Grief is the Price We Pay

by Scyphi

The Grove

“So that’s the hive?” Starlight as she peered through the spyglass at a dark smudge just barely visible a good ways out on the horizon. She lowered it from her eye, allowing Ember standing beside her to take it from her magic. “That blue-green spire way off in the distance?”

“Yes,” Thorax replied as he stood beside the helm of the airship, even though he had kept it perfectly stationary since they had arrived. “I’d know it anywhere. It is, after all, the place I was hatched and raised.”

“Seems like it’s smaller than I expected,” Ember mumbled as she squinted through the spyglass at the hive far in the distance.

“Well, keep in mind we’re still over three and half miles off from it,” Thorax reminded. “Just close enough to be just able to pick it out from the surroundings, otherwise it’d probably blend in with the rest at any greater distance. Obviously, though, we still have some more traveling to do before we actually arrive at it.”

“But if we can see them, can’t they see us from this distance too though?” Trixie asked nervously as she peered through the control cabin’s forward viewport in the general direction of the hive while Ember continued peering at it with the spyglass.

Thorax shook his head. “I’d be astounded if they could. We can see the hive from here because the hive is so much larger than we are, but it’s doubtful they could pick out the Vergilius at this distance. Most of the watches stationed at the hive observe things coming and going by naked eye, and even with the aid of a spyglass like ours, this air yacht probably wouldn’t appear as more than a mere speck at best from this distance, not enough to identify it or be certain of its intent. They might at most note it’s there, resolve to check up on it to see if anything changes, but otherwise ignore it so long as it doesn’t appear to cause trouble.”

Ember snorted as she lowered the spyglass, handing it to Spike, even though he had already had a turn peering through it. “How do they possibly expect to be prepared for any threats that might come their way then?” she asked critically, finding this poor tactics.

But Thorax had an answer. “As I mentioned before, the hive has a series of additional hidden outposts and watchtowers built encircling it, serving as a sort of first line of defense and protection against any threats or intruders that might be coming towards the hive,” he explained patiently. “We’re about a half-mile off from the border of that encirclement, but fortunately, I know the locations of the outposts in this area, and I’ve deliberately piloted us into the gap between the two closest, at sufficient distance from either that they hopefully won’t sight us too easily either. But even if they did…remember that the hive is expecting Julius to be flying in with this same airship, so if they do spy the Vergilius, the most they would do is send word on ahead to the hive and do nothing anyway, so long as it does not do anything they wouldn’t expect…which I don’t plan to.”

“So in a way,” Starlight concluded appraisingly, turning to the changeling, “You’ve set things up so to use the Vergilius almost like a Trojan horse.”

Thorax nodded. “That was why I told the two changelings that had been following you what I did, precisely so to give us some sort of cover we can use to sneak on towards the hive without immediate suspicion.”

“But we can’t fly the Vergilius the rest of the way to the hive though, because we’d be flying into range of the magic dampening throne in the process, right?” Spike remarked.

Thorax again nodded. “And even without that, I can fly us a bit closer to the acorn grove,” he motioned to the line of trees about a half mile ahead of them that divided them from the hive, “but no further. Any closer and the hive will sight the airship and react accordingly, either sending a greeting party or go on full alert for our arrival, neither of which we actually want. We’ll have to land outside the acorn grove and continue the rest of the way on hoof, as we decided yesterday.”

Trixie groaned, not relishing the idea of the lengthy hike. “But Thorax, that’ll be three whole miles to cross!”

“Yes, but by proceeding by hoof, we’ll have an easier time avoiding detection, and the more we can do that, the better,” Thorax explained optimistically. “Besides, this will work out for the better, as we arrived a bit earlier than I expected. The hive, right now, is still going to be a flurry of activity as changelings go about carrying out early morning tasks, but by the time we arrive walking by hoof, that should have all calmed down and activity within the hive back down to a general and quiet lull.”

“Making it less likely we’d bump into any unwanted company,” Starlight concluded, nodding her head as she caught on. “Well then, walking by hoof it is.” She turned to Thorax. “Anything else we need to do to prepare?”

“Pack light for the hike, but also prepare for as much as you can,” Thorax advised. “Anything you think might be useful or help in anyway while we’re at the hive, no matter the circumstance.”

“So basically whatever Trixie normally carries in her saddlebags when she steps away from her wagon,” Trixie concluded.

Starlight turned to face the others, clapping her forehooves together loudly in conclusion. “Well, whatever it might be, best go get your gear together and prep to go.”

Ember strolled out of the control cabin and out onto the main deck. “I’ll go alert Obsidian of our plans,” she announced as she did this, the escorting dragon in question having taken to circling the stationary airship while he awaited further word of what they were going to do next.

Starlight nodded then glanced at their resident changeling. “Thorax, go ahead and do whatever you need to so to land the air yacht and then get ready to go yourself.”

“Right,” Thorax said with a nod, turning back to the helm while the others all filed back down into the below deck to gathering their things.

It was a very solemn and quiet affair, this process as everyone went through their things, determining what to take and what not to take. Ember had it the easiest as she had brought little more than herself and her scepter. She had debated bringing the armor she had been wearing when she first arrived onboard, but ultimately decided it would be too noisy and for the sake of stealth it was better to go without it. But it wasn’t quite that simple for the rest of them as they had much more to decide they could need in the hive or would only weigh them down. Starlight eventually advised that a good rule to follow was to bring just the minimum supplies they would need to survive should they be away from the airship for longer than a day, for whatever reason, and everyone proceeded with this in mind. By then, Thorax had landed the Vergilius in a small gap in the vegetation right on the very edge of the grove of oak trees seeming to surround the hive before joining the others in packing. He doubled Starlight’s advice of packing essentials to survive and proceeded to pack as such himself.

Nonetheless, there were still things that were going to be best left behind that they didn’t really want to leave behind, but at the same time couldn’t quite justify bringing with. For example, Thorax opted to leave behind his midnight blue jacket there at the airship and proceed for the hive unclothed save for his saddlebags, his thinking being that, without the jacket, he’d have an easier time blending in with the other changelings at the hive should the need arise. Another example was that Spike opted to pack only about a day’s worth of travel food for everyone but otherwise decided to leave all the rest of their food supplies here at the airship so it wouldn’t be weighing them down.

Yet there were some things members of their group were simply unwilling to leave behind. Trixie, for instance, insisted upon on bringing with their one jar of peanut butter and as many crackers she could reasonably carry (which didn’t amount to more than a box’s worth but it was more than none at all). “I need something to keep me calm during this crazy journey,” she grumbled when questioned about this choice. Then after a lot of further hemming and hawing over the contents of her saddlebags too, she ultimately decided to just bring the bags as-is, removing or adding little that wasn’t already there after that.

Spike similarly decided he wasn’t going to leave behind his Ogres & Oubliettes game set, which resulted in a small argument when he realized the set was already out on the saloon table and found out that the ladies aboard had been playing it earlier, but in a highly-simplified manner that Spike did not approve of.

“You mean to tell me you took my roleplaying game and turned it into a glorified version of Candy Land?” he complained loudly at one point.

But while that was going on, Thorax was across the room, standing in the doorway of the open closet and quietly working with Julius in his cocoon contained in that little room. Seeing that he had a look of concern etched upon his brow, Starlight, who had finished her packing and was simply waiting for the others to finish, stepped over to stand beside him.

“How is he doing?” she asked, nodding her head in the direction of the unconscious changeling within his cocoon.

Thorax glanced at her then back at Julius. “Well, he still seems stable and showing gradual signs of recovery, but…” he sighed. “I’m still not sure that he, if I were to wake him up and pull him out of the cocoon now, wouldn’t still go into shock and potentially die.” He motioned a hoof to the cocoon, glowing a faint green thanks to the magic that was powering it. “For all I know, this cocoon could very well be the only thing still keeping him alive at the moment…which is frustratingly insufficient for this situation.”

“I can understand that,” Starlight remarked, who shared a bit of Thorax’s frustration. Even though there was no denying Julius was very much an enemy to them, best left in this sedated state where he couldn’t cause them harm and would be better if he wasn’t here at all, she still had no real want to see him die, and indeed saw allowing such a death as needless.

“Unfortunately, we have a bigger problem than all of that,” Thorax continued, rubbing his chin with one hoof and nodding his head solemnly at the cocoon and its occupant. “The cocoon requires a magical recharge about once a day. I’ve already given it a full recharge just now, so it should be good until about this time tomorrow…but I probably the only one of us who can properly recharge it, and even if it wasn’t, we’re all leaving for the hive, leaving Julius here behind, and it occurs to me that we have no guarantees of just how long we’ll be away, or if we’ll be able to get back at all.”

Starlight started to see what Thorax was getting at and warily gazed at the injured changeling sealed inside the cocoon. “What happens if we can’t get back in time to recharge it?” she asked.

“Then the nutrient bath regulator runs out of power,” Thorax replied, pointing at the glowing bubble-like structure located at the top of the moist cocoon. “When it does, the chemicals that are keeping Julius in hibernation will start to lose their effectiveness and soon thereafter…he’ll wake up.”

“And then?”

