Convincing Ember to side with Spike and Thorax had been relatively easy, largely because she already trusted Spike quite well, and even before she had found them she had already come to suspect that this mess had started from, in Ember’s words, “Equestria being stupid.” She was a little suspicious of Thorax initially, and him of her, but mostly because their two races did have a less than favorable past history and the two were more than familiar with that. Once Ember got to know Thorax a bit better and heard Spike’s defense of the changeling’s character though, the young dragon lord agreed that they were being treated unfairly, and she decided then and there that she would put an end to it by going right to the source. The three then came up with the plan that Ember would go and meet with Twilight, using her own political weight in trying and get Twilight to at least give up the chase. Ember seemed confident at the time that she could manage at least that much if nothing else, but nonetheless, the question still came up on what would happen should Twilight and the other ponies remain unmoved afterwards.
“If it comes to that, I’ll have you two escorted back into the Dragon Lands,” Ember promised with finality. “You two can stay there.”
“With the dragons?” Thorax repeated, sounding skeptical. “No offense, Dragon Lord Ember, but will your fellow dragons really be any more willing to accept Spike and I than the ponies of Equestria have been?”
“They aren’t going to get a say in the matter,” Ember promised. “If any dragon takes issue to a changeling being around, they can come to me. I’ll set them straight.”
And with that, the plan was set, and Ember made preparations for the trip to Ponyville. While she was doing that, Ember decided to put Spike, Thorax, and their airship someplace isolated from the pony population so to be safe from capture while also not too considerably far away and still within Equestrian borders. Therefore, Ember and her escort of two fully grown dragons led the Vergilius to a secluded area a bit further west from where Ember had found them, but still quite securely within Equestria. This area was not populated by ponies for no reason other than apparent chance; none had decided to come looking to settle there yet, and it was far enough into the more sparsely-populated south that there wasn’t a pressing need to.
But because it was rare for ponies to come through the area, the dragons had unofficially laid partial claim to it, using the area to roost and rest during traveling. So Ember thought that the Vergilius’s presence there would go completely unnoticed except by dragon eyes, who all answered to Ember of course and would not cause trouble without getting trouble back from Ember—though it turned out the region was presently empty of even any other dragons and a moot point, but it was for the better as Spike and Thorax felt safer with the seclusion. At any rate, Spike and Thorax waited there while Ember and her two escorts went off to confront Twilight and testify on their behalf. They didn’t have to wait much more than a day, but by the end of it Ember returned to the Vergilius with news of Twilight’s verdict—which was unchanged from before.
After learning this, the moods of those onboard were left mixed, but not unexpected for each respective individual. Spike was generally unsurprised and bitter, Thorax was disappointed, and Ember just fumed at Twilight’s “gall,” as she put it. Still, Ember hadn’t lost all hope just yet, and decided they ought to lie in wait somewhere awhile longer still, in hopes that Twilight or at least somepony else of authority would still come to their senses and seek to make amends properly…though Ember very much wanted it to be Twilight. Nonetheless, they agreed it was time to finally depart from Equestria, and as Ember had promised, she gave Thorax the needed instructions to set a course for the Dragon Realms.
The plan upon arriving was that they would then be more legally within Ember’s jurisdiction and protection as she was the leader of the lands, but also be in an obvious location where all three of them could reasonably be found should anyone in Equestria come along seeking diplomacy. Though Ember welcomed the two to go ahead and make themselves comfortable in the lands however they wished, Spike and Thorax, still aching from the aftermath of fleeing Vanhoover, were hesitant to do anything to settle down just yet and instead struck a deal to remain in a small and unpopulated valley just barely within the Dragon Realms border to stay and wait for now.
Once here, Thorax kept the air yacht stationary, hanging in the air roughly over the center of the chosen location, but opted not to land for now. His thinking was that this would leave the airship ready and able to flee the area quickly assuming it ever had to while also be making fairly minimal use of its magical power supply—of which there was still a little more than half remaining. Ember assured him that all of this wouldn’t be necessary though; she and her two adult dragon escorts were standing guard, planned to take down any threats that might come to the craft and crew, and could call in hundreds more to help easily if needed from that spot. But Thorax urged her not to resort to that though, preferring to keep the peace. Enough trouble had already been brought about because of him; he was not eager to add to it further still.
So there they waited. Ember’s two escorts assigned to guard their leader, who weren’t an especially chatty pair, typically spent their time taking turns patrolling the area, never straying far from the airship, either flying around the area or roosting somewhere within immediate sight. At least twice a day they would alternate in sending one out who’d go and fly out and about Equestria to try and learn any new updates—especially anything in regards to any Equestrian attempt to make peace with them—and come back by the end of the day to report in, but that was about the full extent of their contact with the two. Ember, however, opted to stay aboard the airship with Spike and Thorax so she could personally watch over them (when asked if this would disrupt her duties as dragon lord, Ember assured them this wasn’t the case, as usually her duties could be summed up as telling feuding dragons to “knock it off” and they could come to her for that). Having spent the past few of days aboard the Vergilius on their own, the added company of Ember certainly wasn’t undesired, especially for Spike, who found Ember saw eye to eye with him on many things.
They had little other contact from the other dragons in the land, most of whom would all be found much deeper into the territory, but also because at Thorax’s request, who was still leery of the idea of being within dragon territory at all, Ember ensured the rest of the dragons kept away and only informed “those who needed to know” that she was even back in the realms at all. Thorax ultimately became glad that he made this request, because while he was quickly coming to trust in Ember as much as Spike did, they were both quickly reminded during her stay aboard the airship that Ember was still a born and raised dragon. And as such, there was the odd hiccup every now and then.
For example, whenever there was something Ember decided she wanted, whether it was hers or not, she just took whatever it might be as much as she wanted without asking. This was especially a problem with the food stocks, so Spike sat down with her to point out that they only had so much food supplies and that they needed to conserve them, as well as explaining how it was more polite to ask for something that wasn’t already hers first before taking. But Ember pointed out that they could just get more foodstuffs there in the valley they hovered over (which wasn’t lush per se, but still wasn’t void of edibles either) and she didn’t really understand the concept of “politely asking for things.” It ended up being a very long discussion because of that, but eventually they got Ember to agree to do it simply because they asked her to.
Ember also seemed to have no sense of respecting privacy, as she tended to barge into any room without consideration of whatever someone might be doing within and didn’t seem to understand why that might be a problem at all. It became obvious after she walked in on Spike while in the middle of using the head, leading to an embarrassing discussion about why that was a problem that Spike refused to relate in any detail to Thorax (who was elsewhere on the air yacht at the time) later. The discussion was elaborated on later when Ember did it again when she walked in on Thorax in the middle of bathing in the main head (startling the poor changeling half to death), as Ember did not realize this included bathing too.
