//------------------------------//
// Breaking the Ice 
// Story: Grief is the Price We Pay 
// by Scyphi 
//------------------------------//

            After everyone had bathed who was going to bathe (excluding Ember—who simply decided she didn’t need to—and Thorax—with far more occupants aboard now, he couldn’t fully guarantee his preferred privacy when bathing, so his old fear of getting caught in water in public and that he hadn’t gotten as much cocoon slime on him as the others led him to decide he could do without) and once everyone was settled in, Thorax gathered everyone back into the control cabin for a group meeting. There, he explained that in order to keep the Vergilius flying safely and on course through the night without stopping, they would each have to take shifts piloting it. For this, he needed to run through how to do that, teaching them the basics of flying an airship.

            For Spike (now fully back in his usual disguise despite it being unnecessary), Starlight, and Ember, this went fairly well. Starlight’s sponge-like mind for absorbing information was able to get down the needed details fairly quickly. Ember, being a dragon capable of personal flight, knew enough of the aerodynamic principles behind it to be able to follow along with the rest and understand how to apply them for the airship. And Spike, having aided Thorax in flying the craft in minor ways since they left Vanhoover, was already familiar with the fundamentals, providing a sturdy foundation for the rest of the information to build off of.

            Trixie, however, was another story. Unlike Spike and Ember, she had no prior background in the field of flying, and unlike Starlight, didn’t have an interest in learning because she was, of course, afraid of flying (or so Ember preferred to refer to it as. Trixie tried to explain that it wasn’t so much the act of flying that frightened her, it was more the danger of falling to her death if whatever was holding her up would abruptly cease, but Ember insisted that it was all the same thing). In fact, the idea of being the one responsible for flying the airship for any stretch of time left her very uneasy. It didn’t help that the more technical details just seemed to fly over her head and there was much she just didn’t seem to understand. Finally, Starlight volunteered to pull Trixie aside and talk it through with her in more generalized terms Trixie could understand. Thorax quickly (maybe too much so) agreed to that and allowed Starlight to do so while he took Spike and Ember out onto the main deck to show them how to maintain the airship’s suspension cables that tethered it to the lifting envelope keeping it afloat.

            By the time he had finished doing that and left the two dragons working on some general upkeep on the tethering, Starlight had finished with Trixie, having successfully gotten the basics of flying the airship through to the stage performer enough that Trixie at least felt reasonably confident that she could keep the Vergilius in the air, on course, and away from anything it could collide with en route, which was really all Thorax was looking for right now. So Thorax then set about teaching Starlight how to upkeep the airship’s rigging like he did with Spike and Ember. Trixie was exempt from this at Thorax’s decision, as he knew her phobias would make participating in such a task highly uncomfortable for her, seeing most of the air yacht’s suspension cables ran along the edges of boat-like gondola, all of which Trixie had been making a point to stay away from the whole time she had been aboard. It seemed more courteous, then, to not force her into that task.

            “Besides,” he reasoned, “altogether we’ll have four others who can maintain the rigging including myself, and on an airship of this size, that’s probably more than I’ll ever need.”

            Indeed, Spike knew from their voyage immediately after leaving Vanhoover that Thorax was more than capable of maintaining the rigging entirely on his own if need be, and figured Thorax had only taught others more as a precaution and to give them something to do while they flew for the changeling hive. Nevertheless, Spike watched his changeling friend closely where he could during all of this and afterwards as they went about their individual tasks aboard the craft—not because of how Thorax had handled this crash course in flying an airship, but because he was still wondering about the questions he had asked that the changeling had deliberately avoided answering eariler.

            Apparently this showed somewhat to others. Because while he and Ember worked with the rigging anchored to the roof of the deckhouse (as already noted, most of the rigging ran around the edges of the gondola as well as the bowsprit and sternsprit, but for added support and anchoring to the lifting envelope, a few were placed down the middle of the main deck, and as the deckhouse itself was more or less “in the way,” a couple had to be mounted to its roof), Ember finally made note of Spike’s concentrated gaze as the littler dragon gazed at where Thorax and Starlight worked at the bowsprit, idly chatting. “So just what is it that you’re thinking so hard about and what does it have to do with Thorax?” the dragoness asked simply.

            Startled out of his contemplation, Spike glanced in her direction. “Oh, uh, nothing you need to be worrying about really,” he admitted. He smirked a bit to himself. “Actually, in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably not the most important anyway, considering where we’re going and what we plan to do there…at least for now.”

            It was clear from Ember’s expression that it wasn’t the response she was looking for, but nonetheless she grunted in acknowledgement and returned to the block that controlled the suspension line they were adjusting. “Thought I’d ask, is all,” she eventually elaborated as if she felt obligated to, even though Spike hadn’t planned to press. “You just seemed pretty focused on it.”

            “It’s a subject I’ll probably have to talk with Thorax in more depth once this is all over, but it can probably wait until then, I guess,” Spike admitted, though with a little reluctance.

            “That’s assuming we successfully pull this off,” Ember responded, distracting Spike from his thoughts.

            “Darn straight,” Spike grumbled, but no sooner had he said that, he couldn’t help but smirk a little as an appropriate counter-response immediately sprang to mind. “But if Applejack were here, she’d call that ‘stinking thinking.’” He then thought about how long it had been since he had really spoken with the apple farmer and sighed.

            Ember glanced at him again. “You miss them, don’t you?” she asked pointedly, “Your pony friends?”

            Spike frowned. “I think that ship’s sailed by now, Ember,” he admitted sadly.

            Ember disagreed though. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she said. “Back when she was explaining things, Starlight did mention that Twilight Sparkle was getting forced out of the search for you two, and she and her friends were helping Twilight see why. Personally, that suggests to me other ponies actually were starting to change their minds about you and Thorax, maybe even for the better, before this all went down.” She frowned, troubled. “Honestly, it surprised me a little…like you, I was starting to lose faith, and am still reluctant to put too much trust in them. But maybe…that was all premature…”

            “Not necessarily. All of that just means ponies were seeing Twilight getting too obsessive and moved to stop her. They probably still won’t actually trust Thorax or believe me properly when I say to the contrary. Twilight certainly won’t.”

            “Twilight is an idiot,” Ember agreed straight up, grunting as she struggled to get the pulley in the block to move. “The truth’s already there in front of her and she chooses to ignore it. But never mind Twilight. What about the others? I mean, Starlight’s here, isn’t she?”

            “Yeah, but for an ulterior motive,” Spike replied very pointedly, and it was clear that despite his decision to participate in the rescue attempt, he still had clear misgivings about being involved. “She’s here to use Thorax, not so much because she sees a friend in him.”

            Now Ember was the one to smirk. “Obviously I’m no expert,” she remarked, “but I think you underestimate Starlight Glimmer. Heck, I think I’ve underestimated her. I had taken her to be no better than Twilight before, but…since she got here…she’s been showing more of an open mind than I thought she would. I’ve been wondering if she’s more on your side than you give her credit for. And if she can do it, so could others, couldn’t they?” She grunted again as she worked with the block, which was proving to be more troubling than expected. “Anyway, you need the friends.”

            Spike glanced at her in mild surprise. “Oh really?”

            Ember didn’t reply right away as she continued to struggle with the block. When she did, it was with a bit of an embarrassed grimace. “Look…ever since meeting you and Twilight at the Gauntlet of Fire, I admit I’ve been thinking about friendship a lot,” she admitted slowly as she worked. “Mostly, I’ve been thinking about what I know about how ponies live and comparing it to how dragons live…and I do have to admit that I see a clear difference. On some things it’s a good thing…but on others…” she hesitated for a moment. “…I hadn’t really thought about it too much before, but…I look around at the dragons I rule over back home and…feel like something’s missing. An important something. Something that ponies have, but dragons don’t. Something that could bring a bit more…stability…to things, I guess? Something that I figure has to be friendship. I mean, what else could it be? It’s just…you know dragons don’t do friends. Not willingly, at least. I’m still uneasy about the whole thing myself.” She turned her head slightly to glance in Thorax’s direction at the prow of the airship. “But sometimes…I think Thorax has the right idea in doing what he’s done…and it’s left me worrying the dragons have fallen prey to the same problems Thorax sees in the changelings.”

            Spike continued to regard her in surprise. “How would you know?” he finally and impulsively blurted out. “I can barely get you to even acknowledge that you have friends most days.”

            “Which reminds me,” Ember added and sternly pointed a claw at Spike. “Tell anyone that we had this conversation and you’re a dead dragon.”

            Spike grinned and shifted his own gaze back to Thorax. “And with that, the balance in the universe is restored again,” he quipped, completely unfazed by the threat. He knew it was empty.

            Ember struggled with the stubborn pulley for another moment then slapped her fist hard into its side when it refused to budge. “Why do they anchor these things with ropes and pulleys anyway?” she grumbled aloud, frustrated. “Why not just use, I don’t know, metal poles to mount the balloon-thing to the craft with? That’d be a whole lot sturdier, and you wouldn’t have to go adjusting them so confoundingly often!”

            “Thorax said it’s so the balloon can be easily raised or brought to the closer to the rest of the craft at will, depending on flying conditions and how you want to travel,” Spike replied automatically. “Something about how doing so affects how the airship flies…he could explain it better than I could.”

            Ember grunted again, before letting out a victorious shout when she finally got the pulley moving as desired. Once it was adjusted accordingly, she glanced at Spike again, then followed his gaze over to where Thorax and Starlight were, out of their earshot, but clearly having finished their work at the bowsprit and were now caught up in conversation. “What do you suppose those two are talking about, anyway?” she asked.

            “Oh, probably about Thorax’s banishment, Starlight’s role in it, and debating whether or not they can really trust each other or something like that neither of them should really even have to be asking each other,” Spike mumbled critically.





            But as it turned out, Thorax and Starlight were presently talking about nothing of the such.

            “So your stomach actually has two chambers to it?” Starlight asked, intrigued.

            Thorax nodded. “The upper one is for processing emotive energy,” he explained. “The lower is for everything else, including more physical, traditional, foodstuffs. You know, like bread, apples, hay, ice cream…”

            “Well, I suppose that makes sense, then,” Starlight commented thoughtfully. “Adapted and specialized organs for a specialized diet, but also allowing for more traditional consumption too…I assume this means you can safely feed both ways, then?”

            “…kind of. I can still eat the same sort of foods you would, but they’ll give me barely any of the same nourishment emotive energy would. No, in order to not starve, I would still have to subsist on primarily a diet of emotions. I think the ability to eat other things is more for…appearances sake. You know, so we can interact fully with our prey in disguise with less chance of drawing suspicion by doing something they wouldn’t…like not partaking of their offered food.”

            Starlight couldn’t help but wince a little. “‘Prey,’ huh?” she commented. “I guess that is what we’d come across as to you changelings, right?”

            Thorax shrugged, sheepish. “I know the connotations of the word aren’t exactly…desirable, and I can’t blame you for that. It’d make me uncomfortable too…it does make me uncomfortable, in fact. But like it or not, there’s no denying that’s technically what it is, no matter what the intentions of the respective changeling are and whether or not they intend to feed passively, or overfeed and cause harm. Personally though, I’d rather see it could be as more of a symbiotic sort of deal. If anything, I’ve demonstrated that much by successfully living in Vanhoover with Spike for four moons like I did. That suggests changelings and ponies could safely coexist…if we’d just let each other try it.”

            “Hmm,” Starlight hummed to herself, this giving her food for thought. For now though, her curiosity brought her back to their original subject. “So…this emotive energy…how exactly does a changeling manage to garner any actual nourishment from it?”

            “So the way I understand it is like this,” Thorax began to explain. “All emotions are laced with a kind of energy that, once properly tapped, gives us nourishment. I’ve been describing it to you as emotive energy, but in the changeling language, we more properly refer to it as ‘amor.’ How this energy is laced with the emotion depends on the emotion. For example, I’d get more energy out of love than I would, say, guilt. But in its raw state, that amor is locked away and inaccessible, so the first chamber of the stomach converts it into a format where it can, transforming it into a sort of syrupy liquid, the amor still locked inside, but now where it can be more easily accessed.”

            “A sort of…emotive chyme, then?”

            “I guess…the changeling term for it is just pre-amor. But anyway, once it’s converted into that state, it trickles into the second chamber where it receives a bit more conventional processing along with whatever else the changeling might have eaten before moving on from there.”

            Starlight’s brow furrowed. “So wait, you said traditional solid foods wouldn’t give you much in the way of nourishment, yet you indicate that they’re still broken down in the second chamber.”

            “They are, much like how it would in your stomach, I’d think,” Thorax assured. “Chemically and mechanically speaking, I was taught that the solid food is all still broken down and processed in the same way, it’s just very little of it is in anyway absorbed into the body later on by the guts, save maybe water and a few select minerals. It’s just…along for the ride, so to speak.”

            “Hmm, I assume that’s all just to aid in its passage through the gut then. It’s still broken down, it’s just little is actually taken away in the process.”

            “So I was taught as a nymph.”

            Starlight considered it for a second. “…wouldn’t that mean your guts would fill to capacity quicker with solid foods, then?”

            Thorax nodded. “Yeah, and it doesn’t help that once the solids hit the second chamber of the stomach, it’s pretty much committed going the rest of the way. No backtracking.”

            “So…if you were to eat more solids than your tract could handle in one go…”

            “…then it gets overwhelmed, and hello stomachache.”

            “And the pre-amor or whatever?”

            “Continues on through the guts so as much amor can be extracted as possible and absorbed into the body pretty much exactly as you’d expect. Whatever’s leftover from that is then, uh, sent the rest of the way through.”

            “Leftovers…so then, even on a purely emotive diet, I, uh, guess a changeling would still need to…”

            “Ah, yeah, yeah we do.” Thorax forced a grin. “But I don’t think you really want to hear about that part.”

            Starlight chuckled. “No, I probably wouldn’t,” she agreed. “Sorry, I guess Twilight’s thirst for knowledge rubbed off on me a bit more than I thought…I suppose that’s what I get, being her student and all.”

            “Heh,” Thorax chuckled. “Well, at any rate, she hasn’t rubbed off on you entirely at least. You’ve still seem to have come around to the reality of things sooner than she has.”

            Starlight frowned and averted her gaze. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that I should’ve come around far sooner than I did, Thorax,” she mumbled in shame.

            Thorax’s smile faded. “At least you still did eventually,” he reasoned optimistically. “That’s what’s important in end.”

            The sentiment managed to bring a small smile back on Starlight’s face. “I suppose,” she relented. She gazed slightly in the direction of where Spike and Ember could be seen working. “I just wish Spike could see it that way.”

            Thorax followed her gaze for a second then turned back to her. “Something to work on once this is all over, I suppose,” he resolved.

