Part III, Chapter 1 - Arrested
One week earlier...
Thousands of ponies were gathered underneath the spire of the Crystal Palace, their gazes locked onto Princess Cadance as she addressed the crowd. Then, they gawked at her as she announced that she had allowed a changeling, one of the enemies to Equestria, to stay in the Crystal Empire and potentially become a citizen there. The gathered crowd had several different reactions to the news, ranging from uncertainty to anger to fear.
One pony, however, didn't have any of these reactions. The green crystal unicorn looked at the scene before him with surprise, not expecting an announcement of this nature. That surprise faded quickly, as he realized that there was someone that would want to know about this. Tearing his eyes away from the princess and changeling on the balcony, he began pushing through the crowd until he found his way to the location he was looking for: the telegraph station.
The stallion pushed the door open and entered the building. Besides having a collection of wires leading to it, the office was small and sparsely furnished. There was a front desk, where a mare sat listening to the radio address, and then there was a back table with a transmission key being ran by an older stallion. The stallion approached the front desk and gave a cough. Hearing the cough, the mare looked up in surprise.
"Oh, I'm sorry!", she apologized,"I didn't hear you come in over the radio."
"That's okay", the stallion replied,"I literally just walked up."
"Well, what can we do for you today?" she asked, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen and ink set.
"I'd like to send a message to Van Hoover", the stallion told her,"Address it to a Mister High Tide."
The mare jotted down the information. "And what would you like the message to say?"
"Relay to supervisor", he began,"Interesting development in Empire. Will send written correspondence soon. Peridot Gamble."
The mare finished writing the message and then proceeded to count the words in the message. Once she had that, she went over to a tabulating machine and produced a slip with the total on it. "Fourteen words at quarter bit a word and imperial tax added makes your total four bits" she told him.
Peridot reached into his bit pouch and produced four bits and placed them onto the counter. The mare took them and unlocked a drawer full of bits, then placed them inside before closing and locking the drawer again. "Thank you for your business" she said as he turned and walked back outside.
"Now that the message has been sent", Peridot thought to himself,"I'll have to get to the post office and send a letter to Sharpclaw." With his next move in mind, the stallion trotted off in the direction of the post office.
The next day...
In the city of Van Hoover, inside a small office in an out of the way corner of the city, an old griffin sat at his desk looking over some paperwork. In his beak sat a cigar, crafted from the finest Saddle Arabian tobacco that money could buy. The griffin removed the stogie from his beak and tapped it against an ashtray on his desk, trimming off the long tail of clumped ash that hung from the end.
Replacing the cigar, the griffin moved on to the next piece of paperwork in his grip and then stopped. It was from the telegraph office in the Crystal Empire, and addressed to his alias "High Tide". He quickly read over the short message, then stood up and walked towards the door. Outside his office was a mare who was tapping away at a typing machine.
"Has any mail showed up yet today?" he asked her.
The secretary looked up at the griffin in acknowledgement, then looked at a basket on her desk that contained several envelopes. She grasped them all and handed them off to the griffin. "Just this today" she told him as she resumed her typing.
The griffin gave no response, instead looking through the letters and finding one postmarked from the empire. Opening it, he proceeded to read the letter, then took note of a photograph contained within. Looking at the photograph, the griffin was at first shocked, but then began to have thoughts forming in his head. When he had finished his thinking, a wry smile crossed his beak.
"Get a hold of Sledge and Flog", he told the mare sitting at the desk,"Tell them I have a little chore for them."
The mare gave a nod and stopped her typing, then rose out of her chair and headed out of the office.
Present time...
The first rays of morning sunlight shone down upon the towering buildings of the Crystal Empire. Various ponies were going about their day, from the sellers in the open market setting up their stalls with wares to sell, to families enjoying a simple day off. With a scheduled day of sunny and warm weather, it was set up to be yet another wonderful day.
Inside the Crystal Palace sat the newest addition to the Crystal Empire: The changeling Thorax. While still technically recovering from the attack carried out by the ponies Feather Duster and Elbow Grease, he had almost fully recovered, showing no signs of concussion and his wounds appearing to heal with no risk of permanent scarring. Even his wings were well on their way to recovery, with the changeling being able to use them for short periods of time with no discomfort that could be noticed.
Of course, physical well being was at the back of Thorax's mind at the moment. A week ago, he was introduced to the empire as a potential new citizen. The announcement was met with both fear and uncertainty by the ponies of the Crystal Empire, but there was no vocal opposition to Princess's decision. This meant that, sooner or later, Thorax would have to leave the palace and introduce himself properly to ponies in the empire.
Currently, the insectoid equine was currently reading a Daring Do novel, trying to look interested, but was clearly uncomfortable if his fidgeting wings were anything to go by. The book was an attempt to distract himself from his nervous thoughts, but it was a futile effort. A sigh broke his attempts to concentrate on the pages of the book.
"So?" came a voice he was all too familiar with. He lowered the book from his face so he could look his friend Brass Polish in the face.
"So, what?" he asked, thought he knew exactly what she meant.
"You know exactly what", she said while giving him a stern look,"So when are you gonna leave the castle and go meet some of the other ponies in the Crystal Empire?"
Thorax fidgeted uncomfortably, and tried to hide his face inside the book again. "M-Maybe tomorrow?" he offered in an uncertain tone of voice.
Brass gave out a huff. A moment later, and Thorax's book was pulled from his hooves, a piece of paper slipped inside it to mark the place left off, then closed and placed on his room's desk. "You're not gonna make any new friends if you don't get outside the palace and go meet them" she pointed out to him.
"I know", he answered,"It's just that I'm-"
"Yeah, Thorax", Brass interrupted,"I know. You're afraid of how other ponies will react to you, even after what Princess Cadance told them all."
Brass had gotten up from where she was sitting to place a comforting hoof onto Thorax's withers.
