The Queen's Deal
None of the other mares knew what to make of the strange sight they'd been made privy to when Twilight called them all over to the Golden Oak. The once-pristine library, always kept neat and spotless by its current owner, now boasted an unusual sight in the form of the cocoon Thorax had weaved around himself. They kept an understandably wide berth of the thing, with only Rainbow and Pinkie daring to take a step closer. The latter, naturally, was a bit more keen, giving slight pokes to the surface of the thing, with this behaviour only stopping once the others gave her a stern look. But, such a stunned silence could only last so long, and it fell to Applejack to finally look to Twilight and speak to her. "So he jus' stuck himself in there?"
Twilight nodded. "He did. He had no choice. I have no idea how long it's been since he had any compatible sustenance, but it's clear he wasn't able to go on any further." She stepped forward, looking to the cocoon with an expression of sadness and obvious guilt. "...I did this to him."
Rarity moved over to her, gently placing her hoof upon her shoulder in an act of reassurance. "Twilight, this is hardly any fault of yours. You were his queen, yes, but for him to feed you would have had to order him to harm another."
"She's right," Rainbow chimed in. "And hey, we know you've done some kinda crazy stuff over the time we've known you..."
"Like making the whole town go gaga over a doll," Pinkie added. This, of course, earned her another scornful look from the others, leading to a shrug on her part. "What? Everypony was thinking it!"
Shaking her head, Rarity again looked to Twilight. "The point is, it's not in you to go out of your way to put anycreature in danger, not even for...well..."
She didn't finish, leaving Twilight to understand the message without it being spelled out. But as much as she appreciated what her friends were trying to do, the basic fact of the matter was that there was still a very real problem right in front of her. "No matter whose fault this is, I still need to fix this."
"How?" Fluttershy asked, having moved closer to the cocoon earlier to give it a look.
Twilight sighed. "I'm...not sure. I think I'll need to write to the princesses. See if we can maybe come up with a solution together."
Fluttershy moved closer to her. "Will they know more about this though? I mean, the only real knowledge about Changelings we have is what Thorax has told us."
Twilight hung her head. "I know, it's just...I don't have many options here, Fluttershy." She turned, looking to the cocoon. "I'm no Changeling. But Thorax chose me as his queen. He put himself in my service, my care. And I've let him down as badly as anypony could possibly do. I have a responsibility to set this right."
Then, as if in response to her words, there was a sudden and unexpected knocking at the door. All eyes turned to it, with looks ranging from surprise to confusion and worry. After a while, Rainbow looked to their host. "You expecting anypony today?"
After she shook her head, she looked to Spike, who cautiously walked over to the door before, with slowness, opening it. As soon as he did, and as soon as he saw who was on the other side, his eyes widened and he immediately slammed the door, backing up against it and seeming totally shocked. "Um...okay."
Seeing that reaction, Twilight moved closer to him. "Spike...who is it?" she asked warily.
Spike opened his mouth, ready to answer, then shut it again just as tightly. Then, he looked to the door, to Twilight, and back and forth again before, eventually, sighing and slumping his shoulders. "Okay, but...be warned, this probably isn't the best time for her."
Twilight arched an eyebrow as her assistant relented and opened the door. Immediately, Twilight understood why he had been so hesitant. For there standing just beyond her doorway, wearing the same confident smirk she had come to know her by, was Trixie, who chuckled upon seeing her. "Well, nice to know I'm finally allowed inside.
Slowly, Twilight's eyes narrowed. "Trixie. What are you doing here?"
The other mare, seeing Twilight's friends gather beside her and giving her the same look, shrugged. "What, a gal can't come over and visit an old friend?"
"Ha!" Rainbow laughed forcibly. "You and her are about as far away from friends as you can get!"
"Trixie," Twilight began, trying to stay calm. "Whatever it is you want here, I'm really not in the mood to hear it."
The smirk faded from Trixie's face, and she instead looked to her rival with what could only be described as distaste. "Au contraire. No matter your mood, you will be hearing me."
The unexpectedly aggressive tone caught the other ponies off-guard, but it soon changed into a mood of indignation among them. However, instead of the predicted mares of Applejack or Rainbow telling the uninvited guest to watch themselves, it was Twilight who soon started marching straight up to her, looking like she was positively seething. "I don't know what games you're here for, but you are not welcome in my home and I'm telling you now that I want you to..." But before she could finish, Trixie's eyes widened, briefly flashing a bright green. Seeing this, Twilight halted in her tracks, even taking a step back. For she knew that look. Those same eyes had haunted her nightmares for several days after her brother's wedding after all. "You...you're..."