Thorax also observed that while the emotions he sensed off of Ember included much of the usual array of emotions, there was almost always a notable degree of general annoyance tacked on. He noticed the escorting adult dragons had the same thing. It wasn’t always annoyance for anything specific, it just seemed to be the cultural norm for dragons to be perpetually annoyed at something, if anything at all. As annoyance wasn’t a particularly nourishing emotion for the changeling, being continuously exposed to it had its minor downfalls. On the upside though, Thorax took note that wherever there was a rise in the mildly-tart emotion somewhere on the Vergilius, that was generally where Ember was at, allowing him to discreetly keep tabs on her location if needed.
This proved beneficial, because Ember also turned out to be curious like a cat. Though she acted like she had been on plenty of airships prior to now to the point that she’d staunchly insist on it if asked, it was clear to Spike and Thorax she never actually had before in her life, and was fascinated by all the things aboard the air yacht she had never seen before in the Dragon Realms. And whatever she found fascinating she tended to meddle with. Thorax had to have a lengthy talk with her about how the tethering cables that strapped the boat-like gondola of the Vergilius to its envelope of lifting gas were very important to keep in place, and no, the gondola could not keep flying without being attached to that envelope still.
The thing she found the most especially fascinating though was the most mundane; the two toilets aboard the airship. They were not exactly flush toilets—all they did when “flushed” was drain everything down into a septic tank located directly underneath for temporary storage until the contents could be more properly disposed of at an airship yard. But it turned out that dragons barely even had the concept of “outhouses,” as the general practice in the dragon realms was that, when nature called, one just dug a hole wherever they happened to be at. So Ember took great amusement (to the point she giggled every time while using one) with the toilets aboard the Vergilius, seeing them as “holes that dug and buried themselves.”
These antics aside though, the seriousness of the situation that had brought all of them here still weighed heavily on their minds. Their location wasn’t particularly close to any radio transmission sources, especially public access ones—which Thorax especially lamented when he discovered he couldn’t tune in and listen to a new episode of Doctor Hooves that was airing. In fact, they were technically outside Equestria’s established broadcast area now, but they were still able to pick up the odd transmission from other airships passing close to the region, or from the wayward transmission that ended up crossing the gap between lands whether intentionally or not. Through these, they were semi-able to keep continued tabs on Equestria’s ongoing search for them, listening for any new developments.
Unfortunately, in the days following the disastrous meeting with Twilight, there was little new to report. The royal guard still had the same orders; any airships found that matched the Vergilius’s description were to be detained along with its crew until confirmed if the right craft or not by a pony of authority, presumably one of the princesses. Any citizens with any information pertaining to the Vergilius or the two waywards flying it were urged to come forward. The reports the escorting dragon sent out into Equestria to gather information always reported much the same. Beyond that, there seemed to be little else to learn except, obviously, Equestria hadn’t found what they were searching for. Which, for Spike and Thorax, was a good thing. Unfortunately, it seemed the search wouldn’t be ceasing anytime soon and most ponies involved seemed to be viewing them as foes still, and that was not a good thing as it suggested their combined attempts to sway the others away from that still hadn’t worked.
They also had no further contact with Equestria since Ember’s meeting with Twilight either. Thorax reasoned that maybe waiting for them to come to them and act wasn’t working and wondered if it would be better to just come forward and publically reveal themselves, announcing they wanted to talk. But both Spike and Ember took issue with that idea, both expecting that such a reveal would only be abused by those that would seek to do Thorax harm, and neither would stand for that, nor believe it was an acceptable risk to take. A private reveal to somepony specific was instead more desired, but they had run out of ponies they could turn to who also had the power to actually make a difference.
Thorax kept suggesting Princesses Celestia or Luna as possible targets, but the two dragons weren’t willing to put that sort of trust in them just yet; Spike because he still didn’t believe either of the two had been swayed enough from Twilight’s side of things, especially seeing the conditions of the search for them hadn’t changed since it had started, and Ember simply because she saw this as a matter that was Twilight’s fault, and therefore was adamant that Twilight had to be the one who resolved it, not some other “pony princess,” as she put it. But Ember did admit that on her way back after seeing Twilight, she passed Canterlot and dropped a written notice of what had happened in that meeting, so she knew Celestia was more than aware of it. So, knowing of Spike’s ability to use his firebreath to send messages with Celestia and that Thorax had magically blocked it, Ember suggested he lift that enchantment so they could send another letter to Celestia, if only to inquire for an update. Which Thorax would’ve been more than happy to do…except to his great regret, there was no counterspell to the spell he had used to block this ability, so once applied, the only thing to do was wait for it to wear off again…which wouldn’t be for another few weeks.
It all disheartened Thorax, who was starting to wonder if all this hiding they were doing was actually hindering things, not helping them. But he was reminded that there were plenty of other ways to try and contact them or let them know Equestria was willing to talk now, so it wasn’t as if they were entirely unreachable. Spike and Ember both just wanted to play it safe for now and urged Thorax to be patient and continue to wait, seeing how things played out. If things changed, they would act accordingly in response. If they didn’t, then they’d change their approach. But for now, it was believed this was, while granted not ideal, the better option to pursue.
Thorax ultimately relented to this, deciding to trust the judgement of the two dragons, especially since he knew they both had a better understanding of the politics of Equestria than he did. But he also made it clear he didn’t entirely agree with their assessment.
And as the days started to roll by, the more their attempts to try and stir change hadn’t taken root—or at least not quickly enough—started to become apparent. It didn’t help that as the weekend came and went, Spike and Thorax couldn’t help but recall that, had their plans for the weekend gone as they had hoped, they would still be in Vanhoover, taking the Vergilius out for a day cruise with Fly Leaf…and that they had lost that weighed heavily on them, especially Thorax. It also gave Ember time to personally review the situation of the two, and eventually come to the conclusion that this banishment they had been forced into was becoming detrimental to them in more ways than one. She especially had concerns about Spike’s health, noting early on that his scales had “dulled.” Learning that Spike hadn’t gotten to eat much in the way of gems since going into banishment as they just weren’t so readily available to him anymore, she ruled he wasn’t getting enough minerals in his diet that a dragon like him was only going to get from such gems and blamed it happening because of their banishment—yet another reason for her to be unhappy it had happened at all.
