend and an ally, and no matter how much you want to deny it or tear up Equestria trying to catch us, this will NEVER change.
This is your last chance to accept this so we can both move on with our lives.”
It was not signed. But it didn’t need to be. Twilight clearly recognized Spike’s handwriting. Sighing sadly to herself, Twilight just sat there and stared at the message lying before her, torn.
Once she had left the throne room behind, Starlight then wandered for the castle’s front door, first planning to check and make sure everypony outside was okay and weren’t all still in a panic from the dragons that had flown in (and she assumed had now left, leaving with Ember), then hoping to go and find Twilight’s friends so to speak with them further about the matter and where they were going to go next with all of this.
Instead, she was able to do both at the same time. Just gazing out at Ponyville from where she stood at the castle’s porch was enough to see that the citizens of the small town were on edge, but seeing the danger had passed, were all slowly resuming their daily routines. More importantly though, Twilight’s friends had gathered in a group just outside the castle, quietly listening as Fluttershy was telling them about something. The subdued chatter immediately stopped when they saw Starlight stepping out of the castle to join them, and they started to gather around her.
“How’s she taking it?” Rarity asked, nodding her head in the direction of the castle and its princess still within.
“Heavily, I think, but I don’t know yet if that’s going to be a good thing or a bad thing,” Starlight admitted, feeling a little helpless. “She asked for some time alone to think, though, so…maybe…”
“Ah just hope this will git her ta stop an’ look back at wut she’s doin’, help her ta be a bit more…reasonable,” Applejack hummed. “Ah really hate havin’ ta do this to the poor girl, Ah really, really, do, but…Ah just don’t know wut else ta do.”
“We really sure this is a smart idea, though?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, we all know Twilight can get a little…wacko if she doesn’t think anyone’s supporting her. Do I even have to remind all of you of the Want it-Need it incident?”
Starlight frowned. “Want it-Need it incident?”
“Well, except you I guess,” Rainbow conceded with a grimace. “It’s a long story…just know we saw Twilight not at her best that day…and it’s sort of reminding me of today, admittedly.”
“It is a concern,” Rarity agreed. “But…surely we can’t do the alternative and continue to stand by her on all of this? As much as I don’t want to speak negatively of the poor mare, she is starting to take this much too seriously…I fear someone may get hurt that didn’t need to be soon if it keeps up.”
“An’ Rarity’s right,” Applejack agreed. “We can’t fix this if we keep showin’ support for it by standin’ beside Twilight. That’ll only enable her.” She then forced an encouraging grin. “But it ain’t like we aren’t still her friends, ’cuz we are. That ain’t changed, an’ not even a herd of wild manitcores are gonna force us apart like that. It’s just good friends don’t let friends make mistakes like this, where they’re just gunna cause more harm than good. Good friends do sumthin’ ta stop that before it gits that far. So as Ah see it, we’re just bein’ good friends by showin’ Twi we ain’t gunna let her do this, especially ta herself. Yeah, it hurts, Ah ain’t gunna lie ’bout that…but it’s my hope it’s also gunna show Twi wut we mean, and hopefully git her ta reconsider. Once she does that, we can work together ta figure out a far better way ta work this all out that we all can agree ta.”
“We’re just showing a bit of…tough love then,” Fluttershy reasoned, following Applejack’s logic.
“Exactly,” the apple farmer agreed with a nod.
Unfortunately, none of this seemed to reassure the group much, all of them worrying about Twilight and if this was only going to cause more harm than good.
So Starlight offered a plan. “Look, she’s going to need a bit of time to think about this,” she reasoned to the others. “So let’s give her a night to sleep on it, give her some time to push through all of this, and then work from there. Since I’m her student, and her home is basically my home too, I’ll still be around to keep an eye on her, try and talk it out with her if she’ll let me. If anything starts to go wrong, I’ll come get all of you right away. But until then, I think it’s just best to…wait and see.” The other girls all slowly nodded in agreement. Starlight then sighed and took a breath. “Now,” she said, turning to Fluttershy. “About this changeling…Fluttershy, you’ve met him?”
