Middle-Ground
It was quiet in the acorn grove, and as Thorax strolled calmly through the expanse of oak trees, he saw nothing of any other changelings that may be present in the grove that evening save himself. This wasn’t especially surprising though; the acorn grove had grown to be over a mile in size thanks to the many generations of changelings that have tended to it; even when viewed from the hive standing some distance from the border marking the edge of the grove and the start of the Badlands, the grove appeared as a line of green and brown that looked to have no end. It was easy for a changeling to find a private spot within the grove to ponder and meditate in the peaceful aura of the acorns as long as they liked without ever being disturbed by another changeling, so Thorax thought little of the fact that he encountered no one else.
Instead, he thought with a grin just how much he had missed coming to the grove. It was one of the few things he missed about life in the changeling hive, and it had been too long since he had a chance like this to soak in the peace and serenity blanketing the woods. The tranquility was especially thick this evening. Thorax gazed up at the acorns growing on the tree limbs above him and could almost hear the blessed nuts whispering words of wisdom to him. It stirred his soul to have the chance to be there, taking it in.
After several minutes of peaceful strolling through the grove though, taking in the beauty and letting himself be lost to his thoughts, Thorax eventually stepped into a small clearing out on the farther edges of the grove and came to a stop when he saw, landed and parked neatly within the clearing but still clearly ready for takeoff at a moment’s notice, his air yacht, the Vergilius. Thorax was fleetingly surprised to see it here, but then became more enthralled as he gleefully started to trot closer to the elegant airship. Its gangplank was lowered, beckoning its changeling owner aboard, and Thorax was more than happy to do so. He had successfully earned and been issued his airship pilot’s license just earlier in the week, and he, Spike, and Fly Leaf had already been making plans to take the Vergilius out on her first cruise about Vanhoover that weekend…but Thorax was too eager to fly his air yacht at the moment to wait, and bounded on up the gangplank, stepping aboard the craft’s main deck, ready to begin to takeoff.
Once aboard, he took a moment to survey the main deck before him, double checking to make sure everything still appeared shipshape. Pleased to see that it was, he turned his head to look in the direction of the airship’s bowsprit to wonder where he wanted to take the craft, only to see the airship was already in the air. Peeking over the main deck’s railing, Thorax saw the craft was now several hundred feet in the air, sailing gracefully over the acorn grove now far below. Disoriented by the sudden change in location, Thorax raised his head and turned to face the main deck fully, only to see that the row of rigging mountings for holding the airship’s lifting envelope in place normally running down the center had been replaced with a long table, a white tablecloth draped over its whole length.
Half of the table was set with dishes of funeral potatoes, of which Thorax naturally had little interest in, but the other, closer, half was set with dishes of fresh and hot cherry pie. The heavenly scent of the pie tickled Thorax’s nose, his stomach rumbling in approval of the idea of eating the love-imbued dish even though Thorax would likely pay for doing so in the morning. Excited, the changeling moved to help himself to one of the pies, licking his lips. But even as he did so, he couldn’t help but sense that there was something more important to focus on, something that was nagging at him, and he still felt puzzled by these odd events regardless.
So with some reluctance he pulled himself away from the pies and gazed further ahead of the main deck. There, at the other end of the lengthy table and just before the Vergilius’s deckhouse stood a group of shadowy figures who seemed to be quietly observing him. Because of how they were clustered together, he couldn’t quite pick out how many there were or how many of them were ponies or something else. But he estimated there were at least three to four of them, and at least one tall figure rising above the others was clearly not equine. Believing he spied Trixie’s pointed hat being worn among the group though, Thorax started trotting down to greet her, eager to speak with the magician mare at the very least. But his pace slowed as he felt a niggling in the back of his head grow the closer he drew to the group, a sense that something was amiss and very wrong, that he had cause to be concerned that he was not safe, and it was very near.
A sense that something here did not belong.
Realization striking him suddenly, Thorax came to an abrupt halt and, with narrowed eyes, began to scan the Vergilius’s main deck determinedly, resolute to not permit this intruder he knew was hiding somewhere nearby escape him yet again. Eventually his gaze fell upon the deckhouse itself, and through its forward viewport he could see the ship’s helm. Propped up on the steering controls was a red-bound, hardcover, and impressive looking book, left open so the pages inside could be read. Thorax couldn’t make out the title from here, but his attention wasn’t on the book but on the nondescript figure studying it that stood behind the ship’s wheel. Suddenly becoming aware that Thorax was watching them though, the figure abruptly looked up, locked eyes with Thorax, and like before, its eyes went very wide then darted away from the helm, raced out of the deckhouse, and then threw themselves off the airship, diving overboard.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Thorax growled and, leaping over the table of food dividing him from the fleeing figure, he buzzed his wings and took to the air, immediately giving chase and diving after the intruder.
Already he was making far better progress than last time, quickly closing the gap between him and the intruder as they both shot down towards the ground far below. Thorax was so close he could easily sense the urgent terror within the intruder, anxious to escape, and within a few more seconds, Thorax was just inches from being close enough to grab the intruder’s tail with his hooves. A few more inches after that and he could grab the tail with his mouth if he so wished. But they reached the ground before either happened, and before Thorax could react, the intruder abruptly leveled out and shot off along a mere foot above the land then dropping onto the ground and proceeding on by hoof at a full gallop.
Thorax landed as well, intending to continue the pursuit, but halted as he was jarred by the realization that his surroundings had changed again. Instead of standing back in the acorn grove like he had expected as that had been clearly what the Vergilius had been flying over, he found himself standing just outside an unnamed and very ominous looking graveyard, the entrance in the picket fence surrounding it looming before him and through which the intruder slipped. It didn’t help the weather had also taken the chance to turn very gloomy, foggy, and overcast, adding to the terrain’s very eerie appearance. Thorax felt a shudder of fear run down his spine, and sensed that something he wouldn’t want to encounter lay beyond that graveyard’s entrance.
But that was also where the mysterious intruder had fled, and still determined to not let whoever or whatever it was escape him this time, Thorax eventually pushed past his trepidation and surged on into the graveyard, following the intruder’s trail while dodging tombstones. Then after heading some distance into the graveyard, the intruder’s trail suddenly vanished. Worried and thinking perhaps he had simply wandered off the trail, Thorax looked back to pick it up again, only to see the trail behind him had vanished as well. So had the graveyard’s exit, eliminating any way of leaving, at least by hoof.