Trixie's smirk returned. "Quick on the uptake, I see. Glad to know your edge hasn't dulled since we last met."
As before, Twilight's friends got close to her, all looking to her with concern. "Twilight? What is it?" Spike asked.
There was no room here to be anything other than open and direct here, so Twilight gave him his answer. "She's...one of them. She's a Changeling!"
The reaction from her friends was in the blink of an eye, as all of them looked to the new arrival with fear and worry, while Applejack and Rainbow finally took action by leaping forward and placing themselves between Twilight and the now-exposed Trixie, with Rainbow's wings flared up in a gesture of defense. Trixie, for her part, simply rolled her eyes to this display. "Oh would you all just relax already? I'm not here for any of you."
While the others looked to her with suspicion, Twilight seemed more curious about those words, and before long she glanced over her shoulder, to the cocoon in the corner of the room. "You're here for him."
Trixie chuckled. "Gold star for you, Sparkle."
Twilight hesitated at first, but after a while, she took a deep breath before speaking to her friends calmly. "...Let her pass." Of course, those words earned her looks of shock and confusion, to which Twilight inevitably had to elaborate. "I don't think she's going to hurt him." There was wariness on the part of the other mares, but eventually they did as she asked, stepping aside to allow the blue mare to pass them. When she walked by Twilight though, the latter leaned over to Rainbow, keeping her voice to a whisper. "Be prepared if anything goes wrong."
Rainbow nodded to her, but her eyes were set on Trixie, who by now was standing beside Thorax's cocoon, shaking her head. "Tsk tsk, brother. What did I tell you? But, of course, you didn't listen, and look where that got you."
"He's...your brother?" Fluttershy asked with surprise.
Trixie shrugged again. "Well, half-brother at least."
Twilight frowned to her. "So it's true. You are Chrysalis' daughter."
This, inevitably, led to even further tension among the mares, with the exception of Pinkie, who tapped her chin with her hoof. "Huh, I thought that nasty, old queen sounded familiar."
Looking behind her, Trixie too was frowning. "Queen Tricks, at your service."
To that, Rainbow took on a smirk of her own. "Queen? I don't see any army beside you, your Majesty."
Tricks looked away from her, to the cocoon once more. "Well...every army starts off with one."
Finally, Twilight had all the pieces she needed to put together a clear picture. "You're making a hive of your own, and you want Thorax for it."
Tricks never looked at her as she answered. "I made my intentions very clear to my sweet, little brother. But his old thinking kept him in your service." She took the opportunity to look to Twilight smugly. "And we can all see where that got him."
Though not happy with her tone, Twilight kept on point. "Can you help him?"
"I could," Tricks admitted, sounding more than a little disinterested as she did so. "We Changelings have our ways to ensure that what little love we can get can be shared in lean times." A pause. "But then again, Thorax did make his position as plain as he could. So..." She turned, starting to walk away. "I see no reason why I should waste my time doing so."
Twilight looked to her, aghast. "You're...just leaving him?! Your own brother?!"
Tricks stopped beside her, looking her right in the eye. "As he's undoubtedly told you by now, we Changelings do not feel the bonds of family as your kind does. And besides, losing him will be a defeat for you, and all I have to do to see it happen is walk away. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle...what can you offer me that would mean more to me than seeing a mare I dislike being brought down?"
There was dead silence in the library after that question, and for a while the two rivals, Twilight and Tricks, just stared at one another, never blinking or showing anything other that their absolute best poker faces. As for everypony else, their gaze would fall to one or the other, and sometimes both, nervously awaiting whatever it was that was going to come from this meeting. In the end, despite how much it might have pained her to admit such a thing, Twilight eventually just sighed with resignation. "Being his queen wasn't something I asked for...but the role fell to me all the same. His life is in my hooves and I have to do all I can to see that life continue." Again, she looked to Tricks. "If you save him...if you actually manage to bring him back from this state I've allowed him to fall into...I will let him go with you."
"Twilight!" Spike exclaimed. "You can't be serious!"
Twilight looked to him, saddened. "Spike...what choice do we have? What chance does he have?" she added, pointing to Thorax.
