One month had passed since the trial against Thorax for foalnapping concluded. In that time, the stallions who accused him were tried, and either plead guilty or were found guilty. Flog, for his admission of guilt to Princess Cadance, was pardoned for his wrong doings in the Crystal Empire, but was sent to Van Hoover so he could answer for his crimes there. Sledgehammer and Peridot Gamble were given lengthy sentences in the dungeons for their part in the crime, with Sledge getting a more lenient sentence for confessing to the crime.
The griffin Sharpclaw was eventually arrested a week or so after the trial against Sledge and Peridot. He had been tailed by some pegasi guards in Las Pegasus and subdued by unicorns when trying to flee. He currently sat in a prison in Van Hoover until it could be decided between Princess Celestia and the griffin leaders where he should stand trial for his crimes.
As for Thorax himself, he more or less returned to how he had been living before the trial, though without the constant eyes of guards on him.
He elected to return to being a custodian of the palace instead of taking a new position. The reason behind this was obvious to anypony that bothered to pay attention: Thorax would get to keep working with Brass.
He also resumed the daily lessons with Sunburst, but as the time went on, they became lessons only in name. They had begun talking more about the goings on in the empire and back in Equestria, as well as Thorax filling Sunburst in more on changelings and what little culture existed in their society.
In the time after the trial, Thorax elected to stay in the palace and read. Brass would prod him to come outside with her, and Thorax had eventually agreed after some time, but fearful of how crystal ponies would react to him since he was now without himself of his magic restrained.
As for the crystal ponies, they had taken time to adjust.
The day following the announcement, there were some crystal ponies who spoke out against the princess and her decision, claiming she had been manipulated by the changeling to do what she did. They even suggested she step away for a bit until she had been cleansed of whatever changeling magic had tainted her.
For most, however, there was nothing to argue. Despite everything they believed and how strongly they wanted to deny it, there was simply no arguing with the facts and the sobering truth they brought.
Three ponies had attempted to abduct a filly, and a changeling, of all creatures, had stopped it from happening.
Another day later, and Thorax was receiving apologies. The majority weren't face to face as Princess Cadance had desired, but letters sent to the palace with Thorax's name on it.
They came from citizens young and old. Some were from a collective group of ponies, such as large families and classrooms, while others came from single ponies. Most apologies were for their mistrust of him when he first arrived and how they hoped he would be found guilty and sent to the dungeons. A few came from ponies that had interacted with him once or twice before, and their apologies were for their either standoffish or outright hostile treatment of him.
He even recalled one being from a mare he had met on his first official day in the empire when he was left by Brass to collect garbage from rooms while she reported the vandalized bathrooms to Ammonia. She said it was wrong of her to assume he would place traps in the room just because he was a changeling.
While the letters meant a great deal, it was the ponies who took the time to meet him face to face that resonated the most, starting with the first one he had received.
"You wanted to see me, Madam Ammonia?"
Thorax had stepped into the office and gently closed the door behind him. Madam Ammonia stood looking out over the Crystal Empire from a window in her office. The room wasn't overly tall, but it was pretty roomy still. Most of the space was occupied with various cleaning supplies, but a set of stairs told the changeling that the mare and his direct supervisor lived in a small space at the top of them.
"Please sit down, Thorax" she told him with a gentler voice than he had heard her use previously. He simply complied by taking a seat in the empty chair across from the one behind her desk, which appeared to be covered with a supply sheet she was filling out. The mare stepped away from the window and took her spot behind the desk. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here" she said in a matter of fact way.
"Um, yes, I am" Thorax admitted.
Ammonia took a breath to calm herself down before speaking. "Thorax," she began, "I called you here today because I would like to apologize to you for my behavior when you first started working for me."
"I was very short with you and treated you with no respect whatsoever. Not once did I consider your desire to be on friendly terms with the ponies of the Crystal Empire to be genuine, and acted as though it was a farce to get close to us and find a weakness so that wretched queen could attack us again."
"That was wrong of me, and I am sorry for how I acted towards you. From this day forward, you have my respect and, if you so desire it, my friendship as well."
Thorax could tell Ammonia had meant everything she had said, feeling her emotions or not. He could hear her discomfort at recalling her actions towards him in the beginning and the regret they now brought.