            Starlight’s grin grew a little more. “Yeah,” she agreed softly then straightened, changing the subject. “Anyway, thank you for humoring my curiosity in changeling biology a little, Thorax.”

            “It’s okay, I’m just glad I knew enough to explain it adequately to you. I’m no biologist after all. Regardless though, I can understand why you’d wonder about it.” Thorax’s grin became a little more genuine. “It all probably seems a little strange to you, I’m sure.”

            Starlight politely returned the grin. “Well, no offense, but compared to the ponies and other beings I’m used to being around, a changeling like you does appear a little…weird.”

            “None taken,” Thorax assured brightly. “Back in my youth, when I saw a pony for the first time, I admit that I thought you were all weird-looking too. It didn’t help that the pony in question was an earth pony, so for a long while afterwards I thought ponies didn’t ever have horns or wings like changelings did.” He then shrugged. “But I grew used to it as I matured. Now I barely even think about things like that. It’s just how it is.”

            “I suppose that thinking ought to be the same for us towards changelings then,” Starlight reasoned. “Still, now that I’ve learned more about your kind thanks to all of this, I can admit that changelings aren’t as weird as I first expected. I mean, you look insectoid, but from what you’ve told me, anatomically speaking you all sound like you’re basically mammalian like ponies.”

            “We are mammalian,” Thorax confirmed matter-of-factly. “The female changelings nurse the young like a female pony would with their young, and so on.”

            “Really?” Starlight asked, both intrigued and surprised by this. “But I thought you had said changelings lay eggs…”

            “Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be mammalian too, does it?” Thorax tilted his head at her. “I mean, doesn’t a platypus lay eggs? Yet it’s still technically considered a mammal.”

            “That’s true!” Starlight conceded. “I had almost forgotten about that…but then, I confess I don’t know an awful lot about platypuses…”

            “I’ve heard they don’t do much, you know.”

            “Anyway, I guess I’m just surprised to find this out about changelings,” Starlight continued, “Because from what I’ve seen, I haven’t seen any of the traits that would actually confirm it.” She then rolled her eyes. “Of course, it’s not like I’ve ever actually met a female changeling before…closest I’ve ever gotten was seeing the few pictures ponies were able to get of Queen Chrysalis during the invasion at Canterlot. And yeah, they’re just pictures that can only show so much…but still, I didn’t see anything to suggest…”

            “You…wouldn’t have anyway.” Thorax averted his gaze, a little embarrassed. “Uh, in changeling society, it’s not considered polite to leave such…traits…especially and specifically the, uh, gender-defining traits…visible in public, so we have a simplified version of one of the spells we use in forming disguises to, basically, hide such things from sight while in public. Just sort of melds them in with things around it so it looks like there’s nothing there to see.”

            “Oh!” Starlight remarked, catching on, but also recognizing it was an awkward subject for a changeling to discuss directly like this and it, in turn, made her feel awkward. She cleared her throat. “That’s, uh…fascinating!”

            Thorax tilted her head slightly at her. “I’ve always been doing it while undisguised too, so…honestly…I’m a little surprised you hadn’t already noticed, considering you ponies…” he blushed a little. “…don’t.”

            Starlight laughed awkwardly, blushing a little herself. “Well, in pony society, it’s not considered polite to, uh, stare at such things, so uh…I really just hadn’t been…looking…so, um…”

            They both shifted uncomfortably in silence for a moment, both desperately looking for a way to change the subject, and quickly.

            “So!” Starlight continued finally with a forced cough, staring at the Vergilius’s bowsprit giving her inspiration for a new subject at last. “Anyway, I feel like I should apologize for pretty much just appearing aboard uninvited and forcing all of this on you and Spike without warning like this. I mean, after everything you two have been put through…” she averted her gaze. “…let’s just say I can understand why Spike was reluctant to go along with it at first.”

            “It’s okay,” Thorax assured her calmly. “I don’t mind, at least. Spike’s just…bitter about a few things still.”

            “Honestly, he has every reason to be,” Starlight’s gaze wandered back across the main deck to where Spike and Ember could be seen atop the deckhouse, chatting amongst themselves much like she was with Thorax. “I’ve come to realize we’ve all been pretty unfair with the both of you. And for Spike it’s…changed him.” She frowned sadly as she studied the dragon still habitually wearing the disguise he had worn for so long in Vanhoover. “I can still recognize the little dragon I remember when we first met, yet at the same time he seems like a totally different guy now…and I’m not sure what I want to think about that.”

            “To be honest, I’m not sure he does either,” Thorax admitted. “I think…part of him is secretly thrilled to see somepony he knows like you again…yet at the same time he can’t push past…well…”

            “…what happened,” Starlight finished simply. She sighed. She side-glanced at Thorax. “I’m sure it’s even harder for you, since we still don’t really know each other that well.”

            “A little,” Thorax confessed, averting his gaze in mild shame, wishing it wasn’t so. He then perked up a little. “But it hasn’t been all bad. At least you brought Trixie with.” Then, catching himself, quickly proceeded to add, “Well, uh, because, uh…not to say I know Trixie that especially well,” he forced a nervous laugh at this, “though I guess…well, um…” he winced to himself, realizing he was only digging himself deeper, and let out a small sigh. “…it’s just Trixie…Trixie gets it better than most. That’s…that’s all.” He kept his gaze averted and pretended to be busy adjusting a suspension line they had already adjusted just a few minutes ago.

            Starlight’s gaze wandered to the open door of the control cabin, where Trixie could be seen inside fiddling with the airship’s radio. At Thorax’s request and because she preferred to stay in the deckhouse where she was slightly less aware of the airship’s flight, she was listening for any new developments within Equestria that might affect their present situation, at least until they eventually went out of range (as Equestrian radio broadcasts stopped within the southern frontier, an area they were rapidly approaching). Thus far there had been nothing to report…which given the changeling threat, was both good and bad news.

            But Starlight’s gaze turned to regard Trixie more because Thorax’s passing comments reminded her of another matter that needed addressing. “So just what’s the deal with you and Trixie, anyway?”

            Thorax glanced at her in surprise that was only just barely concealing a greater shock at the question. He hadn’t known that Starlight was even aware of that. “…We’re just friends,” he quickly summarized and left it at that, turning his gaze to other things in hopes Starlight wouldn’t pry for more.

            Perhaps a little too quickly, Starlight noticed. “Right, of course you are,” she agreed, but then glanced between the changeling beside her and Trixie inside the deckhouse, debating for a second. “You know, she was worried about you.”

            Thorax paused. Slowly, his gaze went back to Starlight. “Really?” he asked.

            Starlight nodded seriously. “After she got your last letter and found out about everything that had happened in Vanhoover, she was afraid you wouldn’t be able to keep safe. After I learned about all this too, it seemed to be a subject Trixie was always coming back to in our conversations.” Starlight tilted her head at the changeling. “She really didn’t like the idea of you being in danger.”

            Thorax shuffled on his hooves uncomfortably for a second, unsure what to say. “…because that’s what friends do,” he concluded finally, shirking the full depth of the subject.

            Starlight grinned reassuringly a little. “Yes, they do,” she agreed finally.

            She intended to leave the subject there, but apparently it got Thorax’s mind whirring because not long thereafter he went on. “It’s not like we could be anything more than friends anyway, right?” he asked awkwardly. He was trying to sound casual and indirect about it, like it wasn’t at all an important question for him. He wasn’t really succeeding.

            Starlight glanced at him, the reasons why he might ask that certainly not lost on her, and she found herself intrigued by the implications. “Why, do you think you two are becoming more than friends?” she asked, feigning innocence in her tone.

            Thorax grew nervous. Starlight briefly wondered if changelings could sweat, because it seemed like that’s what Thorax should be doing right about now. “…No,” he finally answered.

            Starlight tilted her head at him. She wasn’t the least bit convinced, not with the way Thorax was acting right now. There was something there, all right. The question was…was it real, or imagined? So for now, she decided to keep playing along. “Then why ask?” More or less play along, at least.

            “Well…” Thorax hesitated, flustered as he attempted to put into words what he wanted to say without flat-out saying why this was important to him. He had clearly missed the fact that Starlight had already caught on to what this was likely about.

            It amused her a little, actually. Up until now, she had thought they really were just friends. “Have you asked Trixie about any of this?” she asked next since Thorax wasn’t getting his thoughts out clearly yet.

            “No!” Thorax immediately blurted out. “After everything that’s happened, it’s…all awkward now…I don’t think it’d be right, and now she knows, she knows my big secret, and…well…the fact that I even did keep such a secret from her ought to say a lot…right? Altogether it’s just a big mess that I don’t know if it can even be sorted out.” He sighed. “I mean…we’re not even of the same species…and I’ve kept secrets from her, concealed my true identity, and more.” He forced a shrug and an awkward, fake, grin. “With all that standing in the way…what else could we be, really? With all those secrets I’ve kept from her before…why would she even speak with me still?”

            Starlight raised an eyebrow and suddenly got an idea that she knew was a little dastardly…not that it was going to stop her from doing it. “Oh, well, if that’s all…” she said then turned her head towards the open door of the deckhouse. “HEY, TRIXIE!” she called.

            She got no further than that, as a terrified Thorax, no doubt suspecting what Starlight planned, had suddenly thrown himself onto her and wrapped one of his black, chitinous, hooves around her snout, holding it shut. Nonetheless, Trixie heard, and after glancing out the door in their general direction, she stepped away from the radio and stood in the deckhouse threshold. Seeing Thorax and Starlight in the positions they were in, she paused to stare questioningly at them.

            “…Is something wrong?” she asked flatly, not appearing amused.

            Thorax shook his head. Starlight, meanwhile, nodded her head. Thorax then promptly shifted his grip on Starlight to try and hold her head in place, keeping her from doing as such. The action only seemed to amuse Starlight, who was wearing a notable smirk. It also freed Starlight’s mouth again.

            “We were talking about secrets,” the unicorn explained simply, sounding smug.

            Thorax looked in alarm from Starlight and to Trixie repeatedly in rapid succession, but he didn’t seem to know what to do, because he didn’t speak nor did he try to stop Starlight from talking again. Trixie just continued to stare at them, baffled, and after glancing at the airship’s railing then warily and cautiously slipping out onto the main deck, promptly sliding towards the middle, she approached them.

            “…so?” she finally asked as she drew near, not seeing where this was going.

            Starlight’s smirk grew as she turned her head to look at Thorax, who cautiously looked back. “You think Trixie doesn’t have her own secrets that she hasn’t told you?” she asked, and then before Trixie could stop her, added, “Trixie is just a nickname. Her full first name is actually Beatrix.”

            Trixie’s eyes went wide, and her face heated up in both irritation and embarrassment. “Starlight!”

            Thorax blinked and went blank, head turning to Trixie. “Beatrix?” he repeated innocently as he released Starlight, lost in thought as he processed this.

            Trixie pressed her forehooves to her face in frustration. “My mother’s idea,” she grumbled in dismay, before rounding on the unrepentant Starlight. “But I’d rather pretend that it doesn’t exist! You know I hate that name!”

            “Yes,” Starlight agreed immediately and eagerly. “And now that I have blabbed about that secret, are there any others you want to tell Thorax about, or should I?”

            “Why do we have to talk about my secrets at all?” Trixie retorted, not happy and not understanding why her unicorn friend was doing this.

            But Starlight made her reasons clear soon enough. “Because Thorax here thinks he’s completely ineligible from interacting with you now because he’s kept secrets from you,” she explained simply. “So, I’m trying to show him that he wasn’t the only one who has kept a secret, and that having done so doesn’t mean you’re automatically unforgivable—everyone has kept a secret at some point.” She shrugged then, seeing she had caught Trixie off-guard by all of this and the mare momentarily at a loss for words, she went back to the original question. “Now, who shall come clean with the secrets, you or me? If you prefer, I can start with a simple one, like explaining why you have a fear of wheels.”

            “She’s already told me about that one,” Thorax interjected suddenly.

            Now it was Starlight’s turn to be surprised. “Really?” she asked. “When? And why?”

            “The night we first met,” Thorax answered distractedly. He looked like he was mulling over something and had his attention split as a result. “We got to talking about fears, and she brought it up.”

            Starlight looked to Trixie, half amused and half incredulous. “Just like that?” she repeated as she gazed at Trixie, who was annoyed, but was avoiding eye contact, knowing she couldn’t deny it. “You only told me after I practically twisted your hoof for the better part of a day.”

            “The Great and Powerful Trixie is entitled to determining who she does or does not tell secrets to,” Trixie answered with an air of haughtiness, but then she turned serious and leveled her gaze on Starlight. “Besides, no matter how supposedly well intentioned this is for you, Starlight, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to go blabbing about secrets I entrust to you to keep secret, so I don’t appreciate you just announcing for the world things like that my full name is Beatrix.”

            Starlight opened her mouth to reply, but oblivious to this, Thorax spoke first. “Beatrix,” he innocently repeated, “a name of Middle Equestrian origins roughly meaning ‘blessed traveler.’” He then tilted his head at Trixie, who had stopped short as Thorax casually spoke, his fears of doing so suddenly forgotten. “I think it’s a pretty name at least…and in a way fitting, considering how much you travel in your line of work, of course.”

            Surprised by this positive comment, Trixie just stared at Thorax, unable to formulate a response. Thorax gazed back at her, his gaze innocuous as he patiently waited. Though as what he said started to sink in fully, he began to shift awkwardly, realizing what he had done and was also unable to formulate any further response. Ultimately though, they were interrupted by Spike calling to them from the roof of the deckhouse.

            “Hey Thorax!” he yelled. “Ember’s got a question about the rigging up here that I don’t know how to answer, and I’m afraid she’ll try something unwise if I don’t!”

            Thorax looked in the little dragon’s direction, and then, turning sheepish, he nodded his head politely at the two mares. “Um, excuse me please,” he said then with a buzz of his wings, the changeling vaulted himself into the air and flew up to join Spike and Ember on the deckhouse roof.

            Trixie vaguely turned her head to watch him depart, but her gaze remained largely unfocused and distant as she continued to mull over what just happened. Starlight watched her, bemused and still wearing her smug smirk.

            Finally, Starlight started to trot off, giving Trixie a nudge as she passed. “You’re welcome.”

            Trixie shot her a confused look. “For what?”

            “Breaking the ice,” Starlight remarked back, head turned to look back at her azure friend, before trotting on across the main deck of the airship and for the deckhouse. This left Trixie sitting there on the deck, trying to process what had just happened.





