//------------------------------// // Part IV, Chapter 1 - Passport // Story: Fitting In Is Hard To Do // by origami //------------------------------// In Whinnyapolis "I'm sorry," a mare says to a stallion, "but something just feels... wrong every time I get together with you." "Please!" the stallion begs of her. "Whatever it is, we can figure it out." "We can't!" she counters. "Every time we're together, I always feel like it takes more of me to love you, and it's draining me. I can't keep up the charade. I'm sorry, Onyx. I really am." Onyx cringed at her assessment. "Please!" he choked out. The mare looks at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry, but it's over." With that, she turns and walks away. Onyx stands there for a few moments before he finally moves from his spot. Traveling through a few alleyways and down a few streets, the stallion finds himself at his apartment building. Retrieving his key from its hiding place, he unlocks the door and steps inside. Once he's inside, he locks the door and lets out a breath. "I hate when that happens." The stallion is suddenly bathed in green magic, and a moment later, a changeling is standing in the stallion's place. Settling back down on his haunches, he thinks over the past month and the relationship he'd established with Hearty Mum. For the changeling, it was near perfection. The love the mare felt for the stallion was strong, but as usual, feeding on it took its toll on the mare, and suddenly the relationship felt one-sided. She called it off, though she did sound regretful about doing it. "Why does this keep happening to you, Mandible?" the changeling asked himself as he headed into the bathroom to wash off from his day out. This was something changelings had on ponies; chitin was far easier to clean than fur. As he washed at various areas, he kept thinking about this most recent failed relationship, which is something that infiltrators never did. "Why do I keep thinking about her?" he wondered as he scrubbed his back with a brush. If he hadn't known any better, he'd call what he was feeling attraction. But, how could it be? Infiltration training had taught him and other infiltrators how to carry on a relationship without developing attachment. Mandible finished scrubbing himself and got out of the shower. A quick spell to evaporate the water off of his body, and the drone was ready to slip into bed. Making sure his door was locked and his window shades were drawn shut, he slipped under the covers and tried to fall asleep. As Mandible lay there, he had to concede a few points about ponies and some of the things they had better. For one, they got to sleep on real mattresses, with covers for when it got too cold. For another, they lived above ground and regularly got to see the beautiful world around them. Lastly, they got to experience love and feelings for one another. Hearty Mum was a wonderful mare, at least by pony standards. She had gotten her cutie mark when she had collected and arranged wildflowers for her older sister's wedding when the original florist had killed the original flowers on accident. Her job was as a florist in the city, and she planned to move away to a smaller town such as Ponyville and set up her own business. She had a lot of love to give, and whichever stallion or mare that did finally take her as a bride would share in so much love and happiness. Changelings could never do that. All changelings could do was feed off of those emotions. They could never feel those kinds of emotions for themselves. But why? Why couldn't changelings feel emotions for themselves? Why couldn't they find happiness and love to sustain themselves? Mandible shook his head of those thoughts. He already knew the answer. The Queen. Queen Chrysalis decreed that the ponies were a lesser species, and only served to feed them, with the love that ponies had being nothing more than a source of nourishment. The changeling's purpose, she said, was to take its rightful place as the dominant species of this world. She promised a day when all creatures would bow before the changelings and would surrender all their love, and there would be no more starving. Mandible let out a bitter sigh at that last thought. The first move that Queen Chrysalis made was to attempt to take over Canterlot, the pony capitol. She had found out that a wedding would be held there between a previously unknown princess and the captain of the royal guard. She'd snuck in with a team of lings and abducted the princess, taking her place with nopony the wiser. In her hubris, however, the queen made more than a few mistakes. First, she held the captured alicorn in abandoned crystal mines underneath the city instead of sending her back to the hive. Then, she didn't bother with copying any on the princesses mannerisms, tipping off Twilight Sparkle, an element bearer and former charge of the alicorn. Then after that, she banished Twilight to the same crystal caves as the alicorn, allowing the former to free the latter. This would have been excusable, were it not for the queen's final mistake: letting the real Princess Cadance reunite with the guard captain. Upon doing so, she broke the spell on the captain, and their love fueled his shield spell with so much power, it literally blasted every single changeling from the city. That had been something like two years ago. Since then, the hive has suffered for it. Ponies were more vigilant and more suspicious if the part a changeling played wasn't one hundred percent perfect. Worse yet, the royal guard had captured several changelings