"You can't keep hiding in here forever just because you're afraid", she continued,"Do you really want your only chance at making new friends to be when somepony in the palace either retires, quits, or gets left go and a replacement is brought in?"
"Well, that wouldn't be so-" Thorax had tried to answer, but was cut off by a hoof to his muzzle and a very disapproving look from Brass. "Okay", Thorax said with a huff,"I get it. I have to go out there sooner or later. I mean, it's not like they don't know that I'm already here."
"I would've preferred a more enthusiastic response", Brass said with a smirk,"but I suppose I have to take what I can get."
"Brass", Thorax said nervously,"can you come with me? Maybe it won't be so bad if I'm not alone."
Brass looked at him and then laughed. "Did you think I was just gonna shove you out the door and left you to fend for yourself? Of course I'm coming with you!" The mare walked over to the door and paused to look back at Thorax.
"Let me go grab my saddlebags from my room", she said,"We'll meet up at the main entrance to the palace." Brass then left to go grab her bags from her room.
At the entrance to the Crystal Palace
Thorax was galloping towards the entrance to the Crystal Palace. When Brass left to get her saddlebags, he took stock of himself and realized he hadn't cleaned himself properly since yesterday morning, so he made a quick detour to a bathroom so he could wash himself up a little before heading outside. As he approached the main entrance to the palace, he saw Brass standing there.
"Sorry I took so long!", he called out to her, slowing to a stop and catching his breath before adding,"I thought I should clean up a little. I didn't mean to take so long."
Brass just blew a raspberry and waved a hoof. "What's a few minutes?" she asked rhetorically. "Besides, there's plenty of beautiful day left for us to enjoy seeing the sights." With that, she turned and stepped towards the door. Just as she was about to push it open, she turned to look at Thorax, who was standing behind her with a nervous look on his face. "You're not gonna get cold hooves on me, are you?"
"No!", Thorax said defensively,"I'm just trying to convince myself that this isn't all gonna go very badly."
"Well, it isn't", Brass told him,"not with me around." Without anymore questions, Brass pushed on the door and stepped outside and into the Crystal Empire. The light entering the doorway caused Thorax to raise a hoof defensively, as the bright sun was much stronger compared to the lights inside the palace. Keeping a hoof to his eyes until they adjusted, Thorax followed his friend outside.
Once Thorax's eyes had adjusted to the bright sunlight, he was greeted to the sight of the plaza beneath the palace. In the center was the Crystal Heart, the magic artifact that permitted the city to exist in spite of the harsh snowstorms that plagued the region. It also served as the only form of nourishment that Thorax was permitted; despite the fact that he was no longer being escorted by guards, he still had to go to the main balcony every morning and night to have the ring removed and feed on the Heart's overflow of love energy. Being honest, Thorax still felt like he was stealing it, even though he had Princess Cadance's permission to do so.
Looking away from the Heart, Thorax observed some of the other ponies in the street. Most appeared to just be out and enjoying the beautiful day, while some others were preparing carts for what looked to be a day of selling wares. All looked to be in generally positive moods.
Thorax also took note of some guards. The purple armor made them stand out from the other ponies in the street, along with their large, brush-like decoration on top of each helmet. Of course, upon noticing them, several took notice of him, and immediately snapped to attention. This gesture caused the ponies near them to become confused, until their gaze found him too and they adopted a defensive posture as well. Soon enough, everypony in the street was looking at Thorax as though he was a manticore ready to pounce on any one of them.
A hoof on his withers caused him to turn and face his friend.
"Come on", she urged,"They aren't gonna find out how nice you really are until you get out there and start talking to them."
Without waiting for a reply, Brass continued walking towards the marketplace. Thorax looked at her dumbly for a few moments before quickly following after her. The ponies tensed up upon seeing Thorax come running in their direction, but eased up slightly when he slowed down after catching up to the mare he was standing with. Some chose to ignore the changeling and go about their business, but most simply gave a wide berth and continued to watch him as he and Brass walked.
"Just try to ignore how they're acting", Brass told Thorax,"If they want to act like foals afraid of a monster in their closet, let them."
Thorax tried to share in her confidence, but he was sure if even half of the ponies looking at him had knives shooting out of their eyes, he'd look like a walking pincushion. However, he did try to heed his friend's advice and opted to look around at the market they were entering.
The street below the Crystal Palace had been turned into a bazaar of sorts. There were carts lining the streets on both sides, hawking all kinds of wares. Some were produce, some were ceramics or metalwork, and some were other types of crafts such as paintings or woven wicker baskets. As Thorax passed one stall, he took notice of a sign above what looked to be the most attractive apples he'd ever seen:
Sweet Apple Acres Apples
Voted Best Apples by the Emerald Gazette!
Four bits per dozen!
Thorax stared for a moment, wondering why the name Sweet Apple Acres was familiar to him. A moment later, and it clicked: Sweet Apple Acres was the farm that Applejack and her family ran. These were some of their apples!
Thoughts of the farm pony and bearer for the Element of Honesty brought back memories of getting to meet the other five element bearers and the couple of hours he'd spent with them. He recalled their trepidation, but also how they pushed past it to get to know him better. It made him happy that those mares had given him an honest chance in spite of everything, and a part of him looked forward to the day when he could meet them all again.
"Equestria to Thorax!"
The voice caught the changeling off guard and caused him to jump. He turned to see Brass looking at him with concern. "I kept calling your name, but you were just standing there looking."
"Oh, sorry" Thorax apologized. "I got distracted by those apples."
"Really?", Brass said as she looked at the apples,"I had no idea you guys ate those things."
"Oh, we don't", Thorax clarified,"It's just that I saw the sign above them and it reminded me of something."
Brass looked at the sign for a few moments before it clicked. "You were thinking of the element bearers and that time you got to meet them."
"Yeah", Thorax admitted,"I'm honestly looking forward to when I can meet all of them again. They've had such a strong impact on my life, I can't possibly thank them enough for all that they've done, especially giving me a chance when they first met me."
