Spike didn’t find me on the floor in the morning. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t planned to humor him for a bit and then move to the floor once he was asleep despite his objections, but the day’s events had worn me out more than I’d realized! Or was it relief that I didn’t have to run and hide anymore? Or both? Yeah, probably both. The comfortable softness of the bed and the warm blankets hadn’t helped any; I’d fallen asleep almost immediately, and had remained soundly asleep until well into the morning hours.
I might have slept longer, had persistent but gentle shaking not aroused me from my dreams.
“Hey Thorax, wake up already, you lazy bedbug!” Spike called, chuckling as he kept prodding me.
“Huh what?” I mumbled, cracking an eye open. “Something happen?”
“Not really, it’s just that everypony else is awake and you missed breakfast.”
That got through. I was instantly on my hooves, eyes wide in panic.
“Eggshells!” I blurted out. “I’m getting punished, aren’t I? How bad will it hurt?”
“Whoa, relax, you’re fine! No one’s gonna punish you! Why would they? Skipping breakfast isn’t a crime!”
“...and oversleeping?”
He sighed and shook his head.
“Ponies aren’t barbarians, Thorax. Why would they go around punishing people for the smallest things?”
I avoided eye contact. How was I supposed to tell him that my whole life had been like that?
He caught on.
“It’s what the hive does, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“I don’t know whether I’m more interested to hear it or afraid to ask.”
“I’d rather forget that place altogether!”
“That bad, huh? Anyway,” he continued, “Twilight asked me to find you. There are a few ponies here that she’d like you to meet, if you’re interested.”
“Are they friendly?” Please say yes!
“As friendly as they come! You’ll like them, I promise!”
“I’d love to meet some new friends! Lead the way!”
He took me through a couple of hallways and down a stairwell to the part of the castle bustling with activity. The crystal ponies and Royal Guards eyed me curiously as we walked on, keeping their distance, a few of them whispering something to one another, but none of them assaulted me or ran away screaming. I took it as a sign that the Prince and Princess had informed them of me. Whether that was the case for the whole empire or just the castle staff, there was no way to know immediately, but I trusted that they would take the necessary steps if they hadn’t already.
Spike then approached one of the doors and opened it, ushering me inside. I assumed this was a dining hall: a large table dominated the center of the room, and a dozen chairs were placed around it. Flowers and sculptures adorned every nook and corner, and there was a tray with a stack of cups and a funny-looking pot on the table, and seven separate cups placed around, one in front of each pony sitting at the table.
Twilight and Starlight I already knew. Well, that wasn’t completely true; I’d been introduced to the two and had interacted with them, but I knew the other five too well, by sight at least if not by names. Seeing them here made me freeze in place; my smile vanished, my eyes widened again, and my eager anticipation gave way to dread and panic.
With the exception of Starlight, the ponies before me were the same ones I’d watched and rooted for in Canterlot as they fought Chrysalis’ army, the same ponies who had reignited my desire for friendship and ultimately inspired me to persist in seeking it against all odds!
But I was a changeling, and they had fought changelings at least once. It was safe to assume that they didn’t hold my kind in high regard, to say the least. Would they set that hostility aside and give me a chance to show them my real self? Would they believe me? Could they even bring themselves to try?
If only I’d remembered to disguise myself! It might have helped break the ice, or at the very least, it might have curbed my panic until I deemed them ready to see my true form!
But it was too late now; the opening door had interrupted their conversation, and now they were all staring at me as tense silence filled the room.
I cast a frantic glance at Spike, and he gave me a reassuring nod and a pat on the shoulder.
“Everypony, this is Thorax!” Princess Twilight finally announced after what seemed like forever, but was more likely a mere second or two.
The yellow pegasus had already cowered in her chair; the white unicorn looked undecided between screaming and fainting, and the pink earth pony stared at me with exaggerated, almost comical suspicion. The blue pegasus and the orange earth pony looked like they were just waiting for the signal to pounce me.
“Whoa nelly, Twi, Ah thought ya were just spouting a lot of hooey,” said the orange one, “but ya really brought one of them changelings here!”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” the pink one joined in. “It sounded like a perfect prank, and I get that you’re not much of a prankster, but what do I know, maybe you found a reeeeeeeaaaaaly good book about pranks and decided to try some of them on us, but COME ON!”
“Enough with the talking!” the blue one interjected and flew up from her chair. “I say we kick his rump before he gets any ideas!”
I braced myself to run.
“Rainbow!” Twilight caught her in her magic before she could tackle me and placed her back in the chair, then looked around the table. “I wasn’t lying to you, I’m not pranking you, and I’m not conspiring with the enemy! Please don’t make me repeat the whole speech I just gave you!”