Involuntarily gulping, Thorax trudged onwards, continuing his search blindly, but growing increasingly antsy, bracing himself against anything jumping out and attacking him as he was beginning to suspect this could only end in. It didn’t help that the fogginess of the night had increased, reducing his visibility to maybe about ten to fifteen feet ahead of him, making it harder to tell what might lie ahead. Still, Thorax centered his attention on the intruder, now long gone from sight, and focused on finding the figure and ensuring that this time he got some answers about it.
Some minutes of aimless searching passed as Thorax wandered through the rows of aging gravestones, very worried that sooner or later he was going to come across something he would dread encountering. His fears were finally realized when a grave he was passing suddenly stirred, and a purple hoof burst free from the loam. Startled, Thorax jumped back and looked on in horror as he watched Princess Twilight Sparkle literally rise from the grave, smudged from head to tail in dirt and her fur slick with some kind of green slime. Most ominous of all though was the deep and bloodied stab wound that was prominently featured on her chest.
“Huc debemus non esse!” she uttered in a cryptic and strong voice, pulling herself free of the grave fully and starting to move towards Thorax, repeating the phrase with every confident step.
Alarmed greatly, Thorax pulled back from the mare’s advances, moving to put some distance between him and the mare. But this action was brought to a halt when a neighboring grave behind him also shuddered, and now Starlight Glimmer started to pull herself free from within the grave. Her body was also dirtied and scratched all over and bearing an unsightly stab wound to the chest, and like Twilight, immediately turned her attention to Thorax, advancing towards him.
“Huc debemus non esse!” she also declared, her tone and diction mirroring that of Twilight’s, so much so that soon the two were repeating the phrase continuously with every step they took and quickly falling into sync.
Growing increasingly frightened and the intruder largely forgotten for the moment, Thorax adjusted his position so to safely back away from the two mares, at a loss on what he could do as he watched the two steadily approach him, their movements fluid and unhindered, yet also unhurried, no more than a calm walk in terms of pace. Regardless, Thorax had no desire to stick around to see how this played out and turned to hurry onward, accelerating to a light canter as he moved to put as much distance between him and the two mares. It did little to help though, because as Thorax moved away from the mares, more graves he passed broke open to reveal others rising from the depths within.
Soon the list of individuals emerging from the graves to pursue Thorax grew to be quite large, and included a wide range of those Thorax had met or knew at some point in his life; Fluttershy, Fly Leaf, Ragg, Sunburst, Princess Cadance, Letterpress, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, and even little Flurry Heart were among the examples that stuck out to Thorax the most. Not all of them were ponies though, for it wasn’t long before he spied fellow changelings, undisguised, in the group. He even spied Queen Chrysalis joining the growing fray. Then there were plenty of others that Thorax either only dimly recognized, perhaps those he had encountered only in passing, or those he didn’t recognize at all. One of these figures was a notably tall and bipedal being that Thorax was certain he had never seen before in his life. She also emerged notably close to Thorax, and so he quickly dodged away, fearing greatly what might happen if he got too close.
These individuals were all diverse, but they all still bore the same series of consistent traits, namely in that they all tried to approach Thorax at a calm pace, all bore similar stab wounds to the chest, and all repeated the same phrase, “huc debemus non esse,” in a sort of continuous chant. Not understanding what any of this was about and growing increasingly worried that he was outnumbered and about to be mobbed by this group, Thorax began searching for any way to escape with increasing urgency. It helped that the path ahead of him still remained clear, as it seemed newcomers to the group of chanters chasing him only arose as he passed them, and all of them lagged behind him. Despite that, Thorax was not reassured much, and knew he couldn’t keep fleeing the group forever.
In hopes he could just outrun them, he increased his gait to a full gallop, but didn’t get far when he all but stumbled onto a new grave and froze in horror as he saw the newest figure to emerge from a grave, joining the group. Her mane drooped and while she was missing her cape, she wore her pointed hat, but it flopped wetly about her head, soggy with green slime. And like all the others, she bore the same horrid and bloody stab wound to the chest.
“Trixie!” Thorax hissed in alarm, suddenly rooted to the spot and unable to move.
Trixie, however, only reacted like all of the others, moving to face the frightened changeling and started to move towards him. “Huc debemus non esse!” she chanted in time with all the others starting to catch up with Thorax now that he had ceased moving.
Thorax wasn’t thinking about that though, his eyes locked on the stage magician before him, backing involuntarily away from her in horror. He only got a few steps however before he suddenly felt something latch onto his hind leg. With a yelp, Thorax twisted around at the owner of the claws in time to see Spike pull himself free from the grave, wearing his usual disguise as Spark, except his shirt was smudged and tattered, his sweater vest soaked with red blood to the point it had lost its navy color, and one lens of his false eyeglasses was cracked, through which Spike gazed at Thorax with a determined and cold gaze.
“Sed qui noscis non es!” the dragon stated firmly to the changeling, breaking the trend.
Thorax could only gape at Spike in terror, jaw opening and closing repeatedly as his body built up to release what probably would’ve been a scream. But it never reached that point, as suddenly Thorax sensed something pulse once through the very world around him. The moment it washed over them, and it did so in almost a blink of an eye, Spike released Thorax and calmly retreated back into the earth. Behind him, Trixie did likewise, and the multitude of others all calmly turned away Thorax, ambling back to their respective points of origin, the chanting abruptly ceasing and silence falling. Panting, Thorax stood numbly, attempting to piece together what just happened, before the realization dimly struck him that the pulse, whatever it was, felt something akin to magic. He turned to look in the direction of its logical source in time to see a unclear figure dart out of sight behind a row of bushes growing in the graveyard, and Thorax suddenly recalled the intruder he realized still lurked nearby, whom his mind still warned was a danger.
But Thorax was puzzled by what this all implied. “…what?” he murmured aloud, and gradually resumed the chase once more.
