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// Thorax and Ember at a Ponyville River 
// Story: Society as We Know It 
// by Comma Typer 
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Whispered words traveled the air along with the silent, unspoken faces of some as the myriad of creatures exited the castle, with Twilight and Starlight accompanying some of them. It was sunset once again—orange sky, sun close to the horizon and close to being hidden by some of the mountains in the distance.
Among the creatures were Dragon Lord Ember and King Thorax, walking side-by-side alone and away from the main crowd.
"Can you imagine it?" Thorax said, speaking in cautionary tones of wonder. "I've already heard about it for some time, but to see it for yourself! What do you even call those creatures that stand on two legs?"
"Why are you asking me?" Ember curtly replied, a little grump on her face. "You're the one who's known about it while I had no idea what was going on for half the presentation."
"Twilight was showing the new world off to us."
"That's not what I meant!"
"Oh." Thorax retreated a little.
Hoofsteps and footsteps on the less trodden grass, parallel to the dirt path leading to Ponyville proper.
"But, still, can you just imagine it? A whole other Equestria!" Thorax looked up to the sky. "Out there—beyond the sky, there's a place that's called Equestria! They call the school 'Canterlot High,' Everfree isn't a wild forest but a camping place, and the Crystal Empire is just a rival school...'Crystal High.'"
"Yeah, way to ignite a diplomatic incident there, Thorax," Ember remarked.
"Hey, it didn't actually happen!" Thorax shot back, flapping his wings and getting a little annoyed. "Twilight managed to get them out of there before they caused trouble!"
"Well, you still let it slip by. That's not gonna look good in your history, hm? 'King Thorax of the Changeling Hive once allowed some of his subjects to sneak into another version of Equestria and even interacted with the inhabitants there.' Bleh!" She stuck out her tongue. "I almost sound just like Twilight just saying that!"
"At least it didn't escalate to something disastrous!" Thorax said. "I didn't cause tears in the timeline or whatever Starlight was talking about after that."
"I pretty much walked out after that," Ember said. "Went to see Spike—see how he was doing."
"So that's why you went missing when I was looking for a buddy to sit with when Starlight wanted all of us to have seat buddies!"
"What are 'seat buddies'?"
"Seatmates!" Thorax yelled, holding his front hooves out.
Ember gave him a stern look.
Thorax landed on the ground. "OK, it may not have been the most exciting thing in the world."
The two kept on walking together as they entered Ponyville, passing by several ponies who stopped whatever they were doing—walking, talking, eating, drinking, flying fast—and watched the throng of diverse creatures come in. A few at their stalls hurried to wake from their lazy half-slumber to serve all of them. A few others ventured out to give them a few gifts or souvenirs, with three ponies wearing flowers on their manes offering bouquets of fragrant flowers to the passers-by. Still, there were some that just gave them a simple and quiet wave or a short and true "Hi!" or "Hello!" and thought themselves content with that.
Lights inside and lights outside were being turned on, illuminating the town.
Then, several looked up.
The sun moved its way down, fully behind the horizon as the sky darkened from a bright orange through a faint purple to a black blue. Stars twinkled into view as the moon rose from the same horizon, emanating its glimmering glow on to the land.
A few "Ooh's!" and a few "Ah's!" were heard.
Thorax and Ember looked at the sky. Then, at each other. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of that, knowing the ponies who handle it everyday and every night."
"How many days have you been alive?" Ember asked.
"Wow." Thorax had a baffled look on him. "That was sharp."
"Just asking," Ember said. "I know you have tough skin inside of you. Or shells. Whatever you call a changeling's skin."
"It's chitin."
"Oh. That sounds...nice?"
Thorax nodded under a streetlight.
The two kept on walking, now under the scattered yet close lights of a village at night. Clanks and clunks of cutlery being arranged either by unicorn magic or by pegasus wing or by Earth pony hoof inside the houses and the restaurants. With everyone in the crowd going their separate ways, that left the two of them on their own as they quietly—silently—observed Ponyville at this hour.
Then, they came by a river—a flowing creek with a few rocks strutting out of it, foaming the waters for a while before they went on, diluting though staying fresh and crisp and clear, transparent. The water rushed, making a quickening sound.
Smell of fresh air with tinges of baked goods.