“That depends on how good his health actually is at that point, whether or not he’s healed enough to be able to operate outside the cocoon. If he has, then he’ll work to break out of the cocoon and will be free to do as he pleases. At that point, he could do anything from going straight to the hive and raise the alarm, giving us away if we haven’t already been found by then, to hijacking the Vergilius and using it for his own purposes…most likely to again raise alarm with the hive as well as try and cut off any way of escaping.”

Starlight winced. “All not good things for us,” she observed. She then approached the matter the other way. “What if he hasn’t healed enough?”

“Again, depends on his overall health and whether or not that’ll be enough to allow him to regain consciousness,” Thorax replied, gazing distantly at the cocoon. “As I said before, for all I know, he could just go into shock immediately, never regaining consciousness, and die from the resulting complications. Assuming he doesn’t and can regain consciousness, then it all falls upon whether or not he’s strong enough to escape the cocoon on his own. If he can’t, then eventually the fluids in the nutrient bath will go stale and toxic and he’d drown.”

Starlight again winced. “So basically it’s either he escapes the cocoon and messes up everything for us in the process, or he doesn’t and effectively dies from negligence.”

“Yes,” Thorax confirmed with a frown. “You see why it troubles me. Our best hope is that we can simply get back to him and recharge the cocoon before it runs out of magical power and we are forced to face all of that.”

“But as you said, we have no guarantees at all that we’ll even be able to do that,” Starlight observed. “Though I’m hoping and praying it doesn’t come to that, more for our sakes than Julius’s here, no offense.”

“None taken, I fully recognize that Julius is a danger to all of us and the sensible thing to have done wasn’t keeping him aboard like this,” Thorax admitted dejectedly.

Starlight gazed at him for a moment, sitting herself down beside him. “Then why did you, if you always knew you were going to face problems like this?”

Thorax gazed at Julius for a long moment then shook his head. “I wasn’t about to just stand to one side and let him die, Starlight,” he admitted sadly. “I just couldn’t. It’s…just not who I am.”

Starlight let out her breath quietly and placed a reassuring hoof on Thorax’s chitin-covered shoulder. “You have a good heart, Thorax,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of letting him die either, but even I’m not sure I could’ve actually made that hard choice to try and preserve his life like this, given the danger.”

Thorax sighed. “Unfortunately, be that as it may, that supposedly good heart isn’t helping resolve the problem…it’s, if anything, only delaying what might perhaps already be inevitable.”

Starlight brooded on the dilemma for a long moment, returning her gaze to the changeling in his cocoon. “Well…we’re technically within his home territory now…should we perhaps do something to turn him over into the care of the other changelings, let them handle it?”

“I want to, but I haven’t been able to think of a way to do it that wouldn’t also risk giving us away to the others,” Thorax admitted sadly. “The best I can think of is to simply move his cocoon outside, maybe within the acorn grove itself, and hang it somewhere obvious away from the Vergilius and just hope some changeling comes along in time to be able to help him if he needs it…which guarantees nothing.”

“How likely is it a changeling would come along in time, anyway?”

“Not good. The acorn grove is expansive, Starlight, ranging from anywhere between a mile to two miles in thickness, and it encircles most of the hive. It’s very easy to walk through all of it and never once cross paths with another changeling the whole time you’re there, it’s that large. That’s part of what makes it such a wonderful place to go and meditate…you weren’t likely to be bothered by anyone else.”

Starlight was quiet for a moment, looking down at her hooves for a moment. “Well, at least I can take comfort that we aren’t likely to meet up with any other changelings while we’re crossing the grove, and even if we do, it sounds like it’d be easy to avoid them.” Knowing this didn’t help any with the problem of Julius though, Starlight switched to a new thought. “Ember was planning to have Obsidian stay behind and guard the Vergilius while we’re away…maybe we can move Julius somewhere he can see and keep watch over Julius too?”

Thorax considered the matter. “That would leave Obsidian in an acceptable position to act if need be should Julius get out and try to cause problems…” he mumbled then with a sigh nodded his head. “I suppose I don’t really have a better option either way.”

So as they all filed out of the airship and onto solid ground, Thorax removed Julius’s cocoon from its closet and carried it out too, hanging the cocoon instead from the branch of a nearby tree more than sturdy enough to support the weight where it would be within Obsidian’s line of sight. Then he explained the intent to both Obsidian and Ember. Both agreed to the plan, considering it the most logically desirable one they had available. However, this plan still left it vague on the course of action to take should the worst transpire and Julius did awake and successfully escape his cocoon.

“What should I do if he tries to cause trouble?” Obsidian grumbled aloud, the big dragon clearly uncertain on what he was expected to do.

“Stop him and keep him contained without hurting him as much as possible,” Ember replied immediately.

“And if that’s not enough and he still resists?” Obsidian asked.

Ember glanced warily at Thorax before turning back to Obsidian. “Then use your best judgement.”

Which, Thorax realized with a sinking heart, pretty much meant Obsidian had permission to kill Julius for the greater good of their mission if it meant this would be the only thing that would keep him from creating trouble. But, seeing no way around it, he instead prayed such a horrid action wouldn’t ever have to come to pass.

That all settled then, the rest of them departed from the Vergilius and Obsidian and approached the border that led into the quiet and tranquil acorn grove dividing them from the changeling hive. There, they made last minute checks before departing. Soon, they were as settled as they could be that they indeed had everything.

“So everyone’s ready then?” Starlight asked, who had more or less taken command of their quest without meaning to. “Everyone has everything they’re going to need? Used the bathroom already? Won’t need to head back for anything?”

“As ready as we’ll ever be, I guess,” Trixie remarked aloud, who had already pulled out the crackers and peanut butter to nervously snack on.

“Well then,” Thorax remarked in the spur of the moment, turning to head off, “Allons-y!”

He was then greeted with a bunch of blank looks and realized few of them understood the term.

“It’s Prench,” he explained sheepishly, “for ‘let’s go.’”

“Oh,” Starlight remarked with a dismissive shrug and started off into the grove.

Ember followed, using her scepter like a walking stick. “Whatever.”

Thorax frowned but followed suit without further comment.

Trixie moved to walk beside him. “I didn’t know you could speak Prench,” she noted aloud, curious.

“He doesn’t,” Spike replied for Thorax with a teasing smirk as he walked on Thorax’s opposite side. “He’s just listened to too much Doctor Hooves.”

“Shush, you,” Thorax replied back, annoyed, but unable to hide an amused grin himself, knowing Spike’s comment was all in friendly jest.

They pressed on, Thorax taking the lead so to guide them as they headed on into the depths of the grove of oak trees, and it wasn’t long before they were well out of sight of the air yacht and all that remained with it. They continued to idly chat amongst themselves about nothing in particular for a bit as they went, but eventually the serenity of the grove settled upon them with a shushing power greater than any librarian and they fell quiet, idly gazing about at the startlingly pretty woods and letting its beauty sink in. For a long while there was little to listen to other than the sound of their steps and the munching of Trixie nervously eating her peanut butter and crackers.

“It’s certainly quiet here,” Starlight finally observed aloud after several more minutes of this silence, her tone soft and barely louder than a whisper, as if she was afraid speaking would ruin the tranquility.

“Too quiet,” Ember noted, folding her scaly arms in discontent but also speaking in a muted tone. “I don’t like it.”

“The quiet is normal though, and part of what makes the grove so special,” Thorax said, who had been continuously drinking in the peace of the grove like a parched pony the whole time they had been walking amongst the trees. He had dearly missed the acorn grove and was glad to have the chance to return to it again, even if only in passing. “Gives you a chance to actually…hear yourself think…time to mull over bigger issues than whatever tiresome task the queen wants you to do today.” He glanced back at the others. “Whenever things in the hive got too overwhelming for me, for whatever reason, this was always the place I would slip away to and clear my head.” His gaze wandered back to the leafy canopy hanging over their heads. “It was the only place that could lift the heavy burdens on my mind sometimes.”

“Sounds like this grove is pretty special to you, Thorax,” Starlight observed, grinning slightly at Thorax’s reverence for it.

“Immensely,” Thorax agreed without hesitation. “It was the shelter of this grove that got me through some of the most trying times in my life, honestly.”

“Why is this grove here anyway?” Ember asked, puzzled by this much. “You keep acting like it means something important to the changelings, but I haven’t been able to figure out why.”

Spike reached down and scooped up a fallen acorn from off the ground. “It’s these,” he explained, holding up the nut for Ember to see before elaborating simply for the dragoness’s benefit. “You see, the acorns these trees all grow hold a sort of religious significance to changelings.”

Thorax blushed a little, but he certainly didn’t deny it. “Indeed,” he confirmed humbly. “The acorns are believed to promote a sort of aura of wisdom and comfort, especially in groupings like this.”

“So it’s no accident that this grove exists so close to the hive then, isn’t it?” Starlight surmised.

“Quite,” Thorax confirmed. “For many generations, changelings have been planting and expanding the grove so to encourage that benevolent aura as much as possible. Many have been eager to take part of the benefits that then follow, so the hive’s never short on volunteers.”

“Is there a sort of changeling groundkeeper, then?” Starlight asked next, having become curious.

“Not per se…it’s more just a group effort, where if a changeling sees something that needs done in passing, then they’ll likely take the time to do it. With so many frequently visiting the grove, it’s not hard for all of those little tasks to add up.”