"I've forgiven you a long time ago" Thorax told her. Ammonia looked up at him with confusion, but Thorax didn't give her a chance to speak.
"You may have been a bit short with me, as you put it, but over time, those feelings started to wane. You didn't treat me as badly after the first month, and Princess Cadance even told me that you had had an almost total change of heart come the time she did those interviews."
"Even more so, you testified on my behalf at my trial. A pony that hated me and wanted to see me in the dungeons wouldn't have done that."
"Whatever you think you have to feel guilty for, you don't. I have already forgiven your behavior, and I do accept your friendship."
Ammonia stared at him in disbelief for a few moments before she smiled. Standing up, she moved around her desk and embraced Thorax in a gentle hug. "Thank you" she said as her love poured out and over Thorax, his body absorbing the energy like a sponge.
Madam Ammonia had been the first apology Thorax received face to face, but it was most certainly not the last. The next had come during his second attempt at going outside the castle.
"Come back out to see us all again, didya?"
Thorax stopped as he turned his head towards the voice. He went wide eyed as he recognized the mare instantly; she was the one who was talking to him before the ponies ganged up on him and sent him fleeing in panic.
"Uh, yeah" Thorax answered.
The mare winced a little when she heard his reaction. She then seemed to steel herself as she faced him again. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
Thorax looked around nervously for a second before looking back at the mare.
"You're not gonna be jumped by a bunch of ponies this time" she said in an attempt to reassure him.
While he was still nervous, he did as she asked of him and walked cautiously over to the mare's market stall.
"I've been meaning to talk with you for a while," she begins, "but I was honestly a bit nervous about approaching you. You see, I wanted to apologize to you for how I acted before."
"That day you came out and I saw you, I couldn't quite believe it. I wasn't sure if the princess was playing some kind of prank when she first announced your being allowed to stay here, but seeing you that day proved otherwise."
"Not only that, but seeing you so afraid of things not going right and making ponies mad at you? Well, I thought it was funny at the time, since all anypony had ever seen of changelings were hissing and aggressive invaders. Having that mental image in mind and seeing your timid nature juxtaposed against that was amusing to me at the time. Now, though, I know it wasn't funny, and that my laughing at you was wrong."
"As I bad as I feel about that, what I did then attracted the attention of those other ponies and they started berating you and arguing with that mare you were with. That made you panic and take off..."
The mare paused a bit as she looked at Thorax with a guilty look.
"Then you came across those stallions and got attacked, and they tried to frame you for foalnapping a filly. The worst part of all of that was I believed them!"
The mare began tearing up as she continued speaking.
"I was sure you were guilty, and that your actions were on an impulse, but that was wrong of me. It was prejudiced the way I acted and you didn't deserve any of that!"
"Thorax, I am so sorry for what happened to you. If I hadn't laughed at your actions, those ponies wouldn't have accosted you and made you run off and get attacked and arrested."
Thorax stood as he watched the mare fight back sobs. He could tell she regretted her actions, but he could also tell she wasn't expecting to be forgiven.
"What's your name?" he asks her finally.
"Garden Bug" she tells him.
"I won't say it was pleasant, but if I hadn't come across those stallions when I did, who knows what would've happened to that filly. Because that happened, a good many criminals got sent to the dungeons or to prisons, and that little filly is at home with her mother, and I think her father too if the rumors of him getting out of the hospital are true."
"If you are feeling guilty about what you did, then I forgive you, but there was a lot of good that came from that happening."
"W-What do you mean?" she says with confusion.
Thorax smiles as he explains it to her. "I was found innocent and criminals were punished for framing me, the filly got to go home, my lawyer has more work than he could ever dream of, my friends don't have to visit me through metal bars or at uncomfortable tables being watched by a guard, and Princess Cadance has accepted me as a full citizen of the Crystal Empire."
"I have a much better life now than I did a couple of months ago."
Garden took in what he told her and sniffled a little bit as she wiped her eyes. "You're way to good to be a changeling" she tells him.
"Funny," he says with a smile, "I've never heard that before."
Garden giggles at the joke, as does Thorax. Once they stop laughing, the mare picks a small flower in a ceramic pot about the size of a teacup.
"I want you to have this" she says, offering the flower to him. "Think of it as a gift from me, as a sort of 'congratulations on becoming a citizen' present."
