Thorax continued sneaking around in Vix's form, keeping to the alleyways to avoid attention. He didn't really need to: the locals all seemed to be too worried about something else to pay a snowy female fox any mind. There also weren't any guards around, or at least not any that were on duty and suited up.

Now that he was in their midst, he could see the individual details of these ponies' emotional states. While of course all unique, a pattern emerged: a core of wild fear was being suppressed by a hefty mantle of dejection. Whatever it was that they were afraid of, they'd taking it as a foregone conclusion.

Even the pony nymphs he walked past were like that. Well, not the freshly hatched ones, but the ones who had seen at least a dozen seasons were all feeling just like the adults.

Normally, this would be unsettling. Normally, he'd see if he could figure out a bit more. But he had a job to do. If it took searching the entire other half of the city like he did this one over the last few hours, so be it.

They had to be there, after all.

... He didn't know what to do if they weren't.

Another hour or so later, he finally noticed a positive emotion. It's faint and a bit distant, but it would be a welcome reprieve from the cloying negativity. While it was only a small chance of being one of the foxes, he'd take any chances he could get his fangs on.

The disguised changeling prowled towards the source, stealthily avoiding the attention of the locals. A few were also heading the same direction he was, and soon, more joined in. Normally this would make sneaking around harder, but Thorax found he had to watch where those ponies were going, because they certainly weren't.

Successfully avoiding getting stepped on, he managed to find a perch where he could get a good view in an out-of-the-way corner. While he couldn't recognize the alicorn or unicorn that stood out in the center of the crowd, their entourage were another thing: Royal Guards from Canterlot with their signature golden armor along with the concession of a scarf due to the weather. They were just so creepy with how they looked and acted all the same, as if they were puppets to some greater mind.

Shaking his head to to rid himself of those disturbing thoughts, he focused on what the stallion was saying: "Citizens of the Crystal Empire, we are here to provide aid against King Sombra's evil machinations!"

There was some muttering in the crowd. While it was difficult to make out anything specific, the general sentiment was, "Why would it matter? The King will return, and any resistance will be punished harshly."

"Sombra is not invincible. In fact, he only cursed this city to vanish because he was on his last leg from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defeating him in battle too many times. If we stand together and face him, he'll finally be defeated for good and you can live the rest of your lives free from him!"

The changeling could feel hope start to ripple through the crowd, but it wasn't enough to overcome the despair quite yet.

The unicorn looked around and inaudibly sighed, then asked, "Can anypony point is to the local government so we can coordinate the defence plans?"

The crowd silently looked amongst each other with a bit of confusion. This was quickly mirrored by the newcomer ponies, who apparently didn't expect a lack of real response. Eventually, an aged voice said, "Oh, I guess I must step up, then."

The crowds parted to let him through, and Thorax was able to see him as he approached the center. He was an older stallion, several wrinkles on his face, though his body had not yet shriveled from time. His coat was a light blue, his mane and tail were a light reddish hue, though if he squinted, he could make out various thin streaks of both far more colorful and gray hair. Oddly, the large beard he had was a brilliant orange, having avoided any graying.

At his arrival, he bowed down and said, "Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor, I am Fading Script, the librarian of the castle's private library."

The royal pair with oddly familiar names shared a glance before the alicorn asked, "So, are you the ranking member of the government here?"

"Your Majesty, I'm the only member of the government still in employment."

"What? What happened to all the rest of them?"

"Well," he shuffled his hooves slightly, "His Fearsomeness was quite enraged with the progress of the war, and any of the staff who would bother him would be masked and sent to battle. I was the only one left once his Awesomeness left to oversee the fighting himself days ago."

Another glance was shared between royals before the prince spoke up, "Well, a city is too much for one pony to handle, so we should form a council and-"

"With all due respect, Prince, are you daft? A council will just bicker the time away while threats could march in, take what they want, and leave before they could order the guard to mobilize. What we need is strong ruler, iron in her will and loving in her care, like a mother leads her husband and children."

The newcomers (Thorax included) raised an eyebrow at that. The resulting lull in conversation was broken by Cadance. "Okay... why not have one of the local nobles become monarch?"

"I cannot remember any events that occurred before his Darkness took power, and his first act was to strip them of all their privileges. I do not know who, if any of us in the crowd, have noble blood." He looked to the crowd and asked, "Might any of you remember a grand heritage, or anypony that has one?"