not long after the wedding and had done experiments on them. Nothing like vivisection from what he'd heard, but everything they learned was a new weapon in their arsenal against changelings. As Mandible lay in bed in an effort to get to sleep, he had two rather strange thoughts pass through his mind. First, he thought about his queen and her actions over the past two years. Because of them, the hive was having harder times than before the attempt to invade. A part of him was wondering how much of the blame was actually on the ponies and not on her, and another part made him wonder why he felt the queen should be blamed. Second, he thought about Hearty Mum. He couldn't say that her love wasn't fantastic; it was. What made him think of her was how he felt when he was doing things with her. A part of him actually enjoyed the walks through the park they'd take after work, and then the one time there was a carnival and he had won her a stuffed bear at a ring toss game. The love she exuded was amazing, but something about seeing her that happy had made it all that much better. Why did seeing her happy make him feel that much better? Mandible tried to clear his mind of the offending thoughts and get to sleep. When he got up tomorrow, he would perhaps try to get Hearty Mum to reconsider her choice. If she didn't take him back, he would have to come up with another idea of how to get love. Four Months After Thorax's Trial Thorax was currently on his way to the throne room of the Crystal Palace. If he had been doing this about six months ago, he would've been stopped and detained by the crystal guards. Of course, that was before he was put on trial for attempted foalnapping and assault. After the charges were dropped due to evidence proving the stallions who accused Thorax were both lying and the actual culprits coming from the city of Van Hoover, the crystal ponies had to accept two facts: It was possible for a changeling to not be guilty of a crime, and ponies could be just as deceitful as changelings. As the changeling made his way to the throne room, he thought back to how the last four months since his trial had went. To say things were a bit rocky was something of an understatement. Ponies would be quite nervous whenever he would enter a room, but none ever bolted out or ran away screaming from him. A small victory, perhaps, but a victory nonetheless. Princess Cadance had been the one to make the biggest change. Since the day she had apologized to him and not only made him a full citizen, but also gave him the highest honor that she could, the princess had done a near 180 turn from how she had acted before. Initially, there was a great deal of guilt behind her actions, but it diminished as time went on. One of the most significant changes she made was inviting him to join her at his designated lunchtime to have some tea and speak with her. More recently, the princess had had her daughter with her, a sign of her growing trust with the changeling. These lunches weren't always pleasant. One time, Prince Shining Armor was there, and upon seeing the changeling, excused himself and left rather hastily, a trail of hatred and disgust following him as he left. Thorax had asked about his behavior, and Cadance had told him that Shining was not happy with her decision to take Thorax as her ward. This obviously bothered Thorax, but Cadance told him to ignore it. She had taken him as her charge so that she could make sure he stayed safe, and anypony that had a problem with the decision could take it up with her. Of course, Thorax's visit to the throne room had nothing to do with Shining Armor. Some time back, Princess Cadance had told Thorax that she would personally grant him a huge request. It could be anything he wanted within reason. She had also told him to think long and hard about what exactly he wanted, and she was insistent that he take her up on the offer. That said, he did have something in mind, and he had approached her with it a few weeks back. Three Weeks Earlier... "Come in, Thorax!" Princess Cadance said enthusiastically as she was seated at a small table placed off to the side of her dais. Thorax approached with a smile on his face. Since the princess had started inviting him for tea at lunchtime, it had become a part of his day he'd been looking forward to. He took his seat across from the princess as a servant poured him a cup of tea. "How has your day been so far?" she asked him after he'd had a chance to taste his tea and adjust it to his preferences. "It's been good so far" Thorax replied. "We've finished with linen changes just before lunch." "That's good to hear" she told me. "I've been thinking of commissioning new linens for the upcoming season. Tell me what you think of this pattern." The princess levitated up a swath of fabric. It was red and decorated with a pattern that mimicked the empire's famous crystal berries. In addition, there was a pink, wispy flame in the shape of a heart. Upon seeing it, Thorax understood what it was for: Hearth's Warming. "It's nice" he told her. "I'm sure whatever guests we host here are going to like it." The princess smiled as she put the swath back. Thorax then had a thought and grimaced a little. "Will I have to disguise if we do have guests?" Cadance considered what he said and looked a bit uneasy. "To be honest, I don't know," she answered, "but I should hope not. You've lived among us as you are for nearly a year now and there hasn't been any major issue, aside from what those stallions tried to do to you, as well as Feather and Elbow." Thorax grimaced