The Rock Queen

Chapter 2: A Strange Discovery

“Surely you mean a ring with a crystal on it?” Maud asked, thinking the Changeling made a mistake in his flustered state.

“No, my lady. I mean an actual crystal shaped like a ring,” Kevin corrected. “Follow me, and I’ll show you." Kevin led Thorax and Maud out of the room they were in, taking them outside in the direction of the deposit. Thorax and Maud spent the next 90 minutes walking towards the deposit. As they did, they noticed that various Changeling workers close to the site had stopped working, some were murmuring to each other, others were heading in the same direction, just to see what all the fuss was about. Of course, all of them promptly paid their respects to King Thorax when they saw him. By the time they finally reached the opening to the newly discovered cavern, Kevin did his best to explain the situation further. “The ground suddenly caved in when we drove a stake for one of the water tower’s legs into it. Aldus fell in, his left wing is badly damaged, he hit the ground pretty hard…” Thorax and Maud look at Kevin, Thorax has a noticeable expression of concern. “Oh, he’s fine otherwise, but he didn’t have enough time to get ready for flight. We flew in to help him, and when we got him to his hooves, the sunlight glistening into the cavern revealed the gemstones, and… uh… well… that… thing.”

Maud and Thorax laid their eyes upon the crystal that caused such a stir, it was quite unlike any kind of gemstone that Maud was familiar with... in fact, just by looking at it, Maud could tell that it wasn’t a gemstone or crystal or any kind of rock at all, but something else entirely. “This is... I’m not sure what this is. I know rocks, and this is definitely not a rock or a gem.”

“So, you’re not sure what it is either?” Kevin asked, surprised by Maud’s confusion.

“So, we don’t even know if this item is safe or not ?” Thorax asked as he looked over the ring, it was embedded directly into a pair of yellow-green crystals surrounding it, the artifact resembled a large ring, too big to be worn on any equine leg, yet it was also too small to be worn as a necklace. It was emerald green, and had a strange pattern upon it, consisting of numerous silver lines; some parallel from one another, others perpendicular, segmented by various circles. The pattern almost seemed like the map of a great labyrinth, yet there were no discernible entrances or exits to this supposed labyrinth. “It seems to be dormant. I can’t detect any magic emanating from it. But from what Twilight has told me, that doesn’t mean that it’s not imbued with great magic, the fact that we have never seen something like this before, means that it’s best not to touch it for now.” Thorax shifted his focus to Kevin. “I want this site cordoned off. Grab any gemstones and crystals that are not attached to...” Thorax points his hoof at the object, “That.” He then turns around and addresses Maud. “I think we’ll need the opinion of an expert in magical artifacts since this seems to clearly be one. Do you think you could send a letter to Twilight about this?”

“That would be best,” Maud agreed still staring at the ring. “I may be an expert on rocks...but if this is a magical artifact, then her knowledge would be much better suited for it.”

“Anyway,” Thorax looked off to the side. “Sorry to cut our conversation short, but it appears that I need to take care of all this.” With that, Maud began to return to the hive, but Thorax watched her as she did so. His eyes on her gradually retreating form, he sighed and turned back to survey the work being done at the site.

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As Maud walked back into the hive, and finally to her room, her thoughts revolved around the artifact. None of the Changelings recognize that thing...could it have been there before the hive was even formed? If so, who put it there? And why? Was it from a species still alive today, or one long forgotten by time? Either way, if anypony is an expert on both Magic and history, it would be Twilight.

Maud sat at her desk, dipping her writing quill into a bottle of ink as she wrote. It took her about 2 minutes to complete the letter. It reads as follows;

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I hope I’m not disturbing you, but as I am sure Starlight (and most likely Pinkie) has informed you of my new job here in the Changeling Kingdom. I’m writing you due to an unexpected discovery made only an hour before I wrote this, one of the construction teams stumbled upon an undiscovered cavern containing a large gemstone deposit, along with the purpose of this letter, a strange ring-shaped object; that is neither rock, nor gemstone, nor crystal, but appears to be something else entirely. I suspect a magical artifact. Although King Thorax couldn’t detect any magic emanating from it, the fact that nobody here has seen anything like it before, has made everyone afraid to interact with it. Since I am the furthest thing possible from an expert on Magic, we need you to come over and examine the object for yourself, and give us your opinion on what it is, what danger, if any, it might pose, and how best to deal with it. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated by both King Thorax, and myself.

Sincerely, Maud Pie.”