Luckily, they were in the Dragon Realms, so Ember simply collected a large bunch of gems from the various stashes in the land and put them before Spike, ordering him to eat as many as he could. And by the time the weekend had ended and the next week began after starting this revised diet, Ember noted that Spike’s scales had started to take on much “healthier shine” that pleased her, and Spike admitted to feeling a bit more energetic too. Unfortunately, it didn’t help them with the root problem that created the need for such action; the fact they were on the run and it didn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. And by the arrival of the Tuesday following their fleeing of Vanhoover, their morale was slowly starting to fall.
On that afternoon, the trio was to be found below deck killing time. Despite their hasty departure from Vanhoover, Spike had still managed to have the foresight to pack his starter set of Ogres & Oubliettes, and as Thorax still couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the game, Spike had taken to trying to teach Ember how to play since her arrival aboard the air yacht. Ember seemed to have a genuine interest in the game, more than Thorax did at least, but she struggled to understand the calculating and statistics that were such a major part of the gameplay, and she felt that distracted from the “action” of the game, frustrating her easily. Nonetheless, Spike persevered in trying to teach Ember how to play, and the two sat about the table in the Vergilius’s saloon playing the game. Thorax sat on a nearby bench placed on the wall opposite from the two dragons, quietly watching them play while his mind pondered about what lay ahead in their immediate future, discouraged by recent events and the lack of progress made in the past few days.
“What are we still waiting for?” he finally asked aloud, forlornly and without warning, interrupting the details on dice rolling Spike and Ember were currently disputing.
The two went silent and glanced at Thorax for a moment. “You mean us staying here, waiting?” Ember asked, not sure she was following. When Thorax simply nodded in confirmation, Ember snorted. “In the hopes that one of those dumb ponies you both associate with will wake up to reality and come looking to do things right for a change.”
Spike gently lowered the guidebook he had been in the middle of consulting. “I…think Thorax is saying there’s clearly no more hope of that happening at this point,” he grumbled simply for clarification and was clearly what he personally had been coming to believe.
Thorax frowned. “More like I’m just thinking about what’s next,” he corrected, rubbing his chitinous hoof along the cotton sleeve of the hoodie he wore. “I mean…how long are we going to keep waiting? Suppose nothing changes anytime soon? Surely, we can’t stay here forever. The Vergilius is eventually going to need to set down to resupply sometime anyway, so isn’t it time that we try to do something to change our circumstances?”
“We are,” Ember assured.
Thorax closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before replying. “With all due respect Dragon Lord Ember, all we’ve done is your approach to the matter, which was basically to protest loudly the offense, then retreat away to a hidden spot where we could not be quickly contacted.”
Spike grunted at this thought, frowning. “As much as I hate to admit it, he does have a point, Ember,” he relented. “If we want them to come and work things out, we should probably figure out a better place where they can come to do that if they wish, some place a bit more accessible to ponies.”
“Fine,” Ember concluded with a shrug, as if it made no difference to her. She jabbed her head in the rough general direction she assumed her two dragon escorts would be roosting outside in the valley below. “Name a place, I’ll have Obsidian or Garnet get the word out, and we can go from there.”
Thorax looked at his hooves for a moment. “And if that’s not enough?” he asked. He straightened. “Look…I’m not trying to be stubborn or questioning the judgment of either of you. I trust Spike, and he trusts you, so whatever you two say is best…I’ll follow your lead still. It’s just…we’re at a tipping point here. It can go either way now. And I just feel like…we aren’t doing enough to…push it our way right now.”
“Mm,” Ember grunted as she turned her head back to the game board on the table between her and Spike. “The problem with pushing is that sometimes they push back. That’s what I’m worried about.” She glanced back at Thorax, looking genuinely concerned. “I want this sorted out too. What those ponies have done to the both of you is far from right, even to a dragon like me. But…” she shook her head. “I’ll be honest. After everything they’ve done thus far…I can’t help but start to think the damage is already done. And you two have been put through enough as it is.” She regarded Spike and Thorax for a moment. “So you two tell me. Do you think they’ll really seek to fix this mess they’ve put you in?”
A moment of silence fell as the trio pondered the question.
“No,” Spike finally replied, playing with one of the pieces on the game board. “I don’t.”
“Spike…” Thorax began, disappointed.
“I know, Thorax, that’s not what you want to hear,” Spike relented with a sigh. “And to be honest…it’s not really what I want to hear either. But…after all this…I’m not seeing them budge enough for it to have been worth it. And…I’m getting tired of trying, Thorax. At some point…we’re just going to have to cut our losses and call it quits, you know.”
Thorax was quiet for a moment. “And if it comes to that?” he asked slowly, the words feeling tight in his throat as he forced them out.
“Well,” Ember remarked slowly, and she shrugged half-heartedly, knowing she couldn’t suggest better, “you’re at least safe enough here. So…just stay here, then.”
Spike slumped in his chair though, rumpling the shirt and sweater vest he still habitually wore while understanding what Thorax was saying. “But what about in the long term?” he asked. “What about our future? What are we going to do with ourselves in the Dragon Realms? Ember, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for us and continue to do for us, and I admit that we probably stand a better chance here than we do in Equestria…to the point I’m basically ready to say good riddance to Equestria right now…but…at the same time, we still want to be able to have lives of our own…and I think what Thorax’s trying to say is…we’re not convinced we’ll find that in the Dragon Realms.”
Ember was quiet for a moment, picking up the dice and playing with it in her claws. “You’re probably right,” she admitted finally, a confession she was clearly making with reluctance. “The place for you two isn’t among dragons…which is admittedly ironic considering one of you is a dragon…but I don’t know where else to take you two if things with Equestria don’t work out.” She sighed. “I was…sort of hoping that by waiting, I’d give myself time to come up with a better plan, but…”
Thorax made a small grin for encouragement. “It’s okay, Dragon Lord Ember,” he assured her. “We know you’re trying to do everything you can. Like Spike said…we appreciate it greatly.”
Ember threw the dice down on the playing board on the table. “It’s not enough though,” she muttered darkly, frustrated at herself. “And I don’t understand Equestria’s stubbornness over this at all…this really shouldn’t even be a problem and yet it is.”
Spike snorted, propping up his head with one set of claws. “You can understand my frustration with them, then,” he muttered.
“Even more frustrating,” Thorax went on, “is the fact that it’s not universal. These past four moons, Spike and I have met plenty of ponies willing to give a changeling a chance…but they just aren’t ponies in a position that can convince the rest of that. The closest we got to changing that was through Princess Luna…” Thorax sighed, reflecting on how they had gotten utterly no further contact from Luna since her dreamwalking the night before Twilight found them in Vanhoover, and now he didn’t know what it was the princess of the night planned at all anymore. “…but even that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere…even though I wish it did.”
