//------------------------------//
// Day 1 - Meeting the Town (Part 1) 
// Story: Thorax's Visit to Ponyville 
// by origami 
//------------------------------//

"Oh, why did I ever agree to this?" I ask myself as I pace around the inside of the town hall building.  Princess Twilight and Spike both walked me over here while Applejack and Big Macintosh finished setting up the stage.  I was ushered inside and told to stay put until the mayor had given me my cue to come outside and meet everypony.

Currently, the mayor was waiting for the remainder of the town's citizens to arrive and get settled so she could begin her speech.  I dared a peek to look out over the crowd and saw some faces that I recognized but wished that I hadn't.

All three of the mares that Queen Chrysalis brainwashed to keep Princess Cadance in the abandoned Crystal Mines were here.  A grey earth pony with a treble clef cutie mark that was part of the orchestra at the wedding was here as well, along with the white mare that wore sunglasses and operated the record players.  There were also some stallions that I thought I recognized as guards that had their enchanted armor knocked off during the attack on the city.  All in all, more than a few of the ponies that attended the royal wedding were here, and they were about to be introduced to one of the creatures that was part of the attack on that day.

My panic was interrupted as Mayor Mare began her speech.

"Mares and Stallions of Ponyville, I thank you all for coming here this afternoon.  Now, I know some of you are curious about why I have called a meeting this late in the day, and I have a good reason for that.  Today, Ponyville will be welcoming a very special guest."

The mayor stepped away from the podium and allowed Twilight to speak.

"Thank you mayor, and Good Afternoon Ponyville.  I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's Princess of Friendship, am here to introduce all of you to a very unexpected guest: a friendly changeling."

Shocked gasps spread through the crowd, and I could feel the wave of fear and uncertainty pass over the ponies.  I could even detect a bit of fear from Princess Twilight, but the lavender mare kept her composure as she spoke.

"I understand that all of you have reservations about the idea of a changeling that actually wants to be on friendly terms with us, but I am here to personally assure you that no harm will come to you from this changeling.  Though I know that his word is good, a guard has been provided to keep watch of him so that you may all have piece of mind."

There were murmurs spreading through the audience now, and the wave of fear was starting to diminish.  Princess Twilight continued speaking.

"I met this changeling last year in the Crystal Empire a short time after an event there called The Crystaling.  That outpouring of love, combined with the excitement of my brother Shining Armor and fellow Princess Cadance giving birth to their first child, attracted him to the empire."

"His appearance caused a panic that put the empire into a lock down that would not end until he was captured.  When we arrived and learned of a changeling in the vicinity, we offered our services to help protect the citizens and bring in this changeling."

"My assistant Spike, who is a well known and respected hero in the empire, offered to assist the guard in their efforts to find the changeling in the wastelands outside the city.  His efforts were successful, but he panicked upon encountering the changeling and fell into a chasm inside the cave where the changeling was hiding."

The crowd reacted with shock upon learning that a hero of the Crystal Empire and one of their own citizens had been in such grave danger.

"This would've ended badly for Spike," Twilight continued, "but this changeling demonstrated his goodness by saving Spike from certain doom."

"Once he was safe, Spike heard out this changeling's story and made the decision to convince the Crystal Empire of his sincerity.  While they had their doubts, and there were several hiccups along the way, the ponies of the Crystal Empire eventually accepted this changeling, and for about the past six months or so, the changeling and the crystal ponies have lived together without incident.  They have shown him many lessons in regards to friendship and harmony, and he has stayed true to his word in regards to wanting friendship."

"Now, this changeling has asked to come before all of you today so that he can prove to all of you that his desire for friendship is genuine.  Please, everypony give a warm Ponyville welcome to Thorax!"

I gulped as a very quiet applause sounded.  By sound alone, I could tell it was only Starlight, the other element bearers, and a few really nervous ponies that were just as unsure about my being here as the ones who weren't applauding.

The mayor then proceeded to open the door and usher me out.  She looked at me with worry for a moment, and I at first thought it was from fear, but I quickly realized it was genuine concern.

