Part IV, Chapter 10 - Van Hoover, Part 1 - Arrival
The train car rocked slightly back and forth as it traveled westward towards the coastal city of Van Hoover. Thorax, having once again reserved a sleeping cabin, was resting on the cot in his natural form as he thought about what he would do in the city.
An informational pamphlet told him that there was a greater amount of things he could do in the city than what Detrot and Whinnyapolis had offerd him. Being a port city, there would be markets that sold fish to griffins and a select few pegasi; Sunburst has once explained that sometimes pegasus ate fish in order to take in the oils that were used to help keep their feathers healty.
Besides that, Van Hoover also had a well established food scene, with all kinds of restaurants and eateries to keep even the hungriest pony satisfied.
There was also a convention center like in Whinnyapolis, but the pamphlet only mentioned it. He had no idea if he would get there and be fortunate enough to have an event going on that he could attend.
As he thought about events, another thought popped into his mind. Had Princess Twilight been there in Whinnyapolis for the medical magic convention?
"She probably hadn't" Thorax finally decided. If she had, there would've been something said by Steel Wing while he was in the city. Despite her very humble nature, she was still a princess, and the guards would see to her security first and foremost.
Of course, maybe he also withheld that information from him. He had made it very clear he didn't trust or like him, so why would he share sensitive information such as that with Thorax?
Regardless of whether she had actually been there or not, he was now on a train and pretty far away from Whinnyapolis now. Besides, he knew he would meet her again soon enough.
Putting the pamphlet away, Thorax curled up into a comfortable position and decided to get some sleep. The train would be arriving in Van Hoover soon enough.
Meanwhile in Baltimare...
Mantis sat off to the side as he watched his older sister Lactrodectus, or Latty as she preferred, adjusting her pony disguise as she prepared to go out on a "date", which meant she was gonna milk a stallion of his love and leave him weak and curled up next to a dumpster.
"That lipstick looks good enough" he commented to her as she kept messing with the tube in her magic. Of course, there wasn't any actual lipstick in it; she subtly changed her appearance to mimic the application of said cosmetic product.
"Don't be a fuddy duddy" she said to him. "It's just a quick fling. Besides, we're supposed to be leaving tonight anyhow. You already took care of your loose ends, right?"
Mantis gave a hesitant nod. He and his sister were trained infiltrators, but each had their own methodology. All infiltrators received the same training, but what they did in the field was all up to them.
For Latty, she liked going after stallions, and had a preferred type when selecting them: big, dumb and hard up for a mare's company. Her modus operandi was to meet them at a bar, get frisky in the back alley, and when nopony was looking, drain them until they only had enough love left to recover by the morning.
It was a good strategy in a way. They would wake up assuming their fatigue and headache was a hangover and the encounter with a changeling was nothing more than a drunken hallucination.
Mantis, however, chose to interact with groups of ponies and absorb their love ambiently. It was harder to do, but also technically safer. Where as the actual draining took a lot quickly and left the pony in a weakened state, ambient feeding simply absorbed what they radiated into the air around them, so most ponies could never actually tell that they were being fed on.
To this end, Mantis had found a group of friends in Baltimare, often joining them at a park down by an old warehouse to watch ponies playing sports there. They would sit and watch as stallions and mares played a variety of different games. One time they had all got together and played buckball, which was hard to do since most of the ponies in the group were earth ponies.
As far as his duties as an infiltrator were concerned, the situation was ideal. He absorbed so much from them and was able to make enough food to send back to the hive, and the ponies never questioned him too much about his past. Plus, he never felt that he was in danger of being discovered, which quelled some of his worries.
At the current moment, there was something troubling Mantis's mind. A proverbial splinter festering away at his thoughts. This problem had nothing to do with his duties to the hive; he would've cleared out of the city if they had.
No, this trouble came from a recent development that had been brought up in a conversation had among the group of friends.
A week or so earlier...
Mantis, disguised as an earth pony named Fetlock, was sitting in the shade of the large warehouse next to the park the ponies he used as a source for love preferred coming to.
There were four of them. A unicorn mare named Colette, an earth pony mare named Amstel, and two earth pony stallions named Crush and Flash.
The quintet had been together for a month or so, at least as far as Mantis being with them. In that time, they'd had a good bit of fun playing in the park, either just chasing one another or having some kind of organized game.
