> Fitting In Is Hard To Do
>  by origami
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Part I, Chapter 1 - Making a friend in the Frozen Wasteland
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

,"W-Why d-do I d-d-do th-this t-to m-m-my s-self?"

The question would've echoed in the canyon of crystalline mountains, if not for the raging snow storm currently bombarding it.  Winds whipped across the snow, most of it packed down but some having freshly fallen.  The sky was a dull grey, and the air was full of white powder.  Combined with the well below freezing temperatures, it was a blizzard to be remembered.  At least, it would be if it wasn't the norm for this region.

Trudging through the snow was a creature.  While somewhat resembling the ponies that called this world home, it most decidedly wasn't one.  It had dark chitin across its body with holes all through the legs.  From its mouth came long white fangs, and its eyes had no pupils, just a blue color.  This creature was known as a changeling.

This specific changeling, though, was different.  The norm for the species, at least by pony standards, was that they fed off of love energy and preyed upon any that could provide it.  Worse yet, they could change their appearance to mimic whatever creature they chose to.  They could take the place of your loved ones and you'd never know until they were holding you down and sucking the love out of you.

This changeling was different.  He did indeed hunger for love, but he also hungered for something else: a friend.  He detested the deceptive ways of the common changeling and wanted to share love openly.  His name was Thorax.

Thorax continued to trudge through the snow, memories of his recent exit of the changeling hive fresh in his mind.  Most of his kind were happy to see the "weakling" leave.  Hell, almost all the hive wanted him gone.  The only one who gave him any sort of a send off was his clutchmate and brother Pharynx, who simply told him to be careful of forests.  Well, told him that in his own words anyways.

The changeling was still shivering when he stopped for a moment to try and navigate to a safe spot out of the storm.  He'd been drawn this way by a strong pull of love energy, stronger than he'd ever felt before.  If the information he'd gathered from that town called Ponyville was correct, then it was coming from a place called the Crystal Empire.

The empire had recently returned from a long absence, their tyrannical ruler King Sombra having been overthrown.  Now it was home to the most recently married royal couple in all of Equestria.  Thorax shuddered at the thought.  While he hoped to make friends with ponies, he knew the couple probably wouldn't be the first, and with good reason.

A while back, the leader of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, ordered the invasion of the city of Canterlot.  It occurred during the wedding of this couple, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, more commonly known as Cadence, and Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard.  Chrysalis kidnapped Cadence and posed as the alicorn, using a hypnotism spell to make Shining Armor obey her commands.  She would have him lower the shield spell he'd erected to protect the city, and the horde would then come in and round up all the ponies in Canterlot and feast upon the love that the wedding had generated.

Unfortunately, Chrysalis' plans did not work in the slightest.  A unicorn mare named Twilight Sparkle had showed up for the wedding.  She was Captain Shining's younger sister, and was also foalsat by Cadence in her younger years.  As she spent time with the changeling queen in disguise, she quickly deduced that the Cadence in front of her wasn't the real Cadence.  When called out on her odd behavior, Chrysalis banished Twilight to the caverns underneath the city.

This was a huge mistake, however, as the queen had stuck the real Cadence in the caverns earlier.  The unicorn and alicorn princess soon found each other and a way back to the city.  Once out, the duo confronted the queen, who set her plan into motion, using a hypnotized Shining to lower his shield spell and begin the invasion.  

While initially rather successful, the queen slipped up and in a moment of boastfulness, Cadence went to Shining and used her love to break the hypnotic spell on him.  Recovered from hypnosis and emboldened by his soon to be bride's love, he cast a new shield spell so powerful, it sent changelings flying in every direction away from Canterlot.

As Thorax thought back on the failed invasion, his hoof slipped and he fell into a cave in the ground.  Standing up and dusting snow off himself, he examined the cave around him.  The walls were a wide variety of crystals, from quartz to gypsum to rhodochrosite.  It was a sight to behold.

Looking around nearly spelled doom for the changeling as he nearly stepped into a large chasm in the center of the cave.  Jumping back quickly, he regained his footing and looked over the large crevice.  It was so deep that the bottom was not visible.  ,"If anything without a pair of wings fell in there, that would be it for them" thought Thorax as he directed his attention to the remaining parts of the cave.

Off to one side was an old tunnel that had been shored up with wooden beams.  Thorax smiled, thinking that maybe there were some ponies in the cave he could approach, but decided to try speaking with them from a distance before getting up close.  He called out into the opening of the tunnel, but he got back no reply.  There was also no light source in the cave, which meant more than likely the ponies that had made it weren't here at the moment.

Thorax walked into the tunnel and could see that there were some tools abandoned on the ground with signs of rust on them.  This tunnel had been here for some time, and it looked like whoever had made it wasn't coming back.  Further down, there was what looked like some crates stacked up.  The changeling moved down the tunnel to investigate.

The crates in question were a supply of coal, likely enough to last a month or more if rationed properly.  On top of one stack was a can of lamp oil and an oil lamp.  Thorax observed the lantern had a supply of oil in it, and used a small burst of flame from his magic to light the lamp.

The tunnel lit up, revealing that it went down a short distance before it stopped at a wall that sparkled brightly in the light.  Thorax decided to check it out and poked his hooves at it.  The surface was uneven, and had some sharp points to it.  Picking up a quartz crystal, Thorax rubbed it on the wall, and after a moment, he could see the sharp edges could cut at the crystal.  He found a sharp point on the quartz and tried to carve something into a flatter part of the wall, which yielded no result.

,"Wow", he said in amazement, "This must be a solid wall of diamond, and they didn't have the tools to harvest it."  He dropped the piece of quartz and went back to the lamp.  A glint of something metal caught Thorax's attention, and he walked over to investigate, finding a book with metal decorations on it.  Levitating it open revealed it was a journal belonging to an Onyx Jade.

Thorax set it down for a moment and prepared to make a camp for the night.  He made a ring out of crystal rocks and broke up a nearby empty crate.  Making a teepee out of the wood, he added a few chunks of coal and lit it.  A small fire blazed forth, and the chill in the air was quelled somewhat.

Going back to the journal, he found that this Onyx Jade was a mason of sorts.  The pony's special talent was being able to fuse different kinds of gemstones together seamlessly.  If the cover was to be believed, then it represented the pony's cutie mark: a black stone and green stone merging together.  He had been out here to obtain crystal to fashion into a new tower, but a lack of volunteers and funds forced him to abandon the project.

Thorax let out a yawn.  He had trudged through so much snow, it gathered in his leg holes.  His body temperature was normalizing and fatigue was setting in.  With nothing to do, the changeling decided rest was the best option, and fell asleep by the fire.
===

Thorax was suddenly awoken from sleep.  He was unsure of how much time had passed, but he knew it had to have been the next day at least.  Rubbing his eyes, he rose and began to investigate the cave for what had caused him to wake up.

He came out of the tunnel and checked the cave.  Nothing appeared to be disturbed, as the only hoofprints in the snow were his.  His ears did perceive hooves crunching on snow, and voices.  There were ponies outside the cave, but the next words he heard quelled any desire to come out and make friends.

,"This creature can take on the appearance of anything!  Be on alert, Even more so than normal!"  The voice came from a military commander, which meant a guard detail, and they were searching for him.  ,"Drat!", thought Thorax,"They must've spotted me when I was coming out of that first blizzard!"  The changeling recalled getting through the first wave of snow and ice and wind, briefly catching a glimpse of the glimmering crystal structures that made up the empire.

Trudging hoofsteps getting quieter meant that the guards were moving away, which brought Thorax some relief.  Guards wouldn't make friends while on duty, even with other ponies, so Thorax thought it best to find a new hiding place until they left.  He was about to check if the coast was clear until he heard a pair of hoofsteps and another set of steps that he couldn't immediately place.

,"You go check that group of rocks over there, and I'll investigate this area." came a voice that sounded more like it belonged to a child than anything else.  He heard a confirmatory "Aye Aye" and hoofsteps trudging away from the cave.  Thorax breathed a sigh of relief and decided that he shouldn't leave just yet.  The snow from the last storm had actually covered over the entrance enough to conceal it.  So long as no one fell on it, he w-

The snow covering the entrance gave way and in fell a purple dragon and rock.  The dragon tumbled down the steep entrance to the cave and nearly fell into the chasm, only saving itself by grabbing onto a stalagmite at the last second.  The rock fell into the crevice, it's landing thud never being heard.  ,"Wow, that is deep." Thorax thought to himself.

The dragon got up and brushed the snow off itself.  Thorax took this opportunity to thoroughly examine the creature.  Besides being purple, it had green fins on its head, back and tail.  It had emerald colored eyes that studied the cave it now found itself in.  ,"Wow", it spoke, the voice giving the initial impression it was male,"This is some cave!"  He began to explore it, looking over the various crystals on the walls.

The changeling hiding in the cave became nervous.  If the dragon kept exploring this cave, he'd be found out soon enough.  Very quickly he hatched a plan.  Sneaking back out of sight, Thorax used his magic and changed into a perfect copy of the dragon and hid quickly behind the tunnel entrance.  He then used another magic and reached out at the dragon itself, waiting for the right moment to put his plan into action.

Thorax was not a particularly gifted changeling in regards to most of their tactics.  The typical deceptive techniques didn't appeal to him since he desired to make friends with the ponies, not use them as a food source.  But, he did get proficient at concealment spells, which served him well to get as far as he did away from the hive.  Right now, he was preparing to use a spell that was specifically tailored for the situation he found himself in: The Mimic spell.

The spell itself was fairly simple in regards to operation, but wasn't the easiest to maintain, calling upon a great deal of energy reserves to pull off correctly.  ,"Hopefully I have enough left for this", Thorax thought as he completed the mind link.  The spell required the changeling to unknowingly link with a creature it had copied and would allow for the copying of the exact movements the creature was making.  A modification done by the spellcaster would then allow for the intended affect of the mimic spell - the mirroring of movements, as in making the target think they were looking at a mirror.  An oddly specific situation, yes, but the changelings always prepared for situations that normal ponies that dabbled in spy craft wouldn't think to tackle.

The steps of the dragon came closer to the tunnel opening, which told Thorax it was time.  He stepped out at the same time the dragon did, startling the creature.  Thorax's body reacted the exact same way the dragon's had, except for flipped to make the dragon think he was looking at a mirror.  The ruse was working; after some experimental movements, the dragon was convinced he was looking at a reflective stone and nothing else.  He turned to walk away until he heard a thud hit the snow.

Thorax was already depleted of energy from his journey, and he had used a fair amount in casting the mimic spell, so it was no surprise it faltered the minute the dragon turned away.  The dragon immediately turned around and observed a copy of itself standing up and cleaning itself off of snow.  Once his copy locked eyes with him, it let out a sigh and disappeared into green flame, revealing the dark chitin and compound eyes of a changeling.

Immediately, the dragon screamed and stumbled backwards.  Thorax tried to warn him about his actions but was too late.  It had turned to run but smacked right into the very stalagmite that had saved it earlier, knocking itself silly.  The dragon's wobbly footing then carried it over the edge and into the chasm.

,"Oh crud!", exclaimed Thorax,"That dragon is gonna die because I scared it!  I gotta save it before it hits the bottom!"  The changeling quickly took to the air and dived into the chasm.  While not as fast as a pegasus pony, he was still faster than the dragon's rate of falling, and caught up and caught the dragon in his mouth.  The dragon, who had been screaming in terror, looked up to see that the changeling had rescued it from its doom.

Thorax raised out of the chasm and set the dragon down near the edge, landing just in front of it.  The two were silent for a few moments, with the dragon giving the changeling a confused look.  It ultimately spoke first.

,"W-Why did you rescue me?" it asked Thorax.  The changeling shuffled its hooves in place.

,"Because it would've been wrong to let you die in that thing." he replied, gesturing to the chasm beside them.

The dragon kept looking at him with a confused look.  ,"But since I'm still alive, I could scream for the guard to come in here and rescue me.  It would've served you better if you'd let me perish."

The changeling shook its head.  ,"While that's true, I could never bring myself to allow another creature to come to harm just because it might save my neck from being found out.  My hivemates might do that, but not me."

The dragon raised its brow in skepticism.  ,"I thought changelings were evil and only wanted love to steal?"  It asked in confusion.  

The changeling shook its head again, clarifying its previous statement.  ,"I'm not evil at all.  The only thing I ever wanted was a friend."

There was silence between the two for a minute, before the dragon spoke again.  ,"So, you're really not gonna attack me and try to drain my love?"

Thorax shook his head.  ,"No.  Even as starved of love as I am, I wouldn't try to steal it from somepony.  It always felt better to me when I had shared it or was given it willingly." he replied.  The dragon sat there for a minute still in confusion before the changeling added,"If I really wanted to drain you of love, I could've pounced on you the minute you recovered from nearly falling into that chasm the first time."

Another silence between the two before the dragon stood up on its hind legs and walked over to the changeling.  It held a claw out to him.  ,"Thanks for saving me", he began,"I know it doesn't feel good when others are quick to judge, so I'm sorry about not trusting you right off the bat.  My name's Spike."

Thorax raised a hoof into the claw and introduced himself.  ,"Well, Thorax", Spike beamed,"Congrats on making your first friend."  He couldn't believe what the dragon had said.  It wanted to be his friend?  It couldn't be this easy.

,"You're not doing this because I saved you just now?", he questioned,"You don't owe me friendship for that."

Spike chuckled and shook his head, but then rubbed it nervously.  ,"I'll be honest and say that I don't one hundred percent trust you yet", he admitted,"but I trust you enough to give you a little benefit of the doubt."

Thorax honestly couldn't have hoped for anything better.  He finally made a friend after coming so far.  It felt so amazing to him, he felt he could fly.  A bashing of head against ceiling a moment later told him he had been flying.  He descended quickly and rubbed the painful spot on his head where it collided with the cave's top.  Spike chuckled for a second before his tone became more serious.

,"You might have me as a friend now", Spike began,"but I'm not so sure that other ponies will be quick to give you a chance.  However, with my status as being a hero of the Crystal Empire, I might be able to convince them to give you one."

Thorax's eyes lit up upon hearing that.  ,"Really? You'd do that for me?" he asked his new friend.

Spike nodded and replied,"Anything for a friend."

Without warning, Thorax wrapped Spike in a tight hug, squeezing him about as hard as he could squeeze anything.  ,"Oh, thank you so much, Spike", he told the dragon, and let him go after a few moments.  Spike smiled but then became worried as he heard hoofsteps make their way into the cave.

,"Oh, ponyfeathers!", he exclaimed,"You better disguise yourself and hide here.  I'll go back to the empire and see if I can convince them to meet with you."  Thorax nodded and changed into a stalagmite just like any other in the cave.  Spike turned to look at the cave's entrance and saw the pony he told to check a rock grouping earlier, Heartfelt.

The pony was a member of the palace staff.  Specifically, he was the royal psychiatrist.  His special talent allowed him to see the emotional state of ponies and other creatures as waves of energy coming off of their bodies.  It was represented in his cutie mark: A heart surrounded by a heart shaped ring in the six colors of the rainbow.  He had a cyan coat similar to Rainbow Dash, except a shade or so darker, and his auburn mane and tail were straight with a ragged cut at the ends.  He had braided bangs on either side of his head.

,"There you are!", Heartfelt said with a sound of relief,"The guards were worried when you didn't answer their calls."  He paused to look around the cave.  ,"We'd better let the detail search this place." he added.  Spike held up a claw.

,"That's not necessary.", Spike told him,"There isn't much to this thing and I already checked it out.  Nothing down here."

Heartfelt looked at him skeptically, but gave a nod.  ,"Okay, I trust you", he relented,"Now, let's get back to the empire so we can have a cup of cocoa and warm up!"

Spike nodded and the two trudged out of the cave.  Spike led the way back, but Heartfelt lagged at the entrance and looked back in.  His eyes locked on a stalagmite in the floor.  He looked intently at it for a few moments before he decided to ignore it and head back to the empire with Spike.
> Part I, Chapter 2 - A Bad Joke, A Bad Lie, and A Plan That's Not So Great Either
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike and Heartfelt were heading back towards the Crystal Empire behind the guard detachment they went on patrol with earlier.  The dragon was contemplating how to best go about trying to convince the crystal ponies to give Thorax a chance.  They were currently hiding in their homes, and only went out if established code phrases with other ponies to verify their identity.  ,"This is not going to be easy." the dragon thought to himself.

,"Spike?" Heartfelt had noticed the drake deep in his own thoughts.  ,"Something on your mind?" he probed.

,"No", he responded, waving a claw towards Heartfelt,"Just thinking about some things I need to do when I get back."  The statement was the truth; When he got back, he had to find a way to broach the subject of the friendly changeling to the empire.

,"Oh, okay."  Heartfelt accepted the dragon's answer and trudged on.  In his mind, however, he wondered what exactly happened in that cave before he got there.  When Spike came out, he noticed a wave of emotion wafting out of the cave, its color telling the stallion that whatever creature was down there was happy.  Had he found some kind of native wildlife that nopony knew about?  He'd have to go back and investigate with a team later.

The patrol had finally gotten back to the gates of the empire.  After exchanging code phrases, they were granted admittance inside.  Neither Spike nor Heartfelt said anything as the walked through the empty streets in the direction of the palace.  The large crystal structure towering over any other for miles around.

The guards at the base checked their code phrases and allowed them inside.  Once there, they immediately went up to the throne room so they could report directly back to Shining Armor.  The elevator doors opened and the two walked down the long hallway to the throne room.

Shining Armor and Cadence were doting on their newborn child Flurry Heart when the two arrived.  The small foal was babbling happily as a mobile turned over her bassinet.  Nearby to the trio was Sunburst, a unicorn stallion from Canterlot who arrived in the empire shortly after its return.  At the personal recommendation of Princess Twilight, he was appointed crystaller for Flurry.  He was attending to some documents in his hooves.

Heartfelt announced his presence, which got Shining's attention.  ,"Heartfelt, it's good to see you didn't get eaten by anything out there in those wastes", he teased, then asked,"Did your search turn up any results?  Get to test your theory out?"

Heartfelt shook his head.  ,"If I could've tested my theory, then we would be dragging a changeling back with us." he replied.  The stallion had a theory that he might be able to spot changelings using his special talent.  The theory was that changelings sucked emotions in instead of giving them off like other creatures.  Unfortunately, the only way to test that theory was for Heartfelt to meet and observe the changeling.

,"That's unfortunate.", Shining admitted,"Perhaps when the weather settles back down, we can have another patrol search a different area."

,"With any luck, we'll find the thing frozen in the snow.", Heartfelt replied,"If you'll excuse me, sir, I have a few appointments I need to keep."  Shining nodded and Heartfelt walked back to his office.

Shining makes his way back to his wife and daughter while the lead guard of the castle asks Spike about his search.  ,"You won't believe me when I say it", he began,"but I actually made friends with the changeling."

The guard didn't do anything for a moment, but then his face turned into a smile and he started laughing.  Spike knew this wasn't a good sign; Any creature that laughed like this clearly thought what they just heard was a joke.

,"HA! A nice changeling!", the guard bellowed out in disbelief,"That's a good one Spike.  No pony has ever told us one like that before!"

,"But it's true!" Spike answered back.  The guard could only continue laughing.  Another guard came in in a fit of laughter too.

,"Yeah, and the next thing you're gonna tell us is he wants to be friends with ponies too!" the new guard presumed.

,"Actually, he does."

The guards had continued laughing so hard as to be on the edge of soiling their armor.  The laughter of the two had caught the attention of Shining, who came back over from his family to see what the commotion was about.

,"GUARDS AT ATTENTION!" he shouted.  Immediately, the two laughing guards stood to attention and cut out their laughter, though it was clear as day to anyone watching their faces that they were strongly fighting the urge.  ,"Now then, what is all this commotion about?"

The first guard replied,"Spike has just told us a real slapper of a joke, sir."

,"Yeah", the second one added,"He says that he not only found the changeling, but made friends with it, and it wants to come make friends with the other ponies in the empire!"  Upon hearing the scenario again, the two fought a losing battle against letting out another round of uproarious laughter.  Shining, however, was not amused.

,"AND WHY IS THAT FUNNY?!" he shouted at them.  Immediately, the two went straight faced.  They knew that if they continued laughing, it would lead to them having to clean the palace toilets with hooves and rags later.  Shining turned to Spike with a disapproving glare.  ,"Spike, how could you think a joke like that is funny?" he asked the dragon.

,"But it's not a joke!", Spike answered,"The changeling does want to make friends!  He even saved my life in a cave earlier!"  Shining glared daggers at him, clearly upset by what Spike said.

,"Do I need to remind you of what those things did to me and my wife on our wedding day?" he asked the dragon.  Spike shook his head.  ,"Then you can clearly understand how there is NO SUCH THING AS A NICE CHANGELING!" he finished, reciting the last few words slowly so as to make them sink in.

Spike wanted to rebutt the claim, but looking around at the guards and Shining, he knew that it was a losing battle.  If he was gonna find a pony to give Thorax an honest chance, it certainly wasn't here in the throne room.  ,"I'm sorry", he apologized,"I guess that joke was in really bad taste."

Shining put a hoof on Spike's shoulder.  ,"It's okay", he reassured the dragon,"We all make mistakes.  It's just important to learn from them so we don't repeat them."  With that, Shining dismissed the guards to their posts and rejoined his family.  Spike hung his head and exited the throne room.

===

Spike wandered the halls of the palace trying to think of one pony he knew that might consider giving Thorax a chance at proving he wanted to be friends.  The list he came up with was short, but he was already scratching names off of it.

The first choice was Twilight, obviously.  The mare was the Princess of Friendship, after all.  If there was a pony that would give any creature a chance to prove they could be friends with ponies, it should be her.  However, he also knew that Twilight promised Shining and Cadence she would protect Flurry at all costs, which meant that she would either drive off the changeling or stun him to bring him back to the empire as a prisoner.  Option one was unfortunately a bust.

The next choice was Starlight Glimmer.  The mare was recently reformed from her villainous ideas to rob ponies of their cutie marks and general distrust of friendship, so she seemed a good choice to pair with a creature that was despised as a monster that only wanted to prove it was truly good and honest.  But, because she was now a student of Twilight, the mare's first to be specific, she would follow her teacher's tutelage and likely not give the changeling a chance either.  Strike two as it were.

After Starlight came her long distance coltfriend and royal crystaller Sunburst.  His academic nature would surely mean that he would be curious about this changeling and want to meet it.  But, he was a member of the palace staff and loyal to the royal couple; He'd be bound by honor to confess the location of Thorax's cave despite his personal feelings.  Strike three, next batter.

,"Something on your mind, Spike?" came a voice in front of him.  The dragon looked up to see Heartfelt standing beforre him with a quizzical look in his gamboge eyes.

,"I'm fine", Spike responded,"Just thinking of a solution to a problem."

,"Well, maybe we can talk it over with some cocoa and solve it together?" Heartfelt offered.

,"I appreciate the offer, but-" Spike replied but stopped halfway.

Why hadn't he thought of it sooner?!  Heartfelt was the perfect pony to ask!  His special talent would prove to him that Thorax wasn't a threat, and it would give him a chance to test the theory that he wanted to earlier when they began their initial search.

,"You know what?  That's actually a good idea.", Spike continued,"But can we get the cocoa and head back to your office?  It's kind of a personal issue."

Heartfelt nodded and stopped a chef pony who had actually just left the throne room with lunch orders from the royal family and Sunburst to ask for cups of cocoa to be brought up to him.  ,"Now", the stallion began,"Let's talk about your problem."

===

Heartfelt's office was rather nice compared to most therapist's offices Spike had seen.  The walls were made of flawless quartz with a blue marble floor.  In the center of the room was a large burgundy floor rug with a chaise lounge and arm chair atop it.  Near a window sat a desk and set of three chairs, two on one side and one on the other, as well as some simple wood filing cabinets.  The stallion and Spike elected to sit at the desk to converse.

,"So, what is this problem you have?" Heartfelt began, giving off a warm smile but leaning in in an unintentionally intimidating manner.

,"Well", Spike began,"I have a friend that I want to help.  He wants to make friends, but his family has a bad history here and no one will want to give him a chance."

,"Hmm", Heartfelt hummed thoughtfully.  ,"You have a friend who wants to make friends, but others won't give him a chance because of a reputation he has through no fault of his own."

A knock on the door signaled that the cocoa was here.  Heartfelt let the waiter inside and took the drinks from him.  He set one down in front of Spike and blew a few times on his own.  Being used to heat in his mouth, Spike took a full sip right away.

,"Okay, I have a question I want to ask you now." Heartfelt told Spike, who nodded while he drank his cocoa.  ,"That changeling is hiding in that cave, isn't he?"

Spike spat his cocoa out and choked on some that went down his windpipe.  Once he recovered, he looked at Heartfelt with a shocked expression.  ,"How did you know?!" Spike asked in a bewildered state.

Heartfelt let out a smile.  ,"Well, that story you just gave me, combined with the 'joke' you told the guards earlier."

,"You heard that?" Spike asked.

,"Yeah", Heartfelt replied,"Plus, I sensed some energy coming out of that cave earlier.  At first I thought it was from you, but the signature was different.  I just decided to ignore it at the time, what with being almost froze like a popsicle out in the wasteland."

Spike rubbed the back of his head, surprised that Heartfelt could read him so easily.  Of course, the stallion should; His special talent made nearly every sentient creature in Equestria an open book for him.  ,"Since you officially know the secret now",Spike relented,"I wanted to ask your help.  Would you be willing to meet with him and hear him out?"

Heartfelt sat in his chair and thought for a moment.  There were merits and drawbacks.  The drawbacks were obvious; being captured and drained of love, being hypnotized and made to lead ponies back to the cave so it could steal love from them, and so on.  Then there were the pros; A chance to prove if his theory was true, and if things went south, a chance to take the changeling prisoner and bring it back to the empire.

,"I probably shouldn't, but I will", he answered, adding,"On the condition that he meets me outside the cave.  I don't want to be in a situation where I could be trapped somewhere with it."

Spike nodded.  ,"That's fair."  He stood up and chugged the remainder of his cocoa, setting the cup down and wiping his snout.  ,"We can go to the cave, and I'll go inside to bring him out to talk."  The dragon up and headed for the door before the stallion's voice stopped him.

,"I'm also bringing protection with me."  Spike turned to see Heartfelt go into a desk drawer and produce a set of throwing daggers, as well as a collapsible baton.

,"You're not gonna need that." Spike tried to reassure him.  Heartfelt wasn't having it.

,"Sorry, Spike", he apologized,"But it's a package deal.  If he wants a fair chance, then he meets me out in the open, and I am allowed the means to protect myself."

Spike groaned in frustration, but relented.  ,"Okay", the dragon responded,"But he's not gonna like this."

,"It doesn't matter what he likes", said Heartfelt,"If he wants a fair chance, then those are the terms."  He moved to the door and put the weapons in a set of saddlebags, then lifted them onto his back.  Before opening the door, he turned and gave Spike a sad look.  ,"If he refuses to speak to me", Heartfelt began,"then I'm gonna have to tell the guards of his location.  I still serve Princess Cadence and Prince Shining, and withholding information like this is a criminal offense."

Spike wanted to argue against telling the guards where Thorax was, but he knew what Heartfelt said was true.  He was not just a citizen of the empire, but a servant of it too.

,"Fine", Spike relented,"But you have to give him an actual fair chance.  No running away screaming at the first sight of him, alright?"  Heartfelt nodded.  ,"Good", replied Spike,"Now, let's get going."

===

The frozen wastes outside the empire still bore the hoofprints of the guard patrols.  It was plenty easy for Spike and Heartfelt to find their way back.  The cave entrance looked the same as it had before.  Ominous clouds off in the distance, though, warned that any caught out here had either turn back or find shelter from the impending storm.

,"Okay, we're back here", Spike said,"Now, you stay back over by the rock outcropping you were checking out earlier, and I'll head in to bring him out.  Just give me a few minutes so I can explain to him the conditions of this little exchange."

Heartfelt gave a nod.  ,"Okay, I'll stay over there", he replied,"Hopefully he hasn't bugged out or set up some kind of trap for us."

Spike frowned.  ,"Thorax isn't like that." he reacted incredulously.

,"So, his name is Thorax?" Heartfelt questioned.

,"Yeah, it is", Spike replied,"so, just go wait by those rocks and I'll bring him out, okay?"  Heartfelt gave a nod and walked over to the cluster of rocks he'd been investigating earlier.  Spike headed back down into the cave to find Thorax.

,"Thorax!", Spike called out,"Where you at?"  The dragon looked around, but couldn't find a sign of the changeling.  ,"Maybe something came into the cave and scared him off?" he wondered.  Suddenly, he felt something cold hit him in the back of the head.  He fell front but recovered quickly and turned around to look for his assailant.

Thorax was standing by the entrance to the tunnel, a snowball in his hoof.  ,"Sorry", he apologized,"I've always wanted to try throwing a snowball, and it was just too perfect a chance."

Spike laughed and replied,"It's okay.  I suspect you haven't had much chance to do a lot of different kinds of fun stuff when you were in the hive?"

Thorax nodded.  ,"Yeah", he replied,"There's not much chance to do that kind of stuff when everyone is more focused on stealing love.  Speaking of which, did you find any ponies that might be willing to talk to me?"

Spike gave a nervous nod.  ,"Only one right now", he answered,"He's waiting outside.  He'll talk to you, but he only wants to do it if he knows for one hundred percent sure that he'll be safe."

,"Well, that shouldn't be a problem", returned Thorax,"I'm not interested in causing harm to potential friends."

,"Except for nailing them in the back of the head with snowballs?" Spike chided, a smirk crossing his muzzle.  Thorax gave a laugh.

,"Yeah, except that." he answered back.  Spike waved a hoof and moved back toward the cave entrance.

,"C'mon", he ushered Thorax to follow,"I don't want to keep him waiting."  Thorax nodded and the two walked out of the cave.  Before getting to the exit, Spike remembered something he forgot to warn Thorax about.

,"Thorax, there's something you need to know", Spike began,"Heartfelt brought some weapons with him.  To protect himself with, of course, not that he needs them.  He said that if you aren't willing to talk to him because of that, then he'll have to tell the guards about your cave.  It's nothing personal, but he's a member of the palace staff.  He's already breaking his oath by not telling the guards that he now knows your whereabouts."

Thorax stopped for a moment to consider what he was just told, but he then nodded his head in agreement.  ,"I can't say I'm all that wild about talking to somepony with weapons at the ready", he replied,"but if it's the only way to get him to talk to me, then I guess I have to go along with it, and I can't blame him for feeling like he needs to tell the guards where I am.  I wouldn't want a pony losing their job because of me."

Spike frowned at Thorax's assessment.  He really wished that the ponies in the empire would just give him a chance freely, but he knew that wouldn't happen.  The pair exited the cave and looked around the snow covered wastes around them.  Spike looked to his right and saw Heartfelt waiting.  ,"You just stay right here for a second and I'll go get him to come over." he told Thorax while pointing at the cyan pony waiting by a cluster of rocks.  Thorax nodded and waited patiently for his friend to return.

Spike trudged over to Heartfelt, who was standing by the rocks and looking off in another direction.  He turned to face Spike once he heard the dragon's footsteps come closer.  Almost immediately, he saw Thorax.  ,"So, that's the changeling?" he asked Spike.

Spike nodded.  ,"He's agreed to talk to you on your terms, so you can go ahead and come on over." Spike informed him.  Heartfelt eyed the changeling carefully, watching him without moving for a few seconds.

,"Tell him to come over here." said Heartfelt.  Spike shook his head and waved a claw to Thorax.  The changeling saw the gesture and started over to the two of them.  Spike saw Heartfelt tense as Thorax got closer.

Once Thorax got to about ten pony lengths away, Heartfelt raised a hoof.  ,"That's close enough for now." he told the changeling.  Thorax stopped moving and stood in place.  Heartfelt eyed him warily for a few moments.  He called upon his special talent to examine the changeling and test his theory about their energy.  The results were, for lack of a better word, interesting.

Heartfelt turned to look at Spike for a baseline.  The dragon radiated nervous energy.  Clearly, he wanted things to go well for his new friend.  Heartfelt then turned to the changeling and examined his signature.  Oddly, the energy around the creature was swirling, kind of like eddies in a stream.  Energy was moving both toward and away from it.  Heartfelt's previously stern gaze softened and he adopted a more quizzical expression.  Spike picked up on this immediately.

,"Something wrong?" Spike asked the stallion.  Heartfelt didn't register his friend talking at first, but turned to respond.

,"His emotional energy isn't what I expected", Heartfelt replied,"There is energy flowing into him like my theory stated, but there's also energy coming out, and both streams share similar emotional signatures.  It's swirling around him like whirlpools in a river."

Thorax did the equivalent of raising an eyebrow.  ,"What's he talking about, Spike?" he asked his friend.

Spike replied,"He's examinig your emotional energy.  It's his special talent.  According to him, you're both drawing energy in and giving it off.  Apparently, he wasn't expecting that."

Thorax looked confused.  ,"What do you mean emotional energy?" he questioned.

Heartfelt started walking around Thorax.  ,"Emotinal energy is an energy generated by emotions", He explained,"It can sometimes be felt by a pony when close to another, but for me it appears in my vision sort of like if you watched the sun and saw the corona coming off of it.  To be honest, most of my meeting with you was to test a theory I had.  I figured that since you guys feed off emotions, your EES would be the opposite of a pony's."

Thorax did another brow raising gesture.  ,"EES?" he questioned.

,"Emotional energy signature", replied Heartfelt,"It's a pattern unique to a pony, or in your case, a changeling.  That said, going off of my experience with ponies, I get the feeling that you're not interested in causing harm to the empire, so my question is why are you all the way out here?"

,"Because I want to make friends!", Thorax answered his question,"Ever since Canterlot, I've-"

Heartfelt interrupted him.  ,"You were AT Canterlot!?" he asked in surprise, moving a hoof to the baton in his saddlebag.

Thorax raised a hoof in defense.  ,"Yeah", he answered,"but I wasn't there willingly.  Nearly everyling in the hive was made to go there.  The only ones who didn't were the ones picked to guard and care for the nursery."  Heartfelt examined him warily before moving his hoof away from his side and back down to the ground.  Thorax continued talking.

,"While I was there, I saw how much terror we were causing and I made the decision not to be part of it.  Then, during all the commotion, I saw six mares come charging through the streets and being surrounded by my hivemates.  Even in spite of that, none of the six faltered, and their friendship helped them work together to overcome the odds.  I was so moved by that that I decided that, after the invasion, win or lose I was leaving the hive and going out to make friends of my own.  So, that's why I've come so far: To make friends."

Heartfelt continued looking over Thorax for a few moments after the changeling recanted the story.  His look was skeptical, but then changed.  ,"You really mean that?" he asked of Thorax, who nodded in response.  

The skepticism was gone, and a warm smile covered his face.  He walked over to the changeling and offered a hoof.  ,"Then any remaining doubts I have have been assuaged."  Thorax looked at the hoof and smiled, Taking it in his own and shaking vigorously.

Once the hoofshake was done, both pony and changeling stepped back from one another.  At this moment, Thorax took notice of Spike.  The dragon had a shocked look on his face.  ,"What's wrong?" Thorax asked his friend.

,"Six mares?" Spike looked confused,"Was one of them orange and wearing a hat?"

Thorax looked at his friend surprised.  ,"How did you know?" he asked Spike.

Spike then smiled.  ,"Because those six are my friends", he answered,"They're the elements of harmony!  They all embody the different aspects of friendship that when combined, make them one of the strongest forces in all of Equestria!"

,"Really?", Thorax responded to Spike's claim,"That sounds so awesome!  Do you think I could meet them someday?"

Heartfelt interrupted them with a more serious tone.  ,"I'm sure something could be arranged", he began,"but unfortunately, we need to get back, Spike.  The guards will be wanting to know what was taking us so long, and they might even begin to suspect that we've been replaced by not nice changelings."

Spike looked at him with a worried expression on his face.  ,"What about Thorax?" he questioned,"Can't we bring him back with us?"

Heartfelt now had a regretful look on him.  ,"I'm sorry, Spike", he apologized,"but I don't think that's a good idea.  The guards wouldn't think twice about arresting Thorax right away and just tossing him into the dungeons without a second thought."

,"I could go back in a disguise." offered Thorax, changing himself into a crystal pony.  He had his mane pulled back with a hair band and was varying shades of grayish blue, with a cutie mark resembling a piece of pottery.  His eyes were teal, and bore the hexagonal shiny marks of the crystal ponies.

,"I don't know", Heartfelt replied skeptically,"The guards are gonna question who you are when we get back."

,"I could vouch for him." offered Spike.

Heartfelt mused on this.  ,"That could work, but they'll ask questions, like 'What's his name?'"

Spike looked the the ground in thought and then answered,"Crystal Hoof."

Heartfelt raised an eyebrow.  ,"Crystal Hoof?" he asked the dragon, to which Spike nodded in reply.  ,"And how do you two know each other?"

,"We met during the Equestria Games." came Spike's reply.

,"And where does he live?" asked Heartfelt.

,"He lives in Manehattan.", answered Spike,"He moved there after Sombra was overthrown, and he's back to visit his family."

Heartfelt gave a glare of suspicion at the last part of the response.  ,"And what is his family's street address?" the stallion asked, using a tone that screamed disapproval.

Spike rubbed his head and acted nervously.  He walked into that last part without realizing it.  Thorax, however, seemed to be quicker on his hooves.

,"818 Quartz Street.", he answered Heartfelt's question,"I sent a letter stating that I was coming for a visit, but I never got a reply back.  It must've fell out of a mailmare's pouch."

Heartfelt wanted to scrutinize further, but he had no good questions for which to challenge the story.  Plus, the cold was starting to really get to him.  ,"Okay", he relented,"We'll go along with this plan, as not good an idea as it is.  However, I'm gonna warn the both of you now.  My flank is on the line here, so if anything goes wrong, it's on you two and not me, okay?"

Spike and Thorax both looked at each other and nodded.  ,"If things go south, then you had no idea what was happening." Spike agreed.  With that business concluded, the trio made their way back to the empire.
> Part I, Chapter 3 - The Throne Room
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heartfelt, Spike and Thorax, disguised as Crystal Hoof, approached the threshold of the Crystal Empire.  Two guards were standing resolute by the entrance and stopped the group.  ,"HALT!", exclaimed the one guard,"You are not permitted entrance until you pass the verification test."  Thorax became nervous, but Heartfelt and Spike simply approached the pair.

,"I'm Heartfelt", the stallion answered,"and this is Spike the Brave and Glorious, and the stallion back there is Crystal Hoof."  The guard regarded the trio and became suspicious.

,"You still need to pass the test", he stated,"Peanut Butter?"

The trio looked to each other and nodded, and then in unison answered,"Marshmallow cupcake"  The guard nodded and stepped aside to let the group in.

,"Welcome back to the Crystal Empire." he gave warmly as he turned and went back to his guard duties.

The group walked along the streets of the Empire.  Thorax had only caught glimpses of it from afar, but seeing the buildings up close and shining in their gemstone luster was breathtaking.  Nothing in the hive could compare to what pony ingenuity and magic could accomplish.

,"Admiring the scenery?" asked Heartfelt.

The changeling nodded.  ,"I've never seen anything so beautiful before.  All the crystal it took to build this place must've taken years to mine from that cave."

Heartfelt raised an eyebrow.  ,"What do you mean 'that cave'?" he asked.

,"The cave I was hiding in had a mine tunnel in it", answered Thorax,"There was a pony named Onyx Jade who was mining materials inside it for something, but he had to give up when he ran out of money and nobody would help him."

Heartfelt gave a nod, but corrected him.  ,"The original Crystal Empire was born from a spell cast on a mountain range a long time ago.  The buildings themselves were shaped by the spell, so there wasn't any mining done to make the empire itself.  Ponies, however, have went into the wastelands searching for gemstones to expand the territory further on account of expanding population."

Thorax looked blankly at the stallion.  A whole city carved out of a mountain range by a single spell.  ,"Who cast the spell?" he asked.

Heartfelt shook his head.  ,"Nopony knows", he answered,"The exact origin of the empire is shrouded in mystery, but that's what happens when you have an entire civilization that disappeared for a whole millennium."

Thorax couldn't believe that last part.  An empire disappearing for a thousand years?  He'd never heard of such a thing.  Heartfelt saw the confused look on his face and decided to elaborate.

,"There was a king named Sombra who ruled the empire with an iron hoof.  But, he was banished by Princess Celestia and Luna for his evil ways.  Before he was cast away, he laid a curse on the empire that stated that it would be lost, and would only return when he did.  After a thousand years, the empire returned, and so did he.  He tried to retake the empire, but the crystal ponies, along with Princess Cadence and the Crystal Heart, defeated him.  Since then, the empire has been catching up on the history it's missed."

,"It sounds like this King Sombra and Chrysalis would be perfect for each other." commented Thorax, who earned a disapproving glare from Heartfelt.  Clearly, while the stallion was giving him a genuine chance, he still didn't fully trust him.
The trio eventually made their way to the Crystal Castle itself.  Thorax had seen the prominent spire from afar, but witnessing it up close was something else entirely.  He couldn't tell what the tower was made out of, but thought quartz due to the bright white color.  It sat up on foundations that perched it atop the pride and joy of the empire itself - The Crystal Heart.

Two guards noticed the group approaching and moved to stop them.  ,"Halt!", one guard shouted to them,"State your business here."

Heartfelt stepped forward.  ,"It's me, Heartfelt, the royal psychiatrist." he answered the guard.

The guard glared at him with scrutiny.  ,"You do look like him, but how can I know for sure?"

Heartfelt gave a sigh.  ,"Okay, you asked for it." he responded, looking to both guards.  ,"You were seeing me for PTSD issues you were having from the changeling attack." he addressed the guard who had remained silent.  The guard nodded in confirmation.  He turned to the guard that spoke to him initially.  ,"And you've been seeing me for the past week in regards to your desire to wear dre-"

The guard flushed red and waved his hoof emphatically.  ,"OKAY!", he exclaimed nervously,"You can pass!"  He then gestured for the group to enter the palace.  As they walked away, the silent guard looked at the other and raised a brow.

,"Never figured you for a transvestite.", he commented.  The other guard looked at him angrily.  ,"Firstly, there's plenty of stallions who enjoy doing that and there's nothing wrong with it!", he snapped,"and secondly, THAT stays between us, you got it?!"  The other guard just gave a smirk and nod, and then turned away.  The first guard remained silent, but also beet red from both anger and embarrassment.

Once inside, Thorax marveled at the architecture and decor.  The hive had nothing on this place.  The walls were made of what appeared to be pure quartz, the floors of brilliant sapphire, and various types of ruby, garnet, and amethyst adorning the walls completed the look.  They stayed silent for most of the trek, but Thorax had to know where they were going.  ,"So, where are we heading?" he asked his two new acquaintances.  Spike looked up at him and replied,"We're gonna go straight to the throne room."

,"T-The throne room?" Thorax stuttered nervously.  He began to lag behind Spike and Heartfelt as nightmare scenarios raced through his brain.  He was in disguise now, sure, but finding out he'd come face to face with the stallion and mare whose wedding was almost ruined by his hivemates?  His nerves were wearing thinner each second.

,"Y-You sure t-that's a g-good idea, Spike?" the changeling asked his dragon friend.  Spike looked back and was about to give his friend a comforting smile when he saw how nervous Thorax had became.  Then his plan went through his mind, and he realized now that it was probably not the best one.

,"Maybe introducing Thorax to everypony at once isn't the best idea.", he thought,"Perhaps we should start by introducing him to everypony one on one.  Start with Twilight perhaps?  No, she swore to protect Flurry from harm, so she might not be the most keen to listen right now.  Starlight, maybe?  She'd be a better option, but she might go and tell Twilight immediately, and then Twi would tell Cadence and Shining..."

Spike and Thorax had been absentmindedly following Heartfelt all the way to the throne room.  Before either could react, a magenta mare with horn and wings called out to greet them.

,"Spike, Heartfelt!", called Twilight,"You're back!  Where'd you go?"

,"Well", Spike began, rubbing his neck nervously,"I realized I dropped something in a cave I was exploring earlier and I asked Heartfelt to come with me so I could get it.  While we were out, we ran into my friend Crystal Hoof here."  He gestured to Thorax in his disguise, which caused Twilight to have a puzzled look.

,"You have a friend here in the Crystal Empire?" she asked him.

,"Is that so surprising?", he questioned her back.  ,"Being 'Spike the Brave and Glorious' makes me a friend of every Crystal pony in the empire." he then boasted of himself.

Twilight smirked and rolled her eyes.  ,"So", she continued with her questioning,"How long have you both known each other?"

,"Since the Equestria Games", he answered,"We've been keeping in touch as pen pals ever since."

,"Why didn't you tell me you had a pen pal?!", she exclaimed,"You could've used my special quill set!"  Spike rubbed his neck in embarrassment and answered back,"I thought you should save that for your letters to the princesses and Shining."  The mare beamed at him.  ,"That's very thoughtful of you, but I wouldn't have minded letting you use it to write your friend."

Twilight walked past Spike and greeted Thorax as Crystal Hoof.  ,"I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle", she introduced herself,"It's nice to meet you."  Thorax looked at her hoof and took it nervously.  ,"P-Pleasure's a-a-all m-mine, y-y-your h-h-highness." he returned.  Twilight gave a chuckle and tried to ease his nerves.  ,"You don't have to be nervous around me, and please just call me Twilight.  I don't think I've really done anything to truly be deserving of the princess title yet."

,"Oh, I wholeheartedly disagree." came a voice from behind the group.  Approaching them was Princess Cadence, flanked by her husband and a unicorn stallion wearing glasses and a cape.  In his magic aura was the bassinet containing Flurry Heart.  ,"You have completed the unfinished spell of the greatest sorcerer of all time", she continued,"And you did it to help your friends rediscover who they truly were.  I would call that desire to help and do good the true mark of a princess."

Twilight blushed at the praise.  Spike walked over to the royal couple and exchanged pleasantries.  Heartfelt walked over to the unicorn stallion and started to discuss something with him.  Thorax stood where he was, trembling nervously.  He could feel all the love radiating from every pony in the room.  It was torture to him considering how starved he was.

,"Oh, how rude of us", Cadence declared, turning her attention to the new pony,"Who is our new guest?"  Shining looked at the newcomer with some suspicion, and made a subtle gesture for the guards to move to the door and prevent a possible escape.  Spike interjected upon seeing this.  ,"This is my friend Crystal Hoof.  We met during the Equestria Games and have been writing each other ever since."

Shining then made a gesture for the guards to move away, satisfied with Spike's vouching for the new pony.  Thorax rubbed his neck with his hoof and stepped forward.  ,"H-H-Hello Everypony", he stuttered out,"I-It's nice to m-meet you all."  Cadence approached and offered her hoof.  ,"And it is a pleasure to meet you as well." she returned.

Thorax had a very difficult time controlling his urges upon touching her hoof.  This was the princess of love, and she radiated the emotion with a greater strength than every stallion and mare in all of Equestria.  He timidly took her hoof and offered a weak smile.  Cadence noticed this and tried to assuage his fears.  ,"There's nothing to be afraid of", she tried to reassure him,"Any friend of Spike's is welcome here in the castle."

,"R-Right", Thorax returned,"T-Thank you."  He steeled his nerves as best he could as Shining introduced himself next, followed by the unicorn stallion who identified himself as Sunburst, the royal crystaller.  After his introduction, Thorax was ready to bolt for the nearest bathroom, if just to drop his disguise and collect himself for a moment, but something happened that brought the house of cards crashing down.

Sunburst lifted the bassinet up to Thorax's face with a smile and said,"And this is our future sovereign, Miss Flurry Heart."  The changeling's eyes met the adorable face of the baby alicorn.  The violet and blue maned foal looked up at the new guest and reached for him, cooing happily.  She radiated love, and every pony in the room let out an "aww" upon hearing the foal, letting out their own love.

It was more than he could take.  Thorax let out a scream and took several steps back, startling everyone.  The love energy around him was overwhelming his hunger and self control.  A moment later, and his disguise fell.  Almost immediately, the love in the room vanished, and was replaced with all manner of negativity, such as anger and hate.  Shining didn't need to signal for his guards as they instinctively surrounded the changeling.

Spike moved in front of Thorax, intent on trying to defuse the situation.  A magenta glow grabbed him and held him away.  ,"Spike, don't go near that thing!" shouted Twilight as she levitated her assistant behind her and turned her gaze back on the changeling, a scowl on her face and her horn charged and ready to cast a spell if need be.

Shining stepped forward and commanded his troops.  ,"Guards!  Make sure that thing doesn't leave this throne room!"  The guards complied and quickly surrounded Thorax, spears at the ready.

Spike continued his attempts to stop the arrest of his friend.  ,"Stop it!  You don't understand!  He-"

,"WE UNDERSTAND PERFECTLY!", shouted Shining at the changeling, "You decided to ambush Spike's friend, disguise yourself as him, and then trick him into leading you to us so you could steal my daughter!"  Shining charged a stunning spell and shot it at Thorax, who narrowly avoided it.

,"Please!", Spike pleaded with whoever would listen to him.

Sunburst put a hoof on Spike's shoulder.  ,"It's okay.", he gave him a reassuring look,"We'll take him into custody and make him tell us where your friend really is."

,"No, you don't get it!", he shouted,"The changeling wants to be friends!  Honest!"

Twilight shot spike a disapproving glare.  ,"This is not the time for jokes, Spike!" she scolded him.

Sunburst chimed in as well.  ,"Yeah, Spike.  You were at Canterlot.  You saw what those things did.  How could anyone of those things ever want to be friends with us?"

Spike went to speak up again, but suddenly found the disapproving glares of Twilight, Sunburst, and Shining all directed at him.  He looked past and saw Thorax looking at him with pleading eyes.  ,"Please, Spike." he said silently to his friend.  In that moment, Spike caved into the pressure, and gave everyone the answer they wanted to hear.

,"I don't know."

Thorax felt like one of the guards spears had went through his heart, and tears began streaming down his face.  His only friend had just turned his back on him, and now he was alone and surrounded by guards who were going to do who knows what to him.  He might buy a little time giving up what little info he knew, but he could tell Shining Armor would delight in torturing him, just as petty revenge for the Canterlot invasion.  The tears streaming down his face, he suddenly bolted, knocking over a pair of guards, and vaulted out an open window in the direction of the wastelands.

Shining turned to two pegasus guards that had been standing in the circle around the changeling.  ,"YOU TWO!", he shouted at them,"FOLLOW IT!  DO NOT LET IT OUT OF YOUR SIGHT!"  The guards saluted and vaulted out the window after Thorax.  ,"All other guards are to follow me!  We are going to search the empire house by house!  Leave no stone un-turned!"  The other guards saluted and followed him out of the throne room.

Twilight, Cadence, and Sunburst all surrounded Spike.  Their moods had changed from scolding to comforting.

,"It's gonna be okay, Spike." Sunburst said to him.

,"Everything will work out." added Twilight.

,"We'll make sure of it!", declared Cadence,"Once we have the changeling in custody, we'll get Crystal Hoof back in no time!"

Spike looked at his friends, but his eyes were filled with tears, and he was on the verge of full blown sobbing.  Twilight went to rub his back with her hoof, but he suddenly smacked it away.  This startled Twilight and everyone else, causing them all to back away from the baby dragon.

Spike had a look as though he wanted to say something, but he didn't.  The tears continued to pour from his eyes as he looked at all of his friends.  ,"Friends", he thought to himself,"The one thing they all are, BUT I'M NOT!"  He bolted from in the middle of the group and exited the throne room, leaving the ponies behind him in a shocked and confused state.
> Part I, Chapter 4 - Confessions, Apologies, and Making Amends - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike had his head buried in a pillow and was bawling his eyes out.  He had betrayed his newest friend in his time of need.  That was never a good feeling to have, but worse yet was the thought that he would never be able to make amends for what he did.  It was all too possible that he had destroyed the changeling's desire to have a real friend altogether.

A knock on the door distracted Spike for a moment.  He looked up and angrily shouted "GO AWAY!" before burying his head back into the pillow and resume sobbing.  The door opened a moment later, and in walked the purple alicorn that the dragon could almost consider his mother.  Twilight approached the bed, a sad look on her face as she saw her oldest friend and assistant crying his eyes out into a pillow.

"Spike, everything's gonna be okay", Twilight tried to reassure Spike,"We'll find that changeling and make him tell us where he has Crystal Hoof."  Spike stopped crying for a moment to look the mare in the eyes.  He had a look of anger in his eyes, which were still full of tears that streamed down his cheeks.

"No, you won't!" Spike spat back before burying his face again.  Twilight's look had changed from one of sympathy to one of frustration.

"Spike!", she scolded,"How can you be so sure we won't-"

"BECAUSE CRYSTAL HOOF ISN'T A REAL PONY!" The dragon interrupted, shouting so loud the guards just outside the door could probably hear.  Twilight looked at him with confusion.  The dragon wiped his nose and explained what he meant.

"When the guards and I were searching the wastelands earlier, I found Thorax.  That's his name.  I fell inside a cave and was searching it when I found him.  He was trying to fool me by making me think he was my reflection in really shiny crystal, but his disguise faltered."

"As soon as I saw him, I panicked.  I turned and knocked myself silly on a stalagmite and then fell into a crevice.  Thorax dove in and saved me.  I couldn't believe he had done it at first, since letting me fall in would've been better for him.  That's when I found out he left his hive in search of a friend, and has been searching all over Equestria for a friend, just somepony that will accept him for who he is and not run away from him because he's a changeling."

Twilight looked at the dragon skeptically.  His story was something she could not bring herself to believe, but there was one thing making her consider that it was true: Spike.  He was a sobbing mess, and his reason for that was the fact he didn't stand up for the changeling in the throne room.  "You're serious?", she questioned,"That changeling actually saved you from falling into a chasm?"  Spike looked at her sniffling and nodded.

"I told him I'd be his friend, and that I would do everything I could to help others see past the fact he's a changeling.  BUT I FAILED HIM!"  Spike put his head back into the pillows, sobbing and beating them with his fists.  After a moment, he raised his head and added "When he needed me the most, I failed to stand up for him.  I failed to be a friend when it mattered most.  I'm not worthy of being called brave and glorious."  He buried his head and continued sobbing.

Twilight was conflicted upon hearing her assistant and surrogate son confess what happened in the wastelands.  She didn't think he was lying, but the story he told her still seemed to farfetched to be completely true.  Surely the changeling had set up some kind of ambush to create that situation and enact a plan to get close to her niece Flurry Heart.  That had to be the reason, right?  

Spike had shown no signs of stopping his fit a crying, and nothing she said had seemed to provide him any comfort.  Twilight decided to leave the dragon alone, since there wasn't much she could do at the moment to comfort him.  As she left and closed the door, she ran into Heartfelt, who had a concerned look on his face.

"How is he doing, Princess?" he had asked her.

"He's still crying in his room", she answered,"He doesn't seem like he's in the mood to calm down and I can't provide him any comfort, so maybe the best thing to do for now is to just let him cry it out and then check on him in a little bit."  She began walking back to her room, but her head was sinking lower.  Heartfelt could tell that the princess was in low spirits.

"Your highness", he called to her,"I can see something it troubling you.  A bit for your thoughts?"

Twilight paused for a moment before she decided to respond.  "Spike told me a story that I can't really believe.  Except, the story relates to his being distraught."  She looked around at the guards and then turned back to Heartfelt.  "Can we continue this in my guest chambers?" she asked him.

"Whatever you wish, ma'am" he responded, following behind her as she walked down the hallway.

===

"So, princess", Heartfelt began,"What is this story Spike told you that you have doubts believing?"

Twilight had taken a sip from a cup of tea sitting at a table in her chambers.  "Well", she began,"It started when Spike went with the guards to investigate the wastelands outside the empire for the changeling.  According to him, he fell into a cave that had gotten covered over with snow, and nearly fell into a chasm inside.  After he recovered, he investigated the cave and found the changeling, but it scared him into falling into the chasm.  Then, that same changeling saved his life and told him he wanted to be friends, and Spike believed him."

Twilight took another sip of tea before continuing to speak.

"I don't doubt that Spike would get as worked up as he is if he were lying, but what if he was being tricked into believing that changeling's story?  I just don't know what to think or believe."

Heartfelt sat across from the princess, considering what she had told him and what he knew.  He saw and could feel just how distraught Spike was when Thorax's disguise failed and all the ponies in the room turned on him.  He could also sense the regret in the dragon when he relented to the hate everypony else in the room felt for the changeling.  In that moment, Heartfelt had his own feelings of guilt well up in him.

"Princess, can I be honest with you?", he asked her,"Something that I would like not to leave these chambers for the time being?"  Twilight looked up to him for a moment and considered his request, then nodded.  Heartfelt took a breath, and then admitted,"Spike is telling the truth.  I saw the changeling save Spike."

Twilight looked at Heartfelt with shock.  He had seen Spike being rescued by the changeling?!

"Why didn't you tell anypony?!" she questioned him, her voice almost becoming the Royal Canterlot Voice.  Heartfelt raised a hoof to calm her down.

"Princess, you know EXACTLY why I couldn't just come out and say that.  The guards here would've taken me prisoner and I would lose my job because I didn't report the changeling when I should have.  But really, if I did tell anypony, no one would've believed me."

Twilight took a moment to consider his words, and knew he was right.  Not reporting the whereabouts of the changeling, a wanted individual by the guards, was a crime that would result in his arrest and loss of position in the empire.  Plus, no one would have believed him telling a tale of the hero of the Crystal Empire being saved by one of ponykind's greatest enemies.  Before she could respond, Heartfelt added another bombshell.  "That's not all I have to say, princess", he continued,"I've also actually spoken with this changeling as well."

Twilight was now well and truly floored.  "YOU'VE SPOKEN WITH HIM?!", she yelled,"WHEN?!"

Heartfelt raised a hoof to calm Twilight down.  "NOT SO LOUD!", he harshly whispered,"It was before we brought him back here to the empire, and before you say anything, that was all Spike's idea.  I tried to warn him against it."

"Okay", Twilight responded, calming herself down,"So you spoke with him.  What did he say, and why did you talk with him in the first place?"

Heartfelt took a moment to gather his words.  "As far as why, there's two reasons.  The first is Spike; I agreed to do so since he's the hero of the empire and anypony here owes him a debt of gratitude for all he's done.  Honestly, we owe you and the other elements bearers as well."

Twilight blushed at the praise, still not used to being seen as a hero, even after all the adventures she shared with her friends.  Heartfelt continued.

"As for the second reason, it was more personal.  By meeting with the changeling, I could test my theory about how they display emotional signatures."

At the mention of the word 'theory', Twilight perked up.  "What theory?" she asked him.

Heartfelt gave his explanation.  "Ever since the attack on Canterlot, I've been interested by changelings and what their kind are truly like.  Unfortunately, all of the research has supported the claim that they are nothing but monsters that feed on love like leeches feed on blood.  So, I decided to research a means by which to combat them.  I came up with a theory that, since I can see emotional energy, and changelings absorb that energy, I might be able to devise an enchantment that would allow us to spot changelings and apprehend them before they can cause harm to ponies."

Twilight digested this information but gave Heartfelt a stern glare.  "While I can support your idea to help us deal with the changelings, your method of experimentation was extremely dangerous.  Why not try and get an audience with the princesses to petition for one to be brought to you for study."

"I've tried that!", Heartfelt exclaimed,"But the princesses denied my request.  They said that the only effective enchantments they've found against them so far have been to keep them from feeding on the guards.  Apparently, at the beginning, they were only safe to be around if they were unconscious or dead.  I've even heard stories of changelings draining ponies walking by on the street outside the prison they were kept in.  One moment, walking and happy, and the next a heap on the street devoid of any happiness whatsoever."

Twilight flinched, recalling a story she had read about that sort of thing happening.  Heartfelt continued talking.

"It wasn't as though I went out there unprepared.  I brought some weapons with me to deal with him if he turned out to be hostile.  I might've gotten drained a bit, but it wouldn't have been a threat anymore."

"And you would've gotten a citation from Cadance and Shining." Twilight added with a deadpan stare.

"Princess, I am no glory seeker", Heartfelt countered,"What I do want is to help ponies as much as I can, and my special talent allows me to help heal their minds.  It's every Equestrian citizens' duty to help wherever and whenever they can."

Twilight took a small amount of pride in hearing Heartfelt declare his sense of duty.  It was something she wanted to see of all the citizens in Equestria.  "I'm glad you feel this way, Heartfelt", she commended him,"But I do have another question for you.  Why are you telling me this now?"

Heartfelt hung his head and replied "I honestly feel guilty that I didn't help Spike defend his friend.  I knew what really happened and I didn't say anything, and it's because I was afraid of losing everything I've worked for in my life so far."

Twilight could see and feel the remorse in the stallion's heart.  She levitated a scarf over and wrapped it around her neck, as well as getting a cap for her head.  Heartfelt took notice of this. "Princess?" he asked her.

"How would you like to make up for your mistake?", she offered,"I still don't one hundred percent believe the story Spike told me, but I believe he isn't lying about how things happened in that cave.  So, the only way I can know the truth is to ask that changeling myself.  Do you know where I can find it?"

Heartfelt looked at Twilight for a moment before replying "I might have an idea where we can start looking."

===

Heartfelt and Twilight had made their way out into the wastelands outside the Crystal Empire.  In the few hours since Spike and Heartfelt had been out here, a snowstorm had whipped up and was putting fresh snow on the ground.  Fortunately, it wasn't like the earlier storms and was for the most part tolerable.  Still though, the ponies would've preferred being inside the magically protected empire's borders.

"How far is this cave?" Twilight asked, a shiver traveling up her withers.

"Not much further", Heartfelt replied,"It's close to one of the rock outcroppings out here.  We should be able to see it soon."

The pair walked for another few moments before the stallion pointed to a grouping of rocks.  "There!" he shouted.  Sure enough, there was a hole in the ground next to the indicated rocks.  Standing at the edge, both ponies could look down inside and see a slope leading to a crevice in the floor, along with some stalagmites sticking out of the ground.  Both ponies carefully made their way inside.

Twilight was amazed by the features of the cave. Taking a quill and some parchment from her saddlebags, she began to document what she was seeing.  Heartfelt began to examine the environment for signs of Thorax.  He made note of several tracks that were unmistakably from Spike and Thorax, but he saw that a set of tracks had been made inside some of the older tracks, which made their way over towards the chasm, right up to a stalagmite Heartfelt could see was emitting and drawing in emotional energy.

"Thorax", he called out to it,"I know you're that stalagmite over there by the chasm.  Please change back and talk to us."

The stalagmite flashed a green flame and revealed Thorax, who was wearing an angry scowl.  "LEAVE ME ALONE!", he shouted at them,"CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I DON'T WANT TO BE BOTHERED RIGHT NOW?!"

Heartfelt could hear the hurt in his voice.  "Thorax, please", Heartfelt pleaded to him,"We just want to talk."

"Yeah, talk", Thorax spat back,"What do you want to talk about?  What you're gonna do with me once you take me in?  The kinds of torture that the guards are gonna use on me?"

Twilight was taken aback by the accusation.  Sure, she wasn't happy about the changeling in the throne room, and certainly was cross with him in regards to getting so close to her infant niece, but she had never considered enacting torture upon him.

"Or maybe you had something else in mind", Thorax continued, his words dripping with venom,"Perhaps elaborate on commissioning a new guillotine for my execution? Or perhaps a gallows?"

Those last two remarks struck a nerve in the mare.  Death sentences were abolished in Equestria even before Celestia and Luna came to power.  The notion of one being carried out now nauseated the mare.  Even worse was the fact that this changeling believed that they would perform such a heinous act against him.  She began to wonder if the changeling race as a whole expect this same kind of treatment.

"No, I'm done talking!", Thorax continued,"I got nothing else to say!  I'm leaving as soon as the snowstorm is over, so you don't have to worry about the empire, or the filly princess!  Oh, and you can tell that turncoat dragon of yours that I don't want to see him ever again!"  Thorax turned around and sat back down, sobbing as he did his best to ignore the two ponies behind him.

Both Twilight and Heartfelt stood there for a moment to process the situation.  For Heartfelt, he had regretted his earlier request.  He was too worried about reprisal from the prince and princess to see that there was someone that needed his help.  Now, that same individual had pretty much thrown away any and all hope of finding the one thing they truly wanted, and he could've acted to help them and chose not to.

Twilight also felt a bit of shame.  She hadn't expected the changeling to believe that ponies would do such horrible things to them if captured.  A part of her wondered what she could do to fix that, while another argued whether she should leave it and let that serve as a deterrant for future attacks.  She shook the thought from her head as she decided to go ahead with her plan earlier and figure out if the story Spike told her was the truth.

Her steps were cautious and slow, trying her best not to disturb the changeling sitting by the chasm.  She looked at the tracks that she could easily tell were the oldest and belonged to Spike.  There were clear signs that he had slid down into this cave and was trying to grab something to slow himself down, right up to a stalagmite that had several claw marks in it.

Thorax turned his attention to the princess as she investigated, not knowing at that moment that that was what she was doing.  He was going to make some kind of snide remark, but he kept it to himself.  There was a small possibility that she may very well let him go and he didn't want to ruin that.

Twilight looked around and saw where the tracks Spike made had wandered over to an opening in the wall.  "That must be where he encountered this changeling" she thought as she looked around at the ground.  There were two sets of claws on both sides of the opening, and looked as though they mirrored one another.  All the evidence that Twilight had seen so far felt like it should confirm Spike's story, but it could all still be dismissed as an elaborate ruse and the dragon possibly having a false memory induced by panic caused by the changeling.  In her mind, she still had every reason to doubt the story about the changeling.

Until she saw the scales.

It's not a commonly known fact, but dragons and avians share a fair number of common ancestors on the evolutionary family tree.  Because of this, some traits in birds are present in dragons, such as certain vocalizations.  One trait, however, is something that is seldom used by dragons but commonly used by birds: The mid flight molt.

When distressed by a predator pursuing them, birds will enact a defense technique in which they will rapidly shed feathers from their body in an effort to disorient their pursuers and buy themselves time to escape.  It's been seen in birds in the Everfree forest where unregulated weather will sometimes allow a tornado to randomly spin up, with the birds unfortunately being caught in them.

Dragons still have this trait, and will sometimes have it happen involuntarily, most often in life or death situations where panic overtakes them.  In this instance, Twilight saw a collection of purple scales not only at the edge of the chasm, but coating the walls going down into it.  "There's no way that changeling could've faked that." she concluded, and then turned to face the changeling.

"Thorax, right?", Twilight began,"I know you're upset, but I want to ask you a question.  Did you really save Spike from dying earlier today?"

The changeling scoffed.  "Yeah, I did", he answered,"But if I knew he was gonna chicken out when I needed him most, I might not have even bothered."

"Do you really mean that?", she prodded,"Would you really have let him die?"

Thorax looked at the princess, noticing the slight amount of water in her eyes.  "No, I wouldn't have", he admitted,"As much as I hate him right now, I still wouldn't have let that happen to him."

A flash of purple startled Thorax and he soon found himself wrapped in fur covered limbs and feathery wings.  He looked down to see the princess of friendship with her face buried in his chest, light sobbing coming from the mare.  He was so taken aback by the situation that he didn't immediately respond.  After a moment of so, Twilight loosened her grip on him and was face to face with him, tears having fallen down her face.

"Thorax", she began shakily,"There are so many things that I want to say to you right now, but I'm going to start with the most important one: I'm sorry."

"Princess?" was all Thorax could think to say.  A princess of Equestria, a being that had every right to hate him and want him dead, was apologizing to him.

Twilight continued.  "Thorax, when you came to this empire, you did so with kindness in your heart and a desire to live peacefully with our kind.  But when you finally got the chance to extend the figurative olive branch, the ponies you offered it to did what amounted to spitting on it and you.  They decided to make their judgements based on what they saw and not because of who you are.  That action is an example of one of friendship's biggest enemies: prejudice."

"And now, after realizing that, I have to admit that I feel very ashamed of myself.  I bought into that same prejudice earlier and didn't even think to give you a chance to prove yourself.  It hurts me worse than it would hurt the average pony because I'm the princess of friendship, the very pony that should've been trying to make friends with you from the start!"

Twilight stopped for a moment to wipe the tears away from her face before she looked at Thorax with a great deal of resolve in her eyes.  "Now that I know what I know now, I intend to fix this mistake."  She then offered Thorax a hoof.  "I know I didn't give you the warmest welcome when we first really met, when your disguise failed, but I want to make up for that now.  You saved my friend, and losing him would've been one of the worst things to ever happen in my life.  I cannot begin to express to you the gratitude I feel towards you for saving him, but I promise I will do whatever I can to help you reach your goal.  Thorax, will you be my friend?"

Thorax was speechless.  The princess of friendship wanted to be friends with him?  And she was thanking him for saving Spike?  And she personally promised that she would help him to be seen as a friend in Equestria.  A smile crossed Thorax's face as he shook his head, causing Twilight to give him a confused and worried look.  "Princess", he began,"You know there's only one true way to accept friendship."  Before Twilight could ask what he meant, the changeling grabbed her in a hug, which made her smile and return it.

"You know Thorax", she said to him,"You taught me a valuable lesson about friendship today.  But right now, you just taught me another."

Hearing this, Thorax began laughing, and was joined by Twilight as she laughed herself.  They sat there for a few moments laughing before a cough caught there attention.  Heartfelt had walked over to the two and was rubbing a hoof on the back of his head.  His expression told them he was gathering his words.

"Um, Thorax", he began,"I want to apologize too.  When you needed help earlier, Spike wasn't the only one to fail you.  I did too.  I know I asked you not to include me in that plan, but that was wrong of me.  I was too worried about the ramifications of what Princess Cadance and Prince Shining would think that I didn't want to be seen as a sympathizer that deserved to be punished."

"Well, I don't care what happens to me now.  I should've been a friend to you from the start, and I intend to be that from now on.  Can you forgive me and let me be a real friend to you?"

Thorax thought about it for a moment.  Twilight answered for him.  "If he's gonna go back to the Crystal Empire and plead his case, he's gonna need all the friends he can get."

Thorax looked at the princess with confusion.  "You want me to go back?" he asked her.  Twilight nodded.

"You deserve the chance to show them that you really are good and deserving of a chance to make friends.  Besides that, you probably can't go back to your home now.  They'd put you in prison, or maybe even worse, right?"

"Yeah", Thorax admitted,"definitely worse."

"Then you also are a case to be considered for asylum, which means that you'd be allowed to stay as a protection from undue punishment carried out for political reasons.  The princesses would not allow you to legally be taken from Equestria and returned to the changelings."

Thorax blinked in disbelief.  "They'd protect me?" he asked her.

Twilight blushed slightly.  "Well, yes", she answered,"but you'd have to actually be granted asylum first.  To do that, we need to make your case for it, which means going back to the Crystal Empire and making my brother and sister in law listen to you."

Heartfelt became uncomfortable hearing this.  "Are you sure that's a good idea?", Heartfelt asked,"I've been treating the both of them ever since they took over the empire, and they've both had a hard time moving past the incident in Canterlot at their wedding, especially Prince Shining.  I don't think they'd be the best ponies to ask about granting asylum to a changeling."

"Which is why he needs friends to support his claims", answered Twilight,"You and I count as two, but I know where we can get one more."

"And where would that be?" Thorax asked the princess.

"I'll show you", she replied to Thorax,"I believe there's someone that owes you an apology."
> Part I, Chapter 5 - Confessions, Apologies, and Making Amends - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Crystal Empire was still on high alert after the changeling Thorax had gotten inside the throne room and less than a pony's distance from the royal couple's daughter, Princess Flurry Heart.  The foal's father, Prince Shining Armor, was commanding squads of guards outside the palace.  "That changeling couldn't have gone far!", he shouted,"Check every nook and cranny you come across!  Leave no stone unturned!"

"YES SIR!" replied the guard as the continued their search for the changeling.

Inside the palace, a purple dragon was being comforted by a lilac colored mare with blue streaks in her hair.  It was Starlight Glimmer, who had been helping a guard patrol search before Thorax was discovered in the throne room.  She was now rubbing Spike's back, trying to reassure him.

"I know you're upset Spike", she consoled,"but how could you have known?"

"I should've stood up for him." Spike spat out, confusing Starlight.

"Stuck up for who?" she asked him.

"Thorax", he replied,"All he wanted was a friend by his side, and when he needed one most, I caved to pressure and kept quiet.  I'm a horrible friend!"

Starlight was still confused.  "Spike, I don't understand."

Spike wiped his face and explained.  "I was in a cave earlier and I ran into the changeling.  In a panic, I knocked myself silly on a rock and fell into a chasm.  I thought I was a goner, but the changeling saved me."

Starlight gave him a skeptical look, but Spike reassured her he wasn't lying.

"I know.  I didn't think it was real either, but he did.  After he set me down, we talked and he told me about how he left his hive and has been searching for a friend all through Equestria.  Eventually he wound up here and ran into me."

"The changeling... saved you?", Starlight questioned,"It wasn't some kind of trick?"

Spike shook his head.  "No, he wasn't lying.  He said all he ever wanted was a friend he could share love with, so I decided to be his friend", he answered, before somberly adding,"or at least I thought I was."

"What do you mean", asked Starlight.

"I tried to convince ponies to listen to me and give him a chance, but none would.  Heartfelt agreed, but even that was just so he could test his theories about changelings.  I decided that Thorax should come back with us, so he put on a disguise and we came back.  I led him up to the throne room so he could meet everybody, but then he got overwhelmed and lost his disguise."

"When everyone saw he was a changeling, they all surrounded Flurry to protect her.  Shining ordered that he be taken prisoner.  That's when I messed up."

"Thorax asked me to say something to stop them, but I felt so pressured by everyone that I relented and didn't say anything.  That's when he made his escape out the window, and I ran into here to be alone."

Upon finishing the story, Spike had fresh tears rolling down his cheeks.  Starlight could hardly believe the story, but she knew at least the majority of it he wasn't lying about.  But a changeling that actually wanted to be friends?  She wanted to think it was crazy, but she was the most unfamiliar with changelings of anyone in the palace.  

"A changeling that wants to be friends with ponies?", she thought to herself,"Is that really possible?"  She wanted to say no, but then she remembered her own recent turning over of a new leaf.

"Perhaps this situation can help me demonstrate my commitment to Twilight's lessons", she thought to herself,"By offering this changeling friendship, I could show how willing I truly am to make new friends, and maybe other ponies will give this changeling a chance too."

Before another word could be said, a purple flash appeared in the room.  Starlight and Spike both turned their gaze to find three figures in the room.  One was Princess Twilight, the other was Heartfelt, and the third was one that Starlight had never seen before but knew through reputation and photographs.  It was a changeling, and likely the one Spike had been telling her about.

Thorax had his head spinning from being teleported for the first time, and promptly flopped onto a nearby bed to recover his bearings.  Twilight and Heartfelt both approached Starlight and Spike.

"Spike", Twilight began,"I believe you owe someone in this room an apology."

"Yeah, I do", Spike replied,"I'm sorry I disappointed you."

Twilight was about to tell him she meant Thorax, but paused when his words registered.  "What do you mean you disappointed me?" she asked.

"I didn't stand up for my friend", Spike clarified,"There was a friend that needed somepony to vouch for them and that friend they needed was me, but I didn't stand up for them.  I gave into pressure and went along with everypony else."

Twilight wanted to tell him it was okay and that everypony made mistakes, until realization hit her: She was one of those ponies that made him cave to pressure.  She took Spike into an embrace.

"I'm sorry too, Spike", Twilight told him,"I made a mistake and didn't listen to that friend."

Spike looked up at her as she continued.

"You did try to tell us earlier that Thorax was good, but no one was listening to you.  We were too scared that Thorax was going to hurt Flurry, we weren't allowing ourselves to see that Thorax was trying to approach us as a friend."

Spike looked at Twilight in disbelief.  "Did you just..."

Twilight stopped him and nodded.  "Yes, Spike, I called him Thorax."

"After we talked before, I ran into Heartfelt and he told me everything.  Then he took me to meet Thorax in that cave, and I saw for myself that the story you told me was true, and that Thorax really was good. I immediately apologized to Thorax, and promised that I would help him."

"Anyways, I didn't listen to you when you were trying to tell us Thorax was good, and I pressured you into being quiet when you should've been standing up for him, and for that, I'm sorry."

Spike smiled as he heard her apology, and then offered his own.  "I'm sorry that I disappointed you and wasn't a good friend."

Twilight smiled, but then remembered what Spike still needed to do.  "I appreciate your apology, but I think someone here deserves it more."

Spike was confused and looked past Twilight to see that Thorax was standing there, still regaining his bearings from his first ever teleportation.  The dragon walked past Twilight to stand in front of the changeling.

Thorax was just about recovered when he took notice of Spike.  As soon as he realized who it was, he had a scowl on his face, and turned to look in another direction.  He was still quite upset that his first actual friend had left him high and dry when he needed him most.

"I was a terrible friend", Spike began to apologize,"I should've spoken up for you earlier, and I didn't.  I gave into pressure from everypony else to just keep quiet and let them imprison you.  After that happened, I couldn't stop crying.  I wanted to apologize then and there, but you took off.  I can't apologize enough, but please understand I really am sorry I didn't stand up for you."

Thorax continued to look at the dragon with a scowl.  "Do you know how much that hurt Spike?", he asked the dragon,"Do you know how bad it felt that the first real friend I've ever had abandoned me because things went bad?  I thought a guard had speared me in the chest it felt that bad!"

Spike winced and looked at the ground in shame.  He realized he'd hurt Thorax, but hearing how bad made him regret his actions even more.  Then, Thorax continued speaking in a softer tone.

"In the end, you did still stand up for me."

Spike looked at him in confusion.  Thorax elaborated.

"You told Princess Twilight about how I saved you and made her second guess her feelings towards me.  When Heartfelt brought her to me and she saw for herself that I wasn't a horrible monster, she had a change of heart, and now she wants to help me.  If you hadn't told her that story, I would still be out in the wastelands waiting either to be captured or to get away from here."

Spike smiled upon hearing his friend had found another friend.  "I know you are probably still upset with me, but can you find it in yourself to give me another chance?  I promise I won't let you down like that again."

Thorax thought about it and nodded.  "I suppose I can forgive you, but you can't abandon me when things get tough again.  I'm gonna need all the friends I can get for what I'm trying to do.  Can I count on you again, Spike?"

The dragon smiled and held out his claw.  "You can count on me!" answered Spike.  The two then shook hoof and claw on it.

After the shake, Thorax then turned his attention to the one pony in the room he wasn't familiar with.  She stepped towards him with curious eyes; a welcome change from the usual 'cowering-in-fear' reaction he usually got.

"So", she began,"You're the changeling that saved Spike?"

"Yeah, that's me" Thorax replied.  Before he could react, the mare had taken him into a hug, catching the changeling off guard.

"Then you're AOK in my book" she replied, then let him go and backed up a step to offer her hoof to him.  "I'm Starlight Glimmer.  It's a pleasure to meet you."

Thorax took the hoof absentmindedly and shook it.  Once the words processed in his mind, he smiled and replied "The pleasure is all mine."  He let go of her hoof and then looked at her in confusion.  "Aren't you afraid of me?" he asked her.

"Maybe I was when Twilight first told me about changelings", she replied,"but after hearing Spike's story about you saving him, I thought the best way to show my thanks was to offer a hoof to you as a friend.  Plus, I think this is a chance for me to set an example for other ponies to follow."

"So you really don't think I'm evil and need to be feared?" he asked her.

"Oh, please", she responded,"As bad as invading Canterlot was, I've honestly probably done way worse things than that."

Thorax couldn't believe what he was hearing.  This mare had done worse things than changelings?  "What have you done?"

"Well", Starlight replied,"I was the leader of a town where I convinced everypony there that giving up their cutie marks would make their lives better and happier.  If Twilight told you anything about cutie marks, then you know just how wrong that really is."

Thorax nodded in understanding.  From what little he did remember being trained in the hive for infiltration missions, cutie marks were a pictorial representation of a pony's strongest talent displayed on their flanks.  When they got them, it was a cause for celebration with a party called a cuteceñera.  He even recalled seeing one on his journey through Equestria.

"Twilight didn't tell me", he answered,"but I learned about them before.  So you robbed ponies of their individuality?"

Starlight blushed nervously and replied "Yeah, that's basically the gist of it.  Of course, I've learned from my mistakes and Twilight has taken me on as her own student.  Now, I'm hoping to make amends for all the bad things I've done, especially with my village."

"And I'll be more than happy to help you do that when you're ready Starlight", Twilight chimed in as she moved towards the door,"Now, I'm going back to my brother and sister-in-law to plead on Thorax's behalf."

Starlight looked to her mentor confused.  "Won't they try to take him prisoner once he gets inside the throne room."

"Probably", Twilight answered,"but that would be of poor character to treat a creature seeking asylum as a criminal."

"But Princess Twilight", Thorax interjected,"Wouldn't my being at Canterlot during that invasion count as some kind of crime?  I'm sure they'd love nothing more than to punish me for that."

"Probably", Twilight answered,"but all cases of asylum in Equestria and its territories, which the Crystal Empire is one, have to be reviewed by the princesses in Canterlot, and no creature being considered for that can be held as a prisoner."

"Isn't it possible the princesses could reject my request, especially after learning what creature is making that request?" Thorax countered.

"That's certainly possible", Twilight replied,"but having an asylum request denied wouldn't be for reasons of personal prejudice.  Besides, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are not known to hold grudges, and Princess Luna may be more sympathetic to your case, since she has returned in recent years from her banishment as Nightmare Moon."

Thorax looked at the mare wide eyed.  "PRINCESS LUNA IS NIGHTMARE MOON?!"

"She was", Twilight answered,"but me and my friends discovered are purpose as bearers for the elements of harmony and banished that evil spirit from her.  Now, she has returned to her former duties.  I'm sure if a nightmare ever befell you, she would come to calm your fears and help you move past it."

Thorax couldn't believe that somepony who had been evil for so long could actually have a change of heart.  It made him wonder if Queen Chrysalis could have a similar situation befall her.  Actually thinking about it, however, made him think otherwise.  Queen Chrysalis valued power and control over everything else.  She likely wouldn't ever want to redeem herself.

"Of course I'm ready!", answered Spike,"I'm not about to let my new friend down again!"

Heartfelt gave a nod.  "It may cost me my job", he admitted,"but I can at least go forward with a clear conscience."

Thorax winced upon hearing that something like that could happen to the stallion.  Heartfelt saw this and waved a dismissive hoof.

"Don't go blaming yourself if that happens", he told Thorax,"If that should happen, it would be because of decisions I made of my own free will, and not because of you."

Thorax wanted to protest that, but could see there was no convincing him otherwise.

"Thorax saved my friend and yours Twilight", answered Starlight,"The least I can do is plead on his behalf."

Thorax looked all around at the ponies and dragon who swore to stand up for him and smiled.  He looked back at Twilight and gave her a nod to show he was now ready to go through with this plan.

"Great.  Now, let's go talk some sense into my brother and sister-in-law!"
> Part I, Chapter 6 - Return to the Throne Room
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The guards of the Crystal Palace were in shock as they saw a group of ponies with a changeling in the center walking their way towards the throne room.  A few guards questioned what they were doing, but none approached them.  Eventually, one guard stepped forward with bindings and offered to restrain the changeling.  He was promptly thrown back into place, and his bindings transformed into party streamers.

Outside the throne room stood two guards with spears.  Upon seeing the group with the changeling, they crossed their spears and denied them entry.  Twilight became frustrated and unleashed another burst of magic.  The spears suddenly became a pair of teddy bears, and the guards looked at each other with uncertain expressions.  Fearing reprisal from the princess of friendship, they allowed them in.

Shining Armor, who had returned a few minutes prior from a patrol, was discussing with Princess Cadance what the best course of action to take upon capturing the changeling.  The clip clop of hooves against the floor of the throne room caught his attention.

"Twilight?", he asked her, then noticed the changeling,"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT THING!?"

"Something I should've done earlier" she replied.  The group remained in a tight circle around Thorax.  Shining interpreted this as him being a prisoner.

"I thank you for capturing him for us", he told her,"Guards, take it into custody."

The guards in the throne room moved to take Thorax, but a sudden magic barrier stopped them.

"TWILIGHT!", Shining shouted,"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"

"What I should've done earlier" she answered.  She then nodded to Spike, who moved in front of her so he could face both Shining and Cadance.

"This is Thorax", he began,"You choose to see him as an enemy, but he's my friend.  He saved my life earlier today, when letting me die would've been more beneficial to him.  He told me that he left the changeling hive because he dislikes their way of stealing love from the creatures in Equestria.  He wants to make friends, and he's traveled the whole way here to do it.  I believe him and think he deserves a chance."

Shining grit his teeth.  "This thing has taken over Spike's mind like that harlot queen did me" he thought to himself.

Princess Cadance looked at Spike having similar thoughts to her husband.  She was fairly certain that Spike was under the changeling's influence, but could do nothing while Twilight had a shield raised.  Then that thought shot panic through her mind.  "TWILIGHT'S BEING CONTROLLED TOO!"

Twilight moved forward to speak.  "I agree with Spike.  Earlier today, he was trying to show us that we were letting our fears and prejudices get in the way of seeing a creature that truly wants to be friends with us.  I ignored it too and let my fears cloud my judgement."

"But then I spoke to both Spike AND Thorax, and after seeing evidence that Thorax couldn't have faked that supported his story, I was the bigger pony and apologized for my mistake."

"I believe now with all my heart that Thorax isn't a threat to the ponies here in the Crystal Empire, or even in Equestria as a whole, and it's now your turn to make up for your mistake."

Shining Armor became furious.  He charged a spell in his horn and shot it at the shield.  It struck the shield and dissipated, but the force against the shield caused Twilight to flinch slightly.

Cadance stepped into a defensive stance when Shining acted.  She wasn't a fighter, but she wasn't incapable of protecting herself.

Heartfelt moved ahead to speak.  "What Spike said about Thorax saving his life was true.  I was there and saw it myself.  I never said anything because I didn't know what to make of what I saw.  Later, when Spike was trying to convince one of us to speak with Thorax, I elected to go, mostly because I wanted to examine a changeling's EES up close.  While doing so, I got to know this creature better, and I can see now that it's being honest about its intentions, and wants to peacefully live amongst us."

"I can't tell you what to do, but I can honestly say that I think you should give him a chance.  If you want a good reason for yourselves, then I think being around something that triggers bad memories for you and confronting those feelings will be beneficial for you both in the long run."

Shining grew more angry with each moment.  He now ran up to the shield and started beating on it with his hooves.  "Release your hold on my sister and her friends, you MONSTER!" he shouted at Thorax.  The changeling cowered in fear, sensing the hatred spilling out of the stallion, and actually becoming a tad sick because of it.

Cadance stood there watching the scene unfolding before her.  Her defensive stance faltered, and she was questioning herself now.  When Spike and Twilight spoke, they were both speaking lucidly and clearly, suggesting that they weren't under the changeling's control.  Then there was Heartfelt, who had just admitted that he thought the changeling was honest and did want to be friends.

But could she trust that?  He had just admitted to seeing the changeling earlier and not reporting it.  That was a crime that would cost him his job, and he just admitted it openly.  She didn't know what to think as the group shuffled around inside the bubble.

Starlight ignited her horn and levitated Shining away from the shield.  "Calm down, Shining!", she told him,"You're making a spectacle of yourself!"

"You're gonna say something like that to me?", he shot back,"When all you are right now is a mindless pawn for some hideous bug beast?!"

Starlight let Shining out of her magic, and the unicorn dropped to the floor with a thud.  Picking himself up, he shot a look at the mare that had manhandled him a second ago.  Starlight ignored him and began speaking.

"Princess Twilight and I count as some of the strongest magic users in all of Equestria.  Who here really thinks that we could be put under mind control by one changeling drone?"

"I'm not that much weaker than my sister and I was under the control of one of those things!" Shining shot back, but was silenced by a piece of tape magically popping over his mouth.

Starlight continued speaking.  "I think there's a few facts that we're all ignoring here.  Firstly, if this changeling was really here to enslave us all, why is he trying to accomplish this by himself?"

The guards in the room looked at each other and conversed on an answer.  Starlight didn't give them time to answer.

"It's because he isn't!", she answered for them,"When the changelings invaded Canterlot, they sent nearly their whole hive, and they failed!  So what makes you think a single changeling could succeed in enslaving an entire empire after their attempt to take over Canterlot failed so miserably?"

The guards were all thinking, but none could come up with an answer.

"They couldn't", Starlight pointed out,"That means that the only other options regarding why he's here are that he's trying to feed on love, or he actually wants friends, and I think the fact that all four of us are here and not emotionless husks wrapped up in cocoons is enough evidence to show which one is the actual answer."

The guards were trying to come up with a rebuttal for Starlight's statement, but none could make a convincing argument.  Shining was still adamant in his opinion.

"Just because the odds of his success are low doesn't mean he isn't trying anyway!" Shining shot back at her.  Starlight thought of what to say next, then relaxed herself as much as possible.

"To my knowledge, I'm the only one standing here that has offered friendship to Thorax willingly, with no pretenses to it."

The others in the group looked at her confused.  Starlight gestured to each of them as she explained.

"Spike would've reacted the same way as all of you if Thorax hadn't have saved his life.  Twilight wouldn't have realized Thorax wasn't a threat if she hadn't investigated Spike's story.  Heartfelt only met with Thorax to test his ideas, and only offered friendship after realizing he had made mistakes.  I'm the only one that didn't immediately see Thorax as a threat upon meeting him, and offered to be his friend because I wanted to!"

None of the ponies in the room could come up with a rebuttal for what Starlight said.  Then, the mare hung her head low.

"Besides", she began,"If you're gonna hold the past crimes of changelings against Thorax, then you need to hold my past crimes against me."

All the ponies in the room save for Twilight and Spike looked at Starlight with shock.  Even Shining's intense hatred directed at Thorax had abated for the moment.

"It's true", Starlight explained,"I was once a villain that stood against the Equestrian ideals of friendship and harmony.  I created a village where I promised ponies a peaceful existence if they gave up their cutie marks.  Then, when that failed, I plotted revenge against the mare responsible for causing that failure, Twilight."

Shining looked at Starlight even more incredulously.  Starlight continued.

"I found a spell by Starswirl the Bearded that allowed a pony to travel to the past.  Upon finding out when Twilight and the other element bearers got their cutie marks, I went back and stopped it from happening.  But, it messed up the future, and every time I went back, it just made things worse each time.  There was even a future where Chrysalis succeeded in taking over Equestria!"

All the ponies looked at Starlight in shock, especially Sunburst.  He'd heard her tell the story about how she became Twilight's student, but he'd never heard these details before.

"Eventually", Starlight continued,"Twilight convinced me to show her what caused my hatred of cutie marks, and I showed her when I was a foal, and my best friend got his cutie mark before me.  After he did, he was sent away."

A tear fell from Starlight's eyes.  Sunburst had a jolt of guilt go through him.  "I never wrote to her after going to Celestia's school", he realized,"If I had, maybe she wouldn't have turned out the way she did."

Starlight looked up with resolve after her tears stopped.  "After I showed her that, Twilight told me that friendship was something that had to be worked on everyday, and that sometimes, friendship fails.  But that doesn't mean that just because one friendship fails, you can't try to start another one.  She convinced me to try again, and I did.  She showed me that friendship was a truly wonderful thing, and that I had allowed my hurt feelings to cloud my judgement and create a prejudice that would only serve to hurt me and everyone else in Equestria."

"I'm telling you all this because right now, you all have a chance to overcome this same kind of prejudice in yourselves.  It's true that the changelings have done terrible things to the ponies of Equestria, but one of them has come to you seeking to be on friendly terms.  I for one believe that if you truly are the ponies the embrace the ideas of love, friendship and harmony, then you owe it to yourselves as much as Thorax to give him a chance to prove he is worthy of being here amongst us."

Cadance was even more conflicted now upon hearing Starlight's speech.  If what she said was true, and she would have to ask both Twilight and Sunburst later to be sure, then the lilac colored mare was perhaps a worse enemy to Equestria than the changelings.

Yet she was here now, not only free, but a friend and student of her former charge.  She had admitted her faults and shown a desire to make amends for her mistakes.  Now, there was a changeling here who wanted to live among ponies as a friend.  A part of her still held doubts that this changeling was being honest, but they were being overwhelmed by the alicorn's desire to be a fair and just ruler, which meant sometimes extending an olive branch to a creature you'd otherwise want to see rot in a dungeon until there was nothing left but bones.

While Cadance stood unsure of what to do, Shining's mind was made up.  He unleashed a concussive spell inside Twilight's shield which stunned all five creatures inside, and made Twilight drop her shield.  "I'm sorry Twiley", Shining told her,"but I'm afraid I can't trust your judgement right now."  He charged a spell and aimed it right at Thorax, who immediately raised his hooves to his face to try and protect himself.  Shining focused on the changeling and unleashed the spell.

A barrier formed around the changeling, causing the spell to bounce off and fly up into the ceiling, causing a sizable chunk of stone to fall on the floor of the throne room.  Puzzled at first upon seeing his spell deflected, Shining then noticed something about the shield; It was the same color as his wife's magic.  He turned around to see her standing in front of the throne with her horn glowing.

"CADY!", he shouted at her,"WHAT IN TARTARUS ARE YOU DOING?!"

"What I should have done from the beginning", she answered,"Make a decision with a level head and not a knee-jerk reaction motivated by my emotions."

"But Cady" Shining protested.

"Shining", she looked at him with sad eyes,"please stand down."

Shining had no words for his wife.  In his mind, he was a jumble of emotions.  She was telling him not to harm the changeling?  But why?

"I don't understand" he told her in disbelief.

"We've both had bad memories from our wedding day", she admitted,"but we can't allow them to blind our judgement and handicap our abilities to be fair and just rulers."

Shining was starting to become upset again.  "Cadance", he said with a strained tone of voice,"This is a changeling."

"I'm well aware of that", she answered him,"but he's also come here with desire to be on friendly terms.  I think the very least we can do is consider it."

"I have", Shining shot back,"and I deny it."

"We are co-sovereigns to this empire", she reminded him,"Any decision made has to come from both of us, and I can't just make a decision of this magnitude without giving it some proper thought."

Shining wanted to say something to sway his wife's view to his side, but he could not make a sound argument.  Cadance approached the group, who had recovered enough to stand up again.  Only Thorax remained on the ground, not having dared move his hooves from his face.

"Um, Thorax, correct?"

The changeling opened his eyes and slowly moved his hooves away from his face.  He looked up to see the princess of love standing over top of him.  Her aura did not radiate the same kind of love that she had before, but there was no malice in it either.

"I can't say I trust you, honestly", she admitted,"but I don't think you're going to hurt me or anyone else here, so I'll extend the courtesy and not allow you to come to harm now.  Please, stand up."

Thorax needn't be told twice.  He slowly rose to his hooves, but didn't look directly at the princess or her husband.  The princess of love ignored his behavior for the moment, and decided to talk to Twilight first.

"Twilight, would you please keep an eye on Thorax while I discuss this situation with my husband?"

Twilight nodded and gestured for the group to follow her.

"HALT!"

The group stopped and looked back to see Shining Armor.  He was running towards them but stopped and stood in front of his wife.

"Cady, just what is it you're doing?!", he questioned her,"This is a changeling!  A creature that has shown malice towards Equestria, and you're just going to let it walk out of here?!"

"No, Shining", she answered,"But we need to discuss what we should do moving forward.  So, I am going to let Twilight keep an eye on him.  I'm certain that she will be able to keep him from causing harm to anypony, if she would need to do that."

Shining grit his teeth; He knew that once Cadance had made a decision, she wasn't likely to change it without good reason, and his good reasons apparently weren't good enough to sway her.

Twilight took this as the cue to leave, and ushered the group to follow behind her.  After the group was out of the throne room, Shining allowed his real emotions to come to the surface.

"CADANCE, JUST WHAT IN TARTARUS ARE YOU DOING?!"

Unlike Shining, Cadance kept her cool.

"I am trying to be the type of ruler this empire deserves."

"HE'S AN ENEMY OF EQUESTRIA!", he shouted in response,"HE SHOULD BE IN THE DUNGEONS!"

"For what?", Cadance asked,"What crimes has he committed?"

"Crimes?", Shining questioned in disbelief,"Let's count: He was part of the invasion of Canterlot most likely, he has impersonated a citizen of the Crystal Empire, he was not given permission to enter the throne room by either of us, and he has more than likely fed on the love of ponies as well!"

Cadance took a few moments to consider the list her husband presented, then offered her rebuttal.  "Firstly, we don't know for sure that he was in Canterlot that day, though I will admit that it is probable.  Second, if what Twilight and the others said is true, then I doubt he would've accomplished much while in his native form.  Third, Spike gave him permission to come to the throne room, which I presume was to speak to us and perhaps convince us to offer friendship to him.  And for the last matter, I'll admit that he most likely has done that, but I can't exactly fault a creature that is eating what it needs to survive.  And he has also said that he doesn't want to resort to stealing it from ponies anymore, so clearly he wants to make amends for any wrongdoing he's done, so why not give him the opportunity to do so?"

Shining had no immediate answer, which irked him greatly.  It was now starting to sound like Cadance was under the control of the changeling, or worse...

Shining immediately stepped back in horror.  "OH CELESTIA!", he cried out,"YOU'RE A CHANGELING, AREN'T YOU?!"

Cadance had grown tired of her husband and had grabbed him in her aura and placed a nullifying ring on his horn.  "Shining, you need to stop!", she told him,"I am not a changeling!  If I was, do you think I'd be able to do what I'm doing right now?  No, and it would've been far easier to try and hypnotize you than restrain you, but yet I'm doing that right now."

"Unless you're Chrysalis" retorted Shining.  Cadance went wide eyed, and then became quite upset.  She removed the ring on her husband's horn and dropped him unceremoniously to the ground.  Shining hit with a thud, his armor clanking as it contacted the floor.  Once he was able to gain his bearings, Shining stood up to confront his wife, who was now writing on a scroll.  Once she was finished, she placed a seal on it, and the scroll vanished in a puff of green smoke.

"What are you doing?" Shining asked his wife.

"Asking for help", she answered, a tear in her eyes,"I don't think we can make this decision on our own, so I asked Princess Celestia and Luna for help on the matter."

Shining wanted to protest, but he knew at this point, it would be futile.  She had contacted the princesses, which meant that he would be unable to do anything until they gave a response, or more likely in this case, a ruling.  A few minutes later, and another puff of green smoke appeared, quickly forming into a scroll.  Cadance took the scroll in her hooves and opened it.

"The princesses will be here in the morning", Cadance said aloud,"They want to meet the changeling and decide what to do for themselves.  I believe whatever they decide should serve as a precedent for what we should do for our subjects."  Cadance then rang a bell and a member of the palace staff in a maid uniform appeared shortly thereafter.

"Princess Celestia and Luna will be coming here tomorrow morning", she informed the maid,"Prepare the royal guest suite and have the palace cleaned thoroughly.  Also inform the maintenance ponies for the empire streets to perform a thorough sweeping.  Tell them I will permit time and a half pay for all volunteers."

The maid bowed and quickly exited the throne room so as to get to work.  Shining faced his wife, his temper having cooled somewhat.  "So what do we do with this changeling?", he asked his wife,"We can't just leave him with Twilight!"

"Actually, I believe we can" answered his wife.

Shining looked at her in disbelief, but realized that she wasn't going to relent.  "Can we at least post a guard to make sure nothing happens?" he asked, hoping for at least that small concession.

"I don't think it's necessary", she replied,"but I suppose that wouldn't do any harm."

"Custos!"

A lone stallion guard moved in front of the royal couple.  Shining moved closer so as to keep his voice from being loud enough for his wife to hear.

"I want you to go keep an eye on that changeling", he ordered,"If it even remotely looks like he's going to try something, put him in his place."

The guard simply nodded and left the throne room.  After he left, Shining rubbed his temples, the stress causing him a headache.  "I hope Cadance is doing the right thing here" Shining thought to himself as he went to get a potion for his ailment.
> Part I, Chapter 7 - Waiting and Correspondence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The group of three ponies, dragon and changeling all sat inside Twilight's guest suite in the Crystal Palace.  Minutes ago, they'd been dismissed from the throne room by Princess Cadance so that she and her husband could discuss what to do in regards to the situation with Thorax. While most of the group was sitting, Twilight was pacing back and forth in front of the door.

"Please try and calm down, Twilight", Starlight tried to calm the mare down,"I'm sure whatever decision Cadance and Shining reach will be fair."

Twilight looked at her incredulously.  "Shining attacked us all in an attempt to get at Thorax and seriously harm him!" she exclaimed,"I'm pretty sure that he was going to kill him with that last spell!  I honestly doubt that he would give a fair decision regarding Thorax!"

"Try not to blame your brother too much, Twilight", Thorax asked of her,"He went through a bad experience regarding my kind, so I can't honestly expect him to be too eager to want to be friends with me."

"Were you honestly expecting him to want to blast you into a million pieces?" she asked him.

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to be that aggressive towards me, but I was expecting him to do something." Thorax admitted.

"Bad experience or not", Twilight continued,"That doesn't justify what he did.  I'm serious, Thorax!  How can you be so accepting of that kind of treatment?"

Thorax took a moment to form his words.  "Twilight, I knew when I left my hive that I was going to be fighting an uphill battle.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that what happened in Canterlot left a sour taste in ponies' mouths regarding my kind.  That's part of why I'm doing this; I want to help fix some of the damage that caused."

"What do you mean?", Twilight asked him,"Are you saying there's changelings in your hive that might want to make friends with ponies?"

"Not really", admitted Thorax,"Changelings for the most part still see ponies as nothing more than food.  However, I know there's some that have experienced shared love and friendship while on missions to find ponies to bring back to the hive and drain for love.  They had said it was a better love than anything the hive could hope to produce.  I wasn't sure if that was entirely true or not, but after experiencing friendship today, I can honestly say that it is."

"If there's changelings that know getting love through friendship is better than stealing it, how come they keep stealing it?" questioned Twilight.

Thorax only gave one simple answer.  "Chrysalis."

Twilight and Starlight looked at each other uneasily.  Thorax elaborated on his point.

"Chrysalis has always argued that the idea of obtaining love through friendship is a fool's errand, and anyling that was brave enough to voice doubt about it... wasn't around long enough afterwards to keep doing so."

That remark made everyone in the room flinch, realizing what depths the changeling queen would go to to make sure her viewpoints were followed by her subjects unquestioningly.

"Anyways", Thorax continued,"I know that ponies aren't going to trust me right away.  All I want is a chance to prove I can be trusted and that I do want to be friends with them.  Just that chance is all I ask for."

Twilight put her hoof onto his shoulder.  "And we're going to do everything we can to get you that chance." she told him with a reassuring smile.

The moment was interrupted by a knocking at the door.  A moment later and the door opened, revealing Princess Cadance and a royal guard carrying a spear.  "Princess Celestia and Luna will be here tomorrow morning", Cadance told the group,"They're going to meet with the changeling and either decree his fate or advise me on what I should do with him."

"Or you could just trust what we all have to say about Thorax" replied Twilight, emphasis put on the changeling's name.

"Twilight, please", Cadance implored,"I'm trying to be as impartial about this as I can.  I know you've apparently put a good deal of trust into this thing, but I cannot just yet."

Twilight gave a huff at Cadance's remark, but could not argue against it.  Unlike herself, Cadance had subjects to consider in her decisions.  Cadance then made a gesture to the guard standing beside her.

"Shining has asked me to station a guard in your room for now.  This is Custos.  He'll be here until around 10.  Luna is sending a night guard to stand watch while you sleep."

"That isn't necessary, Cadance", responded Twilight,"Thorax isn't going to cause us harm."

"This wasn't my decision", Cadance told her,"This was Shining's idea."

"Of course" Twilight responded, irritation in her voice.  Cadance then gave a bow and left.  Custos walked to one side of the door way and proceeded to stand guard, burning holes into the changeling's body.

"I can't believe this!", Spike spoke up,"After everything we've told them, they still act like he's some monster ready to strike at the drop of a horseshoe!"

"It could've been much worse Spike" Heartfelt pointed out.

"How could it possibly be worse?" Spike asked incredulously.

"For one, we ALL could be sitting in the dungeons right now." Heartfelt defended his opinion.

"Still", Spike replied,"This situation isn't what I'd call 'going smoothly'."

"Being honest", Heartfelt countered,"This is not an ideal situation.  Thorax here is a member of a race that is considered an enemy of Equestria.  While his technically being a defector helps, the reputation that Chrysalis left on Cadance and Shining complicates things."

Thorax raised a hoof to try and get everypony's attention, but was then set upon by Custos, who not only pressed the changeling into a wall, but also his spearpoint into his throat.

"AND JUST WHAT DO Y-"

Custos was cut off as a cloud of purple magic grabbed him and then slammed him into a wall so hard it dented his polished armor.  His spear was then taken and placed at his own throat.  Twilight then walked up to him, glaring daggers.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" she shouted, almost invoking Luna's famed Royal Canterlot Voice.

The guard had a palpable amount of fear, but didn't show it.  "I was instructed to make sure this changeling doesn't try any funny business!"

"The only funny business I see here is yours", Twilight tersely replied,"If you try a move like that again, I'll personally make you regret it!"  To emphasize the point, she then took the spear in her magic grasp, and in a flash, had not only twisted it up like a pretzel, but turned it into rubber.

The guard saw the display of magic and lost his composure.  "O-Okay!", he relented fearfully,"Please don't hurt me!"

"I won't if you treat EVERY CREATURE in this room with the respect each deserves." She replied, then dropped the spear on the ground.

"Wow, Twilight, I've never seen you act like that before" commented Starlight.

"Well, as bad as you were at times, you never threatened to hurt my friends because of who they were" replied Twilight.

The two mares took up spots on the bed and continued to discuss the recent happenings.  Custos took hold of the rubber spear and stood by the door.  With no weapon besides his magic, he effectively had no way to stop the changeling if it did try and do something to the princess or her friends.  He would have to report her behavior to Captain Shining later.

===

In her private study, Princess Celestia was reviewing paperwork submitted by the nobles of Canterlot.  The overwhelming majority were for the crown to finance their own personal baubles, justified as "enhancing the artistic qualities of the city".  Needless to say, these were declined rather quickly.  Were it not for the occasional plea that was for a legitimate and good cause, the sun diarch would simply toss the entire pile into a waste bin.

As she sat and worked, she was interrupted by a scroll featuring a seal of a crystalline heart on it.  "Oh", Celestia said, taking the scroll in her magic grip,"A letter from Cadance?"  She proceeded to remove the seal and read it, then read over it again as she didn't initially believe it the first time.  After a second reading, she knew it to be true: A changeling was in the Crystal Empire, and was pleading for asylum there.

As she was thinking over the matter, the doors to her study opened, and in walked her younger sister.  "Good day to you, dear sister", greeted Princess Luna warmly as she walked into the study,"Are our ponies continuing to thrive under our rule?"

"Good day to you sister", Celestia returned, but disregarded the question,"I'm afraid something rather unusual has just been brought to my attention."  She then proceeded to offer Cadance's letter in her magic, which Luna took and proceeded to read over:

Dear Princess Celestia,

A very strange and stressing situation has occurred here in the Crystal Empire.  Some time shortly after the Crystalling, a guard patrol reported spotting what they believed was a changeling on the outskirts of the empire!

Naturally, we feared that a plot was afoot to abscond with Flurry Heart, and we acted to protect her and our subjects.  We increased patrols, gave warnings to all the crystal ponies, and even tasked our crystaller, who was one of your former students, to develop some counter spells based on our experience dealings with the monsters in Canterlot.  At his recommendation, as well as Shining Armor's, we called for Princess Twilight Sparkle to aid us, though were careful not to tell her as such until we were sure she was truly here and safe, lest the changelings have infiltrators to intercept our messages.

Shortly after their arrival, Spike the dragon offered his aid in searching for the changeling, leading a patrol into the wastelands outside the empire proper.  He succeeded in finding the changeling, but he then proceeded to try to defend this changeling.  According to Spike, this changeling had abandoned the changeling hive and was seeking to live peacefully in Equestria among ponies, going so far as to claim a desire to share in the love and friendship that we ponies have.

At first, I was dismissive of this claim, but then none other than your student Twilight and her own student Starlight Glimmer vouched for the changeling.  Even a member of my own royal staff gave his support for the changeling!

I am writing to you because I am unsure of how to proceed on this matter.  My husband feels this is nothing more than a ruse and we should lock this changeling up and toss away the key.  While I don't disagree with his desire to make sure this changeling does no harm to our subjects, I cannot help but feel doing something like that is not only quite drastic, but rather unfair in the grand scheme of things.

I ask you to please offer guidance on this matter.

Kindest regards,

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza

Luna looked over the letter again, making sure she had read it right.  "Is this true, sister?" she asked Celestia, who gave an affirming nod in return.

"I believe so, sister", she answered,"Though I will confess that I do not hold changelings in a positive light on account of what happened at dear Cadance's wedding, I also cannot advise totally disregarding a plea for asylum, even one coming from an enemy faction."

"Tis true", Luna agreed,"To deny such a request outright is unwise.  It would only reaffirm the idea that we are not willing to have an open dialogue to work towards peaceful resolution."  Luna regarded the letter again.  "What do you believe we should do?" she asked her sister.

"I believe for us to make a decision on this matter, we must first speak with all parties involved", Celestia replied,"I would like us to travel to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning, if that would not be too much trouble?"

Luna shook her head.  "No, sister", she answered,"That will be fine."

"Good", replied Celestia, who then took note of the time,"Well, I must be off now.  The head of the palace guard wanted to discuss some ideas about improving the daytime security measures.  I shall see you at sundown, dear sister."  After penning a quick reply to Cadance's letter, the solar monarch left the study.

Luna continued examining the letter in her magic.  "You may have to wait until tomorrow, sister", Luna said to herself,"But I only need to wait until the witching hour, when most ponies shall find their slumber."  Her mind made up, Luna also left the study, sure of her actions to be carried out later in the evening.
> Part I, Chapter 8 - Perchance to Dream - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Night had fallen on Equestria, and in the Crystal Empire, the citizens were falling asleep.  In the Crystal Palace, the group of ponies, dragon and changeling were also bedding down for the night.  A thestral guard had shown up sometime before sunset, but had not taken his post until around 10pm.  Now, he was standing watch in the room.

Upon entering, Twilight Sparkle pulled him to the side and advised him to be cautious of his actions in regards to Thorax, but the guard leaned in for a whisper and told her of the arrangements he was to respect for the evening.  This both surprised and pleased her, and she resumed preparing to bed down for the night.

"Um, princess", Thorax asked Twilight,"He's not going to be 'extra protective' while we're asleep, is he?"

"No, Thorax", Twilight answered him,"He was instructed only to act if you performed an action that could undeniably be deemed malicious, so tossing and turning in your sleep isn't going to cause him to try and subdue you."  She then placed a hoof on his withers and advised him to try and get a good night's sleep.

It was approaching midnight and the other four in the room were already fast asleep.  Thorax was still awake, his mind restless with thoughts about what would happen the next day.

Would the princesses judge him fairly, or would they allow the events of Canterlot cloud their judgement?  Only time would tell, and it was drawing out slower than molasses in winter.

The thought made Thorax lick his lips; He could eat and digest small amounts of real food, and molasses had become a favorite in his journey outside the hive.  Of course, food didn't provide the nourishment that only love could provide him.  A part of him cursed the divine spirits for placing him in the wrong body.

Thorax looked out the window and saw the night sky, appreciating the constellations that called it home, as well as the large moon residing there as well.  He recalled the panic in the hive when the face of said moon suddenly changed; apparently, they had been unaware of an alicorn princess being banished there and returning after a millennia.  Some of the others in the hive called it a sign of end times.  How right they almost were in that assessment.

Fatigue finally set in, and Thorax drifted off to sleep.





Princess Luna had finished with the night court and was retiring to her private chambers for her next duty: dreamwalking.  The task was more appreciated since her return, as she used her influence to help her subjects with troublesome nightmares.  It pleased the lunar princess to see ponies relieved of their troubles and to offer her guidance in resolving the problems that brought on these dreams.

She moved to a set of doors in the back of her room and opened them, revealing a winding staircase going up into a tower.  Traveling upwards, she then entered a room that she seldom used.  Tonight, she had need of it.

The chamber had a dome decorated with various symbols of the night sky, such as constellations and her namesake satellite.  In addition, several metal supports holding up the roof were adorned with large quartz crystals, embedded with veins of gold and impregnated with countless jewels of gemstones.  On the floor was a transmutation circle with several strange symbols, and at the center was an incantation:

Beyond this gate is a world of both fantasy and reality.  To pass through, one must provide both sources of life, and still their mind.

Though the incantation would baffle most ponies, Luna and her sister had figured out the secret long ago.  Grasping a pitcher of water and a bowl of soil, she moved to the center and closed her eyes, stilling her thoughts as she first laid out a heart shape in the center of the circle, and then pouring some water from the pitcher onto it.  The now wet soil began to glow a bluish white and dissolved into a portal that encompassed the whole circle.  Once it was finished, Luna allowed herself to fall inside it.





Thorax had been having a dream.  In it, he was back in the changeling hive.  He had apparently returned there after failing to find any creature in Equestria to befriend him.  Other changelings were openly mocking him for his attempt at what they were sure was the impossible.  Thorax held his head low as he made his way back to his nesting burrow, but he found it no longer existed once getting there.  Confused, he looked for his brother Pharynx to find out what happened.  As he wandered through the hive to find him, he was being stalked by a group of changelings intent on teaching him a lesson.





Princess Luna walked through the dream realm, looking at the dreams of ponies slumbering in her and her sister's nation.  Most dreamt peaceful and happy thoughts, but others were troubled by burdens.  She recalled her purpose here this evening, which also recalled a thought about the events after Canterlot.

Ponies in the new capital city had been terrified of the changelings for quite a while after.  Most had been foals that had the unfortunate luck to see their parents captured and taken away.  Fortunately, due to Cadance and Shining Armor's actions that day, no pony was abducted from the city.

That, however, didn't stop the flood of dreams that Princess Luna had to deal with.  Foals, when frightened enough, could be inconsolable and unwilling to accept what was assuredly the truth.  It had taken a while, but eventually the princess had convinced them that they were only bad dreams, and that they would find everything okay when they awoke.

In the present moment, she was looking for the dreams of one specific creature: the changeling in the Crystal Empire.  She had to search for quite some time, but eventually found the dreams of crystal ponies, and followed them.  Some had dreamed of another invasion by King Sombra, but those were easy enough to dispel.  Most dreams were good, and she had no need to intervene.

A few more moments of searching and she was suddenly confronted with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.  Looking around, she then saw a dark cloud floating off in the distance.  A lump formed in her throat.  "That looks like the Tantabus" she thought to herself.  She kicked off into the air and sailed on her wings to see what the dark cloud was.





Thorax had rounded a corner and was confronted by a group of changelings, all of them with a look of murderous intent in their eyes.  Turning around, he found another group, and a realization that he was trapped between them.

"Uh, guys?", he questioned them,"What's going on?"

One changeling stepped forward and gave Thorax an uppercut.  Thorax let out a pained yelp and fell to the floor.  Immediately, several changelings surrounded him and began to kick him fiercely.  Thorax had time enough to only cover himself as best he could.

"Traitor!" one of the changelings shouted.

"Coward!" called out another.

"Weakling!" came a third.

A cacophony of other voices called out at Thorax as he tried to protect himself from the onslaught of attacks.  "Please", he thought to himself,"someling please help me!"





Luna was standing outside the dark cloud now.  It wasn't Tantabus, but it was most certainly a night terror.  She wondered who could be having such a terrible nightmare, and looked down to check the pony in question.  To her shock, it was not a pony, but a hole riddled, black chitin coated, white fanged facsimile of a pony.  She had found the changeling, and he was having a night terror.  Acting on instinct, she put her horn to the cloud and stepped inside.





Thorax was still receiving blows from the group of changelings.  He was now sobbing from both the physical attack as well as the terrible things being said to him.  He hoped that there was someling there to help him.  Perhaps his brother would chase them all off?

At that moment, Pharynx stepped forward, looking at the group who was surrounding his brother.  Thorax looked up to see the purplish eyes of his clutchmate.  "Oh, Pharynx", he called out to him,"I'm so glad to see y-OWW!"

Pharynx had walked over and gave Thorax a kick in the mouth.  "SILENCE TRAITOR!" he shouted as he began to rain blows on him.  Thorax tried to stand and run, but the changelings beat him down and kept him from making an escape.  Pharynx continued his assault, slamming his hooves into Thorax's face.





Princess Luna found herself in a place that seemed rather alien to her.  The bluish-grey walls resembled a natural cave, but were clearly made deliberately.  From what she could see, there were openings in the walls that likely led to various passages and chambers.  However, she also noticed these openings literally opened and shut at random intervals.  She had thought that perhaps she had stumbled into some sort of prank being perpetuated by Discord, but a swarm of changelings buzzing down a passage told her the truth: She was in the changeling hive.

"What a peculiar place", Luna remarked to herself,"I must be cautious while inside this place."  Luna looked around to see if she could spot the changeling she was looking for, but the twisting tunnels with disappearing entrances made it like trying to solve a puzzle box that constantly reset.  She would have to sense her target's fear aura, since locating him conventionally was impractical.





Thorax was being beaten continuously now by a complete patrol.  His brother was raining blows down on his head while the others threw kicks at his body.  He cried out in pain and pleaded for them all to stop, but none did.  He was pummeled by the group for a few more moments before a voice commanded them to stop.

Thorax was confused by the group stopping until he saw why.  The group moved apart to form a gap, and through it stepped the one changeling Thorax dreaded ever meeting again: Queen Chrysalis.

"Well, well, well", the queen taunted,"Look who decided to show their face here again.  Come to convince my subjects that there's a better way?  Well, there ISN'T!"

Chrysalis gave one swift kick and Thorax was sent flying into the nearest wall, hitting so hard his chitin cracked on impact, and he was sure there was something broken inside as a sharp pain followed each breath he took.

"You should've known better than to try and befriend our prey", she continued,"Now, you'll suffer their same fate!"  Chrysalis then opened her maw and began draining Thorax of all the love inside himself.  All the happy moments he could recall having in his life were slipping away.  He fought to keep her from taking them, but her pull was simply too strong.  Once she was finished, she left him on the floor, too drained to resist anything further.





"Oh dear!" Princess Luna exclaimed, feeling a massive wave of energy in the dreamscape.  The night terror was gaining more strength.  If she didn't find the changeling soon, he would either wake before she got her chance to speak with him, or it could potentially kill him.  She hoped the former if anything were to happen; It would just delay their meeting.  But she couldn't chance the latter happening, not with how strong the wave of energy had been.

She galloped down tunnels, guided by the energy that she could tell belonged to the changeling.  She hoped she could get there soon, rounding corners blindly.  After a few more moments, she turned another corner and saw him, and the cause of his night terror.

The changeling was surrounded by a group of changelings who had him with his back to a wall.  Standing tall above the group was a figure that Luna never met, but could only assume through reputation was the changeling queen Chrysalis.  She was now cackling maniacally as she stepped forward towards him.  

"It seems I missed some" she taunted him, lifting him above the ground.  Her maw opened again and a tendril of pink energy shot out of the changeling, who screamed as though in pain.  Luna looked on in horror.

"I've never seen the changelings actually draw love from ponies", she observed,"but it's every bit as terrible as I've been told."  She then observed the changeling she was draining, a pleading look on his face for any to help him.  Deciding that his suffering must end, Luna stepped forward and fired a spell at the queen and crowd of changelings.





Thorax was held in Chrysalis' magic as she drained even more love out of him.  He was now feeling so weak, he assumed it would be little time before he even lost his will to live and withered away.  He had heard of such things happening to changelings that had starved for too long, but to experience it was the worst thing he could imagine.  Even an execution would be more merciful.

Before the queen could make another move, a blast of magic shot through her, making her fade into a cloud of smoke.  "W-What?" Thorax questioned, now suddenly finding himself full of energy and love again, or at least as full as his current love reserves had been.  He fell to his hooves and looked at the changelings before him, only to find them gone.

Before he could question it further, he heard the sound of hooves clip clopping towards him.  He looked around for the source and found that he was no longer in the hive, but what literally looked like the night sky itself.  As the clip clopping got louder, a voice joined it.

"You may rest easy, young changeling", it addressed him,"the nightmare thou suffered is vanquished."

Thorax realized the voice was behind him, and turned around to see who it was.  Upon looking, his heart caught in his chest and he stumbled backwards before falling on his flank.  Standing before him was an alicorn princess.  She had a vague resemblance to Celestia, but was a dark blue, with blue and black adornments to her chest, hooves and head.  On her flanks were a black splotch with a moon inside.  All the evidence told him exactly who he was looking at.

"P-Princess Luna?" Thorax questioned.

The alicorn simply nodded, and then gave him a gentle but serious look.

"I would like to speak with you."
> Part I, Chapter 9 - Perchance to Dream - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax stood before Princess Luna dumbfounded.  The princess of the night had come to him, and had vanquished his nightmare to boot.  Whatever price she asked of him, was too small of one as far as he was concerned.

"O-Of course, your highness!" he answered, and bowed down before her.

Luna continued smiling, but gestured for him to stand up.  "You may rise young changeling", she told him,"I am aware of your gratitude for my actions, but if you wish to repay me, please converse with me before our time here is done."

Thorax looked at her in confusion, and then terror.  "A-Am I...?"

"Far from it", Luna replied,"We are in my domain of dreams, a place where we can speak freely and not be disturbed."

Thorax calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief.  He definitely wouldn't be happy about getting so close to achieving his dreams only to perish in his sleep beforehoof.  No longer fearing for his life, he watched as the princess waved a hoof, and a table and chairs appeared in front of her.

"Come", she commanded,"Sit with us as we converse!"  Moving over to the chairs, she flashed her horn and a tea set appeared on the table, along with a bowl of sugar cubes, a bowl of lemon slices, and a jar of honey.  Thorax cautiously walked over to the other chair and sat down.  The princess then proceeded to pour a cup of tea and pass it to him.  Not wishing to be rude, he accepted it.

"Um, princess", Thorax said,"I, uh, can't really drink this."

"Then it is a good thing you aren't actually drinking it." she replied.  This caused Thorax confusion until she explained.

"We are in the dreamscape, a place where dreams exist.  All that is here is a reality, but also a fantasy.  What is real here is what your mind makes real, and at the same time, is only as real as you make it."

While the explanation made things make more sense, Thorax was still a bit confused.  Luna ignored his state of confusion and offered the sugar bowl.  "Thou has made it possible for you to partake of our tea.  Please, try for yourself."

Thorax still looked at her with confusion, but decided to trust what she said.  Taking a sip, he found that it was not only at a tolerable temperature, but also gave him a rather warm and good feeling inside.  The only thing he could liken it to would be the feeling of being full from feeding, if he could ever feel such a thing.  The taste was also quite good.

"Wow", Thorax commented,"This is amazing!"

The princess giggled.  "We are glad thou enjoys it so", she replied, pouring her own cup and adding a lemon slice.

Thorax sat there for a moment before he decided to ask a question.  "P-Princess", he began nervously,"Y-You said you wanted to speak with me, but you're going to be coming tomorrow to do that, so why are you here now to speak with me?"

Luna took another sip of her tea, and then placed it back down onto a saucer.  She then looked him straight in the eyes and answered "I am speaking with you now because there is one thing you can do in the waking world that you cannot do here."

"What is that?" Thorax asked.

"Lie" replied Luna.

"Oh, Princess", Thorax countered,"I would never think of lying to either you or Princess Celestia!"

A bright gong-like sound resonated in the dreamscape, startling Thorax out of his chair.  He ducked underneath the table and covered his head with his hooves, quivering in fear.

"You may come back out", Luna called to him,"That sound is a feature of an enchantment that I've placed on you in this realm."

Thorax uncovered himself and poked his head out from under the table.  Princess Luna was there gesturing for him to return to his seat, which he did.  Once seated, the princess continued speaking.

"As I said, we have placed an enchantment on you that will tell us if you are lying or trying to hide information.  If you are honest, you will hear the sound you just heard.  If you are attempting to deceive me or hide something, you'll hear this noise."

Suddenly, a loud klaxon style alarm sounded, making Thorax flinch.  "Could you maybe make them not so loud?" he asked her.

"Certainly" she replied, before both sounds were heard again, this time much softer than before.

"T-Thank you" he told her.

"Has manners and respect for authority", Luna remarked,"Clearly someone taught you those."

"I, uh, picked them up as I went along" replied Thorax, hearing the gong noise around him.

"Where did you pick those up, I wonder?" asked Luna.

"Different cities in Equestria" replied Thorax, who again got the 'Gong of Approval'.

"We are curious", Luna said, before asking,"Would you please tell us of your journey here?"

"I'd be happy to!" answered Thorax, getting the approving noise again.  Luna filled her tea and his cup again as he prepared to tell her of his journey away from the hive.

"It all started with Canterlot" Thorax began, with the gong sounding.  Upon hearing that, Luna adopted a wide eyed stare.

"You were at Canterlot?", she questioned,"During the attempted invasion?"

Thorax looked at her sheepishly before answering.  "Yeah, I was there", he admitted,"but I didn't take part in any of the hostilities.  My job was just to make sure ponies didn't try to leave the city (GONG).  While I was there, I saw Princess Twilight and her friends fighting against the other changelings.  When I saw how strong their friendship was, I knew I would want that for myself, so I began to think about how to obtain it.  Not very long after, that massive shield threw us from the city (GONG)."

"When I got back to the hive, I tried to tell the others about what I saw, but they either didn't believe me or called me weak and pathetic (GONG).  I knew then and there that I couldn't stay in the hive and find what I wanted, so I decided to leave (GONG).  I traveled back towards Equestria because I figured I had a better chance of making a friend there than anyplace else.  I mean, your guy's whole deal is friendship (GONG)."

Luna gave a chuckle.  "Yes", she admitted,"We do put a lot of emphasis on friendship and harmony.  Please, continue."

"The first place I came to was a town called Dodge Junction.  I came in a disguise, since this was a few months after the invasion, and I knew that the ponies here would've likely heard about what happened there and would only be wary of me at best (GONG).  When I didn't have any luck there, I moved on to the town of Appleloosa, but the reception was also fairly lukewarm (GONG).  Most of the ponies there wouldn't even fathom the idea of a changeling deciding to be peaceful and wanting to live among them (GONG)."

"This saddens us", the princess replied to his story,"I was of the impression that my sister has tried to set an example to our subjects not to be so quick to judge."

"I'm sure she has, but just like me, sometimes your subjects don't go along with the precedent you try to set (GONG).  Anyways, I kept traveling to different towns, getting the same result everyplace I went (GONG).  After a while, I started getting pretty hungry, and the lack of success on top of it was starting to dampen my hopes quite a bit (GONG).  Eventually, I felt the love coming off of the Crystal Empire, which is really strong because I could feel it for miles and miles off (GONG).  I started getting pulled this way because of it, and I eventually got here, which was the day before yesterday (GONG).  I tried to stay hidden, but some ponies spotted me coming in from the outskirts and raised the alarm, so I had to hide out in a cave (GONG).  I stayed there for the night, and the next morning I was woken up by Spike the Dragon (GONG)."

"Ah, yes", Luna responded,"Princess Twilight's assistant.  We were told that he defended you and plead your case to Princess Cadance and her husband.  What words could you have used to sway him to your cause?"

"Actually, I saved his life (GONG)" admitted Thorax.

Luna looked at him with a shocked expression.  "You saved his life?  How?"

"He fell into the cave I was hiding in", Thorax explained,"The entrance had been covered over with snow from a snowstorm the day before, so he had no idea it was there (GONG).  At first I tried to disguise myself and make him think I was his reflection, but I couldn't keep it up (GONG).  After I lost the disguise, he got spooked and tried to run away, but he knocked himself silly on a rock and fell into a crevice (GONG).  I flew in quick and grabbed him so he wouldn't fall (GONG)."

"I see", Luna observed, "Then I must thank you for saving his life"

"It was nothing", Thorax said trying to deflect the gratitude shown him,"I'm sure any other creature would've done the same thing for him."

"Even another changeling?" Luna countered.

Thorax flinched slightly.  "Perhaps not every creature" he admitted.

Luna took a sip of her tea before speaking.  "Why did you save Spike?", she asked,"Letting him perish would've been a greater benefit to you.  You could've escaped before any of the guards would've realized you made off."

"It wouldn't have been right", Thorax answered,"It goes against all of the ideas I believe in (GONG).  I don't want ponies or other creatures fighting or suffering because of me (GONG)."

Luna smiled.  "It is good to see that Equestria has left such a positive impact on you."

"It has", Thorax admitted,"but I've always felt that what my kind was doing wasn't right (GONG)."

"It is unfortunate, but is love not the one thing you need to survive?" Luna asked.

"Yes", Thorax answered,"but that doesn't mean we have to resort to tricking ponies and stealing it from them (GONG)!"

"I think I understand" Luna responded.  She took another sip of tea.  "You've came to Equestria to find a better way for your kind to gain love.  Am I correct to assume you believe friendship to be the way to do this?"

"I believe it with all my heart (GONG)!" Thorax answered.

Luna smiled, but then it faded.  "Your efforts will take a great deal of time to pay off", she observed,"There will be many that will mistrust you, and some may even treat you with spite and hatred.  But, I think you have the strength to achieve it.  The only question I have left is, will the changelings in your hive see it?"

Thorax thought for a moment and hung his head.  "I'm not sure (GONG)", he admitted,"But I have to try!  I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least do that (GONG)!"

"So you intend to stay in Equestria and prove yourself worthy of the trust and friendship of the ponies who live here?" she asked him.

"Yes, your highness (GONG)" Thorax answered.

"Very well" replied Luna.  With a wave of her hoof, the table and tea set vanished.  "Our time together has come to an end", she told him,"but we shall meet again soon in the waking world.  I shall inform my sister of our conversation."

"Will you share this with Princess Cadance and her husband too?" Thorax asked her.

"I shall", she replied,"Unfortunately, I cannot make the final judgement about your staying in the Crystal Empire; That is up to Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor to decide.  However, were it my decision, I would see to it that you were given every opportunity to find what it is you're seeking."

"Thank you, Princess", Thorax replied, a small tear forming in the corner of his eye.

"And I thank you", she responded, and then her horn glowed and a string of pink energy emitted from it and into Thorax's body.  The sensation he felt was all too familiar to him.  He looked up at her with a confused expression.  "I have shared with you our own love.  It is a gift for your honesty and a token of my thanks for your actions in saving young Spike."

Thorax smiled warmly at her.  "Thank you" he said to her.

Luna smiled.  "Our time is at it's end now, and dawn is fast approaching", she told him,"I must now go and lower the moon so my subjects can start their day."  Luna then disappeared as though she were made of nothing more than fog.  The dreamscape then faded to black, and Thorax could feel his eyes begin to open.

He was in the guest room with the others.  He sat up and looked around, noting the thestral guards watching him closely, a feeling of distrust emanating from him.  Luna was right in saying that ponies would mistrust him, and that it was an obstacle to be overcome.  

"I have to try", he thought to himself,"I have to try and convince them I'm good."

===

Princess Luna was then awoken by her sister, who had came into the chamber a few moments ago.  "It is time for us to lower our moon and raise out sun" Celestia told Luna.

Luna nodded, and then stopped Celestia before she could turn around.  "Sister", she began,"I'm sure you figured out why I was up here this night, but I feel I must tell you anyway.  I contacted the changeling through the dreamscape."

"I know", answered Celestia,"It is a rare occasion indeed when you elect to use the amplification chamber for dream walking."

"It is", she admitted,"but I felt it was necessary for I to make use of it to succeed in my endeavor."

"And I take it that your were successful, based on what you told me?" Celestia asked, realizing where the conversation was going.

Luna smiled at her sister.  "We have much to discuss together on our journey."
> Part I, Chapter 10 - The Princess and The Changeling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax continued sitting up for a few more minutes, thinking over the dream he just had.  He would've dismissed it as being nothing more than a very strange dream, but there were too many variables to consider.

Firstly, he'd never seen Princess Luna before, and had heard only vague descriptions, so he had no idea if his mind had constructed an exact and accurate copy of her.  Second was the tea.  He'd never had tea in his life, and the taste was nothing like anything he'd ever tried.  But the most damning part of it all was the love she shared at the end.  Thorax could still feel it inside him, and he knew that there was no way he could make his own love.  He could only conclude that he had indeed been visited by the Lunar Princess in his dreams, but was that even possible?

A shuffling beside him caught his attention.  He looked over and saw Princess Twilight Sparkle rousing from her sleep.  She sat up and let out a yawn and proceeded to rub her eyes.  Once she was more awake, she looked around and saw Thorax staring at her.  She smiled to him and then asked him a question that caught him completely off guard.  "So, did you have a good conversation with Princess Luna?"

"H-How did you know that?!" he asked her with a shocked expression.

"She told me" Twilight answered, and then shifted around so she was facing him completely.  "Princess Luna has the ability to enter the dreams of sleeping ponies and interact with them.  Most of the time, it's so she can help them with nightmares they're having.  She used to do it long ago before her banishment, but she started doing it again since her return from being possessed by Nightmare Moon."

"We've heard of Nightmare Moon before", Thorax admitted,"But we had been told that Celestia usurped Princess Luna's power and disposed of her."

"By disposed you mean...?" Twilight asked with an uneasy look on her face.  Thorax nodded.

"Well, Princess Luna is most definitely alive", Twilight responded,"The truth is that a long time ago, about a thousand years, Princess Celestia and Luna ruled over Equestria together.  Princess Celestia would raise the sun for the farmers to grow their crops and the other ponies to enjoy a day of light and warmth.  Princess Luna, on the other hoof, would bring up the moon and ward off the creatures of darkness from ravaging the land."

"After a while of doing this, Princess Luna became dissatisfied with the fact that no ponies would appreciate her work at night, and grew jealous of the adoration Celestia got for her day.  Eventually, her jealousy attracted a creature of darkness called the Nightmare, and the creature made a deal with her that he would help her convince the ponies to appreciate her night."

"Once the princess agreed, the Nightmare took her over.  It turned her into a monstrous form that sought only one purpose: To cast Equestria into eternal night."

"Princess Celestia came to realize that her sister was suffering and tried to help her, but the realization came too late, and the princess was forced to use the Elements of Harmony to try and save her sister."

"Unfortunately, the Elements had other plans.  When their magic hit Luna, it sent her all the way to the moon, and cast it into a glow rivaling the sun's own.  When it finally quelled, the moon was adorned with a unicorn's head in dark stones, creating the mark we knew as 'The Mare in the Moon'."

"Celestia was saddened by this turn of events, but was given a prophecy: After a thousand years, the stars would come to Luna's aid and free her and Nightmare Moon from her prison, and she would return.  Of course, she did, and my friends and I became the new element bearers and stopped her, but also healed Luna, who now rules with her sister again."

Thorax looked at her in awe after hearing her story.  "You really saved the princess from the control of a monster?" he asked.

Twilight nodded.  "Yep, and Princess Celestia then set me on the path to becoming the pony I am today."  She adjusted in her spot for more comfort before telling her story.

"You see, when I was a filly, I lived in Canterlot with my parents and brother.  I was so obsessed with learning about magic, I didn't have any friends.  When the day came and I took the test to be admitted to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, I was practically a shut in."

"When I took the test, I was given what amounted to an impossible task: Hatch a dragon's egg.  I did every trick I could think of to hatch it, but nothing worked.  I was about to give up and start crying, thinking I was going to fail and not get to study at the most prestigious magic school in all of Equestria, but I looked up at the window to the sky outside and seen something impossible happening before my eyes."

"What was it?" Thorax asked her.

"It was a sonic rainboom", Twilight answered,"It's something that can only happen when a pegasus pony goes faster than the speed of sound.  The magic energy coming off of their body combines with the moisture cone created by the breaking of the sound barrier and results in a rainbow colored shockwave in the air."

"When I saw something I always knew to be impossible, I knew I had to try again.  So, I dumped every last ounce of energy I had left into a spell to try and hatch that egg, and suddenly, something happened."

"What?" asked Thorax.

"A mess of different spells happening simultaneously.  Of note, I turned my parents into a set of house plants.  But the biggest one was the egg, which not only hatched, but caused the baby dragon inside the grow to adulthood."

"Wow", Thorax said with surprise,"You actually managed to hatch the egg?"

"Mhm", answered Twilight,"It was at that moment that I got my cutie mark.  I'd spent every moment studying all I could about magic, that I found my special talent during the test.  When Celestia saw my mark, she was both surprised and happy for me.  That's when Celestia told me something that caught me completely off guard: She told me I shouldn't have been able to hatch the egg."

"But, you said you did?" Thorax said confused.

"I wasn't supposed to be able to", Twilight clarified,"Princess Celestia gave me that test to see one very important thing: how I handled failing.  Hatching the dragon's egg was supposed to be impossible for a foal.  She wanted to see how I would react when I couldn't do it."

"But, I did it, even after all my failures.  It told her that not only was I worthy of attending her school, but that I was also going to become a very powerful magic user.  So, she decided that I was to become her personal protege, and from that day forward, I almost exclusively lived at the castle with her."

"Didn't your parents object to that?", Thorax asked,"I would think most pony parents would want their kids to stay with them."

"They weren't too thrilled to find that out", Twilight admitted,"but I promised to come home and see them everyday after my lessons.  My brother had far more concerns, mostly that I would become a shut in in the castle library, and never leave for anything but my lessons and seeing my parents."

"Once I was living in the castle full time, I devoted myself entirely to studying magic, and I made almost no spare time for things like friends.  Of course, Celestia saw this and insisted that I make an effort to have some, so I kept a few.  Minuette, Moondancer, Lemon Hearts and Twinkle Shine."

"We never interacted very much, but it kept Celestia from pressing me too much about the subject.  After a few years, I learned about the mare in the moon legend and I insisted that something needed to be done to prepare for her return, but Celestia dismissed my concerns saying that such a thing was not to be worried about.  In fact, she then insisted that I travel to the location of the next Summer Sun Celebration to help the ponies prepare for it.  That place was Ponyville."

"Where you met the other element bearers" Thorax inferred.

Twilight nodded in confirmation.  "They were all working hard to get everything ready.  Well, except for Rainbow Dash.  She was slacking off, but her intense speed allowed her to get the weather in Ponyville clear, in ten seconds flat as she claimed."

"All of the others worked hard to get their own tasks completed.  Applejack and her family prepared a whole bunch of food, Rarity was making costumes for a play at town hall, and Fluttershy was preparing a choir of songbirds to sing in front of Princess Celestia.  Pinkie Pie was setting up festivities, and she even found the time to throw a party for me arriving in Ponyville too."

"I wasn't the most polite pony to them initially, but I was more concerned with Nightmare Moon returning, which became reality when she appeared during the ceremony in Celestia's place.  She'd already locked Celestia away and was setting about creating her eternal night.  I immediately went to the town library to find out what I could about a method of stopping her, specifically for a book on the elements of harmony."

"The five ponies who would become my friends confronted me and I explained how I knew what was going on and what needed to be done.  They all insisted on following me into the Everfree Forest and to the old Castle of the Twin Sisters, Celestia and Luna's first palace."

"We had many hardships on the way there, but each one revealed to me that each was showing an attribute of the elements.  Once we reached the castle and found the actual elements, Nightmare Moon revealed herself and destroyed the original elements."

"She destroyed them?", Thorax asked,"But then, how did you use them to stop her?"

"Like I said, Thorax, I realized that each of them represented an attribute of the elements.  In fact, I understood then and there that ALL of us were the elements, just in a living form.  When I realized that, new elements were created, and with their combined power, we purged the nightmare from Luna and freed her from its control."

"Shortly after that, Celestia appeared and congratulated us on defeating her, and then revealed to us that it was her plan all along for me to defeat nightmare.  I just needed to realize the most important part needed for the elements to work: Friendship."

"Celestia decreed that from that day forward, I was to become the town's librarian and stay in Ponyville to learn all I could about friendship, as well as report back to her the things I learned.  She even encouraged my five new friends to write with what they learned as well." 

"Wow", Thorax said in amazement,"That's quite a story to tell.  But, that dragon egg you hatched.  That was Spike, wasn't it?"

"Yep", came the voice of the scaly drake himself,"Twilight hatched me from the egg and I've been by her side ever since."

"That's amazing!" Thorax said.

"Do you have a story to tell, Thorax?" Twilight asked.

"Not much of one, really" Thorax answered.

"Let's hear it anyway" Spike said, encouraging Thorax to share.

"Well", Thorax began,"I knew when I was hatched as a larva that I was different from all the other changelings.  They were all born hissing and squirming around trying to bite at one another, but I never did any of that.  When I was growing up, I tended to play around with some of the pony things infiltrators brought back on missions.  I found figurines and would play with them, trying to imagine what ponies were actually like, when they weren't wrapped up in cocoons."

Twilight and Spike got uneasy looks when he talked about ponies in cocoons.  Thorax continued his story.

"I was always bullied in the hive by other nymphs that saw me as a weakling.  They'd hit me and call me mean names.  I tried ignoring it for a while, and even once tried to stand up for myself, but I never could.  After a while, it got to me."

"But there was always one good thing I could count on in the hive: My clutchmate Pharynx.  You could probably call him an older brother, if only by like five minutes.  He would actually chase the bullies bothering me away, but then he also bullied me too."

"That's awful!", Twilight responded,"How could your brother do that to you?!"

"Honestly, I think he thought he was making me tougher", Thorax answered,"He always excelled in all the things that changelings could do, like his shapeshifting.  His favorite form to take was a spider monster that could make even the bravest nymph run away in terror.  But because I was his brother, that always tended to hold him back, which I think made him resent me after that."

"Your brother doesn't sound like the greatest guy" Spike said.

"He's not that bad", Thorax defended,"One time I got beaten up so badly by the other nymphs, he shared some love he'd gotten with me so I could heal faster."

"Wait!", Twilight said while holding a hoof up,"Pharynx shared love with you?  I thought you said changelings couldn't do that?"

"It's not a question of ability to share love more than a desire to", Thorax answered,"Changelings are so hungry all the time that the idea of sharing even a little bit sounds like suicide."

"But your brother did it for you" Twilight pointed out.

"And I'm very grateful to him for that", Thorax responded,"but he only did it that one time and he never did it again after that.  In all honesty, it did something to him after that.  He didn't seem as close to me as before."

"Anyways, I grew up into an adult drone and I was put through the paces to see where I would be placed in the hive.  I failed every test miserably and disappointed all the instructors testing me and my brother.  At the end of it, they assigned me to be a scrubber, or what you'd call a janitor.  It was supposed to humiliate me, but I didn't care; Being anything else meant that I would have to be mean, and I could never get myself to act in such a way."

"So they made you a janitor?", Spike responded,"That doesn't sound too bad."

"Honestly, it was", Thorax countered,"Often times, drones with defects are placed there, like ones born without wings or ones that can't control their magic enough to transform correctly.  I guess they saw my unwillingness to be mean as a defect."

"Well, I can tell you it isn't", Twilight told him,"Sometimes, you're at your strongest when you're the most compassionate.  Please, continue."

"Thank you", Thorax continued,"Anyways, I was a janitor for a few years until somewhat recently.  I don't think I have to tell you what changed that."

"Canterlot" Twilight said.

Thorax nodded.  "We were told that every changeling in the hive would be necessary for the plan the queen had created.  I tried to stay out of it by requesting I be placed in the hatchery to watch over the nymphs.  I was denied and forced to run drills, which I was very poor at doing.  This time around, the instructors kept at it until I did them correctly at least once.  After that, I was told to resume my duties and study the materials that were given to me until they day we were to move out."

"You wouldn't happen to have those materials still?" Twilight asked hopefully.

"No", Thorax answered,"Everyling was told to take nothing, and that our magic was all that was necessary.  Well, except for the Praetorians, or the royal guard as you would call them.  They brought armor and spears."

"When we got to the outskirts of the city, we were told to remain in hiding until a signal was given.  Once that happened, we were ordered to attack the shield over the city and begin collect ponies.  Once the shield broke, all my hivemates swarmed in to attack, except me.  I elected to hang back and try to go unnoticed.  It was after a minute or so that I saw you and your friends, and you changed my life for what I hope to be the better."

"That's when you saw us heading to the vault to collect the elements of harmony" Twilight inferred.

Thorax nodded.  "You were surrounded on all sides and fought until you couldn't anymore.  I saw you all working together, and it sparked something inside me.  A desire to have what you all did.  I knew then and there that I couldn't abide by Queen Chrysalis' ways any longer."  

"Not long afterwards, that huge blast of love threw us from Canterlot, and I landed in some random forest not too far away.  I got lucky; I found a few hivemates that didn't fare so well, and I had to report their losses when I got back to the hive a few days later.  I didn't stay in the hive for very long after that."

"I initially tried to make friends with other changelings in the hive, but I pretty much got the same treatment as before, perhaps even a little worse.  I knew after a while that trying to make friends in the hive was a fool's errand, and decided I had to leave and find someplace else to have better odds.  That's when I came to realize I had to return to Equestria, even after what happened in Canterlot and the horrible reputation changelings now had because of it.  It was my only chance."

"So you returned to Equestria, even though you knew your chances of success were so low?" Twilight asked.  Thorax gave a simple nod.  "That was incredibly brave of you", she remarked,"Most ponies I know wouldn't even think to try something like that."

"Like I said, it was my only chance", Thorax responded,"I spent a lot of time traveling across Equestria, trying to find somepony to make friends with.  Every time, however, something always happened that threatened to reveal my true form and I was forced to leave.  One time, I was very nearly found out."

"You were almost found out?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah", replied Thorax,"I was working a day job in Manehattan and had used some of the bits to stay in a hotel for a few days.  I was cleaning myself in the shower when the housekeepers walked in on me.  I had been using an earth pony disguise when I checked in, but I was out of it when I was in the bathroom."

"Fortunately, I was in the shower stall with the curtain drawn, so I was obscured, but they could still tell it wasn't the stallion who checked in.  They asked me who I was, so I had to think quick and pretend I was my disguise's marefriend." Thorax accented the end of the sentence by adopting a feminine voice.

Twilight was shocked for a second before she remembered changelings could also change their voice.  "I'd say that was a close call", she remarked.

"That was the closest one", Thorax responded,"After that, I had to check out and go to another hotel for the rest of my time there before I moved on.  That was about two months ago."

"Did you ever end up in Ponyville during your trip?" Spike asked.

"I did, but I didn't stay for very long", Thorax answered,"A crazy pink mare rushed me and said something about a party, but I left very quickly.  I didn't want to take any chances being in a big crowd of ponies and being overwhelmed by love energy and lose my disguise."

Twilight went wide eyed.  "So that was YOU that left in a rush after Pinkie said hello!"

Thorax looked confused for a second before his mind filled in the blank, then adopted a shocked look.  "You mean that the crazy pink mare was Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter?"

Twilight nodded.  "She was upset for the rest of the day because of that.  Fortunately, there was another new arrival so she just threw the party for them, but she was sad she never got to throw one for you."

"Well, I'm sorry I upset her", Thorax replied,"but I hope she can understand why someday.  That is, when she learns about me and what I am."

"I'm sure she will" Twilight reassured.  A knock them came from the door, waking everyone else in the room up.  The guard standing at the door opened it and was greeted by a crystal guard.

"I'm your replacement", he told the thestral guard, then turned to Twilight and said,"Princess Cadance would like you and the others to have breakfast with her.  The changeling is to stay here under guard.  Captain Shining Armor's orders."

Twilight wanted to object, but elected not to.  In her gut, she felt that she was going to be scolded by her brother for her treatment of the guard yesterday.  "We'll be back after breakfast", she told him,"You can read one of the books in my saddlebags if you get bored."  She rose to her hooves and walked towards the door.  Before she walked out, she turned back to Thorax.

"Oh, one last thing" she said to him.

"What's that?" he asked.

Twilight gave a smile and answered "You still owe Pinkie Pie her party."
> Part I, Chapter 11 - The Royal Sisters - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Eclipse was the pride of Equestria's railway line, and had the distinction of being the official engine of the royal sisters.  It was decorated in colors to match the two; white and gold for Celestia, and black and midnight blue for Luna.  It carried three cars; Celestia's sleeping car, Luna's sleeping car, and a dining car with a fully staffed kitchen.  On this morning, both sisters were in the dining car having a breakfast.

"Sister", the sun diarch asked,"Are you certain this changeling was telling you the truth?"

"We have no doubt", replied her lunar counterpart,"When we found him, he was in the throws of a night terror.  We rescued him from it and conversed, and I placed an enchantment upon him that would have told us of his intentions to deceive."

"I have no doubts of your knowledge or skills as a dreamwalker", Celestia assured,"but neither of us has had any experience with these creatures before in our past.  How do we know that they don't have counter-spells to all of our magics?"

"He was unfamiliar with thou being a dreamwalker", Luna replied,"Thus, I have a great deal of confidence that he was not capable of countering any of our spells."

"That does not mean he couldn't have figured something out", Celestia countered.

"Tis true, sister", Luna conceded,"but there comes a point in the process of establishing relationships in which one must give a certain amount of trust in the other individual that they won't try to hurt them, emotionally or otherwise.  I simply feel that in order for anything to move forward, trust must be given, even if it may be felt that that trust is undeserved."

Celestia sat there for a moment to digest what her sister said, then smiled.  It wasn't long ago that Luna had been shown that same level of trust when she was cleansed of the nightmare.  It made her feel good deep down inside to see the lunar princess paying it forward in a manner of speaking.





Shining Armor was storming through the halls of the Crsytal Palace on his way to the main dining hall.  Minutes earlier, he'd been informed by Custos that his own sister had threatened him and rendered his spear useless, as he'd presented the item for the prince to examine.  Undoing her transformation spell and giving the spear back to the guard, Shining made it a point to reprimand his sister for her actions.

Meanwhile in the dining hall, Twilight and Cadance sat waiting for the breakfast to be brought in.  Twilight was trying to start a conversation, but Cadance seemed to want to avoid any talking whatsoever.  The lavender unicorn was about to try again when the door to the hallway flew open so violently, they nearly came off of their hinges.

"TWILIGHT!", came the booming voice of Shining Armor,"What were you thinking!?"

Twilight flinched at his voice.  She knew he would not take kindly to her actions from last night.  It seemed she would now have to chew the food from last night now.

"Your guard was going to attack Thorax unprovoked" Twilight replied flatly.

"Really?" Shining shot back with sarcasm in his voice.

"Yes, really!", Twilight shot back,"All Thorax was trying to do was to get our attention to add to the conversation going on, and the guard had him against a wall with a spear at his throat!"

"And how do you know that that's exactly what he was doing?" Shining shot back at his sister.

"Because", she began calmly, then glared with daggers in her eyes shouted,"IF I TRULY BELIEVED HE WAS GOING TO HARM US, THEN HE WOULD BE A BUG STAIN BEING CLEANED OFF THE FLOOR AS WE SPEAK!"

"BOTH OF YOU, ENOUGH!"

Twilight and Shining Armor both flinched as Cadance raised her own voice.  "You both can be glad that Flurry isn't here to hear this right now", she commented,"I'd hate to think of the trauma that both of you could be putting her through if she was."

Twilight and Shining didn't say anything for a few moments.  Cadance simply rubbed her temples, trying to alleviate the headache suddenly brought on by her husband and sister in law's bickering.  "Perhaps I should've just sent the changeling to the dungeons immediately" she thinks aloud to herself.

"NO!", Twilight shouts a little louder than intended, then continues in a softer voice,"No, you don't need to do that.  Thorax isn't going to cause anypony harm.  He's had plenty of chances since yesterday."

"That doesn't mean he couldn't be playing a long game!", retorted Shining Armor,"They need to feed on our love to survive!  Trying to make friends so you can backstab them later and drain them of all their love sounds like the kind of tactic that thing would use!"

"Shining!", Twilight responded incredulously,"This changeling IS different from his kind.  He wants to be on peaceful terms with ponies, even become friends with those that are willing."

"Friends with changelings", Shining scoffed,"Twilight, you're making a huge mistake.  This thing has somehow tricked you into wanting to help it, but I won't let that keep going on.  Now, once the princesses get here, I'm going to convince them of the threat and have a squad take him to be placed in the Canterlot dungeons."

"They won't agree to that, Shining", Twilight told her brother very sternly,"I've known Princess Celestia since before you were a recruit in the royal guard.  While I have no doubt that she would exercise caution, she's very much not the 'lock them up and throw away the key' type."

"Think what you wish", Shining said as he brought the conversation to a close,"I know what I'm going to tell the princesses, and I will make sure that this changeling, or any other changeling I find, is no longer a threat."

Twilight let out a huff of frustration as she turned and went to exit the dining hall.  Before she got to the doors, she turned to address the princess.

"Cadance", she began,"I hope you remember what you told me last night, about being as unbiased as possible in making important decisions?"  Twilight let the thought hang in the air as she exited the room.  Cadance looked towards the door for a moment before letting out her own sigh as she continued eating the bowl of fruits that had been presented to her as breakfast.





The Eclipse pulled into the Crystal Empire station at around 10am.  The princesses disembarked the train and were met by a detachment of crystal pony guards, as well as an opulent chariot that appeared to be carved out of gemstones.  The lead guard approached and bowed to the two of them.

"I have been instructed to escort you to the palace at once" he told them.  Both nodded as they stepped inside and were led to the palace.  As they rode, Celestia and Luna admired the scenery that had been uncovered by the Crystal Heart's powerful magic.  Lush green fields with wildflowers, with the snow capped mountains behind them.  The scene was beautiful.  As they went, the two sisters held a conversation.

"You still have reservations" Luna observed of her sister.

"I do", Celestia admitted,"Of all the creatures I've ever faced, that monster was the first to best me magic for magic."

"You mean that so called queen that tried to steal the place of our dear Cadance?" Luna inferred.

Celestia gave a nod and looked to the floor of the carriage.

"I can understand your trepidation", Luna replied,"but this changeling is not the same as his queen.  He carries no malice in his heart.  I would've sensed it even in the dreamscape."

Celestia hummed in agreement, but did not bring her eyes to meet her sister.

Luna thought for a moment before coming up with a solution.

"Perhaps... We could arrange for something to help alleviate thy fears?"

Celestia looked at her sister with a questioning eyebrow.  "What do you propose?" she asked.





Standing in front of the Crystal Palace were Twilight, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, and a small guard detail.  Twilight and Cadance both had nervous looks, but Shining Armor maintained a stoic expression.  Inside, however, he was just as nervous as his wife and sister.  All three were unsure of how either of the two princesses would react to the current situation.

"They should be here soon", Twilight told Cadance and Shining Armor,"The messenger from the train station said they got there about ten minutes ago."

"I'm sure it's nothing more than our subjects trying to get a glimpse of the princesses", Cadance offered,"They're probably just going slow so as to give everypony a chance to see them."

"Perhaps", Shining interrupted,"but if they take too much longer, I'll send a patrol to look for them."

Before anypony else could say anything, a familiar gilded carriage came into view.  While some nerves had been alleviated, most would remain until after the princesses had made their decision on the current situation.  The carriage approached the group and came to a stop.  Stepping out were Celestia and Luna, both in their regalia.

"We apologize for our slight lateness", Celestia offered,"A fair amount of your subjects were quite excited to see my sister and myself on our way here."

"It's no trouble at all, Aunt Celestia", Cadance responded,"We were only waiting here for a few minutes."

"All the same", Luna interjected,"We offer our apologies even for a slight wait."

"You are looking well since the birth of your child", Celestia continued,"I trust she isn't too much of a hoofful."

"There are times that she can become one", Shining took his turn to speak,"but nothing more than Cadance and myself have been able to manage."

Celestia smiled and then turned to her student.  "And Twilight, you are looking in good shape as well.  I trust Spike has been helping to keep you from getting too carried away with your books?"

"Oh, no", Twilight replied,"I've been managing just fine.  In fact, I have been keeping myself busy.  You remember my letter about Starlight?"

"Of course", Celestia answered,"I trust you have been teaching her well?"

"Indeed", Twilight responded,"I've been showing her all of the friendship lessons my friends and I have learned since coming together, and I've been encouraging her to reach out and make her own friends as well, even if some of them I'm not particularly fond of."

"It is important to remember Twilight, that your friends will sometimes have friends that you don't see eye to eye with.  It's in those times that you must remember to stay civil and treat them at the very least with respect."

"I'll definitely try to keep that in mind" Twilight responded.

"Now", Celestia said to the group as a whole,"as fun as catching up with you has been, there is some rather serious business ahoof.  Where is the changeling currently?"

"He's being held in Twilight's guest chambers", answered Shining,"Cadance was comfortable with allowing her to keep watch of him."

"Ah, yes", Luna spoke up,"We heard in your letter that Twilight was on the side of this changeling."

"Only after I made sure that he was indeed trustworthy" Twilight added.

"Trustworthy?", Celestia questioned,"These are creatures that have used deception in their efforts to obtain what they desire.  Are you truly certain that this changeling can be trusted."

Twilight hesitated for a moment to form her response.  "I know it's a lot to ask anypony here to trust a changeling, but really I'm just hoping you'll all at least allow him to speak with you and to approach with an unbiased viewpoint."

Celestia gave a nod, then turned to Shining.  "I wish to use the throne room to speak with the changeling.  Please have a guard escort him to us.  Also, please ask the palace staff to prepare a pot of tea, and some tea cakes would also be appreciated."

"Anything you desire, Auntie" came Shining's reply, and the stallion turned and headed back into the palace.  Everypony else followed him inside.





Thorax was sitting in the guest suite waiting patiently.  He wasn't sure what to expect, other than at some point today, he'd be speaking with the two ponies that were charged with taking care of Equestria.  The thought made him shake in his chitin; They could do anything from banish him, to cast him into Tartarus, or worse.  There was also the slim chance that he could somehow persuade them to grant his asylum, but he didn't hold on to much hope for that.

Spike, his dragon friend, and Twilight's student, Starlight, were both waiting with him.  Starlight was reading a book, but Thorax could tell from the emotions she was giving that she was worried for him, which he appreciated greatly.  Spike, on the other hoof, was doing his best to help his friend prepare.

"I really don't think you have that much to worry about", the dragon tried to reassure him,"Celestia won't blast you where you stand.  She's had tons of experience in diplomacy to know 'Cast your spell first, then ask questions later' is a really dumb idea."

"I know, but that doesn't make what's about to happen easier for me" Thorax replied.

"Just do like you've been doing", Spike suggested,"You've been honest with everypony so far.  Just keep doing that, even if you think the truth might be unpleasant.  The princesses will hold it against you if you start hiding things now."

"That's not what I'm worried about", Thorax replied,"I fully intend to tell the truth.  The question is will they believe that I'm telling the truth."

"Well, Luna seems to think you are" Spike pointed out.  That thought had escaped Thorax's mind.  He had already spoken to one princess in his dreams, a feat he was surprised that any of the ponies here could do.  She had even shown a great deal of trust in him when she freely gave him love.  He doubted that she would've done such a thing if she had no trust in him whatsoever.

"You know, you're right Spike", Thorax told his friend with a smile,"I just have to be honest with them and they'll see for themselves what kind of creature I am inside."

A knocking on the door was followed by a guard entering the room.  The guard, a mare this time, glared at Thorax.  "The princesses wish to speak with you now!  Follow!" she barked at him.  Thorax stood up and followed her out of the room.

"Good luck!" Spike shouted after him.

Thorax gave a nod and walked out to find a squad of guards surrounding him.  He looked at them all nervously before one gestured to follow, which he did.  They walked in silence for a good bit until they approached the hallway to the throne room.  The guards then broke formation and made two lines on either side of the hallway, with the lead gesturing for Thorax to move ahead.  The changeling walked forward into the throne room, where he saw the large white unicorn princess he knew only as Celestia, sitting with a stoic look on her face, and a plain chair in front of her.

"Oh crumbs", thought Thorax as he took a gulp of air and stepped forward.
> Part I, Chapter 12 - The Royal Sisters - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Please have a seat" Celestia said as she gestured a hoof to the chair sat in front of her.  Thorax walked into the throne room and slowly approached the chair.  He was still afraid that he would be blasted into nothingness at anything that could constitute the wrong move.  He tried to make a minute long walk stretch out to eternity, but only succeeded in delaying the inevitable.  He approached the chair and sat down, not daring to speak or do anything that could be construed as hostile.

"You are capable of speaking, correct?" Celestia asked him.  Thorax gave a small nod in confirmation.  "Then, please, respond to me in your words and not your actions." she requested of him.

Thorax fidgeted timidly for a moment before finally uttering "Y-Y-Yes your h-h-highness."

"You fear me?", she asked ,"What reason have you to fear me?"

"Many", he answered,"For instance, you could w-will me dead if y-you w-wished."

Celestia smiled and then chuckled.  Thorax became even more nervous now.  Soon, her chuckling became a steady laughter, and Thorax was almost certain he was in for the worst.  Then, she slowly ceased her laughing and adopted a warm smile.

"You have nothing to fear of me", Celestia reassured him,"If I wished for your demise, I simply would have ordered it and not made the trip the whole way to the empire.  Besides, I have never, nor do I ever plan to, order the death of another creature."

Thorax blinked in confusion.  "What about Discord?" he asked.

"The god of chaos?" she said confused, then clarified,"Discord was petrified in stone.  He was never rendered incapable of living anymore.  Put into a millennia spanning time out, so to speak."

"Oh" Thorax responded to the clarification.

"Anyways", Celestia continued to their current topic,"I have been told by both Princess Cadance and my student Princess Twilight Sparkle that you wish to reside her in the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes, I do", Thorax answered,"I want to live here in Equestria and share in the love that your subjects share with each other."

"Really?" Celestia said with a bit of surprise in her voice,"Don't you need that love to survive starvation?"

"I didn't mean the actual emotional energy so to speak", Thorax clarified,"I meant that I want to do things to show my thanks for letting me live here with them."

"Making a show of love", Celestia said in understanding,"Are you certain that those around you will accept your actions as being motivated by love?"

"Maybe not right away", Thorax admitted,"but I certainly hope that one day they will come to see my desire to show appreciation as being genuine, and not some ploy to take love from them."

"Yes", Celestia said with something of a defeated sigh,"Your queen has made your efforts towards your goal difficult to accomplish at best, and at worst, possibly impossible."

"I still want to try", Thorax said,"Even if I spend my whole life doing it and never getting recognition, I could go peacefully knowing that I gave my best effort, and maybe someday, my example will be looked at and ponies and changelings will put aside differences and work together towards a lasting peace."

Celestia smiled at his words.  "I certainly look forward to the day when such a thing could happen" she said with a smile.  Thorax adopted his own smile, glad that the princess shared his optimistic viewpoint.  Then, she said something that caught him off guard: "I believe you can reveal yourself now, sister."

Thorax looked at her in confusion before a cloud of blue smoke suddenly appeared by his side, quickly taking the form of the second alicorn princess Luna, who upon reforming completely into shape, lowered her head to the changeling to look him in the eyes, and simply said "Boo!"

"AAH!" Thorax cried out as he flew backwards and tipped the chair over, rolling a few times behind it after falling out.  Celestia and Luna both laughed as the changeling rose to his hooves and reoriented himself.  "My apologies, dear Thorax", Celestia apologized,"but my sister wished to take advantage of a most prime opportunity to play a prank on a very unsuspecting victim."

Thorax took a moment to recover and compose himself.  Once he had his wits about him, he looked at the two princesses with shock.  "P-Princess Luna was here the whole time?!" he blurted out a bit louder than intended.  A nearby guard heard the commotion and approached with a spear ready.  Celestia raised a hoof and shook her head, telling him through action to resume his previous position.

"Yes, my sister was here this whole time", Celestia answered,"The enchantment she was using to conceal herself works on all but those she allows to see her.  She offered the use of it so as to allow me to confirm for myself as to whether or not you were being truthful in your responses."

"How were you doing that?" Thorax asked, a confused look on his face.

"I asked you a question that Princess Luna asked you last evening, but in a different way.  When you answered, Luna gave me a nod to indicate you gave her the same answer, and thusly demonstrating your truthfulness to us."

"Oh" came Thorax's response.  Luna took a seat on a cushion beside her sister.

"Please, come sit with us" Celestia asked him, using her magic to set the chair back up again.  Thorax slowly walked back to the chair and took his seat.

"Now, you have told us of your desires, which we believe to be true and noble", Celestia continued,"but I do not know much about you other than you were probably at the attempted invasion in Canterlot.  Were you by chance there?"

Thorax shuffled his hooves for a moment, but knew he couldn't lie now.  Besides the fact he wasn't comfortable doing it to begin with, Luna would call him out on it if he tried.  That would also destroy the trust he had from both princesses and fast track him to the dungeons to either starve to death from lack of love, or be a guinea pig in experiments to devise countermeasures for changelings.

"Yes", he finally admitted,"I was in Canterlot during that time."

"You seemed rather hesitant to answer that question", Celestia observed,"Perhaps you did something there that you regret?"

"Not exactly", Thorax replied,"I wish I would've had the courage to defy the queen and not taken part, but I was forced to go.  I never wanted to hurt anypony, and that's why I stayed out of the way, but doing that ensured that others could hurt them in my place.  I should've done something."

"I don't regret being there.  Because I was, I got to see Princess Twilight and her friends, and their strong friendship.  It gave me renewed hope in finding a friend of my own and put me on the path to coming here before you now."

"So, my student is responsible for this change in you?" Celestia asked.

"Not entirely", Thorax answered,"I always wanted to live more peacefully, but seeing her and her friends was the push I needed to try and do more about it, which led to me leaving the hive."

"Please, tell us of your journey through our land" Celestia asked him.  Thorax obliged, and for the next twenty minutes or so, recounting a more fleshed out story than he had previously told Princess Luna, but still containing all of the original information he had shared with her.  By the time he had finished, both princesses wore smiles.

"I fear you may have been born into the wrong body, young Thorax", Celestia observed,"Were there spells to cause a permanent transformation of your species, I would gladly offer it to you, but alas, such a thing is beyond the capability of even our magical talents."

"I would appreciate that", Thorax answered,"but I think I was supposed to be born this way."

"Thou speaks of destiny?" Luna asked.

Thorax nodded.  "It's the only thing I can think of to explain why I am what I am.  Honestly, it's better than what Queen Chrysalis thinks.  She has called me defective more than a few times in my life."

"A kind heart is no defect", Celestia told him,"Clearly your queen carries much malice in her heart, enough that there is no room for any real love.  I hope the rest of your hive is not like that."

"I don't think so", Thorax replied,"The rest of my hive is so hungry, that the attempt to invade was more like setting ravenous timberwolves on Canterlot.  Perhaps if my hivemates weren't so consumed by hunger all the time, they would act differently."

"All the time?" Luna questioned,"Doesn't the queen make sure all her subjects are fed?"

"She says so, but I have my doubts", Thorax answered,"Before the invasion, she siphoned off most of the love for herself.  She said it was necessary to take down the alicorn princess being married."

"That is horrible!", exclaimed Celestia,"A ruler's duty is to see to the needs of her subjects first!"

"I think that's how it should be too", Thorax agreed,"but that's just simply how it is with her.  I hope someday that she either sees the error of her ways, or my hivemates all see her for what she is and remove her from power."

"I wish for a peaceful resolution to that problem", Celestia replied,"but if she truly starves her subjects to make them more willing to follow her plans, I suspect that may take a very long time to change, if it ever would."

"Of course, having an example of the life they could be living without her could serve to motivate the reluctant" Luna then suggested.

"I wish it were so simple", Thorax responded,"but aside from her starving her subjects, she also holds the most power of anyling in the hive.  If even the whole hive were to attempt to overthrow her, she would exterminate all who opposed her with little to no effort whatsoever."

That revelation sent a shiver down both Celestia and Luna's spines.  Clearly Thorax had taken a great risk in leaving his hive and coming as far as he did.  That thought caught Celestia's attention.

"Thorax", she began,"wouldn't your leaving your hive go against Chrysalis' wishes?"

"Normally, yes", he answered,"but she was so convinced of my failure, that she was certain I would perish before seeing even an iota of success, or I would be so disheartened by failure that I would fall in line and come back with stolen love to make up for leaving in the first place."

"So, your queen decided to let you go", Luna postulated,"figuring that you would either perish or fall in line?" Thorax nodded in confirmation.  ,"Won't she be upset if she were to find out you had truly succeeded?"

"More than likely", Thorax admitted,"but any acts she would try to carry out against me would be done as discreetly as possible.  She wouldn't risk putting all of you on high alert like she did when she attempted to invade Canterlot the first time."

"Which brings us to another point; The invasion", Celestia interjected,"Do you perhaps know why she carried out such a risky operation?"

"She claimed that it was to secure food and safety for the hive", Thorax answered,"but I know it was to sate her own lust for power."

"She has ambitions of conquest?" Luna asked.

"Very much", Thorax replied,"She's said many times that she wishes to be in control of every species in this world.  'A changeling should be the rightful ruler of this world', she says."

Celestia and Luna give each other grim looks; They were hoping that there could be some kind of peace accord worked out between the changelings and Equestria, but with Queen Chrysalis as their leader, such efforts would be all but impossible.

"This is... troubling news", Celestia finally spoke,"not for you personally, but for our efforts to establish peace between our two species."

"It seems that the only way a peace could be brokered is if the current leader were deposed", Luna added,"which doesn't look to be happening anytime soon."

"I do apologize for creating such a grim outlook", Thorax responded,"but to say anything else would be outright lying.  Peace for Chrysalis is every creature in this world bowing down to her."

"We do appreciate your honesty with us, Thorax", Celestia told him,"It is a small act, but it accomplishes so much."

"Does this mean you're going to make your decision?" Thorax asked, looking hopeful.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other with concern.  Thorax drooped considerably and his head tilted down to the floor.

"I do apologize, Thorax", Celestia answered him,"but the Crystal Empire is a sovereign territory that is allied with Equestria.  We legally cannot render a decision about your asylum here."

"What we can do", Luna added,"is confer with the rulers here and make them aware of everything you've told us and impress upon them the candidness with which you answered our inquiries.  Ultimately, it is still their decision."

Thorax gave a nod, but was still depressed to hear that it was still no guarantee that he would be allowed to stay here.  He then felt and saw a golden glow lightly grasp his chin and pull his head up, bringing his eyes in line with the sun princess, who wore a soft smile on her face.

"What my sister and I can do", she began,"is offer you this royal decree."  Celestia moved over to the table and grabbed a parchment and quill, and then began writing.  When she was finished, she ushered her sister over, and she looked at the document, then nodded and wrote on it as well.  The two then came back to him with the parchment, then making a gesture to one of the guards.

"Come forth", Celestia commanded,"You are to bear witness."

The guard nodded and moved forward, coming to a stop facing Celestia, Luna and Thorax.  Celestia took a drink of water and cleared her throat.

"It is to be known on this day, by decree of Princess Celestia of the Sun and Princess Luna of the Moon, recognize Thorax the Changeling as being a chosen diplomat of the changeling hive.  He is to come to no harm from citizens of Equestria and no consequence of legal action for past crimes committed in our kingdom."

Celestia then rolled up the scroll and presented it to Thorax, who took it in his hoof.  He looked at it for a few moments, and then looked back up at the two princesses.  "What does this mean?" he asked them.

"It means that you are officially recognized as a diplomat in Equestria." Celestia answered.

"And it grants you protection from any who would wish to bring about legal repercussions for your past actions that you have clearly demonstrated to us you have many regrets about partaking in" added Luna.

Thorax nodded in understand and smiled.  "Thank you" he said to them graciously.

"You have been truthful in your answers and intentions, and it is something we wish to one day see in all of your kind." Celestia responded, and then adopted a more somber look.  "Unfortunately, our time has come to an end.  I shall speak with Princess Cadance and discuss with her all that I have learned from you, and give her my recommendations.  I cannot promise she will agree with my position, but I also cannot say for certain that she will disagree either."

"I shall also present what I have learned from and about you", Luna added,"but I also cannot guarantee what our niece will decide."

Thorax nodded.  "I can't thank the both of you enough for what you're doing", he told them excitedly,"Even knowing I still may not get what I'm looking for, I still choose to hold on to hope.  It's what got me this far to begin with."

Celestia smiled.  "Some say that hope is a dangerous thing, but I know from experience that it is perhaps the best of things.  Keep that hope in your heart Thorax, and stay true to the ways of harmony, and you shall prosper even in your darkest hours."

Celestia then turned to the guard and commanded him "I want you alone to escort Thorax back to Princess Twilight's guest room, and then tell Princess Cadenza to come and meet with Princess Luna and myself."  The guard gave a salute and motioned for Thorax to follow him.  Once they were alone, Luna spoke with her sister.

"We have learned a great deal, sister", she began,"but what do you think our niece will decide once we tell her what we know?"

Celestia thought for a moment before answering.  She turned to face her sister and replied "I don't know, sister.  What I do know is that both Cadance and Shining Armor's hearts are in turmoil because of this event, and I wish them to be healed, especially Cadance."

Celestia then walked over to a window made of stained glass, depicting Cadance and Shining's kiss from the wedding that gave birth to the massive shield that repelled the changeling invasion.

"I have watched our niece from the day I first met her, and her becoming an alicorn.  She has always carried love first and foremost in her heart, which is why I proclaimed her princess of love.  But since her wedding, she has been haunted by the villainy of Chrysalis, and she carries a malice that I don't think she is fully aware of."

"But surely that animosity that lies under the surface is only for changelings, isn't it?" asked Luna.

Celestia shook her head no.  "I fear that it will one day manifest itself into a condition we know as xenophobia - the fear of foreign individuals."

Luna gasped at this assertion.  "Surely you cannot be serious?" Luna questioned, to which Celestia only nodded.

"There are still many territories in this world that Equestria has no positive relations with, and even some that we once did but mistrust of us has ruined.  The Crystal Empire is a territory that we are associated with enough that we have been able to appoint one of our kingdom's princesses to the role of sovereign and the citizens have agreed to it.  However, the empire itself has no allies, and I fear it is because Cadance is afraid of trusting others that she has not established trust in already."

"I wish for Thorax to stay here and prove to her that even those who seem the most untrustworthy can be trusted, and that that can serve as an example for her to begin to trust others, and that she can then establish those friendly relations that are so important for the prosperity of this empire."

"I agree with you sister", Luna concurred,"If Cadance has been hurt by Chrysalis and her actions, then she needs to be healed so that she can become the ruler she was meant to be."

Celestia nodded, and then turned her head to the sound of hooves clip clopping in the hallway outside.  She could see the form of her niece approaching the two from outside the room.  "I believe it is time for us to make our recommendations" she said to Luna, before both moved to greet their niece and fellow princess.
> Part I, Chapter 13 - A Conference Among Princesses
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Cadance strode confidently through the halls of the Crystal Palace on her way to the throne room, but in truth, the mare was quite nervous.  A few minutes ago, she was called there by Princess Celestia and Luna.  They had likely finished their questioning of the changeling that claimed to want peace and friendship with the citizens of her empire and wanted to give her their advice on how she should progress.  In truth, she was hoping that her two seniors would see fit to take him back to Canterlot, and remove the need for her to make a difficult decision.

Since first deciding to consider the request of the changeling to stay here in the Crystal Empire as an asylum seeker, she'd been second guessing the decision nearly every second.  The choice had caused a spat between her and Captain Shining Armor, and he had laid down in an unused set of guest chambers for the night.  The action saddened Cadance, as she did not want to put any kind of wedge between her and her husband.

In addition to the situation with her husband, Cadance had regrets for another reason: Chrysalis.  In spite of the evidence presented to her by Princess Twilight and Spike, as well as Twilight's pupil and a member of her own palace staff, Cadance still had misgivings and a lack of trust.  Sure, she had meant what she said about not believing that the changeling had a desire to cause harm to herself or her subjects, but that didn't mean this couldn't have been some new ploy to subvert or trick the ponies of the Crystal Empire to give up some weakness to be exploited.

She also had lingering regrets related to herself.  In short, she was afraid that her decision could lead to another situation like what happened in the weeks leading up to the wedding.  It was not fun being trapped in the caves beneath Canterlot, but what was worse was being put there and having no way to prevent it.  Worst of all, Cadance had been unable to defend herself, which did not sit well with her.  She was an alicorn, one of the most powerful magical beings in Equestria!  At the very least, she could've cause such a commotion that the royal guards would've noticed.  But in the end, she didn't, and she was trapped and separated from her husband.  The thoughts of that day still haunt her and Shining Armor.

The clip clopping of hooves against floor soon turned to hoof-falls against carpet, telling Cadance without looking that she was approaching the throne room.  She looked up to spot both Princess Celestia and Luna sitting at a table and talking over something, most likely what information they had gotten from the changeling during their interrogation.  Both looked up and spotted her as she was approaching them.

"Hello, dear Cadance", Celestia greeted her warmly,"I trust you are doing well?"

"Yes", Luna added,"we also hope that you are in good spirits."

Cadance hesitated for a moment before deciding that being truthful was the best course of action.  "I am for the most part", she began,"but this recent series of events has left me feeling very unsure."

Celestia frowned at that remark.  "Yes, I can understand how things at the moment are somewhat turbulent", she admitted,"but that doesn't mean that they will not improve."

"Yes, that's true" Cadance answered back.  In her mind, she was hoping for something she could consider good news.  "So, I believe you want to discuss the current situation with me, correct?"

Celestia and Luna both nodded.  "Please, sit with us" Celestia invited Cadance.  The pink alicorn took a seat at a third chair seated at the table.  A cup of tea was presented to her.  She took a sip and found the drink a bit too hot for her liking, so she placed it back on its saucer to cool for a moment.

"I suppose we should start with the conversation we had with Thorax", Celestia began,"To summarize it, we learned of his journey here to the empire and his stated intentions, as well as a little bit of insight into the world he is leaving behind.  I can honestly say, and can also speak on behalf of my sister, that Thorax holds no ill intentions towards the Crystal Empire, or Equestria as a whole.  I see no reason for any to refuse his request for asylum."

Cadance couldn't quite believe her ears.  Both Celestia and Luna believed him?

"How can you be sure that what he says is the truth?" Cadance asked, a slight panic in her tone.

Luna answered,"Because we have spoken with him both the waking world and the dreamscape.  It is in that place that nopony can hide anything from me, for their subconscious mind is laid bare before me."

"But what about plots against Equestria?!", she countered, sounding a little more panicked,"Surely there's been times in the past when creatures had designs against Equestria like the changelings and acted upon them, catching us by surprise.  How can you be sure he isn't hiding something?!"

"Cadance, please calm yourself", Luna continued,"I know that there are creatures that have carried out attacks against our kingdom like the changelings, but that is because even with all the power I have, I cannot visit every dream in our world every night.  That is why my main focus is on the nightmares of our subjects that can cause them harm."

"On those occasions I come across one that has designs like you described, I simply make note of them and tell the guard to monitor them in an obvious way.  That way, those that might act will be discouraged from doing so, and if worst comes to worst, then we know what they plan and can stop it before they can make their first move."

"In regards to Thorax, he has no ill designs like you speak of.  When I found him in the dream realm, he was having a night terror, and a bad one at that.  He was in his old home in the changeling hive, and being attacked by other changelings that called him a traitor.  Then their queen showed up and... drained him."

Luna shivered as she recalled that last part.  Seeing the act that had been described to her made it much worse.  She continued speaking.

"I spoke with him and placed an enchantment on him to detect whether he was being truthful or not, and he had been truthful the whole time, not once denying or trying to hide anything.  He spoke of wanting friends and to live amongst us peacefully, partaking of freely given love and returning it through kind gestures and friendship.  He speaks in much the way I expect one of our subjects to, and he does so genuinely."

"B-But how can you still be so s-sure?!" Cadance continued to ask, now sounding more panicked.  In truth, there was a reason for it; she was becoming convinced the changeling brainwashed the two leaders.  Celestia noticed this and lit up her horn, casting a spell to calm the anxiety welling up in Cadance.

"My dearest niece" Celestia addressed Cadance,"You have much anxiety and fear left in you from the day of your wedding and how poorly it went, but that is in the past and something you should let go of.  Learn from it, but do not dwell on it."