“You made a valid point in that speech, darling,” the white unicorn had recovered enough to voice her opinion, “but you do remember all the dreadful things these ruffians did in Canterlot, don’t you? You simply can’t be suggesting that we should… forgive them?!”
“You forgave me,” Starlight muttered. “Why not him?”
“Ooh! Ooo-ooh!” The pink mare suddenly waved a foreleg and sprang onto the table. “Girls! What if Twilight is a changeling? Maybe she wasn’t pranksterific earlier - maybe the changelings are planning another invasion and stole Twilight and sent the fake Twilight to convince us to befriend an undisguised changeling and make us think they aren’t evil anymore so we’d give him valuable intel and then when we’re careless, BAM! They attack again and eat us! Everypony for herself!” She dashed off and hid inside a flowerpot, her eyes somehow poking from underneath the roots of the plant that had already occupied the said flowerpot.
The yellow pegasus closed her eyes, let out a whimper and started shivering.
I looked at Spike, wondering how this had gone so bad so quickly when he’d insisted that it wouldn't. He opened his mouth to say something, but the orange mare beat him to it.
“Pinkie’s right, y’all,” she said. “Twi, Ah hate to do this, but how’d our first slumber party go?”
“The one with just you and Rarity, or the one where we were all present?”
“Me an’ Rarity was first, so that.”
“It was a disaster because you two couldn’t stop arguing, but a tree saved the day by falling into my bedroom and forcing you to reconcile. Or saved the night… what’s the proper expression?”
“And what was the name of the chicken that got petrified?” the yellow pegasus finally spoke.
“Elizabeak.”
“Remember that time when I ended up in Ponyville Hospital?” Rainbow asked. “What was the reason?”
“You had an accident while attempting a flying stunt and broke your right wing.”
“Hmmmmm. You’re close enough,” Pinkie said, emerging from the flowerpot, “but explain this!” She made a series of quick gestures that I couldn’t even begin to guess the meaning of!
“You zipped your mouth, locked it with a key, dug a hole, threw the key into the hole, filled the hole, built a house, and slid the house on top of the hole.”
“And when did you first see me do that?”
“Years ago, when I was having second thoughts about keeping Rarity and Fluttershy’s secret confessions from one another.”
“Okay, you’re clear!” Pinkie grinned widely as she declared the conclusion that the others must have already reached.
But I wasn’t off the hook yet. She approached me with that exaggerated suspicious glare and looked me over, rubbing her chin. Then, without warning, she peered into my eyes, opened my mouth and peered inside, stretched out my tongue to its full length, examined it, released it abruptly so it nearly hit me in the eyes, stooped down to poke at my leg holes, then sat on my back and wiggled my wings and neck fin - all of which took less than two seconds. Maybe three if I’d counted wrong.
“Okie-dokie-lokie!” she said cheerfully. “Congratulations, you’re friendly!”
“Um…” I started, puzzled by how she’d reached that conclusion, only to be interrupted by her loud gasp, after which she dashed out of the room faster than eyes could follow.
“What just happened?” I asked nopony in particular.
“Heh, it’s Pinkie,” Spike said. “We’ve learned to just roll with it!”
“So, a friendly changeling, huh?” Rainbow flew closer to me. “Did something happen to you or were you always like that?”
“I was always like this.”
“I didn’t think it was possible,” the yellow pegasus spoke again; she had stopped shivering at some point and decided there was no need to be afraid of me after all. “Are there any more like you?”
“Friendly? No, I’m the only one as far as I-”
Pinkie’s speedy return interrupted my reply. She zoomed back into the room, nearly knocking me over, and she hadn’t come empty-hooved: she carried a large plate of cakes in her mouth and another in her hoof, and balanced one on her head, one on her tail, and two on her back. I watched in awe as she deposited each plate onto the table with stunning speed, somehow managing to keep every plate and their contents intact. I would have definitely dropped half the cakes and broken the plates even at normal speed, maybe even if I’d shapeshifted some extra appendages onto myself! How did she do it?
The last plate had barely made contact with the table when she ran off at breakneck speed again, only this time, she was gone a mere second, and returned with-
“Gah!” I squeaked at the sight of a cannon that she was pushing into the room, and as-good-as-teleported under the table, shivering again and regretting every decision I’d ever made in life, especially the one about agreeing to meet these ponies. What had I been thinking? I should have demanded to know whom to expect! And Spike should have known better than to put me at the mercy of cannon-wielding ponies without warning! He had to have known what Pinkie would do! He had known, hadn’t he?
