Thorax's Visit to Ponyville

by origami

Day 1 - Breakfast and a Tour

"THORAX! WAKE UP!"

"Huh?"

A shouting of my name brought me back to consciousness rather quickly. I look around and eventually find the source of the shouting. My friend Spike was standing beside my bed. "Come on, ya bug!" he says teasingly to me. "You're gonna be late for breakfast!"

I blink my eyes for a moment. "Breakfast?"

He looks at me with confusion. "Yeah, you know? Most important meal of the day?"

"I know, Spike," I respond with a frown, "but you know I can't get any nutrition from regular food. Most of the time when I eat it, it's just to keep up appearances or because I like how the food tastes. The only way I get any nourishment from it is if there's love imbued into it by a pony or other creature."

"I know that!" he tells me while lightly punching my shoulder with his claws. "You can still come down and sit with us! Besides, Twilight's been messing with her magic and alchemy books and thinks she's found something that you'll really appreciate."

"Huh?" I say in confusion as I watch the little dragon run over to the open door, then turn and gesture enthusiastically for me to follow him. I get out of bed and follow him, but stop for a moment after a thought crosses my mind, and an odor crosses my nose.

I turn and check my body to find that I had acquired some odors that one wouldn't call pleasant. "Wait!" I call out to Spike, causing the little dragon to stop and look at me. "I kinda need to use the shower" I tell him. "Mind waiting a minute for me?"

"Sure!" Spike replies as he sits down on my bed. "I'll wait until you're finished."

I give the little drake a nod of thanks as I enter into the shower. After about ten minutes of bathing, my chitin has a nice glossy appearance to it and the smells from the previous day are gone. Once I'm dry and in my Crystal Hoof disguise, I enter the bedroom to find Vigilant sitting on his bed looking a little annoyed.

"Sleep well?" I ask him.

"I was having a rather nice dream about my marefriend," he replied a bit tersely, "but then I had some dragon and bug pony shouting at each other that ruined it."

My previously chipper mood diminishes at the response. "Sorry."

Vigilant waves a hoof. "If I'm lucky, she'll make the dream a reality when I get back" he tells me with a smirk, giving some idea as to what sort of things his dreamland marefriend was doing.

A clearing of a throat catches our attention. I look to see Spike standing by the door. "If you're both ready," he says with a smirk, "I believe breakfast is getting cold."

I give a nod and follow after Spike, Vigilant falling in right behind me.

We left the room and walked down one of the many hallways in Twilight's castle, trusting my friend to lead us in the right direction. Really though, why should I doubt him? He's lived here since Princess Twilight received this castle. He would be one of the best two creatures in all of Equestria to give a tour of this place.

"So," Spike spoke up, "Any ideas on what you want to do today?"

I looked down at him with a frown. "I'm not sure" I admit to him. "I'm trying to keep all of my days here open, on account of that fact that at some point in the future, I'm going to be properly introduced to the whole town."

Spike nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea, but you'll be able to do all kinds of stuff once the mayor introduces you, and you won't have to be Crystal Hoof to do it either!"

"I know," I say in agreement, "but I still have to wait for that to happen."

Our conversation turned to silence as we walked, but Spike spoke up with an idea after a few moments. Snapping his claws, he announced it to both Vigilant and myself.

"I've got it! How about after we have breakfast, I give you a tour of the castle? If we do that, then everypony will know where to find us if the mayor decides to introduce you today."

I thought it over and agreed with it. "Okay, after we eat, or more specifically, you and everypony else eat, you can give me a tour of this place."

Spike frowned at me. "Thorax, you're gonna eat too!" he chides me.

I was going to protest, but Spike raised his claws to me.

"I won't hear it Thorax! You're gonna sit down and eat with all of us, and as I said before, Twilight has something she thinks you're gonna really enjoy."

I looked at Spike with confusion. "All of us?"

Spike looked at me for a second before smacking his face with his claws. "Twilight and I both forgot to tell you last night. The girls and the mayor were coming over this morning to have breakfast and talk more about you and the time since you came to the Crystal Empire."

Hearing that the mayor was here and that we were already late had set my mind into a panic-induced overdrive. "Why are we standing around then? Let's get going!"

I move to run but get stopped as magic grabs me and lifts me off the ground. I turn to see Vigilant looking at me rather sternly with his horn alight. "Do you guys seriously not have a 'no running in the hive' rule?"

Smiling sheepishly, I shake my head. Upon receiving my response, the guard puts a hoof to his temple and groans out loud. I'm placed back down on the floor again, where Vigilant promptly walks up to me.

"Listen," he begins, "I know you're nervous and want to make a good impression, and I can't really blame you for that given certain extenuating circumstances, but I want you to remember two things. One, running in a blind panic will only end with either you or another pony getting hurt. Two, the mayor and other important ponies aren't going to want to punish you harshly just because you were a little late for getting some breakfast. At worst, you'd get a light scolding, but I doubt they'll even do that to you. So, please calm down and walk at a normal pace so you don't get hurt, okay?"