"We're ready for you" the mayor tells me.  I think she had hoped that little bit of gentle pressure would persuade me to step outside, but my hooves decided to shape-shift into tree roots and hold me in place.  The mayor makes a gesture for me to come outside but my body refuses to do so.  I then see the mare turn and shake her head at Twilight, who reacts with nervousness that I am barely able to pick out from the background radiation of shock, fear and a tiny tidbit of anger.

"Sorry about this everypony" she addresses the crowd.  "From what Thorax has told me, a changeling deliberately revealing themselves to another creature is a rather nerve-wracking thing for them, so he's just a bit nervous right now."

As she concludes her explanation, I hear her hooves slowly walk over to the door, but it becomes almost a gallop once she's a few steps away from the podium.  She quickly joins the mayor at the door.

"Come on, Thorax" she says to me.  "This is what you've wanted for a long time.  A chance to meet ponies and be accepted for who you are outright."

"I know," I answer her, "but I'm still really nervous.  I can tell that everypony outside is scared, and there's a few that are even a little bit angry at me.  What if those ponies decide to act and the others join in?  I know how angry mobs usually get started."

Twilight gestures for the mare to get out of the doorway.  She comes inside and takes me into a hug, and I feel the love she has for me start to sink into my carapace, making some of the small pangs of hunger I've felt since the morning quiet down.

"I know how nervous you are," she sympathizes, "but nopony will find out how truly nice you are if you keep hiding in here.  If you really want to start building a bridge between ponies and the other changelings, then you got to start right here.  Let them see the real you, and they'll eventually come around."

"What about the angry ones?" I ask her.

Twilight looks at me for a second and then smiles.  "Remember my brother?" she asks, to which I nod.  "He was one of the angry ones too.  Now he's not.  I'm sure if you could get 'Mister Set In Stone' to come around, these few angry ponies will be a cinch."

I try to come up with a rebuttal, but the lavender alicorn is right.  Shining Armor was my most vocal opponent in the Crystal Empire, but now he had accepted me as a member of the kingdom he and his wife call home.  I could bring those angry ponies around with enough time and effort.

I slowly began to calm down, enjoying the bits of love coming from the princess, savoring them as my nerves began to calm down more.

"Feeling better now?" she asks me.

"A lot" I reply.

"Good" she says with a smile.  "Now, how about we go outside and meet all the ponies?"

I practice the exercises that she showed me earlier, and once I finish them, I give her a nod.  I step up to the door as the princess falls in behind me, ready to shove me through if I get cold hooves again.  Tentatively raising a hoof, I take one last deep breath and place it outside the threshold.

The sun is still fairly high in the sky, but it's begun its trek to the other side of the horizon.  Just outside the door is a stage with a podium set on it, and past that is what has my nerves so worked up at the moment: the population of the entire town, save anypony that may have taken a trip elsewhere today.

Princess Twilight steps past me and back to the podium.  I hear a door closing and look to see the mayor has cut off my best chance at hiding.  With nowhere to run besides out of town, I try my best to keep calm and approach the podium.  Princess Twilight addresses the ponies again.

"I know that a lot of you are really unsure of the current situation," she begins, "and I know some of you have some rather bad memories from what happened at the royal wedding some time ago, but I am here to assure you that nothing bad like that is going to happen here today."

"And how do you know for certain?" a pony in the crowd cries out.

"Because my friends and I, as well as the guard stationed her, care about the well being of this town enough to have made sure everypony who has gathered here for this meeting is not secretly a changeling waiting to spring a trap."

"But how do we know they're not in our houses right now?" another fearful pony cries out.  "I could walk home and be taken!"

"Nothing like that is going to happen!" Princess Twilight answers, more insistently than before.  "I'm well aware of the dangers that changelings present ponies.  I was at the wedding and seen first hoof what things they are capable of doing."

