"Thorax!"
Nothing.
"Thorax!"
Nothing.
"Uh, Thorax!"
"What?! All my fans and my stairs!"
Thorax woke up, looking around in the early morning with its slightly blue sky and its partially covered sun in the distance, yawning and stretching his forelegs on the rocky ground he had been sleeping on.
"You've got to read what's in the news!" the changeling shouted as he smacked the headlines right on his king's face.
Thorax pushed the crumpled newspaper aaway, revealing an unamused expression. "That's not funny, Coleo. How many times have I told you to stop pranking me with—"
"But, I'm serious this time!" Coleo explained.
Thorax blinked, grabbed the newspaper, and saw the headline news.
It was the Ponyville Express—as could be seen by the firm and no-hassle type of lettering used for its title. The headline image displayed seven ponies at the foreground, smiling for the camera in varying levels of smiling, all of them in the middle of a royal hallway filled with its usual decor of flowers and curtains and banners—and it was coupled with party decor(ations) with various tables of party food (cake, pie, cakepies, and so on), and a lot more ponies hanging out with each other in the background—though some of them were pointing at the foreground group of ponies.
Four stallions and three mares. One stallion was a very muscular pony, much larger than the rest of his supposed companions; one was a pegasus clad in metal armor, holding up a bronze shield and smiling brashly; one was wearing a cloak; and, one had a gray beard and was wearing proper wizard clothes—tall hat and robe with bells on both. One mare looked quite old and elderly, though her mane was flowing about; one was garbed in fancy, ancient clothes and, if one could look closely, had blue make-up on her eyelids; and, one had a tall, curled up mane while wearing a green dress of some sort.
The headline: "The Pillars of Old Equestria have Returned After 1000 Years, Now Living in Present Day! Equestria Celebrates with Party!"
Thorax read and re-read and re-re-read the headline, squinting his eyes at the last read. Then, he looked up at Coleo. "This isn't a hoax, right?"
"Uh, it's not pranking day? Not joke day?"
"You do know those days themselves are jokes and not real, right?"
"I could make it happen, if you want, Thorax."
Thorax raised an eyebrow, still unamused in his look. Then, he returned to the newspaper, reviving his shock and wonder. "But, still—if this is real, then that means—that means..."
He scratched his chin and pondered.
"Actually, I have no idea what that means."
Coleo sighed. "So, that means that it's not bad news?"
"Well, I've only heard of the pony with the nice hat," Thorax said. "Twilight kept talking about him to me that one time when we had to come together at Canterlot for a royal meeting. Showed me the Star Swirl wing or something of the Canterlot Archives or something—I forgot the names. It's as if she's so fanatical about him—then again, she said it herself that he was a powerful wizard, and her talent is magic so it sort of makes sense?"
Coleo merely blinked.
Thorax invited him with a hoof to look at the newspaper with him.
Thorax pointed at the burly pony. "The pony that I'm second most sure of is this one over here. Overheard Applejack talk about a strong stallion named 'Rockhoof' one time when I and Pharynx decided to sit in at a friendship council thing with the Elements of Harmony."
"How come none of us weren't invited?" Coleo asked.
"Well, it was a private function," Thorax replied. "I think Twilight wanted to make sure that there would be no chance of a changeling going rabid because he's in the presence of some famous mares."
"I'm not rabid like that," Coleo answered, "certainly not deranged like some others here."
"Twilight wanted to combat against all possibilities of changelings ruining their time together, so she had to be that strict. I myself wasn't one-hundred percent OK with it and neither was she, but she said that it was for the best."
Coleo nodded. Then, he placed a hoof on the picture. "So, back to the story!"
"Story?"
"Uh, news! I keep on mixing up between my novels and my news!"
"You do know that novels are completely different from newspapers, right?"
Coleo nodded.
Thorax just sighed and groaned. "Nevermind."
"What about the rest of those famous legendary ponies?" Coleo asked, becoming a bit more giddy. "Do you know them?"
"There's a mare named Meadowbrook and another mare named Somnambula, but I can't tell which one is which. Mistmane—no idea who he or she is. Flash Magnus—Dragon Lord Ember told me that the name rang a bell with her father—a very bad bell, from the way she sounded. Said that he beat him up a long time ago."
"Who beat who up?"
"Flash Magnus beat up Ember's father."
"You mean the very large dragon that's as big as a Manehattan skyscraper?"
