Convention
“Okay, so now my…guy…thing…”
“Halfling.”
“Right, him…now he’s in this new room, so…what’s in here for him to face now?”
“Looks like an ogre.”
“What? Oh no, oh no, oh no, what do I do?”
“Now keep calm Thorax, and think about what you want to do next to—”
“Attack the ogre!”
“…are you sure?”
“What else am I supposed to do? If I don’t attack quickly, it’ll attack my guy-thing while he’s unprepared!”
“No, no Thorax, it doesn’t work like that…combat is turn-based in this game, so the ogre won’t…”
“Attack the ogre already guy-thing! Oh wait, I roll the dice, right?”
“…right, so to determine if your attack hits, but Thorax—”
“Please be a high number, please be a high number, please be a high number…oh balani.”
“Yeah…that’s definitely going to be a miss. So, uh, I guess roll again to…”
“Attack the ogre again, guy-thing!”
“No, no…Thorax, it’s the ogre’s turn to attack now, I keep telling you…”
“What sort of fight allows the combatants to take turns striking blows at each other?”
“This one does, and you had your turn now, so…”
“I’m attacking again anyway. Please be a high number, please be a high number—”
“Thorax, if you roll that dice, I’m only going to count it towards the hit damage the ogre deals to your character.”
“…Fine. Please be a low number, please be a low number, please be a low number…ab amorem Informis Unius!”
“Uh, yeah, uh…so the ogre dealt you a critical hit and um…”
“How critical?”
“Well…roll again to find out exactly.”
“Always with the rolling in this game…there. Now, how critical?”
Spike looked up at Thorax from across the Ogres & Oubliettes starter playing set laid out between them and set down the guidebook in his claws. “Let me put it this way,” he said, forcing a grin as he steepled his claws together. “…would you like to play again?”
Thorax groaned and let his undisguised head thud heavily against the box they were using as a tabletop, the jolt knocking over a couple pieces in the role-playing game. “Auuugggghhh, I’m horrible at this game!”
“So you’re struggling to wrap your head around it,” Spike said as he moved to reset the pieces. “A lot of beginners struggle on their first go.”
Thorax lifted his head just enough to wearily gaze at Spike. “This is the fifth game you’ve made me play since you got the set.”
“And you still haven’t managed to finish one yet so I’m still considering it your first,” Spike reasoned calmly. “Basically Thorax, I’m going to get you to learn Ogres and Oubliettes somehow, even if it’s the last thing I do.” Finished, he picked up the guidebook again, flipping back to the start. “Now, like I keep telling you, you’re forgetting that combat in this game is turn-based. That means all parties take turns to strike at enemies.”
“How is that realistic?” Thorax asked, straightening suddenly, throwing his hooves out. “No real life combat situation is going to work like that.”
“Thorax, it’s just a game. It’s not supposed to emulate real life.”
“I thought it was. Isn’t that the whole point behind the use-your-imagination aspect of the game? To make it seem as real and immersive to the player as possible?”
“Well…yes and no…it’s…” Spike trailed off in a sigh, running his claws through his green spines for a moment. “Okay, I’ll admit it—you’re struggling to get the point of role-playing games more than I thought…but because Fly’s flat out refused to play the game with me, the only alternative I have is to play the game by myself, and you can’t really do that. And I didn’t spend twenty bits on this starter set just to have it go to waste, so…”
“No, no, I get it,” Thorax said wearily, cradling his head in his holey hooves. “You’re eager to have someone play with you. And I really am trying to learn it Spike, if so to appease that for you…but…” he blew a raspberry in frustration. “I guess I only have so much patience for my own lack of comprehension of this game. Can we take a break and do something else for a little bit now?”
Spike regarded the game spread out before him and sighed heavily, debating to himself. He was spared having to give an answer though when a knock rang on the closed door to their room.
“Hey guys, can I come in for a second?” Fly Leaf called from the other side.
Thorax sat upright again and quickly put on his usual disguise with a flash of cyan flames. As Spike was already in disguise, the dragon having reached the point that he habitually put on the disguise regardless of whether or not he actually needed to, the disguised changeling turned his attention to the door. “Come on in, Miss Fly.”
Fly opened the door and stepped in, quickly surveying what the two were doing, and grinned. “Still playing that role-playing game, huh?” she asked.
“Trying to,” Spike replied with a weary grin. He noticed a sheet of paper in the mare’s hoof and nodded his head at it. “So what’s up?”
“Well,” Fly began with a grin, sitting herself down beside her two employees. “Every year right as the autumn season is about to begin, the city of Vanhoover arranges to have one of those large cruise liner airships moored at the mooring spire of the Martingale Building downtown, and then open up the interior space of the airship to house a promotional convention for businesses both local and abroad to advertise their products, wares, services, or whatever they specialize in to attendees. They call it the Autumn Display Event, and this year’s will be held next week.” She held up the paper in her hoof. “My point with all this though is that I typically sign up for a cheap booth to promote the shop at every year. I was in the middle of filling out the application paperwork here though, when I realized I could register for a bigger booth than normal…if I can count on the extra help to run it.”
“You want us to come with and assist then,” Thorax summarized.
Fly nodded. “Only if you two want to, though,” she continued. “Running the booth is usually not a very glamorous affair, so I’m not going to make either of you come if you don’t want to. This is more me inviting you to come. But…every pony running a booth at the convention does get free passes into the convention, which means you’d both get the chance to look around a little at no cost to you during breaks. There’s also a celebratory dinner and show held in the evening at the end of the event for all the ponies that had set up booths that you could attend too, which makes for a nice reward after a day’s hard work. So what do you two say?”
Thorax and Spike looked at each other, considering the matter briefly.
“Well, I’ve never been on an airship before,” Thorax admitted finally, Spike spying the same sort of gleam in his eye like he had when he got to ride a train for the first time.
Spike, however, had other concerns. “It’s tempting,” he admitted. “But with all the crowds of unfamiliar ponies running around and all, most of them not even from our area…” Spike directed a knowing glance at Thorax, implying the fact that the convention would probably be too public and too filled with outsiders for it to be wise for two in-hiding outcasts to attend. “…I think that’s not really something I want to deal with right now. Besides, after that fiasco with Thornton and the police just recently, I daresay neither of us needs the excitement.”
Thorax looked a little put out by this, but he caught Spike’s concealed point and sighed. “Yeah, I suppose you might have a point there…after that, I don’t really know if I’d want to put myself out in public like that just yet…”
“Besides, that means we could stay here and run the shop while Fly’s at the convention,” Spike suggested. “That way it wouldn’t have to close in the meantime, and you could get business both ways.”
