Thorax sat in his prison cell nearly the whole of the day after the trial. At current, he had yet to hear from his attorney about whether or not he had managed to get Raspberry Mint's mother to agree to allowing her daughter to tell her story on the witness stand. Since it was coming from the victim, it would be the most important testimony in the whole trial, and one of the biggest parts in proving the changeling's innocence.
Of course, Plea also made it clear that State Evidence could find a way to turn the testimony around on them, so he was reminded to keep his hooves crossed and hope that everything turned out for the best.
The day for Thorax began as it normally did. He was woken up, given a shower, and then led out to the Crystal Heart to feed. What was different from the days when he was at trial was that he was brought back to the prison and placed back into his cell, where he was left alone for a good long while. He would be alone in his cell with nothing but the thoughts in his brain.
That was a part of being a prisoner that Thorax could do without. He found that being left alone with his thoughts led him to some dark places. Part of him wondered what exactly would happen to him if he lost the case. Almost assuredly, he would lose all that he had gained during his brief stay. No job to wake up to, no more lessons with Sunburst, and no friends to spend time with.
In that moment, he thought of Brass. The mare was his best friend after Spike; he could not think of the dragon as any less. It was the best part of his day to see her warm smile greeting him as he started his work day. Their conversations were a good distraction from the more monotonous parts of the job, and the fact that she wanted to spend time with him after their work day was done made him feel very happy inside. She was a great friend, and he could honestly say he loved her for that.
A banging on the bars of the cell shook Thorax from his thoughts. Looking over, he saw one of the guards looking at him. "You have a visitor" the guard told him, using a key to unlock the door. Thorax made his way to the door and stepped out of the cell. Being led to the visitor's room, he could only wonder who was here to see him. He got his answer as he walked through the door and looked at the pony sitting at the table.
"Sunburst?" Thorax said as he walked over to the table. "What are you doing here?"
The bespectacled stallion stood up and approached Thorax, embracing him in a hug. "I've been so busy with things lately that this is my first real chance to come see how you were doing" Sunburst answered Thorax. "As far as I can tell, you seem to be doing okay. They're still letting you get at the heart?"
Thorax nodded. "I can't do it for as long, but I'm closer than I was when the princess first let me do it in the castle, so I don't have to strain as much to avoid accidentally feeding on any of the guards."
"Well, that's one positive," Sunburst conceded, "but this whole court case thing has really made a mess of things for you."
Thorax nodded in agreement. "What does Princess Cadance think of all of this?"
Sunburst frowned. "She's not happy about it, that's for sure. I think she's secretly been harboring some negative feelings about you, even though she's been claiming to want to make things better for you after that announcement a little bit ago."
Thorax looked puzzled. "Harboring feelings?"
"Yeah" Sunburst replied. "She hasn't exactly trusted you fully, even if you've done a great deal to demonstrate that you deserve it, and I think it goes without saying that she probably isn't over what happened on her wedding day as well."
Thorax hung his head upon hearing the second part. He could understand her feelings, but it was still disappointing to hear that she was still dealing with them. Perhaps if he and Plea managed to win the case, he could do something to help her overcome her negative feelings.
"Prince Shining Armor hasn't exactly been helping things either" Sunburst continued. "After it was announced that you were arrested for attempted foalnapping, he went on a rather long tirade about how right he was about you."
Thorax wasn't the least bit surprised; Prince Shining Armor made it very clear the last time they met that he didn't trust Thorax any further than he could throw him. Being arrested for foalnapping would only serve to drive an even deeper wedge between the two of them. It was going to be a long time, if ever, before there was even a chance to try and form at least a positive association with the stallion.
"What do other ponies think about all of this?" Thorax asked Sunburst.
Sunburst adjusted his glasses as he thought. "A mixed bag to be honest" he replied. "Bicarb and Bar Keeper are torn between the reputation that changelings have because of the wedding and their own experiences with you. The same can be said of the guards too."
"As for the rest of the empire, it's not so mixed bag. There's a lot of ponies that aren't even questioning anything mentioned about the case and have just decided that you're guilty and deserve to be in the dungeon."
Upon hearing that, Thorax visibly deflated. If everypony thought he deserved to rot in a prison cell in a dungeon, then what would the jurors who actually had a say in his fate decide should happen to him?