"That still blows my mind how you got to meet all six of the element bearers", she admitted,"What are they all like?"
Thorax spent the next few moments talking about each one of the element bearers, from Twilight and her coming to Ponyville to learn about friendship, to Rainbow Dash and her efforts to be really awesome at air stunts and join the Wonderbolts, to Fluttershy and her love of animals, Rarity's fashion goals, and Pinkie's insane abilities to throw what are apparently the most awesome parties in all of Equestria.
"Wow" Brass said after Thorax finished his discussion. "They're just like all of us normal ponies."
"Well, I'm not exactly a normal pony" Thorax said sheepishly.
"Trust me", Brass said with a smirk,"You're a lot more normal than you think." Thorax simply smiled at the compliment his friend had given him. At least, he thought it was a compliment.
"HEY!"
The random shout had caused both pony and changeling to look. Approaching them was a stallion with a glare on his face. He pointed a hoof at Thorax and looked Brass dead on. "How come you're being so chummy with that bug?" he asked her.
Brass glared right back at him and stepped in front of Thorax as if to protect him. "I'm chummy with him because he's my friend, and he could be yours to if you'd give him a chance."
The stallion snorted. "The day I give a changeling a chance to get chummy with me is the day Celestia hooves control of Equestria over to Discord" he spat at her before turning and walking away, an embarrassed mare and a small colt following after him.
Thorax stopped watching the stallion and looked at his friend, who looked as though steam was going to start shooting out of her ears if she had water in them. "Why that... JERK!" she finally responded, shouting at the last word and kicking a nearby discarded can into a wall a fair distance away from the two. "I swear, Thorax! It's like being back in school again!"
Thorax didn't have anything to say in response, which wasn't satisfactory to his friend. "Don't you have any comment about what just happened?"
"I won't say I'm not bothered by the way that stallion acted", Thorax began,"but at the same time, I knew that not everypony I would meet today would take to me like a bee to a flower. I have to expect some less than ideal responses."
"But it's not right!" Brass responded, emphasizing her point with a hoof stomp. "Sure, they're might not be inviting you over to their house for a visit any time soon, but that they can't at least be civil!"
Thorax wanted to say something to calm the mare down, but thought better of it; Brass was the sort of pony you don't try and calm down using logic and reason.
Instead, Thorax elected to derail her anger as best he could. "Why don't we just keep browsing through the market?", he offered,"Maybe there's some more open minded ponies somewhere else?"
Brass took several deep breaths to calm herself. Once she was composed enough, she gave a simple "Okay", and the pony and changeling continued through the marketplace.
While Brass continued browsing some more of the stalls, Thorax chose to look at some of the sights around him. From where he stood, Thorax could see several large buildings. One of those, of course, was the spire of the Crystal Palace. The large crystal structure was directing the magic of the Crystal Heart up into the sky where, according to Sunburst, it was keeping the horrible blizzards of the frozen north at bay.
Thorax looked in another direction and noticed another significant building. It was made from what appeared to be very pure quartz, and went up several stories. The purpose of said building was made clear by the large red ruby cross on the topmost corner. Thorax was looking at a hospital. "Which hospital is that?" he asked Brass while pointing his hoof at the building.
Brass looked up to see what building Thorax was pointing at, then recognized the large while structure. "Oh, that's Hope Diamond Memorial", she explained,"They actually just finished building that a bit before the Crystalling took place."
"They did a really good job by the look of it" commented Thorax.
"No expense was spared, as far as I understand", Brass responded,"It was built to honor a mare from way back in the empire's past named Hope Diamond. She was a doctor that left the empire to travel the world and learn about all the new and best medicine. Then she came back with all that knowledge to treat ponies here and train more doctors so the empire could have to best medical treatment possible."
"The same idea went into this hospital as well. Doctors from all over Equestria, and even some allied nations, were invited here to train all of the staff in the most cutting edge medical care available. Only the hospital the princesses go to in Canterlot has better medicine than this place."
"Wow", said Thorax with amazement,"I hope I never get hurt again, but if I do, I guess this is the place I'd wanna come to."
"I hope you never get hurt again too" she responded. The two stood and admired the building for a moment before Brass gestured for Thorax to follow her. The two then continued walking through the market, choosing to ignore the looks they received as they went along.
Six days before...
Sharpclaw the griffin sat at his desk, puffing away at one of his cigars. On his desks were several papers and manila folders, all of which contained financial documents, or at least what appeared to be financial documents. There were dollar amounts, names, locations, and even percentages beside the names. To an untrained eye, it looked like nothing out of the ordinary for a business that offered loans to clients.
Unfortunately, the percentages were for interest accrued daily, and they were all ridiculously high. Some were so high that there would be practically no way for the pony who owed on the loan to ever pay it back, but that wasn't gonna stop the old griffin. In another file, he had information on all of those money was lent to; The sort of information that one doesn't want getting out.
A knocking on his office door interrupted his reviewing of documents. "Come in", he called out, shifting the shrinking stogie in his beak around as he did so. A moment later and the door opened, revealing a unicorn stallion and an earth pony stallion. Both walked in and stood by the door for a moment.
"Sit down" the griffin ordered, which the two stallions complied. Once seated, the unicorn elected to speak.
"Your secretary said you have a job for us, sir?" he asked.
"Indeed I do, Flog", answered the griffin, finding a manila folder and presenting it to the unicorn. Taking it in his magic, the unicorn opened the folder to see a picture of a pony family, as well as financial documents regarding the loan they owed on. Unfortunately for them, it was one of the kind of loans you could never fully pay back, even if you worked every minute of your life.
"The mare in that photograph, Mint Julep, took out a loan several months ago because her husband was hurt at his job", the griffin continued,"The disability went dry and they needed money then and there, so it was really easy to get her to agree to our terms. It's time to collect on the debt, and I'm pretty sure she's either gonna not have the money for us, or she might just rat on us to the guard in the Crystal Empire. If that happens, our whole operation is sunk."