Fly blinked and looked thoughtful at this. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she admitted, and sounded like she wasn’t against that idea. “Still though…your added help at the convention would be wonderful if I can get it, and I’m sure I can do something to make it worth your while. But again, I’m just asking, seeing if you two are interested. Spike’s actually got a pretty good idea leaving you two behind to run the shop, so that definitely an option too.
Thorax didn’t want to make a choice recklessly though. He glanced at Fly Leaf. “How much time do we have to consider it?”
“Preferably, I need to know today,” Fly said. “I need to get this application in as soon as I can before everypony else snatch up the remaining booths that are left in my price range to rent.” She shrugged. “Sorry, I would’ve brought it up sooner, but I’m just so used to going to the convention on my own that I didn’t think I might not have to this year until literally fifteen minutes ago.”
“It’s okay Fly,” Spike said with a reassuring grin.
“What sort of things would there be to see anyway if we did go?” Thorax asked, curious.
Fly glanced at the application form in her hoof. “Well, lots of things, of course. There’ll be plenty of local businesses advertising their wares, but there will also be things from all over this area of Equestria coming to promote upcoming products…publishers, developers, arcade game makers, radio shows…” she grinned suddenly, her hoof tapping one entry in the list apparently included on the form. “Here’s one that might interest Thornton; an officially sponsored Doctor Hooves booth, advertising the release of their next set of episodes on record, a teaser for an upcoming yet-to-air production, and at the end, a signing session for fans with the show’s lead actor…the stallion that plays the titular character himself, it looks like.”
Fly had Thorax’s attention the moment she said the words “Doctor Hooves,” but by the time she finished, his eyes had grown very wide. He turned to look at Spike. “We’re going,” he simply announced to the dragon.
Spike blinked and attempted to object. “But—”
“No, we’re going,” Thorax reiterated, interrupting.
With that, the matter was settled. And a week later, just shy of Spike and Thorax finishing their third moon in Vanhoover, the three arose early in the morning, packed a simple cart in Fly Leaf’s possession with the supplies needed to run their booth, and departed across town for the Martingale Building the airship the convention was to take place on was already docked at. Said building was an older and fairly blockish structure arranged in a roughly “T” shape, but was fairly respected by locals, at one time the tallest in the city before being surpassed by newer creations, and thus considered a historical landmark in the city. Spike was fairly partial to the building’s classic art-deco stylings himself, and Thorax himself had commented on occasion when they walked past the building that he longed to see the inside. They finally had their chance today, as the only practical way up to the airship docked with the tower was through the building itself, and stepped in the massive line of other ponies coming to set up or run booths for the convention that stretched out its doors.
Today however, it was not the building that was the center of everybody’s attention, but that of the airship moored to the elegant spire that jutted from the building’s highest roof, serving as an anchoring point for the craft. Having spent the early years of his life in Canterlot, renowned as a focal point for airship travel, Spike had seen his share of airships in the past, and had even ridden on a small one a couple times in years past, thanks to a friend to Twilight’s family that had often invited them to join him on short cruises about the sky. Nonetheless, this airship bore a presence that deserved immediate respect. Built as a cruise liner normally like Fly Leaf had explained before, the ship’s body bore at least five long and wide decks, not counting it’s quarterdeck that rose a deck or two higher at the aft of the craft. The lighter-than-air balloon that supported it all was even bigger; nearly double in size so to be able to keep the sizeable craft aloft. It was hard not to gaze up at it in awe as it hung there above them. Even ponies that were just passing on the street all tended to stop and gaze up at it for a moment.
It would be some more minutes still before the three could get up to it though. First, they had to wait in line until they could step up to a long table set up in front of the building’s entrance, serving as a makeshift admittance booth. Once there, Fly had to take the time to confirm she was all properly signed for a booth in the convention and everything, as well as sort out some final registration paperwork, which Spike and Thorax both had to sign as well. Then, as they obviously couldn’t take Fly’s cart of supplies up through the building with them, Fly also arranged to have a pegasus on staff for this purpose hitch up to her cart and fly it on up to the airship for her, parking it in the craft’s cargo hold, and this required the filling out of another form so to sort out a free spot for the cart to be parked in said cargo hold.
That done, they were finally free to enter the lobby of the building, only to face yet another line for another registration table, at which (once it was finally their turn) Fly had to again confirm she had properly signed up for everything, and she, Spike and Thorax were all given the appropriate passes to wear into the convention, as well as various papers about the convention rules, the planned schedule for the day, and a sizeable map of where everything would be at. The process took some minutes, during which Spike and Thorax passed the time by taking in the actually very impressively built lobby, making the wait tolerable. Afterwards, they had the option of heading up to the spire where the airship was docked either by one of the elevators or the stairs…all of which had lines of their own. Fly opted for the elevator, reasoning that once they were inside, the ride up to the top would be fairly quick. However, the elevator car was also filled to capacity with ponies once they did get in, leading to Thorax nearly getting a panic attack by how claustrophobic it all was, the changeling in hiding not feeling entirely comfortable having to literally rub elbows with so many others like this.
Overall, it took nearly forty-five minutes before they could finally reach the docking area, but at last they finally did and were able to file one by one (and thus explaining the lines) aboard the airship via a catwalk. Though the catwalk was built onto the building and quite solid, both Fly and Spike proceeded with a degree of caution, intimidated by just how very high up they were, but Thorax showed no such fear and, excited to board an airship for the first time, pranced ahead of the others and was the first of the three to formally step onto the airship. Once there, he continued forward a few steps, then oddly stopped and looked down at his hooves for a moment. By the time Fly and Spike caught up with him just a few seconds later, he had begun to jump up and down repeatedly.
“Thornton?” Fly questioned, raising an eyebrow as she approached.
“I can feel the airship floating underneath my hooves,” Thorax explained simply, jumping up and down a couple more times before resorting to prancing in place a few times as if he was standing on something hot, an eager grin on his face. “It feels weird, but you can’t help but like the sensation, can you?”
However Fly and Spike simply exchanged glances before peering down at their own feet. “Feels as solid as the building we just left to me,” Spike remarked aloud, not understanding what Thorax was talking about.
Fly’s eyes rolled up slightly and became unfocused for a moment as she attempted to concentrate and find the sensation Thorax spoke of. “Yeah, I’m not feeling it either,” she admitted.
Thorax looked both a little surprised and put out by this, going still. “Oh,” he admitted, deciding it was better to drop the subject than press it then. “I guess it’s just me then. Never mind.”
As they proceeded further into the airship, Spike caught up with Thorax. “What was that about?” he asked.