Today, they decided just to sit in the shade and talk.
As for the subject matter, it was hypothetical questions; Colette loved discussing them.
"I would never!" Amstel said while laughing. Colette gave her a knowing look.
"You know you would!" the unicorn shot back, not believing Amstel for a second.
"You wouldn't catch me dead in a bathing suit that small!" Amstel said in defense of herself. "There'd be no need for a stallion to use his imagination!"
"Oh, I could still use my imagination alright!" Flash chimed in, with Crush snickering at his friends retort.
Amstel just rolled her eyes. "Stallions" she muttered.
The laughter the group shared died down as the group just settled into comfortable silence. Then, Amstel broke the silence.
"I got one" she announced to the group.
"Really?" Crush asked. "What is it?"
"What would you guys do if there was a changeling here and now that wanted to be friends?" she proposed.
The collective group looked at her as if she had grown a second head from her flank. "You're joking" Colette said more than asked.
"I'm serious!" Amstel said in defense of herself. "Hypothetically, you meet a pony. You get to be friends with this pony. After a while, you notice them getting uncomfortable and ask them what's wrong. They then tell you they have a huge secret, and one that they feel they can only trust you with. So, you agree to keep it, thinking it's something like they might have a crush on you or something, but next thing you know, WHOOSH! You're friend goes up in flames and in their place is one of those changelings like attacked Canterlot a while back. So, you're standing there, totally dumbstruck that there's a changeling in front of you, totally unsure of how to react when this changeling says that they still wanted to be your friend after what they just told you. What would you honestly say in that situation?"
The group is silent for a few moments. Colette finally decides to speak.
"Let me get this straight" she says to Amstel. "There's a changeling that's been disguised as a pony as long as you've known them, and then they decide to reveal themselves to you and want to keep being friends, right?"
Amstel nodded. "Pretty much."
Once again there's silence, with each member of the group thinking of what their answer would be.
"I don't know" Crush begins. "I mean, I know you said they were your friends before they revealed themselves, but, and this is ignoring the whole changeling thing, I'd be kinda sore that they hadn't been honest from the get go."
"How could they be honest?" Flash responded. "I mean, if they tried to approach you and be friends as it stood now, you'd run screaming your head off and never give them a chance."
"Flash does have a point" Colette commented.
Crush looked a bit dumbly at the group but did concede the point. "Fine, the being disguised from the get go bit makes sense like that, but this is where we bring the whole changeling part of it back into the argument. We're talking about the same things that attacked the royal wedding, and who want to just suck the love out of all of us. I mean, first off, how does that even work? And second, what does that do to us?"
"I've heard stories" Flash answered. "The ponies said it felt like a piece of their soul was being ripped away. They felt terrible later, like really weak and had bad headaches. It sounded pretty bad."
"They recovered though, didn't they?" Mantis, disguised as Fetlock, asked.
"Most did," Flash answered, "but some didn't. The ones who didn't are comatose and barely respond. It's got the doctors up in Canterlot all confused about how to treat them."
Hearing that left Mantis feeling a bit conflicted. On one hoof, what changelings did was so they could survive; nopony could really fault a creature for doing what they had to in order to survive. On the other, though, to hear that some ponies had been so hurt that there was practically no chance to recover?
"I can't believe that they all want to hurt us" Amstel says, bringing Mantis back to the conversation.
"If they didn't, then how come they went around trying herd ponies like cattle?" Crush countered.
"Maybe they're too afraid of their queen?"
Everypony looked at Colette, who was sitting and thinking to herself.
"I mean, that queen that tried to marry Shining Armor didn't sound the nicest or most caring" she pointed out. "For all we know, she's cruel and terrible, and as powerful of the princesses. Maybe they acted like they did because they were too afraid of defying her?"
"Or they were indoctrinated from young" Flash proposed, giving Colette's idea some thought. "My teacher used to say the same thing when she talked about the pre-unification tribes and their ideologies. 'The most powerful nation to ever exist is indoctrination'."
"Well, that makes it sound like they'd never change" Crush points out, his hooves crossing over his barrel.
"Maybe they just need an example to follow?" Colette proposed. "You know, an example of a pony and changeling actually getting along and not hurting one another?"
Crush looks at Colette with a dead pan expression. "I think you're forgetting about the whole 'drain us of love' thing."