After signing it, Maud folded up the letter and sealed it inside an envelope. Unfortunately, because she does not have a dragon assistant like Spike, who has that pyro transmission power, she has no choice but to send a changeling courier to deliver the letter the old-fashioned way.

Maud leaves her room to search for a changeling to make such a delivery. Since the letter was extremely important, it would be best to have a royal guard deliver it, rather than a regular worker. After about 10 minutes of searching the palace, Maud encounters a familiar looking guard. Light blue body, orange eyes, holding a spear, and clad in the standard navy-blue armor, he’ll do.

“Excuse me.” Those words caught the guard’s attention, and he shifted his focus to Maud. “I hope you haven’t already made plans for what you’re going to do for the next 2 days, uh…” Maud fell silent realizing she didn’t know this familiar guard’s name.

“Dreyfus.” The guard finished her sentence, revealing his name in the process.

“Right…Anyway, Dreyfus, I need to ask a favor of you,” she held up the letter. “Could you deliver this letter to Princess Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville? Its contents are too sensitive to leave in the hooves of a regular courier.”

“A letter to the Princess of Friendship?” Dreyfus repeated. “Not a problem; I'll make sure she receives this letter immediately. But first, I’ll need to find another guard that will take over my post while I'm gone. So, if you’ll excuse me...” He bowed politely, taking the letter with him as he left.

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A few hours later, it was getting on into the early evening, and Maud was alone with her thoughts, and some half-finished paperwork, bored out of her mind. Obviously, it will take a couple of days for the letter to reach Twilight, and in the meantime, Maud would need something to do just to fend off her omnipresent boredom. Granted, it had been somewhat reduced since the moment she arrived in the Changeling Kingdom, but there was still a significant amount of boredom lingering in her mind. She had to think of something to do to pass the time, before she received a reply from Twilight, or until something new within the Changeling Kingdom came up. That’s when it struck her; aside from its architecture, and geological deposits, there was something equally important she could learn about this kingdom; the changelings themselves.And who could be a better source of information about them than their king? Maud rhetorically asked herself. A small smile graced her features, as she knew this would be a good opportunity to talk with King Thorax a little more.

Maud began to walk through the palace, looking for any sign of King Thorax, She trotted through various hallways, peeping into random rooms as she searched. She was starting to wonder if he was even inside the hive. As Maud moved over to the front balcony, she stopped to look down at the courtyard below for a moment.

“Were you looking for me?”

Maud looked off to her right, and found King Thorax sitting right beside her. “Oh, there you are,” Maud replied, having been slightly startled but didn’t show it. “Actually, Yes,” Maud explained. “I was just thinking, there’s one more thing I’d like to know, regarding the Changeling Kingdom.However, it’s not rock-related. What I’m curious about, regarding your kingdom is...the Changeling species itself.”

Thorax placed his hoof on his chin, thinking for a bit before nodding. “Perhaps we can discuss that over… uh…” He nervously rubs the back of his head, “What’s the word I’m looking for again? Diner?”

“Dinner.” Maud Corrected.

Thorax nodded, “Right, well that’s the first thing you’d learn then. Since Changelings can’t eat solid food, we never really adopted the whole… 3 meal a day system.”

“So those little fangs of yours are…”

“They’re mostly for combat and utility. Since our kingdom is almost completely barren of plants, let alone animals to feed off those plants, we evolved to not need nourishment from… conventional food sources. Because of this, Changelings cannot eat solid food like carrot dogs and Portobello Patties, but we still need liquid water to survive just like everything else.”

Maud stopped in her tracks to think, softly uttering a barely audible, “Hmm…”

“Uh… what’s wrong? Has your food supply been depleted already?”

Maud quickly turns her attention back to Thorax, “No. I just thought that since solid food is out of the question, maybe we could have soup instead?”

“Uh… sure. I’ve had some soup before, it seems to be the only conventional food that Changelings are capable of digesting. Being mostly liquid and all.”

“Have you tried rock soup yet?”

Thorax blinked in surprise at this. “What?”

Maud responds to that by rolling her eyes. “Well then, I suppose I’ll have to show you.”

After a quick walk to Maud’s chamber, she introduces Thorax to Rock soup. Thorax watched as a bowl of light green broth that had a single rock floating in the middle of it placed before him. “Uh… this doesn’t seem right.” Thorax was understandably troubled by the concoction presented to him.