“Clearly, Equestria at large just can’t find it in themselves to forgive a changeling,” Spike muttered in grave disappointment. “And I guess if they can’t be led to do it by now, odds are they aren’t going to anytime soon.” He nodded his head. “Thorax is right…what are we still waiting for? We already know Equestria isn’t going to change its mind at this point, and I’m not inclined to waste my time giving it any more chances it won’t take.”
“Give them some more time,” Ember urged, though whether out of a lingering hope or simple stubbornness, it was hard to tell. “Just a couple more days at most. If nothing has changed in any meaningful way by then, we’ll work out where to go from there. Either way, you can have my vow that I will not be letting this matter go with Equestria anytime soon. They want to do anything with the dragons? Then they’re going to have to get this worked out to my satisfaction first.”
And with that vow, the matter was again postponed for a later date. Ember and Spike eventually returned to their game while Thorax sat watching them, wondering if they were really going to be able to put off facing facts for much longer like this.
For now, though, the conversation moved on to other things, eager to focus on brighter topics. “You know, Thorax, more than two players can play at this game too,” Spike offered a few minutes later, after he and Ember were well back into the game. “Hay, I could even arrange to have you jump into the middle of the game without having to restart if you’d like.”
“Nah,” Thorax said, waving off the offer with one hoof. He grinned. “The dragon lord here is a better player than I am anyway. Honestly, I’d rather play a game of chess…assuming we had the pieces to play.”
Spike chuckled. “You only say that because you know you’re good at it,” he pointed out.
Ember looked up from the playing board. “I’m sorry…chess?”
“It’s a pony game,” Spike explained. “You have a bunch of pieces that you move around trying to capture your opponents king piece.” He jabbed his head in Thorax’s direction. “Fly Leaf taught him how to play one uneventful Saturday, and let’s just say Thorax caught on quick. Their first game ended in a draw, but every game they played after that, Thorax won with increasing speed each time.” He shot a smug glance in Thorax’s direction, who sheepishly avoided eye contact. “Finally, after managing to checkmate her in only two moves, Fly stopped playing chess with him as it was clear she couldn’t ever beat him.” Spike then chuckled, returning his attention to the roleplaying game before him. “She then tried to get me to play a game with her. I’m no fan of chess personally, but I agreed to do it only if she would then play a game of Ogres & Oubliettes with me.”
“What did she say to that?” Ember asked, curious.
Spike smirked. “And I quote: ‘No deal.’” He shook his head in good spirits. “Fly clearly didn’t like roleplay games. Her loss, I say.”
“I think she knew she was just better at other games,” Thorax reasoned.
“Except chess, clearly,” Ember observed with a smirk of her own.
“Well, in my defense, I think that, as a changeling, I was just good at using deception as a tactic and Fly was just prone to falling for it. I still say that last game was a mere stroke of luck on my part.”
“Oh yeah, I’m sure luck had entirely to do with it,” Spike mumbled teasingly.
“It really did. As I recall what happened in that final game, Fly simply made a critical error in her last move without realizing it until—”
“DRAGON LORD EMBER!” a loud voice suddenly bellowed from outside the air yacht, the sound being muted somewhat by the walls of the craft but still loud enough to be clearly heard. “THERE’S A MESSENGER HERE WITH URGENT NEWS!”
Ember was on her feet immediately, grabbing her scepter from where she had left it leaning against the wall, and was bounding up the steps to the main deck above them before either Spike or Thorax had much time to react. Nonetheless, they started to follow right behind her, arriving in the control cabin just a few seconds after she did. Once there though, she silently motioned for the two to wait there for a second before proceeding out onto the main deck. Spike and Thorax moved to where they could watch and listen through the open hatch to the cabin. Hovering directly beside the Vergilius was one of the escort dragons, the adult’s head so large that it nearly filled the space between the deck and the ship’s lifting envelope hanging above them. He made a salute as Ember appeared on the deck. A second dragon, a male more closer to Ember’s age and size, also hovered beside the escort, and it was he that grabbed Ember’s attention, especially as she didn’t immediately recognize him.
“And you are?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Zirconium, dragon lord,” the newcomer responded curtly.
Ember wrinkled her snout a little at the name and smirked. “An unfortunate name,” she noted aloud with a little teasing amusement.
“Yeah, well, it’s the only one I’ve got, so what of it?” Zirconium grumbled, folding his arms, annoyed.
Ember simply snorted and turned her attention back to the much larger escort dragon. “Well, spill it, Garnet, what’s this about?” she asked.
The escort, Garnet, pointed a massive claw at the smaller Zirconium. “He came flying in saying he’s relaying a message that had been received from the pony princess, Celestia,” he explained simply.
Ember regarded Zirconium with renewed interest. “Oh!” she said with a grin. “Old sun-butt is finally lifting a hoof to actually do something for a change, huh?” She turned her head to the door of the control cabin where Spike and Thorax still waited within. “Spike! Thorax!” Then, without waiting to see if they were coming out, she turned her attention back to the two male dragons, waving Garnet away. “Go ahead and give us a few, Garnet, and go back to patrolling with Obsidian.”
Garnet nodded then the massive adult dragon turned in the air and flew off again, leaving Zirconium behind. The newcomer dragon then proceeded to swoop down and land on the main deck before Ember, straightening and awaiting further instruction.
“It’s about time we heard something from Equestria,” Ember mumbled while he did this and Spike strolled up to stand beside her, eyeing the newcomer curiously. “I was starting to think they weren’t going to take a hint after all.”
“Nah, just took some time for the message to reach here, I guess,” Zirconium remarked as he briefly turned his head to watch Garnet fly further away from the airship before the larger dragon turned and vanished behind a tall outcropping of rock to resume his patrol as requested. “Her highness is seeking an audience with the two waywards, wanting to talk.”
“About time,” Ember mumbled again, rolling her eyes in frustration. She then turned to confirm Spike and Thorax had joined the group, but was surprised to see that only Spike stood beside her, Spike glancing up at her confused as he started to realize this himself.
The messenger dragon, meanwhile, nodded his head in the direction of the open door to the control cabin. “So that’s him?” he asked aloud. “The changeling everybody’s all up in arms over?”