            As Starlight and Trixie hadn’t known how long they were going to be away when they left Ponyville and what their access to supplies was going to be like, they had brought a small amount of their own supplies apiece with which to sustain themselves at least until they had completed their goal of reaching Spike and Thorax. Though these supplies were far fewer and scanter in comparison to Spike and Thorax’s actually better-prepared stocks, to the point that they were actually sort of meager, Thorax had agreed with Starlight that they might as well merge the two stashes and gave her permission to carry out the task, and to gather any aid she saw fit if necessary.

            Trixie became her first and only “volunteer”—having become available from radio duty because they had started leaving Equestria’s broadcast range leaving intelligible transmissions rare—as they were not joined by the others for one reason or another. Ember, desiring the practice, had volunteered to take the helm of the craft and maintain the ship’s course. Thorax gladly permitted her to do so and took the opportunity this freed him to work on other tasks. This just left Spike, but he, for reasons he kept vague, retreated into the navigation room and kept to himself there, writing something on a stack of papers he had brought aboard the airship. When asked about it, he avoided elaborating upon what he was working on, making it clear that he did not wish to discuss it aloud with others.

            Observing all of this about the little dragon, Starlight determined that part of the problem was that Spike was still adjusting to their company, and this bothered her greatly. He’d readily interact with Thorax of course, and he seemed to get along well with Ember despite the dragon lord otherwise not being very good at socializing with the rest of the group. But Starlight hadn’t missed that he seemed to avoid herself and Trixie whenever circumstance didn’t force them to all interact together as a group, like they did when planning their strategy for the rescue mission or when Thorax was teaching them how the airship was to be maintained. She quickly reasoned that though Spike had agreed to cooperate and work with them for the greater good, he inwardly still wasn’t ready to fully trust either of the two unicorn mares, nor did he want to commit to changing that yet.

            As she and Trixie set to work by bringing down one set of saddlebags down below deck to the ship’s little kitchen area, sorting them out and finding spots to stash them, Starlight took the chance to talk to Trixie about this problem weighing on her mind. She desired to do something to try and show Spike that he didn’t need to do that still, but without making their relations worse somehow. She initially brought the subject up with Trixie on the grounds of wanting Trixie’s input and suggestions in coming up with some kind of workable solution, but eventually it devolved to Starlight simply unloading her misgivings to Trixie as they worked to find places for the new items. Still, after some minutes of this, she managed to bring the matter back to her original question and turned to inquire to Trixie of her thoughts.

            Only to find that Trixie, at some point, had gone back above deck to fetch the other saddlebags while Starlight had been distracted and never returned, and if Starlight’s suspicions were true, she had also likely missed most of what Starlight had said since then. This left her more than a little annoyed at Trixie’s failure to follow through on the task. So after waiting for a minute or so to see if Trixie would return on her own, Starlight went above deck again so to figure out what had delayed her friend and was soon arriving in the middle of the control cabin, not far from the helm.

            Starlight glanced in the direction of Ember manning the ship’s wheel, the dragon’s back turned to her. “Hello, Ember,” she greeted timidly.

            Ember glanced back at her briefly. “Hello,” she responded back simply and returned her attention to steering the air yacht.

            “I don’t suppose you saw where Trixie got off to,” Starlight continued as she approached the dragoness.

            Ember didn’t reply verbally and instead pointed with one claw out the control cabin’s forward viewport at the main deck. There, sitting along where the row of the lifting envelopes tethering cables ran down the middle of the deck, sat Trixie with the saddlebags and what remained of the supplies she hadn’t yet transported. Trixie’s back was to them, but as Starlight came to stand beside the helm to watch, she could clearly tell that she was eating something.

            “She’s been like that for a few minutes now,” Ember noted aloud.

            Starlight frowned, figuring out what had delayed Trixie and sighed. “She’s found the peanut butter and crackers, hasn’t she?”

            “I can’t see from here,” Ember admitted. “But I have caught the scent of peanut butter every now and then, so it would seem safe to assume she at least has that much.”

            “Then there will be crackers too, there always is,” Starlight muttered but with a slight smirk as she moved to exit the control cabin and onto the main deck. “…though I still wouldn’t put it past Trixie to eat the peanut butter straight out of the jar.”

            Approaching Trixie though, she found that she was right in her assumption; there were indeed crackers, Trixie levitating them out of their box one at a time but at a fairly rapid pace, dunking each one into an open jar of creamy peanut butter so that each cracker received a heaping scoop on top, then popping it right into her mouth, munching away. She did all of this while appearing to be in deep thought, her eyes looking concerned about something.

            Though she looked up at Starlight with a mixture of guilt and surprise upon noticing the other unicorn’s arrival, this did nothing to slow Trixie’s consumption of the nutty snack. “Hello,” she greeted Starlight simply after a moment’s silence.

            Starlight sat down and folded her forehooves knowingly. “So, feeling nervous, are we?”

            Trixie frowned. “Who said I was feeling nervous?” She popped another peanut butter-ladened cracker into her mouth.

            “Well, you’re not one to pass up eating peanut butter crackers at any time, but even I know you only ever binge-eat them when you’re feeling nervous about something,” Starlight pointed out, knowing Trixie’s habits on this matter well.

            Trixie chewed thoughtfully as she considered this. Finally, her frown deepened and she shrugged. “Fine, so I’m nervous, is that so wrong?” she relented, pulling out another cracker from the box she had sitting beside her. “And can you really blame me? I’m flying along on an airship—and you know I hate flying—knowing that there are changelings that are seeking us and would like to do us harm who are also taking over the Equestrian government as we speak, and to somehow try to stop them, we’re flying right towards their hive and center of operations with a far-fetched plan and poor numbers and poorer odds of success…who wouldn’t be nervous?”

            Starlight smirked. “True,” she relented, and moved to sit beside Trixie. “But then why are you only resorting to the crackers now?”

            “Because I only found them again just now,” Trixie replied, giving Starlight a look before kicking Starlight’s saddlebag with one hoof. “You had taken the peanut butter and crackers away from me on the way here, remember?”

            Starlight rolled her eyes. “Okay, fair point,” she relented. She watched as Trixie dunked the new cracker into the peanut butter and started to bring it up to her mouth, but Starlight then gently blocked it from getting there with one hoof. “But let’s be honest…this isn’t about just all of that, is it?”

            Trixie scowled and glared at the cracker that had been blocked entry to her mouth. “…maybe a little,” she finally relented with reluctance.

            “Trixie, just go and talk to Thorax already. You clearly want to, yet you two have been avoiding talking with each other one on one since you came aboard.”

            “But can you blame me? Just what do I talk to him about, anyway? About how I barely understand who he is anymore? How I can’t begin to know how to react around him? I mean…I don’t get where this has left him and me, where our friendship is at, even if it still exists…”

            “Then tell him all of that and not me.” Starlight placed an encouraging hoof on Trixie’s shoulder. “Look, I know it’s awkward. I get that. It’d be awkward for me too if I were in your horseshoes. But you aren’t stopping to think that it’s in all likelihood going to be just as awkward for him as it is for you, and that he doesn’t know how to broach the subject either. But you both want to, and you both need to, so you really ought to get it sorted out now rather than later, for everyone’s greater good. Otherwise you’re both going to be of little use when we’re infiltrating the hive because you’re so distracted with your own problems.”

            “It’s not that easy, though!” Trixie whined, throwing out her hooves in frustration. “This really isn’t the time or place to be working it out for starters, not when we have far bigger problems and a changeling hive to somehow infiltrate without being caught.” She ducked her head around Starlight’s hoof and snatched the blocked cracker out of her magic with her mouth, stopping to chew it for a second. “And then I’m deeply afraid that if I do confront it, then no matter what I did, it’s only going to end in disaster. And I don’t want that.”

            “Trixie, I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as you make it out to be,” Starlight soothed. “You two are still friends, right?”

            “And see, that’s what I don’t know! Are we? Or has everything that’s happened ruined that?”

            “Well, judging from how Thorax has been acting around you, I’d say you are,” Starlight stated with a comforting grin. “When I was speaking to him about the subject earlier, he acted exactly as you are now. He wants to continue that friendship…but he’s not sure how to do it, or if you’re willing. It seems to me that you are, though, or at least interested in trying. So show him that.” She sighed then gave Trixie a pat before pulling her to her hooves. “At any rate, you two need to talk it out. One on one.”

            Trixie sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll try,” she relented. She turned to face Starlight fully. “But can I at least have some time to get my thoughts in order first?”

            “So long as you don’t use it as an excuse to put it off forever, then do what you need to, Trixie,” Starlight said. Then, as Trixie, heartened by this, moved to resume dunking crackers in peanut butter, Starlight took them away with her magic. “But I’ll be taking these.”

            “Aw, but why?” Trixie complained.

            “Because if I don’t, you’ll eat all of it now, and then you won’t have any comfort food to stuff your face with later when we’re arriving at the hive,” Starlight called back with a teasing smirk as she headed for the control cabin, the confiscated snacks in tow.





            So, lacking in peanut butter and crackers now, Starlight volunteering to finish putting away their supplies herself and leaving her free to think, Trixie went back to the radio, listening for transmissions. It was pointless now—they had gone outside Equestria’s broadcast range—but it still gave Trixie something to do while she mulled upon how she wanted to proceed from here. She knew Starlight had a point; she did want to get it sorted out, and she knew it needed to be done…it just intimidated her, fearing the consequences if Starlight was wrong and it only ended badly. But Starlight seemed to have faith that it wouldn’t, and as she had conveyed, doing nothing would likely only make the problem worse with time…time which they didn’t have. And with that in mind, Trixie knew her friend, as usual, was right. It still took her some time gathering the nerve to commit to it, but finally she did, leaving the radio and went looking for Thorax.

            As there were only so many places he could be on the air yacht, it didn’t take long to find the changeling at all. She found him below deck, and as it had been every time previous since coming aboard, she was jarred to see the shamelessly undisguised changeling sitting there. Also as before, her first instinct was to inwardly tense up at the creature pony society had taught her to fear. But she forced herself to suppress that fear, knowing that it had been well proven by now that this changeling meant her no harm, and had done nothing to do so the whole time she had been on the airship despite having ample opportunity. Spike had been colder towards her than this changeling in fact.

            He didn’t seem to notice Trixie was there anyway, too preoccupied in what he was doing, which was sitting outside the closet the injured changeling Julius was being kept in his cocoon, doing some sort of routine check-up. Trixie timidly and quietly moved to watch. She had only seen the cocoon and its occupant once before, when Thorax showed them it as an example when explaining his plan to put them in cocoons long enough to throw the changelings chasing Starlight and Trixie off their trail. The yellow-green glowing cocoon itself was fairly unremarkable in the sense that it was the same in shape, purpose, and function as the one Trixie had briefly been in, but like the first time she saw it, it was the occupant visible behind the cocoon’s semi-transparent skin that caught Trixie’s attention the most.

            The first thing that struck her was the changeling’s burns that covered the majority of his body’s left side. They were partly covered up by changeling gel Trixie was told Thorax had applied so to serve as a sort of bandage prior to placing Julius in the cocoon, but not enough to hide the terrible and unsightly burns entirely from view. They were quite serious—Starlight had expressed surprise that Julius was even still alive when she first saw him, knowing that these same burns would’ve quickly killed a pony from the trauma alone. Thorax reasoned in reply that Julius’s changeling chitin, somewhat thicker and more durable than pony skin, had probably offered just enough protection to prevent precisely the same from happening to Julius. And yet, despite that, Julius was still in grave condition, and not even Thorax knew if he would eventually recover.

            But the second thing that struck Trixie about the cocooned changeling was that, looking past the burns, he looked massively similar to Thorax in appearance. This was to be expected, as changelings typically all bore similar appearances to each other, and it was well known to the changelings on a whole that this rendered them difficult to distinguish as individuals in pony eyes…which, according to Thorax, suited the changeling race just fine. Yet, despite that similarity and the fact that Julius was quite unconscious, floating limp in his cocoon, Trixie still found him very aggressive and hostile in appearance, very unlike Thorax. She didn’t doubt for a second that this changeling had tried to attack Thorax, Spike, and Ember, with intent to kill at least Thorax, as a result. She merely needed to look at him to realize the great danger keeping him aboard, even wounded, potentially could be to all of them. If he were to somehow and suddenly awaken and escape from that cocoon without their noticing…

            And that what was mystified Trixie the most about it all. Despite knowing this better than all the rest of them, Thorax had still chosen to not only keep Julius aboard, but also do everything in his power to save his life. Thorax had no motivation to—this changeling wanted him dead, after all—and yet he had done it anyway, and without hesitation. Thorax still seemed to have no hesitation about this choice now, firmly standing behind it without any wavering to speak of. To him, there simply was no alternative, and Trixie couldn’t help but be a little impressed by that dedication. It made her realize just how much of a kind heart Thorax actually had to show not only aid, but great concern for the health and well-being of his enemies.

            She could see that kind heart at work now on Thorax’s face as he interacted with the cocoon in some manner with his magic, brow scrunched with genuine concern and even empathy. Trixie assumed he was using a spell to check on the other changeling’s status, bearing such worry for Julius and determination to help that Trixie couldn’t help but feel some of her own in her heart. “…how is he?” she suddenly asked aloud.

            Having not noticed that Trixie was standing there watching until she spoke, Thorax bodily twisted around to look at her in surprise, furrowing his brow and tilting his head slightly at her, a motion that also strongly and jarringly reminded her of Thornton, and Trixie had to remind herself that they were both one and the same. After a second of taking Trixie in though, Thorax’s expression softened and he turned to face Julius again. “Well…he’s alive still, so that’s something,” he reported simply. Trixie was struck by the familiar voice sounding precisely like the stallion Thornton she had unknowingly first met him as. It still seemed so strange hearing his voice come out of so an unfamiliar looking creature though, and Trixie hadn’t yet figured out how to quite overcome that disconnect.

            Nonetheless Trixie forced a soft grin. “That’s always good, isn’t it?”

            Thorax sighed, and smiled a little himself. It wasn’t very sincere, though. “Yes, I suppose so,” he relented as Trixie moved closer, coming to stand beside where he sat on the floor. His brow furrowed with worry again.

            Trixie felt her heart clench. She could almost sense Thorax’s grief and concern for the injured changeling and gave him a look of concern of her own. “Think he’s going to recover?”

            Again, Thorax sighed, and this time his uncertainty was very clear in his voice. “I don’t know,” he admitted heavily. “His injuries are showing small signs of healing, so the cocoon does seem to be helping…but he’s not in the clear just yet. Honestly, at the moment, I can’t be sure if he’ll even stay alive for much longer.”

            Without even thinking about it, Trixie put a comforting hoof on the changeling’s shoulder, feeling the warm and firm chitin beneath her hoof. She tensed at this, aware she’d just committed herself and couldn’t turn back now. But she took in a deep breath and let it out again in a slow, calming, exhale before pressing on. “You’ve done all you can,” she pointed out softly. “That’s far more than most would’ve, given the situation.”

