The group of three ponies, dragon and changeling all sat inside Twilight's guest suite in the Crystal Palace. Minutes ago, they'd been dismissed from the throne room by Princess Cadance so that she and her husband could discuss what to do in regards to the situation with Thorax. While most of the group was sitting, Twilight was pacing back and forth in front of the door.
"Please try and calm down, Twilight", Starlight tried to calm the mare down,"I'm sure whatever decision Cadance and Shining reach will be fair."
Twilight looked at her incredulously. "Shining attacked us all in an attempt to get at Thorax and seriously harm him!" she exclaimed,"I'm pretty sure that he was going to kill him with that last spell! I honestly doubt that he would give a fair decision regarding Thorax!"
"Try not to blame your brother too much, Twilight", Thorax asked of her,"He went through a bad experience regarding my kind, so I can't honestly expect him to be too eager to want to be friends with me."
"Were you honestly expecting him to want to blast you into a million pieces?" she asked him.
"Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to be that aggressive towards me, but I was expecting him to do something." Thorax admitted.
"Bad experience or not", Twilight continued,"That doesn't justify what he did. I'm serious, Thorax! How can you be so accepting of that kind of treatment?"
Thorax took a moment to form his words. "Twilight, I knew when I left my hive that I was going to be fighting an uphill battle. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that what happened in Canterlot left a sour taste in ponies' mouths regarding my kind. That's part of why I'm doing this; I want to help fix some of the damage that caused."
"What do you mean?", Twilight asked him,"Are you saying there's changelings in your hive that might want to make friends with ponies?"
"Not really", admitted Thorax,"Changelings for the most part still see ponies as nothing more than food. However, I know there's some that have experienced shared love and friendship while on missions to find ponies to bring back to the hive and drain for love. They had said it was a better love than anything the hive could hope to produce. I wasn't sure if that was entirely true or not, but after experiencing friendship today, I can honestly say that it is."
"If there's changelings that know getting love through friendship is better than stealing it, how come they keep stealing it?" questioned Twilight.
Thorax only gave one simple answer. "Chrysalis."
Twilight and Starlight looked at each other uneasily. Thorax elaborated on his point.
"Chrysalis has always argued that the idea of obtaining love through friendship is a fool's errand, and anyling that was brave enough to voice doubt about it... wasn't around long enough afterwards to keep doing so."
That remark made everyone in the room flinch, realizing what depths the changeling queen would go to to make sure her viewpoints were followed by her subjects unquestioningly.
"Anyways", Thorax continued,"I know that ponies aren't going to trust me right away. All I want is a chance to prove I can be trusted and that I do want to be friends with them. Just that chance is all I ask for."
Twilight put her hoof onto his shoulder. "And we're going to do everything we can to get you that chance." she told him with a reassuring smile.
The moment was interrupted by a knocking at the door. A moment later and the door opened, revealing Princess Cadance and a royal guard carrying a spear. "Princess Celestia and Luna will be here tomorrow morning", Cadance told the group,"They're going to meet with the changeling and either decree his fate or advise me on what I should do with him."
"Or you could just trust what we all have to say about Thorax" replied Twilight, emphasis put on the changeling's name.
"Twilight, please", Cadance implored,"I'm trying to be as impartial about this as I can. I know you've apparently put a good deal of trust into this thing, but I cannot just yet."
Twilight gave a huff at Cadance's remark, but could not argue against it. Unlike herself, Cadance had subjects to consider in her decisions. Cadance then made a gesture to the guard standing beside her.
"Shining has asked me to station a guard in your room for now. This is Custos. He'll be here until around 10. Luna is sending a night guard to stand watch while you sleep."
"That isn't necessary, Cadance", responded Twilight,"Thorax isn't going to cause us harm."
"This wasn't my decision", Cadance told her,"This was Shining's idea."
"Of course" Twilight responded, irritation in her voice. Cadance then gave a bow and left. Custos walked to one side of the door way and proceeded to stand guard, burning holes into the changeling's body.
"I can't believe this!", Spike spoke up,"After everything we've told them, they still act like he's some monster ready to strike at the drop of a horseshoe!"
"It could've been much worse Spike" Heartfelt pointed out.
"How could it possibly be worse?" Spike asked incredulously.
"For one, we ALL could be sitting in the dungeons right now." Heartfelt defended his opinion.
"Still", Spike replied,"This situation isn't what I'd call 'going smoothly'."
"Being honest", Heartfelt countered,"This is not an ideal situation. Thorax here is a member of a race that is considered an enemy of Equestria. While his technically being a defector helps, the reputation that Chrysalis left on Cadance and Shining complicates things."
Thorax raised a hoof to try and get everypony's attention, but was then set upon by Custos, who not only pressed the changeling into a wall, but also his spearpoint into his throat.
"AND JUST WHAT DO Y-"
Custos was cut off as a cloud of purple magic grabbed him and then slammed him into a wall so hard it dented his polished armor. His spear was then taken and placed at his own throat. Twilight then walked up to him, glaring daggers.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" she shouted, almost invoking Luna's famed Royal Canterlot Voice.