"Maybe they don't need to do that?" Colette countered. "Maybe, if we were actually friends with them, our love for them as friends would nourish them and not cause us harm. I think it could work, because as it stands, they steal love from us, but if it was love felt specifically for them, then it wouldn't really be stealing."
Crush wanted to retort, but he began to think about what she was saying. In fact, everypony present began to think about what Colette had proposed, even Mantis.
"Could it really work?" he thought to himself. He had his doubts, mostly the ones drilled into him from his infiltration training, but over the years, his training had become eroded by life.
Having been around ponies for so long, he saw how they often became friends and how the love had blossomed between them. Most changelings would salivate, but he stared in wonder most times.
Queen Chrysalis and his teachers had always said how useless friendship was, but how could it be useless if it produced love so easily? Was it maybe a sign as to how the changelings should truly live? Were they meant to cast off their predatory nature and coexist with those they called prey?
"This is all well and good for a university discussion topic," Crush said to the group, "but this is all hypothetical nonsense anyhow."
"Well, DUH!" Amstel says as she looks at Crush. "That's all we've been doing so far this afternoon!"
"Besides," Colette chimes in, "the point is to discuss what we would do in these situations if they were to happen to us."
"Yeah, well, you probably wouldn't act the way you say you would" Crush retorts.
Amstel and Colette both go to say something, but Flash chimes in as well.
"He's right" the stallion agrees with his friend. "We're talking about this as though one of us is gonna come out and say they were a changeling all along-"
He suddenly goes wide eyed and looks at Amstel. "You're a changeling, aren't you?"
Amstel looks completely offended. "How could you say something like that?!" she spits back.
"He does have a point" Colette adds. "It's kinda weird how you just brought that up out of the blue."
Amstel continues to defend herself. "The whole point of asking hypothetical questions is to see how we would respond if we were put into unusual situations! I think what I described was a pretty good example of an unusual situation!"
"It still doesn't rule you out as being one" Crush points out.
Amstel is starting to get fed up with the accusations. "Fine" she suddenly says. "What do I have to do to prove that I'm not really a changeling?"
Each pony in the group is a bit dumbstruck. Colette sits and thinks for a moment before she asks a question.
"When we were in school together, I passed a note to you once. Do you remember what it was about?"
Amstel looks at her dumbly. "You're joking" she says more than asks.
Colette shakes her head. "No, I'm not, and you know I never passed any notes before or after that, so what did the one and only note I ever passed you in school say?"
Amstel sat for a moment before she finally croaked out her answer.
"You... asked if I was crushing on your brother."
Colette sits back in relief. "She's Amstel" she tells the group.
Crush doesn't buy it. "How do we know that she didn't have her mind read by a changeling for all those details?" he asks.
"I doubt a changeling looking to get in and get out quickly is gonna focus that much on details" Flash responds. "They're probably gonna hope to get by on learning some day to day routines and maybe some of the usual conversations they have with other friends so nopony suspects them."
Mantis had to flinch a bit at that. Flash's summary of how infiltrators worked was just a bit too on the nose. Granted, it didn't apply to his current situation, as he was using a completely original disguise with a backstory that he came up with.
"We kinda got off topic with all the accusations of me being a changeling," Amstel said to the group, "so I ask the question again for the record: If a changeling wanted to be genuine friends with you, would you accept it or not?"
"I wouldn't" Crush stated firmly.
"I'm not sure I could" Flash replied next.
Colette's answer surprised everypony. "...Maybe?"
The ponies all looked at her, dumbstruck to hear that response.
"What do you mean maybe?" Crush asks.
"Well," Colette begins, "the original scenario Amstel proposed was this changeling was already disguised before I met them, and we got to be friends, and it came a point where they trusted me to keep their secret and still wanted to be friends afterwards. For me, the key word in all of that is trust. I know that the whole friendship started out on a lie, but everypony knows that, sometimes, you have to lie for one reason or another, like telling a pony that is getting a surprise party that they're not getting one when they ask."
"That's completely different and you know it" Crush counters.
"Still," Colette continues, "it's a good reason to them. If they didn't do that, then we'd never give them a chance to begin with. So, to answer the question, I might consider it. Sure, I'd probably be sore for being lied to, but I'm sure that I would come around once I realized the reason why they did it."
Nopony said anything right after Colette finished.