He picked up the intruder’s trail again not long thereafter, and began tailing after the figure as it darted around, weaving around the many objects in the area, continuously slipping in and out of sight in brief bursts, no doubt in an attempt to evade Thorax. The intruder was not especially successful in doing so, but they did succeed in causing Thorax to fall behind slightly. As they started to weave around a series of burial vaults, Thorax feared the intruder might successfully give him the slip yet again. Determined to not permit that, he began considering a new plan of action that would hopefully lean the odds in his favor again.
He was just getting such an idea when, while coming around the back of one of the burial vaults, Thorax’s hoof landed into a throng of tangled vines and he abruptly came to a halt. With a series of jerks he attempted to pull the hoof free of the vines, but the vines held and his hoof remained within their tangles. When the first few tries didn’t seem to help, Thorax began to show panic, his grunts of frustration over his tugging evolving into squeaks of fear gradually growing in volume. After a minute or two of this, drawn by Thorax’s cries, the mysterious figure Thorax had been pursuing gently approached him from behind, carefully coming closer and searching for the appropriate way to render mild aid without Thorax realizing it quickly enough for him to exploit their close proximity.
Exactly as Thorax hoped.
Suddenly and smoothly pulling his hoof free of the vines, demonstrating it was never really caught in the first place and that he had been faking, the changeling spun around and grabbed the intruder by the shoulders, slamming it against the outer wall of the adjacent burial vault. “Gotcha!” Thorax cried, relieved his ruse to lure the intruder close to give aid again had worked. “Now I want to know just what this is all about!”
He lit his horn and, while keeping the only slightly resisting intruder in place with his hooves, brought the tip of his horn in contact with the intruder’s, working to force the link between them back onto the intruder and giving Thorax control. He immediately faced resistance, but Thorax pushed on, trying to force his way through as hard as he could. He began to feel a shaky counter-link start to form the same time the overcast sky above them suddenly cleared, revealing a brilliant full moon. Thorax noticed its image being reflected back at him in the eyes of the intruder before him.
And it was in that moment that he realized just who it was that he was dealing with here.
In the next moment, Thorax found himself somewhere else entirely, but had a hard time determining just what, let alone where, that was due to how abstract it was. He was at least lucid enough now to see he had successfully left his dream and had pioneered out of his mental scape, leaving it behind him and protected, but that he was also not so far in the link that he had entered the intruder’s mental scape lying somewhere before him, still barred from him with such opposing strength that Thorax found he couldn’t press further. He simply lacked the skill to do so. Nonetheless, he took small pleasure in noticing that he apparently had skill and strength enough that he similarly stopped the intruder from pushing him back into his own mental scape, barring them access, and it would stay that way until either Thorax backed off and permitted access, or the link collapsed from instability brought on by the chaos of the conflict.
Of the two options, Thorax found the latter the most likely as he eventually came to understand that they had caught themselves somewhere between their two mental scapes, arriving in something of a temporary “middle-ground,” but one that was highly unstable. A large part of the instability was brought on by the fact that this was not how a mental link was supposed to work; links typically flowed in a singular direction like a river. The initiator of the link forges the link heading into the receiver’s mental scape then loops the flow back to their own so to share information. Thorax, however, was barring the intruder’s attempts to build that loop leading back out of his mental scape, and he found his own attempts to form a similar loop in the intruder’s mental scape was similarly blocked with great skill and power; more than Thorax possessed. The effect was similar to stopping up a river; the flow backed up behind the blockage until the pressure grew too much to hold and something gave way. So would be the case with this link, leading to its assured collapse when it reaches a point it could no longer withstand these two opposing forces pushing at each other without avail like this.
But in the meantime, this vague “middle-ground” was holding, and though it was taking a good deal of concentration to keep it there—and he wasn’t sure how much longer that could be—Thorax was able to take in his metaphorical surroundings in this middle-ground and clearly make out the intruder directly before him, gazing at him in silent wonder as she, too, struggled to maintain the failing link. The link was just far enough for disguises both physical and mental to become meaningless, which meant that Thorax was before her fully out of disguise, but so was she, revealing her true form to him for the first time.
She was resisting Thorax’s attempts at intrusion, and Thorax had to fight to block her on attempts back at him, but Thorax could sense and see the gentle intentions of her actions, and that she had not planned to bring harm, nor did she at all expect to have to face a situation such as this. Because of this, she regarded Thorax with partly concealed surprise. “You continue to startle me, changeling,” she remarked aloud. There was no contempt in her tone, nor was there any elation. It was simply a statement of fact.
Thorax, however, couldn’t help but take small issue in her choice of words. “My name is Thorax,” he stated back in reply, conveying that he wished to be referred to by his proper name.
“Of course,” she replied back, conceding herself to Thorax’s desire. “I am Luna.”
Thorax nodded in acknowledgement at the princess of the night. “I know who you are.” He felt the link flicker briefly, signaling its increasing decay and saw this rare chance to learn what was going on wouldn’t last for much longer. So in an attempt to speed things along, he asked the most pressing question he had, wreathed with puzzlement around his entity. “What do you want?”
“Answers, young Thorax,” Luna replied gently. “I have been privately and discreetly searching for you via the dreamscape ever since I first received word of your banishment and Spike following you to parts unknown as outcasts, in hopes I could find at least a few to settle some uncertainties of mine.”
Thorax felt confusion arise within him. “How long have you been doing this, then?” He asked. “How many times have you intruded upon my mind like this?”
“Only once before now,” Luna assured, being patient. “And I promise they were not meant to be so intruding. My intent was more to monitor you from the dreamscape.”
This only puzzled Thorax more, recalling that he had been perfectly aware of Luna’s last intrusion. “But that means your last attempt at this was a couple moons after banishment…so—”
“—why the delay?” Luna finished. She turned apologetic. “There are thousands of dreams to sort through, and it took a while to find yours among them. It does not help that the dreams of changelings do not call to me, so I must seek them out more…manually.” Now Luna turned puzzled herself. “Once I did, I confess I was unprepared to find that your dreams are…highly resistant to my attempts to enter them, nor was I prepared for your ability to sense my presence so readily every time, and the implications all of this conveyed.” Her form reverted back to regarding Thorax with curiosity. “I was unaware that changelings were so telepathic.”