The guard had a palpable amount of fear, but didn't show it. "I was instructed to make sure this changeling doesn't try any funny business!"
"The only funny business I see here is yours", Twilight tersely replied,"If you try a move like that again, I'll personally make you regret it!" To emphasize the point, she then took the spear in her magic grasp, and in a flash, had not only twisted it up like a pretzel, but turned it into rubber.
The guard saw the display of magic and lost his composure. "O-Okay!", he relented fearfully,"Please don't hurt me!"
"I won't if you treat EVERY CREATURE in this room with the respect each deserves." She replied, then dropped the spear on the ground.
"Wow, Twilight, I've never seen you act like that before" commented Starlight.
"Well, as bad as you were at times, you never threatened to hurt my friends because of who they were" replied Twilight.
The two mares took up spots on the bed and continued to discuss the recent happenings. Custos took hold of the rubber spear and stood by the door. With no weapon besides his magic, he effectively had no way to stop the changeling if it did try and do something to the princess or her friends. He would have to report her behavior to Captain Shining later.
===
In her private study, Princess Celestia was reviewing paperwork submitted by the nobles of Canterlot. The overwhelming majority were for the crown to finance their own personal baubles, justified as "enhancing the artistic qualities of the city". Needless to say, these were declined rather quickly. Were it not for the occasional plea that was for a legitimate and good cause, the sun diarch would simply toss the entire pile into a waste bin.
As she sat and worked, she was interrupted by a scroll featuring a seal of a crystalline heart on it. "Oh", Celestia said, taking the scroll in her magic grip,"A letter from Cadance?" She proceeded to remove the seal and read it, then read over it again as she didn't initially believe it the first time. After a second reading, she knew it to be true: A changeling was in the Crystal Empire, and was pleading for asylum there.
As she was thinking over the matter, the doors to her study opened, and in walked her younger sister. "Good day to you, dear sister", greeted Princess Luna warmly as she walked into the study,"Are our ponies continuing to thrive under our rule?"
"Good day to you sister", Celestia returned, but disregarded the question,"I'm afraid something rather unusual has just been brought to my attention." She then proceeded to offer Cadance's letter in her magic, which Luna took and proceeded to read over:
Dear Princess Celestia,
A very strange and stressing situation has occurred here in the Crystal Empire. Some time shortly after the Crystalling, a guard patrol reported spotting what they believed was a changeling on the outskirts of the empire!
Naturally, we feared that a plot was afoot to abscond with Flurry Heart, and we acted to protect her and our subjects. We increased patrols, gave warnings to all the crystal ponies, and even tasked our crystaller, who was one of your former students, to develop some counter spells based on our experience dealings with the monsters in Canterlot. At his recommendation, as well as Shining Armor's, we called for Princess Twilight Sparkle to aid us, though were careful not to tell her as such until we were sure she was truly here and safe, lest the changelings have infiltrators to intercept our messages.
Shortly after their arrival, Spike the dragon offered his aid in searching for the changeling, leading a patrol into the wastelands outside the empire proper. He succeeded in finding the changeling, but he then proceeded to try to defend this changeling. According to Spike, this changeling had abandoned the changeling hive and was seeking to live peacefully in Equestria among ponies, going so far as to claim a desire to share in the love and friendship that we ponies have.
At first, I was dismissive of this claim, but then none other than your student Twilight and her own student Starlight Glimmer vouched for the changeling. Even a member of my own royal staff gave his support for the changeling!
I am writing to you because I am unsure of how to proceed on this matter. My husband feels this is nothing more than a ruse and we should lock this changeling up and toss away the key. While I don't disagree with his desire to make sure this changeling does no harm to our subjects, I cannot help but feel doing something like that is not only quite drastic, but rather unfair in the grand scheme of things.
I ask you to please offer guidance on this matter.
Kindest regards,
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza
Luna looked over the letter again, making sure she had read it right. "Is this true, sister?" she asked Celestia, who gave an affirming nod in return.
"I believe so, sister", she answered,"Though I will confess that I do not hold changelings in a positive light on account of what happened at dear Cadance's wedding, I also cannot advise totally disregarding a plea for asylum, even one coming from an enemy faction."
"Tis true", Luna agreed,"To deny such a request outright is unwise. It would only reaffirm the idea that we are not willing to have an open dialogue to work towards peaceful resolution." Luna regarded the letter again. "What do you believe we should do?" she asked her sister.
"I believe for us to make a decision on this matter, we must first speak with all parties involved", Celestia replied,"I would like us to travel to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning, if that would not be too much trouble?"
Luna shook her head. "No, sister", she answered,"That will be fine."
"Good", replied Celestia, who then took note of the time,"Well, I must be off now. The head of the palace guard wanted to discuss some ideas about improving the daytime security measures. I shall see you at sundown, dear sister." After penning a quick reply to Cadance's letter, the solar monarch left the study.
Luna continued examining the letter in her magic. "You may have to wait until tomorrow, sister", Luna said to herself,"But I only need to wait until the witching hour, when most ponies shall find their slumber." Her mind made up, Luna also left the study, sure of her actions to be carried out later in the evening.