Ember twisted around and glanced puzzledly at the doorway, seeing that Thorax had, for some reason, stopped within it and was oddly giving Zirconium a very critical look. She again motioned for him to come join them with her claws. “Yeah, and you’ll treat him with respect,” Ember paused to order the other dragon before glancing back at Thorax to see he hadn’t moved. “C’mon Thorax, get out here so we can talk.”
But Thorax still didn’t move, his eyes locked firmly on Zirconium. “Why are you here?” he asked the dragon aloud suddenly in a slow and deliberate tone.
Zirconium had his eyes locked firmly on the changeling as well and started to step around Ember and Spike so to approach him slowly. “Princess Celestia has sent a message here to the Dragon Lands, inquiring for diplomatic relations and talks in trying and sort out the situation with you, peacefully,” he repeated aloud.
“I got that part,” Thorax said, still not moving, nor did his tone change, to the puzzlement of Spike and Ember, who weren’t certain what was going on. “But why? Why are you here?”
Zirconium smirked, continuing to slowly approach the changeling. Spike and Ember turned themselves so to watch in confusion. “I’m just the messenger,” he explained simply in a knowing tone. “But since you asked, her highness is simply trying to tie up a few loose ends.”
“She’s never cared enough to do so before now,” Thorax pointed out firmly as he watched the male dragon approach him.
“Circumstances have changed,” Zirconium answered. “You’ve created quite a stir lately, you know.”
Seeing that Zirconium’s slow approach was soon going to bring him into the control cabin, Thorax at last took just enough steps to stand outside the doorway, effectively blocking the dragon’s path into the deckhouse. “I didn’t think she was going to even bother anymore.”
“Oh, but she will,” Zirconium promised confidently as he finally came to stand in front of the changeling. His smirk grew as he took in the changeling in the midnight blue hoodie before him. “Her highness would very much like to speak with you.”
Thorax’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I’m sure she does,” he answered.
Greatly confused as to what was going on between the two and seeing that Spike didn’t seem to understand any more than she did, Ember started to take a step towards the pair, about to demand an explanation, but it was then in that moment that both abruptly acted. It was so fast and sudden that she missed who moved first, but in a blink of an eye, both had blocked an attempted blow each had thrown at the other. Recovering quicker than Thorax, Zirconium rapidly tried again, only to have Thorax block that punch from the dragon too, then quickly duck a third from Zirconium’s other fist. By the time he had popped his head back up, Thorax’s horn was alight and charged, promptly using it to fire a highly charged force spell into the dragon’s chest.
It didn’t harm him so much as it caused the tall dragon to stumble backwards, suddenly off-balance, but as he recovered and started to move back towards Thorax, a fury in his eyes, Ember leapt forward to restrain him. “What in the name of bedrock do you think you’re—” she was cut short when, before she could secure a firm hold on the male dragon, he slammed his elbow backwards and into Ember’s snout, the force of the blow throwing her head back and, caught off-guard, led to her falling to the deck, claws clamping over the injury while her scepter tumbled to the deck beside her.
“Hey!” Spike shouted as he raced forward to join the melee.
But Thorax beat him to offending dragon first, horn still charged which he used to fire another spell to force him back. Zirconium attempted to dodge it, taking only a partial impact, leaving him to free to grab Thorax by the hoof as the changeling raised it to strike at the dragon physically. This giving him leverage to his advantage, the dragon was then able to force Thorax sideways and plant a kick into the changeling’s barrel, slamming Thorax hard into the front of the deckhouse.
By that time Spike threw himself at Zirconium, going for the bigger dragon’s legs in hopes this would serve as a weak spot. But he was unfazed by Spike’s ineffective attack and, more annoyed than anything, grabbed Spike by the sweater vest and lifted him clear off the deck before hurling him aside. Scarily, the throw would’ve been enough to send Spike tumbling over the deck railing of the air yacht and fall overboard down to the valley far below, if he didn’t strike a set of tethering cables stringing the Vergilius’s gondola to the lifting envelope instead. This stopped his fall short, leading to him bouncing off the railing and dropping onto the deck, safe but winded for the moment.
Regardless, the close call wasn’t lost on Thorax, and with a loud bellow the changeling pushed off the front of the deckhouse and charged the opposing dragon, lashing out at him with three more spells at the dragon, all fired in rapid succession. All hit the dragon, but other than forcing him back slightly, they seemed to have little effect on him and allowed him to slap Thorax in the face as the changeling reached him, then kick him back down onto the deck.
“Oh, Thorax, Thorax, Thorax!” the dragon ridiculed as he placed one foot down on Thorax’s belly before the changeling could pick himself back up. “You still can’t even bring yourself to use the sort of spells that would’ve ended this fight already, you weakling, but I knew you would and it’ll be your undoing because of it!”
“The hay it is!” Ember suddenly cried as, her snout bleeding, she rejoined the fight, raising her retrieved scepter to strike at their attacker.
Zirconium, merely glancing back at her, snatched the scepter before it made contact with him and tried to rip it out of Ember’s grasp. When Ember’s grip proved firm, he instead lifted his foot off of Thorax and planted a kick to the dragoness’s chest, knocking her back into the railing on the opposite side of the deck were Spike still lay on all fours, trying to catch his breath.
Deciding she had enough then, Ember resorted to a tactic that she found worked to force apart squabbling dragons. “That’s it!” she bellowed before breathing a ball of magenta fire at the opposing dragon. As dragons are naturally fireproof, this normally just disorients them like a slap to the face, often to helping to bring them to their senses, and Ember was hoping it would do this for Zirconium too.
She was not expecting for the dragon to immediately catch aflame and holler in agony as he dropped to the deck and started rolling around trying to put out the flames burning him, the stench of burning flesh quickly striking the air.
The next second revealed why, because after a few flickers of green, his magical disguise collapsed completely under the flames and with a whoosh of emerald magic that only helped to partly disrupt the flames burning him revealed the changeling that had been hidden underneath. Before Ember could recover from her shock at this, Thorax, who didn’t react to the changeling’s disguise failing at all, jumped to his hooves and darted to the changeling’s side, using his magic to both try and hold him still and try to put out the lingering flames that had already burned most of one side of the intruding changeling’s body.
“Hold still, you fool!” Thorax hissed over the changeling’s cries of pain as he found that, despite his obvious attempts to help him, the enemy changeling kept trying to resist and throw off the advances of the other changeling. “I’m trying to help you!”