Maud only asked, “What’s wrong with it? The Rock?” Thorax merely nodded in response. “If I had a Bit for every time the rock was the problem…” Maud then trailed off into explaining some details about the rock soup that seemed to go over Thorax’s head, as he was already beginning to drink the soup. Not wanting to come across as rude by refusing to eat it, he hoped that the rock might be small enough for his physiology to handle. As Maud continued talking, she turned to face Thorax, just in time to see the rock go straight into his mouth, much to her horror. “The rock is just a flavoring agent! You’re not supposed to actually eat it!”

Thorax looked at Maud in surprise, before starting to choke on the rock. Oh, now she tells me! He thought. Quickly going behind Thorax and grabbing him, Maud began to perform the Heimlich maneuver, until eventually Thorax coughed out the rock. Thorax coughed a few times. “Boy...do I feel like a dope...”

Maud let go of Thorax, before giving him some water to ease his cough. Maud felt shaken inside, seeing Thorax almost choke to death like that, but she tried to keep her emotions in check as she gave him some water. “Are you alright?”

“I really need to pay attention more often.” Thorax coughed, before accepting the water and drinking some of it.

“Well, I doubt you’re the first to actually attempt to eat the rock in rock soup, so I wouldn’t worry too much.” Maud explained, trying to relieve Thorax of his embarrassment.

“That’s reassuring, at least,” Thorax replied with a sheepish smile. “But still...me choking to death on soup? That would’ve been an embarrassment for the kingdom.” He gave a weak laugh.

Feeling that things were starting to become awkward, Maud cleared her throat, before speaking again. “Sorry to cut this short, but since it’s starting to get late, maybe we should get some sleep.”

“That would probably be best,” Thorax meekly agreed, as he was about to leave. “Good night.” He turned to leave the room, but stopped briefly after two steps to turn and face Maud. “Oh um, before I forget, perhaps we can continue talking like this again tomorrow?”

A very small hint of a smile spread across Maud’s face. “Sure.”

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The next day, after a long shift, half of it was taken up by removing the artifact from it’s resting place by shattering the crystals surrounding the artifact, putting it inside a bag, and bringing the artifact to the hive. Maud was wandering around the Changeling palace, looking for Thorax. Thankfully, Maud didn't have to search for long, as she saw Thorax leaving the throne room. “There you are.”

“Ah, Maud,” King Thorax walked over to the grey earth pony. “A pleasure to see you again. How may I help you?”

“The workers have been telling me bits and pieces about you, and how you became king, but there’s a lot of conflicting information, so I was hoping you could clear up some details.” Maud told the king.

“Where do you want me to start?” King Thorax asked, as the two of them walked back to the same balcony where they talked last night.

“Why did you leave the hive in the first place?”

“Uh…. I… don’t know… Ever since I was hatched, I always felt like an outcast. I was weary of my own peers, especially with how feral and hostile they acted towards one another. And when I first laid eyes on Chrysalis... While the other Changelings gravitated towards her...I felt nothing but fear. Then, when we all took part in the Canterlot invasion, I watched Twilight and the element bearers display the power of their friendship and teamwork, as they fought against my brethren. It was then I thought about sharing love with others, instead of stealing it like other Changelings.”

“I see…" Maud uttered, it was at this point they reached the balcony, and sat down. Maud then asked a question that allowed Thorax to continue his tale, "So what brought you to become friends with my sister and her friends?”

“It all started when I first met Spike in the Crystal Empire, in fact he was the one who gave me the name, Thorax.”

“Wait, you were never given a name before that?” There was an air of disbelief in Maud's words despite their monotone sound.

Thorax nodded before continuing, “Yes, as I explained earlier, the only thing Chrysalis ever taught us was war. She saw us as nothing more than soldiers, and because she believed that we would never amount to anything else, she didn’t even bother naming us.”

“That’s… awful.” Maud seemed to exude some sympathy, despite her lack of an expression.

Not wanting to dwell on such a sad aspect about his days as a nymph, Thorax resumed his tale. “Anyway, I fled to the Crystal Empire after deserting her army, because it generates a huge amount of love magic, and Chrysalis wouldn’t have been able to send anyone after me due to the Crystal Empire Guard’s prior experience with Changelings. Kind of a bad idea in hindsight, but at the time, I thought that a single changeling would be harder for them to detect than a squad. But, I made some mistakes that allowed rumors of my presence to spread. As for Spike, I first saw him when he was walking around the cavern that served as my hideout. Apparently he was helping the guards with their patrol, looking for me, when he suddenly fell down a crevice. It was a good thing I was there to save him, especially since, there was nobody else around to do it. Once he was safe, we introduced ourselves to one another, before I told him why I was hanging around the Crystal Empire, and how I wanted the same kind of Friendship he and his friends shared. The only problem was, I couldn’t exactly show my face… my real face, but Spike promised he’d try and smooth things over with the royals. So I just waited in the cave for a bit, while he headed back to the castle.”

