//------------------------------//
// Thorax's Story - Part 4 
// Story: Meeting His Heroes 
// by origami 
//------------------------------//

"After Pharynx left me," Thorax continued,"I turned and flew as far, and as fast as I could away from the hive.  Once I felt I was far enough away, I decided on a pony disguise I wanted to use to travel more safely.  Dodge Junction was the first town I would come across, and I wanted things to go as smoothly as possible."

"I decided on a beige earth pony with a medium-light brown mane and tail, with orange streaks in it.  The eyes would match the streaks, and my cutie mark would be a cactus.  I decided on calling myself Prickly Pear, and my special talent was growing cacti."

"Once I was comfortable with my new look and identity, I stepped into town.  Everypony greeted me kindly enough, though obviously because they thought I was a pony like them.  They showered me with love and affection, especially this one little mare that was barely older than being a filly, and I thought about just setting up shop there; I could've even made a life with the mare if I so chose, and maybe even revealed myself to her once I thought she would be comfortable enough with the idea."

"Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  I stayed one night, and the next day, rumors of a changeling infiltrator had started spreading.  I wasn't discovered, but another changeling sent to find me was found trying to siphon some love away from a couple... coupling.  I guess it was too good an opportunity for them to pass up."

All the mares sitting around Thorax blushed, but the changeling ignored it and continued with his story.

"The changeling wasn't caught, and ponies were getting suspicious of one another.  I left that night, giving a half-truth of being caught by a changeling, and wished everypony the best.  Once out of town, I decided to move on to the next town as quickly as I could, which was Appleloosa."

"Heh, That's where mah cousin Braeburn lives," Applejack told Thorax.

"I think I did run into him," Thorax replied,"but that was after I ran into the buffalo, and I'll tell ya, that did that not go well at all."





With the nerves about the potential of being discovered having quieted down, I began making my way for the next town north of Dodge Junction.  There was a lot of desert around me, but I also saw plenty of green growth that told me there would be a well or springhead somewhere.  My biggest concern was food, and there was very little love I could get, at least the kind I wanted to obtain, with no personal qualms about how it was gathered.

As I was heading towards Appleloosa, I began to feel a rumbling sensation through the ground.  I looked around at first and couldn't see anything, but a minute or so later, I noticed a large dust cloud forming on the horizon.  Curious as to what it was, I started looking for a place higher up so I could see better.

Before I knew it, I had been nearly stampeded by a herd of buffalo.  Large beings with feather decorations on their heads.  Their powerful hooves shook the earth beneath my hooves so much that I didn't know what was gonna happen.

I made my best attempt to get out of the way, but I soon collided with one, and getting hit by one of them is like having a colossal dragon flick you in the chest with their claw.  I was sent rolling, and I thought I was gonna lose my disguise before I could recover.

I didn't, fortunately, but when I did come to a stop, I was immediately surrounded by the buffalo, and all of them looked at me with anger and annoyance.

"Why is pony interfering with buffalo stampede?"

I turned to the voice and saw a buffalo bull larger than any other buffalo approach me.  He had the most ornate of the feather decorations in the group, so I deduced quickly that he was the leader.

"Answer, pony.  Why did you interrupt stampede?"

His voice was louder and had more force behind it.  I shivered in place as I tried to answer him.

"I-I didn't mean to!  I was walking from Dodge Junction to Appleloosa.  I didn't know you were stampeding here!"

The buffalo chief looked me over as he considered my answer, but he scowled as he approached me and took a whiff of air.

"You not smell like pony," he pointed out.  "You smell of smoke, but yet we see no soot."

His glare hardened.  "Only creature buffalo know that have smell of smoke without soot is changing pony.  You are changing pony?"

I looked at him in fear, remembering then how buffalo could smell changelings because we emit a pheromone to identify each other.  My hopes of a new life in Equestria were put on hold as I had to think to myself how I could get away from this situation with my life.

"Pony take too long to answer," the buffalo leader said as he turned to another pair of buffalo nearby.  "Use magic zebra paste on pony.  It will tell us if he is changing pony soon enough."

Magic paste? I thought as I watched one of the buffalo step forward, a ceramic pot in their one hoof.  Before I had a chance to react, the buffalo threw the jar at my hooves and it smashed, spilling a strange substance onto my hooves and legs.

Almost as soon as it hit me, I noticed something very strange happening to me.  It was like the part of me that was responsible for my disguise magic had gone numb, and very quickly, my disguise was cast away in green flames.

The buffalo reacted, not with fear, but with even more disdain.

"You are changing pony!" the buffalo leader yelled as he pointed a hoof at me.  "You ruined pony ruler wedding some moons ago!  You take buffalo while sleeping and pretend you them so we love you like family!  You are usonvi!  You are threat to buffalo!"