"I'm kind of in the same boat" Amstel then says, causing the others to look at her. "I think I might be able to give them a chance as well."
Crush looks at her with disbelief, but then Flash chimes in again.
"After hearing what you two just said, I might be able to as well."
Crush looks at all of his friends as though they've grown second heads. He then looks at Mantis and asks him, "Fetty, please tell me you don't agree with these ponies?"
Mantis fidgeted in place a bit. Even as a nymph in training, he hated being put on the spot. All the eyes of the group fell on him, waiting to hear his answer.
But what would his answer be?
Would he agree with Crush and tell the group it was a terrible idea to make friends with a changeling?
Or did he dare to agree with the majority?
The longer he sat there, the more the question weighed on his mind, and the more nervous he got.
"You okay, Fetlock?"
Mantis looked up at Colette, feeling the worry and care radiate off the mare like a campfire on a cold night. She had a look of concern on her face.
"I'm fine" he tells her. "Just don't like being put on the spot is all."
"Well, answer the question and you won't be on the spot anymore" Crush told Mantis.
"Crush!" Amstel scolded him. "You're not helping!"
The stallion rolled his eyes as he looked back at Mantis, waiting for his answer.
Mantis sat there and thought about all he had experienced in his training, and then all of the real world experience he'd had since then. He was told friendship was useless and made changelings weak, but he saw how it fostered such love in ponies. How could something that made him useless and weak give him the nourishment he needed?
"I..."
Mantis was at a proverbial crossroads with his conscience. If he said what he was thinking of saying next, then there would be no going back for the infiltrator. Any changeling that found out would report back to the queen, and then...
"Fetlock?" Colette asked again.
"I might do it too!" Mantis finally blurted out, having crossed the proverbial road and forever branded himself as a traitor in the hive's book.
Crush huffed as he rolled his eyes again. "All of that build up just for you to agree with the other kooks?"
Amstel slapped a hoof against the stallion's head. "He didn't like being put on the spot!" she scolded again. "How hard do you think that was for him?"
Crush didn't say anything as he rubbed the back of his head with his hoof.
"I think that's enough hypothetical questions for the day" Colette said to the group. "I could go for a sundae about now. What about you guys? Ice cream sound good about now?"
Flash jumped up with a smile. "Rocky road all the way for me!"
Amstel smiled as she stood up as well. "Double scoop of fudge ripple!"
Crush rolled his eyes as he joined his friends. "By all means, blurt out your orders. The scoop pony is gonna hear you all the way from here."
Colette gives him a punch in his shoulder as she stands up and trots after her friends. Before she gets too close, she stops and turns to Mantis. "You coming, Fetty?" she asks the disguised changeling.
"Oh?" Mantis replies, ripped from the thoughts of his recent treason. "Uh, yeah! Coming right behind you guys!"
He jumps up and catches up with the group.
"Sorry about Crush" she tells Mantis. "You know he can be a jerk sometimes."
"I know" Mantis replies. "It's just that that question sorta threw me off."
"Well, I did mean what I said" Colette responds, catching Mantis off guard.
"R-Really?"
"Mhm" she replies with a nod. "I think creatures, regardless of what they are, wanting to be friends is a good thing. In fact, I always kinda wanted to have a griffin as a friend, though I've heard that they can be kinda rude."
Mantis chuckles. "Sounds like it wouldn't be much different than being friends with Crush."
Colette laughs as the two catch up to the group of friends on their way to the ice cream parlour.
"Hive to Mantis!" Latty said while waving a hoof in front of her brother.
Mantis came back to reality and shook his head. "Sorry!" he said to her.
"Your head was up in the clouds higher than a pegasus" she admonished him. "I asked about your loose ends. You said you tied them up. Did you?"
"I did!" Mantis said defensively. "I told them I was going away for a while and I wasn't sure when of if I would be coming back. It leaves open the possibility of using them as a source again in the future."
Latty nods. "Good. That's what I was hoping to hear. Now, please be a good brother and pack up our things so we can get out of here as soon as I get back. Judging by how many tanks the galoot can toss back, I expect it'll take some time to get him in the state that will best serve me."
Latty then left Mantis to do their packing. They had very little; mainly just some pony items to help them not stand out to a curious housekeeper. Once he'd finished, he sat down on the bed and thought about the conversation and his actions.
