Thorax's Visit to Ponyville

by origami

Day 3 - Other World (Part 1)

Upon returning to the castle, Twilight and Spike had both invited me to have dinner with them. It was a quiche dish made with heirloom tomatoes, potatoes, red and green peppers, spinach leaves and red onions. Mine, of course, had been given some of the love solution to give it some nutritional value to me. The dish was quite tasty, on both counts.

Afterwards, I was invited to spend some time in the castle's large library. Walls lined with books on nearly any subject you could imagine, from spell craft to cooking to various hobbies. Besides the books, Starlight had brought a kite into the library so that she could work on it. It was a diamond shape with a tail that had about five little bowtie-like decorations on it.

"So, Thorax," Twilight addressed me as she found a seat, "what kind of books do you like to read?"

"Umm..."

A good question to ask in a library, and I had to think on it for a moment. What did I like to read?

"I'm... not sure. Maybe I could look around for a bit and see what catches my eye?"

Twilight smiled and nodded. "Of course. Go ahead and check out the whole library. No book is off-limits in here; I keep all the really sensitive stuff in a different part of the castle."

"Uh... okay."

The princess gave me a nod and used her magic to summon a book to herself, along with a stack of parchment, ink pot, and several quills. Starlight set to work on her kite, a set of paints and a brush telling me she was intending to decorate it in unique patterns.

"I know Twilight said about all the books in here," Spike said, catching my attention, "but you don't have to look through them if you don't want to. In fact..."

Spike reached under a table and produced an old milk crate. Inside it were several small books, each one having a very detailed cover that was emblazoned with titles such as "Power Ponies" and "Mysterious Mare Do Well". Pretty quickly, I figured out that he had intended to share his comic book collection with me; a fact confirmed by the large smile and wave of love washing over me.

"We could go through these and you could tell me which one is your favorite."

His smile was infectious, and I could literally taste the glee in his voice. I glanced over them for a few moments before I relented.

"I suppose I could skim over a few and see if any catch my interest."

The joy in the dragon boiled over as he pushed the crate in my direction. Using my magic, I levitated out a few books and placed them on the table nearest me. Sitting down, I brought one of the Power Ponies comics in front of me and began looking through it. After a few pages, I realized that I was reading the story from somewhere in the middle, as some of the things being discussed were alluding to earlier issues. Not wanting to spoil anything for myself, I closed the comic and set it aside, opting to try another one.

Barely an hour passed when I gave up on the comics and opted for a book instead. I didn't want to lie to Spike, so I told him I wasn't a big fan of the comic books, but did like the character of The Mysterious Mare Do Well. Hearing that, the little drake chuckled.

"Yeah, there's a few ponies that like her comics, but did you know she was actually a real pony once?"

...what?

"A while back, Rainbow Dash started getting a hero complex and was rushing around trying to save the day all the time, and it started going to her head, so somepony came up with the Mare Do Well costume and started saving the day and fighting crime here in Ponyville."

"Wow," was all that I could say. "So what happened to her?"

"Rainbow Dash forced her to unmask herself."

"And who was she?"

"Pinkie Pie."

"Pinkie?!"

Spike nodded. "And she wasn't the only Mare Do Well."

"Who were the others?"

"I'll give you a hint - one of them is muzzle deep in a book right now."

I was confused upon hearing that, and then realization hit me as I looked over to see Twilight, muzzle buried inside a book and a quill working so fast that I was certain I saw smoke coming from the tip.

"Twilight?!"

"Yep, and it wasn't just her and Pinkie either. All the girls helped out by taking turns as Mare Do Well. In fact, Rarity was the only one who didn't go out and do heroic stuff, but she was busy making costumes for the other girls, so she did her part in her own way."

"And they did all that to call out Rainbow Dash on her boastfulness?"

"Nothing else seemed to be working, so they thought that creating that identity and making it seem like she was a better hero than Rainbow would humble her. Of course, Rainbow took it as a challenge, which led to the unmasking and all of them admitting what they'd done and why. After that, she got the message and eased off on always being a hero. Now she only does it when it's really needed, like if something threatened all of Equestria."

That was probably for the better; being a hero all the time would probably be very stressful. I was about to add another comment when I heard a strange sound.

"Oh! The journal!"