“It’s a latent ability,” Thorax admitted disinterestedly. He was momentarily distracted when he felt Luna give a sudden and hard push against Thorax’s attempts to bar her from any glimpses into his mental scape and had to shift his focus on stopping it.
The push was short-lived and unsuccessful though, and he when he had returned concentration to their mental conversation, he found Luna surrounded in an aura of polite amusement. “Do not sell yourself so short,” she said, and Thorax wondered if the sudden push was to prove a point. “You clearly have more talent in the art of the mind than you believe yourself to have.”
Again Thorax was confused, not understanding what she was trying to tell him. “What do you mean by that? I clearly can’t have that much talent if I can’t even keep you from even getting this far.” Luna, however, chose not to elaborate on her words and would not give Thorax’s any peeks at her deeper thoughts behind said words. As the link was felt flickering again, he realized it was because she herself knew time was short, and knew there were bigger things to discuss, so he allowed that topic to drop and instead pursued another. “So why infiltrate my dreams?”
A warm sense of cheer surrounded Luna. “You can learn a lot about one’s true nature from their dreams.”
“That can’t be all though. My dreams always turned to nightmares whenever you came along…so was that deliberate on your part? Are the nightmares some sort of punishment?”
“What you term as nightmares are not my doing,” Luna explained, conveying denial while continuing to be patient. “At least not intentionally. I fear they may be a result of your own mind sensing my attempts to enter, perhaps its way of warning you of what it perceived as a danger, but that is only a guess. But no, at most my only interference in your dreams was attempts to create small distractions—harmless, of course—so to keep your attention off of my presence…attempts which as you clearly know were not successful. Your dreams would then go…awry from there only afterwards beyond my control. But they are not nightmares.” A confusion of a sort that Thorax sensed Luna wasn’t used to facing when it came to the dreamscape surrounded her. “I am not sure what they are, as I have never seen the equivalent before to my recollection…they are certainly no normal sort of dream.” She again did not elaborate further.
Thorax had connection enough with Luna’s mental state to see she was not lying or trying to deceive him. “Okay then, but you still haven’t answered my question. What was it you hoped to gain from all of this, if you really meant no harm? You said you wanted answers, so what was it you were trying to learn?”
“About you, Thorax,” Luna pressed, her feelings making it clear that she thought this should have been obvious. “I wished to learn about your nature, your manner of behavior, and above all, I wished to learn more about what your intentions are, especially in regards to Spike. I had hoped to do so discreetly, without you ever being aware of my searching, but…as we already discussed, you proved to be far more aware of your mental surroundings than I ever could have predicted.”
“Then if it was so much trouble, why focus on me? Why not probe Spike’s mind?” Alarm then welled up in him. “Have you infiltrated Spike’s mind already?”
“No further than the dreamscape, and no deeper there than I do for anyone else in Equestria, as I have been doing since the beginning of my reign as princess,” Luna assured. “For instance though, I sought your dreams over Spike’s, because if the accounts I had been told about your banishment and the reasons behind it were true, then Spike’s perceptions of these events may not be…trustworthy. And this is a matter that cannot be afforded to get wrong, and I already had my reservations to how it had been playing out, so I knew I needed to seek out a source I could be assured would be true.”
“So you sought it from the changeling himself,” Thorax deduced, beginning to understand.
“Yes. My apologies if I have unduly alarmed you in doing so. When my first attempt at this failed in disaster, as you no doubt recall, I backed off to devise a new method of approaching it, taking what I had learned from the experience to plan ahead. I attempted to enact that plan this evening, but again it did not go as I’d hoped.” Luna turned optimistic and positive. “But perhaps that is for the better. This has given us the chance to communicate more one on one.”
Thorax felt the link flicker again, this time more severely, and this time it didn’t go away. Its collapse was certainly imminent. “It’s not going to be a very long chance,” he noted. He felt the strain from just barring Luna from his mental scape and knew he couldn’t spare the attention in providing additional support for the link. “I don’t have the ability to keep this up on my own.”
“Nor do I,” Luna confessed. The strain was showing on her as well. “I believe the only reason it hasn’t already collapsed is because of our efforts combined to prevent it, but even that does not seem to be enough. The only way to prevent full collapse is to permit a full link with either of our mental scapes.” But Luna was filled with doubt on this. “I am supposing that you are unwilling to permit me to do that, though.”
“No,” Thorax admitted. “And I’m guessing you won’t let me do it either.”
“I do not think it wise at the moment.”
Thorax considered their options. “Perhaps we can go back to my dream or whatever?” He attempted to backtrack to it.
But Luna denied that plan. “The dream has already collapsed and has ended. There is nothing to return to, and I cannot fabricate a new one from here.”
By that point, Thorax felt the degradation of the link had already reached a point of no return anyway. Nothing would stop its collapse now except a miracle. He paused to consider his options. Permitting Luna back into any contact with his mental scape, even if just limited to the dreamscape as she claimed, did not sit well with him and he found himself very leery of the idea, regardless of getting the clear sense that Luna was being perfectly truthful in her claims. She was a significantly more skilled and powerful in mental abilities than he, so what if it was all a deception? Further, being one of the princesses, how would he know she wouldn’t abuse what she learned, bringing trouble to him and Spike or revealing where they’ve been hiding? And no matter what, this was his mental scape they were talking about, an immensely private thing, and good intentions or not, he didn’t appreciate Luna’s attempts to intrude upon it without his knowing like this.
But at the same time, Thorax saw he had a distinctly unique opportunity here. Here he had the princess of the night in such a situation that all she could do was hear him out, and further still, she had already conveyed that, unlike her peers in the royal family, she was willing to give him the benefit of a doubt, wanting to know about who and what Thorax really was. He could have a chance to tip the scale finally, get the ball rolling for the Equestrian royalty to even see he had come meaning no harm, possibly bringing an end to this ongoing feud at last. But…how to do it?
And just how much had Luna already learned anyway? “You said you were simply trying to view my dreams,” he remarked to Luna. “You really think that would’ve told you things about who am I?”
“Quite,” Luna replied, swelling slightly with confidence and warm cheer.
“Then you’ve already seen into my dreams a little already,” Thorax reasoned next. “So…what have you learned from them?”