            “It’s not enough,” Thorax murmured, very troubled by this. “He really needs far more medical attention than any of us have the knowledge or materials aboard to give him, and it really bothers me that I can’t give it to him at this critical time when he needs it the most.” But at the same time, he knew Trixie had a point and had to relent to it. “But…as much as I want to do more, I have concede that it’s just not possible.” He sighed a third time. “I’m just…not okay with that.”

            Trixie sat herself down beside the changeling, removing her hoof in the process so to tap it with her other hoof, mulling over the dilemma Thorax faced, and wishing she knew what to say to make it better, or at least make it easier to bear. “Well…the cocoon’s supposed to keep him alive, right?” She regarded the moist structure, the yellow-green glow it cast upon them, and the open closet it hung within. “Could it keep him alive long enough so to get him to that medical attention he needs?”

            Thorax had to think about it before he replied, and the fact that he had to do so already made clear his obvious doubts. “Possibly,” he decided with notable hesitation. “But the cocoon can only do so much. It’s merely an aid for healing, after all…not a replacement.”

            They both regarded the cocoon and its occupant for a long moment, silently pondering the matter. During this, as Trixie took in the details of the cocoon again, recalling her own semi-unpleasant experience in one, she started thinking about the details of how it worked as she presently understood them. This eventually led her to reach a decidedly unrelated thought, but once it had entered her mind, it refused to go away until she had an answer.

            So eventually she voiced the irregular question aloud. “What if he has to use the restroom?”

            Thorax blinked in surprise and turned his head to look at her questioningly. “I beg your pardon?”

            Trixie nodded her head at Julius in the cocoon as she repeated her question. “What if he has to use the restroom while he’s inside of that thing?”

            Thorax glanced at the cocoon for a second, then back at her. For a second, she thought he was going to refuse to answer, but then he proceeded to give a response. “Well, first of all, do remember that the cocoon is keeping him in hibernation, meaning that his metabolic rate has slowed down considerably…”

            “Yeah, but it still hasn’t stopped, right?” Trixie pointed out in return, turning her head to look at Thorax. “So his organs are still chugging away and doing whatever it is they do during all of this, right?”

            “…Right…”

            “So…wouldn’t the need for a bathroom break still arise now and then? I mean, he is practically breathing liquid, so he’s still getting hydrated…hay, overhydrated, if anything. So wouldn’t that still result in at least a full bladder after a while of floating in that thing?”

            Thorax frowned and tilted his head at her again, but he conceded her point. “Infrequently, yes…”

            “So…what happens when he has to use the restroom?”

            Thorax glanced at the cocoon again, before finally pointing a hoof at the bubble-like structure that sat at its top, the source of its yellow-green glow. “Well, the nutrient bath regulator’s job is to recycle and refresh the contents of the cocoon regularly, generating more if need be even, and that includes filtering out any impurities, toxins, or…any wastes.”

            Trixie furrowed her brow as she caught on and looked back at the cocoon, pulling a face for a moment. “You know, no offense Thorax…but these cocoons of yours really are kind of…gross.”

            Thorax chuckled gently. “I suppose they are,” he relented. He then shrugged to himself. “I guess after you grow up around them all your life, you just stop thinking about it after a while and it never even registers anymore. A quirk of the changeling culture, I suppose.”

            Trixie snorted, a little amused. “I guess you’re going to tell me now that there’s something in pony culture that seems gross to you changelings then,” she remarked.

            She didn’t think Thorax was actually going to respond to this, but he did. “Sunscreen,” he said with a small grin while continuing to gaze at Julius’s cocoon.

            Trixie glanced at him, surprised. “You think sunscreen is gross,” she repeated with slight incredulousness.

            “Well, it is,” Thorax stressed. “It’s wet, oily, you have to smear it all over, and it leaves you feeling all greasy and sticky for hours afterwards that it just doesn’t seem worth the trouble to me.” He chuckled again, then admitted, “Though it, uh, might have to do with the fact that changelings don’t seem to sunburn.”

            Trixie rolled her eyes, smirking. “Well, lucky you.”

            They fell quiet for another long moment, both gazing at Julius’s cocoon and watching the injured changeling float in the slimy fluid within. Eventually, Trixie started to recall why she had come down here in the first place and knew it was time she committed to it. She sighed. “Look,” she said. “We, uh, we need to talk. One on one.”

            Thorax sighed and lowered his gaze. He started to nod his head in agreement. “Yes…yes, we probably do.” He returned his solid blue eyes on Trixie and got right to the point they had both been avoiding. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth sooner, Trixie.”

            Trixie made a casual snort. “Oh, forget it,” she pressed sheepishly. “I’ve already put a lot of thought into that matter, and…” she averted her gaze. “…and I get why you did it.”

            Thorax blinked. “…You do?”

            Trixie nodded. “And…to be honest…if it had been me…” she looked at Thorax again, “…I probably would’ve done the same thing.”

            Thorax started to roll one of his dark-colored hooves back and forth on the floor, mulling upon what she said. “…so you weren’t mad?” he asked finally.

            Trixie grimaced a little, recalling her initial reaction when Thorax’s confession letter had arrived. “I didn’t say that,” she admitted slowly and reluctantly, knowing she couldn’t deny that. “At first, I felt…very mad when I read your last letter…as well as betrayed, confused…” she hung her head a little, “…and a little sad. It was, to say the least, all a bit of a shock to me.” She breathed a heavy sigh. “I’m actually glad you didn’t have to be there for it…you didn’t deserve that emotionally driven furor I was facing at the time.”

            Thorax frowned in clear disagreement. “Yes I did. I lied to you, when I was…” he hesitated, looking for the right way to put it, “…looking for your friendship.”

            “But you really don’t deserve that,” Trixie pressed. “All you were doing was looking out for yourself, and…seeing where we’re both at now…you had more than just cause to feel the need to keep it a secret.” She then waved her hoof dismissively. “Besides, I’m through that part now. Talking it over with Starlight while we were heading for her village and back helped to put things in perspective, actually. I was really just mad because…I wasn’t prepared for it, you know? Here I was thinking I had made this great acquaintance, and then I got your confession, and…suddenly…it was all up in the air. I didn’t know if it had been real or if it had been fake, and…it was just a lot to take in.” She gazed at Thorax sadly. “It still is a bit now, in fact. I mean, I had time to brace myself, I knew what I was going to see when I came here, but…seeing it for myself…it just makes it all the more real, and I just can’t help but question it all, ask myself just how far do the lies go?” Trixie then averted her gaze, ashamed. “But that’s not entirely fair for you either. The point is that I get it, Thornton, I really do. It just…it’s left me confused on where to go now…but putting it off longer still just because it’s uncomfortable like I had been doing isn’t going to fix it either.”

            “I suppose not,” Thorax agreed, and he gazed down at his hooves for a few moments, staring at the familiar holes in them marking him as the changeling he was. He suddenly felt a little ashamed about it. “But if it helps…I never liked lying to you like that at all.”

            Trixie glanced at him again, intrigued. “You didn’t?”

            “No, I really didn’t.” Thorax bit his lip for a moment. “You know, I nearly told you the night we met,” he confessed finally. “Looking back, I probably should’ve still…but I didn’t, because…well, like you said, I was afraid for my safety, because I knew other ponies didn’t always react well to knowing I was a changeling, and…more importantly…I was afraid of how you’d react…” he averted his own gaze, “…and if you’d even still want anything to do with me afterwards, and…I…I…” he took a deep, unsteady, breath, “…I like your company, Trixie.”

            Trixie stared down at the floor, running one hoof over the floorboards of the deck. “I do too,” she admitted finally, the words feeling hard to force out, but made her feel a little lighter saying them. “But…if you had told me that evening…I honestly don’t know how I would’ve reacted. Maybe I would’ve been okay with it…heaven forbid, you were giving me all the hints that evening.” She locked eyes with him and couldn’t help but grin a little. “I mean…all that talk about whether or not a changeling could be repentant…you were so trying to clue me in, so much so it seems so obvious now…in a way, that was your way of telling me, I’d just…missed it.”

            She shook her head a little, getting back on topic. “But my point is…maybe I would’ve been okay if I had learned the truth that evening…but a big part of me fears I wouldn’t have, and…done something reckless. And then…where would you be? No, as much as it hurts to think about…you were probably right to hold off telling me.” She shook her head again. “When Starlight figured out things shortly after I did…we talked a lot about this. And that really helped me understand all of that, and I get that part now, enough that…I really can’t blame you.” She then shrugged her shoulders. “But basically, Thornton, I just didn’t understand where this will all lead us next. And I still don’t know now. That’s what I want to talk to you about.” She gazed at him forlornly, gazing long and hard at the changeling, but forgetting for a moment that he was a changeling. “I have no clue at all about it myself, and it’s left me with a lot of hard questions I don’t know how to answer. Where do you and I stand on this? What’s going to happen next? Are we still friends? Can we still be friends?”

            Thorax frowned, concern clearly etched on his chitinous face. “Can’t we still be friends?” he asked slowly.

            “I don’t know!” Trixie bemoaned. She threw both hooves out at the changeling. “I feel like I barely know you anymore! I look at you now in that changeling body, and it’s so jarring…I keep thinking that you’re not anything I know at all…but then you talk and act like that stallion I had met all those weeks ago, and it gives me this really disorienting sense of déjà vu! You’re not the pony I thought you were, you’re not even a pony at all, and yet at the same time you are!” As if suddenly exhausted, Trixie slumped her body downward some and hung her head heavily. “I can’t tell where the lies end and the truths begin anymore, Thornton…sweet Celestia, that’s not your real name even…it’s left me wondering if I ever really knew you at all…if that kind stallion named Thornton was ever real…or was just part of the fabrication.”

            She trailed off, staring at the floor bathed in the glow from Julius’s cocoon in a mixture of shame and sorrow. Beside her, Thorax continued to sit there, his own emotions running high in similar ways, but he was hiding them a little better. He thought over what Trixie had said to himself for a long moment, not speaking. The longer the silence dragged on, the more Trixie started to think she was right, and she really didn’t know this changeling at all.

            But then Thorax lifted his gaze to look at her and calmly smiled a little. “The Menagerie,” he said simply.

            Trixie raised her head to stare at him questioningly, not understanding. “Huh?”

            “The Menagerie,” Thorax repeated with an encouraging nod of his head, still smiling. “Give me an accurate plot summary for The Menagerie.”

            Trixie continued to stare at him for a moment, but then comprehension for what Thorax was doing started to sink in, and she grinned broadly, understanding his intent…and heartily approving. “The Menagerie,” she repeated, rolling her eyes upwards as she recalled the details. “Let’s see…unless I’m mistaken, that’s the one where the first officer way back in the early entries of Sky Trek hijacks the airship so to undergo a mission to take his critically injured former captain to a location that had been forbidden to be accessed years ago on penalty of death. Most of the story was about the first officer then explaining why he must be permitted to do this via a series of transmissions sent from within the forbidden location itself. An intellectually intriguing story, but not especially exciting, action-wise.”

            Thorax tilted his head at her, his grin turning into a smirk. “I don’t know if I can agree with that last bit, but otherwise an accurate enough description,” he relented. He then nodded at Trixie again. “Now it’s your turn.”

            Trixie’s grin grew, pleased and relieved by the familiarity of their little game. “All right then,” she said and thought for a moment. She smirked herself. “Let’s try…Broken Bow.”

            “Ooh, that one,” Thorax said, brightening eagerly. “As it happens, I read that one fairly recently. That was the one that shifted the timeframe of the series, jumping back to the very early days of Skyfleet and how they evolved into the organization known in the other entries in the series. Beginning with this entry, after a griffon goes on a small rampage chasing an unknown target in a backwater Equestrian town, Skyfleet rushes the launch of their newest airship capable of—”

            “My gosh, you’re even further ahead in the series than last time by several dozen books!” Trixie cried aloud, interrupting Thorax’s summary with her amazed and enthused outburst, forgetting the misgivings she had been talking about just moments earlier in her excitement. “And that was barely a moon ago—how do you READ so fast?”

            Thorax shrugged casually, but he was grinning softly still. “I guess I just don’t beat about the bush when I read,” he replied.

            Trixie rolled her eyes in good-humor. “You must be getting close to all caught up with the most recent entry in the series if you’ve already passed Broken Bow,” she noted. “Just how far are you into the series now?”

            “Most recent entry I’ve read is Daedalus,” Thorax explained, which surprised Trixie again because it made her realize just how very close to caught up he really was. “I was already in the middle of reading it when Spike and I were forced to leave Vanhoover, and luckily we were able to bring the book with. But I’ve since finished it, which is a shame, because obviously right now I can’t move on to the next entry.”

            “Aw, makes me wish I could’ve brought my own collection of the books with me,” Trixie remarked, thinking of her copies of the series stored in her wagon back in Ponyville. “If I had known you needed more to read, I would’ve brought some for you.” She then shook her head, chuckling. “But dang…you’re very close to the end, at least until they get around to publishing the next entry in the series.”

            “Indeed,” Thorax agreed, and his grin grew. “I’m actually eagerly looking forward to the latest published entry, These Are the Voyages…it sounds like an intriguing entry.”

            Trixie however wrinkled her snout and waved the title aside. “Actually, I found it to be a very half-baked and weak tale altogether…it’s like the writers weren’t even trying.” But she then jabbed a hoof at Thorax, excited. “But…wait until you get to In a Mirror, Darkly…that one’s wickedly good.”

            Thorax chuckled. “Hopefully I’ll get the chance to read it here soon,” he commented.

            “Hopefully.” Trixie gazed at the changeling before her for a long moment, realizing suddenly that they were conversing now like they had the night they met…like nothing had changed. She shook her head slowly. “It really is you, isn’t it?”

            Thorax nodded slowly, turning solemn but hopeful. “I confess that the pony you knew as Thornton was only a mask, outwardly,” he explained. His grin returned slightly as he raised one hoof to tap the side of his head. “But the mind behind it has always been one and the same.” He went quiet for a second, but then went on. “It is good to see you again, Trixie. I was…starting to fear we had parted ways for good.”

            Trixie sighed, and grinned a little herself. “It’s good to see you again too,” she agreed. “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

            “Likewise.” Thorax studied Trixie for a moment. “But otherwise, now that we’ve talked about it a bit…are you…feeling better about this?”

            “I…think so. But uh…” Trixie looked the changeling up and down for a moment, taking in his natural form in detail for really the first time. The midnight blue jacket he wore helped a little, but there was no denying he was of a very different species from her. She shrugged. “Well…befriending a changeling…it’s definitely a new experience for Trixie.”