Thorax fidgeted on his hooves for a moment. “It must be a changeling thing,” he reasoned softly so Fly wouldn’t overhear. “But I can sense the airship is in the air…it doesn’t feel solid to me, even if it is docked and motionless, but…in a good way.” He couldn’t help but grin again. “It actually kind of makes me giddy to feel.” He turned puzzled. “I’m not sure why you and Miss Fly can’t sense it.”
Spike shrugged. “Well, hidden though they are at the moment, you are the only one of us who has wings,” he reasoned. “So it wouldn’t surprise me that you would have something to sense it with that we wouldn’t.” He put one set of claws on Thorax. “But to play it safe…let’s keep this to ourselves for now, okay?”
“Okay,” Thorax agreed, and pressed onward, walking normally thereafter. Although whenever he thought nobody was watching, Spike would occasionally catch him giddily prancing in place, enjoying this apparent sensation.
The place where they came aboard the airship happened to be on the bottommost deck of the airship, and luckily on the same deck as the cargo hold where they found Fly’s cart of supplies waiting for them, just a short distance away. Unluckily though, it was increasingly becoming apparent that the cart was being more hindrance than use, as they still couldn’t take it with them on up to the spot where Fly had been registered to set up her booth; some of the intervening corridors were simply a foot too narrow. They finally had to resort to unloading the cart there in the cargo hold and carry themselves what they had brought a little at a time up to the needed location, some four decks above them. It was a long and tedious process, but fortunately the convention wouldn’t formally start and open to the public for another hour, giving them just enough time to get everything moved and set up at their booth. They finished in time for the opening ceremony to begin on the top deck of the ship, where the mayor of Vanhoover—a greying brown stallion with what Spike was certain had to be the biggest mustache in the world—gave a brief speech welcoming everypony. After running through some last minute notes, the rules, and the schedule for the convention, the event formally began, and the trio returned to their booth to open it up for service and anypony that came their way.
Their booth was luckily located along a hallway running along the outer hull of the airship, and was along a major lane of traffic for the convention, making them highly visible to passersby. Additionally, the far wall of the hallway was lined with viewports giving a view outside, which drew further attention from passing patrons…although Thorax wasn’t pleased with the view, complaining that they were on the “wrong side of the airship” and that their view was blocked by the mooring spire of the Martingale Building right outside. Business seemed to be good though, and though the amount of it seemed less than what they would normally see back at the shop, Fly commented it was still more than what she had seen for her booth at past conventions, and reasoned it was because she was able to justify renting the bigger booth thanks to being able to count upon Spike and Thorax’s added support. Indeed, her booth—a series of tables arranged in roughly a square shape around a central table—was one of the notably larger ones in comparison to many of the ones neighboring them.
Other likely factors was the fact that Fly was also using the opportunity to advertise the new products she was now able to sell thanks to her recent contract with the prominent distributor she had recently succeeded in obtaining, and had made it a point to display this as a central feature of her booth. A number of ponies coming to their booth were in fact quite interested in these new products, especially as Fly was able to promote selling them at a competitive price in comparison to her competition. Which was another likely factor to their success—they eventually got word that Fly’s business rival, Letterpress, had opened a booth for her own shop at the convention, but unlike Fly, Letterpress had chosen to not attend so to run it herself and instead left this task up to two bored and lowly employees that very much didn’t want to be there. As such, they lacked any real enthusiasm in promoting their wares, which a couple of ponies noted aloud when they visited Fly’s booth later. One of the regulars at Fly’s shop, Mrs. White, visited both booths, and commented to Fly that this attitude at the rival booth made Letterpress’s shop feel “corporate and unfriendly” in comparison. Fly naturally took all of this as a win for herself in the ongoing rivalry between the two shop owners.
They were busy running the booth continuously for the rest of the morning as the convention proceeded onwards as planned. Finally, as noon drew near and other ponies started turning their attention away from the booth and towards getting lunch, Fly decided Thorax and Spike had earned themselves a break, and permitted them to go off and explore the rest of the convention while she stayed at the booth and handled the lowered lunchtime patrons herself. Thorax, waiting for this chance, jumped at it, and knew exactly where he wanted to go first; the Doctor Hooves booth which had already taken the time to determine was located two decks below them. He dragged Spike along with, and even though the dragon wasn’t especially interested in the booth himself, he permitted himself to come along, reasoning it would be best if they stuck together so they could keep each other out of trouble. As they drew nearer to the booth, they started to see other attendees here to visit the same booth start to appear more and more, always standing out from the rest of the crowd as they were almost always dressed up in some sort of a Doctor Hooves-related cosplay, and soon their numbers were so great both Spike and Thorax couldn’t help but turn and survey the growing crowd of fans as they moved through it.
“Certainly are dedicated, aren’t they?” Spike remarked aloud skeptically, raising an eyebrow while watching two fans argue about how canonical the types of stitching they had used to make their costumes were.
“Yeah,” Thorax agreed, who surprisingly wore a frown. He gazed down at his disguised body, which was currently bare as he had left his now-trademark jacket at Fly’s booth because he had gotten too warm in it. “It’s actually making me feel like I’m a little…underdressed…for this.”
Spike chuckled. “Well, unfortunately, it’s a little late to fix that,” he observed aloud.
Thorax paused to think, rubbing his chin. “Actually, maybe not,” he admitted, and began looking around for the ideal spot to carry out what he was planning.
Soon he had found it, and acting very casually, ducked behind a sizeable booth as they walked past it. Spike saw the faint flicker of a cyan flash, and then Thorax stepped back out and rejoined him from the other side, still disguised as Thornton as usual, but the disguise altered so that he now bore an impressive costume in the image of the radio show’s titular character. Pleased with the results, Thorax shot Spike a smug smirk.
Spike grinned himself, but in a more teasing manner. “Cheater,” he remarked.
“Shush,” Thorax quipped back, grin not dampened in the least as they pressed on.
There was naturally a line at the booth when they arrived, but this didn’t deter Thorax any, and the wait eventually proved worth it for him, as he got to meet with the radio show’s lead actor as he hoped; a rather friendly brown stallion who was clearly the same stallion pictured on the album art for the show’s releases on record just in costume, and who autographed Thorax’s first series album cover that Thorax had brought along for explicitly this purpose. They then were able to listen to a teaser of an upcoming episode that got Thorax all excited to hear the rest when it was scheduled to fully air on the radio in another couple of weeks. They also looked at the newest release of Doctor Hooves episodes on record that the booth was also selling, but even Thorax was forced to admit that he could buy the same album cheaper in stores, and with some unwillingness was able to keep himself from buying here at the convention. All in all, they walked away from the booth with Thorax feeling very pleased with the visit and still in the spirit of it all. He also got some comments of approval for his “costume” which made him want to leave it on and keep wearing it for the remainder of the day, but Spike pointed out to him that Fly had seen him come in without it and would only ask where he had gotten it when she next saw him, so reluctantly Thorax ducked behind another booth to tweak his disguise again, removing the costume.