My instinct screamed at me to put on a disguise, but what kind of disguise would help me in this situation? A cannonball would injure or kill me even if I turned into a rock or something similar, and I couldn’t outrun or outfly these ponies, not if I had to dodge cannonballs! Not to mention that a disguise wouldn’t fool them into thinking I wasn’t a changeling at this point!
“Pinkie!” I heard Spike shout at her. “How ‘bout a warning next time?”
“But then it wouldn’t be a surprise- oh.” Her reply registered in my mind but was quickly drowned out by the frantic attempts to think of a way to get out of this mess.
Then, Spike peered under the table with a concerned expression on his face, and the yellow pegasus crawled under and gently stroked my hoof.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “You’re not in danger. That isn’t a real cannon; it shoots confetti and streamers. Pinkie uses it for parties and only for parties. I’m sorry we forgot to explain it to you in advance!”
Her voice alone, soothing and warm, would have calmed and reassured me pretty quick, but the pure love she radiated was even more powerful! It wasn’t as strong as that of Princess Cadance - I didn’t think I’d find love stronger than hers if I searched for a million years - but it was powerful nevertheless, and I knew as sure as I’d ever known anything that I could trust this mare with my life!
“A fake cannon?” I mused. “That exists?”
“Yes. I don’t know how many there are in the world, but Pinkie would never fire a real cannon. She just wanted you to have fun, I promise!”
I tilted my head to take a closer look at the cannon. Pinkie leaned in and offered a hoof.
“I’m so so soooooo super-duper sorry for scaring you with my party cannon! I guess I’m so used to everypony liking it that I never thought about what it might look like to you! Can I make it up with extra hugs? Please please please pleeeease let me make it up to you! And I’ll get you twice as many presents for your next birthday party than you normally get! When is your birthday, by the way?”
“I’m not sure… changelings don’t celebrate birthdays.” She gasped again. “Or anything, for that matter.”
“Aww, now we have to throw you a party every day to make up for what you’ve missed! But don’t worry, Auntie Pinkie Pie is on the job and will not disappoint you!”
“I appreciate the gesture, but let’s not overdo it. One party is fine,” I said, getting out from under the table at last. “And thank you for snapping me out of it,” I said to the yellow mare. “Um, I don’t think I caught your name, sorry.”
“No problem! I’m Fluttershy, pleased to meet you! Oh, and these are Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity. And Twilight and Starlight, but you’ve met them already.”
“And I’m honored to meet all of you,” I said with a slight bow. “You’re kind of my personal heroes, if I may say so!”
“Whatever do you mean, darling?” Rarity asked. “Not that we aren’t flattered, that is!”
“I saw you defend the other ponies in Canterlot during the invasion. Your unity is what-”
“Wait, you were there?!” Rainbow got in my face. “I thought you said you’ve always been friendly! And now you’re telling us that we fought you?!”
“Not me personally! I was just hovering around, avoiding conflict!”
“Why were you even there if you didn’t want to fight?”
“Because I wasn’t given a choice! No changeling ever gets to choose what they want to do! We have to obey orders or risk punishment! And I took a huge risk by escaping the hive - Chrysalis will kill me if she ever finds me!”
That calmed her down a little, but unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for myself. I was shivering in terror again at the thought!
“So why’d ya take the risk, then?” Applejack asked.
“Because it was still a lesser evil than what I was going through in the hive on a regular basis,” I sighed. “Please don’t ask for details…”
“There, there, Thorax,” Fluttershy stroked my back. “It’s all in the past, and you’re safe here. If anything happens, you have us to rely on! Right, girls?”
They all agreed readily. Did that count as friendship, even if we’d only just met? It sure felt like it did, especially with all the love coming from them right about now!
Oh, how wonderful it was to have friends!
“Why don’t we sit down?” Starlight invited. “These cakes look delicious!”
“Sure thing!” Spike was the first to accept. “I’m famished!”
The rest of them returned to their seats. I hesitated. Was I expected to sit with them? Would I be allowed to?
“Aren’t you gonna join us?” Spike asked me.
“But… I don’t eat cakes… or any pony food…”
“So what? You can still talk to us!”
“Yes! I can’t wait to hear about how your trip to the Crystal Empire was and where you’ve been and who you’ve met and how many super-duper friends you’ve made!” Pinkie squeaked, then deflated. “Wait, you haven’t made any friends at all, have you? Twi said you were starving when Spike found you and you wouldn’t have been starving if you’d made friends! And I didn’t even hug you like I promised I would!”
She somersaulted off her seat and over the table, landed next to me, and wrapped me in a squeeze that seriously threatened to crumble my carapace.
I gasped for breath. This was a hug? I felt like my eyes were about to pop out of their sockets and fly out the window!
She finally let go. “Better?”