            “I hope it’s still been a worthwhile one for you.”

            Trixie smirked at him a little. “It just might’ve been,” she agreed. But then she sighed. “Still…it’s jarring as all hay, seeing you like this. I mean, I know it’s you now, really you, especially now that you’ve proven it to me, but…” she shook her head, tapping her chin in careful consideration. “…you don’t look like you…at least the you I knew best.”

            “If it helps, I can put on the Thornton disguise again,” Thorax offered idly, like it was no big deal. For him, it probably wasn’t.

            And Trixie considered it for a moment. But eventually she shook her head. “No, I really shouldn’t ask that of you,” she confessed slowly. “That still wouldn’t be the real you, and that wouldn’t be fair for you.”

            “Are you certain?” Thorax pressed gently. His face turned a little troubled. “I can tell my natural form is…disconcerting for you…and I’d feel better if I could do something to make you more…comfortable.” Seeing Trixie still seemed hesitant, he stood up. “You know, it doesn’t have to be Thornton. We can start from scratch, build a disguise fitting for both our tastes.” Trixie averted her gaze slightly for a brief second at that, but Thorax missed it as he proceeded to turn himself so to face her fully, the performer turning herself so she was facing him too, so to watch him closely. “A changeling’s disguise can be done in full, or it can be done with only small details. So let’s start simple. Tell me what little things about my natural form are bothering you, I’ll change them however you want, and we can build up from there.”

            Trixie hesitated still. “I don’t know…” she said as she looked the changeling up and down.

            “C’mon, I don’t mind Trixie, I really don’t,” Thorax persisted earnestly. “Just tell me what is most disconcerting for you to see.”

            Trixie bit her lip, debating. “Well…” she began with much trepidation, “…I suppose the fangs are a bit unsightly, but—”

            Before she had even finished speaking, there was a small flash of cyan, and the fangs were suddenly gone off of Thorax’s changeling form, leaving him with a more normal looking mouth. Trixie blinked at both the suddenness of it, and how much of a difference it did seem to make. That alone seemed to make him a bit less…intimidating.

            Trixie hesitated for a second longer before continuing, looking Thorax up and down for another second, but then conceded one more little change couldn’t hurt, right? “Those holes in your legs are a bit weird to look at too…”

            Again, there was a flash of cyan light, bigger this time, so much so Trixie was able to pick out the mystical flames of the changeling magic. But once it had passed, the holes in Thorax’s limbs were gone. He had even taken it a step further and removed the holes and notches in his sparkling, gossamer, wings as well as his ears and fin-like tail. The ears especially made a difference, as once whole they appeared more like extra slender pony ears.

            Trixie was starting to get curious now, spurred on by the success of these changes. “Could you possibly give yourself more normal eyes?” she asked. “It’s…kind of hard for me to tell what you’re looking at otherwise…”

            Another flash, and Thorax’s eyes turned into more familiar pony eyes, the irises colored a familiar ice-blue that Trixie recognized as being the same eye color he had when disguised as Thornton. It warmed her heart a little to see those eyes again, but more importantly, all of these changes had made him appear much more equine, even though there were still obvious anatomical differences…but these Trixie was finding she could probably live with regardless, and besides, she was quickly finding herself considering other possibilities.

            Even though a thought in the back of her mind was cautioning against it, Trixie impulsively went on to try it and see what resulted. “Maybe make yourself a bit taller?” she asked, raising up one hoof to motion out a little added height to Thorax’s form. “Possibly about an inch?”

            Another burst of flames and Thorax seemed to rise slightly in height, now making him just slightly taller than Trixie. Trixie shifted her gaze slightly to accommodate and found her breath caught in her throat for a split second. Despite being perfectly aware where she was going with this and the voice in the back of her mind still announcing its misgivings, she pressed on.

            “And…how about adding a little…muscle?” she asked slowly, and a little softly, as if embarrassed to be saying it aloud.

            Thorax didn’t seem to think twice about it though, and just as quickly as all the other changes, swiftly applied this one as well. This resulted in him taking on a more well-defined body, with subtly pronounced musculature that was certainly not extreme, but still…chiseled. The resulting effectiveness this had on Thorax’s appearance caught Trixie by surprise, her eyes widening slightly and her face heated up, ears turning red as her pulse quickened.

            Thorax noticed the sudden change in Trixie’s emotions, but was puzzled by the ensuing mixture and didn’t understand why they had suddenly appeared. “…Trixie?” he prompted questioningly, perhaps concerned. “Is there a problem? Should I make a different change?”

            Trixie opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to form any sort of response, and continued to stare at Thorax, suddenly unable to pull her eyes off of him.

            It was then that Starlight Glimmer suddenly came down the steps and entered the room, causing both of the occupants to turn and look at her. “Thorax, Ember says a little light has turned on the helm and we can’t figure out what it…” Starlight trailed off as her eyes focused on the sight before her, taking in everything from Thorax’s new and improved form the changeling was innocuously sporting to the blushing Trixie as she immediately dropped to the floor and wrapped both hooves over her face in utter embarrassment.

            Amusingly, Thorax seemed utterly oblivious to the implications. “Hello,” he greeted Starlight innocently.

            Starlight gazed at the changeling blankly for a second. Then, starting to understand what had happened, shifted her gaze to Trixie, regarding the mare with a bemused look. “Trixie…”

            “I was just curious!” Trixie declared in response.

            Starlight raised an eyebrow at her. “Mm-hmm,” she hummed mostly to herself then turned her attention back to Thorax. “Anyway, a light’s come on the helm up there and we don’t know what it means. We figured you’d want to come take a look.”

            “All right,” Thorax said, trotting forward for the steps without changing his current appearance any. “It’s probably just a status light for one of the intake valves…”

            “Wait, Thornton!” Trixie called quickly, urgently motioning for the changeling to stop, balking at the idea of him going out like that for everyone else to see. “You don’t need to keep wearing that disguise! Let’s just…forget everything about it and have you go back to the way you were before, okay?”

            Thorax paused at the door, glancing back at her in puzzlement. “Are you sure?” he asked so to be certain. Trixie nodded vigorously, so he shrugged, still not seeing to see the significance. “Very well, then,” he said, and with a flash of flames, he restored his normal, natural, changeling form. “But the offer still stands, if you like.”

            “Offer?” Starlight repeated, shooting Trixie another teasing glance.

            Trixie only buried her face in her hooves again.

            Luckily, Thorax didn’t inquire about it. “Excuse me, then,” he said as he slipped past Starlight and above deck.

            Starlight lingered behind though, watching Thorax head up the steps, before turning her gaze to look at Trixie once again, smirking.

            Trixie winced under the gaze, seeing that Starlight understood perfectly what Thorax had not. “I really was just curious, that’s all it was!” Trixie insisted to her unicorn friend. “I mean, wouldn’t you be?”

            Starlight’s gaze didn’t waver in the slightest, clearly not deterred.

            “Really!” Trixie repeated anxiously. “That’s all it was!”

            “Mm-hmm,” Starlight hummed again knowingly, before turning to leave, heading up the steps too.

            Trixie got the distinct impression she didn’t believe Trixie in the slightest. “No wait, Starlight!” She called as Starlight exited, but the mare didn’t stop and continued on up the steps, soon disappearing from sight. “Starlight! Starlight! AUGH!” Left alone in the room again, Trixie did the first sensible thing that sprang to mind, which was to bury her face into her hooves in utter embarrassment again.





            Thorax proved correct about his assumption on the status light that had come on—it was merely indicating that one of the intake valves had automatically engaged, taking in a small amount of outside air to add and use as part of the air yacht’s supply of air-based ballast, as a sensor had detected a faint fluctuation in said supply. Thorax reported that this was perfectly normal; the valve engaged sporadically on its own, and so long as it wasn’t on for longer than five or so minutes, it wasn’t cause for concern. He went on to indicate that it would likely switch off again pretty soon, and no sooner than he had said so, the indicator light on the helm switched off again. Nonetheless, while he was above deck and thinking about, Thorax decided he might as well go and do some routine maintenance on the engines so to ensure they continued to run smoothly, and after he departed the others went back to their respective tasks as well.

            For Ember, this meant staying at the helm and piloting the craft as she had originally volunteered to do, and was perfectly content to do for a while more still. True, it wasn’t the most exciting task to do, but it was giving her good practice on how to pilot the craft, and she was pleased at how routine it was starting to feel now. When it came time for her shift piloting the airship later tonight, she felt she would be perfectly ready for it; part of the reason why she had volunteered to do this in the meantime anyway. At any rate though, she remained there in the control cabin manning the helm, alone with her thoughts, of which were focused on nothing in particular for now.

            That changed when Spike suddenly stepped out of the navigation room behind her for the first time since he had locked himself in there, a piece of parchment and a quill in claw. “Hey Ember,” he called, his gaze focused more on the parchment than on the dragoness. “How do you spell, ‘incredulous?’”

            Ember turned her head around to look at him, brow furrowing. “Incredulous?” she repeated, a little confused and annoyed by the mundane question.

            Spike didn’t seem to notice that, though. “Yeah,” he repeated, glancing at her through the false eyeglasses he still habitually wore. “You know, like: ‘she was incredulous to hear him say that.’”

            Ember raised an eyebrow at him cynically. “No,” she finally stated bluntly. “I do not know how to spell ‘incredulous.’ Why in Equestria are you asking me?”

            “Well, normally I’d just look it up in my dictionary that I have for this very purpose,” Spike explained touchily. “But as it happens, I forgot to bring it with when Thorax and I fled with the Vergilius, so it’s basically still in the drawer of my desk way back in Vanhoover…unless Twilight’s confiscated it for some reason when she was no doubt searching our room after finding out we had been staying there…don’t know why she would, but at this point, it really wouldn’t surprise me, all things considered.”

            Ember just rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said. “Look, you’re asking the wrong dragon for this.”

            “Well, you were right there, so I’d thought I’d at least try,” Spike remarked as he strolled closer, closing the gap between him and where Ember stood at the helm.

            “Why don’t you go ask Starlight?” Ember suggested. “She seems like the type that’d know.”

            The resulting scowl Spike made at this was hard to miss. “No,” he stated bluntly, turning his attention back to the parchment Ember presumed he had been writing on.

            Ember gave him a long and critical look. “Why not?” she asked wearily.

            Spike glanced up at her, peering at her over the rim of the false glasses he wore. “I think you know why not,” he replied.

            Ember frowned, but turned her attention back to the helm. “You’re not going to be able to avoid her forever.”

            “Watch me.”

            Ember snorted. “No,” she replied, glancing back at him. “The only thing I’ll watch you do is you talking with her.”

            “I’ve talked with her already.”

            “Genuinely talk with her, I mean. And I think you know what about.”

            “And just why do you care? You wouldn’t talk about such things yourself with anyone…at least not without also threatening them into keeping it completely secret…”

            “I don’t, but she would, being the pony. Ponies talk about stuff like this. And so do you. Because you’re always trying to get me to talk about junk like this…” Ember was quiet for a moment before going on. “…and, admittedly, it does seem to help so…you really should talk to her about this…get this sorted out between the two of you.”

            “What for?” Spike said sharply, glancing up at Ember. “She’s only here for an ulterior motive, not because she’s here to seek forgiveness. She made that very clear when she first came aboard and barely touched the subject.”

            “To be fair, though, she did have a few other things on her mind at the time. Besides, she’s still going to be your best bet for spelling in…in…incredee…whatever that word was you wanted spelled.”

            “‘Incredulous,’” Spike repeated, folding his arms grumpily, but finally he rolled his eyes, seeing Ember’s point. “But fine. Where is she, anyway?”

            “I think she’s in back, helping Thorax checking over the engines.”

            “Oh.” Spike’s scowl changed so that it was still a scowl, but now there was a look of concern in it, and he averted his gaze suddenly. “Then never mind.”

            Ember glanced back at him in silence for a second. “You know, Thorax seems to have forgiven her.”

            “Thorax is like that.”

            “Yeah, and it seems to work pretty well for him, too.”

            Spike rolled his eyes. “I just need a word spelt, Ember,” he grumbled.

            “Fine, go ask Trixie, then.”

            “Trixie’s worse.”

            At this, Ember had to snort in sarcastic humor. “At this rate, though, you’re going to have to learn to put up with her pretty soon.”

            Spike glanced at her, annoyed still, but now puzzled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “Oh c’mon, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed what’s going on between her and Thorax,” Ember said, in precisely the manner as the word Spike happened to need spelt.

            Spike sighed, pinching the bridge of his snout in frustration. “Yeah, yeah, I get it, they’re clearly friendly, I see you caught onto that too,” he said then sighed. “You know, I try not to tell Thorax what to do whenever I can because he deserves that kind of freedom, so I know how this is going to sound…but I was kind of hoping her finding out the truth was going to put a damper on all that. Clearly not, although…”

            “Oh, but they’re getting to be a bit more than friends,” Ember observed aloud, interrupting.

            Spike looked at her for a moment, eyebrows going up in alarm. “Nuh-uh.”

            “Oh, yeah-huh. It’s pretty obvious, Spike, you’ve had to have noticed something.”

            Spike groaned and gazed heavenward. “Thorax did ask some questions pertaining to the subject once not long after they met…but he flatly denied it was anything more than simple curiosity as far as he was concerned, so I figured it was just Trixie expressing interest in him, not the other way around, and that was back when she thought he was really a pony, so…”

            “Oh no,” Ember assured, “It’s two-way. Trust me.”

            Spike frowned at her. He moved to stand beside her. “And how do you know?”

            “The lovey-dovey smell,” Ember answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

            Spike just gave her a perplexed look though. “The whatty-what-what?”

            “The lovey-dovey smell,” Ember repeated, glancing down at the littler dragon. “C’mon, you have to know what that is, at least.”

            Spike shrugged helplessly, lost.

            Ember groaned. “Look, I know you like being around them, but living with those ponies clearly hasn’t been doing you any favors, Spike, especially when it comes to actually using that nose of yours,” she grumbled. “It’s not just for decoration, you know.” But seeing this didn’t help explain it to him, she sighed and thought for a second. “Okay, so how do I explain this?…all right, so you know when a guy and gal start getting all lovey-dovey around each other? There’s a smell that goes with it. It, uh…oh rocks, how do I describe it?…it’s kind of musky, with a hint of the saline-rich smell of sweat, but kind of an almond-y undertone to it…”

            “Wait, is that what that is?” Spike interrupted as he abruptly recognized the scent Ember was describing, but having never before identified what it was and what caused it, or even really thought that much about it. “So that’s why I was always picking up that smell whenever I’m around Big McIntosh! Half the mares in Ponyville have a crush on him it seems like. Hay, even Rainbow Dash admitted once that she had fancied him for a while before finally deciding he wasn’t ‘cool’ enough for her.”