again upon mention of the stallions that attacked him in that alley and then tried to frame him for their attempt to abduct Raspberry Mint. He also remembered the attack that Feather Duster and Elbow Grease carried out against him when he was so restrained that he couldn't even defend himself. Those were some bad memories he didn't care to remember that much. The return of those memories did bring happier thoughts almost immediately. He then smiled a little as he was reminded of Raspberry. He hadn't seen her too often since that day, but he had run into her a few times, and each time she was happy to see him, even giving him a hug, as well as a dose of love that was very welcome. He also recalled Elbow Grease and his apology before he was sentenced to the dungeons. A part of him wondered if he would be allowed to see the stallion, and even possibly put in a good word so he could perhaps be released a bit early. Thorax shook his head as he remembered the original reason he wanted to talk to Princess Cadance. "Princess?" he addressed her. "There's no need for that, Thorax" Cadance said to him. "You can refer to me as just Cadance." Thorax frowned a little. "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel comfortable addressing my ruler by her first name." Cadance let out a sigh. "Thorax, I know that I don't know how everything works back in the changeling hive, but you don't have to be so concerned about that sort of thing here. Honestly, as much as I am a princess, I still feel as though I'm being raised up on a pedestal." "I know," Thorax concedes. "but I feel like addressing you that way is... disrespectful." "Normally, it would be," Cadance admits, "but I want you to be an actual friend. A pony, or more specifically changeling, that I can hold a simple conversation with and enjoy their company, and friends don't use such titles with one another." "I know, but I still feel like I'm not acting appropriately when I do that" Thorax tells the princess. "Well, I won't force you to do something you aren't comfortable with" Cadance says in an effort to take the conversation in a more positive direction, then winces a little at her choice of words. "Well, I won't do it anymore, I should say. Now, I'm going to guess you were about to ask me something?" "Yeah" the changeling confirmed. "You said a little while ago that I could make a request of you and that you would grant it as long as it was within reason." "Yes, I did" Cadance confirms to Thorax. "I will grant you a request that, while it may be difficult, is within reason and within my abilities. I believe that you've decided that you have something to request from me?" "I do" Thorax answers and then takes a breath. "I received a letter from Princess Twilight and Spike the other day" he explains. "Both of them were appalled to learn about what happened to me, but also very glad that I was proven innocent. Spike even said he wished that he had been here so he could've sent those stallions running with their flanks on fire." Cadance giggled a bit at the image of the three stallions running around frantically with flames covering their behinds before sticking them into the snow in an effort to extinguish the flames. "I've thought about how long it's been since I've seen them, especially Spike," Thorax continues, "and I would really like to see them again." "Well, I can certainly invite Twilight and Spike to come for a visit" Cadance proposed. "That's... not exactly what I meant." "Oh?" Cadance says, a little confused. "Thinking about them living in Ponyville got me thinking about Equestria too," Thorax explains, "and my journey through it before ending up here." "When I came through Equestria, I was so worried about being discovered that I hardly got to see or experience anything it had to offer. I would have to find whatever odd job I could to have enough bits for someplace to stay, or I'd have to sleep outside in some bushes. There was more than I time or two where I had to disguise as a stray dog or cat so I could stay in an old barn or warehouse." "Because of the circumstances, I never really got to see Equestria, and after my lessons with Sunburst where he showed me all kinds of things about it, I really feel like I missed out on so much." Thorax stopped speaking for a moment, which allowed Cadance a chance to speak without interrupting the creature in front of her. "I believe I understand what you're asking of me Thorax." The changeling looked up at her and took a test of her emotions. Uncertainty, fear, trepidation, resolve. It was an unusual cocktail of feelings, but it told Thorax that she did understand what he was asking. "With your permission," he concludes, "I would like to go back and see Equestria. I want to see it the way I never got to when I was there originally." Cadance sat there for a few moments to process what Thorax had just told her. As a citizen, he was certainly within his right to want to leave the empire and visit another kingdom like Equestria. Unfortunately, he was also a changeling, and that would make traveling difficult, especially if he were to request doing so in his natural form. "That request...," she began to reply, "is... difficult, at best." Thorax hung his head dejectedly upon hear her say that. "I'm not saying no to you, Thorax" she tells him. "This request of yours is definitely within the parameters of 'difficult but reasonable'. I would like to say yes right away and send you off with a round trip ticket and a sack of bits bigger than your head so you don't have to worry about any expenses, but the current