Spike had no answer for her, and neither did anypony else. Tricks, by contrast, knew full well that she held all the cards here, and her tone reflected that. "If it makes you feel any better, pony, Thorax will have told you that the chances of my kind being an issue for yours will be slim to none, thanks to the incompetence of my Mother. You take this offer, and I assure you there will be no problems with me or any other Changeling again." Briefly, she glanced over to her unmoving sibling. "And not to put too fine a point on it, but my dear little brother over there only has so long before even this measure isn't enough to save him." She stepped forward, stretching out a hoof towards Twilight. "So then...do you truly agree to my terms?"
Twilight looked to the hoof. She knew her options, as grim and unhappy as they were, but ever there was the spectre of what lay in the corner of her home just behind her. Her friends looked to her, all wracking their brains for some sort of out to give her in place of this deal. But none of them had any to give. So, after weighing all of her options, Celestia's apprentice reached out and took the other mare's hoof into her own. "...I do."
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Lets hope it will be worth it.
Also
don’t you mean thought? Just trying to help
Woah, drama-
That's all fine and dandy for Tricks here...but I somehow doubt Thorax is just going to acquiesce to the terms he had no say in himself that easily once he's back in a position to say something about it.
I know his loyalty to whomever he sees as his queen is claimed to be absolute, implying he wouldn't disobey an order if given, but not only did he, as Tricks said, make his position towards her quite clear, the fact he and other changelings still had free will enough to turn on Chrysalis tells me that loyalty isn't actually as absolute as Thorax would claim. So even if he still relents in the end, I still think he's going to protest and resist falling in line with Tricks as his new leader just like that.
But we'll see. For all I know, this could really be this story's endgame--how it intends to wrap up loose ends for a resolution.
Well next chapter promises to be a shake up. How will Thorax respond to the Paradoxical situation he's in. He can't disobey Twilight but he can abadon her for Trixie either. Something will have to give.
Okay if only they knew that there was another way for them to share the love instead of taking it
Lol oh yeah Mr Smarty Pants doll
Well that’s one way to wrap up the story in another chapter or so.
The only reason for the voice sounding almost the same is the voice actress Kathleen Barr played both Trixie and Queen Chrysalis
Oh man that is a pretty tough situation so Twilight and the others had no idea what to do to help thorax but coincidentally Trixie showed up and they were about to tell her not cause any trouble or at least told her to get out Twilight just saw something back in season 2 and they found out that Trixie is also a changeling so she introduced herself as tricks and she told them the only way to save him is to let him to go with Trixie which the others did not like the idea but Twilight knew there is no choice because thorax's life is in danger and she really was sad that she failed him so she made the deal with tricks now the only question is what's going to happen and how thorax will react to it guess we'll find out next time
11508667
i get the feeling that we're far from done tho
11508683
I was kinda hoping that Twi would do something selfless like allow her new and loyal friend to pull energy from her somehow.
Friends give, yes?
Now he doesn’t need to drain her...
But is she a student of friendship or what?
Citation very much needed. This whole plotline feels contrived because, AFAIK, it was never established in this story whether draining love in the quantities needed to sustain a single changeling is meaningfully harmful.
Twilight may allow Thorax to go with Tricks. But that's not the same thing as making Thorax go with Tricks.
11508819
Exactly.
But that what Twilight needs to find out.
And there is only one ethical way - she can’t volunteer another pony to possibly be harmed in what is essentially a medical experiment, so she needs to volunteer herself.
Particularly so as she is 100% responsible for his wellbeing.
11508852
That’s… not how volunteering for medical studies works. She can’t volunteer other ponies, but she could certainly ask other ponies if they would volunteer. By your logic, the only possible subjects for medical studies would be the doctors themselves, which isn’t how medical science works at all.
11508913
You know what I mean...
Of course she could take a roll of volunteers.
I’m speaking within the bounds of a colourful fanfic about magical horses.
(EDIT: As in, the way a screen-written episode would handle it)
By real world logic, pegasi couldn’t fly either.
Is Tricks really all that trustworthy? Her name could hint that her goals are more enigmatic than one might think.
I would expect Fluttershy to show more curiosity. Different species are her expertise, after all.
Pinkie is right! I was about to write a comment about it.
Tricks: *looks at Thorax* "Yes, I see that..."
Maybe add a small "If he wants to".
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.