Every pony that the changeling could see shook their heads to the negative. It seemed that the pony princess came to the same conclusion, as she asked the castle librarian, "Well, as the sole member of the government, you should be able to act as regent until-"

"No, never. Any stallion who manages to take power will by his baser instincts pull as much of it as possible to himself, fearing that the mare would use any smidgen of leftover influence to retake her rightful position as leader. I would surely do the same if given the reins, so I must refuse."

Thorax could easily sense the confusion radiating from the royals and their guards, though some of the latter had something else that he couldn't quite figure out. The prince asked, "Why would you say something like that? Aren't you a stallion, too?"

He scoffed. "Of course. It means that I am fully aware of my place and failings as a member of the fairer sex, and help to ensure that an event like the ascension of his Terribleness would never again occur. A land not ruled by a strong and righteous mare is doomed to fall to either to irrelevance, cruelty, or both."

Thorax was finally able identify the hidden emotion that the entire entourage was feeling: anger. He wasn't too surprised, as the other nymphs in his class had reacted similarly when the teacher taught them how the other species of the world looked down upon the changelings. It instead made him feel little sad when he learned that, and a bit uncertain what to think when the teacher added that as the superior species, changelings would one day take their rightful place through hard work, great strength, and enlightened leadership.

Returning to the present, the princess not only felt the anger, but also seemed aware that the others were feeling it too, so to end the conversation with the source, she proclaimed, with a bit of venom in her voice, "Well, as I am likely the mare with the most political experience in this city, I shall act as regent until the present situation has been resolved and a more permanent government has been set up."

Appeased, Fading Script walked back to his previous position in the crowd, the guards trying to burn holes in his mane with their stares all the while. The princess had a hoof to her face while regret started welling up, and the prince had a leg over her withers to comfort her.

At that point, something brought a strange chill up Thorax's spine. It was very, very familiar to him, especially as it came with a very weak yearning to have it for himself. He looked in the sky where it seemed to come from, and saw a tornado made of the blackest clouds stretch towards the top of the local castle.

"That must be Sombra!" The prince had noticed the funnel cloud as well, and cast a massive pink shield... identical to the one that covered Canterlot before the invasion. Was he Queen Chrysalis's target in her plans for infiltration?

The forming tornado hit the top of the shield and bounced back up. It bent its end back in a way that was more reminiscent of arm movements than air flows, sharpened its tip, and punctured its way through the shield, causing it to shatter into harmless glitter.

The princess then stepped up and shot a wide beam of what felt like raw love contained by magic, and was so tempting that Thorax couldn't help but lick his furry lips. The attack did the trick, successfully repelling the dark funnel cloud back into the far more normal looking cloud cover. Then, a mass of black mist fell out and landed a distance beyond the outskirts of the city, and began approaching again.

"Shining!" she yelled, "I need your help with a shield!" The prince quickly placed the tip of his horn near hers, and together cast a spell that created another dome over the city, this time infused with some love energy and looking very much like the wave of energy he saw that catapulted him all the way here. It not only stopped whatever dark thing that was outside and resisted any attempts at puncturing through it, it also kept the magically harsh weather out and gradually warmed the city, too. Although, it flickered a bit when the princess weakened her magic output, so she quickly pushed back to full.

It probably wasn't possible for him to pass through, either, so now he was stuck in a city being run by the two ponies who managed to defeat the entire changeling army on their own and likely had a personal vendetta to his kind as well as the innate bias against them. At least he had as much time as he could possibly want to search the city multiple times, and could maybe sneak some food from the shield.

Author's Note

The librarian's political views are based on the actual views found in most medieval European courts, just gender-flipped to match Equestria's presumably matriarchal bent. It did take a little bit of morphing to fit in properly, but that was the ideology of the times. It's also plausible for an individual to hold bigoted views against themselves; for a reference, search what Victoria I had said about feminists. And that was less than than two hundred years ago, not the thousand plus that the Empire was dragged from.

Honestly, I feel a little dirty after writing historically accurate arguments for sexism. Ugh.

Oh, and in ye olden times, awesome was used in a similar way to fearsome (as in inspiring the kind of awe used in shock and awe), so getting called that was only a compliment If you wanted to inspire terror in others.