Thorax had taken his brother’s advice and was headed to the Crystal Empire for some help.
Meanwhile, at the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor and Cadence had just put their little angel to sleep after she had kept them up all night. Shining Armor told his wife to get some sleep while he tried to keep the empire from falling apart. Oh who was he kidding, he was making sure nothing in the realm woke up his ladies. Especially the little one.
Shining Armor had his best guards lined up in front of him, the ones that could stand up anyway. The other guards used the ones who were still awake as support to stay up. Shining Armor knew that he was pushing the guards and himself more than he needed to, but they had a duty to fulfill. He slowly paced in front of them while giving them their orders.
"I want everything in the Empire to be so quiet that you can hear a pin drop, understand!?"
"Yes, sir!" The guards said together as one of them started a yawning cycle.
"Remember, this is not just for Flurry Heart and Cadence's sake, but for everypony in the kingdom. No pony has gotten a good night sleep in a while."
"Yes, sir," The guards said together as one of them tipped over.
"So for the rest of the day, if you hear anypony, and I mean anypony, speaking louder than a whisper in the empire. He or she is to be shot with magic and put to sleep until the Princesses wake up from their sleep, understand?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Dismissed," They saluted each other, almost losing their balance at the end of it.
Thorax had no idea why the train to the Crystal Empire stopped a mile away from the station, but he didn't overthink about it. He needed help, and he was going to get it. He flew to the Empire and landed near the castle, but then he noticed that it was quiet. Too quiet. He looked to his left and right and saw he was alone. Where was everypony?
"Hello?" He called out to anypony nearby. His voice echoed throughout the Empire like a ghost town.
"Anypony here?" He tried again.
"It's me, Thorax. I’m here to speak with Princess Cadence." Nopony answered him. Thorax was starting to believe that something awful had happened to the Empire. He had to find help, who knows what may have happened. But first….
"Yodel-aye-he-hoo!" He’d always wanted to do this!
"Yodel-aye-he-hoo!" This was too much fun!
"Yoyoyoyododod woohoo-" Exactly 25 magic beams hit Thorax from all directions, and he fell to the ground.
After an undetermined amount of time, feeling started returning to Thorax's body, and he began to wake up, 'Everything hurts.' He thought to himself, as he sat up, before noticing something around his mouth and neck. Whatever the device was, it was stopping him from speaking and from using his magic. Thorax then tried his best to get the device off of himself, not noticing that he had a visitor outside of his cell. Thorax spent around five minutes with the muzzle before Shining Armor spoke up.
"It's not going to come off Thorax," Shining Armor said while yawning.
Thorax noticed him and tried to speak up, but only managed to mumble. Shining Armor just shook his head before explaining to his Changeling friend what was going on.
"Look Thorax everypony in the Empire is very tired, and we all want to sleep. And then here you come Yodeling in the middle of the Empire and almost waking up my family. So until they wake up. You are just going to have to sit tight. And then maybe I can get some sleep."
Twilight had finished her trip to the Spa and was feeling refreshed. Spike was right; it was exactly what she'd needed. She then remembered that Rainbow had some problems with a "bird" yesterday and wanted to see if she was okay. She told Spike where she was going and headed out. Flying to Rainbow's house, she knocked on the door.
"Rainbow Dash are you in here?"
The door then opened. "Not so loud, Twilight. My head still hurts," Rainbow said with an ice pack tied to her head.
"I see the bird got you good. Did you find out what it wanted?"
"No, right before I got to Fluttershy's it took off," Rainbow started shaking her hoof in rage. "If ever see that flying rodent ever again, I will show it no mercy- OW," She swore as she put a hoof to her head,
Twilight knew that the bird was actually Thorax's brother, Pharynx, but she has no idea why he was beating up her friends. She was going to have to have a talk with him later, but for now, she let Rainbow continue to think it was just a bird, "Maybe you just had some seeds in your mane?"
"I doubt it. I think it that it had some grudge against me. Maybe I knocked it out of the air one too many times or something."
"Better not let Fluttershy hear you say that."
"Yeah. Speaking of which, how did your date with Thorax go anyways?"
Twilight blushed, remembering the date. "Ah, good, I think."
"What's that supposed to mean? Was it a good date or a bad date?"
"I'm not sure. Ah. . . good?"
"Okay Twilight, what happened?"
"You too?"
"I am one of your best friends. It's my job to make sure that nothing bad happens to you," Rainbow said, "So what happened?"
"Okay, promise that you won't make a big deal about it?"