“As for planting new trees, that happens a little more incidentally,” Spike continued, picking up the explanation as he recalled what information Thorax had given him on the subject while examining the acorn still in his claws, “the changelings collect up all of the acorns that fall off the trees and then, at the end of the growing season, go and scatter them out across the land, with the hope new acorn-bearing trees will grow, spreading that aura Thorax is talking about.” He glanced around at their surroundings with a pleased smirk. “Clearly, it’s been working out pretty well.”

“Yes, in fact the hive has probably already been in the process of collecting the final batches for the season now,” Thorax observed. “I expect the Dissipatio will be taking place in another few weeks.” He gazed longingly into the tree limbs above his head again. “I’m actually a little sorry that I will have to miss it…it always been one of my favorite events…one of the few times every changeling actually felt…united.”

A long moment of silence then fell as the group allowed themselves to savor the sanctity of the moment, unable but to share a little in Thorax’s reverence for the grove and the acorns that grew there.

Though the silence was still occasionally interrupted by the sound of Trixie continuing to munch on peanut butter and crackers, and finally it annoyed Ember enough that she spoke up about it. “Must you keep munching so noisily on those things?” she demanded, twisting her head around to look at Trixie.

“I’m nervous!” Trixie replied back in her defense, continuing to go right on munching on the snack. “I eat when I’m nervous! It helps me keep calm!”

“Well, it’s not keeping me calm!” Ember objected, and she suddenly snatched the jar of peanut butter and box of crackers from Trixie’s magical grasp.

“Hey!” Trixie objected, trying to grab them back, but Ember’s grip on them remained firm. “Give those back!”

“Make me, you…” Ember started to retort back, but then abruptly stopped, going still and ramrod straight as she suddenly perked up and focused her attention straight ahead of them. “Someone’s coming!” she hissed, lowering the volume of her voice.

The others urgently followed her gaze into the lightly rustling foliage before them, but Thorax, who had already noticed something amiss just moments earlier and had been quickly sniffing the air, suddenly turned around to face them, eyes alight with worry. “She’s right, we need to hide!” he declared in an urgent whisper.

“Why, who’s—?” Starlight started to speak, but Thorax cut her off as he started to motion to hiding places.

“There are two changelings coming this way!” he explained urgently.

And sure enough, the rustling that had first caught Ember’s attention was now getting gradually louder, and almost directly ahead of them, the foliage started to shift and move as something pushed through it.

“Everyone hide, keep quiet, and keep calm!” Thorax ordered, giving Starlight and Trixie a push for a cluster of bushes positioned a few feet to one side of their location.

Starlight, catching on, quickly galloped to the bushes and leapt into them, ducking out of view. Ember, meanwhile, tucked Trixie’s peanut butter and crackers under her free arm before grabbing Spike around the middle with the arm holding her scepter and, with a single but powerful stroke of her wings, launched both of them upwards and into the canopy above, vanishing from sight in the leafy foliage. Thorax meanwhile had to keep pushing Trixie towards the bushes, the mare having practically frozen and seemed suddenly incapable of motion, and he didn’t cease until he had them both hidden in the bushes with Starlight, ducking low so to keep out of sight.

Just a matter of seconds after the last of them dropped out of view, the approaching changelings stepped out of the surrounding foliage and into view. They were not disguised, but there was no reason to have expected them to be—they were, after all, on their own turf. From his hiding spot with suddenly statue-still Starlight and the nervous Trixie to his side, Thorax carefully peered through a small gap in the bush and at the two changelings, observing them. He had feared that the two had been alerted to their presence somehow already and had come to investigate, searching for clues. Instead, he found that the two changelings were simply strolling through the area, engaged in deep conversation spoken in their native language. From the bits and pieces Thorax could catch, it sounded like the two were criticizing each other on how they did their jobs in the hive—apparently they were both praefecti, prefects that served as a sort of administrative staff directly under Queen Chrysalis—and complaining aloud about some of the stressful tasks they had been put through as of late because of said duties, which Thorax assumed were related to the ongoing infiltration of Equestria’s government. They seemed otherwise unaware that they weren’t as alone in this area as they thought at present.

Thorax had to frown over this, as this meant these two changelings passing through here and now was nothing more than pure coincidence, and he and the others simply had the rotten luck of being in their path. Nonetheless though, because these two changelings were praefecti, that meant they were changelings that rarely wandered far from the hive or the shelter of the acorn grove they were in now, would have little experience searching for or detecting any outside threats that might come their way, or be prepared to react to such a threat if confronted with one—this was something they would leave up to other changelings more qualified, of which none were immediately present. Thorax found that meant the odds of the two noticing the hidden intruders were low; he had little doubt that the two would simply and safely pass by, unaware they were there, and then they could all go on their ways with the two never being the wiser.

And at first that seemed to be exactly the case, as the two changelings slowly strolled through—they were clearly in no hurry—continuing in their ambling conversation without ceasing or any pause. Thorax thought to himself that the old changeling stereotype that all praefecti were noisy had some truth to it after all, and kept waiting for them to finish passing through. But then, when the two changelings were only about halfway past, they both started to slow down and their gazes turned off of each other and onto their surroundings, gazing about them as if suddenly confused. Thorax noted alarm that both had begun sniffing the air and feared the two changelings could smell at least one of them lurking nearby. This fear was realized when one asked the other if he could smell what he smelt. No doubt it was some stray emotion that was out of place for the location.

If so, he needed to determine what it was and where it was coming from so to try and quell it before it gave them away. Thorax was reasonably confident that it wasn’t coming from him; he had enough practice controlling his emotions that, for the moment, he felt his emotions were not being exposed too much. Spike and Ember, being up in the canopy of the grove, were too far for Thorax to get a clear sense of their emotions at the moment, but he doubted they would be problematic, as they were in the best position to move to a safer location without easy detection if needed without his prompting. Starlight was also keeping herself impressively calm to Thorax’s senses. She seemed slightly nervous, but was keeping it inward and to herself enough that not much of it was wafting away from her. Thorax was confident the problem emotion wasn’t coming from her.

Trixie, however…

One glance at her sitting beside him was all Thorax needed to see that the azure mare was on a verge of a panic attack, sweat clearly glistening on her brow, eyes wide and pupils dilated in fear, and she was even shivering a little. Her eyes were locked on the two changelings that had come into view in clear terror, terror that only seemed to increase as the two changelings continued to sniff the air, puzzled and attempting to pinpoint the source of the unexpected emotion they were detecting, and were gradually starting to narrow it down to the general area she, Thorax, and Starlight were hiding from view in a bush.

Thorax turned his attention to Trixie, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Trixie, I need you to calm down,” he whispered to her.

“I know, I’m trying,” Trixie whispered back.

“Try harder,” Starlight urged, watching the two changelings carefully herself as she seemed to catch on to the same thing Thorax had determined.

“They can smell your fear,” Thorax explained further, moving his hoof to rub Trixie’s shoulder in a hopefully soothing manner, recalling that this had helped calm her down when she had nervously taken the helm the previous evening. “You need to control it.”

“I’m trying but I can’t,” Trixie stressed through gritted teeth.

Meanwhile, Starlight was watching the two changelings with gradually growing worry as they seemed to be getting closer and closer to pinpointing it to their hiding spot, steadily starting to take the odd step in their general direction. “Thorax, are we going to need to take them out?” she asked quickly.

Thorax had already been considering the idea, but he didn’t really like it. “We would have to catch them by surprise and take them both down simultaneously,” he replied back, looking around Trixie so to meet the unicorn’s gaze.

“I have a stunning spell I can use, but I can only hit one target at a time with it,” Starlight replied back.

“As it is for me, but the moment we hit one, the other will bolt, and his fear will only raise the alarm of any other changelings within range. They are not soldiers, Starlight, they will not have the guts to stand and fight and will want to flee and alert others.” He shook his head. “Besides, if we stun them, we will only have to figure out how to keep them contained, out of the way, and undiscovered afterwards so they will have no chance of interfering with our plans after we leave, because we can’t possibly take them with and they will recall that they were attacked upon awakening and will then want to alert the hive.”

“Put them in cocoons!” Trixie suggested urgently in a harsh whisper.

Thorax gave the gel glands in the back of his mouth a squeeze, but was only rewarded with a small drop of gel onto his tongue followed by a sharp ache as the glands protested this, clearly conveying that they were pretty much empty. He shook his head. “I cannot, I am still drained of gel from putting all of you in cocoons yesterd—” he cut himself short and got to the point. “We don’t have time to discuss this. Trixie, our best hope is that you calm down. If you purge that fear from yourself, they will have no clear emotions to follow and leave.”

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” Trixie hissed, but it seemed the harder she tried to calm herself, the more worked up she got instead.

And the more worked up she got, the more clearly the two changelings seemed to detect it, and the more they started to veer in their direction, sniffing the air and trying to pinpoint the source. If it kept up, they would upon them in mere moments. Starlight didn’t seem to have anything more to suggest and seemed to be mentally hurrying for a plan without avail and Thorax had run out of alternatives that he liked himself.

So, seeing no way around it, he quickly grabbed Trixie and turned her to face him. “Trixie, you trust me, correct?”

