Author's Note

Some helpful backstory about this AU:

The events of "To Where and Back Again" go down like this: Thorax, Starlight, Discord, and Trixie take down Chrysalis, Pharynx becomes king of the Changelings, and Twilight and all her friends and everyone else is saved.

The Changeling's never get re-colored (hence the reason why Thorax still has fangs)

Dream

Thorax was in a forest. He looked around. He was lying on the floor of a tent.

He stood up and got out of the tent.

“Hello, brother.”

Thorax turned around to see Pharynx, his brother standing in front of him.

“Oh, hey Pharynx. Where am I?”

“You're in a dream.”

Thorax glanced at Pharynx. “I’m guessing your lessons with Luna went well?”

Pharynx nodded. “I’m nowhere near as good as her, however. Ideally I would have contacted you last night about the… shipment.”

“Oh.” Thorax shuffled his hooves. “Well I still have four.”

“Why is that? I’d have thought you could manage keeping five?”

So Thorax told the whole story.

Pharynx shook his head. “This changes the dynamics of this by a hundredfold.”

“Are you certain I can’t tell my other friends?” asked Thorax. “Besides Fluttershy.”

“Felics Felix is a changeling only potion. Nopony or any other creature must know about it.”

Thorax sighed. “Fine.”

Pharynx sighed. “Look, even though you and Starlight and the others defeated Chrysalis, changelings still need to keep some secrets. Like Chrysalis’ lucky potions. The one useful thing she made. If ponies found out about it, they’d probably try to replicate it.”

“And why is that a bad thing?”

“Because, Felics Felix is an extremely useful potion to have for any competitive or combative scenario. Armies become untouchable. Competitions are no longer challenging. Too valuable to let it slip into enemy hooves.”

“They aren’t our enemies!”

“Really? Because you sure seemed to make Theo and Raven and Radcliffe out to be pretty evil.”

“That’s–different.”

“No it isn’t. Now I’m afraid I’ll have to bounce. See you soon, brother.”

~~~~

“Welcome to Canterlot.”

Thorax rubbed his bleary eyes, and nearly fell back asleep. Why hadn’t he been able to sleep after his dream visit with Pharynx? He wasn’t sure. The only thing he was sure of, was that he wasn’t going to be able to tell anyone more about Felics Felix. But why was that bothering him?

Thorax finally forced his eyes open and stared into the curious eyes of the rainbow mare.

“Oh, er, morning Dashie,” Thorax mumbled.

Dash paused for a moment, checked to make sure no one was in the room, and then turned back to Thorax.

“You do know that annoys me right?” Dash said finally.

“What?” murmured Thorax. “Sorry, I’m half asleep right now.”

Thorax tried to pull his covers back up, but Dash stopped him.

“No seriously,” said Dash. “You can’t call me ‘Dashie,’ it’s really irksome.”

“What, are you fifteen?” Thorax gripped sleepily. “Just get over your romantic issues, and leave me to get my sleep.”

Dash gave a frustrated groan. “Look, you can sense emotions. With that ability, how the heck have you not noticed earlier?!”

Thorax yelled into his pillow. “I don’t want to be the bridge between you and Twilight! Leave me alone!”

He’d said something he never should have said.

Dash recoiled. “Wow Thorax, I always thought you were chill. I guess I was wrong.”

“No, wait,” said Thorax, “I shouldn’t have said that–.”

“No,” said Dash coldly. “I come to you for romantic help because you can literally sense emotions, and get rejected.”

“Hang on for a second!” Thorax stammered, slipping out of bed. He got tangled in his blanket and crashed to the floor.

“Well this is awkward,” Dash muttered. “For you.” She turned to the door.

“No, please, wait!” Thorax pleaded. “I didn’t mean it! ”

Dash snorted. “Yeah right.”

“I was just tired!”

“Why?” Dash half-yelled. “I got loads of sleep last night! Why couldn’t you?!”

“Liquid luck!” Thorax yelled.

Dash froze.

The door slid open and Twilight leaned in. She was holding a bowl of cereal in her magic. “What?” she asked curiously.

Dash’s eyes widened. “How–what did you–how much did you–.”

“Thorax was yelling about liquid luck,” Twilight said. “I’ve been trying to make a spell that makes you lucky for the past year or so. It drove me crazy.”

Thorax felt horrible.

Dash was breathing hard.

Twilight took a step back. “Um, am I intruding on something I shouldn’t be?” she asked warily.

“N-no,” Thorax stammered. “Just give us a moment, please.”

Dash reached for the door.

Twilight backed uncomfortably out of the car, and Dash slid it softly shut.

“I hate you,” Dash spat. “Now Twilight’s gonna think me and you have some random crap together.”

“I’m sure she'll understand,” said Thorax desperately. The last thing he wanted was to screw up Dash’s relationship with Twilight.

“She won’t,” said Dash scornfully. “She’s so awfully blind in romance, there’s no way she’ll–.”

“I’m with Fluttershy,” Thorax blurted. “I think. She seems to like me.”

Dash stared at the ground. “Don’t tell Twilight, or she’ll screw it up.”

“I’m sure she’s not trying to!”

Dash froze. “Wait–you’re not–.”

“No!” Thorax half-screamed. He’d already said way too much, and the new last thing he wanted was for Dash to think he had a crush on Twilight.

“Y-you didn’t finish your luck spell did you?” asked Dash suddenly.

“I never made it,” said Thorax quickly.

“O-oh.” Dash seemed crushed.

“Chrysalis did,” Thorax blurted.

Dash’s eyes widened. “S-so is it, like, dangerous or something?”

“No,” said Thorax, “I used it with Fluttershy back on the bridge last night.”

Dash winced. “I–okay. Can I have some?”

Thorax fumbled around for his bag, and extracted a vial. He gave it to Dash who seemed surprised.

“How much of this stuff do you have?” Dash asked.

“Three more,” said Thorax, almost guiltily. He was absolutely causing issues for Pharynx.

“Why did it keep you up?” asked Dash quietly.

“Cos I’m not supposed to tell you guys about it,” Thorax mumbled.

“Oh,” said Dash. “Yeah that’s a dilemma.”

“Sorry,” Thorax murmured. “For screwing with you and–relations and stuff.”

Dash gave a short laugh. “Hey don’t worry about that random crap. I have luck now.”

Thorax suddenly felt really sick. Had he made a horrible choice giving Dash luck? Sure, it had saved him from trouble in the moment, but now Thorax was down another vial and another pony knew about the Felics Felix. Plus that pony was going to use it for romance with Twilight, and that seemed like it could cause trouble. Was having ‘Twidash’ even going to turn out well?

“You’d better get ready,” said Dash. “Cuz we are in Canterlot.”

And just like that all thoughts of romance were pushed out of Thorax’s mind.

It was time to stop Theo.