Luna took a moment to reply. The link again shuddered, about ready to give way, and feeling the middle-ground of sorts they had caught themselves in beginning to shrink, Thorax fleetingly feared it would collapse before Luna would give any sort of answer. But at last Luna spoke again. “I am undecided,” she admitted, her tone frank. “I was not able to see enough to form a solid opinion. However…” here, optimism filled her being again. “…I saw enough to get the impression that things are not as they seem…at least not as some would have me believe. Am I correct in assuming as such?”
Thorax made no attempt to hide his relief in hearing this, hoping in sharing that with Luna would make it clear to her he was being truthful too. “Absolutely. I never once meant harm, princess.”
The link shuddered again, and their control over the crumbling link was fading, yet Luna pressed on with slight urgency, hurrying to finish speaking her part. “Perhaps, then, I shall consult my sister further on the matter in the waking world, discuss if we need to change our approach to how we have been handling it.”
Thorax grew worried about what that might entail. “Are you going to tell Princess Twilight about this?” he asked, fearing Twilight wouldn’t be so understanding as Luna.
“Twilight, last I checked, is currently preoccupied with other affairs and currently traveling…I regret I do not recall where off hoof, somewhere south I believe…but she may not be readily available to discuss the matter until she has returned. Indeed, it may be a few days before I can make any headway of note regardless.”
“Headway?” Thorax couldn’t help but repeat the term aloud in hope, wondering if Luna was implying she was coming around in his and Spike’s defense, and was willing to fight for it.
But by this point, the link was fading fast, and Thorax was starting to sense Luna’s presence fading, being dragged gradually away as the link caved in on itself. It would be gone in a matter of moments now if not less. No doubt aware of this herself, Luna again opted not to elaborate and instead switched to one last topic he sensed she urgently wanted to bring up while she could.
“I must ask,” she said, her tone turning serious for the first time. “Despite everything that has happened, why are you continuing to associate with Spike, and what is it you hope to gain from it?”
There were many ways Thorax could have answered this question, some of them being very long and technical. But knowing time was short, Thorax, in a moment of inspiration, found a way to sum it up in one quick statement. “Because I get his friendship out of it, princess.”
Luna didn’t seem to expect this response. “Is that all?”
Thorax found it really was. “That was all I had ever wanted in the first place, princess. Friendship.”
He felt a flood of emotions suddenly from Luna, and was somewhat startled to see just how deeply moving this statement was for her. He had just time enough to recognize that she might not have expected the response, but she fully supported it. He was just turning to dare to believe that this meant Luna would support him and was about to ask, when the link shuddered and began to flicker out entirely and quite rapidly. He sensed Luna was about to speak again, perhaps to convey one final thought, but never had the chance to as she was cut off by the link finally collapsing and Thorax felt himself mentally yanked back as it severed.
He awoke from sleep a moment later, not with any sort of jolt or alarm, but peacefully, simply opening his eyes and finding himself awake. His senses returning their focus on the waking world, he stared at the far wall across from his sleeping nest for a moment recollecting himself, then gently pushed himself upright into a sitting position, gazing about at his surroundings. He found it was late at night, possibly near midnight by his guess, not that it mattered much at the moment. Their room was dark and dimly lit, and Spike was sprawled out on the window seat as expected, deeply asleep and unaware of Thorax’s present state.
Thorax needed a few moments to figure it out himself, sorting out what had just happened in his head. He felt a buzzing and tingle in his mind, a leftover from the mental link with Luna, and a fading sense of alarm at the unexpected intrusion, but now that he had a much better frame of reference for what was going on, he found he wasn’t nearly as concerned about it as he had been last time, when he hadn’t known anything. In fact, he found himself in awe more at the realization that eventually sinking upon him that he had just finished a partial mental link with another pony miles away from his present location, and marveled at the power Luna had to have to even achieve such a feat. No changeling could recreate such a long distance link on their own, not without artificial help.
But eventually his mind turned to a more pressing question that, in light of everything that just happened, he didn’t quite know how to answer; what now?
As it often was, Thorax decided to turn to Spike for help, and moved over to the sleeping dragon, gently trying to shake him awake. “Spike, wake up,” he urged in a collected whisper as he did so. “It’s important!”
Spike let out a snort as he jolted awake, then wearily pushed himself up to look at Thorax. “Thorax?” he groggily asked, squinting at the changeling with tired eyes, before sighing and letting his body flop back down onto the window seat. “Why do you always have to do this so late at night?”
Thorax pulled his friend upright with one hoof. “Ask Princess Luna,” he stated.
Spike rubbed at his tired eyes. “Luna? Why, what does she have to do with—?”
“Remember when someone tried to force their way into my mental scape while I was sleeping some weeks back?”
Spike went still suddenly as he caught on. Lowering the claws he had been using to rub his eyes, he gazed at the changeling in surprise. “No way,” he breathed.
Thorax nodded. “Better still…this all might be a good thing.” He then proceeded to summarize the experience to Spike.
Afterwards, Spike looked decidedly lost, unsure what to make of this. “…so what does this mean?” he asked the changeling after a long moment of silence.
“I’m not sure,” Thorax admitted. “We could speculate of course…in fact I’d love to do that, because I have hope this will go our way…but the fact of the matter is that Princess Luna wasn’t able to clearly convey what her plans are.”
“Hmm,” Spike hummed, and his gaze wandered as he considered this.
“All we can say for certain,” Thorax continued, “is that I was at least able to convey to her that things were not as she had been led to believe, that she intended to discuss the matter further with Princess Celestia and assess if they needed to change their approach in addressing it, and that she seemed to have reacted very positively to what little I was able to convey to her about what my real intentions in all of this are.”
Spike mulled over this for a moment, his thought processes going slower than normal due to his tired state. “And you’re certain she wasn’t lying or deceiving you?”
“Nearly completely,” Thorax promised. “The only thing I can’t guarantee is if she really told me everything, but what she did tell me, I could sense she wasn’t being dishonest about. You can have my promise as a changeling on that.”
“If that’s the case, then why didn’t you permit her to see into your mind or whatever so she could confirm what you told her?”
“Spike, my mental scape contains all of my thoughts, memories, and ideas stored within, both private and public. Would you really be willing to let someone be able to access it and see all within like that?”