"So, we need to convince her of how bad an idea it would be to skip a payment or try and rat us out." Sharpclaw punctuated the last sentence by aggressively stamping out the stump of a cigar into the ashtray on his desk.
"Sounds simple", replied the earth stallion,"We go up there and put the squeeze on her."
"Unfortunately, Sledge, it is not that simple", Sharpclaw retorted,"Several members of the crystal guard live in her building, and they all have different shift hours, so they're always coming and going and able to see every little sign of trouble that a shakedown tends to produce."
"Instead, we're taking a less direct approach."
Flog caught on, or at least he thought he had. "So, what kind of dirt do you have on her?"
"Unfortunately, none", admitted Sharpclaw,"which is why we're approaching a much riskier option."
"Riskier?" questioned Flog.
"Yes" the griffin answered, then gestured with a claw at the photo, and specifically to the young filly in the photograph. "Just like any mother", the griffin said ominously,"she'll do anything to protect her child."
Sledge looked uneasy. "You want us to hurt the filly?"
"For feather's sake, NO!", Sharpclaw spat out,"I'm not that heartless!"
"Then what are we doing with her?" Flog asked as he looked over the photograph.
Sharpclaw opened a box on his desk and took out another cigar, looking at Flog expectantly. A moment of unicorn magic later, and the end of the smoke was glowing red. The griffin took a puff of the cigar and let out a cloud of smoke before finally giving an answer. "You two are going to take her."
Sledge and Flog both looked uneasy upon hearing this. "You mean", Sledge said, taking a momentary pause before finishing with,"we're gonna be carrying out a foalnapping?"
"Yes", Sharpclaw answered,"I have nearly all the details worked out. You'll have to meet with our Crystal Empire contact to iron out the rest."
"Sir", Flog spoke up,"I really don't like this idea. If we try and break into that building-"
Sharpclaw raised a paw to stop the unicorn from speaking. "You're not abducting her from her home", he clarified,"You'll be taking her from off the streets."
That did nothing to ease Flog's concerns. "We're doing this in broad daylight?"
The griffin only replied with a nod.
"How are we supposed to pull this off?" Sledge asked.
"Very simple", Sharpclaw replied,"The filly has tutoring on Saturdays, and walks home through the large open market. There's several streets between her school and the market, and that market becomes a higher priority than most of the other streets, so there are fewer guard patrols. Before she gets to that market, you'll coerce her into an alleyway and use a stun spell on her."
"Stun spell?", Flog said with confusion,"The only stun spell I know is for adults. I can't use that on a kid!"
"Which is why I'm giving you one for a child", The griffin retorted, producing a spell sheet from his desk drawer and giving it to the unicorn. "They use it at the new hospital up there for colts and fillies that get unruly for one reason or another. Doesn't hurt 'em and they pass right out."
Flog looked over the spell in his grasp, then just nodded. "So, we get the filly before she gets to the market, stun her, and make off before anypony sees us" he summarized.
"That's the gist of it" Sharpclaw replied. He then produced a plain envelope and gave it to Flog. Looking inside, Flog saw two train tickets for one departing for the Crystal Empire that evening, as well as a reservation slip for a two-bed room at a hotel called The Waterford Crystal.
"I want you two to pack your bags and head up that way", the griffin instructed,"You'll get there sometime tomorrow morning so those train tickets are for a sleeping car. Once you get up there, check into that hotel and find our contact. His name's Peridot and he works for a shipping company not too far from the train station. You'll work out all of the fine details and get everything ready for next Saturday."
The two stallions nodded, and got up to leave. Before they did, Sharpclaw stopped them.
"One last thing I forgot to mention", he said to them while holding up a picture,"This thing has been living up there for about a week. He claims to be friendly but keep an eye out. A group of ponies singled off from a large congregation sounds like it would be easy pickings if there's more of those things around."
"Also, Peridot said he might have some ideas on how to implicate this thing to throw the guard off any trail you might leave, so I would listen to any advice he has in regards to it."
The two stallions looked uneasy as they looked at the picture of the changeling standing on the balcony of the Crystal Palace, next to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of all ponies. The princess of love, allowing a love-eating parasite to live in her empire, and likely one of those that ruined her wedding day? They'd have more questions than just what little kinks they'd need to iron out in their plan.
With nothing else to say, the two stallions left the office. As they walked back to their homes to collect their luggage for the trip, Flog thought back on something Sharpclaw said:
Peridot said he might have some ideas on how to implicate this thing
"I sure hope we can pull this thing off and avoid that changeling altogether" Flog thought as he went to prepare for his train trip.
Present time...
Brass and Thorax continued browsing through the marketplace. In the time since they started, the mare had acquired a variety of different fruits and vegetables, a small picnic basket, a bottle of raspberry flavored mead, and small bouquet of flowers. All the while, Thorax was content to just watch the mare go about shopping at the numerous stalls.
Of course, at practically every stop the mare made, eyes were on him, expecting him to make his move and attack a random pony before escaping the empire. Even with his magic muted, Thorax could still tell that's how everypony felt about him. That thought dampened his hopes a bit; He'd really hoped what Princess Cadance had told them would've had some kind of impact, but he supposed that even the words of a princess weren't always enough to sway the will of the people.
"So, finally crawled out of the broom closet, did ya?"
Thorax was interrupted from his negative thoughts by the pony running the stall Brass was currently browsing. She was a mare, with a red mane and lime green coat. Her flank was adorned with a ladybug on a sunflower, likely representing her talent with flowers. "I'm sorry?" he asked with confusion.
"The princess introduces you to us, and for a whole week, we haven't seen hide nor hair of ya."
"But I don't have hair" Thorax pointed out.
"It's a figure of speech", Brass interjected,"Like 'I'll believe it when pigs fly'?"