That done, Thorax didn’t have anywhere else he had a particular desire to visit, and Spike didn’t have anything he especially wanted to visit, so they proceeded to walk around at random, looking for anything that might catch their interest. If and whenever they found something as such, they would stop and look for a few moments. One such booth that briefly caught their eye was one promoting a children’s show, but as Spike regarded the booth critically, he couldn’t help but notice that those visiting it weren’t just foals in the intended age group but also more fully grown ponies clearly of no association with any of the foals present.
“‘The Magic School Carriage?’” Spike remarked aloud as he gazed at the booth with some skepticism.
“Apparently it’s a popular series of children’s books turned into a radio show,” Thorax remarked as he read a description on a nearby sign. “It was designed to teach foals things like science through a sort of educational entertainment format. It seems it’s been off the air for a few years, but now they’ve begun production on new episodes in a sort of “reboot,” I suppose.”
“Which is all fine and good,” Spike assured as he regarded the more adult ponies idly looking through the booth with a sense of fond gladness. “But I just don’t see why it’s appealing to these more grown-up ponies that are clearly not targeted for it.”
“Not anymore at least,” Thorax reasoned, turning to look at Spike. “But it’s been around just long enough that it’s quite possible that some of these adults had grown up with it as foals back when it was still in production before. Now that it’s coming back, they’re feeling a bit of nostalgia for how they had known it back in their day.” He shrugged. “Besides, I suppose it just testifies to how successful it had been. Perhaps what they learned from the show inspired them to go on and do other things as they grew up, maybe even eventually get successful careers out of it.”
Spike snorted at Thorax’s optimistic outlook of it. “Well, even if that’s the case, I’d hate to have my fate in the hooves of somebody influenced by something like that,” he grumbled, turning away.
Thorax merely grinned and rolled his eyes, silently following without further comment.
Later, they came across a small seminar being held, in which the scheduled presenter was going to give a series of “key” tips on how to be a successful writer. As Spike’s own interest and experimentation in writing had continued to persist, now reaching the point that he was interested in committing fully to it, he decided to sit in on the seminar and learn some of these tips. Thorax joined him out of curiosity and so to keep company.
“How are your writing endeavors coming along?” the disguised changeling asked as they got themselves sat down.
“Slow,” Spike admitted, Thorax sensing a small amount of concealed glumness wafting out from the dragon. “I mean, I’ve got plenty of ideas, a couple of which might actually be pretty good…but I haven’t been able to focus on just one, and keep bouncing around between them, and I’m finding that’s not really getting me anywhere.” He shrugged. “Besides, it turns out it’s harder to compile a…clear…picture of the universe a story might be set in than I thought, and working that all out is pretty tedious. Most of what I’ve written thus far is really just pages upon pages of notes for a story I haven’t even begun to think about seriously writing still. It doesn’t help that I really don’t have a lot of past experience doing all of this, and have sort of just trying to figure it out all myself on the fly.” He sighed. “Still…I guess it’s still progress, and every now and then I get something actually story-related jotted down.”
“Hmm,” Thorax hummed to himself as he processed all of this. “Well…if you’d like, I’d be more than happy to read whatever it is you’ve got thus far and give you my thoughts…maybe give you an idea if you’re on the right track.”
Spike immediately shook his head. “No, no,” he said. “None of it is ready yet for somebody to read yet, and I know it. It’d be better if I can get it all a bit closer to completion before I start letting anybody other than me read it.”
Thorax frowned, not certain if he agreed, but decided not to argue, aware he probably knew even less about writing. “If you say so,” he said.
They proceeded to listen as the seminar began, but ultimately they didn’t stay for the whole thing. Thorax ended up finding it incredibly boring to the point that he started to doze off, and Spike had no interest in repeating what had happened the last time Thorax had dozed off while in disguise. Besides, though Spike kept it to himself, he found the presenter’s politely matter-of-factual style of speaking reminded him greatly of Twilight, dredging up mixed feelings he wasn’t prepared to handle at the moment. So they left and continued on with their aimless wanderings. Eventually they came upon what would normally be a sizeable gym on the airship, except the room had been completely cleared and filled instead with displays from various music-related stores throughout the Vanhoover area, most of them using the space to put instruments for sale on display. Among them, Thorax was able to spy Xylophone and Metallophone, the owners of the shop he had entered posing as Vinyl Scratch, and made it a point to steer clear of both of them, Metallophone especially, even though neither of the two ponies recognized him in his disguise as Thornton.
Instead, they wandered around, looking at the instruments. Eventually, Spike spied an elegant looking upright piano among them, and after a moment’s debate, decided to sit himself down before it, popping his knuckles as he refamiliarized himself with the ivory keys.
Thorax moved to stand just behind Spike, watching. “You play?” he asked.
“A little,” Spike admitted as he hesitantly placed his claws on the keys. “Obviously, I haven’t had the chance to do it for a few of moons.” He grinned slyly. “But I betcha you can’t do this.”
He then proceeded to play the concert B-flat major, arpeggio, and chromatic scales in that order, and quite rapidly, all well under thirty seconds. He then smugly turned to Thorax, who regarded the dragon innocently for a moment. Then Thorax repeated the same scales sounding as they had when Spike played them on the piano, but all solely with his mouth and voice.
Spike’s jaw dropped. “How did you do that?” he exclaimed.
Now it was Thorax’s turn to grin. “You forget changelings are creatures of mimicry,” he instructed calmly. “And thus we all basically have perfect pitch from birth, at least once properly trained to use it.”
“Yes, but that all sounded like you had played it on the piano like I just did, not singing the notes aloud with your voice,” Spike said, motioning to the keys of the piano.
“I suppose I should clarify what I mean by perfect pitch; changelings can mimic the sound of any instrument…or at least I’ve never heard of an instrument a changeling couldn’t emulate,” Thorax elaborated. “Basically, changelings are their own instruments. In bygone days, changelings would play whole songs themselves through this type of mimicry, using none of the actual instruments.”
“Huh!” Spike repeated, impressed. “I guess you wouldn’t need orchestras when you’ve got at least one changeling,” he remarked.