“I did with you,” Spike replied pointedly, recalling the time Thorax had linked with him.
And Thorax had to concede to that point. “Okay, fair enough,” he relented. “But I do want to point out that she already did try to access my mental scape, even just by limiting herself to the fringe that is my dreams, without my knowing. I may trust what she told me of her intentions were true, but forgive me if I still felt overprotective of my mind after that.”
“Couldn’t you have just given her limited access then?” Spike reasoned. “Controlled what she saw in your mental scape, and only showed her what she needed to in order to know that you were being truthful?”
“Because then that would only convey to her that I had something to hide,” Thorax reminded. “Besides, I don’t I have enough skill for that sort of control…it’s not something I’ve attempted before. And it didn’t seem like a good time to try and risk failure. And anyway, she would’ve been able to tell if I was trying to deceive her the same way I was able to tell with her. It’s more what I was not able to tell her that might give her pause…and given the circumstances, we both knew the window of time we had was a narrow one, and that we could not convey all we could’ve. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t try this sort of link again so to have a second chance at getting those details. But that should be taken into consideration, at least.”
“I know, I know, and looking back, I probably should’ve realized Luna was involved when we first realized someone was trying to spy on your mental scape, and why she’d want to.” Spike sighed. “It’s just…I don’t really know what to make of all of this. You seem convinced that it could only be a good thing, but…I still have to pause and wonder, Thorax. We don’t really know just what it is she plans to do about this. What if she tells Twilight?”
“She can’t right now, she told me that Princess Twilight is away somewhere and not where she could readily discuss the matter with her. But…” Thorax paused briefly. “…I got the impression that Princess Luna wanted to keep this private for now anyway, probably going no further than herself and at least Princess Celestia for now. I don’t know…it was just something about her approach to all of this that tells me all of this was meant to be discreet, to keep others from finding out before she was ready to report what she had found with confidence that it was accurate. I’m not certain the other princesses were even aware that she was doing this.” He gave Spike an optimistic nudge. “And the fact that she has gone to such lengths tells me she already suspects there was more to be learned than what she had already been told. She indicated that what Princess Twilight had told her about our banishment seemed amiss…that suggests to me that she already had her doubts. Doubts that I earnestly hope I was able to confirm to her. That right there might be enough to sway things our way. And if so…why not tell Twilight? The new perspective might just get her willing to sway too.” He frowned when he noticed that Spike didn’t seem enthused by that prospect. “C’mon Spike…that’s an exciting prospect for us to consider, isn’t it?”
“If it’s true,” Spike replied.
“Princess Luna has given us no cause to believe it isn’t at least possible,” Thorax pointed out in return. “But if Princess Luna can be swayed enough to have doubts that banishment was really the right choice in dealing with us, then perhaps that is the beginning of having that reversed.” He couldn’t help but grin a little. “Spike, that could mean we no longer have to stay in hiding sometime soon. That we can come forward for all to see without fear of capture or trouble. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Spike couldn’t help but grin a little too, Thorax’s optimism being infectious. “It would,” he admitted. The smile faded away again. “But…it just feels weird…after all this time, I mean…I…” he trailed off.
Thorax understood what he was getting at and lowered his head to be level with Spike’s, gently placing a holed hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “Look Spike…I know they shattered your trust in them…and you’re afraid of setting yourself up for them to do it again…but be wary of falling into the same trap that they did when this all started.” He gently lifted Spike’s chin a little and grinned. “Just like changelings…even ponies can change.”
Spike sadly returned the grin. He took a deep breath and let it out again. “So what do we do?” he asked again.
Thorax sighed himself. “The only thing we really can do at the moment,” he admitted. “Wait and see what becomes of it.”
“Is that really all?” Spike asked, doubtful. “What if things go wrong, and they come here, hunting for us?”
“Princess Luna didn’t convey that she had actually figured out where we were at, first of all. I don’t know if it’d be smart to assume that she does, and she still hasn’t given us any cause that she would reveal that knowledge anyway…especially if she already has reason to doubt what happened and that others may have acted…incorrectly.” Thorax straightened. “Besides, we can’t just leave either, not without more just cause to. What if this really does sway them in our favor? Finding that we left again and went even deeper into hiding anyway just might give them cause to suspect us again. It’d at the very least drag out any attempts at a peaceful solution.”
“What if I don’t want a peaceful solution?” Spike asked suddenly, his tone turning dark. He gazed meaningfully at Thorax. “After what they did…to just end it like nothing had happened…”
“No one’s saying that’s what will happen,” Thorax assured. “I doubt it could even if we all wanted it to. But surely you do want this to end…right?”
Spike just gazed at Thorax for a long moment, his look vacant, and didn’t answer.
Thorax had a good hunch why, but as the adrenaline from all of this wore off and he felt sleepiness start to ebb back upon him again, he decided it was not the time or place to press further. “Look, it’s late, and there’s not anything we can do about it right now anyway.” He patted Spike on the back. “Let’s sleep on it, and talk about it more when we’re both of clearer minds, okay?”
“Okay,” Spike said simply, and he laid his body back down to sleep.
Thorax assured his friend was comfortable in his window seat bed, then returned to his own sleeping nest and settled back down, welcoming the return of sleep. Both were soon deeply asleep once again and remained that way for the remainder of the night. Luna did not try again to visit Thorax’s dreams nor did she attempt to visit Spike’s as far as either of them could later recall. But both slept very well and dreamed peaceful and heartening dreams regardless.
"Called it!"
-All of you after reading this chapter.
It being Luna was always the plan, and I had figured at least a few of you would figure out it would be her in advance, but I of course still hoped it wouldn't be as many...as there actually were. 
As such, I did actually toy with changing it to someone else, and explored a few ideas on how to do it. I even considered some of the alternate ideas of who it could be that a couple readers suggested, some of which were actually really intriguing. But all of them would only end up jarring my plans both before and after this chapter, and since I was only considering doing it to be Mary Mary Miss Contrary, it didn't seem worth that extra effort...so I stuck with Luna. In giving this chapter its customary final edit though, I was struck by the eerie mood and tense suspense I was able to convey still, so I'm content regardless. I think its a chapter that turned out good anyway. 