I take a few moments to calm myself down, then I turn to Vigilant and offer an apology. He raises a hoof to make a gesture that is meant to say the apology wasn't necessary. "Thorax, my job right now is to protect and keep you safe" he elaborates. "If I don't look out for you and something bad happens, it'll mean my flank, and I like my flank right where it is."

I give a nervous nod to Vigilant, then look at Spike, who is making a gesture to keep following him. We continue moving, electing to resume our conversation once we get to the dining room. I look at the walls around me and take note of how similar in color they are to Twilight and her coat color. A part of me is tempted to shape shift into her to compare, but I neither want to waste anymore time than we already have, nor do I want to freak out Vigilant and irritate him any further than I already have.

After another few minutes, we finally arrive at the dining room. Inside, I see Twilight, Starlight and the other element bearers sitting at a dining table, who are joined by the mayor and...

Wait a moment. Who is this pony? I feel like I should know who they are. A big red stallion with blonde mane and tail and green apple cutie mark.

I mentally slap my face with a hoof as it dawns on me. This is Applejack's older brother Big Macintosh! She'd told me about him when I first met the elements back in the Crystal Empire!

But... why is he here?

"There you guys are!" Twilight said as she got up from her chair and gave all of us hugs, even Vigilant. "I thought Spike had gotten lost again."

"Hey!" the dragon said indignantly. "That only happened when we first got the castle, and as I recall, you still get lost in this place!"

"Oh, Spike, I was just teasing you!" Twilight replied with a smile before turning to face me. "Did you sleep well, Thorax?"

I nodded my head. "Slept like a grub in the nursery hive."

"I'll take your word for that" she replied before heading back to the table and taking another bite of pancakes. I followed her and took a seat in one of the remaining empty chairs at the table. Spike had walked through a pair of doors behind the chair I had chosen.

"You've met everypony else here," Twilight continued, "but this stallion right here is Big Macintosh. He's Applejack's older brother."

I say "Hello" and give a small wave. The stallion does a short wave before resuming his meal.

"Big Mac, this is Thorax."

Hearing my name makes Big Mac stop eating for a moment. "That's a strange name for a pony" he comments.

"Well... there's a reason for that" Twilight says sheepishly, then turns to me. "Thorax, do you want me to tell him, or should I let you do it?"

Any happiness I had evaporated in the wave of fear that washed over me. Intentional or otherwise, Princess Twilight had just put me on the spot and forced me to have to expose my true self to this stallion, a pony who I had no idea how they would react.

After my mind jumped from images of those strong hooves cracking my carapace like an eggshell to decisions about what my answer should be, I eventually decided that I should probably just get this over with. After all, this could serve as a trial run for what to expect when the mayor introduces me to the town. Besides, if Big Mac doesn't find out now, he's going to when the mayor introduces me later.

"I... I'll do it, Twilight" I finally respond, then give her a stern look; I intended to speak to her later about springing this on me without us talking it over beforehoof.

A quick look at Applejack showed her displeasure with Twilight as well. I could tell by her expression and the emotions coming off her and being directed at Twilight that she was feeling rather cross with her about her actions a moment ago. Despite how little a difference it made in my confidence, it was still nice to know I had someone in my metaphorical corner.

Doing my best to shake off my nerves, I turn to face Macintosh and explain "why I had a strange name for a pony", as he has so eloquently put it.

I take a deep breath before I begin speaking. "Well, the reason I have a strange name for a pony... is because it's not a pony name at all."

Upon hearing this, Big Mac cocks his eyebrow. "Then, what is it a name for?" he asks me.

With nerves building up in my stomach, I choose then and there to "rip the band aid off", as it were.

"My name is Thorax because I'm a changeling."

As I finish my sentence, I allow my disguise to fall away in a wash of turquoise magic, revealing my insectoid appearance.

As soon as the magic disappears and Big Mac sees my true form for the first time, he reacts with a gasp, which proves to be a big mistake. Having done this with a mouth full of pancakes, a bite of the food finds its way down his windpipe and begins choking him. Immediately, his hooves go to his throat in a feeble attempt to remove the blockage.

Before anypony else can react, Applejack jumps from her chair and gets behind her brother. Then, with a swift and powerful kick, she strikes his back hard enough to knock the bite of pancakes from his throat. The food sails through the air and lands on the floor, where the nearest unicorn, in this case Rarity, picks it up in her magic with a napkin and discards it in a nearby trash can.

With the piece of food dislodged from his throat, Macintosh took several moments to recover the breath he'd been deprived of. Once recovered, he looked at me with a scowl and pointed an accusatory hoof.

"What the hay is a changeling doin' here?!" he asked as he looked around at the other ponies.

"He was invited" Applejack informs her brother.

"Y'all knew about this?!" Mac said in disbelief, pointing his hoof at her. "And y'all brought me here?!"

"We did," Applejack answered, "and iffin' ya paid attention for the past couple a weeks or so, y'all woulda remembered me tellin' ya 'bout this whole affair and wouldn't be makin' such a fuss about it!"

Big Mac blinked upon hearing his sister's response, and then a moment later, recalls what she had just reminded him of. "Y'all mean this is the guest that ya wuzzin't sure was gonna be liked by anypony but Pinkie?"