He had betrayed his training and said he would consider befriending ponies. If word ever got back to the hive, he'd be hunted down and drained dry before being executed as a traitor. A part of him wondered if what happened would be anything like what happened to those ponies in Canterlot. Would it be just as bad?
Mantis shook the thoughts from his head; he had other concerns at the moment. He was to return to the hive and deliver his collected love. That love would then be given to other changelings and the grubs that couldn't leave to forage for themselves. Admittedly, he did like being an infiltrator for pretty much that reason alone. Even among the ponies, helping those they viewed as family was considered a commendable trait, and Mantis did consider the hive his family.
"But still," he wondered to himself, "would living with ponies and having friendship be better?"
Back on the train...
Thorax had woken up about a half hour before the train would come into the Van Hoover station. He took the time to gather up his things and made his way into the bathroom of the sleeping car to freshen up. As he cleaned himself, he thought about what he would try to do today.
He would be getting there around breakfast time, so any number of the restaurants, diners and eateries would be open, and he did enjoy trying pony food, as much as it didn't satisfy his hunger.
There was also the docks where an open air fish market was held. To his understanding, ponies often went there to see the earth ponies throwing rather large fish to one another and catching them. Apparently, many found the spectacle to be rather entertaining.
And then there was the convention center. If he was lucky, Thorax would find an event there that he could attend. He certainly hoped so; wandering the streets and looking up at skyscrapers, even with some of the more uniquely designed ones, was getting a little old to him.
Thorax disguised himself and made his way to the dining car, deciding to have a drink of tea before the train arrived in the city. Before he left his sleeping car, he'd downed another vial of love potion, noticing that the effects were a bit more pronounced. He put it back in the spot he took it from and made a note to tell Twilight about that one; maybe it was from a different batch with a different recipe and it would put her on the path she was looking for.
After another ten minutes, the conductor came down the train cars and announced their arrival in Van Hoover. Going back to his sleeping car to gather his luggage, Thorax double checked to make sure he had his passports and letter. Tucking them safely into his saddle bags, Thorax gathered his luggage and prepared to disembark.
The train rolled gently to a stop as the conductor took his place by the door and motioned for the passengers to get off. Thorax waited for his turn and stepped off onto the platform. He looked around to see a veritable sea of ponies, some waiting to board the train while others had just got off and were now navigating the crowds to get to where they wanted to be.
As he looked, Thorax found his first stop here in the city: The guard station. He took his luggage and made his way over to the small kiosk with a single guard sitting inside. Upon his approach, the guard looked up at Thorax.
"May I help you?" the guard, a mare, asked him.
"I'm supposed to check in at each of my stops" Thorax told her as he hoofed over his papers. "I think the guards in Whinnyapolis sent word of my arrival?"
The mare looked at Thorax with confusion as she then looked at the papers. Her eyes bugged out and she looked up at him in shock.
"I thought this was all some kind of elaborate joke!" she said in surprise.
"It's not" Thorax told her.
The mare then looked around and then back to Thorax. "Follow me" she told him as she left her kiosk.
"Um, don't you need to stay there?" Thorax asked her.
"There's not gonna be any trouble" she replied. "Besides, this is way more important right now."
Not wanting any further delays, Thorax just complied and followed the mare. However, it didn't look like he was being taken to an office. Instead, he was brought to a... break room?
"Hey everypony!" the mare said as she walked inside. "Lookie what I got here!"
In the break room were several guards. Some had pieces of armor still attached to them while others had none on at all. It was a mix of stallions and mares. Specifically, three stallions and two mares.
"So?" one of the mares says in disinterest. "It's a colt. Finally decide to hook up with somepony?"
The mare escorting Thorax blew a raspberry at her. "No" she responded. "It's the changeling!"
The five ponies then looked at the mare in disbelief, their eyes going wide like they were saucers.
"You're joking?" one of the stallions said to her.
"Nope" she said with a grin as she held up the papers. "Got all the documents here, and he's got commander's stamps on them too!"
The other stallion, a unicorn, goes to take the papers in his magic when three images suddenly appear above them. One is the seal of the two sisters, and the other two are copies of Princess Cadance's cutie mark.
"No way!" the unicorn says in shock. "It's for real! This colt's a changeling!"