"Oh", Thorax said in acknowledgement,"Well, to be honest, I was kinda afraid that things would go really badly."
The stall mare looked confused. "What would go really badly?"
"...meeting other ponies" Thorax admitted sheepishly.
The market mare didn't say anything for a few seconds. Instead, she tried to suppress a chuckle, but the failure to do so brought on a fit of laughter. "HA HA!", she bellowed out,"The changeling is afraid of us!"
Her laughing fit had caught the attention of some nearby ponies, who looked at Thorax with a glare. He responded by cowering away and trying to appear small, as his ability to shapeshift into something like a mouse was currently unavailable to him.
Brass, who had become rather annoyed with the mare, spoke up.
"How dare you!" she yelled, pointing a hoof at the stall mare.
The mare, now recovering from her laughing fit, looked at Brass with surprise. "What?" she asked.
"Your behavior", Brass answered back harshly,"My friend did not leave his kind to come here and be made fun of!"
The mare considered the words for a moment before apologizing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean any offense. I just thought-"
"No, you didn't", Brass interrupted,"You saw my friend for what he is and not for the kind of pony he is. Don't you remember his apology to all of us?"
"Yeah, we do"
Brass turned to see another pony, a stallion, approaching. Thorax saw him, but also took notice to a crowd beginning to form around them. The guards, while keeping a watchful eye on the crowd, stayed at their positions.
"If you ask me, it was all a major load of horseapples!" called out a mare in the crowd.
"Yeah!", another stallion chimed in,"And how come the princess is vouching for him so suddenly? She should've wanted to blast him out of the empire more than anypony else here!"
"I bet he brainwashed her", another pony responded,"just like that queen did with her husband!"
"YEAH!"
Almost immediately, a cacophony of accusing voices were calling out all around Brass and Thorax. The stall mare had backed away, a sheepish look on her face as she tried to look anywhere but at the pony and changeling.
Brass was arguing with the crowd, trying to make her point about the kind of pony Thorax was, but nopony was listening.
Thorax was cowered down on the street. All around him, he heard the voices of ponies shouting at him, calling him horrible names and accusing him of doing some very terrible things. Eventually, the pressure of the situation got to him.
"AAHH!"
The shout caught the crowd off guard and caused a few to stumble backwards. Needing the air, Thorax jumped up and fluttered his wings, flying off in the direction of a nearby street. A couple of pegasus guards saw him and elected to pursue, but Thorax had weaved through several buildings too fast for them and they quickly lost track of him.
Back in the marketplace, the crowd had went silent upon seeing the changeling leaving. Brass, left in shock at seeing her friend take off like he did, quickly came back to her senses. She looked around at the crowd with a fiery glare. "I HOPE YOU'RE ALL HAPPY ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST DID!" she shouted at them, then quickly pushed past them as she went after her friend, hoping she could find him before he either did something rash, or found himself in trouble somehow.
An Hour Earlier...
Inside the Waterford Crystal Hotel, the unicorn stallions, Peridot and Flog, as well as the earth pony stallion Sledge were ironing out the final details of the task they were to carry out today.
"Okay", Peridot began,"That filly will be leaving her lessons in about one hour from now, so that gives us time to get to the alleyway we scouted out and get into position. Now, Sledge, what will you be doing?"
"I'll be keeping an eye out for the filly", he answered,"and then I'll coerce her into going down the alley."
"Good" said Peridot, and then turned to Flog. "What about you?"
"I'm going to be hiding further down the alley, and then when I hear her getting close, I'll jump out and box her in."
"Good", Peridot responded with satisfaction,"That means that I will be waiting near the end of the alley behind a dumpster. Once Sledge gets past me, I'll step out and keep watch for any guards. You two will stun her and get her to our safe house, and I'll make sure the coast is clear before sending a message to Sharpclaw to let him know of our success."
All three stallions nodded in acknowledgement. Flog, however, seemed rather nervous.
"Something on your mind?" Peridot asked him.
"This changeling Sharpclaw mentioned", Flog told him,"Is he something we need to worry about?"
"In all likelihood, no", Peridot answered,"He hasn't been seen since the address last week, but the guard, as well as a few ponies have confirmed he's still in the palace."
"But what if we run into him?" Flog asked nervously.
"First off, low chance of running into him", Peridot reassured the stallion,"but if we did, it may actually serve to benefit us."
Flog raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"Everypony up here doesn't trust that thing any further than they can throw it with their magic. My plan for if we run into him is genius."
"We lure that changeling into the alley with us, and I blast him with a stun spell I got from a pony that works in the palace. They were all taught this spell in case they had to be around him and he decided to try and make a lunch out of 'em."
"Once he's out cold, I slip his ring off, stuff some of the filly's tail hair into his muzzle, and tell a tale about a pair of changelings making off with the filly. You two get away, and he gets pinned for it."
Flog nodded, and then Sledge chuckled.
"Something funny?" Peridot asked.
"Yeah", the stallion answered,"Who knows how many ponies have been taken by those things over the years, and the one time that one of them could get pinned for it will be one that they never actually did."
Peridot thought on this for a second, and then he started chuckling too. "Yeah", he admitted,"That is funny." The two stallions laughed while Flog continued to look uneasy. He didn't say anything, but he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him things would not go as smoothly as any of them had planned.
Present time...
Thorax was still flying through the streets of the Crystal Empire. A few minutes ago, he'd become overwhelmed by the negative reactions of all the ponies in the marketplace and his body responded by getting him away from all of that as best as it could. Eventually, Thorax regain some of his bearings and landed on a street beside some garbage bins that were setting outside of a building.
Taking deep breaths to calm himself, Thorax thought back to the last few moments before he flew away. He remembered all of the ponies ganging up on him. All of their accusations, and all of the names that they called him. It had been worse than his first day in the Crystal Palace by leaps and bounds.
Then he remembered Brass. He was cowering on the street, and she was trying to defend him. Right now, she was likely being accosted for coming to his defense.