“Well, to be fair, in order to mimic the sound perfectly, a changeling can only mimic the sound of one instrument at a time, like what I just did,” Thorax said, and then again demonstrated the skill, repeating the sounds of the scales with his mouth. He frowned afterwards. “It takes practice and training to do it really well that I haven’t had, though,” he admitted, discontent with the quality of his mimicry. “I’ve only got a passing experience and all of that I’ve learned by ear myself. It’s not as perfect as it should be.” He again repeated part of the first scale, and, listening closely, Spike realized what he meant. Thorax’s mimicry of the sounds was slightly tinny and not quite precise, but still easy enough for Spike to miss normally. Thorax then sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, the practice has fallen out of favor anyway,” he concluded.
Spike frowned, noting Thorax’s slightly dejected look. “How do you mean?”
“Well, like I said, a changeling can only emulate one instrument at a time, so, generations ago, it used to be that groups of changelings would get together and form their own orchestra with each changeling standing in for a specific instrument, and perform full songs that way,” Thorax explained whimsically. He sighed again. “But it’s no longer a favored pastime these days, and Queen Chrysalis has actively discouraged it during her reign, speeding the practice’s demise, as she doesn’t see it as a practical use of the hive’s time and resources.” He ran one hoof over the piano keys longingly. “I’d love to see the practice return one day…but I guess it’d be too much to hope for.”
A moment of silence fell between them. Spike, wanting to do something to cheer up his friend, turned back to the piano keys before him, and thought about playing a happy song to improve the mood. After only a moment’s consideration, he then set about playing an old favorite. There were also words to the song, but Spike wasn’t practiced at singing and playing at the same time, and could only at best sporadically hum parts of the melody aloud. He quickly found himself quite engrossed in playing the song that at one point he realized he had lost track of what Thorax was doing, the disguised changeling not in his immediate range of view. But as he reached the halfway point in the song, he heard some shuffling of hooves just behind him and sensed Thorax leaning closer, curious.
Spike grinned to himself as he continued to play, guessing Thorax was wondering how he came to learn how to play. “Before she moved out, Twilight’s mother had always wanted her to learn how to play piano,” he explained aloud to his friend without looking away from the keys. “But when Twilight never got around to it because of her studies, I ended up learning a little bit of it myself. I have to admit that I’ve never been too empathic about it, at least not enough to pursue doing it professionally or learning more than just a few songs myself…but it was a fun past time that I’m finding I had missed doing when I could.”
It was then that a voice that was very much not Thorax spoke right behind him. “Who’s Twilight?”
With a cacophonous jolt that abruptly terminated the song early, Spike whipped around and realized the figure that had been standing just behind him wasn’t Thorax like he thought, but none other than Fly Leaf herself, regarding the dragon curiously. “Fly!” he exclaimed, shocked and ashamed at himself at his lack of caution in relating a tale potentially sensitive to his true identity. “I thought you were Thora—I mean—Thornton!” He glanced around, befuddled. “Where is Thornton?”
“Over there,” Fly responded, pointing her hoof a bit further down the room where Thorax now stood, curiously regarding Crystal Empire-style flugelhorn on display. “He must have wandered off while you weren’t looking.” She shook her head, turning back to Spike. “Sorry Spark, I didn’t mean to startle you at any rate. Things just slowed down at the booth because it’s lunchtime, and I heard there was a booth selling meals elsewhere in the convention that everypony seems to be enjoying. So I was wondering if I could talk you and Thornton into coming back to the booth and watching over it while I go to this booth and get us some lunch, my treat.”
Spike blinked, then, understanding, nodded and jumped down from the piano bench he had sat himself upon. “Sure, that’d be great!” he said, eager for the distraction from the piano and what Fly might have overheard him say while playing it. “Let’s go fetch Thornton and we can be off.”
They both turned to catch up with the disguised changeling, but then Fly repeated her earlier question. “So who’s Twilight?” she asked again, proving she wasn’t going to be so easily distracted from the subject.
Spike bit his lip, debating to himself for a moment. “Just a friend I knew,” he replied vaguely then added. “A former friend at that…I guess we aren’t anything of the such now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Fly remarked. “If I may ask, what happened?”
Spike sighed. “I don’t really want to talk about it.” He stopped, turning to face Fly. “But to make a very long story short, we basically came to a severe disagreement about things, and eventually I got fed up and…and left.” He shrugged sadly. “And…she let me. Leaving me alone. So that ended that.”
Fly made a small wince. “I’m sorry,” she apologized again truthfully. “No one should have to lose a friend, not like that. I wish for your sake it hadn’t come to that.” She stepped closer now, putting on a warm grin. “But I assume after all that was when you met Thornton, and eventually came here to Vanhoover, so it seems to me it all still worked out okay. Maybe for the better—you and Thornton seem to be doing all right in life now.”
Spike felt the corners of his mouth turn upward in a grin, forced to agree. “Yeah,” he said. He looked up at Fly Leaf. “I guess that’s what matters now, isn’t it?”
Fly’s grin broadened as she patted Spike with her hoof and slipped past him without replying, proceeding on to collect Thornton. Feeling heartened himself, Spike followed without further comment himself. After they had caught up with Thornton and Fly explained her proposal, to which Thornton readily agreed to, Spike and Thornton returned to the booth and continued operating it themselves while Fly collected lunch as agreed. Fly hadn’t been exaggerating when she said that patrons visiting their booth had slacked off with the arrival of lunchtime, leaving it a relatively easy task, but it was starting to pick up again when Fly returned with the lunch she had purchased, which they all shared while they worked to run their booth.
The food did indeed prove to be quite tasty as hoped and even Thorax, normally expected to not partake much of such solid foods given his changeling biology, partook of a fair bit of the lunch, more than either Spike or Fly anticipated. Spike even worried at one point that Thorax might overdo it and make himself sick, undesired flashbacks to the incident with the cherry pie springing to mind, but fortunately Thorax had more than enough self-control this time to prevent much chance of any such event. By the time the food was finished though, the convention was back in full swing and attendees were swarming the hallways of the airship once again.
Business continued to be productive for their booth for the remainder of the day after that, to the point that by that evening, as the convention began to formally draw to a close, Fly Leaf declared it a success, and as things were winding down, it was decided to begin packing up. They stopped halfway after hearing that the promised dinner and show reserved for everypony who had ran a booth at the convention as well as any patrons that had paid for tickets for any remaining available seating in advance was setting up to begin and that all who desired to participate to gather in the airship’s main dining room.