“Yeah… thanks…” For releasing me. I’d have to check myself for injuries later if my body didn’t stop hurting after a while. On second thought, I’d have to check for injuries regardless of when my body stopped hurting.
“Okie-dokie-lokie!” She returned to her seat, this time trotting at a normal pace.
I decided to take a seat too. I had been invited, after all - at least Spike had made it sound like that - and I sure needed a seat after that hug!
“That’s better,” Rarity said and levitated the strange pot I’d seen earlier. “Care for some tea, darling?”
So that was what it was. Should I? It wouldn’t have any nutritional value for me, but I decided I might as well, for the sake of fitting in if for no other reason.
“Sure, I guess,” I said.
She filled a cup and levitated it to me. “Careful, it’s hot!” she warned.
I took the cup in my hooves and attempted to take a sip. A slight problem presented itself: I’d forgotten about the shape and hardness of the cup and hadn’t taken my fangs into account. I pondered briefly whether to shapeshift them away, maybe even turn into a pony while drinking, but decided to postpone the matter, and put the cup down without actually drinking anything. If anypony found it weird, they weren’t showing it, or maybe they decided not to force the matter. Or had they simply assumed that I found the tea to be too hot for drinking right away?
“So, Thorax,” Starlight spoke, “how do you like Equestria?”
“It’s better than the hive, and from what I’ve seen of it, you ponies are living the dream. Though I can’t say that I haven’t gotten in trouble…”
“How so?” Twilight.
“Well, some of it was simply the consequence of being revealed as a changeling, such as in Canterlot and Manehattan-”
“Whoa, hold on just an apple-picking minute,” Applejack raised a hoof. “Ya said ya were in Canterlot before, and Ah know how it ended for y’all, so why upset the apple cart and go there again?”
“The… apple cart?”
“It’s an expression,” Spike told me.
“Oh. Well, I snuck onto a train and didn’t realize where it was going until I got there… otherwise I would have avoided the place at all cost!”
“Fair enough,” Starlight admitted. “But getting your cover blown wasn’t the only issue, I take it?”
“No, there were a few other incidents. For example, I got arrested on my first day in Equestria because some guy called Braeburn or something like that thought I was an apple thief-”
“Braeburn?!” Applejack got on her hooves. “He’s mah cousin, dang nabbit!”
“Really?”
“Darn tootin’ he is! He said somethin’ about an apple thief a while ago, now that Ah think about it! That was you?!”
“I wasn’t stealing anything, I swear! I just tried to hide in a tree and he saw me!”
“Ah suppose ya wouldn’t have much of a reason to steal apples,” she mused. “But why didn’t ya tell ‘em?”
“Tell them what, that he’s a changeling?” Rainbow interjected. “As if that would have made things any better!”
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t suppose you can help me explain it to him somehow, sort out the mess I made? I wanted to apologize, I just couldn’t think of a way to do it without sending myself to the dungeons for the rest of my life!”
“Ah’ll see what Ah can do,” she promised.
“I bet that would have never happened in Ponyville,” Pinkie muttered.
“Well, the problem I had in Ponyville was of a different nature…”
“Goodness!” Fluttershy gasped. “What happened? You didn’t get hurt or anything, did you?”
“I was disguised as a bird and ran into you… Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with you; I couldn’t! Your love is so pure and sincere and… actually, that kind of was the problem, but not in the way you think…”
“I don’t follow.”
“Right. You thought I was a bird and nuzzled me, and love came off from you in droves, and it did wonders for my hunger, but then I freaked out because I was feeding on you without your consent and I’d vowed I’d never do that under any condition! So I broke off from you and fled, and you were visibly sad because of it, and I wanted to go back and comfort you, but couldn’t! Please forgive me if you can!”
“Oh, of course I forgive you! Why wouldn’t I? By the way, you didn’t have to leave so quickly! I’m sure I would have understood even then!”
“I don’t know, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “You might have gotten past your fear and understood, but the rest of us probably wouldn’t have listened! Even I needed some convincing yesterday when Spike brought him along, and I’m the Princess of Friendship! I should have been the first to befriend him, not wait for Spike to practically give up his status of a hero for Thorax’s sake!”
“That status wouldn’t have been worth the ash from last year’s fire if I’d neglected to help someone in need,” he said.
“We understand your point, but it shouldn’t have come to that,” Starlight said. “It only goes to show that caution can’t justify prejudice! Who knows how many other potential friendships and alliances haven’t been forged because somepony couldn’t look past their preconceptions and see the good in others!”
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you did at least in my case!” I said.
“Aww, grouphug!” Pinkie called out.
Everyone got right to it and snatched me up to partake in the hug before I knew what was happening, and it was one of the best moments I’d ever had!