            “Yes, that’s the lovey-dovey smell,” Ember confirmed with a pleased nod. She watched Spike closely as she waited for him to finish putting two with two, and smirked when she saw his eyes widen as he did so. “And yup, that’s right, that means exactly what you’re thinking.”

            Spike put his claws to his temples in near dismay. “No,” he breathed aloud. “They…they don’t…not Thorax and Trixie…”

            “Oh, yes they do,” Ember confirmed with another nod, “Both of them. Thorax has it especially bad.”

            Spike sputtered about for a second at this realization, starting to pace aimlessly back and forth as he flustered about for any explanation other than Ember’s. “But…but they can’t!” he objected aloud. “He’s a changeling! And she’s…not!”

            “So?”

            “So?” Spike hissed. “There’s no way it’d work, could it? They’re too different!”

            “Didn’t seem like that was stopping you when you were around that pony Rarity during the Gauntlet of Fire.”

            Spike’s face immediately heated up. “Wh-what? N-no, that’s not…I’d never…”

            “Lovey-dovey smell!” Ember interrupted in a sing-song voice.

            Spike blushed harder and scowled, folding his arms. “Darn lovey-dovey smell,” he muttered, then shook his head, getting back to his original point. “Look, I know Thorax, and…” Spike grimaced to himself, “…and he’d probably go ahead and do it anyway no matter what I said—but the fact still remains…I just don’t think she’d be a good match for him, and I worry that because of that, it’d only end in tears, that’s all. They’re probably better off not even going that route at all, yet I feel like she’s just been egging it on.”

            “Well then, don’t just stand there griping about it, do something about it,” Ember advised.

            “You know what?” Spike said with confident determination, pointing a claw at Ember. “I think I will! I will tell her straight up that I’ve got an issue with it!”

            “Then get ready for your big chance,” Ember remarked, glancing behind her, “because here she comes now.”

            “Here who comes now?” Trixie repeated aloud, only catching part of Ember’s last statement as she suddenly finished mounting the steps leading into the control cabin, looking questioningly at the two dragons.

            The two dragons looked back at her for a moment of silence. Then Spike’s eyes narrowed determinedly and he handed the parchment and quill in his claws to Ember to hold before marching right up to Trixie. Trixie, not understanding what was going on, only watched him approach blankly and with clear befuddlement.

            “Trixie, I’m only going to say this once,” Spike told the mare sternly, staring her down. “You watch your step around Thorax, because if you do anything to hurt him in any way, Celestia help me, I will light your butt on fire!”

            Trixie pulled back a little, blinking a couple of times and unsure how to react or respond. “Uh…” she began.

            “Oh no you don’t, don’t go playing oblivious to me,” Spike continued on, jabbing Trixie repeatedly with one claw. “I know what you’re doing, what you’re trying to accomplish here! You’re darn lucky that I don’t just step in and end it here and now before disaster strikes, but I’d never hear the end of it if I did, so you just watch your step. One wrong move and I will make sure you regret it, and so you’d better think long and hard about where you’re taking things before you get yourself in too deep.”

            Trixie just continued to stare at him blankly, not really understanding what this was all about, but was certainly becoming intimidated by the little dragon’s unexpected ire. “Oooh-kay!” she finally remarked warily as she continued back up away from Spike until her left rear hoof slipped on the top of the steps she had just come up of only seconds before. She quickly started to turn around to head back down them now. “I’m…I’m just going to go back downstairs and…and do…something…so uh…good talk?”

            Spike didn’t reply, he just folded his arms and watched Trixie retreat with a snort. Seeing he didn’t seem to intend to stop her or chase after him, this only spurred Trixie’s retreat onwards as she scampered off. Spike kept watching her until she vanished from view, then with a roll of his shoulders, satisfied with his display against Trixie, he turned to head back to Ember so to retrieve his quill and parchment that he had handed her.

            Only to see that while he had been confronting Trixie, Ember had begun to quietly read to herself what Spike had written on the piece of parchment. “…‘and we flew the airship continuously on its perilous quest, well aware of the dangers that awaited us, and as such, you could feel the tense nervousness running rampant aboard’…” She mumbled aloud to herself while she read the words with a furrowed brow, before raising her gaze to look in confusion at Spike as he approached once again. “Just what is this that you’ve been writing, Spike?”

            Spike answered by snatching the parchment back from her. “None of your business,” he retorted grumpily, and turned to head back for the navigation room, stopping only once so to turn back and snatch back the quill he had nearly forgotten to retrieve from Ember, before locking himself back in the room yet again.





            The Vergilius had thus far performed very well in what was still technically its maiden flight after it’d come into Thorax’s possession ever since it had departed Vanhoover. Its changeling owner both hoped and expected it would continue to do so for the remainder of its prolonged journey ahead of them, both before and after their planned arrival at the hive. Nonetheless, Thorax knew that he had been pushing the engines to their max, keeping them largely at full throttle, most of the whole time it had been airborne, and fretted that the strain would eventually catch up to them. This was his main reason for opening the trapdoor in the main deck covering up the engines and the compartment containing them, all located in the aft of the craft and by the sternsprit. He wanted to do some general maintenance to ensure no catastrophic failures from the continuous stress were imminent and could be avoided entirely.

            Starlight wasn’t especially familiar with the engines of an airship though, so when she found out that Thorax was out doing this, she went to join him, looking both to render assistance, and to get a chance to both see the engines up close and learn a few things about how they worked. Though he could’ve handled the whole task himself easily, Thorax accepted the help, and with his instruction, the two spent about an hour doing upkeep on the engines, Thorax answering a few of Starlight’s questions about the engines as they worked.

            It was through this that Starlight learned, for example, that the engines were powered by a magic matrix of a certain complexity operating on a certain frequency that required a specific charger system in order to recharge them, a system they didn’t actually have onboard (few airships of the Vergilius’s type and size did, as the system was too large to adequately house onboard). This was why a unicorn such as herself couldn’t just pour a supply of magic directly from her horn and into the engines, otherwise Thorax said he would’ve done precisely that himself already, well aware of the charge beginning to dwindle on the engines. Nonetheless, he was confident that there was enough charge to get them to hive and still have some leftover for escaping afterwards if need be, although he still had his doubts about how far they would actually get before that charge finally ran dry. It was agreed that since there was only so much they could do about it though, it was better to focus on bigger problems for now.

            Working on the engines wasn’t exactly tidy work, as the oily engines still got grime on their hooves while they handled them, but Starlight found she didn’t mind that so much. It helped that Thorax had become increasingly approachable around her and was pleasant to talk to. In their conversation, she even managed to pick up a few things she hadn’t known about the changeling, such as the fact that he was apparently a cheese aficionado and had dabbled in cheese-making prior to leaving Vanhoover. He’d even had, somewhat unintentionally, invented his own kind of cheese at one point. Starlight expressed interest in trying it, but Thorax had to lament that he and Spike had been forced to leave their only supply of the so-called “Thornton Cheese” behind in Vanhoover, which he then went on to bemoan was probably going to waste now, as he was certain Fly Leaf was in no position to be using it at present.

            At any rate, she found that if Thorax held any lingering resentment for Starlight’s roles in his outcasting, he didn’t outwardly express them in any way at all. Indeed, it seemed very much like he had already shrugged it off as “water under the bridge,” and basically forgiven Starlight of the matter. The fact he had done so this quickly or at all greatly impressed Starlight. It took a unique person indeed to be able to so readily do such a thing after everything he had been put through. Looking back, it was hard to see how anyone, let alone Starlight herself, could’ve believed this changeling was any foe at any time…a belief she now deeply regretted ever being involved in.

            And while Thorax may have been more than ready to overlook past deeds, she knew that was just one of three altogether, the remainder not being so quick to forgive and forget as Thorax. Ember, for example, seemed to believe Starlight was on their side now, and would interact with her freely and without much restraint, yet Starlight could still sense that Ember was hesitant to put too much trust in her due to Starlight’s past involvement in Spike and Thorax’s woes. And there was of course Spike, with whom Starlight found especially distant, and when he did directly speak to Starlight, there was usually an underlying bitter tone in his voice. It had become clear to her that of all of them, Spike appeared to have been hurt the most, and worse still, she feared he had no interest in trying to correct this now, preferring to linger in his concealed hatred for those that had wronged him and Thorax. Nonetheless, save for his outburst and near-rejection to help stop the changeling invasion when Starlight and Trixie first came aboard, Spike seemed to be at least trying to keep this grudge more to himself for the benefit of the others, perhaps recognizing that now wasn’t the time to stress the matter.

            So when Starlight went below deck after finishing helping Thorax with the engines so to clean the collected grime off her hooves, she was surprised to be approached by a nervous Trixie claiming otherwise.

            “He threatened you?” Starlight asked in surprise from within the main head, the restroom’s door open while Starlight scrubbed her hooves.

            “Yes, and it was all out of nowhere!” Trixie persisted anxiously, pacing back and forth outside the little room her friend was in. “I don’t even know what brought it on or why, but he implied he’d do…bad things if I wasn’t careful.”

            “Like…what sort of bad things?”

            “Like lighting my butt on fire, for starters.”

            “Ooh.” Starlight frowned as she dried off her hooves and exited the head to join Trixie. “Yeah, that’s definitely not good…what did you say to him in return?”

            “I…didn’t, really,” Trixie admitted with a sheepish shrug. “He just caught me by surprise so much, I wasn’t sure how to respond…so I ducked away as quick as I could. I’ve been hiding down here until you showed up, in case he wanted to do it again when we next cross paths.”

            “But why you?” Starlight inquired, puzzled by this much. “I mean, if he had said all of this to me, I’d totally understand why, considering how I was involved in the banishment that got all of us in this mess…but you didn’t have anything to do with that. If anything, from what you’ve told me, you’ve been on their side for far longer than me, so you’d think he’d be more okay around you…”

            Trixie could only shrug. “I must have done something,” she conceded. “I haven’t the foggiest what though. But that’s why I’m talking to you about it. I was hoping you might be able to figure something out.”

            “Well, there’s got to be a reason,” Starlight reasoned, tapping her chin with one hoof while she reviewed the facts as she knew them. “Did he give any clues to you as to what this might be about?”

            Trixie’s eyes rolled upwards as she reviewed the encounter in her mind. “Well, he did indicate that it had something to do with Thorax, but…”

            “What’s this about me?” Thorax interjected as the changeling suddenly strolled into the mid-ship room, curious.

            Trixie made a small yelp at his sudden appearance, looking at him with uncertain eyes while her face turned red again. Starlight couldn’t help but smirk a little to herself as she quickly figured out why while watching Trixie quickly excuse herself out of the room. “Uh, nothing, just a, ah, small matter, just uh…excuse me, I, uh, need to go do…something…” she then quickly slipped past the befuddled changeling and out of the room.

            Thorax watched her go, brow furrowed and not understanding the mare’s sudden apprehension, so Starlight took it upon herself to enlighten him. “Don’t mind her, Thorax, she’s just embarrassed still about that little custom disguise she had you put on earlier today.”

            “Oh that,” Thorax remarked, starting to follow, though only so far. “Yes, I’m still not sure why she reacted with such unease to that…”

            “I know, that’s what makes it so funny,” Starlight quipped, amused by the changeling’s continued obliviousness on that matter. She then sighed and turned serious again, drawing the changeling’s attention on her again. “Spike threatened her out of the blue earlier.”

            Thorax’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “What, why?” he asked, stunned.

            “That’s what we were trying to figure out when you came in,” Starlight explained. “Apparently, it might have something to do with involving you. Beyond that, it really just seemed to be out of the blue.”

            Thorax frowned, displeased by this news. “I’ll talk to him about it,” he promised.





            Spike had continued to remain in the navigation room where he privately worked on whatever it was that he was writing, and seemed to have little interest in leaving anytime soon. But he was eventually ushered back out of the room again when Thorax came knocking on the door, asking him to step out for two claimed reasons; one, he wanted Spike’s input on something, and two, after they were done with that, Thorax wished to retreat into the navigation room and study maps of the region, refamiliarizing himself with the terrain and plot any course changes he deemed necessary so to continue to avoid detection on their course for the hive. Relenting to this, Spike collected his things and exited the room finally, finding Thorax waiting for him at the door. Ember and Starlight were standing at the helm, conversing, but they didn’t seem to be paying attention to the changeling and dragon.

            “All right, then” Spike said as he exited. “What’s up?”

            “Here, I’ll show you,” Thorax said, motioning for Spike to follow as he headed down the steps into the below deck. “I’ve been thinking about the long term and what might follow this whole deal with the hive.”

            “Yeah?” Spike said, listening as they arrived in below deck and headed into the air yacht’s kitchen area across from the main head.

            “Yeah, and I was thinking that, should things end up so that you and I, or at least I, end up staying on the Vergilius long term afterwards, I kind of want to keep going with my cheese making, and wanted to discuss how to set up the kitchen area here for it,” Thorax explained, motioning at the kitchen area as they came to stand just beside it.

            Spike started forward to look it over, setting aside his writing supplies that he had brought with him out of the navigation room. “Well, to be honest, I don’t think this is really going to work too well for—”

            He was cut short when Thorax abruptly picked him up with his magic the moment he turned his back to the changeling, and with little effort, carried the surprised dragon into the main head, shutting and locking the door behind him before placing Spike down on the toilet seat to sit. Thorax’s cordial manner was now gone, replaced with a disapproving look as he folded his hooves, sitting down between Spike and the door so to block the only exit out of the little, but private, room.

            “Now, what’s this I hear about you threatening Trixie?” he asked sternly and seriously.

            Spike groaned, understanding what this was really about. “Oh, she blabbed, didn’t she?” he asked then scowled at Thorax. “All that talk about the cheese making was really just to get me down here to discuss this, wasn’t it?”

            “Yes,” Thorax pressed, then continued. “I know your temper has been running high today Spike, and with good reason, but that’s no excuse for threatening anyone, especially not Trixie. What’s she ever done to you?”

            “Nothing, yet, and I was trying to ensure it stayed that way,” Spike explained. “I was just making sure that she didn’t do anything to hurt us, especially you, Thorax.”

            “And so you threatened her?”

            “No, I just made it clear that there would be consequences if she didn’t treat you with respect.”

            Thorax rubbed his brow in frustration. “Spike, I’d understand this if you had done this to someone like Starlight…”

            “Been considering that, actually.”

            “Please don’t. Anyway, I just don’t understand why you’d choose to do this to Trixie of all ponies. She’s made it very clear now that she’s a friend.”

            “She’s not my friend.”
            “Well, she is mine, and I don’t like seeing my friend getting threatened by another of my friends for no good reason.”