Thorax and Ember sat down on the grass by the river.
A bridge was nearby, offering passage over the creek. On the other side was Ponyville's town hall; a few ponies were fixing it up, decorating it with various signs, posters, streamers, and balloons. Utterances of a secret nature were exchanged, making sure no one else heard what they were saying.
The two watched.
"So, how's it going, Thorax?" Ember asked. "Been some time since we first talked like this. Face-to-face, with nobody to bother us, in front of a body of water."
She turned her head towards the river.
Thorax's purple eyes glittered in the moonlight as he looked at the dragon. "King-wise, I'm doing OK. The changelings are quite tame now compared to the first few months of rule. None of them are mobbing the Elements of Harmony. At least as far as I know."
Ember hid a snicker. "Well, don't think that I didn't know about that happening." She smirked. "When I first heard of it, I thought that you changelings became a crazy bunch of fans."
"I didn't want that to happen," Thorax said, "but, after a while, I could sympathize with them."
"What do you mean?"
The changeling sighed. "What do you do to someone if he saves you from living a life full of lies, deception, and imprisonment? If he shows you that you can be a good guy without starving? That you can live a normal life without thinking about hunger and resorting to evil ways of staying full?"
Ember placed a finger on her chin as she thought deeply about it. Then, a wistful smile on her face as she looked at Thorax. "You thank them?"
"Right." Then, he looked on at the river, bearing a solemn yet caring appearance. "Most of us didn't know that that's what we wanted all along. It was a vicious cycle: You get hungry, so you steal love from others. You get full, but then you get hungry after a while—just like how normal creatures get hungry after a while. So, how do we keep ourselves from being more hungry? Steal love. Steal, steal, steal. Infilitrate, disguise, deceive—a little fib here, a little fib there. But, no matter how good we get at stealing love, we still got hungry."
"Didn't you think that was normal?" Ember asked. "Besides, all of us get hungry after a while—no one stops eating forever even if he eats a lot of gems."
"Yeah, but, at least with ponies, they can grow their own food and their food grows fast—you're sure that, after a few months, apples will regrow on their branches. Same with oranges, pears, lemons, mangoes, even non-fruits. But, stealing love isn't that stable: One unrelated incident can cause a rich source of love to go away, even if the creatures themselves are still there. And, how will you know until you get there? Which is frustrating if the love is in a place that's hundreds of miles away."
Ember slanted her head a little. "That does sound very desperate."
"We lived in the badlands down south," Thorax said. "There was Dodge Junction, the closest town with enough ponies to guarantee a source of love for about...two months or so. Only for a brood of changelings, which sounds a lot, but it's not, really. The ones who got there—they were lucky." He sighed. "Of course, if one of them gets caught, then the authorities there would report about it and sometimes, even the Princesses can get involved to make sure Dodge Junction was changeling-proof, forcing us to go out of our way to far-and-out towns."
Ember sighed. "It's a good thing you became the good guys, huh? No longer having to deal with being hungry all the time?"
Thorax managed to make a smile. "Yeah. That's always a plus. No matter how many hiccups we have to go through as the good guys, it's much better than having to suffer as the baddies."
Then, Ember placed her hands on her face, still sitting down on the grass. "So, let me guess: You had to face some heat when you were starting out."
"What does that mean?"
Ember took a second to think about it. "Everyone had to adjust to you being good, right?"
"Oh, I know what you mean." His demeanor dampened.
"Just remember—you're not alone on this one." She placed a hand on Thorax's shoulder. "We dragons may not be facing that much flak, but we're still gettings lots of...misunderstandings when I or some other dragon comes into Equestria. We're a free bunch." She crossed her arms. "We're big and menacing, but that doesn't always mean that we're out to steal your gems or burn your town."
Thorax nodded and smiled a little. "Yeah. Why should it always mean that way?"
"Yeah." Ember also nodded and smiled a little.
The two kept quiet, remaining silent for half a minute as they looked upon the flowing river and the ponies working on sprucing up the town hall.
"What's going on, Ember?" Thorax asked, cutting through the silence. "How's ruling the Dragon Lands so far?"
"It's alright," Ember replied. "Nothing important happened past few weeks. More of having to settle squabbles between complaining dragons than of going out in epic journeys to search for a natural hoard of gems and crystals somewhere."