Twilight quite literally dropped what she was doing and turned her attention to another book, which appeared to be glowing with magic that was neither the princess's magic or Starlight's. As the princess brought it to herself and opened it, I noticed that the cover of the aforementioned journal had a unique marking on it - a sun design, with the main body of the sun resembling a yin and yang of red and yellow, its corona also half red and half yellow.

Grabbing a second quill, Twilight set to work writing something inside this new book.

"What are you writing?" I asked her.

Twilight paused her writing to look up at me.

"I have a friend that doesn't live in Ponyville," she explained. "In fact, she doesn't even live in Equestria, or even on the whole of Equus."

Unironically, I went bug-eyed at this remark.

"Where does she live?"

The alicorn then went on to explain a crazy adventure she had that involved a unicorn with a cutie mark the same as what was on the journal in front of her, and how this unicorn wanted to steal Twilight's crown and use it to take over something called a high school. Following her through a magic mirror portal, Twilight found herself in a strange new world, and as a strange, new, bipedal creature called a human.

Spike chuckled and chimed in with his two bits, telling me that he went through the portal as well, but ended up as a dog instead of a human. My mind immediately tried to picture what my first friend looked like as a dog. Maybe something with floppy ears?

Anyway, Twilight went on to tell me how this unicorn, named Sunset Shimmer, was once a student of Princess Celestia, but wanted to become a princess of Equestria and was refused by said princess. In a fit of anger, she ran away through the mirror portal and was not seen again until a few years ago, when she stole Twilight's crown and intended to use it in a rigged election to become "Queen of the Fall Formal", whatever that was.

Well, to wrap up a long story, Twilight told me that she met human versions of all her friends on the other side of the mirror portal and they helped her to reclaim her crown, showing Sunset the error of her ways and establishing the magic journal as a way to keep in touch.

"That other world sounds really interesting," I said as I reflected on all that I was told. "I bet it would be really neat to visit."

Upon saying this, I get a sudden cold chill running up my spine. I then notice Twilight, whose expression went from a small, somewhat neutral smile, to an ear to ear grin with all her teeth showing.

"That's a FANTASTIC idea!" she exclaimed as she then dipped the quill in ink and began frantically writing inside the journal.

"Um, what are you doing?"

"I'm telling Sunset that you want to come and see the human world!"

...what?!

"Twilight, I said-"

"I know, Thorax," she cut me off, "but this would be a perfect idea to explore! What would happen if a changeling went through the mirror portal? Would it turn you into a human? Some other animal? Would you stay the same and retain your transformation magic? There's so many unknowns, and unless another changeling comes forward genuinely wanting to give friendship a chance, you're the best bet on us answering any of those questions!"

"I'm... not sure about this, Twilight. What happens if something happens to me? I mean, some of the stuff you talked about over there seemed kind of dangerous, like those auto thingies."

"It's called an automobile, or just a car, and yeah, they can be dangerous, but they develop a whole road system with specific rules to help avoid as much danger as possible. Believe me, Thorax, it's not nearly as dangerous in that other world as it sounds."

"I'm still not sure. You said there was a chance that I might stay in my changeling form if I crossed over to that world, right? What if that did happen, and one of those humans saw me?"

This statement did give Twilight pause. "You do have a point, but being able to test whether or not your form will change or stay the same is the safest it can possibly be right now."

"How can you know that?"

"Because day and night are inverse between our worlds."

"Inverse?"

"When it's night over here, it's day over there. So that means that we have a couple of hours of night that we can use to check if you going through the mirror portal will cause you to change, or if you'll stay the same. It's the safest time to do it."

This whole idea still didn't sit well with me. I looked at Spike, who nodded at me, telling me to trust Twilight's plan. I then looked over at Starlight, who paused her kite-decorating to listen in on the conversation.

"What do you think?" I asked her.

"Well, there is a risk, like you said, but like Twilight said, this would be the best time to test what would happen. I mean, if you stay as a changeling and don't feel safe, you can just pop back over here before anyone sees you. I don't think there would be a problem."

"But what if there is somepony around?"

"Someone," Twilight interjected, "and the only person who would be there would be Sunset, and perhaps a few of our friends over in the human world."

"But what if one of them seeing me would cause a panic?"

"It won't; Sunset has spoken to all of them about everything in Equestria, including some of the races that aren't exactly as friendly as ponies, or at least, ponies most of the time. They know how dangerous changelings can be, but I've also told them about you, and what kind of individual you are, so if we came over and vouched for you, there shouldn't be a problem."