"Yeah." Thorax smiled at that.
"How? A pony is tiny compared to a skyscraper!"
"I asked that question, too. Ember didn't want to talk about it—I guess it showed when she pushed me out of the way."
Coleo giggled, putting his hoof at his mouth. "She wasn't so happy about that, huh?"
"I respect that there are some things that she just won't tell," Thorax said. "Which is fine, really. She's a dragon, after all—a sappy dragon is not your usual dragon."
"But, they still wanna be friends with everyone, right?" Coleo pressed.
"Ember did announce to all dragons that they should make peace with ponies, so there's that."
"Not us?"
"I'm sure she's working on that."
Coleo gulped.
"Come on! At the very least, she's super friendly with me and likes just being out there in Ponyville or Canterlot with me when we do have to meet up and talk about royal political matters."
Coleo nodded, humming. "So, what are we going to do about the news today? Are we going to have a party for them, too?"
"Wait," Thorax said, holding up a kind hoof at him. "I need to read the rest of the article."
And so he did.
"'Star Swirl the Bearded, famed wizard of Equestrian history, along with previously-thought-of-as-only-legendary ponies Rockhoof, Mistmane, Flash Magnus, Mage Meadowbrook, Somnambula—plus Stygian, formerly infamous Pony of Shadows himself of lore—have returned from limbo after over a thousand years. They're in perfect condition, not having aged during the interim.
"'All of them expressed surprise at how Equestria is now; otherwise, they're amicable, kind, and friendly to us present-day ponies.
"'The Princesses have decreed that extreme respect be given to the aforementioned ponies—though not formally.
"'Last night, the legendary ponies had a party held by Pinkie Pie in the whole of Canterlot, celebrating their return.
"'During this party, Star Swirl the Bearded, in response to an inquiry about their future plans, stated: "We shall travel throughout Equestria, see for ourselves what has changed and what has remained the same in our old home now expanded. I believe that it is necessary for us to do that before we settle down on any permanent residence or occupation."
"'Interviews of each of the legendary ponies are in page 1-10 to 1-20.
"'So far, no word has been retrieved from Star Swirl regarding the Star Swirl traveling museum—he has willfully ignored all inquiries related to it.
"'Article by: Colloquy'"
The two remained silent.
"Equestria is now a different place, I guess," Thorax said, "having ponies over a thousand years old going around when they missed out on a lot of those years. I think I'll have to take a sudden trip to Twilight—see what I have to do since I have no idea what's really going on beyond what I just read."
Coleo sighed, looking away.
"What's wrong?"
"We want you to stay here, Thorax," he said.
"I know. I want to, too, but a king has to go and meet other leaders and monarchs to make sure the political side of things are OK so that all of us will be OK."
Coleo sighed again. "I understand."
"Tell Pharynx that I'm going to be meeting with Twilight Sparkle," Thorax said as he opened his wings and took off.
And Coleo did not say anything—just waved at him goodbye.
It was now later in the morning though still early in Ponyville. In the wake of last night's hours, a growing and rising disturbance was upon the town: Newspapers were being spread, gasps and double takes were made, calm nerves turned into heated outlets of questions' barrage, a pouring out of surprised exclamations—hooves running and going, heads turning (a good many of them towards either the town hall or Twilight's castle)—books dusted off and foals' eyes widened in delight alongside older brothers' and sisters' and parents' at the sight of that party and its great guests of old, look back and look back again between the crisp sharpness and clarity of the image and the drawn depictions and imaginvative interpretations put into visual form on their old books that retold those bygone tales and, well, legends—"They're not just real but they're here?!" "Who's the pony who sent this story?! This must be fake!" "I'm going to find them and I'm going to have a picture taken with them, too!"—and, following that last statement, a pony took on his traveler's hat and shades and wore a camera around his neck and proclaimed himself the first passenger on the first train to Canterlot, leaving everyone else who had witnessed the spontaneous event standing with open mouths and a few seconds of getting their bearings before they returned to the confusion compounded by even more action exemplified by more running about—more panicked, more excited—and even bumps were there, too, since carts were being pushed out of balance and produce was being spilled and threats were exchanged between the two and, though a fight was to be displayed, Fluttershy—who had been passing by—looked upon the to-be attackers and frowned, causing the belligerents to shake hooves, making Fluttersehy smile but, after that, she looked around her and, seeing the commotion of ponies running and flying and walking and talking and shouting and reading and comparing and analyzing and theorizing and planning and going and pointing and yelling and asking and—
"What's going on?" she finally uttered.