The spell began to take effect, and Cadance had calmed considerably, but she was still suffering from a considerable amount of anxiety.  "How can you be sure?" she continued to question.

Celestia and Luna both looked at each other with uncertainty, but Celestia elected to speak first.  "When we spoke with Thorax, we sensed nothing but fear.  He had genuinely thought that we were going to either lock him in the dungeons or..."  Celestia paused for a moment, a small tear falling down her cheek, but then concluded with,"put him to death."

Cadance gasped upon hearing that; Never in her life could she recall even hearing of something like that carried out in Equestria.  The only way she knew of what that was was because of the history of the griffons, who often carried out that practice with either their worst criminals or deposed kings.  The thought that Princess Celestia would be thought by any to carry out so severe a punishment made a cold shiver run up her back.

"Of course, I would never carry out such a despicable course of action", Celestia continued,"As far as the dungeons, I would have to consider whether or not that was an appropriate punishment, and in this case, I don't believe a punishment is needed."

Cadance looked at the princess with wide eyes.  No punishment?  The creatures that destroyed portions of Canterlot, and panicked the citizens to the point of having nightmares for weeks on end?

Celestia could read her niece's thoughts and gave an answer to them before she could ask.  "I know what you are thinking, and I understand that you wish to see justice done to those who have wronged you.  I too wish to see Queen Chrysalis brought to justice for all she did to you, your husband, and all the other ponies in Canterlot.  However, this particular changeling has shown amity and kindness to us, and we believe that should be rewarded with both amity and kindness."

Cadance shuddered hearing that harlot's name again.  Old memories that she would rather see buried came back up to the surface, causing her to grimace.  Luna took note of this and stepped in.

"We do not mean to bring up bad memories for you, but our point stands", Luna told Cadance,"Thorax has committed no hostile acts towards us, your subjects, your friends, and even yourself and your husband.  Therefore, we cannot justify a punitive action against him."

Cadance stood looking at the two and was undecided whether they were themselves or not.  Celestia saw the confusion in her eyes and decided to get to the point that both had been trying to make.

"Cadance", she began,"Thorax has done nothing to wrong us, as my sister has told you.  If you cannot understand why we are speaking of him in a positive light, then perhaps I should explain it a little better."

Celestia poured another cup of tea from the pot and put a lemon wedge in it before taking a sip and continuing.

"This changeling represents an opportunity for you here and now.  If you decide to treat him with the same amity he has shown you, then you have a chance to bridge the gap between ponies and changelings, and give all of us some insight into why that have done what they have done, and if there is something we can do to bring about a mutual existence."

"The choice to shun him and send him away is also there as well, but I discourage it greatly.  The one lesson I cannot teach you is forgiveness.  That is a lesson one can only learn on their own, but I am pointing out that opportunity lies before you now.  And the best way to begin that lesson is to take a leap of faith."

Cadance blinked for a moment before simply saying "A leap of faith?"

"Yes", Celestia responded,"A leap of faith.  A small amount of trust that serves as the seed to grow into a new relationship between two sides that were once at odds with each other.  If Equestria did not take any leaps of faith, we would have no allies."

"A mistrust of dragons would not have allowed us to make peace and establish safe travel through their territories, no confidence in the griffons would have us constantly fighting at their border and ours because of territorial disputes, and no faith in the yaks to hear our words of peace wouldn't have permitted us to receive their aid in setting up a rail system to this empire."

"Putting faith in those you seek peace with is a very important step to forging allies, and sadly, the incident in Canterlot has stunted your ability to do as such.  This situation here and now is not only a chance to make new allies, but also a chance for you to heal.  Don't you want to learn to trust again?"

Cadance took a moment to digest everything her aunt had told her, and she knew then and there that she was right.  The princess of love had trouble trusting.

Ever since her wedding day, she could not bring herself to trust her husband.  She would only do so after he proved he was who he was, and would always question him whenever he left the room and came back in.  Things had improved, but she still had the occasional moment of doubt that her husband was her husband.

The same kind of mistrust when to her friends and family too.  She often wondered if they were who they claimed to be.  Even after doing their "Sunshine and Ladybugs" dance, Twilight was still suspected, even if in the back of Cadance's mind.

All that mistrust was bad, but the cherry on top was in political situations.  The Crystal Empire had no actual allies besides Equestria.  Cadance and Shining had not even had a state dinner to host dignitaries and open up lines of communication.  Cadance had had the thought to do so once before, but Shining dissuaded her, claiming that they needed to make sure their empire was safe and secure before extending a hoof to make new allies.  That moment, had been shortly after they took over the empire.

"So, you put faith in this changeling that it tells the truth?" Cadance finally responded.

Celestia and Luna both nodded.  "Yes Cadance", began Celestia,"We believe him to be telling us the truth."

"And We do not just believe, but know for a fact, that this changeling is telling us the truth" added Luna.

Cadance looked down at her tea before taking a sip, then set down the cup and let out a breath.  "Okay", she said to them,"I'll trust that he is telling the truth, since you've both put so much faith in him."

Celestia gave a reluctant smile upon hearing that.  Luna gave no reaction on her face, but was disappointed that her niece was acting in such a way.  Of course, neither of the two could hold her feelings against her; trauma such as what the princess of love had went through was tough to move past, perhaps even impossible in some cases.

Cadance then asked the next question.  "What do you think I should do?"

Celestia and Luna both looked at each other for a few moments before Celestia chose to answer.  "We think you should do what you feel in your heart is right.  The only thing we do ask is that you consider the merits of the individual, and not the past actions of the group as a whole."

Cadance looked at her with confusion.  "You... want me to 'consider'?"

"Yes", Luna replied this time,"We want you to consider only what you've seen from Thorax since being here.  Try to put Canterlot out of your mind as much as possible.  I realize that will be difficult, but to make a good and sound decision, a princess or ruler must keep as many of their own personal feelings out of their decision making process as possible."

"Agreed", addd Celestia,"It is wise to trust what your heart tells you, but also allow your mind to guide it to the right decision."

Cadance nodded, but then sat in her chair looking down at her cup of tea, an uncomfortable look upon her face.  Luna picked up on the problem immediately.  "There is something troubling you?", she asked,"Something that has little or nothing to do with the changelings, correct?"

Cadance looked up from her cup in surprise, but then looked away and nodded her head.  "I'm afraid" she answered.

"What scares you?" Celestia asked.

Cadance took a breath and then gave her explanation.  "I'm afraid of what is going to happen.  I am afraid of making the wrong choice, but it feels like no matter what choice I make, it will be the wrong one.  I want to be viewed as a strong leader, but not a cruel one, and banishing or imprisoning the changeling could send that message.  But on the other hoof, I fear allowing him to stay will drive a wedge between Shining and myself, and I don't want to lose my husband over this."

The last sentence was followed by Cadance hiding her face as she began sobbing.  Celestia and Luna looked at each other with somber faces, but both knew what the best advice to give her was.

"Cadance, you rule this empire with your husband as well, even if most actual authority rests with you.  When it comes time to make your decision, let him be part of it.  Hear his arguments and consider their merits, and craft a solution that you both can come to an agreement on."

"Yes", Luna agreed,"your husband should have a say in this choice as well.  He is captain of the royal guard, and this decision will impact the citizens that he is meant to protect."

Cadance took a napkin and wiped the tears from her face.  When she looked up, her eyes looked a little pinker than normal.  "Okay", she agreed,"I think I know what I must do.  If you'll excuse me, I need to get my husband so that we can discuss what we should do together."

"Of course, but if you'll excuse us", Celestia said as she stood up,"I believe my sister and I have been desiring to partake of the Crystal Empire's cuisine for some time now, and this seems the perfect opportunity for us to try some of the restaurants."

The three rulers all bowed to each other as Celestia and Luna both left.  Cadance made a gesture to a few members of the castle staff, and the table, chairs and tea set were all taken away.  She then gave a command to the nearest guard to go find her husband and tell him to meet her in the throne room, and to inform the palace staff that the imperial court was suspended for today for reasons of security.

After about fifteen minutes, Shining Armor was walking into the throne room.  He was in his dress uniform, a similar design to the one he wore during their wedding but without as many gold embellishments.  "You wanted to speak with me?" he asked his wife.

"Yes", Cadance replied, grabbing a set of parchment and an ink and quill set,"We both have a decision to make."
> Part I, Chapter 14 - The Empire's Decision (PART I FINALE)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax now found himself walking back towards the throne room he had been in only a few hours ago.  Around him were a squad of guards, all with spears trained on him lest he choose to do something hostile.  Of course, he had no intention of that sort, but the guards did not trust him in the slightest.  The changeling silently wondered if that was an indication of the kind of outcome he should expect from this scenario playing out.

As he walked, he distracted himself with thoughts of the conversation that he'd been having with his friends in the princess's guest room.  Thorax had to give a small chuckle, which put the guards more on edge than they already were.  Two days ago, if somepony had told him that he have four friends and he'd be pleading a case for asylum in a territory governed by the two ponies whose lives he'd had the most negative impact upon, he'd have called them insane.  Most ponies would agree, because any reaction to an undisguised changeling besides either being hostile or just outright running in fear could be called insane.

"KEEP WALKING!", the lead guard shouted,"NO FUNNY BUSINESS!"  Thorax flinched upon the spear being thrust towards his face, but did nothing else.  Even if he was told no and made to leave the empire, he'd prefer to do it without injury.  He simply kept quiet as he approached the throne room, and most likely his future.





Princess Cadance sat nervously on her throne as she waited for the crystal guards to bring the changeling before her.  Not long before, she and her husband, with input and clarification from all three of the other princesses of Equestria, had made a decision regarding the changeling.  It took into account both Shining Armor and her own viewpoints and was a great example of compromise.

Unfortunately, while Shining had agreed to it, he had no desire to be present when the decision was read aloud.  He simply excused himself to attend to his guards and gave no more comment on the current situation.  This bothered Cadance a bit, as she hoped her husband would stay with her while she read out the decision, but she couldn't fault him entirely for not wanting to be present.  They both had a hard time coming to a decision, and Shining wasn't thrilled to learn that Celestia had granted the changeling immunity from being punished for the Canterlot invasion, so the ability to throw him in a dungeon for that was off the table.

As she waited, Cadance reviewed the documents and made sure all the Ts were crossed and the Is were dotted.  Seeing nothing out of place, she averted her gaze out the large windows of the throne room, watching some of the birds flying about in the air, and the odd pegasus going about their day as well.

After a few more minutes, Cadance heard the rhythmic clopping of a squad of guards.  Looking to the door, she saw the group approaching the throne room.  They were all holding spears towards the center of the group, where a black chitin coated changeling was walking in time with them, presumably to avoid being poked with a spear.

"Guards", Cadance addressed the group,"You may resume your posts.  Thorax, please step forward."

The guards looked apprehensive, but obeyed and resumed their position on either side of the red carpet approaching the throne.  Thorax nervously and cautiously made his way towards the throne, where a chair and table had been placed in front the dais it sat upon.  On the table was an inkwell with a single quill resting inside of it.  Thorax had walked up to the table and paused, assuming this was as far as he should go.

"Sit down, Please" Cadance commanded, indicating a chair in front of the table.  He took his seat and looked at the princess with both anxiousness and nervousness.  Cadance took notice of this and did one final check of the documents before her.  Once she was sure that everything was in order, she looked at him and spoke.

"Thorax", she began,"You have come here to the Crystal Empire with a proclaimed desire for asylum and to live peacefully amongst my subjects.  You have giving support to your claims: Spike the Dragon, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, and Heartfelt Sentiment, and both Princess Celestia and Luna.  Each has claimed that the asylum you seek would be to prevent persecution based on personal beliefs.  We have heard their arguments in support of you and have taken into account the fact that you are a changeling and, according to several of those testifying on your behalf, were present during the attempted invasion of the city of Canterlot."

"After careful consideration and deliberation, we have reached a decision on the matter of your asylum."

Thorax fidgeted in his seat.  His nerves were building up inside him.  In just moments, he would find out whether or not he would get the chance to make his dream a reality, or if he was doomed to living what life he had left in the darkest dungeon they could find.  He held his breath as he waited.

"We have decided...", Cadance continued,"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Cadance sat for a moment, fidgeting slightly, apparently nervous about what she was going to say.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... That on a probationary and provisional basis, we will permit you to stay in the Crystal Empire."

Thorax sat there for a moment.  He didn't know how to react.  A part of him wanted to jump into the air and scream for joy at the words "permit you to stay", but he was wary because of the words "probationary and provisional" that came before it.  Cadance went on to explain the full decision.

"For the next six months, you will be allowed to stay here in the empire, but there are terms you must agree to and follow to stay here during that time."

Cadance then levitated a paper to her face so she could read it.

"Firstly, you will be confined to the palace until we determine you can be allowed outside, and certain areas inside the palace will also be considered off limits.  Second, you will be under 24/7 supervision of a guard, a request Luna was happy to assist with by providing a squad of her night guard to stay here during the next six months.  Also, you will be placed in restraints that will allow you movement, but will severely inhibit your ability to cause harm to my subjects.  However, I warn you now that if you should try something hostile, we will shred this agreement and you will find yourself in the dungeons faster than you can swear to whatever higher power you would swear to."

Thorax gulped at that.  He had no intention of harming anypony, but that threat was an effective deterrent from even considering the thought.  Princess Cadance concluded with the last term.

"Finally, we make a request of you to complete 1,000 hours community service as a show of good faith.  It will be carried out with our cleaning staff, who will be made aware of your situation and trained in how to deal with you should you become unruly.  Most of them are unicorns, so we will be able to teach them spells that will be effective to use on you."

"If you agree to these terms, you may sign at the bottom of this document."  As she finished speaking, Cadance levitated the papers to the table in front of Thorax and a glow formed around a line at the bottom of the paper.  Looking at it, Thorax saw that it was more or less what the princess had read off to him.  Near the bottom, there were a few lines with signatures above them.  One he recognized was Cadance's, which was fairly loopy and finished with a heart after the last E.  The other, belonging to Shining Armor, had been not only hastily done, but with so much force that it actually tore the paper at parts.  Thorax took a second to think about the document, then decided he needed clarification.

"Um, Princess", he began,"I have some questions, if I can ask them."

Cadance looked at him for a moment, then nodded.  "Go ahead."

"Okay.  The first one is the restraints.  What does that mean?"

Cadance floated a document that had a pegasus pony on it, as well as some arrows pointing at different places.  Gesturing with a pointer, she indicated different places.  "The restraints will start with a magic inhibiting ring on your horn, to keep you from using any magic we deem to be harmful to our subjects.  Basic levitation will be permitted to allow you to perform the duties of cleaning the palace, but will be so diminished as to prevent you from using any type of weapon.  After that is a belt around your barrel to hold your wings down, then a pair of horseshoes that will have soft soles to keep you from physically hurting a pony, but enchanted to not slide on the floor when it's wet.  Last will be a muzzle over your mouth to keep you from biting anypony.  A lot perhaps, but hopefully we only have to do this for peace of mind and not to stop an actual threat."

The last part had been spoken with a little bit of an edge to it, likely to dissuade any thoughts of actually trying to cause harm.  Thorax read over the document again, and then saw something he skipped over the first time, but surprised him a great deal.

"You're going to permit me to feed?" he asked, not quite believing what he had read.  Cadance looked wide eyed for a second, but then she remembered that part of the terms.

"Yes", she confirmed,"For two half hour periods, once in the morning and once in the evening, you will be permitted to feed on the excess love of the empire.  You will be taken to a designated location and the suppression ring will be removed so as to allow you to feed.  However, should you attempt to feed directly on anypony, the deal we have here is null and void, and we will turn you over to the princesses in Canterlot for them to judge what punishment you face."

Thorax gulped, but nodded in understanding.  He then went on to read further into the document and saw something else to catch his eye.  "I'm getting a teacher?"

"Yes", she answered,"We have no idea of your intellect, so our crystaller has agreed to instruct you in any non-sensitive matters in regards to living here.  You'll have one two-hour session each day from noon to two o'clock.  While he has the majority of control over what he will teach you, my husband and I will have final say over his curriculum."

Thorax nodded and continued reading over the agreement.  When he finished, he did it again, and again.  Each time, he smiled just a little bigger.  After about the fourth time rereading the document, he looked up at Cadance with hopeful eyes.  "This is real?" he asked her.

"Yes" she replied.

"Really real?"

"Yes."

"So, the minute I sign this, I can stay?"

"If you sign on the line at the bottom, the document becomes official, which means you are granted the probationary asylum.  So, yes, you'll be allowed to stay."

Upon hearing that, Thorax had a large smile on his face and a tear down his cheek.  Without any further words, Thorax lifted the quill out of the inkwell, wiped away the excess ink, and scrawled his name on the paper.

Cadance watched the event happening before her with a shocked expression.  Upon hearing about the restraints and all of the security around him, she had expected the changeling to refuse and be taken away.  Instead, the exact opposite happened, and the fact that this changeling was now an accepted part of the Crystal Empire sunk in.  "Shining really isn't going to like this" she thought to herself.

Thorax put the quill back in the inkwell and looked back up at Cadance.  The princess looked on at him in shock, and he could feel a great deal of emotions coursing through her, namely anxiety and fear.  He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he was cut short by the princess taking the paper and rolling it up and sealing it with a seal that bore her cutie mark on it.

"Take this to the records hall and have it processed", she told a servant that had been standing off to the side and out of sight of Thorax,"and speak not a word of this until I make an official announcement."  The servant nodded and quickly left out a side door.  Cadance then gestured for a group of guards to come forward.

"I want you to take him to the smithing shop so that we can have the restraints placed on him", she ordered,"Make sure the enchanter is down there as well.  I want everything taken care of before ten tonight."

"Yes ma'am!" the guard replied, then prodded Thorax with a spear to get him to move.  Thorax took a few steps forward, but then stopped.

"Princess" he began to address Cadance, but was cut off by a guard getting into his face and starting to yell to keep moving.  Cadance waved her hoof at him.

"It's alright, guard", she told him, then asked Thorax,"What is it you wish to say?"

Thorax took a breath before responding.  "I know that wasn't an easy choice for you to make, but before I leave, I just wanted to say... Thank you."

Cadance was taken by surprise, but only nodded in acknowledgement before gesturing for the guards to take him.  The group moved out of the throne room and down the hall, stern eyes trained on the changeling in the center, who had a large grin on his face.

While it wasn't exactly how he hoped things to go, it was a step in the direction he wanted to be going in.  For the first time in his life, he had found some acceptance, and he finally got to hear the words he had been hoping to hear from ponies since he started his journey so long ago.

You can stay.
> Part II, Chapter 1 - Settling In
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hours following Thorax being granted asylum went by in a flash for the changeling.  As soon as the formalities were out of the way, he was once again escorted at spear point to the smithing forges so he could be fitted for a ring.  Once he was fitted and the ring made, an enchanter enchanted the ring so that Thorax would only be able to use basic telekinesis, and also one to prevent him from using any magic in a hostile manner.

The sensation of the ring on his horn felt unusual for a couple reasons.  Firstly, he had never had anything placed on his horn before.  Second, the effects of the enchantment were like having one of his senses turned off.  Thorax could no longer feel emotions from other ponies, and had to guess their emotional states based on their body language.  "Just like a pony" Thorax thought to himself.

After the ring was placed, a leather strap with a buckle was placed around his barrel, preventing him from using his wings and keeping them pinned to his side.  Then came a set of black horseshoes on his hooves that would prevent him from doing serious harm to ponies; The most he could do would be to give an unarmored pony some bruises.  The shoes were then enchanted to be both very soft and would resist slipping on wet surfaces like a freshly washed floor.  Lastly, he was given a muzzle so that he wouldn't be able to bite any creature with his fangs.  The task now completed, Thorax was effectively rendered harmless.

After all of the restraints were in place, Thorax was led through the castle towards the servant's quarters.  Instead of a large group of guards, he was only led by two unicorn guards with spears floating by their sides at the ready.  Once they reached the servant's quarters, they led him to the back to a small room.

Inside the small room was a unicorn mare.  She had white fur, a bluish-white mane which was pulled back into a bun, icy blue eyes, and had a cutie mark of a bottle.  As Thorax entered the room, he could tell the mare was not pleased with him being there.  She proceeded to address him in a rather curt manner.

"Listen, bug", she spat at him,"I don't know what kind of con job you pulled, but you got your little wish granted, so you best be grateful for that.  But if you think for one second that you're just gonna do as you please here, then you're sadly mistaken!"

"You will be awake and ready to work by 8 am every day, and you will obey every single one of my orders, and if you slack off for even one second, I will make sure you regret ever asking to stay here in the empire.  Am I understood?"

Thorax nodded his head, but was met with a sharp spell to his snout.

"YES MADAM AMMONIA!" she shouted at him.

"Y-YES MADAM AMMONIA!" he replied, flinching in reaction to her yelling.

"If this is what I have to look forward to, then I doubt you last the first week."

With that last comment, she simply pushed past Thorax and left the room.

The interaction did nothing to bolster Thorax's confidence whatsoever.  If this was what he could expect of the ponies he'd be interacting with on a regular basis, then he had a much more uphill climb than he thought.

Then, he remembered all of the friends he'd made in just one day.  Spike, Heartfelt, Starlight, and Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship herself.

"I can't be so easily discouraged!", he told himself,"I knew starting out that this wasn't going to be easy, but that doesn't mean that things won't get better!  I just have to keep believing!"

A coughing brought his attention to a guard, who was glaring at him disapprovingly.  "What Madam Ammonia forgot to tell you is that lights go out at ten",the guard told him,"and you're stuck here for the rest of the night, so no funny business, or else!"  He punctuated the last remark by firmly thrusting his spear towards Thorax, but not nearly close enough to do actual damage.

Thorax flinched upon the guard making the stabbing gesture, but calmed after realizing he wasn't about to be skewered.  Once calm enough, he gave a nod which seemed to placate, though annoy the guard who threatened him.  He then took a seat on the bed in the room and examined his new home.

The room was an interior room that lacked any windows; likely a conscious choice to prevent any possible attempts for him to escape.  A single door was the only access point, with the guard standing in front of it to keep Thorax inside.  Besides the bed he was sitting on, Thorax took note of a writing desk with a stack of blank parchment and an inkwell with a quill sticking out of it.  A few more quills were sticking out of a cubby hole on the desktop.

As Thorax examined the room, a knocking on the door caught his attention.  The door then opened to reveal a familiar purple alicorn, along with a lilac colored unicorn and purple dragon.  Thorax jumped up from the bed and proceeded to bow.

"Princess Twilight!", He exclaimed,"Starlight! Spike! What are you all doing here?"

"We wanted to see you before we went to bed for the night", answered Twilight,"and please don't bow Thorax.  I would never make a friend bow to me."

"I know you consider me a friend, and I am very grateful for that", Thorax acknowledged,"but you are still a princess, and I will always respect that title."

"I appreciate that Thorax, but it really isn't necessary", Twilight responded,"Anyways, we wanted to tell you that we unfortunately have to leave to return home tomorrow."

Thorax frowned.  "I wasn't expecting you all to be leaving so soon."

"I wish we could stay for longer too", she replied,"but I have duties to attend to back in Ponyville, and I also want to tell my friends about you too.  I might even be able to convince them to come back with me to meet you."

Thorax perked up upon hearing the word friends.  "When you say friends, do you mean...?"

Twilight nodded.  "Yep.  The other five elements."

Thorax had a rather large smile on his face.  Ever since Canterlot, he had been motivated to accomplish his goal of finding friends by the example they had unknowingly set for him.  Getting the chance to meet them for real would be a dream come true.

Twilight's smile faltered slightly before she added,"Of course, I am gonna have to give them the heads up about you being a changeling.  None of them are too fond of changelings after what happened in Canterlot.

Thorax's spirits were dampened a little by that remark.  "I certainly hope they can at least give me the chance to show that I'm not like the rest of the hive."

Twilight put a hoof to his shoulder and gave him a smile.  "I'm sure I can convince them to do that at least." she reassured him.

The sound of Starlight clearing her throat caught both Thorax and Twilight's attention.  "I hate to interrupt the conversation, but it is getting late and we should get to bed before the lights go out."

Twilight looked towards a clock Thorax hadn't noticed before and her eyes widened slightly.  "Wow", she said,"I didn't realize it was getting that late.  We should be getting up to bed.  We'll make sure to come down and see you before we leave."

"I'll be looking forward to it", replied Thorax.

Twilight smiled at Thorax and moved back.  Spike, who had been standing off to one side, stepped forward towards his friend.  He had a look of displeasure on his face.

"Can't say I'm a fan of all the gear you're wearing" he said with a slight displeasure in his voice.

"I'm not wild about it either", Thorax admitted,"but if it's what I have to do to demonstrate that I do want to live here peacefully among the crystal ponies, then that's what I have to do."

"Well, I still don't like it" Spike reiterated.

"Well, hopefully it won't be too long before he's proven how unnecessary they are and Cadance will agree to removing them", Twilight said reassuringly, then produced a scroll from a small set of saddle bags on her back,"Now, I believe you wanted to give this to Thorax?"

Spike took the scroll from Twilight and offered it to Thorax.  "This is our mailing address in Ponyville", he explained,"Anytime you want to write us a letter, just write the address on the corner of the envelope and the mail ponies will make sure it gets delivered to us."

Thorax smiled upon hearing he would have a way to communicate with his friends, but frowned slightly when he realized something.  "I've never written a letter before" he admitted.

"Oh", Spike said, but then smiled,"It's easy.  Just write down what you want to tell me, put it in an envelope with our address on it, and then take it to the post office for them to deliver it to us."

"Okay", Thorax replied,"but I won't be able to send you any letters for six months at least, since I'm not allowed to leave the castle yet."

"Maybe Sunburst would be willing to mail the letters for you?" Starlight offered.

"Who's Sunburst?" asked Thorax.

"He's an old friend of mine", Starlight answered,"He was named the royal crystaller when he helped fix the Crystal Heart."

"The Crystal Heart?" Thorax questioned.

Twilight butted in and almost went full teacher mode.  "The Crystal Heart is the large magic gem at the base of the palace.  It has powerful magic that keeps the empire protected from the harsh weather that the frozen north provides.  Last time we were here, Flurry actually broke it by accident."

Thorax blinked.  "The newborn filly?" he questioned,"She broke the Crystal Heart?"

Starlight giggled.  "She has a good set of lungs on her.  I think she may get a special talent in singing when she gets older."

Thorax was confused for a moment, but then a random thought popped into his head: Traveling through Manehattan, he had seen advertisements for an opera singer whose voice was supposedly so powerful, it could shatter crystal glass.  Apparently, little Flurry had that ability as well.  "Oh, I get it", he said in understanding,"She has a strong voice."

Starlight nodded.  "Anyways, Sunburst agreed to evaluate you on what stuff you know and what he needs to teach you to be able to live among ponies.  I'm sure if you ask him, he'll agree to send the letters for you."

"Won't he be afraid of me?" Thorax questioned.

"Actually", Starlight responded,"I think he's really eager to meet you.  He told me that he was going to come down here in a bit to introduce himself properly."

Thorax smiled upon hearing that there was a pony that was actually looking forward to meeting him.  It was a nice change from so many opting to run and hide at the sight of him.  That thought made Thorax frown.

"What's wrong?" Starlight asked.

"I'm just thinking about the road ahead of me", Thorax replied,"I'm glad to hear that Sunburst seems so eager to meet me, but I know most ponies are going to take some time to warm up to me."

"That's the important part to remember, Thorax", Starlight told him reassuringly,"It might take some time, but ponies will warm up to you.  Just have confidence in yourself.  I mean, look how far you've come already."

She did have a point.  The day before yesterday, he had nopony to call a friend.  Now, he had four friends, and he was in the Crystal Empire with permission to stay, even if for just six months.  It was more than he would've ever thought he'd have at all.  The thought made him smile.  At that moment, a thought popped into his mind.

"What happened to Heartfelt?", he asked.

Twilight and Starlight traded nervous glances before Twilight gave a response.  "Cadance and Shining Armor punished him for not telling them where you were when he found out.  I argued for him to have some leniency, but he still has to do about a month's worth of community service.  At the very least, he won't be serving any time in a prison."

"Oh", Thorax replied, "Well, I suppose that's not as bad as it could've been."

"None of that is your fault, Thorax", Starlight said reassuringly,"Heartfelt made his own choice."

"I know", he responded,"I'm just afraid of what will happen afterwards.  He could lose his job after this."

Twilight grimaced a little upon realizing that that could still happen, but offered reassurance.  "That's true, but even if that did happen, I know there are plenty of places in Equestria where his services would be in demand.  He wouldn't be hurting for a job if it came to that."

Thorax nodded, the words giving him hope that things would turn out better for his friend.  Before he could say anything else, Spike let out a loud yawn.

"Well", Twilight began while smirking,"I believe it's time for some little dragon to go to bed."  Spike was about to protest, but he realized that there wouldn't be any point, and he was getting pretty worn out from the day that all of them had.

"Well, thank you all for coming to see me", Thorax told them,"I hope I'll get to see you all before you leave."

"You will", Twilight told him,"We'll make sure of it."  With that, the two mares and dragon each gave Thorax a hug and left to go back to the guest suite.  Thorax sat back down on the bed and looked back up at the clock.  He guessed it was about 9:30?  He wasn't too good with reading pony clocks, or any clocks for that matter.  The only time he ever needed to keep was his own internal clock.

Several knocks resonated off the door.  It opened to reveal a unicorn stallion that Thorax was somewhat familiar with.  He was colored auburn, with splotches of gray-white in different places, and was wearing a pair of spectacles and cape.  It was the same pony that was keeping watch of Flurry Heart earlier in the throne room.

"H-Hello", the stallion greeted nervously,"I-I'm Sunburst."  He then proceeded to offer his hoof to Thorax.  The changeling sat there for a moment trying to decide what to do.  He then decided to get up off the bed and bump his hoof against Sunburst's.

"It's nice to finally meet you properly this time", he began,"I'm Thorax."

"Y-yes", Sunburst responded,"W-Well, I'm going to be teaching you some things while you're here, and also testing you to see what kind of aptitudes you have.  Honestly, I'm a little excited to be doing this."

"Really?", Thorax said while raising an eyebrow,"You seem rather nervous?"

Sunburst looked at him for a moment, and then let out a breath.  "Yeah, I am", he admitted,"I wasn't in Canterlot when the invasion happened, but I heard it was rather awful, especially the stories from the ponies that were attacked and had love taken from them."

Thorax winced upon hearing this; That day in Canterlot was the biggest hurdle to overcome if he wanted the friends and acceptance he so desperately craved.  If it was having this kind of effect on ponies that had no direct involvement in it, he could only imagine what those who were involved were going through.  "Perhaps I can talk to somepony about trying to help those ponies somehow" Thorax thought to himself.

"W-Well", Sunburst continued while still sounding nervous,"I'm going to be heading to bed soon, so I figured I would stop by to introduce myself properly and ask you if you have any questions."

Thorax thought for a moment and then remembered what Spike and Starlight had told him.  He presented a scroll to Sunburst.  "Spike told me I could send letters to that address to communicate with him, but I don't have a way to send them to him.  Starlight said you might be willing to send my letters along with your own letters to her.  Can you do that?"

"O-Of course!", Sunburst replied,"That's no problem at all!  I'd be happy to send letters for you."

"Thank you", Thorax said to him,"It means a lot to be able to communicate with my first ever friend.  Perhaps as time goes on, maybe we could become friends?"

"M-Maybe", Sunburst replied,"b-but we'll have to see.  I'll be in the library tomorrow when we have our first lesson.  I'll make sure to give you an old pair of saddlebags so you can carry the books I'll be giving you with you."

"You're giving me books?" Thorax asked.

"Well, not so much give as loan", Sunburst clarified,"I figure that the time you're not using for the community service can be used to study.  There's also some good novels I can loan you so you don't get bored."

"That sounds like a lot" Thorax said.

"It won't be so bad", Sunburst said reassuringly,"Take as much time as you need with them, and return them when you're finished.  In truth, they're the library's property, but I'm taking them out on my account.  I have an agreement with the librarian so that I may keep the books longer than would normally be allowed."

"Okay?" Thorax replied, not sounding too confident.  Sunburst then let out a yawn and looked at the clock.

"Wow, it's almost ten", Sunburst observed,"I really need to be going.  Get a good night's sleep and I'll see you tomorrow."  With that, the stallion gave a rather quick trot out of the room.

Thorax walked back over to the bed and saw the clock was now reading 9:55.  Soon, the lights would go out and he would have to try and get some sleep.  At the moment, he felt rather tired, but also so full of energy.  He had some interesting past two days: Meeting every current princess in Equestria, having his nightmare thwarted by Princess Luna herself, making his very first ever friends, and being given an asylum, even if only temporarily.

A final knocking that evening caught his attention as the door opened to reveal what Thorax assumed was another guard, but looked very different.  They had slitted eyes like a cat and fangs similar to his own.  The new guard made a salute to the other already in the room, who returned it and face Thorax.

"This is one of the Lunar Guard that Princess Luna has loaned us to keep watch of you.  He's been given orders not to speak to you unless you attempt to provoke him or do something that isn't behaving like the good little bug you're pretending to be.  Got it?"

Thorax gulped and nodded.

"Good" the guard replied, then turned to face the Lunar Guard.  "You'll be relieved of duty when it's time for this thing to start his community service.  Keep your spear at the ready in case he tries something.  Stay alert and good night."  The guard left the room and closed the door behind him.  True to what he said, the new guard said nothing, but glared at Thorax with almost hungry looking eyes.  
Thorax did his best to ignore this and looked at the clock, now reading 9:58.  He elected to try and sleep, so he laid down in the bed and looked up at the clock.  True to what he was told, when the clock struck ten, the lights all fizzled out and left the room in darkness.

Though, it wasn't totally dark for Thorax.  His changeling eyes could pick up ambient light better than a pony's could, so he had a limited amount of night vision.  He looked over at the guard and was startled to see the guard eyes had went from slits to wide pupils.  "They must be like cat's eyes" Thorax thought to himself.

A yawn then escaped Thorax's muzzle.  The day had finally caught up with him, so with a brief shifting to nestle more comfortably into bed, Thorax relaxed his body and allowed himself to fall asleep.





"You... WHAT?!"

Cadance flinched slightly as her husband raised his voice to her.  "Please calm down!", she tried to reason with him,"You're going to wake Flurry up!"

Shining responded by casting a privacy spell on the two of them.  "Calm down?!", he responded incredulously,"I've just been told by my own wife that she has permitted one of the parasitic love monsters that almost completely sabotaged our wedding to stay in our empire, and I'm expected to be calm about this?!"

"Shining, please", she tried again,"Yelling at the top of your lungs isn't going to magically solve the problem.  Even actual magic isn't going to solve it."

"So what?!", he asked her sharply,"I'm just supposed to be okay with this?!  How can I possibly be okay with this?!"

Cadance was beginning to get irritated with Shining's treatment, so she elected to approach the problem as intelligently as she could.

"Honestly, you should", she replied,"After all, you're the one who insisted on this being made official."

Shining was going to give an immediate retort, but his wife's comment caught him completely off guard.  "What are you talking about?" he asked her.

"It's really quite simple", Cadance began,"I suggested presenting the offer in private, with just the changeling and myself, but you wouldn't hear of it.  You insisted that I have a full compliment of guards present to prevent any possible attacks from the changeling."

"Of course I insisted on guards!", Shining answered back,"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Shining", she continued, getting to her point, "you gave the changeling an entire group of witnesses that can testify that I made an offer to him and he accepted.  If something happens and the guards are questioned about his presence and have a truth spell placed on them, they'll come clean and say we gave the changeling the offer."

Shining listen to what his wife had just told him and realized his mistake.  By wanting to keep his wife safe, he opened a door that allowed the changeling to get into the empire.  He smacked a hoof against his head and let out a scream of anguish.

"It's too late for that now Shining", Cadance continued,"We've made this bed, and now we must lie in it."  The princess made her way over to her bed, and then remembered back to the conclusion of the meeting.  "You know the funniest thing about all of this", she commented,"is that the changeling actually thanked me for letting him stay here."

Shining let out a chuckle, but not from amusement.  "Of course he would", he retorted,"He eats love, and there's more love here than anywhere else in Equestria.  It's like letting a fat colt into a candy store and telling him he can eat whatever he likes."

"Well, he won't just get to pig out whenever he feels like it", Cadance responded,"Those restraints you suggested are real, which worries me.  I was almost certain that those would've dissuaded him from wanting to stay here."

"Clearly he must know of some way to circumvent the wards", Shining deduced,"Otherwise, he would never have agreed to putting them on in the first place."

"Perhaps", Cadance admitted,"but all of the guards we have assigned to him have been checked and none of them are changelings, and none of the staff are either."

"How can we be sure?", Shining countered,"Even checking all current staff, there's still ones that have been either on sick leave or vacation.  They'll need to be checked as soon as they come back."

"And they will be", Cadance reassured,"but all current staff have checked out."

"Again, Cadance", Shining replied,"How can we be sure?"

Cadance gave an annoyed huff before responding,"Because I checked them myself!  Do you seriously doubt my magical abilities?  I know I wasn't a life long unicorn like you, but that doesn't mean I'm a total novice to spellcraft or that my magic is particularly weak!"

Shining considered her words, then let out a sigh.  "I'm sorry, Cadance", he apologized,"This whole changeling situation has gotten me rather worked up.  I'm sure you've done everything to ensure everypony's safety.  I just want to make sure we haven't left any weaknesses exposed that the changelings can exploit."

"I understand, dear", Cadance reassured her husband,"Now, let's get some rest."

Shining nodded, and the two ponies went to bed.  Shining went to sleep almost immediately, having gotten used to a strict sleeping schedule from years of guard duty.  Cadance, however, was still awake.  Lingering in her mind was the last words the changeling had said to her:

"I know that wasn't an easy choice for you to make, but before I leave, I just wanted to say... Thank you."

He knew how hard the decision was?  Cadance had a hard time believing that, but what if it was true?  Did he truly want to live in peace with the ponies, no strings attached?  More importantly, would she be willing to grant him the chance?  Fatigue was beginning to set in on the princess, so for the moment, she pushed the thoughts aside and went to sleep.
> Part II, Chapter 2 - The First Day - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"GET UP CHANGELING!"

Thorax was awoken by shouting and a hard jab to his side.  He jumped out of bed and pressed a hoof against the spot, afraid he'd just been stabbed with a spear.

"Get over it, you overgrown grub!", the voice shouted, "I used the blunt end!"

Thorax then looked to see a set of guards glaring at him, spears at the ready.  The Lunar Guard from last evening gave a salute, then exited the room while yawning.

"Get on your hooves already!", one of the guards shouted, "You're burning clock!"

With no need to be told twice, Thorax got out of bed.  The guard speaking to him motioned for him to get out of the room.  As soon as Thorax was outside the room, the guards fell in behind him.

"Since the princess decided you don't deserve to starve to death", the guard continued with venom in his voice,"We're taking you to a balcony overlooking the empire so you can feed on the overflow of the crystal heart."  The guard then jabbed Thorax in the chest with the blunt end of the spear several times.  "Don't even think about trying to feed off of any of us!  You even think about trying it, and we'll turn you into a cockroach shishkebab!  Got it?"

Thorax gulped and then nodded.

"Good!  Now, move!"  The guards began marching, with Thorax quickly falling in line.  He managed to glance a clock and saw it was 6 am.

"Why am I-" Thorax attempted to ask before he was smacked across the face by a spear end.

"No talking!", The guard shouted,"You speak to Madam Ammonia when we get there!"

Thorax kept his mouth shut and kept walking, doing his best to ignore the stinging in his cheek.  After several minutes of walking past rooms and up several sets of stairs, the group was standing outside a set of glass doors that led to a balcony overlooking several buildings.

"Wait here until we get the signal!" the guard addressed his squad mates.  A few minutes later, and a winged shape flew in front of the doors and tapped on the glass.  The two guards in front of Thorax stepped aside and the guard who was speaking moved ahead and opened the door.

"Move straight ahead!", he instructed Thorax, "You move to the mark placed on the balcony.  A unicorn will undo the ring, and you wait until instructed.  Try anything before that, and you will be in a world of hurt as well as a jail cell!  Got it?"

Thorax gave a nod.  The guard then made a sharp gesture with his hoof, motioning him forward.  As he stepped out, Thorax took note of the view.  He could see several buildings at eye level.  Moving towards the X marked near the railing, he was greeted with a look at the empire the crystal ponies could only ever dream of getting.  He also took note of a glow, and looked up to see a spire of magic shooting off into the sky, likely the spell that keeps the perpetual blizzards at bay.

The clip clop of hooves caught his attention, and Thorax turned to see a somewhat familiar face approaching him.  "Sunburst?" he asked.

The unicorn stallion looked at him sheepishly and nodded.  "I'm supposed to take the ring off your horn now", he told him while presenting an alarm clock,"You get thirty minutes to take in what love you need, and then the ring goes back on after it goes off.  I'm supposed to tell you not to try and drain any of the ponies here, or else you'll go to the dungeons for a really long time."

Sunburst then proceeded to wind up the alarm and hold it in place with his magic.  Another glow matching his aura surrounded the ring on his horn.  Sunburst looked at the guard and gave a him a nod, which must've been returned because Sunburst then proceeded to remove the ring and release the alarm, which began ticking off the seconds before it would go off.

Thorax flinched for a moment as his ability to sense emotions came back to him.  He was greeted with many unpleasant ones, chiefly fear and hate.  He looked around and saw the guards watching him with stern expressions, most putting up a front to intimidate Thorax.  The changeling knew better, and gave a sigh as he was again reminded that he was fighting a very uphill battle towards becoming accepted among the ponies here and throughout Equestria.

Another reminder sounded as his stomach gurgled, his body also detecting the immense amount of love coming from the crystal heart somewhere below him.  Knowing he had limited time, Thorax began the process of feeding.  It was difficult to start with, because when feeding, changelings had to focus on their food source to make sure they gathered as much out of it as they could.  What made the current moment tricky was the fact that the food source in this instance was the furthest thing away from himself.  He would perhaps have to try and discuss moving to another spot with the princess if she would allow it.

Little by little, the love energy began to pour into him.  By the time the alarm had went off, he'd gotten enough to last until the next time he'd be permitted to feed, depending on how much he exerted himself.  Sunburst shut the alarm off and placed the ring back on Thorax's head, once again cutting off the changeling's ability to sense emotions.

"I'll be going back to my room now", Sunburst told Thorax,"I'll see you again at noon for our first lesson.  The guards will escort you to Ammonia so you can start your day.  See you later."

Sunburst walked to a corner of the balcony and went through another set of doors that Thorax hadn't noticed before.  The guards that had been standing around him closed rank to surround him.  "FOLLOW!" one of the guards ordered, to which Thorax obeyed.  As one, the group moved back inside.

The trip to wherever the guards were taking him was silent, which Thorax was grateful for; He could feel the hatred and contempt for him while he was feeding, and it threatened to sour his stomach.  He tried to think of anyway that he could improve his relations with them, but eventually decided there was nothing practical he could do.  More than likely, the guards had friends or possibly relatives who were serving in Canterlot at the time of the invasion, and possibly some of them themselves were there.  If that were the case, it would make sense that them being kind to Thorax would have less odds of success than if Chrysalis were to attempt the invasion all over again.

The group eventually came to a large room with a y shaped staircase.  Standing on the landing in the middle was the mare from last evening.  While her mane kept the same style, she now wore a collar with a red tie.  She stared down at Thorax with contempt in her eyes, which Thorax shuddered at seeing.  Clearly, his day would not be made easy.

"Ah, so you actually came here?", she questioned with a snort,"And here I was sure you would've sucked the guards dry and made off before anypony could raise an alarm.  Well, I guess we should put you to work while there's still daylight."

Thorax wanted to retort, but kept it to himself; The last thing he needed was for this mare to have a reason to complain to the princess and the captain.  That was almost for sure a one-way ticket to a prison cell or being exiled from the empire.

Ammonia walked down the staircase and stopped at the bottom, suddenly pointing to a corner.  Looking over, Thorax saw a bucket full of sudsy water.  "Take that bucket and the brushes inside and scrub this floor until it's like a mirror!" she commanded.  Thorax looked at the floor, taking note of the dirt and scuff marks.  He guessed that it would take a while to do the task she ordered him to do.

"You have one hour, starting now!", she said, clicking an alarm with her magic.  Thorax gulped and set to work, going over to the bucket and fishing out a brush.  He looked over the floor and saw it was quite filthy, with hoof marks all over it, along with traces of dirt and mud.  He slipped his hooves into the two loops on the brush and set to work, occasionally moving the bucket so he wouldn't have to walk through the area he'd just cleaned.  His brush strokes were methodical, making sure to get even the most stubborn spots of dirt.  Because of his due diligence, Thorax had accomplished the task with about fifteen minutes to spare.

"H-HOW?!"

Thorax turned to see a stunned Madam Ammonia examining his work.

"How did you do this?!", she questioned,"How can some overgrown mosquito do this job better and faster than my best trained employees?!"

Thorax looked at her for a second before giving an answer.  "Because I had to clean the queen's quarters as good as this back in the hive."

Ammonia got a disgusted look on her face at the mention of Chrysalis, but made no comment.  "On to the next task.  Follow!"  The mare then went up the steps, with the guards and Thorax following.  They went down several hallways before coming to a set of doors; one with a symbol of a pony colored blue, and the other pink.

"These, insect, are public restrooms", Ammonia informed Thorax,"You'll be going in here each day and cleaning the toilets and sinks, as well as restocking towels and soap."  The mare went inside the room with a blue symbol on it, the guard held Thorax back as another guard went in ahead of him.  Once that guard was inside, Thorax was permitted to enter.

Once inside, Thorax looked around to see a set of stalls with doors on them to allow for privacy, as well as some stalls with no doors.  Looking into the ones with doors, he saw what he knew to be toilets, but he didn't recognize the ones in the stalls without doors.  They looked like a large bowl set into the floor.  He then looked at the wall across from the stalls and took note of a row of sinks, each with a mirror in front of it, as well as a shelf that had a bar of soap and a pile of towels.  A thud on the floor caused Thorax to look at the source.  Madam Ammonia had placed a large sack onto the ground with the words "TOILET CLEANER" written on the side.

"Well, you ought to feel right at home here in the bathroom", she commented snidely before motioning to the bag,"Check the toilet for clogs.  If there are, plunge it and flush it.  If there isn't a clog, then flush it.  Once the bowl fills again, dump a scoop of cleaner in the bowl and scrub it until it turns white, then flush it again, then check to make sure there's enough toilet paper in the stall.  Do that for all of the toilets.  You got another hour."

Thorax nodded and began checking the stalls.  Fortunately, there was only one clogged toilet, and it hadn't been too difficult to clear with the plunger he'd been provided.  The cleaning hadn't taken nearly as long as Ammonia had made it seem, with Thorax finishing after only about fifteen or so minutes.

"You're not done yet, bug", she informed him,"Now you do the sinks.  Clean them until they're white like the toilets, then replace the towels and soap.  Fresh bar of soap and six towels per sink.  Supplies are in that cabinet."  She pointed a hoof to a cabinet in the corner.  Thorax walked over and looked inside.  He saw boxes of bar soap and several stacks of towels.  He also took note of a few scrubbing brushes and more powdered cleaning agent.  He started with the cleaner and brush and went over every sink until they were white, then rinsed them off and wiped them dry.  After that, it was simply putting out fresh soap and towels.  Thorax thought he had finished until he heard a bucket on the floor.

"Now that you've gotten up top, do the bottom", Ammonia said, gesturing to the floor.  Thorax obeyed and set about cleaning the floor until it was as spotless as the first one he did.  A few moments after he finished, an alarm went off.

"Well", Ammonia began contemptuously,"it appears you can at least follow instructions and do a job right when told.  Follow."  She turned and exited the bathroom, Thorax following behind her.  They went into the next bathroom and proceeded to clean that one for the next hour.  This bathroom had all stalls with none of the bowl-in-the-floor style toilets, and there was a small waste bin with a lid inside each stall.  He was confused and decided to ask a question.

"Madam Ammonia?"

The mare glared at him, now holding a garbage bag in her magic.  "WHAT?!"

Thorax flinched but continued.  "W-Why are there two different bathrooms?"

The mare stared blankly at him for a moment.  "Are you being serious?" she asked with a bit of venom in her voice.  Thorax gave a meek nod, afraid of evoking more anger from her.

"This one is for mares and the other's for stallions", she answered curtly,"Didn't seeing the urinals clue you in?"

"Urinals?" Thorax looked at her confused.

Ammonia put a hoof to her face.  "Oh, for the love of- Do you lot just go wherever you please?!  No wonder you'd be so good at cleaning up if you have to scrub bug stuff off the floor all the time!"

Thorax shivered in place, not wanting to anger the mare more than she apparently was.  She calmed for a moment before explaining.

"You know the pipe between a stallion's legs?  Well, they can control it to point it down, so if they just have to take a leak, then they use a urinal.  It's the toilets in the floor!"

"So that's what they're for", Thorax thought to himself.  Changelings didn't really produce any body waste, unless you wanted to count the resinous slime that was used to cocoon or trap prey.

Thorax wasted no more time and set to work, and in a similar amount of time as before, he had the bathroom looking spotless.  Before he could form another thought in his mind, Madam Ammonia walked towards the first stall with a garbage bag in her magic.

"Now, there's another little additional task to perform in here in addition to the previous ones" she explained while pointing to one of the small waste bins inside a stall.  "Mares get an unpleasant visit every month, and we have personal items to help deal with the messier parts of it.  These trash cans are where we toss the soiled ones away.  Dump them out into this garbage bag.  When you finish, the bag is tied off with a string and dumped into that chute there."  She pointed at a small door in the wall with a plaque above it that read "Garbage".

"Unpleasant visit?" Thorax questioned.  Ammonia had become even more upset.

"How in Tartarus did you lot manage to sneak your way into Canterlot if you don't know a damn thing about ponies?!" she shouted, making a guard standing outside come rushing in.

"Alright, bug!  Just what do you think you're doing?!"

Thorax cowered under the guard's glare, but Ammonia had called him off.

"I'm not in danger", Ammonia responded,"unless changeling stupidity is contagious"

"Stupidity?" the guard questioned.

"Yes", she answered,"Apparently, this one never had the talk about where little colts and fillies come from."

Hearing that, the guard could only let out a hard laugh, with Ammonia joining him soon after.

"Well", the guard said,"should we leave him in the dark?"

Ammonia calmed herself and resumed the stern facade she had worn before.  "We'll let the crystaller take care of that.  He's the one so eager to have this bug for a pupil."

"What?",Thorax thought to himself,"Sunburst wanted me to be his student?"  Thorax was interrupted from his thoughts by the garbage bag landing on his head.

"Empty those bins, bug!", she curtly commanded him,"Then finish the floor.  We still have to get you to your assigned crew for the day!"

Assigned crew?  Thorax would have to work with a group of ponies today?  Part of him had a small sliver of hope that he could possibly meet one that wasn't as hostile as Ammonia and the guards had been and that he could perhaps make another friend, but the rest of him was fearful that the new batch of ponies would be just a small nudge away from becoming a lynch mob.

Thorax had quickly gathered up the bins from the stalls and emptied them into the garbage bag.  He looked inside one bin and saw a few different pieces of what appeared to be cotton fluff attached to a paper backing with two small pieces of tape.  In the center was a reddish-brown stain that Thorax assumed was the aforementioned "messier" part of a mare's "unpleasant monthly visit."

Once Thorax had finished with the bathroom completely, he followed Ammonia outside and down several hallways until he was brought into what appeared to be some type of dining hall.  A large table sat in the center, with a dozen chairs spread around it and a large candelabra in the center.  A small table off to the side was filled with brass candlesticks that had a faint luster to them, but were likely supposed to shine very brightly.

Next to the table were three ponies.  The first was a mare with her mane and tail done in a perm hairstyle with a mahogany color, a citron colored coat, a pair of violet eyes, and a cutie mark of a feather duster.  Next to her was a stallion with a steel blue coat, ivory colored mane resembling a crew cut, a short ivory tail, crimson red eyes, and a cutie mark of some metal object.  The last pony, a mare and youngest of the group, had a cream colored coat with a ruby red mane and tail in loose curls, emerald green eyes, and a cutie mark of a candlestick that appeared to be shimmering.

As soon as the three ponies saw Thorax, their attitudes immediately changed.  The older mare and stallion glared at him like they thought their intense looks would actually hurt him.  The younger mare...

Thorax couldn't decide what the younger mare's expression was.  If he was being honest with himself, it looked like she was rather uncertain, and perhaps a bit... curious?

"This is Feather Duster, Elbow Grease, and Brass Polish" Ammonia said, interrupting Thorax's thoughts.  ,"You will be with them for the remainder of the day.  The guards will continue to keep watch of you, but each of them, as well as myself, have been instructed on how to use spells that are specific to and highly effective against changelings.  So unless you want to be a bug stain on the wall that one of these three will have to clean up, I strongly suggest you behave."  Ammonia then turned and left.  Thorax turned and tried to introduce himself more pleasantly, but was greeted with a bolt of magic to his muzzle, causing him a sharp burst of pain.

"We know what you are, bug!", the older mare spat,"What we don't know is why the princess decided to not only let you stay here in the empire, but also decided that we have to be the ones to keep watch of you!"  She then stormed over to Thorax, who stumbled backwards in fear and fell onto his flanks.  This caused the mare to smirk.  "Oh, this is rich", she said through laughs,"The big, bad bug is afraid of us."  The stallion joined the mare in laughter, while the younger mare looked at both of them with what Thorax thought was disgust.

Before he could react properly, Thorax was wrapped in magic and forcefully brought to his hooves.  "This is how this is gonna work, bug!", she told him while poking a hoof into his chest,"You do what we say and don't back sass us, and maybe we don't smear your bug guts on the wall!"  She dropped him on the ground, then turned and walked over to the table and picked up a candlestick.

"Know how to polish one of these?" she asked him in her snide tone.

"Yes", Thorax answered, hoping not to further upset the mare.  To his surprise, she snickered, then started laughing, and much harder than when he fell on his flanks before.

"You hear that Elbow", she said as she fought to control her laughter enough to talk,"This one knows how to polish a candlestick!"  The stallion, who was giggling before, now broke out into a rolling laughter that threatened to make him fall off his hooves.  The younger mare looked at the two with even more disgust, but said nothing.

"Too bad I'm not into colts", the stallion commented,"or maybe I'd let him polish mine."  That got the older mare to laugh so hard that she finally fell onto her flanks and then her side.  The two kept laughing for a solid minute before they both calmed down.  At this point, Thorax took note of the guards assigned to him; They were also laughing rather heartily.

Feather Duster recovered and resumed her rather curt demeanor, but it had apparently softened just a bit after the outburst of laughter.  She took a candlestick in her magic, as well as a rag and then explained the task.  "Take candlestick, take rag, wipe rag in polish, rub polish on candlestick, buff and clean candlestick with clean rag until shiny.  Got it?!"  Thorax nodded in response.  "Good", she finished,"Get to it!"

The mare stepped away from the table and Thorax got to work.  He took a candlestick and cloth in his magic and began rubbing polish onto the brass fixture.  As he worked, he caught a conversation going on between the three ponies behind him.

"What in Tartarus was the princess thinking?!", Feather Duster whispered to Elbow Grease,"Letting that...  thing stay here?!"

"I don't have a clue", replied Elbow,"but I guess we have to deal with it for now."

Feather scoffed.  "Deal with it my flank!  We're just supposed to stay with this thing?!  When at any moment he could just get out of those restraints and attack us?!"

"They tested those restraints on changeling prisoners", Elbow retorted,"Even took them out into the castle gardens to try and provoke an escape attempt.  Those wards on all that stuff do work."

"And how do you know?", Feather countered,"How do we know that the changelings are simply faking it to lull us into lowering our guard so they can attack us at our weakest moment?"

Elbow didn't have an answer for that, and any hope of the stallion giving Thorax a chance to prove himself as kind as he said he was went out the window with an icy hot glare.  "I guess we should keep a closer eye on it then?"

Feather smirked.  "My thoughts exactly."

As this conversation was going on, the young mare named Brass Polish was looking away from the two older ponies with an uneasy look.  Feather took notice.

"You've been awful quiet about this whole affair, Brass", Feather observed,"Don't you have anything to contribute to this conversation?"

"Not really", the young mare replied sheepishly,"Honestly, I don't know much about changelings, except they attacked Canterlot."

"Well, you don't need to know any more than that", Feather told her,"Those things will suck out all of the love in you if you give them the chance, so take my advice and don't leave your back turned towards it unless you got somepony you trust to watch it."

Brass Polish seemed to consider those words, but also shot a glance at Thorax.  The changeling did his best to ignore the three ponies as he went about cleaning and polishing the candlesticks.  Feather ushered her gaze away from him.  "Just ignore him", Feather instructed,"Let us take care of it if any problems arise."  The younger mare didn't reply, but simply turned away and went about another task.  Feather turned back to Elbow Grease.

"I swear", she said to him in a whisper,"they hire them younger and dumber every year."

"Yeah", Elbow agreed,"She doesn't seem the brightest candle on the Hearth's Warming tree."

"We should probably watch what we say around that thing" she said with a bit of venom on the last word.

"Probably shouldn't be talking out here like we are", Elbow pointed out,"Who knows what information he could use to try and replace us."

Thorax didn't show it externally, but inside himself, he was deflated.  He knew it was going to take a while to win ponies over, but the group he was put with made him feel like he wouldn't live long enough to see the fruits of his success.  Still, he wondered about Brass Polish.  Of the three ponies he was assigned with, she was the only one who hadn't been openly hostile with him.  "Maybe she would be open to actually talking to me?" he wondered.

Thorax pushed the thought aside for the moment and finished the task.  Feather came over and examined his work.  "Well", she said with a sarcastic tone,"clearly you've practiced enough on yourself to make these candlesticks plenty shiny.  It's noon and you're supposed to go to the crystaller now, so get lost!"

Giving no complaint, Thorax approached the door where the guards were standing.  "FOLLOW!" they instructed as they opened the doors and left the dining hall.  As they walked, Thorax wondered what Sunburst would have him studying.  Whatever it was, it could only be something that the princess and the guard captain/prince would permit, and he had no idea what that could be.

"There you are!"

The voice caught Thorax off guard and he turned to see who was addressing him.  He was greeted by the sight of Princess Twilight, Starlight and Spike approaching him from down the hallway he had just moved into.  The guard ahead of him saluted to Twilight.

"My apologies, your highness", The guard addressed her,"but I have orders to move this changeling to the agreed upon point for the crystaller to meet with it."

Twilight adopted an annoyed frown.  "My dear gentlestallion, this changeling has a name and it is Thorax.  Even if you do it for nopony else but me, I insist that you address Thorax by his name."

"Y-yes, your highness", he sputtered, unsure if he was going to be reprimanded.  "Well, Thorax does not have a lot of time to move to his next location."

"Then we won't take too much of his time" she replied.  She moved past the guard to face Thorax, Starlight and Spike behind her.  "I'm sorry we can't make this longer than a minute", Twilight offered,"but I did say we were going to say goodbye before we left."

"Yeah", Starlight added,"Cadance and Shining invited us to lunch, and afterwards we're going to be leaving on the train at 1pm, so this was pretty much the only chance we would get to find you."

"Well, I'm glad you all did find me" Thorax said with a smile.

"We are too", Spike chimed in,"I'll make sure to send you a letter once we get back.  Don't be afraid to send us one either."

"I will", Thorax assured him,"I just hope Sunburst will send them for me."

"I'm sure he will", Starlight told him, then looked up at a tapping sound.  A guard was indicating a clock.

"I guess that means we're out of time", Twilight said,"Well, we wish you the best of luck, and hopefully I'll be able to come back soon with my friends so you can meet them."

"I look forward to the day", Thorax told her with a smile.  It was true; He was really looking forward to meeting the rest of the mares who had unknowingly changed his life.

"I'll be sure to come along too" Starlight added.

Thorax was about to comment when he felt something wrap around his barrel.  It was Spike embracing him in a hug.

"I wish you could come back to Ponyville with us", he admitted,"but I don't think Shining Armor would allow it."

"I hate to admit it", Twilight interjected,"but I'm sure my brother would like for you to be anywhere but here in the empire."

Thorax frowned at that, but Twilight reassured him.  "It's just going to take him some time to get used to all of this.  It's a big change for everypony here, including us.  A few days ago, I would've looked at a pony telling me there were friendly changelings like if they were burning one of Starswirl's legendary spellbooks."

"Well, I'm glad all of you came around to the idea" Thorax responded with a smile.

"Take care, Thorax", Twilight said as she began walking away,"Until we meet again."

"Goodbye princess!  Goodbye everypony!" Thorax called out as the group walked down the hallway.  Thorax turned and continued to follow the guards.

The guards led Thorax through several hallways until they came to a set of double doors.  The lead guard made a gesture that the changeling interpreted as stand still and then knocked on the library door in a set pattern.  The door then opened and the guard informed the pony inside that the changeling was here.  The door opened the rest of the way to reveal another guard who looked at Thorax and gestured a hoof to come ahead.  Thorax moved forward and then stepped into the room.

It was a library, if the bookshelves were to be believed.  Of course, why wouldn't they?  There were bookshelves all over the room, lining the walls and covering the majority of the floor in the room.  Off to one side were a few tables and chairs, as well as a desk where it appeared a librarian would be sitting, though there wasn't one there now.  Sitting at one of the tables was Sunburst, who had an assortment of books, scrolls and writing implements placed in front of him.

"Thorax!", he called out the the changeling,"Come over here!"  The changeling looked at the guard who called him in, who kept a stoic expression but nodded.  With that confirmation, Thorax moved over to Sunburst.

"Have a seat here" Sunburst instructed him, indicating a chair next to him.  Thorax walked over and took a seat next to the stallion.  He couldn't help but notice Sunburst giving off rather nervous body language, but elected not to comment on it.  It was his very first official day in the empire being among some of its citizens, and given the history between ponies and changelings, there was bound to be friction from the beginning.  He just hoped he could overcome it in due time.

"So...", Sunburst began nervously,"how has your first day here been so far?"

Thorax took a moment to decide how to respond.  Should he try and dress it up a little bit or should he just be blunt about it?  In any case, he was going to be honest.  The question was how to deliver that truth.  Ultimately, he elected to be straightforward about it.  "It's not going as smoothly as I hoped", he finally admitted,"So far I've been treated with contempt and have been called names by some of the ponies around me."

"O-Oh", Sunburst responded,"Well, uh, I guess that was to be expected.  For what it's worth, I don't intend on calling you anything mean."

"I appreciate that", Thorax said to him,"but I can tell you're quite nervous around me anyways.  That's not something I really wanted either."

"You picked up on that?" Sunburst asked sheepishly.

"I could just tell in your body language", Thorax told him,"You seem rather tense at the moment."

Sunburst looked at Thorax for a moment before letting out a sigh and coming clean.  "Please don't read too much into my behavior", he requested,"This is possibly the first time that ponies and changelings have interacted positively with each other with the changeling's true form exposed.  Considering the history, it's hard for all of us to not be just a tiny bit nervous around you."

As much as Thorax didn't want to admit it, Sunburst was right.  Ponies and changelings had been at odds with each other for a long time, even before Chrysalis ordered the invasion of Canterlot.  It wasn't hard to see why: Staying in the shadows, replacing loved ones, taking the replaced and stuffing them into cocoons, and the stealing of their love through either deception or just plain force.

Through all of this, Thorax had dared to be the first of his kind to truly consider making peaceful relations with ponies.  Where others of his kind would scoff at the notion, he had decided he would try their way.  Maybe if he did and it worked, he could prove it to his hive mates and perhaps bring about peace between his kind and Equestria.  At least, that's what Thorax had hoped for anyways.

"Anyhow", Sunburst continued,"I guess it is a bit unfair to you for me to act this way, so I'll try to rein in my... trepidation."  With that, the stallion levitated over a few sheets of paper and a writing quill set.

"Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor are both curious about how intelligent you guys are, so they asked me to evaluate you", Sunburst explained,"This is a small test I've put together for you to take.  This is just to give us an idea on what you know and don't know, so if you honestly don't know something, just write down you don't know."

Thorax looked at the inkwell and quill, then to his own shoe-covered hooves.  "I can't really write with these shoes on my hooves" he told Sunburst.

"Huh.  I hadn't thought about that", Sunburst admitted,"Well, then I guess I can just administer this test verbally and you can just say if you don't know something."

Thorax nodded his head in agreement.  Sunburst took a sip of water from a nearby glass and cleared his throat.  His thirst quenched, Sunburst began to administer the test.

"Okay, first question..."
> Part II, Chapter 3 - The First Day - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax had thought that he had learned a great deal about the goings on in Equestria during his journey.  He was almost sure he had at least the knowledge of a full grown pony.  He spent a great deal of time in various libraries reading through all kinds of books and tomes.  He was certain that he knew a great deal and would be able to pass the test Sunburst was going to give him.

That's what Thorax had thought.  The actual truth once he began taking the test?

"I can't believe how many things I don't know!"

The changeling had his head down on the table, defeated by the very simple twenty question test.

"It's not so bad", Sunburst reassured him,"There's a good bit you don't know, but there's also plenty of stuff you did know too.  For instance, you knew how to use the library indexing system."

"That's because the archive in the hive uses the exact same system!" Thorax informed Sunburst, who looked at him with surprise.

"Really?", the stallion asked with wide eyes,"From the reports I read about Queen Chrysalis' attitude during her reveal at the wedding, I would've thought she'd scorn anything to do with ponies."

"Most of the time that's true", Thorax admitted,"but if there's something that will make running the hive easier for all changelings, especially her, she'll overlook what creature created it originally.  Truth be told, the overall behavior of my kind could be compared to the griffons without their king relic thing."

"You mean the Idol of Boreas?" Sunburst asked.

"I guess that's what it's called" Thorax replied uncertainly.

"Well, the idol is lost", Sunburst said,"but the griffons have actually improved their country from what it was before, all thanks to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie."

Thorax perked up.  "The elements of laughter and loyalty?"

Sunburst nodded, then looked at Thorax in surprise.  "You know about the elements of harmony?!"

Thorax nodded.  "I found a newspaper in a park one day and read it.  There was a story about Twilight becoming a princess, and it talked about her five friends and how they were all the new elements of harmony.  Honestly, they're the reason I started out on my journey to try and make friends with ponies."

"Wow", Sunburst said in amazement,"then that means they really are the elements of harmony, if they could convince a changeling to try and learn the ways of friendship."

"I guess", Thorax responded,"though I honestly think I would've ended up trying to make friends at some point.  Seeing them in Canterlot just kinda moved things along a little faster."

"Well, at least you're here now making that effort", Sunburst continued,"Anyhow, now that we know what things you don't know, we can come up with lessons to teach you all of that stuff."

"It sounds like there's gonna be more than six months worth of learning to be done" Thorax responded, sounding defeated.

"Try not to look at the time we have and what we can cover", Sunburst attempted to reassure Thorax,"Besides, I have to check with Cadance and Shining to see what topics are permissible."

Thorax raised an eyebrow.  "You were testing me on topics you might not be able to teach me?"

"I had to get a general idea of what knowledge you have", Sunburst answered,"There was always a chance that you would know something that I'm not allowed to teach you."

Thorax nodded in understanding.  Sunburst adjusted his glasses and looked up at the clock.

"Well, we have a little less than an hour left", he said matter of factly,"so I can't do a full lesson, but I can probably do a quick summary on a thing or two if you'd like."

Thorax thought about it for a moment.  "Actually, I was hoping you could explain what I think were some jokes made at my expense."

Sunburst frowned.  "Of course there would be ponies cracking jokes about you in addition to the ones mistreating you", Sunburst said while putting a hoof to his forehead,"What kinds of things did they say?"

Thorax explained the comments made to him in full.  He started with Madame Ammonia's comment about an "unpleasant monthly visit", which Sunburst explained was referring to a mare's monthly reproductive cycle; Apparently, if a mare did not breed at the appropriate time in each cycle, her body would shed off a nutrient-rich lining in her womb, which was a painful process as it was explained to him, and that material was expelled through the rest of the reproductive tract.  The items he was told to dispose of kept the material from getting onto the floors, which was considered unhygienic.

Next, Thorax explained the candlestick remark, which made Sunburst blush a little bit.  "Well, that one is kind of self-explanatory", Sunburst said,"What part of pony anatomy do the candlesticks remind you of?"  Thorax thought about it for a moment.  They didn't look like a hoof, nor were they cupped like a pony's ear.  With the flaring out portion at the top and the ring shaped section in the middle...

Thorax went wide eyed.  "They look like a stallion's... pipe?"

Sunburst gave a small chuckle.  "Yeah, I suppose you could call it that" the stallion admitted.

"That's how Madam Ammonia referred to it when she explained why there were different bathrooms" Thorax clarified.

"Well, in any case", Sunburst continued,"I'm guessing you probably know what they were joking about when they said you had experience 'polishing a candlestick'?"

Thorax looked at him for a moment before answering "Self pleasure?"

Sunburst nodded.  Thorax blushed slightly, but nopony could tell on account of the chitin.  There was no denying that on an occasion or two that Thorax had indulged in that particular behavior, but it was usually frowned upon in the hive, though less for vulgarity and more for safety; A changeling tended to burn through love reserves much faster when doing such things, so it was considered rather wasteful and dangerous to do as such when one was starving.

"I guess my last question is what did Elbow mean about 'being into colts'?" Thorax asked.

Sunburst looked at the changeling with some confusion.  "Do you not have same sex relations in your hive?"

"Is that what that means?" Thorax asked.

Sunburst nodded.  "Here in Equestria, we respect love between two creatures, regardless of how far it goes and who is involved.  From simple friendship to life long romance, it doesn't matter to us if the two involved are genetically or physically compatible to have offspring."

Thorax looked surprised.  "I never considered that before", Thorax admitted,"Back in the hive, the queen was very adamant that love between two males and two females was forbidden.  Any kind of relationship that didn't benefit the hive with new nymphs to expand it was considered a high crime, where the changelings involved would either be imprisoned or executed."

Sunburst looked at Thorax in shock.  "She would do that?!" he exclaimed,"Kill two of her kind just because they have a loving relationship and no offspring would come from it?!"

All Thorax could do was nod.  Right now, he wanted to forget about the unpleasant memories of the hive.  He didn't exactly hate the place, but the bad memories of it far outweighed the good ones.  Sunburst took note of Thorax's discomfort and elected to switch topics.

"Well, I'm glad that you decided not to stay in that rather unpleasant place", Sunburst concluded,"Now, was there anything else you wanted to discuss while we still had some time?"

Thorax was thoughtful for a moment before an idea popped into his mind.  "Actually, I was wondering if you could help me do something."

Sunburst looked at him with surprise.  "What did you want me to help you with?" he asked.

"Well", Thorax began,"while I was traveling through Equestria, I came across something that I didn't fully understand at the time.  There were two stallions sitting at a cafe, and one gave this note to the other.  I was sitting at a table behind them in a disguise, and I could read the note over the one stallion's withers."

"It was apparently to thank him for his help on some big project that the other had a hard time doing.  I was thinking about it, and I think I would like to write a note like that to give to Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor to thank them for letting me stay here, even if it turns out to be just temporary."

Sunburst smiled widely upon hearing that.  "That is a fantastic idea!", he beamed,"Of course I'll help you write one!  What would you like it to say?"  The stallion floated out a blank parchment and fresh quill and discussed with Thorax how he wanted the note to read.  A few minutes later, a thank you note to both the Princess and Captain was completed.

"I'll be sure to give this to them as soon as I see them", Sunburst told Thorax,"though that probably won't be until this evening at dinner time."

"Whenever you can do it" Thorax replied.  Then Thorax remembered this morning.

"I forgot to mention this earlier.  When I was taking in love this morning, I was having a hard time focusing on just the crystal heart and not taking any from the guards or you.  I think it's because of how far away I was from the heart.  Do you think you could say something so I could get moved closer?  I don't want to feed on anypony without their permission by accident."

Sunburst frowned.  "I'm not sure if we can", Sunburst told him,"That balcony is the lowest point on the castle that's close enough to the crystal heart for you to be able to absorb its energy.  The only way to get closer would be to go to the base of the castle, and Captain Shining Armor has forbid that for fear you might try an escape and somehow attack ponies."

Thorax frowned upon hearing that, but a part of him understood the ponies' desire to make sure they were safe around him.  At that moment, an alarm went off and a guard made a motion to Sunburst.

"Well, our lesson time for today has concluded", Sunburst said to Thorax,"The guards will escort you back to the cleaning crew you're with."  Sunburst then placed a hoof on Thorax's shoulder and gave him a reassuring look.  "Try not to let their prejudice get to you.  Some ponies just take longer to get over things than others."

Thorax nodded and left his chair.  He took two steps towards the door before Sunburst stopped him with a question.

"Has there been anypony besides me that hasn't treated you poorly today?" the stallion asked.  Thorax paused and thought about what Sunburst had said.  In truth, everypony he had met today besides Sunburst had treated him with contempt, mistrust, and dislike.  Everypony, except for one.

"The younger mare in the cleaning crew today", Thorax answered,"We didn't speak, but she didn't glare me down with daggers in her eyes, or say mean things to me.  I think she's just really unsure of what to think about me."

Sunburst rubbed his chin with his hoof.  "She might be open to establishing a positive relationship with you", Sunburst observed,"Tell you what: If you are put into a one on one situation with her, let her make the first move.  If she asks you questions, be honest with her."

"But what if the answer to a question she asks is one that might upset her?" Thorax postulated.

"Then she'll be upset", Sunburst replied,"If that happens, just try and break it to her gently.  She might not like the answer, but she would probably like being lied to a lot less than hearing the truth."  Thorax nodded in response to that advice, and then heard the guard clearing his throat.  He took that as his cue and made quickly out of the library.

Traveling through a different set of hallways, Thorax was brought back to Feather Duster.  The mare was standing beside a rather dusty looking table that had several spots that had almost no dust and resembled odd shapes.  This clearly told him that there were objects sitting on the table before.  The mare glared at him as she held up her namesake in her magic.

"Know how to use one of these, bug?" she asked him with venom in her words.

"Yes, I do", he replied, trying to hide both a sense of disappointment at her behavior and a small amount of anger for the mistreatment.

"Good" she responded while tossing the feather duster at him.  "Clean every table in this hallway.  Elbow Grease will be watching you along with your guards.  Slack off, and not only will Elbow not let you hear the end of it, but Madam Ammonia will find out and chew your head off after the shift ends.  Got it?!"

Thorax replied with "Yes, Ma'am" before setting about cleaning the table.  Using his magic with the inhibitor ring on his horn wasn't easy.  He could hold the object and lift it slightly, but higher than a foot or so was taxing.  Already he could feel his love reserves draining away and hunger starting to return.  He would have to try and find a more efficient way to use his magic so he wasn't starving by the end of the day.

With as much effort as he could, Thorax was able to get the duster onto the table and set to work.  After several minutes, he saw the table top was free of dust and ready to be reset with whatever items had been placed on it before.  He was about to move on to the next table when Elbow stopped him.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!" he shouted, causing the changeling to flinch in reaction.

"I'm moving on to the next table to dust" Thorax answered.

"No you're not!", the stallion informed him,"That table looks worse than when you started!  Do it again or else we're gonna be here all day!"

Thorax was confused and looked at the table he had just finished to find it covered in even more dust than what was there before, and there were no marks from items sitting in the dust on it either.  The changeling let out a huff before going back to the table and resuming his task, making sure to get every last ounce of dust off the table before moving on to the next.  However, Elbow stopped him again.

"Just what in Tartarus are you trying to pull?!  Do it again, and the right way this time!"

Thorax looked at the table again and found it in even more dust than the last time.  "Just what the heck is going on here?" he thought as he did the table for a third time.  He finished dusting it for a third time when he noticed something he hadn't before: Elbow Grease's horn was glowing, as if he had a spell ready.

Immediately, Thorax thought he was about to get whatever spell they had taught the unicorns to use on him, but the stallion never resorted to it.  Instead, when Thorax turned around to move to the next table, he was again informed of having done a poor job, and greeted by a dust covered table that he had just cleaned for a third time.  It suddenly clicked; Elbow was using a spell to either make dust on the table or move it from one table to another, likely the latter since it wouldn't extend the cleaning time due to having the same table cleaned multiple times.

Thorax had been doing his best to keep his head as he worked over and over again, but frustration had been mounting all day due to the mistreatment.  With the realization of what the stallion was doing, the changeling had hit his tipping point.

"That's it!", Thorax exclaimed as he threw the feather duster down,"I'm not cleaning that table again!  I've done the job right three times now!"

The feather duster was picked up off the floor and rapped hard against Thorax's head, causing him to flinch in pain.  Elbow now had a rather aggressive look on his face as he continued to assault Thorax with his current "weapon".

"Oh, yes you will insect!", Elbow snarled at him as he advanced,"You will do what we tell you and when we tell you to do it, and if you refuse or show anything remotely relating to back sass, we'll fry you like an egg!  And the best part is, you can't do anything about it!"

Another hard whack hit Thorax on the muzzle, causing him pain and making him stumble backwards and fall on his flanks.  Elbow just glared sadistically at the changeling as he gave him another firm whack.

"You really think anypony here buys your whole 'I'm a good changeling' routine?", Elbow questioned sarcastically,"Of course they don't!  'Good changelings' don't attack our princesses!"

Another whack from the feather duster.

"They don't cause little colts and fillies horrible nightmares!"

WHACK!

"They don't put mares and stallions in the hospital for weeks or months on end!"

WHACK!

"And they certainly don't take the genuine love and affection ponies feel for one another from ponies and leave them damaged emotionless shells!"

A final whack to the horn, one which had managed to crack the chitinous hide there and bring forth blood.  Thorax grunted in pain and placed a hoof to his horn, both trying to stop his bleeding and trying to keep blood from getting onto the floor.  Elbow discarded the feather duster and moved on Thorax like a timberwolf moving on a lone foal with a bad leg.

"You can drop that act now!", Elbow figuratively and literally spat at Thorax,"I know for a fact that there's no such thing as nice changelings.  Captain Shining Armor has made me certain of that fact!  So let me clue you in on a little secret: These six months are going to be the best part for you, because they're gonna be the last bit of freedom you have before-"

Elbow was cut off as a sudden blast of magic hit him in the side, and with enough force to knock the stallion away from the changeling.

"That's enough, Elbow!"

Thorax turned and adjusted his hoof so he could see the pony talking.  It was the young mare named Brass Polish.  Her horn was glowing in a green aura similar in color to a changeling's, but was actually darker.  Suddenly, a cloth was lifted in front of Thorax, and the mare's gesture of wiping her head told him what she expected him to do with it.  The changeling accepted the cloth and began wiping his forehead and horn, then held it around his horn as he waited for the wound to seal and stop bleeding.

Elbow had recovered and moved to confront Brass.  "Just what do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at her,"I had the situation well in hoof!"

"I could tell as much", Brass replied sarcastically,"You had it so well in hoof that you were going to send the changeling to the infirmary with a busted horn!"

"So what?!" Elbow shot back,"Let him have a broke horn!  Then the guards won't have to worry about him trying to use magic for a few months.  Why, I'll bet my last bit they'd be ecstatic if I busted it off!"

"Enough, Elbow!", Brass shouted,"Go take care of the guest suite linens, and I will keep watch of him!"

Elbow looked at Brass for a moment and then smirked.  "Him?", he questioned,"You're calling it a him?"

Brass wasn't having it.  "Yes, I called him that because he's a male!"

"Yes, a male", Elbow kept on,"One that has the power to become anypony you want them to."

A blush came over Brass's face.  "W-What are you implying?" she asked.

"Oh come off it, Brass", Elbow continued,"I can see it in your eyes.  You want to have a go with that thing in one of the guest rooms, don't you?  Sample a little 'exotic flavor'?"

Brass said nothing.  Elbow began laughing.  Thorax simply watched the exchange while trying to get his horn to stop bleeding.

"Really?" came a response from Brass,"I want to have a go at him?  What about you?"

Elbow stopped laughing and stared back at the mare.

"You were the first one to bring that up in this little conversation", she continued,"If I'm so hard up for the bug, perhaps it's because it sounds like I'll have to wait my turn, after you."  Brass punctuated her accusation with a smirk.

Elbow tried to get out a response, but didn't have one that could one up her accusation.  Instead, in a rather childish display, he took the feather duster he was using to beat Thorax and threw it up at the ceiling.  An enchantment on the item kept it firmly in place at that spot.  "Fine!", the stallion finally spoke,"You can have watch of him!"  With that final remark, Elbow Grease disappeared around a corner.  Brass walked over to a cleaning trolley and produced another feather duster.

"You just sit there for a minute and take care of your horn", she told Thorax,"I'll get these tables here done in a jiffy."

Thorax nodded as he watched the mare set to work.  He checked his horn and found the bleeding had stopped, but it was still rather sore from the rough treatment he'd gotten only a few minutes ago.  Looking around for a waste bin to dispose of the bloody rag, he caught sight of the mare cleaning the many tables in the hallway simultaneously with multiple dusters.  The changeling could only look on in awe as she worked, a little jealous of her uninhibited ability to use magic.

In what seemed like no time at all, Brass Polish had gotten every table in the corridor dust free.  Moving back to the trolley, she replaced all of the dusters she was using and pulled out a white box with a red cross on it; a first aid kit, Thorax recalled.  Opening it, she pulled out some cotton wadding and a bottle of antiseptic and applied some antiseptic to the wadding.

"Clean your horn with this", she instructed as she handed the wadding to Thorax,"Fair warning: That stuff stings."

Thorax took the offered material and gently rubbed his horn wound with it.  True to her word, the antiseptic touching his wound caused a brief burning sensation, making the changeling wince.  He kept rubbing his wound with the wadding until he was sure that the wound was thoroughly sterilized.  Brass took the time he used cleaning his wound to make a bandage to fit over his horn.

"This should keep the wound covered", Brass said as she applied the bandage to Thorax's horn,"but it will need changed until your shell has had some time to heal."  Once the main part of the bandage was covering the wound, Brass tied the rest of the bandage in place.  Casting a glance into a mirror, Thorax looked like he had a big wad of tissue stuck to his head. "Don't worry about how it looks", she informed him,"It's just to make sure the wound heals properly."

"Thank you" Thorax said to Brass.

"Not a problem", she replied,"Though it would've been nice to not have to use the first aid kit.  I'll have to write up why I had to use the materials I did."

"Will you get in trouble for this?", Thorax questioned,"I'm sorry if you will."

"I won't get in trouble", Brass replied,"I was using those materials for their intended purpose.  Unfortunately, I don't think Elbow will get in trouble for doing what he did to you either."

"You don't expect him to get a reprimand for what he did to me?" Thorax asked.

"Reprimand?" Brass reacted in a disbelieving tone,"He'll probably be commended for doing something that most of the ponies around here want to do to you."

"Oh" Thorax responded, sounding defeated.

"Let's not focus too much on that", Brass continued,"Even if Madam Ammonia isn't too fond of you, she still won't like the fact that Elbow tried to mash your head up like a bunch of avocados for a dish of guacamole."

Brass moved back over to the cart and started to push it with her hooves.  "Follow me", she instructed him,"We're gonna go take care of the bathrooms on this level now."

Thorax nodded and followed the mare, his guards following closely behind.  The two guards following him were having a conversation about the events that had transpired a little bit ago, the one suggesting that the other should've hauled Brass off for attacking Elbow, but the other rebutted saying that it wasn't worth the paperwork.  Thorax hung his head low as he walked, something that Brass picked up on.

"I take it your day hasn't went as well as you had hoped it would?" Brass observed.

"I figured that I wouldn't be readily accepted by all the ponies I met today", he answered,"but I didn't think things would be this bad."

"Well, I came from Canterlot", Brass continued,"and I know that it takes a long time for ponies that move there from other places to 'fit in' as it were."

Thorax shuddered a little as Brass revealed where she came from.  "Canterlot?", he asked sheepishly,"You weren't there when...?"

Brass shook her head no.  "I was working for a noble family in Baltimare when the wedding incident happened", she explained,"Fortunately, my family and friends were on holiday and away from the city when that happened, so nopony I know was affected by what happened."

"Oh" replied Thorax, relieved that the mare wasn't one of the ones hurt during the failed invasion.

Brass then turned to Thorax and asked "You were there that day, weren't you?"

Thorax paused for a moment.  Should he tell her the truth?  Sunburst did say that it was best to be honest, but even then that she might not like his answer.

"As much as I hate to admit it", Thorax began,"I was there.  I didn't want to be though; I actually tried to get placed on nursery duty that day, but the queen wouldn't permit it."

"Nursery duty?" Brass questioned.

"It's a job back in the hive", Thorax explained,"All the hive's eggs are put into one area and cared for by a group of caretakers picked and rotated by the queen personally.  Those caretakers and a small contingent of guards were the only ones left in the hive when Chrysalis ordered the invasion force to move out."

"So they just made you go?" Brass asked Thorax.

The changeling nodded.  "I didn't want to be there at all, but looking back, I'm honestly glad I was made to go.  If I hadn't, I would've never seen the element bearers and been inspired to embark on the journey I did."

"You saw Princess Twilight and her friends?" Brass asked Thorax.

"Yeah", he replied,"I saw them while they were trying to get the actual elements from wherever they were being kept.  The invasion force managed to break the force field protecting the city and swarmed on their position.  There was a fight, and it was through their teamwork and friendship that they beat nearly the whole force sent against them.  Unfortunately, there was a squad placed inside the building the elements were in and they were ambushed."

"You weren't part of that fight, were you?" Brass asked with suspicion in her voice.

"NO!", Thorax answered defensively,"I never wanted to fight anypony there, so I hung back and watched things unfold.  I wish I had helped instead of done nothing now.  If even half of the stories I've heard from some ponies are true, then that invasion did a lot of damage for changelings besides failing to accomplish the main goal."

"What was the main goal?" Brass asked, her suspicion abated for now.

"Chrysalis wanted to control Equestria", Thorax explained,"She figured by taking Princess Cadance's place, she was in a position to overthrow the princesses and control Equestria for the changelings.  Then everypony would be enslaved in order to either be put into cocoons to be farmed for love or forced to work as laborers for whatever project the queen wished to accomplish."

Brass looked quite nervous upon hearing what the fate of Equestria's citizens would have been had the invasion succeeded.  "No offense", she said after recomposing herself,"but I'm glad you guys didn't win."

"So am I", Thorax responded,"If it did, I wouldn't be having the experience that I am.  I mean, yeah, I'm not getting the best treatment from everypony here, but I have gotten to know and make friends with a few ponies already.  That's more than I could say about my life back in the hive."

"Was it that bad?" Brass asked, once again unsure if she wanted to hear his response.

"Yeah", Thorax replied,"Changelings don't believe in friends.  The closest you'd get would be squad mates you could cooperate with best, but that's pretty much it."

"That's sad", Brass observed,"If your hive would consider embracing friendship, maybe things wouldn't be so horrible there."

"Maybe if I stay here for long enough and learn what I can about friendship, I can go back and show them that there's a better way to live.  Perhaps even in time, changelings and ponies could make peace."

"That would be nice to see", Brass responded, then brought the trolley to a stop.  "Well, we're here."

Thorax looked and saw two doors with the same symbols as before.  Brass walked up to the door with a blue symbol on it and pushed it open, only to immediately back up and begin gagging.  Thorax was about to ask why when an extremely pungent odor assaulted his nose.  He covered it quickly and began to gag as well.

"What in the name of the princesses is that?!" exclaimed Brass as she held her breath and went back inside.  Thorax stayed put, not wanting to agitate a nearby guard into thinking he was going to assault the mare.  A few moments later, and Brass exited the bathroom looking rather green in the face.

"This has to be Elbow and Feather's doing", she said aloud to no one in particular.

"What is it?" Thorax asked.

"Every single toilet in there is backed up and almost overflowing", Brass answered,"If I didn't know any better, I would swear somepony pinched off the pipes.  Fortunately, it's mostly toilet paper but it's still clogs that need removed, and a plunger isn't gonna do the trick."

"So we have to use magic?" Thorax asked her.

"Nope", Brass replied,"The toilets are warded against tampering from any kind of magic.  You can thank all the immature colts and stallions that thought it would be funny to put an exploding water charm on random toilets.  Unfortunately, this requires a 'hooves on' approach."  She went back to the trolley and produced two sets of hoof coverings and gave one set to Thorax.  Looking them over, he shuddered realizing what they were for.  "Pitch those out after we're done then", Brass told him,"They will be in no condition to wash off and reuse when we're through with them."

Thorax nodded and put on the coverings, then followed Brass inside the first room that was for stallions.  Inside, every toilet was clogged up to the point of nearly overflowing, even the ones set into the floor.  The smell in the air made Thorax and Brass both gag.  The mare excused herself and came back with a metal canister.  Using her magic on the top, the can began to emit a strong smell to counter the overbearingly foul one in the bathroom.  It smelled like wild flowers in a meadow.

"That should make it more bearable" Brass said as she turned to the bathroom stalls.  "I'll take the actual stalls, and you take care of the urinals.  There's a spare waste bin over there to put the paper into.  Just change out the bag and dump it into the chute over there."

Thorax nodded in agreement and both pony and changeling set to work.  While he maintained a neutral expression, Thorax was gagging inside with each wad of toilet paper he had to remove from the urinals, as nearly all of them had brown streaks in them that left no mystery as to what they were used for before being placed in them.

"How come I have to get all of the paper out of this thing?", Thorax asked,"Why couldn't I just remove most of it and flush the rest?"

"Because the urinals aren't set up to allow solid waste to go through them", Brass explained,"The pipes for the urinals are too narrow."

"How do you know that?" Thorax asked, curious how the mare knew about plumbing.

"My father is a plumbing pony", she answered,"My mom was really sick and in the hospital for a long time, so my dad did the best he could to take care of me.  Sometimes, I'd have to go with him when he had a job.  He'd teach me about what he was doing, and use me for a tool caddy."

"He would take you on jobs?", Thorax questioned,"That sounds a little dangerous."

"Not really", Brass remarked,"Most of the jobs I was left at home with a sitter for were places that weren't appropriate for little fillies and colts, like a place called 'le petit chat rose'."

"Le petit chat rose?" Thorax parroted in confusion.

"The little pink kitty", Brass explained,"It was a bordello, or a cat house, if you will."

"What's not appropriate about cats?" Thorax asked, still confused.

"Wow, that changeling hive must be under a pretty big rock", she said while stifling a giggle.  Once she stopped laughing a moment later, she explained "A bordello is a place where stallions or mares can pay another stallion or mare for 'bedroom services'."

Thorax took a moment but then realized what 'bedroom services' meant and blushed.  He kept forgetting that Equestria was wonderful, but also not totally innocent like he apparently was.

Thorax resumed cleaning out the urinals.  Once he had finished, he replaced the bag in the trash can he'd been using and tossed the nearly full one into the garbage chute.  Then he proceeded to get the toilet cleaner and set to work, making quick work of the urinals.

"Wow", Brass commented with an impressed tone in her voice,"You do a darn good job cleaning.  You'll have to show me how to do that so fast."

"It's nothing really", Thorax said in an attempt to deflect the praise,"I had to clean Queen Chrysalis's private chambers plenty of times, and she expects to be able to see her face reflected in every surface of the room."

"A bit narcissistic, don't you think?" She asked sarcastically.

"Maybe a touch", Thorax answered,"but she is royalty, and from what I've seen of the palace so far, royalty seems to deserve some of the finer things in life, regardless of species."

"True, but even the princesses show some restraint in regards to opulence", Brass said while looking at a clock on the wall,"Well, we'd better get to the next bathroom.  If I know Feather and Elbow, they've probably trashed that one for you too."

Thorax looked down at the floor defeated.  He hadn't done a single thing to these ponies, and they were treating him like he personally sucked the love out of both of their mothers.  Brass wore a frown but led the way out of the bathroom and into the next one.  As soon as she pushed the door open with her hoof, she immediately closed it and began gagging violently; Thorax genuinely thought she was going to vomit because of how intense it was.

"Ugh, sorry", she apologized after recovering.  "That's really bad.  Stay out here while I check on it."

Thorax agreed and Brass went inside after taking a deep breath of air.  Thorax waited for Brass to come back out and decided to admire the hallway he was in.  It appeared to have walls made of pure quarts, with the floor being a bluish-white gemstone he couldn't identify.  Among some of the tables were some flower vases with fresh cut flowers and pictures adorning the walls of various ponies and dignitaries that have visited since the empire returned some time ago.

A door opening made Thorax turn back to see Brass exiting the bathroom with a livid expression on her face.  It made him want to hide under a table and turn into an ant so that he wouldn't be noticed as easily.

Brass took a moment and calmed herself, but she was still very angry.  "Thorax", she spoke to him,"I want you to go with a guard and check the rooms in this hallway for garbage.  Have the guard knock on the door first and announce you so you don't scare a pony out of their skin by accident.  I will be right back with Ammonia."  With that, she stormed off down the hallway.

Thorax looked around very uncertain, but was certain standing around and doing nothing would make Brass angrier than what she was.  He looked on the trolley and found a container with trash bags in it and got one out.  He approached a door and looked at the guard.  "Well?" the guard asked him rather curtly.

"Um, she said to ask you to knock and tell the ponies in the rooms I'm coming in for trash." he explained.

"And I'm just supposed to listen to you, right?", the guard replied incredulously.  "Fat chance of that happening!"

"Please", Thorax pleaded,"I just want to do the job she told me to do."

"Why", the guard continued with the rude behavior,"You think she'll give you some love if you do?  Of course you do!  She's probably nothing but a quick meal for you!"

Thorax wanted to argue, but didn't.  Physically and emotionally, he was tired, with one feeding into the other.  He decided if he wasn't going to get help, he'd try to do his best on his own.  He approached a door in the hallway and was about to knock when a spear waved in front of his face.

"And just what in Tartartus do you think you're doing?!" the same guard asked in a threatening tone.

Thorax didn't flinch this time.  Instead, he had a deadpan expression on his face as he turned to the guard.  The changeling was getting tired of the treatment he was receiving, but mostly just plain tired all around.

"Brass Polish told me to do this until she got back", he told the guard,"and I intend to do it, with or without your help."

The response Thorax gave made the stallion glare daggers at him, but he relented.  "Fine!", the guard spat,"but ONLY because I'll get in trouble if I interfere with the cleaning staff!"

The guard moved to a door and banged loudly on it.  A mare inside the room startled by the noise answered the door.  "Y-yes?"

"I'm with the changeling that's been allowed here by the princess.  He's going around collecting trash.  Clear out for a minute so nopony gets hurt."

The mare looked at the guard in disbelief until she then turned her head and saw Thorax, her eyes going wide upon seeing the changeling.  She gave a simple "O-okay" before shuffling quickly out of the room.  The guard made a gesture for Thorax to enter.

Going inside, Thorax found the room to be rather quaint: The room was about twice the size of the one he was staying in, and had more items decorating the walls.  In the corner sat a writing desk, and underneath it was a bin of trash.  He could see it was partway full.  Taking the container, he emptied it into the bag and replaced it under the desk.  Once the job was finished, he exited the room.

Once outside, Thorax went to the next room but didn't see the guard there.  He looked around and quickly found the guard behind him talking to the mare.  She made a gesture towards Thorax and had a nervous look on her face.  The guard gave a nod and glared at Thorax.  "Move from that spot, and I'll run a spear through you and roast you like a veggie shishkebab!"

Thorax stood in place and watched the guard go into the room the changeling had just left.  After a few minutes, he came out and told the mare,"Coast is clear.  He didn't leave any traps behind."  The mare nodded and cautiously went back into the room.

The episode that Thorax witnessed was repeated for each room after the first one.  The guard would knock, the pony inside would answer and become nervous upon seeing a changeling, he'd go inside and clean the trash bins, and the pony would demand the guard check for traps before going back into their rooms.  After about twenty minutes or so, all the trash on the floor was cleaned up, with a few full bags placed on the trolley and the changeling glad that the chore was completed.

A door opening caught Thorax's attention, and he turned to see both Brass Polish and Madam Ammonia exiting the mare's restroom.  The changeling stood there for a moment before the smell hit him.  Immediately, he began gagging.  He had to question whether or not that was worse than the stallion's room that he had cleaned just a short time ago.

Ammonia swatted the foul air away from her muzzle before speaking.  "Yes, I agree", she began,"That restroom was not like that this morning when Grout Brush and Brillo attended to it.  I can't say for certain that it was Feather and Elbow though."

"How can't you tell?", Brass questioned,"We're the only cleaning crew on this floor!"

"Brass, I know that this was done because of the changeling, but Feather and Elbow aren't the only ones that have an unfavorable opinion of our new guest.  Who can say for certain that another pony or ponies didn't have the idea to do something like this?  Perhaps a guard that is stationed at the incinerator?  Or maybe one of the cleaning crew members from a floor above or below?  The staircase is a short trot from here after all."

Brass was going to argue that it was Feather and Elbow, but she couldn't; Ammonia had presented a valid argument.

"Now", Ammonia continued,"As unpleasant as it is, I ask you to please clean up that mess in there.  If you need assistance, I can request another member of the cleaning staff to come here and provide it."

"I would prefer that Feather and Elbow be made to clean this" Brass stated.

Ammonia was becoming annoyed, but relented.  "Fine", she gave in,"I will instruct Feather and Elbow to finish their assignments post haste to come down here and assist you."  With that, Ammonia hauled off.  Before she was out of sight, she turned and called back "I expect both of you to be in there working by the time I'm back with those two!"

After Ammonia was out of sight, Brass let out a sigh and looked at Thorax.  "Well", she said to him,"I guess we better get in there.  I'll warn you, it is not pleasant whatsoever."  With that, she walked in, followed by a guard who retched momentarily before ordering Thorax inside.

Thorax could think of many different words to describe what he walked into: Warzone, Cesspool, Dumpster Fire.  None of them were strong enough for what he was seeing.  It looked like the bathroom had been heavily used and not cleaned in over a month's time.  The toilets were all full of used paper and stuff Thorax didn't even want to think about.  The hand towels had brown stains all over them and had a strange smell that the changeling couldn't place.  All the trash cans were overflowing full of either wadded up and used toilet paper and the 'pads' as Sunburst had referred to them.  All in all, it was a nightmare for the ponies involved.

"Okay, let's start with the biggest problem", Brass said as she walked over to a window and opened it, letting fresh air flow into the room.  "It'll get better as we get this place cleaner", she told him,"Now, the best place to start is the trash.  Grab some bags and grab what you can from that end and I'll go from the other end.  We'll work towards each other in the middle."

Thorax agreed and working together, they both began cleaning up the restroom.  They had gotten all of the trash removed by the time Ammonia had returned, Feather and Elbow behind her.

"This place was covered in trash and Celestia knows what else", Ammonia informed the two ponies,"I want you to assist in cleaning this up so that bathroom isn't closed well into the night."

Elbow gained an incredulous look and was about to protest when Feather stopped him and shot him a glare, silently telling him to shut up.  "Of course", she replied to Ammonia,"We'll get this taken care of straight away."

Ammonia gave a confirming nod and left.  Once she was gone, Feather glared at Brass and Thorax.  "You win this little game for now", she seethed,"but the next time you won't be so lucky."  She walked over to the supply cabinet and got out the sink cleaner and brushes.  "We do the sinks and nothing else." she said coldly as she tossed a brush to elbow and set to work.

Brass wanted to protest, but couldn't.  She had only been in the Crystal Empire for a few months, whereas both Feather and Elbow had been here since it had returned a few years ago, so they unfortunately had tenure on their side to sway Ammonia.  She simply let out a defeated sigh and grabbed another two pairs of hoof coverings and passed a pair to Thorax, offering an apologetic look as the changeling took them and placed them on.

The next ten minutes were some of the worst Thorax had had all day.  Each toilet was not only clogged with paper, but also some of the pad things the mares used for themselves, and in two of them was actually waste.  He cursed the fact that changelings didn't regrow body parts like lizards did, because at the current moment, Thorax wanted to chew both of his front hooves off.  Still, he soldiered on and cleared every clog he found.  Once they were cleared, he set about cleaning the toilets until they were white and spotless.

Brass could be heard muttering under her breath, but whatever she said couldn't be discerned by Thorax.  A part of him questioned whether or not it was about him, but the angry glares she would shoot in the direction of Feather and Elbow made him confident it was about them.

Feather and Elbow had apparently finished their chore and had exited the bathroom, but Brass's presumably angry reaction told Thorax otherwise.  He turned to look at the sinks to find them clean and stocked, but something written in soap on the mirror above the sink directly in front of Brass: Bug Lover.  Earlier in the day when Thorax hadn't been working with ponies, he would've thought this meant that a pony liked bugs and wanted to have a special talent that involved them.  After his treatment earlier, he knew this was meant to be insulting, and specifically directed at Brass due to her not sharing the same general attitude of 'hate the changeling'.

Thorax felt compelled to apologize, but he was stopped before he could by Brass's hoof waving him off.  "This isn't your fault, Thorax", she told him,"If those two can't get past their own bigotry, then that's on them."

"It's still not right", Thorax responded,"They're making this harder on you just because you don't treat me like they do."

Brass took a moment to think about what she wanted to say before speaking.  "Thorax", she began,"I'm going to be honest with you.  This morning, when they told us that you were going to be placed with us?  I had the same general attitude as Feather and Elbow."

That confession shocked Thorax.  "You did?", he asked in disbelief,"What changed that?"

"When I saw how Madam Ammonia was treating", she replied,"and then I saw what Feather and Elbow were doing.  I could see all the hate and contempt for you in there faces, and the worst part of it was the fact that I could tell they were enjoying it."

"Taking pleasure in causing fear, hate, or harm is not something I can do in good conscience.  When I saw how they were acting, I decided to do what I could and set my previous viewpoints aside."

"I don't blame ponies for not liking changelings; no offense, but your hive kinda brought that upon themselves, and more specifically you.  But having hate in my heart is just something I cannot bring myself to do."

"So I elected to give you a chance to actually show me who you truly are, and I must admit that this changeling I'm meeting seems like a really nice fellow."

Hearing that made Thorax happy.  This mare had decided to put aside her own feelings and give him an actual chance.  It was one of the few things he actually wanted.  A small tear formed in his eye.  "Thank you", he told her,"You have no idea what that means to me."

Brass gave him a nod and a smile, then quickly removed the writing from the mirror.  Once finished, she looked up at the clock.  "Well, it looks like our day is over now" she observed looking up at the clock.  Thorax followed her eyes to the clock and saw it was nearly six.

"The guards will be taking me away soon" Thorax observed.  He had to try and focus on the crystal heart this time; he didn't admit to it, but he might have taken a very small amount of love from all the ponies around him earlier, but not enough that they would've noticed.

"Mind if I walk with you?", she asked,"We both kinda live in the same place."

"I don't mind", Thorax answered her,"but I don't know what the guards will say.  Plus, they're taking me to a balcony near the crystal heart so I can get the love energy I need."

"Can I watch?", she asked him,"I've always wondered what it looked like."

"I don't know if they'd let you", Thorax replied,"and it was really hard to do it this morning without feeding on one of the guards by accident.  The fewer ponies I have to worry about, the better it will be for everypony."


"Oh", she responded with a disappointed voice,"Well I can still walk with you anyways."

Thorax nodded and both pony and changeling left the now clean and fresh restroom.  The guards escorted Thorax while Brass walked about a pony length distance beside him.  They didn't say a lot as Thorax was led to the balcony.  As predicted, Brass wasn't allowed outside to watch him feed on the love overflow.

Once Thorax had gotten what he needed, which was just a bit more than in the morning, he was taken not to his room, but the palace library.  Inside, Sunburst was waiting with a pair of saddlebags draped over a chair, their compartments stuffed full with books.

"These are some approved books you can study from", Sunburst told Thorax,"I've also put the first Daring Do book in there for you to enjoy as well."

"Daring Do?" Thorax questioned.

"She's a character by an author named A.K. Yearling.  Daring is an archaeologist who travels the world looking for rare treasures and protecting them from various villains.  Everypony from foals to the elderly love the books, and they even have big conventions where fans can meet and discuss all kinds of things about the books."

"That sounds like fun", Thorax said in amazement,"I'll have to give it a try after I do some studying."

Sunburst nodded and then levitated the bags onto Thorax's back.  "These are an old pair of saddlebags I used to use.  They're still in good shape, but they've just been sitting in my closet collecting dust, so I'm going to let you have them so I can give you books as you need them.  Just bring them with you each day and let the guard have them before you start working.  I'll ask him for the bags and put the books inside and give them back to him, and he'll give them to you at the end of your shift for the day."

Thorax examined the saddlebags on his back and found them to be in rather good shape, with only a small amount of wear on different parts of them.  "These are really nice", Thorax observed,"but are you sure you're okay with just giving me these?"

"Of course!", Sunburst replied as he levitated his own and much nicer looking bags onto his back,"The princess gave me my current bags as a gift when I became crystaller.  They're made from enchanted dragon scales.  They're flexible so that they can be used, but still retain the durability dragon scales are known for.  I may never need another set of saddlebags for as long as I live!"

"Well, Thank you", Thorax said to Sunburst,"I'll make sure to take care of them."

"I know you will", Sunburst responded,"Well, it is getting late, and I am being expected at dinner soon.  I'll remember to give Cadance and Shining your thank you note.  I can't speak for Shining, but I do believe Cadance will appreciate it."

"I hope so", said Thorax,"I can just tell that she is feeling very unsure of herself and the choice she made about me.  I'll have to work extra hard to show her that she made the right decision."

Sunburst smiled.  "I'm sure she will realize that soon enough.  Anyhow, I must be going now.  See you tomorrow Thorax."  With that, the orange and white unicorn left the library.  

Thorax followed shortly afterwards, and was led back down to his room in the servant's quarters.  He didn't see Brass after leaving the library, but figured that she simply had been called away for something.  He spent the rest of the evening studying from the books that Sunburst had given him.





At Dinnertime in a dining hall...





Shining Armor was reading over some supply reports from the guard platoon stationed in Griffinstone.  Apparently, they were having trouble growing different types of vegetables and were requesting that they not only receive a new supply of growing materials, but a different earth pony guard to oversee the cultivation process.  The stallion rubbed his head in frustration.

Princess Cadance was sitting nearby, tending to the couple's first addition to their family.  The alicorn filly babbled as she was fed a combination of pureed peas, carrots, and potatoes.  As the princess fed her child, she had thoughts going through her mind about her most recent major choice: The permitting of a changeling to stay within the empire.

Both Princess Celestia and Luna had asked her to consider allowing the changeling to stay here in the Crystal Empire, a decision she decided to go along with.  Her husband had agreed, though reluctantly and with stipulations.

It had now been beyond a full day since the decision was made final, and she wondered how things had actually went.  A creaking door signaled a potential window into the consequences of her actions, as a familiar orange and white stallion with spectacles and cloak trotted in.

"Sunburst", Cadance greeted,"I'm so glad that you could join us for dinner."

"Thank you, your highness", he replied,"I just finished my duties for the day, and I'm glad to report everything has went swimmingly."

Cadance adopted a nervous frown.  "You mean with..." she said with a gesture of her hoof, intentionally leaving the sentence unfinished.

"Yes, I mean that" replied Sunburst, who had a plate of food placed before him; Eggplant Parmesan.

"And how did it go?" Cadance asked as the stallion took some cutlery and began to dig in to his meal.

"It went rather well, though a bit surprising", the stallion replied.  He took a bite of his meal and wiped his muzzle of sauce before continuing.  "He actually seemed to have not a whole lot of knowledge about Equestria."

The statement had caught Shining's attention.  "He has little knowledge, you say?", the blue haired stallion asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Yes", Sunburst replied,"he only knew a hooffull of things, like how to use a library indexing system."

"Of course he'd know that!", Shining spat,"That's general knowledge for all Equestrians.  Even school age colts and fillies learn to use it!"

"Yes, but there were other things he didn't know", Sunburst continued,"like the history of Canterlot, for instance."

"Has it occurred to you he could be lying about what he knows?", Shining asked,"That seems like a rather good military tactic to me - make your enemy think you're clueless, then spring a trap when they least expect it."

Sunburst just stared blankly at the stallion.  "You have a point with what you're saying", Sunburst began after taking another bite of his meal,"but I honestly believe that isn't the case.  In fact..."

The bespectacled stallion used his magic and produced a piece of paper from his cloak and presented it to the royal couple.

"He asked me to help him write this this afternoon.  I think the both of you should read it."

Princess Cadance took the parchment in her magic and read the message inside:

Dear Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor,

I again wish to show my thanks for allowing me to stay here in the empire with you and your subjects.  I know the decision was not an easy choice for either of you, but I intend to prove to you both that your decision was not a mistake.  I will do everything I can to both show my good intentions and return in kind the immense kindness you've shown me by giving me the chance to prove myself to you and your subjects.

With the greatest sense of appreciation,
Thorax

Cadance again adopted a confused expression.  A thank you note from the changeling?  How had he thought to do something like this?

Shining took the scroll and read it, then scoffed and crumpled the note before tossing it into a waste bin.  The action had offended Sunburst considerably.

"Hey!", he protested to Shining,"He worked hard on that note and you just dismissed it like a used tissue!"

Shining gave Sunburst a glare.  "How do I know that that changeling didn't put some kind of mind control spell on you and make you write that for him?  It is in your hoof writing, is it not?"

Sunburst bit his lip; He did write the note for Thorax, but he had done it of his own choosing, not because of some kind of mind control.

Cadance had taken the note out of the trash bin and read it again.  Then, she took a quill and parchment from a nearby table and scrawled something on it.  Once the ink was dry, she rolled it up and placed a seal on it before passing it to Sunburst.

"Please finish your meal", she told him,"then give this to the changeling."

"Of course" Sunburst agreed.  He finished his meal in silence, then got up and took the scroll in his magic as he left the room.  Shining looked at Cadance.

"What was that you gave him?" her husband asked.

"If he is playing us for fools", she began,"then maybe the smartest tactic would be to convince him the ruse is working?"

Shining thought about it before it clicked.  "You sent him a..."

Cadance nodded and went back to feeding Flurry her dinner.  The alicorn filly had made a small mess of her plate, having apparently tried to make something akin to a sand castle out of her food.  The princess giggled as she took a napkin and wiped her child's muzzle.




In Thorax's room




The changeling had been studying from a few different books that Sunburst had given him.  He elected to stop for the evening and looked up to see it was nearly ten and time for the lights to go out.

A knocking on his door caught him by surprise.  The guard standing there turned and opened it, addressing the pony outside.  A few moments later, and the guard let them into the room.

"Sunburst?" Thorax said in confusion as the stallion walked in with a scroll in his magic.

"Princess Cadance asked me to give this to you", he replied as he offered the scroll to Thorax.  Thorax took it and opened it up to read the contents:

Thorax,

I appreciate the gesture of you sending the thank you note.  I am glad that you have learned of that kind gesture from the ponies of Equestria.  I ask you to continue abiding by our rules, and showing the same kindness that has been shown to you by my subjects as well as myself.

Princess Cadance

Thorax smiled upon reading the note.  The small amount of recognition for his actions made the woes of the day fade from his mind.

"I take it she appreciated your note?" Sunburst asked with a smirk.

"She did" Thorax replied, then let out a yawn.  Sunburst looked up at the clock.

"Oh, it's that late?", he said,"Well, goodnight, Thorax, and I'll see you tomorrow for our lesson."  The stallion left the room as the guard closed the door.  Thorax placed the princess's note onto his writing desk and laid down on his bed.  That night, he went to sleep with pleasant thoughts in his mind.
> Part II, Chapter 4 - Meeting Heroes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been one month since Thorax the changeling was permitted to stay in the Crystal Empire.  In that time, many things happened to him.  He'd agreed to be placed in a series of restraints that would prevent him from causing harm to those around him, though he had no intention of causing any creature he met harm.  The palace guards had been treating him more like a prisoner than a guest, but their initial hostility towards him had diminished somewhat from the first day.  In truth, most of the ponies he'd interacted with in the past month had become less aggressive in their treatment of Thorax with the exception of two - Feather Duster and Elbow Grease.

While there was plenty of negative things to say about Thorax's asylum, there were positives.  He had managed to make two new friends in the form of Sunburst and Brass Polish, his teacher and work mate respectively.  Sunburst was a scholar at heart, and had spent much of his life studying spells, incantations, and potions to further the current state of Equestrian magic.  Brass Polish was working in the palace with hopes of one day being able to attend a university where she could study metal forging magic so she could pursue her dream of owning her own silver smithing business, making things from jewelry to various decorative items.

Currently, Thorax was changing linens in a guest bedroom.  Normally, the linens would only need changed after a guest had stayed in the room, but there was supposedly an important pony coming and the palace staff were ordered to clean and prepare the palace so that it was in the best condition possible.  So, the changeling set about removing the silken bedsheets and pillow covers and replacing them with a new, clean set.

He was also being supervised by Feather Duster currently, who didn't say or do anything but glare at Thorax as he worked.  The mare, along with Elbow Grease, had seen to it that Thorax's work was made as difficult as possible.  The most common offense was claiming that the original job performed was unsatisfactory and forcing the changeling to do it again, though occasionally making a "small mess" for him to clean up also occurred.

As he finished making up the bed, his thoughts drifted to his friends, specifically Spike.  The small dragon had written him a letter a few weeks ago and offered him words of encouragement.  Thorax hadn't yet written a reply, but he intended to.

"Get a move on!", an annoyed Feather Duster barked,"There's six more rooms after this one, and then we'll have to go dusting the tables in the hallway!"

"Yes, Ma'am" replied Thorax as he finished the last pillow and set it back onto the bed.  The mare let out an a huff before exiting the room.  Thorax followed her out and was stopped by a guard.

"This one finally going to the dungeon?" Feather asked the guard.

"No", the guard replied,"I'm to inform him that his lesson with Sunburst has been cancelled for today."

Thorax looked down at the floor dejectedly; Having his lessons with Sunburst was easily his favorite part of the day.  Honestly, any part that didn't involve him being spoken harshly to or treated poorly was his favorite part.

"I'm also to tell him that he is to follow his guard to a designated location when the time for his daily lesson would normally occur", the guard then added.

That caught Thorax's attention.  He'd be going to a designated location?  Was he in trouble for something.  He had to find out.

"Where am I being taken to?" he asked the guard.

"I don't know!", the guard answered curtly,"I wasn't told where you were going to, just to tell you you were going!"

Thorax didn't say anything else.  He simply followed behind Feather into the next room to be prepared.





Inside another part of the Crystal Palace, Starlight Glimmer was walking alongside her friend and teacher Twilight Sparkle, the latter looking rather nervous about something.

"Don't worry", Starlight attempted to ease Twilight's nerves.  "Everything will go smoothly.  Just try and relax."

"I cant!", Twilight exclaimed a little more loudly than she'd intended,"There's just so many ways that today could go wrong!"

Twilight's nerves were the result of a plan she set into motion a month ago.  Upon returning to Ponyville from the Crystal Empire, she was greeted at the train station by the other five ponies who along with her made up the elements of harmony.  All of them had asked the two mares about their trip, but both Twilight and Starlight had been keeping details about the trip secret.  When called out on this by Applejack, the farm pony and element of honesty, Twilight asked the girls if they could all set some time aside so they could travel to the Crystal Empire in the near future, promising the group that what she had to tell them was simply too big to try and explain on her own.  While some of her friends were rather reluctant to plan for such a journey due to prior commitments, they all agreed to a trip at the end of month.

"Starlight, all my friends only know about changelings as the monstrous creatures they had to fight off in Canterlot", Twilight continued,"There's a very real chance that some of them may never consider the idea that a changeling could want to turn over a new leaf and be friends with us.  I don't want this to go badly, but I'm just so afraid that it will!"

Starlight understood her friend's worry, but knew better than to doubt the five ponies in question.  "Twilight, you're getting worked up over nothing", she said reassuringly,"Yeah, it's possible that some of our friends might not see Thorax as a friend, but that doesn't mean you can't convince them to give him a chance at least.  I mean, that's all we can really ask of them is to give Thorax a chance to prove he wants to be friends with all of us."

Twilight considered Starlight's words and let out a sigh as she finally relaxed.  "You're right", she agreed,"I might not be able to convince them that Thorax is good and wants to be friends, but I can at least convince them to hear him out."

"That's better", Starlight said,"Now, let's get back to the girls before Rainbow Dash jumps out a window and does a bazillion laps around the Crystal Palace out of boredom!"

"You know bazillion isn't a real number, right?" Twilight responded with a smirk.

"Well, it's sounds better than saying 'a butt load'" Starlight shot back jokingly, causing both mares to giggle as they made their way back to their friends.





"Come on, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she slumped down in the chair she was sitting in.

"Hold yer hooves steady, Rainbow", Applejack told the pegasus,"I'm sure Twilight will be back right soon."

"Yeah, Dashie!", Pinkie Pie chimed in,"You act like we've been sitting here all day."

"Pinkie", Rainbow Dash said looking at her friend,"We've been sitting here since that servant brought us to this dining room, and that was an hour ago!  You guys know I can't sit still for long!"

"Rainbow", Rarity chimed in,"If you can stand still for a dress fitting session, then you can certainly stay seated while we wait for Twilight to come back."

Rainbow huffed as she crossed her forelegs and pouted.

"I wonder what kind of surprise Twilight has for us", Fluttershy pondered in a quiet voice, though not so quiet that nopony could hear her.

"I must admit that I am rather curious about why she brought us here as well", Rarity agreed,"I mean, for her to ask ALL of us to come here at the same time must mean that it's somethings REALLY important."

"It better be", Rainbow said sternly,"I gave up a practice with the Wonderbolts for this, and I only got off for this when I said this was doing this for a princess."

"And I appreciate the effort you all went through to be able to come here today."

Twilight's voice caught the group's attention as she walked in the room flanked by Starlight.  "I'm sorry we're so late", she offered,"but what I needed to discuss with Cadance took a little longer than I expected."

"Yeah, Yeah, yeah", Rainbow said impatiently,"We get it.  Now what did you drag us all the way up here for anyway?"

"RAINBOW!", Applejack shouted while bring her hooves down on the crystalline table,"If ya don't calm yerself down right this second, I'll see to it that you don't get one drop of next year's apple cider!"

The cyan pegasus immediately sat down quietly and stayed still, not wanting to chance making the apple farmer upset.

"Thank you, Applejack" Twilight said, which earned a nod from the orange pony.  "Now, as Rainbow Dash so astutely pointed out, all of you are rather curious as to why I asked you to come here today.  I will be glad to explain, but I ask for your patience as what I'm going to tell you will be both a bit difficult to explain, and possibly harder yet to believe."

Twilight levitated a glass and pitcher of water from the center of the table and poured herself a drink.  Once her thirst was quenched, she continued.

"Now, you'll all remember that I decided to travel back to the Crystal Empire so that I could visit Shining, Cadance and little Flurry.  While I was here, something really big had happened - A changeling was spotted in the outskirts of the empire."

The revelation brought gasps from all the ponies in the room save for Twilight and Starlight.

Rainbow got a scowl and smile on her face.  "Aw yeah!", she exclaimed,"You were calling in the big guns so we can thoroughly woop some changeling flank!"  The mare punctuated the last sentence with several kicks into the air.

Applejack shook her head with her own scowl.  "Now what are them varmints up to?" she asked.

Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy had all different reactions:  Rarity wanted to faint though she didn't, Pinkie had produced a manual for her party cannon and was looking up ways to convert it to fire actual munitions, and Fluttershy cowered under the table.

"Now, girls, calm down!", Twilight said in an effort to get the group's attention,"I want you to hear the full story before making any kind of decision."

"Make any kind of decision?", Rainbow asked incredulously,"It's changelings!  The same monsters that ruined your brother and sister in law's wedding day?"

"Yes, Rainbow!", Twilight replied,"I'm well aware of that! Now please be quiet and listen to this whole story!"  She cast a glance at all of her friends and added "Don't make me have to use spells on all of you."

The group looked at each other before Applejack answered on everypony's behalf.  "Okay, sugarcube.  We'll listen."

"Thank you" Twilight said before continuing the tale.  "Now, as I was saying, a changeling was spotted on the outskirts.  This obviously prompted safety measures to be put in place, including the avoiding of going outdoors alone and verifying everypony's identity.  When we got here and were checked, Spike, being recognized as a hero by the Crystal Ponies, was asked to lead a search party for it.  Long story short, during the search he fell in a cave and found the changeling."

"Now, this is where the story takes a turn for the unexpected.  Upon Spike seeing the changeling, he attempted to flee, but knocked himself senseless on a rock in the cave.  That would've been bad enough, but he then proceeded to slip and fall into a chasm in the cave."

All the ponies looked shocked upon hearing that, but Twilight continued her story.

"Spike came to as he was falling and thought that he was going to perish, but then the unthinkable happened: The changeling saved his life."

The looks of the mares in the room went from surprised to skeptical very quickly.  "I know", Twilight continued,"I didn't believe it either, but another pony was nearby and watched the whole thing happen, and he wasn't under any kind of enchantment to make him say that either.  The changeling genuinely exhibited a good conscience and saved Spike."

None of the mares in the room had an answer to what they had just learned.  After several moments, Applejack finally asked,"Why'd they do it?"

"Because this changeling is different", Twilight explained,"All his life he believed that his hive's ways of deceiving ponies and stealing love were wrong, and when he saw what they were doing in Canterlot, he-"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait", Rainbow Dash interrupted,"He was in Canterlot?!  We actually did battle with this thing?!"

"Yes, he was there, and no, we did not fight him" Twilight replied.  "He was ordered to go against his will by Chrysalis, but he didn't harm anypony while he was there.  He saw all of the things his kind were doing and knew that he couldn't do anything to stop them.  But then he saw something that changed his life and gave him the goal of finding a better way for his kind."

"What did he see?" asked a curious Fluttershy, now seated in her chair once again.

"Us" answered Twilight.

"Us?", Applejack asked in confusion,"What do you mean he saw us?"

"He saw us as we tried to get the elements from the vault" Twilight explained,"Remember when the changelings tried to swarm us in that plaza?"

All five mares had nodded as they recalled the events from that day.

"Well, that's when he saw us as we fought that swarm", Twilight continued,"He saw how we all worked together to stop the changelings, and was so moved by it, he decided then and there that friendship was what his kind needed, and that trying to feed off of it was wrong.  Once he left his hive, he came back to Equestria in an effort to make friends with the ponies there and put his plan into motion."

"I take it that this plan of his didn't exactly go off without a hitch?" Rarity inferred from her friend's explanation.

"No, it didn't", Twilight responded,"Every place he tried, the ponies would either not hear of it and chase him off, or just chase him off outright.  After a while, he sensed all the love coming from the Crystalling and was drawn up here by his hunger.  He came through a blizzard and managed to get here, but somepony spotted him and raised the alarm before he got the chance to even try."

"Aww", Pinkie reacted,"I feel so bad for him, trying to make friends with ponies and nopony wanting to be his friend."

"Well, he is from a race of creatures that resort to stealing love from others",Rainbow Dash pointed out,"You can't blame ponies for not wanting to be friends with any of those things."

"Which is why I'm asking all of you to give him a chance."

The request from Twilight caused all five mares in the room to look at her as though she had just sprouted a second head.

"You want us to become friends with that...  him?" Rarity responded, choosing her last word carefully upon seeing her friend giving a very disapproving glare.

"Well, yes and no", Twilight explained,"What I want from all of you is to just give him a chance to prove that he isn't like his kind and that he truly wants to be friends with us."

"That's all?", asked Applejack,"Just give him a chance to prove he's nice?  We don't have to be his friends if we don't feel comfortable with the idea?"

"Yes" Twilight replied hesitantly.  "If you don't want to be his friend after you all meet him, then I won't force you to do so.  I will say, however, that he's a rather big fan of ours and has been looking forward to meeting us.  Let's at least be polite when we see him."

"But like I said, he does genuinely want to be friends with us, so the very least we can do is hear him out.  So, can I count on all of you to at least give him a chance?"

The mares in the room all looked at each other with a great deal of uncertainty.  After several minutes, Rarity gave her answer.

"Well, I suppose I can't call myself the element of generosity if I wasn't generous enough to give him at least one chance."

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was next to speak.

"Um, if he really isn't mean, then I guess I can give him a chance too."

Pinkie gave a comically long "Hmm" before eventually agreeing with a loud "Okay!"

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were the last two ponies at the table who hadn't yet answered.  They both looked at each other and the other three of their friends who agreed.  Eventually, Applejack let out a sigh of defeat.

"C'mon Rainbow", she said to her friend,"We might as well get this over with."

Rainbow looked at her friend with a small amount of shock before she let out a huff.

"Okay", she relented,"since everypony here is gonna give him a chance, I might as well too.  But if he tries to hurt a hair on anypony's head, I'll sock him so hard that his eyes will be spinning!"

"Trust me", a smiling Twilight said,"He won't do anything of the sort."  Twilight then turned to Starlight and asked her,"Would you please go wait for him out in the hallway and let me know when he gets here?"

"Certainly, Twilight" she replied, and then got up and walked out the door to wait for Thorax.





It was approaching noon and Thorax was being led by a pair of guards down a hallway he recognized as having a special dining hall for important guests of the empire.  This hallway also held their guestrooms, as he remembered his brief stay with Princess Twilight in her suite.  A part of him hoped that he would see the mare again in the future, along with Spike, his first real friend.

Rounding a corner, Thorax wondered what his three friends were doing now.  He had ran into Heartfelt a week or so ago, and had found out that he wasn't going to be left go for what he did, which relieved the changeling to no end.  The pony told him that he was simply to do the community service assigned and then write a formal apology to both Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor for his failure to report Thorax's whereabouts when he learned of them.

"There you are!"

The voice had caught Thorax off guard, but as soon as he recognized it, he looked up.  Standing outside the set of double doors leading to the dining hall was a lilac coated mare with a purple and teal mane and tail.

"Starlight!" he exclaimed.

"Thorax!" Starlight said as she ran up to meet him, embracing the changeling in a hug.  They stood there for a moment before she released Thorax.  "How have you been?" she asked him.

"Well, it wasn't so great at the start", Thorax admitted,"but things have gotten better since the last time.  I've even-"

Starlight put a hoof to Thorax's muzzle covered muzzle to pause him.  "I really do want to hear about all the things that have happened to you so far", she said,"but I think there's somepony else that would like to hear about it as well."

Thorax looked at her confused for a moment before his eyes went wide in realization.  "Spike and Twilight?!" he exclaimed.

Starlight's enthusiastic looked changed to a regretful looking one.  "Well, just Twilight unfortunately", Starlight admitted,"Spike got called away to the dragon lands."

"Aww!", Thorax said in disappointment,"I was really hoping to get to see my first real friend again!"

"I know, it's terrible", Starlight admitted,"but he did give me this to give you."  Starlight then produced a scroll and handed it to Thorax.  Opening it, he saw it was a letter addressed to him:

Thorax,

I'm sorry I couldn't come to the Crystal Empire with Twilight and Starlight to visit you, but I was called away by Dragon Lord Ember for something important.  When the dragon lord summons you, you have to go.  I promise I'll come and visit you at the soonest opportunity I can get.

Your friend,
Spike

Thorax smiled as he read the note.  "I hope he gets another chance to see me soon" he said.

"I'm sure he will", Starlight told him reassuringly,"Now, on to the next order of business."

"What's that?" Thorax asked with a curious look.

"You don't remember?", Starlight asked,"Something Princess Twilight said she was going to attempt to do?"

Thorax took a few moments to think, and realization hit him head on.  "They're here?!", he asked excitedly,"Twilight convinced them?!"

Starlight nodded.  "Admittedly, some of them were pretty reluctant, but they did all agree to meet you."

Thorax was a little disappointed that the five mares seemed a bit apprehensive about meeting him, but he couldn't blame them after their last encounter with changelings.  He just hoped he could win them over and become friends with them all.

"Now, here's what we're gonna do", Starlight started explaining,"I'm gonna give Twilight a heads up that you're out here, then she'll let me know when it's okay for you to come in, and then we'll get everypony introduced."

"Sounds like a plan" Thorax agreed, though a bit nervous.

Starlight gave him a nod as she walked over to the door and knocked on it gently.





Twilight had heard the knocking on the door and excused herself to answer it.

"He's here, Twilight" Starlight informed her.

"Okay", she replied,"Just give us a minute and I'll tell you when it's okay to come in."

Twilight closed the door and faced her five friends.  "Now, remember what we agreed to", she reminded them,"You're all going to give him a chance, so no trying to lasso and hogtie him Applejack, or bowling him over and trying to knock the daylights out of him Rainbow!"

"My words are my bond, Twilight" Applejack replied.

"Fine, I won't!", answered Rainbow Dash tersely.

Twilight nodded and opened the door.

"Okay, you can both come in now."

Twilight stepped away and went back to her seat.  Starlight came through the door a moment later, flanked by a palace guard.  A few moments passed as Starlight, who had taken her seat, looked back with confusion.

Another second later, and Thorax sheepishly walked in.  The mares at the table looked at him with surprise.  It wasn't so much that Twilight had been telling the truth and an actual changeling had walked into the room, but all of the restraints on him.  The muzzle on his face, the magic-prohibiting ring on his horn, and the large belt wrapped around his barrel pinning his wings down.  Instantly, the quintet became very suspicious of what Twilight had told them about the changeling being friendly.

Thorax looked at the group eyeing him with skeptical looks, and decided that he should attempt to break the ice.  "Um, h-hello" he greeted them as he waved his hoof.

The gesture was met with a continuation of the stares.  Twilight elected to find a way to break the tension.

"Why don't you come over and sit with us?", Twilight offered,"You can take this seat between Starlight and I."

"Thank you" he replied as he slowly walked over to the table and took a seat with the mares.  The looks continued, and made Thorax want to turn into a fly and make a quick escape.  Twilight pressed on with trying to relieve the tension.

"So, why don't you introduce yourself to everypony?" she offered.

"Oh!  Uh, yeah", Thorax agreed,"That's a good idea.  Uh, my name is Thorax.  It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

The stares kept going for a few more seconds before the orange earth pony decided to speak.  "Howdy", she said in a muted voice,"I'm Applejack."

"Rainbow Dash" the cyan pegasus then spat out.

"Hiya!  I'm Pinkie!" came the enthusiastic greeting of the pink pony.

"I'm Fluttershy" said the yellow pegasus, who Thorax didn't hear and looked at Twilight.

"Her name's Fluttershy", she told him,"She's not so good with introductions"

"Heh, neither am I" Thorax said, hoping the admission would perhaps ease some of the tense air in the room.

"And I'm Rarity" came the voice of the last pony to introduce themselves, the white unicorn.  Upon hearing her name, Thorax remembered something from his journey.

"Rarity?", he asked,"As in 'Rarity for You' Rarity?"

The mare's eyes went wide.  "You know of my boutique?" she asked Thorax in response.

"Yeah", he answered,"I passed by it when I was traveling through Manehattan.  You make very beautiful clothing.  In fact, I'd considered trying to throw on a disguise so I could come in and try something on."

"Really?" she asked him in disbelief.

"Yes, really!", he replied,"You have a lot of talent to be able to make all of those things."

The tension was effectively broken, at least when it came to Rarity.  "Well, I must say", she began,"This is a rather pleasant surprise.  Who would've thought that I would be receiving praise for my dresswork from a changeling?"

"Pretty sure nopony here would've" answered Applejack, who Thorax noticed had also seemed to ease up on her mistrust of him.

"Yeah, yeah", came the voice of Rainbow Dash,"What's with the get up?"

"Rainbow!", Twilight scolded,"That's really rude to ask something like that!"

"It's okay, Twilight", Thorax told the mare,"I'm sure it's the... sixty-four thousand bit question?  Is that right?"

Twilight nodded.

"It's part of the agreement I signed to stay here", Thorax explained,"I have to stay in the castle and do community service for six months, or at least that's what I think it's supposed to be.  Besides that, I have to be in these restraints so I don't hurt anypony, not that I would if these weren't on anyway."

"No offense", Rainbow interjected,"but that's really making you sound like a criminal."

"Rainbow!" Twilight scolded again.

"I said no offense!" Rainbow responded.

"Yeah, I know how it makes it look", Thorax admitted,"but if it's what I have to do to earn the trust of the ponies here, then it's what I have to do."

"Well, I can't speak for everypony here, but I look forward to the day that they take those off and you can be here without any restriction" Starlight offered to try and inject a positive mood into the conversation.

"I do too", Thorax replied,"I just hope that the princess and the captain will trust me by then."

"Princess Cadance and Captain Shining don't trust you?" came the soft voice of Fluttershy, now loud enough that Thorax could just hear her clearly.

"I'm afraid they don't, and I don't blame them", Thorax answered,"After what happened at their wedding, I wouldn't blame them if they never trusted changelings again."

"Speaking of the wedding", Rarity interjected,"Twilight told us that you were there and saw all of us, and that we apparently gave you some motivation?"

"You most certainly did!", Thorax told her with a smile,"I'd always been different from the other changelings.  I realized it when I was just a grub freshly hatched from my egg.  I spent most of my life being tormented and bullied because of it.  Even my broodmates, especially my older brother Pharynx were in on it."

"That's terrible" Fluttershy said in reaction to the revelation.

"It got worse as I got older", Thorax continued,"Every changeling has to learn to be able to infiltrate whatever society we're assigned to go to, but I was so bad at it by the hive's standards, that I was deemed unfit and made to be a janitor for the hive.  In fact, if the attempt to take over Equestria at the wedding hadn't happened, I'd probably still be there now."

"But y'all saw us there?" Applejack asked, prodding the changeling to continue his story.

"I did, but who else are you speaking to?" he asked with confusion.

"What do ya mean?" replied Applejack.

"Y'all", Thorax said,"As in You All?"

"Oh", Applejack realized,"I say that whether I'm talkin' to a group a ponies or just one.  Anyways, you were there and saw us, right?"

"I was, and I'm glad that I did", Thorax told them,"I was so moved by seeing all of you work together against my kind that I knew then and there that the answer to the problems that have been plaguing me all my life was friendship.  More than that, I also realized just how wrong it was to steal the love associated with that, so I swore never to take any more love unless the pony it came from allowed me to do so."

"Then how do you get love here?" Rainbow asked, her hard edge diminishing if only slightly.

"Well, there's so much love being fed into the Crystal Heart that it's practically overflowing, so Princess Cadance agreed to let me siphon off what love I need from that.  I guess she figures that's a way to keep the ponies safe from me."  Thorax hung his head low at the last sentence.

Twilight brought her hoof under his muzzle and brought it up so he was looking at her.  "Don't be so down about it", she said reassuringly,"I believe that ponies will come to trust you.  You just have to work at it and show them you are deserving of their trust."

Thorax nodded, but also added,"It gets pretty difficult sometimes."

"As a wise pony once said", Twilight began to quote a quote she had heard before,"No worthwhile deed is one that can be accomplished easily."

Thorax digested the words and thought about his life up to this point and realized that Twilight was right.  In the months that it had taken him to travel here to the empire, he'd had to endure many different hardships such as starvation and harsh treatment from ponies that had discovered what he was.  In the time since he'd arrived here, he accomplished the first and most important of his goals - he had made friends.  A changeling had managed to make actual friends with ponies.

"You're right, Twilight", Thorax responded,"My trip here wasn't easy, but the fruits it bore have made it worth everything I've endured to this point."

"Please, darling", Rarity piped in,"tell us of this grand journey you undertook."

Thorax agreed and began to recount his journey to the Crystal Empire.  As he spoke, he also learned about the other five mares.  For instance, he discovered that a large apple orchard that he'd passed through just after leaving the hive had belonged to a cousin of Applejack's named Braeburn.

"Wow", Thorax responded to the revelation,"That was quite an orchard, but why was there a big road through the middle of it?"

"Oh" Applejack reacted, but then gave the explanation.  "When my cousin and the ponies in Appleoosa settled the place, there was a dispute with the buffalo that lived there as well.  The orchard my cousin planted was on the buffalo's stampeding grounds, and after nearly coming to a war between both sides, a deal was made.  My brother left that path for the buffalo to stampede through the orchard, and the buffalo leave the trees in the orchard alone."

"I'm glad to hear that it was resolved peacefully", Thorax remarked,"I don't like the idea of war."

"Yeah", Applejack admitted,"Ya don't seem the fightin' type."

Next, as he told of his trip through Manehattan, Thorax learned of Rarity and her desire to have one of her stores in every city in Equestria, as well as having her designs recognized as some of the best in the world.

"Well, I think your designs are beautiful", he told her,"I believe you'll be the most talked about fashion designer in Equestria in no time."

"Well, I must say thank you for the vote of confidence" she replied to the comment, then gave a small chuckle.  "I do believe this might be the first time a pony has received a compliment from a changeling."

After talking about Manehattan, Thorax also discussed the cuteceñera he witnessed, and Pinkie was all the more eager to fill him in on parties.

"Oh, they're super SUPER FUN!", she exclaimed,"There's cake and cookies and chips and drinks and games and presents and just nothing but fun!"

"They do sound pretty cool" Thorax admitted.

Suddenly, realization crossed Pinkie's face.  "IT'S YOU!"

Thorax suddenly cowered in his chair.  "W-What?"

"You're the pony that ran off before I could throw them a party!" she said pointing an accusing hoof at him.

"Yeah", Thorax admitted,"I was so afraid of being overwhelmed and losing my disguise that I ran off as quick as I could."

"Well, we're gonna fix that!" Pinkie exclaimed loudly before rocketing out of the room faster than Thorax could blink.

"Uh, where did she go?" Thorax asked the mares remaining in the room.

"Well", Twilight replied,"if I know Pinkie like I do, then you're about to get your first party."

"Really?", Thorax asked as he looked up at the clock,"She made parties sound like they went on for a really long time, and I don't have a whole lot of time left with you all."

"I'm sure she knows", Twilight said reassuringly,"She's probably just going to be grabbing some cake and party hats for everypony, and maybe some streamers and balloons too."

A moment later, and a whirlwind of pink shot back into the room.  After Thorax reopened his eyes upon closing them from being startled, he was greeted to a room covered in party streamers and balloons, as well as a banner that said "Congratulations on making friends, Thorax!".

"How did you do all this so fast?" he asked the pink mare in bewilderment.

"Best not to ask that question, sugarcube", Applejack told him,"Twi here found that out the hard way."

He looked at Twilight, who nodded.  "Never question Pinkie."

The mares and changeling decided to each take a piece of cake.  While it would do nothing for his body, he didn't wish to be rude to the pink mare that went to the trouble of bringing it here for him; The least he could do was partake of the refreshments and enjoy their company.  After a minute, he continued his story, mentioning his witnessing of some small yet strange pony-like creatures flying in a wind current.

"Oh, you saw the breezies" Fluttershy informed him.

"What are they?" he asked her.

"They're a race of creatures that have migrations every year to gather pollen for their kind.  They're so small and delicate, even a slight change in wind can cause them great distress."

"No wonder some of the ponies were getting mad at me for talking", Thorax said, then explained,"I'd disguised myself to get a better look, and ponies kept shushing me when I asked questions."

"It's really important to stay quiet around them" Fluttershy told him,"otherwise you could cause them harm without knowing."

"You seem to know quite a bit about animals" Thorax remarked.

"Well, I've been taking care of them all since I was a filly.  In fact, I got my cutie mark when I was able to calm all the animals around me after Rainbow Dash did her sonic rainboom."

"I remember Twilight telling me about that", Thorax recalled,"A big rainbow explosion in the sky, right?"

"A shockwave", Twilight corrected,"but it does come with a loud bang."

"Anyway", Fluttershy continued her story,"I help all the animals in Ponyville, including waking up all the hibernating ones during the winter wrap up."

"Winter Wrap Up?" Thorax questioned.

"It's when Ponyville gets ready for spring by clearing away winter" Twilight explained.

Rainbow Dash began laughing.  "Yeah.  Remember your first one Twilight?" she asked.

"Oh, don't remind me" Twilight replied, looking away and blushing.

"What did happen?" Thorax asked.

"It was a disaster", Twilight explained,"It's a tradition for winter to be cleared away without magic, and that's what I grew up my whole life using, so I wasn't any good at any of the tasks."

"Honestly, the worst might have been when I was trying to help  Fluttershy wake the hibernating animals.  The first ones I did were snakes, and I don't like snakes."

"Why did you wake the snakes up if you don't like them?" Thorax asked.

"They were down in their burrow and I didn't see them", Twilight continued,"After I did, I was scared and backed into a cave of bats.  They chased me into a tree where a beehive fell on my head and started stinging my face.  And to top it all off, I blindly stumbled into a den of skunks that sprayed me.  I spent the next couple of hours afterwards picking stingers out of my face and getting bathed in tomato juice."

"Tomato juice?" Thorax asked, not sure why Twilight would need to do that.

"It's because of the skunks", Fluttershy explained,"Their spray is really, really stinky, and the only way anypony knows to get rid of the smell is to take a bath in tomato juice.  Otherwise it takes weeks or sometimes even months to go away on its own.  Even our friend Zecora hasn't found a better remedy, and she's been making potions and elixirs all her life."

"Zecora?", Thorax parroted,"Is she a zebra?"

"She is", Twilight confirmed,"How did you know?"

"It sounded like a zebra name", Thorax explained,"I remember being taught about different cultures in the hive as part of infiltration training.  They are really talented at brewing things like potions and such."

"Well, she's definitely talented", Twilight admitted,"In fact, there was a time when all of us got into some poison joke flowers and we all were afflicted with strange maladies because of it.  Zecora told us the remedy for it and got us all back to normal."

"I'm glad she was able to help all of you", Thorax remarked,"I hope I never run into any of that poison joke."

The conversation continued, and Thorax then got to learn about the Wonderbolts from Rainbow Dash.

"They're the coolest ponies around!" she spoke with excitement.  "They go all over Equestria doing air shows!  They even have a magic stadium so unicorns and pegasus can watch them from up in the sky!"

"I'm actually in their reserves, so I get to practice with them all the time.  I'm hoping one day I'll get on the main team and I can perform in front of all the ponies in Equestria."

"That sounds really cool" Thorax told her, then looked thoughtfully.  "Do they wear blue uniforms with yellow thunderbolts on them?"

"Yeah", Rainbow Dash confirmed,"Wait, have you seen them?  Where?"

"A couple of weeks back, I remember working in one of the rooms that had a window in it, and I looked out and saw the stadium in town.  There was a group of pegasus in those uniforms doing all kinds of crazy things in the air.  That must've been them."

"Well, you gotta get in to a show to see them up close, even if you gotta put some disguise on to do it" the cyan pegasus told him.

Thorax frowned a bit.  "Honestly, I'm hoping someday I can go and not have to wear a disguise."

"I thought your guy's whole thing was wearing disguises and tricking ponies?" Rainbow Dash questioned without thinking, earning a glare from Twilight.

"Maybe the other changelings", Thorax admitted,"but not me.  I want to be able to live among ponies as myself and have friends like you all do.  When I saw all of you that day, it showed me how much better things can be, and despite how far I've already come, I still have a long way to go."

"Well, I certainly hope you get there" Twilight assured him.  She was about to say something else when her sentence was interrupted by a guard rapping against the door and then entering the dining room.

"Apologies, your highness", the guard said,"but I'm afraid I need to escort the ch-Thorax back to his duties."  The guard caught themselves just as Twilight was going to give them a disapproving stare.  Thorax looked up at a clock on a nearby wall.

"Aww", he lamented,"Those two hours went way too fast."  He stood up from his chair and faced the ponies before him.

"Thank you all so much for sitting and talking with me", he said to them,"I'm really glad that I got to meet you all, and I hope that maybe we can do this again sometime in the future."  He then faced Twilight and thanked her for making the past two hours possible.

"It's not a problem at all", she told him,"I just hope that next time we come up here, Spike will be able to come with us."

"Yeah", Thorax agreed,"I hope so too."  He then turned to Starlight and thanked her before following the guard out of the room.

Once Thorax had left, Twilight turned back to her friends with a smile on her face.  "So", she began,"What did you all think?"

"Well", Applejack began,"He seemed like a nice enough feller."

"Yes", Rarity agreed,"He did behave himself like a gentlecolt and treated all of us kindly."

"He definitely wasn't nearly as scary as the other changelings we've met were" Fluttershy added.

"He didn't seem to keen on the mini party I threw for him", Pinkie observed,"but maybe he was just really, really nervous about it."

"He's okay, I guess" Rainbow told Twilight.

The purple alicorn looked at her friends, expecting a little more from them.  "That's it?" she asked, trying to mask her disappointment.  "All you have to say is he's nice?"

"I'm sorry dear", Rarity responded,"but I don't know what else to say besides that.  He's a nice colt, or whatever changelings call themselves, but that's about it."

"What about his journey here?", Twilight asked with a slight hint of panic in her voice,"or when he showed interest in all the things you guys did?"

Applejack clued in on what Twilight was getting at.  "Y'all wanna know if we think we could be friends with him, dont'cha?"

Twilight didn't have a verbal response, so she simply nodded her head.

The five mares sitting at the table took some time to gather their words before replying.  Amazingly, Fluttershy was the first to offer a response.

"I guess I could see myself becoming friends with him after a while" she admitted.

Rarity gave her response next.  "I suppose I too could become friends with him in time."

"Ah guess I could see myself at least being on agreeable terms with this changeling, if not becomin' actual friends" came Applejack's response.

"He owes me a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!", Pinkie exclaimed,"Then we can become the bestest of friends!"

"I don't know about friends", Rainbow began,"but I guess as long as he isn't trying to hurt anypony, I could deal with being around him."

Twilight looked at all of her friends with disbelief.  "Even after everything we talked about with him?  His journey here, his interests in everything that all of you do?  All the stuff that a real friend would do for any of you, and you still are on the fence about it?"

None of the mares spoke for a moment, then Rarity looked at Twilight.  Her expression was the same kind as if a colt or filly brought home a bad report card to their parents: one that was neutral, but had a wall of disappointment behind it.

"Twilight, dear", she began,"I know that you've put a lot of trust into this changeling, but friendship takes more than a couple of hours of talking.  Even our own friendship took more than just a simple conversation to get on its hooves."

"Rarity's right Twi", Applejack chimed in,"That night we all became friends and the elements, we had met each other only the day before, and were thrown into the fryin' pan that next sunless mornin'.  We had all sorts of obstacles to overcome, and we had to trust and work together with one another, and our friendship came about when we realized we could trust each other."

"Which gets right to my point", Rarity continued,"Friendships are built on trust, as you should know all too well, my dear.  While I can say that Thorax has made a good first impression with all of us, or at least most of us, I don't feel as though I can give him enough trust that I could call him a friend.  Not to say I never would, just not right now."

Twilight looked at all of her friends and tried to come up with a response to make them all reconsider, but she knew that was fruitless.  "You're right", she admitted in defeat,"Our friendship was something special, perhaps even fated.  I can't expect all of you to take to Thorax like we all took to each other.  But, if he wanted to meet with us all again sometime, would you be willing to do that?"

The five mares all looked at each other and thought for a moment, before each answered in turn.

Rarity gave a sigh and replied "I suppose I could do this again sometime."

"Ah suppose I could to" replied Applejack.

"Um, O-Okay" came Fluttershy's response.

"I am SO going to meet him again!" Pinkie said with a good bit of enthusiasm.

"Fine", Rainbow Dash said in a huff,"If you all want to come talk to him again, I'll come too."

Twilight smiled and nodded, but for her, their agreement to willingly see Thorax was more of a defeat than a victory.  The changeling was working to overcome the poor perception that ponies had of his kind, and as the princess of friendship, she wanted so much to help him accomplish that goal.  She just had to remind herself that some ponies, even her own friends, would need time to adjust to the idea.
> Part II, Chapter 5 - Interviews and Interrogations - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Cadance strode confidently through the halls of the Crystal Palace to the throne room.  There, she would go about her daily tasks until lunch time.  As she entered the throne room, she took note of her assistant waiting at the bottom of the dais.

"Good morning, Andesite!" the princess greeted.

"Good morning, your highness", returned Andesite,"I trust you slept well?"

"As well as a mother with a newborn child can", Cadance replied,"Now, what business do we have today?"

Andesite looked over the paperwork she was holding in her magic.  "To start with", she began,"You have an offer to travel to Yakyakistan for a formal dinner and to discuss possible trade between them and the empire, and they are requesting both you and your husband.  Besides that, well..."  Andesite shuffled the papers nervously before finishing with,"today is the day."

Cadance looked confused.  "The day?"

Andesite looked nervously before replying "The interviews with the cleaning staff.  The ones about 'you-know-what'?"

Cadance remembered what Andesite was talking about almost immediately.  Today marked three months since she and her husband had given Thorax, a changeling, the status of political refugee and offered asylum in the empire for a period of six months.  Of course, refugee was just the official term.  In truth, he was more of a prisoner on work release; The wording of the deal was never made public, much less the knowledge that a changeling was residing legally within the Crystal Empire.  Since this was the halfway point of the terms, she would be conducting interviews with the ponies that had the closest association with the changeling since he was allowed to stay here.

"Yes, well", Cadance replied,"I suppose we should attend to the invitation first.  Where is my husband at the moment?"

"He's in the guard barracks", Andesite replied,"They've begun PT drills with some new recruits."

Cadance facehoofed at hearing that; Shining Armor was very particular in his PT drills, and would not want to be disturbed for something like this.

"Okay", she relented,"I suppose we will start with the interviews.  Who is on the list?"

Andesite referred to her paperwork again.  "The head of the cleaning staff Madame Ammonia, the three unicorns that the changeling has been assigned to since the beginning, and also the changeling himself.  I believe that the guards are also scheduled to be interviewed, but they're not on the list I have here."

Cadance nodded"Send in the first pony for the interview", she commanded,"then call all guards that have ever been assigned to watch him to come for theirs interviews, and also call Sunburst in for interview as well."

"As you wish, your highness" Andesite replied before turning to leave the throne room.  Cadance sat on her throne going over the thoughts in her head.

Since receiving the thank you note and responding back to it, the princess had had no contact with the changeling whatsoever.  That had been a conscious decision; The less she saw of him, the better she felt.  Today, that would have to change.  She just hoped that she could go through with it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the clip clopping of hooves.  Looking up, she saw Madame Ammonia walking towards the throne.

"Good day, Ammonia" Cadance greeted.

"Good day to you, your highness", Ammonia returned, taking a position at the base of the dais,"I hope your day has been going well?"

"In all honesty", Cadance admitted,"considering the task that I have before me, I think the day could be going much better.  I trust you know why you're here?"

"You're to be giving me an interview", Ammonia replied,"but as to what for, I do not know."

"Well, let's find a more comfortable spot to conduct the interview" Cadance proposed, and the two mares left to find more suitable surroundings.  A few minutes later, they were in a private office that was recently cleaned, and had a plain desk with two padded chairs seated on either side of it.  Cadance and Ammonia both took a chair and got down to business.

"Okay, before we begin", Cadance said to Ammonia, and then turned to a guard that followed them,"I am going to be conducting my interviews today in this office.  Please let all the ponies I will be interviewing know so that they are not late."  The guard nodded and exited the room.

"Now, to business" Cadance announced.  She gathered the documents that she had brought with her and secured a writing quill and inkwell from a drawer in the desk.  Finally prepared, she began the interview.

"I'm fairly sure that you know why you've been called here" Cadance said to Ammonia.

"I do", Ammonia confirmed,"You're going to ask me about the changeling that's been staying here."

"Yes, I am" Cadance responded,"I have not made this public, but I have offered him a six month stay here in the empire.  As of now, he has been here for three of those six months.  What I wish to know is what his time spent here has been like and how he's been behaving.  So to start with, could you please describe what a day for him would be like?"

"To start", Ammonia began,"he wakes up and gets taken to that low balcony near the front of the castle to draw love from the Crystal Heart, which leads me to a question I'd like to ask, if it isn't forbidden?"

"Besides state secrets that could compromise the security of the empire, you can ask and get an answer for whatever question you wish to ask" Cadance told her.

"Isn't it dangerous to allow him to drain from the Crystal Heart?" Ammonia asked.

"If he was left to drain it for as long as he should desire, yes it would", Cadance answered,"but he is only allowed a half hour, twice a day.  I have all the confidence that the ponies of this empire could make up for any amount of diminished love a single changeling could draw from the heart in that span of time.  Now, would you please continue describing the changeling's day?"

"Of course", Ammonia acquiesced,"After his 'breakfast', he is taken to the cleaning crew he's assigned with and performs duties with them.  This goes on until a bit before noon, when he's taken to the crystaller for some kind of teaching until around two.  He's brought back to us to finish his duties until six, then he gets another meal and is taken to bed."

"Okay" Cadance said as she scribbled down the mare's answers on a paper.  "Now, how would you describe his behavior?"

"He has behaved much better than I expected" Ammonia answered.

"Better than expected?", Cadance asked,"would you care to elaborate on that?"

"I had expected him to be more hostile", Ammonia answered,"but he hasn't shown any aggressive tendencies.  In truth, he acts rather meekly most of the time."

"Interesting" Cadance says jotting down more notes.  "What is your opinion of him?  Both his work and himself."

"Honestly", Ammonia answered,"his work is impeccable.  I never expected to hear myself say this, but his cleaning is some of the best I've seen since I started working here.  He outshines nearly everypony currently working under me."

"Really?" Cadance replied,"That sounds like praise, Ammonia."

"I won't lie", Ammonia responded,"I don't like changelings, but I am also a consummate professional.  When a pony does good work, even one I despise, I will acknowledge it."

"Then I am glad to hear you carry yourself with such professionalism" Cadance told her, causing the mare to smile slightly at the praise.  The princess shuffled her papers and continued with her questioning.  "Now, what is your opinion of him as an individual?"

Ammonia shifted in her chair for a moment before answering.  "I'm not entirely sure", she admitted,"His behavior has been good, but there's a part of me that feels it's just a ruse to lull us into a false sense of security.  Did you have that impression of him, your highness?"

Now it was Cadance's turn to shift in her seat uncomfortably.

"My apologies, your highness", Ammonia blurted out,"I shouldn't have-"

A hoof silenced Ammonia.  "It's okay", Cadance told her,"To answer your question, I did get that impression.  If you're wondering why I still did what I did, then I can only say that Princess Twilight, her assistant, and her new pupil convinced me to give him a chance."  Cadance omitted the princesses from mention; she wasn't sure how Ammonia would react, and didn't want to chance the mare inadvertently starting a panic.

Ammonia digested the information for a moment.  "So it's true then", she said,"Princess Twilight and her friends really did vouch for him to you and your husband."

"They did", Cadance admitted,"I trust Princess Twilight's judgement on matters regarding friendship, as she is the princess whose duties revolve around that very concept.  Of course, that doesn't mean I fully trust this changeling, hence the six months and the terms attached to them."

Ammonia gave a nod in confirmation of understanding.  Cadance continued the interview.  "Now, I'd like to know about your staff's reaction to this changeling.  Has there been any incidents with them involving him?"

"Actually", Ammonia replied,"There was one on the first day."

"Please, elaborate" Cadance requested.

"It involves Elbow Grease", she began,"According to him, the changeling refused to do a task he asked it to perform, and he was forced to discipline him."

"And you said this was on his first day here?" Cadance asked for confirmation, to which Ammonia nodded.  "There haven't been any incidents since then?"

"None like the first day", Ammonia answered,"I get the occasional gripe that he doesn't obey orders given by Elbow and a mare in the group named Feather Duster, but nothing much besides that."

"Hmm..."

Cadance pondered what she'd been told.  Ammonia cleared her throat, getting the princess's attention.  "There's one other thing I forgot to mention."

"Oh?", Cadance reacted with curiosity,"What would that be?"

"There was a vandalism in the restrooms on the floor the changeling was working on, also on the changeling's first day", Ammonia told her,"It actually was discovered shortly after Brass Polish took over watching the changeling.  She was actually the first to discover it."

"What kind of vandalism?" Cadance asked, interested in what damage was done.

"No property damage, if that's what you're wondering", Ammonia told her,"It was somepony on the palace staff.  They went into the incinerator room and took several bags of garbage and spread them all over both bathrooms, even stuffing wads of paper towels and toilet paper into the toilets and urinals so as to clog them and make them rather difficult to clean."

"I trust that you found which ponies did such a thing" Cadance said to Ammonia, causing the mare to adopt a nervous body position.

"Unfortunately, we didn't", Ammonia admitted,"However, we are still investigating it.  The problem is there are so many ponies that could be the culprit that it's difficult to narrow down the list."

"I can't believe you haven't come up with at least one suspect" Cadance remarked.

"It's not from a lack of effort, your highness" Ammonia said, almost pleadingly,"It just...  Almost all the castle staff transferred here from Canterlot, and were there during the invasion by the changelings.  Almost all of them have displayed either disdain or outright hatred for changelings, which makes practically everypony under my watch, and a great many more that aren't, all prime suspects."

Cadance digested the information given to her, then nodded her head.  "I understand", she told Ammonia,"Please continue to investigate the matter.  If you require assistance in the matter, please don't be afraid to ask for it."

"Of course", Ammonia said,"Thank you."

Cadance nodded and turned her attention to her notes.  "Has there been any positive interactions between any of your staff and the changeling?"

"Only one that I know of", Ammonia told her,"Brass Polish.  She's one of our newest staff.  She is the only one I know of that doesn't show any outward negativity towards him."

"How would you describe their interactions?" Cadance asked.

"If I didn't know any better", Ammonia replied,"I would say they were becoming friends.  Honestly, I have a hard time believing it.  I would never have thought in a million years a changeling and a pony could be friends, but everyday I see them together, that's what it looks like more and more."

"Interesting", Cadance responded,"He claimed when we first discovered him that he wanted to be friends with ponies and obtain love that was willingly given.  It would seem from what you've told me that he may have found what he claimed to be searching for."

"Really?" Ammonia said in a small amount of shock,"He still wants to feed off of us?"

"I suppose that's a way to look at it", Cadance admitted,"but I'm not sure exactly how their 'feeding' works.  I've only ever seen how the queen drained my husband."  The thought made Cadance grimace at the memory.  She wished that she had been a much stronger alicorn that day.  Then she would've turned that overgrown witch into a pile of ash.

Cadance had to take a breath and calm herself.  As much as she wanted Chrysalis to pay for her actions, it would do her no good to work herself up.  Moreover, she kept having to remind herself that the changeling wasn't the one who attacked her husband, a task much easier said than done.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she elected to conclude the interview.  "This is the last question I have for you.  Do you think that it could be possible for this changeling to be trusted in the empire in the future, without constant guard escort and restraints?"

Ammonia looked around nervously.  "Um, I don't know.  A part of me is telling me that he is trustworthy and could be allowed to walk freely without escort and restraint, but another says to keep him that way since he is a changeling.  I don't think I can give an honest answer one way or another."

"That's okay", Cadance assured her,"I am looking for honest answers, and you've given them to me.  I thank you for coming today.  I will let you return to your duties, but please let the ponies on your staff that have interacted with the changeling know that I will be speaking with all of them later today."

"Of course, your highness" Ammonia replied, before giving a bow and turning to leave the office.  As she walked away, Cadance took a moment to think about what she had been told by her head of housekeeping.  She had no doubt that the mare was telling the truth, but the things she said were not what she'd been expecting.  The changeling had not even attempted any type of deception whatsoever.  Did he well and truly mean what he said three months ago, and was she just being overly paranoid?

Cadance called for a glass of water as she waited for the next pony to be interviewed.





Several interviews with guards later and Cadance had received more confirmation to the earlier theory that the changeling was genuine in his stated intentions.  Even her guards who had admitted that they had no particular preference for him, which was putting it about as politely as could be stated, had no negative things to report about his actions.  Cadance was beginning to cast her skepticism into doubt.

The princess did receive some negative feedback, mainly in the form of the two interviews from Feather Duster and Elbow Grease.  Both the mare and stallion reported their interactions with the changeling to be highly negative, with several occasions of him refusing to perform duties, in which case the ponies would have to enact disciplinary action to get the changeling to obey orders.  When pressed for more details as to what kinds of punishments, the only response she had gotten was "Nothing that you or your husband wouldn't resort to if necessary."  For some reason, that put a great deal of unease into the princess's thoughts.

Her next interview would be with Sunburst, set in the afternoon just after the stallion finished his lesson with the changeling.  The crystaller and teacher of the changeling was reported by several of the guards interviewed as having become something akin to a friend as time has went on.  They also reported that any and all lessons conducted by Sunburst were within the guidelines that Cadance and her husband had agreed to.  "This will be interesting" Cadance thought to herself as Sunburst walked into the office.

"Good afternoon, your highness" he greeted the princess.

"Good afternoon to you as well, Sunburst" she returned, gesturing for him to take a seat opposite her.  Once seated, Cadance prepared her papers and began the interview.

"Well, as I'm sure you are aware, it's been three months since we've granted our newest resident in the palace a six month stay in asylum, and I wished to hear from you what your experience with them has been like."

Sunburst looked at her with some confusion.  "You mean Thorax?" he asked.

"Erm, yes", Cadance admitted,"I wanted to find out what the interactions between him and my subjects have been like, so to start, please elaborate on your dealings with him."

"Well", Sunburst began,"In the mornings, I am with the guard squad that takes him to feed on the Crystal Heart, and I remove and replace the ring on his horn that controls his magic.  Then I see him again at noon for two hours, where we discuss what he knows about Equestria, and I give some kind of small lesson that's allowed within the approved teaching material, and I am present at the nightly feeding to remove and replace the ring as well."

"Yes, the feedings", Cadance said aloud,"What can you tell me about them?"

"Well, nothing much", Sunburst admitted,"After I remove the ring, he focuses his energy on the Crystal Heart so he can draw the love coming off of it to himself.  He has said before that it's difficult to do without drawing love from the ponies immediately around him."

"Really?" Cadance says in surprise,"He hasn't actually fed on any of the guards?"

"Not as far as I can tell, your highness", Sunburst replied,"I know myself that I haven't been fed on.  I haven't experienced any of the weakness, malaise, or other symptoms associated with the reports of ponies that were unfortunately victims of feedings."

Cadance grimaced at the memories of those reports.  All told, nearly a hundred ponies in Canterlot had fallen victim to being fed upon by changelings.  Most were as Sunburst had described, feeling weak and nauseous, and there were some like her husband who experienced persistent headaches, but there were several victims who had lost so much emotion that they were practically catatonic.  In truth, her husband would've been the same way had it not been for her own love restoring his own.

"Well, then", she responded,"I'm glad to hear you haven't had to endured that uncomfortable situation.  Now, please describe the  kinds of lessons that you've had with the changeling."

"Well, the lessons I've had with Thorax have been the usual sort you'd expect a school age colt or filly to learn about" came Sunburst's reply, with emphasis on Thorax's name.

Cadance ignored his insistence upon using the changeling's name and jotted his answer down on the paper.  "Okay, so they're normal lessons that would be the same as a colt or filly would learn about.  What about the things he already knew about?"

"According to him", Sunburst continued,"he's been taught a lot about some of the different cultures in the world, but he knew nothing of the Crystal Empire.  He thinks that's because the changelings were living in another part of the world around the time it disappeared."

"What other cultures does he know about?" Cadance asked.

"Griffins, Zebras, Minotaurs, and Dragons.", Sunburst replied,"There's not much known to the changelings about some of the other civilizations like the hippogriffs and sea ponies, so that knowledge is limited."

"Interesting" Cadance said as she wrote down that bit of information.  "What is his behavior like during your lessons with him?"

"He's quite astute", Sunburst responded,"He pays attention and learns well.  We never have to spend much time on any one particular subject.  Honestly, I think we'll have given him a full curriculum of Equestrian certified education by the end of six months."

"Our citizen's tax money being spent well" Cadance muttered as she wrote down more on her papers.  "I have one last thing to ask you.  Do you think after six months that the changeling can be permitted to stay here indefinitely, without restriction?"

"Thorax" was Sunburst's response.

"Thorax?" Cadance parroted in a questioning manner.

"Yes, Thorax", Sunburst confirmed,"You keep calling him 'the changeling', but his name is Thorax."

Cadance didn't respond immediately, but knew what Sunburst was getting at.  She was deliberately avoiding referring to Thorax by his name.

"Yes, I have", she conceded,"Please forgive me for that.  It's... difficult, learning to trust him, even if his intentions are truly good."

"I understand", Sunburst told her,"and I believe his intentions to be pure.  To answer your question, I do believe that Thorax can stay here as long as he likes, and without restriction or restraint."

Cadance swallowed a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.  She gave a nod and finished writing on the paper.  "That's all the questions I have for you", she told Sunburst,"I hope you'll be able to join Shining and I for dinner this evening.  The chef said it will be a casserole based on a dish from the zebra lands."

"It sounds wonderful", Sunburst told her,"I will be there to enjoy it."

"Wonderful", Cadance replied,"You may return to your duties."

Sunburst gave a bow and exited the office.  After he left, Cadance sat in the chair for a few moments and thought about what he had said to her.  He believed that Thorax could be trusted, but he was so far the only one who could affirm that he thought he could be permitted to stay indefinitely.





After another round of interviews with guards, Princess Cadance found herself interviewing the last of the ponies who had been directly involved with Thorax: Brass Polish.  The mare was working with him no more than a few minutes ago, and now she was walking into the office Cadance was in for the majority of the day.  Owing to the fact that it was now nearly dinner time, the final interview with the changeling himself would be one of the last things Cadance would do for the day.

"Good evening, Brass", Cadance greeted,"Thank you for coming so late."

"Good evening, your highness", Brass returned,"It was no trouble whatsoever."

Brass took a seat opposite of Cadance, while the princess prepared another set of papers to conduct the interview.

"As I'm sure you are aware", Cadance began,"I've been interviewing all of the ponies who have been involved with our palace's newest resident within the past three months, and you are the last to be interviewed.  While the questions I will be asking you will include the same ones I've asked everypony else, there are a few that will be specific to you."

"...Okay?" replied Brass, who began to shift uneasily in her chair.

"You don't have to worry about anything happening to either you or our guest", Cadance tried to reassure her,"The point of these interviews is to gauge the reception, as well as attitudes, towards the situation."

"Alright" Brass said, a hint of nervousness still in her voice.

"Good", responded Cadance,"Now, to start with, tell me what your day to day interactions with the changeling have been like."

"They're fairly normal", Brass answered,"He and I will work at a task together, and he's very good with cleaning.  If circumstances were different, I could've seen the palace hiring him instead of..."  Brass trailed off and began acting more nervous.

"Instead of?" Cadance pressed, a soft smile on her face.

"...this indentured servitude thing" Brass finished.

Cadance became defensive upon hearing that.  "Miss Brass, I can assure you that if the changeling did not agree to any of the terms of our granting him asylum, he could've refused them."

"But would he still have been allowed to stay here?" Brass countered.

Cadance didn't have an immediate reply, taking a few moments to formulate a response.  "That is a decision my husband and I would've had to come to agreement on.  As it is, the changeling agreed to the terms, and going by what I have written down in these transcripts from previous interviews, he has honored his part of the agreement."  Cadance showed nothing outwardly, but hearing the last sentence rolling off her tongue felt rather weird to her.

"My apologies, your highness, but this still sounds like indentured servitude to me" Brass stated.

Cadance wanted to counter Brass's point, but she had made a sound one.  She'd not given it much thought in the drafting of the agreement, but it was essentially indentured servitude.  A part of her wished to go back in time for many reasons, specifically to undo her offer to the changeling and leaving him to Twilight.  Of course, Shining Armor would never have agreed to such a decision.

Pushing the thoughts from her mind, Cadance elected to continue the interview.  "Getting back on topic, I'd like to know if there have been any situations in which you've had any kind of trouble with our guest."

Brass had shown some irritation during the discussion of the agreement for asylum, but it was now more noticeable.  "If I might ask, your highness, but why do you continue to avoid referring to Thorax by his name?"

"Have I?", Cadance replied nervously,"I hadn't realized."

"If I could make a small request", Brass asked,"Could you please call Thorax by his name?  I would appreciate it if you would."

Cadance debated with herself as to whether or not she should.  Ultimately, she realized she was being dumb.  It was a name, and more specifically, the name of the changeling.  She could do it for just the bit of time it would take to do the interview.

"Of course", Cadance acquiesced,"Have you had any trouble with Thorax?"

"When you say trouble", Brass asked,"do you mean trouble caused by him directly, or resulting from other ponies' reactions to his presence?"

"Any caused by him" Cadance clarified.

"None whatsoever" Brass responded.

Cadance made note.  "You asked about trouble that was because of how others reacted to him.  Have there been examples of that?"

Brass gave a soft chuckle.  "Have there been?  There's been plenty."

"Please give me some examples" Cadance requested.

"The biggest example would be on the first day", Brass began,"Elbow Grease was having Thorax clean dust from tables in one of the hallways, but he was using a spell to put dust back on the table and making Thorax clean it again and again.  When Thorax got fed up and refused, Elbow took the feather duster Thorax was using and beat him with it, so hard that it actually put a crack in Thorax's horn and drew blood."

"Really?", Cadance said in surprise,"I was told that Thorax was being disobedient from the onset."

"He was following directions as given", Brass clarified,"Elbow decided to antagonize him into giving him a reason to use disciplinary action.  Of course, it was less discipline and more a beating that Thorax could do nothing to really defend himself."

"He still had use of his hooves, didn't he?" Cadance countered.

Brass gave her a stern glare.  "Your highness, I know you haven't had a horn your whole life, but a unicorn getting hit hard enough in their horn will be incapacitated, even if just momentarily.  I'd say that the same thing probably goes for changelings, and Elbow was striking hard enough to do real damage."

"Is there a formal report of this incident?" Cadance asked.

Brass's demeanor dropped.  "Not a formal one", Brass admitted,"but I did put in a report for expended first aid supplies that is consistent for a wound."

"I'm afraid that without a formal report, no investigation can be conducted, which also means potential disciplinary action against Elbow Grease will not occur" Cadance pointed out.

"No offense to the administration of the palace or yourself", Brass answered,"but I didn't trust a formal report of an attack against Thorax to bring about either an investigation or consequences for Elbow."

"You have so little faith that the palace would not give a proper investigation into a matter such as this?" Cadance asked Brass.

Brass shook her head.  "It's not so much that an investigation wouldn't have occurred, but that there would've been so much bias against Thorax that I didn't trust any claims made by Thorax or anypony on his behalf to be taken seriously.  It would've been like a kangaroo court, just without somepony getting punished wrongfully."

"I see" Cadance remarked, making note of then lack of confidence the pony before her had in the palace staff in carrying out necessary discipline.  "I will personally see to an investigation once I've concluded with these interviews for today."

"Thank you, your highness", Brass said to her,"I'm sure that Thorax would appreciate that as well."

Cadance gave a small nod in recognition of the mare's gratitude.  "Moving on", Cadance said as she continued the interview,"Were there any other incidents worth mentioning?"

"Yes, actually", Brass told her,"Really, it's all part of the first incident to be honest."

"This wouldn't happen to be about the bathroom vandalism incident, would it?" Cadance asked.

"Yes, it is", replied Brass,"After I took care of Thorax's wound and we cleaned all the tables in the hallway, we went to clean the bathrooms in a nearby hallway-"

"My apologies", Cadance interrupted,"but why did you take over watching Thorax when Elbow had been left in charge only a few moments before?"

"I called out Elbow for his behavior", Brass answered,"and he stormed off after attaching his feather duster to the ceiling.  He's since removed it."

"Okay", Cadance responded,"Continue, please."

Brass continued her recounting of events.  "Thorax and I proceeded to the bathrooms and went inside.  As soon as we opened the door, we were hit with the smell of rotten garbage, and every toilet had been stopped up with toilet paper and hand towels.  Even the stallion's room urinal bowls were stuffed full."

"That sounds awful", Cadance remarked,"What did you do then?"

"Naturally, we began cleaning it up", Brass answered,"though upon reflection, I should've left it as it was and got Madam Ammonia to come and see it immediately."

"And the condition of the stallion's restroom was the same as the mare's restroom?" Cadance asked.

"Absolutely", Brass confirmed,"After seeing that one, I then decided to get Madam Ammonia to come and see it for herself."

"What was her response?" asked Cadance.

"Honestly, indifferent", Brass replied,"She said that we wouldn't be able to find a culprit, but that she would begin an inquiry anyways."

Cadance nodded at her response.  "And I suppose nothing came of this investigation?"

"Of course not" Brass confirmed.  "Madam Ammonia said that nearly everypony on staff was a potential culprit because of their documented attitude towards changelings."

"I get the feeling you have a suspect?" Cadance inferred.

"Two", Brass answered,"Feather Duster and Elbow Grease."

"Why do you believe it was those two?" Cadance asked.

Brass responded,"They had all the info needed to set it up.  They knew Thorax would be there at that time and they knew where to get a hold of some garbage."

"Do you think they had accomplices?" Cadance questioned.

"Maybe", Brass admitted,"A pony working in the incinerator, perhaps?"

Cadance made a note of what Brass told her.  "I thank you for this information, Brass Polish", she told the mare,"I will conduct my own investigation into this matter, and I will also ensure that anypony found to be involved will be punished appropriately."

"Thank you, your highness" Brass replied.

"Now", Cadance said as she concluded the interview,"I have one last question for you.  Do you think that Thorax could be allowed to stay here indefinitely, without any restrictions or restraints placed upon him?"

"Yes, I do", Brass answered,"I think a great many ponies can follow the example he's set, especially some of the stallions."

Cadance gave a chuckle.  "Yes, I suppose", she answered,"I must also admit that your defensiveness of him might be indicative of some amorous feelings for Thorax.  That wouldn't happen to be the case, would it?"

Brass blushed a bit, but answered,"Not exactly, your highness.  I can honestly say that he and I have become friends, but nothing more than that."

"I see", responded Cadance,"Well, I have all the answers I need.  Thank you for your time."

"It was no trouble at all, your highness" answered Brass.  Both mares then stood up and Brass left the room.

Cadance paused a moment to look over her papers, leaving one paper intentionally blank.  To this point, she'd interviewed everypony who had interacted with Thorax.  Now, it was time to interview the changeling himself.
> Part II, Chapter 6 - Interviews and Interrogations - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax walked cautiously through the hallways of the Crystal Palace.  He was being led by a pair of guards to... somewhere.  In truth, neither of the guards told him where he was going.  They just said to follow them.

He was vaguely aware they were somewhere near the throne room, but were not heading there; they turned in the opposite direction just a little before the hallway where it was located.  Instead, they were heading to a part of the palace where what he now knew were called offices were located.  These small rooms were where members of the royal staff conducted business within the empire, specifically the kind that the princess herself was too busy to contend with, such as tax collection.

The guards came to a stop at a door and the lead guard knocked three times.  A second later, and the door opened for the changeling, who was forcefully gestured into the room.  Obeying the command, he went inside to find a window overlooking a desk and two chairs.  In one of them was a pony that he hadn't seen since before he began his asylum.

"Princess?" he asked her, but was then smacked in the backs of his forelegs, causing him to drop into a kneeling position.

"Bow to the princess before addressing her!" the guard barked.

"That is unnecessary, guard", Cadance said in an even tone,"I am sure he would've bowed as soon as he realized he forgot to."

The guard looked as though he wanted to say something, but chose not to.  Cadance looked at Thorax with a neutral expression.  "Please rise and take a seat" she told him, moving towards the chair facing away from the window.  Thorax obeyed her command, and rose to his hooves and found his seat across from her.

"That will be all I require of you guards", she spoke to the two who had brought Thorax to her,"You are dismissed for the day.  Custos, you shall remain to keep watch over myself and the changeling."

The guard, who Thorax now recognized from his first night in the Crystal Palace, gave a salute and returned to standing stone still beside the doorway.  The shuffling of papers caught his attention as he turned to face Princess Cadance.

"Thorax", she addressed him,"today marked the first day of your fourth month here in the Crystal Empire, which means you've already spent three full months here, which is half of the agreed upon time frame for your asylum here."

The princess paused as she grabbed a writing quill in her magic and dipped it into an inkwell.

"I have called you here to interview you about your time so far.  I ask you to answer all questions with nothing short of the whole truth.  If you attempt to withhold anything from me, I will find out or know already.  I have conducted interviews with several guards as well as the other ponies that have either been around you or have interacted with you in any capacity."

Thorax gulped and fidgeted nervously in his chair, and for good reason.  Even without having his ability to sense emotions that grand majority of the time, he knew that almost everypony here hated him, and hoped the princess would go back on her deal and make him nothing more than a pile of dust on the ground.  He had no idea what kind of things the other ponies could've said that would get him in trouble for telling a different story.  Of course, there was also the chance that the princess wouldn't believe what he said anyways and just punish him for not saying what she wanted to hear.

"To begin", Cadance continued,"I would like for you to describe what a full day for you here in the Empire is like.  Leave out no details please."

"Of course", he began,"I'm woken up around seven, and I'm taken to the low balcony where they remove the ring on my horn and I feed on the Crystal Heart."

Cadance paused him for a moment and gave him a stern look.  "Just the Crystal Heart?" she questioned.

"Yes, just the Heart", Thorax replied,"I try very hard not to draw from any of the ponies around me."

"So I've been told", she stated,"You've told me the truth.  None of the guards or Sunburst have complained to me about fatigue, nausea, feelings of unwellness, or headaches.  I'm sure you recognize those as symptoms of a changeling feeding on a pony's love?"

"The fatigue, I do", he admitted,"but the feeling sick and headaches I can't recall hearing before."

"That's a moot point", she told him,"Continue, please."

"After that, they reapply the ring and take me to Feather Duster, Elbow Grease and Brass Polish to start my day.  It usually starts with changing the used linens on the beds and putting clean ones on.  After that, we clean the restrooms on our assigned floor, then we clean the dining room after you and the captain have breakfast.  After that, I go to Sunburst so he can teach me."

"Good", Cadance nodded,"That matches up more or less with what the other ponies have told me.  Now, describe the teaching that Sunburst does."

"He's a very good teacher", Thorax told her,"In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that if he ever left here for any reason, he wouldn't get hired by a town to be a school teacher or even a university to give lectures.  He's taught me a lot already.  I've learned about all the countries in the world, all the oceans and seas between them, all the wildlife in each continent, the history of Equestria and a few of the other nations, and some science and spellcraft."

Cadance went wide eyed upon this new revelation.  "Spellcraft?" she said loudly.

"Um, yes", Thorax replied sheepishly, but quickly added,"but it's what you're allowing him to teach me.  Most of it is stuff I can use to make performing my cleaning duties easier."

"And the parts that aren't?" she questioned.

"Simple things like making an orb of light to light up dark spaces, a spell to find magnetic north for navigation, and copying text from books onto scrolls so that you can study something without having the actual book there.  Of course, he told me that there's some books with wards to prevent that spell, like the really expensive magic textbooks he used when he studied under Princess Celestia."

Cadance processed the information in her mind and then let out a simple sigh.  "I suppose all of those are harmless enough, though I'm not wild about you learning the text copying spell."

"I don't mean to overstep my bounds, but may I ask why?" Thorax asked her.

Cadance replied "A changeling having that spell at their disposal and sneaking into a royal guard barracks and copying guard patrols and procedures to take back to the hive to plan an attack on the Crystal Empire?  That sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen."

Thorax then became even more nervous than before.  Now he wished Sunburst hadn't shown him that spell.

"Moving on", Cadance continued,"describe the remainder of your day."

"After my lessons with Sunburst, I'm returned Feather, Elbow and Brass and we continue working until six.  That usually involves cleaning the restrooms again, dusting tables and polishing the candlesticks and candelabras, and scrubbing floors.  Once I'm done for the day, the guards take me back to the balcony to feed again, and then I'm taken to my room where I stay for the rest of the night."

"Do you do anything in your room besides sleeping?" Cadance asked him.

"A few things", Thorax answered,"Sometimes I write stuff down, like keeping a journal.  Other times, I read some of the books that Sunburst loans me from the library, or I just lay there with my thoughts too."

"You read?" Cadance asked,"What kinds of books do you read?"

"Sunburst usually gives me a topic to read about in a book, so that's what I'm usually reading.  Other times, he gives me a novel to pass the time with."  Thorax smiles a little and admits to Cadance "Personally, I really like the Daring Do books."

This caught the Princess's attention.  "You like Daring Do?"