Trixie, surprised by the motion, looked at him blankly for a second. “Yes?” she said, confused on why he would be asking.

“Then I ask you continue to trust me and let me do what I am about to do,” Thorax urged. “Starlight, keep an eye on those two for me.” He lit his horn, gazing at Trixie for a split second. “I apologize in advance for this,” he added as he placed his horn against the tip of Trixie’s.

“Why, what are you—?” Trixie began to ask, but she trailed off as she felt Thorax form the mental link between them.

Unlike when Thorax had forged a link with Spike some moons back, which was very jury-rigged and unwieldly due to biological incompatibilities between dragons and changelings, Trixie’s unicorn horn served as an excellently compatible conduit through which Thorax could forge the link, and as such, he had almost immediate access into Trixie’s mental scape and practically guaranteed near-perfect control of the link. Nonetheless, once he had entered Trixie’s mental scape, he did not press any further into it out of respect for Trixie’s privacy. Instead he floated on the surface of her thoughts and began pouring as many calming thoughts as he could into her mind, hoping these would coax her to ease her fear.

However, Trixie’s initial reaction was alarm, not understanding what was happening, followed rapidly by confusion as Thorax’s own thoughts started to appear in her mind as a result of the link, confusion that only increased as she started to realize that Thorax’s mind had joined with hers and began to comprehend in shock that the changeling was telepathic. Soon her mind was flooded with questions about this that was making it hard for Thorax to concentrate, so in addition to the calming thoughts, he also started sharing his knowledge on how changeling telepathy worked and its history, much of the same knowledge he had more verbally shared with Spike after the time they had linked. Gradually, this caused Trixie’s questioning to ease and understanding began to follow. And as she started to recognize what Thorax was trying to do, her mental scape proceeded to relax, permitting Thorax to continue.

Meanwhile, Starlight wasn’t sure what was going on, as from her perspective all that had happened was Thorax and Trixie touched horns and both had gone very vacant in expression. Trixie had even closed her eyes, as if concentrating on something. But whatever it was, Starlight assumed it was supposed to help calm Trixie down, and as she continued to watch through the leaves of the bush they were hiding behind, it indeed seemed to be doing that, as gradually the sniffing and searching of the two changelings started to veer off of their location again and started to wander back to their original location, as if confused on where the source of whatever it was they were detecting was.

“Whatever it is you two are doing, it seems to be working,” she whispered aloud to the two and motioned with one hoof to keep it up.

And Thorax continued to pump calming thoughts into Trixie’s mental scape and mentally provide answers to Trixie’s questions as she thought of them. The flood of information seemed to overwhelm her somewhat, lacking experience in this and thus not prepared for the suddenness such information could be shared in a mental link, but otherwise she was indeed calming down, albeit slowly. Starting to run out of obvious calming thoughts to share with her as a result, Thorax opted to resort to sharing some his memories that helped to calm himself, hoping to keep this up long enough for the two changelings to lose interest and depart. But then Trixie started to think of what lay ahead of them still after this, became disheartened that her emotions had become a liability this quickly into the quest, and wondered with worry what would happen if this happened again and what they would have to do then. By now she had learned from the information Thorax had shared with her that this mental link required physical touch to work, and so she also worried what would happen if Thorax wasn’t close enough to her to do this next time.

Unfortunately, Thorax conveyed in his own thoughts that there was no good solution to that, except reluctantly conceding there was one option that he thought he might be able to accomplish, by attempting to establish a sort of “doorstop connection” with Trixie, which was a means of quick-linking mental scapes on demand even from a distance if needed. The drawback to this though was that setting it up required a sort of connection that was just a hop, skip, and a jump from starting a hive mind, a practice was that highly restricted among the changelings and considered illegal to do without special authorization from Queen Chrysalis, authorization she almost never gave and Thorax certainly didn’t have. If the other changelings caught them working such connection at any time, there would be severe consequences.

He chose not to elaborate upon what these consequences would be, but he must have accidentally let slip some of his thoughts on the matter to Trixie regardless because she suddenly caught on that this meant Thorax could be executed if caught doing such a thing, and with a flare of fear for the changeling’s safety, she quickly backpedaled away from that option, choosing instead to insist that they not resort to that. Thorax, not eager to use it himself due to the dangers in addition to a lack of confidence he could actually pull it off correctly anyway, readily agreed, and both started considering other alternatives.

By this time, the two changelings had gathered back together and started quietly conversing with each other again. As they weren’t speaking Equestrian, Starlight couldn’t be certain what they were saying, but one changeling was turned facing towards her enough that she could make out mild confusion on his face. Neither seemed particularly concerned, and both were just puzzled. Starlight hazarded to guess it was because they sensed an emotion they weren’t expecting out here, but it had just as quickly faded again and now they were wondering over why. It eventually escalated into a small debate over the matter, but finally, apparently not finding a satisfactory answer but not caring enough to pursue it further, the two changelings shrugged their shoulders and continued on their way, starting to walk off roughly along their original path.

“It’s working, they’re leaving,” Starlight whispered to Trixie and Thorax.

Thorax chanced a glance himself, pulling his immediate attention off the mental link and on the departing changelings. Satisfied, he refocused his attention on the link and prepared to break it off. As he did so though, Trixie had started to reason in her mind that she would just have to force herself to keep calm for the remainder of the journey and vowed to do so, even though her confidence in it was still wavering. He reasoned that maybe it would help Trixie to remain calm in the future on her own if she had reason to be more confident in her ability to successfully aid in the venture, so as he pulled out of the link, right as he was about the end the link altogether, he quickly shared some final information and encouragement with Trixie’s subconscious as way of a precaution, hoping that could be of assistance, even in the worst case.

Trixie didn’t immediately notice when Thorax withdrew from her mental scape though, still having the thoughts and memories he had shared with her bouncing around her mind that she knew were not hers, and for a moment she thought he was still there. But as her mind slowly started to sort out the new information and Trixie could no longer sense the added presence of a second mind in contact with hers, plus the fact that Thorax was no longer responding to her thoughts, she realized the link was over. Feeling dazed, she slowly opened her eyes again, not realizing she had closed them in the first place, and peered at Thorax still sitting directly in front of her.

He was leaning quite close to her, but he had powered down his horn and removed its curved and pointed tip from touching with Trixie’s horn. He was peering at her with expectant but hesitant eyes, and at some point, also without Trixie’s noticing, he had placed both of his forehooves on either side of her head in an attempt to keep her still. Trixie didn’t really focus on any of this though, and for some moments as they quietly waited for the two changelings to move further away from their hiding spots, she was still coming to terms with the fact that her mind was isolated and her own again, something that now felt oddly jarring—like she had only just returned to a familiar home after spending years living on another world, and her mind wasn’t quite sure what to make of the whole experience. Did that really just happen?

“Whoa,” Trixie finally breathed, awed. “That was…weird.” She felt like she should be asking questions, lots of them, but found Thorax had already answered most of them while they were linked, having given her the needed information that way.

Thorax grinned ever so slightly at Trixie’s jarred state and seemed to sympathize. “The first time is always a little…disorienting,” he whispered in assurance as he removed his hooves from her temples.

It was then that Starlight, satisfied that the two intruding changelings had left and weren’t immediately coming back, butted in. “Just what was that anyway?” she asked, now watching the two closely as they came back to reality. “What were you two doing?”

Without turning away from each other, Thorax and Trixie glanced at the heliotrope unicorn for a second. Thorax was uncertain how to explain and did not feel especially comfortable dwelling upon it in Starlight’s presence. “Mental link,” he explained simply as he rose and walked out from behind the bush in search of the others.

Starlight didn’t understand though. “What?” she asked as her head turned to follow Thorax. “What do you mean by that?”

“He’s telepathic, Starlight,” Trixie abruptly summed up, her eyes still staring straight ahead at the spot Thorax had been sitting before her, in a daze.

Starlight locked her eyes on Trixie again, widening slightly as she stared at her friend in astonishment. “What?” she breathed aloud, mind awhirl with the possibilities this presented.

Further conversation on that subject was curtailed as Thorax reached roughly the spot they had been when they had all gone scurrying for cover, looking up into the tree branches above in search of the remaining two of their group. “Spike?” he called softly, “Ember?”

He let out a small, barely concealed yelp when Ember suddenly dropped down from within the canopy directly in front of him, Spike still held safely in her arms. “Present!” Ember quipped, smirking at Thorax’s startlement.

Not amused, Thorax swatted one hoof on Ember’s arm as she set Spike down on the ground. “The coast is clear for the moment again, in case that wasn’t already obvious,” he remarked gruffly.

“Was just waiting for the all-clear from you before moving,” Ember said, straightening, and putting one set of claws on her back as she went on to bend backwards slightly, trying to pop her spine. “Just in time too, I was starting to get cramped hiding up in those tree limbs…”

“What happened, Thorax?” Spike interjected here, straightening the sleeves of his white shirt and the hem of his sweater vest as he approached the changeling. “I couldn’t hear those two changelings much, only picking out pieces of their conversation, so I wasn’t sure what was happening. Did they know we’d be here?”