Thorax looked at her for a moment and smiled, taking the small flower from her. "Thank you" he said as he then looked over the little flower. "What kind is it?" he then asked her.
"It's a buttercup" she replied with a small smile.
Thorax had kept the small flower on a windowsill in his new room so that it could get the necessary sunlight that it deserved. The plant was a nice memento of a newly forged friendship, as the changeling and Garden Bug had gotten to know each other much better than before.
A few days after he ran into the gardening mare, he encountered another all-too-familiar mare.
"There's the free bug walking."
Thorax looked around in confusion before his eyes caught focus of the pony addressing him. When he did, they went as wide as dinner plates.
While not wearing a suit, the mane style was very familiar to Thorax.
"Miss State Evidence?" he said with uncertainty.
State nodded. "You don't have to call me miss. State is just fine."
Thorax looked around in confusion, as he had been addressed on his way to starting his work in the castle for the day. "What brings you here?" he asked.
"Well, mostly you" she told him.
Thorax looked at her with a bit of disbelief. "Me?"
"Yes" she confirmed. "You see, I wanted to apologize to you about putting you through that trial."
Thorax shook his head at her. "That wasn't your fault. It's your job to bring charges to ponies based on the evidence in front of you, and the evidence pointed at me."
"No, Thorax" she said as she shook her head. "It didn't."
The changeling looked at her with confusion before she offered her explanation.
"When they contacted me with the evidence and said it was a changeling being charged with attempt to foalnap, I thought that was an open and shut case; what buckball players would call 'a lay-up'. I went ahead and started prosecuting you and building a case. I took the words of the stallions at face value and did all I could to discredit anypony that came forward to speak on your behalf."
"If I had been doing my job right, I would've spotted the fact that the stories among the three stallions accusing you were too similar to be anything but a fabrication meant to implicate you in the crime."
"I... also let the prejudice ponies have against your kind cloud my judgment and made me think convicting you was a foregone conclusion, and because of that, I lost."
State seemed rather sad about that last part. Thorax, and pretty much any other pony could relate; nobody liked losing. "You didn't lose, really" Thorax pointed out, but State stopped him with a raised hoof.
"Maybe not on paper," she admits, "but you got dragged into that mess when all you were trying to do was help a filly in trouble. Getting dragged through the mud like that was not fair to you at all, so I'm sorry for that."
Thorax stood there for a moment as State tried to find something interesting on the ground, or at least that's what she was acting like she was doing. The changeling then walked over to her and placed a hoof on her withers, causing the mare to jump slightly in surprise.
"State, you didn't drag me through the mud" he told her. "Ponies already had that perception of me before. The only thing the accusations did was reinforce their beliefs for a while. Now though, they've seen what letting their prejudices get the better of themselves can lead to, and I hope the next time, they won't be so quick to judge."
State looks at him with surprise, but then her face changes to a sad smile. "Unfortunately, that last part is a really hard thing to change. Ponies don't like complicated answers to problems, and that's why they always try to come up with a simple answer, which is often steeped in prejudice of one form or another."
"I know" Thorax responds with his own sad smile. "That's part of why I'm here. I want to change that, show ponies that we're not all monsters out to hurt them, and... prove to my kind that there's a better way."
There was silence between the two for a moment before State did something Thorax wasn't expecting; she hugged him.
"I hope you can accomplish your goals" she says quietly to him as she holds him.
State eventually had to go, but not without telling Thorax that she had learned not to let prejudice cloud her judgment, and that she would take her time on the next case to make sure the ponies who needed to be punished did.
Another few days or so after that, and Thorax got another visitor, this time to his new room.
Thorax had been sitting by a window reading a book. It was after his daily shift, and he was taking advantage of what sunlight remained from the day. As he flipped a page, he heard a knock at his door. Finding an unused quill and placing it into the page, he set the book down and walked over to the door.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"You have a visitor" came the voice of a guard, one he recognized as Custos.
Thorax was a bit confused that he would have a visitor so late, and especially one that had to be escorted here by the guards. This likely meant they were a pony that didn't or no longer worked in the palace.
"Let them in" he told Custos as he moved over and sat on his bed.
The door opened and a mare walked inside. Thorax had only seen her once before, but he recognized her immediately.
"M-Mint Julep?"