situation between Equestria, including the Crystal Empire, and changelings hasn't really improved much, if at all." "This request is, well, it's gonna take time. I'll have to speak with Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna about this. I know from your interactions with them during their visit before we decided on your 'asylum agreement' that they were amicable towards you, but they also have a kingdom to run, and some decisions they make just can't be decreed as law, especially when a decision involves an individual that is technically a member of an enemy state." Thorax looked a bit dejected, but Cadance reached over and lifted up his chin. "This isn't a no, Thorax," she tells him, "but please understand that, what you're asking me to do, is going to take some time." Thorax takes a feel of her emotions again and gets similar ones as before, but resolve seems to be much stronger now. "Okay" he says as he elects to take a sip of the tea in front of him. In the present... Thorax entered the throne room and saw Princess Cadance sitting at the tea table he'd become familiar with after only a few weeks. White marble top with a metal frame that was also painted white, but having sapphire hearts seated into heart carvings etched inside the legs of the table. Beside her was a bassinet, which likely contained her daughter, Flurry Heart. Thorax smiled upon thinking of the little filly. Cadance had allowed Thorax to see her during one of their tea sessions and the filly was quite taken with him. At first, she stared at him with an expression that could only be described as 'bug eyed'. She then poofed out of her bassinet and reappeared in front of his face, startling him nearly out of his chair. This upset Flurry, and Princess Cadance had to calm her down. Thorax apologized for startling her, but the princess had waved it off, simply saying that he wasn't the first creature, pony or otherwise, to be startled by the little alicorn's surprising natural talent for complex magic. When introduced again, the two got along rather well, with Flurry offering him a toy so that the two could briefly play together. Thorax shook the thought from his mind and walked into the throne room. After a few steps, Cadance looked up at him with a smile. "Thorax!" she called to him. "Please! Come sit down!" The changeling smiled as he approached and then took his seat. Cadance made some babbling noises into the bassinet and then gestured to a hoof maiden off to one side, who took the bassinet in her magic and left the room. Thorax deflated a little upon seeing that. Besides the massive amount of love the child gave off specifically just for him, he also quite enjoyed playing games with her. In a way, it was letting him experience a nymphhood he never got to enjoy, even if it was only for a few minutes at a time. "I know you're probably a little disappointed that you don't get to play with Flurry today," she said apologetically, "but there's something important that I need to talk to you about." Thorax tensed a little upon hearing the princess say "I need to talk to you". In his past experience in the hive and on his journey through Equestria, good things very rarely followed that phrase. "It's nothing bad" she assured him. "In fact, I think it may be best if I show you what I'm talking about." The princess then levitates a piece of parchment over to him. Thorax catch a brief glimpse of the seal for Equestria, a black alicorn and white alicorn flying around a globe, attached to one end of the document. He take it in his hooves and begin reading it. To whom it may concern: The individual that has provided you this letter is named Thorax. Thorax is a changeling who has been granted citizenship in the Crystal Empire. He is also recognized as a diplomat for the changelings, and as such, has been granted a pardon for any and all wrongdoings that took place before this appointment. You are not to detain or arrest Thorax without probable cause. His status as a citizen of the Crystal Empire will be fully recognized by Equestria. There is an enchantment attached to this document that will confirm its validity to you. Simply have a unicorn place their magic on it to reveal the confirmation. If you fail to follow the terms listed in this letter, you will be subject to disciplinary review and may be punished with prison time and possible dismissal with unfavorable letter. Signed, HRH Princess Celestia Dawn Co-Signed, HRH Princess Luna Nocturn Thorax looked up from the document in surprise. Cadance gave a small smile. "Aunt Celestia and Luna both agreed that you should get to experience Equestria the way any normal pony can. They'll be addressing all of the royal guard and telling them about you so as to prevent any misunderstandings." Thorax eyes went wide. "You mean...?" Cadance nodded. "Aunt Celesita, Luna and I have worked out an arrangement to allow you to visit Equestria and get to see it they way you should have before." Thorax's mood changed from confused and fearful to overjoyed in a matter of seconds. He was very tempted to dart around the table and wrap the princess in a hug, but he restrained himself. Cadance continued speaking. "There are some security protocols that Aunt Celestia and Luna have put in place, including ones that the guard are to follow to the letter when interacting with you." "Interacting with me?" Thorax said with confusion. Cadance looks uncertain for a minute but then resolves herself. "Aunt Celestia and Luna are going to be addressing all of the guard outposts in Equestria. They're going to inform