“Not at all,” Thorax assured, turning to glance in the direction the two changelings had walked off in, already long gone from sight and he was glad for it. “They were simply passing through this spot by pure chance and we just had the rotten luck to be in the way.”

“Hey, you said that wasn’t going to happen,” Ember abruptly pointed out, annoyed as she jabbed a claw almost accusingly at Thorax. “You said that this grove place was big enough that we weren’t going to cross paths with any other changelings that might be in here too.”

“I did,” Thorax confirmed, not denying it, and he had meant it at the time too, so the fact it had happened despite his expectations certainly bothered him.

And it bothered the others too. “So just what were the odds for those two changelings to have almost stumbled upon us by accident like that, Thorax?” Starlight asked as she and the still decidedly-distracted Trixie—being guided along a little by Starlight—stepped up and joined the conversation.

“About a hundred to one,” Thorax admitted with a sympathetic wince. “For our luck’s sake though, I’m hoping this was just a fluke.”

“Or we could be standing in a whole heap of crap before too much longer,” Ember bluntly observed. She shook her head. “I was more concerned about why those two lingered around here for as long as they did. Spike whispered to me that he thought they could smell someone’s emotions…was that it? And if so…who’s to blame?”

“They were detecting someone’s fear, yes,” Thorax explained for the dragoness and peered at her and Spike in turn. “So you tell me…how afraid were you two while you were hiding?”

Ember considered it for a moment, reflecting back. “Honestly? Not very,” she admitted. “Because I figured even if those two did start to pick me out, I could totally just keeping going on up through the canopy into the open sky and fly away. Bugged by the idea of all that, certainly. But afraid?” She shook her head confidently. “Nah, not really.”

“I, for one, was mildly concerned at all of this, especially when those two stopped to stand practically right under us,” Spike admitted. “But it was hard to feel too afraid when Ember had me in practically a body lock, partly for the same reasons as she said, and partly because…well…” he motioned at Ember with one set of claws, “…look at her. She could’ve taken them.”

“I totally could’ve,” Ember agreed smugly, nodding her head once in approval.

Thorax nodded his head too. “That’s largely what I thought,” he said, and sighed. “For us, I like to think I kept myself fairly calm during that, and Starlight was actually doing wonderful keeping her emotions in check.” He glanced apologetically at Trixie. “So I’m afraid it was Trixie’s emotions that they were detecting, as she had a small…panic attack.” He glanced back at the others. “Obviously, we’re all doing better now, but…”

“Yeah, are you doing okay there, Trixie?” Spike interjected suddenly, looking at the still-dazed mare with a look of mild concern. “You seem a bit…out of it.”

Trixie, who had gotten caught up sorting out the memories and thoughts she had gleaned from Thorax during the mental link, blinked and refocused her attention on Spike. “Sorry, I just have…” she glanced briefly at Thorax, “…a bit to think about.”

Starlight glanced at Thorax with a look of uncertainty for a second too, then turned to Trixie and put a hoof on her shoulder. “How are you feeling, Trixie?” she asked gently.

Trixie’s eyes went vacant for a second as she considered the question. “Calm,” she finally concluded.

A beat passed in the group then Ember shrugged. “Well, that is what we’d prefer anyway,” she admitted.

“Right,” Thorax said, looking around at their surroundings, getting his bearings again before motioning for them to move on. “We need to keep moving and away from here in case those two come heading our way again.” He peered through a thin spot in the leafy canopy and at the sun, noting its position now a fair bit above the horizon but still on the eastern side of the sky, conveying that it was about mid-morning now. “And I’d like to reach the hive before this afternoon if at all possible.”

“Agreed,” Starlight said, and motioned to Thorax to resume guiding the way as before. “After you, Thorax.”

They resumed walking onwards through the soundless grove for a few minutes. Eventually, Ember remembered she still had Trixie’s peanut butter and crackers still tucked under one arm and timidly offered them back to the mare. “Here, I guess you can have these back if you want.”

Trixie, however, regarded the snack for a second then shook her head, declining the offer. “You know what?” she said. “You can keep ahold of those.” She shrugged. “I’m not feeling all that hungry anymore.”

Ember seemed surprised by this, considering how much protesting Trixie had done when she had taken them away from the showmare, but the dragoness simply shrugged and kept them in her claws without further comment. Eventually, she started to snack occasionally on the peanut buttery treat herself, Spike joining in every now and then too. Meanwhile, the rest of the group hiked on, lulled back into silence as they savored the quietude of the acorn grove, though after the close encounter with the two changelings, they were left a bit on edge and were ever on the lookout for such an incident repeating. Fortunately for them, it did not, and they found absolutely no other signs of any other changelings in the grove. It almost seemed as if they had the whole grove all to themselves…which naturally they could not object to.

After several more minutes of this though, Ember started to grow bored. “This grove certainly is massive,” she grumbled, jabbing the butt end of her scepter at an old rotting log they were passing with a thud. She glanced up at Thorax, who was vaguely leading the group. “I mean, I guess I get it, you changelings love these trees, but c’mon…don’t you think this is a bit excessive?”

Thorax chuckled. “Not really, no,” he admitted. He gazed around at the grove fondly. “I wouldn’t give up this grove for anything, and I know a few other changelings in the hive who’d agree with me. In fact, many of them would only want to make it bigger, if possible.”

Ember rolled her eyes, but she didn’t argue further. “It feels like we’ve been walking for ages, though,” she remarked instead. “You sure we’re heading the right way and not actually going in circles?”

“Positive,” Thorax replied immediately and completely without hesitation. “Trust me, Ember, I know this grove even better than I do the hive. We’re heading the right way. In fact, we’re almost at the edge of the acorn trees growing here. We should be reaching it soon.”

“Acorn trees? I thought these trees are called oak trees, and not acorn trees,” Ember remarked aloud, motioning at the trees that surrounded them on all sides.

Thorax shrugged. “Every changeling I’ve ever heard refers to them as acorn trees, so I guess that’s just what we changelings call them,” he reasoned aloud.

“And it’s not like it’s inaccurate,” Spike pointed out from beside Ember. He motioned at a passing tree, its limbs ladened with the nuts. “I mean, they are trees that do produce acorns.”

“That doesn’t mean that’s what you should call it,” Ember argued back.

“Why not?” Trixie asked, looking back at the dragoness. “I mean, after all, we call a tree that produces apples an apple tree.”

Ember scowled, but unable to argue that point, she let the subject drop.

So Starlight took the moment to interject with a question of her own. “So some changelings would want to expand the acorn grove even further than this?” she asked. When Thorax nodded, she continued. “But why? I mean, I get it, the acorns have cultural significance and all of that, but this grove is so massive that, as you said, changelings can walk through it for hours and not meet anyone else, even if there’s a whole bunch of them in here. If it got much bigger, I bet you could house your whole hive in this grove with plenty of space to spare, and that just seems like it’d be unnecessary effort when it’s already plenty big.” Her brow furrowed as she pondered the matter. “Unless the crop of acorns has other uses in the hive, like maybe consumption…do the changelings perhaps farm the—?”

“Uh no, and that’s actually a bit of a touchy subject that I’d advise you not to bring up unless you want to get an earful,” Spike interrupted for Starlight’s benefit, recalling how Thorax had reacted when he himself had suggested anyone eating acorns.

“But to answer the question,” Thorax replied, “there’s a couple of reasons why expanding the grove would have its uses, but chief among them is simply the natural protection it gives the hive from danger.”

“Yeah, I’d buy that,” Ember remarked with an approving nod. “It’d be hard for an army of ground forces to try and march through a grove as thick as this. It’d help deter invaders.”

“It’s more than that, though,” Thorax added, glancing back at the others. “According to legend, it’s believed the acorn grove provides a sort of…I guess you’d call it supernatural protection for the hive, a sort of…mystic barrier shielding it from danger and misfortune, and overall warding away trouble that would otherwise come to the hive. Supposedly, that barrier should stop anyone or anything that wishes harm to the hive from coming through and invading, forcing them to instead turn back without ever reaching the hive.”

The group all glanced at one another for a second, then out at the surrounding trees making up the grove hesitantly.

“We’re doing that, though,” Ember finally remarked, stating the obvious.

“Yes, and the irony of that isn’t lost on me,” Thorax admitted. He gazed about at their surroundings again but this time with a note of concealed concern, the thought clearly troubling him a little. Regardless, he waved his hoof dismissively. “But it is a legend after all… so it’s probably little more than just an old tale, anyway.”

A moment of heavy silence fell. “But you think those legends have truth to them, Thorax,” Trixie softly remarked aloud after a second.

Thorax chose not to respond to that comment.

Silence again lapsed on the group for another few minutes. During this, Trixie allowed her mind wander deep into thought again, so she failed to notice Starlight ahead of her stopping until she was bumping into the mare’s rear. “Starlight, what gives?” she grumbled as she looked up and around the halted unicorn. “Why’d you—oh.”

Directly ahead of them, the acorn grove abruptly halted and ceased to exist beyond that point. After a few feet of level, grassy, ground, it sharply dropped off in a gravelly decline, after which nothing but barren wasteland stretched on to the horizon.

At directly the center of it was the changeling hive.

The group regarded the structure of towering and uneven spires, changelings faintly visible from here as black dots moving about it, in silence for a long moment, taking in the intimidating view. Thorax was heard to audibly gulp.