"Eeyup!" Applejack replied, giving her brother a teasing look. I think her response was supposed to be some kind of jab at the older pony, but without knowing the particulars of their family dynamic, I could only make guesses.

Big Mac leaned back in his chair and looked at me. His hostility had died down, but I could tell he wasn't happy with me being there. I tried to offer a gesture of reassurance, but it clearly didn't help; ponies just simply weren't used to a friendly smile that had a pair of fangs attached to it.

Fortunately, Twilight stepped in to defuse the situation altogether.

"Big Mac," she said to the stallion, "you have my personal assurances that Thorax is not here for some nefarious reason. Do you remember when I went around asking ponies about what they thought about a changeling wanting to live with ponies peacefully and apologize for what happened in the past?"

"Eeyup" came Big Mac's reply.

"Well, Thorax is the reason I was asking those questions. Last year, he arrived in the Crystal Empire with a proclamation that he wanted to make friends with the ponies there. Nopony believed him, but when he saved Spike from almost dying in a cave, the little dragon repaid him by convincing all of us that he was telling the truth. Since then, he's been living and learning about friendship with Princess Cadance and my brother. Now, he's come here to Ponyville so that he can show ponies, and possibly some undercover changelings, that it is possible for both our kinds to exist not just peacefully, but in a mutually beneficial way."

Big Mac considered what Twilight just told him, then looked me up and down again as if to decide what they were telling him was the truth. After a few more seconds, he stood up and walked over to me, keeping an unreadable yet even stare fixed on me. Even his emotions offered no context as to what the stallion felt in that moment. He stopped about a few hoof lengths away from me and leaned in close enough that he could whisper and only I would hear him.

"So what the princess has been sayin' is all true?" he asked me. "Y'all wanna be friends with ponies?"

His voice creeped me out even further; while he had an accent like his sister, it disappeared entirely when he spoke to me. I felt like somepony was running ice cubes up and down my back. I did my best to stay calm and answer his question.

"Y-Yes," I replied while nodding, "I don't want to live like the rest of my hive does. I came here to learn about friendship so I can finally be happy."

Big Mac looks me over for a few more moments, in which time a sweat joins the feeling of ice cubes running up and down my spine. In truth, that feeling is very strange and quite uncomfortable.

After another moment, Big Mac eases off, and I feel relief coming from the stallion. "I believe ya" he finally responds, but then leans back down with a scowl to add another point. "But if you ever hurt any of mah family or friends, or anypony for that matter, and I'll make sure you end up just like Humpty Dumpty. Understand?"

I nodded rather vigorously; I knew all about Humpty Dumpty and the ponies who failed to put him back together again.

Big Mac then stood back up, happiness and relief emanating from him. "Good," he said in response to my answer, "then perhaps we can be friends, once I get to know ya a lil' better?"

I give a simple nod as an answer; even if his anger has now subsided, the stallion still had an intimidating presence. Returning the nod, he turned around and went back to his seat to resume eating his pancakes.

Once I was calm enough, I elected to call Twilight out. "I really don't appreciate how you put me on the spot like that, your highness."

Upon hearing that, Twilight flinched, but recovered and gave me an apologetic look. "I know Thorax, and I'm sorry," she replied, "but I did have a reason for doing that."

"Oh?" I respond, my voice still showing irritation. "And what reason was that?"

"Well," Twilight continued, "Big Mac was something of a test."

I blinked in confusion. "A test?"

Twilight nodded. "The mayor and I wanted to see what the reaction of an average citizen would be to you revealing yourself. We figured it would give us a good frame of reference for what to expect when we formally introduce you to the town, and Big Mac seemed like a good enough example for us to go by."

"Oh" I say in response. I almost feel like apologizing, but I was still upset about one detail. "You still could've given me a heads up! Then I could've known to expect a large stallion threatening to bust me up like an egg!"

"Humpty Dumpty wasn't an egg" Big Mac points out, earning a scowl from his sister as she quickly figures out what he said to me.

"I know, and I'm sorry" she responds. "Next time, I'll make sure you have a proper warning so you're not left high and dry."

Satisfied with her response, I give a nod to her and she smiles back, returning to her breakfast.

After a moment or so, I looked down at the table. Expecting a smorgasbord of breakfast food, I was surprised when I saw no platters of pancakes, bowls of fruit, dishes of eggs and fried potatoes that I learned were called home fries. The only things on the table were some small silver dishes which had sticks of butter and several small silver pitchers that I assumed were full of syrup to pour over pancakes.

Twilight saw me looking over the table and decided to remove any curiosity I had. "Spike and I have been preparing something special for you. I've been working on something since Hearth's Warming and I think it's ready now for us to test it out with you."

Despite her attempts to remove my curiosity, she had actually piqued it more. "Something special?"

Twilight just gave me a grin. "You'll see" she replied cryptically.

I was about to ask further questions, but was interrupted by the sound of a door being pushed open. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw a door with a single glass window about the size of a pony's head opening. I recognized it as the door to an industrial kitchen; Sunburst had taken me on a tour of the castle shortly after Shining Armor agreed to put aside his misconceptions about me.

From the kitchen came Spike, dressed in a chef's poofy hat and covered by a white apron. Approaching me, he placed a stack of pancakes onto my plate. I looked at him confused for a moment before he gestured for me to try eating them.