Weary eyes suddenly go from the stallion to Thorax, who wishes that he could change into something really small, like an ant or a flea. Before he can react, he's suddenly surrounded.
"So you really left the changeling hive?"
"You traveled the whole way to the Crystal Empire?"
"Princess Cadance is letting you live there?"
"The captain hasn't blasted you to Tartarus?"
"They let you play with Princess Flurry?"
"You got to meet Princess Twilight too?"
Thorax was bombarded with questions from each of the guards. There were more questions, but he couldn't decipher all of them. He tried to shrink down as small as pony body would allow him, but it did nothing to stop the onslaught from the inquisitive guards.
Strangely enough, however, Thorax felt no animosity from them. His senses had told him that they were all... excited?
"Okay, that's enough" came a new voice.
The guards very immediately quieted down and backed away, giving Thorax some air.
"Now, I believe somepony is supposed to be on post watching the platform?" the voice says, clearly addressing the mare who escorted Thorax back here.
The mare blushes and ekes out a very quick "R-Right!" before practically falling over her hooves as she goes to resume her position.
With the guards no longer surrounding him, Thorax is able to calm himself down.
"So, you're the source for all of the excitement?"
Realizing that the voice was now addressing him, Thorax looked up to see who the pony was.
The changeling had to do a double take. It was a stallion, but his orange coat, straw blonde mane and tail tied in ponytails and green eyes made him a near spitting image of Applejack. However, his cutie mark was a shield with an apple on it; he must've been related for him to bear such a strong resemblance.
The stallion noticed him looking at his flank and then let out a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm one of the Apple clan" he said, realizing what Thorax must've been thinking. "I'm Imperial Gold, commander of the Van Hoover guard post. I'm going to guess you're Crystal Hoof, aka Thorax?"
Thorax looked at the stallion for a moment before giving him a nod.
"Well then," Gold continued, "I believe we have some papers to go over."
The stallion grabbed the papers and took them in his mouth. He then made a gesture with his head to Thorax that meant he wanted him to follow, which the changeling complied with eagerly; the other guards had made him rather nervous when they surrounded him.
A look to the other guards showed them watching him, but none making their way over to him. He guessed that they didn't want to get in trouble with the commander and end up being punished.
Following the commander, Thorax was led to the place he had originally expected to go - the commander's office. The inside was similar to the others, but also the most different of them.
For starters, there was a small apple tree in a large flower pot, the plant having a few apples hanging from its limbs. On a bookshelf beside it had a few books, but mostly a few photos and some awards the stallion had received for his service.
Looking at the stallion's desk presented Thorax with miscellaneous paperwork, with a few things he could identify. There was what appeared to be a guard rotation, a requisition form for more practice equipment, and a few incident reports, one describing an altercation between two stallions who had apparently had a bit too much to drink and ended fighting each other over a mare.
What surprised Thorax the most was a newspaper sitting on the desk and off to one side. It was from about four months ago and had a very distinct headline that Thorax couldn't ignore:
VHPF Bust Griffin Crime Boss and Loan Sharking Operation!
The stallion took notice of Thorax reading the paper and decided to pick it up and read a section that seemed rather pertinent at the moment.
"With the news of this major bust for the VHPF also comes some rather outlandish rumors. One account claims that the evidence collected exonerated a changeling in the Crystal Empire, who had apparently been framed from attempting to abduct a foal. With no evidence available to corroborate it, that story must simply remain a story for the time being."
The stallion then puts the paper down and looks at Thorax. "So, did those two cops get you off the hook?"
Thorax looked at the commander for a moment before responding. "Th-They did" he stutters out. "How did you know?"
Imperial Gold leaned back into his chair. "Princess Celestia and Luna gathered all of the commanders for each city and town in Equestria and gave us your story" he explained. "The Whinnyapolis guard told me you would be arriving this morning and I informed my subordinates. I must apologize for their behavior. They thought what they had heard was some elaborate prank, despite my having told them recently that it wasn't."
The stallion then gestured with his hoof towards a chair. "Please, have a seat for a moment."
Thorax stood in disbelief, finding it hard to believe that the stallion in front of him was treating him so cordially. "Wh-Why are you so accepting of me?" he asked.
"That's simple," Gold replied, "at least it is for me."
He took a seat and encouraged Thorax to do the same. He then found a rubber stamp and ink pad.