Both Fly and Spike prepped to go, but Thorax, still being quite enthralled with being on the airship, decided he’d rather go and explore the ship more, especially since it was going to be largely empty now that the convention was ending and the other attendees had left. Besides, he had heard that the ship had an observation deck located in her prow that he wanted to visit, hoping to catch the sunset from there. He was also immensely curious about what it would be like to travel in an airship, the idea appealing to him, and confessed he hoped to try and get some ideas about this before they had to go. Fly naturally had no problem with it, and while Spike was a bit more hesitant about Thorax going off on his own in this unfamiliar territory, he figured that, like Thorax, with the airship emptying now, there was far less chance of him getting noticed or caught in trouble, so he relented so long as Thorax agreed to be cautious and avoid doing anything that could get him in trouble, which Thorax readily agreed to.
So they went their separate ways, Thorax off to explore what he could of the airship while Spike and Fly headed to the main dining room and found the seats that had been reserved for them, circled about one of the many round tables that filled the dining room. They shared their table with a few other Vanhoover business owners that had ran booths of their own, one of which happened to be sat next to Fly and the two knew each other already. Soon they were chatting away as they waited for the dinner and show event to begin. For Spike, the seat immediately adjacent to him would’ve been filled by Thorax had he attended and thus was left empty, which he was inwardly thankful for as the next two seats over were occupied by a well-to-do business stallion and his trophy wife, the latter of whom Spike took an immediate disliking to. In fact, most of the ponies at their table seemed to secretly dislike her and her snooty, self-entitled, attitude, but Spike was sitting the closest to her, and was glad he had Thorax’s empty seat providing as a buffer between him and her.
The meal that was served shortly thereafter was an especially fancy one, featuring a pasta dish that Spike couldn’t pronounce the name of but was served with a white sauce and was altogether quite good, along with summer salad, a roll, and a serving of stuffed mushrooms. It proved to be very filling, but as special as the meal was, it proved to not be the highlight of the evening, because only moments after the meal was served, the show and entertainment portion of the event began on the dining room’s attached stage, proceeding while everyone ate. It was a variety show, and thus featured a wide assortment of acts. These included an ensemble jazz band, a lengthy improv comedy act, a brief one-act skit, a moving poetry reading, and a political satire sketch that went as far as poking good fun at all four of Equestria’s currently ruling princesses (which Spike found uproariously hilarious).
Then about halfway through the show, an unsuspecting looking brown stallion with a slate gray mane and light beard came onto the stage, and announced as a hypnotist who would now perform. He cheerily greeted the audience, and said all the usual things you’d expect from a performer, like how it was “great to be here” and that they were all “a wonderful audience.” He then joked about he could guarantee that they would love the show, because, as he was hypnotist, he was confident he could “persuade” them into enjoying the show. They all laughed at the not-so-subtle implications of his little gag, but at the same time, there was something gnawing at Spike about this stallion that he couldn’t quite place.
He continued to watch the stallion, attempting to place it, as the hypnotist went on to explain in brief how hypnotism supposedly worked to his listening audience, but making a number of jokes and wisecracks about it along the way, drawing more laughs. He was overall not being especially serious about it, so much so that Spike wondered at one point if he was actually a hypnotist at all and not just a comedian pretending to be one as part of some act. But eventually he concluded the explanation and was ready to begin.
“Now of course,” he said in a teasing, knowing, voice as he addressed the audience with a grin. “I’ll need to select a volunteer from the audience…preferably someone who doesn’t mind me playing with their free will just a little bit.”
This earned him a few more laughs but soon several ponies in the audience raised their hooves, eagerly hoping to be said volunteer. While the stallion scanned the crowd with more of his comedic exaggeration, there was some eager discussion at Spike’s table if any of them wanted to volunteer. Spike had half a mind to try and volunteer the stuck-up trophy wife himself, but he otherwise stayed out of the conversation, his attention focused still on the hypnotist himself. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something definitely bothered him about the stallion…something that felt like he knew from somewhere before. He was quite confident he had never seen the stallion before in his life, though. And yet…and yet…
His line of thought was all brought to a jarring halt when the stallion suddenly selected his volunteer, pointing his hoof right at Spike. “You there!” he declared finally. “You look like you’ll fit the ticket nicely!” When Spike blankly motioned to himself, uncertain the stallion really was pointing at him, the hypnotist nodded and waved one hoof to urge him forward. “Yes you, the little dragon in the sweater vest and glasses! Come on down!”
The rest of the audience began to cheer Spike on, urging him to proceed too. However Spike’s first instinct was to refuse, fearing his true identity might be discovered if he publically put himself out there for all to see like that, especially if he was going to be hypnotized and might be vulnerable to saying something he shouldn’t aloud for all to hear. But even Fly Leaf sitting beside him started to egg him on.
“Go on Spark, live a little!” she urged, nudging Spike in the side with her elbow. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen these sorts of hypnotist acts before, they’re harmless. It’s all just in good fun!”
Spike still wasn’t entirely convinced, but still inclined to trust in Fly at her word nonetheless, he relented, and among cheers from the other audience members rooting him on, he proceeded up for the stage. The hypnotist watched him approach, a big grin on his face, all of which was completely harmless in intent of course, but despite there was still something about it all that nagged Spike to the point that, by the time he stepped up onto the stage, he began to wonder if this was really a smart idea.
“Welcome, welcome!” the hypnotist greeted eagerly, taking Spike’s claws in his hoof to shake. “Do tell us your name!”
“Spark,” Spike responded automatically, self-consciously adjusting the false glasses he wore to ensure his disguise was fully in place and nervously stood before the whole audience.
“Spark, huh?” the hypnotist repeated with emphasis, which surprised Spike as he wasn’t sure why the stallion chose to do so. “Well, Spark, let’s begin, shall we? If you could take a seat here, I’ll get right to it.”
He motioned to a folding chair that had been set out in the center of the stage. Nervous and getting increasingly more on edge the longer he was there on stage with this bafflingly odd stallion, Spike stepped up to the chair and lowered himself into it, positioned so he could look out at the audience. He was able to pick out Fly Leaf from within the crowd, who cheerily waved in encouragement. Spike sheepishly waved back.
Meanwhile, the stallion pulled out a seemingly ordinary pocket watch, and wrapping its golden chain around one hoof, he dangled it out in front of Spike’s face and started to wave it back and forth. “Now Spark,” the stallion explained as he did this. “Do me a favor and concentrate on the pocket watch closely. Try and read what the time it shows on its face.”
Spike frowned at how cliché it all was, but surrendered and attempted to focus on the watch face as it swung back and forth before his eyes. It was really moving too fast for him to reliably do so, but he kept at it anyway.
“Now, you should be feeling relaxed, unwound, if not tired,” the stallion continued in a looming tone. “Don’t fight it, embrace it. Let it on into your being.”