“Fluttershy was just telling us about that,” Pinkie explained with a nod, pointing a hoof at the butter-yellow pegasus.
Fluttershy nodded too. “I, um, got to meet him not so long ago in secret because he had fallen ill, and Spike asked—well, pleaded really—for my help,” she confessed to Starlight, since Starlight hadn’t already heard the details. “I learned a bit about him while I was there…saw he and Spike were living peaceful lives in Vanhoover…I really think Spike has been telling the truth and that Thorax means no harm.”
“Thorax?” Starlight inquired. “Is that his name?”
Fluttershy nodded in confirmation.
Starlight nodded to herself. “And just what was the name of this shop they were staying at in Vanhoover?” she asked.
“Fly Leaf’s Books and Stationery,” Fluttershy explained. She tilted her head curiously. “Why do you ask?”
“And this changeling, Thorax,” Starlight continued, not answering Fluttershy’s question. “Was that the name he was going by in public, or was he also going under an alias? If so, what was the alias’s name?”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes upward as she thought about it, suddenly not sure as she hadn’t ever been in the position to make use of such an alias. “Um…”
“Thornton,” Applejack offered suddenly. “Accordin’ ta Miss Fly Leaf, the name most knew him by was Thornton.” Now she tilted her head at Starlight too. “Why are ya askin’ all of this?”
Starlight averted her gaze slightly. “Just a loose end I think we might still have,” she admitted. “But I’ll worry about that. The rest of you…head on home for now. I’ll let you know straight away if there are any new developments.”
All nodding to themselves, the group then dispersed, giving subdued farewells as they parted ways. Starlight watched them all walk off before heaving a sigh and turned to head back into the castle. She stopped first to glance into the throne room to check on Twilight, easily done as the throne room doors were still open. She found that the stained glass windows that were broken by Ember had been magically repaired by Twilight, but otherwise Twilight hadn’t moved much from the position Starlight had left her in, nor had her mood seem to have changed. Nonetheless, she seemed stable for the moment, so Starlight moved on, heading upstairs for her bedchambers. Once there, she pulled out a box from under her desk and started sorting through the papers within, looking for one in particular. When she found it, she yanked it out with her magic and started to quickly skim through it, slowing only once she found the part she was looking for:
“…of course that shouldn’t be so surprising considering just who it is that I am. Vanhoover is a nice place, and true, there were plenty of ponies here that greatly enjoyed the wowings of me, the Great and Powerful Trixie, while I was there, but there were also a few too many stuck-up critics for my tastes. But it at least wasn’t all bad, as I do think I’ve managed to make a new friend while I was there, and with whom I do hope I’ll be staying in contact with, if not meet again soon. Better still, he’s a stallion, so…you never know.
I’m getting ahead of myself though. All you need to know for now, Starlight, is that this guy not only greatly enjoyed my show, he’s something of a secret wiz at illusionary arts. Like me! We spent hours after the show discussing ideas about how to add to my act and getting to know each other better. As it happens, we have a few of the same tastes even, and he’s an excellent listener. I feel like he gets me. Odd thing is that despite his clear magical skill, at least in all the fields that I care about, he doesn’t seem to have a lot of interest in a career using them, and right now works a simple job in a little local books and stationery shop. But hey, he says he’s happy there, so who is Trixie to judge, right?
That all said, I think you’d like him too. He’s a sweet and kind guy named Thornton, and maybe with some planning we…”
Starlight stopped reading there and sighed, lowering Trixie’s letter she had received some weeks back, realizing the fear that had begun slowly nagging her as the day’s events unfolded was, in fact, very much real. “Just what have you gotten yourself into now, Trixie?” she mumbled to herself while she pulled out a fresh piece of parchment so to start the daunting task of explaining the situation to, she feared, her oblivious friend.