"You have won the favor of the princesses" he continued. "All of them. That's not an easy feat to do, especially with them spread across Equestria and one ruling over the Crystal Empire. It's a special kind of individual that can do that, and above all, they need to have respect and decency."
Gold then takes the stamp and presses hard into the ink pad. Removing it, he places it on the letter and then slams his hoof down hard on it. Picking up the stamp, it reveals another seal identical to the others, with VAN HOOVER on the large ribbon in the center.
"Again, I apologize for my subordinates and their behavior," he says as he pushes the documents over to Thorax, "I can only tell you that they are an inquisitive bunch. I must admit that I am rather curious about you and changelings in general."
Thorax gets a bit nervous upon hearing that. "H-How come?"
"Well," Gold says as he slides Thorax's papers back over to the changeling,"I've never encountered them before. I was stationed here during the royal wedding and I had only heard accounts from other guards."
"Really?" Thorax said in disbelief. "I thought that every available guard had been called to Canterolt to provide security for the wedding."
"They were," Gold confirms, "but I wasn't available. I did send a contingent of my own guards to serve in my stead. They were the ones that told me what the wedding invasion had been like."
"Oh" Thorax says, mood a bit deflated.
"You don't have to answer anything you don't want to," Gold tells Thorax, "but if there's something that you think would help us ponies better protect ourselves, then I would be grateful to hear it. I do take my job guard the citizens of my post very seriously."
"I can appreciate that very much," Thorax responds, "but I've told pretty much everything that I could to Princess Cadance and the royal crystaller Sunburst. I would've thought they would've relayed that to you guys already."
Gold shakes his head. "We never got any kind of communication from the Crystal Empire about anything such as that" he tells Thorax.
"Then I'll write a letter and have them send you a copy" Thorax offers.
"I would appreciate that very much" Gold responds as he then gets up from his chair. "Now, I hate to ask this, but I don't think my guards will be able to keep their focus on their shifts with the excitement you've generated. I don't suppose I could ask you to satiate their curiosity before you depart for wherever it is you wish to go in the city?"
Thorax gives the captain a smile. "As long as your guards don't mind taking turns with their questions."
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
1,023 users online
1,341,361 hits today, 1,960,719 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Nicely done. It's cool seeing how other changelings begin to question their standing and the overall leadership skills of Chrysalis. Also yay for Thorax finally getting to meet a nice guard guard unit and commander
I like these guards
True, but at this point in time of the show's run, there's also been repeated instances of her going pretty much anywhere she liked in Equestria and having literally nobody recognize her for who she was (even with the wings left on display), so...kinda a fickle thing, the Equestrian public's attention to some of its own princesses.
And as such probably more efficient--I've actually put some thought into this over the years. Gathering it indirectly and ambiently may take longer, but there is by far less risk involved, plus also better builds changeling reputation by giving ponies less reason to fear them as none of them are doing anything of particularly noteworthy harm to them, and thus making it easier and easier to get that love at all from wherever they like over time. It'd also help build relations politically as there would be less reason to perceive them as a threat and enemy to the nation.
Honestly, I don't know why Chrysalis thought pursuing love collection the so much more aggressive and direct way was the better way to go. It may get more love (and thereby more power) out of it more immediately, sure, but it's very much a short-term gain, long-term loss, because it just demonizes you in the sight of your prey and will put them more and more on guard against you until they finally find the way to get the upper hand again and strike back, robbing you of what you'd gained...which is precisely what happened with Chrysalis. Twice. (Heck, three times if we count The Ending of the End). And even if that happens, the changelings would still be draining love faster than it can be produced from their prey, so it's not sustainable either--eventually, they'd just reach a point where they wouldn't be able to keep gathering enough to sustain themselves and eventually be back to square one again anyway.
Plus, there's also the distrust it'd inevitably end up sowing between the ponies, unable to trust who's actually pony and who's actually a changeling. Not only would that make them even less likely to put out love to harvest, if taken too far, the ponies could actually and violently turn on each other trying to accuse each other of being changelings, a la "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" from The Twilight Zone, threatening to destroy themselves in the process. Chrysalis would argue that would keep them politically weak for the likes of her to swoop in and take it all for herself (not that she'd ever be able to play the long game like that, given past experience with her usually short-sighted plans), but it'd really just end up with ponies killed needlessly and ultimately less prey for the changelings to harvest love from...again putting them in the situation of potentially not having enough available to harvest and still sustain themselves as a species.