"Oh, yes!", Thorax said rather excitedly,"I can't imagine a pony that wouldn't.  I mean, she gets to go on so many cool adventures, find lost civilizations, dig up important relics AND fight off bad guys.  Who wouldn't like reading about a pony like that?"

Cadance couldn't help but smile at the enthusiasm Thorax had for the novels.  It reminded her of Twilight and her love for books.  But her smile faltered when her brain considered what he was saying to potentially be a trick to gain her trust.  "Tell me", she continued,"What has been your favorite part of the books so far?"

"Hmm", Thorax hummed putting a hoof to the muzzle on his face,"I guess it's whenever she's confronted with a trap and she has to use her wits to avoid setting it off.  Some of the more complex ones really test how clever she can be."

"You like when she has to be clever?" Cadance asked.

"Yeah, I guess", Thorax admitted,"Honestly, I like everything about them so much, it's hard to pick just one thing."

"It is" Cadance admitted.  "Now, everything you've told me so far has been truthful and matches what other ponies have told me so far.  Now, I'd like you to tell me what your interactions with other ponies have been like."

"Well, not all of them have been as pleasant as I would've liked", Thorax admitted,"In fact, most haven't been as accepting as I hoped for them to be."

Cadance made no comment but jotted his response down.  "There is one incident I would like to discuss with you", Cadance continued,"Would you tell me about the altercation between you and Elbow Grease on your first day."

Thorax fidgeted in his seat.  "He told me to clean one of the tables in a hallway with a feather duster.  I did it, but when I went to move on, he told me to redo it and claimed I did it too poorly to be considered a proper job."

"Did you do a proper job?" Cadance questioned, eyeing him warily.

"I most definitely did", Thorax said a little defensively,"but when I turned around to see what he was talking about, the table was covered in a new layer of dust.  It was like I hadn't even touched it!"

Cadance gave a hum and wrote down the answer, but gave no other response.  Thorax continued the story.

"I redid it, but when I turned around, he told me to do it again.  It was the same thing after the third time, and the fourth.  After about the sixth time cleaning the same table, I got fed up and refused to do it another time."

"And that's when Elbow 'disciplined' you?" Cadance inferred, to which Thorax nodded.  The princess wrote his responses down.

Thorax sat there as the princess read over her notes, then compared her notes from earlier.  Without his ability to sense emotions, he couldn't get a feel for what might be going on in the princess's mind.  Changelings could make pretty good guesses as to what ponies were thinking about if they could sense their emotions; a helpful tool that infiltrators relied upon heavily.

Cadance finally looked up from her notes and addressed Thorax.  "All the other notes I have here from previous interviews claim that you refused to perform your duties outright, with the exception of one - Brass Polish.  Her story and yours match.  Why would that be?"

Thorax could tell now that the princess doubted his story.  That likely meant that the outcome of this interview would not be favorable for him, and the worst part was that it would be through no fault of his own.  His only chance was to try and convince her that the story he and Brass were telling were the truth, a monumental task considering the mistrust that he would have to push past.

Ultimately, Thorax decided that the truth was still his best option, even if Princess Cadance had doubts about it.  "Brass Polish caught Elbow Grease in the middle of 'disciplining' me", Thorax answered,"They got into a heated discussion and eventually Elbow decided to just leave me with her."

Cadance jotted the answer down and made some other notes.  Thorax simply sat there and waited for her response.  Surprisingly, the princess looked up at him with an expression he hadn't expected: reluctance.

"I have no reason to believe you about the job you did with the dusting of tables", she told him,"but I have an interview here, the very first in fact, that says you have a strong work ethic and have not refused commands given by any of the ponies you've been placed under direct supervision of.  Madam Ammonia has actually conceded that you are an ideal worker, and one of the best that she's had since she started working here at the palace, and she's been here since the empire returned some time ago."

Thorax blinked.  "Madam Ammonia said that?", he questioned,"About me?"

"She did", replied Cadance,"and she's also said some things that, combined with claims from some of the other interviews, have led me to cast doubt about what truly happened that led to that incident.  I'm going to conduct my own investigation into it."

"Now then", Cadance continued,"Getting back to the topic at hand: Your interactions with ponies.  As you've said, most haven't been pleasant, but I know that there's two that have been more positive.  Care to discuss your goings on with Brass and Sunburst?"

"My time with Sunburst has been great", Thorax replied a little more enthusiastically,"It was a little difficult at first because he was unsure of me, but as time's went on, he's overcome that and we've gotten to know each other better.  After she stood up for me, Brass and I talked and I learned a good bit about her too.  Did you know she wants to start her own business in silver smithing?"

Cadance shook her head.  "No, I did not know that" she replied.

"Well, she has real talent", Thorax continued,"She even brought a small ingot of silver in and she showed me how her magic could craft it into a utensil like a spoon or fork.  She said the spell is really simple, but then she went even further and put all kinds of ornate designs on the handle.  It really turned out wonderfully.  I wish I had it, or at least a picture so I could show you."

Listening to the changeling go on about the mare's talents made Cadance smirk a bit.  "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were taking a liking to Brass Polish", Cadance remarked,"Do you have any affections for this mare?"

Initially, she had intended to make Thorax squirm just a bit; make him feel uncomfortable by calling out a crush he had on a mare.  The reaction she got, however, was not what she expected.  Rather than be embarrassed, Thorax thought to himself for a moment before giving her a response.

"I don't know", he admitted,"I honestly never thought about that before, but if she was interested in me, and wanted to give a relationship like that a try, I guess I would be willing to.  I'm not sure how it might go though, especially when it comes to love."

"What do you mean 'when it comes to love'?" Cadance asked him.

Thorax thought about how to answer for a moment before he gave his explanation.  "There's a few general rules that infiltrators have to follow on their missions, and one of them is 'when in a relationship with a pony, nothing beyond simple kissing'."

Cadance made sure to jot these notes down clearly and concisely, as she intended to share this specific information with her husband.  "Why nothing beyond kissing?"

"Think of it like dangling food  in front of a puppy." Thorax offered as an analogy.  "A kiss would be just out of the puppy's reach.  Anything more would be getting too close, and the chance of the puppy grabbing the food from you becomes too great."

"If an infiltrator were to go beyond simple kissing, the chance of being unable to resist engorging themselves and draining a pony completely and blowing their cover would be too great."

"That makes it sound like stallions and mares with reluctant partners should be suspicious" Cadance observed.

"Not necessarily", Thorax countered,"Most of the infiltrators I've overheard talking say that the best route to go is an already established and previously physical couple.  They replace the mare and rebuff the stallion's advances with claims of 'having a headache', and then they just stay with them for two or three weeks.  When they need to head back to the hive, they stage some kind of an accident where it's plausible for the mare to have lost her memory of those weeks, and nopony is the wiser."

Cadance was writing very quickly, not sure what to think of this offering of information, but also not so naive as to just let it pass.  "So, mares claiming a headache when their special somepony wants to get physical could mean that one of them is a changeling?"

"Again, not necessarily", Thorax again countered,"Infiltrators often spend weeks studying the ponies in an area before selecting a target to replace.  They need to know everything from daily schedules and routines, observing the interactions between two ponies, the target's own behavior, some reconnaissance to try and account for any suspicion another pony may develop when they do finally replace a target.  There's a lot that goes into a successful infiltration, and the return is often not much; just enough for a few changelings to last a week or so.  That's why there's so many spread out all over Equestria and beyond."

"Beyond Equestria?" Cadance questioned.

"Equestria is the preferred location for infiltrations", Thorax answered,"mainly because of how easily friendship comes to ponies and how much love ponies can create, but there's plenty of other species that create love too.  Griffons, for example,  love gold so much, infiltrators often pose as business partners and present large sacks of gold to extract love from them."

Cadance continued jotting down notes.  If this information was accurate, it would go a long way to helping protect ponies from coming to harm from changelings.  As she thought that, she stopped writing.  "What if it isn't accurate?" she thought to herself.  "What if he's feeding her things she wants to hear to gain favor with her?"

Deciding to get back to the main part of the interview, Cadance set aside the notes detailing what Thorax had said about changeling infiltrators, electing to show her husband and see what he thought about it.

"I have just one more question I'd like to ask you" she said, wishing to conclude the interview.  "What reasons can you give me that you think I should allow you to stay here in the empire beyond the six months?"

Thorax thought for a long time on the answer, but eventually looked up at the princess with a frown.  "I don't think I can give you an answer that would completely persuade you", he admitted,"but I can tell you why I would like to stay here."

Cadance blinked.  This was not something she was expecting, instead looking for the changeling to try and lead her into some kind of empty promise about being a wealth of information on changelings that was simply too good to let go.  "Okay", she conceded,"Why would you like to stay here?"

"Having been here for just these three months", Thorax began,"I've felt something that I've never felt for as long as I've been alive: happy.  I had no idea what it was when I first realized I was experiencing it for the first time, but when I told Sunburst what I was feeling, he knew right away."

Thorax then gestured towards his restraints with his hoof.  "I'm not really a fan of having to wear these", he admitted,"and a few ponies have also told me that they're not fond of me having them on either.  The main reason I agreed to wear them was to prove to everypony skeptical of me that I can be trusted not to hurt anypony here, but I'm also showing all of you a great deal of trust as well."

This comment took Cadance by surprise.  "How are you showing us trust?" she questioned.

Thorax took the time to compose his answer.  "Since coming to Equestria and ending up here, I've been constantly afraid of being found out for what I was and either being caught and imprisoned or ran off to who knows where and have a terrible fate befall me.  That all changed when you allowed me to stay here.  I don't have to hide anymore, and I don't have to be afraid that I'm going to be hurt just because I'm different."

"From the first day, I've been allowed to be myself, my true self.  The changeling you see before you is the same one that only wanted to live amongst ponies in peace, and he still wants that, but I can only do that with the ponies here in the palace so far."

"I want to stay here past the six months and show all the ponies here in the Crystal Empire that I don't have ill will or malicious intent towards them.  I want to be able to walk in the streets and greet ponies with a 'Good day!', and they return it back in kind, without fear that I might drag them off and suck all the love out of them, or worse."

"I know it was a lot to ask of you for the chance to live here with all of you, given what happened back on your wedding day.  But you still gave me that chance, and I can impress upon you enough how truly grateful I am that you did."

"You asked me earlier why you should let me continue to stay here, and I didn't have an answer then, but I do now.  I think you should let me stay here so that I can continue to repay all of you for the opportunity and friendship you've given me."

Cadance took a moment to consider his words before writing down more notes on her papers.  When she finished, she rose from her chair and looked at Thorax, who then copied the gesture.  "You've given me a lot to think about", she told him,"Of course, a decision won't be rendered today about whether or not you'll be allowed to stay indefinitely.  The point of these interviews was to get an idea as to what your presence in the Crystal Empire, and more specifically the Crystal Palace, has been like and the effect it has had on the ponies living here.  We will meet again at the end of six months and have a final determination.  For now, please return to your room, and good night."

Thorax gave no vocal response, but simply bowed and followed the guard out of the room.  Once gone, Cadance let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.  Examining her paperwork, she came to the conclusion that, more and more, she might actually and legitimately be giving Thorax a more permanent residency in her territory, or at least extend the invitation to do as such.  Right now, she had two matters to address: The information he'd given her in regards to changeling infiltration of Equestrian society and the disciplinary and vandalism incidents from Thorax's first day in the empire.

Cadance was not the sort to drink, but she had elected to have a night cap before retiring to bed.





Princess Cadance was now sitting in her throne in the Crystal Palace with her head in one hoof, eyes shut and letting out a hum twinged with pain.  Her night cap ended up becoming several drinks in a row, all thanks to her husband.

Before retiring for the evening, she had showed him the information that she had been given by Thorax during their interview.  When presented with it, he simply remarked that he would investigate it in the morning and set it off to the side.  Cadance had looked at him indignantly, wondering why he was acting so blase about what could end up being important information.

His reply?  "And that information could all be one big, fat lie to send us on a wild goose chase looking for changelings based on bogus information."

She called for Andesite and requested the mare go into the personnel files for the palace and call up the guards assigned to watch Thorax around the time the disciplinary incident happened, as well as ponies who worked in the incinerator that day so they could get a potential lead about who could've carried out the vandalism incident discovered by Thorax and Brass Polish later that day.  She also requested a mage be present for questioning as well.  The mare agreed and promised a list for Cadance in the morning.  Once all was said and done, the princess drank until feeling a tad woozy, then proceeded to bed.

Now, Cadance was nursing a small hangover.  While being an alicorn helped with such ailments, it did not prevent them.  Naturally, the princess requested the shades in the throne room shut, and she be brought a tall glass of water with an analgesic tablet.  At the moment, she was waiting for the medicine to perform its miracle upon her.

As she sat there, Andesite quietly approached Cadance with a list in her hoof.  "Your highness", she said quietly,"I have the list you asked for.  I can call the ponies on it whenever you are ready."

Cadance wished to postpone these interviews until after lunch, but she was interviewing quite a few ponies throughout the day.  She'd have to put on a brave face and soldier on through her duties.  "Very good" Cadance praised the mare.  "Please call the first pony to be interviewed."

"Of course" came Andesite's reply, and the mare left and returned with the royal guard watching Thorax yesterday afternoon.  The guard gave a salute, which Cadance acknowledged.

"Good day, guard", she greeted,"please take a seat."

The guard dropped the salute and took a seat on the floor across from Cadance.

The princess got right to the matter at hoof.  "As you remember, I interviewed you yesterday about the changeling and his time in the empire, but I have heard some information that has led me to believe that there may be some wrongdoings that have occurred, and I intend to investigate these claims."

"I am asking you to cooperate to the fullest extent, and to impress upon you the seriousness of the matter, I have requested a royal guard mage to be present for this questioning.  They will be conducting a truth sensing spell, so as to ensure that I am getting one hundred percent truthful responses to my inquiries."

"As you are aware, with usage of a mage in these interviews and their spells, I have to present you a consent form that says you agree to having this spell used on you.  You can refuse, but if you give an answer that is later found to be untruthful, then you will be subject to court-martial for insubordination.  If you agree to this, then please sign the form."

Cadance offered the form to the guard, who cautiously took it in his own magic grip.  He read it over and gulped nervously, but took a quill and signed the form on the appropriate line.  Cadance took the form back and gave it to Andesite to put on file.  "Now then", Cadance continued,"since we have the appropriate paperwork on file, we need only wait for the mage to arrive and we can begin with this interview."

The ponies waited not even a total of five minutes before another pony joined them.  A unicorn mare with a light blue coat, dark blue hair, and yellow eyes approached the two.  After giving a salute, the mare introduced herself.

"Recruit Night Divining, 3rd Mage Corps, at your service" she spat out.  Cadance nodded in recognition, then directed the mare to the seat beside her.  As she sat down, Cadance took note of her cutie mark: A divining rod pointing at a moon and stars.

"Please, Night", Cadance addressed the mare,"Explain to the guard here what you will be doing during this interview."

Night nodded and addressed the guard.  "I will be conducting a spell on you that will determine whether or not you are being truthful or concealing something.  A grayish aura will become visible around you.  If you're being truthful, it will become a green color, and it will turn red if you are hiding something.  Years and years of usage have allowed the mages of the royal guard to perfect this spell, and I've been taught the newest and most accurate version to date."

Cadance gave a short thanks to the mare, who nodded to her in recognition.  With all the necessary steps taken care of, the princess began the interview proper.

"Please recount exactly what happened during the disciplinary incident involving the changeling that identifies himself as Thorax and the member of the palace cleaning staff named Elbow Grease."

The guard took several moments before replying, visibly nervous, but eventually gave a response to the princess.

"The changeling was brought by two other guards to be watched by myself and the cleaning crew he was assigned with.  Elbow Grease was part of that crew.  Once he was left there, Feather Duster instructed him to clean the dust off of tables in the hallway with a duster.  She then left him in the care of Elbow Grease while she went to attend to another duty."  The aura gave off a green glow as he spoke.

"Okay", Cadance said as she jotted down notes on a fresh parchment,"please continue."

The guard did as asked.  "The changeling then got to work, and-"  The princess interrupted with a raised hoof.

"Excuse me", Cadance said,"but yesterday, you said that the changeling refused to do the task, and that is what led to the disciplinary incident.  Why the change?"

"Well", the stallion replied,"he didn't refuse initially.  He did perform the task as requested, but Elbow had apparently judged the task performed as unsatisfactory, and made him do it over again."  Interestingly, the aura of the spell shifted red.

"Guard", Cadance addressed him as he became visibly more nervous,"the aura of the spell just changed red, which means either what you've told me is a lie, or there is something you haven't told me.  Now, which is it?"  She punctuated the question with a stern glare.

The guard fidgeted in his chair for a moment before letting out a breath and coming clean.  "The changeling performed the job well.  Even I could see that.  Elbow used a spell to make more dust from somewhere and had the changeling keep cleaning the same table over and over again."  Green aura enveloped him.

"Really?" Cadance said, still maintaining her glare.  The stallion simply nodded, and the aura stayed green.  "I take it that after enough times of cleaning the same table, the changeling got fed up with the task and maybe even caught on to what was happening?" she inferred.

"He did get frustrated and refused to do it after several times", the guard admitted,"After that, Elbow decided to enact punishment for refusal." Again, a green aura.

"And what did he do?" Cadance asked.

The guard was silent for a moment before finally replying "He beat the changeling in the horn with the feather duster." Green aura again.

Cadance had an unreadable expression, but behind it was anger.  Earlier, she was told by both Elbow Grease and Feather Duster that the discipline used in that incident was 'Nothing she or Shining would use if deemed necessary'.  Now, with this information, she knew just how unnecessary the discipline really was.

"He beat the changeling in the horn with the feather duster?", Cadance repeated with an edge to her voice,"Did it not occur to you to intervene in that situation at all?"

"I did think so originally, your highness", the guard replied,"but after a moment, I decided it wasn't my place." Green aura.

"Wasn't your place?" Cadance said, the edge in her voice becoming more pronounced.  The guard nodded with nervousness, and a small twinge of fear.

"As I thought about the situation", the guard explained,"I realized that nothing was being done wrong, per se.  The changeling had been ordered to perform a task, and he was refusing, so it was only reasonable to expect him to be disciplined for not following orders." Green aura.

Cadance became rather cross with the guard and his refusing to admit the obvious truth.  "Answer me this, guard", she said with venom in her voice,"just when do we punish palace staff using corporal methods?"

The guard did not have a reply.  As he tried to think of one, his mistake struck him: The Crystal Empire, as well as Equestria, did not practice corporal punishment.  Even the royal guard did not resort to such methods in regards to disciplinary matters.  Now, he was being asked why he allowed Elbow Grease to resort to such methods, which he now saw as what they should have been: physical abuse.

Immediately, the guard began groveling in shame.  "I'm sorry, my princess!", he apologized profusely,"I failed to uphold my duties to both the guard and the crown!  Have mercy upon me!"

"And what exactly was your mistake?" Cadance asked, driving home the point.

The guard shuddered at what was to come next, but replied "I allowed an act of violence to take place here in the palace and did nothing to stop it."

"You are correct" Cadance told him, her demeanor now changing to one that was much kinder.  The guard looked up at her as she motioned for him to stand.

"You admit to having made a mistake, and for that you will receive a punishment" she told him.  She motioned for Andesite to step forward with a parchment and quill, the princess about to make a royal decree.  "For failure to stop an act of violence on palace grounds", she began,"You are hereby ordered to write a letter of formal apology to the changeling known as Thorax.  You are also to no longer be allowed to guard the changeling, and will instead be assigned to the guard station in the incinerator area for a period of no less than one month."  Andesite finished writing the decree and hurried off to file it in the records.

"Now, guard", she looked at him with a smile,"This shall remain between the ponies in this room and the office of records.  You are being given a small amount of leniency since you admitted to and apologized for your mistake to me.  Next time, I won't be so forgiving."  The guard looked up at her and gave a small nod.

"I have one last question before you leave", Cadance said to the guard,"Did the changeling receive any injuries?"

The guard answered, albeit reluctantly.  "He did, your highness.  The strikes were strong and repeated, and eventually cracked the horn and caused bleeding."

Hearing that did not sit well with Cadance.  "My original punishment stands, but I will make a note of this for future reference.  While you will no longer be assigned to guard the changeling, if you fail to report any future abuse of him, it will lead to a court-martial and will likely end with you being dismissed from the guard with an unfavorable letter for failure to properly perform duties.  Am I understood?"

The guard nodded and visibly gulped.  "Good", Cadance said with a smile,"You are dismissed."

The guard gave a bow and quickly exited the throne room.  Cadance sat back in her throne and considered what she had learned from the interview.  Clearly, Elbow Grease was going to be punished severely, perhaps even dismissed.  Before she could do that, however, she would need to investigate the vandalism incident.  The next pony she was going to talk to would go a long way to resolving that.

"Andesite", Cadance spoke to the mare,"I do not need to interview any more guards regarding the disciplinary incident, so they may be allowed to return to their duties.  Bring Magne Phos to me, please."





Magne Phos, whose full name was Magnesium Phosphorus, was an earth pony stallion who stood fairly short compared to most, but was gifted a great deal of muscle that was placed to work in maintaining the palace incinerator.  His chestnut coat was spotted with a few white patches alongside some dirt, most likely soot and ashes from the burning of trash on a daily basis.  He headed toward the throne room after having been summoned to answer questions regarding an incident that would require complete honesty.  That was something he never had any trouble with; he was approximately 1/64th Apple.

"Good afternoon, Magne Phos" greeted Cadance.  The stallion gave a bow to his sovereign.

"Good afternoon to you as well, your highness", he returned.

"Please, take a seat", she offered him, gesturing with a hoof.  The stallion made his way to the offered seat and sat down.  Cadance took a quill and some parchment and looked Magne in the eye.

"I have called you here today to question you about an event that happened a few months ago" she told him, then gestured to Night Divining.  "This royal guard mage will be conducting a truth sensing spell to ensure that the information you give us is the truth as you know it.  Since we will be using this, we must have your written consent, so if you would please sign this paper acknowledging that I have informed you about the use of a mage during our interview, we can begin."

Magne signed the form with a quill in his mouth.  Cadance double checked that the I's were dotted and the T's crossed.  "Excellent" she said, then gestured for Night to begin her spell.  Immediately, Magne was surrounded in a grayish, fog-like aura.

"Now, three months ago", Cadance began,"You were working in the incinerator disposing of garbage, as per your regular duties.  Did anything happen that day that was either unusual or not very common to happen?"

Magne thought for a few moments before coming up with an answer.  "I don't remember the specific day, but I do remember a member of the cleaning staff coming down to the office with a request from a palace guest to look for a lost item." A green tint to the aura confirmed his truthfulness.

Cadance jotted the answer down.  "Do you remember which of the palace staff came with this request?" Cadance asked him.

"Miss Feather Duster, I believe" he replied.  Green aura again.

Cadance wrote the answer down.  "I trust that a form was filled out in regards to a request for search of missing property?"

"Yes, your highness", he replied,"I took it and filed it with our other requests in the office." Green aura.

"Very good" Cadance replied as she jotted down the information.  She would have the files brought up so she could search them herself.  "Now", she continued,"What did you do after filing the request?"

"I went into the collection area and found the garbage that had been collected on the requested day", he answered,"We always make sure to keep it sorted by date, in case a pony loses something in the trash and doesn't realize it until a few days later."  The aura was green.

"And did you help her sort out the garbage to find the missing valuables?" she asked him.

"Actually, no", Magne replied,"Elbow Grease had came down and offered to help her search."  Green aura again.

Cadance had no visible emotion on her face, but inside she was livid.  Elbow had not only elected to commit a violent act in the palace, but also had vandalized property, and worst of all was the fact that he had conspired with Feather Duster on the second count.  The course of action for the princess was quite obvious.

"Thank you, Magne", she told the stallion,"You have been a great help in this matter.  I shall now allow you to resume your duties.  Please, feel free to visit the throne room anytime you have any concerns."

"I thank you kindly, your highness" he said in reply, then gave a bow and left the throne room.

Andesite, who had been standing off to the side, had walked up to the princess.  She knew exactly what the princess was going to ask of her.  "I will make the request for the files from the incinerator be brought up", she said, then asked,"What should be done about Feather Duster and Elbow Grease?"

Cadance looked to Andesite with a serious expression.  "I wish to review the documents first.  Once I have finished with them, I will ask you to call for them."





It was nearly dinner time when Cadance had finished reading through the documents from the incinerator.  Most of them were reports on the amount of garbage being burned, as well as descriptions of what was being burned.  In short, the garbage was primarily food waste and miscellaneous used sanitary products such as tissues and feminine products; the palace had a high number of mares working within its walls.

She had nearly given up when she had found what she was looking for.  Inside a file from approximately three months ago, sat a request for search of lost property.  The name of the requester was Plumeau.  Cadance had to smirk upon reading that: The prench word for Feather Duster.  "The best lies are the true ones" she said to herself.

Reading over the rest of the document, she saw that the lost item was a pair of glasses.  Again the princess had to chuckle.  She deduced this to be a jab at herself, as glasses were required to see more clearly, and this indicating the mare thought the princess was blind.  At least, the princess thought it was a jab at her.

A set of hoofsteps caught the princess's attention as she placed the request into a separate folder, along with the request for replenishment of first aid supplies used to treat Thorax's injured horn from Elbow's attack, as well as copies of the original interviews for both Elbow Grease and Feather Duster.  Looking up, she spotted both Elbow Grease and Feather Duster entering the throne room together.  Both had confused looks on their faces, clearly unsure as to why they were being called here so late.

"Feather, Elbow", Cadance greeted them,"Sit down, please."  The stallion and mare both took seats in front of Cadance.  Feather took a moment to adjust her hair, while Elbow checked his breath by holding his hoof to his face.

"I'm sure you're both curious as to why I called both of you here" she said to both of them.

"Yes, we are" Feather answered for herself and Elbow.

"Well, I'm simply following up on some things in our interviews from yesterday" Cadance informed them.  The version of events you told me of seems a bit skewed from what some of the other ponies have told me, so I've decided to set the record straight."

Cadance levitated a piece of paper to her face.  "Elbow", she addressed the stallion,"you said that on the changeling's first day here, you had to discipline him for insubordination.  How did you go about performing this disciplinary action?"

Elbow rubbed his chin thoughtfully before replying "The approved methods as told to me by Madam Ammonia."

"Could you please be a little more specific" Cadance pressed him.

"Specifically", he replied,"I used the spells that were taught to us by the royal guard for in case the changeling either got violent or made an attempt to escape our custody."

"You did?", Cadance asked in a tone that made the bottom of Elbow's stomach drop out,"Was this before or after you asked the changeling to repeat the task of dusting the same table for the fourth time in a row?"

"Princess?" Elbow asked, both nervous and confused.

Cadance brought up another paper.  "According to a follow up interview with a guard earlier today", she began,"you made the changeling clean the same table over and over again, eventually leading to him becoming frustrated with doing the same task again and again and making him refuse.  It was at this point, according to the guard, that you took the feather duster he was using and repeatedly beat him in his horn until you cracked it and it started bleeding."

"So, Elbow", she concluded with an icy glare at the stallion,"when did the guard teach you spells that involved beating other creatures with cleaning implements?"

Elbow had no answer.  In fact, he was doing all he could to not look Cadance in the eye.  The princess decided to leave the stallion to stew in his shame for a moment.

"Now, Feather", Cadance turned to the mare while producing another document,"According to this request for search of missing property, you were helping a mare named Plumeau find her glasses."  Cadance leaned in with a knowing smirk and asked her "Did you find your glasses?"

Feather had no immediate reaction, but eventually became defensive.  "Your highness", she said a tad more curtly than a normal pony would've said while addressing their sovereign,"just what exactly are you implying?"

"Well, Feather", Cadance began in just as curt of a tone,"The report from the incinerator said that several bags of refuse were taken from the storage room to be searched.  However, those bags were never returned."

"That same day, a vandalism incident occurred in a set of bathrooms that were being attended to by your cleaning crew, which included the changeling staying with us.  Brass Polish discovered this vandalism and reported it to your superior."

"The vandalism was the deliberate dumping of rotten garbage through both the stallion's and mare's restrooms, including the stuffing of paper and feminine products into toilets so as to make them clog.  From what I understand, it took a good bit of time for your crew to clean it."

"Your highness", Feather interrupted,"I don't mean to speak out of turn, but could you please get to whatever point it is you're trying to make?"

"Very well", Cadance continued,"I have testimony from a guard, as well as Magne Phos from the incinerator crew that you two were responsible for the vandalism incident."

Feather looked rather offended by the accusation.  "How do you know that those two weren't lying?", she countered,"How do you know they weren't responsible for it?"

Cadance gave a smirk before replying "Because they gave that testimony while under a truth sensing spell."

The color in Feather's face was quickly gone, and Elbow looked down to the floor in shame.

Cadance lost her smile and adopted a more stern expression.  "Now, these are some rather severe accusations, so you two will be given the opportunity, here and now, to defend yourselves from them.  I will submit you two to the same truth sensing spell as the guard and Magne Phos were subject to, and to do that, I ask you both to sign consent forms.  If you refuse, then I will only have the testimony of the guards and Magne Phos to go on, which will more than likely mean your dismissal."

Cadance then presented two papers to the stallion and mare, as well as a quill and inkwell. The two unicorns took the offered items in their magic, but what happened next took the princess by surprise; Feather flipped her document over and started writing on the back of it rather furiously.  When finished, she used her magic to fold it up into a paper plane, threw it at the princess's hooves, and stormed out of the throne room.

A few moments passed before Cadance picked up the paper and unfolded it:

I resign.  I refuse to work with that parasite anymore.  I will leave tomorrow morning, and I am returning to my quarters to pack.

Cadance let out a huff as she crumpled the note and tossed it aside.  Her attention was turned now to Elbow Grease.  "Do you refuse to sign as well?"

Elbow looked as though he were going to say something, but instead signed the document.  A few minutes later, and had confessed to his actions.  He also admitted no remorse, believing that he was within his right to treat the changeling as poorly as he did.

"I'm sorry to hear you feel that way", Cadance told him,"You are hereby dismissed from your duties here in the Crystal Palace.  I will not offer a letter of recommendation for you.  You will be permitted to stay the night, owing to the lateness of the hour, but you will be escorted out in the morning."

Elbow had nothing to say.  He simply bowed his head and left the throne room.  As he did, he thought back on whether or not he should've acted the way he did.  He hated changelings, that was without question.  

But should he have reined in his contempt?  Probably.  If he had, he wouldn't be jobless now.

"Elbow"

The stallion turned and saw Feather Duster standing in an alcove wearing a very displeased look.  "What did she do to you?" she asked him.

"What do you think?!" he shot back angrily, but keeping his voice low so the conversation was still private.  "She canned me!  I have to be escorted out in the morning."

"And whose fault is that?" Feather asked him with a glare in her eye.

"It's my o-"

A hoof to his muzzle interrupted him.

"The changeling", she answered for him,"If that bug had taken the hint a few months ago and scampered off, we would still have our jobs now."

The stallion looked at the mare with unease.  "Elbow", he said uncertainly,"Nopony forced us to treat him as bad as we did."

"And nopony had our backs!", she shot back at him,"The princess has been forcing us to play nice with that overgrown tick for the past three months and I'm sick of it!".  She then looked back and forth before leaning in closer to whisper.  "And I think I know just the way to get back at him."

Elbow looked at her with a questioning look.  "What are you talking about?"

Feather levitated a box from behind a statue.  Inside it was a bundle of black cloth and a bottle with a pinkish liquid inside.  "Getting some revenge" Feather replied, wearing a particularly evil grin.
> [WARNING: MATURE] Part II, Chapter 7 - Attack
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: This chapter is being rated MATURE do to violence and descriptions of gore.  Reader discretion is advised.

The next morning saw Feather Duster and Elbow Grease being led out of the Crystal Palace by a pair of royal guards.  Once outside, the two were told that they would only be permitted to return with the permission of Princess Cadance or Captain Shining Armor, or if they went through the proper channels of requesting an audience during royal court.  One guard turned to go back inside while the other remained to see off the two unicorns that were now former employees of the palace.  When the guard going inside was completely in the building, the other guard made a motion to Feather to come closer.

"The preparations are all complete", he told her as he handed her a paper,"This disguise spell will let you turn into whatever pony you wish for about ten minutes.  A friend of mine has two spare sets of guard armor they can loan you."

"Be careful!", the guard warned Feather,"The spell only works on physical appearance, not voice.  Try to speak as little and as briefly as possible."

Feather took the scroll from the guard and then levitated a bag of bits to them.  Their transaction complete, the mare turned and walked away, taking a quick glance at the scroll and adopting a rather pleased smile.  "That bug won't know what hit him!"





Thorax's day started the same as any other had, but quickly changed rather abruptly.  After waking up and feeding, he was brought to the cleaning crew he would normally work with for the day, but was surprised when he was met with Brass Polish alone.

"Where's Feather and Elbow?" he asked the mare.

Brass looked at him and replied "Gone.  Princess Cadance left them both go last night."

Thorax looked at her with shock.  "What happened?"

"According to what I was told by Ammonia", she answered,"Cadance did some snooping around and found out that both Feather and Elbow were the culprits behind the bathroom incident on your first day.  She also interrogated Elbow and he admitted to abusing you on your first day, so she dismissed them both because of that."

Thorax was surprised to hear that happen, but sad at the same time.  "I didn't much care for the way they treated me", he admitted,"but I didn't want them to lose their jobs either."

"Don't feel sorry", Brass told him,"They got canned for their own stupidity."

Thorax looked confused.  "Canned?"

"It means they got fired", Brass explained,"or given a pink slip, or got sacked, or any number of other idioms that mean they aren't allowed to work here anymore."

"Well", Thorax continued,"in any case, what happens now?"

"Madam Ammonia will be giving us two new ponies for our crew", Brass replied,"We're just gonna get started with our usual stuff, and then they'll jump in once they get here."

"Okay" Thorax answered back.  The two went about their daily routines for about a half hour before Ammonia and the two ponies in question showed up.

"These are the two new unicorns for your cleaning crew", Ammonia announced with gesturing towards them with her hoof,"This is Bicarb and Bar Keeper.  Bicarb and Bar, this is Brass Polish and Thorax, the changeling we told you both about."  The two ponies, a stallion and mare and both unicorns, gave small waves and nervous smiles towards Brass and Thorax, which both unicorn and changeling returned.

"You've been taught the spells you need should the changeling prove unruly", Ammonia reminded them,"but Brass can attest better than anypony here that the changeling hasn't exhibited any behavior to warrant the use of such spells.  Still, keep them in mind as a precaution."  The new ponies both nodded to their superior as she turned and walked back the way she came.  After more personal introductions by both Brass and Thorax, the group set to work for the day.





Sunset fell upon the Crystal Empire, casting yellowish-orange light across the city scape.  At the base of the Crystal Palace, ponies were going to and fro, with guards standing watch at the base of the tower.  Also beneath the tower was the Crystal Heart, the magic gemstone responsible for protecting the city from the harsh weather that plagued the Frozen North.  The energy from the heart traveled up the tower-like palace, using it to project its spell in the same way a radio broadcast used an antenna tower to project its signal.

Nearby, in an alleyway occupied predominantly by dumpsters, two unicorns stood in armor the same as the guards standing below the tower.  "Are you sure this is a good idea?" one asked the other.

"Of course", replied the second,"Just focus on casting the spell right, then get to the servant's quarters and change into the disguise.  Once you have it on, head to the spot and wait.  I'll signal our contact to send the message, then come and wait at the spot."

"Okay", the first one agreed,"but what about the signal?"

"That's easy", the second replied,"A bathroom break will serve as the signal.  Once they're inside, we go.  Remember, don't hold back!"

The first pony nodded grimly.  Uncertainty was still on his mind, but he trusted his cohort to know what they were doing.

"Okay, the shift change is coming up", the second said,"Cast the spell and follow me."

The first pony nodded, and a moment later, both ponies were shrouded in a veil of magic that looked not much different from a changeling's magic.  When it dissipated, two new ponies were standing in their place.

"Come on" the second pony urged the first as they both trotted their way into the palace.





The day had been the best so far for Thorax since he began his stay in the Crystal Empire.  Bicarb and Bar Keeper were very wary earlier on in the day, but a discussion with Brass at lunch time had convinced the ponies to give the changeling a chance.  This resulted in Thorax getting to learn more about the ponies.

Bicarb, short for Bicarbonate, was a mare that once lived in Ponyville and cleaned for the Golden Oaks library before Princess Twilight was sent there by Celestia.  Bar Keeper, a stallion from Manehattan, once had aspirations of becoming a professional buckball player, but he had lost the passion to pursue it and was now hoping to earn enough money to open a bar in some small town and enjoy a quieter life.

While it was great to learn about the two ponies, it was even better for Thorax to hear their general approval of him.  "When I heard about Canterlot, I figured all you guys were nothing but vicious bugs that wanted nothing more than to terrorize everypony in Equestria", Bar Keeper admitted,"but now that I've gotten a chance to meet you, you guys might not be so bad."

"Yeah", Bicarb chimed in,"Maybe you guys ain't so bad after all?  Just a little misguided because of that queen perhaps?"

Thorax agreed to an extent; While the hive followed the will of the queen the majority of the time, he'd seen plenty of times where changelings simply allowed bad things to happen to ponies when they could've intervened.  Nothing where the outcome would cost a pony's life, of course; That'd be a waste of love.  Just small things like letting a pony step up to their barrel in a deep mud puddle or getting hit with a hoofball during a game.

It was now evening, and Thorax was being escorted by two guards back to his quarters.  This would've been a fairly normal occurrence, but something felt off to the changeling.  Of note, the one stallion seemed rather fidgety as the group got closer the the servant's quarters.  His fellow guard took notice.

"What is wrong with you?" the guard asked in confusion.

"Had too much to drink at dinner mess", the other replied,"I'm gonna need a trip to the colt's room soon."

The first guard huffed.  "Can't this wait until we get the changeling to his quarters?" he asked with annoyance in his voice.

"I'll do my best", the second replied,"but no promises."

The trio continued moving until they came to a hallway, but something wasn't right here either.  For one, the lights appeared to all be off.  A check of a switch nearby confirmed that not to be the case.

"A magic fuse must've blown" the guard deduced.  The second, antsy guard was walking almost wobbly, a look of discomfort across his face.

"Sorry", he apologized,"but this can't wait anymore."  The guard took off down the hallway to where a sign denoting a restroom could be see.  The first guard went to follow his partner, but gave up after a few steps.

"Fine", he shouted to the other guard,"but don't even pause to shake it!"

The other guard dashed into the bathroom as the guard and Thorax stood and waited patiently for him to return.  As they waited, Thorax examined the hallway around him, and realized right away why things didn't feel right: This was the perfect set up for an ambush.

As if on cue, two dark figures fell from the ceiling.  The first fell in front of the bathroom door and held it shut.  The second fell behind Thorax and the guard, firing two stun spells.  Both hit their mark, and the guard and Thorax were sent forward by the impact.  Recovering quickly, the guard stood up to face his attacker, only to be knocked back down and set upon by the attacker.

Thorax took a little longer to recover, but saw the stranger that was attacking him and the guard, and his heart sank.  Standing over the guard with a hoof pushing them to the ground, was what appeared to be a changeling.

The equine figure had some of the telltale marks of being a changeling: fangs protruding from the muzzle, curved horn, insect-like wings, and the signature holes in the legs and hooves.

Despite the appearance of the creature, however, something felt off about it.

"Keep that guard in the bathroom!" shouted the changeling in a mare's distorted voice, then looked down at the guard with a predatory smile.  "I'm going to get a little recharge from this one."

The changeling holding the bathroom door shut looked at the other with disbelief.  "You got the last pony too!" he protested, his voice clearly male and also distorted.  "Wait", Thorax thought,"Those voices sound familiar."

"Then go in there and drain the guard!", the female ordered,"Just stick them in a stall so whoever finds them thinks they fell asleep on the can!"

The other changeling gave a huff before opening the door and going inside.  "Now", the female directed her attention back to the guard on the ground, who was starting to recover.  She pushed her hoof down to hold them in place and opened her mouth, her horn glowing with magic.  A moment later, and a stream of pink left the guard's body and went into her mouth.  After a few moments, the pink stream stopped.

"Not all that much", the female commented,"but there's plenty of ponies in this palace to drain."  She turned away from the guard and faced Thorax.  "Unfortunately, they'll have to wait until we deal with you" she said coldly to him, her magic lighting up her horn.

Thorax looked at her confused.  Her magic wasn't the same green like all the other changelings.  He was about to question why until he felt something heavy and sharp collide with the back of his head.  He fell to the floor in a heap, letting out a grunt of pain.

The female changeling walked over to him, and in her magic's grip was a large spiked mace.  The weapon was clearly not something ponies normally used.  "I'm going to enjoy this" she said with a bright smile as she lifted the mace for another blow.

"Starting the fun without me, Cervix?"

The female looked up at the other changeling, who just left the bathroom he'd entered a few moments ago.  "Took you long enough!" she spat at him.

"Hey!", the male protested,"I had to stuff him into a bathroom stall!  These ponies aren't light, y'know!"

"Shut up!", she barked,"Just get your weapon so we can finish this quick!"

The male complied and grabbed another weapon from nearby: A club with a few spiked studs on the end.  Thorax, who was now recovered enough to stand, took stock of the current situation.  These two creatures, masquerading as changelings, were intending to cause harm to him.

No, that wasn't it at all.  They were going to kill him.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Thorax wheeled around and ran in the opposite direction.  He had only one concern in mind: Find somepony to help.  Sure, he could end up in trouble, but he would be safe from whatever the two faux changelings wanted to do to him.

A blast of magic collided with Thorax and knocked the wind out of him.  Unable to breathe, the changeling fell to the floor in a heap.  As he tried to recover his breath, a telekinetic grip took hold of him and sent him flying into a wall, making him let out a pained grunt as he collided hard with the unyielding crystal wall.

Thorax fell to the floor and let out another pained grunt; somewhere between the first blow from the changeling's mace and the hit with the wall, his carapace had cracked.  The wound was already bleeding, and a small amount of blood was dripping from it onto the crystalline floor.  Feeling the wet liquid flowing down his carapace, Thorax tried to get to his hooves, but the changelings both delivered blows to his side, causing him to let out a yelp in pain as more cracks formed in his carapace.

"You know something funny, Phallus?" the female fake changeling asked her male counterpart.

"What?" the male replied.

The female wore a grin and replied "I remember something I overheard a pony say once: Can't make an omelette without cracking some eggs."

The male let out a deep laugh and replied "Yeah, whatever an omelette is."

"So, wanna finish making our omelette?" she asked, gesturing her mace towards Thorax.

"Yeah, lets" replied the male.

Thorax was recovering from the recent round of abuse when a hoof connected with his side.  The strike caused more blood to flow from his wounds, coating the floor in more red.  The changeling let out a cry of pain that was quickly silenced by more blows from the weapons of the two attackers.

Then, something happened Thorax hadn't expected: One of the blows had caused the belt holding his wings down to either come loose or break apart.  Instinctively, his wings shot out and began fluttering, trying to carry the changeling away from his attackers.  As soon as the faux changelings saw what happened, they redirected their blows to the now free wings.  Thorax screamed out in pain as the sensitive muscles at the base of his wings were bashed into nothing and the membranous wings were torn to shreds.  The delicate wings were immediately pulled in in an effort to protect them better.

The male faux changeling stopped what he was doing and addressed his partner.  "Maybe we should stop", he suggested,"We already broke one restraint.  What's gonna happen if we break the others."

Her response was to look at him coldly and reply "When we're finished, there won't be a need for restraints."

Thorax, upon hearing confirmation as to exactly how far they were going to go, found new strength and jumped up to run as fast as he could.  He was caught in magic and held in place as the mace was swung into his face, tearing into the chitin and drawing more blood.

The force of the blow had caused Thorax's world to go fuzzy as he staggered.  As he recovered, he suddenly realized he could feel a familiar sensation: Emotions.  He could feel, anger, contempt, hatred and fear all at once.  The faux changelings had knocked the magic ring off his horn!

Another blow from the mace sent Thorax falling backwards into a wall.  This time, the muzzle on his face fell off as the strap holding it in place was obliterated by the spikes.  With this new freedom came the return of the fuzziness, and this time it was not leaving him.  A feeling of wooziness accompanied it, telling the changeling that he was now concussed.  His ability to balance himself was gone and he fell to the floor in a heap.

"Well", the female faux changeling said rather snidely,"looks like we don't have long to go.  One more good blow to the head ought to finish this."  Of course, to Thorax, this sounded like it came from a mile away due to a whooshing sound in his ears.

The male faux changeling sounded a little more sympathetic.  "Dear Celestia", he remarked,"he is in a sad state."

"Don't break character!" the female spat at him.

"What's it matter?", the male questioned back,"Just look at him.  He's a mess, and he's making a mess of this whole hallway."

"I don't give a damn!", she countered,"If he figures out who we really are and manages to live long enough to say something, it'll mean our flanks!  Besides, you and I both know who'll be cleaning this up later, and she deserves it for betraying her own kind!"

The male had no more arguments.  He lifted his club to deliver the killing blow, but paused.  Looking down, he saw the changeling unresponsive; Apparently at some point during their argument, he'd passed out.  "Feather, I don't think he's alive anymore" the male said to the female.

The female shot him a glare as she walked over and examined the changeling.  She couldn't hear any breathing, and so assumed that her male counterpart was correct.  "I don't hear breathing", she told him,"but I'm gonna give him one more good whack to make sure."  She raised her mace to deliver the final blow, but the mace was wretched from her grasp.  The female looked to her male counterpart to see he'd taken the mace from her.

"Elbow, what in Tartarus are you doing?!" she spat at him.

Elbow replied "Putting a stop to this, Feather.  You're literally about to beat a dead horse."

Feather glared daggers at him and replied "That thing in NOT a horse, or a pony for that matter!"

"Whatever", Elbow shot back,"Besides, we've wasted enough time as it is.  We need to leave right now, before the guard in his room gets curious and comes looking for him."

Feather wanted to argue but knew Elbow was right; The longer they stayed, the higher their chance of being caught.  "You're right", she said while calming down,"Head back to the spot we stashed the armor and remember that spell from earlier.  There should be another guard change, and we can slip out without anypony suspecting us."  With that, the two disguised ponies gathered up their tools and walked out.

"Say, Feather", Elbow asked,"What was that pink liquid in the bottle you had?"

The mare replied "Just some water with a special dye to make it look pink."





Custos had been waiting for nearly an hour for the guards escorting the changeling back to his room to show up.  This clearly meant something was wrong, but he couldn't just abandon his current post without good reason.  Little did he know, that good reason came pounding on the door.

Surprised, Custos opened the door and saw one of the custodial mares looking at him with a terrified expression in her eyes.  "COME RIGHT NOW!", she shouted at him,"Something terrible has happened!"  The mare wheeled around and took off at a gallop down the hallway.  Not having the time to question what was going on, Custos followed at his own gallop, trusting that he would get his answer in just a few short moments.

The mare and guard turned through several hallways before the mare came to a stop near a wall and dropped to her stomach.  Custos was about to ask why when he saw the reason over her withers.  Lying against the wall was the changeling he was supposed to be guarding.  Nearby, the two guards that were supposed to be escorting him were sitting on a bench, with one rubbing the other's back.

Custos approached them with an icy glare, one he chose to adopt upon realizing the two in front of him were lower ranks.  "I trust you two have an explanation for all of this?" he asked in a less than pleased tone.

The more alert guard gave a reply.  "We were attacked, sir", he told them,"and I'm pretty sure based on my squad mate's story that it was a pair of changelings."

Custos went wide eyed and became livid.  He turned to face the changeling on the ground and demand the truth of what happened, but stopped in his tracks.

The mare was weeping over the changeling on the ground.  His black chitin was severely cracked, so much as for blood to be leaking all over the floor.  In fact, some of the chitin had been broken off into chunks that littered the floor, leaving the flesh underneath exposed and blood to pool in the crevices.

Aside from the damage to the chitin, Custos made note of a series of long cracks going along the changeling's face and horn, those also seeping with blood.  The nature of the damage, combined with the extensiveness throughout the changeling's body told him that this creature was not an aggressor, but a victim.

Custos jumped into action.  "Mare", he ordered her,"There is a medical officer in the check station at the front of the palace.  Go get them!"  The mare rose to her hooves and gave a quick nod and took off as fast as her hooves could take her.  "And tell them it could be a changeling attack", he shouted after her,"The castle needs to be put on alert now!"

"You two!", Custos then addressed the two guards,"Get the materials necessary to start treating these wounds.  Then, I want you in the barracks office so that you can give full and detailed reports!"  The two nodded and took off to search for supplies.  However, one of them stopped.

"What are you going to do sir?" the guard asked.

"I'm staying with the changeling until the medical officer arrives, or until you two get back with medical supplies" he answered.  The guard gave a nod to his superior and ran after his comrade.

Custos turned to assess the changeling.  Using a basic diagnostic spell, he determined him to still be alive, but in a very poor way.  As much as he detested the creature, it was important to keep him alive; he was also a witness to what was happening, and clearly the target of the attack.





Princess Cadance was sitting in her study reading when Andesite came walking into the room.  Cadance looked up to greet the mare, but noticed the pale white expression on her face.  In that moment, she knew something wasn't right.

"What is it, Andesite?" Cadance asked her.

"I-", Andesite hesitated before simply saying,"I-It's about the changeling, your highness.  He...  He was attacked."

The book in Cadance's grip was released and fell unceremoniously to the floor, a look of horror upon her face.  She rose from her chair and looked Andesite in her eyes.  She had only one question to ask after that.

"Where is he?"
> Part II, Chapter 8 - Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Cadance and her assistant Andesite were trotting their way to the Crystal Palace's infirmary.  The medical office was similar to all the other ones that could be found in places like schools and offices, with bottles of potions and enchanted bandages to enhance a pony's natural healing abilities.  What set it apart from other ones, however, was that it had its own magical wound scanner, several physical rooms instead of beds with curtain dividers, and it was staffed with a GP doctor instead of a nurse in training with just simple CPR and First Aid under their belt.

As Cadance and Andesite drew closer, they took note of two guards standing at the entrance to the infirmary.  The guards, taking note of the two ponies approaching, called out for them to stop.

"There's been an alert for changelings issued by one of the commanders", the guard explained,"Because of this, we have to verify the identity of everypony coming and going within the palace.  If you would please ignite the magic in both of your horns."

Cadance and Andesite looked at each other with a moment of worry before they both ignited their magic.  Cadance's was the correct blue, and Andesite's was the correct and slightly darker blue as well.

"You may pass, and we apologize for the inconvenience, your highness" the guard said to her as they moved to the side to allow them to pass.

"You need not apologize for performing your duties" Cadance told them as she and Andesite entered the infirmary.  After they were past the guards, Cadance became concerned.  "Changelings in the Crystal Palace besides Thorax?" she thought to herself,"We'd better find them before they escape the empire, or else we'll have the whole hive here ready for another attack."

The princess thoughts were interrupted by the doctor of the infirmary approaching her.

"Hello Doctor Caduceus", she greeted him,"I trust you know why I am here?"

"I do, your highness", he answered her,"but I must ask you to stay back a safe distance."

Cadance looked confused.  "Why must I stay back?" she asked.

"Being around the changeling right now isn't safe" he told her, then gestured to a pair of small benches off to one side of the room.  "Please, have a seat, and I will explain everything that's happened so far."

Cadance nodded in agreement and took a seat in the appointed spot, Andesite finding a spot beside her.  A few moments later, and the doctor returned with three cups of water, offering to both the princess and her assistant.

"Now, to begin", the doctor commenced his story,"The changeling was brought to me about fifteen minutes ago.  He was in a very poor state, and the guards who brought him had administered first aid to him, covering his wounds in healing bandages and treating his horn with healing potions to try and seal up some of the cracks in it.  It worked partially, but it will take a lot of rest to properly heal, and more time before the changeling is able to use even basic levitation.  Of course, that's if he wakes up."

"If he wakes up?" Cadance questioned.

"Yes, if", the doctor confirmed,"The changeling has sustained a great deal of physical trauma across large portions of his body.  The only place he didn't have any marks on him was his flanks and back legs.  His forelegs are cracked, most likely from trying to shield the vital parts of his body from harm."

"Yes, I was told he was attacked", Cadance interrupted,"Do you know anything about that?"

"Not much", the doctor continued,"The guards only said he was attacked and that they never got a good look at the attackers.  They made the assumption that it was changelings because the one guard remembered the one attacker falling from the ceiling, and then both..."

The doctor paused for a moment, until Cadance urged him on.  "Then both what?"

The doctor took a breath before answering "both guards claimed to have been knocked out, and then woke up later feeling fatigued and having headaches.  Everypony in the medical fields knows by now that those are common symptoms of a changeling feeding on a pony's emotions."

Cadance nodded grimly at the assessment.  That meant that right now, two changelings had definitely been here in the Crystal Empire, and that they needed to be found and captured before they either drained more ponies, or made their escape to tell their hive and queen of the empire.

Andesite probed for more answers.  "Sir, why can't we be let in to see this changeling?"

"Apologies", he continued,"I got off topic for a moment.  Anyways, the changeling came in with lots of bandages, but he was also missing the inhibitor ring on his horn, the bindings for his wings, which were also severely damaged in the attack, and the cage on his muzzle.  We thought nothing of them since he was unconscious and bound to the gurney.  The decision was made to treat his wounds before we at least put the ring back on, but the restraints were all destroyed in the attack.  We can replace the muzzle and wing bindings easily enough, but we'll have to enchant a new ring to use on him in the future."

"Now, I hadn't noticed it at first, but after we'd had the changeling in here for a few moments, I noticed some of the guards becoming lethargic and rubbing their temples as though they had migraines.  I had a suspicion at the time, but only when I turned the lights off to the changeling's room and saw the pink energy for myself did I know for sure what was happening."

"He's feeding on the ponies around him" Cadance said flatly, a look of anger in her eyes.  The doctor, surprisingly, raised his hoof.

"I wouldn't become too upset with him yet, your highness", he stopped her,"One of my first courses of action after treating the changeling's wounds was to try and restore him to consciousness with some smelling salts, but he was still unresponsive after a minute or two of doing that.  I fear that he may be comatose for the time being, with no clear indication as to when he will wake up.  With that being said, I think what is happening is a self-preservation reflex that his body is acting on."

"Self preservation?" Cadance questioned.

"Yes", Caduceus answered,"Since changelings feed on love, their body processes it into forms it can use.  In this instance, I believe his body is trying to heal itself, but it is running low on love, so it's taking it from nearby sources, such as any ponies in the vicinity.  That's why I'm not allowing anypony close to him until I'm sure they can do so and be safe."

"Do you believe any of the fed upon guards will have any negative effects from it", Andesite asked the doctor.

"I don't believe so" he answered her.  "From what we've seen, the guards were only fed upon a small amount.  If it were a complete draining, they could become catatonic and unresponsive."

Both the princess and Andesite breathed easier.  "I'll inform my husband to give those guards a pass to recover", she told Andesite,"I want you to cooperate with and help oversee a complete search of the palace with all staff available."

Cadance then turned her attention to a guard in the room.  "I want you to inform the patrolling guards outside the palace to begin searching the empire for those changelings.  It is of the utmost importance they be found and captured!"  The guard saluted and exited the infirmary, followed by Andesite.

Cadance finished her water and stood up.  The doctor looked at her confused.  "Your highness?" he questioned her.

"I'm going to have a look at your patient, doctor" she told him.

Caduceus went wide eyed.  "Princess, I must protest your decision.  Who knows how much love he'll take out of you once you go in there."

"I understand your concern", she replied,"but I do not plan to stay long.  Just to assess his condition so as to accurately report it to my husband.  No more than a minute at most."

Caduceus wanted to protest more, but he simply bowed his head.  There was no telling the princess what she could and couldn't do.  "Very well, your highness", he conceded,"but please, if you start feeling weak or a headache coming on, leave the room immediately."

Cadance nodded as she walked past him and began looking in the rooms of the infirmary.  She quickly deduced the door that was both shut and magically locked was the one she was looking for.  Casting a spell, she unlocked the door and walked inside.

Lying on the bed was the changeling called Thorax.  He was restrained with straps to the bed, and his head and torso were covered in white bandages that glowed a light blue color, working to heal the serious wounds that covered his body.  Cadance flipped off a light switch to confirm the doctor's story, and sure enough, a trail of pink energy was leaving her body and flowing over to the changeling.

Letting out a breath, the princess walked over to him and noticed how severe the attack had been.  Something happened to interrupt the attackers, because he was only a few blows away from being too wounded to save.  She looked at how damaged his head was and guessed that he had suffered a concussion before losing consciousness.  If he did, then there was a chance that he suffered brain damage.

"If he ever wakes up, he may not have any memory of the attack" she said to herself.

The princess noticed a small headache starting near the base of her horn and feeling a bit tired, so she took that as her cue to leave the room.  As she did so, she saw a mare rushing past Caduceus and coming to a stop a short distance in front of her.  The mare gave a very short bow before she addressed the princess.

"He's in there, isn't he?!", she asked Cadance,"How is he?!"

Cadance, now recognizing her as Brass Polish, the cleaning pony that was friends with Thorax, couldn't help but notice the franticness in her voice.  "Yes, he's in there", she answered,"and he is not conscious at the moment.  I must also advise you not to go in there; In his current state, his body is draining love from ponies that get too close to him."

Brass went wide eyed.  "He's draining ponies?!", she said in shock,"He said he'd never do that again!"

"And I'm sure that he meant that", Doctor Caduceus chimed in,"but he is unconscious and in not very good shape, which most likely means that his body is doing the only thing it knows to begin healing itself, which means to take whatever nearby love it can get and convert it into energy to be used to heal itself."

Brass processed what the doctor had told her.  She stood there for a few moments before a look came across her face.

"Princess" she said quietly.

"Yes, Brass?" Cadance replied.

"Everypony knows what happens when changelings drain love from ponies, but..."  Brass trailed off, unsure of how to say what she wanted to say next.

"But what, Brass" Cadance pressed her.

Brass let out a breath and looked the princess in the eyes and asked a question nopony had ever thought to ask before.  "What would happen if a pony gave a changeling love willingly?"

Everypony but the one to suggest the idea let out a gasp of shock.  After a second, Doctor Caduceus voiced his opposition to the idea.  "Madam", he addressed Brass,"I do not believe that to be a very good idea.  That may very well lead to a pony being drained even faster and more completely than if they did resist."

"I'm afraid that I must agree with the doctor, Brass", Cadance concurred,"There's no knowing what could possibly happen, so it's too big of a risk to try that."

"What if the pony agreed to go through with it, knowing the risks?" Brass asked, her voice sounding more like pleading.

Caduceus was about to voice another protest, but Cadance stopped him.  She looked Brass up and down and then straight into her eyes.  "Brass", she asked,"Do you love Thorax?"

Brass was fidgeting nervously, but replied,"He's my friend, and I care about him as much as any of my friends."

Cadance took a moment to weigh the options.  On one hoof, what Brass proposed was something that she was sure almost nopony had ever considered: What would happen if a pony willing gave their love to a changeling?  On the other hoof, there was the already established evidence of what happened to ponies who had their love taken against their will.  Logically, she could only make one choice.

"I must apologize to you Brass", the princess began,"but I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do what you are suggesting.  I understand and sympathize with you wanting to help your friend, but if he were here right now, would he want you to risk yourself becoming catatonic and without emotion just to save him?"

Brass looked at the princess for a moment, but hung her head in defeat.  Cadance approached her and placed a hoof on her withers.  "I promise you that we are doing all that we can to help him.  We just have to make sure everypony stays safe while we do it."

Brass looked the princess in the eyes and gave a small nod, the disappointment at hearing her decision clear on her face.

"Please, wait in the seating area or out in the hallway", Cadance asked her,"I'm sure if he wakes up and it's safe, Dr. Caduceus will allow you to visit him."

Brass nodded and turned to go take a seat in the sitting area.  Cadance turned to Caduceus and simply said "I know the changeling is in a sorry state, but if it looks like he won't make it, try to keep him alive and conscious at least long enough he can give a report to the guards."

Caduceus had a grim look on his face but nodded.  "It's too early to tell, but I think he can pull through this once he's healed enough."

Cadance gave a nod at his remark.  "Let me know of his situation when you check him again.  I need to go speak with my husband now."

The doctor nodded and returned to his duties.  Cadance left and made her way to her husband's office.  As she walked, she hoped that Thorax would at least help them capture the two changelings at large in her empire.





Captain Shining Armor was filling out some paperwork in his study.  He had just had dinner with his wife and daughter an hour or so ago, and decided to get some last minute items out of the way before bed time.  As he was signing off on a requisition for Vanhoover's division of the guard to receive new training equipment, there was a knocking at his office door.

"Come in" he called out.

The door opened, and in walked his wife.

"Cadance!", he said in surprise,"What are you doing here?"

"Something rather serious has happened" the princess told him.

Shining looked at her with confusion.  "What's going on?"

Cadance took a calming breath before explaining.  "You know the changeling that I've permitted to stay here?"

Shining's look shifted from confusion to disgust.  "Yes", he answered,"What about him?"

"I was told earlier this evening that he was attacked and beaten within an inch of his life", she continued,"I wouldn't have believed it, but I just came from the infirmary where he's laying in a bed, unconscious and wrapped in healing bandages."

"That's impossible!", he proclaimed,"He's under 24/7 guard supervision.  Who could've been able to get to him?"

"Shining", she said calmly,"The two guards who were with him claimed they were attacked by changelings."

The anger on Shining Armor's face increased tenfold.  "That bug!", he shouted,"Of course that was his game!  Lull us into a false sense of security and wait for our guard to be lowered!"

"SHINING ARMOR!"

The captain of the guard flinched as his wife raised her voice to him, a level just shy of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"The changeling was attacked, and it was a legitimate attack" she informed him, showing a set of dressings covered in blood.  "You can check these if you'd like, or go to the infirmary yourself and see him there."

Shining wanted to offer protest, but after seeing how serious his wife was, opted not to.  "I assume you've begun a search for these alleged changelings?" he asked.

"That was the first thing anypony did", she replied,"Searches are being conducted inside AND outside the palace."

Shining nodded.  "Very well" he said,"We'll continue the searches until we find the changelings.  In the meantime, we'll make sure to have everypony sleep with locked doors and windows-"

"Are you even listening Shining?" Cadance asked him in disbelief,"A pair of changelings got their way into the palace.  I would say that constitutes a lack of security that needs to be investigated!"

Shining flinched upon hearing his wife's disapproval.  "Okay", he relented,"I will review the palace's security measures, again, and try to figure out where the security lapses occurred."

"Please do", Cadance told him,"This time, they were after the changeling.  Whose to say they won't be targeting me, or Flurry Heart next time?"

The princess left, leaving the question to weigh on her husband.  The full gravity of the situation laid before him, Shining began pulling as many documents as he could to review the security protocols for the palace, and where things would need to be shored up.

As the princess made her way down the hall towards her bedroom, she was stopped by Andesite.

"Andesite", she said to the mare as she approached,"You look haggard.  What is the matter?"

Andesite, who had been running at a full gallop, took a moment to catch her breath before answering the princess.  "In the infirmary, your highness!  Brass Polish slipped past the doctor and locked herself in the changeling's room!  She won't come out and she's refusing to listen to reason!"

Cadance let out a gasp.  "We need to get to the infirmary, now!" she told her assistant, as both ponies broke into full gallop towards the infirmary.





Inside the infirmary, Brass Polish was locked inside one of the treatment rooms with Thorax.  The lights in the room were off, and the mare could see a trail of pink going from her body to the changeling in the bed.  Behind her, hooves were beating against the door as a muffled voice called out to her.

"Miss Brass!", called Doctor Caduceus,"Please come out!  It's not safe for you to be in there!"

Brass continued to ignore the doctor and instead walked over to the bed where the changeling lay.  It hadn't been but a minute or so, but she could already feel weakness setting in, making the short walk across the room feel more laborious than it should have.  She was soon by the bed, looking down at the black creature covered in bandages.

"I don't know if I could ever prove it", she said to the unconscious changeling,"but I know that Feather and Elbow were behind this somehow."  Brass knelt down with her forelegs on the bed, partly because of fatigue from being drained, but also to look more closely at Thorax.  As she knelt there, tears began to form in the corner of her eyes.

"You gotta wake up", she said to him tearfully,"You got to!  You have friends that care about you.  Sunburst, the elements, Spike... me."  Brass could feel the tears running down her cheeks, but she didn't care.  She continued to lay there quietly weeping with her head resting on Thorax's barrel.  She could feel more love draining out of herself, but she didn't care; If giving him every last bit of love in herself would help her friend, she'd do it.  She'd do it for any of her friends, really.

As she continued to shed tears, one of those tears managed to fall onto Thorax's exposed chitin.  When it did, it turned a pink color and seeped into the shell-like skin.  More tears followed, and the same effect occurred.  Underneath the changeling's bandages, his body began to heal much more quickly, the cracks in his carapace sealing shut, the exposed flesh from the stripped away chitin beginning to cover over with new skin, and Thorax's brain beginning to repair the damage from his concussion.

Doctor Caduceus' pounding became louder and his shouts more insistent.  "Miss Brass, please!", he called through the door,"I understand your wanting to help, but risking yourself becoming a shell of a pony is not the way to do it!"

Brass ignored him.  Changelings needed to feed on love to survive, and she would give Thorax all the love he would need, no matter what it would cost her.  She simply continued to shed tears over her friend, hoping that it would somehow help him improve.  As she rose up and wiped her face, she suddenly heard a small groan.

"T-Thorax?!" she asked in surprise.  She looked down and saw his body shift in his unconscious state.  Moreover, she also noticed that the pink love energy was no longer leaving her body.

The changeling lying before her groaned a little more and shifted slightly, groaning a little bit louder after each movement.  Brass stayed still, wondering if he was going to wake up, but Thorax still stayed unconscious.  Without further delay, Brass cast her spell on the door to unlock it.

Doctor Caduceus rushed in and took hold of Brass and tried to drag her outside.  "That was incredibly foolish, Madam!" he scolded the mare.  Brass rolled her eyes.

"It's safe to be in here now", she told him,"Take a look for yourself."

Doctor Caduceus was going to offer a retort, but he then noticed that the pink love energy that had been escaping everypony and heading towards Thorax was now gone, and he then saw the changeling shifting slightly.  Immediately, he rushed to the changeling's side to try and bring him back to consciousness.  "Miss Brass", he told her while pointing,"Go into that cabinet and give me a pack of smelling salts."





A strong smelled roused Thorax back to consciousness.  The changeling groggily opened his eyes, but closed them again as they were assaulted by light.  "He's coming to!" he heard a voice exclaim, the loudness of it causing him to wince.

"Thorax!" came another loud voice, one he immediate recognized.

"B-Brass?" he groggily replied.  Immediately, he felt a weight on his chest and two legs wrap around him.  Unfortunately, the pressure caused him to grunt in pain.

"Oh, sorry!", she apologized,"I guess hugs can wait."

"W-Where am I?" Thorax asked.

"The palace infirmary", replied the earlier voice,"I'm Dr. Caduceus, and you've been through quite the ringer."

Thorax went to prop himself up, but was rewarded with a sharp pain in his head, causing him to let out a groan.

"Try not to move", the doctor cautioned,"You have a great many wounds from your barrel all the way to your head, as well as a concussion.  You also have damage to your flight muscles, though I can't say to what extent due to my unfamiliarity with your species' anatomy, but my best guess is you won't be flying for quite a while."

Thorax didn't give any reply.  By the sound of it, he would be laid up in this infirmary for a while.  Then, there was the question of his wings; Would Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor allow him to rehabilitate them so could fly again?

Brass placed a hoof on his shoulder.  Thorax looked up at her, his eyes now better adjusted to the light, and then they went wide eyed.  He could feel her love and sympathy for him, which only meant one thing.  "M-My ring!", he said as he reached for his horn, letting out another groan of pain as his hoof made contact with it.

"Please lay still!", the doctor instructed him,"If you keep jostling around like you are, you'll reopen your wounds and take even longer to heal!"

Thorax laid in place, deciding that following the doctor's advice would be the best course of action.

"Now", the doctor continued,"You were found with most of your restraints missing by Miss Brass Polish here, along with a pair of guards who were recovering from being knocked out.  Your restraints were also found near your body, and all of them destroyed beyond use."

"Additionally, as you were being treated, your unconscious body began draining nearby ponies of love, so we've had to keep you isolated until you recovered enough to stop doing that, though I suppose we have Miss Brass here to thank for that."

Thorax frowned upon hearing what happened.  He never intended to drain love from anypony, but could he really be blamed if he was so out of it that he didn't have any subconscious control of his feeding instincts?  He was sure some ponies would, just out of pure prejudice.

"Now that you are awake and back in control of your body functions", the doctor continued,"would you please try to describe what happened to the best of your abilities?  Don't worry about a whole lot of details; just the basic facts is all I need."

Due to the concussion, Thorax's memory was a bit cloudy, but he recalled all of the important details.  "The guards were taking me back to my room when we went down a hallway that didn't have lights.  One guard went into the bathroom, and a few seconds later, two ponies attacked us."

"Ponies?", the doctor said with confusion,"According to reports that the guards gave, they said the attack was two changelings."

"I thought so too", Thorax admitted,"but there were things they said and did that changelings wouldn't say or do."

"Such as?"

Thorax thought for a moment.  "One of the last things I remember hearing before I went unconscious was 'Don't break character', but neither of them were wearing disguises."

"This comment", the doctor pressed,"was it before or after you sustained a concussion?"

"I'm pretty sure it was after" Thorax answered.

"Okay, so you were attacked after the one guard went into the bathroom" The doctor repeated as he jotted down notes.  "I'll report this to the guard for now.  In the meantime, I want you in bed and resting.  Now, before I leave, I have one more question to ask you: Will there be any more of that instinctive feeding going on?"

"No", Thorax replied,"Most of that was on account of how badly hurt I was.  Now that my more severe injuries have healed some, I should be able to control my body better now."

"Okay", the doctor responded,"In any case, I'm going to insist on keeping you quarantined to prevent it from happening again.  Now, get some rest and let your body heal properly.  Come along now, Miss Brass."

"Um, can I get just one second with him before I leave?" the mare asked.

"Fine", the doctor relented,"but only one."  With that, the doctor left.  Brass then turned to face Thorax.

"You had me worried that you were gonna be in a coma for a while" she told him, some tears still visible in her eyes.

"I could've", he admitted,"I just wish I could've been able to control my body when it started just feeding randomly."

"Hey, that's not your fault!", she told him,"Your body wanted you to live, and it did it the only way it knew how to."

"I know", he replied,"but I know that other ponies aren't going to see it that way."

"Well, tough cookies!", she answered back,"You were completely knocked out and in no control of your actions."

"Brass, I'm not dumb", Thorax countered,"They arrest drunk ponies that cause problems all the time, and a lot of them weren't able to control themselves."

Brass just glared at him with a small smirk.  "Thorax, there's a big difference between getting conked on the head hard enough to cause a concussion and getting blackout drunk" she told him.

Before Thorax could offer another rebuttal, the doctor came back in.  "Okay Miss Brass", the doctor said to the mare,"You've had your second.  Now it's time to let my patient rest."

Brass frowned at him and turned to Thorax.  "I'm coming back tomorrow on my lunch to visit you" she told him, then walked out of the room.  The doctor watched her leave and then turned to Thorax.

"I'm locking this door so nopony comes in here by accident", he told Thorax,"but if you should need anything, there's a button on the table there to call for me.  I won't be in to see you until a guard is present, so you may have to wait a moment."

Thorax didn't reply; He was too tired to carry on any conversation.  The doctor simply stepped out and locked the door.  As he was doing so, Princess Cadance and Andesite came in.  "Where's Brass?" the princess asked the doctor.

"Miss Brass left for the evening" the doctor told her.  Cadance looked at him with shock.

"You just let her leave?!" Cadance chastised him,"What about the love draining?"

The doctor gave a shrug.  "I was able to get Miss Brass to open the door, and upon seeing her, she looked no worse for wear.  Miss Brass is a rather moot point to be honest.  The changeling has recovered somewhat and has stopped feeding on nearby ponies."

"He's stopped feeding?" Cadance questioned.

Caduceus nodded.  "It stopped sometime after Miss Brass opened the door.  I noticed the changeling becoming restless, so I helped him along to the waking world with some smelling salts.  I did get a brief description from him of what happened."

"You did?!" Cadance said in surprise.  "Please, recall it for me!"

Doctor Caduceus looked over his notes and gave a summary of the story.  "Apparently, the guards were taking him to his room for the night, but went through a hallway that was dark and the lights didn't work.  One guard apparently needed a restroom break and slipped into a nearby one.  A few seconds after he went in, and this is the part that takes in for me, the changeling claimed that two ponies dressed up as changelings attacked him and the other guard.  I called him out on this, but he said that there were things they said and did that a changeling wouldn't do, like breaking character.  Of course, he heard this after he sustained a concussion, so I put little stock into that remark."

Cadance nodded.  "May I please have a copy of your notes?", she asked Doctor Caduceus,"I'd like to pass them along to the guard and my husband."

"That would be no trouble at all" Caduceus told her, then levitated a second parchment up to the first and performed the text duplicating spell, leaving the previously blank parchment with a perfect copy of the doctor's notes.  Once finished, he handed the copy to the princess.

"Thank you, good sir" Cadance said to him, then turned and handed the parchment to Andesite.  "Please take this to my husband, and make sure the guards get a copy of that as well."  Andesite nodded and left at a gallop for Captain Shining Armor's office.  Cadance then asked Doctor Caduceus "May I go in and speak with him now?"

The doctor gave her an unsure look.  "I can't tell you what to do", he admitted,"but I would prefer if you would wait for a guard to be present in case something should happen."

Cadance gave a nod and looked at a clock.  Her eyes went wide.  "I didn't realize it was so late", she said in surprise,"I'll just let him sleep and recover some tonight and come back tomorrow."

"Probably for the best", the doctor agreed,"He'll likely have recovered some more and his concussion should have improved slightly."

"That would probably be for the best" Cadance concurred.  The princess then bid the doctor good night and left.  A moment later, and a guard was standing outside the doctor's office.

"Stand guard outside the changeling's room", the doctor told the guard,"There's no other point of entry besides the door.  He's asleep and strapped down to the bed, and they're enchanted against unicorns, so he shouldn't be able to escape if he were to wake up and try."

The guard gave a simple nod and took up his post for the night.





Captain Shining Armor reviewed the palace's security protocols thoroughly and could find no obvious loophole that would've allowed two changelings to get inside the palace.  He rubbed his temples in fatigue as he returned the documents to a manila folder and placed them inside a nearby filing cabinet.  A frown crossed his face as he considered a possibility that he didn't want to dwell upon: His guards may have been bribed to allow the changelings in.

But, what would the changelings have to offer the guards?  Everypony in Equestria was aware of the changelings and how dangerous they could be.  What could they offer that could make a guard overlook their entrance into the palace?

Shining needed to clear his head, so he decided to go to one of his favorite places in the palace: The military museum.  It was a room about half the size of the throne room, and contained within it were relics of Equestria's military past, the uniform that he wore during his wedding and the failed changeling invasion, as well as items that he'd received from dignitaries of other nations like Griffinstone and Yakyakistan.

As he was passing by one of the display cases, he noticed something that made him stop mid-step.  The lock on the display case was open.  Using his magic, he examined the lock to find that it had been opened by unicorn magic, which made his blood run cold.  This meant a possible thief in the palace.

Shining opened the case and looked over the contents.  This one was for military artifacts from the minotaurs.  Besides a suit of armor, there were several weapons, including a spiked mace, spiked club, spear, and a crossbow that was non-functional due to a split where the arms of the bow sat; If a pony or minotaur were to use it now, the weapon would break and could cause the user serious injury.

As he looked over the weapons, he was drawn to the mace and club, noticing something on the ends of both.  Taking them out, he examined the "business ends" of each weapon.  His already cold blood became ice as a pit of uneasiness rested in his stomach.  The ends had fresh blood on them, and on the mace, there were pieces of some black material.

He took the clubs in his magic and hauled off to see a specific pony.  Stopping at a door in the barracks portion of the palace, Shining banged his hoof against it loud enough that it could've woken everypony sleeping there.  A few moments later, a unicorn answered the door.  "Captain Shining!", the unicorn exclaimed as he gave a hasty salute,"What are you doing here so late?"

"Important business" Shining answered shortly, offering the two weapons.  "I want you to use your forensic magic and find out which ponies besides me were the last ones to touch these weapons."

"Of course, sir!", the unicorn answered,"but why so late?"

Shining looked around to make sure nopony else could hear them.  He leaned in close and told the unicorn "It is of the utmost importance that you find out who touched those weapons last.  I'm afraid that we have a spy in the guard's ranks; one that's working with the changelings."
> Part II, Chapter 9 - Investigation and Arrest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feather Duster woke up with a horrible hangover.  She and her partner in crime, Elbow Grease, had chosen to drink away their strong feelings at a nearby bar.  There, they had recounted their tale of the last three months of working in the Crystal Palace with a changeling that called itself Thorax.  Of course, already being "three sheets to the wind", nopony believed them.

Reluctantly rising from her bed, she made her way to the bathroom of her hotel room when she tripped over a familiar box, one which contained a costume meant to make the wearer look like a changeling, complete with enchanted fabrics to allow the holes in the legs to look see-through.  Cursing, she levitated the box into a nearby closet and shut the door.

As she closed the door, a strong lurching in her stomach forced her into the bathroom, where her body expelled the poison she had consumed over several hours the previous evening.

Elsewhere, Elbow Grease was sitting in contemplative thought.  At some point in the evening prior, he had split up with Feather on less than pleasant terms.  He began to think back on the treatment he'd given the changeling, and whether or not he could actually hold him at fault for his current situation.  Ultimately, those thoughts were pushed aside as he placed a hoof to his temple and tried to alleviate the alcohol induced headache he currently sported.  He would need to deal with his current physical condition before he even considered his mental one.





Back in the infirmary, Thorax had woken up again, this time without the assistance of smelling salts.  Princess Cadance had been there to see him and ask more questions about what happened, where he told her about his certainty that it was Feather Duster and Elbow Grease who were behind the attack on him.

"We will have to investigate to be certain" the princess had told him.

Thorax had also offered an apology for his body's draining of love from nearby ponies, but Cadance had reluctantly dismissed the need for such apologies.  "I can't blame your body for doing what it has to do for you to stay alive", she said to him,"That would be like holding a grudge against a manticore or a timberwolf just because they ate other creatures to survive."  Still, he didn't like the fact that that had happened at all.

As Thorax tried to rest and recover, the door to his room opened, and a guard pony walked in.  It was a unicorn like all the other ones that had been guarding him.  However, they weren't wearing armor like most of the guards he'd seen.  Instead, they wore a dress uniform similar to what Shining Armor had worn on his wedding day.  Memory of that event also caused some feelings of guilt to well up in him; He wished he had made a better attempt at warning Canterlot about the attempted invasion than what he did.

The guard cleared their throat.  "I'm Cold Trail" the pony introduced themselves.  "I'm here to investigate the attack that was carried out against you yesterday evening.  I'm going to be asking you questions about that event, and I cannot impress upon you enough how important your truthfulness will be in answering my questions."

Thorax looked at the guard for a second before giving a simple nod in reply.

"Well then", the guard continued, getting a scroll and writing pen from an inside pocket of the uniform,"I want you to recall everything you remember from last evening.  Don't leave out any details whatsoever; Even the benign sounding things can be of the greatest help in solving a case."

Thorax took a breath before speaking.  "The two guards I was with were escorting me back to my room when we came into a hallway that didn't have working lights.  The light switch didn't work, so the one guard assumed that there was a bad fuse somewhere.  The second guard had been acting kind of weird, like fidgeting a lot, and then he said he had to go to the bathroom and ran in."

"About five seconds or so after he did, two figures dropped down from the ceiling.  One was in front of the door to the bathroom and was holding it shut, and the other dropped behind me and the first guard.  The second figure hit both me and the guard with stunning spells, but the armor protected the guard from the worst effects and he got back to his hooves quickly."

Cold Trail raised a hoof to pause Thorax.  "Please describe the attackers for me" Trail asked.

"Well, they looked like changelings", Thorax answered,"but they weren't."

"They weren't?", Cold Trail questioned,"Could you elaborate please?"

"They were all black, and it looked like they had holes through their legs, but everything else was off.  Their chitin wasn't glossy like mine is, their wings didn't help slow their descent from the ceiling, and I could faintly make out what looked like pony eyes behind their regular eyes."

"Hmm", Cold Trail though,"That does sound like a costume with some kind of enchantment on it.  Continue telling the story, please."

Thorax did as asked.  "When he got up, the second changeling tackled him to the ground and knocked him out.  The second ordered the first to keep the bathroom door shut while they fed on the guard, but they bickered until the second told the first to go into the bathroom and feed on that guard."

"And then this second changeling fed on the guard?" Cold Trail inferred.

"Yes, and no" Thorax answered, causing Cold Trail to raise an eyebrow.  "It wasn't a real feeding", Thorax explained,"When..."  Thorax was hesitant.

"Please", Cold Trail insisted,"As I said, any small details can be of help."

Thorax let out a breath and decided to continue.  "When changelings feed, the pony needs to be conscious and feeling emotions.  Often times, the changeling casts a hypnosis spell and wills the pony into feeling love and happiness, and then they start to drain.  The guard was out like a light when this changeling fed, and the 'love' coming out of the guard didn't look like what real love does when it's pulled out of the body."

"And I take it that you know this from experience?" Cold Trail said rather pointedly.  Thorax only nodded.

"But I haven't done that since I got here!", Thorax said,"At least, not voluntarily."

"Not voluntarily?" Cold questioned.

"It's hard to explain" Thorax said as he made an attempt to explain.  "It's kind of like... when you learn to use the bathroom as a foal, and eventually your body learns to control itself so it doesn't just go whenever, even when you're asleep, but if you get knocked out cold, you can lose all control and make a mess of yourself."

Cold nodded in understanding.  "Not the best example to use", the guard said,"but I understand your point.  Continue, please."

"The first one came out of the bathroom and they made it clear they were going to attack me, so I tried to escape, but they hit me with another stunning spell and threw me into a wall.  That's when they grabbed some weapons and began beating me."

"What kinds of weapons?" asked Cold.

"One was a mace", Thorax answered,"and the other was a club with spikes on the end.  They looked like weapons a minotaur would use, but they were using telekinesis to hold them, which is the other thing."

"Oh?" Cold responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Changelings all have the same color magic", he explained,"I'm gonna just ignite mine so you can see it, okay?"

Cold looked at him nervously for a moment, then replied "As long as that's all you do."

Thorax gave a small nod and ignited his horn.  Immediately, a green aura enveloped it, causing the guard to flinch slightly.  A second later, and he extinguished it.

"Okay", Cold finally responded,"I'm guessing that you're telling me this because the aura you saw was a totally different color?"

"Not just that", Thorax explained,"The aura from the both of them I recognized.  One was the same color as Feather Duster used, and the other matched Elbow Grease."

"Feather and Elbow?", Cold asked,"The two ponies from the cleaning staff that were just fired?"

Thorax nodded, then added "I'm sure they probably blame me for what happened, and I think they wanted revenge."

Cold hummed and nodded, and took down some notes.  "Is that everything?"

"Pretty much", Thorax replied,"They beat me some more and then at some point, I got concussed and blacked out."

Cold nodded.  "Okay.  That should be all I need.  If you should remember anything else, tell the guard to summon me."  With that, Cold Trail left.





Shining Armor rubbed at his temples as he looked at the evidence laid before him.  Testimony of his guards, and the testimony of the changeling named Thorax.  Of course, the changeling's testimony contradicted the guards.  He wouldn't have expected anything different.  What he didn't expect was what was laid in front of him.

In spite of the testimony of the guards, all of the forensic evidence pointed to something the captain of the royal guard never expected and could hardly believe:

Thorax, a changeling, was telling the truth.

It was a hard pill to swallow, not just because it went against everything that Shining Armor believed about changelings, but represented an unwelcome and very ugly truth - there was corruption in the ranks of his guard.  Gritting his teeth and slamming a hoof onto the table which held the various testimonies of guards and palace staff and the two weapons used to carry out the attack, he resolved to rectify the situation.

First, he would need to arrest the two ponies who were most responsible for the attack.  Looking over a forensic report, he noted the names of the ponies whose magic signatures were found on the weapons: Feather Duster, Elbow Grease, and Ouium, the caretaker for the museum.  The last name stung for Shining; Ouium was a friend that had went through guard training with Shining, and was unfortunately put into early retirement because of an injury to his horn during a manticore attack.  The thought of having to arrest him, and for corruption no less, brought up a lot of mixed feelings within the captain.  But, alas, Shining had to adhere to his sense of duty.  He elected to carry out the warrant himself.

Once they were addressed, Shining handed them off to another guard with instruction to execute them immediately; He had no doubt that Feather and Elbow had plans to leave the empire as soon as possible.  Once outside the Crystal Empire, they would be able to run in practically any direction they chose, and would likely not be caught for some time, and possibly never depending on where they went.





Feather had only just gotten over the worst of her hangover and was cleaning herself up when she heard frantic banging at her door.  Cursing the interruption, she went to the door and opened it to see Elbow Grease staring at her with a strong hint of fear on his face.

"We need to leave, now!" he barked at the mare as he pushed past her and began looking through a pair of saddlebags near the front door.

"Elbow, calm down!", Feather called to him,"What's going on?"

"They know, Feather!", he shouted at her,"The guard have warrants for both of us!  I was walking back when I saw the guard break into my apartment!  They're ransacking the place now, and I just know they're gonna find the costume you gave me!"

Feather adopted a very sour look.  "Dammit!", she cursed,"I have no time to pack.  Go into my closet and grab the other costume.  We're leaving now!"

"Forget the costume!", Elbow spat at her,"Grab your bags and let's get going!"

Feather levitated her saddlebags onto her back and both stallion and mare left out the door.





Shining walked down to the office for Ouium, hesitant about what he must do.  Having to do something like this to a friend was hard, but ignoring his potential involvement would be making him just as corrupt as any of the ponies in the guard that had allowed for the horrible act of violence to happen in the first place.  As he neared the door, he steeled his nerves as best he could.  Finally outside the door, he raised a hoof and rapped it against the door.

"Come in, please" called out a familiar voice.  Shining took the door knob in his magic and opened it.  Inside the room, sitting at a desk doing paperwork, was Ouium.  The stallion looked up and gave a smile of recognition to his friend.  "Shining", he said,"This is a surprise.  What can I do for you?"

Shining continued to steel his expression, trying not to let his emotions impede his duty.  "I'm sorry about this, Ouium", he began,"but I'm afraid I'm here to put you under arrest."

Ouium looked at Shining in shock, then began to laugh.  "Oh, that's a good joke Shining!", he responded,"You really had me for a second."

Shining's expression didn't falter.  "No, Ouium, I'm not joking."

Ouium's laughing slowly stopped, and the surprised expression came across his face again.  "On what charges?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, conspiracy to commit a violent act in the palace" Shining told him.

Ouium went wide eyed.  "What?!", he said with shock,"How did I do that?!"

Shining read over his notes on the arrest warrant.  "According to a forensic report, traces of your magic were found on two weapons from the museum that were used in an assault against the changeling my wife and I gave a temporary asylum here a few months ago."

Ouium looked at Shining Armor with confusion.  "No offense, Captain Shining Armor", he began,"but of course my magic would be on the weapons.  I take care of the museum!"

Shining didn't have a rebuttal.  What he said was true, but there was other evidence he hadn't disclosed.  "That's true, but your magic is the only magic on the locks for the display case these weapons were in."

Ouium still defended himself.  "Yes, they would be.  Again, I take care of the displays."

Shining put a hoof to his head, feeling a headache coming on.  "Look, Ouium", he addressed his friend,"If this is really just some misunderstanding, then please just come along and help us clear things up.  I won't even put manacles on you."

Ouium thought it over for a moment, then agreed, following the captain to the barracks office.





Feather and Elbow were running through the streets of the Crystal Empire, both hoping to get to the train station and sneak onto the baggage car.  If they managed to get there and into the car undetected, they had a very good chance at escaping for good.

"Hurry up, Elbow!" Feather barked at him, her voice a whisper, but a loud whisper at that.

"I am!" the stallion spat back in his own loud whisper, limping along after twisting his hoof in a storm drain.  The stallion grunted with each hoofstep, his fetlock throbbing with pain as it pressed down.  As much as it hurt, it was fortunately unbroken.

The pair trudged along, doing their best to avoid the patrols of the royal guard, slowly working their way towards the train station.  Several crystal ponies in the street looked at them with confusion in their eyes.  A mare and stallion together wasn't unusual at all, but the mare having a very perturbed expression being flanked by an injured stallion?  Certain questions could be raised about a situation like that.

As the pair rounded a corner, they stopped dead in their tracks.  A patrol of guards was in the street, and they were showing papers to different ponies who they stopped in passing.  Feather and Elbow tried to duck into an alleyway, but we too slow to do so.  A stallion looked up and recognized the two as they backed up, and he quickly turned the guard's attention to them.  They heard an authoritative "HALT!" as they spun around and traveled down the alleyway, soon followed by the stomping of metal-clad hooves.

Feather and Elbow were now in a mode of panic, trying to devise a solution to their predicament.  Unfortunately, none presented themselves.  For now, they just had to keep running.

Elbow found the task of continuing to run to become rather troublesome.  His fetlock was becoming more injured with each step he took.  Before long, it would be in too much pain for him to ignore and he would have to try and gallop on three legs.

The pain also caused him to reconsider his current situation.  The day before, he'd been fired from his job, and now he was on the run from the royal guard.  These two things had only one thing in common: Feather Duster.

The mare knew he didn't like changelings, and had been rather eager to encourage him to express his viewpoints in more physical ways.  The worst was after he had been fired and she talked him into that plan to kill the changeling.  She'd taken his hate for changelings and made him an accomplice to murder.  In that moment of reflection, he made a choice.

"Feather, stop!"

The mare stopped in her tracks and spun around.

"Elbow, we don't have time for this!" she spat at him.

"I'm not going any further with you!", he proclaimed,"Ever since I started listening to you, nothing but bad stuff has happened to me!  I was fired from my job and told by the princess I won't get a good recommendation from her!  That would make a difference if I were gonna be getting another job soon, but now I might have to worry about rotting away in the dungeons because I helped you kill that changeling!"

"I'm drawing the line, Feather!  I'm not helping you anymore!"

Feather stared at him with venom in her eyes.  "So that's how you're going to be?"

"I'm sorry, Feather, but if we give up now, maybe they'll take it easier on us."

Feather just gave him a cold stare.  "Then I guess you leave me no choice."

Before Elbow could ask what she meant, her horn flashed and a stunning spell hit the stallion square in the chest.  Elbow fell to the ground in a gasping heap as Feather turned and continued her escape.  The stallion could only watch with wide eyes as the mare left him there to fend for himself.

A few moments later, the guards caught up with him, and he was arrested.





Captain Shining Armor was currently sitting in the observation room used for observing the interrogation chamber where the royal guard would question ponies suspected of crimes.  In said room was his friend Ouium, who sat at a table with a cup of tea and a danish before him.  The blue maned stallion was rubbing the area below his horn, a headache emerging from the stress of the last twelve hours or so.

He had done a preliminary questioning of his friend, which did not turn up any results.  Ouium had no explanation for why the display case was unlocked or the state of the weapons, despite the fact he was shown evidence that they had been tampered with.

Moreover, the stallion found it hard to believe that the two accused ponies had handled the weapons, as well as the fact that they were used on the changeling allowed to stay in the palace.  A quick review of the forensic record, which confirmed that both ponies had handled the weapons AND the blood on the club matched blood taken from bandages used on the changeling were from the same source, made the stallion turn white.

Now, Shining decided to wait until he got a mage to run a truth spell on his friend.  He didn't want to believe that the stallion could be capable of conspiring to commit such an act, but he could not rule out the possibility, even if he wasn't exactly opposed to seeing a changeling getting their comeuppance for what happened on his wedding day.

A door near the end of the hallway leading to the two rooms opened, and in walked a light blue mare with yellow eyes.

"Recruit Diving" Shining Armor addressed the mare.

"Captain!" she returned, giving a sharp salute.  Shining returned the salute just as sharply.

"I take it your commanding officer briefed you on your task here?" Shining asked her.

"Yes, sir!", she answered,"I am to conduct a truth sensing spell on Retired Commander Ouium as per investigation into an assault occurring here in the palace."

"Good", Shining acknowledged,"As I'm sure you are aware, the information you will be hearing is part of an ongoing investigation, and therefore you must not relay any of that information to anypony except those with appropriate clearance or authorization.  Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!" she confirmed.

"Good", Shining said as he gestured towards the interrogation room,"Let's begin."  The mare and stallion both walked into the interrogation room Ouium was sitting in.  The stallion looked up at them, a look of frustration upon his face.

"Look, Shining", he addressed his friend,"I don't know how many times I can say it, but I am not involved in whatever shenanigans are going on!  I thought we've been through this already?"

Shining adopted a frown.  "I know, and I'm sorry", Shining answered,"but I have to do my job and investigate this matter completely.  Now, Mage Night Divining here is going to be conducting the truth sensing spell on you, so please just sign off on the boilerplate."

The stallion looked at the paper presented to him, then took the offered pen and signed his name.  Once everything was official, Night lit up her horn and cast her spell on Ouium.  However, something wasn't right.

"What the?" Night said in confusion.

"Is there a problem, Night?" Shining asked.

"I'm not sure, sir", she answered,"It seems like there might be some kind of spell on Commander Ouium currently."

Shining looked confused.  "Can you analyze it?"

"I'll try" she told Captain Shining Armor, then turned to Commander Ouium.  "Sir, do you mind if I run a simple diagnostic spell on you?"

The stallion gave a shrug.  "If it gets me out of here and back to my job, I'm all for it."

Night gave a nod and ran her spell.  Almost immediately, an aura of energy surrounded the stallion's head, its glow matching the glow of two other magic auras the captain had seen before.  Understanding what was happening, Shining asked his recruit "What kinds of spells have they ran on him?"

"One moment, sir" she told him as she set about examining the framework of spells conducted on the stallion in question.  Shining watched as the aura shifted about in the air, showing clearly that Night was manipulating the spells in order to determine what they were supposed to do.  After a minute, the auras disappeared, and Night sat back with a solemn look on her face.

"What is it?" Shining asked the mage.

"Nothing good, sir", she replied,"He was put under a hypnosis spell about twenty-four hours ago, and also had a memory wipe charm placed upon him.  The unicorn that did this was clearly trying to cover their tracks."

"And I'm guessing the charm interfered with the truth sensing spell?" Shining inferred.

"That it did, sir" Night confirmed.

"Then I guess I have new charges to bring against those two unicorns."

"One unicorn", Night informed him,"By what I've seen in the evidence report, Feather Duster was the one responsible for this."

"I see", Shining responded,"Can you undo these spells so we can get a better idea of what's going on here?"

"I'll need some time, sir", Night told him,"The framework for each spell is knotted together, and trying to undo them at the same time could have detrimental effects on the pony they were cast on.  I'll need to undo them very carefully before I can dispel them."

"Then I task you with taking care of that", Shining told her,"Meanwhile, I have some more charges to add to the arrest warrants."

"Yes, sir!" Night answered back as her superior left the interrogation room.





Feather Duster was ran ragged.  After narrowly escaping a patrol of royal guards, she elected to find a place to catch her breath.  According to her map, she was very near the train station, but she would have to hurry; The next train to leave the empire was disembarking in five minutes.  If she missed it, she'd be stuck there for another six hours before another came, more than enough time to be caught by the guard if they swept over the entire empire like she was sure they were doing now.

Looking around a corner, the mare could see a squad of guards standing around outside the main entrance to the station, showing the ponies passing by a photo of the mare.  Fortunately, nopony recognized her.

Feather sat back and weighed her options.  She couldn't go into the station through a main entrance, nor could she go in through one of the employee only areas, as they were also likely to be monitored by guards.  The best option she could think of was either a disguise or diversion.

An opportunity presented itself when a pony started pushing a luggage cart towards the train platform.  This gave Feather her chance.  A simple blast of telekinesis to scatter the bags around the platform, and the guards would be busy helping to clean up the mess, giving her a chance to sneak into the baggage car nopony the wiser.  The mare proceeded to charge up a spell.

"YOU!"

Feather flinched and turned to look at the voice calling out.  It was a guard, and he had spotted her.  In her moments of contemplation, she'd failed to properly look around to see who might've been watching.  Now, she was as good as caught.  Even if she managed to fire off the spell and get to the train, the guards would know she was on it and either prevent it from disembarking, or stop it a short ways down the line to do a check of it.  The mare now had only one option left: fight it out.

Changing spells, Feather blasted the guard in the chest.  The spell connected and tossed the guard back, but hadn't done much else.  Before they could recover, she made a mad dash back towards the empire, electing to regroup as soon as she found a safe hiding place.

At least, that's what she would've done, were she not immediately surrounded by pegasus guards.

"Feather Duster, you are hereby under arrest!", the lead guard addressed her,"Get down on the ground with your hooves spread!"

Feather weighed her options and chose to continue fighting it out.  She sent a spell at the lead guard, paralyzing his wings and making him drop the short distance to the ground.  She made a move to gallop back towards the empire, but was suddenly hit hard in the chest with a stunning spell; She was too focused on the guards in the air she failed to notice that they'd been backed up by ground forces.

The body of Feather Duster fell to the street, frozen solid.  The guards quickly moved in and secured their prisoner.
> Part II, Chapter 10 - A Plot for Revenge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Shining Armor looked over the ponies before him.  There were five guards all looking straight ahead, each one of them with stoic expressions that belied the intense nervousness that lay behind them.

Two of the guards were the ones escorting the changeling Thorax at the time of the assault against him.

One was a member of the mage corps that specialized in research of changeling magic, and had crafted a spell that allowed ponies to shapeshift into another form.

Another two were on leave until a few hours ago, the magic signature on the armor reclaimed from a nearby bathroom belonging to the both of them.

The captain of the guard rubbed his hoof against his head.  The quintet of guards had all taken part in the attack against the changeling, as well as placing enchantments against his friend Ouium to make him open the case for the weapons that Feather Duster and Elbow Grease used.  He placed his hoof back down as he glared daggers at the guards before him.

"Let me just go on record as saying that I am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED IN ALL OF YOU!" Shining reprimanded them.  The loud voice caused all of the guards to flinch, with some more pronounced than others.

Shining walked down the line as he examined each and every one of them.  Most dared not look the stallion in the eye, the shame apparent on their faces.

"My wife and I strive to lead the Crystal Empire in a manner that promotes peace and friendship", he continued,"and your actions here today have spat all over that sentiment.  Moreover, those actions also reflect poorly on me, and while I cannot say that I have a favorable viewpoint on certain individuals residing here in the empire, I know well enough not to take such drastic and despicable actions against them."

Shining paused as he looked over to the side at a smelting forge.  Lighting his horn, he shot a spell at the fire pit, bringing the coals to life.  He also grabbed a bellows from a nearby hook on the wall and began bringing the heat up.

"For your disgrace of the armor of the royal guard, I hereby dismiss all of you from your duty with unfavorable letter.  You are to remove all of your armor and place it into the forge so it can be smelted down into armor for new, and far more worthy recruits than yourselves."

All of the guards knew what was coming, but to hear it was something altogether different.  They were no longer guards, and they couldn't even travel to mainland Equestria to try and join a guard post there; unfavorable letter meant that the guard posts would immediately exclude a candidate upon receiving application to join.  Worse yet, the unfavorable letter wouldn't sit well with future employers, so any of the former guards looking for jobs in the future would have to explain what they did to get that unfavorable letter.

One by one, each guard approached the forge and removed the armor, setting each piece in the hot coals and watching them begin to glow red as the metal reached a temperature to become malleable.  Afterwards, each guard received their dismissal papers and were sent out.

One guard, the mage, wept as they watched their armor glow red and lose shape.  The let the tears fall down their cheeks as they collected their paperwork and left the palace.





Inside the prisoner hold of the Crystal Guard barracks, Feather Duster and Elbow Grease sat in separate cells.  Upon being brought in, both ponies were read off their list of crimes; Committing a violent act in the Crystal Palace, committing a violent act in the Crystal Empire, theft of property, and conspiracy to commit crimes.  Feather had been slapped with use of mind manipulation spells against an unwilling individual for what she did to Ouium.

Elbow sat in his cell as he thought over the events that led to him ending up here.  Hearing that he would be assigned to train and watch the changeling that swore it wanted to be friends had irked him, but he thought that he could rein it in.  "Be the better pony", he'd thought.

Then he had a conversation with Feather.  The mare showed a clear displeasure with having a changeling suddenly put into their group, even more so than Elbow did.  She noticed his displeasure with the situation, and convinced him to side with her and find a way to get rid of this changeling.

Their early attempts were to simply make him uncomfortable and want to leave, but then he had to get buddy-buddy with Brass and Sunburst.  With those two giving him the friendship he supposedly desired, the changeling saw no reason to leave.  Even after it had been kept up for months, the desire to stay remained.

Of course, their earlier transgressions had caught up with them, and they were fired.  Well, Elbow was; Feather resigned rather abruptly.  As he was leaving, Feather stopped him and convinced him that if 'the bug' wouldn't leave on his own, then they would make absolutely sure that he couldn't try and cause harm to anypony here.

So, they donned costumes to look like changelings, grabbed some weapons, and ambushed him when the guards gave the OK with an impromptu bathroom break in a hall with a faulty light set.  Feather had even went the extra mile and concocted some stage trickery with pink-dyed water to make it look like she was actually draining love from the guard, helping to sell the idea of a changeling attack.

All of it was for naught anyways.  By the middle of the next morning, the guards had figured out what really happened and came after them.  Now the two sat in jail cells waiting to find out their fate.

Feather sat in her own cell, brooding.  The mare had thought she had planned everything out properly, but mentally punched herself for being so stupid.  She should've left the Crystal Empire that very night, but she was so full of herself that she insisted they would be okay until the next morning and chose to down several bottles of top shelf booze in celebration.

That was all a moot point now.  Here she was, locked behind bars and awaiting a decision on what would happen with her.  In truth, she already knew her fate: prison.  She also knew that there was no way out of it.  All she could think of in her mind was revenge, but not against who you would think.

"I want to get even" Feather said quietly to herself.





Thorax laid in the hospital bed infirmary.  Doctor Caduceus had examined him with what limited knowledge he had on changelings and deduced that Thorax could probably be able to return to his daily routine tomorrow, though he would make the recommendation to both the Princess and Madam Ammonia that he be limited to four hours per day for the next two weeks instead of the usual eight.  Though, if Thorax knew Ammonia like he did, she would simply have him perform lighter duties for the full eight instead of reducing how long he worked.

A knock at the door got his attention.  He looked up and was greeted by a pleasant, yet rather unexpected surprise.

"Heartfelt?!"

The stallion gave a nod as he walked into the room.  "Somepony told me you got a walloping from some ponies, so I figured I'd come by and see how you are doing."

Thorax smiled.  "I'm already doing a lot better" he told Heartfelt, then frowned.  "Of course, that's because my body started taking love from ponies around me when I was unconscious."

Heartfelt rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.  "Yeah, I heard about that", he told the changeling,"but I don't think you should really blame yourself for that."

"But that's exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to avoid when I came here!" Thorax exclaimed, his hooves falling to his sides in exasperation.

"Well, if it helps, you can apologize to all the ponies you did it to when you were out cold" Heartfelt offered.

"I suppose" Thorax relented, but then changed subject.  "I haven't seen you for a while.  What happened to you."

"Well", Heartfelt started out awkwardly,"A few different things.  I had to serve the community service for not reporting you, which was spending several hours a day cleaning the storm drains and streets of refuse.  Then, the princess and captain informed me that, while I wouldn't be fired, I was suspended from having use of an office in the palace for six months.  All in all, not as bad as I thought it would be, but still a bit frustrating overall.  Honestly, my patients were more perturbed about it than I was."

Thorax looked at the stallion with confusion.  "Your patients?"

Heartfelt nodded.  "In addition to being on call for the princess, captain and palace staff, I was also permitted to run a practice inside the palace for ponies to come and see me for treatment as well.  Ever since my punishment began, however, I've had to lease a space in the empire for six months so I could continue seeing my patients outside the palace."

"All because of me" Thorax said hanging his head.

"Not because of you", Heartfelt reaffirmed,"Because I didn't fess up to knowing where you were so the guard could arrest you.  If they had, you'd be in a jail cell now."

"I also wouldn't have gotten beaten up so bad" Thorax tried to counter.

"There's no guarantee about that", Heartfelt countered back,"From what I understand, the guards in the palace dungeons can be a rather rough bunch, and a good many of them were present in Canterlot during the wedding, so I think it's safe to assume they probably have a great deal of prejudice against changelings because of that."

Thorax wanted to protest, but couldn't.  He knew that there were more than a few guards that would've loved nothing more than to see him either taken to the dungeons, or booted from the empire entirely.  It really wasn't that big of a stretch to think that some of them might want to turn him into a living piñata if they had the chance.  "I suppose you're right" he finally conceded.

"Anyhow", Heartfelt said, electing to change topics,"One of the reasons I came down here besides seeing if you're okay is to see how you have been doing.  To that end, how have you been doing?"

"It was rough to start with", Thorax began,"My first day here, and the cleaning crew they put me with were rather harsh with me, except for Brass.  The other two, Feather and Elbow, they seemed to want to treat me as poorly as possible."

"I'll say", Heartfelt interrupted,"They're the two that attacked you I presume?"

Thorax nodded.  "They would go out of their way to treat me as poorly as possible.  The first day was the worst, but the days after that weren't much better."

"But you at least were able to be on better terms with Brass" Heartfelt pointed out.

"Oh, most definitely", Thorax said rather excitedly,"I can actually call her a friend."

Heartfelt gave a small grin.  "You actually made friends with one of the ponies here, huh?  Not that I should be too surprised.  After all, you made friends with Princess Twilight, her student, Spike and me."

"And with Sunburst" Thorax added.

"The crystaller?", Heartfelt said with a raised brow,"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to weasel your way into the royal family."  Thorax's eyes went wide and he began to try and deny the claim, but the stallion's hoof stopped him.  "Just kidding" he assured the changeling.

A knock at the door caused both Heartfelt and Thorax to look up.  Standing there was a mare all too familiar to the changeling.

"Brass!" he said with excitement.

"Hey Thorax" she said as she walked over and gave the changeling a hug.  "Feeling better?"

"A lot, actually" he answered,"Of course, that's because my body just started taking love like everypony around me was just another dish on a buffet."

"You weren't conscious and able to control your body", Brass countered in a somewhat scolding tone,"That would be like getting upset at a young colt or filly when they have an accident in the bed."

"Other ponies won't see it like that" he responded weakly.

"As I said before, tough cookies to them!" Brass stated confidently.  "Anyways, I came to give you some good news."

Thorax perked up upon hearing that.  "What good news?"

"Feather and Elbow were arrested a few hours ago", Brass informed the changeling,"The princess is deciding what to do with them now."

"What do you think is gonna happen to them?" Thorax asked.

"The safe money is they'll be in jail for a long time", Brass answered,"but I wouldn't rule out having the two of them sent to Canterlot for even worse punishment."

"Even worse?", Thorax questioned,"What could be worse than going to jail?"

"Going to Tartarus" Heartfelt chimed in.

Thorax went wide eyed upon hearing that.  To changelings, Tartarus was something akin to the boogeymare for ponies, but the difference was that Tartarus was real.  According to the stories, only the worst of the worst ended up in that place.  It was enchanted to remove any and all magic that entered that place.  If a changeling was ever sent there, they would probably never come back alive.

"I hope it's just prison, then" Thorax said.

"Really?!" Brass exclaimed in disbelief,"Those two try to kill you and you don't want the Greater Manehattan Address book thrown at them?!"

"I'm not one for harsh punishments", Thorax admitted,"I've been on the end of more than I care to recall.  That kind of treatment tends to make you have something of a softer stance on how one is punished."

"Well, you might not want them to get that strong a punishment", she said,"but I hope they get everything they deserve coming to them!"

The room went silent for a minute before Heartfelt elected to change the subject.  "I wanted to mention it earlier, but I actually received a letter from Princess Twilight and Spike the other day."

Thorax looked at him with surprise.  "Really?  What did they say?"

Heartfelt retrieved the letter and paraphrased from it.  "Basically, they asked how I was doing and how you yourself were doing.  They're on a trip to Yakyakistan to try and smooth out some issues with the yaks there, and two of the other element bearers were sent to Dodge Junction for a 'friendship problem', whatever that is."

Thorax let what he was hearing sink in.  Yakyakistan was not terribly far away from the Crystal Empire.  Perhaps Princess Twilight and Spike might visit him on their way back?  He hoped so.

"I really am glad that you're getting better", Brass reiterated,"I wasn't sure what was gonna happen if I hadn't acted when I did."

Thorax looked at her with confusion.  "What do you mean?"

"Well", Brass looked at him sheepishly,"I kinda locked myself in here with you while you were out cold and let you feed on me."

"What?!" Thorax blurted out in shock, causing a guard standing outside to burst in and see what was happening.

Heartfelt intervened.  "There's no trouble", he assured the guard,"Just told the changeling some surprising news, that's all."

The guard eyed the group wearily, but backed out and closed the door.

Thorax looked at Brass disapprovingly.  "That was not a good idea Brass", he scolded,"I didn't have any control of myself.  I could've drained you to the point of being catatonic, or worse maybe."

"I know that!", Brass retorted,"I knew the risks, but I wanted to help you get better.  That was the only way I knew how."

"It was still not a good idea, Brass!" the changeling said sternly as he continued to scold his friend.

"I don't care!", she shot back, her voice showing her clear frustration with the lack of appreciation for her actions.  "I did it so you would get better, and nothing bad happened to me!  I didn't even feel any of the symptoms!"

That caught Heartfelt's attention.  "Hold up a minute", he said to the mare,"You didn't feel the symptoms?"

"Yeah, that's what I said" she told the stallion.

"No headaches or weakness?" he pressed.

"No, none of that" she reiterated.

"How?", he asked in confusion,"Anypony that's had love drained from them for any extended period of time has suffered at least a little bit of mild fatigue and a headache."

The mare shrugged.  "I don't know", she answered him,"Maybe I could just deal with the effects better than other ponies."

Heartfelt sat there trying to figure out how a pony could be fed on by a changeling and not suffer any ill effects.  He wanted to question it further, but another knock came upon the door, which cracked open slightly.

"Doctor Caduceus said you two need to leave now", came the voice of the guard,"He needs to check on the changeling."

Heartfelt and Brass both acknowledged what the guard said and turned back to Thorax.  "I'll be back to visit you after my shift is over" Brass told him as she left the room.

"I'll be back later on too", added Heartfelt,"I definitely want to investigate how Brass could be fed on and not feel any adverse effects."  With that, the stallion left.





Feather sat in her cell, awaiting Princess Cadance to come and decide her fate.  Of course, she already knew she was going to jail.  The real question was what else was in store for her.

The unicorn mare blamed the princess for her current predicament, and was thinking of ways to get revenge.  Some of her ideas were impossible, such as finding a way to get laxative into one of her meals, but others were a little more practical, like a smear campaign by a tabloid.  Celestia knows there was plenty of goings on in the Crystal Palace that could cause quite a scandal.

In that moment, a light bulb went off inside Feather's mind.

On the first day she had to work with the changeling, she was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement where she would not talk about the changeling in the palace for fear of starting a panic.  All of the staff did, and the local newspapers put out a story saying that the changeling had been run off and that the danger posed several months ago was now gone.

Feather realized quickly what was going on.

"She wants to keep the changeling under wraps, but why?"

The truth of the matter about that question was that Feather didn't actually want an answer.  Instead, her mind formulated the perfect revenge given her current situation.  The mare rose to her hooves and walked over to the cell door where a guard stood nearby.

"Guard!", she said loud enough to catch his attention,"I'd like to send my correspondence now!"





The Crystal Empire Babbler was a tabloid newspaper just like any other.  Besides celebrity gossip columns, they often published sensationalized stories with either no truth whatsoever, or very little truth that couldn't be confirmed or denied by any sources.  Most of the ponies didn't bother with it, but a few bought the paper as either a novelty or kindling for a campfire.

One of the most prominent "reporters" for the paper was a unicorn mare named Juicy Scoop.  With a soft pink mane pulled back in a bun, and fuchsia coat, she was fairly attractive to most ponies, so no surprise when the colt from the mail room repeatedly tried hitting on her.

"Hey there Juicy!" came the voice of the colt.

Juicy just looked up at him with a smile that was meant to convey the message "Fat chance, buddy."

"Hello Manila", she greeted back.

"Still gonna say no to a drink after work?" he asked her.

"Come on, Manila", she teased him,"Why should we ruin the good thing we have going?"

The stallion looked a little miffed.  "Because we don't have anything going."

"And why should we spoil that?" she answered back with a bigger smile.

"Fine", he said as he floated a letter onto her desk,"but don't come crawling to me when you become an old spinster mare, or a mare that has twenty or so cats covering your apartment in urine stains."  With that quip, the stallion walked on with his cart.

Juicy let the smile fall from her face and replaced it with an annoyed frown.  "When will that colt get it through his thick skull?" she asked to no one in particular.

Redirecting her attention to the envelope, she opened it with her magic and took out the contents.  Strangely, as she was opening it, she noted it was addressed from a guard station here in the Crystal Empire.

"Huh, that's weird" she thought as she opened and read the letter.  After a few lines of writing, her eyes went wide.  Immediately, she shot up from her desk and grabbed her saddlebags full of blank notebooks and writing pencils as she hurried out of the building.





Thorax had just finished with his examination with Doctor Caduceus.  According to the assessment, he would be able to return to full duty in a week's time.  After the doctor left, the guard outside delivered a letter to him.  Looking at it, he saw that it was addressed from both Princess Twilight and Spike.  He quickly opened up the envelope and found two pieces of paper inside.  He opened the first and read it.

Dear Thorax,

I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you recently, and I'm also very happy to hear that you will recover just fine from it.  I've also heard that the two ponies responsible for what happened to you were arrested.  It honestly makes me sick to hear that any of the ponies in Equestria would stoop so low as to carry out such violence.

Anyways, I wanted to let you know that Spike and I will make a stop on the way back from Yakyakistan to see how you're doing.  We can't stay for very long, but we will spend a little bit of time with you.

I've talked with Cadance and she's agreed that if you want to move from the Crystal Empire to Ponyville, then she would help facilitate that.  She also told me about what your first few months in the Crystal Empire have been like, and the fact you've made friends with a couple of ponies there.  I'm still offering you the chance to come here and live with us, but I won't make you leave your new friends if you don't want to.  We can discuss it more when Spike and I get there.

Hoping you feel all better soon,
Twilight

Thorax smiled as he read the note.  It was nice to know that if he chose, he could go live with Spike and Twilight in Ponyville, but did he want to leave his new friends in the Crystal Empire behind?  He put the question aside as he read the next piece of paper, which was a letter from Spike:

Dear Thorax,

Hope you're doing okay after what happened.  I'm glad I wasn't there when they arrested the two who did that to you.  I just might have burned them to a crisp if I had been.

Anyhow, Twilight and I are gonna be by after we finish with some stuff here in Yakyakistan, so you'll get to see our smiling faces real soon.

Twilight also told me that she was gonna offer to have you come live with us back in Ponyville.  She has been talking to some of the ponies, and while there are plenty that are nervous about the idea of a changeling coming to live in Ponyville, there's at least a few that are open to the idea.  The other girls would be in favor of it, I think.  It might take Rainbow Dash a little longer to come around to the idea, but she usually takes longer than most ponies.

Anyways, I hope to see you good and healthy real soon!

Yours truly,
Spike

Thorax sat back as he looked at the letters with a big smile.  He could feel a warm feeling pooling in his chest, and he knew that it was love and appreciation for the concern being showed by his friends.  While changelings could feel those feelings for themselves, it was unknown as to why exactly they couldn't use it to sustain themselves.





Juicy Scoop entered the guard station where the letter she received told her to come.  Upon entering, a guard sitting at a desk looked up at the mare.  "May I help you?" the guard asked her.

"Yes", she answered,"I received a letter asking for me to come see a pony being held here."

The guard floated a clipboard over to the mare.  "Sign in and the guard over there will take you back to the visiting area" they informed Juicy.  The mare signed the paper with a nearby quill and walked towards the indicated guard, who led her back to a room with a pair of chairs and a table.

"Wait here for the pony you're visiting to be brought in", he instructed her,"And no conjugal visits.  I personally have to clean this room after it's used."  He then left and closed the door behind him.

As Juicy sat down, she took out the correspondence that she received.  Reading it over, she hoped that what she was being told was actually true.  Even if it weren't, it would still make for quite a story.

A moment later, and the guard opened the door again, leading in a unicorn mare with manacles on her hooves and a magic-suppressing ring on her horn.  Juicy stood up to face the mare.  "Feather Duster?" she asked, getting a confirming nod from the mare in question.

The guard cleared his throat to get the two mare's attention.  "You have one hour of visitation", he informed the two,"No funny business and no escape attempts."  With that, he left out the door again, leaving the two mares to talk.

"Well", began Juicy,"I guess we should have a seat and talk about what you wrote me for."

Feather agreed and took her seat across from the fuchsia mare.  Juicy took out a blank writing tablet and a pencil and wrote a few brief notes before looking back at Feather.

"So", she continued,"You wrote that you have some really big story for me, and you swear that all of it is true?"

"Oh yes", Feather replied with an unsettling smile,"and it'll be quite the scandal when you break it to everypony."
> Part II, Chapter 11 - Being Outed and Coming Clean
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Cadance sat reading copies of various newspapers as she had a breakfast of grapefruit and tea.  Her husband was attending to their foal, who was happily gulping down some peaches with a little bit of yogurt.

Not long ago, Princess Twilight and her assistant Spike had stopped in to talk to the royal couple.  Of course, talked was the generic and nice way of putting it.  Twilight had some cross words with both Cadance and Shining about what happened with Thorax.  Cadance was apologetic, but Shining Armor was more dismissive of the scolding he received.

After Twilight had vented her frustrations, she then proposed the idea that Thorax be allowed to move from the Crystal Empire to Ponyville so that Twilight could give him better protection as well as personally oversee his lessons, both in regards to general knowledge and the ways of friendship and harmony.  Shining was against the idea; The thought of his sister being so close to an enemy of Equestria made his blood boil, not to mention the fact that said enemy was a creature that fed itself by sucking the very emotions out of other living beings.

Cadance was more open to the idea, but made one point rather clear: Regardless of her opinion on the matter, it would be up to Thorax to decide.  While she had initially kept quiet her uncertainty regarding Thorax, her feelings about him softened to the point where, while she might not desire to suddenly open her borders to the changeling hive, she could at least extend an olive branch of sorts by taking an interest in the welfare of the only one to date that wished to have peaceful relations with her subjects.

Cadance flipped through various newspapers situated on her table.  There was the Canterlot Herald, which told her about the affairs of the capital city and the legislation of Equestria as a whole, then the Ponyville Free Press, Manehattan Times, The Fillydelphia Enquirer, and the Whinnyapolis Gazette.  Missing from the pile was the Crystal Empire Courier, which her husband had on his side of the table.

As Cadance glanced over the headlines in the Fillydelphia Enquirer, a servant burst into the dining hall.  They were out of breath and carried a newspaper in their magic.  "Your highness!", the mare said while giving a bow and catching her breath,"There is something you need to see!"

Cadance looked at the mare in confusion and ushered her forward.  The mare trotted over and placed the paper on the table.  One look told the princess why she hadn't seen this newspaper: The Crystal Empire Babbler.  A tabloid that was reputed to spout nothing but sensational stories with little fact to them.

Looking closer, however, revealed the reason the servant felt compelled to show it to the two sovereigns of the empire.  On the cover was a headline that would normally be dismissed as yet another sensational story with nary a grain of truth to it, but Cadance knew that this story had truth to it, the kind she would've preferred to have stayed hidden.  Cadance had a look that could melt the very crystal of the palace into lava.

Shining Armor walked over to his wife and was about to ask what was wrong, before casting a gaze to the paper on the table and seeing the headline, then he too adopted an extremely agitated look.  Both looking at each other with the angered expressions, and then back down to the headline that triggered their anger to begin with:

CHANGELING IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE? FORMER STAFF MEMBER REVEALS ALL IN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!

Cadance took a breath to calm herself.  "Thank you", she said to the mare who brought the paper,"You are dismissed."

The mare gave a shaky bow, nervous upon seeing a look on the princess's face that she had never seen before and hoped never to see again.  After rising back up, she quickly turned and left the dining hall.

Cadance and Shining both stood where they were for several moments before speaking.  Shining was the one to break the silence.

"Those rats!" he said with venom, but did not shout, still aware of his daughter in the room.

"I believe 'rat' is appropriate in this instance" Cadance countered.

"What do you mean?", Shining asked with skepticism,"Don't tell me you don't believe that the both of them didn't play a part in this?"

"I believe this was all the work of Miss Feather Duster", Cadance clarified,"I don't think Mister Elbow Grease had any part of this."

"How can you be sure?" Shining asked, a bit more accusingly than intended.  Cadance shot him a look.

"Just call it a gut feeling", she told him as she looked at the paper,"I'm going to make a request for this story to be redacted."

Shining looked uncomfortable at that suggestion.  "I don't think that's a good idea, Cady."

"And why not?" Cadance asked her husband.

"Well, having the story redacted will make it look like we're trying to hide something" Shining answered.  "Perhaps we can put out a statement that the story is just a sensational piece to sell their newspaper?  They are a tabloid, and I can't imagine there are many ponies that would put stock in what they write."

"I would usually agree with that", Cadance acknowledged,"but there's a chance the author of this article may take offense and want to prove the validity of this story."

After Cadance said that, she suddenly remembered something and put a hoof to her forehead as she let out a groan.

"Cady?" Shining asked his wife with concern.

"The asylum agreement" she said plainly.  "It's on file in the hall of records.  If we try to say the story is fake and the author goes snooping for evidence to support it, she'll find that and publish it in the paper."

"Couldn't we classify it as a state secret?", Shining countered,"Redact it so it doesn't mention the changeling's name or the fact that it is a changeling?"

"That'll look even more suspicious", Cadance replied,"'An individual not identified by name and no territory of origin provided is granted asylum in the Crystal Empire'?  Ponies will ask questions when it comes up!"

Flurry had stayed quiet for some amount of time, but had started babbling at her parents to get their attention.  Shining took notice and levitated a spoon of peaches and yogurt to his young daughter, the filly happily taking the offered bite of food.

"Then that means..." Shining started, then paused to think about the response.  When he realized what needed to be done, he put a hoof to his own head and let out an uncomfortable breath.  "We're gonna have to come clean", he said,"whether we like it or not."

"I'll make the arrangements to have a formal announcement sometime tomorrow", Cadance told him,"Right now, we need to take care of a few things.  I want to go see what is happening with Twilight and the changeling.  You go on over to the guard station and confront Feather and Elbow.  I'm confident he has no part in the story, but we should make sure to be on the safe side.  As for Feather, tell her I'm passing along her file to Canterlot."

Shining went wide-eyed at the last statement.  "You're sending the file to Canterlot?  What for?"

"I want both Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna to see this for themselves", Cadance answered,"and then I want them to make a decision in regards to her."

Shining maintained his 'deer in the headlights' look.  "You don't think they'd actually...?"

"They might", replied Cadance,"or she'll go to the dungeons for a long time.  Who knows?"

Shining sat and digested this decision of his wife's.  "Will the princesses make a decision on this?", he asked his wife,"This is deciding a punitive action for a crime not committed in their territory."

Cadance replied with a rather official sounding answer.  "I reserve the right to defer judgement to the princesses if I feel that either I cannot provide fair judgement, or if I don't have the authority to invoke what I feel to be a more severe yet appropriate punishment."

Shining thought over what his wife said before finally agreeing.  "Okay", he said,"I'll head over to the station and take care of that mess."  He then made his exit from the room.  Cadance then called over Andesite and asked her to look up information on both Feather Duster and Juicy Scoop.  A feeling in her gut told her those two had some kind of connection.  After all, why would she share this story with a tabloid reporter and not a paper that published legitimate news?

A babbling sound caught her attention.  She looked over to see her daughter trying to scoop more of her breakfast out with a spoon.  Cadance took the spoon from the foal.

"I'm sorry, Flurry", she said to her foal as she scooped up more peaches and yogurt to feed her daughter,"Daddy got distracted and forgot to feed you all your yummies!"  Flurry giggled and took the bite of food, making happy sounds as she was fed her breakfast.





Shining Armor had made his way out of the Crystal Palace and was now making his way down the street towards the guard station holding the two ponies about to receive punishment for the most severe crimes the empire has seen since Sombra's return.  He had managed to calm down somewhat but was still rather peeved about the article.

His anger soon turned to dread when he heard his name called.

"Captain Shining Armor!" a voice called out to him.  The stallion turned to face a number of ponies with notepads and quills handy.  One even had a hat with a "PRESS" card in it.  They soon caught up and began bombarding him with questions, almost all of them about the story in the Babbler.

Shining wanted to rub his temples, but didn't want to feed the tabloids anymore fodder than what they already had.  He composed himself and raised a hoof to silence them.  "Mares and Stallions!", he addressed them,"At this time, I have no statement on the story that was ran in today's issue of the Crystal Empire Babbler.  The princess and I are both aware of the story but have not had an opportunity to discuss it properly.  Once we have, we will decide whether to give an opinion on the article or not, but I cannot make a promise one way or the other.  Thank you."

Shining pushed past them as they still continued bombarding him with questions.  While it didn't show, Shining was beginning to boil inside.  A part of him hoped that a recruit would have a slip up so he could vent a little bit of frustration once he got to the guard station.

Once at the station, Shining made his way down to the cell blocks.  First, he would question Elbow to see what he knew about the story, if anything.  It wouldn't take long, not once he picked up an assistant for the task.

The processing area had a pair of guards stationed there.  One was a crystal pony stallion, and the other an earth pony mare.  Both saluted as they saw the captain approaching.  "At ease", Shining commanded them,"Is Mage Night Diving still stationed here?"

"Yes, sir" the stallion replied, his armor insignia's indicating him holding a rank above the mare beside him.

"Good", Shining responded,"Please retrieve her and tell her to come down to the cell block."

"Yes sir!" the stallion replied, then told his subordinate to find the mare in question.  After she left, Shining then asked for a copy of the spell consent boilerplate as well as a pen, then made his way down the cell block to where the two ponies in question were located.

The cell block was divided into two sections.  One side was for stallions, and the other side for mares.  The two guards at the processing station were responsible for their gender's respective side.  In the event of a transgendered pony, which was a relatively rare occurrence, they were placed in a special neutral area and were asked about their identity and the response dictated what guard watched them.

Making his way down the cell block, he eventually saw the stallion he was looking for.  Using his magic to open the cell door, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

Elbow had been sitting on his cot looking despondent when he heard the cell door.  Upon looking up and seeing the guard captain, he had a defeated look.  "Here to issue my sentence?" he asked.

"Not at this time", Shining said with a neutral tone to his voice,"A situation has occurred and I have to ask you some questions in regards to it.  It requires use of the truth-sensing spell, so I'll need you to sign the consent form."

Elbow nodded and took the paper and pen in his magic, scratching his name on the bottom of the form and handing it back to Shining.  "The mage should be along in a moment" the captain told Elbow.  Elbow nodded and the two sat in silence for a few moments.  Then Elbow spoke up.

"Sir?" he said, getting the captain's attention.  "Could I make a request?"

"It depends on what that request is" Shining replied, once again using the neutral tone.

"If it would be possible", Elbow began,"could I speak with the changeling before whatever sentence I have to serve is carried out?"

Shining thought on this for a moment, but eventually replied "I'll have to see what my wife thinks about this and whether or not she thinks it would be okay to grant that request."

"I appreciate you doing that much" Elbow said as he remained quiet for the time being.  Shining wondered what exactly the stallion was going to say to the changeling, but a familiar pony tapped their hoof on the iron bars.

Shining looked up to address them.  "Mage Divining", he said,"glad that you were available on such short notice."

The mare gave a salute.  "Always glad to be of service, sir!" she responded.

Shining opened the door and let Night inside.  Just outside the cell was the earth pony mare.  "I want you to stay there and observe this questioning" he instructed.  The mare gave a salute as well as saying "Yes sir!" in a loud voice.

"Now then", Shining turned to Night,"We'll need to conduct the truth sensing spell yet again.  I've already gotten his consent, so you may begin when ready."  He showed the paper to Night, who nodded and activated the spell.  Elbow was shrouded in a fog like before.

"Depending on your response and truthfulness", Shining began,"You may need to only answer one question, so I will start with that one.  An article was published today in the Crystal Empire Babbler, and contained a lot of sensitive material in it that could've only been divulged by breaching a non-disclosure agreement signed by palace staff.  Do you know anything about this article?"

Elbow thought for a moment before giving his answer.  "I can probably make a very good guess as to who divulged that information, but if my deductive reasoning is worth any salt, then my answer is that I have nothing to do with that article."  In confirmation, the fog turned a green color.

"Interesting", Shining said,"And who do you believe is responsible?"

"Feather Duster" Elbow replied, the fog-like aura again turning green.

"What reason do you think she did that for?" Shining asked.

Elbow thought for a moment before replying "I think it was to spite the princess."  Again, the aura was green.

"Night, you may discontinue the spell" Shining told the mare, who released the spell.  The captain then turned back to Elbow.  "Thank you for your cooperation", he said to him,"I'll make note of this and pass it along to the princess.  She may consider a more lenient punishment if you cooperate further."  Having the information he needed, Shining exited the cell with Night.

"Thank you for your services Night", Shining said once outside the cell,"You may resume your original duties."  Night gave a salute and set off towards the exit.  Shining turned to the earth pony mare and gestured for her to follow him.  He had one more fly in the ointment to deal with.

Feather Duster sat in her cell, now sporting an inhibitor ring, waiting to hear from the princess.  She knew the stunt would likely get her more punishment, but she would do the time with the satisfaction that the princess would have to come clean about the changeling, which she hoped might result in the call for her to abdicate her throne.  That was an unrealistic prospect, but one that could still happen.

A group of clopping hooves caught her attention.  Outside the cell, a squad of royal guards was gathered.  Stepping into view behind them was a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane and a red uniform.  Feather recognized him immediately as Captain Shining Armor, who was accompanied by a mare guard.

Shining opened the cell door and stepped through.  As before, he instructed the guard to stay outside and observe, then closed the door behind him.  He faced the mare inside with a piercing look, as though his eyes were daggers.  Feather looked at him with amusement.

"My, captain", she said teasingly,"paying a visit to a mare that isn't your wife?  How scandalous!"

"Can it, you wench!" Shining spat at her.

"Oh", Feather feigned offense,"Using such language when young foals could be present?"

"If you know what is good for you", Shining said in a threatening manner,"you will cease with the unpleasantness right now!"

"What does it matter?", Feather said, her tone of voice no longer playful,"I've already dug plenty deep enough of a hole."

"Yes, straight to Mă, as it were" Shining said, the venom disappering and being replaced with... amusement?

This caught Feather off guard.  "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Princess Cadance has seen it fit to defer judgement of your case to the princesses in Canterlot", he explained,"She either feels she can't fairly judge your case, or more likely, thinks you deserve something far worse than she herself could enforce upon you."

Feather, already having a pale colored coat, went paler.  "B-But the only punishment she couldn't enact upon me is..."  Her voice trailed off as realization set in.

Shining just gave a simple nod.  "That's why I think you should be a little bit nicer.  You may only need to spend half your life in the dungeons if you do that."  He turned and proceeded to walk out the cell door.  "Of course", he added before leaving,"the princesses don't exactly hold ponies that believe in causing violence in high regard.  It may not matter what you do to try and earn last minute brownie points."  With that, he left the cell.

For the rest of her time in the guard station, Feather said nothing else, simply hoping to all of creation she wouldn't go where she thought she might be sent.





Thorax laid in his bed in the infirmary talking to Brass Polish.  He was propped up slightly, which allowed him to look at the mare when she spoke to him without having to lean over top of him.  The two were talking about the goings on yesterday.  Brass had told Thorax how the two new ponies on their crew were curious about what happened and showed actual concern when they heard about what happened to him.  That made Thorax smile; It felt good to know that there were more ponies than what he thought that cared about his well-being.

A knocking on the door caught both Brass and Thorax's attention.  The door opened to reveal a purple alicorn princess and a small purple dragon.  Thorax wanted to jump with glee upon seeing the two.

"Twilight! Spike!", he exclaimed,"You're here!"

Twilight gave a wave with her hoof while Spike bounded up onto the bed to give his friend a hug.  The little dragon radiated concern and worry.  "I'm glad you're okay" Spike told him.

"I am too" Thorax agreed, wrapping his forelegs around his friend.

"It's good to see you recovering well", Twilight said,"Doctor Caduceus was afraid his inexperience with changeling anatomy might lead to him not diagnosing a potentially fatal injury."

"I got beat up pretty good", Thorax admitted,"but the worst of it was a concussion.  I'm better from that, but my wings will take some time to recover."

Twilight looked at him with confusion.  "You're already over your concussion?"

"I wouldn't say I'm over it", Thorax clarified,"It's just I've recovered well enough for it not to be an immediate concern.  Doctor Caduceus still wants to observe me to make sure there aren't any surprises down the road."

"Well, it's always good to be cautious" Twilight agreed.  She then took notice of Brass sitting on the other side of the bed.  "Oh, I'm sorry.  I didn't see you sitting there."

Brass sat there a bit starstruck.  Up to this point, she'd only ever addressed the princesses in a formal manner that was commanded of her position.  This was the first time one had spoken to her in such a casual manner.  Thorax noticed and decided to break the ice for her.

"Twilight, Spike", he said,"This is Brass Polish.  Besides Sunburst, she's been the first real friend I've had since Princess Cadance allowed me to stay here."

Twilight smiled and offered a hoof towards Brass.  "It's good to finally meet you in pony", she said to her,"I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, and this is my assistant Spike."

Spike smiled and gave a wave to the mare.  "Hello" he said to her.

Brass sat there for a few moments longer before her brain caught up to her.  "Oh!", she said as she reached her own hoof out to bump the princess,"I'm Brass Polish, but you may call me Brass, your highness."

Twilight waved her hoof at Brass.  "Please, you don't have to be so formal with me", she told the mare,"Just calling me Twilight is fine."

Brass gave a nervous nod.  The suggestion made her a tad uncomfortable; She'd always been trained to treat the princesses of Equestria with the utmost respect, which meant never acting as casual as what Twilight was suggesting she should.  "I-If you say so" she said without certainty.

Twilight could sense her unease, so she elected to change topics.  "So, how did you and Thorax meet each other?" she asked.

"It's a long story", Brass began,"but the simple version is we met on the first day when he was assigned to the cleaning crew I was part of."

Twilight got a slightly disgusted look upon hearing that.  "I take it this was the same crew that had the two ponies that attacked Thorax?" she asked Brass, displeasure evident in her tone of voice.

"Mhm", Brass replied,"but they're both under arrest now, so they won't get the chance to do that again."

"I should hope not", Twilight responded, then turned to Thorax.  "I did actually want to discuss something with you."

"Oh?" Thorax said curiously.

"I get the feeling that you haven't exactly gotten the fairest treatment here in the Crystal Empire", she began,"and I strongly believe that that was Cadance and Shining's fault.  Those restraints, being kept in the palace and that 'community service'?  That all just sounds like they've gotten you to agree to a prison sentence."

"That's why I spoke with them this morning, and I would like to offer you the chance to come live with me in Ponyville in my own castle.  You'll receive better treatment, and I can work with you on all the stuff you want to learn about friendship too.  Plus, you'll get to see Spike a lot more as well."

"Yeah", Spike said encouragingly,"I could even teach you how to play Ogres and Oubliettes too!"

Thorax was surprised at the offer.  He could go live with ponies that would accept him.  A part of him wanted to just jump at the offer and go pack his bags now.  Then he looked at Brass.  He could see the smile on her face, but that belied the sadness he could feel coming off of her.  Even though she was outwardly happy, she didn't like the thought of her friend moving away.

"That's a great offer", Thorax admitted,"but do you think I could have a chance to think it over?"

Twilight looked at him with some confusion, but then saw him looking at Brass and nodded.  "Take your time and think it over", she told him,"Moving to another place is a lot for a pony, so it's not a decision you should just do willy nilly."

"Thank you, Twilight", Thorax told her.

"Anyways", Twilight continued,"we got a little off track.  You were discussing your first time meeting Thorax?"

Brass blinked before realizing she had been interrupted in her story.  "Oh, right!" she said before coughing to clear her throat.  "Well, we were made aware he might be part of the crew earlier in the day, and were actually instructed on spells deemed effective against changelings so we would feel safe if Thorax proved unruly.  Of course, he didn't, so there was never a need beyond peace of mind for the staff."

Twilight became rather annoyed hearing about the spells, but could also understand the necessity of the staff feeling comfortable enough to work.

Brass continued her story.  "For the first part of the day, Thorax was mainly seen to by Feather and Elbow, and they treated him like a mean dog that might bite any second.  They were also rather critical of Princess Cadance and her decision to let Thorax stay here.  They asked me my opinion, but at the time I was really unsure of what to think.  Thorax is literally my first face to face interaction with a changeling, and it was unlike anything I would've thought it to have been like."

"How did you think it was gonna go?" Twilight asked.

"Honestly, my expectations were similar to what happened to ponies during the wedding: chased around, cocooned, drained of love and left apathetic or catatonic."

Twilight and Thorax both grimaced at the expectations Brass described.

"None of that matters now, though", Brass added, putting a hoof on Thorax's foreleg,"In the afternoon, after I had lunch and Thorax had his lesson time with the crystaller, he came back and started doing the dusting of tables in the hallway."

"I wasn't there to witness it initially, but when I came around the corner after hearing some shouting, that's when I saw Elbow attacking Thorax with a duster.  I'd heard Thorax shout about not doing the same job again, and deduced that Elbow was using his usual hazing tactic."

Twilight looked shocked upon hearing that.  "Hazing?!"

Brass nodded.  "I know it's frowned upon, but you know what they say,'colts will be colts'."

Twilight shook her head.  "No, that's not okay!  Ponies shouldn't be mistreating each other, even if the one part isn't technically a pony!"

Brass nodded her head.  "I never said I thought it was okay, but I know that if I had tried to report it, even to the princess, there was a very good chance it either would've amounted to nothing or just a slap on the fetlock."

Twilight wanted to counter with her own argument, but she knew it was useless.  The attack on Canterlot was the first interaction ponies had with changelings ever, or at least the first in a very long time; Twilight's research on that topic was still incomplete.  The invasion was going to be a difficult first impression for any changelings seeking peace with ponies to overcome.

Brass continued her story.  "I saw what Elbow was doing and blasted him with a stun spell.  He got up and started berating me and suggesting I had certain desires involving Thorax, which got us arguing before eventually he gave up and stormed off like a child throwing a tantrum."

Twilight blinked.  "Certain desires?"

Brass rolled her eyes.  "Elbow was insinuating that I wanted to take Thorax in my bedchambers, so to speak."

Twilight processed what she'd been told and went wide eyed.  "Well", she said with a blush,"That is, uh, rather childish.  So he stormed off and you two made friends?"

"Well, we talked, and then we cleaned a horrendous mess in BOTH bathrooms, and then we parted on pleasant words.  We talked more and more each day and, well, we became friends."

Twilight smiled upon hearing that.  "It always makes me happy to hear about ponies putting aside their misconceptions to give a chance to those that other ponies wouldn't even think to."

"I always try to do what I believe either Princess Cadance or Princess Celestia would do" Brass responded.

"What about Princess Luna?" Twilight questioned.

Brass looked a little embarrassed.  "Well, I guess I would try to follow her example too, but I get the impression she would be a little quicker to more aggressive actions than her sister."

Twilight looked a little offended.  "That wouldn't be because of her formerly being possessed by Nightmare Moon, would it?"

Brass became sheepish.  "M-Maybe?"

Twilight let out a groan.  "I shouldn't be surprised", she admitted,"but Luna is just as good a pony as anypony else.  What happened so long ago is because she felt underappreciated because of all the work she put into the night sky going unnoticed and everypony saying how great Celestia's sun was.  You can't really fault a pony for feeling that way when what she is mad about is basically a fact, and a changeable one at that."

"I guess" Brass admitted, feeling a little bit of shame.

"It's okay", Twilight said reassuringly,"Princess Luna has the same problem that all the changelings who may wish to live peacefully with ponies have: getting past a bad first impression.  I know I shouldn't get so annoyed by it, but I've gotten to know Princess Luna, and she is a really great pony, and she really wants to make amends for her mistakes in the past.  I just wish more ponies would give her the chance."

Brass just gave a nod, and for a few moments, there was silence.  After a little bit, Twilight asked another question.  "Cadance had said to me that when Thorax was unconscious, his body started feeding on nearby ponies.  How come you locked yourself in a room with him?"

The response she Twilight from Brass wasn't what she was expecting.

"I did it because I care about Thorax and don't want to see him hurt", she explained,"I knew it was risky, but I didn't feel like I had another choice!"

"I know, Brass", Twilight responded,"and I don't fault you for feeling that way.  However, it wasn't a good decision to make.  Thorax could've easily taken all of the love in you and left you catatonic and without feeling.  I'm sure he didn't want that to happen to you."

"I didn't", Thorax chimed in,"and I made sure to tell her as much."

"And I said that I didn't care about the consequences!", Brass retorted,"Besides, I never felt any of those bad side effects anyways."

That got Twilight's attention.  "Wait a minute", she said in disbelief,"You mean Thorax fed on you, and you didn't feel any of the negative effects?"

Brass shook her head.  "Nope.  Not one."

"How?" Twilight said, trying to come up with an answer.

"I couldn't tell you", Brass admitted,"All I know is I was in there longer than most other ponies and I came out feeling no worse for wear."

"Hmm", Twilight said while rubbing a hoof on the other side of her muzzle,"That's interesting."

"What is it?" Spike asked her.

"I'm not sure", Twilight answered,"I want to do some experiments to see what evidence might turn up.  Of course, I'll need Brass and Thorax to consent."

"What kind of experiments?" Thorax asked.

Before Twilight could give a response, there was a knocking at the door.  A moment later, the door opened to reveal Princess Cadance.

"Cadance?!", Twilight said in surprise,"What are you doing here?"

"I don't mean to intrude", Cadance said with an uncomfortable expression on her face,"but if you three would allow me, I would like to speak with Thorax privately."

Brass, Spike and Twilight all looked at each other before agreeing.  The three left the room with Twilight being the last to walk out.  Before she did, she turned to Thorax and told him,"Think about the offer I made to you, and also, I'll send you a letter explaining the theories I have and the experiments I want to run."  With that said, Twilight closed the door, leaving Cadance and Thorax alone.  It was silent for a few moments before Cadance finally spoke.

"I..."

Cadance hesitated for a moment before finally coming out with what she had to say.

"Thorax, I'm sorry"

Thorax went wide eyed.  For the second time in less than a year, a crown princess of Equestria was apologizing to him.  "W-What are you apologizing for?" he asked timidly.

"To start with", Cadance began,"I want to apologize for what happened to you the other day."

"None of what-" Thorax started to say, but was interrupted by the princess.

"When you agreed to our agreement a few months ago, I delegated the vetting process to another pony.  I gave instructions on how to conduct that process, but they weren't worth any salt."

"I only required simple background checks on the vetted ponies, but I should've required more in depth ones.  Had I done that, we would've discovered earlier that Feather and Elbow both had family members who were attacked by changelings in Canterlot, and that both of them were present that day."

"I also found out that Feather was diagnosed with a chemical imbalance disorder that makes her prone to rather aggressive behavior, and a medical test not long ago showed that she was not taking her prescribed medication to treat it, which is more than likely what caused her more extreme behavior as of late, not that that excuses it in any way."

Cadance hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"I also want to apologize for my behavior as well.  I realize now that the meeting we had a few days ago was our first interaction since I granted your stay here in the Crystal Empire.  I would like to claim that that was because of a lack of free time to meet with you, but that would be a lie.  I've been purposefully avoiding you because I didn't want to have to interact with you, and it's because of what happened in Canterlot."

"Princess, I can't apologize enough for what happened that day" Thorax told her, but her hoof stopped him from saying anything else.

"You've already said enough Thorax", she told him,"and in truth, you never really needed to say anything from the start.  You took a big risk leaving your hive to try and find a better way for your kind.  That's not something that should be punished, it should be lauded."

Cadance then produced a manila folder and gave it to Thorax.

"I intend to correct a few of my mistakes today" Cadance said with conviction.  "First is that agreement we made.  I knew it full well at the time, but I'm just gonna say it now: That agreement wasn't any kind of granting request for asylum.  In truth, it was a prison sentence."

"As of now, that agreement is null and void.  In its place, I'm establishing a new one, and doing it right this time."

"First, you are now a probationary citizen of the Crystal Empire."

"Probationary citizen?" Thorax said questioningly.

"Yes", Cadance answered,"You will have all the rights of a citizen with the exception of certain civic duties, such as voting or running for public office within the empire.  This probation is for one year, but the citizenship can be revoked if you are convicted of a crime, so you are to still be on your best behavior, not that I have any credible reason to doubt you at the moment."

"Next, I'm ending your guard escorts around the palace.  The posted guards will still keep watch of you and make sure you don't go into any places that you're not allowed, but you won't be followed either."

"I'm also going to be removing the majority of your restraints, leaving just the ring on your horn, which we will have to cast a new one.  I am going to authorize use of a weaker enchantment that will not put as much strain on your use of magic, but it will still prohibit the majority of magic that can be used to cause harm."

Cadance paused again to produce a bag from somewhere.  She used her magic to open it and place it on the bed with Thorax.  When he looked inside, he saw a large sum of gold bit coins.

"I also invite you to stay here in the palace and continue working as a member of the cleaning staff", she explained,"and since I'm absolving our previous agreement, I'm giving you what amounts to three months back pay at base salary.  I'm also exempting taxes from this, but future pay will be subject to that."

Thorax looked at the documents and bag of bits.  "I don't know what to say" he honestly told her.

"There's nothing to say", Cadance answered,"at least, nothing for you to say.  I still have to say the most important part of all of this."

"Thorax, I am deeply sorry for what has happened to you and how I have treated you with such apathy.  From this moment forward, I intend to look out for your well-being, and ensure no more harm comes to you."

Thorax still couldn't process the fact that a princess was apologizing to him again, nor the fact that he was being given so much.  "Thank you, your highness" he finally said to her.

Cadance gave a nod and finally stood up.  She didn't leave the room yet, however.

"There is one more thing" she told Thorax.  "I'm also allowing you to leave the palace to explore the Crystal Empire.  That being said, there is some business I will have to clear up before I can allow you to do that."

Thorax looked confused, until Cadance presented him with a newspaper.  The paper was called the Crystal Empire Babbler, and on the cover was a headline claiming a member of the Crystal Palace's staff gave an interview regarding him.

"This paper was published today", she informed him,"and there are ponies already questioning whether or not this is real."

"I never announced that you were allowed to stay here in the empire, so nopony knows you're here besides palace staff, and they've all signed NDAs in regards to you."

"NDAs?" Thorax questioned.

"Non Disclosure Agreements", Cadance explained,"It means that nopony on the palace staff is allowed to speak about your being here.  If they did, they would face legal action against themselves.  Of course, somepony did, more specifically Feather, and she will have to deal with that in addition to the other crimes she's committed."

"How do you know it was Feather", Thorax asked her.

"I looked up information on Feather and the author of this article, a mare named Juicy Scoop.  Apparently, they were close friends while attending college.  Juicy followed through on a journalism career, but Feather dropped out of a mechanical design program.  It would seem that Feather decided to give her friend a very inside story."

"Regardless of the story, I should've told ponies about you months ago, but I honestly didn't think you would agree to the proposal for asylum I made to you, so I did that, mostly to avoid a panic.  There was already enough fear from when you were spotted in the empire.  I didn't want any more paranoia to set in with the revelation that a changeling was staying in the palace; It would be too easy for ponies to assume the royal family was being replaced by impostors."

"They could still think that" Thorax pointed out.

"That's true", Cadance agreed,"but with this article, I feel the best thing anypony can do now is to come clean about the whole situation.  We should've announced your being allowed to stay here months ago, but we were too afraid of all the bad things that could happen."

Thorax nodded and thought over what he was told.  He was glad to be receiving all of the things that he was receiving, but he was also sad and remorseful hearing about how much panic was caused by his arrival in the Crystal Empire.  Cadance interrupted his thoughts.

"I intend to make a formal announcement to everypony here in the empire", she declared,"It will be tomorrow at noon, and I will address them from the main balcony overlooking the palace square.  Once you've been fitted for the replacement ring, the guards will bring you up to the balcony so that I may properly introduce you to the empire."

Cadance moved to leave but Thorax stopped her.  "Thank you for all of this" he said to her.

"There's no thanks needed", she told him,"Like I said, this should've been done months ago."
> Part II, Chapter 12 - A Formal Announcement (PART II FINALE)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elbow Grease sat in his cell with a set of hoof manacles on his hooves and a magic inhibitor on his horn.  He had been told of his sentence not long ago: Ten years in the dungeons, possibly reduced to five if he exhibited good behavior for the first two years.  The sentence hit him in the chest like a heavy stone.  All of that life he would be missing out on, because he let a mare convince him to do something really stupid.

He hung his head and resigned himself to his fate.  His legal representation was working to try and get his sentence reduced further to be for a shorter term yet, and allow for work release so he wouldn't spend all that time locked inside a jail cell.  Seeing the princess's face upon delivery of the sentence told him that such pipe dreams would probably remain as such.  Strangely, when he asked her about the request he made to Captain Shining Armor, she'd told him he had not informed her of such a request.  Stranger yet, she eyed him up for a moment or two before agreeing to grant the request.  She was going to have a mage teleport him to the palace and then to the dungeons once he'd spoken his peace.

A set of hooves marching past his cell caught his attention.  Looking up, Elbow saw a squad of guards heading out the door.  Inside the group was Feather, also bound with manacles and her magic suppressed by a ring.  She looked over at him with a pleading look, as though he could do something to help her.  Having all the horrible memories of the past two days go through his mind, he shot her a glare of contempt and turned away.

Feather saw his reaction and lost any fight she had left in her.  The only pony left that could possibly have sympathy for her wanted nothing more to do with her.  Hanging her head in defeat, she simply followed the guards to her fate.

Once she was past, Elbow sat in thought for a moment about what would happen to his life after his sentence was up.  He was going to miss out on a lot of life, but he was more worried about his family.  His mother had been heartbroken to hear the news of what her son had done.  His father wanted nothing to do with him, and his siblings looked on him with disgust.

The only sympathy he got was from his brother Piston Ring, who because of living in the empire, came to visit him after hearing he was arrested.  He talked with Elbow privately and learned the attack was against a changeling.  Strangely, he seemed sympathetic to the insectoid equines.

"How?!", Elbow asked in surprise,"How could you feel anything for them after what they did to you?!"

"I can't explain it", Piston replied,"but I don't think they really wanted to invade us like they did.  Sure, they were acting real mean, but their queen told them to."

"Besides, I saw one of them staying out of the fray, so I know there was at least one of them that looked like they didn't want any part of it."

That last part stuck with Elbow.  The changeling had said once before to Brass that he didn't fight anypony during the invasion, and tried to avoid any of the fighting that happened.  For his brother to claim that he saw a changeling doing exactly that?  It was too much of a coincidence.

Another set of hooves approaching his cell caught his attention.  A guard was approaching his cell along with the mage mare he'd met the day before.  The guard opened the cell, and the mare stepped inside.

"I'm here to escort you to the palace", she told him,"We'll be teleporting there.  I warn you now: First time teleportation can cause disorientation and nausea.  Brace yourself for that."

Without any further warning, her horn lit up and the two ponies vanished from the cell.





Thorax had recovered enough from his injuries for Doctor Caduceus to release him from his care, though he would have to come back each day for an hour or so so that the doctor could check to make sure his recovery went smoothly.  Since he was released, a group of guards brought him back to the forges for the new ring.  As promised, the enchantment put less strain on his magic, but still restricted a great deal of it.  It was a compromise that Thorax was willing to live with.

"I wish they would just trust you already so you don't have to wear that ring" commented Brass, sitting in a chair next to Thorax's bed.

"I know, but Princess Cadance wants to prevent everypony here from going into a panic", Thorax responded,"I mean, they're gonna be in for a big shock today."

"Thorax", she countered,"they're gonna be too busy noticing that you're a changeling to notice that Princess Cadance put that ring on you."

The changeling wanted to counter the argument, but he had no counter-argument.  The ponies of the Crystal Empire were about to learn that not only were they going to be sharing their home with a changeling, but that they already have been for three months and almost a whole week.  If they saw him without any kind of restraint, who knew what they would do.

A period of silence followed the short conversation.  Brass chose to interrupt it with a question for Thorax.

"Have you thought about Princess Twilight's offer?" she asked him.

"Her offer?" he responded.

"You know", she hinted,"Going to live in Ponyville at her castle?"

Thorax gave a small "Oh" and proceeded to twiddle his hooves.

"Yeah, I have thought about it" he answered her.

"And?" she continued pressing.

"I'm going to stay here" came his reply.

This caught Brass by surprise.  "You're gonna keep staying here?  Why?"

"There's a few different reasons", Thorax explained,"but the biggest one is that, despite the treatment and reaction I've gotten from ponies, I feel like this place is home for me, even more of a home than the hive ever was."

"You're joking, right?", Brass said in disbelief,"After getting your head nearly beat in by two of your coworkers and the princess herself openly admitting that she wanted nothing to do with you, to the point of making some dumb agreement that she was sure you'd turn down, and the captain of the royal guard not even seeing you once since the day he tried to blast you in the throne room, you still want to stay here?"

"I know things have been... bumpy", Thorax admitted,"but that doesn't mean that I still don't think of this place as my home."

"In the time since I started staying here, the guards haven't been as forceful as before, other ponies don't recoil in fear the minute they see me, plus I get to work with you and spend time learning things with Sunburst.  Plus, I do feel a little proud that every day, I get to make the already beautiful place I live in even more beautiful."

Brass considered his points.  "But don't you want to go stay with Spike?", she asked,"I mean, he is your first real friend after all."

"He'll always be my friend", Thorax replied,"but just because I'm not spending every day with him doesn't do anything to hurt that."

"I guess" Brass said in defeat.

Before anymore conversation could be had, there was a knock on the door.  A guard opened it and stepped inside.  "There's a pony outside that would like to speak with you" the guard informed Thorax.

"Me?" Thorax replied with confusion.

"Yes", answered the guard,"Now, please step outside so they can address you properly."

Thorax and Brass said nothing as they stood up and walked outside.  What they saw upon leaving the room caused a mix of emotions in Thorax, but an intense bitterness in Brass.  "What are you doing here?!" she asked in a very accusing tone.

Outside the room was a squad of guards, and inside that squad of guards was Elbow Grease, bound in restraints.  The stallion had been looking up slightly, but upon hearing the mare's voice, looked down at the ground in shame.  A guard pressed a hoof into his flanks.

"Well", the guard said impatiently,"You wanted to speak with him, so speak!"

Elbow wanted to glare at the guard for the rough treatment, but thought better of it.  He took a moment to calm his breathing before looking Thorax in the eye.

"I'm... sorry for what I did to you, and how I treated you."

Thorax and Brass both looked at Elbow with surprise.  The stallion continued speaking.

"When I did what I did, it was because I was egged on by Feather to do it.  She had me convinced that I was doing the right thing, when I should've known it wasn't from the start."

"I... also did it because of my brother.  He was attacked by changelings in Canterlot, and he was fed on.  When I heard that and saw another pony fed on by a changeling, and how it affected them, I wanted nothing more at that moment than to have one of those bugs in front of me so I could show them what for!"

Elbow was becoming agitated upon recalling the story, but took a breath to calm down before continuing to speak.

"After I was arrested, my brother came and saw me, and he told me he didn't hold any ill will against you guys.  In fact, he even told me that he saw you."

"He did?", Thorax said with surprise,"How did he know it was me?"

"He didn't", Elbow explained,"but I figured it out.  When he said he saw a changeling that didn't look like they wanted to be there, and I overheard you telling Brass how you didn't want to be at the invasion, I put two and two together."

He took another breath before looking at Thorax apologetically.

"Thorax, I can't apologize enough or do enough to make amends for all the things I've said and done, but I really do regret doing what I did.  You didn't deserve anything of what Feather and I did to you.  I wish I could go back and knock some sense into myself and Feather.  Maybe then you wouldn't have gotten hurt.  If it means anything, I'll tell other ponies about you, what ones I can, and maybe that'll help you with your goal."

"You... want to help me?" Thorax asked Elbow.

"It's probably the bare minimum I can do to start atoning for my mistakes" Elbow answered.

"Okay", the guard said jabbing Elbow again,"You've spoke your peace.  Now, let's get moving!"

"Well", Elbow said defeated,"time to start my sentence."  With that, the stallion and guards turned and left down the hall.  Thorax couldn't help but smile as he watched them walk away.

"How could meeting one of the ponies that nearly killed you make you happy?" Brass asked Thorax.

"Because he learned from his mistake", Thorax replied,"and he wants to make up for it."

"That's all fine and dandy", Brass agreed,"but he still has to serve that sentence."

"Yeah" Thorax said, his mood deflating.  As much as he would've loved to have been able to just absolve Elbow and set him free, that was an authority he didn't have.  A part of him hoped that one day in the future, he could meet Elbow again under different circumstances, and perhaps the two could become friends.





Princess Cadance sat in her private study reviewing a series of cue cards she had prepared.  It was 10am currently, and in two hours, she would be addressing everypony under her rule.  Even those who couldn't attend would still be able to hear her announcement, courtesy of the new radio station recently created in the Crystal Empire.

The princess shuffled through the cards, rehearsing their contents in her mind so that she could recall them easily enough.  A part of her wished for her sister-in-law Twilight to be giving this speech; The purple alicorn and her assistant unfortunately were called back to Ponyville much sooner than they would've liked due to the call of the Friendship map in Twilight's own throne room.

Of course, actually having her give the speech would've been irresponsible in anypony's eyes.  Cadance was the sovereign of the empire, and her husband the commander of the guards that protected it.  She had a duty to keep her subjects informed of all of the goings on within, and this announcement was really coming later than it should have.

Princess Cadance, for all her dealings in the stressful affairs of the empire, was not really one for vices.  Even with the birth of her daughter and the burdens of motherhood, she handled all these things with a sense of grace and dignity rivaled only by her aunts Celestia and Luna.  When it came to nerves, however, she was known on a rare occasion to partake of a drink; Specifically, brandy.

A goblet of the drink sat on her desk, and the princess could feel the nerves begin to rise in her.  Thus, in her magic, the glass found its way to her lips as she sipped a small amount of the liquor, the burning it caused her throat slowly giving way to an inexplicable release of tension.  Some might call that a sign of a habit, but it really wasn't; It had been quite some time since the drink found its way to the princess's mouth, even though she'd been highly tempted three months ago when all of this started.

A knocking on her door caused her to lose control of her magic, the cue cards falling unceremoniously onto her desk.  Letting out a sigh, she called for the pony to enter.  When the door opened, she saw her husband, his expression telling her of his bad mood.  "I was just told of the new agreement" he said with irritation in his voice.

Cadance rubbed her temples and let out a sigh.  "I know, and I can already tell that you vehemently disapprove of it" she said plainly.

"That's not the point!" Shining shot back, his hoof slamming into the floor for emphasis.  "We came up with the original agreement together, and now you're doing away with it and putting this new one in place, with zero input from me!"

"You haven't been around him since that day in the throne room, Shining!", Cadance countered,"You weren't there to see how happy he was when we told him we would allow him to stay!  You didn't see him during the interview I conducted to evaluate if he deserved to be here longer than six months and how enthusiastic he was about Brass and Sunburst!  You didn't see him beaten so badly that he may have been left a vegetable laying in a hospital bed for the rest of his days!  You haven't seen him at all since he came to us with Twilight and everypony else!"

"You never bothered with him until you had to" Shining responded with a chilling tone.

Cadance wanted nothing more than to throw the heaviest thing she could at her husband, but she calmed herself and composed herself to give a response.  "You're right, I did avoid him for as long as possible", she conceded,"and I can admit to myself that that was a mistake.  I should've been more hooves on with the situation.  If I had been, we wouldn't be in this mess.  But make no mistake, Shining, you share as much blame in this as I do."

Shining wanted to spit out a retort, but she was right.  By not keeping a close watch of his guards, corruption had been allowed to penetrate his guard's ranks, and when word got out, which it would eventually, the guard of the Crystal Empire would have a black eye on its reputation, all because of his aloofness in regards to one changeling.

"You're right", Shining admitted,"I do share blame in this as well, and I should've been more involved than what I have been, but that doesn't change the fact that you made this new agreement without my opinion, and I disapprove of it.  Of course, it's not really like my opinion on this matter actually matters anymore, does it?"

Wanting to leave no room for rebuttal, Shining turned and left the room.  Cadance had been about to protest his opinion, but he was gone before she got the chance.  In that moment, she wanted to hit something, but found herself instead taking another long sip from her glass of brandy.  It was going to be a long day for the princess.





Thorax was led by a pair of guards to the balcony where he was usually allowed to feed every morning and evening.  His presence here now, at midday, was at request of the princess.  For the first time, he was going to be formally introduced to the citizens of the Crystal Empire, whom he had learned had no knowledge of his being there.  Waiting just outside the doors leading to the balcony was Princess Cadance and her attendant Andesite.

"Princess" Thorax greeted with a bow, a gesture returned by Cadance.

"I am going to go out in a moment and tell everypony about what's been happening" she informed Thorax.  "Once I've filled everypony in, I will give Andesite a signal which she will relay to you, and then you'll come out and I'll formally introduce you.  Normally, there would be a question and answer session after an announcement like this, but I'm going to forego it until a later time so as neither you or I become overwhelmed."

"What if a pony keeps interrupting?" Thorax asked.

"Then a guard will kindly remind them that there will not be any questions answered", Cadance replied,"and if they persist, they will be detained until after the announcement has been concluded."

Andesite tapped Cadance on the withers and then gestured towards a clock on a nearby wall.  Cadance looked up and noticed the time.  "Okay, I'm going to head out there now", she told Thorax,"Pay attention for Andesite's signal, and then just come on out."

Thorax gave a nod and Cadance turned and walked out onto the balcony.  Andesite followed behind her and closed the door behind the two.

Through the glass door, Thorax could hear the cheer of the crowd, which died down, and then Cadance's voice as she addressed them.  The changeling noticed how muffled the sound was, and attributed it to a sound dampening spell that seemed rather effective.

"Ahem!"

The loud clearing of a throat caused Thorax to jump slightly.  Turning to face the pony making the sound, Thorax's eyes went wide and the changeling looked similar to a deer staring down the headlamp of a late night train.  Standing before him in a dress uniform that was all too familiar was Captain Shining Armor, head of the royal guard of Equestria and co-ruler of the Crystal Empire.

With the suppression ring in place, Thorax couldn't feel the emotions of the stallion, but body language and eye contact told him enough to know that Shining Armor was not pleased with seeing him.  The captain stepped forward, quickly closing the space between the two until it was only a hoofstep at the most between them.

"I'm keeping this very simple", Shining began,"The attack carried out against you was the fault of several ponies and guards who acted without honor.  I have seen to it that those ponies are no longer here to cause such dishonor in the future."

"My wife has put a lot of faith in you, which I feel is misplaced, but I know for a fact that she won't listen to me.  She's granting you a lot of leeway, so you had better appreciate it and not do anything to make her regret her choice!"

"My sister put faith in somepony before that was dangerous once, thinking they had changed.  In the end, that came back to bite her, and it almost cost the entire future of our world!"

"Know this Thorax - If you do something that makes my wife regret ever giving you this kind of freedom, I will make sure that you regret having ever done it!  Do we have an understanding?"

Thorax was shaking where he stood, and amazed he hadn't made a mess on the carpet, number one or two.  He simply nodded, too afraid to speak.

"Talk, BUG!", Shining said louder,"Do. You. Under. Stand?"

"Y-Y-Yes, sir"

"Sir?", Shining scoffed,"I work for a living!  You will address me as Captain Shining Armor!"

"Y-YES CAPTAIN SHINING ARMOR!" Thorax shouted, his legs shaking so much that he was afraid they would give out.

"Good", Shining said with satisfaction,"My guards will protect you should anypony try to harm you like Feather and Elbow did, but they will be just as quick to act if you try anything.  Understood?"

"Y-YES CAPTAIN SHINING ARMOR!" Thorax shouted again.

"No need to yell", Shining told him with a smile that wasn't truly happy,"nor should you be so jumpy.  Treat me with respect and I'll do the same."

Thorax doubted very much that the pony captain would seriously do that, not when everything about his behavior suggested he was making a threat.

"I have other affairs to attend to", Shining told him,"So I have one last question before I leave.  What did Elbow Grease say to you this morning?"

Thorax was caught off guard by the question.  He assumed that the captain had no knowledge of that incident.  "He... apologized for attacking me."

"Really?", Shining responded with a raised eyebrow,"And I assume there's ponies that'll testify to this?"

"Brass Polish and the guards observing me and escorting him" Thorax replied.

"Then I'll have to investigate to see if you're actually telling the truth." Shining told him with a bit of venom in his voice.  The stallion said nothing else as he walked away.

Thorax, who had unknowingly been holding a breath, let it out and took several deep, slow ones to calm himself.  If this was what his future interactions with the prince would be like, he'd have to do whatever he could to keep them to a minimum.





Princess Cadance approached the balcony, and looked over a crowd of a few thousand.  There was a thunderous cacophony of sounds, all of it directed at her.  A raising of her hoof, and the noise slowly died out, the audience before her eager to find out what this announcement was for.  She approached the microphone sitting on a podium and began speaking.

"Thank you to everypony who was able to attend today, and for those of you listening on our new radio station.  I have called all of you here today because there is news I wish to share with all of you."

"Some months ago, we had a changeling scare when one was spotted near the outskirts of the empire.  Officially, we informed all of you that we had found and taken the changeling into custody, and that the situation was resolved."

"However, there is more to the story than you were told."

The last sentence sent murmurs through the crowd.

"The changeling, when interrogated, told us that he left his hive in pursuit of friendship.  Naturally, we had doubts about this, but then he was vouched for by both Princess Celestia and Luna, in addition to Princess Twilight Sparkle and the hero of the empire, Spike, who was the first to find this changeling."

A series of shocked gasps followed the revelation of the royal sisters putting faith into a changeling, then turned to cheers at the mention of Spike.  Cadance's hoof silenced the crowd as she spoke again.

"Taking the opinions of the princesses and Spike into consideration, as well as debating with my husband, we reluctantly agreed to allow this changeling to stay here in the palace temporarily.  Yes, I am confirming that the Crystal Empire Babbler's story yesterday is indeed true."

The cacophony of voices returned with a vengeance.  Some of them were accusatory, some were fearful, and others were questions directed at the princess.  She again raised her hoof to ask for the crowd's silence, to which the majority acquiesced.

"I know that this is a rather startling revelation", she continued,"but I would like to assure all of you that you are in no danger.  This changeling, for the past three months, has been under constant supervision by members of our own royal guard, in addition to a detachment of Princess Luna's Night Guard thestrals.  He's also been placed in restraints so as to prevent him from causing any harm to anypony, and has contributed to this empire by way of helping to keep the Crystal Palace clean and presentable for all who come to visit our empire."

These facts got mixed reactions from the crowd.  Cadance continued with the announcement.

"Now, there are many questions you all have, and while I will not directly answer questions at this time, I hope that what I have to say next will answer some of those questions."

The voices in the crowd died out, the ponies they belonged to hoping their questions would be answered.

Cadance took a breath before speaking again.  "Now, I have read the story inside the Babbler, I must point out that there are some inaccuracies which I feel our on part of the story's author, who has likely embellished portions of the story to drum up readers, so I would like to present all of the facts and single out the inaccuracies."

"First, this changeling is not here as a herald of some massive invasion.  It was a lone changeling drone that was found in a crystal cave on the outskirts of the empire."

"Second, his staying here was part of what we referred to as 'a provisional and probationary asylum'.  This means that for six months, this changeling was being given the chance to prove that claims he made about wishing to stay here and live with us peacefully were true and honest."

"That agreement reached its halfway point a few days ago, and interviews and evaluations with palace staff resulted in either indifference or positive feedback from anypony that interacted with him.  Were that to continue being the case for the next three months after that, I would have considered offering the possibility of extending an offer for him to stay indefinitely and become a citizen of this empire."

Again, the cacophony of voices rose upon hearing that a changeling, a known enemy of Equestria, and by extension the Crystal Empire, would be given a chance to become a citizen and live in the empire.  Cadance again raised her hoof and quieted the crowd.

"I understand your concerns and objections", she continued,"This decision was not made with haste or without forethought into consequences that could result.  However, there have been events that have transpired that have caused this arrangement to be amended."

"The article in the Crystal Empire Babbler was based on an interview conducted by the story's author and a former member of the palace custodial staff named Feather Duster.  In this interview, Feather Duster disclosed information that was restricted by a non-disclosure agreement that she signed.  The purpose of that agreement was to prevent unapproved information from being released and causing a panic here in the Crystal Empire."

"However, the violation of the NDA is a moot point in contrast to a more serious crime that Feather Duster has committed, and one that she is being punished for as we speak."

Cadance used her magic to levitate two objects from a box beside her.  One was a minotaur's mace, and the other was an enchanted Nightmare Night costume that resembled a changeling.

"Feather Duster, along with another pony named Elbow Grease, used enchanted costumes and minotaur weapons such as these to attack the changeling, who because of the restraints placed upon him, was left defenseless.  The injuries he sustained were quite bad, with the worst being a concussion and damage to flight muscles in his wings."

Gasps of shock went through the crowd.  Cadance flourished the items for several moments before returning them to the box.

"This attack, regardless of the fact that the victim was a changeling, was heinous and uncalled for.  Violence should never be resorted to, and even in the worst scenarios where a life is at stake, it should be the absolute last resort!"

"Because of this attack, and the article that was published yesterday, I have decided that all of you should know what is going on so that there are, hopefully, no more misunderstandings."

Cadance picked up a back leg and tapped her hoof twice, a signal for Andesite to turn around and get Thorax.





Thorax stood by the door to the balcony in thought.  He had had his first contact with Captain Shining Armor since he and his friends confronted the royal couple three months ago, and it would seem time did nothing whatsoever to even so much as make a dent in the stallion's convictions.  He wondered to himself if he would ever be able to convince him of his intentions.

A door handle moving caught the changeling's attention.  Looking up, Thorax saw the door to the balcony open, and Andesite poking her head in and making a come hither gesture.  "Your introduction is coming up" she told him with a smile.  For one reason or another, Thorax was almost certain that the smile was genuine.  He stepped to the door and stopped when Andesite held her hoof out to halt him.  Thorax stood there and listened to Cadance speaking, her voice amplified by large speakers.

"Now, I would like all of you now to meet our newest candidate for citizenship here in the Crystal Empire.  Please welcome now, Thorax."  Andesite then made a very enthusiastic gesture that told the changeling to head out onto the balcony.

Thorax moved ahead and his view eventually cleared the obstacle of the balcony's railing.  Spread out before him was the near entirety of the Crystal Empire's population.  Ponies numbering in the thousands, and ALL of them looking at him!

Once he was in full view of the crowd, Thorax was assaulted with camera flashes as reporters took his picture.  He raised a hoof to his eyes in an attempt to protect them.  Of course, it would've helped if he had chosen the hoof with the fewest holes in it.  After a moment, the flashed stopped, and Thorax could look around again.

Looking out at the crowd, Thorax could see a multitude of expressions.  Some ponies were glaring at him with anger. Others were wincing and cowering in fear. Some were staring at him with wide eyes and in total surprise.  It was pretty much how the changeling expected everypony there to react to him.

"I can tell by your reactions that this set of events is quite a shock, and will take time to get used to", Cadance continued, her voice being amplified by the large speakers nearby,"but I assure you first and foremost that all of you are safe.  Aside from the use of his magic being restricted to simple levitation, guards will keep a watchful eye on him to ensure nothing happens to anypony."

"I must also ask those of you out there who may have ideas of getting some kind of revenge against changelings by attacking Thorax to abandon such ideas.  The protection from the Crystal Guard is just as much for him as it is for all of you.  Those who would try to carry out violence against Thorax will be detained and punished just the same as we would punish him for committing transgressions here."

"This announcement is all that I have for you today.  I will hold a question and answer session at a later date, and you will all be notified of when that will be.  I thank you all for coming, and hope you have a pleasant remainder of your day."

A cacophony of questions and barrage of camera flashes followed as Cadance gave a wave to everypony from the balcony.  Thorax watched her for a moment before a thought crossed his mind.

"Um, Princess?" he said, getting her attention.

Cadance turned to face him, not saying anything, but quirking an eyebrow to acknowledge hearing him.

"Could... could I say something to everypony?" he asked her.

Cadance looked at him with surprise, but then turned back to the crowd and held up a hoof.  "If everypony would please quiet down for a moment", she instructed,"Thorax here would like to say something to all of us."

Another cacophony of voices and flashes bombarded the balcony.  Cadance had stepped back and gestured for Thorax to step up to the microphone.  Thorax took a few steps over and stood before it.  He looked out at the crowd again, seeing the same faces and expressions, but there were now some curious expressions as well, some ponies wondering what he was going to say to them.

"H-Hello", Thorax began,"I-I'm Thorax, like Princess Cadance said."

There was no reaction from the crowd.

"Right", Thorax continued,"I wanted to say some things to all of you, since I'm being given a chance to live here with all of you.  I'll start by admitting that I was at the wedding in Canterlot when my kind tried to invade."

This sentence was met with a roar of disapproval, and some of the previously curious and scared faces flipped to ones that were very angry and scornful.

Cadance stepped in to calm the crowd.  "Please, everypony!  Allow him to finish talking before jumping to conclusions!"

The crowd, upon hearing their regent's voice, did as asked.  Cadance gave a nod to Thorax to let him know he could continue speaking.

"As I said, I was there, and I am sorry for what happened.  I never acted in violence towards anypony, but I didn't do anything to help either."

"I don't regret being there, because I saw something that day that changed my life: the Element Bearers and their friendship!  Seeing them looking out for each other and working together made me feel so happy inside, I knew I had to try it for myself."

"After the invasion failed, I left the hive and came to Equestria to try and make friends.  After failing so many times, I eventually found my way here, which brings me to what I really wanted to say to all of you."

There were confused murmurs amongst the crowd, nopony sure what was coming next.

"When I got here, I was so nervous about how things would go that I got scared and chose to hide.  Unfortunately, one of you saw me and alerted the guard, which made everypony here afraid, which was never my intention."

"So, my reason for coming up here to speak was to apologize.  I'm sorry that I scared all of you, but I hope we can all become friends in the future."

With that, Thorax stepped away from the microphone.  Nopony had anything to say in response.  They had never expected to actually hear a changeling speaking, much less offer an apology for something.

Thorax walked back inside the Crystal Palace.  Cadance observed him as he did, a look of shock on her face.  Even she hadn't expected him to do that.  Her shock eventually turned into a small smile.  "Maybe he will make friends with us all"  she thought as she walked back inside to resume her royal duties.
> Part III, Chapter 1 - Arrested
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






One week earlier...






Thousands of ponies were gathered underneath the spire of the Crystal Palace, their gazes locked onto Princess Cadance as she addressed the crowd.  Then, they gawked at her as she announced that she had allowed a changeling, one of the enemies to Equestria, to stay in the Crystal Empire and potentially become a citizen there.  The gathered crowd had several different reactions to the news, ranging from uncertainty to anger to fear.

One pony, however, didn't have any of these reactions.  The green crystal unicorn looked at the scene before him with surprise, not expecting an announcement of this nature.  That surprise faded quickly, as he realized that there was someone that would want to know about this.  Tearing his eyes away from the princess and changeling on the balcony, he began pushing through the crowd until he found his way to the location he was looking for: the telegraph station.

The stallion pushed the door open and entered the building.  Besides having a collection of wires leading to it, the office was small and sparsely furnished.  There was a front desk, where a mare sat listening to the radio address, and then there was a back table with a transmission key being ran by an older stallion.  The stallion approached the front desk and gave a cough.  Hearing the cough, the mare looked up in surprise.

"Oh, I'm sorry!", she apologized,"I didn't hear you come in over the radio."

"That's okay", the stallion replied,"I literally just walked up."

"Well, what can we do for you today?" she asked, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen and ink set.

"I'd like to send a message to Van Hoover", the stallion told her,"Address it to a Mister High Tide."

The mare jotted down the information.  "And what would you like the message to say?"

"Relay to supervisor", he began,"Interesting development in Empire.  Will send written correspondence soon.  Peridot Gamble."

The mare finished writing the message and then proceeded to count the words in the message.  Once she had that, she went over to a tabulating machine and produced a slip with the total on it.  "Fourteen words at quarter bit a word and imperial tax added makes your total four bits" she told him.

Peridot reached into his bit pouch and produced four bits and placed them onto the counter.  The mare took them and unlocked a drawer full of bits, then placed them inside before closing and locking the drawer again.  "Thank you for your business" she said as he turned and walked back outside.

"Now that the message has been sent", Peridot thought to himself,"I'll have to get to the post office and send a letter to Sharpclaw."  With his next move in mind, the stallion trotted off in the direction of the post office.






The next day...






In the city of Van Hoover, inside a small office in an out of the way corner of the city, an old griffin sat at his desk looking over some paperwork.  In his beak sat a cigar, crafted from the finest Saddle Arabian tobacco that money could buy.  The griffin removed the stogie from his beak and tapped it against an ashtray on his desk, trimming off the long tail of clumped ash that hung from the end.

Replacing the cigar, the griffin moved on to the next piece of paperwork in his grip and then stopped.  It was from the telegraph office in the Crystal Empire, and addressed to his alias "High Tide".  He quickly read over the short message, then stood up and walked towards the door.  Outside his office was a mare who was tapping away at a typing machine.

"Has any mail showed up yet today?" he asked her.

The secretary looked up at the griffin in acknowledgement, then looked at a basket on her desk that contained several envelopes.  She grasped them all and handed them off to the griffin.  "Just this today" she told him as she resumed her typing.

The griffin gave no response, instead looking through the letters and finding one postmarked from the empire.  Opening it, he proceeded to read the letter, then took note of a photograph contained within.  Looking at the photograph, the griffin was at first shocked, but then began to have thoughts forming in his head.  When he had finished his thinking, a wry smile crossed his beak.

"Get a hold of Sledge and Flog", he told the mare sitting at the desk,"Tell them I have a little chore for them."

The mare gave a nod and stopped her typing, then rose out of her chair and headed out of the office.






Present time...






The first rays of morning sunlight shone down upon the towering buildings of the Crystal Empire.  Various ponies were going about their day, from the sellers in the open market setting up their stalls with wares to sell, to families enjoying a simple day off.  With a scheduled day of sunny and warm weather, it was set up to be yet another wonderful day.

Inside the Crystal Palace sat the newest addition to the Crystal Empire: The changeling Thorax.  While still technically recovering from the attack carried out by the ponies Feather Duster and Elbow Grease, he had almost fully recovered, showing no signs of concussion and his wounds appearing to heal with no risk of permanent scarring.  Even his wings were well on their way to recovery, with the changeling being able to use them for short periods of time with no discomfort that could be noticed.

Of course, physical well being was at the back of Thorax's mind at the moment.  A week ago, he was introduced to the empire as a potential new citizen.  The announcement was met with both fear and uncertainty by the ponies of the Crystal Empire, but there was no vocal opposition to Princess's decision.  This meant that, sooner or later, Thorax would have to leave the palace and introduce himself properly to ponies in the empire.