The mare nodded. "Yes, it's me. I was... hoping we could talk?" Her voice sounded both timid but... hopeful.
"Certainly" Thorax responded. "I have a chair there if you'd like to sit down."
The mare nodded and took the offered seat. Once she had sat down, she seemed to avoid making eye contact with the changeling.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Thorax asked, electing to break the ice.
The mare sat there without moving for several minutes, but Thorax already had an idea as to why she was there; remorse was coming off of her like heat from a fire.
"I..." Mint began but paused, seeming unsure of what she should say. She sat there for several moments before she stood up and walked over to Thorax, capturing him in a hug.
"I am so sorry for what I did to you!" she declared as she broke down into sobbing.
Thorax stood still, confused as to how exactly this mare had wronged him. "I don't understand."
Mint stopped and looked back at him, tears beginning to stain her cheeks. "I kept Raspberry from talking. If she had said something sooner, then you wouldn't have sat in that prison for so long. You could've used that time and made more friends or got to know the ones you already have better, or..."
The mare trailed off into sobs again as she leaned her head against Thorax. The changeling was unsure of exactly how to comfort her.
"I understand why you felt that you had to do that" he eventually said; Raspberry had said multiple times in writing and during the trial that the stallions abducting her had threatened her safety to keep her mother quiet, and by extension, her.
"But it wasn't right!" she retorted, her voice breaking slightly. "You were innocent! You didn't do what they said you did and I was gonna keep my daughter out of it and let you go to prison, and all because I was afraid those goons would hurt her!"
Mint continued to sob into Thorax's withers as she hugged him tighter. Even without his ability to sense emotions, he could tell the mare deeply and truly regretted how things had went.
"I was stupid" she finally says after a few minutes. "I should've told the guards immediately. Raspberry should've told her story to them and then you would've been released sooner."
"That's not likely" Thorax tells her. Mint looks at him a bit confused before he explains.
"When I got knocked out by those stallions, they took the ring blocking my magic and destroyed it. Nopony would've believed her because they would've thought I put some kind of mind control spell or hypnosis on her to tell her to lie on my behalf."
"When she came forward of her own free will and testified in court after she was cleared by that mage's spell, ponies were more willing to believe what she was telling them."
Mint didn't know what to say. "H-How can you be okay with that?" she says while looking at him in surprise.
Thorax can only chuckle. "Let's just say being made to sit in a prison cell doesn't rank up very high on the list of 'worst things to ever happen to me'."
Mint looks at him for a few more moments before she does yet another surprising thing. She looks uncertain for a few moments but then suddenly leans in plants a kiss on Thorax's left cheek.
"Thank you for saving my daughter" she says before standing up and leaving.
It had felt good for Thorax to hear Mint give him thanks for saving her daughter. The mare's gratitude was more than enough for him. However, the following day, she had returned with a gift for him: An insulated cloak. Apparently, she had talked to Sunburst and came to the conclusion that the winter months would be more harsh to Thorax than other ponies since he didn't have fur, so she thought that would be a good thing for him to have.
The cloak currently hung in a wardrobe off in the corner of his room. As for Thorax himself, he sat looking at the award Princess Cadance had given him, and appreciating it in the light. The blue gemstone had a glow all its own, thanks to a unicorn enchantment placed on it.
Thorax eyed the award as he thought over what he had learned about it since receiving it. The item was generally given to ponies in the empire that had performed heroic and noble deeds, and was considered the highest honor a crystal pony who wasn't a guard could receive.
The highest honor, and Princess Cadance had given it to him.
"So, you just gonna keep staring at that thing or are we gonna do something before I gotta leave?"
Thorax looked over at the voice addressing him. It was Brass Polish, his first real friend in the Crystal Empire. The mare watched him as he admired the award in his hooves.
"Sorry" he says to her. "I just still have a hard time believing that the princess gave that to me."
"Well, don't" she tells him. "You deserve that award as much as anypony else here."
"But why?" Thorax asks her. "All I did was help a filly."
Brass looks at him sternly. "Thorax, you didn't just 'help a filly', okay? You stopped a foalnapping. That's a serious crime!"
"I know that" he responds. "It's just... there's other ponies that deserve this award too. All the doctors and nurses at the hospital keeping ponies alive. The guards who protect the city."
"Sunburst certainly deserves it. After all, his knowledge helped restore the Crystal Heart and save the empire from a horrible blizzard."