So yeah, obtaining it the more neutral and friendlier ambient way is ultimately the better way. It's almost certainly the hive's secret to success post-reformation, after all (how else did you think they were staying fed after tossing out Chryssi?)
Why would he anyway? Ponies don't normally wear clothes anyway, so any other time they literally wouldn't need any imagination, as it'd already be all plain to see. As such, I've long thought bathing suits (and other like clothing worn for the sexual effect) don't make much sense in a society that generally prefers to stay naturally nude. Honestly, the best way to swim is in the buff anyway, as wearing a swimsuit at that point would only add restriction and interference to your ability to swim, so the only other reason to wear one is for appearances, and why would they when they can top even that on a normal day just walking around town?
Unpleasantly, I'm told.
Eh, little bit of column A, a little bit of column B...honestly, Chrysalis doesn't really try to hide how cruel she actually is, so I think most changelings know perfectly well just what sort of creature she actually is--probably why so many of them were so quick to turn against her the moment Thorax demonstrated there was a better way in canon--so they don't follow her out of any sort of respect or appreciation, they follow her because they fear what would happen to them if they disobeyed, first and foremost.
And Chrysalis knows this, so she spouts on this rhetoric that they gotta do it her way because her way is the only way they can survive, and then has been implied to go to the needed lengths to try and keep the truth from ever getting out, by force if necessary, hence why Chrysalis's first reaction to anything that suggests differently is with immediate venom and denial. So most 'lings, despite probably not really liking the lot in life their queen has imposed upon them, take her at her word because they never get the chance to discover otherwise...
...until Thorax came along and dared to buck the trend in a way that got past Chryssi's attempts to block it. But as usual, getting ahead of myself here.
Colette, stop reading ahead! You're going to spoil the story for everybody else!
Maybe they're ALL changelings then--wouldn't that be something?
Well, not even that--all the changeling lied about was their actual species. Everything else about them and the resulting friendship, however, would still be (presumably) genuine. Why else would the changeling be so interested in maintaining it even after the secret is revealed?
Astonishingly, yes. I think the only thing that's keeping him from doing so at this point is the knowledge that, if he did, Cadence would blast him to Tartarus in response.
Poor Thorax though--he's like some toy a kid is showing off to his class for show and tell.
Huh. I would've sooner bet on one of the Pears--Vanhoover was where the family (save Pear Butter) ended up after leaving Ponyville.
For the record, I still think Equestria's feds are making a mistake trying to keep Thorax's presence and existence in the nation quiet. I know they're thinking it's for Thorax's protection just as much their own should Chrysalis get the bright idea to retaliate against him (still not sure whether or not she actually would--if she is, surely by now she's heard word that there's one out there outside her control and would want to put down anyway, and surely her list of known rogue changelings is pretty short) but I still think it'll cause more problems than it solves, because not only is it not only stifling Thorax's acceptance as an ally with the greater populace and the normalization of the idea that this is indeed a thing that can happen now and something to be encouraged...it's also only going to make the general public realize their government was keeping secrets from them and make it seem like they had something to hide. And with a changeling being at the very center of the matter...that's only going to raise questions of, when this ultimately does get out, whether or not they're actually telling the truth or if it's all a ruse to cover up a greater changeling conspiracy--the exact opposite of what one would want to be accomplished here.
He must've slid the papers to Thorax a few at a time in order to be sliding them over to him twice like this.
Betcha Shining confiscated the info and didn't let it get sent out, thinking of course it can't be trustworthy information, because heaven forbid should Thorax be telling the truth or anything like that, right?
I was actually thinking it's been a little bit since something unfortunate has happened to Thorax...not that I want such things to happen to him, of course, but...y'know...story's been very upfront that it wants to explore such things, so it happening again was inevitable.
11571822
As far as Old Queen Chrissy and her behavior, she wants power. Her subjects getting love would be secondary to that, and to that end, she,d take the lion's share of it and leave the rest of her subjects the same scraps they've always had.
As for pushing papers twice? Oops
And as far as bad things happening to Thorax, they're not as bad as what will happen to another pony, but that's all the more I'll let on.
I like Mantis, he seems cool. Also good to see some guards who are genuinely curious and nice to Thorax