"Spike, you know I can't-"

A single claw stopped my speech further.

"Please just try them, Thorax" he said to me in an almost pleading voice.

I looked over the pancakes again. They were, as far as I knew, perfectly cooked. They were a golden brown color and appeared thick and fluffy. For a pony, they would be delicious and filling. For me, they would just be delicious. But, Spike had made them for me, and it would be rude to refuse them, if I wasn't being rude already.

"Okay," I relented, "I'll give them a try. They do look pretty delicious anyway."

Spike smiled and nodded, but I felt relief from him as well. Twilight and Starlight had both told me that Spike was a good cook, but he had never made anything for me before. Was he nervous about what I would think of it?

Spreading some butter onto the pancakes and cutting them in a pattern resembling a tic-tac-toe board, I was preparing to put a small amount of syrup on them when a magenta aura enveloped the miniature pitcher I had chosen and stopped it from tilting. Floating back down onto the table, a second pitcher was then offered to me.

"Try this one, Thorax" Twilight told me. "That's also part of the surprise we have for you."

Confused, I simply nod as I take the syrup container in my own magic. I pour some of the new syrup over my pancakes and set the pitcher down. Taking a fork, I spear some of the food with it and take a bite.

"Whaff fa?" I speak with a mouthful of pancake as my tongue is assaulted with an all too familiar flavor.

Love

Stunned, I looked at Spike, then Twilight, then back to Spike. Both of them were wearing rather large grins.

"So?" Twilight asked me after a few moments. "How is it?"

I had no words to address what I had just experienced a minute ago. Somehow, Twilight and Spike had managed to put actual, real love into food. I swallow the bite in my mouth and answer her. "They're amazing, but..."

"How did we get the love into them?" she finishes for me.

I nod, unable to articulate a proper response.

"Well, I just had to collect some."

"H-How?" I ask her, a bit afraid of the answer I will receive.

Twilight smiled as she reached under the table and produced a Florence flask with a cork in the mouth and filled with a glowing pink liquid. Through the very small amount of space between the cork and glass, I had a very familiar and very delightful odor assault my senses and pique my appetite.

"Pure love?" I asked her in confusion. "How did you get that?"

Twilight laughed and shook her head. "There's only a little bit that's actually pure. I've been working on some ideas and consulting with a zebra named Zecora. Putting our heads together, we've managed to create this potion."

"But... How did you get it?" I ask again.

"Well, I've been doing some thinking about how changelings use their magic to drain love from ponies, and I was able to recreate that spell. Of course, I didn't want to actually drain love from a pony, so I thought of other ways I could use that spell to gather love. That's when I realized I could adapt it into an enchantment I could place on an empty vessel and have it collect love being emitted into the air from different sources."

"I placed that enchantment on some flasks that could hold an amount of love and decided to test if it worked. I obviously couldn't just tell ponies that I intended to collect love from them; they'd think I was a changeling in disguise. So, I tried to think of how a changeling might discretely feed on love and it just struck me: I had to be near some couples. And when was the best time to do that? Hearts and Hooves Day!"

"So, when the day came around, I found a cafe where the ponies were on dates with their loved ones and set the vessels out to do their work. By the time I was finished, I had enough that I could run experiments relating to love for months on end."

I had to admit that Twilight had impressed me a great deal. Not only had she figured out how the changeling feeding magic worked, but found a way to use it in a way that wouldn't harm ponies. I might just have to ask her how she had made the enchantment; No longer needing to feed on Sunburst and Princess Cadance was too attractive a prospect for me.

I was brought back from my thoughts by Twilight's continued explanation.

"Using a small amount of the real love I collected and a mixture of different herbs and chemicals suggested by Zecora, we've created a solution that takes that small amount of love and grows it into a greater quantity, sorta like growing a new plant from a clipping."

I was amazed that the mare had accomplished such a thing. If the hive ever found out about her enchantment, they'd maybe consider this a more hooves off approach to collection; an infiltrator's greatest fear was being uncovered, and this would eliminate a great deal of that risk. "This is amazing, but how come I can't smell the love in the food?" I ask next.

Twilight frowned a little upon asking me that question. "I'm not entirely sure" she replied. "I was unaware that you couldn't smell it, but then again, love doesn't have a scent that ponies can smell, so I wouldn't even realize it. This is definitely something we'll need to investigate this week."

I look at her with both a sense of curiosity and dread, all too familiar with the princess's propensity for experimentation from Spike's stories. "This week?"

Twilight nods. "Since you're the only changeling that I can actually get feedback from, I was hoping you would help me with some experiments this week. I would give you some samples of the potion, and you would tell me what you thought of them. Stuff like how intense it felt, if the flavor was off-putting or less than ideal. I even have a few different ideas about how the love would be delivered."

"Delivered?" I parrot with confusion.

"How you would consume it. That's kind of a big one; the whole 'sucking the energy right from a pony' thing would take forever for ponies to adjust to, if they would be willing to adjust at all. My thought was if we could put this in food and drinks, it would allow you to feed in a way that most ponies would find socially acceptable."