Thorax doesn't say anything for a moment, which allows Brass to step in.
"Thorax, Princess Cadance is the one that gives out those awards. It's her decision what ponies get them and which don't. She decided that you deserved one. Besides, I don't think it's just about saving the filly anyway."
Thorax looked up at her, his interest piqued. "What do you mean?"
Brass smiles. "What I mean is that you are a changeling trying to do good! You came here, despite what things might happen to you, and you held out your hoof in friendship. They say to be the change you want to see in the world, and you are being that change. That's why Princess Cadance gave you that award, Thorax."
Thorax looked at Brass with confusion. "She gave me this for that?"
Brass looked like she wanted to smack her face with her hoof. "She gave you that as a testament to your desire to do good. You got it for what you're trying to accomplish AND saving Raspberry from those stallions."
Though he accepted her answer, Thorax still felt unworthy of the award. Before their conversation could continue, a knocking came at the door.
"May I come in, please?" an all too familiar voice called out. Upon hearing it, Thorax jumped to attention.
"Yes, Princess" Thorax called out.
The door swung open to reveal Princess Cadance in her regalia and mane done expertly. She stepped through the door and closed it, looking around the room and then spotting Brass sitting on Thorax's bed.
"I'm sorry" she said with a blush. "I didn't realize you had company."
"It's okay, your highness" Brass said with a smile as she got up off the bed. "I was actually getting ready to leave soon."
"Oh, you don't need to leave on account of me" Cadance told her.
Brass waved a hoof. "I need to anyway. I have some relatives coming to visit and their train should be arriving soon." She then looked over to Thorax apologetically and told him, "I'm sorry to leave so soon, but their train really is due in about a half hour or so. I need to start making my way down there."
"That's okay" Thorax replied before he had a thought occur to him. "Are you going to tell them about me?"
Brass thought about it for a moment before looking at the princess. "Should I?"
"I leave that up to you" Cadance told her.
"Then I'll have to make up my mind about that then" she decided before leaving and closing the door.
Left alone in the room, there was a brief silence before Cadance eventually spoke.
"So, Thorax" Cadance begins, "you're settling in well?"
"Yes, Princess" he replies, "I am."
"Good" she responds a bit awkwardly. Thorax looks at her for a while and can't help but feel a little sorry. Even though it's been a month since the end of the trial, the princess still feels as remorseful as she did the day after it ended.
"I know you're still feeling guilty about what happened" he says after a moment.
The princess looks at him for a second before letting out a breath.
"That's going to take a while for me to let go of" she tells the changeling. "After everything that's happened and how I treated you from the get-go, me forgiving myself is something that's just going to take time. In truth, I still feel like I should be doing something more for you to make up for all of this."
Thorax placed the box on the window sill and stood up, walking over to the princess and embracing her in a hug.
"You've done more for me than I would have expected anypony to," he tells her, "especially considering that of all the ponies that were hurt on your wedding day, you may have been hurt the worst."
"Even back when you were completely mistrusting of me, you still gave me a place to call home. I've never had that, even back in the hive."
Cadance pulls away from the hug and looks at him. "You never felt at home there? Like, at all?"
Thorax shook his head. "I never got along with other changelings. They would bully me and go after me all the time. The only changeling that even looked out for me any was my brood mate Pharynx, but even then, he would just bully me in private."
Princess Cadance frowned upon learning that last little bit of information. She never liked hearing about a pony enduring hardships, especially when it was not their fault.
Shaking her head, she took a scroll she had been keeping under her wing and presented it to Thorax. "I have something that may brighten up your spirits a little more today" she told him as she offered the paper to him.
Taking it, Thorax looked it over and recognized the seal on the front; it was the same one for the Crystal Empire's court system. "What is this?" he asked Cadance.
"This is the official verdict from your trial" she explained. "If the business with that investigation in Van Hoover hadn't have happened, then the jury would've presented that to the judge. Go ahead and take a look."
Thorax did as asked as he read over the document, which read more like a letter than an official document:
To: Iron Gavel, Honorable Judge of the Imperial Judicial Court
From: Sandy Quartz, Jury Foremare for Trial S6E16O113
Your Honor,
You have requested that this jury I am foremare of deliberate and return a unanimous verdict in regards to the crimes the defendant, THORAX THE CHANGELING, has been accused of. I am reporting to you that we have reached a unanimous verdict on all accounts.