“I see...what happened next?”

“Well, after Spike came back, he told me how Shining Armor refused to believe the possibility of a Changeling being good. But Spike was still willing to help me, he even snuck me into the Empire, after I disguised myself as a Crystal Pony. Unfortunately, the moment I got close to Flurry Heart, the love she was emitting made my instincts go out of control, causing my identity to be revealed. Despite Spike’s pleas and demanding a chance to explain, the guards had me locked in the dungeon.”

Maud kept silent, she felt sorry for him, but was unsure how to respond to that.

Thorax continued his explanation after Maud nods at him to keep going. “I thought it was all over for me, but Spike managed to sneak into the dungeon, he spent a little while telling me what he was going to do; how he was going to explain a theory as to how a Changeling could in fact understand friendship and actually change their ways. I asked him for clarification, but he just told me that, a normal changeling wouldn’t have done that. At the time, I didn’t know what he meant by that, and he left before I could ask him to elaborate further.”

“How long were you locked up?” Maud asked.

“I don’t know, but it was probably days. As time went on, the guards started to become more freaked out as they saw me. I think I even heard one of them whisper, Something’s not right. He should’ve starved to death by now.Obviously hearing that was enough to make me become quite worried, I was starting to wonder if they were going to keep me in that dungeon forever.... After what felt like a week, I heard footsteps rather than trotting hooves come to my cell. When I looked, I saw two pony guards approaching me, and Spike was with them. My worry turned to hope as I saw Spike with a big smile on his face. The moment they stopped near my cell, before the guard could even reach his key, Spike announced that he finally convinced Shining Armor to give me a chance.”

Thorax sighed a bit before continuing. “They let me leave the dungeon, but I had to keep the shackles on. They bound my legs from moving well enough to run, made my wings unable to fly, and fastened a cover on my horn to prevent me from using magic. I was escorted to a large chamber in the palace, the moment I stepped inside, I saw numerous ponies within a jury box, along with a stern looking Shining Armor behind a podium. It was at that moment I learned, that I was being put on trial.”

Maud felt somewhat troubled by this and asked, “For what? Being a Changeling?”

Thorax nodded and clarified. “Mostly, but its purpose was to determine whether or not I posed any kind of threat to the Crystal Empire if I were to remain inside it.”

He quickly drank some water before continuing his story, “I saw a massive chart displayed on a wall in the far side of the room, it had 4 pictures on it, 2 changelings, and 2 ponies. Arranged in a box formation, Changelings were on the left, and the ponies on the right.”

Thorax took a moment to reflect on those memories before resuming the tale, “Spike spoke with zeal as he began my defense. Here is how normal Changelings feed. He then instructed Twilight to draw a pink arrow on the chart to point from the top most pony, to the Changeling parallel to him. Spike called it a, 'one way street'… He spoke again, And this is how Thorax feeds. This time, he had Twilight draw 2 curved arrows on the bottom set subjects, one arrow pointed to the changeling, and the other pointed back to the pony. This display captivated everypony involved, one of them even called it a feedback loop, and another said it was an ‘infinite harmonic reflux,’ and others used other scientific terms that are still beyond me.”

“I’m guessing somepony objected to this explanation immediately?” Maud asked.

“Well… yes but it wasn’t Prince Shining Armor,he witnessed my encounter with Flurry Heart, so he had no grounds to object. It was actually one of the crystal pony guards, one who had been one of my detainees, who objected.” Thorax explained. “Gleaming Amethyst, I think his name was, shouted that Spike’s theory of a feedback loop was a ridiculous notion, and that my continued survival must be due to trace amounts of love magic trickling out of the Crystal Heart. However, Spike managed to counter by asking, If it’s so ridiculous, then how is it that Flurry Heart’s love was fed upon by Thorax, and yet she is perfectly fine? After the predictably loud gasps this revelation caused, Princess Cadence had Flurry Heart brought in. Spike actually had her placed right next to me. To be frank, I was just as shocked as they were, I didn’t even notice that I fed off her love at the time.”

“Let me guess...Gleaming Amethyst protested that Spike was potentially putting the royal couple’s child in danger?”