"That being said, I wouldn't worry too much" Sunburst told Thorax with a comforting pat on his back. "If you're thinking about the jury, then don't focus on that too much. They're sequestered away from the general public, which means that they're cut off from any outside influence that could cause them to become biased in their judgment of the case."
Thorax frowned. "You mean more biased than they already are?"
Sunburst didn't say anything for a moment. He had came here originally to check on his friend, but it seemed that he was bringing him down without intending to. A change of subject was in order.
"You know, we haven't had a lesson for quite a while" Sunburst pointed out. "How about we have an impromptu one right here?"
Thorax looked at the stallion for a moment. He remembered how much he enjoyed their lessons back in that library in the Crystal Palace. Having one of those right now seemed like the perfect distraction from the current situation. "Okay" he replied as Sunburst produced a book to read from.
The lesson went on until the visitation time was up. Sunburst gave the changeling a hug and told him he would visit again as soon as he got another chance. Bidding his friend farewell, Thorax was returned to his cell. While he was glad to see a friendly face he hadn't seen for some time, his hopes about the outcome of the trial, and his potential fate beyond that, were still diminished a good bit.
Thorax sat inside his cell for about an hour or so when the guard knocked on the metal bars again. "Your attorney is here for you" he said as he opened the cell door. Thorax again stood up and walked out, making the familiar trek to the council room. Plea Bargain was sitting there with a fairly big smile on his face, which seemed to grow a little more as he saw the changeling.
"I have the best possible news I can give you aside from saying the charges were dropped" he said as Thorax sat down in the chair across from him.
"I take it you were able to get Raspberry to tell her story?" he asked Plea.
Plea nodded while maintaining the grin he had on his face. "That's not all Thorax. The interview she conducted with the child psychologist corroborates the story you gave me. Combined with the forensic evidence that our other expert witness collected from the crime scene, I think we now have the best possible chance at convincing the jury that you didn't try and foalnap her."
Thorax considered what Plea had told him for a moment. Raspberry's testimony, combined with the expert's evidence, backed up what he'd told Plea when he was first interviewed about what happened. If the jury could be convinced, then he had a legitimate shot at being found not guilty and not being sent to the dungeons. That thought did restore some of his hope, but he still needed to be realistic.
"That is good news," Thorax admitted, "but there's gonna be ponies that will question whether or not I used some kind of mind control on her. How are we gonna argue against that idea?"
Plea thought it over for a moment before answering. "It's not gonna be easy," he admitted, "but I believe that if we have Night Divining perform a clearing spell on Raspberry before she testifies, it should help us."
"Won't they call the efficacy of the spell into question?" Thorax asks Plea, his concern showing through in his voice.
"They shouldn't," Plea replied, "and for good reason. Ponies trust the royal and crystal guard to have the best possible spells to protect them."
"Aside from that, mind control in general is fairly easy to break, at least for a pony setting one under mind control free. The initial mind control spell puts a good bit of strain on the caster because they need to analyze the mind and plant all the necessary suggestions, and then they have to recharge the spell every now and again so it doesn't wear down to the point that the affect pony can resist it."
Thorax looked at Plea blankly. "How do you know all of that?"
Plea smirks at him. "I've been reading up on different angles that State would probably use and preparing my testimony for counterarguments."
"Why not ask the expert witness to explain all of that?" Thorax questions.
"I reviewed my questions to her and her answers," Plea explains, "and I felt confident that the explanations she was giving would be adequate. Besides, if any of the ponies on the jury are gonna ignore her explanations, they're certainly going to ignore that one as well."
"Getting back on topic, we'll have Night Divining use a clearing spell before Raspberry gives her testimony."
Thorax elected to accept Plea's explanation and proposal. If he believed that the clearing spell would help their case, then he would go along with it.
"Now," Plea continued, "the trial will pick up again on Monday, so you'll just have to sit tight in here over the weekend. When the trial resumes, we'll call up Raspberry and the other expert witness. Once they give their testimonies and we present all of our evidence, it'll be in the jury's hooves."
Thorax smiled, but it was hollow. The jury was the real wild card of the trial. They could go either way, but it wouldn't surprise him in the least if they elected to find him guilty and lock him away just because of what he was and regardless of any evidence that would prove his innocence.