On the charge of attempted foalnapping: NOT GUILTY
On the charge of assault against a pony count 1: NOT GUILTY
On the charge of assault against a pony count 2: NOT GUILTY
On the charge of assault against a pony count 3: NOT GUILTY
On the charge of assault against a minor: NOT GUILTY
On the charge of reckless endangerment of a minor: NOT GUILTY
Signed,
Sandy Quartz, Jury Foremare
Thorax stared at the document for several seconds before it finally sank in. "Not guilty" he said as he looked at Cadance, who smiled at him.
"On all accounts" she pointed out. "Even without the Van Hoover thing, you would've been acquitted."
Thorax looked at the paper again, and then back at Cadance. He could sense pride coming from the mare. "I'm happy you showed this to me," he told her, "but why? It's kind of a moot point with the trial being over."
Cadance's smile was now accompanied by a giggle. "I thought you would've realized Thorax."
The changeling looks at her for a moment before she eventually explains.
"Thorax, you've said yourself that ponies and changelings haven't had the best experiences with one another. Because of those interactions, ponies view changelings as lying and deceitful monsters who want nothing more than to hurt us and rob us of things we hold dear to ourselves."
"I showed you this because this is proof of what you believe. These twelve ponies, who know about changelings and trust them about as far as they could throw them, ignored their prejudized belief and determined you were truly innocent."
"When they had the chance to enact some form of petty revenge against one changeling, they didn't take that chance. Nopony would've blamed them for it, myself included, a fact which I can honestly say I feel ashamed of."
Princess Cadance's mood deflated upon her personal reflection. Thorax went to offer a comforting hoof on her shoulder but she stopped him.
"It's okay, Thorax" she told him. "You may have forgiven me, but it's gonna take a while before I can forgive myself. Everything I said at that speech was the truth. I haven't been a good princess for my subjects, and I need to start doing much better."
"You're already doing quite well" Thorax told her, but she waved her hoof dismissively at his remark.
"I can do so much more" she responded. "In the time since I took over as sovereign for the Crystal Empire, I've yet to see any of my citizens take an interest in visiting Equestria or other territories. In fact, the only crystal ponies I know of that have been to Equestria are the crystal pony members of the guard here and my caretakers."
"Caretakers?" Thorax parroted.
"Ponies like Andesite and my hoof maidens that help me prepare for my day" Cadance explains. "My point is that nopony seems to be interested in seeing the bigger world around them, and I realize now that that's because they haven't seen me visiting the world either. I need to set the example, and I intend to do it in the best way possible."
"I will be holding a state dinner sometime in the future, and I will invite the leaders of the nations of the world to come see what the Crystal Empire has to offer them."
"That's great news," Thorax told her, "but what about the prince?"
"You mean my husband?" she asked, though fairly certain of what he meant. Thorax nodded in confirmation.
"My husband likely won't like this" she answered. "Ever since the wedding, he's been... different. He's not quite been the stallion I fell in love with. I'm hoping our time spent with Heartfelt working through our issues will help, but in truth, I'm honestly not sure if they will or not."
Cadance looks somber at saying that part aloud. Before Thorax can question it, Cadance shakes her head and continues speaking.
"Anyway, one of the reasons I think he's been acting as he has is because he views what happened at the wedding as being solely his fault. Because he thinks that, despite my reassurances and the other princesses that it wasn't, he's been much harder on the members of the guard and he's ever vigilant of another attack, changeling or otherwise."
"That's been the major reason that we haven't had a state dinner or visited any places besides our former homes in Equestria; he fears for our safety and security. I can certainly appreciate that, but I realize now that I have probably encouraged his more negative behavior. He has never trusted anypony fully since that day, and I think it's time that that mistake has been corrected. Long past due, if I can be completely honest."
Thorax looked at the princess for a moment before smiling. He could feel her aura brighten as she spoke about becoming a better leader. She meant everything she had said, and was doing what she could to move towards her goal of being a better leader. Time would tell whether or not she would succeed.
As they stand there, Thorax's smile fades as he thinks on something. "Princess," he addresses her, "I just thought of something now. When I got back from my imprisonment, I don't recall seeing any letters. I'm sure Princess Twilight or Spike would be curious about me. Do you have have any idea why?"