“He did, and even demanded that Spike’s words be disregarded. But thankfully, one stern look from Shining Armor was enough to silence him. and Flurry Heart wasn’t even the least bit afraid. In fact, she looked happy to see me. It took every fiber of my being not to lash out again, I stood there for what felt like hours. At one point I even shut my eyes and breathed out of my mouth just to ease the tension resonating throughout my body, only to hear an uncomfortable silence. When I opened my eyes again, I found that Flurry Heart was radiating a love aura, an aura that I was automatically absorbing without thinking about it, the aura was fortifying my strength and magical prowess, making my wings glow. Fearing that such a display would spell my doom, I tried to deactivate the Love Aura but it quickly started up again, and again, no matter how hard I tried to dispel it. I thought that I was officially done for until I heard Princess Flurry Heart laugh, the way that an infant filly would. Spike walked up to me and offered his congratulations to me… and then the guards removed the shackles.”

“So that was enough information to convince them that you weren’t a threat to them?” Maud asked.

“Yeah, it was enough to make most of them understand. The theory had been proven, the feedback loop phenomenon that started with me, and is now shared by all Changelings under my rule, allows us to feed off of someone’s love energy without harming them, the love obtained by it also lasts a lot longer than the old one way street model.” Thorax confirmed. “It was an almost surreal feeling to actually have them accept me into their community.”

Thorax took another quick drink of water before continuing. “Cadence even made me an ambassador, Shining Armor was less convinced, but obeyed the wishes of his wife. They also had me wear a red scarf to signal that it was me, and not a regular changeling. Of course at the time, a regular changeling was still considered dangerous. Even still, they kept me isolated from the general populace, I would get a few visitors, but all of them had to be arranged by appointment, most of them were curious onlookers. Some were even newspaper reporters.”

“Well, no doubt a benevolent changeling would attract a lot of attention.” Maud reasoned with a small hint of a smile.

Thorax gave off a single chuckle. “Heh, you flatter me.”

“What about your eventual transformation and status as leader of the Changelings?” Maud asked.

“Well,” Thorax began again, “That all started about 7 months ago, when Chrysalis had somehow managed to abduct not only the Royal Sisters, but also Twilight and her friends, Spike, Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, and even Princess Flurry Heart. The only ones who knew about Chrysalis’ deception were, Starlight, Trixie, Discord and myself.”

Maud’s eyes widened. “Even Pinkie got captured?” A faint tone of emotion could be heard in her voice.

“Yes, everyone. And no, I’m still not sure exactly how she did it.” Thorax clarified. “But the four of us ended up mounting a rescue mission, going straight to this very Hive. The changelings were on high alert, for obvious reasons. It also didn’t help that the layout of the hive had a constantly shifting geography, with doorways opening and closing in random locations. The whole hive was basically one big mechanical labyrinth that only a Changeling could navigate properly. Eventually Trixie became fed up with the maze, so she asked Discord why he couldn’t just use his chaos magic to turn the hive into ice cream or something.”

“How did he respond?” Maud asked.

“Well, the problem was, as he put it, such a spell from him would be too powerful. And while it would’ve turned the entire hive into ice cream, it would've also done the same with everything, and everyone inside the hive. including the hostages. Henceforth, Discord couldn’t risk using his magic until after everyone had been freed.”

Thorax finished his cup of water in one final swig before continuing. “Well, to make a long story short, it was soon down to just Starlight, and me, with Chrysalis trying to drain the love out of me. However, Starlight instructed me not to hold in the love I had... but share it with the other Changelings willingly. So I did, and as a result... I stand before you in my current form, while one by one the other Changelings started to follow suit. Just like that, her reign was over, and a kingdom-wide crisis was averted.”

It was at this point, that Thorax remembered something that gave him pause, and decided to change topics, he picked something that he’d been curious about ever since Maud first interacted with the Changelings. “Maud... Would you mind if I were to ask you a question of my own?” Maud gently shook her head, and Thorax began his question, “Why aren’t you repulsed by the insectoid appearance of myself, and my subjects? Even when we met, that never seemed to bother you.”

Maud took a bit longer than normal to reply, “Well… for one thing, I’ve never had any quarrel with bugs, but also, there were occasionally armored beetles within my family’s quarry.”

Thorax blinked a few times. “I’m...afraid I don’t follow.”

“Well, they tended to have exoskeletons that were rather thick; thick enough that they resemble walking rocks. Because of my love of rocks, I found those armored beetles quite fascinating. And to a certain extent the changelings remind me of them.”

“Wow... uh… that’s quite flattering…” Thorax gave a meek smile. Before feeling the need to ask another question, it was one that his curiosity wouldn’t let him delay any longer. “...hey, Maud?”

“Yes?” Maud looked at him.

“Mind if I ask you another more... personal question?”

“About what?”