"I wouldn't take up your whole day with experiments; just an hour or so would be good. We could even run them at night so they don't cut into any plans you may have during the actual day."

I listen to everything Twilight tells me and give her a smile. "I shouldn't really be surprised, but you had this all planned out, didn't you?"

Twilight blushes a little at my question. "I always try to have a plan, no matter what."

I nod my head in agreement. "That's probably a good idea."

"So," she asks me, "are you willing to help me?"

It's not a serious question, or at least, I hope it isn't. "Of course I'm gonna help you. It'll be like helping the palace baker with her recipes back in the empire."

Twilight looks at me with surprise. "You actually helped a pony with food they were making?"

I nod. "I might not get sustenance from normal food, but that doesn't mean that I can't taste it. Besides, you know how they say that chefs put a little bit of love into their food to make it that much better? Well, take it from me when I say that they really do."

"So there actually is some love in food?" she asks me.

"Not enough to be truly nourishing" I explain. "It's kinda like eating one cracker versus having a whole bowl of soup. Also, that little bit of love tends to dissipate after a while."

"That said, what you've done here is put an amount of love in that can provide as much nourishment for a changeling as the actual food would for a pony, and that love doesn't seem to dissipate so quickly either. It's really amazing!"

Twilight smiles at my praise, then jots down what appears to be a note regarding what I said. I'm tempted to ask what she's writing about, but decide not to. It's probably about the comment I made about food containing some love in it from the chef or cook who made it anyway.

I sit back and appraise the flask on the table. This potion, concocted by Princess Twilight and a zebra friend named Zecora, actually takes pure love and grows it inside the fluid. My mouth salivated at the smell coming from the flask, but my mind was blown as I thought that this solution could solve the problem of eternal hunger that I, as well as many changelings before me, have to deal with on a daily basis.

Of course, I must admit that my time in the Crystal Empire among friends has tempered my appetite greatly, so the hunger would be much easier for me to control than my hivemates.

As I consider the other possibilities for this solution, Twilight begins brainstorming some of her own. "This is gonna be amazing!" she says with excitement as she picks up the flask. "The uses for this stuff can go way beyond feeding you in a socially acceptable way. I tried some of this stuff just after Zecora and I first made it, and I felt so much happier and full of energy afterwards. If that's consistent across all pony tribes, than this potion can be used in a treatment regimen for depression and all other sorts of mental ailments."

"And if this stuff can do that, then maybe it can help restore the ponies that were fed on during the invasion."

She hadn't intended it, but her comment brought the mood of the room down a good bit. Even Pinkie, the normally energetic and seemingly always happy mare, looked rather saddened as her mane lost some of its puffiness.

Everyone sitting at the table was all too familiar with what happened during the wedding in Canterlot, and not just the queen's attempt to usurp the power of the throne. All across the great city, my brothers and sisters followed the queen's only order after the capture of Twilight and her friends - feed.

When the spell that Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor used to expel us from the city was finished, the guards very quickly found a large number of ponies that were either so drained of emotion that they could barely move, or ponies so catatonic from draining that they needed to be put on life support machines because even their bodies didn't care if they lived or not.

The thought of those ponies made me feel terrible, and not just from thinking about them being in that horrible state. Even before the invasion, I disagreed with the way changelings acted, and their disdain at the idea of friendship. I had intended to defect long before the invasion. Perhaps if I did, I could've warned ponies about my kind, and maybe with that warning, the guard could've provided better protection than what they were able to.

Since I couldn't go back in time and convince myself to leave, my next best option for atoning would be to help with the experiments involving this potion. If I could help make it strong enough, then perhaps it could restore the ponies that were drained the worst during the invasion.

The thought about healing ponies also made me think of Soothing Dusk, the mare I had attacked in a hunger-clouded haze in Whinnyapolis. I remember how gulty I had felt immediately afterwards and how I ran away in a panic, and then later on when Princess Cadance found out her identity and took me to see her so I could apologize face to face. I could still see her face in pure terror, even as I told her how sorry I had felt for doing what I did to her.

With this potion, It was now possible for me to do something I never thought I would ever be able to do before: I could give back what I had taken. If it could help Soothing like Twilight said it could, then I would volunteer as much love as I could to make up for that mistake.

"As much as I hate admitting it," Twilight continued, "there's also another application for this formula. If we ever caught one of Queen Chrysalis's agents, then perhaps we could use this to help sway them to our side and have them defect from her rule, or at least keep them alive as we hold them prisoner. At current, unless we sacrificed ponies for the changelings to feed on, they would starve in the dungeons, and the princess wouldn't want either of those situations to play out.

I thought about that idea for a moment. Using this potion to sway defectors from the hive? In theory, it could definitely work, but that was theory. Changelings were fiercely loyal to their queen. The only ones that weren't completely loyal were usually the younger queens that would either leave to start a new hive, or fight the previous queen for control of the current one. All other changelings obeyed the queen without question. If Twilight's potion could potentially sway the remaining changelings in the hive, it would only sway a few at best.

Thinking of the hive, I then thought about what Queen Chrysalis would do if she got hold of this information and shuddered. Twilight took notice of my reactions and got my attention.

"What's wrong?" she asked me. "I thought finding out about this would be wonderful news."