"Of course."
Some crystal guards were trying to remove the muzzle on Thorax as he stood in front of Cadence in the throne room.
"You must forgive my Crystal Ponies, Thorax," Cadence said, just waking up from her nap, "They are sweet, but you must understand that nopony around here has been able to get any sleep ever since Flurry Heart got the sniffles two days ago."
"It's understandable Princess Cadence," Thorax said, stretching his jaw as the guards finally got the muzzle off, "Although if something like this does happen again. I would like to know ahead of time before such a thing does happen."
"That is odd," Cadence looks confused at this and then turned to her husband, "Shining Armor, didn't you send out the letters informing the other lands about what was happening here?"
"I just found out that the pony I assigned to do that fell asleep right before he could finish his work."
"Well, that explains that. So Thorax, what brings you here today?"
"Well," Thorax said, brushing one hoof against the other, "I need some advice to help me apologize to Twilight."
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Shining Armor shouted, at him making Thorax jump back in fright.
Cadence shook her head at this and then addressed her husband, "Honey, please. You need to get some sleep. I'll handle this."
Shining Armor looked back between the two, trying to find a good reason to be mad, "But he did something to Twilight!"
"And you have been awake for over 32 hours. Go get some needed sleep, dear."
"Okay, Cadence," Shining Armor said, leaving the room. Once he was gone Cadence then spoke up in a stern voice.
"So what happened Thorax?" Cadence asked with a smile, "Do I need to banish you somewhere?"
"No, it was nothing like that!"
"The date started off very well," Twilight said, "We went to get some sweets from Sugar Cube Corner, and from there we had a nice conversation near the lake. That's where we met you, Rainbow."
"I had no idea why my brother attacked her," Thorax said, "But Rainbow Dash seemed fine. She didn't ask for our help and just went on her way."
"And then after it started to get dark, Thorax started taking me back to the castle. He carried me back on his back halfway there."
"She said that she was getting tired and it was getting late, so I thought it was the best course of action."
"YOU COULD HAVE LOOKED FOR A PLACE FOR HER TO REST!" Shining Armor shouted from the doorway.
"Shining Armor! Go to sleep!" Cadence scold.
"Yes dear," as Shining Armor left again, Cadence turned to her guards.
"Guards, make sure he goes to sleep. If he comes back here within the next five hours, you will all be taking care of Flurry Heart for us for the next week 24/7!"
More than half of the guards left the room heading down the hall where Shining Armor had gone. Thorax could hear Shining Armor arguing with the guards, but it started growing faint.
"NOW then Thorax," Cadence said, getting his attention again, "As you were saying."
"How romantic of him Twilight," Rainbow said, rubbing her head, "Please tell me that you aren't all flustered just because he did something out of a fairytale?"
"No of course not it was the kiss," Twilight covered her mouth trying to stop herself but it was too late. "It wasn't what you think!"
Rainbow just smiled back at her friend, "What? That you like him?"
"Ah, yes. I guess. I thought you were going to say something else."
"Something like 'you are too easy to embarrass'?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Or that you are starting to become a mare."
"I'm not sure how that ties in with our current conversation."
"Or that you are starting to falling in love with Thorax."
"Okay Rainbow that's enough. I get the idea."
"Or that you can't wait for-"
"ALRIGHT I GET IT RAINBOW!" Twilight cut her off, "The problem now is that I'm not sure I can face Thorax again."
"Relax Twilight. That's what friends are for."
"What are you planning?"
"Okay, Twilight, listen. It's a plain a day that you now have the hots for Thorax because right now you're acting like Fluttershy hiding backstage at a singing contest."
"Really? Am I acting like Fluttershy?"
"You will be soon. After we get you in front of Thorax again."
"I'm not sure that is a good idea, Rainbow."
"Twilight you are never going to get anywhere if you don't get some help, and you have five best friends in Ponyville ready to help you."
"You're going to tell the girls?!"
"We need reinforcements."
"That's so cute!"
"It was an accident."
"So, what happened next?"
"Twilight teleported away before I could say anything, and that was the end of the date. I think she hates me for stealing a kiss from her."
"No, she doesn't Thorax. If she did, she'd have magic blasted you ten feet into the ground. Remember, she's an Alicorn and the Element of Magic, I pretty sure you wouldn't be standing here if she didn't like the kiss. Like you said Thorax, it was an accident, so I am sure she will forgive you if you ask her."
"Any advice on where to start?"
"Oh, don't worry Thorax. We got this."
"We?"