“It’s about your...demeanor,” Thorax admitted. “I’m not trying to offend you but, you always seem to have the same monotone tone of voice whenever you speak or describe something, not to mention you tend to have a permanently neutral facial expression; basically, the exact opposite of Pinkie, heh, I even find it quite perplexing that the two of you are sisters. Anyway, I know you must get asked this a lot, but I just want to know why that is.”

Maud looked away from him for a brief moment, staring at the landscape below them, before she shifted her eyes back to him and simply answered, “I... have no idea. I’ve always been like this… I’m just bored. Pretty much constantly. No matter where I am or what’s happening around me”

Thorax, was somewhat taken aback by this. But he tried to lift Maud’s mood as she did for him. “Well, if there’s anything I can do to make this place less boring for you, just let me know, and I'll do my best to make it happen.”

Maud just blankly stared at him at first, but then she gave him that barely detectable smirk that only she can perform. “Having more talks like this would be a nice start.”

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The Next morning, Twilight Sparkle approached the courtyard of the Changeling Hive, as she searched for any sign of Maud Pie or King Thorax.

“There you are, Princess Twilight; I assume you received my message?” A female voice caught the purple Alicorn by surprise.

When Twilight turned around, she saw Maud Pie trotting her way. “Oh, it’s you Maud. Yes, I did,” she replied, holding up the letter she received. “Where is this artifact now?”

“It’s in a little side room of the hive-palace, I doubt you could call it a lab though,” Maud explained. “Follow me and I’ll show you.”

Twilight followed Maud through the palace, while on route to the room, Twilight decided to engage in some small talk with her. “So uh… What’s it like being here in the Changeling Kingdom, surveying the ore deposits, and interacting with the locals?”

“Honestly, it’s been pretty fulfilling for me.” Maud explained to the best of her ability, despite her usual disposition. “I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geology and a minor in microeconomics, so this really is the perfect job for me.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that.” Twilight replied. “It’s nice to have something positive to talk about after the recent attack.”

This caught Maud off guard, and she stopped in her tracks as a result. “Wait a minute... what attack?”

“I… I thought you knew.” Twilight stopped as well, her expression looking back at Maud, was one that conveyed, concern.

“Knew what?” Maud asked incredulously.

Twilight then turned the rest of her body around and explained. “There was an attack on a Gryphon airship called, The Axiom last night. From what I hear, the attackers were changelings, but they didn’t even try to disguise themselves. When asked, they just told the crew that. We are the True Changelings. Before stealing their shipment of water, and crippling the airship forcing it to land in a canyon.”

Maud raised an eyebrow, “How do you know that?”

“I met the captain on my way here.”

“But how could the attackers be Changelings? The ones I’ve been dealing with here haven’t been the least bit antagonistic or shifty.”

Twilight seems visibly uncomfortable by something. Refusing to answer that question, so she merely passes the bit. “I think you’d be better off asking King Thorax himself about it. All I can tell you is that those changelings who attacked The Axiom and the ones you see here… are not cut from the same cloth.” Not long after the two resumed walking, they finally reached the side room that Maud mentioned.

Maud kept quiet the whole time, knowing that Twilight had nothing more to say on the subject. She decided to take Twilight's advice and save it for Thorax.

Noticing that Maud dropped the subject, Twilight relaxed a bit, and checked behind her to see if Spike had caught up to them yet. Thankfully, it seemed that he had. “Sorry Twilight. The fact that this place doesn’t have a hotel yet made finding a place to store our luggage quite difficult.” Spike explained through somewhat ragged breaths.

“The artifact is right here.” Maud announced while opening the door, and then pointing to the table in the middle of the room.

Twilight’s eyes widened a little as she looked at the artifact before her, going in for a closer look. “And where exactly was the site of the supposed water tower the changelings were about to build when they found it?”

“On the outskirts of the north western side of the kingdom, about half a day’s trip from the Yakistan border, and about a 2 hour’s walk from the hive.” Thorax replied. Stepping into the limelight.

“Well, not to worry,” Twilight assured Thorax, while greeting him with the usual hoofshake. “I’ll have a look at this and see if I can determine it’s origin.” Twilight Sparkle examines the artifact to the best of her ability, or rather as best she could in the confines of her makeshift laboratory.

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25 minutes later… after examining the artifact with various chemicals and scanning spells…

“So, Twilight?” Spike spoke up. “What do you make of this… thing, so far?”