"It is" I assure her. "This potion is going to do a lot of good things for a lot of ponies. I just had the thought of what could happen if Queen Chrysalis got a hold of this stuff."

Princess Twilight frowned. "Yeah, that might not be a good thing, huh?"

I shake my head. "She could take all the research and destroy it so that the drones in the hive won't find out, or she'll keep it for herself and charge herself up with so much love that nothing in Equestria, even the elements, would be able to stop her."

Twilight looked rather disappointed upon hearing what I had to say about my former queen's potential plans if she were to learn of this potion. My intention hadn't been to shoot down her great achievement; just providing a word of caution to the mare about how she may want to proceed with this new discovery.

"Please don't take it the wrong way" I say to her apologetically. "You have created something wonderful. In truth, this potion may very well be the answer to the question of the hunger that's haunted changelings since time immemorial."

"What I'm saying is you should be careful with this discovery. Right now, I would take all the research and the recipe for that mixture and put it in the most secure place you can think of, and only call for it when absolutely necessary so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hooves."

Twilight digested the words that I told her and nodded in agreement. "You're right, Thorax" she said aloud. "This potion has the potential of doing a whole lot of good, but it's also possible it can cause great harm if it fell into the wrong hooves. We need to be absolutely careful with this discovery going forward."

The princess then produced two parchments, one written on and rolled up and the other blank and ready to be written on. Writing something very quickly on the blank one, Twilight the placed the rolled up parchment at the bottom of the other one and rolled them up together. "Spike, please send this immediately" she asked the purple dragon, who gave a salute and then took the letter and used his fire breath to set it aflame. I'd never seen Spike send a letter before, so I was rather shocked to see the little drake do that. Before I could voice my surprise, the entire letter transformed into smoke and vanished in a green flash.

Twilight saw my reaction and let out a small chuckle. "Spike has magic that allows him to send letters directly to Princess Celestia, wherever she might be" she explained. "I sent that potion recipe to her and asked that it be stored in her personal archives. No creature, no matter how powerful with magic, would be able to get in there."

I considered what Twilight had just told me and gave a nod of satisfaction. I knew for a fact that while some changelings were competent with using pony magic, none were at a level that could be called excelling. Unless the princesses themselves were to be mind controlled and made to unlock whatever spells and wards had been placed on the princess's archives, changelings weren't going to get a hold of that recipe any time soon, and I doubted that the queen or any other changeling could be good enough at mind control spells to use them against alicorns. If they had been, the invasion would've happened much differently.

A moment later, and a reply was belched out by Spike, who read it and said that the princess would hold onto the recipe for the potion and congratulated Twilight on her accomplishment. She also mentioned to give thanks to Zecora for her assistance with producing the recipe as well. Twilight beamed at the praise from the letter. In truth, I smiled a bit as well; Princess Celestia sounded like a nice pony, and I had been told by Cadance that she had written letters to Celestia about me, and both she and I hoped that time could be spared so that we could meet face to face in the future.

I had made an effort to convince both Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor to allow to stop in Canterlot on my way back from Ponyville, but they had shot down the idea. Cadance had told me sympathetically "Something could happen while you're there and it could end badly for either you or somepony else. It would be best for all parties to wait for a time when Princess Celestia could visit the Crystal Empire. That way, we could ensure everypony's safety."

With the great surprise revealed, and the mayor and Big Mac sworn not to reveal the secret of the new potion to the ponies in town, we continued eating breakfast. I whoofed down the love-infused pancakes with vigor; to actually eat pony food and be nourished by it had felt amazing. For one moment, in my true form, I felt like one of them, eating a meal with friends and having a great time as I did it.

I didn't want the meal to end, but there were no more pancakes to be had. Despite my disappointment, I elected to consider myself full from the meal. Something told me that drinking the love infused syrup would've gotten me strange looks, and there might have been plans for more pancakes later this week, so best to save it to use with them.

---

After we had finished breakfast and cleaned our dishes, Spike took me by the hoof and began giving me a tour of Princess Twilight's castle. Twilight had asked me before hoof to use my Crystal Hoof disguise until I had been introduced to the town, on the off chance a citizen came bursting into the palace due to some kind of emergency. Having heard the reputation of the town, I readily agreed and took on my most familiar form again.

Spike walked ahead of me as I walked just a half step or so behind him, looking at some of the doors he was pointing to.

"That's the royal guest suite, which we'll use whenever any of the princesses visit," Spike told me while pointing at one door, then pointed to another while saying "That's the royal guard barracks. If Twilight ever agreed to have her own guards, they would stay here. Of course, being the Princess of Friendship, she thinks having guards around would make ponies think she wasn't approachable."

"I don't think having some guards would be a terrible idea" I voiced my concern. "What if Chrysalis tried another invasion?"

Spike waved a claw dismissively. "This place is so disorienting that anypony that tried to get in here without having been here at least once would get lost."

I was still concerned, but I kept any further opinions to myself; I would bring them directly to Twilight, who I hoped would agree with me.

Spike continued the tour while I put our recent discussion behind me for the moment. I had to look around in awe at the castle and its crystalline architecture. It was reminiscent of my home in the Crystal Empire. I couldn't even see any seams in the crystal!