Ember hurried forward to assist and, not affected by the lingering flames, was able to do what Thorax could not and physically grab the burning changeling and quickly slap out the fire with her claws. Once she had, Thorax reasserted control and used his magic to keep the changeling still while surveying the damage. It was not good—the changeling’s chitin was scorched and/or blistering over most of the left side of his body, with most of these burns concentrated mostly on his upper body and left shoulder, where most of Ember’s fireball had initially struck him. His left wing had also become twisted as if it had slightly melted from the heat of the fire. The changeling was clearly in pain too, because although his hollering had lessened, it was clearly mostly out of sheer willpower, his face contorted and scrunched in a perpetual grimace as he fought against the barrage of pain he was feeling.
Though he was no healer, Thorax knew he needed immediate treatment. He noticed Spike joining the group finally, the little dragon’s eyes wide and his breathing still heavy as he recovered from being winded, and had lost his false eyeglasses during the scuffle but otherwise appeared unharmed. Thorax turned his head to urgently look in his direction. “Spike, run below deck and grab the first aid kit we packed, quickly!”
“Right,” Spike mumbled and tore his gaze away from the injured changeling to run for the deckhouse.
Noticing that Ember on his other side had pulled back to sit herself down beside the row of suspension cable anchors that ran down the middle of the main deck, Thorax turned his head to look in her direction, seeing she was pinching the bridge of her injured snout with her claws in an attempt to staunch the red blood still leaking from her nostrils. “Dragon Lord Ember, are you going to be—?”
“I’m fine,” Ember barked, waving him off with her free hand. “You keep doing whatever it is you’re trying to do!”
So Thorax did, turning his attention back to the changeling before him and proceeding to hawk up a ball of changeling gel that he then spat onto the other changeling’s burns, proceeding to spread the gel over the injuries with his hooves. The gel, upon drying, would act like a makeshift bandage, and it was Thorax’s hope it would also soothe the burns at least slightly too, easing the changeling’s agony.
The changeling was more focused on other things though, attempting to lift his head to stare both incredulously and in irritation as he watched Thorax do this. “What are you doing?” he asked, weakly hissing the words out through clenched teeth, gritted as he struggled to bear through the pain he was in. “I was just trying to attack you all!”
“Nobody’s perfect,” Thorax quipped flatly in reply, more focused on spreading the gel on the changeling’s burns. He paused to hawk up another ball of the gel before gazing at the changeling’s face, studying it closely. “I know you, don’t I?” he asked next. The changeling didn’t reply, but his eyes narrowed into a scowl which only served to confirm Thorax’s suspicions. “Yes, you’re Julius, aren’t you?” he went on speaking. “We both served for about year in the thirty-forth squadron of aggressores before you were promoted to the rank of legionary.”
The changeling, Julius, let out an annoyed hiss. “And you stayed an aggressor, because you were too pathetic to even try and fight most of the time,” he ridiculed back in reply.
“Aggressor?” Ember repeated, listening to the conversation.
“Being translated, an invader,” Thorax distractedly explained for her benefit. “It’s a low-standing military rank in the hive.”
Ember’s eyebrows went up as she peered at him past the claws she was still pinching her snout with. “You were a soldier?”
“Reluctantly,” Thorax emphasized sternly.
Julius let out a weak and scorning chuckle. “He hated it, the weakling,” he grumbled, amused by Thorax’s deepening frown as the subject persisted. “Couldn’t bring himself to even strike the trainers most of the time, let alone an actual enemy, and you could forget about him actually trying to kill anyone, no matter the circumstance.” He lifted his head up slightly to peer at Ember. “You’ve actually done him a favor striking me down like you did, dragon, as the weakling here was never going to do anything to really fight back and stop me.”
“There are other ways to solve a problem than with violence,” Thorax intoned flatly as he worked. “That’s what we were taught as nymphs.”
“Except with your way, you’d never resort to violence at all, you pathetic excuse for a changeling,” Julius grumbled, watching Thorax with a glare as the other changeling spat another ball of gel onto his burned chitin. “Here you are trying to heal the one who attacked you, after all.”
“You’re darn lucky he’s here to even try,” Spike growled as he abruptly returned, running up with the first aid kit in tow, which he opened, set down on the deck beside Thorax, and pushed towards his changeling friend so he could see inside. “You probably wouldn’t have gotten the same treatment from either me or Ember.” He paused to study the defiant but injured changeling, wincing slightly at the extensive burning the changeling faced. “Is it even worth it, Thorax?” he couldn’t help but ask. “These burns look awful, and I don’t think our little kit is going to have enough to treat them.”
“I’ll make do,” Thorax vowed as he sifted through the kit’s contents while passing Spike a roll of gauze with his magic. “Go help Ember with her snout.”
Spike reluctantly took the roll and ambled over to Ember, who accepted some of the gauze to press into her bleeding snout. Meanwhile, Thorax found a container of burn treatment and pulled it out, using it to treat the burns he hadn’t yet covered with gel. It was then that Julius, believing Thorax to be distracted, started to raise his head and light his horn, about to attack again with his magic, but almost distractedly, Thorax spat another ball of gel onto the horn, pinning it to the deck below Julius and disrupting his magic enough that his horn went dark again without firing off any spells.
The quick reaction surprised Julius, and for a moment he expressed it by chuckling weakly. This apparently left him short on breath because he started to pant afterwards and for a moment his expression went vacant. Then, furrowing his brow in puzzlement, he glanced at Thorax again, looking genuinely confused. “You are certainly more capable than I was expecting at least,” he muttered to himself. “I had thought you to be extremely weak and lethargic with hunger by now than you are.”
“Hunger hasn’t been a problem for me for some moons now,” Thorax explained simply.
“Informis Una—how? You’ve been away from the support of hive and on your own for so long…”
“I’m not alone.” Thorax glanced at Spike and Ember, who glanced back, still watching and listening to the conversation. “I have friends I can count on. That supports me…far more than you give it credit for.”
Julius scowled again. “Right. Friends. The ideals of prey you were always so big on.”
“You should try them.”
“And betray my race like you did?”
“I’ve betrayed no one. I did all of this to try and find a better way of life for changelings.”
Julius turned sarcastic. “And how has that turned out for you?”
Thorax shrugged simply. “I’m here, aren’t I? Alive, healthy, strong enough to help stop your attacks, capable enough to try and treat your injuries, and apparently enough of a threat for the queen to send you to kill me.” This gave Julius pause for a moment, gaze turning vacant again as he lay there, panting, realizing Thorax had a point. Thorax, however, pressed on with a different subject. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” he asked. “You were sent here to kill me.”
Julius didn’t hide it. “Yes.”
“But why?” Thorax asked, confused by this. “What does Queen Chrysalis stand to gain from it? I know she hasn’t bothered to even try to find me ever since I left the hive before, so what changed? Why is she suddenly trying to get me out of the picture?”