“Hmm…” Twilight pondered over the object “This artifact is certainly a strange one. It’s definitely not pony made, and yet Equestria is the only known extant civilization advanced enough to be capable of creating… whatever this is.” Spike, and Thorax looked at each other with confusion, before Spike asked, “So then, what is it?”

Twilight didn’t even bother to lift her gaze from the artifact when she answered him. “I don’t know.” She told her assistant as she continued to study the object in front of her. “But the thing that’s even more remarkable about it is its age.”

Maud stepped forward to ask a question of her own. “So how old are we talking here? Centuries? Millennia?”

Twilight simply shook her head in response, “No Maud. You’ve got it all wrong. This thing isn’t old. It’s young. All my tests indicate that the artifact is of recent manufacture! Only about a decade or two old at the most!”

Maud’s eyes widened to the same width they were at when she first met Thorax, and even her jaw dropped open slightly. “But that’s impossible, we found it fused directly into the crystals surrounding it. Such a process takes thousands of years at the very least.”

Twilight gave the object another look as she explained further. “It’s clearly not pony made, the centaurs would probably be capable of creating it, but while they were at first a promising lead, the artifact is far too young to have been made by them, aside from Lord Tirek, who was killed somewhat recently… in battle… by me… The Centaurs have been extinct for centuries. Besides we can rule out Tirek as this thing’s maker for other reasons, as far as anypony or anyone knows, he never came to this part of the world, and given the magic that would’ve been required to make this thing, he would’ve been more interested in absorbing the magic instead of crafting an artifact of seemingly negligible power.”

“So we can’t even determine what species made this...” Spike sounded disappointed.

“And since it’s so young, it can’t possibly be from a civilization that is long forgotten.” King Thorax’s brow furrowed in confusion as he struggled to come up with any possibilities.

Twilight gives off a frustrated sigh, “For every question that gets answered about this thing, another 10 pop up to replace it… progress report, it’s as fascinating as it is frustrating.” Twilight Concluded.

Spike walked over to Twilight’s side, “Um Twilight? Perhaps we should move on to finding out what it can do instead of what it is. We’re clearly making no progress on that front.”

Twilight nods, “Good idea Spike. I’ll begin applying some basic spells to it and see what happens. Best to start off with weaker magic.”

“Alright then, we’ll leave you to your research,” King Thorax told Twilight. “Maud and I have some...other matters we need to attend to. Don't hesitate to notify the guards if you need anything.” With that, he and Maud left Twilight to her own devices.

After they left the room, Twilight focused on the artifact in front of her, before her horn started to glow and she attempted to lift the object up with a telekinesis spell. She watched as her magical aura surrounded the object, before lifting it. She seemed to be perplexed by something as she lifted it, but Spike didn’t notice anything odd, other than Twilight seemed to lift the object at a slightly faster rate than he expected. She stood by the table with a raised eyebrow, somewhat dumbfounded at what appeared to Spike as an ordinary use of the telekinesis spell. When she finally put it back down he felt compelled to ask her, “Is something wrong Twilight?”

Twilight didn’t even look away from the artifact when she responded to Spike, “It’s odd, when I lift the artifact with my magic, it somehow feels like it’s lighter than it’s supposed to be…”

“Lighter?” Spike repeated. “You make it sound like your magic suddenly became stronger.”

Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened a little as a thought hit her. Using her telekinesis spell again, she positioned the ring on a shelf at eye level, before bowing her head a bit, she then charged her magic slightly, before letting lose a small, weak bolt of magic at the ring in front of her. However, when the weak bolt of magic passed through the ring, it came out the other side as a very strong bolt of magic; strong enough to accidentally blast a hole in the wall!

Spike just stood there with his jaw dropped, not taking his eyes off the hole that was large enough for him to fit his head through it, and deep enough to reveal the courtyard just outside. Spike looked back at Twilight to gauge her reaction.

“By Luna’s grace…” Twilight spoke with a dropped jaw in amazement at the results of the test. “The artifact is a magic amplifier! I thought they were purely theoretical!”

“Wait...you mean, nopony’s ever seen one of these in real life until now?” Spike asked. “Nopony's even been able to create one?”

“Correct; some ponies even thought that these devices were just fairy tales.” Twilight confirmed. “And yet...we have one right here, staring at us in the face. Spike...do you have any idea what an effect on the world it would have, knowing that it’s possible for these things to actually be created?! If we could reverse engineer such an object...!” Twilight’s mind was gleefully racing at the possibilities of new magical knowledge that this discovery could possibly entail.

“Hold on, amplifying magical prowess…” Spike sounded confused as he often is by Twilight’s ideas. “I thought the Elements of Harmony could already do that.”