Currently, the insectoid equine was currently reading a Daring Do novel, trying to look interested, but was clearly uncomfortable if his fidgeting wings were anything to go by.  The book was an attempt to distract himself from his nervous thoughts, but it was a futile effort.  A sigh broke his attempts to concentrate on the pages of the book.

"So?" came a voice he was all too familiar with.  He lowered the book from his face so he could look his friend Brass Polish in the face.

"So, what?" he asked, thought he knew exactly what she meant.

"You know exactly what", she said while giving him a stern look,"So when are you gonna leave the castle and go meet some of the other ponies in the Crystal Empire?"

Thorax fidgeted uncomfortably, and tried to hide his face inside the book again.  "M-Maybe tomorrow?" he offered in an uncertain tone of voice.

Brass gave out a huff.  A moment later, and Thorax's book was pulled from his hooves, a piece of paper slipped inside it to mark the place left off, then closed and placed on his room's desk.  "You're not gonna make any new friends if you don't get outside the palace and go meet them" she pointed out to him.

"I know", he answered,"It's just that I'm-"

"Yeah, Thorax", Brass interrupted,"I know.  You're afraid of how other ponies will react to you, even after what Princess Cadance told them all."

Brass had gotten up from where she was sitting to place a comforting hoof onto Thorax's withers.

"You can't keep hiding in here forever just because you're afraid", she continued,"Do you really want your only chance at making new friends to be when somepony in the palace either retires, quits, or gets left go and a replacement is brought in?"

"Well, that wouldn't be so-" Thorax had tried to answer, but was cut off by a hoof to his muzzle and a very disapproving look from Brass.  "Okay", Thorax said with a huff,"I get it.  I have to go out there sooner or later.  I mean, it's not like they don't know that I'm already here."

"I would've preferred a more enthusiastic response", Brass said with a smirk,"but I suppose I have to take what I can get."

"Brass", Thorax said nervously,"can you come with me?  Maybe it won't be so bad if I'm not alone."

Brass looked at him and then laughed.  "Did you think I was just gonna shove you out the door and left you to fend for yourself?  Of course I'm coming with you!"  The mare walked over to the door and paused to look back at Thorax.

"Let me go grab my saddlebags from my room", she said,"We'll meet up at the main entrance to the palace."  Brass then left to go grab her bags from her room.






At the entrance to the Crystal Palace






Thorax was galloping towards the entrance to the Crystal Palace.  When Brass left to get her saddlebags, he took stock of himself and realized he hadn't cleaned himself properly since yesterday morning, so he made a quick detour to a bathroom so he could wash himself up a little before heading outside.  As he approached the main entrance to the palace, he saw Brass standing there.

"Sorry I took so long!", he called out to her, slowing to a stop and catching his breath before adding,"I thought I should clean up a little.  I didn't mean to take so long."

Brass just blew a raspberry and waved a hoof.  "What's a few minutes?" she asked rhetorically.  "Besides, there's plenty of beautiful day left for us to enjoy seeing the sights."  With that, she turned and stepped towards the door.  Just as she was about to push it open, she turned to look at Thorax, who was standing behind her with a nervous look on his face.  "You're not gonna get cold hooves on me, are you?"

"No!", Thorax said defensively,"I'm just trying to convince myself that this isn't all gonna go very badly."

"Well, it isn't", Brass told him,"not with me around."  Without anymore questions, Brass pushed on the door and stepped outside and into the Crystal Empire.  The light entering the doorway caused Thorax to raise a hoof defensively, as the bright sun was much stronger compared to the lights inside the palace.  Keeping a hoof to his eyes until they adjusted, Thorax followed his friend outside.

Once Thorax's eyes had adjusted to the bright sunlight, he was greeted to the sight of the plaza beneath the palace.  In the center was the Crystal Heart, the magic artifact that permitted the city to exist in spite of the harsh snowstorms that plagued the region.  It also served as the only form of nourishment that Thorax was permitted; despite the fact that he was no longer being escorted by guards, he still had to go to the main balcony every morning and night to have the ring removed and feed on the Heart's overflow of love energy.  Being honest, Thorax still felt like he was stealing it, even though he had Princess Cadance's permission to do so.

Looking away from the Heart, Thorax observed some of the other ponies in the street.  Most appeared to just be out and enjoying the beautiful day, while some others were preparing carts for what looked to be a day of selling wares.  All looked to be in generally positive moods.

Thorax also took note of some guards.  The purple armor made them stand out from the other ponies in the street, along with their large, brush-like decoration on top of each helmet.  Of course, upon noticing them, several took notice of him, and immediately snapped to attention.  This gesture caused the ponies near them to become confused, until their gaze found him too and they adopted a defensive posture as well.  Soon enough, everypony in the street was looking at Thorax as though he was a manticore ready to pounce on any one of them.

A hoof on his withers caused him to turn and face his friend.

"Come on", she urged,"They aren't gonna find out how nice you really are until you get out there and start talking to them."

Without waiting for a reply, Brass continued walking towards the marketplace.  Thorax looked at her dumbly for a few moments before quickly following after her.  The ponies tensed up upon seeing Thorax come running in their direction, but eased up slightly when he slowed down after catching up to the mare he was standing with.  Some chose to ignore the changeling and go about their business, but most simply gave a wide berth and continued to watch him as he and Brass walked.

"Just try to ignore how they're acting", Brass told Thorax,"If they want to act like foals afraid of a monster in their closet, let them."

Thorax tried to share in her confidence, but he was sure if even half of the ponies looking at him had knives shooting out of their eyes, he'd look like a walking pincushion.  However, he did try to heed his friend's advice and opted to look around at the market they were entering.

The street below the Crystal Palace had been turned into a bazaar of sorts.  There were carts lining the streets on both sides, hawking all kinds of wares.  Some were produce, some were ceramics or metalwork, and some were other types of crafts such as paintings or woven wicker baskets.  As Thorax passed one stall, he took notice of a sign above what looked to be the most attractive apples he'd ever seen:


Sweet Apple Acres Apples
Voted Best Apples by the Emerald Gazette!
Four bits per dozen!


Thorax stared for a moment, wondering why the name Sweet Apple Acres was familiar to him.  A moment later, and it clicked: Sweet Apple Acres was the farm that Applejack and her family ran.  These were some of their apples!

Thoughts of the farm pony and bearer for the Element of Honesty brought back memories of getting to meet the other five element bearers and the couple of hours he'd spent with them.  He recalled their trepidation, but also how they pushed past it to get to know him better.  It made him happy that those mares had given him an honest chance in spite of everything, and a part of him looked forward to the day when he could meet them all again.

"Equestria to Thorax!"

The voice caught the changeling off guard and caused him to jump.  He turned to see Brass looking at him with concern.  "I kept calling your name, but you were just standing there looking."

"Oh, sorry" Thorax apologized.  "I got distracted by those apples."

"Really?", Brass said as she looked at the apples,"I had no idea you guys ate those things."

"Oh, we don't", Thorax clarified,"It's just that I saw the sign above them and it reminded me of something."

Brass looked at the sign for a few moments before it clicked.  "You were thinking of the element bearers and that time you got to meet them."

"Yeah", Thorax admitted,"I'm honestly looking forward to when I can meet all of them again.  They've had such a strong impact on my life, I can't possibly thank them enough for all that they've done, especially giving me a chance when they first met me."

"That still blows my mind how you got to meet all six of the element bearers", she admitted,"What are they all like?"

Thorax spent the next few moments talking about each one of the element bearers, from Twilight and her coming to Ponyville to learn about friendship, to Rainbow Dash and her efforts to be really awesome at air stunts and join the Wonderbolts, to Fluttershy and her love of animals, Rarity's fashion goals, and Pinkie's insane abilities to throw what are apparently the most awesome parties in all of Equestria.

"Wow" Brass said after Thorax finished his discussion.  "They're just like all of us normal ponies."

"Well, I'm not exactly a normal pony" Thorax said sheepishly.

"Trust me", Brass said with a smirk,"You're a lot more normal than you think."  Thorax simply smiled at the compliment his friend had given him.  At least, he thought it was a compliment.

"HEY!"

The random shout had caused both pony and changeling to look.  Approaching them was a stallion with a glare on his face.  He pointed a hoof at Thorax and looked Brass dead on.  "How come you're being so chummy with that bug?" he asked her.

Brass glared right back at him and stepped in front of Thorax as if to protect him.  "I'm chummy with him because he's my friend, and he could be yours to if you'd give him a chance."

The stallion snorted.  "The day I give a changeling a chance to get chummy with me is the day Celestia hooves control of Equestria over to Discord" he spat at her before turning and walking away, an embarrassed mare and a small colt following after him.

Thorax stopped watching the stallion and looked at his friend, who looked as though steam was going to start shooting out of her ears if she had water in them.  "Why that... JERK!" she finally responded, shouting at the last word and kicking a nearby discarded can into a wall a fair distance away from the two.  "I swear, Thorax!  It's like being back in school again!"

Thorax didn't have anything to say in response, which wasn't satisfactory to his friend.  "Don't you have any comment about what just happened?"

"I won't say I'm not bothered by the way that stallion acted", Thorax began,"but at the same time, I knew that not everypony I would meet today would take to me like a bee to a flower.  I have to expect some less than ideal responses."

"But it's not right!" Brass responded, emphasizing her point with a hoof stomp.  "Sure, they're might not be inviting you over to their house for a visit any time soon, but that they can't at least be civil!"

Thorax wanted to say something to calm the mare down, but thought better of it; Brass was the sort of pony you don't try and calm down using logic and reason.

Instead, Thorax elected to derail her anger as best he could.  "Why don't we just keep browsing through the market?", he offered,"Maybe there's some more open minded ponies somewhere else?"

Brass took several deep breaths to calm herself.  Once she was composed enough, she gave a simple "Okay", and the pony and changeling continued through the marketplace.

While Brass continued browsing some more of the stalls, Thorax chose to look at some of the sights around him.  From where he stood, Thorax could see several large buildings.  One of those, of course, was the spire of the Crystal Palace.  The large crystal structure was directing the magic of the Crystal Heart up into the sky where, according to Sunburst, it was keeping the horrible blizzards of the frozen north at bay.

Thorax looked in another direction and noticed another significant building.  It was made from what appeared to be very pure quartz, and went up several stories.  The purpose of said building was made clear by the large red ruby cross on the topmost corner.  Thorax was looking at a hospital.  "Which hospital is that?" he asked Brass while pointing his hoof at the building.

Brass looked up to see what building Thorax was pointing at, then recognized the large while structure.  "Oh, that's Hope Diamond Memorial", she explained,"They actually just finished building that a bit before the Crystalling took place."

"They did a really good job by the look of it" commented Thorax.

"No expense was spared, as far as I understand", Brass responded,"It was built to honor a mare from way back in the empire's past named Hope Diamond.  She was a doctor that left the empire to travel the world and learn about all the new and best medicine.  Then she came back with all that knowledge to treat ponies here and train more doctors so the empire could have to best medical treatment possible."

"The same idea went into this hospital as well.  Doctors from all over Equestria, and even some allied nations, were invited here to train all of the staff in the most cutting edge medical care available.  Only the hospital the princesses go to in Canterlot has better medicine than this place."

"Wow", said Thorax with amazement,"I hope I never get hurt again, but if I do, I guess this is the place I'd wanna come to."

"I hope you never get hurt again too" she responded.  The two stood and admired the building for a moment before Brass gestured for Thorax to follow her.  The two then continued walking through the market, choosing to ignore the looks they received as they went along.






Six days before...






Sharpclaw the griffin sat at his desk, puffing away at one of his cigars.  On his desks were several papers and manila folders, all of which contained financial documents, or at least what appeared to be financial documents.  There were dollar amounts, names, locations, and even percentages beside the names.  To an untrained eye, it looked like nothing out of the ordinary for a business that offered loans to clients.

Unfortunately, the percentages were for interest accrued daily, and they were all ridiculously high.  Some were so high that there would be practically no way for the pony who owed on the loan to ever pay it back, but that wasn't gonna stop the old griffin.  In another file, he had information on all of those money was lent to; The sort of information that one doesn't want getting out.

A knocking on his office door interrupted his reviewing of documents.  "Come in", he called out, shifting the shrinking stogie in his beak around as he did so.  A moment later and the door opened, revealing a unicorn stallion and an earth pony stallion.  Both walked in and stood by the door for a moment.

"Sit down" the griffin ordered, which the two stallions complied.  Once seated, the unicorn elected to speak.

"Your secretary said you have a job for us, sir?" he asked.

"Indeed I do, Flog", answered the griffin, finding a manila folder and presenting it to the unicorn.  Taking it in his magic, the unicorn opened the folder to see a picture of a pony family, as well as financial documents regarding the loan they owed on.  Unfortunately for them, it was one of the kind of loans you could never fully pay back, even if you worked every minute of your life.

"The mare in that photograph, Mint Julep, took out a loan several months ago because her husband was hurt at his job", the griffin continued,"The disability went dry and they needed money then and there, so it was really easy to get her to agree to our terms.  It's time to collect on the debt, and I'm pretty sure she's either gonna not have the money for us, or she might just rat on us to the guard in the Crystal Empire.  If that happens, our whole operation is sunk."

"So, we need to convince her of how bad an idea it would be to skip a payment or try and rat us out." Sharpclaw punctuated the last sentence by aggressively stamping out the stump of a cigar into the ashtray on his desk.

"Sounds simple", replied the earth stallion,"We go up there and put the squeeze on her."

"Unfortunately, Sledge, it is not that simple", Sharpclaw retorted,"Several members of the crystal guard live in her building, and they all have different shift hours, so they're always coming and going and able to see every little sign of trouble that a shakedown tends to produce."

"Instead, we're taking a less direct approach."

Flog caught on, or at least he thought he had.  "So, what kind of dirt do you have on her?"

"Unfortunately, none", admitted Sharpclaw,"which is why we're approaching a much riskier option."

"Riskier?" questioned Flog.

"Yes" the griffin answered, then gestured with a claw at the photo, and specifically to the young filly in the photograph.  "Just like any mother", the griffin said ominously,"she'll do anything to protect her child."

Sledge looked uneasy.  "You want us to hurt the filly?"

"For feather's sake, NO!", Sharpclaw spat out,"I'm not that heartless!"

"Then what are we doing with her?" Flog asked as he looked over the photograph.

Sharpclaw opened a box on his desk and took out another cigar, looking at Flog expectantly.  A moment of unicorn magic later, and the end of the smoke was glowing red.  The griffin took a puff of the cigar and let out a cloud of smoke before finally giving an answer.  "You two are going to take her."

Sledge and Flog both looked uneasy upon hearing this.  "You mean", Sledge said, taking a momentary pause before finishing with,"we're gonna be carrying out a foalnapping?"

"Yes", Sharpclaw answered,"I have nearly all the details worked out.  You'll have to meet with our Crystal Empire contact to iron out the rest."

"Sir", Flog spoke up,"I really don't like this idea.  If we try and break into that building-"

Sharpclaw raised a paw to stop the unicorn from speaking.  "You're not abducting her from her home", he clarified,"You'll be taking her from off the streets."

That did nothing to ease Flog's concerns.  "We're doing this in broad daylight?"

The griffin only replied with a nod.

"How are we supposed to pull this off?" Sledge asked.

"Very simple", Sharpclaw replied,"The filly has tutoring on Saturdays, and walks home through the large open market.  There's several streets between her school and the market, and that market becomes a higher priority than most of the other streets, so there are fewer guard patrols.  Before she gets to that market, you'll coerce her into an alleyway and use a stun spell on her."

"Stun spell?", Flog said with confusion,"The only stun spell I know is for adults.  I can't use that on a kid!"

"Which is why I'm giving you one for a child", The griffin retorted, producing a spell sheet from his desk drawer and giving it to the unicorn.  "They use it at the new hospital up there for colts and fillies that get unruly for one reason or another.  Doesn't hurt 'em and they pass right out."

Flog looked over the spell in his grasp, then just nodded.  "So, we get the filly before she gets to the market, stun her, and make off before anypony sees us" he summarized.

"That's the gist of it" Sharpclaw replied.  He then produced a plain envelope and gave it to Flog.  Looking inside, Flog saw two train tickets for one departing for the Crystal Empire that evening, as well as a reservation slip for a two-bed room at a hotel called The Waterford Crystal.

"I want you two to pack your bags and head up that way", the griffin instructed,"You'll get there sometime tomorrow morning so those train tickets are for a sleeping car.  Once you get up there, check into that hotel and find our contact.  His name's Peridot and he works for a shipping company not too far from the train station.  You'll work out all of the fine details and get everything ready for next Saturday."

The two stallions nodded, and got up to leave.  Before they did, Sharpclaw stopped them.  

"One last thing I forgot to mention", he said to them while holding up a picture,"This thing has been living up there for about a week.  He claims to be friendly but keep an eye out.  A group of ponies singled off from a large congregation sounds like it would be easy pickings if there's more of those things around."

"Also, Peridot said he might have some ideas on how to implicate this thing to throw the guard off any trail you might leave, so I would listen to any advice he has in regards to it."

The two stallions looked uneasy as they looked at the picture of the changeling standing on the balcony of the Crystal Palace, next to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of all ponies.  The princess of love, allowing a love-eating parasite to live in her empire, and likely one of those that ruined her wedding day?  They'd have more questions than just what little kinks they'd need to iron out in their plan.

With nothing else to say, the two stallions left the office.  As they walked back to their homes to collect their luggage for the trip, Flog thought back on something Sharpclaw said:

Peridot said he might have some ideas on how to implicate this thing

"I sure hope we can pull this thing off and avoid that changeling altogether" Flog thought as he went to prepare for his train trip.






Present time...






Brass and Thorax continued browsing through the marketplace.  In the time since they started, the mare had acquired a variety of different fruits and vegetables, a small picnic basket, a bottle of raspberry flavored mead, and small bouquet of flowers.  All the while, Thorax was content to just watch the mare go about shopping at the numerous stalls.

Of course, at practically every stop the mare made, eyes were on him, expecting him to make his move and attack a random pony before escaping the empire.  Even with his magic muted, Thorax could still tell that's how everypony felt about him.  That thought dampened his hopes a bit; He'd really hoped what Princess Cadance had told them would've had some kind of impact, but he supposed that even the words of a princess weren't always enough to sway the will of the people.

"So, finally crawled out of the broom closet, did ya?"

Thorax was interrupted from his negative thoughts by the pony running the stall Brass was currently browsing.  She was a mare, with a red mane and lime green coat.  Her flank was adorned with a ladybug on a sunflower, likely representing her talent with flowers.  "I'm sorry?" he asked with confusion.

"The princess introduces you to us, and for a whole week, we haven't seen hide nor hair of ya."

"But I don't have hair" Thorax pointed out.

"It's a figure of speech", Brass interjected,"Like 'I'll believe it when pigs fly'?"

"Oh", Thorax said in acknowledgement,"Well, to be honest, I was kinda afraid that things would go really badly."

The stall mare looked confused.  "What would go really badly?"

"...meeting other ponies" Thorax admitted sheepishly.

The market mare didn't say anything for a few seconds.  Instead, she tried to suppress a chuckle, but the failure to do so brought on a fit of laughter.  "HA HA!", she bellowed out,"The changeling is afraid of us!"

Her laughing fit had caught the attention of some nearby ponies, who looked at Thorax with a glare.  He responded by cowering away and trying to appear small, as his ability to shapeshift into something like a mouse was currently unavailable to him.

Brass, who had become rather annoyed with the mare, spoke up.

"How dare you!" she yelled, pointing a hoof at the stall mare.

The mare, now recovering from her laughing fit, looked at Brass with surprise.  "What?" she asked.

"Your behavior", Brass answered back harshly,"My friend did not leave his kind to come here and be made fun of!"

The mare considered the words for a moment before apologizing.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean any offense.  I just thought-"

"No, you didn't", Brass interrupted,"You saw my friend for what he is and not for the kind of pony he is.  Don't you remember his apology to all of us?"

"Yeah, we do"

Brass turned to see another pony, a stallion, approaching.  Thorax saw him, but also took notice to a crowd beginning to form around them.  The guards, while keeping a watchful eye on the crowd, stayed at their positions.

"If you ask me, it was all a major load of horseapples!" called out a mare in the crowd.

"Yeah!", another stallion chimed in,"And how come the princess is vouching for him so suddenly?  She should've wanted to blast him out of the empire more than anypony else here!"

"I bet he brainwashed her", another pony responded,"just like that queen did with her husband!"

"YEAH!"

Almost immediately, a cacophony of accusing voices were calling out all around Brass and Thorax.  The stall mare had backed away, a sheepish look on her face as she tried to look anywhere but at the pony and changeling.

Brass was arguing with the crowd, trying to make her point about the kind of pony Thorax was, but nopony was listening.

Thorax was cowered down on the street.  All around him, he heard the voices of ponies shouting at him, calling him horrible names and accusing him of doing some very terrible things.  Eventually, the pressure of the situation got to him.

"AAHH!"

The shout caught the crowd off guard and caused a few to stumble backwards.  Needing the air, Thorax jumped up and fluttered his wings, flying off in the direction of a nearby street.  A couple of pegasus guards saw him and elected to pursue, but Thorax had weaved through several buildings too fast for them and they quickly lost track of him.

Back in the marketplace, the crowd had went silent upon seeing the changeling leaving.  Brass, left in shock at seeing her friend take off like he did, quickly came back to her senses.  She looked around at the crowd with a fiery glare.  "I HOPE YOU'RE ALL HAPPY ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST DID!" she shouted at them, then quickly pushed past them as she went after her friend, hoping she could find him before he either did something rash, or found himself in trouble somehow.






An Hour Earlier...






Inside the Waterford Crystal Hotel, the unicorn stallions, Peridot and Flog, as well as the earth pony stallion Sledge were ironing out the final details of the task they were to carry out today.

"Okay", Peridot began,"That filly will be leaving her lessons in about one hour from now, so that gives us time to get to the alleyway we scouted out and get into position.  Now, Sledge, what will you be doing?"

"I'll be keeping an eye out for the filly", he answered,"and then I'll coerce her into going down the alley."

"Good" said Peridot, and then turned to Flog.  "What about you?"

"I'm going to be hiding further down the alley, and then when I hear her getting close, I'll jump out and box her in."

"Good", Peridot responded with satisfaction,"That means that I will be waiting near the end of the alley behind a dumpster.  Once Sledge gets past me, I'll step out and keep watch for any guards.  You two will stun her and get her to our safe house, and I'll make sure the coast is clear before sending a message to Sharpclaw to let him know of our success."

All three stallions nodded in acknowledgement.  Flog, however, seemed rather nervous.

"Something on your mind?" Peridot asked him.

"This changeling Sharpclaw mentioned", Flog told him,"Is he something we need to worry about?"

"In all likelihood, no", Peridot answered,"He hasn't been seen since the address last week, but the guard, as well as a few ponies have confirmed he's still in the palace."

"But what if we run into him?" Flog asked nervously.

"First off, low chance of running into him", Peridot reassured the stallion,"but if we did, it may actually serve to benefit us."

Flog raised an eyebrow.  "How so?"

"Everypony up here doesn't trust that thing any further than they can throw it with their magic.  My plan for if we run into him is genius."

"We lure that changeling into the alley with us, and I blast him with a stun spell I got from a pony that works in the palace.  They were all taught this spell in case they had to be around him and he decided to try and make a lunch out of 'em."

"Once he's out cold, I slip his ring off, stuff some of the filly's tail hair into his muzzle, and tell a tale about a pair of changelings making off with the filly.  You two get away, and he gets pinned for it."

Flog nodded, and then Sledge chuckled.

"Something funny?" Peridot asked.

"Yeah", the stallion answered,"Who knows how many ponies have been taken by those things over the years, and the one time that one of them could get pinned for it will be one that they never actually did."

Peridot thought on this for a second, and then he started chuckling too.  "Yeah", he admitted,"That is funny."  The two stallions laughed while Flog continued to look uneasy.  He didn't say anything, but he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him things would not go as smoothly as any of them had planned.






Present time...






Thorax was still flying through the streets of the Crystal Empire.  A few minutes ago, he'd become overwhelmed by the negative reactions of all the ponies in the marketplace and his body responded by getting him away from all of that as best as it could.  Eventually, Thorax regain some of his bearings and landed on a street beside some garbage bins that were setting outside of a building.

Taking deep breaths to calm himself, Thorax thought back to the last few moments before he flew away.  He remembered all of the ponies ganging up on him.  All of their accusations, and all of the names that they called him.  It had been worse than his first day in the Crystal Palace by leaps and bounds.

Then he remembered Brass.  He was cowering on the street, and she was trying to defend him.  Right now, she was likely being accosted for coming to his defense.

And here he was, running away and leaving her to face all of that.

"What kind of a friend am I?" he asked to nopony in particular.  Noticing a loose pebble on the ground, he kicked it as hard as he could, sending it down the currently empty street.  Watching it travel, he steeled his nerves as best he could.  "I need to go back and face them", he resolved,"and apologize to Brass for running away."

Just as Thorax was about to take off, a sound caught his ears.

"P=Please!", a child's voice pleaded,"L-Leave me alone!"

Thorax listened closer and could tell it was a filly's voice.  He could also tell that it was close, so he decided to investigate whatever it was.  Coming around a corner, he was met with the sight of a small mint-green pony with raspberry red mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a raspberry surrounded by mint leaves.  

Ahead of her was a large earth pony stallion, who appeared to be corralling the filly into an alleyway.  Thorax could tell by the look on the stallion's face that he had no good intentions at the moment for the filly.  The guard should be notified right now...


...Except there was no guard around to notify.  Looking up and down the streets, Thorax couldn't see hide nor hair of the Crystal Guards.  He was the only pony besides the filly and stallion around.  This fact made Thorax very nervous, but he did his best to contend with it.  If this filly was going to receive any help, he would have to provide it.

Using his changeling skills for the first time in a while, Thorax skulked behind the stallion as the filly turned and ran down an alleyway.  Thorax peeked down and could see further along that the filly was being boxed in by another stallion, this one a unicorn.  Seeing nowhere to go, the filly began to cower and sob, once again pleading to be left go.

The sobbing of the filly had gotten to Thorax.  All his life, he'd had to contend with bullies, and he had never succeeded in stopping them.  But he did have another changeling who could: his older broodmate Pharynx.  The older changeling would often run off the bullies that plagued Thorax, thus giving the younger changeling a reprieve from their torments.  Of course, Pharynx would turn around and bully Thorax himself, but he was generally not as bad as the others were.

Seeing himself in the filly, Thorax resolved in himself to help her as best he could.  He charged down the alley, adopting a scowl he hoped would be intimidating enough, and confronted the two stallions that were boxing in the filly.

"Hey you two!", he shouted at them,"Leave her alone!"

The two stallions turned to look at Thorax in surprise.  The earth pony turned around to face him.  "Take care of the filly", he called to the other stallion,"I'll deal with this."

The unicorn stallion didn't give any indication verbally that he agreed with the command.  Instead, he took the foal in his magic grip and held her up, preventing her escape.  He also held her mouth shut so she couldn't call out for any additional help.

The earth pony stallion advanced.  "So", he said with a cocky smirk,"You're the friendly changeling I've heard so much about.  Well, let's see how much of a pushover you really are!"

With that, the stallion charged, attempting to shoulder his body into Thorax.  Reacting purely on instinct, Thorax sidestepped the stallion, allowing him to run straight into a dumpster and knock the wind from himself.  The stallion coughed, having knocked the wind from his lungs.  He turned to face Thorax again, but saw the changeling turn to face the other stallion keeping the filly from escaping.

"Let her go!" Thorax commanded the stallion.  The stallion contemplated that thought for a moment before smiling.

"You really should've stayed out of this", he told Thorax,"Now you're gonna pay for having such a big, snooping nose."

Before he could make sense of what the stallion meant, a bolt of magic struck Thorax in the back of the head, stunning the changeling and nearly knocking him out.  A second unicorn Thorax hadn't seen stepped out from behind another dumpster.

"Take care of him" he said to a pony, and the last thing Thorax remembered was a swift shot of pain to the back of his head, and he was out like a light.

The filly, once fearful of the situation, was quite shocked to see a changeling coming to her rescue.  Once she saw the ring on his horn, she knew it was the nice changeling that Princess Cadance introduced to everypony a week ago.  Now, he was out cold from the earth pony's strong kick, and her fear returned as she realized her one chance at rescue was gone.

"Hey!", the one unicorn shouted to the other behind her,"Take care of her now!"

The filly turned and saw the unicorn behind her cast a spell, and before she could register what happened, she was out like a light.

Peridot watched as the filly slumped to the ground unconscious.  He looked around and he did not immediately see anypony around, so they assumed the coast was clear for the moment.  He turned towards Sledge and Flog.

"Quick, you two!", he barked,"Take hold of the filly and get to the safe house!"

Flog took the filly in his magic grip and prepared to run before Peridot stopped him.  "Hold up a second" he said as he grabbed a small knife from his saddlebags.  Walking over to the filly, he took a length of her tail in his magic and proceeded to cut out a sizable section of the hair.  Once he had that clump, he walked over to Thorax and opened his mouth, putting the hair inside before closing it shut again.  For good measure, he removed the suppressor ring from Thorax's head and split it apart and threw the pieces on the ground.

"There", he said with satisfaction,"Now we'll have a believable story.  Now, get out of her before-"

"OVER HERE!" a voice shouted out from above the trio.  Peridot cursed as he saw a pegasus guard gliding down towards them.  Sledge and Flog both looked nervously at each other and had thoughts to run.  Their cooler headed companion stopped them.  In the heat of the moment, an idea crossed his mind.

"I have a plan", he told the two,"Just follow along with my lead."  The two ponies still looked nervous, but nodded their agreement.  The guard landed at the end of the alley and came running down, joined shortly afterwards by several earth pony guards.

As the guards approached, Peridot smiled a little bit on the inside.  "Thank the sun you got here as soon as you did" Peridot said in as relieved a voice as he could muster.

"What happened here?" the guard asked, surveying the scene.

Peridot pointed at Thorax with a hoof.  "There were some changelings trying to grab this filly", he told them while pointing at the filly,"Two of them ran off, but this one we knocked out before he could get away."

The guard looked over at Thorax's unconscious form with a scowl.  Peridot then kicked something metal.  "That was the strange thing", Peridot said,"It had this ring on its horn."

The pegasus walked over and examined the broken item.  "This is the changeling that the princess allowed to stay here to try and earn permanent citizenship", the guard realized,"She's going to be absolutely livid with this one."

Jumping to action, he looked at a few unicorn guards that had showed up just a moment ago.  "You two!", the pegasus guard ordered,"Prepare bindings and a nullifier ring.  We're taking this thing into custody!"

The unicorns quickly obeyed, getting a set of hoof bindings and a magic nullifying ring from their armor and enchanting them to be functional.  A groaning sound caught the pegasus's attention, and the guard turned to see Thorax awakening.

Thorax came to with a soreness at the back of his skull.  He also became aware of something in his mouth that had a fibrous texture.  He spat it out, and in his groggy vision, he noticed it looked like strands of hair, specifically, the young filly he was trying to help.  His memory coming back to him, he attempted to stand up and try and find the filly to continue assisting her, but something hard and metal struck him in the back, knocking him back to the ground.  Confused, he looked around for a moment until he realized something: He could sense a great deal of hate and anger.

"The ring is gone again", he thought.

Thorax looked around, spotting a group of crystal guards at the end of the alley keeping a crowd of ponies from entering.  There were many angry faces in the crowd, all of their glares piercing into the changeling on the ground.  He had use of his magic again, but he could tell the guards were not going to let him use it.

Then Thorax saw something he hadn't expected to see.  Standing near the front of the crowd was Brass.  The mare was looking on at Thorax with shock, but whatever her true emotions were were drowned out by all of the hate, anger and fear all the other ponies were putting out.  It was honestly starting to make him feel sick.

Thorax then felt a white hot source of anger above him.  Daring to look up, Thorax's eyes saw a pegasus guard scowling at him.  The guard took in a breath of air, and then spat on Thorax, the changeling just barely getting his eye shut to avoid the liquid going inside it.  The changeling then felt bindings being placed on his hooves, and a ring encasing his horn, this one having so strong an enchantment on it, there was no way he could use any magic at all.

The pegasus guard knelt down get face to face with Thorax.  He looked the changeling right in the eyes.  Thorax quickly figured out what was happening when he was being restrained, but the words leaving the pegasus guard's mouth confirmed his fears.

"Changeling, you're under arrest."
> Part III, Chapter 2 - The High Tide Case - Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Key Type, an earth pony stallion, sat in front of the receiving key at the Van Hoover telegraph office.  This had been his job now for nearly a year, and like many jobs, quickly became monotonous.  In truth, he expected it to be nearly extinct, once that new telephone invention got to be cheap enough.  Really, why send a telegram when you can punch some numbers into a phone and talk to a person almost instantly?

He let out a breath as he questioned what he was going to do for his lunch break.  He could try the new cafe that opened up a few blocks away.  The reviews in the paper said the vegetable soup could put anything a pony's grandma made to shame.

The receiving key suddenly began tapping, shaking Key from his thoughts.  Instantly, he grabbed a paper and a pencil to write with.  He decoded the message as he jotted it down, deciphering the meaning of the taps, some coming almost immediately after the previous one, and some with a split second of pause between them.

Once finished, he read over the note to make sure he had written it correctly.  No spelling errors and exactly how the message came in.  The work was satisfactory.  The content of the message, was not quite so.

Key had seen a fair number of messages like this one lately.  A pony from some far off city like Manehattan or Fillydelphia passing along some kind of mindless drivel to keep a loved one "in the know" about things happening with them and their family.  It was the sort of thing better served by writing a letter...

Key paused for a moment.  "That's exactly the kind of stuff a pony writes in a letter!", he thought to himself,"Why would a pony spend money on a telegram for this when paying postage to send a letter would be so much cheaper?"

As the stallion sat there looking over the message, he then recalled having taken several telegrams the day before that were similar to this one.  Reaching into his desk, he pulled out the previous day's messages; The office kept the previous messages at the employee's desk in case there was a foul up somewhere and they needed to clear it up quickly.

Key Type went through each one and read them.  The messages were all nearly similar to the one Key had just taken, but they all had one thing in common: They were addressed to a pony named High Tide.  "That confirms it for me", Key said,"There's something fishy going on here."

Gathering up the letters, Key Type then began transcribing new copies in as legible a hoofwriting that he could do, then he set those copies aside for later.  He knew where he was going to be going on his lunch break; He just hoped they'd have something he could eat while he was there.





The Van Hoover Police Force was a unique fixture of the city.  While a division of the royal guard was stationed there, most of the criminal investigations went through the police.  The station house, located a few blocks away from the city center, had several levels for different departments, as well as jail cells in the basement for when they had to arrest and detain ponies that had committed crimes.

In one such department, identified as "Investigations", a pony stallion sat at a desk.  He was a unicorn, with dark grey coat, black mane and tail with several streaks of grey in both, and a cutie mark of an old checkered and peaked police hat.

The stallion was going over some paperwork in regards to a case he'd just finished and turned over to the guard; While the police could investigate and arrest ponies, the royal guard was still in charge of the courts that convicted ponies and sent them to the dungeons or whatever punishment was deemed appropriate.

The case in question was a fairly common one.  Several jewelers in the city had reported pieces of jewelry going missing.  Altogether, the total was several thousand bits.

When the case began, the stallion was almost certain the culprit was a unicorn.  However, the case-breaking clue wound up being a single down feather from a pegasus' wing.  Now knowing what to look for, the jewelers were put on alert, and the next day, a pegasus mare the same color as the feather was apprehended.  A brief interrogation led to the pony spilling her guts and revealing the location of all the missing jewelry.

Satisfied with his case notes, the stallion closed the file and sat it down on his desk.  He was about to go for something to drink when he heard a pony walking up to his desk.  Looking up, he saw it was one of the two new officers that were assigned to the front desk; This one was an earth pony mare with a teal coat and bright red mane and tail.

"Detective Old Bill", she addressed the stallion,"your informant is here to see you."

Old Bill nodded and dismissed the mare back to her duties.  The stallion made his way for the water dispenser to wet his whistle, then moved towards the interrogation rooms.  Stepping inside, he saw a familiar pony with a manila folder, one he recognized as Key Note, his informant in the telegraph office.

Of course, he wasn't an informant in the most common sense of the word.  Key Note was a regular pony like any other citizen in Van Hoover.  What made him special was the fact that he was in a position within the city's communication infrastructure to serve as a pair of ears for both the police force and local guard post.  For a stipend, Key would offer them whatever tips he could that would result in either the prevention of crime or help catch those that had committed one.

"Hello, Key", Old Bill greeted,"Do you have something for me?"

"I think so", answered Key,"I've got some telegrams here that are rather peculiar.  Have a look."  Key then passed over the folder to Old Bill.  Bill took the folder in his magic and opened it up.

Inside were about two dozen telegrams, split nearly even between today and yesterday.  As he scanned each one, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary right away.  "I'm not seeing what you're seeing, Key" the detective told the informant.

"Read the messages again", Key told the detective while gesturing with his hoof,"Doesn't the stuff in these letters seem like the kind of stuff that ponies would send in a letter?  The much cheaper option that lets you send a lot more information?"

Bill read the notes again, and did take notice that some of the information they contained wasn't the sort of stuff that most ponies sent in a telegram.  The stallion still wasn't entirely convinced.

"These telegrams still aren't that out of the ordinary", Bill told Key,"What's the point you're trying to make?"

Key started to become a bit irritated.  "My point is that normal ponies don't send telegrams like this!", Key explained,"Besides, look at where all the telegrams have been coming from."

Bill looked over the locations where each message had come from.  There were several from Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, Whinnyapolis, and even a few from Canterlot.  All from different cities, yet having the same type of message.  At that moment, it finally clicked for the stallion.

"Okay, you're saying these messages are some kind of code", Bill finally told Key,"but what do you think it means?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure what this could be a code for", Key admitted,"but I'm pretty sure there's something fishy going on with these messages."

Bill nodded and stood up.  "I'll look into this", he told Key,"Take these telegrams back with you.  If it's necessary, we'll petition the courts to grant subpoena to obtain them."

"Okay", Key replied,"I'll keep these handy in case that happens."  He then got up to leave, but then stopped.

"Almost forgot!" Key said as he grabbed a paper and pencil from his saddlebags.  He quickly wrote something down and gave it to the detective.  "This is the address the telegrams were being sent to", he told Bill,"The pony's name is High Tide."

Bill took the note and nodded.  "Thanks", he told Key,"I'll check out this address then."  Key gave him a simple nod, then walked out of the room.

Heading back to his desk, Bill looked over the address on the paper.  It was for a building not too far from the city's port area.

"An out of the way part of the city where a pony wouldn't go unless they had to", Bill thought to himself,"This definitely sounds like something I should check out."

"Hey, Bill!"

The stallion was interrupted by another pony entering the department.  It was a mare, and his partner in the force.  Her coat and cutie mark both were representative of her name.

"Hello, Peach", Bill greeted back,"Getting in kind of late today, aren't we?"

"Well, when your neighbors decide to have a domestic dispute and your the nearest cop", she answered back,"you have to become a mediator, whether you like it or not."

Bill gave an amused chuckle.  "So what was it this time?"

"Same as usual", Peach responded in her usually cheerful tone,"Which pony was supposed to take out the garbage today."

"Of all the things" Bill said while shaking his head.

"Hey, if I had a colt to pawn it off on, you can bet your last bit that I would get him to do it."

"Colt?", Bill said teasingly,"I guess I should send an alert over to juvenile for a possible predator in the area."

"Oh, hardy har har!" Peach responded before walking to her desk nearby.  "So, anything interesting happen this morning?" she asked after getting sat down.

"Actually, something just came up right before you got in" Bill answered as he showed the mare the note he'd gotten.  Peach took it and looked it over.

"According to our informant at the telegraph station", Bill began to explain,"A pony named High Tide has been getting a lot of telegraph messages sent to this address.  Apparently, he thinks these messages are some kind of code for something nefarious."

"Really?", Peach said while raising a brow,"What kinds of messages is this pony getting?"

"Based on a sample that the informant brought over, some fairly mundane stuff.  However, they also pointed out that the content of the messages was the same sort of stuff you'd send in a letter, so why spend the money for a telegram when you could send more information for much less?"

Peach thought it over for all of a second before looking at her partner.  "That's definitely a code", she reasoned,"No way it couldn't be."

"Then it looks like our informant was right" Bill remarked.  He walked back over to his desk and grabbed a pair of saddlebags.

"Where are you heading?" Peach asked him.

"I'm going to go check this address that the messages are going to", he told her,"Could you stay here in case the informant comes back?  He said if he got any more messages like he had before, he'd bring them over for us to look at."

"Okay", Peach replied,"but you watch yourself.  The port area can get pretty sketchy."

Bill just gave a small smile as he walked out the door.





Sharpclaw sat at his desk once again going over paperwork.  He had just updated his records with the information he'd gotten in the recent batch of telegrams, with most of the ponies owing on loans having provided some form of payment.  With that money soon to be in, he would have enough to start offering some more loans.  After all, ponies had to be convinced they would actually get the money they were promised, otherwise they'd never take out loans from him to begin with.

The griffin had just trimmed the tail on his current cigar when there was a knock at his door.  "What is it, Miss Scarlett?" he said to his secretary, whom he knew was on the other side of the door.  The mare then poked her head in with a worried expression on her face.

"Sir, there's a detective from the VHPF here to speak with High Tide." she told him with worry.  Sharpclaw dropped the papers in his claws and was about to slam one into his desk before regaining control of himself.

"Curse it all!" he muttered under his breath.  He'd known that the police would eventually be on to him, but he thought it was going to take longer than this.  He looked at his secretary and gave one simple command:  "Stall him!"

Miss Scarlett gave a nod and closed the door and returned to her desk.  "My boss will be with you shortly", she said with a smile to Detective Old Bill,"Please have a seat."

Old Bill nodded and took a seat beside a water dispenser.  He made note of the mare's demeanor: near constant looking over and flashing a friendly smile, looking for whatever menial task she could to keep herself occupied, and her body language very tense.  It was something he was all too familiar with; This secretary was nervous about something.

Before he could think to drum up a conversation and possibly figure out what was going on, the door to the main office opened up.  From inside the office emerged a griffin, with brown head and body a mix of black and brown feathers.  The griffin, clearly a male, also had a scar underneath its right eye.  It eyed the detective for a moment before adopting a tone that was somehow neutral yet pleasant.

"What may we do for you today, detective?" the griffin asked.

"I was hoping to be able to find a pony that I believe is in your employ", Old Bill told the griffin.

"Really?", the griffin said with confusion,"I don't have too many ponies working for me.  Do you have their name?"

"I do", Bill answered,"I'm looking for High Tide."

The griffin's eye twitched slightly.  It was nearly imperceptible, but Bill caught it for however briefly it existed.

"I do have a High Tide working for me", the griffin replied,"but unfortunately, he's away on business."

"Oh", Bill responded,"Do you have any idea when he'll return?"

"Hard to say", the griffin answered,"The business he's on isn't the kind of thing that has a definitive time frame to be finished or not."

"What kind of business is he on", Bill asked,"unless it's something sensitive."

"Nothing overly sensitive", answered the griffin,"He's negotiating some new business for us."

"And what kind of business is that?" Bill asked the griffin.

"Financial planning" the griffin answered, presenting the detective with a brochure not too dissimilar from the kind you'd get from a bank.  "He's trying to convince a restaurant in Fillydelphia to go with us for some of their business management needs."

"So, Fillydelphia" Bill remarked as he feigned thinking of something.  He elected to observe the griffin and secretary as they watched him.  Both were tense, meaning that the way he was acting was starting to get to them.

"Okay", the stallion finally said,"I'll have to get in touch with him when he gets back.  Sorry to have bothered you two."

"No trouble detective", the griffin responded,"I just hope that High Tide isn't in any sort of trouble."

"Oh, no", Bill replied,"I just had some questions to ask him.  That's all."

"Well, if that's everything", the griffin said to Old Bill,"I have business to get back to."

"Yes, that's all I have", Bill replied,"Thank you for your time."  With that, Bill turned and left the office.  Once out of earshot, the griffin turned to his secretary.

"I want you to get a hold of Packer and Mover, right now", he told his secretary,"We need to get the files out of here pronto!"

Miss Scarlett looked uneasy.  "Perhaps we should wait-"

"There's no time!", Sharpclaw barked,"Get those two over her and have them clear the damn files out!"

The mare wanted to protest, but simply nodded and grabbed her saddlebags before leaving.  Once Miss Scarlett was gone, Sharpclaw produced a new cigar and proceeded to light it, taking a long drag in an effort to calm his fraying nerves.





Old Bill got back to the police station about an hour later.  After walking in through the door, he was met by Peach Fuzz.  Going off of the look on the mare's face, he was certain she had something important to tell him.  "What is it, Peach?" he asked her.

"Your informant came back with a few more telegrams", Peach told him,"Two from Manehattan, and one from Whinnyapolis."

"And I take it these ones had the same kind of message as before?"

"Yes", Peach confirmed,"but that's not all.  I showed these to Word Salad, and she is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the messages are a code."

Bill gave a nod and mentally slapped himself.  Word Salad was a mare who worked as part of forensics, and her specialty, as well as her cutie mark talent, was to decipher the types of writing one would pass of as gibberish.  Had she not become a forensic investigator, she could've taught school, or became a pharmacist.  "What did she make of the code?" Bill asked Peach.

"Her best idea as to what is being conveyed in the message boils down to two things", Peach explained,"Either its extortion, or this High Tide is a loan shark."

Bill gave a nod.  "That fits some with what happened when I went to meet High Tide."

"What did he have to say?" Peach asked.

"He wasn't there", Bill replied,"The building was an old shipping office.  I walked in and there was a mare working on a typewriter, but when she saw me, she became nervous.  I asked for High Tide, and she went and told this griffin who was working in the main office room."

"The griffin came out and met with me.  He acted much cooler than the secretary, but I could still tell he was nervous with me being there.  When I asked him for High Tide, he said the pony was away in Fillydelphia on business."

"Funny", Peach remarked,"You'd think a pony going out of town to another city would put a hold on his messages.  According to Key Note, the messages were still being delivered."

Bill gave a nod as he thought over that information.  Given the circumstances, it wasn't hard for him to come to the next conclusion.  "I don't think High Tide exists", Bill proposed,"I think the griffin is using the name High Tide as an alias, and the telegrams are for him."

"That's possible", Peach agreed,"but we'd have to prove it before we could do anything further.  It isn't a good idea to start tailing ponies, or griffins, without good reason.  Unfortunately, suspicion isn't a good one."

Bill nodded, and then thought of something.  "I got a good look at this griffin and mare.  I'm guessing with the way they were acting, they might have records somewhere."

"We'll need names for both of them" Peach pointed out.

"The mare is Miss Scarlett", Bill told her,"but the griffin never said his name."

"You got a good look at him", Peach pointed out,"so I guess we'll have to have a sketch artist draw up a mug and then we'll send it around to other departments and guard detachments and see if anything turns up."

"Maybe we should send it out to the Griffin kingdom?", Bill proposed,"He could be operating in Equestria to escape whatever crimes he might have committed there.  At the very least, they might be able to give us a name for him."

"That sounds like a good idea", Peach agreed,"I think in the meantime, we should stake out their office to see what ponies come and go.  Maybe we could find them doing something incriminating and hold them for it while we investigate these telegrams and what they actually mean."

"Sounds like a good idea", Bill agreed,"but we'll have to find ponies willing to do it, and ones who can disguise themselves to avoid suspicion."

Peach gave a smile.  "Too bad we don't have any changelings working for us.  They'd be perfect for this kind of job."

Bill laughed.  "Yes, they would be."
> Part III, Chapter 3 - Detained
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The royal chambers of the Crystal Palace were currently occupied by Princess Cadance.  The sovereign of the Crystal Empire was currently enjoying a spot of afternoon tea and biscuits, as her royal duties for the day were completed.  She elected to take over the care of her foal for the remainder of the day, eager to shed the role of monarch and adopt the more personally gratifying title of "Mommy".  As she was preparing to pour a cup of tea from the pot setting on the table in front of her, a pony she was all too familiar with entered the room.

"Hello, Andesite", Cadance greeted as she poured her tea,"Is there something that I need to address at the moment?"

"Umm...", Andesite paused momentarily before she finished her sentence.

"Thorax was arrested about a half hour ago."

Cadance's magic grip on the tea pot fizzled out, allowing the ceramic item to fall to the floor, shattering into pieces and sending a puddle of tea all over the floor.  Andesite flinched upon hearing the pot shatter on the ground.  A few guards turned to look at the sound, but none dared to move from their post.

Princess Cadance, who had been smiling and in a rather content mood, now went pale.  She turned to Andesite with a serious expression, asking her a simple question:

"On what charges?"





Thorax hung his head low as he was led through the streets of the Crystal Empire, his hooves in shackles and his horn clamped into a magic suppression ring.  Without even trying, he could tell he wouldn't be able to use any of his magic whatsoever, including levitation.

All around him, crystal ponies were shouting a plethora of insults at him.  Some individuals had acquired a selection of produce bits from the market and had started throwing them at Thorax.  Things such as tomatoes, lettuce, apples, oranges and eggs collided with his chitin, leaving the changeling in need of another bath.  The guards, whom he'd been told would defend him from such acts, made no effort to stop the unruly mob beyond making them clear a path to walk through.

After about ten minutes or so, the group approached a building located a short distance from the Crystal Palace.  The metal bars on the windows told Thorax all he needed to know about the building; It was a prison.

The lead guards approached the doors and opened them with their magic.  The remaining guards led Thorax inside.  

As he was led, Thorax thought back to the moment earlier.  He had confronted a pair of stallions harassing a filly, but was struck from behind with a stun spell and subsequently knocked out.  When he had come to, he had a mouthful of hair and ponies all around him were glaring at him and radiating anger and hatred.

Then the guards arrested him, with the charge being attempted foalnapping.  A pit formed in Thorax's stomach as he realized that, with the general opinion ponies had of him and the circumstances of how the guard found him, it was going to be incredibly difficult to prove the claims false.  

More difficult yet would be trying to prove what the truth actually was - the ponies in the alley were framing him for his accused crime.

The guards brought Thorax up to a door marked "Processing".  One guard opened it and led Thorax through.  Behind the door was a mare sitting at a desk behind a typewriter.  She looked up at first with surprise, then disgust as she grabbed a sheet and placed it into the typewriter.  Thorax was seated in front of her.

"Name?" she commanded more than asked.

"Th-Thorax" the changeling replied.  The mare tapped the keys on the typewriter and continued with her questions.

"Age?" came her question.

"...Twenty-ish?" Thorax answered.  She gave him a look.  "Sorry", he apologized,"I never knew my exact birthday, so I don't know what my actual age is."

"Twenty", the mare said as she typed,"Address?"

"Um, I guess it was the Crystal Palace."

More tapping.  "Important medical information?", she asked,"Allergies? Diseases? Previous injuries?"

"I got beat up pretty bad not long ago", he answered,"I don't know if there's any lingering injuries from that."

The mare typed something onto the paper and then made the comment "No need to ask about prior offenses.  Everypony denies it anyways."  Once she was done, she took the paper out of the typewriter and presented it to a unicorn, who then performed a duplication spell on the paper to make a copy.  The guards then took Thorax to the next room.  Inside was a table with a pad and an ink roller, while a large paper with four squares printed on it was laid out on the floor.  Walking Thorax over to the table, the guards instructed him to lift his hooves, which were covered in ink, then placed onto the paper, with a different hoof in each square.  Once removed, the guards were left with an impression of Thorax's hoofprints, which looked identical to a normal pony's, save for the empty spots made by the holes in his hooves.

Once the guards were done with getting Thorax's prints, a guard approached the changeling with an orange collar.  There was nothing remarkable about the object, with the exception of a padlock apparently holding the item closed.  A unicorn guard undid the padlock and placed the collar around Thorax's neck, replacing the padlock once it was on and adjusted.  After the collar was replaced, the hoof restraints and ring were removed from Thorax, who was confused by these actions until he realized that he still couldn't feel his magic.  Apparently these collars did the same thing as the ring on the horn did, which made Thorax question why they used rings on horns to suppress magic when they had these.

A sudden jab in Thorax's backside made the changeling yelp as a guard prodded at him with a spear.  "Move forward!" the guard commanded, to which Thorax obeyed.  They had moved him from the room with the ink pad to the actual cell room.  There were about ten cells total, with a guard standing outside one with the door open.  The guards flanking Thorax shoved him ahead and into the cell, where the guard promptly shut the cell door and locked it.  Once they were sure the changeling wasn't going anywhere, the guards left.

Thorax, who had fallen upon entering the cell, stood up and examined the small room.  One wall was solid metal bars, which the metal bar door was attached to.  The rest were stone brick.  Against one wall was a wooden platform held up by chains, upon which was a simple sheet and pillow; a simple cot.  In a corner was a toilet, which judging by the initial outward appearance, hadn't seen a cleaning for some time.  The last item of note was the window in the cell, which looked out into an alleyway.

With nothing to do, Thorax found a seat on the cot and thought about what he could to.  Obviously, he had to try and prove his innocence, but how?  There were three ponies that would testify that he was working with two changelings to foalnap the filly, and the only ponies that would testify on his behalf weren't there when the incident happened.  They could only say positive things about him; a nice gesture, but meaningless if they couldn't say they saw him trying to defend the filly.

Of course, he could try and get the filly to put in a good word for him, but that presented two questions: Would the filly do it if he requested it of her? And, would anypony believe her if she did?  Thorax hadn't been around ponies too much, but the few brief experiences he'd had of witnessing foals and their parents had taught him that the more outrageous a foal's claim sounded, the more likely their parents and older ponies would think they were just trying to get attention and disregard what they were saying.

Realizing that he was hitting a brick wall in terms of ideas, Thorax elected to rest on the wood cot, hopeful that sleep would help his current predicament.





The sound of a spear against the metal bars of the cell awoke Thorax from his slumber.  "Hey, bug!", the guard shouted,"You have a visitor."  The guard stepped away, and a few moments later, a familiar pair of ponies stepped into view.  Seeing them had definitely lifted Thorax's spirits.

"Brass! Sunburst!" Thorax exclaimed as he stepped over to the bars,"What are you doing here?"

"Really?", Brass said in disbelief,"A friend gets arrested and I don't visit them?"

Thorax's ears went flat against his skull.  "Sorry" he offered.

"Thorax, don't say sorry!", Brass scolded,"If anypony here needs to apologize, it's me."

"You?" Thorax said in confusion.

"Yes, me", Brass responded,"If I hadn't pressured you to come out with me and meet ponies, you'd be safe and sound in the castle reading a book instead of a jail cell."  The mare hung her head, clearly remorseful about her friend's situation.  Thorax had went to try and lift her chin, but a sudden jolt of electricity hit his hoof, causing him to jump back in pain.

"Are you okay?" Sunburst asked Thorax.

"I'm okay", the changeling answered,"More startled than anything."

"I should've warned you", Sunburst said remorsefully,"The guards enchant the bars of the cell so ponies won't reach through the bars.  It's so nopony tries to hurt visitors, or visitors passing something to the prisoners to help them escape."

Thorax considered what Sunburst said as he looked over the bars.  It would make sense the guards would do things to discourage prisoners from trying to escape.  Before he could ponder the thought any further, Brass spoke.

"What exactly happened Thorax?", she asked him,"I know you got overwhelmed by the ponies in the market, but by the time I got there, the guards were arresting you."

"It's a long story", Thorax told her,"but the shortest way I can tell it is that after I calmed down, I saw two stallions cornering a filly, and I tried to help her.  Unfortunately, there was another pony hiding out of sight that hit me with a stunning spell.  When I came to, my mouth was full of the filly's hair and the guards were arresting me."

Brass looked a tad uncertain.  "That doesn't sound good.  It's a case of what you said versus what they said, and unfortunately, I think ponies are gonna believe ponies more than changelings.  I think you should get a hold of a lawyer soon."

"I don't really know any lawyers", Thorax told her,"Do you know any?"

"You're gonna need a criminal defense attorney", Brass told him with a frown,"and the only pony I know doesn't do criminal defense.  She just handles civil suits and divorce actions."

"Don't worry about it too much", Sunburst told Thorax,"Even with your probationary citizenship status, you're still afforded legal representation."

Thorax looked at him with surprise.  "Really?"

"Most definitely yes", Sunburst replied,"The laws in the Crystal Empire guarantee anypony being tried for a crime be provided council, regardless of their financial situation.  If those laws weren't in place, there would be so many innocent but poor ponies taking up space in this jail."

Thorax deflated upon hearing innocent ponies in jail.  Brass looked as though she wanted to offer a supportive hoof on his shoulder, but didn't on account of the spell on the bars.

"How do I go about getting a lawyer?" Thorax asked the two.

"Leave that to us", Brass told him,"We'll find a lawyer that will take your case.  If we can't, we'll get a public defender set up for you."

"Public defender?" Thorax said with confusion.

"They're the lawyer that would get assigned to you if you can't find your own", Sunburst explained,"However, I think we should get one that actually would be willing to represent you instead of settling for a defender."

"How come?" Thorax asked, curious as to why it would matter what pony represented him.

"Public defenders tend to get a lot of cases where, in the interest of not drawing out a trial where the accused has little to no chance of winning, they negotiate reduced sentences in favor of a pony simply accepting the blame for a crime, regardless of whether they did it or not."

Thorax nodded.  By the sound of things, his time in the Crystal Empire was about to get much more difficult.

"Okay, you two!", a guard shouted at Brass and Sunburst,"Visiting time is over!"

Brass shot the guard a look but turned back to Thorax a moment later.  "I promise we'll get you a lawyer by tomorrow, one way or the other."  With that, Brass turned and walked away, Sunburst giving a quick wish of luck before turning to follow her out.  Thorax returned to his cot and laid back down.  He was only there for about fifteen minutes or so before he heard the cell door click open.

Looking up, Thorax saw a pony whose presence in that moment that made him go white, figuratively speaking.  It was none other than Princess Cadance, in her royal regalia, and eyes looking at Thorax with uncertainty and thinly veiled anger.  Clearly, this news of his arrest had gotten to her, and it had ruined whatever kind of good day she was having.  Without warning, the pink alicorn stepped inside the cell and closed in on him.  "Is it true?" she asked him in a stern tone.

"I-Is what true?" Thorax asked her, unsure of what she was talking about specifically.

Without warning, Thorax was lifted up and pressed hard into the wall behind him.  "Did you or did you not try and abduct that filly?" she asked, more specific than before AND with more agitation in her voice.

"N-No, Y-Your H-Highn-ness!", responded Thorax, who in addition to being forced into the wall was also having his air cut off.

Princess Cadance looked him over for a minute before ultimately cancelling her magic, letting Thorax fall onto the cot and nearly take the chains holding it up out of the wall.  "I don't know if I can believe you anymore", she told him,"First, you get beaten up on my watch, or lack thereof, and then, when I make the effort to actually treat you better, THIS happens."

She approached Thorax with the same expression, but leaned in so only he could hear the conversation between the two.  "If I find out that you are lying to me, I will make sure you get placed in the deepest, darkest dungeon I can find, and the only love you'll ever get to feed on will be from the rats in your cell!"  With that threat made, the Princess of love, very much not living up to that moniker at the moment, turned and left the cell, the door slamming shut behind her as she left.

Thorax, momentarily stunned by having been dropped onto the cot, recovered and stood back up.  Making sure that he was okay, he looked at the door to the cell as he felt a pit forming in his stomach.  Through no fault of his own, he'd lost the trust of the princess.  Worse yet, her last comment made him realize that he would more than likely not be getting any love for a long time.  Would he last until he was able to prove his innocence, or would he be doomed to starvation in the worst prison he could imagine?

Thorax looked at the damaged cot and elected to sleep on the floor.  Perhaps they would fix the bed tomorrow.





Thorax was awoken by the banging of a spear pole on the prison bars.  "Wake up!" the guard shouted at him,"Your counsel is here to see you."

Wiping the dust from his eyes, Thorax looked out the window to notice it was likely morning, as the sky was blue and everything was bright.  The cell door opening caught his attention, and he looked to see the guard making a gesture for him to step outside.  Once he had, the guard pointed at another guard just ahead of him.  "Follow this guard to the counsel chamber" he instructed Thorax.  Thorax began walking towards the indicated guard, who began moving ahead of Thorax, seeming to want to keep about two ponies' distance between the two.

After walking down a couple of hallways, Thorax and the guard stepped in front of a wooden door with a metal bar window placed in it.  "Your counsel is waiting inside" the guard told him, opening the door and motioning Thorax inside.

After Thorax stepped through, he noticed the stone brick walls and metal tables with attached benches.  In the center of the room was a stallion wearing a black suit coat with button up shirt and black tie with red and white stripes on it.  The stallion took notice of Thorax and stood up, his body language telling the changeling he was nervous.

Thorax moved toward the stallion and tried to present himself as non-threateningly as possible.  "Hello", he greeted,"I'm Thorax.  Are you my counsel?"

The stallion looked over Thorax for a moment before taking a breath to calm himself.  Once composed, he reached a hoof out towards the changeling.

"Hello, Thorax", the stallion said with a small smile,"I'm Plea Bargain, and I'll be your public defender."
> Part III, Chapter 4 - Meeting with Counsel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax stood there for a moment looking at Plea Bargain's hoof.  The stallion was a unicorn, his coat bluish grey and mane and tail white with grey streaks in it.  The suit coat he wore covered up his cutie mark, but he felt safe in the assumption that it had to do with either being a lawyer or coming up with laws.  The changeling reached out his hoof and bumped it against the stallion's, who recoiled a tiny bit at the contact.

"Well", the stallion said a tad awkwardly,"Why don't we sit down and discuss your situation?"

"Okay" replied Thorax, who took a seat at the metal table.  Plea Bargain took his seat after Thorax.  Once seated, he used his magic and levitated a large yellow notepad onto the table, along with a rather expensive looking fountain pen.

"Now", Plea began,"my job as your defender is to help prepare your defense in the upcoming case against you.  The best way for me to do that would be to  first hear your side of the story, so if you would please, recall it in as much detail as you can."

"Okay" Thorax said as he took a calming breath.  He was about to start when the cell door opened and Brass walked in.  Upon seeing the changeling, the mare made a beeline for him and brought him into as tight of a hug as she could.

"You have no idea how badly I wanted to do that yesterday" she told him.  Thorax struggled a bit against her hold, the grip just a bit too tight for his liking.

"I think I have some idea" he managed to finally squeak out.

A cough caught both Brass and Thorax's attention.  Plea was sitting there gesturing at his notepad.  "May we continue, please?" he asked the pair.

"Oh, sorry!", Brass apologized,"I forgot you were coming to meet Thorax today."

"Even though you were led to the counselor's visitation room?" Plea said with a raised eyebrow and slight smirk.

"Okay, fine!", Brass relented,"I was that excited to see Thorax I didn't pay attention to where the guard brought me."

"Just like back in grade school", Plea said with a smirk,"You enjoyed those adventure novels so much that it's a wonder you didn't dent your head running into door frames as a filly."

Thorax looked at the two ponies in confusion, before Brass took notice and offered an explanation.  "Thorax, Plea Bargain is a cousin of mine.  He lives in Canterlot usually, but elected to move here for the chance at being one of the first ponies to set up a law practice here."

"Oh" Thorax responded, unsure of what to make about the information.

"Anyways", Plea continued,"before the interruption, you were about to recall the story of what happened to you?"

"Right" Thorax responded, preparing himself with a short breath.

"It started yesterday morning.  I was convinced by Brass to leave the Crystal Palace and meet ponies, since the princess introduced me a week ago.  We were in the market when ponies surrounded me and started accusing me of different things."

"What kinds of things did they accuse you of?" Plea asked as he wrote down Thorax's story.

"Well, the first one was brainwashing Princess Cadance", Thorax told Plea,"Then there was other stuff.  Not feeling sorry about Canterlot, feeding on the ponies in the empire, spying on the royal family in preparation for another invasion."

"Is any of that true?" Pleas asked him.

"Of course not!" Thorax said defensively.  Plea raised a hoof to calm him.

"I meant no disrespect towards you", Plea told Thorax,"I'm just trying to get all of the details.  Now, what happened after these accusations?"

Thorax continued with the story.  "Brass came to my defense, but I was so overwhelmed by all the ponies yelling at me, I took off to get away from the crowd."

"I landed in an empty street a minute or so later and calmed myself down.  I realized then that I had left Brass to deal with the mob of ponies and felt guilty about it.  I was about to go back and try to help her, but then I heard a noise coming from a nearby alleyway."

"There was a filly in the alley, and she was being accosted by two stallions."

Plea raised a hoof to stop Thorax.  "Let's talk about the two stallions you saw for a minute", Plea interjected,"Can you describe them to me?"

"Yeah", Thorax agreed,"One was a unicorn, and the other was an earth pony."

"Can you be a little more descriptive?", Plea prodded,"Coat color? Cutie mark?"

"The unicorn had a cutie mark that looked like some sort of a whip", Thorax added,"like a cat of nine tails but with WAY more tassels, and the earth pony had a sledgehammer for his."

"The whip sounds like a type of flog", Plea noted as he jotted down the descriptions.  "But what about coat and mane color?"

"The unicorn had a whitish grey coat and charcoal mane and tail", Thorax answered,"and the earth pony was a bright red with dark brown mane and tail."  Thorax paused for a second and then added "Their eyes!  The unicorn was a bright green, and the other was blue, like the ocean!"

Plea wrote the descriptions down.  "Okay, now that we have the descriptions, please tell me what happened next."

Thorax continued his story.  "I saw the two harassing the filly and I decided to intervene; I knew what it was like to be bullied and felt I should help, and I guess a part of me thought that the ponies seeing a changeling might scare them off.  Except, it didn't scare them off.  The earth pony made a move to charge at me, but I dodged it.  He hit into a dumpster and got stunned for a moment."

"I faced down the unicorn and told him to leave the filly alone.  He made some kind of comment about minding my own business, and then I got hit with a stunning spell from behind."

"There was another unicorn?" Plea asked.

"I think so", Thorax answered,"I got knocked to the ground and was trying to recover, but one of the ponies kicked me in the back of the head and knocked me out."

"So, you were standing up for the filly, but you were hit with a stunning spell and then got knocked out", Plea summarized,"What happened after you regained consciousness?"

"After I came to", Thorax continued,"I noticed something in my mouth and spat it out.  I looked at it and realized it was hair that came from the filly's mane or tail."

"I tried to get up to move, but something struck me in the back and knocked me down.  I looked around and saw all the guards and ponies glaring at me."

"I also could feel their anger and hate too; I was wearing a suppression ring on my horn, which was keeping me from sensing emotions, but somepony took it off and destroyed it."

"Do you have any idea who might have done that?" Plea asked.

"I think it was one of the unicorns" Thorax replied.  "I saw a third pony standing with the other two after I was pinned down.  He was a crystal pony unicorn.  Green coat with darker green mane and tail.  His eyes were an amber color and his cutie mark was a pair of crystal dice."

"A guard then approached me and put restraints on me and told me I was under arrest for trying to foalnap the filly, and then they brought me here."

Plea finished writing down the story and read it back.  "So, you were out with Brass Polish, got surrounded and verbally harassed by ponies, got overwhelmed and ran away, collected yourself, remembered Brass standing up for you and were about to return to her, but then overheard the stallions harassing the filly.  You attempted to intervene, but were knocked out.  After you came to, you had the filly's hair in your mouth, and the guards arrested you.  That pretty much the whole story?"

"Yeah", Thorax said with a nod,"pretty much."

"Well, what do you make of it?" Brass asked Plea, curious of the stallion's opinion on the matter.

Plea looked at both Brass and Thorax with a somber expression.  "I'll be honest", he began,"It doesn't look good."

"What do you mean?" Brass asked him, now with a more worried tone in her voice.

"Brass", Plea addressed his cousin,"The story that Thorax just gave me, while I'm sure you believe it to be true, already looks rather suspect, and it'll look even more so to a prosecutor."

"What do you mean?" she asked incredulously.

Plea then made his point.  "A changeling, a creature with a bad reputation amongst the ponies of Equestria, just happens to come across a filly being harassed by two much older stallions and decides to be a good samaritan and help?"

Brass wanted to retort what he said, but he held up his hoof.

"Brass, I'm not going to say that Thorax is either guilty or not guilty, but the fact is that, as much as I can try to lobby for considerations to make this as fair and impartial a trial as possible, there's gonna be ponies on the jury that will hold a prejudice against changelings, and will be chomping at the bit to put one in a jail cell."

"The story he gave me will get picked apart like a manticore going after a rabbit.  He says he came across two stallions harassing a filly in an alleyway?  How do we know they weren't older siblings of the filly just acting like siblings are known to do?"

"What about the ring he was wearing coming off?  How do we even know if one of them did it?  All the forensic ponies I've ever talked to said that it's hard to obtain a magic signature from one of those things because of the nature of the enchantments on them messing with the signature being left behind."

"And, let's not forget the story of the other stallions.  All three are in consensus that a trio of changelings were attempting to abduct the filly, and two got away while Thorax here was left behind after they knocked him out.  Even if it's not a true story, a jury would believe it for three reasons: It fits the narrative about changelings in their mind, it's coming from more than one pony, and ponies are more than likely not going to paint other ponies as the bad guys in a story where another creature can be blamed."

Brass wanted to argue back against Plea's points, but she had none.  Thorax, who had remained quiet this whole time, spoke up.  "What about making them testify under a truth sensing spell?"

Plea looked at Thorax for a moment before snorting.  "Oh, I wish it could be that simple!"

Thorax looked confused for a moment, and then felt a hoof on his shoulder.  He looked to see Brass looking back at him with sympathetic eyes.

"I wish we could", she said to him,"but the Crystal Council hasn't approved the use of those spells in a court of law."

"Crystal Council?" Thorax said with confusion.

"Yes" Plea said, then went on to explain.  "It's a council of crystal ponies, elected by the citizens of the empire, who serve as a system of checks and balances for the monarch's power.  It was created a long time ago, but abolished during King Sombra's reign.  When the empire returned, it was reinstated."

"In regards to your suggestion, the council refused allowing the use of the spell in courtrooms on several grounds.  Firstly is the fact that it is restricted to members of the royal guard, and isn't allowed to be examined or practiced by the average pony.  Since they can't examine or perform it to personally verify its safety, the council won't allow its use."

"While that one could be overcome in due time, there's another sticking point that is keeping the spell's use out of the courts: The judicial amendments to the Crystal Empire's constitution.  One of the amendments has a clause that allows a pony who is testifying in court to avoid implicating themselves in a crime while giving testimony.  A truth sensing spell could force them to reveal their involvement in a crime and jeopardize that protection."

"Then how come the princess used it when she investigated the attack against me in the palace?" Thorax countered.

Plea just gave a shrug.  "That I can't say", the stallion answered,"As I said, the guard are the only ponies authorized to use those spells, so maybe the case that involved your attack was handled like a court martial instead of a normal criminal trial."

"Wait a minute", Brass interrupted,"Feather Duster and Elbow Grease are civilian ponies!  How could they be tried in a court martial?  They aren't even guards!"

"Again, I'm not sure", Plea answered,"Making a guess, the guard may have been given permission to prosecute them alongside the guards being court-martialed, if that is what actually happened."

Thorax's hopes sunk a great deal after hearing that his idea wasn't feasible.  With everything he had heard so far, it was sounding more and more like he should be prepared to spend the rest of his life in a dungeon.  Brass, however, wasn't deterred.

"There has to be some kind of defense we can establish for him, Plea", she said to her cousin,"Don't you have any ideas?"

Plea let out a breath and looked at her.  "I don't know what I can do that could make for a legitimate defense, but I will do what I can."  Removing the notepad from the table, Plea then brought up a smaller pad.

"I'll need to interview all of the ponies involved in this case, which includes the stallions accusing you as well as the filly who was the target of the attempted foalnapping to begin with.  Until I can interview them and come up with a better strategy, the best idea I have for the moment is to establishing your good character through ponies willing to testify on your behalf.  To that end, do you know any ponies who would be willing to put in a good word for you?"

Thorax thought it over and came up with a list.  "Well, Brass would definitely speak well of me, as well as Sunburst.  Then there's Bicarb and Bar Keeper, though they haven't known me as long as Brass has.  Princess Twilight and Starlight Glimmer would also be willing to put in a good word for me too.  Oh, and Twilight's assistant Spike."

Plea wrote down the list.  "You mentioned Princess Twilight Sparkle as a good character witness.  Do you think the other element bearers would speak on your behalf as well?"

"I kinda doubt it", Thorax admitted,"I only met them one time, and while they didn't openly treat me with malice, I don't think I made a good enough impression that they would vouch for me."  Thorax hung his head for a moment, but then thought of something.  "Princess Celestia and Luna!  They'd speak well of me!"

Upon hearing this, Plea and Brass both looked nervously.  "What?" Thorax asked innocently.

Plea let out a breath.  "The constitution doesn't allow the princesses to participate in any judicial cases besides those brought against them.  King Sombra had a very heavy hoof in the outcomes of several major cases during his rise to power, and the Crystal Ponies put that law into place in an effort to prevent such things from happening again."

"Besides that, the princesses also tend not to give testimony in cases; They fear that their opinions would too heavily influence the proceedings and could cause an otherwise guilty pony to be found innocent and not face their deserved punishment."

"Then what about Twilight?", Thorax interjected,"She's a princess too!"

"She is", Plea admitted,"but her title is fairly new, so she hasn't really had the time to get the kind of weight behind her name like Princess Celestia and Luna do.  She's a national hero, and her testimony will go a long way to helping you establish your good character, but her words won't have the same kind of effect as the two ponies that control the celestial bodies and rule over the entire nation."

The changeling deflated upon hearing that.  Plea elected to continue speaking.  "Character witnesses are part of one strategy I have.  The other would be to try and find a way to get the case tossed out."

"Tossed out?" Thorax parroted in confusion.

Plea gave a nod.  "To get it thrown out, I would have to prove to the courts beyond any measure of doubt that the case against you is bogus and prosecuting you would be a miscarriage of justice.  To do that, I'd have to get access to all of the evidence, thoroughly examine it, speak to the witnesses and present an irrefutable claim that the case against you is not sound."

"Do you think you could do it?" Brass asked Plea.

"Possibly", he answered,"I have to examine the evidence the guard has collected so far.  Once I've examined it, I'll have a better idea of what I might be able to argue to get the case thrown out."

"Now, Thorax, I have a simple question I'd like to ask you.  Have you ever had experience dealing with the Equestrian courts whatsoever?"

"No", Thorax replied to Plea's question,"I've never had anything to do with any courts."

"Good" Plea responded as he jotted the info down.  "That will help a little bit."

"How will that help?" Thorax asked.

"Ponies tend to judge a pony, or in your case changeling, more unfairly if the pony in question has been convicted or accused of a crime before.  Of course, the fact you haven't been convicted might not even have any effect on their opinions."

"So, since you've never been through an Equestrian Court before, I'll go over the procedures here and now so you'll have an idea of what to expect."

"I thought this trial was happening in the Crystal Empire?", Thorax asked in confusion,"Why are we talking about Equestrian courts?"

"The trial is being held in the Crystal Empire", answered Plea,"but the legal system here is modeled after the one in Equestria, with a few differences here and there, so what we're going over would, for the most part, be the same as if this happened in a city such as Manehattan or Baltimare."

Plea produced a pamphlet and presented it to Thorax.  On the paper was a flowchart with different labels, which Plea pointed out as he explained.

"The very first thing we'll be dealing with is the arraignment.  That's a very simple part of the trial.  It's basically when you're officially accused of the crime in question, and you'll be asked to declare whether you're guilty or not guilty of the crime.  Alternately, you could plead no contest, which means you're not saying that you're guilty, but you'll accept whatever punishment they would give you if you would plead guilty.  Sometimes the accused choose to do this to avoid having a long, drawn-out and rather expensive trial they don't believe they have any chance of winning."

A hoof pressed hard into Thorax, who turned to see Brass glaring at him.  "You are not guilty, Thorax!", she seethed,"So don't even think about pleading guilty or no contest!"

Thorax gulped as he turned to look back at Plea, who continued his explanations.

"Since we've decided that you're going to be pleading not guilty, the judge presiding over the case will set a date for the pretrial process.  This is when witnesses give their first testimonies and evidence is presented to the judge, who decides if the case holds water and a trial should be held.  This is the part where I would present the evidence to try and get the case thrown out."

"Should it not be thrown out, which is fairly likely, the next process will be jury selection.  That's when the courts, prosecution, and the defendants select ponies to sit on a jury to hear the witness testimony and evidence."

"After that, the main trial begins.  It starts with opening arguments, the prosecution presenting their witnesses and evidence, then we present our witnesses and evidence, the closing statements are given, and then the judge instructs the jury on the verdict process."

"The jury will then retire to private chambers and deliberate the case amongst themselves until they reach a unanimous verdict.  When they do, they'll come back in and present it to the court.  Depending on what that verdict is, the judge will either release you, if you're found not guilt, or, in the instance you're convicted, establish a date for sentencing, and on that date, will decide what punishment you should receive."

"That's a lot of information" Thorax remarked, honestly overwhelmed by everything he'd just been told.

Plea nodded.  "It is a lot, but we'll have to take things one step at a time."  The stallion looked and noticed a guard gesturing to him, an indication that their time for the day was up.  "Well, this has most definitely been interesting, but I must go now.  I'll get in touch with you again after I've had a chance to see evidence and interview witnesses.  Once I've done that, we can discuss the trial strategy in more detail."

The stallion stood up and walked over to the door.  Thorax then thought of something.  "How do I get in touch with you if I have any further questions?"

Plea thought about that for a moment, then produced a card from his pocket and floated it to Thorax.  "This is the address for my office.  I have one of those new phones, and the guards have one here at the station as well.  I'll make arrangements so that you can contact me if necessary."

"Okay", Thorax responded,"but what about your payment?  I don't have a whole lot of bits to my name."

"Don't worry about that", Plea said with a small smile,"I'm taking your case pro-bono."

Thorax looked at the stallion, confused.  Brass filled Thorax in.  "That means he's going to be handling your case for free."

The revelation made Thorax stutter in disbelief.  He tried to ask why, but Plea beat him to the punch.  "I'm doing this as a favor to my cousin.  It also doesn't hurt that, should I successfully defend you, I'll be able to attract more clients to my practice.  After all, what pony wouldn't want a lawyer able to get a changeling off the hook?"
> Part III, Chapter 5 - The High Tide Case - Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two weeks had passed since the detectives Old Bill and Peach Fuzz began looking into the tip about High Tide given to them by their informant, Key Type.  In that time, they'd unfortunately had little to nothing turn up.

An investigation into Miss Scarlett, actually named Scarlett Penn, returned a juvenile record for petty theft; Apparently, she'd been dared by some fillies at her school to try and steal a piece of costume jewelry from a street vendor.  According to the record, the owner never pressed any charges, but insisted on restitution in the form of the mare running his market stall for a month.  After that incident, no other record could be found.

Following up on the griffin was even less fruitful.  After describing the griffin to a sketch artist and verifying what he drew was accurate, duplicates were made and sent to the various guard houses and police stations all across Equestria.  Unfortunately, no leads turned up.  A guard stationed in a town close to the border with the griffin nation sent a letter back stating their intention to travel there and show their law enforcement the sketch to see if something would turn up there, but that letter was received yesterday, so it would be some time before any news would be heard on that front.

In truth, there was only one thing of note that could be made about the situation: The griffin was smart.  After the stakeout crew moved into position in an office across the street from the griffin's, the ponies posted there overheard conversations from some stallions going to and from the business.  In one of those, there was discussion about the moving of files from the office the day before the police ponies were set up, but nothing was revealed about where those files ended up.  The only things that could be done were to write down descriptions of the ponies in question and check to see if any had some sort of record, and then check the name on the deed to the office and see if there were any other properties owned by that individual.

At the moment, Old Bill sat at his desk in the police station, a cup of coffee in his magic, and the case he was trying to make headway on in his mind.  He hoped that sometime today, preferably soon, that info would come back from somewhere, either from the griffin kingdom or the pony checking up on the names and descriptions.

A pony sitting down opposite him on his desk took him from his thoughts.  "Hello, Peach" the stallion greeted apathetically.

"Hey", she replied,"Anything turn up yet?"

"If it did, would I be sitting here bored out of my mind chugging this stuff down?" he answered her in question.

"Guess not" she answered.  She paused for a second before speaking again.  "I was thinking a minute ago."

"Strain yourself?" Bill chided.

"Funny", she quipped before continuing,"Anyhow, I was thinking about some ways we could get some new leads."

"Oh?", Bill responded with curiosity,"And what have you thought up?"

"We don't know a whole lot about that place", Peach pointed out,"so why don't we send somepony to learn for us?"

"You're suggesting an undercover thing?" Bill asked.

Peach nodded, then produced a manila folder.  "I thought about what you said about that griffin claiming to be a financial planner.  Why don't we find out if he's legitimate?"

Bill thought it over.  "I like the idea", he admitted,"but we're gonna need somepony reliable to do this; One that can play the part of a desperate pony to the T."

"Don't worry", Peach reassured Bill,"I have just the pony in mind."





"Oh sweet Celestia, why did I agree to do this?"

The exasperated remark came from a rather mundane looking mare.  Her beige coat, brown mane and tail with tan highlights, and brown eyes made her very unassuming.  Even her cutie mark was nothing terribly special but fit like a glove when paired with her name: a piece of baklava pastry.

With a sigh, Baklava continued walking down the street she was on.  Looking at signposts and then to a sheet of paper in her hoof, the mare was searching for an address.  More specifically, she was looking for the office of a finance-planning griffin.

Baklava, or Bockie as friends would call her, was a part of the VHPF's informant program.  Going on information given to her by Officer Peach Fuzz, she was to approach the griffin at the address provided and seek out help with financial planning.

Of course, this was all a ruse: Bockie was to see and make note of how the griffin acted and what the griffin said, then report it back to Peach when everything was said and done.  She'd been given a mock backstory, which like all good backstories, had a small amount of truth to it.

Bockie would pose as a mare that wanted to open up a bakery in the city, but was unable to secure funds from any of the banks.  Her reason for approaching the griffin was to have him work on improving the plan and business model, which the detectives made sure was quite unsound and the kind of stuff that anypony studying finance management at Van Hoover University could've picked out blindfolded.

The backstory was almost identical to Bockie's actual story: She did want to open a bakery, but not in the city, and the stipend from this task would be the last bits she should need to buy the old building in nearby Maple Hill.  As for her business plan?  That had been ironed out a long time ago.

Bockie checked a street sign and the paper one last time.  Looking down the street, she finally saw the building in question.  Approaching the door, she opened it and looked inside.  A staircase going to a door at the top, just as she had been told.  She closed the door behind her and started to ascend the stairs.

===

As Bockie ascended the stairs, she kept going over the story and reminding herself of what things to pay attention for.  With any luck, her efforts would prove fruitful and the griffin and mare running this place would be brought in and any ponies that they'd hurt would be compensated for their losses.  Bockie had reached the top of the steps and pushed the door open to step inside.

The very first thing she noticed was how unwelcoming the office was.  There was nothing in the way of decoration in the small office.  Several chairs and a water dispenser against one wall, a wall with windows opposite that one, the wall opposite the door she just came through that had a single door and several filing cabinets against it, and just in front of that wall was a desk which had a mare sitting pecking away at a typewriter.  In truth, the most attractive thing in the room was the mare.  At least, what Bockie would say if she were a stallion; she tried being with a mare once, but it just wasn't her thing.

Speaking of the mare, she stopped her pecking to look up at Bockie.  "Something I can help you with, miss?"

Bockie stepped inside and closed the door.  "Yes", she answered,"I was wondering if I could get an appointment to discuss some business planning advice?"

The mare sitting at the desk smiled.  "You're lucky", she told Bockie,"The boss has an appointment in about a half hour, but I think he might be able to go over a few things with you before then.  Let me check."

"Okay" Bockie replied as the mare stood up and walked over to the other door.  That was definitely another red flag for the mare; She'd never met a financial planner that wasn't so busy as to take walk in clients, much less any that did take walk in clients.  The mare opened the door and spoke to "the boss" for a moment, before turning back to Bockie and gesturing her over.  Bockie complied and stepped through the door.

The office behind the door was just as spartan as the other one, with only a few filing cabinets behind a desk which only had a quill and ink set, candle powered desk lamp, and a box of cigars alongside an ashtray.  Sitting behind said desk was a griffin, looking just a bit past middle age and puffing away at a cigar.  Bockie had heard once that cigars put age on ponies, so maybe the griffin was a bit younger than he appeared.

The griffin removed the cigar from his beak and greeted her.  "Good day, ma'am.  Mint Eagle, financial planner.  Won't you please have a seat?"

Bockie accepted the invitation and took a seat across from the griffin in a chair on her side of the desk.  The griffin trimmed the tail of his cigar into the ashtray and replaced it in his beak.  "Now, my secretary told me you'd like some business planning advice?"

Bockie nodded.  "Yes.  I've been planning to open a bakery here in the city, but I've been having trouble getting the financing to get started, so I was hoping you could help me work out my proposal and financial plans so I have a better chance with the banks in regards to securing a loan."

The griffin smirked as he took another drag of his cigar.  "I think we might be able to work something out", he told her as he stretched one of his claws out,"Let me see your proposal."

The mare nodded, getting out the proposal and business model and giving them to the griffin.  He then leaned back into his chair and began looking over the papers, puffing at his cigar as he did so.  After a minute or so of reading and then pausing to tap the ash off his stogie, he looked over at the mare with a smirk.

"Well, I've seen worse proposals", the griffin told her,"but I can tell why you didn't get your loan approved.  Not to sound insulting, but math wasn't exactly a strong subject for you in school?"

The mare just gave a smirk and pointed to her flank.  "Never had a problem with fractions" she joked, referring to her cutie mark in baking.  The griffin smiled and gave a short laugh.  Once he stopped, he began going over the proposal.

"I can see here that you are estimating a break even at under three months.  I can appreciate ambition, but even I haven't seen many businesses break even that fast.  In fact, I haven't even seen many that break even after a year.  I think the first place to begin would be to adjust your expected break even point for at least a year.  It'll give you the opportunity to adjust your business model to compensate for unexpected issues such as material shortages."

Bockie gave a nod at his suggestions.  The one positive so far was that the griffin did seem to have a grasp of finances, at least what she'd been shown so far.  Perhaps this was just a wild goose chase.

"I see some other things that don't completely add up, but I believe I can iron out these kinks and get you in a good place for the banks to approve a loan."  He paused to trim his cigar's tail again.  "However, if you're interested, I may know a pony that would be willing to set up a private loan."

"Big red flag" Bockie thought to herself.  Her finance pony warned her against private loans; While there was protection against loss, you were subject to the terms, which meant a pony taking one could be at the mercy of a loan shark.  Though the practice of loan sharking was illegal in principle, there were still ways around the law if one understood where to find the loopholes.

"Possibly", she elected to tell the griffin,"if I don't hear anything positive from the banks."  Bockie knew better than to agree, but also figured it was probably a good idea to keep the door open for that avenue; She reasoned that the detectives might be able to turn that into a sting operation.

The griffin chewed on his cigar, now a stub, before taking it out and snuffing the embers and throwing it in the trash can.  "I'd like to keep this proposal and work on it when I have spare time.  Do you have a way I can contact you?"

"I do", Bockie replied as she hoofed over a piece of paper,"This is the address of a bakery I currently work at.  I'd give you a home address, but I'm in between apartments and getting ready to move into the new one, so I'm staying with a friend.  I don't feel comfortable giving out her address to random ponies, since I'm her guest."

"That's fine", the griffin responded,"As long as I can reach you.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some other ponies that wish to speak with me about their finances."

Bockie nodded and stood up.  "Thank you, sir, and enjoy the rest of your day" she said to him as she walked out the door.  The griffin followed her to the door and watched her walk out.  Once she was gone and the door was closed, the griffin turned to the secretary.  "Have that mare tailed", he told her,"I got a bad feeling about her."

The secretary nodded and then stepped out of the office.





Bockie made her way to the police station, moving as quickly and inconspicuously as she could.  Every now and then, she would look behind her and skyward to make sure she wasn't followed; Peach had warned her that the griffin may send a pony to tail her, and she should try to shake them before coming to her.  As far as Bockie could tell, there was nopony following her.

Unfortunately, there was a pony following her.  More specifically, it was a unicorn mare, with a sky blue coat, pale blue mane and tail, and crimson eyes.  The mare was teleporting from rooftop to rooftop, being careful to keep the sound and flash of her magic away from the pony on the streets below.  Her task was to follow the pony until they got wherever they were going and report back.  Going by the direction she was going in, the unicorn mare had a feeling in her gut she knew where the pony was going.

Bockie started to relax more as she got closer to the police station.  Though Peach warned her to lay low for at least a day before coming to the station, Bockie felt the information was too important to sit on.  In her mind, the griffin was a shady customer, and sitting on the info was going to give him that much more time to make a move and be gone before anypony at the police station could do anything to stop him.

A block away, Bockie stopped looking behind her and broke into a trot, going up the steps and into the building.  The unicorn mare on the roof swallowed a breath and let out a sigh.  "The claw ain't gonna like this" she said to herself as she teleported off the roof and headed back towards the griffin's office.

Inside the police station, Bockie approached the desk and said she wanted to speak privately to Peach Fuzz.  Nodding, the desk pony led her to an empty interrogation room and offered her a cup of coffee.  Bockie declined, having learned once before not to sample the station's coffee; It would keep you awake, but murder your tongue in the process.

After sitting alone for a few minutes, the door to the room opened and in walked Peach, who was smiling.  "Bockie!", she said cheerfully,"What a pleasant surprise."

"Hello Peach", Bockie returned the greeting,"Good to see you two."

Peach cleared her throat.  "Yes, well", she began as she took a seat with a pad and paper,"I'm pretty sure you aren't here to shoot the breeze, right?"

"Yeah", Bockie answered,"I have some info about that address you asked me to check out."

"The griffin?" Peach asked, to which Bockie nodded.  "What can you tell me?"

"Well, for one, he's bad news from what I could tell" Bockie said as she began to talk about her experience.  "The first thing I saw about the place was how sparse the furniture was.  You said before that some criminals did that to make 'bugging out' that much easier."

"Mhm" Peach said as she wrote down the info.  "What else?"

"I was taken as a walk in client", Bockie told Peach,"I've never heard of a pony being taken as a walk in client by a financial planner.  All the ones I've dealt with have you either call them or give your info to their secretary and set up an appointment to discuss your particulars at a later time."

"Yes, that is weird" Peach admitted as she wrote down the info.  "Anything else?"

"Well, the griffin knew enough about that business proposal to point out some of the flaws, so he at least has some experience with finances", Bockie said,"but then he offered to speak with a pony and set up a private loan."

"Bingo" Peach thought to herself as she wrote down the words "Offered Private Loan" and underlined them.  That was going to help them greatly as they investigated; Nearly all of the loan sharks worked with private loans.  The ones that didn't were protected as creditors, but had to clearly state how bad the loans would be for the borrowers when offering them.  Failing to provide proof that the pony was made aware of the terms and agreed to them would lose them the protection and they would be subject to either fines or jail time.

"Good" Peach said to Bockie as she finished writing down the notes on her pad.  "This will definitely help us out a great deal.  I'll make sure you get your stipend in a few days.  Now, did you lay low before coming here?"

Bockie fidgeted nervously.  "Um, no" she admitted.  Peach slapped a hoof to her face.

"Were you tailed here?" she asked, an edge of annoyance in her voice.

"No!", Bockie said a touch defensively,"I kept an eye out for any ponies following me, on the ground or in the air."

Peach let out a breath.  "Good", she responded,"because if there was a pony tailing you from the griffin's office, they're gonna go back and tip him off, and we could lose him for good if he skips out of town."





The blue unicorn returned to the griffin's office a few minutes after leaving the mare going to the police station.  She paused for a second to catch her breath; chaining several teleportations together was tiring, even for experienced unicorns.  Once composed, she made her way into the building and up the stairs to the office.

Stepping inside, she saw Scarlett sitting at her typewriter and quickly made her way over to her.

"Scarlett, I need-"

The unicorn was silenced by Scarlett putting a hoof to her muzzle and glaring daggers at her.

"Be quiet!", she scolded in a whisper,"He's with a mark right now!"

Nodding in understanding, the mare took a seat off in one of the chairs and waited her turn to see the griffin.  A few minutes later, and the griffin exited the office with a stallion, the poor fool having a look of dread across his face.

"Now remember", the griffin said in a friendly but most certainly not friendly manner,"Payments are due at the beginning of each month, and don't question the interest.  We've calculated it correctly."

The stallion gulped and nodded, making a very quick exit from the building.  Satisfied that he'd flexed his muscles well enough to keep the stallion in line, he turned his attention to the blue mare sitting across the room from him.  He said nothing beyond "In my office", and turned to go back in, the mare following close behind.

Going back around his desk, the griffin elected to satisfy his other vice, and produced a glass decanter full of an amber liquid and an old fashioned glass.  Pouring some of the liquid, he asked the mare "What's the story with that mare I tasked you with tailing?" and proceeded to take a drink.

"You were right", the mare told him,"She went straight to the police station after coming here."

The griffin spit his drink and slammed the glass on the desk, shattering it in his claw and causing the remainder of the liquid to spill onto the desk and floor.  "Dammit!", he swore,"I knew she was a probe!  Why did I even humor her story?"

The unicorn mare flinched and reflexively prepared to bolt.  She couldn't be blamed for that response; Griffins could be a tad unpredictable when angered.

Sharpclaw took a breath and looked down at the mess on his desk and floor.  At this point, Scarlett had heard the commotion and poked her head in.  "Is there a problem sir?" she asked.

"Huge", he replied,"That mare was a probe by the police.  They're gonna be watching us, and quite possibly start tailing us as soon as the end of the day to figure out our patterns and the best way to nab us."  He paused to retrieve a new drinking glass and poured himself a new drink.

"What should we do then?" Scarlett asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

Sharpclaw took a drink and placed this glass gently on the desk.  "We do what every good pirate about to have their ship taken does: We scuttle this place."

The blue unicorn looked at Sharpclaw with confusion.  "But sir, what about all of the stuff?" she asked while gesturing to the filing cabinets around the room.  Sharpclaw's response was to open the drawer to a cabinet and lean it forward, revealing the emptiness of it.

"I had two other ponies move the files elsewhere", he told her,"There's very little we'll need to take."  He then pointed a claw at Scarlett.  "I want you to get a pair of unicorns and a cart and have them come here tonight.  They're gonna load the rest of our things into a cart and take it to the other location."

Scarlett looked at him with confusion.  "Tonight?" she asked.

Sharpclaw nodded.  "Yes", he said in confirmation,"They're to use invisibility spells and load everything from the back.  I'll make and leave a map on how they should go to avoid other ponies and being seen as much as possible.  I know I said to use invisibility spells, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong."

Scarlett thought it over and gave a nod, then walked out of the office.  Sharpclaw turned to the blue unicorn mare.  "Crimson, I want you to go back to the police station and follow any ponies that come traveling in this direction", he told her,"Those flat hooves are going to stake us out if they haven't already, and when they do, I want to know."

Crimson nodded and disappeared in a flash of magic.  Sharpclaw took another sip of his drink and slouched back into his chair.  This wasn't his first foray into avoid Equestrian authorities, but that didn't make things any easier.  "Should've went with my gut feeling" he lamented as he polished off his drink and poured himself another one.  Tonight was going to be a long and sleepless one.
> Part III, Chapter 6 - Arraignment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Six Days Earlier...






Mint Julep sat at her kitchen table with her head in one hoof.  Sitting opposite her at the table was an empty chair with a plate in front of it, on which sat a peanut butter and crystal berry jam sandwich.  The mare looked at a nearby clock on the wall and saw that nearly an hour had passed from the time her daughter should have been home from tutoring to now.  As she waited for her daughter's return, she couldn't help but feel a pit of worry form in her stomach.

Mint and her husband had decided they wanted the best education possible for their daughter, as any parents would.  So when they heard of a weekend tutoring program that would help make their daughter's grades the absolute best, they intended to enroll their daughter post haste.

Though expensive, the couple were able to get their daughter into the program with little trouble.  Things had been going good at first; Raspberry's grades were top or near top of her class, and the couple weren't hurting for bits near as bad as they feared they would.

Of course, that was before her husband's accident.

The incident had put a large monkey wrench into the couple's plan.  Mint Julep had made as many efforts as she could to find the bits needed to both get her husband healed and out of the hospital and keep her daughter in the tutoring program.

Despite her best efforts, she could not get a loan to afford the costs associated with the program, and all the denials came with the same reason: no source of income.

Had Mint known about the financial woes in the past, she would've never given up her previous job to take care of Raspberry.  Even her attempts to find work for when Raspberry was in school were fruitless; they simply didn't pay the bits that she needed.

With no other options open to her, Mint Julep resorted to the last option available to her.  She would have to secure a private loan.  Even as she thought it, Mint cursed herself for allowing it to go this far.

The meeting for the loan was brief.  She'd been referred to by somepony to a crystal unicorn named Peridot Gamble.  According to his spiel, he was an employee of a financier from the griffin kingdom named Mint Eagle, who was willing to give her a loan, provided she agreed to their terms.  Of course, after reading the contract, she knew they were committing highway robbery.  Unfortunately, she needed the bits and saw no way around it.  With a dejected sigh, she signed the paper and received the loan.

The repayment process quickly became a nightmare.  Despite making the first two months payments on time and in full, she was still being charged for interest.  A threat from her to go to the guard was met with a spear pointed at her throat and the threat that she would be skewered if she wasn't compliant.  In that one moment when the spear poked into her throat hard enough to draw a pinpirck worth of blood, she knew that she was dealing with loan sharks.

After that, the payments became more and more, until it came to a head.  The last time Peridot came to collect, Mint didn't had enough to cover it.  He ransacked the house and had taken a considerable amount of her jewelry, including a necklace belonging to her great grandmother, a wedding gift from her mother.  Seeing the heirloom snatched up and thrown into a bit pouch had turned her stomach.

She swore she would find a way to get the loan shark off her back, but she had no idea how she would do it.

A knocking at her door shook the mare from her thoughts.  Quickly, she went to the door and answered it.  Standing at the door was her daughter, but she wasn't alone.  Standing behind her were the collectors, all three wearing grins on their faces.  The lead one, a crystal unicorn looked down at Raspberry.  "Why don't you go and play in your room?" he suggested to her.  "Your mommy and I need to talk."

Raspberry nervously looked at her mother, who simply nodded.  "Go on, sweetie," she told her daughter, "Do what the stallion said."

The filly looked at all three ponies for a second before bolting to her bedroom, tears clearly present in her eyes.  The three stallions entered the apartment without invitation, but Mint knew better than to raise a fuss; the trouble that would bring her would be more than it was worth.  The stallions walked over to the table and sat down, the red earth pony taking the sandwich meant for Raspberry and eating it.

"You know why we're here" the green one said.

"Yes, I do" Mint replied.

"So, where is it?"

Mint went into her fridge and pulled out a sack of bits from behind some cartons of milk and cream.  She placed it on the counter nervously.  The unicorn passed it to the other.  "Count it" he told them.

The second unicorn began counting out the payment, and when he finished, gave a frown.  "It's short."

"Short, huh?" the first unicorn responded, then looked at Mint.  "I wonder why that is."

"Please," Mint began pleading,"That's all I can get!  I can't find a better job-"

"Save the sob story, sister," the crystal pony replied, "You don't think we've heard all the sob stories in the world?"

Mint stopped talking, understanding fully now that she was not going to find any sympathy or compassion from these stallions.  The crystal unicorn continued speaking.

"I heard that one only the other day from a mare that borrowed half as much as you and your husband did.  You know what I told her?"  The stallion paused for a moment before he raised up his right hoof.  "Nothing that this guy right here couldn't say better as I clubbed her hard enough to leave a shiner."

Mint gulped.  If that mare only owed half as much as she did and got that rough a treatment for a short payment, she could only imagine what she was in for, and that thought was beginning to raise terror in the back of her mind.

The green stallion got up from his chair and cut the distance between the two so that they were practically muzzle to muzzle.  "So," he said with a sinister tone in his voice, "Where's the rest of the payment."

"I don't have-"

Mint's response was cut off by a hoof striking her so hard that it knocked her to the floor, but it wasn't to her face.  This blow went to her midsection, taking away her air.  She gasped on the floor for several moments before the stallion bent his neck down to look her square in the eye.

"Don't make me ask you again," he said even more sternly, "Where's the rest of the payment?"

Mint, still gasping for air, tried to respond, but was again treated to a hoof strike to her stomach, causing her to let out a choked cry of pain.  The stallion had hit the same spot as before, making the slowly disappearing pain come back with a vengeance.

"You've already missed one payment," the stallion spat at her, "Wanna go for a second one?"  He punctuated the question with another hit to the same spot, making Mint groan in pain.

"You should count yourself lucky," the stallion smugly remarked, "You could be getting a worse beating from Sledge over there."  He moved back over the mare's head with a look that made the terror in the back of her mind move very quickly to the front.

"Of course, If I let him do that," the stallion said in a whisper, "You'll have a lot worse than that bruised abdomen."  Mint went pale as she realized now how far these stallions would go.

"Maybe ya should just let me have at her," the red stallion suggested, "Might be easier to make a claim on the life insurance payout."

"No, you idiot!" the unicorn scolded.  "The sources say neither she or her husband got one.  Besides, those claims get investigated by the guard's fraud division.  The whole operation would be found out in no time."

The other stallion looked towards the crystal pony nervously.  "We really should get going, Perry," he said to him, "We've already stayed longer than we should have, and the guard's bound to show up soon to talk with her and the filly about earlier."

"Earlier?" Mint questioned in her mind.  "What about earlier?"

Perry, as Mint now had a name for the stallion, looked back at her very sternly.  "Here's the deal.  We'll take all of this and call it full payment.  A guard is gonna show up in a bit to interview your daughter about something that happened earlier.  You tell them that she's too traumatized to speak and you won't let them see her without a warrant.  As for what happened, you tell them that she kept babbling on about a changeling grabbing her.  You also tell them we stepped in to stop them.  Understand?"

Mint still couldn't speak, so she simply gave a nod.

"Good." the stallion said as he gestured for his two fellows to leave.

"Oh, one last thing." he said as he dropped two pieces of paper on the floor.  "I would definitely make sure I have next month's payment in full.  We wouldn't anything bad happening to anypony else you care about."  With that, the three stallions left.

Left alone in the kitchen, Mint moved to sit up, groaning as she could feel muscles in her body that were bruised from the hard strikes she had received.  Up on her hooves, her attention turned to the papers and she let out gasps of horror.

The two papers were photographs.  The first was of her husband in his hospital room laying in bed asleep.  The camera was behind a pair of hooves holding a pillow a short distance from his face.  The second was a photo of Raspberry as she walked past an alleyway the camera was situated in.  The view of the camera this time was from behind the sights of a cocked and loaded crossbow.






Present Time...






Thorax was currently sitting inside his cell.  At the moment, he was in a rather uncomfortable state.  He had been arrested less than a week ago, which meant the last time he fed on any love from the Crystal Heart was on the morning the day he was arrested.  Now, he was beginning to starve, and his body was telling him to address the problem.

It was an unpleasant conversation he was going to need to have with Plea, whom he was told was coming to speak with him later today to prepare him for his first court appearance.  Thorax would have to think of how to best approach the subject.  Ultimately, telling the stallion the truth would be his best bet.

A hoof banging on the bars of the cell got the changeling's attention.  "Your council's here for you." the guard spat at Thorax as he moved to unlock the cell.  Despite his cooperativeness, the guards still treated Thorax with disdain.  Of course, nopony said the guards had to be nice to prisoners, just don't beat their skulls in unless necessary.

Thorax got up and exited the cell, then was led to the room where Plea was waiting.  The stallion, in a black jacket with white shirt and solid purple tie, greeted Thorax.  "How are you holding up?"  he asked with concern.  "You don't look quite so good."

Thorax elected to broach the subject then and there.  "No.  I haven't been doing so well for the past couple of days."

"How come?"

"Well..."  Thorax took his time thinking of how to word his response, then elected to just come out with it.  "I haven't been eating."

"Why not?" Plea asked.  "I know prison food isn't the greatest, but it can't be so bad it's inedible."

"Maybe for a pony it isn't," Thorax replied,"but there's no real nutrition in it for changelings."

Plea was confused for a moment, and then remembered who, or more specifically what he was speaking to.

"Oh," he said with realization, "You're not getting any love, and you kinda need that, don't you?"

Thorax nodded.

"How were you getting it before?" Plea asked.

"Princess Cadance was letting me take overflow from the Crystal Heart.  She figured it was the safest way to feed me without any of the crystal ponies getting hurt."

Plea nodded his head.  "Makes sense.  The love the crystal ponies have inside them is the most powerful in Equestria, or at least that's what I've been told.  There would probably be more than enough in the Crystal Heart to spare for just one changeling to feed."

"But I can't feed on it anymore," Thorax told plea, "and if I can't feed anytime soon, the hunger pains I'm feeling will just get worse."

"So, we need to get you fed properly." Plea reasoned.  "At least what counts as properly for you."

"Whatever you can do, I would appreciate it very much." Thorax said to him in thanks.

"I can't make any promises," Plea cautioned the changeling, "but I can certainly see what I can do."

Plea jotted down some notes onto a note pad and placed it off to one side.  He then looked at Thorax with a more serious expression.

"Now for the real reason I'm here." Plea said to Thorax.

"Right," the changeling nodded in understanding, "The arrangement."

"Arraignment," Plea clarified, "but yes, that's what I'm here to discuss with you."

Plea went into his bags and produced a sheet with bubbles and lines on it.  He moved his hoof over the sheet, and as he did, he explained each bubble and line and what they meant.

"This is a flowchart to explain the process of how the arraignment will proceed.  First, you'll be brought to the courthouse by the guards and taken in to find out which courtroom the arraignment will be held in.  Before they bring you to court, they'll have you clean up and eat, or at least it would be eating if you could digest our food."

"Once they find out which room you'll be in, they'll take you to a holding area where you'll wait until your trial comes up on the docket.  There's very few crimes here in the empire, so I don't expect a long wait."

"Once the case is up, they'll bring you in to courtroom and shackle you to the defendant's chair."

"Sh-shackled?!" Thorax interrupted with alarm.

Plea nodded.  "There's been several ponies that have made attempts to flee the courtroom when it looked as though their cases were going to end in conviction, so they would make attempts to escape while they had the chance.  Most never got past the stunning spells of the unicorn bailiffs in the courtroom, and none have ever escaped the pegasi that patrol the hallways and outside the courthouse."

Thorax didn't say anything, but Plea took this as a sign he understood.  The stallion continued explaining.

"Even though you'll be shackled, you'll still have freedom to move.  The shackles are attached to tethers and not chains; they changed to those after several cases where there the accused were found guilty but later proven innocent because the appeals courts found the evidence against them wasn't substantial enough to warrant conviction, and surveys among ponies found that seeing a pony in shackles with chains made them look more guilty than they really were."

"And the tethers don't?" Thorax said.

"It's less," Plea answered, "Though it's not by a whole lot.  They're still working on a restraint that will allow the guards to keep control of a pony without affecting a jury's overall perception of them based on physical appearance."

"Anyways, after you're brought in and everypony else is present, the judge will enter the courtroom.  The bailiff will instruct everypony to stand and wait until the judge tells everypony to be seated.  Once everypony sits down, he'll address us to stand."

"The judge is then going to read off the crimes that you're being accused of, which in simple terms, amounts to you having assaulted the three stallions and the filly, as well as trying to abduct the filly and causing her harm."

"But I didn't do any of that!" Thorax protested.

"I know that, Thorax," Plea said to him, "of at the very least I believe you're telling me the truth.  That doesn't really matter.  The whole point of the trial is for all the evidence to be presented and for the jury to cast a verdict.  My job, as well as yours, is to convince them that you didn't attack the stallions or the filly, and that you were actually there to keep the filly from being harmed by the stallions."

"Back to the proceedings." Plea continued.  "After the judge reads off the charges, he'll then ask us for our plea.  The three answers we can give are guilty, not guilty or no contest."

"If we enter a plea of guilty or no contest, the judge will set a date for you to receive a sentence in the dungeons.  After that, you'll be taken to the dungeons and made to serve out your sentence.  After that...  Well, I honestly don't know.  As much as I hate to say it, the princess may elect to banish you from the Crystal Empire altogether."

"Now, we don't plan on entering either of those pleas, because you're not guilty, which is the plea we're entering.  Once we do that, the judge will set a date for pretrial procedures to begin.  Once he does that, the discovery phase begins."

"Discovery?" Thorax says questioningly.

"Yes." Plea confirms.  "Discovery is when both the prosecution and defense, the defense being us, interviews the witnesses and reviews all the evidence that was collected by the guard shortly after you were arrested.  The evidence is both physical, such as the hairs that were found in your muzzle, and testimonial, which would be the story the three stallions gave to the guard."

"The most important part of discovery is the fact that the prosecution is not allowed any surprises at trial, so they have to disclose all the witnesses and evidence they have.  If they don't, then we have no way to establish a proper defense, and this becomes a mistrial.  Once we get their witnesses and evidence, we can begin establishing our defense."

"How do we do that?" Thorax asked.

"For starters," Plea continues, "We'll send the physical evidence to a forensics laboratory.  They'll examine it and give us a full report on what they find.  We can also call on them as an expert witness."

"But they didn't see the crime happen."  Thorax said with confusion.  "How can they be a witness?"

"There's three kinds of witnesses: Lay witnesses, expert witnesses, and character witnesses." Plea explained.  "Lay witnesses are ponies that see a crime happen.  Expert witnesses are ponies that specialize in an area that is relevant to the crime or the evidence and give testimony related to those specific things.  Character witnesses, which I believe I explained before, give testimony about the 'character' of the accused pony.  You know, things like 'they're trustworthy' or 'helped me carry in the groceries'.  Just describing you as a good pony that wouldn't do something like this."

"Oh" Thorax replied, satisfied with the explanation.

"Of course, discovery works both ways.  I have to give a copy of the forensic report to the prosecutors so they can review it and have an expert witness make deductions of their own."

"Moving on, I'll also be interviewing the stallions that accused you.  I haven't met with them yet, but once discovery begins, you can bet your flank I'll be paying them a visit.  I also am gonna want to speak to that filly once I get the chance to."

"You wanna speak to the filly?" Thorax parroted in an uncertain tone.

"She's the only witness that the guards didn't speak to." Plea informed him.  "According to the guards, she fainted and was taken home by the three stallions.  She made it home, as the guards checked with her mother, but the mother said she'd been so traumatized by what happened to her, she was refusing to speak with anyone.  I'm hoping that a psychologist friend of mine who works with foals can help me get some kind of a story out of her."

Thorax just nodded at the information.  He hated to think that his efforts to stop the stallions had left such a negative impression on the filly that she was scarred for life.

The guard approached the two and informed them that their time was up.  Plea was about to leave before he remembered something.

"Dang-it, I forgot to mention bail."

"What?" Thorax said in confusion.

"Bail."  Plea repeated.  "After we enter the verdict, the judge will set the date for pretrial motions, but will also set a bail.  That's a sum of money that can be paid to have you released from jail for the duration of the trial.  If you're found innocent, you stay out.  If you're guilty, you go back in.  You can't leave the Crystal Empire, but you're not confined to any one specific building."

Thorax gave a nod in understanding.  The guard made a gesture for Plea to move, his face becoming annoyed.  "I'll see you tomorrow." Plea said to Thorax as he headed out the door.  The changeling was then led back to his cell, where a tray of oatmeal and milk was waiting for him.  His stomach growled in protest, clearly not being offered the meal it truly craved.






The Next Day...






Thorax was awoken the next day and directed to prepare for his first court date.  After rising from his cot, he was brought to a shower stall and given soap and water, which he made quick use of.  Though the shower was far from comfortable, with a lack of hot water, it sufficed in getting him clean.  Once he was finished and toweled off, the changeling was then led to a door he'd seen before but had never been through.  A look through the barred window told him this door led outside.

"We're going outside?" Thorax questioned.

"Our orders were altered this morning," The guard replied shortly, "Apparently, your lawyer got the princess to partially reinstate a deal you had with her about using the Crystal Heart for food, so we're taking you there."

"Oh" was the only response he could think to give.  Plea had been able to negotiate for Thorax being able to feed on the heart again that quickly?  Maybe there was hope that this pony could convince the other ponies that he wasn't guilty of the crime?

No, that was probably hoping for too much.  Thorax had learned the hard way a week ago that the ponies here in the Crystal Empire had made up their minds about him.  The way Plea explained the trial, there would be twelve ponies that would have to decide his fate, and the changeling had no idea if there were any ponies that would set aside their prejudices to listen to the evidence in his case.

The evidence of the filly's hair in Thorax's mouth and the three stallions claiming he was trying to kidnap her.  The more thought Thorax had put into the case, the less confidence he had.

"Move!" the guard behind him barked as he slapped Thorax's flanks with a spear shaft.  The changeling let out a small yip and marched ahead behind the lead guard.  Two flanked him left and right side.  Above him were pegasus guards, ready to tackle him to the ground should he choose to try and take to the air and escape.  All in all, he was well surrounded and would need some outside help if he were to actually attempt an escape.  Quickly he pushed the thought from his head; trying to make a break for it would not help his image in the least, not to mention that he would then actually be guilty for attempting to escape custody, and the outcome of the case against him now would be a moot point.

After several minutes of looking around at the streets that had been lit with glowing white gemstones, Thorax found himself approaching the Crystal Palace and the heart that sat beneath it.  The guard in front moved ahead and turned to face Thorax, gesturing him to move forward.  He had a key in his magic grip.

"Here's the deal, bug," the guard sneered, "I'm taking this collar off.  Those unicorns behind you will blast you if you try anything funny.  This comes off and I'm out of the way, you move ahead and feed.  You get fifteen minutes.  After the times up, the collar goes back on.  Got it?"

Thorax nodded, but was met with a hoof to the snout.  "Words, bug!" the guard reprimanded him.  "Do. You. Understand?"

"Y-yes" Thorax replied as he rubbed his snout.  The guard just gave a grunt as the key went into the lock on the collar and with a twist, the lock came free.  Magic took the collar from Thorax's neck and immediately his senses returned.  The ponies around him felt nothing but anger and contempt for him, as well as some fear mixed in.  He ignored it as best he could; these emotions seemed to be the default ones for when ponies encountered undisguised changelings.  He approached the heart and looked upon the large gem resting on its pedestal, basking in the magic and love that permeated it.

"Clock's ticking parasite!" the guard shouted, bringing Thorax's attention back to why he was here.  Thorax channeled his magic and opened his mouth.  Almost immediately, a tendril of pink energy left the heart and went into his mouth.  Almost immediately, the terrible pains from hunger abated, and the changeling found the satisfying feeling of love inside himself again.  As Thorax fed, he wished to himself that he could one day have a friend to share love with, as he had originally wanted to.  For now, he had to take what he could get, which was unfortunately too similar to what he had been doing in the hive, and too similar to what other changelings did.

"Time's up!" the guard said, and Thorax cut off the stream.  A moment later, and the collar was slapped around his neck and locked into place, once again cutting off his senses.  The guards then changed their positions so they could move again.  As they did, Thorax took notice of the changing sky.  Where night had once been, there were oranges and purples appearing on the horizon.  Slowly, the sun found its way above the horizon.  According to the ponies, Princess Celestia was responsible for the task, while her sister raised its counterpart during the evening.  It was apparently a spectacle to behold, and a town was chosen every year to host a festival that celebrated the longest day of the year.  Perhaps if things could work out and he was proven innocent, he could go to the host town for that year and partake in the celebrations.

As the group moved and the sun changed the sky from the purples and oranges to the blues of the day, Thorax found himself brought to a unique-looking building.  At least, unique-looking by the standard set by the other buildings.  It was modeled after buildings he'd remembered Sunburst showing him of a placed called Ancient Pona, a lost civilization whose ruins were still standing and often studied by various academics.  The front used a post and lintel system, with large quartz columns holding up a ridged roof, the end of which was decorated with various shapes carved into the material.  As visually interesting as the building was, it had nothing on the ornate bronze sculpture sitting at the base of the large staircase leading up to the front doors: A large pair of scales with the words ACTION and CONSEQUENCE placed on each side.  The sight made Thorax gulp a breath as he was led inside.

Past the front doors was a large lobby area, with a large round kiosk in the center.  Inside, a mare was sitting in front of a book with an inkwell to her right and a stamp and ink pad to her left.  Resting inside the inkwell was a quill, ready for the mare to write with.  As the guards approached, the mare looked up and greeted them.  "Good morning," she said politely, "Bringing the prisoner for his trial?"

"Yes, ma'am" replied the lead guard as he produced a scroll from his armor and presented it to the mare.  She took the scroll and read it, then took the stamp and ink pad and put a mark on the scroll before handing it back to the guard.

"He'll be going to courtroom five," she informed the guards, "You all should know your way to the holding area by now."  The lead guard nodded and gestured for the group to follow.  As they moved, Thorax took note of the way that the mare at the kiosk was looking at him; she was more curious about him than fearful.

The guards moved Thorax quickly to the holding area, which was similar to the prison with the exception of only the floor being made of stone instead of everything.  He was provided a bench and nothing else.  According to what Plea had told him yesterday, he would only be here for a short amount of time before he would be moved to another area.  Thorax elected to look for a clock and found one, the time being somewhere just before eight o'clock.  Having no clue what he could do to pass the time, he opted to just sit in his cell and wait as patiently as he could.

Patience was soon rewarded as the guards came to take him to the courtroom.  He was led out of the cell and taken to a door with a V marked on it, which a lesson from Sunburst told him was part of a numbering system the ponies of Ancient Pona used; this "numeral" meant five, so they were in the right place.  A guard opened the door and stepped through.  Thorax was pushed in behind him.

The courtroom was not nearly as ornate as the exterior of the building would lead one to believe, but still rather impressive.  The walls were made of large, opaque crystal that was made of minerals that gave then a blue color.  On one side of the room was a small set of platforms that was sealed off by a wooden railing, with a row of six chairs on each platform.  On another side of the room sat a pulpit, with one platform raised over top of another one.  On the last side was a section of chairs that was separated from the main court area by a wooden railing.  This one was different, however, because in the middle of the railing sat a pair of swinging gates that allowed a pony access to the court area.  Inside the seating area were several ponies, some wearing hats with a white card that said "PRESS" on them, and more than a few with cameras at the ready.

Thorax was pushed along to the last objects that he took notice of: A set of tables, one of which he was being led to.  Sitting at the table was Plea, who had his notepads placed before him in an orderly fashion, as he had apparently been working on some notes before Thorax was brought in.  As Thorax made it to the table and the guards began attaching bindings to him, he then took notice of the other table, where three ponies were working.  One of them, the apparent leader, was an older mare, who had two younger ponies reviewing various papers.

"So," Plea said as he interrupted Thorax's thoughts, "Get the chance to eat this morning?"

Thorax blinked in surprise before he answered.  "I did.  How did you get that done so fast?"

Plea smirked.  "It's amazing the things you can accomplish with the phrases 'prisoner abuse' and 'civil suit'."

Thorax looked at his attorney confused.  Plea gave a different explanation.  "I simply pointed out that denying a prisoner the ability to eat counted as cruel and unusual punishment and that violates your basic rights as a living being."

Thorax still didn't understand fully, but just nodded.  All that mattered was that he was getting to eat again, so he could at least make a decent effort to stay focused on the trial ahead of him.  At that moment, the changeling then took notice again of the ponies at the other table.  "Who are they?" he asked Plea.

Plea didn't even give them a glance.  "That's the prosecution," he told Thorax, "They're the ponies that are going to be trying to put you in prison.  You don't have to worry about that today, but we will have to prepare for them in the near future."

"So, they're working to make sure I go to jail for this?" Thorax asked, his voice deflating.

"I won't give them the chance," Plea said with conviction, "or at the very least, I'll put up the best fight that I can."

Thorax looked at Plea and could tell he was serious about what he said, so he returned a smile to the stallion.  At that moment, the older mare from the other table approached, her face adopting a smug demeanor.  "Is the bug gonna save us the trouble of a long and needlessly drawn out trial?"

Plea just gave her another smug look back.  "I don't think that's how 'Innocent until proven guilty' work, State."

The mare just chuckled.  "There's plenty of strong evidence against him," she told Plea, "A no contest plea will save a lot of trouble."

"Then my client goes to the dungeons and is never heard from again," Plea pointed out.

"Would that be the worst thing in the world?"

"For the ponies that have actually gotten to know him and become friends with him.  I'm sure as the case carries on, you'll get to meet them."

State just looks at the two and turns around to go back to her table.  "Who was she?" Thorax asked.

Plea's look changed from smug to frustrated.  "That was State Evidence.  She's the criminal prosecutor for the Crystal Empire.  Those two other ponies are just some paralegal flank kissers she brings on as interns for free labor."

Thorax looked confused.  "I thought slavery was illegal in the Crystal Empire."

"It is," Plea confirmed, "but internship is different.  The ponies don't always get paid, but the experience counts as on the job training that'll help them get hired in the future by other law firms."

"Did you ever have to do that?"

"Oh yeah.  Everyone pays their dues."

The conversation the pony and changeling were having was interrupted by a pony in a uniform similar to Shining Armor's stepped into the courtroom.  While not as nice and being a blue color, it still commanded authority.  "All rise!" the pony, a stallion, boomed loud enough for everypony in the room to hear.  As instructed, everypony stood up.

"Announcing Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire."

All at once, the ponies in the courtroom turned and faced the upper balcony.  Sitting there in a more ornate chair than the other ponies was the princess, whose look at Thorax radiated contempt.  Apparently, she had had a change of opinion about him since their last conversation.

"Please remaining standing for the honorable Judge Iron Gavel."

All the attention was now directed back to the front of the courtroom, where a stallion had entered and climbed to the top of the pulpit.  Though most of his body was covered by a long black robe, Thorax could make out that the stallion had a grayish blue coat and mane that was mostly gray but starting to turn white.  Once the stallion climbed the last step, he sat down.  "Be seated" he then told the court, who obeyed.

Once everypony was seated again, the stallion who announced the princess and judge stepped forward with a manila folder in his grasp.  "The criminal court of the Crystal Empire is now in session," he spoke aloud, "Now hearing case number S6E16O133 - The Crystal Empire vs Thorax the changeling."  As the stallion finished speaking, he handed the envelope to Iron Gavel.  The judge then opened the folder and read over a document inside.  Once to his satisfaction, he took a quill and wrote something down on the document and faced Thorax and Plea.

"Would the defense please rise" he requested.  Thorax and Plea both stood up.  Iron Gavel then took the folder and read over the contents of the paper.  "Thorax the changeling, you are hereby accused of attempted foalnapping, endangerment of a foal, and assault against three stallions.  How do you plead?"

Before Thorax can respond, Plea speaks for him.  "My client enters a plea of not guilty, your honor."

The judge accepts the plea and writes down more information on the document in the folder.  Once finished, he gives it back to the stallion who gave it to him before.  "Pretrial motions will be heard on Monday.  Process of discovery may begin now.  I am setting a bail amount now at fifty thousand bits.  Court adjourned until Monday."

With that, the judge bangs a wooden mallet against a wooden disc and makes a loud thud, and the courtroom becomes an uproar.  The ponies wearing press hats begin to bombard Thorax and Plea with questions, while those with cameras begin snapping photographs, the flashes, causing the changeling to go blind momentarily.  "Stand still!" a guard orders as Thorax feels his restraints being removed.  Once freed of them, he's led back to the holding area.  Before he is out of earshot, Plea approaches him.

"I'll meet you back at the jail later and we'll discuss our next moves" he told the changeling as he was led out of the courtroom.
> Part III, Chapter 7 - Discovery, Pretrial Motions, and Jury Selection
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Night Before The Trial Begins






Thorax sat in his cell reflecting on the events of the past week.  Once the Discovery phase had ended, the pretrial motions opened the following Monday.  Despite his promises, Plea could not get any of the motions heard.






The Tuesday Afternoon prior...






"I'm sorry, Thorax," Plea said to the changeling, "but I did the best I could with all of them."  He took a sip of water and set the glass down.  "My motion for dismissal was rejected outright; they claimed that my argument about inability to obtain an unbiased jury was unfounded."

"My motion for change of venue was also refused.  They claimed that the only way to change venue would be to move it out of the empire, and that they couldn't get approval for that.  The last motion was for suppressing evidence, but I could not make any arguments as to how any of the evidence collected so far was obtained in any way that would make it be considered inadmissible."

Thorax listened to what Plea had told him and continued losing confidence.  With the way things were going, he would have to hope that there was some way they could win in trial.  But perhaps...

"What about that hearing thing?" Thorax asked.

"The Preliminary Hearing?" Plea questioned, then shook his head.  "The Preliminary Hearing is meant to determine whether the evidence is sufficient to prove that a crime took place, and unfortunately, there is enough to show that one did."

"To be completely honest with you, Thorax, I think it's in your best interest if we waived the preliminary hearing."

Thorax blinked.  "Why?"

Plea took a breath before explaining.  "Thorax, the ponies that will be in the audience chambers during the preliminary hearing will likely be in the audience chambers during the jury selection.  There's a possibility that they could taint the jury's perception of you by giving a negative reaction to your presence."

"I kind of already have an image problem," Thorax pointed out, "I'm failing to see how that hurts it any further."

Plea was going to counter with an explanation, but he had to concede the bug had a point.  "I still think it would serve our interests better to waive the hearing and go to jury selection.  If the ponies in the audience are unaware of the evidence, then there's still a chance that the reactions to you will still be more on the positive side, relatively speaking."

Thorax didn't understand exactly what Plea was talking about, but elected to trust him anyways.  He was trying to help him win this case.

"We need to move past this part of the process and move on now to trial strategy.  Now, I want to compile a list of all the ponies that would speak on your behalf as character witnesses.  I'll have to get subpoenas to make sure that they then show for the trial."

Thorax nodded and began thinking of all the ponies he could get to speak on his behalf.  Unfortunately, he couldn't get Princess Celestia or Luna; their schedule wouldn't permit them to testify firstly, and secondly, the laws exempted them from giving testimony with only one exception: if they were direct eyewitnesses.

He wanted to ask Princess Twilight and Spike, but a recent letter from before his arrest had told him they were going to be away in Saddle Arabia for a friendship mission, so there was no reliable way to contact them quickly.

The thought was there to try and get the other element bearers to come and speak on his behalf, but there was no guarantee that they would, so Thorax elected to avoid including them on the list.

Brass would certainly speak up for him.  Sunburst as well.  Even Heartfelt would put in some kind words on his behalf.  Thorax even thought to throw in Bar Keeper and Bicarb for good measure, even though he was unsure if they would vouch for him as readily as Brass would.






Present Time






Thorax hoped that he had provided a list of ponies that would be able to speak convincingly on his behalf.  If they couldn't, then he had no idea how he would avoid getting sent to the dungeons.  His thoughts then turned to the discussions he'd had with Plea about the evidence and testimony collected during the discovery phase.






Wednesday






Thorax sat in the counsel meeting room with Plea Bargain discussing the evidence the stallion had collected during the discovery phase.

"We have both physical evidence, as well as testimony from the three stallions that accused you of attempting to foalnap the filly."

"I got in touch with a forensic science pony and they analyzed the hair that was recovered in your muzzle.  After his analysis, he did reach an interesting conclusion."

"What did he find?" Thorax asked.

Plea went into a detailed explanation.  "Firstly was the fact that the hairs did match the filly; there honestly wasn't a question about that.  What he did notice was that the hair was cut with a sharp edge, like a pony using a knife."

"Then you can get one of those warrant things and search the stallion's house for the knife that did it." Thorax proposed.

Plea just gave him a sympathetic look.  "It's gonna be a hard sell based on the story from the stallions.  Their account is the changelings that escaped had a knife and threatened them with it in order to make their escape."

Thorax became deflated upon hearing that yet another one of the stallions' lies would work to put him in the dungeons.

Plea patted Thorax on his withers.  "Don't get so dejected just yet.  I didn't tell you the last part."

"Last part?" Thorax parroted in confusion.

"Yep," Plea answered, "His analysis also showed that the hairs had no evidence of stress and breakage on the strands beyond the normal wear and tear of life.  In other words, no marks from chewing or being held and pulled at by teeth.  There's a chance we can argue that the hairs were put into your muzzle as a frame up."

Thorax began to perk up upon hearing that news.  There was a chance they could make a successful argument about Thorax being framed by the stallions.

"I also asked the forensics expert to examine the alleyway for any additional evidence that may have been missed by the guard," Plea continued, "and he did find some."

"What did he find?" asked Thorax.

Plea produced the forensic report and placed it in front of Thorax, and proceeded to explain what each part meant.  "A total of two combat energy signature traces were found in the alleyway.  Five distinct pony identifying marks were also found in the alleyway, and no more than that."

"So that proves that only the three stallions, the filly and I were in that alleyway," Thorax intoned, "which means there were no other changelings there."

Plea got a bit nervous.  "There are ways to circumvent a pony's identifying marks ending up at a scene.  Wearing covers over the hooves is one way."

Thorax looked defeated again, but Plea continued explaining the report.  "The inhibitor ring you were wearing is a big clue to help us in our direction.  While it's good at repelling magic in general, it can still carry a magic trace.  That said, an energy signature trace was found on the ring that wasn't yours, and it also doesn't bear any similarity to the known signatures of changelings, which means that a pony removed it from your horn."

"One of those stallions had to have done it." Thorax stated with conviction.

"I don't doubt that," Plea agreed, "but unfortunately, their testimony offers explanations for a lot of the different anomalies we've found in the evidence."

The stallion went back into his bag and retrieved one of the yellow tablets that he liked to write on.  On it was what appeared to be interview questions.

"I interviewed all three stallions, and all of them told pretty much the exact same story."

"I was attacking the filly with two other changelings and they moved to stop me and them."

Plea nodded.  "Pretty much.  However, their stories are a little too similar to one another, as if they had been rehearsing them.  I called them out on this and the said that it was such a vivid memory for them that they didn't think it was weird that they all recalled things in such vivid detail."

"But you know that that is weird" Thorax intoned.

Plea nodded.  "These three stallions have rehearsed their story before putting it on record.  I'm almost sure of it.  The challenge will be convincing a jury that that's the case as well."

"Do you think we can do it?" Thorax asked,

"It won't be easy," Plea admitted, "but as long as the jurors keep an open mind, I think we can do it."

Thorax felt a bit more hopeful about his situation.  If Plea could convince the ponies that the evidence was flimsy and circumstantial, then perhaps they'd see he didn't commit any crime to begin with.

"Of course," Plea continued, "the prosecution has to see our expert witness's reports and analysis so they can prepare cross examination when the time comes.  Unfortunately, State Evidence is really good at presenting arguments to support her case.  It's still gonna be a hard fight, but I don't think it's going to be impossible."

Thorax's mood diminished a bit but he gave a smile anyways.

Plea looked at a clock on the wall and shook his head.  "We're unfortunately out of time for today" he told Thorax.  "I'll be back tomorrow to discuss more trial strategy with you.  I'll also look into whether or not we can get the filly on the stand as well.  So far, the mother has refused to let anyone speak with her.  She claims that she's afraid that having to testify will cause her mental harm, even though we're offering the services of a psychologist to help with any lingering trauma."

"Okay" was Thorax's reply as Plea gathered his belongings and left the counsel room.






Present Time






Thorax continued thinking, his thoughts now going back to the interview he'd had with State Evidence.  The mare was intimidating, and was not afraid to ask questions in such a way as to try and trip up Thorax.






Two Days before Pretrial Motions






A/N - This next section is written as a transcript of an interview between Thorax, State Evidence, and Plea Bargain.  The characters speaking with be identified with simple two letter designations:

Thorax - TH
Plea Bargain - PB
State Evidence - SE





SE - This is State Evidence.  I am here at the Crystal Empire Prisoner Holding Facility interviewing the defendant in case S6E16O113: Attempted Foalnapping and assault against three stallions.  Defendant is identified as one Thorax.  Defendant is a changeling that has been allowed residence here by Princess Cadance approximately four months ago.  Interview to commence now.

SE - Defendant, please state your full name.

TH - Thorax.  I don't have another name.

SE - What is your current age?

TH - I don't know my exact age.  Changelings don't keep very good track of things like that.  My best guess is I'm in my early twenties?

SE - Age approximately twenty.  Recall the events that transpired the day of the attempted foalnapping and assault against the three stallions.  Start from when you first woke up that day.

TH - Well, I woke up and was told by a member of the palace staff that I was allowed weekend days off.

SE - You work in the Crystal Palace?

TH - I do.

SE - What is your occupation?

TH - I guess you could call it being a janitor.  I clean things, polish things, change bed linens.

SE - Okay, that's a good enough description.  Continue.

TH - I was met by my friend Brass Polish, and she was encouraging me to come outside the palace and actually meet some of the ponies in the empire.

SE - Brass Polish?  Is that a mare or stallion that works in the Crystal Palace.

TH - She's a mare.  I've been working with her since the first day I was allowed to stay in the Crystal Empire.

SE - So you've known her for approximately four months.  Continue.

TH - She convinced me, and we left the palace and walked around the open air market.  We walked around and Brass bought some things.  I interacted with a few ponies, but most weren't exactly keen on treating me nicely.

SE - How would you describe most of the interactions?

PB - Thorax, a word

(PB and TH having unheard private conversation)

TH - They weren't the best.

SE - What about the crowd?  A report from one of the arresting stallions said you fled the market after a group of ponies mobbed you and started verbally accosting you.

TH - Well, Brass was trying to defend me from another pony that was not treating me nicely, but that attracted the attention of some other ponies, who began saying some very accusing things about me.

SE - Such as?

TH - Well, one accused me of brainwashing Princess Cadance into allowing me to stay here.

SE - And is there any truth to that?

PB - Thorax, don't answer that question.  It's not relevant to the case.

SE - Very well, we can forget that question.  Moving on, what did you do after the mob came at you?

TH - I got overwhelmed by all the yelling at me, so I panicked and flew off.

SE - How far did you fly?

TH - I'm not really sure.  It was more than a few blocks from what I could tell.

SE - You know that the Crystal Guard came looking for you shortly after that, right?

TH - I sorta figured they would.  I must've gotten a good head start on them, because they didn't show up again for several minutes.

SE - And that was about the time you claimed you heard a filly calling for help.

TH - Yes, I saw a stallion pressuring her to go down an alleyway, and another stallion was waiting at the end to cut her off.

SE - And this is when you decided to intervene?

TH - Yes.

SE - How exactly did you intervene?

TH -  I approached the stallions and demanded they leave her alone.

SE - Did they?

TH - No.  One was a unicorn and took the filly in his magic.  The other one, an earth pony, charged at me and tried to tackle me.

SE - Did he succeed?

TH - No.  I managed to dodge his tackle and he ran into a dumpster.

SE - This was a red earth pony stallion?

TH - Yes, it was.

SE - Well, according to his testimony, you threw him into the dumpster as he charged after two changelings trying to carry the filly away.  Clearly somepony is lying.

TH - Yes, and it's that stallion.

SE - Perhaps.  Tell me what happened after you dodged the tackle.

TH - I confronted the other stallion and demanded he let the filly go.

SE - And did he do it?

TH - No, he didn't.  He made a remark about minding my business, and then I was attacked from behind.

SE - Who attacked you?

TH - I don't know for sure, but I think it was the green unicorn.  It felt like I got hit with a spell.

SE - Are you sure it was a spell?

TH - The first thing that hit me was a spell.  The next hit had to have been from that red earth pony stallion.  It felt like he was gonna take my head off my neck.

SE - So what happened after that second hit?

TH- I blacked out.

SE - When did you come to?

TH - Sometime shortly after that.  I had something in my mouth and spat it out.  

SE - What was in your mouth?

TH - It was some hairs from the filly's tail.

SE - How did they get there.  

TH - I don't know.  I never got closer than about ten hoofsteps from her.  Somepony had to have placed them in my muzzle.

SE - What else?

TH - I noticed I could feel a lot of negative emotions from a crowd of ponies, which told me the inhibitor ring I was supposed to be wearing came off.

SE - Inhibitor ring?  That you were supposed to be wearing?  Why did you take it off.

TH - I didn't take it off!  Somepony must've taken it off of me when I was blacked out.

SE - Likely story.  What became of this ring?

TH - I'm not sure.  I don't remember seeing it in the alleyway.

SE - (produces bag) This wouldn't happen to be the ring, would it?

TH - That's it, but why is it broken?

SE - Funny.  That's the question I was hoping you could answer.

PB - State, I warn you now.  It's not ethical to accuse ponies of crimes without evidence.

SE - Come now, Plea.  I have a broken inhibitor ring that is supposed to be on this changeling's horn, and no explanation as to how it was removed or broken.  How do we know that the story from the three stallions about the two other changelings isn't true?  They could've easily taken the ring off and broken it.

TH - There were no other changelings!

PB - Thorax, please calm down.  (looks at State) We have no evidence of any changelings besides Thorax having been in that area at the time of the attempted foalnapping taking place.  And on a more pertinent note, I will be getting an order from the judge for you to turn over a sample of that ring to me so that I may have it tested by my forensics expert.

SE - You file your order, and you'll get your piece of ring.  Anyways, back to the story.  You got knocked out, and then woke up with something in your mouth and everypony around you was emitting negative emotions.  I take it that's when you were arrested?

TH - That's pretty much it.

SE - When was the last time you've had contact with another changeling?

TH - When I left my hive.

SE - When was that?

TH - I can't remember exactly.  Sometime six to seven months ago.

SE - When you left, what was your course of action?

TH - I came to Equestria to try and make peaceful relations with ponies.

SE - Really?  How successful were you?

TH - Not very.

SE - Hard to imagine why.

PB - I'm sorry, but is there a reason behind this line of questioning?  If there isn't, I must strongly recommend not continuing it.  The only information that matters is what will directly affect the trial.

SE - Very well.  I have nothing further.  Thank you both for your time.





The interview had been about as productive as one could expect.  State clearly didn't believe anything he said, and was sure that the selected jury would find him guilty just as quickly.  That thought brought up another point to make Thorax's waning confidence whittle down even further: the jury selection.

He and Plea had to sit at the defendant's table as the judge and prosecutor interviewed several mares and stallions who had been called to serve on the jury.  The interview was rather tilted in favor of the prosecution.  Most ponies answered rather enthusiastically in the affirmative when asked if they would carry out their duty honorably and without prejudice.

Fortunately, Plea was allowed to interview them as well.  He only asked them one question: If the evidence proved that the defendant did not commit the crime he is accused of, could you return a verdict of not guilty?  The responses were not what Thorax had been expecting.  Some were hesitant and didn't respond for a full minute.  Others thought about the question for a moment before saying they would.  The ones in the second group were the ones that Plea insisted the judge appoint to the jury that would pass verdict in the trial.

When it was all said and done, twelve ponies, composed of five stallions and seven mares, were selected to pass judgement on Thorax once the trial had concluded and the evidence was presented and testimony heard.  Of the twelve, only four had been ones that Plea had given his approval for.  With the jury selected, the judge set a date for the trial to begin

Thorax remembered the meeting after the selection process, and how unhappy Plea was at that time.






Thursday






"This isn't going to end well, Thorax" Plea told the changeling with a somber expression on his face.

Thorax didn't respond for a moment.  When he did, he sounded less confident than his attorney.  "How do you know that?"

Plea looked down at the table and spoke.  "Thorax, all twelve jurors that were selected are all parents.  The prosecution made a point to pick ponies who have their own foals so that the facts of the case will influence their judgements."

"They can't do that, though," Thorax rebutted, "You told me that they can't!"

"Thorax," Plea said, "There's only so much anypony can do to eliminate a biased viewpoint from a jury.  Even if we had gotten ponies who all agreed not to convict you if the evidence proved you didn't do it, there's no guarantee that they would be lying and just wanted on the jury so they could convict you."

"The best chance we have is to prove the story that the stallions gave is a fabrication, and to try and back that up with the physical evidence.  Now, when we go into the actual trial, both prosecution and defense will get to make opening statements.  They're essentially declarations about what each side intends to prove about the case.  When it's our turn to present our opening statement, I'm going to make a point about prejudice and how it will be a disservice to the judicial system of the Crystal Empire to act on that in spite of the presented evidence.  There's no guarantee that it will work, but it's the best I can come up with."

Thorax considered what he'd been told and gave a nod.  Plea continued with his explanations of the trial, from the prosecution's turn at presenting evidence and witness testimony, to the defense presenting evidence and testimony, and finishing with the closing arguments, where Plea said he would again press the jury on the point of acting in prejudice.

"Once the arguments are finished, the judge will instruct the jury to deliberate.  The jury will then retire to their private chambers, discuss the evidence and testimony, and they'll cast their verdict.  No matter what it is, they will have to reach a unanimous decision.  If they can't, it's called a hung jury and they're thrown out in favor of another jury and the trial starts over again."

"Okay" Thorax responded plainly.  Plea put a hoof on his client's shoulder.

"Things are... glum, I admit," Plea told Thorax, "but the outcome of this case isn't set in stone.  We'll present the best argument we can.  We just have to hope that the jury can see the evidence against you doesn't hold water and won't convict you."

Plea then stood up and prepared to leave.  "You won't see me again until the trial" he informed Thorax.  "I'll be busy working on both the opening and closing statements.  If you need me for any reason, you can have a letter sent over to my office."





Thorax tossed and turned on his cot.  He knew he would need to get a good night's rest before the trial tomorrow.  His fate in the Crystal Empire, and perhaps the rest of his life, were going to be decided in the next several days.  The thought kept the changeling from finding any sleep.  He suspected that it would be a great deal of time before a decent night's sleep would come and find him, if ever again.
> Part III, Chapter 8 - The High Tide Case - Part III
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The situation in Van Hoover was evolving in a very up and down manner.  The detectives that were supposed to stake out the griffin's office had observed no activity whatsoever when they arrived.  Sending in somepony to scout the office, they discovered that practically all of the important materials and personal belongings had been removed.  An investigation revealed evidence of concealment spells that, based on size of the footprints, were meant to conceal both the carts and the ponies pulling them.  All that was found in the office was the furniture and empty filing cabinets.

As the investigation into the office took place, the police station received a communication from the Griffinstone.  That communication was a major bombshell.  The description that Old Bill had provided was one that matched a griffin crime boss named Sharpclaw.  He was wanted in Griffinstone on a number of charges, with most of them related to extortion and financial scams.  Now that they had a definite name for the griffin, they would have to put the effort into finding him.  With his office vacated and no known address for Mint Eagle anywhere in the city, Old Bill and his partner Peach Fuzz had nothing to go on.

"It's not all bad, Bill" Peach said in an attempt to reassure the stallion.  "We have his name now.  That means we can put wanted posters out and have the public helping us."

Bill gave a shake of his head.  "It's not gonna be that simple.  With all the stuff we got from Griffinstone on this guy, he's bound to have allies in practically every city and town in Equestria willing to help hide him, or even get set up with a new alias in another city and hurt even more ponies than he already has."

Peach looked Bill in the eyes, a slight hint of determination in them.  "He won't have that support net for long.  We have the identities of several ponies that he has ties to.  We bring them and in get the right amount of pressure on 'em, and I just know one of them will crack and give us a clue to where he either is or where he's going."

Bill looked at her with a sympathetic smile.  "I really wish it was that easy," he told her, "but it won't be.  All the names we have are all likely to be low level thugs that just get orders and aren't told anything more important.  Sure, we might get one that squeals a little more and coughs up a bigger fish than they are, but even they are likely to not have any really useful information.  I'm afraid by the time we get someone with anything iron clad about him, he'll already be long gone and we'll have to pick up the trail from cold again."

Peach wanted to counter his argument, but he was right.  She had seen too many cases in the past where her efforts to work up the chain of command and get the top dog in some criminal organization had taken months to put together.  In that time, the griffin could've moved on to someplace like Klugetown, or some other place where they cared nothing about criminals.  Peach eventually let out a exasperated sigh and let her head hit her desk without any effort to prevent it, her skull making an audible thud as it contacted to surface.

Bill, despite seeing his partner's demeanor, elected to keep trudging on.  After all, long shot odds would occasionally come in.  Who would know until they tried?

"C'mon Peach" he called for her.  "I'll buy you a coffee, and a good cup of it.  Not this stuff the station has us put down our throats."

She turned her head far enough to look at him out of the corner of one eye.  "And one of those raspberry danishes that i absolutely love?"

Bill had to let out a chuckle.  "Of course."

Peach got up from her desk with a smile and spring in her step.  Free coffee and food?  What more could a mare ask for?





Inside a small apartment in one of the forgotten corners of the city lay the mare known as Scarlett Penn.  She had woken up moments ago, but currently had no real job.  With the police watching Sharpclaw's business here in Van Hoover, she would have to either find another job to help keep her apartment, or she would have to follow Sharpclaw to wherever he was moving to.  She let out a breath at the latter thought.  No doubt the griffin felt spooked, and was trying to keep himself from being implicated in the current criminal activity.

She thought back to last night and remembered a note that the griffin had gave to her.  Finding the note and opening it, she read the contents to herself.

Scarlett,

With things going belly up, I'm going to have to enact a contingency plan.  I'll send Mercury by in the morning with instructions about where to go and what to do.  Don't keep him from getting to the others for too long.

-Sharpclaw

The mare let out a sigh.  Mercury Flyer.  He was a pegasus stallion maybe the same age as herself.  He served as a messenger for Sharpclaw and would deliver correspondence to different ponies in Van Hoover and some of the surrounding towns where the muscle lived.  He was naturally athletic, and even had a chance once at becoming a Wonderbolt. 

Unfortunately, he suffered an accident that caused such severe damage to his wings, he wouldn't be able to fly to the degree he would need to to be a stunt flyer, which cost him his chance at joining the elite pegasus squad.  With little choice of career path, he chose to become a private courier, and ended up with Sharpclaw after he had to take out a loan to finance the deposit on his apartment.  Not long after that, Sharpclaw had him on a tight leash.

A grumbling interrupted Scarlett from her thoughts, and quickly she decided a breakfast was in order.  Going through he foodstuff, she found her best choice for breakfast to be oatmeal with a glass of milk.  She sat down and ate quietly, wondering what would happen with Sharpclaw and herself.  She hoped that whatever happened, it would work out for the best.

A knocking at the door interrupted her thoughts.  She got up to check the door, and was greeted by Mercury Flyer himself.  While she was happy to see the colt, he didn't look so happy.

"Sorry to do this to you Scarlett," he said to her, "but Sharpclaw gave me the orders.  The operation is moving to Las Pegasus."  He then hoofed over a bag of bits; the amount that would cover a one-way ticket to the city.  "I'll be by later to help with whatever luggage you have.  Right now, I need to deliver messages to several other ponies so they can get their affairs in order."

Scarlett just gave a nod to Mercury and the stallion headed for the downstairs.  After she had closed her door, she began stomping her hooves in a fit of anger.  "Las Pegasus?!" she thought to herself.  "I hate that friggin' place!"

The mare had a few reasons to despise the place.  First was the fact that the constant party atmosphere would rob her of her beauty rest.  Second was the fact the lighting in the majority of the buildings was not flattering for her coat color.  And then there was the last reason; she had been held up for her bits and the local guards would not bother investigating it.

Having lost her appetite upon hearing the news, Scarlett took her bowl and disposed of the contents in the garbage.  Placing the bowl and spoon in the sink, she sat back down at the table and considered her options.  

She could simply use the train ticket and travel to another city and just break ties with Sharpclaw, but he would eventually catch up to her and have his goons drag her back to do whatever menial job he had for her.

There was also the option to remain in the city and just give Mercury the bits back, but she ran the chance of the VHPF or royal guard detachment putting out a warrant for her, and Sharpclaw showing up to personally escort her to the train station with her ticket in claw.

Ultimately, her only option was to simply comply and go to Las Pegasus.  Resigning herself to her fate, Scarlett grabbed a pair of her saddlebags and headed to the train station for her ticket.





Old Bill and Peach Fuzz were currently in the office of their supervisor Gum Hoof.  The old stallion was going over the information that he had just been given by the two detectives.  After reviewing it, he brought a hoof to his temple.

"So, you found a griffin crime lord named Sharpclaw and elected to stake him out?" he asked the two, who nodded.  "I do agree that that was probably the best course of action," he said to the two, "it should've been done sooner.  The report the officers doing the stakeout gave said that there was evidence of concealment spells on the street out front of that office, and all the files and important documents were moved from there to another location."

"As it stands, the only information we have to go on is what you've collected on the griffin and his office already, which isn't as much as I would've liked, and whatever research we can do on the property owner.  I can safely assume that the griffin doesn't actually own this property, as it would be something tied to him that would leave a paper trail, but also because he would have to handle selling it.  As you know, transfer of retail property must take place in pony at the hall of records in front of a certified notary."

Peach and Bill both nodded.

"We'll have to find the pony that does own that office and investigate them for whatever their involvement is.  For now, I want you two to-"

Gum Hoof was interrupted by a knocking at his door.

"Come in" he called to the pony outside.  The pony opening the door was a mare, and in her hoof was some papers.

"We have a name for the pony that owns that office the stakeout was watching" she told Gum.

"Perfect timing" he said as he took the papers from her.  "Thank you."

The mare smiled and nodded, then slipped out and closed the door.  Gum Hoof looked over the paperwork and gave it to Bill and Peach.  As they looked at it, Gum gave a quick summary.

"The pony is a stallion named Prime Lot.  He has an office in another part of town.  We also have his home address as well.  I want you two to go visit his home first.  Knock and ask if you can speak with him.  If he's not there, go to the office and look for him there.  If nopony answers at either of those places, we'll get a warrant signed so we can search both.  With the evidence of a griffin crime lord operating out of property owned by this pony, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain one.  Dismissed."

Bill and Peach looked at Gum and gave a nod and walked out.  As they walked, Bill and Peach discussed a strategy.

"That stallion is likely working to skip town right now," Bill said to Peach, "so we need to work fast.  You take his home address, and I'll go check the office."

Peach gave a nod.  "Okay.  Unfortunately, that griffin has probably already skipped town, but that secretary most likely hasn't.  We should get posters out and have the guard watch the train station so we can grab her before she skips town too."

"That's a very good idea," agreed Bill.  "but for now, we just get her for questioning.  I have the feeling she would be easy enough to squeeze for the info we want.  We should make sure the guard post here has sent that information about Sharpclaw to the other guard posts and police forces in Equestria.  It'll improve our odds of catching him AND hopefully warn ponies about doing business with him."

Peach nodded and the two set to work.





Scarlett had gotten all of her affairs in order.  She had settled her rent with her landlord, gotten the ticket to Las Pegasus, and packed her few belongings into her saddlebags.  All that was left to do was dispose of the items in her fridge, which only amounted to a small block of cheese and about two glasses worth of milk.

She was about to sit down to eat when knocking at her door interrupted her.  Based on how hard it was and how fast the knocking came, she could tell it was about something serious.  Walking over to the door and checking the peep hole, she saw it was Mercury, who looked very worried.  Quickly she opened to door a crack to speak with him.

"Scarlett," he said to her, "you need to let me in!  Please!"

The mare just gave a nod and undid the chain on her door, allowing the stallion to come inside.  Closing and locking the door, she turned to face him.  "What's going on?" she asked him.

"There's posters out for you" he told her.  "They want you for questioning about Sharpclaw!"

Scarlett went pale.  The police had found out about Sharpclaw already?  How had the griffins relayed that info so quickly?  The last that she'd heard, they were all still bickering with each other over bits and who was in charge.

Mercury brought her focus back on the situation.  "We don't have too much time" he told her.  "Pack your bag if you haven't and get ready to leave."

Scarlett gave him a nod and went to check her bag.  Once she was sure that everything was ready, she turned to face Mercury and suddenly had an idea.  "How much time do we actually have?"

"I have no idea," he answered, "but we can't dawdle."

"Is there enough time to eat quick?"

Mercury wanted to admonish her for thinking of something so frivolous, but then his eyes met hers.  He had never really looked at them before, but they were quite stunning.  He was suddenly hit with feelings he hadn't felt since his school crush, and his focus shifted slightly.  "I-I suppose a quick snack wouldn't hurt" he said a bit hesitantly.

Scarlett nodded and grabbed a second plate and glass from a cupboard.  As she split the cheese and milk between them, a stray thought crossed her mind.

"I've been on worse first dates."





Old Bill stood outside the realty office owned by the stallion Prime Lot.  It was now three in the afternoon, and the office looked to be temporarily closed.  Trying his luck, Bill gave a few swift knocks on the front door of the building.

"Nopony home?"

Bill turned and saw his partner approaching him.  She didn't look very happy.

"I take it that he wasn't home?" Bill asked her.

Peach shook her head.  "No.  He's skipped town for sure.  Landlord was there.  Said he got a letter about a sick relative and had bags packed.  Paid a month in advance and said he was probably moving in with them and would come back for his things once he had a new place."

"Sounds about right" Bill agreed.  "We'll have to get a search warrant for the apartment."

"Taken care of" Peach told him.  "Captain's speaking with a judge now.  Also getting one for this place too."

"Can I help either of you two?"

Bill and Peach turned to face a mare approaching them.  While she was dressed in business clothing, she had a beige coat, purple eyes, auburn mane and tail, and a house for a cutie mark.  Her mane was styled into a beehive hairdo.

"Possibly ma,am" Bill said as he introduced himself and his partner.  "I'm detective Old Bill, and this is my partner Detective Peach Fuzz.  We're with the VHPF and here to investigate a matter concerning property owned by a mister Prime Lot."

The mare looked at the two with puzzlement.  "A matter concerning one of the properties?  I certainly hope this isn't a tax matter?"

Bill shook his head.  "No ma'am," he answered,"but we're may have to look into that part potentially."

The mare was even more confused, and was also becoming a bit defensive.  "I handle the finances and tax documents for our business, and I can assure you that I have correctly filed all tax matters with the revenue office and all information is correct to the best of my knowledge."

"I'm sure it is, ma'am," Peach interjected, "but we're not here for anything like that right now.  Could we have your name please?"

The mare calmed herself down and gave Peach an answer.  "I'm one of Prime's business partners.  My name is Cape Cod."

"Thank you" Peach told the mare.  "We're not here on a matter related to taxes.  Our reason for being here is related to a case we're working on that involves a griffin criminal."

Cape Cod looked rather surprised.  "A griffin criminal?" she parroted.  "What does a griffin criminal have to do with Prime's property?"

"We believe that Prime was providing an office space not far from the docks as a front for this criminal to operate a loan extortion scheme."

The confused look on Cape's face turned to shock.  "Prime is doing business with a loan shark?"

"Possibly," Bill answered, "but we need to investigate and find evidence to confirm it before we can actively press charges against him.  Do you happen to know where he is?"

The mare still had a shocked expression on her face when she answered.  "He said he had a sick relative to tend to in another city.  He never said which one."

Bill and Peach looked at each other, then Bill turned to look at Cape again.  "It doesn't look good, ma'am," he said, "but if you let us check his office, perhaps we can rule out any wrongdoing and eliminate him as a suspect."

Cape, though still in shock about the news, gave a nod.  "I'll let you into the office.  The main office was his.  All the documents pertaining to our properties are there."

"Can we consider this your consent to search the property?" Peach asked.

Cape gave a nod.  "Yes, you may search the property.  Please, try not to interfere with the business too much."  Bill and Peach both gave a nod to the request, and the three went inside.





Scarlett and Mercury finished up with eating and the mare grabbed her bags.  Mercury checked the hallway and then stepped back inside very quickly and quietly.

"I think the police are here and are questioning your landlord" he told Scarlett.  "Pretty sure I overheard your name being dropped."

Scarlett felt a pit form in her stomach.  She did not want to be caught by the police.  They might've said they wanted her for questioning, but they would eventually charge her with being an accomplice, and that would mean jail time.  No way a mare like her, that cared much for her appearance and detested being physically violent, would last in prison.

"What do we do?" she asked Mercury.

Without a thought, Mercury went right to the window.  "We're gonna have to go out through here" he told her.  "Make sure the door is locked, and then get over here.  We'll go out the fire escape and to the road behind the building.  Chances are they don't realize that you know about their posters yet, so we might have a chance to get away without much trouble."

"Okay," Scarlett nodded, "but then what?"

Mercury looked at her with nervousness.  "Unfortunately, the train is a no go.  By now, they'll have posted guards at the station and will be on the lookout for you.  Our best bet would be to get you out another way."

Scarlett looked rather nervous.  "Sky chariots?" she asked, unease apparent in her voice.

Mercury shook his head.  "They'll be checking those too" he replied.  "I think our best bet will be the docks.  We could try to bribe a ship captain for safe passage.  Once we're out of the city, we can head for Las Pegasus from somewhere else."

Scarlett gave a nod.  She really didn't want to go there, but she knew that Sharpclaw would either send some ponies after her, or he would personally come collect her himself.  Without much choice, she gave a nod and followed Mercury out the window.





Old Bill and Peach Fuzz were back at the station house, both going through boxes of files that came from both Prime Lot's real estate office and his apartment here in the city; the search warrant for the apartment arrived shortly after they had returned.  As they went through the files, they were given a great deal of insight into the inner workings of the relationship between Prime Lot and Sharpclaw.

According to the information, Prime and Sharpclaw went back a ways.  Sharpclaw's earlier business ventures had apparently financed Prime Lot and his business, giving him the capital to buy a great deal of the more run down properties in the city.  In exchange, Prime gave Sharpclaw an office to use as a front for no rent charged.

Besides that arrangement, Prime also allowed the usage of a warehouse space for file storage.  While there was no paper trail to indicate it, Bill and Peach were both sure that the files from the office went there.  They'd have to scrape up an address from the paperwork they'd gotten at Prime's office so they could get a search warrant for that.  Considering that it was connected to the realtor, it would not take much time at all.

"Bill, take a look at this" Peach said to him as she hoofed over a paper.  Bill took it and looked at it.  The paper had a series of names on it, as well as some dollar figures beside each name.  A crude ledger.

"It looks like a ledger," he told her, "but what is it for?"

"I'm guessing it's the loans he gave out.  Probably who he gave them to and how much it was for."

Bill looked over the names.  For some reason, the name Mint Julep jumped out at him.  He couldn't place it at the moment.

"Here's something else" Peach said as she handed Bill another paper.  "This one's talking about taking collateral to a safe house in the Crystal Empire.  What do you think that means?"

"Not sure" he answered.  As he reviewed it, he came across another unusual sentence.  "If all fails, pin on the bug?"

Peach looked with confusion, not having an answer readily available.  Bill set it off to the side and rubbed at his temples.  "I could use a coffee" he announced to his partner.  "Want one?"

"Yes, please!" she replied enthusiastically.  Bill walked over to the coffee maker and poured two cups.  When he returned to Peach, she was looking through some more files.

"I think we can probably put tax evasion on Prime Lot" she told Bill as she showed him a paper.  Bill took it and looked it over, seeing it was another ledger, but this one had dates instead of names.

"What's this supposed to be?" he asked Peach.

"Best guess?  It's keeping track of rent on the office" she told him.  "However, since the amount fluctuates each month, it's probably a cut of profits from the ponies that Sharpclaw is extorting."

Bill looks over the paperwork and sees what Peach is says.  He nods to her in agreement.  "Yeah, there's no way he's keeping something like this on the books, and from the look of it, he's got bits stashed somewhere."

"Or," Peach counters, "he could have another pony running a laundering operation to cover up the source of that money."

Bill is about to question it when she slides him another paper.  This one is for a business that lists Prime Lot as an investor.  The amounts invested each month are equal to the amount Prime receives from Sharpclaw.

"Well," Bill says to Peach, "I would say we have a few charges we can add to Prime Lot's budding rap sheet, wouldn't you say?"

Peach just gives him a nod.  "I'll get a new poster for him out right away."  With that, Peach stands up and trots out of the office.  Bill lets out a breath as he dives into the pile of papers, hoping to find answers for some of the questions still lingering in his mind.





Scarlett and Mercury had been skulking along various back alleys and moving to the dockside area of the city.  Mercury had went and got a refund for Scarlett's original ticket to leave Van Hoover by train.  Combined with the bits he had, the two should be able to get to another town or city and then head to Las Pegasus from there.  As they got closer to the actual docks, Mercury turned to face Scarlett.

"I want you to lay low here for a moment" he told her.  "I'm going to go find a ship captain and try to buy us safe passage out of here."

"Okay" Scarlett replied, then moved to hide behind a set of shipping crates.

Mercury gave her a smile and turned to step out from behind the crate.  Walking over to one vessel, he saw the captain, or at least who he assumed was captain, a unicorn stallion, going over some paperwork; most likely the cargo manifest.  As Mercury got closer, the clopping of his hooves caught the captain's attention.

"Can I help you?" the captain asked with an appraising look.

"Possibly" replied Mercury.  "I have a... delicate situation.  My marefriend and I really want to get married, but her family doesn't approve of me.  They're unicorns purists and I'm a pegasus, so, you know how that can go?"

The captain doesn't verbally respond, but does nod his head in agreement.

"Anyway," Mercury continues, "They're so against it that they're trying to split us up.  We were gonna head to the train station, but they're already waiting for us, and the same goes for the sky chariots.  I wanna buy passage out of the city so my beloved and I can get married in Las Pegasus.  Once it's done, then we can plan our next move together.  So, can I pay you for passage out of the city?"  As Mercury finishes the sentence, he holds up a bag of bits, giving his hoof a slight shake so the metal coins clink together to give the captain an idea of how much the pegasus before him is willing to pay.

Unfortunately for Mercury, the captain shakes his head no.  "I'm sorry, lad," he tells him, "but I have no free cabins on my ship right now, and I can't put you and your marefriend up in a cargo hold either.  We have to have a safety officer aboard to make sure we follow regulations, and he answers directly to the ponies that answer directly to the princesses in Canterlot, so he may as well be answering directly to them."

Mercury looked deflated.  The captain put a hoof on his shoulders and offered sympathy.  "I know what it's like to have a forbidden love" he told Mercury.  "Once upon a time, I had a special earth pony filly in my life.  She loved me as hard as she loved me, if you catch my drift."

Mercury just gave a small laugh and nodded.

The captain continued speaking.  "We tried to elope, but her parents separated us.  Of course, it would've helped them more if the little trysts between my filly friend and I didn't bear the fruit of passion.  He's my first mate now, and gonna make a fine captain someday.  When she and her family found out, well, I had to make an honest mare of the girl.  Ain't regretted one day of it."

"I wish I could help you out, but I simply don't have the space."

Mercury gave a nod, and then asked if the captain knew of any other ships that might grant them passage.  He gestured further down the docks to another ship similar to his own.  Mercury thanked him and walked over to where Scarlett was hiding.

"He won't let us aboard his ship," he told Mercury, "but he said there's another vessel further down that might have rooms to buy passage from.  Come on."

Scarlett gave a nod and the two slinked back into the alleyway, working down towards the ship in question.  Once they got close enough to take a look and check the situation, the two ponies felt pits form in their stomachs.

At this end of the dock was the station for the dock master, the pony in charge of coordinating all the ships coming into and departing from the city.  The pony, a rather bulky mare, was speaking with two VHPF officers, both pegasi.  They were showing the mare a wanted poster, likely the one for Scarlett.

"Horseapples!" Mercury cursed as he ducked out of sight.  He looked at Scarlett with apologetic eyes.  "The police are here and showing your poster to the dock master.  Now the ship captains will be watching for you.  We're gonna have to think of another way out of the city."

Scarlett looked at him fearfully.  No train, no sky chariot, and no ship.  The only way out was on hoof, and those hoofpaths would be watched by the police.  The mare and stallion were caught like a mouse between a cat's paws.

Mercury saw the look on her face and offered her some small amount of hope.  "Don't be scared" he said to her.  "I'll find us a way out of this."

The look and kind words made Scarlett feel better about the situation, and she smiled back at the stallion, who looked away slightly and blushed.  Scarlett hoped that meant that he felt something for her like she did him.

"Oi!" came the voice of a mare.  "You lot behind the crates!  Get out here before the bobbies come back there for ya!"

Mercury cursed under his breath again.  He had to step out and leave Scarlett.  "I gotta go out there and try to distract from the situation.  Please stay here and out of sight.  If I don't come back soon, wait an hour and sneak back down the alleyway.  My apartment is over on Chincoteague Street, big orange building, C2.  You should be able to hide there safely."  He passed her a key and gave her a smile, then turned and stepped out from behind the crate.

"You tosser!" the dock master berated him.  "Why were you hiding out behind those crates?"

Mercury looked her square in the eyes as he answered her.  "I needed a quiet moment and nopony was back there."

The police ponies looked at Mercury for a moment before giving each other shrugs and producing wanted posters.  One was for a realtor named Prime Lot, and the other was for Scarlett.  "We're looking for these ponies" the one officer told him.  "Have you seen either of these two?"

Mercury took a minute to look over both posters.  He made sure not to linger on either of them for too long, or else the police ponies would get suspicious.  "Nope" he finally answers.  "I've seen the stallion in the newspaper ads, but never in person.  I'm not sure who the mare is."

The answer appears to be good enough for the two ponies, who simply tell him to keep an eye out and tell them if he sees either pony in the posters.  As he turns to walk back to the alleyway, the dock master stops him.

"What do you think you're doin'?" she asks in an accusing manner.

Without skipping a beat, Mercury replies "I left my things over there."

"Well, I'm gonna make sure you collect 'em and get on your way."

Mercury started to get nervous, though he didn't show it.  He didn't have a way to signal Scarlett to tell her to start skulking off now, so unless he could think of something, she was a sitting duck.

"What's yer problem, colt?" she asks him, once again in an accusing way.  "Somethin' over there ya don't want me seein'?"

"Yeah, a wanted mare" he thinks to himself.  Shaking his head, he tells her there's nothing shameful and starts walking back towards the crates.  As he does so, he notices a pebble on the ground.  Taking a chance, he kicks at it with his hoof.  The rock sails through the air and hits the wall just above where Scarlett is hiding.

Unfortunately, this piques Scarlett's interest, and she dares a glance over the crates.  She's met with not just the sight of Mercury and the burly mare heading towards her, but two pegasi police officers following behind the pair.

"Quiet moment, my flank!" the dock master announces loudly.  "This stud's hidin' a filly back there!"

Mercury panics and runs for Scarlett, yelling for her to run as well.  He hears wings and dives out of the way, causing the one police pony to swoop right by him.

"Stop!" the other police pony shouts, but Mercury is already airborne by this point.  He flapped his wings as hard as he could, but his injuries were acting up on him, reducing his speed to slightly faster than the police pegasi.  He might've had a chance to get away, but a sudden jolt of electricity stopped him.  As he seized up and fell, he was caught in a magic field and brought gently back to the ground.  "Darn it!" he cursed mentally.  "They have unicorn guards backing up the pegasi searching for Scarlett and that stallion!"  As quickly as he touched ground, he was just as quickly arrested.

Scarlett would've seen the unicorns and warned Mercury about them, but as soon as she heard him shout run, she turned and bolted back down the alley.  Ducking past random garbage cans and empty fruit crates, she made her way to the end of the alleyway with full intent of finding a crowd somewhere and getting lost in it.

As she emerged from the alleyway and went to look around, a massive jolt of electricity caused her muscles to seize and knocked her to the ground.  Before she could recover, a police pony was on top of her, applying hoof manacles to her forelegs and a magic nullifying ring to her horn.  "You are under arrest" the police pony said to her as she passed out from the sensation of being stunned by a unicorn spell.
> Part III, Chapter 9 - Opening Statements
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax was woken up early by a guard of the prison banging on the metal bars of his cell.  He had only a few seconds to shake the cobwebs from his mind as the guard unlocked the cell and came inside to get him.  He was then led from his cell to the prison shower where he could wash up.

After his shower, Thorax was led out of the prison to the Crystal Heart where he was aloud to feed.  As he did so, he thought about his original goal of sharing love and friendship with ponies, and how it now seemed extremely unlikely, if not outright impossible to accomplish.

Without warning, the collar Thorax wore as a prisoner was slapped back onto his neck and locked into place, cutting off his morning meal as well as his train of thought.  The guards next took him to the courthouse, where he was led to the holding cells and left until the trial against him would officially begin.

As he sat there, Thorax couldn't help but feel worry making a pit inside him; his entire future depended on the outcome of this trial.  He could only hope that Plea had prepared a sufficient defense.  From what he could tell and what he was told, the stallion had spent a great deal of time on his case, examining all the evidence and interviewing all the witnesses.  He only hoped that the trial strategy Plea had devised would be effective.

An hour or so later, a pair of guards came for Thorax and took him to Courtroom V for the beginning of the trial.  Upon entering the courtroom, the changeling saw Plea sitting at the defense table.  An audience of reporters was also gathered near the fence that separated the audience seating from the main trial area.  Upon noticing him, the ponies with cameras began snapping pictures.  The bright flashes blinded Thorax for a moment, but he recovered enough to find his seat.  The guards then secured him to the table and chair, the bindings only giving enough slack to allow him to stand up when instructed.

"How ya doin' Thorax?" Plea asked him.

"About as well as a pony being put on trial for a crime can feel" Thorax answered flatly.  Plea noted the depression in the changeling's voice.

"Well, we'll see what we can do about that" came Plea's response, as he went back to reading a paper and reciting the words on it.

"What're you doing?" Thorax then asked him.

Plea looked up and showed him the paper.  "I'm rehearsing my opening statement" he answered.  "I only get the one chance to deliver it, and I want to make sure I get this right."  He then returned to practicing.

Thorax then sat back and looked over the courtroom again.  This time, he noticed the prosecution.  State Evidence was here again, and had a new set of ponies with her.  They were sorting through several stacks of papers and conversing amongst themselves.

"What are they doing?" Thorax asked Plea.

Plea stopped rehearsing his opening statement and gave a quick look towards the prosecution table.  "They're pretty much doing the same as us" he answered.  "State is likely going over her opening statement and the two lackeys are giving her their opinion on things she might improve."

"Okay" Thorax replied.  "What about the trial?  How's that gonna go?"

"Pretty simple" Plea answered.  "I already gave you an overview before, but I'll review what is specifically going to happen today."

"We'll start with the opening statements, which is where the prosecution will declare the goal of their argument, and where we will declare ours.  After the opening statements are given, the prosecution gets to present their side of the case."

Thorax gave a nod of understanding, the trial process being made a little bit clearer to him.  Plea went back to rehearsing his opening statement, while Thorax elected to look around.  He looked back at the audience area and saw several news ponies looking in his direction.  As he did, several with cameras took his photo, blinding him with camera flashes.  Thorax looked away and tried to blink the spots out of his eyes.

As he tried to clear his eyes, a bailiff walked in and made his announcements.  "All rise for their royal highnesses, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor."

All the ponies and Thorax stood up and looked to the upper balcony of the audience area, where Princess Cadance and her husband entered.  She had her mane well brushed and styled, and she strode with grace to the seat which was set out for her, one with plush faux leather covering the seat and back.  Once she sat down, everypony in the courtroom bowed to her, which she returned with a simple lowering of her head.  As she lifted it back up, she caught sight of Thorax, and a look of what the changeling swore was revulsion crossed her face.  It appeared to him that this trial was very quickly dissolving her opinion of him.

The captain, however, was smiling, though Thorax could tell this smile was because the stallion felt that his opinion was being vindicated after all of his opposition to the changeling being permitted to stay in the empire.  Thorax swore that he could still feel the hate the prince had for him even through the collar.

"Remain standing for the honorable judge Iron Gavel" instructed the bailiff.  The ponies kept standing as the judge entered the courtroom and took his place atop the pulpit.  After sitting down, the judge instructed the ponies in the courtroom to do the same, which they did.  He looked through a few papers before addressing the ponies on the prosecution, defense and jury.

"This trial will decide whether or not the accused, one Thorax the changeling, is guilty of the crimes of attempted foalnapping, endangerment of a foal, and assault against three stallions.  I must ask all ponies on the prosecution and defense to conduct themselves in a civil manner.  I will not have my courtroom evolve into needless bickering and immature name calling.  You will present your evidence and question your witnesses, and you will do nothing to antagonize either side."

"With that being said, prosecutor, you may make your opening statement."

State Evidence stood up and walked in front of the jury, where the twelve selected ponies were all sitting, attentive and ready to hear the evidence and testimony about to be put before them.  State cleared her throat and began making her opening statement.

"Mares and stallions of the jury, a terrible crime was perpetrated not long ago here in our empire.  That crime was the attempt to abduct a filly.  Fortunately, members of our guard were quick to the scene, and were able to prevent the crime from going further than it did."

"When all the evidence and testimony at the scene was review, it was determined that the defendant, a changeling, was responsible for the act.  This changeling, from what we've been told, is the very same one that only a week before the crime took place, was presented to us as wanting to make peace with our empire."

"While it is not my position to pass judgement, it appears very much that that proclamation was a farce meant to make us lower our guard and be more susceptible to an attack, which seems to be the case in this situation."

"Now, it is not your job to use your own opinions about the defendant in deciding whether or not the defendant is guilty.  It is, however, your responsibility to determine whether or not the evidence and testimony shown to you during this trial indicates whether or not the defendant is guilty and should be punished accordingly."

"While that is your responsibility, it is mine to bring to you that evidence and testimony so that you may see for yourself what the right answer to the question of the defendant's guilt is, and I shall perform this duty to the best of my abilities.  Thank you."

State went back and sat down at the prosecution table.  Thorax gulped as he saw the confident look she wore.  He had no doubt she intended to do everything that she swore she would do.

"Defense, you may now make your opening statement" the judge said, catching Thorax's attention.  Plea, who had paused to listen to State's opening statement, took a sip from the glass of water on the table, stood up and approached the jury.  Clearing his throat, he began his opening statement.

"Mares and stallions of the jury, it is indeed true that you have been called here today to hear testimony and be shown evidence in regards to crimes that occurred not too long ago here in our empire.  However, as much as the prosecution is counting on presenting evidence to prove guilt, they are also counting on you to act on something us ponies never talk too much about: prejudice."

"It is no secret that my client is a changeling, one of the creatures responsible for the attack on Canterlot some time ago.  I'm sure that none of you will argue that that incident has caused a great many of us to have an unfavorable opinion of changelings, and perhaps even created a desire in some to punish one when the opportunity to do so presents itself.  Right now, there is a changeling here, on trial for a crime, with the opportunity available to all of you to exact revenge upon the changelings by punishing one of them with a trip to the dungeons."

"Now, nopony can fault you for wanting to see the changelings face the consequences for their actions, but I must ask all of you a question before you make up your minds to find this changeling guilty and enact this revenge you desire.  Is it worth it?"

Confused looks passed over the jury as they thought over Plea's question.  Plea continued speaking.

"Is it worth it to send this changeling to the dungeons as an act of revenge, when in doing so, you could very well be convicting the defendant of a crime they did not actually commit?  I don't believe it would be worth it, because to do that would undermine our justice system.  A justice system where everypony, and every creature, is tried and convicted based on evidence, and not based on our own personal viewpoints.  It is, after all, innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around."

"As you hear the evidence and enter into deliberation, I must ask you to remember that this conviction mustbe based solely on the evidence before you, and not your own personal feelings.  If the evidence shows that the defendant didn't commit the crime, then it is your responsibility to make sure that they are not convicted of the crime.  Thank you."

Plea turned and returned to his seat, taking a sip of water as he did so.  Thorax looked at the jury; some of them were lost in thought, while others were staring daggers into him.  He swallowed a breath and hoped that Plea could present evidence that even the jurors couldn't deny proved his innocence.

The judge interrupted Thorax's train of thought as he addressed the courtroom.

"Prosecutor, you may now call your first witness."
> Part III, Chapter 10 - Prosecution's Arguments - Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author's Note - As this part begins the portion of the trial where witness testimony will be heard, portions where the witness will give testimony will be written as a transcript.






State Evidence went through her witness list and decided who she would call first.  Thorax and Plea both waited as the mare prepared to examine her first witness.  After a few moments, she stood up and announced her decision.

"Prosecution calls Heavy Hitter to the stand."

A moment after she said this, Thorax heard a set of hooves walking up behind him.  Turning around to face the source, his eyes went wide upon seeing the red earth pony that attempted to tackle him in that alleyway.  The bailiff walked over to the small gate separating the audience area from the trial area and opened it, allowing Heavy Hitter to approach the witness stand.  Once he stepped up to the stand and took a seat, the bailiff approached him.

"Please raise your right hoof" the bailiff told Heavy, who complied by raising said hoof.  "Heavy Hitter," he continued, "You are a witness to events pertaining to charges levied by this court against the defendant, Thorax.  Your truthfulness in your testimony will be paramount in determining if the defendant is guilty as charge or innocent of the accusations against him.  Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, under penalty of perjury for giving false testimony?"

"I do" came Heavy Hitter's response.  

The bailiff nodded to the judge, who returned it and looked at State Evidence.  After receiving the go-ahead from the judge, she approached the stand and began her questioning.





SE - Would you state your name for the record please?

HH - Heavy Hitter, ma'am.

SE - If you would, please recall the events that occurred approximately two weeks ago.

HH - Well, my friends and I were on our way to the open air market held every Saturday in front of the Crystal Palace.  We were nearly there when we heard a filly calling for help.  We weren't sure what was happening, but we figured that we should see what was going on.  We came across an alleyway, and when we checked it, we saw three changelings that had a filly backed up against a wall.

SE - Three changelings, you say?

HH - Yes, ma'am.  They were preparing to abduct the filly.

(shocked gasps)

SE - They were attempting to abduct the filly?  Are you certain?

HH - Fairly certain.

SE - Did you report them to the guard?

HH - Not at that moment.

SE - Why not at that moment?

HH - There were no guards around to report it too.  The only ponies that could help her were my friends and myself?

SE - So you and your friends took on a trio of changelings?  Seems awful risky.

HH - In hindsight, not the smartest choice, but it's the only one other than go hunting for a guard and leaving her to be taken.

SE - I suppose that would be the only option available in that situation.  So what happened next?

HH - Well, my friends Velvet Dice and Leather Whip crept up behind two of the changelings and charged up spells to use on them.  I snuck up too, but since I can't use unicorn magic, I had to wait for the right moment to wheel around and buck one with my hooves.

SE - Your friends were charging up spells?  What kind of spells?

HH - I'm not a unicorn, but my best guess was that they were supposed to be stunning spells of some sort.

SE - What led you to that assumption?

HH - After they released the spells, the changelings flinched back and fell to the ground and didn't move for a few moments.

SE - That does sound typical of stunning spells.  What happened with the third changeling?

HH - He got startled by the other two suddenly falling over and turned around to face us.  By the time he got around to look at us, I was already facing away from him with my hind legs cocked for a good strong kick.

SE - What was the result of your attack?

HH - I connected solid with his head and he wheeled back and fell down.  He was out cold before he hit the ground.

SE - So you're attack knocked the third changeling out?  Quite a feat.  I notice that you have a sledgehammer as your cutie mark.  Does this mean your special talent is delivering hard blows?

HH - More or less.  Honestly, I got it while helping one of my uncles with their construction company.  After I got it, all the other stallions there said I got it because I was a one pony wrecking crew.

SE - Judging by your overall size and build, I can understand why they'd say that.  As for your blow, do you know if it caused any kind of injury to the changeling?

HH - I don't believe so.  He wasn't bleeding and none of his fangs broke off.  Nopony likes them, but I have to admit, they are pretty durable and can take a pretty good beating.

SE - What happened next?

HH - The two that my friends had knocked out had gotten back up and were about to come after us, but I think they heard guards coming so they took off.

SE - Didn't they make an effort to grab their third?

HH - No.  They looked like they wanted to get away in a hurry.

SE - What happened after they left?

HH - We went to look over the filly.  She must've passed out from the strain of the situation because she was unconscious when we got to her.

SE - Are you sure she wasn't under the influence of a knockout spell?

HH - Like I said earlier, I don't understand unicorn magic, so I guess that maybe it was, but why wouldn't the changelings have just led with that?

SE - That does make sense.  I seem to remember a moment ago that you said the spells your friend used only stunned the two changelings momentarily.  I take it they got back up shortly after you checked the filly?