“Like I said…you’re a loose end she wants wrapped up.”
“And what’s happened to make that suddenly so important to her?” Thorax gazed at him in concern. “What is the hive up to?”
Julius glared defiantly back at him, but the glare was weakened by his continued panting which had been steadily getting more and more ragged, like he could no longer draw in a full breath, even though Thorax could clearly see he was. “Why should I tell you anything?”
Thorax gazed at him calmly for a moment, before turning back to his treating of the changeling’s wounds. “I’m trying to save your life, aren’t I?”
Julius went quiet for a long moment, stumped by this. “Why are you doing this?” he asked finally, somewhat incredulously, while turning very confused again. “I just attacked you and your allies, with orders to kill you and show you all no mercy.”
“He’s got a point,” Spike couldn’t help but interject here, standing at Ember’s side as she sat on the deck, pressing gauze to her snout. “He’s only going to be a danger to us, alive.”
“I know,” Thorax responded.
“Then tell me why you’re being so stupid to do this!” Julius demanded with as much force as he could muster, which wasn’t terribly much at the moment. “Is it because you want to pry answers out of me?”
“No, I doubt you’re going to stay conscious long enough to do so,” Thorax answered truthfully, and looked Julius seriously in the eye. “It’s because only enemies wouldn’t help each other like this. And I am not your enemy, Julius. I never was.”
“I am now.”
“Only if you make yourself be…but wouldn’t it be easier for you if you had a few less enemies to worry about and a few more allies instead?”
Julius gazed at Thorax blankly for a moment. “Living among prey has really messed with you,” he noted.
“Perhaps,” Thorax relented with a small grin. “But I get their friendship out of it…and with it a sort of nourishing love like you cannot imagine, and I get it simply for being a friend back. No fighting. No trickery. You noted I was far healthier than you were expecting. That’s why. It’s because of friendship. So think about it, Julius. If everyone at the hive had a friend of their own, none of us would ever have to go hungry again, nor would we have to fight anyone to get that. Please…just think about it.”
And Julius did, or so it seemed, as he fell quiet and lapsed into deep thought, unable to do much else as Thorax worked with his wounds. There was little more Thorax could do to treat the injuries, though, and as he watched Julius’s eyes become more and more unfocused and disoriented, he feared it wasn’t enough. He passed a glance back at the two dragons who were watching the proceedings with tense interest, silently wondering what would happen.
Finally, Julius spoke again. “There are two ponies coming, heading for your location right now,” he announced through his panting, which was increasing to the point it was nearly hyperventilation. “They should be arriving near the Horseshoe Bay on the western coast of Equestria before this time tomorrow. Two mares, unicorns, their names are Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon.”
Thorax turned his head sharply towards Julius at the familiar names. “What have you done to them?” he demanded coldly.
“Nothing,” Julius replied simply. “Yet. That’ll change after tomorrow. I suggest you find them before then.”
A moment of silence fell as the implications of his statement weighed heavily on the others. “Why are you telling us this?” Ember finally asked.
Julius lifted his head as far as he could, given his weak state and his horn still pinned to the deck with a glob of changeling gel. “You wanted answers, didn’t you?” he asked rhetorically.
This seemed to drain the last of his energy out of him though, and he let his head thump onto the deck again, limbs going limp and his breathing slowing, though Thorax doubted it was because he had finally caught his breath because his breathing had become very labored, like he was struggling to find the strength to keep up the panting he had been doing before. “Valde inusitatum tu es, Thorax,” he muttered in his native language.
Thorax gently placed a hoof over the other changeling’s injured barrel. “Informis Una auxilio tibi tribuit,” he mumbled back in reply.
Julius managed to nod his head a few times, but then his movements grew very sluggish as his eyes glazed over, rolling upwards as his eyelids began fluttering sporadically and frequently, the changeling struggling to stay conscious. Spike, suddenly recalling a tidbit of medical knowledge he had picked up from Twilight once, moved forward and pressed two of his claws to the changeling’s temple.
“His pulse is very sluggish,” he noted aloud, and looked urgently to his friend. “Thorax, I think he might be going into shock because of his burns.”
Thorax nodded his head urgently, turning all business again as he pushed the open first aid kit beside him out of the way. “Right,” he announced, rising to his hooves. “Spike, the closet beside the main head, go and pull everything out of it, including the shelves. Dragon Lord Ember, if you’re up to it, help me keep Julius steady while I move him below deck.”
While Spike ran ahead to carry out the requested task, Thorax cautiously picked up the injured changeling with his magic, lifting him into the air as levelly as he could while Ember, hurriedly stuffing gauze into her nostrils so to keep her bleeding nose at bay and keep her claws free, followed him, gently giving Julius’s increasingly limp body nudges to try and keep it from shifting positions too much. Carefully, they moved the changeling back into the deckhouse and down the steps leading into the lower deck. There, Spike was already at the closet in question, ripping out everything that was in it and tossing it to one side for now.
While he was doing this, Thorax brought Julius to the saloon table nearby, whipping his hoof across it to swipe the forgotten game of Ogres & Oubliettes they had left there off the table, placing Julius, now unconscious, down on the table in its place. Then, while Ember watched with a mixture of fascination and disgust, Thorax proceeded to hawk up more and more changeling gel which he started to stretch out with his hooves and wrap around Julius’s form, starting with his hind legs and moving on up from there. By the time Spike finished pulling everything out of the closet and moved to watch too, it was clear Thorax was creating a cocoon around the other changeling.
Once he was halfway up Julius’s body, slowly sliding the changeling off the table and into the rapidly forming cocoon, Thorax switched to stretching the gel over Julius’s head, forming a sort of hood. Then, at the top of this, he sculpted a small bubble, which he then reared up to cough up some kind of clear fluid into it that Ember didn’t recognize, but that Spike did; it was partially digested emotion. Once a fair amount was collected into the bubble, Thorax then sealed it up and pointed his horn at the bubble, casting a spell into it. The bubble sparkled with cyan energy for a moment then proceeded to case a mild yellow-green glow as it began to dribble a semi-clear slime into the cocoon itself, pouring over Julius’s form as it quickly started to fill its interior. As it did so, Thorax finished sealing up the cocoon, and by the time he had done so, the slime had filled the cocoon enough that it started to submerge Julius’s head.
Ember winced slightly as she watched Julius start to twitch and struggle within the cocoon, bubbles gushing out of his mouth. “Can he breathe in there?” she asked urgently.
“Yes,” Thorax promised as he put the finishing touches on the cocoon. “His lungs just need a moment to adjust to breathing the nutrient bath.”