And here he was, running away and leaving her to face all of that.
"What kind of a friend am I?" he asked to nopony in particular. Noticing a loose pebble on the ground, he kicked it as hard as he could, sending it down the currently empty street. Watching it travel, he steeled his nerves as best he could. "I need to go back and face them", he resolved,"and apologize to Brass for running away."
Just as Thorax was about to take off, a sound caught his ears.
"P=Please!", a child's voice pleaded,"L-Leave me alone!"
Thorax listened closer and could tell it was a filly's voice. He could also tell that it was close, so he decided to investigate whatever it was. Coming around a corner, he was met with the sight of a small mint-green pony with raspberry red mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a raspberry surrounded by mint leaves.
Ahead of her was a large earth pony stallion, who appeared to be corralling the filly into an alleyway. Thorax could tell by the look on the stallion's face that he had no good intentions at the moment for the filly. The guard should be notified right now...
...Except there was no guard around to notify. Looking up and down the streets, Thorax couldn't see hide nor hair of the Crystal Guards. He was the only pony besides the filly and stallion around. This fact made Thorax very nervous, but he did his best to contend with it. If this filly was going to receive any help, he would have to provide it.
Using his changeling skills for the first time in a while, Thorax skulked behind the stallion as the filly turned and ran down an alleyway. Thorax peeked down and could see further along that the filly was being boxed in by another stallion, this one a unicorn. Seeing nowhere to go, the filly began to cower and sob, once again pleading to be left go.
The sobbing of the filly had gotten to Thorax. All his life, he'd had to contend with bullies, and he had never succeeded in stopping them. But he did have another changeling who could: his older broodmate Pharynx. The older changeling would often run off the bullies that plagued Thorax, thus giving the younger changeling a reprieve from their torments. Of course, Pharynx would turn around and bully Thorax himself, but he was generally not as bad as the others were.
Seeing himself in the filly, Thorax resolved in himself to help her as best he could. He charged down the alley, adopting a scowl he hoped would be intimidating enough, and confronted the two stallions that were boxing in the filly.
"Hey you two!", he shouted at them,"Leave her alone!"
The two stallions turned to look at Thorax in surprise. The earth pony turned around to face him. "Take care of the filly", he called to the other stallion,"I'll deal with this."
The unicorn stallion didn't give any indication verbally that he agreed with the command. Instead, he took the foal in his magic grip and held her up, preventing her escape. He also held her mouth shut so she couldn't call out for any additional help.
The earth pony stallion advanced. "So", he said with a cocky smirk,"You're the friendly changeling I've heard so much about. Well, let's see how much of a pushover you really are!"
With that, the stallion charged, attempting to shoulder his body into Thorax. Reacting purely on instinct, Thorax sidestepped the stallion, allowing him to run straight into a dumpster and knock the wind from himself. The stallion coughed, having knocked the wind from his lungs. He turned to face Thorax again, but saw the changeling turn to face the other stallion keeping the filly from escaping.
"Let her go!" Thorax commanded the stallion. The stallion contemplated that thought for a moment before smiling.
"You really should've stayed out of this", he told Thorax,"Now you're gonna pay for having such a big, snooping nose."
Before he could make sense of what the stallion meant, a bolt of magic struck Thorax in the back of the head, stunning the changeling and nearly knocking him out. A second unicorn Thorax hadn't seen stepped out from behind another dumpster.
"Take care of him" he said to a pony, and the last thing Thorax remembered was a swift shot of pain to the back of his head, and he was out like a light.
The filly, once fearful of the situation, was quite shocked to see a changeling coming to her rescue. Once she saw the ring on his horn, she knew it was the nice changeling that Princess Cadance introduced to everypony a week ago. Now, he was out cold from the earth pony's strong kick, and her fear returned as she realized her one chance at rescue was gone.
"Hey!", the one unicorn shouted to the other behind her,"Take care of her now!"
The filly turned and saw the unicorn behind her cast a spell, and before she could register what happened, she was out like a light.
Peridot watched as the filly slumped to the ground unconscious. He looked around and he did not immediately see anypony around, so they assumed the coast was clear for the moment. He turned towards Sledge and Flog.
"Quick, you two!", he barked,"Take hold of the filly and get to the safe house!"
Flog took the filly in his magic grip and prepared to run before Peridot stopped him. "Hold up a second" he said as he grabbed a small knife from his saddlebags. Walking over to the filly, he took a length of her tail in his magic and proceeded to cut out a sizable section of the hair. Once he had that clump, he walked over to Thorax and opened his mouth, putting the hair inside before closing it shut again. For good measure, he removed the suppressor ring from Thorax's head and split it apart and threw the pieces on the ground.
"There", he said with satisfaction,"Now we'll have a believable story. Now, get out of her before-"
"OVER HERE!" a voice shouted out from above the trio. Peridot cursed as he saw a pegasus guard gliding down towards them. Sledge and Flog both looked nervously at each other and had thoughts to run. Their cooler headed companion stopped them. In the heat of the moment, an idea crossed his mind.
"I have a plan", he told the two,"Just follow along with my lead." The two ponies still looked nervous, but nodded their agreement. The guard landed at the end of the alley and came running down, joined shortly afterwards by several earth pony guards.
As the guards approached, Peridot smiled a little bit on the inside. "Thank the sun you got here as soon as you did" Peridot said in as relieved a voice as he could muster.
"What happened here?" the guard asked, surveying the scene.
Peridot pointed at Thorax with a hoof. "There were some changelings trying to grab this filly", he told them while pointing at the filly,"Two of them ran off, but this one we knocked out before he could get away."
The guard looked over at Thorax's unconscious form with a scowl. Peridot then kicked something metal. "That was the strange thing", Peridot said,"It had this ring on its horn."
The pegasus walked over and examined the broken item. "This is the changeling that the princess allowed to stay here to try and earn permanent citizenship", the guard realized,"She's going to be absolutely livid with this one."