Trying to come up with any reason not to go through with this and finding none, I look around the room again, finding all three heads nodding at me in a form of encouragement. Not wanting to disappoint, I let out a sigh of defeat.

"Okay, let's go see this mirror portal thing."

---

The four of us, plus Vigilant, left the library and went down a few hallways, ending up at a door that, if I remembered correctly, was meant for storage. Upon entering, we saw all the things you would typically see in a storage room: stacks of boxes, racks of clothing, and various odds and ends. There was a space straight through the middle of the room, and we went straight through to the back, where another door awaited us.

"We keep a special lock on this door," Twilight explained as she used a spell on the doorknob, which made a click as the mechanism holding it shut released. She pulled it open and went through, ushering us to follow close behind her. We did so, and she shut the door after me, recasting the locking spell and turning back to face all of us.

"Well, here it is," she said while pointing her hoof.

Following her hoof, I was directed to a mirror with several wires coming out of it at different locations, and a frame decorated in horseshoes. Stepping forward, I examined the surface, taking notice of a slight rippling effect that one wouldn't notice if they were more than a foot or so away.

"According to the journal entry I got back from Sunset," Twilight continued, "she'll be waiting on the other side of the portal for us, and she said not to take too long; she saw some joggers and is afraid that they might loop back around sometime soon."

"Joggers?" I questioned.

"It's an exercise that humans do to help maintain their body weight. In their world, it's a lot easier to get out of shape, so they're often encouraged to perform different physical activities to keep from becoming overweight. If they do get too much fat on them, it can lead to some health issues, and more than a few of those can be, well, fatal."

"Being fat can kill you?"

"Yeah, but not really by just being fat. Your body has to work harder to do simple things like pump blood through your veins, so things like blood pressure can be elevated, and more weight on the body to carry around puts more strain on joints, and can lead to a human requiring medical intervention to alleviate joint pain caused by the excess weight."

"So being fat isn't a good thing. Gotcha."

"Really, being overweight is seen as a sign of an unhealthy lifestyle. Eating foods that have little to no nutritional value and living what's called a sedentary lifestyle, which is basically sitting around and doing nothing a lot, can cause a human to get fat pretty quickly, and the sitting around can cause muscles to shrink and not be as effect-"

"I think we're getting a bit off topic here, Twilight," Starlight chimed in, adding a hoof roll for emphasis.

"You're right. Anyway, jogging is an activity that is done to help humans stay healthy, and most joggers will start from one location and go in a loop back to their starting point, and will sometimes go back on the same route but in the opposite direction, so we can't waste anymore time than we have already."

Moving past me, she steps up to the portal and pauses, turning and giving me a reassuring smile before she walks straight into the mirror, the portal glowing bright and shimmering as she does so.

"Just keep moving and don't stop," Starlight advised as she went through the portal as well.

"See ya on the other side, buddy!" Spike called to me as he ran through behind Starlight.

Now alone with Vigilant, I looked at the portal and thought over my options. I could stay here alone, or I could join the others on the other side. Unsure, I looked to my guard.

"What should I do?"

Vigilant shrugged. "You can do whatever, but whatever you choose, I gotta go along with you, but as a word of caution, it's best not to keep a princess waiting."

Giving a nod and having made my choice, I approached the portal, closed my eyes, and stepped through.

Author's Note:

This chapter was done mostly as a setup for a story arc of Thorax visiting the human world. It also gave me an opportunity to have Twilight "nerd out" a little bit as well.

I'm not super familiar with EQG stuff, so it will probably be a bit before there's another chapter for this story ready. I'm also undecided, but I may elect to make some artwork of human Thorax, but I would need to decide if I was going to use his current unreformed color scheme, his Crystal Hoof disguise color scheme, or his reformed color scheme. To the best of my knowledge, Thorax was never included in any EQG official canon.

Comments

[theOwtcast]

He wasn't in EqG. Personally, I think the color scheme that makes most sense is the one he has by default at the given moment (that is, the black one for pre-reformation and colorful for post-reformation), though I'm not sure how to explain the change in color scheme from pre- to post-reformation in a way that would be convincing to the humans he interacts with, if the story takes him to the human world again after the reformation.

[origami]

11867564
The story encompasses what happens to him in one week in Ponyville, and I don't plan on having reformation take place in this story, so post-reformation doesn't really play a role here. I only mentioned it because I was sorta spit-balling ideas on his human look.

[theOwtcast]

11867657
That makes it easier, then