HH - We'd just finished looking her over when we heard hissing behind us.  The other two had gotten up and were going to try and catch us off guard.

SE - Did they succeed?

HH - In a sense.  We were definitely surprised to see them get up as quickly as they did.

SE - If they had the drop on you, how did you manage to escape?

HH - They were getting ready to pounce when the one stopped and then stopped the other.  The acted like they were listening and then looked at the third.  They both shook their heads and took off down the alley.

SE - What do you think they heard?

HH - I believe it was the guard approaching.

SE - So what did you do when the guards showed up?

HH - They didn't arrive until a few moments later.  In that time, we saw the third changeling trying to recover and take the filly.  I gave him one good shot to the back of the head and knocked him out again.  Once we were sure he was out cold, we noticed he grabbed the filly's tail, and being unable to open his jaws, we cut her tail hair to get her free.

SE - When the guards did show up, what did you tell them?

HH - The first guard we saw was a stallion, and we told him the story we told you.  His backup arrived as he was assessing the scene.  That's when he recognized the third changeling and said that it was the one the princess had allowed to stay here.

SE - If this was the same changeling, then you should be aware that his magic was being restricted by a ring on his horn.  Was he wearing that ring when you found him?

HH - I can't recall.  I know the guard found a broken ring in the alley when they started looking around for evidence.  The other two probably helped him remove and destroyed it so the guards couldn't put it back on right away.

SE - So, to recap, you were going to the market, heard three changelings attack a filly, attacked them in order to save the filly, with two of them running off and leaving their third behind, and then gave your testimony about what happened to the guard who first got to the scene.  Is that correct?

HH - That is pretty much the gist of what happened.

SE - Thank you.  I have no further questions for now.





Thorax didn't like the sound of the story.  It would sound plausible to the ponies, but he knew that changelings would not be caught by surprise.  Training in the hive dictated that any time an enemy made an attempt to surprise them, they were to react immediately with hostility.  Of course, revealing this information to ponies would probably not bode very well for how ponies would perceive him.

The judge interrupted Thorax's thoughts by clearing his throat.  "Defense, you may now cross examine the witness" he told Plea.  Plea examined his notes and stood up, walking over to the witness stand.





PB - Mister Heavy Hitter, you said you and your friends were heading to the market, correct?

HH - I did.

PB - And you witnessed a trio of changelings attacking a filly?

HH - Yes.

PB - And your friends and you all attacked the changelings, briefly stunning two of them and knocking one out cold?

HH - We did.

PB - You said your friends used spells on the changelings.  Do you happen to know what kind?

HH - No.  All I know is they were spells that they'd been taught as a means to defend themselves.  They were just some simple stunning spells, I think.

PB - Stunning spells?  Are you sure that's what they were?

HH - All I know is they used the spells on the changelings and it incapacitated them for a moment or so.

PB - Those do sound like stunning spells with how you describe them.  Now, you said before that the changeling you kicked, also known as the defendant, you didn't show any signs of outward damage.  However, a brief medical assessment of him at the scene revealed discoloration of hit chitin, which is consistent of bruising in his kind.  Would you please explain the contradicting statements?

HH - I looked him over after the first kick.  The second one must've caused the bruising.

PB - I suppose that's possible.  I have one more question for you.  I took notice as you approached the witness stand that you seem to walk awkwardly, as though you've hurt your barrel somehow.  Can you tell us if you did injure yourself and how you managed that?

HH - I did become injured, but not that day.  I received a letter from my marefriend about a week and a half ago.  My one friend, who I leave nameless, stole it from me and was teasing me about it.  I chased after him to reclaim the letter, but as we entered our kitchen, I slipped on some tiles and ran barrel first into our kitchen island.  It was sturdy built and I hit pretty hard, so my barrel is rather sore because of it.

PB - Sounds kind of serious.  Did you see a doctor about it?

HH - An uncle of one of my friends is a physician.  He gave me a look over and said it wasn't too serious.  Just rest and put ice on it every now and then and I'd be fine.

PB - Interesting.  I have no further questions.





"The witness is excused," the judge said announced.  Heavy Hitter gave a nod and stepped down from the bench.  The judge wrote some things down before telling State Evidence to call her next witness.

"Prosecution calls Leather Whip to the stand."

As before, a stallion Thorax was way too familiar with made his way to the witness stand.  He was swore in with the same oath as Heavy Hitter, and he then took a seat.  State Evidence approached the witness stand and began her questioning.





SE - Please state your name for the record.

LW - Leather Whip, ma'am.

SE - Please, in your own words, recall the events that transpired a couple of weeks ago.

LW - As my friend said before, he, myself and another friend were heading to the market at the base of the Crystal Palace to get some things we needed, and on the way there, we overheard some kind of struggle, and after some searching, we witnessed a group of changelings preparing to abduct a filly.

SE - Could you describe this filly they were trying to take?

LW - Yes.  She had a light mint-green coat, and her mane and tail were a raspberry red color.

SE - Did she have a cutie mark?

LW - Yes.  A raspberry with two mint leaves on top of it.

SE - And you saw a group of changelings trying to foalnap her?

LW - Yes, ma'am.

SE - How many changelings were in the group?

LW - Three.

SE - Only three?

LW - If there were more, we never saw them.

SE - What did you do after seeing the changelings attempting to abduct the filly?

LW - We looked around for a guard, but didn't see any near by.  My friend Velvet Dice then gave me a looked at me as if to say we were her only hope and had to act before they took her away.

SE - He said all that with a look?

LW - Yes ma'am.  We've been friends for so long, we have a kind of unspoken language between us.

SE - I see.  So, you looked around for a guard and saw none, and that's when you two decided to act?

LW - Yes, ma'am.

SE - How did you approach the situation?

LW - Velvet and I have some basic combat experience, and we knew the best thing to do would be to get the filly and ourselves as far away from the changelings as possible, so we picked the two who were attempting to cocoon the filly and gave cast stunning spells at them.

SE - What happened after you both cast your spells?

LW - Our spells connected, and the two changelings were targeting got knocked out for a few moments.

SE - And what of the third?

LW - Like my friend Heavy told you, he managed to buck the third one hard enough to knock it out cold.

SE - Yes.  He said that he managed to surprise that one.  Did he?

LW - Not quite.  After the two fell down from our spells, the changeling wheeled around to confront us, but Heavy already had his kick wound up and released it before he could react.

SE - So he got knocked out, but the other two regained consciousness?

LW - Yes.  They got back to their feet and were about to attack us when they must've heard the guard.  I suppose they figured their comrade was going to slow them down so they just abandoned him to save their own necks.

SE - I assume the guard showed up sometime shortly after their escape?

LW - They did.  We gave them our story and they investigated to see if they could locate the other two changelings.

SE - Did they find them?

LW - No.  I believe they managed to get away.

SE - I see.  What happened then?

LW - The guards started examining the alleyway for evidence.

SE - What happened with the filly?

LW - She must've passed out from the stress, because she was lying on the ground unconscious.  We offered to take her home, and the guard let us.

SE - The guards let you take her home?

LW - They had plans to take her home, but wouldn't be able to do so until they had dealt with the crime scene.  Since we were free to go until we were subpoenaed to be witnesses, we made the offer so she could recover in a more comfortable place then a dingy alleyway.

SE - How did you know where to take her?

LW - The guard had found out her identity and address and told us where to go.

SE - And the guards just let you take the filly home?

LW - As I said, they were preoccupied with the crime scene and the unconscious changeling, so they couldn't spare any guards at that moment to have one take her home.

SE - I see.  Thank you.  I have nothing further.





State Evidence took her seat at her table.  The judge jotted down some more information and addressed Plea.  "Defense, you may now cross examine the witness," he instructed him.  Plea gave a nod and stood up, approaching the witness stand.





PB - Mister Leather Whip, you said the guards allowed you to take the filly home so that they could process the crime scene.  What happened after you got to the address for the filly?

LW - We met her mother and explained what happened.  She took her daughter to her room to lie down, and then she returned and thanked us for saving her and bringing her home.

PB - Are there any witnesses that can testify to this?

LW - Unfortunately, just the mother and the three of us.

PB - So we only have your words to go on?

SE - Your honor, I object to that question.  He's implying that the witness is lying.

PB - Your honor, I am simply making the point that there were no other witnesses to corroborate the witness's story, so we can only take what he is telling us at face value.

Judge - Objection overruled.  The question will still be kept on the record.  Mister Whip, please answer the defense's question.

LW - Yes, unfortunately.  As I said, only the mother, my friends, and myself can confirm what happened.

PB - Okay.  Let's go back to the crime as it happened.  You said that you saw three changelings trying to abduct the filly, and decided to step in and save her when there were no royal guards around?

LW - Yes, that's correct.

PB - You also said that you used some basic combat spells to get the drop on the changelings, correct?

LW - Yes, we did.

PB - Would you please give a rough description of the spells that you used?  Nothing overly complicated; just a simple description of the intended effects.

LW - Well, the basic goal of the spell was to momentarily stun the target.  For my spells, I elected to put more mana behind them than I normally would have.

PB - Why did you decide to add more mana?

LW - I had read some stories told by the royal guard after the Canterlot invasion.  According to them, the spells they used were either too weak to have the desired effect or had no effect at all.

PB - You added more mana because you had read that the guards in Canterlot during the invasion, who would've been using more powerful combat magic due to the heightened threat level beforehoof, in order to make your spells more effective?

LW - I can only tell you what I did, not whether or not what I did was more effective than what royal guards can do.

PB - I have no further questions, but I may end up recalling you later.





Plea returned to his seat and jotted down notes on his yellow pad, then took a sip of water.  The judge cleared his throat and addressed State again.  "You may call your next witness" he told her.

State Evidence once again reviewed her notes and then stood up.  "Prosecution calls Velvet Dice to the stand" she announced.  A green unicorn that Thorax was familiar with stood up and approached the witness stand.  He was sworn in and took his seat.  State approached the stand to begin her examination.





SE - Please state your name for the record.

VD - Velvet Dice, ma'am.

SE - Please tell us what happened approximately two weeks ago in your own words.

VD - Well, as my two friends said before, we were heading to the market to pick up some things when we saw three changelings trying to foalnap a filly.  We didn't see any guards nearby, so we decided to step in and try to stop them.

SE - According to previous testimony, you and your friend Leather Whip used some basic combat spells to attempt to subdue the changelings.  Is that correct?

VD - Not exactly.  We were only going to stun them long enough to grab the filly and get away.

SE - So you decided to attack and did so.  Did the changelings react?

VD - Not immediately.  Two of them froze up and fell to the ground.  The third was caught off guard, and that's when Heavy bucked him hard with his hooves.

SE - Now, a guard appeared not too long after the altercation, correct?

VD - Yes, but two of the changelings that Leather and I had stunned recovered and got away.

SE - Was there an effort to locate them?

VD - Yes, but unfortunately, they got away.

SE - But the third one didn't?

VD - No, he did not.

SE - Is that third changeling here today?

VD - Yes, he is (points to defendant)

(audience becomes unruly)

Judge - (bangs gavel) Order!  I will have order in this court!

(audience calms down)

Judge - Prosecutor, please continue your questioning.

SE - After the guard's search, what did you do?

VD - They asked us for statements, which we provided.

SE - What about the filly?

VD - The stress was too much for her and she passed out.

SE - Did she ever give a statement?

VD - No, or at least she didn't give one then.

SE - What happened with her?

VD - The guard identified her and came up with an address, but we overheard them saying that they were too busy examining the scene to take her home.  We offered to do so.

SE - Did she get home?

VD - Yes.  She's at home with her mother, as far as I know.

SE - Thank you.  I have nothing further.





State Evidence took her seat.  She wore a confident and smug grin on her face, feeling as though she had won the trial already.  Plea and Thorax watched the exchange.  Thorax was worried, but Plea was confident.  "How can you be so confident?" he asked the attorney.

Plea looked at him with a smile.  "Because I just thought of some questions that should help our case." he replied.  Any further conversation was interrupted by the judge speaking.

"The defense may now cross examine the witness."





PB - Velvet Dice, correct?

VD - Yes, sir.

PB - You claim to have used a basic spell on the changelings to stun them.  If you could please give a simplified explanation of the kind of spell you used.

VD - Well, the general idea of the spell was to stun the target momentarily.  In that instance, it seemed to only work for a few seconds.

PB - Enough time to get the filly away.

VD - Yes, sir.

PB - Let's talk about that filly for a moment.  You said the guard found her name and her address, correct?

VD - They did.

PB - Would you please tell us the name of the filly, please.

VD - According to what the guard told us, her name is Raspberry Mint.

PB - According to the guard?  So they could've been wrong and given you the wrong information?

VD - Umm...

SE - Your honor, I object to this line of questioning.  It has no bearing on the case.

PB - Your honor, this trial we're having is to determine whether or not my client is guilty of the charges filed against him, and since one of those charges is endangering the welfare of a filly, I would think the child's well being after the incident would be important to this trial.

Judge - Objection overruled.  The well being of the filly will factor in to the verdict of the charges against the defendant.  Mr. Dice, please answer the question.

VD - The guards didn't give us the wrong information.  When we took her home, her mother was there to greet us, and the mare told us the same name the guards had told us the mother was.

PB - But, was the mare waiting there at the address for the filly the real mother, or one of the changelings that tried to abduct her earlier, according to your story?

VD - ...

PB - You mean to tell me that you turned over a child to a mare that you did not ensure was truly her mother?

SE - Your honor, I object to that question.  The witness made a reasonable effort to confirm the mare was the filly's mother.  Coupled with the fact that the guards later visited the address for the filly and checked both mother and child.as stated in their official report, makes this line of questioning pointless.

Judge - Objection sustained.  Mr. Plea Bargain, I ask you to discontinue this line of questioning.

PB - Yes, your honor.  I have no more questions for the moment, but I may recall the witness later.





Plea went back to the defense table and sat down.  Thorax looked at him uneasily.  "What was the point of that line of questioning?" he asked.

Plea took a sip of water before responding.  "My goal was to cast some doubt on the stallions about parts of their story," the stallion explained, "I plan on doing the same thing later once we can make our arguments and call our expert witnesses."

Thorax didn't say anything, and chose to look at the judge and see what was going to happen next.  As for the judge, he instructed State Evidence to continue with her witnesses.  "Prosecution calls Lieutenant Onyx Stronghoof to the stand."

A pony in a simple dress uniform stood up and approached the stand.  Thorax recognized him immediately; it was the stallion who had arrested and spat on him.  The stallion approached the stand and was sworn in.  Once he took his seat, State approached and began her questioning.





SE - Please state your name for the record.

OS - Onyx Stronghoof, 1st Lieutenant of the Crystal Empire Guard, ma'am.

SE - So, you're a guard?

OS - Yes, ma'am.

SE - If you would please, recall the events from approximately two weeks ago.

OS - I was stationed with my squad to watch over the open market being held at the base of the Crystal Palace.  We were spread out around the perimeter and were watching the market for potential dangers and potential wrongdoing.

SE - What kind of wrongdoing?

OS - It's not uncommon for a pony to try and take something from a stand without paying.  It's doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

SE - Did anything like that happen that day?

OS - No, ma'am.  The market was relatively quiet in that regard.

SE - So you were stationed at the open air market.  Did anything notable happen?

OS - Yes.  We witnessed the defendant in the market with a pony from the palace staff.  They were visiting various market stalls.

SE - The defendant was in the market with a member of the palace staff?  Did they look in distress?

OS - No ma'am.  In truth, she looked as though she was having a somewhat good time.

SE - What about the defendant?

OS - He... looked nervous.

SE - Nervous?

OS - Yes.  He kept watching the ponies around him.  I'm not sure why.

SE - Considering the events that occurred later that day, do you think he was waiting for some kind of signal from the other two changelings?

PB - Possibly.

SE - What happened next?

OS - We were keeping watch of him when a group of ponies approached him.  From what we could hear, they were verbally harassing him.

SE - Verbally harassing him?  Did you intervene?

OS - Not immediately.  We were instructed by the captain of the guard that we were only to concern ourself with the physical safety of the defendant.  Since he wasn't being attacked physically, we didn't see a reason to intervene.

SE - What happened after the ponies began harassing him?

OS - He appeared to have a panic attack and flew off to another part of the city.

SE - Which I assume is the point at which you followed him?

OS - We began pursuit once I gathered my guards and informed them of how we were to search for him.

SE - How you were to search?

OS - Yes.  The captain gave us instructions on how to flush out changelings that could be in disguise.  After I gave them their instructions, we took off in search of the defendant.

SE - And did you find him?

OS - We did.  More specifically, I did.  I took to the air and was checking the alleyways when I saw three stallions gathered around a black colored equine shape.  After I landed, I confirmed that it was the defendant.

SE - What state was he in when you found him?

OS - He was unconscious, and appeared to have an injury to the back of his head.

SE - How could you tell he was injured there?

OS - I observed discoloration on the defendant's carapace, which is consistent for injuries in the defendant's species.

SE - So you have first hand evidence that changelings will get discolored chitin if they sustain physical injury?

OS - Yes, I do.

SE - And where did you acquire this knowledge?

OS - The defendant was attacked in the Crystal Palace about a month or so ago.  Two of the staff disguised themselves as changelings and tried beating him to death in a hallway in the palace.

(shocked gasps from the audience section)

(shocked gasps from the juror section)

SE - So what the princess told us from about that same time was true?

OS - Yes, it was.

SE - Since he's here on trial today, we can assume he recovered.

OS - Yes, he did.

SE - Can you describe what happened after the attack on him?

PB- Your honor, I object to this line of questioning.  It holds no bearing on the case at hoof.

Judge - Objection sustained.  Prosecutor, please keep your questions on the topic of the crime for which the defendant is being tried.

SE - Sorry, your honor.  Back to the attempted foalnapping.  You arrived on the scene first and determined that the defendant was there and had an injury to their head?

OS - Yes, he did.

SE - What did the three stallions do?

OS - As soon as I landed, they started telling me about the attempt to abduct the foal.

SE - What did you do after you had all of their statements?

OS - I kept the three in the alley until backup showed up, which was only moments after I arrived.  We cordoned off the area and began examining the alleyway for evidence.  Once I was certain the scene was secure, I had another guard take an official written statement from the three stallions and then I arrested the defendant.

SE - Did the defendant resist arrest at all?

OS - No, he did not.

SE - Okay.  On to the filly.  What happened with her?

OS - One of our female guards gave her a brief physical inspection for any signs of trauma, as per guard regulations.  Once we determined she was fine and not injured, we went about identifying her and determining her home address so she could be taken back to her mother.

SE - The filly was correctly identified as being one Raspberry Mint?

OS - Yes, she was.

SE - Now, the three previous witnesses testified that you allowed them to take the filly home.  Is that correct?

OS - Yes, that is correct.

SE - Why did you allow them to do that?

OS - We were still in the process of examining the alleyway for evidence, and couldn't immediately take the filly back at that time.  The three witnesses said they overheard us we read off her address and told us that they lived not far away from her and said they would take her home if we would allow it.  I allowed them, but only after warning them that if the filly was not at her home address when we checked on her later, we would take them in on suspicion of foalnapping.

SE - Was there a follow up to make sure the filly returned home safely?

OS - A guard visited the address that was listed as being the home for the young filly.  The filly was seen there and the mother was identified as being one Mint Julep.

SE - Was any confirmation made that the mare was indeed Mint Julep and not a disguised changeling?

OS - A magic detection spell was performed on the mare and no evidence of changeling magic was found on her.

SE - Is the spell used foolproof?

OS - It is the newest variation of the detection spell, created a few days earlier by the crystaller himself.  Nopony has had enough time yet to study the matrices and find a workaround to beat the spell.

SE - Could such a thing happen?

OS - It's rare, but it happens sometimes.  That's why the guard is always looking for good unicorns to serve in our mage corps.

SE - Thank you.  I have nothing further.





State Evidence took her seat, satisfied with the questioning session.  In that moment, Thorax thought of something and brought it to Plea's attention.  Plea looked at him for a moment and smiled.  "That may help," he told Thorax, "But it might also hurt, depending on how these ponies feel."

"The defense may now cross-examine the witness" the judge said to Plea, who stood up and approached the witness stand.





PB - So, Lieutenant Stronghoof, you were the arresting officer when my client was taken into custody, correct?

OS - Yes, I was.

PB - Please recall the process of arresting my client.

OS - The changeling was unconscious when we got to the scene.  He came to shortly thereafter, and spat something from his mouth.

PB - What did he spit out?

OS - It was later confirmed, but I speculated at the time it was hair from the filly.

PB - So, my client came to shortly after you arrived.  I take it he was treated fairly, with no unpleasant actions taken against him?

OS - ...Not exactly.

PB - Would you please explain.

OS - One of the witnesses pointed out the broken inhibitor ring that our forensic squad collected as evidence.  Realizing that the changeling's magic was unrestrained, we acted with an appropriate amount of force that would be used for when a unicorn is being taken into custody.

PB - According to my client, he was kicked swiftly in the barrel so as to knock him down and keep him from standing up.  Is this true?

OS - Yes, it is.  Protocol dictates that when apprehending a suspect, only use force enough to subdue the offender.  The kick was meant to keep him on the ground so he would be unable to run.

PB - And what about the spit?

OS - Beg pardon?

PB - The spit?  According to my client, you spat on him rather contemptuously after kicking him to the ground.

SE - Your honor, I object.  That claim is not part of the official statement collected from the defendant.  The claim can only be accepted as hearsay.

Judge - Objection sustained.  Lieutenant Stronghoof, you do not have to answer that question.  Mister Plea Bargain, please keep the topics of your questions relating to witness testimony to that information contained within them.

PB - Yes, your honor.  I have no further questions.





Plea returned to his seat, his expression looking more somber than before.  Before Thorax could ask any questions, the judge interrupted his thinking.  "The court shall recess for a one hour lunch.  We will reconvene at 1 o'clock."  The judge then banged his gavel and stood up.

"All rise as Judge Iron Gavel and Princess Cadance exit the courtroom," announced the bailiff.  The judge stepped down from the pulpit and exited the courtroom.  Princess Cadance stood up and did the same, but looked at Thorax for several moments before leaving.  Even without his emotion-sensing abilities, he could tell the mare was very upset with him.  Hanging his head, the changeling came to realize why the princess was acting as she was: she was still holding on to her prejudices, and the charges against him were only reinforcing that.  Even if he won the case, he could still be banished from the Crystal Empire anyways.

Plea placed a hoof on Thorax's withers, getting the changeling's attention.  "It's not over," Plea told Thorax, "The prosecution will call the rest of their witnesses, and we get a chance to cross examine them.  Then, we get to call our own witnesses and present our own evidence.  This trial isn't over.  Not by a long shot."  With that, the stallion gathered up all of his case documents and left to go to lunch, while Thorax was taken to the holding area to await the continuation of his trial.
> Part III, Chapter 11 - Prosecution's Arguments - Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax was led back to the courtroom an hour later to rejoin Plea Bargain at the defendant's table.  State Evidence and her two lackeys sat at the prosecution table.  Judge Iron Gavel and Princess Cadance both took their places, and Cadance resumed her glaring at Thorax.  Right now, the changeling wanted to hide under a rock until he was sure it was safe to come out.

Judge Iron Gavel was ready to resume the proceedings.  "State Evidence," he said to the mare, "you may call your next witness."

"Your honor, we call Doctor Micron, our expert witness in crime scene forensics."

A stallion with graying mane and dark brown coat approached the witness stand and was sworn in.  State Evidence approached and began her examination.





SE - Please state your name and occupation for the record.

DM - Doctor Electric Micron.  I am an expert in crime scene forensics. 

SE - And how long have you held this position?

DM - I have held this position for the past fifteen years.

SE - Doctor, did you examine the crime scene where the attempted foalnapping took place?

DM - I did so.

SE - What did you find there?

DM - I was able to locate several things relating to the crime.  Firstly, I found pieces of hair that were reportedly from the filly who was the target of the attempted abduction.  By analyzing the hair, I determined that it came from a female pony of prepubescent age.

SE - How were you able to determine that?

DM - Analysis of chemical components on the hair did not reveal any sign of hormones typically associated with an adolescent female entering puberty.  Medical science has shown that fillies entering into adolescence begin to secrete these hormones from their bodies before any of the more obvious signs associated with the onset of puberty.

SE - Could they not have come from a male pony?

DM - No.  Genetic study of the hair follicle determined the dominant chromosome to be XX, which is the dominant one for females.

SE - Okay.  What else did you find?

DM -   I also found a broken magic inhibitor ring, and found a serial number on the inside of the band.  Tracking that serial number, I was able to confirm that it was one that was meant to be used on the defendant to reduce his magical capabilities to simple telekinesis.

SE - Okay.  Now, you stated that the hair found at the scene came from a pony filly.  Can you determine if they did indeed come from the victim in this crime?

DM - Unfortunately, I cannot determine that.  However, the earlier witnesses confirm seeing the young filly with her mane caught in the defendant's mouth, so I feel confident enough with the facts I found in my analysis combined with their testimony that the hairs did indeed come from the filly that was targeted.

SE - Can you determine if a cutting spell was used on the hair?

DM - I could not determine what exactly was used to cut the filly free from the defendant's mouth.  It could have been a cutting spell, or it could've been a physical knife with a sharpness charm placed on it to help preserve the edge of the blade.  Both use the same fundamental base in spell construction.

SE - I see. What else did you find?

DM - Using a magic signature scanner, we found five traces of magic in the alley way that correspond to the four ponies and one changeling involved.  There were also several other signatures in the alleyway, but their sources could not be determined.

SE - Could any of those belonged to the two changelings that escaped?

DM - I can't say conclusively.  None of the other signatures matched closely to the one confirmed sample from a changeling we have, though it's possible that their magic signatures vary widely from one specimen to another.

SE - Was there any other evidence that you discovered?

DM - Yes, there was.  I examined the area where the changeling was found incapacitated and discovered that he had had combat spells used against him.

SE - So one of the two witnesses used a spell on the third changeling that was knocked out by Heavy Hitter's blow?

DM - Yes.

SE - How did you reach this conclusion?

DM - When the spell was cast, there was a mana spillage.  That's a trait common with almost every spell.  When I analyzed the area the defendant was found, I encountered mana spillage that used spell structure consistent with combat spells.

SE - Interesting.  Tell me, Doctor, when did you collect all of this evidence?

DM - I gathered this evidence shortly after the guard alerted me to a crime being committed.  They had told me that they had kept ponies out of the crime scene until I could collect my samples and bring them back to my analysis lab for study.

SE - Exactly how long is "shortly after"?

DM - I arrived on the scene about a half hour later.

SE - Was the defendant still there when you arrived?

DM - No, he wasn't.  The guard had taken him to prison by the time I had got there.

SE - I see.  Now, about the ring.  Did you do any analysis on it?

DM - The magic of the ring interfered with the machine I use for magic signature analysis, so I couldn't identify who removed it.  I could only examine it and find the serial number that traced it back to being the one used on the defendant.

SE - Is it possible that the ring was removed by another changeling?

DM - It is possible, yes.

SE - Thank you.  I have no further questions.





State took her seat while Thorax looked at her with worry.  With each witness, the mare appeared to be getting more confident.  Plea looked over at her with an unreadable expression.  Before Thorax could ask the stallion what was on his mind, the judge informed him of his turn to cross-examine the witness.





PB - Doctor Micron, you testified that you collected samples of hair that was presumed to be from the filly identified as Raspberry Mint, correct?

DM - Yes, I did.

PB = And when you collected these samples, you did an analysis on them, correct?

DM - Yes.

PB - You said that you did find traces of magic on the hair.  Could you identify who that magic belonged to?

DM - After studying the hair samples and the remaining magic signatures, I determined the magic traces as belonging to the stallion Velvet Dice.

PB - I see.  Doctor Micron, did you do a physical analysis on the hair samples?

DM - I put them through several machines to examine for various magic signatures, testing for everything I could.

PB - Doctor, that isn't what I meant.  What I meant was did you take some samples of hair and examine them under a simple microscope?

DM - I did not personally carry out that portion of the forensic analysis.  The actual physical study of the samples was delegated to an assistant in my laboratory.

PB - Do you have the assistant's name?

DM - Dynamic Prion.  She's a mare.

PB - Do you know what her findings were when she conducted the analysis?

DM - No, I do not.

PB - Oh?  Do you not sign off on her reports?

DM - Dynamic Prion filed her physical analysis reports separately.  The pony above us, Doctor Adenine, is the one who signed off on all the reports.

PB - Okay.  I do have copies of those reports, so I'll have to examine them in more detail later.  Back to the matter of the hair, my original reason for asking that line of questions was to ask you if you saw any evidence to show that the defendant was actually holding the filly by the tail with his mouth.

DM - I have little doubt on that matter.  The defendant was found with the filly's tail hairs in his mouth.  Part of my original analysis did find something akin to saliva on the strands of hair.

PB - But Doctor, is it not possible that the three witnesses could've cut the filly's tail hair off and placed it into the unconscious defendant's mouth in an effort to frame him?

SE - Your honor, I object to that question.  It's purely conjecture.

Judge - Objection sustained.  Doctor, you do not have to answer that question.

PB - I have nothing further your honor, but I may recall the witness later.





Plea Bargain returned to his seat and took a sip from the glass of water.  Thorax continued looking at the stallion nervously.  "Why did you ask that last question?" he asked.

Plea looked at Thorax with a smile.  "I asked that question because it will come into play later on in our expert witness's testimony.  You remember her name, right?"

Thorax thought on it for a moment.  Then it clicked.  "Dynamic Prion?"

Plea nodded.  "When she presents her evidence, I'm going to remind the jurors of the question I asked today, and also present her report, which should help establish the scenario proposed by the question to be much more plausible, and the established narrative of the prosecution to be much less sound."

Thorax nodded.  He could only hope what Plea had just told him would pan out.

Before he could ask anything further, the judge cleared his throat.  "State Evidence, do you have any more witnesses to call forward?"

"No, your honor," she told the judge, "but I would like to submit my evidence at this time."  The mare stepped forward with several items, some paper documents and others actual physical items in bags.

She held up each as she described them.

"For Prosecution Exhibit A, I present samples of the filly Raspberry Mint's hair, recovered from the crime scene."  She presented a bag with several strands of red hair inside it.

"Exhibit B - A portion of the magic inhibiting ring that was found at the crime scene.  The serial number for the ring is visible on the inside portion of the band."  She held up another bag with a piece of ring inside of it.

"Exhibit C - The forensic report filed by Doctor Micron, detailing all of his findings, as well as his conclusions."  She held up a paper, which looked like a very official document, with several swaths of hoofwriting all over it.

"For Exhibit D, I present these crime scene photographs, taken shortly after the defendant was arrested, but before Doctor Micron arrived to collect his samples."  State Evidence then held up several photos, showcasing the alleyway.  One photo was a close up of the hair, and another was of some of the ring fragments on the ground.

"This is everything that I have, your honor," State told Judge Gavel, "The prosecution rests its case."

The judge wrote down some information on his papers and then looked at a nearby clock.  "I will adjourn the court for today.  We will reconvene tomorrow morning at ten o'clock for the defense to make their arguments.  Court is adjourned."  The judge punctuated the dismissal with a loud bang from his gavel.  Slowly, the ponies in the courtroom filed out for the day.





Thorax was taken back to the prison for the evening.  Plea Bargain showed up about an hour after Thorax got back.  He was sitting in the counsel room with a worried expression on his face.  "Is something the matter?" Thorax asked him.

"Just nervous about tomorrow," Plea admitted, "Making our arguments tomorrow is going to be the best chance we have at getting you found innocent."

Thorax placed a hoof on Plea's withers.  "If anypony is gonna give me the best chance in this whole thing, it's definitely you" The changeling offered reassuringly.

Plea looked at him with a halfhearted smile.  "I appreciate your vote of confidence, Thorax," he told the changeling, "but even with all of the hard work I've put in on establishing our defense, it could still be for nothing."

Thorax looked at him confused.  "What makes you think that?"

"State Evidence" the stallion said plainly.

"The prosecutor?" Thorax questioned.

Plea nodded.  "State is good at putting together prosecuting arguments to get ponies convicted, but her real talent, and I'm not talking about her cutie mark talent, is her abilities in cross-examination.  Just like I've tried to turn witness statements around on her, she'll do the same to us."

"How can she turn facts around on us?"

"It's honestly not difficult.  We're already dealing with what is likely to be a prejudiced jury, so it won't take much to convince them that the evidence we're presenting is misrepresenting the facts."

"But it isn't" Thorax pointed out.

"I know," Plea countered, "but in a trial, the jury is tasked with making a judgment about whether or not a defendant is guilty, and they're likely to go with the most convincing argument, which in this case, would be the one most likely to align with their biases."

Thorax slumped down in his seat, the hope that the pony representing him could win the trial diminishing more.  Plea gave him a sympathetic look and tried to offer reassurance.

"It isn't hopeless," he told Thorax, "but the hill we have to climb is pretty steep.  Our best chance will be when we come to the expert witness.  There's some evidence that the prosecution didn't present that we will, and I'm hoping it will be enough that even the most doubting pony on the jury can't deny it."

State then leaned back with a frown and added "Of course, having that filly take the stand and testify would certainly help our case as well."

Thorax thought over what he had been told and offered his own halfhearted smile, still not sure if what Plea was telling him would actually make a difference.

After a few more minutes of discussing trial strategy, Plea was told he had to leave for the evening, and Thorax was taken back to his cell.  That night, the changeling didn't get much sleep, too worried about the outcome of the trial to find peaceful slumber.
> Part III, Chapter 12 - Defense's Arguments - Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax was again awoken by guards starting him on his daily routine: wash up, eat some love, go to court.  After he'd spent almost an hour sitting in the holding cells at the courthouse, he was taken to the courtroom.  Sitting down next to Plea, he took notice that the stallion looked somewhat tired.  "Couldn't sleep either?" he asked him.

Plea turned and gave a chuckle.  "Yeah," he admitted, "Spent several hours last night thinking of anything I could to make our defense stronger.  Unfortunately, I didn't come up with much."

Thorax didn't say anything, but the feelings of discouragement he had were stoked like a flame in a forge.  He questioned if praying to long dead changeling queens would grant him any kind of fortune.

His thoughts were interrupted as the bailiff announced both the princess and judge.  Cadance took up her usual spot, her glare still strongly boring into the changeling.  The judge simply took his place and prepared his paperwork.

"Court is reconvened" he announced, then looked at Plea.  "The defense may now call their first witness."

Plea took a sip from a glass of water in front of him, then stood up.  "Defense calls as its first witness Miss Brass Polish."

Thorax turned to the audience area and saw his friend of nearly four months walk forward and approach the stand, being sworn in, and taking her seat.  The argument to keep him out of prison had officially begun.





PB - Please state your name for the record.

BP - Brass Polish.

PB - What is your current occupation?

BP - I am a custodian in the Crystal Palace.

PB - How long have you been in that role?

BP - About a year now.

PB - How long have you known the defendant?

BP - About four months.

PB - When did you first meet him?

BP - On his first official day here.

PB - Can you describe his behavior at that time?

BP - He was nervous, yet he acted politely.

PB - What were your feelings towards him at that time?

BP - Similar to other ponies.  I didn't much care for changelings after hearing what they had done in Canterlot.  I think it's fair to say I didn't trust him initially.

PB - What changed that?

BP - Observing the behavior of my coworkers.

PB - Coworkers?

BP - Yes.  Thorax was assigned to the cleaning crew I was part of in the Crystal Palace.  I saw the way my coworkers were treating him and it caused me to reconsider my position.

PB - And how were they treating him?

BP - In a word, harshly.  They acted hostile constantly towards him.

PB - You wouldn't happen to be speaking of the mare Feather Duster and the stallion Elbow Grease, would you?

BP - Yes, those are the ponies I'm referring to.

PB - These two ponies were arrested for assaulting the defendant, correct?

BP - Yes.  They conspired with some guards to stage a fake changeling attack in a hallway and then proceeded to beat Thorax until they thought he was dead or was going to die.

PB - Owing to the fact that the defendant is still here, I would say they failed in killing him, correct?

BP - Yes, they didn't succeed in killing him.

PB - So, their behavior made you reconsider your own.  How did it change?

BP - I made myself more open to the idea that changelings could maybe decide to live peacefully with us.

PB - Do you think that changelings can coexist with us?

BP - If they were willing to give peace a chance.  I don't know about the rest of them, but I honestly believe Thorax wants to.

PB - So, you believe that the defendant, Thorax, truly and honestly wants to coexist with ponies?

BP - I do.

PB - Do you trust what he says enough that if somepony removed the magic restricting collar from his neck at this very moment, you would not come to any kind of harm?

BP - Yes, I do.

PB - Thank you.  Nothing further, your honor.





Plea took his seat as he looked over at Thorax.  "I figure I'd start with our best character witness." he told the changeling.  Thorax was going to say something when the judge spoke up first.

"Prosecution may now cross-examine the witness."

State Evidence took her own sip of water, then looked over at the defense with a smug grin that made Thorax shudder.  Whatever plan he thought she had cooked up, he hoped that it failed.





SE - Miss Brass Polish.  It is, Miss, isn't it.

BP - Yes, ma'am.  I am not married.

SE - I'm to understand that you're being called upon to testify on behalf of the defendant's character?

BP - Yes, I am.

SE - So, you're testimony is to establish the defendant as trustworthy and incapable of the crimes he's accused of committing?

BP - He is incapable of committing such crimes.

SE - Oh?  I do not mean to sound prejudiced, but is the defendant not of the race of beings known as changelings?

BP - Yes, he is.

SE - And does he not possess the magic necessary to adopt the appearance of other creatures?

BP - He does.

SE - And could this ability not be used in matters of deception and espionage?

PB - Your honor, I object to this line of questioning.  It holds no bearing on the overall character of the defendant.

SE - Your honor, I am simply making the point that, while the witness does not believe the defendant to be morally capable of such acts, he still has the abilities to do such things.

PB - Your honor, there are arcane spells in the forbidden archives of the Canterlot Library that can teach a pony to murder another pony.  If a pony were to learn one of those spells, would that automatically make them a killer?

Judge - Objection overruled.  The question is in regards to the physical ability of the defendant and not his morality.

SE - Miss Polish, please answer the question.  If the defendant has the abilities that I described, would that not make him capable of the actions I also described?

BP - I suppose it could.

SE - Also, it has been reported by our princess, and confirmed by you a few minutes ago, that the defendant was attacked in the palace by two ponies.  Would that not serve as motivation for him to want revenge?

BP - No, it wouldn't.  Thorax has no desire for revenge.  If he did, it would be against Feather Duster and Elbow Grease, and both of them are sitting in dungeons as we speak.  In the case of one, they may even be deep in the pits of Tartarus.

(shocked murmurs from the audience)

SE - So, you do not believe that the defendant would plot some kind of revenge in retaliation for the attack carried out against him?

BP - Ma'am, Thorax is under constant watch of guards 24/7.  Princess Luna has even offered a squad of her own lunar guard to keep an eye on him as he sleeps, just to put ponies' minds at ease.  He would have no way of planning something of this nature while staying here.

SE - He could have conceived this plot in his mind though, couldn't he?

BP - I said he doesn't want revenge.

SE - I'll leave that issue alone for now.  Back to the major topic though.  You truly believe he did not collude with any changelings before approaching the empire to plot abductions and replacements to start siphoning off the love in the empire?

BP - No.  Thorax would not do such a thing, and he certainly hasn't had the ability to communicate with any changelings since he came here.

SE - You seem quite sure he wouldn't, but what evidence is there to convince the rest of us?

BP - Excuse me?

SE - How do we know he didn't conceive some kind of plan before he arrived here in the Crystal Empire?  Kept it vague so it could be easily implemented at a moment's notice.  Something along the lines of "Wait for a weak one to be singled out and pounce?"

BP - No, Thorax would never do something like that.

SE - And how do we know his panicking in the market and flying off wasn't some kind of signal to launch the attack against young Raspberry?

BP - No, Thorax would never do such a thing!

SE - And how do we know that he hasn't found some way of manipulating your brain?

BP - NO HE HASN'T!

PB - Your honor, I object to this line of questioning.  It's baseless accusations against my client and it's causing the witness great duress.

Judge - Objection sustained.  You will discontinue with this line of questioning, Miss Evidence.  Do you have any further questions for the witness?

SE - No, your honor.  That will be all.

Judge - Witness is dismissed.





Brass stepped down from the witness stand and moved back to the audience seating.  As she did so, she gave Thorax a sympathetic look.  Thorax returned it with a smile, but it faltered as soon as she looked away.

Plea let out a breath and had a worried look on his face.  "You see what I meant about her skills in cross-examination?" he asked.  Thorax gave a simple nod.

"Defense may call their next witness" the judge announced.  Plea took the witness list and called their next choice.  "Defense calls Sunburst to the stand."

The caped and bespectacled unicorn rose and made his way to the front, walking past both tables and stepping up to the witness stand.  A moment later, and he was sworn in and sitting down.





PB - Please state your name for the record.

SB - My name is Sunburst.

PB - What is your current occupation, Sunburst?

SB - I'm the royal crystaller.

PB - And what does that position entail?

SB - Most of my responsibilities in that role are more ceremonial than anything.  Specifically, I help conduct the Crystalling spell, as well as select samples of pure crystal for the royal couple to choose from for the ceremony.

PB - What other responsibilities do you have?

SB - I'm charged with watching Princess Flurry Heart when her parents or a nanny are unavailable.  I also study spell craft and help to either invent new spells or improve existing spells.

PB - Can you give us an example of your work?

SB - Well, if Captain Shining Armor were here, he could demonstrate the improved shield spells I'd created for him.

PB - How are they improved?

SB - I was able to create a spell that uses about half as much mana energy as the previous spells the prince had been using.  This would give him the ability to hold shields longer than he had been able to before.

PB - Do you have any duties that aren't related to the royal family or spell craft?

SB - Well, for the past four months or so, I was tasked with educating our newest resident here in the Crystal Empire.

PB - You're referring to my client, correct?

SB - Yes, I am.

PB - When did you first meet my client?

SB - We were formally introduced on the night before the asylum agreement was to officially begin, though you could say we actually met when Princess Twilight and some other ponies made a plea on his behalf to Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor for him to be allowed to stay.

PB - Which ponies do you refer to?

SB - Two.  A mare named Starlight Glimmer and a stallion named Heartfelt Sentiment.  Also, Spike made a plea on Thorax's behalf as well.

PB - You mean Spike the Brave and Glorious, hero to the whole empire?

SB - I do.

PB - So, back to the original topic.  You've been teaching my client since he started staying here in the Crystal Empire?

SB - I have.

PB - What kinds of things have you been teaching him?

SB - I've been teaching subject matter approved by both Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor.

PB - Am I correct to assume that they are making sure that he does not learn anything that could be considered sensitive information?

SB - Yes.  Most of the lessons I teach are about the same as those you'd learn attending a school here in the Crystal Empire.

PB - Do you teach anything extra?

SB - No, I don't.  Sometimes, if a question isn't disallowed as involving sensitive information and isn't covered by the material we go over, I'll answer it for him.

PB - So you've known the defendant for at least the last four months or so?

SB - I have.

PB - What is your impression of him.

SB - From everything I've seen, he seems honest, kind, caring.  He had some trouble learning earlier on, but now that I have a better understanding of how he learns, He is able to pick up subjects rather quickly.

PB - Back to his education.  At what level of competency would you say that the defendant is at?

SB - Level of competency?

PB - His learning level.  Eighth grade?  Seventh grade?

SB - I would say he's learning things I would expect to teach a pony in tenth grade.

PB - When you first started, what would you say his competency was?

SB - Perhaps third grade.

PB - That seems to be a good bit of progress for three months.

SB - Well, I have given him approved books for him to read at night before he goes to bed.  He actually has a very good reading level.  Almost college level, to be honest.

PB - So he can read well.  Does he just read educational books?

SB - Oh, no.  I make sure to give him some novels to break up the monotony of studying.

PB - Novels, huh?  Does he have any favorites?

SB - I've actually gotten him hooked on Daring Do.

PB - He enjoys Daring Do?

SB - Very much so.  He's read through ten novels now, and before this stuff happened, he was going to start an eleventh one.

PB - Does he have a favorite one?

SB - He said he really liked the sixth one he read - Daring Do and the Castle of the Cursed Crown.  According to him, his favorite part was when Daring disguised herself as the Duchess of Maretania so she could convince the king to let her have the pendant she used to get into the vault.

PB - Not to sound prejudiced, but that seems rather unsurprising, a changeling's favorite part of a story being about a disguise and fooling a pony.

SB - Well, he said the best part of the book was when Daring made her escape with the true crown, and left the king to deal with his angry subjects.  It was his favorite ending to any of the books.

PB - Yes, I remember reading that part.  It was quite satisfying to see the king get his comeuppance.  Anyways, the defendant likes reading novels and studying.  Does he like doing anything else?

SB - Well, he enjoys working in the palace.  He says it makes him feel good knowing he can take care of his new home.

PB - Have you seen him make any friends since he's been staying here?

SB - Well, he and Brass Polish appear to have a good friendship, and I also like to think he has a friend in me.

PB - So you consider yourself a friend of the defendant?

SB - I do.

PB - Do you trust him?

SB - I believe he has earned my trust.

PB - Do you trust him enough that, if his collar were to come off right now, you don't believe you would come to harm?

SB - I don't believe for a second that Thorax would hurt me.

PB - Thank you.  No further questions.





Plea returned to his seat and took another sip of water.  He hoped that the testimony Sunburst gave would get at the ponies on the jury enough to at least loosen some of their convictions about changelings.  Finding common ground always seemed to help in that endeavor.

Of course, a battle strategy never survives first contact with the enemy.   In his mind, he crossed his hooves as the judge finished his notations.  "Prosecution may now cross examine the witness."





SE - Mister Sunburst, you said that you are the royal crystaller.  How long have you held this role?

SB - About six months.

SE - And for the past four, you've had the additional duty of teaching this changeling?

SB - Yes, I was assigned that duty.

SE - How familiar are you with the invasion that took place in Canterlot?

PB - I object your honor.  The invasion from several years ago holds no bearing on this case.

Judge - Objection sustained.  Miss Evidence, please ask questions pertaining to the case at hoof and not unconnected past events.

SE - Have you had experience with changelings before meeting the defendant?

SB - No, I haven't.

SE - You've never dealt with them before the defendant was granted asylum here in the Crystal Empire?

SB - No, I have not.

SE - Yet you claim to be able to trust him completely not to cause you harm if he were to be removed from his restraints?

SB - I have spent enough time around Thorax to know that he wishes not to cause any harm.  He's one of the kindest and nicest creatures I've ever had the privilege of meeting.

SE - Perhaps we should conduct a little experiment then.  Your honor, with the court's permission, I would like to remove the defendant's restraints.

(audience chamber erupts into screams, many ponies move to leave)

Judge:(bangs gavel) Order in the court!  Order!

(ponies continue panicking and fight against the bailiffs trying to maintain order)

Judge:(bangs gavel) I will have order in this court!

(ponies begin calming down and return to their seats)

Judge: Miss Evidence, at this time, I must refuse your request due to the overwhelming opposition demonstrated by all parties here today.  If you wish to file a proper request with the clerk, then we can consider it again in the future.

SE - Very well, your honor.  Mister Sunburst, you have seen how ponies have reacted to the idea of a changeling being allowed around ponies unrestrained.  If you were to convince them that the defendant is truly trustworthy, how would you go about it?

SB - What you're asking me is a task that would take several months at best to accomplish.  As far as how to go about it, I would have to have Thorax with me so that he could be properly introduced and the ponies in question could be watched.

SE - Ponies in question being watched?

SB - I don't doubt Thorax behaving and not attacking anypony.  However, I don't completely trust other ponies to not attack Thorax if they got the chance.

SE - I see.  One final question.  You are aware that the Captain of the guard and our empire's prince was put under the control of one of the changelings, correct?

SB - Yes, I am well aware of what happened to the captain on his wedding day.

SE - That being said, how confident are you that the changeling isn't controlling your mind right now?

SB - Besides the fact that I know Thorax would never use a spell like that on me, he has had his magic restrained from even before the first day he was allowed to stay here in asylum.

SE - But what about before then?

SB - I'm sorry?

SE - How do you know he didn't plant some kind of suggestion in your mind before he was put into restraint, or if even the restraints can actually control his magic?

SB - I personally crafted the enchantments for those restraints.  They will stop any kind of magic they are used on.

SE - Again though, how do you know that the defendant hasn't used some kind of mind control on you before the restraints were applied?

SB - ...I don't know for sure, but I do trust that he hasn't.

SE - Very well.  No further questions, your honor.

Judge - Witness is excused.





Sunburst stepped down from the witness stand and moved back into the audience area.  Much like Brass, he gave Thorax a sympathetic look, which the changeling returned in the same way.  Plea put a hoof to Thorax's withers and offered a consoling smile.  "Things aren't dire yet," he told him, "We still have witnesses to call, and our evidence to present."

"Defense, please call your next witness" the judge commanded.  After consulting his paperwork, Plea stood up and announced the witness.  "Defense calls Madam Ammonia to the stand."

Thorax turned and watched as the mare who was effectively his boss stood up and moved forward.  After approaching the witness stand and being sworn in, she took her seat.





PB - Please state your name for the record.

MA - Madam Ammonia.

PB - What is your current occupation?

MA - I am in charge of the entire custodial department for the Crystal Palace.

PB - So you're in charge of keeping it clean?

MA - Yes, that is my duty.

PB - And you are familiar with the defendant?

MA - Yes, I am.

PB - When did you first meet him?

MA - I was introduced to the client the day before his asylum officially began.

PB - So you've known him longer than the other two witnesses.

MA - I wouldn't call the five or so minutes I spoke to him as bonding time.

PB - Do you remember what you said?

MA - My memory might be a little bit fuzzy, but I seem to recall telling him that I expected his best behavior while working for me.

PB - I trust you did this in a kind and polite way.

MA - I didn't.

PB - You didn't?

MA - No.  I distrusted Thorax the first time that I met him, and was sure that he was up to no good.  Because of that, I saw fit to put my hoof down and demonstrate that I wasn't a mare to be trifled with.

PB - I suppose, all things considered, your reaction shouldn't be unexpected.  Please, would you describe the defendant's first day working under you?

MA - He was woken up early so that he could feed, then he was brought to me to work.

(shouts and angry cries from the audience)

Judge - (bangs gavel) Order!

(courtroom becomes quiet)

PB - Well, after hearing that remark, I think we must address the big pink elephant in the room.  You just said that he was woken up early to feed.  Would you please elaborate on what feeding means?

MA - To my understanding, the princess and crystaller worked together to find a solution to Thorax staying here with us and not starving to death.  The crystaller studied the Crystal Heart and found that it had a robust reserve of energy built into it, and that was caused by all the love that had built up since the Crystalling.  Doing some kind of fancy math told him that allowing Thorax to take love from the heart for so long at certain points in the day wouldn't cause any kind of harm to the spell protecting us from the blizzards, so the princess permitted him to do so, under guard supervision.

PB - So, just to be clear, no ponies were being fed on by the defendant?  He hasn't taken any love directly from ponies since he's begun staying here?

MA - No, he hasn't.

PB - Okay.  Now that we have that addressed, please continue.

MA - As I said, once he was brought to me, I gave him an evaluation to determine how effective he would be in his assigned role.

PB - What did this test involve?

MA - The first part was a large floor in the palace.  I gave him an hour to clean it to a mirror shine with hoof brushes.

PB - How well did he do at this task.

MA - He had the floor finished to my satisfaction in half the time I allotted him.

PB - Really?  He got it clean that fast?

MA - He did.

PB - Did you give him any other duties as part of your test?

MA - We went to a pair of bathrooms and I had him clean them both.

PB - Was he again excelling?

MA - He finished with satisfactory results, but he took longer than he did when doing the floor.  That said, he still finished well ahead of most ponies I would assign the job.

PB - So, he would be considered an exemplary employee.

MA - If there were more like him working under me, then we wouldn't need on-site servant's quarters.  My staff could have their own homes and be able to go home to them at the end of their shift.

PB - What happened after the tests?

MA - Since he demonstrated his abilities to be more than satisfactory, I took him to his work crew for the day.

PB - Work crew?  You didn't spend the whole day with him?

MA - No.  I had other duties to attend to, and the crew he was placed with was educated in spells that would be effective in dealing with him should he choose to become unruly.

PB - Educated in spells to use on him?  Were these basic combat spells?

MA - No, they weren't.  From what the crystaller told me, basic spells weren't effective against changelings.

PB - Interesting.  I believe that one of the prosecution's witnesses earlier testified that they used a basic combat spell and were able to temporarily subdue a changeling.

MA - I can't comment on that.  All I know is that the spells were prepared by the crystaller and the captain and we were all instructed on how to properly cast them so we could have reassurance that we could defend ourselves from Thorax, should we feel the need to do so.

PB - Has anypony needed to defend themselves?

MA - Not as far as I know.

PB - So he was put with his assigned crew.  Did you have anymore interaction with him that day?

MA - Yes.  I was processing some paperwork when one of the ponies on his work crew came and informed me of vandalism in some bathrooms.

PB - Was he the culprit?

MA - No, he wasn't.  An investigation was conducted, and it was determined that the ponies Feather Duster and Elbow Grease were responsible.

PB - What evidence was there to prove their guilt?

MA - From what I was told, Feather Duster filed a false report for lost property; it's common for a pony to throw something valuable away by mistake, so the palace has protocols to help them recover missing items.  The bags of refuse that would have contained the alleged items were handed over to her and Elbow Grease to search, but they were never returned.

PB - So it was presumed that the two ponies were responsible.

MA - They were confronted later on and Elbow Grease confessed to the vandalism, and implicated Feather Duster as well.

PB - I see.  What did Feather Duster do?

MA - She resigned a few moments before Elbow confessed.

PB - I see.  I would assume Elbow was dismissed after that?

MA - He was.

PB - Were they removed from the palace after that?

MA - No.  Owing to the lateness of the day, the two were permitted to stay until morning.

PB - Did this all happen on the first day?

MA - No, this all happened about a month or so ago.

PB - So, this act of vandalism wasn't investigated properly until three months after it happened?

MA - Not exactly.

PB - Could you explain, please?

MA - Princess Cadance conducted her own investigation and found the necessary evidence to determine that Feather and Elbow were the culprits.

PB - Okay.  was that all of the interactions you've had with Thorax?

MA - As far as the first day goes.  All the subsequent days since have been varying levels of pleasantries.  He initially tried to approach me in a friendly manner, but my previous position caused me to become rather cold towards him at those times.  As the days progressed however, I found myself addressing him as I greeted Feather, Elbow and Brass in the mornings.  Once we had gotten to the three month mark, the exchanges became me saying hello and him replying "Hello, ma'am."

PB - So, after spending some time around him, your overall attitude has changed?

MA - I wouldn't say completely.  His work ethic and abilities are to be admired, but as far as him going around without restraint?  I'm not sure.

PB - So you trust him to do good work for you, so long as he's on a leash?

MA - I'm not sure I would word it that way exactly.

PB - No offense, ma'am, but that is sort of how you worded it.

MA - I suppose.

PB - I'd like to go back now to the hostile acts committed against my client while working in the Crystal Palace.  We all know about the attack staged by Feather and Elbow, but were there any other incidents that occurred involving other ponies?

MA - There was another incident on his first day here, but it involved Elbow Grease.

PB - Oh?

MA - Honestly, those two are the only ones to have any real complaint against Thorax.

PB - Please elaborate on this incident for the court.

MA - It happened after Thorax met with Sunburst for his first lesson.  He came back and was instructed to clean several tables on the crew's assigned floor.  He was provided a duster by Feather Duster, who left Thorax to be supervised by Elbow Grease so that she could change bed linens.

PB - I take it that Elbow Grease took advantage of this alone time to do things to Thorax?

MA - He did.  To my understanding, once Thorax finished cleaning a table, Elbow would cover it over again in dust and make him do it again.  After several times of this, Thorax was fed up and refused to continue cleaning.  This is when Elbow took the feather duster Thorax had been using and proceeded to beat him with it.

(quiet murmurs in the audience)

PB - So, he baited Thorax into reacting so he could beat him with the nearest available object?

MA - Yes, he did.

PB - Was this incident reported to you?

MA - ...Kind of.

PB - Kind of?

MA - A formal complaint of misconduct was never filed, but a medical supply report was.  Apparently, Thorax was beaten roughly enough that it caused damage to his horn.  Miss Brass Polish attended to his wounds and filed the report.

PB - So Miss Brass Polish filed a report for using medical supplies, but never lodged an official complaint for his behavior?

MA - I questioned her about this after I saw the medical supply report.  She explained how the injuries occurred, and when I confronted her on not submitting a misconduct report, she admitted not having faith in the palace to do its job and punish Elbow Grease accordingly.

PB - Did anything happen that would cause Brass to think that way?

MA - I think she acted that way because of how she saw us treating Thorax.  I suppose if I were in her shoes, I might not have much faith in the palace either.

PB - Thank you.  One last question.  You said earlier that you didn't believe Thorax should be allowed to stay here without restraints.  What would it take for you to reconsider that position?

MA - I honestly don't know.  Maybe more time?  Getting to know him more personally?  As it stands now, I really only deal with him in an official capacity.

PB - I appreciate your honesty.  I have nothing further, your honor.





Plea returned to his seat and let out a breath.  "Hopefully I didn't just give the prosecution a big assist" he said to himself, though Thorax overheard and became rather nervous.

"Prosecution may now cross examine the witness."





SE - Madam Ammonia, you said your current occupation was head of custodial services for the Crystal Palace, correct?

MA - Yes, I did.

SE - Would you please tell us how long you've held that role?

MA - Since the return of the empire, ma'am.

SE - So, several years?

MA - Yes.

SE - What were you doing before you came to work here in the Crystal Empire?

MA - I've worked as a cleaner and as a supervisor to the custodial staff of several affluent families scattered all across Equestria.

SE - Have you ever worked in Canterlot?

MA - For a brief time.

SE - When was this?

MA - About a year before the empire's return.

SE - And how brief was your time in Canterlot?

MA - About two months.

SE - Why so brief?

MA - A member of the family took a fancy to me and decided that he preferred me more as a concubine than a housekeeper.

SE - Well, I suppose that is as good a reason as any to leave.

MA - I was terminated.

SE - Oh?  On what grounds?

MA - Officially, it was because they said I performed unsatisfactory work.  Off the record, it was because I turned that stallion into the guards.  He had been responsible for the rapes of countless mares over many years.  With him gone, the lady of the house took an instant dislike of me and had me dismissed.  I don't want to go throwing around accusations, but I think that she may have been involved in at least some of the rapes.

SE - That is rather unfortunate to hear.  Moving away slightly, could you give us a timeline for when you were there?

MA - As I said, I left about a year before the empire's return, and worked there for two months.

SE - What I'm getting at with the question is, you weren't in Canterlot during the invasion by the changelings?

PB - Your honor, I again object to this question.  The incident that occurred in Canterlot several years ago holds no bearing on the case against my client.

Judge - Objection sustained.  Miss State Evidence, please discontinue the usage of any questions regarding the Canterlot incident.  The questioning conducted here today should only be about information relevant to the crimes the defendant is being put on trial for.  This is your second warning on that matter.  If I must tell you for a third time, you will be held in contempt of court.

SE - Very well.  Madam Ammonia, have you had experience in dealing with changelings before meeting the defendant?

MA - Actually, I have.

SE - Would you please tell us where?

MA - ...in Canterlot.

SE - Was this during the wedding of the princess and captain?

MA - It was.

SE - Please describe your experiences during that time.

MA - They weren't the most unpleasant.  At least, not as bad as they could have been.

SE - Could you elaborate for the court, please?

MA - I was originally invited by a cousin to come to Canterlot to enjoy the festivities of the royal wedding.  On the day of the wedding, my cousin had taken notice of the changelings banging their bodies against the shield.  Then he took notice to the shield cracking and called for everypony to hide in his basement.  According to him, he had an escape tunnel that would carry us out of the city if needed.

SE - Was the tunnel necessary?

MA - No.  We were able to stay in hiding through the attempted invasion.

SE - Did you receive an all clear notice?

MA - Eventually.  We were hit with the spell that threw the changelings out of Canterlot, but it went through us harmlessly.

SE - I see.  Did you have any interactions with the changelings whatsoever, as in direct contact?

MA - No.  They got into my cousin's house, and we could hear them moving about, but they never found us.

SE - My apologies, considering what happened and how traumatic it was, but it doesn't sound like you've actually interacted with changelings at all before meeting the defendant.

MA - It's more interaction than any of the other witnesses that have testified today.

SE - True.  I have nothing further to ask, your honor.

Judge - Witness is excused.





Madam Ammonia stepped down and returned to her seat in the audience area.  Thorax watched her go, then heard Plea curse under his breath.  Giving the stallion a concerned look, he asked him what was wrong.  "Hopefully nothing major" Plea answered.  "State wanted to get the Canterlot invasion at the forefront of ponies' minds and Madam Ammonia just gave her an opportunity."

Thorax nodded grimly.  It would appear the prosecution, in addition to the evidence they prepared, hope to appeal to the prejudice against him in order to obtain their conviction.  As Thorax thought this, the judge cleared his throat.  "We will recess for lunch and reconvene in one hour" he announced, then struck his gavel on the small wooden plate.  Everypony left to get lunch, and Thorax was led back to the holding area.
> Part III, Chapter 13 - Defense's Arguments - Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trial reconvened an hour later and the judge called for the next witness from the defense.  With a clear voice, Plea replied "Defense calls Heartfelt Sentiment to the stand."  Heartfelt, whom Thorax had last seen shortly after the attack meant to kill him, made his way to the witness stand and was sworn in.  Plea stood up from his seat and approached the stand, ready for his line of questioning.





PB - Would you please state your name for the court.

HS - Heartfelt Sentiment.

PB - What is your occupation?

HS - I am a psychiatrist.

PB - How long have you worked in that role?

HS - Ten years.

PB - Have you treated any of the ponies here in court today?

HS - I have.

PB - Without revealing any personal details, as to stay compliant with the empire's confidetialilty laws, would you please describe some of the conditions you've treated?

HS - I treat a great many mental ailments.  Some ponies simply come to me to sort out their jumbled thoughts and feelings after things like a recent break up or loss of a job.  Others have afflictions that require me to prescribe medication to help combat the effects.  A good bit of my work is spent on treating ponies with PTSD.

PB - Okay.  Now, you're acquainted with my client, correct?

HS - Yes, I am.

PB - How long would you say that you've known him.

HS - I first met him two days before he was allowed asylum.

PB - That long?  So you were aware of his presence before everypony else?

HS - Well, I was aware of the warnings about a changeling being spotted in the outskirts of the empire initially.

PB - When did you first officially meet my client.

HS - It was shortly after I elected to help the guards search for the changeling.

PB - You elected to help the guards?  What services can you offer to help guards looking for a changeling?

HS - (gestures to cutie mark) My special talent allows me to see the emotional states of other ponies, usually as an aura surrounding their body and corresponding to a color usually associated with that emotion, like red for anger, purple for fear, yellow for happy, etc.

PB - This doesn't explain how it would help you locate a changeling.

HS - I couldn't confirm it before, but I had a theory about changelings.

PB - A theory?  Please, let us hear it.

HS - I thought that because ponies and other living creatures radiate their emotions outwards, and changelings feed on those emotions, then they might actually draw them in towards themselves, so my thought was that if I saw a pony with emotions radiating towards them, rather than away from them, then that could mean that they're a changeling.

PB - Interesting.  So, you helped the patrols find my client, correct?

HS - Actually, Spike the Brave and Glorious found Thorax.

PB - Ah, yes.  The hero of the empire.  He was the one to find my client first?

HS - He was.

PB - And where were you when he found him?

HS - I was searching nearby.

PB - How was my client discovered?

HS - Spike had let out a scream and disappeared in the snow while we were searching.  Fearing that he was attacked by a changeling, I ran to the last place I saw him and saw the mouth to a cave opened up.  When I looked inside, I saw Spike being rescued by Thorax.

(murmurs in both the audience and jury)

PB - My client saved the hero of the empire?

HS - He did.

PB - How do you know he saved him and wasn't trying to make off with him?

HS - Because I didn't see them initially when I looked inside the cave.  However, the two emerged from a crevice near the back of the cave, with Thorax carrying Spike.

PB - And this actually happened?  This wasn't a hallucination being brought on by a changeling attempting to control your mind?

HS - Yes, it happened.  No, a changeling wasn't trying to control my mind.

PB - How can you be sure?

HS - Because Princess Twilight visited the same cave later on and found dragon scales from Spike all over the ground near the crevice and down inside of it as well.

(more murmurs from the audience and jury)

PB - So, my client saved Spike from falling into a crevice.  Did you manage to get a closer look at the crevice?

HS - Later on, I was able to see it.  It was deep enough that Spike wouldn't have lived if somepony hadn't intervened.

PB - When was this later on?

HS - After Spike brought Thorax to the throne room the first time.

(shocked gasps and shouts from the audience)

Judge - (bangs gavel) Order!

(audience settles down)

PB - So, my client was brought to the throne room after saving Spike's life?

HS - Not immediately.

PB - Would you please explain that remark?

HS - I overheard a conversation between the two.  Spike wanted to show gratitude to Thorax for saving his life, so he promised to try and convince the empire to give him a chance to prove he wanted to make friends and not hurt anypony.

PB - And how successful was he?

HS - Not successful at all.  The ones that he asked took what he was telling them as him making a joke.

PB - Did he approach you?

HS - He did.

PB - And your response?

HS - I offered to hear out Thorax.

(murmurs from the audience)

PB - So you and the guards went back out to the cave where you found my client initially.  How could you be so sure that he was still in there?

HS - Actually, the guards didn't follow us.

(shocked murmurs from the audience)

PB - You mean to tell me that you went to face a changeling with only Spike there as backup?

HS - I brought items to defend myself.  Specifically, I brought along throwing daggers and a riot baton.

PB - Do you have experience using those items?

HS - I do.  I briefly served in guard reserves before being released and taking up my current profession.

PB - Why briefly?  And how briefly?

HS - I was a reserve guard for about six months.  The post I was stationed at in Trottingham was assessed and the high ranks decided that there were too many reserve guards stationed there, so they offered those in the reserve to change their contract to become full-time guards or be released with favorable letter early with a bonus amounting to the remaining time left on our reserve contracts.

PB - I take it you took the second option?

HS - Yes.  I was, at best, a decent guard, but I knew being a full-time guard wasn't my calling.  I used the bonus I received to finance the first semester of my schooling.

PB - Okay.  Now, tell us.  Was my client still in the cave when you returned with Spike?

HS - He was.

PB - Was he not afraid of being discovered by some other guards?

HS - From what I could see, there were some tunnels in the cave, possibly made by ponies before the empire disappeared all those years ago.  He had plenty of hiding places if somepony got curious about the cave.

PB - Sounds more to me like he had plenty of places to set up an ambush.

HS - Well, when we got to the cave, Spike went in and brought him out.  He came over and we conversed briefly.

PB - With this meeting, I imagine you were able to test your theory.  What was the outcome?

HS - The energy around Thorax was swirling, kind of like a whirlpool in a river.  I don't know if that's common for all changelings, but that's what I saw looking at him.

PB - Please, take a look at my client and tell me what you see now?

HS - (looks at Thorax) ...interesting.

PB - Something wrong?

HS - No.  With his magic restrained, Thorax can't pull in any emotions.  Looking at him now, the emotional energy coming off of him looks no different than a normal pony.

PB - Can you identify his emotions?

HS - He's afraid and nervous.

PB - Understandable.  Most of my clients feel those same emotions during trial.  Back to my origial question.  What happened during your conversation?

HS - I spoke briefly to him and examined his emotions.  There was no malice in them.

PB - No malice?  He wasn't trying to hide it?

HS - No.  Hiding emotions is somewhat easier when doing it to a normal pony, but trying to do it to me is pretty much impossible.

PB - Why is that?

HS - It's practically impossible to disguise the energy one generates with their emotions.  Everypony I've seen that's tried to do so has failed to fool me.

PB - I hate to point this out, but that doesn't necessarily exclude changelings.

HS - Admittedly, it doesn't.  However, the emotion energy I saw Thorax emitting and his behavior were matched up with each other, so I had no reason to doubt that he was trying to hide any malice.

PB - Okay, I'll accept that for now.  Please continue with describing your encounter.

HS - As I said, we spoke for a few minutes, and it was during that conversation that he stated his intentions for wanting to make friends here.

PB - So he could feed off of them?

HS - Feeding never came up as a topic.

PB - Was he avoiding that question?

HS - No, and I didn't push the issue.

PB - So what happened after this conversation?

HS - Spike insisted Thorax return with us so that he could have a chance to prove what he told us was the truth.

(shocked murmurs from the audience and jury)

PB - Spike wanted to bring the changeling back to the empire?  A potentially dangerous enemy?

HS - I voiced opposition to it, but he continued to insist.

PB - You didn't try to physically stop them?

HS - Nothing I could do would've stopped them, so I just made sure that Thorax wouldn't cause trouble for anypony.

PB - So, let me if I understand this correctly.  You escorted a wanted fugitive of the Crystal Empire into the throne room of the Crystal Palace, right to the royal family and their infant, and not to a guard station so he could be arrested?

HS - If Thorax had been arrested, nopony would've bothered hearing what he had to say.

PB - So what happened once he was in the throne room.

HS - Things were okay initially.  Spike introduced him as a pony named Crystal Hoof, which Thorax went along with.

PB - Pardon me, but this changeling put on a disguise to meet the royal family and you were okay with this?

HS - In hindsight, I shouldn't have been.  In my defense, I was trying to keep an open mind and give Thorax a legitimate chance to prove himself, even if I disagreed with the manner that he and Spike chose to go about it.

PB - Okay.  So, when did things go south?

HS - When he met the royal family.  More specifically, Princess Flurry Heart.

PB - He met our newest princess?

HS - Yes.  I've seen the aura she radiates.  It's almost as strong with love as her mother has.

PB - You say that almost as if you yourself were a changeling.

HS - I am not.  However, we know very little about them.  For all we know, there could be unintentional cross-breeding of our two species going back to the time of Nightmare Moon.

PB - An interesting idea, if not perhaps a bit disturbing.  So what exactly happened when he met Princess Flurry?

HS - He lost the disguise he was using.

PB - So he was revealed in the throne room?

HS - Yes, he was.

PB - I can't imagine he was given a warm reception then.

HS - No, he wasn't.  Prince Shining Armor ordered him surrounded immediately.

PB - Was he arrested?

HS - No.  He barreled past a pair of guards and escaped through a window.

PB - Did he get away?

HS - He did.  Prince Shining sent two pegasi after him, but they couldn't determine the direction he went in once he got out the window.

PB - You understand my client barreling out the window doesn't exactly make him look innocent?

HS - No, but in all honesty, had he been captured by the guards, I honestly believe Prince Shining would have had no good intentions for Thorax.

PB - What do you believe would have happened to him?

HS - At best, imprisoned.  At worst, executed.

(murmurs from the audience and jury)

PB - Do you believe the Captain Shining Armor capable of such an act?

HS - I do.

PB - What has convinced you of that?

HS - Actions he took when Thorax was brought back to the throne room for a second time later that day.

(murmurs from the audience and jury)

PB - He returned to the throne room for a second time?  How did this come about?

HS - After Thorax escaped, Spike, our empire's hero, went back to his room in the palace and began sobbing rather uncontrollably.  Princess Twilight went in to console him, but he had told her about what happened in the cave and said he was upset because he didn't stand up for Thorax when he needed to.

PB - He was upset that he didn't stand up for my client?

HS - Yes, he was.

PB - So, he told Princess Twilight about what happened.  How did she take that news?

HS - She was unsure what to think, and invited me to her chambers so we could discuss what was happening in privacy.  After she confessed her feelings on the matter, I decided to come clean and tell her what I knew.

PB - I thought you had told Spike and Thorax you wanted nothing to do with their plan?

HS - I had a change of heart.  Seeing Spike so upset and the look on Thorax's face before he bolted out of the throne room made me realize I'd made a mistake.

PB - So what happened then?

HS - Princess Twilight insisted that she confront Thorax herself, and I suggested that he possibly returned to the cave he was originally found in.

PB - So you went back?

HS - We did.

PB - And was my client there?

HS - He was.  He was quite upset.

PB - I could imagine.  Thinking he had succeeded in making friends only to have them turn on him the moment he needed them most.  That has to sting.

HS - It was worse than that.  He was convinced that we were there to bring him back so he could be either tortured or executed.

(shocked gasps from the audience and jury)

PB - He honestly believed we intended to execute him?  On what charges?

HS - Probably just for being a changeling.

PB = So he honestly thought we would put him to death just because he was a changeling?

HS - He did.

(murmurs from the audience and jury)

PB - What happened once you confronted him.

HS - He made it clear he wasn't in the mood for talking, so Princess Twilight elected to investigate the cave to see if the story was true or not.

PB - Did she find any evidence?

HS - Plenty.  Besides his claw marks in the snow from falling into the cave and the chasm, she also found a good many of his scales embedded on the sides of the crevice from where he'd fallen in.

PB - Scales?

HS - To my understanding, when dragons are in a life or death situation, they'll instinctively shed scales in a fashion similar to birds shedding feathers when pursued by a predator.

PB - Okay.  So Princess Twilight found this evidence.  What did she do with it?

HS - She asked Thorax if he truly did save Spike.  When he told her he did, she apologized for how she acted towards him and swore to help him.

(shocked gasps and murmurs from audience and jury)

PB - So, the Princess of Friendship, and the Element of Magic, apologized to my client and swore to help him with his goals?

HS - She did.

PB - Did you offer your own assistance?

HS - I did.  I apologized for how I acted and swore to help, regardless of consequences for me.

PB - Like possibly being fired or arrested?

HS - Yes.

PB - So did you immediately go to the throne room after that?

HS - No.  The princess teleported us to Spike's chambers at the palace so that he could apologize to Thorax and join us in helping plead his case to Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor.

PB - So the three of you went back to the throne room and pleaded on Thorax's behalf to Princess Cadance and her husband.  What was the goal you were hoping to achieve?

HS - According to Princess Twilight, Thorax would face the same kinds of severe punishment for going back to the changeling hive that he thought would befall him if he was captured by the guard and left at the mercy of Prince Shining Armor.

PB - So he would've been executed if he returned to wherever it is the changelings call home?

HS - Yes.

PB - He didn't happen to mention where that hive was, did he?

HS - If he did, it's a secret that is only to be known by members of the Royal EUP Guard and the Crystal Guard, as well as the princesses.

PB - So you can't comment on it?

HS - I can't say that he did or didn't, because I honestly don't know.

PB - So how does what would happen if he returned to his home relate to the case the Princess Twilight wished to present on his behalf?

HS - She believed that his execution would've been politically motivated,  so he qualified as a case for receiving asylum.

PB - Was that asylum granted?

HS - Not initially.  When each of us testified for him, Prince Shining Armor was livid and convinced that we were under mind control.  Princess Cadance seemed to have a more open mind on the matter.

PB - Once you had all made your testimonies, what happened next?

HS - Well, when we first walked in, Prince Shining ordered the guards to take Thorax prisoner.  When they moved in, Princess Twilight put up a shield to keep them away.

(shocked murmurs from the audience and jury)

PB - So the princess put up a shield to keep my client from being captured?  Could you all have not made your case for him if he was in custody?

HS - Prince Shining Armor had no interest in hearing what we had to say, and attacked the shield as we made our testimonies.

PB - Did he break through the shield?

HS - He conjured a concussive blast inside and knocked us all to the ground and made Princess Twilight release her shield.

PB - Did he arrest my client once the shield dissipated?

HS - No.  He tried to kill Thorax.

(shocked gasps and shouts from the audience)

Judge - (bangs gavel) Court shall come to order!

(audience calms down)

PB - So the Prince tried to carry out a summary execution right inside the throne room?

HS - He did.

PB - What prevented him from doing so?

HS - Princess Cadance.

(shocked gasps from the audience and jury)

PB - Princess Cadance kept her husband from executing my client?

HS - She did.

PB - How did she go about doing this?

HS - She put up a shield that deflected his spell into the ceiling.  It was a killing spell; the force with which it hit the ceiling was enough to tear a chunk of stone from it as large as a dining room table.

PB - Why would she do that?

HS - According to her, she wanted herself and her husband to make the final call together on what to do with Thorax.

PB - And what was that final decision?

HS - Ultimately, they granted the asylum, but under some rather ridiculous conditions.

PB - Would you elaborate on these ridiculous conditions?

HS - He was to be restrained at all times, including a magic inhibiting ring that only allowed basic telekinesis, a muzzle, wing restraints, and some kind of rubber horseshoe so he couldn't strike hard hoof blows.  It basically made him even less dangerous than a kitten.

PB - What else?

HS - A guard escort that went around the clock, even watching him as he slept, and he was also "requested" to complete community service to prove his want to be here peacefully, and I suppose to also offer a form of recompense to the princess and prince for what happened in Canterlot during their wedding.

PB - That doesn't sound quite that ridiculous to me.

HS - The terms would've fit better if you had replaced the word 'asylum seeker' with 'prisoner'.

PB - I see.  Tell me: Have you seen much of Thorax since his asylum began?

HS - No, I hadn't.  The next time I saw him, he had been beaten near to death by Feather Duster and Elbow Grease.

PB - Where did you see him at this time?

HS - The Palace Infirmary.

PB - What was his medical condition?

HS - From my understanding, he was injured pretty badly when he was first admitted, and even had a concussion that could've left him comatose.  When I got in to see him, he was already conscious and recovering rather well.

PB - Infirmary food must be better than hospital food.

HS - Well, when the princess goes to the hospital, they're not gonna make her eat cold oatmeal and old apple juice.

PB - Was that the last time you encountered my client?

HS - Yes, until today.

PB - One last question for you.  Do you trust my client enough that you would be comfortable with him being free to go where he chooses without guards nearby and and restraints placed on him?

HS - I was doing it before he had the restraints, so I don't see a problem with it now.

PB - Thank you, Mister Sentiment.  I have no further questions.





Plea returned to his seat, where Thorax was giving him a shocked look.  "You were asking the same kinds of questions the prosecution was asking," the changeling said with confusion, "Why?"

Plea just smiled.  "A pre-emptive strike" he replied.  "I figure if I ask the kinds of questions that State is likely to ask and get responses that reflect on you more positively, that that might help our chances with this case."

Thorax continued looking at Plea with surprise as the judge announced for State Evidence to begin her cross examination.  Before she stepped up, she walked over to Plea Bargain and said in a low voice "Nice move, but the queen is still on the board."





SE - Mister Sentiment, I won't take up much time since the previous examination took a good bit to get through.  My first question is about your knowledge of the whereabouts of the defendant.  Did you or did you not report it to the guards?

HS - I did not.

SE - And is it not a crime to fail to report the whereabouts of a wanted individual to the Royal or Crystal Guard when one has such knowledge?

HS - It is.

SE - So, you had the knowledge of the whereabouts of the defendant, who at the time was wanted by the guard, and you did not tell them of this information.

HS - That is true.

SE - Am I to assume you've already been punished for this crime.

HS - I have.

SE - I seem to have doubts, as the punishment for said crime is five years imprisonment.  So, I ask why you are not currently imprisoned as opposed to your being free and testifying here and now?

HS - Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor elected to decide on what disciplinary action I was to face.  For the court records, the resulting discipline is considered confidential.

SE - By the princess's authority?

HS - Yes, ma'am.

SE - Very well, my final question.  You claim to have seen the defendant save the life of Spike the Dragon, hero of our empire on several occasions.  How sure are you that what you saw wasn't a hallucination brought on by changeling magic?

HS - As I said in my previous testimony, there was physical evidence to demonstrate what I saw happened in reality and was not a farce created by a changeling.  I also stated the Princess Twilight Sparkle has bore witness to this evidence as well.

SE - But the princess isn't here to testify to that statement, is she?

HS - Unfortunately she is not, though I am quite sure that she would very much like to be.

SE - I'm certain she would.  Nothing further.





Heartfelt was dismissed from the witness stand.  He gave Thorax the same kind of sympathetic look Brass had, and Thorax returned a less than confident smile.  The judge then called for everypony's attention.

"I'm adjourning the court for today.  We shall reconvene tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, at which time, the defense may continue with their arguments.  Dismissed."

The judge banged his gavel and the courtroom emptied out.  Thorax was taken back to the prison, and Plea returned to his office.  When he got there, he was surprised to find a note slid under his door, in what appeared to be a foal's hoofwriting:

Mister Plea Bargain,

I'm the filly that was almost foalnapped two weeks ago.  I want to help Mister Thorax not go to jail.  I know he's not a bad pony, but my mommy won't let me tell everypony the truth.  She says that bad stallions will hurt me or my daddy if we do or say something.  Please tell me how I can help.  I go to I.S. 11 and have lunch outside at noon.  I will talk to you if you come.

Sincerely,
Raspberry Mint

Plea looked over the letter and decided to investigate in tomorrow.  If it really was from Raspberry Mint, then he would have to find a way to meet with her and get her testimony.  For all he knew, it could be what he needs to win his case, and keep Thorax out of prison.
> Part III, Chapter 14 - Defense's Arguments - Part III
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the past two weeks, Raspberry Mint had been deep in her own thoughts.  Despite the filly's age, she acted rather maturely, and also exhibited a higher than normal intelligence.  It was for this reason that her parents saw fit to get her as many opportunities as they could for her education, including things such as classes for playing musical instruments, various after school workshops, and the weekend tutoring program that had been the cause of their recent economic woes.

Currently, Raspberry's thoughts kept going back to the day when she was nearly foalnapped by the three stallions, and the bizarre attempted rescue by Thorax, the changeling that apologized for scaring everypony and the one that the princess said she was letting stay in the Crystal Empire.

She recalled how upset he looked to see what was happening to her and how he demanded the stallions leave her alone.  The stallions didn't listen, and one of the unicorns attacked Thorax from behind, allowing the lone earth pony stallion to buck him in the head and knock him out.

Raspberry wished she had warned Thorax of the attack, but she had been so scared by the stallions that she froze up, which is why she was unable to get away when the second unicorn cast a sleep spell on her.  By the time it had worn off, the three stallions had carried her home and proceeded to send her off to her room while they spoke to her mother.

She heard the altercation in the kitchen and could tell the three were treating her roughly, but they eventually left.  Raspberry came out but was immediately sent back to her room by her very distraught mother.  The young filly was all manner of confused by what had happened, and wanted answers.  She wouldn't find any until Monday, when she saw the newspaper laying on her teacher's desk, and its headline:

CHANGELING SEEKING ASYLUM ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED FOALNAPPING!

Raspberry consumed the article and knew that everything that was happening was wrong.  According to the story, Thorax had apparently met with two other changelings and plotted to kidnap a foal, which turned out to be her, and that three heroic stallions stepped in and chased off the two other changelings while knocking out Thorax.

The filly knew the truth and confronted her mother about it, but then she received another shock: her mother told her not to say anything.  Pressing her mother for answers, the mare eventually relented and showed her the two photographs the stallions left for her.

Sobbing, her mother explained that they worked for a griffin that she had borrowed money from, and that if anything was said to cause the stallions to go to jail or be arrested, then either Raspberry or her father would be in grave danger.

Raspberry made clear her opinion that what was happening to Thorax was wrong, but Mint Julep told the filly not to say anything, lest she or her father come to harm.

"But mom, it's not right!" Raspberry protested to her mother.

"Sweetie,I know it isn't right," Mint responded, "but sometimes in order to protect the ponies we love, we have to do things that other ponies don't think is right."

Raspberry had went cold when she heard her mother say that, and hadn't spoken to her since, and only leaving her room so that she could eat and go to school.  Her mother tried to apologize on several occasions, but nothing she said had gotten reaction from the filly.

For the first week after the incident, Mint Julep had escorted Raspberry to school.  Only on Monday did the two exchange words; every day afterwards would be Mint wishing Raspberry well for her day, but getting no response from the filly.  The second week had the filly walking with some other foals to school, as Mint had needed to return to work that week.

As Raspberry walked to school, she thought about how Thorax would be put on trial this week, and what ways she could try to help him.  She couldn't think of anything on Monday, but when Tuesday rolled around, her opportunity presented itself.

Walking into her classroom, she noticed the newspaper on her teacher's desk with an article talking about the first day of the trial.  As she read over it, she recognized a name that she knew from an office she would walk past on her way to school; Plea Bargain, Legal Practice for Public Defense, or LPPD.

The stallion was the lawyer representing Thorax in the case.  As soon as she realized who he was, she quickly formulated a plan.  Writing a brief letter, she told him that she wanted to help, but that her mother was not letting her.  She also told him where her school was and when she ate outside for lunch, in hopes he would come and speak to her.  Once she had left school for the day, she made sure to slide the letter under the door to his office, hoping the stallion would find it.





Thorax was awoken earlier than he expected.  "Your counsel is here to see you" the guard spat at him as he undid the enchantment on the cell door.  Thorax groggily got up and walked over to the door and out into the small hallway.  Already, he could feel his stomach growling at him to be filled with love for the day, but he did his best to ignore it.

Plea was sitting in the counsel room with a large smile on his face.  The demeanor of the stallion had caught Thorax off guard, and came across as the same kind of excitement that a foal would have for opening presents on their birthday.  "What is it?" Thorax asked as he took a seat.

Plea's smile grew wider.  "Thorax, I have the best news I think you've heard since you were first granted asylum here!"

Thorax raised a brow.  "What is that?"

Plea took out the letter he received from Raspberry and showed it to Thorax.  "I was contacted by the filly that the stallions tried to abduct last night" he told him.  "She wants to testify on your behalf, but her mother won't let her.  According to the mother, bad stallions will hurt her or her father if she tries to testify."

Thorax read the letter and learned of Raspberry Mint's identity for the first time.  He also learned of how her family had been threatened by the three stallions in order to keep them from testifying.  That made him rather upset to learn that ponies would stoop so low, but it shouldn't have surprised him if he was being honest with himself.

As Thorax finished reading the letter, he saw at the bottom where she had informed Plea of where she went to school and what time she had lunch.  "Is she telling you to meet her?" he asked Plea.

Plea nodded.  "I don't know for how long I can meet her, but even if it's for a minute to get her home address, I can go there tonight and interview the mother.  It might be possible for me to get the family into protective custody immediately and keep them there until we can get Raspberry on the stand.  I know State wanted her to testify as much as we do, but the court didn't want to subpoena the filly and cause her to relive a traumatic experience like she had."

Thorax felt hopeful hearing that the foal he tried to help not only wanted to speak at the trial, but on his behalf, at least going by the letter.  If her testimony could sway the jury, then there was a chance he could avoid being convicted.

Plea then stood up and looked to Thorax.  "I have to get back and get ready for trial," he told the changeling, "They're gonna get you cleaned up and over to the courthouse.  I have some witnesses that can help with our case for your character, and I also have an expert witness that can help with the technical parts of our case as well.  If we do things just right, I think I can stretch the case enough that we could get Raspberry on the stand."

With that, Plea turned and walked out of the counsel room.  Thorax was removed from his seat and taken to the shower room, where he was to clean up and properly begin his own day.





Raspberry Mint spent her morning brushing her mane and tail and checking that her homework assignments were complete.  Once she was satisfied, she made her way to the door of her apartment to leave.

"Raspberry"

The filly stopped in her tracks and looked in the direction of the voice she'd just heard.  Sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee was Mint Julep, her mother.  The mare took a sip of her coffee and set it back down.  "Please, sit down" she said to her daughter as she gestured for the empty chair across from her.

Raspberry did nothing but comply.  In truth, she was quite upset with her mother.  More specifically, she was very enraged by her complacency with Thorax being punished for what those three stallions had tried to do to her, and all because she was scared of what the stallions said they would do to her or her father.

"Raspberry, sweetie," Mint Julep began, "I know you're still upset with me, and I understand that.  I'm not wild about somepony whose innocent being punished for something they didn't do, but there's nothing I can do to stop that."

Raspberry was content to sit there and let her mother talk; she was simply just going to go along with the conversation and head to school.  Once her mother said that last sentence, the young filly had had enough.

"Yes there is" she said to her mother through gritted teeth.

"Sweetie, I know you think-"

"YES THERE IS!"

The shout had caught Mint by surprise, but she quickly became upset by the outburst.  "You do not raise your voice to your mother like that, young filly!"

"And you're not supposed to let innocent ponies go to jail when you can tell the truth and stop it!" Raspberry spat back.

Mint had lost the wind in her sails, but still tried to assert her authority.  "Go to school, Raspberry," she told her daughter, "We will discuss this later."

Raspberry grabber her belongings and left, slamming the door as she did so.  Mint Julep looked at her coffee with disgust and slung it into the sink, making a mess of the window and curtains above it but somehow not breaking the mug.  She then sat at her table seething and doing her best to calm herself with breath control exercises.  After a moment or two of performing them, she had calmed down.

Once calm, she reflected back on the conversation.  Raspberry only understood the black and white nature of right and wrong, and did not have any experience with how grey that process could become.  She hoped that, with time, she would understand that what her mother was doing was for her benefit, as well as her injured husband.  Taking note of the clock in the room, she began to prepare for her job that day.





Thorax and Plea Bargain were sitting at the defense table in the courtroom.  State Evidence and two of her lackeys were at the prosecution table.  Princess Cadance and Judge Iron Gavel had entered moments ago and all parties had taken their seats, ready for the day's arguments to be heard.

"Defense may call their first witness for the day" Judge Gavel told Plea Bargain.  The stallion reviewed his notes and then stood up.

"Defense calls Custos to the stand" he announced to the court.  Thorax looked to the audience area and witnessed the guard stand up.  He was not in his typical armor, but a dress uniform similar in design to the one Captain Shining Armor wore on his wedding day, with the key difference being the base color was a light blue, and the medals on it were of different designs.

The stallion made his way to the pulpit and was sworn in.  Plea bargain approached and prepared to interview the witness.





PB - Please state your name for the record, sir.

CU - Custos.

PB - What is your profession, Custos?

CU - I am a member of the Crystal Guard.

PB - How long have you served in the Crystal Guard?

CU - I was transferred here from Equestria as part of the contingent to reclaim the Crystal Empire from King Sombra.

PB - So you have been here since the empire returned from the thousand year curse, correct?

CU - That is correct.

PB - What rank do you currently hold?

CU - I am a lieutenant.

PB - Lieutenant?  Doesn't sound like you have too far to go for Captain.

CU - The prince would have to surrender his title for that to happen, and he has no desire to give up his position.  Also, there's a few ponies waiting in line ahead of me.

PB - Interesting.  Back to the case at hoof.  Could you tell us when you first met my client.

CU - The day before he was granted asylum.

PB - What was your first interaction with him like?

CU - Not pleasant.

PB - How was it not pleasant?

CU - I was one of the guards he knocked over when escaping from the throne room the first time.

PB - What about the next time?

CU - The description that the previous witness gave yesterday was a fairly accurate description of how it began.  What he left out is that Princess Cadance promised the changeling that he wouldn't be harmed and left him in the care of Princess Twilight.

PB - I take it this wasn't all?

CU - No.  The captain then ordered me to stand watch over the changeling and make sure it didn't try to attack the princess.

PB - So you stood guard over the princess?

CU - More like just stood.

PB - Care to elaborate?

CU - I witnessed the changeling making a gesture towards the princess that I interpreted as hostile.  I moved to stop him but was taken into Princess Twilight's magic and held at spear point.

(shocked gasps from the audience and jury)

PB - The princess of friendship held you at spear point?

CU - She did.

PB - Why?

CU - She asked what I was doing, and when I explained, she told me not to make any threatening gestures towards the changeling.  She even went as far as to take my spear and twist it up like a pretzel.

PB - So she demanded that you not attempt to physically harm my client?

CU - Yes.

PB - Why do you believe she had done that?

CU - I am fairly convinced that she believes his claims about wanting to live with ponies peacefully.  Of course, the alternative is he managed to put some kind of charm on her to control her thoughts.

PB - But didn't you just say you were fairly convinced that she believed my client?

CU - As a member of the Crystal Guard, it is my responsibility to consider all options in regards to a situation.

PB - Even peaceful solutions to problems that can start out violently?

CU - Deescalation is a major point of emphasis for all royal guards, whether they serve here in the crystal guard, or in the main royal guard.

PB - So, the princess threatened you with violence if you acted violently towards my client, correct?

CU - Yes.

PB - I assume you reported this to your superior?

CU - Yes.  I filed a report with Captain Shining Armor as soon as I was relieved of my duty.

PB - Who relieved you?

CU - A member of Princess Luna's guard.  She had sent him up at the request of Princess Cadance.

PB -  Do you happen to know the name of this guard?

CU - I do not.  He simply approached and informed me that I was relieved of duty.

PB - Did you not question if he was a changeling himself?

CU - Captain Shining Armor had personally brought him down and confirmed his identity.  Thinking about it now, I think his name was Night Fury, but I can't say with absolute certainty.

PB - Very well.  So you reported the princess's behavior to Captain Armor.  What was his reaction?

CU - He wasn't happy.  Said some things under his breath, and then he dismissed me for the evening and walked away.

PB - Was anything said to Princess Twilight?

CU - I believe he spoke with her the next day, but I don't know what may have been said during the exchange.

PB - Okay.  So, I've called you here in regards to my client's character.  You have had somewhat regular interactions with him over the past three to four months, have you not?

CU - I have.

PB - Please describe those interactions for the court.

CU - I have been on the duty roster to guard the changeling, both to protect ponies from being harmed by him and to keep others from harming him.

PB - My apologies, but it doesn't sound like you've done a very good job at that, since he was attacked by ponies a month ago.

CU - I was on guard in his room when that incident occurred.  Had I been there to escort him, that incident would never have happened.

PB - Very well.  You described your interactions as guard my client from harm and to keep him from causing harm.  Could you go into more specific details, please?  Perhaps things you may have said to him?

CU - I'm afraid I can't be more specific than what I have.  I've not said much, if anything to the changeling.

PB - I've just taken notice to the fact that you have yet to call my client by his given name.  Would you please explain that?

CU - I was requested that during this testimony, I maintain the professionalism that is expected of any member of the royal guard.

PB - I take it this order came from the top?

CU - It did.

PB - Then I must ask you to answer the question as a regular citizen of the empire and not one of its guards.  What have your interactions with my client been like.

CU - As I've stated, I have not spoken with the changeling in any large capacity over the past four months.

PB - Let me approach the question from another angle.  In your time guarding my client, what has been your impression of his behavior?

CU - His behavior?

PB - Yes.  What is your impression of his behavior?

CU - He has thus far treated the ponies he's interacted with with the same basic respect and dignity that most ponies would expect of one another.  He's also seemed to have formed a bond with a mare named Brass Polish, as I have often seen them conversing and laughing from time to time.

PB - So, in your opinion, he has not acted in any malicious way towards ponies?

CU - From what I have seen so far, no he hasn't.

PB - Last question.  Do you think there could come a time when my client could be trusted to roam the empire, freely and without restraint, and you would not feel threatened by him?

CU - Perhaps, but it would take a long time to have me near totally convinced.

PB - I thank you for your candidness.  I have no further questions.





Plea took his seat beside Thorax.  The changeling looked at Plea with concern on his face.  "I'm not trying to question your strategy," he said to Plea, "but the last two witnesses said that they weren't too on board with the idea of me being allowed to just intermingle with ponies with no restrictions in place."

Plea just let out a simple breath.  "I know," he replied, "but I couldn't get Princess Twilight here, so having a few ponies here to testify to how she treated you and showed you trust is the next best thing I can do.  We only have a few more witnesses available before we have to present evidence and rest our arguments.  Once that happens, both sides will have to give closing statements, and then it's in the hooves of the jury to decide."

"So you're saying our hope is dwindling?" Thorax asked, the hope in him fading with each word.

"Hardly" Plea answered with a smirk.  "We have our expert witness, and they're the one I'm counting on to give us the most compelling argument."

Plea and Thorax's conversation was then interrupted by the judge.  "Prosecution may now cross-examine the witness."





SE - Custos, you said that you first met the defendant in the throne room of the Crystal Palace, correct?

CU - Yes, I did.

SE - And that he was revealed and made an escape, causing an assault against you?

CU - I was pushed out of the way and knocked over.

SE - You gave no consent to be pushed, so that contact was without your consent, correct?

CU - It was.

SE - So, by letter of the law, the defendant is guilty of assault of a member of the Crystal Guard, and could be tried as such.

CU - I suppose that is technically true.

SE - Mister Custos, I notice an apprehension to openly admit that fact.  May I inquire as to why?

CU - I don't blame the defendant for his actions.  If a pony was going to hold me against my will, then I would probably do what I could to get away from them.

SE - So I am to understand that you did not bring charges against him?

CU - I thought about doing so for some time, but I elected to defer my judgment to the princess.

SE - Defer your judgment?

CU - Princess Cadance had made a decision to consider the plea for asylum from the defendant.  I made up my mind that, whatever her decision was, mine would reflect it.  She chose to grant his asylum, so I elected to let bygones be bygones.  I wasn't injured during that altercation, and neither were any of my squad mates, so I saw no reason to press the issue.

SE - So the defendant has committed a crime against you, but you have chosen not to have him charged?

CU - That is correct, ma'am.

SE – Very well then.  Now, I was told you were standing guard in his room the night the defendant was attacked.  How did you first learn of that attack?

CU - A knocking came at the door, and when I answered, a mare was telling me to follow her and that something bad happened.

SE - The bad thing was the attack, obviously.

CU - Yes.  When I arrived at the scene, I found the defendant beaten severely and bloodied.  He was also unconscious.

SE - Was he restrained and guarded?

CU - No, he wasn't.  The attack destroyed his restraints.

SE - What about the guards with him?

CU - They were interviewed and claimed to be attacked by changelings.

SE - The defendant attacked them?

CU - No, ma'am.  The claim was that two completely different changelings attacked them.

SE – According to reports, this attack was a staged event, correct?

CU - Yes.  The guards in question cooperated with the two ponies who attacked the changeling to stage a fake changeling attack in hopes of throwing the investigation that took place afterwards off of their tails.

SE - Okay.  Back to the client.  You said he was found without his restraints and his guards claimed they were attacked by changelings, correct?

CU - Yes, that is correct.

SE - You said you were brought to him by a mare.  Who was this mare?

CU - She was a member of the cleaning staff.  Pine Grove, I believe her name was.

SE - So this Pine Grove brought you to the defendant.  What was your course of action upon seeing him?

CU - I demanded an explanation from the guards responsible for him.  When I got their explanation, I put out a full alert for changelings in the palace.  I also instructed that medical aid be provided for the defendant.

SE - Medical aid?  With all the ponies wishing him harm, providing aid seems the last thing anypony would want to do.

CU - Our feelings in regards to the defendant's species is of no consequence.  He was assaulted in the palace, and that constitutes a crime, and since he was the target and victim, he was also a witness to the act.

SE - So keeping the defendant alive was important only for the purposes of apprehending the individuals that attacked him?

CU - At the time, that was the main goal.

SE - What happened with the defendant after you gave your orders?

CU - I stayed to maintain watch over him.  The other guards and the mare that originally notified me of the incident came back with medical supplies and a medical officer so that treatment could be enacted.

SE - Did you administer any medical aid?

CU - I used a scanning spell to try and determine how much damage the defendant sustained.  He had an extensive amount.

SE - Can you give us a brief summary?

CU - There were several places along his body where the chitin that serves as his outer coat was cracked or completely stripped from his body, which caused some serious bleeding.  His horn was cracked in several places and also bleeding.  His wings were in tatters and his flight muscles were heavily damaged.

SE - We were also told he sustained a concussion.  Did your scan determine if this was the case?

CU - The scanning spell I used was fairly simple.  It gave an indication of head trauma, but it wasn't overly specific.  Based on what I saw at the time, I would likely not have dismissed the suggestion that the defendant suffered a concussion.

SE - So, the medical officer attended to the defendant's wounds.  What happened after that?

CU - Once the medical officer had given the defendant a once over and treated his wounds, he determined that it was safe to move him.  Myself and one of my subordinates placed him onto a stretcher and moved him to the palace infirmary.

SE - You all moved him to the palace infirmary.  Was there anypony in the infirmary at the time?

CU - Yes.  The infirmary is staffed twenty-four/seven.  Dr. Caduceus was on call at that time.

SE - What was his assessment of the defendant once he saw him?

CU - He pretty much reached the same conclusions as I had.  Severe damage to the body and wings.  Likely head trauma resulting in a concussion.

SE - Did his manner of treating the defendant differ from the guards under your command?

CU - It did.  My medical officer is well trained in first response and injuries a pony can sustain while in service of the guard, but they can only do so much, and with only so much.  Dr. Caduceus began IV treatments and performed a scan on the defendant's skull to determine the extent of the head trauma.

SE - Were you told of the results of that scan?

CU - I wasn't.  Dr. Caduceus had operated as normal, with respect to privacy between patient and doctor.  However, based on his behavior, I believe the head trauma the defendant suffered wasn't as bad as he feared.

SE - How did you reach this conclusion?

CU - As I saw him reviewing the images he took, I could see his body physically relax.  Tension in his withers faded away.

SE - I see.  How long were you in the infirmary that evening?

CU - I stayed there for only long enough to ensure that things could be handled by my subordinates.  Once I was sure they had a handle on things, I elected to complete some of the necessary paperwork and retire for the evening.

SE - Okay.  I have one last question for you.  What did you feel like before you went to bed?

CU - I had felt a bit lethargic, and I had a small headache as well.

(murmurs from the audience and jury)

SE - Mister Custos, I don't mean to cause any alarm, but you are aware that fatigue and headaches are a common sign of a changeling feeding on a pony's emotions?

CU - I am aware.  I'm also aware that I was kept up for some time after I would normally retire to bed for the evening, and I was also doing some paperwork that was more involved than my normal shift reports, which tends to cause a pony to have more mental stress, and can therefore cause headaches.

SE - Still, though, with the defendant lacking his restraints, it is possible the he drained you of emotions, correct?

CU - ...I suppose that could've happened.

(murmurs from the audience and jury)

SE - Thank you.  Nothing further.





State turned and walked back to her table, looking over at Plea and Thorax and giving them both a smug smile.  Thorax was a bit unnerved at her actions, but Plea simply scowled.  "She is playing up the prejudice card big time" he muttered under his breath.  Before he could think of any kind of retort, the judge asked for his next witness.

"Defense calls Dr. Caduceus to the stand."

The pony, a stallion wear a suit jacket and dress shirt, approached the stand and was sworn in.  Plea looked to Thorax and gave him a hopeful smile before turning to question the doctor.





PB - Please state your name for the record, sir.

DC - Doctor Caduceus Staff.

PB - And how long have you held the title of doctor?

DC - I've been a doctor for the past four years.

PB - Did you have medical training before becoming a doctor?

DC - I was a medical officer in the royal guard before I reached the end of my enlistment and was release with favorable letter.

PB - How long were you in the guard?

DC - I was in the guard for ten years.

PB - And you attained the position of medical officer in that time?

DC - I did.

PB - I assume then that you used the programs available to the guard to attend regular medical school during your service, correct?

DC - Yes.  I made the formal request and my superiors moved me to reserve status so that I could attend university and receive training and education to become a doctor.

PB - Do you have a specific specialty?

DC - I am a general practice doctor, or GP for short.  However, I have retained all of my medical certifications from my guard service, so I am trained in the treatment of more intensive injuries.

PB - So if a pony in the palace were to break their leg or suffer a laceration large enough to cause significant bleeding, you would be able to treat those wounds?

DC - Yes, I would.

PB - You have treated my client for injuries, correct?

DC - Yes, I have.

PB - Have you treated any changelings before him?

DC - No, I have not.

PB - Not even during the attempt to invade Canterlot?

DC - From my understanding, the changelings were repulsed by Captain Shining Armor's spell, which was boosted by Princess Cadance's own power, so there were no changelings left in the city to receive medical treatment.  Besides that fact, I was on leave in Fillydelphia during the wedding.

PB - I was under the impression that all available guards had been called back for the wedding as a security measure?

DC - They were, but those were the guards whose sole duty was defense.  Only a small contingent of medical officers was deemed necessary for the wedding, so I was excused.

PB - Okay.  So, you've never treated a changeling for injuries before my client, correct?

DC - That is correct.

PB - Please describe your experiences in treating my client's injuries.

DC - I will do this as best I can.  There are some things that I cannot disclose because of laws regarding privacy.

PB - Whatever you can tell us, doctor.

DC - The defendant was brought to me in the evening about one month or so ago.  Two guards had brought him in, and a medical officer followed with them and informed me of the injuries.

PB - With respect to privacy, can you elaborate on the injuries?

DC - There was extensive wounds starting from the middle of the body and stretching upwards towards the head and neck area, and downward towards the hooves.  There was also damage to flight muscles and the wings of the defendant.

PB - We've heard from our last witness that there was suspicion of a concussion.  Is that something you can confirm?

DC - There were injuries to his head, but that is as much as I can disclose.

PB - Okay.  Please continue.

DC - After I had assessed all of the injuries, I began a more in depth course of treatment than the medical officer had enacted.

PB - Are you claiming the medical officer used inferior methods of treating my client?

DC - By no means do I make that accusation.  The medical officer did a wonderful job in providing aid to the defendant.  However, there is some knowledge and tools that were unavailable to them, and I had access to, so I picked up where they had to leave off.

PB - I thought the medical officers were supposed to be trained for all manner of emergency?

DC - Their training is more akin to the position the griffins call a "combat medic".  The main task for them is to provide immediate treatment of wounds and transport the patient to a facility for them to receive more in-depth care.

PB - So you gave the defendant the necessary medical care.  What else did you do?

DC - Besides assessing his injuries and treating them, I also estimated his recovery time.

PB - How did you make this estimate?

DC - It is difficult to calculate an exact time for anypony, and more so with changelings due to their fairly unknown biology compared to ours, but their basic body systems, such as skeletal and vascular systems, are similar enough for us to make educated guesses.

PB - That doesn't quite answer my question, doctor.

DC - I made my estimate based on how a pony in a similar condition and in similar build to the defendant would heal from injuries of the magnitude that he faced.  I also took into account healing spells and thaumically treated bandages that aid in the healing process as well, which have established rates at which they heal injuries.

PB - Okay, that answers my question.  What was your estimated timetable for my client's recovery?

DC - I calculated the defendant's recovery from injuries to be around two weeks time.

PB - And did it take that long for the defendant to recover?

DC - The defendant recovered at a faster rate than what I had estimated.

PB - He recovered faster?  Does this mean that changelings are able to heal more quickly than ponies?

DC - No.  From the research conducted, their healing abilities are similar to ours, and in some instances, somewhat weaker.

PB - Then why was he able to heal as quickly as he did?

DC - His unconscious body was drawing in love from nearby ponies.

(uproar from the audience)

Judge - (bangs gavel) Order in this courtroom!

(the audience quiets down)

PB - You mean to tell me that my client was consciously feeding on other ponies' emotions?

DC - No, he was not.

PB - I am a bit confused by this remark.  Would you please explain it to me?

DC - The defendant was unconscious and unresponsive when he was brought to me.  I only noticed something was happening when one of the guards took a seat in a chair and appeared lethargic.  When I questioned him about his fatigue, he also complained of suffering a minor headache.  When I moved him away from the defendant by a considerable distance, his overall condition improved rather quickly.

PB - But if the guard showed evidence that he was being fed on, and removing him from the changeling improved his condition, then that would mean that he was feeding on the guard, wouldn't it?

DC - To get to the heart of the matter, the defendant was not in conscious control of his body at the time.  Whatever feeding took place was likely an automatic response by his body's biology due to the trauma he received in the attack against him.

PB - So, in simpler words, the defendant's body just started drawing in nearby love because it needed energy to deal with what happened to it?

DC - That is about the gist of what I said.

PB - So my client was unconscious and not in control of his actions at the time this feeding took place, correct?

DC - Yes, he was not in control of his body functions at that point in time.

PB - Can you be sure of this claim you're making?

DC - Yes, I can.

PB - What evidence do you have to support this claim?

DC - Once the defendant had enough love in him to convert into energy for his body to heal itself, he regained consciousness and the automatic feeding stopped.

PB - So, my client stopped feeding once he was consciously aware he was doing it?

DC - Yes, he did.  In fact, he even showed remorse for it happening and wished to apologize to the guards that it happened to.

PB - He wanted to apologize for what happened while he wasn't in control of his body?

DC - He did.

(murmurs in the audience and jury)

PB - Interesting.  How did his recovery go?

DC - It is still technically ongoing.  He saw me not too long ago for an evaluation.

PB - And what was the result of that evaluation?

DC - I'm afraid I can't disclose that due to privacy laws.

PB - Can you at least give an opinion on his condition?  Is he improved at all?

DC - He has been recovering well.  I would think that he may only need to see me one more time before I can say he is fully recovered.

PB - I see.  Out of curiosity, you claimed that my client wished to apologize to the guards that he fed upon in his unconscious state.  Do you know if he ever did offer that apology?

DC - I believe he may have written an open letter addressed to the guards that took him to the infirmary.

PB - Do you know for sure if that was a letter of apology?

DC - I can't confirm completely that it was a letter of apology, but in my opinion, I believe it was.

PB - I see.  One last question.  While my client was in your care, did he have any restraints on him?

DC - No, he did not.

(shocked gasps from the audience and jury)

PB - Now, hold on for one moment.  You're telling me that you treated my client, a known enemy of Equestria and by extension the Crystal Empire, one that has dangerous magic that can be very harmful to you, and you did this without him having any restraints?

DC - Yes, I did.

PB - At any point in time did you feel that you were in danger working around my client?

DC - Initially, I was fearful, but that quickly went away the more time I spent around him.

PB - So he demonstrated to you that he did not intend to cause you harm?

DC - He did.

PB - Thank you.  No further questions, your honor.





Plea took his seat back at the defendant's table.  He had a good feeling after that line of questioning, convinced that opinions would change upon hearing that Thorax showed remorse for feeding on the guards while unconscious and also demonstrating his desire not to cause harm while he was unrestrained.

Unfortunately, the good feelings were short lived as the judge told State that she could cross examine the doctor.





SE - Doctor Caduceus, you claimed that the defendant did not act in any way to harm you while you treated him.  Is this correct?

DC - Yes, that is correct.

SE - And you said that you believe that the defendant wrote a letter of apology to the guard for his "automatic feeding"?

DC - Yes, I believe that's what he wrote.

SE - And how did you formulate this opinion?

DC - I heard him having a discussion about writing such a letter with the crystaller.

(murmurs from the audience)

SE - The crystaller?

DC - Yes, ma'am.

SE - Why would the crystaller be speaking with the defendant?

DC - To my understanding, part of the agreement for asylum was that the defendant would be tested for intelligence and receive an education that was considered typical for a pony living in the Crystal Empire.

SE - And you formulated this opinion based on things your patient told the crystaller?

DC - No.  It was based on the crystaller's responses to things the defendant told him.  At the time this happened, I could only clearly hear the crystaller speaking and not what the defendant was saying.

SE - Okay.  Now, you claimed that the defendant fed upon guards involuntarily.  How can you be sure that was the case?

DC - I made multiple attempts to revive the patient after my initial treatment, and all were to no success.

SE - So you tried waking him up and he didn't respond?

DC - Yes.  I was afraid he would be comatose.

SE - Wouldn't comatose have been better?

DC - Not for the guards that would need to interview him about the attack carried out against him.

SE - I see.  Final question.  With him being in your care unrestrained, how sure are you that the defendant hasn't used some kind of deception or mind control spell on you?

DC - Sure enough I would submit to a test to see if I am under any kind of mind control spells.

SE - I see.  No more questions.

Judge: Witness is dismissed.





State returned to her seat after the questioning she just conducted.  Plea looked to Thorax and gave him a smile.  "I'm sure she was expecting the doctor to say he wasn't sure about that last question" he told Thorax.  The changeling just smiled back, not sure how to feel about the case so far.  All thoughts on the matter were interrupted by the judge.

"We will recess for lunch.  Trial will resume in one hour."  With that, Iron Gavel banged his namesake and dismissed the courtroom.  Plea gathered up his case notes and belongings and looked at Thorax.

"I'm gonna go see that filly," he told the changeling, "and hopefully I can get her to testify on your behalf."

Thorax smiled in response.  "I hope so.  She might be my best chance."

"If she isn't," Plea interjected, "then I know the expert witnesses will."

With that, Plea left out the doors behind the audience area, and Thorax was led to the courthouse's holding area.
> Part III, Chapter 15 - Defense's Arguments - Part IV
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raspberry Mint sat patiently as her teacher finished the lesson before everypony went to have their lunches.  She was eager to get to lunch because she was hoping to meet Plea Bargain, Thorax's attorney for his trial.  She hoped meeting the stallion would give her a chance to help the changeling who tried to do a good deed and was being punished for it, thus bringing the old idiom to life.  If the little filly's words could sway the jury and set Thorax free, then she wanted to give them.

Finally, the bell for lunch rang and everypony filed out of the classroom.  For most, they went to the cafeteria to get whatever lunch was being served that day; today's meal was veggie lasagna with garlic bread and a tiramisu dessert cake.  Raspberry's mother insisted on her foal taking a classic brown bag lunch, consisting of a apple and daisy sandwich, baby carrots, and a small bottle of chocolate milk.  The one benefit about bringing her own lunch was that Raspberry could take her lunch and eat outside at the picnic tables in the schoolyard.

The schoolyard itself was fairly simple.  There was a play fort, complete with climbing ladder and slide, a teeter totter, a carousel, sandbox, and horseshoe throwing pit.  Of course, throwing actual horseshoes was a dangerous game for young foals, so the school substituted weighted foam rings instead, which actually required more skill to play with.

At the far end of the school yard were the picnic tables, six in total.  Sitting at one of the tables was one of the school's teacher aides.  She was a pegasus mare that was still attending college for a teaching degree.  Currently, she was reading a Daring Do novel and picking at her own lunch: a delicious green salad with cherry tomatoes and red onions, drizzled in a black raspberry vinaigrette.

Raspberry took her seat at the table and began to sort out her lunch.  As she did so, she kept looking around to see if she would spot Plea Bargain approaching.  She had no idea whether or not he would show, but she really hoped he would.  If the papers were accurate, then she had very little time left to be able to get her testimony in to be able to offer any help to Thorax.

The filly took a moment then and there to consider the relative absurdity of the situation.  Equestria had been rather violently introduced to changelings several years ago, and the first impression wasn't good.  Since then, everypony felt as though they had to question their loved ones when they adopted new styles or discovered new interests.  For the average pony, the changelings had stolen something from them, and it wasn't the love in their hearts; it was the peace of mind they had in their daily lives.

Thus came the absurd situation the filly found herself in; a changeling was going to go to prison, and she wanted to help him stay out of it.

The clip clopping of hooves caught Raspberry's attention.  She turned to look in the direction of the sound and was met with the presence of Plea Bargain.  He wore a nice shirt and suit jacket, along with a silk tie that she thought was quite pretty.  He had a light pair of saddle bags on his back, which were most likely his necessary materials for the trial.  He was about to walk up and greet the filly when the mare took notice of him and became suspicious.

"May I help you?" she asked Plea, her voice indicating her intentions if he gave a wrong answer.

Plea proceeded to produce a paper from his saddle bags and offered it to the mare.  "This filly contacted me with this letter," he explained, "and she asked to meet with me today during her lunch break."

The pegasus mare looked suspiciously at him for a moment, then down at the letter, and then to Raspberry herself.  "Do you know this stallion?" she asked her.

"Yes," Raspberry replied, "this is Mister Plea Bargain.  He's the pony that is helping Mister Thorax to try and get out of jail."

The pegasus looked at the stallion, and upon looking him over, had a look of recognition.  "I thought you looked familiar," she commented, then asked, "Why do you want to talk to Raspberry?"

Plea fixed his tie as he answered.  "Miss Raspberry here would like to testify, but her mother won't let her.  So I thought that perhaps I could get a few answers, and possibly some new leads that might help my client with his case."

"You mean that changeling?" she asked in a matter of fact way.

"I wouldn't put it so bluntly," he commented, "but yes, that is who I am representing."

The mare continues to eye Plea with suspicion.  "How come you don't have a subpoena or something?"

"Because Raspberry said that she wished to meet with me" Plea answered as he again offered the letter.  "Take a look."

The mare took the paper and looked it over.  "You wrote this?" she asked Raspberry as she showed her the paper.  The filly nodded.

"Okay then" she responded as she gave the paper back to Plea, her eyes giving him a stern look.  "My eyes and ears will be on you, pal," she said in a threatening tone, "so you better not be pulling something.  Also, this filly doesn't have a long lunch, so don't distract her too much from eating."  With that, the mare went back to her book and salad.

"Thank you, miss...?"  Plea paused as he realized the mare hadn't said her name.

She looked at him and simply replied "Viridian Sky."

"Thank you, Miss Sky" Plea finished as he took his seat across from Raspberry at the table she was sitting at.  "You don't have a long lunch," he said to Raspberry, "but neither do I.  So, I'm just going to keep it simple.  I'll ask questions, and you just give me yes and no answers, okay?"

Raspberry gave a nod of understanding as she chewed a bite of her sandwich.

"Good.  Now, to begin, you were cornered in an alleyway on your way home from school, correct?"

"Yes."

"Now, this wasn't done by a group of three changelings, right?"

"Yes."

Plea closed his eyes and smiled, knowing now for sure that the story the stallions told him was fabricated.  "Who did have you cornered?"

"It was three stallions" Raspberry answered.  "Two were unicorns, and one was an earth pony."

"Were any of them crystal ponies?" Plea asked her.

"The one unicorn" she replied.  "He was green and had dice for his cutie mark."

"Finally," Plea thought to himself, "a smoking cannon!"

"Did you hear any of the stallions mention any names?" he asked her next.

"No."

"Can you describe the other unicorn and earth pony?"

Raspberry then proceeded to give a description of the other two ponies, with both matching the two stallions that had testified in court.  For Plea, it was the news he'd been hoping to hear.  The biggest problem now would be getting the jury to believe her story; State had already planted the suggestion in the jury's mind that some of the ponies Thorax had interacted with could be under some kind of mind control spell.

"There's a lot of things that I would like to go over," Plea told Raspberry, "but your lunch is almost over, and I have to start making my way back to the courthouse.  I want to get your full story without interruption, so please let me have your home address so I can visit you tonight."

Raspberry looked uneasy.  "I'm not sure I can do that."

Plea looked at her confused, but then remembered the letter.  "Your mom is afraid of those stallions, right?"

Raspberry just nodded.

Plea had something in mind that he would have to present to the guard.  "Raspberry, there's a thing the guards can do that might help put your mother at ease.  I could actually make a request that they post a guard outside your home AND have one at the hospital to keep both you and your father safe.  I could even have it done before I speak with your mother."

Raspberry gave his suggestion a thought, and then nodded.  "She probably won't be happy to see you" she told Plea.

"Well, I gotta do my job," he told her, "and that means putting together a case to convince the jury that Thorax is innocent.  Thorax didn't do anything wrong, did he?"

"No."

"Well, if a pony didn't do something wrong, then they shouldn't be punished for it, right?"

Raspberry nodded.

"Then we gotta make sure the jury knows it too.  Now, let me have your address, and I'll be by as soon as I can this evening."

Raspberry gave the stallion her address and he tucked it away in his saddlebags.  He gave the filly a smile and told her to have a good rest of her day.  Once he was gone, Viridian looked over at the filly.  "Did that changeling really save you?" she asked.

"Yes," Raspberry answered, "and nopony wants to believe him."

"Changelings lie" Viridian pointed out.  "How do you know he isn't playing some kind of trick on you to try and get out of going to jail?"

Raspberry looked at Viridian upset, then said something the mare hadn't considered before.  "Ponies lie to get things too."  Her point made, Raspberry finished her lunch and went back inside.  Viridian had been caught off guard by the foal's reply and hadn't been able to form a proper retort.  She quietly finished her own lunch and headed back inside shortly after the filly.





Thorax was back inside the courtroom, shackled into place and seated at the defendant's table.  State Evidence was sitting at the other table, her two "lackeys", as Plea had put it, rifling through paperwork in an effort to prepare for what Thorax assumed would be the calling of the expert witnesses.

Plea had explained the purpose of the expert witnesses to him before.  They didn't witness the actual crime take place, but they were only required to give testimony on matters relating to the crime based on the evidence before them, and in the instance of the forensic pony, give reports on studies that they had conducted on the collected physical evidence.  According to Plea, these ponies would be the best chance for him to get an innocent verdict, as their conclusions were based on actual facts instead of opinion and hearsay.

The doors to the courtroom opened and Thorax turned to see Plea walking up towards the defense table.  He could see the stallion had a smile on his face.

"So, how did it go?" Thorax asked Plea.

The stallion looked at him as his grin grew wider.  "Terrifically" he replied.  "I didn't have enough time to get the whole story from her, but what she said matches with your claims and my suspicions.  The three stallions that gave testimony earlier are the real culprits, and she never saw any other changelings besides you."

"I have her home address, so I plan on paying her a visit tonight, where I can hopefully convince her mother to let her take the witness stand."

"I thought that her mother said that Raspberry was too traumatized to recall the story" Thorax pointed out.

Plea shook his head.  "More like she's likely been intimidated by the three stallions to not allow Raspberry to testify.  Remember the letter I showed you?  Bad stallions will hurt me and my daddy?  I think we know who the bad stallions are."

Thorax looked at Plea glumly.  While he agreed that getting Raspberry to testify would be a big help to his case, there was also the fact of the things that State Evidence had said during her questioning of previous ponies.

"What about all the changeling mind control spell stuff?" Thorax asked Plea.  "Surely they'll be skeptical of the filly's story because of that."

Plea smile faltered slightly, but it was still there.  "That's gonna be a tough nut to crack," he admitted, "but if I can get Raspberry to testify, I might be able to get a unicorn to do a clearing spell on her before she takes the stand."

"Clearing spell?" Thorax said with confusion.

Plea nodded.  "It's a spell which clears out any spells currently being used on a pony, provided the enchantments aren't too powerful.  Fortunately, most mind control spells are relatively low powered, as they mostly use suggestion to get the affected pony to act the way the spell caster wants."

"Only really powerful ones can be used to force the target pony to think the way the caster wants, and even then, those can cause harm to a pony under their effect.  Remember the stories about Captain Shining Armor's headaches during the wedding?  They were likely the result of the powerful mind control spell that was cast on him, as well as a side effect of your ex-queen draining his love."

Thorax gave a positive affirmation that he understood, but he didn't actually have very much confidence as far as the testimony that Raspberry could provide.  Plea could see that Thorax wasn't feeling very confident about the state of the trial, so he put a hoof on the changeling's withers to provide reassurance.

"Don't worry" he told Thorax. "I have a plan to stretch today out so that we will have to reconvene tomorrow.  That way, I have some time to talk to Raspberry's mom and convince her to let Raspberry testify.  I'll make it work out.  I promise."

“Besides, the witness we are calling today should help put all of that stuff to rest.”

Thorax wanted to be as confident as Plea felt, but he still had his doubts.  Before he could voice any of them, the bailiff announced the arrival of the princess and judge.  Once the judge was seated, he called the court back to order.

"We are reconvened" Iron Gavel announced.  "The defense may call their next witness."

Plea looked over his papers and called on a name that the caught the princess's interest.

"The defense calls Mage Night Diving as an expert witness in regards to the magic and spell aspects of this trial."

The court room doors opened to allow a blue unicorn mare to walk inside.  She approached the seat beside the judge and took her place in it.  Once she was sworn in, Plea began his questioning.





PB - Please state your name for the record, ma'am.

ND - Recruit Night Divining.  Member of the 3rd Mage Corps of the Royal Guard.

PB - Is recruit a guard rank?

ND - It is.  It's the first one after the pledge rank.

PB - And pledge rank is the first official rank?

ND  - It's the first designation anypony joining the royal guard receives.

PB - How long have you been in the royal guard?

ND - I've been active with the guard for nearly a year now.

PB - What did you do before joining the royal guard?

ND - I studied spellcraft and received my doctorate in that field.

PB - Have you used your doctorate since you've gotten it?

ND  - I use aspects of it in my current assignments.  I hope to use all of it provided I am promoted into the Research Division of the Mage Corps.

PB - What needs to happen for you to get moved there?

ND - I have to serve another six months, but I also need to be the rank of corporal at least.

PB - We've strayed a little from the matter at hoof.  Are you familiar with my client?

ND - I am.

PB - Have you met him before?

ND - I don't remember if I have or not, which usually means that I haven't met the pony before.

PB - How are you familiar with him?

ND - The guard detachment here was made aware of his presence and the fact that he was permitted to be here.  We were also made aware of his being allowed to leave the palace about a month or so ago.

PB - What was your opinion of both decisions?

ND - I wasn't exactly in favor of the first decision, mostly because of the negative experiences I had while in Canterlot during the invasion.

PB - Were you attacked during the invasion?

ND - I was, but I wasn't harmed.  Changelings aren't particularly strong against magic spells.  At least, the ones I faced weren't.

PB - Okay.  What about the second decision?  What was your opinion of that?

ND - I wasn't as opposed as the first time, though I did feel some caution was advised.

PB - What changed your mind about my client between the princesses first decision about my client staying here and the second where he would be allowed to roam free through the empire?

ND - I had observed his interactions with other ponies, and he's demonstrated to me that he does want to be here on peaceful terms with us.

PB - So his actions have shown you he's trustworthy and that has altered your perception of him?

ND - Yes, they have.

PB - Okay.  Now, about your field of expertise, which field of spellcraft do you specialize in?

ND - My major area of expertise is mental magic.

PB - Could you elaborate on what that field is?  Perhaps some specific examples?

ND - Mental magic covers all magic that affects a pony's mind.  Things such as memory manipulation or outright mind control are topics that fall into that category.

PB - So you would understand a great deal about mind control then?

ND - I do.

PB - Now, how difficult would it be to place a pony under mind control?

ND - It is rather difficult.  The magic is very complicated, and wouldn't be something done instantaneously.  A sloppy attempt would either fail or cause harm to the targeted individual.

PB - So nothing can just be cast in heat of the moment situations?

ND - No.  It would be ill-advised.

PB - What do you think would be the shortest but safest amount of time for a caster to successfully place a mind control spell on a target?

ND - I wouldn't think a caster could do it that way any faster than say nearly two hours.

PB - Not exactly a short amount of time.  Why would that take so long?

ND - A lot of it would be getting the target into a relaxed enough state to be susceptible to the effects of the spell.  A lot of times, the enchantments would be done when the subject was asleep.

PB - I see.  Do you suspect that's how the changeling queen was able to get the prince with her spell?

ND - My guess is that that is exactly how she got the prince under her spell.

PB - I see.  Now, are there any spells or charms that could be applied more quickly and have a similar effect?

ND - There are some, but they still take at least a half hour to apply correctly.

PB - What is the faster mental magic to apply safely?

ND - The quickest to safely and successfully cast is a spell that is meant to temporarily alter a target's senses.  For example, making them think they saw something they didn't.

PB - And how quickly could that be done?

ND - Depending on the target's mental faculties, it can be as quick as a few seconds, or as long as a few minutes.  Admittedly, the longer casting has only happened in testing labs, at least according to documented cases.

PB - Do you think it's possible for a more gifted magic user to be able to cast that kind of spell more quickly than an average unicorn?  Say, Princess Twilight Sparkle, for instance?

ND - Well, a more adept magic user could cut down the time on casting the spell, but that speed only comes with practice.  If a skilled pony cast that spell regularly, they could probably cut down on the time it takes to perform is to practically cast it instantaneously, and in about a minute's time for ones that aren't as susceptible to mental magic.

PB - Fascinating.  So, based on what you've told us, do you believe that my client is able to perform any kind of magic like that?

ND - Being honest, I don't believe he is capable of such magic.

PB - And what evidence do you have to support your claim?

ND - The fact that your client has been wearing a magic suppression ring since the first day he was allowed to stay here.

PB - And what if that ring had been removed?  Do you believe he would be able to perform that kind of magic then?

ND - I suppose it would be possible, but I still doubt he would be able to.

PB - And what reason do you have to believe that?

ND - Aside from the few levitation spells that he is allowed to use, I haven't seem him attempt anything besides those, and I know that he is capable of other spells besides those.

PB - Oh?  Would you elaborate on what kinds of spells he could use besides levitation while not being hindered by the suppression ring?

ND - Horn illumination, for one, though there is a limiter built into it to keep him from using it as a blinding flash.  Another would be an orienteering spell that would allow him to find north, but that would only be useful if he made an attempt to escape from the empire.

PB - Do you think he would attempt an escape?

ND - I don't believe so.  From what I've heard, just being in our custody would amount to receiving some form of severe punishment from the changeling queen.

PB - Okay.  So, to summarize, you don't think that my client has the ability to alter the minds of ponies with magic, regardless of the fact he is wearing a suppression ring or not?

ND - No, I don't believe that he is capable of doing such a thing.

PB - Thank you.  I have no further questions.





Plea walks back towards the defendant's table and sits down.  Thorax looks at him suspiciously.  "I know I'm not an expert on law and how testimony works," he begins, "but it sounds an awful lot like you're getting the witnesses to say things that would help State Evidence more than us."

Plea turns and gives him a smile.  "Then it's a good thing that they're also saying things that countermand those remarks and help out our case."

Thorax isn't given the time to properly respond as the judge tells State that she can cross examine the witness.





SE - Miss Divining, I know that the day is getting late, so I will only ask you a few important questions.  First, how much experience do you have dealing with changelings in general?

ND - I've been interacting with them in some capacity since about six months after I began my service.

SE - And what have you learned about them in that time?

ND - In regards to them in general, a fair bit.  The scientists that have been studying them have found they actually share a fair bit in common with us, physiologically speaking.

SE - Physiologically speaking?  Could you give us some examples?

ND - Despite the holes in the legs, their internal skeletal structure is near identical to ponies.  The bones are hollow the same way pegasi bones are.  Their blood is nearly identical to ours.  All of the ones we've found fit into the O type, so barring any research that would prove it to be harmful to ponies, changelings could theoretically donate blood to ponies.

SE - Interesting.  What about their magic in general?  Has it been discovered how they steal love away from us?

ND - At current, not much is known about how they drain love from us.  The only things known for certain is that it weakens the pony being affected and causing different symptoms that range from headaches to going into a catatonic state.  Besides that, we do know for certain that it is a kind of magic.  It's possible that changelings could have their own separate school of magic.

SE - So, Miss Divining, you're telling me that we don't know much at current about the magical capabilities of changelings?

ND - At current, yes.

SE - So they could be more adept at different forms of magic than what most unicorns are capable of?

ND - Theoretically, yes.

SE - And mental magic could be one of these?  Even to the point where the average one of these creatures could be considered to be as competent as a pony that would be considered excelling?

ND - As I said before in my previous testimony, mental magic is a difficult and dangerous type to perform.  Changelings are not excluded from that.  While we don't know the extent of their abilities or the magic involved in them, we do know that they demonstrate aptitudes comparable to ponies.

SE - And how do you know this?

ND - Some of the prisoners held in Canterlot have been more cooperative than others.  They've taken magic tests that would be given to a pony about to graduate from standard schooling, and their results were similar to average pony scores.

SE - I see.  And there is no way for them to simply be "playing dumb?"

ND - I suppose their is that possibility, but the scientists that observed the testing didn't seem to think so.

SE - What made them think that?

ND - The prisoners were heard gloating to one another about their scores.

SE - I see.  I have nothing further.





State Evidence returned to her table.  As she did, Thorax took notice of Plea smiling fairly wide.  "Was that good?" he asked his lawyer.

"I don't think that went quite how she wanted it to" Plea tells Thorax.  "She was probably hoping for the expert witness to give her a viewpoint to bolster her case, but she didn't really have much to give her that she couldn't otherwise debunk."

"Plus, the bit about changelings gloating about their test scores was a little amusing to me."

The topic made Thorax think back to his training days and how the other drones would boast about their scores in things such as prey capture and cocooning.  Unfortunately for Thorax, he never got very high marks in those kinds of things.

Before the judge could tell Plea to call his next witness, a bailiff entered the courtroom and asked to approach the bench.  In his muzzle was a note.  The judge granted the request and took the offered note.  After reading it, he addressed the court.

"A personal matter regarding family has come up and I will be unable to conduct on this trial again until next Monday.  This court is adjourned until that time."

The judge bangs his gavel and dismisses the court.  Almost immediately, State Evidence stands up.  "Your honor, I must insist we continue with this trial until it is concluded."

"I understand your desire to expedite these proceedings," he tells her, "but this is a matter I cannot ignore.  We will reconvene on Monday.  Use the extra time to prepare for future cross-examinations and your closing statement.  Now, court is dismissed and I must attend to these affairs immediately."

The judge didn't listen to State's protest as he walked back into his office.  As this was going on, Plea gathered his things and looked at Thorax.

"I'm going to Raspberry's address right now" he told the changeling.  "With any luck, by the time Monday rolls around, that filly will be on the stand and ready to give her side of the story."
> Part III, Chapter 16 - Securing the Witness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plea Bargain made haste upon exiting the courthouse.  It was nearly suppertime, which meant that most ponies would be getting home from their day jobs and either themselves or the significant others who stayed at home would be preparing a meal for them or waiting to go have a meal out on the town.  In the case of the filly's mother, he hoped for the former.

Making a quick stop at his office to take care of a few things, he then headed directly for the address that Raspberry had given him.  As he walked, he drew up a list of questions that he wanted to ask her.  He also was thinking of ways to persuade Mint Julep to allow her daughter to testify; the mare wasn't allowing it in fear that doing so would result in reprisal from the stallions and any accomplices that would assist them.  That part of the process would be the most difficult hurdle to overcome at the moment.

After about ten minutes or so of walking, Plea had arrived at the apartment complex.  The building was crafted from pieces of sapphire and amethyst, and went up about six floors, each having twelve apartments spread evenly across them.  The apartment he was looking for appeared to be on the fourth floor.  He took the stairs up and trudged across the balcony.  He took the brief amount of time traveling to finish up the last few parts of his quickly conjured plan.  He soon reached the specified apartment and took a deep breath, then knocked three times on the door.

"Who is it?" came a voice from inside.

"I'm here on an important legal matter, ma'am" Plea replied to the mare.

Two seconds later, a rather miffed looking mare opened the door and stared him down with daggers.  "Listen, and for the last Celestia forsaken time, my daughter is not well enough to give any kind of legal testimony!  She is seeing a psychologist to get over her fears of that horrible day and she still doesn't trust that it's me at night!  She will not testify in that courtroom looking that bug in the face and have to relive those nightmares all over again!  So, with all kindness that I can muster at the moment, please leave!"

The door was promptly slammed in Plea's face, causing the stallion to take a pause.  She put up a good front, but he knew of a way he could at least get into the door.  Again, he knocked on it three times.

Mint Julep again opened the door to tell the stallion to go away, but he beat her to the punch.  "Ma'am, Raspberry has already spoken to me" Plea told her.  "In fact, she insisted that I meet her at lunch time at her school.  I went there and met with her and she told me that not only was she more than willing to testify, but that the only one keeping her from doing it was you."

Mint opened the door again to tell him to go away, but stopped the minute she saw the paper.  It was a written note made by her daughter; she'd recognize the penmanship anywhere.  The contents were straightforward: Raspberry identified herself, said she was willing to testify but her mom wouldn't let her, and it was because the stallions who "rescued" her had threatened her not to tell or else.  Mint went from angry, to shocked, to fearful all in the span of just a few seconds.  With no further argument, she undid the chain lock on the door and invited Plea to come in.

The apartment was bigger than some Plea had seen.  The main room was the largest, and a counter divided the space into a sitting area and kitchen area.  He could see a hallway with some doors along each side; bedrooms and a bathroom most likely.  Mint walked away from the door and sat down on the sofa.  Once sat down, she gestured for him to join her in another chair.

"I don't know what Raspberry told you," she began, "but she really hasn't been-"

Plea raised a hoof and cut her off.  "Miss Julep," he interrupted, "Raspberry was not acting anything at all like foals who have experienced trauma like what she did.  In fact, she seems to have gotten past it quite well."

Mint Julep glared at him.  When she didn't offer a retort, Plea continued speaking.

"I'm going to cut straight to the point.  You preventing your daughter from testifying has nothing to do with the changeling."

"How could it not?!" she asked indignantly, "My filly was almost taken by one of those monsters!"

Plea just looked at her for a second, then continued talking.  "As I said, it has nothing to do with him."

"YES IT D-"

"This has something to do with the three stallions that came here to collect on your debts."

Mint was becoming more agitated, or at least that was what she showed outwardly.  Inside, she was becoming more fearful.  If this stallion went forward and investigated, then the stallions would assume she told on them, and terrible things would happen to her husband and Raspberry.

"I don't have time for-"

"I've already began looking into those stallions" Plea announced, playing the only trump card he had to play, and based on how the mare reacted, it had worked.

Mint didn't say anything.  In all honesty, she couldn't.  The stallion was already investigating the three stallions, and that would likely end in the guard being involved.  They would be questioned at the least, and they would come after Raspberry for retribution.  Any pretense of anger that Mint Julep had evaporated in that moment.  Water quickly filled her eyes as she fell back into the sofa and began sobbing.

Plea looked at the mare with sympathy; he already had an idea of the kind of threat the three stallions had made against her and her family.  He moved over next to Mint and placed a hoof on her back.  "I know you're scared for your family, but I promise that nothing bad will happen to you or them.  If you agree to let Raspberry take the stand, I can have you and Raspberry placed under protection, and your husband will have a guard watching him too.  I don't want to see anypony hurt, but I can only make that request if you agree to cooperate with us."

"So please, let Raspberry tell her story to the court."

Mint sat there in silence for several minutes.  Plea could tell she was weighing her options.  As she was thinking, a familiar voice caught both of their attentions.

"Mom?"

Mint didn't react for a moment, but when she did, it wasn't what Plea was expecting.

"Raspberry!," she called out with an edge in her voice, "Come in here, please!"

A few moments later, the filly came into the room.  As she came around the corner, she caught sight of her mother's eyes and almost immediately her ears folded down on her head.

"Young miss," her mother sternly scolded, "what did I say about talking to others about that day?"

"You said not to tell" came the filly's reply.

"Yes, I did." Mint says flatly.  "Now, if I said that and you listen to and follow everything I say, why is this stallion here saying you want to talk about what happened?"

"Because I do!" replied Raspberry.

"Razzie, I told you-"

"No, mom!" Raspberry interrupts.  "You want me not to talk because those mean ponies said they'd hurt us if we did.  If we don't talk, they'll just keep hurting more ponies!  Not to mention they want to get Mister Thorax in trouble!"

Mint puts a hoof to her head and sighs.  "Raspberry, I know it's hard for you to understand, but what I'm doing and telling you to do is to protect you."

"My apologies for interrupting, ma'am," Plea says to Mint, "but if what your daughter has told me is true, then keeping quiet is probably the worst thing you could do."

The mare turns to him and looks at him in surprise.  "I don't recall asking for your opinion" she responds with narrowed eyes.

"Then consider it free legal advice" Plea retorts, a small smile on his face.  "If you give in and listen to what they told you, then you're giving them power over yourself and your family, and like your daughter said, it lets them stay free and on the streets of Equestria and this empire so they can keep hurting ponies, and some of them will get hurt much worse than you did."

"Again, I must implore you, let Raspberry testify.  She can help make sure that the stallions causing trouble go away for a long time, and she can prove the innocence of my client."

"I wouldn't exactly call your client innocent, sir" Mint says a tad spitefully.

"Don't be so quick to judge" Plea countered.  "I know what my client is, but I also know a lot of ponies that have openly vouched for him after interacting with him on a day to day basis.  He may be a changeling and he may have been involved with what happened at the royal wedding, but that doesn't mean he's evil and wants to hurt us.  All he really wanted was a chance to show he could do good and be trusted, so why make him suffer in a dungeon for something he didn't do?"

Mint kept trying to come up with arguments as to why Plea should just give up and leave, but the stallion had a retort for everything she had come up with so far.  "You really want to see a changeling set free, don't you?" she asked him in an accusatory tone of voice.  "That's your whole angle, isn't it?  'Look how good a lawyer I am!  I got a changeling off the hook!'"

Plea had been relatively neutral since entering the apartment.  This jab, however, appeared to get at the stallion just a bit.  "I admit that my client being found not guilty would be a very notable accomplishment, but that is beside the point!  You and I both know that Thorax didn't try to foalnap your daughter.  She's even told me herself that, not only did he not do it, but he was the only one around that could help her, and he did just that!"

"Now, though, he is sitting in a jail cell where he may possibly be sent to prison for the rest of what is sure to be a short but agonizingly painful life, and you're going to sit there and keep your daughter from telling her story and making sure that those who are truly guilty are held to account, and you're doing all of this because you think those stallions will leave you alone if you do?"

Mint had no immediate reply to the accusation.  In truth, she had no reply whatsoever.  Hearing the whole situation out loud, and seeing her daughter with a look of determination on her face as Plea set the facts before her, Mint Julep realized then and there that nothing good would come from keeping Raspberry from telling everypony in that courtroom the truth.  However, her motherly instincts still kept her from committing.

"...Promise me" she finally said to Plea.

"Promise what?" he asked her.

"I want you to promise me that you will get the protection that my daughter and husband deserve.  Raspberry should be able to walk to school without fear of a pony waiting in an alleyway to grab her.  My husband should be kept safe so he can heal and recover.  Promise me, Mister Plea Bargain!  Promise that you will keep my husband and filly safe...

...and I'll let Raspberry take the stand."

Plea smirked to himself.  Mint Julep was finally seeing sense, and now he just needed to make sure that she, her filly and her husband were all kept safe.

"Already taken care of" Plea told the mare.  "I arranged everything with the courts and they're sending two of their guards to come here and watch your apartment, as well as having one to escort Raspberry to school and anywhere else that she may need or want to go.  I've also told them to send over a guard to watch your husband in the hospital.  They'll be there until the trial is over with."

Mint took in what he said and gave a nod.  "I don't want Raspberry telling you anything else until the guards get here" she informed Plea.  "I want to make sure you keep your promise and aren't trying something."

Plea gave a nod in reply.  "I can understand that.  We'll wait until they get here before we ask any questions.  Besides, I've also contacted a child psychologist to evaluate her and determine if she is mentally sound enough to take the stand."

Mint looked confused.  "I thought you said you wanted her testimony?"

"I do" Plea replied.  "However, I can't just make her get up there and start talking.  A child psychologist has to evaluate her and sign off saying that Raspberry will be able to take the stand and testify, and that she won't suffer any undue harm from talking about the past events related to the crime.  All of that is a formality in this instance, I'm sure, but it's still necessary."

Plea, Mint and Raspberry all sat down in the living room as they waited for the guards and psychologist to show up.  In that time, Raspberry talked about her schooling, and Mint prepared a small meal for herself and the filly.  She offered to make something for Plea, but he politely refused, saying that he had already imposed more than enough on the two.

A knock on the door was eventually heard.  Mint Julep went to answer it, but Plea stopped her, going over to check the peep hole himself.  Looking through it, he saw a pair of guards and a mare in a suit jacket with plain white shirt and paisley tie.  Looking back and Mint and nodding, he opened the door to allow the three in.

"We're from the court's witness security division" one guard said to Plea.  "Are you Mister Plea Bargain?"

"I am" Plea responded.  "This filly is the witness in question.  The mother is convinced that some ponies will cause harm to her filly or her husband if she allows her daughter to testify in court regarding the changeling trial."

"We'll make sure that she stays safe" the guard said as he looked at Mint Julep.  "Please make sure to pass along any info that you have on the ponies threatening you to the main body of the guard.  We don't take threats to the citizens kindly."

"I'll make sure that she does" Plea answers for the mare, then turns to face the mare that isn't a guard.  "I trust you are the psychologist?"

"I am" the mare replies while sticking a hoof out.  "Fugue State, at your service."

Plea raised an eyebrow.  "Are you a relation of State Evidence, by chance?" he asks her.

"No" she replies.  "The names are just a coincidence."

Plea nods, then makes a gesture to Raspberry.  "This is Raspberry Mint.  She's the filly that will be taking the witness stand sometime in the future, unless you say she isn't fit to testify."

Fugue gave a nod, then look at Mint Julep.  "Ma'am, if you would allow me, I need to interview Raspberry in private and determine if she is able to give testimony regarding the crimes committed against her."

"Certainly" Mint replies, gesturing to one of the doors in the hallway.  "That's the master bedroom.  I think everypony should be comfortable in there."

"Thank you, ma'am" Fugue replies.  "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to get started now.  Raspberry, would you come with me, please?"

Raspberry nodded and the two went into the bedroom so they could speak privately.





Fugue closed the door as she examined the room.  Fortunately, there were two vanitys in the room, one a pinkish color with flowers clearly meant more for mares, and a plain oaken one with a dark stain that was meant to appeal more to stallions.  In front of each was a small stool where a pony could sit and use the attached mirror to adjust their appearance.  Fugue took the two stools and sat them in front of the edge of the bed.

"Please have a seat, Raspberry" she instructed the filly, who walked over and sat down on the pink stool.  Fugue took her seat on the other and levitated off her saddlebags.  Reaching inside, she produced a writing tablet and a pencil, as well as a sharpener with a small cup affixed to it to collect the shavings.  The mare used the sharpener to give the pencil a fresh new point, and with everything ready, she prepared to interview the foal.

"Raspberry," Fugue began, "my name is Fugue State, and I would like to talk to you about the attempt to foalnap.  Are you okay with talking about that?"

"I am, Miss Fugue" replied the filly.

"Okay, that's good.  Now, if you feel uncomfortable talking about anything, I want you to know that we can stop talking whenever you like.  Do you understand?"

"I do."

"Good.  Now, would you please tell me what happened that day?"

Raspberry took a breath, then began telling Fugue State what happened.

"It was a Saturday, and I was with my special tutoring class."

"What do you do at your tutoring class?"

"It's kinda like a really shrunk down school day.  It only lasts for about three hours.  We spend an hour or so on different subjects, and it's never the same ones every time.  That day, we did math, science, and writing."

"Are any of those your favorite subjects?"

"No, not really.  I always liked art class more.  I like having the freedom to make stuff more than memorizing a bunch of numbers and formulas."

"What about writing?  Isn't that kind of like art?"

"Not the writing they teach us.  It's the really stuffy kind of writing like what I think business ponies would use.  They teach us about writing sentences and words like prepositions and pronouns and adverbs.  I can't just make up a story and write it how I want to write it."

"That doesn't sound very fun."

"Not really, but some of my friends are enrolled in that class too, so it's extra time I get to spend with them."

"So you enjoy going to that class because you can spend more time with your friends?"

"Yeah, I do."

"That's good.  Friends are a great thing to have, especially when you experience something uncomfortable and you're not sure if you can talk to your parents.  Do you ever feel like that sometimes?"

"No, at least, until recently."

"Oh?"  Raspberry's remark had caught Fugue's attention.

"My daddy got hurt at his job and had to go and stay in the hospital.  They said it was really bad and he was going to take a while to recover, but he couldn't go back to work doing what he did."

"What did your daddy do?"

"He made buildings with other ponies.  He was helping move some heavy crystal blocks when one fell on him.  It crushed him up really good from the flanks down.  The doctors said every bone from that point down to his legs was broken.  He probably won't walk again for a whole year."

"That's terrible!"

"Yeah, but the doctor also told my mom that my dad was so hurt that there's a chance he might not get to make another foal with her anymore."

"That's not good at all.  Did your parents ever talk about having another foal?"

"No.  My mom and dad always laugh and say they couldn't make a better foal than me."

"I'm sure they're right.  Now, let's continue with the events that day.  You went to your classes and you were leaving.  What happened?"

"After I left school, I walked with my friends for a little bit before they had to split off and go to their own homes.  I kept walking and was heading towards the big market near the castle, but then a big red stallion walked in front of me."

"Really?"

"Yeah.  He was smiling, but it wasn't a happy smile.  It looked really creepy, and I got a really bad feeling about him, so I looked around to find a place where I could maybe go and hide from him."

"Did you find a place?"

"No.  He was fast and the only place I could go was an alleyway.  I got as far as to where the alley went around a building and I was stopped by a unicorn.  He was watching me with a similar smile to the red stallion."

"And they cornered you?"

"Yeah.  I called out for them to leave me alone, but they just kept coming closer.  The unicorn was preparing some kind of spell, but a shout stopped him."

"Who was shouting?"

"Mister Thorax."

"Mister Thorax?"

"Yeah, the changeling the princess said wants to be friends with ponies, even after all the bad stuff the other changelings did.  He told them to leave me alone and started walking towards them."

"Why was he walking towards the three of you?"

"I wasn't sure at first.  A part of me was scared he was gonna drain away my love for my mom, dad and friends, but then I saw the look in his eyes."

"What kind of look did he have?"

"He was mad.  REALLY mad, and he was mad at the stallions."

"Why was he mad at them?"

"Because they were being mean to me!  They were trying to do something bad to me and he didn't like that they were trying to do that."

"What did the stallions do when he started walking towards them?"

"They just watched him for a second at first.  I think Mister Thorax was hoping that him being there and being a changeling would be enough to scare them, but it wasn't.  The red stallion said something to the unicorn and started walking towards Mister Thorax."

"Did he try to fight Mister Thorax?"

"He tried to tackle him, but Mister Thorax ducked out of the way.  The red stallion slammed right into the corner of a dumpster and fell down like he got the wind knocked out of him.  I think he did, because the dumpster made a loud "BANG!" noise when he hit it."

"So the red stallion tried to tackle Mister Thorax, but Mister Thorax got out of the way and the stallion slammed into a dumpster.  What did the unicorn do?"

"He wasn't afraid, even after seeing how quick Mister Thorax dodged the big stallion's tackle.  Mister Thorax was still glaring at the unicorn, but the unicorn said he should've minded his own business."

"Did the unicorn do something to Mister Thorax?"

"No, but there was another unicorn in the alley I didn't see at first.  He was green like the dumpster, so I didn't notice him there.  He shot a spell at Mister Thorax and knocked him out."

"So this green unicorn knocked out Mister Thorax?"

"He did, and then the other unicorn put a sleep spell on me, and when I woke up, I was being carried into my house."

"So, somepony carried you home?"

"Yes."

"And who was it that took you home."

"The three stallions!"

Fugue was a bit perplexed by this statement.  "Why would the three stallions that were going to do mean stuff to you take you home?"

"Because the green one works for another pony.  My mom got a loan from somepony named Mint Eagle.  He gave her the money so I could keep going to my tutoring class on the weekend, but he is really strict on getting paid back."

"Really strict?  How strict?"

"Mommy doesn't think I know, but one of the last times I went to school before that day, I came home and she was crying.  I asked her what was wrong, but she told me to go to my room until lunch was ready.  When I came back out, she told me a friend of hers had their own mommy die, and my mommy couldn't go to be with her friend."

"That sounds terrible!  Did your mommy go and see her friend?"

"She didn't go.  There was no friend."

Raspberry then got up and walked over to the pink vanity.  Sitting on the tabletop was a wooden box with a small brass lock on the front; Fugue recognized it was a jewelry box.  The filly then opened the lid and revealed a series of earrings on either side, but the center had three hooks for necklaces.  One slot in the middle was empty.

"My grandma gave my mom a present when she married my dad.  It was a special necklace that she wanted her to have.  She said it was an heirloom passed down in her family, and that the gemstone at the center came from the very same stone as the Crystal Heart.  It was the most special piece of jewelry to her, and now it's gone.  Those stallions took it when mommy didn't give them enough money!"

"So, those mean stallions just came into your house and stole your mom's most prized jewelry because she didn't have enough money to pay back her loan?"

"Yeah, but that's not the only thing they did."

"Really?  What else did they do?"

"When they brought me back, mommy made me go to my room, which I did, but I didn't shut my door.  I could hear them talking."

"What were they talking about?"

"The stallions were trying to make my mom pay her loan again, but they weren't nice about it.  They hit her, and threatened her with more violence if she didn't pay."

"Did she pay them?"

"I guess, but I remember one of them getting nervous about the guards coming to check on me.  The one stallion told my mom he'd count her payment as enough if she lied to the guard and said I was too scared to talk."

"Did she lie to the guards?"

"She did.  I figured out why a few days afterwards."

"How did you find out?"

"I was taking the trash down to the building dumpster, but when I took it out of the can in our house, I saw some pictures, and one was of me with a crossbow loaded and pointing at me!"

Fugue didn't respond verbally.  She wrote down everything she heard on the pad.  A part of her was surprised at the recall of the foal, but another part questioned the veracity of her claims; the changeling Thorax was found without his magic suppression ring on his horn.

"Okay, I think that about covers your story", Fugue said to Raspberry, "but now I'd like to talk about the three stallions you said were being mean to you.  Can you describe them for me please?"

"The big red stallion was an earth pony.  I think he had a hammer or something for a cutie mark.  Then there were the two unicorns.  The one was a regular unicorn and had some sort of whip thing for a cutie mark, but the other was a crystal unicorn, and he had a pair of dice on his flanks for a cutie mark."

Fugue wrote down the descriptions, already aware that they matched the stallions who had already testified against Thorax.

"There's one last question I'd like to ask you" she said to Raspberry.  "Did any of the three stallions do anything to you that made you feel uncomfortable or scared, besides cornering you in that alleyway?"

"No."

"None of them tried to touch you in a way that you didn't want?"

Raspberry looked confused for a moment.  "You mean did they try to 'court' me?"

Fugue looked a bit uneasy to hear a young filly speak in such a blunt way, but she nodded.

"No, they didn't" Raspberry responded.

"Okay, I have all that I need" Fugue told the filly with a smile.  "Let's head back out into the living room."





Mint and Plea both sat alone in the living room; the guards assigned to watch the mare and filly having left to take up their posts.  Mint had made some chamomile tea to settle her nerves, while Plea chose to go over the notes he took from today's portion of the trial.  As he did, he kept a small smile on his face; having Raspberry as a witness greatly helped his and Thorax's chances of winning the case.

The sound of a latch clicking caught the attention of both ponies, who turned to see Raspberry walk out of the room, followed immediately by Fugue State.

"Raspberry," Fugue spoke, "Would you please go wait in your room for a moment?  I'd like to talk to Mister Plea Bargain and your mother."

Raspberry nodded and walked into her bedroom, the door closing behind her with a click.  Fugue turned and headed out into the living area, where she was greeted with looks from both Mint and Plea.

"I've concluded my interview and analysis," she told them, "and I don't believe her giving testimony will cause any trauma or harm her mental state in any reasonable way."

Plea breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that.

"However," Fugue continued, "I must recommend she be examined by a mage for any potential mind control charms that may have been placed on her."

Mint looked rather concerned.  "What do you mean 'mind control charms'?!"

Fugue let out a breath as she elected to sit down.  "Your daughter's story is rather remarkable," Fugue explained, "but I'm afraid it may have been a fabrication placed in her brain by the changeling."

This remark caused Plea to become a bit upset.  "My client has done nothing of the sort" he said rather tersely.

"I'm sure that you don't believe he did," Fugue conceded, "but the facts of the case, as I understand them, are that your client was found unconscious without the suppression ring on his horn.  It is entirely possible, as much as you wish to deny it, that your client cast a very quick charm on her without anypony noticing before he lost consciousness."

Plea wanted to argue that point, but he didn't have anything to retort with.  In his mind, he saw this as a potentially good thing, as it would likely be a point driven by the prosecution, so thinking about how to counter it now would help his case greatly later.

"As it stands now," Fugue concluded, "I see no reason to keep her from testifying.  I'll submit the paperwork tomorrow.  Make sure that State Evidence gets the opportunity to interview her."

"State will get the opportunity to speak with her" Plea replied.  "I have all the necessary paperwork ready to go for the morning."

Fugue gave a nod and then turned to Mint.  "I recommend that I be there when State questions Raspberry" the psychologist told the mare.  "The prosecution can be a bit forceful with their questioning, and that can make foals give untrue answers without meaning to."

Mint gave a nod.  "When she comes for the interview, I'll get in touch so I can have you at the interview.  May I have your contact info?"

"Certainly" Fugue said with a smile, fishing out a business card and presenting it to the mare.  "This is the address for my office.  If I'm not there, then my secretary will know where to reach me."

"Thank you" Mint said to her as she took the card.

"You're welcome" replied Fugue.  "If you would excuse me, please, I have one final appointment at my office before I can go home for the day.  I should hope to see you and Raspberry soon."  With that, the mare left the apartment.

Mint then looked at Plea.  "So she gave Raspberry the O.K. to testify on the witness stand" she stated, though it came out sounding more like a question.

"She did," Plea replied, "and she also offered to sit in on the interview with State Evidence to make sure she isn't overwhelmed."

"Is that a normal thing to happen?" she asked Plea.  "Asking enough questions to overload a foal and get them to lie by accident?"

"I wouldn't call it normal," Plea admitted, "but it has been known to happen.  It's the worst in cases where the foal in question was... touched, in certain ways."

Mint realized what the stallion meant and had a shiver go up her spine.  If that had actually been the case, she probably would've pounded those stallions into pulp.

"Well," Plea continued, "I am afraid that I must be going.  I have a lot to do to make sure Raspberry can be considered an eligible witness, but your agreement to her testifying certainly helps things along.  Thank you for your cooperation."

Mint was still thinking when Plea was talking to her.  Absently, she just gave a nod, not having paid full attention to what he had said.  It was only when he got to the door that she had come out of her thoughts.

"Mister Plea Bargain" Mint called out to the stallion, who stopped and looked at her.  "Do you really think the changeling is innocent?"

"You mean Thorax?" he asked, to which Mint nodded.  "Initially, I didn't completely think so.  After having seen all the evidence and talking to so many witnesses, I am convinced he didn't do it.  Now, though, I have to convince the jury beyond reasonable doubt."

Mint considered what he told her and gave a nod.  "Good luck to you" she told him.

Plea smiled and gave a nod, then left the apartment.  Now outside, the stallion made haste to get back to his office.  He had to submit his paperwork to the clerk in the court by the end of the day tomorrow if he wanted any chance of being able to call Raspberry by Monday.
> Part III, Chapter 17 - Cell Mate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax sat in his prison cell nearly the whole of the day after the trial.  At current, he had yet to hear from his attorney about whether or not he had managed to get Raspberry Mint's mother to agree to allowing her daughter to tell her story on the witness stand.  Since it was coming from the victim, it would be the most important testimony in the whole trial, and one of the biggest parts in proving the changeling's innocence.  

Of course, Plea also made it clear that State Evidence could find a way to turn the testimony around on them, so he was reminded to keep his hooves crossed and hope that everything turned out for the best.

The day for Thorax began as it normally did.  He was woken up, given a shower, and then led out to the Crystal Heart to feed.  What was different from the days when he was at trial was that he was brought back to the prison and placed back into his cell, where he was left alone for a good long while.  He would be alone in his cell with nothing but the thoughts in his brain.

That was a part of being a prisoner that Thorax could do without.  He found that being left alone with his thoughts led him to some dark places.  Part of him wondered what exactly would happen to him if he lost the case.  Almost assuredly, he would lose all that he had gained during his brief stay.  No job to wake up to, no more lessons with Sunburst, and no friends to spend time with.

In that moment, he thought of Brass.  The mare was his best friend after Spike; he could not think of the dragon as any less.  It was the best part of his day to see her warm smile greeting him as he started his work day.  Their conversations were a good distraction from the more monotonous parts of the job, and the fact that she wanted to spend time with him after their work day was done made him feel very happy inside.  She was a great friend, and he could honestly say he loved her for that.

A banging on the bars of the cell shook Thorax from his thoughts.  Looking over, he saw one of the guards looking at him.  "You have a visitor" the guard told him, using a key to unlock the door.  Thorax made his way to the door and stepped out of the cell.  Being led to the visitor's room, he could only wonder who was here to see him.  He got his answer as he walked through the door and looked at the pony sitting at the table.

"Sunburst?" Thorax said as he walked over to the table.  "What are you doing here?"

The bespectacled stallion stood up and approached Thorax, embracing him in a hug.  "I've been so busy with things lately that this is my first real chance to come see how you were doing" Sunburst answered Thorax.  "As far as I can tell, you seem to be doing okay.  They're still letting you get at the heart?"

Thorax nodded.  "I can't do it for as long, but I'm closer than I was when the princess first let me do it in the castle, so I don't have to strain as much to avoid accidentally feeding on any of the guards."

"Well, that's one positive," Sunburst conceded, "but this whole court case thing has really made a mess of things for you."

Thorax nodded in agreement.  "What does Princess Cadance think of all of this?"

Sunburst frowned.  "She's not happy about it, that's for sure.  I think she's secretly been harboring some negative feelings about you, even though she's been claiming to want to make things better for you after that announcement a little bit ago."

Thorax looked puzzled.  "Harboring feelings?"

"Yeah" Sunburst replied.  "She hasn't exactly trusted you fully, even if you've done a great deal to demonstrate that you deserve it, and I think it goes without saying that she probably isn't over what happened on her wedding day as well."

Thorax hung his head upon hearing the second part.  He could understand her feelings, but it was still disappointing to hear that she was still dealing with them.  Perhaps if he and Plea managed to win the case, he could do something to help her overcome her negative feelings.

"Prince Shining Armor hasn't exactly been helping things either" Sunburst continued.  "After it was announced that you were arrested for attempted foalnapping, he went on a rather long tirade about how right he was about you."

Thorax wasn't the least bit surprised; Prince Shining Armor made it very clear the last time they met that he didn't trust Thorax any further than he could throw him.  Being arrested for foalnapping would only serve to drive an even deeper wedge between the two of them.  It was going to be a long time, if ever, before there was even a chance to try and form at least a positive association with the stallion.

"What do other ponies think about all of this?" Thorax asked Sunburst.

Sunburst adjusted his glasses as he thought.  "A mixed bag to be honest" he replied.  "Bicarb and Bar Keeper are torn between the reputation that changelings have because of the wedding and their own experiences with you.  The same can be said of the guards too."

"As for the rest of the empire, it's not so mixed bag.  There's a lot of ponies that aren't even questioning anything mentioned about the case and have just decided that you're guilty and deserve to be in the dungeon."

Upon hearing that, Thorax visibly deflated.  If everypony thought he deserved to rot in a prison cell in a dungeon, then what would the jurors who actually had a say in his fate decide should happen to him?

"That being said, I wouldn't worry too much" Sunburst told Thorax with a comforting pat on his back.  "If you're thinking about the jury, then don't focus on that too much.  They're sequestered away from the general public, which means that they're cut off from any outside influence that could cause them to become biased in their judgment of the case."

Thorax frowned.  "You mean more biased than they already are?"

Sunburst didn't say anything for a moment.  He had came here originally to check on his friend, but it seemed that he was bringing him down without intending to.  A change of subject was in order.

"You know, we haven't had a lesson for quite a while" Sunburst pointed out.  "How about we have an impromptu one right here?"

Thorax looked at the stallion for a moment.  He remembered how much he enjoyed their lessons back in that library in the Crystal Palace.  Having one of those right now seemed like the perfect distraction from the current situation.  "Okay" he replied as Sunburst produced a book to read from.

The lesson went on until the visitation time was up.  Sunburst gave the changeling a hug and told him he would visit again as soon as he got another chance.  Bidding his friend farewell, Thorax was returned to his cell.  While he was glad to see a friendly face he hadn't seen for some time, his hopes about the outcome of the trial, and his potential fate beyond that, were still diminished a good bit.

Thorax sat inside his cell for about an hour or so when the guard knocked on the metal bars again.  "Your attorney is here for you" he said as he opened the cell door.  Thorax again stood up and walked out, making the familiar trek to the council room.  Plea Bargain was sitting there with a fairly big smile on his face, which seemed to grow a little more as he saw the changeling.

"I have the best possible news I can give you aside from saying the charges were dropped" he said as Thorax sat down in the chair across from him.

"I take it you were able to get Raspberry to tell her story?" he asked Plea.

Plea nodded while maintaining the grin he had on his face.  "That's not all Thorax.  The interview she conducted with the child psychologist corroborates the story you gave me.  Combined with the forensic evidence that our other expert witness collected from the crime scene, I think we now have the best possible chance at convincing the jury that you didn't try and foalnap her."

Thorax considered what Plea had told him for a moment.  Raspberry's testimony, combined with the expert's evidence, backed up what he'd told Plea when he was first interviewed about what happened.  If the jury could be convinced, then he had a legitimate shot at being found not guilty and not being sent to the dungeons.  That thought did restore some of his hope, but he still needed to be realistic.

"That is good news," Thorax admitted, "but there's gonna be ponies that will question whether or not I used some kind of mind control on her.  How are we gonna argue against that idea?"

Plea thought it over for a moment before answering.  "It's not gonna be easy," he admitted, "but I believe that if we have Night Divining perform a clearing spell on Raspberry before she testifies, it should help us."

"Won't they call the efficacy of the spell into question?" Thorax asks Plea, his concern showing through in his voice.

"They shouldn't," Plea replied, "and for good reason.  Ponies trust the royal and crystal guard to have the best possible spells to protect them."

"Aside from that, mind control in general is fairly easy to break, at least for a pony setting one under mind control free.  The initial mind control spell puts a good bit of strain on the caster because they need to analyze the mind and plant all the necessary suggestions, and then they have to recharge the spell every now and again so it doesn't wear down to the point that the affect pony can resist it."

Thorax looked at Plea blankly.  "How do you know all of that?"

Plea smirks at him.  "I've been reading up on different angles that State would probably use and preparing my testimony for counterarguments."

"Why not ask the expert witness to explain all of that?" Thorax questions.

"I reviewed my questions to her and her answers," Plea explains, "and I felt confident that the explanations she was giving would be adequate.  Besides, if any of the ponies on the jury are gonna ignore her explanations, they're certainly going to ignore that one as well."

"Getting back on topic, we'll have Night Divining use a clearing spell before Raspberry gives her testimony."

Thorax elected to accept Plea's explanation and proposal.  If he believed that the clearing spell would help their case, then he would go along with it.

"Now," Plea continued, "the trial will pick up again on Monday, so you'll just have to sit tight in here over the weekend.  When the trial resumes, we'll call up Raspberry and the other expert witness.  Once they give their testimonies and we present all of our evidence, it'll be in the jury's hooves."

Thorax smiled, but it was hollow.  The jury was the real wild card of the trial.  They could go either way, but it wouldn't surprise him in the least if they elected to find him guilty and lock him away just because of what he was and regardless of any evidence that would prove his innocence.

Plea spoke with Thorax for a few more minutes until the guard told him his time was up.  The stallion promised to be back on Sunday to go over what they needed to do for Monday and made his exit.  Thorax was taken back to his cell and locked back in.  Feeling some exhaustion, he chose to take a nap.  At that point, it was some time in the afternoon.  When he woke again, it was night time, as the moon and the many stars of the night sky were shining in through the windows of the prison.

Hoofsteps approaching his cell caught Thorax's attention.  Turning to look, he saw the guards approaching and unlocking his cell.  A unicorn guard stepped inside and used his magic on one of the walls.  Two bricks slid away and revealed two metal hooks.  A second guard brought in a wooden board with two chains attached to it and hooked it onto the wall.  The first guard magicked away another pair of bricks to reveal some wooden beams that came out and rested under the board.  Thorax immediately recognized it as a cot, but why were they putting two in this cell?

The answer to that question came when he heard a pair of guards dragging a pony towards his cell.  "Hey!" the stallion shouted in protest.  "I didn't do anything!"

The guard turns to him with some paperwork in his hoof, looking it over and then glaring at the stallion.  "Really?" the guard asks him.  "You didn't punch a stallion square in the face and then start a fight because, as you claimed in this report, he was harassing your marefriend?"

"He was!" the stallion confirmed in an attempt to assert himself as being in the right.  "I was simp-"

The stallion's words caught in his throat as he caught sight of his soon-to-be cellmate.  Immediately, the opalescent crystal pony went paler than he already was.  "Please tell me you're joking?!" he asked, alarm clear in his voice.

"Nope" the guard replied with a smile as the two in the cell cleared out.  "In you go."

A telekinetic shove pushed the stallion into the cell, a slight clinking noise similar to two glasses being tapped together in a toast sounding as his body hit the floor.  The guard by the door immediately shut it and locked it in place.  Their task done for the night, the group of guards resumed their normal post.

The stallion got back up and looked around.  Immediately, he took notice of Thorax, and then the locked cell door as soon as he collided with it upon trying to escape.

"COME ON!" he yelled frantically.  "DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH THIS THING!  PLEASE!"

The guards gave no response.

"THIS IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT!" he continued protesting.  "THE PRINCESS WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS!"

At that, a guard came back around the corner.

"Go ahead" he told the stallion.  "Tell her how you thought it was a good idea to bludgeon a pony's face in as a way of defending your marefriend's honor.  I'm sure she'll be happy to hear about that."

The stallion piped up upon hearing that remark.

"Now," the guard continued, "be quiet and accept the fact you're spending the night here with love bug over there."  Having quieted the prisoner for the time being, the stallion walked away to resume his post.

Thorax only sat and watched the scene unfold.  He had mixed feelings about the stallion.  On one hoof, he couldn't blame him for being put into a cell with a creature that was considered to be the most dangerous threat to Equestria as a whole at the moment.  On the other hoof, he didn't really like that he was being seen as one of those creatures, even if he was the same species.

It reignited old fears that his goal of trying to befriend ponies would only go so far, and he might have to settle for the few friends he had already made.  Those few he had made proved that it was possible, but were they simply special cases?

Spike befriended him after he had saved the drake's life.

Twilight had only done so after she came to accept the story Spike had told her.

Heartfelt only wanted to see if his theories about changelings were correct or not, and only apologized after he saw that his actions were unfair towards Thorax.

Starlight had used her offer of friendship as an example to Twilight that she could turn over a new leaf and accept others even if they had done bad things in the past; she never said this, but Thorax could tell at the time.

Brass...

Thorax paused in his thoughts as they came to her.  The mare with emerald eyes was the first to not look on him with disdain, but rather curiosity.  When they first spoke, she had been kind, and wanted to learn more about Thorax.  As they worked and spoke to each other, they learned more about the other and shared their hopes and dreams.

In that moment, Thorax realized that all of his fears were unfounded.  Brass had no obligation to offer friendship to him, but she had given it to him all the same.  She was proof that ponies could accept him for who he was and overlook the fact he was a changeling.  All they had to do was give him the chance to prove that he was not like his hivemates.

Looking back to the stallion, Thorax realized what he needed to do.  Standing up, he walked over to the bars and called for the guard.  A few moments later, and one appeared around the corner, glaring daggers at him.

"What do you want, bug?" he asked with venom in his voice.  Thorax chose to ignore this.

"The stallion you just put in with me clearly doesn't want to spend the night here" he explained.  "Is there really no other cell where he can go?"

The guard glared at Thorax further.  "No, there isn't!" he replied curtly.  "All the other cells are full and the only spare space was with you, so mister 'shining white knight' over there is gonna have to be a big colt and deal with the fact he's sharing a bunk with a changeling for the night.  Besides, you should enjoy the company.  It's probably gonna be the last you'll see for a long while."

The guard turned and walked away.  Thorax let out a breath and looked at the stallion, who was cowering in fear in the corner.  "I tried," he offered the pony in apology, "but they're not gonna move you."

"J-J-Just stay away from me!" the stallion shot back.  "I-I-I'm not g-g-gonna be some q-q-quick snack for you!"

Thorax looked over the stallion before letting out a sigh.  "Okay" he acquiesced, moving back over to his cot and laying back down upon it.  So as not to further agitate the pony, Thorax chose to lay down facing away from him.

"Wh-What are you doing?" the stallion asks, his voice a mix of fearful and curious.

"Trying to fall asleep" replies Thorax.  "It's really late at night as far as I can tell."

"Wh-Why aren't you t-trying to attack me?"  The stallion sounds even more confused now.

"You won't believe me anyway," Thorax begins, "but I don't believe in hurting ponies, either by taking their love forcefully or abducting them to be put into cocoons to have love farmed out of them for the rest of their lives.  Besides that, even if I had a desire to hurt you, this collar prevents me from using any magic which I would need to do either of the things I described, and the guads would come in here and beat me until I stopped."

The stallion wanted to retort, but one of the things Thorax said was true: if he attacked the stallion, the guards would put a stop to it.  Still not trusting the changeling, the stallion looked around for anything in the cell he could use to defend himself.  All he could find was a pillow, which would do little to nothing against the changeling.  Resigned to the fact that his safety rested in the guard's hooves, the stallion chose to spend the whole night awake so as he could keep an eye on his cellmate.






Several Hours Later






Something strange woke Thorax up.  He swore that he had heard something, but he could find nothing to indicate anything amiss.  He lifted his head to examine his cell when he realized what was wrong.  The shift caused the collar around his neck to come loose and slip from his neck.  As soon as that happened, Thorax was bombarded with the emotions of the other nearby ponies.

He quickly snatched the collar from off his bunk and placed it back around his neck, but the lock and latch that held it in place was damaged and wouldn't hold shut.  Desperately he tried to think of a way to fasten it so it wouldn't fall off.

His first thought was to hack up some resin to bond the ends together, but that was quickly dismissed.  "Yeah, Thorax," he chided himself, "they'll totally believe that you weren't tampering with this thing if it has a big glob of resin all over it."

He then thought that perhaps he could fix the lock, but that idea was shot down just as quickly; a careful examination revealed that the tongue of metal which fit into the latch was broken off.  It would take either a whole new metal piece to properly fix it or reapplying the metal tongue with a welding spell, assuming the previous piece of metal wasn't damaged beyond use.

"Wh-What are you doing?!"

Thorax was brought back to reality by the cell mate he'd been given a little while ago.  He was also made painfully aware of the fact that this stallion could see the collar in his hooves that should be around his neck.  Almost immediately, the stallion made to holler for the guards.

He would regret it later, but at that moment, Thorax made haste to catch the stallion and silence him before the guards got there.  He was successful, and the stallion never got a word out.  Thorax honestly hated having such lightning fast reflexes, but there were times that they proved themselves quite useful.

"Please!" Thorax pleaded into the stallion's ear.  "Don't scream!  I'm not going to hurt you."

The stallion was still trying to scream past Thorax's hoof.  Fortunately, the changeling had a section of hoof without holes covering the pony's mouth.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Thorax continued, "but please stop screaming!"

The stallion was still struggling, but he was starting to wear out; the fatigue from staying awake was getting to him.

"Please!" Thorax tried again.  "I don't want to hurt you."

Again, the stallion tried to break loose, but to no avail.  Thorax tried to think of a way to convince the stallion, and then had an idea.

"I don't have my collar on right now" Thorax told him.  "That means I could do whatever I would want to, but I'm not.  All I'm doing is keeping you from yelling at the guards.  I don't' want to hurt you."

The stallion's struggling seemed to cease, as though he was considering what he was being told.

"Look," Thorax concludes, "I just want you to nod your head or shake it.  I'm gonna let you go now.  If I do, are you gonna yell for the guards?"

The stallion doesn't do anything for a few moments, but he eventually shakes his head no.  As he did this, Thorax could feel dread in the stallion; even being left go, he knew the pony was still incredibly uncomfortable at the moment.  Taking a breath, he releases the stallion.

The stallion gasps and steps away from Thorax, collapsing on the floor in front of him.  Once he has recovered his breath, he turns to look at Thorax.

"W-Why?!" he said after he regained his breath.

Thorax was confused.  "Why what?"

"Y-You let me go" the stallion said in disbelief.  "I could've screamed my head off and had every guard in the place on you like flies on fresh horseapples, but you still let me go.  Why?"

Thorax tried to appear as nonthreatening as he possibly could.  "It's like I said earlier" he explained.  "I don't want to hurt ponies, even if some of them really want to hurt me."

There was a good bit of silence between the two, but after a few minutes, the stallion spoke again.

"Suppose I believe you" he begins.  "Suppose I believe you're telling me the truth.  How do I know that this isn't some ploy just to gain my trust so you can try and feed off me later?"

"Because I could feed on you now if I really wanted to" Thorax replied, holding up the collar to emphasize his point.

The stallion looked at the collar, and then at Thorax, and then the collar again.  He thought about making a retort and claiming he pretended that the collar's magic was working, but that would mean that he'd been restraining himself the whole time he was in prison, which based on what he'd heard about changelings, seemed rather unlikely.

"Please help me with this collar" Thorax pleads.  "Something made it break and now it won't go shut again.  I don't want them to find me with it like this.  Besides the fact they'll likely beat me into submission before putting another one on me, they'll think I was trying to escape."

"Please, I just want to get this thing back on so I'm not in any more trouble than I already am."

The stallion eyes Thorax for a moment before he lets out a breath.  "Let me see it."

Thorax tossed the item to the stallion, who caught it in his hooves and proceeded to examine it.  After a few moments, he messed with the mechanism and produced the metal tongue that fit into the latch.  He then walked over to the wall and proceeded to scratch both the metal piece and the part on the collar it attached to on the wall.

Once he was apparently satisfied, he then placed the metal tongue on the collar and did... something.  The area around his hooves glowed and the metal did as well.  A few seconds later, and the two pieces of metal went liquid and merged together, hardening into one solid piece of metal.

"There" the stallion said with a bit of a breath, the focus of performing his spell taking some energy out of him.  He then walked over to Thorax and presented the collar.  "As good as the day they made it" he said with a small amount of pride.

Thorax could feel the love the stallion had for his work, and before his natural instincts could override his self control, quickly took the collar from his hooves and replaced it around his neck, once again losing the sensation of emotions around him.

"Thank you" he told the stallion.  "Now I hopefully won't have to explain how that collar got broken to begin with."

"Speaking of," the stallion interrupted, "how did that get broken?"

"I don't know," Thorax answered, "but something woke me up and I found out the collar was broken."

"I don't know who could've done it," the stallion said to Thorax, "but from what I could tell, that metal was cut, and it would take a VERY strong unicorn spell to get through that metal; it's magically enchanted to resist damage."

"Really?" Thorax said with surprise.  "If it was enchanted like that, how did you fix it so quickly?"

"Think of the collar as a simple circuit" the stallion explains.  "The enchantment is active when the circuit is closed, which would be when the lock is in place.  Since the lock wasn't in place, the enchantment wasn't active, so it was easy to fix."

"Okay, but how did you fix the metal?" Thorax asks again.  "I've only ever seen unicorns that could do spells like that."

The stallion chuckles.  "You clearly haven't spent much time around crystal ponies," the stallion replies, "but then again, nopony really has.  To answer your question, crystal ponies have the ability to manipulate crystal so as to be able to shape it into different things such as the buildings that make up the city.  There's also some types of metal that can be worked in that fashion as well, and the collar fortunately uses one of those kinds of metal."

"Wow" Thorax says in genuine amazement.  "I just assumed were carved by unicorns from solid crystal."

This gets a stronger laugh from the stallion.  "If that was the case," he says between laughs, "then we'd have a whole bunch of exhausted unicorns every time we needed to make a new building."

The stallion kept laughing for a few more seconds before he eventually calmed down.  "You know, you're not half bad" he finally said once he calmed down enough.  "Is what the princess said about you actually true?  You really want to make friends with us?"

Thorax nodded.  "Yes, I do.  I've wanted it so badly that I risked my life just getting here.  Even just traveling through Equestria, I tried to make beings friends with ponies work, but nopony ever gave me a chance once they found out what I really was."

"Yeah, I suppose that wouldn't be easy to do" the stallion admitted.  "You would have ponies run off before getting a chance to do anything in your normal form, and then they'd immediately turn on you if you tried to be a pony to gain some trust before revealing yourself to them.  It's a catch 22 anyway you look at it."

"Catch 22?" Thorax said in confusion?

"It means that, no matter what course of action you take, it will always end badly in one way or another."

"Oh" Thorax said in understanding.  There was a silence between them for a minute or so before Thorax realized that the two hadn't yet introduced themselves.

"My name is Thorax" he told the stallion.

The stallion looked for a few seconds before he replied "I'm Moonstone."

The two don't say anything for another minute before Moonstone begins laughing.

"What's funny?" Thorax asks him.

Moonstone stops laughing long enough to answer Thorax's question.  "I'm actually having a civilized conversation with a changeling.  It's a little surreal to be honest."