“Well,” Ember finally said slowly, “it certainly looks bigger and more threatening now that we’re this close to it.”

“It’s only going to get bigger still,” Thorax warned softly. “We’ve still got another mile to walk before we arrive at it.”

“Sheesh,” Spike mumbled, cowed by the sight of the hive.

Starlight moved to stand next to Thorax. “Does that mean we’re going to be entering full range of that magic-draining throne now?” she asked.

Thorax nodded and pointed at the edge where the land dropped into the brief slope and immediately transitioned into wasteland. “From that point on, everyone’s magic but my own will cease to work.”

Starlight studied the dividing edge for a second before lighting her horn, allowing her magic to coalesce around it as she timidly approached this dividing line. She expected her magic to gradually fade out as she crossed over this clear-cut line, but was instead surprised to find that the moment her horn passed over this invisible barrier, her magic instantly went out like a candle being blown out, with her horn going numb as her magic vanished. Surprised by the sudden sensation, she pulled back from the divider, stared at it for a long moment, panting. She then glanced back at the others who were all watching her closely and with clear nervousness on their faces. Even Ember seemed a little unsettled.

Starlight let out her breath with a whoosh. “Well then,” she said, turning around so to face the group, “does anyone have anything they’d like to say before we proceed?”

The others glanced at each other for a second, debating to themselves.

“Don’t die,” Ember finally offered.

Starlight narrowed her eyes at the dragon lord. “Thank you for that, Ember,” she said sarcastically.

“You’re…welcome?” Ember replied uncertainly then leaned closer to Spike. “Hey Spike, that is the right thing to say in this instance, right?”

Spike wearily glanced back at her. “Yes Ember, it is.”

Ember pumped her fist victoriously. “Ha! I’m starting to get the hang of this whole being civil thing.”

After some eye-rolling at Ember, the rest of the group moved to join Starlight standing at the dividing line between grassland and wasteland, gazing at the path ahead of them.

Trixie took a deep breath. “Thorax, when we left the airship, what was that Prench thing you said again?” she asked suddenly.

Thorax glanced at her out of the corner of his solid blue eyes. “Allons-y.”

Trixie nodded, and motioned out at the hive. “Well…allons-y, then.”

Thorax nodded in agreement too, following her gaze. “Allons-y indeed.”

And with that, the group stepped over that dividing line and resumed their trek as one, now on their final approach towards the changeling hive ahead of them.

Author's Note:

I want you guys to know just how close you all didn't get a chapter tonight--as I was sitting down to give this chapter it's customary final edit before posting, I suddenly had a crisis of doubt about whether a certain scene in this chapter (not saying which) was even going to be necessary, and that hinged upon how I write that all-important moment of the story, The Climax (which I'm almost at, BTW), and it's recently occurred to me there are two major ways I could take that, and I can only use one. Whichever it was determined a lot of things about what would or would not be necessary in the remaining chapters of the story, this one included, and I wasn't sure I was prepared to make that call just yet. So I very nearly decided to call for a last-minute delay in the story posting and take time to figure it out...but luckily for all of you, it didn't come to that.

Anyway, after all the talk of the changeling acorn grove Thorax's blabbed on about for so long in this story, visiting the actual thing seemed necessary. Though to try and keep things interesting and relevant, I did add in other things to do as such, like the scene with Thorax and Trixie's mental link...which actually has been an idea almost as old as the idea of Thorax being a touch-telepath in of itself.

FYI, though obviously I will doing everything I can to keep it from being a word-for-word lifting of it, the next couple of chapters will probably start running a bit parallel with "To Where and Back Again," for obvious reasons. Don't expect that means things will end precisely as they did in the episode, though.

Comments

[KingJoltik]

Huh. Quite a bit of backstory/lore in this chapter, eh? Nice. I like it.

[Level Dasher]

Phew. Bit of a close call there, Trix.

[Madd]

"Hey Abdomen? You smell that fear?" said Head. "Mm," grunted Abdomen, "let's stand here and have a think about it." So they thought about it for several minutes.
"Hey Abdomen? Hear that loud conversation ten feet over there where all that fear is?" asked Head, who had never really lived up to his namesake. "I sure do Head," replied a very heavyset Abdomen, who most certainly did live up to his namesake.
"That bush sure has been talking to itself for a long time while we stand here sniffing and thinking about smells." After pausing for a few moments to sniff each other (they both could use a bath), six flowers (all a vibrant blue), a large number of assorted tracks (that definitely did not belong to a changeling), a pine cone (which really should not have been in an oak forest), and a half-eaten jar of peanut butter (it was delicious), Head spoke for the third time.
"Hey Abdomen? What's that glow over in that bush ten feet away? You know, the one that smells and makes angry whispering sounds constantly?"
"It looks to me like a horn when someone's doing magic. What a weird bush," concluded Abdomen, as he finally got fed up with Head's disgusting odour and sprinted off into the forest.
"Wait for me!" shouted Head, as he followed his friend.
They both ran headfirst into the hull of an airship and died. The end.

Also.
"I would never perform a mind link!" says an indignant Thorax, as he immediately resorts to mind-raping his stupid crush instead of doing anything else. Stunning Trixie for example. Sending her back to the ship.

Anyway, thanks for the chapter. Keep up the keeping up.

[Silver Thread]

Not amused, Thorax swatted one hoof on Ember’s arm as she set Spike down on the ground. “The cost is clear for the moment again, in case that wasn’t already obvious,” he remarked gruffly.

That noted, I can visualize the grove quite well, and the size of the spire.

[DarkChiyo]

I'm glad you posted this chapter. I already accepted your take of changelings as headcanon anyway. It makes them so much more interesting and I hope I can learn as much about them as possible in this and hopefully further future stories. My inner Twilight is extremly looking forward to that.

[Raistlin]

Trixie groaned, not relishing the idea of the lengthy hike. But Thorax, that'll be three whole miles to cross!

So, the showmare with the name of "blessed traveller", used to travel all of Equestria while pulling a cart, is the one who whines about having to march a few miles?
In the original episode, Discord was the one complaining ( being used to fly and teleport with his Magic) to Trixie's annoyance.
My interpretation, Trixie is actually used to hard work because her job as a traveling performer. Also, lacking the magical prowess of prodigies like Twilight or Starlight, Trix has to rely in tools and tricks rather than spells , so losing access to magic is less crippling for her than for them.

[448]

Do you think that one monster type thing that was near the hive in one of the season 7 episodes ate acorns, and that's why it was a nuisance to them.

I think so.

[Adam Jensen]

You feel that? That tension in the air? The time is almost upon us.

[blastdragon]

With all the allon-sy going around and the mental link used by Thorax I can only think about 1 scene (the scene begins at 0:40).

[Keystroke Cascade]

“Don’t die,” Ember finally offered.

Ember is literally me in this.

[Blazeblast4]

So, why did they bring Trixie? Spike seemed like enough of a liability, but at least he can dig, breath fire, bite through gems, and has a pretty good handle on hiding his emotions (at least to the point where Thorax was pretty oblivious to them). In the show, changelings couldn’t smell fear, plus only Thorax had access to his usual skill set, and it was very spur of the moment. Here though, we have super Thorax, two dragons, an infinitely calmer Starlight than in the show (this Starlight is interesting, but extremely different from show Starlight), and fear smelling changelings (not to mention potentially catching their budding relationship). She offers no obvious skill set or contribution to the team and her fear that was brought up many times in the airship. It wasn’t spur of the moment like in the show either, and they even have Julius and starting up the airship in case of a need for a quick escape as a reason to leave her behind and still have her contribute.

8515568
She also spent time working at a rock farm. Heck, this fic even brings up her walking between cities pulling her trailer, so a three mile walk with light supplies should be nothing. If she was scared of having to go 3 miles in both directions where they could be easily spotted, or having to run 3 miles with a bunch of dazed ponies, it would’ve made sense.

[Slavenger Karl]

Why do I feel the Hivemind spell will be the thing ending the story, even if it just means a short unity of minds.

[Slavenger Karl]

8516122
They seem to grasp the idea that the infiltration part will be eather very hard or doable. In the first case they would proably use trixie as bait as their detection is unevitable while in the former scanario she might even be useful-ish with providing numbers when it comes to fighting.

[Blazeblast4]

8516234
The issue is that bringing her along only makes infiltration that much harder. Using her as a distraction is basically sacrificing her, which is not something they would’ve planned or considered. In the event they do get discovered and have to fight, she’s more of a liability than any kind of help, as she has no magic or Starlight’s planning, especially since these changelings are much more of a threat than the show changelings. The ways she can contribute if they get caught (without getting caught she doesn’t seem like she has anything to offer), like by being used as a sacrifice or as a battery to power Thorax, are ones they wouldn’t consider. She’s most likely going to have a use, but it’s probably not going to be one they would’ve reasonably planned. As it is, bringing her along seems like a massive strategic blunder.

[Slavenger Karl]

8516278
She can do flashy stuff, seems pretty knowlegeable when it comes to low and mid tier spells that could effectively be used as flashbangs. It's this kind of distraction where she is basicly running last costantly throwing blasts behind her. In my opinion it would be pretty effective against Changeling soldiers of the inner hive who rarely see the sun. Would slow them down, cause to run into things and cause magic aiming problems at the very least.