Cadance looked uncomfortable before she let out a breath. Thorax could feel regret wafting off of her. "That's something that I knew I was going to need to address soon. If you could sit down so I can give an explanation."
Thorax agreed and took a seat. Cadance took one as well as she steadied her breath to speak.
"Do you remember when I officially announced your being allowed to stay in the Crystal Empire?" she asked him.
"I do" Thorax replied while nodding his head.
"Well," she continued, "an hour or so after that, I received a communication from Aunt Celestia. According to her, Twilight, Spike and their friends had all been sent to a village where a friendship problem was taking place. I trust Twilight explained the Cutie Map to you?"
Thorax nodded. "Not Twilight, but Spike. He gave me a short version of the story. It sends them to places with friendship problems only they can solve so that friendship grows stronger in Equestria?"
"Something like that" Cadance confirms, then takes another breath before continuing. "Well, the place where they were sent..."
"The small village was attacked by changelings."
Thorax deflated upon hearing that. Changelings abducting ponies was a common practice, but attacking a whole village?
That would mean the hive was getting more desperate for resources, which also meant that there was a possibility that Queen Chrysalis could be trying another invasion of Equestria.
"After they found the village being attacked," Cadance continues, "they stepped in to stop them. They managed to get the changelings to retreat, but the damage had been done. A census was taken and five ponies were unaccounted for. I'm afraid they've likely been taken by the changelings."
"They probably were" Thorax admits. "They were most likely taken back to the hive by now, put into pods and used as a feeding source."
Cadance doesn't say anything else for a few minutes, but decides to ask a question she doesn't really want to know the answer to, but knows that knowing the answer will help in one way or another.
"What happens to the ponies that get put into pods?" she asks warily. "Does it hurt them?"
"I don't know" Thorax admits. "The hive puts them into pods because the gel inside is an anesthetic to most creatures. It keeps the pony or whatever creature is inside from waking up and resisting, and it also keeps them calm and promotes positive dreams. It's like putting fertilizer on plants, because the positive thoughts help generate more love for us to harvest."
Thorax looks and sees the uncomfortable look on the princess's face. "I'm sorry" he says to her.
"It's okay" she responds. "You can't help what your hive does, even if you want that to change as badly as you do."
"Getting back on topic, Aunt Celestia was afraid of a panic starting back in Equestria, so she asked me to do something that she didn't feel good about at the time, and something that I honestly don't feel all that great about now: I kept any information about you from getting back to Equestria, including and especially the trial."
Thorax looks at her with shock. "Why?"
Cadance hangs her head. "Aunt Celestia was afraid of panic, like I said. However, she was also afraid of what ponies would do. There could be some that ignore the words of the princess and come here to cause you harm, or worse."
Thorax flinched a little at the implications.
"There's also the matter of other changelings" Cadance continues. "If what you said about them is true, then us announcing where you are would be just as bad as turning you back over to your hive, not to mention that coming here may tempt them to try and invade the Crystal Empire. That is something neither Aunt Celestia, or myself, wish to see happen."
Thorax looked at her with surprise. "You didn't want to see me hurt, even back then?"
Cadance has a look of guilt cross her face, matched by the corresponding emotion coming from her. "As much as I hate to admit it, but my motivations were more for the citizens of my empire than your overall well being. You could say I looked at my action as..."
Cadance pauses as she puts a hoof to her muzzle.
"How do the griffins say it? Slaying two birds with the same stone?"
Thorax flinches a bit. "Something like that, I think" he responds.
Cadance again looks guilty but continues speaking. "Regardless, we decided it was probably not a good idea to advertise to all of Equestria that there was a changeling free in the Crystal Empire, at least until we were sure that we could be sure to keep you safe from reprisal, be it by ponies or your former hive."
Thorax considered what he had been told and eventually nodded in agreement. He didn't want to keep his being on friendly terms with the Crystal Empire a secret, but if telling other ponies meant danger from either those ponies or a member of his hive finding out that information in one fashion or another, then it made sense to him that only a few ponies should know about it, even if the whole Crystal Empire knew now.
One of his last thoughts brings a new question forward in his mind. "How do you know my hive doesn't know about me already?"