Upon reflection, Thorax can't help but agree.  "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Are there others like you?" Moonstone asks Thorax.

"I like to think there are," Thorax admits, "but I've never met them.  Unfortunately, most are like what ponies saw in Canterlot."

"You were there, weren't you?"

The question stabs a little like a knife blade, but it was something Thorax expected to pop up sooner or later.  "I was," he admitted, "but I never hurt anypony when I was there."

"If you never hurt anypony," Moonstone questions, "then why were you there?"

"I was ordered to" Thorax answers.  "In the hive, no changeling is given a choice about anything.  If the queen gives a command, you follow it without question.  You question it, and you're shown why you should never question it again."

Moonstone shivers upon hearing that.  "I already thought the queen was horrible, but now I know just how horrible.  How come you guys don't get rid of her?"

Thorax lets out a breath.  "Because too many other changelings think like her.  They believe ponies are inferior and only serve as a source of food to be harvested like a ripe apple off a tree.  They just take without thinking that their actions could have dire consequences in the future."

Moonstone shivered upon hearing that.  "That's... horrible" he said to Thorax.  "How can anypony think that way?"

"It's just how things work back in the hive" Thorax states plainly.  "That's why I was hoping that I could find a better way here, and I could prove that being on peaceful terms with ponies and sharing love with them was the solution to our problems."

"Problems?"

Thorax took a breath before he began his explanation.  "Food for the hive is always scarce.  The infiltrators that are sent out to find love never come back with enough for the rest of the hive.  Nearly every changeling in the hive lives in a state of borderline starvation.  That was one of the reasons for the attack on Canterlot.  The queen promised us that we would be able to feed for centuries if we succeeded."

"I'm gonna guess you didn't believe what she told all of you" Moonstone inferred.

"Not really" Thorax confirmed.  "I don't doubt that we needed the love to feed everyone, but attacking the city never made sense to me.  I know now from experience that happy ponies make more love, and what we were doing there was making them sad and scared.  Why would we do something that was going to end up affecting us negatively on the long run?"

Moonstone had no answer for that.  Thorax didn't understand it either.  All the attack accomplished was making ponies hate them, and be more on edge whenever they suspected that a changeling was in their midst.  Things after Canterlot had gotten worse, and he feared it would only be a matter of time before the queen would try another attack.  The question would be if she would attempt to take over a smaller city than Canterlot, or if she'd go whole hog and take Equestria in one big swoop.

The sounds of several hooves approaching the cell caught both Moonstone and Thorax's attention.  A guard appeared and was about to bang his hoof on the door, but stopped when he saw both of the cell's occupants awake.  "Time for your shower and breakfast" he said to Thorax.  Moonstone looked confused and worried upon hearing the word "breakfast".

"I thought you said you didn't want to take love from ponies?" he asked Thorax.

"I don't," Thorax replied, "and I don't want to either.  I draw the excess love from the Crystal Heart so I don't hurt anypony."

Hearing the explanation made Moonstone relax a little bit.  The guard banged on the cell bars, becoming impatient with Thorax taking so long.  "I have other prisoners that I have to get to this morning, so move it!"

Thorax just gave a nod and made his way to the door.  Before he made it out, he heard Moonstone call to him.

"Thorax" he said, then waited for Thorax to look at him.  "I'm glad that we got to talk and I could learn more about you.  You're not like the rest of your kind, and I hope you win your court case."

Thorax smiled and had a small tear form in the corner of his eye.  "Thanks" he replied as he exited the cell and went about his morning routine.
> Part III, Chapter 18 - Raspberry's Testimony - Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Monday






Thorax was again brought to the courthouse and seated at the defendant's table.  His lawyer Plea Bargain was not there to meet him.  According to the stallion, he had managed to secure Raspberry Mint, the filly who was considered the key witness to this case.  The changeling scanned the room to see if the filly may have been present, but he only found the scowls of the ponies in the audience.

After a minute or so, Plea Bargain finally entered the courtroom and took his spot beside his client.  He opened his briefcase and proceeded to remove several documents that were held together with a large clip.

"What's all of that?" Thorax asked him.

"This," Plea answers while holding up the documents, "is everything we need to have Raspberry approved as a witness for our side.  It's a copy of her side of the story, an affidavit from a child psychologist that determined she is mentally sound and able to give testimony, a form of consent signed by Mint Julep, Raspberry's mother, that we may perform a clearing spell on her so as we can verify that her testimony is one hundred percent her own and not a fabrication caused by latent spell work from a mind control or hypnosis spell, and Mint's consent to allow her daughter to give testimony."

Thorax took in all of the paperwork.  "That's quite a bit."

"It is," Plea admitted, "and I'm hoping that with it, the judge will allow us to call her immediately.  Besides the testimony of our expert witness, Raspberry's story will be our best shot at convincing the jury that you are innocent."

Thorax nodded, but didn't reply verbally.  He hoped that the judge would permit Raspberry to testify as soon as possible.  "Where is she right now?" Thorax asked Plea.

"She's here" Plea replied.  "We've decided to keep her in another room until we're ready to call her."

Thorax looked at Plea with confusion.  "How come she's in another room?"

"We don't want her to feel pressured to give a statement one way or another" Plea explained.  "She might nerve up if she were to see those three stallions before taking the stand and stumble through her testimony.  That would look really bad for us because it could suggest witness tampering, even with Night using the clearing spell."

"I suppose that would look pretty bad for me, huh?" Thorax responded.

Plea's mood changed to a more positive one.  "I don't anticipate that happening, Thorax.  I feel very confident that Raspberry will give us a testimony that will be quite beneficial to our case.  If I haven't said it before, staying positive is the best thing for the both of us to do as we argue our case, and we need to stay positive that the judge will permit Raspberry to take the stand."

Thorax gave a nod, happy to hear that the filly would be here, but clearly worried about whether or not the judge would permit her testimony.  He honestly couldn't think of a reason he wouldn't; she was the victim in this, so her story would be the most important.

Just then, State Evidence and another two lackeys followed her in and took their place at the prosecution's table.  They said nothing to Plea or Thorax as they prepared their documents for today's day in court.

The bailiff for the court clears his throat as he calls out commands to everypony in the room.

"All rise as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza enters the courtroom!"

Everypony stands up as the princess takes her place in the audience chamber.  As she has done since the trial started, she looks at Thorax with a scowl.

"Remain standing for the honorable Judge Iron Gavel!"

The judge enters through his chamber doors.  Taking his spot at the top of the pulpit, he sits down and gestures to for everypony to do the same.

"We reconvene the trial of Case S6E16O133 - The Crystal Empire vs Thorax the changeling" the judge announces.  "The defense may call their next witness at this time."

Plea looks over to State Evidence and gives her a nod.  State returns the gesture before Plea looks back to the judge.  "Your honor," he begins, "both myself and the prosecution would like to approach the bench at this time."

Murmurs quickly shoot through the audience, and Thorax overhears the words "plea deal" uttered by several ponies.

"You may approach" the judge answers, as Plea and State Evidence both approach the bench.

"Your honor," Plea addresses the judge, "Through pure chance and effort, I was able to obtain the victim's testimony and her guardian's consent to be called as a witness.  I would like to have her added to my witness list immediately and have her called as my next witness.  Here are all of the necessary credentials."

Plea passes the paperwork over to the judge, who reviews it all before looking at Plea.  "This has all been filed with the court clerk?"

Plea nods.  "I took care of all of that on Friday."

The judge turns to State Evidence.  "Do you have any objections to this witness being called?"

"No, your honor" she replies.  "We were allowed to interview the filly and I reviewed the submitted paperwork as well.  He's fulfilled all the obligations necessary to have her testify, so we see no reason to object to her being added to his witness list and being called at this time."

"Very well" the judge responds.  "Return to your benches."

Plea and State return to their seats as the judge looks over the last of the paperwork.  Once satisfied, the judge addresses the audience.  "I have been made aware that the defense has added a witness to their list and wishes to call them forward at this time.  Prosecution has made clear they have no desire to object to the witness being added or called to testify, so the defense may call upon this witness."

Plea stands back up and announces the witness to the courtroom.

"Defense calls Raspberry Mint to testify."





Raspberry Mint sat patiently waiting to be called as a witness for Thorax.  As she sat, she thought about the recent past regarding the changeling.  Not her attack, but the day Thorax was revealed to the empire.

She remembered hearing him speaking on the school radio.  He had apologized for causing a panic in the city, and said he had not intended to do so.  He was apparently just as scared of ponies as they all were of him.

She then remembered how after the speech, the teacher then gave the whole class an impromptu lesson on the known knowledge of changelings, which elaborated on things like what they looked like, how they had been observed to behave, theories on what their lives were like in their kingdom, and how to protect yourself from harm should you encounter one of them.

After her teacher concluded the lesson, she then did something unexpected.  After giving everypony this information, she then told the class that if they should ever run into Mister Thorax when he is outside the castle, they should be polite to him.

"As much as I've told you about how dangerous changelings are, you must also remember that these rules and guidelines are not always necessary.  I have it on good authority from the mare in charge of the palace custodians that Mister Thorax has been a hard worker and does not act anything like the changelings that were encountered at the royal wedding and the subsequent times since then.  He even has friends among some of the ponies in the palace."

"So, to conclude the lesson, I give you this last piece of advice in regards to these rules: Be cautious, but cordial.  There may very well be other changelings that share Mister Thorax's views, but are simply afraid to do so for one reason or another.  Perhaps if we were to show them that we were willing to let bygones be bygones and turn over a new leaf with them, than we could all work together to bring about a peace between one another."

"Just remember, though, that not all the changelings may share his viewpoint, so always be cautious first.  Let them make the first gesture towards you, and be ready to react if that gesture is violent."

Raspberry hadn't forgotten the lesson.  Be cautious, but cordial.  It resonated with her.  It didn't resonate with her mother, however, and she had been told that, regardless of the lesson, the only thing she should do was run screaming to the nearest guard and let them handle the changelings.

That had left Raspberry conflicted about what to do.  A week later, and she had been cornered by the three stallions and nearly abducted.  They would have succeeded, had Mister Thorax not been there.

Because of him, she was returned safely to her mother, but unfortunately, he got blamed for all the stuff those stallions did.

"No good deed goes unpunished" she thought to herself.

Her thoughts were cut off as a door opened and a mare poked her head inside; it was a bailiff mare.

"They just called you Sweetie" the mare said with a smile.  "It's time to go now."

Raspberry nodded and got up to follow the mare.  She didn't know how things would turn out, but she knew that she was going to tell all the ponies there that Mister Thorax shouldn't be going to jail!





For several minutes, the courtroom was filled with murmurs in regards to the witness that was just called.  The judge eventually lost his patience.

"Mister Plea Bargain," he addressed the stallion, "would you kindly explain why your witness is not here at the moment?"

Plea stood up before replying.  "My apologies, your honor," he begins, "but there was concern for the safety of the witness, so we had her in protective custody in another area.  She is on her way to the courtroom as we speak."

A second later, and the doors to the courtroom opened, and in walked a bailiff mare and a young filly that was quite clearly Raspberry Mint.  The audience whispered energetically, curious as to what kind of story this young pony would tell on the witness stand.

As the bailiff and Raspberry approach the stand, a unicorn mare in guard uniform follows them.  Once the filly is seated on the witness stand, Plea approaches the judge's bench.

"Your honor, I have requested that a member of the royal guard be present here today to conduct a clearing spell on Raspberry Mint before she gives testimony.  Do I have permission for this guard to carry out that spell?"

The judge turns to State Evidence.  "Do you have any objection to this request?" he asks her.

State stands up and clears her throat.  "Your honor, the prosecution asks that sufficient evidence be presented to prove that guard who will be conducting this spell is both an actual royal guard and a pony."

The judge turns back to Plea.  "Can you provide sufficient evidence that the pony carrying out this clearing spell is who they say they are?"

"I can, your honor" Plea responds, then produces a set of paperwork from his briefcase and presents it to the judge.  After reading it over, the judge nods.

"I have been given a sworn affidavit that declares the pony here in the courtroom today as one Miss Night Divining, a member of the 3rd Mage Corps of the Canterlot royal guard.  Miss Divining, there is a code phrase attached to this document.  Would you please repeat that code phrase to me now?"

Night clears her throat and replies "Soft churned butter."

The judge gives a nod and puts the papers down.  "Miss Divining has given the correct code phrase attached to her affidavit, so the legal burden of proof of identity has been met.  Do you still object to her performance of the clearing spell, Miss Evidence?"

"I have no objections" State replies.

"Very well" the judge responds, then turns to Night.  "Miss Divining, you have the court's permission to carry out a clearing spell on the witness.  Please proceed."

Night nodded and approached Raspberry on the bench.  "My name is Night Divining" she told the filly.  "I'm going to perform a spell on you now.  I just need you to stay still while I cast it.  It won't hurt, but you might feel a tingling sensation, okay?"

Raspberry nodded.  Without any further delay, Night cast the spell, her horn lighting up and the filly being enveloped in a field of magic the same color as the mage's aura.  After about five seconds or so, the magic fades and the guard turns to the judge.  "The witness has been cleared of any enchantments that may have been placed on her by either a pony or changeling" she declares.

"Thank you" the judge replies, then turns to Plea Bargain.  "Counselor, you may now begin your questioning."






A/N - This next part of the witness testimony will be written as normal dialogue in the story.  It will be the only witness testimony written that way.






Plea gives a nod to the judge and approaches Raspberry, the having just been sworn in.

"Hello" he greets the filly.  "Can you tell everypony here your name, please?"

"My name is Raspberry Mint" she replies.

"How old are you Raspberry?"

"I'm ten."

"That's nice.  Raspberry, I asked you to come here today because of something bad that happened to you a little while ago.  Are you comfortable with telling everypony what happened to you."

"I am."

"Good.  Please, tell your story to everypony."

Raspberry then scowls and points a hoof at the three stallions.  "Those ponies tried to foalnap me!"

As soon as Raspberry finishes her sentence, the courtroom erupts into shocked gasps and whispers.  Iron Gavel striking his namesake quickly brings order back to the courtroom.

"That is quite the accusation you are bringing against these three stallions" Plea points out.  "Can you tell us exactly what happened?"

"Yes" Raspberry responds.  "I left my weekend tutoring and was coming towards the big open market at the base of the Crystal Palace when the red stallion cut me off and started smiling at me."

"He was smiling?" Plea asked.

"Yes," Raspberry confirmed, "but it wasn't a happy smile.  It was one like a pony about to do something really bad would have."

"Something really bad?" Plea questioned.  "What kind of really bad?"

"Really, really bad!" Raspberry reiterates.  "Like 'I was gonna get hurt' bad."

"That sounds terrible" Plea remarks.  "What did you do after you encountered this red stallion?"

"Your honor, I object!" State Evidence called out.  "This is an unfounded accusation against one of my witnesses!"

"Your honor," Plea interjects, "the witness has only indicated the pony she believes committed a crime against her.  I can hardly call that an unfounded accusation."

"Objection overruled" Gavel decides.  "If there is merit to the accusation, then it will be investigated at the appropriate time.  Please continue with your examination Mister Plea Bargain."

"Thank you, your honor" Plea says to the judge before addressing Raspberry again.  "Please tell us what you did next after encountering the red stallion."

"I was trying to find help," Raspberry continues, "but there was nopony else around, so I tried to think of a way to escape, and a saw an alleyway and just ran for it."

"You ran to an alley" Plea repeats.  "What happened once you were in the alleyway?"

"I kept running down the alley, hoping I could find some way to lose the pony."

"He started chasing you?"

"He did."

"Could you find somewhere to get away?"

"No.  I ran to a spot in the alley where it went around a building, but there was another stallion waiting for me."

"Another stallion?" Plea questions.  "You mean there was more than one?"

"Yes" Raspberry answers.  "There were three altogether,  but I only saw the two at first."

"So a red stallion began chasing you, and another stallion stepped out to stop you from escaping another way.  What did the second stallion look like?"

"He was kinda whitish-gray with a dark mane" she stated.  "He had a whip for a cutie mark and his eyes were green."

"Do you see any ponies here today that match that description?"

"Yes" Raspberry answers, then points her hoof at Leather Whip.  Immediately, murmurs travel through the audience and jury box.

Thorax looks around to see the faces of the ponies in the courtroom.  Some have looks of confusion and concern, while others are scowling.  The jury box appears mostly confused, some of the louder murmurs making question of whether the clearing spell done by the guard had worked.

Thorax then looked over at State Evidence and her lackeys for the day.  They were conversing on what the changeling could only assume was their strategy for rebuttal.

A banging noise causes all conversations to cease.  "Order in the court" Judge Gavel declares, then motions for Plea to continue speaking.

"So, as a recap, you're saying that two stallions that look like two of the prosecutor's witnesses cornered you in an alleyway?"

"They did" Raspberry responds.

"What did they try to do?"

"They were trying to foalnap me!"

"They were trying to foalnap you?" Plea questions.  "In broad daylight, and fairly close to the marketplace?"

"Yes."

"Why would they do that?" Plea asks her.

"Because my mom owes their boss money!"

Again, gasps travel through the courtroom, the ponies in the audience surprised to be hearing such things from a filly.

"Your mother owed the pony who employs them money?" Plea asks, continuing his questioning.  Raspberry nods.

"Do you know who their employer is?"

"Some pony named Mint Eagle."

"I see.  Please, what happened next?"

"The two stallions were about to do something to me, but Mister Thorax showed up."

"Mister Thorax showed up?  How did he approach?"

"He came running towards the stallions and was shouting at them.  He didn't look happy."

"How did you feel when you saw Mister Thorax coming towards you and the stallions?"

Raspberry paused for a moment, looking unsure.  "...I was scared, at first."

"You were scared?" Plea asked her.

"Yes" Raspberry answers.  "I didn't recognize him immediately as Mister Thorax, so I just thought he was another changeling."

"But when you saw it was Mister Thorax," Plea reasoned, "you stopped being afraid?"

"Yes" Raspberry replied, causing murmurs to travel through the audience and the jury.

Thorax looked around and saw ponies looking towards him, some with malice and others with confusion.  "Perhaps they're all starting to reconsider things?" the changeling thought to himself.

"So Mister Thorax approached you and the stallions" Plea continues.  "What happened next?"

Raspberry paused a moment to take a sip from a glass of water that had been placed at the witness stand earlier.  "The red stallion told the other to watch me and he tried to attack Mister Thorax."

"The stallion attacked Mister Thorax?"

"Yes.  He tried charging at him."

"What did Mister Thorax do?"

"He stepped to the side really quick and the stallion ran straight into a dumpster."

"When he hit the dumpster, did he hit with his head first or his chest?"

"He pulled his head back and hit with his chest."

"I would think he got the wind knocked out of him doing that."

"He did.  He fell down and was gasping for air."

"What did Mister Thorax do then?"

"He kept coming towards me and the unicorn and he was shouting for the unicorn to leave me alone."

"Did the unicorn listen?"

"No.  He said Mister Thorax should mind his own business."

"Did the unicorn try to attack Mister Thorax?"

"No.  There was another unicorn that attacked Mister Thorax."

"Is that unicorn here today?"

"He is" Raspberry answered and again pointed her hoof, this time at the third stallion to testify against Thorax.  The courtroom was again filled with murmuring, which prompted the judge to call the court to order with his gavel.

"So Mister Thorax was attacked by this third stallion" Plea continues.  "Did the third stallion succeed?"

"He hit Mister Thorax with a spell that knocked him out" Raspberry replied.

"I see.  Mister Thorax got knocked out.  What happened after that?"

"The first unicorn started charging up a spell.  I turned to see what he was doing, but he had cast it on me."

"What happened to you after he cast that spell?"

"I felt really tired, and then I fell asleep."

"What happened after you woke up?"

"I was on the one stallion's back, and they were walking towards my home."

"Did you say or do anything to try and get away or get anypony's attention?"

"No.  The one pony saw I was waking up and told me to stay quiet or I would disappear and never see my mom and dad again."

"Did they take you home?"

"They did."

"If those stallions were trying to foalnap you, why did they take you home?"

"They said the guard were gonna check and make sure that I got home safely."

"So if you didn't get home, the guard would be suspicious of them?"

"I guess."

"What happened after you got home?"

"The stallions told me to go to my room because they wanted to talk to my mom alone."

"Do you know what they were talking to her about?"

"The payment for the loan she took out."

"Did your mom give them the payment?"

"No.  She didn't have the money."

"What did the stallions do?"

"...They got physical."

The remark caused more murmurs, and Thorax shot a glance over towards State Evidence.  The three stallions were seated behind her, and she had turned to leer at them and make some accusatory remarks.  When accused, the stallions all adopted confused expressions and shook their heads, clearly denying what Raspberry had accused them of.

"So, they got physical" Plea parrots.  "What happened after that?"

"They took what money we had, and they told my mom that if she didn't have the money next time, they'd make her regret it."

"How would they do that?"

"They gave her a picture of my daddy in the hospital with two hooves holding a pillow, and a picture of me being looked at from behind a loaded crossbow."

Gasps, murmurs and shocked cries carried through the courtroom.  The judge was quick to pound his gavel and bring order back to the courtroom.

"So these stallions threatened to hurt you if your mom didn't pay them?" Plea continues.

"Not just that" Raspberry replies.

"Oh?"

"They said the guard would ask about what had happened to me earlier in the day, and that my mom wasn't supposed to let me talk to the guards."

The murmurs picked up once again, but this time, they were low enough to allow Plea to continue undisturbed.

"So the reason nopony could talk to you was because your mom was afraid you or your dad would get hurt if you talked?"

"Yes."

"I see.  So, to recap for the jury and according to the victim of the crime, these three stallions tried to abduct her, but my client intervened.  During this intervention, he himself was attacked and the victim having had a sleep spell placed on her.  From what previous testimony we've heard, I am under the strong opinion that my client was framed, with evidence either planted or fabricated in such a way as to implicate him in this horrible act against a child."

"I object, your honor!" State called out.  "The defense is making unfounded accusations based on their own interpretations of evidence and testimony presented in this trial.  We are here today to determine if this changeling is truly guilty or not.  If the defense or victim feels that they have just cause to lodge a criminal complaint against my witnesses, they may do so after the conclusion of this trial."

Judge Gavel thinks on this for a moment and renders his decision.  "Objection sustained.  Mister Plea Bargain, I will admit myself that the testimony we just received is rather jarring compared to what was presented during the prosecution's arguments, but I must agree with the prosecution that the situation you proposed is your interpretation of both testimony and evidence and is possibly slander against the witnesses for the prosecution.  I ask you not to levy such accusations again, lest I have to find you in contempt of court."

Plea looks a tad bewildered for a moment, but gives a simple nod.  "I understand, your honor.  Raspberry, there is one last question that I would like to ask you.  Has there been anytime since the princess announced the acceptance of Thorax into the Crystal Empire that you felt that you needed to be afraid of him?"

"No" Raspberry replies.  "Mister Thorax was always nice and he never tried to hurt me.  Those stallions would've taken me if he hadn't stopped them.  My mom and I owe Mister Thorax all the thanks we can give him for what he did."

The remark got mixed responses from the audience and jury.  Some were unsure of how to react, while others seemed to think that the comment was somehow goaded out of the filly by the changeling.

Thorax looked up to see how Princess Cadance had reacted.  The princess looked unsure of herself, but her eyes steeled once she saw Thorax looking at her.  Was it a tough act, or did she think he had manipulated her into having that response?

"Thank you for telling us your story, Raspberry" Plea tells the filly, then turns and faces the judge.  "I have no further questions for the witness at this time."  His examination complete, Plea makes his way to his seat.

"So, what do you think that did for our case?" Thorax asks Plea.

"A lot, I'm hoping" Plea answers.  "Raspberry has planted some doubt in their minds about your guilt, but things still aren't going to be easy.  State gets to examine her now, and if I know her like I do, she'll cook something up to throw all my hard work out the window."

Before Thorax can ask what he means, the judge clears his throat.  "The prosecution may now cross-examine the witness."

State looks over her paperwork and talks with her two lackeys.  Based on how they're talking and the facial reactions Thorax was seeing, he had a bad feeling in his gut.  The mare stopped speaking and then stood up, but didn't move from her spot.

"Your honor," she begins, "I would like to request that we recess for lunch now."

The judge looks at the clock on the wall and nods his head.  "I shall grant the request.  We will adjourn for lunch.  Court is in recess now."  The judge bangs the gavel, and ponies start filing out of the courtroom.
> Part III, Chapter 19 - Raspberry's Testimony - Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The recess for lunch concluded and everypony had made their way back into the courtroom.  Thorax was once again brought in and fastened to the defendant's table.  Plea was already there going over some paperwork.

"What's all that?" Thorax asked the stallion.

"These are the forensic reports from our expert witness" Plea answers him.  "I've been preparing for when we will have to call our last witness.  I think with their testimony, we will have presented the best possible argument for why the jury should find you not guilty of foalnapping and all the other crimes."

Thorax tried to look hopeful, but inside was a whole other matter.  Before he could respond, the bailiff announced the princess and judge.  Cadance made her way to her designated seat, only giving Thorax a scornful glance as she found her seat.  The judge took his seat and adjusted some papers for a few moments before looking up at State Evidence.

"Miss Evidence," he addresses her, "you may now cross examine the witness."

State nods and stands up, approaching the filly at a casual pace.

"Raspberry," she begins, "you told us all that the three witnesses for the prosecution were the actual culprits that attempted to abduct you, correct?"

"Yeah" Raspberry affirms.

"So you were cornered by these three stallions in an alleyway?"

Raspberry nods.

"And there's no chance that what you actually saw was three changelings that had the witness's appearance at the time?"

"Objection!" Plea cries out.  "Prosecution is deviating from the testimony established by the witness."

"Deviating how?" State asks.

"The witness has stated multiple times, even during your own preliminary interview, that she is adamant that the three stallions serving as your witnesses were the ones that attempted to abduct her."

"Yes, she has said that" State concedes.  "However, with it having been some amount of time since that event happened, and the fact is we were unable to interview her until fairly recently, she may have misremembered certain details of the events that day."

After hearing the explanations, the judge makes a decision.

"Objection overruled" he decides.  "It is plausible that the witness has misremembered details of the events from several weeks ago.  Miss Evidence, you may proceed."

"Thank you, your honor" she says to the judge before turning back to the filly.  "Now, as I was saying, you have accused the three witnesses for the prosecution of attempting to foalnap you, and I proposed that it is possible that you may not have remembered the events of that day correctly."

Raspberry glares at the mare, very much not liking that she is being accused of having a bad memory.

"What was the lunch that your school was serving that Saturday?"

The question catches Raspberry off guard.  "What?"

"The school lunch" State repeats herself.  "What was the lunch your school served to students that day?"

"We don't get lunch" Raspberry told State in response.

"Very well" State continues.  "What were you studying that day?"

"A few different things" Raspberry responds.

"Could you elaborate please?"

"We had a math lesson, then we had a science lesson, and then we worked on writing."

"What did you do in the science lesson?"

"We studied the different kinds of crystals and what makes some harder than others."

"Did you do a science experiment?"

"We did.  They gave us a piece of glass and several crystals.  We had to judge how hard they were by scraping them across the glass.  The harder the crystal was, the deeper a mark it left in the glass."

"How about your math lesson?"

"We did algebra."

"Algebra?  That has to get kinda boring."

"It does."

"And your writing lesson?"

"Prepositions."

"Your Saturday lessons don't sound very fun."

"They're not always fun."

"But sometimes they are?"

"Sometimes."

State gives a smile before she walks back to her table and picks up a paper.  "Your teacher is a Miss Opal Amethyst, correct?"

"Yes, that's my teacher" Raspberry confirms.

"Well, I asked her to let me see a copy of her lesson plan for that day, and while most of what you told me is true, there is one detail I'm a little fuzzy on."

Raspberry looks confused.  "What do you mean?"

"Well," State continues while flipping through the pages in front of her, "your teacher told me that on that day, you all did indeed study math and science, and you also didn't receive a lunch because you weren't there long enough for a lunch to be mandated, but the last part of the day was spent in independent study.  Now, before you say that she changed her mind, I asked her if she did and she told me she didn't."

"So, do you remember for sure that you studied writing that day, and didn't perhaps just do some writing homework during your independent study?"

"Your honor," Plea interrupts, "I do not understand what a foal's study habits have to do with this case.  I don't feel the question or the answer is relevant to the topic at hoof."

"Your honor," State then cuts in, "I only wish to establish the entire series of events from that day as they occurred.  I don't see any harm in receiving an answer to this question."

The judge thinks for a moment before nodding.  "If the witness would please answer the question?"

Raspberry thinks for a moment before becoming slightly nervous and answering, "I might have been doing my preposition homework that was due the following Monday."

"So," State continues, "you confess that you may have been doing your homework during that part of class and may have only thought you were having a writing lesson?"

"I... guess."

"So, your mind may have misremembered that detail, quite possibly because of the stress of the situation that followed your lessons, correct?"

"... I guess."

"Then, is it possible that you may have misremembered other things as well?  Possibly what happened during the attempt to abduct you?"

"Objection, your honor!" Plea cuts in.  "This line of question is causing undue stress on the witness.  She's only a child, and this line of questioning can be construed as badgering.  I ask that the prosecution discontinue it immediately."

The judge takes a moment to consider the filly in the witness stand next to him before he nods.

"Objection sustained" he agrees.  "Miss Evidence, please discontinue this line of questioning, lest I have to find you in contempt of court."

"Very well" State complies.  "Raspberry, tell me about your walk home that day."

"I was with my friends for part of it" Raspberry answers.

"Who are your friends?"

"My one friend is a filly named Garnet, and the other is a colt named Fuchsia."

"And how far did you walk with them?"

"We walked until we got about a few blocks away from the palace."

"Did your friends tell you goodbye?"

"Yeah."

"And then you headed towards the market?"

"I did."

"Why were you going towards the market?"

"The fastest way for me to get home is past the front of the castle."

"I see.  Now, when you were approached initially,how far away from the market were you?"

"I could see it past the stallion."

"Could you be a little more specific.  For example, were you more than a block away?"

"No.  I was a little closer than that."

"And you said that you ran to the nearest alleyway?"

"I did."

"I went and saw that alleyway myself," State tells her, "and it was actually more than a block away, going back the way you came.  And for another fact, there was another alley on the opposite side of the road.  That one went straight through to the opposite street, so you could've made a break for it down that way.  Why didn't you try that way?"

"I... I don't know."

"I imagine you were in quite a panic at the time, yes?"

"I was."

"So you probably weren't thinking the clearest?"

"...Probably not."

"So in your panic, you ran down the first alleyway you noticed, and that one had two stallions waiting to corner you."

State's physical demeanor didn't change, but her questioning was becoming more pointed.  Raspberry was starting to look uncomfortable.

"Did you make an attempt to yell out for help?"

"Your honor," Plea interjects, "the prosecution is badgering the witness again!  Please put a stop to this!"

"Objection sustained" the judge responds.  He then gives State a stern look.  "Miss Evidence, this is your second and last warning.  Do not badger this witness any further."

State stands there for a few moments before nodding.  "One last question for you Raspberry.  Due to the stress and the panicked state of your mind, is it possible that you do not have a clear memory of those day's events, and that you may have incorrectly recalled certain details of it?"

Raspberry was reluctant to respond.

"I ask you again" State prods.  "Is it possible that you have not correctly remembered the details of that day?"

Where she was previously reluctant, Raspberry now looked incensed.

"No, it isn't!" she responds.  "Those stallions tried to take me!  It wasn't any changelings, and it certainly wasn't Mister Thorax!"

A loud banging startles the filly.  She turns to see the judge looking at her.  "Please calm down and don't yell in my courtroom, please."

Raspberry looks at him apologetically.  "I'm sorry."

The judge gives her a nod and small smile before looking back at State Evidence.  The mare understands the wordless questions and gives the judge the answer he wants.  "I have no further questions."

"Very well" the judge accepts.  "The witness is now excused."

Raspberry steps down from the stand and begins to walk to the back of the courtroom so she can be escorted out.  However, after a few steps, she stops and faces the jury.

"Please don't punish Mister Thorax" she tells them.  "He was the good pony.  Honest he was."

Several shocked gasps can be heard throughout the courtroom.  The bailiff who escorted Raspberry in ushers the filly out quickly.  Once she is gone, State Evidence stands up.

"Your honor, I must strongly request that the witness's last statement to the jury be stricken from the record."

Several gasps sound from the audience.

"Miss Evidence," the judge responds, "why do you wish for that remark to be stricken from the record?"

"I ask for it to be removed in objection under the belief that the defense led the witness to make that remark."

Upon hearing this, Plea stands up with a very angry expression on his face.

"Your honor, I object to that insinuation!" he declares.  "Every moment of testimony has been the exact same as what has been documented in interviews with the witness before she was called to testify!"

"And what about when you first met the witness?" State asks.

Plea looks confused.  "What do you mean?"

The mare smiles as she produces a photograph.  On it is Plea Bargain sitting with Raspberry as she eats lunch outside her school.

"Your honor, I have had a private investigator following the filly Raspberry Mint for the past few weeks.  This was taken last Thursday outside her school."

The courtroom lets out some shocked gasps and some rather negative remarks can be heard about Plea being spoken.

The judge turns to face the pony.  "Mister Plea Bargain, can you explain yourself please?"

"I can" Plea responds.  He opens his briefcase and produces a letter, offering it to the judge.  "This was delivered to my office by the witness.  It requested that I meet her at her school to talk about her being able to testify."

The judge takes a moment to read over the note.

"And why was she asking to meet you?" State asks in an accusing tone.

"As it says in that letter, she wanted to speak on my client's behalf, but her mother was preventing it.  If need be, I can obtain an affidavits from both the mother and the filly that validates that statement."

"You do that," State snidely remarks, "and we'll investigate exactly what was said during that interview."

"Well," Plea answers back, "if your private investigator was paying attention, then he would have observed a mare watching myself and the filly as I interviewed her initially."

"I trust this mare has a name?" State questions.

Plea smirks.  "Viridian Sky" he replies.

State jots the name down.  "I'm going to look into this later" she tells Plea, then turns to the judge.  "Your honor, I again would like to request that the witness's last statement be stricken from the record on the grounds of the defense leading them into saying that remark."

Having read over the note several times, the judge places the paper down and addresses the two counselors.  "At this time, I shall request that the statement be withheld from the record until it can be proven that the defense has indeed led the witness to make such remarks."

The judge turns to the jury.  "You are hereby ordered to disregard the last statement made by the witness unless told otherwise in the future."

The jury all nod, agreeing not to take Raspberry's final remark into consideration.

With the matter resolved for the moment, the judge faces Plea Bargain.  "You may call your next witness" he tells the stallion.

Plea takes a breath to calm himself down, then announces the next witness.

"Defense calls the expert witness Dynamic Prion."
> Part III, Chapter 20 - Defense's Arguments - Part V
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N - We now return to the original formatting for witness testimony.





From the back of the courtroom rises a mare with a similar appearance to Madam Ammonia, only she is a crystal pony instead of a unicorn.  Her coat is brighter blue, and her mane is a bit darker.  A chemical symbol adorns her flanks as a cutie mark.

The mare makes her way to the witness stand and is sworn in.  Plea Bargain makes his approach for what will be his last witness in Thorax's defense.





PB - Would you please state your name for the record?

DP - Dr. Dynamic Prion.

PB - What is your current occupation?

DP - I am a forensic scientist.

PB - How long have you been a forensic scientist?

DP - I was performing forensic work prior to the disappearance of the empire, and I have been performing the same functions since it returned.

PB - What kinds of functions are those?

DP - Whatever the crystal guard or court needs done.

PB - Such as examining evidence at crime scenes?

DP - Yes, that would be one of my functions.

PB - What kinds of techniques do you use to carry out these functions?

DP - I have been educated in various alchemy-related sciences which help to determine the nature of items, but I have also received education on the newer technologies that were developed in the past millennia since the empire's return.

PB - How long did this education take to complete?

DP - For myself, it took approximately six months.

PB - And where did you receive this education?

DP - The Royal University of Canterlot.

PB - RUC?  Well then, I guess I don't need to ask about the institution being accredited.

DP - No.  The program was recommended highly by the advisers who came with the princess during her efforts to reclaim of the empire.

PB - Okay.  Moving on now, I made a request for you to re-examine the scene where the crime my client has been accused of took place and collect any remaining evidence which may have been missed, as well as re-evaluating the evidence that was collected from that scene previously.  Would you please tell us about your findings in regards to both of those topics?

DP - Certainly.  To begin with, my re-evaluation of the evidence collected by the guard shortly after the crime yielded results similar enough to the original conclusions to say that their original reports were accurate.  However, there did appear to be some details that were overlooked.

PB - Oh?  Please, enlighten us as to what these details were?

DP - During my examination of the hair found in the defendant's mouth, I examined several of the strands underneath a simple microscope.  From this examination, I was able to conclude that there was no damage to them that would have be consistent with another creature biting or chewing on them.

PB - So, you mean to say that, based on the evidence, the defendant did not grab the filly's tail, as the witnesses claimed in previous testimony?

DP - Based on the evidence, I would say that the likelihood of the defendant grabbing the filly by the tail is rather low at best.

(murmurs in the audience and jury)

PB - Were there any other details overlooked?

DP - Yes.  During my scanning of the hair fibers, I found traces of magic that matched with mana spillage found at the scene that was traced back to the witness Velvet Dice.

PB - Velvet Dice's magic was found on the victim's tail hairs?

DP - That is correct.

PB - Is there anything else you found overlooked in the prosecution's original evidence assessment?

DP - No.  Those two details were the stand out ones.

PB - Okay.  Now, in your re-examination of the crime scene, what did you find?

DP - I went to the crime scene and re-examined the area.  While I found nothing new on the ground around where the attempted foalnapping occurred, I noticed a dumpster nearby that had a sizable dent in the one corner.

(murmurs by the audience and jury)

PB - A nearby dumpster?

DP - Yes.

PB - And it had a dent in it?

DP - It did.

PB - About how large was this dent?

DP - Two to three hoof lengths across at its widest point.

PB - Two to three hoof lengths.  Is it possible that this dent could've been made by a pony running into the dumpster?

DP - It is certainly possible.

PB - Was there any evidence to suggest this might have been what happened?

DP - Yes.  I found pieces of hair caught on the corner of the dumpster.

(murmurs by the audience and jury)

PB - And I assume you collected some of this hair for examination?

DP - I did.

PB - What did your examination turn up?

DP - I brought samples of the hair back to my laboratory and began an examination, both with modern equipment and alchemical processes.  Once completed, I was able to ascertain several facts.

(witness produces a paper)

DP - A sample from the collected evidence was treated with an alchemy process to break it down into smaller chemical compounds and fed into a thaumic analyzer to determine details such as the type of pony and gender that the hair fibers came from.  After this analyzer finished, it determined that the pony was an earthbound, and was also male.

PB - How certain are you this was a male?

DP - The chemical process was able to separate components in the hairs which the machine identified as testosterone, and at a level that suggested the pony was an adult male.

PB - Did you run any other tests besides the alchemical and machine examinations.

DP - I did a simple examination with a microscope.

PB - Did that reveal any useful information?

DP - The only thing of note was that the hair fibers were pulled from the skin, as several pieces were found with the roots still attached.

PB - So, you found hair on this dumpster that matches to an adult earth pony stallion.  During your examination with a microscope, were you able to determine the color of the hair fibers?

DP - They were red.

PB - Do you see any ponies here in the courtroom today who could have a coat color similar to what you saw under your microscope?

DP - Yes, I do.

PB - Would you please point them out for the court?

DP - That stallion there (points to Heavy Hitter)

(murmurs in the audience and jury)

PB - Now, you have identified one of the prosecution's witnesses as being a potential source of the hairs found on the dumpster in that alleyway where the attack took place.

(faces jury)

PB - At this time, I would like to remind the jury that, during the victim's testimony, she claimed that a stallion matching said witness's description attempted to attack my client but missed and ran into a dumpster in that alleyway, hitting it hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

(faces DP)

PB - Now, Doctor, if a pony impacted a dumpster hard enough to leave an indentation like that, how likely is it that they were also injured in some capacity?

DP - I would say that that is a highly probable outcome.

PB - Good.  Now, I have only one more question for you.  Based on the forensic evidence you have both collected yourself and examined, and the testimony that you have heard from both the prosecution's and defense's witnesses, which argument do you believe sounds the most probable?

DP - Both scenarios presented have a probability, but the defense's argument seems to be supported more by the evidence I have seen.

(murmurs in the audience and jury)

PB - Thank you, doctor.  I have no further questions, your honor.





Plea makes his way back to the defense's table to sit next to Thorax.  "Well, I've done all that I can" he says to the changeling.  "The only thing we have left to do is make our closing arguments, and then it will be in the jury's hooves to decide."

Naturally, this remark doesn't fill Thorax with confidence.  Before he can allow it to bring down his mood, the judge announces that State can now cross-examine.  She stands up and approaches the witness stand.





SE - I only have two questions for you Dr. Prion.  First, is it at all possible that the hairs you found at the crime scene did not come from the pony you identified earlier?

DP - Yes, it is possible that those hairs came from another pony.

SE - Okay.  Now for my second and final question.  You examined the crime scene approximately two weeks after the attempt to abduct the victim happened.  Because of that fact, is it possible that that evidence has been compromised, or that the events that led to the dented dumpster and the hairs found on it occurred after this attempted abduction occurred?

DP - Admittedly, both of those scenarios are possible.

SE - Thank you.  I have nothing further, your honor.





State Evidence returns to her seat.  Thorax looked at Plea with confusion.  "Why didn't she ask her more question?"

Plea turns to him and gives him a shrug.  "She presented the only points that she can really present.  It's possible that the evidence she collected was compromised, and it is possible that the hairs didn't come from that stallion.  In truth, I think she's gonna put all her eggs into the closing statement basket."

Thorax gave a nod as he turned to see the judge looking at Plea Bargain.  "Do you have anymore witnesses to call?"

Plea stands up to address the judge.

"No, your honor, I do not.  I would now like to present my evidence to the court and jury."

Plea steps out from behind the table and takes with him a few items.

"For Defense Exhibit A, I present a sample of the hairs found on one of the dumpsters located at the scene of the crime."  He holds up a bag with several small red hairs in it.

"For Exhibit B, I present a copy of Doctor Dynamic Prion's forensic assessment of these hairs.  For exhibit C, Doctor Prion's forensic report on samples of hair collected by the royal guard at the scene of the crime that were from the victim Raspberry Mint."

As he presents the last pieces of evidence, he shows them to the court.  Once everypony has seen them, he gives them to Judge Gavel.  Once he looks them over, he looks back to Plea Bargain.  "Have you anything else for the court?"

"No, your honor, I have nothing else" Plea responds.  "The defense rests their case."
> Part III, Chapter 21 - Closing Arguments
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Judge Gavel took a few moments to sort through some paperwork in front of him.  Thorax looked around the court room as he did so.

The ponies who met his gaze either looked on him with contempt or uncertainty.  Raspberry's testimony, combined with the evidence presented by Dr. Prion, had created doubt in some of the ponies' minds.

Would that be enough to sway the jury to think he was innocent?  Was there a chance he could actually walk away from this without being sent to the dungeons?

Probably not.  Even if he did win, Cadance would probably throw him out of the castle.

No, she wouldn't do that.  She didn't trust him now, despite all his effort to prove his intentions true.  He would remain in the Crystal Palace, being a janitor and being restrained, even if it's just the magic nullifyng ring on his horn.  All his interactions with ponies would be strictly monitored.

Worse yet, they would probably cut his feeding back more than it already was, constantly keeping him at the precipice of starvation, but not enough to drive him to go into an uncontrolled feeding frenzy.

Before his thoughts could get any darker, the judge cleared his throat.  "The prosecution and defense have made their arguments.  Miss State Evidence, the court will now hear your closing remarks."

State stood up and shot both Thorax and Plea Bargain a smile.  It was not a good smile, at least not for the stallion and changeling.  She moved forward and stepped in front of the jury.

"Mares and Stallions of the jury," she begins, "We have presented to you all the relevant evidence required for you to reach a decision in this matter, both the prosecution and defense.  Soon, you will enter into deliberation and return with a verdict as to whether or not the changeling you see before you is truly a victim of some horrible misfortune, or is a deceiving monster who only cares about getting his next meal."

"I can't tell you how to decide, or even what to decide, but I can tell you that this will set a precedent one way or another.  If you decide on innocence, then that means that you have given this creature the benefit of the doubt and believe his claims that he was attacked and set up as a patsy.  If you decide guilty, then he will go to the dungeons and there will be no more need for concern than to simply keep an open eye in case other changelings come here and try to take us over."

"The most important part of the process you will enter is simply what you believe to be the truth.  So, what is the truth?  Is this changeling truly innocent, or is he doing his best to pull the wool over your eyes?"

"I only ask you to consider all the evidence and all of the arguments, nothing more.  Thank you."

State turned around and headed back to her seat, again giving Thorax and Plea that same evil looking smile.  Thorax could hear Plea curse under his breath.  The stallion notices his concern and whispers to him "She's still playing up the prejudice card, and unfortunately, I think it's working."

Thorax looked from Plea to the jury, who all wore looks of either contemplation or scorn.  Unfortunately, he was looking at more faces of scorn than contemplation.

"Mister Plea Bargain," the judge says to the lawyer pony, "you may now make your closing remarks."

Plea stood up and adjusted his tie.  Stepping out from behind the table, he approached the jury and took a deep breath.

"Mares and stallions of the jury," he begins, "Over the past couple of weeks, we have brought forth arguments to you regarding the circumstances of a crime that took place here in our empire.  This crime was the attempt to abduct a filly named Raspberry Mint."

"In one argument, three stallions claimed that a trio of changelings attempted to abscond with the filly but were stopped by the three of them, with two escaping and the third incapacitated and quickly arrested by our crystal guard."

"In the other, the changeling that was arrested claimed the stallions were the ones who tried to take the filly, and he had made an effort to stop them."

"Now, I know all of you have doubts about the validity of the latter story, given to creature that's making the claim, but before you dismiss it entirely, please consider these facts first."

"One: The victim of this attempted abduction recalled a story that was very similar to the accused."

"Two: She gave this testimony after she was given a magic clearing spell by a mage in the Canterlot Royal Guard."

"Three: Evidence collected by an expert witness gives significant plausibility to the story the victim has told."

"But besides those facts, there is one more that has less to do with the crime committed and more to do with this trial we've held here today.  The outcome of this case will likely hinge less on credible evidence and more on your own personal prejudices."

"Can you look beyond the fact that my client, a changeling, one of many that took part in the attempt to take over Canterlot during the royal wedding of our sovereigns, and see that this creature, named Thorax, is trying to do better?  If you can, then ask yourself this: Why would he do something to set all that back so far for himself?"

"As Miss State Evidence said only a short time ago, neither she or I can tell you how to decide.  We can only reinforce the fact that your decision must be what you believe to be the truth.  We have made our arguments, presented our evidence, had witnesses give their testimony, and done all this as completely as possible."

"It now rests in your hooves, and I can only hope you decide fairly.  Not just for my client, but for any that come after him, pony, changeling, or otherwise.  Thank you."

Plea returns to his seat as he gives me a smile.  "I've done all that I can.  Now, it's up to them."

Thorax gives him a smile, but the stallion can tell it's halfhearted.

"Don't look so glum" he tells Thorax.  "Even if the outcome isn't what we want, I doubt the princess will ignore the pleas of Brass, the princesses in Canterlot once they learn of this, and all the friends you made from Ponyville."

Thorax suddenly realized something.  "Don't the princesses know about this?"

"I'm sure they do," Plea responds, "but with the Crystal Empire having a sovereign ruler, they can't do anything to just overturn whatever decision the jury comes to.  It could be seen as an act of war, and creatures would take advantage of it."

Thorax nodded and hung his head.  He understood politics well enough to know that if you made any kind of faux pas, your enemies would take advantage and try to bury you so deep, it would take decades to dig out.

All of Thorax's thoughts were stopped as the judge cleared his throat and turned to the jury.

"Mares and stallions of the jury," he addresses them, "you have been presented two arguments in a case against a changeling named Thorax, who stands accused of attempted foalnapping and assault on three stallions, as well as assault of, and endangerment of a filly.  In these arguments, you have been presented testimony by witnesses for character of the defendant, experts witnesses in the field of forensic science, and direct eyewitnesses to the crime.  There is also evidence you've been shown that was collected from the scene of the crime, as well as results from forensic tests run on said evidence."

"With all of this provided to you, you will now enter into deliberation.  This deliberation will only conclude when one of three decisions has been reached: Guilty, Not Guilty, or Cannot Decide.  Once you have that decision, you will return and present it to this court."

"At no time during this deliberation can you be allowed to exit the jury chambers.  You may make requests for food and water, as well as clarifications on matters relating to this trial if you need them."

"You are also not allowed to discuss this trial with anypony besides your fellow jurors until a verdict has been given.  What you discuss in deliberation is between you and your fellow jurors."

"Those are your instructions.  Now, I dismiss you to enter into deliberation.  This court will reconvene when you have come to a decision."

The judge picked up his gavel and banged it on the plate loudly.  The jury rose to their hooves and filed out through a side door connected to the jury box.  The judge left through the door he had come in through.  All the other ponies left through the large doors in the back of the courtroom.

A guard motioned for Thorax to stand up.  As he did, he looked up in the direction of Princess Cadance.  When he saw her, his blood went cold.

The Princess of Love looked at him in the most contemptuous way possible.  It only lasted for a second, but it feel like ages to the changeling.  Very quickly, she rose to her hooves and exited the courtroom, not even waiting for her attendants to get the door for her.

A prodding got Thorax to return his focus on the guard, who led him back out of the courtroom and to a wagon that would take him to the prison again.
> Part III, Chapter 22 - The High Tide Case - Conclusion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a small cell in the Van Hoover Police Station, Scarlett Penn sat waiting.  The mare had been sitting there for several hours now.  Originally, she'd been brought in and taken to an interrogation room where two detectives, a mare and stallion, grilled her for information.  Wisely, she refused to answer any questions until she had a chance to speak with her attorney.

A few cells away from her own was Mercury Flyer, also picked up by the police when she was.  He was being held on possible charges for aiding and abetting.  He would get slapped with that if the detectives decided to charge Scarlett, which they most likely would.

That outcome wasn't something Scarlett wanted to see.  Aside from having a thing for the colt, she knew that all he really did was what he was told, and most of the time, that didn't involve anything criminal.  What happened today would count as his first strike, most likely.

As she sat, she thought on her situation at the moment.  As it stood, she could be charged with a multitude of things.  At the moment, she saw no way that this could end well for her....



...unless she cooperated.

"Yeah," Scarlett thought, "that's my best bet."

Mercury knew little to nothing of Sharpclaw's operations.  His job was to carry correspondence and nothing more.

Scarlett, on the other hoof, was a treasure trove of information.  She knew the names of marks and muscle, where information was kept, and exactly how far Sharpclaw would go to collect on a payment.  At the moment, she was her own most valuable bargaining chip.

At that moment, it hit her.  "I can cut a deal!" she thought to herself.  All she needed was to see her lawyer and hash it out with her.  With what she had to offer the detectives, getting what she wanted should be a cinch.

A knock on the door to the holding cells prompted a unicorn guard to stand up and answer.  After a brief exchange of words, he shut the door and walked over to Scartlett's cell.

"Your legal representation is here, ma'am" the guard said as he used a spell to release the lock.

Scarlett stood up and followed the guard out of the holding area.  They walked down a short hallway and into a private room.  Waiting inside was a mare with her auburn mane tied back into a bun.

The lawyer looked at Scarlett and smiled.  "Haven't seen you in a while" she said with a smirk.

Scarlett gave a small smile back.  "Thanks for coming on short notice, Sunny."

The lawyer, Sunny Disposition, smiled back.  "It's not a problem.  This is actually a nice break from the tax law cases I usually do.  Seriously, why do the nobles think they can get away with sticking their bits in griffish banks off Equestria's shores?  The princess made a decree that allowed Equestria's tax bureau to evaluate and tax those places for a reason."

"Those in power think they're above the law," Scarlett answered, "especially the ones that aren't afraid to get their hooves or claws dirty."

Sunny just gave a small nod at that last part.  "So," she says in a topic change, "what can I help you with?"

"As you might have guessed," Scarlett begins, "I'm in a bit of trouble."

Sunny chuckles a bit.  "I kinda figured that much out" she responds.  "How deep in it are you?"

Scarlett proceeded to inform Sunny about Sharpclaw and his scams, particularly his loan sharking operation that was the main point of interest for the detectives.  She left out only the very specific details, but painted enough of a picture for the mare to understand that, once the detectives figured out everything, Scarlett wouldn't see freedom again until she had more than a few gray hairs in her mane and wrinkles on her muzzle.

"That's... a lot" Sunny says once Scarlett finishes.

"I know," the mare admits, "and I'm not proud of it."

"I know for a fact that these detectives want to nail as many ponies to the wall as possible, and they especially want the griffin at the top of all this.  I don't want to go to prison, and I don't want to see Mercury get in a heap of trouble for this either."

Sunny nods in understanding.  "You want to make a bargain, I take it?"

Scarlett nods.  "I'll give them everything I know.  All I want is amnesty for myself and Mercury.  That's it."

The lawyer lets out a breath, but nods.  "I'll help put this thing together, but I hope you understand that they may not go along with it."

Scarlett looks deflated a bit, but is still smiling.

"If that is the hill I die on, then so be it." 





Old Bill and Peach Fuzz were sitting at their desks as they waited for Scarlett Penn, secretary to Sharpclaw the griffin crime boss, to finish speaking with her legal counsel.  The two hated this and for good reason; the lawyer was likely telling her not to say anything and to allow her to file injunctions to hold up the judicial process as much as possible.

"How bad do you think this is gonna be?" Peach asks Bill.

"No clue" Bill responds.  "Knowing lawyers like I do, they're probably gonna make it as difficult for us as possible."

Peach nodded.  "Yeah.  Depending on how good they are, we might as well be throwing spitballs at a non-stick pan."

Bill shook his head.  "I read up on this one.  Tax attorney.  She only takes legal defense cases on rare occasions.  In truth, she's actually the attorney that did Scarlett's juvenile case."

"That would explain how Scarlett knows her" Peach said with a nod.

Before their conversation goes any further, another detective walks up to them.  "Your POI is done with their attorney" the detective tells them.

Peach and Bill look at each other with a bit of surprise.  "That was fast" Peach says as she stands up and walks over to the interrogation room, Bill standing up and following behind her.





Scarlett and Sunny sat patiently as they waited for the two detectives to come in.  The lawyer looks over a written agreement she has composed on her client's behalf.

"I don't know if they'll go for this" Sunny says to Scarlett.  "Like you said, most of these detectives want to get every single suspect they can behind bars."

"They're not gonna waste their time with the little minnows if letting them go means they can catch bigger fish" Scarlett responds.  "With what I have to give them, there's no way they'll balk at this offer."

"I hope you're right" Sunny says as she returns to looking over the deal.

After another few minutes, the door to the interrogation room opens and in walk Peach and Bill.  The two detectives close and lock the door and then sit down across from the lawyer and suspect.  "So, are you ready to start talking?" Bill asks Scarlett.

Sunny steps in immediately.  "I have advised my client not to say anything at this time" she tells Bill.  The stallion stays stone faced, but he's cursing inside despite knowing this was coming.

"However," Sunny continues, "my client has decided that she wants to make an offer to you.  The way she is telling it to me, it will be too good for you to pass up."

This makes both Peach and Bill look at the mare in surprise.  Sunny clears her throat as she begins to read over the agreement.

"In exchange for all potential charges against my client and the pegasus stallion Mercury Flyer being dismissed, she will provide you with sufficient information to completely shut down the illegal private loan operations of a griffish criminal operating under the alias Mint Eagle."

Bill scoffs at the deal.  "Really?  You expect us to take that deal?"

Scarlett interjects before her lawyer can respond.  "I do, because I have pretty much everything you could want or need.  If you agree to my offer, I will give you enough information that that griffin will be in either police or guard custody by the end of the week."

Bill looks at her with suspicion.  "Really?"

Scarlett nods.  "Not just that," she continues, "but a whole organization of informants and enforcers that are responsible for so much crime that by the time you're done rounding them up, Equestria's whole crime rate will drop by full percentage points.  That'll look pretty good on your service records, won't it?"

Peach and Bill ignored the comment about their service records; they weren't glory seekers.  It was her comments about the whole network that interested them.

"If we accept this deal, you'll spill the whole can of beans?" Bill asked Scarlett.

"Honestly, it's more like a whole stew pot full to the top with beans," she says with a smirk, "but yes, I will squeal if you let me and that stallion walk."

"Why the stallion?" Peach asks out of honest curiosity.

"He's a courier that's just as much a victim of Mint as any pony," she answers, "and he hasn't committed any actual crimes, outside of what he attempted earlier today."

"He's a good pony that just got caught up in a bad situation.  You don't want to punish somepony like him just because he got mixed up in something he didn't know he was getting into?"

Peach and Bill looked at her for a moment before Bill let out a chuckle.  "You're sweet on him, aren't you?"

Scarlett turned a bit red.  "Well..."

"Can't say I blame you" Peach told her.  "If I had a thing for colts, I'd probably want him too."

Bill turned to look at Peach.  He'd been working with her for several years and never knew that about her.

"Then you can understand my desire to keep him and myself out of prison" Scarlett says in response.

"Could we have a copy of that offer?" Peach asks as she puts a hoof out to receive it.  Sunny produces a blank paper and places it face down on the agreement, using the duplication spell to make a quick copy and then passing it to the detective.

"We'll run this by our commissioner," Peach says, "but there's no guarantee he'll go for it."

The detective walks past Bill and exits the room.  Old Bill stands up and goes after her.  "What are you doing?" he asks.

"This really isn't a bad offer" Peach responds.  "If she really does have all that information, then it's really gonna help in nailing this griffin."

"And if she's bluffing?" Bill asks.

"I doubt that she's bluffing" Peach answers.  "I could see a small bit of fear in her eyes, but also a lot of resolve.  She's not doing this so much for herself as for that colt in the lock up."

"But why would she care about a colt that she's just a little sweet on?" Bill says with confusion.

Peach laughs a little.  "You don't know mares to well, huh?"

Bill just continues looking at her with confusion.

"She's more than just a little sweet on him" Peach tells Bill as she continues on to the commissioner's office with the offer in her hoof.

Bill blinked at her for a few seconds and then ran off after her.  "And how come you never told me you didn't like stallions?"

"I like stallions" she shouts back.  "I'm just not into them."





Scarlett and Sunny continued sitting in the interrogation room, waiting for the two detectives to return.  Scarlett was a stone solid face of determination, but behind that facade was a filly trembling in fear.

Would the police accept her offer?

She hoped.  All she wanted was to not be in prison, but if she had to, then she hoped that at least they would let Mercury walk free.  She had known him for a little bit, and she was rather fond of him, enough that she was thinking that she might take him for a dinner this evening, if things worked out.

Elsewhere, Mercury Flyer was sitting in an interrogation room.  He didn't have a lawyer, and he was waiting for a public defense attorney to come see him.  He was feeling very scared at the moment, the prospect of actually going to a real prison bringing him to tears at least once while he waited in the holding cell.

It was taking everything in him not to cry as he waited for the police to come in.  He would cooperate and tell them as much as he could, but he really didn't have anything.  All he did was deliver messages in exchange for his debt being marked down, though he doubted very much that the griffin was letting him pack back his debt.

The sound of the door opening broke him from his thoughts as he looked up at the door.  One of the two detectives that had spoken to him earlier was standing in the doorway.

"You're gonna owe a pretty mare one heck of a dinner" the detective said as he gestured for Mercury to follow him.





Old Bill and Peach Fuzz sat across from Scarlett Penn, her attorney Sunny, and the colt Mercury Flyer as Scarlett told them everything she knew about Sharpclaw's loan sharking operation.  She'd given them practically all of it.

Names of ponies, griffins, and even dragons in some cases that were either victims or paid muscle.

Addresses of safe houses and warehouses where paperwork was being stored.

Most important of all, however, was a list of addresses in Las Pegasus where the local guard detachment would most likely find Sharpclaw himself.

That last tidbit had been worth the plea agreement, though it had to be modified so that Scarlett and Mercury were watched.  If the information was false and there was no evidence whatsoever of Sharpclaw being in Las Pegasus, then the deal was null and void and every last page of the book was getting launched at them.

The detectives were finishing up a few of the last details when they mentioned the collateral in the Crystal Empire.

"That would be Peridot Gamble and his assigned associates Sledgehammer and Flog" Scarlett explains.  "They were told to foalnap a filly in order to strongarm the mother for more payment."

"You mean that 'Mint Eagle' ordered a foalnapping?" Peach said in disbelief.

"Normally he wouldn't," Scarlett conceded, "but he had a creature in mind to pin the blame to if things went south."

"And that would be what this remark is about?" Bill asked, showing her the note about "pinning it on the bug".

"Yeah" she confined.  "They were supposed to lure Thorax into that alleyway and jump him."

Bill jotted down the name when he looked at it again with some confusion.  "Could you repeat that last one, please?"

"Thorax" she responded.

"I can't say that I've ever heard of a pony with the name Thorax before" Peach says to Scarlett.

"Well, there's a reason for that" she responds.  "Thorax is a changeling."

Both Bill and Peach look at Scarlett with skepticism.

"A changeling" Bill finally says, clear disbelief written across his face.

Scarlett nods.  "Hard to believe, but it's true.  Princess Cadance introduced him a little while back.  Peridot wrote back to Mint Eagle about it and that's when the scheme to set the changeling up as a stooge was conceived."

"This is a bit rich" Peach says shaking her head.  "You're telling us that not only is there a changeling living in the Crystal Empire, but that he's being framed for a foalnapping?"

"You can ask the crystal guard if you want" Scarlett says in a matter of fact way.  "In fact, I know for certain that the changeling is on trial for it now.  I'd imagine a verdict will be coming soon if they haven't convicted him already."

Peach eyed the mare wearily as she mulled over the information.  Old Bill, however, stood up and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Peach asked him.

"I'm gonna head to the communications office" he told her.  "If she's telling the truth, then the crystal guard will corroborate her story.  If it isn't, then her cake is as good as baked."

Peach wanted to protest, but just shook her head.  "Fine" she relents.  "I'm staying here and continuing with collecting information from her."

Bill nods and then walks out the door.  Turning left, he goes down the hallway and up a set of stairs to a room near the roof, where a radio antenna was situated.

Inside the room were several machines which were processing bits and pieces of information being fed into them by ponies.  It was a database for police activity, with all of it being recorded onto papers and being placed into files for storage.  At the back of the room was a small telegraph and telephone station, being operated by a middle aged mare with an electrical schematic symbol on her flank; a power inverter, if Bill was remembering right.

"Wire Tap?" he says to the mare, who looks up at him.

"Old Bill" she says with a smirk.  "What brings you up here?"

"A really strange request" he tells her as he walks into the room and shuts the door behind him.  "Can you place a call or send a telegraph message to the Crystal Empire?"

"Well, sure, but what's the message?"

Bill takes a breath before answering.  "Ask the guard there if they have a changeling named Thorax on trial there for foalnapping."

Wire Tap looks at him for a moment.  "You're serious?"

Bill nods.  "We have a mare in custody that is telling us that a griffin she worked for was told a changeling is living there and that a group of ponies there was to set him up as a patsy."

Wire Tap looks at Old Bill before giving a shrug.  "No harm in making a phone call, I guess" she says as she reaches for a simple beige colored phone.  "I'll see if I can get somepony up there."

With skill that can only be attained through repetition, Wire Tap spins the rotary dial until she has connected with a phone line in the Crystal Empire.

"Hello, is this the guard station for the Crystal Empire?" she asks, getting a response that Old Bill can't decipher.

"This is Wire Tap from the communications division of the police force here in Van Hoover.  I have a detective named Old Bill here that wants to know if you have a changeling there on trial for foalnapping.  Can you check that please?"

Old Bill watches Wire Tap for a few moments, expecting this to take a fair amount of time.  After a few seconds, however, the mare turns and looks at him with a surprised expression.

"They do," she tells him, "and the jury is in deliberation now to decide his guilt."

Old Bill couldn't believe it what Wire Tap had just told him.  Scarlett wasn't lying.  There was in fact a changeling on trial in the Crystal Empire.

"They said the jury was deliberating?" he asked her.

"According to the Crystal Guard" Wire responds.  "In truth, they could deliver a verdict any moment now."

Old Bill has a bit of an inner conflict upon this sudden revelation.  On one hoof, one of the monsters from the royal wedding would be behind bars.  On the other hoof, despite the reputation of changelings in general, he knew now that in this specific instance, an innocent was being punished.

Ultimately, his good conscience won out. 

"Keep them on the line" he tells Wire Tap.  "I'll be right back."

"Okay" she responds as she turns back to the receiver to keep the guard station on the line.





Peach took the time that Old Bill was away to get some more info from Scarlett, who gave them some more bombshell evidence in the form of a safe house address where a few single mares with severe debts were "working it off".  As she finished jotting down info and prepared to ask another question, Old Bill came in quickly.

"Grab all the notes and follow me" he told her, then turned to Scarlett and Mercury.  "You two are free to go, but don't leave Van Hoover for now.  We're going to have ponies keeping tabs on you until we can verify all the information you've given us."

He turns and rushes out, Peach following behind as quickly as she can while organizing their notes.

"Bill, what is it?" she asks him with concern in her voice.

"The story checks out" he tells her.  "They have a changeling on trial and the jury went into deliberation.  They could have a verdict anytime now."

"...What?"

"Scarlett was telling the truth" Bill repeats.  "There is a changeling on trial in the Crystal Empire for attempting a foalnapping.  The jury is in deliberation and they could return a verdict any time now."

The stallion turns and heads back to the radio office.

"Hey!" Peach calls out while chasing after him.  "Why are you in such a hurry?"

Bill stops and turns to her.  "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm about to exonerate a changeling."





Thorax was sitting in his cell awaiting news of the jury's decision.  As of right now, his life was on the line, quite literally.  If they decided he was guilty, then the rest of his soon to be short life would be spent in a dungeon slowly starving to death, with no way to do anything to stop it.  Faced with an all too real prospect of his own mortality, the changeling quietly wept.

A bang against the cell doors snapped him from his thoughts.  He looked up to see a guard standing at the door with a cold expression on his muzzle.

"It's time" he said.  "The jury has reached a decision."
> Part III, Chapter 23 - Verdict
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A/N - For the beginning portion of this chapter, it'll be jumping back and forth between italicized text and plain text.  This is to reflect two different viewpoints that will merge into one.






Quick as a flash, a pegasus in crystal guard armor flew out of the main headquarters of the crystal guard and made a straight shot for the courthouse.  In his possession was a very important piece of information relevant to the court case that has been the talk of the Crystal Empire for the past two weeks.

Thorax was led into the courtroom and shackled to the defendant's chair.  Sitting beside him was his attorney, Plea Bargain.  The stallion had several papers sitting on his desk beside him that the changeling had never seen before.

"What are those?" he asked his lawyer.

"Motions for appeal," Plea responds, "but I doubt they'll do much good.  If the verdict comes back guilty, you lose your probationary citizenship and any legal protections that go along with it."

"And I get sent to the dungeons" Thorax finishes.

"Not necessarily" Plea tells him.  "There is the possibility of a permanent banishment from the Crystal Empire.  If that happens, then you could make a plea to the princesses in Equestria for asylum.  The Crystal Empire has a responsibility to protect any and all asylum seekers, including ones that they would either refuse asylum or revoke it for one reason or another.  It wouldn't look good if they allowed something bad to happen to another creature looking for sanctuary."

Thorax nodded his head.  He understood politics a little bit.  Having a bad public image usually made the pony affected want to perform "damage control" and made them a little less rigid when it came to agreements they would have previously found to be rather objectionable.

The courthouse was coming into view.  The pegasus guard doubled his efforts and flew faster than he could ever recall doing before.  He blew past another pegasus, who shouted rather unpleasant things at him for cutting off his flight path.  After another minute, he was landing on the courthouse steps and rushing inside.

"Ma'am," the guard says to the clerk as he recovers his breath, "where is the changeling trial being held?"

"Courtroom five" she tells him.  "You might still have time to see whether or not the jury will convict him."

The guard looks at the mare with shock and prepares to take off for the courtroom, but her commanding voice stops him.

"No flying in the courthouse!" she scolds, which causes the guard to drop down to the ground and rush off in the direction of the courtroom.  The mare watches him with an annoyed expression.

"No running either!"

State Evidence and another set of lackeys come into the courtroom and take their seats.  The audience chamber is packed to the gills with ponies that are all eager to see what the outcome of this trial will be.  As Thorax looks around at them, he's surprised to see a familiar young filly sitting directly behind him.

"Raspberry?" he says in confusion.

The filly gives him a smile and leans in closer.  "I might not get the chance to say it again, so I came to say thank you.  You kept those stallions from taking me and doing who knows what with me.  I'm safe now because of you.  So, thank you."

Thorax can't help but smile.  Even if things turned out for the worst, he could still feel good about the fact that he did the right thing, even if was going to get punished for it.

"All rise as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza enters the courtroom!"

The command from the bailiff causes all ponies to stand up at once.  A door to the elevated audience area opens and Princess Cadance steps through.  She walks calmly to the seat designated for her and sits down.  As she scans the audience, she takes in sight of Thorax and adopts a small scowl, but then looks a bit surprised as she sees Raspberry Mint sitting behind him.

"Remain standing for the honorable Judge Iron Gavel!" the bailiff calls out, and the ponies turn to see the judge leaving his chambers and ascending the pulpit.  Once he is in place, he directs his attention to the audience.

"Please be seated" the judge tells them all.

Everypony sits down and waits for the jury to exit their chambers.  A few minutes later, and the twelve ponies come through a door and into the jury box, taking their seats and facing towards the judge.

Thorax looks at all of them and sees a great deal of uncertainty on their faces.  Every now and then, a few of them look at each other, but then face away almost as quickly.  A few look away immediately if they realize they've made eye contact.

The judge clears his throat and addresses the jury.

The guard has passed the first two courtrooms and can see the doors to courtroom five.  He turns on the speed as he launches himself into the air and glides as fast as his wings will allow him.

"Foremare of the jury," the judge addresses a mare that stands up to face him, "you have been tasked with returning verdicts for the crimes the defendant has been accused of.  Have you reached those verdicts?"

The mare gives a solemn nod.  "Yes, your honor" she tells him.  "We have reached unanimous verdict on all counts."

Before anypony can say anything else, the doors at the rear of the courtroom burst open.  A crystal pony guard steps through and is panting in an effort to catch his breath.

The sudden interruption causes everypony in the courtroom to wonder what is going on, and the audience chamber is filled with a low roar.  Judge Gavel loudly bangs his namesake as he orders the court to calm down.

"Guard," he addresses the new pony in the room, "you are interrupting a court in the process of delivering a verdict in a criminal trial."

"My apologies, your honor," he says to the judge, "but I have information that is pertinent to the trial.  If I might be allowed to approach the bench, sir?"

The judge sits for a moment and considers the request.  "This is rather unusual," he admits, "but if this information is as significant as you say, then I will need to hear it.  Please approach the bench."

The guard gives a nod and calmly walks up to the pulpit.  Once there, he reaches into his armor and gives the judge a scroll.  As he does this, ponies in the courtroom begin to have quiet discussions.

With nopony paying attention to them, Peridot, Sledge and Flog all make a quick yet quiet exit from the courtroom, the last having a nervous look on his face as he does so.

Thorax, at first startled by the sudden interruption, now looks on in confusion.  "What's going on?" he asks Plea.

"Don't know," the pony admits, "but you can be sure I'm going to find out."

Thorax accepts the pony's answer and returns his attention to the judge.  After reading the paperwork, he then looks out into the audience chamber.  "If I could have the ponies Heavy Hitter, Leather Whip and Velvet Dice please stand."

After a few seconds, nopony stands up.  He calls out for them again, but receives no response.  The judge then adopts a rather stern scowl.  "I am halting these proceedings until further notice" he announces to the audience, then looks at the bailiff.  "Bailiff, I want those three ponies found immediately."

The bailiff, who looks rather surprised, gives a nod and passes on instructions to some other ponies in the room, who quickly exit the courtroom.

"Your honor, I must demand an explanation as to why you are halting these proceedings."

The voice causes all the ponies in the courtroom to look up.  Princess Cadance,  whom had been content to watch the proceedings of the trial up to this point, directly addresses the judge as to the reasoning for his most recent actions.

"A matter regarding the proceedings has been brought to my attention" he tells her.  "If you would like to know more, I will be more than happy to explain in my private chambers."

"Very well" she responds.  "I shall meet you there."

The princess rises from her seat and exits the courtroom.  The bailiff makes an attempt to call for ponies to rise as she leaves, but he can barely utter a syllable before she is gone.

"Bailiff, I shall be in my chambers" the judge tells the bailiff.  "Please notify me immediately as soon as you find the three stallions."

The bailiff gives a nod in reply.  "All rise as the honorable Judge Iron Gavel leaves the courtroom" he calls out as the judge steps down and leaves.

Ponies begin filing out and a pair of guards unshackle Thorax from his seat.

"I'm gonna get answers for you Thorax" Plea calls out to him.  "Just sit tight and be patient."





"Peridot, what exactly is happening?"

Flog's question is ignored as the stallion fiddles with a magically locked window.  They had managed to get into a small office, where they locked and barricaded the door.  Soon enough, ponies would be looking for them, so any head start they could get would be beneficial.

Flog again prods the crystal pony for questions, but receives a stern glare from him as he continues working on the window.

"Something must've happened in Van Hoover" he finally answers.  "Whatever it was, it's not good for us.  Now, help me get this damn enchantment undone so we can get out of here!"

Suddenly, they hear the handle of the door being tried, and then a knocking against the door.

"Hello?" a female voice calls out.

All three stallions go quiet, Peridot dropping his magic on the window to avoid being detected.  After a few seconds, they hear the door lock being undone and the door push into the barricade.

"What the?" the female voice calls out again, and then some straining is heard as the mare attempts to push into the room.

Peridot, losing patience, looks at the window and casts a very powerful spell.  Instantly, the glass and frame explode, and a pony-sized hole exists where the window once was.

"What the hay is going on in there?!" the mare calls out again as she begins more frantically pushing against the door.

Peridot looks at Sledge and Flog.  "Get out of here and go someplace.  Make sure it's out of Equestria.  Someplace like Griffinstone or Zebrica, just not Equestria and definitely not Van Hoover."

Sledge nods and jumps through the window.  Flog is hesitant but follows after the earth pony.

As this happens, the bailiffs have caught up and are now forcing their way into the office.

"Whoever is in there, please tell us you're okay" one of them calls, not knowing who is in there.

Peridot looks at the window and then back to the door.  The barricade has almost been pushed out of the way and a pony muzzle can be seen trying to look into the room.  Making a quick decision, Peridot jumps through the window.

Once he's outside, he sees he has no chance.

Surrounding Peridot and his cohorts are members of both the Crystal Guard and the courthouse bailiffs.  They're all a mix of unicorn and pegasi.

"Surrender yourselves now!" one of the guards calls.  "Drop to your bellies and spread out your legs!  Don't ignite your horns!"

Peridot looks at the guards and bailiffs around him.  He looks at Sledge and Flog and gives a nod.  Sledge returns it, but Flog does not.  The crystal pony is too distracted to notice though.

Before anypony can react, Peridot conjures a nova spell and casts it, getting several guards and bailiffs with it and making them cry out in pain from the burns it gives them.  Sledge quickly turns to the closest guard and bucks him hard in the muzzle, with a loud crunching sound cutting through the air, followed by the pony crying out in pain and holding their now bloody muzzle.

Sledge's attack is the only one he gets in before a stun spell strikes him in the chest and puts him down for the count.

A second spell is sent Peridot's way as he raises a shield to block it.  However, the shield proves useless as several guards all fire stun spells simultaneously, overwhelming the unicorn and knocking him unconscious as well.

With his two cohorts knocked out, Flog does the only thing he can, and drops to the ground with his hooves spread.




"I would very much like an explanation as to why you have delayed the delivery of this verdict!" State Evidence says to Judge Gavel, clearly annoyed that the stallion has interrupted the proceedings of this court.

"Miss Evidence, I would much appreciate you not taking that tone of voice with me" he replies with a stern glare, causing the mare to back off, albeit only slightly.  "As for why I have halted the proceedings, I have been given information from the police force in Van Hoover that relates to the trial, and I mean specifically relates to this trial."

State looks at him with an incredulous look.  "What information?"

Before the judge can answer, a crystal guard immediately steps into the office and moves out of the way.  Following immediately behind him is Princess Cadance, an annoyed expression on her face as she looks the judge square in the eyes.

The judge gives a bowing gesture, as does State Evidence, but the mare is completely ignored by the princess.

"I want to know why you have halted these proceedings!" Cadance demanded as she looked at the judge sitting in his chair.

"I'll explain," he tells her, "but if you would please have a seat, your highness?"

Cadance doesn't say anything, but takes a spot in the unoccupied chair across from the stallion.  Said stallion then produces a bottle of dark amber liquid and two old fashioned glasses, pouring a measure of liquid into both of them and offering it to the mare.

"No thank you" she says as he places the drink in front of her.

"My apologies," he says to her, "but I think you may want that in the near future."

Cadance raises an eyebrow.  "And exactly why is that?"

Judge Gavel then produces the paper that had been handed to him by the pegasus guard and gives it to the princess.  The mare takes the paper in her magic and proceeds to read it:

To: Hon. Judge Iron Gavel, Crystal Empire
From: Detective Old Bill, Van Hoover Police Force
Re: Changeling trial

Judge Gavel,

I have recently received information that you have a changeling in your custody that answers to the name Thorax.  I've also learned he's on trial currently for an attempt to abduct a filly.  I must ask you to either postpone the trial or dismiss the charges against him.  If you are confused by this request, then I shall give you an explanation.

The Van Hoover Police Force has recently received a tip from one of our informants about unusual telegraph messages that might be some form of code.  Investigation into these has revealed a loan sharking operation which spans the entirety of Equestria and even stretches into the Crystal Empire itself.  This operation is being led by a griffin criminal named Sharpclaw, but operating under the alias Mint Eagle.

During the investigation, we detained Sharpclaw's secretary, and after making a bargain with her, she informed us of many details, including a plot to abduct a filly from a pony borrowing money from Sharpclaw and hold them to force a greater sum of payment from this unfortunate mare.

This abduction would then have the blame placed upon the changeling, who to my understanding, had recently been permitted to stay in your empire on peaceful terms, which I must admit is rather shocking to hear.

In regards to the abduction, the ponies carrying it out were two unicorns and an earth pony.  Their names are Peridot Gamble, Sledgehammer, and Flog.  Peridot is a crystal unicorn, whose coat is similar to his namesake, and has a pair of dice for his cutie mark.  Sledgehammer is a red earth pony with his namesake for a cutie mark.  Flog is white with a cat of nine tails whip for a cutie mark.  These stallions are known to operate under aliases.  Peridot has went by the name Velvet Dice in the past, with Sledge known as Heavy Hitter and Flog as Leather Whip.

To summarize, I am asking you to postpone the trial or outright dismiss the charges against the changeling named Thorax due to the evidence that we have collected here in Van Hoover that exonerates him of wrongdoing.

-Detective Old Bill, VHPF

Cadance reads over the document again, not believing the words before her.  "You halted these proceedings for this?!" she says in disbelief.

"I have" Gavel responds.  "It is in due diligence of the law that, if new evidence comes to light in a trial, that it be reviewed by all parties and any relevant actions that need to be carried out be done before a verdict can be delivered, and going by the message before me, I would say that there is a fairly significant new piece of evidence for us to consider."

State looks at him now with confusion.  "What new evidence?"

Before Cadance or the judge can respond, a knock sounds on the door to the judge's chambers.

"Come in" the judge calls out.

A bailiff pokes her head in through the door.  "The three stallions have been located and brought into custody" she tells the judge.

"Good" he says to her.  "I want them brought into my courtroom as soon as possible."

The mare looks at him with unease.  "That's going to be a problem, sir."

Gavel raises a brow.  "And why is that?"

The bailiff takes a breath.  "The stallions have been taken to the booking office to be charged with assault against crystal guards and bailiffs here in the courthouse."

Cadance looks at the bailiff in shock.  "They were resisting?"

State looks on in disbelief.  Her witnesses were arrested for not only being uncooperative, but also for attacking guards?

The mare turns to see the princess and goes wide eyed.  Immediately she steps fully into the office and bows.  "My apologies, your highness!  I didn't see you past the door."

"That's alright" Cadance replies dismissively.  "You said they assaulted guards?"

"Y-Yes ma'am" the bailiff responds nervously.  "According to reports, the trio attempted to make an escape out of an empty office window and were found by a guard patrolling outside.  He raised an alarm and several guards and bailiffs rushed in to stop them."

"All told, four guards and one bailiff were injured.  The guards received spell burns to their faces and hooves that were the result of a medium power nova spell, and the bailiff received a broken muzzle from a kick by the earth pony stallion."

Cadance now looked like she had seen a ghost, going as stark white as her pink coat would allow.  Wordlessly, she stood up and walked outside.  Her guard detachment was waiting patiently for her.

"I demand to be taken to the central processing office for the local prison" she told her guards, who looked at her with confusion.  She turned to the squad commander.  "Do you know the way?" she asks him.

The stallion blinks before regaining his composure.  "Y-Yes, your highness" he stutters out.  "P-Please follow us."

The princess leaves.  State picks up the discarded paper left by Cadance.  After reading it over, she looks at the judge with a pale expression.

"Guess you won't be getting a knife set after this, huh?" the judge says to her with a smirk.





Flog sat in his cell with a magic nullifying collar around his neck.  Across from him sat Peridot and Sledge, both worse for wear.  In truth, he was even sporting some scorch marks on his coat like the other two, but Sledge had received a very strong kick to one of his legs, making it difficult for him to walk.

Of course, that didn't impede his trip to the pokey in the slightest; the guards had dragged all three of them there rather harshly.

"Hey!  White Unicorn!"

Flog looked up to see a guard looking straight at him.

"The princess would like to speak with you."

Flog looks at the guard with shock for a moment before he nodded and stood up.  Before he could move, Peridot was on him, stumbling a little from the fatigue his spell had caused him.

"Not one word" the crystal pony said rather threateningly.

Flog only nodded as he was led out of the cell and towards the visitor's room.  Who was waiting for him inside took him by total surprise.

Sitting at a table and surrounded by guards was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.  She was wearing her regalia, but her mane looked a bit disheveled.  "Sit down" she ordered him, to which he offered no resistance and sat down in the seat opposite her.

There was silence between the two for a few seconds before the princess spoke up.

"You gave your name as Leather Whip, but I know your true identity is a unicorn named Flog"

Her voice is cold and unfeeling.  Flog tried not to react in fear, but her body language told him he had failed in that regard.

"According to information we received not long ago, you work for a griffin crime boss named Sharpclaw, who has been operating under an alias as Mint Eagle.  You are an enforcer whose duty is to collect on debts owed to him, no matter what that entails."

Flog didn't like where this was going.  The message the judge got earlier definitely told him that things went very badly in Van Hoover.

"I have it on good authority that you did not cause any harm to the guards or the bailiffs that apprehended you earlier," Cadance tells him, "and it is for that reason that I am speaking to you and you alone."

"I want the truth.  No cover story, no refusing to speak to me.  The absolute truth.  If you do that, then I will pardon your crimes here in the Crystal Empire.  If you don't, then I will have you charged with everything that I can legally have you charged with.  You are part of a group of stallions who have caused harm to my subjects, and I do not take kindly to those sorts of actions.  The only thing that will help you even the smallest bit is cooperating with the guards and myself."

"So, what I want to know is this: Did you plan with that green pony to frame that changeling for a foalnapping?"

Flog could only look into the princess's eyes with thinly veiled fear.  He was certain she would find out everything sooner or later, but began to suspect that she knew already and just wanted to hear him say it.  With a sigh, he comes clean.

"Peridot planned it with Sharpclaw" he finally says.  "Sharp told us which filly to grab and said he had some contacts here to get the changeling to come to that alley.  Peridot got a stun spell from an ex guards and hit the changeling with it, and then after Sledge knocked him out, he put some hairs from the filly's tail in his mouth to make it looked like he grabbed her."

Flog hadn't looked at the princess as he gave the confession, but dared a glance up after a few moments.  To his surprise, he could see some tears forming in the corners of her eyes, and a look he was almost sure looked like remorse.

"The charges against you will be dismissed," she says in a strained voice, "but you will still be held here.  Van Hoover wants you on several serious charges."

She then stands up and turns to leave.  Before she does, she turns and looks at the guard.

"Inform Judge Iron Gavel of this confession" she tells the guard.  "He has a trial to conclude."





Thorax once again found himself in the courtroom he had been in a few hours ago.  Many questions were racing through his mind as he was led back and shackled to the defendant's table.  Plea hadn't returned yet from wherever he had went, but State Evidence and her lackeys had returned and resumed their seats.

A bailiff stepped out and called for the audience's attention.  "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza will be unable to attend the rest of this trial.  All rise for the honorable Judge Iron Gavel."

Everypony stood as the judge entered the courtroom and took his seat.  After shuffling some papers, he looks up to see only Thorax sitting at the defense table.

"Where is your attorney?" he asks Thorax.

"I'm not sure, your honor" he tells the judge.  "He said he was going to find out about the guard from earlier."

The doors at the rear of the courtroom open as Plea comes rushing in.

"I apologize for my lateness, your honor" he says to the judge.

The judge says as he waves a hoof and dismisses Plea to sit in his chair.

"Would the prosecution and defense please rise."

Both parties rise to their hooves.  Thorax looks on nervously.

"The earlier disruption of this court was due to a message delivered to me by a member of the crystal guard.  In this message, I was informed that the witnesses for the prosecution were wanted criminals in the city of Van Hoover for various crimes committed as enforcers for a griffin criminal named Sharpclaw, who was operating under the alias Mint Eagle."

"A part of their crimes was a conspiracy with Sharpclaw to carry out a foalnapping here in the Crystal Empire, with a changeling being designated as the party to receive blame for the crime."

Loud murmurs begin to sound in the audience as the judge delivers the last few sentences.

"Due to the evidence presented by members of the Van Hoover Police Force, and a confession made by one of the witnesses while in custody, I can say with confidence that the defense is a victim of incrimination by false testimony, and the charges against him are to be dropped immediately.  He is free to go."

The courtroom explodes into a cacophony of various sounds in response to the decision.  Plea turns to Thorax and wraps him into a tight hug.  The changeling simply stands there in disbelief.  "What just happened?" he asks Plea.

"You've been exonerated!" he tells the changeling with glee.  "That means that you've been proven innocent!  Irrefutably innocent!"

Thorax continues looking for a few moments before a wide grin slowly creeps across his face.  A bailiff unshackles his hooves and he returns the hug to Plea.  The two stallions hug tightly before a tapping on Thorax's shoulder gets his attention.  As he turns, he smiles wider.

"Brass!"

The mare wraps her fore-hooves around the changeling and embraces him in a tight hug, with the changeling doing the same.  They stay like this for a few moments before they separate.

"Come on" she says.  "There's some ponies that would like to talk to you."

Thorax looks confused.  "Really?  Who?"

"Just follow me and I'll show you."

Thorax just gives a nod as he follows Brass and Plea outside.

As soon as he clears the doors, Thorax is bombarded with camera flashes and ponies shouting various questions at him.  Before he can even try to respond, Plea steps forward and raises a hoof.

"Mares and stallions, please!" he calls out to the ponies surround the changeling.  "My client has had one heck of a day and I think he would like to go home and process everything that has happened to him."

The ponies ignore Plea and continue to bombard Thorax with question after question.  However, they do separate as the trio move forward.

Then, unexpectedly, Thorax feels something grab one of his legs.  He looks down to see Raspberry looking up at him with a smile.

"I'm glad you won your case, Mister Thorax" she says to him.

He looks at her for a moment before he smiles back at her.  "Me too."

Raspberry puts her head against his leg and proceeds to rub it back and forth.  The gesture confuses the changeling.  "What are you doing?" he asks her.

She looks up at him and replies, "I'm giving you love so you're not hungry."

The response earns several different responses from the crowd, and a mare that Thorax had never seen before steps forward.

"Raspberry, don't-"

The mare stops as Raspberry looks at her with a scowl before turning back to Thorax's leg.  The mare looks at her in shock before looking at Thorax.  The changeling just smiles and shakes his head, his free hoof gesturing towards the collar around his neck.  The mare, who had looked at him with worry, seems to relax somewhat as she appears to get the message.

Thorax was against lying, but he understood enough about life to know that there was sometimes a time and a place for it.  In this instance, letting Raspberry think she was feeding him was something he could live with.  Why should he discourage her from wanting to help when it was something she was able to do?

"Oh, darn!" Plea says while smack a hoof to his face.  "We forgot to let the guard undo your collar!"

Brass realizes the mistake as well.  "Don't worry, Thorax" she tells him.  "We'll get a bailiff to take that off of you right now."

"Hold it!"

The ponies surrounding Thorax quiet down immediately as two crystal guards approach him.  Plea steps in front of Thorax in a defensive posture, as does Brass.

"What has my client been accused of now?!" Pleas asks the duo.

"There are no charges being brought against your client" the guard replies.  "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza has asked to see the changeling immediately."
> Part III, Chapter 24 - Changing Minds, Changing Hearts (PART III FINALE)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a private study of the Crystal Palace, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza sat alone, a bottle of brandy and a glass sitting in front of her.  Beside the bottle of brandy was a second, identical yet empty bottle of brandy, the kind she preferred more than others.

Princess Cadenza, or Cadance, was sitting in the dark as she occasionally poured a measure of the drink and knocked it back.  The taste wasn't as harsh as other liquors, but the burn of alcohol was still there.  After her most recent consumption of the liquid, she had thought back to several months ago when her world was effectively turned on its head.

A changeling, identifying himself as Thorax, saved the life of Spike, the hero of the Crystal Empire, and made a plea to make peaceful relations with the crystal ponies.  She had reluctantly agreed, drafting a "probationary asylum" that was halfway between indentured servitude and being a prisoner.

After three months, two ponies on the cleaning staff he worked on attacked him and left him for dead.  Cadance thought back on seeing him in that hospital bed, and how she had told her husband, the most vocal opponent to Thorax being allowed to stay in the empire, that his guards had failed their duty.

That debacle ended with the changeling having recovered, the two responsible receiving punishment, and the guards that failed their duty being dismissed.

And just this past month, three stallions had accused the changeling of attempting to foalnap a filly.  Most believed that Thorax was responsible, and that the trial was nothing more than a formality.  Now, the three stallions who had accused Thorax were now in custody and in the process of being charged themselves.

As these thoughts passed through her mind, Cadance reflected on her attitude towards Thorax in that time.

At first, she was fearful, thinking Thorax's appearance was as a herald for another invasion.  Then, when he agreed to the asylum, she had felt something between fear and paranoia, but the attack made her feel a bit sympathetic.  After she announced his being permitted to stay, she again became fearful because of what reactions could be.

When the accusation against Thorax came out, the fear she had gave way to anger.  She felt as though her efforts to protect her people had failed, and her decision to allow him to stay was to invite a wolf into a flock of sheep.  As each day of the trial passed, her anger grew, and she became more and more disappointed in herself for believing the lies of a creature that used them as a way to obtain sustenance.  Towards the end of the trial, her hate had began to form the sentence that she would issue.

Imprisonment.

Worse than the fact that she was going to hold Thorax for as long as she was able to by law, which was an awfully long time, she also knew that her actions would likely bring about his demise.  She would doom him to death, and the cherry on top of all of it was she wouldn't have lost any sleep over it.

Now...

Cadance examined the waste bin beside her, and the mess she had made a little bit ago.  The violent surge of vomiting came quickly as she processed the facts as they stood before her.

The three stallions who accused Thorax of foalnapping were themselves the true culprits.  Their boss and their group's leader conspired to abduct the young filly from an alleyway not very far from her palace, and then pin their efforts on a pony meant to take the fall.

Or in this instance, a changeling.

It made sense in hindsight, and if that message hadn't been delivered to the court in time, it would've worked until the actual truth came out.

Everypony in the empire believed the stallion's story, including her, and her bias against changeling's blinded her to the truth about the one she had reluctantly allowed to live in her empire.

Thorax was innocent, and didn't deserve any of what happened to him.  Not once did he try to deceive, trick or act violently towards any pony he had met.  In fact, were it not for his appearance, none would have ever known he wasn't a pony.

He got along well with every pony who met him, save for Feather and Elbow.  The tasks he was assigned were completed with no complaints.  Even Ammonia had said that he would be worthy of a raise, and possibly a promotion if he were ever given the chance.  In total, he was a fine and model creature...

...and Cadance would've sent him to his death without batting an eyelash.

Almost instantly, she could feel the bile begin to build in her stomach, and she did her best to keep it down.  It wouldn't stay long, she was almost sure, but in a way, it was deserved.

Thorax came to the Crystal Empire seeking friendship and acceptance, hoping the princess could provide those things and protect him as her subject, and she couldn't be bothered to step up to the proverbial plate.

Another glass of brandy was poured and downed just as quickly.

Princess Cadance had instructed her guard to collect Thorax and bring him before her.  She had chosen to wait in this study until he arrived, and she had chosen to calm her nerves by consuming a rather unhealthy amount of brandy; alicorn constitution would allow the drinker to withstand the effects of alcohol much better than a normal pony, which is why she could withstand an amount that would've sent a normal pony to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.  The only thing it didn't do was prevent hangovers, which the princess was sure to have the following morning.

The doors to the study opened and a guard stepped inside.

"The changeling is here, your highness" the guard told her.

"Send him in," she responded, "and wait outside."

The guard looked confused and very concerned.  "Y-Your highness, I-"

"I said to wait outside."

The guard gulped and nodded, opening the door to allow Thorax to come through.  She turned to see the changeling.  He was as she remembered from seeing him in court, still wearing the magic nullifying collar around his neck.

"As I said before, guards, leave us."

"O-Of course, your highness" the guard leaves, followed by the second one who looks at the first with confusion, but still complies with the command.  As the two leave, they shut the door behind them, and the princess and changeling are left alone inside the darkened room.

Thorax stands by the door, fidgeting uncomfortably.  With his senses disabled by the collar, he can't tell what the princess may be feeling.  For all he knows, she could have such a strong amount of hate inside her that she plans on killing him here and now.

However, some quiet sobbing convinces him that his death is probably not imminent.

"Y-Your highness" he calls out to her.

The sobbing quiets down until it's gone.

"There are no words that can express how sorry I am for allowing what has happened to you to happen."

Her voice is strained, as though it takes a great amount of effort to say anything at the moment.

"Princess, you don't have to-"

"NO THORAX!"

The sudden shout causes the changeling to stop speaking and immediately take a cautious step back.  Her volume was almost that of the famous Royal Canterlot Voice.  The outburst was not something Thorax was expecting.

A sudden gulping sound can be heard, and a breaking of glass causes Thorax to flinch.  The princesses sobbing starts up again, and the glow of light blue magic envelops the princesses horn, followed shortly by another two blue auras on the other side of the room pulling open as set of curtains, allowing outside light to flow in.

The private study was nearly as tall as the library where Sunburst had given Thorax his lessons.  In fact, it had been set up in almost the exact same way, with the only real differences being the lack of a librarian's desk and the addition of a fireplace with a few comfortable looking couches set around it at a safe distance.

A scan of the floor revealed a broken drinking glass resting against the side of one of the bookcases in the room.

After taking a brief scan of the room, Thorax's attention turned to Princess Cadance.  Her normally well-kept mane was a mess, with stray hairs poking out in every direction.  Her face was equally as messy; her recent tears had caused her eye shadow to run down her cheeks.  With the shadow gone, the changeling could clearly see the puffiness surrounding them.

Cadance raised her head and looked over at him, remorse clearly written across her face.

"I have wronged you in so many ways" she continues.  "When you were first revealed, I treated you like an enemy.  Then you showed that you weren't, and I chose to treat you as a prisoner, confining you to this castle and making you wear those restraints.  After the attack from Feather and Elbow, I began treating you more like an indentured servant.  Now, after this recent accusation against you, I was ready to get rid of you, and I had even considered doing so in a way your former queen would approve of."

Thorax had to flinch slightly at the last part; it had to be bad if the princess was sure Queen Chrysalis would like it.

"I was convinced that you had done what you were accused of, and when I went to see you after your arrest, I believed what you were telling me was nothing more than lies."

"All through this trial, I listened to the things that your attorney put forth, heard the testimony of the witnesses, many of whom I interviewed not so long ago asking what they thought of you.  He presented sound evidence, and even got the filly at the center of all of this to tell her story."

"The one thing I believed during this whole time was that all of it was a lie.  The things being said were nothing but a farce meant to get you off the hook for a heinous act.  A gambit to get you free so you could try it again."

Rather than find a glass, Cadance takes a long swig directly from the brandy bottle and sets it back down.

"The VHPF called and asked about a trial to do with a changeling.  When they were told one was going on, the sent a message saying to halt the trial and detain the three stallions accusing you.  When they ran and were later captured, I questioned the white unicorn, and he told me what I didn't want to hear.  He said you were innocent."

"I didn't want to believe it.  I so desperately wanted to dismiss it as some kind of mind manipulation.  The VHPF then sent information on all three stallions, and when the guard checked their records here, all the information came back supporting the evidence I didn't want to believe: You really were innocent."

"I let the horrible memories from my wedding bind me to the truth about you.  I wanted you in the dungeons.  I wanted you to starve and rot.  I wanted you to suffer til your last breath."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW STUPID I'VE BEEN!"

With the last sentence, Princess Cadance steps out and runs over to Thorax, capturing the changeling in a hug as she sobs into him.

Thorax stands perfectly still, unsure of what he should do.  A soft glow of blue and a sudden click catch his attention, and then he's suddenly bombarded with the strong sensation of guilt.  "The princess took my collar off" he realizes.

"Go on" she says suddenly.  "Do it."

Thorax is puzzled by the remark.  "Princess?"

"Go ahead and do it" she says again.  "I deserve it."

"Princess, I'm not sure-"

Thorax is interrupted as Cadance looks up at him in frustration.

"Drain me!" she says tearfully.  "Take away my love!  I don't deserve to have it!"

She falls into sobs and leans against Thorax again.  The changeling is taken aback by her sudden outburst.  She actually wanted him to drain her?

"Get on with it!" she says again.  "Turn me into a husk!"

Thorax does no such thing.  Instead, he returns the princess's hug.

"No."

Cadance looks up at him in disbelief.  "W-What?!"

"I'm not going to do that" Thorax clarifies.

"But you should!" Cadance protests.  "You've every right to!  After all I've done and allowed to be done to you-"

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" Thorax interrupts.  "It means that when ponies start looking for revenge, everybody ends up hurt."

Cadance looks at Thorax in disbelief.  After all she's done and allowed to happen to this changeling, he has no desire to get even.

"Y-You're really not?" she says, unsure still if she should even believe him.

"No, I'm not" he answers.  "One of my hive mates might want to do something like that, but I don't.  All that does is cause pain, and I know all too well what that pain is like.  I wouldn't wish it on anypony, not even those that have wronged me."

Cadance can only stare at Thorax now.  After several minutes, she wipes her muzzle and a small smile comes across her face.

"You might not be a pony, Thorax," she tells him, "but you are a far better one than I am."

Cadance hugs Thorax a little tighter, and the changeling is suddenly overwhelmed.  More love than he had ever felt in his whole life was pouring over him, and even if he was able to resist, he wouldn't have been able to fight back the tide.  Quickly, he could feel the hunger that had plagued him his whole life recede to where he wasn't even sure if he could feel it anymore.

After a few moments of embrace, the princess releases the changeling from her grasp.  Wiping her eyes with her hoof, she then looks at him with determination.

"I made a promise to you not long ago saying that I would look out for your well being.  I broke that promise, Thorax.  I didn't give a second's thought or consideration to the possibility that you were truly innocent of the crime you were accused of, and I allowed you to sit in that prison cell the whole time that trial carried on, even going as far as to plan your confinement in a dungeon, and have you ultimately die there."

"Thorax, I cannot justify my behavior or my thoughts.  Nopony should feel what I've felt, and I understand now how wrong that was of me.  Today, I intend to start atoning for my mistakes."

The princess stepped away and walked over to a nearby desk.

"I hate asking things of you after all that's happened," she tells me, "but this is something that's necessary.  Would you please come over here and sign these papers?"

Thorax looks at her for a moment before he nods and walks over to join her.  Once at the table, he looks down to see some legal documents of one kind or another.  Before he can ask, the princess has dipped a quill in ink and offered it to him.

"I need you to sign these lines here and here" she says while indicating the two places with her hoof.

Thorax is confused but complies, taking the quill and scrawling his name across the two lines.  Once finished, Princess Cadance rolls up the documents and with a flash of magic, makes them disappear.

"What were those papers?" Thorax asks her.

"With those two papers signed," she explains, "you are now a full and official citizen of the Crystal Empire, with all rights and protections attached to it."

Thorax stares at the princess with wide eyes.  He was now a citizen?!

"That status is irrevocable as well" she continues.  "For as long as you live, you will be considered a pat of the Crystal Empire."

"I..."

Thorax is too stunned to speak.

"It's a lot to take in at one moment" Cadance admits.  "In truth, I've cut through a lot of the red tape and hoops typically associated with this process and cut it down to just those two signatures.  After all of this is said and done, I think I'm going to take a look at the citizenship process and revise it fully."

"Now, as for the next part of what I wish to do for you.  I'm going to fully restore you to your status as a member of the palace staff.  You may return to the custodial duties if you wish, but you can also choose to perform another duty.  I will see to it you have whatever assistance necessary to settle into whatever role you would choose.  I'm also going to exempt you from taxes for the remainder of the year, so all the money you make will be yours to do with as you wish."

"I'm also going to allow Sunburst to begin tutoring you again.  We can have the exact same schedule as you did before, or we can arrange it so that you have more time with him.  I won't fault you if you want to choose the latter; I would want more time with my friends too."

"Your feeding from the Crystal Heart will still continue at dawn and dusk, but there won't be a specific limit as to how long you may do so.  Also..."

Cadance pauses for a moment before she looks at again.

"If your friends wish to share their love with you, and it doesn't harm them, you may do that as well."

Thorax continued standing in place, not quite believing what he was being told.  He could have his position back or get a new one, spend as much time as he wanted learning from Sunburst, could feed as much as necessary from the Crystal Heart, and his friends could share love with him if it didn't harm them?

"There is one more thing I would like to give you," she concludes, "but I'm afraid it'll have to wait until tomorrow.  It isn't quite ready yet.  Right now, I think we've all had quite a day, so I suggest we all get some rest now."

Princess Cadance goes to walk outside, but stops just a bit short.

"I almost forgot" she says as she levitates the collar that had been around Thorax's neck.  She holds it in her magic for a few seconds and then replaces it on Thorax.  However, Thorax feels no effect from the collar whatsoever.

"I've disabled the enchantments on that collar for now" she tells him.  "I don't want ponies panicking because they saw you without it.  I'll be formally removing it tomorrow."

Princess Cadance leaves, leaving Thorax alone in the study to reflect on everything that just happened.






The Next Day






Thorax had returned to his room that evening.  Before he went to bed, he had been visited by several ponies, including Sunburst, Heartfelt, Bicarb and Bar Keeper, and Brass.  Mostly, they were congratulating him on his winning his case to prove his innocence, but they had also been curious about what Princess Cadance had wanted to see him for.  He had given them a simplified version of events, telling them that Princess Cadance had intended to give him something the following day but not having said what exactly.

After he had woken up, he found there were no longer any guards either in or outside his room.  The closest was one standing at the entrance to the servant dormitories.  He only tensed slightly when he saw Thorax, and a small amount of worry trickled from him.

Thorax wilted a little at the action, but tried to shake the thought from his mind.  Everypony was going to have a lot to get used to from now on, himself included.

Thorax had considered going to feed from the Crystal Heart, but as he thought about it, realized something: He didn't feel all that hungry.

It was such a foreign thought that it had confused him.  Sure, he still had an appetite, but it was much more muted now than compared to how it normally was.  Did it have something to do with what had happened the day before?  Had Princess Cadance's love been so filling that it had almost cured him of his hunger altogether?

He didn't have much time to think before a guard tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to practically jump out of his chitin.

"My apologies," the guard said to him, "but Princess Cadance asked us to escort you to a set of private chambers."

Thorax blinked for a moment.  Did the guard actually apologize to him?

"Why are you taking me there?" he asked.

"The princess wishes for you to prepare.  She is having a stage built under the palace as soon as can be done" the guard told him.  "She said it was going to be a very important event happening today."

Thorax gave a simple nod and followed the guard.  He could only wonder to himself what was going to happen later that day.


~+~-~+~-~+~-~+~-~+~-~+~


Princess Cadance sat in front of a mirror as a pair of hoof maidens helped her prepare for the speech she planned to hold later today.  Cadance sat in the chair as the two mares went to work.

"I must say that yesterday's events were rather exciting" one of the hoof maidens commented.

"They were" Cadance responds while rubbing her temples, the hangover hitting her in full force, but ebbing quickly due to alicorn constitution.

"I certainly wasn't expecting that changeling to be found innocent," the other chimes in, "especially not like that."

"No pony could have seen that coming" Cadance replies to the remark.

"My apologies, your highness," the first says while combing out some knots from Cadance's mane, "but you don't quite seem yourself this morning."

Cadance looks at her for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"It's a combination of things.  Firstly, it's the result of some personal reflection I've been doing in regards to my own behavior, and realizing that I've been failing all of my subjects in terms of embodying the aspects of friendship and harmony that Equestria and the Crystal Empire were both founded on."

"Princess, you haven't failed us!" the second maiden says in disbelief.

"I have," Cadance counters, "and more importantly, I've failed ponies that I care a great deal about.  I've set a poor example for so many, and I will need to correct that today."

"Aside from that, I have a touch of hangover, so if you could please finish this up so I may speak to Doctor Caduceus about a remedy?"

The two maiden look at each other and nod.  "Of course, your highness" they both say as they resume their duties.  Once they finish, a knock sounds from a nearby door.

"You may enter" Princess Cadance calls out.

The door opens and Andesite walks in.  In her magic is a small, faux leather bound box.

"It is ready" the mare tells Cadance.

"Let me see it" Cadance asks, and Andesite gives a nod, opening the box with her magic.

"Very good" Cadance says with a smile.  "It is exactly as it should be."

The two hoof maidens peek around the princess to see the item and gasp, then both look at each other as if to wordlessly ask if they actually had seen what the other had.





During the course of the morning, ponies had very quickly erected a stage underneath the Crystal Palace, directly in front of the heart.  It was a simple affair, with the only decorations being a pink skirting around the exposed beams.  A podium and a few chairs were placed on top, with the former placed at such an angle that whoever was speaking would be framed in the middle of the heart itself.  There were signs posted nearby which told citizens of an announcement being made at noon time.

About ten minutes before, ponies began to file into the area beneath the crystal palace, curious but fairly certain that they knew the reason for the announcement.

After five minutes, Thorax was led by a pair of guards onto the stage and seated, the two guards taking up positions behind him.

Thorax looked out over the crowd of ponies as he sat waiting.  All he had been told was that he was to be brought to the foot of the palace and seated onto a stage, so he had no real idea why he was there currently.  He couldn't help but get a taste of the emotional state of the ponies standing before him.  There was curiosity and confusion, but underneath that was fear, like always.  It made the changeling hang his head as he had his already diminished confidence deflated even more.

About a minute or so before noon, Princess Cadance stepped out onto the stage.  As soon as she was visible, everypony bowed before her.  Thorax rose from his seat and did the same.  Once she was behind the podium, Cadance waved her hoof and everypony rose back up.

"Thank you all for coming today" she told them as she took a sip of water from a glass resting on the podium.  After some calming exercises, she faced the crowd with a determined look.

"Before I begin, I would also like to thank our listeners on the radio who could not attend.  Thanks to this new invention, I am able to reach more of my subjects than I would have otherwise."

"Now, you are all wondering why I have decided to hold this announcement today, and so close to ground level.  Well, I am here today because a great travesty has occurred in this empire, and it is my intention to fix it."

"Nearly a month ago, a filly named Raspberry Mint was on her way home from some special tutoring at her school.  As she neared the open air market, she was set upon and nearly foalnapped.  A royal guard happened upon the scene and was met by three stallions, who indicated that the attack against the filly was carried out by a creature that most of you had never seen before until about a month ago, but have heard plenty about - a changeling."

"Acting on the information presented to them, the royal guard found sufficient evidence to charge the changeling with attempt to abduct a foal, assault against the three stallions, and endangering the welfare of a child.  This changeling was then taken to prison and held until his trial could begin."

"Now, you would expect me to want to send this changeling to the dungeons as a way of rectifying the wrongdoing.  After all, the reputation of changelings is that they are monsters that seek to consume our love and leave us as damaged shells."

"The truth of the matter is this: the changeling was the real victim in this story."

Gasps and murmurs carry through the crowd as ponies look at each other.

"Yes, it is rather hard to believe," Cadance continues, "but that is the truth of the matter."

"Yesterday, as the jury deliberated on a verdict against the changeling, a detective for the Van Hoover Police Force contacted our crystal guard by way of the new telephone device and asked if we had a changeling on trial for foalnapping.  When it was confirmed that we did have a changeling on trial, we were then asked to postpone the trial and detain the three stallions who bore witness to the crime."

Again, gasps spread through the crowd as ponies look at each other with confusion and disbelief.

"Of course, there was confusion as to why we should act on such a request, but then we were given information that we weren't expecting.  The three stallions accusing the changeling were the true perpetrators of this heinous crime."

Cadance shuffled some papers and lifted up three separate sheets.  On each one was a picture of one of the three stallions, along with their real names, rap sheets, and other miscellaneous details.

"The stallions who identified themselves as Heavy Hitter, Leather Whip and Velvet Dice were actually named Sledgehammer, Flog and Peridot Gamble.  While Sledge and Flog have not committed any crimes in the Crystal Empire we know of before this one, they have done things in other cities throughout Equestria."

"Peridot Gamble is a criminal that has a record that goes back to before the empire disappeared for a thousand years.  Once it returned, this pony set about doing what he could until opportunity presented itself again.  That opportunity presented itself when Peridot came into the employ of a griffin criminal named Sharpclaw, who employed all three ponies as hired muscle in one of his operations for loan sharking."

"Peridot and Sharpclaw corresponded and conceived a scheme to extort money out of a mare named Mint Julep, whereby they would hold a pony she loved hostage until she paid up the rather large sum that she owed.  I think you all can guess who that pony was going to be."

Ponies looked at each other with confusion.  Not because they couldn't tell who the princess meant, but because they were unsure of what the princess was saying.  Cadance continued speaking.

"When they conceived this plan, they also worked in a way to cover their tracks.  Employing a few crystal ponies here in the empire, the idea was to have a scapegoat to pin the abduction on, and to guarantee that the plan would be as ironclad as possible, they chose the one creature that nopony would question whether or not they were guilty.  That creature is currently sitting to my left."

Ponies would occasionally dare a glance in Thorax's direction.  The changeling could sense a lot of different emotions coming off of them, but slowly, chagrin began filling into the crowd.

"I can honestly say that I am disappointed that all of you were so quick to blame Thorax for everything that happened," she told the crowd, "but in all honesty, I am more disappointed in myself.  As your princess, it is my duty to set an example for all of you to follow, and I can honestly say that I failed you in that endeavor."

"Because of what happened on the day of my wedding and the weeks leading up to it, I have been given a much more negative viewpoint on changelings than what most ponies have.  It has led me to not having as much trust in others as I should, and my leadership has suffered because of it."

"Thorax has lived under the rule of the changeling queen his whole life, and he wants to experience a better life.  He grew up different from the rest of his kind, and because of that, he was ostracized and abused.  Even during the attempt to invade Canterlot, he wanted nothing more than to run away from it all, but was too afraid of reprisal to act.  That's why when it finally became too much to bear, he finally left in an attempt to find a more peaceful way to live."

"I know that many of you are fearful because of the fact that changelings gain their sustenance from us, often using rather violent and harmful tactics to get it, but Thorax believes that what he needs to survive can be achieved in ways that aren't harmful, and that he can also give back at the same time."

"There are those who have decided to give him the chance to prove what he has been telling us from the beginning, but I never was.  I couldn't admit that to myself until recently, but now that I have, I can't help but feel shame for what has happened under my rule."

Cadance then turned to face Thorax.  "Thorax," she began, "I cannot apologize to you enough for the way that my subjects have treated you, and the way that I have treated you myself.  You have done nothing to deserve that treatment, and have been doing everything in your power to prove that you are not only a good and kindhearted stallion, but that you are also worthy of living here among us in the Crystal Empire."

She then turned to address the crowd again.  "But we have all made a mistake.  Instead of giving you a chance to prove yourself, we acted in fear and chose only to see you as the same kind of monsters that attacked Canterlot a little while ago.  That was wrong of us, and I intend to do my best to make up for that mistake."

"As my first act of atonement, I am hereby declaring that Thorax is now a full citizen of the Crystal Empire, with all rights, privileges and protections granted by that status."

"In addition, I have decided that Thorax will become my personal charge.  From this day forward, I shall lookout for his well being, and may the result of those efforts reflect on me and my position."

"When this empire returned, I came and helped banish Sombra away.  For that, you all have chosen me as your sovereign.  After the events that have transpired over the last half year, I can honestly say that I don't deserve the position that has been given me."

The crowd voices their disagreement with the princess, but she simply raises her hoof to silence them.

"However," she continues, "I intend to prove myself worthy of the title you all have bestowed upon me.  Today, I shall prove to all of the Crystal Empire, Equestria, and all other territories in this world that I am worthy of being your ruler!"

Cheers and applause erupt from the crowd as Cadance takes a moment to look at Thorax.  The changeling looks back at her with a mix of confusion and concern.  Her feelings were very muddled, and he got the idea that she was hiding something.

The princess raised her hoof to silence the cheering crowd.  Once they had quieted down, she spoke again.

"There is one last thing I would like to do here today" she tells the crowd, then turns to Thorax.

"Thorax, would you please come forward?"

The changeling still looks at her with confusion, but nods and rises, walking over to her and stopping a few steps from her.

"Over the past few weeks, you've been subject to harsh treatment and scorn from the ponies of this empire.  Ponies have looked upon you with hate and contempt as well as fear, and as much as it shames me to say, I was one of those ponies too."

"The reason for that scorn was because we failed to see what you were truly doing.  We let our prejudices against your kind guide our thoughts away from rational thinking and into reactions based on fear.  If we had kept our prejudice in check, we would have seen what actually happened."

"Thorax, you did a very good thing.  You saw that a pony was in trouble and you stepped in to help them, regardless of your own wellbeing and safety."

"That action is not something that should be punished.  Rather, it should be commended."

Princess Cadance turns away from Thorax and gives a head nod.  Stepping out from behind the shadow of one of the legs of the Crystal Palace was Andesite, and in her grip was a small rectangular black box.  As soon as it came into view, ponies began talking rather excitedly.  It wasn't exactly happy excitement, but Thorax could gather that the box meant something significant.

Andesite made her way up onto the stage to stand directly beside Princess Cadance.  The princess gave Andesite a smile and head nod that the mare returned.  Cadance then turned to face Thorax again.

"For you efforts in thwarting the foalnapping of the filly Raspberry Mint, I, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire hereby award you, Thorax... The Crystal Heart."

Shocked gasps spread throughout the whole crowd.  Thorax looks around at the ponies, their excitement being a mix of several different emotions, but the chief one among them was disbelief.  Apparently they didn't believe Thorax was getting what he was getting.

The changeling was shaken from his thoughts as Andesite approached him with a corner of her mouth crooked up in a sly smile.  She held out the black box in front of Thorax and opened the lid.  Thorax stared wide eyed at what he saw inside.





Resting against dark blue velvet and attached to a pink and purple ribbon decorated in golden filigree was a sapphire gemstone.  It was cut into the shape of a heart and had a glow coming from its center.  A quick look up told the changeling that this item was modeled after the Crystal Heart itself.

As he looked back, he then caught sight of a small brass plaque just below the necklace and the words inscribed into it.





Thorax read and reread the little brass plate inside the black case, but his eyes continually drifted back to the very first word on it.

Awarded, as in given an award.

Princess Cadance had just given him an award.

The changeling was stock still, as if frozen in place.  He wanted nothing more than to find the largest rock he could and hide under it until he was nothing more than a footnote in a Crystal Empire history book, or better yet, a folktale told by old ponies with only a marble or two left in their heads.

Princess Cadance took the award from its case and held it in her magic in front of Thorax.  She looked at him with concern and tapped him on the shoulder with her hoof.  The gesture caused the changeling to jump a little, and then shake his head before focusing back on the princess.

"Bow your head" she mouthed to him, getting a nearly immediate reply in the form of Thorax's head shooting down to come even with her barrel.  Once at that position, Cadance slipped the ribbon over his head and allowed it to hang.

"Raise your head up" she whispered, to which Thorax complied, raising his head so he could look her in the eyes.  The princess no longer held any malice for him, and she gave him a smile and nod as she turned to face back towards the crowd.

"A huzzah for Thorax on the count of three" she declared.  "One, two, THREE!"

"Huzzah!"

Only a few ponies cheered, and Thorax was fairly certain who they were.

"A huzzah for Thorax on the count of three" she repeated, a little bit more of an edge to her voice.  "One, two, THREE!"

"HUZZAH!"

More ponies joined in.

"AGAIN!"

"HUZZAH!"

"AGAIN!"

"HUZZAH!"

"AGAIN!"

"HUZZAH!"

This went on for some time until almost everypony was shouting "HUZZAH!" as loudly as they could.  Once she was satisfied, Princess Cadance quieted down.

"I know that moving forward, things aren't going to be easy.  Trusting Thorax isn't something that's going to come easily for all of you, but it is something I want to see all of you do."

"When you have the chance, I would like for all of you to come forward and apologize to Thorax for treating him the way you have or the negative thoughts that you've had about him since he came here.  I have taken that first step, and if I can admit to myself and all of you that I have made a mistake, then certainly all of you can too."

Thorax looked at Cadance for a moment before looking at the crowd.  He could feel negative emotions coming from the crowd, but instead of anger or fear, it was shame.  The ponies were now thinking about what the princess had just said and how they themselves have acted since it was announced that he was allowed to stay in the empire.  Most of them seemed to conclude that their behavior was unacceptable, even if it could be justified.

"And now for the last bit of business before we are finished for today" Princess Cadance said to the crowd before facing Thorax again.

"Thorax, you have proven to me beyond any reasonable doubt that you will cause no harm to myself or my subjects.  Therefore, I officially remove all remaining restrictions on you."

Her horn glowed in her blue magic and Thorax felt the collar around his neck unfasten and fall to the ground.  Ponies in the front row looked on in trepidation and fear, but did not run or otherwise show signs of panic.

Thorax looked down to see the collar that he'd been wearing for the past few weeks.  The orange device had had its enchantments removed already, so it wasn't actually restricting his magic or his abilities in any way.  The removal of it here and now was simply a symbolic gesture to be shown to the crystal ponies so they knew how serious the princess was in her remarks.

After taking everything that had just happened in, Thorax smiled at Cadance.  "Thank you" he told her as he took a step forward and embraced her in a hug.  Cadance smiled and returned it, but not after waving off the guards and giving them a stern glare for their attempt to subdue Thorax over a simple hug.

With the ceremony concluded, Cadance thanked all the ponies for coming and dismissed them, then walked off the stage.  As she did, she ushered Thorax to follow along with her.  While walking, Thorax thought of something he hadn't asked about before.

"Um, Princess Cadance?"

"Yes Thorax?" she responded.

"I was wondering..." he said before he trailed off for a second.  "What did you mean when you said I was going to be your charge?"

"What that means is, in a sense, I've sort of adopted you"

Thorax looked at her for a moment before she continued to explain.

"I'm not legally your parent or anything, but I am your guardian in a legal sense.  Any official business you need to conduct will go through me first.  Anything you do or is done to you will be my personal responsibility, be something as simple as a medical check up, or you get involved in a scuffle with another pony, or somepony wishes to lodge a complaint against you."

Thorax looked at her guiltily.  "I imagine there's going to be more than a few complaints."

"There won't be" she assures him.  "I imagine after today, you're going to find  ponies will be more open about approaching you in a more positive way."

"Still..." he began to say before she put a hoof to his mouth.

"I won't hear anymore negativity, Thorax" she told him.  "There's been enough of that lately, and it's about time it stopped.  You've proven yourself to me with your actions, and those that call you friend have convinced me of your intentions as well.  If there are ponies out there that cannot accept that, then it is their problem and not yours.  You don't deserve to be treated the way you have, and as I said before, I cannot apologize to you enough for how I have acted and how I have allowed others to treat you."

"Besides, you could feel the shame they all felt, couldn't you?"

Thorax looked at the princess for a moment with wide eyes.  "You could feel it too?"

"No," she replies with a smirk, "but I've been around enough ponies with their hooves caught in the cookie jar, both figuratively and literally, to know guilt when I see it."

She continues walking ahead and into the palace.  Thorax was still for a few moments before eventually following her inside.

As he walked through the Crystal Palace, he couldn't help but feel more hopeful.  He was the only changeling to have all four alicorns giving him support in some way.

Luna had given him the confidence he needed.

Celestia had granted him protection in her and her sister's land.

Twilight had given him friendship and gratitude.

And now, Cadance had given him a place to truly call his home.

He smiled as he thought back on everything he had wanted since leaving the changeling hive, and somehow knew that as this chapter in his life closed, he would be starting a new one, and for the first time, on a happy note.
> Part III, Chapter 25 - Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One month had passed since the trial against Thorax for foalnapping concluded.  In that time, the stallions who accused him were tried, and either plead guilty or were found guilty.  Flog, for his admission of guilt to Princess Cadance, was pardoned for his wrong doings in the Crystal Empire, but was sent to Van Hoover so he could answer for his crimes there.  Sledgehammer and Peridot Gamble were given lengthy sentences in the dungeons for their part in the crime, with Sledge getting a more lenient sentence for confessing to the crime.

The griffin Sharpclaw was eventually arrested a week or so after the trial against Sledge and Peridot.  He had been tailed by some pegasi guards in Las Pegasus and subdued by unicorns when trying to flee.  He currently sat in a prison in Van Hoover until it could be decided between Princess Celestia and the griffin leaders where he should stand trial for his crimes.

As for Thorax himself, he more or less returned to how he had been living before the trial, though without the constant eyes of guards on him.

He elected to return to being a custodian of the palace instead of taking a new position.  The reason behind this was obvious to anypony that bothered to pay attention: Thorax would get to keep working with Brass.

He also resumed the daily lessons with Sunburst, but as the time went on, they became lessons only in name.  They had begun talking more about the goings on in the empire and back in Equestria, as well as Thorax filling Sunburst in more on changelings and what little culture existed in their society.

In the time after the trial, Thorax elected to stay in the palace and read.  Brass would prod him to come outside with her, and Thorax had eventually agreed after some time, but fearful of how crystal ponies would react to him since he was now without himself of his magic restrained.

As for the crystal ponies, they had taken time to adjust.

The day following the announcement, there were some crystal ponies who spoke out against the princess and her decision, claiming she had been manipulated by the changeling to do what she did.  They even suggested she step away for a bit until she had been cleansed of whatever changeling magic had tainted her.

For most, however, there was nothing to argue.  Despite everything they believed and how strongly they wanted to deny it, there was simply no arguing with the facts and the sobering truth they brought.

Three ponies had attempted to abduct a filly, and a changeling, of all creatures, had stopped it from happening.

Another day later, and Thorax was receiving apologies.  The majority weren't face to face as Princess Cadance had desired, but letters sent to the palace with Thorax's name on it.

They came from citizens young and old.  Some were from a collective group of ponies, such as large families and classrooms, while others came from single ponies.  Most apologies were for their mistrust of him when he first arrived and how they hoped he would be found guilty and sent to the dungeons.  A few came from ponies that had interacted with him once or twice before, and their apologies were for their either standoffish or outright hostile treatment of him.

He even recalled one being from a mare he had met on his first official day in the empire when he was left by Brass to collect garbage from rooms while she reported the vandalized bathrooms to Ammonia.  She said it was wrong of her to assume he would place traps in the room just because he was a changeling.

While the letters meant a great deal, it was the ponies who took the time to meet him face to face that resonated the most, starting with the first one he had received.





"You wanted to see me, Madam Ammonia?"

Thorax had stepped into the office and gently closed the door behind him.  Madam Ammonia stood looking out over the Crystal Empire from a window in her office.  The room wasn't overly tall, but it was pretty roomy still.  Most of the space was occupied with various cleaning supplies, but a set of stairs told the changeling that the mare and his direct supervisor lived in a small space at the top of them.

"Please sit down, Thorax" she told him with a gentler voice than he had heard her use previously.  He simply complied by taking a seat in the empty chair across from the one behind her desk, which appeared to be covered with a supply sheet she was filling out.  The mare stepped away from the window and took her spot behind the desk.  "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here" she said in a matter of fact way.

"Um, yes, I am" Thorax admitted.

Ammonia took a breath to calm herself down before speaking.  "Thorax," she began, "I called you here today because I would like to apologize to you for my behavior when you first started working for me."

"I was very short with you and treated you with no respect whatsoever.  Not once did I consider your desire to be on friendly terms with the ponies of the Crystal Empire to be genuine, and acted as though it was a farce to get close to us and find a weakness so that wretched queen could attack us again."

"That was wrong of me, and I am sorry for how I acted towards you.  From this day forward, you have my respect and, if you so desire it, my friendship as well."

Thorax could tell Ammonia had meant everything she had said, feeling her emotions or not.  He could hear her discomfort at recalling her actions towards him in the beginning and the regret they now brought.

"I've forgiven you a long time ago" Thorax told her.  Ammonia looked up at him with confusion, but Thorax didn't give her a chance to speak.

"You may have been a bit short with me, as you put it, but over time, those feelings started to wane.  You didn't treat me as badly after the first month, and Princess Cadance even told me that you had had an almost total change of heart come the time she did those interviews."

"Even more so, you testified on my behalf at my trial.  A pony that hated me and wanted to see me in the dungeons wouldn't have done that."

"Whatever you think you have to feel guilty for, you don't.  I have already forgiven your behavior, and I do accept your friendship."

Ammonia stared at him in disbelief for a few moments before she smiled.  Standing up, she moved around her desk and embraced Thorax in a gentle hug.  "Thank you" she said as her love poured out and over Thorax, his body absorbing the energy like a sponge.





Madam Ammonia had been the first apology Thorax received face to face, but it was most certainly not the last.  The next had come during his second attempt at going outside the castle.





"Come back out to see us all again, didya?"

Thorax stopped as he turned his head towards the voice.  He went wide eyed as he recognized the mare instantly; she was the one who was talking to him before the ponies ganged up on him and sent him fleeing in panic.

"Uh, yeah" Thorax answered.

The mare winced a little when she heard his reaction.  She then seemed to steel herself as she faced him again.  "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Thorax looked around nervously for a second before looking back at the mare.

"You're not gonna be jumped by a bunch of ponies this time" she said in an attempt to reassure him.

While he was still nervous, he did as she asked of him and walked cautiously over to the mare's market stall.

"I've been meaning to talk with you for a while," she begins, "but I was honestly a bit nervous about approaching you.  You see, I wanted to apologize to you for how I acted before."

"That day you came out and I saw you, I couldn't quite believe it.  I wasn't sure if the princess was playing some kind of prank when she first announced your being allowed to stay here, but seeing you that day proved otherwise."

"Not only that, but seeing you so afraid of things not going right and making ponies mad at you?  Well, I thought it was funny at the time, since all anypony had ever seen of changelings were hissing and aggressive invaders.  Having that mental image in mind and seeing your timid nature juxtaposed against that was amusing to me at the time.  Now, though, I know it wasn't funny, and that my laughing at you was wrong."

"As I bad as I feel about that, what I did then attracted the attention of those other ponies and they started berating you and arguing with that mare you were with.  That made you panic and take off..."

The mare paused a bit as she looked at Thorax with a guilty look.

"Then you came across those stallions and got attacked, and they tried to frame you for foalnapping a filly.  The worst part of all of that was I believed them!"

The mare began tearing up as she continued speaking.

"I was sure you were guilty, and that your actions were on an impulse, but that was wrong of me.  It was prejudiced the way I acted and you didn't deserve any of that!"

"Thorax, I am so sorry for what happened to you.  If I hadn't laughed at your actions, those ponies wouldn't have accosted you and made you run off and get attacked and arrested."

Thorax stood as he watched the mare fight back sobs.  He could tell she regretted her actions, but he could also tell she wasn't expecting to be forgiven.

"What's your name?" he asks her finally.

"Garden Bug" she tells him.

"I won't say it was pleasant, but if I hadn't come across those stallions when I did, who knows what would've happened to that filly.  Because that happened, a good many criminals got sent to the dungeons or to prisons, and that little filly is at home with her mother, and I think her father too if the rumors of him getting out of the hospital are true."

"If you are feeling guilty about what you did, then I forgive you, but there was a lot of good that came from that happening."

"W-What do you mean?" she says with confusion.

Thorax smiles as he explains it to her.  "I was found innocent and criminals were punished for framing me, the filly got to go home,  my lawyer has more work than he could ever dream of, my friends don't have to visit me through metal bars or at uncomfortable tables being watched by a guard, and Princess Cadance has accepted me as a full citizen of the Crystal Empire."

"I have a much better life now than I did a couple of months ago."

Garden took in what he told her and sniffled a little bit as she wiped her eyes.  "You're way to good to be a changeling" she tells him.

"Funny," he says with a smile, "I've never heard that before."

Garden giggles at the joke, as does Thorax.  Once they stop laughing, the mare picks a small flower in a ceramic pot about the size of a teacup.

"I want you to have this" she says, offering the flower to him.  "Think of it as a gift from me, as a sort of 'congratulations on becoming a citizen' present."

Thorax looked at her for a moment and smiled, taking the small flower from her.  "Thank you" he said as he then looked over the little flower.  "What kind is it?" he then asked her.

"It's a buttercup" she replied with a small smile.





Thorax had kept the small flower on a windowsill in his new room so that it could get the necessary sunlight that it deserved.  The plant was a nice memento of a newly forged friendship, as the changeling and Garden Bug had gotten to know each other much better than before.

A few days after he ran into the gardening mare, he encountered another all-too-familiar mare.





"There's the free bug walking."

Thorax looked around in confusion before his eyes caught focus of the pony addressing him.  When he did, they went as wide as dinner plates.

While not wearing a suit, the mane style was very familiar to Thorax.

"Miss State Evidence?" he said with uncertainty.

State nodded.  "You don't have to call me miss.  State is just fine."

Thorax looked around in confusion, as he had been addressed on his way to starting his work in the castle for the day.  "What brings you here?" he asked.

"Well, mostly you" she told him.

Thorax looked at her with a bit of disbelief.  "Me?"

"Yes" she confirmed.  "You see, I wanted to apologize to you about putting you through that trial."

Thorax shook his head at her.  "That wasn't your fault.  It's your job to bring charges to ponies based on the evidence in front of you, and the evidence pointed at me."

"No, Thorax" she said as she shook her head.  "It didn't."

The changeling looked at her with confusion before she offered her explanation.

"When they contacted me with the evidence and said it was a changeling being charged with attempt to foalnap, I thought that was an open and shut case; what buckball players would call 'a lay-up'.  I went ahead and started prosecuting you and building a case.  I took the words of the stallions at face value and did all I could to discredit anypony that came forward to speak on your behalf."

"If I had been doing my job right, I would've spotted the fact that the stories among the three stallions accusing you were too similar to be anything but a fabrication meant to implicate you in the crime."

"I... also let the prejudice ponies have against your kind cloud my judgment and made me think convicting you was a foregone conclusion, and because of that, I lost."

State seemed rather sad about that last part.  Thorax, and pretty much any other pony could relate; nobody liked losing.  "You didn't lose, really" Thorax pointed out, but State stopped him with a raised hoof.

"Maybe not on paper," she admits, "but you got dragged into that mess when all you were trying to do was help a filly in trouble.  Getting dragged through the mud like that was not fair to you at all, so I'm sorry for that."

Thorax stood there for a moment as State tried to find something interesting on the ground, or at least that's what she was acting like she was doing.  The changeling then walked over to her and placed a hoof on her withers, causing the mare to jump slightly in surprise.

"State, you didn't drag me through the mud" he told her.  "Ponies already had that perception of me before.  The only thing the accusations did was reinforce their beliefs for a while.  Now though, they've seen what letting their prejudices get the better of themselves can lead to, and I hope the next time, they won't be so quick to judge."

State looks at him with surprise, but then her face changes to a sad smile.  "Unfortunately, that last part is a really hard thing to change.  Ponies don't like complicated answers to problems, and that's why they always try to come up with a simple answer, which is often steeped in prejudice of one form or another."

"I know" Thorax responds with his own sad smile.  "That's part of why I'm here.  I want to change that, show ponies that we're not all monsters out to hurt them, and... prove to my kind that there's a better way."

There was silence between the two for a moment before State did something Thorax wasn't expecting; she hugged him.

"I hope you can accomplish your goals" she says quietly to him as she holds him.





State eventually had to go, but not without telling Thorax that she had learned not to let prejudice cloud her judgment, and that she would take her time on the next case to make sure the ponies who needed to be punished did.

Another few days or so after that, and Thorax got another visitor, this time to his new room.





Thorax had been sitting by a window reading a book.  It was after his daily shift, and he was taking advantage of what sunlight remained from the day.  As he flipped a page, he heard a knock at his door.  Finding an unused quill and placing it into the page, he set the book down and walked over to the door.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"You have a visitor" came the voice of a guard, one he recognized as Custos.

Thorax was a bit confused that he would have a visitor so late, and especially one that had to be escorted here by the guards.  This likely meant they were a pony that didn't or no longer worked in the palace.

"Let them in" he told Custos as he moved over and sat on his bed.

The door opened and a mare walked inside.  Thorax had only seen her once before, but he recognized her immediately.

"M-Mint Julep?"

The mare nodded.  "Yes, it's me.  I was... hoping we could talk?"  Her voice sounded both timid but... hopeful.

"Certainly" Thorax responded.  "I have a chair there if you'd like to sit down."

The mare nodded and took the offered seat.  Once she had sat down, she seemed to avoid making eye contact with the changeling.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Thorax asked, electing to break the ice.

The mare sat there without moving for several minutes, but Thorax already had an idea as to why she was there; remorse was coming off of her like heat from a fire.

"I..."  Mint began but paused, seeming unsure of what she should say.  She sat there for several moments before she stood up and walked over to Thorax, capturing him in a hug.

"I am so sorry for what I did to you!" she declared as she broke down into sobbing.

Thorax stood still, confused as to how exactly this mare had wronged him.  "I don't understand."

Mint stopped and looked back at him, tears beginning to stain her cheeks.  "I kept Raspberry from talking.  If she had said something sooner, then you wouldn't have sat in that prison for so long.  You could've used that time and made more friends or got to know the ones you already have better, or..."

The mare trailed off into sobs again as she leaned her head against Thorax.  The changeling was unsure of exactly how to comfort her.

"I understand why you felt that you had to do that" he eventually said; Raspberry had said multiple times in writing and during the trial that the stallions abducting her had threatened her safety to keep her mother quiet, and by extension, her.

"But it wasn't right!" she retorted, her voice breaking slightly.  "You were innocent!  You didn't do what they said you did and I was gonna keep my daughter out of it and let you go to prison, and all because I was afraid those goons would hurt her!"

Mint continued to sob into Thorax's withers as she hugged him tighter.  Even without his ability to sense emotions, he could tell the mare deeply and truly regretted how things had went.

"I was stupid" she finally says after a few minutes.  "I should've told the guards immediately.  Raspberry should've told her story to them and then you would've been released sooner."

"That's not likely" Thorax tells her.  Mint looks at him a bit confused before he explains.

"When I got knocked out by those stallions, they took the ring blocking my magic and destroyed it.  Nopony would've believed her because they would've thought I put some kind of mind control spell or hypnosis on her to tell her to lie on my behalf."

"When she came forward of her own free will and testified in court after she was cleared by that mage's spell, ponies were more willing to believe what she was telling them."

Mint didn't know what to say.  "H-How can you be okay with that?" she says while looking at him in surprise.

Thorax can only chuckle.  "Let's just say being made to sit in a prison cell doesn't rank up very high on the list of 'worst things to ever happen to me'."

Mint looks at him for a few more moments before she does yet another surprising thing.  She looks uncertain for a few moments but then suddenly leans in plants a kiss on Thorax's left cheek.

"Thank you for saving my daughter" she says before standing up and leaving.





It had felt good for Thorax to hear Mint give him thanks for saving her daughter.  The mare's gratitude was more than enough for him.  However, the following day, she had returned with a gift for him: An insulated cloak.  Apparently, she had talked to Sunburst and came to the conclusion that the winter months would be more harsh to Thorax than other ponies since he didn't have fur, so she thought that would be a good thing for him to have.

The cloak currently hung in a wardrobe off in the corner of his room.  As for Thorax himself, he sat looking at the award Princess Cadance had given him, and appreciating it in the light.  The blue gemstone had a glow all its own, thanks to a unicorn enchantment placed on it.

Thorax eyed the award as he thought over what he had learned about it since receiving it.  The item was generally given to ponies in the empire that had performed heroic and noble deeds, and was considered the highest honor a crystal pony who wasn't a guard could receive.

The highest honor, and Princess Cadance had given it to him.

"So, you just gonna keep staring at that thing or are we gonna do something before I gotta leave?"

Thorax looked over at the voice addressing him.  It was Brass Polish, his first real friend in the Crystal Empire.  The mare watched him as he admired the award in his hooves.

"Sorry" he says to her.  "I just still have a hard time believing that the princess gave that to me."

"Well, don't" she tells him.  "You deserve that award as much as anypony else here."

"But why?" Thorax asks her.  "All I did was help a filly."

Brass looks at him sternly.  "Thorax, you didn't just 'help a filly', okay?  You stopped a foalnapping.  That's a serious crime!"

"I know that" he responds.  "It's just... there's other ponies that deserve this award too.  All the doctors and nurses at the hospital keeping ponies alive.  The guards who protect the city."

"Sunburst certainly deserves it.  After all, his knowledge helped restore the Crystal Heart and save the empire from a horrible blizzard."

Thorax doesn't say anything for a moment, which allows Brass to step in.

"Thorax, Princess Cadance is the one that gives out those awards.  It's her decision what ponies get them and which don't.  She decided that you deserved one.  Besides, I don't think it's just about saving the filly anyway."

Thorax looked up at her, his interest piqued.  "What do you mean?"

Brass smiles.  "What I mean is that you are a changeling trying to do good!  You came here, despite what things might happen to you, and you held out your hoof in friendship.  They say to be the change you want to see in the world, and you are being that change.  That's why Princess Cadance gave you that award, Thorax."

Thorax looked at Brass with confusion.  "She gave me this for that?"

Brass looked like she wanted to smack her face with her hoof.  "She gave you that as a testament to your desire to do good.  You got it for what you're trying to accomplish AND saving Raspberry from those stallions."

Though he accepted her answer, Thorax still felt unworthy of the award.  Before their conversation could continue, a knocking came at the door.

"May I come in, please?" an all too familiar voice called out.  Upon hearing it, Thorax jumped to attention.

"Yes, Princess" Thorax called out.

The door swung open to reveal Princess Cadance in her regalia and mane done expertly.  She stepped through the door and closed it, looking around the room and then spotting Brass sitting on Thorax's bed.

"I'm sorry" she said with a blush.  "I didn't realize you had company."

"It's okay, your highness" Brass said with a smile as she got up off the bed.  "I was actually getting ready to leave soon."

"Oh, you don't need to leave on account of me" Cadance told her.

Brass waved a hoof.  "I need to anyway.  I have some relatives coming to visit and their train should be arriving soon."  She then looked over to Thorax apologetically and told him, "I'm sorry to leave so soon, but their train really is due in about a half hour or so.  I need to start making my way down there."

"That's okay" Thorax replied before he had a thought occur to him.  "Are you going to tell them about me?"

Brass thought about it for a moment before looking at the princess.  "Should I?"

"I leave that up to you" Cadance told her.

"Then I'll have to make up my mind about that then" she decided before leaving and closing the door.

Left alone in the room, there was a brief silence before Cadance eventually spoke.

"So, Thorax" Cadance begins, "you're settling in well?"

"Yes, Princess" he replies, "I am."

"Good" she responds a bit awkwardly.  Thorax looks at her for a while and can't help but feel a little sorry.  Even though it's been a month since the end of the trial, the princess still feels as remorseful as she did the day after it ended.

"I know you're still feeling guilty about what happened" he says after a moment.

The princess looks at him for a second before letting out a breath.

"That's going to take a while for me to let go of" she tells the changeling.  "After everything that's happened and how I treated you from the get-go, me forgiving myself is something that's just going to take time.  In truth, I still feel like I should be doing something more for you to make up for all of this."

Thorax placed the box on the window sill and stood up, walking over to the princess and embracing her in a hug.

"You've done more for me than I would have expected anypony to," he tells her, "especially considering that of all the ponies that were hurt on your wedding day, you may have been hurt the worst."

"Even back when you were completely mistrusting of me, you still gave me a place to call home.  I've never had that, even back in the hive."

Cadance pulls away from the hug and looks at him.  "You never felt at home there?  Like, at all?"

Thorax shook his head.  "I never got along with other changelings.  They would bully me and go after me all the time.  The only changeling that even looked out for me any was my brood mate Pharynx, but even then, he would just bully me in private."

Princess Cadance frowned upon learning that last little bit of information.  She never liked hearing about a pony enduring hardships, especially when it was not their fault.

Shaking her head, she took a scroll she had been keeping under her wing and presented it to Thorax.  "I have something that may brighten up your spirits a little more today" she told him as she offered the paper to him.

Taking it, Thorax looked it over and recognized the seal on the front; it was the same one for the Crystal Empire's court system.  "What is this?" he asked Cadance.

"This is the official verdict from your trial" she explained.  "If the business with that investigation in Van Hoover hadn't have happened, then the jury would've presented that to the judge.  Go ahead and take a look."

Thorax did as asked as he read over the document, which read more like a letter than an official document:

To: Iron Gavel, Honorable Judge of the Imperial Judicial Court
From: Sandy Quartz, Jury Foremare for Trial S6E16O113

Your Honor,

You have requested that this jury I am foremare of deliberate and return a unanimous verdict in regards to the crimes the defendant, THORAX THE CHANGELING, has been accused of.  I am reporting to you that we have reached a unanimous verdict on all accounts.

On the charge of attempted foalnapping: NOT GUILTY

On the charge of assault against a pony count 1: NOT GUILTY

On the charge of assault against a pony count 2: NOT GUILTY

On the charge of assault against a pony count 3: NOT GUILTY

On the charge of assault against a minor: NOT GUILTY

On the charge of reckless endangerment of a minor: NOT GUILTY

Signed,
Sandy Quartz, Jury Foremare

Thorax stared at the document for several seconds before it finally sank in.  "Not guilty" he said as he looked at Cadance, who smiled at him.

"On all accounts" she pointed out.  "Even without the Van Hoover thing, you would've been acquitted."

Thorax looked at the paper again, and then back at Cadance.  He could sense pride coming from the mare.  "I'm happy you showed this to me," he told her, "but why?  It's kind of a moot point with the trial being over."

Cadance's smile was now accompanied by a giggle.  "I thought you would've realized Thorax."

The changeling looks at her for a moment before she eventually explains.

"Thorax, you've said yourself that ponies and changelings haven't had the best experiences with one another.  Because of those interactions, ponies view changelings as lying and deceitful monsters who want nothing more than to hurt us and rob us of things we hold dear to ourselves."

"I showed you this because this is proof of what you believe.  These twelve ponies, who know about changelings and trust them about as far as they could throw them, ignored their prejudized belief and determined you were truly innocent."

"When they had the chance to enact some form of petty revenge against one changeling, they didn't take that chance.  Nopony would've blamed them for it, myself included, a fact which I can honestly say I feel ashamed of."

Princess Cadance's mood deflated upon her personal reflection.  Thorax went to offer a comforting hoof on her shoulder but she stopped him.

"It's okay, Thorax" she told him.  "You may have forgiven me, but it's gonna take a while before I can forgive myself.  Everything I said at that speech was the truth.  I haven't been a good princess for my subjects, and I need to start doing much better."

"You're already doing quite well" Thorax told her, but she waved her hoof dismissively at his remark.

"I can do so much more" she responded.  "In the time since I took over as sovereign for the Crystal Empire, I've yet to see any of my citizens take an interest in visiting Equestria or other territories.  In fact, the only crystal ponies I know of that have been to Equestria are the crystal pony members of the guard here and my caretakers."

"Caretakers?" Thorax parroted.

"Ponies like Andesite and my hoof maidens that help me prepare for my day" Cadance explains.  "My point is that nopony seems to be interested in seeing the bigger world around them, and I realize now that that's because they haven't seen me visiting the world either.  I need to set the example, and I intend to do it in the best way possible."

"I will be holding a state dinner sometime in the future, and I will invite the leaders of the nations of the world to come see what the Crystal Empire has to offer them."

"That's great news," Thorax told her, "but what about the prince?"

"You mean my husband?" she asked, though fairly certain of what he meant.  Thorax nodded in confirmation.

"My husband likely won't like this" she answered.  "Ever since the wedding, he's been... different.  He's not quite been the stallion I fell in love with.  I'm hoping our time spent with Heartfelt working through our issues will help, but in truth, I'm honestly not sure if they will or not."

Cadance looks somber at saying that part aloud.  Before Thorax can question it, Cadance shakes her head and continues speaking.

"Anyway, one of the reasons I think he's been acting as he has is because he views what happened at the wedding as being solely his fault.  Because he thinks that, despite my reassurances and the other princesses that it wasn't, he's been much harder on the members of the guard and he's ever vigilant of another attack, changeling or otherwise."

"That's been the major reason that we haven't had a state dinner or visited any places besides our former homes in Equestria; he fears for our safety and security.  I can certainly appreciate that, but I realize now that I have probably encouraged his more negative behavior.  He has never trusted anypony fully since that day, and I think it's time that that mistake has been corrected.  Long past due, if I can be completely honest."

Thorax looked at the princess for a moment before smiling.  He could feel her aura brighten as she spoke about becoming a better leader.  She meant everything she had said, and was doing what she could to move towards her goal of being a better leader.  Time would tell whether or not she would succeed.

As they stand there, Thorax's smile fades as he thinks on something.  "Princess," he addresses her, "I just thought of something now.  When I got back from my imprisonment, I don't recall seeing any letters.  I'm sure Princess Twilight or Spike would be curious about me.  Do you have have any idea why?"

Cadance looked uncomfortable before she let out a breath.  Thorax could feel regret wafting off of her.  "That's something that I knew I was going to need to address soon.  If you could sit down so I can give an explanation."

Thorax agreed and took a seat.  Cadance took one as well as she steadied her breath to speak.

"Do you remember when I officially announced your being allowed to stay in the Crystal Empire?" she asked him.

"I do" Thorax replied while nodding his head.

"Well," she continued, "an hour or so after that, I received a communication from Aunt Celestia.  According to her, Twilight, Spike and their friends had all been sent to a village where a friendship problem was taking place.  I trust Twilight explained the Cutie Map to you?"

Thorax nodded.  "Not Twilight, but Spike.  He gave me a short version of the story.  It sends them to places with friendship problems only they can solve so that friendship grows stronger in Equestria?"

"Something like that" Cadance confirms, then takes another breath before continuing.  "Well, the place where they were sent..."

"The small village was attacked by changelings."

Thorax deflated upon hearing that.  Changelings abducting ponies was a common practice, but attacking a whole village?

That would mean the hive was getting more desperate for resources, which also meant that there was a possibility that Queen Chrysalis could be trying another invasion of Equestria.

"After they found the village being attacked," Cadance continues, "they stepped in to stop them.  They managed to get the changelings to retreat, but the damage had been done.  A census was taken and five ponies were unaccounted for.  I'm afraid they've likely been taken by the changelings."

"They probably were" Thorax admits.  "They were most likely taken back to the hive by now, put into pods and used as a feeding source."

Cadance doesn't say anything else for a few minutes, but decides to ask a question she doesn't really want to know the answer to, but knows that knowing the answer will help in one way or another.

"What happens to the ponies that get put into pods?" she asks warily.  "Does it hurt them?"

"I don't know" Thorax admits.  "The hive puts them into pods because the gel inside is an anesthetic to most creatures.  It keeps the pony or whatever creature is inside from waking up and resisting, and it also keeps them calm and promotes positive dreams.  It's like putting fertilizer on plants, because the positive thoughts help generate more love for us to harvest."

Thorax looks and sees the uncomfortable look on the princess's face.  "I'm sorry" he says to her.

"It's okay" she responds.  "You can't help what your hive does, even if you want that to change as badly as you do."

"Getting back on topic, Aunt Celestia was afraid of a panic starting back in Equestria, so she asked me to do something that she didn't feel good about at the time, and something that I honestly don't feel all that great about now: I kept any information about you from getting back to Equestria, including and especially the trial."

Thorax looks at her with shock.  "Why?"

Cadance hangs her head.  "Aunt Celestia was afraid of panic, like I said.  However, she was also afraid of what ponies would do.  There could be some that ignore the words of the princess and come here to cause you harm, or worse."

Thorax flinched a little at the implications.

"There's also the matter of other changelings" Cadance continues.  "If what you said about them is true, then us announcing where you are would be just as bad as turning you back over to your hive, not to mention that coming here may tempt them to try and invade the Crystal Empire.  That is something neither Aunt Celestia, or myself, wish to see happen."

Thorax looked at her with surprise.  "You didn't want to see me hurt, even back then?"

Cadance has a look of guilt cross her face, matched by the corresponding emotion coming from her.  "As much as I hate to admit it, but my motivations were more for the citizens of my empire than your overall well being.  You could say I looked at my action as..."

Cadance pauses as she puts a hoof to her muzzle.

"How do the griffins say it?  Slaying two birds with the same stone?"

Thorax flinches a bit.  "Something like that, I think" he responds.

Cadance again looks guilty but continues speaking.  "Regardless, we decided it was probably not a good idea to advertise to all of Equestria that there was a changeling free in the Crystal Empire, at least until we were sure that we could be sure to keep you safe from reprisal, be it by ponies or your former hive."

Thorax considered what he had been told and eventually nodded in agreement.  He didn't want to keep his being on friendly terms with the Crystal Empire a secret, but if telling other ponies meant danger from either those ponies or a member of his hive finding out that information in one fashion or another, then it made sense to him that only a few ponies should know about it, even if the whole Crystal Empire knew now.

One of his last thoughts brings a new question forward in his mind.  "How do you know my hive doesn't know about me already?"

Cadance lets out a breath.  "We don't," she responds, "but we've been searching the Crystal Empire for months to make sure that there were no other changelings here besides you.  At the time, we still didn't fully trust you and wanted to be sure that you weren't some kind of elaborate decoy meant to make us drop our guard."

"In all that time of searching, we found no other changelings.  We even had guards walking through the crowd during the announcement of your being accepted as a probationary citizen checking with spells to make sure everypony was a pony and not a hidden changeling."

Thorax looked at Cadance with surprise.  "Who devised that kind of spell?"

"Twilight, mostly" Cadance answers.  "Besides her, Sunburst helped with enhancing it to reduce mana drain, as well as making it into an enchantment to create sensors to put in public places.  However, a variation with an additional attack spell was devised by my husband."

Thorax wilted as he remembered the unicorn.  He hadn't seen him since the announcement of his probationary citizenship, and in honesty, he did his best to avoid the stallion who would likely try to kill him on the spot if given the chance.

"You don't have to worry about Shining Armor anymore" Cadance tells Thorax.  "He won't like it, but I am taking you on as my charge, which means your safety is my responsibility.  I won't let him harm you or treat you unfairly, and I promise to do everything I can to help him understand that you are true to your word and not a threat to this empire."





"CADY, ARE YOU INSANE?!"

Cadance flinched slightly as her husband yelled at her in the private study.  Fortunately, their daughter had fallen asleep and was resting comfortably far away from the couple who were currently having what polite ponies called "a heated discussion".

"No, Shining, I am not" she replied.  "Everything that's happened recently has told me how poor of a leader I have been for the Crystal Empire and I need to do more to address that."

"We can't guarantee anypony's safety" Shining retorted, putting emphasis on each word.  "We certainly can't anymore than six months ago, especially now that you've let that... thing have free run of the empire.  It's an international incident waiting to happen!"

Cadance narrowed her eyes.  "Thorax is not a thing."

Shining looked at her with shock first, but then his eyes narrowed.  "What did you say?"

"Exactly what you just heard" Cadance replied.  "You may find it hard to believe, but Thorax has proven his intentions pure.  Even after being beaten within an inch of his life and put on trial for a crime he never committed, he still wants to stay here and call this place home.  He has friends here now, and he doesn't want to lose them."

Shining glowered.  "He fed on my guards and you the first chance he got."

Now it was Cadance's turn to glower.  "What happened was involuntary and he wrote that letter of apology for it, and besides, why didn't he drain the guards that arrested him when his ring was broken in that alleyway."

"Perhaps he did it so little that the guards simply didn't notice" Shining said more as a stating of fact than as a question.

"It doesn't matter" she continues.  "Thorax has proven himself to me, and he is my personal charge.  If he gets in any trouble, it will fall solely on me.  You hold no culpability if something happens."

Shining wants to say something on that particular subject, but the look he gets from his wife tells him it will prolong what has been a long and exhausting argument already.

"Fine," he eventually concedes, "but this changes nothing in regards to this state dinner you have planned."

"No, it doesn't" Cadance responds.

Shining looks at her with confusion.  "What do you mean?"

"It's simple dear" she tells him.  "We're having our state dinner, with all the leaders invited, and we will be kind and gracious hosts.  The visitors will enjoy themselves and we will open ourselves up to having more visits like that in the future, even with us going to other territories."

Shining looked at her in disbelief.  "Our guards-"

"-will do their jobs admirably" Cadance interrupted.  "Now, this conversation has went on long enough.  We need to get some sleep for tomorrow.  Another big day of leading this empire back to its former glory."

Cadance walks away from a fuming Shining Armor, who is waiting patiently for his wife to leave so that he can vent to the bookshelves surrounding them.

"Oh, yes" Cadance says as she turns to face her husband.  "One last thing."

Shining, who is still quite livid, looks at her with some curiosity.  The princess ignites her horn and a familiar collar is floated out from underneath a desk.

"This is the collar Thorax was wearing in prison" she tells Shining.  "I had it examined and the pony checking it told me that it was cut and then mended with a welding spell commonly used by our subjects.  When I asked him about the pony who originally cut it, he told me that it was a powerful unicorn with a magenta magic color.  You wouldn't happen to know of any powerful unicorns with a magenta colored magic, would you?"

Without warning, the princess throws the collar at her husband, who instinctively catches it in his magic, which just so happens to be magenta colored.

Cadance simply smirks and says "I thought so" before turning and leaving completely.
> Part III, Chapter 26 - Jury Deliberation (aka Twelve Little Ponies)(BONUS CHAPTER)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



As many of you may have guessed, this chapter is quite heavily influenced by the stage play and film 12 Angry Men (hence it's subtitle 12 Little Ponies).

During the deliberation, a "scoreboard" will pop up, showing the current vote on a verdict.  Just as in 12 Angry Men, the jurors will have designations, either Stallion or Mare, and with numbers to further differentiate.

That said, enjoy!








During the trial...






"Mares and stallions of the jury," Judge Iron Gavel said with authority, "you have been presented two arguments in a case against a changeling named Thorax, who stands accused of attempted foalnapping and assault on three stallions, as well as assault of, and endangerment of a filly.  In these arguments, you have been presented testimony by witnesses for character of the defendant, experts witnesses in the field of forensic science, and direct eyewitnesses to the crime.  There is also evidence you've been shown that was collected from the scene of the crime, as well as results from forensic tests run on said evidence."

"With all of this provided to you, you will now enter into deliberation.  This deliberation will only conclude when one of three decisions has been reached: Guilty, Not Guilty, or Cannot Decide.  Once you have that decision, you will return and present it to this court."

"At no time during this deliberation can you be allowed to exit the jury chambers.  You may make requests for food and water, as well as clarifications on matters relating to this trial if you need them."

"You are also not allowed to discuss this trial with anypony besides your fellow jurors until a verdict has been given.  What you discuss in deliberation is between you and your fellow jurors."

"Those are your instructions.  Now, I dismiss you to enter into deliberation.  This court will reconvene when you have come to a unanimous decision."

With a loud bang of his gavel, the judge dismisses the entire courtroom.  As everypony stands to leave, the jurors begin to file into a conference room with a table and twelve chairs seated around it.  The twelve ponies begin filing in.  Once the majority have entered, the guard stops the last, a mare with a grayish-tan coat, white hair, and grey eyes.  On her flanks is a mark of a piece of white crystal.

"Foremare of the jury," the guard says to her, "when you enter this chamber, nopony will be allowed to leave until a unanimous verdict has been reached.  When you need something, say a meal or water, simply knock on this door and the guard will accommodate you."

"Thank you" the mare responds.  "I will keep that in mind."

The guard nods and allows the mare to enter the room.  Once inside, the guard closes the door and locks it, leaving the twelve ponies in the room to begin the process of deliberation.

"Let's not take too long with this" one of the jurors, a stallion(Stallion 1), says.  "I have tickets for a hoofball game tonight and I don't want to miss it."

"I agree" a mare(Mare 2) said while nodding.  "My filly gets off from school in a few hours and I would very much prefer to pick her up from school myself instead of leaving it to my husband."

"Is it that big a deal for him to spend time with his daughter?" another mare(Mare 3) asks.

"She's not his" the mare answers.  "Her father passed during an incident against a manticore near the Everfree.  She was too young to know him."

The second mare winces.  "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about" the first mare says.  "He wanted to protect Equestria, and sometimes the very unfortunate happens.  Fortunately, my new stallion has wanted to be a dad for a very long time.  I just don't want to burden him because he has to work night shift currently."

"Mares and stallions," comes the voice of the foremare(Mare 1), who takes her spot and the head of the table, "I am sure that we all have things we would much rather be doing right now, like getting a tooth pulled or a tax audit or a rather uncomfortable dinner with in laws, but as of now, we have a job to do, and we are going to see to it that that job gets done."

"Then what are we waiting for?" another stallion(Stallion 6) asks.  "Let's put this changeling in the dungeon where he belongs."

"Now, hold up a minute!" the foremare says with annoyance.  "We are going to do this right.  To start with, we are going to have a preliminary silent vote.  There's pieces of paper and some quills and inkwells in front of you.  Write down your verdict on the paper and fold it in half, then pass it up to me so that I may collect them all and read them out so they can be counted."

The ponies agree and all reach for a piece of paper and a quill.  After some scribbling, the twelve ponies all turn in their verdict.  The foremare takes the paper and organizes them so she can read them off.  Once finished, she goes to a nearby blackboard and writes the words GUILTY and NOT GUILTY on it with lines under each.

"I am going to read these off," she begins, "and I will make a tally under whichever one I call out.  If we have a unanimous verdict after this, we will go around giving our reasons for this verdict.  If we haven't, then we will deliberate and vote again until we have a unanimous verdict."

The ponies all nod, agreeing this was a fair process.  The foremare began reading off each vote, placing a tally mark under the correspond verdict.

"Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, not guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, not guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty."

Several of the jurors look around in surprise, clearly expecting the decision to be unanimous.  The foremare puts the papers down and addresses the jury.

"We have ten guilty and two not guilty" she announces.  "This is obviously not a unanimous verdict, so we will be required to deliberate further.  To begin with, I would like to ask the two jurors who chose not guilty to please stand."

A few moments pass where ponies begin to look around at each other, but then two stand up to be recognized.  One is a stallion(Stallion 5) with a pale blue coat and darker blue mane and tail.  The other is a mare(Mare 7) with a pale pink coat and a straight mane and tail an orange color.

"You two have voted in favor of not guilty" the foremare continues.  "I would like for you to please give us your reasons for your decision."

The two look at each other for a few moments before the mare makes a gesture for the stallion to go first.  He takes a breath before speaking.

"I chose not guilty because of the little filly's story" he tells the other jurors.  "She had a clearing spell used on her and admitted that the changeling was saving her.  The way she spoke about it, it had me convinced he wasn't the one that tried to take her."

Another juror goes to chastise the stallion, but the foremare stops them.  "The mare will be allowed to speak," she says, "and then we will hear from the rest of the jurors as to why they feel the defendant is guilty."  Once she's said her peace, the foremare looks to the mare on the jury and gives a nod.  The other juror returns the nod and prepares to speak.

"I chose not guilty because I don't believe the stallion's stories add up" she explains.  "Those three are walking along and just happen to come across a group of changelings preparing to abduct a filly, and they also decide to fight back and manage to capture one?  It sounds a little far-fetched to me to be honest."

The mare and stallion both sat down.  The foremare nodded as she heard the stories that were told to her.

"I understand your viewpoints, both of you," she says, "but now we will go around the room and ask why those of you who voted guilty chose your verdict.  I will start us off since that is my verdict as well."

The foremare takes a drinking glass and pitcher from the table and pours it full.  After placing the pitcher back down on the table and taking a steady pull from the drink, she sets the glass down and begins speaking.

"I chose guilty because I felt there was enough physical evidence present to show the defendant was doing what the stallions claimed he was doing."

The foremare then went around and pointed to various ponies, indicating that she wanted them to speak.

"I voted guilty because I believed the stallion's testimony" said Mare 2.

"I voted guilty for the same reason you did - evidence pointed to him committing the crime" said Mare 3.

"I voted guilty because I don't believe that the clearing spell worked and that filly was still under the changeling's control" a third mare(Mare 4) said.

"I voted guilty because I don't think the defense has a case and was just wasting our time" came the annoyed reply of a stallion(Stallion 1).

"I voted guilty because the evidence of the prosecution convinced me" another stallion(Stallion 2) said.

"I voted guilty because I think the stallions were telling the truth" a third stallion(Stallion 3) answered.

"I voted guilty because I feel confident that the changeling did it" a mare(Mare 5) said with a bit of venom.

"I voted guilty because the evidence convinced me" the last mare(Mare 6) of the group answered.

The final pony, the last stallion(Stallion 4) in the jury, gave his reason.  "I chose guilty because I believe both the stallions and the evidence."

The foremare placed her hoof back down.  "We have all heard the reasons for why we voted" she said to them all.  "Now, the two who chose not guilty said they did so because they didn't believe the stallion's story and the believed the filly was telling the closest account to the actual events.  So, let's begin by going over the transcription for the testimonies of the three stallions and the filly."






Voting on Verdict

Mare 1: Guilty		Mare 7: Not Guilty
Mare 2: Guilty		Stallion 1: Guilty
Mare 3: Guilty		Stallion 2: Guilty
Mare 4: Guilty		Stallion 3: Guilty
Mare 5: Guilty		Stallion 4: Guilty
Mare 6: Guilty		Stallion 5: Not Guilty

Guilty - 10		Not Guilty - 2






The jury all have copies of the testimony of the three stallions and the filly in front of them.  As they read over each one, some of the jurors start asking questions.

"Does anyone else feel like they're reading the exact same thing on each of the pages for the stallions?" Mare 4 asks.

"Of course they're saying the same thing!" the annoyed Mare 5 responds.  "That's why their testimony is believable!  They all agree that that's what happened!"

"Yeah, but why do they all agree on that?" Mare 3 asks.

"What are you talking about?" Mare 6 asks as she faces Mare 3.

"Well, I teach at one of the schools here in the empire," Mare 3 responds, "and I've often caught ponies lying because they all had an alibi worked out that they all agreed on.  They agreed on it so much, they even agreed that all of them would say the exact same thing."

"So?" Mare 5 retorts.  "That doesn't mean they're conspiring.  They all saw the same exact thing and they all said they saw the same exact thing.  What's that prove?"

"It doesn't," Mare 3 agrees, "but it's the fact that even after that much time, they all still remember it so clearly.  With everything going on and the mind being overwhelmed with information, little details are bound to get remembered incorrectly.  These stallions told the same story practically verbatim from when they were giving statements to the guards only moments after they showed up."

"I do have to admit that it's starting to look suspicious, even for me" another pony, Stallion 2, admits to the mares.  "Perhaps their testimony isn't what it's cracked up to be."

"Oh, come on!" Mare 5 says in annoyance as she throws her hooves to the air.  "You're all dismissing them so quickly now when you said you believed them before?"

"Looking over these transcripts more closely, I'm seeing a pattern that I'm not too fond of" Mare 4 says as she places the transcripts down.  "Foremare, I change my vote to not guilty.  As I sit here rereading the transcripts, I'm now under the impression that the testimonies the stallions gave were fabrications."

"I agree with her", Mare 3 chimes in, "and I would like my vote changed as well."

"Oh, come on!" the annoyed mare shouts again.  "Three stallions witness a changeling try and steal a kid and you all think that's a load of hog wash now?!"

"I don't doubt that changelings would abduct a filly," Stallion 2 interjects, "but doing so in broad daylight, and that close to the market?  It does sound pretty darn suspect."

"Besides, the lawyer for the defense said that we shouldn't make a judgment based on prejudice, and honestly, I'm starting to question how much my dislike of changelings played into my vote.  Looking at these transcripts again, I see a point that the defense has made either deliberately or unintentionally;  If I was going to frame somepony for a foalnapping, a changeling sounds like the perfect creature to pin it on."

The annoyed Mare 5 looks at Stallion 2 with disbelief.  "You're changing your vote too?!"

"I am" the stallion replies, then looks at the foremare.  "If I might change my vote to not guilty?"

The foremare nods.  "Very well.  We have three ponies changing their vote to not guilty.  That makes it 7-5 in favor of guilty.  Are there any others who would like to change their vote now?"

The remaining ponies shook their heads.

"Very well, we've looked over the testimony of the three stallions and the filly.  Does anypony want to read any of the other testimonies?"

"No, we don't" the annoyed Mare 5 says aloud.

"You can't make decisions for all of us" Stallion 3 says in indignation.  "If I can be honest, I would like to read some of the testimony from some of the other ponies that took the stand."

The annoyed mare looks at the other ponies and throws her hooves up in the air, letting out a scream as she then bangs her head on a table.

"Ma'am, please calm down" the foremare says as she goes through the stack of testimonies.  "I'm sure this won't take much longer."

Mare 5 doesn't even raise her head.  "We're not gonna be leaving anytime soon."






Voting on Verdict

Mare 1: Guilty		Mare 7: Not Guilty
Mare 2: Guilty		Stallion 1: Guilty
Mare 3: Not Guilty	Stallion 2: Not Guilty
Mare 4: Not Guilty	Stallion 3: Guilty
Mare 5: Guilty		Stallion 4: Guilty
Mare 6: Guilty		Stallion 5: Not Guilty

Guilty - 7		Not Guilty - 5






The jury continues discussing the testimonies of the witnesses.  Nothing much is gleaned from them, though the jurors are unanimous on one detail: the way the guards handled to filly was gross negligence.  The foremare makes a note to speak with Princess Cadance as soon as possible and address the matter of this massive oversight, if it could be called that.

As the deliberation turns towards the expert witnesses, the physical evidence and forensic tests come into play.

"The testimony from all three stallions seems suspect," Stallion 3 says, "but this forensic evidence looks pretty damning to me."

"As it does to me" Mare 2 agrees.  "I mean, the changeling was found at the scene of the crime with the filly's tail hairs in his mouth.  Hard to get more damning than that."

"Yeah," Mare 6 chimes in, "but that Dr. Prion said there wasn't any evidence of damage to the hair from pulling or biting."

"So?" Stallion 3 counters.  "He was still found with the hairs in his muzzle.  Besides, Prion was a witness for the defense.  Whose to say the results of her tests weren't doctored?"

"There's an easy way to find out" Stallion 4 interjects.  "All we need is a microscope to see if there is any damage to the hair."

"Really?" Mare 5 looks at him skeptically.  "You're some kind of expert on hair that you can tell if it's damaged or not?"

The stallion looks at her blankly as he gestures to his flank, where a pair of scissors and comb adorn it.  "I believe having that makes me more qualified than most of you to judge that kind of thing" he says to the other jurors.

"Very well" the foremare announces.  "I'll request they give us a microscope so we can examine the hairs for ourselves."

She moves to the door and then turns around.  "Do you know how to use a microscope?" she asks the stallion with the scissors and comb mark, to which he nods.

She taps on the door and the guard opens it.  After telling him her request, the door closes and locks, and the foremare turns to face the group.  "They're bringing us one" she tells them.

About ten minutes later, a microscope is brought in to them.  Once set up, the stallion looks into the aperture and examines the hair.

"Well?" Mare 5 asks, her impatience growing.

Stallion 4 looks for another few seconds before he finally leans back.

"No signs of damage from chewing or pulling," he announces, "and there's no traces of saliva either."

"There probably wouldn't be any saliva" Stallion 1 says in a matter of fact way.

"How would you know?" Stallion 4 asks.

"I was a former guard" Stallion 1 replies.  "We were close by while the scientists studied the captured changelings we had.  According to what they wrote in their study, changelings have a sac of water in their body that they use to simulate saliva when eating regular food.  This is all an act, of course, since changelings gain little to nothing from actual food."

"Little to nothing?" Mare 3 questions.

Stallion 1 nods.  "According to their research results, the food is processed into a resin they use in either construction or as way to trap prey.  Of course, they still require water, so that sac isn't just to simulate eating."

"Well, faking or not," Stallion 4 continues, "I see nothing to suggest that the filly was grabbed and held by the changeling, so I am no longer convinced of the changeling's guilt.  Foremare, I would like to overturn my verdict."

"You can't be serious?!" Mare 5 says in disbelief as the foremare marks down his change of vote.  "They were in his mouth!"

"And it looks to me like they were placed there" Stallion 4 counters.  "I don't know what you have against the forensic test, but from what I've seen, the results are conclusive and accurate.  The changeling did not grab and hold the filly."

Mare 5 has no counter for the stallion's statement, and elects to just huff and walk over to a nearby chair and plant herself into it.

"Well, that's 6 to 6, guilty to innocent" the foremare announces.  "I would just like to point out that, while we don't have a specific time limit, most of us would appreciate some brevity on the matter and would also prefer to avoid a hung jury."

Mare 5 huffs as she takes a seat in frustration.  Several of the others converse among themselves as they consider what Stallion 4 has told them.

"Should we take a look at the hairs from the dumpster then?" Stallion 4 asks the foremare.

"I'm not sure we can really glean anything from them" the foremare responds.  "For all we know, those hairs may not be actual evidence.  They could've ended up there after the original evidence had been collected before."

"Finally!" Mare 5 says in relief.  "The foremare starts talking sense!"

"How exactly is she talking sense?" Stallion 4 asks.

"The hairs may not, and probably didn't, come from that earth pony stallion!" she answers.  "For all we know, they could've just come from some drunkard who randomly stumbled through that alleyway after the fact."

"I doubt that" Stallion 1 interjects.  "Even before the empire returned, the protocol of guards investigating crime dictated that the scene be closed off from as much outside interference as possible until the investigation was considered resolved.  That hasn't changed since the empire returned, so if there was a pony that found their way into that crime scene, they would've had to have snuck into it somehow."

"What do you mean somehow?" Mare 5 asks him.

"They place specially constructed amber crystals in a square formation on the ground around the scene" he replies.  "A unicorn then casts a combination barrier/electrocution enchantment that will shock a pony that tries to get into the barrier."

"How bad is the shock?" another pony asks.

"It scales up and down based on intent" Stallion 1 responds.  "Brush up against it by accident, and it's like static electricity.  Try to run through it, and you get enough of a jolt to make you pass out."

"So you're saying you believe that the hairs from the dumpster were definitely there around the time that alleyway was closed off as a crime scene?"

Stallion 1 nods.  "I do.  Can't see a way for anypony to have broken through without a unicorn assisting them."

"What if there was one?" a mare asks.

"They'd have to be an ex guard" Stallion 1 replies.  "The ambers are also enchanted with anti-tampering spells.  They put security runes on those and change them any time a guard is released with unfavorable letter to ensure there isn't any tampering after the fact."

"Then I suppose we could look at the hairs" the foremare concedes, and presents a sample for Stallion 4 to look at in the microscope.  After a few minutes, he sits back into the chair he's seated on.

"So?" Mare 5 asks sharply.  "Find anything new out?"

"It's my opinion, which you can take with a grain of salt," Stallion 4 responds, "but I do think that the hairs came from that stallion."

The foremare looks at the stallion with confusion.  "What makes you think that?"

"A few things" he answers.  "First, the color of the hairs looks spot on for his coat color.  Second, I see evidence of where the hair caught on something and was pulled out.  Lastly, I can also see several of the hairs have the root attached, which could only have happened if they were caught on something and pulled, like the corner of a dumpster."

"That still doesn't mean they came from him!" Mare 5 points out rather harshly.

"And I said that this was my opinion" Stallion 4 counters.  "If you don't want to believe it, then you don't have to.  You can go by other information and evidence available."

"Oh, believe me, I will." Mare 5 responds with venom.

"What is your problem?" Stallion 5 asks her.  "I'm making my decision about the verdict based on what I see before me, same as everypony else."

"And YOU want to pretend like this insect is some goody-two-horseshoes that wouldn't harm a fly!" she spits back.

"Enough!" the foremare shouts, bringing the conversation to a halt.  "I think everypony in here could do with a bit of a break, so why don't we all have a snack and some tea and just calm down?"

The ponies in the room discuss and agree.  Mare 5 resumes her usual pout but does admit to wanting a cup of tea and some biscuits.






Voting on Verdict

Mare 1: Guilty		Mare 7: Not Guilty
Mare 2: Guilty		Stallion 1: Not Guilty
Mare 3: Not Guilty	Stallion 2: Not Guilty
Mare 4: Not Guilty	Stallion 3: Guilty
Mare 5: Guilty		Stallion 4: Not Guilty
Mare 6: Guilty		Stallion 5: Not Guilty

Guilty - 5		Not Guilty - 7






"Okay," the foremare says after everypony has had a cup of tea and some biscuits, "before we took our little break, the voting was 7 to 5 in favor or not guilty.  Before we begin, is there anypony that would like to change their vote?"

Mare 6 raises her hoof.  "I thought about it real hard," she begins, "and the evidence isn't as strong as I first thought.  If there wasn't any damage to the hair when it was clearly in the changeling's mouth, then he wasn't grabbing her to stop her getting away."

"So you're going not guilty too?" Mare 5 says while glaring at her, venom in her voice.

Mare 6 glares at Mare 5 and nods her head.  "Yes, I am.  I'm not convinced anymore, and it's making me doubt my original verdict.  I'm changing it to not guilty."

The foremare makes a mark on the chalkboard.  "The voting in the verdict has swayed, with not guilty having the majority" she says.  "Now, we have looked over the evidence and reread the witness testimonies-"

"No we haven't."

The foremare looks up at the pony who interrupted her- Stallion 5.

"What do you mean?" she asks him.

"We haven't seen all of the evidence yet" he replies.

Confused, she asks him "What did we miss?"

"The ring" he points out.

"Of for f-" Mare 5 begins to say before stopping herself.  "Who cares about the ring?"

"I do," Stallion 5 answers, "and so should you.  That ring was destroyed, remember?"

"The changelings broke it when they freed this one!" she spits back.

"Supposedly" Stallion 5 counters.  "In truth, I don't think there were any changelings involved in this besides the one being charged with crimes."

Mare 5 scowls.  "How in Tartarus could there not be other changelings?!"

"Maybe because the stallions didn't give a true testimony?" Stallion 5 says with his own glare.

"That doesn't answer the question" Mare 5 points out.  "How do we know there weren't other changelings involved?"

"She does have a point."

Both stallion and mare turn to face the speaker, Mare 3.

"Just because you don't think this changeling committed the crime doesn't mean there couldn't have been other ones that were trying to free him."

"I doubt that" Stallion 5 responds.  "The princess gave him asylum, which means he came here to escape either persecution or unlawful punishment.  If there were changelings here, I believe they'd want to capture him, and what better way than with his magic blocked?"

"How about when he was more restricted?" Mare 5 counters.  "The princess said in her speech that he was more restrained then than when he had just the ring."

"I don't know about you," Stallion 5 begins, "but it seems to me it would be far easier to take somepony off the street than having to get past all of the guards and other ponies in the palace."

"Everypony, please!" the foremare speaks up.  "We're getting off topic!"

The other ponies settle down, the conversation effectively brought to an abrupt conclusion.

"Now," the foremare continues, "I do believe we should examine the ring, but I have to first ask if anypony here has experience with magic-blocking rings?"

Stallion 1 steps forward.  "I do.  I was a mage in the guard.  Making rings like these was part of our training, and there were a few instances where I had to make them for use in restraining prisoners, so I understand the enchantments that would be used rather well."

"Okay" the foremare says in acknowledgment.  "You are effectively our impromptu expert.  Now, what do you need to examine this ring?"

"Just the ring itself" the stallion answers.  "The nature of these enchantments is meant to disrupt magic, so there's no machines that can perform this job for us; just good old fashioned unicorn know how."

The foremare retrieves a sample of the ring and hands it to the stallion, but he refuses it.  "I need to piece with the serial number on it" he explains.  "There are runes etched very finely into the numbers that keep the enchantments."

The foremare returns the piece to the bag and brings out the one with the serial number inscribed into it.  Taking it, the stallion then begins to clear his mind in preparation for examining the ring.  When he's ready, he takes the ring in his magic and starts dissecting the enchantments.

"Strange" he says after a moment.

"What's strange" a pony asks him.

"This metal" he replies.  "If I'm not mistaken, this is gold."

"What does the metal matter?" Mare 5 chimes in, the usual annoyance ever present in her voice.

"A good bit, honestly" Stallion 1 responds.  "Gold is a softer metal, and would be easier to break.  If it does get used in magic blocking rings, it would often be used as an inlay band for the enchantments to be applied to."

"Inlay band?" a stallion questions.

"Gold is a good conductor," Stallion 1 explains, "both for electricity and thaumic energy.  Using it as an inlay material allows the caster to place all of the enchantments on the gold while they use another metal, such as the significantly tougher titanium, to allow the ring to be much more durable.  The caster can also add a durability enchantment to the gold that would cover the other metal and make the ring virtually indestructible."

"Then why didn't they make that ring they way you just told us?" Stallion 3 asks.

"If the enchanter was new and not completely trained, then they may not have thought about making the ring that way" Stallion 1 offers.  "Or perhaps there wasn't any other metal around that was a good candidate for making a ring like that.  I know that combat steel is very poor for holding enchantments.  The most anypony does with those is a durability enchantment to keep the edges of bladed weapons sharper for longer."

"If it can hold durability, then why not use it for rings?" Stallion 3 asks.

"Unfortunately, inscribing enchantments into steel doesn't work nearly as well as for other metals.  That's why when they do enchant steel, they hammer the runes into the metal."

"Still doesn't answer why it can't be used for rings" Stallion 3 points out.  "You said gold could be used as an inlay band, so why not do that?"

"Nopony has quite figured this out, but steel will begin to oxidize when active enchantments are ran over it."

The other ponies don't quite accept the stallion's answer, until Mare 6 speaks up.

"He's right" she says.  "I used to work in a restaurant kitchen.  The knives they used for vegetable cutting had that kind of durability enchantment on them.  We had to make sure to wipe them down with oil and clean them every night to keep them from rusting.  If you kept up with it, you'd never need another set of knives again."

"That's right" Mare 2 adds.  "I have a set like that.  They work fantastically, but keeping them clean is a pain.  That's why I only really use them for holiday cooking where I'm making for more ponies than just my immediate family."

Having heard supporting claims, the other ponies accept what Stallion 1 has told them.  Mare 5, however, is still not convinced.  Without warning, she takes the ring from Stallion 1.

"Who cares about the kind of metal?  All that matters is if it can be broken, so let's break it!"

"No! Don't do it!"