them about you and the protocols they'll have to follow when you do decide to visit and meet them." "What kind of protocols?" Thorax asks. "Conduct, mostly," Cadance explains, "but they'll also be reminded about the general attitude towards seeking revenge for past wrongdoings and the consequences for acting on it. Aunt Celestia and Luna don't want any of the royal guards to try and obtain revenge for what happened at my wedding." Thorax looked at her nervously. "What if there's a guard that will still try to do something to me, even with this letter and those protocols?" "It's a possibility," Cadance admits, "but it's one Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna want to avoid as much as possible." "All the guards who serve the princesses, including Twilight, are expected to obey our demands. This letter, and those protocols, are official orders from the princesses to the entire royal guard. If any one of them ignores this letter or those protocols, then they will be subject to punishment, and possibly be dismissed with unfavorable letter." "Unfavorable letter?" Thorax says with confusion. "Every guard serving who is dismissed from duty receives a letter of dismissal" Cadance explains. "If they carried out their duty to our satisfaction, the letter will say they served with integrity and honor." "Guards that do something disgraceful, such as the ones who worked with Feather Duster and Elbow Grease to harm you, are given a letter that tells ponies that they acted in a dishonorable way. That kind of letter is called an unfavorable letter. Getting one of those brands the pony as a no good, and can make their life after guard service rather difficult, since most ponies won't want to hire or associate with a former guard who disgraced their position." "So the guards who helped Feather and Elbow..." Thorax began. "All of them received unfavorable letter," Cadance confirmed, "and so will anypony that goes against Aunt Celestia or Aunt Luna's wishes." Thorax was silent as he thought about the ponies that had received those letters that would cause other ponies to have trepidation about them. "Can those ponies regain their honor?" he asked the princess. "The only way a guard could redeem themselves would be to petition Aunt Celestia and Luna for a second chance" Cadance answers. "They would have to write a letter of apology to both of them and then they would have to plead in front of both the princesses in court. After that, Aunt Celestia and Luna would have to decide together if the guard would be allowed to rejoin the guard and regain their honor." "Has that ever happened?" Thorax asked her. "There's been a few examples in Equestria's history of that happening, but it's not common enough to even be considered a rare event" Cadance tells him. "The most recent it happened was from before Aunt Luna was banished as Nightmare Moon, and that guard was only forgiven because he had been medically diagnosed with narcolepsy; he'd fallen asleep at his post and allowed a thief to enter the castle and steal some very rare and priceless artifacts that have never been recovered. When he returned to the guard, he lost all his previous rank and was never allowed to stand guard alone. He was eventually dismissed with favorable letter after he served as quartermaster for nearly twenty years." Thorax gave a nod of understanding. He took a little bit of solace in the fact that there was a possibility that the ponies who had done him wrong would still have a chance to redeem themselves for their mistakes, even if it wasn't terribly likely. "Anyway," Princess Cadance continues, "I have some things I want to give you in addition to that letter." She produces two faux leather booklets in her magic and gives them to Thorax. Looking them over, he sees that they are embossed on the front with a design that resembles the princess's cutie mark: A crystal heart with two fancy f designs on either side of it. Flipping it open, he's greeted with a legal document. The first one has the name Crystal Hoof on it, the name of the disguise he came up with when he first entered the Crystal Empire. The rest of the document was filled in with fairly normal information, except for where it said tribe and something called a C.E.I.N., which he had no idea what it was. In those spaces, it simply said "REFER TO ALT. DOCUMENT". Thorax assumed this meant the other booklet, so he opened it to reveal a document just like the first one, but with the other details filled in. This document had all of Thorax's information, including his estimated age, gender, and recognized him as a citizen of the Crystal Empire. The only blank space on both documents was a spot where a photograph was supposed to go. Going through the booklet, he saw that both had been authorized by Princess Cadance and bore her magic seal. Thorax finished looking them over and then looked at the princess again. "What are these?" he asked her. "They're your passports" she answered him. "You have two because of the security protocols that Aunt Celestia and Luna want to put in place for you." "When you reach your first stop, you'll be taken through a customs check and will have to show the guards there those passports and that letter. After they've verified everything, they'll give you some basic rules to follow while you're there, and you'll be allowed to go on your way." "When you leave for your next stop, you'll go back through customs and show them the documents again. That'll let them know that you did in fact move on to another stop." "If you choose to travel part of your journey