"Please!" I cried out as I fell to the ground.  "I don't want to hurt you.  I want to live peacefully in Equestria.  Please, let me leave and I won't bother you again."

The buffalo leader spat on me.  "Chief Thunderhooves not born day before now!  Your words are as hollow as bird bones!  We would be fools to trust changing pony!"

"Please!" I cried out again, tears starting to fall from my eyes in desperation.  "Let me leave!  I won't come back!  I promise!"

Chief Thunderhooves ignored my pleas.  "We take you prisoner and give you to ponies.  They have bounty on changing pony.  We give them changing pony and we get enough food to feed all buffalo for next six moons."

Before I could even protest, the buffalo surrounded me and, instead of tying me up, threaded two thin poles through the holes in my legs.  Two buffalo nearly as large as Chief Thunderhooves stepped forward and balanced the pole onto their backs.

"Buffalo go to Appleloosa with changing pony prisoner now," the chief told his buffalo.  "We move now.  Do not listen to the words of the changing pony.  They are like honey to catch wasp in death trap."

"Do not go close either.  All who get too close lose their heart.  Heart make buffalo strong.  Warriors, don't let changing pony take heart from you."

The other buffalo snorted in agreement and the entire herd began moving.  I had no way to resist them.  My disguise magic wouldn't work with the pole in my legs, and I could still feel the effects of that weird paste they threw at me before.  I could do nothing but await whatever fate had in store for me when we arrived in Appleloosa.






At Sundown...






The trip to Appleloosa would take more than a day, which I was glad to find out.  I didn't have any sleeping provisions, so I would've needed to find an abandoned cave or some place similar to wait out the night.

Of course, that didn't really matter when the buffalo made me sleep outside.  The had a unique way of dealing with changelings and keeping them prisoner: the changeling had their legs threaded over long poles sunk deep enough into the ground they couldn't be wiggled loose and free, then ropes were bound around the barrel and staked down into the dirt, and last was an application of another magic paste that disabled pretty much all magic a changeling could use.

All in all, it was highly effective, and I could only escape if one of the buffalo allowed me to, and the chief had already warned them not to listen to my honeyed words.

"Drink, changing pony."

I was startled from my thoughts by the voice.  I looked up to see one of the buffalo, a young cow if I had to guess.  In her hoof was a bowl, which I assumed was supposed to be water.  I lifted my head and opened my mouth, and the cow tilted the bowl, allowing the liquid to pour down my throat.  She let it continue to pour, so I had to keep swallowing, unless I wanted to try and drown myself.

Once the bowl was empty, she pulled it back and set it aside.  She then produced a second bowl that had more of that paste in it.

"Please don't use that," I asked of her.  "I don't want to hurt any of you."

"Promise from changing pony as empty as water bowl is now," she said somewhat coldly, but also sounding like there was a bit of sadness in her voice.

A part of me then thought about manipulating that into an escape attempt, but I stomped that down quickly.  It was exactly that kind of thinking that got my kind the reputation we had to begin with.  Nevertheless, if there was a slight chance I could perhaps begin convincing as least one of these buffalo that I wasn't a monster, I was going to take it.

"You're right.  Like your chief said, my kind have used a lot of hollow, honeyed words.  We've made our entire existence off of lying and deceiving, and taking what isn't ours.  I wish I could go back in time and stop it all from ever happening, but I can't."

Genuine tears rolled from my eyes.  What I had told her was the truth.  If the changelings had started out different, chose peace and harmony instead of war and evil, maybe things would've been different.  Perhaps my life would've turned out better than it was.

"Changing pony speaks of regret and cries tears of shame, but father says that is the way of changing ponies.  They act like they are hurt when they are not.  They act like they are ashamed when they are not.  They make others feel sympathy for them so that they can steal the heart from those who care."

"We need love to survive, and no creature has ever showed us love.  Maybe that's why changelings feel like they need to take it from others all the time."

The cow looked at me with surprise.  "You think you cannot be loved by another?"

"I hope that one day I can, but as it is now, none will.  I can only receive the love and kindness I desire if I pretend to be something else.  It's the curse of my kind.  To get what we need to live, we must live a lie at all times."

"Believe it or not, I hate lying.  I'd rather be honest and tell the truth when I can, but even without it being about the fact I'm actually a changeling, I know the truth can hurt, and it becomes preferable to lie."

The young cow looked at me for a few more moments, but then slathered a fresh coating of the magic-suppressing paste on my horn, then picked up the bowls and left.  My head fell back down into the dirt.

My one chance to convince one of these buffalo that I wasn't a monster like the other changelings, and I blew it.