Spike, however, didn’t feel anything of the such, and started to frown. His feelings that something was amiss in all of this began to mount, and, brow furrowing, started to turn his head to glance questioningly at the stallion. The stallion stopped him with his free hoof, keeping Spike from turning his head.
“When I stomp my hoof twice on the stage floor here,” he continued in his slightly gravely and deep voice. “You will lose all sense of reality, and then the real fun can begin…”
Spike couldn’t help but swallow nervously, severely questioning if this was really a smart idea as the hypnotist moved one hoof to hang ominously over the stage floor. He let it hang there for a long moment, dragging out the suspense. At one point he glanced at the audience and waggled his eyebrows teasingly, drawing laughter from them. Then, as the laughter was only just beginning to die down again, he rapped his hoof twice on the floor of the stage.
The audience suddenly froze mid-laugh.
Shocked, Spike did a double take and gazed out at the audience, frozen and unmoving right in the middle of whatever it was they had been doing at that moment. None of them moved, or even seemed aware of anything now. For a split second Spike wondered if it was all in his head, and that this was what it was like to be hypnotized, but the stallion beside him whisked the pocket watch away, tucking it back into his pocket while taking a couple steps back. “Well, now that we have that sorted,” he mumbled to himself as he did this.
Feeling very confused, Spike looked himself over and saw he still appeared to have complete control over himself and everything he did. Assured of that much, he rose from his seat and gazed at the crowd, still unmoving. “What did you do?” he demanded of the hypnotist.
“Well, I said I was going to hypnotize some ponies, did I not?” the stallion responded with a sly grin. “Don’t worry though, they’re all fine, and will have no memory of any of this once I snap them out of it. Instead they’ll think you were the one hypnotized and the act went on without a hitch so that I made you hop around the stage like a rabbit or something. Haven’t decided yet, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” His grin grew slyer still. “Point is, this gives us some time to chat.”
“Chat?” Spike repeated, spinning around to face the stallion and thinking he had every cause to be alarmed at this point. “About what? Who are you?”
The stallion pulled back as if surprised. “You mean haven’t already figured it out?” he asked, as if offended. “Well then fine, I’ll give you a big hint!” The stallion then abruptly vanished in a flash of light and was replaced with a very different and all-too familiar creature. “How about now? Is this better?”
Spike felt his stomach plummet, eyes going wide as he stared at the towering figure of mismatched anatomy that now stood before him. “Discord,” he breathed in fear.
The draconequus made an exaggerated and elegant bow. “The one and only,” he replied with a smirk.
And here you thought it was just going to be another purely slice of life chapter, didn't you? Nope! CLIFFHANGER ENDING! 
This chapter was originally going to be much shorter, focusing on only the dinner and show aspect, but back when I first introduced that Thorax was a fan of Doctor Hooves, a couple readers expressed interest in he and Spike attending a fan convention, and so I fleshed out the chapter to include that. Eventually, it became a small dumping ground for various related ideas I hadn't found spots for elsewhere in the story, and became a very fun chapter to write.
And if it interests anyone, the described Martingale Building of Vanhoover is modeled upon the real life Marine Building in real life Vancouver, except, obviously, with a prominent spire added for mooring an airship to. 
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Hoo boy, what a way to end the chapter. I had a feeling it was something like that at the end there, seemed a little too...off, at least compared to the tone of this story.
Discord now knows of the protagonists' location.
... Well shit.
8159493 Not to nitpick, but I feel like you spoiler tagged the wrong part of your comment.
Discord please don't screw this up
8159493 You say that like Discord would ever go out of his way to make Twilight's job EASIER. Honestly, other than Fluttershy, he may be the best person that could find out.... wait.... Did Fluttershy...?
i saw the title convention, and i thought it was going to be spike dragging them to an orks and ogres convention, also thought it was going into the stallion was a guard, though i'm happy its discord
<Is excited!
fluttershy and discord spoke! this will go either way
Well, then...
PLEASE LET DISCORD BE ON THEIR SIDE
PLEASE LET DISCORD BE ON THEIR SIDE
I was going to ask about discord role in all this but apparently he appeared at the end right before I was gonna ask
Airships? Looks like someone really likes steampunk…
Me, it's me.
On a separate note, I kinda had a feeling that either thorax or Spike would run into someone they knew sometime soon, I wasn't expecting it to be Discord but I'm glad it was.
There are so many little things that I like about this chapter, I think the pony you described that Discord was disguised as was similar to the one he was disguised as in the beginning of the season four finale, I think, and that's awesome. It's awesome how you have strange things happen and then let the reader piece it together bit by bit before revealing what's happening.
Also, someone needs to write a one shot about the comedy routine about the four princesses, please.
8159683 Fluttershy is
If you know what I mean
I think they left before discord reformation time period with Fluttershy he still learning friendship
and now twilight playing hardball that twist!
When it was mentioned that this was a trade show, I thought for certain he would run into rarity. I did not see that coming.
"Unassuming" I think you meant.
I dunno what everyone's worrying about. Recall that a certain someone flatly refused to help Twilight in her search...
Woo Discord! Woo story progress!!
8160018
Also, Fluttershy is already on their side, sooo...
In any case, it would be boring if they are not caught eventually.
Please please please tell me big Mac is here as well?! Spike and Discord need him to play OandO!
YOU SON OF A BI-
8160000
There could be a lot of pony's with the surname "Twilight."
8160707 Well, if this story uses the comics cannon (which it does) then most major cities have a dragon district.
8160000
Princess Twilight isn't the only Twilight in Equestria. Even if you don't count her mom, there would likely still be other ponies with the name Twilight. From Fly's perspective, it's much more logical to assume Spike/Spark is talking about some other Twilight than one of the princesses of Equestria.
8160906
Oh, good job me for forgetting to see if there was a second page of comments.
Well Spike hasn't really done too much to get himself recognized by most ponies outside the Crystal Empire, so it's reasonable for Fly not to know about him like that.
Ohhh dang. The slice of life has been great and all, but this is something I need to see.
I can't help but feel like Discord's considerably more open-minded than ponies in this regard, and might even be rooting for Thorax here just because of the parallels with his own situation... but if Fluttershy's been stressed out since Spike called her, then his mood won't be so charitable. Eager to see how this goes.
Great chapter, and what a cliffhanger.
Minute it revealed it was Discord I immediately pictured his disguise looking like ponyfied John Delancy, I don't even care if the descriptions don't match, that is how I am seeing him as.
8160818 Ponies (well, just about everyone in MLP, really) will fall for the most threadbare of disguises. The show pretty much backs that up.
As for Discord, I suspect he might be there in the role of a messenger, particularly if a recent odd police report wended its way Canterlot/Ponyville-ward.