"And here's the castle armory."

Wait...

Armory?

I stop in my tracks and look at the door Spike is pointing to. Sure enough, a small plaque on the doors reads "ARMORY". My attention goes back to the little dragon with a questioning look. "Why would Princess Twilight have this?"

Spike rubs the back of his head while he forms a response. "Well... it's really just an armory in name. Most of it is bare, but there are a few weapons inside. Twilight wanted to get rid of all of them, but the mayor insisted she keep at least a few in case there would ever be need of them."

The mare with the graying mane was far more intelligent than I had initially given her credit for. I look back at the door again with a new question in mind. "Does Twilight use this room at all?"

"Actually, yeah, she does" Spike replies. "The portion that isn't currently housing weapons was turned into a little side project of hers."

"Side project?" I parrot in confusion.

"Yeah" Spike answers. "It's her 'friendship museum'."

"A museum about... friendship?" I question as I study the door further, now noticing a decoration of a sword and ax crossed together over a shield.

"It's not so much a museum about friendship as much as it's about Twilight meeting all the other girls and discovering that they were all the elements of harmony" Spike explains. "She hopes that ponies who see it will learn something about friendship, and one day..."

I look at Spike as he trails off. "And one day?" I prod just a little.

"I probably shouldn't say" he says in a weak effort to dissuade me.

"And one day what Spike?" I prod a little more firmly.

Spike considers me for a moment, and then looks around before moving in closer to me. "Can you keep a secret?" he asks in a whisper.

"I'm a changeling, Spike" I say to the little dragon with a smile. "A race of creatures who, until recently, lived in total secrecy. Of course I can keep one."

Spike looks around again before leaning in a little bit closer still. "Twilight wants to open up a friendship school."

I took a moment to process what I heard. "A friendship school?" I parroted.

Spike nodded. "She wants to start a friendship school so that ponies and other creatures can learn about friendship and harmony like she and the other girls did. Most of her nights staying up lately have been planning all kinds of things, like class curriculum and grading systems. She's even made up blueprints and picked out a spot that she believes would be perfect for it."

Somehow I wasn't surprised to hear that. Having known Twilight as long as I had known Spike, I knew the mare was very studious and enjoyed teaching just as much as she did learning. Her starting a school sounded just like something she'd do.

As I stood there, a thought occurred to me. "Can we check this museum out?" I asked him.

Spike thought it over for a second, but then nodded. "Sure," he said, "but it might be better to wait for Twilight. Not all of the exhibits are complete yet and despite her penchant for organization, she hasn't labeled anything yet. I helped out with this some, but I couldn't tell you what everything is."

"Then it's a good thing we're all here to see it too."

The voice behind us catches Spike and I both off guard. We turn to see Twilight and everypony else from breakfast. Pinkie and Rainbow are looking at us try to keep straight faces; they apparently thought our reaction was amusing. Rarity and Fluttershy were both smiling, and Applejack was shaking her head at her friends' reaction. The mayor and Big Macintosh were standing behind everypony else, small smiles on their faces and radiating contentedness. Twilight herself was beaming.

"I suggested to everypony after you left that they take a look at the museum and tell me what they thought of it," she explained, "and then I could use that input to help make it better."

"Well I'll be happy to give you my input as well" I told her. She gave a nod and I could feel appreciation roll off her towards me. She then moved past me and opened the door.

"Come on in, everypony!" Twilight said enthusiastically as she pushed open the doors to lead us inside.

---

The armory had been just as Spike said: A large room with only a few lockers that looked as though they could hold a couple of dozen spears or axes. I took notice that in one locker was a pony style bow, which had two cutouts on the main body for hooves to slide into, as well as an arm for a quiver of arrows to attach to. Looking underneath the bow, I saw about a dozen or so arrows. Raising one out in my magic, I saw that the end was capped with a slightly pointed piece of metal, telling me these were the "target arrows" that the royal guard used in training and practice. I replaced the arrow and moved to rejoin the group.

Twilight was standing underneath an archway that seemed to lead to another part of the armory. "This is the Elements of Harmony Friendship Museum" Twilight announced as she gestured towards a sign above her head. "Inside are some examples of exhibits that I want to feature in a more permanent museum in the future. You all are the first to see this besides Spike, so I want your honest opinion of what you see, and girls, if you don't think something you saw is accurate to what happened, please let me know so I can fix it." The princess then turned and walked into the museum, all of us following behind her.

The room Twilight entered was a section of the armory that was meant for artillery pieces. There were places where divots in the floor marked where cannons would be placed, with places for ammunition to go beside them. I made the guess that Twilight had the cannons and ammunition moved elsewhere so she could set up this museum here.

I elected to take in the exhibits so I could give proper feedback. The first was a diorama that featured Princess Luna, but she looked very different. She had fangs and armor, and her fur color was so dark that it almost appeared black. It finally struck me that I was looking at the princess's possessed form, Nightmare Moon.

Opposite the figure was miniatures of Princess Twilight and her friends. All of them appeared to be floating in the air, and a sphere giving off while light was at the center. Remembering what Sunburst had told me, I realized this was the moment that Twilight and her friends had become the elements of harmony and cleansed Princess Luna of the nightmare creature.