Jumping to action, he looked at a few unicorn guards that had showed up just a moment ago. "You two!", the pegasus guard ordered,"Prepare bindings and a nullifier ring. We're taking this thing into custody!"
The unicorns quickly obeyed, getting a set of hoof bindings and a magic nullifying ring from their armor and enchanting them to be functional. A groaning sound caught the pegasus's attention, and the guard turned to see Thorax awakening.
Thorax came to with a soreness at the back of his skull. He also became aware of something in his mouth that had a fibrous texture. He spat it out, and in his groggy vision, he noticed it looked like strands of hair, specifically, the young filly he was trying to help. His memory coming back to him, he attempted to stand up and try and find the filly to continue assisting her, but something hard and metal struck him in the back, knocking him back to the ground. Confused, he looked around for a moment until he realized something: He could sense a great deal of hate and anger.
"The ring is gone again", he thought.
Thorax looked around, spotting a group of crystal guards at the end of the alley keeping a crowd of ponies from entering. There were many angry faces in the crowd, all of their glares piercing into the changeling on the ground. He had use of his magic again, but he could tell the guards were not going to let him use it.
Then Thorax saw something he hadn't expected to see. Standing near the front of the crowd was Brass. The mare was looking on at Thorax with shock, but whatever her true emotions were were drowned out by all of the hate, anger and fear all the other ponies were putting out. It was honestly starting to make him feel sick.
Thorax then felt a white hot source of anger above him. Daring to look up, Thorax's eyes saw a pegasus guard scowling at him. The guard took in a breath of air, and then spat on Thorax, the changeling just barely getting his eye shut to avoid the liquid going inside it. The changeling then felt bindings being placed on his hooves, and a ring encasing his horn, this one having so strong an enchantment on it, there was no way he could use any magic at all.
The pegasus guard knelt down get face to face with Thorax. He looked the changeling right in the eyes. Thorax quickly figured out what was happening when he was being restrained, but the words leaving the pegasus guard's mouth confirmed his fears.
"Changeling, you're under arrest."
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Oh god this was physically painful to read. I mean that in a 'this is really good storytelling' way. But still, ouch. Can this poor bug just not catch a break? I'm having to hype myself up here to prepare for the nightmare of what I assume the next chapter is.
I hate scum like Peridot, Sledge, and Flog; these three are on my shit list...
Heh, so much for Feather's hopes forcing her to do that would, somehow, get Cadence kicked off the throne then.
Oh good, she had the decency to bookmark his spot--there's nothing worse than someone taking and closing a book from you without also bookmarking your spot in the process.
Because if it does, good luck getting him to try it again anytime soon.
You know, part of me was half-expecting him to get pounced by a mob or something almost immediately upon walking out the door--the tension does seem to be building up to something like that.
...aaaaaaand there it is.
Don't go giving them ideas--I could see either of those two actually doing just that if all for the sake of trying to nudge ponies like you to accept Thorax. I mean, it seems like right up Discord's alley and his idea of "promoting" friendship...and we all know Celestia's got a bit of a mischievous streak to her.
Sure it's not.
But it's not right to just expect them to immediately warm up to Thorax just because they were told to and you expect them to. One doesn't just forget who their enemies are/were overnight, Brass.
Pfft! Who are you fooling? Just because you say you aren't, doesn't make it true...or you wouldn't be in this sort of business at all, much less resorting to tactics such as this just to cover your own butt. I understand your type--in the end, there's not truly any line you wouldn't cross so to save yourself or, in this case, your "business."
Oh, is that the scheme then?
You know, that was more or less what Feather had intended to accomplish too...didn't work out so well for her, now did it?
Can't wait to see how this all likewise blows up in their faces then.
Well, her words still did, more than you give it credit for. Otherwise, given how the crystal ponies had reacted at the start of "The Times They're a Changeling," they probably wouldn't even be in the same city block as you, out of fear of attack.
Instead, they're just standing by, watching and waiting. I'd say that's definitely a step up from before, eh?
Oh dude, you just jinxed yourself, jinxed yourself baaaaaad.
Speaking of...has this spell ever actually been used as of yet? Because that'd be hilarious if they tried to go use it only to find it doesn't actually work as well as everypony thought.
I dunno, that plan feels like it has more holes than swiss cheese--the palace knows where Thorax is staying, and that he's scarcely left it for, what, over a month now? If the missing filly isn't with him, then obviously he'd have hidden her somewhere if he was really guilty, but where? It certainly couldn't be the palace because surely the staff there would have noticed and it's too heavily monitored either, and it's not like Thorax is that familiar with the city, it's layout, or its potential hiding places. Further, why would he hide her? The only reason a changeling like Thorax would want her is for feeding, and he could've just done that then and there in the alley rather than muck about putting it off and trying to ward off ponies who've noticed she's been kidnapped until then.
Blaming it on the fictional second changeling cohort doesn't fly that well either, because one Thorax has already testified repeatedly that he is not aligned with any other changelings and that he knows of no others in the area for the whole duration of his stay here, and at this point I think even Shining Armor is starting to accept that as fact, or else surely they'd have found evidence of it by now (plus, the incident with Feather has already proved that ponies claiming it was "changelings" so to try and push the real blame off of themselves is definitely thing, and it happening again so soon after Feather's attempt is admittedly a little suspect, don't you think?).
Second, if Thorax was in cahoots with a second changeling, then why would that changeling just leave Thorax knocked out to be found by others, where the whole gig would get found out? Besides, the whole presence of a second changeling would suggest the 'lings think it to be a two-'ling job to begin with, so if one changeling is already down for the count, that job's not going very well and it seems all the more less likely that they'd still commit to finishing it at that point, and instead cut their losses and flee while they have the chance. Further, in order for Thorax to be in cahoots with other changelings means he'd have to have some kind of contact with them, of which there is no evidence at all of, or at least none that can't be swiftly ruled out, and again--it's not like Thorax has been outside of the castle very much since first arriving here.
