Royal White Lies

With a yawn of boredom, the prince put down his book on social studies. "Ah, this is so boring!" He then looks back at his companions; the cutie marks crusaders, who were busy doing their own assignments. All four of them were currently at the library in Twilight's school, on a study session preparing for an upcoming test, his being from the princess, and the cutie marks from Miss Cheerilee. A couple of days had passed, and even though there was still so much more for him to learn, all of the basic knowledge in magic and academics that he needed was already taught and mastered, thanks to the crusaders, Starlight, Twilight, and even Luna, who were all kind enough to give him a hand, or hoof in their cases, to learn at all. So much so that Twilight saw fit to move his studies into a more social/royal area, starting by introducing him to what a royal must know when greeting ambassadors from all three tribes.

And even when he no longer was in Cheerilee's class, the crusaders were more than happy to keep helping him in his studies for the remainder of his stay.

"Tell me about it." Scootaloo mentions with a roll of her eyes "I mean why do we need to learn half of this stuff? When exactly would I need to know who was the fourth court magician after Clover the Clever?"

"Come on guys, it's important for us to learn all this stuff, no matter how boring it is." Sweetie Bell tells them.

"Yeah, you would never know when you'll need to know all this stuff." Applebloom mentions taking a peek at Blueblood's book. "You especially New Blood. It was really embarrassin' that you didn't know what you can and can't do in front of a pegasus."

"Maybe, but even so, I still find it hard to believe that they actually have six different types of dances, for formal gatherings." Blueblood mentions in boredom which catch Scoots attentions.

"We do?" She looks at his book again "Oh, so that is why my mom has been insisting me to take traditional dance lessons." She tells him with a smile."Now everything makes more sense, thanks, New Blood."

"Glad that I could help." He stretches out his body and looks at the clock "Wow, we've been studying for almost four hours?!" He looks at it in shock, followed by the cutie mark crusaders who turned to look at it in fear.

"Four hours? Oh no, I'm late!" Applebloom panics as she starts to pack her books. "I promised Granny Smith that I'd feed the chickens after school, if I don't do it before she finds out I've been here all this time, I'll be grounded."

"And I was supposed to be home already, my parents must be pretty mad at me right now." Sweetie Bell mentions as she starts to pack her things too.

"Sorry New B, but I have to go. You should, too, before it gets dark." Scoots agreed.

"We will continue tomorrow at the clubhouse, we promise." She mentions as the other two nod and then all three headed towards the door

"Sorry for the hurry but we really need to go, New Blood. See you later." Sweetie Bell waves before all three of them rush out of the library as if their tails were on fire.

Blinking a couple of times, the prince can only wave as they go, leaving him completely alone.

Well, looks like the study session is over.

He mentions to himself, as he starts packing as well, and then he proceeds to pull out a book of spells. For the past few days, ever since his little chat with the princess of the night, Blueblood has been collecting, all the materials he needed for the potion. To his luck, the princess even gave him suggestions and ideas on where to find much of the ingredients that he needed. He had managed to get all but two so far.

One being a hydra blossom, which like the name implies, grows only around the habitat of the creature, and the other was the light of a sunset. Something that, after further inspections, had meant that he needed to mix all of the components in a place with plenty of sunlight, at the exact right moment, and use a magnifying glass to absorb said light into the potion. The requirements in and of itself weren't the problem. Obtaining the potion in secret was the tricky part.

So putting the last required ingredient for the end, the prince decided to place his attention on the flower, which to his luck, he had found a safer alternative from peeking at the books in Twilight's house. A spell that could transform a plant into another for an hour exactly. It was a complex and really difficult challenge to do indeed, but if performed correctly, meant that the prince would only need to worry about that one final step. After careful consideration, and secret practices with dummy plants, Blueblood felt ready to give this spell his first try and being at the school gave him the perfect excuse to cover if he was discovered.

With a smile and a nod, the prince packs the book again and puts the saddlebag on, before walking toward the entrance, determined on obtaining the final ingredient on his list.

Meanwhile in Twilight's office

The princess of friendship was finishing placing some snacks on a table when she had heard a knock on the door. After Spike had opened it, she was received by the image of both Princess Celestia and a tall creature, similar to Ocellus but male, way taller, and instead of having one horn; he had two big antlers on his head, who Celestia was chatting calmly with before looking back at Twilight.

"Princess Celestia, King Thorax welcome," Twilight tells giving her old mentor a hug as Spike approached Thorax.

"Hey Thorax."

"Hi Spike." He waves at him. "It's nice to see you."

"Right back at you, dude." They fist bumped before they entered the room and took a seat. Celestia was soon taking a nice cup of tea within her magic ."Thanks again for agreeing to meet with us Thorax."

"Don't mention it, princess. It was my pleasure, and I would like to think that our training for deception can be used for good, at least once." Thorax tells with a smile. "I hope you don't mind that I ask you to meet us here. I just thought that meeting in Canterlot might have been too suspicious." Thorax tells her with some worry, as he takes a seat in front of her, while Twilight sat next to the princess, and Spike to Thorax.