“Nutrient bath?” Ember murmured to herself, watching as Julius quickly adjusted as promised and began to hang calmly within the slime-filled cocoon.
Thorax didn’t answer as he lifted the now-finished cocoon in his magic, carrying it upright over to the emptied closet and adhering the stem of the cocoon to its roof, letting it hang loosely within the small space. Thorax released his magic cautiously to make sure the cocoon was properly in place then backed out of the closet again, joining the others as they all silently moved to study the cocoon, alit with the faint glow of the bubble at its top that was presumably still producing more of the slime filling it.
Ember tilted her head at it, confused about what good this was all for. “What is it?” she asked aloud, her voice somewhat nasally due to the gauze still shoved in her nose.
“A healing cocoon,” Thorax replied. “It’ll keep Julius submerged in a nourishing nutrient bath that will keep him fed, hydrated, and filled with the nutrients needed while also easing him into a deep sleep, a sort of hibernation, so his body can dedicate all the energy it can to healing and repairing itself.”
“So that’s what a completed one looks like,” Spike mumbled to himself, entranced as he watched Julius hang within it.
Ember glanced at Thorax. “Will it help?”
Thorax shook his head slowly. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But it should at least keep him alive for the moment.”
A long moment of silence fell as they all watched the cocoon warily.
Finally, Spike glanced at Thorax. “You know him?” he asked.
Thorax nodded slowly with a sigh. “We served together as invaders for a time…we never ever saw eye to eye, though, and the moment he was promoted, we went our separate ways. Frankly, I’m surprised he recalled any about me. I did not like him much, and I am quite certain he hated me.”
“Is it just a coincidence that he was the one sent for you?” Ember asked, glancing again at Thorax too.
Thorax again couldn’t confirm or deny it. “I don’t know. It’s easily possible. In the hive, all the changelings typically have some kind of direct contact with each other at some point.”
“Why was he sent at all?” Spike asked, confused about this.
“I don’t know,” Thorax repeated. He frowned. “All I know is that something has happened that has made the fact I am running free a matter of concern to Queen Chrysalis, and she is taking steps to change that, when before she had never bothered…I would’ve seen clear signs of that long before now if she had.”
Another moment of silence fell as the trio worked to try and puzzle this out.
“How did you know he was a changeling, anyway?” Ember asked suddenly. “You didn’t seem to be at all surprised by that.”
“Smell,” Thorax answered, and glanced back at the other two. “Neither of you would have the noses built to notice it, but all changelings produce an identifying pheromone that marks them as a changeling to other changelings, even when disguised.”
“And you could smell that on him even while he was disguised as a dragon,” Spike summarized, catching on.
Thorax nodded. “Almost from the second he set foot on the main deck,” he confirmed, and frowned. “Julius wasn’t even trying to hide that fact from me…he wanted me to know he was a changeling from the start…that might have actually taken the advantage from him, in retrospect…he should’ve jumped us when we all still suspected nothing.”
Ember, meanwhile, was shaking her head. “I should’ve realized something was off about him from the start too though,” she muttered. “I should’ve been clued in the moment he claimed his name was, of all things, Zirconium.”
“The fake gem,” Spike mumbled to himself with a nod. He shrugged. “I’ll admit though…it was fitting.” He went quiet for a moment then glanced at Thorax. “Why did you save him…really?”
Thorax didn’t reply right away. “Someone had to.”
Another moment of silence passed, but then Thorax turned and started to head back for the steps leading up into the control cabin. The others turned to watch him.
“So what now?” Ember asked, both dragons moving belatedly to follow him.
“Now we go and find Starlight and Trixie,” Thorax replied as he marched up the steps.
“What?” Spike declared, and ran ahead so to face Thorax directly as they arrived back in the control cabin. “You sure that’s wise?”
“We know where to look for them,” Thorax pointed out as he marched to the Vergilius’s controls and promptly started to turn the airship about, setting a course back for Equestria.
“It could be a changeling trap for all we know,” Ember reasoned as she watched Thorax.
“It could,” Thorax agreed. He finished setting the course and putting the air yacht at full throttle. “But I think Julius was telling the truth.”
“What do those two ponies have to do with anything, though?” Ember asked. “And why the hay are they so far from their homes?”
“They’re looking for us,” Thorax replied as he finished with the controls and, locking the controls, left the helm and headed for the doorway leading onto the main deck. “Like Julius had said. Why, I don’t know…but they’re going to be our best hope for answers.” He paused at the door to glance back at Ember. “Dragon Lord Ember…if you want your escorts to come with, you had best gather them now and let them know we’re leaving.”
Ember nodded and followed Thorax out onto the main deck, stopping to make sure the gauze she had shoved up her nose was still holding the bleeding at bay if not stopped it altogether, then launched herself into the air, flying off to quickly find the two escorts and bring them back. Spike meanwhile followed Thorax as he moved to stand at the prow of the air yacht, gazing out at the horizon where Equestria lay beyond.
“Why are we doing this, Thorax?” Spike asked sternly. “We’re not wanted in Equestria.”
“That doesn’t matter right now,” Thorax replied simply.
“Doesn’t matter?” Spike repeated. “It completely matters, Thorax! We could be caught by the authorities, who we don’t know if they’ll side with us or not any more than before! We’re taking a huge risk doing this!”
“We’d be taking a huge risk doing nothing too,” Thorax retorted, turning to face his dragon friend. Spying the false glasses Spike had lost earlier in the scuffle, he scooped them up with his magic and levitated them over, looking them over and observing that they had not been damaged. “The other changelings are up to something, Spike,” he explained as he gently placed the glasses back over Spike’s eyes. “And usually, whenever that happens, trouble follows for Equestria. We need to know what is happening, and right now we’ve only got one lead for answers. Besides…I suspect Starlight and Trixie, if not the rest of Equestria, might be in danger. If I’m right, they could use our help.”
“And after everything they’ve done to us, just what do we owe Equestria?” Spike challenged darkly.
“Probably nothing,” Thorax admitted. “But something’s changed, Spike. And whatever it is…it was important enough that the hive thought it necessary to hunt us down and finish us off, just because I’m suddenly a loose end to them. We’re in danger too…whether we like it or not.”
He turned his gaze back for the horizon. A little grumpy but having nothing immediate to retort Thorax’s point for the moment, Spike followed his gaze. “I still say this is a bad idea,” he grumbled.
“I know,” Thorax replied. He sighed, feeling very troubled. “I just pray, for all of our sakes, that you aren’t right about that.”