on hoof, you'll just have to find the nearest guard station and present all of the same information, and do the same upon leaving." "As for when you leave, you'll have to use your Crystal Hoof guise and maintain it while in public. You may dispel it in private, but only in private. Crystal Hoof is the only pony you're allowed to appear as, so no other disguises on your journey, not that I think you would pretend to be another pony." "Aside from those details, you'll be allowed to roam around and see the sights just like any other pony can. Do you have any questions?" Thorax thought for a moment and then acted a bit sheepishly. "What about... my meals?" Cadance looked at him for a second and then placed a hoof to her face. "I completely forgot about that" she told Thorax, which caught the changeling by surprise. He had a hard time believing the princess of love, whose wedding was attacked by changelings, would have forgotten the fact that they feed on love for sustenance. Cadance then used her magic and produced something from underneath the table. Once in view, Thorax saw it was a kind of bottle. He recognized it from a chemistry book Sunburst had shown him during a lesson one time. If his memory was right, it was called a Florence flask. Inside the flask was a pink liquid, which appeared to be swirling and giving off a glow. Cadance presented it to Thorax, who took it in his hooves. Looking at it with confusion, Thorax looked at Cadance and asked her, "What is this?" "That is something that Twilight sent to me as a surprise for you" Cadance explained. "You see, she's been curious about changelings ever since meeting you in the empire a while back, and she's been conducting experiments ever since then." "Her latest ones have involved your requiring love from other creatures as a form of nourishment, and more specifically, how it's done. The idea originally was to find a countermeasure to prevent ponies from being preyed on, but with everything that transpired recently, she's changed her focus to helping you not have to rely on ponies as a food source, which I know bothers you a great deal." "It's not so much that it bothers me to need love to sustain myself" Thorax clarifies. "I just hate that when I do it, it ends up hurting ponies, even if just a little bit." It was an unfortunate fact that, even with his friends permission and cooperation, his feeding still had a negative effect on them. Even if he only did it for a short amount of time, they still felt fatigue enough to have to lay down for an hour or so and had a headache that persisted even with medications taken to counteract the effects. They were able to withstand it longer than other ponies, though. Sunburst usually could take it for two minutes before the effects started to become significant, while Brass could handle it for about five minutes or so. Everypony else couldn't even go for more than ten seconds before succumbing to the fatigue of draining. "Well, that's what she's hoping this potion will do" Cadance tells Thorax. "Twilight had the idea for this potion when she figured out the spell that changelings use to siphon off love from ponies." Thorax looked at Cadance with surprise. "She figured it out?" "She did," Cadance confirmed, "and she adapted the spell into an enchantment to collect it from the air instead of from a specific target. She found a cafe where a lot of ponies were having a date night and she set some vials off to the side in some bushes. The end result is she had collected enough love for her to start doing experiments, and the idea for a potion came to mind." "To come up with the potion, she consulted a local zebra in Ponyville named Zecora. With her help, they came up with this. The general idea is that it takes some of the love Twilight gathered and uses various ingredients to propagate the amount of love inside the bottle. With it, she's hoping a small amount can be used to make enough potion to keep you fed for a whole month and not need to feed on ponies anymore." Thorax listened in wonder as Cadance told him this. Twilight had made this potion to help him. He looked down at it and decided to give it a try. Popping off the cork, he took a cautious sip of the substance. Immediately, he could feel his hunger starting to abate as the wonderful flavor crossed his tongue. He kept drinking in the liquid until there was no more. Once finished, he looked at the bottle with both amazement and confusion. "That was definitely love in a bottle," Thorax told Cadance, "but I don't think the potion did what it was supposed to do." Cadance looks at him with a little bit of disappointment. "It didn't?" Thorax shook his head. "Well," Cadance says to Thorax, "I know that she can get the formula down with your help. You should definitely make a stop in Ponyville on your trip so you can fill Twilight in on the results. I'll write her a letter and let her know what you told me and she can work on a new batch for you to try out." "I was planning on making a stop there" Thorax said with a smile. "How else would I see Spike if I didn't?" Cadance blinked for a second and chuckled. "You're right. You'd have to go there to see him, wouldn't you?" The princess picked up her cup of tea and took a sip. She winced as she removed her mouth from the cup. "I think I should get us a new kettle of tea" Cadance said to Thorax. "Preferably one that is still hot." Thorax had almost taken a sip of his own tea when he noticed that it had indeed cooled down since he first came in to see the princess. "Yeah" Thorax agreed. "That would be a good idea."