"It was a brilliant move Thorax. I couldn't have thought of it better myself."

"Yeah, it was pretty clever, even if information of this encounters a leak, anypony would just think that you two were here to just discuss ideas for my school." Twilight mention with a smile

The compliment makes Thorax blush a little and look away. "It's nothing really, just some standard changeling techniques." He looks back at her "Also, sorry it took me so long to answer, Ember and I have been having some minor issues with our territory, so I just couldn't answer right away."

"Ah, nothing too serious right?" Spike asks with some worry.

"Oh no, no there's nothing to worry about Spike. It was just a couple of dragons that stepped into our borders and started scaring my citizens, for the most part, so don't worry, there's no risk of war whatsoever." He tells with a smirk, making the dragon to huff and cross his arms.

"You get scared of provoking a war one time, and nopony ever lets you live it down." He complains making everyone in the room laugh.

"So back to business." Thorax mentions looking back at Celestia, "You told me that there's a small problem that you could use my help with?"

The princess nods and takes a sip of her tea, adopting a more professional approach. "That's correct, King Thorax, you see, recently my nephew Blueblood suffers from some sort of amnesia that has rendered him completely vulnerable to suggestion and manipulation from the other nobles. That's why we brought him here, to re-learn all the basic knowledge that he needed before coming back home. I hope you don't mind that we use the changeling necklace that you loan us."

Thorax shake his head at that "None at all princess…ah he is not wearing it for long periods of time, isn't he? Because in ponies, that artifact can be a bit, overwhelming" He tells them with some degree of concern

"Nope, he only wears it when necessary and not a minute more" Celestia respond

"Yep, Twilight even cast some spells in the castle, so not to abused the necklace too much," Spike add

Thorax sigh in relief at that "That is a relief, the ancient archives in the hive tell stories of ponies that stole some of those necklaces and ended up losing their mind when they develop a severe case of split personality where they even forgot who was the original pony"

Twilight gasps and approaches Thorax with a giant smile. "You have ancient archives about changeling inventions? Do you think I could read some of them?" She asks with a hopeful smile before Celestia had regained their attention by using her magic, slowly making Twilight back away.

"One favor at a time, Twilight." Celestia tells her before addressing Thorax once more. "Anyway, back to the subject at hoof. Despite our best efforts, the news of his condition has spread as a rumor amongst the nobles and now they all wish to find my nephew for their own nefarious plans. I wish to stop them before that can happen, and that's why I requested your help with this King Thorax. As the ruler of the changelings, I was wondering if you could make a fake meeting for us to 'leak' information out the masses, that could convince the nobles that our lie was legitimate all along."

"Ah I get, the classic 57 move." He tells with a chuckle "Old, but efficient."

"You have a classification for these kinds of things?" Spike mentions in surprise.

"We've been impersonating ponies for centuries, Spike. It was inevitable that they would start to get number for each different one. Although, now that I think about it, we haven't been able to find a proper order to catalog them in." Thorax mentions, bringing his hoof to his chin. Twilight gasps in excitement at the mention of cataloging, yet Celestia stops her before she starts begging Thorax to let her help with that particular problem.

"Of course, we're not expecting for you to do this for nothing, King Thorax. We are more than willing to offer a compromise that would be beneficial for you, in return of this favor." Celestia tells him with a smile.

"Oh no, it's fine princess, we'd gladly lend you a hoof, no problem," He tells raising a hoof and smiling before something pops into his head. "Actually. I think I know something that could benefit both of us, at the same time"

"Yeah?" Celeste asks in intrigue.

"As long as we can do it, we'd be more than happy to help you, Thorax," Twilight tells him with a smile.

"Well you see, some of my changelings have had missions where they had to impersonate nobles, so we could steal their money for Chrysalis's conquest." He quickly raised his hoof in front of them. "Don't worry about that though. Currently I'm working on returning all the money to their proper owners, believe me, it was a horror of paperwork, since a lot of those nobles can be particularly shady and are more than willing to try and find loopholes, declare missing cargo, and many other things just to try and get more bits than what they had lost." He tells, in exasperation, lowering his hoof.

"I know the feeling," Celestia tells him with a roll of her eyes.

"So you see it's not a problem that's too big, but it's one particularly annoying one, so maybe things can be solved if a family of changelings is introduced as nobles in Canterlot." He mentions with a smile.

"You want to create the first changeling nobles?" Spike asks in confusion and Thorax justs nods.

"Some of them have to impersonate nobles for such a long period of time, that they end up coming to like their role, so, often times, they approach me, asking if there's a way for me to create some sort noble changelings within the hive. We are still repairing all the damage Chrysalis had made, so I don't think we are ready to establish one yet, much to their disappointment." He then looks at Celestia.

"But there's where you could help, Princess. If you let them be introduced within Canterlot society as changelings, their dream could be fulfilled. We could pay the money we stole and my hive could get its first legitimate source of income, all in one move." He says with a smile, as the princess just nods at his suggestion, and then puts her tea down.