Anyhoo, welcome back after that brief hiatus I took from posting chapters so to accommodate time for a quick family reunion and to pad out my buffer of completed chapters some more (for those who missed what that was about, as there still seems to be the odd straggler, there's a blog post all about it on my profile). I appreciate everybody's patience and willingness to allow me to do that, and it proved very fruitful. I was successfully able to expand my buffer of completed chapters from about three to presently about thirteen, which was better than what I had even been shooting to achieve. 
Hopefully, I'll be able to maintain enough of that buffer that I won't have to repeat this again on through to the end of the story (which is rapidly coming ever closer. Things are going to start getting very hectic here very soon). But I expect chapters will start becoming much more variable in length from here on out too, so...we'll see. I'm going to try to avoid another hiatus as much as possible though, mostly because I don't want to drag this out any longer. More likely, but only if I have to, I'll simply adjust the posting schedule from posting twice a week to only once a week, so to give myself more writing time if need be.
But for now, "Grief" will be resuming it's normal biweekly posting schedule as before. 
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First of all, yaay for normal updates! I had missed this updating.
But hmm, "We would not be here." eh?
So what would have changed? Thats the big question implied. Huh,
None of the prophetic really here, save above.
I huh, she could, actually.
"Oh wow, The hiatus is over already?"
-A Hotline Miami fan after reading this chapter.
But in all seriousness, evil man, glad to have you back.
Huh. Nice chapter, nice to see Luna in this story and she's actually agreeable, like Fluttershy! YAY!
Darn author, why are you so good with this story?! Why is the chapter over?! AUGH! I wanna know what happens next!
Nice to see this pop up again. So Twi is heading south eh? Wonder when she's gonna decide turn about right into Vanhoover here. I mean ya can't just have that huge threat of being discovered out there and not have it happen. Or I guess you can pull a twist and have a more devastating reason to flee.
Or maybe I should shuddup and not sound like a d-bag.Oh man. Super good chapter and I'm really glad you're back to posting. I was really starting to miss this story! Can't wait to see what's coming up!!
Wait a second, he recognized everyone from his dream, except the tall bipedal female, which must mean he sees her in the future. Sunset confirmed! Hopeful joking aside, another nice chapter, I do like how Luna took a more methodical approach as opposed to Discord's sledgehammer style, both remaining neutral until getting more information. Still, at this point the evidence is completely against Shining and Twilight, with both Discord and Luna not being able to find a hint of truth in anything against Thorax unless a random drone is more powerful than Luna and Discord, at which point Changelings should've taken over the world by now many times over. Then again, maybe Twilight and Starlight are projecting their habit of mind control onto others (seriously, between Lesson Zero, ELTSD, All Bottled Up, Magical Mystery Cure, and taking away creatures' ability to eat food multiple times, not to mention carelessly turning creatures part orange, there is a ridiculous amount of mental manipulation from those two) and think everyone else is capable of casually forcing their will onto others... Still, Shining's, and therefore Twilight's, entire argument is dead now because at this point it assumes Changelings to be the most powerful creatures in Equestria bar maybe Discord (who could be argued to just be not trying and lying) and maybe a full grown dragon, depending on how they're scaled in this fic.
*heavy breathing*
Glad to hear that the normal update schedule is back, I missed this story.
This chapter fixed something that's been bugging me for a bit. I would expect Luna to be on top of this immediately and it was bugging me a bit that she wasn't. Do it's good to finally hear the reason why.
WOOO, You're not dead!
Loved this chapter, can't wait to see how it all ends.
How many chapters left in total? as I expected to be less than 13.
I love the whole concept of the Middle-Ground.
I think Spike is looking at the situation from the wrong perspective. She thinks of ponies as a whole but in reality he should be only concerned at the goverment's aproval to outvote Twilight and Cadance. So we would have Luna and Celestia here with Discord breaking the tie against book-crystal alliance.
There is however one thing that intrigues me - the ending. We have three options that seem propable thus far:
-The Royalty comes together to vote on the matter of Thorax when they confront their opinions. Assuming Celestia acknowlegdes Discord's saying in this matter to break this in her favor Thorax and Spike will be cleaned off any charges (at least in Equestria) and maybe given a chance to go public.
-Twilight gathers enough info to track our protagonists down and does something reckless/unethical, so our heroes will have to hold out the pain from the hooves of the purple meanace until their supporters arrive to subdue Twi - unless she looses wings from breaking her friendship cause, Tho and Spi meanage to top her or something equally unexpected. I think this could result in a scenario where Trixie wins a duel with Maniac Sparkle...
-Chryssy comes and takes over equestria, not even bothering to hide it after a week or so. It's not like she knew what restrain meant. A sequel where Thorax tries to awaken the King inside and Spike organising dragon support for the pony resistance might work but is the least propable. It would be too difrent from the current pace unless they'll live in hinding during a time of occupation. In that case it would just escqlate things up to hell.
I honestly can't think of anything else we could sensibly get in under 13 chapters.
Something tells me twi is traveling south because she already knows where they are
After all thorax practically gave himself away to trix
8299381
He just said that he has a buffer of thirteen chapters he didn't say that it would be over in thirteen chapters.
Two things, have you watched the leaked episodes from Australia?
And two, what city is this story set in again?
Great chapter. Glad you are back.
I wonder if the mail-link between Spike and Celestia is still shut off or not.
If it is becoming obvious Spike is neither out of Equestria nor dead, then perhaps sending another message might be prudent.
Or... you know... if Spike and Thorax wanted to initiate contact themselves, they could send a message.
8299452
That means there can't be much more than 20 chapters to go and due to the nature of the story - a bit of it is going to be filler.
8299525
Yeah, the third one is a bit iffy but you have to admit it's the last real option. Anything else is surreal like they fleeing to Discord's Dimension and trying to settle there. But I have to agree; most people don't really know what occupation really is and I can't be sure if the author would really find ways to picture a changeling occpation. Ussually people picture stuff like france but france wasn't occupied - it was just garnisoned.
But in a way Chrysalis would take us by suprice and would actually make sence considering that she actually done it in the series.