In the sky, Thorax was flying, his wings and his carapace once again gracing the sky and their beauty being amplified by the sun, shining a little multi-colored glow on Ponyville that nopony noticed, all caught up in the nasty swath of disoriented, undirected activity.
Down to the dirt path, knocked on the Castle of Friendship's grand double doors.
He looked back. A disorganized line of ponies were coming up.
"They know, too, huh?" Thorax said to himself.
The doors magically opened inward, revealing the Princess of Friendship herself—frowning.
"You, too, huh?" Twilight said.
"Wait, why?" Thorax said, quickening his speech. "Is it because of the visitors—"
"You're likely the last royal visitor to be here today!" Twilight said, her speech even faster, almost gabbing. "Ember's here, Rutherford's here, Galena's here, I'm not sure about the other lands, but word is they'll probably come at a later date—come with me!"
Twilight grabbed Thorax by the hoof, closed the doors with her magic, and ran off through the hallway.
The various leaders were sitting on the crystal thrones at the Cutie Map.
The atmosphere was tense. Galena was shaky, Ember was wearing an aggressive look on her face, and Rutherford was bellowing out complaints about how the biscuits were not good, much to the dismay of Spike who, now, was wearing an apron and was giving out plates of biscuits.
"But, you haven't even tasted them," Spike said, tapping a foot. "In fact, you haven't even touched them!"
"Biscuits too little! Yak demands jumbo plate biscuits!"
"That's going to take a while, Prince Rutherford. You see, everyone likes their biscuits—"
"Not us yaks!" Rutherford insisted. "Yaks pride selves on food size!"
"Uh..." Spike turned to the remaining leaders present—"Help?"
Galena just looked away.
Ember groaned. "Don't mind it, Spike," she said, irritated.
Spike gulped.
Doors opened.
Twilight threw Thorax at one of the crystal chairs and he landed there with ease.
Everyone else looked at that act with some shock on their faces.
Twilight magically closed the doors and ran to her own chair.
"Alright, everyone," Twilight began, still speaking fast and eyeing each of the leaders (and Spike, too, who went to the his little crystal throne), "I didn't expect this at all, but to have the rulers of four of Equestria's neighboring kingdoms come here after what happened during the past few days needs to be addressed. Before you ask, I have all of the information I could gather about what the Pillars plan to do within the next few weeks. Any questions so we can get straight to the matter at hoof?"
Silence, even from Prince Rutherford. Blinking eyes.
"Any questions?"
Silence again.
"OK, here we go!"
She inhaled lots of air and gripped the table with her forehooves.
"Yes, the Pillars will be travelling together and that includes Stygian. They will be going to the principal locations of Equestria first, though, of course, individual Pillars will be making their own excursions to other places either ahead or behind scheduled time depending on both external circumstances and personal decisions—especially so for Rockhoof and what used to be his home and for Somnambula and Somnambula—the town, I mean. Star Swirl is a wildcard—he has mastered even the advanced branches of teleportation so he can choose to visit any place that he wishes to visit and that includes places outside of Equestria. That's where you come in—you all know who Star Swirl the Bearded is, right?"
Everyone nodded, including Spike.
"No need to state his credentials. This isn't going to be too complicated—all you have to do is to make sure everyone is prepared for his visit at any time, especially during this week. His visit might just be a few minutes or it might even be a few days althought that's not probable.
"Accommodating Star Swirl's unpredictability, the Pillars will be travelling Equestria using Tourist Plan A which means that, if all goes well, they will be done with going through much of Equestria by early next year. Why that long? Well, it's not just sight-seeing—excited historians, among others, will be taking their time, as well doing their best to getting with these times.
"The reason why I'm telling you this upfront is because we don't want to cause any international dilemmas from accidentally injuring—whether physically or verbally—the Pillars. They are historical, legendary, extremely important ponies. Of course, don't be too stiffy about it—"
And here, she wore a happy grin.
"I'm still so excited that Star Swirl's here!"
Spike groaned and placed a claw on his head.
Thorax raised a hoof.
"Yes?" Twilight asked, still having that giddy look on her face.
"That means I have to tell the changelings to get ready for the Pillars?"
"At least Star Swirl! Although, it's hard to prepare for him since, well, you don't know when that pony is coming!"
Thorax laughed nervously.