After taking the first exhibit in, I moved on to one where pictures and replicas of the element jewelry were located. Each one had been an ornate design, and the jewels at the center reflected their bearers, each being in the shape of that mare's respective cutie mark. Just below the replica elements was a picture of all six of the girls, posed around Twilight while wearing the elements. Interestingly, I noticed that Applejack had removed her stetson for the photograph, something that the mare rarely did. Her whole blonde mane was out for everypony to see.

After passing a few more exhibits that discussed events such as the Grand Galloping Gala party in Canterlot, the chaos god Discord breaking free of his stone prison, and some other minor events that held significance for the six mares that experienced them, I then came to an exhibit that made me stop in my tracks.

Sitting on the table was a replica of the wedding cathedral in Canterlot, and inside was Twilight and her friends, as well as Princess Cadance, standing at odds with Queen Chrysalis, who had a hypnotized Shining Armor beside her. Completing the display were several dozen changeling drones that were made to look as though they were flying around the cathedral.

"Sorry, Thorax" came Twilight's voice. I turned to see the mare approach me with a frown. "I should've warned you this was here."

"It's okay" I told her. "That was a bad day for a lot of ponies, and even for me, but you can't ignore history just because it makes you uncomfortable."

She nodded in agreement with me. "Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it, or at least that's how the saying goes."

I nodded in agreement with that sentiment. What I was trying to do in the Crystal Empire and here in Ponyville fit that remark to a tee. The only question was if I could succeed in teaching the other changelings.

After a few more minutes, our group had seen all the exhibits and gave our feedback. Overall, we enjoyed learning about all of the things that happened to the girls, but some of the girls had to criticize the exhibits for inaccuracies. Rainbow, however, proclaimed that her Sonic Rainboom that she had made to save her friends during a flying competition was "way more awesome" than the model one Twilight had made for the exhibit. When everypony had given their feedback, the mayor cleared her throat to get everypony's attention.

"I hate to interrupt," she began, "but I must leave now." She then turned to look at me. "Thorax, I've decided to introduce you to Ponyville this afternoon at two o'clock. It's nine o'clock now, so that should give you some time to prepare yourself however you need to. I'm going to try and get everypony I can to attend."

"Twilight, if you would please, I'd like to get Zecora to attend as well. I'm sure that she's curious to meet the changeling that she helped you make that potion for."

"If somepony would volunteer, I'd like Miss Cheerilee to be aware of this meeting so she can dismiss her class early. I would like for those foals in her school to attend."

"I could also use a few more volunteers to help set up the stage for this afternoon. Applejack and Big Mac, I'd prefer it to be you two since you've both set it up in the past and can do it rather quickly."

Applejack and Big Mac nodded. Fluttershy volunteered to get Zecora instead of Twilight, since her cottage and Zecora's hut weren't too far away from each other. The other girls also volunteered, with Pinkie preparing refreshments for the ponies, Rainbow making sure there were no stray rain clouds that could cause an interruption, and Rarity insisting she throw together a new ascot for the mayor and taking her to the spa so she looked her best for the meeting.

After everypony left to take care of their assigned or volunteered tasks, I found myself alone with Spike and Twilight. The purple mare had a smile as she approached me.

"I believe I'll help you prepare for your big moment" she said as she gestured for me to follow her.

"My big moment" I say as worry begins to build in me. "Oh, eggshells! How am I gonna pull this off?!"

I begin to panic and start hyperventilating, but Twilight uses a spell that causes a sharp, pinch-like sensation on my flanks.

"Ow!" I cry out as I rub the affected area with a hoof.

"Thorax, please calm down!" Twilight pleads with me. "I know that you're nervous, but this is something that you've wanted for a while. Everypony in the Crystal Empire has accepted you for who you are and doesn't hold your being a changeling against you. I can guarantee you that with a show of confidence from both the mayor and myself, the ponies here in town will give you a chance."

I listen to what she tells me and can sense the certainty she has in her words. One way or another, she was gonna convince the ponies here to accept me despite my appearance and the history between my kind and theirs. Calming myself down, I look back at Twilight and give her a nod.

"Thanks" I say to her. "I know I seem like I'm being a pain, but I hope you understand that a changeling revealing themselves deliberately is practically unheard of, and while I've gotten used to living with the ponies in the Crystal Empire without disguising myself, it's still really scary revealing myself to a new pony."

"I know," she replies, "but doing that is showing trust in the ponies you're revealing yourself to, and trust is a two way street."

She gestures for me to follow her again, and this time I do. "Where are we going?" I ask.

"To my private library" she replied. "I think the best place to start preparing you would be to show you some exercises that will help relieve anxiety."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea" I respond as we both continue moving down the hallway.

Truth be told, I was gonna need all the help I could get.

Author's Note:

So begins Thorax's first day in Ponyville.

I don't recall ever using it before in any of my stories, but the "love potion" mentioned in this story will be featured in my other stories. It takes inspiration from other stories where a way for changelings to get love without harming other creatures is created (I won't list specific examples simply because there's more than a few).

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[Melody Song]

You can do it Thorax!