Also, she would be essencially another horn blasing and another pony to carry the alicorns and mane6. She's a knife you bring to a gunfight but it's still better than bare hands. She is a liability until they actually get their hoofs on their targets, then she is becoming pretty much an invaluable asset. Remember, this is a Suecide Squad rip, so they cannot be picky.

[Blazeblast4]

8516527
If they had access to their magic, I would fully agree. The trick is they have a three mile hike, one of which is in a no magic zone. Flashiness would only help after the rescue, at which point they either have 4 adult alicorns and Shining Armor (for a love nuke), or 10 dazed adults and one dazed baby, which they wouldn’t be able to carry out with or without Trixie. They’d need to destroy the throne for her to be useful, as the way this story is set up, discovery would be much more detrimental than it was in the show, by which point they should be able to free the ponies no problem (they have Starlight after all). After the throne is gone, she’s unneeded, and before her fear is a huge detriment to stealth without her contributing anything of known value to the team. At best she could be sacrificed (or self sacrifice), but they didn’t bring her along with that intention and even then, the changelings could just force information out of her, making her sacrifice a stopgap at best.

The issue is that bringing her along is high risk low reward. Thorax is a must bring, as he has the most knowledge and access to magic. Ember has the next most combat ability, the most strength, and can potentially fly. Spike can dig, bite through gems, potentially breath fire, and can keep calm and think through a situation. Starlight is great at adapting and dealing with unforeseen circumstances (at least show Starlight is), plus has top tier magic for when the throne is down. All four of them don’t have their emotions radiating out enough to attract attention either. With Trixie, she doesn’t have the cool head that the others have and even with magic wouldn’t contribute any relevant amount. She’s also an extra body that can trip up or be spotted. She’s a liability up until the throne is destroyed and not much use after. They wouldn’t plan to use her as a distraction here since that’s essentially suicide (this hive isn’t the same as in the show), so what tactical purpose does she serve? Leaving her at the airship (even with her showing her ability with it is much lower than everyone else’s) would’ve been the smartest choice.

[Scyphi]

8515465
Well, Thorax did note that those two were basically the changeling equivalent of a managerial staff, not unlike the annoying boss for the company you might work for...so no, I wouldn't say those two in any way count as part of the "best of the best" of the hive.

"I would never perform a mind link!" says an indignant Thorax

At what time has Thorax ever said this? But regardless, incidentally, the opening part of the next chapter addresses the matter slightly and brings up some of the same things you have then, so in a way I'm already on that.

8515548
Fixed.

8515568 8516122
In retrospect, now that you've brought it up, I probably should've assigned that line to Spike or Ember instead of Trixie. Most likely though, I probably looked at that line of dialogue and thought "that sounds like something Trixie would say" and assigned it to her without thinking it through.

8515637
Heh, there is a bit of unintended parallel with that all right. Actually, I had almost forgotten about that scene (which is almost shameful, because that happens to be one of my favorite episodes from that season), but now I'm sort of wishing I hadn't, because squeezing in a more direct reference to it would've been fun. Ah well.

8516122

So, why did they bring Trixie?

Why did they bring her in the actual episode? Trixie wasn't really any more useful there than she was here, save for a source of smokebombs (which I could easily see them making do without just as well), sacrificing herself to serve as a distraction (which as you noted they wouldn't have planned in advance), and snark (). Beyond that, she was no additional help there either. Basically, what happened is that Starlight initially turned to her back in Ponyville because she didn't know who else to trust, and Trixie was just sort of stuck coming along for the ride from then on, regardless of whether or not she actually agreed to it. I've been largely shooting for the same sort of idea here, so in a way she's here because she was in the episode too, put simply. Plus I'm sure Trixie does actually want to try and help in some manner, and joining the others would seem like the best way to do so, and an extra set of hooves/eyes probably wouldn't hurt when trying to sneak through enemy territory. And I'm sure at least Starlight would want her company, seeing she's a friend--sort of like how Spike and Thorax are always together through thick and thin, regardless of whether or not either of them are actually suited for the task ahead.

That all said, it's a fair point, and it was a thought I did mull over a bit when writing this, but admittedly, I don't really have a good answer for you. It didn't help that the whole mental link sequence did bounce around a bit in the story before finally settling here, and inherited some now-mostly-defunct elements to it in the process that have been sort of grandfathered in anyway. That whole bit about the "doorstep connection" that Thorax and Trixie mull over doing but then ultimately don't? A relic from one of those past iterations of this scene that I kept only because I thought it was something still worth addressing.

Basically though, the end intent was to try and convey that Trixie was still nervous around unfamiliar changelings (as she was in the episode), and that Trixie would be inspired and better able to control her emotions after the link because of the support and tools Thorax was able to provide through it...but looking back, that could've easily been lost in the translation from the reader's point of view. Mm.

Trixie does have roles to fulfill planned in upcoming chapters though, so either way I can't really send her away now.

8516122

...an infinitely calmer Starlight than in the show (this Starlight is interesting, but extremely different from show Starlight)

Keep in mind this Starlight's had to deal with things such as Spike and Thorax's outcasting and the outcomes thereof that have affected her in various little ways in the moons leading up to this, and me keeping that in mind has in turn affected how I portray her in the story. I actually did want to try and start having her match up a bit more with her portrayal in the show a bit more, what with that whole Sunset Festival arc, but when readers caught onto me setting up for that early on, there was enough objecting on the grounds that this was Spike and Thorax's story and not Starlight's that I instead backed off from that idea, and this version of Starlight has been the end result of that.

I don't think my portrayal of Starlight is all that different though. Starlight has proven in the past, and in that same episode, that she is capable of keeping a level enough of a head when properly motivated and focused. She's at least far better at it than Twilight is, or for that matter Trixie, by comparison. And she really does tend to gravitate towards a role as a leader whether she means to or not in episodes I've noticed, and to lead effectively like that, you do need a certain degree of a collected mentality.

If it helps though, even Starlight will show a bit more nervousness the further into all of this they get.

[Blazeblast4]

8516896
It’s not the nervousness of levelheadness that’s the issue with Starlight, it’s everything else. From her earlier unwillingness to stand up to Twilight (something she had no problem in No Second Prances), the way she stood up to her (not in a Starlight way), her very strong ribbing at Trixie (she was afraid to do anything that might damage the friendship until All Bottled Up), and that entire griffon boyfriend thing. Starlight is doing fine now, as once she sets her mind on something, she will get it done (with a bad habit of tunnel vision and not seeing the bigger picture, but is the best at singular goals), but up until now, she hasn’t been acting like show Starlight.

As for Trixie, it’s too late now, but one of the ship scenes (no, the pun was not intentional) could’ve been replaced with them trying to help her hide her fear (she is a performer as well). In the show, it was very spur of the moment (Discord instantly took them to the boundary) and the team members were much more limited (two no magic unicorns and a no magic Discord), plus the changelings couldn’t smell fear or force mind links. Here, all three of those elements are not present and managing (heck, maybe cloaking) the airship and watching Julius would’ve been very helpful roles. She can still easily contribute, it just seems odd that they never considered leaving her behind or discussed any of it before hand.

[Scyphi]

8516936
And as I said, fair points, but to be honest, if I had a list of things I could've done but didn't in this story, it'd be longer than the actual story by now.

On a different topic, since you mentioned it, why does everybody have an issue with the idea Starlight might have dated around sometime in the interlude between her fillyhood and when she started the village, anyway? There's easily several years worth of her life unaccounted for still, and it's not like she went straight to the plan to start the village and steal cutie marks anyway, and clearly she got schooling of some sort in-between then, and she could've met any number of ponies (or griffons) in-between then, but for one reason or another, it didn't work out. In fact, it could've been a whole slew of such things "not working out" that drove her to the breaking point of forming the village in the first place (in fact, I did have an idea to establish that was the case with the griffon and their eventual breakup, that this was Starlight's "last straw" at the time, but dropped because I didn't think anybody would get that worked up over it...which incidentally is why I spend so much time on the little details, because clearly people DO get hung up about the little details and it prevents discussions such as this, but anyway...), but basically it was just an attempt from me to fill in something about that gap of time in her life, and I though the idea intriguing.

[Madd]

8516896
I think I'm just misremembering how serious Thorax was when he did the mind-meld with Spike and extrapolating things that were never said like a putz, though in my defense, I did read that probably half a year ago. Time flies. That or either I'm confusing the hivemind spell with the more innocuous thought transferring one, or I'm double confused and they are the same spell. Either which way, I can't be bothered to reread the chapters that you talked about this in, so I'll just be content in my ignorance and trust you as the author.

8517072
My two cents on the Starlight thing.
The backstory of Starlight in canon just paints her as (at least initially) so socially retarded that I honestly just can't picture her ever managing to date anyone. I have this sad image of a grown adult woman sitting in her parents' house reading books on devil magic just so she can hex the six year old boy who stopped halfway through a game of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" on the playground. I just have problems separating the image of the pony who ripped time apart to bully some dumb children at a race as ever hooking up, even with a griffin who just wants to get some.