Stallion 1's warning comes to late, and Mare 5 casts a spell with enough force to cleave the metal in two.  However, the metal begins to glow red, and Mare 5's horn quickly releases a surge of magic, making the mare cry out in pain and drop the ring from her magic.

The other ponies gasp in shock at seeing Mare 5's brazen actions.  Stallion 1 rushes over and examines her.

"As I thought" he says as he looks at the group.  "She didn't think about any tampering enchantments that the guard would've placed on a ring like this.  I should've started with those so she would've known."

"I doubt she would've listened" Stallion 5 responds.  "She seems dead set on proving that the changelings could've broken that ring."

"But, why would they?"

All the ponies turn to Mare 6.

"I mean, all they had to do was take the ring off, right?" she elaborates.  "So, why go to the trouble to destroy it when they could just toss it away?"

"Or why they wouldn't keep it to study or use on another unicorn?" adds Mare 7, who has an uncertain look on her face.

"Yeah, it doesn't make sense for them to destroy something that could be useful to them, or would be so dangerous and time-consuming to destroy" Mare 2 adds.

"I would like to overturn my vote to not guilty" Mare 7 adds.

"Mine as well" Mare 2 says with a head nod.

Mare 1 goes over to the board and updates the tally.






Voting on Verdict

Mare 1: Not Guilty	Mare 7:     Not Guilty
Mare 2: Not Guilty	Stallion 1: Not Guilty
Mare 3: Not Guilty	Stallion 2: Not Guilty
Mare 4: Not Guilty	Stallion 3: Guilty
Mare 5: Guilty		Stallion 4: Not Guilty
Mare 6: Not Guilty	Stallion 5: Not Guilty

Guilty - 2		Not Guilty - 10






The ponies look in confusion to see the tally having changed to include one more vote.  The foremare clears her throat in preparation to speak.

"After consideration of all the facts presented to me now," Mare 1 announces, "I have decided that I am changing my vote to not guilty as well.  There's too much evidence for me to say that this changeling did indeed plan to abduct this filly, and based on the information pointed out by Stallion 5, I don't believe he has had any contact with other changelings since coming here to the Crystal Empire."

Stallion 3 then clears his throat.  "I'm..."

He hesitates for a moment before he steels his resolve.

"I'm changing my vote to not guilty as well" he finally says.  "I've been trying to come up with reasons that this evidence presented by the defense is a fabrication, but I just simply can't find any, and there's a whole bunch of things I've been thinking about as well."

"Why would the changelings only come here to abduct one filly?  It makes more sense to me that they would sends scouts to probe for weaknesses.  Plus, if they're so greedy and desperate for love, why wouldn't they just stay in hiding here?  I don't know how then feeding on love works, but I'd wager a guess that there could be a few doing that and nopony would notice."

"There's all sorts of reasons, but to sum it up, I just don't see the changelings taking such a huge risk for just one filly.  I'm voting not guilty."

Mare 1 takes the chalk and changes the tally to reflect the now nearly-unanimous verdict.






Voting on Verdict

Mare 1: Not Guilty	Mare 7:     Not Guilty
Mare 2: Not Guilty	Stallion 1: Not Guilty
Mare 3: Not Guilty	Stallion 2: Not Guilty
Mare 4: Not Guilty	Stallion 3: Not Guilty
Mare 5: Guilty		Stallion 4: Not Guilty
Mare 6: Not Guilty	Stallion 5: Not Guilty

Guilty - 1		Not Guilty - 11






"The vote is now 11-1 in favor of not guilty" the foremare announces.

"TRAITORS! ALL OF YOU!"

Everypony turns to look at Mare 5.  She is livid and appears to still be suffering from the effects of the anti-tampering enchantment on the ring.

"You all are acting like there's any room for doubt, but there isn't!" she continues.  "They probably staged this whole thing to trick all of us into thinking that they aren't guilty all the time."

"They aren't guilty all the time."

The comment from Mare 2 catches her and everypony else off guard.  She steps forward to address Mare 5 more closely.

"I've heard plenty of stories where creatures other than changelings have abducted ponies.  Hay, I remember one where one of the elements was taken by Diamond Dogs because she knew a spell to find gems underground."

"Just because there's an abduction doesn't mean it was changelings."

"BUT IT IS!" Mare 5 continues protesting, frustration appearing on her face.  "It's all a trick!  It's what they do!"

The foremare looks at the exasperated mare with concern.  "I can understand your displeasure with changelings, but I don't understand your continued refusal of what the majority of us now agree are reasonable doubts."

Mare 5 is nearly to the point of tears as she begins to feel ganged up on.  "You don't know what they're really like" she says quietly.

Nopony says anything for a moment, unsure of what exactly to say to the mare.

"You were there, weren't you?"

The voice of Stallion 5 causes all the other ponies to look at him.  He walks ahead while looking at Mare 5.

"You're not a crystal pony" he continues.  "You likely moved here shortly after the empire returned and Sombra was banished."

"You lived in Canterlot before here, didn't you?"

The ponies look at Mare 5.  The mare doesn't say anything, but the truth is written on her face.

"You were there during the wedding" Stallion 5 continues.  "You might even have been in the chapel."

"I've heard stories about what the changelings did, but you've seen it first hand, haven't you?"

All eyes now turn to Mare 5.  She's not looking at anypony else now.  Instead, she looking at her hooves, and the sniveling sound she's making tells others plenty enough about how she's feeling right now.

"T-Th-They're all monsters!" she spits out quietly, then looks up at them as she continues.  "They pinned ponies down, spat this green gunk on them so they couldn't get away.  They turned into ponies and ushered them into houses before changing back and sealing them all inside."

"I... I saw a royal guard get fed on."

A few mares and even one of the stallions gasp upon hearing the last remark.  Mare 5 can be seen shaking as the memory replays in her mind.

"That's the worst thing I've ever seen" Mare 5 continues.  "One moment, he was fighting with all the tenacity a guard defending his princesses and kingdom should have.  The next, he looked as though he couldn't care.  It was like all the life in him had been sucked out, and seeing that pink energy getting absorbed by those... things!"  she breaks off as she fights to maintain what little composure she has left.

Stallion 5 moves up to her and places a hoof on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry we made you remember that" he tells her.  "None of us want to see what you saw happen again."

"Then why won't you convict him?!" she asks tearfully.

"Because it would undermine all of our values."

Mare 5 looks at him for a moment with surprise before he continues.

"The changelings deserve to face punishment for the horrible things they've done," he continues, "but they should only face the crimes they actually committed."

"Now, please be honest with me.  If a pony were on trial for this very same crime, and all the evidence was the same, would you convict them?"

Mare 5 doesn't say anything.  She looks away from the stallion, hoping he won't press the issue.  Unfortunately for her, he does.

"I think we all know the answer to that, and that's exactly my point.  If all the evidence is saying that the defendant is not guilty, why should what he is play a part in it?"

"B-But he's="

Mare 5 is silenced by Stallion 5's hoof on her muzzle.

"He's on trial," he continues, "and you're deciding his fate.  Please, don't punish him for this crime just because you want to see him punished for another.  You wouldn't do that to a pony, so why do it to him."

"He's right" Mare 2 adds.  "Be better than those monsters.  If they caught one of us and put us on trial for sentencing him and killing him, it would be as much a kangaroo court as the one you'd be trying to make here today."

Mare 1 steps up.  "I know that what you experienced was horrible, but the princess and prince have went through much worse."

"If they can see past the pain they experienced on their wedding day and make peace with one of the changelings, then I think you can too.  Please, don't act out of spite.  It isn't worth it."

Mare 5 looks at all the ponies around her.  She looks confused, but most of all, scared.  "B-But..."

She trails off as she meets all of the eyes in the room.  She sinks back onto her flank.  Her expression has now changed.  Where there was fear, there's now defeat.

"...not...guilty."

The foremare adjusts the chalkboard to now reflect the unanimous vote.






Voting on Verdict

Mare 1: Not Guilty	Mare 7:     Not Guilty
Mare 2: Not Guilty	Stallion 1: Not Guilty
Mare 3: Not Guilty	Stallion 2: Not Guilty
Mare 4: Not Guilty	Stallion 3: Not Guilty
Mare 5: Not Guilty	Stallion 4: Not Guilty
Mare 6: Not Guilty	Stallion 5: Not Guilty

Guilty - 0		Not Guilty - 12






All the ponies except Mare 5 breathe a sigh of relief.  The foremare clears her throat before addressing the group.

"Since we have now decided on a verdict for the foalnapping, we must now decide whether this verdict is a unilateral one for all charges or if we need to decide on verdicts for the other ones."

Everypony in the room looks to one another before Stallion 5 steps forward.

"The way I see it," he begins, "the filly's story seems to be exactly what happened.  The changeling approached and demanded the stallions let her go, avoided any kind of physical altercation, and did what he could do within reason to keep the filly out of harm's way, save for convincing the stallions to let her go.  I'd say by all accounts, all the charges against him are unfounded."

Everypony in the room looks to each other and either voices their agreements or nods in the affirmative.  All except Mare 5, who has resumed examining the floor beneath her hooves.

"Do you agree with the assessment as well?" the foremare asks her.

Mare 5 looks up at all of them.  She's clearly been shaken by the events that have happened in the deliberation room, and is now too exhausted to continue arguing.  She gives a single, solemn nod to the foremare.

"Then our deliberation is complete" the foremare announces.  Retrieving a blank piece of parchment and envelope, she writes down the verdicts and folds up the paper, placing it inside the envelope.

As she knocks on the door to inform the bailiff outside that their verdict is in, Stallion 5 moves to address Mare 5.

"I really am sorry we made you relive those bad memories" he tells her.

She looks up at him, and he can tell that she feeling drained of energy.

"What's your name?" he asks her.

"Honeysuckle" she answers, voiced a bit strained.

"Honeysuckle" the stallion says with a chuckle.  "I'm Diorite."

Honeysuckle doesn't say or do anything.  Diorite continues talking.

"What do you say after this trial is over, we go out and get a drink?  I know a few of the others are probably gonna hit up a bar or a restaurant after here.  We can all go as a group.  Sound good?"

The mare looks at him for a moment before a small smile crosses her muzzle.

"I'd like that" she tells him as she stands up to leave the deliberation chambers.
> Part IV, Chapter 1 - Passport
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






In Whinnyapolis






"I'm sorry," a mare says to a stallion, "but something just feels... wrong every time I get together with you."

"Please!" the stallion begs of her.  "Whatever it is, we can figure it out."

"We can't!" she counters.  "Every time we're together, I always feel like it takes more of me to love you, and it's draining me.  I can't keep up the charade.  I'm sorry, Onyx.  I really am."

Onyx cringed at her assessment.  "Please!" he choked out.

The mare looks at him sympathetically.  "I'm sorry, but it's over."  With that, she turns and walks away.  Onyx stands there for a few moments before he finally moves from his spot.  Traveling through a few alleyways and down a few streets, the stallion finds himself at his apartment building.  Retrieving his key from its hiding place, he unlocks the door and steps inside.

Once he's inside, he locks the door and lets out a breath.

"I hate when that happens."

The stallion is suddenly bathed in green magic, and a moment later, a changeling is standing in the stallion's place.  Settling back down on his haunches, he thinks over the past month and the relationship he'd established with Hearty Mum.

For the changeling, it was near perfection.  The love the mare felt for the stallion was strong, but as usual, feeding on it took its toll on the mare, and suddenly the relationship felt one-sided.  She called it off, though she did sound regretful about doing it.

"Why does this keep happening to you, Mandible?" the changeling asked himself as he headed into the bathroom to wash off from his day out.  This was something changelings had on ponies; chitin was far easier to clean than fur.  As he washed at various areas, he kept thinking about this most recent failed relationship, which is something that infiltrators never did.

"Why do I keep thinking about her?" he wondered as he scrubbed his back with a brush.  If he hadn't known any better, he'd call what he was feeling attraction.  But, how could it be?  Infiltration training had taught him and other infiltrators how to carry on a relationship without developing attachment.

Mandible finished scrubbing himself and got out of the shower.  A quick spell to evaporate the water off of his body, and the drone was ready to slip into bed.  Making sure his door was locked and his window shades were drawn shut, he slipped under the covers and tried to fall asleep.

As Mandible lay there, he had to concede a few points about ponies and some of the things they had better.  For one, they got to sleep on real mattresses, with covers for when it got too cold.  For another, they lived above ground and regularly got to see the beautiful world around them.  Lastly, they got to experience love and feelings for one another.

Hearty Mum was a wonderful mare, at least by pony standards.  She had gotten her cutie mark when she had collected and arranged wildflowers for her older sister's wedding when the original florist had killed the original flowers on accident.  Her job was as a florist in the city, and she planned to move away to a smaller town such as Ponyville and set up her own business.

She had a lot of love to give, and whichever stallion or mare that did finally take her as a bride would share in so much love and happiness.

Changelings could never do that.  All changelings could do was feed off of those emotions.  They could never feel those kinds of emotions for themselves.

But why?

Why couldn't changelings feel emotions for themselves?

Why couldn't they find happiness and love to sustain themselves?

Mandible shook his head of those thoughts.  He already knew the answer.

The Queen.

Queen Chrysalis decreed that the ponies were a lesser species, and only served to feed them, with the love that ponies had being nothing more than a source of nourishment.  The changeling's purpose, she said, was to take its rightful place as the dominant species of this world.  She promised a day when all creatures would bow before the changelings and would surrender all their love, and there would be no more starving.

Mandible let out a bitter sigh at that last thought.

The first move that Queen Chrysalis made was to attempt to take over Canterlot, the pony capitol.  She had found out that a wedding would be held there between a previously unknown princess and the captain of the royal guard.  She'd snuck in with a team of lings and abducted the princess, taking her place with nopony the wiser.

In her hubris, however, the queen made more than a few mistakes.  First, she held the captured alicorn in abandoned crystal mines underneath the city instead of sending her back to the hive.  Then, she didn't bother with copying any on the princesses mannerisms, tipping off Twilight Sparkle, an element bearer and former charge of the alicorn.  Then after that, she banished Twilight to the same crystal caves as the alicorn, allowing the former to free the latter.

This would have been excusable, were it not for the queen's final mistake: letting the real Princess Cadance reunite with the guard captain.  Upon doing so, she broke the spell on the captain, and their love fueled his shield spell with so much power, it literally blasted every single changeling from the city.

That had been something like two years ago.  Since then, the hive has suffered for it.  Ponies were more vigilant and more suspicious if the part a changeling played wasn't one hundred percent perfect.  Worse yet, the royal guard had captured several changelings not long after the wedding and had done experiments on them.  Nothing like vivisection from what he'd heard, but everything they learned was a new weapon in their arsenal against changelings.

As Mandible lay in bed in an effort to get to sleep, he had two rather strange thoughts pass through his mind.

First, he thought about his queen and her actions over the past two years.  Because of them, the hive was having harder times than before the attempt to invade.  A part of him was wondering how much of the blame was actually on the ponies and not on her, and another part made him wonder why he felt the queen should be blamed.

Second, he thought about Hearty Mum.  He couldn't say that her love wasn't fantastic; it was.  What made him think of her was how he felt when he was doing things with her.  A part of him actually enjoyed the walks through the park they'd take after work, and then the one time there was a carnival and he had won her a stuffed bear at a ring toss game.  The love she exuded was amazing, but something about seeing her that happy had made it all that much better.

Why did seeing her happy make him feel that much better?

Mandible tried to clear his mind of the offending thoughts and get to sleep.  When he got up tomorrow, he would perhaps try to get Hearty Mum to reconsider her choice.  If she didn't take him back, he would have to come up with another idea of how to get love.






Four Months After Thorax's Trial






Thorax was currently on his way to the throne room of the Crystal Palace.  If he had been doing this about six months ago, he would've been stopped and detained by the crystal guards.

Of course, that was before he was put on trial for attempted foalnapping and assault.  After the charges were dropped due to evidence proving the stallions who accused Thorax were both lying and the actual culprits coming from the city of Van Hoover, the crystal ponies had to accept two facts:

It was possible for a changeling to not be guilty of a crime, and ponies could be just as deceitful as changelings.

As the changeling made his way to the throne room, he thought back to how the last four months since his trial had went.  To say things were a bit rocky was something of an understatement.  Ponies would be quite nervous whenever he would enter a room, but none ever bolted out or ran away screaming from him.  A small victory, perhaps, but a victory nonetheless.

Princess Cadance had been the one to make the biggest change.  Since the day she had apologized to him and not only made him a full citizen, but also gave him the highest honor that she could, the princess had done a near 180 turn from how she had acted before.  Initially, there was a great deal of guilt behind her actions, but it diminished as time went on.

One of the most significant changes she made was inviting him to join her at his designated lunchtime to have some tea and speak with her.  More recently, the princess had had her daughter with her, a sign of her growing trust with the changeling.

These lunches weren't always pleasant.  One time, Prince Shining Armor was there, and upon seeing the changeling, excused himself and left rather hastily, a trail of hatred and disgust following him as he left.  Thorax had asked about his behavior, and Cadance had told him that Shining was not happy with her decision to take Thorax as her ward.  This obviously bothered Thorax, but Cadance told him to ignore it.  She had taken him as her charge so that she could make sure he stayed safe, and anypony that had a problem with the decision could take it up with her.

Of course, Thorax's visit to the throne room had nothing to do with Shining Armor.  Some time back, Princess Cadance had told Thorax that she would personally grant him a huge request.  It could be anything he wanted within reason.  She had also told him to think long and hard about what exactly he wanted, and she was insistent that he take her up on the offer.  That said, he did have something in mind, and he had approached her with it a few weeks back.






Three Weeks Earlier...






"Come in, Thorax!" Princess Cadance said enthusiastically as she was seated at a small table placed off to the side of her dais.  Thorax approached with a smile on his face.  Since the princess had started inviting him for tea at lunchtime, it had become a part of his day he'd been looking forward to.  He took his seat across from the princess as a servant poured him a cup of tea.

"How has your day been so far?" she asked him after he'd had a chance to taste his tea and adjust it to his preferences.

"It's been good so far" Thorax replied.  "We've finished with linen changes just before lunch."

"That's good to hear" she told me.  "I've been thinking of commissioning new linens for the upcoming season.  Tell me what you think of this pattern."

The princess levitated up a swath of fabric.  It was red and decorated with a pattern that mimicked the empire's famous crystal berries.  In addition, there was a pink, wispy flame in the shape of a heart.  Upon seeing it, Thorax understood what it was for: Hearth's Warming.

"It's nice" he told her.  "I'm sure whatever guests we host here are going to like it."

The princess smiled as she put the swath back.  Thorax then had a thought and grimaced a little.  "Will I have to disguise if we do have guests?"

Cadance considered what he said and looked a bit uneasy.  "To be honest, I don't know," she answered, "but I should hope not.  You've lived among us as you are for nearly a year now and there hasn't been any major issue, aside from what those stallions tried to do to you, as well as Feather and Elbow."

Thorax grimaced again upon mention of the stallions that attacked him in that alley and then tried to frame him for their attempt to abduct Raspberry Mint.  He also remembered the attack that Feather Duster and Elbow Grease carried out against him when he was so restrained that he couldn't even defend himself.  Those were some bad memories he didn't care to remember that much.

The return of those memories did bring happier thoughts almost immediately.  He then smiled a little as he was reminded of Raspberry.  He hadn't seen her too often since that day, but he had run into her a few times, and each time she was happy to see him, even giving him a hug, as well as a dose of love that was very welcome.

He also recalled Elbow Grease and his apology before he was sentenced to the dungeons.  A part of him wondered if he would be allowed to see the stallion, and even possibly put in a good word so he could perhaps be released a bit early.

Thorax shook his head as he remembered the original reason he wanted to talk to Princess Cadance.  "Princess?" he addressed her.

"There's no need for that, Thorax" Cadance said to him.  "You can refer to me as just Cadance."

Thorax frowned a little.  "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel comfortable addressing my ruler by her first name."

Cadance let out a sigh.  "Thorax, I know that I don't know how everything works back in the changeling hive, but you don't have to be so concerned about that sort of thing here.  Honestly, as much as I am a princess, I still feel as though I'm being raised up on a pedestal."

"I know," Thorax concedes. "but I feel like addressing you that way is... disrespectful."

"Normally, it would be," Cadance admits, "but I want you to be an actual friend.  A pony, or more specifically changeling, that I can hold a simple conversation with and enjoy their company, and friends don't use such titles with one another."

"I know, but I still feel like I'm not acting appropriately when I do that" Thorax tells the princess.

"Well, I won't force you to do something you aren't comfortable with" Cadance says in an effort to take the conversation in a more positive direction, then winces a little at her choice of words.  "Well, I won't do it anymore, I should say.  Now, I'm going to guess you were about to ask me something?"

"Yeah" the changeling confirmed.  "You said a little while ago that I could make a request of you and that you would grant it as long as it was within reason."

"Yes, I did" Cadance confirms to Thorax.  "I will grant you a request that, while it may be difficult, is within reason and within my abilities.  I believe that you've decided that you have something to request from me?"

"I do" Thorax answers and then takes a breath.

"I received a letter from Princess Twilight and Spike the other day" he explains.  "Both of them were appalled to learn about what happened to me, but also very glad that I was proven innocent.  Spike even said he wished that he had been here so he could've sent those stallions running with their flanks on fire."

Cadance giggled a bit at the image of the three stallions running around frantically with flames covering their behinds before sticking them into the snow in an effort to extinguish the flames.

"I've thought about how long it's been since I've seen them, especially Spike," Thorax continues, "and I would really like to see them again."

"Well, I can certainly invite Twilight and Spike to come for a visit" Cadance proposed.

"That's... not exactly what I meant."

"Oh?" Cadance says, a little confused.

"Thinking about them living in Ponyville got me thinking about Equestria too," Thorax explains, "and my journey through it before ending up here."

"When I came through Equestria, I was so worried about being discovered that I hardly got to see or experience anything it had to offer.  I would have to find whatever odd job I could to have enough bits for someplace to stay, or I'd have to sleep outside in some bushes.  There was more than I time or two where I had to disguise as a stray dog or cat so I could stay in an old barn or warehouse."

"Because of the circumstances, I never really got to see Equestria, and after my lessons with Sunburst where he showed me all kinds of things about it, I really feel like I missed out on so much."

Thorax stopped speaking for a moment, which allowed Cadance a chance to speak without interrupting the creature in front of her.  "I believe I understand what you're asking of me Thorax."

The changeling looked up at her and took a test of her emotions.

Uncertainty, fear, trepidation, resolve.

It was an unusual cocktail of feelings, but it told Thorax that she did understand what he was asking.  "With your permission," he concludes, "I would like to go back and see Equestria.  I want to see it the way I never got to when I was there originally."

Cadance sat there for a few moments to process what Thorax had just told her.  As a citizen, he was certainly within his right to want to leave the empire and visit another kingdom like Equestria.  Unfortunately, he was also a changeling, and that would make traveling difficult, especially if he were to request doing so in his natural form.

"That request...," she began to reply, "is... difficult, at best."

Thorax hung his head dejectedly upon hear her say that.

"I'm not saying no to you, Thorax" she tells him.  "This request of yours is definitely within the parameters of 'difficult but reasonable'.  I would like to say yes right away and send you off with a round trip ticket and a sack of bits bigger than your head so you don't have to worry about any expenses, but the current situation between Equestria, including the Crystal Empire, and changelings hasn't really improved much, if at all."

"This request is, well, it's gonna take time.  I'll have to speak with Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna about this.  I know from your interactions with them during their visit before we decided on your 'asylum agreement' that they were amicable towards you, but they also have a kingdom to run, and some decisions they make just can't be decreed as law, especially when a decision involves an individual that is technically a member of an enemy state."

Thorax looked a bit dejected, but Cadance reached over and lifted up his chin.

"This isn't a no, Thorax," she tells him, "but please understand that, what you're asking me to do, is going to take some time."

Thorax takes a feel of her emotions again and gets similar ones as before, but resolve seems to be much stronger now.  "Okay" he says as he elects to take a sip of the tea in front of him.






In the present...






Thorax entered the throne room and saw Princess Cadance sitting at the tea table he'd become familiar with after only a few weeks.  White marble top with a metal frame that was also painted white, but having sapphire hearts seated into heart carvings etched inside the legs of the table.

Beside her was a bassinet, which likely contained her daughter, Flurry Heart.

Thorax smiled upon thinking of the little filly.  Cadance had allowed Thorax to see her during one of their tea sessions and the filly was quite taken with him.  At first, she stared at him with an expression that could only be described as 'bug eyed'.  She then poofed out of her bassinet and reappeared in front of his face, startling him nearly out of his chair.

This upset Flurry, and Princess Cadance had to calm her down.  Thorax apologized for startling her, but the princess had waved it off, simply saying that he wasn't the first creature, pony or otherwise, to be startled by the little alicorn's surprising natural talent for complex magic.  When introduced again, the two got along rather well, with Flurry offering him a toy so that the two could briefly play together.

Thorax shook the thought from his mind and walked into the throne room.  After a few steps, Cadance looked up at him with a smile.  "Thorax!" she called to him.  "Please!  Come sit down!"

The changeling smiled as he approached and then took his seat.  Cadance made some babbling noises into the bassinet and then gestured to a hoof maiden off to one side, who took the bassinet in her magic and left the room.

Thorax deflated a little upon seeing that.  Besides the massive amount of love the child gave off specifically just for him, he also quite enjoyed playing games with her.  In a way, it was letting him experience a nymphhood he never got to enjoy, even if it was only for a few minutes at a time.

"I know you're probably a little disappointed that you don't get to play with Flurry today," she said apologetically, "but there's something important that I need to talk to you about."

Thorax tensed a little upon hearing the princess say "I need to talk to you".  In his past experience in the hive and on his journey through Equestria, good things very rarely followed that phrase.

"It's nothing bad" she assured him.  "In fact, I think it may be best if I show you what I'm talking about."

The princess then levitates a piece of parchment over to him.  Thorax catch a brief glimpse of the seal for Equestria, a black alicorn and white alicorn flying around a globe, attached to one end of the document.  He take it in his hooves and begin reading it.

To whom it may concern:

The individual that has provided you this letter is named Thorax.  Thorax is a changeling who has been granted citizenship in the Crystal Empire.  He is also recognized as a diplomat for the changelings, and as such, has been granted a pardon for any and all wrongdoings that took place before this appointment.

You are not to detain or arrest Thorax without probable cause.  His status as a citizen of the Crystal Empire will be fully recognized by Equestria.  There is an enchantment attached to this document that will confirm its validity to you.  Simply have a unicorn place their magic on it to reveal the confirmation.

If you fail to follow the terms listed in this letter, you will be subject to disciplinary review and may be punished with prison time and possible dismissal with unfavorable letter.

Signed,

HRH Princess Celestia Dawn

Co-Signed,

HRH Princess Luna Nocturn

Thorax looked up from the document in surprise.  Cadance gave a small smile.

"Aunt Celestia and Luna both agreed that you should get to experience Equestria the way any normal pony can.  They'll be addressing all of the royal guard and telling them about you so as to prevent any misunderstandings."

Thorax eyes went wide.  "You mean...?"

Cadance nodded.  "Aunt Celesita, Luna and I have worked out an arrangement to allow you to visit Equestria and get to see it they way you should have before."

Thorax's mood changed from confused and fearful to overjoyed in a matter of seconds.  He was very tempted to dart around the table and wrap the princess in a hug, but he restrained himself.

Cadance continued speaking.  "There are some security protocols that Aunt Celestia and Luna have put in place, including ones that the guard are to follow to the letter when interacting with you."

"Interacting with me?" Thorax said with confusion.

Cadance looks uncertain for a minute but then resolves herself.  "Aunt Celestia and Luna are going to be addressing all of the guard outposts in Equestria.  They're going to inform them about you and the protocols they'll have to follow when you do decide to visit and meet them."

"What kind of protocols?" Thorax asks.

"Conduct, mostly," Cadance explains, "but they'll also be reminded about the general attitude towards seeking revenge for past wrongdoings and the consequences for acting on it.  Aunt Celestia and Luna don't want any of the royal guards to try and obtain revenge for what happened at my wedding."

Thorax looked at her nervously.  "What if there's a guard that will still try to do something to me, even with this letter and those protocols?"

"It's a possibility," Cadance admits, "but it's one Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna want to avoid as much as possible."

"All the guards who serve the princesses, including Twilight, are expected to obey our demands.  This letter, and those protocols, are official orders from the princesses to the entire royal guard.  If any one of them ignores this letter or those protocols, then they will be subject to punishment, and possibly be dismissed with unfavorable letter."

"Unfavorable letter?" Thorax says with confusion.

"Every guard serving who is dismissed from duty receives a letter of dismissal" Cadance explains.  "If they carried out their duty to our satisfaction, the letter will say they served with integrity and honor."

"Guards that do something disgraceful, such as the ones who worked with Feather Duster and Elbow Grease to harm you, are given a letter that tells ponies that they acted in a dishonorable way.  That kind of letter is called an unfavorable letter.  Getting one of those brands the pony as a no good, and can make their life after guard service rather difficult, since most ponies won't want to hire or associate with a former guard who disgraced their position."

"So the guards who helped Feather and Elbow..." Thorax began.

"All of them received unfavorable letter," Cadance confirmed, "and so will anypony that goes against Aunt Celestia or Aunt Luna's wishes."

Thorax was silent as he thought about the ponies that had received those letters that would cause other ponies to have trepidation about them.  "Can those ponies regain their honor?" he asked the princess.

"The only way a guard could redeem themselves would be to petition Aunt Celestia and Luna for a second chance" Cadance answers.  "They would have to write a letter of apology to both of them and then they would have to plead in front of both the princesses in court.  After that, Aunt Celestia and Luna would have to decide together if the guard would be allowed to rejoin the guard and regain their honor."

"Has that ever happened?" Thorax asked her.

"There's been a few examples in Equestria's history of that happening, but it's not common enough to even be considered a rare event" Cadance tells him.  "The most recent it happened was from before Aunt Luna was banished as Nightmare Moon, and that guard was only forgiven because he had been medically diagnosed with narcolepsy; he'd fallen asleep at his post and allowed a thief to enter the castle and steal some very rare and priceless artifacts that have never been recovered.  When he returned to the guard, he lost all his previous rank and was never allowed to stand guard alone.  He was eventually dismissed with favorable letter after he served as quartermaster for nearly twenty years."

Thorax gave a nod of understanding.  He took a little bit of solace in the fact that there was a possibility that the ponies who had done him wrong would still have a chance to redeem themselves for their mistakes, even if it wasn't terribly likely.

"Anyway," Princess Cadance continues, "I have some things I want to give you in addition to that letter."

She produces two faux leather booklets in her magic and gives them to Thorax.  Looking them over, he sees that they are embossed on the front with a design that resembles the princess's cutie mark: A crystal heart with two fancy f designs on either side of it.  Flipping it open, he's greeted with a legal document.





The first one has the name Crystal Hoof on it, the name of the disguise he came up with when he first entered the Crystal Empire.  The rest of the document was filled in with fairly normal information, except for where it said tribe and something called a C.E.I.N., which he had no idea what it was.  In those spaces, it simply said "REFER TO ALT. DOCUMENT".  Thorax assumed this meant the other booklet, so he opened it to reveal a document just like the first one, but with the other details filled in.





This document had all of Thorax's information, including his estimated age, gender, and recognized him as a citizen of the Crystal Empire.  The only blank space on both documents was a spot where a photograph was supposed to go.

Going through the booklet, he saw that both had been authorized by Princess Cadance and bore her magic seal.  Thorax finished looking them over and then looked at the princess again.  "What are these?" he asked her.

"They're your passports" she answered him.  "You have two because of the security protocols that Aunt Celestia and Luna want to put in place for you."

"When you reach your first stop, you'll be taken through a customs check and will have to show the guards there those passports and that letter.  After they've verified everything, they'll give you some basic rules to follow while you're there, and you'll be allowed to go on your way."

"When you leave for your next stop, you'll go back through customs and show them the documents again.  That'll let them know that you did in fact move on to another stop."

"If you choose to travel part of your journey on hoof, you'll just have to find the nearest guard station and present all of the same information, and do the same upon leaving."

"As for when you leave, you'll have to use your Crystal Hoof guise and maintain it while in public.  You may dispel it in private, but only in private.  Crystal Hoof is the only pony you're allowed to appear as, so no other disguises on your journey, not that I think you would pretend to be another pony."

"Aside from those details, you'll be allowed to roam around and see the sights just like any other pony can.  Do you have any questions?"

Thorax thought for a moment and then acted a bit sheepishly.  "What about... my meals?"

Cadance looked at him for a second and then placed a hoof to her face.  "I completely forgot about that" she told Thorax, which caught the changeling by surprise.  He had a hard time believing the princess of love, whose wedding was attacked by changelings, would have forgotten the fact that they feed on love for sustenance.

Cadance then used her magic and produced something from underneath the table.  Once in view, Thorax saw it was a kind of bottle.  He recognized it from a chemistry book Sunburst had shown him during a lesson one time.  If his memory was right, it was called a Florence flask.

Inside the flask was a pink liquid, which appeared to be swirling and giving off a glow.  Cadance presented it to Thorax, who took it in his hooves.  Looking at it with confusion, Thorax looked at Cadance and asked her, "What is this?"

"That is something that Twilight sent to me as a surprise for you" Cadance explained.  "You see, she's been curious about changelings ever since meeting you in the empire a while back, and she's been conducting experiments ever since then."

"Her latest ones have involved your requiring love from other creatures as a form of nourishment, and more specifically, how it's done.  The idea originally was to find a countermeasure to prevent ponies from being preyed on, but with everything that transpired recently, she's changed her focus to helping you not have to rely on ponies as a food source, which I know bothers you a great deal."

"It's not so much that it bothers me to need love to sustain myself" Thorax clarifies.  "I just hate that when I do it, it ends up hurting ponies, even if just a little bit."

It was an unfortunate fact that, even with his friends permission and cooperation, his feeding still had a negative effect on them.  Even if he only did it for a short amount of time, they still felt fatigue enough to have to lay down for an hour or so and had a headache that persisted even with medications taken to counteract the effects.

They were able to withstand it longer than other ponies, though.  Sunburst usually could take it for two minutes before the effects started to become significant, while Brass could handle it for about five minutes or so.  Everypony else couldn't even go for more than ten seconds before succumbing to the fatigue of draining.

"Well, that's what she's hoping this potion will do" Cadance tells Thorax.  "Twilight had the idea for this potion when she figured out the spell that changelings use to siphon off love from ponies."

Thorax looked at Cadance with surprise.  "She figured it out?"

"She did," Cadance confirmed, "and she adapted the spell into an enchantment to collect it from the air instead of from a specific target.  She found a cafe where a lot of ponies were having a date night and she set some vials off to the side in some bushes.  The end result is she had collected enough love for her to start doing experiments, and the idea for a potion came to mind."

"To come up with the potion, she consulted a local zebra in Ponyville named Zecora.  With her help, they came up with this.  The general idea is that it takes some of the love Twilight gathered and uses various ingredients to propagate the amount of love inside the bottle.  With it, she's hoping a small amount can be used to make enough potion to keep you fed for a whole month and not need to feed on ponies anymore."

Thorax listened in wonder as Cadance told him this.  Twilight had made this potion to help him.  He looked down at it and decided to give it a try.  Popping off the cork, he took a cautious sip of the substance.

Immediately, he could feel his hunger starting to abate as the wonderful flavor crossed his tongue.  He kept drinking in the liquid until there was no more.  Once finished, he looked at the bottle with both amazement and confusion.

"That was definitely love in a bottle," Thorax told Cadance, "but I don't think the potion did what it was supposed to do."

Cadance looks at him with a little bit of disappointment.  "It didn't?"

Thorax shook his head.

"Well," Cadance says to Thorax, "I know that she can get the formula down with your help.  You should definitely make a stop in Ponyville on your trip so you can fill Twilight in on the results.  I'll write her a letter and let her know what you told me and she can work on a new batch for you to try out."

"I was planning on making a stop there" Thorax said with a smile.  "How else would I see Spike if I didn't?"

Cadance blinked for a second and chuckled.  "You're right.  You'd have to go there to see him, wouldn't you?"

The princess picked up her cup of tea and took a sip.  She winced as she removed her mouth from the cup.

"I think I should get us a new kettle of tea" Cadance said to Thorax.  "Preferably one that is still hot."

Thorax had almost taken a sip of his own tea when he noticed that it had indeed cooled down since he first came in to see the princess.

"Yeah" Thorax agreed.  "That would be a good idea."
> Part IV, Chapter 2 - Bon Voyage!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






A Week Later...






Thorax stood looking at his bed.  On it were all of the things he intended to take with him on his trip to Equestria.  He carefully scanned over each item to make sure that he hadn't missed something important.

First up were the most important items.  His two passports, which now sported photographs of himself, both as a normal changeling and in his Crystal Hoof guise.





Beside the two passports was the letter he had received from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna that instructed the royal guard not to interfere with his visit unless necessary.  Thorax hoped that with the letter he wouldn't be given too much trouble by any of the guards he would encounter.

After those items was a special pass that Princess Cadance had given him.  It was attached to a lanyard that resembled the ribbon his Crystal Heart award hung from, though the material was a more utilitarian and sturdy cloth than the ornamental silk that the award featured.  On the actual pass was Princess Cadance's cutie mark and a number, which allowed the ponies with the rail line to send an invoice to the Crystal Empire, whom would send them payment for whichever tickets he would get.

After the pass, there was a bag of bits.  These were provided by Princess Cadance to allow Thorax to enjoy Equestria as anypony would.  If he wanted to take a boat tour, visit a museum, came across a carnival or fair, or just wanted to buy a friend a gift while he traveled, he would be able to afford it.

Aside from these important items, there were some personal ones that Thorax decided to bring with him.

The first was a copy of a newly released Daring Do book, which had come out only a couple of weeks earlier.  Thorax hadn't got a chance to actually start the book, so he decided that his travel time on the train and any free time that he didn't have planned out could be used to read the novel.

Next was a photograph of his closest friends in the Crystal Empire.



Thorax was in the center and surrounded by his friends.  Princess Cadance and Heartfelt were immediately next to him on each side, the princess on his left and the stallion to his right.  Next to Princess Cadance on her left was Sunburst, sporting his star covered cape.  Beside Heartfelt on his right side was Brass, smiling wide.

Seeing the photo made Thorax think of how much he was going to miss his friends while he was gone, but he was also going to be meeting his friends that he didn't see on a regular basis.

After the photograph was a special parchment and quill set.  According to Cadance, the parchment was enchanted with dragon fire, which apparently meant that when a seal was applied to the parchment, it would burst into flames before turning into a wisp that would teleport directly to the pony he intended the parchment to go to.  Unfortunately, it was one way, so the only way a pony could send him a message back was to have their own parchment, but it was fairly expensive, according to Cadance anyway, so he could only really send updates to ponies instead of exchanging letters near instantaneously.

Rounding out the luggage were some simple toiletries.  A toothbrush with toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, soap that Princess Cadance had special made for Thorax so it would clean his chitin well, a comb and brush for styling his Crystal Hoof disguise's mane and tail, and a few clothing items that mostly included an assortment of scarves and hats.

The last items he looked over was the luggage bought for him.  It consisted of a set of saddle bags and a large rolling case that had wheels on it that swiveled in whichever direction you pulled it.  He had checked before, but all of his things were able to fit into his luggage well, and he even had some extra room if he wanted to bring back some trinkets as souvenirs or gifts.

Having went over his things, Thorax began to pack them.  He had just finished when Princess Cadance had knocked on his door.

"May I come in?" she asked him.

"Of course!" Thorax replied as he allowed her to come inside.  Cadance surveyed the room and the packed luggage by the bed.

"Looks like you're ready to go for your trip tomorrow" she observed.

"Yeah" Thorax told her.  "I have everything I can think of packed and double checked that I had all of my important papers."

"Good" the princess said before she produced a bag from behind her.  "Sunburst asked me to give this to you.  He's loaning it to you for your journey."

Thorax looked at the bad and then back to Cadance.  "What is it?"

"It's Sunburst's camera" she told him.  "He wants you to take pictures to show us all when you get back."

Thorax looked at the bag again and them took it.  He then opened it and got the camera out.

It was a very new camera.  The flash was built into the housing instead of on a wand attached to the side like the majority of cameras he saw.  It still spat out enchanted parchment that took a few minutes of shaking to develop fully.  The housing itself was silver-looking plastic, but there were wooden accents at different places.

"I'll have to tell him thanks for letting me borrow it" Thorax said as he placed the camera back in the bad.

"He'll probably come visit you later" she told him before she then produced a rolled parchment from her wing.

"Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna wanted me to give this to you" she told Thorax, offering it to him in her magic.  Thorax took the scroll and looked it over.  It bore the same seal as their letter he received a week ago had.  Opening it, he read the contents of the letter:

Dearest Thorax,

Cadance has told us that you have decided on a day you wish to leave the Crystal Empire.  We wish you safe travels and want to make a simple request of you.

We spent a rather brief amount of time together when my sister and I came to the empire on the matter of your arrival.  You told us much about your journey there and your overall goals, but we never got to learn a whole lot about who you are as a thinking and feeling creature of this world.

I extend an invitation for you to visit Canterlot during your journey.  Simply use the parchment my niece has no doubt provided you with, and I shall have my assistant Raven escort you to us.

I feel I must impress upon you that you may deny this invitation if you wish.  Nopony is going to force you to see us.  All I ask is that you write to us if you choose not to visit, but I certainly hope you will.

Signed,
Princess Celestia Dawn

"The princesses want to invite me to visit Canterlot?" Thorax said upon finishing the letter.

Cadance nodded.  "They do.  Their last visit was mostly business, and more specifically, the business of whether or not I should allow you to stay here."

Thorax frowned as he saw her look guilty.  "I'm sorry about all of that trouble back then."

Cadance stopped frowning and waved Thorax off.  "It's okay" she told him.  "Your coming here and staying with us has been good for me.  I've had the chance to see now that I shouldn't allow the actions of a few to taint my view of the whole.  Perhaps not all the changelings feel the way Queen Chrysalis does, and they only act that way because they're afraid not doing so will get them in really bad trouble."

Thorax nodded in agreement.  He had grown up in the hive his whole life and had never heard changelings talk openly about the actions of the queen.  Somewhere deep down inside him, he knew that there had to be some that didn't like how Chrysalis did things, even if they didn't voice it.

Cadance looked up at a nearby clock.  "It's getting late" she told him.  "I'll be heading for bed now.  I suggest you do as well.  It's going to be an exciting day for you tomorrow, and you should rest up so you can feel your best."

Thorax nodded in agreement.  "Good night, princess" he said to her.

"And goodnight to you as well" replied Cadance as she turned and walked out of his room.






The Next Morning...






Thorax was standing on the platform of the Crystal Empire's train station in his Crystal Hoof guise.  The station was a little ways out out of the main part of the empire, with a simple path made of dirt connecting it to the main streets.

On the platform with him were Brass and Sunburst, as well as Heartfelt, Bicarb, Bar Keeper, and Madam Ammonia.  Each had woken up early to see the changeling off.

"We're gonna miss you around here Thorax" Brass said to him as she took him into a hug.  "Come back to us safe, please."

Thorax returned the hug.  "I will, Brass."

The mare broke the embrace and stepped back.  Sunburst stepped up then.

"Make sure you use that camera I loaned you" he told Thorax.  "I didn't loan it to you so it just sit there collecting dirt and dust."

"I will" Thorax assured Sunburst.  "There will be plenty of pictures for everypony to see."

"Good" Sunburst nodded in approval as he offered his hoof to Thorax, who bumped it in return.

After Sunburst stepped back, Ammonia stepped forward.

"Princess Cadance wanted me to assure you that your position here will be waiting for you when you get back" she told Thorax, before leaning in with a smile.  "I wanna see some good pictures too."

Thorax smiled.  "Thank you," he responded, "and like I said, I'm gonna take plenty of pictures."

Ammonia then hugged Thorax and stepped back.  Thorax smiled at her gesture.  They weren't as close as Sunburst or Brass, but Ammonia still treated Thorax with much more kindness than he'd been expecting.

Bicarb and Bar Keeper then stepped up.  In the time since Thorax was exonerated, the two ponies had gotten a bit closer with Thorax; perhaps they weren't friends yet, but they were definitely on positive terms.

"Gonna be weird not seeing you in the morning" Bicarb said to Thorax.

"I know" Thorax replied.  "I've gotten so used to waking up and working that I'm not sure what I'll do with myself now."

"Well, that's the whole point of a vacation" Bar Keeper pointed out.  "You break up the monotony with activities you enjoy doing, and in your case, you're going to see one of the greatest kingdoms on this planet!"

Thorax gave a nod.  Even during the attempt to invade during the wedding, Thorax knew that ponies had created a fine kingdom for themselves.  Definitely much better than the changelings had currently.

Before anypony could say anything else, trumpets suddenly sounded.  Looking around, the group spotted a pink carriage colored in golden accents approaching the train station, a team of crystal guards pulling it.  Once stopped, the lead guard undid his harness and went to open the door of the carriage.

Stepping out was Princess Cadance, her mane and tail freshly done.  She looked around and spotted Thorax, smiling as she approached.

"Good Morning, Thorax!" she greeted him.

"Good Morning, Princess" Thorax returned, kneeling his body into a bow.  This gesture was repeated by all the ponies standing on the platform.  Cadance waved her hoof and urged everypony to stand back up.

"I wanted to see you off" she told Thorax.  "You're one of our newest citizens and I hope you will make a good impression in Equestria."

"I hope so too" Thorax replied.

Cadance turned and made a gesture to a guard, who gave a nod to the princess and went to the back of the carriage.  Opening up a compartment, he removed a luggage case from it and brought it up to her.

"Thank you" she said to the guard as he bowed and returned to the carriage.

"What's this?" Thorax asked.

Cadance used her magic and opened the case.  Inside were flasks like the one she had given him a week ago.  They all contained the same swirling pink liquid that glowed inside them.  A quick count told Thorax there was about one to two months worth, depending on if he used two in a day or one in a day.

"These are so you don't get hungry on your trip" she told him.  "Twilight also told me you can add some of this to food and it would stay stable for at least an hour before it would begin to dissipate."

"I'm guessing this is to make my Crystal Hoof disguise more plausible?" Thorax asked.

"In a way" Cadance replied.  "Her actual idea was to allow you to try different foods that you might otherwise avoid simply because you couldn't digest them."

Thorax frowned.  "I still won't be able to."

"I know" she said to him.  "It's just one of her ideas.  She remembers what the changelings feeding on ponies looked like and, well, she thinks this could be a 'socially acceptable' way for changelings to feed."

Thorax could see that and did agree with it in a way.  Though he had his friend's permission to do so, he still had to pull the love away from them.  He knew that it hurt them, even if their directing feelings at him mitigated the effects for some time.

Nevertheless, the feeding was still pink energy yanked out of the body.  Ponies wouldn't be tolerant of that, even if there were a few examples of some who would.  If this potion did as Twilight said it would, then it was a step in the right direction for improving changeling-pony relations.

A whistling caught everypony's attention, and they turned to see the train approaching.  The steam engine, colored pink and gold, came to a hissing stop just past the platform, perfectly lining up the passenger cars with the platform and allowing the passengers onboard to disembark without risk of injuring themselves with a long drop.

After a few ponies disembarked and the conductor walked through the train, he stepped out onto the steps leading down to the platform and called out in a loud voice "NOW BOARDING FOR EQUESTRIA!  NOW BOARDING FOR EQUESTRIA!"

Thorax turned to the ponies seeing him off.  "Well, I better get going" he said to them as he gathered his luggage, using his mouth and hooves since his Crystal Hoof disguise left him without a horn.  Sunburst and Brass both stepped up and took a luggage case in their magic.  "We'll help you get on board" Sunburst told Thorax, with Brass nodding in agreement.  Uttering his thanks to them, he took his saddlebags and boarded the train.

The passenger cars were nicer than Thorax had expected.  Plush, faux-leather benches colored a rich burgundy provided seating on both sides of the car.  The walls were a peach color, with windows trimmed in green.  Just below the ceiling of the car was a metal shelf where ponies could put their luggage.  As a finishing touch, a unique set of carpets covered the floor, with the aisle having a paisley patter and the spaces below the bench having a tartan pattern to them.

Thorax looked around and found a place to put his luggage.  Sunburst and Brass placed his extra bags beside his on the shelf.  With the luggage secure, Thorax turned to face his friends.

"I really am gonna miss you guys when I'm gone" he told them.

"We know" Brass replied, a small tear forming in her eyes.

"We'll miss you too" Sunburst added, wiping away his own tears but cleverly disguising it as adjusting his spectacles.

Without warning, Thorax took the two ponies into a hug, one that was quickly returned by the them.  Love flowed freely from Brass and Sunburst to Thorax, and the changeling swore he could feel the emotion in his own heart reaching out to them.

The hug was broken a few moments later and the ponies and disguised changeling separated.  As they did, Thorax took notice of the princess behind them.

"I wish you well on your journey, Thorax," she says with a smile, "and please give Aunt Celestia and Luna my best if you see them."

"Thank you," Thorax replied, "and I will visit them and let them know."

Cadance smiled as she approached and took Thorax into a hug.  Thorax returned it, and love again flowed from the princess to Thorax.  If any more ponies shared their love with him, he wouldn't need to feed any more today.

"All those not traveling to Equestria, please leave the train now!"

The voice of the conductor caused the hug to break off.  Cadance smiled and turned to get off.  Brass and Sunburst also left, but not before saying one last goodbye and giving him a wave as they got off.

With his friends departed and his luggage secured, Thorax took his seat on the train bench.  The conductor approached a moment later.  "Your ticket, please" he said to Thorax.

Thorax reached into his saddlebags and produced the pass Cadance had given him.  The conductor took it and read it over, then produced a book and pencil and jotted down the information.  "Thank you" he said as he then moved on to the few other ponies who boarded after Thorax.

With his ticket taken care of, Thorax elected to look out of the window.

Looking off in the distance, he could see the mountains that separated the Crystal Empire from Yakyakistan, a fledgling kingdom occupied by yaks: large creatures covered in fur who were known for their rather aggressive tendencies.  However, it was also said that if you gained their trust, yaks were also very gracious hosts.

"Maybe I'll visit them sometime in the future" Thorax thought to himself.

"All Aboard for Equestria!" came the cry of the conductor, which caused Thorax to turn his gaze downward, where his friends were waving at him.  He returned the wave as he heard the train whistle and begin to move away from the platform.  He kept waving until the platform left his sight.

With the Crystal Empire slowly leaving his sight, Thorax took in the scope of his current situation.

He, a changeling, was going to visit Equestria.

The only difference? He was doing so with the full knowledge and acceptance of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

"In one way or another, this is going to be quite the journey" Thorax thought to himself as the train chugged on towards the horizon.
> Part IV, Chapter 3 - Train Ride to Equestria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was approaching the time that would normally be Thorax's lunch break, at least if he were working in the Crystal Palace.  The changeling, disguised as Crystal Hoof, was sitting on a train bound for Equestria.  It would be a landmark moment of sorts for him, and for changelings in general: his visit was the first officially sanctioned visit for the secretive race, meaning that the princesses granted Thorax permission to come to Equestria.

As for Thorax himself, he was sitting on the train looking out the window at the scenery.  For the most part, it was somewhat bland: snowy plains that stretched on to the mountains of the frozen north.  The rail line going to and coming from the empire was new, and wards embedded into the ties that held the track in place helped to keep the route clear of snow as well as dampen the worst effects of the powerful snowstorms that took place outside the empire.  Still, the engine was equipped with a plow in case there was a need to push their way through the worst of a storm, as well as a week of extra rations should they become stuck for any extended amount of time.

His main reason for looking out the window was to distract himself from his nervous thoughts.  In his time since the conclusion of the trial against him, he'd come to have more acceptance from ponies here than he could have ever expected.  He had real friends, and the princess was ensuring his safety by taking him as her ward and also offering her friendship.

Going to Equestria, however, was re-entering familiar, yet also unknown territory.

As he understood it, the royal guards would be made aware of him beforehoof, so there were definitely ponies that were going to be aware of what he was.  The unknown was going to be how those guards would react to him.

Would they be more open-minded to the idea of a changeling wanting to live with ponies on peaceful terms?  Were there some that would not and only act professionally at best?  Or were there ponies that would simply attack him on sight, regardless of the consequences?

Looking away from the window and wanting a new distraction from his more negative thoughts, Thorax took a look at some of the ponies around him.

As he saw them, he noticed that none of them were crystal ponies.  It struck him as being a little weird.  Despite the return of the Crystal Empire, the ponies who lived there didn't seem too curious about the greater world beyond the influence of the Crystal Heart's magic.  Perhaps they were simply too nervous to venture away from the protection of the Crystal Heart; King Sombra did enslave them when it disappeared, after all.

He was shaken from his thoughts by a tapping on his withers.  Looking up, he saw a mare standing in front of him.  "May I sit here?" she asked him, gesturing to the empty seat across from him.

"Um, sure" he replied, making a gesture to the seat as well.

"Thank you" she said to him as she took her seat on the empty bench.  "I hate to travel by myself all the way up here.  It gets dreadfully boring!"

"You travel up to the empire?" Thorax asked.

She nodded.  "I did some genealogy and discovered that my family on my mother's side had ancestors that lived up here before it disappeared the first time.  When it came back, I looked up names in the most recent census and found some names on the register, so I decided to come up and rediscover old ties."

"That's interesting" Thorax comments.

"Yeah," the mare agrees, "but like I said, the train ride where all you have to look at is snow gets really boring."

"It does" Thorax responded.  "I have some books with me, but I'm gonna be traveling for quite some time, so I don't want to read through them all and end up with nothing to do."

The mare nodded in agreement.  "I know what you mean.  I have a book in my bag as well.  I can't really read it right now because..."

She trails off and makes some kind of gesture that Thorax doesn't quite understand.  "You can't read it now because?"

She looks left and right before leaning in and informing him "It's a steamy romance book."

Thorax blinked for a moment as he processed the information.  He'd heard of those kinds of books.  They were supposedly good at drumming up love in a pony that was interested in them, at least according to infiltrators he'd overheard in the hive.  His disguise blushed as he realized what she was talking about.

"Yes, well," Thorax says after he clears his throat, "I can understand why you don't want to be reading that sort of book with other ponies around."

The mare holds her look for a moment before a smile cracks it and she begins laughing.

"I don't read romance books, you silly colt!" she says as she gives him a soft punch in his foreleg.

Thorax looks at her with confusion for a moment before he realizes her small prank on him.  “Real funny” he says dryly.

“Oh, get off it ya big foal” she chides him.  “I'm actually an author."

Her comment had taken Thorax by surprise.  "Really?  Anything I may have read?"

"No" she tells him.  "I haven't gotten anything published yet."

Thorax looks at her with a frown.

"I moved up here to meet some of my ancestors," she continues, "but I was also looking for inspiration for writing.  I did write a few manuscripts while coming up here during my trips, but nopony seems to want to publish them.  I tried one of the publishers up here and they told me to wait to hear from them."

Thorax smiled at her.  "Well, I hope they publish your story."

"Me too" she answered back.  "What's your name?"

Thorax paused for a moment before he answered to make sure he told her the right name.  "I'm Crystal Hoof."

The mare smiled.  "I'm Fidget."

Thorax smiled back as the conversation between the two died down for a few minutes.  Soon enough, the mare got curious again.  "Where are you heading?"

"Well," Thorax answered, "I'm actually taking a tour of Equestria right now.  I'm not sure where I'll get off the train first, but it certainly won't be my last stop."

Fidget smiles.  "I've wanted to see all of Equestria too.  There's a lot of it to see, and I can't imagine you can see all of it in a week's time."

"Well, I'm gonna be gone longer than a week" Thorax tells her.  "I want to fit as much as I can in before I come back to the Crystal Empire.  I really want to have some stories to tell my friends!"

Fidget smiles as silence falls between them again.  This time, however, it last unitl the dining car announces that it will begin serving afternoon tea and biscuits.

Upon hearing this, Fidget looks at Thorax with a smile.  "Care to join me for some tea?" she asks.

Thorax smiles back at her.  "That sounds like a wonderful idea."





The dining car wash even more luxurious than what Thorax had seen of the train so far.  There were benches similar to the ones he had been sitting on, except these had more cushion to them, as well as a table sitting between the two benches facing one another.  On the tables were a salt shaker, pepper shaker, a tall jar with what appeared to be sugar, a rectangular dish that he remembered was for holding a stick of butter, a napkin dispenser, and a set of tea cups resting upside down on matching saucers.

Fidger walked ahead and picked out a seat.  As she did, her tail would sway from one side to the other, and if Thorax wasn't careful with his eyes, he would probably get an eyeful of something it would be rude to see without the mare's say so.  Once she was seated, he sat opposite of her.

"So," Fidget continues their earlier conversation, "you're a crystal pony?"

"Uh, yeah" Thorax answered her question.  Inside, he winced a little bit.  He really wasn't a fan of lying, but with what Princess Cadance had told him of the recent events involving changelings in Equestria, it was a necessary evil.  He wanted to make friends with ponies, not be run out of the kingdom on a rail, so he'd have to go with a cover story and disguise until things improved.

"What was it like before it all disappeared?"

Her question caught him off guard a little bit.  Sunburst had taught him some about the Crystal Empire before it disappeared, but he only knew so much, and Thorax had never talked about the empire before it came back with any of the real crystal ponies that actually would've been around when it disappeared to begin with.

"It... was good" he finally replied, sounding a little forlorn.  "At least, until Sombra usurped Princess Amore."

"Was she a good ruler?"

"Everypony loved her," came Thorax's response, "and she loved all of us."

He attempted to make the story sound like a bad memory so Fidget would be dissuaded from continuing the conversation.  It worked, as Fidget now looked a bit uneasy.  "Sounds like I'm making you relive some bad memories."

Thorax shakes his head.  "You're not.  It's just... well, in the past.  There's nothing anypony can do to change it, unless they have a time travel spell, but I don't even know if one exists."

The last sentence wasn't exactly a lie; Starlight had told him about Starswirl's spell, and nopony knew if there was another copy of it somewhere.

"Yeah, I guess so" Fidget responds.  Their conversation tails off for a few minutes.  Thorax takes the time to try and get a gauge on Fidget's emotions.  He feels... nervousness?

"Crystal," she says after a moment, "I gotta be honest with you.  I think you're... really cute."

"Oh?"  It's the only reply Thorax can think to give her.

"Yeah.  In fact..."

Fidget leaves her seat and moves over beside him.  Sitting down, she looks him in the eyes.

"I wouldn't mind if we spent more time together after we got to Equestria."

Thorax keeps his composure, but in his brain, alarm bells are going off.  Fidget has taken a fancy to him, and he can already feel affections being directed towards him.

"I... Uhh..."

The disguised changeling can't put words together in response to her advance.  Sure, she wasn't trying to jump into bed with him, but that possibility was all too real; he could sense lust building in her alongside the affection.

"Could you... excuse me for a second?" Thorax asked, needing a moment to clear his head away from the mare.

Unfortunately, he could feel a bit of hurt in her.  "Okay" she said as she slid out to let him stand up.  Quickly, Thorax stepped out and headed to the bathroom towards the rear of the train car.





Inside the bathroom, Thorax locked the door and dropped his disguise.  "What am I gonna do?" he kept repeating to himself over and over again.

He could see getting to know Fidget as a pony, even becoming friends.  That was not what was on her mind right now.  She was thinking about him as a special somepony, which wasn't exactly good for Thorax.

If he was a different kind of changeling, a normal one by hive standards, this would've been the perfect opportunity.  It was quite literally like dinner serving itself as far as the hive was concerned.  He began to imagine how much love the mare could provide him and how sweet it would be.

Thorax gave himself a hard slap across the face.  "Pull yourself together!" he berated himself.  "You left the hive so you wouldn't have to do that anymore!  She didn't give you permission to feed AND she doesn't even know you are a changeling!"  Seeing himself in the mirror, he scrunched up his face and turned back into Crystal Hoof.

"I just have to tell her that I'm not interested in a relationship right now, or even a tryst" Thorax finally decided.  He didn't want to hurt her, but it would be better to be up front with her now than leading her on and being tempted into feeding off her later.

Leaving the bathroom and walking back into the dining car, Thorax saw Fidget sitting at the booth they'd taken, her cup of tea having a spoon swirling around inside it.  Letting out a breath, he approached her.

Fidget took notice of him as he approached.  "Are you okay now?" she asked him.

"I am" he told her as he resumed his seat.

Once seated, Thorax tried to put the words together to tell Fidget that he wasn't interested in her offer.  Fidget, however, spoke up first.

"I'm sorry, Crystal."

Her words to Thorax by surprise.  He hadn't expected that, but maybe she was actually remorseful before he went to the bathroom and not actually hurt.

"Most of the stallions I've tried to start relationships with find me a bit too forward.  I've tried to be conscious of that and dial it back, but I'm still not very good at it."

"It's not your fault" Thorax says to her.  "I'll admit that your being forward caught me off guard, but it's honestly not that off-putting."

Fidget looked at him with confusion.

"I..." Thorax hesitates before speaking.  "Well, part of the reason I'm on this trip is to figure myself out and where I fit in with the bigger picture.  With all I plan to do, I'm not sure I could find room for a relationship right now."

Nodding in understanding but still radiating disappointment, Fidget nods in understanding.  "Okay, I get that.  You need to work on yourself before you work on you and somepony else together."

"Yeah" Thorax replied.  It was the actual truth.  Part of the reason Thorax was making this journey was to figure out what kind of creature he was and where he fit in the world.  He was going to see and enjoy Equestria, for sure, but he was gonna figure who he wanted Thorax the changeling to actually be.

Fidget and Thorax finished their tea in silence.  The mare then bid good night to Thorax and headed for her sleeping car.  Thorax didn't have one reserved, so he opted to go back to the bench he was sitting on earlier and lay down across it.  As he returned to the car, he took note of some other ponies doing the same thing.  Apparently, it was a luxury to have a private sleeping quarters on a train.





Thorax was woken up by the train car jostling slightly, the locomotive likely hitting a small section of track that had started to dip down or come up.  Realizing where he was, he panicked a little as he was unsure if he was still disguised.  A quick look at his hooves confirmed that his appearance hadn't slipped, giving Thorax some relief.

The relief was soon replaced with some hunger pangs, which caused Thorax to reach for the case with the vials of potion that Twilight and Zecora concocted.  From what Cadance had told him, there was a variety of different potion mixtures, and Twilight provided a notebook for Thorax to record his thoughts on that particular mixture.  All he had to do was write down the number on the vial and a few of his likes and dislikes about that particular mixture.

Taking it slowly, as advised by both Twilight and Zecora, Thorax nourished his body.  Already he could taste the love in the mixture, as well as some ingredients that seemed to attempt to increase the quantity of love.

Unfortunately, this one missed that mark, but he did find the overall potion enjoyable.

Re-corking the now empty vial and replacing it, Thorax jotted down the number and his thoughts on it, then replaced the notebook and closed the case.  With his hunger sated for the next few hours, Thorax elected to go to the dining car and try another kind of tea.

When he got there, a familiar face greeted him.

"Hello" greeted Fidget, looking uneasy as she sat in a booth sipping at a cup of breakfast tea and picking at some eggs and toast.

"Hi" Thorax responded, feeling a bit uncomfortable because of the mare's discomfort.  He knew the feeling right away: shame.

"Can we talk?" she asked him, adding a quiet "Please?" at the end.

Thorax mulled the thought over in his mind and nodded.  "Okay" he said to her as he took the opposite bench in the booth.

Fidget took a moment to collect her thoughts before she spoke again.

"I'm sorry about last night" she said to Thorax.  "I'm not normally like that, but I broke up with a colt not too long ago.  It was harder for me than I thought it was going to be, but I made the mistake every mare makes."

"Mistake every mare makes?" Thorax parroted with a bit of confusion.

Fidget nodded.  "Yeah.  You see... he was my first."

Thorax chuckled.  "Well, all first relationships are rocky and don't always last.  I'm sure-"

"That wasn't my first relationship" Fidget interrupts.

"It wasn't?" Thorax said with confusion.  "Then why did you saw it was?"

"You misunderstood me" Fidget corrected Thorax.  "When I said that colt was my first, I meant he was my first... intimate partner."

Thorax didn't understand for a few seconds, then it hit him what she had meant.

This mystery colt had deflowered her.  Her very first experiences with physical intimacy were with this colt, and Thorax understood how those relations could leave an impact on a mare.

Feeling her emotions again, Thorax dared to take a guess.

"He's the one who wanted to break it off, wasn't he?"

Fidget didn't say anything for a few moments, but eventually nodded, then rubbed her face and began sniffling.

"I'm sorry" Thorax said to her.  "I didn't mean to cause you bad memories."

Fidget wipes her eyes and looks up at Thorax with a smile.

"It's okay" she replies.  "Honestly, I sorta knew it was coming.  I just thought I'd be able to handle the break up better.  Guess I didn't, huh?"

Thorax didn't say anything for a moment, unsure of what he should say.  Eventually the words did come to him.

"Everypony reacts differently to different things" he finally says to her.  "I don't think there's really a bad way to react when it comes to love, except for if you do something to deliberately hurt the other pony."

Fidget nods in agreement at that remark.  There's silence between them for a minute before Thorax decides to ask her something.

"What would you say to us just being friends for right now?"

Fidget looks at him for a moment, thinking about what he just said to her.  Thorax elaborates.

"I know I said I wasn't looking for a relationship right now, but I'm never opposed to having a friend.  I know we're eventually gonna go separate ways, but we could still keep in touch as pen pals.  Does that sound okay?"

Fidget thought about what Thorax proposed to her and smiled.  "That sounds nice, Crystal."

Fidget reaches into some saddle bags she had seated beside her and produces a piece of paper and a pencil.  She quickly jots down something and gives it to Thorax.

"I kind of go all around," she explains, "but this is where I always come back to, so this would be the best place to send letters to.  I can get your address from the return label."

Thorax looks over the paper to see a mailing address for Fillydelphia.  He looks back up at her and smiles.

"Thank you" he says before standing up and moving towards her, then embracing her in a hug.  Fidget returns it, and a small amount of love seeps into Thorax as they hug one another.





After some "breakfast" with Fidget, Thorax returns to his seat and watches the scenery outside.  The barren fields of snow have now given way to a coniferous forest, the tree tops covered in white to reflect the winter season.

Seeing this, Thorax went into his case and retrieved one of the scarves and hats that had been given to him for the cold weather.  The ones he chose were a blue hat that matched his mane, and a scarf that was striped in blues similar to his coat and mane color, with the tail ends decorated in his disguise's cutie mark.  The detail was incredible, but it was the level of quality expected from the clothier that made it - Rarity.

Thorax had celebrated Hearth's Warming for the first time ever not long ago.  He had to confess that he enjoyed the holiday immensely, and not just because everypony was exuding so much love it was comparable to a banquet table he was invited to feast from.  Learning about the origin of the holiday, singing carols with other ponies, getting gifts from his friends and the princess, and watching the annual play that reenacted the moment where the ponies discovered their friendship created a flame that drove back the windigos and helped Equestria become what it is today.

The hats and scarves had been a gift from Rarity to Thorax, believing the changeling would be in need of such things.  They were much appreciated, and he found them very useful on the colder days.

Of course, spring was not far off, and the weather would soon eliminate the need for such articles until the next winter.  For now, they would do serve their purpose well.

Once dressed appropriately, Thorax sat back down and looked out the window again.  He noticed there were now some farms around and he assumed that the first stop on his journey was approaching.

His thoughts were confirmed when the conductor appeared and began walking down the aisle.

"Now entering Equestria!  Crystal ponies must depart at the first stop to go through customs check!"

Thorax heard what the conductor had called out and grabbed his luggage and saddle bags.  After making sure that he had everything, including his passports and letter, Thorax looked out a window to see a fairly large city they were now approaching.

The conductor called out again, informing Thorax of the identity of the starting point of his journey.

"First stop - Detrot!"
> Part IV, Chapter 4 - Detrot, Part 1 - Customs and Security
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A week earlier in Canterlot...






Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood in front of a gathering of their royal guards.  They were a mix of stallions and mares and all of them commanded one of the many posts for the royal guard spread across the kingdom of Equestria.

The ponies were conversing among themselves, some of them talking about official business, while others had personal conversations.  For the most part, the mood was jovial, but the princesses both knew that that would be soon to change.

"Are you ready sister?" Celestia asked Luna.

"I am" Luna replied, giving her sister an encouraging smile.

Celestia returned it before facing the collection of commanders before her.  Upon seeing the princess about to speak, the conversations all ceased as the guards quickly formed into lines and gave their full attention to Celestia.

"Thank you all for coming here on such short notice," Celestia addressed them, "but my sister and I felt it best to brief you on this situation and its uniqueness personally rather than by letter."

The guards gave each other quizzical looks.  "What kind of situation are we being briefed on?" most of them thought.

Celestia turned back to Luna and gave her a nod.  Luna returned it and lit up her horn, casting a projection spell that allowed her to show an image to the gathering.

The image they were being shown was the head shot of a changeling, one no different than if it were taken for official legal identification.  In fact, it was the photograph of Thorax being used for his passport.

"I know that all of you are personally familiar with the changelings," she continued, "as all of you here were either called to fortify the city during the royal wedding or were assigned as part of the wedding detail itself.  Now, we've called you here because of a situation that involves a changeling, but that situation is not what think."

This remark got a series of confused looks from all of the guards.  Celestia elected to elaborate.

"The changeling you see photographed here appeared in the Crystal Empire nearly a year ago.  He approached alone and with a request for asylum from persecution.  Many in the empire were skeptical, including Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor, but several ponies stepped forward and spoke on behalf of this changeling."

A guard raised his hoof to be recognized as he asked the princess a question.

"How do we know they weren't under the influence of changeling magic?"

"The ponies who stepped forward are all powerful magic users that are not easily susceptible to the kinds of magic used on Captain Shining Armor during the wedding" Celestia answered.  "Even Captain Armor is of such constitution that mind control spells are not something easily used on him.  It is only because the changeling queen had managed to stay hidden under our muzzles for so long and siphoned away so much of his love that he was weakened enough to be susceptible."

"Aside from that fact, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza personally requested that we come and offer insight into the decision as to whether or not to grant asylum to this changeling."

"And Captain Shining Armor is okay with this changeling seeking asylum in the Crystal Empire?" another guard asked with a raised hoof, a bit of disbelief clear in his voice.

"At best, he is tolerating it" Celestia admitted.  "You are all aware of what happened in regards to his interactions with the changeling queen.  Asking him to put that aside was not an easy feat for him.  Even now, I know he struggles to accept the situation he is currently in."

"That said, he has at least shown a level of begrudging tolerance on the matter."

"Your highness," another guard interjects, "you speak as though this changeling has been granted asylum already."

"It has been granted," Celestia confirms, "and more recently, this changeling has been appointed a full citizen of the Crystal Empire."

Several gasps can be heard as the guards turn to look at each other in surprise.  A changeling being made a citizen?

"We advised our niece to trust her heart and not her prejudices," Celestia continues, "and it told her to grant his asylum."

"Things weren't easy in the beginning.  From what I understand, after only a few months in the Crystal Empire, the changeling was attacked by ponies."

Again, the guards reacted with shock.

"Perhaps it was because he tried to feed off of one of them" a guard proposes quietly.

"He did not" Celestia says with a stern glare, immediately silencing any other accusing remarks.  "In fact, at that point in time, and with his consent, he had been placed in restraints that prevented him from attacking anypony."

Another guard raised their hoof.  "The changeling gave consent to be restrained?" the ask with confusion.

Celestia nods.  "He did so in an effort to prove his intentions of peaceful relations to be true.  Unfortunately, these restraints prevented him from being able to defend himself."

The guards all looked at each other with confusion, not expecting a changeling to allow themselves to be put into such a situation.

"Worse yet than this," Celestia adds, "is the fact that, a month or so later, three stallions then implicated this changeling in a plot to abduct a foal, using him as a convenient fall pony."

"How do we know he didn't dupe the stallions into taking the blame for him?" a guard asked in an accusing manner.

Celestia glared.  "Because there was evidence of their wrongdoing."

"A trial was held in the Crystal Empire, and right before a verdict was to be turned in, evidence from a separate police investigation in Van Hoover was sent to the Crystal Empire that revealed the conspiracy against the changeling."

The guards all look at each other as they reflect on the story they were just told.  A changeling approached the Crystal Empire with a desire for asylum and wishing to live in peace with ponies is physically attacked and nearly imprisoned on false charges that now has a full citizenship to the very territory ruled over by the two ponies whose lives were so nearly ruined by his kind.

After some time, a guard finally asks the question everypony is now thinking.  "If I might ask, what exactly does all of this mean for us?"

Celestia takes a moment to steel herself before answering.

"In the simplest of terms," she says to the guards, "the reason for telling all of you about this is because you're all probably going to meet him in the near future."

Every guard at the table looks at the princess with confusion and trepidation.  Luna decides to speak up and try to put some uncertainty to rest.

"I understand that you all have concerns about the current situation, but let me attempt to put some of that to bed.  First, I have visited this changeling in his dreams, where he is unable to conceal any facts about himself, and he has proven himself to be a genuine article.  His behavior is exemplary, and he has shown beyond any doubt to myself and many other ponies that he speaks the truth of his intentions."

"As for the situation we are briefing you on, it is simply this: This changeling, named Thorax, has shown a desire to visit Equestria.  He saw portions of it during his original travels to the Crystal Empire, but he was too concerned with avoiding discovery and imprisonment to be able to enjoy his time here the way a normal pony would be able to.  He approached Princess Cadance with his wishes not long ago, who then informed us of his desire to visit our kingdom, and after some discussion and collaboration, we've decided to allow him to visit Equestria and tour it as any other creature should."

A guard raises his hoof.  "So what does that have to do with us?"

"Since he is now a recognized citizen of the Crystal Empire now," Celestia answers, "he is subject to the legal responsibilities associated with that role.  More specifically, he cannot legally enter Equestria without a passport from the Crystal Empire.  He has two of those now; one is for himself in his native form, and the other is for a disguise he has created for himself that Princess Cadance has allowed him to use."

"In addition to this, we are also going to be giving him a letter that states his current status in relation to Equestria."

"His current status?" a guard says with puzzlement.

"Yes" Celestia confirms.  "We officially recognize Thorax as a diplomat for the changelings."

The guards gasp and look at each other in shock.  A changeling being made a diplomat?

Celestia then steps back in to speak.

"Thorax's status as a diplomat comes with certain rights.  Specifically, he is granted diplomatic immunity and pardon for his role during the incident that occurred during the royal wedding."

"I have personally questioned him in the dream realm," Luna chimes in, "and his involvement was virtually nonexistent.  While he was present during those events, he did not engage in any hostile activities."

"In addition to this appointment," Celestia continues, "we have taken some time to get to know this changeling to a degree, and we consider him a friend of the crown.  Any act taken against Thorax will be viewed as a slight against us, and treated as such."

The guards all look at each other with a bit of nervousness.  However, there are a few stern glares mixed in as well.

Celestia decides to get to the heart of the matter.  "We have called all of you here today because you will all be receiving special security protocols to follow if and when you should be approached by Thorax.  These protocols reflect our decision, and failure to comply with them will be seen as an act of insubordination, which could potentially be punished with dismissal with unfavorable letter if the failure of compliance is deemed malicious and malicious enough to warrant such response."

The guards all look to each other again.  They'd heard rumors that several guards in the Crystal Empire detail had received the dreaded DWUL.  It branded the recipient as a no good, but was looked down upon even more by guards.  Nopony in their right mind would want that.

"So," Celestia says with a desire to wrap up the meeting, "you will each be given the protocols to follow when meeting Thorax for the first time.  He has also been given protocols to follow, and he will be held accountable if he does not follow them himself.  You will take these protocols back to your posts and inform your subordinates of this situation."

Princess Luna then stepped forward, a remorseful look across her face.  "We must also swear all of you to secrecy about this matter as well."

The guards again look to each other with confusion and uncertainty.  Princess Luna then elaborates.

"This action is not something we are taking lightly.  Concealing this information to only the ponies in this room, and by extension the members of your respective guard posts, is a lot to ask for.  We ask this of you because we fear that this information leaking out could very well start a panic among our subjects."

"Worse yet, this information could be misinterpreted by ponies and cause problems that even we could not foresee.  In addition to that, the news getting out would eventually find its way back to the changelings and their queen, and they might use it to plot an attack against Thorax, or plan another attack against Equestria."

"It is for these reasons that we must ask you to keep this information to yourselves and not disclose it with anypony besides the members of your post, that you must then swear to secrecy as well so we can guarantee the safety of our subjects."

The guards look between each other for several moments.  Eventually, one of them steps forward.

"My duty is to protect the citizens of Equestria from harm," the guard says to the princesses, "and if keeping them from learning this information will help keep them safe, then I suppose I shall have to swear that I will not disclose except to those that I must."

Another guard steps forward and gives a similar speech, promising to keep the information to themselves and their respective guard post.  A third follows suit, followed by a fourth.  Soon, almost all the guards in the room have sworn to keep the information that they've learned to themselves.

Despite this, there are a few guards who don't immediately step forward to pledge loyalty by keeping the information secret.  Two of them have a short conversation between themselves.

"I don't trust this" one says to the other.

"I don't either," the second replies, "but what can we do?"

"Find a reason to arrest that changeling" the first spits out almost automatically.

"With the changeling being a diplomat?" the second responds in surprise.

"I'll find something to stick to it that'll take" the first retorts.

The second thinks about arguing the point, but decides to drop the matter.  "Fine.  You can try to pin the diplomat for something.  I'm gonna do like I always have and keep the riff raff at my post to a minimum."

The first looks at the second with a small sneer.  "Yes, keep on doing what you have.  You'll go far in your position if you do."  The pony goes to walk away, but a magic field grabs them and turns them to face the second.

"I do my job the way I do so that I don't have to worry about my post," the second responds with a pointed hoof at the first, "and if you did your job half as well, you wouldn't have to worry as much either."

Releasing the first guard from their grip, the second pony steps forward to swear an oath to the princesses too.  The first guard huffs as they join all their fellow guards in agreeing to be sworn to secrecy about the changeling and the impact the information could have on the cities and towns they are placed in charge of.






Present Day in Detrot






Thorax disembarked from the train, his luggage loaded onto a trolley by some unicorns working at the station.  After thanking them and giving a tip in some bits, Thorax took hold of the trolley's pull cord in his mouth and proceeded to the first stop on his visit: The Equestria-Crystal Empire security and customs office.

The small building was not attached to the station, but was added to the concrete slab that served as the platform for ponies boarding and getting off the train.  There were some ponies in line already, so Thorax took his position and waited.  As he did, he thought about what he'd been told about Detrot.

According to the history lessons from Sunburst, the city was once a small town built on the shore of a large lake which provided water for the ponies who settled there.  After a few years, the town boomed with the discovery of some nearby deposits of iron ore, which were quickly mined and used in the crafting of steel and some other metals.  The mine ran for years before it had been played out, but by that point, the ponies who had grown rich from the operation had wisely invested in other business ventures and had grown the town into a proper city.

In the years before the reappearance of the Crystal Empire, Detrot had been suffering from a recession and many ponies had lost work.  Now, with the empire's return, the city was on an upswing, getting more economic contributions from a revitalized tourist trade.

Of course, trade would not be limited to legal things.  Soon enough, illegal trades, such as unlicensed exotic pets, would become a common occurrence at the newly christened border city.  In a preemptive effort to combat this, Princess Celestia ordered a mandatory customs and security checkpoint be established at the Detrot train station.  A structure was built there immediately, but rising complaints from tourists made it clear that a larger checkpoint and station was necessary.  For now, ponies coming to and leaving from Detrot would have to simply put up with the delays until a newer and larger station could be built.

Thorax waited patiently as ponies slowly passed through a doorway, some voicing disgruntled complaints about their wait.  Looking in through a window, he could see a metal fence set up inside with a gate for the ponies to step through, and a tall metal archway that the luggage carts were being passed through; these two metal objects were most likely magic scanners of some sort.

In front of the gate was a desk where a guard was seated.  A pony would walk up to them and show their passport to him.  After looking it over, he would stamp a page in the passport and hand it back to the pony, who would go through the gate and pick up their luggage.

As Thorax watched this, he became nervous.  When it was his turn, would things go smoothly?  Would the guards give him a hard time when they saw his paperwork?

He'd hoped not.  After all, Princess Celestia and Luna both said in their letter that the guards that didn't follow the protocols would possibly be dismissed immediately for insubordinate behavior.

Eventually, Thorax found himself inside the building and only behind about three ponies.  He heard the stamp on the passport and the guard tell them to go through the gate before calling the next pony forward.  Without even reading his emotions, Thorax could tell he was bored.

"He won't be bored for long" Thorax thought as he made sure he had all of his documentation ready.  As soon as the mare in front of him was cleared to pass through the gate, the guard called Thorax forward.

"Present your passport please" the guard said to Thorax in a very apathetic tone ofvoice.  Thorax nodded and hoofed over all of his documents.  The guard looked at him with confusion at first.

"What is all of this?" he asked with a suspicious look.  "All I need is a passport  Why do you have two?"

"I was told to give all of that to you" Thorax replied.  "The letter there explains everything."

The guard eyes Thorax for a moment before taking the letter and opening it.  After about two lines of reading, his eyes go wide as he then uses some magic on the two passports.  Seeing Princess Cadance's cutie mark appear on both of them, he looks back up at Thorax.

"Don't move from this spot" he tells Thorax as he quickly stands up and goes through the gate, but not before telling a nearby guard to keep an eye on Thorax until he gets back.  The guard gives a nod and watches Thorax, who simply stands there nervously as he waits for the first guard to return.

The guard in question immediately goes to his superior's office and knocks on the door three times.

"Enter" a voice calls out to him.

Opening the door and stepping inside, he sees his superior sitting behind a desk going over the guard handbook.  The officer, a mare, looks quite bored with her reading material and decides to put it down and look her visitor in the eye.

"What is it guard?" she asks him.

"Apologies, Commander Hawkeye," he says to her, "but that thing you briefed us about a few days ago?  Well, he's here."

Hawkeye is confused for a second before she recalls the meeting she had with her subordinates.  "You mean he's actually here?"  She then leans closer to quietly add "The changeling?"

"Yes, ma'am" the guard replies with the nod.  "He presented me with the letter and two passports like you said he was supposed to.  My magic confirmed that they were legitimate passports issued by Princess Cadance herself; the seals appeared on them.  I have another guard keeping watch of him until I return with your decision.  I figured you would want to handle this situation personally, ma'am."

"I do" she confirmed to the guard.  "Have him come here and bring his luggage.  I wish to personally see all of his paperwork and belongings."

"Yes, ma'am!" the guard replies and immediately bolts out of the office and back to his post.  Commander Hawkeye retrieves a bottle of amber liquid from her desk and a set of drinking glasses.  Pouring a measure in one, she knocks it back and hopes it's enough to stave off her impending headache.





The guard returns a minute later and instructs Thorax to come through the gate and wait.  Thorax does as instructed, and once through, is told to follow the guard to his superior's office.  Falling into step behind the guard, Thorax says nothing as he's brought to a door with a brass plate on it.  On it is some writing that denotes the pony who works in this office.


CMNDR. HAWKEYE - DETROT GUARD
CMNDR - DETROT SECURITY AND CUSTOMS


The guard knocks on the door and waits for a reply.  After getting one, he opens the door and directs Thorax to go in.  Once inside, the guard pushes Thorax's luggage through and closes the door.

The office is, for lack of a better term, spartan.  There is only a desk, some filing cabinets, and a table with two chairs off to one side.  On the desk are some papers and a ink and quill set made of brass.

Sitting behind the desk is a mare that looks similar to the element bearer Rainbow Dash, but with the rainbow spectrum being distinctly different shades of the same color, and if the mare combed her mane to be straight.  She was a yellowish beige color and had brown and black hair.  Her eyes were a bright yellow and watched Thorax as he fidgeted uncomfortably in place.  On her flanks was her cutie mark: A screaming hawk.

"Sit down" she instructs Thorax, who takes a seat in one of the chairs placed in front of the desk.  The mare pours another drink and knocks it back before addressing him.

"So, you're Thorax."

"I am" Thorax responds.

Hawkeye draws the shades to the windows shut, giving them as much privacy as possible.  "Lose the disguise."

Thorax becomes a bit more nervous but complies, dispelling his Crystal Hoof guise in a wash of flames.  He feels Hawkeye react a bit but doesn't see any sign of fear on her face.  The mare in question takes another swig of the amber liquid.  Putting down the glass, she looks at Thorax with a cold expression on her face.

"I'm gonna begin this with one very simple thing to say: I don't like your kind."

"Well, that much was obvious" Thorax thought, but simply kept quiet.

"Were it my decision," she continues, "I would have you locked up right now and not give it a second thought.  As it stands, I have orders, and according to all the information that's been presented to me, you are attempting to have peaceful relations with both Equestria and the Crystal Empire."

"I'll keep this simple.  As long as you stay in Detrot, you will be watched by my guard.  You will be allowed to move in the city unimpeded, but if you make any kind of move to disappear or harm anypony in the city, you will regret that decision to your last breath."

"I had friends who were hurt during that little stunt of an invasion your hive and queen pulled, and I don't forgive easily.  You will be on your best behavior in my city.  Is that clear?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am" Thorax said while nodding.

"Very well," she concludes, "I believe we understand each other."

Sitting back, she pours another drink.  After knocking it back, she then gives him further instructions.

"If you become aware of any changeling activity in the city, you are to report it to us immediately.  Under no circumstances will you attempt to cover it up or feign ignorance.  If we suspect you knew something and didn't speak up, you will be detained indefinitely until we can either prove or discredit your knowledge of the events."

"You are also to remain in that disguise you had on for the duration of your stay here.  The only time it will be permissible to dispel it will be when you are in total privacy, such as when you use a non-public bathroom or you are going to bed in a room with shades drawn shut or if it has no windows."

"You are to treat everypony you meet in this city with the same respect and kindness you claim to want from them.  If you fail to do as such, then you will be detained until it can be decided what should be done with you."

"These are the rules you must follow.  Outside of them, you are free to move about the city in a manner that the average pony is able to.  Areas where the general public isn't allowed are especially off limits to you, and if you are stopped by a guard, you are to cooperate to the fullest extent."

"Do you understand what I have told you?"

"I do" Thorax replied.

"Good" Hawkeye concludes as she produces a stamp and puts a mark on both of Thorax's passports.

"You may leave now," she tells him, "but remember: my guards will be watching you.  Adopt that disguise again."

Thorax gives a nod as he returns to being Crystal Hoof and takes back his passports.  After Hawkeye gives the luggage a thorough scan to check for prohibited items and finding none, she finally allows him to leave.

Once outside the office, Thorax finds the exit and makes his way out of the station.  His first order of business will be finding a place to spend the night.  In the morning, he would take a tour of a pony city in Equestria, but this time, doing it with the permission of the authorities of Equestria.
> Part IV, Chapter 5 - Detrot, Part 2 - A Point of Interest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax awakes with a yawn as he gets out of bed.  He looks around at the simple room he rented last evening.  It was sparse, with only a bed, a small dresser, a table with a chair, and a radio off to one side in a corner.  According to the mare who ran the inn, it was an older radio that used vacuum tubes instead of the newer crystal radios that were more prevalent in the empire.

The inn itself was a few blocks from the train station in an older part of town.  According to what a guard had told him, it was a neighborhood that didn't have a lot of "riff raff", which Thorax supposed meant crime.

It was hard for him to imagine ponies and crime going together, but it was only a few months ago that ponies were trying to frame him for abducting a foal and then also attacking them as well.  The only thing he couldn't imagine a pony doing was killing another pony, and he hoped he wouldn't have to find out any different.

Going into the bathroom, Thorax drew water in the tub and looked at the toiletries that were provided to him.

As with most of the hotels Thorax had managed to stay in during his original and less free trip through Equestria, a variety of shampoos were provided for use by the room's occupant.  In addition to this, a curry comb and brush were provided to take care of a pony's coat, mane and tail.  A check of a small medicine cabinet also turned up some basic first aid supplies and some small wooden rods with cotton wrapped around the ends; Q Tips, if he remembered what Sunburst had called them directly.

With the bath drawn and an acceptable temperature, Thorax stepped in and allowed himself to lay down in it, opting to soak for a few minutes before actually cleaning himself.  As he did this, he gave some thoughts about what he wanted to do today.

Detrot had once been a strong city, but had went through struggles more recently.  Their claim to fame at current was being the last stop in Equestria before traveling to the Crystal Empire.  Before that, they were known all over Equestria and the world for their carriages.  

There were once numerous companies that manufactured them and sold them across the world.  Each one had their own unique features, but chief among them was elegance.  A pony that could afford a carriage was somepony special, and nobles often competed with one another to have the most opulent carriage their bits could buy.

While there were still carriages made in Detrot, their quality had waned as the city experienced an increase in poverty; the princesses did what they could to help the city, he was told, but there was only so much help they could offer.

Fortunately, the increased tourist trade going to the Crystal Empire seemed to be helping the city recover.

As he washed, Thorax thought back to a conversation he'd had with Sunburst, which gave him his idea for what he could do in Detrot: take a tour of a carriage factory.  There were still a few in Detrot, but what happened that day that prompted that conversation had got Thorax set on visiting one factory in particular.






Some time between Thorax's trial and leaving for Equestria






Sunburst and Thorax decided to take a walk outside in the Crystal Empire.  It was getting closer to Hearth's Warming, and the city had been decorated in garlands and wreaths, as well as tall candy canes that looked good enough to eat.  Unfortunately, they weren't real, being made from fiberglass and painted to resemble the smaller, edible treats.

"I can't believe I'll get to celebrate a pony holiday," Thorax said to Sunburst, "and the most important one too!"

Sunburst chuckled.  "Yeah, well, it will certainly be a fun experience for you.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the parade that Princess Cadance is setting up."

Thorax stopped to look at Sunburst.  "Parade?"

Sunburst nodded his head.  "Yeah.  The Crystal Empire celebrates Hearth's Warming a bit differently than Equestria does.  It's treated as a time when we can give the Crystal Heart a little bit of an extra charge so the spell that protects the empire doesn't falter."

Thorax winced a little, feeling a bit guilty that, in his early days, he'd fed off the excess love and had no way to return it.  Sunburst saw the changeling's reaction and caught on to what he was thinking.

"Don't feel guilty, Thorax" Sunburst said to him putting a hoof on his withers.  "You needed to eat and it was the only way anypony knew to do it that was safe."

"I know" Thorax replied.  "It's just... I wish there had been a better way.  Even now, I wish it was better.  I hate what happens to you guys when you let me feed."

"Don't feel guilty, Thorax!" Sunburst says a bit forcefully.  "Friends help each other out and don't want to see them suffer, especially when they choose to suffer in silence!  If we tell you it's okay to feed, then it's really okay.  Don't feel bad about it."

"Besides, I think allowing you to feed from us is showing you a great deal of trust.  You're honestly not going to find many ponies in Equestria willing to feed their love to a changeling, at least ones that aren't under some kind of mind control anyway."

Thorax wanted to counter Sunburst's argument, but he was right; nopony in Equestria would willingly feed a changeling.  He had to count himself lucky that he had friends willing to do that for him.

Before the conversation could advance any further, a glint of light coming off some metal caught Thorax's eye.  It was coming from a carriage sitting in the street.  It was decorated in silver and painted a dark blue, the finish on the top coat making it appear as though it were made of sapphire.

"What's that?" Thorax asks while pointing.

Sunburst turned his attention to where the changeling indicated and let out a whistle.  "That's a dandy" he says upon seeing the carriage.

"But what is it?" Thorax asks again.

"That," Sunburst responds while pointing, "is a very nice carriage from Detrot.  It's a city just south of the empire and the first stop on the train line going towards Canterlot.  Going by the fancy decoration on the front, I'd say that's a Cheval carriage."

"Cheval?" Thorax parrots.

Sunburst nods.  "They were the finest built carriages in the world at one point in time.  Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both have their own personal carriages, as well as one they use for official functions.  Princess Cadance actually has one that was given to her by the owner of the company as a coronation present.  Apparently, he owed a debt to her for helping him with a spat he had with his wife at the time."

"So that carriage is supposed to be, like, top of the line?" Thorax asked.

"When it was built originally" Sunburst replies.  "That one looks about twenty or thirty years old.  The carriages will last for quite a while if they're properly cared for.  Nowadays the carriages are built with more inexpensive materials and will wear out faster.  I hate saying it, but a new carriage would probably only last about ten to fifteen years at the best.  Going by the amount of care that went into making that one, I'd say it has a chance of going on for at least another thirty years or so, if not longer."

"Wow" Thorax said in amazement.  "They sound really special.  Where did you say they make those?"

"Detrot," Sunburst replies, "though I think the company wanted to make a new factory in Manehattan or Fillydelphia.  In the old days, the carriages were crafted from wood, and the area around the city was full of good quality lumber.  Nowadays, they're made from steel, and Detrot doesn't have a lot of steel ore in the areas surrounding it, so they have to import it by train.  Them making a new factory in a port city on the coast would help them to keep the cost for a new carriage down because they wouldn't be spending as much to import it since they're closer to a shipping port."

"How come they haven't done that?" Thorax asked.

"A few reasons" Sunburst explains.  "First is the cost of building the factory.  As big as it would need to be, it could cost almost five hundred million bits."

"Wow" Thorax says in disbelief, understanding how bits work better thanks to Sunburst.

"Yeah" Sunburst agrees.  "Besides cost, there's the time it'll take to build, securing materials to build with, the necessary permits, and not to mention a little bit of hoof greasing."

"Hoof greasing?" Thorax parrots in confusion.

"There's lots of unscrupulous ponies working in construction" Sunburst tells Thorax.  "It's not uncommon for building plans to 'not meet building code requirements', or a permit wasn't approved, and the pony paying for it all has to fork over a little extra."

"That doesn't sound right" Thorax says with a frown.

"It isn't," Sunburst agrees, "and the princesses and guards all do their best to catch these crooks in the act or, at the very least, dissuade them from that sort of behavior in the first place.  Unfortunately, persuasion doesn't always work."

Thorax nods somberly at Sunburst's explanation.  It reminded him of his first day of asylum and how he learned Equestria wasn't as innocent and loving as he once thought.

"Besides all the money and construction aspects," Sunburst continues, "there's also the workers at the factory they already have.  If they move to a new factory, they'll likely shut down the old one and all those ponies will be out of work.  Those workers will tell other ponies about being fired because of the move and it'll make the company look mean and greedy, and fewer ponies will want to buy their carriages."

"So there's a few hurdles they'd have to deal with if they wanted to move?" Thorax deduces.

Sunburst nods.  "I'm sure something will be worked out eventually.  Perhaps some of the ponies working for them are willing to move to where the new factory will be built, or the company will give them a good severance so they can subsist until they find new jobs.  Of course, Detrot as a city isn't having such a good run of it as far as money is concerned."

"Oh?" Thorax responds inquisitively.

"The carriage market has changed a good bit since Cheval first started making wooden carriages.  Ponies aren't as willing to spend bits on something like that carriage over there, which forced them to look for materials that don't cost as much.  That led to lower quality product, which led some of their more well off customers, who would usually buy a carriage like that as a statement piece, to view them as being sub-par and make them look elsewhere for a company whose product they thought was of a quality worth their bits."

"It's a vicious cycle that doesn't have a good out, which is why Cheval wants to move to a port city to cut their cost on materials and shipping.  If they do that, then they might be able to start making a higher quality product again."

"I hope so" Thorax said as he looked at the carriage again.  "Those look amazing."

"They are," Sunburst agreed, "and seeing them made is even more amazing.  Watching unicorn steel smiths shaping the frames and the bodies and then uniting them on their assembly line is a sight to behold.  Magic and engineering in sync with one another, almost like a dance of sorts."

"Wow" Thorax remarked.  "I hope I can see it someday."

"I'm sure you will, Thorax" Sunburst said with a smile.  "We should get going.  I have to watch Flurry this afternoon and I'd like to visit a shop quick so I can get a gift for Starlight."

"Okay" Thorax agreed as the two continued down the street, the changeling looking back briefly to get one last look at the opulent carriage sitting on the street.





With his first stop here in Detrot, Thorax had the perfect opportunity to visit the Cheval factory and tour the assembly line.  Finishing his bath, Thorax got out and dried his carapace with a towel, then adopted his Crystal Hoof disguise.  He checked himself in the mirror quickly before stepping back out into his room.

After he took the tour he'd wanted, Thorax would have to decide how much longer he would spend in Detrot, and where he would go next.  He could head east for Manhattan and Fillydelphia, south towards Canterlot and Ponyville, or west towards Van Hoover and San Fransiscolt.  All had their own appeal, and he knew that he was going to visit all of them before he returned to the empire.  Putting the decision off, he chose a hat and scarf to wear before exiting the inn.

"Do you plan on staying an extra day?"

Thorax jumped as he closed the door to his room and took a few steps.  Turning around, he saw the mare he rented the room from.

"Um, I'm not completely sure" he admitted to her.  "I'll have an answer when I get back."

"Okay" she said to him.  "I'll mark you down as a yes, and if you change your mind, just let me know."

"Okay" Thorax says before he turns to leave, then sees the mare get a key for his room.  He was about to ask what she was doing, but then realized she was going to change the bed linens.

"Excuse me for a second" he says as he trots back to his room.

The mare looks at him for a moment with confusion.  "Is something wrong?" she asks.

"No" Thorax replies.  "I just forgot my saddlebags."

It was the truth.  Thorax had nearly forgotten his saddlebags and the bits he would need to take the tour.  He also wanted his passports so the mare wouldn't find them.  He didn't think she would snoop through his things, but he wasn't taking the chance.  Once he had his bags, he left the inn.

Moving towards the main part of the city, Thorax realized he had no idea where the Cheval factory he wanted to tour was located.  He wasn't overly worried; there had to be a pony he could ask about it somewhere.  For the moment, he decided to continue trotting down the street.

As he did, he realized there were suspicious eyes on him.  He saw nothing when he looked around and was a bit confused.  A part of him then worried that he'd been found by an infiltrator and could wind up attacked as soon as he was somewhere more private.

Then, he realized what the strange feeling of being watched was.

Hawkeye had guards following him.  They could've been any of the ponies on the street, as they would likely not wear their armor and draw attention to themselves.  With this thought in mind, Thorax did his best to not think about the guards; they were only doing their job protecting ponies and following their orders.

While he wasn't wild about this situation, the commander had kept her word; nopony tried to stop Thorax as he entered the main part of the city.





Detrot was actually a little bit smaller than the Crystal Empire.  What made it seem bigger were the large building that reached high into the air.  "Skyscrapers" Thorax remembered as he walked.  He was looking at one building in particular when he walked into somepony.

"I'm sorry" he said as his attention turned to the pony he ran into, or rather, the griffin.

"Watch it, bub!" the griffin says as they step around Thorax and continue walking.  Thorax follows them with his eyes for a moment before shaking his head.  He knew sometimes creatures that lived in cities didn't act the nicest.  At the very least, the griffin hadn't tried to hurt him.

Continuing his walk, and with his attention now directed at the street where it should be, Thorax saw all sorts of businesses.  There were eateries, bakeries, clothing stores, and a few offices for miscellaneous businesses he didn't know what they did.

One business, however, was exactly what he was looking for.

Situated behind a large pane of glass was a white and gold carriage, with ornate trim around each of the windows.  On the glass the carriage sat behind was an image of a large bow tie type decoration, and inside it were six large letters.

CHEVAL

It was a dealership where they sold Cheval carriages.  If this is where they sold them, then they certainly knew where the factory was located.  Making his way to the door, Thorax stepped inside.

The interior was very white, almost like the snowy plains on the outskirts of the empire.  Instead of snow on the ground, however, there was tile.  In place of skies were walls painted bright white, and everything illuminated with fluorescent bulbs, with the exception of the carriages on display, which were lit with bright spotlights.

"Come in for a carriage?" somepony asked Thorax.  The changeling turned to see a stallion approaching him.  The overall demeanor of the stallion perplexed Thorax a bit.  He wore a bright and large smile, but his emotions were nothing happy.  If he didn't know any better, Thorax could swear he was exuding self loathing.

"Um, no," Thorax replied, "but maybe you can help me.  I'm visiting from out of town and I wanted to see the factory.  Could you tell me where it is, please?"

The stallion continued to smile politely.  "Sure.  Just go down the street a few blocks, and then turn left and go for the next twenty blocks or so and turn down Red Wing Avenue.  The factory is at the end and you can't miss it.  Big building with the large bow tie on the side."

"Thank you" Thorax said politely as he left.  In truth, he was more than glad to.  Even though he was sure the stallion hadn't meant to, his demeanor had given Thorax the willies.





Thorax followed the directions, going down the street about three blocks before turning left.  The twenty blocks was quite a distance, and Thorax knew he would be tired by the time he got to the factory.  Before he got too far, something caught Thorax's eye.

There was a carriage parked on the street.  It was painted bright yellow and had a black and white checkerboard stripe going along the side.  A small box on the top had a sign that read "OFF DUTY", and standing beside it was a stallion who appeared to be eating a bagel for his breakfast.  Thorax decided to approach, which the stallion noticed.

"I'll be on duty in a moment" he told Thorax, tossing the remainder of his bagel into his muzzle.

"It's no hurry" Thorax responded.  "You're a taxi service, right?"

"Yup" the stallion replied as he moved to change the sign to “ON DUTY”, then slip into a yoke attached to the front of the carriage.  "I take it you want a ride?" he asked Thorax.

"Can you take me to the Cheval factory on Red Wing Avenue?" Thorax asked him.

"No problem" the stallion replied.  "Hop in."

"Thank you" Thorax said to the stallion as he hopped into the back.  The seat was fairly comfortable, though not as much so as the train seat had been.  In fact, the cushion itself looked fairly flat, probably due to the number of ponies who had been sitting on it.  Once Thorax was comfortable, the stallion then began trotting down the street.

"I'm guessing you're one of the Crystal Ponies?" the stallion said to Thorax, apparently starting up a conversation.

"Uh, yeah" Thorax told him. it was a true statement; since he was a citizen of the empire, he was recognized officially as a crystal pony.  At least, that's how he saw it.

"Don't see too many of your kind down here" the stallion admitted, "You're the first tourist I've seen in a few moons."

"Really?" Thorax said with a bit of surprise.  "I would've thought there'd be more tourists from the empire here since it returned."

"Nope" the stallion said in response.  "Didn't see our first one for about six months after it returned.  Polite mare, too.  She came down hoping to find some descendants of some old relatives.  Never found out if she tracked any down."

"I might have to ask about her" Thorax thought.  "You don't remember her name by chance, do you?"

"Can't say that I do" the stallion replies.  "I only met her the once."

Thorax deflated a little at that, but let the thought go.  He was sure that, even with the offer to help, the mare would probably want to complete the task on her own and would see his offer as an intrusion.

The stallion took a turn to the right, leading Thorax to believe they were now on Red Wing Avenue.  Looking past the stallion, Thorax could see several large buildings, with some having smoke coming out of large chimneys affixed to the roof.  Training his attention to the end of the road, Thorax's eyes go wide.

At the end of the street was a large building.  It wasn't tallest building in the city, but it was as wide as at least six city blocks going longways.  It was made from concrete and steel, and on the side of the building was the same large bow tie logo featured on the window of the carriage dealer.

The taxi pony trotted into a roundabout and came to a stop and slipped out of the yoke.  "Here we are" he told Thorax.  "Your total is fifty eight bits."

Thorax got out and reached into his saddlebags to retrieve his bit pouch.  Going into it, he retrieved the requested amount of bits, plus another twelve bits to serve as a tip and hoofed it over to the stallion.  "Thank you" he told the stallion.

"My pleasure" the stallion replied as he placed the payment into a metal box and the tip into his own bit bag.  He then retrieved a card from the bit bag and gave it to Thorax.

"This is a contact card for the taxi service" he explained.  "There should be a phone inside you can use to get yourself a taxi back your hotel or inn.  Just put a bit into the phone and punch the number into the dial pad.  It'll connect you to the service and you can request a ride.  Just tell them you're at the Cheval Factory and then where you want to go."

Thorax gave a nod in understanding.  Fortunately, he remembered the address for the inn he was staying at.

The stallion gave one last wave and trotted back up the street.  Thorax watches him until he gets to the turn the took and head back towards the main part of the city.  Turning towards the factory, he gives the building one more good look before approaching a set of doors marked "Visitor's Entrance".
> Part IV, Chapter 6 - Detrot, Part 3 - The Cheval Carriage Factory
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax stepped through the doors of the Cheval factory and witnessed a stunning spectacle inside.  The foyer was decorated with all sorts of memorabilia, from old advertisements for wooden carriages, to cross section diagrams of more modern carriages, to photographs of noteworthy models that were sold in the past.

And on display in the center of the room was a large carriage.  It was painted white and had gold and pink accents.  At its front was a rigging that allowed up to six ponies to pull the carriage, and the body was large enough to easily seat as many as ten.  Thorax approached the carriage and took notice of a small plaque mounted on a stand next to it:


This is a replica of the carriage used by Princess Celestia during official functions such as the Summer Sun Celebration.  The original is maintained in Canterlot by a team of ponies specially appointed by the princesses and composed of our most expert employees to ensure the carriage is kept in prime condition.

Few ponies know that an identical copy of this carriage is also maintained for the newly returned Princess Luna, with many features colored to match the princess of the moon.

A reproduction of this carriage is for sale to the general public for the sum of 500,000 bits.


Thorax looked back up at the carriage.  It was easy to understand the cost when the quality was considered, and the fact that the carriage was made for a princess, but he knew that the average pony wasn't going to be able to afford a price that steep.

Looking away from the carriage, Thorax saw a desk seated underneath another copy of the company logo, and sitting behind said desk was a mare that was tapping away at a typewriter, a device the changeling had only seen a few times before.  He walked up to the mare and addressed her.

"Excuse me"

The mare looked up at him and gave a small smile.  "May I help you, sir?"

"Yes" Thorax responded.  "I'd like to take a tour of the factory."

The mare turned her attention away from him as she went into a filing cabinet and produced a paper.  She then retrieved a quill and ink pot and placed them onto the desk along with the paper.

"Cheval Carriage Company requires all ponies who wish to tour our facility to sign a legal waiver stating that, by visiting this facility, they assume all risks, such as any and all possible injuries they may sustain on the factory floor."

This statement took Thorax by surprise.  "Injuries?"

"Yes, sir" the mare responded.  "It's rare, but accidents do occasionally happen.  Most of the time it's some colt who wants to get a little closer to our manufacturing process and sticks his muzzle where it shouldn't go."

"However, if you follow our rules and don't act dumb, you shouldn't get hurt.  This is really just a standard boiler plate to prevent a lawsuit."

Thorax had heard the term used by ponies before.  He took the paper and read over it, and it was pretty much what the mare had described to him.

A brief summary of it was this:

-The Cheval Carriage factory was a manufacturing facility that used industrial machines to manufacture their products.

-These machines were dangerous and should only be operated by trained personel.

-There were various signs throughout the facility to denote work areas unauthorized ponies were to stay out of and markings to denote safe distances for untrained and unauthorized ponies to stand behind.

-By signing the paper, Thorax agreed not to touch any of the machines and would obey all signs and markings posted in the facility.

-If Thorax ignored those warnings and got hurt in the facility because of his own actions, then he would have no legal right to bring a personal injury lawsuit against Cheval Carriage beause they had fulfilled their legal obligation to warn him about the dangers of entering their facility.

Reading it over, Thorax agreed to all of the disclaimers and signed his pony name on the dotted line.

"Very good" the mare said as she took the paper and placed it into a basket, then retrieved a metal cashier box.  "The tour of our facility costs twenty bits."

Fishing out the correct amount, Thorax hoofed the coins over to the mare, who placed them in the box.  Returning the box to its place under her desk, she turns her attention back to Thorax.

"The next tour group will be going through soon" she tells him, then points with her hoof.  "Head through those two doors over there to join them.  A guide will come out a lead you on the tour.  It starts with a walk-through of our history museum, followed by the tour of the production floor, showing a carriage being made from raw materials all the way to rolling out the door to be taken to a dealer to be sold or claimed by a pony who paid to reserve one."

"Please listen to the guide, and enjoy your visit!"

"Thank you" Thorax told the mare as he turned and walked through the two doors the mare pointed out.

Walking through the doors, Thorax was greeted by a waiting area, with several chairs, a few small tables, and some machines off to one side that dispensed food or drinks, provided one put in the correct amount of bits for the desired items.  Adorning the walls were posters advertising products made by Cheval, including their carriages, but also replacement wheels and axles, as well as replaceable upholstered seats for when the ones that came with the carriage wore out.

Seated in many of the chairs were other ponies.  It was a mixture of stallion, mare, colt, filly, and foal.  All of them were waiting for somepony to come and take them on a tour of the facility.

"Are you a changeling?"

The question startled Thorax and he jumped back a little.  Looking around, he eventually directed his eyes downward to see a small colt looking up at him.  He was a pale blue color, and had a messy mane that was colored in various shades of orange and brown.  With the way it was shaped, it reminded the changeling of leaves in the fall.

"Dewey!" came the voice of a mare.  "Don't bother the poor stallion!"

Thorax looked to the new voice and saw a mare approaching with a stern look leveled at the colt.  Her coat was a yellow color, but her hair was similar to the colt, albeit combed straight and being pulled up into a bun.

"I am so sorry for my son" the mare said to Thorax as she got close.  "Ever since they taught them about the royal wedding and the changelings, he's been asking everypony if they're secretly a changeling."

"It's fine" Thorax replied to the mare.  "Every foal gets curious when they learn about new things."

"Still, he shouldn't be asking questions like that" she persisted.  "He asked that same question to a guard in the city last week and his superiors put him on reserve duty for several days until he was able to prove that he wasn't a changeling."

Thorax winced a bit.  He'd heard about reserve duty in the Crystal Guard and understood how undesirable it was.  It consisted of doing the more unpleasant work that was often saved for new recruits as a sort of hazing ritual, like peeling vegetables for meals and cleaning out latrines.  In this way, it was a punishment that helped keep the guards performing their duty at the expected level.

"I'm Autumn Belle" the mare told Thorax, then gestured to her son.  "This is Autumn Dew, but he likes to be called Dewey."

"Heya Dewey" Thorax said to the colt with a wave.  The colt darted behind his mother's front legs and looked up at Thorax with a shy look.

"Dewey!" Autumn admonished her colt.  "You get out from under there and say hello to this nice stallion!"

Reluctantly, Dewey stepped out and did a quick wave with his hoof.  "Hello" he said quietly.

"I'm Crystal Hoof" Thorax told Autumn and Dewey.  Upon hearing his name, Autumn looked closer and her eyes went wide.

"You're a crystal pony?!" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah" Thorax said a bit nervously.  "I didn't think we were that rare outside of the empire."

"Not too many of you guys have gotten out and visited other places" Autumn told Thorax.  "In fact, you're the first one I've actually seen up close before."

"Really?" Thorax asked her.

"Mhm" Autumn replied.  "You're the first.  I gotta admit though, I can understand why there's not many that would want to come visit during the winter.  I mean, you all have that heart thing shielding you from bad weather all the time."

"The Crystal Heart," Thorax corrected, "and it doesn't protect us all the time.  We still need to have some rain and snow in order for the crops and stuff to grow."

"Really?" she says in surprise.  "That's interesting.  Most ponies here don't know that, or at least I don't think they do."

Before the conversation can continue any further, a voice calls out above all of the conversations.

"Good morning, everypony!"

Thorax and Autumn both look to see a unicorn mare with a bright yellow with golden blonde mane and tail, with bright orange eyes.  Her cutie mark, just barely visible under her safety orange vest, is a spotlight.

"Welcome to the Cheval Carriage factory!" she greeted everypony.  "My name's Shine, and I'll be your guide today as you take a tour of the world famous Cheval Carriage Company!"

"Now, before we begin, I would like everypony to follow me into the next room.  We'll be giving each of you a safety vest and a protective helmet.  Unicorns, don't forget to request our special helmet with slot that you can fit your horns through."

Everypony followed Shine through the next set of double doors.  On the other side was a room with racks of safety vests and bright yellow hats, some of them having a slot in the front.  In the center was a table where a pony was waiting with several piles of safety vest and a rolling rack with helmets on it.

"Just step up to the table and tell us your barrel measurement" Shine instructed everypony.  "If you don't know, we can take it for you right here."  Shine then used her magic and held up a thin ribbon with markings on it, which Thorax instantly recognized as a tape measure.

The ponies ahead of Thorax all approached a table, with some of them telling Shine their measurement or shaking their head and standing still as the tape measure wrapped around them.  When Shine finished, she levitated a vest to the pony.  When it came Thorax's turn, he smiled at her sheepishly.

"I... don't quite remember my measurement" he tells her.  "I think it's either 21 or 22."

"No problem" she tells him as she wraps the measure around him.  "We'll just take it real quick and be sure."

Thorax felt the tape go taught and hold for a second.  Shine looked closely at the markings before releasing the tape.

"Pretty good memory" she commented.  "You're barrel is 22."

She then levitates a vest over to Thorax, who takes it and steps aside.  He then slips it on and is given a helmet for his head.  Once properly dressed, he steps over with the other ponies to wait until everypony is ready.  When all the vests and hats are handed out, Shine heads over to a pair of doors marked "MUSEUM" and addresses all the visitors.

"Now we're going to take a trip through our company's history museum.  We have lots of fun and informative exhibits, as well as a gift shop where you can grab a souvenir.  After that, we'll be going onto the production floor, where we'll see a carriage being made, from raw metal being made into a frame and going the whole way through until the carriage rolls out to our storage lot where it'll wait to be sent off to a dealer or a customer."

"We have a lot to do and so little time to do it, so if everypony can follow me now.  Let our tour begin!"





The museum was... informative, if not a little underwhelming.  It started with a film, which told the viewer about the company's founder, The Duke of Cheval.  He was a noble that became rather irritated with having to walk every place he needed to go and messing up his clothes and hooves.

After seeing some foals riding in the back of a two wheel hay cart and holding open an umbrella, he got the idea to make a cart whose purpose was to ferry passengers where they needed to go in relative comfort.  After investing some bits into a lumber business and hiring a pony skilled in cart making, he designed his first carriage.

That had been five hundred years ago, and the company has been making carriages ever since.  About two hundred years ago, the company acquired the means to manufacture carriages from metals such as steel, and began designing more affordable models for the everyday pony.

Unfortunately, even with the focus on making prices more affordable for the average pony, carriages were still prohibitively expensive for most, with the most economic model, the Ladybug, costing around 45,000 bits.  The average pony salary, as Sunburst had told Thorax, was around 12,000 bits annually.

The company still did good business despite this.  They had a buyback program that allowed them to purchase their customer's carriages back when they were finished using them in exchange for a discount on their next purchase.  The repurchased carriage was then either refurbished and sold at a discounted price as "pre owned" or broken down into the most basic components and either reused on other carriages(if the parts were still in good and usable condition and were compatible) or melted down into raw materials to be used in future carriages.

At the end of the museum tour, Thorax was sure of one thing: He wouldn't be able to afford a carriage, even if he wanted one.  Sure, he could ask Princess Cadance for one and she probably would get it out of a desire to make up for her past wrongdoings against him, but he would never stoop so low as to take advantage of her kindness in that way.

Besides that, the carriages needed a driver to operate them, and Thorax couldn't afford to pay a pony a salary either.  He'd just have to be happy with riding a train, walking or flying wherever he needed to go.  Of course, for the last one, he'd need an approved pegasus disguise; the Crystal Empire was currently the only place where he was aloud to fly in his changeling form.

Shine moved to stand in front of a set of double doors, these painted in yellow and black alternating stripes and warnings about heavy equipment adorning it.  Thorax deduced rather easily that they were now about to enter the actual factory.

"Okay everypony!" she called out to the group so as to have everypony's attention.  "We're about to enter the production floor now, so please pay attention to all of the safety signs and the lines marked on the floor that mark safe distances from the machinery.  Parents, please keep hold of your foals so that they don't wander off by accident."

"Please, stay with our tour group for the whole duration of the tour.  I'm asking you to do this for your own safety.  I know the temptation to get a closer look is hard to fight sometimes, but we don't want any accidents today, or ever, so please be mindful of where your standing and respect the safety markings on the floor and walls.  Those hardhats only protect you so much."

With her safety speech concluded, Shine pushed a button, and the two doors began to slide open, a yellow strobe light and a ringing bell alerting nearby ponies to the door opening.

"Now," Shine said as she turned to walk through the now open door, "please follow me everypony!  We're about to see a carriage being made!"





Past the two doors was one of the most impressive sights Thorax could recall seeing.  The large building was filled with all sorts of machinery, some of it powered by steam, while other parts were fed magical current from a unicorn operator.  Strangely, he also saw pegasi and earth pony operators running these machines.  The magic they used came from a pendant of crystal around their necks.

"This is our production floor" Shine called out clear as day, a spell cutting out surrounding noise while boosting her own voice.  "Here you can see many ponies hard at work crafting our world famous carriages from start to finish.  If you'll all follow me, we'll head down to the foundry area where you can see our metalsmiths converting the raw ore we receive into usable metal for what will become the frames and bodies of our carriages."

The ponies followed, but Thorax was too curious about the magic using pegasus and earth ponies.  "Miss Shine?" he calls out to her.

Shine turns and looks at Thorax with a smile.  "Our first question already" she says bemused.  "I think I know what it's going to be about, but please, what is your question?"

Thorax feels a little embarrassed about how Shine called him out, but his curiosity gets the better of him.

"I noticed there's some earth ponies and pegasus using machines that look like they run on magic.  Are they really using magic?"

Shine chuckles before looking at Thorax.  "Indeed they are" she answers before gesturing towards a pegasus using a magic-powered hook to move a carriage frame to the next part of the assembly process.

"We hire all kinds of ponies to work here at our factory, and no position is off limits to them because of their race.  If there is an earth pony or pegasus that wishes to work with magically powered machines, we provide those ponies with the pendants you see them wearing.  Those act as a focal point for them to use their magic in the same way a unicorn would use theirs."

"Of course, we can't just let anypony have a pendant and begin using it untrained.  While positions with magic-powered machinery are not off limits to anypony, pegasus and earth pony candidates must pass a basic magic channeling and spell work course to prove they have the ability to operate these machines as required by their job function.  The course isn't as strenuous as you might think, but it is not something to be taken lightly either."

"Those who prove themselves capable of using magic with the pendant are brought out to the production floor with a unicorn supervising them for a week to monitor their abilities with the pendant and their overall quality.  If they're satisfactory, then they receive full authorization and can work without supervision.  If they're not, then we try to place them into a position better suited for their abilities.  We don't like to fire ponies if we don't have to."

Autumn Dew, or Dewey, raises their hoof.

"And what is your question?" Shine asks him.

"Could a changeling work here and do the jobs?"

Autumn Belle quickly admonishes her child for his question, but Shine just laughs again.

"It's okay, ma'am" Shine tells Autumn before looking at Dewey.  "Well, to answer your question, they could, at least in theory.  All the information that everypony researching them has found points to them having a similar level of magical competency as a unicorn.  So, if there was ever a situation where we had to rely on a changeling to use one of these machines, then yes, they would be able to operate it, or perform any of the other jobs here at our factory."

Dewey seems satisfied with the question.  Autumn leans down and gives her colt a scolding, telling him that they'll leave the tour early if he keeps asking ponies about changelings.  Dewey looks as though he's going to be upset, but quickly nods and tries to hide behind another pony to avoid his mother's gaze.

"Now then," Shine continues, "we'll make our way down to the forges.  I want everypony to keep their eyes and ears open while we're down there.  We'll be passing some heavy equipment that will be moving pretty fast, and like I said before, those helmets only protect you so much.  The best way to keep safe is to stay alert."  

"Also, keep your eyes and ears open down in the foundry.  The forges themselves get to a temperature in excess of 2,000 degrees in order to get the steel to smelt properly.  That temperature is so hot it can literally cook the flesh right off your bones, so pay attention to all the signs and stay behind those safety lines."

Shine and the group moved on.  Thorax followed, but he had to wonder to himself.

Was there perhaps a changeling working in this factory right now?





The forges were, for lack of a better word, hot.  Thorax had heard an older pony describe them as being similar to "the underbelly of Tartarus".  Needless to say, he quickly found no need for his hat and scarf while in the very hot room.

"Here you can see our ponies hard at work converting this raw ore into usable material" Shine explains while holding up what appeared to be a large rock that shined brightly in the dim lights of the foundry.  "This metal is from our newest supplier: The Dragon Lands."

Several ponies oohed and ahhed at this tidbit.  Shine continued her explanation.

"Thanks to the efforts of Spike the dragon and Princess Twilight Sparkle, ponies and dragons have formed peaceful relations between each other.  Using our gem reserves as currency, we have negotiated a deal for a large quantity of metal ore from the Dragon Lands to be used in a new line of carriages, one of which you'll see being made here today."

"According to our dragon suppliers, this steel is of a high purity, which was verified by our metallurgists, and would produce quality product to last the test of time."

"As you can see here," Shine says while gesturing to ponies at work, "we have some workers who are now adding some raw ore to a large smelting pot.  These unicorns you see at the bottom of the pot all have special talents related to electricity and lightning, making them the ideal ponies to be using our arc forges."

Thorax looked to where Shine was pointing and saw a team of ponies standing near one of the large smelting pots.  One pony, an earth pony, was standing on a catwalk and dumping metal buckets full of the shiny metal ore into the pot.  Once he was finished, he gave a signal for the unicorns to start the next step.  The four unicorns all nod to each other and then put a special mask over their face that leaves their horn exposed.  Stepping up to the pot, each unicorn places their horn against a special divot and casts a spell.  Almost immediately, Thorax hears a strange noise and sees the pot start to glow an orange color.

"The unicorns are casting an electric arc spell now, and the forge is heating up very quickly" Shine explains.  "Despite how bright you see the forge getting, it's made of a very strong material composed of metal and ceramic.  It's a costly material, but the metalsmiths of the world like to use it for smelting because it is highly resistant to heat.  We can use this smelting pot for billions of smeltings before it would need to be replaced."

The tour group again oohed and ahhed at the information.  Shine continued speaking.

"Once the ore is hot enough to become molten, a pony will stick a stirring rod into the ore and begin separating the metal from the slag.  Once the slag is separated and filtered out, the molten metal will be transported to the area where we will pour it into molds that will create the beginnings of our carriage frames."

Thorax watched as the pot got a bright orange and gave off a visible amount of heat.  A pony on a catwalk above the pot stuck a large rod down into the pot and began stirring it in a fashion not too dissimilar from what Thorax saw once when he saw the chefs in the Crystal Palace kitchens stirred a pot of stew.

After the pony finished stirring, they removed the rod and then produced something resembling a ladle with a long handle and stuck it into the pot.  A few more stirs later, and the ladle came up full of... something.  The closest description he could give was ashes from a fire pit, except they were sticking to each other.  The substance was then dumped into another large smelting pot and the ladle went back into the previous one and the process was repeated.

After several minutes, in which the amount of material pulled out had lessened to not even visible in the ladle, the pony on the catwalk gave a nod to the others and they nodded back.  The unicorns running the arc spell stopped and stepped away, removing their masks once they were at a safe distance from the smelting pot.  Each one of them was panting and sweating, and a pony came around with glasses of water for them to drink.

Another pony walked up and took hold of the smelting pot in magic, leading it over to an area where there were several block-like objects set up.  As they got closer, they then moved the smelting pot onto a hangar and affixed a hook and cable to a loop between two of the points where the unicorns had put their horns.

"Now that the metal has been smelted and cleaned of impurities," Shine explained as she gestured to the pony pouring metal, "this pony here will now pour the molten material into these molds that will shape the metal into the pieces that will become the frames for our carriages."

"The pony doing this must be careful when pouring the metal.  If they overfill the mold, then that wastes precious material, costs time at our finishing department, and causes headaches for a lot of ponies.  They must also pour the metal in a smooth and consistent flow.  If they don't, it could create defects in the metal that would compromise the structural integrity of the carriage, which could lead to an accident during operation and lead to a pony getting hurt."

"Cheval Carriage takes our manufacturing process very seriously, and we train all of our employees in the process of producing our metal and pouring it into molds correctly.  We don't allow anypony to work on the production floor until we are certain that they are able to perform the duties of their position without fail.  Their failure to perform their job in at least an adequate capacity could result in a catastrophe for our customers, so it is important that we perform our duties to our fullest ability to ensure our products are not just high quality, but also safe."

Thorax turned his attention from Shine back to the pony pouring metal.  They had finished pouring one mold and had moved onto the next.  As they tilted the smelting pot, a thin stream of molten metal poured out and landed in the mold.  The pony kept the stream flowing for a few more seconds before the tilted the pot back upright and moved on to the next mold.

"If everypony could follow me," Shine said to get the group's attention, "we're now going to move onto the next phase, where another team of ponies will remove the pieces of frame from the molds, inspect them and clean them, and then fit them together to make the frames that the carriage body and axles will attach to."





The group moved into the next area.  In this part of the building, ponies were moving molds that had had metal poured into them a bit earlier and were in the process of cooling down.  A few ponies were taking molds that had cooled down completely and were removing the newly formed parts inside them.

Thorax dared to take a peek inside one of the molds.  As expected, it was hollow, but the hollow part was in a weird shape, almost like a minotaur's bow.  He also saw that the two mold halves were a bit different from one another; one had pegs and the other had round holes.  Seeing them put back together, Thorax realized they were to help the mold fit properly so the parts turned out in the correct shape.

The ponies who had removed the parts from the mold now had them on a table and were going from piece to piece with a stethoscope and gently tapping their hooves on the piece.  One had finished and took a marker of some sort and made a check mark on the piece before handing it to another pony that laced it on a cart with other pieces that had a checkmark on it.

Several others were doing the same thing, but one pony had caught Thorax's attention.  This pony had stopped with their stethoscope at a spot on the part and kept tapping their hooves around this area.  After doing this for a few moments, the pony shook their head and drew a circle with an X in it on the part and put it on a second cart, where other pieces that had circles and Xs on them were sitting.

"Those ponies there are conducting our quality control test for these parts" Shine explains.  "When the metal comes out of the mold, they place stethoscopes all along the metal and tap it with their hooves to listen to the harmonics of the piece.  If they're good, they'll mark it with a check mark and send it on down to a pony that will use it and other pieces to begin assembling the frame.  If there's a spot where the metal has a defect, such as what that pony has there," she points to a stallion who is marking a defect wit the circle and X, "they'll mark that area and place it on a cart so that the forge ponies can re-smelt that metal into a new and hopefully good piece."

"Just past these inspection ponies, you can see the assemblers.  They use spells that secure the pieces of frame together in a fashion similar to osmosis.  The metal pieces literally absorb each other and create a bond stronger than any kind of welding.  Besides the strength, it makes for a visually more desirable piece."

Thorax watched as a pony took two pieces of metal and carefully set them together at just the right location.  Once they were satisfied, the pony, in this case, a pegasus, used their focusing pendant and cast the spell.  The two pieces of metal became enveloped in magic and suddenly fused together, and when the spell was released, they looked as though they had been made that way all along.

"Now," Shine says, getting everypony's attention, "we'll move onto the next part of the process, where we'll see pieces of the body being made.  Once finished, they will be added to the frames, and from there, they'll get their axles and wheels, where we'll show you our patented 'free floating' suspension system being made."





The group moved to another area of the foundry portion of the factory, where the smelted metal was being poured onto what looked like a large flat table.  Markings on the table told ponies to be careful around it, and a look up showed Thorax a large metal plate attached to a machine.

"This portion of our factory is where we produce the various pieces of the carriage body that will be assembled and added to the frame later.  This area is actually pretty all encompassing, but we are starting down here at the foundry, where our workers are going to make a large sheet of metal that will produce the exterior pieces of the carriage."

The group watched as a smaller smelting pot was slid underneath the large metal plate and a valve on the bottom was turned by a pony.  As soon as the valve opened, molten metal poured out and began filling the large table.  Once the pony watching the pot decided there was enough, he she the valve and moved the pot to another large table nearby.

A series of warning lights and sirens suddenly went off as the tour group took a step back.

"Please stand clear now, everypony!" Shine called out to the tour group, her voice bolstered by a spell.  "One of our workers will now operate a press that will turn this piece of metal into a sheet that our body pieces will be made from."

Thorax watched as a pony at a nearby console watched around the table to make sure there was nopony in the way of the machine.  Once he was sure, he hit a switch, and another loud set of sirens sounded out, and the large metal plate above the table descended.  The plate came the whole way down until the edges fit inside some guide rails that had been painted the customary black and yellow.

"This very powerful press is now turning the molten metal into a flat sheet" Shine continued.  "It's gonna stay locked there until the metal has cooled down enough to be handled safely."

"Once the metal is cool enough, it will be removed and ponies will perform a quality test on it to make sure that there are no defects that could result in later problems.  There's some ponies about to conduct a test now."

Shine pointed to a group of ponies, causing the tour group to look over and watch.

The ponies, a mix of unicorns, pegasus and earth ponies, used levitation magic to lift the piece of metal out of the table and onto another.  Once lowered into place, the ponies stepped back and stopped their magic.  The earth ponies and pegasi looked a tiny bit winded, the use of their magic by way of focal point likely taking more strain than if had been directed through their wings and hooves as it would naturally.

"Now that the metal has finished cooling and our ponies have moved it out of the press," Shine continues, "one of our inspectors will come in and check it for any defects.  While they will still check it in a similar fashion to how the frame pieces were checked, a second check will be performed with a jeweler's eye loupe across the whole piece.  This is a visual cosmetic inspection."

"If the piece meets our cosmetic standards, then it will move onto a cutting machine that will turn the sheet of metal into usable parts for production.  The excess from the sheet will be taken back to the foundry and recycled into another batch of material being made into a sheet of metal."

Thorax turned his attention to the pony that approached the metal sheet.  They had a stethoscope like the ponies before did, but also a piece of equipment that looked like a small funnel.  They placed the stethoscope to the metal and tapped it like before, but when they were satisfied with the results of that test, they then climbed onto the metal and began inspecting the piece with the eye loupe.

"Miss Shine," a pony in the group called out, "what happens if the sheet fails inspection?"

"Well," Shine begins, "it depends.  If it fails the test for cosmetics, then a worker evaluates whether or not we can remove that cosmetic defect and still use the sheet.  If we can, we either polish it out or cut it out and send the sheet for cutting.  If we can't, then the sheet is taken back to the forges and re-smelted."

"If it fails for structural integrity, then it goes back and gets reforged."

Thorax turned his attention from the group back to the sheet of metal, which had apparently passed the test and was being moved to a second table.  There, a unicorn standing behind a large machine with a glass lens at the top began looking through it and casting a spell.  The machine came to life and began projecting a powerful laser through the lens, cutting the metal into rough shapes.

"That unicorn over there is using one of our new laser cutting machines" Shine comments.  "These state of the art machines use special lasers that cut quickly and also remove burrs created during the process.  Once finished, these 'body blanks' as we call them are moved to another pony who will use special presses to form them into the correct shape.  Once that's done, they will then move onto the next part of the process."

Thorax watched as an earth pony took one of the sheets of metal in magic created by the focal point and moved it onto a machine.  Once there, they pressed a lever on the machine and a large metal block with a recess in it came down firmly onto the piece.  After being there for a few seconds, it came up and showed that the metal now roughly resembled a small door, even having holes for a door handle and lock cut into it.

"Okay everypony!" Shine called out.  "We're now gonna be heading further on down the line, where we'll see our workers put these body pieces together and prepare to set it onto the frames.  Hurry now!  Time is wasting!"





The tour moved on to another portion of the factory.  This part featured the various pieces of bodies being put together.  Several ponies were assembling the pieces, using what looked to be the same fusing spell that was used in the other parts of the process.

"This section is where our carriage bodies are assembled" Shine explained.  "These ponies will put these bodies together and fuse the pieces much like the frame pieces you saw earlier were assembled.  Once they're finished putting them together, they'll place the finished body onto the overhead hooks and it will be carried to the part of the process where body and frame are joined."

Thorax watched as the ponies worked, fusing the pieces together in a way the left no visible seams.  Once they were finished, a pony brought over some chains attached to a track, with each chain having a hook covered in rubber.

The ponies assembling the body each took a hook and attached it to the carriage body, and another pony pulled the chains up until the carriage body was at the correct height, then they locked the chains into place, leaving the assembled piece to swing slightly like a sort of pendulum.

"If everypony can follow me, we're going to go back over to the frames and watch as the axles are put in and the 'free floating' suspension is added.

The tour group followed behind Shine as she moved them onto the next part of the factory, but Thorax paused in place.  He sensed a lot of different emotions, and most he had blocked out, but the emotions he felt now were not the same kind he had felt since he started the tour.

Fear, anxiety, and...

Excitement?

Thorax looked around to find a possible source for the emotions, but couldn't place them.  At first he thought about just moving on with the tour group and ignoring the strange cluster of feelings, but he felt them sharply again, and upon looking around, eventually found their source.

Off to one side of the factory floor were some filing cabinets, with each drawer having its own individual lock.  Standing near the filing cabinet were two unicorns with manes and tails colored like candy canes.  The two looked... out of place.  Both were tall and thin, which was nothing like the other ponies working in the factory.  Besides that, they also only wore the safety vests like Shine had given him earlier, but theirs looked to be ill fitting.

Thorax watched the two for a moment to see what they were doing.  The two unicorns appeared to be doing the same thing, but had not taken notice of him.  They watched as a few workers walked past them, pretending to be discussing something related to work.  Once they were past, the two unicorns went to look around.

There was no doubt that the strange emotions were coming from the two, but Thorax couldn't figure out why...

The one unicorn nodded to the other, who had a mustache on his muzzle.  The mustache unicorn nodded in turn and faced the filing cabinet.  He used his magic and produced what looked like a key and placed it into one of the cabinet's locks.  With a twist, the lock opened and the unicorn slid the drawer open.

The first unicorn looked around and produced some blank parchment, passing it to the second.  The second pulled out some papers from the filing cabinet and looked them over.  Smiling, he took one of the blank papers and placed it over top of the document from the cabinet, casting a spell to duplicate it.

Thorax knew right away what he was looking at: corporate espionage.  The two unicorns were spies that came here to steal trade secrets!

"You know you're supposed to be with your tour group?"

Thorax jumped a little, his focus so much on the unicorns he didn't sense this new pony approaching behind him.

She was a mare and had a stern look on her face.  She had on a safety vest and helmet, but her helmet had a sticker on the front that said "SUPERVISOR".

Recomposing himself, Thorax told her what he saw.

"I think those two ponies over there are spies."

The mare raised an eyebrow.  "Which ones?"

"By those filing cabinets" Thorax said while pointing his hoof.  "They pulled out a paper and made a copy of it."

"And that makes them spies, huh?" she asked, her body emanating doubt.

Thorax nodded.  "They were acting really suspicious, and looking around like they were making sure they weren't seen."

The mare continued looking at Thorax for a few moments before looking at the two unicorns Thorax indicated.

"Well," she does eventually concede, "they aren't wearing all the proper safety equipment, so I'll have to talk with them anyway.  I'll check that out while I give them a scolding.  You better go catch up with your tour group."

"O-Okay" Thorax replied and trotted off in the direction of the tour group.  The supervisor continued watching the two unicorns for a moment before she realized something.

"We don't keep any filing cabinets out here on the floor."





Thorax had quickly caught up to the group, who was watching the assembled bodies from before being moved over top of the carriage frames.  The frames themselves were having some metal tube-like pieces attached to them.

"Here we can see the frames getting their axles installed" Shine tells the group as they see the frames, held up with wires, having thick metal rods installed into matching holes on each side of the frame.  "Once the axles are through, bearings will be slipped over the ends and fit into the holes.  These bearings will allow the axle to spin free and not rub against the frame."

"When our company first started making carriages, the only way to resist wearing on the axles was to use copious amounts of grease that would allow the axle to move freely in the frame.  Unfortunately, due to the nature of the design at the time, ponies traveling by carriage would need to plan stops and install new axles or lubricate the existing ones at different points along their journey.  With the advent of bearings, that process was all but eliminated.  In modern carriages, bearings prolong the life of axles significantly, but they are still susceptible to wear from the elements, and a hard enough hit in a ditch or pot hole can bend the axle and force a carriage owner to replace it."

"Can't the axles be enchanted to resist wear?" a pony asks.

"Steel is not a good conductor of magical energy," Shine explains, "and none of the metals that do conduct enchantments well are ideal for use in axles.  At current, making the axles in the fashion we do is the most efficient and practical method.  However, we have an R and D division that is not a part of this tour that works everyday on new innovations to make our carriages better than the generation before them."

"What kinds of innovations do your carriages have now?" another pony asks.

"Well, the best currently is the 'free floating' suspension system you see being installed today."  Shine then gestures to a pony working on a frame.  Four studs are mounted onto the frame and fused into place.  A set of eight springs is then added to the frame, with two in each corner.  Once they're in place, a set of strings is then strung between the springs and tied off at the corners.

"The 'free floating' suspension system was developed here at this facility neary ten years ago" Shine continues.  "A set of springs, eight in total, are mounted onto each corner of the frame, and then a string is drawn between all of the springs and tied into place."

"On the body of the carriage itself are a series of dampeners that mount onto the string and hold the body in place.  The purpose of the design is to mitigate shock from the road as much as possible.  The body essentially 'floats free' on the string, and the dampeners and springs work together to dampen the shock of a rough road significantly."

"What about the string?" a pony in the group asks.  "I can't imagine they're that strong."

"Those strings you see are diamond wire, extruded through special magical processes from real diamonds.  The springs and dampeners have special enchantments on them that hold the string in place and prevent it from cutting into either part.  This ensures the highest level of durability possible."

"I thought you said steel wasn't a good conductor for enchantments?" A pony points out.

"It isn't," She reaffirms, "but the metal used around the diamond wire is an alloy that uses metal that does help to conduct enchantments."

"Why not make the carriage frame and body with that metal?" A pony asks.

"It's not practical" Shine answers.  "If we used that metal for making frames, then we couldn't sell a carriage of any sort for less than 250,000 bits.  That's why the free floating suspension is an option that can be added to a carriage being built here in our factory for a customer that's special ordered a carriage."

"I heard there were significant accidents when the 'free floating' suspension was first released" a stallion in the group calls out, his voice sounding rather accusatory.

"Admittedly, there were some incidents during the first year" Shine says with sadness in her voice.  "At that time, we were convinced that the steel cabling we were using would be durable enough, but as you said, there were incidents that caused us to re-examine our design and we determined that the steel cabling was not strong enough to stand up to daily rigor."

"As for the incidents that happened, we handled all costs associated with any medical care needed by affected customers and offered to either completely refund, replace, or repair the affected carriages with the newer and proven design.  Since the change to the diamond string, there have been no incidents involving the new suspension system."

The ponies seemed to be placated by Shine's explanation about the defect and how the situation it caused was resolved.  Thorax thought back to the carriage he had seen in the Crystal Empire and recalled that it did not have the new suspension system.

"Could a pony get the new suspension put on the carriage they already own if they wanted it?" Thorax asked.

"Unfortunately, no" Shine said with regret in her voice.  "When the free floating suspension was developed, the carriage body and frame were redesigned to allow the system to fit properly.  An older carriage would need to have the body modified to use the new system, and with the cost of that combined with the cost of the system, it would be much more cost effective to simply purchase a new carriage with the system already installed."

Thorax nods at the answer.  Shine continues with the tour, indicating a group of ponies putting some large curved metal rods between the axle and frame.

"While the free floating suspension is a wonderful addition to create a smooth ride," she tells the group, "it doesn't really do anything to help the frame of the carriage itself to absorb shock from the road.  This is why we still use a traditional suspension spring between the frame and axles to help it absorb road shock and reduce the potential for damage."

"Up next, we'll be seeing the bodies getting their paint and interiors, then they'll be mounted onto frames, and the carriages will get wheels so that they can roll on out of the building and into somepony's life as a comfortable way of moving around."

Shine goes on to the next part of the process, with everypony following close behind her.  As the group does so, two ponies quickly move past them.  The star-like badges around their necks tell Thorax that they're either police ponies or some kind of security for the factory.  Regardless, he elects not to interfere with their job duties and continues following the tour.





The paint area was not something Thorax could say he was a fan of.  For one thing, it smelled, and not pleasantly.  In fact, he was sure that the ponies in the spray booth were suffering from some sort of perverse oxygen deprivation, as they seemed to act rather goofy as they went about painting the carriage bodies on the line.

"Don't stand too close to the paint booth" she warned the ponies on the tour.  "The fumes from the paint can be pretty overwhelming."

"Now, these ponies here use special tools to spray paint onto the carriage bodies, making sure to coat every surface that requires paint.  They first start with a light grey primer, then a layer of the base color, and finally a clear coat that will protect the second layer from scratches."

"Now, once we finish painting the body, we move it to a special machine that acts like a sort of oven.  It doesn't get quite as hot as your ovens at home, but it does get warmer.  The main purpose of the oven is to use powerful UV lighting to help the paint harden quicker.  If we didn't do this, it would take two to three weeks for the paint to harden naturally on its own."

She then gestured to further down the line.  There, ponies were laying towels down on different parts of the frame and climbing over top and inside.  Once there, other ponies would hand them different things, such as pieces of fabric, large cushions, or tools of different kinds.

"Once the carriages are painted and the paint is hardened, workers go inside the carriages and begin adding things such as upholstery and seating.  In some of our higher end carriages, lighting is added to allow ponies to better see during nighttime rides and stormy days.  Each carriage that comes through the line has a serial number attached to it that informs the ponies as to what amenities are to be added to that specific carriage."

"When those ponies finish, the bodies are then sent to the final part of the assembly line, where the bodies will join the frames and we'll put our wheels on the carriages and send them out to our lot for safekeeping until we're ready to send them on their way."





The tour moved on to the last part of the assembly.  The carriages were mounted onto the frames and the diamond wire was threaded through the various dampeners and studs until it held the body of the carriage aloft.  Thorax wasn't sure how it accomplished the feat, but the body and frame moved down the line and the body didn't seem to jostle whatsoever as the frame transferred from one line to another.

Thorax was actually tempted to ask if the diamond wire came from the Crystal Empire, but he thought that may have been a forgone conclusion; a trip with Sunburst to a hardware and home goods store had shown him some of the material for sale in large spools, along with special shears to cut it with.

The frames then move to the next part of the factory, where ponies install wheels onto each axle and secure them with five large nuts.  The wheels all have large rubber treads on them that are covered with large studs, and Thorax quickly deduces that these are to give the wheels traction over various terrain.  In fact, he recalls a sign at the dealership informing him of a "retreading service" offered to ponies that have worn out their wheels.

With the wheels put on the carriage, the process of construction is complete, and a pony in a yoke hooks up to each carriage and leads it out of a large door open at the end of the building.  Outside, Thorax can see a lot full of carriages of various kinds.  Some appear to be simple carriages a pony would ride in, while others appear to be large enough for a pony or two to use like a portable dwelling, with room enough for essentials and such.

"The construction process for a carriage is complete" Shine tells the tour group.  "With the carriages built, the only thing left to do is ship them off to the pony or dealership that requested it from us.  Before they leave, however, they go through a rigorous testing process to ensure that each carriage is functioning as intended.  If we find a defect anywhere in the carriage, we hold it and fix it.  Once repaired properly, the carriage will go out with a letter of apology to the pony for the lateness of their item."

"That concludes our tour.  Now, are there any more questions that all of you have?"

"How come the carriages are so darn expensive?"

The question got looks from many of the ponies.  Shine just laughed before giving an answer.

"Admittedly, the prices of carriages still paint them as something more of a luxury item.  That said, we have reduced our costs considerably, and we're hoping to do so in the future if we can negotiate a new headquarters for our manufacturing processes."

"So you are moving to Manehattan?" another pony asks.

"Nothing is set in stone," Shine tells them, "but Manehattan is one of a few locations being considered."

"What will happen to the workers here?" Another pony asks, an air of mistrust apparent in their voice.  "This town leans pretty heavily on Cheval for labor."

"I don't have an answer for that question right now," Shine admits, "but I would like to think that our corporate offices could either facilitate moving employees to the new facility, or at least offer a generous severance package to any employees unable or unwilling to move."

"ATTENTION! ATTENTION!"

The new voice catches all the ponies off guard.  Thorax looked around trying to find which pony was calling out, but could see none.  As he looked up, he saw the speaker and realized that what he had heard was an intercom message.

"Would the crystal pony touring the factory please come to the front desk.  I repeat, would the crystal pony touring the factory please come to the front desk.  Thank you."

Thorax looked confused for a moment before looking at Shine.  The mare looked equally as confused as he did.

"If everypony would follow me please" she addressed the group, then looked at Thorax.  "Please fall in beside me so I can lead you back to the front desk."

Thorax gave a nod and fell into step next to Shine.  The group moved towards a familiar looking set of double doors and stepped back through into the room with the vests and hard hats.

"If everypony could turn in the vests and hard hats they used, we would appreciate it" she asked each pony, who complied and began taking the vests off.  Thorax went to take it off but Shine stopped him.

"You need to get out there now" she told Thorax.  "That voice you heard was our CEO, and he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Thorax looked a bit surprised, but nodded and headed back into the waiting room and back out to the front desk he'd seen when he came inside originally.  As he looked at the desk, he saw the supervisor mare from before, as well as an older looking stallion.  He was wearing a suit jacket, dress shirt and tie, but his coat and mane were blue and silver respectively.

In all honesty, he resembled Elbow Grease a little bit, but with amber eyes instead of red.

The two ponies were having a conversation that Thorax couldn't quite hear.  As he was walking over to them, the supervisor stopped the conversation and took notice of Thorax.

"This is him" she said to the stallion.

The stallion turned and looked over Thorax.

"You're the pony that saw the two unicorns earlier?" he asked.

"Yes?" Thorax replied, feeling the stallion's irritation as he got closer.

The irritation changed to relief and gratitude as the stallion approached and grabbed one of Thorax's hooves and began shaking violently.

"I must thank you, my dear boy!" the stallion says enthusiastically.  "This supervisor here went to confront those two ponies and they bolted.  They were halfway across the factory before security apprehended them.  When they were searched, we found copies of very sensitive information that those bozos were gonna use to start their own carriage company."

"They would've pulled the rug out from under us if you hadn't have said something.  Thank you, boy, thank you!"

"Y-Y-You're W-W-Welcome!" Thorax replied, the stallion still shaking his hoof quite vigorously.

"This calls for a special honor I don't do very often!" the stallion says as he looks at the mare and nods.  She reaches into a desk and produces a paper and gives it to the stallion.  The stallion takes the paper and then grabs a quill, scribbling some info down on it and giving it to Thorax, who was still recovering from the handshake.  Once steady, he took the paper and read it, his eyes going wide as he finished looking it over.

This pony is hereby awarded a voucher for a total of 50,000 bits good towards the purchase of any product manufactured by the Cheval Carriage Company.  It is to be honored at all dealers and businesses who sell products manufactured by Cheval Carriage Company.

Signed,



Cheval Azure, CEO and Owner

"F-F-Fifty Th-Th-Thousand?!" Thorax says in disbelief.

Azure nods.  "Those two would've cost us a lot of money, maybe even put us out of business.  The city guard came and took them a little bit ago.  We gave them a description and they told us they were a pair of con ponies named Flim and Flam.  They're fast talkers who can convince ponies of any number of things they tell them."

"One of their more famous exploits was making a cider pressing machine that could make cider faster than any team of ponies ever could.  Of course, the quality was horrible and they were run out of town."

"They have a real knack for raising funds and getting manufacturing capital.  Darn shame, really.  If they'd just stay on the straight and narrow, they could really make something of themselves.  Now, they'll be spending some time behind bars and likely doing nothing but plotting their next scheme when they get out."

"Anyways, you stopped them, and that's my reward to you.  Eagle Eye will get a nice promotion from this too.  If you're interested, I can finance you to move here and have a job with this company.  My board of directors have wanted to create a chief security officer for a while now and this incident will convince the members opposed to the idea to get on board."

Thorax thinks it over, but he shakes his head.  "I appreciate the offer, but I like what I do now back in the Crystal Empire.  I do appreciate the voucher you gave me though."

The stallion feels a bit dejected but doesn't show it.  "Darn shame, my boy.  Hard to find truly good help.  Well, we'll just have to find somepony else to fill that role.  The voucher is yours though.  You can do with it what you wish.  Use it, give it to another pony.  Whatever you wanna do."

"I have to get back to my office now, so I'll let you go.  Thank you again, and you're welcome back anytime you'd like."

With that, Azure went over to what appeared to be an elevator and stepped inside.  He waved back at Thorax before the door shut and a set of lights indicated the elevator car going up.

Thorax waved back and then looked at the paper again.  The old stallion had given him enough bits to buy a carriage and even have some bits left over.  Would Thorax use it?  Maybe, or maybe not.  Right now, all Thorax wanted to do was go back to his room at the inn and rest for a while.  He needed to figure out where to go on his trip next.
> Part IV, Chapter 7 - Leaving Detrot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax had gotten back from the Cheval Factory around dinner time.  He had returned to his room with what he had been told was a pizza, but it looked nothing like pizza he had seen before during his brief stop in Manehattan originally.  According to the pony making it, the cheese was at the bottom on top of the crust, with all the sauce poured over top and baked until there was a crust formed on top of that.

Thorax went over to his windows and drew them shut and locked the door.  Thorax decided to change out of his Crystal Hoof disguise and eat in his natural form.  Before he started, he went over to the chest Princess Cadance had given him right before he left and retrieved a flask from inside it.

He dumped the contents onto the pizza and tore into it with vigor.  The love was filling and lasted as he ate, but it was not quite a good substitute for love from a real pony.

He cursed himself as he thought about taking love from ponies.  Sure, his friends were willing to let him feed from them, but it still caused them harm in the form of the fatigue and headaches.

In fact, there was only one time Thorax can recall when a pony that was fed on for any significant amount of time and was fine was when he had been in a mini coma thanks to Feather and Elbow.  Back then, it was Brass who had been drained, but she hadn't shown any signs at the time of fatigue or headaches.  Since then, she would show the same symptoms as anypony else, but was able to endure longer than a normal pony.

What made Brass so special that she could endure better than others?

Thorax decided not to think about that problem for a moment, opting to finish the pizza before it got cold.  He had to confess that is was better than he thought it would be.  The crust was crisp and the pie cooked just right.  The tomato sauce had been well crafted, with quality produce and the right blend of seasonings.  He could understand very well why ponies loved eating these.

Once he had finished, he set the pizza box down and looked over a map of Equestria he'd gotten.

The nation of Equestria was big, and Thorax figured it would take a pony weeks to cover it all.  Thorax quickly found Detrot, which was roughly in the central and northern parts of Equestria.  A short distance away to the west was another city called Whinnyapolis.  To the east was Coltlumbus and Ponyburg.

Directly south and past a mountain range was Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria, and home to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.  Just past that a little bit further south was Ponyville, the town where Twilight, Spike and all of their friends lived.

Thorax had his work cut out for him.  He was unsure of where he wanted to go next.  One thing he knew for certain was that he wanted to have his decision made by at least tonight; he had spent a good bit of walking around to find the pizza shop and found no other interesting places to visit before moving on.  Making it tonight meant that he could either leave then on an overnight train, or he could leave on the first available train the next morning.

Feeling a bit uncertain, Thorax changed back into Crystal Hoof and decided to go for a walk to clear his thoughts.  He often did so back in the Crystal Empire, and he saw no reason that it wouldn't work here.






Later that night...






Thorax had packed his luggage and told the inn keeper he'd be leaving soon.  On his walk, he made a decision that he would head west and make a stop in Whinnyapolis.  If he had memorized the train schedule right, then the train would stop there in the morning, which meant he should book a sleeping compartment for this trip.

Stopping at the inn keeper's office to return the room key, as well as settle up the bill, Thorax made his way to the train station.  As he walked, he thought about the incident at the Cheval factory, and the rather generous reward the owner had given him.

A part of him wanted to refuse it, but he thought that might've been rude.  After all, according to the stallion, those two ponies were going to steal his companies secrets in an effort to undermine his business.  However, another part of him questioned what he would use it for.

It certainly didn't make sense for him to get his own carriage.  For one, he had nowhere to put it when it wouldn't be used, and for another, he didn't have a carriage driver to pull it or the funds to employ one.

If Thorax did want a carriage, it would've have to be small, and he would have to pull it himself.

At that moment, Thorax had a thought.  He'd used a taxi here in Detrot.  Could he set up his own taxi business in the Crystal Empire?

Possibly, but for now, he decided that what he would do with the voucher could be decided later.

Getting to the train station, Thorax was about to approach the ticket booth until he remembered his passports.

"Oh, crumbs!" he thought to himself.  "I gotta see the commander and tell her I'm heading to Whinnyapolis!"

Looking around, Thorax spotted a guard standing off to the side and looking over the ponies in the station.  He approached the guard with his passports and letter at the ready.  When he got a bit closer, the guard took notice of him.

"Something I can help you with?" the guard asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I'm supposed to let the commander know when I'm leaving" Thorax explained, then hoofed over his passports and the letter from Princess Celestia and Luna.

The guard took it and read it over, then looked at Thorax.  "You're for real?"

"Um, if you mean am I serious," Thorax said puzzled, "then yes, I am."

The guard looked it over again before giving the paperwork back to Thorax.

"Alright" he tells Thorax.  "Follow me and don't do anything stupid, like try to attack me or something."

"O-Okay" Thorax replied nervously as he followed the guard to the commander's office.  Once outside, the guard knocked on the door.

"What do you want?!" A muffled voice calls out through the door.  "I'm in the middle of paperwork!"

"Ma'am," the guard replied, "the changeling is here to see you again."

There was silence for a few moments, then some shuffling could be heard.  After a minute, the commander called out for Thorax to come inside, which he did.

"What do you want?" she asked rather curtly.

"I'm leaving tonight," Thorax answered, "and I'm heading for Whinnyapolis.  I'm hoping to get there in the morning so I can find another hotel or inn to stay at."

Hawkeye's previously aggressive look turns a bit confused.  "You're... telling me you're leaving?"

"Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" Thorax countered with a bit of uncertainty, now wondering if notifying the commander was actually necessary.

As quick as the glare gave way to confusion, it returned with a heavy amount of skepticism.  "How do I know that you're actually leaving?"

"Well, you could have a guard follow me the whole way to Whinnyapolis" Thorax offered.

"I can't spare the pony power for something like that," she admitted, "so I guess I'll just have to take your words at face value and hope you won't backstab us."

Thorax winced at the accusation.  Hawkeye's glare softened again and she leaned back into her chair.

"You're different" she said as she regarded him.  "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"I'd like to think it's a good thing" Thorax tells her.

"We'll just have to see about that" she says, then leans forward to look Thorax straight in the eye.

"Well, you've kept your word so far, and you haven't went against any of the rules, so I won't keep you any longer.  I'll give you a word of warning: my colleague in Whinnyapolis is a lot less tolerant than I am, so if you are really as genuine as that letter says, I would watch myself there."

Thorax gave a nod.  "I, uh, appreciate the warning" he told her.

Hawkeye asked for the letter from Celestia and she put a stamp on the back of it.  Handing it back to Thorax, she told him that the guards would want to see the letter, as it served as proof that it was actually him appearing in the cities.  She also told him that she would let the commander in Whinnyapolis know he was coming.

Putting the letter back in his saddle bags, Thorax bid Hawkeye adieu and went to get his ticket and board the train.






Later, On the train






Thorax reserved a sleeping compartment for his trip to Whinnyapolis.  He wanted to have some privacy so he could be in his natural changeling form; maintaining a constant disguise was exhausting.  He would get some rest on the train ride to Whinnyapolis and wake up in time to get off the train.

As he lay on the cot in his compartment, he thought about what happened at the Cheval factory with the two stallions.  He hadn't understood why, but he realized he had heard of those two stallions from Applejack, the element of honesty.  According to her, they had tried many different times to swindle ponies in Ponyville, once with the aforementioned apple cider machine, and then again later on with a miracle tonic of some sort.

He hoped that those two could learn the error of their ways and find a path that kept them on the straight and narrow, but he had some doubts about that.  From the simple fact that they had a reputation as tricksters and swindlers, he had to concede that they would likely attempt some other type of illegal activity once they were released from the dungeons.

Or would they go to a prison?  Thorax wasn't completely sure.

Thinking of the two stallions and Applejack's story also had him thinking of the mare, and all of her other friends.  With him visiting Equestria, Thorax would get to visit with each of them again, and perhaps this time, he could get to know them better and become actual friends with them.  It was a nice thought, and one he hoped he could make it a reality.

Before he knew it, Thorax had dozed off, and after what felt like only a few seconds to him.  Apparently, he was a bit more tired than he thought.





KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Thorax jolted awake as he heard the sudden knocking.  Still a little bit groggy, he looked around to find the source of the noise.  He eventually figured out that it was coming from the door, as he heard the sound again.  This time, it was accompanied by a voice.

"Sir?"

Upon hearing it, Thorax realized it was the train conductor.

"Uh, yes?" Thorax responded.

"I just wanted to make sure you were awake in time" the conductor called through the door.  "The train will be arriving in Whillyapolis in about fifteen minutes.  I figured you'd want the time to gather your belongings and prepare to disembark."

"I'm just glad I locked the door so you didn't barge in on me sleeping" Thorax thought as he shook the mental cobwebs free from his mind.  "Thank you, sir.  I'll be ready in a few minutes."

"Take your time" the conductor called back.  "Like I said, we're about fifteen minutes out, so you've got time to gather your belongings and give yourself a quick brushing."

Hoofsteps could be heard walking from the door as the conductor moved on to the next compartment.  Once he was sure that the conductor couldn't see, and nopony else was approaching, Thorax donned his Crystal Hoof form and gathered his luggage.





Thorax stepped off the train platform into a rather opulent station.  The building was made from ornate, large stones, clearly meant to stand the test of time.  There were several platforms with rail lines that went in many directions.  Some went to Canterlot and cities south of Whinnyapolis, while others moved to the east and back in the direction of Detrot.

There were also lines running to the west and northwest, which were the ones he'd be using after he had seen all there was to see in Whinnyapolis.  In truth, he wouldn't have known to travel in that direction if he hadn't had his map, and he wouldn't have decided to travel that way if he hadn't read it during his walk in Detrot.

In that direction was a place Thorax very much wanted to visit: Van Hoover.

The city held a great deal of significance to him.  After all, it was the police force there that proved his innocence during the trial against him for foalnapping and assault.  If he was lucky, he could get to thank the ponies responsible face to face, perhaps even doing so without having to wear a disguise.

He shook the thoughts from his mind as his thoughts led him to taking care of his first priority in Whinnyapolis: a hotel room.  He knew he wouldn't spend a lot of time in the city; perhaps a bit more than one day.  He wanted to find a hotel so he could have a place to rest after his "day out on the town".

Before he could do that, however, he needed to find the guard commander for Whinnyapolis.  Unlike Detrot, there wasn't an immediate customs desk right inside the train station.  That meant he'd have to find-

"You!"

The sudden loud voice caused Thorax to flinch.  Turning around he saw a guard approaching him.

"Or I could just wait for a guard to find me" Thorax thought as the pony stopped and glared at him.

"Where is your letter and your passports?" the guard questioned asked rather curtly.

Thorax blinked for a second before realizing this pony was aware of what he was and what he was supposed to do.  Immediately, the changeling produced the requested documents and gave them to the guard.  After looking them over, the guard looked back at Thorax.

"Follow me" he commanded as he turned and headed off in the direction of some doors in the wall, likely for offices for different personnel who worked at the station.  As they walked, Thorax could feel the contempt coming off of this stallion.  If his voice hadn't already been an indication, the guard didn't like Thorax, and was quite displeased with what he had to do.

The two approached a door and the guard knocked on it three times.

"Yes?" a voice called out from inside.

"He's here" the guard told the voice.  "You demanded to see him as soon as he arrived."

There was silence for a few moments before the voice gave a reply.  "Send him in."

The guard opened the door and gave his head a quick jerk towards the door.  Thorax just walked inside, the guard following him through.

The office was similar to Hawkeye's back in Detrot; they probably all looked the same because of some kind of guard regulation about areas of official business or such.  That said, there were a few personal trinkets scattered about the room.  Mostly personal photos, as well as a few plaques and varios awards.

One item, however, did stand out.

It was a poster on the wall.  On it were the silouhettes of pegasi flying through the air in the background.  In the foreground was a pegasus stallion.  His charcoal muzzle could be seen through an opening in the skin tight suit he was wearing.  His eyes were covered by a pair of goggles, so it was hard to say what his eyes looked like.

As Thorax looked at the poster, he realized what it was.  This was an advertisement for a Wonderbolts acrobatic flight show, but according to the dates at the bottom, the show had long since been performed.

"Changeling."

The tone of voice ran ice cubes up Thorax's back.  He turned to face the voice addressing him.

It was a stallion, and more specifically, a charcoal colored one.  Looking back and forth between the poster and the stallion, Thorax realized they were the same pony.  He had a blonde mane and golden yellow eyes.  He was wearing a jacket similar to what Prince Shining Armor had taken to wearing as captain of the royal guard, only this one was a dark blue and had different medals pinned to it.

"Lose the disguise and sit down" he commanded.

The authority his voice shook with made Thorax obey immediately, losing his Crystal Hoof form and finding a chair to plant his flank in.  The commander took a seat behind his desk once he had gotten the passports and letter from the guard.

"So, this is for real then" he commented dryly as he set the passports and letter onto his desk.  "Hawkeye told me you were coming, but I didn't believe you'd actually show.  I guess we have our first official piece of evidence that a changeling can keep its word."

Thorax could feel the hate in each word.  It was honestly starting to dash his hopes that this trip would go well or that guard interactions would improve in any meaningful way.

"I'll cut right through the fat" he continues.  "I don't like you in the slightest.  I had to fight your kind in Canterlot during that wedding, and rest assured, I did get several good licks in on you lot before I was pinned down."

"You lot are nothing but parasites.  You just weasel your way into our towns and cities and just feed and feed and feed until there's nothing left!"

His last statement is punctuated by him slamming his hoof onto his desk, the force actually causing a few items to tip over.

"As it stands," he continues, "I am a guard that was sworn to do my duty with integrity and honor.  Since the princesses recognize you as a diplomat and give you immunity, I can't just throw you in our jails and leave you to rot for no reason other than you are what you are."

"So, I give you this one, very clear warning: Do not do a damn thing here in this city.  I've been charged with protecting it and its citizens, and I have no intention of allowing anything to happen to anypony on my watch."

The stallion grabs a stamp and puts a seal on the back of the letter Pricess Celestia gave Thorax.  A closer look reveals the two stamps being nearly identical: A shield with a sun and moon on it, with a ribbon going across the bottom part of the shield.

The only difference was that on one ribbon it said Detrot, and the other said Whinnyapolis.

"There's your papers" the commander said as he threw them towards Thorax.  "I have a few rules you'll need to follow while you're here."

"One - No feeding on ponies.  They already told me about your little 'love potion' collection.  If it means my citizens are safe, go get drunk off it for all I care."

"Two - If you see a changeling, REPORT IT!  If I find out you were covering for one of your hivemates, you'll wish you'd never had your egg laid."

"Three - A guard will be watching you at all times.  If you make an effort to evade the guards following you, you will be found and arrested."

"Last - No disguises besides that Crystal Pony one you came in here with.  The guards have ways of finding changelings in disguise."

With his rules finished, the commander turned and looked out the window behind him, his hoof creating a slight gap in the blinds over top of it.

"You may leave now" he said curtly as he moved from the window to a cabinet where a bottle of amber liquid and some glasses were sitting.

Deciding not to test the pony's patience any longer than he already had, Thorax grabbed his documents and stood up.  As he did, he looked down at the desk and saw a brass nameplate with the commander's name on it.

Steel Wing, Commander, Royal Guard - Whinnyapolis Division

Thorax made a note of the name and put his passports in his saddle bags.  Looking at a clock, he realized he would need to find a hotel room so he could take a potion for the day, so he left the commander's office as quickly, but as calmly as he could.

After Thorax left, Steel Wing downed a glass of the amber liquid and shuddered at the burn in his throat.  While he didn't show it, he had actually been a little afraid of being confronted with another changeling.  His memories of the royal wedding and what happened to him coming back to the forefront of his mind.

He took another belt of the alcohol in a futile effort to calm his nerves.  Regardless of how long Thorax stayed in Whinnyapolis, it was going to be a nerve wracking time for the commander.
> Part IV, Chapter 8 - Whinnyapolis, Part 1 - The Best Game You Can Name
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax left the guard commander's office and immediately went to find a hotel.  Fortunately, there was one not too far away from the train station, and even better for the changeling, there were interior rooms free.  That meant he only had to worry about a locked door for total privacy.

Getting a bath and having a vial of the love potion as a breakfast, Thorax became Crystal Hoof again and put on a hat and scarf, intending to brave the city streets and hopefully find something of interest to see or do.

He breathed a relaxed sigh as he thought about his current trip.  Sure, he still had to disguise, but at the very least, he didn't have to worry about the guards finding out he was a changeling and arresting him.  They already knew, and they couldn't do anything unless he was breaking the rules the commander had set down, and Thorax had no intention of breaking any of those rules.

Walking through the streets of Whinnyapolis, Thorax saw that it was similar to Detrot, but did have a few key differences.  The first was that there seemed to be far fewer of the pizza restaurants here.  In their place were food vendors with little carts that had small stoves on them, and curiosity led Thorax to purchasing an order of some small, half-circle shaped item called a pierogi.

While the food wouldn't do much for him in the way of nourishment, it was still rather tasty to him.

As he continued walking and eating the pierogis, something caught his eye.

There was a stallion across the street walking.  There was nothing overly remarkable about him.  In truth, he would've thought that perhaps the stallion was a disguised changeling trying to blend in with how mundane he looked.

What set him apart from other ponies was what he was wearing.



It looked like a sweater, but was far too light a material to hold a lot of warmth.  It was a baby blue color, with white stripes that ran down the sleeves, with a band around the elbow joints.  When the stallion turned to cross over to Thorax's side of the street, Thorax saw a decoration on the front: A W with what looked like two pegasus wings coming off either side.

The article of clothing had piqued Thorax's curiosity way too much, and the changeling wouldn't be able to let it go until he got an answer about what it was.  When the stallion crossed the street, Thorax made his move.

"Excuse me?" Thorax asked the stallion.

The stallion stopped and looked at him, looking around and then pointing a hoof to himself.  "Me?" he asked Thorax.

"Yeah" Thorax replied.  "I kinda like that sweater you're wearing.  Where'd you get it?"

"Oh, this ain't a sweater" the stallion told Thorax.  "This is a Winger's jersey!"

"A Winger's jersey?" Thorax said, confused as to what the stallion was talking about.

The stallion looked at Thorax weird for a moment, but his eyes then went wide in realization.  "Oh, you're a Crystal Pony!" he said as he took notice of what Thorax was, or at least pretending to be.  "I heard you guys don't have a lot of sports up that way yet.  This is a hockey jersey.  The Wingers are a team that play hockey here in Whinnyapolis!"

"Hockey" Thorax said as he remembered the sport from a lesson he'd had with Sunburst.  According to his friend, the game was played by a team of six ponies against another team of six ponies on a icy surface like a frozen pond.  Like most sports, teams alternated between offense and defense, but according to Sunburst, hockey was a two way sport, meaning that players on the ice fulfilled both roles during the game.

The objective was to have a higher score than your opponent by the end of the game.  This was accomplished by the offense knocking a small disk of rubber called a puck into a net guarded by the opposing team.  The defense was supposed to keep the puck out of their own net and steal it away so they could go on the offense.

It sounded like a rather competitive game, and Sunburst had told him it was notorious for being rather physical in nature.  He had also said that it took a lot of coordination to be played.  The ponies that played the game did so on ice skates, which were special boots with a metal blade on the bottom.

"You should see a game if you get the chance" the stallion told Thorax.  "Whinnyapolis is playing a home game tonight against Cloudsdale.  Should be a good match.  Take it easy!"

The stallion trotted off, leaving Thorax standing in the street by himself.

The stallion clearly loved the game and the team, and seemed quite passionate about watching a game.  Maybe seeing a hockey game himself would be a fun experience?






Later that evening...






Thorax had asked around and found out where the Wingers played; The Whinnyapolis Forum.  It was a large building like the Cheval factory in Detrot, except it an indoor stadium.  Thousands of seats surrounded a sheet of ice in the shape of a rectangle with rounded corners.

Thorax recalled everything Sunburst had told him about the playing surface, commonly referred to as a rink.  There were lines that marked playing zones and dots where face offs, which decided puck possession when the game started or resumed after a time out, were held.  At each end of the ice was a blue half circle that marked the crease, which was the area of ice the goaltender for each team played in for most of the game.

There were also the player's benches, which had a hallway leading back to a locker room for each team.  On the opposite side were the penalty boxes, where players would have to sit out for a period of time if they committed an infraction in the game, as well as a seating bench for officials to keep track of score, penalties and the game clock.

Thorax decided he wanted to experience this sport at least one time and bought a ticket.  According to the pony at the box office, his seat for that game was going to be a good one, as he was apparently going to be a few rows back from the glass, as the pony had put it.  

It was now about an hour before the game would officially begin, and Thorax had just entered the stadium.  What greeted him was a large walkway called a concourse that ran all the way around the outside of the stadium.  He looked up and saw a second concourse for the upper level, with a set of stairs allowing ponies to move up and down between them.  A sign at the top of one of these staircases indicated a platform where pegasi could land or depart.

Moving along the lower concourse, Thorax observed several stands selling various things.  One was a food seller, and offered a variety of food stuffs, from popcorn to salad to something he had seen Sunburst eat before – hay burgers.  At another stand was a ticket booth similar to the one outside, except there were stands with ropes that kept the lines organized and prevented cutting.

The one that caught Thorax's eye the most was the team store.  Set back into a sort of alcove, the team store was the place where a pony could purchase things in support of the team, such as a hat, small flags called pennants, and the items that had gotten Thorax interested in coming to the game in the first place - jerseys.

The garments were spread across one of the walls of the team store.  They varied greatly in design; some were like the one the stallion had been wearing earlier that day, which were colored baby blue and had a white stripe running down each sleeve, while others were an inverse, being white with a blue stripe down the sleeves.  The jerseys were sold in various sizes, from ones that looked as though they would fit a nearly newborn foal, to adult sized ones that appeared a bit over-sized; they were advertised as a "goalie cut".

As Thorax browsed the jerseys on the wall, his attention was drawn to one in particular.



It was mostly a black sort of color, with holes bordered in green trim.  Inside the holes were what appeared to be pieces of fabric that resembled the blue uniforms.  Most notably, the emblem for the team was colored the same sort of black with green trim, and the large W missing pieces out of it in half circles or full circles.

Curious, Thorax tried to find some information about the jersey.  He eventually found it on a sign slightly hidden by another jersey hanging above the black one.


Limited Edition - Nightmare Night Changeling Jersey
Sale 75 bits 50 bits


Thorax looked back at the jersey and frowned.  He learned from Sunburst about Nightmare Night; a holiday where ponies dressed up in costumes in order to hide themselves from Nightmare Moon.  He wasn't fond of the holiday, but not because anything about it made him particularly afraid.  He just didn't like seeing ponies being scared, even if it was in good fun.

The changelings being associated with it in any way stung him a little bit, even though he knew that the fear ponies felt towards them was justified.

After some looking, Thorax finally decided that he wanted one of the jerseys that looked like the same one the stallion he'd met earlier had, and got one for the price of forty bits.  He madee sure to get a size fairly common to ponies.  If it didn't fit him, he could just "adjust himself" a little; the rules said he had to look like Crystal Hoof only, and ponies could get fat or be skinny, so he didn't see him changing his overall physique as specifically breaking any rules.

Fortunately, the jersey fit well, so Thorax wouldn't need to adjust himself to compensate.  Now wearing the jersey, Thorax decided to get a drink and find his seat before the game began.

Traveling down the concourse, Thorax saw signs with letters and numbers on them, the bottom of each having an arrow painted on them pointing to the seating bowl.  Realizing there was a number like that on his ticket, Thorax grabbed it and looked at the number that had been stamped at the bottom: B 22.  The sign he saw said "Seats K1-K55".

"I need to go back the other way" he realized and turned around.  After a minute or so of walking, he saw a sign that read "Seats B1-B55".  He headed through the opening underneath the sign and into the arena proper.

Thorax had heard the arena as he was walking past the seating bowl, but now that he was in it, he could barely hear himself think.  Even half full, there were more ponies than he could ever recall seeing in one place at any given time.  The combined sound of their conversation was amplified by the dished out seating bowl and the enclosed roof of the building.

Looking around, Thorax saw ponies of all kinds.  Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies all together in this one location to see these two teams play this game.  Some came with nothing more than saddlebags while others wore an article of clothing of some sort.

However, just like Thorax was doing now, a large amount of ponies were wearing Wingers jerseys, with a mix between the baby blue and white striped ones and their inverse white and blue striped duplicates.  Surprisingly, there were several of the changeling jerseys scattered about the seating bowl, identifiable by the patchwork of black among the blue and white.

Thorax did his best to push the more negative thoughts about those jerseys out of his mind.  He came here to experience something new.  Thinking those negative thoughts would only ruin the experience for him.

"MARES AND STALLIONS!" a loud voice suddenly announced over a speaker system.  "WE ARE NOW FIVE MINUTES FROM PUCK DROP, SO PLEASE BRING YOUR HOOVES TOGETHER AND OFFER A WARM WHINNYAPOLIS WELCOME TO TONIGHT'S VISITING COMPETITORS, THE CLOUDSDALE COLD WAVE!!!"

Despite the request for an amicable welcome, an almost universal chorus of boos rained down at the ponies taking the ice.  Thorax watched closely and noticed that they were a mix of mare and stallion.  About fifteen or so took to the bench where players rested between periods of time on ice, which he learned were called shifts, while six others took to the playing surface, each one knocking a stack of the rubber pucks onto the ice.

Five of them then took a stick in their mouths and began skating around the ice, careful to keep the puck on the end of the stick that looked kind of like a fox's foot.  They all appeared to be wearing heavy padding on their bodies, with a large helmet covered by a plastic shield that seemed to just protect their eyes.

The only player who didn't take a puck was a stallion covered head to hoof in heavier padding than his teammates, with a large helmet and bird cage looking metal shield over his muzzle.  The top of the helmet was decorated in a variety of colors and designs, with all of them seeming to relate to the team in one way or another.



Every player was wearing the same jersey, as to be expected in a team sport.  It was a white jersey, which denoted them as the visiting team, and had a blue stripe on the withers, bordered by two stripes a lighter blue than the larger one.  The cuffs were the same color blue as the stripe on the withers, with a smaller stripe at the top acting as a trim decoration.

The last and most noticeable difference was their team insignia.  It was a stylized C, made to look like a breaking wave.  However, the wave appeared to have icicles on the crest, suggesting the wave was frozen in place.  A rather literal cold wave, as it were.

The colors that Cloudsdale used were similar to Whinnyapolis, except they were a bit darker.

"AND NOW," the loud voice came back again, "PUT YOUR HOOVES TOGETHER AND CHEER LOUD FOR YOUR HOMETOWN HEROES, THE WHINNYAPOLIS WINGERS!!!"

The boos that had been rained down earlier had been soundly beaten out by the thunderous roar of cheers and collective stomping of hooves as Whinnyapolis took to the ice.  They were wearing the same style of jersey that Thorax had just purchased.

Again, fifteen players sat on the bench while six took to the ice.  Each knocked over a stack of pucks and took them on their sticks to skate around the ice with them.  Just as with the other team, a lone pony, this one a mare, covered in heavier padding than her teammates and wearing a similar helmet-and-cage on their head went into the net opposite her stallion counterpart on the next team.  She did some movements across the crease area and made some quick movements to the corners, each time throwing up one of her legs like she was trying a high kick or something.

Thorax looked at Cloudsdale and saw the stallion doing the same thing.  He then noticed one of Cloudsdale's players approach the net with his stick and puck angled slightly behind them.  Before Thorax could register what was happening, the pony took a hard shot right at the stallion.

Quick as a flash, the stallion shot a leg up and knocked the puck away with a padded leg.

After seeing it, Thorax understood that the ponies on the ice were doing a last minute practice to keep them sharp for the main game.  A moment after the first shot Thorax had seen, several other team mates took shots at the stallion, who Thorax now remembered was the net-minder.

The last shot he faced came when he wasn't prepared, and it sailed into the goal and bounced harmlessly off the mesh that covered the metal bars.  The stallion, realizing that he'd been scored on, pointed his hoof at the scoring player and gave a playful chiding to them.

Thorax directed his attention to the other end of the ice to see a similar situation transpiring.  The mare succeeded in blocking several shots, but had a few get past her and into the net.  Each time, she pointed at a teammate and voiced her displeasure at their success in scoring on her.

This went on for another minute or so before two unicorns, one from each team, came out with baskets and collected all of the loose pucks.  Once they were gathered, they left the playing surface.  The players themselves appeared to be doing some final stretches before standing up on the skates and looking at the center of the ice.

Looking in that direction, Thorax took notice of a player from each team standing at the very center of the ice, each unique in having a C on their upper left barrel; a mark that denoted them as being their team's captain.  A baby blue carpet had been rolled out, and a older pony dressed in a uniform similar to Prince Shining Armor stepped out onto it and approached the two stallions.

"IN HONOR OF OUR VETERANS OF THE ROYAL GUARD," the loud voice boomed, "TONIGHT'S CEREMONIAL FIRST PUCK DROP WILL BE CARRIED OUT BY RETIRED WHINNYAPOLIS GUARD COMMANDER, IRON FROST!"

A loud series of cheers rang out as the stallion made his approach to center ice.  In his muzzle was a puck that he held carefully in his teeth.  Once he was in place, he looked at each pony and gave them a nod, which both returned.  Once they nodded, the two ponies looked at each other with their sticks crossed, and the former guard dropped the puck.

The rubber disk hit the ice and bounced once.  The Cloudsdale captain raised his stick up and the Whinnyapolis captain took the puck with his own stick.  This confused Thorax, until he saw the captain pick the puck up with his mouth and give it back to the veteran.  Each captain gave a hoof bump to the stallion, then gave a hoof bump to each other, before turning and rejoining their teams.

"AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!" the loud voice, which Thorax now saw was coming from a set of large speakers in the ceiling.  "WHINNYAPOLIS WINGERS HOCKEY!!!"

The ponies in the arena cheered as the players took their positions around the center of the ice.  Two different players were there now, and a pony wearing a sweater covered in black and white strips similar to a zebra approached the middle.  Their sleeves also had orange bands around the elbow joints, and in their mouth was a puck.

The pony, whom Thorax realized was the referee, gave a nod to each pony in the middle of the ice, which they returned.  Once the two had gave each other nods, they crossed their sticks as the referee stood over top of them.  Opening his muzzle, the puck dropped down to the ice surface, and the game officially begun.

What followed for the next fifteen minutes was a kind of intense action Thorax had never seen before.  The opening faceoff had been won by Cloudsdale, who proceeded to retreat with the puck back into their defensive zone in an effort to set up an approach into Whinnyapolis's defensive zone and score a goal early.  Whinnyapolis quickly had two players approach the pony with the puck, intent on intercepting any pass the pony would make.

Unfortunately, for them, the pony directed the puck behind them to another player, who quickly made his way out of the defensive zone and over to Whinnyapolis's side of the ice.

The three players Whinnyapolis left in the middle of the ice reacted, with two retreating back into the defensive zone to help protect their goal, while the third attempted to intercept the pony approaching with the puck.

What happened next shocked Thorax.  The pony with the puck passed across the ice to another teammate, and at almost the exact same time, one of Whinnyapolis's players slammed them hard into the walls surrounding the playing surface.

Thorax looked on in shock, but everypony around him that was a fan of Whinnyapolis was cheering quite loudly.  Apparently, they liked seeing this rather violent display carried out before them.  Quickly though, Thorax had gotten used to it; Sunburst had taken him to a hoof ball game about a month and a half before Thorax left for his trip, and that game was quite physical as well.