"I heard that you're regularly sending notes about dragon culture to Twilight," Thorax said. "How's that going?"
"Going fine," Ember said. "There are times when Twilight is too demanding, though. One time, she asked me if we dragons had a complex and complicated system of narratives that evolved throughout the millenia." She scoffed. "Well, I told her that we didn't care about that for millenia, so there was no complex and complicated system."
"What did she say?"
"She insists that I make one up," Ember said, rolling her eyes.
Thorax smiled again. "That's the Twilight I know! Books are a priority in her mind."
"What did you expect when she has her own personal library?"
The two smiled at each other and looked upon the flowing river once again.
"What do you think of the Princesses?" Thorax asked. "I mean, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?"
"They're OK," Ember said. "I don't want to make them angry—they're the ones raising the sun and the moon, after all." She lightened up in her face. "What about you?"
"Considerate, kind, and understanding," Thorax answered.
"Did they tell you to say that to anyone who asks you the question?"
"No. It really is my honest opinion."
They became quiet again one more time, letting the rush of the water fill the air for several moments.
"Want some refreshments?" Thorax asked. "We can go to Sugarcube Corner."
"It's amazing that I haven't sneezed yet here," Ember said. "Going there is probably going to ruin it."
"Come on, Ember!" Thorax playfully insisted, patting her on the back. "You must be hungry after the occasion!"
"Didn't I tell you that I ate some gem pastries back in the castle?"
"You could then eat normal pastries in Sugarcuber Corner! And, you get to talk to Pinkie again!"
"She's very overwhelming for a pony," Ember admitted. "Talks a lot, talks too fast, makes you celebrate every single thing that you do besides walking, eating, and breathing. When I went here the second time, Pinkie threw me a 'Welcome-to-Ponyville-for-the-Second-Time' party. And, another time, she threw me a party just because."
"You're not in the mood for parties?" Thorax asked.
"Not the parties she throws. I'm less for talking, more for shooting fireballs at rocks that I just flung into the air. In other words, action. I don't want to celebrate something by chatting with you about what your favorite color is or by smelling all the pretty flowers and laughing at them."
"You know that Pinkie isn't like that," Thorax said.
"I'm just saying."
A silence passed between them once more.
"So, what do you dragons do when you party? Other than burning rocks?"
"Competitions," Ember said. "It's not the only thing we do, but it's pretty much a staple in our celebrations—we don't call it 'parties.' Sounds too childish."
"Well, what about the baby dragons?"
"We're not that childish. Not even our baby dragons are childish compared to foals or fledglings. From birth, they learn how to breathe fire and how to do, well, awesome feats of strength."
"Like throwing rocks and shooting fireballs at them at an early age?"
"Pretty much."
One last time, they became silent.
The minute passed by, them watching the river and the ponies.
"Let's go!" Thorax said happily, standing up. "Set the course for the bakery!"
"Wait, we're going to Sugarcube Corner?" Ember asked in panic, standing up in a hurry. "But, I told you—"
"It can't all be that bad, Ember!" Thorax said, already flapping his wings and hovering over the ground, making that buzzing noise. "I overheard that there's a contest going on in the bakery. A competition. Hm?" He raised his eyebrows at her.
Ember groaned. "Fine."



"How many opinions do you need?!" Ember complained as she sat at the table beside Thorax and a few ponies eagerly watching the intense cook-off going on between Twilight and Spike—Twilight messy and covered in flour (though wearing an apron and a toque blanche), Spike clean and not covered in flour. The smell of culinary art was rising from the two ovens at the front—the customer tables spaced away from the ovens.
The crowd was silent as they watched, allowing all the noise from Twilight's fierce method of cooking and Spike's calm-and-collected way of baking—Twilight focused on speedy precision, Spike just having a laid-back face as he simply walked from one part of his kitchen to another.
"It's so exciting, I can't watch!" Pinkie yelled. She grabbed the pony beside her, carried her, and used her mane to cover her eyes. "Hey! I don't see shampoo over here!"
Ember sighed from where she was. "You know, the competition could be more exciting if I was a part of it."
"You can cook?" Thorax asked, brightening up.
"Yeah. Just burn the food with my fire breath!"
The two chuckled a little at that.