"That said, Thorax here is nothing like that.  As I said before, he came to the Crystal Empire wanting to be friends with ponies there and he has proven his intentions to be true.  Now, he wants to do the same thing here."

"And how do we know that's really true and you just aren't under some kind of mind control spell like your brother was?" A stallion steps forward, a scowl on his face.

"It's true because I was the only pony to see the changeling queen for what she was: a horrible imposter.  I would never fall for such terrible mind tricks."

"I bet" the stallion says under his breath.

The mayor decides to step forward and try to deescalate the situation.  "Please, everypony!" she calls out.  "I assure you that all necessary precautions have been taken.  If you have any doubts, then understand that a few minutes ago, this changeling was so terrified of coming out to see all of you that he was frozen in place.  I must ask all of you this simple question: If this changeling is some evil mastermind here to take over our town, then why have we announced him?  And why is he acting as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs?"

Nopony answers for a second, until one blurts out "That could be part of the deception."  With that scenario put forward, the crowd devolves into murmurs that border on shouting.  I immediately feel their growing hostility and know it is only a matter of time before the community of earth ponies break out pitch forks and torches.

Before things devolve any further, Princess Twilight steps back up to the podium.

"In the few years I have lived here in Ponyville", she begins, "I can honestly say that I have never felt more ashamed of you all as I do right now."

That comment causes the mob to quiet down and look at the princess.

"We've seen some of the worst that Equestria has had the displeasure of experiencing" she continues.  "My first day here, we were confronted with Nightmare Moon.  My friends and I became the new bearers for the Elements of Harmony and we cleansed the nightmare and restored Princess Luna."

"She was then invited back to take part in Nightmare Night, and what did we do?  We treated her like she was still Nightmare Moon!"

"The princess still feels very ashamed of what she had done in the past, but you all made her feel even worse than she already did, because in her mind, you proved to her that she was never going to redeem herself and prove that she had turned over a new leaf!"

"In the end, you finally did see that she was no longer the princess that sought to cause destruction and mayhem and allowed her a chance to forgive herself, if only just a little bit at that time."

"I thought all of you had got past that mistake, but I guess you haven't, and now we're all going to do the same thing with this changeling that we did with the princess so long ago.  I used to think this town was the most warm and accepting place in all of Equestria.  Now? I'm not so sure anymore."

I stood in both awe and shock of Twilight.  In her recollection of this event involving Princess Luna, she had evoked memories in a great many of these ponies, and I then started to feel shame coming from the audience.  Each one of them was looking down and away from the stage, none wanting to make eye contact with the alicorn.

"Now that I've cleared everything up," she continues, "let's have a warm Ponyville welcome for Thorax!"

The ponies stood stock still for a moment before a slow drumming was heard, which gradually picked up in volume.  I looked at the crowd and saw a few ponies begin stomping their hooves, some next to them joining in after a moment, and by the time a full minute had passed, the majority of the ponies in the crowd were stomping their hooves against the ground, making the small stage we were standing on shake a little bit.

Princess Twilight raised a hoof and the stomping ceased.  "That was much better" she praised them.  "Now, Thorax understands that all of you are rather nervous about a changeling being here, with some of you rather scared and wanting to go hide.  In truth, he feels the same way too.  He didn't want to come out of the town hall and show himself to all of you because he was afraid you would turn into an angry mob and run him out of town on a... rail."

Everypony turns to see two stallions carrying a long wooden pole on their backs.  The two stop and see the disapproving stare coming form the princess, and after some rather sheepish smiles, back up and out of view again.  Princess Twilight starts speaking again.

"Thorax was afraid of what he thought you all would do, but he got over that fear and came out to meet all of you.  Now, I want all of you to get over that same fear as well, and I know from experience that the biggest motivator in fear is ignorance.  With that in mind, I would like to invite all of you to please ask Thorax any question that you've wanted to know about changelings."

"Before we start, I would appreciate it greatly if everypony please keep things civil and not bombard him with questions about the incident at the royal wedding.  He wants to move past that as much as I do.  Thorax, the stage is yours."