8299516
It was explained early on, basically the link is still there but Thorax is manually blocking it. From what i understand its a temporary spell that needs to be recast every so often, not a continuous strain on Thorax nor a permanent severing.
8299000
I think it would be more like This should not be!
8300019
The questions were for the author.
8299233
Yeah, sorry about that, people were asking about Luna from the beginning, but I had this planned fairly early on, so I was deliberately avoiding discussing it until we reached this chapter, so to not spoil the story.
8299328
More than thirteen.
8299381
And likewise for you too, who said there wasn't going to be more than thirteen chapters? Still writing more of the story as we speak...
8299470
I can't remember what episodes aired in what country off-hand, but since you asked, I've seen every episode of the season up to "The Perfect Pear." That said, I'm more anxiously awaiting for the remaining episodes of the season to resume airing, as there are one or two I know deal with changelings that I fear might do something that could mess up plans for chapters-yet-posted in some way...but we'll see.
The city Spike and Thorax are staying in is Vanhoover.
8299525
"Depressingly awesome"...now there's two descriptors I'd never expected to see paired together...
8299732
Hopefully, it'll be the good kind of filler.
8299000 8299875
Both translations are roughly accurate. I intend to write a blog post that goes back and translate things like this fully for you readers after the story's over, so more on that then.
8299762
Yes. Which means there might be a window between casts. Or they might have forgotten to renew it entirely. Or they might be able to cancel it for the last scenario...
8300130
Still. Less than 20 and it still writes itself into simlar size and even if you deck it with layers of sidestuff and details, it still wouldn't be much more complicated.
8300130
Does that mean Grand pear will make a cameo appearance in a future chapter?
8300130
well, I don't think I commented on it so don't worry about it.
8300152
I'll put it this way then: once we're through those thirteen chapters I mention, then it'll be roughly twenty chapters to the end. And no, it's not all filler. Certainly not.
8300154
No, the story will be over well before his canonical reappearance in Ponyville, and we'll be leaving Vanhoover altogether here shortly. At any rate, I don't see having the duo cross paths with him to be terribly interesting to explore anyway, given the story's context. Neither of them would know his significance, and I'll bet he'd be reluctant to explain it, assuming he even knew Spike was once native to Ponyville, which he wouldn't. At best, I could only see a very brief cameo appearance, and that'd be more for the readers...and I've found there's still plenty who haven't seen the episode in question yet, and I wouldn't want to spoil that landmark episode for them. So no, I don't see it happening for this story, apologies.
8296123
Or maybe it ends like in this comic:
orig07.deviantart.net/b826/f/2016/301/6/f/diplomacy_by_deusexequus-damjdq2.png
8300204
Alright. It opens the time window for a lot other stuff. I saw people who written entire wars in abaut 10 chapters and done it justice.
8300204
Waitwaitwaitwait; -we're leaving Vanhoover behind? Already? Well, we know that the crew had some ideas abaut going on a trip, so apparently it would mean the end of the story happen on the travel. I think it might be because of the sheer specyficality of Fly beeing on board. Thorax can't maintain his disguise during sleep and now they wouldn't have a private room to retreat to. I'm wondering if they'll even think abaut that problem beforehand.
But as that means we're gonna get mobile with the story - I'll just leave it here...
derpicdn.net/img/2017/7/2/1477117/large.png
I learned to expect the unexpected and my gut tells me that the ending will look like something like this:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/12/16/1318646__semi-dash-grimdark_artist-colon-artattax_discord_starlight+glimmer_thorax_trixie_to+where+and+back+again_spoiler-colon-s06e25_spoiler-colon-s0.gif
...buuut it might be also that burrito of questionable quality from breakfast. Scyphi's style would be to blow up the ship, drop the wreckage so the crew would have to quickly evacuate and have no time to even mourn the ship because of a pursuit.
8300355
Remind me you said this after the story's over...I can't say it now because of spoilers, but I have a response to that we'd both probably get a kick out of.
redundant preposition
about who I am?”
8299118
Cadence also is quite cavalier about mind control. Luna's always been screwing with ponies' dreams. Discord is about the only one who uses mind control who explicitly doesn't like doing it, and with this kind of record among royalty, the only reason we haven't seen Blueblood and Celestia controlling minds is their lack of screen time.
This could be a ray of hope for them. But it could NOT be that easy could it ??
I just hope this story has a satisfying ending. Doesn't have to be a good or bad ending. Just something epic. Or a twisted ended or something that will shock me.
If any pony can understand banishment and its consequences better it's Princess Luna. She may sympathize with their plight and try to appeal to Princess Celestia on their behalf. Keep up the great work on this story.
8300440
So I'm eather on point or you're gonna do a scence that pokes fun at that assumtion. Joy.
All I care at this point is having more updates and a sequel to start before the end of the year.
8301238
Not as such. It's...complicated, but I can't explain it properly without giving you some context about events that have not yet happened in the story.
8301409
Okay, makes sence. It also means that there will be new variables.
Glad to see this story back!
Out of curiosity regarding the schedule... does fimfiction support automatic, scheduled publishing of chapters you've already uploaded, or do you have to do it all manually? That's something I've wondered about when following other stories that also update on a fairly regular schedule
8301643
If there's an automatic updater feature on this site, I haven't found it.
So, yes, it's done manually. Which since the recent upgrade has gotten a little easier, because now formatting things like italics transfer over without problem when uploading whereas they didn't before and had to be re-added manually too.
Eyyyup.
Regardless, I love how this played out.
As one or two others have said, if anyone would understand Thorax's situation, it's Luna. I'm anticipating some possible resistance then acceptance from Celestia, but likely more backlash from Twilight. On that note, if you're using the map of Equestria that many of us have seen online, Vanhoover is north of Canterlot and Ponyville, so I'm guessing either Twilight lied about where she was going, or she went to the Badlands to confront Chrysalis. Both options can lead to some interesting results.
Damn am I glad you're back from hiatus.
This statement caught me really off-guard.
Like, really. I made me bolt upright and I had to re-read it several times.
In other news: I have to catch up quite a few chapters already...
You are updating faster than I can read.
oh boy, the next chapter is called, 'Discovered'.
I wonder what its about.
Princess Luna has arrived!
Hooray Luna
!
Knew I called it right.
I love wen a plan comes together