My bro Discord! This had better be good.
Oh, WOW!
Okay, now I'm excited.
8159742
Actually, Discord's pony disguise is modeled upon this pony who John de Lancie also voiced, because it seemed oddly fitting, but I suppose the pony disguise you mention could've worked just as well. I had actually forgotten about it, honestly (which just goes to show it's been awhile since I've watched that particular episode).
On the subject of the comedy routine, I imagine there was a lot of jokes about Celestia's fondness for cake, Luna's antiquated manner of speaking, Cadance being the luv pony, and Twilight's nerdiness. I figure it was the jokes about Twilight that Spike especially found hilarious.
8159939
I suppose because she doesn't have a shop in the Vanhoover area specifically (yet), it wasn't a priority for her. But it's certainly a neat idea...pity it never even crossed my mind as a possibility, isn't it?
8160018
Eh, upon looking up both words, I've found both technically work for what I was shooting for (since the "unsuspecting" I used is an adjective that can literally just mean "not suspicious," the sort of descriptor I was looking for), so I guess I'll cite personal choice in this instance.
8160105
Well, first point; this being an AU fic, Spike wasn't around in Ponyville for the events of Dungeons and Discords and it's been implied that save for the gang (minus Twi) going to Yakyakistan still, the events of the episode didn't transpire, so that would probably mean Discord isn't playing the game yet (and even if he was, I'm quite sure he'd ONLY be playing it his way, and not the proper tabletop way). Second, as neat as it'd be, I admittedly can't see Big Mac being there unless Discord brought him...and as I already pointed out, why would he in this instance?
Besides...Discord has other reasons for being here.
8160906
All right, then as a courtesy to you, I won't also comment on the matter, seeing I'd only be repeating pretty much what everyone else has already beaten me to saying.
8161006
Well since I modeled the disguise off a pony modeled upon John de Lancie himself as he appeared at the time (see above), then technically you're correct to do so.
8161511 WORK IT IN WORK IT IN WORK IT IN!
First off - your a cunt for that ending.
Secound off - nice idea. It was the De Lancie pony but we never knew it. Now it'll be Thorax walking in just to be spotted... But hey! Maybe Fluttershy send him? To look into Spike's mind and check for truth.
8161511 Fair enuf! I've never seen it used that way before, I guess.
8160919 Okay, children, one of you is right. Depends if we agree that some comics are canon in this one. If they are - they have dragon districts in big pony cities close to the border and lots of ponies with the Name Twilight. The name itself doesn't mean aything. And considering it's the name that's given forward... well, it's like beeing called Letowski.
My answer to your cliffhanger:
Well, this is going to be an interesting little talk. And huh, interesting his senses pinged him before his mind did.
8161998 Fly has her subspitions but those are based on Spike's reactions.
A normal pony wouldn't know that much abaut Spike, hell - most people outright do not care for news and didn't pay attencion to the wanted papers, propably have the same iritated reaction as Fly. Some ponies do not even know of Princess Candance and Twilight beeing a thing because they just have their lives and don't care. It' s a society with a cult of work and without their leaders normally interfearing. Then there is the fact that the guard is shit...
To sum it up - considering 95% of the populance don't know who even the mane6 are, Spike is unegzistant. And as the wanted posters weren't convinient, nopony really remembers them all that much. Generic dragon, mass produced posters propably wouldn't be even coloured.
And finally you really don't belive in the impact of glasses - I personally look entirely diffrent with and without them as they obsure my nose and oversized eyepits.
Discord! Has fond you Spike!
'GASP'
Well Spike, your screwed
8162228
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8163103
img.memecdn.com/glasses-make-the-difference_o_2944273.jpg
Shit just got real. I wonder if Fluttershy told Discord about her meeting with Spike and Thorax or if he found out and decided to talk with them. Either way, nice chapter! Also, I don't know if it's just me, but i think you need to show a bit more than you tell. I mean, I just feel the scene where Discord revealed himself could've been ten times better if you described the way Spike's frown etched on his face at the tinge of familiarity of the Stallion's voice. Good work!
8163292
Since the subject's come up, there was at one time going to be a chapter during which I was going to make a gag about the exaggerated effect Spike's wearing glasses seemed to work on ponies, and how, to them, he was pretty much unrecognizable as Spike with them...but unfortunately that chapter got dropped from the line up (for reasons I'll probably explain upon the story's conclusion) and took that gag with it.
8164092 It's propably how dragons are just a diffrent species who's facial features are build so that ponies don't really have refrence points to tell them apart, besides horns telling the subspecies. At least baby dragons living in civilised conditions. We saw dragons back in the dragonlands who all had diffrent small defects, like overgrown teeth or overdeveloped body parts - propably because of irregular diets. In dragon districts of Equestria I'd wager dragons will look very alike because they actually eat reasonably and aren't guided solely by their wants. Now reminding that those wanted posters were propably black 'n white mass production... yeah...
I have this little piece of headcannon - which actually is possible cannon because it's how populations work - that states that Dragons aren't a terribly big populance with little genetic diversity. Remember the dragon migration? We can savely assume it's the whole population of the continent's dragons. Or rather, dragonic younth as most old dragons just sit on their piles of gold until they die, not really even ending up with offspring. Around 10-50 000 dragons [the migration size would suggest so] that are before their middle age is a low population, expecially considering that dragons live long, mature slowly and natural selection doesn't entire work on them as even malformed dragons survive.
That's why ponies have a hard time telling apart dragons. XD Glasses might just as well cover any simlarities in eyes of ponies, thus making him stand apart from the generic thug on the posters.
8164092
In the comics ("Friends forever issue 14") there is a small comunity of dragons living on Fillydelphia. I assume this is canon for the purposes of this fic so "Sparks" may pass more or less unnoticed in Vanhoover (since it would be very silly otherwise).
8165251
Since the comics are occasionally debatable on whether or not they count as canon, I've been leaving that detail largely up to the readers to decide. I don't expect to explicitly state one way or the other in the context of the story itself at present time.
Well, considering how lazy they've been about this whole living-in-hiding thing lately, it wasn't going to be long before they were caught anyway. Criminals are far more often caught due to their carelessness than any particularly skillful investigative work. From leaving the door unlocked while Thorax is out of disguise to going to big public event to actually getting fricking hypnotized on stage, it's like they want to get found out.
Yes, finally!
Huh, I have the same problem as Spike when it comes to writing.
With all the things the duo had let slip, I'll be surprised if Fly Leaf hadn't figured out who they are.
Discord! Oh, this is gonna be interesting.
....well, there boned. Lol