Plea spoke with Thorax for a few more minutes until the guard told him his time was up. The stallion promised to be back on Sunday to go over what they needed to do for Monday and made his exit. Thorax was taken back to his cell and locked back in. Feeling some exhaustion, he chose to take a nap. At that point, it was some time in the afternoon. When he woke again, it was night time, as the moon and the many stars of the night sky were shining in through the windows of the prison.
Hoofsteps approaching his cell caught Thorax's attention. Turning to look, he saw the guards approaching and unlocking his cell. A unicorn guard stepped inside and used his magic on one of the walls. Two bricks slid away and revealed two metal hooks. A second guard brought in a wooden board with two chains attached to it and hooked it onto the wall. The first guard magicked away another pair of bricks to reveal some wooden beams that came out and rested under the board. Thorax immediately recognized it as a cot, but why were they putting two in this cell?
The answer to that question came when he heard a pair of guards dragging a pony towards his cell. "Hey!" the stallion shouted in protest. "I didn't do anything!"
The guard turns to him with some paperwork in his hoof, looking it over and then glaring at the stallion. "Really?" the guard asks him. "You didn't punch a stallion square in the face and then start a fight because, as you claimed in this report, he was harassing your marefriend?"
"He was!" the stallion confirmed in an attempt to assert himself as being in the right. "I was simp-"
The stallion's words caught in his throat as he caught sight of his soon-to-be cellmate. Immediately, the opalescent crystal pony went paler than he already was. "Please tell me you're joking?!" he asked, alarm clear in his voice.
"Nope" the guard replied with a smile as the two in the cell cleared out. "In you go."
A telekinetic shove pushed the stallion into the cell, a slight clinking noise similar to two glasses being tapped together in a toast sounding as his body hit the floor. The guard by the door immediately shut it and locked it in place. Their task done for the night, the group of guards resumed their normal post.
The stallion got back up and looked around. Immediately, he took notice of Thorax, and then the locked cell door as soon as he collided with it upon trying to escape.
"COME ON!" he yelled frantically. "DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH THIS THING! PLEASE!"
The guards gave no response.
"THIS IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT!" he continued protesting. "THE PRINCESS WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS!"
At that, a guard came back around the corner.
"Go ahead" he told the stallion. "Tell her how you thought it was a good idea to bludgeon a pony's face in as a way of defending your marefriend's honor. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear about that."
The stallion piped up upon hearing that remark.
"Now," the guard continued, "be quiet and accept the fact you're spending the night here with love bug over there." Having quieted the prisoner for the time being, the stallion walked away to resume his post.
Thorax only sat and watched the scene unfold. He had mixed feelings about the stallion. On one hoof, he couldn't blame him for being put into a cell with a creature that was considered to be the most dangerous threat to Equestria as a whole at the moment. On the other hoof, he didn't really like that he was being seen as one of those creatures, even if he was the same species.
It reignited old fears that his goal of trying to befriend ponies would only go so far, and he might have to settle for the few friends he had already made. Those few he had made proved that it was possible, but were they simply special cases?
Spike befriended him after he had saved the drake's life.
Twilight had only done so after she came to accept the story Spike had told her.
Heartfelt only wanted to see if his theories about changelings were correct or not, and only apologized after he saw that his actions were unfair towards Thorax.
Starlight had used her offer of friendship as an example to Twilight that she could turn over a new leaf and accept others even if they had done bad things in the past; she never said this, but Thorax could tell at the time.
Brass...
Thorax paused in his thoughts as they came to her. The mare with emerald eyes was the first to not look on him with disdain, but rather curiosity. When they first spoke, she had been kind, and wanted to learn more about Thorax. As they worked and spoke to each other, they learned more about the other and shared their hopes and dreams.
In that moment, Thorax realized that all of his fears were unfounded. Brass had no obligation to offer friendship to him, but she had given it to him all the same. She was proof that ponies could accept him for who he was and overlook the fact he was a changeling. All they had to do was give him the chance to prove that he was not like his hivemates.
Looking back to the stallion, Thorax realized what he needed to do. Standing up, he walked over to the bars and called for the guard. A few moments later, and one appeared around the corner, glaring daggers at him.
"What do you want, bug?" he asked with venom in his voice. Thorax chose to ignore this.
"The stallion you just put in with me clearly doesn't want to spend the night here" he explained. "Is there really no other cell where he can go?"