            “You’re reading way too much into this Thorax, it’s not like I was actually going to do anything to physically harm her. I just wanted her to know that I didn’t want her to do anything to harm you.”

            “And why do you think she will?”

            “Trixie sort of has a past history of it.”

            “One she’s trying very hard to move past from I might add, in case you didn’t know.”

            “Be that as it may, I was just being cautious. With half of Equestria no doubt still wishing to cause you harm if given the chance, Thorax, we can never be too cautious.”

            “Yes, I’m sure Princess Twilight has told herself the same thing.”

            Spike’s scowl narrowed, but he was also surprised and a little hurt. “Now that was uncalled for.”

            “Was it?” Thorax challenged. “Because I personally think your attitude towards to Trixie is uncalled for too, and frankly unnecessary. If you’d actually take the time to get to know her like I have…”

            “Did it ever occur to you that this might be what I have issue in all of this?”

            “What, that Trixie and I are friends? Why?”

            “I’ve been hearing rumors, Thorax…”

            “What rumors?”

            Now Spike seemed taken aback. “You mean you don’t know?” he asked. His brow furrowed, suddenly feeling suspicious. “Just what is Trixie to you anyway, Thorax?”

            Thorax stopped to consider the question briefly. “A friend, first of all.”

            “I already got that much, especially after you ran off to see her show behind my back when she was in Vanhoover last.”

            “I thought you said you were going to let that go?”

            “A lot’s changed since then, Thorax. She knows you’re a changeling now, after all, and she didn’t then.”

            “Yes, but it hasn’t changed her views of me all that much, and we already talked about all that…something I’m thinking you need to try too.”

            “I’m good, thank you. I have no interest in having to deal with the almighty ego of the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

            “She’s really not that bad once you get to know her, Spike, honest, and I don’t understand what your problem with her all of the sudden is.”

            “Well…why are you so taken with her, suddenly?”

            “Like I said, Trixie is a friend. A good friend, and that’s very important to me. I would think you out of anyone would understand that the most. Wasn’t part of the whole reason we got in this mess was because we wanted me to find friends I can trust?” Thorax sighed, turning concerned. “Look, Spike, she at least is understanding, willing to try and comprehend the situation we’re all in, and she’s already gone above and beyond trying to do so already, so—”

            But he trailed off as Spike, sniffing the air, suddenly regarded Thorax with wide eyes. “My gosh, Ember was right, you do have the lovey-dovey smell bad!”

            Thorax gave him a bewildered look. “The lovey-dovey—?” he shook his head, deciding he didn’t want to know. “Look, just…get off Trixie’s back for me, all right? She genuinely wants to help us however she can…so it pains me that you’re returning her kindness with silly threats all of a sudden for no reason other than you don’t want to take the time to trust her.”

            “Do you trust her?”

            “With my life, Spike.”

            This made Spike pull back in surprise. “Oh,” he murmured, cowed a little.

            Thorax’s stance softened a little too, turning a bit gentler. “I won’t ask you try and befriend her too, Spike, or try and make you put your trust in her, either. That’s all your business, not mine, and I must respect that. I’d just like you to show me the same courtesy, and as for Trixie, all I ask is that you pay her the kindness she’s due and treat her friendly. So no more threatening her…or anyone on this airship, please?”

            Spike sighed, and opened his mouth to comment further, but was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door to the little restroom.

            “Hey, any reason why you two are locked in there together?” Ember’s voice called through the closed door.

            Spike and Thorax both glanced in the direction of her voice. “We’re just talking,” Thorax answered gently.

            “More like getting reprimanded,” Spike retorted glumly.

            “Like I said, we’re talking,” Thorax reiterated smugly.

            “Well, can you hurry up with the talking?” Ember asked in annoyance. “I need to poop.”

            Spike snorted in laughter at Ember’s utter lack of tact while Thorax rolled his eyes. “Can you go use the other head in the stateroom?” the changeling asked aloud.

            “No, Trixie’s in there, and I really shouldn’t have to wait for this anyway…or is that something that Equestrians do? How would that be in anyway better? Wouldn’t it just be smarter to go now when you first need to, so you don’t accidentally…”

            “Just give us another minute, Ember, please,” Thorax interrupted, not interested in hearing the rest of Ember’s thought, before turning back to Spike. “Now…are there going to be any more problems between you and Trixie?”

            Spike regarded Thorax for a moment. “I’m thinking I’m expected to answer no to that,” he noted.

            “There better not be,” Thorax said, and again turned concerned. He placed a hoof caringly on Spike’s shoulder. “I don’t like having to be the mean one here, Spike. I hate having to be the mean one at all, ever, you know that. But I don’t think you’re being at all fair to Trixie here, and…I just don’t want you letting your temper getting the better of you for no reason, okay?”

            Spike sighed, and the fight seemed to drain out of him a little. He placed his claws on Thorax’s hoof, rubbing them against the changeling’s midnight blue jacket sleeve. “Okay,” he said. “I promise to back off on Trixie.”

            “Good,” Thorax said, then pressed on with one more thing. “And while we’re at it…can I also ask you to at least try to make some amends with Starlight Glimmer too? It’d at least be to the benefit of us all if we’re not ripping each other’s throats out while we’re trying to infiltrate the changeling hive.”

            Spike sighed again. “For you, Thorax, I’ll…I’ll see what I can do.” He glanced up at Thorax, pained by the hurt he still felt towards ponies like Starlight. “I can’t make any promises on that, though…this…this cuts deep for me.”

            “I know,” Thorax said softly, and pulled the little dragon into a hug. “I wish I could do more to make it easier for you, bud.”

            Spike shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut as his emotions tried to surface. He forced them back down, though. “Me too.”

            The touching moment was ruined by Ember suddenly banging on the door again. “Your minute’s up!” she called through the locked door. “So you’ve got three options! You either let me in now, tell me to go fly off and find a tree of which there aren’t that many outside at the moment, or I’m squatting down right here and now!”

            “All right, all right,” Thorax said, letting go of Spike and turning around to unlock and open the door.

            He and Spike then filed out, Ember watching them exit in annoyance. “About time,” she grumbled aloud. Thorax didn’t reply though, he just walked on out of the room, heading for the steps leading back above deck. Spike, meanwhile, just leaned against the wall adjacent to the bathroom door, arms folded as he, too, watched Thorax leave.

            “So what was that about anyway?” Ember asked him as she started to slip into the vacated room.

            Spike frowned. “Trixie,” he answered simply.

            “Ah,” Ember said, putting on a smug grin. She paused closing the door long enough to whisper into Spike’s ear. “Still picking up the lovey-dovey smell on those two, by the way.”

            “Yeah,” Spike mumbled to himself as Ember shut and locked the door, leaving him outside. “I know.”





            The Vergilius trudged ever onward in its journey, bringing them ever closer to their destination, and as the close of the day started to draw near, it started to sink in just how close to a potentially very dangerous location for them all they were getting. It was enough that a faint sense of fear started to permeate the airship, it’s passengers starting to grow tense in the face of that danger. Yet for Starlight, having wandered out onto the main deck as she finally ran out of things to do and leaned on the deck railing, staring out at the scenery as it slowly slid by, she found that wasn’t what was bothering her the most. It was the fact that she had an unresolved matter still that she sensed she needed to sort out now while she had the chance…but she didn’t know how to best go about doing it.

            And it was something she very much didn’t want to get wrong.

            She was still thinking deeply about it when Ember strolled out of the control cabin, stretching and popping her back as she went. Spying Starlight, she nodded in the unicorn’s general direction. “Hey.”

            Starlight tore her vacant gaze off the scenery surrounding the air yacht and glanced back at the dragoness. “Hey,” she replied back. “I thought you were piloting?”

            “Yeah, but I decided I needed a break, get some fresh air, maybe get a status report from Obsidian,” Ember remarked as she strolled up to join Starlight at the railing, pointing at the escorting adult dragon flying along the airship from a distance as she did so. Starlight had almost forgotten he was even still there, she had heard and seen so little of him during the course of the day. “So Thorax took over for me.”

            Starlight glanced back at the deckhouse, and could just barely see Thorax manning the helm through the forward viewport. She had to grin a little; the changeling did look oddly at home at the controls like this.

            “So…why are you out here?” Ember asked next, leaning on the railing and deciding she might as well make small talk.

            “Oh,” Starlight grunted, turning her gaze back out at the horizon, “Just thinking.”

            “Mm.”

            They were quiet for a moment.

            “Ember, can I ask you a question?” Starlight asked suddenly.

            “Hey, don’t even bother asking if you can, just ask the question already,” Ember replied.

            “Oh, well, I just wanted to make sure you were okay with me doing so…”

            “Nah, no need for that. I generally decide if I want to answer the question or punch the asker in the face after I’ve been asked whatever it is, anyway.”

            This gave Starlight pause for a second. “Oh.”

            “So what’s this question?” Ember prompted casually.

            Starlight hesitated. “…it’s about Spike.” She started playing with the tip of her mane. “Specifically…how he’s been…cold towards me.”

            “Yeah, he hates your guts,” Ember agreed without hesitation, restraint, or concern.

            Starlight frowned at her bluntness. “Tell me, do they have any concept of a little white lie in the Dragon Realms?”

            Ember turned her head to look at her blankly. “A what?”

            “Yeah, I thought so,” Starlight mumbled to herself, but she couldn’t help but grin a little. Sadly, the grin was short lived. “I know Spike isn’t…happy with me…and frankly he’s not wrong to.” She slumped down so that her head was resting on the railing glumly. “Like all of us, I should’ve listened to him from the start.”

            “You probably should’ve,” Ember agreed, again being blunt.

            Starlight chose to not take it personally, though. “I don’t want it to have to stay that way, though,” she continued. “I’d like to do something to try and make amends, I just…”

            “You don’t know how to do it,” Ember concluded.

            “Well…not what the best way to do it is, at least.”

            Ember snorted, amused. “So you’re asking me for advice?” She turned herself to face Starlight, propping her head up with one arm. “You know my solution would usually be to just punch the offender until they listen to me, right?”

            Starlight smirked a little. “The thought did cross my mind for some reason. But I don’t think that’s going to work in this case. Just a hunch, though.”

            “Well, it’s still true. I don’t know why you’d think I’d say anything different.”

            “I just…thought you might have some insight others wouldn’t.”

            “Because I’m a dragon, and he’s a dragon, right?” Ember concluded, and shrugged. “Yeah, all right, I’ll buy that.” She stopped to ponder the matter for a moment. “So something you can try other than punching him…”

            “Preferably. I mean, I haven’t seen you punching him when you talk to him.”

            “Haven’t needed to yet.”

            Starlight blinked to herself a couple of times. “I’m not sure I like the implications of—”

            But Ember interrupted. “I guess you could try saying you’re sorry.”

            Starlight glanced at the cyan dragoness for a moment. “Apologize, you mean?”

            “Yeah, you ponies do that all the time, right? Tell him you’re sorry for getting him banished.”

            Starlight winced. “Well, not to quibble, but technically, I wasn’t the one who banished him…”

            “No, but you didn’t stop it either.”

            Starlight stopped. “Touché,” she relented. She sighed and slumped further. “No, you’re absolutely right…I do owe him an apology. A big one.”

            “And I haven’t seen you try to give him one of those yet.”

            Starlight grunted glumly. “It’s because I’m not sure he’ll let me.”

            “Yeah, Spike can be pretty stubborn.” Ember gazed out at the horizon for a second, then snorted, amused. “Actually, it’s thanks to his stubbornness that I’m even here,” she admitted. “When we first met, he was determined to make me his friend…no matter what it took or how much I resisted.” Ember’s gaze softened. “I’m kind of glad he did, honestly.”

            Starlight studied Ember for a long moment, touched by the unusual and gentle confession from the dragoness. “What made you decide to befriend him anyway, if I may ask?”

            Ember hesitated. “Don’t ever breathe a word of this to anyone,” she began sternly, but that said, her tone softened again. “But…I was stunned by…how selfless he was doing…well, everything, really. In the Gauntlet of Fire, all the other dragons were doing it for the grab for power and for their own personal glory…myself included. But not him. He was only in it because he wanted to use it to keep his pony friends safe. He didn’t even want it beyond that…and I’ve never heard of any dragon capable of winning the gauntlet voluntarily passing up claiming rule as the dragon lord before…until he did. Handed it over to me, made me dragon lord, and it was all his idea. He didn’t even think twice about it. He just figured I would be the best one for it, who could make both sides happy.” Ember folded her arms on the deck railing and then rested her head atop of them. “So that’s why I befriended him. Spike’s weird for a dragon. He doesn’t do things for himself. He does them for others. And…I realized there was something to that.”

            Starlight was quiet for a moment, running her hoof along the wooden railing they sat at. “He’s been doing the same thing for Thorax, too,” she observed. “We ponies were just too…foolish to see it.”

            “Yes, you were,” Ember agreed, glancing at the unicorn. “But it’s not just that. You ponies are all so big on friendship, but then you turn around and only befriend other ponies, and are slow to befriend anything that’s not a pony. Then you have Spike, the lone dragon living among those not of his kind…he already has to befriend things that aren’t dragons like him. So he sees that if a dragon can befriend a pony…why not befriend everything else too while he was at it?”

            Starlight grinned a little at Ember’s flattering description of him. “Have you told him any of this?”

            For the first time ever, Starlight saw Ember blush in embarrassment. “No, and let’s just keep it that way, okay?”

            Starlight chuckled. “Won’t breathe a word,” she promised. She then sighed, realizing just how much she and her own friends paled in comparison to Ember’s views of Spike. “We ponies haven’t been doing a very good job at the befriending thing lately…have we?”

            “Nope,” Ember replied with her usual bluntness. “It’s your so-called princess of friendship who’s the biggest offender, though. How did she become the princess of anything anyway?”

            Starlight played with her mane again. “Believe it or not, Twilight still knows a lot about friendship, more than most.” Her gaze turned distant. “She’s taught me a lot about friendship herself, in fact.” She then shrugged sadly. “I guess there’s just a lot more to friendship that we both need to learn still.”

            “Yeah, so probably shouldn’t have made her princess just yet.”

            Starlight, despite everything, had to chuckle a little. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that,” she explained. “No one becomes an alicorn because of you or me…it’s because of natural magic which decides the time is right. And so far, I don’t know of anyone who can deny magic of having the final say in this matter.”

            Ember grunted, unmoved. “Dumb magic doesn’t know what it’s doing.”

            Starlight chuckled again. “Either that, or it knows more than all the rest of us put together…sees something we all don’t…more of the bigger picture, that we all have our roles in filling in, and that it puts us there in those spots for a reason we can’t see from our angle. I can only assume that it’s the same with Twilight.” She went quiet, letting that sink in for a moment. Ember didn’t speak during that stretch of time. “So…apologize to Spike, huh?”