The pony that received the other player's pass did not get a handle of the rubber disk, and a Whinnyapolis player seized the opportunity, taking it from them and leading a charge down to Cloudsdale's defensive zone.

Once inside, the pony skated around the outer part of the playing surface, waiting for some of his teammates to get into the zone with him.  He made an attempt to pass to one of them, but a Cloudsdale player stuck their stick in front of the pass and caused the puck to launch up and over the tall glass wall and out of play.

A second pony in another zebra-like shirt blew a whistle and the team moved to a small circle off to the side of the ice where the puck went out and surrounded a small dot there.  The first referee came over with a new puck and another face off ensued, this one won by Whinnyapolis, who quickly moved into position around Cloudsdale's zone.

They attempted to distract the goaltender and shoot the puck up over one of his pads, but the stallion was good, and his pad caused the puck to go harmlessly over top of the glass, causing the referee to blow his whistle and making the ponies gather around another dot on the ice.

This pattern followed for the aforementioned fifteen minutes, with an intermixing of shots against Whinnyapolis's net-minder, more shots against Cloudsdale, more ponies being slammed into walls, and more pucks going out of play.

With around five minutes remaining in a twenty minute period, Whinnyapolis took possession of the puck.

It was an errant pass from a Cloudsdale player that was intercepted by the Whinnyapolis captain.  With no players in front of him, he made speed and charged into the defensive zone against the lone net-minder.  Cloudsdale made an attempt to get back and stop him, but the captain was already set up.

He wound up to take the shot, and held his position.

The net-minder took a chance and tried to knock the puck back towards his own players, but his gambit failed as the captain quickly brought his stick back down and shielded the puck from the diving pony.  The net-minder slid past, making a final attempt to get the puck away to no avail.  With nothing to stop him, the captain gently tapped the puck across the goal line and into the net.

The crowd cheered, and Thorax would have too, but he ended up covering his ears as the deafening sound of a horn filled the stadium.  The lighting then began to do some kind of choreographed show as a strange music arrangement was played.  It was a weird mix of brass horns and an organ that wasn't to his liking, but the ponies all seemed to love it.

"WHINNYAPOLIS GOAL!!!" The loud voice declared.  "SCORED BY YOUR CAPTAIN, SKY GLIDER!!!  UNASSISTED!!!  GOAL SCORED AT FIFTEEN MINUTES TWENTY SIX SECONDS INTO THE FIRST PERIOD!!!"

The ponies cheered as the captain skated around with his stick raised, his hoof making contact with his teammates, who banged their own stick against the short wall in approval of his excellent play.

After the goal, play resumed much as it had before the goal, and once the remaining time was up, a much quieter horn sounded as the ponies made their way to the bench and to their locker rooms.

"FIRST INTERMISSION" the voice told the audience.  "PLEASE TAKE THIS TIME TO GRAB SOME CONCESSIONS, VISIT OUR RESTROOM FACILITIES, OR STRETCH YOUR LEGS AND WINGS A BIT.  FOR OUR PEGASUS FANS, YOU MAY USE OUR FLYING TRACK ON THE SECOND LEVEL."

Fans stood up and made their way to the concourse.  As they did, Thorax looked at the ice surface as a large machine came out and began covering it in a layer of water.  On the front was a large blade that seemed to be shaving off the top layer of ice where the players skates had gouged into it.  Not requiring any further refreshment or needing to use the little colt's room, Thorax decided to remain in his seat and watch as the machine did its job making the playing surface smooth and usable again.

About ten minutes passed and the ponies who left to get drinks, use the restroom or simply give their legs and wings some exercise returned.  The teams took to the ice again and did some stretches to keep loose.  The Cloudsdale players looked... upset, which was understandable, since they could now lose the game if they didn't find a way to score.  Their looks could also be interpreted as resolve, as they looked motivated to even the score.

When the players set up again, Thorax noticed the teams were now switched, with Cloudsdale in Whinnyapolis's net and Whinnyapolis in Cloudsdale's.  Thinking back to when Sunburst had told him about the sport, he remembered the stallion saying that this was done to prevent an unfair advantage, as often times, fans would gather at the opponent's goal and heckle the net-minder, distracting them from doing their job.

Soon enough, the puck was dropped and play resumed.  Whinnyapolis took opening possession, and made a move to get a quick goal.

Their efforts failed when Cloudsdale checked a player into the wall and a second player took possession of the puck, skating into Whinnyapolis's defensive zone.  As he did, a Whinnyapolis player made to check them and knock them off the puck.

The Cloudsdale player saw this and moved in such a way as to get his legs tangled with the Whinnyapolis player's stick.  The Whinnyapolis player saw this and tried to move his stick out of the way, but it came up into the player's muzzle rather hard and caused that pony to jerk his head back in pain.

A referee watching the play blew a whistle and raised up on their hind legs, with one foreleg pointing at the Whinnyapolis player and the other going straight up into the air.

The arena erupted into a collective series of boos as the Whinnyapolis player was escorted over to the penalty box.  A second later and the loud-voiced announcer informed the crowd of the infraction.

"WHINNYAPOLIS PENALTY ON ZEYPHR BRONZE.  DOUBLE MINOR PENALTY FOR HIGH STICKING.  PENALTY OCCURING AT ONE MINUTE FIVE SECONDS INTO SECOND PERIOD."

Thorax blinked and then looked down at the ice surface.  Near where the penalty occurred were some red dots that a pony was working to clean up from the ice surface.  Apparently, the stick colliding with the one player had enough force to cause a nosebleed or knock a tooth loose.  The changeling grimaced as he imagined how painful something like that must have felt.

"HE LEANED INTO THE STICK YOU STUPID ZEBRA!" a fan close to Thorax shouted in displeasure.  He would've initially dismissed the remark as the pony just having a hot temper, but then he realized how accurate the statement was; the third referee who had made the call was, in fact, a zebra.  Their official's uniform had obscured their normal pattern of stripes.

The ponies on the ice then moved into Whinnyapolis's defensive zone.  Thorax noticed that there were now only four players for Whinnyapolis on the ice.  He then remembered Sunburst had taught him about what happened during penalties: Because one of their players had committed an infraction, Whinnyapolis was supposed to play with one less player, known as being short hooved, until the penalty minutes expired.  Normally, it was about two minutes.  However, because of the fact that the penalty was a double minor, that time was extended to four minutes.

Cloudsdale, having their full five players and net-minder, was now on a "power play", meaning that they had a better chance of scoring a goal than before.

The puck dropped and Cloudsdale took control.  They made several attempts to score a goal, but each time the net-minder for Whinnyapolis came through and blocked the shots.

Her teammates also helped prevent shots from getting to her, with a few managing to send the puck back down into Cloudsdale's zone to be intercepted and sent back ahead by their netminder, but after three and a half minutes, their efforts were not enough.

A Cloudsdale player was set up on the mare's right side, and she was focused on the puck being around her left.  Very quickly, a Cloudsdale pony passed the puck over to this open player.  Realizing what happened, the mare made a quick move to block the incoming shot, but it had sailed past into the net before she could get her pad in the way.

A smattering of cheers from around the stadium celebrated Cloudsdale's effort to tie the game.  Thorax looked around in confusion as he'd been expecting the loud horn to sound again.  Apparently, it only happened when Whinnyapolis scored goals.  As he listened to the continued booing, the announcer came across on the loudspeaker to announce the goal.

"CLOUDSDALE GOAL SCORED BY PRISM JET.  GOAL ASSITED BY FEATHER FLIGHT AND SNOW GLOBE.  GOAL SCORED FOUR MINUTES THIRTY SEVEN SECONDS INTO SECOND PERIOD. GOAL IS A POWER PLAY GOAL."

Ponies continued to boo as the Cloudsdale players celebrated their success.  The pony who had been struck by the stick that led to the penalty was patted on the back from drawing the penalty, their smiled marred slightly by a missing tooth.

Soon after the goal was scored, play resumed again.  The usual back and forth between the teams happened, with nothing of interest happening until late in the period, when a spectacle Thorax never thought he would see took place.

One of Whinnyapolis's players, a stallion named Microburst if Thorax had read the jersey correctly, had been glaring at the pony who caused the penalty leading to the Cloudsdale goal.  Several times he tried to body check the pony into the boards, but each time the smaller and more nimble player managed to avoid it.  When the stallion recovered from impacting the wall, the smaller pony would chide them with a smile and a laugh, further infuriating Whinnyapolis's bigger player.

With only a few seconds to go in the second period, Microburst had had enough.

The pony that drew the penalty had not seen Microburst slip in behind them and was preparing to pass the puck to another teammate.  While he was distracted, the Whinnyapolis pony made his move and slammed hard into the Cloudsdale player.

The impact was so much that it appeared to leave visible cracks in the glass, but they disappeared almost immediately.  Apparently, the glass was enchanted to be resistant to breaking and was able to mend itself as well.

The stadium cheered as Microburst spat out his stick and let out a roar of satisfaction, having avenged his team's misfortune at the hooves of the smaller stallion.

Said stallion was currently laying on the ice as some ponies from Cloudsdale's team went over to see if he was okay.

While Microburst skated around in celebration, Cloudsdale became very upset.  In fact, one player who was close in size to Microburst charged over and checked him hard.  Microburst turned and voiced his displeasure at the attack, and soon a verbal argument took place between them.  The referees took notice and made to get between the two ponies, but they were too slow.

Before Thorax could blink, both players had shed their front ice skates and started pummeling each other with their forehooves.

The crowd exploded into cheers as the loudspeaker played the sound of a bell ringing several times.  The two ponies continued trading blows until Microburst landed one so hard it took the Cloudsdale pony off their remaining skates.

The referees quickly got between the two before Microburst could do more serious damage.  One of the officials helped the Cloudsdale stallion to their hooves, and both Microburst and his opponent were escorted over to their respective penalty boxes.

"PENALTIES ON BOTH TEAMS" the announcer said over the loudspeakers.  "PENALTY ON WHINNYAPOLIS PLAYER MICROBURST.  FIVE MINUTE MAJOR FOR FIGHTING.  PENALTY ON CLOUDSDALE PLAYER CYAN VORTEX.  FIVE MINUTE MAJOR FOR FIGHTING.  BOTH PENALTIES OCCURRING AT NINETEEN MINUTES EIGHT SECONDS INTO SECOND PERIOD."

The crowd cheered loudly as Thorax sat in his seat, shocked at the sudden and violent display.  He then felt the emotions around him as a great outpouring of joy and love was sent towards the ice surface.  Apparently the fans were quite satisfied with what had happened a moment ago.

In truth, it was so great, Thorax was afraid it would start to overwhelm his senses and he would begin openly gorging himself on it.  Fortunately, his time around friends in the Crystal Empire had given him much greater control over his feeding instincts.

After another few minutes, the crowd calmed down and play resumed until the small horn sounded the end of the second period.  The announcer repeated a similar advisement as they had after the first period, with the only amendment being that it was the second period that had concluded.

This time around, Thorax did have need of a restroom, and filed out with the ponies going to the concourse, only pausing briefly at his seat to watch the ice resurfacing machine, apparently called a Zamponi after the pony who invented it, come out and prepare a fresh playing surface for the final period.





Thorax was not a fan of the restrooms in the Whinnyapolis Forum.  If he worked here as a custodian, they would certainly not look the way they did when he left them a few minutes ago.  There were empty paper rolls, unflushed toilets, and it seemed quite apparent that the libations that were sold at the concessions stands and by the ponies that walked up and down the seating bowl with the cooler chests on their backs greatly affected a stallion's ability to control their bodies as they relieved themselves.

Nonetheless, he did what he needed to do and washed his hooves as well as he could before exiting the restroom and making his way back to his seat.  He returned to find the zamponi machine gone and the players again taking to a fresh and smooth sheet of ice to stretch and prepare for the last period of the game.

From what Thorax could see, Whinnyapolis looked as though they had more fire in their eyes, like what happened just before the second period ended had reinvigorated them in a way.

"Almost like a changeling after a feeding" Thorax thought a bit grimly, but then also wondering to himself if the ponies on the ice were actually feeding on the love and adoration being directed at them.  He was certain that none of them were changelings; as violent as his hive-mates were prone to being, none would take part in an activity that could result in them being knocked out and left exposed with a lost disguise.

Soon enough, the referees returned to the ice and the teams took up positions for the final period.  This time, the face-off was between the two captains, and Cloudsdale came away with the puck.  The Cloudsdale captain passed the puck to another player, but was then taken by total surprise as Sky Glider came in and leveled him with a solid check.  The action caused the Whinnyapolis fans to rise to their feet and cheer very loudly, having enjoyed seeing their captain exercise his physical strength in such a display.

The play went on for a few minutes in Whinnyapolis's defensive zone, the Cloudsdale ponies attempting to set up what Thorax had learned was called a tic-tac-toe pass.  The idea was to perform a very quick series of passes that made it difficult for the net-minder to follow, and the last one would be to the pony shooting, the effort meant to score the puck into the net before the net-minder could recover and properly defend.

Sky Glider took notice of this and seized on an opportunity.  Predicting where the pass was going to go, he intercepted it and charged out of the defensive zone and into center ice.  He was quickly followed by two of Cloudsdale's players as they attempted to stop him and recapture the puck.  Sky looked ahead at the net minder, who came out from the crease area in an effort to cut down the shooting lanes around him.

Thorax had been learning a good bit as he watched the game, as well as remembering what Sunburst had taught him, and had a pretty good idea of what Sky was gonna do.  The netminder seemed to favor going to one side over the other, and if Sky was as smart as he showed earlier, he would fake to that side to draw the pony away and give him a clearer shot.

Sky did just that, but his opponent didn't take the proverbial bait, not even flinching as he now slid gently backwards to counter any other movements the captain would make.  The distance was closing, both between the two Cloudsdale players and Sky Glider and Glider and the goal.

When the two ponies came within enough reach to hit Sky with their sticks, the captain did something that Thorax had to admit was quite impressive.  With a very quick and practiced move, the pony moved the puck to the backside of the curved foot of his stick and made to shoot it that way.  When the net-minder moved, he then spun his stick around so it rested in the curve and pushed it to the other side.  The net-minder realized his mistake and made to get a pad out in time to stop the puck as Sky Glider let it fly.

He succeeded only in redirecting the puck to hit just underneath the metal bar at the top of the net before it went in and connected with the mesh in the back.

The crowd cheered as the loud horn sounded again and the strange music and light show commenced.  Sky Glider made his way past teammates, giving them hoof bumps as he smiled.  The announcer came back on to confirm the score.

"WHINNYAPOLIS GOAL SCORED BY YOUR CAPTAIN, SKY GLIDER! UNASSISTED GOAL, SCORED AT THREE MINUTES TWENTY TWO SECONDS IN THE THIRD PERIOD!"

The crowd cheered at the announcement as the players once again resumed their positions at center ice for the following face-off.  The game at that point progressed to a stalemate of sorts, with each team going into the other's defensive zone, only for shots to be stopped by the net-minder and directed back towards the ponies on their team so that they could carry the fight back to their opponent.

With about six to seven minutes left in the game, a rather hairy incident happened for Whinnyapolis.

A Cloudsdale player had managed to intercept a pass as it was going from one Whinnyapolis player to another.  With there being no pony between them and the goal, they charged hard into Whinnyapolis's defensive zone.

The Whinnyapolis net-minder looked on in shock for a moment, but steeled her nerves and charged out, ready to take on the approaching player.

The Cloudsdale attacker performed some maneuvers with the intention of deceiving the net-minder of where the puck was gonna go.  When the player felt that their chance was the best it was gonna be, they whipped back their head and brought it forward, slapping the shot hard at the goal.

The net-minder was not quite in position, and quickly swung her back legs around in an effort to block off the shot.

The puck connected with her pad and shot back behind the Cloudsdale attacker and was recaptured by her teammates.

The crowd cheered enthusiastically for the save, with several starting a chant of "BERRY! BERRY! BERRY!"

Thorax was confused, until he consulted a game program he had seen on a seat beside him.  In it was a roster for each team, separated by the forwards (consisting of centers and left and right wing players), defense players, and net-minders.  The pony playing net-minder tonight was Mulberry, with a picture of a mare that was colored as for her namesake.

A whistle caused by a puck going out of play let Thorax pay a little more attention to the mare.  Her mane was pulled back into pony tail that came down one side of her neck.  She undid a pair of snaps on either side of her face-guard and lifted it up, taking a water bottle that rested in a sort of caddie on the back of the net and getting a drink to keep herself hydrated.

Thorax had to admit to himself that he liked this mare.  Not in a "special somepony" sort of way, but he could tell that she was giving her all to make sure her team succeeded.

In truth, he could feel that from almost all the players for Whinnyapolis.  They all worked together and executed plays well, with only the occasional error in making a bad pass.

The game wound down to its final few minutes.  When there was about two minutes left, Thorax saw something that confused him.  Cloudsdale took possession of the puck in their defensive zone and was taking it back to into Whinnyapolis's zone.  As they did, the net-minder looked over to his bench, and a pony wearing a tie gave them a nod.  The net-minder then made haste over to the bench and stepped in.

As he did, another player stepped onto the ice and took up a position with their teammates in Whinnyapolis's end of the rink.  Thorax remembered reading about this before: Cloudsdale was playing with an "empty net", opting to pull their net-minder in favor of an extra offensive player to improve their chances of scoring in the last minute.

The gambit failed in a way Thorax had not expected.  After the Whinnyapolis players had cleared their defensive zone of the puck, sending it down into the Cloudsdale end of the ice, an opposing player took possession and then shot it back into Whinnyapolis's zone.

The announcer suddenly came on the loudspeaker, startling Thorax.

"LAST MINUTE OF PLAY IN REGULATION TIME!"

The puck went into the back portion of the zone and was corralled by Mulberry.  The mare took a quick look around at where the other players were and did something that took Thorax by surprise: she kicked the puck with as much force as she could.

The rubber disk shot out and up into the air like a missile, and the Cloudsdale players made an attempt to knock it back down.  The puck stayed airborne until it got to the center red line, where it came back down and bounced a few times, eventually leveling out and gliding across the ice surface.

Cloudsdale attempted to get back and stop the puck, but it had traveled too far through the air and too fast for anypony to catch up.  The puck went into the net just to the right of one of the upright posts on the goal.

The crowd screamed louder than at any point Thorax could recall that night, almost drowning out the deafening horn and obscuring the strange song that played afterwards.

Thorax saw the Whinnyapolis team mob the ice and surround their net-minder, each having taken off a skate and patting her on her back as she smiled wide through her face-guard.

The announcer came back on again and made his announcement about the score.

"WHINNYAPOLIS GOAL SCORED BY NETMINDER MULBERRY!  EMPTY NET GOAL SCORED AT NINETEEN MINUTES AND TWELVE SECONDS IN THE THIRD PERIOD.  THIS IS MULBERRY'S FIRST GOAL IN HER CAREER!"

The crowd began chanting Mulberry's name again as the mare skated around the playing surface with one hoof raised acknowledging the crowd who all cheered loudly for her.  Several ponies close to the glass began pounding on it as she went by, which caused the mare to laugh.

Thorax had to smile too.  She was very happy, and the energy and love she radiated could've been felt from outside the stadium.

The thought then caused Thorax to look around in concern.  If he could tell it felt that strong from outside, then that meant it was possible for other changelings to feel it too.  He quickly looked around to see if there were any others, but his senses told him there were none to be found.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he took notice to the on ice festivities calming down and play resuming.  Cloudsdale had placed their net-minder back into place, and the players took their spots in center ice again.

Thorax could feel a great deal of disappointment in them, as they clearly thought they had a chance to tie the game and maybe force it to go into extra time where they could squeeze out a win.  Now, their chances were slim at best.

The puck dropped and Whinnyapolis took possession, and that was how the game concluded.  Whinnyapolis spent the remaining seconds skating around the ice and passing the puck to one another while making sure to keep it from Cloudsdale.  When the clock hit zero, the small horn sounded, followed by the big horn, and everypony cheered for Whinnyapolis's victory.  The announcer came back on to announce the end of the game.

"YOUR FINAL SCORE FOR THIS EVENING, CLOUDSDALE COLD WAVE ONE, YOUR WHINNYAPOLIS WINGERS THREE!  JOIN US TWO NIGHTS FROM NOW AS WHINNYAPOLIS WILL HOST THE FILLYDELPHIA FLAMES!"

Many ponies began to file out of the seating bowl.  Thorax elected to wait until most had cleared out, then he made his way for the exit.  As he walked down the concourse, he could feel the excitement and jubilation as fans celebrated the team's triumph.

He also felt smatterings of disappointment from Cloudsdale fans as they walked with their heads hung a bit lower, though some maintained an outward jovial mood, claiming that it just wasn't their night, and the next game they played against Manehattan would go better.

Thorax thought back on the game he just experienced.  Admittedly, he wasn't much for the more violent parts, such as Microburst's fight with the other player, but he could appreciate the skill that players such as Sky Glider showed when handling and shooting the puck, and he quite liked the tenacity that Mulberry showed in protecting her goal from shots.  All in all, he enjoyed the game, but preferred a much less violent activity.

Seeing as it was already fairly late, Thorax decided to head to bed for the evening.  Tomorrow, he would decide whether or not he wanted to see anything else in Whinnyapolis, or if he wanted to move on to Van Hoover and possibly find the two police ponies that helped exonerate him.
> Part IV, Chapter 9 - Whinnyapolis, Part 2 - Departure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax awoke the next day feeling refreshed.  On a chair of his room sat the Whinnyapolis Wingers jersey he'd purchased the night before at the game.  He thought back to how impressive a spectacle it was, but also still thought of the game as a bit too violent for his tastes.

He got out of bed and went about cleaning himself, deciding that he would take the morning and figure out whether he wanted to stay in Whinnyapolis a little longer or if he wanted to move on to Van Hoover.  Whinnyapolis did feel like it was a bit bigger, or at least had some more points of interest.  Maybe he could spend another half day exploring and leave after noon to go on to Van Hoover?

Thorax shook the thoughts from his head as he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.  Standing in the stream of water, he thought about the little bit of journey he'd taken so far.  It had only been a few days, but he missed his friends in the Crystal Empire already.  He had hoped that maybe one of them could've come on this journey with him, but unfortunately, none of them were able to do so.

He then thought about the two more interesting events to happen to him so far: catching the two troublemakers in the Cheval factory and the hockey game.  The former reminded him of the fact that Equestria wasn't as innocent a place as he had once believed, and the latter made him curious about if there were similar kinds of events that would be as exciting as the game had been.  Maybe a concert if he came across one?

Thorax finished his shower and prepared for the day.  He drank one of the flasks from his case and set the empty back in its spot.  If he drank one in the morning and one in the evening, he could probably go for another two weeks before he would have to head towards Ponyville.  From what he could tell, he'd been given about a month's worth of the concoctions the princess and her zebra friend had made.

Thinking about the zebra gave Thorax another idea.  He knew of the equines from having gone through infiltration training in the hive, and he had seen one officiating the game last night.  Was it possible there were more zebras here in Whinnyapolis?

Well, there was only one way for him to find out.





Thorax spent part of his morning wandering the streets of the city, looking for anything of interest, as well as keeping his eyes peeled for any zebras, but coming up short on both counts.  The only place that was of any interest to him was a public library.  Deciding to take advantage of an opportunity to learn, Thorax headed inside.

The public library was massive, easily outdoing anything in the Crystal Empire.  There were bookshelves that would've dwarfed the ones back in the Crystal Palace, and all of them were as full of books as those were.  Just by taking a quick look around, Thorax knew he was going to have a hard time finding anything unless he got some help.

Finding a librarian, he asked for books on zebra culture and was taken to a world cultures section with books on many species.  Selecting one about zebras, Thorax pulled it down and began reading through it.

Zebras, for lack of a better word, had a unique magic that manifested itself in their ability to brew powerful potions.  They were taught from a young age how to find ingredients and how to mix them.  In addition to potion-making, they also had complex ceremonies with ritual dances and chants.  One passage even claimed that some zebras practiced speaking exclusively in rhyme as a way to strengthen and improve their mental fortitude.

Further reading revealed that in more recent years, zebras have branched out and explored other parts of the world, including some having traveled to Equestria.  Thorax's belief that he might meet one here in Whinnyapolis was dashed a bit as he read that most zebras preferred warmer climates like those in the south of Equestria, and Whinnyapolis was definitely not warm at this time of year.

Still, he didn't let his hopes die completely.  After all, changelings came from a much warmer climate than Whinnyapolis, yet here he was, and as much as he hated to admit it, there were likely some infiltrators here in the city, even if he hadn't encountered them.  Surely there were a few zebras that wouldn't mind a little bit of cold.  Hay, maybe there were some rare herbs for potion brewing that only existed in this part of the world?

Putting the book back on the shelf where he'd found it, Thorax gave the librarian a thank you and parting smile as he decided to try and find something of interest.  He decided that if he couldn't find anything in the next few hours, he would move on to his next destination.





A few more hours of walking revealed the Whinnyapolis Convention Center, a large building with a huge open floor space where conventions and other similar functions were held.  It was not quite as big as the hockey arena, but could easily fit as many ponies, if being a bit cramped.

Unfortunately, his discovery was for naught.  When he looked at an information board outside the convention center, it said the current convention was for medical magic.  Thorax was tempted to go inside, as a medical magic convention might attract the interest of a zebra he could meet, but a sign on the outside door told him that the only ponies allowed in were ones that had been invited.  He let out a sigh as he turned and walked back out onto the streets.

Thorax kept his hooves moving as he made up his mind to start packing his things and move on the Van Hoover.  All in all, he did have an enjoyable time in Equestria thus far, and certainly more enjoyable than the first time around.  He got to see carriages made in Detrot and inadvertently helped thwart a scheme by two ponies to steal trade secrets, and he got to see hockey, a sport he'd never seen played before, for the first time here in Whinnyapolis, which was quite an experience in and of itself.

Still though, he felt as though Equestria was beginning to look a little... underwhelming.

He quickly shook those thoughts from his head.  He couldn't make a judgment like that now.  He'd only been here for a few days, and in that time, he'd only seen two cities.  There were so many small towns and other cities he could visit yet, and surely one of them had to have some more points of interest than some factory tours and sporting events.

Returning to his hotel, Thorax proceeded to pack up the few things that he had taken out of his luggage and placed in his room.  He also shed his Crystal Hoof disguise and decided to get a shower as well.  If his reading of maps was correct, he'd be spending the night on the train and arrive in Van Hoover in the early morning, possibly before Celestia even raised the sun.





One shower later and Thorax, re-disguised as Crystal Hoof, left the hotel and came down to the lobby.  Stepping up to the front desk, he placed his room key on the counter.  The mare behind the desk looked up at him.  "May I help you?" she asked him.

"I'd like to check out of my room now" he told her.  "I wanna take the train to Van Hoover tonight and get there tomorrow morning."

The mare gave a simple nod and took the key from desk and placed it back onto their room key rack.  Once he signed out of the ledger, Thorax took his belongings on the short journey back to the train station.  He kept his passports and the letter from the princesses at hoof as he approached a guard.  The guard looked at him and frowned, clearly recognizing him.

"What do you want?" the guard asked accusingly.

"I'm leaving Whinnyapolis tonight and heading to Van Hoover" Thorax replied.

The guard looked him over for a few moments before he let out a breath.  "Follow me" he said said sternly before leading Thorax back to Commander Steel Wing's office.  Once outside, he gave a knock on the door.

"Commander," the guard called through the door.  "The changeling is here to see you again."

A muffled voice is heard through the door.  If Thorax didn't know any better, he would've swore it was some kind of profanity.

"Send him in!" came a louder and much clearer reply.

The guard opens the door and gestures Thorax inside.  The door is then closed behind Thorax, who finds himself alone with the stallion from before, a drinking glass visible in the low light of an oil lamp.

"Back again so soon?" he says snidely.  "Here to confess to some crime you probably committed?"

Thorax winces from the negativity.  "N-No, I-"

"Lose the charade" Steel Wing commands before knocking back another drink and pouring a second one.  Thorax complies as he drops his Crystal Hoof disguise.

"You checked out of your hotel room" Steel Wing tells Thorax.  "I had a pony over there watching the check in/check out desk.  Leaving awfully late, aren't you?"

Thorax started to get a little nervous.  "I wanted to take an overnight train and get to Van Hoover tomorrow morning."

Steel Wing set his glass down and glared at Thorax.  "Is it your intention to give my counterpart in Van Hoover a sleepless night?"

"N-No!" Thorax responded.  "I just wanna get there early enough to find a hotel and perhas some breakfast."

Steel Wing glared at Thorax as he rose up and splayed his wings in a threatening pose.  "What did you say?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Thorax realized he had misspoken.  "N-Not how you think!" he spat out.  "I... sometimes eat pony food just so I can experience the taste."

Steel Wing glared long and hard at Thorax before he eventually backed off.  "One of my guards did say they saw you eating pierogis while walking through the city" he concedes, before hardening his gaze again.  "He also told me about a stallion he saw you talking to.  Care to fill me in on that?"

"He was a random passerby" Thorax replied.  "I liked his jersey he was wearing and asked him about it."

"And then you decided to go to a hockey game" Steel Wing concluded, still very suspicious of Thorax's behavior.

"...yeah?" Thorax replied, unsure of where the conversation was going.

"Enjoy the game?"

Steel Wing's question was rather pointed.  Thorax could tell he was fishing for information to try and detain him.

Of course, Thorax had done nothing wrong.  Even at the game, he refrained from any desire he might have had to feed on the abundance of love in the arena for the team.

"Mostly" Thorax answered.  "I wasn't too fond of how violent it got."

Steel Wing snorted.  "That's a violent game by nature" he responded.  "I would've thought changelings would love it because of that."

"Maybe other changelings would," Thorax admitted, "but not me."

"Big softy?" the stallion says with a snort.  "Sorry, but that hard shell of yours doesn't exactly convey that image very well.  Of course, you can fix that in a literal flash, right?"

"Um, y-yeah?"

Steel Wing reaches over to a spot on his desk where a stamp and ink pad are sitting.  "Give me the letter" he orders.

Thorax goes into his bags and produces the letter from the princess.  Steel Wing wets the stamp and pounds it hard onto the paper before giving it back to Thorax.

"You'll be watched as you go to the ticket office and platform" Steel Wing tells Thorax.  "If it were within my power, I would send a guard along with you, but unfortunately, I can't do that."

Thorax blinks in surprise.  "Y-You can't?"

"No" the commander says almost dejectedly.  "I would be intruding on Van Hoover's guard authority without probable cause, even though I'm sure mentioning you would grant me their permission to be there."

"That said, you have actually, as far as we can tell, kept your word and done everything as instructed.  To that end, I have no reason to hold you.  Now, go be Van Hoover's problem."

Thorax looks at the commander for a moment before taking the paper and putting it back in his saddlebags.  He stands up and goes to leave, but stops at the door before looking back at the commander.

"I wasn't the one to do it," Thorax tells him, "but I'm sorry you were attacked."

The commander looks at Thorax but just scoffs as he downs more of the drink in his hooves.

Thorax lets out a sigh, resigning himself to the fact that relations with ponies and changelings was going to take a long time to improve.  A part of him thought "if ever", but he couldn't deny that the fact he had already made friends and was recognized as a diplomat by the princesses, even if just a title given to offer him some protection, proved is was entirely possible.

Thorax leaves the commander's office and heads for the ticket booth.  Once his ticket is secured, he makes his way to the train platform to wait, a guard shadowing him from nearby.





"Ocellus!" came the voice of the teacher Argiope.  "Pay attention!"

Ocellus, a young infiltrator, or at least what she had been designated as, turned her attention back to the front of the classroom.  Chained to the floor was a pony, a unicorn stallion, actively fighting against his restraints and exuding so much fear that the first two rows in the class had to back away to keep from getting sick from all the negative emotion.  He'd tried to use a spell to get away, but found his magic being canceled out by the queen's throne, causing him to become even more scared and confused than he had been initially.

He'd been brought in a few moments ago by a pair of warriors for the day's lesson: love collection.  Each student was to take a portion of this stallion's love once they had been taught how by the teacher.

This was a lesson that Ocellus didn't really want to learn, but was unfortunately made to.  The queen had decreed that she would be an infiltrator, and her roles would be shy mares that stallions would fall head over hooves for.

If she had had her way, Ocellus would work in the archives of the hive.  She was quite studious and honestly enjoyed books far more than the standard infiltration training that almost every drone was going through.

Ever since the failed invasion, changelings had become much easier for ponies to spot.  Several infiltrators had been arrested already.  One had made an attempt to escape from the town of Ponyville, but his panic had led him into the Everfree Forest, and directly into the jaws of a hungry manticore.

The little changeling winced as she imagined how horrible a fate that was.

"Class," Argiope called out to the collection of nymphs, "I will draw the spell diagram you will be using.  Pay close attention to it.  This is something you will need to know for the rest of your life."

Argiope walked over to a chalk board and grabbed a piece of white chalk, drawing a pair of circles, one inside the other, and then several runes in the space between.  After that, she drew a few other symbols inside the smaller circle before finishing with a heart at the very center.

Ocellus was a gifted magic user and understood this spell very well.  The outer runes acted as a focusing and filtering sort of spell, cutting through all the complex emotions of a pony and going straight to their love.  The inner runes were used to actually pull out the love, with two final runes telling it where to go: a special gland in the changeling body where the love was processed into a gel that was either consumed by the collector or regurgitated so it could be fed to other changelings and grubs that didn't have the ability to collect it for themselves.  A small portion was absorbed by the infiltrators during the draining, which helped to mitigate how much magic was lost during casting.

The stallion looked at the chalkboard and went wide eyed, also clearly understanding what the spell was meant to do.  He radiated fear more intensely than before as he fought harder against his bindings.  His fetlocks had actually started bleeding from the constant rubbing.

Argiope turned to him and laughed.  "Fight all you want, pony" she said to him in a taunting manner.  "You'll never break through those chains."

The stallion ignored her taunts and continued fighting.  Ocellus looked on with pity as she could see red start to mix in with his coat, his efforts only injuring himself further and likely causing an infection that would not be treated properly.

Of course, he would be cocooned again after this most likely, and the fluid inside them was able to eliminate nearly all infections.  He would probably be healed in only a few days once he was back inside.

Argiope moved in front of the stallion with a hungry look in her eyes.  "Now class, you've seen the spell you must craft.  For the next part, you shall see it applied in a practical way."

The stallion looked on in horror as he was consumed in a green aura.  Argiope's horn glowed to match as she then opened her mouth.  Almost immediately, a pink stream left the stallion's chest and he became physically fatigued.  The teacher cut off the spell before she had taken any more.

"And that's how it's done" she told the class with a smirk.  All the students cheered happily as she prepared for what was to come next.

The stallion fell onto his haunches and held his chest.  He then looked at the class even more fearfully as he realized what was going to happen next.  His efforts against the chain were doubled, his momentary fatigue forgotten about as adrenaline gave him more motivation.

"Now then," Argiope continued, "each of you will come forward and conduct the spell.  If you perform it correctly, you will pass.  As a bonus, you will get to enjoy the love you collect from this pony, which I hope should motivate you all to do your best going forward.  Now, please come to the front and form a single file line."

The stallion saw the changelings moving to stand in front of him and flailed wildly, wanting nothing more than to get away from this horrible place.  His efforts were for nothing as Argiope shot him with a stunning spell, sending him to the floor in a heap.

"Don't fret students" she told the class.  "You can still pull from him as he is."

The students looked on hungrily as they all moved up.

"Now, remember the runes I've shown you" she says to the first nymph.  "Focus on the love and just pull on it.  Only take a little; there needs to be something left for your classmates."

The stallion, having recovered from the stun spell, looked at the nymph with pleading eyes.

The nymph only gave him an evil smile as his horn ignited and mouth opened, another stream of pink leaving the stallion and draining him further.

"That's enough" Argiope said as she smacked the nymph's horn hard with her hoof.  "You're only to take a little and leave some for your classmates.  We will be going over impulse control in a future lesson, so for now, if I notice you starting to take too much, I will stop you from doing so.  Now, next student, please."

The stallion watched on in horror that slowly faded as weakness set in, each student taking a bit more of his love and robbing him of any energy to resist.

Ocellus couldn't bear to watch it.  Worse yet, she had to do this.  If she failed, she would have to explain it to the queen directly, and no changeling wanted to answer to her for failure; it was punished in the harshest way imaginable.

"Your turn now, Ocellus" came Argiope's voice.

Ocellus stepped forward.  She'd taken the last spot in line in an attempt to prolong this as much as she could.  Unfortunately, it couldn't be forever.  She turned to look at the chalkboard, and then the stallion.  He was nearly a husk now, his eyes staring ahead and only the barest hint of emotion left in them.  What little was there, however, was pleading to her not to do what she had to do.

"I'm sorry" she whispered to him as she cast the spell and opened her mouth.  A pink tendril left his body and went into her mouth.

She wanted to say how wonderful it was, but once she had finished,  she looked to see the stallion in what was effectively a state of living death.  She saw no more emotions in him.  He was effectively a shell.

And she had made him that way for the sake of passing some stupid class she didn't even want to be in!

"Well done, Ocellus" Argiope beamed.  "Now, students, I want you to pay attention to the pony now.  He has no more love left in him.  He will take months to recover even the tiniest sliver and will be effectively useless to us until then."

"You should never leave prey like this in your infiltration missions" she cautioned the class.  "Draining a pony this badly may as well be the same as you going into a crowded pony village, dropping your disguise and shouting 'Hey Royal Guard!  Over here!'"

"Impulse control is some of the hardest training for an infiltrator to accomplish.  It is too much in our nature to feed until there is nothing left."

"If the queen hadn't achieved control and taught it to the first infiltrators, then we wouldn't even have a hive today.  We would've burned through every feeling race in this world and slowly starved to death."

"That is why for our next class, we will be practicing impulse control.  You will feed directly again, but you will also learn to produce the gel that you usually feed on.  It is important that you learn to make it, as it will feed every other changeling in the hive.  Now, class is dismissed."

The changelings all file out of the classroom.  Ocellus is left standing and looking at the stallion.  He has a far off stare on his face, any fight he had to escape now gone.

"You are dismissed, Ocellus" Argiope says to her student, who doesn't move.  "Ocellus, did you not hear me?"

Ocellus moves her gaze from the stallion to the teacher.

"Is it wrong?"

Argiope looks at her with a little confusion.  "Is what wrong?"

Ocellus looks at the stallion again.  Argiope suddenly realizes what the nymph is thinking and adopts a stern scowl.

"We are predators, Ocellus" she tells the young changeling, and then points a hoof at the stallion.  "They are our prey.  It does none of us any good to feel pity for them.  They are here to feed us.  There is no reason to feel guilty about doing what you must to survive."

"But isn't there-" Ocellus is cut off by Argiope.

"If the next words out of your mouth are 'a better way', I will fail you for this class today and you will have to go explain your failure to the queen."

Ocellus didn't dare speak again.  Argiope moved to face her.

"There is no better way" she told her student.  "If there was, the queen would've found it by now.  Just learn to live with whatever bad feelings you have.  You will either get used to it, or you will starve.  Do you understand me?"

Ocellus didn't even look up.  She knew that her teacher was glaring at her.  "I understand."

"Good" came Argiope's response.  "Now, you are dismissed.  Go back to your burrow."

The nymph nodded and left the classroom.  Once she was gone, Argiope turned and looked at the stallion.  Her stern glare changed to a look of disappointment.

"The students drained you too fast" she commented.  "It's getting harder to find ponies full enough to teach these larger classes I have now."

Argiope then left, telling the two guards who brought the stallion in to take him back to the prey holding area.
> 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."
> Part IV, Chapter 11 - Van Hoover, Part 2 - Convention
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took Thorax close to two hours to finish answering the questions of the curious guards.  He had been surprised to find so many ponies that were actually complicit with him being in the city they were meant to guard.  In a way, it was like mice being fans of a cat and not minding it spending time in their little hole in the wall.

Once the guards had taken their turns, they either went to their post for their shift, or they went home, as some of them worked nights to keep order when the night trains off loaded their passengers; sometimes ponies came in from other cities drunk and would need to be detained for causing a nuisance.  Before they left, Imperial Gold reminded them that they had been sworn to an oath of secrecy, and that anypony that divulged the fact that Thorax was what he was and in was here in Equestria, they would be dismissed with dishonorable letter by him personally, which was enough to keep his subordinates in line.

Thorax was disappointed that his being in Equestria had to be kept a secret, but he also understood the reasons behind it.  He was in a maelstrom, and where he sat right now was the only calm water.  If the ponies found out that there was a changeling currently among them, then there would be a panic and a hunt to find him, and once they did, who knew what they would do to him.

There was also the matter of the hive.  His being allowed to leave had only been done because Chrysalis expected him to fail.  To ensure it, she told her drones to deal with him should they ever encounter him in Equestria.  What that meant was up to them to decide, but if Thorax knew most drones as well as he thought he did, that likely meant he was pretty much dead where he was standing at that time.

Shaking the horrible thoughts from his mind, Thorax found a nice hotel towards the center of the city to stay in.  According to what he could tell from a local map, he was well within walking distance of some popular city attractions, so he made up his mind to put his things in his room and go see the sights.





In Appleloosa...





Elytra stood in her workshop tightening the bolts of her newest invention.  If it worked, it would likely be the one of the most significant inventions in Equestrian history.  If it didn't, then it would serve as motivation for her next project.  

The infiltrator, disguise as a mare named Wrench, had been sent to Equestria originally as a collector to find love in the city of Manehattan.  As part of her cover, she was shown how to fix the many technological things in the city.  Her instructor was a stallion named Lug Nut, who the queen had apparently contracted with a simple offer: he taught infiltrators what he knew about fixing things and kept his mouth shut about the changelings, and he and his family not only received a stipend of bits from the hive's personal hoard, but his family was considered off limits for the collectors and infiltrators tasked with finding new captives.

After having seen a demonstration of what the changelings were capable of to a rival, he was quick to agree.

Deals like that were not terribly uncommon; most ponies would do anything to avoid being taken or having to face the queen's ire.  However, the good faith of the deal would only go so far.  Once the queen felt that the pony was of no more use, they would be taken and replaced, and their family were then subject to being drained or replaced as well.

Elytra stepped back from her work and wiped sweat away from her disguise's brow.  She'd been working for a solid three hours straight, and the only air she get was from the slightly open shed door that led right out onto the main street.  Putting the wrench she was using on a workbench nearby, she turned and took a good long look at what she had done.

The contraption, as some would call it, was a good bit rough around the edges.  The main portion of it consisted of a repurposed boiler that came from a decomissioned train.  Behind it sat a platform where a pony was meant to stand, and jutting out from behind the boiler were a series of levers connected to valves that would control the flow of steam used to create motion.

Beside the boiler was perhaps the most unique part of the thing.  Set vertically and lined in a row were four steam pistons, and all of them connected to a shaft that was then connected to another shaft by way of a large chain set on two wheels with large teeth.  The second shaft then went into a sort of box that had a pair of axles that went to two large steel wheels that were covered in spiky studs.

What Elytra had created was ambitious.  Put simply, it was meant to travel over ground and be propelled by steam, but that would only help it to accomplish so much.  Experiments she had conducted proved her ideas were sound, and the device worked as intended, but today brought with it a special challenge.

After brainstorming various ideas, Elytra devised a way to steer the machine when it was in use.  The end result was a T-shaped handle with two loops in the end.  When under power, a pony would place their hooves into the loops and turn the bar.  If they turned it left, the bar would transfer that motion to a linkage systen and turn an axle at the front of the machine left or right, thereby allowing the operator to navigate where they needed to go.

Of course, this device was an experimental concept.  If she was to have any success with this, she would need to demonstrate that it served a purpose.  To that end, she came up with an idea and added a pair of metal bars on each side.  The addition would be used in her first public demonstration of the device, the oh-so-cleverly-named "Steerable Steam Engine".

The idea for the demonstration came from seeing the ponies harvest the apples in Appleloosa.  There were so many trees that many of the residents had to call upon family from far away to come visit and help with the apple bucking, the traditional method earth ponies used to collect apples from trees.  While most ponies were willing to help kin, their travels often interrupted their own harvest in their orchards back home, though the Appleloosans were more than happy to return the favor and travel back to help those who helped them.

Elytra had been helping the ponies as well, siphoning away some of the happy feelings the ponies had as they worked.  By the end of her first day, her hooves were sore and she ended up using a fair bit of the collected love to try and heal herself.  She reflected on all she saw and experienced and realized there had to be a better way, and thus the demonstration.

In about a week's time, Elytra would take her machine out to the orchard and run it between the rows of apple trees.  The metal bars on each side would go along and shake the limbs near the top, causing all the ripe apples to fall off and be collected into buckets set on a platform beneath the bars.  If it worked how she figured it would, then the ponies would be able to harvest apples much faster, and even need to use fewer ponies to accomplish the same amount of work.

Feeling a thirst in need of quenching, Elytra went through her workshop and into her kitchen.  In there, she kept her water and food.  There was pony food, such as apples and various baked goods made with apples, but also some jars of nectar she had made from excess love.  Those were carefully hidden near the back so that visiting ponies wouldn't see the fruits of her labor and ask questions.

Elytra looked at the nectar and salivated a little, but quickly shook her head and removed a jug of water with ice cubes in it from the fridge.  It would do her no good to burn through her nectar now, especially when a collector would be coming for it soon.  She had worked hard to collect it, and all of it done ambiently, which was her preferred method of collection.  A recent celebration between the Appleloosa ponies and the nearby buffalo tribe had went a ways to creating the nectar.  The reason was the anniversary of a peace treaty that had been established to allow the buffalo to stampede through the orchard in exchange for the ponies' orchard being there.

"Wrench?  You in here?"

The voice caught Elytra off guard and she quickly made sure her disguise was intact.  Coming through her workshop and approaching the door to her living space was a stallion.  He resembled the pony Braeburn, but there were multiple apples on his flank, the apples were all different colors, and his mane and tail were shorter and straighter than Brae's.

"In here, Bushel!" she called out to him.

Bushel walked into her kitchen with a smile.  "I thought I saw you up," he said with a smile.  "Still workin' on that contraption of yours."

"Mhm" she replied as she took a drink from her glass.  "If my calculations are correct, which they usually are, I'll be able to demonstrate my idea sometime next week."

Bushel smiled, but it was a sad smile.  "I don't know if anypony will go for it," he told her honestly.  "Earth ponies are awful proud of their applebuckin'.  It's a skill that takes ponies a while to get good at."

"I get that, Bushel," Elytra told the stallion.  "I'm not talking about eliminating tradition.  My experiment is meant to show that that machine can be very useful to the ponies around here, and helping to harvest apples is one of many things that that thing can be used for."

"I ain't tryin' ta insult ya," Bushel replied.  "I'm sure there's ponies that'll find that thing mighty useful.  I just don't think it'll catch on here in Appleloosa is all."

"Well, regardless, ponies will see it in action soon enough, and if things go right, I pretty sure I can make a right sweet penny off of that thing."

Bushel let out a chuckle.  "I can't imagine it's gonna be cheap to get one of them things, considerin' how much train you recycled into it."

"This is a prototype," Elytra told him.  "It's only purpose is to prove the concept works.  It's ugly as sin too, so if I ever did get such a demand that it got to a point where I needed to mass produce 'em, I'd have to redesign everything on it to look a heck of a lot nicer than what it does now."

Again, Bushel chuckled.  "I suppose yer right.  Say, have you seen Anjou yet today?  Nopony has seen him since he left the saloon last night and Marigold is getting worried."

"No, I haven't seen him yet today."

Elytra's answer was the truth, but it concealed a dark secret: she knew exactly what happened to Anjou.  While at the saloon, Anjou had met a pony who was acting rather odd and ran from him after being asked a few questions.  The pony was an infiltrator in training, and Anjou had discovered this when they tripped and fell to the ground, losing their disguise in the process.

Other changelings who had escorted the trainee had stepped in and subdued Anjou, cocooning him and taking him back to the hive.  A drone disguised as him would return to town soon, and Marigold would find him much different than he was before and likely end their long time relationship that bordered on being an engagement.

The changeling honestly hated what happened.  She had grown to like Anjou and his somewhat dry sense of humor; he needed it since he was a pear farmer among apples.  In truth, Elytra liked a fair number of the residents of Appleloosa.  They offered her encouragement as she made her inventions and fixed their tools.  Their gratitude and love had not only filled her, but also created a surplus that she knew would go a long way to nourishing the nymphs that would help the hive recover and grow strong again.

She secretly hoped that there could be peace one day between ponies and her kind, but knew that was never gonna happen.  Once the hive got to the numbers it had during the invasion, Queen Chrysalis would try to invade again.  The failure at the wedding had only stoked the fires for revenge in her.

The changeling shivered as she recalled the events in the days after returning to the hive.  Elytra had gotten back a day before the queen, but when she returned, she ordered every prisoner unpodded and brought before her throne.  Once the task had been completed, the queen looked over the prisoners and then drained all of them, simultaneously.

She hadn't been there to see it, but heard rumors that the queen's guards had actually been horrified by the spectacle.

After this had happened, the queen ordered new prisoners captured and the old and now useless ones cast into the wastes around the hive.

This led to even more rumors.  Some said that the guards that took the prisoners outside the hive had actually demonstrated rarely seen compassion and gave them flasks of water and some non-toxic mushrooms that grew in the damp lower portions of the hive.  Others said that there were even guards and drones that thought of adopting a disguise and escorting the ponies all the way back to Equestria.  The rumors that followed all of these were that the queen punished these changelings by draining them completely and killing them.

Of course, there was no way to really corroborate any of these rumors, so most were dismissed as hearsay.

"I'm sure he'll turn up eventually," Elytra lied to Bushel.

Bushel just accepted her answer.  "You're right.  I'm sure he'll turn up sometime.  I gotta go get some things from the general store.  You gonna hit up the saloon later?"

Elytra gave a nod in confirmation.

Bushel smiled.  "I'll see ya then," he said and then left out through the workshop.

Once he was out of sight, Elytra closed the door to her workshop and locked it.  She then rushed through her house to an unused interior room and closed that door locking it as well.  Once she was sure she was alone, she let her disguise fall and she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The changeling turned to see a pile of junk and proceeded to pound away at it with her hooves.  As she did, she would let out more screams as her hooves sent pieces of debris flying every which way.  Tears came down her cheeks as she eventually expended what energy she had and just collapsed on the floor.

She was an infiltrator, trained to deceive ponies and steal their love.  Her presence would feed the hive intelligence that would be used to plot the downfall of Equestria, and eventually the world.

But right now, she hated herself.  She hated lying to ponies.  She hated the fact that she had to take love from them, especially since she had been front row seat to the act several times.  More so, she hated that she was asked to do things that would eventually hurt ponies, and despised her very being because she did them, regardless of her reservations.

Changeling infiltrators were not meant to feel anything for ponies but contempt.  According to the queen, they were nothing but a food source to be used and discarded when they had been exhausted of their love.

After having spent the past five years in Equestria before and after Canterlot, and having been around ponies for all that time, learning all manner of things from them and spending so much time one on one, Elytra could only reach one simple conclusion:

The queen was wrong.

The words felt like acid on her tongue, but there was no other way to say it.  All the time she had spent around ponies had made her life much better than it had been back in the hive.

Ponies as friends kept her fed in a way that normal feeding never could.  Learning how to repair and make things had ignited a passion in her heart that she never knew was there before.  Having her own place and having success at what she did filled her with a pride that simply couldn't be matched.

But most of all, she cared about the ponies around her, especially Bushel.  She didn't know what it was, but spending time with the stallion made her stomach do things she wasn't used to, and his emotions told her that the stallion felt the same way.  He was just simply too shy to show it properly.

After crying out her feelings, Elytra rose and adopted her Wrench disguise, looking into a nearby mirror and making sure everything looked right before heading back down into her workshop.

For the moment, there was nothing more she could do.  Anjou was likely already in the hive and his replacement was well on their way across the desert between the town and the hive.  Short of getting the stallion out and compromising the new infiltrator, there wasn't a good solution to the problem.

So, like many times before, Elytra opted to distract herself, returning to her workshop and preparing her machine for its trial run.






Back in Van Hoover...






Thorax had settled into his hotel and began making his way around the city.  Already, he had went to the fish market and saw the earth ponies toss the fish to one another, the spectacle actually a bit entertaining and prompting the changeling to visit a nearby restaurant and sample some whitefish, which he also found enjoyable.

After going to the market, he then visited a few eateries in the city.  Of note was a candy maker, Cherry Cordial, who demonstrated her craft by cooking up various sweet treats in a large copper kettle by the front window of her establishment.  Thorax had enjoyed seeing her work and went inside to buy some of her "love candy", which was nothing more than some taffy died pink and mixed with a heavy amount of cinnamon.

Snacking on the treat, Thorax wound his way around the city until he came across an item that caught his attention.  Crossing the street he was on, the changeling found himself standing in front of a pole for an electric line.  Wrapped around that pole was an informational poster that made Thorax's mouth go wide:


VAN HOOVER ANIMAL WELFARE SOCIETY
ANNUAL PET EXPO
THIS WEEKEND!


Thorax realized that it was Saturday, and that the expo may have been going on now.  Taking a chance, he referred to a map and made his way to the expo center.

Luck was on his side.  Arriving at the massive convention center, which seemed to dwarf the one in Whinnyapolis, Thorax could see ponies lined up outside.  A sign confirmed that the expo was going on today, and a quick reference to a nearby clock showed that it was sometime around lunch.  Torn between going to lunch and attending the expo, Thorax decided on the latter, hoping there would be food vendors offering more than just samples of pet food for the ponies to let their pets try.

Taking a spot in line, Thorax looked around at the gathered ponies.  Some of them were standing in a loose line of groups, each chatting to the other as though they were familiar.  Others were by themselves, reading over information about the expo going on or simply standing in line looking impatient.

A mother and young filly stood out, as the little mare was fidgeting and looking at her mother with worry.

"Just hold it a bit longer, sweetie," the older mare told the filly.  "We'll get inside and you can go use the little fillie's room."

Thorax directed his attention away from the mother and daughter and then caught sight of something he hadn't expected.

Standing over in another line was a mare he recognized.  She had a long and soft looking pink mane, a yellow coat with well-preened wings, and adorning her flank were a trio of small butterflies.

Without thinking, Thorax stepped out of line and approached the mare before him and called out her name.

"Fluttershy?"
> Part IV, Chapter 12 - Kindness, Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The lines outside the Van Hoover Expo Center were long, and contained nearly every kind of pony imaginable, except for a lack of alicorns.  Stallions and mares stood together as couples, with some having a foal or two standing nearby.  Some ponies were in groups as friends, talking about what they wished to see and where they would go to have a bite to eat afterwards.  There was even a thestral or two among the crowd, identified by either their yawning mouth displaying the small fangs in them or sipping at what one could assume to be a strong brew of coffee.

Standing in one line of ponies was a pegasus mare that most ponies would overlook.  Her soft mane was a pink color, and her coat was a yellow like fresh butter.  Adorning her flanks were a trio of pink and blue butterflies, a cutie mark she earned upon discovering her ability to communicate with any animal as if they were a long lost friend.

The pegasus looked up to a nearby clock, and then back towards the front of the line she was standing in.  Seeing how little it moved since she had last looked at the clock, she sighed.  While not normally impatient, she had been standing here for quite a while, and wanted to get inside so she could meet up with a friend of hers.

"Fluttershy?"

The pegasus jumped, caught off guard by a voice suddenly calling out to her.  After a moment to calm herself down, she began looking around, trying to identify the pony that had just spoken to her.  After a second or so, she identified her mystery caller.

It was a young colt.  He was a grayish-blue color, with a mane and tail that were a darker shade of the same color.  Adorning his flank was some type of ceramic pottery, like a vase or a jug.

While those features were fairly mundane for a pony, it was the fact that he was a kind of pony she hadn't seen often in Equestria before - a crystal pony.

"I'm sorry, but, who are you?"

Almost immediately after she said that, she became very apologetic.

"I-I'm sorry!  I didn't mean for that to sound so mean."

The crystal pony chuckled.  "It's okay.  I should've known you wouldn't recognize me.  After all, I look completely different than the last time we met."

Fluttershy was trying to remember where she had met this colt before, but something about what he said caught her attention.

"You look completely different?" she parroted.  "Do you mean you got a new mane style?  Or do you have contacts that make your eyes a different color?"

The colt chuckled again.  "No, nothing quite like that."

He then moved forward so that he could speak more quietly to her.

"Princess Twilight introduced me to your friends, and I told you all about the journey I had through Equestria.  Do you remember me now?"

Fluttershy thought over what the colt had just told her, then realization crossed her face as the puzzle pieces slid into place.

"Y-You're...?" she asked, her voice shaky and face now one of worry.

Thorax saw this and did his best to calm her down.

"Yeah, it's me.  Please don't panic!"

Fluttershy was still quite nervous.  She remembered her first encounter with the changeling that wanted to live with and share love with ponies.  Back then, he was restrained with a ring to suppress magic, a band around his barrel to pin his wings down, and a muzzle to prevent him from biting anypony.

The sight had made her feel a good bit fearful of him, but then she and her friends had started talking to him, learning about how he had endured bullying and torture in the changeling hive, and decided to leave it after he had seen her and her friends fighting back during the attempted invasion at Princess Cadance's wedding to Twilight's brother, Shining Armor.

As all the thoughts came back, she eventually calmed down.  Once fully calm, she elected to address the "pony" in front of her in a more polite way.

"Umm, Thorax, right?"

The colt nodded.  "Yep.  I'm glad you remembered."

"What are you doing here?  I thought you wanted to live in the Crystal Empire?"

"Oh, I do, but I wanted to come back and see Equestria."

Thorax went into the set of saddlebags he was wearing and produced his passports and the letter from Princess Celestia and Luna.

"I talked to Princess Cadance and told her I wanted to come back, so she talked to Princess Celestia and Luna, and they all worked out a way for me to be able to see Equestria without there being too many headaches.  All I have to do is let the commanders for the guards posts of the cities and towns I visit know that I'm there and follow the rules while in town.  When I leave, I just let them know where I'm going next."

Fluttershy looked at him, and then back to the documents.  "They're letting you visit Equestria... alone?"

"Well, the guard are shadowing me so they can make sure I'm not causing anypony trouble, but they're also supposed to keep anypony from attacking me if they figure out what I am for one reason or another."

"And they're not causing you trouble."

"None of them have so far.  In fact, the commander here in Van Hoover has given me the best treatment so far.  Did you know he's actually a member of Applejack's family?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, it's a small world, huh?"

Fluttershy let out a chuckle, her nerves finally starting to subside.  "I guess it is."





Thorax and Fluttershy continued talking as they waited in line to get into the expo center.  Once in the building, Thorax had to look on in amazement at what lay before him.

The lobby of the expo center wrapped around the perimeter of the building, and was wide enough that ten ponies could walk side by side and still not rub against one another, even if they were all pegasi.  A map nearby showed the layout of the expo center itself. there were two large rooms, with one being the main expo hall, where vendors were set up, and another with a stage built against one side, where seminars and meetings were held.  Besides the two large rooms, there was a sub-level, where other activities took place.

As Thorax marveled at the sight before him, Fluttershy let out a chuckle.  "I know.  This place took me by surprise the first time I saw it."

"It's something else," Thorax said in agreement.

"Come on," Fluttershy told him with a hoof wave.  "I'm heading into the vendor hall now.  There's a pony I was planning on meeting there, and I want you to meet them too."

Excited at the prospect of getting to meet a new friend, Thorax followed close behind, a noticeable bounce in his step as he went.

As he followed behind, Thorax looked around at some of the displays set up in the lobby.  Most of them were for registration for different events happening at the expo.  Some of the highlights included: a seminar for dog training, a dog show, a cat show, a veterinarian-only seminar about new procedures to treat cancer, and a cooking seminar on preparing healthy food for a variety of pets.

"So, how has your journey through Equestria been for you so far?" Fluttershy asked him.

"It's been... interesting.  The previous guard commanders weren't too keen on me being in their cities, but I didn't have any major problems with them.  I did have some fun experiences in both places."

"Both places?  Which cities did you see?"

"Well, Detrot, you know, since that's where the train to and from the Crystal Empire is located.  After there, I went to Whinnyapolis, and then I came here."

"Did you do anything fun?"

"I did.  I went and saw a carriage factory in Detrot; that was neat.  Then I went to a hockey game in Whinnyapolis."

"Hockey?  I wasn't sure if you liked sports at all, especially one as violent as that one."

"It was pretty rough, but not the worst I've ever seen.  Honestly, the atmosphere of the crowd was something else.  They were really into the game."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Mostly.  Like you said, I'm not much for violence in general."

"Well, I'm glad you had fun, and I hope you'll have fun here too."

"I'm sure I will."

Fluttershy smiled as she turned to walk into the vendor hall.  Thorax followed close behind, and what he saw made his mouth hang open.

As far as he could see, the vendor hall was full of, well, vendors.  Organized in rows with only some fabric dividers separating them, ponies were selling a variety of items, ranging from pet food and collars to terrariums for housing lizards.

"This place is amazing!" Thorax said as he scanned the large room.

"I know, but we can look around in a second.  I wanna go find my friend now.  She should still be at her booth."

Thorax gave a nod and followed the pegasus through the veritable sea of vendor booths.  The two ponies navigated between groups of ponies and vendors offering samples of pet treats or demonstrations of products they sold.

After turning down one row, Fluttershy turned and gestured for Thorax look ahead to another pony at the the end of another row.

"There's my friend right there."

Thorax looked and saw a pony standing behind a table of various pet items.  She was a green mare, with reddish-brown mane and tail that looked like it was made to resemble cords of rope.  A yellow bandanna, decorated with daisies, was tied around her head, and on her flanks was a cutie mark of a tree with its red leaves forming the shape of a heart.  Most peculiar, the pony's purple eyes also had a slight rosy tint to them.

Fluttershy paused for a moment and turned to face Thorax.  "Um, I don't want you to get in trouble, so what was your pony disguise's name?"

"Crystal Hoof," Thorax told her.

"Crystal Hoof.  Got it.  Let me introduce you to her."

Fluttershy and Thorax closed the distance between themselves and the mare.  Once close enough, Fluttershy called out to her.

"Treehugger!"

The pony turned and smiled.  "Namaste, Fluttershy."

The pegasus approached the mare and the two shared a hug.  After a few seconds, they separated, allowing Fluttershy a chance to introduce Thorax.

"Treehugger, this is Crystal Hoof," Fluttershy told her while gesturing to Thorax.  "Crystal, this is Treehugger.  She's a friend that I met when I went to see the breezies for the first time."

"Hello," Thorax greeted the pony with a wave.

"Namaste, my crystalline stallion."

"...Namaste?" Thorax parroted in confusion.

Fluttershy chuckled.  "That's just Treehugger's way of saying hello.  She's really knowledgeable about meditation and natural remedies.  She got her cutie mark when she figured out how to influence the growth of plants."

"I don't influence the plants, Shy," Treehugger responded.  "I just feel their chakras and help 'em all jive together."

Thorax looked at the new mare with confusion.  Not once in his life had he ever heard of chakras or how one could try to "get them to jive together."

"How have you been?" Fluttershy asked Treehugger.

"Groovy.  My hemp stuff is sellin' good, and ponies are really jiving with my remedies.  I just had an old stallion that said his fetlocks quit achin' after he rubbed my homemade salve on them."

"That's good to hear.  Are you still doing your seminar?"

"Yeah.  Doing that tonight.  Got all my notes and stuff back at my hotel."

"What's your seminar about?" Thorax asked.

"It's all about using meditation to get closer to your critters and understand 'em better.  Lots of ponies sign up to hear it, and everypony leaves feeling that much closer to their pets."

"It's a great seminar," Fluttershy told Thorax.  "I sat in on it last year, and it helped me so much with Angel Bunny and how particular he can be.

Thorax had to chuckle; he remembered the stories about the little white rabbit that at least two of Twilight's friends said came from the meanest and darkest pits of Tartarus.

"Either of ya wanna try my new brownie batch?" Treehugger asked while holding up a pan of brownies.

Before Thorax could say anything, Fluttershy put a hoof to his mouth.

"We're both good Treehugger.  Maybe some later?"

Treehugger rolled her eyes and smirked.  "Don't be such a square, Shy.  I'm sure Crystal Hoof wants to try one of these?"

She teased Thorax with the pan again, and he was very tempted to try one, but a hoof to his side brought his attention back to Fluttershy, who was subtly shaking her head no to him.

"Umm... They don't have walnuts in them, do they?  I... have an allergy."

Treehugger thought for a moment, and then put the pan away.  "Sorry, my new stallion friend.  I'll get ya one without the walnuts later."

"Okay," Thorax replied, mentally wiping the sweat from his brow.  Admittedly, he didn't like lying to a pony, especially one that could potentially be a friend, but it had been at the behest of Fluttershy, and in this instance, he trusted her judgment.

"There's some other stuff that I wanted to see here, Treehugger," Fluttershy told the mare, "but I will definitely bring Crystal Hoof back tonight so that he can listen to your seminar.  He doesn't have a pet right now, but he has been thinking about it for a little while now."

Thorax had to laugh at the fact that Fluttershy had unknowingly told a truth; he did actually think about having a pet in his room back in the Crystal Palace.

"Far out," Treehugger said in response.  "Catch me after the seminar and we'll go back to my hotel room and jive until Celestia puts the sun back up."

Fluttershy let out a nervous chuckle upon hearing that suggestion.  "Maybe.  I don't know what Crystal Hoof's plans are this evening and I wouldn't want to impose.  We'll talk about it after the seminar.  See ya later!"

"Stay groovy!"

Fluttershy began walking through some of the other vendors, Thorax following close behind.

"Umm... what was that all about?" Thorax asked her.

"I'm sorry about that," Fluttershy replied with an apologetic smile.  "You see, Treehugger's brownies are... different.  She grows hemp that she weaves into cloth and fabric that she uses to make some of the stuff she sells."

"There's this special kind called Sativa that she grows and uses in her medicine.  I tried some once, and... it made me act really goofy.  I mean, it was nice because it took care of my anxiety when I'm in unfamiliar settings with unfamiliar ponies, but some of the stuff I said and some of the stuff I did... I'm just glad that none of my friends were around to see it."

"Was it that bad?"

"The kind she gave me had some other medicine mixed into it.  It made everything feel really nice, and I mean everything.  I got feeling really comfortable and... I kissed a stallion."

"That doesn't sound that bad."

"It was a kiss like a colt and filly friend would have, with open mouths and tongues and all that."

"...Oh."  Thorax felt a bit uncomfortable now.  He didn't mean to make Fluttershy remember something like that.

"It was my first real kiss, and his too.  We had been talking a little bit before, and everything was feeling really good between us.  If it hadn't been for Treehugger, well..."

Fluttershy paused for a moment, not sure if she wanted to finish the story.  Thorax, being a changeling, could sense her discomfort.

"You don't have to finish," he told her.  "I don't want you to relive bad memories."

"It's not really a bad memory.  In truth, thinking back on it a bit, I did actually enjoy the kiss.  The only thing I regret is it took me being drugged up to actually allow myself to enjoy such a thing."

Thorax chuckled at her admission.  "Reminds me of a pony I know back in the Crystal Empire.  We're not really friends, barely acquaintances really, but he was drinking at a Hearth's Warming party and had a bit too much and ended up trying to woo a mare he had a crush on.  Nopony tried to stop him, and he made such a fool of himself that everypony was laughing.  It was pretty mean to let him do that in his state, but I do have to admit that it was quite amusing to see him trying to sweet talk her when he could barely speak at all."

Fluttershy giggled a bit, but elected to change topic.  "Well, at least you know to watch out for Treehugger's brownies.  If you do decide to try one, take my word for it and only a small piece.  A little goes a long way with those things."

"I'll be sure to remember that."

"Now, I think I know something that you'll just love to see.  Come on!"

The yellow pegasus picked up her pace, the disguised changeling doing the same so he didn't lose her in the crowd.





The pony and disguised changeling made their way back out to the lobby and to a set of stairs that led to the lower level of the expo center.  Once there, they saw a large set of fenced off areas with crowds of ponies gathered around each one.  A sign at the bottom of the steps informed the two of what was going on:


V.H.A.W.S. Pet Expo Dog Show
Happening Today - Registration,
Best of Breed Judging
Happening Tomorrow - Best of Group Judging,
Best of Show Judging


"I love everything at this expo," Fluttershy told Thorax,"but the dog show is a favorite of a lot of ponies that come here."

"I can see why," Thorax answered as he looked over all of the small rings where dogs were being looked over and paraded around.  "Just how many breeds are there?"

"Well, the society recognizes about sixty different breeds that get broken down into six categories, but there's more dogs competing here than I could count."

"Do you think we can see them all?"

Fluttershy giggled.  "Of course.  We have a good bit of time before Tree Hugger's seminar tonight."





Fluttershy and Thorax spent several hours going from ring to ring seeing all of the different dog breeds.  Some were so large that they stood at practically the same height as the pony judging them, and some were so small that they could fit in a tea cup and leave room to spare.

The ones that caught Thorax's interest the most were the Scotties: Small black-furred dogs that appeared to have large mustaches and beards, as well as long skirts around their legs.  They were very feisty with one another, but also exuded a great deal of affection for the ponies that cared for them.

Fluttershy was kind enough to give him a history of the breed - Scotties were first bred in Trottingham by a pony named Tartan Scott, where the breed's name was derived from.  Their purpose was to help control rodents that would get into the barns and grain silos of farmers, but their tenacity often leads them to taking on much larger threats; many owners have claimed that their dogs have went paw-to-paw with badgers.  While still more than capable of performing their intended purpose, modern spell-craft in pest control, the Scottie is now a common companion dog for many ponies, or at least the ones that have taken a fancy to their strong sense of self.

"They certainly do love their owners," Thorax commented absently, the aroma coming from the dogs causing his stomach to grumble a bit.

"They do," Fluttershy agreed, "but please don't feed on them, or anypony else."

"Oh, don't worry.  Besides it being ones of the rules I have to follow, I have somethnig Princess Twilight and Zecora made for me to help with that."

"You mean that pink potion?"

Thorax went wide-eyed and looked at Fluttershy in shock.  "H-How do you know about that?"

"Well, Twilight mentioned she was working on something with Zecora once, but she was being really hush-hush about it, but when I went to visit her one day, she was doing some research to help Starlight with something and I saw a bunch of notes on her desk.  I didn't mean to snoop, but when I saw the words love potion on a paper, my curiosity got the better of me."

Fluttershy paused when she looked at Thorax and saw how nervous he looked.

"Is it bad that I know that?" she asked, looking at him with worry.

"Not exactly.  It's just that, if she had her notes about it out in the open like that, and you were able to see them, then that means that another changeling could've seen them and reported it to Chrysalis."

"That would be kind of bad, wouldn't it?"

"As it is right now, changelings, even her, rely on love from ponies and other creatures as nourishment.  If Chrysalis ever got her hooves on the recipe and research for that potion?  Well, I don't think anypony would want to find out."

Fluttershy looked quite fearful upon hearing that.  "Oh, dear!"

"How long ago was it that you saw those notes?"

"Umm, maybe a month or so ago?  I don't remember for sure."

"Well, hopefully there weren't any changelings around to see it and she got all the information to the princesses in Canterlot so that they could seal it away in their vault or wherever they keep that kind of information."

"I hope so too, but for now, why don't we try to enjoy the dog show some more?  There's something I really want you to see, and I think you might like it as much as I do."

"Okay," Thorax agreed, and he and Fluttershy found their way over to another area where breed judging was going on.

This arena was quite different from the others.  It was much longer, stretching about halfway across the total length of the building.  In it were dogs nearly as tall as the ponies, having very thin bodies and long noses.

"These are greyhounds," Fluttershy told Thorax.  "I always stop by their ring to watch them being judged.

Inside the ring, a pony was examining the dogs, looking at their coat, opening their mouths gently to examine their teeth, and checking their paw pads and toes to make sure nothing was amiss.  Once he had finished looking at a dog, he gestured for them and their handler to move to a mark on one part of the arena.

"Watch this," Fluttershy told him as she pointed.

Inside the ring was a long rope that stretched for the length of a hoofball field, one end fed through a black tube, a pony with a hoof on a crank just behind it.  Attached to the tail end of the rope was a stuffed dog toy in the shape of a rabbit.

The judge approached the mark he indicated earlier, where another pony holding a clipboard and stop watch stood.  The judge gave the pony a nod and that pony turned and looked at the pony on the crank, giving them a nod as well.

The pony on the crank nodded back and braced themselves.

The judge then turned to the handler and asked if they were ready, to which the handler nodded and placed a hoof on the dog's back.

Satisfied that everything was ready, the judge called out "Reel!"

The pony on the crank began working it furiously, causing the rope to retract back and the rabbit toy to go zipping off.

The handler, who had their hoof on the dog to keep them in place, looked at the judge.

"Release!" came the judge's command, and the pony raised his hoof.

As soon as the hoof was gone, the dog shot off like a rocket, quickly closing the distance between itself and the stuffed rabbit.  Before it could catch up, however, the rabbit toy was pulled into the black tube.  Seeming to realize it wouldn't fit or be able to continue the chase, the dog then came around and ran back to the pony handling it, being rewarded with some kind of treat it seemed to enjoy.

"I just love seeing them run like that," Fluttershy told Thorax.  "It makes them so happy."

"They're really fast," Thorax commented, "and they do seem to enjoy it, but isn't that a predator behavior?"

"It is," Fluttershy conceded, "but most dogs don't actually hunt other animals.  For them, what they're doing now is more of a game for them to play."

Thorax nodded at her assessment.  Judging by the emotions in the air, the dogs did very much enjoy chasing after the rabbit toy, even if they couldn't actually catch it.

"Do you think you might want a pet now?" Fluttershy suddenly asked Thorax.

Thorax gave it some thought before answering.  "I don't know.  A part of me's afraid I'll end up draining it and hurting it, even if I don't really mean to.  Then there's what I said about having pets in the servant's quarters; that wasn't a lie."

"I'm sure if you talked to Princess Cadance about it, she could either permit you one, or move you to other quarters where you could have one."

"Maybe, but then there's also ponies that are allergic to pet dander.  I don't want to make them feel bad because I wanted to have a pet."

Fluttershy smiled.  "You're a good pony... Crystal Hoof," she told him, careful not to use his real name and possibly get him in trouble, "but you should think of your own happiness just as much as you think of others.  If you spend all your time trying to make others happy, you'll never get to be happy yourself."

"I know.  That's why I came back to Equestria.  I wanted to see what all I missed before, or never really got to appreciate because I was so worried about being captured."

"That's good" Fluttershy agreed, then frowned.  "I wish things between ponies and changelings weren't like they are.  Then you could've came here without having to be disguised and seen everything without fear of being caught and imprisoned."

Thorax nodded and then let out a yawn.  He looked at a nearby clock and saw that it was only about three or so in the afternoon.  "Wow, I'm feeling really tired all of a sudden."

Fluttershy looked at a clock on a nearby wall.  "Treehugger's seminar isn't until much later.  You have time that you can go back to your hotel and have a quick nap if you want."

Thorax thought over her idea before he nodded in agreement.  "That sounds like a good idea."

Fluttershy went into the saddlebags she had and produced a piece of parchment and a quill.  "Just write down the name of your hotel and the room you're staying in.  I'll come and get you in time to make it to the seminar."

Thorax took the parchment and wrote down the information, then gave everything back to Fluttershy.  After sharing a hug with the yellow mare, Thorax left the convention center and went back to his hotel.






Several Hours Later...






Thorax woke up from his nap suddenly.  Looking around, he saw he was still in his hotel room, and all of his things were still where he had put them, but something felt off to him.  After looking around the room again, he finally figured out why: the clock in his room told him it was ten minutes before Treehugger's seminar was to start.

"Fluttershy would've came and got me by now," he thought as he got out of bed and donned his Crystal Hoof disguise again.  Stepping outside, he looked around to see no sign of the yellow pegasus anywhere.  He quickly made his way to the front desk.

"Excuse me?" he asked the front desk pony as he approached.

"May I help you, sir?" The mare asked him.

"I was taking a nap in my room and was supposed to have a friend come and get me in time for a seminar at the pet expo.  Do you know if anypony came here looking for me?"

The mare thought to herself for a moment and shook her head.  "No, sir.  Nopony came to me asking about you or any other guest here in the hotel."

Upon hearing that, Thorax became worried.  The mare at the desk looked at him with concern.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I hope not," Thorax answered as he headed out the front door and into the streets.





Thorax headed straight for the expo center and into the seminar.  Once inside, he saw Treehugger up on stage, talking about how meditation helped her with a pet owl she had, and going over some benefits a pony could experience from practicing their own meditation.

As much as he did want to show interest, Thorax could only focus on the group of ponies in attendance, hoping that Fluttershy would be here somewhere, and something had only hindered her ability to come and get him on time.

Unfortunately, the mare was nowhere to be seen.

Now feeling more worried for the missing pegasus, Thorax left the expo center and began searching for her, hoping that she was okay and had simply gotten sidetracked by something.

As he passed a nearby alleyway, he was hit with a sudden wave of negative emotion: fear.

"P-Please!"

Turning his head, Thorax looked down the alley, and what he saw made the hairs on his disguise go on end.

There at the end of the alley was Fluttershy, cowering against a wall and hiding just behind a dumpster.  In front of her was a stallion, looming over her and radiating an emotion that Thorax was familiar with, and made his chitin crawl with the implications.

The stallion was radiating pure lust.
> Part IV, Chapter 13 - Kindness, Part 2 (TRIGGER WARNING!)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------






TRIGGER WARNING!


The following chapter features the attempted rape of a character.  I advise readers who are sensitive to this topic not read this chapter.








Thorax stood at the end of the alley, shaking at the sight before him.  Fluttershy, a pegasus mare that had only today started treating him as a true friend and not just an acquaintance, was cowering behind a dumpster, cornered there by a stallion who had no good intentions towards her.

While he couldn't see the stallion's face, Thorax was certain they were staring at his new friend with a predatory smile, and the lights from the other end of the alley illuminating a shadow underneath the pony's barrel had pretty much confirmed what he intended to do with the mare once he laid his hooves on her.

"Now, what's a pretty little thing like yourself doing all alone in this big city?" he asked in a taunting way.

Fluttershy was shivering in fear.  "I-I w-was going to m-meet a fr-fr-friend."

The stallion's smile grew larger and more evil.  "Well, wouldn't you know it?  I'm that friend you've been looking for."

Fluttershy went pale and her fight-or-flight response kicked in.  Unfortunately, it kept her on the ground in an effort to run as fast as she could.  The stallion simply stuck out a hoof and tripped her to the ground, the pegasus grunting as she impacted.

Before she could react, he was on top of her, already trying to maneuver his hips so he would be in an optimal position to violate her.

The timid mare began flailing and attempted to let out a scream, but the pony struck her in the back of the head.

"Make a peep and this goes so much worse for you!" he spat at her, still prodding at her rear in an effort to line himself up.

As this was going on, Thorax watched in horror.  The scene playing out before him was like a living nightmare, and he could only imagine how much worse it was for the pegasus pinned down by the stallion.

As he heard the pony's threats and heard Fluttershy's whimpering, Thorax's vision went red, and deep inside him, a pit of pure rage erupted.

"HEY!"

The stallion stopped what he was doing and looked in Thorax's direction.  After a moment, he let out a snort and went back to attempting to thrust inside the sobbing mare.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Thorax finally moved, barreling down the alley towards the stallion, intent on tackling him to the ground.

The pony, however, turned around and clocked him hard in the face, knocking him back and to the ground and opening a gash in his cheek.

"Beat it, pipsqueak!" the stallion spat at Thorax.  "Can't you see me and this filly here are trying to have a good time?"

He turned back to Fluttershy and renewed his efforts in violating the pegasus beneath him.  This would turn out to be a mistake for the stallion, as Thorax recovered and got back on his hooves, preparing to run him over like a freight train over a tin can.

"I SAID LEAVE HER ALONE!"

The stallion turned to spit another insult Thorax's way, but was met with a pony body slamming into him at high speed.  He was knocked onto his back and quickly pinned down by a very angry-looking crystal pony.

"What the?  How did you get-"

The stallion was cut off as he looked up at the cut on Thorax's cheek.  He didn't know what he was looking at, but it almost looked like the flesh underneath the cut was black..

"You think it's right to just attack others like that?!" Thorax stared down at the stallion, the scowl on his face almost comically large.

"What the hay is wrong with your skin?!" the stallion asked, struggling against Thorax's grip and completely ignoring the question asked him.  "And how come you're so damn strong all of a sudden?!"

"You really wanna know?!" Thorax spat back in response.  "Well then, let me show you!"

Thorax let his disguise vanish in a wash of green fire, letting his normal changeling form be exposed to the stallion.  As soon as he realized what was happening, the stallion's lust immediately vanished, and was replaced with panic.

"HELP!" he began shouting, struggling hard against Thorax's hooves.  "SOMEPONY HELP!"

Thorax hissed at the pony in anger, immediately silencing him.  "AFTER WHAT YOU TRIED TO DO TO MY FRIEND, YOU THINK YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE CALLING FOR HELP?!"

The stallion ignored Thorax, continuing to struggle against him.

"You think it's right to just force yourself on some poor, scared filly, taking her innocence just because you can?" Thorax said, his volume much more quiet and his horn lighting up.  "Well, let's see how you like it when somepony takes something from you!"

The stallion screamed even louder as he was enveloped in green magic.  Thorax opened his maw and prepared to suck all the love out of the stallion had in him.

"THORAX!"

Immediately, the changeling stopped what he was doing and looked over to where he heard the voice come from.

Fluttershy had resumed her position behind the dumpster, now looking on at Thorax in horror.  Her head was moving side to side, and she mouthed a single word to him: no.

Thorax, still feeling all of the anger caused by the stallion's horrible actions, looked at her with a snarl...

...but it quickly died in his throat as he looked past her.

Propped against the wall behind Fluttershy was a large vanity mirror, its surface broken into a spiderweb of cracks.  Thorax's attention was called to the mirror, and as soon as he saw his reflection, the anger in him fizzled out.

Through the spiderweb of cracks, Thorax saw a horrible truth.

The reflection he saw was not his own.  In the reflection, he saw a changeling; a love-sucking monster that ponies feared with good reason.  The bared fangs threatened to cause physical harm to any creature that dared cross it, and the sickly green aura of its magic warned of the malevolence it almost certainly contained in its heart.

And then, Thorax saw the changeling's eyes, and realized in that moment, they were his own.

In those few moments, Thorax realized how close he had come to violating the very morals he had established upon leaving the hive and living in the Crystal Empire, and promised to follow in his pursuit of a better life for himself and the rest of his kind, and all because of how angry he had gotten.

Suddenly feeling guilty, Thorax allowed the spell he was using to hold the stallion in place fizzle out.  The stallion, recognizing the opportunity to escape, freed his hooves and jammed them into Thorax's chest, knocking the changeling off of him.  Quickly flipping over to stand, he made for the street nearest him with haste.

Being snapped from his thoughts by the sudden force applied to his chest, Thorax's anger returned, but this time, he had better control of it.  He took to the air and dived down onto the stallion's back, pinning him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him.

"I'm not gonna steal your love," he told the pony in a calmer, but still very angry voice, "and not because my friend asked me not to.  It's because if I did what I was going to do, it would make me no better than you!"

The stallion attempted to let out a cry for help, but was silenced quickly, Thorax produced a glob of resin and began wrapping the pony up like one of the hive's prey hunters, stopping only when he had clamped the stallion's muzzle shut.  The stallion's cries for help were now significantly muted, and any fight he had left in him disappeared when he realized his situation at the moment was hopeless, and he wasn't getting free anytime soon.

Once sure the pony wouldn't break free and escape, Thorax returned his attention to Fluttershy.  The pegasus was pushed back against the dumpster, watching Thorax with the same horror as before.  Hanging his head, the changeling sat down in front of her, doing everything he could to appear as non-threatening as possible.

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy," he told her, a tear rolling down his cheek.  "I'm sorry."

"DON'T MOVE, CHANGELING!"

Thorax flinched as he heard the sudden shout.  Looking at the end of the alleyway, he saw two police ponies quickly approaching him, the one unicorn of the pair having their horn charged with a spell ready to incapacitate him if he dared so much as move.

As they neared him, Thorax suddenly realized the situation he was in.  He was undisguised, in the middle of the city, and he didn't have his letter or passports with him.

In short, he was in big trouble.

"DOWN FLAT ON THE GROUND, NOW!"

He complied, not wanting the situation to get any worse than it already was.  Once he was flat against the pavement, the unicorn produced bindings and restraints and began securing him.

The other pony, a mare, approached Fluttershy and began trying to help her.

"It's okay," the mare said to her.  "Nopony's gonna hurt you."

Fluttershy, her eyes going from Thorax to the police pony, eventually wrapped her hooves around the mare in a hug, crying into the mare's withers.

"I have the changeling secure," the unicorn told the mare.  "I'll have to get somepony with a cart to haul him in."

"I'll be fine with these two," she answered back.  "We'll free the stallion from that goop once we have the perp on the way back to the station."

"Perp?" Fluttershy finally spoke, her voice shaky.

"Yeah, that changeling," the mare replied.  "You're lucky we got here when we did.  You could've been drained and left for dead before anypony knew what was going on."

Fluttershy listened to what the pony told her.  Her mind, a jumble of thoughts and feelings from the attack against her by the stallion and from seeing Thorax's rather violent response to it, finally registered what was happening.  Then, in a rare showing from the pegasus, she spoke as confidently as she could.

"Thorax isn't the pony you need to arrest!"

The police pony was caught off guard by the response.  "Ma'am, that changeling-"

"-came to my rescue!" she cut off the mare.  "He saved me from that stallion!  That pony... He..."

The confidence was leaving Fluttershy, her jumbled feelings and thoughts getting to her again.

Sensing something more was wrong than just a pony full of fear caused by an encounter with a monster, the mare got Fluttershy's attention and spoke to her as calmly as she could.  "Why would a changeling want to save you from a stallion?"

Fluttershy whimpered under the mare's gaze.  Despite her attempts to appear gentle, the police pony still looked rather authoritative to the pegasus.  Mustering what little courage she had left, she forced out what she needed to force out.

"He... He tried to... r... ra... rape..."

The mare finished the sentence with a deep look of concern on her face.

"Ma'am, are you trying to say that that stallion tried to rape you?"

A simple nod was all Fluttershy could offer before she broke down into a fit, sobbing loudly in the alleyway.

The unicorn returned with another police pony pulling a cart behind them.  After putting Thorax into the cart, he turned to the mare with Fluttershy.  "I'll get this stallion cut loose and we'll take his story," he told her while preparing a spell.

"Just load him into the cart too," she told him.  "This situation just became more complicated."

"More complicated?  How?"

The mare leaned in closer and whispered into the stallion's ear, "She said the stallion in the cocoon tried to rape her."

The unicorn turned to look his partner in the eyes.  "She did?"

She nodded.

"Damn," he said with a head shake.  "Well, that does make this whole thing more complicated.  Should we get a second cart, or maybe commandeer a carriage to take the mare to the station?"

"I'll see what she wants to do-"

"I want to go with Thorax."

The two police ponies turn to see Fluttershy jump up and open her wings, fluttering down to land on the cart beside the bound changeling.

"Are you sure, ma'am?" the mare asked her.  "It won't be a problem for us to get another cart to escort you to the station."

Fluttershy, her eyes red and puffy from all the crying she just finished doing, looked at the ponies with as much conviction as she could muster.  "I want to go with Thorax."

The two ponies look at each other and decide to acquiesce.  "Okay.  Just, please let us know if you need us to stop or anything."

Fluttershy gave no response.  Instead, she laid down on the cart, her head resting against the bound Thorax.

As the police ponies prepared to head back to the police station, the unicorn stallion stopped the mare.

“Doesn't that seem a bit strange to you?” the unicorn asked his partner.

“This whole night's been unusual.  We come across a changeling with a bound pony, and the second pony he tries to go after claims the pony that's been given a gift wrapping from Tartarus tried to rape her.”

"You don't think that changeling put her under a spell, do you?"

"Maybe, but I honestly have no idea.  We'll figure it out at the station.  For now, load up the stallion in the slime swaddle and head for the station.  I'm gonna start marking this area off so we can begin evidence gathering."

The stallion nodded and did as instructed, loading up the bound pony and making his way for the station, the pony pulling the cart following behind him.






A few hours later at the VHPF police station...






Thorax was sitting in a holding cell, bound in restraints and a suppression ring on his horn.  He looked dejected, realizing the mistake he had made by shedding his disguise and even assaulting a pony.  Once the guard captain learned of his actions, he would likely be kicked out of Equestria, escorted back to the Crystal Empire, and told never to return.

However, he would face the consequences with his chin up.  Even though his actions went against the rules that had been put in place to allow him to visit Equestria in the first place, he had a good reason to do what he did.  While Fluttershy wasn't the closest friend he had, he still cared about the mare, and would do all he could to make sure she stayed safe.

To that extent, he had lashed out at the stallion, pinning him to the ground in an effort to stop him.  Thinking back with a clearer mind, he should've simply kept the stallion pinned until the police had showed up; surely somepony had told them that a mare was screaming her head off for help.

In the heat of the moment, however, Thorax had almost submitted to instinct and drained the stallion, thereby turning him into an apathetic shell that would no longer have the will or desire to commit such a heinous act as what he had attempted to do to Fluttershy a little bit earlier.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Thorax felt that it would've been deserved.  He had stopped the stallion from hurting Fluttershy, but had he done that to mares before?  Had he succeeded in commiting such a despicable act against them?

Unfortunately, he would likely never find out the answers to those questions.  With a defeated sigh, Thorax resigned himself to fate, taking solace in the fact he was able to protect his animal-loving friend.





Fluttershy was sitting in a chair in private office of the VHPF station.  She had been brought here and told to wait, as a pony would be in to get her story about what had happened in that alleyway earlier in the night.  The butter-yellow pegasus shuddered and fought back the urge to cry as the memory replayed in her mind.

Before she could think too deeply, the door to the office opened and the police mare who brought her in entered with a second pony behind her.  They were a stallion, a bit on the younger side, and with a cutie mark similar to Twilight's brother Shining, except instead of a star, there were a set of balances.

"Miss Fluttershy, my name is Blind Justice," he introduced himself,"and I am here with Officer Paisley, who brought you here earlier, to get your side of the story in regards to the happenings earlier tonight."

Fluttershy quivered in her seat a bit, but nodded her acknowledgment.

Blind Justice looked at Officer Paisley with an uneasy look, but turned his attention back to the pegasus.  "Now, I understand that this will not be easy for you, but I must ask you to recall all of the events that happened this evening.  I want you to give us as much detail as you can.  Please remember, the more you can tell us, the better we can understand what exactly happened, and the better we'll be able to make sure those who committed crimes tonight will answer for them."

"We're only here to help you and see that you get justice," Officer Paisley added.  "If you feel that you can't tell us anything right now, that's perfectly fine.  Nopony is going to force you to do anything you don't want to."

Again, Fluttershy nodded, taking a bit of comfort in knowing she could stop if it became too much for her.

"Good," Blind continued.  "Now, would you please tell us what happened from the beginning?"

Fluttershy took a few breaths to calm herself as much as possible.  Once she felt she was as calm as she could get, she started to tell her story.

"I was going to get my friend Crystal Hoof so we could attend a seminar at the pet expo."

"Okay," Blind responded as he wrote the info down.  "Can you tell me about Crystal Hoof?"

"He's a pony from the Crystal Empire.  A little shorter than me.  He's colored all kinds of grayish-blues, and he has a ceramic jug for his cutie mark."

"And he was with you earlier today?"

"He was."

"So you went to get him?  Where was he?"

"He was in his hotel room.  He felt tired and I suggested he go take a nap."

"So he goes to his hotel room for a nap, and you were on your way to get him for this seminar?"

"Yes."

"So you're on your way to get him.  What happened next?"

Fluttershy fidgets a little before calming down and answering.

"I... felt like I was being watched or followed.  After I was a few blocks away from the hotel Crystal Hoof is staying at, I noticed a stallion following me closely."

"What did the stallion look like?"

"He... had a beige coat, and black mane... and..."

Fluttershy began whimpering as the image of the stallion tackling her came back to mind.  Seeing this, Officer Paisley stepped in.

"If you're too uncomfortable with the interview, please let us know, and we'll discontinue it here and now."

Fluttershy took a few moments to regain her composure before she continued.

"I never saw his cutie mark, but his eyes were royal blue."

"Okay," Blind said as he wrote the description down.  "I know that was difficult, but we very much appreciate your cooperation.  Now, you said he was following you?"

Fluttershy nodded.  "He was getting closer, and I was getting scared, so I tried to lose him."

"Did you try flying away?"

"N-No."

"How come?"

"I-I'm not a very strong flyer, a-and I... don't always think so clearly when I'm scared."

Blind nodded as he wrote the info down.  "That's okay.  Our emotions can cloud our judgments.  No reason to be ashamed of that.  So, you tried losing him?  How did you attempt that?"

"I... saw an alleyway, and I darted down into it."

Blind was going to make a comment about that not being the smartest thing, but kept it to himself; this mare had a hard enough night without him making her feel bad about her choices in the heat of the moment.

"What happened after you went into the alley?"

"I kept going until I came out the other side.  There was a group of ponies, and I stayed close with them for a little bit until I thought I had lost him, or he lost interest in me."

"And I'm guessing that, when you finally felt safe again, you started heading back towards your friend's hotel?"

"I did, but I wasn't safe."

"He found a way to corner you?"

"I went down another alley, and he caught me hiding behind a dumpster."

"What happened when he caught you?"

"I told him to leave me alone, but he ignored what I said, and then he started taunting me."

"Taunting you?"

"He asked me what I was doing alone, and he said he was the friend I was looking for."

"Ahh, I understand.  Then what happened?"

"I tried to run, but he tackled me, and then he..."

Fluttershy began trembling and whimpering.

"You don't need to go into details about that now," Officer Paisley assured Fluttershy.  "We can skip past this, or we can stop the interview altogether."

Fluttershy calmed down a bit but was still whimpering.  "I-I'd like to skip this part."

Blind gave a nod.  "That's fine.  What happened to you was horrible, and we don't want to cause you any more distress if we can avoid it."

"Now, what we'd like to know is when the changeling came into play.  Do you remember when that happened?"

Fluttershy was trembling again.  Of course, she knew exactly when Thorax came into the story, but she also remembered what he had told her about keeping his real identity secret.  On the other hoof, however, she would have to commit perjury in order to protect him, and she didn't want to break a law, especially one that would have her in jail and away from her friends, animal or otherwise.

"He knocked the stallion off of me before he could..."

"That's fine.  You don't have to say anything further.  Did the changeling do anything?"

"He was gonna drain the stallion, but then he stopped and wrapped him up in a cocoon."

"He didn't try to take any love from him?"

"No, he didn't."

"That's a bit unusual, but it checks out with the examination we did of the stallion.  Now, when the officers came to the scene, the changeling was in front of you.  Did he try to do anything to you at that point?"

"No, he didn't.  He never tried to attack me."

"Really?"

"Mhm."

Blind looked at Officer Paisley with a concerned look, and then back to Fluttershy.

"Miss Fluttershy, we'd like to conduct a clearing spell on you to make sure you haven't been affected by any kind of mind control magic.  Would you be willing to consent to that?"

"I will."

"That's good.  I'll have the papers sent in so you can read and sign them.  Now, this next part is... a bit uncomfortable.  Since you have made a claim that the stallion in our custody tried to assault you in a sexual manner, we would like your consent to conduct a rape kit on you.  You are free to refuse having this procedure done, but I must make it a point that doing it and having it done as soon as possible will give us the best chance to make sure the stallion is put away and isn't able to hurt any more mares or fillies.  Would you be willing to have a rape kit performed on you?"

Fluttershy was shaking.  It was bad enough that that stallion had been prodding at her flanks with his... arousal, but now these police ponies wanted to rub swabs and whatever else back there.  The thought of strange ponies touching her most intimate place made her a great deal uncomfortable...

...but then she thought about how that stallion had made her feel, and the image of a filly like Apple Bloom or Sweetie Bell in the same position popped into her mind, and she suddenly found herself becoming rather upset.

"...I'll do it."

Blind smiled.  "Thank you very much for consenting, Miss Fluttershy.  I have everything that I need.  As per regulations, I, as a stallion, am not allowed to be present during the collection of a rape kit, so I must take my leave now.  A nurse from Van Hoover General will be coming in to conduct the kit on you.  Officer Paisley will remain here in order to make sure everything is done properly and the evidence collected is processed immediately."

Blind stood up and moved to the door.  Before he stepped out, he looked back at Fluttershy.

"I am sorry for what has happened to you tonight, but I promise you, we will do everything we can to make sure the ponies responsible pay for what they've done to you."

With Blind Justice now gone, Fluttershy sat with Officer Paisley alone in the small office.  The two didn't exchange any words for some time.  After a bit, Officer Paisley spoke up.

"I know you're feeling really scared right now, but I think you're being really brave for doing this."

Fluttershy didn't respond.  She simply did her best to stay calm for as scared as she was.

"There's something I wanted to ask you," Paisley says after a moment, getting Fluttershy's attention.  "In the report we were given, they claimed you referred to the changeling by the name Thorax.  Can you explain why you did that?"

Fluttershy looked a bit nervous.  "I'm, uh, not really sure why I did that."

Paisley looked at her skeptically, but decided not to press the issue; she may decline the rape kit if she felt more stressed than she already was.

After a few more minutes, a nurse pony walked into the room.  With the mare was a box that had the words "SAMPLE COLLECTION" written on the side.

"Hello, Miss Fluttershy," the mare greeted.  "My name is Gentle Hearts, and I'm here to collect samples from you regarding something that happened to you earlier this evening.  Now, I know that you're feeling scared right now, but I'm going to do my best to make sure this goes as smoothly and with as little discomfort as possible, okay?"

Fluttershy gave a simple nod.

"That's good.  Now, to begin, Officer Paisley, would you please lock the door so that we may have as much privacy as possible?"

Paisley nodded and locked the door.  Gentle Hearts gave her a smile and turned back to Fluttershy.

"Now that we have the privacy, Miss Fluttershy, I'm going to perform a brief physical examination; not intrusive, just observational.  Then, I would like for you to outline for me what areas of your body the stallion touched.  I know that asking this is making you uncomfortable, and I do apologize for that, but I need to know where he made contact so that I can collect the necessary samples.  You can be vague if you choose, but the more specific you are, the better samples I'll be able to collect and the better the evidence will be to convict your attacker and put them behind bars."

Fluttershy listened to what the mare told her and mustered up what courage she had in her.

"O-Okay."

"Good.  Now, there will be some parts that will require me to touch you briefly, but I will let you know when I'll be doing that, okay?"

"...Okay."

"Good.  I'm going to begin now, and remember, if you feel too uncomfortable at any point in this procedure, we can discontinue it at any time you wish."

With that, Nurse Gentle Hearts began her exam, looking over Fluttershy's whole body and examining places such as her back, barrel, hooves and flanks.  As she did, she would occasionally use her hooves to separate the fur on the pegasus's coat in order to see the skin underneath, and a few times, she would write something down on the paper.

The procedure took a few minutes, but for Fluttershy, it felt like hours.  Once she was done, Gentle Hearts looked at Fluttershy with a sad smile.

"I've completed the physical exam, but now I need to ask you about where you were touched this evening.  Again, if you wish, we can discontinue the exam here."

Fluttershy was trembling a good bit, but again, she resolved herself to see this through.

"He... pinned me down on my withers."

"That's good," Gentle Hearts said encouragingly, writing the information down.  "What else?"

"He kept pushing his pelvis against my flanks."

"Very good.  Did he touch anywhere else?"

"He..."

Fluttershy hesitated before finally mustering the last bit of courage to say what she needed to.

"He... touched my... private place... with his..."

Fluttershy started to trail off, but Gentle Hearts stopped her.

"You don't have to say anymore.  I believe I have enough information that I can begin collecting samples.  Now, I'd like for you to stand up and move over to the middle of the room and stand in place.  I'm going to be using some cotton swabs to collect the samples from you.  I'm only going to be touching the places where you told me that your attacker touched you, and I will only take as long as necessary."

Fluttershy nodded in acknowledgment and stood up, moving towards the middle of the room.  Gentle Hearts opened the box and produced a bag of long cotton swabs, as well as several tubes with screw caps on them as opposed to corks.

"I'm going to start with the less private areas and move on to the more private ones.  I'll only be taking as long as necessary, so please bear with me."

Fluttershy gave a simple "Mhm" as a reply, and did her best to put the bad situation out of her mind.

Gentle Hearts prepared the first swab and approached Fluttershy.  "I'm starting with your withers now.  Please remain as still as possible until I've finished collecting the sample."

Again, Fluttershy hummed her agreement, and Gentle Hearts began rubbing the swab across her withers.  Once finished, she inserted the swab into one of the glass vials and screwed its top back on.

"Okay, there's the first one," Gentle Hearts told Fluttershy.  "Now I'm going to be moving on to your flanks.  Again, I'm only going to be doing as much as is necessary."

Fluttershy gave a nod as Gentle Hearts took the swab and rubbed it over top of her flanks, taking care not to get too close to her more sensitive areas; they would be getting their own swab in just a moment.

The pegasus stood there and did her best to block out the discomfort she was experiencing, telling herself repeatedly that this was to protect some other mare or filly from being attacked by that horrible stallion.

"You're doing great so far," Gentle Hearts reassured her,"but this next one is the toughest.  I promise that I'm only going to be doing this for long enough to get a sample.  Please hang in there for me a moment longer.  You're almost done."

Fluttershy gave a small whimper and nodded her head.  Gentle Hearts put the second swab into another vial and grabbed a third swab.

"Okay, I'm going to start now," she told Fluttershy.  "It'll be over soon."

Carefully, she placed the swab against the pegasus' most intimate place and carefully swabbed over it to ensure she collected a viable sample.  All the while, she could see the mare shaking.

"And we're done!" she said as she removed the swab and placed it into the last vial.  "Now, we'll get this to the lab."

Gentle Hearts placed the vials into an envelope, along with the notes she'd taken, and set it on a desk in the office.  She closed up the box and placed it onto her back.

"I'll make sure this gets processed as quickly as possible," Gentle told Paisley.  "In the meantime, I would get samples from the stallion to compare against."

"We'll have one of our officers collect it and send it over.  We often collect urine samples when we suspect drug use, so a normal specimen cup should suffice, right?"

Gentle nodded.  "Just make sure it gets sent over immediately after it's collected and marked 'Expedite Testing'.  That will tell our lab tech ponies to do it immediately and not sit on it for a few days."

"I'll make sure the officer is aware."

"Good.  I'll be leaving now, but before I leave..."

Gentle produced a card and gave it to Fluttershy.

"This is for a pony that deals with victims of crimes such as what happened to you earlier tonight.  You don't have to go visit them, but I would recommend doing so.  She's a great listener, and can offer some good advice in dealing with any issues you may experience, but you don't have to talk to her if you don't wish to.  Just consider it is all I am asking you."

Fluttershy looked over the card for a moment before looking back at Gentle Hearts.  "I'll... think about it.  No promises."

Gentle offered a soft smile.  "I wouldn't expect you to make one.  Please try to have a good rest of your evening."

With that, the nurse left with the kit and envelope full of evidence.

"I have some paperwork that I need to file," Paisley told Fluttershy.  "If you'd like, we can have another officer keep you company until I'm finished, or we can arrange an escort to take you to a pony to stay with here in the city.  You could also head back to your hotel on your own if you wish, but I think it would be best if you weren't by yourself right now."

Fluttershy thought over what the police pony had told her before she made her decision.

"I think I'd like to stay here for now."

"That's fine.  I'll go grab another officer.  You can wait here for now.  If you want, you can lock the door after I leave if it'll make you feel safer."

"O-Okay."

Paisley gave a nod and stepped out, leaving Fluttershy alone.  The pegasus took a seat in a chair next to one of the desks.  Left alone with her thoughts, the pegasus did what she could to put the memories of what happened to her earlier out of her mind.  Reliving this night was not something she was keen on doing at the moment, but aside from that, she had another matter raging in her mind.

"What's going to happen to Thorax?"
> Part IV, Chapter 14 - Van Hoover, Part 3 - Detectives
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




The Kindness story arc is still ongoing.  I'm counting this chapter as a separate part from that because Fluttershy and Thorax have no interaction with one another during this chapter.









Some time later...






"Sent out on a 1-26 again!"

"I know.  Old coot kept going on about his trash bin was a changeling when it clearly wasn't."

"And his behavior!  You can't tell me that stallion didn't have dementia or went senile or something!"

"Well, he's in the hospital now, and hopefully they'll get in contact with his family so they can see to it he's taken care of how he's supposed to be."

"Hope so.  Sorry if I was a bit of a jerk there."

"It's okay.  Long night for both of us."

"Yeah.  I'm getting this paperwork in and hitting the sack as soon as I get home."

"Same here."

Reaching their destination and walking inside, Detectives Old Bill and Peach Fuzz ceased the conversation about their most recent case and prepared to finish their duties before going home for the day.  However, the mare at the front desk shot them a smile.

"You two missed out on some craziness a little while ago," she told the two detectives.

"We had some of our own," Peach countered.  "What happened?"

"Well," the mare began, but then looked around conspiratorially before continuing.  "Take a guess what was brought in earlier tonight?"

"Griffin?" Bill guessed.

"Dragon?" Peach offered.

The mare shook her head.  "They brought a changeling in earlier."

Both Peach and Bill look at each other, then back to the mare.  "You're serious?" Bill asked.

"May Celestia strike me down with her sun," the pony replied.  "The two brought him in with a stallion he bound up in that slime they use and a mare, and get this: It's Fluttershy."

"Fluttershy?" Peach parroted in disbelief.

"Again, may I meet my end by Celestia's fiery sun.  The mare's here in town for the pet expo and gets tied up in this mess."

The mare then went from excited to reserved, and with a little bit of sadness in her voice.  "It's a shame, honestly.  According to the story she gave earlier, she was going to meet a friend at their hotel and head to the expo for a seminar that was going on tonight, but along the way, somepony cornered her in an alley and tried to rape her."

Peach gasped at what she'd heard.  "That rotten, no-good bug!"

"Well, that's the thing.  According to Miss Fluttershy, the stallion the changeling had wrapped up in slime was her would-be rapist."

Bill raised his eyebrow at that.  "She's accusing a pony that was being attacked by a changeling of trying to rape her?"

"According to her, but we'll know for sure if he really is or not in a bit; the mare agreed to have a kit done.  We should be getting the results back soon."

"Who is getting the case?" Peach then asked.

"Well..." the front desk mare replied sheepishly before sliding a file folder to the detectives.  Old Bill brought his hoof to his face.

"Of course.  Looks like our other paperwork will have to wait a bit.  Where is Miss Fluttershy now?"

"She elected to stay in an office with another pony until a friend she contacted can come and pick her up.  I think it's Sargent Thistle's."

"Thanks.  Shall we, Peach?"

Peach gave her partner a nod and the two headed towards the office indicated by the mare.  Before they get too far, a pony at the front desk says something that catches their attention.

"Excuse me, but I have the results from a rape kit that was performed earlier tonight.  Is there a pony available to take this?"

"I'm Old Bill, and I believe that's for me and my partner," the stallion called out as he turned around and approached the pony, showing his ID badge.

After examining the ID, the pony nodded.  "Okay, the ID checks out.  Here's the file."

The pony hoofed over the file and bid the police ponies good night.  Old Bill opened the envelope and began reading.

"Well, what's the verdict?" Peach asked him as she approached.

"According to this, samples were taken from Fluttershy, the changeling, and the changeling victim/potential rapist."

Bill pauses as he reads more.  "Huh.  Says here that the changeling was made to provide two samples."

"Two samples?" Peach asked in confusion.

"They made it give a sample in its native form, and then a second in disguise as the pony he was cocooning."

"Why would they do that?"

"I think they were under the impression that the results may have been different if the changeling was disguised.  Going by these readouts, it doesn't look like that's the case."

"What about the result?  Was Fluttershy attacked and almost raped?"

"...Yes," Bill answered after reading further.  "Samples taken from her proved that a stallion's seminal fluid was present along her inner legs, flanks, and... across her vulva."

Peach shivered.  "She was nearly raped, not that it's really any better than actually being raped."

Bill nodded in agreement.  "Results showed that the seminal fluid collected from Miss Fluttershy matches with a dna sample provided by-"

Bill stopped speaking and looked at the paper in surprise.

"...matches with a DNA sample provided by a stallion who was captured and cocooned by a changeling shortly after the assault occurred."

Peach looked wide-eyed at Bill.  "The stallion did it?"

"According to this," Bill confirmed, then opened the case file the mare at the front desk gave him and read it over.

"And this looks like it could be pretty open and shut.  Says here the stallion was reluctant to give a sample, and after doing so, made a request to have legal counsel present for future questioning."

Peach's expression went from surprise to anger.  "I'd like to go down to that cell and have a word with that pony."

"Ease off, Peach," Bill said with a raised hoof.  "He'll get his day in court soon enough."

"I hope so," Peach responded as she rolled her neck in an attempt to relax her muscles.  As she did that, Bill read on through the case file further, and after a moment, looked at the paper in shock.

Peach, taking notice of this, stopped rolling her neck and asked her partner what was wrong.

"Read this," he answered, turning the folder so she could look at the contents.

Peach read over the report from the beginning, and then went wide-eyed in shock again.

"Female victim referred to changeling assailant by name of Thorax." Bill parroted from the paper.

Peach turned her gaze to meet her partner.  "It couldn't be, could it?"

"It's not impossible," Bill admitted, "but who can say for certain?  We don't know much about changelings, but we do know there's more than one mare in Van Hoover that would answer to the name Peach, so what's to say there aren't multiple changelings that would answer to the name Thorax?"

"Still, this far north, and not all that far away from the Crystal Empire?"

"Like I said, it's not impossible."

Peach and Bill looked over the paperwork again.

"Do you think there's a way we can find out for sure?" Peach asked Bill.

The stallion thought about it for a moment.  "I think there is."





Thorax had been moved from the holding cells to an interrogation chamber.  Seated in a chair on one side of a table with a microphone on it, he could only wait as until the pony conducting the "interview", as the police officer had called it, showed up.  As he waited, his mind kept replaying that night in his mind over and over again.  Eventually, he let out a defeated sigh as his thoughts drifted towards ideas about what would happen to him once the police had finished with him.

On the other side of a one-way mirror, Detectives Old Bill and Peach Fuzz stood watching with another VHPF officer.  The two watched Thorax as he sat in the chair waiting as patiently as he could.

"Go ahead over and start the interrogation," Bill told the officer.  "We'll give a tap on the glass when we want you to stop."

The officer nodded.  "Alright, I'll get this rolling."

The pony left the room, leaving Bill and Peach alone to observe.

"Do you think it could be him?" Peach asked.

"I don't know," Bill answered, "but one thing is for sure - that is definitely a changeling in there."

Peach nodded as she turned her attention back to the interrogation room.  Inside, Thorax was still thinking over all that had happened that night, but was brought back to reality when he heard the door to the room click and open.

Stepping into the room was a pony in a police uniform.  They had no expression, and Thorax could discern no other emotions besides the general apprehension ponies had around changelings.  The pony walked to the table and took a seat opposite of him.

"I'm Officer Penny Dreadful," the pony began, "and I'm going to ask you a few questions.  I'm expecting totally honest answers from you, and trust me - I'll know."

Thorax gave a nod.

"How did you arrive in Van Hoover?" the stallion began.

"I came in on the train" Thorax answered.

"Where did you board?"

"In Whinnyapolis."

"How long were you in Whinnyapolis?"

"A day or so."

"And where did you come from to get there?"

"Detrot."

"Detrot, huh?  Next you're gonna tell me that you came all the way down from the Crystal Empire."

"I did."

The stallion scoffs.  "I don't believe it, and for two reasons.  One, all the changelings anypony has ever encountered outside of Canterlot all came from the south.  Two, if you really did come from the Crystal Empire, then you'd never want to leave."

"If you're talking about the love of the crystal ponies, I already know."

"And what?  You're just gonna keep going south until you get to your hive so you can plan your next attack on Equestria?"

"No."

"And why am I supposed to believe that?"

"If I really wanted to tell the hive about the Crystal Empire, I would've disguised as a bird and just kept flying until I got there."

The stallion wanted to refute the claim, but it was pretty sound.  Most ponies would think nothing of a random bird flying in the sky.

"I'll buy that," the stallion conceded, "but that doesn't explain why you were in the Crystal Empire to begin with."

"It's a long story."

"Well, I have all night."






Meanwhile...






Walking through the doors of the Van Hoover Police Station was a member of the Royal Guard Post.  His golden armor immediately caught the eye of the mare at the front desk.

"May I help you?" she asked the guard.

"I was informed of a changeling being held as a prisoner here.  Do you still have it?"

The mare nodded.  "We sure do, but they're interrogating him now."

"It's a male?"

"Yep.  He's been cooperating so far."

The guard raised an eyebrow.  "Really?"

"So far," the mare emphasized.  "There's always the chance he waiting for an opportunity to strike and disappear before we know what hit us."

"Then we'll have to be careful.  I'm also here to find out about what happened to a guard of mine earlier."

"A guard?"

"Yes.  He was supposed to report in earlier this evening, but he never showed."

"Maybe the changeling knows something about it?"

"Perhaps," the guard agreed.  "Where is he being questioned?"

The mare points down a hallway.  "The interview rooms are down at the end on the left side.  The observation room is the one furthest."

"Thank you-"

"Hold up!"

The guard and mare turn to see another guard run up to the desk.

"You're late for report," the first guard said to the second.

"I'm sorry, sir," the second replied, the lower rank of the pair.  "I was following the subject earlier this evening, but I was knocked out cold by a stallion."

"By a stallion?"

"Yes."

"Can you give a description of the stallion?"

"Yes.  He was beige with black mane and royal blue eyes."

"Hold up!" the mare at the desk suddenly butted in.  "You said beige coat, black mane and tail, and royal blue eyes?"

"I did, ma'am."

"That matches the description of a pony we have in custody for an attempted rape earlier this evening."

"You have that pony?  Let us see him!"

"Officer Paisley," the mare called out to the nearby police pony, "would you please take these guards to the holding cells?"

Paisley nodded.  "Please follow me," she said to the guards as she headed towards a flight of stairs, the two stallions following behind.

After descending to a landing and down another set of stairs, the ponies all approached a door with a barred window set in the center.  Fetching a key from inside her uniform, Paisley unlocked it and opened the door.

"His cell should be the second on the right," she told the guards as they passed her inside.  The guards walked past the first cell and looked inside.

Sitting on the bunk was the stallion in question, another pony in a suit writing something down on a legal pad.

"That's him," the second guard told the first while pointing at the stallion.

Having heard the new voices, the two ponies in the cell looked up at the guards.  Upon making eye contact, the stallion cursed to himself and looked away.

The other pony, his apparent legal counsel, put a hoof to his face and sighed.  "Is there something else you forgot to mention?" he asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.

The senior guard laughed.  "We'll be back, " he told the lawyer as he and the junior guard leave the holding cells.






Back in the interview room...






"So you survive the Canterlot attack, get blasted all the way back to Dodge Junction, go back to your hive, decide that you don't like living there anymore, come back to Equestria and play extreme hide-and-seek with the royal guard, catch a whiff of the Crystal Empire's love and brave a blizzard that very nearly kills you to end up being discovered and saving the life of a dragon?"

The police pony's summary of the story is fairly accurate, despite leaving out some details.

Thorax shrugged his shoulders in response.  "I would've preferred not freezing when I headed to the Crystal Empire, but I was more than halfway when that blizzard sprung up.  If I had tried to turn back, who knows when they would've found me."

"So you save the dragon, he convinces a few ponies to vouch for you as a good changeling, then somehow convince Princess Cadance to allow you to stay in the empire for a few months, get attacked by ponies pretending to be changelings, recover and then have the princess give you a probationary citizenship."

"You do realize how much of a big fish story this sounds, right?"

"It only gets crazier." Thorax said with a head shake.

"Oh, I can only imagine, but humor me.  What happened after Princess Cadance makes you a probationary citizen?"

"After her announcing my being permitted to stay in the Crystal Empire, I keep myself inside the palace because I'm afraid of ponies trying attacking me again, but one of the ponies I was actually able to make friends with convinces me to leave the palace and intermingle with the ponies in an open-air market at the base of the castle."

"Well, the attitudes are still negative, and I get harassed verbally by a crowd of ponies and it gets to be too much.  I buzz my wings and fly as far as they can take me in a short burst.  I land on a street and collect myself.  I go to turn back, and I hear a pony in distress."

"A pony in distress?"

"Yeah, a filly.  She was-"

Thorax is cut off as a tapping on the window beside the police pony and himself is heard.

"We'll pick this back up once I found out what they want," the pony says as he stands up and heads to the door.

Thorax sits back in the chair and wonders what will happen when he returns to the Crystal Empire.  He sits there and ponders the idea for a few minutes before the door opens again.

Expecting to see the police pony interviewer again, Thorax surprised when he sees a stallion and mare enter the room and stand before him.

Without any kind of tip-off, the two ponies begin talking.

"You saw the filly being accosted by three stallions, and you tried to intervene to help her," the stallion said aloud to Thorax.

"They knocked you out and tried to frame you for foalnapping and assault," the mare added next.

"It went as far as putting you on trial, and even went all the way to the jury in the trial deliberating and returning a verdict,"

"But before they could announce it, a pony from here in Van Hoover called with evidence that exonerated you in all counts,"

"Two ponies, actually, and detectives here in this very precinct."

Thorax looked between the two as they revealed information that nopony outside the Crystal Empire was supposed to know, except for two ponies living in Van Hoover that knew because of the position they held and the vital information they were relaying to the empire.  As realization hits him, Thorax's looks of confusion change to those of awe and reverence.

Both stallion and mare smile at Thorax and 

"Thorax, my name is Old Bill."

"And I'm Peach Fuzz."

"And we're the two ponies responsible for proving your innocence, Thorax."
> Part IV, Chapter 15 - Van Hoover, Part 4 - Gratitude and Leniency
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



The Kindness chapters will continue after this one.







Thorax could only stare in awe of the two ponies in front of him.

It's them, he thought to himself.  It's really them.

He never heard their names, but there were enough clues for him to be sure.  Firstly was the fact that all four princesses had conferred on the matter of Thorax's residency in the Crystal Empire, and it was agreed that, until such a time as his safety could be guaranteed and a panic wouldn't occur, all information regarding him was to be kept confidential.  To that extent, the only ponies who would know about him would be those who were involved with him in one way or another, and the two detectives disclosing the information about Sharpclaw and his underlings had earned them the privilege of being in the loop, so to speak.

Besides this, Thorax was only ever told that the two ponies that provided the information were a stallion and mare detective duo from Van Hoover, for which these two fit the description to a tee.

"I suppose it's a lot to take in," Old Bill said to Thorax, who could only nod his agreement.

Before anypony could say anything else, there was a knock at the door, which then opened to reveal the detective from before, followed by a royal guard.

As soon as Thorax saw the armor, he deflated in the chair he was sitting in.  Guess that's it for my visit to Equestria, he thought as he watched the guard.

"May we help you?" Peach asked the guard.

The guard produced some papers and gave them to the detective.  "I was given orders to take this changeling from your custody so that he could be taken before the commander."

Peach read over the papers and then showed them to Old Bill, who read them and nodded to her.  "We shouldn't be too much longer," he told the guard.  "If you could just wait outside while we finish?"

"Of course," the guard replied and moved to step out of the room, but stopped and looked back at the two.  "Almost forgot.  I'll need a copy of the incident report from tonight concerning the attempted rape.  It's relevant to the changeling situation after all."

"We'll get you a copy after we're done here," Peach told the guard, who nodded and finally stepped out.  Alone again, Thorax took a breath as he looked at both Peach and Bill.

"I wasn't sure if I would ever get to meet you two," he began, "and there's so much that I want to say to the both of you, but the first thing I want to say is... thank you.  Thank you for getting that information to the Crystal Empire and helping me with my case.  Because of both of you, I was exonnerated and set free.  Now, I get the chance to live with the ponies of the Crystal Empire and have a life I've always wanted.  So... Thank you."

Peach, upon hearing his words, actually got a little choked up, a hoof wiping a few small tears from her eyes.  Old Bill stood there with a simple smile on his muzzle.

"You're welcome, Thorax," he said.  "Truth be told, we weren't completely sure it was you until we heard you telling the interrogator about your time in the Crystal Empire."

"Really?"

Bill nodded.  "After we relayed that info, we were told to stay on the phone line.  When they picked up again, it was Princess Cadance speaking to us.  She thanked us for relaying the information, and then explained to us the sensitive nature of the situation and asked us to keep things a secret for the time being."

"That doesn't bother you?" Thorax asked, sounding a little concerned.

"Nope," Peach chimed in with a smile.  "We just do what we're told, and sometimes, we're told not to go blabbing."

Bill nodded his agreement.  "We'll have to talk to the interrogator and get the info he gathered from you and mark it classified.  That'll get sent to the princesses in Canterlot and kept on file with the royal guard."

Thorax tensed up upon hearing that the information would be sent to the princesses, as well as the royal guard itself.  He wondered with a bit of dread whether or not Shining Armor would see it.

Being as perceptive as a detective is supposed to be, Old Bill took notice of Thorax's reaction.  "I take it that us letting Canterlot know would be a bit of trouble for you?"

Thorax sighed.  "It stokes an inferno that's already there.  I was brought in because I went after a stallion that attacked my friend.  Seeing that... I got mad, like... seeing red kind of mad.  I had him pinned down under my hooves and was snarling at him."

"As much as I hate to admit it, but if Fluttershy had not been there to stop me, I probably would've drained him comatose."

Old Bill and Peach both winced a bit upon hearing that.

"Well," Peach said after a moment, "that stallion probably deserved it."

"That still would've been wrong of me.  When I left the hive, I did so because I didn't want to take love like that.  I wanted to have friends that shared it with me, and I wanted to share it back with them.  If I had done it, it would've went against all that I believe in."

"I must say, your conviction is admirable," Old Bill commended Thorax.  "Even when your reactions could be understood, if not justified, you still strive to be the bigger pony."

Thorax didn't say anything, but did smile.  After a moment, however, it changed to a frown.  "That's nice to hear, even if it doesn't do me much good."

Peach cocked her head at him.  "What do you mean?"

"Well," Thorax began but paused as he thought how to explain it, "my being here in Equestria was under some... special conditions.  One of those was that I didn't reveal myself to anypony while here, but... you can see that I've failed to follow that rule pretty majorly."

Both Peach and Bill look at each other before giving Thorax nervous smiles.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Thorax," Peach said to him.

"What do you mean?"

"Both Peach and I know the guard commander here in Van Hoover," Bill cut in.  "You could say we've worked closely together for some time, even.  He generally doesn't make a decision until he has all the facts, and he usually considers how the involved parties were feeling at the time an incident occurred."

Peach nodded.  "I can't say for absolute certain, but I don't believe the commander would toss you in their prison or send you packing back to wherever."

Thorax looked a bit hopeful.  "You mean, he might let me stay?"

Old Bill shrugged.  "Nothing's set in stone yet.  He might feel obligated to do so, but he might also give you a pass, considering there was a pony you consider a friend involved and they were attacked in such a despicable way."

"Yeah," Thorax agreed, a tiny bit of an edge to his voice, "despicable for sure."

"Regardless of what happens," Peach finished, "both Bill and I would be interested in hearing from you.  If the princesses reveal you to the rest of Equestria, then I get to brag that I have a changeling pen pal!"

"Speaking of pens," Bill said with a smug grin, "we have to put ours through a workout before we head home."

Upon hearing that, Peach deflated.  "You just had to bring the mood down, didn't you?"

Old Bill chuckled.  "We can't keep him and the guard commander waiting."  He then turned to Thorax.  "Tell Gold that Bill and Peach send their regards."

Thorax gives a smile, though a bit forced.  "I will."

Bill and Peach smile as they leave the interrogation room.  A second after they leave, the guard pokes his head in.

"You'll want to disguise yourself as Crystal Hoof for the trip over to the captain's office."

Thorax did as requested, and with no more words exchanged, the two left the police station.





The guard and Thorax arrive at the train station about an hour later.  Heading down the hallways where the guard commander's office is located, the pony in front of Thorax knocks on the office door three times.

"Yes?" the commander called out.

"I'm back from the police station," the guard answered.  "I have the changeling with me, along with some paperwork regarding why he was arrested earlier tonight."

There was silence for a few moments, before the commander replied, "Bring him in."

Opening the door, the guard let Thorax enter first, coming in behind and closing the door.

Thorax looked over at the commander's desk and saw the pony sitting down behind it, his eyes scanning the changeling's disguised form.

"An incident report, sir," the guard said as he presented paperwork, "and an explanation from the guard who failed to report earlier."

Commander Imperial Gold took the papers from the stallion and nodded.  "Please wait outside.  I can handle things from here."

The guard nodded and left the office.  Thorax stood uncomfortably in place while the captain glanced over the papers.

"Have a seat," he told Thorax, "and please remain quiet as I read over these reports."

"O-Okay," Thorax replied, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

Imperial Gold didn't acknowledge Thorax after that.  His eyes scanned the paper in his hooves, his mind processing the information and making conclusions.

At least, that's what Thorax hoped he was doing.

After ten minutes of reading, where he switched between the incident report and the guard's explanation for his tardiness, Imperial Gold looked at Thorax with a stern, yet gentle expression.

"I have a few questions," he said to Thorax, "and I want honest answers."

"Um, alright?" Thorax replied, uncertainty clear in his voice.

"First, this report says that an undisguised changeling was found with the bearer for the Element of Kindness, Miss Fluttershy, and a stallion that was encased in a cocoon-like object.  This was you, correct?"

Thorax sunk down in the chair.  They're gonna send me back to the empire and Princess Cadance, he thought to himself.

"Y-Yeah, that was me."

Imperial Gold just nodded.  "Well, according to this incident report, the stallion you cocooned attempted to rape Miss Fluttershy, and she claimed that you came to her defense.  Is that correct?"

"Yes, it is."

Imperial said nothing further.  He read over the incident report again, and then re-read the explanation from the guard.  Once he finished, he looked at Thorax again.

"From what I gather, when all this happened and you revealed yourself, it was during the attack on Miss Fluttershy, correct?"

"Yes, it was."

Imperial smiled.  "I imagine seeing her being attacked upset you, didn't it?"

"I don't think upset would be the right word."

"Would righteously furious be more apt?"

"I'd say that's probably in the neighborhood or being more appropriate."

"You consider Miss Fluttershy to be a friend, don't you?"

Thorax sighed.  "I'd like her to be, but..."

"But?"

"I can still sense it.  Their apprehension.  I can tell when they're still nervous around me and just putting on a brave face."

Imperial's expression didn't change, but Thorax could feel his mood shift to something resembling pity.

"That's a shame.  You do seem like a nice stallion.  Maybe one day we'll be able to put all of this nonsense behind us and come to accept you for who you are."

Thorax wasn't quite sure what to make of that remark, so he didn't say anything.  Imperial looked at the incident report again as he spoke.

"To the letter of the law, or at least the rules that you were supposed to follow, you did reveal yourself as a changeling to a pony here in Equestria."

He pauses as he looks up with a small smile.  "However, given the circumstances you found yourself in, I would say that you were not in your right mind when that happened."

Putting the incident report down, Imperial Gold looked at Thorax was a gentle smile.

"I'm gonna let this go with just a warning."

Thorax blinked.  "Really?"

Imperial nodded.  "Yes, really.  If you find yourself in a situation like that again, just do all you can to get some help.  It's honestly the safer option; if you hadn't caught him off guard by revealing you were a changeling, that stallion probably would've walloped you worse than those ponies in the Crystal Empire did."

"Y-You know about that?" Thorax asked nervously.

"We do," the commander confirmed.  "Each guard post commander was given a brief dossier on you, detailing your life since you were given that..."

Imperial pauses to check a folder set off to the side, Thorax's name on the tag sticking out.

"...probationary asylum," he finished.

Thorax felt a little dumb after the stallion had said it.  Of course the princesses would pass along all the information that they had on him.

"So, to finish," Imperial continued, "you're just getting a warning about revealing yourself to other ponies.  Try not to let it happen again."

Thorax blinked.  "So I don't have to leave Equestria?"

Gold shook his head.  "You don't even have to leave Van Hoover.  Just watch your temper and when and where you drop that disguise here in the city."

Thorax couldn't believe it.  He was allowed to stay, even after the incident earlier this evening.

"It's also probably a good idea for you to go check on Miss Fluttershy," Gold added.  "She's probably going to want some company after what happened to her tonight."

Thorax nodded at that, but then realized an important detail.

"I forgot to ask where her hotel is."

"That's okay," Gold said as he pulled a piece of paper from his desk.  "She's in the same hotel as Miss Tree Hugger."

Thorax looked at the commander in shock.  "How did you know that?"

Gold chuckled.  "We're well aware of the herbal remedies of Miss Tree Hugger.  We keep tabs on her just in case somepony bites off more than they can chew."

"We also keep tabs on any friends of hers in case she overindulges.  There was actually an incident a few years ago where we had to return her to Miss Fluttershy after she had too many of her brownies and thought some ornamental flowers were a 'giant candy bush'."

Thorax didn't quite know what the stallion had meant, but he was more concerned about the mare he'd spent a nice day with.

"I would appreciate it if one of the guards could take me to her, i-if it isn't much trouble."

"Not a problem at all.  In fact, I think one of the night guards is about to come off duty.  I could make a request for him to take you to her before he goes home for the night."

"I would appreciate that greatly."

Imperial made a gesture to Thorax, and the two left the office in search of the guard.  As they looked in the break room, Thorax kept wondering about Fluttershy, and hoping that she was okay.
> Part IV, Chapter 16 - Kindness, Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax and his guard escort had originally went back to the police station to find Fluttershy, but a police pony there had told them that the pegasus didn't want to stay there anymore, and requested that her friend Treehugger take her back to her hotel room.  After getting the hotel's address and giving a quick "Thanks", the pony and changeling began making their way to Fluttershy's hotel.

The journey there was quiet, as Thorax was deep in thought and the guard had nothing he could really add to any conversation, besides drumming up some small talk.  In his mind, Thorax kept replaying the encountered and wondering to himself if he could've done anything differently.  Ultimately, he reached the conclusion that, besides not losing his disguise in front of the stallion and trying to suck him dry of any love he had, his only course of action would've been to start shouting as loudly as he could.

That said, he felt guilty that he hadn't done so at that moment; the stallion might've been scared off, or the police would've heard it and made haste to get there and catch him in the act.

Something caught Thorax's attention from the corner of his eye.  Looking up, he saw an alleyway with a pair of yellow crystals set up on the walls of the two buildings on either side of the alley.  The changeling immediately recognized these as being boundary markers that the guard would use to keep ponies out of a crime scene.

At that moment, Thorax realized where they were: the same alleyway where Fluttershy was attacked.

Losing himself to anger for a brief moment, he let out a hiss from deep within his throat.

"Sir?!" the guard addressed him, alarm clear in his voice.

Thorax looked over at him, seeing him tensed up and with his spear at the ready.  Remembering himself, Thorax calmed down and gave the guard an apologetic look.

"Sorry.  It's just... this is the alley where my friend was attacked."

The guard stood there for a few more moments, before he lowered his spear.  He gave Thorax a sympathetic look.

"I can't blame you for that.  If I had a friend that was attacked like that...  Well, that stallion would be a gelding."

The remark caused the changeling to flinch a tad, but he gave a nod in agreement.  "I certainly hope the ponies who put him on trial give him a punishment befitting the crime."

"With the statement your friend gave, and the rape kit she agreed to having done on her, it should be pretty open and shut case.  That said, her attacker could try to arrange some kind of plea deal for a lighter sentence."

"Lighter sentence?!" Thorax repeated, sounding incredulous.

"It happens sometimes," the guard answered back.  "Judges can show leniency to the accused if they confess to their wrongdoing.  Of course, they could also decide to throw the book at a pony if they consider the crime to be abhorrent enough, which they might very well do in this case."

"I should hope so," Thorax replied in agitation.  "My friend was attacked.  She deserves every bit of justice due to her."

"I wholeheartedly agree.  Now, how about we get to your friend's hotel so you can check on her?"

"That's a good idea," Thorax answered, calming down from the irritation the guard's words caused him.  They continued on with nothing further said between them.





The duo reached Fluttershy's hotel a little bit later.  Walking into the front lobby, they then approached the check-in desk, where a mare was sitting and reading a book.

"Excuse me?" Thorax got her attention.

The mare looked up and put on another one of those smiles that wasn't actually happy.  "May I help you?"

"I'm friends with a guest here in the hotel, and I was wondering if I could check in on them."

"Do you know their room number?"

"I do.  It's 414."

"And their name?"

"Fluttershy."

"Hold on for one moment, please."

The mare went over to a book and opened it.  After browsing a few pages, she looked back up at Thorax.

"I'll have to contact the room to see if they're willing to see you.  May I have your name so I can tell them who is here?"

"Tell her it's Crystal Hoof."

The mare gave a nod as she walked over to a speaker on the wall and pushed a button underneath it.

"Hello, this is the front desk calling.  Is Miss Fluttershy available for a visitor named Crystal Hoof?"

There speaker is silent for a few moments, then it clicked as a pony spoke into it.

"One second please."

Thorax arched a brow upon hearing the voice.  It was familiar, but he couldn't place it.

Maybe one of the police ponies stayed with her to make sure she was okay?, Thorax pondered.

The speaker clicked again.  "The vibes are good.  He can come up."

"Thank you," the front desk mare answered as she turned back to Thorax.  "You can head on up now."

"Thank you," Thorax answered back, heading over to the elevator.  He was more calm now that he knew what pony was with Fluttershy.

"Are you gonna be okay now?" the guard escorting Thorax asked.  "I'd like to head home now if there's no other issues."

"I should be fine.  You can go home and get some rest."

The guard gave Thorax and nod and left the hotel.  The changeling turned around and boarded the elevator, finding the button for the fourth floor and riding up the brief trip.  Once the doors opened, he stepped out and began looking for the room number.

"Four sixteen, four fifteen...  four fourteen!  Here we go."

Thorax went to knock on the door, but noticed it was slightly ajar.

"Hello?" he called out.

"Come on in," Treehuggger answered back, coming into view and pushing the door open.  Thorax stepped inside and looked around the room.

There were a pair of beds, as well as a dresser, and two doors.  One door was open and revealed a bathroom, with a toilet and sink with a large mirror across one wall.  Next to the dresser were a set of saddlebags, as well as a rolling case that was zipped shut.

A click behind him told Thorax that the door to the room was shut.

"You can drop the charade, my insectoid friend,"

Thorax froze in place, his blood running cold and a look of shock on his face as he turned and looked back at the mare.

How did she find out?! he thought in a panic.

The look on his face must've showed, because Treehugger began to chuckle.

"All is good, my friend," the green pony assured him.  "Shy gave me the down low on your whole incognito thing."

The eyes of Thorax's disguise shrunk to pin holes.  Fluttershy sold me out?

"Sorry, Thorax," came the soft voice of the mare in question, stepping out of the bathroom and into the main room.  She looked worried, but he could see, and sense, some of that dissipating as she saw him standing in the room.  "I called you by your real name on accident, and when I tried to walk it back, I ended up putting my hoof in my mouth and then spilling the beans."

"You don't have to worry, though.  Treehugger can keep a secret.  In fact, I've confided a lot of things to her over the years that I haven't even told the other girls back in Ponyville."

"I thought you were all close?" Thorax questioned.

"We are, but sometimes there's things that they don't quite understand, but Treehugger gets, so I'll confide those sorts of things to her.  It's nothing personal against the others; I just feel better telling some things to other ponies than them."

Thorax could understand that.  There were things he felt comfortable talking to Princess Cadance about, and things he felt that he could only confide to Brass.

"Anyways," she continued, "Treehugger doesn't have a problem with you being the real you.  The door to the room is locked and it's just the three of us, so you can drop your disguise."

Thorax spent a good minute looking back and forth between the two mares, uncertainty weighing on his mind.  After casting a glance at Fluttershy and seeing a smile, albeit strained, that was meant to encourage him, he let out a sigh and dropped his disguise.

"Neato!" Treehugger cried out, quickly approaching him and examining his form.  "What's with all the cup holders though?"

"Tr-Treehugger!"

"Come on, Shy.  I'm just..."

Treehugger's words died in her throat as she suddenly moved past Thorax and over to Fluttershy.

"What's..."

Thorax's own words died in his throat as he heard whimpering from the pegasus.  She was sitting on the floor, her hooves and wings curled around her in a defensive gesture, and her eyes were screwed shut, tears starting to roll down her face as she continued whimpering.

"It's okay, Shy," Treehugger said as she sat down beside her.  "I'm right beside you.  Can you look at me?"

Fluttershy continued whimpering for a few more moments, but eventually she turned her head up a little and fought to get one eye partway open.

"Please, look at me."

The pegasus fought against her urge to go back to trying to hide herself and eventually gave Treehugger her full attention.

"Good," the green pony said with a smile.  "Now, Fluttershy, please tell me five things you can see."

She looked around the room for a few moments before answering.

"I... I see... I see... that dresser."

"That's good," Treehugger said, attempting to encourage the pegasus further.  "What else?"

"Um... the bathroom door... umm... the bed, the other bed, and you."

"Great, Shy.  Now, what four things can you hear?"

"Your breathing," Fluttershy answered, her voice less shaky and her elevated breathing beginning to slow down.  "I hear the ponies next door talking.  I hear the air conditioner for the room running, and I hear those bulbs that make the humming sound in the bathroom."

"Terrific.  Now, what three things can you touch?"

"My feathers, the carpet, and the bed sheets."

"What two things do you smell?"

"The air freshener and the smoke from your incense burner."

"Great.  Now, open your mouth for me, please?"

Fluttershy did as asked, opening her mouth and letting her tongue hang out slightly.  Treehugger reached over and grabbed a small square thing wrapped in foil and unwrapped it.  The smell told Thorax it was some kind of chocolate.  Treehugger then placed the chocolate on Fluttershy's tongue.

"Tell me what you taste?"

Fluttershy closed her mouth and moved the candy around on her tongue.  After a moment, she said, "I taste... chocolate, and mint."

"Good," Treehugger told her.  "How do you feel now?"

Fluttershy's breathing had returned to normal.  She returned to a sitting position and her wings had unwrapped and returned to their places on her back.

"I feel better," she answered.  "I'm calmer."

"Good.  Now, remember, you're here with friends.  I'm your friend.  Thorax is your friend.  We want you to feel safe.  Do you feel safe with us?"

Fluttershy looked at Treehugger, then to Thorax, and then nodded.

"Good," Treehugger said with a smile, before letting it drop into a more serious expression.

"Now, Shy, you know I don't like to be a buzzkill, but after what happened to you earlier tonight, I think it might be for the best if you went back to Ponyville and spent time with your friends."

"B-But I'll miss the adoption clinic!" she cried out in protest.  "It's my favorite part of the expo!"

Treehugger frowned.  "Fluttershy, you just went through some really heavy stuff tonight.  Those bags are gonna stick around for a while.  You need your friends to help you unload all of them."

"Aren't you my friends?" she countered.

"We are, but you also need to get away from here.  I know you love the adoption clinic, but there'll be an adoption clinic at the next expo.  You can see all of the animals there then."

"But I don't want to leave!" Fluttershy replied defiantly.  "I won't let that AWFUL stallion ruin this trip for me!"

Treehugger was taken aback by her friend's sudden outburst.  She turned to Thorax pleadingly.

"I might not know much about you bugs, but you can all feel out our emotions, right?"

Thorax nodded in confirmation.

"Then please back me up on this.  You gotta be able to feel what's going on inside her, right?"

Thorax frowned.  He could feel what was inside Fluttershy, and it wasn't any good.  There was a great amount of fear, anger, sadness and uncertainty.  Even worse were the feelings that ponies associated with depression.  If he had to take a guess, Fluttershy must've had the belief that she had done something to provoke the stallion who attacked her, as wrong as that thought was.

However, underneath all of those feelings was a strong sense of resolve, as though the pegasus had no intention of letting the incident hold her back or keep her down.  It was a good sign, but at this point, it was a water soaker trying to fight a forest fire.

"I have to agree with Treehugger, Fluttershy," he told the pegasus honestly.  "You got a lot of things going on inside you, and being away from here and with the girls back in Ponyville would do you good."

"That said, I don't think Treehugger or myself should try and force you to go.  Just understand that we're only telling you this because we think that's the best thing for you."

Treehugger gave Thorax an appreciative smile, but the changeling could tell she wasn't completely pleased by what he had said.  Fluttershy had sat there and thought over what the two had just told her before looking them both in the eyes.

"I want to stay for the adoption clinic, but I'll leave right after it's over."

Treehugger closed her eyes and nodded, unhappy that her friend was still going to be staying in the city, but happy to know that she would be leaving tomorrow sometime.

"I suppose that's good enough," the green earth pony conceded.  "Now, how about we all catch some winks?  Lots of excitement and everypony has gotta be worn out by it."

Thorax gave a nod and started to walk out.

"Where are you going my buggy friend?"

Thorax looked back at Treehugger.  "I'm heading back to my hotel for the night."

Treehugger gave him a stern look.  "Nope.  Those chakrahs don't align.  You're staying here with me and Shy."

Thorax looked at her in shock.  "You want me to stay here with you two?  There's only two beds."

The pony frowned and closed the distance so that their conversation was as private as possible.

"You felt her bad vibes, bug boy.  She needs the two of us since she doesn't have any of her other friends here.  You're gonna sit there and tell me that you're gonna bail on her when she needs you the most?"

Thorax was thrown for a loop.  The intensity of this mare caught him off guard.  Before, she seemed very chill and easy-going.  Now, she had a fire burning inside her, and his actions seemed to make her want to roast him on a spit over top of it.

"Well, no," Thorax conceded, "but there's some stuff I need back at my hotel for the morning, so I gotta go back and get that."

A knocking at the door caused Thorax to stiffen and grow fearful.  After a quick utterance of "Excuse me", he rushed into the bathroom and shut the door, quickly throwing on his Crystal Hoof disguise and heading back out.

Treehugger had answered the door, where a royal guard was standing.  "Is Crystal Hoof still present?"

The green mare looked at the guard in confusion.  "He might be."

"What's going on?" Thorax asked as he walked over to the door.

Upon seeing him, the guard hoofed him a paper.  "The commander wished for me to bring all of your personal effects, and this note to you."

"My personal effects?" Thorax parroted in confusion.

The guard nodded, stepping aside to reveal all of Thorax's luggage and personal items.  Looking confused, Thorax elected to look down at the note, hoping an answer was contained in its writing.

Thorax, a.k.a Crystal Hoof,

After some questioning of Miss Fluttershy earlier this evening, the VHPF deduced who you were and immediately located the hotel you were staying in and confiscated your personal belongings.  With the matter that occurred earlier this evening resolved, I made the request for them to release your belongings to me, which I am now returning to you.  A portion of the bits you had was taken to settle the bill for your hotel stay.  Unfortunately, the VHPF informed them of you being a changeling, and the manager made the decision that they didn't want you staying in their hotel any further.

I apologize for what has happened, but if you so desire, I can offer you a spare bunk in the barracks here at the guard station for the night if you can't stay with your friend.  Just let the guard know and he'll escort you to the station.

Imperial Gold,
Commander, Van Hoover Guard Station

"What does it say?" Fluttershy asked.

"The hotel kicked me out when they found out about the incident and gave the police all my stuff," Thorax told her.  "I don't have a place to stay tonight now."

"Yes, you do," Treehugger retorted.  "No friend of ours goes without a roof tonight."

"May I have your answer, sir?" the guard asked, waiting for Thorax to respond.

The changeling looked at the green mare and the yellow pegasus, both with a stern and pleading expression on their respective faces.  He sighed as he looked at the guard and gave his answer.

"I guess that I'll be staying here tonight.  Please let the commander know his gesture was greatly appreciated."

"Very well," the guard replied.  "I shall let him know.  Good night, all of you."

The guard turned and left.  Thorax brought his things in and closed the door.

"Well, let's get some shut eye," Treehugger said as she headed into the bathroom.  Thorax would wait his turn, but as he did so, Fluttershy asked him a question.

"Um, Thorax?"

The changeling looked over at her.  "Yes?"

"Can I... ask you a favor?"

"Sure.  What do you want?"

"Well..."

Fluttershy trailed off, looking a bit uncomfortable, but resolving herself a moment later.

"Could you... change into my brother?"

..."What?"

"It's kind of silly," Fluttershy admitted, "but when I was a filly and my brother was just a foal, I would sometimes take him from his crib into my bedroom and hold him while I was asleep.  It made me feel calmer and helped keep me from having nightmares.  I think doing something like that might help me sleep better tonight."

Thorax chewed on his disguise's lip.  "I don't know, Fluttershy.  I'm not really supposed to turn into other ponies."

"Oh... okay.  I'm sorry I asked."

Fluttershy's sadness hit Thorax like a tidal wave.  He couldn't bear to feel it for more than a second.

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Thorax, you don't-"

"I'll do it," he reiterated.  "Just... please don't mention it to another pony.  It's actually one of the rules I'm supposed to follow while I'm in Equestria."

"Oh my gosh!" Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed.  "Then, please, don't.  I don't want you getting into trouble on my account."

"I want to help you, Fluttershy," he repeated, "and I'm pretty sure the commander and the princesses would understand my decision for doing this."

Fluttershy looked at Thorax with worry for a few more moments, before letting out a breath and smiling at him.  "Thank you."

"You're welcome.  Now, do you have a picture of your brother I can see?"

Fluttershy nodded and went over to her bags.  After a moment, she produced a book full of pictures: a photo album.  Flipping through, she showed him one of Fluttershy as a filly.  She was so young in the photo that she didn't even have her cutie mark yet.  Sitting beside her was a foal with a mint-green coat and blonde mane and tail.  His purple eyes were similar to Twilight's, but a shade more pink.

"That's your brother?" Thorax asked.

"Mhm," Fluttershy replied.  "He was a lazy bones for a long time, but he just finished his degree for mane-styling, so now he's gonna start his own salon somewhere, probably up in Cloudsdale so he's not far from our mom and dad."

Thorax nodded as he examined the photo, taking in as much detail as he could.  Once he was sure he had it, he triggered his magic and, in a wash of green fire, turned into the colt in the picture.

"Oh my!" Fluttershy cried out, suprised by how much Thorax had changed.  "If I hadn't seen you do it, I would've thought Zephyr was here and he'd been turned back into a foal."

"I'm glad to know that I was able to do a good job then," Thorax replied in a small, squeaky voice, which made Fluttershy chuckle.  Wanting to make the mare smile further, he then asked, "Can we go beddie bye now?"

Fluttershy had a good laugh and nodded, picking Thorax up and putting him on the bed.  She then climbed in and got into a comfortable position.  "Zeyphr" walked over and nestled into her, allowing her hooves to wrap around him.

Thorax couldn't help himself; as soon as her hooves wrapped around him, he very quickly drifted off to sleep.





It was a bit later when Thorax woke up to a pair of hooves grabbing him tightly.  The quiet whimpering that he heard behind him told him immediately that it was Fluttershy.

The mare was having a nightmare.

A sudden rush of hooves approaching him made Thorax look to see Treehugger moving behind Fluttershy to try and calm her down.

"Just relax, Shy.  Luna will come and take care of you."

Luna.  Thorax had forgotten about her, or at least, her special abilities with dreams.  He turned his head over his should and looked up to see a pillow behind him.  He then looked back down and saw he had lost his form in his sleep, likely having happened from being woken up so suddenly.

He eventually turned around to see Fluttershy with her face scrunched up in fear, her hooves grabbing him and holding him close.  The whimpering seemed to be getting worse, and her breathing was speeding up.  Thorax watched her with a fearful expression, hoping this bad dream wouldn't evolve into a night terror.

Then, as he watched the sleeping mare, a dark blue mist seemed to form over her eyes.  A few seconds later, and her quickened breathing and whimpering began to die down, her grip on him loosening.  After a moment or two, the pegasus was breathing easier, and her whimpering had ceased.  Her eyes had also unclenched, and she appeared to be resting far more comfortably.

Treehuger let out a sigh of relief.  "Just in time."

Thorax had to agree.  "I'm glad Luna was able to come to her.  Hopefully she sleeps easy the rest of the night."

Treehugger nodded in agreement.  "Night princess came with her vibes and made our Shy balanced again."

"I don't know about that, but I certainly hope that she helped."

"She did that for sure."

Treehugger let out a yawn and walked back over to the other bed.

"Ain't trying to make it weird for ya, but maybe giving her a hug will help her jive with the dreams."

Thorax wanted to protest, but he soon felt Fluttershy resume her hold on him, though much more gently.

"Well, sometimes friends need a hug," Thorax thought, rolling over in her grip and carefully bringing his hooves around her sleeping form.  The sleeping pony cooed in her sleep and grabbed a little more tightly, though nothing like the grip she had in her terrible dream.  Smiling at the sleeping mare, the changeling found his eyes getting heavy, and soon he had drifted off to sleep.
> Part IV, Chapter 17 - Kindness - Finale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax woke up the next morning to Fluttershy talking to Tree Hugger.  She told the mare about her nightmare the night before.  While the nature of the nightmare's subject matter wasn't related to the attack against Fluttershy, Tree Hugger still believed it was caused by the stress of the event.  She again implored Fluttershy to leave early with her, but the pegasus refused.

"I still want to see the adoptions at least!" she protested.  "I don't make all that many bits, but this expo is one of the few things I do every year and I don't want some mean stallion ruining it for me!"

"Shy," Tree Hugger countered, "I can't force you to leave, but I really think it'd be good for you to get back with your friends, especially after that nightmare."

Fluttershy shook her head.  "I don't want to leave yet!"

Tree Hugger let out a breath.  "Okay," she relented, "but I want you to tell me the minute you start feeling uncomfortable.  Whether you want to or not, we're gonna leave.  I don't want my friend making herself worse."

"I won't," Fluttershy declared, then went into the bathroom to prepare for the day.

"I didn't know she had such a strong will," Thorax commented, "or grip."

The changeling rubbed at his sides where Fluttershy had held him.  They were sore from being hugged so tightly during her nightmare.

"Shy's an amazing mare," Tree Hugger told Thorax.  "In the most desperate times, she can find strength inside herself that would make even the legendary Rockhoof look weak.  The problem is that she can only keep it up for so long."

Thorax nodded in understanding.  What Fluttershy had experienced the night before was something he'd never wish upon another creature, no matter how badly they wronged him.  It pretty much was on par with being drained by Queen Chrysalis; she was far more forceful in her feeding than any of the other changelings.

"We should get ready," Tree Hugger announced as she walked over to a dresser against a nearby wall.  "I'm checking out and leaving from the expo.  I'm gonna make Shy leave with me.  You can certainly tag along my new bug friend."

Thorax thought on the offer.  He definitely wanted to visit Ponyville while in Equestria, and for many reasons.  However, he still wanted to experience the other cities and towns in Equestria.

"I'll make my way to Ponyville eventually," Thorax finally responds, "but I still wanna see what's out here on the western side of Equestria.  I hope Fluttershy won't mind."

"She'll get it," Tree Hugger reassured him.  "We're all leaves in the wind, floating which way and that.  Your two leaves will touch again soon."

Thorax smiled and nodded.  He made a note to visit Hollow Shades sometime.  Of course, he'd be extra careful; there was a reason the attack on Canterlot happened during the day.

Tree Hugger proceeded to pack up her belongings.  Fluttershy came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, her coat, mane and tail all clean and combed.  She packed up her belongings as well.

"Either of you two want a helping hoof?" Thorax asked the mares.

"Sure" both replied.

Thorax returned his form to his changeling self and helped both mares pack up their things.  Before the trio left the hotel room, Thorax had one of his flasks of potion.

"What's with that stuff, dude?" Tree Hugger asked him.

"Is that Twilight's potion?" Fluttershy asks while examining the flask in his magic.

"It is," Thorax replied.  "I packed this in my saddlebags as a just in case thing.  She sent some of this for me to use on my journey, so I wouldn't have to... well, you know."

"Feed off of everypony's good vibes?" Tree Hugger posited.

"Pretty much," Thorax answered.

"Far out," Tree Hugger says as she eyes the vial.  "Can I try a bit?"

"Umm..."

Thorax isn't quite sure how to answer.

"I don't think Twilight tested this out on ponies, so I don't have any idea what this would do.  I'm not sure it's a good idea to try this.  I wouldn't want you to get poisoned by accident or something."

Tree Hugger thinks about what Thorax has told her and nods in agreement.  "Smart idea," she says to him, "and not good to do designers unless the pony that made 'em is there if it goes bad."

Thorax looked a little confused about the last comment from Tree Hugger but decided to let it slide.  The mare was weird, and trying to understand that weirdness likely invited more weirdness, so he elected to apply Twilight's advice about Pinkie Pie to the green mare and just accept it for what it was.

Looking up at a clock, Thorax frowned.  "If we really are going back to the pet expo, I think we should probably get going soon."

"I'm ready," Fluttershy said to them, a pair of saddle bags on her back and a small case rolling behind her.

Tree Hugger was ready a few minutes later, and after redisguising as Crystal Hoof, the trio left the hotel and headed for the expo hall.





The expo hall where the seminars were held was now cleared of chairs, though the stage was still set up.  In place of the chairs were sectioned off areas where various fenced off areas, kennels and cages were on display, and in each one were various kinds of animals.  One fenced off area had puppies in it, all of them jumping on top of one another and yipping in play.  Another section had some kittens in it, with about half of the group play-fighting with one another while the other half were asleep on the various pillows and inside some of the boxes scattered around.

Some of the cages on the floor had various lizards, including one large yellow snake that a sign said was called a python.

Tree Hugger, Fluttershy and Thorax walked to and fro, stopping at each enclosure so Fluttershy could fawn over the small creatures.  Thorax could feel the joy the pegasus was feeling, and the feelings that he would have expected her to feel were either pushed aside for the moment, or even more bizzarely, were not there at all anymore.

"The pets here seem to be doing wonders for Fluttershy," Thorax told Tree Hugger.

Tree Hugger nodded.  "She's still gonna need her friends, but the animals are a nice distraction.  It'll give us something to talk about when we head back to Ponyville."

Thorax frowned upon hearing that.  He felt like he should go with her, but he also wanted to see more of Equestria before he went to Ponyville.  He was conflicted between wanting to be supportive and wanting to pursue his own desires.

In truth, he was afraid that going to Ponyville now would mean ending his trip sooner than he would've liked.

"Something buggin' ya, dude?" Tree Hugger asked.

"I'm still deciding if I should go with you two to Ponyville or not," Thorax replied.  "I know I'm gonna go there anyway, but I wanted to see some more of Equestria before I did.  The whole situation with Fluttershy has me questioning whether I should or not."

Tree Hugger smiled.  "Ask her."

Thorax looked at her questioningly.  "What do you mean 'ask her'?"

"Ask 'Shy if she wants you to come with her," Tree Hugger explains.  "Fluttershy will tell you if she wants you to come with her or if she wants you to go enjoy Equestria like you wanted to originally."

"Really?" Thorax responded in amazement.  "She won't be offended?"

Tree Hugger shook her head.  "Just tell her you want to see more of Equestria, but if she wants you to, you'll gladly go with her back to Ponyville.  Besides, you need to go there to get more of that juice you're drinking, right?"

The mare had a point.  Asking Fluttershy if she wanted him to come along was the right thing to do, and Thorax was gonna need to go there and get more of the love potion if he was to sustain himself without feeding naturally.

"Alright," he decided.  "I'll ask her, but not right now.  Let's let her enjoy seeing these animals first.  Even if I end up not going with you guys, I'll still want to catch a train there to my next spot."

"Where would that be?" Tree asked him.

"I'm thinking San Fransiscolt," Thorax replies, "but I might actually go to Seaddle first.  Haven't decided one hundred percent for sure though, and not just because of the Fluttershy situation."

Tree Hugger nodded.  "I'd do Seaddle first.  Ponies there are max jumpin' right now.  Gonna have a time and half."

Thorax thought over the point Tree Hugger had made.  One of the trains he was riding on had pamphlets talking about Equestrian cities and one mentioned the new trend in music in Seaddle, claiming that it 'cleaned up the city with a filthy good sound'.  He wasn't sure what that meant, but the ponies in flannel shirts on the one for Seaddle seemed very passionate about their music, as many were shown playing instruments.

"I'll definitely consider it," Thorax said to her as he returned to watching Fluttershy interacting with the animals in the expo hall.  He knew without even guessing that, if given the opportunity, the mare would adopt every single animal here that could be adopted and take them home with her.





Once the trio had seen all of the pets available for adoption, Fluttershy finally agreed to heading back to Ponyville.  The group took a wide arcing path back to Thorax's hotel so that they could avoid the alleyway where Fluttershy was attacked.  Once back there, Thorax went up and gathered his belongings, telling the two mares to simply wait for him until he came back down.  After checking out and turning in his room key, the ponies and disguised changeling headed to the train station to purchase their tickets.

"Did you enjoy the expo Tree Hugger?" Fluttershy asked the mare.

"It was groovy," Tree Hugger answered.  "Those ponies were mad chill at my seminar.  So many chakras falling into place."

Thorax looked at the mare as she once again had a zoned out look on her face.  If he had to guess, she had another half pan of her brownies.  Looking at Fluttershy, she looked much more relaxed than when she was walking back to his hotel, which led Thorax to wonder if Tree Hugger had offered her a brownie to help her if she was feeling like she did yesterday.

"I always enjoy the pet adoption," Fluttershy commented, "but it always makes me feel bad when not all the pets get adopted."  Her mood soured a bit upon thinking of the animals that didn't get adopted that day.

"It'll work out for them, 'Shy" Tree Hugger told the pegasus.  "Just because they don't get adopted today don't mean it won't ever happen for them."

Fluttershy looked at Tree Hugger and smiled.  "You're right," she replied.  "Just because things didn't go well this weekend doesn't mean they won't ever go well again."

Thorax looked at Fluttershy after she said that.  A part of him wondered if she was talking about the animals or herself.  Her feelings were positive, but the walk around the alley where her attack took place had brought back some of those fearful feelings.  Hopefully she would be able to move past them and be able to feel safe again.

After another few minutes of walking, the trio finally reached the train station.  Walking inside, Tree Hugger turned to speak to Fluttershy.

"I'm gonna get our tickets," she told Shy.  "Why don't you stay here with Thorax while I grab them?"

Fluttershy smiled and nodded.  "Sure."

"Alright" Tree Hugger replied, then looked at Thorax, giving him a subtle nod before turning and going to the ticket booth.  The changeling took the hint and looked towards Fluttershy.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you if you wanted me to come with you and Tree Hugger to Ponyville."

"Didn't you want to see more of Equestria before coming to Ponyville?" she asked him in return.  "I overheard you and Tree Hugger talking at the hotel and I thought I heard you say you wanted to see the western part of Equestria."

"In all honesty, I do," Thorax admitted, "but with what happened, I'm wondering if I shouldn't come along with you."

Fluttershy put a hoof on his withers and gave him a smile.  "You don't have to worry about me, Thorax.  I know what happened to me was... unfortunate, to say the least, but I've been through worse.  There's been plenty of times doing things with my friends where I could've died, and even during the attack on Canterlot there was a time or two when I thought the changelings were going to win and do to me what that stallion tried to do, or worse."

Thorax winced a bit, remembering that day in a bit more detail.  Seeing her surrounded by his hivemates and some of them getting ready to pin the mares down to drain them brought back bad feelings for him.  He wished now that he had done more to help Fluttershy and her friends.  Perhaps if he did, he would have made friends with them that day.

"Don't feel bad, Thorax," Fluttershy told him.  "I know you're thinking about that day and what all happened.  You were scared like I was, and sometimes when we get scared, our bodies just freeze up and it keeps us from doing what we need to do to protect ourselves."

"I still feel like I should've done more back then," Thorax responded, his head hung low.

"Please don't be sad," Fluttershy said to him.  "I don't like seeing my friends like that."

Thorax's head shot up at her in surprise.  "F-Friend?" he stuttered out.

Fluttershy nodded.  "Yes, friend.  You are my friend, Thorax."

Thorax looked at her a bit guilty.  "I'm happy to hear you say that, but I don't want you feeling obliged to be my friend-"

Thorax is cut off by Fluttershy placing her hoof to his mouth.

"Thorax, that stallion was going to do a very, very bad thing to me, but you stepped in and stopped him before he could do it, and I am forever grateful to you for that, but that's not why I want to be your friend."

Thorax looked at her with wide eyes.  The mare removed her hoof and continued speaking.

"Despite what happened, I had a good weekend here at the expo.  In all honesty, I think spending the time I did with you was the most fun I've ever had being with a stallion by myself.  I got to share something that I love with another pony, even if that pony isn't completely a pony.  Plus, getting to learn a little bit more about you and changelings in general was fun.  I kinda have an idea of what Twilight feels when she is learning new things for the first time."

Thorax looked at her with a smile.  "It makes me happy to hear that, but I still feel like you're just doing this because of what I did to stop that stallion."

"I'll be honest.  What you did to stop that stallion did have an affect on me wanting to have you as a friend, but not in the way you think."

Thorax looked at her with confusion before she explained what she means.

"Friends are ponies that will do whatever they can to help each other, keep each other safe, and help each other grow.  You protected me from that stallion, made sure he couldn't hurt another pony, and made sure I was safe."

Thorax looked at her guiltily.  "I scared you when I dropped my disguise.  Even worse, I almost fed on that stallion."

"But you didn't," Fluttershy interjected.  "You came back to your senses and stopped yourself."

"Thanks to you."

Fluttershy smiled.  "Friends help each other, Thorax, and I do think of us as friends.  I care about your wellbeing as much as you care about mine.  I'm not a very outgoing pony, but I understand how important friends are."

"Thorax, you are my friend because I've seen the kind of pony you are.  And it's because you are that kind of pony that I want to be your friend.  Will you be mine?"

Thorax looked at her with tears in his eyes and nodded.  The two then embraced in a hug, and Thorax felt a wave of love so strong washing over him that his body just naturally drew it in.  The feeling made him smile wider, knowing that what he was feeling from the mare was for him and him alone.  Nopony would feel love from Fluttershy like what he was feeling from her now.

FLASH!



Thorax and Fluttershy both blink as they looked to the source of the bright light.  Tree Hugger had returned from the booth with the tickets for Fluttershy and herself, and upon seeing the two in such a way, decided to capture the moment with a photograph.

Fluttershy and Thorax both backed away, slight blushes on their muzzles.  Tree Hugger laughed.

"Your chakras fit well together," she commented as she gave Fluttershy her ticket.

"How long were you standing there?" Fluttershy asked.

"Long enough to take in the scene and get a picture."

Thorax just blinked at the mare.  He must've been so overwhelmed by Fluttershy's feelings that he didn't pick up on the mare approaching them.

"We got about twenty minutes before our train leaves," Tree Hugger told Fluttershy, "so how do you wanna pass the time?"

Fluttershy puts a hoof to her chin in thought before her grumbling stomach gives its own suggestion.  Sheepishly, she replies "We could get a bite to eat."

"Far out," Tree Hugger smiles as she pulled out a bag with several brownies in it.

"Not those!" Fluttershy said a little more loudly than she had intended.

Tree Hugger frowned a little before she offers the bag to Thorax.  "Wanna try one, bug boy?"

Thorax went wide eyed and looked around nervously.  Of all the times for Tree Hugger to let on that she knew what he really was, the middle of a train station that had the headquarters for the royal guard post for the city iniside it was the last place he really wanted that tidbit revealed.

"No, thank you," he told her as politely as his fear-addled mind would allow him.

"Nopony ever wants one," she said under her breath as she took one from the bag and scarffed it down greedily.  Fluttershy decided to ignore Tree Hugger for the moment and faced Thorax again.

"I think you should go see Equestria and come to Ponyville when you're ready to," she told him.  "Like I said, I've been through worse before, and I'll get past what happened here this weekend.  I'll just make sure not to travel by myself next time."

Thorax looked at her for a moment with surprise, then smiled.  "I had fun at the expo too.  If you can't find anypony and I'm not busy, I wouldn't mind going with you again."

Fluttershy smiled.  "I'd like that."





Fluttershy and Tree Hugger boarded their train about a half hour later; the engineers needed to do a quick servicing of the engine, so the train was delayed for a little bit.  Thorax came to the platform with them, wishing both mares safe travels and giving each of them a hug.

As he hugged Fluttershy again, he felt another wave of love wash over him, and a question began to form in his mind.  As he pulled away from the hug, he looked over Fluttershy, he took in her appearance and tried to notice if there was anything different, whether she looked weak of if she was trying to avoid looking at lights like one would do if they had a headache.

The mare looked no worse for wear, but she also noticed Thorax's concerned look.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him.

Thorax shook his head and smiled at her.  "I'm still a bit worried about you.  Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"

Fluttershy nodded.  "I will.  I have Tree Hugger and my friends, and I have you now too.  With all that support, what happened here will become nothing more than just an unpleasant memory that I won't dwell on too much.  I love this expo, and I'm not about to let a stallion trying to hurt me ruin that."

Thorax noticed the conviction in her eyes and smiled.  "I'll make sure to look for you in Ponyville when I get there."

"My cottage is just outside of town.  It's far enough away from the Everfree Forest that most of the really bad creatures won't bother me, but it's far enough from Ponyville that my animal friends are still comfortable.  I can't wait for you to see it."

"I can't either.  I'm gonna miss you."

"It's goodbye for now, not forever."

Thorax smiled again.  "It's sure gonna feel like forever."

Fluttershy smiled and the two shared another hug, where another wave of love overcame him.  At this rate, he wouldn't need to use any of the love potion for a whole week.

Eventually, the two separated and Fluttershy boarded her train.  Thorax stood on the platform and watched it go.  The pegasus and Tree Hugger both looked out the window and waved to him as the train left the platform and made its way towards Ponyville and Fluttershy's home.

Thorax waved until they were out of sight.  He smiled as he thought of Fluttershy getting home and greeting all of her friends, then winced a little as he realized she would have to tell them about what happened here in Van Hoover.

She would also tell them about the time she had spent with him and what he did to protect her from that stallion, which he hoped would go a ways to convincing the rest of her friends there to give him a chance at being friends with him.

Thorax decided it was time to get his ticket, and after a quick visit to Imperial Gold, who gave him a word of warning about Seaddle's guard commander, he boarded his train and left for his next adventure.
> Part IV, Chapter 18 - Seaddle, Part 1 - You're Never Fully Dressed Without One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorax sat quietly in the private car of the train as it made its way onward to the city of Seaddle.  He locked the door and made sure the shades on both the window and door were drawn before dispelling his disguise, taking a break from maintaining his required masquerade.  He let out a sigh as he wondered how much longer it would be before he was accepted as a peaceful creature by Equestria as a whole and could go around without having to wear a disguise.

He shook the thought from his head as he tried to calm down.  In truth, his mind was a bit of a jumble, thinking about all of the things he experienced in Van Hoover.

He met back up with Fluttershy, spent most of the day with her, found her later being assaulted, was arrested but then exonerated, met the two ponies that found evidence that exonerated him at his trial in the Crystal Empire a little while back, was released from custody, spent the night in Fluttershy's hotel room, went with her to a pet expo the next day, and finally said goodbye to her as she went back to Ponyville.

Oh, and he got to meet her friend Treehugger, who was keen on offering him brownies for one reason or another.

Strange mare, that one.

With Van Hoover becoming more distant, Thorax could feel himself getting a bit drowsy.  Upon making sure the door was locked and the shades would stay in place, he settled down onto a bunk and took a nap in his natural form.





A little bit later, the conductor knocked on the door and woke Thorax up, letting him know they were getting closer to Seaddle.  Thanking him through the door, the changeling gave himself a quick clean up and assumed his Crystal Hoof disguise again.  With his disguise once again in place, Thorax opened the shade on his window and looked out.

Upon doing so, his jaw dropped.

Seaddle had quite a skyline, with the buildings making an abstract mountain range, with light reflecting off the windows of the high towers.

And nestled among those towers was one of the most iconic buildings in the city: the Alicorn Spire.

The building, which was one of the tallest structures in the city, was built in honor of Princess Celestia the last time Seaddle hosted the Summer Sun Celebration, which was nearly a full decade ago.  It had a somewhat unusual shape to it, as the majority of the structure resembled the Crystal Palace, with the exception of a large, saucer-like platform at the top.  Inside it was some kind of attraction, but Thorax couldn't remember what it was specifically.

Pulling himself away from the window, Thorax gathered his belongings and exited the sleeping car, moving through a dining car and into the main seating section.  The conductor announced their arrival, and the station could be seen coming into view.  The platform looked similar to Van Hoover's with the exception of a slightly different architectural style.  With the train coming to a stop, and after a wait of several passengers disembarking before he made his move, Thorax stepped off the train and examined the platform more closely.

There were columns holding up a roof, and on some of those columns were posters that were advertising a music concert, likely being held at one of the venues in the city.  One of the posters caught his interest:

OPAL JELLY

TONIGHT AT THE SEADDLE SOCIETY OF SOUND

OPENING ACT - ETERNAL TRANQUILITY

He didn't know who either of those groups were, nor had he ever heard of the venue before, but he supposed that he could find out with his time here.

As sudden as he saw the poster, he saw something else that caught his attention.  Standing on the platform not too far away from the train was a guard holding a sign with the name Crystal Hoof written on it.  Biting the proverbial bullet, he approached and engaged the guard.

"I'm Crystal Hoof."

The guard turned to look him up and down, then glared.  "Where are your papers?"

"Right," Thorax answered as he went into his saddlebags and produced all his documents and gave them to the guard.  The guard took them and looked them over, then gave them back.

"Follow me," he said as he turned and marched towards a doorway that led into the main station.  Falling into step behind the guard, Thorax took a look around at some of the other features of the platform, which was mainly the ticket booth and a schedule board that seemed to work off some kind of magic.

Once inside, the guard went down a hallway, passing several doors until he came to one that could only be the guard commander's office.  He stopped before the door and knocked.

"What is it?!" a voice called out from inside, sounding irritated.

"Crystal Hoof is here, sir," the guard replied.

There was silence for a moment before the inside voice spoke again.  "Let him in."

The guard opened the door and gestured for Thorax to enter.  Obeying, Thorax walked in to find another office similar to the other guard commanders, but this one may have been more barren than even the least decorated one he'd seen so far.

"So you're the nice changeling?"

Thorax's attention was drawn straight to the pony sitting behind the desk.  It was an older stallion, with white coat and blue mane trimmed short.  He had on the blue commander's uniform, complete with epilets and bars.

What was most unique about him, though, were his eyes.  One of them was a bright blue color, and the other was completely pink with a white pupil.  Apparently at some point, he'd sustained an eye injury.

"Well, where's your papers?" the commander asked curtly, making Thorax jump a bit.  Recovering quickly, he went into his bags and produced the requested documents, setting them down on the desk, where he saw a name plate that read "IRON OCEAN".

Iron Ocean took the papers and briefly looked them over, then back up at Thorax.  "Drop the look."

Confused for a moment, Thorax obeyed and shed his disguise.  Once the flames of his magic dissipated, he was quickly met with the commander's face in his, causing him to jump back.

"It wasn't you," he said as he looked Thorax in the eye.

"I'm sorry?"

"You see my eye?" the commander asked as he indicated the damaged one.  "That was from one of your cohorts during the wedding.  I've been itching to get my revenge whenever I caught up with them again.  Make some truth of the old saying An eye for an eye?".

Thorax became quite nervous once he got a feel of the commander's emotions.  This pony did not like him at all, and not in the 'he'll come around once he gets to know me better' kind of way.  His hatred was much like Captain Shining Armor, and possibly even hotter, and less controlled, than the Prince-Consort of the Crystal Empire.

"As it stands," the commander continued,"you aren't the one I have a score to settle with, so I'll have to be patient regarding that matter.  That said, understand this: I do not like you one bit!"

"You are allowed here only because the princesses have allowed it and set up those rules.  While you are in my city, you will obey the ones I set forth.  No disguises besides that crystal pony they verified is wholly unique to you, no feeding on any ponies, no trying to break from the tails I will have following you, and if you run into another changeling, you'd better report it to us immediately.  If we catch you breaking any of those, then we'll have you in a Canterlot jail cell before your eyes stop rolling around in your head.  Do you understand me?"

"I do."

"You'd better," the commander finished, grabbing his stamp and placing his mark on the letter and passport.  Once finished, he tossed all the papers at Thorax's hooves.

"Change back and leave my office at once."

"Y-Yes sir," Thorax complied, becoming Crystal Hoof and grabbing his papers before quickly leaving.

After closing the door, Thorax turned and came face to face with another pony.

"GAH!"

This one, a brown earth pony stallion, was dressed in a black suit jacket with white shirt and black tie.  He was wearing sunglasses that concealed his eyes.

"You're to follow me, Crystal Hoof."

"H-How do you know my name?"

"Save your questions for later.  Follow me."

The pony turned and started walking, giving Thorax no time to ask any further questions and only two choices: comply and see what would happen, or don't and see what would happen.

After walking a short distance, the pony stopped and looked back at Thorax, a quick head jerk indicating that he was to follow.  Trying to steady himself as best he could, the changeling followed along, figuring that he could make an escape if need be if things went bad.

Once Thorax had caught up, the stallion moved onward again, going past the doors and out of the hallway and out into the station.  Going across the floor, the two head to a door that is marked "Freight Handlers Only".  The stallion opened the door and gestured for Thorax to enter.

At this point, a few alarm bells were going off in Thorax's head.  First was the rather unusual behavior of the pony leading him here.  Second, nopony normally dressed in clothes, much less ones like this, unless they were working as security for a noble or some other pony of some significance.  The last one was the one that bothered Thorax the most; he could feel no emotions from this pony whatsoever.

Before he could even think to turn and run, he was pulled into the room by magic.  Letting out a yelp, Thorax was deposited onto the floor on his rump, the pony escorting him entering and closing the door behind him.

"Thank you, Agent Mocha."

Hearing a feminine voice, Thorax looked up to be greeted by a half dozen ponies, each being either a stallion or mare, and two of each kind of pony tribe, save for the nocturnal thestrals.

"Sorry for giving you the scare," one of the mares said as she stepped forward, "but we can't take any chances when dealing with possible enemies of Equestria."

"Umm..."

Thorax was unsure of what to say.  The mare put a hoof to her face.

"Where are my manners?  We haven't introduced ourselves yet.  I'm Agent Honey,and  these ponies you see before you are all members of the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria."

Thorax's disguise nearly changed to be completely white.  It was S.M.I.L.E.!  These ponies were Equestria's best when it came to threats against the nation.  Twilight and her friends were counted among their ranks, even though none of them actually knew they were members.  The stories infiltrators told the queen had earned them the nickname "Bloodhounds", as their techniques exposed infiltrators and led to more captures than any time before or after the Canterlot invasion.

"To begin, I would like to assure you that you are not in trouble in any way," Agent Honey told him.

"Umm... Okay?" Thorax answered uncertainly.

"As I said before, the changelings are still technically an enemy to Equestria, and even though you are considered a peaceful defector, we still have to exercise caution.  Basically, as I said before, sorry for giving you a fright."

"Uh... Apology accepted?"

The mare chuckled and offered a hoof.  "Let me help you up."

Taking the offered hoof, Thorax was brought back to his hooves.  Looking over each of the ponies, he realized that he couldn't feel any of their emotions, with the exception of one mare who his eyes settled on for too long, causing her to give a somewhat nervous reaction to.

"Now, for the reason you're here," Agent Honey continued.  "We have been deployed here on what was expected to be your path of travel through Equestria.  The mission we were assigned was to field test new equipment for operatives.  What we have is experimental, and specifically tailored for encounters with changelings."

Thorax looked rather nervous upon hearing her say that it was made for use against changelings, but Agent Honey was quick to quell his fears.

"I assure you, it's not meant to cause harm.  Agents aren't typically assigned items such as that, unless the possibility of being captured is such a high level, it becomes a probability.  The device we're testing serves a different function."

Thorax didn't calm down much.  For all he knew, the mare could've been feeding him lines; he couldn't sense her emotions to tell if she was lying or not.

...Wait.  Was that what they were testing?  A device to hide emotions from changelings?

"I can't disclose what the intended function of the device is," Agent Honey told him, "but I am to ask you to tell us what you can sense from each one of the agents here.  It's a unique opportunity for us, as you're the first non-hostile changeling we've ever dealt with.  So please, tell me what you can feel from everypony present."

Thorax looked over the ponies in the room, trying to pick up on the emotions of the room.  Again, he could feel none from anypony but the mare he noticed earlier.

"Well, I'm gonna guess that the device your testing is meant to hide your emotions from changelings, because I can't feel anything from most of you.  In fact, that mare over there is the only one I can feel anything from."

Thorax gestured to the mare with a hoof.  Agent Honey smiled and wrote down what he told her on a parchment attached to a clipboard.  Once finished, she took the parchment off, rolled it up and put a seal on it.  After a moment, the seal glowed and the paper burst into flames, with the wisp of smoke turning a green color and flying off towards the east, and likely towards Canterlot.

"We appreciate your cooperation," Honey said to Thorax, then addressed the stallion who escorted Thorax here.  "Agent Mocha."

The stallion stepped forward.

"Please escort Crystal Hoof from the station.  Make sure the guard meant to tail him understands why we detained him and that he is not to say anything to the guard commander here."

"What if the guard questions us?" Mocha asked.

"Your credentials should be sufficient," Honey answered before addressing Thorax again.  "We have a hotel room set up for you.  Central to the town so you can get to most attractions in a reasonable amount of time.  Enjoy your stay in Seaddle."

"O... kay," Thorax answered, still unsure of what to make of the exchange he just took part in.  None of them appeared to show any relief or apprehension at his presence, save the sole mare whose feelings he could sense; hearing that he was leaving had brought her apparent relief.

"Please follow me," Agent Mocha told Thorax as he opened the door again, leading the changeling out of the freight room, then the train station and into the city.

"Wow," was all Thorax could say as he looked up at the skyscrapers towering above him.

"Yeah, the buildings here are just about the biggest on this side of Equestria," Mocha commented as Thorax craned his neck to try and see the tops of the buildings.  "Let's keep moving.  If I remember right, the check in time is almost up."

"Right," Thorax replied, moving to join up with the pony.

They walked in silence for a moment before Thorax decided to try striking up a conversation.

"So, you guys didn't seem too bothered by me back there in that room."

"Well, you were by yourself," Mocha replied,"and there were half a dozen of us, and two unicorns there as well.  Nopony was in any really serious danger."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that."

Mocha turned and looked straight into Thorax's eyes.  "The experimental field equipment was not the only countermeasure we had back there.  The risk to us was as minimal as possible.  Besides that, we have it on very good authority that, in most situations, you would choose to be a non-combatant."

Thorax decided to keep quiet for the rest of the trip; best not to aggravate a pony that could cause problems for him in more ways than one.  A few more minutes walking brought the two to a hotel set up on a street corner.

"Not the nicest place in the city, but not a bank breaker either," Mocha commented as Thorax looked over the hotel.

"I've slept in worse places," Thorax replied.

"The guard tailing you will be set up in a building somewhere here on the corner.  I'll be keeping an eye on them as well."

"Spying on royal guards?"

"We have it on good authority that the commander and some of his direct subordinates have captured changelings and have treated them rather roughly before turning them over to the guards in Canterlot."

"Treating them roughly?"

"Let me put it this way: I never thought I'd see the day where a changeling saw the castle guards in Canterlot and pleaded not to be sent back to a place."

Thorax went wide-eyed upon hearing that.  He would definitely have to watch his step here in Seaddle.

"Enjoy your stay."

Thorax turned to ask Mocha what he meant, but the stallion was gone faster than he could blink.  Even a quick look around didn't reveal where he had disappeared to.

Wow, those guys are good, Thorax thought as he went into the hotel to check in.