The guard glared at Thorax further. "No, there isn't!" he replied curtly. "All the other cells are full and the only spare space was with you, so mister 'shining white knight' over there is gonna have to be a big colt and deal with the fact he's sharing a bunk with a changeling for the night. Besides, you should enjoy the company. It's probably gonna be the last you'll see for a long while."
The guard turned and walked away. Thorax let out a breath and looked at the stallion, who was cowering in fear in the corner. "I tried," he offered the pony in apology, "but they're not gonna move you."
"J-J-Just stay away from me!" the stallion shot back. "I-I-I'm not g-g-gonna be some q-q-quick snack for you!"
Thorax looked over the stallion before letting out a sigh. "Okay" he acquiesced, moving back over to his cot and laying back down upon it. So as not to further agitate the pony, Thorax chose to lay down facing away from him.
"Wh-What are you doing?" the stallion asks, his voice a mix of fearful and curious.
"Trying to fall asleep" replies Thorax. "It's really late at night as far as I can tell."
"Wh-Why aren't you t-trying to attack me?" The stallion sounds even more confused now.
"You won't believe me anyway," Thorax begins, "but I don't believe in hurting ponies, either by taking their love forcefully or abducting them to be put into cocoons to have love farmed out of them for the rest of their lives. Besides that, even if I had a desire to hurt you, this collar prevents me from using any magic which I would need to do either of the things I described, and the guads would come in here and beat me until I stopped."
The stallion wanted to retort, but one of the things Thorax said was true: if he attacked the stallion, the guards would put a stop to it. Still not trusting the changeling, the stallion looked around for anything in the cell he could use to defend himself. All he could find was a pillow, which would do little to nothing against the changeling. Resigned to the fact that his safety rested in the guard's hooves, the stallion chose to spend the whole night awake so as he could keep an eye on his cellmate.
Several Hours Later
Something strange woke Thorax up. He swore that he had heard something, but he could find nothing to indicate anything amiss. He lifted his head to examine his cell when he realized what was wrong. The shift caused the collar around his neck to come loose and slip from his neck. As soon as that happened, Thorax was bombarded with the emotions of the other nearby ponies.
He quickly snatched the collar from off his bunk and placed it back around his neck, but the lock and latch that held it in place was damaged and wouldn't hold shut. Desperately he tried to think of a way to fasten it so it wouldn't fall off.
His first thought was to hack up some resin to bond the ends together, but that was quickly dismissed. "Yeah, Thorax," he chided himself, "they'll totally believe that you weren't tampering with this thing if it has a big glob of resin all over it."
He then thought that perhaps he could fix the lock, but that idea was shot down just as quickly; a careful examination revealed that the tongue of metal which fit into the latch was broken off. It would take either a whole new metal piece to properly fix it or reapplying the metal tongue with a welding spell, assuming the previous piece of metal wasn't damaged beyond use.
"Wh-What are you doing?!"
Thorax was brought back to reality by the cell mate he'd been given a little while ago. He was also made painfully aware of the fact that this stallion could see the collar in his hooves that should be around his neck. Almost immediately, the stallion made to holler for the guards.
He would regret it later, but at that moment, Thorax made haste to catch the stallion and silence him before the guards got there. He was successful, and the stallion never got a word out. Thorax honestly hated having such lightning fast reflexes, but there were times that they proved themselves quite useful.
"Please!" Thorax pleaded into the stallion's ear. "Don't scream! I'm not going to hurt you."
The stallion was still trying to scream past Thorax's hoof. Fortunately, the changeling had a section of hoof without holes covering the pony's mouth.
"I'm not gonna hurt you," Thorax continued, "but please stop screaming!"
The stallion was still struggling, but he was starting to wear out; the fatigue from staying awake was getting to him.
"Please!" Thorax tried again. "I don't want to hurt you."
Again, the stallion tried to break loose, but to no avail. Thorax tried to think of a way to convince the stallion, and then had an idea.
"I don't have my collar on right now" Thorax told him. "That means I could do whatever I would want to, but I'm not. All I'm doing is keeping you from yelling at the guards. I don't' want to hurt you."
The stallion's struggling seemed to cease, as though he was considering what he was being told.
"Look," Thorax concludes, "I just want you to nod your head or shake it. I'm gonna let you go now. If I do, are you gonna yell for the guards?"
The stallion doesn't do anything for a few moments, but he eventually shakes his head no. As he did this, Thorax could feel dread in the stallion; even being left go, he knew the pony was still incredibly uncomfortable at the moment. Taking a breath, he releases the stallion.