Further, this doesn't rule out the possibility that Thorax wasn't a willing participant at all and was instead a victim too, attacked by said fictional second changeling, but that would only raise added questions of why would this second changeling both attack Thorax and kidnap a filly at seemingly the same time, especially if there's any chance Thorax, as a witness, would rat them out.
Plus there is the fact that Thorax would be a witness to all of this anyway, and thus his account would reveal all of this to be false anyway, and he has enough allies now that they'd be willing to trust his account, or at least give it due consideration, over that of some pony off the street that had never previously encountered him--especially if Cadance chooses to believe his word (and I'd think she'd be at least inclined to hear him out first at this point). To say nothing of the fact that everyone at the palace is inevitably going to be on high-guard already after the Feather incident and already aware incidents such as this can and will happen and thus should be on guard for them, and Shining Armor's already proved an ability to set aside his personal opinions to pursue a fair investigation if the evidence points him in that direction...and it wouldn't take too much investigation to do so here either.
True, these three baddies probably don't need Thorax to take the fall forever, they just need him to long enough so to make off with the filly and get to their hideout without notice and do their thing. If they succeed in coercing their target to keep quiet, then them blabbing about the actual truth would, at least by their logic, wouldn't be a concern...but it still feels like they've not actually thought this scheme all the way through here. Or are at least taking some mad leaps of faith in how things would play out should it get enacted--they're basically betting that the anti-changeling bias is going to be enough to fill in all the gaps for them, but that bias has already shown to not be as strong as they seem to think it is. It's at most only going to delay the inevitable for them.
Especially considering that if Thorax's word is believed, or at least gets the authorities thinking that all might not be as it seems (and I foresee no reason why it wouldn't eventually), then this isn't exactly going to get the cops off their backs anyway because they'll still get to looking for who the real kidnappers are eventually (as well as the attackers of everybody's favorite changeling
), so even if they do manage to pull this off and get away with it, there's no way in heck they could ever do anything like it again anytime soon, and indeed would probably shoot themselves in the foot for many of their other schemes for the near future too, so it's only going to be hurting their prospects in the long run.
Not that this whole kidnapping scheme wasn't already more than a little half-baked to begin with, even without Thorax, but still...
It won't. I'm already a hop, skip, and a jump ahead of you on this, I'm sure.
Yeah, too bad you gave those couple that were pursuing you the slip, huh? They might actually come in handy right about now for a change.
Oh, dude, dude, dude--clearly, you don't know that all it'd take is a quick forensics examination of those hairs to show that they were not pulled out, but rather cut out, and thus make the whole scene seem like exactly what it is--a set-up.
I mean, seriously--if you're going to do this, at least do it competently!
"Believable." Right.
It's cute that you think that, Mr. Crook.
Oh, they didn't even get the chance to get away!
I mean, sure, obviously they're still going to talk their way out of this because the guards are going to be bias against Thorax already, we all know it--it's the whole point of this chapter--but c'mon, this is all a short term victory, long term loss for these crooks at this point. It WILL be catching up with them soon enough.
This is all actually making Feather's mad attempted murder plan actually seem sane by comparison. At least Feather knew she needed to try and tie up as many loose ends as she could in order to pull it off--these guys don't even have that going for them.
Oh, so now there was supposedly three changelings total. Next time he'll say there were four, for good measure, I'm sure, and then five after that.
Absolutely livid, yes.
With Thorax specifically, though? Ehhhhhhhhhhh...I dunno, I'm pretty sure Cadance is going to think something smells fishy about all of this right off the bat, especially once Brass gets a word in edgewise (because you KNOW she'll take Thorax's side in this) and she didn't marry a captain of a guard and not pick up a thing or two about crime analysis herself along the way, y'know.
Also, she wasn't born yesterday. That'll help too.
And now a crowd of ponies has suddenly materialized out of nowhere too, on a street that was formally devoid of any and all creatures except Thorax just minutes at most ago.
I mean, I know, I know, the story's deliberately setting itself up for all of this, it's the whole point of the tale...but c'mon...it's hitting the nail on the head a little too good at this point. Racist bias or not, somebody's going to see in-between the lines here pretty quick.
And, that changeling knock-out spell didn't seem to amount to all that much if Thorax is already recovering from it. If those crooks are smart, they'd be cleaning up shop too as added precaution after this, because they're already playing with fate too much, and it's already fraying at the edges faster than they can act. I have no reason to think it won't stop at this point either.
If we must.
I know, I know, I totally get where you're going with this and why--I've heard plenty of stories of people getting convicted for crimes they never committed thanks to racial bias too. But I'm already looking some chapters ahead here and seeing when Thorax is exonerated of the charges and these crooks arrested in his place, because we all know that's the only way this will end. Not only is there no real case against Thorax here (to call the evidence even circumstantial is a stretch), he's also already got three to four very powerful princesses in his court already, who'll see to it that he gets at least a fair trial, and it's that fair trial that'll be these crooks undoing. The fact there's already plenty of evidence showing Thorax's innocence and ponies who'll definitely fight for him (Brass is totally still on his side, the implication that she might not be at the end there is a red herring, mark my words) anyway, plus already about a month or more's worth of good behavior to serve as precedent, just further seals the deal.
I get it, you're going for the max drama here and I can't blame you for it. But it doesn't work that well if you can already see where it can only go.
Also, Thorax definitely isn't going to go outside the palace again after this.
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I do enjoy your criticisms and comments when I post new chapters. My main reason for writing this part of the story this way is to experiment with writing different kinds of stories (in this instance, a police and courtroom procedural). As far as seeing how the story will progress, all I can say is just because you can see the ending of the movie from a mile away doesn't mean you have to enjoy it less. Besides, there's plenty of story to go, and there could be some surprises even you didn't see coming.