[Blazeblast4]

8517072
Starlight’s entire villain stint was based on going on a rampage because her friend went to school for something he was good at. She never tried writing to him, she didn’t apply to the school herself when she was much better at magic, and she never showed any interest in a mutual relationship between then and reforming. Heck, when the same thing happened to Apple Bloom, she went and made new friends. Her villagers were clearly unhappy with her philosophy (which she herself did not follow), but she still blamed Twilight for them wanting to rebel. She took no responsibility for anything and was dead set on her anti cutie mark mission from day one. Plus there’s also the issue of griffons not having cutie marks. Starlight having any friends or meaningful relationships after Sunburst doesn’t fit her backstory. There’s also this bit from the season 6 premier:

Starlight Glimmer: [sighs] [narrating] When we were foals, Sunburst knew everything there was to know about magic. He always knew just what to do. And he was always there to help me. I guess it's not surprising that Sunburst got his cutie mark in magic and... went off to Princess Celestia's school. But when he left...
Spike: You blamed cutie marks and stripped a whole village of theirs, and when Twilight and the others stopped you, you went back in time and almost destroyed Equestria.

Doesn’t particularly leave it open for much else.

On a side note, the idea of high school in Equestria is very unlikely. We’ve never seen any schooling besides Elementary and maybe Middle (with Flight School), the only exceptions being personal students.

[Slavenger Karl]

8516575
Right. Forgot abaut that. Okay, still one pony flailing one's hooves at the enemy then? Also: In the show she had a few tricks that didn't require magic. Maybe something simlar then? I mean I don't remember her taking smoke bombs or anything like that, however I can't say she specyficly took them in the show too. There is hope she still can flashbang.

It's up for Scypthi to justify it sufficently then.

[Scyphi]

8517089

Either which way, I can't be bothered to reread the chapters that you talked about this in, so I'll just be content in my ignorance and trust you as the author.

Works for me! Actually, I can't say I blame you for not going back to reread chapters. If I were the reader and not the writer, I probably wouldn't either.

8517116

She never tried writing to him, she didn’t apply to the school herself when she was much better at magic, and she never showed any interest in a mutual relationship between then and reforming

To be fair, that we know of. The show sort of just blurs over this time in Starlight's life, and all we really know is that she never got over Sunburst leaving and ultimately took it personally, but no solid confirmation that she didn't try any of things at some point during that time frame still. At the very least, the fact she went to all that trouble build a village of her own and populate it with other ponies tells me she did still long for the company of others, and even when assuming pony years, that stretch of time between then and now seems like a long time to have go without at least trying to make other acquaintances for someone that didn't actually want to be alone, so it seems to me she would've still tried to meet other ponies...it's just it all obviously didn't work out, and by the time she was fully grown, she finally decided "fine, you ponies aren't going to get a say in the matter anymore" and went full villain. Besides, to me it seems a bit more plausible if it was actually a long series of failures at friendship that simply began with Sunburst that drove her to that point rather than Sunburst's departure immediately driving her to it, and it just took the next several years for her to actually get anything noteworthy completed in carrying out her so-called "evil" plans (I don't think Starlight honestly went into them actually intending to be evil, it just sort of evolved to that point without her realizing until too late, but that's a different topic).

Plus there’s also the issue of griffons not having cutie marks.

Perhaps that's precisely why she got involved with one--no risk of a cutie mark coming along and taking said griffon away from her like what happened with Sunburst.

On a side note, the idea of high school in Equestria is very unlikely. We’ve never seen any schooling besides Elementary and maybe Middle (with Flight School), the only exceptions being personal students.

They still have standardized schooling for the foals, so I imagine they still must have some sort of equivalent to it that'd basically equate to the same sort of thing. I was really using it as a means of cluing in the reader to Starlight's rough age at the time at any rate...I suppose, though, I could've just left out the "high" part and just left it as "school" and still had it work out without readers questioning it too much, but, again, assuming the reader won't notice and not question it generally doesn't happen in practice.

In short, it's all valid points, and I'm not denying any of them...I guess in my mind that still doesn't necessarily rule out the plausible possibility of it still happening, just so long as we maintain any such relationships didn't work out and last, because that much we can safely assume was the case. Either way, it all really veers mostly into headcanon stuff, so I guess it all depends on how one wants to view and interpret the MLP universe at this point...this is simply how I chose to do it.

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Cool chapter.

[KingJoltik]

8518417
Eh, close enough. Still needs an afro when dancing though.

[Earthpatriot117]

I'm actually quite glad spike and EMBER are in the group going to the hive.
So where's discord in all This? As much as I love him I'm glad he's not in the group, but where is he then? There's no way he'd ever leave fluttershy there, so what's he doing I wonder.

[Scyphi]

8518670
I dunno, wherever he is whenever he's not bugging the MLP cast...it's been made pretty clear now that he's not always hanging around them, so there must be something else he does in his spare time.

Maybe he's playing Uno with that mailpony that keeps getting stuck in his little pocket dimension.

[Gamerdestiny6]

8518417
Give them both Disco Stu's wig and clothes and were all set.

[Earthpatriot117]

8518845
Lol
Probably.

[Draconicus the Reaper]

Let the action or just seriousness of the story begin
But I can't help but wander if Discord was captured by the Changelings or if he's choosing to just stay out of this, even with his Fluttershy being a prisoner

[Scyphi]

8524921
Personally, I just figure he hasn't learned yet that Fluttershy's been captured, and will be mightily embarrassed when he presumably finds out after the fact.

The real reason, though, is largely just to shake things up for this section of the story, so it's not just a carbon copy of "To Where and Back Again." I figured by swapping out one of the episode's primary cast members with a different character, that would force me to make various changes to things so to adapt, and since I already knew Discord, by deliberate design, wasn't going to feature prominently in this fic, he seemed to be the natural one to swap out.

Trixie nearly didn't make it in either, but that was all before the Thorax/Trixie subplot appeared, of course.

[Anonymous Critic]

“Unfortunately, we have a bigger problem than all of that,” Thorax continued, rubbing his chin with one hoof and nodding his head solemnly at the cocoon and its occupant. “The cocoon requires a magical recharge about once a day. I’ve already given it a full recharge just now, so it should be good until about this time tomorrow…but I probably the only one of us who can properly recharge it, and even if it wasn’t, we’re all leaving for the hive, leaving Julius here behind, and it occurs to me that we have no guarantees of just how long we’ll be away, or if we’ll be able to get back at all.”

Wait wait wait wait wait.

If this is so, way back when Thorax got sick, before Fluttershy was asked to help, he was trying to build a cocoon to help himself heal...

So, who exactly would have charged the cocoon for him, if that did work out as planned?

[Anonymous Critic]

“Unfortunately, we have a bigger problem than all of that,” Thorax continued, rubbing his chin with one hoof and nodding his head solemnly at the cocoon and its occupant. “The cocoon requires a magical recharge about once a day. I’ve already given it a full recharge just now, so it should be good until about this time tomorrow…but I probably the only one of us who can properly recharge it, and even if it wasn’t, we’re all leaving for the hive, leaving Julius here behind, and it occurs to me that we have no guarantees of just how long we’ll be away, or if we’ll be able to get back at all.”

Wait wait wait wait wait.

If this is so, way back when Thorax got sick, before Fluttershy was asked to help, he was trying to build a cocoon to help himself heal...

So, who exactly would have charged the cocoon for him, if that did work out as planned?

[Draconicus the Reaper]

8524974
Okay
Thanks for the info

[Scyphi]

8526116
To be fair, Thorax was in a bit of a state at the time and certainly not quite firing on all cylinders, as well as probably a tad desperate.

But yes, you got me, I didn't think of the idea of the cocoons needing recharges until well after I wrote all of that.

[Anonymous Critic]

8526234
Now you have to rewrite the entire story just to correct it.

Welp, best start deleting all of the chapters now, so you can start rewriting everything!

[SShonix]

I don't wanna read the next chapter cuz there would be none left and I would have to wait!

[PonyDragon]

“Then I ask you continue to trust me and let me do what I am about to do,” Thorax urged.

I expected he would use an stunning spell on her. That would "calm" her, too. Right?

And yes, I'm finally making more progress with the chapters.

Found two small errors:

but I probably the only one

Should be "but I am probably"

his hiding spot with suddenly statue-still Starlight

Should be "with an suddenly"

[PonyDragon]

8526273

[The Portal Passer]

data.whicdn.com/images/218437805/large.gif

[leeleePads90]

I always love it when the acorn topic comes arise in your chapters it's honestly my favorite changeling culture cutom next to Informis Una's legend ❤️

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

So Thorax was creating the cacoon to heal.

[Cheese Legs]

“So in a way,” Starlight concluded appraisingly, turning to the changeling, “You’ve set things up so to use the Vergilius almost like a Trojan horse.”

Why would they know what a Trojan horse is? Maybe some pony version happened? Ponejan? Hm.

[Scyphi]

9315535
If I had tried to take the time to explain that (not that I thought to, but beside the point ), then, knowing me, I'd have probably gone off on solely that for several paragraphs and dragged out everything far longer than needed.

If there's one thing I learned from writing this fic, its that world-building is awesome and all, but there's still a time and a place for it when looked at in context with the greater story plot.