The stallion gasps and steps away from Thorax, collapsing on the floor in front of him. Once he has recovered his breath, he turns to look at Thorax.
"W-Why?!" he said after he regained his breath.
Thorax was confused. "Why what?"
"Y-You let me go" the stallion said in disbelief. "I could've screamed my head off and had every guard in the place on you like flies on fresh horseapples, but you still let me go. Why?"
Thorax tried to appear as nonthreatening as he possibly could. "It's like I said earlier" he explained. "I don't want to hurt ponies, even if some of them really want to hurt me."
There was a good bit of silence between the two, but after a few minutes, the stallion spoke again.
"Suppose I believe you" he begins. "Suppose I believe you're telling me the truth. How do I know that this isn't some ploy just to gain my trust so you can try and feed off me later?"
"Because I could feed on you now if I really wanted to" Thorax replied, holding up the collar to emphasize his point.
The stallion looked at the collar, and then at Thorax, and then the collar again. He thought about making a retort and claiming he pretended that the collar's magic was working, but that would mean that he'd been restraining himself the whole time he was in prison, which based on what he'd heard about changelings, seemed rather unlikely.
"Please help me with this collar" Thorax pleads. "Something made it break and now it won't go shut again. I don't want them to find me with it like this. Besides the fact they'll likely beat me into submission before putting another one on me, they'll think I was trying to escape."
"Please, I just want to get this thing back on so I'm not in any more trouble than I already am."
The stallion eyes Thorax for a moment before he lets out a breath. "Let me see it."
Thorax tossed the item to the stallion, who caught it in his hooves and proceeded to examine it. After a few moments, he messed with the mechanism and produced the metal tongue that fit into the latch. He then walked over to the wall and proceeded to scratch both the metal piece and the part on the collar it attached to on the wall.
Once he was apparently satisfied, he then placed the metal tongue on the collar and did... something. The area around his hooves glowed and the metal did as well. A few seconds later, and the two pieces of metal went liquid and merged together, hardening into one solid piece of metal.
"There" the stallion said with a bit of a breath, the focus of performing his spell taking some energy out of him. He then walked over to Thorax and presented the collar. "As good as the day they made it" he said with a small amount of pride.
Thorax could feel the love the stallion had for his work, and before his natural instincts could override his self control, quickly took the collar from his hooves and replaced it around his neck, once again losing the sensation of emotions around him.
"Thank you" he told the stallion. "Now I hopefully won't have to explain how that collar got broken to begin with."
"Speaking of," the stallion interrupted, "how did that get broken?"
"I don't know," Thorax answered, "but something woke me up and I found out the collar was broken."
"I don't know who could've done it," the stallion said to Thorax, "but from what I could tell, that metal was cut, and it would take a VERY strong unicorn spell to get through that metal; it's magically enchanted to resist damage."
"Really?" Thorax said with surprise. "If it was enchanted like that, how did you fix it so quickly?"
"Think of the collar as a simple circuit" the stallion explains. "The enchantment is active when the circuit is closed, which would be when the lock is in place. Since the lock wasn't in place, the enchantment wasn't active, so it was easy to fix."
"Okay, but how did you fix the metal?" Thorax asks again. "I've only ever seen unicorns that could do spells like that."
The stallion chuckles. "You clearly haven't spent much time around crystal ponies," the stallion replies, "but then again, nopony really has. To answer your question, crystal ponies have the ability to manipulate crystal so as to be able to shape it into different things such as the buildings that make up the city. There's also some types of metal that can be worked in that fashion as well, and the collar fortunately uses one of those kinds of metal."
"Wow" Thorax says in genuine amazement. "I just assumed were carved by unicorns from solid crystal."
This gets a stronger laugh from the stallion. "If that was the case," he says between laughs, "then we'd have a whole bunch of exhausted unicorns every time we needed to make a new building."
The stallion kept laughing for a few more seconds before he eventually calmed down. "You know, you're not half bad" he finally said once he calmed down enough. "Is what the princess said about you actually true? You really want to make friends with us?"
Thorax nodded. "Yes, I do. I've wanted it so badly that I risked my life just getting here. Even just traveling through Equestria, I tried to make beings friends with ponies work, but nopony ever gave me a chance once they found out what I really was."