Cadance lets out a breath. "We don't," she responds, "but we've been searching the Crystal Empire for months to make sure that there were no other changelings here besides you. At the time, we still didn't fully trust you and wanted to be sure that you weren't some kind of elaborate decoy meant to make us drop our guard."
"In all that time of searching, we found no other changelings. We even had guards walking through the crowd during the announcement of your being accepted as a probationary citizen checking with spells to make sure everypony was a pony and not a hidden changeling."
Thorax looked at Cadance with surprise. "Who devised that kind of spell?"
"Twilight, mostly" Cadance answers. "Besides her, Sunburst helped with enhancing it to reduce mana drain, as well as making it into an enchantment to create sensors to put in public places. However, a variation with an additional attack spell was devised by my husband."
Thorax wilted as he remembered the unicorn. He hadn't seen him since the announcement of his probationary citizenship, and in honesty, he did his best to avoid the stallion who would likely try to kill him on the spot if given the chance.
"You don't have to worry about Shining Armor anymore" Cadance tells Thorax. "He won't like it, but I am taking you on as my charge, which means your safety is my responsibility. I won't let him harm you or treat you unfairly, and I promise to do everything I can to help him understand that you are true to your word and not a threat to this empire."
"CADY, ARE YOU INSANE?!"
Cadance flinched slightly as her husband yelled at her in the private study. Fortunately, their daughter had fallen asleep and was resting comfortably far away from the couple who were currently having what polite ponies called "a heated discussion".
"No, Shining, I am not" she replied. "Everything that's happened recently has told me how poor of a leader I have been for the Crystal Empire and I need to do more to address that."
"We can't guarantee anypony's safety" Shining retorted, putting emphasis on each word. "We certainly can't anymore than six months ago, especially now that you've let that... thing have free run of the empire. It's an international incident waiting to happen!"
Cadance narrowed her eyes. "Thorax is not a thing."
Shining looked at her with shock first, but then his eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"
"Exactly what you just heard" Cadance replied. "You may find it hard to believe, but Thorax has proven his intentions pure. Even after being beaten within an inch of his life and put on trial for a crime he never committed, he still wants to stay here and call this place home. He has friends here now, and he doesn't want to lose them."
Shining glowered. "He fed on my guards and you the first chance he got."
Now it was Cadance's turn to glower. "What happened was involuntary and he wrote that letter of apology for it, and besides, why didn't he drain the guards that arrested him when his ring was broken in that alleyway."
"Perhaps he did it so little that the guards simply didn't notice" Shining said more as a stating of fact than as a question.
"It doesn't matter" she continues. "Thorax has proven himself to me, and he is my personal charge. If he gets in any trouble, it will fall solely on me. You hold no culpability if something happens."
Shining wants to say something on that particular subject, but the look he gets from his wife tells him it will prolong what has been a long and exhausting argument already.
"Fine," he eventually concedes, "but this changes nothing in regards to this state dinner you have planned."
"No, it doesn't" Cadance responds.
Shining looks at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"It's simple dear" she tells him. "We're having our state dinner, with all the leaders invited, and we will be kind and gracious hosts. The visitors will enjoy themselves and we will open ourselves up to having more visits like that in the future, even with us going to other territories."
Shining looked at her in disbelief. "Our guards-"
"-will do their jobs admirably" Cadance interrupted. "Now, this conversation has went on long enough. We need to get some sleep for tomorrow. Another big day of leading this empire back to its former glory."
Cadance walks away from a fuming Shining Armor, who is waiting patiently for his wife to leave so that he can vent to the bookshelves surrounding them.
"Oh, yes" Cadance says as she turns to face her husband. "One last thing."
Shining, who is still quite livid, looks at her with some curiosity. The princess ignites her horn and a familiar collar is floated out from underneath a desk.
"This is the collar Thorax was wearing in prison" she tells Shining. "I had it examined and the pony checking it told me that it was cut and then mended with a welding spell commonly used by our subjects. When I asked him about the pony who originally cut it, he told me that it was a powerful unicorn with a magenta magic color. You wouldn't happen to know of any powerful unicorns with a magenta colored magic, would you?"
Without warning, the princess throws the collar at her husband, who instinctively catches it in his magic, which just so happens to be magenta colored.
Cadance simply smirks and says "I thought so" before turning and leaving completely.