Twilight felt the need to issue a correction. “No Spike. The Elements of Harmony harness and project the magic that’s already inside us. Plus they work best if all 6 of them are present. What makes this thing so special is that… anypony… anyone can use it. And you would only need one of them not 6.”

“So, if anypony or anyone can use this, and instead of projecting existing magic, it can make magic stronger... does that mean this thing could surpass the Elements of Harmony?”

“Yes it could,” Twilight confirmed, her facial expression suddenly turns from elation, to gloom. “And that’s what worries me… We need to keep this artifact safe. Who knows what would happen if this fell into the wrong hooves.”

As Twilight continued with her studies however, a Changeling Guard seemed to be discreetly spying on Twilight from the shadows, with a sinister smirk on his face. But he was mostly keeping an eye on the artifact, with eyes that changed color from purple, to red.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, take 2.” Maud commented on trying to introduce Thorax to Rock soup for a second time.

“I still find the rock to be kind of, off-putting especially after what happened last time.”

“Can’t say I blame you. But you have no reason to be nervous this time.” She gives Thorax a spoon. “That should help you avoid accidentally consuming the rock.”

Thorax gave a slight smile to this, it helped knowing Maud was being so thoughtful. “Thank you.” He then hesitatingly ate a spoonful of the green soup. Much to his surprise, it ended up tasting pretty good. “Hmm not bad. Not bad at all.” He ate a second spoonful. “Does it get its green color from spinach?”

Maud smiled slightly at how Thorax was able to correctly guess the soup’s coloring agent so quickly. “Actually, yes it does.”

“Well that explains the familiar taste. I’ve had Spinach before in other soups. That little plant is quite popular in the Crystal Empire. But the ones I’ve seen were almost always strictly spinach, while the ones that weren’t involved spinach mixed with other vegetables or certain types of cream. But out of all of those soups I’ve had, I’d say this is the absolute best of them.”

Maud couldn’t help but feel a sense of flattery. “Thank you.”

Suddenly, Maud remembered her conversation with Twilight from earlier. “Thorax...”

“Yes?” Thorax looked away from the soup and in her direction.

“Twilight told me about the attack on that Gryphon airship.”

Thorax sighed. “What about it?”

“She mentioned that some Changelings were behind the attack, and that they referred to themselves as The True Changelings. Any idea what that’s about?”

Thorax’s expression turned grim. “I know all too well what that’s about.”

“So, let me get this straight, after your transformation, the rest of the Changelings became exposed to the love energy that you shared, taking on their new forms, and eventually adapting to the kingdom’s new way of life under your rule, correct?” Maud prodded for clarification on an inconsistency that was now blatantly obvious.

“All of them?” Thorax seemed saddened by an unpleasant memory. “No… not quite… only those who were inside the hive at the time… and even then…”

Maud noticed his hesitation and gently pressed the matter. “Is that why there are still occasional changeling attacks?”

Thorax answered as matter-of-factly as he could, “Yes… well…It’s no secret that Queen…” Thorax quickly checked himself, “No… she’s not a queen anymore… Chrysalis is still on the loose out there. And unfortunately, she’s not alone. Some of my peers refused to join my kingdom. They were too heavily indoctrinated by her ideology. They still don’t trust Ponies or anything else. We call them Exiles, although I guess every other race would call them Changeling Exiles, and they still make the rest of us look bad.”

Noticing Thorax’s lament at the bad reputation of his species, Maud decides to comfort him, as best she could. “There’s no such thing as a perfectly good species, even ponies have had several high profile individuals who were… well… there really is no better word for it than, evil… throughout the ages, one of the worst examples has to be King Sombra.”

Thorax nodded in agreement. “Yes, Twilight told me about King Sombra and how much he was a source of fear and misery for the Crystal Empire,” Thorax acknowledged, starting to feel better about his own species.

Alas, the uplifting moment did not last long for Maud and Thorax, for their second dinner together was cut short by a messenger, bearing news most horrible.

“King Thorax! Lady Maud! We have an emergency!” A Changeling guard suddenly yelled rushing into the room, his face contorted from panic.

“Whoa! Slow down!” King Thorax tried to calm the guard down. “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”

The changeling panted and wheezed as he tried to catch his breath, before relaying the news. “The exiles... they’ve stolen the artifact!”

Author's Note

This is about to get serious. I'll post chapter 3 when I can. Blame my college classes for delaying progress. ~~And I couldn't care less about whatever is going to happen in "The Maud Couple." I'll ignore it like I did "Hard to say anythin'"~~