"If I do this, can you promise me that those changelings won't change form?"

"Oh no, of course not. The idea is for them to be introduced as the face of our society, just like Ocellus is doing here." Thorax explains. "Also there's no need for you to train them in politics or nobility, they know pretty well how that game works"

"It will not be easy, the nobles of Canterlot can be particularly ruthless."

"I have warned them, but all the same princess, they're more than willing to take the challenge," Thorax tells with determination.

"In that case, you have a deal, King Thorax. I will gladly accept your request and do anything in my power to introduce Equestria to their first noble family of changelings." The princess tells extending her hoof for a hoofshake. Thorax accepts it. "Do you have an idea in what business they could take?"

"Not yet, but I think we both can think of something."

"Hey, that could be it!" Spike chips in

"What is it, Spike?"

"The meeting, the thing Blueblood is supposed to be doing!" He says with a cheer. "He could be reuniting with the changeling nobles since he 'knows' about the families in Canterlot and in exchange for buttering him up, the prince could help them get in."

"Spike, that's brilliant!" Twilight exclaims. "That could also explain why he didn't say a word about any of it to them, since nobles are really shady, so they'd assume he'd be thinking of searching for allies and letting his other 'friends' know how they could be replaced if something were to happen." She thought.

"As much as I would love to disagree, these kinds of deals fit with my nephew's past," Celestia tells hanging her head in shame.

"But things didn't go as planned." Thorax mentions, gaining their attention as he starts to think. "To sell the lie, you must make it fit the result. Spike is right that the plan is perfect at the start but at the end, we can really think of a reason for his sudden change of heart, something that made him reflect on himself, and why he's so different now."

That cheers Celestia up "That will be the perfect cherry on top."

Thorax nod as he stands up "I can rally some of my changelings for the 'meeting' and explain the situation to the ones that want to be nobles. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help too, we would only need a picture of him hanging out with some of them, and we could take care of the rest."

"You have my thanks, King Thorax. With your help, we'll soon be able to introduce Canterlot to…" At that moment, a tremor is felt catching everyone's attention.

"What was that?" Spike asks, but soon they all heard a roar coming from the distance that put them on alert, as they all headed to the door to see what was happening.

Once they reached the garden, they're met by a growing number of students, as well as, the elements approaching the origin of the chaos. They continue forwards until they see some kind of plant that resembles a rose, the side of a full grown python with four long reptilian necks with the heads of dragons, that had petals as a sort of mane. The plant was currently trying to eat the poor prince who is fighting for dear life using a half complete and fragile shield spell that's cracking, as the pressure on one of the creature mouth's builds.

The elements try to approach, but the three remaining heads prevent them from advancing.

"What is happening?!" Twilight asks in alarm as she approaches her friends.

"Hay if I know Twilight," Applejack says, trying to keep the rest of the students at bay with the help of Starlight.

"This thing just appeared out of nowhere and started attacking your cousin without any rhyme or reason." Starlight tells as she used a shield spell to contain the masses.

"I'm trying to get to him but all those heads are getting in my way," Dash complained after being thrown to the ground by its tail.

Finally, Blueblood shield breaks and the creature almost ate him if it wasn't for him jumping back on the last second. He desperately tries to run away but the plants turn out to be faster than him and trap him with its tail full of thorns and it starts constricting the life out of him.

"New Blood!" Twilight yells in alarm and tries to do something but Celestia acts faster and punches one of the heads so hard, it explodes almost immediately. The creature gets startled for a second and stops what it was doing, just to receive a solar beam divided into three rays, right on the faces which incinerate them before the light even reaches them and reduces them to ash, as if they were just common paper against the might of the sun.

"Wow." That's all everyone can say at the display as the creature stumbles backward and falls to the ground, releasing the poor bruised and exhausted prince, who gasps for air with some difficulty as he holds his chest with one hoof while the other lay limp on the ground, no doubt broken.

The princess rushes to his side, with worry and carefully lift his head so to see him in the eyes. The prince flinches from the pain before looking at her "Its ok dear, it's over now" she tells him in a reassuring voice as she tries to calm him down and nuzzles his side, not caring that she was compromising his secret, at the time being, as her motherly instinct was taking over.

"Aun…" The prince bites his tongue at the last second and notices that they were being observed by a crowd of ponies which were starting to make him nervous "P…" Talking was painful for him, yet he manages to speak at his second attempt. "Princess…Celestia?" He tells faking surprise, which to his luck convince everyone minus Twilight, Spike, Applejack and Starlight, the last two looking at them suspiciously. "W…what are you…doing here?"

The princess gets the hint immediately and starts to act her part as well "Don't talk my little pony, help is on its way." She tells with a smile as she addresses the crown. "Somepony bring me a doctor! Now!" She commands, making everypony snap into action, Dash flew away in search for a doctor, Fluttershy, and Applejack approach to see how they could help, and the rest of the elements work in dispersing the crowd.