"Yeah, I suppose that wouldn't be easy to do" the stallion admitted. "You would have ponies run off before getting a chance to do anything in your normal form, and then they'd immediately turn on you if you tried to be a pony to gain some trust before revealing yourself to them. It's a catch 22 anyway you look at it."
"Catch 22?" Thorax said in confusion?
"It means that, no matter what course of action you take, it will always end badly in one way or another."
"Oh" Thorax said in understanding. There was a silence between them for a minute or so before Thorax realized that the two hadn't yet introduced themselves.
"My name is Thorax" he told the stallion.
The stallion looked for a few seconds before he replied "I'm Moonstone."
The two don't say anything for another minute before Moonstone begins laughing.
"What's funny?" Thorax asks him.
Moonstone stops laughing long enough to answer Thorax's question. "I'm actually having a civilized conversation with a changeling. It's a little surreal to be honest."
Upon reflection, Thorax can't help but agree. "Yeah, I guess it is."
"Are there others like you?" Moonstone asks Thorax.
"I like to think there are," Thorax admits, "but I've never met them. Unfortunately, most are like what ponies saw in Canterlot."
"You were there, weren't you?"
The question stabs a little like a knife blade, but it was something Thorax expected to pop up sooner or later. "I was," he admitted, "but I never hurt anypony when I was there."
"If you never hurt anypony," Moonstone questions, "then why were you there?"
"I was ordered to" Thorax answers. "In the hive, no changeling is given a choice about anything. If the queen gives a command, you follow it without question. You question it, and you're shown why you should never question it again."
Moonstone shivers upon hearing that. "I already thought the queen was horrible, but now I know just how horrible. How come you guys don't get rid of her?"
Thorax lets out a breath. "Because too many other changelings think like her. They believe ponies are inferior and only serve as a source of food to be harvested like a ripe apple off a tree. They just take without thinking that their actions could have dire consequences in the future."
Moonstone shivered upon hearing that. "That's... horrible" he said to Thorax. "How can anypony think that way?"
"It's just how things work back in the hive" Thorax states plainly. "That's why I was hoping that I could find a better way here, and I could prove that being on peaceful terms with ponies and sharing love with them was the solution to our problems."
"Problems?"
Thorax took a breath before he began his explanation. "Food for the hive is always scarce. The infiltrators that are sent out to find love never come back with enough for the rest of the hive. Nearly every changeling in the hive lives in a state of borderline starvation. That was one of the reasons for the attack on Canterlot. The queen promised us that we would be able to feed for centuries if we succeeded."
"I'm gonna guess you didn't believe what she told all of you" Moonstone inferred.
"Not really" Thorax confirmed. "I don't doubt that we needed the love to feed everyone, but attacking the city never made sense to me. I know now from experience that happy ponies make more love, and what we were doing there was making them sad and scared. Why would we do something that was going to end up affecting us negatively on the long run?"
Moonstone had no answer for that. Thorax didn't understand it either. All the attack accomplished was making ponies hate them, and be more on edge whenever they suspected that a changeling was in their midst. Things after Canterlot had gotten worse, and he feared it would only be a matter of time before the queen would try another attack. The question would be if she would attempt to take over a smaller city than Canterlot, or if she'd go whole hog and take Equestria in one big swoop.
The sounds of several hooves approaching the cell caught both Moonstone and Thorax's attention. A guard appeared and was about to bang his hoof on the door, but stopped when he saw both of the cell's occupants awake. "Time for your shower and breakfast" he said to Thorax. Moonstone looked confused and worried upon hearing the word "breakfast".
"I thought you said you didn't want to take love from ponies?" he asked Thorax.
"I don't," Thorax replied, "and I don't want to either. I draw the excess love from the Crystal Heart so I don't hurt anypony."
Hearing the explanation made Moonstone relax a little bit. The guard banged on the cell bars, becoming impatient with Thorax taking so long. "I have other prisoners that I have to get to this morning, so move it!"
Thorax just gave a nod and made his way to the door. Before he made it out, he heard Moonstone call to him.
"Thorax" he said, then waited for Thorax to look at him. "I'm glad that we got to talk and I could learn more about you. You're not like the rest of your kind, and I hope you win your court case."
Thorax smiled and had a small tear form in the corner of his eye. "Thanks" he replied as he exited the cell and went about his morning routine.