            “It’s a place to start.”

            “And if he won’t let me?”

            “Spike’s stubborn. So be stubborn back, or he’s just going to mow you over.”

            Starlight nodded her head in agreement. “All right, then.” She glanced at Ember and placed a hoof on the dragoness’s shoulder. She flinched a little at Starlight’s touch but otherwise didn’t protest. “Thanks…your thoughts were rather…enlightening.”

            Ember seemed a little taken aback by this compliment. “Huh,” she remarked to herself. “Never been told that before.”

            Starlight smirked. “I’d believe it.”

            Ember gave Starlight a critical look. But there was no missing the hint of a grin that tugged at the corners of the dragon lord’s mouth.





            Starlight found Spike in the airship’s kitchen, rooting through the foodstuffs that had been stashed in one of the cabinets. He didn’t notice Starlight coming in and for a moment she left it that way, leery of proceeding and unsure how Spike would respond, if he would respond at all. But she knew putting it off any longer wasn’t going to help, so she finally made her presence known by speaking up. “Whatcha doing?”

            Spike suddenly looked up from the cabinet in surprise, but that surprise rapidly faded when he saw it was Starlight. “Oh,” he mumbled as if disappointed. He turned back to the cabinet. “I was just getting hungry, so I was thinking about getting something to eat for dinner.”

            This reminded Starlight that she was getting a bit peckish herself. “That’s probably a good idea, getting dinner going for everybody. I’m sure everyone’s starting to get hungry.”

            “Well, except maybe Thorax,” Spike thought out loud as he worked.

            Starlight realized what he meant and wasn’t sure what she thought about it. “How often does he, uh, need to feed on emotions anyway?”

            “He’s probably been discreetly doing it all day without your noticing,” Spike responded. “He’s gotten good at that…I barely notice him feeding anymore these days myself.” He then frowned. “Not that you’d care about that much, I guess.”

            Starlight was quiet for a moment, watching as Spike pulled out a few food items out of the cupboard before moving to close it again. “I care more than you think,” she stated.

            Spike snorted critically at this, gathering up all he and pulled out in his arms and started to carry it to the saloon table, turning his back to Starlight. “Like you’d ever take the time to actually show it, anyway.” He started placing the items on the table as he continued speaking. “What I think doesn’t matter to you either way, as you’ve made that abundantly clear by now. You’re just here for your own needs, really, here just to use me and Thorax only because we happen to know—”

            “Spike, I’m sorry.”

            Spike stopped. It wasn’t immediately apparent why. His expression didn’t change, his body didn’t tense or relax in any visible way…he was, in fact, momentarily unreadable, his thoughts or reaction to this hidden perfectly. As far as Starlight could tell, he had simply stopped, freezing in the middle of setting down an unopened can of food on the table. But he didn’t move further, voice any thoughts, or do anything to object to Starlight or stand in her way, so after a moment or so of cautiously watching him, the unicorn proceeded carefully.

            “I’m sorry for everything,” she continued, elaborating. “I’m sorry we put you into this situation when you did little to ask for it, and I’m sorry we’ve done so little to support you or listen to you since. You were right. You were always right…we were just…too stupid to see it. We’ve been…tremendously unfair to you and Thorax. And I know apologizing doesn’t begin to make up for it…but I truly am sorry. And I’m trying to find a way to make amends to you Spike…” Starlight tilted her head at Spike sorrowfully. “…but you haven’t been letting me.”

            Spike placed the remainder of the foodstuffs in his arms on the table with a half-hearted thump, then turned and sat himself on the edge of the bench seat that wrapped around three-fourths of the table. “You don’t know what it’s been like, Starlight,” he murmured softly. “Knowing you couldn’t count on hardly anyone, and certainly not those who had once been longtime friends…always looking over your shoulder in fear…waking up every morning not knowing whether or not that would be the day it would all unravel…I’m just so very tired of all that Starlight…so you’re not wrong. An apology isn’t what I want.”

            Starlight took a cautious step closer. “So what is it you do want?” she asked.

            “Just to be left alone,” Spike responded, turning his head to look at her firmly, but his gaze was sad. “I don’t really care if you believe me and Thorax or not anymore, even. I just…want us to be left alone. Let us go and live life in peace, how we want, and without fear. No more chasing. No more prying. No more hiding. No more secrets. Just…leave us be, Starlight. Please.”

            Starlight felt her mouth go dry, realizing that this was the truly hurt side of Spike the little dragon was expressing. For a moment, she was uncertain how she should respond. She licked her lips and took a deep breath. “If that’s what you really want,” she agreed with a slow, but reluctant, nod of her head. “But you’re also not wrong…I do need your and Thorax’s help…we need your help. I don’t know what we’d do without it.”

            “Well, you’ve already got Thorax’s help,” Spike muttered, looking away. “So you’ve got my help for now too…it’s more afterwards I’m concerned about anyway.”

            “Then if you want us to leave you alone, to go away and not come back…then we can do that,” Starlight assured. She heaved a heavy sigh. “But…please know that we don’t want to have to do that if we can. I know you don’t want to believe it…but we do care for you, Spike…and we’ve all missed you. We’d like to have you back, if we can.” She paused then added, “And I’d like it if we could all get to know Thorax as well as you have, too.”

            But Spike shook his head. “It’s too late for that, Starlight,” he said. “The damage is done.” He gazed forlornly up at her again. “I don’t think I could ever trust any of you again. Especially Twilight.”

            Starlight bit her lip, but didn’t protest this. She knew there was no reason why Spike shouldn’t feel like that, as much as it pained her to acknowledge it. Again, she had to ask herself how they had all let this get so bad. “I still hope that perhaps we can rebuild that trust once again, someday, if you’ll let us,” she noted. “Though I wish I could, I can’t speak for everyone else…but know that I certainly want to try. And…by saying all of this now, this is my way of trying to start.”

            Spike was quiet for a second. “Okay,” he murmured simply. He sighed. “I make no guarantees though…and this absolutely excludes Twilight too. There’s nothing between us now.”

            Spike’s words and his calm way of stating it sent a chill down Starlight’s spine, and for a moment she pitied both Twilight and Spike, and did not envy having to be the one at the center of Spike’s animosity. “Spike, I know she has done a terrible job showing it lately, and know I can’t support what she’s done at all anymore…but know that she still does very much care for you.”

            “No she doesn’t,” Spike retorted with another snort. “If that were the case, she would have never allowed this to have ever happened. She would have never sent me away.”

            “You chose to leave,” Starlight reminded firmly, drawing the line in her relenting at Spike trying to distort facts. “No one made you do it.”

            “And she didn’t stop me.”

            That, Starlight couldn’t deny. But she had a good idea why now, and she closed the gap between her and Spike, dropping down low so to be on the same eye level as the little dragon. He made no motion to stop her, but he again averted his gaze from her. “Spike,” she began, placing on hoof on his knee. “You need to understand…she never once meant you any deliberate malice in doing that.”

            “Then why did she let me go? Why did she let me follow Thorax into banishment? I could’ve died out there, Starlight, just as much as Thorax could’ve! And even that didn’t give you all pause.”

            “I know, but you have to understand Spike, have to see it as we saw it at the time…we were all very wrong to assume so, but we really thought Thorax wasn’t acting on his own at the time, that there would be other changelings encamped in secret nearby that would give you both adequate shelter to keep you alive…and if that had been true, you would be more use to the changelings alive than dead, even you would know that, so they wouldn’t want to do anything to harm you. Hay, I myself had even figured at the time that since Thorax was trying so hard to stay on your good side, they’d even try to make you comfortable out there.”

            “That’s all wrong.”

            “I know it is now, Spike, that this was all a false assumption of the biggest sort, but at the time…we really thought that.” Starlight hung her head in shame. “We were wrong to do so…but we did. We were too blind to the idea that Thorax could really be acting on his own to believe that he was, and we assumed you were too naïve to see past what we thought could be lies…so we foolishly assumed a story that fit what we believed…or at least what we wanted to believe.” She glanced at Spike again. “But if it helps…once we found out you and Thorax had fled the Crystal Empire by train…that was when all of that started falling apart. That was when we realized Thorax probably didn’t have others assisting him…and as such, we had just risked both of your lives unnecessarily trying to fight a threat that didn’t exist. That was when we had to start facing the reality that we messed up. And, misguided though it obviously has been, everything we’ve done since has all been in an attempt to fix that original mistake. Spike, we’ve really been trying to sort this whole mess out ever since, this whole time, we just couldn’t find you soon enough to do it.”

            “Then explain why Twilight chased us out of Vanhoover,” Spike argued abruptly, his gaze narrowing darkly. “Why she forced us to have to fight our way out. Why she nearly started a war over this! She doesn’t care, Starlight! She never cared about anything except herself, and proving that she was right!”

            “And you know why?” Starlight suddenly snapped back, removing her hoof from Spike’s knee. “It’s because this is all tearing her apart just as much if not more as it is for you and she doesn’t. Know. How. To handle it! I am quite convinced now that she very well knows deep down just how seriously she’s messed up, but it terrifies her to DEATH having to face that, and she’s desperate to avoid the pain she very much fears would have to come in facing that fact, and owning up to it!”

            “So you see?!” Spike cried, feeling vindicated, suddenly standing up on the seat as if trying to make himself appear bigger than Starlight. “She is doing this for herself! She’s doing it because she’s too much of a coward to face reality!”

            Starlight opened her mouth to reply, but found there was no good way to deny Spike’s point. This chilling realization made her stop short, unable to overcome it.

            Spike, meanwhile, thumped himself back down into a seating position. “And you still haven’t explained why she let me go in the first place. If she really cared for me so much, she would’ve made me stay.”

            “But would you have hated her any less?” Starlight abruptly replied back, in the spur of the moment. “On this matter, I know exactly why she did it, because she’s already told me. She only let you go at all Spike, because by that point, you were so adamant about it that she feared that if she did try to make you stay…it would’ve only pushed you further away.”

            “She pushed me away just as well letting me go.”

            “So in a way, Spike, you didn’t leave her any alternative.”

            “Yes I did. I told her then and there that we could’ve have ended everything AND avoided all of this…if you would all just listen to me and trust that I was telling the truth that Thorax was, and is, trustworthy.” Spike averted his gaze yet again. “But you didn’t. So I left. You all let me. And now the damage is done. Good luck trying to fix it.”

            And with that, he twisted himself around in the seat so his back was turned to Starlight. Starlight fell quiet for a long moment, fearing that Spike might be right, and this all really was unsalvageable. But she remembered Ember’s advice to not give in so easily, so she sought some new approach in hopes she could get Spike to listen to her again.

            “Spike, I won’t pretend to try and justify Twilight’s actions,” she conceded finally, slumping onto the floor so that her back leaned heavily against the end of the beach seat. “What she has done is inexcusable in many ways. But that’s Twilight. What about the rest of us? What about me? Spike, I deeply regret that I was in anyway involved in putting you in this mess at all, and I very much would like to correct it in some way, any way, I can.” Tears started to form in her eyes. “And I’m trying. Trying hard. Doesn’t that count for something? And it’s not just me. What about Fluttershy? Applejack? Rainbow Dash? All of the other girls? They weren’t supporting Twilight in what she was doing anymore either, and they will all want to try and make amends too. Are you really going to just push them away too? Because we may not have been willing to listen before…but we are now. You have the chance to voice your concerns, and we will listen, I swear to you that much. Are you really going to rob yourself of that chance? Or take it away from Thorax too, just because you’re bitter?” She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to hold back more tears that were forming in her eyes, but they started to leak out regardless. “And it’s not just us, even. I’ve only seen them once since this all began, but Princess Cadance deeply regrets what happened, and you can clearly see the drowning waves of guilt about this in Shining Armor’s face every time you look at him. They know they messed up, and that troubles them greatly. That’s why they’ve been staying out of this mess, and it’s why it’s been only Twilight that has been pushing this. And there’s Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both very eager to speak with both of you, to do what they can to try and make this right again. They were searching for you hard before the changelings came along with their invasion…but you’ve only been making it harder for them to do so however you can from what I’ve heard. Do you even want to fix this? Or are you really content to just leave it, allowing it to fester and get worse?”

            Starlight opened her eyes to try and blink away the tears that had formed, and in so doing, was startled to see that Spike had quietly turned back around to face her again without her noticing, face etched not with anger, but with concern and sadness. He seemed momentarily at a loss for words, and just gazed at Starlight, stunned. Starlight gazed back with her tear streaked eyes, quietly pleading for the little dragon to stop resisting her attempts to try and begin repairing the damage. Eventually, in a moment of sympathy, Spike turned around to grab a napkin that was stashed in a nearby cabinet and silently handed it over to Starlight. Grateful, Starlight accepted it to first dab at her eyes, then, throwing restraint to the wind, used it to noisily blow her nose.

            Finally, after a long moment of silence, Spike finally spoke again. “I’m sorry, Starlight,” he admitted humbly. “I…I never meant for any of this to happen. I…I was just so determined to prove that I was the one who was right…I guess I never stopped to think that I might’ve already succeeded.” He took in a deep and shuddering breath, and Starlight could almost see some of that long-withheld anger flow out of him…but only some of it. “But you have to understand my side of things too…this isn’t something I can just overlook. What happened has cut us all deep…and no matter what we do…there may be no changing that now. There will always be that rift between the likes of me and you on this matter. And what I said before hasn’t changed in at least one aspect…I’m not sure I can ever forgive Twilight for what she’s done. Can you understand that?”

            Starlight was quiet for a moment, straightening so she sat more upright, balling up the napkin in her magic and tossing it into a nearby trash can. “I can,” she confirmed. “But…that doesn’t mean we can’t still try, can it?”

            Spike was quiet for a moment. “Do you really think it will make a difference?” he asked.

            Starlight thought about it for a second then gently lifted his chin with one hoof, giving him a small and hopeful smile. “How about we try and find out together, huh?”

            Spike managed to return the grin a little, and it was in that moment Starlight saw some progress had indeed been made. “Okay.”

             They were quiet for another moment or so, sheepishly looking around and unsure what to do or say now. Then Starlight’s eyes fell upon the food Spike had brought out and set upon the table. With her magic, she picked up one of the cans, noting that it contained baked beans. “You know,” she began slowly. “I’m no expert cook…but I do still know my way around a kitchen a bit…I bet you that with a little thinking, we could come up with a decent enough meal for everyone to enjoy.” She glanced at Spike. “You wanna help?”

            Spike thought about it then took the can from Starlight, jumping to his feet. “Aw hay, why not?”